will & becky >> planning album

PLANNING ALBUM

This is where you'll see the progression of our ideas on each wedding element, from first impressions to final decisions.

THE DATE

We chose September the 12th, because that is our 1-year anniversary of being together. Since Will proposed in February, and we would both be focused on school until June, we wondered if that would give us enough time to plan, and considered a Spring 2009 wedding, but the idea of waiting 13-15 months to get married did not appeal to us. In the end, our 1-year anniversary was chosen as the ideal date.

THE CEREMONY LOCATION

We considered several places to have the wedding, including the St. Louis Botanical Gardens, various hotel banquet halls, area wineries, and Chimney Rock Guest House (in Imperial). However, all of these options fell short in one regard or another: too small (Chimney Rock), too impersonal (hotels), too far away/isolated/hard to find (wineries), outdoor locations (Botanical Gardens). Once we visited the UMSL Provincial Chapel, though, we realized we had found our ceremony site.

View toward the altar. Credit: http://www.umsl.edu/services/reslife/conf_inn/wedding_index.html

View toward the altar. Credit: http://www.umsl.edu/services/reslife/conf_inn/wedding_index.html

View toward the back of the chapel. Credit: http://www.umsl.edu/services/reslife/conf_inn/wedding_index.html

Great doors opening into the chapel. Credit: http://www.umsl.edu/services/reslife/conf_inn/wedding_index.html

We got up very early on February 2nd (the day after Will proposed) and drove to St. Louis. We arrived around 10:45 AM to have a tour of the chapel and facilities, and when we stepped into the chapel, it was filled with golden light and was very beautiful. There was a small garden area with a gazebo outside the big doors, which we were told would be very pretty in September. We hope to have pictures taken in that area before the wedding (separately) and after (together), weather permitting. For directions to the ceremony location, see the directions/downloads page.

THE RECEPTION SITE

Similar to our ceremony site considerations, we researched many possibilities for reception locations. We ate dinner at the Lemp Mansion (but the service was surly and the food unimpressive). We stopped next door at the Cafe DeMenil, but it was closed for the winter season or something, so we couldn't get a tour. Next we went to Soulard to visit 9th Street Abbey. It was the day after the Mardi Gras parade, so there were still remnants on the street of the partying the previous day and night. Nevertheless, we fell in love with the place.

Credit: Patty Long Catering

THE RECEPTION DINNER

We have decided to have Breakfast-for-Dinner as the reception meal. It seems right to have breakfast, since it will be our first meal together as a married couple. It will be like starting a new day together. Plus we both just really like breakfast foods, so our menu may include:

Scrambled Eggs, Southwestern Frittata
Fruit Topped French Toast, Potatoes Lyonnaise
Sausage Gravy and Biscuits, Salmon with Tuscan Salsa
Grilled Chicken Breast with White Wine Caper Sauce
Sausage and Bacon, Fresh Seasonal Fruit Platter
Imported & Domestic Cheese Display with Assorted Crackers
Mini Bagels and Cream Cheese, Butter, and Jam
Assorted Danish and Mini Muffins, Assorted Mini Desserts
Orange and Cranberry Juices, Coffee, Decaf and Iced Tea
We also talked about having an omelet station, as well as mini-waffles for appetizers, and various kinds of alcohol, including champagne and mimosas. This is all uncertain at this point and is to be confirmed in the future.

THE COLOR PALETTE

The colors we chose for the wedding are burgundy/dark red, ivory/off white, and gold for an accent color.

We aren't going to try to be matchy-matchy to make sure everything is exactly Cabernet Merlot Shade 12 or Eggshell Off White Matte Tint or whatever. I think the variety of burgundies and dark reds will provide interesting variations, matched in my bouquet (see flowers below).

THE SAVE-THE-DATES

We knew we wanted our save-the-dates to be more than simple paper cards that would get lost or thrown away, so we chose to create save-the-date magnets. We used VistaPrint to get the magnets made, because they had a very good price, and as it turned out, the production and delivery of the magnets was very high quality and very fast. They allowed for a great deal of personalization: in fact, I designed the entire thing in Photoshop and was able to get that design printed. (I'm using many of the elements from the save-the-dates for this website's design.)

We were extremely happy with these results. The coloring looks a little off in the photograph, but that is just because the magnets are shiny. We used small (3.625" x 5.125") off-white envelopes, purchased from Envelope Mall to send the magnets through the mail. Envelope Mall was extremely speedy at fulfilling the order and offered very reasonable prices. I also printed off a small black and white sheet (created in Powerpoint) to go with each save-the-date, to provide a little more information than fit on the magnet.

THE INVITATIONS

Early on, we visited a Papyrus stationary store in the mall to look at their invitation books to get an idea of styles we liked. There was some compromise that had to take place with the invitations. Will really liked very formal, traditional, scripted invitations, and I liked modern-looking invitations with interesting colors and font combinations (see below).

We decided that neither approach alone would really satisfy us or represent the kind of event we were going to have (an important day for us, but not so solemn or so trendy). In the end, we decided to design the save-the-dates to be more trendy and fun, while the invitations would use more formal elements. We customized our invitations using David's Bridal Invitations 1-2-3: we purchased Timeless Ecru style invitations with text printed in Trajan and Herr Von Muellerhoff fonts, in Apple Red. The invitation is off-white, though it may appear pinkish below.

We were satisfied with the production and delivery speed for these invitations. The quality was good -- the only issue I have is the spacing between Will's first name and middle name, which I think is more of a font problem than anything else.

THE WEDDING GOWN

When I started looking at wedding dresses, I knew what I wanted to base my wedding dress choice from. I had seen a picture a few years back of a dress that I just loved.

I loved every detail of this dress - the delicate lace, the fitted bodice, the flowing skirt (that wasn't poofy). And I wanted my dress to be just like it. So I started my gown search and realized that I wanted to branch out a bit into other styles, too.

And, in the end, I only tried on 3 dresses, one of which was decent, one of which didn't fit, and one of which was THE ONE.

THE BRIDAL ACCESSORIES

I'm thinking I will wear long dangly earrings and a dainty/delicate necklace.

Carolee Crystal Fan Shape Drop Pierced Earrings, $65

Carolee Crystal and Pearl Vine Drop Earrings, $38

Crystal Vine and White Simulated Pearl Charm Necklace, $50

As for my veil, I'd like something elbow- or fingertip-length, simple -- one or two layers, with very delicate finishing of the edges. Something like this:

I haven't thought about shoes yet, and hope to put that off as long as possible.

THE HAIR AND MAKEUP

The following pictures are inspiration for hair and makeup.

THE MENSWEAR

Will is going to get a Brooks Brothers tuxedo. I am not sure what the other guys (best man, ushers, and my dad) will be wearing. My tentative idea is for everyone to wear black suits and white shirts -- obviously not everyone will need to get a Brooks Brothers tux.

THE WOMENSWEAR

[UPDATE: Will's added his cousin Brittany as his groomswoman. I was thinking she would probably just wear a black dress, the same length as Olivia's (but Olivia's would be burgundy), but now that I think about it, Olivia and Brittany should probably match. It'd be different if I had a whole slew of bridesmaids -- I would feel okay having non-matching women on each side. As it is, I only have Olivia (which is how I want it), and I think having her wear burgundy by herself might look odd or assymetrical somehow. So I believe I might ask her and Brittany to match in color and length. Ideas: Photos below.]

Since I only have one bridesmaid, my maid of honor Olivia, I gave her the color (burgundy/dark red) and let her choose her own dress. We haven't gone and tried it on her yet, but this is what we are thinking.

THE CAKE

In the course of cruising the magazines and the web, I found several cakes I wanted to use for starting design points. The things these cakes seem to have in common is a kind of cleanness - ornamented or not, the cakes all feel very simple. This was important to me.

I was having trouble getting excited for the cake, since I'm just not that huge of a cake person, but when we stepped into Helen's bakery at Truffes, I was instantly jazzed. She had great energy and expertise (after 20-odd years in the cake business, she ought to). My friend Leslie referred me to her, since Leslie used to work for Helen a few years ago. She listened and quickly knew what we wanted. We discussed possible options, looked at photos, found two we liked (see photos below), gave her the deposit, and got two cake boxes so we could try the different flavors. Right now our top three flavors are regular white cake with buttercream icing, lemon poppyseed cake with white chocolate icing, and Will's favorite, Raspberry Waltz (I'm not sure what flavor the cake is, but the filling is raspberry with a layer of marzipan in between, which he loves.) We'll talk it over some more, and have months and months before any final decision must be made.

I like the cake on the right better (minus the bow) -- it would instead have some kind of flower topper. Will likes the one on the left better. I'm sure they'd both be beautiful and delicious, so we'll probably go with what he wants, and we'd save the money on the cake flowers. Maybe we'd spend it on a few dozen of these ADORABLE tuxedo strawberries:

THE FLOWERS

THE MUSIC