Thanking Them

(Black, white and green wrapping of course!)

I researched and looked long and hard for the perfect gifts for our family and friends. It's always hard to find exactly what you want in the right price range but I wanted to make sure that our bridal party and parents knew we appreciated them and give them some nice items. In addition to the gifts we gave at the rehearsal dinner, we also gave each of our bridal party members 2 drink tickets for the cash bar during the reception.

• Bridesmaids - I gave each of my bridesmaid a green pashmina (I thought would be nice for the evening of the wedding) and matching earrings (black drop - like) and necklaces that were all different but paired well together.
• Groomsmen - Groomsmen received green argyle socks to wear for the wedding (had to have that photo!) and a leather money clip with their first name engraved on it.
• Ushers - Ushers received the same money clips as the groomsmen and a bottle of liquor. Neither of them came to the rehearsal (or dinner) due to their own personal decisions so we gave them their gifts during the reception dance.
• Flower girl - I found a cute Hello Kitty tote for Abigail as part of her gift because she loves Hello Kitty and then I knew she'd have something to keep all her flower girl things in on the day of. There was also a little Hello Kitty notepad and pen inside. Also - I gave her a nice photo frame with an IOU for a picture of us from the wedding for it.
• Moms - We ordered embroidered handercheifs on Etsy for our moms. They were really cute, dainty and lacy with "Mother of the Bride" and "Mother of the Groom" along with the wedding date on them.
• Dads - We ordered customized tie tacks from Etsy for our dads. They were vintage typewriter type buttons on the tack with their first initial on them.

(all personal photos)

Out of Town Bags

While planning our wedding, we took our guests' comfort very seriously. When we originally started planning, we talked about what were the most and least important things to us and the important ones always revolved around our guests feeling welcome, taken care of and happy. One of the things that we did to accomplish that was to put out of town (OOT) bags at the hotels that our guests were staying at for the to receive at check-in. I've never personally received anything like that for going to an out-of-town wedding, but I think it's the details that count and certainly wanted to do this for our guests. We talked and thought about these throughout the whole planning period but they ended up being one of the very last things we made a final decision on and actually didn't do them until the morning of the rehearsal!

We ordered muslin bags online and used some ink and stencils to put our own design on the outside. Then we made little tags with a stamp and wrote "Welcome to Minnesota! love, Nick & Meredith" on them.

Here's what we put in ours...

• A postcard in regard to Minnesota, Minneapolis, the Twin Cities, etc. (I found these at Walgreens for super cheap!)
• Individual bag of goldfish crackers (pre-packaged)
• Individual bag of swedish fish (we got little candy bags and ties from Michaels). Swedish fish were kind of a nod to the land of Norweigen heritage that is Minnesota but also satisfied the need for something candy. :)
• Ole and Lena fortune cookies. I was so excited when I found these! Ole and Lena is a MN thing - they are two Norweigans that say funny things. I thought they were a super cute idea.
• A word find. We just made this online and it was comprised of wedding words.
• A wedding weekend information booklet. We made these in Microsoft Word - little 4x4 pages that included a timeline, hotel shuttle info, local attractions, contact numbers, etc.
• 2 water bottles - we bought water resistant labels online and printed our own design onto them and put them on each. We also used a bunch of these for the wedding party, etc.

We took these to the front desk of the hotels our guests were staying at and had them give them to each person who checked in on our list. Unfortunately, I didn't hear many comments about them but I know the desk handed them out and hopefully our guests enjoyed the welcome!

Bachelorette

I have a confession to make....bachelorette parties aren't really my thing.

Especially after I was already "technically" married - this part wasn't something I was totally looking forward to. Plus - I don't have a lot of girlfriends - more guys. So I knew I wanted to do SOMEthing - but nothing over the top. Luckily, my MOH is the same and understands so it was pretty low key.

The night started by meeting my girlfriends for dinner at a local Italian restaurant downtown. It was fun because it was also prom night for a bunch of local schools - so there were a lot of kids out to eat in their prom dresses/suits which was fun. Especially because my MOH is a high school teacher and saw a bunch of her kids!

We had a lovely dinner and then went back to my MOH's apartment for gifts and games. Nothing too crazy - just the usual. And then we went out for drinks at another local establishment.

I think it's important to have that "one last night out with your girlfriends" but you should always remember that it can be whatever you want it to be. I've been to many different kinds of bachelorettes - it all depends on the Bride's style. And really - the main idea of it for me (along with showers) was to get me out of the house and have fun and get my mind off of all the planning! :)

(friends)

(me and Brittany - getting married next May!)

(the group - two married ladies, MOH, me, and the single gals)



(all personal photos)

The Dress

I never really mentioned anything about my dress because it really isn't that great of a story. When I first got engaged the part of planning that I was most scared of was finding a dress. Being a girl who has always been a bit overweight - I wasn't very excited for shopping for something that could very well be pretty dissappointing. After getting engaged in October - I put off dress shopping until December when I could go for the first time with my mom by my side. I wanted to have that experience with her and it wasn't like I was chomping at the bit to go before then. So after spending Christmas in Iowa with my parents (and Nick) - mom and I took a day to go to a few shops in the area. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be - what a relief! I was happy to find some samples in my size and even found one dress that I would've bought right then and there if I wasn't such a type A researcher. :) It was great to have my mom along to hear her thoughts and opinions and I knew I'd take those into consideration as I continued the search on my own back home in MN.

So once home, I went to a few more shops by myself to try to find something with no luck. And then I ended up overshopping - I saw too many dresses and fell in love with 6. They were all copmletely different and I had no idea what to do until one day - I decided to go to one last shop over my lunch hour. And that day is when I found THE one. The saleswoman did something very smart for me...I was looking for a dress that was a specific shape and figure, and with minimal sparkle - but definitely SOMEthing. So she found me a dress that was the perfect silhouette and then we ADDED the sparkle! So smart! Thank God for that woman! :)

I had so much fun going to my dress fitting with my MOH. It got us together to talk about the wedding, and it was nice to have someone along for the ride since my mom couldn't be there. I had to have multiple alterations done on my dress because by the time I found it - it was too late to order a dress, so I bought a sample dress that was too big for me. Here are some pics from the last alterations appointment before the big day.

The perfect bustle

MOH learning to bustle

Green shoes!

Notice the applique that we added on to it.

And veil (which we had to alter as well.)

Oh! And here's the flower girl. We took a trip out to see her and her family in April before the wedding since we knew we wouldn't be able to spend the whole wedding weekend with her. We made a final decision on her dress while we were out there. Super cute!

I thought this was hilarious that we both had the same look on our face in these pictures...

(all photos are personal photos)

Random projects/details

We were definitely a DIY wedding couple and on a budget so we spent a lot of time walking the aisles of Michaels and crafting our living room. It was fun to really make the wedding our own by doing these little projects. Thankfully, we got a lot of compliments on these things and thought I'd share the ideas! :)

These are "share your photos with us" cards. Nick made them for us (love!) and we displayed them in martini glasses on the bars. I noticed people taking them, etc. but we had absolutely NO ONE share any photos on it! lol - not sure how to make sure people do this in a better way, but whatever. We had a few family and friends email us some pics, but no one used the site.

This was the signature drink menu we made up to put on the bars. However, we ended up not doing signature drinks because it seemed to be too much trouble with the event staff. No biggie - it wasn't a huge deal to us.

PROGRAMS!!
I loved, loved, LOVED our programs. Nick and I designed them based off of Miss Cupcake's accordian programs on WeddingBee. We made them all by ourselves (with a little help from a friend) and got a LOT of compliments on them. We printed them on normal typing paper at my office and then created the front and back parts with the cricut, cardstock and some ribbon.

These were some buttons I had made from Etsy to use at the rehearsal. The white ones are wedding party members and the black ones are their guests. It was a fun way for people to get to know each other. I'm glad I did them. :)

Popcorn bags and labels! So much fun. These are for our popcorn buffet - of course I needed to jazz up the bags that people would be putting their popcorn in so Nick designed the main label and we printed them on circle labels. The back polka dot seals were ordered from Etsy.

Bridal Showers

I was lucky enough to have 3 bridal showers during our engagement. The first was a casual dinner with the girls from our young adult class at church. It was super sweet of them to do for me and a lot of fun to spend QT with those girls.

Next up - Nick's side of the family threw one for me. His aunts and his sister hosted it and it was nice to have all of the family member from his side together. I was overwhelmed with gifts and we had fun playing games. It's hard to understand how much love is showered on you during this time, but it certainly is fun and humbling and SO nice.

Registering for gifts was kind of tough for us since we weren't sure where we were going to set up home. Nick's apartment lease went through the end of June and we hadn't figured out what we were doing after that. So we made a thorough registry and then did a fun game of exchanging after we ended up moving in August.

(it's not a Meyer funcion without beer!)

(cute "his" and "hers" wall decor)

(nick's grandma and me)

The third and final shower was thrown by my bff/MOH and her mother at her mother's home. This was especially fun since I practically grew up in that home and hadn't been there in so long. Her mother is so classy and a Martha-type mother so it was a lovely shower. They had a friend who is an aspiring floral designer decorate (beautiful!), some ovely Swedish desserts, coffee and fun games. I don't know why I don't have more pictures from this shower - or a group shot :(

The hostesses

(me and my mom)

Lastly, a random Friday afternoon in May, my supervisor and co-worker and I had a scheduled meeting for 3pm. This isn't any of our favorite time in the week to have a meeting, so I thought it was a little weird but showed up anyway. :) When I got to my supervisor's office she handed us both a folder with an agenda which was TOTALLY weird and unlike her. I opened it up and there was a sheet of paper that said "Surprise! Grab your purse because we're going out to celebrate your upcoming wedding!!" It was SUPER sweet and fun of them. (Note that I work in a small office of 7 and we usually leave on Fridays early anyway. So my supervisor and co-worker are the only girls in the office - we didn't invite the boys!) We went out for a little happy hour and they gifted me with some very nice items. So fun!

Being engaged is so much fun! Enjoy it while it lasts, girls! :)

Engagement Pictures!

We had a wonderful time with our photographer, Cheryl Neuharth, doing engagement pictures. She chose a couple spots in downtown Minneapolis and we had so much fun doing them! We're using them for a photobook for our guestbook, so we were pleased with the good ones we got! Between the January photos, and these engagment pictures we felt very comfortable with the photog and ready for the big wedding in May!