wedding weekend

Yes, I was one of the millions to wake up super early on Friday morning to take in the Royal Wedding. Although my original plan was to get ready for work and then be ready to watch when Kate arrived to the Abbey at 6 (Eastern Time), I got sucked into watching the guests arrive and put off getting ready for close to two hours. Oops! At least I left for work in enough time to stop and get a Diet Coke to keep me going through the day... 14 year olds don't let you off the hook just because you are tired.

At any rate, along with the Royal Wedding, I've had a couple of friends get engaged this weekend {Congratulations Lauren & Daniel and Christine & Alex!} and my cousin, Kathryn and her fiance, Pat, recently announced their wedding date. So, I figured I would do a post about all things wedding today to wrap up the weekend.

In the spring of 2007, my sister and her then-boyfriend of 6 1/2 years got engaged. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I would do anything for my sister. However, I never thought I'd have to ask myself to be her maid of honor. She wanted a creative way to ask her friends to be bridesmaids, so I took it upon myself to paint monograms on wine glasses. She put a miniature bottle of wine in the top (Sutter Home White Zinfandel to match the pink).

I loved the glasses, but really the purpose behind the pink and white stripe was because she planned on us wearing pink and white striped seer-sucker dresses from J.Crew. Unfortunately, they looked super white in pictures so she opted for a different color scheme a few months later...

In 2008, one of my sister's closest friends was engaged and she asked me to put monograms and bows on vases so that she could give her bridesmaids flowers in the color scheme of her wedding. I was also asked to be in this wedding, but unfortunately for me it was a destination wedding in Las Vegas and I was in the middle of student teaching so I could not be there. But, again, I love the idea of putting a coordinating color scheme/flower arrangement/etc. into how you ask your bridesmaids. I think it really pulls everything about your wedding together.

For both my sister and myself, I addressed save-the-dates and wedding invitations. When I addressed my sister's, I got a pair of Jack Rogers out of it... my kind of deal! I love doodling and writing. My mom has always said I waste SO much paper because especially if I'm on the phone, I will sit there and use up a whole notepad just writing names of people or things in crazy different ways. Sometimes, during my planning period at work, I will sit at my desk and start making a to-do list and end up with a post-it full of random ideas written in several different styles of handwriting. Usually, my doodles just end up in the trash so I'm sure I need to find a better way to spend my time... :)

This weekend, inspired by the Royal Wedding, I made it my goal to teach myself calligraphy. Unfortunately, I haven't found my style/stride with the calligraphy pen yet, but I'll keep working. After using up 10+ pieces of computer paper, I ended up with three different styles that I liked, and none of which required the use of a calligraphy pen... go figure!

I'll keep on working on calligraphy and let you know how that turns out. For now, I leave you with my Bridal Portraits, taken by the amazing Carl Hoverstad of Hoverstad Photography...

... and finally, a few pictures from my November wedding, taken by the extremely talented Katherine Fallis of Furnished Photography...