omg

Seriously. I'm not sure I can even get out the words to describe how amazing this is.




This is our ring bearer pillow. Nancy (the hankie lady) made this. Out of antique linens. This was the example my mom showed her:

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Sorry Martha, you lose this one. Honestly, I'm not sure I can even express how beautiful I think this is. All I keep imagining is my future daughter(s) and granddaughter(s) using this same pillow at their weddings, adding their names and wedding dates to the back. Passing down a piece of history - that started with me and the future mister. Such an amazing heirloom piece. Such a beautiful gift.

Do you plan on passing down any of the items you used at your wedding? Or do you have any heirloom pieces that were passed down to you?

ringing in a new week

The jewelry store called on Friday and my wedding band is ready - over a month and a half early! We have it on 90-day layaway; so because we won't be picking it up until late March/early April, I asked them to email us some photos.



I love it and can't wait to see how it looks next to my engagement ring! Since my e-ring was custom designed, the jeweler simply tweaked the CAD rendering that they already had on file to create a band that would match perfectly.

How did you pick out your wedding band? Did you go for a matching set, custom design or something completely different?

ring-a-ling

This weekend we drove up to Charlotte for a visit with our jeweler. We were only anticipating picking out my band and getting the future mister's resized. If you don't remember, we purchased his band way back in 2009 because they gave us a deal we couldn't refuse. At that time, we left it unsized in their vault because that way we could receive store credit if the future mister ended up changing his mind. Well, much to our surprise, when we arrived at the jeweler, the ring had already been sized. I think this might have something to do with them thinking we were getting married in May 2010. Luckily, it's not a big deal since we still love the ring. The future mister complained that it felt funny, though - not a surprise since he's never worn any jewelry before. So the saleslady sent us home with the ring so he can practice wearing it.




I absolutely love the rose gold! It makes the traditional style just a tiny bit unique. My band is being custom made to match my e-ring and will be ready sometime in March. I can't wait!

Did your significant other have to get used to wearing his band?

bearing the rings

Here's some of the inspiration I'm sending to my mom for our ring pillow:

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I love the oversized flower and pop of color on this one, although I think it looks a bit too contemporary for our rustic/vintage/garden wedding.

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Since this one uses a vintage handkerchief, I thought it was a great tie-in with our save-the-dates. The color is a bit bland, though.

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I feel the same way about the color of this pillow as well, but the delicate vintage lace is just lovely.

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I think this one is my favorite. It looks rustic with the burlap, vintage with the velvet ribbon, and garden with the flower. And the pop of color is perfect.

I'm sure my mom will have some ideas as well. Which one is your favorite?

sew talented

My mama can sew. I've mentioned it once before - here - but I'll elaborate. When I was two or three, my mom made me a Cinderella costume for Halloween. This wasn't your ordinary Cinderella costume, though. Half was rags and the other half was a pretty dress. I really wish I could show you a picture, but the only one I have is in my room at my parents' house. UPDATE: I found the photo! My mom had already scanned it in for me and I just now realized that it was saved to a USB drive I had in my possession.


Then, in 6th grade I got the grand idea to be Little Bo Peep for Halloween so that I could trick-or-treat with my "lamb." Well Little Bo Peep isn't the easiest costume to find in stores, so mom made it.


For my freshman year in college, my mom made me a duvet cover and pillow covers because I couldn't find anything that I liked for my twin sized bed. It was blue plaid on one side and white with blue, green and pink dragonflies on the other. And when I moved into an off-campus house junior year, she made me another duvet, bed skirt and pillows for my full sized bed. I loved this fabric so much, that after college she tore the duvet apart and made me more pillows for my couch and window coverings. These pillows and curtains currently reside in our guest bedroom/craft room/my office since they're on the girly side and not gender neutral enough for the living room.



Last summer, after we moved in together, mom came to stay for a week and whipped up some pillows and drapes in this pretty blue, green and tan paisley print. Love.



How is any of this wedding related? Well, mom is offering her sewing talents for the wedding! So far, she'll be making my garter and the ring bearer pillow - I'll post some inspiration soon.

busy, busy

Just some of the wedding related things we've been accomplishing this week:

Met with a potential DJ

Met with the restaurant we want to use for the rehearsal dinner

Got quotes for shuttle services to transport our guests from their hotels to the ceremony/reception site and back again

Printed, cut and packaged table numbers for friend's wedding

Receiving/revising contracts for hotel room blocks

Dropping dresses off to be altered (for our friends' weddings)

Driving to Charlotte to get my e-ring fixed (my setting is loose) and hopefully picking out my band

Wow, just typing all of that exhausts me! But at the same time, it feels incredibly rewarding to keep crossing items off my list. Do you get as excited as I do when crossing stuff off the list?

surprise! we're getting married next friday!

Not really. But our jeweler seems to think so. For the past few weeks the future mister has been receiving phone calls from them telling him that his wedding band is ready to be picked up. Every time he has had to explain that our wedding isn't until NEXT May. Then today he received an email with a photo of the wedding band along with, "Congratulations on your wedding! It will be here very soon!" They also included their hours - probably to remind us that we still haven't picked it up yet. I think this is funny. Despite the fact that he's told them multiple times, I guess they just keep forgetting to change the date in their computer. But that's okay, because now I have a photo to show you (read my previous post on the ring here).

I love that it's a fairly traditional style with a bit of a twist (rose gold). We still haven't picked mine out yet since it will most likely need a bit of customization to fit with my e-ring. When we purchased the future mister's band (right out of the case, at a discount), gold was at an all time high. I'm not sure what it is now, but hopefully it will be a bit cheaper by the time we make it up to Charlotte again (the only downside to our awesome jeweler is that they're located 3 hours away).

So tell me, did your guy opt for a traditional ring or something more unique?

wedding bands

We found the future mister's wedding band this past weekend. The jewelry store that my e-ring was purchased from is in North Carolina and we went there this weekend to get my ring resized. Now that the weather is getting cooler, it has been slipping quite a lot. So while we were there, we looked at some bands. He already had one on his wish list - it was a simple, classic band with white and yellow gold. Sort of like the one below:

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For some reason though, I just didn't care for the yellow gold. I guess maybe it was the way it looked with his skin tone. So he tried on a few others. We saw two in the case that looked like they had some copper in them - turns out it is rose gold (can you tell I'm not very jewelry literate?). He tried one on and it looked really nice. It was same look he was going for with the two-tone, but the rose gold looked much, much better against his skin. I can't find an exact picture but it looks like this one, except the rose gold is brushed instead of hammered.

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Our plan was to put it on his wish list and leave it at that until closer to the wedding, but the saleswoman offered us a deal we couldn't refuse. First of all, the jeweler we are dealing with is amazing (Skatell's for anyone living near Charlotte, NC, Mt. Pleasant, SC or Charleston, SC). They are family owned and operated, specialize in custom work, and do ALL of their work in-house. That being said, we didn't feel that they were "just trying to make the sale." Apparently, a few days ago the price of gold hit an all time high - more than $1000 per ounce! So the saleswoman offered us the ring in the case. It was created when gold was less expensive and it was close enough to his ring size that they would be willing to resize it for him. If we were to wait until closer to the wedding to have this ring created it would be more than double the price. After much debating, we decided to go for it and put it on 90 day layaway. The deal cincher was that if he decides he wants a different ring after all, as long as we don't resize it yet, we can get store credit and pick out something else. Now we just have to figure out my band...

When ring shopping, did you find a deal that you just couldn't pass up?

my precious

First of all, the future mister refers to my e-ring as "my precious" since, as he was proposing, I tried to take it out of his hands before he had the chance to slip it onto my finger.

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Anyway, some time after we started dating, I found the ring of my dreams on the Internet. Vintage inspired, delicate, simple when looking at it straight on, but much more complex when looking at it from the side. Here she is, in all her beauty:

Her name is Medora and she is from the website faycullen.com. As soon as I felt that it was safe to send him hints, you better believe I sent this straight away. I looked at millions of other rings, many had similar features, but none could ever compare. Except ONE. Mine.

I always thought the idea of buying an antique ring was romantic, however, the future mister didn't like the idea of someone already owning and wearing the ring that his fiance would be wearing. It turns out he took those pictures I sent him to a jeweler that specializes in custom design. They made a few tweaks and my ring was created. Here she is, in even more beauty than Medora (okay, I might be a bit biased):

The biggest tweak they ended up making was designing it so that a wedding band could sit flush, instead of having a band that curved. Coincidentally, that was the one thing I didn't like about the Medora - curved bands just aren't my style. Problem solved! I think Sam did an amazing job (again, biased).

Did you send your fiance any hints before being engaged? Would you consider a vintage or custom made ring?