engagement announcements

I'm sure you have all seen the unfortunate engagement/wedding announcements that have been circulated through email and the Internet, but in case you haven't go here.

Luckily, ours won't be anything like those. I've got a German last name and the future mister's is Irish (yep, I'll be a "Mc"). Now that we have our engagement photos, we'd like to place announcements in our parents' local papers. I thought I had it all figured out and sent the following snippet to my parents:

[My parents' names] of [my hometown] are pleased to announce the engagement of their daughter Heather to [the future mister's name], son of [his parents' names] of [his hometown]. Heather is a 2003 graduate of [my high school] and a 2007 graduate of [our university]. She is employed at [my place of employment]. [The future mister] is also a 2007 graduate of [our university] and is pursuing a PhD in History at [current university]. The couple is planning a May 2011 wedding in [where we live].

Then we sent this slightly different version for his parents to submit to their paper:

[His parents' names] of [his hometown] are pleased to announce the engagement of their son [the future mister] to Heather [my last name], daughter of [my parents' names] of [my hometown]. [The future mister] is a 2003 graduate of [his high school] and a 2007 graduate of [our university]. He earned a Master's degree in History from [master's university] in 2009 and is pursuing a PhD at [current university]. Heather is also a 2007 graduate of [our university] and is employed at [my place of employment]. The couple is planning a May 2011 wedding in [where we live].

Now this is where I need some help. I thought that it was appropriate for his parents to announce the engagement in their paper - i.e. their names first. However, my FMIL seemed a bit confused by my wording and thinks that it is proper etiquette for the bride's parents to announce the engagement, regardless of which newspaper. Did you announce your engagement in the newspaper? What's the proper etiquette for doing so?

And just so this post isn't completely pictureless, here are the photos we are considering:

Which is your favorite?

makeup fail

So now that I've showed you our photos, I want to talk about makeup. Prior to the shoot, I mentioned that I made an appointment at Sephora because they offer "free" special occasion makeovers. Ideally, I would have loved to have a professional makeup artist, but the one that was recommended to me charged over $200! I just don't have that kind of money. I don't really know of any salons in the area that provide makeup services, so the next logical option was either a makeup counter in a department store or Sephora. I went with Sephora because you have the option to use any product in the store, whereas at a makeup counter you are usually limited to one particular brand (at least that's been the case in my experience).

Well Sephora ended up being a makeup semi-fail. I say semi because it wasn't all bad. My foundation, blush and lip color looked great. The eye makeup (including waayyy too filled in eyebrows), though - wow. If I were to put it delicately, I'd say it just wasn't me. But I'm more blunt, so I'll say that I was on the verge of looking like a streetwalker. Unfortunately I was too anxious and worked up to take a picture of myself, so you'll have to use your imagination.

The woman who did my makeup was perfectly nice and probably would have redone my eyes, had I asked. I'm just not the type of person to speak up, though, especially since I wasn't paying for her services (I even ended up walking out without making the required $50 purchase). So as soon as she was done, I raced out of there to find the future mister so we could leave, proceeded to have a mini-meltdown on the ride home, and bucked up and redid my eyes myself with the help of my mom over video chat. Crisis averted.

*photos by Heidi, cropped by me

strike a pose, part 3

These are the last of our photos and definitely my least favorite of the bunch. The future mister changed into a red polo and the photos were in front of a red barn (not sure what we were thinking). So needless to say, I like these best in black and white.

*all photos by Heidi of Our Labor of Love

Now that you've seen a decent amount of our photos, any suggestions on how I can incorporate them into the wedding? Keep in mind that save the dates are out since we're doing something like this. A guestbook is an option, but I'd prefer something more unique than the typical album from snapfish or blurb. Thoughts?

strike a pose, part 2

*all photos by Heidi of Our Labor of Love

strike a pose, part 1

Okay....so I am having a REALLY difficult time picking out my favorite engagement photos (did anyone else have that problem??). I don't want to bombard you with too many, so I'm going to break it up into three posts according to our three different outfits. First up, dressy.

These outfits were actually an afterthought. I was only planning on casual clothes, but the future mister really, really wanted something more formal. Fortunately, I had this great navy blue dress from a wedding I went to last year. Unfortunately, the future mister didn't really have anything appropriate, so we spent the Tuesday before at the mall (45 minutes away) searching for a suitable outfit. And to tell you the truth, as stressed out as I was trying to rush around at the last minute, I'm really glad we went through with it. Because I might like these just a teensy, tiny bit more than our casual photos. (Hopefully the future mister doesn't read this or I might get a big, fat "I told you so!" - ha.)

*all photos by Heidi of Our Labor of Love

who wants a sneak peak?

*photo by Heidi of Our Labor of Love

the hankie lady

While home I was also able to spend some time with my mom. On Saturday we went to visit the "hankie lady." Back when I decided that I'd be creating handkerchief save-the-dates, I put my mom in charge of scouring up the hankies. In the winter, while at one of the local craft/antique places, she met Nancy who owns an antique linens booth. Well mom and Nancy hit it off and Nancy has gone above and beyond to find me the perfect handkerchiefs. I received another installment of about 20 on Saturday that were gently laundered and perfectly pressed. And she wouldn't take a dime for them! Wow. We also discussed doilies and mason jars, which she has also volunteered to gather for us (the doilies were actually her idea!). The plan is that the vintage lace doilies will go on top of our burlap table cloths and then the blue mason jars will set on top of those with some twine tied around the lip. Ohhh it's all coming together! I was even able to find some perfect inspiration photos:

(source)

(source)

(source)

Did you have any friends, family members or vendors that went above and beyond the call of duty for your wedding?