It's all fun and games...until someone gets opinionated

A lot of people nowadays seem to have a very strong (and most times negative) opinion about playing games at weddings. I have seen postings on message boards talking about how they're better suited for showers and such or how it's a major faux pas to ruin such a formal event with childish activities. Well, I am choosing to ignore these naysayers. As a young couple who like to have fun and frequently host game nights at our own house, FI and I have decided that a game would be perfectly appropriate at our wedding. Our family and friends like to have a good time and a too-formal, stuffy affair is never something we had in mind. We have many out-of-town guests attending who don't know each other and wanted to find a way for them to mingle in order to avoid those awkward silent moments. As I see it, you introduce guests to other guests and try to make sure everyone feels comfortable if you throw any other party, so why not take the same measures at your wedding? I am in the process of organizing a "couple's trivia" game comprised of random questions about either both of us individually or together-type questions, such as "what sports did R play in high school," "what is Cortney's dog's name," or "in what grade did Cortney and R first meet." Everyone attending the wedding will obviously know SOMETHING about us since they're either our family members or friends, so no one can really do poorly! We plan on having the DJ announce the questions and the individual tables will work together to compete as teams, taking turns and being eliminated if they don't know an answer. There's going to be a twist though in that they have "lifelines" of sorts. Each table will be able to pass a question along to either the maid of honor (my sister) or the best man (FI's brother) in order to avoid elimination if they don't know the answer. I haven't exactly decided what kind of prize we will give out to the winning table, but I'm thinking we can either give away the centerpieces after the reception or gift certificates to a restaurant. Or possibly since we have a large guest list they can win the honor of being the first ones to take the trip to the dessert table!

Pretty in pink (and orange and brown)

When thinking about what colors to use for my wedding, I immediately knew I wanted pink. That was a given since it's my favorite color, but what color to go with it was a hard decision. I love the pink and brown color combo. It's elegant looking and not too girly, but it seems like everyone is using it nowadays. I also love pink and orange together because it's so colorful and fun. Sooo since I was having a hard time deciding between the two I have chosen to combine all three. I'm going to have pink and orange as my main color scheme with chocolate accents to add a formal touch. I like the boldness of the two bright colors together mixed with the rich tone of the brown. I haven't really been able to find any weddings done with pink, orange and brown which leaves me on my own as far as coming up with ideas on how to coordinate everything. In all honesty though that makes me happy because I wanted this wedding to be unique and it looks like that's what I'm going to get!

Location, location, location

Of all the decisions I had to make in the wedding planning process, I knew that the venue was the most important to me. I feel that the venue determines everything, and until I chose a space trying to figure out other logistics like flowers and seating arrangements and decor was pointless. I didn't care how far I had to travel for my wedding as long as it was within reason. I currently live in Tennessee but was raised in North Carolina, and although I tried to find a place close to where I'm at now, I wasn't impressed with any of the sites I visited. Nothing compared to the mountains I grew up in. So after looking around all of western North Carolina I decided Asheville was the perfect location for our nuptials. It’s such an eclectic city with a small-town feel and there are plenty of things for our out-of-town guests to do. Of all the places me and FI looked at, Homewood in the historic Montford district fit in most with my vision of our day. And so our wedding will take place at Homewood on August 2^nd of 2009. Ahh…feels good to have at least one thing finalized! I posted two pictures below, one of the outside and one of the inside dining area. I love the turret and the stonework. Absolutely gorgeous without being too princess-like!

Engagement photos!

FI and I finally got around to taking our engagement pictures and I am so pleased at how they turned out; especially considering they weren't done by a professional. I was impressed that even though we took a while to finish the session, FI was patient and didn't complain one time! Now I'm really looking forward to our Trash the Dress photo shoot. I posted our two favorite engagement pics below.

The bling and the proposal

I love love love my ring! The fiance and I had looked for rings at a bunch of places so he could get a feel for the kind of style I liked. I loved the princess cut engagement rings and I knew I wanted something that wasn't too gaudy. I like the dainty, sparkly kind :) I think he did a wonderful job picking this one. The way he gave it to me was perfect, too. We started dating our sophomore year of high school and had been together close to five years and during that time had talked about marriage A LOT, so I figured a proposal might be coming soon when he started acting even sweeter than he usually is and had planned a weekend getaway for our anniversary. Well the weekend came and went and he still hadn't popped the question, so needless to say I was disappointed for getting my hopes up. A few days later we made a trip to our hometown to visit with family. While we were there, FI suggested we go see a little chapel we used to photograph together. I didn't question this story since I had just gotten a new camera and my hubby-to-be is nostalgically romantic like that. So on to the chapel we went and when we got there I saw that the place was decorated with flowers and Christmas lights everywhere. Our song was even playing softly in the background when he got down on one knee and asked me to spend forever with him :) He literally thought of everything. Afterwards I didn't even have to call and tell my family the good news because he had informed them of what was going on and they were outside the church waiting to surprise me! Oh how I love him. And although this will probably be the most stressful next few months of my life, I can't wait to become Mrs. Erxleben on August 2nd!

A place to store my ideas

So I decided I needed a place to keep up with all the ideas I've had running around in my head for my upcoming wedding. August 2nd suddenly seems so close! This blog should work well to serve that purpose except for the fact that I am new to the site and therefore don't really know what I'm doing! Once I get familiar with the site, however, I will be posting pictures of others' weddings that I have been inspired by or just DIY projects that I'm going to be working on. With my OCD I need an outlet to keep everything organized and get feedback on things I might not have thought of! I welcome comments and if you see any ideas you like feel free to use them. Likewise if I used a photo of yours let me know and I'll be sure to credit you for it.