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Mr. MJ and I are now less than 5 months away from the day we’ll be married, and I’m avoiding The Knot’s planning checklist like the plague. Why? Well… let me give you a little rundown on our (non)wedding planning progress thus far. What follows is a list of what we DON’T know.
Where we’re getting married
This is kind of a biggie, am I right? As in, WE SHOULD PROBABLY KNOW THIS BY NOW! See, originally we were going to do it locally. Then my mom suggested Duluth, Minnesota, about 4 hours from here. But now we’re working on buying a home, and I think perhaps we’ll want to have it closer to home so that my parents (who live across the country and would have traveled directly to Duluth) can see the house while they’re here. Luckily, our chosen venue is a city hall, regardless of where it’s located. We don’t need a reservation 10 months in advance to go to city hall.
What I’ll be wearing
I have had two unsuccessful dress hunts and I’m running out of creativity. Wedding dresses are too fancy for what we’ve envisioned, but I’m not sure what else I would want. I do, however, have one more option (the brown suit) that I’ll be writing about soon. Hopefully I’ll be able to check this big stressor off the list within a few days.
What he’ll be wearing
No clue. We haven’t even picked him out a wedding ring.
Read more…
I am the type of girl that is all about buying beautiful things I love, and then wearing them to death. Flipping through my personal photos is like repeated deja vu. And let me tell you, sister, I love it!
So when I make a purchase, I justify it by making sure I can wear it on multiple occasions. Recently I was visiting my other boyfriend, J. Crew, when I stumbled upon this gorgeous little number:
I immediately accosted my fainting couch, because this dress gives me a case of the vapors! It’s knit, so it can be casual or dressy, and the little ruffles around the neck make me want to swoon. When you have a reaction this strong to a piece of clothing, you don’t question it, you just buy!
Read more…
And the winner is…
The Jim Hjelm satin strapless ball gown with a “cashmere” color bodice, natural waist, inverted pleated skirt front and back, and side pockets! The skirt color will be “driftwood” to match the guys’ suits.
Style: jh5818
Mr. B and I are will be taking our e-pics in two weeks and we have yet to 1) decide what we are going to dress up in and 2) where we will take them. I know our lovely photographer will produce a great end result, but we would like to take our photos at places that are memorable to us. A few places that I have come up with are:
Our Alma maters (important to who we are now, we spent a lot of time and money at these schools):
UT
Featured on Weddingbee
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
“Make an elegant invitation statement without the fuss. Stylish invitation sets with matching envelopes, reception and response cards included.”
We’re very excited to launch this new Interview feature, where we’ll be interviewing some of the most talented and interesting people in the wedding industry!
Our first guest is Mackenzie Sala of Kenzie Kate Invitations and Something Old, Something New, the blog with the most fabulous wedding finds. I first met Mackenzie through Ladies Who Launch 4 years ago when we were both just starting out. It’s been exciting to watch our businesses grow together! Mackenzie is not only talented and beautiful, she is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. She truly loves working with each of her brides to create the invitation of their dreams.
Without further ado, the guest of the hour!
More flowers, that is! In retrospect, I should have planned our wedding around growing season. This way we could have lots of purple flowers like sweet peas and grape hyacinth. Instead, I’m left scrambling for summer’s scraps of purple.
It’s okay though; I’m learning to love the flowers I can get and be grateful for them. Not to mention, I’m becoming very talented at internet searches. Can I put that on my resume? In case you’re looking for lavender flowers in August, here are a few that we’ll probably be using for my bouquet. More than half have been approved by our florist, and the other half I’m waiting to hear back about.
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
With a Jamaican wedding, a Jamaican menu is a must! Our all-out Jamaican feast will be happening on Friday night (I’ll write about that soon!), and the menu for the reception will focus on tropical flavors as well as personal favorites of ours. While we didn’t have a specific tasting during our “research” trip in October, the food we did eat while there was delish. No tasting = no pretty food pictures, so I’ll give you our DIY menu tutorial instead!
First, design and print your image on your paper of choice. We used white linen paper, as we did with our invitations.
Again, like our invitations, we used the same header, but swapped the colors, since we are backing these with bright pink cardstock.
Read more…
In Part 1, you met our fabulous photographer, Todd Laffler. Now you shall meet Todd’s camera meeting the Lattes. Follow that?
We scheduled our engagement pictures during Mr. Latte’s spring break so we prayed and hoped for good weather, as we couldn’t postpone or reschedule. The forecast? Rain, of course! So our tentative plan of taking pictures in Central Park were ruined and we needed an alternative indoor location. Todd suggested Grand Central Station, and we happily agreed.
We had so much fun taking our engagement pictures with him! Yes, it was a dreary day in NYC. And yes, the traffic getting into the city was so not fun. But once we got inside and out of the rain, the fun officially began. We did a lot of standing, laughing, smiling, posing, and (eeew) kissing. Here are some of my faves:
We tried to go in and take pictures with the trains but were kicked outta there real fast. Apparently, pictures aren’t allowed in the station, and the train security lady warned us that Todd’s camera could be confiscated. Yikes!
We went to the Homestead this weekend for our final planning trip before the wedding! This time, we brought our officiant… just because (more on that later). Ostensibly, we were there to go over some final details of the timeline, menu choices, and logistics with our coordinator (ugh, there was a problem with the cake… again, more on that later). And we met our new, local, start-up florist (hmm, more on that, too)!!!
I also had a makeup and hair trial. Here were my inspirations:
Eva Longoria’s loosely pinned up hair with some wispy pieces.
“Grandma got married in a brown suit.” This statement has been uttered — complete with wrinkled nose — by the little girls of my family (myself included) throughout the years. A brown suit? Really?
To paraphrase grandma and grandpa’s story: they had a very short time to plan their wedding. Grandpa was accepted into school on the other side of the country. The pair wanted to move there together as a family, so they decided to get married. The problem? They had to move in a matter of weeks! The bit of money they had needed to be conserved for their travels ahead, so grandma carefully considered the importance of a fancy wedding dress in the grand scheme of things. Ultimately, she passed on lace and beading and instead bought the aforementioned brown suit. (Actually, it was olive-colored.) Her reasoning? She would need a job when they reached their new home, and the suit would be practical attire for interviews and work. They’ve now been married nearly 60 years and are some of my greatest role models for a successful marriage and life.
While Mr. Mary Jane and I aren’t planning a cross-country move, and we’ve already got our career situation worked out, we are finding ourselves in a somewhat comparable situation.
We’re paying for school. We’re paying for our cars. We’re saving for the future. And now, we’re buying a house. Expenses, much? I just can’t see the rationale in spending $2000 (i.e. a new front-loading washer/dryer), $1000 (i.e. a new modestly-priced dining room set), or even $500 (i.e. a home inspection and appraisal) on a garment that I’ll wear for possibly 6 hours total. I don’t mind buying a new outfit to wear for the wedding, but it’s got to be practical: something I can wear again.
Read more…
My aunt and Mizz K TOTALLY went above and beyond what any bride would expect for a shower! About 20 people from my and Mr. Ballet Flat’s family showed up on Saturday to celebrate the upcoming wedding! It was fabulous!
Mizz K pinning on a pretty rose corsage! I feel special! 
The fun is about to begin!!
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As an apartment-warming gift for Mr. Bruschetta (and, let’s face it, for me too!), I created a coffee table book of our engagement pictures using Shutterfly. Sister Bruschetta had recommended the site after her experience arranging her own engagement pictures in a similar keepsake.
Sifting through the 600+ photos we received from our photographer was the first challenge; having complete control over the format and layout was the second. Fortunately, Shutterfly is completely user-friendly, and even though I don’t consider myself particularly design-savvy, I’m very pleased with the finished product.
Our photographer — and her second shooter — captured moments so quickly that some of my favorite shots have I only slight variations among them.
I love candy. I have a huge sweet tooth.
But a diet high in sugar doesn’t exactly have a place in pre-wedding body preparation. So I’ve decided to put a light at the end of the wedding fitness tunnel in the form of a candy buffet at our reception! I get to have this night to splurge, so I’m not going to feel guilty about it at all.
One of Mr. Lab’s classmates heard about my candy buffet plan and offered to lend me the jars she used at her wedding! That’s a big check off my “purchases” list. She showed me a picture of the jars and they’re absolutely gorgeous! Thanks Daphne! Here they are at her wedding:
Now I have to decide whether to do a monochromatic theme or variety of colors with the candy.
When we got engaged, I didn’t have any interest in a bridal party. The only two people that I really wanted with us on “the day” were my sister and Mr. B’s brother. Choosing 8 other people to join our bridal party was really a compromise I made specifically for my mother. 
(I should note that the people who are standing with us are very important to us and we are honored by their presence, but originally I didn’t see the point of a bridal party).
So… after we decided on having a bridal party, I started thinking about what the girls would wear. Black was an ideal choice, but it didn’t seem to mesh with our color scheme. That’s when I started searching for purple dresses… but not just any purple. I wanted a deep, dark purple. Even though our wedding was more than a year away, I started searching online for BM dresses last fall (seeing that purple was a very popular fall color… I was worried that finding a purple dress in the spring or summer would be difficult, if not impossible). I did look at the bridal store I purchased my dress from, but I didn’t really like styles that they had available. So I looked to other stores (Anthropologie, Nordstrom - I am talking to you) for some help. I guess I should also mention that I wanted to keep the dress budget under $150 for the girls, since they would be purchasing their own dresses. Finally, Nordstrom came through and I found *the* bridesmaid dress (and shown in action with the wedding “vision”):
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