Life. Love. Lipstick.

I posted a 3-part photo recap of our courthouse wedding on my other blog, Hepburn and Houndstooth. Go check it out. It’s five months late, but I bet it will make you smile!

While looking images for a post about my wedding that I wrote for my other blog, I came across these super cute shoes!  Designed by Lela Rose especially for Payless, the Unforgettable Moments collection is really cute and super-affordable!   There is a wide range of choices for color if you want to dye them, too!  My favorite ones are the Nathalie, only $45 (Edit: sold in an undyeable variation on payless.com for $24.99).

Which pair is your favorite?

These two photos are the perfect example of why I want to elope!  LOVE.

Great work as always by Anna Kuperberg.

I am constantly indecisive where our wedding is concerned.  When we first got engaged (beforehand, even), I hoped for a wedding with 60 of our nearest and dearest in the spring.  Awhile after that, I began thinking that for financial reasons, we’d just elope in the fall.  Well, I found out I was pregnant and fall came and went and life got chaotic.  Once the reality of a baby on the way hit us, we decided we wanted to be married before the baby comes.  Now, time is really running out on us, and we find that it’s best if we get married in the next couple of weeks.  Problem is that we can’t afford a photographer of any kind at this time.  The one thing I’ve consistently wanted out of any wedding we have is a great set of photos.  I realize that we’ll be just as married without pictures as we would be with them.  However, I don’t want to regret or miss anything about our wedding day.

We’re going to go ahead and get married anyway, because for legal reasons I want us to be married when the baby comes.  I just can’t help but feel a little sadness.  Also, Dustin feels weird about us just getting married on a random afternoon.  Though he isn’t into wedding hooplah, he can’t help but feel that it deserves a little more pomp and circumstance.  I’m sure that once we’re married, I won’t think much about it.  But will I miss out on photos?  Will I wish I had something to frame in our home for decades to come, something that shows that moment we officially became family?  Will i want those timeless images to show family and friends?  Of course I will.  But a snapshot from my point and shoot will just have to suffice.

In the next couple of weeks, we will be tying the knot, just the two of us, with an anniversary party to follow in a year.  I spent the last week searching online and in person for the dress that is “just right.”  I don’t even know how to describe what I was looking for, except tailored, chic, and flattering… not easy when you’re quite visibly pregnant.  I found it!  

While looking on Motherhood Maternity’s website, I found the dress… for only $35.  What a good deal!  Then I ended up looking on Walmart.com just before I was going to order, and what did I find?  Same dress for $18!  I ordered it immediately.

Without further ado, here is the perfect dress for me!

The plan for the whole look is to put either red or green shoes with it, and maybe, just maybe, make a little birdcage veil.  We’ll see how much time I have before our wedding day.

Today, while out shopping, I stopped into my local Maternity Works and tried on the size I ordered.  PERFECT!  I can’t wait to put the whole look together!

I posted recently that Dustin and I finally got engaged. Now comes the fun part…. the planning!

I have put off posting about this, because since we first started talking marriage over a year ago, we (okay, I, considering Dustin has expressed several times that he can go either way happily) have gone back and forth about whether we should elope or have a wedding with guests. As with any major decision, there were multiple pros and cons for both choices.

As for eloping, it keeps costs way down, meaning we can afford the most important element to me, a good photographer. It also means that I don’t get caught up in inviting Aunt Ingrid and her family out of politeness, my college roommate because I was invited to hers, and my friend who lives down the street. Ok, so none of these situations are anything I’m dealing with, nor do I know anybody named Ingrid. However, there are similar issues with the guest list if we chose to invite guests. Eloping also means that the focus stays where it should- on the fact that we have chosen to live our lives together as husband and wife, instead of on linens, favors, registries, and buffet vs. plated dinner. Honestly, I think one of the biggest things for us is that eloping means we can get married very soon. There are other positive points for eloping, but those are the big ones for me.

Eloping is certainly not without cons. I would hate to wake up in 3 years wanting to have a vow renewal (which are completely ludicrous, i’ll post about that another time) because I really wish I had gotten to have the whole wedding experience. Also, I am completely enamored with weddings and all the love that surrounds you on your day. As I mentioned in a previous post, I long for the emotion of the wedding day. I want to share that day with those who have either shaped me to be the person Dustin chose to marry, or have played a part in our relationship. I think it’s becoming obvious as I type this that I have made the right choice for us… we’re having a wedding.

Now, as a compromise between a wedding and elopement, we’re having a VERY small, intimate wedding. This ensures that we’ve invited only those we can’t imagine the day without, and that costs stay down. I still don’t think we’ll be able to afford our dream photographer, but we’ll see. I’m just thrilled to have something to go on! Right now we’re thinking next spring for a date. First things first though… I have to move 500 miles so I can finally live with the love of my life!