Summertime and the livin's easy

This blog would not be a truthful representation of this wedding process if I didn't honestly discuss how emotionally drained and overwhelmingly stressed I have been lately. I think a combination of focusing all my energy towards the other two weddings and coming to terms with how much work still needs to go into making our wedding a success, has really made this summer a trying time for Josh and I. Also, not having our annual camping trips, beach days, or other usual summertime activity is a bigger sacrifice than I thought it would be. I'm seeing now how important it is to maintain your normal non-wedding life's activities amidst all the wedding planning. So from here on out, the excitement and joy for our Big Day is what will keep us going. We can't sweat the small stuff. And we must remember that despite all the wedding craziness this year...everyday we wake up as the same Josh and Sheila (who happen to be exchanging vows in a couple months). Anyone want to go canoeing?

Inspiration board-The After Party

wedding website

Finally updated with more specifics regarding the Big Day. Please visit and read the added information especially if you plan to camp. There are detailed instructions for camp set up and arrival times. We will be registering and sending out invites soon, but be sure to check the wedding website as I will be adding more details as August 22nd quickly approaches.

www.joshlovessheila.com

Easter = baby animals!!!

Josh and I did nothing over Easter weekend. It was so relaxing to just enjoy each other's company...well, and the company of some new furry friends.Josh was so fascinated by the baby ducks that Heather brought over. He couldn't take his eyes of them. As you can see, he wouldn't even look up to get his picture taken. Don't we all look like such a happy family though?
Abby made new friends:
My brother Harold's new pet rat, Rex!

the men's attire!!!

I know all you ladies have been dying to know what the guys in the wedding party will be wearing. The guys went shopping for their outfits this past weekend and have their ensembles mostly purchased. So here it is, I present to you the men's wedding attire:

These linen vests for the groomsmen are too cool. And wait till you see the shoes the bought at DSW. Still haven't settled on pants (probably will go with something a little dressier than jeans) and I'm hoping they get blue dress shirts for under the vests.

My man is going to look smokin in this get'up.

Inspiration Board - Reception

Halfway there

6 months to go!

To help with wedding costs, Josh and I complied a list of things needed for the wedding, that we believe can be obtain by borrowing from friends and family(or friends of friends and family). Please let us know if you or anyone you know have any of these items and would be willing to let us use for the wedding.

white christmas lights
cake stands
mini cupcake baking tins
blue or green empty wine bottles (these would be to have not borrow, since we plan to cut them up)
tiki torches
picnic tables
yard games (horseshoes, bocce ball)
roasting sticks
white, green or blue hydrangeas (if someone has a hydrangea bush and would be willing to let us cut some stems to contribute to flower arrangements)

green peep-toe, sling-back, wedges

I purchased my wedding shoes from Target today. Can't wait to wear them!!!

Dont step on my blue suede shoes!

I had a wonderful weekend with Whitney. On Sunday we attended a Bridal Show at the Kellogg Center, went shoe shopping and saw Bride Wars. The movie was cute, the bridal show had lots of great cake samples (too much probably, Whitney and I overdid it) and shoe shopping was hugely successful-Whitney bought shoes for the wedding! We found an adorable pair of blue patent leather flats and it got me thinking that I need to find some show options for myself and the other bridesmaids.

So here they are:
Payless ShoeSource
Payless ShoeSource
Amazon.com
Zappos.com

The two pictured above I am considering for myself. I love wearing heels since Josh is 6'2" but heels will sink into the earth so I will happily wear wedges. For my bridesmaids I'm asking them to wear either wedges or flats like the one pictured below from Amazon.com (all guests - please avoid heels as well)

Please drink responsibly

In lieu of New Year's fesivities I thought it would be fun to find a signature cocktail to be served at Breaha, Heather, and my wedding (not that any of us will be opting to serve signature cocktails, sorry to disappoint)

Breaha's signature cocktail - The Charleston

A classic, this elegant cocktail gives a nod to the swing dance lesson that Beaha and Zach will hopefully be having at their reception.

Heather's signature cocktail - Berry BlushWith a wedding dated for 7/11 a fruity, slushy drink is a must. Maybe even serve them in Big Gulp cups!

Our signature cocktail - Lime 'n' Lemon HourWho wouldn't like a refreshing citrus cocktail for an outdoor summer wedding? We could even set up the bar to look like an old fashioned lemonade stand.

my wonderful fiance

I have come very close to losing my mind lately. Thanks to Josh, who's been cooking meals, doing all the household chores, answering my studio phone and booking appointments for me, I haven't lost it yet. And I'm proud to announce that because of his efforts, we have officially crossed two items off our list of necessities for our wedding day! (the two most important necessities in my opinion)

The caterer: Spartan Hall of Fame Cafe -managed by a good friend of my dad's, Ricka Tien

and

The toilets: Royal Restrooms; a regal portable restroom experience - recommended by a fellow Habibi and newly-wed, Molly.

Thank you for all your help and support Baby.

Inspiration Board-Ceremony

The game plan

Here it goes; our wedding plans.

As you know, the wedding will take place at the home of my family's close friends Steve and Gail. The ceremony will be in the woods of their property and reception in a field adjacent to these woods. There will be space for camping, a big glowing bonfire and Sunday brunch to follow, of course. In case of rain, the ceremony can be held under our tent. The tent will be built by my wonderful father(with the helpof Josh's groomsman and my brothers). In the initial budget run through, it was realized that renting a tent for $1500+ was absurd, and my genius dad suggested that he could build the tent with lumber that could be torn down and reused after the wedding, for $600 or less. Yipee! This in turn sparked a fire to try and replace anything I initially thought needed to be purchased for the wedding with items that are used or can be borrowed. Thus lowering costs and the carbon footprint our Big Day will create.

We will be married by Josh's father. Rex is the perfect person to conduct our marriage ceremony for three reasons:

1. Rex worked many years as a sucessful salesman which = good public speaking skills. He also traveled with this work doing workshop to teach his skills to others in sales and now does public workshops with his new career in healing.
2. Rex is a skilled healer and spiritual counseler. His insight and intuitive touch will make for what we believe will be a touching and deeply moving ceremony.
3. Josh and I have always wanted someone near and dear to us officiate the wedding. Nuff said.
   

Choosing wedding colors also came easily. My engagement ring contains two sapphires (my birthstone) on either side of a diamond taken from an old ring of Josh's. The day after Josh proposed, I was admiring the ring and realized I would wear the sapphire pendant my grandmother gave to me for my high school graduation. Green was choosen when it was decided we were going with a casual, rustic feel for the day. Blue will be an accent color since green is more evident in nature (duh).

Prior to the engagement I'd always believed that friends and family should have little to no involvement and responsibility beyond showing up, looking beautiful, and having the time of their lives. I just want our loved ones to enjoy the day for what it is; the union and celebration of two beloved people. I have thoroughly changed my viewpoint on this matter. I've realized that if I am to stay under budget and keep my sanity, we're going to have to enlist help from the troops. The key will be to ask everyone, and I mean everyone, to be responsible for one task. This way no one is being overwhelmed with several tasks, and everyone has a role to play. And besides, this union and celebration will be that much more personal and meaningful if all those close to us have contributed in one way or another.

Flowers will be provided by a neighbor of ours who has green hydrangea bushes and we will pick Queen Anne's Lace as they are free and grow wildly everywhere in Michigan. Ceremony music will be played by Matt and Steffan, two highschool friends of mine on acoustic guitar and Mandolin. The day will be documented in photographs by my wonderful, Aja, who has assisted me in wedding and event photography in the past. I'd love to have women from my troupe, the Habibi Dancers, perform at the reception. I'm trying to enlist a friend to do a mini Salsa lesson to encourage interaction between guests and we'll have open salsa, merengue and bachata dancing for a small portion of the reception. We wont have cake, but would like a mini desserts table with goodies made by any talented cooks we know who are wiling to contribute. Josh's old bandmates, Ben and Whitney, will hopefully do an acoustic set to kick off the after party. Sunday brunch will be prepared and served by the entire wedding party.

Go team go!

Our beautiful wedding location

We've had amazing weather for November in Michigan. The past couple of days have been in the low 70's. Today I walked around our yard barefoot for the first time in weeks! I wanted to be sure to post these photos while it's still felt like fall in these parts. Josh and I finally made it out to our ceremony/reception site to finalize all the layout for the actual ceremony, where the tent will be built, and areas for camping. My parent's good friends, Steve and Gail, have been gracious enough to suggest using their property for our wedding and we couldn't have asked for a better location. Not to mention they are absolutely the some of the nicest and laid-back people you will ever meet. Gail even told me that day about her wedding experience, a drive through chapel in Vegas, and her wishes to renew their vows in the middle of the Grand River with wading boots on! Their place is 5 miles west of our house in Grand Ledge and it really is nature at it's finest. We are SO lucky to be getting married at there. These photos were taken on a cold Autumn day, but keep in mind our date is set for August 22nd.

This is the path back to the location of the ceremony. All our guests will have a nice little walk through the woods to get there.

Clearing in the woods where we will get married!
Their dogs and cat followed us while we walked around the property.
path to the Reception tent.
This is where the reception will be. My dad and the guys will build our tent from the ground up here. Look at Josh and Gail all bundled up, it was cold that day.
Steve and Gail's horses, what a beautiful site/sight!

Wedding website is up!

I'm finally to a point where I can spread the word that our wedding website is ready to be viewed. By no means am I a web designer, so I had to toy around with the basic website page designer that comes free when you purchase the domain. Mix that inexperience with my laptop saying goodbye this week and you've got a whole lot of frustration with technology on my end, but it got done nonetheless. Or as done as it will be for a while.

Our main goal for the site is to prepare the guests for the unexpected...so in turn, that would make everything expected. We need to relay the message of "no heels" for the women; the ceremony/reception site is out in the woods. Don't waste your expensive cologne; we'll all smell like bonfire and bug spray anyways. Or that pitching a tent is really the only choice for accommodations.

And along the lines of being nontraditional I decided to post goofy photos for the wedding party section. Actually, with all my personal files being unreachable, I only had a handful of pictures to choose from and somehow they are all the embarrassingly funny kind of photos. I very much enjoy them, and Josh got a good laugh out of them as well. He did comment on hating the picture of the two of us...but it was only fair. I really never would have thought to post the funny photos if I had access to all my digital files. But I'm so glad they're not the perfect shots of our wedding party. Everyone knows how good looking they are, I want to show their care-free personalities. I'm hoping that our friends will appreciate and understand the humor, after all, they're in our wedding party for a reason and if they are at all bothered by the photos on the site, then we'll just kick them out of the wedding. Sounds like a plan.

Today's Mantra: something wonderful can emerge from something gone wrong.

Josh loves Sheila...and Sheila said yes

Alright, so that first post was more of a "testing...one..two..." kind of entry. You may have read it and wondered to yourself-I thought this was supposed to be a blog about Josh and Sheila's wedding? Well it is, and I'll have you know that life as we know it does not stop for a wedding. It goes on.

Let me give you a Mission Statement:

I will strive to not allow this wedding consume our lives for the next 10 months. I'll embrace this period of engagement as an opportunity to enjoy the planning of this wedding with Josh and create beautiful memories along the way. I will encourage bonds of family and friendship to become even closer by involving others in the process as much as possible. I will fulfill this mission and maintain my role as photographer, receptionist, belly dancer, and bridesmaid(x2).

Basically, I am going to blog about the wedding, yes, and every other occurrences in my life whether it applies to the planning process or not. I'm going to write about how happy dancing makes me, because in the middle of all this prenuptial stress it's the one thing I look forward to the most. I'm going to write about the hours I'm putting in answering phones, greeting visitors, copying, faxing, filing, and organizing office supplies Mon-Fri, 8am-5pm, because it's what's paying for the wedding of our dreams. I'm going to write about my photo customers and their sessions because it's the #1 thing that get's my creative juices flowing (not to mention I'm getting great ideas from the weddings I shoot). I'm going to write about my two bridesmaids who live in town and I don't see or appreciate nearly as much as I should, my two bridesmaids who are also getting married and have kindly asked me to stand beside them on their big days, and my one bridesmaid in France who I miss so dearly, because I love them all so much. I''m going to write about every single thought and every little wish for our big day because in the end, we may not be able to execute or even apply all the wedding ideas to ours, but maybe someone else will get some use out of it.

So I do expect your input. Please tell me what you think. Give me your ideas. Help me out, people. And if along the way you see any hint of Bridezilla coming out, for god's sake, let me know.