my heart skipped a beat when i saw this wedding on 100 Layer Cake yesterday. the entire wedding was a dream, but her dress in that venue… complete and utter perfection.

photography by caught the light

i’m guest blogging over at one of my absolute favorite blogs today: snippet & ink. we’re talking about alternative wedding dress options. there’s a little something for everyone, so head on over and take a look.

i’m just popping in to say hi today, but this was too good not to share. i know a lot of ladies out there are looking for polished up-do inspiration for upcoming holiday parties. head over to {this is glamorous}, she has a great tutorial from martha stewart weddings on achieving the perfect chignon.

images from martha stewart weddings, composed by {this is glamorous}.

hi friends! i’m so happy to be back. i’ve got a new husband, a new name, and some new hardware on my left hand! i’m terribly sorry to leave you hanging all week. we got a bit lost in what our planner called a “love fog”. it was glorious and unlike anything i could have ever imagined. we’re slowly returning to the real world, remembering that the general public won’t think our obnoxious displays of affection are particularly cute!

i’ve been searching for the words to describe our wedding and the truth is, i’m totally speechless. the entire weekend was quite possibly one of the best i’ve ever had. cliche, i know, but what other time are you surrounded by nearly every single important person in your life? seeing them all together, gathering to support and celebrate our marriage, was so humbling. luckily, the past week has gone by in slow motion, we’ve taken time to process it all, and for that, i am grateful.

the day of the wedding went off without a hitch. i’m sure there was a snafu or two, but whatever went wrong, i was too happy to care or to even notice. in my eyes, every little detail was exactly as it was suppose to be, and even more spectacular than my, at times, very specific vision.

we are filled to the brim with happiness, and i’m excited to get back to life and regular scheduled posts. I’m also looking forward to unveiling a few fun projects i have in the works, and posting some wedding pictures along with my favorite highlights of the day. It feels great to be back!

snapshot from my bridesmaid, ally.

we are getting married tomorrow! i feel different than i thought i would; i am 100% relaxed and calm. in the zone. ready to make this thing official!

after a 15 month engagement, our nuptials have been a long time coming. thank you for listening, and lending your advice, thoughts, and best wishes as we embark on this new journey together. i can’t wait to marry the man continues to surpasses all of my expectations. nick, i can’t imagine my life without you.

see you on the otherside!

love,

the future mrs. g

image via this is glamorous

i like cake. nick loves cake. i didn’t realize how deep his love for cake was until we went on our cake tasting. we sampled 20 different cake/icing combos, and i kid you not, after every single flavor, nick would groan about it being the single best thing he had ever tasted. this was obviously a gross exaggeration on his part, but i guess he takes his passion for sweets pretty seriously. i found it to be adorable and was thrilled he was excited about this part of the planning process.

fast forward a few months and we still hadn’t narrowed down our flavor options. “they were all so delicious!” nick said. so i thought- people like options, so how about we do a cake buffet. that idea went over really well with my sweet-crazed partner.

i spent some time yesterday looking at toppings and decorations to send to the cake lady, and the only cakes i lingered on were the ones that looked really tasty and edible. the ones with creamy, slightly imperfect, frosting that i could sink my teeth straight through. i did like the ones with the ruffles too- they look so light and airy. i am thinking we change up the textures and patterns of the icing on each cake, and maybe doing a few of those trendy little flags on a couple, because i just think they are so cute. so behold! a few of the inspiration images i sent to my cake lady. yummy, right?

images: 1 via, maggie pie cakes 2, 5-6 herriot grace via poppy talk, 3 via nikole herriot, maggie austin cake via ritzy bee

buffet images via elizabeth anne design

hi there! how was your weekend? mine was spent celebrating my last days of singledom at my bachelorette party. it was the perfect mixture of glam and glitter, cheap beer and dive bars, best friends and unforgettable good times. my girlfriends surprised me with a photographer, who took candid photos of all the shenanigans the entire evening. i’m excited (and considerably afraid) to see what comes back on that disk! all the girls came dressed to the nines, most of them wearing black with bit of gold here and there (we never plan this, but it seem to be a group favorite). i wore this nude dress with a black statement necklace and black strappy shoes. everyone looked so great. thanks to the girls for making the trip to help celebrate, i love you all dearly!

one: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

two: 1 / 2 / 3

aren’t these gorgeous? i love my engagement ring, but if i had to do it all over again, i would consider buying a beauty from satomi kawakita.

i’ve been thinking about this post for a while, but i just couldn’t figure out how to begin. i needed my own melancholy to pass to gain some kind of perspective, in order to get it off my chest.

the past few months have been particularly difficult around here, and due to a growing number of stressful circumstances, i really felt paralyzed, terrified, and guilty that my life wasn’t exactly “in order” (or how i imagined it would be) the months leading up to our wedding date.

nick is plowing through grad school, hurling towards his start date, a few weeks from now. the hours are insane… and it looks like he will be writing his dissertation, starting a new job, AND getting married all at once. this is not ideal.

while he slaves away, i’ve been working on the wedding, and feeling, well, just plain sour about rushing through these months. for some reason, i felt we needed time to mentally center ourselves as we make this official. instead, the expense, the need for assistance, the lack of time spent together, the whoopla of it all, has felt like a thorn in the side. clearly, i’m naive, and i didn’t see this coming, despite my tenancies.

but this THX from leah, made me smile today. things have been better the past few weeks. much better. and it’s not that we’ve had any relief of stress. although i did my best to seem cheery when nick slugs through the door, i realized that was the best part of my day, seeing his face, because no matter how tired he is, he always lights up when he comes through the door. a kiss and a hug never fails to follow. it’s the smallest thing, but it reminds me of what waits on the other side of all of the craziness.

exactly 2 months from today, we’ll be getting married, and the thought of it brings big pools of tears to my eyes. i know i sound like a total sap, an emotional landmine of sorts, but these months of melancholy have shed light on the brightest part of my life.

i’d be a lot easier to just say f-it, let’s get married yesterday. but celebrating our union wouldn’t feel right without all the people who supported us, especially those who helped screw my head back on straight over the years. we’re two very lucky people, that’s for sure.

we received our invites from the printer last week, and i really like how they turned out. i hope our guests like them as much as we do! nick was so proud when he returned home from the printer. he was the “creative director” (a title he gave himself) in the whole process, as naturally i had a hard time editing my ideas. it was fun collaborating with him, for an engineer he has a very good, albeit 100% logic driven, design sense!

i can’t believe we’re only 2 months away from the big day… i’m getting a little giddy about it all.

another busy day here! nick and i are off to the court house to get our marriage license and grab a celebratory lunch. woo hoo!

image via ffffound

i’ve been obsessing over feminine, vintage-inspired undergarments lately. these spotted on everything fabulous are at the tipy-top of my list.

i made a valiant effort to write a post yesterday, but i just couldn’t get it right. hopefully today goes better. or maybe tomorrow. but i wanted to give you a little somethin’ somethin’ while i organize my thoughts- so here you go. a gold sparkly dress with loafers. it is off the wall and i love it.

did anyone else become really bored with traditional wedding images during a long engagement?

alright, i’m off.

image via jcrew weddings

forgive me for the infrequent posting this week. after months of procrastinating, i’ve finally revisited the to-do list for our wedding. since most of the big decisions have been worked out, we’re having a wonderful time refining the little details. nick has a sharp new wardrobe, the invitations are coming along nicely, and we’re brainstorming some really delicious signature cocktails. yum!

if you have any suggestions for cocktails that would be good for an october wedding- lemme know! that raspberry mint cocktail is calling my name right now…

1 \ 2 \ 3 \ 4 \ 5 \ 6 \ 7 \

i’m signing off early to catch up on some last minute errands before i leave town for a dear friend’s wedding. it’s the first wedding of the season for me and i’m super excited to see these two get hitched. so i hand-picked a few pictures from one of my all-time favorite weddings. they make a rainy day look so good, i actually WANT it to rain on my wedding day.

so in honor of the soon-to-be Mrs. R, here are four lovely wedding themed links:

+ i love this diy necklace the lovely mrs. broke-ass bride created on 100 layer cake.

+ this one year anniversary post at size too small is so pretty.

+ coveting these lovely underpinnings over at kendall k.

+ i die for these metallic gold shoes.

plus two things non-weddingy:

+ i want her outfit. and to maybe have blond hair for one day. just to see how it feels. (and for the record… i know i’d be one heinous blond!)

+ i could not stop laughing reading this. haydee from happenstance shared this site and i was up until the wee hours of the morning reading this, laughing and snorting like a crazy person. her drawings are great!

and i can’t sign off for the weekend without saying how much fun it has been seeing some new faces around here this week. you guys are so awesome, and by the way, thank you for introducing yourselves- you have some truly amazing blogs.

xo

k