Inspirational Things--Let them eat Cake!

Cakes are not only a focal point at many receptions, but also can say a lot about a couple and their wedding. Growing up, cake was never my favorite dessert, I was always more of a cookies or cheesecake fan. I had this dream growing up that I wanted to serve cheesecake at my wedding instead of cake. That was until I found my love for wedding cake. Wedding cakes are not just a plain old box cake...they are delicious! Not only that, but there are so many different shapes, sizes, designs, and flavors. You can truly make a cake that is unique and yours. While a wedding cake is not for every couple getting married, it definitely is the right choice for Tj and I.

I have done a TON of wedding cake looking since we got engaged and have narrowed it down to what our style of cake will be. My dream cake would be 7 tiers, each with a different shape and flavor and fondant that actually tastes good...but that will not be happening. More realistically I would like a 4 or 5 tier cake, probably square, black and white, and hopefully a couple different flavors :) Here are some of my inspiration pictures that I have saved, I have many more saved, but will spare you that many pictures...

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Bridal Fairs...to go or not to go?

I have never been to a bridal fair, but then again I have never had a reason to attend one. When I worked at the Candy store, they attended the bridal fairs, but I was usually the lucky one to get to stay at the store and work. My best friend Monica got married last year, but she decided that she wanted to attend the bridal fairs with just her Mom, which is definitely okay with me.

Now, I like to think that I have things mostly planned out. I know most of my vendors and have them booked, but I still just have this urge to want to go to the Bridal Fairs. Maybe this is for a couple of reasons:

1. You can never have too many ideas...
2. They give away free stuff!
3. They have a runway show
4. It's a bridal experience that you only get to do while you're engaged

I have several options of the bridal fairs that I can go to. The other decision of this is who to take with me...Do I invite my Mom and make it just the two of us? Do I invite my Mom, FMIL Kandi, MOH's Monica and Court? Do I invited the moms and all of my BM's? There are three different bridal fairs that I am looking into attending...

The Flint Hills Bridal Show

• Date: Sunday, January 9th
• Time: 1-5 pm
• Admission: Free
• Location: Courtyard Marriot, Junction City

94.5 Country Bridal Fair

• Dates: January 22-23
• Time: Saturday 10-5; Sunday 12-5 pm
• Admission: $6 in advance, $8 at the door
• Location: the Topeka Ramada

Perfect Wedding Guide Spring Bridal Show

• Date: February 13
• Time: 10 am-5 pm
• Admission: $8 online; $12 at the door
• Location: Overland Park Convention Center

I still have time to worry about this, but at least I have found some shows that would be possibilities to attend.

Inspirational Things--Ceremony Decor

Let me start off with a couple of factoids...we know our ceremony location, the time of the ceremony and mostly who is going to be up front with us during our ceremony. On the other hand, I do not know for sure what our decor will be for the ceremony. The ceremony will be held at my church that I have gone to since I was born and it is in the afternoon. It is not a huge church, but not small by any means...I would say that it should hold about 300 people. It does have a balcony that would hold about 20 people if needed. There are about 16 pews down the main aisle as well as a "wing" of pews on the side.

One awesome feature of my church is the stained glass windows...they are gorgeous! My church actually already has candle holders that go in the windows and look like they belong, so I don't have to worry about finding something there, just the candles. Pretty much I need to decorate the aisle that we will walk down. My thoughts are pomanders or pew bows. I really like both of these inspiration images, but for two completely different reasons.

I love this one because it is so dramatic and seems cozy.

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I love this one because of the simplicity and openness.

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I know, I am indecisive about this, but you will just have to wait and see what I have planned :)

Planning has slowed down a little...

So, I haven't had the chance to post in awhile due to a couple of factors:

1. School started back...yay, only 1 more semester :)
2. My photography is super-fantastically-crazily busy right now!
3. I work a lot...

But, I am back in the planning swing of things and ready to share more of my planning adventures. I will start by sharing a little bit more of my inspiration for things.

Monograms

I knew from all of my wedding searching and blog stalking that I wanted to have a monogram or two for our big day. I found on one of the sites a tutorial on how to make a monogram using Microsoft Power Point. It was a little confusing at first, but after I started to get the hang of it, it wasn't too bad. I like the idea of something simple, but I know that I want our names and our dates. The last two are my favorites, and have already used the last one for our Engagement Party! {sorry for the extra white around them, they need to be cropped :) }

Photo of the Week #3

This picture of the week is from April 2, 2010 when we went out to dinner and bowling with Monica, Tyler, Courtney and Kyle. We ate at Houlihans and went bowling at the K-State Student Union.

Inspirational Things-Centerpieces

I love flowers. I think they are so pretty and just lovely. I love all of the different varieties and different color variations that they come in. One big downside to flowers is how much they cost. Flowers can annihilate a budget very fast, which is not something that I want to do. Over my searching and looking through wedding pictures, I have atleast started to narrow down that I do want flowers in my centerpieces. I have not decided the specifics of colors or types yet, more searching and pricing to do on that later, but I do want to stay within my colors, red and white. Here are some that have helped me narrow down to a closer idea of what I want. First off, Tj and I have both talked about how we don't like tall centerpieces, it makes it hard to talk to people at your table and blocks your view. So this one is out:

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I like this next one, but it seems to be missing something for me. It may almost be too simple.

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This one is unique. The flowers are very spiky and visually interesting, but I am not sure what they are and have no idea of their price.

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These next two are most like what I am wanting. Low, redish, packed full of flowers, some sort of lighting. Hopefully without packets of sugar and Sweet-n-low :)

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Inspirational Things--Reception Tables

Soon after deciding on our wedding colors, I started looking into what I want our tables to look like at our reception. We will definitely be having round tables. Then there are so many more things to decide after that...what color of table cloths? What type of table cloths...fabric, plastic, etc.? Should we rent or should we buy? Should we have chair covers or leave the chairs plain? While budget is an important factor in making all of these decisions, there is just something I love about floor length satin table cloths and chairs with chair covers and satin sashes. One thing I really love that I have found are damask table runners...hopefully I will be able to fit these into the budget :) Here are a couple of my damask inspirations...

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My Pretty...

One evening Tj and I were trying to figure out what we wanted to do, I was like lets take pictures! His first response was, Okay of what? Instantly I wanted to go to the park to take pictures of all the pretty flowers and my new ring! I got out my camera and let Tj take pictures with my other camera. It was fun to see what I took vs. what Tj took. These are a couple of my favorite ring shots from our photo outing!

Photo of the Week #2

This picture was taken in our house before we went out to dinner for my 21st birthday!

Inspiration

I.love.weddings. I love everything about weddings and I will openly admit I am one of those girls that has been dreaming about my wedding for years.

I love to buy wedding magazines and see what is new.
I love to look at wedding gowns online.
I love to look through wedding pictures.
I love going to weddings.
I love having the opportunity to photograph weddings for others.
I love all things wedding.

Since I am so in love with weddings I have also found several wedding websites that I don't know what I would do without. Some of them I stumbled on by myself, others I have been introduced to. Between wedding websites, blogs, online shops and photography sites that I stalk there are probably at least 20 that I stalk on a regular basis. There are 3 however that I will say I am on the verge of obsessed with, Project Wedding, Wedding Bee and The Knot. Each one offers something a little different and that is why I consistently follow these three and not just one. Let me introduce you to them a little bit...

Project Wedding-http://www.projectwedding.com/

• "Brides everywhere use Project Wedding to find wedding dresses, wedding songs, and get ideas from the most helpful community of brides"
• My user id is amanda2011
• I love the forums--people can post about anything wedding or not wedding related and get feedback from others
• People post A LOT of pictures and I love pictures
• It's completely free and open to anyone to join

Wedding Bee-http://www.weddingbee.com/

• "Wedding blog by real brides, updated over 25 times a day. Inspiration from blogs, boards, bios, photos, classifieds, and diy wedding templates"
• The first line really sums it up for me...
• I love to read the blogs from current brides that are planning and trying to make wedding related decisions
• They have a section called Real Weddings and they recap just that, weddings from real brides
• Kind of like the above bullet, they have a section that they call Real Budgets where brides break down item by item what they spent on everything for the wedding

The Knot-http://www.theknot.com/

• "Your complete guide to wedding planning, wedding ideas, wedding dresses, etc."
• My favorite aspect about The Knot is their Budgeter, it is very helpful and what I am using to help budget my wedding
• Also, they have an amazing interactive checklist, I get emails from them occasionally reminding me of things that need to be getting done, I love it!
• The Knot is also what I used to make our wedding website so of course I recommend them for your own wedding website
• Pictures. They have so many pictures! You can sort them by what you are looking for or by color or just browse.

These are just a few reasons that I love each site, there are many more for each one but that will have to do for now. I use these sites for a lot of inspiration, which I will be posting over the next several weeks.

We have a Website!

I think I am way more excited about this than Tj is, but we have our own wedding website! I have included it on our Save The Dates so our guests can go there for more information. I have included a little about us, how we met, and our proposal. As we get closer I plan to fill in the ceremony and reception information. One other neat feature that it has is you can link all of your registries to it so guests can easily find out where you have registered. It is still a work in progress and will be added to as time goes on.

Here it is! Check it out and make sure to sign the guest book!


www.theknot.com/ourwedding/AmandaStaats&TjBullock

Our Wedding Colors

I, like many girls, have been planning my wedding for many many years. I have changed my color palette so many times I cannot even begin to think of all of them. Originally I wanted red, white and black, but my best friend Monica told me that's what she wanted to do and I didn't want to copy her so I had to pick new colors. I switched to blue. Blue has been a favorite color of mine for many years. I love North Carolina Tar Heels blue and I love navy blue and I love turquoise and I love aqua. Picking blue is not an easy thing to do. Then I had to find a color to accent it with and things became even more complicated for me.

When Monica got engaged she still wanted to use red, white and black, which was totally fine with me because I had already switched to blue. Shortly into her planning process she decided that there were other colors that were more "them." After a short debate she made the decision to change her colors to hot pink, lime green and orange. Her favorite color is lime green and Tyler's favorite color is orange. The colors really worked for them and turned out beautifully (more on that later)!

With Monica switching her colors, that opened up red, white and black again! I had really come to like the idea of doing blue with maybe yellow and pink accents. When Tj and I got engaged I decided to let him have some input, even though he initially insists he doesn't care he really does. I asked him whether he would rather have a blue based wedding or red, white and black. He immediately said he wanted red, white and black. I was really happy that those are now going to be our wedding colors.

From all of my wedding blog reading and avid reading on different wedding websites I had found a pattern that I love as well. Damask. People usually look at me funny when I say it and always ask, What is that? Is it a color? I now just Google it on my phone and show them the pattern, I should carry a swatch of Damask fabric in my purse to show people :)

So, here are our wedding colors. Red, White, Black and Damask

Photo of the Week

My goal is to post a picture of Tj and I each week and I will call it my Photo of the Week. Some of them will be current pictures and some will be from over our 3 1/2 years of dating. This week's picture is from our Engagement Pictures on April 15 with Erica May Photography.

He Proposed!!!

So the story really starts on Friday, February 26, 2010…

I had gone grocery shopping at Hy-Vee. I had planned our meals for the week and decided that I would make some yummy breakfast on Sunday morning. I bought hash browns, eggs, and bacon…yum! I was really excited about this so I told Tj that I would make breakfast Sunday morning (we try to take turns, but usually neither one wants to cook).

Saturday morning I remembered that I had a 6 page paper due Monday morning for my Accounting Theory and History class. Yes, this was a paper we have known about all semester and yes I did wait until two days before it was due to start it, that’s how I do things! I did some research and highlighted the important things that I wanted in it, but I had to work my normal 13 hours that day so not so much time to write a paper.

Sunday morning I woke up at 8 so I could write my paper. Tj was still sleeping and woke up around 9. I was busy working on my paper and Tj asked if I was going to make breakfast. I told him I was too busy to make breakfast so he would have to make it. He reminded me that I said that I would do it. I got frustrated with him and set my laptop down so I could go make breakfast. We like our eggs different so I made Tj’s food first and gave it to him to eat. I noticed he was messing with my laptop, but I decided not to say anything to him about it (normally I would). I finished making my eggs the way I like them (with cheese) and then walked into the living room to eat. I looked down at my laptop and there sat a little black box. I just kind of stopped in my tracks and looked at Tj and smiled really big. He then got up and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!

So in the end, I guess it was worth making breakfast that morning and I even got my paper done!

Here she is, my ring!

How we met and fell in love...

Tj and I had both gone to the same grade schools, middle school, and high school. I am one year older than Tj, so I was in the grade above him. Our paths never really truly crossed until my Senior year of high school, his Junior year. We both were in the National FFA Organization and had decided to run to be officers that year.

We had a new Advisor that year, who had jokingly said at one of the meetings "now none of you are dating right, I've had issues with that in the past" we all looked around, and just laughed at him for saying that. None of us were in relationships with each other or had that in mind when we looked at our officer team. I had thought Tj was a little cute, but just ignored that feeling. This was the Spring of 2006.

During that summer, as a tradition, the officers and advisor go on some sort of a trip/have a meeting to discuss ideas for the upcoming year. It's a way for the team to be able to get to know each other and bond. Our officer team decided we would go to Centralia Lake to camp out. We had a great time swimming, playing on the beach, hanging out around the campfire. We also played cards that night and Tj sat next to me at the table. By that time, I still thought he was kinda cute, hilarious, and fun to be around. So I kinda flirted with him a little bit, but he ignored me :( So Maggie and I decided we were tired and since we were sharing a tent decided it was time to go to sleep. Tj stayed up all night by the campfire. The next morning we all woke up, made and ate breakfast, then packed up and headed home.

We had kept running into each other in the halls, between classes, and of course at our FFA events. The next big thing that happened was our trip to National FFA in Indianapolis, IN. In October of 2006, we left on the Tuesday before Tj’s 17th birthday. We all packed up on the bus, picking our own seats. I convinced Tj that he should watch Over the Hedge with me on my portable DVD player. We rode next to each other the whole way to Indianapolis, which is about a 15 hour drive. We were practically inseparable on the trip. On Tj’s birthday, we went to a Japanese inspired restaurant. His birthday “cake” was a fresh pineapple with sparklers shoved in it…it was awesome.

After the trip, we hung out, watched movies, and talked for hours on end. There were many nights we spent 3 hours on the phone…I think I even fell asleep a couple of times on the phone. After about a month, Tj asked me to be his girlfriend and of course I agreed. That was on November 17, 2006. 3 years and 3 months later here we are…ENGAGED!

A little about me and my other half...

About the bride
I am currently attending Kansas State University majoring in Accounting and Finance. I also works as a teller at the Bennington State Bank in Wamego. I work on the weekends as an appliance sales associate at Sears. I have my own photography business, A.Staats Photography. In my spare time, I loves to shop, scrapbook, take pictures, watch movies, and play with my pet turtle, Crush. I also have a mild love for prairie dogs!



About the groom
Tj is currently employed at Central Mechanical Construction Company in Manhattan. He is currently going into year three as an apprentice plumber...almost done! Tj also enjoys doing side jobs on the weekends to keep busy. He loves it truck as though it was his baby. His hobbies include hunting, fishing, cooking, and watching movies. He loves action and scary movies.

Here is a picture of us at Tj's Senior Prom in 2008. I love this picture :)