CONFESSION: I am a crier.

One way that Mr. Hawk and I greatly differ is in our emotions. In the nearly two years that we've been together, I can only specifically recall seeing Mr. Hawk cry three times. (One of those being the day he proposed. Awwww.) And even then I've never really seen him cry more than a couple glistening tears down his cheeks.

Me on the other hand, I am a crier. I'm sure Mr. Hawk is lucky to see a week or two go by without my tears. I don't want to make myself seem coo-coo-cachoo, but I often get moved to tears by movies, music, TV shows, or even commercials. And unfortunately for me, also unlike Mr. H, I am not a one to two tear crier if I'm feeling particularly moved.

Image via FanPop via ABC's 2003 special "Britney Spears: In The Zone" with Diane Sawyer

Exhibit One: Marley and Me. I made the mistake of going to see this movie in the theater. (Heck, I made the mistake of seeing this movie at all, but I digress...) I knew Marley was going to be a goner, but knowing it could not prepare me for the overwhelming emotion. It started off with silent tears, but pretty soon I couldn't contain myself and embarrassedly audibly sniffled several times before holding my breath to get myself together. Once I got to the privacy of my own car, I had a full-on ugly cry complete with snotty nose and puffy red eyes.
Exhibit Two: Grey's Anatomy a few weeks ago. Mr. H came in while I was watching. Within five minutes he looked over and saw the tears freely falling. I composed myself as the show progressed, and Mr. H went to the kitchen. But by the time he came back I was crying again. He was baffled. I'm pretty sure the conversation went something like this: "What happened now? You were just fine a minute ago!" My response, [sniffle sniffle] "they're [sniffle] taking Meredith's [sniffle, sniffle] baby [sniffle] away!" Mr. Hawk shakes his head and walks back to the kitchen.

Now I have a very strong feeling that I'm going to be "particularly moved" on our wedding day. The multitude of opportunities for me to be affected by crying are a little frightening. Vows? Yes. First dance? Possibly. Toasts? I could see it. Daddy-Daughter dance? Abso-freakin'-lutely. I don't know how I'm going to hold it together and it makes me a little concerned. I mean, I am paying boo-koo bucks for photos to last a lifetime. I don't want to be red, puffy, and snotty in all of them! I have a feeling the day is going to be full of trying to keep myself in check and several emergency trips to the bathroom to make sure my makeup isn't all over my face.

Are y'all worried about becoming emotional on your wedding day? Do you have any tips or tricks to keeping yourself tear-free?

Here J Crew Comes to Save the Day!

The road to finding the perfect bridesmaid dresses was certainly not an easy one. Having a bit of a perfectionist streak didn't really allow for much wiggle room once I had a set vision of what I wanted. As I previously mentioned here, I had my mind set on a more organized version of mismatched dresses. I loved the look of completely individual non-matching dresses, but I did worry about creating a cohesive look. (Remember when I described my active imagination? Well it was telling me free reign could equal complete and utter chaos.) I thought that an easy compromise would be to find a collection with many options for my ladies to chose from. But when it came down to it, shop after shop left me feeling disappointed and less confident about my decision.

Now for a little backstory that y'all are missing... Long ago when I first started researching options, I found the J Crew bridesmaids dresses online. I immediately liked them, but there wasn't a J Crew Bridal Shop in Richmond and I've never really been the type to order clothing online willy-nilly. I wanted to be able to hold them, touch them, feel them, smell them... (Well maybe not smell them, but you get the idea.) So I pushed the option to the back of my mind and went about my way, visiting every bridal store in town; however, with the passing of every failed appointment, I found myself back at J Crew's website admiring the dresses.

L.O.V.E. Image via Once Wed Photo by Jill Thomas Photography

Finally after talking (er, maybe whining) to MOH A after our last appointment, we realized that there was only one dress shop left in all of Richmond that we hadn't visited. (And I'm pretty sure no department store or boutique website that I hadn't visited half a dozen times, hoping that new stock would arrive and blow my mind.) The options were very quickly dwindling. I finally gave in, deciding it was time to give J Crew an honest-to-goodness chance. I learned that there was a store in Georgetown that featured bridesmaids dresses. Mr. Hawk and I happened to be planning a Saturday trip up to the DC area to visit a jeweler, so I made an appointment at J Crew and convinced MOH A and her SO to come along, bribing them with Georgetown Cupcakes.

It literally took me seeing MOH A in only three dresses to know that my search was over. (Although she patiently continued to try on every dress I supplied her.) Of course there were some we preferred to others, but overall there wasn't a single dress that we disliked. (MAJOR sigh of relief.) I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders, and I practically skipped with joy out of the shop. The only things left are to come back for the ladies to make their final selections and to place the order. (The beauty of J Crew is that the dresses come in within three to six business days, so there are no worries about a meeting super-specific December or January deadline.)

They say hindsight is 20-20 and in this case, I would say it's true. From the beginning, I really liked the dresses J Crew offered. I don't know why I fought it. I guess I incorrectly assumed that the bridal stores would feature a designer's entire chiffon collection or entire satin collection. And I also assumed that all designers would have the perfect color of yellow I envisioned. Instead of using the J Crew dresses (that were the perfect shade of yellow and featured many options) as my fall-back option, I should have tried to rule it out first before moving on. If I had, my search would have been much more simple.

Did y'all ever regret ignoring your first instincts for a seemingly easier option?

Lusting After Lighting

There is something so elegant and classic about a monogram. And us southern ladies just L.O.V.E. a monogram. Bags, jewelry, hell we even monogram our cars! (No really, our cars.)

See y'all? I can't make this stuff up. Image via Girly Twirly

So what does this have to do with the wedding? Well, naturally I wanted to incorporate Mr. Hawk and I's newly minted monogram into our wedding reception. And what better way to do that than use a globo light? (And while we're at it? Add a little uplighting!)

Image via Blue Steel Pro Lighting, Photo by Don Mears Photography

To be honest, when I started doing research about professional lighting in the area, I had no idea how much it cost. I just went about my merry way, visiting websites and blogs trying to find the best vendors. Well finding the best vendor in the Richmond/Hampton Roads area wasn't really a problem. I fell in love with one  right away. Their work was amazing and the reviews I read had nothing but good things to say. I set up an appointment and visited Rachel at the Richmond design studio. In an adjacent room they actually have a mini mock-up wedding reception set up where Rachel showed me the color options, pinspotting, and my beloved monogram. It was awesome to see the different color and lighting options in person. (I'm such an easy sell!)

This is when the hard part came: we sat down to talk numbers. And the number that I had in my head? Well suffice it to say that it was about half of the going rate. Now, I know that they would be worth every penny. Besides the set-up and take-down of all the lighting (uplighting, globo, pinspotting), they also keep technicians on hand all night for trouble-shooting! The budget part just absolutely KILLS me. Adding the lighting could pretty much eliminate our floral budget. (Cue internal cringe.) I still brought it up to Mr. Hawk for his opinion at which point I'm pretty sure he just rolled his eyes, thinking "there she goes again, imagining we have an unlimited budget." And this time when I brought it up a week later (and maybe the next week AND the next week after that)? The answer was still N-O.

Because I tend to be super-persistent when I really want something, I'm not ready to let this dream die quite yet. I know there has got to be a way that I can finagle our budget to make this work. So file this one in the undecided category. (And in my head I'm praying this is the one post Mr. H decides not to read. Love you, honey!)

How do y'all feel about professional lighting? Is it a must-do or something that can be skipped?

The Chairs of Every Girl's Dreams

(Or maybe just mine.)

Do enough blog stalking of SMP (along with every other bridal blog out there!), and you'll be hard-pressed not to find a least a dozen inspirational photos featuring chiavari chairs (aka ballroom chairs).

Image via Deanie Michelle Events via The Knot

Image via Style Me Pretty, Photo by Tana Photography

Simple yet just enough detail and daintyness, chiavari are pretty much the "it chair" of the wedding world. (Hello, even Jackie-O used them when she wed JFK! And y'all know she is the epitome of class.)

Image Via Vibianla

Unfortunately for many brides, myself included, these beauties come with a hefty price tag. With some companies charging upwards of $9-11/chair, I thought having chiavari chairs at our wedding reception was just a pipe dream. (But I thought... why not just do a little research...Just in case. Famous last words, right?)

I had remembered reading Mrs. Cloud's post about using chiavari chairs in the Richmond area, so I started with her vendor, Magic Special Events. They were very helpful and friendly, but at $7.75 a pop plus cushions AND mileage to Williamsburg? I knew they were out of budget.

So I searched the Hampton Roads area. Acclaimed rentals offered them, but they too were out of our range. From there I visited Distinctive Event Rental's site and was incredibly impressed with their selection. They even offered a range of colored seat cushions, but again at about $7.50 a piece, I couldn't justify the rental. I started to get frustrated with the lack of rental options, so I figured who knows the area better than my caterer? She works with these people all the time! I sent her an email immediately. She let me know that Distinctive and Williamsburg Event Rentals both offered them, but she actually had a stock of gold ones herself offered at a discounted rate of $5/chair. (Thank you, Lord!)

I called up Mr. Hawk for approval and actually waited a couple days to ask again. He responded, "I thought you took care of that forever ago!" I guess it was a go! I went ahead and reserved the chairs. I couldn't be more in love (with a chair, that is.)

Did you fall in love with chiavari as well?

Clothing our Tables: Part 2

So after selecting my tablecloths, I knew I was ready to add another layer of pizazz in the form of a table runner or overlay. Perhaps unluckily for me, there were an abundance of options available to keep me from nailing down a decision.

At first I was mesmerized by the beauty that is doily table runners like these:

 

Images via Ruffled Blog, Photos by Tracy Turpen

But then I reconsidered thinking that while beautiful, these runners were more vintage and less shabby chic.

The doilies did get me thinking though. (Thinking about lace!)

Image via Weddingbee Classifieds, photo by juneg

I loved this option as well, but I was jonesing for more color!

My next inspiration was the ribbon table runner. I imagined a more "finished" version of this (perhaps with a yellow backdrop rather than the burlap):

Image via Emmaline Bride via Ucreate Parties

Or something like this with a bit more color:

Image via Project Wedding via Elizabeth Anne Designs

 The ribbons were definitely a contender. Shabby chic? Yes. Feminine? Y.E.S.

But there was always old faithful, the patterned table runner:

Image via Etsy shop Floratouch

Simple, classic, and preppy. I could not go wrong with this option.

I've got to be honest and admit that I still haven't made a final decision. But I have narrowed it down to the classic patterned runner or the ribbon runner that I could DIY. (I'm feeling a project coming on!)

Did you decide to use a runner or did you chose to stick with the classic tablecloth?

CONFESSION: I am a horrible decision-maker

I think it's possible that some of y'all might be operating under the misconception that I'm a decisive person. I mentioned how I found my dress on my first outing, and I've described the ease of booking some of my vendors and even securing my ceremony venue. But let me be very clear: those situations were exceptions to the rule. I just happened to have a strong feeling about those decisions, and my gut led me in the right direction. When it comes to most things, I am crippled with indecision. (Ok, maybe crippled is a little extreme, but it is serious, y'all.) My latest dilemma? Picking a domain name for our wedding website.

Image via Joe the Nutrition Pro

I know, I know. I should not be stressing over something so trivial, right? But in the moment it was monumentally important. I wanted our web address to be easy to remember but kinda sweet. I had a few ideas I liked, but then Mr. Hawk threw a wrench in the plan. (Although I must admit I was already thinking it in the back of my mind. AND trying to ignore it.) Since I've found my new love of blogging, the mister thought keeping the website after the wedding might be a priority. And why not keep the same domain name so family and friends could continue to check in with us after the site gets a post-wedding revamp? He really had a point. And I hated it. This added another layer of difficulty because no longer could the site be "www.mshawkandmrhawkgettingmarried.com" or "www.thehawks2012.com". It had to be something with staying power.

I consulted Mr. Hawk, Momma Hawk, and MOH A. (I even googled "wedding website domain name suggestions." Don't bother, there's nothing really there.) I agonized for hours (and called Momma Hawk and Mr. Hawk AGAIN.) At the end of the day I thought back to my elementary school days of K.I.S.S. (Remember this acronym? "Keep it simple, stupid.") Along with the help of Mr. H, K.I.S.S. helped me snap out of my incessant waffling. I decided simple was better. Memorable was most important. I chose the domain name that I had been favoring all along: www.mshawklovesmrhawk.com. It just happened to be the option that was easiest to recall and also usable post-wedding.

I don't know why I overcomplicate things! Do you suffer from the same problem or do you just naturally live by the K.I.S.S. mantra?

Clothing our Tables

When Mr. Hawk and I met with Laura of Williamsburg Catering Company a few months back, she was offering a special that included use of their linens for no additional charge if we signed by the end of the month. At our initial meeting after discussing the basics of our menu, Laura showed us some of the linen options so we could get an idea of what they offered. Her first suggestion was to begin with our color palette. She showed us their aqua and yellow table cloths. The look was fine and her samples did match the colors perfectly, but I quickly realized that I didn't want to be so literal with our colors.

Imagine something like this stacked:

Image via Factory Direct Party

Image via ebay

Nixed!

When she walked away to grab some more linens, I spied the perfect tablecloth folded in the corner left out from a previous meeting. Oatmeal in color and heavier in fabric, it wasn't something I had seen before, but I knew I loved it. It wasn't quite as thick as burlap, but it had texture to it. It felt vintage, rustic enough without being out of place for our venue. Here is it on display at the Open House Mr. Hawk and I attended last weekend. It even works in this ballroom setting!

Personal Photo

I was very excited to have found the first major element to our table decor (besides the antique mason jars, of course!) It was a great starting point. Now because I wanted to add more visual interest and play with texture, I decided that I needed to add a runner of some sort, but more that to come!

How did you decide on your linens?