On a boat!

So I know, I know, I've been MIA for a while now... so much going on! Even though we're what, um, nine months out from the wedding, I'm still not in high gear planning! Don't ask me why, but I feel like I have a lot of time to figure stuff out, so I'm taking my time, ha! I'm sure this will come and bite me in the butt later, but for now, I'll take it easy! Hehe.. I'm a procrastinator, what can I say!

So, recently, we booked our photographer, yay! Originally I had found them online, and loved their soft vintage look, I was in love. A good friend of mine ended up booking them for her wedding. I knew I wanted them for my wedding, after all they did awesome work. I kept trying to find other photographers just in case, but never could find anything compared to their work. Even thought they were a bit pricey, I think it was a decision well made. To me, the photography is important on my list. Once the wedding is over, all you have are pictures, and I want our pictures to tell the story of our day... I can't wait, check out their work, Ana&Ivan Photography.

So, on that note... even though our engagement pictures probably won't happen for a while, I've been trying to come up with ideas for our shoot. I still love the idea of a swanky hotel shoot, but when I told J, he seemed a bit hesitant, pictures in a hotel? woop-ti-do... When I said we weren't really outdoorsy, he kind of got offended, ha, since he has a boat, he said he likes to be outside and stuff. So I started thinking, how cool would it be to take our engagement pictures on a boat... I'm sure we could do some fun stuff on the boat and then some more formal/swanky pictures elsewhere? So I started googling...

When I stumbled upon these pictures from Sloan Photographers (I love their work!), I almost died... I love them... now of course, I don't think I'd wear a bathing suit like that, and I doubt J would go topless, but maybe haha... we have enough time to really get in shape! Lol! J's boat is a little different, but it would be us, you know... it might be a good idea, but then a bad idea, summer = super hot in Houston = runny/melty makeup lol... I'll have to think about this one for a while! This is just a thought... another thought on top of the countless one's in my head haha.

For now, let's just enjoy the pictures!!

I love this one...

All images via Sloan Photographers blog

A Swanky Engagement

A lot of our friends are getting married this year. I'm excited, but it's stressful planning a wedding when a lot of your friends are planning one too. It's not so much catty, but I think everyone wants to know what everyone else is doing, by nature.

I've been looking in to engagement sessions around the wedding and photography blogs in the interwebs, and I think I realized something. Those outdoor engagement sessions are beautiful and all, but I don't think that's something I would want. Being that we're probably going to take our engagement pictures sometime in the summer, or when it's hot out, I don't want to be outside sweating. Here in Houston, its hot up until September, even October.. And even if the weather wasn't an issue, we're not very outdoorsy people. I hate being hot, and well I guess J is a little more outdoorsy than I am, but not so much.

When I was perusing the Sloan Photographers blog, I saw these lovely engagement pictures that I absolutely loved! The couple took their pictures at a Penthouse in Arizone. So dramatic, yet simple. I love! This is something I could definitely do, pictures at a swanky hotel, yes please! Now I have to find said swanky hotel and our photographer!

check out the entire session here.

On another note, J and I have been engaged one whole year... wow...

Meet me halfway....

So the Rodeo's in town, and last night we went to see the Black Eyed Peas. Man did they put on a great concert, everyone was up out of their seats dancing and enjoying the music, it was amazing!

A while back, I was watching Platinum Weddings on tv, and I saw this amazing wedding. I fell in love. The groom is the guitarist for the Black Eyed Peas, and wow their wedidng was just gorgeous. From what I can remember, they got married in Playa del Carmen, and their reception was in a cave... a cave!! Can you imagine being a guest at that wedding?? I had recorded the episode on my dvr for "future inspiration," and just the other day I came across this wedding blog with tons of pictures from their awesome wedding... Take a look, so beautiful!!

all pictures by Andrena Photography via Opulent Memoirs blog

She read my mind..

So, today I stumbled upon this blog, JL Designs... and ohmygod, I spent most of the afternoon on it, looking at beautiful florals, wedding inspiration, and all that good stuff.

A while back, I fell in love with the simple elegance that a black and white anemone exudes. So originally, with a black and white pallette, I definitely wanted to incorporate them in the wedding. When I found out that they are in season in January, of course I did a little happy dance. Of course, I haven't gotten any quotes or even looked in to costs, but by far, these are my "dream flowers." So when I was on JL Designs blog, and found these beauties, I thought ohmygod, these are EXACTLY what I want... they are so beautiful!! I love the vases, the flowers, and the jeweled cameos give it that extra ummmphhh, don't you think!? I even love the description she has for this particular arrangement, ha! Ah, they're lovely!

all images via JL Designs blog

I'm baaaaaack!!

Yes, I know... I've been away for a while now. It's just that lately I had been feeling like I had absolutely nothing to blog about!! There were no wedding plans progressing, and what was I to blog about? My dog?? lol, um nah..

Thankfully, I got in to full swing with this whole "wedding planning." We finally picked a date in January. There's really no reason for choosing January, we just did! I figured what better way to start a new year, than to marry the person you love!?

Speaking of marrying, and wedding planning, we finally narrowed down our venue search. I know I had talked alot about places we went to visit, like Trevisio, Artista, and Petroleum Club. Although I liked all of those venues, I didn't really love them, so we never really committed to anything. At first we were pretty set on booking Trevisio, surprisingly, with all that blue decor. But I just felt that I didn't love it, and that I was settling if we did. I mean, don't get me wrong, its a beautiful restaurant, but I just couldn't ever get over the blue walls, blue chairs... it made ME blue...

Until... I casually inquired about The Magnolia Hotel in Downtown. I originally thought it would be waaaaay out of our budget, I mean the place is so nice. God must have really been looking out for us, because we got a great deal at the hotel!! We are super lucky, and I am extremely blessed! So we booked The Magnolia Hotel for our wedding in January! I'm extremely excited! Below are some pictures of an open house at the hotel. Isn't it beautiful!? We've booked the church as well! I'm excited to start the whole marriage preparation with the church, I'm actually excited about the marriage classes. I'm thinking we'll learn alot about ourselves, values, and future expectations. I can't wait! Seriously!

This is the ballroom where our reception will take place.

Photography by Sharon Nicole

So I've been thinking about colors... oh lord, colors! With so many weddings this year, um about 5 to be exact, I have a lot to think about! I definitely want something that's all my own! Last, I blogged about having a pretty formal wedding, with a black and white, and champagne color scheme. I still love the idea of black and white, but after I saw the images on my previous post, I almost knew this is what I wanted. I've been searching high and low, and I think I'm still going to keep the black and white color scheme, but I want to throw in some gray/pewter and pops of some deep, deep purple. It's still formal, but there's some color in there! I guess we'll have to see how my "vision" pans out in these coming months!

Here are a couple of inspiration boards that have tickled my fancy lately...

via jomygoodness

via the cake blog

via wedding window

An Elegant Wedding

I saw this wedding on The Wedding Chicks Blog, and I completely fell in love with the colors. They are so elegant and classic still. Don't you think? I know I wanted a classic black and white combination, but these colors are so lovely!! It's so hard to find a venue that would suit your color pallette, who knew planning a wedding would be this hard?! It's the first step in the whole planning process and I can't seem to get passed it.

For now, I'll just enjoy these lovely colors!

all images via Wedding Chicks Blog

Winter is here!!

Winter has arrived in hot, humid Houston! Just this pas weekend it actually snowed! Wow! Even though I didn't get so much snow, everyone went crazy!! It's such a pretty sight to see snow here, it's so unusual.

With this year coming to and end in just 24 days (yikes!), I have to start the whole planning process of the wedding. I know I say this so often, and I do get in to the "planning" spirit, but then it quickly dies down. Just to think, a year from now, we'll be getting married.

I'm loving this dreamy inspiration board of "Snow and Bark" by All Things Lovely... Loving all of the snow and white creaminess of this board!

Petroleum Club of Houston - The Grill Room

So this is the last place we went to go see. And let me tell you, I loved this space. They are pretty average, as far as price, compared to the others we went to see. The Grill Room is a bit smaller than their other ballroom, but we're having a smaller wedding, so I'm totally fine with it. This room is a lot more intimate, but still has the wow factor, with two walls of floor to ceiling windows. You get a great view, as this venue is on the 43rd floor of the ExxonMobil building in Downtown.

Here are some picture we took of the venue when we went to see it. You can't really picture a wedding here, since its set up as a restaurant for their members. But you can see the overall space.

The three above pictures by yours truly.

These next pictures are from The Petroleum Club of Houston website. Here you can see the way the room is set up for a wedding. There is the dancefloor, and round tables.

Here is a wedding shot by D.Jones Photography which shows a real wedding in the Grill Room. I think so far, I'm liking this venue a whole lot. This space is a little more traditional, which I always said I wanted something more modern/different. But I think having a reception with a view of all of Downtown is a bit different. Just something I'll have to think about. Maybe I'll check out a couple more venues, I was thinking of looking in to some hotels, but I'm just not sure yet.

Artista at Hobby Center

The second venue we looked at was Artista at the Hobby Center in Downtown. J loved this venue. It was very intimate and different. This room also had tons of windows which offered a great view of Downtown. On the down side, they did say they wouldn't know if our date was available, because they are on the Hobby Center schedule, it really depends whether the Hobby Center will have any shows going on at the time.

I think the Hobby Center is beautiful, and would be a great place for people to arrive at for our wedding. Just take a look, it looks beautiful. And if you have a Lexus, you get to valet for free, hehe.



The venue is a restaurant, therefore has a nice bar space. The space is filled with dark woods, ivory linens, I mean its beautiful. They provide a piano player, which would be lovely. The way the space is set up, is really nice. They have booth style seating, which J thought was so different and in a good way, it's a more intimate setting for family and friends. This space is a little pricier, but it's really nice.





Another drawback was that the space held up to 150 people, but that included seating people in their top space as well. You can see the top space in the picture below. I guess it isn't so bad, but I would want all of our guests in one space, not separated.

The venue also provides a balcony area, which is so lovely. It opens up to Downtown and provides a great view.

all images via Artista website

Check out this wedding at Artista shot by D.Jones Photography.

The venue search continues!

Trevisio Restaurant

This was the first place on my list. It was recommended to me by our great friend Karla. I had seen pictures of it, but definitely wanted J and I to look at it. The location is central, it's located in the Medical Center. It's definitely different from your ordinary "wedding venue." And that's exactly why I liked it. They are extremely flexible, when it comes to food, beverage, space, everything really. I like this too! So what's holding me back? All of that blue... is making me blue. I want such a simple wedding, remember I said, a black and white, and touches of champagne classic wedding... well um yea this doesn't really go with that. Of course there are things we can do to help this... like rent chairs?? And not use the blue glasses, but those are more expenses we don't have to incur. I'm wondering if I can just look past the whole blue? But it is pretty prominent in the space. Take a looksy for yourself.



The bar is included in the main space. See these glass walls to the right, that was another small drawback. They have like two small glass walls/rooms on both sides of the space in front of the bar. It's like two small rooms, which essentially, whoever would be sitting there could still see everything, but it just seems odd to me. Why glass walls, why not just get rid of them, ha. I'm not going to scratch it off the list, because it is a nice venue, and very different.

See all of the blue in this picture. This is what throws me off a bit. All of their accents are blue. The walls when you walk in are blue, the glasses, chairs, everything. I'm sure if the lights are dimmed, it will make no difference but if its your wedding, you want everything to be perfect. Ahhh. See the glass room, lol.

Top two images from Trevisio website.

These images are from other photographers. This first image is of the water wall the building has in front. When you drive up you see this beautiful water wall. Of course at night they light it up beautifully, as seen here in this picture via KU Photography.

Can you see those glass walls? The ceiling has those things you see in the picture, I'm not sure what they are, but they have lights in them, and I'm sure they look very nice when the lights are dimmed.


Ok, here is the hallway, from the elevator to the actual main room. BLUE, is all I have to say. Hmm, I'll have to really think about this, and make sure I can get past the whole color issue. My sister said, "what if you change your colors?" *gasp* Not sure about that one.

this image via Blanca Duran Photography