Our first Valentine's Day!

This post is a little late for Valentine's day, but I had to post! It was such a great Valentine's day:) It is pretty crazy to me that our first Valentine's day ever ...and we are already engaged! Ha!
Ok, well we ate at Gaslamp, which is a new restaurant in Wichita where the Shadow (my old stompin grounds) used to be. They tore it down pretty much and remodeled the entire inside. It was gorgeous! It was super fancy and special. I had mentioned that we should try it sometime to Chance awhile back and he surprised me with reservations! It was so fun. I got a new dress and everything ...haha. Here is the only picture I could find on their website, they didn't have any inside ones:(


It was really yummy! I got a tenderloin with hollandaise and crab on it and Chance got a steak (typical!). It was sooooooo good. We also got a cheese fondue starter which was fun too.
Chance started out my V-day with some amazing pink roses! He really knows me, because I am so not ever traditional...and pink was so perfect! I love that he knows me! Accompanying it was a super cute card with this little cartoon with popping eyes on the inside haha, I'll put in a picture below. Sorry the bouquet picture is not ideal, but I was running late to work and wanted to snap one real quick. Don't mind my cluttered desk!




We got all dressed up for our dinner and I was so pumped to take pictures, because...well...getting me dressed up these days is pretty rare!... but when my mom was attempting pictures of us, my phone was being super awful and we couldn't seem to get one of us that wasn't blurry, so no full length pictures:(...also because I didn't want to be that girl at the fancy dinner being like "oh excuse me waiter would you take our picture on v-day?"...haha. So we attempted to take SOME pictures just us taking them ourselves and weren't very successful, but we managed to get a couple so we could at least document our night together:) I also took a picture of my shoes I wore to PROVE that I am still rocking heels even though we are getting older and married...I haven't given them up yet!




So that was our V-day plans, we were going to go for a drink after, but that was during the 7 days that my ID was MIA so ... we went home and relaxed. Which was fine, too! :) Oh ya, gifts! Of course! ...
If I haven't mentioned already, Chance is SO GENIUS when it comes to gifts. He always knows just what to give a girl to make her giddy. I feel like that girl on the movies that has that one guy who always surprises her with special things and always remembers things the girl likes and all her girlfriends hate her for it. Except my scenario is minus the hating;) I just love bragging on Chance. He is such an amazing man and every day I question why I got him. He does all the special note-leaving, surprise-giving things that I always wanted. Just him leaving me five dollars to get a drink or a pack of gum or a card is just what I always told my friends I wanted in a man. It's that thoughtfulness. So, anyway, Chance = thoughtful and wonderful. Thanks, babe...for making my life so dang special:)

Chance got me a really big fleece blanket from target with two cute birds on it. I am always getting cold feet at his apartment, so he said this was to aid me in staying oh so warm:) It is great! Super cozy. He also got me some Yorks that had pink filling and in the shape of hearts haha... my favorite treat ever! He also got me a really really special gift card to Healing Waters. It is a super fancy spa in Wichita and I am SO PUMPED TO GO THERE! Here is the website if you want to poke around:)

http://healingwatersbeauty.com/default.aspx

For Chance, who is impossible to buy for, I tried to use my creative side. He always wants more and more quality time, so I got him quality time for a gift! haha. Ok, kinda. I got him four date "packages" that he can choose from. He can take me out to 4 different special dates on me! I thought this way he could spend time with me, do super special things, and not have to worry about money! So he was thrilled...and is excited to use them! I made him promise not to use them all in one week ;) I got a little laminating-crazy and typed out these "packages" in funny ways with pictures and wording like I was describing a package on the Price is Right haha. I wanted him to know I put time into my dates and thought through which he would like the most. I would take a picture of all my laminated "date packages", but I am feeling lazy and don't want to, so you'll have to use your creative mind to picture them ! His four dates were:
1. Sushi dinner at our FAVORITE fancy sushi place downtown. OMG I want it now.
2. Special balcony seating with dinner at the theater for a movie. (He LOVES the special fancy balcony seating with seat warmers and big loveseats!)
3. An afternoon of fun and games at ...wait for it...Chuck E Cheeses! HA! Don't judge, he was MOST excited about this package! haha. He loves arcade games and well, what better place! At the end of describing the package, I put "Chuck E Cheese...where a couple........can be a couple".
4. The last package was a couples massage at a fun massage place on the West side of town. He is excited, his muscles needed this!

So that was our 2011 Valentine's Day. Chance was so thoughtful and precious and always thinks of super amazing things for me. Valentine's Day was full of love... and was the first AND last V-day together before we are official! 8.27.11 can not come quick enough!

Project Wedding: "Flowers"

Well...flowers. This was a total God thing because I was really wanting something ...wait for it....BOLD :) But unique, and laid back....sensing a pattern in the plans yet? haha.
I wanted some bouquets that were kind of wildflower looking, but still modern. Kinda like this type of thing:




So I went to a consultation with a local florist who is well known for creativity. He was super nice and spent ohhhh two hours telling me how to do everything about my wedding except for the flowers haha. Finally in the last 30 minutes we talked about flowers and he actually pulled out some stuff that was pretty much exactly what I wanted!
Anyway, we had pretty much decided on that florist when I stumbled upon something on..............I'll give you once guess....ETSY!
I fell in love with something completely bold, unique, different, and fun! Which suits my style just perfectly:) So I ditched the flower idea. I mean, who has real flowers at their wedding?...haha JUST KIDDING. Here are the pictures of what I ordered.



All the bridesmaids will have different bouquets with different buttons. My bouquet will be a little bigger than the girls and mostly white with accents of yellow and grey with really blingy buttons. The bridesmaids will have alternating colors on theirs. Like mostly grey with white and yellow and mostly yellow with white and grey, with more solid buttons. The boutonnieres are super cute too. Chance is so pumped about them!Here I included some pictures of an example that the lady who makes them sent me where the exact ones I want were used in a wedding!



The flower girls will carry the same type of bouquet...but only like 5 stems. So they will definitely match the "big girls" but more their size:) On their bouquets, I also included a little personal touch and added a few leaves to their bouquet. One leaf on each bouquet will be monogrammed with their initials! So I hope the little girls think that's super special. I'll put up pics when I get them.
The moms and grandmas will wear corsages that are made from the flowers on the bouquets...and made special with some of the same "blingy" buttons that will be on my bouquet.
I got a "toss size" bouquet for throwing at the reception. Cuz I'm sure as heck not throwing my beautiful keepsake! Ha. It will be special to throw one that whoever catches it can keep! I'm really excited to see all that I ordered. I think it will be fun! And then I don't have to worry about flowers being delivered, them wilting in the August heat, etc...I'm attempting to get away with NO LIVE flowers at my wedding. Not so traditional. Hopefully no one judges me. Chance and I both agree on what style we want, and making him happy and everyone have a relaxing, fun time at my wedding is what's most important to me. If I can succeed at those things, I will be one happy frikin bride:)

Project Wedding: Bridal Party

FINALLY I can post about my bridal party!!! I had been trying to find a cute way to ask all my girls to be bridesmaids, but it was hard because 5 out of the 7 don't even live in Wichita! So as I was browsing on Etsy, I found these handmade paper fortune cookies and you could get a message written inside them. Well I just thought that was a neat idea, but as I got to thinking...I realized hey, I bet I could make those by myself!
So....after a few youtube video instructionals and web page look ups, I finally got it down! Thanks to Aunt Cordry for all those origami books that got me so good at the art of folding paper haha...
I printed out little fortune papers to go inside each fortune "cookie" that said "It is in your destiny to be present in Wichita, KS on August 27,2011 as a bridesmaid for Chance and Katie's wedding. Lucky numbers: 08 27 11". I folded up some fortune cookies from some scrapbook paper with the message inside and then found some Chinese take out fold boxes from Target! What a blessing Target had some cute ones! They had to be mailed, so I was nervous the paper cookies would get smashed:( But it all worked out! I got some tissue paper to keep the cookies from smashing and put a message on top that said "Open to find your fortune" when you opened the box.
So I shipped off all SEVEN boxes and waited for each girl to receive their box!
Here are a few pics of the process of packaging and learning how to fold the fortune cookies:)

Chance did this....


While I did this....


Which eventually turned into this....






The bridal party is as follows:
Matron of HonorS: Yes two....my two sisters! Who else could possibly be as important to me as my big sisters!? They have been through a lot with me, been examples, and have loved on me my entire life. Sorry Laura, for not giving you a bite of my ice cream when I was 5, but this is my way of saying "Thanks!(and sorry!)" haha. So I am honored to have them each as a Matron of Honor at my wedding. I love you sisters. :)

Bridesmaids:
Tara- Chance's sister
Amanda- roommate from college
Jessica- friend from college
Anna- friend from church
Erin- friend since high school

Seems like a lot right? .... Well, it seemed like a lot of packages to make haha, but it was worth it. Those girls are so special and I couldn't have made it through a lot of my life situations without them. God provided each of them right when I needed it. Thanks, girls....I can't wait!
Chance is having seven as well, to match me:) His friends are all super fun and all but one is from Ellinwood. So he is pumped to have a big bridal party to hang with all day:)
That's my wedding party! I am so glad that part is over and I want to get on finding some outfits for them! I obviously want them to be wearing something to fit my theme, which is relaxed, chill, and laid back. I don't want dresses, I want skirts and cute ruffle cardigans or something of the sort. I am HOPING for yellow straight pencil type skirts and then a black or white under shirt with the cardigan over it. My inspiration was this: (found it on a blog!)



Cute? I really like it and I refuse to find something else. Well not REFUSE, but I would like something in this genre. With those colors. See how one of them is wearing a grey dress? I am assuming she is wearing something different because she is the maid of honor. I am thinking Susan and Laura could find a matching grey dress with a yellowish cardigan or cover thing like that. That way they could be matching and sort of different than the rest of the girls. If any of you see anything like these pictures, let me know! :) I am on the prowl!!

Project Wedding: Flower girls and Ring bearer

Well, I officially can blog about my nieces and nephew being in my wedding because they got their packages and accepted! I really wanted to do some personal stuff for my wedding. I just want it to be special and want them to remember it as something meaningful to me. I decided that it would be super fun to have all three of my nieces as my flower girls and my nephew as my ring bearer. They are such fun friends and I think they would enjoy all walking down the aisle together:) PLUS they are all adorable!!!....BONUS! :) I wish Wella wella (my youngest niece, Luella) could be in it, but alas...I think she will be too tiny still. Well, her chubs wont be small! :) I miss her! I will probably sneak her into lots of pictures with the wedding party!

So since I have been really committing myself to doing special DIY things throughout my wedding preps, I decided to do something fun for the kids:) In order to ask them to be in my wedding, I wrote them a little poem and laminated it (bonus, i love laminating) with a picture of all three girls together. They are such buds and I took a silly pic of them over a holiday and who knew I would need it now! I also sent them each a cute little handmade bow for their hair that I got from a cute specialty store here in Wichita. It was kind of a bribe to say yes! haha. I sent Sammy a cap gun, cuz I mean, this kid doesn't want a hair clip and man does he love guns! So I sent him a different bribe. Here are some pics of the packages I put together for them to open. I was so excited to hear from them when they got it! Chance and I have been on the edge of our seats ever since we mailed it. I wish real mail was like email!
(If you click on the last picture it will make it bigger so you can read the poem I attempted to write)





Oh, and here is a pic of the ring bearer "pillow" that we ordered. I think it goes with my sort of, rustic, shabby chic theme. And maybe Sammy will think it's cooler than carrying a lace bordered pillow;) It's kind of like a cut out from a tree trunk?....Anyway, I took a liking to it! It's from Etsy of course:)



Thanks Sammy, Claire, Ellie, and Jane for being a part of your Aunt's big day! I love you so much!

PS
Here are a couple recent pictures of the ring:) I just love trying different nail colors to make it look extra pretty. I know, I know, I won't always take care of my hands and I will eventually get used to my ring as I get into marriage, but I want to take advantage of how much I love it now! So here are a few recent ones! (As if it fluctuates haha)

Project Wedding: Food and Shoes

Ok, so I am overflowing with thankfulness, because God has blessed me with AMAZING in-laws. They have been there for me during visits to Ellinwood and have been so encouraging to get to know. I never thought I would love the family I married into so much. As if God hasn't already given me a fabulous immediate family, He goes and gives me more! I am so lucky. I have two parents who love and support us constantly and now I have two more! Thank you Mom, Dad, Jimmy, and Big Ran ;).....you all are so special.

One cool in-law fact is that Randy owns a restaurant in Ellinwood. I believe I have blogged about it before...
Anyway, he has amazing talent for cooking (again, I already have a mom that is a fabulous cook and now a future father in law!) and commits himself to catering as well! We thought and prayed about it for awhile and finally decided to ask if he would cater for our wedding (and rehearsal dinner!). I was hesitant, because I really don't want him hurrying around all day and missing out on wedding day stuff. He seemed to really be open to doing it and every time we mentioned it, he was very positive and said he would love to. I still think he is going to get in trouble with me on my wedding day for working too much, but he assures me he will stay in his "father of the groom" position once the wedding starts. We'll see... ;)
Here is Chance and his dad when we went to see him at a fair he was selling food at. Lone Wolf...yummmm...




Anyway, I have a caterer now! A great one at that! His place is called the Lone Wolf and he will be hauling down his big ole stocked up trailer to Wichita for cookin. I am so excited to have him be a part of our day! I have my dad as the officiant and my father in law as the cook! It's a family affair apparently:) So I haven't decided WHAT he is going to cater yet but I am open for suggestions. He can LITERALLY do anything. So I am not sure where to start! He has great potatoes, so that's a for sure, but vegetables and meat....I don't know. Feel free to comment your ideas.

Ok, SHOES! I have found the shoes people....get excited. I was nervous to order them because they are from Etsy, a sight where only handmade and vintage things can be sold. So it's not like they are returnable! But, I made the purchase! I really wanted super cute heels at first, but then I thought about trotting around in them all day and dancing...and I decided cute flats would be fun and realistic. So I have been looking far and wide for some unique flats that would be bold...like my wedding:)
Well, how much more bold can hand made, hand painted flats be? Here they are...I don't have them yet, I just sent my measurements, but I will take a picture of them when I get them in. They will also say "Chance (heart) Katie" on the back banner. With a drawn heart in between our names. The front top part will all be the same except she is adding our wedding date above the flower:) It is really neat because as soon as I bought them she took them off her store! So maybe that means no one else can buy them??? The store is called "No ordinary stuff"...So that makes me feel special, haha. Anyway, here they are:




So maybe it's weird that I combined shoes with food, but those are the updates:) Keepin up?.....

Project Wedding: Guest favors

Ok, so I have found the CUTEST little wedding favor idea. DIY of course:) It is a make your own tiny little s'mores kit! Here's a picture. It has a tiny candle, matches, graham crackers, chocolate, and tiny marshmallows! :)



I'm almost certain I want to do this. I have never seen this idea done before and I think my guests would really like to take one home! Maybe I'll see another idea I like better, but I am pretty set on this action.

Project Wedding: Photographer

This is my least favorite thing to figure out and my favorite thing about weddings! It is why I am doing all these little details! I want pictures of my work haha. So we went to bridal fair after bridal fair and had at least 4 consultations with photographers who we were hoping had good stuff. We did see a LOT of good stuff, some stuff overpriced, and some stuff not so our style.

We had FINALLY decided on Tim Davis, an amazing photographer who knew my sisters in high school. We loved him, but wanted to talk budget before committing because he was still expensive. Well I called him to book officially, and he proceeded to call me back and tell me that a couple had booked him ON THE SPOT FOR MY DATE!!! AUGHHHH! I cried. Not gonna lie. It was the first thing that I had decided to put money down on and I was back stabbed! Ok not really, but man was it hard for me to trust God in all that. I called my mom and sister, got some encouraging words, and bucked up. I looked and looked for more photographers and after talking on the phone with a good friend of mine from Ohio, I was informed that there was a really cool photographer that traveled for weddings!

Well I checked her out. SHE ROCKS!!!! I thought her pictures were SO good and SO my style that there was no way I could afford her I thought. I emailed her, and guess what?! She was in our budget! We are flying our photographer in from Ohio! Crazy! I feel like that sounds fancy, but in fact, it is not. haha. God really provided and I can see now why He wanted me to wait for Jessica. Here is a link to her site. Just click on it and check her stuff out!

http://www.jessica-valle.com

She takes amazing pictures. Clicking on the link above will open a new tab for you so don't worry mom, it won't take you away from this page:) Thanks, Chance!

So Tim Davis is probably still going to do our engagement sessions! I told him he owed me for ditching a Daeschner wedding opportunity;) He felt awful and said that he always checks with the people who book first but when a couple wants to sign a contract on the spot he has to say yes! So I obviously understood.
Anyway...project photography, check!

Project Wedding: Venue

Well, this was actually the easy part:) Chance had noticed that I loved this certain venue because our church had met there for his baptism! Crazy right? We actually bought a bunch of furniture at this place when he first moved to Wichita because it was going out of business, and little did we know they were transforming it from a furniture store to our future wedding venue! So, we bought furniture there, got Chance baptized there, and now we are getting married there. It's seeming to be an all purpose place for us! Susan says we should ask if they could transform it into a house for us someday:) haha.
So it was booked before we even got engaged! Chance is a sneaky man! But he knew I loved it and didn't want to lose our date. Sweet man I got! Here are the pictures of the place. We can have the ceremony and the reception there, so it's really convenient!






Whatcha think? We love it more each time we visit!

Project Wedding: Cupcakes

So I want cupcakes for my wedding. Judge away you old fashioned wedding believers, because I am going bold in all areas. Pretty much any way that I can make my wedding different than normal is going to happen:)I love having details that are special and that I worked to make happen. I hope everyone doesn't think I'm crazy. I just have this weird picture in my head of how this is all going to go down. And I am so ready to take it all on. DIY blogs, watch out...I'm comin.
We already booked the cake lady. They are doing a whole bunch of different flavors for us...filled ones even!! So we will have flavors like smores, lime margarita, chocolate raspberry, lemon, etc. YAY! Susan was in town a few weeks ago and we went and tested some at a place that has cupcakes just like what we were looking for! But they were a small joint, and we weren't all in agreement in depending on them for my wedding, but here are some pics of that adventure. Thanks Suze! I wish my sisters lived here!!! We are getting a grooms cake also. It is going to be Mario themed:) And then our "topper" will be a small cake that looks like a giant cupcake! How fun, right?





So, here is the basic idea of what I am going for.These pictures aren't the EXACT as I will do obviously, but this is the general display I want:



Or maybe something like this:



So, cupcakes... CHECK! You may think I'm crazy, but I'm planning on making my own stands for them:) HAHA! Man I'm committing to a lot. They may end up horrible, but gosh dangit, I'm gonna try. I think I can find some neat plates and then hot glue/super glue a cup to the bottom to make a stand that is customized to the style I'm going for. So basically I want to transform stuff like this:



....to things like this:



...Except way more awesome...cuz they will be Katie style:) Like this:



Anyway, I hope to go to places like Hobby Lobby and find some awesome things to put together. Also, I want to make platters out of old frames and fabric...You spray paint old frames and then put whatever fabric in the frame to coordinate with your wedding. It looks like this:



...whatcha think? I really like the idea and it seems simple. Seems ....key word.
Anyway. That's my project cupcakes. In the works!