Monday Morning Hello & A Weekend of Man Things

Hi there! This weekend we FINALLY had a sunny day here in Minneapolis. Seriously…it’s been ridiculous here: cloudy, grey, random freezing nights and general all-around crappy weather so when there IS a nice day I tend to force myself outside no matter what the plans are.

Taking advantage of the cloudy grey rainy skies we had on Saturday, I spent the day working on some blog tweaks (yay for finally getting around to trying typekit!), pulling out old files and re-working/polishing them and sorting out some wedding plans.

Much of that planning revolved around checking out some men’s clothing stores for suit options for Ned & the groomsmen. Our first, and only, stop was Heimie’s Habidashery in St.Paul because from the instant we walked in we fell in love! I was actually jealous of Ned and all of the awesome man-things this shop has. Everything was classic but not dated and I found myself wishing us girls had an equivalent level of timeless, quality-made clothes/shoes/accessories without costing a bazillion and being trendy and dated within a year.

The shop was gorgeous and I while Neddy-boy was getting fitted in the back, I wandered around trying to discover every little detail of the shop. The giant old cash register (still the original from when they first opened!) was my favorite part of the whole place.

Sunday was gorgeous and sunny which was spent taking some lovely walks, a lunch meeting with our photographer for the wedding and stopping in at MartinPatrick3, another favorite man-store downtown Minneapolis. Sometimes I think I’d love to have a little shop and style it all day.

Hope your weekends were lovely (and a little sunnier than mine!)
cheers!

Monday Morning Hello

Hi there! My weekend was spent spending some time with friends on Friday and most of the day Saturday and Sunday in a car, driving to and from Milwaukee for a wedding. A little weird but it was nice to drive and get away for a while. I made it through Tina Fey’s “Bossypants” audiobook for a third time and it still makes me giggle.

Hope you all had a lovely mother’s day!
cheers!

Monday Morning Hello & Some Wedding Moodboarding

I hope your Easter celebrations were all wonderful and you were all able to spend some quality time close with your families. When we weren’t driving around Minnesota, meetin’ up with family, a good part of my weekend was spent gettin’ down and dirty with tons of wedding plans.

Ned and I are both creatives which makes planning & designing a wedding super fun and exciting, like a dream job…but also veeeeery slow and with a lot of passing back and forth of files. Over the past few weeks while trying to nail down the look & feel we really love, we came up with a great way for both of us to feel involved and get our opinions included in the final piece: moodboards!

It not only helps us understand what each other wants and likes, but also it’s been great to be able to show them to our families, as well as printers and photographers. While phrases like “small, cozy atmosphere” and, “a fun, relaxed and colorful reception” might verbally explain what we mean, everyone interprets these things differently. However, if you have images to show the tone, mood, design, photography you want, they’ll instantly be on the same page!

Here are a couple of the boards we’ve made already:

The first was a great starting point and explains our general tone and mood we want for the ceremony & reception. Not everything is literal, but all of these things together make up the entire picture we have in our minds.

The design moodboard has been really helpful when it comes to design elements, styles and materials we might want to use with invites, guest lists, signs, and other printed pieces.

Using a photography moodboard can be really helpful when trying to navigate the thousands of wedding photographers out there. Find a look & feel you like, then find a photographer that shoots in that style. Like any artist, most photographers have their signature style, whether it’s a softer, more personal and atmospheric tone (most of the ones in our moodboard feel this way) or very saturated hues and dramatic poses, or something very artistic and “high fashion”.

I’m hardly an expert but so far, collecting images and inspiration like this has helped us a lot in pinning down exactly what we both want!

cheers!

Monday Morning Hello // Cards from 8-year-olds

On Saturday I got the cutest little surprise in the mail and couldn’t stop giggling. My little 8-year-old cousin Grace is clearly over-the-top excited about being in our wedding, she drew pictures and made 4 different cards for me and Ned. How adorable is THAT! The front says she hope we have “the best wedding ever!!” but the content inside is somewhat unrelated yet hilarious. I love it.

cheers!

Monday Morning Hello

This past Friday was my 26th birthday and I had a wonderful little weekend. Lots of quiet down time, enjoying delicious food and, most importantly, catching up on sleep. (a VERY critical part of a birthday). The weather shaped up just enough on Saturday to go for me and the boy to go on a long walk along the river. The first real day of sunny, warm temps makes the winters here worth it. Everyone is outside and enjoying the city. I love it!

On Saturday I got a package from a good friend and inside was probably one of my favorite gifts, puppy pasta! How does she find these things?

cheers!

Monday Morning Hello // Check In

So it’s not Monday but Tuesday is close enough right? Thought I’d stop in and apologize for being a little AWOL lately. Well maybe not AWOL but I feel like I haven’t been up to my normal posting activities. We all need little breaks. I’m currently working tons all on top of wedding planning (which is going GREAT by the way! so excited to share things with you guys once it’s all finalized).

I’ve always seen at my little corner of the interwebs as being “for fun”, as in, I’m going to post when I feel like it. And lately I’ve just been feeling a little quiet. A little more pensive about my business, work and my online presence. Maybe it’s this season of grey skies before green grass, maybe the list of to-do’s starring at me, who knows. I’ve just found myself easily distracted from life online, know what I mean?

In honor of the first night of 2011 where I fell asleep & woke up to the sound of rain on my windows, I’m wearing a flower. Spring is soon!

cheers all,

Monday Morning Hello // Japan

It seems like most everyone this weekend, I couldn’t pull myself away from scenes of the tsunami that hit Japan. The scope of the destruction combined with so much first-hand footage made it so real. Reading headlines is one thing but when you’re able to witness a disaster like this from the eyes of the victims it becomes much more real.

Japan has always fascinated me. I’ve never been but hope to make it there someday.

cheers,

Monday Morning Hello

Hi there! Phew….this past week has been ca-ray-zee. Who knew getting engaged meant a tornado of planning? Oh ya…everyone but me. Ha! All is good…I spent a lovely Saturday with my little cousins and teaching them how to crochet and then playing around with more photo-booth for an hour or so. Hopefully I’ll remember my camera next time and get some real pictures to share!

Hope you’re having a lovely Monday.
cheers!