A&N: We're getting married today!

I know it has been a while since I posted last.  After my final bridal shower,  I don't know what happened.  Time seemed to not exist for me, and now, here we are!  I am getting married!  Yay!  I read in a book that if your engagement ring was hidden in something during your proposal, you can can look forward to a life together full of excitement and happy surprises in the years to come.  Anthony hid my ring in a dish of sea salt with a cover.  I believe it.  I have known Anthony for 7 years, and he has never ceased to surprise me.  I always say that when I first met him, I would have never thought in a million years that we would be getting married today and here we are....SURPRISE!  

A few photos from the wedding week:

    

A&N: Bridal Shower

I made my first movie with footage from my bridal shower for my mother-in-law-to-be. She couldn't make it, so I thought it would be fun for her to watch the highlights. Ciao. Natalie

A&N: Vintage Wedding Dress

Originally uploaded by natalieannholloway

Because I don't want to post any pictures of me in my wedding dress until after, well, my wedding, I thought I would post this dress instead. It is a vintage wedding or debutant dress. Someday, sixty plus years ago, a very young bride - this dress was made for very petite woman - or blushing teen wore this dress. The ruffles evoke my wedding dress, and I fell in love with it. I imagine what it must of been like to be a girl dressing for her wedding day, marrying her war hero, or her dreamy John Kennedy.

A&N: Bridal Shower 6.13.10

 Tomorrow is my first bridal shower!  I am very excited to see my family and friends.  I also cannot wait to capture all the beautiful details my hostesses pulled together.  My Aunt Sherry, my cousin Stephanie and Kelli, and my Matron of Honor and sister, Megann are throwing my shower.  I thought I would share some photos from our planning dinner, where they planned and I drank wine.  Stephanie and Megann handmade the invitations. The crafting/handmade gene runs in our family.  I just finished stamping 600 pieces for my invitation suite.  We received our first gift in the mail from family friends of Anthony's, and my mother in-law to be surprised me with the sewing machine from my registry on myregistry.com.  Sewing classes at Fancy Tiger Crafts here I come.  I will be sure to share photos from the shower.  Off to buy hostess gifts.  Ciao, ciao.  Natalie.

Amy and Corey - Joshua Tree, California Wedding

Congratulations and best wishes to Corey and Amy.  They were married on June 5th, 2010 at the Sacred Sands Bed & Breakfast in Joshua Tree, California.  Amy is my soon to be sister in-law and I could not be more happy for her.  She threw a small, very intimate affair for 23 people.   The tables were styled by Amy down to the mismatched chairs and plates.  Amy loves everything retro and vintage, and everything from her vintage dress and 70s inspired plates contrasted wonderfully with the modern, adobe asthetic of the b&b and the beauty of the desert.  She even topped her 3 layered pink cake with the cake topper from her parents wedding 30 years ago.  I fell in love with Parisian macaroons at her wedding.  She gave them as favors in a sweet, small paper bag for guests to take.  So many lovely details came together to create her unique vision, and her mother, father, brother and aunt graciously toasted the very cool couple for making the epic event happen.            

Where in the world are Anthony and Natalie?

We are in Joshua Tree, California for Anthony's sister's wedding.  I have been doing a lot wedding planning while on the road.  In the past three weekends, we have traveled to Aspen, Montana, and California.  Planning a wedding from different locales makes the process much more interesting and fun.  By the way, the desert air is very exotic.  This wedding is going to be beautiful.  Ciao, ciao Natalie.

Avi & Curtis' Aspen Wedding

This past weekend Anthony and I attended our friends Avi and Curtis' Aspen nuptials.  They had a sweet ceremony at the base of the gondola, and their puppies, Oni and Mila were in the wedding party.  Avi looked stunning in a lace, strapless gown, and Curtis was dashing in his black suit and red tie.  Anthony and I have been discussing the merits of black suits vs. tuxes for his groomsmen.  I have been trying to sell him on having his guys wear black suits with coordinating ties and he has said he thinks it will look terrible; until....he saw Curtis' groomsmen in black suits - all different.  It looked great and to the untrained eye, you could not tell that they were two button vs. three unless you were really looking.  So, I believe Anthony is going to tell his friends to wear their best black suits and to get the same shirt and tie.  Finally, one more thing to check off of our decision making list.  Attire aside, the wedding was beautiful.  The reception was at the Little Nell Hotel and the food was amazing.  I had the braised beef short ribs and Anthony had the ravioli.  The dinner was finished with coffee and delightful cupcakes.  I was also thrilled because I got to see for the first time, in person, the Jewish Hora dance.  I thought it was so fun and want to do it at our wedding; however, both of us being raised Catholic, our families might find it strange.

Our next wedding is Anthony's sister's wedding in Joshua Tree, California the first weekend in June.  I hope I can at least fit in nine holes in Palm Springs.  

Congratulations to Avi and Curtis!  We wish you the best. 


   

New Addition to Our Family...meet Hans.

Anthony and I adopted a puppy!  Are we crazy? Yes, but we rescued a sweet Vizsla that we named Hans.  Anthony has had this name in mind for a dog before he even met me.  We had a rough first few days with figuring out a routine and getting him used to his crate, but Hans has been with us for almost a week and he is adjusting nicely.    So now between working and wedding planning, I am training a puppy!  I love it and could not be happier.  Sure it adds one more thing to my day, but that is just fine with me, because I am able to provide a loving home to a puppy that was in need.

I leave you with a list of things that Hans loves:

1. 5:45am walks
2. Monkey Kong
3. Bison sticks
4. Love and affection in the form of behind the ear rubs
5. When his big brother gnaws on his skinny legs
6. Snuggies


P.S. The wedding is less than 3 months away...on my!  So much to share.

Week in the Life of a Bride to Be: Tuesday, April 13th

My work space.
{Shot on screen is of the blog where I read about this project.}

Beautiful flower I saw on my walk to a meeting.

Art on campus.

Suki Thai for dinner.

Read Vogue and watched the The September Issue documentary.















Money I found while doing laundry.


















Laundry. Laundry. Laundry. 














 Bedtime.

Tuesday thoughts...

Woke up 6:30 -feeling productive.  What I wore: BCBG gray pencil skirt, white button up shirt, tiered, jade drop necklace {anthropologie}, Tory Burch silver flats.  Venti - with room -americano and a splash of milk, petite vanilla scone, and 7 almonds to start the day.Scheduled happy hour with Kelly at Happy.  Booked flight to Italy for honeymoon and a room at the Hotel Erika in Lake Garda.  My day was saved by booking our honeymoon.  Otherwise, it was a long, long day.

Week in the Life of a Bride to Be: Monday, April 12th

One of my favorite blogs Pink of Perfection posted about Ali Edwards "Week in the life of" project which I fell in love with.  It's easy.  You document every little detail of your life for a week with photos of the most brilliant parts of your day and the most mundane.  Then you create a scrapbook of the photos and mementos from your week, and you can write about it on your blog, if you have one.  I have decided to do both and to expand it to be a week in the life of a bride-to-be.  It is crazy working full time and then some plus planning a BIG wedding.  I decided to do a test run on my final week as a 28 year old.  I plan on refining this project, doing it again the week of the wedding, and in real time.  I don't have many pics for Monday as I decided to do the project on Tuesday of last week.

Here is what a Monday looks like for me:

1. Woke up 6:30am - dreading the work day, I always do on Mondays 
2.  Starbucks stop 
3.  Daily blog reading {great articles on Brazen Careerist and Zen Habits}  
4.  Attended CU Athletics Press Conference {announced new womens basketball coach} 
5.  Returned to office  
6.  Headed out to lunch at Zolo's with two ladies that I work with {very uninteresting business conversation} Yummy chicken sandwhich and fries
7.   Attended training at the Foundation main office {very uninteresting business stuff} 
8.  Sat on a bench near the Boulder Creek and made calls
9.  At my computer until 5pm
10.  Opened a lovely birthday gift from Anthony's sister - gorgeous, three tiered necklace
11.  Walk with Cruddy and Beefy 
12.  Grilled cheese and tomato sandwich for dinner 
13.  Bedtime 10:30 or so
       

29

{Yummy cupcake from my girl Kelly!}

{Gorgeous necklace handmade in Brazil from Anthony and modelled by Beefy Smith.}

{Self-portrait, so I will always remember how i looked at on the first day of my 29th year of life. The very cute scarf that i am sporting is by Vital Industries}

I turned 29 this past Sunday! Can you believe it. I can't. Thank you to all of my amazing family, friends, and coworkers for the kind birthday wishes and lovely gifts. The best thing that happened to me when I was 28...Anthony proposing. The thing I look forward to most in the next year...getting married and going on my honeymoon to Italy. The one thing I hope to perfect...being graceful. With love and gratitude. Natalie.

Save The Date Photo Shoot Outtakes

Quickly, I would like to share some outtakes from our save the date photo shoot.  Now, I have to run to appointments and work.  I much rather blog all day and walk my dog :)  Enjoy!  Ciao, ciao.  Natalie

DIY Save The Dates

I am very excited to share some process shots I took while making the prop for our save the date postcard.  It was a fun, collaborative project for Anthony and me. I had the idea for our save the date from a post on one of the thousands of blogs that I read.  The couple did a postcard, and in the photo they were kissing while each holding a Polaroid shot of the date of the wedding painted on the side of a building.  The Polaroids were in focus with the couple slightly out of focus in the background.  We love postcards, so it was perfect for us to announce our special day in a postcard style.  The first step was to find a unique prop to display our names and wedding date.  I went to a hardware store to see what I could find, and I came across a round piece of plywood.  My vision was to paint the wood yellow and somehow stencil or use paper cutouts of the lettering for our names and date.  Lemon Sorbet by Behr was the color that I used. As I thought about what to do for the lettering, I was worried that paint on paint would look to flat and would not show up well in the photos.  I needed texture.  I then had the idea to find a font that I liked - something scripty but to not too fancy and more on the modern side.  I absolutely love fonts and type setting so it was incredibly intriguing to see what was out there.  I chose Annabel Script.  Then came the tricky part, figuring out how to print the letters out big enough that they filled enough space on the circle.  Here is where Anthony stepped into help.  He set the type in illustrator and scaled it to fit the circle perfectly.  We then had it printed out at Staples on tabloid size card stock.  We both preceded to share the Exacto knife process of cutting the letters out of the paper.  This part took a long time as neither one of us are skilled with the Exacto knife.  It was great team work if I do say so myself.  The final step was to glue down the names and the mini-dots along the edge, which were created with a circle punch.  We used spray mount.  Once the prop was finished we were able to book the photo shoot with our friend and photographer Sharon Wharton.  The morning light in February had been so amazing that we went up to Chautauqua Park to capture the intensity of the morning light on the snow and the Flatirons.  Sharon encouraged us to goof around and be affectionate.  At first I could sense that we both felt awkward, but it probably had more to do with how chilly it was.  There were a couple of shots where Anthony was twirling me around, and he literally looked like I was breaking his back.  I have never laughed so hard at the two of us.  The best shot was of us walking hand in hand down the trail, and Anthony leaning over to give me a kiss. It now graces the cover of our postcard.  We designed the postcard back in illustrator, and had the postcards printed at a local print shop in town.  I hand addressed 156 postcards in a gray art pen and sent them out mid-March.  My plan was to have them in the mail no later than March 1, but we had a few weather delays for the photo shoot that pushed out the mail date.  It was a cool project and a wonderful creative outlet for me.  I hope that all of our guest enjoyed receiving them in the mail. Now, I am on to my handmade wedding invitations.  Ciao, ciao. Natalie      

Easter and Planes.

Happy Easter!  I took a weekend off from wedding planning, so this post will not have much in the way of wedding stuff.  Today, Anthony and I took the most amazing photo at the Fort Morgan airport.  I just had to share it with my readers (hi, Aunt Patty :).  We flew to Fort Morgan from Boulder for Easter dinner at my grandparents.  I got to see my lovely aunts, uncles, and cousins.  Anthony is still trying to figure out who's, who.  I have a big family.  We did the math and 200 of the 355 individuals on our guest list are my family. He'll have a lifetime to figure it out!  As I look at this photo, I am thinking maybe an airplane wedding cake topper?  Ciao, ciao.  Natalie   

Introducing Alan Perry Floral & Event Design.

This post has been a long time coming.  I am thrilled to introduce Alan Perry, the floral and event design company for our wedding.  Scott Alan and Sean Perry are the creative geniuses who are going to bring alive the simple, romantic, and modern look of our wedding.  I had dinner with them last night, and Scott drew his vision for the ceremony canopy.  It gave me chills.  I can hardly wait to see what my wedding day will look like.  Ciao, ciao.  Natalie.  

1.  Photo is from Alan Perry's Facebook page. Click here to see more of their lovely work.

Grace and elegance...

Audrey. Graceful. Elegant. Her life and style inspire me.  She was kind, generous, talented, creative, and lovely.  I strive to be these things in my life.  Currently, daily life is crazy - juggling work, planning a wedding, and home life.  Note that I said crazy, not hard or busy.  I am consciously avoiding using words like hard, busy, stressful, because my life is none of those things.  My life is full to the brim, and I love it, but today had it's disappointments.  And I will leave it at that.  With 4 months and 3 weeks to go until the big day, Audrey will be my reminder to channel grace through my wedding day and beyond.  Ciao, Natalie.

Coming to a mailbox near you...

Our the save the date postcards were dropped in the mail today!  They are going to our nearest and dearest in places like California, Texas, New York, Oklahoma, and as far away as Italy.  My next post will be all about the creative process behind our the save the dates.  Ciao, Natalie

P.S. A very special thank you to our friend and photographer Sharon Wharton for agreeing to brave the early morning cold to capture this shot.  You're the best, Sharon!