You've Gotta Fight For Your Right. . .

. . .to get maaaaaaaaarriiiiiiied! Anyone?

As I'm sure many brides-to-be before me can attest to, there are seemingly a million and five decisions to make when it comes to wedding planning. . .and at least three times that amount of influence to lean one way or the other.

I am far from an easily-influenced girl. 

source | I do what I want!

That having been said, I am a considerate person. I try to take opinions and feelings of those I care about into account when making decisionsAt the end of the day, though, there are a few things that I refuse to concede. If this makes me a (gasp!) Bridezilla, then, well. . .refer to the above video for my exact sentiments. ;)

Here are a few of my No Budgies:

The Shoes. Not everyone is pleased with my choice (which I still word as a 'recommendation' - I won't force anyone to wear/buy these shoes, but everyone knows how much it means to Mr. Palm Tree and I) of TOMS. I am an All In type of girl: if I align myself with a cause or claim to care about something, I'm 100% 'bout it 'bout it. In all fairness: sure, they aren't the most to-die-for, OMG-worthy shoes. But, in my opinion, they aren't supposed to be. The TOMS motto is One For One: you buy a pair, we craft a pair to fit the need of a shoeless child. They're supposed to be reasonable shoes. It was an easy way to support A Cause that wouldn't take over the meaning, or purpose, of our day so we went with it.   

A Few Things THIS Bride Wants HER Bridesmaids to Know

Last week, this article from TheKnot popped up in my email: "9 Things Your Bridesmaids Want You to Know". I read it, as I always do, and agreed with most of them, even if they were a little obviously stated (of COURSE they want you to stay their friend, duh). 

I know that it's likely the Bridezilla phase that caused this: brides getting too caught up in and overwhelmed by the planning and idea of their Big Day that they go all kinds of coocoo for Cocoa Puffs.

source

It really is nice to be reminded to keep others in perspective. Your bridal party is likely going all out for you and they deserve to be respected, loved, acknowledged, etc. That having been said. . .what about the things brides want their bridesmaids to know?

Our Wedding Colors

Our wedding is big on 'meaning'. There are a lot of things that are really special to us and we want to incorporate them in our Big Day. Mr. Palm Tree said it best when discussing Pad and Pie, our Flower Girls: "Our wedding is going to be so meaningful. Rev Fun officiating us and Pad and Pie being the flower girls. . .it's going to be really full of love."

I know, I know, gag you with a spoon, right?

Needless to say, though, our wedding colors would also fit with us. I know there are a lot of really pretty color themes that are 'in' right now: 

image via TheKnot | Really bright, popping colors

image via Bridal Canvas | the awesome peacock trend

image via TheKnot | Soft, pretty hues

What I'm Learning from Wedding Planning

I've been in a really reflective mood today. . .I think partially because I spent a chunk of the weekend in my hometown surrounded by people I considered my second family for most of my childhood and adolescence. BM Tiny Dancer recently graduated from college and as I imagine it goes for any Milestone Event, I got pretty reminiscey.

I digress, though. My point is that as I sat buried in a never-ending pile of crap at work (seriously, people, I'm in Professional Purgatory right now), my mind was in reflective mode. As usual, BM Y and I were e-mailing throughout the day and I was sharing most of my reflections with her.

None of these are particularly mind-blowing or stunning, mind you, just things I guess I never actively thought about so when I realized where my mind was going today I had a sort of "huh, how about that?" reaction. I wanted to share them, though, because I'm sure I can't be the only one who overthinks (understatement and a half) everything. 

Go Big or Go Home: The Epic EPic Hair Trial Conclusion

I recently shared my inspiration and deep love for big ass country singer hair and now, I'm going to share the results. I took pictures every step of the way - including immediately post-shower - so be gentle with me, here.

First things first: my hair, immediately post-shower. 

Clearly, the way to make the MySpace-tastic bathroom cell phone sans makeup picture okay is to make silly faces.

This was immediately after my shower - all I did here was comb it. As you can see, not much life to it. It exists, it's there, it's alive and. . .that's about it. If I were to let it dry without doing anything else, it'd look pretty much like it does right here except moistureless. 

I set to work blow-drying my hair, using the 'low' setting.

Trying to hurriedly snap the picture and figure out my front-facing camera nonsense. You may note that I have also already applied my makeup. . .I did so while my hair was wet in hopes of getting it to air-dry as much as possible because it takes freakin' forever.

Go Big or Go Home: Setting up the EPic Hair Trial

See what I did with that title? ;) I’ve already expressed my general distaste for and inability to do all things DIY. One is not likely to find a bigger Fail Whale than the aftermath of my glue gun and I spending some QT together. 

So why did I decide to do my own hair and makeup for our engagement pictures? Because I’m stubborn. And cheap. 

I originally reached out to the artist (is that the technical term?) doing hair and makeup for my girls and myself on our Wedding Day and it simply cost too much to justify. Her work is gorgeous, without a doubt, and I’m super excited to have her. . .but I just couldn’t do it for our engagement pictures. 

I had a vision of my hair in our engagement pictures. It was something kind of like this: 

 Sources, from Top Left: Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, Julianne Hough, Faith Hill, Faith Hill and Carrie Underwood.| Sensing a pattern?

Engagement Sessions: Do's and Don'ts

I have so much to share that I barely know where to begin. As you've gathered from the theme of my last few posts, I've been obsessing over our Engagement Pictures.

Let me tell you, friends: obsession so worth it.
 

We had an absolutely fabulous time that exceeded all of our expectations. The entire evening was so much fun. Our photographers Jimmy and Kristy of Limelight-Images (clearly you should all be on a first-name basis with them as we are by now ;) ) were incredibly engaging and so much fun. It felt so comfortable and their experience and skills were so evident; they knew just how to catch the right shots of the city and just how to pose us. It was also fun to see them work together as a husband and wife team - they played off of each other so well and spoke in half-finished sentences the entire time. "Kris, could you. . .?" "Jimmy, why don't you grab that wide lens. . .?" Being a ginormous oober goober, I had what we refer to as "bursties" the entire time just witnessing them. . .and of course, staring into the eyes of my handsome other half for two hours helped as well.

I pinky promise that a reveal of our pictures is coming, but I wanted to share a few 'Do's and 'Don't's for engagement sessions. . . because you know, this being my one and only experience with them has made me an expert. ;)

Picspiration for the EPic Session

I've sung the praises of our wonderful photographers, Limelight-Images, so loudly that your ears are probably bleeding, so I'll try my hardest to refrain from doing so in this post. . .it's just so hard, when they're so awesome.

I mentioned before: I'm huge on pictures. I've already started a list of 'Must Haves' for our wedding day, including the 'jump shot' and the 'carry shot'.

via Limelight-Images | The vice-versa will also happen - I'm all for equality ;)

via Limelight-Images | Fun Fact: When we moved into our new place, I had BM Y & GM Pythagoras practice this shot with me.

As far as a list of 'Must-Haves', they focused on the city. Pittsburgh is so picture-esque, I wanted to make sure we caught the bridges, the stadiums, the river, the skyline. For the two of us, it was actually more of a list of 'Capture These Feelings With These Awesome Things In The Background'. I'm not saying I want this to be a Pittsburgh photo session with us as the props; more that I want both the city and us to be captured brilliantly, because we're both such a big part of each other. . .you know, Pittsburgh wouldn't survive without us, obviously. ;)

Spotlight On: Our Photographers

I know, I know, I'm too clever for words. ;) 

Before I share our engagement pictures, I wanted to share how we picked our photographers. 

True Confession: Photography was one of the the things I started looking into before we got engaged (Gmail tells me I sent the first e-mail December 14th. We got engaged December 22nd - but hey, to be fair, I knew it was coming). It was always one of the most important things to me (seriously, I'm a picture whore) and I knew it would be one of The Big Decisions.

That having been said, I also knew how expensive wedding photography was in general. In my opinion, $3 - $5,000 for photography is just too much, especially when you add on all the limits: 'x' amount of hours, up to 'y' amount of total pictures, 'z' amount of proofs back. . .but for $500 more, you can add an engagement session! Ain't nobody got time (or monies) for that, am I right?

Despite my near depression, I was persistent and decided to search anyway. I definitely used The Knot for this and would open up six or seven websites at a time, only to close them out with a sigh one after one. Two factors would immediately turn me off: not listing their prices and having fancypants, formal, artsy-fartsy and/or 'serious' pictures everywhere. I mean, to each his/her own, but we aren't fancypants, formal, artsy-fartsy and/or 'serious' people, you know?

Then, I stumbled across Limelight Images.  

Courtesy of Limelight-Images | This is the first picture I saw on their website. I fell in love.

Honeymoon in my Hometown: Yinz Should Come to Pittsburgh N'at!

Mr. Rogers. Steelers. Recent movie filmings. *

all of the above from their respective linked Wikipedia pages, brought together by yours truly and MS Paint

What do all of the above have in common? I'll give you a hint: Fred Rogers and Christian Bale (. . and Batman, for that matter) are not former or current Steelers. They are all, however, things that bring Pittsburgh to mind. Now granted, maybe I took some creative liberties picking The Dark Knight Rises as the icon for 'recent movie filmings' but that's because I feel a special connection with its filming, having worked downtown throughout the summer where most of the movie was shot (I firsthand witnessed many of the scenes, which were often a result of being stuck at the sidewalk closures - but I digress).

One of the first posts I ever read over on my beloved WeddingBee was Honeymoon in my Hometown: Good ol' San Antone by Mrs. Petit Four. I remember this being the moment that I became entranced with the site, having offered an alternative but still interesting option for honeymooning. Since I started this blog, I have been collecting ideas for a Pittsburgh-themed version of HIMH (my fingers wanted to type 'HIMYM' so badly) and am really, really excited to finally share: Honeymoon in my Hometown: Yinz** Should Come to Pittsburgh N'at (as a helpful tip, here is a funny link to Pittsburghese)! 

The Proposal: Hey baby, I think I want to marry you. . .

True Confession: I knew we were going to get engaged. 

Truth be told, Mr. PT and I had been discussing wedding plans for years. I remember very early on, like the second year we were dating, I had asked Mr. PT why he didn't have any serious girlfriends before me. He replied, "Miss Palm Tree, I'm a Virgo. I waited until I found someone I could be with for the rest of my life." True Confession #2: Since about late August/early September, I had been hounding him about engagement plans. We had a very serious, in-depth, late night talk one night about growing up and moving forward, etc. I got him to confess that he would ask me before Christmas. 

"Did I really find the one girl who wants to know when she's getting engaged?" he would say. I would obnoxiously wiggle my fingers in his face, or make off-sided comments like "Gosh, this finger sure seems lonely. Doesn't it seem like it's missing something?" My favorite was when a situation required the middle finger - I'd flash my ring finger (and stick my tongue out. . .because I'm super mature like that).