Speaking of Unhitched...

We are currently in the process of actually finding someone to marry us.

This hasn't really been as easy as I thought it would. I found myself being picky about the officiants we researched. Nothing really in particular, but most of them just didn't feel right. Mr. ATC voiced that he would prefer a male officiant. I didn't have a preference either way.

We decided to meet with our internet favorite on Saturday morning at starbucks. He actually lives right down the street from us, we could have walked to his place. It was such a nice change to be able to meet with someone local, because we have been dealing with vendors about 2 hours north of us, since that is where our venue is.

Peacock Inspired Wedding

So I think we have finally decided on colors for the wedding. After this post, I sort of stopped thinking about colors for a while because I didn't want to obsess and pressure myself into making a decision. So I just sat on it for a while.

One night while we were out for dinner a few weeks ago, I asked Mr. ATC his opinion on the colors of the wedding. I told him that I was really liking purple but couldn't decide what other colors to go with it. He told me that he really liked blue. I tried to think of how we could incorporate both colors for the wedding, but I didn't want a navy or royal blue with the purple because I thought the colors were too dark together.

Then I started researching blue weddings to see if there was anything out there that I liked with blue as a main color. That's when I came across peacock themed weddings. I realized that I had seen this color combo previously during the very beginning of our engagement and had forgotten about it.

what do you call a wedding without a coordinator?

Unhitched.

Haha Get it!? Haha

*Crickets*

No?

Well let me explain.

Wedding Lab: Creating our Save the Dates Part 3

Finally the good part! haha

Our magnet Save the Dates:

Wedding Lab: Creating our Save the Dates Part 2

I promised in my last post to show you the outside of the envelopes including my faux-ligraphy, and postage stamps.

We actually bought the stamps way before we even started our STDs because I saw the stamps and wanted to use them before the post office changed them again. We picked out the awesome Pansy Love stamps that are purple and actually do go with our wedding color scheme now.

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Wedding Lab: Creating our Save the Dates Part 1

From the moment I started planning, I knew I wanted to craft and DIY as much as I could to try and keep our costs down. I found the super awesome technique of embossing on the web and knew I had to try it for our invites. I decided to give it a test run with the save the dates, and sure, there were a few kinks, but I think they turned out pretty great. Everyone loved our magnets as well as our envelopes. Both of which make me super happy since Mr. ATC and I put a lot of time, sweat, tears, and a few choice words into creating such a masterpiece.

Since everyone received their Save the Dates in lightening speed, I am clear to debut them on the interwebs. First I will show you the first embossing party we had (yeah I said first) where we embellished the front of the envelopes.

Enjoying Our Engagement

I was inspired to write this post and intrigued about how long couples waited after they got engaged to tell their friends and families?

You can read about our engagement here, and about the ring purchase here.

We got engaged in the afternoon around 4:00 pm ish in Switzerland, which would have been around 10 am in the US. We had the whole afternoon and evening to ourselves after the proposal. We went back to the hotel and I wrote in my European journal and we decided to go to a nice dinner to celebrate. We had a really nice dinner and I felt like we were the only couple in the world. When we got back to the hotel it was late, but we were 6 hours ahead and I wanted to call my mom. We didn’t have a phone, but we had Mr. ATC’s ipod touch with a skype app and since the hotel had wifi, I was able to call my mom. I was hoping she would have been leaving work because I know her cell phone reception isn’t that great at work, but I did get through and she stepped outside so we wouldn’t get disconnected. I told her the news and she was so happy she cried. The next day I posted about our engagement on facebook and that’s how everyone else found out besides my best friend and MOH who didn’t have facebook then. I called her the next day as well.

Mr. ATC’s parents and sister knew about the ring and knew he would propose while we were in Europe. But they found out through facebook when it actually did happen.

I’m so glad we waited and had a quiet evening to ourselves before we got flooded with attention and questions. It makes me wonder how different this would have been if we got engaged in the US. I like to think that I still would have waited, but it would have been easier to pick up the phone and make some calls.

So I was just curious about how long you waited to tell your friends and family about your engagement?

Mr. ATC's shopping habits

I hope you've heard enough about my dress for a while :)

I would now like to share the buying and gifting habits of my dear fiancé.

Exhibit A: My engagement ring

Looks so shiny and brand new right? Wrong!

My Little White Dress: Part 3

Okay Mr. ATC, this is the last post about my dress for a while, but please don’t read it. Thanks! Love, Miss DNA

My Little White Dress: Part 2

Again, Mr. ATC, this post is about my dress so please don’t read any further. Thanks! Love, Miss DNA

My Little White Dress: Part 1

Sorry Mr. ATC, this post is NOT for you! Kindly read no further and go do your homework or something. Thank you much! Love, Miss DNA

Drama in the Lab Part Deux

So I mentioned in my post from last night that we broke our printer and that Mr. ATC fruitlessly tried to fix it. He ended up talking to customer service online who gave him a $100 gift card so we could replace our printer. Well that wasn't good enough for him. He went to staples and bought a new one, which also did not work with our magnet paper. The weird thing is, a few months ago when we got the supplies, we did a test run and it worked. I just don't understand what happened! :(

Thankfully, Vistaprint came to the rescue and we were able to use their 8.5 by 11 magnet sheets to print 6 of our magnets on one page to save money, and to get them a little larger than the business card size.

Hopefully they turn out well, and I can finally show you all the hard work we've put into the envelopes and creating the magnets.

Unfortunately, this little debacle put us wayyyy over budget for our save the dates, but I only spent $10 on our thank you cards, so that should balance it out. And Mr. ATC is returning the printer he bought today tomorrow and ordered our new printer from HP with some ink and photopaper thrown in :)

Drama in the Lab

And no, I’m not talking about my new job, I am talking about our apartment. Our Photographer sent over a picture for us to use for our save the dates since we want to get them sent out soon. Well the picture is awesome, and such a tease! I can’t wait to see the rest of them!

Well this picture has become the source of the drama. We went ahead and put the picture into our save the date in photoshop and Mr. ATC played around with it until we liked it. Then he got antsy and wanted to try a test run on the magnet paper we bought a while back for this project. Well the paper got stuck and we both heard a snapping noise and now the printer is broken. Mr. ATC is frantically and angrily trying to fix it. OY VEY! I seriously hope he can fix it because it is our only printer and necessary to finish our save the dates and for everyday printing purposes.

This really puts a damper on our progress and this project. I really didn’t want to spend the extra money on having them printed for us, but it looks like that may need to happen, or spend the money on a new printer... 

Next, I promise a more fun post about my dress :) 

But did anyone else have a problem like this that halted a project? 

Our Last Dateiversary

Since I recently got a job, our plans to go away for our 7^th and last dateiversary/ my birthday had to be rescheduled. So we changed out hotel reservations, and headed to Atlantic City for an early celebration. We had a few wonderful and relaxing days. The first day we spent some money in the Harrah’s casino where we stayed and then headed over to Caesars and Bally’s. Mr. ATC actually lost his phone in Bally’s, which sucked, but he is pretty much over it since his phone was broken anyway. We went back, but it was already gone and the lost and found was closed for the night. When we went back the next morning lost and found didn’t have it. 

A Long Distance Dress

Dear Mr. ATC, if by any chance you took an interest in reading my blog, I hope you can tell by the title of this post that it is not for you. So please stop reading now, unless you want to read details about my dress. Okay? Thanks. Love, Miss DNA.

In the 200's

Finally less than 300 days til the wedding! I can't believe how quickly time is going. I remember looking at the countdown when there were exactly 395 days to the wedding, and now there is 298! where did all those days go?

For the most part, we have been on track with what the typical wedding timeline has said. Our next task is going to be finding a florist. Having our wedding a few hours from where we live definitely makes this difficult. Add in that Mr. ATC never has the same days off and I'm starting a new job working the midnight shift and our planning just got a whole lot more difficult. I feel as overwhelmed as I did in the beginning when I first looked at a wedding timeline and tried to keep everything straight in my head. : /

Engagement Session (no pics yet)

So as I mentioned in my last post, last Saturday we headed up north a few hours to meet with our photographer for our engagement shoot. I would like to say our photographer is amazing. He went to the agreed upon place early since neither of us had been there before, and scoped out some places to shoot. We went to the Catoctin Moutain Park and hiked on a really long and difficult trail to get to the waterfalls. But I’m hoping the shots we got along the trail made it worth it. Then we ended up by the lake at sunset. Again, our photographer is awesome and put up with us for well over 2 hours!

Amidst the Wedding Planning

As I mentioned in this post, my busy week not only involved stealing rings, starting traditions, continuing traditions, finding a DJ, and registering, but I also ran around town to 2 different interviews in 2 days! The first was the major one, the really important one, the second with the same company (they felt bad and had to give me the job). The second interview was a part time job I applied for just to have some income. It has almost been 6 months since I graduated from college. Granted, only 3 of those months I actually spent job hunting, the others were spent traveling. But that grace period for my loans was about to end, and there is this small party Mr. ATC and I are trying to plan and save for, for next summer too. Needless to say, we were both really stressed since we only had one income. Well as my luck would have it, I accepted the part time job the same day as my interview (wednesday) and got the job offer for the other job on friday!

Such a perfect way to start the weekend! And had us both really happy for our engagement shoot that we had the next day!

So while I am really thankful to have found a job in this economy, I am kinda sad that I won't be able to plan our wedding full time as I have been since we got engaged.

Was anyone else able to plan their wedding full time? The whole time, or maybe just for a few months?

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P.s Shout out to our friends Danielle and Richard who are getting married today! I hope you both have a fantastic day! <3

Sip and Scan

A few weeks ago, I received an email from the knot informing me of a sip and scan event at Macy's for wedding registries. I got really excited because I knew we had to do this and how cool that they would provide refreshments and food!?

Well last Wednesday we headed to the mall and I am so glad we ate dinner first! They had 2(!) different passed hors d'oeuvres and some weird drink that I didn't even try. I was a little disappointed, but it didn't matter, we were there to register for everything we could think of. They provided us with a list, but this bride cam prepared with her own. Yeah, I got lots of comments on that, but I like to be prepared and organized! I know what we need better than the generic list they give out.

Duff's Cake Tattoos

Seriously!? How cool is this!?

 duff.com

Hey Mr. DJ!

Put a record on, I wanna dance with my baby!

Continuing Fall Traditions

Last Sunday we continued the tradition trend and used our apples to make a pie. I think it was a nice addition to the apple picking tradition. I let Mr. ATC pick out the recipe online and we headed to the store to pick up everything we needed for the pie. Here is the recipe from Here

Starting Traditions

Last Friday night, when Mr. ATC got home from work he asked me if I wanted my Christmas present early. He told me I would probably want it now. I told him no that I wanted to wait because he said I wouldn’t have anything to open on Christmas. But he kept teasing me and finally I gave in and opened the box. To my surprise it was a Canon Rebel! With all the accessories I needed. I have wanted a SLR for a long time. We were even in Best Buy recently and he told me that he didn’t like the rebel. He was just throwing me off! I was soooo excited. I took a few pictures around the apartment and was even more excited about Saturday now.

With This Ring

So what exactly has kept me away from blogging? Well many things, but 2 little rings had me really, really excited.

One day while Mr. ATC was at work, he sent me a few links of rings on clearance at Zales. While this would not be my first choice to look for wedding bands, Mr. ATC has a lot of experience shopping the Zales website and has used the clearance section before to score some great birthday and Christmas presents for myself and his sister and mother. The man has some serious taste in jewelry! :) 

Well of course I checked out the links he sent me and I really liked one of them. And it was 70% off! I hesitated because it could only be ordered in one size, and I wasn’t sure how thick/thin the band would be. Those online pictures can be deceiving!

Oh Man, We've Been Busy

So much to blog about, so little time. This past weekend we were super busy, and I had 2 job interviews already this week. But I promise to add some posts about what we've been up to and the progress we've made in wedding planning :)

Til then,

Miss DNA

To Change or not to Change

My name that is. There has definitely been many articles and posts by other bloggers read about why or why not they are/are not changing their names. In the beginning, as in before I started planning this wedding, I always thought it was an easy choice for a wife to take her husband’s last name. Boy was I naive.

I did grow up with a mother and father with the same last name even though my parents ended their marriage when I was 5. I know that my mom kept my father’s name because she formed a work identity with that name and because my sister and I were still young and having a different last name could have potentially caused problems.

epic drama

ha! Just realized that could be read two different ways. Well since this is a wedding blog it is definitely related to engagement pictures but could also be epic.

Just wondering if I am taking this seemingly small engagement task too seriously. I am searching for the perfect outfits, clothing, shoes, accessories, props. Wanting to get my make-up done and hair blown out.

However, Mr. ATC thinks this is a little much for a little get together with our photographer.

A Conversation About Reception Lighting

The other night was a regular weeknight for us. A quick dinner followed by the TV series of the month, which happens to be Dexter. We are only on season 3 so no spoilers, Please!

Well in between episodes, Mr. ATC got up to check his email. He was standing over his computer and must have noticed the light that was on his shelve above his desk. It is a runway light from the airport he used to work at. These lights would be at the end of the runway indicating where the runway is, so the pilot knows where to land. No worries though, he didn’t steal this one, it was trash. But he saved it in hopes of putting a blub in it one day to make a pretty neat lamp. Well it is sort of shaped like an insulator. And my mom happens to collect these antiques. Of course Mr. ATC knows this.

The Online Wedding World

Wayyy before Mr. ATC and I got engaged, I became pretty obsessed with crafting blogs. I still follow a few to this day for DIY inspiration. Well this is where I learned that I would definitely (def, def, definitely) take on wedding projects. The idea of personalizing our day with crafts and projects that we (well mostly I) put our heart and soul into really touched me. And I hope it touches our guests in the same way.

Jump start on DIY

To celebrate confirming a date for our engagement photos, I thought I would attempt my first WR project. This project did not start out as a WR project. I’ve actually been meaning to do this since around Christmas time last year. Procrastinate much?

Last year around Christmas, I picked up these really cute hair flower clips from Forever 21. I got a few for my friends and sister as a little stocking stuffer. I even picked up one for myself with the thought of taking it off the clip and gluing it to a headband.

Just a guess, but I'm thinking the words 'Joint Checking' are flashing in your head right now

+50 awesome points if you can name that movie!

The Bride and the Three Venues

As soon as I got back from Europe, I signed up for the Knot and immediately started researching venues. I never thought that I would really start visiting venues soon, but had fun looking at places. Then Mr. ATC suggested we start actually visiting places so I agreed and we looked at his favorite place first.

Enter Boulder Ridge at Ski Liberty

When Your Dream Day Becomes a Nightmare

I had my first second wedding-related dream within 2 months of our engagement. It involved our photographer and an engagement photo session. We recently meet with our photographer and we fell in love he is so amazing and up for anything. Well this aspect of course translated into my dream nightmare. The photo shoot (in the dream) started out great. We got those amazing shots at sunset that I have been obsessing over.

source

Mountaintop Proposition: Part 3

Caution: Photo Overload!

*all photos are from our personal Europe Archive.

June 8^th­, 2010 started out just like any other day……..except we woke up in Zermatt, Switzerland! We had breakfast at our hotel, which was provided and got ready for our first full day in Zermatt. I even have a few nice pre-proposal photos of me not suspecting a thing! 

Mountaintop Proposition: Part 2

Before I get to the good part, lets rewind. Mr. ATC and I have been dating for 6 years, coming up on 7. Therefore, we have both met the families, etc. My mom loves Mr. ATC. And because she is my mother, has asked me numerous times about when we would get married. Since we dated for so long, conversations of our future were brought up frequently and we both knew that we wanted to one day get married. We both also wanted to wait until after I graduated from college. Never did I think it would happen so soon after graduation though!

Between the last few months of school and before we left for our trip. SO MANY PEOPLE brought up a proposal. Funnily enough, no one knew except his parents and sister and they were not the ones to bring it up.

First was mama DNA who thought it would be romantic if he proposed at the top of the Eiffel Tower (that’s were we went after Switzerland). Next was my aunt who told me that if I didn’t get a job, Mr. ATC would never propose. Then was my best friend. And then another good friend who also predicted he would propose in Europe.

Let me tell you, even after all of these conversations about proposals, I was still SO SURPRISED when he did in Switzerland. Of course that’s because I had to tell my self not to expect it to happen because 1) I didn’t want to be disappointed when it didn’t and 2) I just really wanted to enjoy our trip together without second guessing everything. And honestly I was so distracted by the excitement of actually travelling when I had planned this trip for so long. So that definitely helped keep my mind off of a possible proposal.

Next up is the actual question asking and answering. Don't miss it! 

Mountaintop Proposition: Part 1

So I thought maybe it was time to tell the story of how Mr. ATC and I got engaged. And because I love suspense, it will be divided into three posts.

As a graduation gift to myself I planned a month long trip to Europe. Mr. ATC lucked out and I chose to take him with me for two weeks! The other two weeks were spent with my mom who has never had the opportunity to go abroad. I loved sharing that with her and the very beginning of our engagement. It was such an amazing time in my life! I will absolutely never forget it! Of course that would be difficult to do with the 1000+ pictures I now have saved on my computer that I may or may not randomly visit.

Anyway, I spent a very long time planning for this trip and I loved every minute of it! Mr. ATC must have realized my planning abilities and decided to propose so that I could have something else to plan :)

The first half of our trip started by visiting Mr. ATC’s family in London (yes he is British, yes he has an accent­–I am sooo lucky!) Then I decided I wanted to spend some time in one of my motherlands, Scotland. Dad DNA is Scottish making me half Scottish. We spent an amazing 2 days in Edinburgh and then headed back to London to visit more family.

The next stop on our tour was Switzerland. Mr. ATC picked out this destination and I gave him full control of planning (more like I allowed him to look things up and I still had the final say). For him this was his favorite part of the trip. And because he proposed there, it became mine as well. 

Stay tuned for the rest of our proposal story! 

Colorize Me!

What is it about color that makes me so indecisive!? The first question people usually ask me is “What are your wedding colors?” And I just want to scream at them that I have NO CLUE! But honestly that would be socially unacceptable. But it is true people. I have no clue.

I love color. I love all most colors equally. Our wedding is a summer wedding in August so I want the colors to be fun and summery but I nixed yellow from the beginning. Yes it’s true, my room used to be kayak yellow, but I digress. Yellow has its place in the rainbow, just not at my wedding. So that left every other color under the sun to choose from.

Bookmarks

The digital, web browsing kind.

I am such a nerd!  I just organized all of my wedding related (WR) bookmarks into little appropriately titled folders. It just made sense so that now when I am looking for a specific project or idea, I can find it faster!

Yay for organization!! It keeps me sane. How do you keep your wedding inspiration organized?  

Busy, Busy, Busy

It’s been exactly 4 months since our engagement and we have a little over 11 months to plan. So far we have chosen a date, booked a venue and a photographer. We have also purchased materials for our invitations and Save the Dates as well as designed our save the dates. All we need now to get those babies out is our engagement photos! Which we are hoping will be done sometime in Mid-October when the leaves have changed :) 

Oh yeah and there’s that little white dress I purchased during my first dress appointment! More on that later :) 

Pre-Lab

Just a little background information about us. 


Mr. ATC and I met while he was in college in FL (where I am from) almost 7 years ago. He went to Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and now works as an Air Traffic Controller (ATC) at a major airport in the DC area. He is very smart, funny, outgoing, and family oriented. 


I, on the other hand, am Miss DNA. I just graduated with a degree in biochemistry. I love all things science, I think I'm funny at times, I have a lot of patience to put up with all of Mr. ATC's shenanigans, and I love to travel. 


I can't wait to finish planning our little soiree and to marry my other half :)