Engagement Party!

This past weekend Mr. Smith's family threw us a little shindig in Chicago to celebrate our engagement. It was the first time our families have really gotten together for more than like an hour so I was a little worried how it was going to turn out. Luckily, our families are pretty similar (awesome people come from awesome families, am I right?) and everyone got along really well! Here is a sneak peak of the party... This is the basket of cookies that greeted everyone as they walked in. Kevin's sister-in-laws mom was nice enough to make them as party favors. If you look closely you can see our initials on them!

New family member...

I thought you all would like to meet the newest member of the Smith family. For some reason I can't get a picture of him to save so you will have to follow this link to meet him! He arrived yesterday and we decided that the most appropriate name is Woody. I can't wait for tonight because we are officially going to break him!

Save the Date

Now that it is getting closer to the wedding (only 7.5 months away!) I need to get working on a save the date! I found two that I really love on this great website called Minted and I need help deciding which one I should use. Here are my top two choices: I think I am leaning towards the one on the bottom because it comes in this great blue color and I can use one of Mr. Smith and I's engagement pics!

Alternate BM dress ideas.

Now that I know my favorite bridesmaid dress won't work I have started to come up with some alternatives. So far these are my favorite so I need your advice on which ones you like best...

1. Watters
2. Badgley Mischka - (style #950315) I know it is strapless but it is so hard to find cute bridesmaid dresses that aren't!
3. Prisciall of Boston

There are also a few at Jcrew that I love but the colors are so strange. Why can't they use a normal light blue vs a shiny bright blue?

Does anyone have any other suggestions on where to look? I feel like I have looked everywhere and haven't really found anything that I love!

Wee ones!

Now that all my cousins are getting older and none of my siblings have children we really don't have any little ones who will be coming to our wedding. Mr. Smith's older brothers have little kids (1.5, 3, 5 & 8) but since none of them live anywhere near Texas they are talking about leaving them behind with extended family and attending the wedding sans-kids. Is it weird not to have a ring bearer or flower girls at your wedding? I always thought it would be so cute to have them involved but I can't really force them to bring their children. Or can I...?

Sad, sad day.

So this weekend when I was at home I decided to go visit my dream bridesmaid dress in person and realized it just wasn't going to work. It was still as beautiful as I thought it would be but when I tried it on (yes, I modeled for my sister and Na$e) it just seemed to be a little bottom heavy. I had my sister try it on also so we could see how it would look on another body type (she is 5'1 and I am 5'7) and I realized that it would be horrible for my shorter bridesmaids because it is impossible to hem the bottom due to the ruffles on it. Now it is back to the drawing board to try and find something else that I love. Who knew it was going to be harder to pick a bridesmaid dress than my own wedding dress?!

Registry dilemma

Mr. Smith and I register a long time ago (obviously!) because we both were very excited about that part of wedding planning. We chose Macy's, Williams Sonoma and then I went ahead and created one for us online at Crate and Barrel so we could get some stuff to decorate our house with. The problem is that I do not like the Crate and Barrel bedding (I had a duvet that was ruined in like the first .5 seconds of owning it) so I really want to register for two duvets I found at Pottery Barn. Is it obscene to register at four places when one of them only has a few things on it? Mr. Smith says "yes" but he hasn't seen how fantastic the bedding is!

Check it out...

Thoughts/feelings?