Adam and I just celebrated our one year anniversary. I thought I would dedicate this blog post to him and how, after a whole year, I’ve become much more like him.

1. I enjoy watching almost any type of sporting event. Just not football.

2. I respect Eminem much more as an artist.

3. I can eat pizza anytime, anywhere.

4. I realize when I leave the water running while I brush my teeth.

5. I’m much more cynical. And analytical.

6. I so much more aware of God.

7. I’m learning to accept others’ differences and be a patient person.

8. He motivates me to always be reading a new book. Although, I fail miserably.

9. I sunburn now. I blame him.

10. I love podcasts now. That’s huge.

So, thanks babe. I hope to become more and more like you everyday.

Some of my designs were featured over at Clover and Bee last week! My client’s engagement shoot is shared in detail over here. Very fun!

I know I say this every time I design wedding invitations but this set is really one of my favorites. The couple, who will be married this summer on Lake Geneva, decided they wanted to communicate to their guests the importance of the lake. They achieved this by adding hand drawn sketches of the Riviera building and the boat that their cocktail hour will be held. I’m excited to photograph these professionally and add the other design elements that I contributed later this summer. Check back to see their creative and beautiful escort card idea!

This post has been a long time coming! With life, work and everything in between I was finally able to connect with MaKenzie and get these fabulous details about their wedding day! This couple is stunning and their wedding day was absolutely beautiful. After a 10 month engagement, MaKenzie and Ross said “I do” in downtown Cincinnati. Their colors, which were navy blue and fire engine red, definitely make their photographs pop. Enjoy this interview and the photography along with it. Seriously, the photography is lovely.

1. Now that you look back on your wedding day (almost 2 years ago), what do you remember most? I was so nervous that day. More nervous than I have ever been in my life – and EVERY feeling of anxiety/stress came from the fact that I was to walk down an aisle with hundreds of people looking at ME! I do not like being center of attention, but on my wedding day I realized how much I truly hate it! My dad even got a little concerned right before we started walking – trying to give me a little pep-talk because he thought I was going to pass out. I truly was not worried about the “new life change”, or becoming a wife, I was just scared to be the person who had to walk and not fall (while smiling at the same time). As cliche as this sounds though, the second that I turned down the aisle with my dad and looked at Ross – every single fear, anxiety and sick feeling diminished. I was almost shocked at how instantly I felt calm when I saw his face. Made me realize even more that it feels so good to have my best friend to lean on. That moment sticks out in my mind when I think back to my wedding because its easy to “think” you realize how much you love someone – or how much they mean to you – but at that second even my own emotion/body/fear recognized that Ross Dykstra was going to take care of me forever.

2. What was the vision for your wedding day before you started planning? I love the style of the 1930′s. I knew I wanted the look and feel of the wedding to be from that era. I also wanted it to be relaxed and casual – not an uptight gathering where everyone refused to cut loose! In our minds, we just wanted to have a huge party with our friends and family.

3. How did that vision change by the time you were finished with the planning? I’m not sure if it did? At least I hope not! The chaos of planning often got in the way, but I tried to hold true to the fact that I wanted this to be FUN and a true portrayal of me and Ross, and make everyone who attended feel special and enjoy themselves.

4. What difficulties did you face while planning a wedding in Cincinnati? Location, location, location – I knew I wanted a downtown city wedding but it was SO tough finding a place that afforded decent parking and was not ridiculously expensive! Thank God though, we were able to find a great church at a reasonable cost – that was a huge burden off when we booked the date!

5. What was your least favorite part of wedding planning? I hated, hated, hated making all the “little” decisions. Like – “What will be the order of events at the reception,” “Do you want ranch dressing or italian for the salads,” “What is the timeline for the actual wedding day?” – ARGH… I’m a more free spirited person so it was tough for me to make all the little decisions that although very important, were boring in my mind!

6. What was your favorite part of wedding planning? Making a guest list.

7. How did Ross (the groom) fit into the wedding planning process? He fit into a 34×36 tan Express suit for the ceremony… and that’s about all the “planning” he did. :)

8. If you could go back in time – what would “married MaKenzie” tell “engaged MaKenzie” before the wedding planning started? Girlfriend – just enjoy this and don’t worry about all the minor details. You’ve got Ross and before you know it it’ll be just you two – so SMILE!

I hope you loved taking a peek at Ross and MaKenzie’s wedding day. All of these photos were taken by Megan W Photography.

This week’s couple is very dear to me. Megan and Joshua were married last August in the Indianapolis area and I was blessed to be Megan’s matron of honor. I met Megan when I was fourteen and her and her husband are two of the greatest people I know. You may have seen either of them featured here or here on my blog. Their wedding was a beautiful red, black and white affair so enjoy some of their thoughts and photographs!

1. Now that it has been over 6 months since your wedding day, what do you remember most about the day? What I remember the most is realizing that we had everyone that we loved and cared about in one room, supporting us — and it was overwhelming. It’s such a unique situation, and it will never happen again. Realizing that was a humbling experience, and we felt so incredibly blessed.

2. What was the vision for your wedding day before you started planning? My favorite color is actually blue, but I decided that I wanted something classic and timeless — even though a rose can be cliche, I wanted a red wedding with red roses. I love fresh flowers, so I was hoping to have a lot of bouquets and arrangements everywhere. I wanted to really create an atmosphere and a whole environment that revolved around this theme of classic, romantic red.

3. How did that vision change by the time you were finished with the planning? Well, fresh flowers are expensive, and turns out roses are the most expensive! Hah. I ended up using many different types of silk flowers, and many different shades of red. I had to give up a lot of the “atmosphere” and “environment” ideas, but I found that it is the people that create these things — I didn’t need a bunch of decorations, my guests made the environment wonderful and warm.

4. What difficulties did you face while planning a wedding that was out of town? Oye. Planning out of town requires a lot of internet searching, and a lot of networking. Certain resources aren’t online, so I had to do some trips over to Indianapolis to research. However, when people find out I was planning a wedding, they were always excited and willing to help.

5. What was your least favorite part of wedding planning? Budgeting! Yuck. But you gotta, and in the end it is worth it.

6. What was your favorite part of wedding planning? I have a lot of favorite parts, but I’ll list just three: One, my bridesmaids. I could not have asked for a better group of girls to stand with me — I felt so loved and supported. They kept me smiling and relaxed.

Three, my music man, Jim Cerone. He was our entertainer at the reception, and we were over-the-top pleased with him. We’ve gotten countless compliments about him. Jim was a true host, classy and fun.

7. If you could go back in time – what would “married Megan” tell “engaged Megan” before the wedding planning started? I am a designer and I, by nature, care about all the details — but I think sometimes the bigger picture can be forgotten inside all those tiny details. All I mean is that I would reassure myself that a few of those small things can be forfeited, in order to better enjoy the moment. Married Megan would say, “Engaged Megan, don’t sweat the small stuff: less is more. At the end of the night, all that matters is that you are surrounded by family and loved ones — the most important of those being your husband.”

8. How did Josh (the groom) fit into the wedding planning process? Joshua and I actually designed our wedding invitations together!

ALL PHOTOGRAPHY BY JANIE ALANNA.

This week on One Day : Megumi and Ben! This wonderful couple was married in Granville, Ohio on October 17, 2009. After being engaged for 8 months (and dating for 7.5 years) the couple enjoyed a beautiful fall wedding and implemented their $10,000 budget wonderfully. For those brides in the process of planning their fall wedding, take notes! Megumi created many aspects of her wedding day herself and it made all the difference!

1. What wedding projects were DIY?

- Save the Dates: I had fun creating bird illustrations for this in Illustrator and InDesign.

- Invitations: I used a combination of my own design, with a boxed set I had bought from Target. It saved me a lot of money because the boxed set had most of the pieces I wanted for the invitation, but I was able to have some creative freedom in how I designed the text.

- Ceremony Programs: Taking my idea from the invitations, I used the same design and then from the save the dates, I used the bird illustration.

- Centerpieces: My wonderful sister-in-law owns a business with her mother where they sell dried flowers, she helped me to design the centerpieces. I never knew how many options there were with dried flowers! I used coffee beans as a filler, and made a mixed arrangement of browns, oranges, and greens in dried flowers. Plus, after the ceremony is over, I was able to take them all home.

- Cake topper: Using a Martha Stewart love birds cake topper I found for $2, I took off the cheesy looking flowers, and added a birdcage veil and top hat to the little birds.

- Bridesmaids gifts: Jewelry and hairpieces – Michael’s, Joann Fabrics and Hobby Lobby were my favorite stores during wedding planning. I made necklaces out of colored pearls and ribbon, and made flowers out of fabric that I attached to hair clips.

2. Now that you look back on your wedding, what do you remember most about the day? I remember the last 30 to 45 minutes of the reception, getting on the dance floor with Ben and our close friends and bridal party and just dancing like crazy. We didn’t get to dance much before that since we were talking to guests. It was awesome.

3. What was the vision for your wedding day before you started planning? I wanted something simple, but elegant, creative/vintage-ish, but not over the top. We wanted a location where we could have an outdoor ceremony and indoor reception.

4. How did that vision change by the time you were finished with the planning? The day of the wedding it was 40 degrees and almost snowing so needless to say we had to move the ceremony indoors. It wasn’t how I had imagined it all along, but that didn’t matter. It ended up working even better than we had planned.

5. What difficulties did you face while planning a wedding near Columbus? Finding catering that fit our budget. We ended up going with a caterer from outside of Columbus who was willing to drive to our location.

6. What was your least favorite part of wedding planning? Table and seating charts. Enough said.

7. What was your favorite part of wedding planning? I loved coordinating the colors with my theme. Also, I am an organizer…so I loved that whole aspect of coordinating everything and checking things off the list…weird, I know. Most of all, I love that how we arranged our ceremony and reception, it totally fit our personalities. I felt that we really were able to reflect who we are through the scripture, message, songs, etc. For example, the scripture was read in Japanese by my mom and in English by Ben’s mom to reflect our cultural backgrounds.

8. How did Ben (the groom) fit into the wedding planning process? He actually did a lot! I put him in charge of all music (ceremony and reception), marriage license and honeymoon details.

9. If you could go back in time – what would “married Megumi” tell “engaged Megumi” before the wedding planning started? Rest, rest, rest. Unfortunately, when I get stressed, I tend to loose my voice. On my wedding day, and the days leading up, I was extremely hoarse. Also, while I stressed over the littlest details, in the end it didn’t matter because at the end of the day, we were MARRIED!

This is the fourth post in our One Day series and I’m happy to introduce Mitch and Amy! After a 15 month engagement, they were married in Holland, Michigan and danced the night away on Windmill Island. Enjoy reading some of Amy’s thoughts and take a look at some of their beautiful photographs.

1. Now that it has been almost a year since your wedding day, what do you remember most about the day? What I remember the most is the way I felt. I’m not sure I prepared myself for how emotionally overwhelming a wedding is. Having all the people that you care about the most take so much time out of their lives to spend celebrating you was absolutely overwhelming and amazing. That’s what I remember the most, and what my husband and I talked about the most on our honeymoon was how loved we felt and how awesome the people in our lives are.

2. What was the vision for your wedding day before you started planning? I wanted it to be personal, original, and memorable. I was tired of seeing gerber daises and tooling and all of the other typical wedding trends (sorry). I wanted to do something different that fit Mitch and I.

3. How did that vision change by the time you were finished with the planning? Near the end of my planning I started to not care as much because I just wanted to be married! Honestly, I grew tired of spending so much money and started to “weed” out my ideas and only chose to do the ones I thought would be remembered and would show a personal touch. For example, I had a semi-elaborate picture in my mind of what I wanted the front of the church to look like for our ceremony, but decided to go with the more traditional flower arrangements that we could use at the reception. Since our ceremony lasted a whopping 20 minutes, I’m glad I didn’t waste time decorating the church.

4. What difficulties did you face while planning a wedding in Holland, MI? I didn’t face too many difficulties. Holland is a city built on Dutch traditional (meaning, we’re cheap!) so everything was pretty affordable, and there are a lot of options to choose from. We also know a lot of people who offered to help with things from sewing our table runners to decorating to lighting candles, cutting our cake, and cleaning up after wards.

5. What was your least favorite part of wedding planning? My least favorite part was feeling stressed about feeling like I had to please everyone. I know it’s supposed to be “your day,” but there are a lot of people involved, and all of their opinions, at times, need to be considered. Everything was so new to me as I had only attended a couple of weddings before my own, so I needed a lot of guidance and advice in everything from how to word invitations and programs to what to register for to names/seasons of flowers…etc. I had no clue!

6. What was your favorite part of wedding planning? I love being crafty, so it was a lot of fun for me to think of creative ways to do invitations, programs, seating cards…etc. I absolutely loved working with Allie Lehman on designing my invitations and programs, she does amazing work!! I also lived with 3 engaged friends at the time, too, so it was fun to bounce ideas off of each other and complain about certain aspects of planning.

7. How did Mitch (the groom) fit into the wedding planning process? I always bounced my ideas off of Mitch and he respectfully listened, but never really had an opinion. He just always said everything sounded great. When he could, he came to meeting with the photographer and caterer with me. He did help with all of the invitations and programs. He also made and painted some flower boxes that we put our seating cards in. He was fun to craft with, but I am sure he’s glad it’s over!

8. If you could go back in time – what would “married Amy” tell “engaged Amy” before the wedding planning started. First of all, I would tell her that marriage is the best thing that will ever happen to you, so whatever you do or plan for the wedding doesn’t really matter, at the end of it all, you’ll be married either way! I think that I would also say to do some research and figure out a budget so at the end, you’re comfortable with what you spent because it’s what you planned on!

Amy and Mitch’s wedding photography by Steven and Jessica Fox.

Welcome to the third week of my new series, One Day, where I am able to feature a couple who recently got married. This week, I’m excited to introduce Michael and Mary Kate! After a 9 month long engagement and a budget of $35,000, they were married at Old St. Mary’s Church (the first and oldest Catholic Parish in Chicago) and celebrated the night away at Salvage One. I was able to design their invitation set + program and I will always remember their style and personality. Enjoy some tips from Mary Kate, a inspiration board revolving around their chocolate brown-green-butter color scheme, and take a peek at some of their GORGEOUS photos.

1. Now that it has been about 6 months since your wedding day, what do you remember most about the day? I remember I was in a church filled with 200 people but it felt like just Mike and me. I remember our MOH and BM speeches. I remember the day and night just felt truly magical. Great vibes!

2. What was the vision for your wedding day before you started planning? Before we got engaged we discussed a destination wedding or maybe even eloping!

3. How did that vision change by the time you were finished with the planning? We did a little research on a destination wedding and when we realized our grandparents wouldn’t be able to make it, we decided to stay local. After the decision to stay local was made, we had no clue what our wedding would look like.  Since I work in the meetings/events industry and have been to several banquet hall/hotel weddings we knew that’s what we didn’t want, but we could not pin point what we did want. The key for us was baby steps, taking one task at a time. Visualizing the big picture was impossible. Once we found our venue, we could start to picture it coming together. What we finally ended up with was a traditional wedding in an nontraditional spot with personal touches.

4. What difficulties did you face while planning a wedding in Chicago? Being able to afford a unique venue in the city of Chicago with great food. AKA BUDGET! Also weather, Chicago weather is so unpredictable so we planned for a hot day, but we had a back up plan for a cooler day.

[From top to bottom: flower girl dress via J.Crew, chocolate brown wedding programs via theknot.com, cowboy boot image via theknot.com, potential rehearsal dinner dress via Anthropologie, apple favor idea via theknot.com]

5. What was your least favorite part of wedding planning? This may sound odd but choosing my hair style for that day was my least favorite part of the entire wedding planning process.  I could not decided and when I did, the styles I tried looked terrible on me.  After several hair trials, I just said just decided to not worry about it.

6. What was your favorite part of wedding planning? Negotiating with vendors. Vendors want your business. Being able to negotiate with the vendors I was able to save us a lot of money.

7. How did Mike (the groom) fit into the wedding planning process? Mike choose the reception venue.  We worked together on budget, rings, music and menus. He also styled the groomsmen.

8. If you could go back in time – what would “married Mary Kate” tell “engaged Mary Kate” before the wedding planning started? Eat everything.

All of Michael and Mary Kate’s photography was taken by Emotia.com.

Wedding invitation, RSVP card, and informational card for Miranda and Juan’s big day! This invitation set was incredibly fun to create because I was able to meet with the bride in person here in Columbus and really get a sense of her vision: vintage and elegant. This is my last post of wedding invitations for awhile. If you like what you see, please feel free to contact me directly for custom made invites or visit my Etsy shop for pre-made, yet still beautiful, wedding invitations for a discounted price.

Wedding invitation and information card design for Amanda and Dauthan! The couple were wonderful to work with and I absolutely adore their coral and charcoal color scheme with that lovely accent of blue! Tomorrow will be the last wedding invitation set for awhile. If you’re a bride or groom looking for custom wedding invitations- send me an email [salutations@allisonlehman.com] and we can chat!