the (second) happiest day of my life

Invites are in the mail. Enjoy!

PS. Some of you have inquired- yes, that is actual hand rendered calligraphy. Anne Robin out of NYC penned each invite lovingly for us. She is my letter-spacing and line-spacing hero. Check out her work. It is amazing.

we practically own alaska airlines

We have been doing a ton of flying this year for wedding planning trips as well as general business travel for our respective employers. Nicholas and I have been at the airport every week or every two weeks since February. In fact, I am typing this from 36,000 feet right now. (The planets were aligned for a cross country, first class upgrade this time. The hot towel just came. Boo ya.)

Here is a photo I shot a few weeks ago while flying back from LA LA for our final vendor walk-throughs. Look for Rainier at the wedding- just in its alternate form...the beer.

who knew federal way was so beautiful

Two weekends ago we completed our final marriage preparatory requirement- a weekend retreat with Catholic Engaged Encounter. Here is a photo recap of our "engaging" weekend at the Palisades Retreat Center in WA.

fleurs de mariage

Stacy Martin, our amazing florist, has been featured in The Knot Best of Weddings 2008! Congrats to her and her design team. We have been working with Stacy for the past nine months and it has been a wonderful experience. Her client-centric meets industry expert approach has allowed us to flex our creative muscles with our florals.

I had pulled an initial concept from a publication and Stacy ran with it. Not only did she run with it, she knocked it out of the ballpark. When we arrived for our first meeting she had mocked up all three different arrangements. Being able to see the concept pieces early on in the process was huge in helping to set the look and feel of the day. She even let us take them home to photograph! I wish I could share them now, but I want to keep it a surprise for guests.

I am very much looking forward to seeing how all the arrangements turn out on the big day. I am SO sneaking a peek when we are taking photographs at the WDCH before the ceremony. I won’t be able to resist!

That's a pretty hot cake above ya?!

flower girl dresses anyone?

I don’t know about most brides, but I sure had trouble finding a good flower girl dress that wasn’t blah or that was actually age appropriate. On top of all that, most bridal salons want to charge you an exorbitant amount of money for a one-time dress that your flower girl is sure to grow out of. To make matters worse I dare you to find a dress in silver-gray and black. There must be some rule that says you can’t put a kid in my favorite non-color, color combos because it was almost impossible.

Then by the grace of the wedding gods, I found Pegeen. They are a brilliant little company that allows you to mix and match a huge amount of colors, styles, and add-ons such as bows and special details. Every dress is custom so it is easy to get exactly what you want and need. BUT, I can truly say they have one of the most challenging websites I have ever been on. It is so bad that I, Halli, I who works with the web for a living, couldn’t even figure it out. A phone order it was!

Although I must say I do love the “button realistic, panic button, button” that they have on their website. I am going to just go ahead and start recommending that to all my clients. Fantastic usability my friends! In all seriousness, we are super excited about seeing Logan in the dress. It’s going to be amazing.

straight up blog

A few items regarding tonight's late post:

First off, today was spent billing the majority of my time to 'computer downtime' at work. Our MS Office 12 upgrade rendered me helpless on the computer for hours. I lamented not having trusty Apple products at my side all day long. I am now on a computer that works thank goodness.

Second, I received a 't-minus five month' email from The Knot last week while traveling. Did they say five? Yep, five months. [Insert usual, unpleasant nail biting here]

Despite the impending 'tick tock' message, it was a simple reminder to again take a moment to reflect on the joy that has come [and will continue to come] with this whole wedding preparation and design endeavor. It's easy for some to chalk this whole process up to mere party planning, Halli gone Martha, bride detail overkill. It's so much more than that though. It's a discovery of each other, a compromise challenge and a killer joint effort that has resulted in some impressive, tactical teamwork [hopefully not driving a few key individuals nutty over the past year].

One of the most special and deepest parts of what makes Nick and Halli tick has stemmed from our gift of creativity and love for creating special things, which we are working overtime to do right now. It is what binds us.

We spend all day working to create something from nothing-- for others/clients. How blessed are we to finally have the ultimate project on our hands-- we are our own clients. Our love and limitless imagination is our 'brand promise' to each other and those we love.

Ps. Sorry for the unexpectedly deep post. I think I actually have a look and feel sketch that I may like. Positivity and progress is a'flowing!

Ps2. We were in LA this weekend for wedding stuff as well as Keith and Kerri's wedding. It was super productive, a wonderful time, and 96 out. Lots to report on later. Stay tuned.

eames + shoe

Mono-Eamz by United Nude shoes…yeah baby! I just am in love with these heels that are an homage to our favorite design duo—Charles and Ray Eames’s lounge chair. How perfect would these be for our design obsessed wedding?! Too bad I can’t wear them with my complex shoe wearing requirements. Besides, I would probably buy the black pair so I could sport them every day.