Sugar, Oh Honey Honey, We're going on a Honeymoon!

What does it say about us that we booked our honeymoon before we even booked our caterer?

I'll tell you: It means we were sick of looking at this:

If you're from or you have friends in the Northeast, then you probably got really sick of seeing all of those "OMG it's snowing again!" Facebook posts. Trust me, so were we.

Which is why we spent a lot of our time looking at beautiful far away lands where the people were warm and tan and happy.

Mr. Rucksack and I knew that we wanted to go overseas where we could have a mix of sightseeing and nothing-doing. Originally, we considered France, but the more we thought about it the more I knew I would not be able to relax in France. I would want to see everything! In just a couple of days of planning our ultimate French honeymoon I had a jam packed itinerary that left little room for relaxation. Mr. Rucksack suggested Croatia and the more we read the more we loved it.

The Knot even named Croatia as one of the top budget honeymoon destinations.

Image via The Knot

We fell in love with the mixture of old world charm and coastal vacation paradise. But I also read that traveling can be tricky in the area without a rental car, and I did not want to have to worry about navigating a foreign country.

We started looking at cruises, but realized that typical cruising just didn't feel like us. The last thing I wanted was to be on a giant boat with thousands of people on our honeymoon. While I know lots of people that love cruising, I wanted something more intimate.

On a whim I visited JetSetter - Gilt Groupe's travel site. I love all of those amazing sample sale sites, and Gilt is my favorite. I'd heard good things about JetSetter and Mr. America's coworker even booked her honeymoon through their personal travel services. To my surprise, right there on the front page was a flash sale for a small 49 person sailboat cruise through Greece, Croatia, Albania & Montenegro!

We did a little research and checked with my travel expert uncle, then quickly booked after drinking a bottle of wine on Valentine's day. I cannot wait to spend a week exploring on this baby:

Mountains, ocean and castles all in one place? Paradise, I tell you! 

Above photos via JetSetter

My amazing aunt & uncle are even gifting us our flight so that our whole vacation is now paid for! Since my uncle used his super duper traveler miles, flight times out of the tiny island of Corfu were a little limited which means we'll have to spend a few extra days in Corfu, Greece when we return from our cruise. Sucks to be us, right?

Photos via Marabella Beach Hotel

So now I'm sitting in my little office with my heater blasting on high just pretending this is my real view!

Did you start planning your honeymoon to combat the winter blues?

A Muddy Wedding?

It has not rained at our wedding venue on our wedding day for at least four years. I know this to be a fact thanks to the handy dandy Farmer's Almanac weather history. (Type A much?) Not that the information helps much since there are two ways to look at it:

1. It hasn't rained on our wedding day in years and has always been the perfect summer beach temperature of 75 degrees with a breeze. We picked such a beautiful day!

2. It hasn't rained on our wedding day in years and now we are due for a rainstorm! Good luck can't last forever! (Obsessive much?)

I've always believed that if I'm prepared with my raincoat and umbrella, the rain will stay at bay. But the second I walk out the door without it: Bam! Rainstorm while on a lunchtime walk across town, 2 miles from my office! True, right?

Since our ceremony is supposed to be outside, I'm starting to think of other JIC (just in case) options. Truth be told, a tiny bit of rain could be tolerable. Maybe even adorable:

Photos by The Photography Team

Image via Barefoot Beach Wedding / Photo by Comfort Studio

Aren't those brides (and umbrellas) the cutest? I could totally deal with a little sprinkle, especially if it meant a rainbow finale!

A downpour, though? No I do not think I could handle that.

Image via Barefoot Beach Wedding / Photo by Comfort Studio

What an awesome carefree bride! This, my friends, is nothing like me. 

So I guess the only option (besides wishing, hoping and praying that it doesn't rain) would be to move the ceremony inside as well. It certainly wouldn't be ideal,but I think we could make it work in a pinch, like this bride did:

Image via The Knot  / Photo by Shelly Mossman Photography

I love the circular petal aisle they created. And lucky for us, where they have a door as an altar, we actually have a fireplace. 

Obviously, we still don't have a clue what the weather will be like, but I wonder if I buy the umbrellas now - will the Universe stop the rain?

Anthropologie Sea Gleam Centerpiece Inspiration

Mr. Rucksack and I visited his family in Minnesota over the holidays and in addition to meeting even more of his wonderful family and eating all sorts of yummy foods we also did lots of shopping!

I can always count on FMIL Rucksack for a fun day of shopping, and this time was no exception. We stopped at the Mall of America, Crate & Barrel, CB2, West Elm, and my favorite: Anthropologie. We don't have any of my favorite stores nearby, so it was a treat!

While we were on our way out of Anthropologie I spotted the cutest Hurricane candle holders that I thought would look great as vases for our centerpieces. I quickly snapped a picture and began wondering if I could make them myself. (It turns out I can't.)

Unfortunately, they were sold out online, so back in Connecticut I dragged BM Penny with me to the closest store 45 minutes away.

With the last two remaining vases in hand, I begged the woman at the register for help and told her I was getting married. After reminding me that I better start planning soon because I don't have much time left until my wedding (thanks, lady!), she did some checking for us. It turns out that she could order a bunch more for us through their system!

Via Anthropologie

Even though they're made for candles, I think they'll look great holding our centerpiece bouquets.

Which, speaking of flowers - I have no idea what they're going to look like. I'll be using Whole Foods for my flowers and while I was able to give the florist a general idea of what we want, it will all really depend on what's in season and looks good that week. Since everything is local, the selection can totally change from week to week.

A bright summer bouquet of dahlias, zinnias, and billy balls like this may be a possibility:

Image Via Serendipity Flowers / Photo By AJH Photography

Or this fun, pink arrangement comprised of garden roses, ranunculus, freesia, billy balls, and lily of the valley:

Image Via Handmaker of Things/ Photo By K&D Photography

More zinnias:

Photo by Handmaker of Things

To be honest, it's a little exciting not knowing exactly what our flowers will look like. (I will have to remember to come back and read this when I am freaking out the night before the wedding because I have no clue what our flowers look like!)

Where did your decor inspiration come from?

Seaside Save the Dates

Can I get a quick amen for all things Etsy?

After months of attempting to design our STD cards, I finally caved in after it became apparent that I cannot paint. I had gotten it into my head that since I can do fairly decent graphic design work, that I should obviously be able to hand paint our cards. So armed with hundreds of dollars of pens, watercolor paper, canvas, and watercolors  I gave it my very best shot. And another. And another.

No dice.

I called my artist uncle for help, but he just scanned and sent me a bunch of old paintings he'd done of tropical beaches. They were gorgeous, but palm trees don't really match our New England themed beach wedding.

I searched online. I searched Etsy. I came up with nothing several times.

And then I stumbled upon an artist named Jackie Maloney and she was everything I wished I could be as an artist. Her work is cool and colorful and nautical, but it also looks so effortless. Like she just whipped something awesome up in a matter of minutes. So I sent her a flattering email with hopes that I could butter her up enough that she might draw something custom for us. Luckily she said yes and within two days, I had a lovely Save the Date in my possession!

The only inspiration I shared with her was this:

Via Momental Designs

But mostly I told her to have fun and to maybe add my dog, The Beez, into the mix.

Words cannot describe the amazing work that Jackie did for us. I think ours are even better than my inspiration pics! You guys ready to see?

I had the cards printed and cut at my favorite local printer, then assembled them at home with navy cardstock and red baker's twine. (Can you spot The Beez playing on the beach in the upper right corner? It's her favorite thing to do!)

All tied up! (Get it? Because we're tying the knot? Ha)

I had absolutely no intention of using address labels, but when the time came to use our customized address stamp, I couldn't find the ring with our new address on it! Of course I had put it "somewhere safe" and after an hour of searching still couldn't remember where that super safe place was.

So I did what any sane girl would do in my situation and I went to Best Buy and bought a printer. I know, I can't believe we didn't own a printer either. I figured it would come in handy throughout the whole wedding planning process anyway and we scored a great deal on a scanner/printer combo that's not only wireless, but that we can print with wifi from our iPads and iPhones. Awesomeness. If you're looking for a printer and scanner, definitely look into the Canon Pixma MG5420. (For what it's worth, it cost us $99 in-store.)

I'm still completely obsessed with our Save the Dates and think they really set the tone for the wedding. 

Would you commission an Etsy artist to create something for you? I love that we can now use the image for other wedding goodies!

Preppy Beach Color Scheme

There were so many schemes we could have gone with for our little beach wedding. We considered red, white and blue. Or even a play on red, white and blue with Nantucket red and blue & white seersucker. Then we thought about doing the classic sea glass scheme with greens, blues, and white. I even briefly considered going with natural with white and tan. But it didn't take too long to settle on navy, pink, and gold. After we had our initial colors down, I started playing with PowerPoint and Photoshop - creating tablescapes with different design pieces and elements. But as much as I played, I couldn't get it quite right. That's when I realized we needed to add another color.

Every time I imagined my personal bridal style, I pictured myself adorned in gold, pink and aqua/mint jewelry. Something like these babies:

Via Etsy Seller Julianne Blumlo

It seemed only natural to add aqua mint to the mix. So we now have this lovely color scheme:

Ta-da! Colors! I think they're the perfect mix of preppy and beachy.

After the colors were refined, I played around with my growing list of inspiration pics and assembled them into a mood board using PowerPoint:

Clockwise from left to right: Navy & White Chevron, xoxo Cake via Somewhere Splendid, Navy & Pink Nautical Wedding via Green Tree Photography, Ceremony Flags via Carley Rehberg, Holla via Lil Hoot, Flamingos via Joie Lala, Tablescape via Wedding Chicks, Pink Anenome Bouquet via Elizabeth Anne Designs

Look at those flamingos! I love me some flamingos and think they'll be so cute holding signs directing guests to the ceremony and reception!

For the overall scheme, I was going for modern, but still classic. Casual, but still chic. Fun, but not too kitschy. And beachy without screaming "Hey guys! We're at the beach!" It's the Hand in my Pocket of weddings. (Broke, but I'm happy and all that.)

Did you create an inspiration board to hone in on your scheme?