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Hello! I'm Suzannah, a serious DIYer and mom of two little ones. Follow along with my DIY fixer upper house renovations, sewing and crafty projects, real food recipes, and de-stressing goals.
I believe you can love your home just the way it is, AND have the power to design and make big changes to make it better.
I'm also the author of DIY Wardrobe Makeovers!

Countdown: 365 days till my wedding!!

Today marks a very important event--I've mentioned my fiance before, but no details of the wedding, since it just hasn't felt real yet, but now I can say that I'm getting married on year from today!!  Once I hit the one year pre-versary, it feels like I ought to get to planning!  Before, once we had the space, I figured I had probably done all I could do for a while, and I thought I should get through this year's wedding season before confusing anyone about my August wedding.
But I did want to share with you a few details, and as I get closer, I hope you don't mind if I post about the things I'm deciding on and ask for your thoughts!  There are so many great wedding blogs out there, but I can't possibly follow them all every day, so I know I've missed some things, but I have been saving photos of things I love, all organized in "My Pictures" here on my computer.
Here's what we know so far:
Jason and I will be married Saturday, August 6, 2011 at McMenamin's Edgefield in Troutdale, OR.  Don't know the exact time yet, but it will be an evening wedding in the patio garden of the Administrator's House on the large property out there.  For those of you non-Pacific Northwesters, McMenamin's is a great local area chain of restaurants, pubs, hotels, and concert venues that restores old buildings.  Edgefield was a county poor farm in the 1910's and is now one of their largest properties with a big hotel, winery, brewery, mini-golf course, spa, huge concert lawn, several restaurants and pubs, some gift shops, and wedding and special event venues.
Here's me and Jason (in a cave, actually, at Wind Cave National Monument on the family reunion road trip):
And here's some pics of the property:
Here's the space we'll be using, although it will look different once I get my decor in it!
(That's my friend poking into the picture there)
And here are some pics of other brides and grooms at Edgefield:
All images courtesy of McMenamin's, except the Administrator's House ones that I took when I went out to visit earlier this year.

Other facts about the wedding--probably in the general ballpark of 100 guests, and the great thing about a big property like McMenamin's Edgefield is they can stay at the hotel, so they won't have to worry about getting home after the late night.  And, when we use the Administrator's House, we rent the house with six guest-rooms as well as the garden, and our closest relatives will probably stay there.  I'll use my parents' suite as a bride's room right there by the garden, although Jason's and my room in the big hotel building is free with the use of the event space.
Color scheme: probably purple and yellow, or purple and pale grey and yellow, or maaaaybe purple and pink and orange.  We'll see!  Sometime I'll post some of my favorite wedding pics up here, but this post has enough visuals already ;).
Wedding party: I'll have 4-5 bridesmaids and I will make their dresses, of course!  I'm inspired by J.Crew Weddings; I love the classy simplicity and beautiful fabrics.
Other things: We're not really into some of the basic wedding traditions, so we maaaay not have a cake (we may have Portland's favorite Voodoo Donuts instead, or something crazy!), and we won't do a lot of the traditions that actually scare me rather than make me happy (the garter thing, for example).  We're really creating our own thing based on lots of ideas and weddings we've been to, including Jason's half-sister's Quaker wedding, which was very moving since everyone can stand and say something about the bride and groom as they are moved to.  We're so excited to have family from all over the country coming out for the wedding and weekend of, so we'll have a family dinner the night before and a brunch the day after, as well.
Just thinking about it is exciting, but also stressful!  I really haven't done much except book the space and brainstorm decor!
Wanted to keep you in the loop.  You'll hear more as the big day gets closer!  Thanks for your support!

28 comments

  1. Wow! I'd love to hear about your wedding as I'll be planning one myself in two years. Beautiful and looks very fairy taleish and proper all at once!

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  2. It's going to be amazing! I'm already so inspired just from the colors of those photos and it's not even my wedding! I vote for purple, pale grey and yellow. Have you already worked out your invitations and stuff? As a designer, I absolutely ADORE wedding invites. They're the best part, well, aside from actually getting married ;)

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  3. What an amazing venue. Believe me that year will go quickly.

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  4. Anonymous8/06/2010

    Find the My Sweet and Saucy blog. She is a bakery owner in Southern California, but she posts awesome wedding photos on there with all kinds of creative ideas.

    Rachel

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  5. Congratulations! Can't wait to hear more about your wedding because my fiance and I have just set our date (spring 2012) and I'm just starting to plan it. The venue is beautiful!

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  7. (Let's try this again with a link that works!)

    So much potential in that venue! And I love the idea of using J. Crew's dresses as inspiration, but with your own twist.

    I LOVE the J. Crew dress I wore for our wedding two years ago (you can see it here), and really couldn't have found anything as simple and elegant at any price. (Of course, the fact that it was $300 didn't hurt!)

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  8. This sounds absolutely lovely! My fiance and I will be wed at an art gallery in Ohio this coming October! We are not having a traditional wedding either, just wanted our artwork and creative sides to shine! Good luck with the planning! It's super fun, exciting, and stressful at times! Just make sure you keep everything organized!

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  9. Anonymous8/06/2010

    Congrats! Way to make your wedding your own and create your own unique traditions. My husband and I skipped out on wedding cake and had chocolate chip cookies instead

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  10. Congratulations!!!! How exciting!

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  11. Oh yay for you!! Weddings are so fun!

    Erica
    daniredvintage.blogspot.com

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  12. How exciting for you and for us to hear about it!
    Debbie

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  13. Congratulations! My husband and I will be celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary in about 10 minutes, so I obviously think this is a great time of year to be married (as long as it's not too hot, actually hehe). Can't wait to hear about it all and see the dresses :)
    Also, we didn't do a garter toss either. That's always kinda grossed me out (the idea of my new husband poking his head up my skirts in front of everyone we know). Good for you for doing your own thing :)

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  14. Congratulations! I'm so excited for you! The planning part is so fun! good luck. I'm celebrating my one year anniversary this month. It's wonderful being married! But also wonderful being engaged! Hope you enjoy it :)

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  15. Congratulations! My wedding's in 5 weeks - yikes. Love your colour scheme ideas - we're going for yellow, white, teal grey and a whole lot of other beautifully mismatched colours in the bunting and tablecloths I've made.
    The planning is heaps of fun if you start early, so as to avoid any last minute stress. Good luck and enjoy it!

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  16. Anonymous8/07/2010

    many compliments, i love your blog. Elena

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  17. That looks fabulous - what a lovely venue for your special day. I'm getting a little excited for you, I lurrrrve weddings! Wishing you loads of fun and not too much stress for the next 365 days! Xx

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  18. Congrats. Your wedding looks like it will be absolutely beautiful. The year will go by so quickly. I got engage 26 months ago and my wedding is on Friday. I don't know where the time went. I cant wait to hear more of your ideas.

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  19. Thank you all so much for your comments (and excitement!) I'm glad I won't be boring you with posts about wedding details, and I really liked seeing the links some of you posted! Keep 'em coming!

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  20. My boyfriend ALWAYS talks about VooDoo Donuts because he saw the bacon and maple donut on the travel channel once...but he thinks it's in Seattle. I told him about maple bars and he thought they would have bacon on them! lol Excited to hear more about the planning!

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  21. It looks like a beautiful location and I'm sure you're going to have tons to fun planning the big event!

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  22. congratulations! can't wait to hear all about it. purple, light grey and yellow look great together - my wedding two weeks ago was based on just those colors. want to borrow some hand made bunting?!

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  23. Yay! I'm so glad you'll be posting about your wedding here. It was over seven years ago that I got married, so it's always fun to see/read about all of the details and fun stuff that go along with planning a wedding!

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  24. Thanks, everyone! Colleen, sounds awesome--do you have pics on your blog?

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  25. Congratulations!
    My parents were married August 6, 1983 and just celebrated their 27th anniversary. It's a good day for a wedding :)
    Best of luck with planning and with everything!
    Amy

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  26. good luck with all the planning! The location looks lovely :)

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  27. How exciting!! I hope you post pictures of the dresses you make for your girls!

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  28. Congratulations! Can't wait to see how it will turn out.

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