A Motown Legend

As you all may know we lost a legend, an icon yesterday. I was in utter disbelief when Momma Motown called me in tears saying that Michael Jackson had died. With my blog being named My Motown Marriage, it's obvious that Iam from Motown City (Detroit). I was born here, raised here and despite the reputation the city gets from outsiders it's a really great city. This is where Michael Jackson, The Jackson 5, Supreme's, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson and countless others got their big break. I often ride past Hitsville USA knowing that my city is apart of history.

When I say growing up in Motown you listened to Motown Artists. Momma Motown would play Michael Jackson's songs EVERY day in the morning as she got us ready for school. She was like his ultimate fan, it's not one thing that she doesn't know about him, she has every album, has a scrapbook of all Michael Jackson memorabilia. She loved him so much that yesterday I went to the city to check on her, she was heartbroken. Yes she didn't "know" him but MJ was the kind of person that touched so many lives, so many grew up listening to his music. He is truly one of a kind. Seriously what artist do you know that fans literally faint from just seeing him?

I got up today still thinking it was all a dream, but it's not and there's a void in my heart, in pop culture's heart. He will forever live on and is the Greatest Of All Time.

Rest in Peace Michael, I love you dearly

- Motown Bride

I'll be back on Monday to share pictures from my Shower on this Saturday! We will have MJ in full rotation too! What's your favorite Michael Jackson song?

DIY Flowers Update

So I've gotten a lot of great feedback with my trial and will definitely be taking every one's suggestions into consideration. I just wanted to clarify a couple of things that I may have not been clear on.

1. I decided to do DIY flowers to cut down on costs and really personalize my wedding.

2. Obviously I'm not having a Platinum Wedding therefore I'm not trying to go for Platinum Flowers.

3. I've gone into this project realizing that the best way to achieve great DIY Flowers is to KEEP IT SIMPLE (yeah I'm a little boring). Therefore I decided not to add any fillers, greenery etc..otherwise I may as well fork over the extra cash to have a pro do them.

4. I love roses, especially when they are fully blown, I love centerpieces of just roses because it's soo simple, chic and timeless. I didn't want to go with centerpieces that when you look back at pictures would look out of date.

5. I will be adding more flowers to the trial, to get the affect I'm trying to achieve, yet there will not be tons of roses in each other either... DIY=KEEPING COSTS DOWN

6. I did not want to use fake flowers, I don't like the look of them, but to each it's own. I want my guests to be able to take home the roses after the reception if they would like so.

Here are a few pictures that I used as inspiration when I did my trial so you can get a better understanding of the looking I'm aiming for...SIMPLICITY

FOR MY BOUQUET:

MM'S BOUQUET:

Yes my flowers aren't over the top like you may see on many wedding blogs, but obviously I'm my own bride, with my own taste and envision for my wedding and that's is what will make my wedding FABULOUS!!!!

DIY Centerpiece/Bouquet Trial

I did a trial last week that I've been meaning to post about. I just went and grabbed a few roses from Walmart to see if I could really attempt to do my flowers for the wedding. A lot of brides are going the DIY way to keep costs down and really personalize their weddings. I've heard so many good stories about brides doing their own flowers and them turning out fabulous! I think the key is to keep them simple and what couldn't be simpler than roses? It's chic, gorgeous and a sturdy flower to work with. Here's some of the mock's I came up with for my first trial!

Here are the roses after prepping them:

After sitting for a day they opened up nicely, making the following:

Motown Maids Bouquet:

So I think they turned out nicely, this is using 10 roses and it gives the affect I was looking for.

Centerpieces:

Another Angle:

So here's some things that will be different:

1. The roses will be a hot pink to match my color scheme (these where only available for the trial)

2. The ribbon around the vase will be at the bottom, not the top like pictured, this way the stems won't show.

3. We will use 15 roses for the actual centerpiece to make it more lush, this was done with only 10 roses (all that was available)

OKAY HONESTLY MOTOWNETS I NEED YOUR HELP..YAY OR NAY FOR DIY'ING MY FLOWERS

*Note: I'm not worried about not having enough time to do them as my mom's and bm's have agreed to help arrange them; btw I timed my trial and it took 10 mins to do the bouquet (it was actually harder to wrap the ribbon haha) and my DOC (day of coordinator) will set them all up at the reception.

RSVP's UPDATES

We sent out rsvp's last weekend and they have been coming in pretty much everyday. However we've gotten a few that gave us a good laugh. Apparently our guests either don't know how to fill out an rsvp or are just totally clueless. In this case I think it may be both! What am I referring to? Well we have gotten a few responses with NO NAMES! Seriously who does that? So apparently on top of planning my wedding and all the things that come along with it , I now have to put my physic hat on and figure out who these guests are. On top of that what gets me tickled is that our rsvp's are in postcard form so there's an area where you can leave a little note, which in this case would have been helpful in figuring out who they are. So as of now we have 4 guests that have RSVP yes and we have no clue who they are! I guess somebody will be getting a courtesy call from me after July 11Th (the deadline)!

I can't wait to see what other rsvp situations arise! Did you have guests that responded with no name? How did you handle it?

$2 Tanks!!!!

It's 10 am and my day has already started. Me and my little sister (one of my motownmaids) got up early to get to the Old Navy $2 tank sale going on TODAY ONLY! I arrived at 9:15 (mind you the store opens at 9am) and there was already a line. I rushed over to grab pink tanks (my main wedding color) to only find that most of the pink tanks were gone (I needed one in basically every size). Well I wasn't going to just turn around empty handed. So plan B I grabbed all the grey tanks (my second wedding color) which they still had a great selection of . So the plan is for the mm's to wear the tanks while we get ready and somehow the coordination makes for really cute getting ready pics. I'm trying to figure out how to jazz them up. So it's Poll Time!

(You can vote at the bottom of the page)

Oh yeah if your reading this hurry up and head to Old Navy because the tanks are going super fast, even if you don't buy them for your bridesmaids they make great summer essentials!

First RSVP!

It came in the mail yesterday, and It was like I had received a million dollar check in the mail, well not really but it was exciting! We all know in the wedding world that receiving RSVP'S back really makes the process seem soo real. I just hope I won't have to call ton's of people for missing the deadline, which is July 11th.

Here's the very first RSVP I received and since we did postcards it had a little message too!

The message reads: Ms. Motown, I couldn't be prouder of you. You have accomplished so much, you have such drive and I love you so much. Mr. Motown, welcome to our family, I love you, take good care of my niece, Love Auntie Motown

Here's a recent picture of Me and Auntie Motown at Momma Motown's Birthday Party:

Thank you Auntie Motown for such a prompt response, I can't wait to see you on the big day!

Motownmaids Fitting

This will wrap up what was accomplished this past weekend. On Saturday my motownmaids (bridesmaids) had their first fitting. It was really great to see all the girls and then not even five minutes later everything went WRONG! When they first ordered the dresses the shop specifically told them that all undergarments were need for the fittings. I reminded them of this a week prior to the fitting. Well only one out for four girls had the correct things. Luckily 3 where still able to get partially fitted but one of my mm's was told she would have to come back with her undergarms. She was a little P.O.'d but I just sat back staying out of it, thinking to myself " I told you so"! Nevertheless here's the dresses that the girls chose to wear:

Alfred Angelo in Fuchsia

here's one of my mm's with the actual dress on, I don't know why the color is soo drastically different from their site.

UPDATE : My Invite Designer

I have just found out that my Invite designer is booked for 2009 weddings. I am sorry for those who would like to work with her but I still suggest contacting her for smaller designs that she may be willing to do (i.e. table numbers, monograms etc). She has just started a blog which you can view here. To see her upcoming work and if you click on the left hand side of her blog you can see more designs of hers!

I hope that helps someone :)

Sweet Treats: Cake Tasting

This past weekend was a busy one! I've previously mentioned that I had mailed out our invitations, well on top of that my lovely MotownMaids (bridesmaids) had their first fitting (I'll post on that next!) and to wrap it up Mr. Motown and I had our cake tasting on Sunday. This is by far one of the best parts of planning. When we arrived to the tasting this is what awaited us:

We sampled the following favors : Banana Infused, Double Chocolate, Lemon, Vanilla and Red Velvet. Also we tried several fillings: Baileys Chocolate Mousse, Cream Cheese, Butter Cream, Butterscotch Caramel and a Whipped Mousse.

I made sure to taste a piece of each favor, some where eaten a little more than others :)

So after lots of tasting and a few glasses of water we decided on a 3 layer cake with the following :

Bottom Layer : Vanilla Flavor with Butter Cream (the basic wedding cake flavor)

Middle Layer: Double Chocolate with Baileys (Liqueur) Chocolate Mousse

*Disclaimer : All guests are limited to only 2 slices and must show ID to eat (just kidding, it's really subtle but soo yummy)!

Top Layer: Red Velvet with Cream Cheese

We are so lucky to have a great baker, she is giving us a free cake on our 1 year anniversary so we don't have to worry about freezing the top layer (which imo is a little gross).

So we finished the specifics for the big day and she sent us on our way, with all the cupcakes of course!

What are your favorite cake flavors to eat at weddings? Which ones are hits or misses?

Reality: Invitations

So I've shown the digital designs of my invite but now it's time to show the final product! This way by far a labor of love and I'm soo happy how they turned out! If you have any questions about my process, any materials used etc feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back with you.

First up: The Invitation

I made some really chic bows from a tutorial by Mrs. Emerald on Weddingbee. You can access her instructions here.

Next up: The accompaniments

Followed by: Envelopes

I really wanted to do something different from the regular printed labels, and calligraphy was just too expensive so I printed addresses on the envelopes using my trusted Canon Pixma. I used the same font on the envelopes as was used on the invitations.

Finally: The Entire Suite

Packed up and headed to the post office:

Hang in There!

Sorry I've been MIA but I am in the process of getting these invitations out! 57 days until I marry Mr. Motown! I didn't realize how long it would take to finish these invites. I'm going over Momma Motown's house in the morning for her to help me finish them. I plan on being back on Monday, so have a great weekend!

Wedding Paper Goodies

Continuing from my Invitation suite here are some more of our wedding day stationary. As you can see I love the swirly design. These were all custom designed by the great Alex Tembow Designs. Sometimes it's the little details that tie everything together and leaves a lasting memory with guests.

This is the candy buffet sign, my future last name has been blurred out for safety reasons :)

Water bottle labels

Reserved signs for Parent Tables

Table Numbers for Guest Tables

Sorry!

Sorry I haven't been posting daily! I've been soo busy and having to handle this fiasco with my Bridal Salon. I can't wait until the wedding is over to give them a review and at this point it's not going to be a good one! I will be back later on today with more wedding stationary!

Our Invitation Suite

My last post was on invite inspirations from Etsy. With so many choices in invitations you can have what your heart desires, whether it is something simple from Michael's or Target that you can jazz up a bit to intricate letterpress designs.

I went the in between route. I contacted Alex Tembow Designs to create my suite as a pdf file. That way I could get custom invitations without the custom price. I also invested in a Canon Pixma printer that I will use for all of my wedding printing and purchased card stock from Anchor Paper. I think I will do a break down of everything in another post but for now I will show you the designs.

Some of our personal information is whited out

Alex was such a pleasure to work with and this was by far one of my favorite parts of planning. I simply emailed her inspiration photos and fonts and she ran with it! I was able to customize the wording, style, colors and fonts of the suite. For your budget brides who don't think you can afford gorgeous invitations think again! Finally don't let DIY scare you, I'll show you how easy it can be later on!