Amazing bridesmaids :)

So I still haven't officially asked my girls yet, but they are already incredible. Friday night after work, me and two of my best friends met up for a drink at a bar downtown. After about 5 minutes one asked the other, "Can I tell her"?, the second nodded and the first said, "we have a surprise for you!"

They took me to one of our favorite clubs in downtown Boston. We went up the back elevator to the club's offices, which I did not even know they had there! They took me because they were signing the contract to book the club's private room for an engagement party in January!!!! :) :)

It was such an amazing surprise. I know the club must not be cheap and I was overwhelemd that my friends were doing this for me. We were so excited, we went out for a drink at another bar close by to talk more details. Then called it an early night to come home and make the guest list. It was such a great surprise. My mother is planning an engagement party in the spring and they just couldn't wait to celebrate, neither can I! It is just going to be our friends and cousins with whom we are close and then we willl have more of a family party in the Spring. They checked in with mom too and she is all for it! She is one of the two adults invited (we were laughing because we were saying no "adults" were invited and one of my friends was like, we are adults!, a fact we like to ignore).

These girls have been so amazing along the way already. As soon as they found out we were engaged, one came over and decorated the house so when we came home it would be really cute for us. Then two that brought me Friday night made me a planning binder. They made tabs and everything to keep me organized. They searched the internet for images for each title page. For example, for the venue they printed out a picture of our actual venue. Then for the guest list section, they had a picture from wedding crashers. It was so thoughtful that they took the time to do it. They are definitely going above and beyond bridesmaid duties and I haven't even asked yet!

I am really stressing on how to "pop the question". I am going to give each girl a homemade scrapbook with different pages including memories and a letter asking them to be in the bridal party and why I want to include them.

Deos anyone have any ideas or suggestions? What are some of the ways you have asked your bridesmaids or how were you asked to be in someone else's wedding party?

The Look

I'm not totally sure what bridesmaid dresses I want, but we have a definite look we are going for. Very nautical and Newport. My fiance is extremely laid back and was pretty excited at the idea of wearing a navy blazer and khakis over a tux. When we first started talking about weddings, he told me he wanted to get married on the beach in shorts and a Hawaain shirt. I wanted something a little more formal, so this seems like the perfect compromise. More casual for him, but formal enough for me. I think the look is more "us".

I can't wait to pick out my flower girl a.k.a. my god-daughter's dress! How adorable are these kids?
Top 2: Bello Photography
Bottom 4: Snap! Photography

I think this "look" screams relaxed and casual, which I think leads to a relaxing and fun day. Don't these people look like their having a good time?

What "look" are you going for?

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Right after we got, we started to receive a few beautiful and really thoughtful gifts from some of our closest friends. I think engagement gifts aren't necessary, so we really appreciated the thoughtfulness of the gift givers. I don't like to do standard thank yous because if someone went out of their way to do something nice for me, I want to give them a personal thank you.

That being said, I think we came up with the most perfect idea for thank yous!

We used 3 photos from the day of the proposal. We wanted to give each person a little glimpse into the day. So we had a picture of us taken the day of the proposal as the card, we used the picture of the date of the proposal written in the sand as the stamp, and a picture of my ring as a sticker to seal the envelope.

Close ups of the pictures used:

I'm so happy with how they turned out! They are super easy to make. Go to Zazzle to pick your product, upload a picture and your product is ready to purchase, you can also add other features such as text. You can't see it, but we had Thank you! written on the card.

Do you like personalizing thank you's too? How have you made your thank you's personal?