Doing the Walk to End Alzheimers!

from act.alz.org/

Now that we have finished with all our wedding craziness, The Boy and I (and now my Mom who will be visiting!) are putting all our planning energy into participating in the Walk to End Alzheimer's in San Francisco on September 29th  at the Mission Creek Park. We have been talking about it for a while (we became aware of the walk doing research for our wedding), but we finally signed up this week, and I am really excited for it (even more so now that my mom is coming too)!

Nick and I are doing this in honor and memory of his Grandpa Shiley, who suffered from Alzheimers for many years . I wrote about his passing in early 2011, but we still think about he and Granny a lot, so I am excited to do something in his memory. Currently, more than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease and that number is expected to grow to as many as 16 million by 2050. We have seen and experienced firsthand just how devastating this disease is to the person who has it and to their support system. The thought that it will continue to grow is so scary, and we want to help others facing the disease.

The Alzheimer's Association is the world’s leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer’s care, support and research, and the funds we raise will go directly toward supporting their efforts. If you want more information on them, check here: http://www.alz.org/about_us_about_us_.asp I am honestly not sure why they are amping up their fundraising and public relations, but it seems to really be putting itself out there. This being said, it seems to me there is a lot of research and work to be done to effectively treat and manage Alzheimers, as well as trying to end it.

I am attaching the link here, so if you feel moved to donate you can. Or you can do the walk wherever you are, because they really have them everywhere! Here is the link:

http://act.alz.org/site/TR?px=6850550&pg=personal&fr_id=1556&et=HZH0PjUpAgjEPAjYqA7lrw&s_tafId=9523

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10. Emmaline Bride-Emmaline sometimes has cute posts, but mostly they schlep for a bunch of independent (read- mostly etsy) sellers. If you have something in particular in mind, sometimes you will have better luck starting here and then getting linked over to Etsy.

9. The Perfect Palette- This blog is the best for the very beginning of your wedding planning, when you are trying to figure out exactly what you want the feeling to be. She even organizes her blog by color, so if you have one color that your really love you can start thinking about combos. I personally think that color is the heart of all happiness, so people should really keep it in mind when they are making those big picture decisions in the beginning.
8.WeddingBee-I have to say, I never really navigated WeddingBee as I site on its own, but if you type in an angsty question on Bing, often weddingbee chats will be the first thing to come up. It is nice to realize that other people are going through the same thing, hearing these things won't matter in the long run, and even hearing actual solutions! It helps for making decisions and moving on.

7. Style Me Pretty-  Pretty classic WeddingPorn. Nothing too outside the box, but the photos are beautiful and they put up more than anyone. You can definitely identify the trends by going through the pictures.

6. Love my Dress wedding blog-Great British wedding blog- since they are European, you of course can count on them to be super fancy and fashion forward. This blog also is great because it offers a lot of different body types without congratulating itself for doing so. If I wanted to see what a dress looked like on a model, I would just look at the pictures with models. I like seeing women with curves- even more so, I feel like this blog is encouraging because it is mostly women who are genuinely cool with who they are and choose dresses that correspond accordingly. They show off their bodies and personalities in a way that you can go through the blog and see a ton of women who look amazing, but you don't want their look, because they totally look like themselves.
5. Ruffled- Wedding Porn if your favorite store is Anthropology. Also, if you want all of your wedding pictures to look like instagram. In all seriousness, their photographs are often so pretty. They also talk about people's song choices and which have reminded me that we will never be cool enough to be on this blog.

4. Green Wedding Shoes-A little bit quirkier than Ruffled, and they often feature cool how to's which are very simple and useful.I have so many pictures saved from that site. My favorite part is where you hear the couple's favorite memory and advice for the big day. So important to see what people can come up with while simultaneously maintaining having a life and being a couple.
3. The Knot-sign up. If nothing else, you will love actually getting to check things off their online task list. It shouldn't be as satisfying as it is, and yet, I love it. Also a good choice for etiquette advice. Or you can read some of their chatboards if you want to feel better about your dramas.

2.Pinterest- Pinterest is a clear window into every woman's psyche, but it also can be very useful in early brainstorming phrases. My main advice would be to use the search as much as possible, rather than just browse the wedding section. That area gets repetitive (really, how many of the cutesy picture of bridesmaids butts do I need to see? definitely between 0-1), but if you use it to look up retro hairstyles or wedding shoes, you will be impressed with things you find. Remember, it's all about maintaining inspiration!

1. Offbeat Bride- When you are going through the heavy blog, always always always check Offbeat Bride. First of all, some of the ideas there inspired the ideas we are most proud of in our wedding. Way more importantly, you need to see the 99% of the content you would never use, because it is totally them, not totally you. I mean this as much as I have meant anything in planning- the more you can throw out what you should do for what you want to do, the happier you will be not only with the wedding but just enjoying the planning itself. Even if you don't want a super retro backyard lesbian polka dot wedding (I mean, I do, but I get not everyone does), this blog and all of its super fun posts serve as constant reminders and inspirations to do what is actually true to yourself and your relationship. They also write great, very thoughtful posts on everything from brides who want to wear their glasses to secular wedding readings and more. Plus, it is just way way more fun than other blogs. If you want to wade in, try following them on Pinterest, and just see how many of their ideas you love, you closet nerd!

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