Friday, July 29, 2011

look what i got!

Well with this wonderful wedding only 3 short weeks away i feel like i am hitting new levels of stress.

The to-do list is getting longer and longer and my amazing wedding planner is sending me emails what still needs to get done, still needs to be paid, and even more GORGEOUS ideas!
I just know that my wedding is going to be sooo spectacular but like i have said before i am ready for it to be over. hehe.

Yesterday, i had a solo session of pre-marital mentoring (my Fiance is out of town for work this week) and we ate at the delicious Cheesecakes Unlimited (and i have never been there before!). It was actually a really nice restaurant. (: It had little candles at the tables and everything! I was there from 6pm - 8:30pm just visiting with my marriage mentor.

I love her!! She is an amazing woman of God and i learn soo much by just visiting with her. We talked about the excitement of the wedding.. and about marriage... and about Fiance and i and how we are doing. She told me some solid advice and we prayed. it was fun! (: I am blessed to have her in my life. And i ate a delicious piece of white chocolate raspberry cheesecake!

 

Soooooo good! I, of course, couldn't finish it because my stomach can only handle so much sweetness but what i ate was heavenly! (: 

Also i got my cake topper in yesterday! hooray!!!


exciting!!!! (: 

cheesecake, toppers, and love - M

♥ . ♥ . ♥


Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Etsy... i adore you

So (one of the biggest) challenges in this wedding planning process has been to find a flower girl dress for my adorable flower girl. Lorelei (my friend Shawna's little girl) is such a joy to my heart! I have been looking EVERYWHERE for a dress that is in price range and is what i wanted. I am VERY picky with flower girl dresses. I didn't want an all white dress (i always wanted to be the only one in all white. hehe), but i didn't want all color because my girls are in black, his guys are in black, and Future husband and i are in white... so i thought TOO much color would look funny.

I found a dress that i totally fell in love with from Alfred and Angelo. But... paying for the name.. its about $160! really?? for a dress for a 4 yr old who WILL only wear it once! This is almost as bad as the veils! (c'mon who needs to spend $85 on a 2 pieces of tulle?!)

I then went on a chase for an affordable, pretty, good color combo dress. Jcpenney. Macys. Kohls. Other sites online... but i couldn't find anything i really fell in love with!

I have looked on Etsy.com before.. but it felt soo overwhelming. There was just sooo much to look through. A co-worker and i started looking on Etsy for a dress. I came across Barbara's shop and fell in love!!! She makes custom clothing and jewelry! You can show her a picture or an idea and she can make it!!! She even puts the name of the person on the tag! This is what she made me!


I am sooo happy and impressed with her work! She made this dress in about 2 days! She kept me updated on every step! The best part is this dress was under $50!!!! (: The dress is $37.50 and i added $10 for the flowers on the skirt! 

I am sooo overjoyed! (: (: 

cute dresses, etsy, and love. -M

♥ . ♥ . ♥ 


Thursday, July 21, 2011

Wedding, Planning, Marriage

Well i am less then a month out of my wedding and "Busy" is an understatement. For sure.

We have a few more vendors to pay off with the due date approaching quickly (August 6th more most). We are thinking that everyone (besides the photographer and few last minute details) will be paid off by the end of July. wow! sooo crazy! Adding up the cost of everything that we have paid for already (and everything left to be paid) just makes me wanna throw-up and cry at the same time so i like to just look at the one by one smaller amounts rather then the big picture.

The next big assignment my wonderful Fiance and i have to do is pick the song lists for the reception (like our first dance, entrance song, garter/bouquet toss song, anniversary dance song, bridal entrance song, and a play and do not play list.) wow! a lot of songs to go over! I FINALLY made a final decision on the ceremony music and i am very happy with it. I have also made a promise to myself that i will not listen to another option of ceremony music... just so that i dont change my mind... AGAIN!  I really think it will be beautiful though. (:

Also, due to the intense heat in the summer at 4 0 clock i made the decision to move the ceremony inside as well as the reception. I think that our guest (and i in a huge wedding dress) would feel a lot better being in an air conditioned room. So because we changed from outside to inside we had to make some changes in how everything will be set up.... and i am reminded again how much i ADORE my wedding planner! (: Every bride should hire a wedding planner... she calms you down and makes everything go smoothly. (:

My wedding shower is in 2 weeks and i am extremely excited for it. My sister (matron of honor) is putting it on and i think it will be a lot of fun! It is going to be a very classy and fun event. hehe. The week after i am putting my friend's wedding shower on. It makes me feel a LITTLE stressed because it is a week after mine and 2 weeks before my wedding... but i think it will be fun. It will be a little more laid back and just a great chance for everyone to celebrate the bride. (: Hers is going to be an ice cream party theme... and i think it will be very cute. i printed out custom made invites with a little bride holding a bouquet of flowers and an ice cream cone! (:

I printed one copy out and then went to the trusted FedEx store to make more copies and use a little cutter to make straight lines.

So everything turned out great! I will be mailing them out today or tomorrow. My sister mailed mine out last Saturday and i think everyone has got their invite... but no one has RSVP'd yet! 

And this seems to be a theme since yesterday was the cutoff to my RSVP and there are a handful of people who still haven't RSVP'd! I dont know if they are just not coming and don't want to tell us.... or if they are assuming that we know they are coming and don't need to. Whatever the reason... i will have the wonderful duty of calling everyone, starting tomorrow, to ask if they are coming or not coming. My caterer needs a headcount by the end of the month. 

There is a lot to do in the next 4 weeks... and honestly, i am ready for the wedding to come, the planning to stop, and the marriage to begin! ha! (: 

With a month left until THE DAY i decided to work out. I have lost quite a lot of weight since last summer (i am about 15 pounds lighter then i was last summer which is a GREAT accomplishment! But i need a little extra push with the wedding approaching. I thought it was effective to get Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred.

She TOTALLY kicks your booty!!! I didn't workout properly though ( i had wedding errands and stopped working out before the cool down) so my legs are KILLING me today! it is literally hard to walk! But i am pretty sure i will lose those extra few pounds and get toned for the wedding. So the pain is worth it! (: 

lots of planning, sore muscles, and love. -M

♥ . ♥ . ♥


Tuesday, July 12, 2011

thirty-nine.

Well i have 39 days until my wedding!

wait!!! what!!! only 39 days??? HOW am i going to get through this?

I just had an ongoing conversation with my wedding planner via e-mail on all the things we still need to do in the next 39 days.

Some of which include... pay everything off! ha! easier said then done. My new super hero name will be 'Super Budgetter'. My wonderful Fiance and i will have to plan out every single dollar to make sure that we have enough for all the wedding bills, my bills, and our apartment bills. It feels overwhelming but we are just taking it one paycheck at a time.  we can do this! (:

Other things we need to do is meet with our ceremony music guy, our dj, and photographer. We need to make a music list - including a 'do not play list' along with certain songs for certain activities. (like our first dance, the honeymoon dance, anniversary [elimination] dance, and the song that will be played when we walk back into the reception after pictures). We need to write up a "must take photo list" so that our photographer knows exactly what we will want. (:

We have to give all of our vendors our wonderfully typed out timeline that my amazing wedding planner typed up for us .. so that everyone is on the right page. We need to figure out what we wanna do for our ceremony and talk to our officiant to discuss it.

I have to go buy stuff for our super-fun kid's table that we are going to have. I have made a custom coloring book and now i just need to go make copies. Get coloring crayons, little fun games, and some balloons for decorations for the kid's table.

My worries of this week: We are STILL mailing out invites!!! We keep thinking of people and having to give them invitations... but we don't have many RSVPs. That makes me a little nervous. I am soo worried that we are going to go over our headcount. We want to stay at 130 or less.
Also i have been looking at our registry and NO ONE has bought anything yet. Isn't that strange? I guess everyone is going to wait until the last minute? Or we just won't have any gifts. lol.

My shower is in two weeks and i am very excited about that. oh no! Another thing to add onto my long list of to-dos is to give my sister (my matron of honor) my guest list for the shower.

Speaking of showers i need to start getting ready because i am throwing my friend  Shawna, a bridal shower because she is getting married 3 short weeks after me. (: VERY excited for her!!! So her shower will be a week after mine! hooray!!! (:

Lord, give me strength... and joy!



To do lists, busy days, and love. - M

♥ . ♥ . ♥