First try at French braiding

That's right, I've never French braided. In fact, I really couldn't braid all that well until I met Jim...he was always doing Sissy's hair and I learned from him. Anyway, I watched a short YouTube video and tried to copy them, but Alyssa's hair is so fine, so I struggled. BUT....I think I did a pretty decent job, seeing as it was my first time! It was pretty loose, but looks okay, right? :)

1,000 views! Thank you everyone!

I know 1,000 views doesn't seem like a lot to some people, but to me, that is HUGE! Considering I'm just a regular, everyday girl...blogging about my road to the aisle and once in a while my life, it's a big deal to me that I've had that many views. Thank you everyone! I will continue to update as often as I can (it's super hard with only 1 computer in the house now, and I only get it maybe one or two nights out of the week). Hope everyone had a great weekend! 

Dinner is served...

Well...it will be...at 6:30pm on May 21st. :) Anywho...we decided on our food. I'm not too thrilled that they don't do tastings at our venue, but I've been told by many people that the food is excellent, and I did have some once, though I was rushed and I don't really remember it. :S SO....without further ado, we will be having the following: tuscan loaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and salad. We decided on the linens (black and ivory, duh). They don't have a pink even remotely close to mine...they only had a really ugly light pink, but I figured the centerpieces are pink, and that will balance it out and pop some color.  Otherwise, it's back to the rsvp waiting game to find out how much drinks will be. At least it's one more thing off the list....

RSVPs....crackdown!

Okay, I've received 59% of our RSVPs so far....and there's only 10 days left! C'mon peeps!!! I have turned into such a mailbox stalker, it's not even funny! I become super sad when I don't have any little pink envelopes waiting for me in the mailbox. :( 

RD invites!

I went completely lazy on these, and just ordered them off Vista Print. I was planning on DIYing them and making them to match the wedding invitations, but we had a last minute change with the restaurant, and since I was waiting on confirmation for that and we're about a month out, I figured I'd better just get them as fast as I can once I had all the info. I needed more than 10, which they were only offering 10 for free, so I went ahead and placed the order, and figured if I used it again with a different e-mail, it would still save me a few bucks. Well, as I finalized it, I received an offer for 10 extra! Woop woop! So all I paid for was shipping, and I did order 10 extra envelopes, just in case (which I did end up needing 1 or 2!). I also got a free pen, so I put Kyle's name on it and a violin pic. Sadly, he'll probably like it more than his other gift.:)

Found this cutesy little poem online somewhere...just googled RD invites and voila! I did change it a tad. :) 

The back of the invites. A colored pic was free, so I put a pic of our hands and our little saying. LOVE!

Completely forgot to post this...

Forgive me for the horrific cellphone pic. Anyway, I returned the vase that I THOUGHT was perfect for these. It was too skinny and bunched up the pretty feathers. Yes, I'm that picky. Jim thought this would work, so I gave it a shot. Looks pretty good to me! So these will be sitting nice and pretty beside the guest book! 

AW! AW! AW! Hair and Make-up Trials!!!!!

This is just showing where the veil will be placed...it's not in there all the way here. 

 So, I'm seeing it's slightly crooked, but we kept messin' with the veil. Hopefully it will be dead-on (straight) on the wedding day. Ignore the outgrown highlights, please! 

 Okay, she didn't get it pulled down all the way in front of my face. Even when it was pulled down, I don't like it in front of my face. Still trying to decide. 

Far away of my make-up. 

 Without the veil. LOVE!

My table is under here SOMEWHERE.....

So...obviously I am still working on the middle 3 sets, but the rest are all cut and ready to go. 

The wonderful James completed the backs and scored them all! <3 him! 

Still need to cut up the ribbon for them...might be easier to have that done prior to assembling. :) 

Programs...FAIL!

See that? It's supposed to say Wedding Party also! AAHHHHH!!! I noticed it while showing a co-worker...thank GOD she asked me why it only said "Wedding." At least we noticed after only wasting maybe one box....of course that's after wasting another box due to printer PITA. Argh! 

2 months to go!

In the words of Alyssa, OH.EM.GEE! That's scary stuff! We're working on the programs now, and I'm finishing up fixing the coloring books. My mom is just about done with the flowers and bouts. SO...still need to do the decorations, aisle runner, and bubbles. Still have a couple more WP gifts to buy. Rehearsal dinner has become a nightmare...so we're working on that. Other than that, I think the rest is figuring out music selections, food, and such. Yippee (not!) My Iowa shower is in less than 3 weeks, so we need to get my dress fixed and I need to find some shoes to wear! Stressed? I'm not stressed....nope. Not me. 

Before...

AND AFTER!!!

Aren't they beautiful?! FINALLY...something went right! I'm sad I don't think I'll be wearing them at the reception...but they're so pretty now, I might try for a little bit! There is no way I'll be dancing in these, however. :) 

"I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck. "~Emma Goldman

Except mine are fake, and they're not on my table! :) Here are the bouquets and bouts my mom has been working on. They're almost done, the bouquets just need wrapped nicely. Here is my bouquet.

Here is a close-up of a jewel that is on the flowers. I saw something similar on a floral website and loved the idea. We just bought cheap jewels at Hobby Lobby and my mom glued them on there!

 

 Matron of Honor

Bridesmaids

Jr. Bridesmaid

Women's bouts

Men's bouts, except Jim's will be pink...I think. :) 

Program mock-up!

Well, here it is! A couple of the words have been moved down, but basically, this will be what they look like.  I went to buy the rest of the paper today, but they didn't have enough, so we will start with what we have for now. I bought more ribbon and (gasp) more fiskars blades. Of course. *sigh*

Here is what it will look like as you're scrolling through the program. Cool, right? :) 

I think we figured it out....

So, after losing the programs we'd designed TWICE, we redid them again! Thankfully, we had one printed out and cut up on regular paper, so we had something to go off of anyway. We went to Office Depot and found some shimmery paper that we liked, so I bought 1 pack of it for now, just to see if we even like it. We printed it out today, and lookie! I LOVE it! The pic does not do it justice...it's really shimmery and sharp-looking. I did have to shift the word WEDDING on one of them and RECEPTION down just a hair...hopefully it will be perfect, now. 

Now, my original thinking was to place black cardstock on the bottom and staple it all together, then cover the staple with a bow. However, Jim thought we should overlap the cardstock over the top layer. While researching layered programs, I found this.  

Now, this isn't exactly what he'd had in mind, but it is similar. I think we're going to try this instead. I was still thinking about doing a bow, but after seeing this, we might just use the leftover pink ribbon we have and do the same. The pic with Jim holding the ribbon obviously doesn't have the black cardstock yet, but you get the idea. We will have to measure it out to see how much cardstock we'd need for each program. This should be fun. :)

Huge accomplishment today!

We paid off the photographer! (minus gratuity and taxes) Hip Hip Hooray! So we will be meeting with them two weeks before the wedding. :) Also, I made my hair and make-up trial appointment....hopefully my skin will be cleared up by then...I need to continue tanning! Oh, and we bought more WP gifts...so we have 1 parent and 1 child left to buy for. :) 

Jim has lost his marbles!

So, he tells me last week about several different people that have received their invitations, and all the positive remarks about them, people not believe we hand-made them, etc. He tells me that he thinks we could consider making wedding invitations as a side job. #**^(*!&!!!!! bahahahaha He's lost it. Oh, and that's after we've considered making Love Letter Wine boxes, as well (which we have yet to complete our own at this point). Maybe we should stick to wedding planning one time in our lives, and call it good...?! Just sayin'.... Although, it is very flattering that people love our invitations. :) We seriously didn't know we had it in us. 

First RVSP card back home!

Actually, 2 came back! We just send those puppies out on Thursday, and they're already coming back! Unreal! :) Anyway, I've been having a really bad couple of days, and the first RSVP I opened made my day. At the bottom, the lady wrote out, "P.S. LOVED your invitation!" All that hard work has been paid off...that really meant a lot to me. :) *gushing*

Finally took a pic of the GM and usher gifts!

Yes, yes...I know I'm SUPER late getting this up. These were all wrapped and boxed individually and we'd hid them from the cats, since they're in a large bag. We know the cats would have had a hay-day in that bag. So anyway, here they are! I had a difficult time getting a decent pic, but they're engraved with their initials. The shot glasses are for the ushers. I also got flip-flops for the girls, but I didn't feel a burning desire to drag those out and have them pose for a pic. :) So, all we have left for gifts is....the jr.'s and our parents. Whew. Getting there! :)

We finally got my band! :)

So, funny story (not really)....I get a phone call at work from an unknown number. I listened to the voicemail and it was the jewelry store, stating that if we paid off my ring today, we would get a bag of goodies, some of which included "very nice jewelry." I called Jim up, and asked him what he thought. He figured what the hell, and went for it. Well, turns out the goody bag was a faux jewel of some sort, an empty NFL watch sachet, and a Hershey's cookbook, which we can't use since we're doing P90X. hahaha Ah well. At least we have my band! It actually lines up so perfectly with my diamonds on my e-ring!

Here they are together! I will be getting them soldered and engraved...and sized. :( Hopefully soldering them will make a huge difference We will see! 

We've had his band for a while, but I never took a pic of it! :) He's really picky, but this one fits him perfectly (personality-wise and size). It is titanium...that's about all I know. :)

Here they are all together. I'm not much of a jewelry person, but damn...I love these! :D <3

So far this week....

~Paid off ceremony site

~Finished guest list

~Stamped, numbered, stuffed, sealed, and MAILED invitations!!!!

~Bought flowers for bouts and bouquets

~Printed the page that needed fixed for coloring books

~Got cake topper and more flower petals for decor

~Got flip flops for girls

~Got gifts for ushers and groomsmen

~Got flutes

~Got lists for both showers and bach party

~Bought thank you cards for showers 

~Got fabric and patterns for BM dresses

Holy cow!

FLUTES!!!

Oh, I LOVE them! They messed up originally and put "Forever..." on both, so they redid them. The gal at Things Remembered said she'd never seen anyone do that before, and asked for my permission to suggest it to future customers. AWESOME! Forever...and a Day is a saying between us, so it's pretty special. :)

Today is a very special day, for TWO reasons!

#1 Today marks the 1 year anniversary when Jim proposed to me at his nursing graduation. <3


#2 Our wedding is THREE MONTHS from today! (well...maybe that's not so good)


Things are starting to come together...we ordered the groomsmen and ushers's gifts, our flutes, the cake topper, some flower petals for decor, and made a payment on our ceremony site. 

Technically, first shower gift?!

My mom asked me a while back if she could get me earrings to wear on my wedding day as a shower gift. Now, I really don't care for jewelry, but she really wanted to get them for me, so I gave in. This pic is terrible, but these earrings are such a close match to my e-ring! They're princess, and my e-ring is a princess plus, so, very close! I was thinking about not wearing any jewelry, or maybe dangly earrings and that's it, but I really like these! Just needed to AW this! 

Invitations are DONE!

THANK YOU GOD! I only have to figure out postage for the 2 international invitations, but otherwise...here they are! We spent DAYS stamping, stuffing, sealing, and addressing these puppies. I am SO happy they are finished! I can't wait to have the rsvps come back! *skipping around the room*

Look at what came in the mail today!

Yes, it is! It's our cake topper! This cake topper is very special to us because our first kiss was in the rain, so it seemed too perfect to pass up! 

Ah, and I know everyone is thrilled about these! I found a site that had fuchsia flower petals on clearance, so I bought 3 bags. I have 2 boxes that are similar...some will be used for the flower girl, some for ceremony decor, and some for reception decor. Honestly, I'm wondering if I need more...?!  

100 DAYS TO GO!

Hhmmm..I'm not too sure I like that we ONLY have 100 days to go, but I AM certainly ready to be done with this stressful planning so that we can get back to working on our house. Well, I'm working on the invitations and getting those ready to be sent out here soon (I hope!), and I ordered our cake topper and some extra flower petals the other day. I'm hoping that the seamstress will give me another fitting, since my dress DID NOT fit me well AT ALL...so that's my #1 stressor right now. We ordered the groomsmen's and usher's gifts the other day, and hopefully they will be ready next week. Still need to figure out parent gifts. We also had a sudden change in the party (AGAIN)....so we will continue to wait on fixing the coloring books for now, I guess. ugg! I need to start looking for a new place to tan...seems like they all started changes their prices and terms at once, so I'm feelin' kinda screwed right now. Hopefully I'll get my hair and makeup trials done soon too! Oh, the stress! 

What I've been doing to stay awake tonight...

Here are the pens for the guest book! They are black markers wrapped in ivory ribbon and fuscia feathers coming out the top. I bought these from fellow local knottie *tricklet17, but one of them snapped in the envelope. I really wanted 3 pens to have to use, so I bought a VERY similar feather from Hobby Lobby, removed the ribbon and redid it, using glue dots all way back up. I had to trim it a little bit, so it's just a little bit shorter than the others. They're in a drinking glass in this pic, but I will get a plain glass cup or vase for them. 

Well, this isn't completely DIY, but I did add to it. :) I ordered these and had them engraved through Oriental Trading Company, but they're awfully plain. I was going to completely remove the ribbon and rose and change the ribbon, but when I started to, it seemed like the rose was tearing apart, so I just added ribbon behind it and around the bottoms. I haven't decided if I really like them like this or not...