It's all Coming together!!!

Matt and I got a ton of wedding stuff done in just a few days. We went back home to my parents' place to "research" a/k/a eat at different restaurants for our rehearsal dinner. We discussed a couple of places, and I think we may have found a winner. We're just waiting for contact back from the manager so we can (hopefully) reserve the night for the rehearsal dinner! Yay! I'm excited to get something started for this!

Also, Matt booked our honeymoon! We're going to [drum roll, please]... Punta Cana, Dominican Republic! I'm so excited! I've heard nothing but great things about the D.R. A girl I work with said that it was the best vacation she ever went on! I think we're staying 7 days, so such a nice, long, relaxing time that I feel like I will totally deserve after dealing with all of these plans, and projects! I can't wait for blue water, and hot sand!

Yesterday, we went to Mens Warehouse Tux, and ordered tuxes. Matt is getting one that's a little nicer than the other guys, but they are both notch lapel tuxes. Matt is going to wear white, the best man and man of honor will wear turquoise vests and euroties, the groomsman and the usher will wear the chartreuse color, and our dad's will be in ivory. It seems like it's all starting to come together!

Then, while we were already at the mall, I thought I'd show Matt an idea that I had for the boys' gifts. They were personalized beer mugs. He really liked it, and decided to get them right then and there! They are glass, but spray painted with a gun metal finish. We won't be able to pick them up until about 2 today, but I will put up pictures when we get them.

Stick a fork in me I'm [almost] done!

I decided that I was really going to start hammering out these invites. I purchased all the stamps I needed for the rsvp post cards. I have to wait until we get the actual mailing envelope so I know how heavy the invites will be before I can purchase the final stamps, but I came home and stuffed all the pocketfolds, put the stamps on the rsvps, and wrote names on the inner envelopes! Almost done, and it's starting to sort of kick in that we're actually doing this!! 2 months and some change and we'll be there! WOW!!

And, I am almost done with pomander #2. It didn't (well at least didn't seem to) take as long as the first one. I tried to do it step by step, as in stack, fold, and gather the tissue paper to however many I thought I needed. Then I cut the "petal outline", fluffed and put in the styrofoam ball. Also, I tried to spread them out a little more than the first one.

Do It Yourself... a little too much... and hair and make up call

I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew. I love craft projects, and putting things together, but taking on two really big DIY projects has got me going CrAzY!

My number one project is our invitations. Other than our pocketfold and rsvp postcard, I have printed, cut, and assembled everything myself. I gave an invite to one of our bridesmaids, and she just loved them! She kept telling me how professional they look! I think that she will want to use something like mine for her wedding next year because she told me I'd have to show her how I made them. My parents were really stunned by the look of them as well. I felt like my mom was really proud because she isn't too involved with the planning, and to actually see a project that I've been working on, she seemed to juts be amazed at my "creativity".




I'm really happy with the way they have come out! It hasn't necessarily been too time consuming, just boring mainly with the cutting. I've got 40 more to go, which I plan on completing today on my wonderful day off. :o)

Another project I have taken on, which has oddly been the biggest one yet, is our tissue paper pomanders. I worked and worked on one... ONE... yesterday for approx. 4 hours, and I got half way done! Maybe I'll make the flowers bigger so they take up more space, therefore not using as much time. It's a good thing I have 3 months to complete these!!!


Listed are the two websites where I found inspiration, and directions for these two amazing projects!
- Road to the Aisle blog. She has been amazing for DIY projects! I highly recommend using this blog as a guide to all of your projects!
- This is a knottie (a/k/a a person from theknot.com). I don't know who she is, but these directions were posted on a board that I follow on the knot.

I, also, blogged about my hair and make up trial that was coming up. I love the make up! We will be adding false eyelashes to really make my eyes pop. But my hair was a total disaster! It was nothing like what I had asked her to give me, and the sad part is I ended up spending about $65 on something that ended up falling out in about 1 hr. I will have to go back to try to work something else out as far as my hair goes.



Oh, and p.s. My dad and I were going over my taxes and he ended up making a small mistake! I don't owe the IRS money, I am actually getting money back! YAY!! Which, all the money will more than likely go to wedding things... haha...

Some little checky-poo's

Well, we did it... Matt and I FINALLY got pre-cana out of the way for our church. We went last saturday for 8 hours. It was long... and a tad boring, but at the same time it was pretty interesting. A small thing that happened was that this guy I used to date was there with his fiancee. It was interesting and a smidge awkward... Especially when he and Matt were talking. Oh, and he sat next to us the entire time.

In other news, I FINALLY ordered the majority of our invitation stuff! I ordered the pocketfolds today, the cardstock, and the rsvp postcards. I think I finally found the color I want for our invites, and Mo has been amazing with all of her help. I don't know where I'd be without her! I hope I can get everything soon so I can start printing and assembling.

Tomorrow, I have an appointment for a hair and make-up trial. I'm really excited, but a little nervous because I'm sick so I'm afraid I'm going to look horrible even after my make-up is done. Hopefully I'll feel better by tomorrow. I will update with pictures as soon as I get my trial done! I'm pretty excited!

So mad!

I am SO mad! My dad called me today to let me know that he did my taxes and said I owed the IRS $873!! I was expecting to get around that much back! I'm so upset, and so mad. I made a small deal with my parents that I would pay for all the paper things, and I was relying on my tax returns to be able to get all of our invitation stuff printed and everything! Now, I don't know what I'm going to do! I'm so mad...

Invite mock up

Yesterday, I had the epiphany that our wedding is only 4 months away. It really started to freak me out! I realized that I need to get all of our invitation stuff done by this month in order to send out our invites at the beginning of April. EEK! I have nothing done! I haven't even purchased anything! Last night I decided to make a mock up of what I want our invites to look like with the sample pocketfold I received from Renaissance Writings.I love the outcome, but I wish it was closer to my color instead of black. I'm also trying out a different color for the invitations that what I had originally planned (it would have just been too expensive to do that much color). I still haven't found exactly it.
The directions/map card is driving me crazy because I can't get it to work, and I'm the worst at wording directions. I'm happy that I was at least able to make a mock up so I know what it'll somewhat look like. At least I have a little while longer to make up my mind!

Oh, and p.s. it won't be a save the date card, it will be a R.S.V.P. postcard (cheaper postage)!

Hmm... A little thinking, a lot of thoughts!

I've had so many things running through my mind lately, I just haven't had the time to situate them out! So, I'm taking the opportunity, now, with no dogs, fiance's, tv's, radio's, and what not's to try to get these thoughts down!

1.) I'm worried that our registry has too many things on them/it. We've only finished registering at one store, but there are a million things on there! Also, since I am such a huge fan of cooking/baking, there's a ton of kitchen electronics on our registries that are on the expensive side. I'm scared that we'll end up with all the small stuff, and have to buy the big stuff ourselves. Which, if that ends up being the case, I think it would be a huge struggle with Matt to make sure I'd get at least my Kitchen Aide stand mixer (which is my dream wedding present)! I'm starting to feel like I should take some things off, but I can't find anything that I have been willing to part with! I guess we just need to finish our Target registry, then I can make the decision after wards. We still don't know where we're going to find wall decor/art. You'd think that since we live in our state's capital that the stores around here would be amazing, but they are less than up to par. :o(

2.) I'm pretty sure that my parents haven't put down our cake deposit yet. In fact I'm 99.99% sure. They are such procrastinator's and I'm scared she's going to get booked before I can send the money in! I would just do it myself, but I don't have an extra $200 that I can part with right now. Alas, I'll just have to rely on my parents for that deposit! The sad thing is, the cake maker only lives a block away from where my mom work's, so she could easily drop off the payment during her lunch break or something, but I know she won't.

3.) I feel like I'm falling behind on wedding stuff. I've just realized in the past few days that I need to get all the invitation stuff prepared this month in order to have it ready for send off the first week of April! AH! Luckily, Matt said he'd help me, and I plan on asking my maid of honor to come up from Chicago to help out, but I'm still freaking out just a little. Those direction cards are going to be the bain to my existence!

4.) I thought that I had made my veil, but I've decided that I want something more intricate. I just made a simple cathedral length veil, but discovered that the color was off. So sad, my poor little fingers hurt from doing so much sewing! Well, while I was researching fabrics/veils/beading and so forth, I remembered how I had tried on this gorgeous veil with my dress when I went to go pick it up. The veil was amazing, the price tag wasn't. I knew my dad would not be thrilled about paying $300 on a veil when he had just coughed over over $3,000 for my dress! Matt's grandma said that she was more than happy to help make my veil, but this pattern is so hard! I've tried to find paper patterns for it, but have come up with nothing! I don't know how I'm going to make it work! I would LOVE a cathedral or chapel length veil with a cascade cut, and maybe some turquoise jewels or satin rat tail around the edge. We'll see if she'll be able to work it out! It's pretty much like the picture below, but the end would be rounded/curved rather than coming to a point.
5.) Our honeymoon is starting to stress us both out. We had thought we found the perfect place. An all inclusive in Cancun that was at an extremely reasonable price. But with the ongoing drug wars going on in Mexico, we've decided that it would be better to stay away. We've started researching the Dominican Republic as well as Bermuda, but neither of them have seemed too attractive so far. I guess more or less just a lot of crime. I wouldn't mind just going to Hawaii! I just want to swim with the dolphins and go snorkeling.

6.) Lastly, I am so torn about b-pics (better known as boudoir pictures). They're usually done either in cute lingerie or something that you'd think your man would find sexy. It's tasteful, beautiful pictures of art. However, my body is not at it's best. In fact, it's the worst that it's ever been! I'm so ashamed to show any part of myself in public right now! I've heard that so many girls feel the same way, but (as long as your photog is good) their photographer makes them feel at ease and a lot of the times they end up leaving feeling sexy and impowered. I know that Matt would love them, but I don't know if I'd look back on them and think... ugh, what was I thinking?! Maybe I'll just put it off until next year and give it to him for our one year anniversary.