Hello my name is Courtney, and I have a problem.

I'm a shoeaholic in hiding. I like shoes. I drool over shoes. I want to buy about 15 pairs of shoes right now, and not even ones for the wedding. Just cute ones I've come across on my wedding shoe hunt that could be used for special occasions but aren't quite perfect for the wedding.

Oh the wedding shoe hunt continues. I think I have to return my beloved amigas. After re-trying them on, I've decided they are too big. And I can't decide if I want a smaller size, or to just return. I think they are super cute and fun and I like them a lot, but I don't know if they scream wedding to me.

Now, here are some more wedding shoes that I like.

Fuschia and bling and summery. But again, not so sure if they are bride-like.

These are cute, but they may be a little on the wintery looking side..........

but these... oh these... these are at the top of my list right now.

Satin- Check; Fuschia- Check; Bridal-like Check. And as an added bonus, I'm loving the wrap around satin tied bow at the top. Loving.

Sooooo now I have to decide if I like these better than the amigas (which I think I do) and if I should get them instead. Oh, why can't shoe shopping be easy? Why can't I just by 10 pairs of shoes to wear for the wedding and wedding events?

How hard was it for you to decide on a pair of wedding shoes?

Holas Amigas

The closer the wedding draws, the more and more I can't seem to make up my mind. The one thing I bought early was my shoes. They are hot pinky yumminess ........

(Please ignore the disgusting napkin in the background, I have no idea where that came from.)

However, ever since I bought those, I have been drooling over these babies for quite some time now

Christain Louboutin's= sooooooo not in the budget or even close to being in the budget. *sigh* aren't they pretty? Last week I even contemplated having some knock offs made and shipped to me from a knock off site. They were tons cheaper than the real deal, but did I really want to spend a few hundred on shoes someone in China made to represent the same look, but obviously wouldn't be the same quality? not. so. much.

My shoes although lusciously pink, I realized, were not that comfortable things in the world. They pushed against my foot bone and pushed against the top of my foot and hurt after awhile, and I didn't wear them for as long as I would at the wedding.... so they could potentially be problamatic. I could totally wear these for a short time, but a long 10hr day? I'm not really sure.

Hence, the shoe frenzy that began.

I searched and searched and searched... and then I found some really cute shoes.

Enter the Betsy Johnson, Amiga.

They are fun (hence the leopard soles), they are cute, they are summery(strapy sandals), they are girly (pink lace), and they have bling. Oh yeah, and the most important part, they are the same height as my first shoes so there will be no dress length drama thank the lord! And they were half off. I couldn't resit and I bought them.

I.Love.My. New. Shoes. They feel heavenly. BUT...... I don't know if they are wedding-y enough.

I Love how comfortable they are. The straps are slightly bigger than they need to be and seem to fall down and I'm wondering if I need to go down a 1/2 size in these babies. The 1/2 size smaller could potentially fix the problem.

You'll have to excuse the horrible pictures I take and the horribleness that are my unpainted toes right now and the really bad angle. Does anyone realize how hard it is to take a picture of shoes once they are on your foot? .... it's hard.

Old Shoes:

New Shoes:

Close up (Caution: scary feet ahead)

I'm not really sure how I feel about them now that I see the pictures. Maybe they aren't the one. They arne't the hot pink fuschia color I was looking for, but they certainly are cute... but are they wedding enough? I'm not so sure. Have I found my wedding shoe or should I keep looking? Should I go with the pink yumminess old shoe or the new comfortable one or something else? How many pairs did it take until you found the "one"?

Our Photog

The one thing that I stressed to The man that is important to me (besides marrying him) was to get great pictures from the day. The man and I have about 2 good pictures of us in all of our time of dating, thus why it was important to me to pick a photographer that would deliver. The man, of course, didn't see the need in spending a ton of money on pictures. I guess he isn't as sentimental as me, and I'm guessing there are some others out there who's men don't see the picture necessity also.

I started doing some research on photographers a long time ago and was not surprised at the prices for good pictures. I was all set to make some appointments and meet with some of the photographers that were within our budget, and one other one who had an ah*mazing portfolio online. I was discussing with the man the different price ranges of the photographers and then he suggested using someone from his home town that did some of his friends pictures. Emily would do our pictures for about half of what the photographers in this area would do. Half. That's a big difference.

She didn't have her own blog or website, and I was going off of what The man and his family said about their friends wedding pictures who had used her and had been completely happy with what she produced. I still haven't seen thier wedding album. The man really wanted to use her, and so we decided to go with her. The man's mom sent in a deposit for us.

I still haven't met our photographer. We didn't have engagement photos taken and I wish we had as I could have used them for about a million projects for the wedding, but nope, we didn't do that.

So I'm not really sure what I'm going to get, but what I hope to get is a bunch of great pictures capturing the essence of the day. And of course I have some "Must take" pictures, but mostly I'm going to let her be creative in getting those.

However, in looking at some photographer blogs I have a few pictures that I love, love love:

#1- The blurry motion in the background shot (I think the movie A lot like Love, made this famous and sought after, and I loved it in that movie also):




*Kelly Nicole's Blog and Anne Ruthmann's Blog

#2- Cool Ring shots. I just think these are fun!
I like how the shadow makes a heart. Love how it does that actually.




This one is cool because of what it spells out. I guess I want my ring shots to be different than the normal stuff a ring in a flower and take a shot. Just want something fun.


*weddingbee

#3- Shoe Shot. enough said.





*weddingbee


#4- some cool angled shots.

I like how this shot seems like you're looking up the aisle.


and of course, I will need some posed shots of The man and I that don't look posed at all. I don't want to be standing there staring at the camera smiling. But I do want shots of us... many many shots of us. I would also like a shot at sunset by the lake so we'll have to sneak outside for that at sunset. I'm okay with candid shots from the day, but I happen to make about 5 chins when i'm candid, so I will need some normal pictures too!

Where do you get your photography inspiration from?

Bring on the Bling!

I wanted one of those monogram toppers for our cake. You know, the ones that are just your single initial? I couldn't seem to find what it was exactly that I was looking for. I knew I wanted to have one that was blinged out with our colors(turquoise and pink). The only ones I could find came in clear bling, which would have been fine, if that is what I wanted.. but I didn't. I wanted color, and bling, and lots of it.

I decided in order to get what I wanted, I was going to have to make it myself.


I searched online for the cheapest brushed silver 5" cake topper I could find in the letter "R."
I found a site that had the letter I needed on clearance for $10, so I decided to get it. I originally bought the R from a site called chickweddingescentuals.com. It took about a MONTH for it to get to me, and after several e-mails got returned to me (I had to hung down their customer service e-mail and there was no number, which I didn't notice before), I finally found an e-mail address that worked. The chick said to me they had a "catastrophic" computer failure and that is why it took so long. I'm not really sure if I believe her or not, but all in all, I DID receive it finally.


I searched online for the cheapest swarovski flatbacks in Aquamarine and decided e-bay was the way to go for these. I promptly ordered 144 5ss Flatback crystals in aqua and 144 in fuschia.
I grossly misjudged the size and quantity I needed. The 5ss were perfectly sized, but because they were SOOOOOOOOOOOO small I needed a ton of them. And. I had to order more, a lot more. I ended up buying 10 gross (1 gross=144 crystals) from a seller on ebay for $40 and I used most of them.


I used a small paintbrush and brushed on glue and then took my crystals and placed them on the glue using the tweezers. I worked in small sections at a time and it didn't really matter if the glue dried before i got to it because it dried clear, so I'd just re-glue it when I got there again. I spent probably about 10 hrs on the whole project.


Here is a small section, this is after the first 144 crystals, about when I realized I would need about 10 more gross to complete the project:




here is another crapy pic.


I think my blinged out topper came out pretty nicely. Unfortunately, My camera taking skills suck and i can't figure out how to turn the flash off to take pics. But this is my finished product- all blinged out.





Although I like the result, I'm not sure if I would do this again as it was a very slow and painstaking process and after everything is said and done, i'm not sure how much I really "saved" by doing this myself.

It's Always, Martha Martha Martha!

I know people have their opinions about her, but seriously I think Martha Stewart is devine. I just love her amazing creativity and crafts! Naturally, when I was stumped as to what I should do for Valentine's Day this year, I turned to Martha, and she didn't dissapoint.

I was feeling uncreative and uninspired and yet I wanted something fun and cute that The Man would appreciate. I'm not really sure if my project this year is going to get that great reaction from the Man, only because I think a girl would appreciate it more(I mean, I KNOW I would like something like this, but lets be honest girls, no man would take the time to create something like this...)and I'm not really sure how it'll go over with the man simply because I'm not a guy. BUT I didn't want some comercialized candy and card, I wanted something more personal. I also didn't want to spend a ton o money buying something when we have the wedding coming up....

So this is what I came up with, or Rather, Martha come up with, and I stole(errr-borrowed) the idea.

Fortune cookies made out of felt. Yep, Cheap-o and easy. I HAD wanted to make real ones but it's hard to do with the Man sitting in the living room watching what i'm doing... and This way, he could have them forever and ever and ever....or until he throws them out.

If you want to create your own Felt Fortune Cookies you will need:

2 sheets of felt in the color of your choice

Floral wire(semi thick)

Craft glue

a spool of thin ribbon

Fabric scissors

a circle template

and Fortunes of course!

Chinese take out box

some candy

First, I grabbed a glass out of the cubbord and a pen. I traced the circular shape with the pen onto my felt. I got about 6-7 out of one sheet of felt. I wanted to use two colors so I kept on tracing. Next, I cut out my circles. I took out two of the floral wires and cut them into 6ths(really you just need the length to be somewhat smaller than the circumference of the cirle). Cut the ribbon in strips of the same length. Then I glued the floral wire lengthwise to the center of the cirlce. I immediately placed the ribbon on top of the wire and glue. After they dried for a day, I took them in my hand, stuck my pointer finger in the middle of the "cookie" and bent the cookie around my finger (this part creates the fortune cookie shape). I stuck the fortunes in there and packaged them up in my box.

I had also gotten a chinese looking take out box from AC Moore and put some hershy kisses in the bottom and then layered these babies on top.

I also made a card with minimum reading (he hates reading cards) that I think is cute and I am planning on making a nice romatic dinner tomorrow night/and or breakfast (since breakfast is his fave meal and my least favorite, I may suck it up and cook him some good eats in the am too). I am also planning on buying some "fortune cookie" scratch off cards. How perfect is that?

I happen to think this is an adorable idea, and I wouldn't mind getting something like this from the man any day. I hope he likes it too!

Have you thought of a creative way to let your man know how much you love him?

A Hairy Situation

I have always dreamed of having my hair in an updo for my wedding day. I couldn't seem to find the right picture until I came across this the other day:

Updo #1

I think it's the perfect mix of romantic, sexy, and natural looking.

I also really like this:
Updo #2



and this-

Updo #3

I have been planning on having it all up for quite some time.

The other day Bridesmaid Hot Mama(and The Man's older sister) asked me how i'd be having my hair fixed. And I told her an updo, and the Man overheard, and got a little annoyed at the meer prospect of having it all up. He insisted on half up-half down because hair looks "stupid all up in a bun." I laughed that he thought of an updo as a Bun on top of your head with nothing more, but it got me thinking.... maybe half-up half down can be seen as a little more romantic....and i'm not opposed to it. In fact, I was secretely wanting to check out some more half-up/down styles. Seeing as how the Man is interested in the half up/down look, I thought i'd do a little research.

So i started browsing for some pics or hair i liked in the half-up/half-down style.

Half #1

Of course my hair would need to grow about 6" within the next 6 months for this to be achieved!

Half #2:

Half #3:

I am liking the half up/down looks too. What's a girl to do?

Well, I'm going to ask you, that's what! Make sure to vote at the top of my blog on which style you think would fit me best!

Anxiety over......flowers?

In my previous post I said i wasn't much into flowers... which is somewhat true. I don't know the names of flowers nor do I like huge displays of them. I do, however, appreciate a good flower bouquet.


I think my problem when I went to look at flowers was that I just didn't do my homework. I had decided on lilies early on because I knew their name, and I do like them. Because it was hard to find bouquets and I thought I knew what I wanted, I stopped looking. Ever since I placed my order, I can help but think that I can do better on the flower front. I'm having anxiety over flowers which isn't normal, and I think it's because I'm not happy with my flower order and if i'm gonna drop $$ like that, I should be happy right?

Since I have time, I decided I will probably change my order.

I have awhile to change my mind so it's not a huge deal, but I do need some help.

Let's start with the bridesmaids.
This is an idea that I am liking, a lot and currently toying with:

This is a bridesmaid's bouquet picture where each of the bridesmaids carry a different flower! I actually really like this idea and hadn't thought of it before- there are hydrangeas, peonies, tulips, roses, and Gerber daisy's(although you can't see them all in the picture). I really like the one in front(I think it is hydrangea? but i'm not sure, whatever it is, I really like it).



I don't normally like carnations, but I really think this is quite cute!





These would be perfect for MOH Cooper:


and I also really like this Dahlia display*:


*ummmmmm, did you happen to notice the dress color, it's almost turquoise and look how Fab it looks with the hot pink-ness.

oh- snap. Here IS a turquoise dress with hot pink flowers. You like? I do too. There are three different types of flowers in this bouquet i could use on their own... sweet pea, tullips, and peonies(although I don't think any of them would be "in" season).




Ummmm, how did I never know this flower existed? hello sweet pea! I like you in lotion form, and now that I see you, I like you in flower form too. So pretty. And i like the name. Sweeeeeeeeeeeet peeeeeeeea.



I wonder, compared to what I already picked out, how these Single flower bouquets would stack up price wise. I'm going to have to do some research. fo' sure. I really think i may do the differeing bridesmaids bouquets. AND I think the pricing was affected by the price of flowers right now... right before Valentines day. *duh* so stupid to do flowers right now.


Now onto the Bride-
I think this is absolutely gorgeous for the bride. Blue bird roses, sweat pea, mini calla lily's, and orchids. Swoon.
This is a pretty bridal bouquet too. It includes, pink orchids, pink and white peonies, sweat pea, mini pink calla lily's, and light pink and champagne roses.


OR, what If I went back to my original decision of just orchids.. white and pink and oh so pretty! I never did ask how much that would cost, I just assumed it would be a lot(i'm sure it is, but it wouldn't hurt to ask).





Now that you've seen the choices, which bouquet look would you choose?

If I had a Million Dollars...

I would drape the reception area and probably the ceremony area too--in Orchids, my favorite flower. They would hang from the ceiling in somewhat of a similar pattern to this (in my colors of course):

And I would have beautiful orchid bouquets for the girls that would look like this:



Oh yeah, the reception might look like this:

So.................you might think I'm crazy but I have a confession to make..........

I'm not a flower person.

I'm do not know the names of many flowers and I do not want huge flower displays at my wedding, unless they are orchids, which I would happily display all over the place at my wedding. Which leads me to wondering if I can't afford Orchids, then what in the heck am I gonna get?

I met with our Florist, Central Market Florist at Price Chopper in Glens Falls, over the weekend to go over the flowers I would be needing for the wedding.

After dreaming of Orchids everything, I came back to reality because as much as I wanted orchids, I don't live where they are affordable and we are not getting married where they are affordable. *sigh*

So instead of orchids, we discussed a more realistic option for bouquets for my girls. Hand tied bouquets consisting of roses and lillies, lillies being the other flower that I really like and probably one of the only flowers I know the name of. And everyone uses roses, so why not mix the two together.

I think it'll be very pretty. I'm imaging it looking similar to this:

We discussed my bouquet which is going to be very similar to the girls, but bigger and in different colors and with stephanopolis(sp?) added in.

We also discussed the Boutineers for the men and corsages for the mothers/grandparents. Not being a flower novice, I left there feeling like maybe I made all the wrong decisions.

And then we discusssed the price. Which to be honest, was a lot more than I was expecting it to be!

We kind of discussed centerpieces, but I didn't leave with a feeling that the centerpieces they would make would be exactly what I envisioned. I found this centerpiece which I have been drooling over and couldn't imagine it costing a lot to recreate. It is located here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/glassslippergourmet/2272433272/

Price chopper didn't have the right kind of vases for these centerpieces and were going to charge me $10/per vase to rent a vase I wasn't in love with that I could prob buy for the same price using a 40% off coupon at AC Moore. Currently I'm looking for flared vases like the ones pictured. AND on top of that she pretty much told me they (a) might not be able to get the pink orchid I want, (b) could have a problem submerging it and (c) I would have to get my own pebbles/sand/pink stuff for the bottom of the centerpiece. Oh and they would charge me about $400 to put together (stems included) if I provided the vases I wanted....

Ummmmmmmmm-wait, what? You can't gaurentee the flower I want? AND on top of that, I would have to buy vases for them to use since they didn't have what I wanted, and possibly find a way for them to submerge the flower also. You've got to be kidding me?! Shouldn't a florist be able to guarentee you a specific color or that they could at least DO what you want?

I'm not gonna lie, I left there with a sinking feeling in my gut. Something wasn't right.

I'm having slight anxiety over the flowers. Over flowers! I can't help thinking I'm making the wrong choice.. as in florist wise. Everyone has said Price Chopper is a lot cheaper, but is it really? I put down a deposit, but it wasn't much so I don't think i'll mind if I chose to go with someone else and lose it.... and now I think I wanna look around a little more for a better deal. With the economy the way it is... you would think someone would want to give me a little bang for my buck.

How did you decide on flowers for your ceremony/reception? Did leave feeling confident in your decisions or did you second guess yourself?