Courtney B No More

looks like we made it

2010-07-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

As my one year anniversary approaches, I find myself having a hard time believing it's already been a year and pondering what the perfect 1 yr anniversary gift would be. I know the traditional 1 year anniversary gift is "paper" but I'm having a hard time thinking of something paper for my husband.

I was hoping to get some ideas flowing at some point, but I've got nothing. What have all of you done for your first year anniversary?

Dissapointment!

2010-06-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

We had discussed wanting to take a deep sea fishing trip while we were in Jamaica. By the time we decided we were definitely going to splurge and go deep sea fishing, most of the fishing trips were full. Like all the other activities we needed to sign up and they only could take a certain amount of people on each sea fishing tour.

The only day for the week that was still available was Sunday. We weren't actually leaving until Monday so it worked out perfect for us. We signed up for the spot on Sunday and she immediately told us that the trip would not go out unless there were at least 4 people and that although we were signed up to go, we might not actually be able to go out unless 2 more people signed up. She then went on to say that Sunday is usual a travel day for people- people leaving, people checking in... so it was less likely that more people would sign up.

We kept our fingers crossed that people would sign up or that someone would cancel a reservation for earlier in the week and we would be contacted to go then. Neither one happened.

Unfortunately we waited to long to sign up for the seep sea fishing and we didn't end up being able to go.

And so, on Sunday we ended up relaxing on the beach, having some hummingbirds and enjoying our last day in paradise before we headed back to reality the next day.

And that's it folks. It only took me almost a whole year to finish the recaps, but I enjoyed looking back at our honeymoon as our one year anniversary is quickly approaching.

The Martha Brea

2010-06-16T13:32:00.000-07:00

Way before the wedding or honeymoon were even thoughts in my mind, I had seen this whole documentary on the bamboo river rafting that could be done in Jamaica and thought to myself how cool that would be to float down the river and really get to see the country you are visiting. When we arrived in Jamaica this was something I really wanted to do. I really wanted to be able to see what the country was like that we were visiting, not just the Americanized section we were staying in. Lucky for us, all we had to do to set up the river trip was take a little walk down to the activity center at Sandals. They set the whole thing up for us.

We were in Negril and the bamboo trip down the Martha Brea River was in Montego Bay. I guess we didn't realize at the time that we had a two hour drive to get to the river. Even though we had a long car ride, I was glad that we decided to go.

Did I mention how crazy they drive in Jamaica?

After the two hour car ride, we arrived at the spot that the river tours started and met our river rafting guide.

We were there on a Saturday which apparently is the LEAST busy day. I would have thought it to be one of the busiest, but I'm glad that we hit it just right. Our tour guide was really cool. He talked to us and pointed things out the whole time.

The river was not as clear as I imagined it being, it was sort of this murkey looking color and it was disappointing to not see the bottom. Our guide said it is usually clear but that the rain had made it muddy.

It was really great to see the pretty nature part of Jamaica.

There was certainly a lot of green.

and bamboo!

There were little huts set up at various points along the river, but they were all empty. Our guide told us on the busy days the locals set up shop there and sell things to the tourists from the riverside. There was one shop open and they threw us a hand carved bamboo boat. It was very detailed and beautiful. Our guide told us that if we wanted it we kept it and would pay for it at the end of the trip (the "seller" would meet us at the end of the tour), however, if we didn't want it we needed to throw it back. As much as we would have liked to have kept it as a reminder of the adventure it was pretty expensive and we didn't have a lot of cash on us so we ended up throwing it back.

Our guide had things that he carved as well. Carving is a big lively hood in Jamaica and they do some wonderful work! Our guide actually took coconuts and carved designs into them. They were beautiful, so we sprung for one.

At the end of the trip we get off the raft and have to walk through the gift show to get to our cab. They are trying to sell things the whole time to us. I was pretty annoyed with the persistence of the store clerks. We hadn't brought much money with us because we weren't planning on buying anything while on the river so we were highly annoyed that after saying we didn't want anything they kept pestering us.

Overall, I was glad we did the trip, it was insightful and great to see Jamaica in that way.

The wonderful world of fish

2010-06-14T04:29:00.000-07:00

When the Man an activity center you went through if you wanted to do anything outside the resort. It was pretty cool because they set the whole thing up for you including travel. There was a fee of course but everything was charged to your room.

If you stuck to the activities offered by the Sandals Resort then you didn't actually need to bring any cash with you which we thought was pretty cool. We wish we had known ahead of time, but we know for next time.

We decided to sign up for a deep sea fishing trip and a bamboo raft trip down the Martha Brea River on Saturday and Sunday for the paid activities. Along with the paid activities there were a few free ones that Sandals offered right there on the resort. We fully took advantage of these on Friday and I wish we had done so earlier in the week.

Sandals offered a glass bottom boat tour for free. The glass bottom boat was small and you really couldn't see anything through the bottom but the captain of the trip was a riot. He made the trip hilarious. The made us wear those ugly orange life vests the whole way too. we all looked super hot.

Not satisfied with the glass bottom boat tour, we decided to try snorkeling. Snorkeling was where it was at! I hadn't snorkeled since I was a little kid in my pool, so it was my first real time doing it. Took me a little while to get used to the feel of breathing out of the tube, but it was so worth it. We went to a spot called the "cave" and although there were lots of jellyfish that kept coming near me, it was fabulous. I can't even begin to explain all of the life down there on the ocean floor. I felt like I was swimming right along with the fishes and the jellyfish. I noticed the jellyfish had a light purple design on them instead of being completely clear and I thought that made them really pretty too.

We signed up for three more snorkeling adventures later in the day because it was so cool. Each time we went out we got lucky enough to go to a different spot! The last spot we went to the "reef" was the most colorful. There were schools brightly colored fish swimming below me and along side me. It was amazing.

We had bought a cheap underwater camera and took lots of pictures but the ones that came out came out cloudy and did not capture the amazing sights we saw down there. It was quite disappointing to get the film back and not have any of the pictures portray what we had seen!

I would snorkel again and again. It's such a fun and free activity that I suggest everyone take advantage of it whenever they can!

Did you try something on your honeymoon you wish you'd tried earlier?

Shop till you drop

2010-06-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

After the Man spent a whole day in bed, I was ready to get out there and explore a little of Jamaica. We had set up a shopping trip through Sandals. They drove us to the site and stayed there while we shopped around inside. It was a little strange having someone wait for us to shop, but since we were the only ones signed up for that time slot, it wasn't too awkward.

The driver brought us to the little strip mall that I suppose was built for tourists. All sorts of Jamaican memorabilia stocked the stores. Most of the stores carried the usual t-shirts, hats and other clothing with Jamaica sprawled across the front. I purchased one shirt that said Jamaica on it, call me predictable but I wanted a physical reminder of our time there. We then searched for some different kinds of gifts for our families.

We found these hand crafted bamboo wind chimes that struck me as beautiful. So we bought several as gifts for our families. They seemed to encompass the true spirit of the Jamaican crafters. We also found a photo album made completely from bamboo leaves and plants which we thought was so extraordinary that we bought it for ourselves.

After we were done with the Americanized "mall" we headed on over to the craft show. The craft show in Jamaica is very different than anything I've ever been to in America. The show was in "true" Jamaica. All sorts of little work huts were set up in the square. Each hut was someone Else's craft "studio" and it had tons of the most amazing hand crafted wood carvings. The artists were in their studio's trying to sell you everything. I was completely overwhelmed. I hate when people come up to me in stores to try to help me or sell me things and that was what was happening here. We bought a few things from one of the studio's and then the artist forced to to go to his son's studio next door. I did find this really cool cat figuring he had carved that made me think of MOH and I bargained with him to give it to me for the price I wanted. He didn't want to and I felt guilty for trying to talk him down knowing that he was probably living in a little shack up the road, but we were running out of shopping money and I wanted it. Rather than lose a sale we came to an agreement in the middle. We did not check out any other studio's after that. Everyone wanted to sell you something and I was feeling completely smothered.

Shopping in the craft fair was different than I was used to but it also exposed me to the culture of Jamaica which is what I wanted all along. We left with some great gifts and some amazing hand crafted carved figurines and wall plaques.

Jamaican me....sick

2010-05-13T05:02:00.001-07:00

So there we were in the middle of a tropical paradise. We had already had a fabulous dinner on the beach and a couples massage that the man set up for us. The man had taken a course in scuba diving while I patiently awaited him to rejoin me at the beach because I wasn't allowed to go. After the man returned from scuba diving it began storming out, well actually it started storming while he was still out there, but it was still storming when he came back to me. After meeting him at the pick up spot we went back to our room to watch. You see, in Jamaica it rained every day for an hour or so and then the sun came out and it was beautiful again. You would never know it had rained.

We spent the rest of the day doing things together on the beach and in the pool--relaxing mostly, something I really needed after the year of wedding planning I had done.

The man told me all about the beautiful creatures he saw scuba diving and admitted that he would do it all over again, but since it was our honeymoon he limited it to just that one time. Smart move hunny. We enjoyed the rest of the day together but after dinner the man started to not feel well.

He was burning up. The next day he was full on sick all day. He felt like crap and was burning up. He blamed it on the water they so blatantly keep filling up at the table. The man felt horrible so it was no surprise that he didn't want to do anything. at. all. I'm not going to lie- I was bored and slightly annoyed that he didn't want to do anything since I had wasted the whole day before waiting for him to get done scuba diving. But then I remembered my manners. He was not faking. He was sick and you can't help when you get sick.

while the man slept in bed all day trying to recover from his mysterious illness I stuck it out by the pool for most of the day. They had fun things going on there like couples treasure hunts (which I so wanted to do but I was minus a partner), dance off's, fun music, and finally the pool volleyball that I loved.

I kept sneaking back to the room to check on my little sick man and I felt bad for him that he was having such a bad reaction to.... something.

He thought it was the water and stopped drinking it and stopped drinking drinks with ice or made from ice. I luckily was able to tolerate the water and didn't get sick at all! Thank goodness because I need ice. I need my drinks to be cold. really cold. I put ice in my chilled water at home to make it colder. And Jamaica had this amazing frozen drink called the "hummingbird" that I was not willing to give up no matter what. Best drink, ever! I don't know what was in it, but oh my god was it good!

I'll tell you what else was good. The soup. Seriously, when hear the word Jamaica, soup would never have came to mind but I had several kinds when I was there and they were all fabulous. I'm not even kidding. My all time favorite was the lemongrass coconut. Yes, I remember the name of it almost a whole year later- that's how good it was. I have a love for all things coconut anyway, but this was something else. There was a carrot cinnamon soup that was a close second. I have looked for some recipes since I got home but sadly I have not been able to replicate the soups I had there.

The man survived the day and night and the next day he was feeling a lot better.

Did you run into any complications on your honeymoon?

I've been a bad bad girl

2010-05-12T19:40:00.001-07:00

In case you haven't noticed, I fell off the blogging bandwagon for the last six months or so. I just stopped logging in and recapping, and for those of you following my story I am sorry to have disappeared so abruptly. I will get back to my recaps soon, but sadly I no longer have pictures because our computer crashed AGAIN and we lost everything on it-again. You would think I would have learned due to the loss of wedding documents and information several months earlier, but no, I had to go and think that it wouldn't happen again and that I didn't need to back anything up. Luckily there weren't that many pictures I haven't shared already because my camera died pretty early into the trip. I thought I had packed an extra battery pack that was charged, however, it was dead too. But that is for a different post.

What has caused my long term absenteeism? Well, I would love to tell you life has been perfect since that day we said, "I do," but I think you all know by now that nothing is perfect and the course doesn't often run smooth.

Don't take it the wrong way--Married life has been wonderful. The man and I are in love and doing great. But life-life has been challenging since before I last left you.

Shortly after the honeymoon, and by shortly I mean 3 days after we returned from the honeymoon and came home to a house filled with: wedding clutter, wedding gifts,wedding attire, vacation laundry and absolute chaos; we did something stupid. We drove an hour away to "look" at German Shepherd puppies. The man convinced me to go and I should have known that looking at puppies would lead to a lifetime commitment I wasn't so sure I was quite ready to make, but I went there believing we were only looking. Little did I know we would see the cutest little puppy ever. She was full of spunk, playful with her own personality and she came right up to me and licked my leg. I fell in love with her face. The man fell in love with her willingness to bite all the other puppies.
And that was all it took. Remmi was leaving with us and was to become the newest member of our family!
I quickly found out that puppies are cute for a reason. If they weren't cute, no one would put up with them. Life after puppy ("LAP") certainly changed. The man started working longer days away from home which meant puppy watching was left up to me. LAP was not a fun time for me. Having the added stress of a new puppy, going back to my dreaded job after such an amazing vacation and the mounting chaos that was piled in our house and a feeling of no time to do anything, I began having panic attacks.

If you've never had a panic attack, it is not a fun time at all. I had had anxiety before, but never in my life felt anything like this. It kind of feels like you are having a heart attack and all the while you are convinced you are dying. I found out later that I had bursitis in my shoulder, which was causing me to have pain and numbness radiating down my left arm. Which in turn was raising my blood pressure and causing my heart to race and bringing on the panic attack. After the first one and spending hours in the ER convinced I was having a heart malfunction, I knew what they were and what they felt like, but they = not so much fun.

Not to worry, my mom went to my house and rescued our newly adopted puppy for the night that I was in ER. Puppy returned to me addicted to stealing my socks. I blame my mother.

LAP then became very routine. Go to work, come home, deal with puppy biting me with her needle like teeth all night and play with puppy all night because all she wanted to do was play. I couldn't stop anywhere after work because I had to go home and let her out of her crate, I couldn't meet up with my friends for coffee because she was waiting for me to get home. I couldn't even cook dinner because she was attacking me wanting to play. My life now revolved around the little life that we decided to adopt. I kept reminding myself how cute she was and somehow that got my through the puppy stage.

She's a pretty good dog now. We have trained her to do a lot of things and she's super smart so she picks up on things really quickly. She has brought some joy into my life---

--except the day I came home to find she had ate my coach umbrella..... but I have since forgiven her for that.

Have you added any new members to your family after tying the knot?

Telling the Truth Hurts

2009-12-23T05:33:00.000-08:00

Ever since the Man moved from his hometown to mine I remembered him going on and on about how he wants to go scuba diving. We talked about going in Jamaica before we even stepped on the plane. We were looking forward to it a lot. The second day we were there we went and signed up to do it the following day.

They had us fill out a questionnaire and told us to be truthful on it. The man went through and marked no's on every question, while I had one yes. One. I used to have asthma when I was a kid. It was mostly animal induced from the pet hair in the house from our cat and two dogs which I was highly allergic to. BUT since I marked a yes, they told me I couldn't go!

I was told I couldn't go unless I got a note from my doctor telling them I was physically fit enough to go. They told me I could have it faxed over. I called my doctors office to see if they could fax a note over, but they were closed for the week on Vacation.

I decided it wasn't meant to be for me for some reason and told the Man that he should still go! He was hesitant since it was our honeymoon, but I knew it was something he was dying to do and the prices were pretty good in Jamaica.

So he decided to go and he had an amazing time. He was gone for half the day, but the smile on his face afterwards was totally worth it. He told me he didn't think I would have liked it because I have slight anxiety and he thought it def would have caused an attack, so I'm glad I didn't go.
The Man had a great time, saw a lot of cool fish and would suggest it to everyone.

A man of many surprises

2009-12-22T19:12:00.000-08:00

After our afternoon tryst in the pool playing Volleyball, we headed back to the room for some showering action before heading off to dinner. The Man suggested that we dress up, so I got out a dress and he put on his only dress shirt he brought, the Hawaiian one. What I didn't know was that the Man had set up a surprise dinner on the beach for us weeks ago. After we had gotten ready, the Man suggested making ourselves a drink from our fully stocked bar/fridge before heading off to dinner. Soon after we made a drink there was a knock on the door.

We were met by our server for the evening and she asked us to follow her. Of course, at this point I had begun to figure out he had a little surprise up his sleeve. We were brought to a very pretty table set up on the beach with an excellent view of the sunset.

(Photos taken by our server)

They even drew a heart in the sand and filled it with rose petals. It was romantic.

Our server got our meal choices for the evening and took off to have them prepared. While we were waiting Sandals staff decided to take our pictures which we were then allowed to buy before leaving sandals (they charge you an arm and a leg, but then again they are there documenting your honeymoon so who wouldn't want the pictures?) Please excuse my fluffy hair, as I did not have my hair straightener and it was beyond humid there!

They had us pose and somehow I thought the pictures would come out better than they did, but then again I am not very photogenic and we did get some cute ones!

The server came back and sold us a bottle of wine which was the same exact bottle of wine they restock our fridge with in our room for FREE everyday. It was not good wine either. I was a little annoyed that they charged us for it and wished I had just gone back to the room and grabbed our bottle! But it was my fault for wanting wine, I should have known better. Other than that, the dinner on the beach was great. I won't bore you with the details but the food was delicious, the sunset was amazing and the sand flies were biting!

Yes, I said sand flies. There were no mosquito's there, but they had something worse. Sand Flies! Those things are viscous!

Anyone else encounter something different on their honeymoon?

The thing about rooms

2009-12-18T05:18:00.000-08:00

The thing about rooms is that if you aren't happy you have to switch rooms to make it better. We had to switch rooms 4 times. 4 times! The first room smelled of paint, so they moved us upstairs. The second room wasn't a walk out terrace room (which is what we paid for), the third room smelled of paint again (they did recognize their mistake and moved us one more time). After the 4th move, I was FINALLY able to unpack my clothes and hang them up so they didn't wrinkle more than they already were! Besides the whole room smelling like paint and musical rooms debacle, Sandals was fabulous.

After we finally settled into our room we went down to the beach to relax finally. The weather was warm, sunny, and humid. The water was warm like bath water and clear-very clear and very turquoise. So pretty!

Soon after we went in to try the water out we heard bunches of people talking about the jellyfish. Which in turn freaked me out. One of the couples started saying there was one right there- and I got curious. I wanted to see what it looked like so i could avoid them. Well people, they are clear and very hard to see and while I was inspecting the one that everyone was looking at another one happened to brush up upon my leg. It did not feel good at all. I was in pain and wanted out of the water.

The man didn't think I could have gotten stung because he didn't see anything in the water and he was right there and did not get stung, but I did. I had the huge red line on my leg to prove it. The jellyfish sting left a large red welt and once that went down a red line stayed for weeks. The pain eventually went away and I think I got brushed up against and not fully stung, but oh how even that hurt.

Of course, my first time in the Caribbean ocean and I have to go and get stung by a jellyfish!

After the jellyfish incident, I didn't want to go back in the ocean for the rest of the day, so we headed over to one of the pools to relax and ended up doing something we hadn't done in years

We joined some other couples and played a little pool volleyball! That's us on the left. I had so much fun.

Then the man made me get out of the pool and told me he had a surprise for me.... I was intrigued. It had been quite the day already and we headed off to go and shower up and get ready for the surprise.

And here is the rest of it.

Welcome to Sandals Jamaica

2009-11-25T04:58:00.000-08:00

Our road trip out to Negril Jamaica was a long and informative trip. I enjoyed learning about all of the little towns we drove through, but by the time we arrived I was so glad to have my feet on land again.

We went inside and were told to wait in the waiting room for our check in. They grouped a few couples together and while everyone else waited they were given a cold towel and a big cup of Rum Punch. I totally needed the punch after our day of travel.

We were finally brought up to check in and then we had to wait again for the rooms to be ready. All I wanted to do at that point was to go take a little nap in my bed, after all we had gotten up at 3am to start our trip. But I was hungry too, so I settled on going to the Island Grill for some grub while we waited.

It was humid, sunny, and BEAUTIFUL. The service was great. The people were friendly, the food was yummy and we were in Jamaica!

Soon after we were done eating, our room was ready.

The room was really nice and although smaller than I imagined, it had GREAT air conditioning. It felt so amazing after being out in the humid weather! Although I liked our room, the Man was not a fan of the paint smell that was slowly taking over the room. After a while it started to cause me to get a head ache too. And so, we went to do the one thing we didn't want to do, complain! The staff was really sweet and changed us to a different room, but it was not a walk out balcony room like we had before, so they said the next night we would have switch rooms again.

Since we couldn't unpack, we relaxed, had some drinks, enjoyed the view

and just took in the fact that we started out the day in NY and ended the day being in Jamaica!

And We're Off

2009-11-18T11:01:00.001-08:00

After all the stress of planning our wedding, the man and I were soooooooooooo looking forward to getting out of town for our fabulous honeymoon.

We had decided we didn't want to do anything for ourselves on the honeymoon and wanted to be pampered for a whole week so we looked into an all inclusive honeymoon spot. After much contemplation and months of indecision, we settled on Sandals in Negril Jamaica.We had narrowed it down to Jamaica but there were several all-inclusive resorts in Jamaica so we headed over to TripAdvisor and looked up all the places. Negril had some fabulous reviews and so it was decided.

I was both excited and nervous. Excited because we were going on our honeymoon, nervous because not only had I never been out of the country before, but I had never flown before. ever. You see, my mom HATES flying so we never went anywhere on vacation where we couldn't get to by car.The anticipation of flying was causing some serious nerves to erupt. The Man told me not to worry, and I tried not to, but of course it's not that easy.

As it turns out, Flying was a piece of cake. All that worrying for nothing! I didn't care much for taking off or landing, but once we were up in the air, I was completely at ease.

A few hours after we took flight, we landed in sunny, warm, humid Jamaica!

After going through customs, exchanging some American money for Jamaican (which you totally do NOT have to do-hey we didn't know), we were shuffled to a waiting room for Sandals guests where we were offered a beer-

Red Stripe, of course, while we waited. Once the Sandals shuttle arrived to take us to the hotel, our bags were taken out by a Currier who did not work for Sandals. They are not afraid to ask for tips in Jamaica and with the accent The man was having a hard time understanding what the Currier was saying. We paid the man and got in the shuttle.

I was not expecting the drive out to Negril to take another 2 hrs, but it did. And it was insane. The way they drive in Jamaica is VERY different from in the States, and outside of Montego Bay (where we flew into) there are not traffic lights. Basically they drive REALLY fast and beep their horns when they come up to an intersection-they don't even look or stop. The Man even said the driving was a bit psychotic.

While I didn't enjoy the way they drive there, I did enjoy the ride out to Negril. It gave us a chance to see the real Jamaica, not the commercialized Jamaica. I knew that it was a poor country, but it was really sad to see some of the places that people lived in. It really makes you appreciate all that you have here. The driver narrated a lot of the trip and told us all about each little village we were in which i loved hearing about.

Finally, the trip was over, and we had arrived in Sandals Negril.

Up next, our introduction to Sandals.

Vows with a View: Shake your groove thang

2009-11-16T05:24:00.000-08:00

My DJ had a hard time getting people up and dancing- at first. Some of my friends and I had to be the first one's out there, enticing others to join us. Once people were on the dance floor, they stayed, and danced and danced and danced. My DJ did a great job keeping the beats flowing and everyone happy.

Some of the guests needed a little liquid encouragement, and it was Hot Mama's hubby to the rescue:

I loved that my aunts and uncles were out there shaking it

We knew our friends would be out there on the dance floor

And I didn't realize my parents would be dancing ALL NIGHT Long. They were so so so very cute!
In fact, my mama danced so much that she threw her hip out and couldn't walk for a week! Now that's commitment!

My new husband had no problem shaking his butt on my mama

Partner in Crime and I got down and dirty
And I'm not sure how it happened, but before we knew it a circle had formed and everyone took turns dancing through the middle. Sort of like a dancing initiation. This is my girl A and I working it in the center.

As the night went on, the dancing got a little naughty
I managed to save a few dances for my groom
Best. Night. Ever.

Vows With a View: Did someone say cake?

2009-11-13T17:49:00.000-08:00

So I'm not sure how many or you know or not that I LOVED my cake baker. Okay, not loved so much that I wanted to marry him, but loved him in a close 2nd to that. I had a dream.... and apparently it was hard to fulfill the dream for some bakers, but I lucked out and hit the baker Jackpot.

Not only did I find a Baker that would work with my peanut/nut allergy, but I found a baker that had a cake plan that I never knew was possible, but that I jad always wanted.

I interviewed a few cake bakers before deciding who would be making our wedding cake. Basically, I knew before I met him that I would choose Jeremy. I had done some research online and found that Jeremy from Gambles has some pretty sweet reviews. In fact, I had pretty much bet that I would chose him just from the reviews I had read. However, I had a pretty big circumstance I was hoping he would be able to guarantee.........

When I met Jeremy I never expected him to know what kind of cake I wanted. My groom doesn't really like cake, so I brought my mama and MOH Cooper along with me. I guess I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted my cake to look like at the moment. I knew I wanted it to taste fantastic, but I was sort of all over the place with cakes.

I brought several pictures of cakes I was interested in with me to the meeting. Jeremy laughed at me and told me my cakes were all so different from each other that he didn't know what I wanted. I told him the important things to me were that the cake was not plain (ie: textured), that it was round, and that it had some butterfly's. Jeremy showed me a picture of a cake that he pontially had on order from a bride and I knew right then it was the one!

I'm not going to lie, I was NOT disappointed and I LOVED my cake:

Not only was the detail impeccable, but the taste was oh so amazing. Jeremy gave me what I wanted exactly with looks and taste. what more could you ask for?

Ummm, do you see how excited I am to cut this cake:

I didn't even get to eat my cake, but I am excited about the top layer we froze (which is raspberry with white chocolate filling) for our 1 yr anniversary!

We decided not to smash the cake in each other's faces but to nicely feed each other the piece:

Somehow the Man and I ended up with a little frosting on ourselves but whatever........

at least he cleaned me off. And the guests all raved about how yummy the cake was!

Up next-dance moves?

Vows With a View: So You Think You Can Dance?

2009-11-12T06:09:00.000-08:00

After the drama of our guests being taken away by ambulance, my groom came back in and so did everyone else that was attending the "fallen" guests and we did what everyone wanted us to do, we continued the party.

First things first, we needed a little help relaxing after the drama of the night before, the excitement of the ceremony being "real" and the drama of the guests being taken away by ambulance, so my groom and I headed to the bar to get a little helper.

And we were ready to get the party started after that.

My daddy and I danced to "I loved her first" He picked the song and I knew it would make we cry. Instead of crying I talked to him the whole time, and we joked and laughed and had a great time.

Towards the end of our dance together my dad passed me over to my new groom, and he took my mom in his arms. It was a nice way to symbolize of his acceptance of my new hubby.

And my Hubby had decided to let his mama pick the song he'd dance to as well (2 less decisions for us to make) and she chose Josh Grobin's "You raise me up"

And with all the formal dances done and over, it was time for something really yummy.
Up next-Did someone say Cake?

Vows with a View: The Party Must go on

2009-10-29T17:01:00.001-07:00

I had just finished returning to the reception from the bathroom. I didn't think I had been gone THAT long, but when I returned there were a bunch of people missing, including my groom.

My mom came over and told me she didn't want to worry me but that one of the guests had some kind of allergic reaction and they took her to the hospital and her parents left with her. If only i'd been around when it happened I could have let her borrow my epi-pen. To this day we aren't sure what she ate that made her have a reaction. She said she only had some cheese which she's never had a problem with before and then before you know it she was having a horrible reaction!

That explained the ambulance and missing people, but there were still quite a few not in the room, including my groom.

My mom then continued to tell me that someone else had a heart attack. She wasn't sure who he was because he was on my Groom's side, but that explained where my new husband was.

My hubby used to be a first responder and so was his father, so when Guest R had the heart attack they responded and brought him outside and administered 1st aid until the ambulance came. He left by ambulance with his wife and was admitted to the hospital where they ran all sorts of tests and kept him overnight.

I wasn't quite sure what to do at that point. Who has a reception that has two people taken away by ambulance in the first few minutes of the party?

My groom came back inside shortly after and we did what any couple could do that just got married and had two horrible events take place. We continued to celebrate our marriage.

As it turns out, both guests were fine! The girl with the allergy was released later that evening and Guest R with the heart attack was released the next day, not knowing what really happened. They said he didn't really have a heart attack, but they didn't have an explanation for what happened to him.

Have any of your guests had to leave by ambulance?

Vows with a View: The Party DRama

2009-10-21T07:44:00.000-07:00

After months and months of planning the wedding, we finally tied the knot, and we were looking forward to a nice relaxing evening of celebrating to top off the perfect day. What we got was a whole lot of interesting stories to tell.

After we were introduced as Mr. & Mrs. Roser,

We went right into our first dance which we dance to Big and Rich's "Lost in this moment" and tried to imagine that we were not being stared at by a hundred of our guests.

It was our first "real" moment alone together all day. We talked, we laughed, we swayed the the music, we smooched.

It was great.

After our dance I stole Partner in Crime and MOH Cooper to help me out of the most uncomfortable shoes I've ever worn (they sure were cute though)!

but mostly I needed their help peeing. I had been holding it since Right Before the ceremony began and it was esential that I release it. We decided the best way to accomplish this task-since we all had rooms- was to go to MOH's room (closest) and just get naked. I stepped out of my dress, and took off my slip and ran to the bathroom. I decided my slip was making me way to hot on the dance floor and opted not to put it back on. MOH and Partner in Crime zipped me back into my dress and this was the way I went to the bathroom all night.

This process had taken a little while and by the time I got back to the reception area, there were a bunch of people missing (including the Man) and shortly after that something else was there-something we were not expecting to see at our reception:

Oh-you want to know what happened? Well, you are going to have to wait in suspense...just like I had to.

Did you have any unexpected events occur at your wedding/reception?

Vows With a View: Details

2009-10-21T07:12:00.000-07:00

While the bridal party, family and I were out finishing off our formal shots outside, the guests wandered inside for the cocktail hour where they enjoyed some drinks and appetizers! We had our own butler outside that delivered us each a drink and walked around with food-but not wanting to get any stuck in our teeth while we were picture taking, sadly, we did not get to enjoy any appetizers.

The gift table was all set up in the cocktail room, and it looked fabulous. I updated my card box with some thicker ribbon and added some butterflys at the last minute. In front of that you can see my completed guest book that I refabed. Just to the left of the guest book, you can see our ring bowl I bought off of etsy. I was happy to be able to have the ring bowl for the future, however, it did not survive our rambunctious ringbearer and got broke that day. Hope that's not a sign of bad luck!

The name cards I worked so hard on (right before our computer broke-I was glad I had finished them) The different colored paper stood for the three different food options we had (Chicken, pork and filet mignon). I love how cute these looked all set up!

After we were done with our formal pictures, Roberta, our wedding coordinator (assigned by the hotel, who I LOVED) snuck me away to have the first glimpse of the room after it was all set up.

I walked into the room and saw this:

and this:

Our Sweetheart Table:

Close up of the Table Numbers, Candles, and Favors:

Inside the favors:

My mom had bought us the customized M & M's for the favors. Thanks Ma-they were sweet.

The hotel Staff had set up the whole room exactly how I had asked. They did a GREAT job. I was blown away with how beautiful it all looked and how well my vision had pieced together.I was even more surprised when Roberta said to me that our wedding was probably the priettiest wedding she'd ever seen (and she'd been working there for 20 years). She told me that a lot of the brides didn't put much effort into it, not like I had, and it made me feel very proud to have been blessed with the crafty gene and able to create something so beautiful.

Did your reception look the way you had envisioned it?

Vows With a View: The formal us

2009-10-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

This post is picture heavy with some of our formal shots of us. Our photographers Emily Johnston and Mary McDowel, certainly did capture some beauties.

The man doesn't like this one-but I think it's cute!

My Fave.

The Man's Fave.

We out.
Up next, the party and the drama begins.

Vows with a View: The Ceremony II

2009-10-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

It happens all the time that you see wedidng bloggers fall offf the face of the earth once the wedding is over, they don't post for days, weeks, months-- all the while you're waiting impatiently for the wedding recaps. I never thought that would be me! I'm really sorry I've been procrastinating in posting my recaps. I will try to do better.

So there I was. The bridal march began playing, I knew it was my turn to walk down that aisle and my eyes were filled with tears. I was afraid of messing up my makeup and letting them roll (and I also didn't want everyone to see me crying) so I held them in. BUT that made it very hard to see and for some really awkward face making pictures.

My dad led me down the aisle safely (I'm sorry but I can't share those face on-bad ones with you)
BUt I must have looked okay because the Man got all choked up too

Dad and handed me off to my future husband

Here I am making 5 chins in this picture trying not to cry or show that my eyes are filled with tears

The ceremony was short and sweet, but while we stood up there waiting for the moment to be Man and Wife, it felt like it was taking an eternity to get to that point.

We used pretty standard vows, but the Man got all choked up while he was saying the last part, which was supposed to be, "....and I pledge to you my faith" and he blurted out that he would pledge to me his face. Yep, his face. So I pledged to him my faith and my face. That certainly got everyone giggling.

and then, just like that, we were man and wife and a Kiss was in order

and then it was time to leave as Mr. & Mrs.

and we realized we were going to wrong way. Whoops.

so we had a few mishaps happen. I bet I wasn't the only one. What was your most embarasing mishap of the day?

Vows with a View: The Ceremony

2009-10-14T03:41:00.000-07:00

After the girls and I finished our formals with the photog we headed back to my room so she could capture the men. The men were late as usual, but it worked out well for me. I didn't have to worry about being spotted before the ceremony. The man and I had decided to wait until the ceremony to see each other. This was especially hard since we had a major fight the night before and emotions were really running high. We had talked on the phone earlier, but people were around both of us, so I slightly wish we HAD done a first look to get some much needed alone time, but I don't regret not doing it.

We headed back to my room for some champagne and mimosas, but alas, my nerves started getting the best of me and I couldn't get any down. Just as I was feeling like i might get sick, there was a knock on the door telling me it was time.

I was lucky enough to have three of my grandparents in attendance.

everyone took a turn walking down the aisle

The Man's sweet Parents
My beautiful mama
The bridal Party:

And then it was my turn and I my stomach was in knots. I'd like to say that the nerves ceased, but they didn't, not then anyway. And the DJ switched the music to the bridal march and all of a sudden the floodgates opened

(to be continued)
did you have an emotional overload right before walking down the aisle like me?

Vows with a View: Formal shots with the Guys

2009-10-07T03:37:00.000-07:00

The guys arrived later than they were supposed to since the man was "having a bad hair day" and it took him longer to get ready than expected. Therefore there wasn't a lot of time for formals before the wedding like planned, but Emily Johnston and Mary McDowell made sure they got a few!

The best man D and My Man

The guys in front of the fountain

There is something so classic about Black and White that I love

The Man and Hot Mama's other little one, our ring bearer. Don't be fooled by his cute exterior, he keeps Hot Mama on her toes.And I'll leave you with one of my favorites

Were your guys late cutting their photo time in half like mine? or were they problem free and on time?

Vows with a View: Formal shots of the Girls

2009-10-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

After a relaxing morning, I was ready for the picture part of the day. I must tell you now, I hate having my photo taken. I get nervous and smile big and it often corrupts my eyes and takes over my face. You'll be able to see the same smile in many of the pictures. Anyhow, Emily Johnston and Mary McDowell said it was time to go out in the gorgeous sunlight and have our photos taken.

One last look in the mirror

Walking to our spot

MOH, Hot Mama, Partner in Crime, flirty, mini-me, and college. Flower Girl is hot mama's little one(isn't she a doll)?

Bugs were getting stuck in her tulle!

I love how you can see the flower pomanders I worked so hard on and the paper lanterns I decorated in this shot.

In front of the fountain

On the green, in front of the lake

I'm ready.
Up next, the Guys

Vows with a View: The Flowers

2009-10-02T03:48:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have remembered my flower dilemma back in the day. I had decided to fire my florist and go with another, not so much because they were a bad florist, but because the new florist had such better prices and she was super sweet and seemed to love what she did.Loving making my flower dreams come true was key.

We had discussed things like what I wanted my bouquet to look like and include, centerpieces, boutonnieres, extras, corsages as well as what I had finally decided on the bridesmaids bouquets-

I was feeling good about my floral choices and my florist.
And then she delivered the flowers.

You always hear horror stories of flowers that are wrong and think that it can't happen to you because your florist is great, but it can happen, and you need to be prepared to get something that may not be exactly what you wanted.

I will start by saying working with my florist was great, she was really sweet, got what I wanted and then she delivered... most of what I wanted anyway. The quality of the flowers was excellent-they lasted forever!

My bouquet was
everything I wanted it to be. It was stunning and even more beautiful than these pictures can show. I was extremely pleased!

Included in the box with my beautifully mastered bouquet were the bridesmaids bouquets, but they seemed to be a little different that what I had ordered: I wanted each girl to carry a bunch of a single flower type- in hot pink. I even included a picture and have to my florist to keep so she would remember.
Instead I got some beautifully constructed bouquets consisting of, well, something else
Slightly different that what I had wanted. You know, I really wouldn't have minded if she had mixed the flowers like she did, but I had wanted to go for a specific look with the monogamous flower in the single color. Not only did she not give me what I had asked for for flowers for each of the girls, but she also gave me a different color than what I was expecting.

Not what I ordered but the flowers WERE beautiful nonetheless. No one attending the wedding would know it wasn't what I ordered, but I knew, and to be honest I was slightly annoyed. Annoyed that she hadn't delivered exactly what I wanted, but I let it go. I just decided I wasn't going to care. They are flowers, they are pretty, and they were not going to ruin my day.

The mothers corsage's were beautifully mastered

The Man's Mama:
My Mama and I:
As for the Grooms Boutonnieres, my Groom was to have a white rose, and all the others were to have different flowers to match the bridesmaids bouquets.

My Groom:

All the other groomsmen got these:

I was slightly concerned about the centerpieces since she hadn't given me the Bridesmaid bouquets or matching boutonnieres I had asked for...what would the centerpieces look like?

The Centerpieces were beautiful and exactly what I wanted

Ah, I love me some orchids.

Overall, I was very pleased. Once I got over the initial shock of the bridesmaids bouquets not being as I had envisioned. Things like that, they aren't really important. You have to let those little accidents and details just roll off your back. The flowers weren't going to affect my day at all. I was happy, I was dressed, and I was ready for my close up.

Up next, some formal shots with the girls.

Did you florist deliver exactly what you wanted?

Vows with a View: Getting Ready

2009-10-01T03:37:00.000-07:00

The man and I had gotten in a big blow up fight, after fighting he apologized and then he went back to the house. I stayed at the hotel with the girls and was annoyed that my night had been highly disrupted by the fight. The man called me when he got home and apologized again, but I couldn't seem to get it off my mind.

With the company of my girls and some serious girl-time behind me, I finally drifted off to sleep. I woke up the next morning feeling less than rested. On top of the un-rested feeling my eyes were really red and puffy from crying all night. I don't suggest fighting with your fiance the night before the wedding, nothing good can come from it. It's just nerves.

Around 9:00 there was a knock on my door. The Man's mother brought us some home made muffins and scones (made with love from the Man's godmother). It was the sweetest thing ever!Some of my girls headed over to the salon to get their hair done, while the others were just starting the morning in their rooms. I just wanted to relax, so I did just that.

Around 11:00 there was another knock on the door from my hairdresser. She had finished the Man's Mama early and wondered if I was ready for her to start. Of course I was. So I sat right down and she went to town curling and pinning my hair.

I had decided on a half-up/half down look with lots of curls, and she didn't disappoint. After my hair was done, I wandered into the bathroom and did my own makeup.

Some of the girls came back from their hair appointment, they had been gone for about 4 hrs and I was wondering where they were, and although their hair looked nice, they had some horror stories about the place and how Rude the girls were that fixed their hair. I seriously could not believe some of the things that were said/done to them. I would never suggest this place to anyone. On top of the rude attitude the girls got charged about 25 dollars more than what the website said the prices were for the updo's. If I had been there, there would have been a serious fight.

The man's godmother brought us all Pizza for lunch and the girls and I gobbled some up.

Before I knew it, it was time for me to get into my dress. I didn't want to lift it over my head/hair so I thought it would be easier to step into it...........

Clearly, that was not working for me with my poofy poofy crinoline! After some hysterical laughter, we calmed down and I made an executive decision that this way was not going to work! Over my head carefully it was. And then it was on.

Mama B couldn't find the loop to hook it, so it was Partner in Crime to the rescue.

I was closing my eyes and wishing it to fit. And it did. Partner in Crime climbed right under my dress and straightened out my crinoline for me to. I can't wait until she gets married so I can repay the favor! She was so good and helpful to me.

My veil was strategically placed into my hair

The flowers came* and before I knew it, we were on our way to get pictures taken. The man and I had decided NOT to have a first look, we wanted it to be at the alter, but I had suggested getting the shots of the men and Ladies separately before the ceremony and it was our time.

We squeezed into the elevator and we were on our way.
(from L-R: Bridesmaid Mini-me, Mama B, Bridesmaid College, MOH Cooper, Me, Bridesmaid Partner in Crime, Bridesmaid Flirty)

*More about this later.
All Photos taken by our Photographers, Emily Johnston and Mary McDonald.

Was your day of the wedding stressful or stress-free?

....The Ugly Part Deux

2009-09-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

Where was I, oh yes, I had just found out what my future husband had done on his bachelor party, broken down sobbing, and then his mother called asking why were were not at the rehearsal dinner spot. I was upset and not exactly wanting everyone to notice my tears and red eyes. So i took a few minutes to calm down, and then we had to be on our way.

Did I mention where our rehearsal dinner was taking place? This is the whole reason why it was so important that we weren't late.....

So despite my wanting to discuss the situation more, I was forced to dry my tears and walk out to the doc and board our rehearsal dinner cruise!

Once we were on board I decided to drown away the emotions of the day with wine. I had a lot of it. The Man's parents had graciously paid for our rehearsal dinner to be on the boat, and by graciously I mean, you had to have a party of at least 50 people, so they invited all the out of town guests, the bridal party and Significant others, along with whomever I wanted to invite.

It felt like a mini-wedding, without the ceremony, flowers, and dress.

The Man's mother had bought some vases and shells to decorate the table. unfortunatly I am a bad blogger and did not think to bring my camera to document. Sorry!

The dinner cruise was lovely. The food was great, we were with friends, I was slipping into the peacful happiness of my wine and finally relaxing and forgetting about the drama that was the day before my wedding when all of a sudden the cruise was over. In reality it was several hours long but the time seemed to fly by!

The Man's father told all the guests we were having an "afterparty" and told everyone where to meet up. So I was forced to go and drink some more.

I went up to my room to get something and the Man followed me up there. He had been drinking pretty heavily that night as well, to get rid of the pre-wedding jitters. He had drank hard liquor all night wich we know is never a good idea for him to do. That coupled with the crapy day we both had, the emotions of getting married errupted and we had a fight. Again.

It was pretty intense and to make matter worse, we couldn't have a conversation without someone blowing up the Man's phone every 5 seconds wondering where he was. which made him madder and we had an all out brawl.

Now, I know this all sounds horrible, but to put it in perspective the Man and I HARDLY ever fight. In fact, i think I can cound on one hand the amount of fights we have had. Ever. So for us to be at each others throats and fighting so much was very unlikely and out of character for us. Emotions get to everyone and everyone handles them differently. Be prepared for the unexpected!

The Man eventually calmed down and we had a discussion and then he left to go back to the house for the night. I had planned on staying at the hotel with my girls, and boy did I need them after that fight.

This certainly was NOT how I was expecting to spend the evening before my wedding.

Were you thrown any emotional curveballs right before your wedding?

.......The Ugly

2009-09-17T12:19:00.001-07:00

I had been waiting for the man to arrive home so we could go to the rehearsal together. He was going to be cutting it pretty close, when I recieved a call from him on the phone. The guys and him had decided that they better just head to the rehearsal because they didn't have the time to meet me at the house. They were already on their way there while I sat at home waiting. While I sat there waiting the last 10 minutes I knew we were going to be late, but at least we'd be late together. And now instead of that, I was going to be the one coming in late. Good thing our rehearsal was not at a church!

20 minutes.

That is how late I was to my own rehearsal.

I ran into traffic and still had to drop off my cake topper at the Bakers along the way. I just couldn't seem to get there everyone was in my way.

When I got there, the man was out in the parking lot waiting for me. He needed his clothes. We couldn't check into our room until 4:00pm, so he changed right there, in my car, in the parking lot. I know, we are ghetto.

As soon as I walked inside the wedding coordinator came up to me and started asking me all sorts of questions, and I just burst into tears. I was upset about the Man not being there to help me with all the stuff, being late, and fighting with the Man and it just came rushing out of me like a floodgate I had let open up.

I guess I couldn't handle the pressure. After my cry, i got to work discussing the line up with the wedding coordinator and she went out and told everyone it was time to begin the rehearsal.

The rehearsal went well after that. We did our thing, and I forgot why the Man and I had been fighting to begin with, I was happy to be there with him, and I couldn't wait to marry him.

After the rehearsal I tried to check into our room. In case you didn't notice, I said "Tried." And so it began the check in from Hell- the hotel was so unorganzed it wasn't even funny. here I am, the bride, trying to check into my room for the night and they were giving me a hard time- telling me I had to pay. When the reality of the matter was that this particular hotel made you pay for your room upon booking. Yep, I had charged it and paid for it waaaaayyyy back when I booked it in January. I don't know about you but I don't carry my credit card statements with me in my purse, in fact, since I had already paid for the room, I didn't even bring my normal credit cards. I kept explaing to her that I Already had paid. Then I got pissed and told her I was NOT paying for the room again. She finally understaood that I already paid for it and gave me my key. This was the case for EVERY SINGLE one of our guests who checked in. They all were told they hadn't paid for it, when really they had!

I went up to the room with MOH Cooper, The Man, my parents and my grandmother. We hung out up there until it was time for the rehearsal dinner. This is the part of the story I don't like.

As we were getting into the elevator, I couldn't keep my hands to myself, and I grabbed the Man's butt. He winced in pain. I asked him if he got hit with a paintball there, and he said no, something else, and he'd tell me later. I didn't want to know later, I wanted to know right then.

We told everyone else to go ahead and we returned to the room.

I asked him what happened and he told me I wasn't going to like it. And he was right. I didn't. I really didn't. He told me the truth so i give him points for that, but apparently they went to a strip club. I am not a fan of strip clubs, but i guess I probably would have understood if they had just gone there to watch. However, his groomsmen had paid big bucks for the stripper/exotic dancer, what ever you want to call her, to bring him on stage, strip him down to his boxers, and beat him with his belt. And then he showed me the battle wounds. A purple behind, all bruised.

Two nights before our wedding you do this? You are telling me about it right before the rehearsal dinner? I guess finding out about it right before the dinner was my own fault since I needed to know, but this was something I just was NOT expecting from My Man.

I'm not going to lie, I was really really really upset and pissed, I cried-sobbed actually, I messed up my makeup. It sucked.

I realized while it probably was not his choice to go there and have that happen, it is kind of hard for men to stand up and say they don't want to do it when all their guy friends are there egging them on. However, I believe it went too far and I was upset that HE let it get that far. And I don't think having a bachelor party is an excuse to do these types of things- I don't think getting on stage in your boxers and letting some women beat you, dance on you or other- is ever appropriate and I was HIGHLY dissapointed.

Then his phone started ringing and it was his mother asking where we were and saying we needed to get to the rehearsal dinner site pronto.

Anyone else have a tramatic finding right before a big event? what did you do to hold it together?

The Good, The Bad......

2009-09-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

We were in the home stretch week right before our wedding, unbeknown to me- the man was getting crap from all the guys at work about getting married, and it was wearing on him. He didn't tell me how he was feeling, he just kept it all bottled up inside because men don't have emotions, ever, or that's what the Man would have you believe.

Really he was having a little freak out over getting married, because for him it was finally starting to feel real. Really real. And since the wedding was right around the corner it was time for his men to step up to the plate and throw him his bachelor party. And by right around the corner before they threw him his party, I mean Thursday night, as in two days before the wedding.

I wasn't pleased about the bachelor party being so close to the wedding, but the Man actually wanted it to be close so that all the guys could just travel down on Thursday before the wedding and not have to make another trip down for the party. In my opinion, I would NOT suggest having the bachelor party right before the wedding.

I knew what the bachelor party was to consist of, or so I thought, but in reality I was only told what they wanted me to know. The guys party began at 10:00am on Thursday when they picked the Man up for breakfast and then they were off to play some paintball down in Albany. The guys had rented out the whole place to themselves and planned on being there for several hours. After that, they were supposed to go to one of the groomsmen's places for a cookout and a bon fire where they were planning on drinking. Heavily. They were all staying at this place so no one had to worry about drinking and driving.

What they didn't tell me was the thing they did in the middle of the day, but like me, you're going to have to wait to find out about that.

The Man stayed up drinking and having a good time with the guys all night that he forgot to call me. I have to say, I was somewhat annoyed, especially since I called him when I got "home" from my bachelorette party the previous weekend. But I figured he must have been REALLY drunk and I figured I'd just talk to him in the morning since I didn't want to be That Girl who calls him in the middle of his bachelor party.

Friday morning comes and MOH Cooper surprised me at the house. She came to help me. At the time I was thinking that it was really sweet of her to do, but the Man would be home and we'd just pack up his truck with all our wedding stuff as planned. However, I was glad to have someone to hang out with.

I knew the Man must have had a late night and I knew he had to be up and leaving for Albany by 11:00am at the latest with the guys the pick up the tuxes. I hadn't heard from him all morning and it was driving me nuts.

Around 12:30 I got a call from the Man saying that they were down there, running late, and having problems with one of the tuxes not fitting and that he'd be back soon.

At this point MOH Cooper suggested we pack our cars with the wedding stuff in case he didn't make it back until right before the rehearsal which began at 3:00pm. I thought it was a good idea so we went ahead and did that, minus the edible favors which we didn't want to melt.

After packing the car, I decided I definitely had to start getting ready because I knew it would take awhile. As soon as I stepped out of the shower The man was blowing up my phone again, saying things were taking forever and asking if I would please iron the clothes he wanted to wear. MOH Cooper got right on that for me, which was awesome. About half an hour later he calls again, this time saying they had stopped at this place along the way for hot towel shaves.

I lost it. They were hardly going to make it to the rehearsal by three if they hadn't stopped there, let alone the fact that he needed to stop home first to get me and his change. He said since he was riding with the Groomsmen he didn't really have an option, which I understood, but WHY wouldn't they shave previously? Why was it so important to stop and do that now when they were already running late? I was annoyed, I was aggitated, and really I just wanted to see the Man.

He called me back a little while later saying that the shaving was taking longer and now he wouldn't even have time to stop at home, he was just going to the site and asked me to bring his clothes and meet him there. This was really annoying to me. I understood that things were not working out for him the way he planned, but really he Forgot that we had to bring all the wedding stuff, and if MOH Cooper hadn't been so amazing, I would have been freaking out because it certainly was not all fitting in my little car, and since i had sat around waiting for him and still had to stop at the bakers to drop off the cake topper, now I was going to be late. Me, the one who had been ready and waiting for him for like an hour.

My irritation carried over the phone call and we had a fight right there on the phone. I blame his lack of consideration on the fact that he was nervous about the wedding, the annoying men at work freaking him out about marriage, and also the lack of sleep from the night before. Whatever it really was, we were not getting along nicely.

And then I had to go meet him at the place of our wedding and practice our ceremony when really I wanted to kill him.

okay, kill is a strong word, but I was HIGHLY annoyed. This annoyance got worse when I got to the place and he hadn't gotten the money to pay our officiant (which I had asked him to do since we had to pay her in cash and I didn't have time to stop and get it since I was now running late)...
things were not running smoothly.

but you know what they say, the road to happiness is not always smooth.

Did you have any bumps along the way?

Weddings = Emotional Stress

2009-09-14T19:17:00.000-07:00

Planning a wedding takes a lot of time, thought, DIY, compromise and money. Naturally one may become stressed from all the decision making, emotions, questions and parties that one has to attend. Parties don't sound stressful, but they certainly can be when you are the center of attention and it's something you have never liked to be, however, I digress. This is not a post about how stressed I was feeling, remember- I was feeling calm. This is not a post about the bride and how stressful wedding planning was for me.

This is a post about how sometimes you forget just how stressful a wedding can be for other people. I wasn't sure if I was going to write about this issue, but despite how I'm feeling about putting it all out there, I think it is important for others to know that weddings aren't all rainbows and butterflies.

I was feeling really great right before our wedding. I had a whole YEAR (a little over a year) to plan the wedding. My groom made it pretty clear from his lack of involvement that he was happy to let me do whatever I wanted for the wedding. I didn't mind at first, and I tried to get him involved, but I lost him at colors. After that, most of the decisions that were made were mine. I would ask him what he thought, and would always get "whatever you want." And so it was a lot of what I wanted, the Man just didn't care and I got it. The wedding, specifically how the wedding looked, was not his thing. But it was mine. I planed my little heart out, I planned lots of DIY projects, I scoured the internet for hours everyday for something, anything, wedding related. I became a little obsessed, but in a good way not a bridezilla way.

Along the way, I had some mini-freak outs. Like the time when I couldn't sleep for weeks because of anxiety I was feeling and sat up half the night worrying if marriage was the right choice for me, If I wanted to be a wife, be tied down, start a family and play that role. The point is, I recognized that although I loved the Man and couldn't wait to marry him, I was scared. Not once did I doubt my love for him or the fact that I wanted to spend my life with him, but I was nervous. Really nervous. And then I realized that I was being silly. I was happy, I loved the man, I wanted to spend my life with him, and nothing was really going to change between us. We would still be us. I would still be me, but we would be married, we would have a silly piece of paper to say we were husband and wife, but that didn't mean we were going to change, it didn't mean we were going to be boring, it didn't mean we were going to be that couple, because we were still going to be us, only better.

I had planning the wedding to help me sort through these feelings. They came at different times during the planning process and I was overwhelmed but glad I had projects to work on to keep me busy and also to make me realize this was happening, we were getting married and I was so grateful to have found the one.

What I didn't realize was that the Man, who never shows his emotions like I do, was having some emotional stress himself. The Man lives his life spontaneously most of the time. He doesn't plan ahead-ever. So when he asked me to marry him, although he wanted to marry me, he didn't really picture it happening then. It wasn't something he needed to think about until closer to the date. The Man wasn't involved in the wedding planning (by choice)and because of that and the way he is he didn't have time to get used to the idea that the wedding was creeping up slowly, but creeping nonetheless. And I didn't realize behind his stubborn "Manly" exterior he was probably having some emotions flow through him as much as I was. On top of the normal emotions that occur when you are about to get married, the Man had his co-workers causing more problems for him.

I should point out that the Man works as an electrical lineman-meaning he creates power lines and works on power lines. His job is highly stressful, very dangerous, and sometimes requires the man to work away from home. A lot of the linemen that he works with are (bitterly) divorced because their wives cheated on them, left them for someone else because they weren't around, or the lack of being around caused the split and the wife usually took them for all they were worth in the split. These men are not pro-marriage, they are the opposite, they will tell you "not to do it" and that "marriage ruins everything" and that "marriage changes everything" and then they will tell you the horror story that is their life. I didn't realize it at the time, but they were there with the Man all week, telling him not to get married, and giving him their unwanted advice.

The man took it all in, and then he broke.

Up next, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

How did your man deal with the emotions involved with having a wedding?

The end of single days- Part Two

2009-09-10T13:16:00.001-07:00

If you missed how we started out the day you can check it out here. We had a blast but it was time to go and while all of my guests went from the Saratoga Race Track to Bridesmaid Partner In Crime's(PIC- for short) pad, MOH Cooper and I snuck off to get some grub. We arrived back at PIC's house with plenty to go around.

There is nothing quite like sharing a slice, a beer, and memories with old friends. Memories of single days, college days, carefree days-- we shared. It was great to remember those days and brought on tons of laughter at ourselves for being so young and silly.

After we demolished dinner we got ready to go out. It didn't take long for us to get ready to go downtown, as most of us wore the same outfits as we had on earlier.......but my bridesmaids had a few gifts for me to wear up their sleeves.

My friend Sherri, Aka Shikira, hadn't been drinking so she kindly offered to cart us around all night.

Do you notice the crown on my head? It was a gift from the girls and it said "bride to be." It was sparkly and fun. Speaking of fun, there is Bridesmaid PIC (in the black) and My Friend A, having a blast back there on the way to the bars.

only in Saratoga can you be stopped at a red light, turn to your right and see this:

The picture is a little dark, but the horse was pulling a buggy behind it. Yes, that really does happen.

Once we got to the bar someone decided shots were in order.

but I didn't get to have one of those. Oh, no. The bartender made me a special "shot"

Here I am sporting my pretty pink sash, my beaded shotglass necklace, my tiara and my CUP of shot. I don't know what it was, but it wasn't good, and the girls made me chug it. ugh.

Immediately following the cup of shot, my friend R handed me a drink, and then she handed me another. Things were getting a little bit silly.

I was feeling the shot and had two huge drinks to finish and it was getting hot in there.

Next thin I knew some guy was all up on me dancing. i humored him and did a funny dance with him, and then I introduced him to Sherri, AKA Shakira. And by introduce I mean, pushed him over to her. Once she "Met" him they had a little dance off. I think She won.

I love the look on the face of the girl in the backround in the white, it's just so funny.

It got super hot in that bar and I decided I needed some air. Once I stepped outside, I did not want to go back inside. So We gathered everyone up and headed across the street for some drinks on the patio.

We met up with a Bachelor Party and he was getting married on the 8th just like me.

We hung out with those boys all night. Mostly I hung out with said bachelor's cute father who has been married for 40 years and he gave me marriage advice all night. Of course, I don't remember any of it because of the cup of shot and the drinks that followed afterwards.

All in all, we had a low-key (which is just what I wanted) fun night. I realized that this was the last time i'd be out single with the girls, and it made me happy. I couldn't wait to marry my man and say sianarra to single days. Don't get me wrong, being single can be great, but this chica was ready to be married already!

The end of single days- Part One

2009-09-10T06:08:00.000-07:00

About a week before my wedding, my girls threw me my bachelorette party.

I had spoken to MOH Cooper about what I wanted to do, and since I had some under 21 girls in my bridal party, I thought we would start out doing something they were able to do too.

We began the day, at my favorite place to be in Saratoga in the Summer... the Track. My love of gambling and horses will always steal my heart.

One of my sweet friends got her butt up early(like super early) and drove all the way from Albany to Saratoga to get to the track before 8:00am to save a spot for us for the day. And save a spot she did! She had placed a few plastic tablecloths down, and some craft letter that said "Congratulations Courtney" and then lots of glitter. It was so super sweet. However, I didn't even think to get a picture of it before we ruined it with our portable chairs.

I was gifted with a T-Shirt from the bridal party earlier in the week that had our names at the top, a cute picture of a bride and groom, and then our wedding date on the bottom. I gladly put on my cute t-shirt for the day. What I didn't realize was that most of the bridal party had purchased the same cute shirt- and some of my friends who were even attending the bachelorette party had bought them. Team Bride here we come.

As soon as everyone had arrived, MOH gifted me with a Vera Bradly coin purse* with tons'o'money inside. There was a pocket on the front and she had printed out a sign to go in it that read, "Bridal Loot." EVERYONE (bridal party and friends) had contributed to the "Bridal Loot" and it was something completly sweet and unexpected.

We gambled our little hearts out all day, I won on one race with an Exacta Box(you pick the 1st place and 2nd place horses), the winning on that race was pure luck- I bet on the horses named "together forever" and "Carribean Sunset" in honor of my wedding and honeymoon to the carribean. And they came in and I won a little money but none of us were big winners.

The fellow seated next to us, Rob, hit it big and won $2,000. yep, two grand. He bought us a round of pina coladas aftr my sweet friend Sherri went over and coaxed him into it.

After the excitement died down, and the races were over, we headed over to Bridesmaid Partner in Crime's appartment (which she graciously let us use all night) for some pizza and pre-gaming.

Up next, our night out on the town!

*This is not my coin purse, but it was similar to this-and very cute.

Excuse me, can I get a program

2009-09-02T03:35:00.000-07:00

There really is a good excuse as to why it's been forever and a day since I've blogged. I fell off the blogging trend in all the excitement that was my life----don't worry you'll all get to hear aboout it, you may just have to wait a little while. BUT first, I'm going to pick off where I was... Programs.

Now, I was stuck on these babies for quite some time. And then I just realized they don't have to be perfect, they don't have to be beautiful, they just have to be us. I focused on creating a template in Microsoft word and then before I knew it, they came to me.

I used light Grey Cardstock I bought from paperandmore, and cut it in half horizontally with my paper cutter. On the front cover I put our names, the date, the place and address. Oh and I bought an image from I Stock Photo and I cropped it and put the butterflies you see there on the front as well. It went so nicely with my butterfly theme.

For the inside, I used pink printer paper which I also bought at paperandmore.com (LOVE that store) and I cut in half horizontally and printed on the front and back of 1 page, giving me essentially 4 pages. It took a little working around to figure out which thing went where so that it would show up where I wanted it to, but I used some practice paper, so no pink paper was lost.I had to trim this paper on each side by 1/4 inch so that it would sit in the cover and not poke out.

I had four pages inside: The first one gave the ceremony order (which is what I had the most trouble with and I asked MOH Cooper to see hers, she kept it simple so I decided I would do that as well). The next two were the Bridal Party and parent Names. Since we had SO many I decided to break it up as "The women" on one side and "The Men" on the other, I of course labeled the moms and dads as mother of the bride, mother of the groom, ect.

Once you flip the the next page, you would see the Remembrance of loved ones past. I just wrote a short blurb about having our grandparents that had passed there in spirit although not in body and how they were important to us. I just wrote from the heart.

On the inside grey cover (the last page) I wrote a Thank you to our parents. It was beautiful. I ment every word of it, although, I'll be honest, I found the wording online, on someone elses page, but they seriously took the words right out of my mouth. It went a little something like this:

Your love and support goes beyond any we have ever seen, and more than we could have ever asked for. Who we have become, what we believe, and our ability to look towards a wonderful future together as husband and wife come from all that you have instilled in us. You have given us extraordinary examples of how to live, love, laugh, forgive, forget, and persevere. Throughout our lives, you have given us all that you could, and then, amazingly, more. Thank you very much for making this day possible. We love you with all our hearts.

On the back page, I posted the other half of the istockphoto image I purchased and a Thank you to our guests over that.
I used a 1/8" puncher I bought on clearance at walmart to poke two holes and string the ribbon through. In all honesty, the 1/8" was Really tiny and I wished it had been bigger. It made it super hard to get the ribbon through, but I did eventually and then I tied a pretty bow.

I made about 50, which was half of the guests, and I even had some left over.

Vows with a View: We are Married!

2009-08-20T12:50:00.000-07:00

Sorry for my posting absence but we were off getting married!!!! Our wedding day was perfect to me, in my mind, although we did have a lot of drama unfold which you are going to have to wait to hear about.

I have so much to share with all of you, however, it will be a little while before I am up and running again. As some of you may remember, the Man threw a temper tantrum and broke the LCD screen on our laptop a week before the wedding (I can't even beging to tell you how annoying that was) and the estimate came back while we were away in Jamaica. In case you are wondering, if you ever break your LCD screen on your computer you midas well just go buy a new one because it is cheaper than having the screen replaced.

The man and I will be out computer shopping hopefully sometime soon and i'll be able to share with you some amazing pictures that I have on CD that my lil sister's boyfriend took of our day. Until then, I leave you with this one I stole off friend A's facebook photo album:

If you look closely, you can see the Gazebo we got married in through the window on the left. You can also see the flower balls I made hanging (they were a BIG hit).

Signing Off

2009-08-04T09:24:00.000-07:00

I was planning on sharing some things (quite a few actually) with you all before the wedding (which is in 4 days) but The Man threw a rather uncalled for temper tantrum the other day(which had nothing to do with me or the wedding, but rather the computer not doing what he wanted it to do and instead of walking away like I told him he needed to do, he slammed it shut) and just happened to break our LCD screen, so there is no way for me to do anything per our computer and after today I'll be on vacation from work, so I won't get to post things until after the honeymoon.

With the wedding in 4 days and no computer to use, it has been rather stressful for me who still had some things to do via computer. Thank god I finished all the big things[like our programs] last Friday! As for the other little things I had wanted to do, they may not get done, but the fact that they won't get completed will not ruin my day.

I can't wait to marry my little temper-tantrum throwing man on Saturday and it actually looks like it's going to be a very nice day!

xoxo,
see you when I'm a Mrs.

Tick-tock, tick-tock

2009-07-29T08:48:00.001-07:00

It's true what they say.

At first time was moving slowly, like a snail, and I had all the time in the world to find inspiration and to pack away pictures of what I wanted and drempt of for the day.

That has all changed. The time just seems to move much quicker the closer I get to our wedding.

While most of my projects have been or have plans to be completed in the near future, there are still a few things I need to make some time to do.

I'm going to come out and tell you that I kinda suck and I'll be complaining a little bit about it but its my own fault.

I need a clutch. STILL.

I've blogged about it before, I know, sorry that you are once again being tortured by my unableness to make up my mind and indecisiveness.

The problem is, I hate clutches. Hate. If it was a normal purse I know i'd use it again and I'd be find with spending money on something nice. However with a clutch, I know I will never use it again and I don't want to spend a lot of money on it, but at the same time I don't want it to look like it came from the $1 store eventhough I would be completely content paying only a dollar for it. hehe.

Oh wait, did I mention this clutch I need if for the rehearsal dinner? yeah. I got my wedding clutch already, and for that I spent a whopping $8. So I'm really looking for something around the same price point for the rehearsal. I would use it for the rehearsal too, but it is pink and totally will not match my lilac dress.

I'm in search of a white clutch.

I found a few at the mall yesterday as I ran through the mall in a desperate search on my 30 minute lunch break. I went to every store that would possible have clutches, and there was only one store that really had a selection. The selection consited of 3 different options, all of which were not very cute, and were $30. Say what? I'm not spending $30 on a white clutch that is hideous.

puh-lease.

So today, I did an online search and I found a white clutch I love.

It is a Saugus handbag from bestbridalprices.com and it is $41.00. I love it! And this week only they are allowing a 10% discount on handbags-use code Handbags to get the discount.

problem solved. But wait....

Just before I was going to purchase it, I saw that it would take 1-4 weeks to get to me after the processing time! I don't have that long. Since the wedding is in 10 days (t-e-n) the rehearsal is in 9, and I will need to have it in my hot little hands in 8. *sigh*

I also found a cute clutch on the Dessy site which will also take much to long to get to me. It seems I may have waited to long to purchase anything online and I find this super annoying since the stores here apparently don't sell clutches!

maybe I can get the Man to carry my lip gloss for me. What do you think-- have you attended an event sans-clutch? how did you carry the necessary "stuff" a girl needs to carry? And why are department store clutchs so darn ugly and expensive?

Escort me to my table

2009-07-28T03:24:00.001-07:00

Escort Cards.

They are essential to help the guests to find their table for the night. With so many cool ideas out there, it is hard to choose just one.

My 1st inspiration came from Martha [Stewart] and it wasn't an escort card at all,

it was a place card placed at the table. I was going to do this and then make a Large board listing all the tables for people so they could examine it during cocktail hour and know which table to go to, but then i scratched that idea.

I had cut out a ton of butterflies for my last lantern project, and I just couldn't bring myself to do it again for the cards. Plus, I wondered if it would be a little too much.

I want a touch of butterflies, not an overwhelming amount.

After contemplating what to do, I found some wicked cool paper at AC Moore during a 40% off sale, so I bought enough of it to have [and then some--I didn't want to run out of supplies like I seem to do for all my projects] for the place cards I was thinking up in my head.

I got to work making the standard, run of the mill cards.
Please excuse my poor picture taking skills and the flash.

First I made a sample one to measure everything, measuring is not usually something I do, but I knew this was essential to the making of the cards. I cut the main cards out of the watercolor paper I had and scraps I had saved from a previous project.

Second, I printed the names and table numbers on the front of the card, while on the back I printed the meal choice they had chosen(a requirement from the place we are having the reception).

Then I cut a strip of fun paper 1"x4," lined it up correctly in my butterfly puncher and punched some butterflies out and then glued it down on the card using some scrapbook glue I found in my bucket of crafts downstairs.

There are three different cards, one silver paper, one pink paper, and one turquoise paper. The turquoise is for the beef meal choice, the pink for the chicken, and the silver for the pork.

I thought it would be a fun way to bring some more color into the reception area.

These were really easy to do but very time consuming. I was surprised at how long it took to make the escort cards. What project surprised you in your wedding planning?

Bachelorette Sneaknyness

2009-07-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

Holy moly my wedding is in 12 days! how did that happen? One day it was months and months away, and the next day I get an invitation in my mailbox to my bachelorette party that is this Saturday!

I know what Part of the Party entails. My day will start out in Saratoga at noon at the Saratoga Racetrack where I will hopefully win tons of money to spend on the honeymoon!

I told MOH Cooper that I wanted the girls who weren't 21 yet (my sister and the man's sister) to be able to be involved in my day somehow too.

After the racetrack we are going to head to downtown Saratoga (sorry non 21 girls) for a little bar fun. Those are the only two details I know about. Oh and I know MOH Cooper has been sending out secret e-mails containing all the details to the invitees, but I don't know what was included in the super secret e-mails...

Then this morning I received this in the mail

it's a T-shirt and it's sooooooooooooooooooooooo cute (and it totally says "bride" under the date but I apparently folded it and didn't notice it wasn't showing in the picture). I can't help feeling that it is somehow going to be included in the bachelorette festivities, but I have yet to be informed of what it is for. No one will tell me.

did your bridesmaid do something sneaky and fun for your bachelorette?

Carried Away?

2009-07-27T19:09:00.000-07:00

In trying to come up with some creative ideas to decorate the Gazebo where our ceremony will take place, I found something from Martha Stewart that I really liked.

I thought a couple of these lanterns paired with the lilly pomanders I already made would be the perfect touch.

I printed out some butterfly templates, laminated them, traced them onto cardstock and cut out tons o butterflys....

I bought these lanterns on sale because I really liked the cherry blossom design and thought it would go well. I busted out my hot glue gun and glued the butterflys on. I apparently forgot how the Martha Stewart ones looked.

Here is the finished product:

I'm actually not sure how I feel about these. I may or may not use them. I feel like there are a little too many butterfly's on the lantern, but I'm not sure... what do you guys think? Yay or nay?

Running out of steam

2009-07-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

I am having a hard time staying focused right now. With the wedding in less than two weeks, while I should be working on these:

I'm really finding myself unmotivated and unfocused.

I started to make a practice program tonight, but unhappy with how part of it was turning out, and sick of sitting in front of the computer staring at the design I'm not completely happy with, I turn to blogging about it instead while I watch "House Bunny" on cable.

productive? not really.

The wedding program is supposed to be simple. Something not everyone even has. I could totally not make them but I want to have them, I just don't want to make them myself right now.

I have all the supplies, but I'm having a hard time with the "Ceremony Order" and I'm getting frustrated about it. We are not having a religious ceremony and I it is harder for me to put into words in the program because of this.

Does anyone have any ceremony program advice? what exactly should be included?

A soft glow

2009-07-23T03:58:00.000-07:00

I wanted to add a bit of color to the tables. Along with our centerpiece, I wanted a soft glow, something a candle could give. I thought of floating candles, but I've never been a huge fan of those. They just weren't me enough.

Then I thought of votive candles, but thought that those can tend to be boring. I did a search for colorful votive holders and found some hot pink ones for an amazing price. I added them to my cart but then I just couldn't push the proceed button. Something was missing, something wasn't right, and I passed up the deal because I couldn't make up my mind.

After all that, I decided I DID want votives on the table, but I wanted them my way. The votive holders you could purchase were not going to be what my votive holders had to look like.

I decided to buy some clear votive holders and dress them up.

I went to AC Moore and bought some iridescent velum and a hot pink stamp pad. I bought two different stamps off of ebay, one with cherry blossoms and one with butterflys.

I stamped the velum with the two different patterns and let it dry for days.

I took one of the votive holders and traced around it with a piece of paper and created a template to use. I traced the template onto a thicker piece of cardstock and used this as my pattern for cutting the votive wrappers out.

I couldn't get great pictures of the finished product because of the flash that I can't seem to turn off of my camera (sorry guys) but this is what they looked like in the end.

Have you decided to dress up something you thought was a little plain?

The calm before the storm

2009-07-23T03:37:00.000-07:00

With a little over two weeks until the wedding (I can't believe how fast it snuck up on me) and about a million things to do still I'm feeling really...............................................................................

CALM.

I was expecting to feel more frazzled, to be in more of a frenzy trying to get things done at this point, but I find myself extremely and surprisingly calm during this time.

I had a few freak outs months ago complete with insomnia and major stress so I was expecting the last few weeks before the wedding to be like that, only worse.

Boy am I glad it's not.

I find myself feeling very content which I think is leading to the calm feeling. I decided after the invitations that I was just not going to care as much anymore [about the little things] and I really found a sense of serenity in that. Ever since that day, the stress has been gone.

Despite the fact that the knot checklist I have says I have over 100 things to still "do," I have this calmness that has washed over and encompassed me. I can't help but wonder if it is the calm before the "storm." Everyone talks about how stressful the last few weeks are and I can't help but wonder why I feel the exact opposite way!

I absolutely can not wait to marry this man. I'm so excited I think I might burst. I know I'm making the right decision and I can not wait to begin this new chapter in our lives together. It is so hard for me to think that in a few weeks we will be husband and wife. After planning the day for so long and wishing it would be here even longer, it finally is[almost]!

As you get closer to your wedding date, how are you feeling?

Gifting the Men

2009-07-20T19:03:00.000-07:00

The man was put in charge of finding gifts for the groomsmen. He knew about this task for many many many months. He obviously knows the guys a lot better than I do, so I thought it would be easier for him to come up with a gift for the men. I simply forgot about how hard it is for him to make up his mind and how he likes to wait until the last minute to get things done.

How do you say thanks in an appropriate way without getting a gift that won't be shoved in a drawer and forgotten about for all eternity?

I wish I had the answer to that one. I really do.

Most of the groomsmen gifts you see people give wouldn't be appreciated by this group of guys. Really nice Cufflinks would never be used, they just aren't cufflink kind of guys. Cool colored socks to color coordinate the looks on the wedding day? I'll be lucky if they don't wear the big white crew socks with their tuxes. A day of golfing? Noppers, not for these guys.

The fact that they are all so diverse certainly made the gifting task a lot harder.

After looking online with no luck, the man got annoyed. He thought about getting them all something different, but he wasn't even liking the ideas of gifts found online. Somehow they all looked chintzy to him, not good enough for his men.

So the Man took to the mall. He shopped all day last Friday while I was working (I would have rather been shopping), and he came up with this:(sorry for the fuzzy picture, it's off the things remembered website)*

It's a box. He's going to have their names engraved somehow, although he isn't sure if he's doing first or just last name or initials. Inside the box you will find a flask, a cigar holder and a cigar cutter.

The Man thought he'd fill the flask with some crown royal and buy some Cubans. The man picked out a gift that was a little more than we thought we'd spend, since we have 7 groomsmen it adds up fast. I actually think all of the groomsmen will all really like it.

*not sure if this is the actual set, but he got something similar from things remembered.

Did you have trouble picking out groomsmen gifts?

Gifting the Girlies- Part 2

2009-07-20T18:28:00.001-07:00

My girls all know what one of their gifts is. I just couldn't help myself and I told them. haha. Technically, I didn't want them to spend money on their jewelery since I was planning on having it made. So I told them I was taking care of their jewelery so that they wouldn't waste their money on it.

Although they know what their big gift is, they have no idea what it looks like. And I'd like to keep it that way.If you are one of my bridesmaids, you are not allowed to click on the "read more" link.

Let's start with the Jewelery boxes. After scouring online for some super cool hot pink or turquoise boxes with no luck, I bought them all at the $1 store. Oh yeah. The pink and turquoise boxes were white when I bought them. I painted them with acrylic paint. 2 coats did the trick. I bought the pink ribbon at Walmart and adhered it to the boxes with double sided tape. I then added the little pink bows (which was also a $1 store find).

Inside each box you will find a Jewelery set containing one set of earrings and one necklace. I had the jewelery made with Swarovski Round 6mm beads in Clear AB and Blue Zircon AB that I scored on ebay for a lot cheaper than any bead store. The round swarovski beads were a lot pricier than the bicone beads you usually see, but I wanted something differen--- something special for my girls. I hope they find many uses for their jewelery after my wedding. I seriously want a set for myself.

There is a 10mm Clear Ab drop pendant (I forget what the name of the exact shape was, and it doesn't show up very well, but it is there looking beautiful).

The earrings are made out of a cluster of Swarovski crystals dangling from some o rings and some fabulous squiggly findings I found on ebay.

I got lucky on the jewelery front. My little sister (bridesmaid mini-me) recently became interested in making jewelery (last year) and I simply asked her if she might be interested in making the jewels for me. She said yes. I told her she would obviously know what he gift looked like, and she didn't care. I knew she'd do a good job and she was easy to work with. I simply told her what I wanted the necklaces to look like and she made me 4 samples to choose from(they were all so good it was hard to choose). For the earrings, I asked her if she knew how to make the clusters,and she admitted that she didn't but she'd try, and they came out awesome! So I told her to make them all like that. She does good work doesn't she?

I have one more surprise for the girls, but I probably won't blog about that until after the wedding.

What did you gift for your girls?

Shop 'till you drop (part deaux)

2009-07-18T18:23:00.000-07:00

I was on a mission. A mission to find a rehearsal dinner dress, a clutch for the wedding and some clothes to wear on the honeymoon in Jamaica.

I'm not used to spending money on myself because I usually don't, and while I was considering buying the purple dress from Macy's, I also was on the look out for a cool bridal clutch.

Now, not being used to spending money on myself, I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a wedding clutch that I know I won't use again.

When all the bridal clutches you love cost upwards of $50.00 it sets in that you are wasting your money. If I knew I would use it again, and get the use out of it that I should, I would happily shell out the dough, but I'm just not a clutch kind of gal.

Then it happened, while at Boscovs, I spotted it right away.

The perfect shade of fuchsia. Perfect because it's beautiful. Perfect because it is the same color as my shoes. Perfect because it is so me. Perfect because it was on sale. for $17.95.

I grabbed it and debated if I dared but a clutch that wasn't white. My mother instantly decided I should because it's me. And I agreed. I brought it up to the counter to purchase it where I found out it was on mega sale and rang up at $8.50. sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Clutch.Check.
done and done.

I also scored some great deals at JC Penny on some super cute sundresses for $15.99 and some great deals on some tanks at Old Navy.

How have you scored some great deals for wedding attire/accessories on a shopping trip?

Shop 'till you drop (part 1)

2009-07-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

I have been browsing online for rehearsal dresses forever. Originally I thought I wanted a black and white dress and I found the most beautiful one at White House Black market. I waited too long to purchase it and it's no longer available. *boo* I can't even post a picture of it because I can't find it. anywhere.

Since then I've been looking online all over the place for the perfect dress. I have found a few that I thought may work
I really Liked this pink one from Nordstrom's...

but I don't have a Nordstroms near me so that I can try it on. And since the wedding is in three weeks I don't feel comfortable purchasing at such a late time. And despite the fact that I thought it was pretty, something was missing.

So I ventured out to the world of shopping today in search of the perfect dress for the rehearsal and some cool honeymoon gear.

I brought my mother along to help and we literally shopped all day long. It.was.great.

Our Journey started at Macys where I purused the dress section and picked up several dresses before spoting a really cute purple dress with rosettes on it. Of course, this particular dress was not on sale like all the others that were in my arms, and it was quite a bit more than I wanted to spend, but there was something about it that said, "try me! try me!" so i added it to the bunch I already had.

We headed over to the dressing room hoping to find the "one" early on in the day. I tried on my mothers favorite dress and it looked okay, but I had another dress on my mind....

I wanted to try on the purple dress next. My mother hadn't seen me pick it up and giggled at it as she saw it on the hangar. She was not a fan. However, when I put it on, it looked really fantastic! She had to agree that it looked really great.

I didn't want to spend the money on it, so I decided to keep trying other dresses. All the other dresses I tried on there did not even come close to how I felt with that purple dress. So, not wanting to give in and splurge on it just yet, I had them "hold" it for me, so I could continue looking in the mall for something fantastic and within my budget.

I tried on a TON of dresses, all different styles, shapes, colors, and nothing, nothing even came close to matching the purple one. I just couldn't get it out of my head.

I don't think I've ever considered spending that much on one single dress before in my life. Granted, it wasn't a HUGE amount per say, just more than I wanted to spend, but for the way it made me look and feel, I decided I needed to splurge this one time. I think it will be the perfect dress for the rehearsal, and it's such a lightweight material (silk) that I can even bring it to Jamaica on the honeymoon for some fun there too.

I will definately get my money's worth out of it.

Here is my beauty. It really doesn't look like much in the picture, but it is FABULOUS when it is on. I swear. It's perfect and I don't regret the splurge at all.

What in your wedding has caused you to splurge?

Gifting the Girlies

2009-07-16T04:17:00.000-07:00

One of the fun parts about being a bridesmaid besides attending all the fun things is getting Gifts from the bride and groom. After spending all that money on the parties and gifts for the bride and groom, it certainly is nice to get something that shows all of that has been appreciated.

I would love to get my girls tons of gifts, but unfortunately I'm not made of money. I don't have a money tree to hit up, but I do have some serious craftiness that comes in pretty handy.

If you are one of my bridesmaids and you thought you'd come and check out my blog, you need to stop reading now. No more reading until after the wedding or you will ruin the surprise and it will be all your own fault. I will not feel one bit sorry for you if you peek.

you've been warned.

One of the bridesmaid gifts I have decided to give the girls is a pair of flip flops. While this may not seem like much, I do have girls traveling from out of town and I don't think they'll think to bring an extra pair of shoes. I thought this would be something really sweet for them to have in case their shoes start hurting them.

I went to Old Navy and bought them each a pair of silver flops. The really comfy ones, yeah, you know which ones I'm talking about.
I wanted to Glam them up a bit. So I went to AC Moore and bought:
all purpose spray adhesive
Silver glitter
and at the grocery store, some small white plastic bags.

First I took the small garbage bags and wrapped the part of the shoe I didn't want glittered so that it wouldn't get hit with adhesive my accident. That's how I roll.

Next, I shook up the spray adhesive and sprayed the silver thong part of the sandal that I wanted to cover in glitter. I then took a spoon and sprinkled the glitter on the thong, and let dry, then cut off the plastic bag.

Hello gorgeous.

I then Cleaned off any excess glitter that I may have gotten on the shoe, or in a spot I didn't want with some packaging tape. Just press down the tape and the glitter comes up easily.

The glitter wasn't sticking as well as I imagined and the thong part felt sticky to me, which I didn't want at all. To resolve this problem, I busted out some Clear Acrylic Sealer that I already had (previously bought at the craft store), and gave the thongs two good coats. That did the trick!Easy, cheap, and fabulous. I know I'd love a pair. In fact, I want to make myself a pair now. You could do this with any color that you wanted to use. Just find the perfect glitter and go to town.

*I did this project outside as it's very messy.
** I HIGHLY suggest using rubber gloves because if you get the spray adhesive on your hand, it's really sticky, gross, and takes forever to get off.

What fun finds do you have planned for your girls?

And then there were Two

2009-07-16T03:31:00.000-07:00

In some of my previous posts you may have read about my struggle to find enough Pink Lillies to finish my Silk Pomander project. Well, as you know, there was no happy ending. No more pink lillies were found at any of the AC Moore Stores in the US. Their flower selections are still scarce in the stores, and there are no pink lillies, I have them all.

I wanted two pomanders, so I decided if I made them smaller, I'd be able to have two. I bought two smaller paper lanterns (12") instead of the 16" I had already started.

This week I began the painfull task of dismantaling the ones I had. I was pretty upset that I had to do this. However, I did end up with enough flowers to complete two of these and they came out fabulous. I'm not going to go over the steps again, but I am going to show you the finished project.Look at them, sitting there, all beautiful. While not as impressive as the 16" ones I previously started and had to give up, these came out great and they will do the trick.

TARGET Rocks my socks.

2009-07-13T18:05:00.000-07:00

I have always loved Target. Everytime I've needed a cool gift, Target has been there providing it for me. So when it came to getting some gifts for our little ones (the Flower girl and Ring Bearer) Target popped right into my mind.

In an effort to get the gift picking out behind us, I decided to stroll on over to Target this weekend to see what they had in store for me.

I have to preface this by saying I apparently had a shopping problem that day.

I walked into target and immediately checked out the $1 items and kept finding cool things. I wanted to get the kids something they could use to entertain themselves during the day. There were googles, beach balls, and some dry ease boards there... all for 1! These were things I knew the kids would like. Since they are brother and sister and I know how they are, whatever I got for one, I had to get for the other.

After browsing the 1 items I headed back to the toy section in search of dry erase markers, crayons and some paper. I found a whole bunch of really fun cheap gifts for the kids that I knew they would adore. I snatched them up and kept on going. I found everything I wanted and more. I splurged one one of those velcro catch games which I split between the gift bags, one for each.

I left Target with a full basket and an empty wallet!

The flower girl has one extra gift that the ring bearer does not. I had my sister, mini-me, make her a necklace and earring set. They came out super fab.

The necklace and earrings are made out of two different colored pink swarovski bicone crystals and some 2mm silve balls.

Have you found any great gifts for your ring bearer and flower girl?

Is it really that difficult?

2009-07-13T03:28:00.000-07:00

When we mailed out our invitations we included a response card with a self addressed stamped envelope. All our guests were required to do was to write in their name and guests name and check off their meal choice. I made the deadline for a month after the invites went out to give plenty of time.

Sounds easy right?

Wrong.

We have gotten most of the RSVP's back thankfully and our biggest culprit for not mailing back seem to be the groomsmen. Obviously I know they are coming which makes them think they don't need to send in the little card. *sigh* Yes, you still do because I need to know who you are bringing and what you are eating.

Seriously, is it a guy thing?

Love grows

2009-07-09T11:01:00.000-07:00

Please excuse my blogging absesnce. I had hurt myself last weekend and I'm finally beginning to feel slightly better.... so that means I should be able to work on some more crafting projects soon and will be able to post about them next week hopefully. In the mean time....

I had heard about some wedding ring bowls people were using instead of a ringbearer pillow. I instantly fell in love with the idea of a ring bowl instead of a pillow. What the heck was I going to do with an all-to-expensive pillow after the wedding anyway? Now a bowl, a ring bowl, could be useful even AFTER the wedding.

I first saw a picture/heard about ring bowls from weddingbee when I saw one of the "bees" blog about a site called Etsy and a seller, Paloma's Nest. I instantly clicked on the link provided and checked out her stuff. Love was the first word that came to mind, Need was the second one.

Since my wedding was months and months and months away at that point, I happily bookmarked paloma's nest and promised myself I'd go back and visit often.

And I did. And I noticed that the more and more and more Paloma's Nest was blogged about on weddingbee, the more the prices for the ring bowls went up. *sigh* Such is supply and demand. I have nothing against raising prices, but it is a bit of a downer when you're planning on spending a certain amount on a ring bowl, and then the price keeps increasing.

With a few months to go 'till the wedding, I decided it was time to stop drooling and to purchase my lovely. When I went to Palomas Nest to buy it, I was suprised at how much the price had increased. So I did what any resourceful bride would do, I began looking around for something similar on Etsy.

I came across another site, Love Grows By Giving, which had very similar ring bowls more at the price I wanted to spend. However, I wanted something specific that wasn't on her site. I signed in, and convo'ed her asking if she could do a bowl with a certain phrase and our names going along the circumference of the bowl, with our date in the middle. She was a pleasure to work with. Although she said it would take a month for the bowl to be made and shipped over from Singapore, it arrived very quickly, and although it was slightly smaller than I thought it would be, it was perfect.

I changed the ribbon out to be pink and made it ours completely. I love me some Etsy!

What Etsy items are you currently drooling over?

The Wrentch in my Plans

2009-07-06T03:34:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was great. We celebrated my birthday and the 4th with friends on Lake George. We had good weather for the most part, made good memories and had good times. However, I fell pretty hard on my butt and I'm almost positive that I broke my tailbone. I broke it in high school while sledding down an icy hill and it feels exactly like that again. I remember it taking for-ever for it to heal. Who does that 35 days away from their wedding? Yep, that would be me.

What have you done close to your wedding that you regretted?

To have and to hold

2009-07-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

As The July 4th weekend comes upon us, I am reminded of two very scary things:

1. I'm one step(year) closer to the big (dreaded) 3-0 (my birthday is on the 4th)

2. Our wedding is soooooooooooo soon (a month and a few days away)...

and one very fun thing: Our one year engage-aversary is on the 4th!

Let me rephrase one thing, the wedding and marriage part isn't the part that scares me, but it's all the things I have left to do that are driving me insane. I feel like for every one thing I accomplish, ten more things pop up in it's place. And right now, time just seems to be moving at warp speed, never quite allowing me to catch up to where I'd like to be. Anyone else experiencing the warp speed like me?

Anyhow, I've decided it's time to make a final decision on what I'll be holding at the wedding (besides my new husbands hand that is..) and I seem to be having a hard time deciding exactly what I want.....and the main problem is that I can't find one in WHITE that I love for less than $500......

I found one I loved at zappos

....and then I saw the price tag. Dang! So not even close to being in the budget.

These are my contendors at the moment:

Up first is this cute little number that I would love to have. The problem, it only comes in hot pink. It would match my shoes and be super fun to have, but I'm still not 100% sure. I'd also like to put a flower on it which might dress it up a little and make it fit in more...

*Found on ebags
Up next is another cute one I found, but it only comes in light pink. Not exactl the right shade of pink... but i think the cut is so cute. Why oh why can't it come in white?

*Found on ebags
The last one I found is from the dessy site. It's reasonably price and comes in an assortment of colors.... so technically I could get white, but I don't know if it's tooooooo ruffl-y.

This last one I found at target online. It comes in white, it's cheap, but i'm not sure if it looks bridal like enough... and it's made of polyester and cotton (i wanted silky goodness) but then again, i could get a cute satin flower to add to the front of it to dress it up... (now that I'm looking at it more it kind of reminds me of the one I liked from zappos)

Which one would you pick, or do you have a suggestion for something better?

Check out the Love

2009-06-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday was my Bridal Shower. I learned that:

I have such great friends and family that did way to much for me, I'm not photogenic at all and my 5 chins come out in candid photos, that it's really hard to get around and talk to everyone, that being the center of attention is not fun, and that madlibs are still my favorite game to play.

(L-R)Bridesmaids Partner in Crime, Mini-Me, Me, Bridesmaids College and Hot mama, and MOH Cooper. Bridesmaid Flirty couldn't make it as she's in Florida, but she was there in spirit.

My girls put together a shower for me at Lillian's restaurant in Saratoga. Although I live in Saratoga, I have never been to Lilians...so this was my first experience there.

We had the whole upstairs room to ourselves and there were windows that overlooked Saratoga that you could see out of, the upstairs was so cute you didn't even need to decorate. There was only one waitress waiting on us, so that was slightly annoying, but she was super nice.

My friends and family came to cellebrate with me and they spolied me silly:
Do you see the fabulous pink coach umbrella in the background the Maids used as deocration because they were "showering me with gifts"? That was the only decoration the Bridesmaids bought and it was given to me from the girls after the party. It was highly useful on Saturday because the whether was so rainy! Thanks girls, for being so cute!

MOH Cooper had a great idea and had Bridesmaid Partner in Crime on camera duty. They then gave me the photo card to keep with all the pictures on it. Sadly, I don't have a ton to share with you, as I take horrible (and I mean horrible)Candid shots.

The girls planned a great and fun shower for me and I couldn't have asked for a better day! MOH Cooper made a worksheet for everyone asking them to fill in the spots with thier favorite thing about me, favorite memory with me, advice to give me for married life, and a spot to tell me something on their own. After the guests filled the sheets out they were asked to put it into a scrapbook they had purchased and I now have them all. They are great keepsakes and funny to read through.

MOH also had a fun Mad Libs game set up. She found a Bridal mad libs online and used that for the story part. She then made a few index cards (with blanks to fill in such as adjective, adverb, etc.) and had each table fill out 1 card. She collected the cards and filled in the story. She then Read the whole thing to everyone. We were all dying of laughter and for some reason the "toe" was the favorite body part to use, as it was used about 3 times in the story. The mad Libs was great. i highly recomend to anyone.

We had a great lunch and then opened gifts.

People got us items off my registry that I had really wanted, but there were also a few unexpected gifts like this one from my mama:
yes, that is a PINK kitchen aid mixer. My lil' sis got us a whole bunch of Pink items made by kitchen aid to go with this. The man is not to happy about the all the pink! My aunt also got us a set of Pink pots and pans. The Man is never going to cook now.

I found that the unexpected gifts were my favorites of the day. The Man's Aunt who couldn't make the trip sent us a present that I think is just fantastic.

It's my new last name, and she took the pictures and made this herself.

My Crafty friend R also gave us something I will forever treasure:

You may recognize this as my invite, but she crafted it into a cool picture. How awesome right? She crafted MOH Cooper's invite 2 years ago, so secretely I was hoping she'd do the same for me. She didn't disapoint.

Thanks girls for throwing me a great shower!!!

My favorite gifts were the ones you can't put a price tag on. What was your favorite gift from your shower?

Come on Show the Love

2009-06-29T04:02:00.000-07:00

Can I even begin to say how much I LOVE my bridesmaids? They are fabulous, and because of that, I wanted to get them all a little somethin' somethin' for throwing my my bridal shower this past weekend.

Last week, I busted out my Gocco and got to work. Gocco and I have a love/hate relationship. seriously, some days I love it, some days I despise it... last week was all about loving it, but also hating it a lot. I wanted to make all 6 of them some note cards with their names on them. Which was not working out for me at first, but ended up turning out pretty good.

I had purchased some design from istockphoto and some of them did not work out at all with gocco. So that part was really frustrating, especially since blubls and screens for gocco are getting harder to find. However, I ended up purchasing some other designs after that worked much much better.

I don't have pictures of all the designs I used because I'm a bad blogger, but here is the first one on their stacks.

I also made them all some thank you cards.
I folded the cards (they each got 13) and added some pink envelopes and tied them together with a silver ribbon.

I got them all a foamburst from Bath and Body works as this is the most amazing product I've ever used and they were on super sale. I thought they girls could all use a little luxery in their lives.

I also made them all my amazing HUGE cookies that are like the big cookies you get in the coffee shops.

I had found some cute shape cut outs online and printed them along with messages for the girls.

Here they are all put together:

I got the bags from Target and pulled off the handles. I cut the toop of the bag with my scisors that hhad the wave design, stuck them closed with a glue dot. Then I cut some ribbon and placed it on the top to fancy it up a little, attached the Thank You sign, and a Pink Glitter letter for each of their names. I needed to differentiate them somehow since I made them notecards with their names on them!

I got some really great thank you's from the girls as they were not expecting anything.

My shower was wonderful, and I'll be blogging about it soon.

A Surprise for Me!

2009-06-24T20:33:00.000-07:00

MOH Cooper called me the other morning inquiring if I could "fit her into" my weekly schedule. She knows I've been a little crazed lately. I contemplated saying I didn't have time because I have some things I'm working hard to complete before the weekend, well, really before tomorrow. Did I mention time is flying by at warp speed and the evenings never feel quite long enough to accomplish all that I want.

Despite my nagging mind saying "no no no need to finish project," my mouth said "yes." And I'm glad I did. MOH Cooper wouldn't tell me anything about out meet up so I knew she was up to something, I just didn't know what it was.

She texted me while I was at work telling me to meet her in a town nearby, but wouldn't give me the location. She had me meet her at the mall, where I got out of my car, into hers, and then she brought me to the super secret location.

I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on. Then we stepped out in front of a cute little spa and she informed me that we were going to get pampered. Since my Bridal Shower is this weekend, she made us appointments to get pedicures. The Maids were all in on it.

I have to say, this was something unexpected are really great that all the girls did for me. I wouldn't have spent money on getting one for myself right now with the wedding around the corner (actually, it was my first one and it was fabulous) so it was really thoughtful and sweet of them to all do that for me.

Thanks girls, You're all fabulous. And don't worry, I have a surprise of my own for all of you comming up soon.

Curses to my Feet!

2009-06-20T07:21:00.000-07:00

I found the Puuuuuuuuuuuurfect pair of hot pink shoes for my upcomming bridal shower (next saturday). I found them online and promtly ordered them. I'm glad I did because I don't see the hot pink ones available anymore. Here is a store picture of the shoe, but mine are pink, hot pink.

I've been eagerly waiting thier arrival plus the arrival of two others that I just had to have while I was browsing the 6pm site.

Yesterday, they came. I was so excited, I ripped open the box they came in and promptly tried to put them on my foot. Yes, I said Tried. I did not accomplish this task. My foot, apparently was not thin enough to fit into the unusually narrow shoe (eventhough it said medium!). *sigh* so now, instead of being able to wear these beauties I have to bring them to the post office and ship them away. Only to have to go and find another pair of shoes for next weekend. I also need to ship back the pair of black shoes I ordered. I was begining to wonder if perhaps something was wrong with my foot, but the third pair fit perfectly, although those will not go with my shower attire.

I guess shopping in store it will be. I just find such cute ones online that I never see in the store.

Anyone else have shoe dissapointment when ordering online?

The Rehearsal Dinner

2009-06-17T05:11:00.000-07:00

We lucked out with my Future In Laws willing to plan and pay for our rehearsal dinner. Since we are paying for the wedding ourselves, this was a welcome break. Future MIL planned something I never in a million years thought she would. She planned our rehearsal dinner to be something that really fit us. She definitely went outside her comfort zone and planned and thought outside of the box.

Our rehearsal is going to be on a boat from the Lake George Steamboat Company, that will go around Lake George while we are dinning. They rented out a whole floor of the boat for little old us and about 50 of our friends. Okay, so 50 people is a lot, but because it's on a boat, we needed to meet a minimum requirement of people so Future MIL wanted to extend the invite to some additional people. We invited our whole wedding party and their SO's so that already added up to about 26 people plus two of us so making the 50 mark was pretty easy. We invited my parents and grandparents, and a bunch of people on the Man's side that he grew up with or were important to him.

That's when I decided we needed Invitations for the rehearsal and since FMIL needed a head count, I am having people RSVP to her.

But really, I wanted a chance to bust out my Gocco and do some fun projects on it and this was the perfect opportunity.

I bought an image off of Istockphoto and went to town creating my invite. First I used some fancy scissors I had laying around to cut out a wave-like pattern on the top. Next, I burned a screen and Gocco-ed the image onto the pearlescent white cardstock I had leftover. After it dried, I used my paper cutter to trim the invite down a little.

I then gocco-ed the words and sprinkled clear embossing powder over the black words and turquoise embossing powder over our names. When I was ready I used my embossing gun to emboss and raise all the wording. I love how that came out.

Closer look**Please excuse the white splotch, these photo's are edited to prevent personal info from being viewed they aren't really there.

I decided I wanted to add a little pizazz and got out my acrylic paint. I placed a plastic cup upside down on the table and balance my invite ontop. I carefully used a spongy brush to paint the sides pink. I think they came out super good, and I love the assed pink!

Was there a project you really enjoyed creating? What was it?

Sales!

2009-06-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

Bath and Body works is having a 75% off sale if anyone is interested.

Back in the old days, I mean, back when I was younger and in high school, I fell in love with something they made called "foaming shower gel." Seriously, this stuff was amazing. And then, they discontinued it.

Well, it's back and on sale for $4 down from $9 if you want to try it out or gift it to someone. It'll be $4 well spent.

You're Invited (The Breakdown)

2009-06-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

I'm not talking about a mental breakdown that you might associate going hand in hand with Invitations, but rather the Cost breakdown.

My Invites were a little different cost wise since I won the invites from hellolucky!, but I thought I'd share my cost breakdown with you anyway. I could have just went with the Invites I won for free, but I had been dreaming of pocketfolds ever since I heard of their existance... and so the insanity began.

The cost breakdown:

50 invites & 50 rsvp's won from HelloLucky!(they actually sent me 62) = Free
100 Pocketfolds ($41.99/pack * 2 packs) from paperandmore = $84.00
2 Canson watercolor books bought from AC Moore= ~$12.00 (I used the watercolor paper to make the inserts, I cut them down)
3 Spools of Pink ribbon= $3.00
Double Sided Tape= ~$3.00
Glue Dots= $3.99
1" squares were scraps that I used my Gocco to put our names on and glued 1 swarvbski 5mm flatback crystal that I had left over from my cake topper= Free
Stamps= $80
A7 envelopes= $30 for 100* from paperandmore
RSVP Envelopes- $24.00 for 100* from paperandmore

*Hello Lucky sent me envelopes but I wanted to use different ones but don't worry, I'm getting good use out of the envelopes they sent me
**I needed 70 invites and had gotten sent 62, so I decided to print my own 8 on my printer using the watercolor paper I had.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total= $230/70= $3.29 each including postage

Yikes, it's a little more than I had wanted to spend AND I won free invites to top it off. I certainly thought I would have done better.

Did the cost of your invites please you or scare you?

You're Invited (Part 3)

2009-06-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

Once you open my invite, this is what you'll see:

The Invite is the part I won from the contest on weddingbee from HelloLucky! The design is Shangri-La one of the new Joel Dewberry designs that I waited for what seemed like forever to come out. I had them change the colors and I think they came out fabulous. HelloLucky was great to work with and I would suggest to anyone who's looking for some fabulous invites. The quality was fantastic. This is where the butterfly theme started emerging.

I made the inserts in the pocket fold on my own. Here is a closer look:

The rsvp card on the right was also won from HelloLucky!

Anyone else make more work for themselves by using pocketfolds?

You're Invited (Part Two)

2009-06-15T03:35:00.000-07:00

I'm going to reveal my invites. I'm pretty sure everyone has gotten them, and I've gotten such good feedback from those who have received them which makes me feel like all the obsessing was worth it.

Remember a few posts ago when I said I printed my envelopes and just didn't care anymore? Well, my grandmother thought I had written them all out in calligraphy, so I guess they did what they were supposed to. Fooled everyone, and it's my little secret that they were printed and not had written.

Since You've already seen the envelopes a few times, I'm going to start by showing you what everyone saw when they opened those up.

Here is my pretty Turquoise pocketfold :

the front

The back

I had a craft weekend back over the winter when the man went Wild Boar hunting with his friends. I created the little tag with our names on my Gocco. I used some scraps of Pearlescent white cardstock left over from our Save the Dates that I had cut down (I saved the scraps for this very reason) After Goccoing the design, (which was a little harer than I thought would be to line up) and after letting it dry, I used a pair of tweezers to pick up those little 5mm swarovski flatbacks (left over from my cake topper project) to glue them on.

I wrapped some pink ribbon around the outside to hold it shut (I used a little double sided tape right under the little card with out names) to hold the ribbon on and then I used a glue dot to hold the little 1" name piece on.

I love how my invites turned out.

Up next, the inside contents....

Have you obsessed over a project only to discover it was totally worth it in the end?

Cross your fingers!

2009-06-13T04:12:00.000-07:00

My First dress fitting is today. Here's to hoping my dress still fits me. Cross your fingers for me girls, I'm really nervous that it's not gonna fit nicely. When it came in in Feb. it fit but was tighter than I had expected, I figured it would be perfect if I could lose 10 lbs. And then I quit smoking and gained 10lbs, not exactly the direction I wanted to go in. I've re-lost about 5 of those pounds (I've been working really hard but they just don't seem to budge!) So I'm still 5 lbs up from when I got it in Feb and it was pretty tight then.

I'm a two timer

2009-06-13T03:49:00.000-07:00

and I think I like it.

No, I'm not crossing or cheating on anyone, but rather I do craft projects twice. I can't seem to love the projects I create on the first go around, but on the second try it's a different story.

I few weeks ago I took a guestbook I had gotten at Wal-Mart on the super cheap that looked like this

and I thought it was too plain so I turned it into this

and I wasn't completely happy with how the letters didn't match the ribbon perfectly but I was trying not to care. Last week I was in AC Moore and found the perfect HOT PINK glitter letters on sale for half off, so I thought I'd give it a try with those and this is the final product:

I LOVE how it came out. I think it's a lot better.

I peeled off the letters I had glued on with rubber Cement (totally didn't create the bond I was thinking it would, but I guess I'm glad) and Knew I needed to put something over the spot those letters were glued to (there was a letter outline in glue there) so I attached the Pink letters (the backs of them were sticky). Once I decided that I really liked them I re-enforced with some hot glue in spots where I needed it. Super easy and quick.

There is also the flip flops I did several time, the rehearsal dinner invites which I did twice before I got them right, the pomeanders I'm redoing because of the great flower drama (sigh- totally wouldn't have redone this one unless I had to). So you see, DIY is all about trial and error and then retrial. It eventually leads to success though and I do think it's totally worth it.

Have you rethought or redone any of your craft projects?

PS> I lost my battery charger for my new camera and the battery died, I've been taking all my pics on my old camera and although it's only a 4 megapixle and my new one is an 8, I think I like my how the pictures look from my old one better!

You're Invited (part one)

2009-06-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

I have been getting a lot of compliments today from people who have received the invites in the mail. Yay. I'm not sure if everyone has gotten theirs yet, and I'm sure they haven't since it's only 2 days after I mailed them, but I so want to share...............................

so here is a sneak peak of the invite when it was in rough form. This is not the final project, but a sneak preview of part of it. Hope you all enjoy, the best is yet to come.

To Bling or not to Bling, that is the question.

2009-06-12T11:40:00.000-07:00

These are so amazingly cute. And if I was a rich bride, I wouldn't think twice about buying them for my amazing bridesmaids, but since I'm not a rich bride, and I have six (6) bridesmaids, these cute havianna flops with swarovski's that sell for $56/pair are out. Way out.
Drool. What a great bridesmaid gift this would be. I sure know I would dig it.

Would I, could I, make them myself? For an Insane moment I seriously considered it. I had some swarovski flatback crystals hanging around leftover from my cake topper project when I decided smaller was better. ... hmmm.

I grabbed a pair of flops to try it out and realized:
1. Adorning flip flops with swarovski= super time consuming, time in which I do not have to do 6 pairs.

2. the rubber cemement I thought would work wonderfully, sadly, did not (I bought to craft rubber cement, totally different than the real rubber cement. The craft one sucks and the crystals were wiping off).

3. It was not turning out as pretty as these ( I think larger swarovski's were needed).

4. I was not buying more swarovski's.

Like I said before, these were out, but something else was in. A better idea, a cheaper idea, a way less time consuming idea....

Have you started a project only to flip flop halfway through and go a totally different way in the end?

Some girls have all the luck

2009-06-11T03:38:00.000-07:00

My invites are out so I feel comfortable enough to share my little secret with you.

I was ALWAYS planning on making our invites. After all, I had dreams of making them with a Gocco and even went as far as purchasing a gocco for the invites off ebay. In early December, when I had some extra money and I saw some paper items on sale that I wanted, so I went ahead and I purchased all my paper supplies to make the invites. I bought all my paper from paperandmore and I will purchase from them again because I think they have great product.

I ended up purchasing some pearlescent white cardstock already cut into 5x7 pieces at 11.00/per pack of 100 (it was normally 16.00/pack) and I got some pearlescent turquoise pocketfolds(on sale for $40/pack from $50). I also got the matching pearlescent turquoise envelopes, and the 4bar envelopes for the RSVP card in the pearlescent Azela (so pretty). I was ready to get going on my invites, but I hadn't quite decided on a design.

I knew I would purchase a design from istockphoto to adorn the invites, but I was so overwhelmed with all the choices and I was in my "I can't make a decision" phase. In december I hadn't quite developed our butterfly theme either, that came later, much later. So there I was with paper, but no design. And since I didn't have a design and I had a lot of time, I was putting off making of the invites.

and here is where my little secret comes in.

don't hate.

One day while I was perusing weddingbee while I should have been working, I came across this contest hosted by weddingbee for a bride to win 50 digitally printed invitations and RSVP's from HelloLucky!'s new digitally printed line, all you had to do was go to hellolucky!'s site and droool over their beautiful invites while secretly plotting how to get some invites from them and then leave a comment on weddingbee on which design you liked the best. And since I always enter contests and never win, I went to hellolucky!'s site fell in love with all of their pretty pretty invites (they do letterpress too). The invites were definately out of my budget, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to enter the contest because winning stuff is cool.

A few days later I got an email from "Bee Kim" saying that I had won the contest. I almost s**t my pants. Serisouly, I don't win stuff, ever.

How did I choose 1 design from their fabulous fabulous line? I'm not sure, but after browsing thier designs and then stalking their blog, I saw they were comming out with some new designs and they gave a preview of a few in their blog. I found the "one" on their blog in thier new line that hadn't come out yet. I patiently waited for the new line to arrive. Okay, who am I kidding, I didn't wait patiently at all. I think I emailed them to find out when those would be available. Since I still had a little time and they could print them in 5 days, I wasn't completely worried. However, their new designs took a little longer to arrive on their website than anticipated. But I have to say, what I got was well worth the wait.

I decided since I couldn't afford more invites (since I had already bought a gocco and all my invite paper) I would make the remaining ones. I was supposed to recieve 50 of the digitally printed invites (which are so so pretty and totally worth getting if you are looking at purchasing invites), but they ended up sending me 62 (yay for extras) and 65 of the rsvp's and since I only needed 8 more, I made the rest.

I hate to keep you in suspense but I can't show you just yet. Once I know the guest have recieved, I'll gladly share with you my labor of love (although not as labor intesive as it would have been).

Just breathe

2009-06-10T20:36:00.000-07:00

Finally, I got my shizat together and sent my invites out in the mail today. Since I wasn't allowed to hand cancel(I asked yesterday), my mama brought my big box o invites to the Post Office and dropped them off.

Off they go.

Once people start getting them, I'll share them with you.

I also just finished my rehearsal dinner invites and can't wait to share those either, but I will, at least until I send them out.....

now, time to breathe a sigh of relief.

Who's behind this great idea?

2009-06-09T19:37:00.000-07:00

When you spend so much time on your invitations and on the addressing of the envelopes it's kind of hard to stop obsessing and to not care what stamp gets put on there. Now, I know that most people wouldn't notice the stamp, but in my mind it is the first thing they are going to notice since it's on the outside of the envelope.

I knew my invites were somewhat heavy but was super excited when I weighed them at work and realized I could get away with the 61 cent stamp. Can I mention how cute the new 61 cent wedding cake stamp is? I've been wanting it since it came out. And, now I think I can get it.

but I was a little worried that there may be a catch to getting what I wanted. So I headed over to the Post Office on my lunch break with 1 invite in tow and had it weighed. She agreed that the 61 cent stamp would do the trick. I'll take the cake please.

easy. easy. easy, right? Wrong. The catch was that my invites were "hard" or non bendy so they won't go through the machine (which I didn't want anyway) so I had to pay the 20 cent surcharge for it to be hand stamped/because it couldn't go through the machine. Fine with me. Well, okay, more like annoying but I'll do it because I have to.

I kindly asked her if they had any cool wedding-y 20 cent stamps only to get the answer that they don't exactly "have" 20 cent stamps.

My options were as follows: I could get a 17 cent Billy Goat and 3 (1) cent Necklaces(which I personally HATE) and add those to my pretty pretty cake stamps. Ugh-okay, not my first choice to have 3 ugly stamps and 1 cool one on the envelope I so obsessed over forever. So I asked if there was any other options and she told me there was one......

The 26 cent cat. U-g-l-y, yes. More than I needed to pay, yes.

So my question is, who's idea was the 20 cent surcharge if you don't make a 20 cent stamp? And most likely the 20 cent surcharge is mostly for wedding invites so why isn't there a more wedding friendly stamp in the 20 cent range? Why the ugly animals?
seriously.

So which one did I chose? I chose the lesser of two evils.... the 26 cent cat. Yes, it was more than I needed to pay, yes, it's not quite what I thought would be adorning my envelopes, but it sure beats having 4 stamps on the outside and most likely no one will even notice the stamp.

Who am I kidding, it sticks out like a sore thumb-but what can you do?

No Pictures Allowed

2009-06-09T03:25:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we headed up to the Man's hometown to take care of some wedding planning. But wait, isn't my wedding here where we live? Yes.it.is.

A friend of the Man's family, C, has graciously offered to do my hair on the wedding day for me as our wedding gift, and I have happily accepted. We've been putting it off for long enough and decided it was time for my hair trial.

AS you may recall, I was somewhat torn on how to wear my hair. I had wanted an updo, but then had a change of mind (surprising, no?) and decided a half-updo might be the way to go. I found a bunch of pictures that I liked and I couldn't quite decide on which was right for me(thanks to those who voted).

And then it happened. I stumbled across a completely different look and it was LOVE at first sight. I printed it out and brought it with me. Actually, there are two new looks that I love and I brought with me and asked C if we could marry them. She did a FANTASTIC job. I was super impressed. But, she wouldn't let me take a picture of it.

You see, She wants it to be a surprise for the Man, and she knows him too well, and knows he would have snooped and found it. After all, he Did try to come into the hair appointment with me and he gave me the guilt trip about not letting him. But that.wasn't.going.to. happen. I want my whole look on the day of to be a surprise and I think I've done a good job of keeping it so.

So, I'm sorry, but I don't have any pictures of my look now, but I will tell you it's a half-up/half down,very me and it will go perfectly with my dress. I could't ask for anything more.

Having my hair done really made the wedding seem so real. What was your *aha* realization moment that it is actually happening?

Blessed

2009-06-04T03:42:00.000-07:00

Marrying someone is a big step. Not only are you promising to love, cherish, honor and stand by this wonderful man for the rest of your life, but, you are also marrying into their family. Their family becomes part of your new family.

The Man's parents are the type of people who would gladly give you the shirt off their back if you looked like you were cold and it was -50 degrees outside and they didn't have another shirt for themselves. The Man's family is made up of two sisters along with his mother and father. All of them are exceptional people.

The Man's family doesn't have a ton of extra money laying around. They work hard for what they have. When we told them we were getting married and paying for the wedding ourselves, they of course, wanted to pitch in. We told them they could pay for the rehearsal dinner(something that the grooms family typically pays for) and they gladly accepted the task.

The Man's family picked a great spot for the rehearsal (I'll be blogging about soon) and have since continued to offer to pay for things. MIL already paid for our photographer and we thought combined with the rehearsal that that was more than enough. Last week MIL called the Man to find out the name of our DJ so she could pay for that too. The Man wouldn't tell her and neither will I. While I appreciate them wanting to pay for our vendors, I know it is slightly beyond their means to pay for all these things and I don't want to put a financial burden on them.

MIL was not pleased that the Man would not tell her what she wanted to know. It's hard for her because she IS so far away and she wants to be involved. I spoke with her last night and found out she sent money to the reception site because she knew I was planning on renting chair covers and she wanted to pay for them. She had offered to give me money for them before and I refused to accept it so she called them up and found out who to write the check to.

Don't get me wrong, I love that they are helping us pay for things- it's really sweet that they want to do these things for us, but I just feel guilty about it because I know they don't have a lot of extra hanging around. On the other hand MIL was so excited about it last night when she told me, I was glad she felt like she was a part of the planning.

So Thank you MIL and FIL we appreciate everything you are doing. Now, sit back and relax a little, you've paid for more than enough.

I feel so lucky and so blessed to be marrying into such a wonderfully sweet, giving and caring family especially because I know that doesn't happen to everyone. I couldn't have picked a better bunch myself. I already feel like they are part of my family but I can't wait until we make that legal. I am really looking forward to having them all be a part of my family after the wedding.

Do you get along with your future in laws like you are two peas in a pod?

I.Don't.Care.

2009-06-02T19:20:00.001-07:00

Invitaions = hell. Anyone else feeling me on this?

Okay, I'm lying. The invitation part wasn't the horrible part. The horrible part is the part where you decide you can write out the envelopes for all your guests (and I don't even have that many) and try various different methods in hopes of having the perfectly prettied up envelope that looks something like this*

*these are not my beautiful envelopes

only to get the same crappy result that is soooo not usable and add another wasted envelope to the pile. *sigh*

I'm not going to say I didn't try. Because. I. Did. a lot. I tried various methods. All ended the same way with me grimacing as I looked over the poor envelope that I had just banished to the envelope graveyard. All were failures. I was having some serious issues. And then I got scarred that if I kept having issues the envelopes would never get addressed and at the rate I was going I would not even have enough envelopes to address (and there was no way I was about to buy more)!

Hand writing was not working for me. And I couldn't handle the pressure. I got annoyed wasting so many of my pretty envelopes that I spent money on and I decided the best thing ever.

Let it go. just let it go. So I did. And all of a suddden I just keep thinking I. Don't. Care.

Really, I don't. okay, well, I cared that I got the addressing done and completed, but I didn't care how it happened at this point.

I threw my etiquette guide out the window and took the less traveled road(although not as unheard of nowdays).

I went online and downloaded Freebooter Script font, got out my handy new printer, made an envelope template on microsoft word and got to work typing and printing the addresses on the envelopes.

Yes, you heard right. I PRINTED right on my envelopes with my printer.

and I. Don't.Care.

I actually really think they came out great. I turned the font size up to 48 and used bold and I think it actually kind of looks like someone wrote them out. I decided that no one besides the bride stresses about such dumb things as an envelope and neither am I.

So if you get one in the mail and notice I didn't hand write the address, don't take offense. I tried, I did, but this is way better.

Have any of you printed your envelopes instead of hand writing?

You've got mail

2009-06-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

or rather I've got mail....

MOH Cooper sent out the bridal shower invites and mine came in the mail too. It's so exciting to get mail that pertains to your wedding. After all the months of planning and dreaming and hoping for the day to come, when this little baby showed up in the mail it made the day feel that much more real.

My shower isn't until the end of the month, which gives me plenty of time to go dress shopping for the occasion. My mother and Bridesmaid Mini-me already got their shower dresses and I have to say, I'm super jealous of how cute they are. I can't believe they are prepared for the shower and i'm not!

anyone else feel unprepared for some upcomming wedding events?

Better get a move on

2009-05-29T03:42:00.000-07:00

Time has really snuck up on me here. One minute it was January and I have tons of time to complete all my crafty ideas and the next it is almost June. I still have quite a bit of work to do for my invitations, which should be sent out- oh right about next week. Serisouly, I need to get on the ball.

More annoyingly I have to also address all the envelopes (which I've been playing around with) and I have serious issues. First of all, I have pretty handwriting but I can't write straight when I need to. Second of all, I was going to do the whole '"print out the names and addresses and then trace them" like Jenn did, but that was not working for me either, they looked messy(I think my pen was too thick, serisouly it's a great idea and you should try it- it just didn't work for me). I've wasted a bunch of envelopes trying to get it right, but I still have not. I even went as far as trying to learn calligraphy from a book I rented from the library- this would have been a great help, but I'm no calligrapher. We can't afford a calligrapher and at this point I'm thinking I really don't care about the envelope. I may complete an etiquette f aux-pass and print them out with a fancy font on my printer.

Do you REALLY pay that close attention to the envelope you get in the mail or is all this obsessing over nothing?

Thank You!

2009-05-22T03:39:00.000-07:00

Last weekend when I was embossing the letters for our guestbook, I decided I midas well make some thank you cards. Yes, I know it's a little early, but that's the Courtney B way.

Making my thank you cards was REALLY easy. I had previously bought a stamp from ebay for under $10 that I was using on another project (don't worry, i'll blog about this when it's completed) and I was glad that I found another use for it with the thank you cards.

Materials needed:
embossing ink pad (it's clear, but really you can use any color ink you want it just won't show up after you put the embossing powder on it unless you use clear powder to show off the color underneath)
Stamp
embossing powder
Embossing gun (previously bought with a 50% off cupon at AC Moore)
5x7 paper (previously bought for my invitations but didn't use)
Gocco & Gocco ink (previously bought on ebay)
bonefolder (previously bought at AC Moore)

I used a pearly white paper I had bought from Paperandmore for my invitations, but didn't use for them (more on this later) and I stamped the paper with the butterfly stamp and then sprinkled embossing powder over it. Make sure to catch the extra on a piece of paper or a plate and you can put it back in your container and reuse it.

You have to pour the embossing powder on right away, but you don't have to use the embossing heat tool or gun right away. So I let a bunch of them pile up and then I went to town using the heat tool. (There's some chatter out there on the internet that a heat tool is unnecessary and you can use your stovetop burner to heat up the paper. Nope, not so much. I tried this a long time ago and after burning the paper and what felt like my hand, my paper was not embossed and I had to buy a heat tool. save yourself the hassle and buy a heat tool they aren't expensive).

After I enbossed my paper, I used my bone folder and my paper cutter (to measure) to score the cards in the middle.

After the scoring, I used my Gocco to print the words Thank You on the cards since they were too thick for my printer(I was not a happy camper the day i found this out).

Sorry for not having along-the-way pictures, but here is the final product:

and a close up:you may have noticed I stamped something on the back- I found a stamp I had in my craft bin that said "happily ever after" and i thought it would be cute to stamp on the back of the card, so i did, in pink.

Are you planning on making your own thank you cards?

Sign Here Please

2009-05-18T04:03:00.000-07:00

When thinking of all the useless things that have to do with weddings, I think of the guestbook. Is it really necessary? I mean- really, you know who is coming to the wedding by the RSVPS so do you need a book full of names. On the other hand, I feel strange not having one and what if I really DO want to look at who attended my wedding in 50 years? However, I'm not willing to part with $50 to have one, especially after all my married friends tell me what a waste the guestbook is.

For an insane moment, I looked up how to make and bind my own book (there are differnt binding techniques but I liked this coptic one) because I thought it would be cheaper than spending $50 on a guestbook. The instructions are intense and I'm really not sure how expensive it would be to make. I would actually like to try this someday, but maybe not so much right now.

While out with MOH Cooper this weekend she kept pointing out cheap (and cheap looking) guestbooks I could get. Now, I don't mind getting a cheap guestbook, but I don't want it to look cheap! And then I hit the jackpot at Walmart.

Here is my $10 guestbook in all it's glory. It's really quite cute inside. I loved the satin bottom portion and thought to myself of all its hidden potential.

I decided I was going to replace the ribbon with my own turquoise colored ribbon which I had previously bought for a differnt project. It was pretty easy to do. All I dip was open the cover, cut the paper that was over the ribbon and ripped it off. I Then cut a piece of ribbon the same length as the white one I pulled off, put double sidded tape on it and stuck it on in the place that the white ribbon had been. I made a bow and stuck that on with double sidded tape too.

Then I replced the paper on the inside with a piece I had bought from AC Moore with the cutest love sayings on it. I measured it to the paper I had ripped off, put some double sided tape on it and viola! cuteness! I was also going to replace the back piece, but the last page was glued down, so I just forgot about it.

I thought it was missing something, so I went down to my craft bin, and pulled out these cute cardboard cut out letters I had bought for tracing, and decided I would use them on the book as well. They were light pink, but I wanted them to be a different color.
Some glue, turquoise glitter embossing powder and after using the embossing heat tool this was the result.
I glued the letters on with rubber cement and placed something heavy on them until they adheared.

I'm not sure how I like the letters, I like the idea, but they didn't exactly turn out the color I was expecting. I thought they would match the ribbon exactlyand they don't. They got darker after the embossing. I'm trying to be okay with it. I had wanted to do them hot pink but couldn't find hot pink embossing powder at AC Moore, so I settled and I'm nt sure how I like it.

What do you think of my $10 guest book?

Numbers never looked so good

2009-05-17T04:30:00.001-07:00

Some of you may remember awhile back my posting about a prototype table number I made. I decided to make all the table numbers like this. I had a few of the materials already (glue gun, glue sticks, colored cardstock, acrylic paint) so it ended up costing me ~$32.00 to make the numbers. A little pricier than I originally thought it would cost, but I love the result.

Materials:
15 Photo frames
Wooden Numbers
3 Sheets 12 x 12 Sparkly Paper
2 Acrylic paint
a few Glue sticks
Glue Gun
Butterfly punch
2 sheets 8x 11 colored cardstock(1 pink, 1 turquoise)
Spongy paint brush

I bought 15 silver photo frames from the dollar store.

Take out the glass and the backing plate. Rub your glue stick all over the backing plate and glue Sparkly paper onto the backing plate.

I then placed the glass over the backing plate and put something heavy on it so the paper didn't curl up.

Next, I painted the silver frames with acrylic paint. I had to do two coats to cover the shiny silver material.

While I was waiting for the frames to dry, I painted the wooden numbers in a pretty turquoise paint.

After everything was good and dry, I put the backing plate back into the frame. I then took my glue gun and glued the numbers right onto the backing plate. I got out my butterfly punch and punched some butterfly's out of a sheet of sample cardstock I had bought from paper and more. I glued the butterfly's onto the numbers.

I made all the odd number frames Pink with turquoise numbers and pink butterfly's and all the even table numbers are turquoise with pink numbers and turquoise butterfly's.

Viola. Project completed.

Now I need to figure out what to do with 15 panes of glass I have leftover from this project. I'm sure there is some craft I can make out of them. Any ideas/suggestions?

No Sleep 'till....

2009-05-17T04:11:00.000-07:00

Since becoming engaged, I have had many nights where I just can not for the life of me sleep. Last night was one of them. I was tired and cranky due to horrible allergies I was having all day, and after I finally broke down and took some benadryl, all I wanted to do was get some sleep. But, as much sleep as my body wanted, my mind just would not let me get it. I tossed and turned all night, and awoke at 5am this morning. Yes, 5am on a Sunday, a non-work day, a day I should be sleeping in... and I'm awake earlier than I am on most work days. I fought it for an hour and tossed around in bed trying to get back to sleep, but it wasn't happening. So I finally got up to start the day.

I'm sitting here anxiously awaiting AC Moore to open and it doesn't open until 10:00am today. I have a new craft project in mind and I need to get something for it from there. Did I mention that I have been to AC Moore 4 times in the past 2 days? no... oh, it must have slipped my mind. I may be officially addicted to crafting.

My craft projects were officially haunting me last night. I know I'm not the only one tossing and turning these days-what keeps you up at night?

Bad Bride, Bad Bride,

2009-05-14T03:45:00.001-07:00

Ever feel guilty for a decision you've made?

I do.

Hot Mama, her little girl, little boy, and husband are all in the wedding. I really didn't want them to spend more money that they have to since there are 4 of them that have to buy attire. Then, I saw this dress and all my rational seemed to disappear.

Our cute little flower girl is a professional flower girl, as she's been in 4 weddings already. She is highly coveted as flowergirl for all the family weddings and even friends of the family weddings. My original plan was to find a flowergirl dress that was different from any others she had worn for a great price.

Mission half accomplished. The price was not a selling point. I kept looking for other FG dresses that I loved. I found a few I liked, but none that I loved.

The man's sister, Hot Mama, and I get along quite nicely and e-mail regularly. I e-mailed a bunch of dresses I liked to her and then this one and said if it was cheaper it's the one I would want because I love love love it. She loved it to.

Hot mama went on an online shopping search. She found a place (I forget the name of it) that had this dress for a more reasonable price than I had found. She asked me if it was the one I wanted and said she loved it and wouldn't mind spending that much on it.

I said i wanted that one.

I still feel guilty about it. Now, she did find it for a more reasonable price, and looking online at David's Bridal prices for FG dresses, none of which I love, are all around the same price as she got for this one. I just feel that it is still too much for the FG dress as it IS something she will grow out of. I had wanted to be a thrifty bride and have her spend such a small amount on the FG dress, but I failed. Clouded by the wedding haze, I picked a more expensive dress. In retrospect, Hot Mama probably only said she didn't mind paying that much because she knew it was the one I really loved. Bad bride, bad bride!

It's been ordered and will be here in June and Hot mama and I are anxiously awaiting this beauty.

After spending a lot of Hot Mama's money, I thought I owed her a really great deal, which I found for the ringbearer. I was browsing around one day on weddingbee and saw a post on the boards about a going out of business sale for a company (I can't remember the name of it). I immediately e-mailed the web address to Hot Mama. Although the man hadn't picked his tuxes yet, we decided for the prices of these tuxes, you couldn't beat it. We knew the style the Man liked and picked a similar tux. We had to move fast as little tuxes were flying out of there. Hot mama got a tux, two vests (one black, one silver) and two ties to match, plus shipping for under $20. It was a kick butt sale. She also noticed recently that the vest had gotten small since little ring bearer is growing, and she called the company up and they sent her a new one for FREE. Kick butt.

Have you picked out something for your wedding because you needed it but that later made you have bridal guilt?

Stalled

2009-05-13T04:53:00.001-07:00

I had been wondering how to decorate our ceremony site. We have a wonderful backdrop of the lake and nature, so more specifically, I had wondered how to decorate the Gazebo that we'd be holding the ceremony in.

I thought of using tulle, but it just wasn't doing it for me. Then I cam across these giant tissue pomanders. It was love at first sight. They would be perfect to hang from the Gazebo. I bought a bunch of tissue paper and began the daunting task of making the tissue paper flowers. I also placed an order for 2 18" Paper lanterns and 2 24" paper lanterns online. I wasn't really sure how big they would be and let me tell you, the 18" was PLENTY big.

I quickly learned making paper tissue flowers was really annoying and it took a really LONG time. Some of my flowers didn't even look like flowers, just like puffs of tissue paper. I also didn't like how they were turning out different sizes. The perfectionist in me said "uh-oh" and quite frankly, I didn't like the results I was getting. Luckily, I hadn't attached them to the paper lanterns yet. I gave up on the tissue paper flower pomanders although if you can handle making these, it would be quite the cheap project!

I still wanted pomanders to hang from the Gazebo, so I came up with a new plan while I was at the local craft store, AC Moore (where I spend a lot of time these days).

My New Project: Giant Flower Pomanders.

But how is that different from before, you ask? Well, instead of tissue paper flowers, I am using Silk Flowers. No making flowers for this chica. I bought some silk flowers while out on a trip to AC Moore (our local craft store).

Once home, I borrowed the Man's wire cutters and cut all the flowers off the stems, got out my trusty glue gun and my paper lanterns. I began gluing the lilies onto the paper lantern around the circumference of the lantern. I'm not going to lie, getting the first row onto the paper lantern was really annoying. You had to hold the flower in place until the glue dried completely or it would move or start to dip or slide down the lantern. It took a lot of patience, but after the first row, the new flowers I glued on had something to lean on, so it was a lot easier, faster and stress free.

I had purchased what I thought was an abundance of Pink Lilies. On my first trip to AC Moore (can you see where this is going), I purchased 6 stems of Lilies. The 6 stems were made up of 12 flowers on each stem, for a total of 72 flowers. Certainly enough to make 1 pomander, right?

Wrong! Those 72 flowers didn't even come close to completing the project and I quickly found myself heading to AC Moore once again for another flower fix. I purchased 6 more stems (all of their current stock in the store and they were still on sale-score) and went home to complete the project.

My completed Pomander, sitting on the table:

I tied some pink ribbon to the top and it hangs quite nicely. I Love it. It's so pretty in person, the picture really doesn't do it justice.

I wanted to make two Pomanders. I wasn't sure I wanted them to match and thought the 2nd one would look cool with Gerbera Daisys. So I began making the 2nd one with a different flower. I decided I didn't like it at all, and took the flowers off of the lantern. I ripped the lantern and had to buy a new one because, duh, they are really thin and hot glue doesn't detach easily.

I stopped at AC Moore and bought out their flower stock yet again (all 6 of them) knowing they would probably be getting more in soon and I'd just go back and buy them. I knew the flowers I purchased were not going to be enough to finish.

AND This is where the story ends tragically.

AC Moore has not gotten new flower stock in of my beloved lilies. I've been stalking them every week for a month. I should rephrase, AC Moore has not gotten new PINK lily flower stock. They got new colors in like white, orange, stargazer......but that doesn't help me.

My project is officially stalled, half completed. This is why I can't buy the other colors to mix in:

What's a bride to do when she can't find the supplies to finish her projects?

UPDATE:
I sent my mom on a mission to find me some pink lilies. It didn't end happily. She did talk to the store manager at the AC Moore in Latham who was helpful and said she'd send a mass e-mail to ALL the AC Moore stores (131 of them) to see if they had any left in stock. She was supposed to call if they did. We haven't heard a word from them. Why o why did they have to switch their flower vendor in the middle of my project? don't they know I have a wedding coming up here? *sigh* I would be happy if they would even let me in on who their vendor was... finding pink lilies is like looking for a needle in a haystack....

It's been awhile!

2009-05-13T03:39:00.000-07:00

I'M BA-aaaaaaCK.

And our computer is finally fixed. A few weeks and a new motherboard later and it FINALLY plays nice with my printer. YAY. As any DIY bride knows, a printer and a computer are essential. In fact, I've been using them non-stop lately.

I'm in the process of uploading some pictures so I should have a good blog up in the next few days.

In other news, I've been working out non-stop to Jillian Michaels 30 Day shred and Banish Fat Boost Metabolism and eating a healthy diet in hopes of dropping some poundage. I have not seen much movement on the scale and I managed to hurt my knee last week while trying to banish some fat which of course made my workouts pretty light last week(so not what I need right now). Despite the knee injury, I have managed to lose a few inches: one around my stomach, my waist and my thigh!

I DO feel like I'm building muscle.......which would usually make me happy, but it is not the goal right now. *sigh* In fact, I feel like my arms got bigger and I want them to shrink. I love Jillians workouts but I think they may be more for toning and gaining muscle than for losing fat. I'm not ready to give them up just yet because I am seeing really good results, just not exactly the results I was picturing.

Next week I'm starting a new diet/workout program which Hot Mama (The Man's older sister and one of my fabulous bridesmaids just got from her friend who is a personal trainer --and then she shared with me) and it is supposed to work really well for losing weight. I'll let you all know how it goes.

For those who like to shop

2009-04-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

Macys Friends and Family sale is going on now. Enter code: MACYSFF at check out to get 25% off and Free Shipping over $99.

Or if you want to shop in store you can print out this cuopon and use in store.

enjoy.

Where have I been?

2009-04-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

Some of you may recall a previous post of mine about losing our guest list (which was done in excel) as well as SEVERAL other wedding related things I had been working on and stupidly saved to the hard drive. Last Tuesday was not a good day.

The computer froze on me and then windows would not reboot. I was annoyed. Especially since I had JUST reinstalled my new printer, all the drivers, and all the patches. Luckily I had printed out our wedding guest list.

I have been telling the Man all along that there has been something wrong with the computer since we got it (a little less than a year ago) and that he should bring it back to Best Buy (where he bought it) and have them look at it and fix the problem while it's still under waranty.

I kept saying it and saying it and really, I felt like a nag, but seriously, why wouldn't you have something fixed for free (while it's still under waranty)? After unsuccessfully trying to reinstall windows and having it load sometimes, and not others... the Man finally agreed that something was wrong with it and that it should be looked at.

By some miracle, he managed to find the receipt which showed the purchase dat of May 18, 2008. Yay, still under waranty! So right now our computer is being looked at by professionals, and we won't have it back for a few weeks.

Therefore, my blogging will be light for several weeks.

I also managed to contract a Virus on my work computer last week. My whole computer had to be reformatted to get rid of it. I finally got it back today (almost a whole week after the incident occured).

Here's to hoping for a better week!

The Make-up Counter

2009-04-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

Ever since my make-up trial went ary, I've been thinking of doing my own make up for the wedding. I have been doing my own (and friends) makeup for years.

Although I have been doing my own make up, I have never done make up for a wedding so I am a little nervous about it. I have been reading up on DIY wedding make up and how to achieve the "oh my god she looks soooooooo fabulous"-look.

The problem lays in my foundation.

For my everyday look I use the Bare Escentuals Bare Minerals. The starter kit was a gift from my mom several years ago and I fell in love with the lightness of the minerals. I loved how my skin felt as if I was wearing nothing at all, yet it provided good coverage. I was having a lot of skin problems at that time and the minerals seemed to mesh really well with my skin.

The problem is, I don't want to use the minerals the day of the wedding. I have heard the SPF in them creates sparkle and doesn't photograph well. I also don't think they stay put in the summer all day, in fact, I know they don't. I wanted something with a little more coverage for the day of the wedding as well.

The other day, I found a surprise in my e-mail from Sephora. I had previously signed up to be a "beauty insider" at sephora, which means I get points everytime I order something and once my "beauty bank" reaches 100 points I get a FREE full sized sample of a product (I don't get to chose anything, there is an option out of 3 things usualy). I also signed up to receive the e-mails they send(totally worth it). Last christmas, they sent $15 off cupons out through e-mail and this week I got a 15% off cupon. Anyone who buys makeup knows that it is never on sale, so any sales and cupons are always welcome in my book. Here is the code for online if anyone is interested: BD2T9CB5, sorry for the late notice and you have to be a beauty insider for it to work and it expires today (4/21/09).

After receieving to 15% off code, I decided it would be worth it to head to the nearest sephora (which is about an hour from where I live) and see what they had for different foundation for me, I also wanted to check out Orgasm blush by Nars in person (I'd heard so many good things about it). I told my mom about the sale and she was all for comming with me and getting herself some new pretties as well. We headed over to sephora this past Saturday.

We were promtly greeted by a pretty young worker. She was very friendly. I told her I was looking for a foundation to use on my wedding day that was preferably waterproof/sweatproof and she looked at me like I was crazy. Okay, so I wasn't so sure if there was such a thing, but I wanted to see if there was. Apparently, there is not. She took me over to the "Make up Forever" display and showed me an oil free, water resistant foundation that she thought would work for me. She color matched me but I wasn't too keen on spending a lot of money on foundation that I wasn't sure was going to work for me. She caught on to my hesitation, and asked if I wanted a sample. Heck yeah, I did! She hooked me up with a sample of the primer to use underneath the foundation. I also got a sample of the "Make up Forever" HD foundation. That's right girls, HD, as in High Definition (made specifically to look fantastic on film). Had I really been out of the loop that long that there is now HD makeup?

I also decided I should try another brand. I headed over to the "Laura Mercier" display and asked to test out her oil free foundation as well. My attendant color matched me and got me a sample of that also. I wanted to try several brands, but really didn't want to seem too greedy. So I stuck with those three. In retrospect, I wish I HAD asked to try more of the "Laura Mercier" as there was another one I was interested in.

As my mom and I were acting like two kids in a candy store, I happened to look over and notice that all of the store attendants were bringing girls to the "Make Up Forever" stand. Every. Single. Person. that came in the store, somehow just magically was hearded over there. hmmmm. I pointed it out to my mom and she soon noticed it happening too. They must have been told to push that product or something.

I decided to check out the Orgasm Nars blush while I was there that I have heard many a brides talk about. It was very pretty. However, it did have quite a bit of sparkle to it. I found Deep Throat to not have the sparkle and to be slightly darker than the orgasm but very similar in shade/color. Of course, they were all out of that color and the Orgasm.

So, I ended up leaving without any products but I had a new blush color in mind, a few free samples to try out, and a 15% off cupon that needed to be used.

Have you decided to DIY wedding make up?

What size did you say?

2009-04-18T20:18:00.000-07:00

Some of my bridesmaids were hit hard by the failing economy. Because of that, we weren't able to place the order for the bridesmaids dresses as early as I wanted to.

As a reminder, this is the dress my fabulous 6 ladies will be rocking:
Since we were ordering to dresses from Davids Bridal, I didn't think placing a later order would be a problem.

WELL, I was right. The dresses have been coming in staggered. Some came in a few weeks ago, some last week, one came in this week, one hasn't come in yet.

The girls have been getting really excited to be getting their dresses.

I, however, have been feeling a bit more like this:

You see, 5 out of the 6 dresses have arrived. Bridesmaid Mini-me and MOH Cooper's dresses came in first. Mini-me's dress was too small and didn't fit. MOH Cooper's dress hasn't been tried on yet by her as I have been unable to drop it off at her house due to our differing schedules.

Next, College and Hot Maman's dresses came in. I was quite worried about their dresses. You see, they don't live anywhere close to a DB, so they had to call in their measurements. Davids used thier book to convert the measurements into the sizes and I knew right away the sizes they were told sounded too big. When their dresses came in, they were shipped to their homes. Sure enough, the dresses were massive and didn't fit.

Lastly, Partner in Crime's dress came in this week. She went to pick it up today and realized that it's too small also.

So right now, I'm 0/4 with 1 undecided and 1 that hasn't come in yet. Anyone who's good at math knows those are not good odds.

Luckily, DB has been really good about letting the girls exchange/return their dress for a new size. However, they have all had to reorder the new dresses and we have to wait for them to come in again. I'm hoping the 2nd round of dresses is truer to size and fit better than the first batch!

Have you had any bridesmaid dress blunders? how willing was your salon to fix the problem?

Bridal Accessories

2009-04-17T03:29:00.000-07:00

I have gotten most of my bridal accessories thus far.

Veil, check.

Originally, I wasn't going to buy a veil. I think they are really expensive for what you get. I was thinking of asking my grandmother to make me one (she's quite the sewer), but then I had to go and fall in love with a fingertip veil from Davids Bridal that was adorned with Swarovski crystals. My mother offered to buy it for me, along with my dress and undergarments (bustier, crinoline),so I took her up on the offer. Thanks mom, you totally rock!

Tiara, Check.

Jewelry, check.

Shoes, Check! After about a million and one tries, I think I got the right ones. Love them.

However, there are a few accessories I have yet to purchase.

One being a garter. Which is a story for another day.

Today, today, I'm going to focus on the 2nd accessory I'm laking, a bridal clutch. I'm not hugely a clutch person, so I really don't want to spend a ton of money on one because I probably won't be using it often.

The criteria: Satin, cute and reusable, not expensive, not cheap looking.

I did a little google search and found these clutches to be really cute:

#1 there is just something about it that I love. It may be the pleats, it may be the roses made out of fabric...

#2 Loving the bow (seriously before wedding shopping I wasn't into bows, but now in the midst of shopping, I find them strangly appealing)

#3, okay I don't think this is satin, but it's cute!

OR if I wanted to go sans white and match my shoes #4

#5 or this little cutie

Then I found this one on etsy,

It's satin and hot pink, and check out the ..................

bow.

Does the bow not totally match my shoes? Go ahead, scroll back up and check it out. Too bad the fabric is Ivory and not White! Although If I really wanted it, I bet I could message the seller and have her make me a white one. However, at $60, it is more than I want to pay and I'm not completely sure if I want to write off an all white one just yet.

This isn't a contendor for the wedding, but it sure is cute (and half off right now)! Rehersal Dinner anyone? Makes me wish I was a clutch kind of girl or willing to part with $78.

The problem I'm having right now is that ALL of the clutches I have found that I like are significantly more than I'm willing to spend on a clutch for the wedding. The cheapest one was the etsy one, and at $60, I still found that to be more than I wanted to spend. Am I being cheap here or do the prices of clutches seem to be a little exorbitant?

Are you adding a splash of color into you wedding with your clutch?

For the Crafty-Girls

2009-04-14T03:30:00.000-07:00

I find myself spending more and more time at our local craft store as the wedding draws closer.

This week AC Moore is offering a coupon for 25% off your entire order (sale items included). I saw the add last week in the paper and I've been waiting for what seems like forever to use it. Trying to hold off any craft purchases until this week as been tough. I'd like to say I succeeded, but I stopped by on Saturday and bought a few things so I could do a mock up of a project I now plan on creating.

Happy crafting ladies.

We're Registered!

2009-04-13T19:26:00.000-07:00

The man wanted nothing to do with registering for gifts, which was disappointing, because lets face it, the gift registry is for items for our future and I really didn't want to chose those things alone. However, I do like shopping and picking out new things so I figured it would be a lot of fun to actually register for gifts. I have been wanting to go for months.

Since the Man didn't want to go register with me (well actually we tried to go together once and he got very overwhelmed and annoyed), I decided to start our registry online so that I wasn't too overwhelmed/distracted with all the choices.

We had decided to register at Bed, Bath and Beyond(BBB) and Target (well, I decided Target). I began our registry at Bed, Bath and Beyond online a few weeks ago. I added things here and there when I had time to log in and do it. It was really nice being able to log on whenever I wanted and add an item here, take an item off there, or just to change a color. I was really loving it. I added a LOT of small kitchen things that everyone needs and hates buying for themselves. The Man and I have a lot of acquired items for the kitchen. Not all of them are nice. I do have a pretty kick a** set of pots and pans my parents bought us for Christmas, and some nice silverware. Other than that, we could use a lot of updated things for the kitchen. Picking these small things out online was really more optimal than picking them out in store.

I decided there were certain items I needed to see in person before registering for them. Bath towels were at the top of the list. Highly needed, but I wanted to make sure they were of good quality.

I had been planning on heading up to BBB this weekend to finish off the registry there, and then heading over to Target to add some fun items. I just happened to be talking to MOH Cooper and she, like a great friend, asked me if I'd like some help. Of course, I said I would. We met up at Target tonight after work and went to town with the scanner and scanning in items for the registry.

Scanning items in at Target was super easy and oh so fun. So easy in fact, I may have gotten a little carried away. Of course Cooper was there encouraging me to register for as much as I could. I enjoyed registering at Target a lot, but I am a little annoyed that not everything is in the store that I registered for. There were a couple items I looked up when I got home and added and they are "online only" items. And one item that was on sale in the store is showing up as "unavailable" eventhough I scanned it in the store. Nonethe less I found a bunch of stuff I really liked at Target. Coming in at the top of my list is a set of casual dinnerware. I actually had scanned in another item in store, but was looking online later and came across these pretties(they were not in the store):
They are Corelle and theyare fabulous. I L-O-V-E the practicality of Corelle. We use Corelle on an everyday basis now. I'm tired of the set I have, i've had them for a VERY long time. Plus I LOVE that this set comes with Soup bowls.

I currently have a set of stoneware that I was hoping to update with a new set of stoneware, but I didn't find any I really liked. They were all a little boring to me. After scanning away at Target, Cooper and I headed over to Bed, Bath and Beyond across the way. I found some super towels and some other pretties...

I had also decided awhile ago that we would have no use for China.... but when I was in BBB I saw some georgeous sets and *kind of* changed my mind. (While I didn't see THIS Mikasa set in the store, there were some other pretty ones. If this Mikasa set wasn't out of stock, I may have registered for it because it is simply devine).

Although it would be nice to own a set of fabulous Fancy China, then Man and I are not fancy shmancy and neither are ANY of our friends. Therfore, fancy shmancy China wouldn't get any use and would just collect dust. *sigh* So pretty though.

But wait a minute, what is this? China that is fancy enough to serve our guests on, but not to fancy to make us look pretentous.... it's dishwasher safe, microwave and oven safe, and comes in some fabulous designs.

I LOVE this "every day" china set by Lennox

(If you haven't notice my butterfly addiction yet, you haven't been paying close enough attention.) Don't you just Love?

Did you end up registering for something you absolutely thought you wouldn't have on the registry?

I'm a browse-aholic

2009-04-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

I'm a cheap shopper... normally.

I hunt down bargains and get great deals by using discount codes, free shipping codes, cupons...you name it- I've probably used it to save money.

Somehow, while wedding shopping, I seem to have thrown all my knowledge for "deals" out the window. Instead of hunting down the best bargain prices and deals, I find myself swooning and drooling over things that are much more extravagant, and out of my budget. I will admit that I've ALWAYS been drawn to things that are expensive, but usually I find a good deal on it, or I will find something similar for a better price.

These days I can't help but browse online at all the pretty summer dresses. I keep trying to justify purchasing these lovelies with thoughts of "I can wear that to a wedding related event and then I'll wear that again" or "i can use that all the time" or my favorite, "i'll need new dress up clothes for the honeymoon," when the reality of the matter is, I would like to think i'd have an occasion to wear these pretties to again, but I'm not the dress-up-all-the-time kind of girl, so i'm not sure if I would get the milage out of them. So for now, I'll just lust after them.

this is such a pretty turquoise! It would bring a nice splash of color to the rehersal dinner.

and I also think this would make a more elegant and cute rehersal dress

it's on sale now, but still a little more than I want to pay for a dress

Oh Betsy, what you do to me....seriously

would these not be fun to wear out to your Bachelorette party?

wow, can you tell I like pink?

If this came in my size and was about $300 cheaper, it would make such a cute shower dress...

*sigh*

Have you lusted over wedding attire that was just plain out of the budget?

My Personal Trainer

2009-04-09T04:00:00.000-07:00

If you want a killer work out, get some 5lb weights and a personal trainer. If you can't afford a personal trainer like me, get the next best thing,

a killer work out dvd. And I mean kill-her, as in Jillian makes me want to kill her with her "squat jacks" and "lunging curls," but I know it's for the best, so I comply in hopes of making my body look jacked someday like hers.

She's worked miracles on "the biggest loser" so when I heard about this DVD on some of the wedding boards, I ran out to walmart and spent my money happily. Then I found out it was a good workout AND only 20 minutes. I think I can spare 20 minutes. I didn't buy this DVD thinking I was going to lose 20 lbs in 30 days, I knew THAT wouldn't happen. I was just looking for a killer workout, and like promised, Jillian delivered.

The DVD consists of 3 levels. When I first started doing "the shred," as I call it, I was aiming to complete level 1 every other day. I began "shredding" last fall and I wasn't noticing a drop in weight, but I will not say I didn't notice a difference. The first thing I noticed was how Strong I felt after I completed the work out. I don't know what it was about Jillian, but she made me feel buff, even if I wasn't *quite* there yet. I noticed inches coming off and toning occuring. I liked the results I was getting even though it wasn't showing on the scale. I just *felt* like I was getting ripped. I think If I had continued shredding that I would be in a lot better shape right now, but alas, I did not. The Man started getting out of work earlier, and so I gave up my Jillian workouts at night because he was always there, and to be honest, I don't want anyone seeing me jump around that much.

We ended up getting a new dvd player recently and have since put our old one down in the basement with an old tv which makes for the perfect spot to "Shred." I just began shredding again this week.

I'm not going to lie, the first work-out with Jillian is tough. Really tough. Last fall the first time I tried level 1 I made it halfway through and I couldn't walk normally for 3 days. 3 days from 10 minutes of working out! Now, last year when I started, I had been working out everyday on my elliptical for an hour at a resistance of 8, so I thought this little workout dvd would be a piece of cake. I was wrong. But, I got back into it on the 3rd day, and I made it through the workout that time, and doing the moves again actually made my legs feel better. Each time I completed the work out I got a little better at the moves and eventually worked up to being able to complete the "advanced moves." It felt good.

I started at level 2 this time, knowing it was going to be harder than level 1. I had been afraid to move up to level 2 before because I heard it was a lot tougher... but this time I was ready for the challenge. On Monday, the first day I completed level 2, I felt like I was going to throw up afterwards. I made it through the whole work out at level 2 which was great, but I worked out so hard I felt sick. I did it again on Tuesday and made it through just fine.

Jillian makes muscles hurt that I didn't even know I had. Call me what you want, but I like that pain. While it's annoying that it hurts to lift my arm, I know that the pain I'm feeling is because I'm building muscle. Building muscle and shredding fat is the goal, so it's nice to actually "feel" it working. That being said, I'm no fool. I took a break yesterday from Jillian because it hurt to lift my arm, so there was no way I would have made it through lifting weights. Tonight I plan on having Jillian torture me again for 20 minutes. I'm actually looking forward to it, I felt guilty taking the day off yesterday, but I know your muscles need time to heal too.

There is one point in the video, towards the end, when Jillian says, "I want you to feel like you're going to die," and I'm not going to lie, I did feel like that the first day but I also felt a sense of accomplishment.

Anyone else out there shredding on a daily basis? Have you noticed it making a difference?

The letdown

2009-04-08T14:14:00.000-07:00

Exactly 4 months from today's date we will be getting married. 4 months is not a long time. We have succeeded in getting many of the wedding projects completed and are currently working on some craft projects which will be completed soon. I feel like I have accomplished a lot in the 8 months we have been planning our wedding.

We've accomplished a lot, however, there is one area that I have not accomplished my goals in. Not even close.

I would love my body to look like this for the wedding and honeymoon.....

I realize if I worked out everyday for 8hrs a day for the next 4 months, I might accomplish that. BUT, who has 8 hrs a day to work out? Not me. Not when I'm working 9hr days. *sigh*

My confession: I have never been skinny or thin. Ever. Well, maybe once, when I was a baby, but not since then.

I was at my "personal thinnest" right before the Man and I began dating. I know the weight I was at isn't considered "skinny" for my height, but having struggled with weight my whole life I couldn't remember a time when I was that thin before, and quite frankly I was feeling great. I was eating right, not drinking alcohol, working out a lot and *it* showed. Not only did it show, but I felt strong and healthy.

I'll admit it, I have gained quite a bit of weight since the man and I started dating 3 years ago. I'm lucky he's in love with me, and not my size. Going out to dinner on dates, eating red meat more often(the man's fave), drinking on the weekends with him, not working out as much and the eventual not working out at all- had a toll on my body and all added up to a chubby girl once again. In the midst of everything I also switched careers and my new job was a more passive one- one where I sit at a desk all day long- not something I was used to.

It happened gradually, and I really didn't realize it at first. I was happy and it had been a long time since I had been happy. It started as a couple pounds here and a couple pounds there. Since I no longer worked out in my free time, not only had I gained weight, but all the muscle I once had from working out, was now gone as well. And then one day, I realized those couple pounds here and there had all added up. Actually, it didn't happen like that. It wasn't a magical moment where I just realized that I'd put on some weight. I had seen a recent picture of myself from a friend's birthday party and then I saw a not-so-recent picture of myself from several years ago, and it made me realize how much I had gained. The camera doesn't lie.

I hated how I was looking and feeling (tired, sluggish, unmotivated). I decided it was time to lose the weight I had gained over the last three years.

I began my weight loss journey last January.

I decided we needed to start eating healthier which meant less red meat. Even though the Man complains about leaner meats, I think it is important to our health for us to eat more lean meats than red meats. I also introduced the Man to ground turkey instead of ground beef. He actually likes it! I stopped drinking beer on the weekends with the Man which wasn't hard because I don't really like beer. We got one of these:

and I began working out. Every day. At first I didn't see a huge difference in weight being lost, but I was losing inches. Although I knew I was losing inches, it was always nicer when the number on the scale dropped. The weight wasn't dropping very fast (which is good because you aren't supposed to drop it fast), but I was getting quite discouraged. I began working out longer and harder and that is when I saw the difference. I began dropping weight faster, well, faster than I was.

I ended up losing 15lbs between January and June. Not a HUGE feat, but 15lbs none the less. Then I hit the dreaded plateau. I was stuck at that plateau for a LONG time. I got annoyed because I just couldn't seem to get over the plateau.

Summer had come and we were out on the lake all the time, and not eating as healthy as we were/I was. Cookouts, lots of pasta salads and carbs, and lots of red meat and parties with our friends. I managed to maintain my loss for the rest of the year, although I didn't lose anymore. Maintaining is just as hard for me, if not harder, than losing, So I was quite proud of that.

This year my focus isn't on just LOSING weight but on becoming a healthier person. It's more of a lifestyle change for me now. I know my vises and I'm trying to eat those in moderation or not at all. My problem isn't so much in snacking as it is in portion control and carbohydrates and especially portion control with carbohydrates. I bought a food scale so I could portion out my food, and I know EXACTLY how many calories I'm eating

Since I can't do it on my own, about halfway through last month I began tracking my food on Livestrong , previously known as the daily plate. I believe that it helps keep me honest about what I'm eating, and it also helps me realize when I'm eating too much. When I don't count calories it's like a free for all.

I also quit drinking diet soda. I weaned myself off it slowly. It had been a main portion of my liquid consumption everyday. I cut myself back to 1 a day which was hard to do, and then eventually about 3 weeks ago, I cut the diet pepsi out of my life too. I still like it. Nothing beats a cold diet pepsi in a can on a hot day, but I'm trying to make water beat it. I've began drinking a lot more water during the day and at night I have a Diet Arizona Green Tea (which is so good The Man drinks it on me and he's not an iced tea kinda guy).
I also have to bring working out back into my life. It's hard for me to get motivated to work out, but once I do and I get in the zone, it's hard for me to NOT work out every day. I began adding the work outs into my routine again in the beginning of March. I began walking during my half hour lunch break and can get 2 miles in if I push myself, and I was trying to work out on the elliptical at night. My toe problem had me out of commission for a few weeks so now it's time to really step it up a notch.

I, of course, like every bride, want to look great on my wedding day and I have truly ment to lose weight along the way. It didn't happen. I was carelessly putting it off until the next month, over and over again... telling myself I have "plenty of time" to drop some pounds and tone my arms. As the wedding draws closer and closer I get more nervous about not fitting into my dress.

You see, I got my dress back in October. It came in in early February. I tried it on, it fit, but was snug. Really snug. I told myself I would lose at least 10lbs before the wedding and it would fit perfectly.

I have not lost 10lbs since February. I have gained 7lbs since January. 7lbs since I gave up my nicotine addiction for good.

I know quitting smoking was something that will benefit me in the long run, but I can't help but get annoyed at the weight gain that occurred since then. I have not eaten any more than I used to. I am not consuming more calories per day than I used to, it just is what it is. And it is not making me happy in the least bit. Sometimes I feel like it's a never-ending battle of the bulge and the bulge is winning.

I know I am not going to meet my weight loss goals that I had wanted to meet. But I DO still have 4 months to change a little. I originally had wanted to lose 30lbs before the wedding- over the course of the year.... and obviously that didn't happen. It took me 5 months last year to lose 15 lbs, and I only have 4 months left to go so now I struggle with the added pressure of losing at least the 7lbs I gained and hopefully a few more so my dress can fit a little looser.

Anyone else realizing maybe they aren't going to meet their fitness goals before the wedding? Did you revise your plan so it is a little more attainable?

Egg-cellent Choice

2009-04-08T03:27:00.000-07:00

For those of you Catholics out there, you all know Easter is coming up on Sunday. The other day I can across an excellent tutorial on dying Easter eggs. Now, it's not your typical "Pals dye in a cup" job, these eggs are super cool and sound quite easy to make(I haven't actually made these yet myself).

I can't help thinking that they would make for a unique and amazing centerpiece for anyone having an Easter wedding who is embracing the holiday into their decor or for anyone who is planning on using eggs in thier decorations. The end product depends on the silk you choose to use when dying, so the results are all in your hands. Play around with different silks until you create the colors and design you want.

So go ahead, head on over to the tutorial and enjoy creating some masterpieces of your own, you can thank me later.

Check out these pretties:

all photos taken from ourbestbites.com

It's Toe-riffic!

2009-04-03T11:55:00.000-07:00

About 2 weeks ago, give or take a few days, I blogged about waking up with a "stiff toe," for lack of a better term. My toe just plain felt funny. It hurt, I couldn't bend it, and every now and then it would tingle, and oh how it hurt to walk on it. I originally thought it was from smashing the foot pedal on the drums for "rockband" too hard, but have since changed my mind. I vaguely remember doing it. I smashed my foot right into the stairs. I remember it hurting like it had never hurt before.... and then I went to bed and woke up the next day with the toe problem.

On Saturday I was convinced it was broken, as I was walking around a lot that day and in a lot of pain. However when i googled broken toe images, mine didn't look like those. It also wasn't bruised which is a sign of a broken toe. I decided it wasn't broken but that something was def. wrong with it and I had better take it easy for the week.

I have been being lazy and not working out at night because my toe hurts to walk on it so I definately can't run on my elliptical.

What this means is that instead of working out after work like I've been trying so hard to do, I have been playing around with wedding crafts. Table numbers in particular. I know it's a long way off, but I'm trying to get the small details out of the way now so when spring finally comes around I won't be stuck in the house.

At first I was thinking of making Table number illuminaries, but since I couldn't find the right cylindar vases and they were more $$ than I wanted to spend when i did find them, that I would try something else and see how that came out.
I was trying to have table numbers that were different than the normal paper number.
Here is a prototype table number that I made:

yay or nay?

Are you working on your little details yet? Have you stumbled across some good ideas for table numbers?

I'm a Homebody

2009-03-30T18:45:00.000-07:00

It's true. I'm a homebody. More specifically I'm not just a homebody, I've never left the Mother Country, and by Mother Country, I mean the United States. The Man is also a homebody, as he has never left the U.S. either.

I have always wanted to explore the world, but financially was not able to. So when it came time to pick our honeymoon spot, leaving the country and exploring some place new was not only something I wanted to do, but something I needed to do.

I have learned that more often than not, you can't predict the future. Life throws you curve balls and sometimes, even with the best intentions of accomplishing something, you don't always get the chance or opportunity to. I wanted to make sure I got to leave the country and go to another one at least once in my lifetime.

Several posts ago, I posted that we booked our Honeymoon destination- Jamaica. I can't even put into words how excited I am to go there. However, there is a little somethin' somethin' on my mind.....

I don't have one. The man doesn't have one. We are getting closer and closer to August.

We took so long deciding where to go and I wasn't quite sure if we'd be needing these babies, so we haven't applied for them yet. With 4 months left, I am a little worried about getting it in time. I am pretty sure that the wait time is a lot quicker than it used to be, but I'm not really sure what I'll do if it takes longer than 4 months to get!

The Man had gone to see a Travel Agent when we first started looking at places and the Agent told him about something new that New York State was offering called the Enhanced Driver License.

The travel agent told the Man the requirements of getting an enhanced license and told him that it was good for travel between the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Carribean. The Man was all about getting these instead of passports because they are quicker to get, and also cheaper than a passport. The applications have been sitting here for about a month and a half. I hadn't really done anything with it, mostly because I hadn't had time to go to the DMV.

Secondly, I was a little ify about getting one of these for travel out of the country. I have a fear of being trapped and not allowed back into the U.S. if I used this for travel.

Because of my gut instinct telling me I need a passport to travel, I did a little more research on the enhanced Liscence and here is the deal: It is good for travel by LAND or SEA between the U.S, Canada, Mexico and the Carribean. There is nothing saying that it is good for AIR travel to or from the Carribean. Therefore, it looks like we will be in need of passports afterall. I'm glad I realized this now so that hopefully we'll have enough time to get our passports!

Has anyone gotten and used the Enhanced License for travel? How did it go?

Thanks, for Nothing.

2009-03-30T03:41:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I had my meeting with my make-up artist. If you remember several posts ago , I was quite undecided if I should spend money getting a make-up artist or if I was going to do my own make-up day of.I found an add on Craigslist and promptly replied to it. The stylist sounded like everything I was looking for, and she traveled to your hotel room so you did not have to go anywhere. Plus, she did hair and was willing to do updo's for all the girls. She actually sounded like a dream.

We spent several weeks e-mailing and setting up our meeting date. She was going to do my make-up trial and I was quite excited about it. I had never had my make up done by anyone before. I spent some time collecting pictures of make-up looks I wanted to go for and I sent them to the Stylist.

Friday I hadn't heard from her to confirm, so I took the initiative and contacted her to make sure we were still on for our appointment as I had made it several months ago. She seemed excited and said we were on and she was actually going to contact me to confirm later that evening. She also told me I would need 50% of the total for services we'd be requiring for a deposit. I had taken a poll of my girls and the deposit would have been at least $200, which I was fine putting up, but I hadn't asked the Stylist about one thing.... a contract.

After thinking about how I'd be putting so much money down to hold the date, I asked her if there was a contract, because I wouldn't feel right putting down that much money without one. She said she didn't have one. I promptly voiced my concerns about putting so much money down (virtually to someone I didn't know) and not having any kind of proof of services to be provided or proof of payment. She told me she'd invoice me and it would serve as our contract and proof of payment. I was still a little leary, but figured I was a pretty good judge of characture so I'd be able to tell when I met her if she was legit or not.

Saturday morning came and I got up early and got ready, sans make-up. I saw the Man off as he was going home for the weekend and I waited for the Stylist to arrive.

I waited, and waited and waited.

She never showed up. At first I thought she must be running late and our road is easy to miss. I had given her my phone number and told her to bring it with her in case she couldn't find me. She never called.

After an hour, I knew she wasn't coming and I got pissed off.

After another hour, I knew she wasn't comming and felt relief.

Relief for what could have been a bad mistake. Relief that I didn't put down that much money just to have her not show up on the day of my wedding. Relief that my girls wouldn't be sitting around on the day of the wedding waiting for her to come and make them pretty and have her not show up.

I also felt annoyed. Annoyed that I had spoken to her the night before and she said she would be there in the morning. Annoyed that she couldn't even call and tell me she wasn't comming. Annoyed that I sat around waiting for her all morning on such a georgeous day. I also had a slight thought of perhaps something bad happened. I called her home(the number she gave me) and was going to leave a message to make sure she was okay, but someone answered. They were not very nice and informed me that if there was an emergency, they would have been called and would know.

So there you have it. My make-up trial that didn't happen.

I look at it as a blessing in disguise.

Rest & Relaxation- Part II

2009-03-27T06:49:00.000-07:00

Since the Man and I decided on the Carribean, but didn't have a set destination, I decided to start doing some of my own research.

The first Island I liked was called Dominica. However, it's not your typical Honeymoon Island.

It is more of an "Adventure Island," with lots to do including: hiking, snorkeling, canyoning, scuba diving. I thought it would be the perfect spot for the man. Plus it was oozing with waterfalls, lush green rainforests and one of the only boiling lakes in the world(you hike up a mountain to see this). It sounded like it would be a lot of fun and I could see it being romantic as well. I saw great reviews on the beauty and friendliness of the Island. The only downfall was that it is a little underdeveloped in terms of what you'd expect for a hotel or nightlife. You aren't going to find a pampering 5 star luxury hotel here. It also didn't have a lot of beaches, but I was okay with that.

The Man vetoed Dominica once he saw that it didn't have a lot of beaches and told me the complete opposite of what he told me before, he wanted beaches. He also thought they might not have a very active nightlife, which is something we wanted as an option. So Dominica is out for our honeymoon, although I wouldn't mind going there someday. After all the positive reviews I read, it is supposed to be the "undiscovered beauty of the carribean," and I would like to check it out someday.

Next stop, Aruba. Aruba has some beautiful beaches and some amazing sunsets. Aruba has scuba diving, snorkeling, boating, historic caves, casinos, looked like it had a great nightlife, and it is not in the hurricaine belt(which is super important during hurricane season).

But, the Man found some reason to hate on Aruba too.

We were seriously considering Antigua for quite awhile. BUT, the Man decided the water wasn't "blue" enough for him and I found a horrible article on a couple that was killed while honeymooning there. I'm not gonna lie, that article killed antigua for me.

The we saw beautiful Punta Canna in the Dominican Republic.

And they had everything we were looking for in a place, but the Man, once again, found something to not like.

Are you getting tired of our indecisiveness yet? At this point, I was really getting annoyed. I wanted to find a place that we both would be happy going to, and it seemed as if the Man had become the most pickiest man alive. I would have been happy going anywhere in the Carribean with the Man, and I told him that. I left it up to him to find a spot since he was so unhappy with the choices we were making. He did a lot of research, and after finding spots and looking up reviews and prices, we finally found the "One."

We are going to Sandals Negril, located on the island of Jamaica. Yes, I know, it's in the hurricane belt during hurricane season (what are we thinking?). Don't worry, we got Travel Insurance through the resort and if anything should happen we will get a refund or get the chance to rebook our honeymoon at a later time. Secretly, I think the Man has high hopes of ridding out a hurricane together-- he's just crazy like that.

Photos of Negril-

Look at this sunset!

We chose Sandals because it is all inclusive and couples only. I'm so happy we finally settled on a place!

We tried to book through Orbitz (they have the cheapest package), but encountered a problem. We ended up calling Sandals and they matched the price that Orbitz had on thier website.

Oh August, you can't come fast enough.

Rest & Relaxation: Part I

2009-03-26T11:24:00.000-07:00

The man and I had a seriously HARD time choosing a honeymoon location. We both wanted different things. Very, very different things.

While the man was daydreaming of Alaska, cruises, deep sea fishing, and bear hunting,

I was thinking something more like Hawaii, the tropics, romantic sunsets, beaches,and snorkeling.

Usually we agree on things, but Alaska was not the spot I wanted to go to after the long, COLD, snowy, hard winter we just had here in upstate NY. Not only that, but I didn't want to go on a cruise for our honeymoon. We have a boat that we go out on often in the summertime, and I sometimes feel trapped on it and I didn't want to have that trapped feeling out in the middle of the ocean. And while I think Alaska would be a beautiful spot to visit, I wasn't willing to go on our honeymoon. I do hope to go to Alaska someday and take in it's stunning beauty, just not this August.

The Man told me he didn't want to sit around on a beach all day, which I understand and had no intention of doing. I wanted to go somewhere different to explore it, not to park my butt on the beach the whole time we are there. Don't get me wrong, there will be some sort of relaxation on the beach, just not every second of every day. Once I told the Man I wasn't going to lob on the beach all day, he was totally down for a warmer vaca. Hawaii is somewhere I have ALWAYS wanted to go. Unfortunatly, since we are paying for our own wedding, Hawaii was slightly out of our budget -so it was out too. So there you have it, our top 2 choices, gone.

I made some other suggestions of different places but the Man didn't want to fly over the whole ocean to get to Italy, Greece, Ireland, or Australia(he has a fear of flying over the ocean and crashing). There are wars going on in Mexico which makes it uber unsafe for tourists right now.... so we were left with the dilema of where to go for rest and the ultimate relaxation.

We FINALLY narrowed it down to the Carribean, and in case you can't tell... that wasn't really "narrowing" since there are so many islands to choose from.

How easy was it for you to choose your honeymoon spot? Was your number one choice the same as your Significant Other's?

I like the Sparkle

2009-03-24T11:20:00.001-07:00

I have always been attracted to things that have a little sparkle to them. I've never been a big pearl person. I like them, but I like sparkle/bling better. So when it came time to pick the jewlery for my wedding day, naturally I was drawn to the bling and this came as no surprise to those who know me.

Bridesmaid Hot Mama knew exactly what jewlery set I wanted and from where and surprised me with it as a Christmas gift. It is actually a lot more sparkly and beautiful in person than it is in this picture. This picture does not do it justice!

Because I was impressed with the quality, sparkle, and customer service Hot Mama said she received, I decided to order my tiara from the same place. After debating over a few different tiara's I settled on this one. It's cute, it's blingy and it would look good in either an updo or a half-up/half-down look. I wasn't dissapointed when it arrived in the mail. The man snuck a peek at it and liked it too.

I got both of these sparkly beauties at USA Bride and I wasn't dissapointed. In fact, I highly recomend this sight if you're still looking for that special sparkly necklace, tiara, or hair pin. They have a lot of other items too.

AND because I love you guys I'll share my cuopon for Free Shipping & 10% off Your Accessory Order (I think you need to spend a minimum of $100)
Enter Code: SAVE10

Expires: April 30, 2009

Happy Shopping.

We Rock!

2009-03-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

I had BIG plans to finish a project I've been working on this weekend. I wanted to share with everyone, but alas, we had company on Saturday and then Sunday something else happened.

Sunday, after our company left, The man and I decided to go into town and take a stroll through Bed, Bath and Beyond (where I was hoping we'd register finally). We got there and began strolling around and I could tell the Man was just not in the mood to register. In fact, I truely believe him when he says he "just doesn't care" about kitchen stuff. He isn't the one cooking on a normal basis, so why would he like kitchen things? He told me he really isn't into registering and I honestly believed him when I saw how A.D.D. he got in the store.

We quickly exited the store without registering for anything, and went nextdoor to Best Buy. This is where we should register! The Man was in his glory here and we ended up leaving with a purchase.... we have joined the ranks of

Guitar Hero. We were going to get RockBand, but they were all sold out of the Rockband for the wii, but they had plenty of Guitar Hero's in store.

And as soon as we got home, we busted it out, and began the madness. I was one with the drums and singing and The Man was one with the guitar. All. Day. Long. we played.

We accomplished nothing except spending some quality time perfecting our band!

I woke up this morning without having finished my craft projects, with a soar throat (from belting out tunes for hours), and with a sore toe (felt like a "stiff toe" which may or may not be from the foot pedal on the drum set).

Have you found a creative way to spend quality time with your man?

Save our Date!

2009-03-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

I've seen some amazing Gocco'ed invites, save the dates, cards, ect. from some very crafty people. Although I don't hate the way my Save the dates turned out, I wasn't totally in love with them either. I know I could have done better if I had spent more time on them. It was a decision that was made and after talking to all the hotels in the area, they needed to go out as quickly as possible.

I busted out my Gocco and got ready to start being creative. At this point we didn't have a theme or anything really picked out besides the colors.

The first step in Gocco mass production is burning the screen.

You simply line up your printed out/copied image on the grey sticky pad. The top of the gocco is made of a see through plastic. You can see what the actual image will look like and if it's lined up correctly or not. Move your image around as much as you want, until you get it where you want it and it looks perfect.

Once you have your image lined up, you open the top of the Gocco (it flips up) and insert the blue filter and then the screen on top of the filter.

place 2 bulbs in the housing(the yellow thingy), line up the arrows on the housing with the arrows on the Gocco (orange part) or your housing will get stuck--don't ask how I know this.

Close your eyes, turn your head and push down. The gocco will flash and your image will be burned onto the screen. If you have done it properly, the paper with your printed image will be stuck to the back of the screen. Don't remove this just yet.

Next,pull the top layer up, bust out your ink block (the squishy silver stuff) and block your image off. This helps the ink stay in the area you need it to stay in and the image stamps clearer when you use it.

ink up
peel off the paper, put the screen back into the gocco, place your blank cardstock down and stamp you little heart out.

Sounds a lot more complicated than it is.

I burned two screens to make our save the dates (well, three really, but my image moved and was crooked so it was a wasted screen).

This is the first pass I made for our save the dates

I used a clear embossing powder which I sprinkled on, and the tipped the card to get off the excess, then I used my embossing gun that I bought at AC Moore with a 1/2 off cupon to heat it up. Easy, but time consuming. It raised my image and made it look more professional. I highly recomend embossing if you want a little texture.

My second pass is what I wish I had spent more time on. The words should have been larger, and I wish I had used a cooler font. I was limited at the time with the font thing because we didn't have a working printer, so I printed it off at work, and I didn't want to download a font on my work computer, so I was chained to the ones that came in word 2003.

in retrospect I wish I had done the writing on the bottom in black so it showed up better. I am a little disapointed with my results, but felt like I was on such a time contraint that I really didn't care at that point. I made these before I really realized the potential of what they could have been, but in reality not tooooooo shabby for my first mass production.

The next project will be better, I swear.
I have big plans for the invites.

Did you send out Save the dates? How creative did you get?