Wedding Shower

So my mom and my aunt threw me a wedding shower last weekend and it was great! I went to Southern California to visit my family for a week and we just had a blast. It was also a great opportunity to try another shot at making my wedding cake. I made two tiers which I stacked on two different sized vases and decorated with fake flowers from the Dollar Store. I will have to post pictures of the cake as soon as someone who took pictures sends them to me. The outside of the cake got a little overcooked because I was using 3" deep pans so I have try and remedy this, but overall it was very successful. I had no idea that I would be getting gifts at the shower either. We had great food and got to catch up with some old friends that I haven't seen in a very long time.

The best part is that my friends will still be throwing me another shower up here at home.

Bachelorette Shirts

I found a great website, www.customink.com, that does awesome bachelorette t-shirts. Their minimum for group discounts is only 6 and they have some really cool designs. Check them out.

Picking Your Wedding Party

After my fiance proposed, I instantly called some of my best friends and asked them to be my bridesmaids. Although this worked out for me, I have heard/witnessed horror stories about bridesmaids. Personally I think anyone who gets engaged should probably plan out your wedding party before you ask, because you can't take it back. You have to prioritize your relationships verse your needs and wants. Personally my fiance and I wanted to have a smaller wedding party, 4 groomsmen, 4 bridesmaid, 1 junior best man, 2 ushers and a ring bearer. We had been in a wedding where the wedding party was somewhere around 20 or more and it was just to chaotic. Not to mention the cost. You really have to think that for every person you have to purchase a bouquet or boutonniere and then also buy gifts for all of the attendants. This really starts to add up when you have a large wedding party. Also you have to choose people that are there to support you. They should be the people that are closest to you and if anything goes wrong they will be the ones that calm the
situation and not cause more drama. I chose my sister to be my maid of honor. For my bridesmaids I chose my best friend that I grew up with, my college roommate and my soon to be sister in law. Now that I look back at my bridesmaids they all represent different aspects of my life and they are all friends that will truly enjoy this special moment with me and my fiance. (The top picture is my best friend I grew up with and the bottom picture is my fiance and I with my future sister in law and her husband at there wedding)

Bachelorette Party!

Ok so the plan is...

Vegas at the Mandalay Bay for three nights. One day of cabanas on lazy river. They give you a $100 credit towards cabanas for each room you rent. A stipper 101 class for all the girls. Very embarassing, but should be a great time. I found $10 off the normal price at viator.com as well as $9.99 vouchers for VIP club entry to all the best clubs. I know it sounds to good to be true doesn't?! So now we just need to decide which clubs to go to and where to eat. We also would like to rent a 15 passenger van to travel in instead of having two or three drivers. Anyone have any recommendations?

Long Time, no blog...

Wow! Sorry it's been so long. Life has been a little crazy! Last time I posted my fiance had been in the emergency room sick. Well, the next morning he had to be admitted to the hospital for a couple of weeks! Now, he is all healed up and doing much better! Needless to say all the wedding plans were pushed to the side for a short while. Now, were back in the game and counting down the next couple of months. Were in the last stretch and the planning has kicked into overtime. I look forward to getting back to sharing the details of the planning and all of our wonderful ideas.

Wedding Shower

My mom and my aunt are throwing me a wedding shower when I go home to visit in a few weeks. She's getting together a lot of my old high school friends that I haven't seen in forever so I am really excited about. Neither her or I want to play the typical shower games (toilet paper wedding dress...), but we do want to play games. So we are going to play Wii games like Rock Band and Mario and Sonic go to the Olympics. Now I know this sounds kind of ridiculous, but these games are a blast. Get a group together and you will be playing all night without even realizing where the time went. If you have a Wii, you should get these games. If you don't, you should buy one. Enjoy

Who makes this dress?

I really need to find out who makes this dress. I am absolutely in love with it. If anyone has seen this, please let me know. Thnak you.

My Dress is In

I got to pick up my dress on Sunday and I am so excited. It just makes all of this so much more real. Now I stare it in the face (or the bag I should say) every night before I go to bed. I really don't have anywhere to put it so my fiance put a nail in the wall and it is hanging on that for now. We are moving to a bigger place in less than a month where my dress will have its own closet.

I have to say I was a little scared when I first picked up the dress. I opened the bag and felt like it wasn't as beautiful as I remembered. That was until I put it on again. The beauty all came back then and it reminded me that I didn't really care for the dress on a hanger the first time I saw it too.

I am definitly going to need alterations. I am already down one size from when I first bought the dress two months ago. Some people thought I would be really upset that my dress didn't fit anymore, but I was ecstatic. I can always have it altered, but the fact that I'm finally getting back in shape is priceless to me.

Oh What Fun...

Wedding Planning is. I'm actually serious. I am having a really great time planning this wedding. I want to remind all you brides out there that are stressing out and on the verge to just relax and enjoy this amazing experience. For most of you it will only happen once. Remember you are the bride so whatever you say goes. It only matters that you and your fiance are happy. Don't forget to spend time together without talking about wedding stuff because your will still have a life after the wedding. Smile!

Wedding Planning Rant

I was going to write something helpful and informative, but today I feel more like a rant. My wedding is a year away, which granted that is a long time to plan a wedding. But I am sick of vendors looking at me like oh you have forever to hammer out details when I contact them. They think just because I have awhile before my date they can take their sweet time getting back to me and setting things up. I'm purposely trying to get things done super early because I don't want to have to try to get things done around the holidays or at the last moment in 2010. I tend to procrastsinate so if I don't do it now I will be scrambling later. I feel vendors are being patronizing and I'm sick of it. I don't care if my wedding was 2 years away if I want to find out stuff now and book things far in advance so freaking what?! And another thing if I have to ever deal with another caterer anytime in the next 20 years it will be too soon. I've discovered that caterers are worse than "artisits." They are moody, persnickety, unresponsive unless you effuse the email with praise, and think way too much of themselves and their craft. OK I'm done. I just needed to vent. Other than vendors wedding planning is a blast!

Hairstyles

I wanted to share with you the different hairstyles that I am contemplating for the wedding. I have been going back and forth on whether to wear my hair in a beautiful updo or down and flowy. I would love the updo, but I also love the natural look of having my hair down. We are having an outdoor lake wedding so this would definitly fit.

The updo cannot be a tight bun on the back of my head. It has to be big and show off my hair with a few loose curls draping my face. Similar to some of the looks above. My fiance also really wants me to have a flower in my hair somewhere so I have to fit this in as well. And then there is deciding how to wear the veil. So many choices...

Beautiful Earrings

I just completely fell in love with Tigerlilly's Clementine earrings. They will go perfectly with my dress and are exactly what I have been looking for. Now I just have to choose the hairstyle that will really show these beauties off.

Gift Registry Part II

My second out of the box gift registry idea is to do the honeymoon gift registry that is becoming very popular. I decided to go with the site TheHoneymoon.com. It is very user friendly and gives the user some great tips to help the registry be as successful as possible. You can also view other current registries to get ideas.

The one thing that they don't tell you about up front is that there is a service charge that your guests will pay. At first this is kinda of a shocker, but then you realize that your guests will not be paying for sales tax or shipping. I researched a couple of other sites and they all seem to charge something. Some of them charge you and not the guest so be careful which site you go with.

TheHoneymoon.com makes it very easy on your guests to find your registry. All they need to do is go to the home page and enter one of your last names. If you put a picture of the two of you, then it makes it even easier for you guests to find you. Then all you need to do is pick the gifts that you want your guests to buy for you.

Since we are going to an all inclusive resort, I just split up the different activities and dinning that we plan on doing and put price tags on them. For example, lobster dinner - $200 or breakfast in bed - $40. You can look at our site below if you would like more ideas.

https://www.thehoneymoon.com/couples/49819/registries/35727/guest_view

Gift Registry

So I started making our gift registry today. Well, I guess I should say that WE started. I have debated about whether to do one at all or not. We really would like the bulk of our guests to contribute towards our gift registry honeymoon. However, my soon to be mother in law is worried that some guests will want to buy actual guests which I guess is a reasonable request. And since my mom just set the date for my wedding shower, I figured that we might as well get something going.

My problem has been that we really don't need many home/kitchen items. We've been living together for over three years and are midway through remodling our condo. So I thought why not get some things that we really want, not what we need. We absolutely love the store Cabela's so we thought...why not. They don't technically have a wedding registry, but they do have a wish list that your guests can enter you name and see what you want. The wish list even shows which items have already been bought.

We added camping pads, a tent, camp cookware, and camping dishes to our great new registry. We're still going to keep the number of items to a minimal. But now at least we will get some fun presents to open when the time comes.

Bridesmaid Gifts

I get constant emails about specials and deals on bridesmaid gifts, but I don't like any of the gifts they sell. I want something at least semi personal.

Then, my soon to be mother in law told me about a pine cone necklace that she has. It's a real pinecone (a very small one) that was dipped in stearling silver and put on a chain.

I loved the idea (my wedding is somewhat pinecone themed) and have been searching for the necklaces ever since. Well I finally found one on EBAY of all places. Now I just have to find five more of them or think of another gift. Any ideas?