Hello!

Hello!  Hey!  Hi there!

I'm taking a cue from Katie and starting this week at work I've been dressing (more) for success.  I'm dressing for the job I want, not the job I have - or something like that.  Perhaps feeling a bit better about myself?  That's still to be decided.

I really just wanted to check in and say hello.  I've missed you. 

Wedding is over, as well as the stress headaches.  Below are a few of my favorite pictures from the day.  Sean's sister Rebecca took the first two and the bottom picture was from Katie's camera.



This shows a lot of the emotion of the ceremony. Tears all around.

My handsome husband and I after the ceremony.

Sean and his mom were dancing, but Lilly and Charlie wanted to dance, so we all danced a bit together.

Happy Thursday!!

Wedding dress fitting and other stuff.

I'm slacking on the blogging front.  I should be more like Becky and try to blog more. 

Anyway.

Last Friday, I had my first wedding dress fitting.  It was so beautiful.  So white.  The crinoline was so fluffy compared to the sample dress I tried on.  It was so freaking beautiful.  But, I was terrified to try it on.  I was feeling very anxious.  I was afraid it wasn't going to fit at all and not slide up over my hips and butt. 

Alas, it was tight, but it went up.  It is being let out a bit.  As my mom pointed out, the alterations lady didn't say, "Oh my gosh," or panic at all.  She made it seem like it will be an easy fix.  And easy fix I hope it is.  I'm still watching what I eat and working on losing a few pounds.  I go back to try the dress on July 20.  I didn't want to take the dress off. 

It made me really excited about the wedding.  Wedding projects on my to-do list are being crossed off.  I'm going to start designing my programs this week.  I'm going to try to finish the table numbers this week.  Of course, I'm still waiting on RSVPs to figure out how many table numbers I actually need... but that is another story entirely. 

Tonight, Sean and I are going to buy his suit jacket for the wedding.  We need to figure out groomsmen gifts still.  I am working on bridemaids gifts and am just about done, but can't go into detail here since sneaky bridemaids will read about it. 

Bachelorette party is next weekend.  We're going to Valleyfair (work on our bronze) and then going out that night.  I'm so excited. 

What are you up to these days?  How's your summer going thus far?

Wedding Annoyances.

My biggest wedding annoyances (right now, it may change):

• People asking when the wedding date when you first get engaged.  Literally, right after.  
• People sending their RSVP back and saying they're bringing a date when their invitation did not say, "so and so and guest."  Frustrating.

That's all I have for now.  I just wanted to vent a bit.  That is all.

Aw, crap.

I just did a little math of when I need to send out wedding invitations and when the RSVP deadline should be.  If I make the RSVP deadline one month (four weeks) before the wedding and "they" say to send out wedding invitations eight weeks before the RSVP deadline.  The date I would need to send out the invitations is tomorrow.

Cue the swearing and freaking out in my head.

We're getting married 12 weeks from tomorrow.  TWELVE WEEKS.

We have a lot to do.  First though, I need to design the RSVP and map to be printed.  I need to do this stat.

Cue the freaking out some more.

Wedding shoes.

My wedding day apparel.  Dress, check.  Veil, check.  Shoes, no bueno.  I love shoes and I'm disappointed I haven't found anything I love yet.  I am sticking to flats since Sean and I are the same height, I don't want to be towering above him and feeling all awkward.

Here's some shoes I've been lusting after, but something has always been a bit off and I haven't 100% decided yet.

Cece Suede Ballet Flats from J.Crew

Ah, I love these.  They're perfect!  Too bad they're $128 for a small ballet flat.  Sad.  To rich for my blood.

White Glitter TOMS

Of course my list needs to include TOMS.  This is the first of many TOMS I like. 

Silver Crochet TOMS

They look gray to me instead of silver.  I think it would work, but I'm not totally sold.  And I think if I'm going to have colored shoes, I want yellow not gray.

Pewter Glitter TOMS

Okay, ignore the comment I just said about wanting yellow instead of gray.  I was perusing the TOMS website some more and I came across these.  Sweet Jesus, I am smitten.  As of right now, these are my front runner.  I can get behind something this glittery. 

Movember TOMS

I've decided I want to wear TOMS for the wedding.  Not only are they incredibly comfortable, I already own a pair that I love.  Originally, Becky had gotten the Movember TOMS for me for Christmas, but I have huge feet.  I went to exchange them at Nordstrom's and they didn't have my correct size.  I got the burlap TOMS instead (which I love just as much).  And!  There's a mustache on the side of this shoe.  I have a strange obsession with mustaches.  I think a mustache finger tattoo would be a fantastic thing. 

Yellow Palmetto TOMS

My favorites are the Pewter Glitter, Movember, and Yellow Palmetto.  What do you think?

Wine, crafts, and snacks.

I had an eventful Friday night. 

Christa and Katie came over to my apartment on Friday to help with some wedding crafts.  Specifically, they helped with centerpieces.

Katie with a pin stuck in through her finger. This was the worst of the pin sticks for her.

In addition to working on centerpiece flowers, we drank some wine and ate some snacks.

I feel like we got a lot accomplished.  Basically, most of the hydrangea poms for the gray vases are completed.  Side note.  What is the proper spelling of the color gray? 

From web design site, Sitepoint, found in Google search

Should it be gray or grey?  I've seen it both ways.  GreyorGray.com says "gray" is how it is spelt in America (uses US English) and "grey" is how it is spelled in England (uses UK English), but both are correct. 

Now, this portion of the centerpieces will be complete once all of the vases are spray painted to the proper gray.  That is a project for Sean and my father to do next time we are in Sleepy Eye.  And I need to get more yellow paper to punch out hydrangea flowers to finish the flowers for the gray vases.

Perfect topper

Sean and I have a cake topper for our wedding cake and it's perfect. 

Barbie and Ken Wedding Day keepsake ornaments

I found the idea for the Barbie figurines from Weddingbee, a wedding blog that I love.  One of the bloggers had posted her idea about the Barbie ornaments in the beginning of March.  Once I saw her post, I immediately knew that this needed to be our cake topper as well.

As my family can attest to, I was a Barbie freak.  I loved everything Barbie and still played with them long after my friends stopped.  My dad built me an amazing Barbie house when I was five.  Once I have room for it, I will move it into my home and set up the original furniture and everything.  Boots will probably hide in it. 

Off to Ebay I went and I found the set right away.  I need to take the screws out of the tops of the bride and groom's head, but that is a minor detail. 

Apparently the hook things (very technical term) can be removed

They will also be doing double duty.  They will hang on our Christmas tree as ornaments - their original purpose - as well. 

Do you think I should paint the bow tie and cumberbun gray or yellow?

Aren't they perfect?

Centerpieces and Pew Decorations

I have figured it out.  It being the reception table centerpieces and pew decorations at the church.

Tutorial found at Pizzazzerie

I have two different sized Martha Stewart hydrangea punches that I've been using to punch flowers out of two types of paper in different shades of yellow. 

Imagine this in yellow

I've made two different sized pomanders to go on a wire stem that will sit in the vases we picked up from IKEA.  So far, I'm really digging how it looks, but each pomander is tedious.  I've found that if the two hydrangea flowers that are layered together for each blossom are glued together first before pinning into the Styrofoam ball works a lot better.  Also, instead of using corsage pins like pictured above, on the smaller pomanders for the centerpieces I used quilting pins because they're yellow.  I think if I use quilting pins for the large pomanders, it may look kind of goofy.  The head of the quilting pin is going to be too small I think.  Maybe I'll find some yellow corsage pins online that have a larger plastic head.

If anyone needs to get their craft fix, how does gluing and pinning flowers to a Styrofoam ball sound?  That reminds me... I need to pick up some more yellow paper and pins for the pomanders from Michael's.  Good thing I've got a stash full of Michael's coupons!

Photographer booked!

I forgot to mention a photographer has been booked for the wedding!  A couple weekends ago when Sean and I were visiting my parents we met with two photographers.

Both photographers had really nice work and we would have been happy with either.  Ultimately, it came down to price, at least in my mind.  I called her last week and Mary Woitas, from Sleepy Eye, is booked as our photographer.  She offers exactly what are looking for: no prints to buy and images on a disc.  Also, as an added bonus we're getting two photographers.

I'm so happy and relieved that is done!  I feel like a weight has been lifted. 

Oh!  Save the dates were mailed out last week too.  I'm crossing things off my wedding to-do list left and right.

The weekend.

Sean and I had a pretty busy weekend.  We attended our first of two pre-marriage classes. 

We had class on Friday night from 7 to 9:30.  Then, on Saturday from 9 a.m. to about 6:30 p.m.  Saturday was definitely a long day.  But, there was some good things we learned.  It was a Catholic pre-marriage class, so there was plenty of religious stuff.  Below are some things we learned.  Note:  This is completely from my perspective, not his.  I'll do this in a bullet list.

• Couple time.  Time spent to work on the relationship.  Also could be called date night.  It is time spent communicating with each other.  Sean and I are going to bring back our Sunday dinners.  We used to cook a nicer meal together, but stopped because we got too busy or there was too much of my junk on the kitchen table.  We're bringing that back.
• Put your relationship first.  The relationship must be a priority for marriage to work (obviously).
• Communication is key.  We learned that we tell each other things, but we both forget important information.  Example - I tell him we're going to Sleepy Eye a particular weekend and Sean may not remember, or I wasn't clear enough.  Solution - we now have a whiteboard calendar hanging on a wall in our kitchen so we can each write down things going on. 
• Natural family planning.  I learned more about what it is, but we don't agree with it right now.  There was a couple awkward sessions that I don't want to think about or talk about again.
• Classy.  So, there was a panel discussion with three couples that had married varying amounts of time.  One couple was telling the story of how they met and got marrried.  They had a rocky and not very Christian relationship at the start and the husband would chime in and say "classy" at times they were clearly not being classy.  It was humorous.  This isn't really something I learned, but it was comical.
• Three good full body hugs a day keeps the therapist away.  There was an older man that is a marriage therapist and he was very entertaining.  It said a key to a good relationship and marriage is to share three good full body hugs a day.  I agree with him.  A good hug from Sean definitely puts me in a better mood and makes me happier.

Those are some of the main points that are sticking in my mind right now.  Overall, we learned some things and I thought it was interesting.

Wedding faired out.

I've attended a wedding fair the past four weekends in a row.  Don't get me wrong, they're actually kind of fun and I enjoyed the four fairs I went to. 

But.  I'm totally burned out on them.  I don't want to try any more free cake or be polite when I'm not actually interested in the spiel someone is giving me.  I'm so over it.

Thank goodness yesterday's wedding fair was the last one I plan on going to this year.  Sean even went to the fair yesterday, so he got to see what they're all about.  I know he was mainly there for the free cake though. :)

January thoughts.

January has come and gone (already).  Weird. 

My birthday is in a week.  Also weird.  I'm significantly less excited for it this year than I have been in previous years.  And I don't know why.  If you know me at all, you know how excited I get about my birthday, so this especially strange.

Maybe it's me just getting older?  Whatever it is, I need to snap out of it.

Wedding planning update time.  The last big planning thing is that we need is to find a photographer.  I'm getting burnt out on the photographer search because most of them are well out of the price range, like double or triple out of the price range.  The photographers that we do find in the price range have an astronomical travel fee.  All I can see is dollar signs when I try to find a photographer. 

Mom, I know, we talked about this, but I am a cheap (I prefer thrifty) person.  I would totally do the wedding photography if I wasn't actually in the wedding. 

I think I need to lay off the photographer search for a week and dive back in.  That is the thing that is stressing me out the most right now.

Ho hum.

What do you have going on in January?  Any winter blues?

Wedding planning recap.

I'll try to do this quickly and (hopefully) post plenty of pictures to break up the text.  Let's do this bullet form, shall we?

• Wedding is August 10, 2012 (8/10/12 - so fun to say!)
• Friday night wedding
• Wedding colors were chosen: gray and yellow
• My dress was ordered last weekend
• My veil was bought by my father from Ebay - I can't wait to see him (or be sent a picture) try it on when it comes in the mail
• The ceremony and reception venues have been chosen
• Location of events is the Sleepy Eye/Springfield, Minnesota, area
• DJ and photographer are to be determined
• Bridesmaid dress search is on

Ladies, you like?  I like.  It's from Modcloth

• Save the dates are being designed and ordered - my inspiration is below

From WeddingPaperDivas.com

• I'm going to be designing and ordering invitations as well in the next few weeks
• Sean and I have begun picking up items for table centerpieces

Found this vase in gray at IKEA on last chance clearance

• We're doing a lot of DIY projects for centerpieces and decoration such as making paper and felt flowers for centerpieces
• My dad and his good friend Steve are growing all of the flowers for the wedding - Dad: don't forget about the huge zinnias!
• Sean and I are registered for the Catholic pre-marriage classes

Am I forgetting anything?

I know.

I know I should blog more.
I know I should run more and eat less.
I know I should blog about running more and eating less.

I know a lot of things.  I worry about what I know I should be doing.

Things I know and don't have to worry about:

I ran 1.5 miles tonight.  I ran those 1.5 miles in 21:44 (slow) but finished the run.
I have a dress (!!) for the wedding!
I'm working on designing the save the dates.
I will do a quick blog post about wedding schtuff sometime soon, but I don't want to bore you.
I love wearing spandex running pants.