THE One...

Mom and I went dress shopping last night, and I found my dress! It's a Galina chiffon gown, but I don't know the style number. Here is the picture of it from David's Bridal's Website

It was on sale for $298!! I was originally looking for around $150, and the $99 gown sale was going on but I was literally ONE size too big, everything was 14's and I'm a 16. It's not what I had envisioned for my dress originally, (I wanted lace) but it was so light and comfortable I know that I will want to wear it all day! And I'm thinking that it may be possible to shorten it after the wedding so that I can wear it again. Maybe I will dye it the aqua color of my wedding. I also think it would good in yellow. I'm not sure yet. My mom (bless her heart) is picking it up today, and taking it home to her house! I may be visiting it soon to get an idea for jewelery. I may not do anything but earrings and a bracelet, though. I think a necklace would almost take away from the neckline - what do you think?

The front: (me looking at the back and not paying attention to Mom)

From the side (look it hides my tummy! I'm still determined to lose about 5 pounds though this month before the wedding!)

What do you think??? I love it! I'm so excited, and I know Mike is going to love it too! Mom also bought a dress, she ordered this

My maid of honor and I are going to go in to pick out her dress on the 31st of May. I still need to call and make the appointment. Next on the agenda is getting our marriage license, which we were supposed to do today, but we're running short on cash this week, so we're going to wait until next Wednesday, and getting the playlist started (which I started last night) and book the photographer. We also are going to have to start buying food for the party little by little, but the good news is the 26th of June I get my check with commission which is going to be approximately $1100, so I think we'll be ok in terms of buying food. Hair trial is on the 6th so I have to make sure I have my headband finished by then. (which I am making)

I am also going to have to talk to Mike's grandmother about possibly doing the straps on my dress for me in addition to the dress for Trish's wedding. I'm sure she will do it, she likes doing that kind of stuff. I will try to take it up to her sometime in the next week or so!

AHHHH I'm getting married!!! LOL

My Wedding Plans

I've decided to update you all on my ideas for the wedding. My wedding website is great, but it'll be easier to keep track of updating only one site instead of two, and I like that I can do a more live feed here than there. So lets start with cake, because it's yummy! lol

I have decided that I am going to make my cake myself. I know that we are doing a small two tier cake for me and Mike with the top layer being frozen, and cupcakes for the guests. The cake will be marble for us, and the cupcakes will be a mixture of chocolate and vanilla. I want to do turquoise icing with a strawberry slice or two in the center. Here are two pictures that are similar to what I want, the first the icing idea, the second how I am hoping to have it laid out *and the icing is the right color =)*

This is the cake topper that we want, it will be surrounded by strawberries on top of the cake.

This is what I would like to do for Mike if I knew that alot of people would eat red velvet cake, because that was what he wanted originally. He and I are HUGE Cubbies fans, so I thought it would be awesome to do a cake of Wrigley Field! If I don't do it for the wedding, I will probably do this for his birthday later this year =)

This is the cake server set that was the closest to the one at Walmart that we want to get. I love how simple and classy it is. The following photo is the toasting glasses I would like to get from Oriental Trader. They personalize the set and it's only 9.99!

This is the inspiration board with the "look" that I am going for. Classy but casual, red white and blue with a TWIST...and of course our "love tree" theme.

Here are my shoes! They are dorothy costume shoes, and I can't wait to get them!

Next on the update is flowers. I really don't know what I am going to do here, because I can't afford much. I think just basic is the way to go with this. I'm thinking about just going to the grocery store the day before or maybe even the morning of, and buying either white carnations, or white roses and making a small bouquet for my maid of honor and me. Here are my ideas of what I would like them to look like if I can afford them. (Or if I can continue to get 50% off coupons I will maybe make artificial bouquets)

For decorations everything is going to unfortunately be very minimal, or very inexpensive to make and will be made by me. The one thing that we are getting (with a 50% off coupon) is this lighted arch. It will be decorated with tulle across it and down the back, and there will be a small spray of flowers in the center in our colors with some ribbon. The flowers are still up in the air, this is what I had to talk to Mike's nan about, and we didn't get to see her last night.
I was searching Martha Stewart weddings and came across these two centerpiece ideas. If I do flowers, I think they would look great together, but we will probably just end up only doing the paper luminaries all over the place:

This kind of fits into the theme and I think it would be a great way to frame our "dance floor" in the grass behind my mom's house:

For favors we would like to do sparklers because they are fun!

I also HAVE TO HAVE a smores table! We will roast them over the grill, or possibly have a bonfire in the backyard.

For hair these are my ideas. I want soft curls with my hair halfway up and then I want to make a headband like the one in the third photo, but instead of clear beads, I want gold beads.

Hopefully I will have dress photos to show you tomorrow! Hooray weddings!

Invitations!!

My invitations are complete, assembled and ready to go! My maid of honor and  I worked on them ALL. NIGHT. LONG!

They were lying EVERYWHERE to dry - on the kitchen counter:

on the couch:

in the hallway:

Invitation packet and envelope:

and disassembled:

Invitation up close:

Reception card:

 RSVP card:

Envelope:

All packed up and ready to go to the mailbox!

I'm so excited!

51 days to go!

It's been 10 days since I've written last so I'll give you a heads up on what's been happening so far, and tell you what's on the schedule for this weekend and next week!

So since the 5th I've been in PLANNING MAJOR mode!! I got our invitation list finalized, figured out what kind of food we are going to need, worked on what we were going to use to decorate both places, as well as made appointments for my hair trial (free as a gift from her! I love you Breanne!), meeting with the pastor, nail appointment with MOH the day before, the bridal shower, and decided what the cake was going to look like! (We have decided to do cupcakes for guests, and a small cake for us to cut) I also made plans with Mom as to when we were going to bake everything, and cook the food, etc, made plans for the rehearsal the day before, and so much more!!

So on the agenda this past week wasn't much because I was so busy with work and Tupperware. We were going to do the registry at Bed, Bath, and Beyond on Wednesday, but we decided to put it off until tonight. I had a Tupperware meeting last night, so tonight I am going to my mom's to email the girl that I really liked for photography, (she is a photog major at the local college) and give her my offer of 150 dollars and food at the reception. Hopefully, she will be interested, and we can go from there! Then it's off to BB&B to do our registry. I already have some things on there that I added from the website, but we still have some things left that we need to put on there.

Tomorrow, my schedule is pretty open during the day. I plan to sleep in until about 11 o'clock, get up, shower, and then go get all the things I am going to need to do our invitations!! I need to go to AC Moore to get the invitatations, the ribbon, and some white cardstock, then to the post office to buy about 100 stamps! (44 dollars - OUCH! lol) Then that evening, my MOH and I are going to print, cut, assemble and seal my 45 invitations!! I'm so excited, and I will take pictures and post them on Monday, because I will be so damn excited about the first ACTUAL thing that I have done for the wedding that I can touch and feel!!

Sunday, we have a meeting with our pastor, Pastor Arnold. He is VERY nice, and I like him alot. We are meeting him for coffee, and I plan to take the vows that I found that we like, and an example of the hand ceremony which I really want to do, since Mike thought that both a unity candle and a sand ceremony was cheezy. Then that evening, we are going to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the WWE Pay Per View. Should be interesting, because our favorites are fighting each other. I have a feeling he won't be speaking to me after the match ::winks:: =)

Monday is quite busy as well. Our invitations will go out in the morning before work. I am going to find out the weight of our invites before I take them to make sure one stamp is enough. My mom is a rural carrier, so I may borrow her scale from her to make sure. After work we are going to Mike's little cousin's Tball game, should be fun, and then we are headed to his Nan's house to talk about the decorations for the ceremony. We are buying a white arch with lights from the craft store and decorating with tulle and flowers (we're buying the tulle, his nan said she would buy the flowers) for a focal point for the ceremony.

Tuesday I am REALLY excited about! Mike and I are going dress shopping! Yes, I am taking him with me, no I don't care anymore. He is the person who I care about, and he is the only one I am trying to impress, so I want him to like it. Anyway, I have a credit to David's Bridal, and they are having their 99 dollar gown sale right now, and they also have a "damaged" section that I am going to check out. They said that the gowns go fast, so get in there as soon as we can. So my mom is going to come, and me and my MOH will go back on the 31st to pick out her dress, and our jewelery!

Wednesday, is a BIG day for us. On my lunch break we are going to get our marriage license!! I am so excited to do this....it makes it official because we only have 60 days to use it! =))))

So, that is what is immediate on the agenda! That's alot, but I really feel like I'm starting to get things checked off the list, and it's becoming real!! I'm so excited!! =)

61 days!

That's how many days I have to plan this wedding from beginning to end! EEEEEP! So I need to go in planning overload right now. Here's what we have done so far:

Officiant: penciled in (meeting needs to be scheduled)
License: can get up to 60 days prior - OMG that's tomorrow. EEEP!
Venue: ceremony (his nan's house) reception/party (mom's house)
Dress: $135 credit at David's will check their "damaged" section for a good deal
Hair: Friend Bre doing it - probably about $35/40
Makeup: me (I want to look like me anyway)
Shoes for me: Those Dorothy shoes were like $32.99. Getting them.

Not done:

Mike's outfit
Food
Cake
Invitations

So not counting food, or cake, or invitations, I'm already looking at $375.00. I'm sure that we'll probably end up around 500-600 range.

Here's to 61 days and HOPING!!!

Cake dreams...

So I was talking to my mom yesterday about the cake and what I wanted to do, and I realized that the topper that I had originally picked was too wide on the base and wouldn't fit on the cake if we are putting strawberries on the top as well. Also it was brought to my attention that turquoise icing will turn all my guests teeth blue! (didn't think about that LOL) SO, there are some adjustments that I am making, and one cool thing I am going to add.

First here's the new topper. It's got the same theme, but it's thinner and instead of dancing, they are hugging which is more appropriate anyway (Mike doesn't dance....lol)

Also, instead of doing turquoise icing, I'm going to do white icing with an aqua m&m on top in the center. Then (here's the cool part) I'm going to add red food coloring to the boxed mix to make my cupcakes RED!! =) They're going to look so awesome! Like red velvet cake but not! LOLI think it's an awesome idea...I just hope I can pull it off!!