Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Life and Everything Else

Here recently my life has been consumed with nothing but Wedding madness, so I thought it might be a good time to fill you guys in on what else has been going on in my life other than the crazy Wedding planning.

There for a while, Aran and I were having to go up to Denver every weekend because of the classes that I was taking to become Catholic. Well, those are now over and so are our Marriage Prep classes that we were also attending up there, so needless to say, our weekends have slowed down A LOT! It has been really nice to not have to go up there every weekend. I have actually been able to sleep in. That never happens! And when I say sleep in, I mean I actually didn't roll out of bed until noon one day.

A few weeks ago we had a surprise going away/Birthday party for my little sister. A few of her friends took her swimming down at one of the creeks here and then brought her back blindfolded and told her that their mom had a surprise for her but that she wasn't allowed to see where they were going. I wish you could have seen her friends leading her into the house blindfolded. I think she almost fell a few times. It took everything I had not to burst into laughter, but I had to be quiet because she didn't know we were in the house. We surprised her and then of course we ate and talked for a few hours. She left for college a few weeks ago and Aran and I tried to make sure that she had a few of the things that she would really need for school. We bought her some bed sheets, a shower caddy, a trash can, and of course some cute towels. She loved all of them and so far I believe they are coming in great use. I can't wait to send her care packages full of fun stuff and of course, food!

Finally in the house

Surprise! 


Something else very big happened a few weeks ago. My oldest niece MaKenzi started preschool. I was one proud Aunty that day. Unfortunately I didn't get to help take her to school, but I was there to pick her up. It made me feel so good when we went to pick her up when she ran straight past everyone else, and ran straight to me and screamed "Megan!!!!!!!!!!!!" It made my heart melt! She had a great day at school though. She made friends and she got to have snack and they made a pretty picture with tissue paper and glue. And according to MaKenzi, "I did a really good job, I didn't even get the glue on my hands!" It was so cute! She is growing up so fast, and some days I enjoy it, other days, I wish she would stop growing.

All dressed and ready for school!

Striking a pose! Kelsi decided she wanted in too!

My brother walking her into the school

Waiting to go into her classroom

Lined up going to recess. She didn't even
know we were there.

Running towards us and screaming "Megan!!!"

Last Friday I picked MaKenzi up from school and then we went home and picked up her little sister, my youngest niece Kelsi, and we had a sleepover. We ate pizza, cheetos, and we baked chocolate chip cookies and ate them with Blue Bell Ice Cream. We watched Tangled and a Fairy Barbie movie that the girls picked out. The next morning we got up and had breakfast and got dressed. I tried to braid the girls hair the best I could and then we went to the playground for a little while. After that my brother and his wife came and picked them up. Of course MaKenzi kept asking when they could come back again. Hopefully really soon because I miss them already!

Overall, things have slowed down as far as classes and appointments go. But, now I have all of these DIY projects that I have been working on. Once I get a few of them finished I will do some posts so that hopefully I can share how to do them with you guys. I hope everyone is having a great Wednesday!

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Monday, August 29, 2011

Invitation Proofs

Yesterday I checked my email to find a wonderful surprise. The proofs for our invitations had arrived! I was so excited! I was jumping up and down! We opened them and my jaw dropped! They are gorgeous! And exactly what I have been wanting from the beginning!

After the initial shock of them, we finally were able to really look at them to look for misspellings and things like that. We had a few adjustments to make, but other than that, they are perfect. So I sent them back last night and I already had the second set of proofs back this morning. That was quick. They were perfect. Everything looks amazing! The only thing that I might change is the dimensions of the cards, but I have to wait until the pockets get here today to determine that.

I am a very happy girl right now though. I can't wait to see the finished result, and of course share with you guys what it looks like. Eeek!



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Friday, August 26, 2011

Anxious

Okay, so maybe this is just me, but I have been way to anxious about things lately. Maybe it is just my excitement building, or maybe I am just an impatient person, but I just wish a few things would magically appear. You probably think that I am talking crazy, but I have a few things that I am anxiously awaiting to get here and it just seems like it is not happening very quickly.

The first thing would be the proof for our invites. He said he would have it to us by today or by the latest Monday. Well, I am really hoping for today so I have been checking my email like a crazy person in hopes that it will be there one of these times. Well, so far that email hasn't appeared. Darn! Also, our pockets and the outer envelopes that I ordered on Monday were supposed to be delivered today, but when I went to check the status of it on UPS's website, it said there was an "Exception". There wasn't much detail about the "exception" just that sometime between Wednesday and today, something unforeseen happened and now, they won't be delivered until Monday probably. Well darn again!

The other thing that I am anxiously awaiting is my veil to get here. I ordered it about two weeks ago and according to the convo that I had with the Etsy seller, she said that her turn around time is about two weeks, so I am hoping that it will be here soon. I think I am just too excited to see how everything turns out and that is why it feels like it is taking an ETERNITY to get here.

Hopefully I will be able to take my mind off of some of these things this weekend. Here in about 15 minutes I am leaving work to go pick up my oldest niece MaKenzi from preschool and then we are going to go get her little sister and we are going to have a sleepover tonight, so hopefully they will take my mind off of things. I hope that you all have a great weekend and hopefully I will have some updates on Monday for you guys.

Did it ever feel like everything was taking forever to get to you? Were you super anxious about things too?

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Thursday, August 25, 2011

Tote Bags and Make Up Bags

For a while now I have been trying to find cute tote bags and matching make up bags to give my girls as gifts. Well, I haven't really found quite what I am looking for at a price that I feel is decent. Well yesterday, Laura over at Saying I Do had her Mom do a guest post about the tote bags that she made for Laura's bridal party. Her Mom did a fantastic job on these bags and was even able to make them matching make up bags. Her post really got me thinking about making these bags myself.

After scouring the internet for about an hour, I have come up with a couple of options. 1) I can buy a pattern from JoAnn Fabrics and attempt to try and make them off of the pattern for each of my girls, or 2) I can use this tutorial that I found over at Skip to my Lou that takes you through making a tote bag step by step and they even have a tutorial on how to do a zippered makeup bag. Now my only concern is that I have only been using a sewing machine for a little over a year now. I am not by any means a super sewer. I am still a beginner and I have never done anything using a pattern, so I am worried that I would not understand what the pattern is asking you to do and that I would just be in over my head. The tutorial seemed pretty easy and I definitely understood what they were asking me to do, but there isn't as much room for customization with the simple tutorial as there would be with the pattern.

Via the JoAnn Fabrics Website


So, I am asking your advice as to what I should do. Should I go ahead and buy the pattern and see if I can understand what it is saying? Or should I follow the easy tutorial that I found online? Tell me what you are thinking in the comments below! Hope everyone is having a great Thursday!

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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

50% Off at Hobby Lobby

For all of my fellow brides out there, I thought I would let you guys know that this week at Hobby Lobby they are having their 50% off Bridal Event. I went in yesterday and everything Bridal was 50% except for custom made items. I bought my guest book, my ring bearer pillow and a really cute white birdcage for holding cards all for half of their usual price. My guest book and the pillow were only $15 each and the little cage was only $10. So, I thought I would let all of you know that may have a few things that you need to pick up at Hobby Lobby for your wedding. Hope everyone is having a great Tuesday so far.

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Monday, August 22, 2011

Invitations And A Productive Weekend

Ladies and Gentleman, it is official. WE HAVE AN INVITATION!!! And, it is being custom designed for us! Can you picture me jumping  up and down with excitement right now? Well if you can't you should try because this is what I have been doing since we met with Dennis on Saturday!

When we met with Dennis(the printer), I expressed how I just wasn't finding anything that I was in love with and kind of explained to him what it was that I was really looking for. Well, he told me that custom printing that for us was absolutely not a problem. Music to my ears! So we are providing him with the bronze shimmery pocket that everything will go into along with the mailing envelope and he is printing the invitations, the response card, and the reception card and our thank you cards.

He hasn't quoted us a price yet, but from what he told us, it will be cheaper than what we were going to pay for the ones from the book that he had. Picture me doing another happy dance right now. Now of course we had to buy the pockets and the mailing envelopes, but I ordered them this morning from CardsandPockets.com and it cost $105. Which really isn't that bad considering that I ordered 101 pockets and 101 mailing envelopes. I ordered one extra of each so that I could give our printer Dennis a sample of each. I am unbelievably excited about our invites and I can't wait to see the finished product! And of course, I will share that with you guys once they are all sent out and I know that our guests have received them.

Now, we also accomplished a few other things this weekend for the wedding as well. Last week I set up an appointment with the bakery that we are using so that we could do a tasting a discuss what we want the cake to look like. Well that appointment isn't until the 3rd of September, but Aran's Mom was nice enough to stop off at the bakery and pick up some cake samples for us to try when we came up this weekend. OMG! is about all I have to say about their cakes. They are so amazing and delicious. We have picked out four flavors that we would like to use. Three will be for the main cake and one will be for the grooms cake. I will fill you in on more of that once we actually have our meeting.

Something else that I am very pleased with is that I started a DIY project for one of the gifts for all of the girls involved with the wedding. I set out to make the wooden name hangers for each girls dress and the first attempt at them wasn't that great, but once I figured out how to finagle the wire the way that it should lay, they are turning out amazing. I only have three out of the 14 that I have to make done, but be sure to look for a post about that very soon!

I hope that everyone had an amazing weekend. Are you doing any DIY projects? How many flavors of cake did you have for your cake?



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Saturday, August 20, 2011

Invitations Round 2

You may remember our invitation dilemma a few weeks ago where we thought we had found our invitations, but then soon realized that it wasn't at all what we wanted. Well after stressing out about it for another week, I just quit thinking about it because the guy that we are working with was out of town, so there really wasn't much we could do until he got back.

The problem that we were running into was that there weren't a lot of options of invited in our colors, or there was something that was in our colors and it was either too plain or just not at all what we wanted. So you may  see why I was so frustrated about this. Now if you would have been able to change colors on some of these, we would probably already have an invitation picked out.

Well, he is back now and I called him yesterday to discuss what our options were. He pretty much told me that he could print anything that we want. He said that we didn't need to feel limited by the options in the book that he gave us. So we are meeting with him again today to hopefully figure this whole situation out. Well, wish us luck and of course I will give you guys an update on how the invitation process is coming along.

How long did it take you to decide on your invitations?

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Thursday, August 18, 2011

Photo Booth

When Aran and I started planning our wedding, one thing I knew that we would not be able to afford was a photo booth. I had seen them at a couple of Wedding Expo's and I fell in love with them, but the prices of them are outrageous. I quickly realized that it was something that was going to be way out of reach. So I didn't think anything more about it until we found our photographers.

Our search for our photographer was pretty ridiculous, but by the suggestion of Aran's sister's friend(a little confusing, sorry) we looked at a photography company called Yellow Paddle Photography. They are a company that has up and coming photographers who do great work, so they are significantly cheaper. And...one of their packages includes a photo booth!!! And that package was under what we budgeted for a photographer so double yays are in order here!!!!!!

Now that we have the photo booth, I am looking for ideas to make a cute sign to put up so that our guests see it and know to get their pictures taken. I have seen all kinds of pictures of signs and I found a few that I think would be pretty easy to replicate and even add my own touch too. Oh, pinterest! You are amazing for things like this!




I think the first and the third are my best options considering that I don't have anywhere where I can hang a sign like the second one up. The one thing that I want to make sure of too is that it is big enough for people to see. I don't want them to be able to walk right past it and not even see it. Hopefully I can get my creative juices flowing and make something that everyone sees and goes, "Okay, we have to do this!" 

What is nice is that we get a CD with copies of all of the pictures that our guests take. Once we get this CD we are planning on making a guest book with all of the pictures. The only other thing that we have to figure out now is whether we want the "Fun & Funky" props like boas, glasses, hats, etc., or do we want the "Classic" look which has picture frames, letters, and chalkboards. Or do we want to do both for an additional charge? 

Are you wanting a photo booth at your wedding, but are finding it is too expensive? Look for ways to DIY. There are tons of tips out there on how to have an affordable DIY photo booth at your wedding. Or look for a photographer that has one included in their packages. 

I want to know what you guys think. Should we do the "Fun & Funky" look or the "Classic" look? Sound off in the comments below!

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Monday, August 15, 2011

Flowers, Check!

This past Saturday we met with the florist that is going to be doing our wedding. First of all, she was amazing! She was so easy to work with and she had great ideas and insight as to what we should do and what we shouldn't.

We started by talking about the details of everything as far as the ceremony and the reception go. You know the when, where, and what time type stuff. And of course we talked about the wedding colors and I had just so happen to bring some ribbon that were two of the colors and luckily she had some ribbon that was the exact color of pink that I have been wanting to use. This was great having all three of the colors so that she could see them. I highly suggest bringing pieces of ribbon that are your colors because I was able to give these to her and she put them with all of our paper work so that she could find the exact colors of ribbon and other things that will be going along with the flowers.

We discussed my bouquet and my bridal parties bouquets. She fully saw exactly what I was wanting and it made me very excited that she could see what I was envisioning. We also discussed what I was wanting for my flower girls. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue because they would just need some rose petals, but the church that we are getting married in does not allow petals to be thrown because of safety reasons and also because of the clean up. So, I had thought that we could get them the little styrofoam balls that are covered in flowers. Well turns out, these have an actual name(which we decided should never be googled) and they are called Kissing Balls. They are so cute and I think my nieces are going to love them. I can't wait to see how they turn out and how cute they will be with their dresses.


They look like this! Found via
Google Image Search, haha!

Next up, the boutonniere's that Aran and his Groomsmen would be wearing. Can I start by saying that I never thought their would be so many options for a boutonniere? Wow! This discussion took longer than the discussion about my bouquet did. In the end I think we picked out something that the guys won't feel is too girly, but it is pink so yeah, maybe not, haha! They are just going to have to deal with it. Oh, and by the way, it was VERY helpful to know what the guys were wearing when we did this, so again, I would suggest having their attire picked out before you meet with your florist.

Something that a lot of people might over look or may not think about at first is that there are other people that aren't in your wedding parties that need to be honored by having a corsage or a boutonniere made up for them to wear on your big day. Now, I don't think you absolutely have to do this, but it is pretty normal. These people include your Parents, Grandparents, ushers, guestbook attendant, readers and any one else that you feel you would like to honor for all of their help. This discussion again, took a long time because there are so many options with this. If you haven't had a meeting with your florist yet, I would suggest having a list of these people prepared when you go so that it makes the process go a little bit quicker and hopefully this way you don't leave anyone out!

Overall, the experience was a little overwhelming, but exciting at the same time. I really can't wait to see the end product all put together. A few other possible helpful tips that I would like to share with you if you haven't done this yet is;

  • 1) Take pictures of what you are wanting even if they aren't in the colors that you would like them to be. This can be really helpful for the florist to see exactly what you are wanting.
  • 2) There are a ton of little details that go into this such as the ribbon color that the boutonniere's and corsages are going to be wrapped with, so if you have a good idea going into the appointment what you want, you may not feel as overwhelmed. 
  • 3) Trust the florists judgement! This is a big one! More than likely they have been doing this for a while and they know what looks good and what doesn't. 
  • 4) Talk to your florists about the toss away bouquet and see what their shop policy is on that. Our florist provides this bouquet as a gift to the bride and does not charge for it. And if they do charge, think about maybe making this yourself, it may be cheaper!

I hope that these tips help you out when you go meet with your florist. I will have a couple other posts coming up about other things that we discussed with our florist in the next month or so, so be on the lookout for those. Have a great Monday everyone!

Have you met with your florists? What are some tips that you can share that would help others with their appointments?

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Jewelry

I know that I have told you guys in the past that I was having a hard time finding jewelry for my big day. Nothing was quite what I wanted it to be. I wanted pearls and crystals and I wanted it to come together and then have a pendant drop down or something like that. Well everything that I found was either too expensive, not quite what I wanted or it wasn't long enough.

Well, my search turned around the other day. I was on Etsy and just happen to type in the word "Bride" just to see what would pop up. About half way down the page I saw a necklace that was mostly pearls but had some crystals on it too and it really caught my eye. I clicked on it and when the picture popped up I actually gasped. It was the first time that I have looked at a necklace and went, "that's it!" I can't even begin to describe how I was feeling. I just kind of knew that it was what I was supposed to be wearing on my big day.

From treasures570 on Etsy

From treasures570 on Etsy

The necklace even comes with a matching set of earrings and all for a very reasonable price. I can't wait to order this item so that I can try it on with my dress. I am trying to have all of my accessories here by November so that when I go in for my first fitting, I can get the full look. I am so excited that some things are finally coming together. I thought they never would!

Did it take you a long time to pick out your jewelry? Where did you buy yours from? Are you going to take in all of your accessories to your first fitting?

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Sunday, August 14, 2011

Don't People Want My Business?

I'm not sure if any of you have had problems with this, but this is about the 3rd time this has happened to me. I have been contacting online shops and shops on Etsy about different things for our wedding and I don't know why but for some odd reason, I just don't seem to get any kind of response back from them. Do they not want my business or my money?

The first time this happened was a few months ago. I want to get my nieces tutu dresses for our wedding so that they can have them to play dress up in later. And, I don't want them in white and if you know my nieces, you can understand why. Well, a few months ago, I found a tutu dress that I really loved from a seller on Etsy. I contacted her through her email like she asked and I never heard anything from her. Well, your loss lady! You will not be getting my business or my money!

Recently I have found another tutu dress that I love even more than I loved the first one I found. Now, I have a really great friend of mine who is possibly going to make them for me if she can, but if she can't I am going to contact a seller who also makes these. Well actually I have already tried to contact her just to see what her turn around time is so that if my friend isn't able to do these, then I can contact her in time to get these dresses done. Well, I tried to contact her last week and I still haven't heard anything. I'm going to give her a few more days and hopefully I will hear from her. I realize it has only been a few days and not only that, but it is the weekend and so she may not answer on the weekends, so again I am going to give her a few days before I get too upset.

I just can't help feel like I am being ignored some days with this stuff. I feel like they look at my email and go, "Oh, she is asking me to do too much work. Not responding!" I know this probably isn't the case, but it sure does feel like it some days. Ugh! Well, time to play the waiting game. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Have you had problems with sellers contacting you back? What did you do to fix a situation like this if you have encountered it?


****UPDATE****Immediately after I posted this, I received an email from the lady, haha! Go figure! But, I think it is still a great topic of discussion considering that some people may be going through the same thing!
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Friday, August 12, 2011

Mixbook Giveaway from "Saying I Do"

I wanted to take a few minutes to let all of my lovely followers know about an awesome giveaway that is being held by Laura over at Saying I Do. Up for grabs is a free 20 page, landscape, hardcover photo book from Mixbook.com. Mixbook is pretty much an online scrap booking site that really lets you customize the pages of your book. It would be a great gift or even to just make one for yourself. So if you have a chance, head on over to her blog and enter to win this awesome prize. You can do that by clicking here.

I hope that everyone has a fantastic weekend and I will be updating you guys soon on how the appointment with the Florist goes!

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First Meeting With Our Florist

Tomorrow we have our first meeting with our florist. I am very excited about this meeting. I can't wait to meet our florist, Karrie and hear the ideas that she has for the bouquets that I want. I really hope that she can see the vision that I have in my head.

Now I can't remember if I have told you guys what my plans are for flowers other than just bouquets and boutonniere's, but that is because there aren't any. I don't want centerpieces or flowers for the church or anything. Bouquets and boutonniere's and corsages and that is it. The church will still be decorated from the holiday season with Christmas tree's that only have lights on them and then poinsettia's everywhere. It is so beautiful the way that it is that I don't want to change a thing.


A Picture of the Church that I took last
Christmas

I really hope that our meeting goes well. I am sure that it will. I will fill you guys in on all of the details when I get a chance after the meeting. If you haven't read what kind of flowers I am wanting for the wedding, you can do that here.

Have you met with your florist yet? Did they get the vision that you were going for?


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Thursday, August 11, 2011

Megan-1, Addresses-0

I am doing a happy dance right now. I have managed to collect almost every single persons address for our invites already. I only have nine more to go. That's right, I said 9!!!!! And we haven't even ordered our invites yet. I am sure that my family and friends are getting really annoyed with me since I have been hounding everyone for addresses, haha! Sorry guys, I am trying to make this whole process a little bit easier on myself.

I have also had to get kind of creative with how I have obtained some of the addresses. Some people are just flat out ignoring me when it comes to me asking them for their address (which I sometimes think why we are inviting them if they don't want to give me their address?) But anyways, I am notorious for going back through cards that people have sent us and going through old FB messages where they may have given me their address. It has definitely helped me to compile our list of addresses.

I definitely recommend getting a good jump start on your addresses. I think it will save you a lot of stress when it comes time to start addressing all of those invites. Have you started compiling your addresses yet? If you have, did you get an early start or was it a rush to get a hold of everyone's?

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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

An Afternoon at Hobby Lobby

Oh Hobby Lobby, how you will love me within the next few months. Yesterday I took the afternoon off to get a few things done, and when I say that, I actually mean that I just wanted to go walk around Hobby Lobby for a few hours to get some ideas.

First of all let me say that I could not believe that I walked into Hobby Lobby in August and ALL of their Christmas stuff is already up. Wow!! Anyways, I started on one side of the store and kind of just went up and  down and browsed each aisle. The first thing that I stumbled upon was this adorable love birds stamp that I may end up buying if we end up getting a pocket fold invite. I really want to make a little seal that goes on the outside and I think this stamped on it would be adorable.


I continued walking around the store and eventually found the couple of aisles that had wedding stuff. It took me a while to look at everything because there was this group of about 10 people who were all together looking at wedding stuff and they were taking up almost the entire aisle! Move please! There are others who are getting married too, haha! Once I was able to look at everything I found a few things that I will definitely be going back for. I have been on the look out for a guest book that is pretty, but not so girly. Well, I found this one and I love it. It is in our colors and it even has some pearls on it. And, it has a matching Ring Bearer pillow which is perfect. There were also some other things that matched it like the flower girl baskets and a few other things, but having our ceremony in a Catholic church, they don't allow you to throw flower petals so I won't be needing the flower girl baskets. I think they may just carry those little balls of flowers (not sure what they are called.)



I have also been looking for a cute little bird cage to put on the table to hold cards. I have found a few online but I wanted to look around town first to see if they were available so that I wouldn't have to pay shipping because I am cheap like that. Not only that, but I like to be able to put my hands on things before I purchase them. Well I actually found one in the Wedding section that is specifically for this. And, it is only $19.99! Yes!! Sorry, if you don't know me very well I should probably tell you that I am a pretty frugal person. I am all about getting the best price that I can. So, this little bird cage is now going on the list of things to buy.


I picked up a few non wedding items yesterday while I was there and when I went to check out I asked the lady at the register if she knows how often the Wedding stuff goes on sale. Well, she told me at least once a month it all goes on sale and it almost always goes 50% off. Score! So I signed up for their emails so that I can found out when this is and go pick up the items that I am wanting for half of the price. The guest book and pillow are both $29.99 each originally so I will be able to get those for about $15 each and then the bird cage I will be able to get for about $10. Music to my ears!

Have you found your guest book? Do you look for everything to be on sale when it comes to buying stuff for the wedding?


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*All images were taken from Hobby Lobby's website www.hobbylobby.com

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

IT IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I received the BEST phone call in the world yesterday! It was a phone call from the Boutique where I bought my dress. And surprisingly, my dress had come in EARLY!!!! Aghhhhh! So of course I was excited and was not able to concentrate on anything the rest of the day. After work I ran up there and picked it up and tried it on for the first time. It was the best feeling in the world to be able to try on MY dress and not the sample that I am sure hundreds of people have been in.

Back when I ordered the dress we decided to order a petite length skirt in hopes that we wouldn't have to hem the skirt. Ordering the petite length was an extra $100, but alterations for a hem started at $150. We figured we were saving money this way. I am so glad that we did this because when I put the dress on yesterday, the owner of the Boutique and the lady helping me into my dress both looked at the hem and said, "Wow! That hem is perfect! You won't need to alter that at all." YES!!!!! So if you are a shorty like me (I stand at a whopping 5' 5") and you have the option to get the petite length and it will work with your shoes, I highly recommend it! I mean of course check with the place that you are getting your alterations done and see how much the alterations would cost and if it is cheaper to get it altered then go that way, but if it isn't, again, I highly recommend doing this.

I am also having cap sleeves on my dress because I am Catholic and we are getting married in a Catholic church and they ask that you be a little bit covered. Originally we were going to try and order some cap sleeves off of another dress, but the designer wouldn't allow us to do that. So the Boutique ordered some extra material from my dress and a couple of extra lace motifs that are on the dress as well, and they are going to make them for me. I am really excited about this. I can't wait to see what they look like with the dress.

As you may be able to tell, I am really excited about my dress being here and it is really starting to make me realize how real all of this is. Holy crap, I am getting married! Whoa! Haha! I can't wait! Now, if only I can figure out how to make my skirt poof out more with the petticoat/hoop skirt that I already have. I think I have been watching too much of "Gone With The Wind", haha!

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Rewind on Invitations

Okay, so yesterday I told you guys that we had picked out an invitation. Well, little did I know that the more the day wore on and the more that I looked at it, I realized we were settling for something that wasn't really what we wanted. I say this because with the options that we had, the only thing that you could change on the invite was the ink color. So if the design you wanted wasn't in your color, too bad, you had to pick something else or deal with it. We are choosing to pick something else. I think we were wanting the process to be so easy that we were ready to settle for something that had the overall idea of what we were going for, but wasn't exactly what we were wanting. So when I got home yesterday, Aran and I talked about the invites and I told him how I was feeling about it and he seemed to agree (I secretly think he doesn't really care what they look like, haha!)

Now when we picked up this book of invites the guy that owns the company flat out told us that we didn't need to feel obligated to choose something out of this monstrous book of invites. He made it seem like he could work with us to make our invite what we want it to be instead of just picking something out of a book. So, I think we are going to try and go this route first. Once he gets back from vacation, we are going to go in and talk with him and see what else he can do for us and get a feel for the price to see if it is something that we can afford.

I am really hoping that this works out because I think we would be much happier having more of a say in what the invite looks like. Fingers crossed everyone! And yes, I know, I am being way indecisive and picky, but I feel like I am entitled to be picky and indecisive if it is our money that we are spending, haha! Hope everyone is having a great day.

This felt appropriate
Found via Google Image Search

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Monday, August 8, 2011

Tuxedos and Invites, Oh My!

This weekend turned out to be productive and stressful all at the same time. Saturday we had decided to go pick out the tuxedosthat the guys would be wearing before we went to our marriage prep class. So we drove to Men's Wearhouse and began the process of picking out colors of vests, and shirts and neck wear, etc, etc.

We picked out some great tuxes for Aran and his guys as well as the adorable little tux that our ring bearer will be wearing and also the tuxes that the fathers will be wearing (hopefully.) We went kind of a different direction and got brown tuxes since my girls will have brown dresses. I was really excited with everything that we picked out until she told us the price. $177 for them to RENT these tuxes. I very quickly was having second thoughts about what we had picked out. Now, I knew that the rental was going to cost them over a $100, but I wasn't expecting it to be so close to $200. The lady was able to apply a 10% off coupon and so it knocked the price down to $160 or so, which was a little bit better, but still wasn't sitting very well with me. So we left the store to head over to our marriage prep class and I was just ready to start crying. I know I shouldn't be worried about this because it isn't anything that we are paying for, but I still feel bad making the people in our wedding pay that much for a rental. Now if they were keeping it, maybe, but even then, that is still a lot!

After our marriage prep class, we met with the guy that will be doing our invitations. He met us at our church and just dropped off the HUGE book of invites so that we could pour through them. The first time that we looked through the book, there were three or four that really jumped out at us. We went through the book a second time later that night and again, the same ones jumped out to us. Then I went through the book on my own and picked my top 3 and then Aran went through the book and picked out his top 3. We compared our top choices and thankfully our #1 picks were both the same. So ladies and gentlemen, we have an invitation!!!!!!! We have already picked out the color of ink that will be used, the font and the format, now all that we have to decide is what it will say. And yes, for those of you wondering, it IS a pocket fold. The color of the pocket fold isn't exactly what I was hoping it to be, but you can't change the colors of these, so it is either go with it and add some flare ourselves, or find someone else to do the invites, and did I mention he is giving us a killer deal? So, I would rather not go anywhere else. And besides, I am actually quite in love with these invites!

There we have it! We have tuxedos and we have invites! Check and Check!! I am so glad that we are finally getting some of these things done. Oh, and did I mention that as of yesterday we are at 5 months to go? Aghh! I think I just got stressed out typing that, haha!

If you don't mind me asking, what did your guys have to pay for their tuxedo rental? Where did you go to get them? Were the invites that you chose what you originally thought you would want?

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And The Winner Is...

Happy Monday everyone! I know that you are all anxious to find out who has won the My Favorite Things giveaway, so I won't keep you waiting any longer. The winner of the make up prize package is...


Kelsey A!!!





Congratulations Kelsey! I will be emailing you shortly so that I can get your address from you. Thank you so much to everyone who entered. I hope that everyone has a fantastic week!


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Friday, August 5, 2011

Tuxedo Weekend

Hello Friday! You have taken entirely too long to get here, but alas you are here! As we approach the "5 months to go" point on Sunday, our weekends are starting to be consumed by wedding planning. I assume that this is pretty normal for couples who are about five months away from there wedding, so I am trying not to stress out too much about all of this consuming so much of our time.

Well this weekend we have two things on tap for wedding planning. The first is that we will be going to Men's Wearhouse on Saturday morning with Aran, his Best Man Bret, and Aran's Dad to get a look at what they might be wearing for the big day. I was told that I should probably have a pretty good idea of what the guys are going to be wearing when I go speak with the florist about their boutonniere's. So with our appointment with the florist coming up next weekend, we figured we should probably get a jump on the whole tuxedo/suite thing. Random question: is it considered a tuxedo if there is no bow tie and a regular tie instead?

Second, like I said earlier in the week, we will be picking up the book of invitations to look at from the printer that we are using. I am super stressed out about this whole process, mainly because of how expensive everything could possibly be. The more and more I search the internet, the more and more I fall in love with the pocket fold invites. So depending on the options that the printer has for us, I may be buying most of the supplies to make these myself. Now, it might be possible for the printer to print the invites and all of the inserts that go along with the invite for us, and then we would just have to buy the pocket fold itself and then whatever we wanted to use to spruce up the invite, like ribbon and some card stock to make something to fasten the ribbon around the outside of the invite. Like I said though, all of this really depends on what type of invites he has to offer. Fingers crossed that we will find something that we love and that the process isn't as stressful as I have heard/I am making it out to be.

Did you know what type of tuxes your guys were going to be wearing before you talked with your florist? Was picking out your invitations stressful?

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Thursday, August 4, 2011

Check This Out!

Hey guys! I wanted to tell you guys about an awesome giveaway that is going on over at Cupcakes and Mud Puddles. Jennifer is giving away a $100 Target gift card. Now who wouldn't love that? I mean think of all of the things that you can blow that on, haha! To find out more about this awesome giveaway, please visit her wonderful blog for all of the details. You can do that here! Hope everyone is having an awesome Thursday!

Megan

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Invitations? What In The World Should We Get?

This weekend we are meeting with the guy that is going to do our invites. He is giving us a book of all of the invites that he can do and we get to look over it for a few weeks while he is out of town. Hopefully this will be enough time for us to make a decision. I have a feeling that our invites are going to be one of our toughest decisions.

I have been looking at website after website after website and nothing just jumps of the screen and says "HEY!!! PICK ME!!!!!!" It probably doesn't help that I have no idea what I even want. I will see something that I kind of like but they won't have it in our colors or I can't stand the font that it is in. Or I feel that it is way too expensive(I'm kind of a frugal person.) It is always something. Is there something wrong with me? I mean, am I just being that picky?

I want our invites to be memorable/elegant/classy/fun all at the same time. Is that possible? I am not a huge fan of the super traditional ones simply because I think they are boring. Now, that is just my opinion of the ones that I have seen. Maybe one will come along that is more traditional that I will love. You never know.


I know of one thing that I really want, but it will really depend on how much it cost. I love the pocket envelopes that have multiple pockets for the invite, the rsvp card, directions, etc. I think they are pretty rad actually! Yes, I just used the word rad, haha! I know they can get pretty pricey though. So that is definitely going to be a big deciding factor on whether or not we can get them.

Found Via Google Image Search

Found via Google Image Search

The other daunting task that I am not looking forward to is trying to figure out what the invites should say. I have never done this before so how should I know? I know it probably won't be as difficult as I think, especially since Aran's Mom will be able to help us with this. Hopefully we can decide on an invite together that we both like. I hope this process does not prove to be as difficult as I am expecting it to be.

How long did it take you to decide on an invite? Did you find the process stressful? Did you have a hard time figuring out what the invite should say? Did you have a pocket fold?




Monday, August 1, 2011

Surprise!

SURPRISE!!!!! I am having another giveaway!! I have been wanting to do another giveaway, and decided it was time today! So, I present to you, my lovely followers My Favorite Things Giveaway!

With this giveaway, I am giving you a chance to win a few of my favorite make ups, nail polishes and a few of my other favorite things. The following items are all apart of the the prize package of My Favorite Things:

Three Maybelline  New York Express Finish 50 Second Nail Color

Two Lip Smacker 100% Natural in Pink Guava and Acai Berry
A Rimmel London Royal Gloss in Pink Taffy

Three Brightening Eye Color Shadow combos from E.L.F.

A Total Face Brush, a Defining Eye Brush, and an Angled Contour Brush all from E.L.F.

A compact travel mirror from E.L.F.

Sonia Kashuk Make Up Bag 


How to enter:
Mandatory Entry
-You must publicly follow Butterfly Dreams N' Things via Blogger or GFC ~ 1 Entry
Optional Entries
-Leave a Comment on my Entry for Storymix Media's Blogging Brides Contest by going here. ~ 3 Entries
(This one is completely optional. I know there are other Brides that are entered in this contest so please do not feel that you absolutely have to do this one.)

-Follow Butterfly Dreams N' Things on Facebook ~ 1 Entry
-Follow me on Twitter ~ 1 Entry
-Tell me your favorite color of Nail Polish ~ 1 Entry


Please leave a comment for each entry so that I can keep track and make sure to leave me your email on at least one of your comments. 

Entries are only open to people who live in the United States!

This giveaway will end on Sunday, August 7th. I will be drawing a winner on August 8th using Random.org
Thanks guys and good luck!!
 
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