Friday, October 28, 2011

Tasting

This past Tuesday we had our food tasting with our venue for the wedding. We have been pretty excited for this, not only because we were excited to taste the food, but also because it got us out of work for the day! Score! A few weeks ago we picked out the menu items that we wanted to try and when we arrived they had everything ready for us.



We started off with a Caprese Salad. It was delicious!! We were very pleased with it and were glad that we chose a smaller salad to start the meal off with because what came out next was a whole lotta food. Next was the entree. The entree consisted of a Sirloin Strip Steak and Chicken Medallion Marsala. With the caterers that we are using, you don't have an option of Chicken or Beef. They give you both on the same plate and if you don't want one, you just don't eat it. I like this much better than having to ask our guests ahead of time. I feel like it is less of a hassle. Along with the two different meat options there is also a vegetable and a starch. They were both delicious and yummy as well!! We were also able to discuss a vegetarian option for our non meat eating guests and also a menu for younger kids that will be attending.

Once we had all of the food details pinned down, we sat down with the manager, Sonja, and started discussing more of the details that will be going into our reception. We of course went over the basics like overlay and underlay colors and napkin colors and how many people we would have per table. Something else that we discussed was our head table. We decided to do a head table instead of a sweetheart table because we figured that we wouldn't be sitting at a table for very much of the night so it just didn't seem like it was necessary. Not only that but the head table is only going to be up through dinner and then after dinner it will be taken down because it sits on the dance floor. It was either on the dance floor where we would be front and center, or on this long wall where not all of our guests would be able to see us. We discussed both options and having it in the center of the room just seemed to make more sense.

A few other things that we were able to discuss is when we will be able to get in the venue and start setting up everything that we are bringing in. Luckily they don't have any other events going on the couple days before the wedding, so we are able to get in on the Thursday before to set up everything that we need to set up. I am very excited about this because I was worried that we were going to have to go in on Friday night after the rehearsal dinner to set all of this up, but now, we don't have to do that and hopefully we can just relax.

I wanted to share with all of you a few things that I found helpful during this process and that I hope that you can use during your own meetings with event planners and managers.


  • First off, don't be afraid to ask question. I went into our meeting with an entire page of questions that I  wanted to make sure that we addressed. Some of them I didn't even have to bring up, but it was still good to have them.
  • Ask about items that you can use that your venue may already provide. For example, we needed an easel to put our photo booth sign on and I was actually just going to buy one, but I didn't know what we would do with it after. So when we were at our meeting, I asked if they had one there that we could use and if it would cost extra. Luckily they had one and they aren't charging us any extra. That alone just saved me $35. Score!
  • Ask when you can get into your venue to start setting up. If you can get in earlier rather than later, it could be a less stressful situation for you. 
  • If there are any special instructions that you have for the staff for your big day, make sure to let them know. For us that included letting them know that we absolutely have to have the columns and cake plates back from our cake once they cut it. We had to put a deposit down specifically for those so in order to get our deposit back, we have to get those back and people tend to throw them away after they cut the cake not thinking about it. 
  • Ask if you can make suggestions for drinks for the night. We asked that they have the supplies for White Russians since it is one of Aran's favorite drinks. 

Photo Booth sign that I want to try and
make but will be putting up on a
photo easel
Via stylemepretty.com

Our meeting with the event manager went so well and it just seems to make everything that much more real. I can't believe how close it is getting. I really hope that the tips that I have given here in this post can help some of you that are still in the planning process. 

For those of you that have already gone through this process, is there any advice that you would give myself or other brides that are in this stage of planning? What were some things that you asked your event manager? Or what are you going to ask?


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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Slacker

I didn't realize how much of a slacker I had been on posting until I looked at my last post that was dated last Tuesday! Oops! Sorry everyone. This past week has been cray cray and things only seem to be getting more crazy. I have so many things to update everyone on and the time that I usually use to write all of my posts is in my down time at work and here lately, I haven't had that downtime, so my posting has of course been lacking.

I think I am going to have to start writing my posts at night and scheduling them from now on because here within the next month at work, it is going to be beyond crazy! Our biggest event of the year is coming up which means lots of people getting paid and lots of people turning in check request. And guess who gets to enter in all of those check requests? Yep, you guessed it. That would be me. So needless to say, my downtime is really going to be non existent.

This past weekend I had my Bridal Shower which was a lot of fun. I will do an entire post on that so be sure to look out for it. I also went to a Halloween party. I couldn't decide what I wanted to do for a costume so Friday night, Aran and I went to Party City and were browsing through their costumes. Well, I saw a Little Red Riding Hood costume that I liked and so I asked to try it on along with a Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz costume. When the sales guy came out he said that the only one that he had that was in the size I needed for the Little Red Riding Hood costume was torn. Well, me being the bargain shopper that I am, asked if I could still try it on. I figured if it was something that I could fix, then I could buy it and hopefully get a discount on it. So I tried it on and luckily the tear was not actually a tear and the stitching that held the fabric to the zipper in the back had just come out.

Since it fit, I decided to go for it because it was 40% off because of the "tear" in the back. That would make it only $17.99. That was an awesome price in my mind. So after looking around a bit more for a costume for Aran we headed to the register with my costume and one other thing that I had picked up as we were walking around. When we got to the register the manager came over and applied the discount and I don't know if she was just frazzled or what, but she ended up giving the costume to me for $10!!! Can you believe that? I knew at that point that the costume was meant to be. So without further ado, here is me in my costume...


And here is Aran in his(he is a Hipster)...


And here we are together at the party...



We had a lot of fun and it was definitely fun dressing up. The only down side to the night was that my costume was so short that I couldn't bend over in the slightest. I either had to stand or sit the whole time or else everyone was going to be getting a show, haha! 

In other news, this is what I woke up to this morning and what I have been watching out my office window all day...


This picture doesn't do it justice either. It has been snowing since I left my apartment this morning and it doesn't seem to be stopping! Please, please, please keep snowing! 

I hope that everyone has been doing well and I fully intend to get caught up on everyone's blogs within the next couple of days. Sorry again about being a slacker this past week! Have a great day everyone!


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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Banner Trial Run

Hand made banners are one of the "in" things right now. They are everywhere. And of course I wanted to try my hand at one of them. I have been thinking about how cute it would be to have one for our candy buffet at the wedding. I can just picture it hanging on the front of the table or on the wall behind the table. Since I have never made one before, I wanted to do a trial run of it so that I would have it down by the time I needed to make the actual one for the big day.

I set out to do a trial run and since my Bridal Shower is this weekend, why not make one that we could use as a decoration if it turned out well enough. So, I scoured the internet trying to find different ways to do them. I stumbled upon something from Martha Stewart's website that made this process so much easier. On her website she has a how to on these banners and she also has PDF's of all of the letters of the alphabet that you can print off and use for this. You can find those here if you are interested. So I downloaded all of these letters and printed them onto a nice bright pink paper. I then used my Fiskar's Circle Cutter that Laura over at Saying I Do recommended for this project and cut out the letters. This part was a little tricky because the letters off of Martha's website have a border around them, so the cutting of the circle has to be pretty spot on.

After I had my letters cut out, I cut out a bigger circle in brown shimmer paper. Once I had all of the circles that I needed, I taped my letters in the center of my brown paper. Once I had all of those taped down, I picked out an ivory ribbon and attached my letters to it. I actually used tape for this and it seemed to be sticking, so we will see if that holds up, if not, I will be putting a little bit of hot glue on the backs of these to help them stick to the ribbon. Once I was done attaching them, the banner was complete. Here is what the final product looks like...


This was seriously one of the easiest things I have ever done and didn't take very long at all. If you have been thinking about making one of these, I highly suggest trying it because you may be very surprised and excited by the results. I will definitely be making one for our Candy Buffet and now that I have figured out all of the measurements and everything for the circles, it will be a piece of cake!

Have you tried making one of these banners? Or did you buy one?

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Monday, October 17, 2011

Another check..

off the to-do list that is! This past weekend we finally got a chance to meet with a potential DJ for the wedding. If you are a new reader or don't remember, about a month and a half ago I received a phone call from the DJ that we had already booked saying that he could no longer do the wedding because he had to make the decision to close down his business. So that started the search for a new DJ.

Well this weekend, Aran and I along with his parents went and met with Kevin who is a DJ with the company called DJ Guy. After talking with them for about 30-45 minutes we decided that they were the right people for the job. Their awesome off season prices probably persuaded us a little, haha, but we did really like them and everything that they had to offer. So we went ahead and put down a deposit and signed the contract. So we can mark the DJ off of what seems like a never ending to-do list of things. Check!!!

Nothing much else to report. Work has been pretty busy and so have my weekends. This past weekend was again busy with meeting the DJ and then Sunday I spent all day at my brothers house helping my sister-in-law clean the house because we are having my Bridal Shower there next weekend. So again, no rest and all running around. No wonder I have been so tired these past few months.

How was everyone else's weekend?

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Thursday, October 13, 2011

Without Further Ado

I received a phone call last night from an amazing friend (and someone that I consider to be a part of my family) letting me know that she received her Wedding invitation in the mail. Holy crap, that was quick! And I am so excited because she raved about them. She told me that they were some of the most beautiful invites that she had ever seen. It made me feel so great because we worked so hard on them.

Now that some of our guests have received their invites it is time to finally reveal the product of all of our hard work. So without further ado, I give you our invitations...

Main Invite
Reception Info Insert
RSVP Insert
The invitation all put together. The RSVP envelope is hiding
behind the picture and our insert cards. And if you can't
 tell, the card stock for the invites has a shimmer to it.
Invite all put together with the belly band
and the makeshift "inner" envelope card
I know this is essentially the same picture but the flash
shows how the pocket fold shimmers

I can't believe they are actually in our guests hands already. It just makes everything that much more official. I really hope that you guys like our invites. We love them and are so glad that we went the way that we did with them. 

I just wanted to say thank you really quick to all of you for your help during the invitation process. You guys all had so many great ideas. Thanks for all of your help with everything! You guys are AWESOME!!

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Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Honeymoon Plans

I realized that I have yet to fill in all of you lovely readers on what we will be doing for our honeymoon, so I figured that since today is exactly a year until we go on our honeymoon, I would fill you guys in.

First off, we are waiting until October(our wedding is in January) to take our honeymoon. We did this first of all because of where we are going and not only that, but we wanted to have time to save some more money for the honeymoon. We figured it would be less stressful this way. You guys are probably wondering where we are going huh? Okay, I guess I can fill you in, haha! We are going to...



Walt Disney World

&

Universal Orlando Resort


Lego Land

I am so excited! I have never been to Walt Disney World or any of these other places let alone Florida. This trip is so fitting for us because lets face it, Aran and I really are just big kids, haha. Lego Land is more for Aran, but I think it will be cool to go see it. It isn't even open right now, but it will be by the time that we get there next year. 

Right now we are still planning and we are doing our research so that we know what we want to see and what we don't want to see. As of right now, we are planning on spending three days at Disney, two at Universal and one at Lego Land. That may change in the future, but as of now that is what we have decided. We know for sure some of the things that we absolutely have to do at each location. For Disney the Star Wars thing is a must and so is the Animal Kingdom Park. We are going to get the park hopper pass so that we can go wherever. I think we have decided on the Toy Story attraction as well, and of course there are a few shows like Indiana Jones and the Cars stunt show and Beauty and the Beast that we want to see. I am hoping that we have enough time to do all of this.

For Universal my only request at this point is The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! I think I am more excited about this than anything else, haha! I can't believe we only have a year until we are there. I guess it is just one more thing to look forward too. 

I'm sure a lot of you have been to these parks. Do you have any suggestions for us on things that we should see or do? What are some of your favorite attractions?

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Bye Bye Bye!

Yesterday was a day that I had anticipated for a very long time! I never thought this day would come. I mean I have dreamed about it, I have even had visions of it, but I never thought it would actually come. But alas, it has!

Yesterday we said "Bye Bye Bye" to our invitations! That is right people, they are officially in the mail!!! Cue the confetti, cue the music that I will be doing my happy dance to, cue the cheering and the clapping! By the way, this is the music that would be playing if we lived in a real life musical...



Yes, I was and still am an *NSync fan. How could you not be? I mean really? Haha!

I am beyond ecstatic that our invites are finally in the mail! We worked so hard on them and now they are finally out there just waiting to be in the hands of our guests! I couldn't be more proud(sniffles and tears)! Haha! But seriously yesterday was a big day and we can't wait to find out what our guests think of them.

Here are a few pictures of our invites and of me saying "Bye Bye Bye" to our invites as I put them in the mailbox...

All ready to go and get stamps
All of them with stamps actually on them
This is my brother and my sister in laws invite
The adorable stamps we used
via USPS.com
The first one going in the box


The last stack!
The box is empty!!! Aghhh!

I can't wait to show you guys what our invites actually look like. Don't worry, only a few more days. Once I find out that some of our guests have already received them, I will be posting pics of them because I am so happy with the way that they turned out! They are perfect!!

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. It was such a relief to get those in the mail. But now comes the waiting game of waiting for people to RSVP. I am so worried about that, haha!

What were you feeling when you sent your invitations out? Were you nervous? Excited?

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Saturday, October 8, 2011

It is...

SNOWING!!!!! We have flakeage, if you will!(Gilmore Girls anyone?) I am so excited that it is snowing. When I was in college I hated the snow because where I went to college it didn't just snow a little, it dumped snow! I mean it would snow so much that we had actual snow days. Sometimes a couple at a time.

The reason for not liking it in college was due to the fact that it never failed that it would snow when I was supposed to go home or someone was supposed to come visit me. This always made it difficult considering that there was a huge mountain pass in between me and my hometown.

Now that I am out of college and I don't have to travel over a mountain pass to get home, I can actually enjoy the snow and that is exactly what I have been doing for the past year now. Too bad we didn't get much snow last year. Let's hope that this year we do. Well, except for around the 7th of January. Please don't snow a lot, haha! I would like our guests to be able to actually make it to our wedding.

Anywho, I just wanted to express my excitement over the snow that is falling here in Colorado. I hope everyone's weekend is going well!

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Friday, October 7, 2011

Bachelorette Party Themes?

I need some help ladies! My MOH and I are trying to come up with a fun theme for my Bachelorette party. We have found some fun one's but we are looking for more ideas. Here are the ideas that are in the running right now:

  • Black and White Theme
  • Superheroes (Can you see a bunch of us running around in super hero costumes in December? Haha!)
  • Sex in the City
  • Ugliest Bridesmaid Dress
  • Scavenger Hunt
  • Spice Girls
  • Wayne's World(One of my fave movies of all time. This could be interesting! And believe it or not, this is the front runner!)
Do you guys have any awesome ideas for us? I am starting to get more and more excited about this! I can't wait to hear some of your ideas! Thanks in advance!


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3 Months Away, Oh My!!

Holy moly, only three months to go! At this point that doesn't seem like a lot of time and it also doesn't seem like it is ever going to get here. Is it normal for things to suddenly feel like they are creeping by instead of flying?  Any who, my list of things to do hasn't really had much completion going on lately. I have been pretty lazy. I know that at this point that I shouldn't be and that I should be trying to get more and more done now instead of later, but for some reason I have just not had any motivation. I have no motivation at work or when I get home in the evenings. I guess I really just need to start making myself get some of this done instead of putting it off.

I hope to get some more of this stuff done this weekend. We have a three day weekend because of Columbus day so I am hoping that I will get my butt in gear and actually work on some of these projects. Here is a list of things that I desperately want to finish this weekend;

  • Flip flops for everyone(I need to find a way to attach the flowers that I made to these. Hot glue isn't working and I tried Gorilla Glue, but it takes too long to dry.)
  • Circle decals for our new favor boxes that we bought.
  • Photo booth sign(I bought a black foam board for this, but I am rethinking this and thinking that I want to get a chalk board and a pretty frame for it. Looks like I need to do some thrift store shopping.)
  • Get our invites finished and in the mail by Monday or Tuesday.
  • Try and finish our candy jar signs
  • Make a banner for the candy buffet
  • Finish the tissue paper balls I am working on for a decoration for the candy table 
It is a pretty long list, but I know that I can get a lot of this finished if I really set my mind too it. Something else that needs to get done this weekend for my own sanity is that my apartment needs to be cleaned. And I mean CLEANED!! That is another thing that I keep getting putting off too and now it is just driving me crazy!! I also want to get our Halloween Decorations out. Looks like I have a busy weekend ahead of me. Hopefully on Tuesday I can update you guys with everything that I got done.

Something exciting for this weekend is that we might be getting some snow on Saturday! Fingers crossed!! I hope everyone has a great weekend and I will hopefully be back on Tuesday with some updates for you guys! 


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Thursday, October 6, 2011

Table Number Idea

For a while now Aran and I have been discussing how we want to do our table numbers. I didn't want to just have table numbers. I wanted something fun and very us that our guests would remember. We have had our thinking caps on for some time now and just have not been able to come up with anything that just screams "Hey! This is what you are supposed to do!"


The other day I was talking with my co-worker and I was telling her about the table number dilemma and she started thinking about it and within a few minutes she came up with such an amazing idea that fits Aran and I both so well.

I know that I have mentioned it before, but I will tell you guys again that Aran and I love movies! We love sitting at home and watching movies or even going to the movies. Old movies from the 30's, 40's, and 50's are some of my favorites. My Grandma and I used to watch old movies together all of the time and she is a big part of the reason that I love these types of movies so much.

Well, my co-worker suggested that we assign each table a different love movie. As soon as she said it, I knew it was what we should do. After telling Aran he agreed too! He loved the idea and we started talking about what movies we would use. We have so far decided that they will definitely be older movies and we want to print out small pictures that are the original movie poster of each movie and have those framed and placed on the place card table and then we will have the place cards of all of the people that will be at that table in front of that poster/picture.

There are two things that we still have to figure out. They are a) which movies we are going to be using. We have a pretty good list going, but at the same time, we don't know how many tables we will have just yet, so that is kind of at a stand still. And b) we are trying to decide if we want to have the movie poster/picture on the actual table or if we just want to print the title of the movie so that it doesn't clash so bad with the rest of the table.

What do you guys think we should do? Should we do the picture? Or just print the title out? What are you doing for your table numbers?

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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Pink Glitter Flats~Finally a Success Story!

Last week I told you guys about the pink glitter flats that I had ordered from Zappos and then had to return because they didn't fit. I had also mentioned that I had found another pair that were similar to the ones that I had ordered, but they were a different brand. Well, after much thought, I decided to order them. I was kind of weary about it at first because of what had happened with the first pair and not only that, but I had found these ones on Ebay and ordering stuff like this on Ebay scares me sometimes.

Well the shoes were only $9.99 so I figured, what the heck, why not? I am so glad that I decided to go for it! I ordered them on Friday and figured they would be here closer to the end of this week. Well yesterday I checked the tracking on them and it said that they had already been delivered! Holy crap, that was quicker than Zappos was! So I raced home at lunch because my work is a whopping five minutes away from home, and I checked the mail and sure enough, they were there!


After getting them out of the box, I was a little worried because they looked pretty narrow and that was a problem that I had with the first pair that I ordered. But upon getting them on my feet, that worry went away because they fit perfectly!! I was so excited! I was doing a happy dance all over our apartment. I'm sure our kitties were looking at me and thinking, "This lady is crazy!"


I am so happy that I ordered these and that they fit. And, they were cheaper than the original ones that I had found. I am actually thinking about ordering a couple more pairs in different colors because I like them so much. I can't wait to get them on with my dress to see how the bright color pops against my dress. Thanks for all of your comments on what I should do about my shoe dilemma. They were very much appreciated!


Did you have a shoe fail with your wedding shoes? Did you have to order a few different pairs before you found the ones that you wanted?

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Monday, October 3, 2011

Scotty McCreery

My Scotty McCreery CD is HERE!!!! And it is a day EARLY!! I love his music so much! Just listening to all of the songs makes me smile. There is something about his voice that just melts my heart!

I pre-ordered this CD back in August and ever since then I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this CD to arrive at my apartment. Included with my CD was a signed picture of Scotty and really cool poster that has a bunch of messages from fans that pre-ordered the CD through his website. I have yet to find mine, probably because it is double sided and because I don't remember what I put as my message, haha! None the less, my name or initials are on that poster somewhere!!

My copy!

Signed picture


If you guys love country music and haven't heard of Scotty, I highly recommend you download a few of his songs off of iTunes! It is definitely worth it. Well, I just had to tell you all about my love for Scotty real quick, haha! Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

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