Home Stretch

Today, my friends, makes 40 days to our WEDDING! Am I excited? Oh yyyyeeaaa!

I've been working on finishing a few small projects, and wedding errands. Things are going great! As of today, we have 53 people attending the wedding!

I found the prettiest flower girl dresses at Jc Penney. They are Cinderella brand, so the girls will definitely love them. I even got a great deal on shoes that match at Payless, thanks to their BoGo sale.

Last Saturday, my Mom and I spent the day together. She bought a beautiful dress to wear, and I FINALLY found shoes :) I'll have to practice walking in them, but I think they're beautiful!

All that's left now is...well ALL of the little stuff :)

My bridal shower is this weekend. I can't wait! I know that my mom and her friend Denise will do a wonderful job! Pictures to follow!

Quick Update

My mom and I picked out my shower theme.

25 RSVP cards returned!

48 DAYS!

Signed Sealed and Delivered!

That's right folks, THE INVITATIONS ARE SENT!!!

Tuesday night, Rigo and I sat down to finish the invitations. Rigo was so much help!

I mailed them out Wednesday after work, so everyone should be receiving them soon!

I already have 4 response cards from people that I hand delivered a card to :)

Today is 57 days until the wedding and everything is coming together nicely. I don't have too much to do. Well, I don't have so much that I can't handle it :)

I've started buying containers for our candy buffet, as well as the candy. Mom and I picked out the flowers, and I'll be paying the deposit on those as soon as possible. I wish money weren't such a big deal, but Rigo and I are really having to cut corners to afford everything. I just hope that everything works out okay. I'm sure it will!

Rigo and I have been doing our best to make time to just relax with each other. Last weekend, we took a trip to see our best friend in Denton. That was great. We played paintball, watched movies and he showed us around the town. It was awesome!!

Since we can't afford to relax like that whenever we want, we chose something different last night. Rigo and I are seriously focusing on our photography business, and it's starting to take off :) We went to Barnes and Noble last night, drank some decaf coffee, and read photography books. This is us on the photography aisle. Rigo is holding the Wedding Photography book that I want by Steve Sint.
By the way, I love this picture.

Sonia, The Cheese Cake Factory Lady

Another day has past, and I'm feeling ever more excited about our wedding day. It seems like everything is coming together smoothly. Every day, I leave work and nearly skip to the car. Just about any song on the radio can make me smile. About a week and a half ago, I began a feel good diet. By that, I mean that I'm eating healthier, and not snacking. I've been feeling great! I don't know that I'm losing any weight, but who cares. I'm happy as long as I feel good :)

Today, my students were released early after their finals, so I met Rigo for lunch at Subway. I managed to navigate my way to the nearest post office to purchase the stamps for our invitations and have one of them weighed. Each one will only need one stamp, HOORAY!

I had a lot of energy, so I decided to take a trip to the mall to walk off some of my lunch. I stopped by Bath and Body Works to check out their sale, and then headed to Dillard's to check out their makeup selection. I found the counter for their Mineral Makeup, and scheduled my sister and me to have our makeup done on the day of my wedding. The woman I spoke to, Wendye, was wonderful, and her makeup matched her personality.

So, Stamps: CHECK. Makeup: CHECK.

After playing with the dogs out side for a while, Rigo came home and took me to dinner. We went to the Cheese Cake Factory to share a piece of Vanilla Bean Cheese Cake. Our waitress, Sonia, asked if I wanted my own piece. I laughed when I said, "No thank you, our wedding is coming up, we'll share a piece." When she returned, she added the cherry on top of my wonderful day...

The Crafty Side to Wedding Planning

One part about wedding planning that I am thoroughly enjoying is the chance to be as creative and crafty as a please. Although I have a separate blog for crafting, that I suck at updating on a regular basis, I decided to post some of my wedding crafts on this blog.

I would so much rather make things exactly the way I envision them rather than compromise with something purchased. Who doesn't want a personalized wedding?

The first craft that I enjoyed doing was a flower pail for my flower girl. Since my wedding will be in the spring, and outside, I didn't want the traditional satin bucket, but a more out doors look that still has a feminine wedding appearance.

Because the pail I purchased was painted with a bright yellow, I first prepped it by sanding down the color. I then put 3 coats of black acrylic paint on the pail to cover the remaining yellow color. The next part was the most fun. I used a simple flower outline scrap booking paper to decoupage the sides. I filled in some of the flowers on the paper with purple acrylic paint that matches my theme. I cut the paper into different sized squares. The decoupage adhesive that I purchased was glittery and ended up looking great, but was very messy during the actual decoupaging. Using the glue and a foam brush, I glued one piece at a time, following the directions on the decoupage glue bottle. I let it dry overnight.
The following day, I hot glued a simple lace around edges, tied purple ribbon to the sides of the handle, and attached white glittery butterflies that I found in the floral area of my local craft store. Not too bad for a personalized pail!

I Night With My Girls

Tonight is going to be FAnTAStic! All of my brides maids, my Mom and me are meeting to see Bride Wars. I haven't seen most of them in a long time. I can't wait to spend some time out of the house and with my best friends!

On another note, last night at about 12:30, I decided to call the Venetian to see if the Blue Man Group tickets for April 13th were on sale yet, and they were! Rigo and I got front row, and seats in the very middle. We were the first to buy tickets! I can't wait for that show. We'll get to wear ponchos because it's so close and I've heard that they come down off the stage and interact with the first few rows! What a steal!

Rigo and I met with the wonderful people that will be making our cake. The cake is going to be SO NEAT! We're keeping it a secret from everyone :) We picked up our cake taster on Thursday and chose our flovors...yumm...Wedding cake is THE BEST cake ever!

Until next time :)

It's Starting to Hit Me

Wow! It has been a while! Christmas and New Year's kept me SO busy! It was so great to see my brother's family and spend time with my mom, sister and step-dad. Rigo's parents even came over! Now that it's January, I've been EXTRA focused on the wedding! Tomorrow will be exactly three months!! Rigo and I are a little worried about being able to afford everything that is needed, but we are sure that everything will work out perfectly.

Most of the envelopes for our invitations are addressed. The printed invitations came in from Swoozies and look wonderful! I should be sending them out in a few short weeks.

One of the most exciting things that has happened was yesterday. After running into trouble with my credit card having a past due amount of 3 dollars and being turned off, I finally got something very important taken care of...

WE BOOKED THE HONEYMOON!

I found our trip to Vegas, including airfare and a four night stay at the Stratosphere hotel, not for 850, but for 650! Gotta love Travelocity. I also booked our wedding night hotel room. We'll be staying at the Hyatt Place in their King Room. It looks wonderful online :)

Mom, Brittany, Rigo and I went to a meeting with our wedding coordinator, Karen, this morning. We got a lot squared away. That made me feel a lot better. I was starting to stress a little about the smaller details. Karen and her husband Tommy are wonderful people. Tommy will be our officiant, and I can't imagine a more perfect person to do the job. We scheduled the rehearsal for Friday April 10th, and figured out who would walk who down the aisle. We also picked out our center pieces and table linens.

After our meeting, Rigo and I took a trip to The Cake Shoppe in Conroe. Jones Pavilion allows us to go to this bakery, pick out any cake up to 4 tiers, and they include it in the cost of our package! We spoke with a wonderful woman who gave us some great ideas for cakes and set up our cake tasting for next Thursday! I can't wait!!

After making one last stop at Hobby Lobby, I went home to make my flower girl's rose petal pail. I got the idea from DIY Bride (page 3). It's made from a metal pail, painted and then decoupaged with a paper that I picked out! I think it looks fabulous.

I'm off to reorganize my wedding planning binder and look through the Oriental Trading wedding catalog. Until Next time!