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!

Busy Bee

I have been a busy little wedding bee this week! Everything that I mentioned in my last post has been taken care of.

We made our first payment to our photographer last week. She's fantastic, and very fast to respond!

This morning, after seeing a matinee, with my mom and sister, of Twilight, I took my card stock back to Swoozies to be printed. That took no time at all and they'll be done in 3 to 5 business days. While I was paying for the printing, I jokingly asked if they were hiring an assistant graphic designer. Guess what? The graphic design artist of the store said that she would be going on maternity leave in May and could use some help! She asked me to leave me phone number and name and said that she'd be calling me! Awesome, huh!

Rigo and I are very, very close to booking our honeymoon. We found a great deal! Airfare to Vegas and back, plus a four night stay at the Stratosphere hotel for only 850 dollars!
My Mom used to be a reservationist for Southwest, so she's going to look into it for us and let us know if there is anything else we can get at a good price. We should be booking it this week!

FULL SPEED AHEAD!

That's right folks! Rigo and I are FULL SPEED AHEAD on planning our wedding! So much has happened and is going to happen shortly. The wedding is only 4 months and 3 weeks away!

Last weekend, before my mom and I had to pick up a very special friend of mine from the airport, we ran to Hobby Lobby because they were having 50% off of their entire wedding supply. Mom bought us a BEAUTIFUL guest book and matching pen. It's stunning. I can't wait for everyone to see it. We also got place cards and invitation accents at a very reasonable price. We picked up a few other things that I can't really post about, but I will say that we were very productive :)

Yesterday, I contacted a photographer that my Mom found online. She is very reasonable, and her pictures look fantastic. As soon as I'm done posting, I'll be emailing her back to finish with the booking process. I was so worried about finding a photographer. Finding her was a huge stress reliever!

I have an "appointment" with my Mom to meet on Thursday to buy my bridesmaid's jewelry. I'm excited about that. She's awesome at helping me make decisions :)

Now that we know what time we want the wedding to start, Rigo and I can have our invitations printed. I bought the card stock a few weeks ago, but haven't been certain about a time, so we haven't had them printed. We're planning on sending them out in January, so we better get on the ball!

That's all for now. Buh-Bye!

Another Change

I'm the bride. Luckily, that means that I can make changes to my wedding whenever I want to. Hehe. Actually, the latest change was all Rigo's idea and I loved it!

We're making a change to the wedding party...again. I promise, this is the last wedding party change! Here it goes...

Bride:

Brittany Stevens - My Sister, and Maid of Honor

Jesse Stevens - My Brother

Sara Henk - My Best girl-friend of many many years

Christopher Pippin - My Best guy-friend of many years

Groom:

Bryan Stoner - Rigo's best friend, and Best man

Madie Hausinger - Rigo's best girl-friend

Matt Poole - Rigo's best guy-friend

Kayla Hurt - Rigo's best girl-friend

We were having problems because most of Rigo's best friend's are girls, and I wanted Chris and Jesse in the wedding, neither of which know Rigo very well. So. This is perfect. I love that it's not something that people do often in their weddings.

On another note, I need to get on the ball with invitations. Yikes! I have to send them out in about two months. I already purchased them, I just need to figure out the exact times so that I can take them to be printed.