Finally...

i have completed all the program booklets and invitations. the envelopes are stamped and all i need to do is stuff envelopes and place the address labels that's going to be a job that i do with the girls or my moms. THANKS TO THE MOST HIGH for all things. i also have checks....

1. i purchased the cameras for the kids "i spy" games and photo wall. i brought 18- 27 exposures disposables for $43.00
2. i brought 120 sparklers for $21.00 with tax for our send off!
3. i brought some feather balls, peacock feathers, and boas for the centerpieces. i got the feather balls from my fav store E-V-E-R hobby lobby and only had to pay $7 bucks because i returned some items. the peacocks feathers are orange and i brought 24 for $22 including shipping and the boas were $23 for 14 so all i now need for the centerpieces is some feathers from HL that i am waiting to go on sale.
4. DJ drama is almost settled he is "supposed"to be sending me make our deposit YEA!!!
5. Our guest book came and it's LOVELY !! i ordered it like last week and it came today. Pics to come. i used MyPublisher. They are awesome!!!

Overall I think this is a great way to end June and bring on July! Pics to come i was feeling a little lazy tonite. Sorry :0(

get with the program...

through this whole process i have learned that i DO NOT like to deal with paper projects. i love to design them and think of ideas but execution SUCKS. i am so glad that this is almost over. for the last 3 nights i have been working on the program covers and finishing the belly bands for the invites and today i stamped the envelopes...here are some pics of my work.

here are the program booklet covers

the program

30 more to go...

on another note...i was in hobby lobby yesterday and ran across some cake stands and came up with this...

i didn't buy it because i really want a square cupcake tower. but i don't want the square card board tower so this may be it. but i am still undecided.

i also brought my hair flower yesterday

i really like it and i only paid $5.99 for it. SCORE!!!

did i tell you that rubber cement is my new best friend?

Check-ezzy

Well I woke up this morning on a mission. I wanted to get some things checked of my forever growing to do list. This is what I have accomplished so far today.

1. Booked bridal luncheon location- 9.26.10 it's tea theme just in case you forgot :0). I can't wait to see the ladies in their hats and dresses. That should be fun.
2. Reserved a restaurant for the after-wedding brunch. At first we were going to have a BBQ at our home but decided that would be a bit much. So after our guest check out of the hotel we can walk over to a cute little restaurant for our goodbyes and thank you's.
3. Ordered our photo guestbook from MYPUBLISHER. I couldn't decide b/w them and Blurb and I decided with them because they have a coupon for a free book. It's not really free you just get two books for the cost of 1. So we ended up with 2 guestbooks of both sets of Epics and engagement day photos for $47 and some change including shipping. So I am pleased.
4. I found a back-up DJ that is cheaper than the one we booked. Its a long story but the jest is that our booked DJ works full-time as a firefighter and police officer and he job is possibly sending him to some training in October and he wanted to refer us to someone we didn't even know so I decided that its best we find someone else. So the pending new DJ is an old friend of mine from college who I KNOW knows music and will do a good job. So now I just need to hear back from the booked DJ. (God please no more DJ drama thanks in advance...)
5. DOC is almost paid off we have one more payment and her balance will be ZERO! Put the next to the last check in the mail today.
6. Scheduled a meeting with my seamstress for tomorrow about my reception dress and BM dresses.
7. FINALLY decided on a date for the housewarming. 07.10.10!!!!

Overall I am happy about what I have accomplished. Tonite I plan on making the invites to the housewarming and grading papers. I need to head to the gym and do some cardio.

Purple reign.....

no not the Prince song. I am not a big flower person. Some brides love flowers everywhere and I am the opposite. I feel like a hint there...and a sprinkle here....and a dash over there like accents. So needless to say we don't have droves of flowers in our wedding. Now don't get me wrong I get flowers weekly at my home and place them right as you walk through the door because it makes me feel good. I like to close my door to the ugly of this world and see beauty within my home. I digress.

I was flipping through a bridal magazine last week at the bookstore and ran across this pic.

Now at first I was like these have to be artificial. RIGHT? So I go home and google them and behold they actually exist. I call the new florist that we are working with and ask can she get them. I here back from her tomorrow but if so I "think" that I have to have them for my bouquet!!!

As you know my bouquet will have feather's incorporated in them. Here is a pic I found of a fabric bouquet with feathers that was gorgeous at least to me...

Purple roses and feathers...hmmm I may have to see this in action before making a concrete decisions. On another note there is something that I love about this bouquet as well. White and cream is just classic and so beautiful. Man are these some tough decisions.

What kind of flowers are you using for your bouquets??

invites revisited

So the invitations came in at least a month ago but I never posted them for your viewing pleasure. Here are a few pics of the invites. I am still assembling them. I have added and belly band and monogram. I think this is something for my mom and I to do together.

THE PACKAGE

OPENING

VIOLA

I REALLY LOVE these they are everything that I wanted and more. The RSVP is a postcard with a huge oak tree on the front with our initials engraved in it. More pics to come once I assembly them....

Meet my new love....

These tree stumps will line the aisle at our wedding. I plan to but my arrangements on these...I LOVE IT!!!!! My neighbor cut down some trees in her yard and I saw these and couldn't pass them up. Best thing about them is it is really what I wanted and they were F-R-E-E!!!! We were thinking about using columns or pedestals or plant stands but now we have what I envisioned and I am so ecstatic!!. FI and my dad gathered these beauties last week. They have a home at my parents house for now...

our venue

I realized that I never shared any pics of our venue so the other day when I was there for an appt I took some pics to share.

Our ceremony and reception are in the same location. In our city it's hard trying to find a venue that can accommodate both in the same place unless you are having an outdoor ceremony. Although I LOVE outside ceremonies I can't really chance it with the weather. Our engagement party was outside and I cried because I was so worried about the weather for our luau bbq.

I took this pic from the 2nd floor where our wedding will be. I took this through a window. I LOVE the grounds. Prayerfully we will get some good shots out here! :0)

This is where our lounge will be during cocktail our. I also want our DIY photobooth in this area if we do it.

Here is the cocktail hour area. We will have a few cocktail rounds inside and outside and the bar will be set-up out here as well. Do you see the windows. I LOVE windows. That was at the top of the list when we were choosing venues.

Behind those doors will be our ceremony. I plan to use monogram letters for the doors. I am currently waiting to here back from an etsy seller now. I want the big 24-30in letters.

Finally here are the doors to the reception. I want to do feathered wreaths on these but at this point I am unsure.

I will post pics of the ballroom after we have our walk-thru and tasting in July.

I'm BeAt...

Why? Because I spent all day decorating and shopping. I am trying to finish decorating our home and it a daunting task. Really... it's very expensive buying a house and planning a wedding. SOMEONE save me... I go to Hobby Lobby and I don't know should I be looking for wedding stuff or decorations for the house...it can be hard on a girl doing all that....a word to the wise..DON'T BUY A HOUSE AND PLAN A WEDDING at the same time unless you have deep pockets but I digress.

As you know we purchased our home last October and have yet to have a housewarming and I am the kind of person who doesn't want certain people to come by until the house is at least decent. I know...I know but I am being honest ... We were originally going to have it on 6-12 but I postponed it because the paint issues so now we are shooting for July 10 but its my FIL B-Day so I need to make sure the fam doesn't have any plans.

Anyway here are some pics of my hard work and our 1st HOME!!!

the main bath

the hall

living room

Guess who called....

Anita. Who is that??? The photog who took our epics yesterday. I know right... she is wonderful to work with she did our engagement party. The pics on the side of my blog of our wedding party ...you guessed it she took them. I called her up because we have worked with her in the past, her rates are great and she is quick. Our wedding photog is EXPENSIVE and for her to take the Epics and give us a CD to print from would have been around $450.00 so we hired Anita for $85.00. Yea baby!!

Anyway, here is a little background about the our theme for the shoot. Originally we were going to have a change of attire but it was HOT so we decided against it. We were going for something fun and expressed our individual personalities. So the theme is loosely "just you and me".

Why a football stadium?

Because I chose the local fair as the backdrop for the 1st set of pics and it was FI choice for the 2nd session. FI is a huge Carolina Gamecock fan so for him to be on the field was phenomenal for him and it's my alma mater and I am currently working on my doctorate from there as well. So it represents the both of us.. anyway here are some of my favorite pics. It was hard to choose so ENJOY!!

Now for the props and fun shots

His sign says "game over"

My sign says "i kiss better than i cook"

I actually love the way they came out and I am going to get them edited. I really want one more session at the park where we went on our first date. I plan on posting a few more pics tomorrow. Let me know what you think. Now I am going to start our guestbook!!!!

Say Cheese...

Today we finally took the 2nd set of Epics. It was awesome!! We had all these props and I just hope that they all came out good on camera. I can't wait to see what the pics look like....we get the proofs back tomorrow...YES you read correctly tomorrow and I can't wait. There were a couple of shots that we didn't get but overall I think we did pretty good. It was HOT out there so I hope we don't like to shiny and sweaty.


In other wedding news...I finally printed the labels for the tears of joy packs and finished that project. The material came in for the BMs dresses and I almost cried when I saw it at the seam tress today. It is so beautiful I can't wait to see the dresses. I have almost completed the invitation belly bands..the invite debut coming soon. We brought the aisle tiles from Home Depot the other day and I started the project but it didn't quite work so I am tweaking it a little. We also are finally going to finish registry by the end of next week.

I have mocked up our memory candle. I just need to print. I have completed the template for the programs and the covers are almost done. I just need to decide on the songs.

TO DO

• pick out the girls shoes
• decide on uplights
• linens- tablescape
• finish table numbers
• decide on photobooth
• order guestbook once epics come back
• that all i can think of right now

Table Numbers

Is this not one of cutest little babies you have ever seen???? This weekend we went to my in laws to meet with the officiant. Unfortunately, he had to reschedule but while we were there we collected pics of my FI for the table numbers and slide show for the wedding.

I decided last year in the planning process that we would do the "through the year table numbers". Here are some inspiration pics. Coming soon our table numbers......

Check..Bridal bracelet

My mom and I went shopping for the BM's necklaces and I ran across this cute bracelet and I will either where during the wedding or reception it just depends which dress I chose to wear. Here is the best thing about it. It only cost $10 dollars.

Please excuse my hairy arms.

DIY: FG Pomander

I completed the pomanders a few weeks ago. I am just getting to posting. Busy busy bride to be! Yea that's me.

Sorry for the background I store my wedding stuff in what is supposed to be the workout room.

mini checks...

I found these cuties and I am excited about them. a few weeks ago in hobby lobby i ran across these and decided that they would be perfect corsages for the grandmothers and possibly the mothers. I want them to have something special more of a keepsake. They were only $3.99 EA!

I also scored these. We plan to use them as bouts! Only $1.99. I love a deal!!!

I plan to remove the button and wrap it with some ribbon.