Sealed With A Kiss

First Professional Pictures Have Arrived!

2011-11-22T15:20:00.000-05:00

I just got a message from my photographer literally like.. 20 mins ago that our blog post was up with our sneak peak! I'm so blown away by her talent that looking through the blog post made me teary eyed. I was just telling my husband (I'm still trying to get use to saying that, lol) that I don't really feel like our wedding has really happened and that maybe when I saw some of the pro pictures it would hit me. Well, it did! lol!

Anyways, I came right over to my blog to share the first pro pictures with you since I love you all. I'll do vendor reviews here soon and share some guest pictures while we wait for the CD with all the pro pictures (it should be about 2 1/2- 4 weeks from now).

Favors.

During our first look.

(I practiced my serious face FOREVER, but I still somehow managed to smile instead)

(Excuse the sweaty hair here, lol.. this was towards the end of the night and I had been dancing up a storm and it was hotter than heck in there!)

Donzo! (Plus the first pro picture!)

2011-11-14T13:58:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday was the big day and I hate to say it, but I'm a little sad that it's over. I spent nearly the last two years of my life planning this wedding and it flew by so quickly. The day turned out beautiful and I couldn't have asked for better vendors (well, there were a couple that I was none too pleased with, but we'll get into that later).

My photographer is going to get a sneak peak up within the next week and a half and also be done with my pictures in 4-5 weeks. After that, I'll begin to do recaps for you all. Trust me, I'll be back with guest pictures, though.

But, for now.. my oh so sweet and fabulous photographer was kind enough to share a picture of me and my new husband on my facebook wall the night of our wedding to hold me over until the sneak peaks.

ENJOY!

My Dress Is Home!

2011-11-02T09:46:00.000-04:00

After being with the seamstress (aka.. Derrick's aunt), my dress is finally back in my possession and currently hanging on the door to the den so it can fluff out. I missed it dearly while it was gone and I can't wait to wear it.

But, I can't show you pictures of me in it yet. Not because I don't want to, but because I really don't have a floor length mirror that will show the whole dress. I have a floor length mirror, but it's a curvy one from Ikea and the dress poofs out too much. But, I did take some pictures of it hanging on the door that I'll share!

Please excuse the fact that I took them on my iPhone, I was too lazy to get my good camera out, lol (also please excuse the dress bag hanging behind it).

Side view with the veil hanging in the front:

Front view.. look at all the poofiness:

Trust me when I say, it looks even better on. The seamstress told me that another lady had dropped off her own dress while mine was still there and when she saw my dress hanging there she gasped and said "THAT is the CUTEST dress, ever!" =D That made me so happy when she told me that! lol!

Don't worry, lovelies.. I'm getting married in 10 days and you'll get to see that dress on me soon! yay!

Hello Wedding Month!

2011-11-01T11:45:00.000-04:00

Oh that's right.. we are officially 11 days away from the wedding! EEK! We've been planning for 22 months now and at times I felt like the wedding was never going to get here and now I'm wondering where all the time went.

So, what have I been up to in regards to wedding planning?

Well.. I had my hair and make up trials yesterday. I drove all the way to Cincinnati (a 3 1/2 hour drive from where I live now) on Sunday night so I could get up early for my trials. Was I a good blogger and took pictures? NOPE!!

I will tell you that I LOVED my hair and makeup artists. They were SO nice and sweet and so funny to talk to. I felt completely at ease the moment I met them which really helped. They really listened to what I wanted and executed it perfectly! So, since I didn't get pictures, I'll share my inspiration pictures with you.

First up, my make up inspiration:

Now I know people say you should go for a natural look for your wedding, but believe me when I say this is natural for me, lol. In my real life, I do the bolder eyeshadow colors and such so if I showed up to our first look with browns and neutral colors, Derrick would give me the wtf? look. The makeup artist did a fabulous job with executing this look and it really made my eyes pop. After the makeup trial my BFF and I got in the car did a little fist bump (while saying "onto the next".. a little Ghost Hunters joke we do). And drove to my hair trial.

Here are the inspiration pictures I gave the hair stylist:

So I handed over my clip in extensions (I have fine and thin hair, so I needed them) and she went to work. I did tell her before she started that I wanted volume and I wanted it to make my face look thinner and not rounder (I have a round face and I'm self conscious about it.) I also told her I wanted swoop bangs to cover a couple scars I have on my forehead (even though the makeup artist covered them up for the most part).

She pretty much did a style similar to the second picture I posted (of Eva) but with swoop bangs and not the center part, she said with the curls in the back higher, it balances out the face and she made it poofy bc the bigger the hair, the smaller the face. I wish I would have taken pictures because it's hard to explain... but trust me, it looked fabulous! It was a pain in the butt to take the bobbi pins and extensions out last night, though, lol.

I couldn't find my hair fascinator ANYWHERE, though and I tore apart the whole apartment looking for it. Derrick moved some wedding stuff to his parents house till the wedding, so I'm hoping when we start decorating for the reception that it'll turn up. *fingers crossed*

My Playbill Inspired Programs

2011-10-24T10:26:00.000-04:00

I've spent the last few days designing my programs and I was so excited about them that I printed out a mock program and put it all together so I can photograph is and share it with you all. I'm going with a playbill inspired program just for a little something different. Without further ado... feast your eyes on these babies (please excuse the parts that are blacked our for privacy):

Front Cover

First page.. a run down of what is going on.

Ceremony details and the beginning of the "cast"

Our "cast".. who's who in the wedding

We included the two readings that are going to be read during the ceremony and then a memorial page. The top half if in dedication to my mom, the middle section is a poem for our grandparents and my mom and the last paragraph is a poem for everyone else that has gone before us.

Then we have our acknowledgement/special thanks page and a listing of our vendors.

Back cover. All our vendors logos.

I absolutely LOVE how they came out. Now, I have to print out 200+ pages front and back, using a boning tool to fold them all in half and staple them all. But, it's my last project before the wedding and I'm done with everything else.. so at least it'll keep me busy.

Pre-Wedding Festivities!

2011-10-17T09:56:00.000-04:00

The past 3 weeks have gone by and I've had my bachelorette party and bridal shower. Both were such a blast and I had so much fun. Unfortunately, one of my bridesmaids and best friends got strep throat the day before we were leaving for Nashville and couldn't go with us, but she was still there in spirit!

Anywho, I wanted to share some pictures with you all of the fun times! First up, my bachelorette party:

My best friend and I acting scared after we drove through a sketchy area in Nashville:

We did a Murder Mystery Dinner Tour and rode around Nashville on a big pink bus:

At a Mexican Restaurant getting ready to go to an 80s dance club:

Another one of my best friends and myself:

Dancing at the 80s dance club:

My sister (and Matron of Honor):

These next ones are from my bridal shower, this is my niece (and flower girl) and myself:

My sisters, myself and my niece acting goofy:

One of the games we played, I had to walk around the room in this apron with kitchen utensils pinned to it and then leave them room and everyone had to remember what was on the apron.

My nephew (and junior groomsman):

All in all in was a fabulous time, there were some ups and downs and some people couldn't be there at the last minute, but it was still a fabulous time. My BFF did a great job with Nashville and my sisters did a great job with my bridal shower!

Hello October!

2011-10-04T10:41:00.000-04:00

Whew, am I the only one who feels like September just flew right on by? It was like a blink and you miss it kinda month.

I had my bachelorette extravaganza in September (I'll be posting some pictures later) and my bridal shower is this Sunday. I've also been busting my butt getting our favors done (I swear, my life has been consumed by them lately). Since we live almost 2 hours away from where our wedding is, we try to take boxes of stuff to our hometowns whenever we are in the area. I also will have my hair trail and make up trials this month, too! Whew, I feel like October is going to fly by just like September did.

In other news, I've been talking with a wonderful lady on etsy about making a custom garter for me to go with my dress (I was going to get a sports one for Derrick, but he really didn't care at all what the garter looked like, so I went with fun and elegant to match my dress). She sent me pictures of the final product last night.

Here is a picture of the set together:

And here is a picture of the main garter on a black velvet piece to show the detail more:

I love how they came out and I cannot wait to get them in the mail! I went with JLWeddings on etsy and she was just wonderful to work with!

EEK! I cannot believe how close November 12th is gettting!! Is it bad that my biggest wedding day fear is how I'm going to be able to pee in my dress?! LOL!

Revealed: Invitation Suite!

2011-09-13T11:48:00.000-04:00

Now that our invitations (all 140 of them) have been sent out into the world and I've gotten message/texts from people saying how much they loved them, I figured I would share them with you all. I'm not going to lie, after dropping these off at the post office, I had a little separation anxiety from them. I had worked MONTHS and MONTHS on these and they felt like my babies. Fortunately, or unfortunately, that separation anxiety was transferred to separation anxiety from my dress now (it's with the seamstress) and I am happy the invites are out.

So, without further ado... join with me as I present to you our invitations (also, please excuse the dark pictures, I had to take most of them with the flash off bc it was washing the cards out and sorry about the black blotches in some places.. I had to cover some information for privacy):

First up, this is what our guests will see when they get their mail. I printed every address in a light gray color and then wrote over that with a brown fine tip sharpie for that handwritten look.

I was a bad blogger here, I forgot to take a picture of our return address stamp. This is (sorta) what it looked like, I blurred our address out for privacy. We stamped it on the back of our envelopes in a brown ink.

When the envelope is GENTLY opened, our cute polka dot envelope liner (that was a pain in the butt to do) is revealed.

All the pieces (minus one.. again, bad blogger.. we had a last minute piece added and I forgot to update this picture).

Front cover. All the pages are tied together with blue and white bakers twine.

First page... some info about yours truly.

Second page.. some info about the fiance.

Third page.. some info about how we met.

Fourth page... some info about the proposal.

Fifth page.. info about us getting married.

Sixth page... the wedding invite.

All the pages were then hole punched.

If you look closely at the first few pictures, you'll see the hole punch was a lovely heart shape, like that shown above.

Our information card. Sorry, this is a screen shot because I forgot to take a picture of the card after we printed them. I know the registry this is "tacky" to some, but where I live.. it's the norm and people will get MAD if it's not included.

Front of the RSVP postcard.

Back of the RSVP postcard (I know it's hard to read on here, but it's easier in person). We did a mad lib style RSVP and I am hoping we get some awesome responses.

There you have it, our invitation suite and all the pieces that went into it. There are a lot of small details in the invites (for example, the dashes have polka dots in them). I wanted to tie the polka dots in with the wedding somehow, but not overdo it.. I think it worked perfectly.

Bridesmaid Dress Drama

2011-09-08T10:46:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a VERY stressful and frustrating day. We had a meeting with our priest and he pretty much nixed all the awesome personal touches I wanted to put on the wedding. I was really upset about it at first, but I just have to keep telling myself that it's just 30 mins of the whole day and I can give up a few things. Frustrating? Yes. Can I change it? No.

Also, we're a little more than 2 months away from the wedding and you want to know what I did? I cancelled my custom made bridesmaids dresses. Why? Well, they were suppose to ship out 1 1/2 weeks ago and due to some measurement problems, they weren't done and it wasn't looking like they would be here in time. So, I risked canceling them and I crossed my fingers that I still had enough time to order from somewhere else.

I went to David's Bridal yesterday with one of my sisters and my junior bridesmaids to try on some dresses. My very first a FAVORITE choice we ended up nixing because we felt like it would be too short on some of the bridesmaids. Frustrating? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely. I want my bridesmaids to feel comfortable in what they are wearing.

So, we went with my second (and still fabulous) choice:

(Screen shot from David's Bridal)

It looked really good on the two girls that tried it on and I'm going with 2 other bridesmaids on Sunday to order. As for the other 2 bridesmaids... one is going in tomorrow and the other on Monday. The dresses should be in no later than the VERY beginning of November (I think they said November 2nd last night) and they said they almost always come in early. So yeah, we're cutting it absolutely close.. but, there was nothing I could do.

I also bought my undergarments for my wedding dress yesterday (some spanx and a long line bra) for my first fitting on Sunday. (whew.. we spent WAY too much money yesterday). Busy busy busy.. I can't believe it's getting so close! There was also some other frustrating/stressful things from yesterday, but we'll leave those out of the blog.. for now at least.

We're also mailing our invites out within the next week and then I'll be sharing the awesomeness that was months in the making, lol.

Bedazzled Sign

2011-09-06T09:40:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks ago I placed an order with Crafty Eddy to make a "CARDS" sign for our card box (which will be shared later). He was so quick and efficient with his e-mails and made the sign the day I ordered it and shipped it out the day after that.

I was so excited when it arrived in the mail and couldn't wait to bedazzle it!

Here is what it looked like originally:

Just a plain old wooden card sign. So, of course, I spunked it up some.

I forgot to take a picture of the "middle state" but I painted it with several layers of metallic silver paint so that when I glued on the crystals, it all blended in instead of being light brown wood shinning through.

So, I present to you.. the final product after several layers of paint and TONS of crystals.

I LOVE it and it's so sparkly in person! I can't wait to share it with you how it's going to be used on our wedding day (which, btw, is 66 days away.. AHH!)

And some final good news, this Sunday my dress is going in for alterations so I should be able to share the final product with you soon!! Although, I need suggestions on what undergarments I should buy by then (I want to suck and smooth everything out, but still be able to pee, lol.) Any suggestions?

Bridal Shower Invite

2011-08-31T12:50:00.000-04:00

Since I live almost 2 hours away from where the wedding will be taking place, my sister and fiance's mom are throwing me a joint bridal shower (that way I only have to make one trip home for it). I told my sister I'd help pick out the invitation since I had some spare time and she's been really busy.

So, I turned to my best friend... etsy! I came across an awesome invite and the lady sold the digital file for it (which is awesome since someone in Derrick's family owns a printing press!). I forwarded the link to my sister and she worked with the shop owner to personalize it.

Here's what they came up with (certain information blurry for privacy):

So cute, right!? I absolutely love it and she even incorporated the polka dots! LOVE!!

I can't wait for the bridal shower, it should be a blast!

Oh My Dolly!

2011-08-29T09:18:00.000-04:00

So... I received a package in the mail Saturday morning (and yes, I stalked the tracking number like no one's business, lol).

Oh yes.. my custom made Dolly Couture dress had ARRIVED! I swear, I felt like I had given birth to a newborn baby, I was so excited! So, I did what any normal blooded bride to be would do.. I ripped that bad boy open!

I'm not even kidding you right now, how that got that much poof into that box, I will never know. It took some serious muscle to pull that garment bag out of the box! (It doesn't really help that the dress itself is like 6 inches too long... but, that's not Dolly Couture's fault, oh no.. that would be the fault of the seamstress that I PAID to professionally take my measurements. Moving on..)

Here it is hanging on my bedroom door in it's garment bag, it's so cute that they tied a little blue bow on the hanger! I wish I could have gotten the full length of the garment bag in the picture so you could have a better understanding of how poofy it is, but I could only back up so far.

Now, unfortunately for my dear readers... you're not going to get the see the dress. The reason why is because I need to have it altered to fit my body right. Remember how I saw that the professional seamstress messed up the hem length, yeah.. she messed up my chest and arm hole lengths, too. So, I need to get it altered to fit just right. Once I do, I'll be happy to share picture with you all because it is seriously a GORGEOUS dress and I couldn't be happier with the craftsmanship and design!

But, I don't want to completely leave you hanging so here's a sneak peak!

Party Dress

2011-08-25T09:53:00.000-04:00

So, I've been trying to find the perfect party dress to wear to my bachelorette party with no such luck. Yesterday, while out at the mall with my fiance I stumbled upon a clearance rack of dresses and tried one on... I was IN. LOVE.

I wish I could show you pictures of it on, but I don't have a full length mirror to take on it and it looks so much better on me than it does on the pictured model. Anyways.. here's what I got:

It's going to be perfect for a night out on the town (not to mention 80s night bc I feel with the right accessories it can have an 80s-ish vibe). Hey.. the bride to be should stand out from everyone else, right? But, I may also be able wear it to my bridal shower as well.

Oh.. P.S. I got a shipping confirmation from Dolly Couture yesterday!! My wedding dress should be here soon!!!! WOOT!

So Charming

2011-08-18T12:24:00.000-04:00

Sorry it's been awhile! I have great excuses, but I'll spare you. Lets just say.. my photography business has been BOOMING lately (I have 4, possibly 5, wedding booked for next year already!) and it's sucked up so much of my time lately (but I'm not complaining). But, now we're under 3 months till the wedding and this blog is about to get poppin'!

So yesterday was like Christmas Day.. I got so many goodies in the mail (I'm seriously going to be devastated when the wedding is over and I'm not getting packages in the mail anymore.. the only thing I'll be able to look forward to getting in the mail will be my Cosmo magazine once a month! LOL!)

One of the things that came in the mail were these BEAUTIFUL bouquet charms that I ordered. I ordered one of my mom who passed away when I was 2 and one of my grandma (my mom's mom who I was SUPER close with) who passed away 7 years ago. I also ordered one of Derrick's grandpa to pin inside his tux jacket so his grandpa can be close to his hear during the wedding (he was super close to his Grandpa and he passed away several years ago and it's still hard for him to talk about.)

I ordered them from ArtistoCrafty on Etsy.. seriously check out her stuff, she's super nice and has great charms! Want to see, I know you do!

Derrick's Grandpa.

My Grandma.

My beautiful Mom!

All three together.

I LOVE them and cannot wait to use them in the wedding.

I also ordered and received some Nioxin pills.

You see, I've been having problems with my hair falling out. I use to have thick hair that grew super fast, but lately it's been thin and falling out a lot. So, I read really great reviews on these Nioxin pills and how they help your hair grow faster, thicker and stronger (and it helps your nails, too). The bottle came with 90 caplets and at one a day, they are going to last me until a little bit after the wedding! WOOT! I'll keep you updated on if I start seeing a change (I just took my first pill yesterday.)

Better Put a Ring On It!

2011-07-25T11:01:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, my fiance and I stopped at the jewelry store where he got my engagement ring to look for wedding bands. We made a major score which made me realize that I never really took the time to blog about my ring.

So, first up.. I'm going to share my engagement ring with you all. Derrick did a great job in picking it out himself and as many people know, I love all things sparkly and this ring is just that!

There is a natural curve to the ring in the center, so it threw the idea of having a straight wedding band. After talking to a jeweler, we realized that a contour band would be the way to go for two reasons. 1.) The contour band would curve with the engagement ring. 2.) Since it's not the same exact curve, there's a little gap between the rings.. BUT.. with the gap, it allows the diamonds on the side of the engagement ring to still show some and sparkle. I know it's kind of hard to imagine, but trust me.. when the two were put together it was bling central!

So, what band did we end up with you ask? This one:

The channel setting matches my engagement ring and the round diamonds match most of the diamonds on the engagement ring as well. They look super good together AND.. we got it for 47% off, too! WOOT!

We're eventually going to get the same band again (maybe for a 5 year anniversary) and put it on top of the engagement ring so the bands sandwich the engagement ring. I absolutely loved the rings when they were put together, but unfortunately, it had to be sent out to be sized... I'll try to get pics of them together in person in about two weeks when I'll get it back.

I also have a plan to incorporate not only the wedding band into the ceremony, but also the wedding ring with this little saying:

"As wedding rings are symbols of marriage, an engagement ring is a symbol of promise and intent. Now that the intention is realized and the promise fulfilled, Derrick will place the engagement ring above the wedding band to symbolize that the love which brought them together will always protect and sustain their marriage."

I think it's a cute little way to bring in the importance of the engagement ring into the ceremony and I don't have to worry about that pesky question of what to do with my engagement ring during the ceremony. LOVE IT!

Sketch-y

2011-07-12T08:28:00.001-04:00

Sunday night I came home to a wonderful surprise in my inbox.. an e-mail from my sales rep with Dolly Couture!!! And, what did it contain you ask?

THIS:

My custom dress sketch!

(I love the bling they drew on the hand.. lol, too cute!)

I absolutely LOVE it and I'm going to be placing my order in the next day or two. We're still deciding if we want to do the rush order or not. If we don't do a rush order, the dress will be done in 10-12 weeks, which gets it to me about a month before the wedding. Or, I can do a rush order for an extra $175 and the dress will be done in 6-8 weeks. I'm still trying to decide if having it about a month earlier is worth the extra money. What's your opinion?

Label Me

2011-07-11T09:25:00.000-04:00

I wanted to make some cute water bottle labels for the wedding and found a pretty good template on the net. Sticking with the polka dot theme and the colors of our wedding, I spent a good couple hours designing these and I'm pretty stoked with how they came out.

Here are the lovelies:

So cute, right?

Wedding Dress Switch!

2011-07-08T14:05:00.000-04:00

As many of you may remember, I was getting a custom made polka dot dress made from etsy that was inspired by the Michelle Roth "Maya" dress. Well, that has fallen through and there for a few days I went through a depression. See, we are 4 1/2 months out from the wedding which doesn't leave much time to go out and order a dress. But, that wasn't why I went through the depression. You see, I LOVEEE polka dots, I built certain parts of the wedding around having a polka dot wedding dress. I incorporated it into our invites, had a cake topper made, a hair piece made, a tie for Derrick to wear.

So, I picked myself up out of my slump and something marvelous happened. I came across another polka dot dress that I loved.. that I loved more than the one I was having made. But, at the time, I put it on the back burner and forgot about it since I was in the process of having the one made.

It was like the clouds to the Heavens parted when I opened up the pictures of the polka dot beauty. BUT.. problem is, I haven't been able to find this dress ANYWHERE. I searched and searched and searched on google and nada, zilch, zero.. NOTHING.

What did I do, you ask? I contacted Dolly Couture and talked to a rep about making my dress and if it would be enough time.

Answer? Yes, they can make it and yes, it'll be done 1-2 months before my wedding. I'm currently waiting to receive the sketch of the dress before I place my order, but I'm so excited about it. Dolly Couture does amazing work and I have NO worries whatsoever about this.

Want to see the polka dot dress that Dolly Couture is going to make me? Here's the inspiration pictures, I'll share the sketch at a later date when I receive it!

Polka dot? Check! One-Shoulder? Check! Poofy? Check!

Those were the three main things I wanted in a dress and this dress has those. Hey.. maybe things really do happen for a reason.

Invitation Sneak Peak!

2011-06-24T10:24:00.000-04:00

Ahh! It's been way to long since I've updated my blog! Thanks so much to everyone that left comments on my last picture, though.. it means so much to me. Things have been busy lately, we just moved earlier this month and I've been working a lot on my business and wedding planning.

I promise to get back into the swing of updating my blog regularly again, especially since I'm 4 1/2 month away from the wedding now, too! AHH!

But, because a post is no fun without any pictures.. I'm going to leave you a sneak peak of our invitation suite so far (there are some things missing and it's not a full suite yet).

Oh yes, these babies have taken up so much of my time lately. I had to cut out over 560 pieces of paper, print on all those papers, hole punch (can you see it's a heart hole punch?), and make/glue the envelope liners.

I hope that wets your appetites to see the final product!!

Pictures That Make Me Smile #1

2011-06-01T18:28:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I shot a wedding and also a Baptism. I love lots of images from both, but there was one from the Baptism that I took of a mother and daughter that just warmed my heart.

(Personal Photo)

I just love the emotion in the picture! I almost missed it, too.. the little girl moved not even a second after I snapped the picture.

Pictures like this is why I love what I do and makes it all worthwhile.

My Photography Business Update!

2011-05-23T12:47:00.000-04:00

I've been working on our wedding invitations the past week and a half and haven't gotten much other wedding stuff done. They aren't quite finished yet, so I can't make a post about them. As many of you know, I've recently started my own photography business and I've had quite a few shoots lately. So, in order to keep my bloggity blog going, I thought I'd share some of my favorites from some of my recent sessions with you all.

Enjoy.

This one was from a Prom session that I did.

First Communion shoot.

Day at the park shoot (this is actually my nephew!)

Another Day at the Park shoot (this is my niece!)

A wedding I shot a week ago.

Another one from the wedding.

First dance from the wedding.

A two year old shoot.

Isn't he adorable?

Such a ham.

From a family/one year old shoot. Such a cutie!

Family/One year old shoot.

I'm loving all my clients I've made so far and I'm actually booked the next month already! I have another 2 weddings to shoot, a family session, another first communion and a graduation!

RSVP Postcard

2011-05-17T13:52:00.000-04:00

Last week I ordered some postcards from Vistaprint while they were having a sale. They were 11 cents per 100 plus the cost of shipping. Unfortunately, we needed 130 for our RSVP's, so I had to order 200. The sale was only good for the first 100 postcards, so I got sneaky and ordered 100 under my name and 100 under Derrick's name. They were suppose to arrive around May 30th, so imagine my surprise when there was two packages sitting in my mailbox yesterday!

Because of the sale, for the 200 postcards + shipping + image uploads/color, we ended up only spending about $28 on them and I'm super happy with the quality.

Here's the front of the postcard.

And the back (address blurred for privacy). I know it's hard to read the actual RSVP in the picture, but I posted the design before with the wording and it's easier to read in person than in a picture due to the flash.

I'm very happy with how they turned out and I can't wait to (hopefully) start getting some pretty good RSVP's back once we do send them out.

Be Our Guest

2011-05-16T15:33:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks ago I ordered our photo guest book from mixbook.com. I had purchased $50 worth of photo album credits for $10 from moolala.com (which is like groupon). So I only spent about $17 after a couple extra pages we added to the book + shipping when I originally would have spent close to $70!! Yay for savings!

Anyways, it came in the mail a few days ago and I did what any good blogger would do and took pics!

I didn't take a picture of the spine, but it has our names and wedding date.

First up, the book cover:

First page (last name blurred for privacy)

I wanted to make sure there was plenty of room for our guests to sign their names and leave messages for us. The book is a little larger than expected, but I still love it!

6 Months!

2011-05-12T13:44:00.000-04:00

Today makes it 6 months exactly until our wedding.

You want to know how I celebrated?

(Personal Photo- Please excuse the blurriness, I was still moving on the machine, lol.)

That's right, I headed to the gym and torched those 670 calories on the elliptical in an hour! Boo yah!!

Oh, I'm not done there, either... I'm about to start the 30 Day Shred here in a few mins and then later this evening I'm going back to the gym with the fiance to do some upper body strength training.

Oh yeah.. going to be feeling the burn today!

I'm Going to Party Like It's My Birthday!

2011-05-08T09:59:00.000-04:00

Because today is actually my ~~26th~~ 18th birthday!!!!!

Yummy, right?

It's officially my last birthday before the wedding! AHH! Derrick bought me flowers and a card last night and tonight we're going out to dinner and a movie. I can't wait!!

I hope you have a fantabulous day as well and Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there! I would give anything to be able to give my mom a hug, but I know she's smiling down from Heaven today!

Engagement Pictures!

2011-05-03T10:04:00.000-04:00

I'm finally able to post our amazing engagement pictures! I'm so excited about these because we wanted a somewhat urban feel to most of them and our photographer delivered!

So, here they are.. well, some of them. ENJOY!

This alley started out smelling like laundry detergent and right before we were done, it started smelling like poo. Thankfully, our photographer didn't capture any pictures with a crinkled up nose and if she did, she didn't show me. LOL!

Oh, don't mind us, we're just making out in this alley.

I'm still upset with him that he didn't change his shoes! UGH!

This picture makes me laugh for some reason. It was so unbelievably windy that day and I had so many issues with my hair flying everywhere.

My attempt at the "serious face".

Oh, don't mind us again.. we're just going to kiss in this parking garage. lol!

See? He had to hold my hair down. I got quite a few pictures like this in different poses, but I think they are cute.

LOVE! My fiance is a BIG Cincinnati Reds fan so we had to get in a shot with the Great American Ballpark in the background.

All images are courtesy of Amanda Donaho Photography. She is seriously super sweet and I can't wait for her to photograph our wedding!

Our Wedding Website

2011-04-30T22:09:00.001-04:00

I've gotten the CD of our engagement pictures in the mail today and I was finally able to finish up our wedding website. I designed it myself based off one of their existing ones to have some structure. I used www.wix.com and it was fairly easy to use one I knew what I was doing.

So.. I can't give you all the address to the website because I don't want all of the internet world to know exact details, so I took screen shots of the pages and blurred the important information out so I can share them with you.

Without further ado, our wedding website (click on picture to make larger, if needed):

Our home page. It has tabs to the right for all the pages and each page peels off like a book.

Our "About Us" page. I didn't really fluff this area up with too much details because of something that involves our wedding invites (which will be revealed later.)

"Ceremony Details" page.. sorry for all the blurs, it pains me to do it!

Reception details.

Our wonderful wedding party!

Guest info page. We haven't done our hotel block yet and such, so this section is pretty bare.

The guest book page for people who visit to leave us nice comments.

I worked really hard on this and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out! It's somewhat different than most wedding websites, but still touches on all the important stuff. What do you think?

Down the Aisle

2011-04-28T10:49:00.000-04:00

A couple years ago, I came across some music that I fell in love with and knew that I wanted to use it for my bridesmaids to walk down the aisle to.

The melody in the song is so pretty and gives me chills at times. It's actually called "First Kiss (Veronica's Theme) by George Fenton, but this is the only youtube video I could find of it.

I just hope it's long enough for them to walk out to, if not.. I'll tell them to book it down the aisle. LOL!

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Wedding Talk..

2011-04-25T13:43:00.000-04:00

... for some fitness talk.

I hate to admit it, but I've been lazy lately. It's not for lack of wanting to work on my fitness, though.. oh no, not at all. I was getting into the swing of my c25k MONTHS ago when I fractured my foot. It took quite a while for my foot to feel right after that, too. But.. right after my foot healed, I suffered from a knee injury (that still bothers me on and off) not to mention the fact that I've gotten a cold/sinus problems and have been going non-stop this whole month.

But, that's enough of the complaining and the excuses. I have a little over 6 1/2 months to the wedding and I need to stop procrastinating and just suck it up.

{Source}

Derrick and I decided that starting today we're going to get healthy (he doesn't really need it.. he use to train to be a body builder, but it helps to have him keep my motivated/accountable.) So, starting today, we're going to start training for a 5k together! We're going to start the c25k program (he can run, so when I say "we" I really mean me and he's just going along to keep me company and safe."

{Source}

We're going to train for the 5k 3x a week by running outside (thankfully there are some nice running trails around here). We're also going to do 2 days of upper body strength training at the gym and 2 days of lower body strength training and some cardio at the gym. I also started a diet today, as well, and I am more than determined to stick with it. We figured we would go balls to the wall from now until the wedding and then back off of it some.

I'm about to take it Biggest Loser style with my life and I hope you guys join me for the ride. I'm going to be taking my before pictures when Derrick gets home from work and then we are heading out for our first run and then to the gym for some upper body. I'm not going to clog this blog up with exercise talk, though, so I'm probably going to update you all about every 2 weeks on here. If anyone wants to become fitness buddies with me.. let me know!

Kick Them Out of the Nest

2011-04-22T12:10:00.000-04:00

I'm so going to watch them fly.

My save the dates, that is. I FINALLY finished making 130 envelopes, printing all the magnets and spraying them with protective spray, stuffing said envelopes and gluing on the wrap around labels. It was a pain in the butt, but I love them and now I plan on taking a nice break until I have to start working on printing and assembling our invites (and by nice break, I mean like.. one week. lol.)

OOoooo... what's in the pretty zebra box?

Oh nothing, just 130 save the dates chilling in there. (Notice that some of them aren't even sealed yet, lol. We're putting a wallet of one of our engagement pictures in some of them, so we have to wait to seal them.)

Front of the envelope (sorry about the blur of the address.) Also, the postage isn't on there yet because I'm very upset with USPS. I really wanted those "Celebrate" 44 cent stamps to put on these since they match so perfectly. Well, since these are magnets, it costs 64 cents to mail and the postal worker told us that we had to take these butterfly stamps, that do not match, if we wanted to mail them and wouldn't give us any other options. Totally rude.

Back of the envelope, again..sorry about the blur.

Our save the date magnet (excuse the blur, once again.. lol.) The colors really pop in person, but I had to take this picture with the flash off because it kept giving me a glare.

I can't wait to send them out and not have to worry about them anymore. It's time to kick them out of the nest and watch them fly!

{All photos are personal photos}

Flower Power

2011-04-21T10:23:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Derrick and I drove nearly 3 hours to having two meeting with two different florists. I took some inspiration pictures in with me and talked about color schemes and what was in season.

I've only gotten quotes from 1 of them so far, the other one is suppose to e-mail me sometime today, though. I know who I felt more at ease with and who I feel really caught the look I was going for (it's probably who we are going with, too.)

I took the following inspiration pictures with me:

{Source}

The first florist we sat down with actually took the time to ask me what I liked in each different bouquet and then if a certain flower wasn't in season, she came up with another flower to get that look. For example, as most of you know.. peonies, they aren't in season in November. But, there is a garden rose to give you that fluffy look.

{Source}

So, what we came up with was for my bouquet to be a mix of pink and white flowers using garden roses, hydrangeas, orchid, lisianthis and a little bit of greenery. Then the bridesmaids would be smaller and different shades of pink with no white. Also, they'd be similar to mine, just without the orchid (orchids are EXPENSIVE) and instead they would have amaryllis which have the look of an orchid but are actually a lilly. The junior bridesmaids would just be a smaller version of the bridesmaids. As for the boutonnieres Derrick would have an orchid that matches the orchid in my bouquet and the groomsmen would have an amaryllis to match what is in the bridesmaids bouquet.

Now, the second meetings we felt very rushed and she didn't really seem like she took the time to find out what I really wanted. She kept pushing me towards putting blue in the bouquets since our wedding colors are blue and brown and I kept saying no. Not to mention, she never bothered to tell me what flowers that are out of season could be replaced with, I actually had to bring them up (thankfully I knew what flowers to bring up thanks to the first meeting.) She didn't really seem to grasp what I was looking for and really pushed us to do centerpieces through them. I'm pretty sure they are going to blow our budget out of the water, though.

I'll let you all know how it goes. How did florist meetings go with you all? Did anyone feel rushed through them?

First Dance

2011-04-19T11:11:00.000-04:00

Believe it or not, one of the very first things we picked for our wedding was our first dance song.

We picked "More Than Anyone" by Gavin DeGraw. It's a really beautiful song and it means a lot to our relationship (one of the first cards I gave him when we first got together I wrote at the very bottom "Ps. I'm going to love you more than anymore".. so it just kind of fits.

For any of you who have watched "One Tree Hill" this was also Nathan and Haley's first dance song when they renewed their wedding vows. That's actually the first time I really listened to the song and I fell in love with it. Our favorite show to watch together is actually "One Tree Hill" and we spend lots of nights on the couch together watching the seasons on DVD. We always said our relationship was a lot like Nathan and Haley's from the very beginning... so, that song just clicks on many levels.

"More Than Anyone"

Gavin DeGraw
You need a friend
I'll be around
Don't let this end
Before I see you again
What can I say to convince you
To change your mind of me?
I'm going to love you more than anyone
I'm going to hold you closer than before
And when I kiss your soul, your body'll be free
I'll be free for you anytime
I'm going to love you more than anyone
Look in my eyes, what do you see?
Not just the color
Look inside of me
Tell me all you need and I will try
I will try
I'm going to love you more than anyone
I'm going to hold you closer than before
And when I kiss your soul, your body'll be free
I'll be free for you anytime
I'm going to love you more than anyone
Free for you, whenever you need
We'll be free together baby
Free together baby
I'm going to love you more than anyone
I'm going to hold you closer than before
And when I kiss your soul, your body'll be free
I'll be free for you anytime
I'm going to love you more than anyone
I'm going to love you more than anyone

Strike A Pose!

2011-04-15T11:24:00.000-04:00

Since the time I got engaged, I have always wanted a photobooth. I want one like Aladdin wants Jasmine, like the Cookie Monster wants cookies, like the Little Mermaid wants legs, like... well, you get the point.

The thing is, photobooths are EXPENSIVE and I just cannot afford one in the budget. So.. I turned to the diy land and settled on a "faux-to-booth".

Basically.. I'm going to hang up a black backdrop (maybe with some twinkle lights) and I'm going to set up some lights as well as set out a prop table. The tricky part was to figure out how to get the photos taken.

I have a friend that I went to high school with and she just started a photography business with her cousin. She agreed to be my faux-to-booth photographer for super cheap as long as she can use them in a portfolio!! She's going to bring her own professional camera and take three sets of different pictures of each person/group that comes into the fauxtobooth (that way it's SIMILAR to the real thing). Then she is going to burn me a CD with all the images and I'm going to also put them on a photosharing site for all the guests, too.

I'm super excited... I've heard how awesome and fun these can be at weddings and I may not get a REAL photobooth, but this works all the same in my eyes.. I know I'll still get some GREAT pictures!

Did anyone else go a cheaper route to get what you wanted?

Engagement Pictures Sneak Peak!

2011-04-13T13:53:00.001-04:00

Our photographer just posted a few sneak peaks from our engagement shoot that we had this past Sunday. I'm super excited to see the rest of them (which will probably be in about 1 1/2 weeks.. ahh, I'm too impatient.)

Without further ado, for your viewing pleasure... here are our sneak peaks:

{Please excuse his shoes in this one. I had a big discussion about him changing his shoes before we left his parents house (who we were visiting before pictures) and he swore up and down he would change them once we got to Cincinnati. As you can see, he did not.}

I should also note that in the above picture and the one below it that I DO NOT have a great "serious" face. lol. Everytime she said "okay.. make a serious face" I would start to laugh and end up looking mad or constipated. lol! I guess all that "serious face" practicing I did in the mirror all morning that day didn't pay off. Oopsie. lol!

{All photos are courtesy of Amanda Donaho Photography}

I'll post some more once I get them in (there was an outfit change that we had and a change of scenery that isn't on the sneak peak.) So stay tuned!

Cake Stand Inspiration

2011-04-12T11:12:00.001-04:00

I found an awesome picture of a cake stand on the internet and set out to find out how I could do it myself and make it my own.

It really isn't that complicated and I wanted to share with you all what I plan on doing in case it inspires any of you!

All you need is a piece of plexiglass a little bit bigger than the base of your cake and also some square vases. I plan on getting these little 2-3inch square ones I found at the Dollar Tree for $1 each. I think we are going to use about 12 for our cake due to the size (the bottom tier is 16 inches).

In addition to that, we are purchasing some LED ice cubes that can either stay one color or slowly change colors and put them in the vases. I think it would look really neat and totally add some pizazz to the cake table! A cake base that slowly changes color? Yes, please!

What are you all using as your cake stand?

Engagement Shoot Outfits

2011-04-08T10:49:00.001-04:00

I've been stressing for WEEKS about what to wear for our engagement pictures that we have this coming Sunday. I originally wanted to have our pictures done at a carnival or fair, but as luck would have it.. there were none. So, I set out to find two outfits that I pretty much could wear anywhere.

First up, I found this sparkly tank top from Charlotte Russe:

{SOURCE}

I just love me some sparkles and this fits my personality PERFECTLY.

But, I wasn't about to just wear a tank top in our pictures.. oh no. So, I found a cute knit bolero/shrug to go with it at Old Navy:

{SOURCE}

Just ignore the white shirt that it is shown with!

And of course, no engagement shoot isn't complete without at least a second outfit to change into.

So. I found this cute black jacket to wear:

{SOURCE}

The cool thing about this jacket, if you roll the sleeves up a little bit there are black and white polka dots! Umm.. yes, please!! That will go so great with my black and white polka dot flats that I own and will be wearing with this outfit! I also plan to wear a white cami underneath the jacket, too.

Both tops will be paired with regular jeans, as well. I couldn't find any pictures of the outfits my fiance is wearing, but you'll see them in a couple weeks. One is a button up striped shirt and the other one is a Joey Votto Cincinnati Reds jersey (you'll see what he chose this at a different date as well.).

Did you stress out about what outfit to wear for your engagement pictures?

Remembrance

2011-04-07T00:20:00.000-04:00

As our wedding gets closer and closer, it has really been hitting me how much I wish my mom and grandma could be there. It was really important to me to find a way to keep their spirit near and dear to me on the day of the wedding, so what did I do? I turned to etsy, of course.

I'm going to buy a memorial photo charm to attach to my bouquet.

{Source}

I'm not 100% sure if I will get a double sided photo charm or just get two separate ones, but I plan to have one for my grandma and also my mom to keep them with me that day.

I also really wanted to do something for my fiance since he lost his grandpa that he was extremely close to a few years back. I'm going to have his grandpa's picture put in one of these charms and I'm going to ask the people at the tuxedo rental place to pin it in his jacket so his grandpa will be close to his heart. I really hope I can keep this part a secret until the wedding day. I have a huge problem with spilling beans.. haha. But don't worry.. he never reads my blog!

What are some ways you plan on remembering those who can't be there on your wedding day?

Yummy In My Tummy!

2011-04-05T09:23:00.000-04:00

I just realized I never did talk about our tasting with the caterer.

It. was. DELISH! Seriously.

I'm so unbelievably excited about the food at our reception (as well as the cake) and I think our guests are going to love it. So, what's on the menu, you ask?

We have two main dishes to choose from. (Sorry I don't have actual pictures of the tasting.. but you get the idea.)

1. BBQ Chicken (yeah, I know.. BBQ sauce and a white dress = possible disaster? Eh, I'll be fine.. I love me some BBQ chicken.)

{Source}

2. Sliced top round of beef in homemade gravy. Seriously.. this was SO SO SO tender!

{Source}

Then we have 4 side items as well.

1. Macaroni & Cheese made with large penne noodles.

{Source}

2. Roasted parsley red potatoes.

{Source}

3. Seasoned green beans.

{Source}

4. Buttered sweet yellow corn.

{Source}

But, that's not all.. it all comes with assorted artisan breads and rolls, butter and condiments to compliment entrees as well as dinnerware.

YUM!! I can't wait!

A Cardigan Love Affair

2011-04-04T13:09:00.001-04:00

I stumbled across a picture on one of my many google searches and I fell IN LOVE with these brown cropped cardigans!

As many of you may know, my bridesmaids dresses are similar to the picture.. knee length, blue dresses with brown sashes and a brooch. Since our wedding is in November, cardigans would totally fit in and really... don't they look SUPER cute in that picture?!

I'm just having a hard time finding dark brown/espresso colored cropped cardigans (keyword: cropped) for them to wear. If anybody has any suggestions as to where to find one (all I find are black and white ones) that are also offered in extended sizes (my bridesmaids are all shapes and sizes).. please let me know!!

RSVP Design

2011-04-02T09:51:00.000-04:00

So, I know in my last post I said I wasn't going to share anything about our invitations until we kick them out of the nest and watch them fly.

Well, lucky for you all, no one in my family nor Derrick's family knows about my blog. Neither do any of our friends (with the exception of my BFF/Bridesmaid), so it'll be safe to share some of it with you. So, what did I spent about 3 1/2 hours completing last night? Our RSVP postcard!! That's right, I said 3 1/2 hours.. I had to keep going back and re-doing it and tweaking it bc I would find something that just bothered me.

Anyways.. here is the result of my hard work (and it gives you a glimpse into what the rest of the invite looks like!):

{Personal Photo- Please click on the picture to make larger if needed}

We wanted to have a fun mad-libish RSVP for people to fill out. So, what do you think?

See Ya, March! (Sneak Peak Included)

2011-04-01T10:55:00.000-04:00

March was a pretty slow month for me, wedding wise. I made our ring bearer pillow and picked out the flower girl dress, but that's about it.

Now.. April is a whole different beast. My April (and going into May) is JAM PACKED! Here's what is going to get accomplished this month in my life in no particular order:

I'm working my first wedding at my internship this Saturday (12:30-Midnight)!
I work at the office of my internship once a week during the week. I can pick and choose the weekends I work weddings, but this month I'm only working the one this weekend.. you'll see why.
Our engagement pictures are a week from Sunday (the 10th) so expect to see some pictures about two weeks after that. (Also.. please cross your fingers that the shirt I ordered to wear will be here in time!) This is about a 2 1/2 hour drive both ways.
April 17th- We have our first marriage counseling class back in our hometown (hello 90min drive both ways!)
We're going to finish up the last few of our save the dates this month and get those puppies out into the world.
April 24th is Easter and we have to make ANOTHER 90min (both ways) trip to spend Easter with Derrick's family.
We're going to finish up our wedding website (I'm waiting on our engagement pics to use).
We're actually going to start working on some of the invitation assembly (the design was mostly finished yesterday and it's inspired from Mrs Meerkat on Weddingbee.)
The bridesmaids dress measurements are due this month (today to be exact, lol.)
My dress SHOULD be finished this month (or early next month).
I'm talking with a florist to get some price quotes as well.

Not to mention, there is other little life stuff this month that is going on. Ahh.. busy busy and I'm sure I'm leaving some stuff out. Not to mention, our lease is up in June and we have to start finding another place to live (we're waiting a year to start building our house due to time restraints) and we'll need to start packing (we have a TON of stuff).

Stay tuned, my blog will probably be popping this month!

And because no one likes to read a blog post without pictures (LOL!).. Here is a SNEAK PEAK at our invitation design:

{Personal Picture}

LOL.. Sorry, it's like a quarter part of a piece of it and it's missing a big piece that hasn't been added yet. BUT.. you'll get to see these beauties after they get kicked out of the nest (probably sometime in September!)

Flower Girl Dress Jackpot

2011-03-28T10:33:00.000-04:00

I know I posted before about finding a flower girl dress at Target, but unfortunately.. it didn't fit. The biggest the dress is made in is a 5T and my little niece will be 5 in July. The dress fit her now, but it was a little tight and more than likely would be too small by November.

So.. last night I was buzzing around on etsy and I stopped and looked my seamstresses etsy shop just to see what she's been up to and I noticed that her daughter just opened a shop the beginning of this month. You know what she makes? FLOWER GIRL DRESSES!!

Not just any flower girl dresses, oh no.. she actually had a little miniature version of a polka dot dress. Seriously, look how cute this thing is:

{All images taken from her etsy shop.}

Cute, right? So.. I'm going to be contacting her about making the flower girl dress but with smaller and more polka dots, a blue sash tied in a bow in the front but on the side, and also have a pool blue pettiskirt for underneath the dress (not the purple that is pictured.) Ahh.. I'm so excited about finding this flower girl dress and I can't wait to put in the order in August or September (her turnaround time is about two weeks!) I'll definitely post pictures on here when it comes in!

"Most Likely To Get Married"

2011-03-22T13:45:00.000-04:00

I came up with the most excellent bridal shower theme today. I love things that are bright and colorful and I love the 80's.. so, as long as my sister who is throwing the bridal shower approves we are going to have an 80's themed bridal shower!! How fun, right?!

Seriously.. just look at these pictures (courtesy of JolieJolie Design).

Invite Outside:

Invite inside:

Pin the glove on Michael Jackson:

Poster:

Yearbook/Slambook Station:

Slambook:

Polaroids for slambook:

Buttons:

Food:

Twinkie cake:

Candy bar:

Mixtape candy bags:

Looks totally awesome, right?! Anyone have any suggestions for superlatives and/or games to play?

New Member of the Family!

2011-03-19T10:23:00.001-04:00

Derrick and I are welcomed a new member to our family on Wednesday!!

Ladies and gents... I want you to meet the newest member of our family- FeFe!!

That's right, Derrick and I bought a new car on Monday and were able to pick it up on Wednesday evening. Those aren't pictures of our actual car, Derrick took it to work today so I can't go outside and take a picture.. but it looks EXACTLY like that except for the wheels. We actually got what they call the "sports appearance" wheels and they look like this:

I absolutely LOVE it.. it has a moon roof, ambient lighting that can change colors, 6 speaker sound system, manual transmission, sync and sound, sirius radio, etc. It's a little Ford Fiesta SE Hatchback and let me tell you.. this sucker gets 38-40 MPG! HECK YES! That really helps out with gas especially when we have to travel 1 1/2-2 hrs to where our wedding is going to be held nearly 2-3x a month from now until the wedding (seriously, we have to go back to our hometown EVERY weekend in April! AHH!) Not to mention, driving to my internship and back.. it's going to save us a buttload of gas moolah!

Here's a couple pictures of what the interior looks like (I'm not sure if the pictures show leather interior or not.. but we got the cloth interior, it still looks almost exactly like these pictures, though.)

I love love love it and so far it has been a wonderful edition to our family! LOL!

I Just Love Me Some Target!

2011-03-14T11:40:00.000-04:00

Yesterday while in Target looking for a birthday gift, I came across some dresses in the little girl section. I came across something so marvelous for only $14 that I had to snatch it right up.

This beauty:

{SOURCE}

Hmmm.. a dress for a flower girl?! Yes, please. Now.. it's not 100% perfect, but we will be making a few changes to it if we decide to keep it. First off, we plan on removing that bow in the front and then Derrick's aunt will be sewing on a blue sash that will be tied in a bow in the front, but to the side. Also, we plan on buying a pettiskirt/crinoline to put underneath the dress for some added poof.

We're going to be taking it this weekend to our hometown (we'll be there for my niece's birthday party) for my flowergirl to try on to make sure it has the right look and feel to it. Then, we'll either return it or we'll proceed to make the changes to it that I mentioned. Either way, you can't really beat $14! Thank you, Target!

DIY Polka Dot Pillow

2011-03-11T12:03:00.000-05:00

I decided that I was going to incorporate polka dots in a very subtle way so that it ties in with my wedding dress. So, I decided to make a polka dot ring bearer pillow.

This was a fairly inexpensive and easy project.

For my supplies, I bought a $10 plain white pillow (that had white ribbon and hears), a sheet of white glitter stiff felt, brown ribbon and my hot glue gun.

The $10 Wal-Mart pillow

I took off the ribbon:

I then took a milk jug cap and used it to trace circles on the felt and cut them out. Then, I hot glued all the circles on the pillow, glued on the brown ribbon and white bow with hearts.

Result:

I love how it turned out!! What do you think?

Honeymoon: Part 1 Take 2

2011-03-08T11:32:00.000-05:00

Thank you all for the comments left on my last post about the honeymoon. I know I said we were going to talk about Rome today.. but I'm saving that till tomorrow because we were torn between two apartments and one of them isn't available, so I'm waiting to hear back on the other one before I post.

So, why the "part 1 take 2" in the title? Well, I stumbled across another apartment I love in Paris with a killer view of the Notre Dame Cathedral and now I am torn. lol.

So, I could really use your help. Do you think the one in the last post, or this new one (my fiance and I are kind of leaning towards this new one)?.. also, it's about $50 cheaper than the one from my last post.

Check it out:

Living room- has a double glazed window facing the courtyard. Also equipped with a dining table for two, wardrobe, single sofa bed, built in shelves, hard wood floor.

Kitchen- Fridge, dishwasher, ceramic hob, oven, coffee maker, kettle, toaster and all kitchen utensils. Built in shelves and hardwood floors.

Bedroom- Double glazed window facing courtyard, double bed, tv, decorative fireplace, built in shelves, hard wood floor.

Bathroom- Washbasin, shower, tiled floors, toilet

View- Heart of the Latin Quarter. The view you can see the top of the Notre Dame Cathedral.

So.. what's your opinions on this apartment vs the last one?

Honeymoon: Part 1

2011-03-07T01:09:00.001-05:00

Derrick and I have 100% settled on our honeymoon locale! Originally we were going to do 10 days in Hawaii and island hope between Oahu and Maui, but after much deliberation we changed our minds. So, what are we doing for the honeymoon...

We're going to Paris and Rome for TWO weeks!! (November 29th - December 13th)

We added up everything that we wanted to do in Hawaii (including hotel, airfare, etc) and it will actually cost us a little bit less to go to Paris and Rome instead (maybe I should be a travel agent.. I found some killer deals, lol!)!

This first post is going to be dedicated to Paris, France. Oh how I'm so excited to go to the Eiffel Tower, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, etc. It's the city of romance and love, after all.. how fitting for a honeymoon. We are actually going to rent an apartment for a week while there because it ends up being WAY cheaper than a hotel room and today we decided on the apartment. We hope to put the deposit down on it soon so we know for sure we have it. Here's some pics of the apartment:

Apartment

Dining room/kitchen

Kitchen

Kitchen/Dining Room/Lounge

Dining Room

Bathroom

Stairs

Downstairs /Bedroom

Bedroom

Awesome bedroom

Terrace

Yeah, so.. it's not the biggest place, but we'll have a kitchen to cook in which saves some money. Not to mention, it's located in central Paris, so we'll be in the center of everything!!

It has 2 lounge armchairs, coffee table, bar seating for 2, terrace access in the living area. In the bedroom it has a double bed, easy chair and floorlamp. The bathroom has a shower and washbasin (as well as the toilet, lol). The kitchen has a complete set of kitchenware, electric cooker and oven, refrigerator, freezer, kettle, espresso machine, dishwasher and toaster. In addition to all that, the apartment has an electric heater, intercom, washing machine and dryer, ironing equipment, hairdryer, bed linens and towels, TV, wifi internet and phone landline.

Since we are going in November/December.. it's considered "low season" and we are getting an AWESOME discount on this apartment for the week. Not to mention, all of Paris is less touristy during this time of the year AND Paris is all decorated for the holidays so it is even MORE beautiful! Ahh! I'm so excited.

Oh.. and did I mention that during our week there we will also be taking a day trip. Where, you ask..

DISNEYLAND PARIS!!

Soooooooo excited!! Tomorrow, we'll talk about Rome and our two options we have it narrowed down to for our apartment for the week. (I'll definitely need all your opinions on this one, lol!)

Scratch That

2011-03-01T10:29:00.000-05:00

If you all remember my post about my bridesmaids gifts (click here if you need to catch up) I talked about the robes I had bought for the bridesmaids to get ready in.

Well, scratch that. They arrived in the mail and I while I was impressed with the robes themselves, I was not impressed with the colors. Derrick and I went to the mall randomly one day and I decided to pop into Sears to see if they had a robe for myself (not even thinking about a different robe for my bridesmaids). Well, while I was in there I saw a robe I had saw on the website that I originally wanted but it was out of stock. There was 1 left and in my size just randomly hanging on the rack.

Perfect, right? It's pink (my favorite color) AND has polka dots! The best part.. it was originally $42 and it rang up for $14! But.. this didn't necessarily fit in with my other blue robes that I had for the bridesmaids and since I didn't really like them anyways.. I went on the lookout for a different robe for them and found these:

Hot pink robes and slippers! They are bright enough that my light pink and polka dots makes me stand out, but still pink enough that it flows together. So, I returned the ugly blue ones and I bought the hot pink ones.

Not only that, but these match so much better with my the robe I had bought for my flower girl:

Hers is a little lighter so she stands out a little, too.

These beauties are sitting in my closet now and they look SO great together. I love them so much more than the two different blue color ones and it's a way for me to get some pink in my wedding without it actually being in the wedding, lol.

Dream Come True?

2011-02-28T11:09:00.001-05:00

Well, my fellow bloggies.. I've had some pretty interesting things go on this past week.

First up, I got an internship this past Wednesday with an event coordinator!! WOO! A LOOONG time ago I inquired about a photographer whose work I love, but she was out of my price range and somehow I got signed up for her monthly newsletter. Now normally I just delete the newsletter, but this time I decided to open the e-mail and actually read it. I happed to spot that an event coordinator was hiring for interns to work for her company. I e-mailed the owner and set up an interview with her for this past Wednesday. She was super duper sweet and it really wasn't even an interview, she just talked to me about the company and was asking me about my wedding. We talked for about an hour and at the end of it, she told me she would love to bring me on with her company as an intern! I said yes and she gave me a hug before we left. They are really flexible and will work around whatever I have going on, which is really nice considering what else I'm about to tell you next. I've ALWAYS, for as long as I can remember, have wanted to be a wedding planner.

Here is an example of their work:

I got home that Wednesday evening and was checking my facebook as always and I just happened to spot a post on my newsfeed from another wedding photographer that I can't afford, but love her work. She was hiring for lead photographers and assistant photographers to join her company. Now, you all pretty much know that I LOVE photography and even started my own little business, so I though.. what the heck, I'll e-mail her. I almost immediately got a reply back and she asked me if I wanted to be a lead or an assistant. I told her that as much as I would love to be lead someday, I really don't know enough about wedding photography right now to be a lead and would love to be an assistant to learn. So, what's going to happen is I'll be an assistant and have to sign a 2 year contract with her company. Basically, I'll get paid a certain amount now to be an assistant and it also allows me to use photographs for my own portfolio. The first year of my contract I will be an assistant and then after the first year, I'll become a lead and the owner will start offering my services to clients and I'll shoot their wedding on my own (or with an assistant). After my two years are up, I can either stay with their company as a lead or I can go off and do my own thing. Even under contract with them, I can still go out and book weddings on my own.

I'm so excited, my top two dreams were to be an event coordinator and/or wedding photographer and these two things that I just happened to luck upon are basically getting my foot in the door in a big way. I was really getting down and depressed on myself just the other week about life (I've been laid off from my job for about a year now) and now I have two very awesome things that just kinda landed in my lap.

So.. sometimes, dreams really do come true.

Oh yeah, I totally pulled out the ultra-corny Cinderella "dreams come true" picture. lol!

Do Me A Favor

2011-02-24T10:27:00.001-05:00

Lets talk wedding favors.

After searching around on the bakerella website, I came across a GREAT choice for our wedding favors.. COOKIES IN A JAR!

{Source}

We're going to make them exactly like what is shown in the pictures, except imagine it with light blue instead of pink! We're going to get blue M&M's and blue and brown fabric (if I can find some that is similar to what it is in the pictures) It'll go great with our wedding colors since it'll be white, blue and brown when it's all finished. We're just going to put a sticker on it that says "Thank You Cookies" and stick another sticker on the back of it or on the lid with instructions.

We're going to start making them in July or August (3 - 4 months before the wedding) because everywhere I read said that they have a 6 months shelf life without the pecans and a 3 month shelf life with the pecans (we're not adding in the pecans.)

It should be a relatively cheap project and I'll definitely post the result of how mine turn out!

We actually went out last night to Hobby Lobby to price the jars and to our surprise they were actually 50% off. So, we bought what they had there (which was 14 of them) and I texted my friend who lives almost 4 hours away and she ran to Hobby Lobby there and got some more for me (about 15). So, I'll just have to keep my eyes out for more when they are on sale again!

Engagement Inspiration

2011-02-21T16:07:00.000-05:00

Derrick and I have our engagement session scheduled for April 10th with our photographer. I've been spending several weeks now trying to think of a location and a theme for the shoot and after SEVERAL google searches I have settled on one.

A carnival/fair them engagement shoot! I figured with the little touches of fun that we have included in the wedding (certain lights and my polka dot dress) having a carnival theme for the engagement session would mesh well.

Seriously, just look at these pictures:

{Source}

Aren't they awesome!? The only problem is, I'm not quite sure that there are any fairs or carnivals in the area in April, lol. My photographer is going to try to find something or at least something that will work and hopefully we can get ones similar to this.

*Crosses fingers*

Bridesmaids Gifts

2011-02-20T11:27:00.000-05:00

I want to take a moment to talk about bridesmaids gifts. I'm very much so on a budget and wanted to give them stuff that would help them out price wise or that they may use again.

First off, I feel in love with hand painted wine glasses and decided to make my own. The wine glasses only cost me $1 each and each color of paint was only 97 cents! The brushes were about $3 and the ribbon was $2.50. I made one for myself in a script and my bridesmaids are in a funky letter. (There is one wine glass missing from the picture.. I added a bridesmaid later on and made her glass after these pictures were taken.)

4 out of 5 of the bridesmaids glasses:

My glass:

In addition to the glasses, I purchased brown Old Navy flip flops for them all when Old Navy was having their $1 sale. I figured this would be nice to give them as a gift so they can change into them at the reception if they would like. Not to mention, they can wear the flip flops after the wedding, too.

I also purchased the brooches to be attached to their dresses to help keep the costs down some on them:

I, just yesterday, purchased bath robes for them all, too. I'm not going to get them monogrammed or anything and really.. who doesn't love a normal bathrobes. Plus, I figured it would make for some great pictures of us all getting ready. These robes were normally $42 and I happened to catch them on sale for $10.49 and I got 15% off on top of that and then another 4% cash back through ebates. It ended up only costing me around $9 for each robe. The robes also come with matching slippers for the girls to wear, too! The only problem was, the color I wanted.. there were only 2 in stock and I have 5 bridesmaids. So, I found another robe from the same company that was just a little different and I decided to get all the same kind for the bridesmaids and then another kind for my maid of honor and matron of honor.

Here's the maid and matron of honors robe and matching slippers:

Here's the bridesmaids robes and matching slippers (slightly different blue, but I think it still works):

Then, I came across another robe for my little niece who is my flower girl. She'll be getting ready with us in the hotel room that morning, so I figured she needed a robe, too. I found a hello kitty one for only $5 but it's pink and doesn't really go.. but oh well, she LOVES Hello Kitty and I think it'll make her happy.

I plan on getting myself a robe to get ready in, too, but I haven't purchased it yet. I was thinking of getting a white one, but they get so dirty so easily.. so, I'm going to get a blue one with white polka dots. I haven't picked one out yet, but it'll look similar to these probably:

Lastly, I know you've all probably have seen the wire name hangers such as this:

But, instead of paying $20+ for each hanger, I decided to make a DIY project out of it. I purchased some cherry wooden hangers and some wire and I hope to finish them here within this next week. Mine with say "Mrs Weiler" and for my bridesmaids, I'm just going to make it their first names. It'll be cute to hang their dresses on.

I'm going to try to find a really cute tote back to put it all into to give to them. I'm so excited about their gifts and I hope they love them!

Top That!

2011-02-19T11:02:00.001-05:00

Now that we've talked about the cake itself, lets talk about the cake topper.

Now, while we're going to be putting a "W" on top of our wedding cake, I couldn't help but fall in love with the clay figurines that I found through MudCards on Etsy. So what did I do? I ordered one, of course! It took about a month to get pictures of the final result.. but I finally got them yesterday.

I sent her pictures of everything (including me and my fiance) and told her what I wanted and she came through BIG TIME. I'm in love with it! Want to see?

Isn't it fabulous??! I can't wait to get it in the mail!

Anyways, you're probably wondering what i'm going to do with it if it's not going to be going on top of my cake. Well, I still plan on just putting it on the cake table (or guest book table) for decoration and then it'll make such a GREAT keepsake for after the wedding. I can't wait to put it on a little shelf in our new home (I also found a etsy shop that has cute little baby clay figurines that I can totally have made once we start having kids).

Cake Talk

2011-02-18T10:41:00.000-05:00

I'm taking a break from house stuff (we're currently waiting on a quote from our contractor) and I decided to finally post about our cake tasting.

Now, I don't have pictures of the actual tasting because.. well, it would have been awkward, lol. Anyways, Derrick's great aunt does cakes professionally and has even worked with (it was a charity event) Buddy from the Cake Boss (I won't tell you her real opinions on him.. lets just say, apparently he's not the nicest guy). She loves making wedding cakes esp for family and told us to contact her when we were ready to set up a tasting.

We did as she said one icy day (seriously.. we're talking INCHES of ice) and we drove 3 hours for a meeting with our caterer (more on that later) and a meeting with her. Now, lets get to the cake and the yumminess.

Here's the design we are going for (with some tweaks):

The differences will be that instead of the black ribbon, we will have dark brown with a thin band of crystrals going around each layer. We're also not having pink roses (at least I don't think so) and we're going to pick out the flowers and color of flowers we want (this is still up in the air.) It'll also have a W cake topper, as well. But other than that, this is the look of the cake we are going for.. We didn't want a super elegant cake since our wedding is going to be a little bit more funky.

Now, the tasting.. lets just say.. YUM! I have seriously NEVER tasted cake that tasted so good, I was amazed. It was so moist and so tasty and I seriously just wanted to plant my face into the cake and never leave. As for the flavors, we're having 4 tiers (like in the picture) and they are going to be pretty huge (we're talking the bottom layer is going to be 16 inches).. but we do have a guest list of around 250 right now. On the bottom layer, we're having regular white favor with a layer of filling.. but on half the cake there is going to be a thin line of Strawberry (I'm not a HUGE fan of strawberry, but when I tasted this.. I about died). The next layer up is chocolate with a fudge filling (YUM)! The next one is this new type of cake that she does that has been SUPER popular.. it's chocolate cake but has strawberry batter dropped into it so it almost tastes like a chocolate covered strawberry (a lot of people are excited about this!) and the top layer will be a marble cake. The whole cake will also be covered in buttercream icing (YUM! My fav).. I'm not a fondant person, AT ALL. lol.

But yeah, I'm super excited about this cake and now I seriously have dreams about awesome it tastes.

Only 9 more months until we meet again, yummy cake.

Missing in Action?

2011-02-10T14:00:00.001-05:00

I feel like I've been neglecting my poor blog lately. Don't get me wrong.. it's for a good reason!

In wedding related news.. last week we had tastings with a caterer and our cake baker (both of which we booked!). I'll post about those in the next couple days.

But, for now.. I'll fill you in on what I've been up to that has torn me away from my blog and wedding planning. Derrick and I are in the process of looking to build a house!! We were pre-approved for a loan and we have a house plan (blueprints) picked out and now we're just looking for land and builders to help.

Here's the house we are planning to build:

{Click to enlarge}

Isn't it beautiful!?

It's 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths with a two car garage. We're also going to have a basement put in and I'm going to have a photography studio room put in down there (as well as a man cave for Derrick and a home theater). I'm so excited and I've been trying to keep quiet about it until things become more confirmed. But.. we're about 90% positive we're going to be able to do this. We're going to be doing a lot of the work ourselves, so I'm sure I'll be posting about it more and more as time goes on.

Right now, we've found land we really love that is about 25 miles from where we live right now. It has country and lake views and we can kind of pick and choose about how much land we want. We're hoping to set up an appointment to go look at it this weekend or early next week.

{Lake View}

I'll keep you all posted!! Keep your fingers crossed for us, please!

Fist Pump Mania!

2011-02-01T11:05:00.000-05:00

I've hinted at my bachelorette party in a previous post, I figured it was finally time to blog about it. My BFF is throwing me a bachelorette party getaway (that I so kindly named "Fist Pump Mania") and we decided to go to:

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ!!!

And we're hoping to stay at the Caesars Hotel while there:

Pretty, right?

The theme of the weekend there is pink and zebra print and we wanted to have at least one night out on the town dressed in the theme. Want to see my outfit? I know you do..

First Up.. the dress. This is just an inspiration picture of the dress, I'm going to be getting it made in my specifications. It will have a black top with cap sleeves, the white tulle bottom and a zebra print sash tied around it. I'm planning on pairing it with some pink chunky jewelry.

As for the shoes.. I've shown them to you earlier in a previous post, but here they are again. My $10 zebra print pumps.

And to finish out the look.. this lovely clutch from ToonDesign on Etsy that is only $12.00!

We're planning on going the last weekend of September (about a month and a half before the wedding). I'm so excited, I can't wait.

What are you guys doing for your bachelorette parties?

I've Got An STD!

2011-01-31T11:40:00.002-05:00

Save the Date, that is.

Originally we weren't going to do save the dates, but we were bombarded over the Christmas holiday about when the wedding is (even though we've told almost 95% of the people that asked NUMEROUS times). So, we figured the best thing to do would be to just bite the bullet and send out save the dates.

I actually bought the digital file from a graphic artist on etsy after working with her on the design for the save the date and also the wrap around label. It ended up being SO much cheaper that way.

For the save the date, I ended up buying magnet paper off of ebay and printed the design straight onto the paper and used my paper trimmer to cut the magnets out.

(Sorry, I blocked out the town where the wedding is.)

For the wrap around label (please excuse the addresses on there, they are just made up names and addresses, but ours look the exact same way), we just bought sticker paper, printed them and stuck them on.

We had to hand make envelopes for them, though, because of the awkward size on them, buying envelopes online was WAY expensive.. so we googled it and bought some cardstock and we now are currently making 150 envelopes. lol.

I love the way they have turned out, though.

Shoe Obsession.

2011-01-30T10:18:00.000-05:00

Last week I stumbled upon the perfect shoes for my bridesmaids on Target.com! After collecting the money from them I placed the order. (because, hey.. target had a special going on for 20% off orders of $75 or more and free shipping on orders of $50 or more).

While I was browsing for their shoes, I stumbled upon the perfect pair of heels for my bachelorette party getaway. We're going to Atlantic City (but more on that later) and it's going to be pink and zebra print themed and we're going to have at least one night out and about dressed in the theme.

So, guess what showed up at my door finally? Oh, that's right... a small box (which came in a separate shipment) and a HUGE box.

The boxes.

Inside the little box.

ZEBRA PRINT SHOES! They totally fit our zebra print theme (and my outfit, which will be another post).

Close up of one shoe.

Inside the bigger box.

Chocolate Brown Peep Toe Pumps! (Much prettier in person!)

Close Up.

The chocolate brown color matches PERFECTLY to the fabric swatch I gave to the seamstress who is making the bridesmaids dresses!

I think they go perfectly with the dresses that are being made, which can be found here. I even tried a pair on to make sure they fit true to size and to see how comfortable they are... and they are SO comfy! LOVE.

Bridesmaids Outfit: Part 1!

2011-01-29T12:44:00.000-05:00

I made a sketch of how I want my bridesmaids dress to look like so I can send it to my seamstress to execute. She'll be starting on the dresses this coming April, so be sure to check back for part 2 of this post to see the completed dresses.

Here's the sketches I made to send to her:

Sketch.

Front of the dress.

Back of the dress.

Not to mention, I FINALLY got the brooches in that I ordered to go with the dress after a couple months of waiting. I'm not thrilled with the stone that is used in the middle of the big flower, but I'm thinking of popping it out and gluing in some smaller rhinestones so it flows better. Here's what FINALLY came in the mail after months of waiting:

The box.

When I opened it I was greeted with TONS and TONS of bubble wrap!

All five brooches to use on the dresses.

The brooch. See that middle stone? Ugh, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Different view.. they are so sparkley in person!

I can't wait to see how the dresses come together! April can't get here soon enough!

Dressing the Groom

2011-01-25T10:13:00.000-05:00

I searched high and low for the past month trying to find a tie that matched my dress. I thought it would be so cute if there was just that little added touch that tied us in together and I thought a polka dot tie to match my polka dot dress would be awesome. Plus, how cute for pictures?!

Close up of my dress:

Do you know how hard it is to find a white tie with white polka dots? It was nearly next to possible! I was on one of my many google image searches for one the other night and stumbled up this polka dot beauty offered on ioffer.com.. the seller had 100% feedback on over 1100 transactions, so I bit the bullet and bought it!

I can't wait to get it in the mail. How perfect, right?

Stylish Blogger Award!

2011-01-24T12:30:00.000-05:00

I was so very kindly tagged for the Stylish Blogger Award from the wonderful Kelly at Ikea Bride!

So the rules are as follows:
1. Thank the person (or people) that gave the award to me and link back to them
2. List 7 things about me
3.Pass this award to other bloggers

I spent all weekend thinking of some things to share with you all. Here goes:

1.I have a very unnatural obsession with all things zebra print at the moment.

{Source} Btw.. how CUTE is this luggage! WANT IT!

Anyways, I want anything and everything zebra print lately which led to the following discussion at Hobby Lobby between me and Derrick.

Me: Look!! A zebra print filer.. Look! A zebra print storage box!! Look!! A zebra print blah blah blah.

Derrick: What is your deal with zebra print? You don't need any of that.

Me: Yes I do. 1. It's ZEBRA PRINT. 2. I can file my photography files in the filer and my photos in the photo storage box. 3. It's 50% OFF!

Derrick: You don't store photos, you put them in an album.

Me: But, it's 50% off.. but fine, I bet I can find a zebra print photo album. *Goes looking*

This resulted in Derrik rolling his eyes at me and telling me that just because something is 50% off doesn't mean I need to buy it. This also resulted in me walking out with my 50% off zebra print filer.. SCORE!

2. I loved and still do love any and all (pretty much) of the WB, CW, UPN tween shoes.

This includes and is not limited to: Dawson's Creek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, America's Next Top Model, Gilmore Girls.

3. I was in the drill team my senior year of high school.

I really wish I had a picture of myself on the drill team on my computer, but I don't. But yeah.. as much as I love to dance, making the drill team really surprised me since I have no natural rhythm. I practiced my heart out to make that team and I completely rocked try outs. I enjoyed being on the team and still remember some of the dances and it's been 8 years.

4. I wish, more than anything, that I could have gotten to know my mom.

She died when I was only 2 and in a lot of ways I feel like I was cheated out of a lot. She won't be there for my wedding day (well, physically at least) and I never really got to have any of those mother-daughter chats growing up. As much as I want to have children someday, it also terrifies me because what if I die young like my mom did and leave my children behind. It's an everyday struggle to not have her here and that's the last thing I want to do to my children (not that she had a choice, it was a heart problem that led to her death). But still, the thought terrifies me.

5. I seriously have one of the most awesome best friends. We've been friends since kindergarten (with the exception of a few times where we weren't friends, but I think we just needed to grow on our own and it made our friendship stronger) and we've been on some awesome adventures together.

{She's going to kill me for adding this picture!}

No matter where we go, we always manage to have fun and make great memories. Like the time we raced a train or traveled all the way to Nashville in horrible weather just to try out for the Biggest Loser. lol. We have so many inside jokes and memories together and while we haven't been on one of our awesome adventures lately.. we are planning on going to Atlantic City, NJ for my bachelorette getaway (FIST PUMP MANIA) in September and who know what shenanigans we will get into there.

6. I played the trumpet in band from 5th grade all the way until I graduated. (Hello band geek! LOL)

The reason I started playing it in the first place was because my mom played the trumpet when she was in school and it was something I felt tied me to her. I may have never gotten to know her, but I somehow felt connected to her when I played the trumpet.

7. I love love love playing Board Games.. my favorite being DVD Scene It (which no one will play with me because I always win!) But Monopoly makes me more mad than any other game.

First off, this game lasts WAY too long.. secondly, it makes me mad. I have literally gotten so mad at this game that I knocked the board off the table and walked away. Yes, I'm that intense when it comes to board games.

Pass It Along- I tag:

Enjoy!

My First Photoshoot Sneak Peak!

2011-01-20T14:30:00.002-05:00

I had my first 4 photoshoots as "Danielle Renee Photography" yesterday. I told many of you that I'd post some pictures on here of the outcome. Here's 7 pictures as a sneak peak from one of the families that I did. I'll post some more later. I'm just really excited about them and wanted to share. Not too bad for just starting!

Check back for more later!

Hair Descisions

2011-01-17T10:55:00.000-05:00

Before I changed my mind on my dress, I had a hairstyle picked out.. the low loose bun. Now that I've changed my mind to a floor length polka dot gown, I'm not sure what hairstyle to go for. I do plan on buying clip in extensions for my hair.. it is getting long, but I have fine hair and for a lot of the hairstyles I've picked, I'll need the extra hair.

I could really use any and all advice/opinions on what would go best with my dress. I really appreciate all the help!

Here's my dress again (going to be floor length with brown sash)

And some different hairstyles..

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

NKOTBSB!

2011-01-15T18:21:00.000-05:00

I feel like a screaming teenage girl again!

Want to know why?? Of course you do! It's because of this:

Oh yes.. I bought tickets to see them on July 26th in Indy!!! AHH! I'm so excited! I've seen BSB in concert twice and they are AH-MAZING!!

I'm going to sing my heart out at their concert and it'll be totally worth it to not have a voice the next day!

A Work of Art: My Complete Shoes!

2011-01-11T13:47:00.000-05:00

If you all remember my sketches I made of my custom wedding shoes, I finally have an update! (If you don't remember or if you want to look up the meaning to everything on the shoes.. go here.

Well, after debating between doing the shoes myself or paying the lady nearly $100 to do them, I decided to give them a go. I only had about $15 for my shoes so if they didn't turn out right, at least I wouldn't be out alot of money. It took them FOREVER to come in the mail, but as soon as they did, I went to work.

Here they are... my completed shoes:

Outside right foot, outside left foot.

Inside left foot, inside right foot.

Outside left foot.

Close Up

Heel

Toe

Inside left foot

Close Up

Heel

Toe

Outside right foot.

Close Up

Heel

Toe

Inside right foot.

Close Up

Heel

Toe

What do you think?

Fascinate Me!

2011-01-03T17:18:00.001-05:00

Have I mentioned lately how much I love etsy? Because I do.

Back on December 27th, I put in an alchemy request for a hair fascinator that I had found a picture of that I fell in love with, but couldn't find.

I actually decided to go with the polka dot dress, but I'm going to have it made to be floor length and also have a dark brown sash tied around it. I wanted my hair fascinator to kinda tie in with the theme of my dress..

The lady whose bid I accepted just finished it today and sent me a picture..

Want to see it? I know you doooo...

Pretty, right?! I'll have to post pictures when it comes in, she's going to get it in the mail the next day or two.

And in case you want to see the dress that my dress is based after, here ya go..