A single mom and a teenage *DRIVER* - HELP!

Today, I am officially the single mom of a 15 year old daughter.  My (not so) little girl turns 15 years old today.  And for the past three months, all I have been hearing about is how she will be getting her permit in August and will begin driving!  SCARY!

I know most of you brides out there probably don't have children yet...it's interesting to watch them grow up and remember them as babies and then suddenly see them running off to high school football games, dances, hanging out at the movies and wanting to know when you are going to start teaching them to drive!  Takes me back to my own 15th year when my mom took me to the local college university parking lot on a Sunday in the off season and had me start putting around hitting the gas and then the break and learning how to effectively turn a steering wheel.  :)

Here is me at about 15 years old:

I don't know why I felt like it was a good idea to 'flip off' the camera with my middle finger sticking out of my mitt...silly.

And here is my now 15 year old:

                              

Notice any resemblance?  I had braces, she has braces...although I am hoping she will be getting them off soon - like before our wedding in about 2 months!  She's close so be praying for us :)

Anyway, just wanted to wish my precious little angel a very happy birthday today!  I guess this will technically be my last two months as a 'single mom' since come April 16th, I won't be single anymore and Jordan will now have a step-father.  I am really blessed that she and Mr Fix It get it along so well...though it's hard to raise a teenage daughter and deal with the emotions and concerns that come along with that, he truly loves her and tells me all the time what a 'good kid' she is.  I hope he remembers that once he is dealing with curfews, screaming girls running around the house for sleepovers and boys stealing her attention.  :)

Why I'm Not a Wedding Planner

So the lovely Mrs T over at 99 + Forever has mentioned a couple times in her comments on my blog that I should be a wedding planner.  Isn't she just the loveliest friend?  I seriously think you should check out her blog if you are not already a follower...she has some great honest blogs about the not so perfect things that can happen during wedding planning and yet has such a tremendously positive outlook and perspective on love and marriage.

Anyway, as much as I appreciate the lovely comments, there is absolutely no way I would ever want to be a wedding planner/coordinator.  Funny thing is, I actually did consider it at one time...even had business cards made up for my company named 'Creativity in Consulting' and placed some small ads online.  But alas, I realized, the planning industry was not for me.

Don't get me wrong, I have all the skills and passions required to be a coordinator:

*  Love, love, love talking all things weddings
*  Love love itself :)
*  Have had a blast assisting friends and my baby sister planning their own wedding
*  Have mad (scary, anal, control freak type) skills when it comes to scheduling, organizing, planning, multi-tasking, etc.
*  Have total leadership (read: bossy) qualities to take control of situations and direct (read: order) people around in order to move things along

All great traits and definitely things I looked for when looking for my own day of coordinator.  However, as I started to set up my own coordinating business, the following things came to mind:

*  You will most likely be working many major holidays and most weekends of the year (if not every weekend during the summer)
*  You are in an extremely competitive and highly flooded industry in which coordinators (and other vendors like photogs, florists, DJs) all come a dime a dozen and can be found on any venue street corner
*  You end up having to take all the stress and pressure of ensuring a couple's big day is the absolute best it can be and if anything goes wrong, it's likely your fault, or at the very least will be attributed to you
*  You have to deal with a Bridezilla every once in a while and even worse, a Vendorzilla more often than not

And that's it...those were the 4 main things that made me realize it really wasn't what I wanted to do afterall...at least not as a single mom back about 9 or 10 years ago when I was considering it :)  So there you have it...

My hat goes off to any woman (or man) who truly finds his/her calling in the coordinating business.  I personally absolutely love my DOC, Amanda and am totally looking forward to working with her in just about 2 months!

So, any of you ladies ever considered taking your planning skills to the next level and doing this professionally?

All wrapped up - a little tutorial

I don't usually do tutorials on my blog.  Let's face it, most ideas I have incorporated that are DIY were stolen from some other much more talented, creative fellow blogger bride than myself.  I am all about using other ideas, not coming up with my own.

But Em, over at Burning River Bride asked me to share a little tutorial on how I created these little envelope wraps for our invitations:

I have to admit, it's really not a tutorial.  It was very simple indeed.

1)  I got the idea from some different web site blogs a la these styles:

2)  I asked my sister to create a .pdf file of a simple wrap using the graphic from our invitations...I paid an extra charge to the company who designed them for the design file so I could create other stationery elements like the wraps by myself.  The graphic file looked like this in .jpg format:

You can use any type of program like Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Powerpoint, Microsoft Word, etc to create the basic wraps.  My sister created them in Illustrator and saved them as a .pdf file.

3)  I bought the pre cut stickers for the wraps from here.  They were very inexpensive.  They were the 7.5" by 2" labels...5 per sheet.  They provide you the dimensions you should use and even provide some templates for some of the programs listed above.

4)  My sis added in our name and return address on the back side of the wrap and that was it.  After we created the main design on the labels and printed them all up, I set them aside.  Then I created a Microsoft Word document of labels and used the Mail Merge feature and the guest list I created in Excel to add all the addresses into a blank word document.  (I printed the wraps separately blank with only our return address on them and then printed the addresses on them separately using the Word Doc - it's just a matter of measuring out and setting margins really).

That's about it.  I used the BlackJack font for the mailing addresses on the front.  I have to admit, I did need to play around with the margins and placement of the wraps a little bit on some test samples I printed on paper as all printers print differently and never match up perfectly to margins you set.  At least not in my experience. 

Here was our finished product:

It's really easy...maybe a little time consuming, but overall, pretty simple to design.  Have fun with it!

And the winner is...

Congratulations to Nicole-Lynn from Seaside Smitten

You are the lucky winner of my very first giveaway item:

100 Red Chinese Take Out Boxes

Nicole-Lynn said:  I would use these for a friends shower or valentine's day... oh the possibilities :)

And for your proof, here's the images from my list and the number generated from http://www.random.org/:

Thanks to everyone who entered and be on the lookout for another giveaway next month...one I think everyone would love to win and will be able to use!  Have a great weekend all!  I'm off to Disneyland today with eight 15 year olds to celebrate my daughter's birthday!  And in the rain no less! 

I don't care if he picks up his socks or not...

Well, that's not true actually.  I do care...I'm pretty anal about being organized, not a clean freak, but an 'organized' freak.  I believe there is a place for everything.  But I digress...

Yesterday, I posted about how I'll be moving into Mr Fix It's house which he had previously bought and lived in with his ex.  Well, I don't mind that at all.  And I'm not super concerned about whether or not he picks up his socks...I don't mind picking them up if I come across them.  But what I am concerned about is how he and my 15 year old daughter will do living together.

Now don't get me wrong, Mr Fix It and Little Miss (that's what I'll call my hormonal, attitude ridden teenage freshmen) totally get along.  Sometimes too well.  Little Miss loves to pick up on all of Mr Fix It's little jokes and annoying teasing habits.  Like when I'm backing into the garage, Mr Fix It will slam his hand on the car in an effort to make me think I hit something.  Yeah, whatever...after the 100th time, I know I am not hitting anything you idiot!  But now Little Miss will do the same thing when Mr Fix It is not with us.  Oh, so funny.  Or not.

So as I talked about yesterday, Mr Fix It's ex is not in the picture anymore (obviously).  But my ex-boyfriend, my daughter's father, is absolutely a huge part of our lives.  In fact, his entire family is...his mother, his two sisters and brother and their families.  We all live local to one another and for the past 15 years, we have all been at almost all of Little Miss's softball and soccer games, school plays, awards ceremonies, birthday parties, etc.  It didn't start off great.  As I mentioned before, her dad and I went through a bitter custody fight back when I left him when Little Miss was only a year old.  But as the years went on, we reconciled and truly have a partnership in raising our daughter together.  She spends a few nights/days a week at his house and he is very involved in her life.  So she has a dad.  Though Mr Fix It will be the official step-dad, the reality is, he won't be getting to make too many decisions when it comes to Little Miss.  Those will be made between her father and I.  Now Mr Fix It gets along with my ex and his whole family.  In fact, their entire family (aunts, uncle, grandma and cousins) will all be at our wedding this April.  It's a blessing to be able to all get along.  I know there are horror stories out there about children being put in the middle of unfortunate break ups and divorces. 

Anyway, to sum all this up...my biggest fear is that Mr Fix It is going to have a lot of input or opinions about my daughter and how she should be raised.  And it's always so much easier to tell someone how to raise their children and how to discipline them and what to let them do or not do when you don't have kids yourself, ya know?  Walk a mile in my shoes, mister!  While I will absolutely consult Mr Fix It and expect him to be the head of our household and therefore an integral part of disciplining or correcting her when needed, I also know that he seems to swing to the far end of the spectrum when it comes to Little Miss.

He absolutely believes she is a good kid.  In fact, he jokes that if she wasn't a good kid, he wouldn't have proposed.  However, Little Miss doesn't have a totally typical life.  Granted, we live in a nice city, she plays sports in the local leagues and now attends the local high school and has grown up here and has best friends she's known since grade school.  But there's a little bit of a difference...her Aunt and Uncle work for Jay Leno.  They have been with him for years.  So she is blessed to be able to get things like this:

And we get to meet people like these:

And she gets to go to concerts and get back stage passes and she has signed posters, beach towels, CD's and such from people like Zac Effron and Vanessa Hudgens and Raven Simone.  She's been on vacations to Hawaii, a cruise to Mexico, a castle in Canada, she's traveled to Seattle and goes to San Francisco, Vegas and Spring Training baseball camps in Arizona all the time.  She has autographs from all kinds of baseball players and even got to go down in the dugout last summer at Angel stadium to watch the fireworks after the game.  And last season, we got to be there in the audience at American Idol when the winner Kris Allen was announced over Adam Lambert.  17 rows back, sitting amidst all those stars.  Yeah, she's pretty lucky.

And so Mr Fix It feels the need to 'put her in her place' sometimes and not allow her to have everything she wants.  Neither Mr Fix It nor I ever had a childhood like hers growing up.  We came from pretty dysfunctional alcoholic households.  And so for me, it's a blessing to know my daughter has such a wonderful life and as 'normal' as a healthy childhood as we can give her with all our faults.  So my biggest fear, is that Mr Fix It is going to be a slave driver once we are all living together.  And then Little Miss will go running to daddy wanting to stay at his house all the time because he lets her get away with everything.  (sigh)

I just keep telling myself not to stress out about any of this until we area actually living together and see how things unravel.  I will definitely be on my knees in a lot of prayer as the move begins :)

So, what are your biggest fears, concerns or doubts about what might be a problem for you in your transition into marriage and living together?

PS  Today's the last day to enter my first giveaway...check it out here!

What do you do when their ex-es don't live in Texas?

April 16th will be the day I marry my best friend...the day I walk down the aisle at our wedding and pledge my love and faithfulness to Mr Fix It in front of 200 of our friends and family.  I will (hopefully) look beautiful in my gown and he will look hot in his tux.  There will be lots of laughter at the cool video that just played before I made my entrance and then lots of hugs and well wishes as we basque in the glory of the cocktail hour with our guests.  We'll make a grand entrance into the reception and eat some yummy food and then dance the night away.  That night, we'll sleep in the nearby hotel room we booked...just the two of us.  And then the next day, I'll move into Mr Fix It's home which will officially be 'our home.'  (I'll have actually already moved all my stuff in during the weeks before the wedding but won't stay there til after the wedding.)

And this new home of ours?  Well, Mr Fix It has lived there for about 13 years now I think.  You see he bought it with his ex-wife.  And up until she cheated on him and then left him, it was 'their' house.  Then it was his house.  Soon it will be our (my) house.  Is that weird?  I will be moving into the house that my husband shared with his ex-wife.  And the neighbors?  They all knew her.  It's a pretty close neighborhood.  Mr Fix It is good friends with all of his neighbors...except the one directly to the left of us.  She was very good friends with Mr Fix It's ex-wife and he thinks she played a big role in pushing her away from him before they divorced.  So he doesn't like her much...she has caused some problems in the neighborhood.  When I see her, I just walk by and don't say anything (out of respect for Mr Fix It)...but all the other neighbors?  They love me and come up and chat with me and they'll all be at our wedding...except for the ones to the left of us.

Bummer is, every once in a great while, we see Mr Fix It's ex-wife's Hummer parked in front of the neighbors house visiting that old friend of hers.  I've never personally seen or met her...never.  Mr Fix It says that his brother's wife (his sister-in-law) apparently even stays in touch with her and catches up every once in a while.   Though Mr Fix It has asked his brother to tell his wife not to ever bring her up to us. 

Even though they do not talk, see each other or have any real common friends or what not anymore, her 'presence' is still sort of around every once in a great while.  So is it weird that I am moving into what used to be her house?  The house my (soon to be) husband once shared with his ex?

Not to me, it's not.  Honestly, I never even think about her.  I don't ever have thoughts creep into my mind about what they did or didn't do in a certain part of the house or whatever.  Mr Fix It has been working on changing up the house before I move in...he's totally remodeled the master bathroom so nothing about that is like it was before.  He's painted most of the rooms and is putting in new flooring.  I'll be moving some of my furniture into the house.  I'll definitely be filling his bare bachelor walls with my pictures, paintings, candles, crosses, etc.  So I will be making it 'our' home.  I never even think about my man's past or the women he left behind in it. 

What about you?  Do you have any fears, doubts, or reminders of your partner's ex-es?  Does it bother you?

PS  Don't forget to check out my first giveaway for 100 Chinese Takeout Boxes...ends tomorrow night!

My first giveaway - Come and get it!

Well, it looks like the bloggers have spoken and the thing you'd most like to win in my very first giveaway is 100 red chinese takeout boxes!

These little beauties are from Samplehouse.com and are 1/2 pint size.  They measure  3" x 2.25" x 2.5" and can be used for wedding or Valentine's Day related needs (favor boxes, candy bar containers, bridal shower favors, etc).

This is my little thank you for helping me reach 100 followers last Friday!  So how do you enter?

It's simple, you can get multiple entries and only have to leave them in one comment if you'd like:

1)  Confirm that you are a follower (1 entry)

2)  Tell me how you'd like to use these little beauties (1 entry)

3)  Blog about this giveaway and leave me the link (1 entry)

4) And just for fun, because I am a narcissist, share with me one thing or element from my wedding that I've blogged about that you got inspired from or think is pretty cool  (1 entry)

And don't forget to leave me your e-mail so I can contact you.  You can e-mail it to me if you'd prefer not to leave it on the comments (jkr2995@aol.com).  The contest will run until Friday evening at 9:00 PM PST and the winner will be announced by Saturday evening at 11:59 PM PST.  (Could be earlier, but I have my daughter's birthday party at Disneyland on Saturday and have no idea when I'll be able to randomly select and announce the winner)

Best of luck, ladies and thanks again for all your inspiration and wonderful feedback!

Lovelies from my lovelies

This is a three part post:

FIRST:  We got our first RSVP back from our invites last night and we just mailed them on Saturday!  And go figure, the first person to RSVP was one of Mr Fix It's kind of silly party type friends...he responded via our web site!  Yea!  So excited.

SECOND:  You know what's super cool?  Asking Mr Fix It to grab the box of 98 invites and drop them in the mail box at the post office knowing this is the first time he is seeing them in the envelopes and holding your breath with anticipation because you know he is going to flip out and make some negative comment about your super cute personalized photo stamps and the lovely envelope wraps you designed which you are in love with.  But...wait for it...my little lovely fiance shocked me when he looked at them and said "Is that our picture on the stamp?  Are you kidding me?"  To which I told him yes and gave him the answer about how much they cost (cuz I knew he couldn't get away without asking that question).  Then I said "But don't they look great, honey?"  And you know what he said?  "They look *REALLY* good...very nice."  Oh, how this man I love can surprise me sometimes!

THIRD:  In less than three weeks, my lovely baby sister (MOH) is throwing me my bridal shower.  I'm so excited about this big event to get all the ladies in my life together and celebrate our love and friendship.  (Have to admit that I'm a little sad a few of my super close friends won't be able to make it due to prior engagements - but such is life in this hectic day and age.)

Anyway, just thought I'd share the main shower invite she created with all of you.  It was not what I was expecting at all...but I guess my sister wanted to play off the fact that I love to cook and have lots of little gadgets and recipes and such for my kitchen. 

                                   

So in addition to this main invite, apparently there's also like some little inserts that may include something like asking the ladies to share their favorite recipe with me as well as something else regarding their words of advice.  :)

I've had a few friends say they think the invite is super cute and reminds them of me...so I guess she did a good job on the personalizing it aspect.  The whole affair has been a complete surprise and I have not been able to have any input at all which is totally fine with me.  I trust my little sis and I want to be surprised, too.

Anyway, this is the first party / get together where I'll have my entire bridal party together (except for my bestie who lives in Idaho).  I have been waiting for February to arrive for a while now...can't wait to share some pics and details with all of you at the end of the month.

So, did you have any special or favorite things from your bridal showers or is there something wedding related you are looking forward to as the big day nears?

100 Followers - And a giveaway!

It's official...I've been watching that little image on the right side of my blog wondering if I'd reach 100 followers.  Well, on Friday evening it happened:

YEA!

So of course, with a special landmark like this should come a giveaway of some sort, right?  I am excited to say that I have been contacted by a company to host a giveaway on March 1st.  I am in the process of finalizing the details so stay tuned next month for that one.  But for now, I'd love to give something away to a fellow blogger as a thank you for all of your support and wonderful feedback, comments and overall encouragement.

Problem is, I'm not sure what to give away!  I actually have two things leftover from the wedding (that hasn't even happened yet) that I am not going to be able to use.  I was thinking of selling them originally but figured maybe I'd just give one of them away instead.  So how about some feedback?

If you would be interested in one of the two following items, let me know.  By Wednesday morning I will announce which item I have decided to give away and will have a contest started that will end Friday evening with a winner announced on Saturday. 

Item # 1:  100 Red Chinese Take out Boxes

These are half pint size and measure 3" x 2 1/4" x 2 1/2"  I originally purchased them as favor boxes for the wedding but the red didn't match the deeper shade of cranberry that is my wedding colors.  So now I'm left with these brand new beauties.  You could use them to hold mini cupcakes as a favor at a bridal shower, birthday party or wedding.  Or for candy bar containers.  We decorated ours with colored ribbon and favor tags/stickers.  Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner, they'd make a great way to package gifts for friends, a classroom, church group, etc.

Item # 2:  Flower Girl or Junior Bridesmaid Dress

                    

You may remember that I didn't feel like this dress matched the style of my wedding after we received it.  It was originally purchased for my 6 year old cousin shown above and can be worn shorter or longer depending on the height of the girl.  The turquoise sash is detachable and so it can be coordinated with any color.  You can even add some embellishments (rhinestones, brooches, flowers, etc) if you are crafty enough.  It is a size 8 and cost $85 at a bridal salon...brand new, never altered...could be an amazing prize and dress for the right bride/person.

So majority will win.  Whichever item gets the most feedback as being desired will be the one I'll giveaway.

What is the BEST day of your life?

Check out Perpetual Party Planner's blog this week about her dislike of vendors and people who claim that your wedding will be the *BEST* day of your life or your most special day.  It's a pretty good explanation of how us brides get sucked into believing that our entire being is wrapped up in our identity as a bride.  So does that mean that life as we know it ends after our wedding day?  Of course not!

The day my daughter was born was definitely not the best day of my life...it was probably the most scariest.  You see, after 12 hours of labor, I had to have an emergency c-section because my daughter suddenly had a prolapsed cord.  For those of you who don't know what that is, it means that she somehow moved inside of me and landed on the umbilical cord thus cutting off her blood flow and oxygen supply.

Without being too gruesome, I will tell you that she was saved by the nurses who noted the situation immediately and rushed me to emergency while calling my doctor (who was at home since I wasn't ready to deliver for a few more hours and he'd been there all night with me).  The nurses quickly prepped me for surgery and took turns trying to 'push' my daughter back up the birth canal to keep her off the cord.

My doctor walked in less than 15 minutes later and immediately picked up a scalpel and cut her out.  At which point, she was given a 0 Apgar score...that means she was lifeless, no color, no breathing, no crying, no movement...nothing.  She had to be fully resucitated and placed on a respirator and taken up to the NICU where she stayed for the next 5 days. 

Even sharing all this brings tears back to my eyes (I haven't thought about it in so long).  My entire family was there at the hospital as were her father and his family and they were all in tears and worried about me and the baby.  Thankfully, my daughter is totally fine and we both made a speedy recovery...well, with a little pain on my part for several weeks.

The day you give birth is supposed to be one of the best days of your life.  For me, it was almost the worst as I almost lost my daughter.  But the anticipation and excitement leading up to that moment had me and our family giddy with anxiety and joy...and then that all changed unexpectedly.

My point is that no one day will (or should) ever be the absolute best day of your life...for life does not end once you reach an accomplishment nor does it end after the immediate loss of a loved one or severe tragedy.  Life is made of and built upon many different stories, memories, accomplishments, tears of joy and sadness...good and bad. 

As an anal and obsessive bride-to-be, I totally get how the past year has been wrapped up in my planning the wedding...but if all of these wonderful little plans I am preparing all fall apart and don't work out the way I hope they do on wedding day, what then?  Will I die?  Will I roll up in a bawl and tell Mr Fix It that I can't go through with it?  Of course not.

It's so great to be excited about things and get crazy silly obsessive about them and let the anticipation build up.  Just remember that these things...these momentous joyful circumstances and experiences of your life...are merely stepping blocks to get you to the next big event.  They're something to look back on with massive emotion and be thankful that you experienced them, that you made it through them, that you got to share them with other people (persons) you love who love you back and were there to support and encourage you. 

I will never say that my wedding was the best day of my life* just as the day my daughter was born was not the best day of my life...but you know what was amazing?  The day I saw my daughter cry and follow me for the first time and I recognized that she knew who I was and needed *me*...the day I left my daughter at school for the first time and all the days I went back to those schools to watch her receive awards and participate in plays.  I was in tears the day I watched her all-star softball team make it all the way to the California Junior Olympic State Championships when she was 10 years old.

Please remember:  Your wedding *should* be one of the most amazing, celebrated and hopefully special and memorable days of your life, but life doesn't end the day after it's over...remember that your wedding is only the beginning.

*  I should state that I do absolutely hope that my wedding will be a freaking ridiculously awesome amazing and ONE of the best days of my life - it should be considering all the money, planning and people that are going into the process and will be joining us that day!

There's no backing out now...

Well, it's official...our invitations were dropped in the mail today.  So I guess there's no way that Mr Fix It and I can back out now ;)

Here's a few final photos of the finished product.  I showed the original invites when I received the mockup back here.   However, after showing them to Mr Fix It, he had one main request - change the font on the invites to something a little bit more 'formal' and not so simple and plain.  Whatever...I accommodated his request and here is the final invite as we sent it out:

* As always, note the colors are not represented well at all...they look green in this pic instead of the aqua color.   :(

Did you see that I added some little crystal rhinestones to the invites to bling them up a bit...love it! 

And here are the envelope wraps my sister and I created as well as the fun little personalized photo stamp I bought from stamps.com.  Yeah, they're heavy invites and so we had to pay $0.61 per envelope.  BE SURE TO TAKE A SAMPLE OF YOUR INVITE INTO THE POST OFFICE TO HAVE THEM WEIGH AND CONFIRM POSTAGE NEEDED BEFORE YOU MAIL YOUR INVITES!!!

I didn't take a pic of the back side of the envelope but it wraps all the way around to the back where our return address is on the back side.  The graphic also wraps around to the back as well.

Sorry the stamp pic is blurry...I really need a new camera.

All boxed up just before I left for the post office:

Well, that's it...98 invitations from our 'A list' have been dropped in the mail today.  This is 11 weeks before our wedding...about 3 weeks earlier than when they typically suggest you mail them out (6-8 weeks).  But we are giving them 5 weeks to respond.  I know that's early to respond to a wedding that's still 6 weeks away, but we won't be sticklers about people absolutely returning their response by that date.  We just needed to do this to assist with confirming those that absolutely will not be coming (most likely because they're out of state).  This way, it allows us to confirm those that cannot attend so that we can still mail out a few 'B list' invites to local friends we had to cut :(  At the same time, it gives us plenty of time to call people who are lazy about returning their RSVP card.  Especially since our caterer needs the final head count 3 weeks before the big day.

As the no's roll in, we'll mail out a few additional invites to our B listers (hopefully) and then give them an extra 4 weeks to respond (since they didn't get their invite as early).  Either way, the guest list is stressing me out big time...but that's a post for another day.  All I will say for now is let's just pray that at least 23 people out of 221 will respond that they cannot come.  Fingers crossed!

What do you think of the finished invite?  Are/Did you go the envelope wrap route or did you use calligraphy, handwriting or computer printed envelopes?

How our wedding is taking over my house!

I have boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff I've been purchasing for the last 9 months for our big day this April.  I started making my first purchases probably back a year before the wedding...guest book, photobooth props, pen holders, votive candles, picture frames, favors, favor boxes, ribbons, stationery items, favor tags, labels, toasting flutes, vases, flip flops, bridesmaid gifts, children's favors, kleenex packs, and on and on and on. 

Needless to say, that's a lot of stuff to store in my little 1100 square foot two bedroom condo.  I mean, my house (it's actually my mom's condo that I rent from her) is totally the perfect 'big' size for me and my teenage daughter...I'm gonna miss it when we move in with Mr Fix It.  And me being me, I have storage places all over for sure. 

But what was I supposed to do with these:

And these:

And these:

And then there's these:

Well, the boxes (votive candles & holders & picture frames) in the pic above are consuming space on my garage floor.  And then there's the few boxes in the very first picture that are sitting on the stairs leading up to the third floor (my daughter's room) out of guest's sight.  But the rest of those beauties?  The ones stacked pretty high?  Well, thankfully, we have a special little hidden storage space in the back of my daughter's closet.  Check it:

It's where the water heater sits, but they left a ton of extra space in it that I have been blessed to be able to use to store all things wedding for almost a year now!  And that pretty little flip flop basket I blogged about yesterday?  It now sits on the empty floor space you see in the front right of this picture!

But seriously...if I didn't have this space, where the heck would I be keeping all this stuff?  UGH!  I truly feel like our wedding has not only invaded my thoughts and time, but even my living space!  Good thing I can tuck 'most' of it away and out of sight for now.

What about all of you?  Have you made a bunch of early purchases that are consuming space in your life?  What are you doing to cope with it?

**  And P.S.  Did you see my little sneak peek at the surprise for our guests earlier this week?  check it out here

The Flip Flop Favors! - My latest DIY (sort of)

So I posted a few months back about how I wanted to incorporate an idea I had learned about from my amazing wedding coordinator, Amanda of In the Now Weddings at our reception.  Check it out here...flip flops for your guests (probably the girls) to kick off their heels while dancing the night away!  Well, I bought the flip flops back at the end of the summer when they were obviously going on sale.  And I found a wholesale site called Dollar Days where I was able to purchase 72 pairs of flip flops for about $1.25 each.  I didn't get to pick specific colors going this route but  I opted for simplicity and variety so that if the ladies used them and then took them home, they may actually be in colors they would like.   Also got a variety of sizes, too obviously.

Well, here's the photos from my sis, mom and I putting them all together last weekend (please remember as I've said many times before, my sucky camera is not true to actual color all the time):

Flip flops in their packaging:

Wicker laundry basket I found for 40% off at Michael's that we covered in some satin red fabric:

Mom & Sis helping unpackage and retie flip flops with the aqua colored ribbon I bought at the LA Flower Market, 100 yds for $8!  It was cheap but it worked for this simple inexpensive project/favor:

Some of the finished flip flops all tied together:

The flip flops in the basket:

My scrapbooking sister is already working on a cute pair of cut out flip flops as the sign for the front of this basket.  I'll show that to you once we get it finalized.  :)  Thanks to my mom who sewed the fabric onto the basket! 

So, what do you think?  Are you doing any unexpected favors or gifts that are more for your guest's convenience than for a theme or style of your big day?

A sneak peek at my BIG surprise!!!

Ok, so I have eluded to the fact a few times that I have a special surprise for all of our guests that is my absolute most favorite thing about the entire wedding!  And it is also the biggest DIY task that I have taken on.  I have been working on it since July and have spent countless months (off and on) and hours trying to piece it together.  But alas, with only 79 days to go until the big day, I am just getting super antsy about wanting to share at least a little bit of a teaser with all of you fellow blogger brides about what I am hoping to finalize within the next month.

Of course, none of my family and friends read this blog, but just to be safe, if you are a family or friend and you want to still be invited to my wedding, then you will absolutely jump ship right now and get the hell off of my blog site!  Love you ;P

You may now claim your bride with a kiss!

Disclaimer:  This post is long but is mostly just the script from our ceremony and vows.  You can use it as a resource for ideas or inspiration of what you may like (or may not want to do).  But to make it a quicker read for those of you who are not interested, I highlighted words in red that are the parts that are my favorite and my reason for sharing this with everyone.  It's of course also a way for me to journal our ceremony script for my own memories. 

I was never a big fan of the simplicity of 'You may now kiss your bride.'  It had to mean something that you get to kiss at this very moment, right?  And so when I was browsing videographer's blogs for ideas for our ceremony, and heard a pastor speak those words - "You may now claim your bride with a kiss," I immedidately added that into our ceremony script!  Yes, I have the entire thing already written out and have handed it off to our officiant (my junior high school pastor) for his review and thoughts.  :) 

Side note:  I asked my pastor if he minded me basically giving him a pre-written 'script' for our wedding ceremony and he said he actually likes it when brides do this because it ensures that they will get what they want and makes less work for him other than throwing in a brief message and some personal touches about the couple.  This is why I love him!  You should not think twice about asking your vendors, even your officiant, for what you want at your wedding!

Ok, so I wanted to keep a lot of the traditional touches of the wedding ceremony but also make it personal to us, unique and different from your uber-traditional vows, and not super duper long.  I am hoping the entire verbal part of the ceremony only lasts about 20-30 minutes max!

Here's my ceremony script that I pieced together with personal thoughts, internet research and some other traditional inclusions.  Please note that I am including both personal promises (letters me and Mr Fix It will write to each other) and both traditional (sort of) vows, so you will see the promises I have written for Mr Fix It, but obviously he has not written anything yet :)  Also, of course all of this is subject to change:

Getting to see more of the 'vision' - The centerpiece mockup

So Friday my daughter and I headed over to Flower Allie in Fullerton to meet with my amazing florist, Allison and my wedding coordinator, Amanda.  You should really check out Allison's blog here...she is the coolest florist in Orange County.  Not only does she totally work with your budget, but she provides the same quality and glamour, if not more, than the 'high end' florists who quote you like $4,000 to $10,000!  And on top of all of that, she gets excited about your big day!  Since booking her she has said the following to me:

"Your wedding is going to be beautiful and the flowers will look gorgeous.  You'll love it!"

"You have so many great ideas, I hope you blog about all of this.  Will your photographer provide us with photos after?"

"Your event is going to look so great and it's going to look like you spent a ton more money than you actually are!"

Oh, how I love her.  And I found out that Amy Jean over at the Relentless Bride blog is also using Allison for her upcoming March wedding. 

So we were going there to see a mockup of what our tables and centerpieces are going to look like.  I have lots of pictures to show you!  But first, I just have to list a couple disclaimers:

1)  The lighting in the florist's shops is obviously not good.   We were set up in a corner that didn't get great light. 

2)  My camera, as I have mentioned, is not good at all for shooting true to color.  Therefore, with the not so great lighting and the bad camera images, please grant me a little give in how the final product will look.  This is why I think it's *SO* important to hire professional photographers to shoot your wedding day...they know how to work the lighting!

3)  In our actual reception room, you have to remember that we will have all the candles lit on the table with the mood lighting of the room and some perimeter uplighting in red as well.  So obviously that is going to affect how the linen colors and tabletops look in person or pro pics.

4)  We did tweak just a few things after seeing the mockups so what you see here will not be exact on wedding day.  The flower colors will probably be just a little bit different too for the little vases.

Personal opinion:  If your florist is not willing to show you a mockup of your centerpiece idea at *NO* extra charge, hire a new florist!  How can you possibly be sure your vision is being communicated well, you understand what they are planning, you know what the flower colors will look like with your linens, etc if you do not get to see a full mockup?  It was an absolute must for me and something I asked about when interviewing florists and made sure was in our contract!

Here was our inspiration for our centerpiece:

And here is the first mockup...Oh, I forgot to mention trying not to focus on the background shelvings and that wire stand in the back left corner :)

The 'tall' centerpiece

Yes, those are my actual linens I asked the caterer to loan me.  So now you can see the colors a little more realistically...turquoise tablecloths with cranberry napkins - both in satin. 

Here's a close up of the inside of the tall tapered vase...there is a Floralyte that is attached to the bottom of the top piece that will light up the vase (hard to see with the lights on in this pic)

Here's a close up of the little votive candles I got over at http://www.quickcandles.com/ Super cheap!  144 red votive glass holders with 144 candles for about $90 total.

Oh, see that little silver bell in the front of the picture?  That will also be on each table with a little card in it...more to come on what that's for in a future post :)

Here's another shot of it showing my luminary table numbers in the frames along with the little takeout favor boxes that will be placed at the top of each guest's napkins.  The napkins will all have a card tucked into it with each guest's name sticking out at the top so they know which seat is theirs. 

We didn't like that when you are sitting down at the table you can see the little floralyte at the top of the vase, so we collectively came up with the idea to wrap a thick turquoise ribbon at the top of the vase to hide it.  Allison found one in her shop that matches my linen color well and offered to do this for me.  We actually all loved it and thought it made the centerpiece even more unique.

So what are we changing about this piece?  I didn't like how there was a large amount of 'green leaves' in the center of all the tulips.  It just didn't look quite right to me.  So we decided that we will trim down the tulips just a bit.  We don't want it to look too bare, but we also want the focus to be on the tulips.  We are also going to have them hang over and drop down just a little bit more rather than standing so tall at the very top.

In the middle of our meeting, it started to hail!  So I just had to run outside and snap a quick shot of the ground as this rarely ever happens in So Cal:

Next up, our alternating centerpiece.  This is technically the 'low' centerpiece that will go on 10 of the 20 tables, but I don't like calling it the low centerpiece because it's really not that low at all:

I absolutely love this one!  The simple tulips submerged in a tall vase...gorgeous!  There are red gems at the bottom of the vase...did I mention my florist is letting us use all of these vases, gems, floralytes, etc at *NO* rental charge or delivery fee to us?  My coordinator offered to deliver them all back to her shop for us the day after the wedding (they work together often) and so it saved us the delivery charge.

See that little 'orange' colored dahlia in front of the vase?  It's called a satellite flower...it means you have one little flower scattered around the table surrounding the large focal point.  We are going to actually change it to a burgundy colored dahlia like this:

She originally had a red gerber daisy in there but I wasn't loving the look of the daisy or the color red.  So I asked her about a dahlia and we all loved it better.  We are also adding two more so there will be three of them scattered around the large vase.

What else are we changing about this centerpiece?  She is going to use a vase that is just a little bit wider and put 5 or 6 tulips in them instead of just the 4 shown here.

Above is a little close up of our table numbers on the linen...I used the same graphic from our wedding invites and the same turquoise and cranberry colors in them.  The only thing I can't seem to figure out is how to get rid of that little 'shadow' of the rim of the votive candle inside it that is showing???

Above is a close up of the napkin with the favor box.  Again, the colors are horrid!  Too orangey in the pic.  I am going to find a better satin ribbon to match the linens for the takeout box as the one I have is an aqua ribbon that doesn't match well.  But I love the tag we made and the pretty colors!

Above is one of the children's favor boxes...it is a circus shaped box from Bailey's Boxes.  Inside are all the little goodies I posted about here that we are gifting the little ones at the wedding.

And finally, for our cocktail area centerpieces, we are thinking of using some small vases with some daisies, tulips or little orchids submerged as well similar to these images below:

So there you have it.  With a few tweaks, come wedding day I think they'll look great.  But would love some feedback and opinions as well.  Is there something I am missing?  Do you have photos to share about your inspiration for your florals or centerpieces?  Is your florist providing you a mockup before the wedding to see what it will look like come wedding day?

Am I expecting too much of my bridesmaids?

I asked 5 girls to be my bridesmaids and my sister to be my Matron of Honor.  (I was the maid of honor for my sister and my best friend who is also one of my bridesmaids.)   I surprised each girl by providing them a gift that included a puzzle of a photo of both of us with the phrase 'Be my Bridesmaid?' across it, along with a little silk bouquet of flowers in my color scheme so they'd know what color dress they'd be wearing and a handmade card with a poem in it telling them why I am asking them to stand with me at the altar. 

I loved it, they loved it, two of them cried...it was personal and different.  I blogged about it here.

Since I asked them, I have had all 6 of them come with me one day back in March to go dress shopping for both me and them.  We did it on a day that my best friend would be in town so she could participate - she lives in Idaho, I'm in So Cal.  We went to dinner after...it was fun.

I eventually picked dresses out for them to wear with their input and allowed them to select red dresses even though I desparately wanted them in turquoise/blue and I let them know that was my wish but I wanted them to be comfortable.  They opted for red.

I let 2 of them pick different dresses than the one the other 4 will be wearing...my cousin who is a very large chested woman and my daughter who wanted a different color and needed a different style since she doesn't fully have a woman's body yet.  I had no problem with letting them pick different dresses...they're by the same designer, color and fabric.

I tried to keep the dress and shoe cost to a minimum...The dresses were $152 including tax and the shoes were another $15 total.  So far, they all will only need to have the straps adjusted on their dress.  Two of them may need their dresses let out a little bit and one will need her dress hemmed a bit.  So alterations will not be super expensive at all...for my sister, it's only $15 to have her straps adjusted.

I booked a stylist to do my hair and makeup and negotiated a great price for her to do the Bridesmaid's hair and makeup for only $70 each total.  I let them know that it was their decision as to whether or not they wanted to use my stylist and pay or do their own hair and makeup.  Two of them opted to do their own, four opted for using my stylist. 

One bridesmaid offered to let us use her house for both my bridal shower and bachelorette party since she lives around the corner from me and has the biggest house.  My sister is throwing the shower and has asked for the other girls' input but has done most stuff on her own.  My mother and her are paying for the bulk of my shower I believe and trying to keep it pretty inexpensive.

Other than that, there's not much more they have to do for me other than show up to my shower, bachelorette party and the rehearsal and wedding.  My one friend from Idaho obviously has to pay for airfare out here but she was more than willing to do so to be in my wedding and is coming alone without her husband or three kids to save money.  It's not that expensive to fly here.

So do you think I'm asking too much of them?  I hear horror stories of brides who want to 'fire' their friends or family for not helping out with much or for causing problems with their wedding plans and adding extra stress.  I am so lucky to not have that problem.  I LOVE my girls and though I don't get to see them much, they're excited about the big day and I know they'll make me feel special and loved and keep me laughing and try to ease my stress or anxiety.

Though due to my Type-A perfectionist personality, I am not asking them to help assemble invitations or anything like that.  But closer to wedding day I will ask them if any can come over to help me stuff favor boxes and tie ribbons on them and such. 

Even the guys (groomsmen) and our immediate family were in my initial wedding related thoughts as I had visions of them having to carry votive candles, wedding gifts, dresses, etc all over our venue and loading up cars and such.  I imagined them trying to run around during the reception telling the Photographer that the DJ was about to announce the cake cutting and I instantly knew it was time to hire a Day of Wedding Coordinator!  There is no way I wanted any family or friends doing errands or running tasks during the wedding. 

So I think my girls have it pretty easy.  But I know some brides can be demanding.  I found it funny, however, when Rachel (Pink Love Bird) over at Get Married's Blogger Brides site posted about how she asked her girls to be her bridesmaids.  She made them all binders and included a contract inside for them to read and sign.  I wish she had gotten engaged before me because I totally would have included this in my little gift package for my girls had I seen it.

I, ____(Bridesmaid)_____, do solemnly swear:

______ My hair will remain at whatever length I want, but if it’s past my shoulders, it will be put in a beautiful up-do.
______ If I change my hair color, I will consider consulting Bride because she loves sassy hair.
______ My nails will be painted a delicate, light color of my choosing and will be at my preferred length (…with the exception of them being so long they curl over at the tips).
______ Bride will love me and appreciate me being in her bridal party regardless of my weight, but I will do my best to be in great shape and health. I want to look my best!
______ Assuming there is a shower or a bachelorette party, I will be as involved as I can be and party it up with Bride for as long as I can stand.
______ I will hold Bride to her promise that the bridesmaid dresses will be fabulous and won’t cost an arm and a leg. I will provide opinions on the style because I know Bride likes input and gets overwhelmed by options.
______ If I get pregnant, YAY! Bride loves babies and pregnant people. If I am not pregnant, the reception will provide a fully stocked bar in which to imbibe in front of said pregnant people.
______I will dance the night away at the reception and all other spontaneous dance parties. If Bride is not around for the sporadic dance parties, I will take a picture or a video to show her.
______ I will tell Bride when she is being crazy/unrealistic and why, specifically. I will not let Bride go off the deep-end.
______ I will freely give hugs and lend my support to Bride to help relieve stress since she is such a perfectionist. Bride loves friends’ hugs.
I do hereby swear that I will adhere to the entire above & other stated bridesmaid “duties” for the wedding on (date).
X________________________________ ___________________ (Signature) (Date)


What do you think ladies?   Are you asking too much of your Bridesmaids or wedding party?  Have you had some unfortunate issues or fights or frustrations with anyone regarding your wedding?  Do share!  Let it all out...

Being the 3rd wife...

Yes, I am the third wife.  Or at least I will be come April 16th.  Bet you didn't know that?  Though I have a 15 year old daughter (well, turning 15 in February), and am a single mom, I've never been a wife.  My daughter's father and I lived together but never married.  And at 26, I was engaged, planned most of the wedding, and then broke off the relationship right before I dropped the invitations in the mail.  So I've been close...had the 'family,' but never a marriage.

Though wedded bliss will be totally new to me, it is not so new to Mr Fix It.  He has been married before...twice.  The first time he was married I refer to as the 'shotgun marriage' that didn't count.  Mr Fix It moved to Australia in his late 20's and met a woman there.  I think he only lived there for like 3 months before moving back to the states.  But for whatever reason, he married that girl.  I can't even remember what type of wedding they had...I think he said they did a civil type ceremony and then had a 'reception' for the family back home.  Anyway, for whatever reason, she ended up moving back to Australia and they had a long distance marriage for over a year I think.  Mostly phone calls.  Then he met his second wife and eventually got divorced from the Australian.

With his second wife, they dated for three years and then were married for six.  She ended up having an affair - Mr Fix It never confirmed it but there were comments from her co-workers about her spending a lot of time with a man at work.  Mr Fix It asked her to stop spending so much time with him and then while he was away once she told him she was hanging out with friends at his house, got drunk and slept on his couch.  That didn't go over well.  They had a lot of problems regarding communication - she was physically distant which led to him being emotionally distant and the relationship just crumbled.  One day when Mr Fix It was out of the country, he returned to find that she had moved out.  Later, he found out that she ended up marrying the man he assumed she was sleeping with.

As a Christian, Mr Fix It was devastated by the divorce.  He went into a very deep depression for many, many months.  I met him about a year after their separation when a friend encouraged him to start dating again and he signed up on http://www.match.com/.  They were just signing the divorce papers when he and I started dating. 

Needless to say, it's strange to think of myself as a 'third wife.'  It doesn't really mean much to me since I've never been married, but I know that Mr Fix It will probably bring in a lot of doubts and fears from his past experiences.  Though he knows I am a completely different person than his ex-wife, he also struggled to decide whether or not to marry again.  This is why I *never* brought up the subject of marriage during our dating relationship.  He would talk to me about it and say that if we ever got married and something happened to where we divorced, that would be it for him...he'd never marry again.  I would lovingly tell him that I never plan to divorce so he would be stuck with me forever.  :)

He used to tell me that he was secretly 'testing' me to see whether or not I was marriage material.  Though I sometimes felt like I should be offended by that kind of comment, I also knew that this was part of his emotional baggage from two failed marriages.  But finally, when we had been together for almost 5 years, he decided to pop the question.  It was so special to me...it meant he knew that this was it for good.  And I knew it, too. 

On our wedding day, we'll have been together for six years.  I'll be 37 years old and Mr Fix It will be 47.  We have been through a ton of relationship issues, dysfunction and mistakes on both of our parts in our past.  And I think that if we had met 10 years ago, we never would be getting married...for it's the path we've walked and the lessons we've learned that have grown and matured us to become the people we are today.  The people who truly recognize and appreciate the good in each other and also have compassion and grace towards the faults in each other. 

I have no doubt that we will be together forever...we share a lot of the same values, politics, beliefs, faith and we have learned to work at communicating with honesty, respect and love.  We are not perfect, we have our moments of failure and fights.  But we also are humble enough to be willing to change and apologize and to sacrifice and compromise for one another.  I have never known a love like this and though Mr Fix It is nothing like the man I would have expected to end up with, thanks to God, he is everything I never knew I needed in a husband. 

I am so excited to be his third (and final) wife.  I can't wait to have him as my first and only husband.

What about all of you?  Any of you dealing with past marriage or relationship issues or fears that you've had to work through on your way to the altar?

Here comes the 'unexpected' bride...

As I have said before, I am really hoping to surprise my guests with lots of things they have never seen/experienced or never would expect at a wedding.  I love the 'formality' of a wedding, but I don't love the stuffiness of weddings...does that make sense?  Like, I don't want to be massively against all things traditional, but there will hopefully be traditional elements with modern or fun twists to them.  So let me walk you through a little bit of what our guests will go through as they arrive for the wedding day...

Guests arrive:  gather in 'cocktail' area, bar is open.  No appetizers yet.  Sample of our cocktail area from another person's wedding:

And here it is with no setup...

Invitations say 5:00 pm wedding start time, guests are encouraged to arrive early and stroll the zoo:

Once all guests arrive, they're escorted down toceremony area where junior groomsmen and a second cousin hand out programs and little kleenex packs.  (I got the idea for this little wonderful guest convenience from Bee over at her and Patrick's blog.  While mine are not nearly as beautiful as hers (I didn't have the extra funds for more ribbon or perfect labels - nor the patience to cut and assemble), I love the simple idea behind the thought and threw these together in like 5 minutes.  They incorporate our wedding colors and our graphic and I had extra sheets of labels laying around so I just had my sister design them real fast and then bought the travel kleenex packs and glassine envelopes for like $25 total...we made about 125 of them.)

To assist ushers (groomsmen) with seating guests, we'll have chair seating cards reserving front rows for specific family members.  Something like these (but we will have them for our parents as well as have whole rows marked off for the 'Campbells,' 'Beevers,' etc.):

Courtesy of Serendipity Designs

After guests are seated, DJ plays music until processional begins.  The last song before the processional will be "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas.  I love that song (even though it is on massive overkill) and think it's the perfect way to let guests know, the fun is about to begin!

Side note:  If you have not seen this yet, seriously you need to watch this video of them performing this song on the Oprah show - AH-MAZING!  There is also a higher quality version right below it if you prefer, but the first video shows the best view :)

So anyway, back to my plans...right after Black Eyed Peas song plays (and no, the video will not be shown), processional begins.  DJ plays instrumental / orchestral version of Phil Collins' "Groovy Kind of Love" performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.  (I have always loved this song but got the idea to use the instrumental version when Monica and Chandler had a violinst perform the song for the processional during their wedding on "Friends."  :)  You can hear a portion of it by clicking here.)

Officiant (our pastor) leads groom and groomsmen out to altar.  (There is a special little room for the guys to change in just behind the altar and it also lends itself to a perfect entrance for the guys where they are out of sight and then suddenly appear.)

Moms are seated.  Bridesmaids, ring bearers, flower girl and finally bride (ME) make our entrance from a patio outside of the bridal cottage / preparation area.  We walk across this pretty bridge:

Something like this:

And then through the 'aisle' created by the chairs set up in the outdoor teatro area:

Once my 6 girls walk down the aisle, the four, yes *FOUR* ring bearers will make their way down the aisle.  We are sending them down two by two.  Now here is where things start to go the 'unexpected' way.  What were we going to do with four ring bearers?  I wanted to give each of them a task and since we aren't sending the 'real' rings down the aisle with them, I only wanted one of them holding a ring pillow.  So I searched the net and found some great ideas.

The oldest of our four nephews (5 years old) will be paired up with his youngest cousin (22 months old).  I will have him hold his hand so there is no problem getting the young one down the aisle.  The older one will carry the ring pillow and then the younger one will be given a bell and will be the 'bell boy.'  He'll ring the bell signaling the bride's entrance and the ceremony is about to begin.  Our ring pillow is actually not a real pillow but rather a pillow that will be made out of kermit mums - a flower I love that we are incorporating throughout the bouquets and will use for the ring bearer's boutonnieres.  It will be like this but with a ribbon in turquoise probably to match our colors.

The next two nephews (3 years old and 2 1/2 years old) will walk together carrying a small banner.  This is a big surprise for Mr Fix It as he is not aware that I have planned this for the boys.  The banner looks like this:

The little gray border you see inside the banner is not really on the real thing.  This is the proof I received from VistaPrint.  Seriously, this is a fun little thing you can do for super cheap!  I got this banner for about $13 total including tax and S&H.  They had a template in my colors which I was so excited about so I just picked their pre-designed template and added the words.  I showed it to 2 of the ring bearer's dad, Mr Fix It's brother, and he totally laughed and said John will love it!

So the ring bearers make their way down, and then comes my cute little flower girl.  I opted for her not tossing petals down the aisle since we are going to have the guests toss petals at us as we make our way back down together during the recessional.  So instead, she'll carry a little FG wand, something like this:

Only hers will be a little more done up hopefully and more like a round ball of flowers at the top.

So that's the processional...sort of.  Of course, the bride (me) is supposed to follow the FG down the aisle with her father.  But I won't be making my entrance just yet.  After the entire wedding party is at the altar, all except for me, I have one last 'unexpected' surprise for my guests!  It is my favorite thing about the entire wedding.  I am still trying to finalize this project and cannot wait to share it with all of you.  So stay tuned, I am hoping to share the bride's walk down the aisle and my grand entrance soon...but this is a massive DIY project that is taking much more time than I expected.

So what about you, ladies.  Have you given any thought to your processional or how your wedding party will make it's way down the aisle?  Are you doing anything out of the ordinary, silly, fun or unexpected? 

The DRESS(es)!!! Part Deux - The Reception Dress

So in yesterday's post, I showed you my wedding gown.  I also talked about how I had fallen out of love with her a bit....until, I put her on at my first fitting and told Janet (my seamstress) about how unhappy I was with her for some reason.  I shared some pictures of Miss SaBelle with Janet and told her that something wasn't laying right throughout the gown and I didn't like it. 

I also told her that I wanted the detail of the beading and the lace to show well through the front of the dress but I didn't want to have to wear a skirt (crinoline) underneath the gown in order to 'push' everything out and make it fuller and more visible.  The dress already weighs a ton so added fabric is not an option!

Thankfully, Janet got down there on the ground and started messing with my gown and was pleasantly surprised to see that with the gathers, pickups and the way the gown was stitched together, she could easily make some alterations to please me.

We first snipped a few threads from the very front of the dress...and suddenly, she laid perfectly!  The front flowed down across and didn't look like steps up my legs!  We then cut off two of the little rosettes that were on the front of the gown - it was too busy with all those flowers.  While they looked pretty up near the gathers, they looked lame just sitting on the front of the fabric.  Anyway, with a few snips and readjusting the fabric, my dream dress came back into view.  Janet saved the day!

So once that was out of the way, I slipped into what I like to call the Greek Goddess gown!  We didn't take any photos of it in Janet's home, but I do have some images from when I first bought her in my own home:

This will be the dress I perform our first dance in as well as keep on throughout the dancing portion of the reception:

She's a light ivory with a pretty chiffon flowy part and a very high sexy slit!  She has some gold throughout the applique and so I opted for some fun little gold heels to wear with her - sorry no pics yet, but I have them!  They are super comfy and will be great to dance in and have just a little bit of bling on them.  :)

So, there you have it...she needs to be steamed obviously and I need to find a super slim body hugging type garment to wear under her since she hugs my bod along my panty line :(  But other than that, seamstress Janet said it was a super cute dress and baby sis said it was pretty. 

I had originally thought I would do a short dress number for the reception change and was looking at these two dresses:

Source:  Windsor dress shop

But I'm glad I opted for the longer dress...as I think it is still sort of bridal but fun and different.  Are any of you ladies opting for a second dress to change into?

The DRESS(es)!!! And some help for those of us who are less endowed

Yes, I am a two dress bride and proud of it!  Why you ask?  Well, because once you see my wedding dress (hold on a second), you'll realize that it's just not fair to make a woman 'carry' around a dress that weighs just as much as she does for over ten hours!

That said, I am about to show you the first of my dresses - the photo/ceremony/cocktail hour/dinner dress.  And then tomorrow I'll show you the reception/first dance/dancing dress.  But first, I have not told any of my family or friends about the link to this blog.  Most of them don't even really care...but just for the sake of safety, if ANY of my family/friends or Mr Fix It happen to do some detective work and come across this blog...LEAVE NOW!  This post is not for you - you can fix your pretty little eyes on these beauties come April 16th! 

Are you gone now?  Good!

So, let me first put in a few disclaimers before I post these awful photos:

1)  The lighting suh-ucks!  The camera is actually my videocamera that doubles for photos and not well.
2)  I am not tan in the photos which does actually make a difference in how photogenic I am.
3)  I do not have hair or makeup done in these photos and they were all taken at the end of my work day.
4)  My sister is not into blogs like I am and therefore, she doesn't have the passion to shoot everything perfectly or at all angles to share with all you lovelies, so please excuse these if they do not give due justice to the items.
5)  The dresses are fresh out of their bags...no steaming or pressing yet.  So they do not look 'pretty' yet.

That said, up first - the main wedding gown - my gorgeous Maggie Sottero SaBelle!

A great Uprinting giveaway!

LauraLou over at Lucky in Love blog is hosting her first giveaway of custom Uprinting postcards.  Something you should all definitely go check out here!  She has so many great projects and ideas on her blog...I love following along with her.

A quick update and many thanks to my blogger friends

I've spent the entire weekend with Mr Fix It and our puppy (even though he's 11 years old we still call him puppy).  I just want to thank you all so much for your kind words of support and encouragement.  It's been an emotionally draining weekend.  If you hadn't read from Saturday's post, our puppy was just recently diagnosed with a heart condition called cardio myopathy.  It means he has an enlarged heart which causes his lungs to fill up with fluid so that he cannot breathe.  It also means he needs to be on three kinds of daily medication for the rest of his life and could die of a heart attack at any minute.  :( 

We have taken him to the vet three times in the past couple days.  Friday morning Mr Fix It was sure he was going to have to put him to sleep as he suffered with wheezing and extremely labored breathing all through the night Thursday.  But the vet told him to let them try to treat him on Friday first.  I went to Mr Fix It's after my appointment with our caterer/coordinator on Friday morning and we picked him up that night. The vet told us Friday night that there is no way to know how much longer we have with him, but it is definitely not longer than a year.  But after they put him on the medication that day, he was definitely back to normal and able to breathe so much better.  Mr Fix It was very happy.

Saturday we took him with us as we shopped for tile for our master bathroom that Mr Fix It is remodeling.  He worked on the bathroom and I watched some NFL playoff games with Kuta.  Kuta was doing well.  But Saturday night, he was right back to his labored breathing.  Mr Fix It and I laid in the bed with Kuta between us comforting him and crying together over the fact that we just didn't think anything was helping him and we could not handle the emotions of watching him suffer each night to breathe. 

Once again, we took him in Sunday morning ready to say goodbye and end any pain he might be feeling.  But at the vet's office while we waited for 2 hours, he seemed fine once again.  We straight out asked our vet what she suggested.  She said let's give him just another couple days and try one last medication as a final resort.  We started him on it last night.  All day yesterday and all through the night he slept peacefully and has been fine.

Though he won't ever be able to be as active as he once was...we can't put any stress on his heart which means leisurely walks only and no running...we are hopeful that the new medication might make him more comfortable and give us more time with him.  We take him back in two days for a follow up and tonight and tomorrow night will be a big test of his condition.

I just keep praying that things go well at least to give us another 6 months with him as Mr Fix It has just had such a hard time these past few weeks...it breaks my heart to see him so torn up.  But today is a better day - rain and all.

Tomorrow - back to normal (hopefully) with my first official dress post in my gown!  :)

You're not putting that girly crap on my invitations! (Seriously Saturdays)

Yes, that's pretty much the type of stuff I hear from my wonderful fiance, Mr Fix It.  I have to admit, I am jealous of all you DIY brides who know what a gocco machine is, have a Cricut at your every day disposal and embossed your STD envelopes.  I don't even know how you do it and am clueless about all that stuff.  So to even think my guy would help me with those type of craft projects is a serious stretch of my imagination.  Seriously...pigs would be flying.

The most I do when it comes to DIY projects is designing something on the computer, printing it out at work and sticking it onto or into something to jazz it up...see my Table Number idea here.

But what frustrates me the most is that Mr Fix It thinks half my ideas are too 'girly' for his friends and family.  When I originally showed him my idea for the response cards on our invitations the first words out of his mouth were "I hate it."  I later found out that the reason he hated it was not necessarily the idea behind it, but the flack he would get from his guy friends who thought it was silly, dorky, girly, whatever. 

You see, my guy is a construction guy...he owns his own flooring business and when he leaves for work in the morning it's in torn jeans, work boots, ripped stained t-shirts and with a disgusting dirty van full of tools.  When he comes home it's all the same but add in the concrete, paint, sticky stuff and icky dust he's been collecting all day and it makes this clean, organized neat freak girl go insane!  The first thing I want him to do is head straight for the shower!

He's a serious stereotypical tough guy...a surfer...a pet lovin' child playin' rough and tumble sports lovin' I'm-a-kick-your-a$$ if you mess with my gal kinda guy.  And so showing him wedding things like colors of aqua and cranberry and a swirly graphic design and silly photos on the RSVP cards with us jumping in the air and looking sad or pouty faced is just a big fat joke to him.  Too girly and too wedding obsessive.  He seriously can't take it.

I can't even imagine what our wedding would look like if I left it all up to him.  He definitely has his opinions and thoughts but the vision has mostly been mine.  So it's hard to know what we'd end up with if he was in charge!  I try my best to keep things personal and unique to both of us and to keep them not so girly but it rarely happens that he falls in love with something I have shown him...check my previous post to see why this is so exciting to me!

Anyway, I say all this because the invitations I showed you earlier this week, well he of course found several things wrong with them after the final version arrived....even after he had approved the colors, design, etc.  He thought the graphic design on them (the little swirly part) should have been in black.  Really?  Black?  I told his sister in law that and she looked at him with a weird face like "Whatchyou talkin' 'bout, Willis?'

So we stuck with everything as planned other than changing the simple font as I mentioned in my previous post.  But we did come to a compromise or I would not have been able to incorporate my response card idea.  We asked our designer to please print a certain number of the response cards without the photos on the one side.  So for that select number of guys that Mr Fix It instructs me to set aside as special when sending out the invites, I will be sending them the invite suite with response cards with no silly photos of us looking sad or excited.  Whatever...at least I still get my wish in the end!

Where do I start?

I have so much I want to tell all of you, but I don't know where to start...good and bad.  So much has happened yesterday...I am elated and devastated all in one.  I am giddy with anticipation and fearful of the unknown heartbreak that probably lies just ahead.  Where do I start?  There's much going on.

Here is my guy:

He's a tough guy...can you tell?  :)  He's as manly as manly can be.  And in the six years I've known him, he has never once shed a tear.  I always thought, "I will never see him cry ever...except for either on our wedding day (which I doubt) or on the day that his dog dies."

Well, here is our dog (it's actually his dog he has had since he was a puppy 11 years ago but after a six year relationship he is now definitely 'our' dog!):

(sorry for the horribly blurry and ugly picture)

He is the most amazing dog you'll ever find.  He is a full bred pitbull though he doesn't look like it and the smartest most loving most friendly most 'human' dog you will ever come across.  Those ears - we call him Scooby Doo sometimes.  The dog MAKES you love him...I am not a dog person and he is now like my child just like he has been for Mr Fix It all these years.  He is well trained and protects us at all costs.  He has helped Mr Fix It through some really hard times in his life.  And we just found out he has an enlarged heart.  He started having trouble breathing a couple weeks ago so Mr Fix It took him into the vet.  They ran some tests and said he has an irregular heartbeat and enlarged heart. 

Mr Fix It brought him home and brought him by my work yesterday.  He was fine, walking around, acting normal and letting me love on him.  And then, last night at midnight, Mr Fix It calls me.  And he's crying like a baby.  Mind you, I have *NEVER* seen Mr Fix It cry - EVER!

Come to find out, Kuta (he's named after a beach in Indonesia that Mr Fix It likes to surf at and is taking me to on our honeymoon) is really having a hard time breathing.  And he's almost lethargic.  And Mr Fix It is just absolutely certain that he is going to die this night and he is devastated and depressed and crying because there's nothing he can do for our puppy.

I try to calm him down, I pray for him, I just listen and fight back the tears myself.  We finally hang up.  I call in the morning and Kuta is doing better but still not himself.  Mr Fix It took him back to the vet, he called me on the way there once again in tears asking me if I am going to come see him if he has to make the decision to end any suffering for him.  I tell him to call me of course. 

But in the midst of this horrible circumstance, I am meeting with our caterer and coordinator at our venue in the morning.  We've had it booked for months and we need to have this meeting.  What do I do?  Mr Fix It calls and says the vet gave Kuta some medication to assist with his breathing and said to leave him for the day.  The vet said he could have a heart attack at any moment.  UGH!  But does that mean the medication will help and maybe he'll live many more years?  Or will he die any day now of this heart condition and Mr Fix It will be totally depressed in these last months leading up to our wedding?

I have been dreaming of when my daughter and I get to move in with Mr Fix It and Kuta and be a family with our dog...we often talk about how much Kuta loves me and my daughter and how excited he is going to be to have us there all the time.  This just cannot be happening...not now.  Not when Mr Fix It just had his work van break down last weekend and found out it's going to cost $5,000 to replace.  Not when he is already struggling to bring in an income right now because his business is not busy at all.  Not when he is stressed trying to plan and pay for our honeymoon in 3 months.  Why is this happening now?

So I try to shake off the tears and go through my three hour meeting with my caterer and coordinator talking all things wedding and plans and what not.  It took my mind off of things for a little while and I was feeling bad for feeling excited and laughing and dreaming about how to bring all our wedding plans to fruition.  And then I left the meeting, excited about the plans and depressed about how to deal with Mr Fix It and the unknown about our dog.

I had to cancel our first dance lesson for last night as Mr Fix It is in no mood to deal with anything...he is crying almost every few minutes.  And so am I.  I want to share about my meeting, but I need to be with my honey and our puppy.

Please be praying for God's provision both financially, emotionally and physically that we would be able to have health and ability to take care of both ourselves, our puppy and our daily work and stresses.  Yesterday was so great in my meeting but the sadness of what we're going through and seeing Mr Fix It so upset is just so so sucky.  So basically, yesterday mostly sucked - Seriously.