Seriously Saturdays: Being Single Again

So about 15 months ago I started this thing called Seriously Saturdays where I said that each Saturday I'd post about something that just makes me say 'Seriously?!?'  Well, I did it for about 12 weeks and then I forgot about it somehow.  I remembered the idea though and decided to revive it.  So today's post is all about why I feel single again.

We got married in April...we're closing in on about 10 months of marriage which is roughly 40-45 weeks that we've been husband and wife.  And do you know that in that 45 weeks, Mr Fix It has been gone for about 6 of those weeks which is 13% of our short marriage.  And now he is leaving next month for another two weeks!  I mean, seriously?!? 

I might as well have stayed single! 

About a month after we got married, Mr Fix It drove up north to work on his parent's rental property for three weeks.  Oh man...that was hard.  We didn't have our new puppy at that time and my daughter stays with her dad for 3-4 nights each week so it was strange being in a house all by myself that I had just moved into. 

In November, he went up to his parents house for about a week to visit his family and spend the holiday up there...which I had already told you all about how I stayed home without him because my own family had our first Thanksgiving without my Grandmother who had just passed.

Then in January I mentioned that he went back up to his parents house yet again for another two weeks to work on a new rental property they just bought.  And now in March, he's going up to Sacramento to remodel a bathroom for his sister so he'll be gone yet again.

As much as I'm glad his family is giving him so much work, and they do take care of him well financially for what he does, it's very hard to have him gone for such long periods of time.  I really don't know how these military wives handle themselves when they have to watch their hubbys leave them...and possibly leave them for a dangerous job!

Anyway, I am definitely one who enjoys my time to myself and some peace and quiet and not having to answer to anyone.  But as a newlywed, it's not easy being by myself for over 15% of the first year we've been living together.

Seriously...can't my hubby find work here in our own county?!?  :D

What about you, ladies?  How do you do when you have to be apart from your hubby?  Have you had any long stretches of time apart?

Seriously High Tech Proposal

This guy put a ton of thought into this proposal...with a little help from his friends:

High Tech Wedding Proposal from Brett Culp on Vimeo.

You know what's funny?  That song is the ring tone on my phone for all my wedding vendors when they call me.  Seriously.  :)

Oh, how sweet it is! But what the hell is that crease?!? (Seriously Saturdays)

You may remember reading about my least favorite part of the entire wedding here.  I am not super excited about our cake.  Originally, I wanted a cupcake tower - which I would, in fact, have been super excited about.  At one point, Mr Fix It even gave in to the idea...briefly.  Because then he ripped the carpet out from under me and insisted we have a cake.  Not traditional mind you - just a cake.

So we had come up with some ideas for different and unique cakes.  To which our caterer then shocked us by trying to charge an *extra* $1,000 for the one cake we really wanted.  (Remember our cake was supposed to have been included in our catering package.)

Well, that wasn't gonna fly and while she made decent cakes, they kept deterring us from our desires to have fondant on the cake we wanted and from trying our own fondant recipe we wanted to have them use.  They kept going over and over again about how buttercream is the way to go but we are anti-buttercream. 

Mr Fix It had had enough (so had I), so he said, screw it!  Let's just give the money to your mom's friend that makes cakes for all your other family functions.  Fine with me because I am seriously over the cake.  I don't care if it's falling over as long as it tastes good (that's not true actually). 

Well, we met with our friendor who is only charging us $1.00 a slice for our cake.  Mr Fix It is going to build the stand for her because we want offset round layers.  We discussed cake flavors and are happy with having two layers in red velvet with a real cream cheese frosting and another layer with white cake and raspberry filling with a whip cream frosting and then the 4th layer will be lemon with lemon filling and whip cream frosting.  Apparently the whip cream frosting is not as sweet as buttercream and our friend really encouraged us to use it. 

Well, we told her that we'd love to have her try this marshmallow fondant recipe we found.  It is supposed to be the same consistency as regular fondant but actually tastes good instead of bland or dry.  She was on board and made a small test cake for us to see and taste.

Here's what we got:

Now please understand that apparently the cake was perfectly smooth and flat when she first made it.  She gave it to my mom who transported it and stored it in a fridge until I could get it the next day.  My mom insisted it did not look this way when she was finished with it and handed it off to her.  I did notice yesterday as I was reviewing the recipes I had emailed her that one of the web sites said you should not refrigerate marshmallow fondant, so I don't know if the refrigerator did something to it or if time itself had it's way with gravity or what.  I am going to ask her about the refrigeration part and if that is all that the problem is, that would be amazing!  Perhaps the proportions of the ingredients need to be adjusted, too?  But this creasing and melting look that is not perfectly smooth is unacceptable! 

The good news?  It actually tastes phenomenal!  The cake was super moist and yummy...I'm still eating it almost 5 days after it's been sitting in the fridge, too and it's still moist and good!  The frosting (cream cheese) was not too sweet at all and you could not even taste the fondant!  The fondant tasted good (or rather let the cream cheese overpower it).  But now we are stuck trying to figure out what to do because our friend does not think the marshmallow fondant is going to work and we really don't want to have to go with gross tasting fondant!

Mr Fix It insists we must use the regular disgusting fondant if this is what we are going to get because it is more important to him that the cake looks good rather than tastes good.  (sigh)

So now I need to call her next week and follow up on what our new options are.  This cake thing sucks!  Seriously!

P.S.  If you'd like the recipe for the marshmallow fondant, you can find it here or another one here.  It's actually super yummy.  She's never worked with it before so like I said, it could just be that something needs to be adjusted.  ???

My almost disastrous wedding gown purchase!

I found this site, Julius Bridal, online.  They're based in New York and make gowns in China (where almost all wedding gowns are made) and sell them online.  They are known for creating knockoffs of designer gowns or custom gowns for fractions of what you would normally pay.  I was so excited because I found a dress on their site I thought would be perfect for me for about $400!!!

This was what I originally planned on purchasing:

I loved the gown, but when I tried on a similar style in a bridal shop, I didn't like how it looked 'on me.'  It was more like a down comforter or quilt.  So that was out.  I then spent 2 months searching through 7 salons looking for a gown.  At the last place, I finally found the Maggie Sottero SaBelle gown and fell in love.  I posted about it last week here.

But at the $1400 price tag, I hadn't planned on spending that much for a gown.  I contacted Julius Bridal.and showed them the dress asking if they could make a knockoff of it for me.  They said they'd make it for $700 or $800.  More than what I originally planned on paying but way less than the Maggie cost from a salon.

My mom and sister flipped out on me telling me it was not worth it to chance having a gown copied like this.  Especially by an online store.  I started researching these type of sites.  You need to be really careful, because they advertise their gowns as though they are actually the designer's dress...but in reality, they are creating a copy of it...not selling you the designer's actual gown.  And they do it for anywhere from $250 to $800.  Sounds great, right?

I read lots of positive reviews about Julius Bridal and felt okay with asking them to make it.  Spoke with their representative and she told me that it turns out they had just recently made a copy of my exact gown for someone else.  So she e-mailed me pictures.

This was the SaBelle gown by Maggie Sottero:

And these were the pics they sent me of their 'copy' of this gown:

I mean, it's sort of obvious that they were copying the dress, but it was *NOT* the same dress as what the original was.  The back in particular is completely different!  I would have bawled had that gown shown up on my doorstep!!!  Thanks to Mom, she offered to compensate me the difference to buy the original SaBelle by Maggie Sottero so that I didn't have to spend more than I budgeted for a gown.  And I also negotiated a phenomenal price with the bridal salon so I bought it for even less than what the ticket price was!

My advice:  If you're thinking of buying online, don't!  At least not if you want an extravagant, detailed type of gown.  Interpretation is almost always lost in communication.  Have you ever checked out the site Cake Wrecks?  They should have one for gowns!

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. 

Seriously Saturdays: Why I'm already pissed about our wedding night!

Ok, I'll admit it. This post is definitely going to be a bit of a whiny, bratty type rant. I ultimately won't be as pissy as I am coming across but just want to vent for a few to my fellow blog buddies.

One of the to-do items on our wedding check list was to book a block of hotel rooms for the 10-20 families that will be joining us from out of the state (or area).  Originally, I didn't expect anyone from out of state to join us but then a bunch of family I hadn't seen in decades suddenly decided they wanted to come.  And of course, Mr Fix It's family mostly all lives up north so they will definitely be coming from OOT. 

Well, as we started to contact hotels, Mr Fix It mentioned that his family won't need a hotel because he is going to have his family staying with them.  I gently and rationally pointed out to him that his family consists of:

Mom & Dad (2)
Bro and Sis-in-law and their 3 kids (5)
Sis and bro-in-law and their 2 kids (4)
Bro and sis-in-law (2)
TOTAL IMMEDIATE FAMILY:  13 people (including 5 kids ranging from age 4 months to 5 years)

Seriously?!  I mean, seriously!  Your little 3 bedroom house (with a territorial - but friendly - pitbull) is going to house 14 people and allow for all 14 of them to get ready for our wedding in 2 bathrooms and with sleeping infants?  Have you seriously thought this through?

He does have another bro and sis-in-law who live 5 minutes from me and could offer up their house to their family as well but even his sis-in-law told me she could only take one of the families.

Besides, I had plans of us coming home after the reception and staying in our home for the very first night as husband and wife (we don't live together and won't until wedding day).  We would walk into our house as husband and wife, lounge around, take a bath in the new jacuzzi whirlpool tub he installed last week and of course take advantage of *our* bed.  We would be able to sleep in and then the next day we'd wake up and have all that family from out of town over to our new home to have a light lunch and laugh and reminisce about the previous day's big event!  Then late that night, we'd have a family member drive us to LAX to take off on our 14 day honeymoon and our bags will have been packed and ready to go from the day before the wedding.

So how was I supposed to keep my plans alive while my ever so gracious and hospitable future hubby wants to offer our entire place to his large family for the wedding weekend?  My best thought - I asked where this family was going to be on our wedding night?  I asked if we would be sharing the house with them?  And he realized he didn't want anyone around while we might be gettin' busy :)  So he said, well, they'll have to get a hotel room.

Nice!  That's what I had wanted all along.  Besides, we all went up north a year ago for his brother's wedding and we all got hotel rooms while we were there and it was so fun and worked out great with all the kids.  And his family told me that they have no problem getting hotels if we need them to. 

Well, cut to a couple weeks ago when Mr Fix It returns from spending Thanksgiving up north with his family.  He let me know in no uncertain terms that *WE* will be getting a hotel room on our wedding night and that his family will definitely be staying at his place.  Now maybe I am being a little selfish here but I am honestly pretty pissed off about the whole thing.  I do not want to deal with packing a separate bag right before our wedding and dealing with checking in and out of a hotel for a few measley hours when what I really want is to spend time with my honey and our family.  And I do not want to walk into our house for the first time as husband and wife when it is already filled with a massive amount of people living in it as their home for that weekend!  This was supposed to be something special and romantic and intimate between the two of us.  Now it's going to be chaotic and frustrating...mostly because I know I tend to get irritated when I have a lot to do and there are a lot of people around me in my way.  And I don't want our pre-packed honeymoon luggage shoved aside and all messed up while several families are living out of their suitcases all over our house.  I know, it sounds selfish, but I am a really anal organized freak when it comes to planning and preparation...especially for our wedding and any trips.

UPDATE:  Since I originally wrote this post, Mr. Fix It and I sat down and I shared my vision with him and why I was so disappointed that he was seemingly not taking my feelings and plans into consideration.  He then shared his own thoughts of how he wanted us to walk into our house together for the first time *after* the honeymoon when everyone is gone and we can settle in for the first time and relax without having to worry about running off or whatever.  He also mentioned that he wants to be sure to include my daughter in our first night in the house so that we can all stand together in the living room and he can pray for our new family and new home.  It's really very sweet so I do understand.  However, I am still a little disappointed about the situation. 

So tell me, future brides...what are your plans and visions for your wedding night?  Where will you be spending it and what do you plan to do the day AFTER the wedding?

Seriously Saturdays: The cake saga continues!

So in last week's post, I shared about how frustrated I was when our hopes for our dream cake came tumbling down around us.  The caterer was going to charge us an additional $1,000 for the cake we wanted...*and* we were concerned that his 'baker' would not be able to replicate it without it looking like a disaster.

While searching the net for replicas of the cake we wanted to recreate:

We came across these images which were obvious attempts at a knock off of the above cake, but not even close!

 

 

Source:  Picasa and Google Images

I mean, we really wanted that cake, but God forbid if what we ended up with looked like one of those...I would have been devastated at the least and totally embarassed!

So, instead, I browsed the net again and saw several blogs and sites with cupcake towers at weddings.  Um, hello?  I'll take this any day and twice on Sunday, please!  I fell in love with the idea.  A tower of wonderfully frosted little cakes in differing flavors but still unified in our colors with a small cake at the top of the tower for us to still cut into - perfect! 

 

Source:  Google Images unless otherwise noted on photo

And what's so cool about this idea?  The guests don't have to wait to be served.  As soon as we 'cut the cake' they can walk right up and just grab whatever they'd like.  And if they don't feel like cake at the reception - which a lot of people sometimes don't - then they can simply grab one and place it in a little takeout box to carry home with them for the next day.  Bonus!

I shared the idea with my mom and sis who absolutely loved it.  Mr Fix It - not so much.  Once again, the little bugger shot down my great idea saying it was 'ghetto' and cheap looking.  Even when I showed him pictures like this:

Source:  Jasmine Star Photography

Um, there is absolutely nothing cheap or ghetto looking about that!  Thankfully, we went to dinner with a good guy friend a few weeks ago and shared our cake dilemma with him.  When I mentioned the possibility of cupcakes, he said "Oh, that's a great idea."  Thanks, Danny!  Cuz now Mr Fix It has the approval of a cool younger dude and he came around saying "Ok, if they can't make our upside down cake for us, then we can do the cupcake tower."  Woo-hoo!

I e-mailed the caterer and showed him some of the above pics and asked what they'd charge to do 200 cupcakes and he said it'd only cost us an extra $200, then he even suggested they'd make it only $100 to help us out.  Great!  In our budget and I love the idea.  Until....

this is what he sent me as a sample that they just did for a wedding in Malibu last month:

Seriously?  THAT is your idea of a cupcake tower similar to all those gorgeous photos I just sent you?!  Are you kidding me?!  Look at it!  There are Oreo cookies stuck in the top of the cupcakes!  And silver tin foil cupcake holders are not cutting it at my wedding.  And hello, do you not know how to frost a stupid cupcake?  There is frosting all over the cupcake holders.  I zoomed in on the image on my computer and thought "I'd be so embarassed to send this out as a sample of our company's work!"  Good Lord!

I immediately showed it to Mr Fix It and told him "There is no way in hell I am having them make our cupcakes!  So either we're getting them somewhere else or we'll just have them make us a basic cake and try to find ways to spruce it up and make it more unique."  He agreed whole-heartedly and also pointed out that with our budget as high as it is, we really shouldn't worry about extra charges for a cake.  As much as it's a big deal, we need to keep the funds to a minimum where we can...and splurging on an extravagant cake is not an acceptable expense to us right now.  (sigh)

And thus, my cake saga continues with another let down.  This is the one thing in my entire wedding planning process that I am really not excited about and actually bummed about.  I am not looking forward to the cake at our wedding because I know it is not going to be what I envisioned.  Oh well.

So, next week I'll hopefully have some updated info on our plans to revamp the whole cake design yet again!  What are your plans for your cake ladies?  Keeping it traditional?  And what are some areas of your wedding that maybe you're not excited about because you feel like you had to compromise on your hopes and dreams?

Seriously Saturdays: Freaking out about the cake!

I am really on top of things when it comes to my wedding planning.  For the most part, I either have a perfect example of what I want for something or I have a great idea and vision with a good way to communicate my thoughts to my vendors. 

I knew that I am not a huge fan of your typical traditional white tiered wedding cake.  I mean, they're real pretty and all but my thought is, you've seen one wedding cake, you've seen them all.  UGH!  I seriously did not want your typical wedding cake at my event. 

For a friends very low key super tight budget wedding, she had planned on just buying a sheet cake from Costco.  But I suggested we buy several cheesecakes instead and cover them with freshly cut fruit of varying kinds...strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc.  The caterer tiered them at varying levels on a niceley covered table and she had a unique and presentable wedding cake option.  Me and my future sis-in-laws cut up the fruit and placed them on the cakes and Mr Fix It even served the cake to the guests at the wedding. 

  

Source:  Personal photos

So when I decided to show Mr. Fix It some samples of some 'whimsical' cakes I was hoping we could try to replicate at our wedding, I was super excited when he jumped on board and fell in love with a few of them! 

Source:  Rancho Las Lomas web site

Source:  Sorry, didn't save it from years ago :(

But these were still not quite what we felt was the 'over the top' feeling we wanted to shock our guests with.  Now mind you, we still wanted something classy looking.  It couldn't be a cake wreck (as much as I love that site, I don't want to become a future sad image over there).

We were over the moon when our caterer informed us that our cake was included in the package price he quoted us.  Seriously!  Who gets a cake included in an already phenomenal catering deal?  Mind you, I was a bit concerned when I found out that the 'baker' they use is a girl who works out of her home and makes cakes as a side job for our caterer and a few other companies.  I started to see my dreams of an amazing cake dissapear.  But then I found these images that she had created for some of the caterer's other weddings:

Source:  La Finestra Catering

At least, I felt like she was somewhat capable now.  So one day, while browsing through some web sites, I came across two unbelievable cakes that were seriously exactly what I was looking for.  And when I showed them to the fiance, he flipped out!  Here's what we sent our caterer asking him to see what additional charges the baker would charge us to make a cake like this with a 'good' tasting marshmallow fondant:

 Our absolute favorite!

 

A much simpler looking possibility but still very cool:

                      

Never gonna happen unless we're millionaires:

I mean, yes, these are some serious cakes, but they aren't horribly impossible.  It's just a matter of figuring out how to shape them correctly and then concocting a stand that can support them...which my Mr. Fix It even offered to do for the caterer!

So when he came back telling me that it would be an additional $1,000 for us to have that first cake for our 200 guests, I almost fell off my chair!  I could seriously make that cake myself if I took a few weeks to practice.  Seriously!?!  Is he kidding me?

Now we're spending a pretty penny on our wedding but we never planned to spend more than maybe $300.00 for the upgrades to our cake since it is included in our catering package.

Now, we are totally rethinking our entire idea for the cake.  This is the one part of my wedding that I am absolutely not excited about and getting more and more frustrated with as it seems to be turning into a huge nightmare and let down over and over again.  Stay tuned next week for the follow up to our cake nightmare.

Seriously Saturdays (Some Serious Toasts!)

Ok, so this weekend's Seriously Saturday is all about something good!  This is definitely an "Are you kidding me?" kinda post but in a totally awesome way!  Like, seriously - who could pull this off?!

I want these friends and future in-laws at my wedding serving up some amazing toasts like these.

For your viewing pleasure...they're not short videos but oh so worth it.  One had me laughing and the other had me crying!  What do you think?  Could you imagine someone pulling this off at your big event?

Seriously!  Think about the time and effort that went into those!  Seriously amazing!  To see the origination of Seriously Saturdays, click here. 

Seriously Saturdays: Do I need to put blinders on?

Ok, is anyone with me on this or am I just a nut job?  I bought my dress about 10 months before my big day.  It arrived within 2 1/2 months and I absolutely love it.  Afterall, it took me 2 months, 7 salons between Orange County and LA and at least 30-40 different gown try-ons before finding the *ONE*.  But now, whenever I see a gown posted on a blog, in a bridal magazine or on a tv show, I start to have buyer's remorse.  Seriously!  How is that possible? 

Don't get me wrong...I love my gown for all the right reasons and family and friends all tell me it's gorgeous.  But with SO many bridal options, styles and new lines coming out constantly and a LOOONG engagement period, it is easy to see something else that has similar traits and yet a different look to it and for a brief moment wish that I could have a do-over.  :( 

I don't seriously want to buy another gown - do I?  (sigh)

I still love my gown, no doubt...but I also love that gown, and this one and then there's that one.  What's a girl to do?  Does anyone else feel this way?  It's like I have to quickly turn the channel or turn my head if I open a blog post that has pictures of gowns in it for fear that I will want to sell mine and buy another!  I need to put blinders on - seriously!

Source

Seriously Saturdays: Why I strongly dislike the post office

I don't like to use the word 'hate'...hence the funny subject title. I mean, seriously...it's kind of a mean word.  But I have to say, I am so sick and tired of the USPS! Not only have I had them deliver mail to the wrong address, lose mail, have mail show up over 3 weeks after sent and have to deal with their ever increasing prices - BUT on top of it all, they charge you a ridiculous rate to send a simple card...like a Save the Date let's say!

I should have known to check on their site www.usps.com and find out how much they would charge to mail my save the date cards. But I figured, "Hey, they're only a 6x6 square card and weigh the same as most letters do." So I didn't bother to check the weight and size and all of my STD's came back to me in the mail.

Ladies, never ever take a chance...even if you think you know what you are doing. Always test the weight and size of anything wedding related you are mailing before sending. Because now many of my guests received envelopes that have that ugly 'Returned for extra postage stamp' on them! UGH! It wasn't the weight but the fact that the cards were square that gives the post office the right to charge me for TWO stamps instead of one...so silly.  SQUARE?  Seriously?  I mean, come on...what does the difference between square and rectangle have to do with anything?

Have you had a run in with the Post Office or frustrations or problems with mailing or receiving your wedding related items?

Seriously Saturdays originated here.

Seriously Saturdays: How my wedding made me jealous of a child

Ok, so how in the world could anyone ever be upset with or jealous of these 2 beautiful faces?  I mean, seriously...how cute are they?

This is my darling baby sister, Julie and her darling baby girl, Analeigh.  Is that just the most precious baby face you've ever seen?  And how gorgeous is my little sister?  (She also has a 2 year old boy, my nephew PJ who is just as freaking cute!) 

So how could I possibly be upset with either one of them?  Well, here's how:  My baby sis got married three years ago and ended up coming back from her honeymoon and finding out she was pregnant within a month...they didn't waste any time.  2 years later, Christmas morning, 2008 I got engaged!  Yea me (and the fiance)!  I was so excited.  We were also really happy for my again pregnant sister. 

By January, 2009 we had our date set - April 16th, 2010.  So exciting!  I began making plans, booked all my vendors, started buying little wedding related items and had the ever-so-creative and talented scrapbooking sis start working on designs and ideas for my big day.  A couple months later, baby girl, Analeigh was set to be born.  Her original due date was like April 25th I think.  But in early April my sis tells me she is having problems with the gestational diabetes she was diagnosed with and the doctors are just a bit concerned.  They'd like to induce her a little early.  How early?  Oh, they just so happened to pick April 16th, 2009!

WTF!?  Seriously?  I mean really?  I kind of flipped out on her and told her there is no way that baby better be born on the exact day of my wedding (one year earlier obviously).  How evil am I?  I mean how could I seriously let my wedding nuptials turn me into a nut job who would be jealous of her own baby niece?  But it happened:

Source

I turned into a bit of a bridezilla...only aimed at the family!  How horrible!  I think I told my sister that there was no way she was having her baby's 1st birthday on the day of our wedding.  I figured that somehow everyone wishing my little niece a happy birthday was going to distract from what we were really there celebrating.  I insisted my sister tell the doctors that they had to reschedule and that they needed to let her wait until her due date at the end of the month.  How silly is that?

I finally calmed down and realized how stupid I sounded and tried to play it off as I was only joking...in reality, I was actually a little upset.  Turns out they induced her on April 14th so now she will celebrate her 1st birthday 2 days before our April 16th nuptials.  This of course will cause some sort of problem as I pointed out to my sister that it was not going to be easy for me to attend a birthday party the weekend before my wedding when I would be so busy.  And we can't have the party the day after the wedding because we will be spending that day with all of our OOT guests from both sides of the family.  And then we leave that night for our honeymoon which means if she has the party after our wedding, I won't be there :(  That makes me sad.

It also made me realize that unfortunately from this point on for the rest of my little niece's life I will potentially be missing her birthday parties as the hubby and I will most surely go away to celebrate our wedding anniversary on some years.  (sigh)

My wedding coordinator was sweet enough to say that we will be sure to have some type of 1st birthday cupcake at our wedding to recognize my little Analeigh's big day at our reception.  Of course I am excited to do that (now that I have calmed down and realized what an a$$ I was acting like).   I mean, seriously...why is it that us girls suddenly turn into a raving lunatic as soon as that little gem of a ring is slipped on our finger?

It really surprised me that I reacted that way.  So what about you gals?  Have you had any unexpected, out of body, unlike your personality type of rants about something wedding related?  Have you had any problems or issues with your wedding date that you are concerned about or could potentially be an issue for future anniversary celebrations?

FYI:  Click here to see about the origination of Seriously Saturdays.

Seriously Saturdays (The Are you kidding me's? of wedding planning)

So I'm a huge Grey's Anatomy fan.  But even before the hype of some of their catch phrases, I think I was already using one of the word's that has shaped many a conversation in my life.  If you're not sure what I'm talking about, check this out:

Seriously!  I love that word.  I mean, how is it possible for someone to convey so much thought, attitude, frustration, support, anger, love, and genuine emotion with just the simple tone of a word?  Lovely. 

That said, I have found myself often discussing, dealing with, venting and just trying to understand the thoughts and reasoning behind some of the things people do and offer and say when it comes to my wedding planning process.  Are you with me on this girls?  Therefore, I introduce you to Seriously Saturdays...each Saturday I will post a brief thought or anecdote about something wedding related that just makes me say:

Seriously?

Today's thought:  So when visiting venues we often asked when their peak season is...in an effort to receive  any discounts for 'off season' booking.  (see my post on venue interviews here)  We were originally told by one venue that their off season months are January through April.  Yea for us!  We want to book in April.  Then when we finally inquired about the pricing, they had a different venue rental fee for each one of those months!  And guess what?  The month of April was the highest of course.  :(

So the fiance told me it would be a good idea for us to consider getting married in March because they would let us book any weekend in March for $1,500 less than the several dates I asked about in April.  As silly as it sounds, March is a rain month in So Cal...April not so much (see previous post).  I stood my ground and the fiance agreed to let me book my date of April 16th.  But they told us if we booked the last Friday in March instead (just 3 weeks earlier) they would have given us the $1,500 discount.  SERIOUSLY!?! 

Have you had any experiences like this where it seems almost ridiculous how the wedding industry rapes us as brides? I mean, seriously!  (excuse the bad analogy)