49: Just a little personal touch

49 days to go!

With just a little over a month to go to the final RSVP deadline ... I thought I would share some of the personalized RSVP cards we have received back so far.

We decided to do personalized RSVP cards because I really liked the idea of our invited guests being able to send up little notes on the RSVP cards and because I'm a scrapbooker and I wanted to be able to save them all and look at them over the years.

Here are some we have gotten back so far!

We've gotten some sweet ones

From my mom and my step-dad
*we have a sign above our bed that says "always kiss me goodnight"

From my cousin and her husband

*my cousin Judy was ordained to perform our ceremony & I am so lucky to have amazing family like her in my life*

Our good friends Steve & Valerie
*they are getting married in June*


We've gotten some funny ones

Our good friend Zach
*he's coming all the way from Florida & ironically enough he is bringing an old co-worker of mine*
*Zach and I share a love of the movie Anchorman*

Our good friend & groomsmen Mike
*I might buy him some bells to wear on his shoes at the reception*


We've gotten a lot of blank ones :(

My brother and his family
*good thing it's all "YES" because 3/4 of them are in the wedding*


MY FAVORITE

From my grandma and step-grandpa
*a sweet inside joke*

This is just a small sampling of some of the RSVP cards we have gotten back so far. I'm looking forward to scrapbooking them after the wedding :)

50: DIY Birdcage card box

50 days to go!

A while back I blogged about finally completing a long awaited to-do list item of painting the birdcage that we purchased to use as our card box . Well, not only was it finally painted black to match our wedding colors ... but I also finished decorating it and it has officially become my 1st completed wedding DIY project!

Here is the birdcage is all its black glory!
A big THANKS to Jon for spray painting it for me! xoxo


And here it is all wrapped in ribbon and with the little card I made attached


A close up of the card

*The design mimics our invitations and our RSVP cards and other upcoming DIY projects - and even some completed DIY bridal shower projects too*

I am very pleased with the way this project turned out AND I'm super excited to be able to hang this birdcage on our back porch after our wedding :) *yay for being able to re-use a wedding related purchase*

It was relatively simple to decorate, I just weaved the ribbon, printed the card, cut to size, and attached with hot glue! *yay for my first completed DIY wedding project - see a previous post for already completed DIY bridal shower projects*

51: Something borrowed

51 days to go!

You've seen my something old and my something new ... you've even seen my something blue . Here's your chance to see my ... something borrowed!

My best friend/matron of honor was married in May of 2008 and I was a bridesmaid in her wedding. Here is a photo of us from her wedding day:


She wore a simple pearl necklace (much like my mother's pearl necklace that I'll be wearing on my wedding day) and these pearl drop earrings:

*It's not the best picture, but you get the idea - you can see me "modeling"
these earrings at my dress fitting by clicking here*

My matron of honor is letting me borrow these earrings to wear on my wedding day to complete my collection of pearl items I'll be wearing (my "something new" bracelet, my "something old" necklace, and even my hair pins that have little pearls in them).

A big THANK YOU to my best friend for loaning me her earrings and helping me complete my wedding day traditions!

My best friend and her husband on their wedding day!

52: Bridal shower decorating details

52 days to go!

You may remember that I have a hard time letting go of control so I've been pretty involved in the planning of my bridal shower .

Over the weekend (I had a very productive weekend) I spent some time working on some decorating details for the shower. I don't want to give away too many of the details ... but it's an adapted "tea" party with a Tiffany blue and white theme.

Here are some of the decorating details I saw to over the weekend:

This is a "welcome" sign I made that includes information
about the "notes of advice" and directions for one of the games

*This was printed on left over card stock from our invitations and uses the same design background - I used a colored font to match the color theme of the shower*

This is the "wish bowl" for the "notes of advice"
(It's actually the hurricane vase I'll be using
for the memory candle at our reception)
*I used blue and white crete paper to decorate both the hurricane vase {above} and the martini glass {below}. I used left over card stock from our RSVP cards for the sign on the "wish bowl"*

My giant martini glass that will be filled with Hershey Kisses at the shower

(And also with Hershey Kisses at the reception)
*I don't know if you realized, but I kinda have a thing for Hershey Kisses *

I've got a few more little decorating details that I'm working on this week and next week - and I feel very lucky that both my matron of honor and maid of honor (the shower hosts) are allowing me to be apart of the planning and letting me use my creative side to take care of some of the details (that, let's face it, in the end only I'll notice or care about anyways).

53: Bridal Shower Dress Shopping

53 days to go!

Over the weekend, after my first dress fitting, my mom and I went shopping! She was on the search for the perfect dress to wear to the wedding and I was searching for something to wear to my bridal shower!

We decided we would go to the Roseville Galleria and see what we could find. Our first stop was at The Cheesecake Factory for a light lunch and then we headed to Macy's . Macy's always has a large selection of dresses in all types of styles and prices. The first dress that caught my eye was almost $300 - way out of my price range! We gathered up some dresses for my mom to try on and I fell in love with the first one she put on. For me, it was all down hill from there. After Macy's we headed to JC Penney's to see what they had to offer. JC Penney's also always had a lot of dress selections. I must have tried on 10 dresses and ended up purchasing three! That's right - I said three! They were all on sale ... and the way I figure it - I'm going to need something for the rehearsal and possibly my bachelorette party so I saved myself some time by getting all my shopping done in one day!

I absolutely love the dresses that I bought. I don't think I've had such a successful shopping trip in a long time! AND my mom and I ended up going back to Macy's and she bought that very first dress she tried on!

Here's the dress I decided I would wear to the bridal shower!
*I love this dress with the wide belt at the waist and the ruffle*

54: I was fit to be tied

54 days to go!

On Saturday I met up with my mom (who drove down from Oroville) at a local bridal shop to get my dress fitted for alterations. You may remember that my dress is four sizes too big. The fitting went really well and the seamstress is not worried about how big my dress is on me, she's confident she can fix it AND it cost less than I thought it was going to! My next fitting is not until two weeks before the wedding because I told her that I was hoping and planning to lose some more weight before the wedding. With that in mind she left some room in the back where the corset can be tied up tighter just in case I lose a lot more (I'm hoping I do - but you know how things go).

Here is a photo my mom took of me - she had me do this silly pose so she could get all my wedding day jewelry in the shot. You'll notice my something old and my something new and even my something borrowed - which I'll be posting about soon!

55: Food tasting

55 days to go!

Last week we attended a food tasting at our wedding venue. They only host food tastings a few times a year so all the couples for upcoming weddings come together and they set up their Grand Pavilion room (the room we are using for our reception) like it would be set up if a wedding was taking place and servers walk around offering a wide selections of appetizers and vendors line the walls with booths displaying their products and/or services and then dinner is served buffet style. They also offer wine sampling from their house wines and after dinner there was a cake service and a champagne toast!

It was a lot of fun. The food was great and we made some decisions about what we want to offer our guests for dinner on our wedding day. The appetizers were good also and we made some selections of what we would like to offer if we decide to do appetizers (it all depends on the budget).

We also got to visit with our photographer. She presented us with our slide show of our engagment photo shoot that we did back in November with her and some other great stuff like a matted 8x10 of one of our engagement photos and some really cool "event cards" that have one of our engagement photos on them and the info to view the pictures she takes on our wedding day on her website (we'll be including these in our thank you cards after our wedding).

And we got to take a tour of the deluxe bridal suite that I will be staying in the night before our wedding and that we will be staying in the night of the wedding. It was amazing. It has a dual sided fireplace and a spa jacuzzi tub and a huge king bed! I've never stayed a room that looks this nice before and I'm very excited!

I spent yesterday shopping with my mom for the perfect bridal shower dress for myself and the perfect dress for her to wear to the wedding. I also had my first dress fitting. Details coming soon ... so, check back!

56: 56 + 14 = honeymoon

56 days to the wedding!

70 days to the honeymoon!

Ever since the beginning of the year, we have been having uncharacteristic warm weather in the Sacramento valley BUT this week the weather finally changed and its been raining for about 4 days now.

I don't necessarily dislike the rain (except when it hardly rained at all during the day on Friday but started pouring right at quitting time and I had to walk out to my car balancing my purse, my lunch box, my jacket and my scarf and the new coffee mug and water bottle my boss gave me all while trying to stay under the umbrella and keep my purse from getting wet). I'd prefer to be curled up in bed watching movies and listening to the rain fall than having to be out in it driving and running errands and shopping (which is how I'm going to be spending the majority of the day).

After having all that amazing warm weather for so many days in a row (which was followed by having amazing weather in Santa Maria for New Years Eve) then having rain for 4 straight days (and I think they said it was going to rain through the weekend) the only thing I can think about is MAUI.

Granted I've never been to Hawaii so I can only imagine how amazing and beautiful it is based on photos I've seen and what other people have told me BUT I'm super excited to spend 5 glorious days in April on the beach in Maui. I've already begun browsing online for new beach-ready attire! I can't wait.

Look out Maui ... here we come!!!

57: Painting the birdcage

57 days to go!

I've got this to-do list that's about a mile long and one of the items that's been on it for a while is to spray paint the birdcage we are using as our card box. Here is a photo from the website that we purchased the birdcage from:

And, here is the inspiration for what we want our finished birdcage to look like (this photo I got from a fellow blogger, Stefanie who got it from Knottie mauiluv's bio):


The birdcage is actually a brownish-antique looking color so we decided we would spray paint ours black to match our wedding colors.

Jon spray painting the birdcage

It still needs a little touch up but at least I can finally cross "spray paint birdcage" off my to-do list and move on to the next to-do item - trust me, there's a lot left to do!

58b: A Special Day

Today was the 1 year anniversary since Jon & I got engaged!

We celebrated by going out to a nice dinner at one of our favorite restaurants and just spending the evening enjoying each other's company. Now we'll be watching the season premiere of LOST from last night :)

58a: Finding the perfect wedding party gifts

58 days to go!

Finding the perfect wedding party gifts is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. There's a lot to consider when picking out gifts that are to express your gratitude to your friends and family member's support and love during your wedding planning and to thank them for standing up next to you one of the most important days of your life. You also have to consider your budget and try to determine if you want to give your attendants a gift that is going to end up sitting in a box some place in their attic or something that will be more personal that matches their personality and/or hobbies.

With that being said - I've been searching and searching trying to find gifts for my bridesmaids that are more on the personal side. Some of the girls were easier to shop for than others ... but I've made the purchases and I think everyone is going to really like what they are getting. It's very hard to expect a little gift to hold the amount of gratitude I have for these girls - but I think they all know how important they are to me and how important their presence by my side on my wedding day is.

On the other hand - guys are much easier to shop for and Jon & I agreed on their gifts fairly easily and I think they guys are going to enjoy them!

For our parents - we have not found anything yet. I think I am having a harder time deciding what to give our parents than I had trying to figure out what to give my bridesmaids.

59: Ceremony Music

59 days to go!

Last week, in preparation for a meeting with our DJ (that we had on Monday), Jon and I sat down and made the music selections for our ceremony. You might remember that Jon & I wrote our ceremony and that my cousin, Judy, was ordained and will be performing our ceremony. We also have had our recessional song picked out since the very beginning of our planning. We just needed to pick a few songs to be played while guests are being seated and then determine if we wanted our moms/my step-mom/my grandma to be seated to the same music as the processional of the bridal party.

Here are the selections we made:

Prelude
"Trumpet Voluntary"
"Air on the G String" - Bach
"Champange Polka"
"Symphony No. 40, Molto Allegro (The Living Daylights)" - Mozart

Processionals
"Canon in D" - seating of the mothers & grandmother, entrance of the groom & officiant, and the bridal party
"Wagner's Bridal Chorus" - entrance of the bride & father of the bride

Recessional
"One Love/People Get Ready" - Bob Marley & The Wailers

Our selections are very traditional except for our recessional which is both unique and personal to us, just like our ceremony will be.

60: Two months to go!

60 days to go!
Two months to go!

We've reached the two month mark in the countdown to our wedding and the details are really starting to come together! I can't believe that in two short months we are getting married! It seems like it was just yesterday that Jon popped the question and now we are getting so close the nerves are really starting to kick in! It's crunch time people! I better get a move on!

61: Hershey Kisses from the new Mr. & Mrs.

61 days to go!

Have you ever wondered how many Hershey kisses come in one standard 11 oz. bag?

I never had until Jon & I went to the store to purchase the Hershey kisses for our favors. Originally we had decided on using Cherry Cordial Hershey Kisses because the wrappers are black and red and matched our wedding colors. That was until I was browsing the Valentine's Day aisle at a local drug store and discovered Hugs Hershey Kisses in red and silver wrappers! Flavored Hershey Kisses are hands down my favorite candy in the whole world (even though I'm trying to limit my sugar consumption). However, I know that some people do not enjoy some of the interesting flavors they have to offer (candy cane, hot cocoa, mint truffle, cherry cordial, etc) so I think switching from the cherry cordial flavored kisses to the hugs (milk chocolate with white chocolate) was a good decision.


Not only are we using Hershey Kisses in our favors but we will also have a giant martini glass on the bar filled with Hershey Kisses and we are also using Hershey Kisses at my bridal shower in February.

62: On Sunday, my mailbox is lonely

62 days to go!

We have been receiving RSVP cards in the mail daily ever since the beginning of the year. Usually we get one or two a day ... but on Friday we got 5 and Saturday we got 6! But, today - Sunday - our mailbox is very lonely AND tomorrow is a holiday so Mr. Mailbox is going to be especially lonely for two days in a row!

I have really enjoyed getting our RSVP cards in the mail. I get home from work a couple of hours before Jon every day so I collect the mail and sort and organize it and then I put any RSVP cards we have received in a pile and wait until Jon gets home so that we can open them together. Granted, the envelopes are pretty thin and so sometimes I hold them up to the light and "cheat" but we still get to open the envelopes together and that's the exciting part.

63: Girls Night In

63 days to go!

My bridesmaid Linsey and my maid of honor Farina are hosting my bachelorette party at Linsey's house at the beginning of March. Of course, once again, I am involved in the planning details and I'm super excited for this Girls Night In party that we are planning. When I was in college and working as a restaurant manager, I enjoyed plenty of nights out on the town but after college was over and I started working full time at a day job, those fun nights out of partying have started to dwindle down to few and far between. So, a Girls Night In is the perfect way to get together with my closest girlfriends and have a few drinks and play a few games and celebrate my last few days as a single lady! I can't wait!!!

(I'm actually not as involved in the planning of this party as I am in the bridal shower because there's not quite as many details that need attention, so I'm leaving all the details up to Linsey & Farina and I'm sure everything is going to be absolutely wonderful).

64: My bridal shower invitations

64 days to go!

By now, all the invited guests have received their shower invitations so I thought I would post a photo of them because they turned out sooo good!

We got the invites from Etsy and they were made by seller inkOBSESSIONdesigns! Don't you just L-O-V-E them!!! I do! I do!


My bridal shower is coming up in just a few short weeks! You may remember that I have a hard time giving up control so of course I've been involved in the planning and executing of the shower. The details are all coming together and it's going to be absolutely amazing!

65: Yikes ... I'm a little pale

65 days to go!

Last week when I tried on my wedding dress I realized how pale I am. Now, I'm not one (usually) that worries about this sort of thing ... but, after some contemplating I decided that I would like to have a nice glow on my wedding day instead of looking so pale. So, I headed to my favorite tanning salon and signed up for some tanning. The first time I ever tanned just happened to be right before my matron of honor's wedding last spring. I was a little nervous, but after a while I realized how relaxing it can be (especially since I go right after work on my way home). And anything to help me relax these next few weeks is great. And another side benefit is that I'll be beach ready when we go to Maui in April for our honeymoon!!!

66: Finished labels

66 days to go!

You may recall that I previously posted about our favor tags and how we were searching for the perfect saying to print onto labels to put on the back of our tags. We finally made a decision (with a little help from fellow blogger Stefanie). Here is what we came up with:

How sweet it is ... to celebrate with you
Enjoy some kisses from the new
Mr. & Mrs.

They turned out really great and now I can't wait to start putting the favors together ... so check back for a post about the completed project soon!

67: Let's play catch-up

67 days to go!

This week got away from me and I got behind on my postings! So ... bare with me for a little bit while I play a game of catch-up and back date my posts.

68: Music is not my specialty

68 days to go!

We were fortunate enough to book the same DJ that my matron of honor, Kylie, used - who happens to be her sister's friend. Logan, the DJ, is laid back and is totally on board with the fact that Jon is obsessed with music and has pretty much picked out 1/2 of all the songs he wants played during our reception. I have had very little influence in this area and I'm okay with that. Jon is the music guy - and a lot of the music he wants played is unique to his style and music preferences. Luckily during the course of our relationship he had enlightened me to a lot of new music and I'm 100% confident that I will enjoy every single piece of music he picked.

We are working together to pick the music for our ceremony and the music for the special moments of our reception (cake cutting, garter & bouquets tosses, last dance, etc). That is one of the goals we hope to accomplish tonight. We are meeting with our DJ next Monday so we want to have a lot of this taken care of before then so we can give him the CD's with the music on them (a lot of the music Jon listens to is not mainstream and Logan more likely than not does not have - so we told him we would supply it along with the play lists). I'm anxious to see what we agree upon ... I'll be sure to post our decisions after they have been chosen!

69: Organizing

69 days to go!

I spent some of the afternoon organizing our "wedding" closet - it's the closet that has all our wedding supplies in it (the vases for the centerpieces, the flower girl baskets, the birdcage, and numerous other items). It was quite a mess and I needed some organization before I start another project. I'm only about 1/3 of the way done - because in the midst of cleaning the closet (which is located in our "office") I somehow managed to make a complete mess out of the office. I can't work under these conditions! It looks like I'll be spending my Monday afternoon finishing up ... then I can start some of my long-awaited DIY projects :)

70: Everybody loves candy!

70 days to go!

Jon and I love Hershey kisses. Well, actually we have a love/hate relationship with those particular little chocolate candies. Anyways ... when deciding what we should give away as favors at our wedding we both knew that we didn't want to give away something that would end up in someone's junk drawer or in the trash before the end of the night so we decided that candy would be the perfect little treat to thank our guests for being apart of our special day!

We decided we would give our guest Hershey kisses wrapped in tulle! Very simple. Very cost efficient. Very yummy! And of course they had to be wrapped with ribbon and a little favor tag with our monogram had to included! Luckily, in my early stages of planning, I came across this wonderful website that makes all sorts of lovely wedding details come to life. We've have ordered many items and time and time again I am very impressed with both the service and the quality! For our favors we ordered these favor tags:

They are just perfect AND include our "married" monogram!

Next I'm searching for the perfect "thank you" or love or math quote to write on the back. Each favor will be placed at each place setting on the tables ... and some extra Hershey kisses will be placed in a giant martini glass on our bar. Some of the contenders for the saying to go on the back include:

"Thank you for joining us as we begin our new life together"
"Thank you for sharing in the joy of our wedding day"
"Thank you for sharing our joy on this most precious of days"
"When you add the sum of two hears in love, the total can be so sweet"
"How sweet it is to celebrate with you"
"Thank you for sharing in the sweetness of our wedding day"
"Love is sweet"
"Here's some kisses from the new Mr. & Mrs."

Which one do you think we should use???

71: Something old ...

71 days to go!

I've already shown you my something blue and my something new so now I like to share my something old ...

This is my mother's beautiful pearl necklace

This necklace is very beautiful and I'm very exicted to be wearing it on my wedding day! It's going to go perfect with my something new, that beautiful pearl bracelet Jon bought for me!

AND ... it's going to go perfect with my something borrowed ... too!

72: Let's talk about our invites

72 days to go!

When Jon & I got engaged ... I had no idea about anything we/I would want for our wedding ... least of all the invites. I just figured we would purchase them from some catalog and that would be that. But then I discovered The Knot dot com's message boards and BIO's! And it opened my eyes to a whole new world! It was there that I discovered many of the wonderful ideas we're using for our wedding: the birdcage card box, the memory candle, reserved signs, and the wonderful world of pocket folds - just to name a few. Granted, my best friend, Kylie (matron of honor), also used pocket folds ... I just didn't ever realize how popular and diverse they could be.

Jon & I knew we wanted some simple and classic which ended up being perfect since they are also our main wedding colors! I discovered this website via The Knot dot com's message boards (I'm sure) and that's where we ordered our pocket folds and all our pre-cut paper and envelopes! We opted not to include any home-printed inserts, but instead we enclosed a pre-printed insert and map that we got from our venue (which is an all-in-one location for the ceremony, reception and a hotel)! We absolutely loved how they turned out!

And so far ... everyone else has said they loved the way they turned out, too!

73: Preparing for my 1st fitting

73 days to go!

My 1st dress fitting is coming up in a couple of weeks and I knew I needed to determine what type of undergarments I would need to be wearing under it ... so last night my best friend Linsey came over and helped me try on my dress!

AND my suspicions were confirmed ... its way too big :(

My dress is a corset-type dress that laces up the back ... and even though Linz laced it as tight as she could get it ... it's still too big! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my seamstress can work some magic!

Here's a sneek peek at my at-home fitting last night

And just incase I haven't mentioned it before ... I effin' love my shoes!!!

74: Bridal shower details

74 days to go!

Yep, I'm one of those "controlling" girls that has a hard time not knowing every little detail and being apart of every aspect. WITH that being said ... I was most definitley involved in the planning process of my bridal shower ... and luckily I have such amazing women in my life who know all about my crazy control issues and love me just the same :)

SO ... my bridal shower is being thrown by my wonderful and amazing maid of honor, my cousin Farina, and my matron of honor, one of my best friends Kylie. Kylie graciously offered to host the party at her home in Sacramento!

As I've mentioned before, we are having a Tea Party ... but I really don't want to give away too many of the lovely details ... the party is just a few short weeks away ... BUT the invitations are going in the mail tomorrow! The wedding is getting closer and closer every day and my excitement continues to grow more and more! Stay tuned for more details about the shower after it's taken place ... and maybe I'll post a picture of the absolutely adorable invites after all my lovely ladies have received their invites :)

75: Mailbox stalking

75 days to go!

I know its too soon after mailing our invites to really start expecting the return of our RSVP cards, but I can't help it ... I'm just too excited! I know my best friend/matron of honor already mailed theirs so I know I can anxiously await its arrival today or tomorrow ... and until they start pouring in, that will hold me over just fine :)

EDITED TO ADD:
We actaully got two RSVP cards back in the mail today!!! One was from my matron of honor & her husband and the other one from Jon's sister & her fiance :)

76: The Invitations

76 days to go!

By now most, if not all, of our invited guests have received their invitations so I think it's safe to post pictures :)

The outer envelope

The sticker to close the pocket fold with one of our monograms

Close up of the invitation mat

The open pocket fold

The RSVP cards

The RSVP envelopes

77: Picking the perfect china pattern

77 days to go!

We registered a long time ago - like last April or early May.

I L-O-V-E to shop (what girl doesn't) so I was very excited about setting up our registries and going into Macy's and checking out the goods and using the little scanner to add items. We set up two registries. One at Macy's and one at Crate & Barrel. The Macy's registry has the bulk of our items on it and it was the only of the two stores that we actually visited to add things to the registry. We completed the entire Crate & Barrel registry online.

One of the obstacles we faced when adding items to our registry was picking out a china pattern and deciding if we needed/wanted a "fancy" china and an everyday china.

We decided that we did want to go ahead and register for both so we picked out this Kate Spade china for our "fancy" china:

Kate Spade St. Kitts Nag's Head Dinnerware Collection

And later we added this Lenox pattern to be our everyday dishes:

Lenox Aspen Ridge

I love the Lenox dishes. I really wanted something that was plain and white. A pattern that I could use different accent pieces with and dress up with fun and exciting place mats and napkins and general tableware. When Macy's sent me an email with an announcement of this new line of Lenox china I just knew it was the perfect pattern I had been searching for.

After some debating we decided that we really didn't need both a "fancy" china and an everyday dish set so we went ahead and removed the Kate Spade china from our registry and kept just Lenox pattern.

I think the timeless pattern will be perfect for us!

78: It's over!

78 days to go!

The holiday season is finally over! We've got less than 12 weeks to the wedding which means that we have less than 12 weeks to finish the bazillion items on our to-do list including the multiple DIY projects that I want to do. AND now that the holidays are over and we are home from our travels - I can really start focusing on getting some of these projects out of my head and make them come to life :)

79: Happy New Year

79 days to go!

Happy New Year!!!