21: Table for two, please

21 days to go!

Jon & I opted to have a sweetheart table at our reception instead of a standard head table. We did this for several reasons. We wanted our bridal party to be able to sit with their husbands/wives/significant others AND we wanted to be able to have a few moments alone to bask in the newness of being husband and wife while being surrounded by our family & friends.

So, we ended up with 17 tables ... and 19 centerpieces! We have 18 of the centerpieces that I blogged about previously and a special centerpiece for our sweetheart table. I think we will end up putting the extra centerpiece on the guest book table.

And for our sweetheart table we purchases this cylinder vase for my bouquet! I wrapped it ribbons matching our wedding colors and attached our married monogram!

I think my red rose bouquet (our third wedding color) will look beautiful in this vase sitting on our sweetheart table during our reception!

22: Don't let my title fool you

22 days to go!

We actually have 16 days to go but time has been flying by and I'm quickly learning that there are not enough hours in the day for me to get everything I want accomplished.

With that being said ... I decided to sit down and catch you up on everything I've been working on. With just over two weeks left to The Big Day a lot of the little details are coming together!!! Let's see how many I can show you before the clock runs out and The Big Day is upon us!

23: Shaken, not stirred

23 days to go!


Do you remember seeing this giant martini glass before?

We used it at my bridal shower as a decorating detail. Here is the photo after I decorated it for the shower, wrapped in white and Tiffany blue (bridal shower theme colors) crete paper:

Doesn't it look so much more sophisticated wrapped in black and white???

You may recall that I mentioned I planned on using it again - at our wedding. So, I removed the crete paper and re-wrapped it with white and black ribbon. It will be placed on the bar top and filled with Hershey Kisses (the same candy we are using in our favors). It will also have a cute little sign next to it (that I have not made yet) that will say "how sweet it is to celebrate with you ... enjoy some kisses from the new Mr. & Mrs.) - the very same saying that is on our favor tags!

A little history behind the martini glass --- I love martini's. Dry, extra dirty, Vodka martini's - shaken, not stirred. That's why we decided to put this giant martini glass on display at our wedding reception - and we decided to fill it with Hershey Kisses because even though we are putting a small handful (5) of kisses in each favor ... we know, first hand, that sometimes a small handful just isn't enough AND everybody (except for both of our fathers - who are both diabetic) loves candy (heck, they both love it to - even if they BOTH know they are not suppose to eat it).

24: Candle light is romantic!

24 days to go!

Before I boxed up all the supplies for the centerpieces I did a trial run and took some photos so that Rhiannon (our go-to girl for decorating the day of our wedding) has an idea of what we want them to look like.

We are using 5" round bubble vases, filled with black sand and a white candle. These will be placed on a 12" x 12" square mirrored tile (supplied by our venue) and then silk red rose petals will be scattered around the vase.

All's that's missing from the photo below is the square mirrored tile ... but overall this is the look we are going for.

You can't really see the black sand because of the black coffee table. We decided to use sand to "catch" the wax as the candles melted for an easier clean up! We used the black sand, white candles, and red silk rose petals to tie in all our wedding colors!

25: Being an organized bride!

25 days to go!

On our wedding day I will be spending my morning at a local salon getting my hair and make-up done, along with my bridesmaid Linsey and my mom, and by the time I get back to the venue/hotel I will have just enough time to grab some lunch before its time to start getting ready because we are doing all our photos before our ceremony! With that being said - I had to find someone who would be willing to set up our venue with our DIY details (our favors, our ceremony reserved signs, our "in memory" candle & poem, our guest book, our centerpieces, our programs, our photo sharing instruction cards, our reserved tables signs). Luckily my maid of honor's best friend said she could fill this spot for us and take care of these little decorating details. We only have one hour to get all these details in place - and during that one hour I will be busy taking photos with our bridal party and our families and then getting ready for our ceremony - so I'm very relieved to have Rhiannon stepping in to take care of this for me. With that being said, I'm working very hard to get everything ready for her and organized so that it's easier for her to get all this accomplished in only one hour! This past weekend I spent some time removing stickers from our centerpiece vases, then washing & drying them. Then I portioned the out the black sand for each vase and the silk red rose petals that will be scattered around the vases.

Portioning out the sand

I then placed all the vases back in their boxes, and put the portioned sand and rose petals in each vase along with a candle - that way on the wedding day everything is ready to go!

All boxed up and ready for The Big Day!

A close up of all the centerpiece items inside the vases ready for assembly!

26: My bachelorette party invitations

26 days to go!

We got the bachelorette party invitations from the same Etsy seller that we got the bridal shower invites from and they turned out just as great as the shower invites did!

By now all my closest girlfriends have received their invitations so I thought I would share a photo of the invites because they turned out so great & I love them!!! My favorite part is the martini olives across the top!!!

Seller inkOBSESSIONdesigns

My bachelorette party is coming up in a couple of weeks & I'm getting very excited for a Girls Night In with my closest girlfriends! We are going to eat yummy food, drink yummy drinks, and play fun games! And have a sleepover! I think, since this party will be two weeks before The Big Day, it will be just what I need to help me relax and enjoy the last few weeks of being a Ms. before I become a Mrs.

27: Pretty dresses for pretty little girls

27 days to go!

Today was a very successful day conquering many items on the to-do list and completing some DIY projects. But before I get to any of that ... I want to blog about the adorable dresses we picked up for our flower girls a couple of weeks ago.

We are fortunate enough to have two absolutely adorable little girls in our lives - my niece, Shyann, and my cousin's daughter, Taeyah. Shyann is the daughter of my only brother and she just turned 6 in January. Taeyah is my maid of honor, Farina's, daughter and will be 4 in April. These two little girls are so darn cute that I just had to have them both as flower girls in our wedding!

Considering how young these two girls are I wanted to wait until pretty close to the wedding to get them dresses. I also wanted to be budget savvy and find matching dresses under $50 each. I started searching online in late December but I was not having any luck finding anything in the price range I was looking for. Then one Saturday afternoon, as we were out running errands for my bridal shower we decided to stop at Burlington Coat Factory to see if they had any white dresses for little girls.

One of the dilemmas I was running into online was that Shaynn wears a little girls size 6 and Taeyah wears a toddlers size 4T. Online I was not finding very many options of the same dress in both toddler and little girl sizes. Luckily, Burlington Coat Factory had a wide selection of white christening gowns in all sizes! We searched the racks until we found matching dresses in both sizes, in our price range, that were almost as adorable as the little girls that will be wearing them!


This photo does not do this dress justice! The girls got to try their dresses on at my bridal shower (I wish I would have gotten a picture) and they looked so darling in their matching dresses - I can't wait for them to wear them on our wedding day!!!

28: 4 weeks to go & wedding dreams have begun

28 days to go!

Last night I had several wedding related dreams, I mean nightmares. Some of the "themes" include: my dress not fitting, it raining, my rings being broken, no one showing up except for the wedding party, our gifts getting stolen ... and on, and on, and on.

We've got 4 weeks to our wedding and a to-do list that keeps on growing. Add to that our everyday stresses like work, a car that keeps breaking down, and all the other things that make up an average day (running, eating right, have some down time to relax, household chores) and things tend to get a little hectic.

I'm confident that come March 21st every little task on our to-do list will be completed and that our wedding day is going to be beautiful. Until then - I'm going to continue to bust my butt to get all the details worked out and all the DIY projects complete!

Keep checking back for more updates ... I'm thinking this weekend is going to be very successful!

29: Reserved signs

29 days to go!

About a month ago I spent one afternoon tackling as many wedding projects and I could get my hand on. Some of those projects included finishing up our birdcage card box and working on some of my bridal shower decorating details among other things.

One of the other projects I worked on were our reserved signs for the chairs during our ceremony. I choose to only make reserved signs for our immediate family members so they would feel special and so that our divorced parents and their new spouses or significant others will know where we would like them to sit.

I used some left over card stock from our invitations and the same black ribbon I used on the birdcage. They were very simple to make and they turned out great!

30: One month to go!

30 days to go!

Wow. Where has the time gone? There's only 30 days left until The Big Day?!? Time sure is flying by! It seems like it was only yesterday when we got engaged.

With 30 days to go, things are really starting to come together. Remember a few days ago when I was felling unmotivated and dreading working on the day-of timeline? Well ... I sat down yesterday afternoon and really started working out the details and its starting to come together. I hope to have it mostly finished this weekend so I can send it out to our photographer and videographer.

This weekend is going to be a BIG weekend for wedding projects. Not only do we not have any plans, but it's also suppose to rain all weekend so that will keep us at home and we can get some stuff done! AND I've got quite a few things I want to get done.

31: RSVP deadline is fast approaching

31 days to go!

There are just 10 short days left until the RSVP deadline and we've got about 40 stragglers that are really making me feel like pulling out my hair. I actually happen to know that a few of these people are not going to make it (family from New York) and that a few actually are (my father & step-mother and a groomsmen & his family) but we still have not received their RSVP's back. I'm dreading sitting down on the 2nd of March to make these calls to people who have not and probably will not respond in time. It's really not that hard. We pre-printed your names on the little respond cards ... we place our return address on the envelope for you ... AND we even included a stamp. All you have to do is put a little check next to the YES or the NO and then pop that little card into the little envelope, lick it closed and mail it. Simple? Yes. So ... why haven't they done it yet???

Come on people! Our final head count & final payment are due just 4 days after the RSVP deadline.

32: My bare naked finger

32 days to go!

Last night we went to the jewelry store to purchase Jon's wedding band. While we were there we also dropped of my engagement ring to get it sautered to one of my wedding bands (yes - I have two - the 2nd band will be used for the ring exchange on our wedding day and will be sautered sometime after the wedding).

Jon's band had to be ordered in his size so I'll be sharing a photo of it sometime next week after it comes in - and I'll share a photo of mine as well. In the meantime, my left ring finger is feeling a little bare and lonely ... to keep it company I wore my triple heart Tiffany's ring that Jon bought for me on our first annivesary in March 2006 - a ring that I normally wear on my right ring finger.

I'll be picking up my sautered rings tomorrow after work ... I'll be sure to share a photo of the finished product!

33: Time line challenges

33 days to go!

I'm a list maker. I make lists for everything. I'm an organized person. I pretty much plan my day from start to finish - every.single.day! I have lists of lists I need to make. One of these lists states that I need to be working on our day-of time line. I have no idea how something like this has escaped my mind for so long - but with less than 5 weeks left to The Big Day it's something I haven't given much thought to. Until recently. I know what time I need to wake up (7am) and what time I need to get to the salon by (9am) and what time my ceremony starts (5pm) and what time my reception ends (11pm) --- but it's all the little things in between that I need to figure out and plan for. I'm also a planner. This should be a piece of cake ... but ... I'm dreading it. Every time I sit down to work on it I get a little more freaked out that The Big Day is only 33 days away and I feel like it's too far away yet too close at the same time.

But today I started the time line ... it says "wake up - 7am" ... yep --- looks like a pretty good start to me. Maybe I'll add on a little more tomorrow ... until then I think I'd be happier working on some other project --- like maybe The Guest BOOK!!!

34: The ever growing to-do list

34 days to go!

With less than 5 weeks to The Big Day - I've got an ever growing to-do list. Today I had every intention of spending the day tackling some of my projects on that to-do list --- but I never made it that far.

We did, however, finish our parents thank you gifts today and we are very pleased with what we decided to get them AND we made some honeymoon attire purchases (new swimsuits - yay!!!).

Tomorrow is a new day and the list will still be there waiting for me ...

35: Happy Valentine's Day

35 days to go!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

This was our final un-married Valentine's Day --- and it was great!!!

Tomorrow we'll be back to tackling the too-many-miles-long to-do list.

36: Countdown to the honeymoon

36 days till the wedding!

50 days till the honeymoon!

In just 36 short days we'll be tying the knot - and then just 14 days later we'll be spending 5 days in Maui!

I'm definitely dreaming about beaches in this horrible thunderstorm we're having in the Sac Valley tonight!!!

37: Hair trial

37 days to go!

A couple of weeks ago I had my hair trial ... I'll get to that in a minute --- first, let me explain how I ended up with long hair.

I prefer my hair short. And, Jon prefers my hair short.

So ... you may ask --- why is my hair so dang long then?!?

Well --- in Sept 2006 I left my then-dreadful bank job without another job. So, I spent a few months unemployed ... and realized that I had to let certain luxuries go - expensive haircuts was one of them. So, I started to let my hair grow out. At the end of that year I started at the place where I work now and started trying to catch up from being unemployed for so long. Expensive haircuts were not going to be added back into the budget anytime soon --- not that my hair was very long at that time anyways ... it just kind of hung right at or right below my shoulders - totally acceptable as "short" hair still.

Then Feb of 2007 rolled around and my best friend Kylie (the matron of honor in my wedding) got engaged AND asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. So I figured that since I wasn't paying for any expensive haircuts anyways ... I would just continue to grow my hair out for her wedding.

I only like my hair two ways - short and sassy or long and curly. Right now its not short and sassy like I would prefer - and its too long to spend any time trying to curl it. It's just kind of long, straight, frizzy, and stringy. I'm not very pleased at all with it.

Ok --- back to my story ... then Jan 2008 rolled around and I got engaged ... so since I was already growing my hair out for Kylie's wedding (which was in May 2008) I figured I would just let it keep on growing out for my wedding, too!

After a while I just decided I would see how long I could get it before my wedding and then I would chop it all off (the next available appt after my wedding day preferably) and donate it.

So - that's my plan. I originally thought I would wear it half-up and half-down with lots of curls --- but my hair actually doesn't hold curls that well. So, I've decided on an up do.

Here are some photos from my hair trial --- I love the way it turned out and I'm excited!

So - what do you think???

*I didn't get any pictures with my hair pins in --- but Lisa did put them in there and they looked sooo good --- you'll just have to check back after the wedding to see :)

38: Sick day ...

38 days to go!

Today I was home sick from work ... and instead of working on wedding projects ... I vegged out in front of my TV and relaxed --- I think I needed a little break ...

39: Bridal Shower Recap

39 days to go!

My bridal shower was hosted at my matron of honor's house by both my matron of honor Kylie and my maid of honor Farina.

The theme was a Tiffany Blue Tea Party - we served tea sandwiches and yummy finger foods. We had two cakes - a Tiffany Blue Box cake (that my maid of honor baked and decorated) and a Tiffany Blue 1/4 sheet cake (from a local grocery store). We served iced tea, and lemonade and champagne!



We played some games ... toilet paper bride, how well do you know the bride, and gift bingo! It was so much fun!!!

My neice Shyann

Jon's cousin Haley


My friend Holly

After games - I opened the mountain of gifts that my family and friends showered me with! I got some great gifts from my registry - and some unexpected surprises! While I was opening my gifts, my matron of honor Kylie made me a ribbon bouquet to use at the rehearsal!

I didn't break a single ribbon!!!

After I opened all my amazing, thoughtful & generous gifts - I cut the cake, drank some more champagne, read my "notes of advice", and took some photos with family and friends!

Me & my matron of honor/best friend Kylie


My & my cousin/maid of honor Farina

Me & my mom

My & my neice/flowergirl Shyann

Me & my step-mom Melinda

Me & my cousin/wedding officiant Judy

It was a very special day that turned out absolutely perfect! I was surrounded by my dearest friends and amazing family. Thank you to everyone who made my special day so wonderful!!!

40: Time sure is flying by!

40 days to go!

As I sat at work today I glanced over at my calendar and stared in shocked realizing that I'm getting married in just 40 short days! Where did the last week go? Where did the last month go? Where did the last year go? Sometimes it's hard to believe how quickly time flies by! I know the next few weeks are going to go by like crazy ... and I still have quite a long list of things to accomplish and projects to finish but before I get to any of that ... let's go ahead a do a little bridal shower recap!

41: Playing catch-up again ...

41 days to go!

The day after my bridal shower I was stuck in bed with a horrible migraine (that I actually started to get on Friday morning) ... so I'm going to play a little catch up again and do some post dating on some posts!

The bridal shower was amazing ... but I'll get to that in a minute! Bare with me while I get myself a little better organized!

42: Bridal Shower Day

42 days to go!

Today is my bridal shower!

I'm pretty excited and anxious. The planning for this party started many months ago as my matron of honor and I started exchanging emails discussing ideas and themes. It seems like that was only yesterday! I can hardly believe it's here!

Check back soon for recaps of this special day!!!

43: Music is the key to the soul

43 days to go!

Earlier this week we met with our DJ Logan and discussed our wedding day time line and our music choices and preferences. For those of you who don't know it - Jon is a music fanatic. We must have thousands of CD's laying around our house. And he doesn't exactly listen to mainstream music. His favorites include The Grateful Dead, Keller Williams, The String Cheese Incident, moe., Gov't Mule, Phish, and on and on. So, I pretty much told Jon to work on finding and picking the non-mainstream and non-traditional wedding reception music that he wanted to hear and start a play list that we could give to the DJ.

At the meeting this week with the DJ we were able to give him a printed time line that included the ceremony music, the "special" music (entrance to reception, first dance, cake cutting, garter toss, bouquet toss, last dance, etc.) and all the other music that Jon has requested to be played. Of course we could never pick every single song to be played so instead we gave the DJ a list of preferred music and music preferences and asked him to stay away from some particular types of music (rap and country, mainly - as Jon is not a fan).

I think the end result is going to be exactly the right mix we are looking for and I think Logan is exactly the right DJ to put it all together and pull it off for us!

AND I may have mentioned before that we've got a few surprises lined up for the reception :)

Tomorrow is my bridal shower! Check back soon for recap postings of the event!!!

44: I'm no make-up artist ... so I'm not going to play one on my wedding day!

44 days to go!

Last week while I was visiting with Lisa and getting my hair trimmed and doing my hair trial (which I will post about soon) for The BIG Day I also met with Stacy and discussed make-up!

I'm not a high maintenance girl when it comes to make up - a little black eyeliner and some mascara (over my foundation, of course) and I'm good to go. Sometimes I'll add a little shimmer eye shadow - it all depends on how I'm feeling. BUT for my wedding day I wanted to feel pampered and I wanted someone else (someone with a good eye for this sort of thing) to do my make-up so that maybe, for one day, I could feel more glamorous and less ordinary.

I showed Stacy some photos and she played around a little bit and we discussed what type of "feel" I wanted. I had full make-up on (see above for what "full" make-up means to me) so we didn't do a "make-up trial" but I was pretty impressed with her and I'm excited for her to make me up on The Big Day.

I'm going for a subtle glowing effect with a smidgen of a smokey eye ... I don't want to get too "made up" and feel uncomfortable or unrecognizable but I want to be more "done up" than I am on an average day.

I'm very much looking forward to my wedding day morning of at-the-salon pampering with my mom and my best friend Linsey!

Unfortunately I don't have any photo's to share with you of the "look" I'm going for since the photo's I have came from a magazine.

45: We're going to the chapel ...

45 days to go!

Well ... we're actually not going to the chapel - but we are definitely getting married and we've got the marriage license to prove it!!!

A couple of weeks ago we got online and made an appointment to go to our local county's clerk office to get our marriage license. Yesterday was our day! We booked it into downtown and found parking with a good 20 minutes to spare until our appointment time. We headed into the office and we were the only ones there! Well, one other couple was there - but they we're still filling out their application (didn't anyone tell them they could do that online???) and so we checked in, signed on the lines, raised our right hands, and were done in less than 10 minutes!

And now it's official - we can legally get married anywhere in Sacramento county within the next 90 days! I think we're only going to wait about 1/2 that time ... 45 days to go!

46: Father/Daughter Dance

46 days to go!

We've got a meeting with our DJ today so I've got music on the brain this week!

When Jon & I first got engaged the one thing I knew with absolute certainty (other than knowing that we are going to have an amazing wedding and a beautiful and happy life together) is that I wanted to dance to Frank Sinatra's "The Way You Look Tonight" with my daddy at my wedding. It's such a classic and beautiful song and the perfect song for a father/daughter dance!

I also know that at some point during our wedding reception I will definitely share a Polka dance with my father also! My dad is 100% Polish - and that makes me 1/2 Polish and I've long awaited dancing a Polka with my father at my wedding. While I may have the perfect father/daughter song picked - I'm still searching for that perfect Polka!

47: Picking the perfect song for my bouquet toss

47 days to go!

We've got a meeting coming up with our DJ this week and I'm still trying to decide what song I want to use for the bouquet toss.


Some of the contenders include:
"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" -Cyndi Lauper
"Hit Me With Your Best Shot" -Pat Benatar
"This Ones For the Girls" -Martina McBride
"Single Ladies" -Beyonce
"Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend" -Marilyn Monroe
"Lets Get Loud" -Jennifer Lopez
"Welcome to the Jungle" -Guns n' Roses
"Another One Bites the Dust" -Queen
"Friends in Low Places" -Garth Brooks
"Jesse's Girl" -Rick Springfield
"Jump Around" -House of Pain


There are plenty of choices out there ... but nothing really has hit me as being the one song I want to use. As of right now I'm leaning towards either "Single Ladies" by Beyonce or "Jesse's Girl" by Rick Springfield. But I love Guns n' Roses so maybe I should use "Welcome to the Jungle" just to shake things up a little bit.

Until I decide ... I'll keep looking for the perfect song. Got any suggestions???

48: Detail Meeting

48 days to go!

Yesterday we headed up to Folsom to the Lake Natoma Inn to meet with our coordinator to discuss our day-of time line and to make our dinner selections. We were able to finally get some questions answered and discuss our reception layout and go over what we want and did not want for our dinner buffet selections. Luckily we were able to swap out a dinner salad selection with walnuts for a ceasar salad selection - especially since I'm allergic to nuts! We also added on a vegetarian pasta alfredo - that we got to taste at our food tasting and it is very good!

We also ironed out the details for our day-of time line and now we will be meeting with our DJ this week to discuss our music selections ... and we've got a few surprises planned that we are pretty excited about!!!