26 days to go... so busy!

We've been so busy with the wedding planning that it's hard to get it all written down! Luckily, we already have the engagement photos in our possession so we can do whatever we want with them! Yay!
Natalie has been the best Matron of Honor, I don't know how I'm going to ever thank her for all her help with this wedding!
We're making the programs for the reception out of brown paper bags, which have turned out to be so adorable! And time consuming!
This weekend, is my wedding shower, and I'm so excited! It's a brunch style and I love waffles!
These last weeks are going to be so hectic!

I'm so excited and happy to share this day with so many of my family and friends!

Wedding updates: shoes, cake topper idea, chatterbox, and checkerboards

I've been looking for a cute pair of red heals to wear on my wedding day... And I FINALLY found them! They had to be cute, the perfect color of red, open toed, sling backs, not too high or low, and I wanted a pair that had a super cute something on the top. And here they are! Yay!!!
This is the inspiration for a wedding cake topper... Natalie said she thinks we could make it ourselves... (but I'm pretty sure she'll be the one doing it, since I have a different type of creative talent and painting is definitely NOT one of them!). So cute!
Chatterbox: I'd like to have these chatterboxes on the tables and fill them with cute little facts or tidbits about Jason and I. Just another little something for our guests to do.
Checkerboards: I saw this idea in a magazine, I think the Better Homes and Gardens magazine to make these checkerboards out of felt and then role them with a cute ribbon. Then Natalie sewed a cute patter around the edge to show a more finished look. I was thinking of making them for each of the kids, but then I'm not sure how many kids they'll be, so I think just one a table would be nice. I made red and white checkerboards and chocolate brown and white ones.

Engagement Photos!

Last Sunday, Jason and I got our engagement photos taken! Take a look!!!

Registering and Tux shopping!

Yesterday, Jason and I took a trip to the tux shop to check out the options and to see what we could come up with for our wedding! Little did we realize that we have quite a lot of men that need tuxes in our wedding party!

Jason, 5 groomsmen, Jason's two dads, my two dads, my brother, and Ben and Tony as the Bible boy and ring bearer!

You know, it's actually a lot of work!
Collar: should the collar cover the sides of the tie, or not? Yes.
Buttons: should the tux jacket have two, three, or four buttons? Three? I don't know!
Cuff Links: 1st option, silver or gold? Silver. 2nd option, white or black cover? Well, black if they show, but if not, does it matter?
Color of the shirt? Ivory or white? Ivory.
Ruffle on the shirt? Or smooth? Smooth.
Color of tux? Black. Okay, then do you want a pin stripe? Regular stripe? or plain? Um... regular, I guess!
Then we have to decide what to do for the vest, and the tie.
Bow tie? Or neck tie? I think we're going to go with neck tie, but I don't like what they have, so we may have to buy new. I'm not sure yet! And I think we may go with the black vest and a red tie, but I want to see what it would all look like together before I make my final decision! This is crazy! But it's still fun!


We then headed to Olive Garden for lunch then to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to start our registry. The lady that helped us, made the experience so easy! I really had a great time! We even set a makeshift table setting so we could see what everything looks like together! I love what we picked out and I'm so excited to make our house a home! And now, I can start painting the house to coordinate with everything!

This really is a lot of fun, and a lot of work, and I'm really enjoying it all!

New Wedding Idea: Ring Pillow?

I was searching online for a really cute idea for a ring pillow and while I was looking, I found some cute ideas. I figured if I found a really cute pillow, I could copy the picture and have my mom make me one just like it!

But then I saw a small truck with flowers in the back bed and the rings in the truck. It was so cute, but I realized that it wouldn't mean anything to me or Jason to have it in a truck.


Then I thought about having a football with a ribbon around it and the rings on the pillow, since we both love football, but figured that may downplay the ceremony...

So then I came up with a super awesome idea! A small tree, planted in a decorated pot, with the rings hanging off one of the branches. Then we could use that as one of the centerpiece at the reception and then we could plant it in our yard as a momentum of our wedding day! (Of course, we would probably keep it in the pot until Spring and plant it then.)

Yes! I am so excited about that idea! I'm going to research what I can for it, and see what I can come up with!

Florist #4

Actually, I really should be counting today's florist as number 3 since that first one was such a joke! I'll try to post something about the experience after Jason and I meet with her after work today. This is the one that Natalie used for her wedding, so I'm really looking forward to this meeting!

Wedding cake tasting!

Natalie, my matron of honor, and I headed to the cake lady's house this evening and tried a few cake options and fillings and icings. The cakes included Chocolate, White, German Chocolate (Jason's favorite), and Carrot (my favorite). And the icings included butter cream, cream cheese which was totally awesome, and pecan/coconut for the German chocolate cake which tasted so freshly made!

Here's a picture of my wedding cake inspiration:Of course, I'd have red flowers on mine and I'm in search of a cute topper, haven't found one quite yet. For my cake, I plan to have the bottom layer the carrot cake with the cream cheese filling, one layer with white cake and either apple filling or a pumpkin cream mousse filling, and the other layer with a spice cake and either the apple filling or a pumpkin cream mousse filling; one or the other, but I haven't decided which one yet.I am in search of a cake base like this one. I'll have to find one that's at least 18 inches in diameter so there's an inch on each side of the cake... hopefully, my step-dad Bob can find something for me in his back yard!

As for the groom's cake, I'm going to have two layers, smaller versions of the top two of my cake with chocolate butter cream icing and German chocolate cake with the pecan and coconut filling. I think it would like nice with the chocolate icing, a few orange flowers and a cool Chicago Bears something on the top! Jason likes the idea too! And it will look cohesive next to mine too!

Jason planned on going to taste the cakes, but Natalie and I remembered her cake tasting and how she was able to bring home the cake and try it at home, so we thought it may be the same way, so I called him and told him I'd bring some to him. Then, when we arrived at the lady's house, she had the cakes and icings all beautifully placed on white square plates for us! She was very nice about placing the cakes and icings in a box to take to Jason though. She's a very sweet lady and I really look forward to working with her on my cake!

Oh, and Jason tried the cakes and the icings and naturally loves the German chocolate cake and the filling. So, we're good to go! Let's get married!

Florist #1 - no thanks!

For Natalie's wedding, she used a florist that worked out of her home, but Natalie couldn't remember her name, only where the location was, so I looked in the phone book, found this lady, and called her. She worked in the same area, and I found out that she works out of her home! I asked her if she was my sisters florist, and she asked for the last name, then told me that she didn't have her records with her, but that it was probably her! So, I made an appointment to meet with her.

I called Natalie, excited about the meeting, then found out it wasn't her, but another place. But since I had made the appointment already, I figured, why not?

My best friend, Betsy, who I've added as one of my bridesmaids, along with my sisters, joined me last night as I met with my first florist.

First Impressions:
70's or 80's style decor, fake flowers, dust, mixed with the stench of stale smoke... I should have walked back to the car, but I felt bad, didn't want to be rude, so I figured I'd see what she had to offer!

The meeting:
I had pictures, ideas, flowers, and numbers of how many of everything that I would need for the wedding.

She had a screen saver on her computer and another TV, behind me, playing with a variety of pictures of flowers that she had done at weddings. Half the pictures were out of focus, and the other half were of the entire room, with the ONE SMALL flower arrangement in the picture that we could barely see.

At one point, I told her about these really cute yellow Billy Button flowers and how I thought they were cute, when she then proceeded to tell me about this OTHER flower that was similar to the cute fully round billy buttons that I liked, that she called Kermit-something-or-other and was green, then pointed at one of the pictures on her TV, behind me to tell me that was the flower in the picture, which looked nothing like the billy button and more like a small YELLOW-ISH mum! I told her that it looked yellow, and she said that it may look yellow, but really it was green... um... thanks for the information, but that's not what I want. Which I should have told her at the beginning, had I known she was going to bring up that Kermit flower about 3 more times, before I finally told her that I didn't want that one, because if it's supposed to be green, but looks yellow in the pictures, then I don't want to risk the look of my bouquet. (And yes, she even brought it up one more time in the conversation!)

At this point, I really just wanted to stand up, gather my things, and tell her that what I want for my wedding does not coincide with what SHE wants for my wedding and leave. But I didn't want to hurt her feelings, and I couldn't figure out a way to tell her that in a nice way. So, I stayed.

Then I showed her a cute picture of a bouquet that I wanted and she proceeded to tell me that she thinks that I should have a bouquet of roses... I told her that I didn't want a bouquet of roses and that I wanted the one in the picture, with only a few roses, for sentimental reasons, since my Grandma had them in her bouquet. She then proceeded to tell me that when she orders roses, that she has to order them in groups of 25, and that if I wanted to stay within my $500 budget (my budget is a bit higher than that, but I wanted to think low, just in case) then she thought it would be best if I have a bouquet of roses! BUT I DON'T WANT a bouquet of roses! I thought it would help, if I gave her a random reason why I didn't want them, by telling her that unless they were freshly grown in some one's back yard, the smell of roses, reminds me of funerals and I didn't want to smell that on my wedding day! Unfortunately, it didn't help, so finally, I said, "Okay, well, let's go with your idea of roses, then!"

At this point, Betsy was thoroughly bored looking! Lounging in the chair, messing with her phone, then just as she put her phone back on the desk, my phone started vibrating, and I knew that Betsy had sent me a text to tell me that we needed to get the heck out of there! I almost started laughing, but tried to finish our meeting gracefully.

Back to the flowers, I was asking questions, and trying to get the information that would be necessary, if I were desperate enough to go with this florist when the florist told me, "Look, I need to take control of the conversation now!" What? Another missed opportunity for me to get out of there! So she then started telling me prices... And you know what? The prices she gave me for the amounts of everything that I needed added up to almost exactly $500!

Sorry, but she's not getting a penny from me! Actually, I'm NOT sorry! And I should ask for a refund for the wasted 20-30 minutes of my life, that was only worth wasting for this story!

Betsy was pretty entertaining throughout the entire meeting too, helpfully going along with the florists ideas saying "So true" from the movie 27 dresses, then as we were leaving, she was telling the florist, "no roses, Francie doesn't like red roses, no roses!" In a very dramatic concerning voice.

We barely made it to the car straight-faced!

Table number holders

Browsing through random magazines can really help with creative ideas! I found an idea to slit a piece of wood on the top for the tables and use them as holders for the table numbers!

I showed my cubemate, Sandy, at work, and she said her husband, Jim, could make them for me! I knew that Bob could do it too, but since he's in New York, I figured it would just be easier and more practical to have Jim do it for me, since he lives super close!

Sandy went home and told him what I wanted, and she came back the next day with this!

It's so cute! And so perfect for the reception location! he even sanded the top of the wood and beveled the side of the cut as well! It looks so finished! And just beautiful!
He said he'd use different types of wood for variety and I think it's so perfect!

Then yesterday, I thought of trees and thought about when people carve their initials in them... and how cute that would look, Sandy went home, told Jim about it, and came back with this one today!
He's going to cut a slit on the top for me and we can use this one for our main table! SO CUTE!

Loving the new house!

Jason invited people over for dinner tonight in our new house! Come on! Who invites someone over to a new house, when you're still in boxes and don't have decorations out? (Chuckling to myself.)

Luckily for me, Jason is making his one and only meal: Fettuccine Alfredo with mushrooms, pea pods, and other veggies with garlic bread, and salad with bleu cheese. Yum! He's been off work today, so he's busy getting everything ready and I don't have to do anything!

Of course, I'll probably have to quickly pick up the house when I get home and make sure it looks nice before they get here. I worked ten hours today and will be taking my hour lunch from 6-7 tonight, so ten hours straight and then headed home. It's been a long day!

Oh! And I got my new range today! Maytag, double oven, with a flat top and five burners! Can't wait to see it when I get home! Can't wait to take pictures and show you all!

Ah... the joys of owning a home!

• So, I go in the bathroom and attempt to wash my hands... I turn on the water faucet and instead of all the water coming out of the faucet, I hear a waterfall underneath the sink! It was gushing every which way under the sink and in the drawers under there! I quickly turned off the water and then there were pools of water, which then started leaking all over the floor! I had three of Rachael's kids at my house so I yelled out to them "Get me a towel! Quick! Hurry! I need a towel! Hurry!" After a little while, Kristen moseys on in the bathroom with a huge grin on her face and a teeny-weeny little washcloth in her hands and said "here's your towel!" Ha-ha, very funny! (NOT!) I finally got it all cleaned up and the kids decided to help too. There was a bucket of something the home sellers left under there and about 10 extra tiles under the sink, so I put the bucket in a bag and put it next to the door to throw away and left the tiles on the floor, then had Jason put those in the laundry room. Then my friend and her husband came over and he figured out that the pipe was loose and tightened it and it's fine now, but man! That was crazy!
• While my friends were over, I had Jimmy check on the water heater, since we couldn't figure out how to turn it on... pretty soon, he says, "okay, it's on now!" And I told him I wanted to see what he did, just in case I need to know for future reference and very nicely and non-condescending-like he says "you see this switch that says 'on'? Well, it was 'off' and all you have to do is switch it to 'on' and you're ready to go!" Full with visual aids of how to turn it on and off. Oh, so THAT'S how you turn it on? It was pretty funny, but he was really nice about it and didn't make me feel like a retard! (By the way, Jason was at work while Missy and Jimmy were there or else he may have been fixing it all!).
• Then the next day rolls around and I get up early to head to my apartment to pack and move more stuff. I pick up the bag from the bathroom to put in my trash bag to take to the apartment (since we don't have trash set up yet) and when I turn around, I realize I have drips of blue/green paint on the floor! I run to the door where it was sitting all nice and realize there's a huge pile of this blue/green paint that matches the bathroom, ALL OVER MY TILED FLOOR IN THE KITCHEN! And yes, I freak out! Luckily, I had Clorox wipes and grabbed those and ran to the pile... it all came out! Lucky for me! I would've been so mad! AH!
• Oh! And then to top it off, for that day anyways, I go the refrigerator to grab my Diet Dr. Pepper to take with me for my breakfast, and realize that it's not cold! Yup! the food I had brought over for my refrigerator and the few freezer items that I brought over from the apartment and the groceries I bought the day before had been sitting in a refrigerator all night and part of a day, that was plugged in, with the light on, but not turned on to cold! AH! Come on! Really?
• Oh! And then, of course, our water softener isn't working right, because our water smells like rotten eggs! Sulfur! Horrible! So, hopefully Jason will figure that out tonight so I can take a shower in the morning and not have to take one at work, the Y, or my old apartment!

Ah! The joys of home ownership!~

02.10.2010 HOMEOWNERS!

Jason and I are homeowners! Here's proof!



In front of our first home!
Not just snow, but freezing cold and super windy! Great moving weather!

(Anyone notice the beard?)

We become home owners today!

Last night I said, "Jason, tomorrow, we will be homeowners. And in exactly eight months, I'll be telling you, 'Jason, tomorrow, we will be married!'"

Thanks to all the snow... we may not be moving all my stuff to the house today, maybe this weekend, but probably not today. This morning, I heard on the radio that it's the biggest snow storm since the 1800's, but when I got to work and looked online, it looked like it was mostly on the East Coast versus here in Beautiful, Unpredictable Michigan!

Jason and I will walk through the house this afternoon and then sign the paperwork at 4 p.m., then get the keys to our house.

Pictures will be taken, and they will be posted!

A Closing Date for the House? Finally!

Sounds like next Tuesday or Wednesday could be our closing date on the house! I just can't believe it! All I have to do is get yet another copy of my bank statements (which I've done more than three times already!) Hopefully, I can figure out what the difference is between a list of bank transactions and a list of bank activities... so annoying!
Either way, this is the best news we've had in a while regarding this house!

Will you be my Flower Girl?

I made this little book to send to Grace, my brother's youngest daughter, in New York. And I'm going to work on making a cute postcard for her to send back to me, with the same questions and a column of "yes" with boxes that she can check off. That way, I get to keep something too!

He said "Yay!"

Jason and I are getting more wedding oriented lately, and we're trying to line up who we want in our wedding. I have all four of my sisters as my bridesmaids (matrons - since they are ALL married already!). I'm planning on having Lori's two kids, Tony and Bella, sit in a wagon (which my mom will be making a cute cover for) and having Ben, Rachael's son, pull the wagon down the isle. I've already asked Lori if I could have her kids in my wedding and she said yes. So, Thursday night, Jason and I headed to Rachael's house to see if Ben would be willing to be our Bible Boy/Ring Bearer.

Once we reached the house, I walked in the door and the kids all said hi, and then Jason walked through the door and Ben, who was sitting on the couch, jumped over the couch and ran to Jason to give him a hug! (yes, I am chopped liver... ha-ha)!

We told Ben that we had a series of questions to ask him. So we had him stand on one of the kitchen table chairs, so we were more eye-to-eye. Then proceeded to ask him questions.

Are you strong? yes

Are you strong enough to pull a wagon with two kids in it? yes

Would you be willing to dress up in a tux? What's that? It's like a really nice suit that you would wear to church. But I don't have one. Oh, it's okay, we'll rent one for you. Okay.

Will you be our Bible Boy/Ring Bearer in our wedding? Um... I'll be the dog! Well... we're not having dogs at our wedding. I can still be the dog! No, Ben, there won't be any dogs at our wedding, but if you want to be our BB/RB, you can!

Then Jason said, "Ben, do you wanna be the big dude's, little dude?

And I said "Yay? Or Nay?" What's Nay? It means, no. "YAY." (just said matter-of-factly) and I picked him up and hugged him real tight and said "YAY!"

So... we have our little dude now. Who, we told him, would look just like Jason, but a lot smaller and with less hair! (Especially now since Jason has a full beard!)

Now, I am working on getting the Flower Girl lined up. I plan to ask my niece, Grace, who is my brother's daughter in New York.

More Flower Bouquet ideas for my wedding

I love this bouquet idea, for me. With the wispy-like stuff around the flowers.
These flowers are beautiful and the colors too!
I just have to have these berries in my bouquet!
And the Green part in this bouquet is perfect!
Yet, another idea for my bouquet.

I talked to my mom about the flowers and getting a florist and we've decided to order the flowers we want on-line and put them all together ourselves! I think that will save a ton of money, and look even more adorable, too!

Ideas I like for my Bridemaids' bouquets

I've been thinking of ideas for the wedding lately and found these ideas for my bridesmaids! Of course I would use more fall-ish colored flowers that fit for the season, but I love these cute floral -balls!




This one is probably my favorite of these pictures (the one above).
But I love the ribbon on these bouquets!

Dress shopping adventures

This past weekend, I've looked at and tried on so many dresses! My friends Tina and Betsy helped me and my sister Lori and her sister-in-law Lisa came to help too!

The first place we went was a small boutique. The lady was a little put out that I hadn't set up an appointment, although there was no one else there... I didn't feel bad, though.

It was a little annoying though, because I had to strip down, while she got the dress ready, then she helped get the dress on. Afterward, she'd help me out of the dress, then hang it up, but instead of getting the next dress ready and putting it on me, she let me stand there, half naked, while she put the dress in the plastic cover, zipped it up, let the extra air out, then zipped that last bit of it, then put it on another hook, then got the next dress and took her time doing it! I was so annoyed and completely uncomfortable!

At one point, there was a dress that didn't quite fit, so she helped by holding the dress in front of me, so I could see what it would look like, while she pressed her large body against my back side (and yes, I was still just in my under clothes, so that was REALLY uncomfortable!) I think she was just trying to hold the dress tight against me so I could get a good idea of what it looked like, but I think I wouldn't have liked the dress if it were the best dress in the world, simply because of how uncomfortable I was!

We left soon after.

The next place we went was David's Bridal. Oh, just so much to say about that place! I walked in with a vengeance. There were a ton of people there, so I thought we could just go find some dresses and start trying them on, but no. They made me fill out all my information first (and I was in such a bad mood, that I used Natalie's old phone number instead of mine! ha ha!), then wait 20 minutes for someone to help me. I was not happy. Then I go into the fitting room, and Jeniece comes in there too. No dress. Just us. I'm backed in the corner. In this small fitting room. No mirrors so it was even smaller. She shuts the door. And suddenly I am filled with the worst case of claustrophobia ever! Then she starts telling me that I should just calm down. That this is all about me and that she's here to help me and will do anything for me and will do whatever she needs to do to help me find the dress of my dreams and so on and so on... and suddenly, I'm comforted and happy! LOL I mean, after all, it really IS all about me! Isn't it? Ha-ha! Then I had a good time! And I think I have found the dress! I'm just a bit hesitant because I found it there and I don't want someone else to have my dress! And they mass produce there, so the likelihood is high... so I'm a little bummed about that. Lori said she'd try to look online for something similar, now that I've found more of what fits my personality. Simple. Sweet. Cute. and Fun. Just like me! I'm not sure if I want to post pictures, but let me know if you want to see, and I'll email them to you! I just don't want it to be "out" there for everyone to see!

What a relief!

Yesterday, I finally put the deposit down for the Cake maker I want and for the Photographer! What a relief! I've been so sucked into the house buying stuff, that I've really put everything else on the back burner!

Kim, my work friend, has offered to help coordinate all this hard stuff for free! Which is so helpful, because I'm just having the hardest time getting this all together!

New Years Celebration!

Jason and I joined a bunch of our friends and extended friends at a mansion close by last night/this morning to bring in the New Year.
The house was amazing! And when we walked in, there was a huge spread of food, I thought it was all catered, then found out that the lady of the house made everything! She's Greek and makes all her own authentic Greek food, which of course was absolutely amazing!
Danny, Jason's friend, and grooms-man trying to spoil a good picture! Ha-ah. Oh, well... we'll have to work on that in ten months and ten days!