i've got a confession to make

i don't know how many of you there are out there exactly who are like me, but i'd imagine there are quite a lot of you (or so i'd like to think)

my grand confession is... i stalk my registries... there i've said it...

since there are only a limited number of weekends i have a pretty good guess when my "surprise" shower is going to happen...and i think it's going to happen soon (i'm calling it~!)

and earlier this week i noticed that some "things" were getting "fulfilled" SQEEEE!!! that means that it's going to really happy... REALLY SOON! right? or i'm just an eager beaver and hoping it's going to happen!

how many of youse stalk/stalked your registries?

flowers and bridesmaids update

i seriously wished i some awesome stuff to report, or proclaim i checked off a million things on my ever growing wedding list...but alas, i do not haha...not only are we still florist-less, i think i discovered even MORE things i'm supposed to get done...like say oh i don't know, secure an officiant? it's not too late to find one now right?

after much pondering, i've decided against the green flowers for my bridesmaids, the reasoning behind this is 2 fold, 1) chris hates green flowers, he thinks they look unnatural (he's weird yes i know) and 2) i think it will save me stress and headache on deciding what flowers they will include if i just simple said to the florist, what my bouquet looks like, cept the smaller sister version...this works for me everyone will match and everyone is happy with the choices...the centerpieces are a whole other animal...that has also evolved from the tree to something more low key like this:

my how has wedding planning evolved eh?

but i can very happily say that all my girls have been measured and the dresses are due for delivery in early october, which means there should be plenty of buffer time for alterations for the big day.

frustrations with wedding planning

hi wonderful world of blogging and the two people who are subscribed to me!

the last couple of days have been a tiny bit trying...i was very frustrated and annoyed with anything wedding planning and very seriously considered pulling the plug and just elope (its good to always remember there is a plan B i suppose)...i was in one of those funks where i was reflecting on what i've done and haven't done and realizing that i'm not "brimming with happiness" with this whole wedding planning thing... i always thought i would be completely over the moon to be engaged and getting married (i was right about this) but what i didn't anticipate was this loathing for the actual planning...it's easy to envision the happy day in your head, but the amount of details and execution to realize this vision is a whole other big hairy scary animal.

i mean what girl doesn't dream about that big poofy dress (mine actually isn't that poofy), the flowers, the party, the EVERYTHING since they were like 5? (well maybe not everygirl, but most/many girls did)...i was very excited to start planning, but then the stress started coming. in general i gotta say i had it pretty together... i was pretty calm and blase about a lot of the planning, what i now realize is only true if the planning only involved me, and only me making the decisions. in the real world many of the decisions i mull over and compromise with chris...this makes things a tad more complicated because meshing what i want and what he wants takes some serious tactic...this also prolongs the process which i have to tell you, i hate! i love just picking something booking it and get it done, its how i'm so efficient, really i'm not tooting my horn here...its when i get more input that throws a wrench in everything, throws me off and results in this what i think is wedding madness...

and then there is the mother in law who is concerned about the amount of money being spent on this big day, and then there is my mom who is all in the "you're only getting married once, spend whatever you need to" mantra going...opposite mentaities at work here also kinda get me a little anxious...just let me do it my way dang it!

also what i hadn't counted on was the size of wedding party impacting anything...now i realize that getting 6 girls measured for their dresses at THEIR convenience isn't that condusive...with only 3.5m onths left to go, the dresses aren't ordered yet because i'm missing one measurement...gah! how the feck did i let this happen and drag on for this long? we picked the dress out months ago! more stress i don't need right now...

everything suddenly felt too "big" for me...i didn't want to be bothered with selecting a florist, or wrangling my girls all together or anything for that matter...with a few months left to go...i think i finally had a minor meltdown where i just needed to stop...so what did i do? i turned on tivo (people that know me, know i don't watch tv cept for DWTS or SYTYCD) and i flip through the suggestions and selected a movie to watch.. what did i pick? HIGHLANDER, haha, it was so awful, it was so 80s but it did the job...i ignored what was stressing me out for a few hours, i made myself a yummy dinner ( i made a good pasta sauce) and i just lost myself for 2-3 hours bring normal and not stressing out... it worked.

i'm better today after my little brain vacation and some chatting with Chris and MOH R, and am once again tackling this big scary hairy monster i have since become well aquainted with... wedding planning.

good luck to other bride to bes out there! just remember when all seems lost, there will always be highlander lol.

because i got flowers on the brain

here's another stunning bouquet i love

monkeys off my back - flowers

i really have nothing exciting to report on the whole wedding planning front, i mean 4 months out and i still didn't secure my florist, i think i was supposed to have done this like 3 months ago haha. but que sera sera!

with the encouragement of faithers, i made an appointment to meet with richard who is the in house florist for fox hollow for this saturday and he asked me to do the research on what i wanna do about florals...i have a big fat question mark here ladies...i have no real idea what to do haha...centerpieces you might recall from our last post we wanted to do hanging votives off of tree branches but since its a day time wedding in a ballroom with a lot of natural lighting, this might not be the best idea.. so richard suggested blossoming branches...something like this i'd imagine
the colors will work perfectly with our wedding scheme and i kinda like it, i wonder what chris' thoughts are on this? the branches and votives were originally his pick.

next to contemplate are bridal bouquet and bridesmaids...generally speaking, white and ivory roses are my absolute favorite flowers of all time... so i was thinking of something like this:
i like the green berries so i'll make a point to have the florist incorporate some of that into the bouquet

for the bridesmaids, i was leaning towards green florals like this:
this will really pop against their sapphire blue dresses.

boutonnieres and corsages will just coordinate, have the florist figure that one out, i can't be bothered with it anymore at this point...

and lastly for today, i was thinking about putting a fresh flower in my hair instead of a headpiece ala:
but not sure if the green will work with my wedding look so the alternative might be something like this:


until next time! peas out!

Money Blues

Getting married in the time of a recession really stinks, like REALLY! not being sure if you might be laid off a week, a month or a year from now sorta puts a damper on this whole wedding planning for many...for Chris and I we haven't really spared many expenses...all the DIYing we've done is actually due to time constraints more so than budgetary constraints (probably due to procrastination on my part)... i had a short flipping out situation about the invitations but otherwise it's all been pretty smooth, especially when you have a handy credit card on hand...now i'm not condoning racking up on the plastic, because if you actually maintain a balance of over 30% of your credit limit, it can actually hurt you, so please make sure you pay off those balances in a timely manner...

anyway im going off on tangents...whats kinda on my mind is how are people saving for their weddings? i mean chris and i go on less dates now, eat out less and try to bring lunch as often as we can...it helps a little bit..but in the end this wedding is such a huge expense that i'm wondering if our little attempts to save 20 bucks here and 100 bucks there is putting a dent in anything?

i'd like to think it does even if in reality it doesn't :)

but i know for a fact that after this wedding, date night every week will resume...i miss seeing a movie with chris every week (good or bad movie) and or eating out at some new restaurant that we've never been to before.

Learning Experiences

Wedding planning has been a bit of a learning experience for me, having previously been a bridesmaid before i really thought i knew what i was doing coming into this, boy have i been schooled since.

last night i met with my day of coordinator (she happens to be a friend i met through liweddings.com, so lemme know if you want her deets) to go over the wedding, visions and such...and she brought up so many things i haven't considered before, for example, like who will be walking the grandmothers down the aisle? our siblings? uncles? i very glibly shrugged at her in the face of questions i clearly had no answer to.

i also had no idea of timelines, i knew we would have to start early in the day because A) i live not that close to the wedding site, and B) we've got a lot to accomplish BEFORE the actual ceremony began such as tea ceremony and beautifying...This is where Vanessa will step in as my great executioner...the girl will be on hand to make sure everything happens at the proper time to ensure my day will flow as i envisioned it to.

for this i'm very thankful for her, i previously thought i didn't need one, but i am so glad, so happy that we actually have one on board now. for some divine reason the big guy upstairs must think im deserving of this very fortutious opportunity to work with Vanessa, which is deserving of a post all on its own (which i'll be writing about another day)