Sunday, May 9, 2010

Long awaited updates ( lots of pictures )

Its been forever since Ive posted on here but for good reason! We have been super busy getting the house ready! Yes! We got our house!! After 4 months of waiting and stress and tears everything has finally paid off. We are officially home owners and we officially have a location for the wedding!

As far as wedding planning goes, here is whats been going on:

We got Richards Tux. Its way too big so we need to go have it altered. Next is shoes and a shirt.


I also finally got up the nerve to rip the back out of my dress and put in the corseting stuff. :-)

Im having second thoughts about my shoes after a trip to my local DSW. Gosh being a girl is difficult sometimes.

Jewelry is coming along smoothly but slowly. I keep running out of beads or ribbon but Im staying positive and unstressed.

This is what my jewelry looks like.



The bridesmaids jewelry will look like this. Similar but more simple with black ribbon.









We finally finished painting all of the butterflies for the cake.















Invitations went out about a week ago and I have quickly realized that NO ONE ever RSVPs. Its really irritating. And why do people think they can invite other people to my wedding? UGH! Stupid families.

Anywho, things are obviously coming along pretty smoothly. Lots of stuff left to do but its mostly last minute things. Will update more later!

Monday, November 2, 2009

QUICK Updates

So here is whats been going on recently:

House- waited 2 months to hear back on a short sale only to find out that the bank will not accept anything lower than 148 because the owner is still making monthly payments. We only offered 130 and aren't going above that so yeah.....the search continues.

Centerpieces- went to Hobby Lobby and bought the stuff to make more centerpieces. This will get us a total of 7 or 8 and hopefully we wont need any more than that.

Jewelry- FINALLY paid for everything in my basket at Fire Mountain Gems. Once everything arrives I will put together the jewelry for the girls and myself.

Ring- Finally bought the "diamond" from Nexus Labs and took it to the jeweler with our idea and got a quote. 1100-1500. This could go up or down depending on the price of gold. YIKES! Richard still wants to go ahead with it. We'll see.....

Thats about it. Off to work :-S

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Save The Dates and Cufflinks

So, heres the save the dates we will be sending out (probably in December). Designed them myself with Photoshop and they help of my honey. These will be printed 3.5x5 on magnetic sheets. The photo in the middle was dont my very good and talented friend Maria Fulmer.

Also- I recently purchased and recieved cufflinks for some of the boys. Im still waiting on Richards and still have to buy some from my dad and his brother Zach. In the mean time- heres the ones I got. Purchased them from thepremierlink-au and thenicoshop on Ebay. In truth, they are the same person- one just has more in the store than the other. Please excuse the finger prints all over them :-P

Richards Dad- Silver "grass" on top of cherry wood


Brian (Brother)- Shifter knobs

Barton- Gas gauge and Spedometer


Tuesday, August 18, 2009

"Save the date"s

While visiting Arizona a few months back, I spotted a very cute idea on my friends fridge- a "Save The Date" magnet. What a great idea! Cards can be lost, misplaced, bent up or thrown away by accident. A magnet on the other hand, just toss it on your fridge and forget about it (sort of).

So, the last few days- after fighting with my computer for an entire afternoon to get Photoshop CS3 downloaded- Ive been playing with designs, ideas, colors, and pictures. Ive been combing the internet for inspiration (and cheap deals of course).

I quickly decided that I wasnt going to pay to the money to have someone else print them. However, I did find a great deal on printable magnet sheets from Amazon.

No previews yet- I will toss one up as soon as Richard and I finalize a design.

In other news- we should be starting our house hunt very soon! We got out good faith estimate yesterday and are just waiting to hear back from the realitor. We're getting there!!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

And the count down begins....

It's official. We have EXACTLY 1 year unitl the wedding. Time to get cracking.


Ive actually made a bit of progress since my last posting. Ive purchased my flower girl basket as well as a clip on tie I can take apart to make a pattern for little Darrold. We've (or rather I've) been working on a list of songs for the reception and ceremony. We've decided on our first dance song and also the song I will be walking down the isle to :-)


We've also semi decided on centerpieces. We purchased some supplies to make a "prototype" (Richard thinks its sexy when I say that-hahaha). Im thinking we are going to need larger bowls but we will see. Here's a preview.


As you can see, its a bit crowded but its pretty. Black river rock at the bottom. One fabric lilly in the center with 3 fabric orchids surrounding and a floating candle.

But now for the important part- where am I at on my budget??
Decorations/Other: 47.82
Clothing/Jewelry/Etc: 251.43
Invites/Favors: 63.97

TOTAL: 363.22

:-) Not too shabby if I say so myself.

More updates soon- we should be getting pre-qualified for a home sometime next week!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Frustration and Shoes

A lot of my friends would call me a picky person. And I would have to say that they are dead on. Of course, there was no exception when it came to my shoes. After deciding on wedges due to it being an outdoor wedding and me not wanting to aerate the lawn with my heels, I began to search.


And search.


And search.


And search some more.


What I had in mind was simple, elegant yet casual. All i wanted was a simple design up front and longish straps that I could wrap around my leg and tie. Not too much to ask right? Apparently it was. After searching for (I kid you not) 4 months, finding some I liked only to have them be out of stock, discontinued or unavailable in my size- I finally found a pair that I loved on Lovemyshoes.com. They were a bit pricier than Id hoped considering Im trying to do this wedding on a small budget, but I purchased them.


Like with most online transactions there was a bit of guessing involved. I obviously couldnt try them on so I decided to purchase a size 9 (Im between and 9 and 10 normally). I ensured that they shoes were also available in a 10 just in case but had no concerns. I was told that I would be notified when my order was shipped, would be given a tracking number and that it would take about 7-10 business days to arrive.


Considering we were going to Arizona for 10 day shortly after my purchase, we arranged for Richards dad to come over, take care of the cats and keep a look out for the box. Upon returning home, there were no shoes. So I attempted to contact the company. No answer.


Being the patient person I am, I decide to wait for a while longer. A week and a half later, after I checked up on the order AGAIN I saw that they had shipped. A little twirked by this point because I had never received any sort of notification (it had been almost 2 weeks since I had originally ordered) I was finally beginning to see light. They promptly arrived 7 days later and where of course- too small.


I contacted the company and told them what was going on. The very unhelpful guy on the other end told me that there were plenty of the size I wanted and to check my email and print out the shipping form that UPS would send me. When I informed him that that was impossible since I had a virus on my computer that didnt allow me to access the Internet, he told me to take my computer somewhere that had WiFi. I wanted to scream! After re-explaining my predicament to him he agreed that I could call back and have them fax it to my work, which I promptly did the next day and had the box shipped out.


Then the waiting started again. After 2 more weeks they finally updated their website showing that the shoes had been received and that I had a credit. Again, I received no notification and had no idea what was going on. Again, I decided to be patient to see what was going to happen. Considering it was a Thursday I figured that my new shoes would be shipped out the following week. No such luck.


I had no clue what was going on until I check my bank account Tuesday morning and saw that they had refunded my money. FINE! Ill just go back on and reorder the correct size if these morons cant figure it out. Well guess what- size 10 is no longer available in white. At this point Im livid. Am I expecting too much in this day and age of cell phones and email to think that a company that does business all over the US would notify me and let me know whats going on?!


So screw it. Im done with that company. It took a few days of searching to find another pair I liked from- of all places- Old Navy. Sorry folks, but this girl is not an Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, Buckle OR Tillys shopper- its just not my style to wear overly priced preppy clothes. Anyhow, I attempted to purchase them online but the website was screwy so I called the local stores and found one that had a pair in my size.


All of this was yesterday. Now this store that I went to was damaged by a tornado that touched down in the area on Sunday. Not majorly damage, but the AC unit was hit and not functioning. So I call, expecting them to be closed until the unit is repaired or replaced but they were open. The girl that answered was EXTREMELY helpful. I told her what I was looking for, she went in the back, grabbed my size ( I asked for a 10 this time) made sure it was what I wanted by explaining what they looked like and said she would hold them for me for two days (it was the only pair in that size) just in case I wasnt able to make it in last night. I went in, tried them on and bought them. Now thats what I call customer service!!


Im so happy with the shoes and I cant wait to try them on with my dress! Couldnt find a photo of the white ones but this is what they look like :-D

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

So Really Quick...

As always, been very busy, but here's what Ive been up to :-)


Finished Richards tie. Now just need to get it professionally pressed and have to find a clip on tie I can take apart to make little Darrolds tie.

Bought stuff to make the girls sashes. Yes, that is blanket binding and yes I really am using it!

Found this really cute dress in one of the magazines I got. Probably ridiculously expensive but now its actually go me considering making the girls dresses :-S (sorry its sideways....it wont upload the right way) Bought the frame we wanted from Walmart when it went on sale. The cake topper we want is just the people by them selfs and we are going to etch our own toasting glasses with just the upper porting of the figures.
Found these AWESOME salt and pepper shakers, lol. Theyre on LeWeddingFavors.com. Everything on there is very cute and extremely well priced. Check it out!

Signed up for our first (and probably only) registry :-)Considering Richard and I have been living together for a while, we pretty much already have everything we need. That being said, I never really understood the point of registering for a bunch of stuff that we didnt need or want at overly priced home goods stores so when i found out that American Furniture Wearhouse had a registry I singed up! Its basically a "cash account" where people can contribute how much they want (there is not minimum) and when we are ready we can just go pick out our stuff :-D Genious!
Well, thats about it! Have Fun!