4 days, and one big task-Thank you!
It’s here. (Well 4 or so days) The wedding ceremony is this Saturday. It’s actually happening. No more planning, no more lists. It’s just a matter of setting up Friday morning, rehearsing Friday night, and getting ready Saturday morning. Then its time! After years, it’s finally happening. I get to marry the man I love. My excitement and love for everything is beyond words. (I think Matt’s is too but he expresses himself differently. He is male after all. Me, I just usually cry!) All the decorations and trimmings are beyond my wildest dreams. After planning for 3 ½ months, it’s all tangible and real now.
When Matt and I asked my parents if we could have it in the backyard, I didn’t realize what a huge enormous task this was. My original thought was mow the lawn, put a few chairs with some bows tied to them and ceremony away! Oh boy was I wrong! My parents calmly said yes to our request and seemed happy by it themselves. I wonder if they also underestimated the hugeness of this undertaking. This past weekend, I went to the house to check out the flowers, make a few final decorations and get a general idea of everything. My parents were busy planting, mowing, and cleaning. As I walked into the back yard, I could envision how it will be this Saturday. Let me just say, its spectacular! It won’t look like a backyard with chairs. It will look like a wedding venue, like a beautiful garden with blooming flowers, white chairs, a walkway and a stage. My parents have transformed their yard into a dream.
As I stood there, I did my best to not show my emotion. Anything to do with the wedding pretty much brings me to tears because of the excitement, anticipation and wonderfulness of it all. But a girl can’t go around everywhere crying! Mom asked me if I liked it, and I muttered about its wonderfulness, not quite showing how I really felt. I couldn’t I would have burst into tears. (I kind of want to as I write this)
Mom picked out tons of pink and white flowers to plant and put on the stage to incorporate the shades of pink of my decorations, and then she planted them all! They painted the shed and pressure washed every surface of concrete. Dad has built a walkway from the patio to the stage that he also built, so that no girls have heels sink in dirt and my dress doesn’t drag in the grass. The work that they have put into this is beyond my wildest imagination and the thanks that I want to give them I believe won’t be enough. I don’t think I can truly express everything. Every attention to detail has been paid!
Mom and Dad,
All I can say is Thank You! Thank you for everything! All of the hard work you’ve put into the yard, for letting us have it there, for raising me the way you did. Everything is perfect. I’m sorry if I haven’t shown all the emotion that I truly feel, Its so overwhelming that I can’t put into words how strongly I feel. Everything you’ve done shows love, and I can only hope that I can show you how much I appreciate and reciprocate all the love you’ve given to not just me but us.
We love you both and THANK YOU!
4 days folks and pretty much counting hours! This will probably be my last post at the “Future” Mrs. T. Next time, I’ll BE MRS. T and have plenty of juicy details and pictures to share!
By loves, see you after the Bahamas!
Time to boogie down the aisle?
It’s a little less than 3 weeks away. 
Its coming down to the wire. I can’t believe it. (That’s my new catch phrase I guess!) We are now down to finishing the last decorating and making programs. Of course, I’m making the programs more complicated than they should be. Yeesh! Last week we made the all important ceremony music decisions. Let me tell you, you have not lived until you’ve previewed 163 bridal marches on amazon.com. It makes for quite an exciting evening. By now I’ve probably listened to our playlist about 50 times and think every time it gets better and better. Its no easy task to determine music for grandparents and parents to be seated to, for the bridesmaids to walk out to, or for us to exit too.
Sure, we could have used some cookie cutter cd, but what’s the fun in that. This wedding is already about personalization anyway so of course we had to carry it through in the music.
After the ceremony and 70 programs get made, I’ll share with you our play list. Hint: its not all that traditional! Until then, what music did you play at your wedding or do you want to play??
Photo Source: http://weddings.theknot.com/Real-Weddings/47850/detailview.aspx?id=47850&type=3&wedding+details=Ceremony&knot+pick=true
30 days, and sundaes…
1 month, 30 days, 720 or so hours!
That’s it folks! That’s the countdown to our wedding! AAHH!! *screams with nerves and excitement* In going over the many things to do, the checked off marks are increasing and the to do’s are slightly decreasing. More yes’s are being said than no’s to “Have you done this or that?” This past Sunday we had a wedding shower. It was wonderful. Lovely hostesses and guests! I was overwhelmed with the attention. Matt and I were so touched with everything! Thank you again ladies! I’m in the process of writing thank you notes and finishing some last touches to a few decoration ideas. Oh and working on programs……lists don’t stop. I will let you in on a big secret surprise about the ceremony though. Won’t be so much a surprise but the final execution will be! As you know our ceremony will be followed by a send off. What’s a send off?
Something Matt and I made up! Its not a reception just a chance for us to speak with our guests before we leave. We will be having cupcakes and punch, and an *drum-roll*
ICE CREAM SUNDAE BAR
During my random wedding idea internet searching I came across this lovely idea at Eat, Drink, Chic. An old fashion ice cream sundae bar! Isn’t it lovely? I fell completely head over heels for it and it didn’t take much to convince Matt of its brilliance. (Just promises of certain toppings!)
It fits perfectly with the vintage vibe of the wedding!!
Course never to copy anything exactly the same, its going to have lots of personal touches but the same vintage parlour concept. (striped fabric, vintage holders–eeep I can’t wait!) I’ve been working feverishly to get all the toppings, syrups, containers, and labels just right! I’m almost done!
This concept along with the cupcake tower tie into the unweddingness. Now to figure out how to tie this into the reception……
30 days and counting…doesn’t seem quite real! After almost 5 years with this wonderful man, in 30 days he’ll be my husband. During these years we’ve been through a lot. We’ve learned how to have an argument and get through it quickly. We’ve learned how to still act like kids and be mature the second we need to. We’ve learned to read each others emotions better than ourselves. We’ve learned how to tell each other the truth even when the truth isn’t what we want to hear. He’s taught me so much about myself that I didn’t know before. Instead of being a relationship where I lost myself, I think I’ve grown into more of myself because of him. He makes me better, which makes us better! I want these 30 days to go by quickly because I can’t wait to call him husband, but I also want them to go slow because I want to cherish every moment God has given us to lead to this day.
April 17th here we come!
Photo Source/Idea: http://www.eatdrinkchic.com/post.cfm/diy-ice-cream-parlour-make-your-own-sundaes-buffet-concept-for-wedding-or-party
Bridemaid Dresses to wear again,again, and again.
I’ve been in a couple weddings and brides maid dresses are one of the hardest things about the wedding to me. Do you want them to match? Will they all look good in the same thing? What color would be best? Could they wear it again?
NOT EASY! Well, like 5 years ago I decided my girls were gonna wear black (so they could wear the dress again). Now its a big trend and everyone does it. (i always manage to jump on the wagon just before it explodes. Can I take credit for having this idea so long ago?
Anyway, I decided that I wanted them to find a dress that fits them-their personality, their taste, their body, and their comfort level. They do have to wear this dress twice! Once at the ceremony, and again at the reception. Hopefully they all pick one they like so much that they’ll wear it many times over. This also leads to my next big dilemma with them–cost. I left it up to them to chose how much they wanted to spend on their dress. Being a bridesmaid isn’t just showing up in a pretty dress and walking down an aisle. You have to buy the dress, shoes, jewelry, pampering, gifts, and possibly throw showers. That stuff usually ain’t cheap. So when I asked my girls, Christa, Emily, Sarah and Tori. I told them all up front my ideas. So far they all seem happy with it.
I only had 2 requirements for the whole ensemble. Black shoes, and an above/at knee length dress. The great thing about a little black dress is you can find them in all different styles and different price ranges. I found one on forever21 for $24.50. Every girl has a pair of black heels. Well I would hope they do! I can the girls an idea of what I wanted them to look like (open toed, straps, etc) and from there its up to them.
2 girls so far have found their dresses. One strapless, One halter-which I’m thrilled about because I don’t want them to all look the same. I’m excited because one of the shower weekends, they are all coming to stay with me and will all be bringing their dresses/we’ll all go shopping for others dresses! I love girl time!
Picture Source:http://store.delias.com/item.do?categoryID=1834&itemID=52569&sizeFilter=&colorFilter=&brandFilter=
FOUND! Engagement Video
I found it! No worries if your not on facebook, I uploaded the engagement video to youtube, find it here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/fierceglamour?feature=mhw4#p/a/u/0/ZOzpYTWWYOE
Mailing makes me fluttery!
Today, I am putting the ceremony invitations in the mail. This is probably not a big deal as it feels to me. To tell you the truth it feels HUGE! My heart gets fluttery with excitement just thinking about dropping them in the mailbox! Last night as I stuffed them in envelopes I felt the same way. Excited, Nervous, like it was really official and not just a dream!
To jog your memory, our ceremony is in about 6 weeks. It will be small. The invitation went to almost exclusively to family and the wedding party. (Fear not! You’ll be included too! Our reception will be on July 3rd. Save the dates are coming soon and that’s a whole nother DIY adventure!)
So these invitations are deeply important to Matt and I because they are going to “the people who have gotten us where we are” (as Matt would say!) Moms, Dads, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Best Friends—all mean more to us than sometimes we even realize.
But these thoughts weren’t lost on me last night as I carefully licked, stamped, and closed each envelope. It took longer than it probably should have but I’m only going to mail out my wedding invitations once! So it was special to me! (laugh all you want at my sentimentality—blame my family!) =D I even saved a few for Matt to stuff and lick (since he just supervised in the making of the invitations, I felt bad) He realized the importance too! And took his sweet time stuffing those few. Haha! It would have taken probably 3 times as long as me to do ALL of them, and I was going slow. He knew it too! Anyway, we are super excited to mail them out today! And in case you forgot what they looked like:
The reception invitations are going to look like this too! =D
Also on the agenda this week:
- Meeting with the wedding photographers
- Going to a friends wedding
- Working on Save the Date’s
- Deciding what I’m gonna wear on the honeymoon! (Yes, it takes me this long!)
Never one to miss an opportunity to market; check out my fashion and beauty blog, The Fierce Glamour Blog!
Invitations are sneak peek to wonderfulness!
I have 3 friends, and about 5 acquaintances getting married this spring. Whoa! As I hear how others will do their wedding its interesting to kind of compare. But really there is no comparison, because how we do ours is completely different than what someone else would do and like. Vice Versa!
If you do not send out a save the date card, the first thing others see of a wedding is the invitation. To me, it’s a “sneak peek” of the festivities. It tells a little bit about how formal/informal or traditional/untraditional the wedding will be.
So of course for our unique little wedding, we had to have a unique invitation! I’m totally in love with our invitation, it’s the prettiest one I’ve ever seen/will see. I don’t think we could have done a better job. (I know others will not share my opinion but I don’t really care, I’m too blissfully happy with mine!) And Matt likes it too. I made sure to ask at every step if he approved and make sure it was fitting of us (and not just my crazy crafty imagination!)
We (Mom and I—Matt supervised) made the first round of invitations the other night. I say first round be cause we made just the ceremony invitations. Reception invitations will be exactly the same except there will be a WHOLE lot more. Plus, all the rest of the required stationary (STDs, RSVPs, Thank yous, Programs) BM’s get ready! It will be assembly line production on that for sure with lots of extra hands.
We got them all made and I snapped cell phone pictures of each step. Because of course I never do anything really easy (there were at least 10 different steps!) Lots of stamping, folding, gluing, and printing. They are not great but at least we have pics! In the end, every single step was worth it because they are beautiful! *P.S. Thank you April for helping come up with the concept! Thank you Mom for helping make them! Thank you Mom & Matt for putting up with my crazy ideas!!
So here’s the step by step and the final invitation!
Step 1: Roll the stamp across small white paper with light pink ink!
Step 2: Stamp “cherish” in black on rectangle piece.
Step 3: Add sparkle dots( called dazzling diamonds! hehe) on small rectangle piece!
Step 4: Add black edging to top of rectangle piece.
Step 5: Attach darker pink lace to bottom of rectangle piece.
Step 5-10: I missed a couple pictures in here because I got so caught up in making them but (5) we printed the wording on white paper, (6) rounded the white corners, (7) stamped light pink scrolly thing-twice, (8) attached to green card, (9) rounded green top corners (10) folded card
Step 11: Attach small rectangle to bottom of green invitation.
Step 12: Punch out 2 hearts and attach together.
Step 13: Attach hearts to invitation. Spray with “special touch”! There it is the finished product!
*Sigh* I’m in love with them. And ready to make more/everthing else! They are time consuming but so worth it, I love to make things! Until next time!
New Page
I just added a new page with a few helpful things for you. Be sure to check it out! Let me know what else would be useful information for that page!!
DIY means dumb in yo-yo’s?
Creating things in my family is given. And if you know me at all, you know that I got this gene many times over. Its completely in my blood (I’m even slowly trying to make it a profitable business–www.thepinklemondesigns.etsy.com). My dad’s mom and sister have painted dinner china, porcelain dolls, and done awesome wood crafts! My mom and her sister have made so many awesome decorations (holiday, party, etc) I can only hope to be as talented and them. My girl cousins on mom’s side, same thing! From drawing, collage-ing, crafting, and scrapbooking, we all compare notes on how the other one did that. So it’s really in my blood! Plus it is one of my favorite things to do in my free time.
Now all that lead up was to say, I’m going to be doing a lot of the wedding preparations myself (this means MOB, MIL, Aunts, bridesmaids, and all other creative people I know). It’s a very DIY wedding! I’m making invitations, all wedding related stationary, bouquets, boutonnières, decorations, and anything else I/we can think of. I’ve been talking about all these projects to Matt since we started planning, mentioning DIY all the time. He nodded his head in acknowledgement with everything I said (I am highly aware that I ramble on about a lot of crafting and he nods to say he’s partly listening, and that’s ok with me because I just like to talk about it.) Then finally about 2 weeks ago, I was babbling on about something and he said, “What is DIY?” I stood shocked. I forget sometimes that not everyone knows all of my different acronyms. DIY means Do It Yourself! I explained, and he replied, “Oh, that makes a lot of the other stuff you’ve been talking about make a lot more sense.”
I love him. He makes me smile.
All this to say, we’ve gotten started on making everything (invitations are this week). I started on bouquets last weekend, (NOT EASY)! Thank goodness, I only have to make 5 (four bridesmaids, and my throwaway). I also made the boutonnières. Those were way easier!
Of course while making the 2nd bouquet; I’ve realized I wanna change something on the 1st one so that one will be taken apart again. This is the only frustrating thing about “crafting” (I think we need to think of a new name for it, crafting as a verb sounds so flippant. Its much more of an art than people realize, whoops, that’s a whole ‘nother discussion!) I will update this with a picture or two of my bouquet making soon.
And two more things:
We got our cake topper in! A rhinestone T! Isn’t it pretty!
AND………………… we get married in 2 months from today. Insane!!
Mom, I look like the top of a wedding cake!
I think every little girl dreams of the day she gets married starting around the age 3. Its encouraged and though of as cute. This includes visions of big dresses, long trains, flowy veils, and lots and lots of tulle. I was no exception. I was into drawing around 12 and designed my own dress back then. It was quite elaborate with rhinestones, low cut backs, and pretty flowy fabric. But what it definitely was NOT was a big puffy tulle dress that would make me look like I 
belonged on the top of the wedding cake. This has never been my thing! Well, fast forward 11 or so years, time to find a dress. When we went shopping for it, I was just going to look and to get an idea of what I wanted. (which was NOT puffy)
Beforehand, I was snooping at all kinds of dresses on The Knot (which I’m addicted too and is possibly one of the best resources a bride can have!). I was especially drawn to a-lines, drop waists, and even short dresses. This Moonlight Tango dress totally had my eye, not quite garden wedding but man would it be cute as a leaving dress/reception. And just for your own sanity, I did not pick this dress. (I know quite a few people who might faint if I wore that to my wedding.) When we went to look, I tried on about 25 or more dresses. Toward the end we started grabbing anything that seemed to catch my interest. Two of the last dresses we chose ended up being the main contenders. One was very different, not traditional wedding at all, very vintagey, with sa sheer overlay, sheath-ish and sparkly; the other said wedding, pure white, strapless and fitted in all the right places, a little bit of detail with a pretty train. Well hence to say, I chose one of these dresses. Er, as cliché as it is, the dress chose me! One overwhelmed me by how it was so me; the other overwhelmed me about how surprisingly good it looked. I’m happy to report I do not look like a wedding cake topper! Its not tulley, its not a poufy, Its totally me! I WANNA SHOW EVERYONE!
We snatched it up and I made my mom take it home with her. WHY? You ask. Because I don’t trust myself not to tell/ show Matt. He’s my best friend. I tell him almost everything, I show him almost everything. So to have the dress in my possession and NOT be able to show him would be torture. Its been difficult enough for me not to tell him (and you) exactly what the dress looks like. I love it so much and love him so much that it is hard not to share joy! I ordered my veil, and keep wanting to show him that too! I can’t be trusted around myself. Course when your best friend is your future husband, its pretty hard to keep anything a surprise. Can I tell/show YOU what my dress looks like?
argh!
