Meet the Mr.

I feel like I may be getting a little bit ahead of myself. What is a bride without her groom? Let me introduce my husband to be!

I met Justin on a cold December day our freshmen year of college. Looking back on it, it's amazing how normal the day seemed.  I remember eating cereal in my dorm's cafeteria, practically falling asleep in Logic class and stressing about my upcoming Italian final exam.  With the stress of the end of the semester, I almost didn't make it to Kerbey Lane cafe to see my friend, Geoff.  Well had I not, I might not be writing this post.

It wasn't supposed to be a set up. In fact, Geoff messaged Justin later that week insisting that I was "off limits," but we were destined to be.

I don't remember much of the initial encounter with Justin. I do remember we sat in the third booth from the door and that he helped me eat part of my home fries. I remember walking the 7 blocks back to my dorm with him and talking the whole way. I remember thinking he was incredibly nice and that he made me laugh, which as a serious person is hard to do.

Who would have known that such a normal day would be the most important day of my life? What would have been a boring day ended up being the day I met my husband.

By January we were inseparable and have been ever since.

Three years later he asked me to be his wife and I said yes!

A favorite wedding trends

One of my favorite "wedding trends," as I'll call it, is the use of a wedding monogram, or what I'll like to call a wedding logo.

As the first of most of our friends to get married, Justin and I have not been to many weddings in the last few years, so my first experience with a wedding logo was at Brother A's wedding last summer.

He and his wife had  "AJA" printed on many of their paper products. I thought it was a really cute way to really personalize wedding things.

So, what was the first thing I did after we got engaged?

Start making one for our wedding!

I scoured website after website to find wedding logo creators creators. There were plenty of people who wanted to charge me, but I felt like this something that could definitely be DIY.

After a little practice and determining exactly what I wanted (like how I wanted both of our names, not just initials), I finally decided it could be easily made in Microsoft Word. I asked Justin if he would make it and that boy did well.

Now where should you put your logo, or where am I putting mine?
Answer: EVERYWHERE!

As I mentioned, I find that by using the logo, you are really able to personalize your wedding. I think it add just one more well thought out detail.

Purple Wedding Invitations

We used this on our save the dates:

And will be making menus and programs similar to these:

Photo credit- Betsy White Stationary Boutique

Out of town bags, letters, maps, bathroom  baskets and any other object that I can will also include the logo. 

Do you have a logo? What are you putting it on?

Modern Day Wedding Planning

Those who know me well, know that I'm a little bit of a control freak. Okay, maybe more than just a little bit. I am extremely Type A and always have been.

And wedding planning is no different. 

A few weeks after we got engaged, I bought a planner at a Border's that was going out of business. Despite the great price I got on it, I have since determined that the $15 I spent was not worth it. So many of the pages are useless and it does not allow me to control how I organize everything. 

With modern technology virtually everything I need for planning is accessible online and most of it is free! Below are my recommended wedding planning websites and tools. 

Weddingbee- I cant even begin to count the number of hours that I live on this site. A quick search for almost anything wedding related on the boards and you are likely to find your answer. Is your question a new one or pertains just to a particular situation, such as what jewelry goes with my dress? Start your own topic. You are surely to get answers within minutes, sometimes even seconds. You can also buy tons of used and sometimes new wedding items. I purchased my second veil from a bride and got it at a great price!

Googledocs- okay, not exactly a wedding planning website, but necessary none the less. 

Before Justin and I even got engaged we created a doc for people we wanted to invite. As time went on we would add addresses and it was easy to export it to an excel sheet when it came time to print addresses for STDs  We gave access to our parents so that they could add addresses of their friends and check to make sure we hadn't missed someone important. 

I am adding columns like this to this guest list to track RSVPs and thank you notes!

The next incredibly important doc added is entitled "Wedding To Do List." I sat down one day about two months ago and wrote down every possible thing I could think of that I had left to do for the wedding as well as ideal an "due date" for each task. The list, although daunting at first, became my way to check my progress. Anytime I have a few minutes, I'll chose something from the list to work on. It's exhilarating when I can type DONE in the progress column!

Russ and Hazel- I haven't really used them much, but they have every wedding "worksheet" you could think of from bridal contact list to do/do not play list for the DJ. I will likely use them for my seating chart and will keep you updated on that progress
http://www.russellandhazel.com/content/wedding-templates

There are countless other websites and tools out there, like I said these are just my favorites! What is your favorite wedding tool and why?

Tales of Registering

I lived in a sorority house almost all of college and FI lived in a dorm as a resident advisor. Needless to say we never really collected a lot of kitchen items or any household items for that matter.

So, when we got engaged I simply could not wait to register. As a person who loves to cook and entertain I had endless ideas of my perfect home and kitchen. Unfortunately endless ideas isn't really an exaggeration.

After we registered at Macy's I literally changed our fiesta ware color three times. Blue sounded perfect at first, but then I really had to have that yellow kitchen I always wanted and then that plum just looked perfect. I finally settled on red. Maid of honor's mom has a beautiful red kitchen and it finally settled my nerves. I will do yellow accents with the red.

I never knew registering could be so complicated.

So, what is new in the world of registering? I found out from a friend who is also getting married that you can register with Pampered Chef.

Pampered Chef?

I think I'm in love.

Pampered Chef has the most wonderful products. I was so excited to register for items there- it was so easy and no regrets or second guessing like at Macys!  Their products have been my favorite for years. Anyone else have a place that they were SO excited to register at?

Relax...its just a spa.

Since before I even got engaged there were some wedding things I knew for certain. I would get married in a church, we would have a sit down dinner and there would be lots of drinking and dancing at the reception.

Another thing I knew for certain: the day before the wedding was spa day for me and my girls.

But, choosing this spa was a little more difficult than I thought it would be. I have been searching online for about a month or so for the perfect venue to accommodate my beautiful BMs and I in a day of relaxation.

My requirments were a spa that could:

* accommodate all nine of us for a mani, pedi and massage
*serve or allow us to bring in our alcohol (not that we NEED alcohol, but its fun to have a mimosa or two while having a girl's spa day!)
*not make us come in before 10am, as the bachelorette party is the night before
*have us finished before 4pm, as the rehearsal is at 5pm

I must have called ten spas in the Austin area and all of them had something wrong with them or were just outrageously priced.

Finally, today my mom and I went to look at a spa about 15 minutes from my house. We were incredibly impressed with the atmosphere and the staff. They could accommodate all of my bridesmaids in a timely manner, provided wine and mimosas and I just felt comfortable there. Additionally, they told us they would give us ten percent off since we were booking such a large group. We were sold!

I am pleased that the girls and I will be spending a few hours at Wood House Spa to recover from the Bachelorette Party and prepare for the wedding!

This is one of the gifts to my bridesmaids. Is any one else planning on doing or had a spa day with their BMs?

Fails of DIY

I've never been especially craft. My art was usually limited to stick figures and could never master the art block letter. I was unbelievably proud of myself for painting my sorority Little's wooden paddle and letters (and Im still pretty sure they didn't turn out too well).

My level of artist abilities:

But, these days so many brides DIY, well everything. Thankfully, I have a budget that allows me not to have DIY for things like flowers, invitations, save the dates, etc.

I've come to the point in wedding planning that I like to the call the "details." These are the things that probably no one notices that much, but I will cry my out my wedding morning if they aren't all in place. These are things like the out of town welcome letter, the programs, the menu, I Spy game card, the list go on and on.

It seems silly to me to pay someone to create these and print them when I am fully capable to working a computer. But, then comes the real DIY part, the putting the programs together, the gluing, making sure everything is centered. Maybe I will fail at that too.

DIY always sounds great, but after I'm done it stresses me out. I never feel like its good enough!

I started a DIY project last week. I wanted to make bags for my bridesmaids. The doily part turned out very well, but well I came to the letters (I didn't know how to trace on to a bag) I'm fairly confident I ruined the bag! I will probably now be ordering bags for them

 I purchased tanks from Wet Seal to iron on rhinestone BM and MOH letters, but then I found a huge sale and with my lack of DIY skills I could not pass up buying them.

So, now I have 8 black tanks tops and the ugliest DIY bags I've ever seen.

Anyone have DIY problems or great successes? Do you have any tips for making programs, menus, out of town letters?

Lots of updates

Our invitations came in last week and I'm pleased to say that I'm very happy with the way they turned out.

Here is a picture of the invite (with some last names and address crossed out!)

I got a fabulous deal on them, so I feel even prouder of them. I can't wait to send them out in early June :)

I have a new photographer. It was a hard decision to drop my old photographer, because I had paid a deposit and I don't like breaking agreements. But, I am so impressed with my new photographer. I know I am going to be so happy with my wedding day photos. And the good news is, even without getting the original deposit back, I am not losing very much money.



The disposable cameras came in today for the "I Spy" game at the tables! Did anyone do this or planning on doing this. I hope that I can get some great candid shots :)

Enough updates for now- I have lots of packing to do. I'm moving to NC to join the fiancé in TWELVE days!