seriously?!?!

I have the wrong friggin' BM dresses. My wedding is in 33 days and I have no BM dresses. A pictorial explanation. I have 6 girls total: a Matron of Honor, a Maid of Honor, 4 Bridesmaids. My colors are aubergine and bordeaux. Which is just a hoity-toity way of saying dark purple and wine.
The MOHs are wearing the dress on the left. We wanted to keep the purple color at the top and dye the light orchid to the wine color. The BMs would wear the dress on the right.
The dresses just came in on Thursday, November 11. My MOHs live in my hometown and went to pick up their dresses on Friday. They came out gorgeous! (The picture really doesn't do it justice) And they fit just about perfectly. Great. phew.
I was going home for the weekend, so I could pick up the other dresses for my 4 BMs (who aren't in town. One is from the area and will...sorry would have gotten hers around Thanksgiving; one lives near me and I was going to meet her to drop off; the other 2 were going to get there's during my shower/bachelorette shindig the first weekend in December.)

It's after 2 on Saturday when I remember that I need to pick up the dresses. (They close at 4.) I run to the store because we were getting everything ready for DFSDs 5th birthday party.

What was waiting for me?4 of these, in this color. What is this? I did not go Bridezilla. I did not go off. The lady at the dress shop said she'd make some calls and call me on Monday.


She left me a message about the dresses getting shipped but they are somewhere else. Noone else has called in about wrong dresses and she just had them get started on new dresses because we need them here ASAP.

*side note* Soooo just to be clear: There was an order with the same dresses that I ordered for 2 of my ladies for 4 other women out there in the world somewhere who are the exact same sizes as the 4 girls I have in my bridal party. Riiiiight.

She said something about 2 weeks and that the dress makers (or whoever "they" are) know we are working on a tight schedule. I was thinking she was saying getting them here in 2 weeks, but I do believe this chick was saying 2 weeks before they would SHIP! And they would get here around the 13th.

of.December.

like 5 days before my wedding?

um, go to hell.

"and the company is going to cover all the alterations and the girls can go to my seamstress who is just 2 doors down from me, blahblahblah" says She.

Yeah, except for the fact that none of them live there, you nimrod! They will not be in town until Friday, December 17th.

le sigh

updates to come

WOOT!

And the honeymoon is BOOKED!!! Yeah, baby! We will be spending 5 days/4 nights at the Secrets Capri Riviera Cancun. I am uber-excited! These are a few photos from the website:

I have already found the Facebook page and check it pretty much daily, ha. I am sure I will be glued to Trip Advisor for the next 90-some-odd days. #cantwait

DIY Checks!

I finished my cake topper! WOOT!

I finally finished a mock-up of my invitations! WOOT!! WOOT!!

I made everything. I got the idea of the double-sided pocket from knottie lreeder. She even supplied some directions and measurements that she used. I eventually came up with my own measurements as I was designing. I believe I'll be printing at home and having them cut at Fedex Kinko's. They charge $1.50 a cut, but you have to remember that's through a ream of paper.

1. the invite
I want to darken the wine shade of our names and am on the look-out for a different stamp to emboss on the side.
2. the backside of the pocket
I ended up with 3 enclosures: R.S.V.P., Reception and Accommodations. The monogram square will be larger; I just got tired last night and wanted to have an idea of what it would look like!
3a. first insert: R.S.V.P.
I have already enlarged and bolded the "We're taking requests" in the bottom right corner. FH didn't notice it and thought others might not know to flip over.3b. first insert backside: Requests
I put a place for guests to request songs they'd like to hear at the reception. I also got an alternate idea for the traditional slideshow played during the reception from another knottie. I put that information on this side as well.

4. second insert: Reception
I just made a reception card that lets guests know they will move to a cocktail hour in a different part of the hotel and then to the ballroom for dinner and dancing.
5. third insert: Accommodations
This card includes the information on the room block. I don't have the specific rates or deadline yet, so I'll add those later.
Can you see the pretty swirlies on the metallic paper?!?

I am quite pleased with it. I hope to get the missing information this week and start cranking these puppies out. I bought a circle cutter from Micheal's yesterday and plan to make the pockets this week. I have between now and September 30th to get everything printed, cut, stamped & embossed and matted. I'll be going home the 1st weekend in October and plan to stuff and stamp then. I'm such a control freak that I will probably just do the mounting to the cardstock backing myself!

Double digit countdown!

Well, here we are at 97 days and counting! oh.ma.gee! Where do we stand?

I got a phone call about 2 weeks with this message waiting for me:

Hi, I'm Raymond, your new contact person at the Hotel hotel.
blah,blah, blah.

At first I was scared, like seriously, this close to the end? But then I thought that it was at least a good sign that he was reaching out and contacting his clients with upcoming events, as opposed to just finding out on my own. It has been a good thing for the most part. We met in person last Wednesday and had our tasting and got our updated contract. This thing is really happening! He also had a copy of a reception set-up that I'd never seen. I love it! They are supposed to do a trial set-up to see if it will work in the space and send me the pics.

I am still in search of some sort of day-of coordinator or decorating/set-up/take-down team. I am calling a lady tomorrow to see if she's available and find out about her prices.

I have emailed my d.j. (who is not local to the wedding) to see if he'll be available for our next consultation in my hometown sometime soon so he can get a look at the space.

We are going to turn in our apps for passports tomorrow (I know, I know!), and I want this honeymoon decided and booked this week!

DIY updates coming in next post!

Wrap-around Labels

Well, I had my Save the Dates, so I needed to get them stuffed, labeled, stamped and put in the mail ASAP. (As of press time, I have one batch out, a second batch in the works and a few more addresses needed.)
I went to my hometown for my mom's 35th high school class reunion weekend; that Sunday night my mom, aunt and I got to work. They put the cards in the envelopes while I tried to decide if I was going to line the envelopes or not.

Ended up going with not. It was late and I didn't have a lot of envelopes, so I scrapped it. I had also considered stamping and embossing them, but they just were not coming out like I wanted them, so that was scrapped as well. Next, they added the adhesive magnet to the back of the business cards. It was justthismuch longer (or wider, I guess) than the business card, but it was quite easy to trim that little edge.

While they did that, I finished my wrap-around labels. I modeled my template after the DIY bride and this is what they looked like:
Simple directions:
1. Open a new document in Microsoft Word.
2. I got rid of all of my margins and then inserted a text box. My final size after tinkering was 1.43 x 7.03.
3. I inserted 2 more text boxes - one for the guests' addresses and one for our return address. I changed the text direction for the return address just because, you don't have to.
4. I made a template with generic wording to determine my font and size and inserted my monogram that I'd previously saved as a .jpg. You can add any design, background or flourish that you'd like. I left the the light outline around the large box to aid in cutting; you could alternatively go with no outline.
5. I then held down the control key (ctrl) and clicked on all four pieces (you may have to do this a couple of times; Word can be temperamental, ha) and then I grouped the elements as one.
6. I then copy and pasted the labels and was able to get 6 to a page.
7. Filled them out, saved each page as STDlabels1, STDlabels2, etc and printed on my HP wireless. Cut out about 3 pages at a time w/ my paper cutter and ran them through my Xyron.

Easy-peasy.

Soleil 100 Days

Soleil 100 Days: "There are thousands of fun, sharable prizes in the BIC® Soleil® 100 Days of Sunshine promotion. Join now! www.FeelTheSoleil.com"

STD - Ch-CH-CHECK!!!

Whee and WOOT! They are designed and ordered. I think they are cute. What do you think? (Lie to me if you don't like them because I've already ordered them.
I designed them on Microsoft Word and SnagIt Editor and saved as a .pdf according to the specifications from Vistaprint. I also ordered a business card version. I might get the adhesize magnet backing for them. Here it is, too.

Men's Wearhouse - Check!

I went to the Bridal Extravaganza in January and signed up for the Men's Wearhouse's little promotion. You can get $400 towards a suit or tuxedo purchase with at least six rentals. We knew we'd have enough rentals and L had been wanting a new suit.

L and I went back in March to get an idea of what he wanted for himself as well as the groomsmen. We were trying to decide between him buying the suit or a tux. We didn't make it back until June. There was a little confusion the next time we went in when the guy tried to find our information in the computer. We also found out that we wouldn't be able to purchase his new tux/suit until 14 days before the wedding date. What the what?!? This wasn't something that was in the fine print. Basically when we booked back in January, it was a new program. They had since created all of the rules, blah-blah-blah.

Here's the deal. L had already decided that he wanted everyone in tuxes. Fine. But that means you'll have to buy a tux, honey. He really didn't want to, as we don't have a whole heap of events in our lives that require a tux. However, if the guys are wearing a tux, he'd have to wear one.

Well he can rent one, you may be thinking. Umm no, not my overgrown honeylump. He's a big football player-type and still works out almost daily. To get an understanding - he has to order a size 56 - 60 jacket for it to fit his chest and shoulders...and a size 40, maybe 42 for his pants. Are you picturing the big ballooning jacket around his mid-section yet? They can't do any alterations on a rented tux other than moving the inner buttons. Uh, no sir. Not in my pics! So now we have to buy and have altered a tux for the wedding in only a 14 day time frame. (He's already talked to the lady who altered his last suit for him - she said it'll be fine.)

Anyhoo, here are some pics of the tuxes and accessories we've chosen. The tux is the Kenneth Cole Reaction three-button (L's will be a similar style but by Jones New York).

microfiber shirt (this is white) in ivory

L will be wearing this Tuscany Ivory vest.


The groomsmen are wearing the Primetime Wine Vest and Tie (L will be in a wine tie as well. maybe.) The second vest is the Tuscany Regency. I am thinking this might work as well. We will see once the girls' dresses come in!

Engagement Pics

I was feeling very stressed. My STDs (wedding planning talk - Save the Dates) should have gone out at the 6 month mark. That would be around June 18th. It came and went. July rolled on in. Well, I had to plan my pictures around my hair, so we had to wait until I got a fresh relaxer.

We finally set up for last Thursday. Our photographer, Ms. Anne Marie Darcy, scouted some locations for our early evening shoot. She had chosen a little local area park with trees that lined a walkway, a bridge (I can't remember the name) that has the Houston skyline in the background and then downtown for some urban-scape shots. I was trying to do all I could to maintain my hair and make-up in the Texas humidity! Well, it rained and was humid ALL last week and Thursday was no different.

We ended up having to push pause. However, we did get some good shots. Andplusalso, Anne Marie knew that I was desperate to get something to use so I could create my STD. She sent me 2 that I could use at like two in the morning! Whee! Here they are. I can't wait to get the rest or to finish the rest of the shoot sans rainstorm!
Will post my Save the Date shortly!

Venue VENT!

I am a bit annoyed with my venue at the moment. FYI: We are having both the ceremony and reception in the same location - a hotel in our hometown. While I always planned to be married in a church, it just ended up making too much sense to have everything in one central location.

The ceremony will be in the atrium by the waterfall, cocktail hour in a foyer-open area with lots of windows and the reception in the ballroom.


Why am I angry?

Well, I hadn't heard anything from them since the end of February/beginning of March. I had emailed the lady in charge of set-up: I need the length of the aisle and I also have a different way I would like the reception to be arranged.
I need the aisle length so I can start working on painting my aisle runner. Most hotel receptions are similar: round tables with white tablecloths, maybe an overlay, some chair covers. However, the hotel has rectangular tables and black stretch linen and chair covers that I loved, so I had a different arrangement in mind. Never heard from her.

Emailed her again.
Never heard from her.

No biggie, as I had gone waaay downhill in planning energy. I'll get in touch with them once the school year ends, and I really get back in the swing of planning.

Cut to last Monday, 6/7; we were in town and decided to go by the hotel and just check in. The main chick was gone for lunch. Turns out the other lady I'd been dealing with no longer worked there and had been gone for about 2 months. Okay, that would explain why I never heard from her.

Anywho, I'm catching up the new lady up with our plans so far, and we start discussing the rectangular tables and stretch linen. As I'm showing her some sample set-ups, she starts in on how she doesn't think they have enough stretch linen and chair covers to use for a reception, have I thought about the white linens they have, have I looked at some other linen companies, etc. I politely explain that no, I don't care for the white tablecloths - very restaurant-like and that I hadn't gone to linen companies as part of the reason that I chose this location was because they had the stretch linen and chair covers already.

Around this time, the main lady got in from lunch and said she'd finish up with us. So we head into her office and run through the same information with her. So I mention how lady1 was all unsure about the number of black linens available and she says, "Yeah, we only have 7." The hell you say. "Yeah, I mean we can order more from the linen company we work with, but we would, of course, have to pass that cost on to you."

Wait. What? We discuss it a bit but not in depth. She doesn't know how much it would cost, blah, blah, blah. After we leave, I ask FI if he remembers that this is not how this chick originally presented the options of the black linens. I get home and check with my mom, who went with me on the 1st visit. I later check with my MOH who also went with us. Everyone has the same response as I did: Wait. Now say what now?!? I 'm quite pissed about having this new additional cost to consider.
I was trying to convince myself that maybe we all had just changed the way we thought about the information over time, but I found a blog post from December 28, 2009. It reads as follows:

So I decided to stay in hometown today and try to set up some appointments to see some venues. I knew it would be hard to make time once we're back at work; I'd have to take off.

I am soooo glad that I did it! I put a tentative hold on the ballroom (1/2) and atrium at the Hotel hotel. I was actually leaning towards the other hotel, but the room was smaller (would hold max 150) and had a $5000 minimum for the month of December (HH's minimum is $4000 and can hold up to 350). The HH has these sleek black stretch linens and chair covers that are included in the rental price! ( All I would need are sashes (maybe). When you look at that and the fact that you are getting a bigger room for less money AND you have the waterfall - the HH had to take the lead. Here are some shots of the room.

I have not been able to get myself ready to talk them about this yet. ugh.

<3CRod

Frick. 188 days...

Well, how did that happen?!? It's time for me to buckle down and get back on this planning thing. I didn't "stop," but I certainly did slow down. But (*singing*) school's out for summer!

***UPDATE***
I plan to get going on my DIY projects. I have purchased a lot of items over the last couple of months and have just placed everything in what is slowly turning into the wedding room.

A newly married bride in the Houston area was selling her candy bar set-up and 10 cylindrical vases. I jumped in and snapped those up! What do you think?

I'm quite excited! I have more than enough containers now and the scoops/tongs.
I have everything I need to paint my banners and aisle runner. I am just waiting on someone from the hotel to let me know the length of the aisle. sigh. More about them in the next post. Here is my trial Here Comes the Bride banner:
More posting. more frequently!
Let's go!!!
<3 CRod

1st DIY check! WOOT!!!

What is DIY? Do-It-Yourself. Thanks to the knotties and their wonderful bios, I have created quite an extensive diy list. A few things I plan to do are invitations, save the dates, monogrammed aisle runner, sweetheart table banner, reception decorations....the list definitely goes on and on. I also LOVE the Mrs. hoodie (and undies, but I haven't attacked those yet.) Anyhoo, a knottie posted that Old Navy had white hoodies on sale for $10 about a week ago. It's this one.

I actually ordered 2 - one in white and one in purple. Didn't really care for the purple, but you can make returns at the store, so it's gone now. Now I have seen several versions of directions for creating your hoodie. They pretty much all involve the same things: making your pattern on the computer, printing it out so it's backwards, using mylar paper, attaching rhinestones and then ironing onto your hoodie. Here are some of the different directions I had saved to use as a possible guide: try these, or these and here is a video.

All of this was fine and dandy and how I planned to make my hoodie. But the thing is, you have to order this mylar transfer paper from online. (A lot of people get it from ebay.) I have a problem. When I decide I want something (or in this case, want to do something), I want to do it then!

I looked around thinking there must be something similar that I could use found in stores, but I actually had no luck. (I did later find this link from someone, but I had already completed my hoodie! She found something at Hobby Lobby that worked similarly to the mylar paper.) I had just about resigned myself to the idea that I was going to have to order the mylar transfer paper and just wait. yuck. And then I found a knottie (through a board search of 'hoodie') who did hers differently. Her directions are perfect - it's how I made mine after all - but here is how I did it.

You need:

your pattern/what you want it to say
tape
a pin
a pencil
iron-on rhinestones
iron or hotfix tool
teflon pressing sheet (optional)

I used the font Edwardian Script for the Mrs. Lastname and High Tower Text for the est. date and printed it out. I taped the paper down where I wanted the saying to be.







Then I took the straight pin (I actually used a thumbtack; easier to hold onto) and perforated my letters through the paper.








Next trace through the perforation/holes with your pencil. This will put your pattern on your fabric when you remove the paper. (Look closely; you can see the outline on my jacket.) Now just place your rhinestones, lining them up with the outline. I used a pair of tweezers I had already; no need for some special rhinestone grabber thingy (imho). I only did a letter (small ones) or part of a letter (if there were a lot of rhinestones) at a time, and would then iron that section before moving on. Just didn't want to end up with some out of line.


I laid the teflon pressing sheet on top of the section and held my iron (set according to the directions on the rhinestones) ON the letter for about 15 seconds. Don't rock; just place. Repeat until it's all done!

I did the initials on the front and like a complete dodo I put L + W, which are fiance's initials! Of course I did not realize this until I had completed the entire hoodie, so I just threw that C up there and kept it moving!

Jenny also changed out the white drawstring on her hoodie to a color that matched her colors on the hoodie. So I switched mine to one that is a wine color. Just as Jenny did, I just tied my new ribbon on one end of the white string, pulled the white through and the wine in and knotted the ends of the wine.

I am so happy with it!

<3 CRod

"You know, I don't really like fake flowers"

This is a quote from my mother. My mother the teacher. The same profession/pay scale as me! We were having lunch the day after Noodlebear proposed and this lady hit me with that sentence. To which I said, "Well, do you like the price of real flowers?!"

In all honesty, I don't care for fake flowers either. I was already thinking about centerpieces/decorations that involved lots of candles and maybe floating flowers or petals. (To me, those can be fake because they are in water.) I just honestly have trouble wrapping my head around spending any serious amount of moolah on something that will be dead in less than a week! Here is one picture that I found a while ago (sorry, I don't know where it came from; if it's yours, let me know!)

My favorite flowers are calla lilies. I have always planned to incorporate those somehow into my wedding. I found this bouquet on my first day on The Knot. It will be mine!
Isn't she just perfect? ahhh...From the same wedding I love the brides pop of color with her white and the white with the girls' purple gowns!

I just <3 it!!!

Anyhoo, we went to our first florist appointment on Saturday morning. We discussed MY bouquet, 3 calla stems per bridesmaid, calla bouts for the guys, rose wrist and shoulder corsages for the important women, 2 altar arrangements, and 8 calla centerpieces. The quote ended up being around $1100. O.My.G. And what did my mom say when I called her a little while ago? "Hmm, that sounds pretty good." Seriously, Mom? We shall see. If anyone ever starts to read this (which I highly doubt), let me know what you did in the way of flowers!

<3 CRod

297 days and counting...

So I'm getting married in a little under 10 months. (Wha? O. My. G)

And just who am I? Well I'm CRod, and my Noodlebear and I have been dating for four years and buddies for five. He proposed on December 18th, the night before my graduation from graduate school. WOOT for my engagement ring and my M. Ed. in Educational Technology all in the same weekend! He actually had to pick up the ring on our way to the airport that morning, so I could see the box in his pocket, but he wouldn't just give it to me. It was the most painful 8 hours. :D

Anyhoo, I am a faithful Knottie and decided to try out a blog to document this journey. I know I'm talking to myself at the moment, but I think this will be an easy way to keep everything together. Hahaha, we'll see I guess.