Oh WHY do you have to be soo fast paced!

If there was one song that nailed it to the T as a couple, it'd be Just like Heaven by The Cure...

Show me how you do that trick
The one that makes me scream" she said
"The one that makes me laugh" she said
And threw her arms around my neck
"Show me how you do it
And I promise you I promise that
I'll run away with you
I'll run away with you"

Spinning on that dizzy edge
I kissed her face and kissed her head
And dreamed of all the different ways I had
To make her glow
"Why are you so far away?" she said
"Why won't you ever know that I'm in love with you
That I'm in love with you"

You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Strange as angels
Dancing in the deepest oceans
Twisting in the water
You're just like a dream

Daylight licked me into shape
I must have been asleep for days
And moving lips to breathe her name
I opened up my eyes
And found myself alone alone
Alone above a raging sea
That stole the only girl I loved
And drowned her deep inside of me

You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Just like heaven

but why does it have to be soo fast? :| jitterbug anyone?

UPDATE... I found a great cover...



and the other is of Edwin Stellar. Bought both off of ITunes and will show HIM later to pick one! i love them!!!

How to get from Point A to Point B in style...

I'm a personal fan of hand drawn maps. Among the thousand other things I wanted for the wedding, one of them was a hand drawn map included in our invitations. I found a great site for inspiration for maps. I love all the different styles it has and gave me more ideas on how to make mine a little more unique.

And if I had the dough to roll like the big dawgs, I'd head on over to Couture Maps by Stephanie Barba. Her sketches are fun and whimsical!


And for the not as artsy crowd, you can head over to Wedding Mapper. They help create easy to navigate maps and points of interest for your guests using Maps.Google.

Sobbing....

Another cute thing to put in the OOT bags so your guests cry at your wedding in style! Also, here is a site where you can find LOTS more!!!




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No tiaras here...

I'm mushy and girly but to a point. I cry at sappy movies and have to hold a hankie at at wedding... but I will not, CAN NOT, should not, be forced into this whole bridal tiara thing.

I'm not a princess, I'm me. I'm goofy and a little clumsy and worst of all, a little rugid. I love sports and my entire life never once pictured myself with a tiara on... so why start now.

So why am I talking about this? Hair jewerly. I have long hair that I'll be wearing it half up with loose curls. At my reception, I'll be changing it to half up on one side, a little old hollywood glam! On my search for the appropriate accessories to pull off this look, I stumble on to this site that offers affordable priced accessories! HOORAY! something I don't have to spend an arm and a leg for! :)

I even found a really cute cake topper there. I would soo get it but we have a cool idea that we're doing for our cake topper!

But back to the subject on hand... how are you doing your hair?

What is a Little Miss...

Mr. Men is a series of 46 children's books by Roger Hargreaves started in 1971. Little Miss was an accompanying series of 33 books with female characters that started in 1981. After Hargreaves' death in 1988, his son, Adam, began writing and illustrating new stories involving the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters, including the creation of six new characters....read more here about the series.

When I was little my mom used to read me those books and called me "Little Miss Bossy" or "Little Miss Chatterbox."  Nicknames I completely deserved... and unfortunately still deserve to this day!

Who am I in real life?  I'm just the gifl next door neighbor who has a tendency to be a bit OCD and adventurous at the same time.  I love traveling, cooking, DIY projects, gardening, running, living, breathing and being with my family.  I believe that life is like a bottle of wine, the older it gets, the better it is.

Do I have a quote that can sum up me?  Why yes I do.  It's taped to my screen and read it aloud every day.

 "I guess what I'm trying to say is, I don't think you can measure life in terms of years.  I think longevity doesn't necessarily have anything to do wiht happiness.  I mean happiness comes from facing challenges and going out on a limb and taking risks. If you're not willing to take a risk for something you really care about, you might as well be dead." --Northern Exposure

:)

Enjoy...

4 months left...

That's all I have left. Sounds like a lot of time but it really isn't. It's intimidating and before I know it will be my special friend's wedding and then it will be all me. :| OMG..

So, today I am kicking off a Fitness Challenge. It isn't a diet, it is a challenge to myself to make sure I get more toned for not only the wedding but for the honeymoon. I don't want to feel weird laying around in a Bikini in the Bali sun.

So to start off the challenge, I present to you an article of Body Toning the upper body:

8 Minutes to Get Rid of Your Upper Body Wobbly Bits

Whether it's the little black dress in winter or, for men, stripping down to your shorts in summer, those wobbly bits around the upper arms, chest and back can easily spoil the look. Here's our 8 minute body toning workout to banish the wobbly bits.
Equipment Needed

Any exercise aimed at toning your body needs something to provide resistance for your muscles to work against. Most of the exercises below use hand-held weights to provide resistance: these can be as simple as water bottles (or even tins of food) you can grip comfortably, or dumbbells in the range of 1lb-5lb/0.5-2kg...READ MORE HERE

Who's with me? Anyone, anyone?

P.S. I will taste test this regimine this article has and report a follow-up if it is worth it!

Inspirations Part 6

While scavenging the Internet for pretty photos of rose centerpieces I found some more inspirations. The last one is for one of my imaginary weddings I'm throwing...hmmm I perhaps I can add it into my faux spring wedding! :) Enjoy!




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SHOE SALE!!!!

I'm in love with Steve Madden shoes. I love how they fit. I love the height they give me. I love how they look! I love love love them.

And now I love them even more that they are having a HUGE sale! On top of saving a fortune, if you spend 100$ you get free shipping!

Chaos...

In the midst of all the housing issues I've thrown myself into doing more projects now to keep my mind off of all this nonsense.

On my to-do list for the week has been my rehearsal dinner inviations, my place cards (just their names), and working on secondary programs. Yes, secondary programs. We are doing two programs for the wedding. The first one is just a fan with the wedding party on it. These will be handed out by my nieces. The second ones will have the everything about the actual ceremony, readings, songs, etc etc etc. These will be in the pews for our guest to follow and not feel so lost.

I feel like I'm on wedding overdrive so I don't have to think about everything else...Do you ever get that way? Where you use the wedding projects as a diversion for other issues?

SHOOT ME NOW...

I absolutely hated videographers. I used to think they were completely pointless. What... you spend lots of moolah on a DVD that you will see, maybe 1/5 of it and get bored, and then put away in the the corner of your video collection? Ya, I want to do that.

That is how I thought until I came across Frequent Flyer Productions. FFP shoots the story of the day, and lets it unfold. They create a film. Now this is something I can seeing spending my hard earned cash on.

Based out of LA, the company is a pool of creative film people (directors, cinematographers, editors, etc) who do this in their down time. They work in TV and Movie Industry so you know they are good! They aren't the typical wedding videographers either, they like the story, so none of this "say hi to the happy couple" mumble jumble!

For samples of their work, go here.

I think their work speaks for themselves. On top of their amazing work, they are polite and very knowledgeable and will work with virtually any budget you have! They give videographers a good name! I can't wait to see what they have in store for me!

Party Dresses

Great sale going on right now at JCREW.

Lots of beautiful dresses for showers/parties/bridesmaids...



Lots on sale and then an additional 20% off if you put it in your shopping bag! Go check it out!

Faux Wedding Cake

We aren't having a HUGE wedding cake. Instead, we are having a HUGE Cupcake stand with tons of cupcakes and a small cake (that looks like a cupcake) on top for us to cut! But nevertheless, I still wanted a pretty three tier cake for decoration. Okay, I know, this is rather frivolous to spend $$$$ of something that no one will eat so we (or more like I) are going to make a fake cake.

Our Fake cake will be covered in Fondant and place on our Candy Bar. :) I'm envisioning using Styrofoam as my tiers and for decoration on the white fondant, using candy for decoration. Kinda like a gingerbread house... Something for looks, not for the tummy. It will act as the centerpiece of the table. Who will be making this masterpiece, me and my nieces! While I was looking for inspirations, I found a few non-traditional cakes... Are you doing anything out of the ordinary for your pretty desserts?





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Mario Cake Source
Ding Dong Cake
Ice Cream Cone Cake

Moving...

not the site... just my computer, and my bed, and my clothes, and well, my life.

We've gone and done it...bought a new home for us. Besides our little bundle of joy coming in two weeks... (it's a puppy!!!!) we were looking to find something where we could start our new lives together as husband and wife.

I thought planning a wedding was hard, it was nothing incomparison to buying a home. The waiting and stress of it all got me sick a number of times and I realized perhaps it isn't a good thing to deal with it until you married or have some free time to kill.

How are you dealing with the living situation after wedding?
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Costco has everything!!!

My FI and I have a long running joke that his favorite store was Costco. When we first started dating, he seemed to be always there. At one point another, he gifted me with my very own membership! HOW SWEET!

While browsing through their website, I found that they now sell invitations. I knew they did the photo cards but I didn't realize they did REAL invitations too!





I mean how cool is that!!! Major savings too and we all love to save!!!!

They also have Customized Napkins, Programs, Bags, and lots more!

YEA COSTCO!!!!

My Pretend Tropical Wedding

I'm having a pretend tropical wedding and y'all are invited. It'll be on a beach hidden away from the hustle and bustle of civilization.. For my pretend wedding I'd wear a simple dress like this:
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and carry flowers like this:
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The sun would set at just the right time where my FI and I would kiss for the first time as husband and wife.
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For the aisle, we'd have tiki torches light our pathway and walk barefoot through the sand and onto the grassy knoll to our reception. We'd have a relaxed BBQ on picnic blankets and as entertainment, we'd watch fire dancers amaze us with their feats!

And in the end, my husband and I would say good bye to our guests with a firework display and you, our guests, will have had a fabulous time!

All, because of my pretend tropical wedding...

Lyrics

On the search for the most beautiful song written to dance with my soon-to-be husband, I stumbled on words that are linked together in a way that you thought wasn't humanly possible to explain what love is...

Death Cab for Cutie are lovers... For the song Passenger Seat, the piano creates the scenery for lyrics such as these:

when you feel embarrassed then i'll be your pride
when you need directions then i'll be the guide
for all time.
for all time.

On another one of their songs, A Movie Script Ending... I started to choke up. The violin whispering in my ears while words like what is below made my heart warm up, as if they were written for just me and him.

With your hand on my shoulders, a meaningless movement... a moviescript ending,
And the patrons are leaving, leaving.

I'm a sap. I'd admit it. On your search for the right dance song, did you ever stumble onto anything that took your breath away?

Fancy feet

I admit it. I'm a shoe-aholic! I love shoes. All things unique and TALL! Since my FI is 6ft, and I'm a tall 5ft 4in, I can indulge in snapping stilettos and super tall heals. For my wedding, I choose an amazing pair of Steve Maddens in Silver. While I love them and all, I'm a little worried that since my reception is outdoors I might sink backwards in the earth and create an embarrassing scene in front of my world! Did this visualization stop me from buying my shoes. NOPE!

Now... I found another shoe that might do the trick... a thicker heal. I dunno if it's better or not, but I do like it. Not as snazzy but it would do.

But I guess none of this matters now since I can't wear either one at the moment. After last weekend brush with death (okay it wasn't really that bad... but it hurt like it was) with a stingray no shoe will fit on my larger-than-life foot. I could make up a superhero story how I jumped in front of it to save little kids from getting stung but I hate lying. It was my luck that of all the people in my ocean swim clinic, I was the one that was "fortunate" to step on it. Now 9 days later, my foot is bigger than a grapefruit and doesn't want to bend, much less wanting to try on fancy little shoes! BOO...

In any case, coming back from my little tangent, what would you do, go with style and pizazz on a shoe NO ONE will really see, or go with something more chunky that would save you some embarrassment from eating it in the middle of "the best day of your life!?"

Ya, I know what answer I logically should pick... but still... they are OH SO PRETTY!!!

Labelling your party

I live to be organized in life. While my desk is a mess, my entire wedding is planned out to the T. For every game plan, there is plan B, C, and D for just-in-case scenarios. I never wanted to feel I never had enough time for anything when it comes down to the wire, I try to do everything I can in advance... regardless if it is 10 weeks or 4 months. Better to be safe than sorry, right?

I also hate paying for something I know is cake to make. It isn't that I'm a cheapskate, I endulge with the best of them. But I figured if I could make something that is esspecially from me, than that is always the best option. Case in point, my bridal party T-shirts. You can find them at wedding channel for as much as 25$ or you can go the DIY route and spend less then 8$ a piece!

So, first I went to Jiffy Shirts and ordered our bridal party American Apparel Shirts. (sidenote: as much as I might thing the owner/ex-owner? is a little sleazy, I think the company should get lots of gold stars for promoting a great work enviroment and amazing pay for its employees.) Next I ordered the iron-on letters from Star98.

Once everything arrived, I cut up the letters and assembled them into words...

...and ironed away! TADA!!!!

And because I didn't want my FI to feel left out, I made one for him.

And just for kicks, this is the back of it:

Our fizzy little favors...

With the new favor idea, I looked at hundreds of labels and tons of different type of wine for our favors. Last weekend in a walk through my FI's favorite store: Costco, we found Martinelli's Sparkling Cider in the small 187 ML bottle.

DING DING DING...

Why didn't I think of this before, instead of the regular size bottles, order the small size for both the 21+ favors and the family favors! Once we figured this out, I looked up one of our favorite Wineries and found they sell their sparkling wine in those sizes as well!

HOORAY!!! Problems solved and moving onto the fun design portion of it all... the labels. With my trusty MS Word on hand and a template from 4th-Vine. I created preliminary labels.



Okay, I know they aren't truly centered...but overlook that... and what do you think?

HONEYMOON...the sequel?

Since I'm planning ten different weddings in my head and only having one. I thought it was more than allowed to plan multiple honeymoons to go with them.

About a year ago a friend sent me a link to Where the Hell is Matt. Watching the video, I came across something rather unusual. It's Jellyfish Lake! Yes, that is jellyfish you see in the photo, and yes that is a real person.

Jellyfish Lake is a well-known dive site in the Pacific island of Palau. It is one of the rock islands, a series of small, rocky, uninhabited archipelagos off the coast of Koror. Jellyfish Lake is completely isolated, but in the distant past, it had an outlet to the ocean. The outlet was closed off and the high jellyfish population was isolated and started to feed on quickly-reproducing algae. Contrary to popular belief, the jellyfish of Jellyfish Lake do have small stinging cells, or nematocysts. However, because the stinging cells are so tiny, their sting is not detectable on most human tissue, so tourists can enjoy swimming with them much closer than would be possible anywhere else.

At night, the jellyfish descend into a layer of hydrogen sulfide which is found below 15-20m of depth. SCUBA diving in the lake is prohibited to avoid disturbing the jellyfish and also to reduce the risk of hydrogen sulfide poisoning.

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HOW COOL IS THAT? Okay, I don't dive (even though I want to learn) but I did try to figure out what other things I could do there other than dive if we did go on a honeymoon there. Sadly, it was mostly laying on the sandy beaches and diving in the blue lagoons around the Island. Yes, I know, that sounds AMAZING and all, but I can't stand laying on a beach more than an hour before I want to go on some adventure. And I know how diving sound amazing, but there is only so many fish I can see. So, in the meantime, this will be one of my imaginary honeymoons to go with one of my imaginary weddings I'm planning.

Do you have any places you'd like to go other than where you are ending up on your honeymoon?
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Up all Night...

There are moments in your life where you just can't sleep. It could be work you left on your desk awaiting you the next day, or too much coffee at 10pm. For me, it's my wonderment on the whole marriage life.

This year has gone by SO fast sometimes I feel like I can't catch my breath. It isn't that I'm stressed, it is the realization that it is June and in less than five months I'll add a little 'r' to my 'Ms'. It's the wondering what it is going to be like six months from now, where I'm married and I can't even rationalize how I can still be considered a young adult (even though I'm 28).

Being non-married, people look at you with that: "oh, she's inexperienced in life." Being married, you get that "they're responsible" look. Crazy how one little piece of paper and a few words can change your entire life. From how you live, to how you are viewed. I remember when I got engaged, I started to get that look, but I know it must evolve into another look. Something more established.

With all the excitement of being engaged and preparing for a marriage, you start to see the big picture of life a little more clearly. I understood all of this could come in time, but I guess I never thought that people's take on me would change too.

Have you noticed it too or is all this just figments of my imagination?

g'nite!

Latest obsession

I'm obsessed with things being in order. I love balance and love patterns. Lately, I'm seeing a new rush of Brocade design all over the place.

Brocade is a class of richly decorative shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in coloured silks and with or without gold and silver threads.

Brocade is typically woven on a draw loom. It is a supplementary weft technique, that is, the ornamental brocading is produced by a supplementary, non-structural, weft in addition to the standard weft that holds the warp threads together.

Ornamental features in brocade are emphasized and wrought as additions to the main fabric, sometimes stiffening it, though more frequently producing on its face the effect of low relief. In some, but not all, brocades, these additions present a distinctive appearance on the back of the stuff where the supplementary weft or floating threads of the brocaded or broached parts hang in loose groups or are clipped away.

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Here are a few places you find brocade paper.

1. Papersource
   
2. Wrapping Paper
   
3. Paper Mart
   
4. Scrapbook.com
   

It's just soo darn pretty, I have no clue where I'd use it but I still love it.

138 days...

and We'll be here!

Spanish Weddding Traditions

Before a couple getting married in Spain exchange their vows in church, the groom gives his bride a wedding present of thirteen coins. This gift is a symbol of his commitment to support her. The bride-to-be then carries these coins, in a little bag, to her wedding ceremony.

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Looking at traditions and thinking of ways to incorporate them throughout the day and sharing them with our guests, I came up with a great favor idea. Using black velor bags from papermart and filling them up with gold coins and adding a tag that explains the tradition.


If you want to get even more involved in it, you can order custom coins here.

Source of goid coins photo

Cookie Favors

If I could give 10 favors I would. Here is one big idea I absolutely love that looks pretty easy.
What you need:

1. Clear boxes (you can find them here)
   
2. Cute cookies (Like these Danish Wedding Cookies). I would love to make the cookies but to be honest, I want to enjoy my last few days before the wedding!
   
3. Ribbon (optional... in your colors)
   
4. Print out of your logo or little sayings, cut out and scored to go around the edge or just the top (inside) of the box
   
5. Wax paper to go on the in between the paper and the cookies (use double stick tape to secure it from moving around)
   

Seems simple enough...maybe I might just do this. Everyone always needs another sweet thing to snack on!

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Inspirations Part 5

All from Martha

Another take on your portraits

While I have been on the teeter-tauter about getting bridal portraits done before the wedding, I stumbled onto this site. Susan Edwards is artist who take photos and turns them into art using mediums such as oils or watercolors. She has price quotes on the site and seem reasonable for the amount to work and level of expertise she has.

Are you doing anything out of the ordinary for with your portraits?