is it really true when they say...

your wedding day is the best day of your life?

Well... I have to say, it is!

Sooo much to talk and write about but for now, all i have to say is that it was everything i dreamed it would be. It was perfect, even with the rain!

...eternal love...

5 days...

that's all that's left and I'm completely obsessed with these websites:

Accuweather.com


Weather.com


and MSN Weather

I guess the consensus is that it will be partly cloudy. I guess I can live with that.

The blog will be a little quiet from now till 11/9. I will try to post but no guarentees. All the projects are pretty much done and now I am sitting back and just relaxing! :)

p.s. somewhere in the middle of the night, I hit my 5,000 visitor! :) Hooray!

Mother nature...

Apparently she likes to pull my leg...

Now both weather.com and accuweather.com say it will be sunny.

I feel like I can relax again and breathe!

:)

Seat Guru...

I'm happy to report that all the tables are filled up and the tables have been arranged! Since I HATE wondering around where my table is for weddings, I decided I'll need a map for our guest to find their spots.

I present our table arrangements:



Now... on to where I need your help... we ordered FIVE heat lamps. You think we should order more? And if so, how many?

A tradition I wish I would do...

Turkish Shoe Signing Tradition

Try a who-will-marry-next tradition that Turkish brides have been practicing for generations. Before you start down the aisle, have your single bridesmaids (or any female friends or relatives who've yet to marry) autograph the sole of your bridal shoe. After you've danced the night away (and tossed your bouquet), legend has it that the person whose name has faded the most will be the next to marry.

Hmmm... while I really love this tradition because all it takes is a signature from your BMs, I won't be dancing the night away in my first pair of shoes. Do I make them sign the second pair? Or do I do the first pair cause they are really the shoes you're suppose to do them in? Or, just not do this at all just in case I want to wear the shoes again... what am I kidding, I won't re-wear them again!

Okay, I've become over analytical on this in a the matter of a few minutes of me even thinking about posting this. (I blame the the dueling weather sites giving me opposite information thus turning my tummy into knots!) I think I'll see how I feel that morning and if I chuck a pen at a BM then I guess they're signing the soles of my shoes! :)

Find any fun traditions you thought about doing?

OH NO........................

10 day Forecasts are up... One site says one thing, the other says the opposite!


Weather.com

Accuweather.com



Who do i believe? I never am one to ask for help... but PLEASE send over some "rain rain go away" vibes my way for next weekend! I need all the help I can get!

Wishful thinking...

I love taking old items and spinning them into new creative decorative pieces. One of the many thing I wish I could have used was parasols. Not just for me or my guests, but for decoration.

Is there any type of decoration you wish you could do but just can't put into your wedding?

Spell that last name again?

I just talked to my good friend Marc and asked what his FI's last name is.

His response was his own last name.

me: "NO, I know YOUR name, what's her last name?"

His response was his own last name.

Apparently he just eloped on Monday.

:) Congrats to another pair on newlyweds!

I HEART AccuWeather!!!!!!

Source


~~dancing the "rain rain go away" dance with a great big SMILE on my face!!!~~

Riding in style...

About a million months ago, I booked our transportation to the church and for photos off site. When I kept doing the math, I realized we would need two small limos or one big one... well... we got the big one! I present to you the Super Stretch Hummer:

Our Hummer Stretch is the perfect choice for weddings, wine tours, sporting events, corporate excursions, and many other special occasions. With seating for up to 18 people, you can ride in style with its plush leather seating and state of the art interior.
Features:

* Seating for 15-18
* DVD/CD with Surround
* Plush Leather Interior
* Tinted Windows
* Lounge Style Seating
* Starlight ceiling
* 3 Bar Stations

Source
Seriously... does someone really need 3 bar stations? A part of me wants to bring a DVD just to see if it really works! :P I'm not knocking it's extravagance, it just seems odd that I'll be "going to the chapel" in this kick @ss monster of a vehicle!

What else?

Just when I found a new place for the rehearsal, the old place calls and says we can have the private room... oh okay.

Back to the first joint! :) Fantastic, I love italian food!

Unintended...

I just remembered that I wanted a v-neck wedding dress for my wedding. Like, for the past 11 years of me thinking about weddings, I ALWAYS wanted a v-neck wedding dress. And for some reason, I COMPLETELY forgot about this the ENTIRE time during my engagement. When I say just remembered, I really mean, about two minutes ago, it dawned onto me that I didn't get the dress I dreamt about my entire adult life. :|

This doesn't mean that I don't love my dress, because honestly it perfect and me, but when I dreamt about gowns it never was strapless. Talk about weird to have this revelation...and 11 days before the wedding!!

Did you end up going a different path with your dress then the one you dreamt of? Or am I the only weirdo out there that completely forgot what they always pictured for themselves and went a separate way??

10 day forecasts...

Did you know a 10 day forecast includes today's weather? Why is that? It should be tomorrow and the nine days following that.

The wedding is in 11 days and the 10 day forecast goes through next Thursday. If the reception was indoor, I wouldn't care, but OUTDOOR RECEPTION... HELLO!!! I need my forecast for next Sunday!

:| In the meantime I will be a "rain rain go away" dance!g

Wardrobe changes...

Some brides change dresses, I'm changing shoes.... three times!

I just got my reception shoes. Since with grass and gravel and everything that despises heels, I figured I should buy another pair so I could walk around. I found these babies for 55.95$ at Zappos with shipping included. At first I wasn't too crazy on them but then I remembered I'm not really showing these shoes off too much and figured if I hated them, I could always return them for free. When they came, I quickly put them on, and low and behold they were comfortable and the correct heel length (3.75in) and passed the grass test.

Source

Though I doubt I might not wear them again I'm very happy with this purchase! This will be the first pair of shoes for the reception, the second pair I'll have are my trusty old navy white flip flops! :)

Living up to the name...

Yesterday the rest of the candy came in! In total, there must be close to 50 lbs of candy for the candy buffet. We decided to set it all up, take photos and outline directions on how and where to set up everything! :)

We even made a cute little banner for the table. Simple and easy to make! I used MS Word (of course!) and just made triangles with their shapes. Then used their word art and placed each letter on top of the triangles! To make sure things didn't move around I made them into pdf files*.



For the poles on the sides, I took two wooden sticks (you can find them at any local craft store) and placed them in plastic cup filled with Plaster of Paris and let it dry. Once dry, we took them out, cut little sleeve on top of each to slide the ribbon through and tie them up. Then put little wooden spheres on top to hide the ribbon. :) Very simple and easy task.


(*If you don't have software to create pdf files, go to Create PDF. You get 5 free!!!)

Photos of the candy buffet will be posted after the wedding! :)

The makings of a OOT Bag...

Blog Post

PLUS

Blog Post

PLUS

Blog Post

PLUS

misc snack packs and candy

EQUALS



Level (1 to 10) of happiness of how well it turned out... 19!

Thirsty?

Thanks to Shanbrite Designs Wedding Templates, I think I would have died of a slow DIY death! Her site had soo many great templates and ideas that I had to use a few of them. One of them was the water bottles for the OOT (Out of Town) bags.



End result...


Start to finish, the project took 45 minutes (printing --kinkos of course--, cutting labels, ripping off water bottle regular labels and then taping these on) to make 60 of them!

Junkie...

I fell off the caffeine wagon exactly 1.5 days after giving up my cups of Joe!

I've resorted to drinking all colored liquids through tiny straws to attempt to not stain my teeth more.

As for the cheap-o trays I bought? I think they are working... then again, I'm drinking hot liquids through a TINY straw to get my fix so I could just be imagining it so I feel better about my losing it. :P

Just 12 more days of this insanity!

I read it through the grapevine...

I always made it a point to attempt to see my wedding through my guests eyes. What they saw, and how good of a time they had. So when we started discussing our Out of Town Bags (OOT bags) I knew I wanted to put a little fun newspaper-esque thing in there.

By the time we were done it was 8 pages long filled with information about the wedding, about us, random wedding facts and even crossword puzzles and other word games. (We used a MS Word template, simple as pie!) It was sent to Kinkos to printed and when we brought them home, we put them together and rolled it up and tied it up with some wine ribbon.





...And the finished result...




This was probably one of our most time consuming projects. But when we started them, it was an hour here or there. All in all, was it worth it for us to do this? I'd like to think so. It was really fun!

Pricey Blooms

As much as I like to think I got some FANTASTIC deal on my flowers, it still hurts to write a check that big.

I am exactly 15 days till the wedding and I wrote MY last check out to a vendor. (yes, there are vendors out the wanting moneys from me but those are CC payments! ;P)

Other than food or reception (because we all know that is the worst...usually) what is/was the worst check for you to write?

Finally...

After much bidding in the past few weeks, we finally snatched up a room at the Holiday Inn. While at first I wasn't ecstatic about that, after looking a few of the photos, it looks pretty nice!

Holiday Inn Atrium Singapore is a spectacular 27 storey atrium style hotel strategically located at the crossroad of Outram and Havelock Roads. It is just a short drive from Shenton Way financial centre, fascinating Chinatown and the fashionable Orchard Road shopping belt.

Across from the hotel is the island's renowned Singapore River where entertainment spots bring vibrancy to the nightlife at Clarke Quay and Boat Quay.

--Source

Granted I know that our room won't have flowers and champagne waiting for us, I am looking forward to staying here! It is in a great location! Plus I emailed them to see if they could do anything for us! ;) We shall see!

My name is Little Miss Planner... and I'm addicted...

to coffee.

{Readers} HI LITTLE MISS PLANNER.

{Little Miss Planner} It started a number of years ago when I was a barista for a local coffee shop. That summer I was drinking red eyes like it was water and couldn't figure out why I had headaches in the morning. I hit rock bottom one day when I have 6 shots of espresso on a 4 hour shift. After I quit to go back to school, I had withdrawals but fought the addiction and was coffee free for years!

Then when my FI (when he was just BF) and I went to Seattle and Vancouver for Christmas and New Years I picked up the habit once again. One large coffee in the morning, one in the afternoon. When we got back, it was the same thing at the office, but it slowly grew to 5 cups a day. When I didn't have my fix bye 10 am I was dying.

I tried to quit a handful of times but it never stuck. I'd last two days and give into the caffiene headache. But slowly my wedding day crept up and because I'm lame and forgot to use my gift certificate for Zoom Whitening in enough time, I have to result to trays from the store. But today is the day, I used my first tray this morning and I will give up COFFEE till after the wedding. :)

Anyone else dealing with this problem? On top of the stress of just the fact your wedding is around the corner, I now get to have wretched caffiene headaches. Talk about whip cream on your mocha! :P

Table favors...

A few months ago, I blogged about spanish traditions and got this great idea to give gold chocolate coins to our guests as a table favor. Today we got a package from Paper Mart with the little velour bags for the table favors. We then bought gold coins from Bulk Foods and stuffed the little bags full.

Next we printed out little tags, cut and rounded the corners before punching holes in the corner to attach.

This is the finish product:




From start to finish this little product took 3.5 hours while watching tv. :)

My special friend's wedding!

My special friend got married last weekend. I had two other friends get married but this one was really more personal for me. A lot of it had to do with I am close to him and have known him for YEARS and always thought of him as my brother, but a little bit really hit home that our wedding was just a few weeks away.

While our trip home was very short, it was good to be in the town I grew up in. It was good to see old friends and drive down the old neighborhoods. But enough about me reminiscing, I wanted to fill y'all in on what I loved about his wedding.

His wedding was everything I could ever want, a room FILLED with loved ones and lots of laughter. Him and his wife (YIPPIE!) were soo very happy and soo relaxed I hope I can learn from them and be like that too on our wedding day. I think those two things made it unbelievable. The music was cool and they had munchies on the table. Their favors were very neat. They used boxes like this:

... and added different types of candy to it (we got sour letters and skittles! yum!) and then placed a Zazzle sticker they made with a engagement photo! Very simple and fun!

They kept with the autumn them with table runners with their fall colors! They had long tables and placed multiple bowls of potpourri with candles in it throughout so the aroma was a nice afterthought too! All in all, sometimes keeping it simple and streamlined is the way to go! I wish I took photos but I was bad and didn't!

All in all, it was a great wedding and they did an amazing job!

To my special friend: many years of joy and laughter! You two are the perfect pair!

Obsess much?

So, I'm obsessive about certain random things. Flowers and my hair. I think about these two factors constantly. I should be concerned about the ceremony or where I'm getting dressed but I'm soo not even thinking about that stuff. (I should since I never gave either of those two things much thought. BAD ME!)

Hair... the more I look at the photos of my dry run, while it is beautiful, it is just sooo not me. And each time I go to the alteration lady, she gives me anxiety about not having any barrettes or tiaras in it. Today, I finally am going to take a stand and say to hell with it. I don't see any little barrettes I like and just want a relaxed curl look. Something that is MORE me.

As for flowers, I'm a pushover. I said yes to all red flowers but now i am worried that I'll have gerber daisies in the design and it will look LAME for what I want. Good thing I have the final approval this Friday about it.

These are the torturous thoughts that seep into my head. While I am probably the most planned out and relaxed brides I know, these two little parts of the wedding will haunt me until the big day.

I know I'm not the only one out there like this, what were your big worries?

Cutting out the excess...

With a bit of a blow (and probably more of gift from god), my little helpers (nieces) aren't going to be able to help with wedding day prep this weekend. Annoyed and put off, I think I should be happy that I don't have to deal with bickering teenage siblings! :) I know, I should be nice, but sometimes it's faster to just do it yourself than deal with drama.

I told my FI and he was a bit put off, him insisting I call friends up to help, I quickly snapped and told him he is helping me instead and should shut it. He realized I was tired and just got quiet and said okay. I even talked to my Mom and she said she was willing to come down for the day to help out with everything.

So what does Wedding Day prep entail?

• Table placements --printing and putting them in the frames


• Name tags -- print, stick on ribbon and stamp them with the table name


• Put champagne splits in bags and place name tags on them


• Table Favor bags --add tag to them


• Print out tags for table favors


• Put champagne splits in bags


• Check all Chargers to make sure we have enough


• Count out candles for tables and get votives for all of them


• Get mini candles for the lanterns and place aside


• Print out the rest of the Candy tags and place ribbon on all of canisters


• Order medal scoops and tongs for Candy Buffett


• Send programs to the printers

Okay... I think that's probably about it. I think that's the detailed version of the list. I remember thinking about all these things months ago and how I knew I'd work on them two weeks before the wedding. I wanted the last weekend to be relatively stress free. I guess we'll see!

First little UH OH...

We had our first little mini fiasco last Friday. The restaurant where we were going to have the rehearsal dinner called to let us know we no longer had a closed off room. :| The ever so calm me, quickly went into gear and called a few places and found a new place to host the dinner.

Before booking, we went to dinner on Friday to test out the menu and my GOODNESS was it amazing! Price wise, it was okay. Definitely a little pricier than what I expected but when my FI told his parents, they thought it was a great price. So from a back room to renting out the entire restaurant for just us, we are going to eat like Italian royalty! We just finished picking out the menu and am very excited to have a dinner like this before the weekend begins for our wedding party! Even though I was thrown this curve ball, I like to think I hit this one out of the ballpark!

I feel much better about being a slacker on the rehearsal dinner invites!

BOOOO!!!!

Nineteen days to go...

We realized about two months ago we weren't going to be able to celebrate one of my favorite holidays because we'd be in Southeast Asia for our honeymoon. We talked about going to Knott's Scary Farm after the rehearsal dinner to at least celebrate the holiday.

Well, while at the grocery store, my FI bought me a pumpkin to at least keep a little holiday spirit around the house so it wouldn't be engulfed with wedding stuff. After watching some tv, he came in and found the pumpkin and let out a big laugh. I guess he loved it!




Did/Are your weddings falling around a holiday? Are you doing anything special to incorporate it into your wedding festivities?

Dwindling...

Other than the final two checks (flowers and remaining balance for the reception) I just finished ordering the candy and the table favor bags. Uggh... the last major payment will be the rest of the champagne splits but that will have to wait till later.

On top of that, I picked up the cake cutters today at Things Remembered. This was SOOO not something I was going to buy but I rationalized it by having a $20 off coupon and they were "on sale" for 29.99$ (regular price $60). Not too shabby! Still, I don't think my bank account is very happy with me at the moment! :|

I really cannot wait till there is a paycheck where I can actually save or not pay for something about a wedding! :)

Testing... 1. 2. 3...

Last night we decided to do a little test with our first dance. We locked out the pet mafia (cat & dog) outside to give us a little piece and quiet.

First we checked our the new first song (You're my Guardian Angel) and with the way my FI dances with me... it was a NO go! Then we checked out our old first dance (Just Like Heaven redone by Katie Melua) and that too was a NO go.

Figuring out that we needed just a bit more of a uptempo type of song, we pulled out some big band and jazz songs and found out its a perfect sound. So, with all this finding the prefect song with the perfect words, I was completely forgetting about the main reason for the song, the actual dance. I guess I relied too much on words to guide me when I should have looked for something that let us be us, regardless of anything else.

Now we have songs... multiple! Now we have to whittle down those five songs into one. But it is a breath of fresh air that I've finally realized this. The details are more visual than verbal when it comes to the first dance. Granted a pretty song is nice and all but when you got a guy who wants to sway a bit faster, it's all about how we look and how very happy we will be that day!

How did y'all pick your first song? Did you practice it out?

To Heck with traditions...

Throughout the entire wedding planning, I didn't want to certain traditions because they just didn't seem right for us. Some of the first traditions that were offed were the garter toss and bouquet toss. I know, I just got a garter, and in my defense, I bought specifically for my Future Husband to see! ;)

Another tradition I'm sorta bucking is the something borrowed and something old and that sixpence thingy in the shoe. I have everything. If I could borrow something and needed something old, it would have been my mom's mantilla (veil) but she doesn't have hers anymore. I guess I could still do these two things but honestly I just don't see the reason or fuss to it.

Ya, I know I have my something blue embroidered into my dress (it's my FI and my initials and our wedding date) and the garter is sorta blue-ish --I'm color blind so it looks green to me), and everything I have for the wedding is my something new.

Did y'all stick with these traditions? Is there really a point to follow them if you don't really care where they came from? I guess I'm at a loss, will I end up bucking these traditions or become a slave to the machine? I guess we'll see.

The Final Fitting...

So I had my final dress fitting yesterday. All I had to do is throw on the dress and have her strap me in and I say okay. The dress fit like a glove but I'm still not happy with it, in the respect that I now I want to lose more weight.

I never was a gal who cared about how many lbs I weighed but the last month, I have been a junkie! I lost weight but have not noticed a single inch floating off the body. And the one place I need to lose it is around the upper back/chest area but I NEVER lose weight there! I guess that's a good thing... but still... :|

Uggh, it isn't that the dress doesn't fit. It fits fine, I just want it to fit a little more fine than it fits now. :)

More Thanks...

Before I made the thank you notes for the wedding, I wanted to make personalized ones for my bachelorette party and make sure they would work for the wedding. (I used stardream quartz notecards I bought from envelopemall, photos prints from Costco, and some ribbon I had! I attached the ribbon with double stick tape and then add more tape for the photo and that's pretty much it. Very easy to make!)



The photo isn't the best but it was the only one where we all had our glasses!

While I only had to make five for the girls that were there, I made one for the driver of the wine tasting tour we took! He made the trip all the more fun! I also made one for a keepsake for myself! I really looked forward to writing these out so I can personally thank each of the girls who took the time out of their lives to spend it with me. It really affirmed how much each of these ladies mean to me!

It's gittin hot n here...

I'm having two programs. Since we are getting married in a chapel, I always thought it was quite warm in there, so we decided we needed fans for our guests. We took the program fan idea from online and made it our own. I just couldn't imagine spending 3$ a program when I could make the entire batch for 15$.

I used lollipop sticks from the craft store, thick cardstock from Staples, doublestick tape, and a few cans of white spray paint. I spray painted the sticks white and let them dry while I printed out the programs. I used MS Word to print them out. Trial and error of course a few times. Then I folded it in half and cut part of paper to make it a better fit. Cornered all the edges and proceeded to tape the sticks and the papers together. End result:



I made these a few months ago. They turned out great and I love them ten times more than the ones I found online! Project took 1.5 hours from start to finish! (minus the overnight that I let the sticks to dry!)

tablescapes...

About a million months ago, my mom ordered chargers for the wedding. At first I wanted only black ones but then I found these really pretty red metallic ones online. She finally brought them over and I decided to bust one out to show what the a place seating would look like, sans favor or silverware or glassware.

TADA:



I wanted to do something different with the napkin.

What do you think?

Another package...

This time it was something I ordered almost a month ago...my Marabou Garter from Victoria Secret!!



It is BEAUTIFUL and I can't wait to show it off to my husband on our wedding day!! ;)

Source

More invites...

While we were away celebrating our girls' weekend, I ran into a Mr. & Mrs. A*******. They were like parents to me and it was such a joy to see them again! They were invited to our engagement party but for some reason, their names missed the boat when the addresses were sent to the calligrapher. BAD BRIDE!

So tonight I'll be getting out the LAST invitation and with a not so steady hand, I'll be addressing it to them. Less than one month to go and luckily they didn't get mad at my errors!

Did anyone you know of miss the boat on the invitations that you later on invited?