FAIL!

Ok, so I've come to the conclusion that I'm kind of a fail at this whole blogging thing. I'd rather spend my time signing in and out of Facebook or reading and re-reading the headlines on Yahoo! instead of blogging about my wedding. Maybe it was because I started to hate my wedding. And by hate, I mean I just really wanted to finally enjoy the day and have it be over. With that being said, I did enjoy the day, and it is now over. Rejoice!


So lets rehash a few details. Between job interviews (both in person in Seattle and on the phone), traveling to Wenatchee for wedding stuff, working in Ellensburg, and overall trying not to freak out too much, I was still starting to stress out. Never fear though, for the wedding day came and went with a few, minor glitches. One of these last minute glitches came as a rain storm. Yes, an actual rainy, windy rain storm. Luckily, we had tents! Everyone moved from our outside ceremony space to their tables under the tent. I didn't walk down an aisle, but rather around the side of the tent before stepping in from the rain to dry while we exchanged vows. It was beautiful.

The rained finally ceased and everyone was able to come and go as they pleased. Listen to the bluegrass band, grab some dinner, mingle at the beer and wine tent, sneak a macaroon from the dessert table, huddle around the fire pit. It was pretty perfect. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and while we don't want to go through that again, it truly was the best day of our lives so far. We are looking forward to many, many more that include the people who we love so dearly.

It's all about the details!

So we've come to that point in the process where all the "big" stuff is pretty well taken care of and now we just have to get all the puzzle pieces put together to form some semblance of what our wedding will look like.
I'm getting the details hammered out on our invitations. We were going to get a kit that all we had to do was print, but then found an Etsy seller with uh-dorable invites for a really good deal. Hopefully this will work out! Eek!
I'm meeting with my awesome future in-laws next week to hash out details of the food and whatnot. A good friend of theirs is catering for us, so we just need to touch base there. Easy! (hopefully....) Since I'll be in Wenatchee, I'm hoping to finalize plans with the florist, and meet with the place to get a bustle put into the dress. LOTS going on next week barring any crazy blizzards or something that would put a wrench in traveling.
The Man and his guys need to get suits so we want to do a recon mission at K&G next week to see if they have what we want there.
Oh... and the paper lanterns! I want to string yellow and white paper lanterns inside the tents. Love, love, love! I just need to order them, but here's the basic gist of the look I would like to achieve. I don't know if we'll get ones where they all light up, but I definitely think it will help add a special touch to the reception area with breaking the bank or being too much. Phew! That's just the start of the seemingly endless list of things to get done.
Wedding plans seem to have gotten underway again pretty well considering that recently we moved from our house in Ellensburg. We're in a weird transition phase right now, at least until I find a job in the Seattle area. Keep us in your thoughts and send me good job vibes!

Work it!

As I was checking out the slew of wedding blogs I follow, I came across this funny, but true, statement. Bride Syndrome: when we get engaged, we get obsessed with 1) growing out our hair and 2) losing weight. While I don't worry much about the hair part, since mine is already way too long than normal and is in serious need of a cut, I do think about the weight part. Now let me be clear: I'm not partaking in any weird fad dieting trend or working out 4 hours a day.... BUT I do have a dress, and I must fit into this dress in a few months. I also confess that said dress is one size smaller than what I should fit because of the corset back. This means that there's not a lot of room for expansion, and since I love food, (I'm pretty non-discriminating) and I eat when stressed, bored, celebrating, etc, I really need to lock it up.

I admit that some days it's a struggle to really eat well and embrace the lifestyle change that's needed in order achieve a healthier life. Other days it's no big deal. I've been trying a couple new things that I'm hoping will keep me in check on my bad days. I installed a calorie counter app on my phone. I can input info in order to see how many calories I should be consuming a day, search for foods based on brand, store chain, etc, and input my activity level. At the end of each day I can see the deficit (or sometimes to my horror, addition) of calories, reaffirming that what I'm doing will slowly pay off. I've also started doing Jazzercise. This is not the one-piece thong leotard, leg warmer Jazzercise we probably all think of firsthand, but a fun, sweaty, 60 minute cardio/resistance/stretching (ohmygod *huff* is this *huff* song almost over *huff huff*) workout. I started it with one of my BMs, and we've been going since mid-December or so. Due to my diet (I have no excuses) I haven't lost any weight, but I do feel better, and it's the first holiday season in a long time that I actually haven't gained any weight. Booya! Also our instructor, Candi, is awesome and definitely holds us accountable for when we're not in class. 

I'm hoping by putting this out in the universe, it'll be another way to hold myself accountable. I'll update on my progress!
On a random side-note: taxes are done and filed! I love when the government gives me money back, and I'm dreaming about all the weddingy things we get to do now, namely pay off our photographer, buy his ring, get invites printed, blah, blah, blah. Woot!

Wedding Show Madness

Holy balloon & feather tower!
Super cute swirl cupcake stand

As I posted earlier, I went the Tacoma Wedding Show with my MOH last weekend. She is also getting married very soon (April), so needless to say we have all our big stuff out of the way. And by that, I mean venue, photographer, caterer, etc. Because of this fact, we were a bit disappointed in the vendors at the show. While we were able to try cake (champagne with buttercream, yes please!) from Celebrity Cake Studio, there wasn't anyone there that really made us excited. Fending off people at booths for photographers, venues, and wedding planners, wanting to give us pamphlets for services we both already have was a bit overwhelming. Even so, it was really fun to get over the mountains for a nice girl day. I can't complain about the giant margarita I had at lunch either.
While visiting home, we went to Ikea. Have I ever mentioned on here how much I love Ikea? I could seriously spend a whole day there and be perfectly content. As we walked through, looking at the mock rooms, Chris and I decide what we like from each one. He definitely likes the stream-lined, clean lines of a more modern room, while I like a little more homey feel. It's funny because we stopped at a room, and I loved it (he didn't love it) and as I looked around I realized.... it's a yellow and grey room! How perfect that I still love my wedding colors... good thing considering we have little time left!

I'm sure Ikea was inspired by my wedding colors and put together this room just for me

Bridal Show!

Having a girl day with my MOH tomorrow! We're going to the Tacoma Wedding Show, and I'm excited to see what's in store for us. I'll let you know how it goes!

Oh invitations!

I feel like nothing too earth shattering has happened in the planning process the last couple months since the dress update. I know, exciting huh? My MOH turned me onto Linentablecloth.com when they were having a major sale over the holidays. We were able to get 20 round linens for our guest tables for a little over $8/linen! We figured since we were going to rent them anyway, and they were close to same price, we would just buy them. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what we're going to do with them after the wedding, but I'm sure we'll figure something out.
There is now a check in the box for reception rentals. The future mother-in-law placed our tentative rental order this past weekend at the Wenatchee wedding show. I wasn't able to go because of work, but heard I missed out on some amazing animal print bridesmaids dresses that were there. I know my girls are fun and all, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't spring for that idea!
The latest bit of serious planning/ordering we need to get done is our invitations. I've been scrounging around the internet for some time, but with a little bit of help from Chris we were able to narrow it down to what we both like. For me, the hardest part was trying to balance something fun and still keep the integrity of what a wedding invitation means. One of the first invites we found was this lovely little number from Minted. While we are not the most romantic couple in the world, we really liked the look of the story-book page. Too cute!
Let me tell you about Etsy. So many choices! It's kind of like trying to find a needle in a haystack when the search comes back with pages and pages of results, but we did find a few invites on there that we really like the idea of. This one is super cute, clean, and it comes in our wedding colors, too!
We really like the idea of a DIY type of project, so in order to have time for errors, we will be starting these bad boys in the next couple weeks. I'll keep ya posted!

Life happened

And that's the truth! It's been far too long since I posted any kind of updates about what's going on in the wonderful world of wedding planning.  I promise to have an update up within the next few days, so find your way back to me then!

In the meantime, check out one of my favorite blogs The Budget-Savvy Bride. They have a great list of the top 10 posts from 2010.

Love!