Pictures of hair trial and dress alterations

12 days

12 days to go and I'm about ready to pull my hair out. I have come to the place where I am no longer naive that I am planning "my" wedding, it is not "my" wedding, it is everyone else's wedding that I just play a role in. Just a few things to vent about... What is the point of putting a date on an RSVP card if no one is going to abide by it?? Then less than 2 weeks before the wedding, you decide to let someone know that you want to come, after they contact you??? no no, that will not do. I already have my seating chart planned out and my cards. I only have enough center pieces for 8 tables and this would make 9! I am so pissed. Why can't people have proper eticate? I am sorry but the date is way past due to RSVP, thats not my fault that you didn't send in the card. However, I know that in the end it is not "my" wedding and I have absolutely no say in the matter.

Less than two months....

Our wedding day is in less than 2 months (*gasp*) and I can't even find time to blog. Part of that is due to graduation, traveling to Europe, starting a new job, and planning a wedding that is happening out of state... But those are all terrible excuses not to keep my blog updated, don't you think? Now I'm being bad and typing up a quickly at work...

My mom threw me a surprise bridal shower two weeks ago at my grandmother's house, that was supreme. My best friend came up from Tennessee and it was so good to see her. I was sad to learn that my other friend (yes, i only have 2 friends) didn't come, and I haven't even heard anything about why she couldn't, I don't know if I should ask her or just not bring it up. This weekend I have my first hair trial appointment, I am looking forward to that, and I also have my dress fitting after that (hopefully I'll pick out a veil then too). I think that everything will work out marvelously if the hair dresser lets me keep my up-do because the dress fitting is right after that and I can see how everything looks! I have started on my aisle runner, that is a project and a half after everything else I have to do on the short weekends that I am at my parent's house. Plus Joseph and I are trying to find a place to live down here and move before the wedding. Too much going on! I feel eerily calm, but like I am forgetting something. We picked up Joseph's wedding ring, I should try to post pictures of that. I found a ring that I like, but it is too much right now, so I think I will just go with the plain white gold band and that won't take anything away from my engagement ring.

The search is on now for an old car to drive us away from the church (this is one of Joseph's few requests, so I feel obligated to oblige). If not, a limo will do. We booked our wedding night at a bed and breakfast close by so the next morning we can have breakfast with the family before heading off to the airport. The tuxes aren't even picked out yet, but that should be done soon. By July, I need to have finalized the menu for the dinner, finalized the flowers, finalized the music, finished the aisle runner, pick gifts for the bridesmaids, make up seating charts and table cards. That should be enough, right? Oh! I almost forgot, I got the cutest Hershey's kisses that say "Just Married" on the plumes! They are supreme! Yes yes, I keep thinking to myself, Pictures! Pictures! Will do. Even though I know that I just blog this for myself....

100 day countdown!

Today marks the 100 day countdown until our wedding day!

For the past two days I have been working on my sugar cubes. I think that they will be really cute at the dinner being served with the coffee and tea. I made about 300, which should be plenty for the estimated 70 people at the dinner. I actually thought they would be harder to make, but they turned out to be super easy and really cheap. I made teal, pink, and purple, all sort of pastel. I think that they came out pretty well!

And... in more good news.... We have completely booked everything for our honeymoon! We are officially going to the Big Island of Hawaii for 8 days. We have the plane tickets, the car, and the condo. I'm so excited! Yes, it is true that I had always wanted to go to Fiji or Australia for my honeymoon, but lets face it, things are expensive so Hawaii is what it is! I have been to Oahu before and I really like it. The weather is always nice, there is hiking, swimming, waterfalls, scuba diving, national parks, and basically a great variety of things to do. Plus, its not a place where you have to fear for your life if you step foot outside of the hotel grounds....if you know what I mean. We love to travel, so this will be great for us. I just hate the people who are like "Oh, your going to Hawaii? That is so boring, why don't you go someplace more exciting? Everyone goes to Hawaii." I just want to strangle their necks! Things are expensive people! And I like Hawaii! So what is wrong with that?? I'm happy and Joseph is happy so that is all that matters. My family is excited for us too, so that makes me feel better. Here is the place that we are staying:

http://www.shellhospitality.com/hotels/holua_resort/reservations.html The colors are a little crazy, but tripadvisor rates it #1 out of 25 in the area. Its perfect because it is cheaper than a hotel, has a nice king size bed, plus a full kitchen so we can cook breakfast and save a little money, plus its private. Its like a timeshare condo that lets you pay per night. We spent a lot of time looking at vrbo.com, but this just turned out to be better and at least you know what you are getting. We even got a discount rate for not having the maids clean everyday (but they still will take out the trash and give us new towels), I don't need someone cleaning everyday. Its going to be a lot of fun. We rented the economy car, but maybe someone will upgrade us to the convertible as a gift, I wouldn't complain....

Wedding Registry and Table Numbers!

Today Joseph and I were able to go out the the mall and do our wedding registry! We went to Macy's first, had a good time with the scanner :) We put a lot of things on the list that we may not get, but it doesn't hurt to have them on there anyway. At Macy's we got our everyday dishes, our fine china, pots and pans, bedding, and towels. After Macy's, we were contemplating another place to use for our registry. At first I thought we would use Pottery Barn, but after a quick walk through their store, we decided that there was nothing really special we wanted from them. As we were driving, we came across Crate & Barrel. I had never been in there before, so we decided to go inside. I was surprised! They had a lot of nice things and we decided to use them for our second registry. I had never thought that I would register at Crate & Barrel, so it is nice to have a surprise every now and again. We got our silverware, glasses, trays, dessert dishes, and some other things at C&B. Both places gave us nice gifts. Joseph says that we should just register at several places and get their free gifts but not use them for our realregistry. Such a nice, but selfish, idea. I couldn't take their free things... nice thought though.

Later, we went down to Georgetown to Paper Source so I could get the supplies that I needed to make the table numbers. I got the table tents, the colored post cards to print on, glue dots, and both types of ribbon. Everything came out to about $30 and it only took an hour to put everything together! I like it, now I just have to store it for a few months. :)

Church, Centerpieces, Party Favors...

I have lots of pictures to share today. I will start off with the pictures of the church that I am getting married in. I love it because it is the little country church with the white steeple. Also, my mom and my aunt were both married within 1/2 mile of this church, ironically at two different locales, so the area is special to me as well. (Apparently the photo uploader doesn't like me and decided to upload them all in the backwards order that I wanted....)

Here is the front of the church with the rod iron plant holder I got at Marshall's to put the flowers on. We are also renting a white rod iron candle aubra for the middle in the back.

The aisle looking from the front to the back
Looking from the back to the front
The front of the church. I just love the white steeple and the way that the church looks. 

 A picture of the church from the side. 
I worked on the party favors tonight. Cutting ribbon and tying the matches to the candles. At first we were tying the ribbon into a bow at the back, but then they were looking weird. So it was decided that we tie the ribbon into a knot and tuck the knot into the matchbook so it will never be seen! I also tried to set up a little version of the table centerpieces, but I might be putting flower petals with it, so we will see. I love my mosaic lanterns!

Here they are! All of them are different. This is without flash, they look more like themselves without flash than they do with flash. 

This is the back 4 with flash.

Here is just a little idea of what I want my centerpieces to look like. There might be flower petals with the tea lights around the lantern. I am also getting hershey's kisses that say "Just Married" on the plumes. I haven't decided if I am going to put them around the lantern or with the candles at the place setting. 

These are the party favors for those who are coming for the dinner. For those who come to the wedding, there will be bowls of matches for people to take, also personalized dinner napkins and bubbles. But these were great, I think they turned out to be about $.60 each. 

Productive Weekend

At the last minute I decided to heat up to PA, and it proved to be very productive. I got my centerpieces for the dinner at TJ Maxx, nice lanterns that are all different and colorful. I got the scrapbook for my guest book, and I got some coupons which I will use next week to get the aisle runner and the flower girl baskets. It is a busy day today, so I will have to try to post pictures of my finds later....

Wedding.... 4 months to go...

I was just thinking, I only have 4 months until my wedding day, and how involved have I gotten in planning it?? Not very, too much going on. So, from here on out, I am going to start doing more planning! I just found an awesome blog, with so manythings I want to do. Including Trash the dress, which is just an awesome idea. But for now, let me post about all the things I have planned for the wedding so far, starting from the beginning...

Here is my engagment ring! Joseph and I were engaged on December 31st (ironically not at midnight), during a horse and buggy ride in Paris. And no, it can't get much better than that.

I already have my wedding dress, and I can't post pictures of me in it incase my fiance decides to read my blog... but here it is:

The bridesmaids are just going to be in black with a white sash. I'm putting the sash on myself, but I still haven't figured out how to get it to stay yet.

Then I want to have bright flowers for everyone. I met with the florist this weekend and it looks like everything will be between $700-$900. I will be meeting with her again. Next time I head up to PA, I need to get a picture of the church, inside and out .

Spring Break

It is true, I have been on spring break all this week, but it is sad when I get up earlier on spring break than I do during the school year. Spring break is supposed to be a time when you take a break from school stuff, recuperate so that surviving the last few weeks of school is bearable! Well, I have spent each and every day of my spring break waking up at 7 am, going to SAA, and sitting around until 3pm just to get in my hours for Practicum. I do feel like I have relaxed at all or that I am prepared for the next 7 weeks of school. Last week I broke down, and because I haven't really gone back to a state of "ok"-ness, I just might do it again, which is not what I want. I still have my Master's classes this week, which gives me homework and not much of a break. I have had no time at the apartment to clean and it is a mess! That makes me stressed out just as much. Oh I don't even want to think about all this because it stresses me just to think of it.

On the other hand, Joseph and I had our first pre-marital counseling session last night. It was good. Can you believe that we have the director of family ministries for the entire world church doing our pre-marital counseling??!! He is a little old-fashioned, but very nice, and he does try to keep up with the times. Joseph noticed that he was wearing a wedding ring and was happy about that, surprising I suppose for the way that our church is. We discussed in laws a little bit, which I suppose is a big issue in our relationship, seeing as how his father has only met me 2 times in our relationship, and only 3 times ever. One issue right now is what I am supposed to call him as my father-in-law. When I emailed him last, he told me not to call him Mr. Mahoney, but to call him "Mike," which is really weird for me because I was always brought up to be respectful. Plus, how can I call him by his first name when Joseph calls him "Dad"? So, Pastor Flowers told me that I should have the name conversation with his dad and call him whatever makes him comfortable, even if it makes me uncomfortable. So, that will be an email that I have to write at some point in time....preferably sooner rather than later.

When I told Joseph that I had started a blog, he asked me "What is it about?" I really didn't know that a blog had to be about anything in particular, just whatever I felt like talking about, which is most of the time just about me. I mean, sometimes I have random thoughts, but they don't seem significant enough to write about on a blog. Except for this one--- a while ago, I decided that since I was a vegetarian I should really stay away from gelatin because it is made from animal bones and that is really gross. But you would be surprised with how many things have gelatin in them! Starbursts for example....which is particularly sad because I remember being at the beach growing up and my grandmother would always bring starbursts for me to eat. They had a little sand in them every once in a while, but they were always superb.

Beginnings

I have needed a blog, so its about time that I have started one. I have had a Xanga for a long time, but I needed to get away from that, just because, I don't know, I felt like it was something from my past. Right now I am going through a rough and crazy time in life and I just need to write. I used to journal all the time and I loved it, but with time constraints, typing just seems so much faster.

So much is going on in my life right now and I briefly lost it last week, currently trying to prevent a relapse of that. I am getting married in 5 months, which is good, but it brings about a whole lot of stress of planning, financial strain, who is paying for what, who is not paying at all that should be paying, pleasing mothers and forgetting my own wishes. Lots of good stuff like that. At the same time, I am finishing my last semester of my undergrad, which requires a 120-hour practicum (also in progress), while I have just started my master's. I also work--not much, about 7 hours a week--but it is still work, and pre-marital counseling starts this week. People think I'm nuts, and I get the usual "oh you are smart, you'll be fine," which sounds great, but it is an empty comment. Those around me know how much I am doing, but I don't think they quite understand. I feel like I am already married because I cook, clean the apartment, make sure he has a lunch for work. Again, not a bad thing, just adds to everything else.

My wedding dress came in this weekend, but it went to the store up in Pennsylvania and I am in Maryland. I suppose that my mother will pick it up sometime this week and bring it to me when I see her this weekend. It would just be nice if I could be in control of all my wedding stuff. But again, that is difficult when the wedding is up in PA/NJ and I am down here, I have to rely on the family up there.

I have therapy today, thankfully, it has been almost two weeks since I went last and that is too long. Maybe that is why I lost it last week. I almost forgot, I am looking for a job as well, as terrible as that is in today's economy, and dependent upon where that job is if I get one, will tell me in what area I will be moving when my lease is up at the end of May. That involves finding a place to live where Joe can move in once we get married. But honestly, wouldn't it just be easier if he moved in now? I'd even get a two-bedroom so that we wouldn't sleep together to make the parents happy. Aren't I an adult yet? I still feel like I am living under the rules of others.