New Blog!

I officially have a new blog! That's right, I am giving up on Blogger and would love it if you continued to follow my antics. :)

The new address is: http://blog.benaimfletcher.com/
The new RSS feed is: http://blog.benaimfletcher.com/?feed=rss2

Since this blog was being imported into LiveJournal and I totally can't figure out how to feed my new blog over there yet. If you can help me out, I would love it! I've tried Live+Press and LJ-XP and neither worked. WP 3.0 apparently doesn't mesh well with it.

The Dress.. No I mean it this time!

What a bad blogger I am! It's been nearly a month since I've last posted. In that time, I have completed a fair amount of wedding-related things. I made our cupcake tower, but decided against bringing it to Vegas so it doesn't get ruined and will just use it at the Miami reception. Our cake topper is nearing completion and will post pics when it's done.

Also, I swear I'm one of the most indecisive people on the planet when it comes to this stuff! I bought a dress super early in our engagment, then got tired of it and took a year to sell it. Then I found another one, super cute and sassy (it's posted here somewhere). Then I got tired of IT and returned it. My vision of what I wanted to look like on my wedding day has changed like crazy. The first dress was a ballgown with pick-ups all over the skirt and a totally undecorated bodice except for a smattering of pearls along the top edge. My 2nd dress was knee length, all lace, and just plain fun. My last and hopefully final dress is floor length, all chiffon, spaghetti straps and beading under the bust. I am in love with it. No pictures of me in it (I wasn't wearing the right undergarments!), but it's this one:

Image from David's Bridal

Not so Quickie Update

In the last few weeks, we've had the following wedding progress:

* booked our airfare -- yes, this ranks as the absolute highest since it was such a chore! But alas, we have non stop flights to/from Vegas from the 8th to the 13th for $390.99 including the flights, taxes, fees, airline club fees, AND insurance. I may be taking a risk by booking on Spirit Air, but there's a few reasons why I am OK with it. Namely being in touch with their head of customer service via twitter and email the last few weeks, and also Cat's sister is working for them. Both make me feel good about the decision. Also you can't beat that price for 2 people ON a holiday weekend with a stick! Now the problem is finding a hotel room for the 8th since our reservation in the suite is for the 9th-13th. Also, this puts us $200 under our travel budget!

* guest list -- I finally typed the names from all the labels and the slips of paper mom gave me into Excel. I was somewhat shocked to find out that it added up to 189 warm bodies including children. The reception will be open to all families, totally casual and just plain fun. Honestly, as much as my head is saying no, I think it'd be completely fun to have a bounce house! The whole shindig is in my parents back yard and guests will have roughly 4-5 acres to roam and play on during the party.

* designed and had printed 2 more stamps for wedding/ post-wedding use -- the first is a super fabu address stamp that went through tons of changes before being agreed upon. The other is a stamp for the back of the RSVP envelopes. The envelope stamp says "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." Love Robert Frost! These 2 and the original one I had printed were done by the crazy talented BlossomStamps.

* purchased clear labels and downloaded loads of new fonts -- yes, I am both lazy and cheap and will be using labels for our invites. The font I finally decided upon is called "MA Sexy" which amuses me, but whatever. It is both easily read and super flourishy. LOVE!

* cupcake tower -- during a shopping trip to Home Depot to get the pieces for the tower, dad pointed out that we can do as many projects for the Miami reception, but not Vegas. His idea is to use short pieces of PVC pipe since I was going to wrap whatever I bought with blue painter's tape anyhow and he has tons of piping. I'm also going to use 2 of the leftover door knobs from our new cabinets since there are a bunch left over.

* cupcake wrappers -- I bought 3 shades each of orange and blue 12x12 card stock from Michael's. After cutting them all out, I'm planning on stamping and embossing the following logo onto each. Steve said he prefers mini cupcakes, so we'll be getting 4 dozen of those from Retro Bakery. I asked and was told we get 2 flavors per dozen, which is great and all, but their flavors are aMAZing and picking 8 will be torture!

* crinoline -- I haven't ordered one yet as I'm sort of hoping to find one locally. The only problem is I can't find a store locally that sells square dance outfits. I might just suck it up and order the one from Petticoat Junction. I want a pale blue one, but think getting white and dying it on my own might be a better option than hoping they sell the right color.

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In totally non-wedding related news:
* ECU finally recognized me as a graduate with 2 degrees (the MBA and the MIS certificate)
* I am officially a Florida drivers license holder, now to get Luna transferred as well
* I am the somewhat proud owner of an iPhone. Somewhat because the signal is horrendous, but that may be due to it being an old phone.

Quotes

I'm working on a project. This project needs quotes. Can you help me?

Movie quotes
Song quotes
Love quotes
Other just amazing fabulous quotes

OK... go!

May 18 TMW Post

Disclaimer: For all y'all not following my wedding planning antics over on TweetMyWedding Tuesdays, I'll try to remember to post them all here.  Unfortunately I've been seriously lagging at that and so there's going to be in flux... apologies!
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Tweet: This toasting goblet was my great grandparents & used at every wedding in my fam since 1963. Incl mine this Oct! http://twitpic.com/1nv4g4

(source: my iPhone)

I just love the history behind this glass. It is roughly 2' tall and the stem design is simply gorgeous. This picture does it absolutely zero justice. Seeing as it is 47 years old (though it would have been 8 zillion times cooler if it was 42 years!), I will definitely not be taking it to Vegas with us. It will be used only as the party in January. I don't want this much responsibility! =)

From my uncle: "This toasting glass was custom crafted by Steuben for Max & Stella Ettinger on their 50 the anniversary in 1963; note the spiral of hand blown air bubbles in the stem, perfectly geometric, hard to do with crystal. The chairman of Stueben was a friend of Max, who was also in the glass (light bulb) manufacturing business at the time. FYI, Max sold the company to Phillips of Holland in the 70's."

Tweet: Ok ladies... Whatcha think? Can I pull this off with a dark blue ribbon? #weddingdress http://twitpic.com/1o0s2f

Tweet: Dress' lace & the shoes! Now to match the ribbon. http://twitpic.com/1o1xt1

Tweet: For the dress... Will sew the blue to the orange. Ribbon: http://twitpic.com/1o33fw

Tweet: looking at this: http://bit.ly/bacHNa or these: http://bit.ly/cnSOJX (3rd "item" down) b/c sewing a petticoat looks daunting!

Tweet: There's def a mix of oranges & blues in my wedding outfit... http://twitpic.com/1oewiu

(source: my iPhone)

Saturday was ridiculously wedding-productive for me. Namely, I bought my dress(!!), shoes, replacement ribbon belt, and wandered in Michael's getting more ideas. In the above picture, the lace at the bottom is the dress, the knitting is my veil, and the rest is self-explanatory. I am really happy that the veil yarn almost totally matches the dress lace color!

I went to a mall, with the intention of hitting all the anchor stores and seeing what they had. Nordstrom, not anything of my taste in the dress section. Moved on to Macy's, wandered around checking all the rack, honing in on everything white and blue I spotted and finally saw it. White, short, lace, full skirt, ribbon belt. I grabbed 2 sizes, wandered some more, then hit up the dressing room. A-dor-able!

I could envision it with a different color belt. The skirt is full enough to allow for numerous petticoats, depending on how full I want it. The straps are wide enough that I don't need to worry about special undergarments... hello, Spanx! And the lace is simply gorgeous! I texted a handful of friends with a picture and posted it to twitter. The reaction was all positive and for a whopping $75 plus tax, the beauty was mine! Yes, she was on sale, but even the regular price of $99 was damn reasonable.

At the "suggestion" of a friend, I ended up hitting up all the shoe stores in the mall and found some super cute cobalt blue wedge sandals. Granted, by the time I bought them, I felt like my feet were going to fall off between the blisters - Chucks with no socks is evil! – and walking on the sprained ankle. The sales girl was wearing them in black, which is always a good sign of extreme shoe comfort, and told me she is pregnant, another good sign. They were mine. Another $45.

Bear in mind that the other dress sold for $279 plus shipping, so I am definitely under the budget I set for myself.

I am fairly certain that I will be wearing this petticoat, but in white, under the dress. It will make it flair out nicely and complete the look I have been envisioning.

(source: Petticoat Junction)

May 11 TMW Post

Disclaimer: For all y'all not following my wedding planning antics over on TweetMyWedding Tuesdays, I'll try to remember to post them all here.  Unfortunately I've been seriously lagging at that and so there's going to be in flux... apologies!
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Tweet: ARGH! by waiting an extra day, the $501.60 airfare jumped to $621.60 #damndamndamndamn please go back down!!

I have been stalking all the major airline sites to finally buy the tickets out to Vegas. I waited so I could get all my homework turned in, last final exams, everything and when I went back, everything had skyrocketed. Um, airline peeps, we're still 5 months out! Go the heck back down! Seriously! You're giving me a heart attack!! I was so excited that I'd be getting both tickets for pretty much cross country flights (Miami to Vegas) for $500. Now they're considerably over $600 and that's even the discount airlines! I am religiously checking Delta, AirTran, JetBlue and Southwest, plus Orbitz and they're not wanting to dip back down. I am less than amused at this.

Tweet: i have to reboot & since i don't want to lose my @overnightprints cart, i'm ordering everything! 125 of each for $118, incl ship. #wedding

The invitations have been ordered! I had to reboot my computer and since I didn't want to have to re-enter all the pieces back into Overnight Prints' website and find the coupon code again, I ordered them! I ended up getting 125 of everything but the photo dump cards and got 150 of those. It's all my own design and I tried to get a few fonts to carry throughout the entire set, but there's 1 or 2 used on just one piece. As a designer, it's sort of annoying, but whatever, our guests probably won't even notice!

Want to see them all?? All following images are mine!
The official wedding announcement (5x7)

The reception invitation (4x6) (major props to TheDearlyWed for the wording on this one!!)

The RSVP (4.25x5.5)

The photo dump cards (business card)

Tweet: OMG I just got an iphone. My aunt had a "spare" sitting in her car. Happy MBA graduation to ME! & dad's getting my BB ;)

This somewhat relates because I want you to pretty please tell me your favorite free apps! Yes, right now I'm being Cheapy McCheaperson and not spending money on apps. I've got games and stuff, but what are your favorite wedding planning apps? And heck, baby planning ones too. ;)

May 4 TMW Post

Disclaimer: For all y'all not following my wedding planning antics over on TweetMyWedding Tuesdays, I'll try to remember to post them all here.  Unfortunately I've been seriously lagging at that and so there's going to be in flux... apologies!
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Tweet: our wedding photo dump ShutterFly site is all set up. too early to order the cards & invites? i'm totally itching to order my pretties.

Tweet: if i have your email address, chances are you just got the "gimme your mailing address" email. #feelingproductive

This past week has seen a dramatic upswing in actual wedding plans. Sure I play around a lot with DIY projects and dress options, but this week we worked on the reception party guest list. That's huge for us. Up to this point, it's been word of mouth for Vegas invitees. I've made all the paper products already and just need to hit submit on Overnight Prints. However, it'd totally be my luck that I'll order 100 of everything only to go over and have no buffer for mess ups. Right now we have about 55 address labels, but are still waiting for a good chunk of addresses.

Currently the items in my shopping cart, including shipping, total $93.60. Not bad for 100 announcements, 100 reception invitations, 100 RSVP cards, and 200 "photo dump" cards. I really want to order them at the same time to avoid duplicate shipping charges.

Tweet: looks like we're doing soaps as reception favors. yay for trade & crafty friends!

I designed a logo for a friend's business cards and website recently. In return, she offered to make us homemade soaps in our colors and any scents we choose. I'm picturing Japanese lanterns, twinkle lights, cherry blossoms, orchids and other fun touches on our extremely casual Miami reception party. The soap molds I tentatively picked out are flip-flops, palm trees, and an assortment of flowers. I still need to pick the scents as the colors will obviously be orange and blue!

Tweet: do i buy or wait? don't want it to increase, but also don't want to get screwed. 2r/t tickets Ft.Laud-Vegas for $501.80

The airfare really makes me nervous. Our hotel suite is booked already for 4 nights at just shy of $600. Booking another $500 for airfare is just nerve-wracking! I've heard booking mid-week is the best time to book flights, price-wise. What do y'all think, is $500 a good price for 2 round trip airline tickets?

Also, not wedding-related but still a huge accomplishment... I am days away from being an MBA graduate from East Carolina University!! It's been 5 very, very long years in the making. It's significant as I began the program before I even met my wonderful fiancé.

April 27 TMW Post

Disclaimer: For all y'all not following my wedding planning antics over on TweetMyWedding Tuesdays, I'll try to remember to post them all here.  Unfortunately I've been seriously lagging at that and so there's going to be in flux... apologies!
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Tweet: the more i think about it, the more likely our reception/ 40th bday bash will be mid-January. perfect weather, 3mo post-vegas, etc. bueno!

I am almost 100% certain that our delayed reception will be held during Presidents weekend 2011. Not only is it a long weekend, but that Friday is Steve's birthday! Perfection, no? He's not thrilled about my advertising his age, unless I use the old saying, so here goes... "Lawdy lawdy, look who's 40!"

We will have the big bash, but in an oh so casual way. I am picturing Japanese lanterns, lots of candles, orchids, bromeliads, and twinkling lights strung all over my parents back yard. Mid-January is beautiful and breezy down here due to it being their few weeks of "winter" where the temps get into the 50s. I cannot even begin to put into words my excitement over planning a real party!


Tweet: spring in Homestead is absolutely gorgeous. sleeping w/windows open & it's in the 60s outside. yes, #miamimove was a good decision :)

Tweet: researching fees to become a FL resident. 1 good thing is no tax on Luna since she's only 3mo old. too bad other fees are ridiculously high.

Tweet: 1st real outing & I ran into an old friend & former co-worker... Yay!

Because planning the wedding and changing my name in 5.5 months isn't enough of a hassle, Steve and I are currently trying to figure out how to become legal Florida residents. Since I left 4 years ago, the laws have increased dramatically to get a driver's license. We are technically living with my parents and don't have a lease, therefore, no legal "we live here" paperwork to show the DMV. The good news is that in my research, I discovered that bringing in a new car used for less than 6 months means I don't have to pay additional taxes on my new Luna. That's at least one thing I don't have to worry about. Moving to a new state is a hassle, but at least we have no more state taxes! And also plenty of time between the move and the wedding; namely, 166 days!

Also, because I grew up here and did all my schooling in Miami with the exception of college, I have a ton and a half of friends that I left behind when I moved. I anticipate seeing a lot of old friends in my days out and about. I'm certainly hoping for that at least.

April 20 TMW Post

Disclaimer: For all y'all not following my wedding planning antics over on TweetMyWedding Tuesdays, I'll try to remember to post them all here.  Unfortunately I've been seriously lagging at that and so there's going to be in flux... apologies!
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NotARealTweet: Steve is talking to me about the wedding to keep me awake. #lovehim

This week was our big move from Chapel Hill, NC to Homestead, FL. Most of my tweets this week were relating to that, including quite a few from the road letting everyone on Twitter and Facebook know our progress. The drive that should have been about 13 hours, turned into about 21 between all the stops for gas, stretching and potty and walking the puppy. We also stopped for a good 3 hours for dinner with friends. And since, by the time we arrived, we'd been awake for 30 hours, we made quite a lot of stops to sleep on the side of the road. Yes yes, it's dangerous and I don't recommend it!

Now, the reason you're reading this wedding post… While it wasn't an actual tweet, since I had very little time to do any wedding planning this week, anytime Steve could see that I was falling asleep on the drive down, he would start asking me questions about the wedding, our ketubah, who is performing the ceremony and all sorts of questions about Vegas in general. It was super cute as he's one of those "I really don't care, I just want to be married to you" grooms.

After this move, I have graduation in 2 weeks and then nearly 5 more months until the wedding. I think during that timeframe I will start planning our reception in Miami for the other 150-200 people that are pissed that we’re going to Vegas. ;-)

April 13 TMW Post

Disclaimer: For all y'all not following my wedding planning antics over on TweetMyWedding Tuesdays, I'll try to remember to post them all here.  Unfortunately I've been seriously lagging at that and so there's going to be in flux... apologies!
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Tweet: whoa, i'm getting married 6 months from today.

Tweet: http://twitpic.com/1f3x3v - So cute! Have to try on. #wedding

Tweet: Getting swatches that match my wedding veil (@ David's bridal) http://4sq.com/bpFlKX

This past week has been utterly consumed with packing and moving and finishing up my grad school papers. Our move to Miami is about 85% complete with my darling fiancé already down there. He took our huge truck full of almost all our worldly possessions on Friday and has been spending the last few days hanging out with my parents, brothers and rest of my awesome family. He's coming back on Tuesday on the train to clean and pack up the rest and drive down with me and our pets.

April 10 marked the 6 month countdown to my wedding day. Holy shnikes! 6 months. Seriously, wasn't it just like 2.5 years? Well, technically this date wasn't set when we got engaged 2.5 years ago. But we did set the date, in stone, about 14 months ago when we put down the deposit and started booking everything in Vegas.

Yesterday, for the first time in ages, I went out and messed with dress stuff. Namely, I took my veil to David's Bridal and, with the help of an awesome sale woman, picked out matching swatches. Not only that, but we but agreed that Cornflower would make both the veil stand out and my bright blue eyes pop out. I have a few selections of dresses I want to try on after the move when I actually have time. I am fairly certain that no matter how much I want a truly unique dress; I will end up getting one from David's. This is mostly due to the fact that I do have a credit card there with a huge limit. Right now, these are my top contenders, and possibly some of the separates. I definitely need to try them on, even though the second one is an online only style.

Both images courtesy of David's Bridal

April 6 TMW Post

Disclaimer: For all y'all not following my wedding planning antics over on TweetMyWedding Tuesdays, I'll try to remember to post them all here.  Unfortunately I've been seriously lagging at that and so there's going to be in flux... apologies!
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Tweet: quite a lot to do today. i have 5 days to wrap up everything & file/ organize the last 1.5 years worth of stuff for my successor.

There hasn't been a whole lot of wedding planning going on this week due to the fact that we are moving to Miami next week and are crazy busy packing, packing, packing. Also, I have 2 major papers due this Friday; one in each of my 2 classes. Also, this coming Friday is my last day at the job I have loved like crazy for the last 19 months. They've been interviewing for my replacement over the phone and today one came in. She was nice, and got the thumbs up from me. Three more are interviewing this week.


Tweet: custom designer in miami, styles: http://bit.ly/9L5euH http://bit.ly/b5nEPK http://bit.ly/dws7Sd http://bit.ly/cTy8ur http://bit.ly/90AhLN

Tweet: i really want this dress: http://bit.ly/9L4GCY #wedding

One thing I did play around with was my dress. Since my original dress is gone and in the hands of her new mama, I started looking for a replacement dress. During a random Etsy search, I found a fantastic custom dress designer. Not only that, but she is in Miami! After many emails back and forth, it seems that she will custom make anything I am willing to pay for AND she’s planning her own wedding! The tweet with the 5 links are all hers that I initially loved. I’d been leaning towards a custom made, or custom fitting dress (like the second tweet) for a while now. And if I can make a new friend out of it, all the better.

187 days left! It’s nice to have something considerably far away since everything else is bunched up in the next few weeks.

March 30 TMW Post

Disclaimer: For all y'all not following my wedding planning antics over on TweetMyWedding Tuesdays, I'll try to remember to post them all here.  Unfortunately I've been seriously lagging at that and so there's going to be in flux... apologies!
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Tweet: i think, cuz i'm wearing sneakers to it, that i need to knit some cute ruffled socks for my wedding. got a good pattern for me?


Tweet: i decided to knit another pair of these as i absolutely love them. but in an orange &/or blue color: http://bit.ly/byaykZ #wedding #socks

I am a knitting fool. With so much time remaining until our wedding, I feel like I need to keep busy with wedding-related tasks. At least The Fiancé likes that idea better than baby-related tasks – namely reminding him that we need to have babies soon. But anyhow, with as simple as The Wedding is, I occupy my time with other projects that take a long time... like the veil that took 5 months to knit.

Our move to Miami is in less than 3 weeks and, at this point, I am avoiding ordering anything. Granted, this is mostly due to the fact that I should be spending my time packing up our apartment or writing the 2 papers due next Friday or completing my take home midterms. But give me 5 free minutes and I am browsing Zappos or David’s Bridal or Light In The Box or The Unique Sheep and coveting all the pretties. Am I the only one with an online shopping addiction? I highly doubt it. =)

I am currently avoiding travel sites and trying to convince myself that waiting a few more months will make airfare drop. It’s not really working, but at least I am avoiding the sites.

Tweet: it amuses me to NO end that everything in my @zappos favorites costs $42. 42= binary of 10.10.10 & the next tattoo i will get. #geek

Speaking of shopping, this one literally had me giggling uncontrollably for about 5 minutes. I am a self-professed geek and lover of Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. OK, so what? If you’re a H2G2 fan, you know that 42 is "the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” Have I mentioned that I am easily amused? As I recently learned in my networking class, calculating out 101010 in binary really does add up to 42. I also recently learned that the total number of spots on 2 dice (die?) adds up to 42.

And because I love numbers so much...
In 8 days, I will no longer be a YMCA employee.
In 19 days, I will no longer call North Carolina home.
In 37 days, I will be an MBA graduate.
In 194 days, I will be a Mrs.

New Techie Toy

I got a new iPhone last week and after much battery draining, I finally think I have it all [ok, mostly] figured out. Now, what are your favorite apps? I'm really only looking for the free ones right now.

I have:
Echofon
Facebook
Emoji for Free
Bump
Fandango
Foursquare
Kindle
Livejournal App
myStarbucks
Sudoku 2
Unblock me Free (addicted to this!!)
UrbanSpoon
Weather Channel
Words with Friends Free (i'm msrib on there.. find me!)
Yowza!! Mobile Coupons

Looking for wedding planning, fun games, baby planning (nothing yet, just planning), and other fun stuff. What are your faves?

Dress and Shoes... CHECK!

Fantastic news... I bought my [replacement] dress this morning!

Steve has to spend 6-7 hours at a work orientation in Miami, so I was a nice fiancé and drove him up there. Good thing too since the most direct route was all torn up and I needed to use my old shortcuts around the city. Rather than drive the 45min back down to Homestead, I hung out in my old stompin' grounds. I went to Dadeland mall, with the intention of hitting all the anchor stores and seeing what they had.

Nordstrom, not anything of my taste in the dress section. Moved on to Macy's, wandered around checking all the rack, honing in on white and blue and finally saw it. White, short, lace, full skirt, ribbon belt. I grabbed 2 sizes, wandered some more, then hit up the dressing room. A-dor-able!

I could envision it with a different color belt. The skirt is full enough to allow for numerous petticoats, depending on how full I want it. The straps are wide enough that I don't need to worry about special undergarments... hello, Spanx! And the lace is simply gorgeous! I texted a handful of friends with a picture and posted it to twitter. The reaction was all positive and for a whopping $75 plus tax, the beauty was mine! Yes, she was on sale, but even the regular price of $99 was damn reasonable.

At the "suggestion" of a friend, I ended up hitting up all the shoe stores in the mall and found some super cute cobalt blue wedge sandals. Granted, by the time I bought them, I felt like my feet were going to fall off between the blisters - Chucks with no socks is evil! – and walking on the sprained ankle. The sales girl was wearing them in black, which is always a good sign of extreme shoe comfort, and told me she is pregnant, another good sign. They were mine. Another $45.

Bear in mind that the other dress sold for $279 plus shipping, so I am definitely under the budget I set for myself.

Here's a little sneak peek of the gorgeous lace and shoes:

I purchased 1.5" wide orange ribbon and 5/8" blue ribbon. My plan is to sew the blue to the orange and replace the black ribbon currently on the dress. The ribbon currently falls higher up that I like, so I'll be cutting off the loops as well.

Accomplishment

Today I am a graduate of East Carolina University with my Masters degree. I can officially add "MBA" to the end of my name. A name that I will be changing permanently in 5 months and a few days.

I spent the day with my dad. First shopping at Home Depot (wooo!) and later helping him hang the new cabinets in our kitchen. We have lived ere for 3 weeks and finally have half a kitchen... just not the cooking half.  After working in here, I hobbled* to my parents house to make my fabulous fried chicken for our dinner. And after dinner, I was presented with...

*Hobbled as I found the hole on all the 8.5+ acres that I could manage to fall in and sprained my ankle for the 843rd time. Oh yes, it was fun! Good thing I've carried my crutches with me state-to-state and apartment-to-apartment.

New Reads! The Urban Bride

The absolutely fantastic Amanda Young and Meghan Magritz started a fabu new company.. You really need to check it out! It's called The Urban Bride: the modern bride's guide to a city-chic wedding.

You'll recall that Amanda is the utterly talented calligrapher that is penning our ketubah for us. Head over and wish her and Meghan a bit of luck on their new venture. I know I certainly can't wait to follow all their posts.

An excerpt:
"The Urban Bride is not just any blog: it’s a blog about real brides. Because, let’s be honest, we all love garden weddings, but we don’t all get married in a garden, now do we? What about the millions of brides looking for an urban affair? No tulle or princess dresses. No macarena at the reception."

Now I don't know about you, but that certainly sounds like my kind of blog! While, sure, I love reading about fairytale weddings and seeing the crazy gorgeous pictures, it's not realistic to me. We're having a supremely low-key wedding and backyard BBQ as our reception a few months later. And it's all about budget and DIY goodness. I'm all about reading about "real" wedding and maybe being featured one day! *wink wink nudge nudge*

To commemorate their launch, Urban Bride is having a giveaway, so head on over there and enter it for some fun city-chic swag!

A real update!

I know I do not post nearly as much as I should. But in all honesty, I do the majority of my wedding "planning" on twitter these days. I am also the featured bride on Tuesdays over on TweetMyWedding. The other brides are amazing and you should really go check us all out. :)

sneak peek of the design for all the "invites"

That little plug aside, I've finalized the design for our "invites" and just need the final head count to order them. I put it in quotes because it's a whole package of Vegas wedding announcements, Miami reception invitation cards, Miami reception RSVP cards, and little cards for our photo dump website. Our what? You know... when you go to a wedding, take tons of pictures with your camera then eventually get around to putting them on Facebook. Well, I created a Shutterfly site specifically for people to be able to upload everything there so we can see what everyone has done. We, and anyone viewing the site, can create books, bags, or whatever else from those pictures.

My main reason for posting is that we have been working on the guest list in the last few days. We have a fairly comprehensive list of family and friends. The problem lies in my father's family. To say they're all estranged is probably too harsh of a word. I am good friends with one of my cousin's, and facebook friends with her and 3 others. However, my father hasn't uttered a word to his step-mother, step-brother or step-sister in years. We kinda like it that way. My dilemma is do we be the bigger people and invite the lot hoping the "adults" decline and the cousins I like accept, or just not invite anyone?

What do you think? I can give back story if you want via email.

Thanks!

Hello Lovelies!

I am still alive! Things have been crazy hectic in the last few weeks between packing, writing 2 huge papers, working on finals, wrapping up my old job, preparing for my new job, and moving to Homestead! Yes, that's right, we uprooted our lives and already moved down here. The drive was about the longest on the planet. Seriously, it should have been about 13-14 hours max and we managed to turn it into nearly 21 hours..... but way more on that later.

Graduation is in a few weeks. And, thankfully, we'll have 5 months until the wedding after graduation. I will be so happy to have a break from huge life events right in a row.

I also need to start planning the wedding reception party and am contemplating mid-January as a combo reception/ Steve's 40th. Oh dear, maybe I shouldn't advertise that... ;-)

Anyhow, I am writing this super quick post so y'all don't forget about me. ;)

Cheers!


sent from my BB Bold... sorry for any typos!

Possible Budget Resolution

Yesterday's April Fool's post earned me the highest daily click thru's on the blog since it began last July. Wow, that's crazy. Apparently I disappointed a lot of people. And one person used it as a spin-off fooling to my poor best friend.

Anyhow, during my mass procrastination and crying fest last night (over homework, moving and not having time for either) I cracked open the wedding budget I started in the very early stages when we were still planning a cruise wedding. This was about 5 date/ location changes ago. =) So yeah, opened that sucker up, added a bunch more tabs, and feel pretty OK with it.

On the Vegas Only tab, I am including Vegas-specific items. If it can be used elsewhere or won't be coming to Vegas, it's not included. I have the flight/hotel estimate as $1200, though it might be a smidge less. Our huge suite for 4 nights/ 5 days with the major discount is $594, including all fees and taxes. From all estimates I've seen, flights should be about $550.

Other than that, I included tips to the hair dresser, limo driver, photographer, and officiant. The wedding package itself (duh!), the marriage license, the cupcakes and wine (reception), wedding hair, the favors (kick ass polycarbonate water bottles), and a handful of other items are in this list. I didn't put food and entertainment on there cuz I don't really know how to budget for those. Ideas?

Glaringly missing from that tab is the dress, veil, and his suit since we will be able to wear them again. Actually, we'll wear them to the Miami reception. Also missing are our wedding rings, ketubah, the stamp I bought, cupcake wrapper pattern (totally reusable!), "something blue" necklace (I wear it 2-3 times a week already), fake flowers (future home décor), and a handful of other things that I'll think of in the future.

The Miami reception tab is still relatively blank. Well, it does say "Publix cake" in large letters but is otherwise blank. Ha! I think only Southerners will get why that's such a big deal.

News, Kinda huge.

So... considering how much I share with the world and how open I am with everything about my life, this one has been ridiculously hard to keep quiet. I mean, my parents hear details about my wedding from friends of theirs that I don't even know. Someone, somewhere tells them stuff, which I find highly amusing considering how non-tech savvy my parents (OK, my mom) are.

But anyhow, this news. Looks like it's a good thing that I sold the dress cuz if it didn't fit me now, it's certainly not going to fit me in 6 months when I'm closing in on the end of my pregnancy. Anyone want to send some ridiculously cute empire waist maternity wedding dresses my way??

How many tests did you take to make sure it was really real?? Yes, I knew I'd be posting this eventually and have been keeping a pregnancy journal. Oh c'mon, I can't keep anything to myself!

March 16 TMW post

Check me out every Tuesday on TweetMyWedding!
++++

Tweet: @msrib our vegas budget is $1500, but flight & hotel is about $1100. methinks we need to rethink that budget. *sigh*


One of the biggest wedding-related things on my mind lately has been our budget. We picked Las Vegas to keep our budget low - as well as about a hundred other reasons. Being tight on funds, and unsure when Steve will find a job in Miami, our budget is even more precarious. That said, I have been trying to re-figure our Vegas budget. It's basically come to my attention (due to crazy amounts of research) that a destination wedding can cost upwards of about $30,000.

Not ours!

We have the ceremony/ officiant, photographer/ videographer, limo, flowers, and I'm sure other things booked with Scenic Las Vegas Weddings for the grand total of $399. They came highly recommended by 2 different friends and have been amazing about responses via both email and their Facebook page.
Our hotel suite for 5 days/ 4 nights is roughly $600 at the Luxor. No, it's not the classiest hotel on the strip, but it's affordable and fun. We both love Egyptian things so it is perfect. Also, with their nearly weekly Twitter Tuesday specials, all our guests can stay in the same hotel if they choose.

Our airfare is the problem. Having never purchased 2 airline tickets anywhere, it's baffling to me that they're between $5-600. Sure, that's 2 round trip tickets from Miami/ Ft Lauderdale to Vegas, but still.
Pretty much, as our budget stands, we've blown the entire thing on flights, hotel and wedding. This leaves no room for food, Grand Canyon day trip, souvenirs, food, food, food. Notice a small problem? We need to figure this out, and sort of soon.

How would you handle something like this? I've seen DW wedding budgets handled as adding what you'd spend on the honeymoon and what you'd spend on the wedding. Considering we're having a reception sometime in 2011 in Miami, our budget is ridiculously low.

I think our "problem" is we're both thinking of this as a one day event when the most amount of time, energy and money should be spent on our relationship and marriage. On the other hand, this is a vacation trip with a couple hours of wedding-related things shoved in there. Yes, we're kinda weird that way. =)


Tweet: @msrib I am so happy that the gorgeous wedding dress i no longer love & adore will be sold today & go to a new home this week. thank you, @ebay


That's right, it finally sold. For a whole lot less than I paid for it and after being posted on 5 wedding resale sites and on ebay 8-9 times since May. I will be getting a grossly lower price than I wanted, but at least it's gone. I took a friends advice and dropped the price and voila! gone...


Tweet: @msrib i had the not-so-startling realization this morning that i only have 15 more working days at my wonderful job.


I am fortunate for having so much time until my wedding due to the fact that we are making a North Carolina to Florida move in just under a month. And I am graduating (read: loads of writing and studying and exams) with my MBA in about 6 weeks. I have no idea when I’ll be starting my new job, but there’s leeway on my start date.

Bringing in Food

This is me not working on my midterms or paper. My brain seriously hurts.

But anyhow, I started looking for a hair salon – cuz hey, why not, right? I asked @luxorlv if there was a salon onsite for us (ok, me) to get our hair done, and she pointed me directly to their price list (PDF). Bueno! Last time I'd checked, I only saw stuff about their spa.

I'm definitely thinking of getting my hair done. Since I'll be wearing Converse, I won't need a pedicure. And since I bite the hell outta my nails, I won't need a manicure. Granted, if I really wanted a mani or pedi, I could easily get them at home the day before we leave.

I also started playing around on the Amenities page to look at the food prices for a possible in-room meal. They are crazy! I'm still totally OK with the whole group heading to one of the many buffets in Vegas after the pictures are done. However, after reading their Policies (PDF) I'm worried that we may not be able to bring the cupcakes in from Retro without an extra charge. I'll give them a buzz on Monday to double check. Pretty much because while their cakes look amazing, they are also pricey (PDF) for wedding cakes or even "special event" cakes.

198 days until we're married. Um, wasn't it just like 300++ yesterday?? Seriously, time is flying, but not fast enough.

The Dress... she is GONE

She is currently in the hands of the very capable USPS folks. I even paid for insurance and spent more than she paid me for shipping. But I don't care, cuz she's gone baby gone!

March 16 TMW post

Check me out every Tuesday on TweetMyWedding!
++++

Tweet: @msrib we had a very productive day: goodwilling, food, packing supplies, & paper/ stamps/ ink pads for wedding cupcake wrappers. to emboss or not?

We're having so few actual "wedding" items in Vegas that I feel the need to DIY everything that I can possibly make. For example, we're having a champagne (or wine) and cupcakes reception in our suite after the ceremony and pictures. Should I be content with the cupcakes as when I pick them up? Of course not! I'm planning on making super cute wrappers and cupcake flags for each one. Or at least the wrappers as both might be overkill. This weekend I started working on a stamp to have made to use for things like embossing the wrappers, stamping napkins, and post-wedding, using to stamp letters.


Tweet: @msrib: http://twitpic.com/18o4k8 - Revised font.. Like so?

Our favors are 32oz polycarbonate water bottles that I'm putting our logo on. The good thing is we're moving to Miami in a few weeks where the company is, so I have plenty of time to order and pick them up. The biggest problem is settling on a logo I like. As the designer, I'm the picky one; Steve isn't all that concerned with what the logo looks like.

After a bunch of different logos and polling my twitter friends, I ended up ordering the stamp off Etsy from BlossomStamps for really reasonable. It's $10 plus like $2 shipping for a 1"x1.5" custom stamp. Now to find the embossing powder, cute paper, and free time to work on all the projects.

208 days left!

Vegas On My Mind...

The dress? She is G-O-N-E! Seriously. The 843rd time was the charm I suppose. It was lowering the price considerably and just continually reposting it on ebay that most likely worked. Within 2 hours of the auction ending, I already had the money in my Paypal account. It is amazing! And it only took 10 very freakin long months to sell...


Now onto other things.....

Steve keeps asking me what I will do with my free time after the wedding is over. Seriously, I can sit online for hours and look at cake boards, dresses, cupcakes, new projects to undertake, ketubah imagery, look up and customize favors, and the list goes on and on and on. I could occupy a very large chunk of my days playing with wedding things.

Want to see our suite and Vegas party reception? I am so excited and can't wait to stay here! Sure, it's not the highest end hotel, but I don't care. We're staying in a suite for 4 nights/ 5 days and enjoying ourselves the whole time.  Our wedding is actually going to be IN our suite, followed by a cupcake/ champagne reception.

 Image from Luxor Las Vegas

Slide show and 360 video

Info page with the floorplan

She's just a really pretty room and I'm super excited. 6.5 months to go.


Also, we're moving to Miami in a little less than a month. 17 hours away by car. It's been coming for a long time, but was finalized a few weeks ago. Well, about a week and a half ago when I gave my notice at work. It seriously hurts that I'm leaving such an amazing job and the best bosses I've ever had (sorry Jeffy) but I have to do it. Also, after giving my notice, I learned that I don't take  praise all that well. I am the person that laughs it off or turns 6 shades of red. Who knew I was so.. humble?

We're leaving to move into my parents place, well, the cottage on their property. It's a 2/2 complete with kitchen, family room, dining room, and everything. It's really cool. Right now my family (yes Cathy, you're my family too!) is renovating and painting it for us. It will be difficult at first moving back to the place I swore I wouldn't return, but it will definitely help when we have children. My parents are about 150 yards away, brothers, aunts, uncles, everyone are super close.

As crappy as I feel about leaving my job, this means I will be able to have a bridal shower. And start planning our Miami reception. And plan for zee bambinos. Ahhh bambinos!

Veil, Blocked!

It's finished. It's blocked. Now I just need to sew the comb onto it. It's currently sitting pinned to the blocking mats in our spare room.

4.5 months later, my wedding veil is done

All of my progress pictures since casting on October 29, 2009.

One of my favorites twitter tags lately has been #imcrazy.

I'm crazy for undertaking such a huge knitting project. As a fairly new knitter, I decided that I would knit my wedding veil. I cast on the first stitches on October 29, 2009 and just now finished it on March 16, 2010. It was a very long 4.5 months and well over 48,000 stitches.

I am unbelievably proud of myself for undertaking this project and completing it.
So proud of how gorgeous it turned out.
So proud of my perseverance in knitting every day at lunch and while watching TV at night.

I still need to block* it and attach it to the comb. But for now, it is completely finished.

* Blocking means wetting the piece and pinning it to a board to force it into the proper shape.

100th Post!

I wish I had something more exciting to post as my 100th blog post, but alas, I'm boring today. :)

Check me out on TweetMyWedding Tuesday's!

Good news? I am about halfway through my bind off row on the veil. That's right, I'm about an hour or so from being done with it! And it is GORGEOUS! I brought it to work today to finish during lunch and of course had to show it off to my co-workers.

Look ma... no needles!

March 9 TMW Post

As seen posted last week on TweetMyWedding:

by the time i'm done w/my wedding veil, i'll have knit over 48K stitches. by far the most on a single project. 16 more rows!

http://twitpic.com/17glg0 - 111 rows, 14 to go! #veil

Hey y'all!

I'm Becca, 33 years old, moving to Miami with my fiancé and our dog and cat in about a month, and getting married in Las Vegas on October 10, 2010. We're having a super low key wedding out in Vegas and a reception later on in Miami. I am super excited to be the newest blogger here on TweetMyWedding as I've been following along with the brides since last year.

More progress pictures

My biggest DIY project for our Vegas nuptials is knitting my veil. Yes, you read that right, I am knitting my veil. I cast on my first stitches on October 29, 2009, which feels like it was a million years ago. I am using this pattern, that I found on Ravelry (a password-required website), and modifying it to edge it in our wedding colors of orange and blue. The entire veil is 126 rows and as of today, I have 14 rows remaining until I bind off.


time for a daily reminder: BNWT gorgeous wedding dress for sale, never altered http://bit.ly/di9iuz please RT

How many of you ran out and bought your dress immediately after getting engaged? Did you have a wedding plan? Do you currently have a different wedding plan? Do you still love the dress you bought?

Not me. We got engaged in April 2008 and bought my dress 2 weeks later. We had a tentative plan of having a backyard wedding at my parent's house in Miami. Even if not interested in purchasing a wedding dress, click on the link above to see it. Gorgeous, right? Yeah, I know. <3 However, we are now flying to Vegas the day before the wedding and my vision has completely changed... to a short knee-length dress. So I'm trying to sell it and have been since May.

Follow me on twitter and follow along with my progress for the next 215 days!

No Longer my own version of @TweetMyWedding

Check me out on @TweetMyWedding every Tuesday... Bloggity blog!

One addendum to my post, however, is that there are only 13 rows left! At this point, at 10:39pm on Monday. I do plan on knitting more, so that could change before morning. :)

Also, buy me! Buy me! Yep, The Dress is posted on ebay again...

Impending Graduation

Cap and gown, etc were ordered on Wednesday... They arrived Thursday! I just had to take a picture in my double-tasseled cap. I decided not to walk in the graduation ceremony after all. With everything happening in the next few months between moving and saving for Vegas, it just didn't make financial sense. Instead, we're going to take a little family trip somewhere and take tons of pictures with me in my cap and gown.

Also, I am heavily considering moving this blog to a real website - as in one that I own. From what I understand, Blogger isn't exactly easy to work with, but have any of you done such a transfer? I'm sure I could move it to Wordpress then do the transfer, but I'd like to avoid the middle step. One of these days I'm going to do a major overhaul of our website and pop the blog over there.

Wish Upon A Wedding

We all know I like weddings, right? I’ve planned and helped plan so many over the last 10+ years that I’ve always felt like I may have missed my calling. Today I was scrolling through my RSS feed blogs and stumbled upon a mention of Wish Upon A Wedding from the Green Orchid Events blog.

I immediately clicked the link, added them on Facebook, followed them on Twitter, and submitted an application to become a volunteer with a local chapter. Well, no, I immediately looked to see if I could donate my wedding gown, then submitted my app. Priorities and all... :-)

To quote the GOE blog:
"Wish Upon A Wedding was founded in San Francisco, CA, in January of 2010, by a group of wedding and business entrepreneurs and is America’s FIRST nonprofit wedding wish granting organization, producing weddings and civil union ceremonies at destinations across the United States for individuals facing terminal illness, regardless of sexual orientation."

Can someone say amazing organization??!

Also,
the cap, gown, tassel & Master's hood order has been placed! i'll have them within the week. still dunno if i'm walking though...

YEAH! I'm still contemplating walking, though likely I won't be. There are many reasons behind this and I'm weighing all my options.


Also also, I am the newest blogger on TweetMyWedding! I will be doing a weekly blog post every Tuesday leading up to our wedding.

Reception stuff

Also, here's a wedding post for you!

I spent the day working on wedding things. Why? Because I didn't want to study or do research for moving costs and budgeting. Oh yeah, we're moving! But anyhow, I spent the day messing with the wedding.

First I was trying to find a template for mini cupcake wrappers. Um, what, Becca? This is what I'm talking about, but of course in our colors and style.

Source: etsy

Then I was looking for cupcake tower plates, platters, and cake boards. I wasn't sure if I'd make a true tower or just have a bunch of funky platters with tons of mini cupcakes on them. I checked etsy, ebay, Oriental Trading, Amazon, and finally did a search and found the site I'll be buying the Styrofoam pieces from: The Baker's Kitchen.

In the end, I decided to get a 10" board and a 14" board for the cupcakes and a fun plate for the 6" cake. Assuming each cupcake will take up a 2" block, I can fit 25 on the 10" board and 40 on the 14" board. Oh, there will be a 6" wide x 4" tall column hooking the 2 together and taking up 9 2" spots. Yes, I am anal retentive about all this. :-)

I also found some little orange and blue dessert plates on Oriental Trading for like $3 for 18 plates. So 2 packs will (hopefully) cover everyone!

New Ink!

No, it's not really wedding related, but Steve and I spent the day together yesterday and, at his suggestion, we hit up a tattoo shop. I, of course, have had 2 in mind that I really wanted: a rising phoenix for graduation and the star and 42 for our wedding. The wedding one will be after the wedding of course!

So I got my rising phoenix. On my collarbone. I love the hell out of it and where it's located... but the healing process will be a total pain! Yes, it is where my bra strap lies. Wanna see it??

Steve took photographic liberties with my blackberry camera. Without further ado, here they are:

the layout of the stencil

cleaning... something?

making sure he gets it done correctly

it's done!

Stinkin Budget

21:31 debating pro hair/makeup for the wedding. seems silly to only have for our day after photo shoot. suggestions? besides @ameliacartist :)


16:26 is $180 a lot for wedding day hair & make-up? i know i know, the pictures are priceless, but .....


16:31 & the $180 is including coming to our hotel room for me only. no one else. @seblagg @diybride @brideonbudget

So, in discussing Vegas nuptials with another bride on FB using the same company, I started thinking about getting pro work done for the wedding itself. I will be totally pro (for FREE) during our day after shoot (or rather 2 days after) and it seems kinda silly to not be made up similarly for the actual wedding. When I put the question out to my consultants on Twitter, by this I mean all the brides and wedding planners I’m friends with, they said $180 is damn cheap considering they come to your location. I’m still not sold on it.

Which bring me to another reason...


16:44 i wish i could remove our flight/hotel to vegas from our wedding budget. it's so much prettier w/out them.


18:24 are you including travel & hotel in your wedding budget or is it an extra expense?

Considering our wedding is a destination wedding, I automatically including hotel and airfare in our budget. The hotel is deeply discounted (yay for @LuxorLV and they’re amazing deals), but still about $600. The airfare, when I last did estimates, is between $600-750 for 2 round trip flights. Now granted, that’s from Raleigh; Miami is about $60 less. Without including hotel and airfare, our budget/ actual spending is really low. The wedding is $400, marriage license is $60 and cake/ cupcakes are about $100. With a budget of $1500, that leaves plenty for tours, shows, dinner, rental van and gas out to the Grand Canyon, and so much more. Also, if this damn wedding dress does sell, that’s an extra $400 towards the purchase of the $125 dress I want. So obviously, now I’m reconsidering how to figure our budget.


Now onto a much more fun topic... graduation and bling!

18:57 have been looking at amethyst & citrine for grad rings. (school colors are purple & gold) just realized i can get any stone! #noclassring


19:13 i'm considering this: bit.ly/cFAeEA to wear with this: bit.ly/2SmvHm (already have) whatcha think?


19:19 the ring will be a "hooray i now have an MBA" gift to myself :) @Tryphyna


19:24 oooooh another option: bit.ly/cWC5Jj


20:36 new options, graduation gift: bit.ly/bRYwgw, bit.ly/9Bfpnw, bit.ly/dCIFww, bit.ly/9XqiHm, bit.ly/9UxqRm


20:46 and bit.ly/bh4Kvp - yes, i'm indecisive!

23:00 big surprise, more choices: http://bit.ly/bjyh4Y, http://bit.ly/db4hvj, http://bit.ly/aOcBk8, http://bit.ly/b44uOH in order of pref.

I have been checking out different websites with gorgeous rings for my graduation gift. After graduation from UF, I bought myself an utterly gorgeous diamond and sapphire ring that was stolen a few years later. I loved that damn thing. So yeah, I started looking at other rings for my ECU graduation gift. So far my favorites, in order, are: http://bit.ly/bjyh4Y, http://bit.ly/db4hvj, bit.ly/9UxqRm

Did you buy yourself anything for graduation? It's such a huge accomplishment and... why not?! Also, making payments is my friend. ;-)

a real blog

One day, when I have more time, this will become a real blog. One with it's own domain name - heck, I'll settle for a subdomain of our website - and a pretty design that I can fully control.

Perhaps over spring break. Or maybe in 70-something days once I've graduated and I'm not up till all hours of the night writing papers and doing homework. Like tonight.

Ahhhh... that'll be nice.

Oh, you want something wedding-y? I'm returning the cute blue sandals I bought for the wedding. I'm probably buying either a pair of blue Converse or a custom pair of orange and blue with our wedding date and initials on it.

Favor Bottles/ Tumblers

Which wedding favor would you like better: http://bit.ly/a2ldtC - 32oz or http://bit.ly/97U49r - 34oz

http://twitpic.com/14ufpy - To imprint on bottle #1 - single color

http://twitpic.com/14ulr7 - Revised bottle #1 imprint. :)

coffee/ travel tumblers as favors maybe? http://bit.ly/bbOINz or http://bit.ly/caS8Sg or even http://bit.ly/aZ3NEa


Do you use coffee/ travel mugs or water bottles more frequently? Which would you want to have another of? Yes, bad sentence structure, I admit it.

Whichever bottle or travel mug is chosen will be deep blue (or orange if blue isn't an option) with white or silver imprinting. I designed it in a single color (black) for the printer. On the bottles, what’s black will be white or silver and white will be the color of the bottle (blue).

I have been stalking the Discountmugs.com site for months now. But I’m not making any purchases until we have a better idea of how many guests there will be. Now, granted, it’s not like extras will go to waste as we can send them off to family.

Also, I registered us on Amazon.com and am really excited about it. However, I think some people are still leery of shopping online still - which I completely can’t comprehend! – so we might need to double register at Target. Whatcha think?

Wanna Buy a Dress?

i would like to burn my wedding dress & buy one of these: http://bit.ly/b75U4w (champagne) or http://bit.ly/anO10D (marine)

The wedding dress has been re-listed on @ebay. Help a girl spread the word & please RT: http://bit.ly/bd6w2Z

Yes, I relisted it. After talking to Jessie this morning and doing my weekly online dress searches, I reposted the wedding dress on ebay. It is still posted on BravoBride, RecycledBride, and a few other wedding classified sites. I just wish it would go away already.

I re-wrote the page that I link to in the ebay ad to be more of a sales pitch instead of "omg I love this dress and cannot picture myself in anything but it on my wedding day." BLAH.

So here's hoping! Please spread the word. Surely someone out there wants to purchase this gorgeous dress, right??

Photo Shoot, Cupcakes, & Favors

After a few emails back and forth, I finally got to speak to Jessie this morning about our Vegas photo shoot that we won with Emeric Photography. I am ridiculously excited about it! We (and by that I mean "I") decided on October 12th so whoever is in Vegas for the wedding can join Steve, Cathy, Dan and myself on a trip out to the Grand Canyon on the 11th. Jessie suggested a just-before-sundown shoot, around 5pm, for optimum lighting. As the professional, I'm totally deferring to her on that one! I'd given a list of places I really wanted to go for the shoot and she agreed with me on 2 of them: The Neon Boneyard and the Fremont Street Area (Google images pics). My other options are a Strip tour (hitting all the major hotels and taking pictures as we wander about) or Red Rock Canyon (but we'll need to decide if outdoorsy is what we want). She is going to check on the pricing to do a shoot in the Neon Boneyard (facebook link) as that's completely my first choice.

The "down side" to this is that hair and make-up can potentially take 2-3 hours. Now, I am not a make-up person and usually wear minimal to work when I even put it on. My updo from Kim's wedding took about 30 minutes because it was very detailed and completely up. I am going to find some picture to send to Amelia C for both my hair and make-up... and of course pictures of me. I did friend her on facebook, so she's got those hundreds of pictures to look at of us. :-)

 Source: Retro Bakery on Flickr

I emailed my wonderful bakery Thursday evening as I was thinking about our budget. I asked the price of 3 dozen regular cupcakes, 3 dozen mini cupcakes, and a 6" cake similar to the picture but in deep blue with "Congrats Becca & Steve" written on it.

I got this back yesterday:
Cupcakes are $29 per dozen
Minis are $1 each ($12 per dozen)
6-inch cake is $20

Maybe we'll forego the regular cupcakes and just get a ton of mini's and the 6" cake; or maybe a dozen regular cupcakes for throughout the week and 4-5 dozen mini's and the 6". What do you think?

Source: my InDesign talents!

This afternoon I started working on favor items, namely the logo for the favors.  I also order a tote bag and t-shirt from VistaPrint with the logo on it so I can see what they look like.  For both plus shipping, it cost just over $8.  Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE VistaPrint??  Ordering 1 bag per guest unit (not person) I figure it'll break down to about $5-6 per bag.  These'll be favor bags or welcome bags or whatever you want to call them.  I doubt I'll do the shirts for the guests, but I wanted one! LOL  Yes, there will be a post when they arrive. :-)

So, what d'ya think?

Wedding Veil and ... Pawn Stars?

You want to read more about our wedding? Not much is going on, but while nothing is happening, I’ve still been knitting. That’s right, yesterday at lunch I hit row 83 of 126. Not only that, but it marks the end of the main body of the veil. Up next are the peacock feathers then the color changes.

Oh, you want to see a picture too? Man are you demanding! ;)

More pictures on my flickr page

Also, Steve and I watch Pawn Stars whenever we remember it’s on. It’s not one of those “OMG we have to watch it” shows, but we do love it. As we were watching it last night, he said we should go to the store when we’re out there in October. You know, for our wedding... and I said absolutely! But would love to bring something with me to try and sell. We looked around the house and finally I looked up.

Hanging over my head is this amazing plate brought back from the People’s Republic of China around the time when I was born. My grandmother gave it to my parents and said I was small enough to sleep on it. Yeah, I was. So it’s at least 33 years old, and stamped with Chinese characters and “Made in Taiwan People’s Republic of China” on the back.

The only thing is I haven’t the foggiest idea how to find out it’s value...

Source: my wall

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy valentine's weekend. Normally I despise this day. Not for not being in a relationship as I have been for the last 3 valentine's days, but for other very personal reasons. Steve has changed my viewpoint on this commercialized Hallmark holiday. He's very lucky that I hate roses (yeah, I said it!) and would much rather have daisies or carnations or whatever else. I don't demand flowers or jewelry or chocolate. All I want is to spend the evening with him with a home-cooked meal and just relax together.

The last 2+ years have been amazing with my fabulous fantastic fiancé. I cannot even begin to put into words how lucky I am to have met him and have him in my life. I cannot wait to spend the next 40-50 years (hey, we're old) with him and our children and our pets. We have a life plan and are just waiting for the first domino to fall into place. The rest of the dominos are set up ready to go.

He is amazing and romantic and has the most amazing heart, similar ambitions and dreams, and goals... the man has goals! He loves me for who I am and doesn't care what I look like or how miserable I am with myself. He loves me unconditionally and I am ridiculously lucky.

This year, I drew him 2 cards. One was a wedding/ Vegas scene with us standing in front of the Luxor pyramid with the Welcome sign in the background. Below is my actual valentine's card to him.

What do you like to do on Valentine's and who do you like to spend it with?

The Heroes seem Lost

This is totally not wedding related, it's just amazing! I adore the snot out of both Lost and Heroes and watch them religiously, week after week.

Tuesday night during Lost, there was a scene with a cab. Steve immediately said "that's the puppeteer from Heroes" but I wasn't totally sure. Being me, I tweeted out:

source: twitter

then immediately, not ever thinking he'd respond cuz hello busy celebrity life!, I checked IMDB and saw that it was, in fact, David Lawrence. Yes, Steve was right.

source: twitter

Little did I know that I only had to wait a few minutes to get this tweet in return:

source: twitter

I KNOW!