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!

We Won! We Won! We Won!

So, a few weeks ago, I entered a giveaway, this giveaway, on the Green Orchid Events blog to win a photography session in Vegas. I was stalking the blog nearly every day as the winner would be chosen randomly from the comments. There were still only 5 commenters (I was the 5th) so I figured we had a 20% chance at it, which isn't all that high.

The contest ended last night at midnight, Vegas time, so I went to sleep hoping I'd wake up to find out that I'd won. Y'all might know how addicted to my Blackberry I am. I check email and twitter constantly. Well, when back pain woke me at 5am, I checked it, scrolling quickly through the emails until I saw it...
"Congratulations - You're the winner of the photo contest"

I started grinning and it took me a while to fall back to sleep. I started telling Steve we'd won, but, well, it was 5am and he was dead asleep. This morning, there was a tweet about it pointing to Juliet's blog post. Yeah, I totally retweeted it.

Even before we won, I was in touch with the photographer, Jessie of Emeric Photography & Design, and really can't wait to work with her and her husband. I told her we'd already booked our wedding photographer, but if we'd won, I'd love to do a day after session. It looks like we get to after all! I'm thinking day after, possibly trash the dress only because I desperately want to go to the Neon Boneyard or possibly Red Rocks Canyon.

Prize package:
* Lifestyle Portrait Session (which can be used for Engagement, Trash the Dress, Day After Session, Anniversary, etc...)
* 3 hours of photography time
* Online photo gallery to share with family & friends
* High resolution disk with choice of 45 print-ready images (printable up to 8×10) A print release will also be included.
* Photo session is valid only in Las Vegas

The Luna Story

There seems to be some confusion and wondering amongst my friends as to why I got a new car. I've been getting gchat and email questions about it. I love y'all for being concerned, but it's cool.. I know what I'm doing. ♥

For starters, I'm not stupid enough to buy something I can't afford. Y'all know that. Y'all also know that money had been exceptionally tight for the 4 months Steve was unemployed and I was paying as many of our bills as I could handle and still pay for my own. Now, on the paltry salary I'm making, that was way worse than paycheck to paycheck since our rent was 90% of 1 of my 2 paychecks each month. And it's not like he wasn't going out every single day and trying to find something, the hiring processes were just taking forever. Since he's been employed, and actually likes his job, money has been much better for the last few months. However, it's not my business to post about that stuff, so y'all really didn't know anything that was actually happening. I know, some of you are on my FB and saw the tiny tidbit's of info I was posting there. But I don't post like 80% of my life on FB because there are too many people on there that I just don't care to share everything with.

My payments on Luna are about $20 more than my Moxie payments and still under $300. I managed to talk them down well over $150 off their original "suggested" monthly payment. I was at the dealer for about 7 hours by myself haggling and very sick the whole time. After a while, they were actually impressed with how I was holding my ground and not just rolling over and taking what they offered. I've learned how the game works with my previous 2 cars and knew what I wanted to pay and just wasn't accepting it. I did almost leave a few times – my dad and Steve were proud of that. LOL. When I brought the 2nd set of Moxie keys in over a week later, they knew who I was without even asking my name and asked about the car, etc.

I did a ton of research on cars in the weeks leading up to buying her. Again, I'm not a nitwit. I had a plan, I knew what I wanted, then during my research I switched what I wanted. I was shocked, quite frankly, that the Hyundai Elantra Touring had such high ratings and amazing reviews over and over again. Plus, hello my price range! I was shocked as I had a Hyundai prior to Moxie and was so over it by the time she was 5 years old. Notice a trend there? I keep my cars for 5 years then trade them in. :)

So here are some of the better things I love about Luna, in no particular order...

• Bluetooth
• Sunroof
• Crossover SUV/ wagon
• 4 times the amount of storage space
• Huge back seat to hold 2-3 baby seats
• XM radio (just found that today!)
• Brand spanking new 2010 model car
• Phenomenal warranty
• Roadside assistance
• Automatic – ok, not so crazy about that, but important for when we have kids *I* think

Financially:

• $8200 for Moxie – let that sink in for a bit :D
• Graduate student discount
• Purchase/ financing price is $3,000+ off the sticker price and on the low end of the "price paid" in all the reviews I've read
• Virtually the same size gas tank and mileage as Moxie – at current prices, $25 to fill it
• Full coverage insurance was $15 more/month on a brand spanking new 2010 car
• Moxie needed roughly $1500 of work as she was 5 years old, needed new brakes, a new battery and replaced motor mounts

veil combs

I want to wear my veil, but not my hair, like this:

Image source

Tonight I started looking for combs to attach my lovely knitted veil to so I can shove it into my hair.However, I also have a total bling comb that I bought ages ago. I cannot and will not attach the veil to the bling comb since there are rhinestones and crystals all over the place that can snag it. And after knitting it for months, I don't want it ruined! :)

So here's my choices for the combs:
1. http://bit.ly/a67bJi 
2. http://bit.ly/96cutE 
3. http://bit.ly/9UaGBP 
4. http://bit.ly/cWdddN 
5. http://bit.ly/9tZobq

Read the sizes in their descriptions and let me know whatcha think, please. :)

We Have a Ketubah! part 1

Holy crow people... we have wording for our Ketubah! I just emailed it off to the lovely and talented Amanda of Swoonoverit who is doing the calligraphy. Steve and I have been tossing around a few design ideas for the other 8" of paper. As a reminder, I bought 12x12 cardstock for Amanda to use 4" down the side for the vows and signature lines and us to use 8" for the artwork.

And without further ado.... here are our wonderful and fabulous vows:

This Ketubah certifies before God and all those present that, on the Tenth Day of the Month of October, in the Year 2010, corresponding to the Second Day of the Month of Cheshvan, in the Year 5771, in the City of Las Vegas, in the State of Nevada, the Holy Covenant of Marriage was entered into between the Groom, [him], Son of [Mom], and the Bride, [her], Daughter of [parents].

Surrounded by family and friends, we affirm our commitment to each other as husband and wife. Our lives are now and forever intertwined. Our similarities will bind us, our differences will enrich us, and our love will define us. We will celebrate all of the passages of life together with joy and reverence. In times of happiness we will cherish each other, and in times of trouble we will protect each other. Together, we will create a home where both of our traditions are celebrated with honor, and where the values of our families are nurtured and passed on. We willingly enter into this covenant of companionship and love: from this day forward, we are as one.

Officiant_________________
Bride____________________
Groom __________________
Witness _________________
Witness _________________

And a design idea:

 

This is, and has been, my favorite design. It started by my looking for trees, but when I saw all the details on it, it was just love. Steve and I just need to figure out what to put on our tree.

Dress Dilemma

I am having a bit of a dilemma right now. Y'all all know that I want a new dress. This weekend is the Brides Against Breast Cancer dress sale here in Raleigh. They have hundreds of dresses vastly discounted AND each purchase is for a good cause.

My dilemma... do I continue to hold onto the existing dress? Or do I go to the dress sale and try on and possibly buy another dress? Or do I just donate the dress to them as a tax write off for my 2010 taxes? OK, well, the choices aren't exactly all stand alone. Liiike, I could go to the dress sale and look, but not buy. Or I could buy and donate. Or I could just say screw it and do nothing.

By the way, my weight loss plan? Yeah, it's non-existant at this point. Due to the massive amounts of snow we just had, I sprained my ankle. I also fell on my butt in a different incident 2 days after the ankle sprain. Yeah, I know, I'm amazing like that. I was shut up in the house for 3 days because I refused to venture out in the ice and snow in my car. Not just any car, but my 10 days old car.

Oh yeah, I got a new car! She's super cute and I love her. I've named her Luna and she's a Hyundai Elantra Touring Wagon. Yes, Hyundai. I was shocked as well, but she's got some of the highest ratings I've seen in a long time and I'm planning for the future. As in, the future with babies and children and all the stuff that involves raising them. Luna has a massive storage area and plenty of room for 2 or 3 car seats.