March 16 TMW post

Check me out every Tuesday on TweetMyWedding!
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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!
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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.