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26 May 2010

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!

25 May 2010

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.

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

24 May 2010

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.

16 May 2010

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.

07 May 2010

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.

04 May 2010

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!

01 May 2010

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!