Needles & Pens

New Blog!

2010-07-25T03:21:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-07-04T18:35:00.000-04:00

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

2010-06-06T17:00:00.000-04:00

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

2010-05-26T23:40:00.000-04:00

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

2010-05-25T00:41:00.000-04:00

(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

2010-05-25T00:28:00.001-04:00

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

2010-05-25T00:20:00.000-04:00

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

2010-05-25T00:16:00.000-04:00

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

2010-05-25T00:12:00.000-04:00

April 13 TMW Post

2010-05-25T00:08:00.001-04:00

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

2010-05-24T23:56:00.000-04:00

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

2010-05-24T23:46:00.000-04:00

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

2010-05-16T19:28:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-05-16T02:16:00.000-04:00

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

2010-05-07T21:43:00.000-04:00

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

2010-05-04T18:13:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-05-01T19:01:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-04-22T12:57:00.000-04:00

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

2010-04-02T21:39:00.000-04:00

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.

2010-04-01T00:23:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-30T09:46:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-26T22:17:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-25T21:58:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-23T09:51:00.000-04:00

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...

2010-03-22T23:05:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-03-19T13:02:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-16T23:22:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-03-16T11:17:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-15T21:17:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-08T22:40:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-05T10:26:00.000-05:00

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

2010-03-03T11:07:00.001-05:00

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

2010-02-28T23:16:00.000-05:00

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!

2010-02-28T22:15:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-25T10:25:00.001-05:00

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

2010-02-24T01:10:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-23T10:10:00.000-05:00

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?

2010-02-21T01:30:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-21T00:12:00.000-05:00

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?

2010-02-16T10:40:00.000-05:00

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!

2010-02-13T20:59:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-11T18:56:00.000-05:00

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!

2010-02-09T10:20:00.001-05:00

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

2010-02-04T21:31:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-03T22:04:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-02T19:30:00.002-05:00

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

2010-02-02T15:43:00.000-05:00

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.

Snow in Chapel Hill

2010-01-30T21:33:00.000-05:00

I have lived in North Carolina since July 2006 and this is the worse snow I've seen. Not that it was bad, but it'd definitely the most accumulated snow. It's kinda like a hurricane category 5 warning when only a category 1 or 2 shows up. Since I've lived here, we've gotten 1-2" at most each time it's snowed. Not this time! When we went to sleep last night, we already had a couple inches. Around 8am when I went outside, there was about 5-6" already and it snowed on and off all day.

Work was closed today and reports are already in for tomorrow closings. At this rate, we might not even be open on Monday either! That's just crazy to me, but I totally love it.

Even spraining my ankle on a rogue covered up hole can't dampen my mood. I love this white flaky prettiness!

Beautiful night time snowfall, Friday evening.

My new car is already covered!

This was around 8am Saturday morning on top of my car. Roughly 6" of snow.

4" of snow and 8-9" of puppy... you do the math. :)

Lola with one of her BFFs, Tobin. Yes, he's an Irish Setter & she's a Miniature Pinscher.

One of her other BFFs, Brindle. Lola was totally body slammed but got right back up to play.

She was walking in my footprints to sink less. By this point it was about 5-6" on the ground.

More pictures on my facebook, viewable to everyone with an account.

It's Been Awhile

2010-01-29T11:21:00.001-05:00

Where have I been?

I've been sick! Steve and I both have the crud that's been going around Chapel Hill and have had it for over a week. Not only that, but when I'm feeling ill, I don't feel like writing.

No wedding plans have been touched. I haven't been knitting my veil. I haven't been working on the invites. I have, however, been sleeping and watching TV a lot.

Also, since I'm in my final semester for my MBA classes, I'm trying to stay on top of the homework. Yep, I'm kinda failing miserably at it since all I want to do is sleep.

But I will leave you with a funny picture. Right behind our apartment is a .8 mile long cement trail through the forest. Yesterday 2 women and 3 children were hanging out on one of the benches. The kids were drawing all over the trail with sidewalk chalk. This morning during my 7am Lola-walk, I spotted the following picture and just had to take a picture of it. #randomchalkdrawingweddingreference

Married Name Email Address

2010-01-19T16:04:00.000-05:00

apparently rebecca fletcher, & most all variations of it, are taken on gmail. #marriedname

whatcha think: ribfletcher, beccafletcher10 or fletcher.becca for my #marriedname email addy? currently is becca.benaim

beccafletcher42 is also available

beccafletcher42 it is..

I have always identified with my name. Not the "duh" statement that it sounds like, but because my father named me after him. That is, he gave me his initials: RIB. And in just shy of 9 months, I will be losing my awesome initials. I made the decision not to hyphenate and to just have 2 middle names. My mom did it, but uses her maiden name on legal documents instead of both. I just don’t feel right saddling our kids with a huge last name just to keep mine. I am thrilled to be taking on Steve’s last name.

However, I will go from being 100% unique to quite common. Every time I Google my name, I know I will be every one of the results. I was told a few months ago by a friend that I will be the third Rebecca Fletcher on her facebook page after I change my name. Utterly common. But hey, my name will be easy to spell and pronounce!

This morning a twitter friend mentioned securing her married name’s email address. I tried so many different combinations before finally landing on benaimfletcher42. My maiden, my married, and the “Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” 42 is also the binary number of our wedding date. Oh yes, I went there. I admit to my geekiness!

42 is also something I've been contemplating for my next tattoo...

Ring Dishes & Ketubah!

2010-01-16T21:38:00.001-05:00

Image Source

i'm totally getting these for Steve's and my mama's for the wedding! http://bit.ly/8D37Ry

I was perusing etsy tonight and flipping through my favorites. And saw these little ring dishes. How adorable are they?! Oh, I'm totally getting one for myself as well. I'm thinking of this dish: http://bit.ly/4zQjB9 either keeping the claddagh or replacing it with a 4-leaf clover or something Celtic. I have no idea why, but I'm totally drawn to Irish/ Celtic things. Maybe my grandmother was Irish. I like to think she was. I mean really, we're all freckled with blue eyes. A girl can pretend, right? ;-)

Have you purchased ring dishes? What did you use it for or did you just hang it on the wall? I'm picturing ours hanging near (probably underneath) our beautiful ketubah.

And on that note...

packed up the ketubah paper & the deposit and will be sending it to @swoonoverit on Monday! it's really happening!!! #wedding

It's going out on Monday! I cracked open the paper package tonight for the first time. It's beautiful and thick white paper. The hardest part was finding something to ship the paper to Amanda totally flat. I ended up finally finding a scrapbooking paper keeper and putting thick cardboard on either side of the 15 sheets in the keeper. So exciting!!

Weighty Journay

2010-01-15T10:02:00.000-05:00

according to excel**, i need to lose 30lbs to be where i was when i bought my wedding dress. not as much as i thought. have 9 months to go.

So this was amazing to figure out. I actually don’t have all that much to lose to be the weight I was when I bought the dress. 30 pounds in 9 months? That’s only 3 pounds a month if my math is correct. And, well, since the wedding is less than 9 months and I might need dress alterations, we’ll say 6 months to lose 30 pounds. That still works out to be only 5 pounds per month. Oh, plus a whole lot of jiggly arm fat reducing exercises. Since my dress is strapless. And cuz it looks gross.

I think I might actually [try] stay up at 6:30am after Steve leaves for work and I walk Lola. That extra 90 minutes of sleep, while amazing, makes me feel like I hit a wall and it takes me forever to get back out of bed. Perhaps it’s the snuggly puppy curled against me and the warm covers, but whatever it is, it sucks. And I do have a decent amount of energy after our brisk walk in the sub-freezing temperatures. I could *gasp* do a workout DVD then take my time getting ready for work. I could actually make breakfast instead of grabbing a yogurt and swinging by Starbucks for either a bagel or spinach feta wrap and a Venti chai. Sure, I’ll miss my chai, but it may help me lose weight to not drink so many of them!

This is kinda my accountability. I figure if I write about it and have a goal in mind, I may do it. I’m just so lazy! No, not lazy, would rather sit and knit then sweat and exercise. And don’t say pool, cuz me and bathing suits have a long history of mutual hatred. =)

Inspiration. And not even the smallest I've been in my adult life.

**Yes, I tracked my weight watchers journey in excel... what of it? ;-)

it's another "TweetMyWedding" post =)

2010-01-12T22:50:00.001-05:00

Since I haven't figured out how to feed my twitter into here, I decided to do another @TweetMyWedding type post. So here's a few tweets from today, both wedding and not wedding related. OK, more not wedding..

how random, a former co-worker that despises me (told another former co-worker) reads my blog semi regularly... interesting.

This one just flat out amused the shit out of me. Yes, I have tracking on my blog for a reason... reasons like this! A few friends had theories on it, but whatever, it's not my business what she does, nor do I care enough. It was just good for a laugh this morning when I checked my blog stats.

possible #MBA class ring. whatcha think? http://bit.ly/4rdAv8 oh and it's $125

contemplating for MBA ring: "persistence pays" "a long time coming" "no regrets" "make the fam proud" "be a success" all totally apply! :)

Yeah, so I'm not sure why I want a class ring so badly. Maybe because I didn't get one from UF, the school I truly identify with. Maybe because my high school ring was stolen. Maybe because it's tangible as opposed to the $75K piece of paper hanging on my wall. Either way, the link above is really similar to my gorgeous wedding ring. I have 2 other possibilities with huge center stones, but this one is my favorite. And the purple and gold are ECU's colors.

As far as the engraving tweet, I decided that since my name will be changing 5 months after graduation, I don't want it on there. Sure, the diploma will have my maiden name, but whatever. I want something that reminds me of why I spent 5 years and $75K pursuing my MBA and why I didn't give up all those times I was frustrated with classes or professors or classmates.

My leading favorite is "Persistence Pays." Which one do you like and do you have other suggestions? Oh, I'm limited to 18 characters.

sweet! both the main & business graduation ceremonies are the same day. no need for 2 nights at the hotel #MBA

So, last week I booked 2 hotel rooms in Greenville for graduation. I emailed my wonderful and amazing adviser yesterday to ask when the College of Business graduation ceremony is to see if it was also on May 7th. When she replied, she didn't know and suggested I book Friday as well. I held off, but luckily I got an email from COB this afternoon stating it was at 5pm on Friday! Main ECU graduation is at 10am on Friday.

Now I just need to decide if I'm going to attend both ceremonies or just the COB one. If I only attend the COB ceremony and we're still living in NC, I can probably cancel the hotel altogether and just drive to Greenville Friday morning. It's the main ceremony that requires the hotel room since it's at 10am.

The COB ceremony is when I have my Master's hood, umm, presented to me by a faculty member of my choosing. I already know who I want to ask to present mine. He was my professor a few semesters ago and has been really helpful whenever I had a question about my MIS concentration – he's the Assistant Dean and Associate Professor of the MIS program. Yeah, he's awesome.

seems like the dress gods (& y'all's comments!) are telling me to keep the dress. 4 more months on the boards, then will start alterations.

After posting on facebook, twitter, here and livejournal, the response was overwhelming to keep the dress. This is going to be a lot of hard work (on me) and most likely a lot of money (on the dress) to be able to wear it in Vegas this October.

Wow, I can't believe that the wedding is "this" anything. One of my co-workers pointed out that on Sunday it was exactly 9 months away. Umm, wasn't it just like 13 months away yesterday?? Time is F-L-Y-I-N-G!

in royal, which? http://bit.ly/84fGJt or http://bit.ly/4nmtdC

I currently own the first linked pair of shoes. I am also still on the Zappos mailing list for any new Annie shoes that they stock. The second link appeared in my email this afternoon. The first pair is almost plastic material – I can't really describe it. The second pair is satin and I can't tell if they'll be more comfortable. Which do you think? Keep in mind that they're for October in Vegas.

can you get a ring engraved in most jewelry stores? even if it's titanium? we didn't engrave wedding rings when they were made :(

I think this is self-explanatory... I started thinking about it again when I was looking for engravings for the grad ring. Any local (Triangle area, NC) readers know jewelers that engrave on titanium?

i seriously hope Gary puts Amber in her place. Love Catelyn & Tyler. think Farrah needs to focus on sophia. & hope Ryan grows up for Maci.

why yes, my name is Rebecca, i'm 33... and am addicted to #TeenMom

It's true, I love the hell out of this show. Have you seen it yet?

dress hack job

2010-01-11T18:15:00.001-05:00

ok so I'm a total dork and put together this hack job of adding legs to the shortened dress.

thoughts?

You don't alter Vera to fit you, you alter yourself to fit Vera

2010-01-11T15:26:00.001-05:00

It's not a Vera by any stretch of the imagination, but I just love that quote for it's complete asinine-ness.

My dress situation is weird. When we got engaged in April 08, I ran out and bought the dress I’d tried on all 3 times I’d gone dress shopping and was crazy in love with it. A little less than a year later, we completely changed our wedding plans from big family and friends bash in Miami to tiny vacation week with a few family and friends in Vegas.

Most of you know that I’ve been trying to sell the dress. What you might not know is that it’s been on wedding boards since May. Realizing a sale may not happen, at least for the amount ($400 + shipping) that I want to recoup, I’m debating hacking up the dress. Yes, I said it, hacking it up.

I figure that one year on the classifieds boards will tell me the feasibility of selling it. Therefore, I am giving myself until May for it to sell. As in 4 months from now and around the time of graduation. This also gives me time to alter myself. Sad as it is, and for a very happy reason, I have gained a ridiculous amount of weight since purchasing the dress. Sure, the dress DOES have a corset back and DOES allow considerable loosening or tightening. But just how much do I need to drop to feel good wearing it again? That is the true question.

Clearly, I took these pictures :)

My question to you, my lovely blog friends… do you think this would look good at knee length or slightly longer? With maybe a dark blue petticoat underneath?

Sure, I don’t want to spend any more money on it, but as Meri pointed out, I will be spending money on a replacement dress. So if I can manage to alter it to my liking for about $200, the max I was planning on spending for a replacement, can I really complain?

Dress LOVE

2010-01-10T21:53:00.000-05:00

Oh wow oh wow ohwowohwow... I am in LOVE with these dresses!

Wait, back up and rewind. I was scrolling through my RSS reader and catching up on the eleventy-twelve feeds I read, including about 50 wedding blogs. Yes, I have an addiction! I was scrolling through the 200+ entries on WeddingBee and clicking on the interesting titled ones, I saw "Closing the Book on the Dress Search" and *click*...

Instant love.

I knew I wanted a knee-length or tea-length dress and have been drawn more and more to the fuller skirts. Oh yes, OffBeatBride makes me drool with the multi colored petticoats and mmm, love it.

image source

Seriously, how super cute and flirty are these dresses?! And best yet, they're totally customizable for the fabrics! Oh yes, I could see myself wearing these dresses over and over again.

More pretty pictures! And more along the lines of what I'd like mine to look like. <3

What do you think?

Plans for 2010

2010-01-07T11:02:00.002-05:00

A few years ago, I resolved to never make resolutions since I always break them. I do, however, wish on shooting stars and on my birthday time (9:16), on our wedding time (10:10) and, of course, on birthday candles. I saw this on Ashley’s blog and thought it was a great idea. Also, I learned her name. to me she is @brideonbudget and the hands forming a heart in the sand. Yes, the majority of my twitter friends I only know by their screen names and avatars.

Image Source

My 2010 Plans...

One thing I will learn: how to talk more. This sounds funny, right? I know, I can talk like crazy, but it’s mostly about fluff and non-important things. I’ve spent so much time hiding my true feelings from so many people that it’s a big change to actually be open and talk about them now.

One place I will go: Vegas! Well, that’s a given since we’re getting married there. I’ll also go see the Grand Canyon. I’d love to go somewhere tropical (not Miami!) but I don’t see that in the [financial] cards for us this year.

One physical habit I will break: only walking Lola until she does her business. I will walk in circles until she goes, when I could actually be walking a good length of the trail, which is 1.7 miles one way. While I am lazy, it’s also been below freezing outside and the quicker I’m back inside, the better.

One physical habit I will cultivate: wake up earlier than normal and do a 20 minute workout DVD. Raise your hand if you think it’ll happen.

One mental habit I will break: no more Debbie Downer on my background and work skills. I know I am really talented and have so much to offer, but always doubt myself.

One mental habit I will cultivate: do homework in advance and stop waiting until the last possible second to start it. Especially since I won’t have my study buddy to push me anymore this semester.

One relationship I’ll repair: my older brother. He’s had all sorts of problems lately that I’m not going to get into here. I’m mad at him for it and don’t call him nearly as much as I used to.

One thing I’ll throw out: the 3 bins of clothes that I keep dragging from apartment to apartment. And by throw out, I mean donate stuff in good condition and use the rest as cleaning rags.

A second thing I’ll throw out: my yarn stash that I never plan on using. I hoard yarn, shove it in big clear blue boxes in the corner and forget about it. The less I have, the better, since I typically buy new yarn for each project. I rarely dig into my stash. I know, I'm a bad yarnista.

One thing I’ll eat more often: vegetables. Don’t get me wrong, I love my veggies, but I also love them cooked to the death of their nutrients – in oil.

One thing I’ll eat less: you think I’ll say fried food or fast food right? Nope, I try to avoid that stuff. But I will say I’ll eat less... in general. No more Steve-sized portions for me. (sorry, love)

One thing I’ll drink more: water, even though it’s already my drink of choice.

One thing I’ll drink less: venti non-fat, no water chai latte’s from Starbucks. I could drink one every single day if time allowed me to scoot over there. While they’re not horrible for my body, the $3.75 does add up once the gift cards run out.

One work habit I will change: does getting an MBA-worthy, wicked high paying new career count? As much as I love and adore my current job and co-workers, I just can’t afford [financially] to work here much longer.

One overdue e-mail I’ll send, or overdue phone call I’ll make: I’m not sure. I’m usually pretty on top of phone calls and emails.

One resentment I’ll get over: It's not really a resentment but... feeling like my Christmas trip was a waste. Even thinking that way makes me upset since I love them all to pieces, but yeah, that’s how I feel. The easy answer would have been resentment at my wedding dress. But whatever, that’s just a piece of clothing.

One person I’ll treat more respectfully: my mom. I tend to get bitchy easily when I talk to her, especially after a long day. It’s easy to forget that she doesn’t know what happens to me throughout the day and I expect her to just know.

One thing I’ll spend less money on: shoes! Seriously, downfall.

One other change I’ll make in my finances: continue to attempt to pay off my credit cards by wisely using the very last student loan check from school.

One thing I’ll spend less time doing: sitting on my butt, computer in my lap, tv turned on, knitting. That was all one thought and how I typically spend my evenings. Perhaps I won’t change the knitting part since I do want to start selling some of my work.

And a thing I’ll spend more time doing: hanging out with Steve during the precious time we have together between school and work time. He means more to me than anyone else and I really do need to show my appreciation more.

What about you? What would your list have on it?

My Own @TweetMyWedding Update

2010-01-06T14:23:00.001-05:00

At the request of my practically-sister-in-law and all around amazing woman, I need to write more. The problem is that much of my wedding related topics are posted to my twitter feed and then I just forget to post about them here. But then, isn’t that the whole point of having a blog... to be able to expand on those 140 characters of text?

So here goes... in the format of the @TweetMyWedding blog postings that many of my friends write for.

Image Source

ARGH!! why must people say one thing then change their mind after over a month?! this damn dress is never going to sell. #stuck

wow, a consignment shop only offers 40% to the consignor? there's no way my dress'd sell for $1000 to get the $400 i want to make recoup.

i have about 1 month to decide on keeping, selling or burning the dress. Brides against Breast Cancer comes to Raleigh in early February

These were posted yesterday about my wedding dress sale. The latest with the sale is, well, rather disheartening to me. I have been emailing back and forth with a potential buyer for about 6 weeks. We discussed Vegas, honeymoons, family, and more during that time. On Monday when I was expecting the “ok, I just sent the money via Paypal” email, instead I received one that crushed me. Never in the 6 weeks of communicating was there a hint of fears of making such a large purchase online. I actually told her about the previous potential buyers that backed out at the last minute and she assured me that wasn’t going to happen. Yes, there was more to the email and I do believe she genuinely feels bad, but that doesn’t help me any.

I am about ready to just burn the dress. Don’t worry; I’m not stupid enough to burn a piece of clothing with an $850 price tag. (Not that I paid that much for it...) It is perfect in every way: unaltered, never worn outside the store, clean, corset back for a variety of sizes. Only I just don’t love it anymore like I did nearly 2 years ago when I purchased it. Unfortunately, no bridal salon offers refunds. My entire style and viewpoint on wedding dresses has changed. I no longer want big and poufy; I want streamlined and something that can be worn multiple times. If you’ve been following this blog, you’ve seen my new choices.

There isn’t much that I can do now. It is still posted on a variety of wedding classifieds sites and I re-posted it on eBay Monday evening after I got the email. So there’s that.

Image Source

i think i might need these for #vegas! bit.ly/8QGBkr the personalization is "SF 42 RB" since 101010 is 42 in binary. #geek

Click on the above link. I really want these shoes, but not just for Vegas. I love Chuck’s. While I do think they’re exceptionally fun, they also have a $62 price tag. We can barely afford to pay our rent let alone buy $62 sneakers.

Image source

awww my baby bro & his girlfriend are coming to my MBA graduation! i love them so stinkin much

Yes, I will be an MBA graduate exactly 4 months from tomorrow. I need to book our hotel rooms since they’re rapidly filling up. What, you mean I’m not the only graduate from ECU in May?

i made some of the tastiest perfectly golden brown fried chicken for dinner. makes up for the burnt grilled cheese from lunch..

This was just funny. I’d made grilled cheese and tomato soup for Steve and I a few days ago. My grilled cheese is as basic as can be: butter on both sides of 2 pieces of bread, a slice of cheese in the middle and then cooked in a frying pan until golden brown. Only, this time there was no golden brown, only burnt. It was annoying! Later that night for the Gators bowl game, I made the most perfectly golden brown chicken wings. There wasn’t a speck of burned flour on them. And oh boy... were they delicious!?

So now, don't you feel properly updated? Yeah, I didn't think so. =)

Blue Wedding Dresses

2009-12-29T16:02:00.000-05:00

I did some digging and played with the color changer on both Dessy's After Six and Alfred Angelo's sites and came up with the following dresses for myself, in no particular order. I really dig the pop of color and the fact that all the dresses can be reworn over and over again!

Thoughts?

Alfred Angelo 6569

After Six 6561

After Six 6506

Interesting Turn of Events

2009-12-29T00:52:00.000-05:00

I had no idea until today at lunch that Steve had no idea that we were having a bridal party in Vegas. since his family isn't attending, as in his brother who would be a best man in a traditional wedding, he thought we were just going out there with a few friends to get hitched. nothing formal, nothing traditional, nothing wedding-y. he just said that the more traditional my outfit is (closer to white), then more traditional things will turn out even though we're heading to Vegas to do the most untraditional wedding possible.

huh. I had no idea. I wonder who in the bridal party would still want to attend. Ii mean, my brother and Cathy are totally still attending as our family representation. but I've heard rumblings about the date falling on a Sunday and us staying out there for 5 days and some other stuff. With zero obligations to attend, I actually wonder how many guests we'd have. Oh yeah, it's a trip to Vegas with a 2-3 hour ceremony/ cupcake party.

In this light, I do think I'll be buying a blue dress, pale blue likely, so I can wear it multiple times. I have a picture in my mind of what I want, but haven't found it yet. Big poofy skirt that I can puff out with lots of crinoline to be super cute 50s chicky.

There was a family event in Miami on Saturday and I was informed afterwards that our wedding was a topic of conversation since a lot of them follow my updates on Facebook. my older brother was telling everyone to "be there or be square!" um, no. i told him that it's going to be a small wedding with just a handful of friends. he said that I needed to stop telling everyone the date and the location if I didn't want people there. I corrected him and said that the date and location, being the entire city of Las Vegas, is out there for anyone to know, but the specific location, like the actual ceremony location, will only be told to the guests we want in attendance. he got all huffy. sure, I'll be inviting family and knowing that 95% of them won't be in attendance due to a variety of reasons.

Also, big news, I've been emailed by the girl buying my dress that she's going to be able to pay me by the end of the week. She confirmed the amount tonight. YAY!

outfit conundrum

2009-12-24T15:05:00.000-05:00

dresses are David's Bridal

My MOH and I went last night to try on a bunch of dresses at David's Bridal. I fell in love with the one above in brown, but in either the silver or champagne colors. the problem is the varying shades of blue in my outfit. maybe I really do need to pic a shade and stick with it.

my veil yarn is a creamy ivory color and will be edged in a few rows each of orange and blue. pattern progress above. seriously, most amazing thing I've knit since I started knitting and 2nd major lace project. Abby's garter was the first.

I just saw a pair of absolute beauties on Zappos and I'm kinda in love with them... they're royal blue with bling bling on both straps. Yeah, I think I'm just going to buy them... lol

so which color dress do you think I should choose?

overdue post

2009-12-20T01:22:00.001-05:00

the paper for the ketubah has been ordered and is in my hot little hands! it's white, 12x12, and non-textured. i need to send 10-12 sheets to our calligrapher, Amanda, in Gainesville. unfortunately, she'll be out of town when i'm there next week visiting.

from the same company, Paper & More, i ordered 3 different colors of envelopes for our wedding invites: dark metallic blue, and metallic copper.

blue vista metallic

dark blue metallic

copper metallic

i'm leaning towards the dark blue ones, but the copper ones are in the running as well. whatcha think? keep in mind that our invitations are black with white lettering and the nighttime Vegas skyline, and our colors are orange, blue and ivory. i also order a sample for my graduation announcements in a deep purple. they're so pretty!

my shoes have been ordered and are about as damn cute as can be! they're turquoise with a small little kitten heel, about 1.5" and they're mary jane's. so effing cute!

Gabriella Rocha Ginger

my veil is coming along really nicely! i'm at row 61 of about 126 rows. the 61st row is 388 stitches. the last row is about 800 stitches. i'm no where near halfway done with it. but damn, it's gorgeous! i really need to take an updated picture of it to show y'all. but not tonight seeing as it's already after 1am! :)

Our Hotel is Booked!

2009-11-24T21:58:00.000-05:00

Image Source: Planet99

You read that right! This morning I received a DM from the @LuxorLV twitter account telling me to hang tight, that their Twitter Tuesday rates would be published shortly. I've been all over twitter the last few weeks asking which hotel we should stay in: the Luxor or Excalibur, the Luxor or Flamingo, the Flamingo or Tahiti... you get the drift. Well, the Luxor has been on my short list for a while, and actually kept retweeting my questions out the their follower base.

Today, when the twitter-only rates were published, I was floored. I was able to book a Tower Luxury Suite for not much more than the normal price of the Tower Deluxe room.

source: Luxor

Yes, we are staying in a huge suite that is larger than my first apartment in North Carolina for 4 nights. We will have plenty of room for the cupcakes and wine reception I'm envisioning. Also, with as big as the room is and as pretty as the pictures are, we can totally have the ceremony and take professional pictures in the room!

This after I emailed the link to this top secret special deals page to all our Vegas invitees and some have checked it out and booked their room already! I actually wonder if I should bother to get a room block. I should email again and see who hasn't booked yet and if they want to book there and then decide.

When I was chatting with my younger brother's girlfriend earlier, she was telling me all these places they (she) want to visit during our Vegas trip. We're totally doing the Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Red Rock Canyon and Zappos! Where else should we go?

Bon Jovi Obsession

2009-11-24T10:09:00.002-05:00

image source: tvtropes

Whether you are aware of it or not, I am the biggest Bon Jovi fan. Ok, not THE biggest, but still pretty big considering I am still in love with an 80s hair band. However, they’re older, have more marriages (and divorces) under their belts, have a new image, and, best of all, have a slew of albums! Their latest, The Circle, is simply amazing. Yes, I am the girl that buys their CDs on the day they come out. And I don’t buy CDs! The only ones I ever buy are for Bon Jovi.

Y’all should all know by now – if you’ve been following me from the start at least – that I am graduating from East Carolina with my MBA in May. May 7th to be exact. It’s been a very long 5 year online only process through East Carolina. What does this possibly have to do with Bon Jovi? Well, due to the proximity of their North America tour in cities Jen and I can attend or graduation... I basically have to pick between attending graduation and meeting all the friends and faculty that have helped and guided me throughout the years or attending my and Jen’s 6th(?) Bon Jovi concert together since high school.

And that’s about as tough a decision as a girl’s got to make. Do I fly to Miami and attend that show with Jen and Diana, or make them come up here to attend the Charlotte show since it's the closest one to me? Jen already said she’s got the same dilemma between Bon Jovi in Charlotte or attending my graduation. *sigh* annoying.

Enter the glory of Twitter and finding out this morning that one of the funniest tweeter/ blogger’s, @Momspective, is giving away a pair of tickets to the Charlotte show. I am doing everything I possibly can do to win this pair of tickets. Seriously. I’ve followed her blog, friended her on Facebook, tweeted about it, and now am blogging about it myself.

Yes, I am desperate for these tickets. Because weighing Bon Jovi against graduation is seriously one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. It breaks my heart thinking I might have to miss them in concert. But... 5 long years and $75K later, I am finally graduating.

Another Dress Choice

2009-11-23T13:45:00.001-05:00

Yes, yes, I know it's been a while since I've posted. Things are really tight at home, financially, and I feel silly ogling pretty, not to mention expensive, things online for our wedding. Until last night, when right before the snores began, Steve muttered "you're going to be my wife one day" ... *melt*

Ok folks, this is my latest idea: the trumpet flare dress. What are your thoughts on how it'll look on me? One of my bridesmaids is coming to town in December (YAY!!) and I'm thinking I might drag her back to DB with me. I adore it in this color, but wonder if it will work well with my ladies also wearing blue. Another alternative is Champagne or Orange. Crazy, I know. I'm going to check them out in all the colors next time I venture into DB.

source: David's Bridal

Here is the latest picture of me... what do you think about this dress on this body? (Yes, I'm sideways, but it looks much better on my monitor this way.. haha)

#wedding veil progress

2009-11-14T00:37:00.001-05:00

I took a study break tonight and got up to row 36 (of 126) in my veil. I love it!

333 days left

2009-11-11T22:56:00.000-05:00

Today is 11.11. Happy Veterans Day!! A very special happy happy to my future hubby. Thanks for serving our country, babe!

Today is also the 20th anniversary of my bat mitzvah (11.11.1989)

The knitted veil is getting no progress lately since my life is wrapped up with school work these days. Homework has been unbelievably insane and, if I drank, would have driven me to drink.

We've had very little progress on the wedding front. I started looking at hotels with our actual wedding date. Apparently 333 days out means hotels can open up reservations! I did a Twitter poll earlier of the Excalibur Tower Deluxe room or the Luxor Tower View room. The people that stuck to those 2 overwhelmingly voted for the Luxor. However, the Venetian, Caesar's Palace, Paris, and MGM Grand all got votes.

I would love nothing more than to splurge on our wedding-moon week in Vegas, but who knows if it's really feasible at this point. Sure, telling people it's our wedding week might help, but no guarantees. Grrrr. Even our Vegas trip is going to be effing expensive!

What are your thoughts? If you're attending, where would you like to stay? If you're a Vegas-ite, where do you normally stay?

Wedding Update

2009-11-04T23:52:00.000-05:00

Hi! *waves*

Here's the latest happs in our wedding world...

Ketubah: I've been conversing with the very talented Amanda of SwoonOverIt over writing the text for our ketubah. Steve will be drawing the artwork. We've been talking about different ideas for the artwork. These days I'm thinking a mosaic/ collage of us things.. still working on it. Right now I've decided on 12x12 paper and found a great deal at PaperAndMore.com for a 50 pack for $12.99. I'll post examples eventually. I sent a bunch to Amanda for text placement, but I'm not really in love with the designs. But, promise, examples soon!

Hotels: I've been checking out a bunch of hotels on the Strip. It seems like the prices change so much from week to week depending on when I check. It would also appear that we're hitting October 2010 within the next few weeks!

Cupcakes: definitely doing the cupcake tower from Retro Bakery. My only thought now is making the tower myself instead of buying the one from them for $15. It's just a few cake plates, cardboard or Styrofoam, that I could decorate and assemble in Vegas. Who knows? Like I need another DIY project, right?

I totally started knitting my veil last week. I'm up to about row 27 out of like 130

Ok, I think that's enough for know. Yes?

Buy me! Take me home! I'm a gorgeous wedding dress!

2009-11-02T20:15:00.000-05:00

My dress is currently for sale in 4 locations. Yes, 4. I'm not that original with the titles either. Some offer the veil and slip, some only the slip. Some offer free shipping, some don't. I just want to sell it already. *sigh* This is getting depressing already.

BravoBride.com: Nwt Taffeta Pick-up Skirt Sweetheart Neck Ballgown

PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com: New With Tags David's Bridal Wedding Dress T9017, Size 16

eBay: NWT Taffeta Pick-up Skirt Sweetheart Neck Ballgown

WeddingBee.com Classifieds: Nwt Taffeta Pick-up Skirt Sweetheart Neck Ballgown

Tonight's #wedding #veil progress

2009-11-01T21:57:00.001-05:00

Thank you StyleUnveiled & Mojuba!

2009-10-27T10:00:00.000-04:00

Holy wow, Batman... I just won something from Twitter! Well, another something. Seriously, I freakin’ love Twitter! This time, it was a giveaway featured on StyleUnveiled’s twitter page and featuring bags from My_Mojuba.

This time, I won a MyMojuba Bride bag. What the hell is a MyMojuba Bride bag you ask? It’s a wedding day emergency kit chock full of all kinds of goodies! I’m hoping I get the black one cuz black suits me more than white... plus, white gets dirty.=)

click for larger image, source: MyMojuba

List of the contents:
Priceless
Kiss My Boo Boo band-aids
Madame Paulette™ couture stain removal kit
L’Occitane® luxurious hand cream
Confident
BugCatcherz® fashion tape to keep your clothes in place
Ms. Manicure® nail files
Nail polish remover
Picture Perfect
Soft rice paper to powder your beautiful face
Charles Worthington® hairspray
Bobby pins
Dramatic
Sniff® tissues to dry your joyful tears
Gentle eye drops
Makeup remover
Sparkle
Little i® breath fresheners for close encounters
Colgate® toothpaste and a toothbrush
Scope® mouthwash
Memories
Mojuba™ Kodak® camera to capture spontaneous moments
Mojuba™ pen and notepad for your thoughts
Pucker up
Clear straws to sip champagne without smudging your lipstick
Clear lip gloss
Essential
Advil® for splitting headache relief
Gilchrist and Soames® sewing kit with pre-threaded needles
La Fresh® hand sanitizer
Soothing
Dancin’ Feet® cushions for your dancing feet
Pepcid Complete® to quiet your butterflies
Details
Keep-your-cool with Dove® deodorant
Nail polish for touch-ups and to stop stocking runs
Static Guard®
Anticipate
Scissors to snip unruly threads
Krazy Glue®
Lint sheets
Stuff just for chicks
.... And a little something to make you smile

And I *won* it! For free! Just by retweeting the entry "form" a few times over the course of the contest. YIPPEEEE!!!

Etsy Shop

2009-10-25T19:46:00.001-04:00

i really need to get my #etsy shop going again.

just out of curiosity, how much would you pay for this garter? (which, by the way, is the one I made for Abby and it was a HUGE hit with everyone that saw it!)

Or this blanket?

Or this baby blanket?

Yarn-y Goodness

2009-10-20T18:50:00.001-04:00

The yarn! The yarn! It has arrived! And by "the yarn," I mean the yarn for my beautiful wedding veil trimmed in orange and blue.

Eventually, one day, I will be able to start working on it. I love it! It's a wrap, set to become a veil, so I can wrap it around myself after the wedding.

Hotels, Cupcakes & My Veil!

2009-10-14T10:51:00.000-04:00

I realized pretty late last night that I should stop price checking hotels and flights from RDU. Why, you ask? Because we have no flippin’ idea where we’ll be living in 6-7 months! For all I know, we’ll be living in Vegas or Virginia or Orlando or any number of other places. And of course, the prices I’m checking are all non-refundable!

Last week, the lovely Jennifer of @TheNearlyWed sent us 4 cupcakes from Retro Bakery. While they priced quoted us a lot more than I expected for a simple cake, their cupcakes are reasonably priced and I’m pretty sure (like 95%) that we’re getting a cupcake tower from them for the wedding! Also, they are aMAZing! Jenn sent us 1 each of their Red Carpet, Peanut Butter Cup, Cinnamon Toast, and Mint Chocolate Chip. We loved them all, in different levels of *love* but any way you look at it, we LOVED them all.

Yes, I broke SoBe to eat wedding cupcakes. It was worth it too!

Also also, the yarn for my veil is back in stock! So guess what I’m doing today? That’s right, ordering 7 skeins of yarn from Knitpicks, 5 in Cream, 1 in Sweet Potato (orange), and one in Blue Note Heather. The orange and blue are for the trim to have a few rows of each color. Granted, I don’t know when I’ll be able to start on it since I have about 800 projects for events that occur before our wedding, like 4 pregnant co-workers! Seriously, my friends need to stop having babies so I can catch up on my own knitting! 

OK, I think that’s about it. Happy Wednesday!

Vote for Lola!

2009-10-12T10:16:00.001-04:00

OK, so it's not wedding related, but it's my fur-baby!

She's #51 in the poll, so please go vote for her! The poll is in the left sidebar at the bottom. You can vote for more than one, but make sure you vote for Lola! #51!

Thanks :)

Big ol' Post about shoes & other important things

2009-10-09T11:23:00.000-04:00

OK, so here’s the latest…

I found a ketubah that we both agree on.. until Steve said he thought he was drawing it. So, yay! It’ll be totally personalized and totally us. Now to find a calligrapher since, while my handwriting is nice, it’s not that nice. I’ve got a few calligrapher friends on Twitter, so I’m putting the word out over there.

image source

I started calling/ emailing around to hotels on the Strip about food. Aside from the debacle with the cake bakeries, I think Albertson’s is the way we’re going to go. After getting prices for receptions and even restaurants, I’m thinking cake and champagne reception in our room after the ceremony and pictures are done. The cheapest meal so far is the buffet at the Flamingo, but it’s still $22++ per person and we just don’t have $400 extra floating around.

As far as our hotel room goes, I’d love to stay in a really snazzy hotel with gorgeous furniture in it, but those are way pricey. We’re talking like $200 a night pricey. Our whole trip/ wedding budget is $1500, most of which is being eating by hotel and airfare expenses. Just out of curiosity, I asked 2 of my friends with husband’s working at hotels about discounts. As it turns out, they get friends and family discounts for the MGM family of hotels! Oh so amazing. I think bookings should be open in about a month. Trust me, I check religiously!

Y’all saw the invite design I recently posted. I’ve made the suggested changes and sent it to a printer for a quote. I also quoted the announcement cards, RSVP cards and, sure why not, graduation announcements. I love our printer. It’s going to be under $100 for 20 invites, 10 RSVP, 100 announcements, and 200 grad announcements.

Shoes? Who doesn't love shoes?? Oh, especially for wedding shoes. I love these shoes Gabriella Rocha: Ginger in turquoise leather:

image source

and these Annie: Lola in blue satin. And no, not *just* for the name either!

image source

And not wedding related, graduation is so on! My adviser emailed me last night - after midnight! Talk about dedication - about my missing MIS elective. It turns out there is a whole Master’s program for Information and Computer Technology. Dammit, if I’d only known before applying for the MBA. Oh well, it’s been a good 5 years and I’ve made some great friends.

I officially have a replacement class! I’ll be taking Networking Technology for Industry, which may sound horrible to you, but it sounds amazing to me. I am so excited about it!

See? I'm totally stoked!

Favors

2009-10-05T22:19:00.004-04:00

woohoo! 50th post!

now onto the actual post..

I bought these today as sample favors. Also to taste the flavors. Really? Tasting lip balm? LOL

The lip balm flavor on the left is honey and the one on the right is tangerine. They are $.75 and $.80 respectively in quantities of 25 for Vegas favors. Plus they come in little pots so I can put my own labels on each one.

I'll letcha know how they are!

left image source: Brandi1181
right image source: MrsHerk

Invitations

2009-10-04T01:54:00.006-04:00

..Clicky clicky for a larger version..

Check it out! Yeah, I was loving InDesign a bit this week =) Hopefully we'll have a hotel location within the month. This is the Vegas invite. The announcements will be slightly tweaked. The Miami reception invite will be tweaked with that info on it.

Thoughts on the wording? I'm not crazy crazy about it, but it could grow on me. Ha!

Cakery and my Family

2009-10-03T23:36:00.006-04:00

I think I found a cake bakery. Well, potentially 2. Oddly enough, one of them is Albertson's which is directly on the strip right in the middle of everything. As in, we could walk there and not pay delivery fees. The other one quoted me $75. I have to actually contact Albertson's and see if they can remake the cake I like.

Ok, so a totally different subject: My family.

Some of you know the story about my family and our wedding. If we don't have it in Miami, none of them can attend. If we have it in Miami, we can't afford it. If we have it in Miami, we will not have less than 50 guests. I'm not even talking about friends; that's my family only. They all live in south Florida.

It's purely a financial reason that they can't attend. But no way am I going into details here. For similar reasons, we cannot afford thousands of dollars for getting married there. Between the rabbi, the food, the tent, table, chairs, places settings, etc etc etc. I don't care how cheap everything will be for an intimate family wedding; it's still times a minimum of 50 people!

After much deliberation, a few date changes, and my suggestion, we chose Vegas. Jodie suggested SLVW as she and her husband used them for their wedding last year and said they did a great job. I contacted SLVW multiple times and finally worked things out. And my baby brother and his girlfriend (both of whom I adore!) will be in attendance. If I decided to walk down the proverbial aisle, he will be the one to escort me.

Our wedding will cost $399 plus $60 for the marriage license. (It's package 2, but the price was recently increased.) When I say wedding, I mean photography, ceremony, video, flowers, limo transportation, and music. We have to pick the location for the 2 picture locations, one of which will be the ceremony location. At the moment I'm thinking our hotel room and the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. But that could easily change.

Other expenses for any location are the cake, the ketubah (which we can hopefully afford), and plane/ hotel expenses. Our total budget is $1500 for Vegas. $399 (everything) + $60 (license) + tips for photographer, limo driver and reverend are gone already. They're fixed costs. The variable costs right now are our hotel and airfare. I'm estimating/ hoping to get us there and home, for 4 nights, for about $800. But we'll see. Orbitz, Expedia, etc don't even opening bookings for October 2010 until around November. Grrr.

By the way, we are exactly 1 year and 1 week away from being husband and wife!

Just thought I'd throw that out there. <3

vegas sign image source

Celestial Weddings

2009-10-03T15:27:00.005-04:00

I just designed my first logo for a wedding company! Go take a look at Miss Sarah's new wedding website, Celestial Weddings. It's fledgling, but she's got great ideas for it. Plus, she's getting married the day before us.

Too Dorky?

2009-10-01T21:51:00.002-04:00

Am I too dorky for sending this note in the dress box to the girl that bought my wedding dress? I feel like I got to know her over the last few weeks of emailing back and forth.

"Dear Emily,

Congrats on your big day!

I am so pleased that I was able to get you your dream dress for your wedding and for cheap. I hope you love this dress as much as I did. When I showed my fiance the pictures of me in it (he was superstitious and didn't want to see them), he was sad that I sold the dress I loved so much. So please, wear it and love it and have the best time in it on your wedding!

Best wishes to you and your future husband,
Becca"

Wedding Cake Blues

2009-10-01T11:41:00.004-04:00

image source

I love this cake. I love the look and feel of it. It's simple and elegant and just perfect. (Well, without the sprig on top of it, that is.) If i were to have this cake for our wedding, it would be a lighter blue color. and with our own cake topper on it.

I've been in contact with a few bakeries in Las Vegas for cake quotes. Namely Retro Bakery, Amatos Bakery, Freed's Bakery, and a few others.

My biggest problem is the word "wedding" - as soon as i mention it, prices double or even triple. Yes, the wedding industry is lucrative, but i am on a ridiculously tiny budget! With my MBA graduation in May, Steve's beginning grad school in August (hopefully) and a move somewhere in there, we just don't have extra money to spare. It's getting frustrating.

I asked for grocery stores and yummy cake bakeries on Twitter and got a few names. The question will be... do I really trust ordering a cake from across the country without tasting it? And do we really need a cake? Can't we just have dessert at a restaurant after the ceremony?

She's Really Buying It!

2009-09-30T10:28:00.001-04:00

talk about making my day!

Hi Becca!
My check finally came in to get my wedding stuff :) It will have cleared through my checking account by Friday... So I wanted to make sure you still had the dress and if you did get all of the info on how you wanted me to pay you for it!
I am super excited!
Thanks, Emily

I am so stoked! Words can barely describe how happy this makes me. Now to pack it up and wait for the funds to arrive. When I told Steve last week that she was waiting for funds, he was really sad knowing how much I love this dress. But hey, this way I can get something I love even more that I'll maybe be able to wear again. That's a bonus, right?

More Favor Ideas

2009-09-26T23:53:00.005-04:00

Well shoot, another super cute idea! maybe we need to make "Vegas survival kits" complete with water bottles, band-aid's and lip balm! What else should go in the kits?

image source

or maybe this lip balm...
image source

Water Bottle Favors

2009-09-26T23:39:00.001-04:00

Contender #1 for Vegas wedding favors:

In this blue with the logo in the post below imprinted in matte silver. They're from Discount Mugs, which has gotten lots of good reviews.

They're 20 ounces and I can wrap the graphic around the whole bottle for the same set-up cost as just one side. The logo as is, is about 4" wide and 3" tall. And, the best part, it would be about $140 for 25 of them. Oddly, for 20 it was more... darn price breaks!

If you were a wedding guest, would you like one of these? Now imagine you were a wedding guest in the desert, you'd totally want one, right? I know I would. :-)

(if you get this tice in your RSS feeds, it's cuz i was testing out posting to my LJ automatically... sorry!)

image source

Wedding Monogram/ Logo

2009-09-25T23:26:00.001-04:00

Look what I made tonight!! I was following a tutorial for something else and figured out that I had this diamond shape in Photoshop all along! I am so pleased with myself. Now I don't have to buy a logo off Etsy. ;-)

I am made of WIN tonight!

Ketubah's Anyone?

2009-09-22T16:48:00.006-04:00

So, I was strolling around blog-land earlier and saw an ad for Ketubah's. I pretty desperately want one. My parents have one, my brother had one, aunts and uncles... you name it, they all have them. I think it's pretty natural that I want one. Oh yeah, and the whole I was raised Jewish thing. I am not a practicing Jew-girl in any way shape or form. I have 5 tattoo's and plan on getting more. I have had body piercings, but will be happy with the ear piercings for the rest of my life. I don't go to synagogue. I am marrying a non-Jewish boy as well. In short, I am a really non-traditional Jewish girl.

I love the Jewish culture and traditions, I just don't believe in organized religion. Neither does Steve. We will be raising our children with all religions for them to choose their own paths. But yet, I still want one of the most traditional things in the Jewish religion.

Of course, the issue of having an Interfaith Marriage sure does add a new twist to this dilemma. It does appear that there are quite a few websites out there that do have Interfaith Ketubah's, so that's good.

A few of the site's that have gorgeous Ketubot:
http://www.ketubah.com
http://www.mpartworks.com/
http://www.modernketubah.com/
http://www.ketubahinterfaith.com/
http://www.galleryjudaica.com/
http://www.treeoflifejudaica.com

Image source

Hand-knit Wedding Veil

2009-09-20T17:22:00.005-04:00

Image source: jaeeleutheria/ Ravelry

No idea why, but I was playing on Ravelry* like I tend to do a few times a week. I am already going to be knitting a garter for Miss Abby's wedding at the end of October, so I was looking up other wedding projects. And stumbled across veils. Holy smokes, how awesome would that be?

The above pattern (LJ link) is my favorite one as it can later be used as a wrap, or a home decoration, and definitely an heirloom for future Benaim-Fletcher generations. It can even be sewn together and used as a small lap blanket/ baby blanket.

Whatcha think? I do have a concern with the weight, but already asked the pattern designer.

Yes, I am a huge DIY fan and figure with over a year until the wedding and school ending for good in May, I should be able to actually complete it! What have you made for your wedding/ friends weddings?

*Ravelry is the greatest website known to knitters and crocheters.. it's got a plethora of patterns and well, it's the candy shop to fiber artists.

ahhh she's buying it!

2009-09-17T12:54:00.002-04:00

I know it's still tentative until I have the cash in hand, but I just got an email follow-up to the one I sent this morning stating she's waiting for the money from her folks and definitely wants to buy it.

I'm so freaking excited that I can barely control myself.

More Dress Options

2009-09-14T00:07:00.005-04:00

I am currently, but not overly actively, working on a 4 page paper due Tuesday for my management science class, a chapter analysis due Wednesday for data management, and worrying about the outcome for my doctor's appointment on Thursday. OK, not so much the latter at the moment as I will be Thursday morning. (It's just for tests to make sure I'm OK, nothing really to worry about but I am not a fan of getting bloodwork or needles. And yes, I do have 5 tattoos, but that's totally different!)

Thanks to the lovely Sarah, I have become obsessed with Lily Wedding. Want to see why? Well here are my top 3 reasons, in order of my love for them... whichever I decide upon (if I go this route) would be ordered in either an Ivory or Pale Gold color. The best part about this site is everything is 100% custom made to your exact specifications.

Style LWD0294

Style LED0058

Style LWD0121

In potentially awesome news, I have received, and sent, multiple emails to a woman interested in my dress. I'm currently waiting to hear back from her, as I gave her a few days to discuss with her fiance and parents. The good thing is that she tried on the dress in the store and fell in love with it, but didn't buy it.

Also, my birthday is on Wednesday and we're trying to plan a dinner for our local friends. It doesn't seem to be working all that well. So, boo for that. It appears at the moment that it'll be me, Steve, our neighbors (whom I totally adore) and possibly a few others.

Vegas Hotels

2009-09-08T14:58:00.002-04:00

I feel like, even though it’s over a year away, I am at an impasse with our wedding plans. I’ve been price checking hotels with random hypothetical dates since booking for October 2010 hasn’t been opened yet on any website. I asked Steve yesterday if he cared where we stayed. Of course not; I expected nothing less from him. =)

I had looked into the Sahara, the Stratosphere, and a handful of others. Lately, I have been scouring the Treasure Island website and Googling pictures, etc. For not much more than the cheaper hotels, we can stay in a really nice room at Treasure Island.

Granted, I can’t price check airfare yet, but figure it’ll be roughly the same next year. The current plan is to fly out/ check-in on Saturday, October 9th – and head to the court house depending on the time we arrived – and to fly out/ check-out on either Tuesday or Wednesday (12th or 13th), hopefully late in the day to give us more touristy time.

My requirements, in no real order:

On the strip
Within a few blocks of transportation (bus, monorail, tram)
Won’t break the bank (preferably around $600)
Pretty room!

The pretty room thing is weird, I know, but I’m thinking we might have the wedding ceremony IN the room then travel somewhere for the rest of the pictures in our wedding package.

Where would/do you stay when heading to Vegas?

Bridesmaid Hair

2009-09-03T14:13:00.002-04:00

This past weekend I tried a new hairstyle. Well, of course it's new, I never style my hair! But anyhow, I always pull my hair back at work and rarely wear it down. When I was searching for hairstyles, I kept coming back to similar looks.

I was mostly pleased with it. She did an amazing job keeping it loose enough that it moved, even with tons of bobby pins and about 2 gallons of hair spray. My only compliant were the sheer number of bobby pins underneath. They kept getting stuck in my dress zipper and hook&eye closure. Before the wedding even began, I was pushing them back in constantly.. and throughout the entire day.

This Thing Feels Real Now

2009-09-02T12:09:00.003-04:00

Our impending marriage feels really real now. It wasn’t the reservation with SLVW. Or the confirmation email stating our wedding date. Or the flowers and Etsy stash stockpiled in the family room. Or even all the design work I’ve been playing with for invitations. Nope, not even having the wedding dress in my closet, or attending Kim and Matt’s wedding this weekend. What made it really real and gave me head to toe goose bumps was when my mother-in-law told the waitress at lunch on Sunday, “This is my son and future daughter-in-law.” I can’t even write that without tearing up.

What made it real for you?

Also, this picture will adorn our wedding announcements. One day. Are those sent out after the wedding or before? Since we’re going to Vegas with about a dozen people and having the reception after the fact, can I include these with the reception invitations? Or send announcements and invitations later? We honestly haven’t got a clue when the reception will be so I don’t want to delay announcing things. Whatcha think?

PA Wedding: A Few Pictures

2009-08-31T00:14:00.003-04:00

i haven't uploaded most of our pictures yet, but here's 2 of my favorites from this weekend. does anyone else see a use for the first one? like say on engagement announcements or thank you notes? cuz i totally do! ;)

i have loads more pictures, so there'll probably be lots of random picture posts in the next week or so. the wedding was absolutely gorgeous and Kim and Matt looked amazing! yes, i totally cried during the bridal march even though i'd spent the entire morning with Kim and even laced up her gown. goosebumps and tears. plus, i couldn't look at Steve or i'd have lost it even more. <3

Us at the rehearsal dinner

The Bride and groom on their pastor's motorcycle at the reception

Us at #PAwedding

2009-08-29T18:32:00.000-04:00

Watching me try on PA wedding clothes

2009-08-24T23:17:00.000-04:00

the last 24 hours: the amazing and the horrendous

2009-08-23T22:27:00.002-04:00

the amazing
last night after checking times and temperatures, i reserved our wedding date. yep, it's official, we are getting married on 10-10-10 at 2pm in Las Vegas. next, we need to pick locations. well, here, this is the wedding deets copied from SLVW's site...

Las Vegas Strip, package 2 - $399

Get married in any hotel suite, room, or condo. Ceremony and some photos will be done at one location.
Minister – traditional or civil ceremony
Professional Photographer – minimum of 30 high resolution pictures on a photo CD
DVD of the Ceremony (High definition widescreen 1080i video quality and Slideshow of all photos added to DVD with ceremony)
Witness, if needed
Option to get married at the world famous Las Vegas sign, hotel suite, room, condo, or select public locations on the strip
1 additional public location on the Strip for 25 of your 50 photos (a minimum of 50 photos)
A small hand tied 6-rose bouquet for the bride
Groom’s boutonniere
Courtesy Limousine transportation to and from the ceremony for the bride and groom and up to 6 guests

We are also getting 20 extra pictures for not using their flowers, and 30 extra pictures for entering a contest they have. so, a total of 100 photos minimum.

this morning, we slept late and then, as usual, he raced to work. i putzed around the house, showered, walked Lola, and prepped the steak and potatoes for dinner tonight. then at like 2:40 i headed to the Y for belly dancing class.

...and the horrendous...
we were walking out of class and my friend Carrie said something along the lines of "what are you doing here?" and i looked, and my heart sank. i knew immediately something was wrong. it was Steve. Steve who raced to get to work by 1pm. Steve who doesn't get any breaks at his crappy job, and certainly not enough time to come all the way back to Chapel Hill to sit outside my class and read the New Yorker. yeah, *sigh*

we went out to the parking lot and he told me what happened. after a few near misses with boxes flying out of his GM's hands and getting up close and personal in his face yelled at, he just handed in his keys and walked out. that's the very concise version of it. hopefully he'll have something new soon!

so now instead of the steak and mashed potatoes with lemon cupcakes just as a meal, it's a celebration of sorts. he's not going to be beat down at work anymore and can actually come with me to Pittsburgh in 3 days. yes, even 3 days away, his GM was still dragging his feet even though Steve's been constantly asking for the time off for the last few months.

and no, we can't afford our life on my salary. we can't even afford my half of our life on my salary.

i, for reals, hope that all y'all are doing better!

Both image sources

Booked!

2009-08-22T18:01:00.001-04:00

It is official.... 10-10-10 @ 2pm.

No other reason for the posting. <3

I Will Be a Fat Bride

2009-08-22T00:43:00.003-04:00

Image Source

I recently found the blog Axis Of Fat via a link from OffBeatBride.com. I am in love. Seriously.
The initial post I read on the blog said what I've been thinking for a while now.

Here is an excerpt from her post, but you really gotta click over there to read it all and see her gorgeous pictures!
Fat Bride Survival Guide

When I got married I was a fat bride. In fact, I was fat when I got engaged - I was even *gasp* fat when Nick and I met! Despite having a well established, recognised and loved body shape before getting married I copped a huge amount of pressure to lose weight in the lead up to the wedding. For some reason, I had it in my head that my wedding day would be a celebration of love and happiness between Nick and I however it seemed that foolish me had little idea of the true wedding agenda - basically some kind of reality tv show where the ugly duckling turns gorgeous siren.

...read the rest...

And here is the comment I just made:
I will be a fat bride - getting married 10-10-10. And like most of the other posters, I've been fat my whole life. I made the mistake of buying my [wedding] gown at the lowest weight I'd been in ages, and then proceeded to gain 50lbs [in about a year]. Yeah, rather than alter the dress, or myself, drastically, I'm going to buy a new one that fits me and makes me feel gorgeous the way I look. I am so sick of friends and family telling me I need to lose weight for my wedding. My fiance adores me exactly the way I am! While I do wish I were smaller, I'm not going to hide who I am or pretend I'm someone that I'm not. I come from a fat family and will have fat babies. And I am OK with that.

You look absolutely gorgeous in your dress and the pictures posted here show a wonderful wedding day. And too true, the day is about celebrating love, not the way you look in a dress.

<3,
Becca

I will be the first to admit that I am not crazy about the way I look naked. But that's what clothes are for; they disguise our flaws and make us feel better. If they didn't, couture sure wouldn't cost an arm and a leg! I hate looking at size tags and feel horrible knowing that I cannot shop in certain stores.

But what am I doing about it? I am lazy. There, I said it. I would rather knit or, *gasp*, study than work out. I would rather knit than go for a walk. But I will romp on the floor with Lola and run in circles with her. I am also taking belly dancing class. While it's not a strenuous workout, but more like slightly faster paced yoga, I'm doing something. I have exercise DVDs that sit unwatched. Again, I am lazy.

I guess this is me finally admitting it, right? I have a screwed up body image - always have - and need to own up to it. I am getting married in *checks Facebook* 415 days. While I am going to try to lose weight, for my health, I'm not going to freak out if I can't. No one should. Stupid fashion industry and their unrealistic model body shapes.

/end fat rant

Thank you, ECU!

2009-08-20T14:01:00.005-04:00

I feel like ECU sent me this gift basket today. Only filled with real cash. Yep, my excess loan funds were deposited and made available to me today!

Aside from all the credit cards I need to pay off and pay down, having these funds also means booking the wedding! Of course, we need to have a little chit chat and figure out a few more things before that can be done. As long as all decisions are made before the end of the month, we will still get locked into SLVW's lower rates.

Oh so happy me!

How are you today? Any fun and exciting news coming your way?

Image source