Tisk Task Tuesday

Countdown: 123 days!!!!!!

I can't believe there are only 123 days left until our wedding. Time just seems to fly by. This week I finished addressing our envelopes for our invitations and put everything together. They are all finished and stamped and will go in the mail on Jan. 11!!

It seems to get to the point that I dont have that much left to purchase and the stuff I do have to purchase is more expensive. My nieces will be coming down for Christmas so I will try to go purchase their flower girl shoes while I have them here to try them on.

My bachelorette party and bridal shower are in 3 weeks and I am totally excited. You might be asking why so soon so Ill tell you. My best friend and MOH is moving to California to further pursue her acting career in February and will not be able to come back to Houston until the week of the wedding. I can't imagine having either one of these without her and since she is planning the bachelorette party she has to be there. I do not mind at all and think that Im gonna be so busy with everything else from Feb. till April that I really wont have time to enjoy it as much.

Taking the Cake

Back in August Joey and I decided on our cake. In case you dont remember what it looks like click here.
It will be a little different than the picture. It will be 3 layers and as of right now wont have the flowers or the monogram on the cake.

That brings me to the cake topper. Our theme for our wedding is classic and modern so we decided to do a monogram cake topper. It will be our first initials and the ampersand sign. H&J. This is also what we have on the top of our wedding invitations. There were a couple of different websites that carry this type of cake topper but I chose to go with www.beau-coup.com. Here is what it will look like:

Monday Mantra

This post is not wedding related but about my fiance!

This week my fiance is graduating from the University of Houston!

I believe in Joey (my fiance) and that he can do whatever he puts his mind to.

I'm addicted to planning Joeys graduation party.

I wish that all of our friends show up on Friday and have a great time!

I'm jealous of no one this week!

Soundtrack/Mantra for the week: It doesnt matter how long it takes you to finish school, as long as you finish!

 

Congrats Joey! I love you!

 

Tisk Task Tuesday

Countdown: 137 days!!!

I have started to address our outer envelopes for the wedding invitations. Since I couldnt afford a calligapher and I thought labels looked a bit stupid, I have hand addressed them. First let me say that my handwritting is not the best. I bought a metallic silver sharpe and I think it looks ok on the blue envelopes. Its nothing really fancy but I seriously doubt anyone cares what the outer envelope looks like. Last night I stuffed them with the invitations and tomorrow I will be buying stamps for the reply cards and the outer envelopes.

That is really all Im working on this week. Next week I will be going to look at some rehersal dinner locations.

Monday Mantra

This week I'm working on addressing my outer envelopes for my invitations and buying stamps.

I believe that everything will work out money wise.

I'm addicted to all things wedding.

I wish that I didn't have to worry about money when it came to our wedding.

I'm jealous of people who get to buy whatever they want for their wedding.

Soundtrack/Mantra for the week: All about weddings!

Tisk-Task Tuesday

Countdown: 144 days!

So I feel like there isnt a whole lot going on right now on the wedding front but I know thats not entirely true. My wedding shoes came in and last week I ordered my hair accessory. I chose the pearl headband. Like I said before I am not a big fan of veils so I will not be wearing one.

My wedding invitations will be going out next month so this month I will be working on addressing them and buying stamps. The biggest thing Im working on right now which Im having some difficulty is deciding what to do for my rehersal dinner. We have a very large wedding party so including their families for the dinner we have a count of 49 people. If we use proper ettiquette and invite our out of town guests we have 65 people. That is a lot of people to pay for just for a rehersal dinner. I have recieved quotes from a mexican and italian resturant here in Houston and both are over $1,300 for just food and sodas.

We can not do something at our house because it is too far from the wedding location. I would like to have a final decision by the end of this week so I will let yall know what I decide. If anyone has any ideas please let me know.

Winter Wonderland

Christmas time is my favorite time of the year. When I was younger this time of year was always a big deal with my family. I came from a family whose parents had a drug problem and we were pretty poor. But no matter what we always had the best Christmas!

It is just a few days before you are supposed to decorate for Christmas and I couldn't take it anymore. This is our first Christmas at our new house and I was overjoyed in decorating. I put on Christmas music and Joey and I put up our tree and I decorated. I can't wait until we have kids and they can help me decorate like I helped my mom.

Here are some pictures of my Christmas decorations. Hope they get you in the spirit!

 

MY FIRST BLOG AWARD

OMG!!!!!!!!! I can't tell you how excited I am! I received my very first blog award from Next to Heaven!Thank you soooooo much for the award. I dont have very many followers so this really excites me! I actually met Next to Heaven at UH while getting involved with the Public Relations Student Society of America. I took over her duties when she graduated. She is the sweetest and nicest person! Thanks again Val!

The rules are: List 10 things that make you happy.
Try to do at least one of them today.
Tag 10 bloggers that brighten your day.
Make sure to link back to the person that tagged you.



10 things that make me {very} happy!!

1. Just being around my fiance.
2. Planning my wedding!
3. Seing my neices and nephew.
4. Of course going shopping especially for shoes and purses!
5. Spending time with friends and family.
6. Eating period!
7. Getting my hair done.
8. Watching movies.
9. Decorating my house.
10. Drinking white wine.



Now to tag 10 lovely bloggers...

{in no particular order-and I'm sure I'm duplicating some who've already received the award}



and if its a hero you want, i can save you, The Perfect Palette, The Future Mrs. Smith, The Brehm Family Blog, Welcome to CIS Houston, Life As Eye See It, Fidgeting Gidget, Paris Breakfasts, Next to Heaven, Classic Bride.

Thoughtful Thursday

This is our new bedroom furniture that we purchased last night from Rooms To Go. We did not get the Chest but instead got the matching media center to go with it. To see the full collection, visit http://www.roomstogo.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=showRoom&roo_id=6930. We also got a free 32' LCD TV and a new Sealy Posturepedic mattress. We are so excited! We will receive our bed, dresser and media center on Wednesday and then have to wait for everything else until Dec. 17.

We can not wait to put our newly given bedding set on it!

Wedding Wednesday

So I know I missed Tisk-Task Tuesday yesterday so in case your wondering we have 157 days left!!!!!! Time is just flying by! Well today my Matron of Honor is sending out my bridal shower invitations!!! My cousin did a great job, I totally love them!

One thing I do need to say for any of my friends that will be reading this, I am sorry that I can not invite everyone to our wedding/bridal shower. We have not just 2 but 3 families that we have to invite and our guest list is at 150 people. We were only able to invite some of our close family and friends. I hope everyone understands. Believe me this has been hard for me to tell people we couldnt invite them. Don't take offense and just know that since we are paying for it by ourselves we couldnt afford to have our guest list get any bigger.

On lighter news, I found my flower girl shoes. I tried to find some pretty cheap ones and I looked at PayLess, Target, Walmart, Macy's and JcPennys and didnt find any that looked nice. So I found these at Davids Bridal. They will be white.

Tisk-Task Tuesday

Countdown: 165 days!

As you know from my last post I recently purchased some wedding stuff! I ordered my shoes, bought my garter and flower girl dresses. I also finished registering for gifts this past weekend! Also yesterday I received my outer envelopes for my invitations.

Right now I am working on something to send to my out-of-town guests letting them know about hotel accomodations. I bought some wedding stationary and was just going to do a letter format. I'm trying not to spend a lot of money on it but if anyone has any ideas of something creative or other suggestions, feel free to let me know.

Wedding To-Dos

Today was a fun day filled with wedding to-dos! First thing this morning I met Leah at Macy's at Memorial Mall to register for gifts. We registered for Joey and I's fine china along with our flatware and a few other items. This concluded our registration! Everyone can now find us registered at Macy's & Bed Bath and Beyond.

After that I drove to Baytown and picked up my mom and took her with me to look for shoes and flower girl dresses. My mom hasn't been really involved in the wedding planning so I thought this might make her feel better and it sure did! We had a wonderful time. I went to Davids Bridal to look for some shoes I thought I liked but once I saw them in person they didnt wow me. But I did find the perfect pair that did! What do you think about these?





I had to order my size and it takes 6 weeks for them to come in! But i think they are just so elegant and classy. While we were there I bought my garter set. I really wanted a garter that had some blue in it for my "Something Blue." What do you think?





Then we headed to Burlington Coat Factory to look for flower girl dresses. I chose Burlington's because they had the cheapest flower girl dresses. I think it is quite absurd to spend $100-$200 on a flower girl dress and I wouldnt expect anyone to pay that! So this is what we found. We had to buy four of them which was quite a challenge finding four of the same dresses in different sizes.






I have to say these pictures do not do these items justice!

First Wedding Gift

So I just got home from work and I see a package outside on the back porch. So I go out to look and I find our very first wedding present!!!! It is from my grandparents and my aunt's family. They bought us our bedroom set! I was soooo excited. Now we just need a queen size bed to put it on! We plan on getting that after the first of the year. So until then here is a  pic of what it will look like!

Wedding Wednesday

So now that my dress is getting made it is now time for me to start thinking about my accessories (i.e shoes, hair and jewelry). I have been looking at Davids Bridal online to get some ideas. I have picked out my shoes for sure but still deciding on the hair accesories and jewelry.

Here are the shoes I'm going to get:

For the hair I am looking at headbands, pins and tiaras. Joey doesn't like the birdcage veils and I really don't want a traditional veil. Here are hair accessories that I'm looking at:

For my jewlry I will be wearing pearls for sure I am just not sure what design yet. Here are a couple of choices:

Which do you like?

Tisk Task Tuesday

Countdown: 179 days

This weekend I ordered our wedding invitations!!!!!!! I'm so excited about them! Here is what they say: Because you have shared in our lives by your friendship and love, we (our names) together with our families invite you to share in a celebration of love as we exchange marriage vows.......

We are still in the process of figuring out what we are going to do for the rehearsal dinner. The next week or so I will be going to buy my shoes to wear for the wedding and deciding what hair accessories I'm going to wear. I also need to start going to look at flower girl dresses.

BTW I was told by my Matron of Honor that the bridal shower invites came in!!! I am reserving the room for the bridal shower on Monday and then the invites will go out by the 18th.

If the Shoe Fits

So Tuesday I told you all that I picked out the shoes for my bridesmaids to wear. I found two that I really liked and let the girls pick which one they liked best. Everyone picked this one. I found this shoe at Payless.

Tisk Task Tuesday

Countdown: 186 days

This past weekend the bridesmaids and I got measured for our dresses. Its kind of a scary thing because from that point on we can't gain ANY weight!!!!!!!!! We can only stay the same or loose it. That is a stressful thing in itself. We will have our first fitting sometime in January or February. I have also picked out the shoes that the bridesmaids will be wearing and I have to say they are pretty cute. Check back tomorrow to see what they look like.

The bridal shower invitations have been ordered and I have already made the address lables for them. My foster mom and I have set a date to go register for some gifts at Macys on November 8.

The next couple of weeks I will be thinking about the rehearsal dinner, the flower girl dresses and ordering the wedding invitations.

Wedding Invitations

Drum Roll please............

We have chosen the following invitation for our wedding invitations!!!!!




So now I can tell you that this one was my absoulte favorite and the 2nd one from yesterdays post was my second favorite. Last night I made Joey look at all of them and I didnt tell him which ones I liked the best. It was so funny because he too picked the ones I liked the most. The decision was made because he said the 2nd one from yesterdays post was too plain on the inside.

Then this morning after reading which one everyone liked the most, and most of you picked the 2nd one from yesterdays post, I started second guessing myself. But I have to believe that there is a reason why both Joey & I picked the same one. I ordered a sample yesterday so hopefully when it comes in its everything we wanted! The invitation is from Invitations by Morgan.

Wedding Wednesday

So Joey's favorite baseball team, the Phillies, are playing tomorrow night in a playoff game so we will be deciding which invitation to use tonight after his midterm.

Below are the choices that I've narrowed it down to but I'm not going to tell you which one is my favorite.

I would really like for you to give me y'alls opinion.

Tisk Task Tuesday

Countdown: 193 days!

As you know last week we finalized our wedding party's tuxs! They look fabulous and Im really excited about them. This Saturday the bridesmaids are coming over to get measured for their dresses along with myself for my wedding dress. The lady who is making our dresses is named Ruth and shes coming over to take measurements and pick up all the fabric to get started. I am excited but also a little nervous because I haven't seen any of her work before. I hope she does a great job.

Joeys last midterm is tomorrow and then he can focus all his time with me and the wedding. We have a date on Thursday to look and finalize our invitaions and the wording. The next thing on my to-do list is to go with my foster mom to register at Macy's. My matron of honor is supposed to be ordering the bridal shower invites today and the gift registration cards will go in those invitations.

Check back tomorrow to see which invitations Joey and I will be looking at on Thursday and give me your opinion!

Wedding Wednesday

So last night Joey and I went to our appointment at Men's Warehouse and finalized all 12 guys tuxs. I know that seems like a lot. We have the groom, best man and six groomsmen, the ring bearer and three ushers. Luckily I already knew pretty much wanted I wanted so it made it a lot easier and faster!

Without further adue here is what we chose:

All the guys will be wearing this Joseph & Feiss One-Button Notch Lapel tux.


Joey and the ring bearer will be wearing the Rio white vest and tie.


The best man and the groomsmen will be wearing the Rio midnight vest and tie.


Last but not least the ushers will be wearing the Primetime black vest and tie.


To top it off they will be wearing the White/Silver Stud & Cufflink Set.



I will be posting the wedding party's details on our website.

Tisk Task Tuesday

Countdown: 200 days!

So last week Joey and I registered for gifts at Bed Bath and Beyond and we had a great time picking things out that we wanted for the new house. Yesterday I received our wedding guest book from Beau-Coup and I was kinda suprised to see how much smaller it was than I thought. But it is very white and classic!

I still have not received the rest of the addresses I need so I really need to get on top of that. Tonight Joey and I have an appointment at Men's Warehouse to look at tuxs. I have already browsed online and know pretty much what I want the guys to wear. I am looking forward to Joey trying them on so I can see what they look like on him.

The next couple of weeks Joey and I will be finalizing our inviation wording and picking out the invitation that we will send out!

Check back here tomorrow to find out which tux we picked!

Thoughtful Thursday

Wedding Nightmares! I had my very first wedding nightmare last night. It was the day of my wedding and for some reason my mother and MOH had picked all the decorations and even my wedding dress! It was horrendous! While I was talking to someone in another room some lady came in wearing what was supposed to be my wedding dress (which was hideous) and went and showed everyone. On top of that the only decorations for the reception was some loud color things everwhere. I can't even tell you what they were.

So being the perfectionist that I am, I said that I was canceling the wedding because I was not wearing that dress and everything had been ruined. So I tried to just push it back for only a week and my location wouldn't let me. It was horrible!

Thankfully it was just a dream and my mother nor my MOH is picking out anything for the wedding. LOL

Have any of the other brides-to-be out there had wedding nightmares?

Wedding Wednesday

So tonight Joey and I are going to register for wedding gifts at one of our two locations. We will be visiting Bed Bath and Beyond in search for some kitchen gadgets as well as bedroom and bathroom accessories.

Now Joey and I have lived together for a while now and have a lot of the stuff that young married couples need when they first get married. My first thought was to not register for gifts at all and just ask people for money for the honeymoon. My grandmother-in-law did not like that idea at all! She said that the older generation is going to want to buy us things instead of giving us money.

So with that we decided to register for some gifts. We are going to try to register for things that we will actually use and have room for. As you know we just moved into our first house and even though it is bigger than our apartment it is still not huge. It is only 1200 sq. feet and does not have a lot of storage space.

I am excited about going shopping for the house with Joey tonight and hope that this will be a good experience!

Tisk Task Tuesday

Countdown: 207 days

Back to thinking about the wedding now that we are all moved into our house! Last week I received my flower girl baskets and flower petals from the Wedding Outlet and they are beautiful! I met with my bridesmaids a couple of weeks ago to finalize a date for our measurement fitting. We will be getting measured for our dresses on Oct. 17!!!!!!!! We also delegated duties for the bridal shower and my MOH is already getting a great start with picking out the invitations.

This week Joey and I will be going to register for gifts!!!!!!! Im really excited about this and hope that Joey will not totally hate it. LOL Then in the next coming week or so we will be finalizing which invitation we want and the wording! I will also be trying to get the rest of the addresses I need this week.

Stay tuned for more wedding updates!

Blue Monday

Home Sweet Home

So we have finally closed on our house and are completely moved in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry haven't posted anything in a while, we have been totally busy. Not only did we move in this past week but we also had a death in Joey's family :(

We are excited to be moved in. We are pretty much all unpacked with only our books left and we need to get a bookcase before we can unpack those. So we got cable and internet put in yesterday and this time we went with AT&T Uverse instead of Comcast to see how we liked it. So far so good.

We also got our Fridge in today finally! Trying to get a fridge was such a hassle. First we ordered one online 2 weeks ago through Best Buy and it was supposed to be delivered on Friday. Well they called Thursday saying they couldn't deliver until Oct. 9! So needless to say I was furious and canceled our order. So we went to Sears Home Appliance Center by our house and the customer service was amazing! They delivered it just 2 days later! Thank you Sears!

Well here is a peak at what our kitchen looks like!

Thoughtful Thursday

So today's Thoughtful Thursday is not actually about our wedding but about our new home. Our new house should be totally completed today! The DAP people have their inspection tomorrow and our final inspection is on Monday. If all goes well we close on our new home next Friday!!!! Here is a pic of what it looks like.



I can not express to you how excited I am! We have been staying with Joey's grandmother since the end of June and I can not wait to have my own place again! I will post more pics next weekend after we get moved in!

Tisk Task Tuesday

Countdown: 228 days

This week I will be ordering my flower girl baskets and silk hydrangea flower petals. Also this week I have my meeting with my bridesmaids on Saturday to discuss our first dress fitting and bridal shower. That's really all I have on my to-do list this week.

Flourish Friday

So today is all about my flower girls! When Joey and I first got engaged, flower girl baskets were the first thing I purchased. Unfortunately at that time we were planning an outside wedding so around Easter time I had bought white whicker baskets.

But now our plans have changed. Our wedding is a lot more formal and is inside so my whicker baskets really no longer work. So I have been looking for the right basket that isn't too expensive because remind you I have 4 flower girls! So even if I found some for $20 it would cost me over $80 for flower girl baskets.

I happened to run across this basket on The Wedding Outlet. I absoultely love the pearl handles and the best thing is its only $8.95each! I showed Joey to see what he thought and he also loved it and thought it was very classy.



To go along with the flower girl baskets I also came across these white hydrangea flower girl petals on Advantage Bridal.com. They are perfect since my flowers are hydrangeas and tulips. And they are on sale for $9.95.

I will be purchasing these items next week! So exciting! Can't wait to show my flower girls!

Tisk Task Tuesday

Countdown: 235 days

Right now is a little slow on the wedding front. The only thing I am doing at the moment is getting ready for a Bridal Party Meeting that is taking place next Saturday. We will be deciding on a date to get measured for our dresses in October and discussing the bridal shower.

I do want to mention that I got a new bridesmaid recently! One of my bridesmaid had something unexpected come up and could no longer be a part of our big day so I got the chance to ask my college friend Katie who had been dying to be in our wedding. She will get to meet everyone else for the first time next week.

Joey and I will be registering for our gifts at the end of this month after we get moved into our house. I have started looking at invitations and ordered some samples. We will need to make a decision by the end of October as they need to be ordered in November. I am also still looking at flower girl baskets.

So just a lot of looking at the moment.

Blue Monday

I just love this idea of having blue hued champagne. If we were having alcohol at our wedding I would so do this.

Tisk Task Tuesday

Countdown: 242 days

I had a very productive wedding weekend. I bought the other three zippers I was looking for and I went to High Fashion and bought my bridal loops that I needed for my wedding dress. I also had my two appointments with florists this weekend and I went with my foster mom. We chose to go with Sarah's Florist for the flowers for the wedding party. Chuck was very helpful and gave us a lot of advice.

The groom, 7 groomsmen, 3 ushers and 1 ring bear will be wearing hydrangea boutonnieres. The bridesmaids will be carrying a "salad plate size" bouquet of blue hydrangeas and I will be carrying a "dinner plate size" bouquet of blue hydrangeas with about 15 white tulips. Just to let you know hydrangeas are not cheap nor are flowers for such a large wedding party.

We are really excited though and cant wait to see the final product. Just in case you were wondering our location the Ayva Center is doing the flowers for everything else.