Pardon Me for a Minute...

Hey, hey! Yea for a short work week!!!

I hope everyone had a good weekend, I sure did. Lots of rest as I haven't been feeling the best, but I also managed to squeeze in Bryan's birthday dinner as well as some major work on our engagement picture album - which I should hopefully be showing you by the end of the week!

Since this week is a short week, I am planning on doing some major work on the blog frontier - I'm migrating everything to WordPress! As soon as the link is ready, I will be sure to update you all. In honor of the migration, I am going to have the CCB's very first GIVEAWAY!!! Yep, I love free stuff and I am sure you do too! Should be ready by Sunday at the latest, so stay tuned...

So, pardon me for a couple of days while I new and improve everything - it will all be worth the wait!

There Goes My Chance At Queen...

Did anyone else have a crush on him when they were younger?

I did.

(Sigh) There goes my chance at queen… Good thing I found my prince a long time ago.

Good thing I found my prince already. :)

Is anyone else obsessed with the Royal family? I don’t know why, but they fascinate me… Now that William and Kate have officially announced their engagement, I am even more intrigued!!! Earlier this year I was fixated with the Chelsea Clinton wedding and even got my veil inspiration from her. Now I am dying to see what colors Kate picks, what type of dress she chooses, what their first song will be - knowing everything they do will be gorgeous and classic.

You gotta respect this chick

– she waited eight years for a ring!!! I was getting antsy at the one year mark! (Patience is not a word that is commonly associated with me.)

On another coincidental note, my parents got married the same year as Diana and Charles. Now Bryan and I will get married the same year as Kate and William… Not sure that actually means anything expect that I should find a hobby other than stalking celebrities online. 

9.5 Months to Go...

Is this week going fast for anyone else? Loving it!

Does anyone else use TheKnot.com’s checklist to make sure you’re on schedule to have a fabulous wedding? I actually spent a lot of time researching digital checklists and theirs is by far the most comprehensive. I actually do not find TheKnot.com that helpful, aside from the checklist of course.

I have printed myself two copies of the checklist – one for work so I can mull over it during lunch about once a week and one for the wedding bible. While I was looking it over, I discovered that as of Thanksgiving weekend, we will be in the 6 - 8 month bracket! Yikes! I feel like after Christmas, time is going to fly. 

Luckily for me, I have roughly half of the 6 -8 month tasks completed already – yea for being an over-achiever! 

But this is what I do not have done yet:

• Get deposit to our florists – we do have a florist picked out though.
• Get an idea of ceremony musicians and the type of music we want played… NO clue on this one. I was hoping to have someone that we know do the music, but I didn’t realize all of our friends and family are musically challenged… So this one could be difficult.
• Block hotel rooms for guests – this one is half done, I have rooms at one hotel, but need to block a few more at another.
• Fill out your wedding registry – we’ll do this closer to 6 months I think…
• Order and send out save-the-dates… Need to do a lot of work on this one because I am doing them myself, but I have a great idea for it!
• Book ceremony musicians – probably around 6 months.
• Start planning rehearsal dinner… We have an idea of what we want to do, but nothing definite yet.
•  Finalize invitation wording… The wording of the actual invitation is done, but the cards associated with them are not…
• Order wedding invitations and announcements – will do this around the 6 month mark.

Not too terrible of a list – what about you guys? Do you have lots to do for where you are at in your planning or are you way ahead of the game? 

You Know You Want to See More...

... WE'VE BEEN BLOGGED!!!

Sorry, couldn't contain myself any longer. Our photographers emailed me last week and told me they had chosen OUR engagement pictures to put on their blog!

I have a dirty little secret: I've always wanted to be blogged about. Not me blogging about my life, someone else thinking that my life is worth blogging about.

So you can imagine how excited I was when I found out we were going to be featured on their blog... I was even more excited when I figured out this would give me readers a chance to view ALL of our E-pics without my painfully uploading each high-res file.

Here is the link to their blog.

And one more picture for you. (The last one, I promise.)

My Good Deed for the Day

I must say, this Monday was easier than other Mondays have been as of late. I think the extra hour of sleep Saturday night combined with the fact that the sun was actually half way up when my alarm went off was a huge help. J

Today I was at Target buying a baby gift for my matron of honor (she’s due in about 6 weeks!!!) I was browsing the baby gift wrap and this lady randomly came up to me and asked if I knew if there was a wedding section. (No, I was not wearing a red shirt OR khakis.) As she started to walk away she mumbled something about unity candle. I asked her if she had tried Michaels or Hobby Lobby, she said she had and that she didn’t like any of their stuff. We started chatting and I said that I was planning on making mine.

She was intrigued.

I told her I got a pillar candle and two candlesticks and the holders from Ikea like these:

Mind you, I know I am going to decorate these myself, but at this point in my day, I was not exactly sure HOW I was going to decorate them. I rattled off some ideas that she could do.

I think this lady fell in love with me in the three minutes I was talking to her.

I told her some of the other things I was planning and she looked totally amazed. I mean honestly, doesn’t every bride make most of their stuff?

No?

Anyway, I felt pretty good about myself after that. Hopefully I helped her see that you don’t have to buy everything out of the box. I love when I go to weddings and you can just TELL how much time the bride and groom (…mostly the bride…) has spent on all the details. You can really see their personalities come through.

Help give me some more ideas, what are you doing to help bring your personalities into your wedding and reception? 

Cakeballs...Mmm...

As you read in a previous post about our cake topper, we have been planning on doing a dessert bar for our wedding in lieu of a giant cake. My reasons for this is I wanted to be different (or difficult as some associated with the planning process may say) but I also just feel like people don’t really eat cake anymore at wedding receptions. I know I rarely do. But if they have something cool like cookies or cheesecake, I’m all over it!

So, it was settled. We would do a dessert bar and our mom’s friends were going to help bake the goodies to help save on costs… Until reality set in. I started thinking about how difficult it was going to be to coordinate 9 different people baking, getting it all arranged nicely and keeping it fresh.

Then I discovered The Bite-Sized Bakery.

 And my world was complete.

These amazing ladies have started a bakery for just cakeballs! Don’t know what cakeballs are? Let me tell you. To make cakeballs you bake a cake, then take the cake and crumble it into a bowl. Mix the cake with some sort of filling like cream cheese, make into balls, dip in almond bark and enjoy! (Check out Bakerella to see some fantastic cakeballs.)

We met up with one of the gals from Bite Sized Bakery last Sunday to sample a few of these treats, and we were not disappointed. We sampled chocolate raspberry, peanut butter chocolate, lemon, birthday cake, chocolate and spice cake. The ladies kept telling us that we would only need to figure two/person and I was a bit skeptical of that number. I looked at the size of them and was thinking “I could dominate 15 of these EASILY!” Wow, was I wrong. These little babies are dense and filling, if I were attending a wedding, I would probably just stop at one. (I am usually too distracted by cocktails to bother with dessert though…)

The gal we met with had some awesome ideas for set up and they will be coming by the reception hall the day of the big shin-dig to set it all up for us. No dessert-related stress for this girl!

So tell me – what are you guys doing for dessert? A big ol’ cake? Cheesecake? Candy bar? 

The Rest of the E-Pics

The wait is over! Our photographers emailed us a link today with the rest of our engagement pictures - TOTALLY worth the wait. Here are a few of my favs. :) Enjoy!

E-Pics Photobook

When we were getting ready for our engagement pictures, I started thinking about what I wanted to do with the pictures when we got them. Our current house is not the biggest house and therefore we do not have a ton of wall space to work with as well as limited table space on which we could set our engagement pictures. I am also not a big fan of pictures in bedrooms because I once read that you are not supposed to put pictures in bed rooms because it counteracts the “calming” effect of the room… I am not sure how calming a room with laundry thrown everywhere can be, but for some reason, that tidbit has stuck with me.

Then the thought of a photobook came to mind. I have a couple of friends who frequently put together photobooks for events that happen throughout the year. One uses a service called Blurb and another uses Snapfish. I looked into both of these services and was going back and forth between the two when I came across this post on Wedding Bee today.

After reading that, I looked at Adorama. I clicked around their website a little and discovered that uploading and placing the pictures was a breeze. I also liked the layouts they had available as well as the fact that you can very easily create your own. Adorama is a bit pricier than say Snapfish, but I am hoping this translates into better quality.

So, as soon as our engagement picture proofs come in, you can tell what my next project will be! BTW – yes, I have been running to the mailbox every day to see if they’ve arrived. It’s worse than when you were a little kid expecting birthday cards!!! 

It's HERE!!!!

My dress that is! It came in on Wednesday and was delivered to my parent's house. I of course rushed right home from work, straight over to their house to try it on. I was so nervous it wouldn't fit! When the measured me at the bridal shop, I measured a 4 in the bust, a 4 in the waist and an 8 in the hips (yes, I am shaped like a boy!) The dress lady tried talking me into a 4, but I wear a 6 in pants, so I knew there was no way. I ended up getting a 6 and then started second guessing myself, thinking that I should have ordered an 8 since that was the biggest I measured... Luckily it fit!!!

The length is also good, I won't be able to wear very high heels since I am already 5'9", which is somewhat of a bummer because I actually already bought some purple high heels that I will now have to sell since the 30 days is up. (DANG!) So, if you find any 2" purple heels, throw them my way please!

The only other thing that needs to be done is a bustle and change the neckline from straight to a definite sweetheart.

Oh, and can I just say that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my dress even more now that I have MINE!

Now the search for shoes, veil, and jewelry begins... Suggestions welcome!

I Found Our Cake Topper

OK, quick back story. We are having a mother-mandated cake. We are actually having a dessert bar in lieu of cake because I am not a huge cake person, but I love me some pie, cheesecake, rice krispie treats, brownies, cookies... Oh yes, ESPECIALLY cookies!!!

My mom was OK with the dessert bar thing, but she insisted there be a cake. By insisted, I mean had a mini-freak-out. (Love you mom!) So as a compromise, we are having the dessert bar with a small, simple cake like this:

Without the roses on top and maybe purple ribbon.

Once it was decided we were having a cake, had to find the topper.

More back story. Bryan, my wonderful fiance, is a gamer. I am not talking a PlayStation 3 gamer (although, we do have one of those), I am talking World of Warcraft via the computer gamer. Oh yes, I see those looks of pity on your face - I get it all the time.

(In his defense, he is pretty good about it, but it's his thing! The way I look at it, he could be at the bar or out with his buddies shooting at things (we live in Iowa, it's what boys do), but instead, he is at home, in the recliner next to me, playing his game. Could be worse.)

Plus, it gives me an excuse to buy this:

Oh yes, its going on top of our cake. You can customize the hair color, the type of pop (or beer) cans laying around AND the game on the screen. It is perfect. I found this from Etsy seller AwesomeToppers for $70... More than I had wanted to spend, but Bryan was genuinely excited about it, which is rare when it comes to wedding decor related topics, so it's a go. 

What are you guys doing for your cake and/or toppers? 

Standstill

I know, I know, it's been awhile! So sorry. I feel as though I am at a bit of a standstill right now with the wedding plans. We have a little under 11 months to go and according to all the checklists out there, I am about three to four months ahead of the game. :)

So, to make it feel like I am doing SOMETHING, Bryan and I had dinner with my parents tonight and discussed what is next with the wedding plans. I feel a more motivated to stay ahead of the curve ball again and should have some interesting posts coming up in the next week or so. :)

In other news, it's been a couple of weeks since I posted a Workout Wednesday. I will make sure to post one this week, incase any of you actually read them. :)

E-Pics Sneak Peak

Our engagement pictures were a week ago today and our photographer posted a few shots for us right away - you know, just to drive me completely mad for the next three weeks until we get the CD with all of them on there!!! :)

I could not be happier with how the pictures turned out - it is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Bryan, being the good fiance that he is, was looking for the exact same thing that I was looking for in the engagement pictures... Actually, he was just happy I told him NOT to tuck in his shirt.

Without further delay - here they are!!

E-Session Outfits

Photography is on my mind lately! Our engagement pics are set to take place on Sunday, keeping my fingers triple-crossed that it does not rain. I've had our outfits bought and stowed away for a little over a month now and I am SO excited about them! We are not dressy people - in fact, we can wear jeans every day of the week to work - so I think our outfits are pretty normal/natural for us, but still look nice.

I personally have two outfits and one pair of FABULOUS shoes. I like clothes. :) Bryan's technically has one outfit - a button down shirt with a nice t-shirt under it - so, for some of the pictures he will wear his button down and for some he won't, so he's not technically changing. (I had a hard enough time convincing him that we really did need a 2 hour photography session, getting him to completely change outfits was a battle I did not chose to pick.)

First, anchor of both my outfits - the shoes! Love, love, love them!!! Living in a small town (I mean, less than 5,000 people) I feel I can pull these off no problem.

My fabulous shoes will be paired with this dress

with this AWESOME jacket

My next outfit will consist of the boots and this shirt

and this little number

Bryan will be wearing jeans (didn't feel the need to photograph those) with this shirt

over this shirt

So excited for the combinations and to show you guys the sneak peaks!!!

Nina.Cecilia - Creative Spark

I love pictures. I love candid pictures, professional pictures, pictures of babies and pictures of old people. I ESPECIALLY love wedding related pictures. Before we got engaged I spent MONTHS pouring over the websites over local photographers, trying to find just one that met my style.

A little over a year ago, I saw that a couple of girls, twin sisters in fact, that I had hung out with for a short stint early on in my college career had started a photography business. (Via Facebook of course.) I became of fan of their Facebook page - Nina.Cecilia - Creative Spark and Fell. In. Love. They're photographs are amazing and just my style. Their pictures are not overly posed, very natural and capture the true emotion of the subjects. Their editing skills are also amazing - they're incredibly creative and talented!

I knew I had to have them as our photographers.

Around the time that I knew we would be getting engaged, I emailed Nina and asked for a menu of services. It must have been a good omen because we were engaged about a week and a half later! I immediately booked them the next day.

Since they had been around for less than a year when I booked them, it was a bit of a leap of faith as they had only done a couple of weddings at that point. However, this summer they have had quite a few and with each wedding they post on their Facebook page and blog, I get more and more excited! Our pictures are going to be amazing and I really can not wait.

Here is a sampling of a few engagement pictures and wedding pictures they have done so far - AMAZING!

Wedding Workout Wednesday

Whoo-hoo! The fiancé is on a business trip, I am SO going out!

HA!

Yeah right.

I am actually sitting here eating Mac & Cheese and watching my dog sleep. My how times have changed… J

So, it’s Wednesday, which means I need to recap the workouts I have done this week… Or lack there of! I have had a severe motivational problem this week. Here is what my schedule looked like:

• Thursday: Items from my Pampered Chef party arrived, my exercise consisted of ripping open boxes and kicking myself for not getting that set of measuring cups.
• Friday: Day off from work, ran/walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes (about 25 minutes of running, 5 of walking.) Lifted free weights.
• Saturday: Iowa Hawkeye Football home opener!!! Does walking around tailgating while drinking a beer count? Maybe. In my book it does.
• Sunday: Too tired from Saturday to do much, sat on the couch a lot.
•  Monday: Had intentions of working out… Then decided I needed to clean the house and get groceries instead.
• Tuesday: Attempted to run on the treadmill, lasted 10 minutes. Did another 10 on the elliptical and then lifted free weights.
• Today: Have an appointment with the florist right after work, won’t get a workout in.

My past few weeks have gone like this, so I finally did something about my motivational level (which is usually about ZERO) – I joined a gym with classes!

The Upside (s)

•  I like being told what to do and when to do it when working out, I do not like motivating myself. This gym will help that problem.
• It is close to work, so there is less time from the time I leave work until when I get home to talk myself out of working out.

The Downside

•  Its 20 – 25 minutes from my house (I said it’s close to work) – this means workouts REALLY have to happen during the week.

I’ve tried becoming a morning person before and have failed miserably at it each time, but now I just might have to… Stay tuned to see how my first week at the new gym goes!

The Main Dish

Ah, wedding food. We've all been to the weddings where the food has been less than stellar and perhaps even swung by a McDonalds after leaving the reception because you were still hungry. Bryan and I wanted the food at our reception to be a reflection of who we are. We are not chicken marsala people, nor are we veal people. We really like steak and salmon, however, that does not fit within our budget. We are pizza people, and roasting hot dogs and hamburgers over an open fire people and down-home, comfort food people.

Picture from www.mccormick.com - not where the recipe is from.

The part that sold us on our reception location is the fact that we can bring our own food and alcohol - MAJOR money saver there. Bryan's uncle has an amazing recipe for pulled pork. Being born and raised in the heart of pork country, pulled pork is a favorite meal of both of ours and it is a good reflection of who we are - simple but delicious. So, his uncle has agreed to make enough pulled pork for 320 people and it will only cost $1 to $2 per person! This of course does not include buns, but still a fabulous price.

Our goal for food is to keep it around $5/person - not including dessert of course. With the price of the pork and using an up and coming caterer for the side dishes (more on that later) I think this may be an achievable goal. If we maxed out the capacity of the reception location at 320 people, this would be around $1600 on food - not too shabby!

Now that we have the main dish decided on, I will be working with a caterer for our side dishes - more on that in the coming weeks!

Wedding Workout Wednesday

The other day I was on the dreaded treadmill and it occurred to me that workouts are probably a hot-topic for other brides. As you know, I have already purchased my dress, over a year in advance, which means I need to stay the same size for at least 360 more days.  My friends and family reading this already think I am crazy for worrying about this, I have maintained the same weight for the past 3 years and a few would probably tell you that I should gain some weight. (Woe is me, I know.) I am a pretty superstitious person though and I have this deep fear that I will gain 20 pounds now that there is a reason for me to really keep the weight off.


Let me back up, I am currently 5'9" and weight about 128 pounds. I know, most girls would kill for this, but I have not always been like this. When I graduated college, I tipped the scales at 164 pounds - on a good day. It was a combination of little exercise, a bartender's schedule, a diet of whatever I could find, when I could find it and a lot beer that got me to that weight. Once I graduated college, I worked HARD for a year and a half to get all that weight off, plus some. I'm talking 5+ days in the gym for 90 minutes at a time and Weight Watchers to get my cravings under control.


Me at my heaviest

Me now:

Was it easy losing almost 40 pounds? Absolutely not. Am I one of those girls who *claim* to "love" going to the gym and all that jazz? Yeah right. I'll be honest, working out is not my favorite things. There are even days that I HATE the gym. I've tried every workout imaginable, still haven't found that that I just can't wait to do everyday. Most days I get home from work and I literally have to force myself to put my running shoes on. 

My favorite part of working out? Being done. 

This brings my to my new blogging category: Wedding Workout Wednesdays! Each week I will share with you what I have (or haven't done) in the form of physical activity. Maybe even share some good-for-you recipes that I may stumble upon... You'll probably hear more about how I have to have a cookie after lunch AND dinner. (This is why I have to keep myself in the gym.)

Since this post is long enough already, I'll create a new one for this week's Wedding Workouts.

Invitations: Couture Invitations

I am currently scouring the internet trying to find the perfect invitations for our wedding. I know we are a ways a way from even thinking about ordering invitations, but it's never too early to start looking. This afternoon while I was watching One Tree Hill re-runs and surfing the internet, I came across Couture Invitations. I love some of the ideas the designer has - especially some of the belly-band ideas like this

and this

Plus - the designer is an Iowa girl - double score. :) For all the brides out there looking for invitations, be sure to check out their website.

Resource: Weddingbee.com

I must share this bride secret with all of your: Weddingbee. I have never been one to be into online message boards, until I found Weddingbee. Weddingbee.com is a forum that allows future brides, present brides, past brides and all other kinds of brides to share experiences, projects, opinions and advice with everyone. I have found so many ideas, tutorials, inspiration and projects via this source - I highly recommend every bride-to-be check this place out.

Centerpieces: The Undecided

I've already covered the two centerpiece ideas I am doing here and here. But I have been going back and forth on what to do for the last. Here are my options:


Option One: Pomander on vase with crystals

The pomander would be made out of tissue paper and probably in a cream-ish color. I would put a ribbon around the bottom of the pomander and the crystals would be black or purple. 

Option Two: Hydrangeas 

I originally wanted to stay away from fresh flower centerpieces because of the cost, but if I order hydrangea wholesale from Blooms by the Box @ just under $4/stem, the price for 11 centerpieces won't be so bad. Additionally, the bridesmaids bouquets are going to be hydrangeas with peacock swords instead of greenery filler. The centerpieces would be white hydrangeas with a few peacock eyes in them. Maybe a ribbon around the center of the vase? 

Thoughts?