Color Crazy
If you’ve been following this you will know that I picked out my color scheme a milllion years ago. Originally I had decided on black and white damask with turquoise (aqua). As I’ve thought about the venue and imagined the decor I kept getting hung up on the linens. I want color on the linens and not the plain white. So I had thought of the black/white damask linens.
However, the more I imagined the more I thought it may be too busy for the size of the room with everything else going on. What’s a crazy bride to do? I’ve only been set on this for months!
Back to square one! I know I have to keep the black because of the bridesmaids dresses. I also wanted to keep the blue. I think it goes so well with the beach wedding. Then I thought how about jewel tones? Aqua and purple!!! The inspiration was the beautiful purple hydrangeas I saw in the store that go from deep purple and fade to a lovely blue. Deal done!
My new colors are turquoise, purple and black. I need to find the exact purple and get a swatch and name but I’ve uploaded pictures of my inspiration. Enjoy!!!
Anyone else change their mind on color or theme?
Add a comment September 20, 2011
So the Journey Begins! (Officially)
Well the internet was down so I didn’t get this post up in time but . . . I am getting married in a year!!!!!!!!!
I am the bride who has decided on a looooong engagement or maybe it decided for me. We got engaged January 2011. Originally I wanted to get married in December 2011 but the money fell through so we pushed it back to give us enough time to save. Through much anticipation, pseudo-planning, heart break, laughter and love I can finally officially start the planning process.
I have a million and one ideas for my big day and an equal number of DIY projects I want to tackle for it. However, I wouldn’t let myself start on any of it until the year anniversary of our engagement. I did book the venue and church, baker, dj and photographer but all the fun pretties I put off- until now (insert squeal here).
The first thing I did was print out all of my ideas I have dutifully been pinning on my pinterest account and things I’ve seen on weddingbee (love love love both of those sites) and put them in my pretty binder. I also printed out my checklist and project plan. Ok, I am a nerdy project manager and have a plan for EVERYTHING!!!
Finally, I bought a beautiful box to store note cards in and started my 365 day wedding journal. Every day I write a wedding thought on a note card with the date. I plan to look at it lovingly in the future. At the very least there will be a chronicle of how exactly I lost my mind for the police investigation.
I will post pics of the binder and journal shortly. Next up, color change up and save the date cards.
Add a comment September 20, 2011
He Loves Me so Why Can’t I
I took my first big bridal plunge (or nose dive) at the beginning of June. It was clear that my grandmother wouldn’t make it to the wedding so I decided that I needed her to see me in the dress before she passed away. So at the last moment I made an appointment and with mom and sis-in-law went dress shopping.
The whole thing was under a dark cloud. My mother was stressed and sleep deprived, my sister was working and couldn’t make it and we all wanted to hurry back to the hospital to be with grandma. On top of that I hadn’t lost the weight I wanted to before trying on dresses. All of this together spelled disaster for me.
I went to a boutique that had my dream dress- the only store in town that carries it. It was the dream-of-a-dream dream dress. It had everything I wanted- think Kate Middleton’s dress. It was the first dress I tried on and I felt great until I got in front of the mirror. When I saw myself I was disappointed. HIPS, HIPS, HIPS!!! That is all I saw, felt, heard. Everyone liked it but I couldn’t get over the disappointment of not looking like the model. Well, duh! I am 5 ft 2 and a bit hippy (the latin blood) so of course I wasn’t going to look like the 6 foot 100 lb. model but we always hold ourselves to impossible standards.
I tried on 5 dresses, took pictures and left without a dress or excitement. Then with the stress of losing my grandmother my weight has fluctuated a lot. I lost 10 lbs. then gained 15. Up, down, up, down like a seesaw.
I cried about it to Mr. and he said I am perfect. The thing is I know he believes that I am. To him I am everything I should be and more. So why can’t I see that or feel it? Probably because I am used to being a size 2 and the last few years I am a size 8. Being short doesn’t help when putting on even a few pounds.
I know to be happy about myself at the wedding, in the dress, on our honeymoon and in life I need to work for it. I have started working out every day at lunch time. I am lucky enough to have a gym next door to the office.
My starting weight is about 10 lbs. less than a few months ago so that helps but I am striving to lose 10 lbs. by mid-September so I can comfortably try on dresses. Overall I’d like to lose 15 lbs. and maintain it until the wedding. Fingers crossed!!
Did you have a wedding work out/get healthy plan? Did it work?
2 comments August 4, 2011
Love Gathers Love
So I’ve been away for a while. My grandmother passed away 5 weeks after being diagnosed with lung cancer. It was such a short amount of time that has been packed with really intense emotions. Especially after she passed it took me a while to even entertain thoughts about my big day. I probably would still not be able to think about it if it wasn’t for my grandmother’s incredible gift.
When the Mr. and I started talking about getting married I knew what kind of wedding I wanted- a big party. I knew we didn’t have that kind of money saved up so I calculated how much more we needed and what we could reasonably save a month to get us there. That’s when we decided we’d need to be engaged at least 16 months.
Then a great thing happened. My mother volunteered to give us a pretty hefty sum for the wedding. I started making plans and really getting excited. Then the proverbial other shoe dropped. The money mom was going to give us fell through.
Not willing to go into debt for our wedding, Mr. and I ended up getting part-time jobs on top of our full-time careers. In total Mr and I work 5 jobs (2 full-time and 3 part-time). This means working 7 days a week and some days being 17 hour work days. Needless to say Mr. and I didn’t see a lot of each other, our fur baby, our families or our friends. It was awful but I come from the school of thought that if you want it you work for it.
Then grandma got sick. Life stopped. We spent every day with her. I wouldn’t change it for the world but we were definitely behind on money. After grandma passed I was empty- we all were. Day-to-day life was about survival and getting through the pain. I had no joy in my heart to think about weddings especially when I imagined the empty seat at the reception that would have been hers. But grandma had other ideas.
My mother told us that grandma wanted to pay for half our wedding. Actually it was a gift from both mom and grandma as mom said, ” So now you can stop working so much and just enjoy planning. ” That was such an amazing gift. I was so grateful but I still couldn’t think about the wedding. Then someone told me to think of it as a way that she could be a part of the day in every aspect. So I started to slowly think about the wedding again.
As I got into it I started to find other little ways to infuse my grandmother into the day. First, grandma had said weeks before she passed that I should wear my hair up when I get married so now I am looking at up-dos I like. Then, we found the orchid pin she wore on her wedding day which I will use on my big day. I am also making a custom memorial candle for the Mass.
But one of my favorites is “branding” my wedding with wise words spoken by her. A week before she passed she spoke of how amazed she was at all the attention and love she was receiving from her family. We’d literally camp out in her room and just talk and joke around. She said it is proof that “love gathers love.” There it was the underlying theme of my wedding. I am putting it on the STD cards, invitation envelopes, programs, sign-in table, etc. I want everyone to feel her arms around them at the wedding. I want to feel blessed by her that day.
So I will be uploading my DIY efforts and other ideas I have as I go forward with planning the big day 
How did you remember loved ones at your wedding?
Add a comment August 3, 2011
Entry Two: It’s 3am do you know where your bride 2 b is at?
So it is crazy o’clock in the morning and I can’t sleep. My grandmother is in the hospital and every time I lay my head down to sleep my mind rushes with a million thoughts. What’s my sleep-aid of choice, you ask? It is wedding.
Tonight I’ve been organizing my ideas, vision, timeline, inspiration pictures, etc. We’ve decided (well, I’ve decided and Mr. loves whatever I pick) on the theme/color of black and white damask with turquoise (aqua depending on who you ask) accents. My love for all things damask is an entry for another time- actually it could be a book but I won’t bore you with all that now.
I know I am not the only damask bride out there. It has become as popular as the whole peacock theme. I had to pick colors that were appropriate and yet represents us. I am having an evening reception (darker hues), with a beach view during the summer (bright colors). I also had to factor in the fact that all my bridesmaids are beautifully diverse in coloring and shape so I told them to pick a LBD (little black dress) of their own choosing. So I wanted to incorporate black with a beachy summer feel- hence the combo. And again I LOVE damask. Have I mentioned that yet?
Back to organizing . . . first I got out my trusty pink binder. I have a not-so-secret-stash of pink binders. I started to print off all of my finalist list of ideas for the wedding. It gave me a chance to delete all the non-contenders that I had saved from a while back. After that I organized in the above mentioned pink binder. It really helped to see everything in one place. Next I typed up my list of DIY projects I am bravely taking on. Now, it must be noted that this is some 17 months before the big day and everything seems doable right now. I fully reserve the right to bow out of any project as I go along. Take that Martha Stewart!!!! PS Martha, I love you
I then made an intro page of the basic info for our wedding. It has the date (Sept. 15, 2012), time of ceremony (2pm- more on that later), time of reception (5pm cocktail hour followed by reception), location (Galveston, TX), number of people (ugh 100 and climbing), bridal party (6 hers, 6 hims and 1 little her) and theme/color (see above).
It seems I am well on my way now. I have already started to purchase things but I’ll cover those as I set out to do all my DIYs.
How did you get organized for the big day?
Add a comment May 21, 2011
What’s This All About???
So I’ve decided to start a blog detailing my journey planning my wedding, creating all my wonderful wedding DIY projects and trying to maintain my sanity as I work 3 jobs to “get ‘er done!”
Entry One: OMG! I am getting married!?!
This was my first thought after I said, “YES!” to my fiance, “Wow, I am getting married!!!” After a few hours of engaged bliss it turned to, “Wow, I am getting married???” As certain as I was that my fiance was the man of my dreams, my soulmate, the person I would spend forever with I was just as uncertain as to how we’d pull off a wedding.
It has always been known in our family that mom and dad would not pay for our wedding. When my father was “in the money” it was more like he won’t pay and now that he has retired it has turned to he can’t pay. Either way I’ve known we would go it alone. Still, I have always hoped that some miracle would present itself maybe the lottery or I’d get my dream job getting paid 6 figures to be a stay at home mom to my beautiful fur baby. But, alas, there was no opening in the royal family and they gave Charlie Sheen’s job to Ashton Kutcher so we were left to our own devices.
To begin with I have a very good career. However, I also have several large student loans. A majority of my disposable income goes to that. It was decided we needed part time jobs to save for the wedding. I decided to open my own business that would utilize my project management skills. Unfortunately, since I do have a full time job as a PM I don’t have a lot of spare time to promote my business. I have enough clients to constitute a very well paying part time job. However, it still isn’t enough. So I got a second part time job (for those of you counting at home that is 3 jobs a week, 7 days a week, around 13 hours a day). Yes, I am an over achiever. This second job is as a receptionist at an animal hospital (think animal ER). I am a pet lover so most nights I am an emotional wreck (more on that later).
My fiance took a part time job also and the upside is he loves it. Anyway, that’s how our story begins- two people in love, one wedding, 5 jobs and countless DIY projets and one happily ever after.
Add a comment May 19, 2011
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1 comment May 19, 2011
