He loves me!

Flowers "just because" are so much better than flowers to say "I'm not mad at you for the stupid thing you did!" (The flowers were great, just not what I did!! Ok, ok! I banged up his car a little!!)

I have found such a wonderful man! :o) Three months to go!!!!! YAY!!!

Goin to the chapel.....

It tookseveral visits to several churches (some which were hideous for a wedding!!) in order for me to find the perfect one! We did visit lots of other great ones, that I'll do a feature on soon, but here is the one we chose!!

St. Paul's Community Church in the Green Hills area of Nashville, TN is such a great location! So far, the people there have been pretty great to work with (although the current director of weddings just left and someone new has come in- we haven't met her yet!). The church also has a school and senior living community behind it, so although it looks small, it's pretty modern and updated throughout the building and still has the charm of an intimate "chapel" inside the sanctuary!

I wasn't sure that it would fit our guest list of about 350, so we dismissed it as an option pretty early on. Then, when the fiance and I were watching a sample video from our videographer Pursuit Video, and I realized that they were filming at St. Paul's! Ray immediately said "That's it! That is where I want us to get married!" And I was happy to oblige! Even if it does mean trimming down the guest list just a bit! (But so far, we haven't had to!) So we called, and checked it out further, and now it is ours for the big day!

They have great bathrooms in the back, which we will close down just for the wedding party use before its time to walk down the aisle! With big mirrors and cozy places to sit!

 

The stage has plenty of room for my big wedding party!!

Our cake reception will be held downstairs in the fellowship hall, which isn't huge or anything great, but we'll do our best to spiff it up! :o) In the pic here, they are having after school care, so alot of things wouldn't actually be in the room!

 

I wish that I had more pictures of the outside of the church, which is absolutely gorgeous! There is even an ampitheater which could be used as a reception location (I'd use it, but in July it will be waaaay too hot outside!). And the railings around the church depict stories from the Bible, like Noah's Ark and Jonah and the whale! Super cute!! The staircases will also be fantastic for pictures!!

I can't wait!!!!!! :o)

 

Like Fine China

Most girl's dream about their wedding day practically from the moment they are born! I'm one of those girl's, but one who also dreamt of my own fine china some day! Silly, I know....but I have always loved looking in my mom's china cabinet and seeing all the beautiful things she has there from her own wedding. Her china is very basic and simple, but because so many of the accent pieces say my maiden name on them, I won't be the one inheriting her main set! I have however already staked my claim on a smaller set of dishes! Don't worry, my mom is well aware of it!!

So right after I got engaged, along with looking for a dress and locations and all those other things a girl needs, I started looking for China! This set above was one of the first ones I saw and quickly fell in love with!

Don't be shocked by the price!! This is a picture from Macy's. I ended up not registering there (awful customer service and there just wasn't a lot there I wanted!). Instead, I've registered for these at Bed, Bath, & Beyond where they are half the price at Macy's!! You know I love bargains like that!! (Plus, everyone can use those 20% off coupons we all get in the mail from BBB!!) I didn't even know that BBB carried china, since I'd never really looked, but as soon as we walked into the office they have to help you set up your registery, there they were! In pink...but I knew they just had to have the blue too!! It was a sign that I HAD to register there and HAD to get those plates!! I did spare Ray from having to eat off the pink ones though!

They are from Wedgewood China's Vera Wang Collection and is called Blue Duchesse. How elegant does that sound? And Vera Wang??!! Sweet!! It has just a tiny bit of blue around the edge of each piece. A very subtle way to show off my personality!

I also chose this individual plate from Waterford's Ballet Collection, which I LOVE, but I felt that the ballet loops on every piece would be a bit too overwhelming! This plate perfectly compliments the Vera Wang set!

 

I can't wait to have people over for dinner to serve them with my new fine china!! (And to have the time to actually cook dinner!!)

A place to call home!

(please excuse my reflection in the window!!)

We finally found a place for the Fiance and I to live!!! YAY!! We've been looking for quite awhile, but since we've been looking to rent a house or townhouse instead of an apartment, most places have said we have to wait closer to moving time to even look at anything. They want to turn them over fast!

It's not very big- 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath- but is perfect for our first place. It also means we'll have to get rid of a lot of stuff between my one bedroom apartment and his two, so that it will all fit! Along with all our new stuff!! But that is a GOOD thing! Garage sale time!! :o) I've already begun to create a pile of stuff to get rid of and have much more to add! I'll be selling most of my kitchen stuff to make room for all the new!!

It's super cute even though it's small! And Ray's enormous couch actually fits perfectly! That was a problem with several places we looked at!! And the stuff we've already registered for will fit/match great!!

Nice to have another thing checked off the list! He moves in a couple weeks and I'll start moving stuff in slowly! My lease runs up the end of July, so it's just about perfect! Now if only I was Genie and could snap my fingers and have all his stuff moved in an instant!

Shopping Tips for the Bride on a budget!

.....and everyone else too!! I often share about ways I save for the actual wedding, but decided to do a post on saving money otherwise! The fiance and I are on a tight budget- well, I've always been on a tight one with my meager teacher salary, but we especially are now with moving into a few home, extra wedding expenses, etc. So I'm doing whatever I can, to save wherever I can! Most of the time we eat dinner together. I hate cooking for one!! Although, lately I don't have a lot of time to cook, but we're trying to eat healthy! Too bad unhealthy food is so cheap!!

Here are some things I do to save!

#1 It PAYS to complain! 
   Recently, I've had bad experiences with a few products- a broccoli potato dish with no broccoli, crackers that tasted like a hardware store smells (wood and varnish! ew!), Oreo granola bars, so bad that I couldn't even finish the tiny thing...etc.
   I got online, shot off emails to all of the offending companies, and they were GREAT! They all sent back replies within a day or two saying that they would make it right! They all sent me coupons for FREE products! :o) Gotta love free! And it took me all of about 15 minutes to write the emails!
   Also, if something is wrong at a restaurant, your bill is marked incorrectly, your food isn't cooked right, TELL them!! As long as you tell them nicely, you'll either get it fixed or get something taken off the bill, etc! Once our bill was too much at Olive Garden and my grams had paid and didn't realize it until later. They mailed her TWO gift cards for $25!! Two because the first took so long to mail that she complained about that too! She, my mom, and I usually eat soup and salad at OG, so we ate like 3 times for free!! 
   Sometimes you might get nothing, but hey- it's worth a shot!

#2 It pays to compliment!
  There are several products that we've been eating a lot of lately, yet I can't seem to find any coupons or deals on them! I've only done this twice, but I again went to the website and complimented the products, asked where I could find coupons, and was sent coupons free products!! :o)



#3 Get the Sunday paper on Monday!
  The Sunday paper is very valuable for coupons! There are usually two fliers in each paper, but I often find that they "accidentally" put extra copies sometimes! Like this past Sunday, I had two of the same coupon sections and also two of several store fliers! Whoops! Yay for me! 
  I don't subscribe to our local paper, but I do usually pick the Sunday paper up in the store. To really get a good deal, you can buy it on Monday for just $1 at stores like Kroger! They keep the extra copies around until they sell out! Just don't wait too long into the week or they will be gone!



#4 Don't throw away all the ads you get in the mail!
   I used to immediately throw away all the ads until I discovered that sometimes there was the same coupon section as in the Sunday paper! Bonus copies if you get the paper! They aren't always there though, so you still might want the paper! You can also email the major coupon companies like SmartSource and Red Plumto get them at your house and visit their sites to print online coupons.

#5Join coupon websites like Couponmom.com and The Grocery Game
   Both are sites that match up coupons with sales at stores to get you the best bang for your buck. Coupon Mom is free and The Grocery Game is a paid for site, but it really is the better one! I've tried both and prefer The Grocery Game! The cost depends on how many stores you want lists for! I've already saved a LOT and stocked up on a lot of free deals! They even match up rebates at different stores, where sometimes by using a rebate and a coupon, I actually get paid to buy an item like a toothbrush or toothpaste! :o) It's a great way to stock up on essentials (can goods, toiletries, non-perishables, etc.). It was a little confusing at first, but I think I've got the hang of it and am saving a LOT!! :o)
   If you want to sign up, do it under me please! You earn free weeks with friend referrals! :o) Just let me know and I'll give you my email address to sign up under! It's my junk email address so you might not know it!

#6 Get frequent shopper cards at stores you visit often!
  Yes, all those little cards hanging off of your key chain can get annoying, but it really does help save you money! Kroger and CVS have some of the best deals! Kroger often takes $ off the end of your bill for buying a certain amount of products from a certain brand, and CVS prints out register rewards based on things you buy frequently and that's how they give you rebates too! So you can turn right around and buy something else!

#7 Shop the clearance aisle/end caps in stores!
  This is one of my favorite things to do in places like Target and Kohl's! I've found lots of great deals on things I need and lots of great deals on things I don't really need! Hehe!!

#8 Let's hear your tips.................

Little White Dress

 

That special dress is possibly the most important detail of a wedding! If I had all the money in the world, I would've picked a dress from Jasmine Bridal like one of these above! Most of us girlie brides had an idea of what we wanted in a dress loooong ago! Jasmine dresses were some of the first I fell in love with several years back while browsing through a friends bridal magazine.

It can also be a looooong and frustrating process for some people! I took the least frustrating route! (after a couple hit and misses at some stores that were too crazy to even try on!) And I am completely thrilled with the result!

I found my wedding dress a long time ago! It was the FIRST dress I'd ever tried on! You wouldn't even beleive me if I told you how much I paid for it! It definitely was a price a "Fabuless" bride would pay! HeHe! I plan on doing a post later about where I got it, but need some more pics from there first! The only pics I have right now are me in the dress and I am NOT posting those because I know that Mr. Fiance reads this every now and then!! (Hi, baby!)

My dress is WHITE....really WHITE!! It's what I've always wanted. I'm just not an ivory person! It's fine, I have nothing against it, but I just like white better!! I wear white in my everyday life more than ivory!

When I started my search, I already knew exactly where I WASN'T going to go! That big awful chain with the mean sales people! Yeah, you know what I'm talking about if you've ever been a bride or a bridesmaid! I've been in 10 weddings and had about half of my bridesmaid dresses from there. Dresses are fine, service is not!!

I headed out to several smaller places around town- which also equaled greater prices! My bridesmaid and long time friend Kelley was a HUGE help in this process! She knew I was on the hunt for a white dress, and so we went to a location with that color in the name...that's all I'll say!! We were overwhelmed with the bright wild colors and throngs of school girls looking for prom dresses at first, but glad to see the calm of the bridal room! There were LOTS of beautiful dresses, and many white ones among them! As we are looking at WHITE dresses.....one of the employees behind us, helping a bride is discussing the color of the dress the bride is trying on.

Bride- "Is an ivory color like this ok to wear?"
Sales attendant- "Oh yeah! Nooooo one wears white anymore! Ugh!"

I thought that Kelley might march over to the sales attendant to give her a piece of her mind! Couldn't she see that we were right there looking at white dresses??!!!

We didn't last much longer in the store. Especially after we were "caught" taking photos of dresses, which apparently there are signs everywhere saying that you can't!! We honestly  never saw a thing! How could we, with the millions of teenage girls milling about in the other room?! And hey, I could just go find the dress in a magazine or online anyways!

Needless to say, we left and never came back!! Even though I didn't want to spend a lot on a dress, if I'd found one I was in love with there, I would've bought it!! But then, they obviously didn't want to sell any white dresses! I think a name change is in order for them!

Ended up that my dress is actually FROM the warehouse store mentioned above. I simply bought it in a consignment shop and paid MUCH less and have no hassle to deal with!

Bottom line, it is YOUR wedding!! Wear whatever you want!! If you want a red dress....go for it!! I wouldn't, but I'm not about to tell someone else what's ok or not ok for their own wedding...Although if you are going for camouflage, I might just have to tell you how ridiculous you look....aka Redneck weddings.

I had a parent of a student tell me today, that if anything goes wrong at the wedding, or someone tells me that something isn't exactly perfect, to just say "I planned it that way." That way, if the bride planned it, no one can say anything about it! So if someone doesn't like the fact that I'm wearing a white dress because it's "not in style"....I planned it that way!!

Oh, and my dress has no train!! Guess what? I planned it that way!! :o)

Back to work!!

This weekend, I took a much needed break from wedding planning by visiting my former roommate and current maid of honor who's living in Chicago! We had a BLAST as my fiance is from Chicago, and we got to do lots of things he's missed doing. Namely....eating yummy food you can't find anywhere else!! Oh...and visiting his family!! I've met lots of his family down in Mexcio...but lots of them still live in Chicago! It was a lot of fun! Crazy, lots of people and trying to learn names and who belongs to who...but fun!!

We got to eat yummy deep-dish Chicago pizza at Gino's.....

along with lots of other food we won't be eating again for a long time with our diet restarting today! Like hot dogs, peanuts, nachos, Italian beef, Gyros, and stir-fry from Flat Top Grill.  

(across from Flat Top Grill, is Oprah's studio....had to take a pic for Grams!)

We also got to go to a Cubs game (can't you tell from the food listed above!), shop at H&M (one of my fave stores!), and just have lots of fun haning out with B and her man!!

So, now it's back to work in many ways....back to teaching (never really took a break from that since I don't teach on Mondays anyways!), back to blogging, and back to the wedding work! :o) Can I rewind the weekend and do it again?? (minus the extra calories, please!!)

Vacation time!! Chicago-Style!

The fiance and I are off on a MUCH needed break to visit my MOH in Chicago! (to try to talk her into moving back to Nashville sooner!! Hehe!)

I plan on doing NOTHING wedding related (except maybe looking for bridesmaid shoes), eating lots of yummy food that's really bad for my wedding diet, watching the Cubs play, learning how to play poker (yipes!), shopping in the city, and having a blast with my former roomie and our boys!!! I'm espeically looking forward to the plane ride- where Ray and I can have uninterrupted together time for a little while!! (That is if the airlines are still up and running!!!)

YAY!!!!!!! See you next week!!!!

RSVP fun!

We had our first RSVP to the wedding just the other day! Well, other than my parents who I actually RSVP'd online myself, just to see how it works! We'll be sending RSVP cards for our formal dinner invites for the wedding party and family (all the wedding party better RSVP YES!!), but everyone else we're having RSVP online through The Knot. This has been the bain of my exixtense lately! Not because of the difficulty of using The Knot's guestlist...it's pretty uncomplicated and gives you lots of options for sorting guests. But the gathering of info, addresses, spouses names, figuring out what all of Ray's families REAL names are.....it's been a mess!!

Ex- he tells me to invite his Uncles Chalo, Chuy, and Guero. I ask if any of those are their real names....Nope!! Rosalio, Jesus, and I forget the other are their real names!! Even he can't keep it straight!! Luckily, I have a future sister-in-law who has had the last 10 years to figure out her husband's family and she's a lot of help!!

But anyways, back to the first RSVP....I handed out Save the Dates to my 5th grade homeroom classes the other day, and one of them was the first to RSVP!! YAY!! :o) The reason I really want them to RSVP is so I know if there is room to invite any other students/former students! See.....currently I have about 120 students....and maybe about 50 more past students I'd love to invite....NOT gonna happen! I really wish it could but we're at a 350 max....and inching near 330 already and we're not even done!! YIPES!! :o)

I love my kids though!!! To make it easier (sort of!), I'm currently inviting my 27 homeroom students their siblings and moms (they are a FUN bunch!!) and all of the teachers/faculty and their kids that I teach....Whew! That's a lot! :o)  Wouldn't want it any other way though!! Especially when they are all going through this process with me and loving every moment of it!!

One of my 5th graders overheard me on the phone the other day with my principal who'd had to rearrange a meeting with me. (Wouldn't have been on the phone at school except she was supposed to BE here and obviously wasn't!!) He heard me saying ok, no problem and looking a little perplexed since I'd just run all over the school looking for her and then was surprised to see she was calling. When I hung up, he asked who I was talking to because he thought it was my fiance and we were breaking up. Apparently something in my conversation with her reminded him of how people look when they break up in the movies! HA!! I didn't think I was being that dramatic, and definitely wasn't that concerned over a meeting postponed...just a little confused!! :o)

Sooooo..............PLEASE send those RSVP's in!!!!!!!!! Or rather, get online and send them in!!! Later you can mail in the little ones if you haven't online already!! Nothing pleases a bride and groom more than hearing people say YES we are coming to celebrate with you!!! And YES you do need to RSVP....don't just assume we  know you are coming!!! :o)

And by the way...my students keep asking me now...."What exactly does RSVP mean??" I couldn't give them an answer! Until I looked it up and found this which says it is French (which I thought it did!!) "réspondez, s'il vous plaît" or "reply please!" Sounds better in Frech!!

The countdown is on!! Under 100 days to go!

T minus 100.........

 

Yipes!! When I look at it that way, I'M SCARED!!!!! There is still so much to do!!!!! Less than 100 days until the big day!!!!!

My to do list-

- Finish entering guest list on line
- Find guys' attire
- Order invites
- Decide cake design
- Bridesmaid dresses altered
- My dress altered
- Decide on reception food (the $11,000 proposal I got the other day is NOT ok!!!)
- Find more candy for candy buffet
- Move Ray into our new place....start moving some of my stuff in!
- Find shoes for flower girls
- Find shoes for bridesmaids
- Plan out of town baskets (we will have a LOT!)
- Think of more things to add to to-do list!!!

YIPES!!! :o) Everyone keeps telling me how much I have done....but there's still soooo much more to do!!!!! This is a full time job!! But worth every moment! (well, most moments!!)

My Bridal Luncheon Location!

The Savannah Tea Company

I love it when other blogs do vendor/venue spotlights! I love reading them to gather information on possible locations and to get ideas! I had such a great experience at a location the other day, that I just have to do my own Vendor spotlight!!

On Monday, my mom and I went to have lunch at the Savannah Tea Company to check it out for my bridal luncheon the week of my wedding! It's still a few months away, but we wanted to confirm that we'd really want it so that we could hold the date! We'll be taking over the whole place so we needed to make a decision soon. Almost as soon as we walked in and were greeted by Emily, the owner, our decision was already made! We absolutely adored EVERY second inside the tea house!!

It was the perfect time to go, as I'd been REALLY stressed out the day before and that morning, trying to get stuff done that just wasn't very much fun! We had a wonderful relaxing time- probably spending more time than we should've, but we were the only customers there after awhile, and the waitress and owner were just so helpful and nice that it was the kind of place you didn't want to leave!

When I was little, I used to make my mom have tea parties with me ALL the time! We'd have to dress up, put on make-up, and drink lots of the "finest" tea (really just plain old black tea!) from my cute little china cups. I often had a friend or two I could talk into doing it with me, but it was mostly my mom!

As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by the owner, Emily, who showed us around a bit (we told her we were there for lunch but also to check out the place for the bridal luncheon!). She went over the menu with us- which has an EXTENSIVE tea list!  I was slightly overwhelmed by the list, but Emily gave some great suggestions! I chose Pomegranate Rose hips (been on a pomegranate kick lately so I thought, why not?!). It was wooooonnnnderful! My mom tried the Chocolate Mint tea (sounds odd for tea....but wow!!!), and of course, I stole quite a bit of it!

For just $3.25 you get your own little pot of tea and you get to choose a tea cup off of the shelf.


This is the one I chose....It looked very cute and cozy and invited me to sip from it all day long! It reminded me of my childhood as well, since this light pink and green were my favorite colors to wear together for a long time!



It took us awhile to decide what to eat too, because of all the GREAT choices! They make all of their quiches, soups, muffins, scones, etc. fresh every day! Actually, they don't make scones every day because they are usually part of the special requests for light or full tea reservations. However....we REALLY wanted to try them- it's been ages since I've had a scone and the thought of that and clotted cream along with my tea was just irresistible! They whipped up a couple just for us, which was sooooo nice!

Uh....whooops! This is all that was left by the time I thought...I should take a picture. Mine was long gone, and this is all that was left of my mom's! Both Emily and Casey (our waitress, also WONDERFUL!) raved about the clotted cream and it was all true, so it went FAST!


They were YUMMY! The scones are in the shape of a teapot, and they also do PB&J sandwiches for kids in the shape of teapots- how cute!! They have a great kids lunch (less fussy stuff!) and a great "kid's" room as well.

This small room seats about 10 and is off of the main room (with seats for 20). It will be perfect for all the little flower girl's and junior bridesmaids to play "tea" in with the fancy hats, gloves and boas. I LOVE the poster of Scarlett and Rett! :o)




Most of the fun accesories hang on the wall, but there's also a shelf of goodies and a box full of fancy gloves!


And the cute main room, where the shelf of tea cups is located....


You can sort of see the gift shop- filled with tea pots and tea cups, of course, in the front, along with sample designs of the wedding cakes they also offer! I thought they looked familiar, then after talking with Emily realized I'd seen them at the bridal show at the Frist!

Our lunch order was fantastic as well! Every meal off the menu comes with fruit, muffins, and a frozen cranberry salad! YUM!!!! They have different soups, quiches, and sandwich specials, along with a few regulars. I tried the black forest ham and apricot preserve paninni- fantastic!! Along with a cup of chicken mushroom soup...again great! (you can see the muffin- ate one already- and cranberry salad on either side!)



Mom had the crustless asparagus and mushroom quiche along with vegetable tortellini soup. I, of course, snuck bites of both! Ok, so I asked, I didn't steal!:o)


They also do tea tastings, for larger parties. So that you can each get a different pots of tea and share and try them all out! I didn't think I would EVER run out of tea! That's partially why we stayed for so long and partially because it was just so great! I kept thinking I'd be at the bottom of the pot and on my last cup....and nope, there was still another, and another, and another....they'll give it to you to go if you have some left, but we wanted to stay and finish. And umm.....even though my mom got hers later than me (she waited until after we ate our main meal to order!), hers went faster, because I had to have some of hers too!!

I absolutely cannont wait to go back for my bridal luncheon- I might have to go back sooner! I can't say enough good things about the food, the place, and the people! We must've asked Emily AND Casey dozens of questions each and they were both willing to answer them all plus some! They were fantastic! If you live near Nashville, and haven't been- you should!!! I will be going again soon! Anyone want to come?!!

Someone really should bring tea time over here! I know it didn't exactly work the first time, but we're over all that Boston Tea mess right??!! :o)

The Registry Resolution!!

 it is!!!

After the Great Registry Debate I wrote about a couple weeks ago, I've finally come to a clear decision. I was trying to decide where else to register besides Bed Bath & Beyond  after realizing that Target just wasn't going to be the best place! We decided to go with a very limited selection of gifts at Target, get all we can from BBB and also add some things we couldn't find elsewhere from Kohl's. Of course, I LOVE Kohl's which you already know about if you've read any of my many posts about this..... 


(which by the way, I bought 4 more while registering- for our centerpieces!)

I think I'm pretty pleased with our decision. Ray has actually been a HUGE help in picking stuff out, and has come with me to almost all of my store visits to register!

We finally found some dishes that I love, which I am very excited about!! We decided to go with combining 2 sets...along with accent pieces from another...sounds a little confusing, but it combines my and Ray's favorite colors together- navy blue and aqua blue! I've already found lots of stuff to go with them!!

(these don't look as dark in person)



Along with accent plates like these


Super excited!! Now if I can only find some great pot holders and dish towels!

So our final decisions are BBB, Kohl's, Pampered Chef (for a shower), and Target with a few items and of course gift cards. We figured that might be a pretty good way to ensure that there is something near everyone!

I'm so excited to be able to actually own some good QUALITY kitchen stuff! Most of my glasses/ dishes are plastic, yard sale, hand me downs, or very cheap dishes, that are seeing the end of their days! YAY! :o)

I can't wait to start my new home with Ray.......and speaking of that....we're putting a deposit on a townhouse tomorrow- YAY!!! We found a huge condo in Bellvue today that we loved, but it's just too much for us right now (more as in the distance and amount of space because the price isn't bad!!), so we are going with a smaller, but nice townhouse. I looooooove the kitchen and can't wait to cook in it with all my new stuff!! :o)

The Organized Bride!

Between the chaos of my spring cleaning, finding a place for the fiance and I to call our new home, sending out Save the Dates, picking out patterns/buying material for flower girl and Jr. bridesmaid dresses, finding rehearsal dinner and bridal luncheon locations, registering for gifts, making up shower invite lists, AND all of my everyday normal life activities (which was already more than enough to handle!), school work, etc.....I've somehow become overwhelmed with papers, business cards, flyers, vendor info,  registry info......AH!!!

I had kind of a breakdown this weekend- it wasn't too bad (if you don't count the yelling at the fiance for no good reason!), but I had to remove myself from everything and everyone for one night and get CRAP DONE!! I am pleased to say that I feel pretty organized now! At least as far as my wedding information goes! Last week I bought some organizing stuff



and I finally finished putting it to use!! I'm so thrilled that I've gotten rid of a huge bag of unnecessary stuff and kept only the essentials!


I threw away the whole red bag of stuff, everything else fits in my cute Target file organizer!

I was so excited, I took a few minutes break to decorate the organizer!


I bought a great Martha Stewart Wedding Planner, but it's just too much for me (even though I do love me some Martha!)! I'm doing pretty well just using the file folder, and this blog is sort of a filing system for all my ideas too!! My agenda is my new best friend too, with all my to-do lists, calendar to kepe track of important dates (my list of important dates has more than tripled!), my addresses and MUCH more! I'd lose my mind if I lost it, I think!

The Knot has been a great place for me to organize my guest lists and my mom has been a HUGE help with that! I think she's on it more than me! :o)

So I'm getting organized but keeping it simple! At least for now!

And I feel sooooooooooo much better! I'm SO looking forward to Ray and I going to Chicago this next weekend to visit Bridget! I'll have three full days that I won't have to do a THING related to the wedding!! Just Cubs games, relaxing, and eating Chicago food!! I'm loving all this planning, but it does get overwhelming when you have more things to do than you have time! Thank GOODNESS I'm still over 3 months out! :o)

Yummy goodness!!! :o)

I love cupcakes....they make me think happy childhood thoughts, of birthday parties, and less stressful times!! One of the great things about being a teacher (great for the spirit, not for the waistline), is that almost any time a kid has a birthday- they bring cupcakes or other goodies for their class AND the teachers! :o) Even ones other than their homeroom teachers. I'm ever so happy to get a yummy homemade goodie- like the one I got on Wednesday- that had some of the best homemade chocolate icing I've ever had!!

For some reason, this has been the week of the cupcake for me!

Last week was my maid of honor, Bridget's birthday. We went out to lunch on Saturday along with Kelley, and I made our fave cupcakes from when B and I used to live together....I had a bit of a Martha Stewart moment and got creative with an icing tip and a Ziploc baggie! The strawberry cake with cream cheese icing was quite yummy!


These were ones I finished up after lunch, and I was running low on icing- hence the gaps! The others were better looking- except of course I smushed the one for the b-day girl on the way there. I also branded them with our initials....BSK, which stands for the name of our "band"- the Bull S*** Kittens! Hehe!

When I brought these leftover ones to my parents later that night....my mom said I should've been the one to make the cupcakes for my sis-in-law's baby shower the next day!! Oh well, they'd been ordered before I ever had a chance to try my hand at it myself! :o)

The one's for Lindsey's shower were quite cute too with the lifesaver/jelley belly pacifier's that my mom made on top! These were from Publix and were really good, we just wished we could've gotten a wrapper color other than yellow!



I'd wanted to get one of my friends to make the cupcakes, but she was out of town and we were too down to the last minute to special order them.....too bad I didn't read these next ideas from Ashley's Bride Guide until later in the week!!

I'd seen this cupcake place last Monday (also after the shower! gr!) and thought it looked really cute and was very tempted to stop....however at the beginning of the week I was keeping my diet- not so the rest of the week! I'll get back on track this coming week! A girl needs a break...oh about once a month!! Haha!

Ashley always finds the best stuff, and I wasn't surprised to see she'd found Gigi's!!


This kicks my cupcakes' rear ends! And those from Publix!! :o) Anyone up for heading to Gigi's Cupcakes with me?? :o)

As I'm finishing reading Ashley's post on Gigi's, I noticed the most beeeaaauuuttttiiiifffuuuulll cupcake I've ever seen to the side of the page (right under the blurb about myself- The Fabuless Bride, and Anna- Belle Bride)

Ok....my heart is fluttering with how in love I am with this cupcake as I'm about to post it!!
It's from Cake's by Shara- a local, whose stuff I've seen and tasted at a bridal show! Super yummy and cute!! This cupcake def should've been on display! It was one of the winner's of a Martha Stewart cupcake contest! And it's a beach themed cupcake!! I didn't know you could DO beach themed cupcakes!! How many more things that I love can you get into one small cupcake.....ta da!!!
(ok...thank GOODNESS for Wordpress having such a great auto save!! I'm not kidding....the moment I typed "ta da!!" my computer screen went dark...I thought the lights went out, turns out my laptop cord fell out- and of course my battery hasn't worked for months!! WHOOPS! But it was ALL here when I turned it back on!)
Sooooo...ta da here's my all time fave cupcake!!! (oh please don't turn off again!!)


I will be contacting Shara soon to get these babies! Not sure what for....I already have my cake, but somehow I HAVE to have them!!! :o)

Test your wedding etiquette IQ!

I was browsing around on The Knot (avoiding things I should've been doing!) last night and came across this Wedding Etiquette quiz! There are 8 questions.....I got 4 right/4 wrong....Does that mean I failed?? :o( I don't like to fail at quizzes or tests (I get to make kids fail now that I'm the teacher! Haha! Just kiddin!)!

I'm usually pretty aware of what wedding etiquette should be, and the ones I got wrong...my answer was pretty close to being right!!

Wedding etiquette/traditions I'm all for.........
- RSVPing!!! Why does no one do this anymore??!!! PLEASE DO IT!!! DO IT ALREADY!!!
- Keeping your registries off the invites!
- First Dances, Last Dances, Father/Daughter, Mother/Son dances
- Save the Dates
- Out of Town baskets
- Finding good deals for my wedding party, so I don't break their banks to marry me off!!
- Quickly writing thank-you notes

Wedding etiquette/traditions I know you should do...but I just don't get why it's important!!....
- Calligraphy on invites
- The inner envelopes on invites (who cares about either!!!)
- The bride side vs. groom side (we WON'T be doing this....my student's would overrun my side!)
- Smooshing the cake all over your new spouse's face (there will be war if Ray does this!)
- Tossing the bouquet (I caught one about 8 years ago as a bridesmaid! Was I next to get married??....NO!!)
- Dancing with the guy who caught the garter after catching the bouquet (Retarded! Of course, it was the guy who'd been tryin to hit on me all night......now he gets to go up my dress?? don't think so!!)
-Awkward moments of staring at each other while waiting for a song to end during the ceremony!
- Decorating the bride/groom's get-a-way car (I'm still finding things used for Kerri and Adam's cars stuffed in pockets, random places in suitcases, etc....)

Ok, so maybe there are more things I don't like, than things I do.......any wedding etiquitte or traditions that drive you crazy??!!

I love cheap, cute little gifts!

Now that all of my bridesmaids have received their little packages, I can blog about it! :o)

I prepared a little package with a few little gifts for all my girls, and included a letter with important wedding details and time lines. I LOVE all my girls, and don't know what I'd do with out any one of them! I'm so excited to have them all stand by me on my big day!! I always wondered what I would do after having been in TEN weddings as a bridesmaid, but they've all made it pretty easy for me! There was no question when it came down to it, of who I wanted standing by me on that big day!!

I've been collecting LOTS of stuff for my girls-- some of which I won't mention here since they won't get them for awhile, but I will tell you where I'm picking up some of it! :o)

This is what I included in the package I just sent them all!


I got some fun stamps at  The Dollar Tree which I used to decorate the envelopes that I put the letters in and also the outside packaging, the cute paper was also from The Dollar Tree, left over from my letters to my 5th grade students last year. I got nail files (regular and matchbook style) and bridesmaid luggage tags at JoAnn's (which I got way back, but saw them today when I was there!), Cocktails for Dummies from Target (so much fun and Linda's fave gift!),  and also included my Save the Date magnets.

I've gotten lots of other stuff for them at Michael's (the same day I got the stuff for the kid's table), Target's One Spot Section, more stuff from JoAnn's, and much more!! And stuff for my flower girl's too!

Speaking of those places, I've also bought some stuff lately to help keep me organized! I found lately I can't have enough notepads, sticky notes and file organizers! I've always loved sticky notes for school, but I find myself using them all over the place to write small to-do lists or important reminders! There is SOOO much to do, it's impossible to keep up with it all!

Here's some stuff I've gotten recently...


The striped file folder and adorable citronella candles (for me, not oranizing!) for $2.50 from Target's spot section. Everything else is from JoAnn's - they have $1 items in the front by the checkout, and by fabrics. I got black and pink file organizers and labels, note pad, sticky notes, and cute little blue emery boards.

Kerri says I'll buy anything if it's a dollar.....not true, I've learned to pick the good stuff out, but you are way more likely to see me spend $30 on 30 things, than $30 on one thing!! :o) And why not with all the cute stuff out there!!

Speaking of Target and my current love/hate relationship (love shopping there, hating registering there and about to take it down!), if you've never seen this site, it is a must for Target lovers!!  Great blog-- Slave to Target

These shoes were made for walking!

I've written before about needing comfy shoes or flip flops for my wedding! Now, I'm not so sure about the shoes I've picked out....



They are very comfy...pretty cute.....but are they wedding dress cute?? I'm not so sure!

I've mentioned this before, but I have feet issues!! After dealing with 2 injuries to the same foot last year, I'm not back into the groove of wearing heels yet! Until yesterday that is!! I decided it was time to bite the bullet and start wearing some of the shoes I love so much!! 



I wore these Mossimo shoes from Target the ENTIRE day yesterday! Through chapel, teaching 4 classes,  grocery store during lunch break, shopping at Target, a meeting, AND going out to dinner!! They were on my feet from 8am until 9pm! I have to say.....I was impressed with my little feet!! (I know! Some of you women are thinking- That's NOTHING! The heels on my fave shoes are 5 in. high!! Well, for me, this is a big deal!! :o) )

The odd thing is, that my injured foot seems to have gotten bigger! So the shoes were a little tighter on that foot, but not unbearable and not uncomfortable! That's just a weird fact I've notices lately!!

So while this isn't making  me think I want to wear a small heel for the wedding...it is making me think my shoes I've picked out are now too practical!! So the search is still on....