Decor HALP!

Ladies, I need your assisstance! I booked a wedding package through my ceremony/reception site based on a preliminary guest list of 60 people. The package was for 50, so the extra 10 were not going to add up to that much more. Sadly, our preliminary guest was horribly wrong and our invite list finalized at 115. Because of that, everything based on guest number has doubled in cost (cake, centerpieces, food, etc.)

The way the package works is that there is a set amount of money alotted to every vendor. The florist is where I'm having trouble. We were just about $100 over our allotment with the origional guest count, but now with double the centerpieces we're $800 over. I'm thinking about cutting one my favorite decor items, smilax branches with white Christmas lights strung through the rafters of my reception site, to shave $650 off the cost. I may hang colored paper laterns instead, but I wouldn't have the florist do this as the laterns are insanely expensive through her.

What do you think? Am I really going to care about the lighting after all is said and done? I LOVE my ceremony and reception site and all of my vendors, and I am so excited to be marrying my high school sweetheart. Should I just forgot that one thing and move on? I'm trying very hard not to put money and "things" over the point of the whole wedding! Or should I stick to what I love and deal with the expense?

Thanks so much in advance for your advice!

P.S. Nope, I can't cut the guest list. My fiancee and I have talked about the increased cost with the doubled list, and our parents have decided that redoing the budget and spending more was worth it to them to be able to invite everyone we truly want to. I'm just trying to decide if this part of the cost is worth increasing the budget over.

(x-posted to the wedding bee boards)

Regarding the ring, Part I

There's a bit of an interesting story behind my engagement ring. Kyle and I have been together for seven years. We started dating when I was 16 and he was 15, my sophomore and his freshman year of high school. Neither of us had ever dated before. Initially, we only dated for three months. I broke up with him (over email- sorry honey!) the summer after that school year because I didn't think he was mature enough (at 16, I was simply rife with maturity). However, when the new school year started, I realized that I still "liked" him. So after three months of dating followed by three months of not dating, we started dating again! Though we have had two near break-ups twice since then, we eventually both matured enough to realize that we did indeed love each other tremendously and possibly even wanted to spend out lives together. This was a difficult realization for both of us, being so young and never having dated anyone else. Not long after we started college and transitioned into a long-distance relationship, Kyle began looking into joining the Navy. The program he wanted to do was located in Charleston, SC. We were currently only about 90 minutes apart in Florida, and the prospect of being 8 hours apart was to much for both of us. I told him that I would move for him IF there was a good nursing school near his progam. We were both 19 at this point, and I was terrified to commit to moving away from everyone and everything important to me for my high school sweetheart- and we weren't engaged!
So we started casually looking for an engagment ring. I found a good nursing school in Charleston. Plans began to brew.

Girls just wanna have fun!

After my hellish work week, I was so glad to fly home to Florida to spend some quality time with my mom and my two bridesmaids. My mom picked me up at the airport on Friday night and we spend the next few hours drinking coffee (we're both addicted) and talking about the wedding. Saturday I got up early, picked up the girls, and we headed out for our day of fun! We split breakfast at Simply Delicious, a tiny and aptly named restaurant in Cocoa Beach. We then drove to Orlando and hit David's Bridal, where I found the bridesmiad dress I'll be wearing to my MOH's wedding. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything I liked for my wedding. We headed to the Florida Mall with the goal of hitting the major department stores for dresses with wear-again ability. Instead, we found a whole host of ugly. Witness:





Lush was offering free facials, so Kalen and I partook while Abby wandered into Pottery Barn. Aren't we lovely?





That's me looking like a legless midget on the left.

We popped in New York and Co. and I unexpectedly found reception shoes! These beauties were only $9.99, they are the exact color of my dress, and they are comfortable! I am a flip-flop girl at heart, so I'm busting out of the heel after the ceremony is done.



Then I went to Nordstrom's for a make-over. After much painful deliberation, I've decided to do my own make-up (more on that later). The make-up looks at Bobbi Brown looked the most like what I wanted, so I plopped down while Abby documented and Kalen offered thumbs up or down as each new layer was applied. I will post a whole entry about the make-over soon. Overall, I was very pleased with the look and the customer service. I definitely want to kick it up a notch for the wedding, but this was a great start. And I bought some rocking eyeliner! I never like the way eyeliner looks or feels on me, but I love this stuff. It's a purpley-brown color, it feels light, it applies easily, AND it doesn't budge without make-up remover (a must as I know I will cry on the big day!).

When we got home, I tried on my dress (with the veil, headband/tiara, and flip-flops) for the maids and they and my mom. They all teared up! I don't have dress pics yet, but I will post some when I get fitted. The conclusion to the bridesmaids dress saga is that we will be ordering them online, which is yet another post to write!

How have you celebrated with your maids?

Shift Work

Sorry for the long absense- I have the worst work schedule this week! I work three 12-hour night shifts a week. I like to work them back-to-back because I lose so much more time working nightshift- I have to sleep the day before and the day after my shifts. A lot of people don't understand that when you work nightshift, everything you do revolves around when you can sleep. It's also more difficult to sleep during the day because of the expense and difficulty of keeping your bedroom cool and dark, especially when it's 100 degrees outside! I worked the last 3 nights- Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and yesterday I came down with a yucky cold. I have tonight off (Sunday), then I'm working Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday! It's a crappy scheduling fluke that this happened, and I'm going to pay for it by the end of that 6th night! But the good news is...

I'm flying to Florida for a weekend with my bridesmaids this Friday!!!
I haven't seen either of my bridesmaids for months, and I miss them both dearly! We're planning on spending Saturday together shopping for the perfect BM dresses for them AND me- because my MOH (I'll be her Matron) is getting married 6 weeks after me! We're going to the Florida Mall in Orlando, as well a few local places in the county we all grew up in. We're going to have lunch and dinner together and hopefully have a really fun day. To keep you entertained until then (because I probably won't post again until laster this week) I present the BM dress gallery!


(Images courtesy of The Dessy Group)

There are the top contenders right now because they come in 2 shades of purple (which is the color I may want to use), are less than $150, and coordinate well without being matchy-matchy.

The dresses below I LOVE, but they are either too expensive, too impractical, or both. However, they inspire me and I would love to find similar options on our trip.
(Images courtesy of brides.com unless otherwise noted)




(Image courtesy of Ann Taylor)











Did you have a difficult time choosing your dresses? How did you pick them? How much did your maids have to shell out?

Stress? What stress?

I am prone to anxiety. I have never had a full-fledged anxiety attack, but my anxiety usually manifests itself in much subtler ways. When things start getting harry or hectic, I start crawling inside myself. I don't like to show my anxiety, or any "negative" emotion for that matter, to other people. The last few months of my life have been very stressful. In less than six months, my best friend got engaged, I got enagaged, I graduated from college, all of my friends moved to other states, I got my nursing liscense, I started my first real job, and I started working nightshift. I LOVE my job as a labor and delivery nurse, and I can't imagine doing anything else. But being a new nurse is also terrifying, because people's lives are literally in your hands. I'm very excited for my best friend, but she's my Maid of Honor and five weeks my wedding it's my turn as her Matron of Honor! I am having fun planning my wedding, but as anyone planning a wedding can attest to, it can get stressful! Between all this, as well as just being a financially independent grown-up for the first time ever, I've been a little anxious!

So I decided it was time for a hobby. My only requirements were that it be something to get me off my butt, something friendly to beginngers, and something fun! I googled around for adult rec teams in Charleston to no avail. Then I stumbled upon my asnwer: ROLLER DERBY!!! Roller derby has changed a bit since the 1980's fake wrestling style show, though it still has some of that element to it. By some incredible stroke of luck, there is a brand new team starting up here in Charleston, and they are welcoming people with no experience (and by no experience, I mean I haven't been on skates in over a decade). I went to a practice to watch and decided it looked as awesome as I hoped, so I took the plunge and ordered skates and pads! I am very shaky on the skates, but I can already feel it coming back to me (I skated a lot when I was a kid). Making the evening practices will be a challange because I work nights, but I'm pumped about starting a new hobby AND being more active.

Have you started or reignited a passion for a hobby since getting engaged? What do you do for your "me time?"

The Rack, Part II

A few days ago I posted about my Rack, and the struggle I was having with finding a strapless ANYTHING to wear with my dress. I bought this bra:


even though I knew it was the wrong size. I was hoping that if I bought a large band size that the cup size would be big enough. I planned to tailor the band down. However, the cups did not come close to fitting, and the wires bent as soon as I moved in it. I knew I would need more support on the big day, so I bit the bullet and ordered this instead:



A custom-made, champagne-colored cotton strapless longline bra. For a mere $200. I subittted my order with the myriad measurements needed, and hopefully in 12 weeks or so I will have a supportive and comfortable bra to go with my dress.

Has anyone else has lingerie issues? How have you fixed yours?

Save the Date!

I actually mailed these out in March, but I decided to write about my experience with the service I used to create and send my save-the-dates. I decided early on to send save-the-dates because ALL of our guests are coming from out-of-state. I really liked the idea of sending postcards, both for th novelty feel and the cost savings. My future SIL told me to check the USPS personalized postcard website, where I set about making my STD's. The website was fairly user-friendly, though the username and password had irritatingly strict standards. They allow you to use one of their preset designs or to upload your own. I wanted a somewhat more unique design than what the website offered, but every time I tried to upload anything the DPI was inadequate. Because I was too lazy to figure out how to fix that (and too frustrated with my lack of design skill), I ended up going with this standard but still lovely design:



I like the fact that it is fall-themed and coordinates with our colors, so I added our date to the front and made the back a bit more modern-looking:



Overall, I'm happy with how they turned out. The entire process- design, product, and postage for 53 postcards- was a total of about $75.00. When ours came in the mail, I was surprised at how large it was- but it's my own fault for not actually blocking out the measurement (I'm not a spatial person- I can't see these things in my head!). I was also frustrated with how long it took for all the postcards to be mailed- a guest in Sau Paulo, Brazil received theirs before our in-laws in Florida did! It took about a month before everyone had their card. I was billed by "Amazing Mail, Inc." which is apparently the company the USPS uses for this service. Iw ould recommend this route to anyone who is uncomfortable with DIY design but also wants to save money. Otherwise, I would say to look elsewhere.

What did you do for your STD's? Were you happy with the amount of money you spent on them?