Details

I love it when I find details in purple and orange!

Postal Frustration

I am slightly frustrated at the post office. I need to put the postage on my RSVPs before I am able to assemble them and seal them in the envelopes. I picked postcard RSVPs so that we wouldn't have to pay for full postage. On May 11th the postage rates are changing. So I need the new stamps so that when people mail their RSVPs they actually make it back to me. Unfortunately no post office carries them yet. I called multiple post offices today and no one knows when they will be carrying it either. So for now my invitations have been stunted until I can track down the new postcard stamps. O well.

Spring

It has been officially Spring for awhile now but here in Cincinnati we have had some seasonably cool weather lately. But today it is sunny and warm again! Since I love fresh flowers the arrival of Spring is very exciting. Everyone has been posting pictures of all the fresh new blooms. Today I am going to leave with you some ranunculus which will be incorporated into my bouquet and the bloom for Andy's bout.

Letting Go

Currently I am in the process of learning how to let go. I am a detail oriented, high strung, perfectionist. So this whole letting go thing hasn't been easy but I am really trying.

Most recently I let go of having envelope liners. I fully intended to do this all along but I never could quite find what I wanted and now have run out of time. Additionally I let go of picking out flower girl dresses. Actually I was happy to hand this task off to Andy's sister-in-law and mother of our flower girls, it took another item off my plate that I didn't have to worry about.

The newest item I am learning to let go of is the calligraphy on our invitation envelopes. My mother is completing them and doing a great job. But she isn't a professional and they aren't perfect. The perfectionist in me is having a difficult time with this.

It is so easy in the beginning of the planning process to create a vision and to get so focused on that vision you can't see beyond it. But now we are in the last three months and it is time to either get it done or not do it at all.

The reality is I don't have the time to do it all myself or the money to hire people. And while it can be disappointing to sweep some things off my list at the end of the day it won't matter. Because despite if the flowers never make it, or the cake flavors are wrong, I will still be getting married. That's really all that's important. Life will move on and no one will remember if the details were perfect and it won't matter, not even to me. So I'm learning to let go and I'm happy to do so.

Honeymoon, Check

I am excited to say we finally booked our honeymoon! As many of you know our honeymoon ideas have been constantly changing. Our last idea was New York City, my all time favorite place in the world! My heart was set on New York City. But life has changed and we had to change our plans accordingly.

Ultimately we decided with all the ongoings and planning of the wedding we wouldn't get to fully plan and enjoy a big trip. Additionally with the expenses of the wedding, buying a home, me still looking for a job, and the unstable economy paying for a huge honeymoon wasn't the smartest decision. We are hoping to enjoy the New York City trip as an anniversary get away a few years down the

So where are we going? Asheville, North Carolina. Asheville is only 6 hours away from Cincinnati making the travel there economical on one tank of gas. Asheville is supposed to be a cute town with an artsy vibe and good night life. During the day there are lots of outdoor activities such as hiking. The big attraction is the Biltmore Estate. The house looks gorgeous with beautiful gardens and the part we are most looking forward to is the winery.

We have booked a four day, three night trip at a local Bed and Breakfast. The B&B is within walking distance of downtown so that we can take advantage of the night life. During the day it is a short drive to the Biltmore or other outside activities. We are looking forward to sleeping in, waking up to a three course gourmet breakfast, the wine and cheese social hour everyday, and just spending time together relaxing. For us it's the perfect mix of relaxing day activities and a vibrant town with nightlife.

This is the Biltmore Estate. See the tour van/bus on the left hand side and how tiny it looks next to the house.

Nightlife in Asheville

To check out more about Asheville or the Biltmore go to these two places: http://www.biltmore.com/ and http://www.exploreasheville.com/

Help Wanted

This week has been a very productive week but I couldn't have done it with out the help of my sister. She was home every night to help with whatever project I had and was willing to deal with my controlling, anal retentive tendencies. Today she is officially leaving town and moving to Indianapolis where she bought a house with her fiance. I am definitely going to miss the free labor but mostly I am going to miss her.

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING TIFFANY, LOVE YOU!

The Dress Is In

My dress is in and I picked it up today! I was slightly frustrated at the bridal store because they never called me to come pick it up and when I called earlier this week they said it has been in for awhile now. O well.

At first when I put the dress on I was slightly disappointed. It didn't look the same as I remembered and I felt I looked worse in it. But that was because it was too big since I have lost a good amount of weight! Once they pulled it tight around me to show what the alterations would look like it all came flooding back and I loved it again. Needless to say the problem of having it be too big is a problem I am very happy to have!

I tried on my veil I made the other night and we have decided to shorten it. I am going to shorten it to a waltz length which is right around the knees just past the fingertips.

Picking up the dress makes it all very real and is getting me excited. For so long the wedding has been months and months away. Now it's actually coming up soon!

Ribbons

Today was all about ribbons. I went to two different JoAnn Fabrics to track down more spools of the 1.5 inch, orange, satin ribbon since my local store was out. Unfortunately after I cut the ribbon I am still three short so I will have to go track down one more spool.

Today's project was the most tedious thus far. We folded them so that when the ends are secured under the square tag they taper in. I thought this looked a little bit more elegant or fancier than just attaching the ribbon flat. If you remember from the trial run the ribbons will look similar to this:

It was important to be precise so that the folds on each side of the taper are equal and that the dip in the middle is actually in the middle and not off-centered. Overall this part took around 3 hours with the help of my sister. Sure it could have been much worse, but again it was just tedious.

Here are all the folded ribbons ready to be attached.

Productivity

Today was another productive day! This week is Spring Break and I am trying to use my time off to get as many projects done as possible. I had a meeting with the florist to finalize the flowers. We will be using a mixture of ranunculus, roses, spray roses, and mini gerber daisies.

I also made my veil! I am very excited about this because I wasn't sure if it would work out. The veil is exactly what I want and I spent about $5 in supplies. One reason for making my veil was that I wasn't sure what length or style I wanted. When I pick my dress up on Thursday I will be able to try the veil on with the dress and make the adjustments based on how the 2 go together. I will post pictures once I have the final product.

Invitation Progress

Today I may significant invitation progress. I was able to score and fold all of the purple cardstock to make the gatefolds. Then later in the evening Tiffany and I adhered all of the invites to the gatefolds. I would say the scoring and folding took about 2.5-3 hours total but that was doing it by myself since I only had one scorer and at different intervals during the day. It took the two of us about 1 hour to adhere the invites to the cardstock. The project really ended up being painless and much easier than I had anticipated. Here is hoping the next step of cutting and folding the ribbons is just as easy.

Here they are waiting for the next step in the process and below is us working on them.

Registering

One of the things I have been doing recently is working on getting Registered. I thought registering would be a lot of fun and while it has been fun it has also been a bit stressful. Essentially we need everything because everything we currently own was bought during our college days when we got whatever was cheapest and it since has taken a beating throughout those years.

Registering has been fun because you get to pick out all the things you want. For once I will have matching plates, silverware, towels, etc, and it will be glorious! I am going to actually feel like a full blown adult. Registering is stressful because I need to make sure to register for all the things I need and not put too many wants in there so I get all the things I need first. Also trying to pick out a plate design that is going to stand the test of time isn't easy. I don't want just plain white plates, that's boring. But I also don't want to buy a fun design and then in 2 years regret that decision when the style is out. I think today I finally got it all worked out but I am sure next week I will again change my mind about which plate style I want for the next 10 years :)

Bridesmaid Fitting #1

Today my sister, one of her bridesmaids, and I went to the seamstress that I commissioned for my bridesmaid dresses to create her bridesmaid dresses. After the whole experience of searching and searching for my wedding and finding nothing Tiffany decided to skip that step and just have what she wanted made. This process was actually quite enjoyable. In an hour we picked the fabric we liked, the style that would best suit our bodies, had our measurements taken and then left. It was painless and easy, all dress shopping should be this way.

Tiffany also tried on the dress that is being made for my wedding. It was still a work in progress and needed a few adjustments to the style but I think it is going to work out great. We go back in a month with all of my bridesmaids for a fitting and hopefully at that point only minor sizing adjustments will have to be made.

100 Days!

The wedding is only 100 days away! While 100 days is still a long time considering I started with over 400 I would say we are really getting close. The wedding will be here before I know it and not soon enough.

During my last 100 days before the wedding I hope to be more present since my blogging has been really slacking. However there has been a really good excuse: house hunting. Andy and I spent the last month looking at many apartments and homes trying to find a place to live once we are married. We recently found the perfect place for us and bought it last week! So needless to say I have had my plate full but see the clouds soon clearing.

Since we are so close there are going to be many updates and details coming very soon!