Picture of my Boarding Pass AHR Invites

Here's a mock up of my Boarding Pass AHR Invites. There will be three boarding passes in each. The first one says that "We're Married", the second is the actual invitation to the AHR and the third one is the RSVP. :) Yay! The only change I'm going to make to them are maybe, maybe, inserting my new wonderful monogram that a fellow DW Knottie has made for me. (there was a little typo in it, so she's fixing it for me). Tell me what you guys think!!!!! Here's a picture of the Monogram........

AHR Boarding Pass Invites!!!

So, here it is.... a picture of my AHR Boarding Pass Invites... Yes, it's a little blurry.. but that's because I scanned them. I still have to cut them out and put them together. Actually, I already did one mock up complete packet. I did the ticket jacket as well. I haven't figured out what, if anything, I'm going to print on the outside of the jackets, or how to seal them shut. Not quite sure yet. :)

Anyway, once I do one completely, I'll take a picture of it all and post it here for you all to take a look at! Yay for me!

New AHR Invites

So, I've been debating the last couple of weeks whether or not to switch up my AHR invites. Well, today, I created my Boarding Pass Invites. Woot woot! I don't have a "picture" of them yet, but I do have them in a Word Document! So, if ya want to see them before I post the photo's here, just shoot me an email and I'll be more than happy to send them to you! :)

I'm actually pretty excited about them! I know they're just a rough draft of the actual ones, so it's kind of rough around the edges, but I like them. Not too fancy or elegant, but yet not over the top casual. Yay!

T minus 235 Days

Oh yes! We're at 235 until the big day! Woot woot! I am very motivated this morning as I have joined a new on line site that will help me reach my weight loss goal! Not only does it track my weight loss, but it helps me with my nutrition ~ calorie intake, as well as fitness! I love it!

I'm going to make it a priority to work out at least 4 days a week, but my goal is 5 days. I'm taking baby steps right now, but can't wait until I break out in a full on sprint! Yay!

I purchased the additional vellum paper that I needed to print my MIB invite inserts. Once I get those all printed up, I can actually put together the actual MIB's. Brian is insisting that I have a get together with a couple of gals over here to help with it making the MIB Invites. He says it would be a fun time for us girls! I think he just wants to get out of having to do them! :)

My latest DIY project is the Photo Frame Card Box. I have the step by step instructions on how to make one, I just need to get all the material now. I went to Michaels yesterday, but didn't get any of the frames. Today I'll look at getting the hardware from Home Depot... (the L brackets, etc.)

I am really thinking about changing up on my AHR invites. At first I wanted to keep them really simple, but now I want to do something creative to keep up with the uniqueness of the MIB invites. I am leaning towards the Boarding Pass option, but not sure yet. I know they are very time consuming so am I ready for that? You would think since I'm home all day during the day I'd have time to tackle that huh? Well, we shall see!

Ohhh! Good news! Brian's niece plays the flute.. she plays it rather well. She's participated in some local orchestra's, etc. and we asked her if she'd be willing to play for our ceremony. She agreed! Wow! Now I have to find some music for her and she'll practice, practice, practice! Yay! I'm excited.

Woo hoo!

Ceremony wording CHECK!!!!

I have finally completed my ceremony wording for our officiant. I looked through tons of different ones and kinda picked and chose different wording from each and created one that I think will be perfect for us. We are incorporating the Wine and Chocolate ceremony as well as a Sand Ceremony into the wedding so it's gonna be awesome!

We also confirmed with Brian's niece, and she will be playing her flute during the ceremony!!! Yay! I'm not sure yet exactly in what aspect we will use her, I'm just grateful and honored that she will be playing in the ceremony! I was thinking maybe she could provide the music as we're walking down the aisle......not quite sure yet. That's next on my list of to do's! :)

My next DIY goal is to make a photo frame card box. I got the step by step instructions from a fellow bride to be on Project Wedding, so wish me luck! :) It requires a drill, so this could be fun! I'll have to post pictures when I'm done!

DW Fitness Challenge!!

Kinda wedding related ~ So the ladies on the DW Board have come up with a DW Fitness Challenge. We will be doing weekly challenges and have created a little Icon that the winner will be allowed to post in her Siggy on the DW Board. Here's a sneak peek:

We will be focusing on accountability and motivating more than anything! We will be tracking weight loss along with inches lost. Yay!

I can't wait for this! This is exactly what I need to get my butt in shape and to make sure I still fit into my dress!!!!

Another day!!!

I am so glad that last week is done and over with. I haven't had much time to do anything wedding related to OUR wedding, but here on out I am going to focus on accomplishing one thing a day! Whether it be just coming to a decision or actually physically creating something that will be used in the wedding at some point!

We went to a wedding this weekend, (a wedding that I coordinated). There is so much that the bride did that I would do different, and on the other side of the spectrum, I think I came away with a couple of different ideas that I will keep in the back of my mind for our wedding.

I am just under the 8 month mark, so I need to get the bigger and important things completed. Or things that will take a while to complete. I am in the process on working on my vows. Brian decided a while back that he'd like for us to write our own vows.

I have finally completed our ceremony wording and I'm pleased. I have to email it to our officiant and see what she thinks. She happens to be a friend of ours and a co-worker of Brian's so she'll definitely tell me if it's too corny! :)

Since our AHR in Minnesota will also be a celebration of Brian's 50th birthday, I want to make sure I include something special in the theme. He doesn't want to focus on the fact that it's his birthday, but he does want to celebrate it as well.

Any suggestions would be wonderful!!

Also, since I was a bad girl last month and slacked off with my work outs, I am going to be disiplined to start in September! That's right. No slacking off and I'm going to be serious about it! *keeping fingers crossed*

T minus 8 months

I know I've been slacking with regard to journaling my wedding planning. However, I must admit, I haven't been doing anything constructive. My time has been utilized by doing a whole hell of alot of nothing!!! I need to get cracking though because it's only 8 MONTHS before our wedding day! Which means it's actually less than that before we leave for our cruise!!!!!

This is what I've got to do, and soon I might add, for the ceremony still:

1) Determine whether or not we're going to have an arch. Brian is of the mind that we WILL. And if so, we need to figure out how we're going to do that. ie: do we purchase one from Michaels, carry it on board and the morning of, we put it together on the beach.

2) Assuming that we do have the arch, we're going to decide on how we're going to decorate it.

3) We need to determine how we're going to have the ceremony music played during the ceremony. Some suggested an IPOD. Sounds good, but do we hook it up to portable speakers? Does it require any electricity? How or what do we plug it into if so?

4) Chairs.... Chairs are the hum dinger!!! Do we pay the $200 to rent 20 chairs from a local vendor? That is the minimum..... 20 chairs.... $200....... $10 per chair. I can't justify spending $200 for 20 chairs when in all honesty only 8 at the most are going to be used..... AND, just for a 15 minute ceremony... on the beach..... okay... 20 minutes tops!

5) Aisle runner or not? If so, just a plain white runner? If not, how do we decorate the aisle? Flower garlands?????

THEN, we have the AHR's to think of. Thank goodness the venues for both states have been secured.

Here's the priority for the California reception (which by the way is first):

1) Food!!! I want to do heavy appetizers / finger foods and cocktails. HOWEVER, we're planning on having a 2:00 reception...... so......... will people be expecting some kind of dinner around 5 or so?????? Not if I specify on the AHR invite that it's "Cocktails and Hors 'de voure" right? Or in the alternative, just serve hors 'de voures early on, and the heavier ones later? Hmmmmm.

Yikes....... HELP!!!!!!

Holy Moly!!!

We are truly blessed with so many friends and family that support our relationship! I continued to be blown away every day by the amount of people who are booking their cabins to join us on our wedding cruise!!! Wow!!! We now have over 30 people attending (as of right now) which is way more than we even thought. We have maybe 10 more who assure us that they will be there as well, so all I can say is WOW!!!

I haven't really been doing to much wedding related, but will definitely get back in the groove of things in the next couple of days or so. I just needed to take a little breather ~ not to mention we went on vacation last week. Had an awesome time by the way!

Here's a picture of my fabulous honey with a bag full of sand from Stinson Beach. Yes, this sand will be used in our Message in a Bottle invites! :)



He's such a good sport in all of this! I couldn't ask for a better person to be my best friend!!!

I'll be posting a list of all my "to do's" that I have left. It'll help me prioritize what I want versus what I need. :)

NOT WEDDING RELATED

This entry is about me, about my life, and about what I'm just now learning about my life. It is nothing wedding related whatsoever, but this is something I have to blog.

As far as life is concerned, mine is good. Not WONDERFUL, not AMAZING, but just GOOD. I am so happy to have found a wonderful, loving, caring and understanding best friend to share my life with, and in that aspect, I am ESTATIC. Other things really bother me though. My relationship with my sister for one. I just don't understand her. I mean she is who she is and I've accepted that, but she's supposed to be my sister. We don't have that sisterly bond at all. She's done so much stuff, and I mean BAD stuff to me in our lives that I just can't have her in my life anymore. I just absolutely can't. It is soooooooo sad and heartbreakig that I have to deal with it in that manner, but I've got to. I can't continue to let her bring me down. I don't think I can honestly and truly "forgive" her for our mom's passing away (long story) but ultimately, if she would have done what she needed to to, then I firmly believe that mom would have still been alive. I've not forgiven her for the stunt she pulled which caused me to miss my own mother's furneral. That, I will NEVER forgive her for. But, everyone, and I mean absolutely everyone kept telling me that it was time to get over it... "she's your sister" they said.. "she's all you have left"... I have my dad.. I have my brother.. I have my children.. I have my friends. So, no, she is not all I have left.

I am just now learning at the ripe old age of 41, that I have BOUNDRIES. I am lucky enough in my life to have a wonderful and dear friend (who've I was once extremely close with but since she moved out of state, over the years we kinda just ended up continuing to stay in touch every once in a great while). She knew me pretty darn good, probably the best anyone ever has. She tried to teach me that I have the right to say "no" to people. We worked so hard for me to be a strong person for myslef and to stop being so giving to others. That is was okay to say no. You see, I have a hard time letting people down.... I have a hard time saying no to them. This friend, whom I just spoke to yesterday after a long period of time not having contact with her, told me in our conversation... "Michele, you are such a loving and giving person. You always give with 100% of your heart, but you never think about your own feelings."

I have been reading the book "Boundries" and I am learning what they mean from a life's perspective. What an eye opener. I am still reading and still learning, but let me tell you, I am going to be a better person when I'm done! I'm learning that I can't associate with the people who have a negative impact on my life. Unfortunately in my case, one of those people is my sister. I love her dearly, but I can not and will not continue to let her use me, abuse me emotionally, or put me down in any way, shape or form.

I am trying to be a stronger person and I'm certainly learning that I AM my own person.

Whew.... that was good. Anyway... off to try and get to the weight room and perhaps do some laps in the pool. :)

Look: It's the "Elation"

Brian went out of town for a business trip last week. He got to the San Diego airport rather earlier than expected for his flight home. He thought to himself.... "hmmmmm, today is Friday, 10 a.m., and when we come into port from our wedding cruise, it'll be Friday... about 8 a.m. or so...." He proceeds to go to the Port of San Diego, and what does he see?!?! Carnival's Funship the "Elation". Yipee. He knew I'd be so excited to have been able to see this myself, so he snapped several pictures!!! I love it!

On another subject, can I just say that I'm excited about the people who have all booked their cabins?!?! I can honestly say that there are a couple of couples that booked who we really didn't expect them to. Don't get me wrong, we totally wanted them to be a part of our special day, but we didn't "expect" them to come. It is so special now that we know that they're going to be joining us! You know, they always say, "the people you least expect to come will come". And that is so very true as I am learning.

Regarding my self proclaimed "Bridal Boot Camp" I was supposed to start last Sunday.... well..... I didn't do a darn thing. BUT, here's the catch. Today is Sunday, August 1st, and I am RARING to go! I am starting today and will continue to be one BBC attacking fool! I am going to keep a log of my weight when I wake up in the morning, do my workouts, and monitor what foods I eat! Woo Hoo... go me! (Let's see how long I keep this up for)