Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Today I am thankful for all of my family and friends ~ and even those who have touched my life in any way, shape or form. My life wouldn't be what it is today without any of you in my life! So, thank you! :)

On a Wedding related note ~ can I just say that I'm on a roll with this Michael's 40% off coupon!! I've purchased another two Apothecary Jars which brings my collection up to a total of 4. Yes, I am ahead of schedule, but I had the coupons, and how can you pass up 40% off of one jar?!?

Our local Michaels is out of the HUGE ginormous Apothecary jar that I am wanting (the one that ended up breaking ~ see prior post) so I think I'm going to check out another Michaels tomorrow on Black Friday! Maybe even later this evening since Michaels is open from 5 to 9 tonight AND I have a couple of special coupons I do believe. :)

After this Holiday weekend, I am determined to get more wedding related tasks done on a daily basis. It was crazy just with Thanksgiving thrown in there, and with Christmas and the New Year approaching, it's going to get even worse!! So...time to get serious and really get things done!!

In between my cake orders, coordinating of a couple of Spring/Summer weddings, not to mention our wedding and TWO AHR's, I have my plate full!!! But....I know that I can handle it all ~ no sweat. I'm not saying that I won't get stressed out at times however I know that I can do it!!!

Have a WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING everyone!!!

Dress Dilema Resolved!!!!

I FOUND THE DRESSES!!!!

I found the dress for the girls.

I found the dress for the girls in all the sizes that we need.

YAY.

It has been bothering me and bothering me and bothering me. I was so stressed out because everytime we found a dress we all liked, we couldn't get it in a certain size that we needed. So we choose another dress. Then that dress wasn't available in another size.... and so on, and so on. And now.....

FINALLY. I found one!!!!

S.C.O.R.E.

And, today I received a package from Katie (a former DW Bride). I purchased some Lily Bowls from her along with some Starfish. I received the Starfish. And none of them were broken! Whew! Mr. Fed Ex man should be bringing me a box full of Lily Bowls by Friday! :)

I also received a package from Natalie (another former DW Bride). I purchased some Sand Dollars, Starfish and 3 Pashmina's from her! :) Unfortunately 6 of the Sand Dollars arrived in pieces. :( But that is to be expected in shipping thru the Postal Service.

Mr. Mail man should be bringing me a Package with a Wedding Dress in it very soon too!!! :) I know....I know... I already have my dress.... but I bought another one from a former DW Bride also ~ new with tags on it still. One will be for the Ceremony, the other for my TTD session.

Simple as that!

All in all, today has been a very good day! :) I am a happy camper!

It's Monday! Weekend Recap & Photos!!

In 20 weeks, we'll be on our Cruise! Yipee! 20 freaking weeks. It's still unbelieveable. But, I'll get over it. Today I have a cake order (1/2 sheet ~ so it's huge) so I'll be working on that this morning. Meeting the client at Noon for pick up, then after that, I am going to take my broken Apothecary Jar back to Michaels!!!

Can you believe I did that?!? Well, it's not entirely my fault! They only wrapped the lid of the jar in paper before putting it in a bag. The entire jar itself was just placed in the plastic bag without any wrapping at all!!! And the wrapped lid was placed in the same bag too. Ugh...I didn't check it until this morning and I discovered it was broken. I know I must have done it, but still....if they would have wrapped the jar in paper, this probably wouldn't have happened!!! So, I'm going to go see if I can exchange it!!! :)

While I was at Michaels on Saturday, I also took advantage of their 40% off entire stock of candles coupon as well! I scored!!!

That was my Saturday! I spent some time shopping at Michaels!!! I spent the rest of the evening making 4 dozen cupcakes ~ two dozen for a client and two dozen for my football friends that get together on Sundays!!!

We always meet at 10 a.m. at a local restaurant/bar for Football Sunday!! And let me tell you, we make it a day! I walk in with my Starbucks Frappacinno and some baked goodies, while eveyone else orders Bloody Mary's or beer. Yuck. First of all, I HATE beer, and secondly, how can you freaking drink alcohol at 10 o'clock in the morning!!! Ewwwww.

Yesterday we had a BLAST. It was great! It was Brian's weekend to work, so he joined us at 3:30. He had such a great day at work and had some good news, so he was in a celebratory mood. Needless to say, he had two Bloody Marys, and several beers and was feeling no pain by 6 or so. I think this was the second time that I have seen him soooooooo hilariously intoxicated! I was worried because we had two vehicles at the restaurant and against all of my protesting, he insisted on driving home. Luckily we only live about 3 minutes from the restaurant and we made it home safe and sound!!!

Here's a photo of the cake I did this morning. It's a half sheet French Vanilla with Fresh Strawberries and Buttercream Icing. Mmmmmmmmmm. Just plain and simple ~ no writing necessary. I like easy! :)

Arch Decorations

So... I found a display of a decorated Arch that I really liked. I had to take Brian back with me to the store just so I can take a picture of it.... As you can see from the photos, I have a really funny man in my life!

You can't really see too much detail of the way that the Arch is decorated, but I love it. I'm not going to use the Black and White Tulle of course ~ I'm going to use Caribbean Blue and Fushia. Very light though. Not too dark beacuse I think it'll be too bold. We shall see. AND, I don't want the Butterflies...or too much of the Sparkly look either.

Here are a couple more views that show a tad bit more of the detail.

I'm not too sure if I'm going to use the Caribbean Blue where the White is and accent it with the Fushia where the Black is or visa versa. I'm going to play around and see what looks good!

Today's Verse of the Day

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.
— Romans 14:19 (NIV)

Thoughts on Today's Verse...

"Make every effort!" That's quite a challenge. But notice where that exertion is to be focused: peace and mutual edification. Both sides of this exhortation are two way responsibilities. I must pursue and share peace if I am going to have it myself. I must edify, and be open to being edified, if mutual edification is going to happen. In other words, we live with other people in God's family. He wants us to be responsible for making relationships work in our spiritual family. He reminds us it will require strenuous effort. But, isn't that true in every family relationship? Love means sacrifice, effort, and concern for others. When we share our love willingly, however, we're much more likely to see it coming back to us!


My Prayer...

Dear Heavenly Father, forgive me for my impatience and selfishness. Defeat the bad attitude of competitiveness that I often display in arguments and disagreements with others in your family. Energize me by your Spirit to see areas where I can be a blessing and an encouragement to others. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that!!!!

Can you say busy, busy, busy?!? I have a new client (bride) who is getting married in July. July 3rd to be exact. I'm really super excited about this wedding of the "Woodsy / Outdoor" theme! There is so many directions this can go and I'm just so excited to be able to "play" around with ideas!!! July is right around the corner, so I have to get a move on with securing vendors!! Especially since this wedding is taking place during a Holiday ~ vendors tend to book quickly and/or charge more during any Holiday period!

The most exciting thing about this client is the fact that as of right now, I AM NOT DOING HER WEDDING CAKE!! Woot woot! Strickly Event Planning/Coordinating!! Yes! Way less stress for me!! I can concentrate on the party process with more enthusiasm!!! SCORE!! Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love doing cakes, but at some weddings, I like to just be able to be the coordinator and delegate, delegate, delegate!!! :)

As for my upcoming wedding, although I'm not "on track" as most timelines indicate, I am fairly comfortable that we'll get things in gear soon. I mention this quite often, and I know we have a ton of things to do, but I'll get them done slowly but surely!

This week marks our 21 weeks, as I mentioned in my previous post. Twenty freaking one. Wow, time has been flying by at a rather fast pace. I like to pretend that I'm all calm, cool and collected during this time, but honestly, I am totally freaking out! Seriously freaking out.

My mission of late is to find some type of power cord/strip that isn't too expensive to put in the Welcome Bags for our cruise guests. The cabins on board the ship doesn't have many accessible outlets, so for those who need to charge multiple items like cameras, laptops or even to use multiple things like a blow dryer and curling iron, etc. need to have outlets available. So.... I'm on the prowl for those.

Here's another issue that's been lurking in the back of my pretty little head........I have the itch to go dress hunting again. NOT THAT I DON'T LIKE MY DRESS, but I just want to see if maybe there's something else out there that I like. :) I know people advise against this, but I sooo want to go looking!!!

In the area of non wedding related items, I have another Cake order this weekend. It's a fairly simple order so I am not stressing out in the least!! I do have a birthday cake order for a little girl who is turning 2 years old in a couple of weeks ~ and here's a sketch of what her parents are envisioning....
It's going to have round balls of fondant in Pink, Brown, and Tan around the base of the both layers. Similar to the one pictured below.

I'm pretty excited because I did this little girls first birthday cake as well and it was a Castle Cake! :) So, it's a tradition that I do her birthday cakes from here on out!!! I'll even do her Quincenera Cake and her Wedding Cake too! :)

Little Mermaid!!

I spent my morning making a Little Mermaid themed cake! :) It was so much fun to make. Alot easier than I expected!! I find it so much easier to work with Whipped Topping rather than Buttercream in some instances. However, Whipped Topping makes things "fatter" or "fluffier" if you will. AND, Whipped Topping requires refrigeration!!! Ha!

In between baking and decorating, we actually bought our Wedding Arch yesterday. Utilizing a 50% off coupon from Michaels, we only paid $16 for it!! Yippee!! I went to a huge Floral / Wedding Supply place in Modesto on Friday and saw a decorated Arch they had displayed and I absolutely LOVE it. I am going to try and replicate it ~ using our colors ~ because it was so simple!! And, that is what we're looking for since we'll have to bring the Arch and it's decorations on board the cruise ship with us!!! I'll have to go back to that store and take a picture of it so I can post it here!!!

I also got the remaining 30 MIB's labeled; got the shredded paper in the mailing boxes, put them all together, and labeled the boxes!!! ALL DONE. All we need to do now is hand them out to all of our California guests. Woot woot!

As of today, we're 157 days out until the actual wedding day. Not many days left huh?!? Yikes. That means we have 21 weeks before we leave for the cruise. TWENTY ONE. That is not many weeks at all. Double Yikes!

This means I have to get my pretty little behind in gear. I am officially in the "freak out" stage of this entire process. **** I need a stiff drink ****

22 Wednesdays from today......

We will be on Catalina Island saying "I Do". Can you even believe that? 22? That's not very many Wednesdays. Wow... time is going to fly by from here on out!!


So, totally not wedding related ~ I have had this MASSIVE headache for the past week and a half. Seriously. I have it a while back and it lasted for approximately 3 weeks, and another occasion where it lasted over a month!!! Constantly, every single day, this headache has lingered on... sometimes really intense, other times mild but there. UGH.... why can't it just go away!!! I've tried several different over the counter meds, and none have worked.

Thanks to several other blogs of late that I've read, I've been inspired to "go green" and try and make my own laundry detergent. As well as diswashing detergent, all purpose kitchen cleaner, scouring powder/paste (like Comet) as well as floor cleaner and fabric softner!!! Woo Hoo! Not only will it save $$$$ but it's environmentally safe and eco friendly!! I'll keep you all posted on the results!

T-Minus 162

Although I haven't been doing much in the last week that's related to the big day coming up in 162 days, I have been pretty busy.

Today, I met with a prospective bride and her fiance. Their wedding is July 3rd ~ it's a local wedding and they're looking for more or less a Wedding Coordinator mostly for the Rehearsal Dinner and Day of Coordination. However, they'd like for me to essentially plan the event ~ she has a ton of ideas already and they have a lot of the vendors lined up (they have tons of connections) but there is still a lot of little detail that they want just taken care so they have less to worry about. I'm excited for them since I know the Groom to be. I'm looking forward to this wedding ~ it's going to be a really nice one!!

In the last two days, I've received two client's for cake orders as well. One is for this weekend ~ fairly easy cake ~ Little Mermaid / Ariel themed cake for a 4 year old's birthday. Then in 3 weeks, my favorite little girl is turning 2 years old and since I did her Princess Castle cake for her first birthday last year, I was asked to make her cake again this year! Here's a picture of her cake:



This year's theme is going to be Dora the Explorer. Hmmmm...so many ideas ~ I've done several Dora character cakes but I want this one to be different you know?!? I have a few weeks to come up with something.
Also, despite the fact that the Holidays are coming up rather quickly, this means that wedding season will be upon us just as quick! I'm hoping that I get at least one wedding a month (cake wise) and for the wedding season ~ January thru October ~ I'd like to do at least 5 weddings (planning wise). I have two on the books that I'm currently the Event Planner for so that means three more and I'll have reached my goal.

I do have 3 brides in which I am doing their "paper" stuff; i.e. Save the Dates, Invites, and/or Programs. So, that will be fun too.

Oh, the one wedding related thing that we accomplished last week is that we figured out the hotel situation with regard to the day before our cruise and the day we come back from our cruise! :) Yay!!! We will be driving down to San Diego late Saturday evening so we will be staying overnight Sunday and we will also be staying overnight Friday when we come back from the cruise. So excited!

Well, that's it for now ~ hope you all had a great Tuesday!

23 Wednesdays from today......

I will be on Catalina Island marrying my best friend. I am so excited and can't even begin to describe it. I wish I could say I am totally ready for this day to come, but in reality, I'm really not. I'm not prepared at all in the planning aspect. I'm not prepare at all in the mental aspect. I'm not prepared in the emotional aspect. I'm just not prepared period!

I've spent a couple of weekends over the last month with family who live about an hour and a half away, but we never seem to get together except when my Grandmother flies in from Hawaii once a year. How sad is that?!? These are my Aunts and my Uncles. My dad's sisters and brothers. Granted, when my parents divorced, I was very young. I didn't get to grow up with this side of the family, but nevertheless we've kept in touch throughout the years. Who would have thought that we'd all live this close together in CALIFORNIA of all places; after having grown apart and all going our seperate ways through the years. Kinda ironic.

I love having family this close. I'm going to make it a priority to see them more often. :)

Slowly but surely!!

With 169 days left before Catalina Island I took the time out to finish wrapping all of the Palm Fans. I ran out of the Pinkish ribbon so I made a mad dash to Michael's but low and behold they were all out. So I got the Blueish ribbon instead. I think they came out okay. I just have to figure out what I'm going to put on them now to finish them off. I thought of hot gluing a big Sea Shell on there but when I started to do it, it just didn't look right. I'll figure something out and then post another picture of it! :)

I'm also working on the "Gile Wedding Party" and "Gile Wedding Guest" cabin door hangers. I have the template all finished and I actually made a mock up one, but have to do a little tweaking on it still. Again, I'll post a picture of this when it's completed.

Although I'm not accomplishing all of my goals that I've set to have completed that's wedding related, I'm slowly but surely crossing them off of my list. Which is a good thing!!

Next on my list:

* Ceremony Music for Gina (flutist);
* Ceremony Wording;
* Menu for both California and Minnesota receptions;
* Who's who brochure for Welcome Bags;
* Welcome letter for Welcome Bags

23 Mondays from today.....

We will be on board the Carnival Elation for our wedding cruise!!!

I didn't do much wedding related activities this weekend. Boo!!! I had intentions of ording the Bridal Party bouquets, however we were absolutely busy with family get togethers instead. I'm hoping that I'll get to them today for sure!

I'm going to spend today cleaning up around here since we weren't hope virtually all weekend! I'm also going to be spending some time in the Kitchen making some Rice Crispie Treats for Brian. He's been hinting around the last couple of days that he would really like to have some. :)

I'm also going to try something different ~ I have a "Signature" cake that I do and the orignal name is called "Better than Sex", however for my business we call it "Better than Everything". (I just couldn't see putting the original name on my webiste at all!!) Anyway, I'm going to make these into cupcakes and see how they turn out. I have them offered on my Website, however I've only had orders for the cake itself and none for cupcakes. So, I'd figure I'd whip some up and see how they turn out. :)

I think maybe later today the only wedding related task I'll get to may be going through some of these boxes here in the den (which is now referred to as the wedding room) and see if I can't get these things a little more organized. Plus, I'm missing some Starfish Charms and can't seem to find them anywhere!! I hope by cleaning this area up a little I might get lucky!!! :)

So, right before I turn in for the night, I decided to dabble in a little DIYing. Something quick, fun and easy ~ so I took one of the palm fans and tried to see what it would look like with the ribbon wrapped around the handle. I personally like the way it turned out. I know some brides wrap the entire handle all the way to the where the handle meets the fan, but I think I'll either put a silk flower there or a bow of some sort; perhaps even hot glue a sea shell or starfish . I'm undecided at this time, but I'm sure whatever I decide, it'll look nice. I'm not even sure if we really need these palm fans for the ceremony, but I like the idea of having them available. I know our ceremony is at 11 a.m. and it'll be early Spring so it may be a little bit on the cool side ~ however..... I like them! :)