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! :)

Bridesmaid's Bouquets

So, I believe we have decided on these for the gals to carry! :) I will of course have to cut the stems down then wrap with a thick ribbon. I think they look cute and will go great with their dresses!!

I'm still debating on my bouquet though. I really like this one, but I'm not too sure yet. I love the Lily's that are in there, but I'm still looking for something that catches my eye a little more than this one here. Not too sure.

As far as the guys bout's, I'm having a difficult time finding something that will go good with their white shirts. I can't find a plain fushia colored flower that will look good in a bout. I kinda wanted to order all of the flowers together at one time, but I believe I'm running into a problem in doing this. So....... I may have to forgoe that thought process. :)

I bought my first Apothecary Jar from Michael's today. My thought process for this is as follows: I am going to use Apothecary jars for my Candy Buffet. If I buy one a month until March, I'll have 6 of them. I don't think I'll need more than 6 since I will also be having small "lily" bowls as well. And, at Michael's, I can use their 40 or 50% off coupons. Like today... I bought the Apothecary Jar with a 50% off coupon and only paid $8.12 out the door! Sweet! This is what it looks like!

I'd say I am off to a good start for this upcoming weekend with regard to everything Wedding Related!!!

24 More Mondays

Thanks to a fellow Destination Wedding Knottie, she has gotten me on this Counting Monday's kick. So, officially, as of today, I have 24 more Monday's before we leave on our Cruise. In fact, exactly 25 Mondays from today, we will be on the Carnival Elation setting sail for our 5 day, 4 night cruise! :) So, it also means 24 more Wednesdays before we get married! Woo Hoo!

My goal for this week is to get the following done:

* Bouquets selected for bridal party and order;
* Decide if we're going to DIY the Bouts; if not, order them w/ the Bouquets;
* Finish up the Ceremony Wording (forgot to add the ring exchange in there);
* Find ceremony music for the flute and send to Gina (flutist);
* Work on both California and Minnesota Reception Menus;
* Hand deliver the rest of the MIB's that need to be handed out;
* Re-organize my Bridal Binder;

And I'm sure there will be more added to this list as I remember. Happy Monday!!!

6 MONTHS!!!!!

6 Months from today I will be on Catalina Island getting married. Who would have ever thought? Seriously? I mean SERIOUSLY! I'm so excited, elated, stressed, and all of the above!!

Yesterday I received the Tea Light Lanterns that I purchased from a former Knottie. :) Here's what they look like. The ones I got were the white ones. I'm so excited! :) I'm trying to decide if I am going to use them for just one or both of the receptions. I'm thinking I will do both. I'll just have to pack and ship them ahead of time to Minnesota after our California reception so I don't have to take them with me on Airplane! :) I have 20 of them, and I'm not sure if I'm going to use them all, but we'll see!

Ah... but let's not forget... I also have these Small Square Votives as well...... So I'm wondering if maybe I have too much?!? I suppose not. I'm sure it will all come together in the end. In fact I know it will.

Can you even believe it?!?!? 6 freaking months. That is it. That is all the time I have left to plan. What?!? I've been told that the time is going to FLY by. WHAT?????

T- Minus 184

What a wacko of a week!! I am very glad to say that one of my ladies bought her BM dress, and the other two have ordered it on line and will be getting it shortly! Yay! I still have to get Elyssa's dress though ~ I'm not sure if I'll get the same exact one yet or not. We shall see!

I have a ton of little things I want to get done this week. First and foremost, I want to get our den cleaned up and de-cluttered! I've thrown so much wedding related things in here and it's totally unorganized. So, my goal for the next couple of days is to go through all these boxes of WR stuff and organize it! AHR stuff, Welcome Bags and contents, Ceremony stuff, DIY projects stuff, etc. I work so much better when everything is organized so I'm thinking this is why I've been so discombobulated in my planning!

Here's a list of DIY projects I want to do: (keep in mind said list will only get bigger)

* Tags for the Welcome Bags
* Door Hangers for the Cabins
* Labels for snacks/goodies in the Welcome Bags
* Monogramed Aisle Runner (????)
* Bouts
* Welcome Letter
* Palm Fans (?????)
* Crossword Puzzle for Welcome Bags
* Sand Ceremony Frames

And here's a list from memory that I still have to do: (keep in mind there are a ton of other things I can't seem to remember at this moment)

* Complete Ceremony wording (which I thought I had done, but forgot some important parts)
* Find Ceremony music for our Flutist
* Make appointment to have wedding dress hemmed
* Get menu for both AHR's finalized
* Order my bouquet
* Order BM's bouquets
* Decide on whether or not we're going to have a Candy Buffet for sure and if so:
- Purchase the bowls for the candies
- Decide on what to use for guests to take these home in (ie: take out boxes or bags)
- Decide on what type of candies to have
* If not going with the Candy Buffet, decide on what to have for a Favor
* Decide on whether or not to have B-Pics done
* Get marriage licence (no earlier than January 25th to be on the safe side)

And millions and millions of other things!!! The next 6 months will absolutely fly by!!!

Candy Buffet

This is my Candy Buffet Inspriation Board!

I want to do a Candy Buffet at both of my AHR's. I think it's a wonderful idea and would be great as favors for our guests! I know for our California reception, we will have lots of kids attending so this will be fun for them.

Our Minnesota reception is adults only, however I think if I have "retro" candies, it may be fun.

I'm not sure what to use for the guest to take home their candies in, but I'm guessing it'll either be "take-out" boxes, or a decorated cellophane bag with a twist tie. Any suggestions?!?

For others who are thinking about doing this at their reception and/or party, here's a couple of articles I found that are very helpful for me with regard as to "how much candy" to buy.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Wedding-Candy-Buffet

http://www.favorideas.com/wedding-blog/candy-buffet-ideas/

Both of these articles contain tons of information that will be useful!!

These are the jars / bowls that I'm aiming for in my Candy Buffet:

I would prefer the majority of the bowls to not have the "stem" or "base" on them. I found the kind that I like back in Minnesota, however, I didn't get them. They were only $1.99 and I should have grabbed them while I was there, but I wasn't thinking!!

I'm hoping I'll be able to find them for that same cheap price again!!

"Bridesmaid" Dresses

Well, this is the dress that we've chosen for the girls to wear. I really, really like it. I know they say that Black isn't an appropriate color to wear in weddings, but oh well. We all like this dress, and it's about what I want anyway right?!?!

The dresses below are dresses that I want to get for the Cruise ~ Monday night is the Bachelor/Bachelorette party, Tuesday night is the Formal/Captian's Dinner!!

I can't wait until this Cruise, I can't even begin to tell you all!!!

I'm actually getting things done and checked off my list slowly but surely.

I am confident that the Ceremony part is nearly all taken care of with the exception of finishing up the ceremony wording along with my vows... which by the way is so not fair!

Brian is the one who wants to write our own vow's, not me!!

And I also have to pick out the ceremony music for his niece! She will be playing the flute

as the bridal party is "walking down the aisle". Woo Hoo!

I also need to get my dress altered, but I am trying to wait until at least February.... hopefully I'll lose a little more weight by then ~ although I won't be getting any taller, so we'll definitely have to hem it for sure!

More to share!!

So, I tried to create my Photo Share Cards and Wedding Day Timeline. Clearly I failed. Not that they didn't look good because they did. They just didn't look good enough for me. I requested the help from a fellow DW Knottie and I am so very thankful to her for doing these for me. :) Here is what they look like ~ Please keep in mind that for some reason, the color is off. Where it's "greenish" it's actually a Caribbean Blue color and the "pinkish/purple" is actually a Fushia color.

And here's a picture of the Wedding Day Timeline. Again, the color's are off here as well.

I am extremely pleased at how these turned out!

These will both be put in the Welcome Bags for our guests that are cruising with us. And additional PhotoShare Cards will be placed at various tables throughout both of the At Home Receptions.

I seem to have finally grasp control on this wedding stuff. I'd been feeling a bit overwhelmed the past couple of weeks, actually months, but I think I've got it dialed in. Slowly but surely everything is falling into place. With the Holidays coming up really quick, I know we'll lose some days, if not weeks of planning ~ or at least that's what I'm anticipating. We shall see.

I'm debating whether I want to tackle the job of DIY'ing a Monogrammed Aisle Runner. Do I really need one of those?!? I'm not so sure that we do. But it's something I think would be fun to make. :)

Maybe a Banner instead of an Aisle Runner? Ahhh, who knows. For now I think I'm "under control" when it comes to wedding related stuff. I'm going to concentrate on the Reception stuff now..... that seems to be where the work needs to be done. Coming up with Menu's (that sounds official) when in all actuality we're having casual buffet style foods / set up at both AHR's!

I love it when a plan comes together!!!!!!!!!

T minus 198

Yes, my son likes to throw in a cheezy grin every now and then! :) I am blessed to have these two older ones as my kiddo's. My youngest one, who is not pictured here, will be 13 in a couple of weeks, and let me tell you, she's taller than me also. What is wrong with this ~ as your children get older, they surpass you in growth? Hmmmm

Well, today marks the 198 days left mark. I'm so excited, however I am slowyly but surely getting to feel stressed out too. I have a list of "little" things that need to get done, but since they're "little" I tell myself I can do it later... Ha! I suppose it's those 'little' things that will haunt me in the end, so I better get my butt in gear and do what I need to do!! At this point, I think the most important thing for me to do is to find the ceremony song(s) and get that list to Brian's niece who is going to be playing her flute for the ceremony!!! She needs time to practice, so you would think it'd be so easy to pick a song or two and viola ~ done ~ but it simply doesn't work that way! Geeze!!!

So, I'm going to let my fingers do the walking on this information superhighway that we call the Internet, and I'm going to find a couple of songs that I like.

Happy Monday everyone!!!

What a fun day!!

We got to go to the last home game of the San Francisco Giant's 2009 season! Woo Hoo! We had a wonderful time and it was very hot!! Unexpected for San Francisco but truly welcoming!!! And as a wonderful surprise, I finally got my ring!!!! Little did I know that mister sneaky little devil was holding out on me. He's had this ring for over three months!!! All the while, we were still "looking" for rings!

My DIY Veil

So, I decided to make my own Chapel length veil. I suppose the length doesn't really matter because I cut it to wear I wanted to to fall. And, although you can't see the details, I put little sparkly things on the bottom and sides of the veil. I just randomly put them on there and it gives it a little elegance to it. Also, I didn't put a "trim" along the edges because I wanted this look. So, I'm going to make another one with a "trim" on it to see which one I like the best. Either way, I'm glad I DIY'd this because once again, it'll mean more to me on the day I get married, knowing that I made this myself!! :)

It's DONE!!!

My Message in a Bottles are COMPLETED!! Done, finished, finneto, nothing else to do to them, zip, zero, zilch!!! Yay!! I finished these puppies up with a lable that has our monogram on it and they are all ready to be mailed out! Actually, some of them are being hand delivered only because it just makes more sense rather than mailing them to our friends and family members who we see on a daily basis. That, plus it will cost $2.60 per MIB to mail so it'll save us on some postage as well. :)

I am sooooo relieved that this DIY project is done. It was rather time consuming, but I think it's well worth all the blood, sweat and tears. Okay... so there was no blood involved, but there certainly were lots of sweat!!! I would so do these again!!! :) And, for any beach themed and/or destination wedding brides out there, I would recommend doing these.

T-Minus 206 Days

I am seriously getting a little more stressed out day by day. It's coming down to 206 days until Catalina Island, and I am no where near being close to getting things crossed of my list. 206 days will go by faster than I can even imagine!!! I'm seriously starting to panic. Here's what I have "pending" still, with regard to making a final decision...

* Bridal Party outfits ~ ladies dresses / men's shirts

* Bridal Party flowers ~ ladies bouquets / men's bouts

* Ceremony wording ~ thought I had it figured out, but realized I forgot the ring exchange portion along with the "Do you,........ I do" part. (Kinda important)

* Ceremony music ~ Brian's niece is playing the flute while we walk down the aisle, and I have no clue what song to choose.

All of the above is what is swirling around in my head at this moment, and I need to come to some sort of a decision..... and SOON. Yikes...


Not to mention the gazillion other wedding related things that need to be done. I thought this was supposed to be a breeze with it being a DW and all. :)

I did, however manage to pick up some playing cards for my Welcome Bags. They were clearanced at Michaels for $ .40!!! Score!! I got 20 packs!! I love it!!!

Yay!!! They're just about done!!!

Woo Hoo!!! My MIB invites are just about done!! I'm sooooo glad that this project is finally coming to a closure!!! It was a very time consuming project but well worth it! I could have asked for help from friends, but felt that this was something that I wanted to do myself. So it would mean so much more to both Brian and I! I'm glad I did too!

I have about 25 of them all put together and have 35 more to go!! I'm not looking forward to folding 60 boxes though... here's some that I've put together.. it's rather time consuming and a pain in the arse!!!

So, with 208 days left ~ the Knot kindly reminds me every day how many days are left ~ I think I'm on pace with my goal of getting these done and ready to be mailed by the 1st of October!

Finally working on the MIB's!!!

So, the other night, while watching Dirty Dancing, I actually filled all my MIB's with sand, seashells and the cocktail umbrellas!! Yay!! So, needless to say, my coffee table is covered in MIB's!

Today, I have printed out 25 of the 60 invites I need which still have to have the edges burned, rolled and tied with raffia and then inserted into these bottles. My goal is to have them done by middle of next week, if not sooner! :) I have the mailing boxes, but those all have to be put together as well and I'm not really looking forward to having stacks of these boxes in my living room until the bottle are ready to go! Then, I intend to have these out in the mail by the first week of October. The ones we can hand deliver, we will, or so that's what I'm assuming, but we may just put them all in the mail. That's something I still have to decide on.

Got an "almost" check done and out of the way!! I know "almosts" don't count, but I'm working on it!!!

Wedding related crisis!!!!

My PC has crashed!!! I have to now resort to the lap top...... I have been pretty good about backing up my wedding related stuff to my external hard drive, however there are some things that are stuck on my hard drive on the PC that can't get too!!!! One of them being my Boarding Pass AHR invite template!!!! ARRRRGGGHHHH. I am going to have to re-create it, which means I a going to have to download the fonts, and then spend another 4 hours creating them....YIKES.

Please wish me lots of luck people!!!!!