n+m

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted.   What have we been doing?

• Attending our bridal showers

• Attending Karen and Josh's wedding

• Finalizing our catering menu

• Finalizing our florals

• Finalizing our decor

• Making final deposits

• Shopping

Today I'm going to show you some pictures from our floral mock-up.   It was pretty amazing.   Flourish is pretty amazing.

When we walked into Flourish we saw this...

  

The tablecloth and napkins that are on the table are the linens that we are using (the tablecloth on the left was just there for comparison).  On the table will also be silverware, this way people don't have to juggle it at the buffet.

 

Here's a close-up of the centerpiece.  You can see my new absolute most favoritest rose, the Sahara rose, and off-white hydrangeas.  You can also see that we're including purple with the orchids deep purple roses. 

 

The centerpiece arrangement we were shown is the one that will be on the tables under the tent.   Here you can better see the container and votives that are being used.

 

And here is my favorite picture of our arrangement.  It's gorgeous.

With less than 6 weeks to go everything is really coming together.  We meet with our DJ tomorrow night and we're going to check out some dance lessons on Friday nght!

Spotty Situation

Today I met Debbie, a friend of Kaylee's that is really helping us out with some wedding stuff including dress alterations!   She's very sweet and funny, it'll be so nice to have her with us on the wedding day.

I brought my dress and all it's associated paraphenalia so that I could try everything on and see what alterations need to be done.   The good news is that with my heels I am the perfect height for my dress so it doesn't need to be hemmed!  The bad news is that we found small spots on my train!

 

They are only on the sheer part and seem like a discoloration or burn in the fabric!   I'm going to call David's Bridal tomorrow and ask what I need to do to get a new dress.   My mom and sisters are coming up this weekend for the shower, which is good in case I need the recipt.   I hope they can get a new dress here quickly!   They've got a little over 9 weeks so we should be ok.

We're 65 days out from getting hitched and today, while surfing Wedding Bee, I made the decision that everything is basically set!   I'm not adding anything else to my to do list!!!!   I've made a lot of purchases during the past week and now we're getting packages daily, so I have a lot to show you in the next couple of days.   We're also working on getting our invitations out this week and getting ready for our first shower on Sunday.  I can't wait to have an amazing brunch with our friends and family!

I <3 Nordstroms

Top 5 Reasons that I Love Nordstroms

1. They have such a relaxing atmosphere with a piano player on the weekends!

2. They're currently having a great anniversary sale, I got my wedding Spanx for 1/2 off!

3. Their free gift wrapping is awesome!

 

4. They have very pretty bras in sizes larger than C.

5. I got two very cute great-fitting shower dresses from them!

Wedding Stress

We're about 2 and 1/2 months out from the wedding and this weekend was the first that I've felt any wedding stress.  It happened at Ikea.

We want bathroom baskets for the wedding but there isn't a place to put them in the Casa Feliz bathrooms (the sinks are stand alone).   I wanted to buy these cute bathroom stands from Ikea and put black trays on them.

However, when we went to the warehouse bin that was supposed to stock our bathroom stands they were all gone and I'm not really sure that was were they were supposed to be.   We could've asked someone but I was feeling rushed because we needed to get a lot of things done this weekend and I didn't want to spend time hunting down an Ikea employee!  Also it's not essential that we get the stands right now.  We'll go back and look again, if we don't find the stands there then we'll hit up the new Ikea in Tampa to see if they have them.

I mean, it's not like we'd be spending a lot of money in gas to get to Tampa.   Because this weekend we bought a 2010 Toyota Prius!!!!

It's so super gorgeous.   We got the color (dark grey with dark grey leather interior) that we wanted but not the navigation package.   It's just as well.   So far we're averaging 51.2 miles per gallon!

Yesterday I got my tonsillectomy.   It went great!   I'm keeping up with my pain meds and I haven't experienced any problems yet just a mild sore throat.   I'll definitly be better in time for my first bridal shower being thrown on August 2nd by Michael's mother and sister.   I'm so excited for it, I'll be sure to have my sisters take plenty of pics!

Etsy Finds

I like to support small businesses and individuals whenever I can.   Etsy is an online storefront that enables people to sell their homemade goods and services.  I tend to buy bath products, yarns and jewelry from Etsy sellers on a regular basis.   I have purchased a couple of Etsy items for the wedding.

The first items that I bought on Etsy for the wedding where these personalized totes for our ring bearer and flower girl!   They are seriously truly awesome.  I worked closely with the seller, Sew Blessed By Jenise, to make totes that I thought would match our kids personalities.   The flower girl actually has a dress at home that matches the top fabric of her bag.  We plan on filling them with games and activities.  Sew Blessed by Jenise is highly recommended she also sells cosmetic bags, diaper bags and adult totes.

The next Etsy purchase that I made saved us some serious frustration.   I wanted to provide a very detailed map for our out of town guests.   Most of our guests are staying in the attraction part of Orlando and we're getting married in the pretty and preppy part of Winter Springs.   So we purchased a custom map and directions from 2 Bird Stone for $30!   I had already purchased the cardstock from Paper Source so all we had to do was recieve the file and print it.   They came out really great and now all of our guests will have very specific directions to Casa Feliz as well as a graphic representation.  2 Bird Stone even customized the map to use our invitation fonts and colors!

 

I'm sure we will purchase more items from Etsy as our wedding day gets closer.   I've got my eye on water bottle labels, custom cake ornaments and return address rubber stamps.

Hair Trial with About Face

In May Sharon and I had stopped by About Face's open house and I had a mini make-up trial with Kalie.   I walked away with stunning eyes and booked the salon to do the make-up for my wedding day!  About Face also does hair and since it would be super convenient to have hair and make-up done at the same place, Sharon and I scheduled a hair trial trial for last Friday!   And I have to say it was a smashing success.

Oh, and before we start... all of these pictures were taking by my wonderful soon-to-be husband.   In 88 days I'll be able to drop the soon-to-be!

 I only have one picture of Sharon's hair so I'll show that one first.

I think it turned out really well!  It was so much fun having Sharon with us, I'm so glad she's been able to make so many of my wedding appointments with me.

It was hard to narrow down all of the images that Michael took but this is one of my favorites.  Also, isn't Kalie's wedding set gorgeous?  Fun fact: Root Photography also did Kalie's wedding!  We bonded over how great they are.

 

This picture is of my hair during the curling process.  The curls were awesomely perfect!

 

You can see all 3 of us in this picture!   There's my hair, the fantastic Kalie, and my photographer!

 

I had asked for a half updo with curls and that's definitly what I got.   Kalie ended up cascading the curls down my head which is really neat looking.

 

When I go in for my final hair trial we're going to try the tiara right in back of where my front hair sweep is and attach the veil to the part where my half-up is.

 

My hair stayed this way all night!   We went out to Brio for dinner because we had to celebrate such fantastic hair.  I'm really happy with the way everything turned out.

Well, I've got lots to talk about in the upcoming weeks so stay tuned!

July To Do List

1.  Make sure that you have all addresses for invitations.
I've already started asking my mother's for addresses that I don't have!

2. Print invitation envelopes and purchase stamps.

3. Purchase bridal jewelry.
This will be my gift from Michael.   :)

4. Order napkins and guest towels.

5. Decide on ceremony song.

6. Make Thank You cards.

7. Make bridesmaid jewelry

Because Tonight We're Gonna Party Like It's 1999!

So I have shown you our cocktail party invites and now I get to show you where we're holding this crazy cocktail party... the dock at Houston's!

We really wanted to have a small party for our out of town guests to thank them from coming from all over the country!  At first we were considering some lounges but I was having a hard time finding a lounge that wasn't really crowded and would allow us all to talk!

Then one night while we were eating at Houston's (we eat there all the time) there was a party out on their dock.   So I started a conversation with our waiter and it turns out that he has done quite a few parties!    For a sit down dinner it only holds 10 but for appetizers and drinks you can have up to 40 people!   We're holding the party the night before our wedding.

Our cocktail party will be a cash bar situation but we will be providing appetizers.   I'm so excited because this is a completely "us" place to be (we're not big fans of bars) and will allow us to really talk to some of our friends and family that we have not seen in awhile.

 

This is a close-up of the dock.  They were having a children's party out there.   For our party Houston's will be putting a bar out there, stringing some lights and providing us with a server.  I will have a walk through with our coordinator a week before the wedding to confirm appetizers and to also discuss decorations (if we choose to do any).

 

They also have a large lawn with several groupings of chairs so that if the dock feels too crowded people can go and hang out there.

It's hard to believe that in 100 days we'll be rehearsing our ceremony, having an amazing rehearsal lunch, and celebrating the eve of our wedding.   The days are going by quickly!

A Few of my Favorite Things: Bath and Body Works Style

So, there's some pressure to look the prettiest ever on your wedding day and I've totally bought into it.  Honestly, I'm probably just doing things that other people normally do.   I'm seriously low maintenance.   Before this month my beauty regimen was to take a shower and brush my teeth.

But Bath and Body Works is having an incredible semi-annual sale so I figured if there was a time to invest in tons of spa products that time would be now.

There are 3 main problems that I want to take care of before the wedding: dry facial skin, little bumps on my arms, and dry frizzy hair.

For my dry skin I stocked up on C.O. Bigelow skin care products.   They were buy 2, get 2 free and they had a lot of products for different skin types.

To take care of the little bumps on my arms I purchased True Blue Naked In the Buff Body Polish.   I've already seen a reduction in the bumps and I've only been using it for 3 days!   Also, it smells amazing.

I was hoping to be able to find some hair masks on sale but they didn't have any.   They did have their signature shampoos and conditioners on sale for $3 a piece so if you use them go get some!

I also bought tons of gifts (all the women I know love body products and candles) and lots of body wash for Michael (his favorite body wash was buy 1 get 1 free so I almost cleaned the store out) I ended up purchasing $283 worth of product for $89!  So if you're a B&BW fan I recommend that you head on over soon

Savannah Summer Vacation

This past weekend we went to Savannah, Georgia to celebrate Michael's birthday!

This was our second trip to Savannah and it was much more relaxed than the first.   We didn't feel a rush to see everything and go everywhere, we just took our time.   Michael took photos, I shopped.   We did what we do best.

We stayed at the 1895 Inn which is our favorite place to stay ever!  There were 3 other couples staying at the Inn and they were all around our age so we had some great breakfast and happy hour companions! 

It was a nice weekend away from home but we're glad to be back.   We missed our home and our kittens very much.

Now that we're back to the real world I'm going to get cracking on some wedding items that need to be done.   I would like to get all of June's items done in the next week and start on July's list early.  Because... I am scheduled to get my tonsils out July 8th!  And I'll be knocked out on hard core prescription meds until July 22nd!   That's almost the entire month of July!