We interrupt your normally scheduled wedding crap

to show you my super amazingly awesome rain boots:


I got them at Marshall's today for $19!! I am so excited I can't wait to wear them.

And, I bought a little man-candy as well:


Chris is reading it now for fitness tips, and then I will be the proud owner of the cover lol.

I promise to you, finding Christopher's clothing and the groomsmen's attire was FAR more difficult than figuring out my dress and the bridesmaids attire.

From way back when, tuxes were out. I never really liked the look, and our wedding isn't really formal enough to warrant one. I don't remember which one of us found this picture, but the grooms 'look' was our inspiration. Christopher saw the vest and it was all over, that is what he wanted.

One afternoon after I got off from work, Chris rounded up his best man, CJ and his grooms-dude, Matt, and we went on the scavenger hunt of the world to try and find clothes for them to have.

We went to EVERY store in the mall that carried men's suits. Finally, at JCPenney, we made a little progress:



Chris loved how this all looked together. He was ready to buy it right then. So then, we had Matt and CJ get the pants in their sizes. This is where we hit rough terrain:



Do you see how short those are?? No Bueno. Of course we try to see if maybe another store had them a little longer, but lo an behold, it isn't made that long. Damn CJ :)

A couple days later, this post by Miss Meerkat showed up on WeddingBee. It was like she knew exactly my struggle! I headed on over to studiosuits.com, fell in love and begged Chris to give it a try.

He did.

He coordinated with his grooms-dudes to have them come over and measure themselves, and we decided to order the full suit (pants, vest & jacket) for Chris.

We ordered our suits on 09/26. On 10/14, a mere 17 calendar days later, we received these beauties. From India! I can only imagine 3 or 4 of those 17 days was shipping alone. I was seriously impressed with their turn around time. Chris and I tore into the package like a bunch of hyenas, and I held my breath as he began to try his suit on.

...


.....


"IT'S PERFECT!!" I screamed.. Seriously y'all, this suit is fresshhh and it fits Chris to a T...almost like it was made for him.

His GD's came over and tried on their pants as well, no suprise they fit them really nicely as well.

Want to see Chris in the suit he will be married in??





I love it, obviously, he will be wearing a yet to be purchased white button up under the vest, but we are both so excited that now he has his W-day attire.

I cannot recommend Studio Suits enough, their work is amazing for the price you pay, and they are a great company to work with. I was telling my mom about it, and she is going to order my abnormally tall younger brother some dress pants from there as well.

What will your groom be wearing on the big day??

Our Guestbook..

I never really gave much thought to our guestbook, or where you tell us how much you love us and how ultra-fab our wedding is. =)

I love love love love love love (one more 'love' for good measure) this new idea floating around the interwebs:



But, I am saddened to say that I did not purchase the Mary Poppins upgrade in my luggage. So that (above) has no way of fitting in this:



Unless they invent folding wood. Which slightly defeats the purpose.

One day, I got a email (not suprisingly) from MyPublisher. They were offering $30 off any book. And then, LIGHTBULB MOMENT! I can make a guest book using our engagement pictures! I uploaded, cropped, and typed for days on end (read: 1 hour) and sent my creation to MyPublisher to turn my conconction to a real breathing..book.

We received it the other day, and Oh.My.Gosh. Love. It's completely awesome. Oh you want pics? I guess I will oblige..

They read my mind.


The cover. If I were able to rely better on my moment freezing skills, you would be able to see our names and wedding date in the bottom left hand corner.


We chose to add some quotes that relate to love every few pages.




I say 'relate' because not all our quotes are lovey, per se. I let Chris pick his favorite movie quote, and this is what he gave me:

"Well that's what we do, we fight... You tell me when I am being an arrogant son of a bitch and I tell you when you are a pain in the ass. Which you are, 99% of the time. I'm not afraid to hurt your feelings. You have like a 2 second rebound rate, then you're back doing the next pain-in-the-ass thing."
It completely fits us. I think it's kinda silly too, anyone at our wedding will read that and nod their head (side to side, not up and down), a chuckle a little.

We left a lot of white space to give everyone room to write their innermost ponderings about us, and whatever else they would like to write (or draw) about. But if I suddenly grow devil horns in a picture, they will wish that they could jump into a Mary Poppins bag. =D



Lastly, just to give you all an idea about how huge this thing actually is, I took a picture of it next to the standard magazine size "Brides". I can't wait to see what people write in here for us!!

What are you planning on using as your guest'book'?

The dress.

I am back. :)

Thanks for the comments about my last post-- really, I just thought the giraffe icon was the cutest thing ever, and double YAY for having 4 followers now! I feel spoiled. :)

Anywho, I realized that I haven't talked about my dress. Like, at all. Well, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this....

It has not been created yet.


**i'll let that one sink in for another minute**


Where were we?? Oh yes, my yet to be created beautiful fantabluous dress! Here is the dealio. My mommy is the most amazing seamstress ever. Like for real, I kid you not! You need proof?

Exhibit A: Senior prom dress, created the day before prom:


Exhibit B: (I CANT BELIEVE I AM PUTTING THIS FOR THE WORLD TO SEE....)Pink Ninja Turtle:


Yes, that is a fully custom ninja turtle costume, with a H belt buckle. Still my favorite costume to date, by the way.

So I am not too worried. We plan on going to buy the fabric here within the next month-- I can't wait to share this adventure!!

When Christopher and I first told each other that we love each other and are gunna get hitched (aka engaged) I gravitated towards these types of dresses:




Yeah, thats the dress Tess wore in 27 dresses. Love.

But then one day, I woke up, an had an epiphany. Like a full on gold light shining on my blonde little head moment. I need a poofy dress. Our wedding is on the ship wide formal night. Where people typically go all out, remember this pic?


Thats formal night, I gotta step up my game for our wedding day! That day, forevermore, these two dresses became my inspiration:




MRS POODLE! Wedding dress extraordinaire--her dress in the most gorgeous dress i have ever seen. EVER.

It's funny-- through my teen years i thought it was so uncool that my mother wanted to make clothes for me. But now, I feel like princess jasmine, cause I can pretty much have whatever I want created for me, my way, to fit me. Even better, my madre gets to do something that she loves, and create with her own hands, the single most noticed thing (aside from the actual wedding and, um, open bars)in our wedding. She is beyond excited, as am I.

I have been asked repeatedly "aren't you worried that your dress isn't even started yet? You ONLY have 6 months". The answer to that is not at all! My mom can whip this thing out in 2 days tops if she really needed to(including meals, bathroom breaks, showers and sleeping). I am fully confident it will come out better than I envision. I am so excited to share the progress of my dress with you all!!

I'm not gunna lie

I am kinda bummed:

Battle of the Ages...The Conclusion

Well my friends, I told you I would be victorious!

I recently posted about Christopher's perfect ring, which we found in a issue of Brides Magazine. Once I had amassed my dollars, the darn thing went into 'discontinued' status. My life.

I gotta be real with you all, after waiting 6+ days for Paypal to refund my money from buying the ring (as of this very moment, it is STILL listed on e-wedding bands as 'for sale'... ugh.)I was completely deflated. I was so frustrated that once we are ready to buy it, it was no longer available. I searched online but didn't feel like I would have much luck. Things were not looking up for us.

One day last week, I plopped myself on the bed, and told Chris we need to find him a new ring, cause that ring just wasn't going to happen. To be honest, I was really pissed off. I am a winner, and I always do what I need to do to get things done. I did NOT handle this well.

We sat down and started browsing on amazon.com. What is Chris' super manly wedding ring criteria, you may ask? It had to be black. That is all. He had his heart set on a primarily black ring. He made some references about it matching the color of my heart, but we aren't going to discuss that right now. :)

We went through what felt like 530,000 pages. none of them really fit him. And then, we saw this:



We looked at each other, I said 'yeah?' and he said 'yeah!'. That was it. I closed my eyes and hit the 'order' button. We received it over the weekend and oh my gosh it is perfect. No pictures for now, even though Chris knows what it looks like, he does NOT get to see it in person until our wedding day. It is locked securely in my madre's safe so that it may stay away from any prying eyes while I am at work

On a side note, this reminds me of a funny story about him buying my engagement ring. It was no secret that he was going to propose at one point or another, but when he got the ring, he wanted to be sure it fit. I had to sit with a blindfold on, while he put the ring on my finger to make sure it fit. It was the most torturous thing ever, I swear. Guess what I did as soon as the ring came in?? That's right, I made him feel the torture as well!!!

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. The best part about the ring?? It was only 30% of the original price that I paid for the other branded one. AWESOME!

Did anyone else encounter troubles like these when ring shopping?

"I felt like I was invited to the white house! I felt so cool opening it"

That is what one of my friends told me this morning about our wedding invitations. I can't share them in their entireity yet, because I know not everyone has received them.

Christopher and I DIY'ed (remember that post about the weekend we were slaves to the invitations? Yeah...it was rouggghh)the whole invitations. Designed everything, minus the cover of our cruise info booklet, which I kinda stole from Mrs. Snapdragon over at Weddingbee CAUSE IT WAS PERFECT! We only bought the envelopes and the pocketfolder... Let me tell you, they are lookin fresh!

I gotta come clean with ya'all. We sent our invites out 6 months before our wedding. whomp whomp whomp...

Only because this is a destination wedding, and I want everyone we love and care about to have proper time to save their baller dollers so that they can bear witness to our one and only wedding.

The etiquite police can shoot me, I don't care! If they really want to go, they need time to plan accordingly. And if they plan on attending A CRUISE-- it's not something that you can forget.

We mailed them out on Tuesday evening (about 6), and I got a RSVP back to me at work less than 24 hours later. I. LOVE. OUR. POST. OFFICE!! They deserve some cupcakes or something cause they treated my little babies like gold and got them delivered faster than a rabbit being chased by a dog.

Of course, I had to take the obligatory post office shots, enjoy!

Seriously... a cruise ship wedding?

I must say, I have heard that phrase and variations of that phrase multiple times throughout our planning process. I think most people are not aware that you actually CAN be married on a cruise ship. Chris and I are not ones to do things by the book anyways. :)

I just realized that, aside from saying we will be married on a cruise ship, I haven't provided much details! I'm a bad blogger.

If you go on your given cruise lines website (our case, Carnival) they will somewhere have a section for weddings. Carnival offers weddings both on the ship or at their port of call and they pretty much set everything up for you and allow you to pick the details. I am a no stress bride because regardless, it will be a blast.

For onboard weddings, Carnival offered three choices. We ended up selecting the Deluxe Romance package. Here is the description that they provide:

For an unforgettable celebration, this package offers the ceremony with a one and a half-hour reception. Package includes: A dedicated Wedding Agent assisting you with every detail from selecting your package to "Ido". On the day of your wedding, Priority check-in for the bridal couple and their guests, a local Wedding Officiant, A Wedding Coordinator to work solely with you and your guests, Photographer (Wedding photos/packages available for purchase separately onboard) Photography service includes the ceremony, reception, with various portraits taken around the ship and studio, Ideal wedding location, Romantic wedding set up, Selection of Wedding Vows and Poems/Readings, Recorded ceremony music, 8-Rose Bridal Bouquet with matching Rose Boutonnierre for the groom *(Flowers may vary based on some locations, where tropical arrangements will be substituted for roses. Additional flower options are available, as an upgrade). One and a half-hour Open bar with selection of hot and cold hors d' oeuvres, Ice Carving, Champagne Toast, (1-set) of etched "Our Wedding" champagne flutes, 2-Tiered Wedding Cake* with keepsake topper. Cake Server and Coffee/Tea service provided. A bottle of Sparkling Wine and Chocolate Covered strawberries for the bride and groom's stateroom. (Additional items available upon request, such as unity candle lighting ceremony, additional flowers, etc. Inquire with your Wedding Agent for more details) *2-Tiered Wedding Cake provided up to a maximum of 50 guests. Based on number of guests, a 3-Tier or 4-Tier Wedding Cake will be provided.

We decided that the hors d' oeuvres (I choose to pronounce them as whore-de-vores.. cause I'm amazing like that) would be enough for our reception cause really, we are all paying for a cruise, with included buffet meals AND sit down dining service, what is the point of paying for more food? Our guests (and me!) will appreciate the open bar much more than MORE food.

We paid for the wedding back in February, so all is pretty much taken care of. Once we paid for the wedding, Carnival sent via email a wedding contract, add-ons we can purchase, the readings they have, photography prices, cake choices, EVERYTHING. It has been so fun going through this stuff (like a menu) and picking and choosing what we want. I have no concerns about the food or the cake, everything I have ever had on any of my cruises has been better than food at home. I have complete trust in that area. Our invitations have not even gone out yet and we have over 25 people booked to join us! We feel so loved. We also get to brag that our wedding is a whole week affair, not just one day. :)

Our wedding day is also formal night on the ship. This will work out splendidly because I will be able to wear my wedding dress to dinner. There is a club onboard, we are discussing having an 'after party' of sorts after dinner. Everyone would just meet in the club and have fun.

Battle of the Ages.. part 1

It has been embroiled in battle the last few days. I am still confident I will come out victorious!

The battle, you ask?? It's all over this beauty:



This ring is officially titled the Stingray 9mm Benchmark Forge  Tungsten Wedding Band. I first spotted it in an issue of Brides magazine about 4 months ago. Yes, you read Stingray! How awesome is that? Christopher loves this ring. Well, I'm not a kajillionaire, so I had to wait until I had the proper funds to buy it-- that time is now. Just my luck, the ring has been discontinued. Insert sad face.

I searched online and found multiple sites that still have the ring listed-- YAY! I made my purchase, and then the next day got a email that they have received my order and will get the ring out to me asap.

Then the next day, I get a voicemail from them stating that the ring is no longer available. I'm disappointed, but owell, I'm not here to put this well known online ring retailer on blast, but why is it still (to this day) listed on their website as being for sale?

Anywho, I have requested a refund and found another retailer who claims to still have this ring. I will be calling them tomorrow to ensure that they actually have the ring and will be able to process my order. Wish me luck!

Guess who's back, back again...

The last few weeks have been crazy stressful. So much family drama. :( Sorry for my lack of posting!

Before my vacation, I finally had a chance to give my cousin her puzzle! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:




But she said YES! I knew she would. I am so excited I was able to make it special for her. It was a lot of fun to watch her putting it together, she was so excited. So its official, ya'all.. I gots me a fabulous matron of honor, and a sassypants bridesmaid.

That same day I invited both girls over to try on the bridesmaids dresses I bought about a month ago and they looked amazing! Check it out:



I am completely in loove with how great they look. Persistence pays off, yo! I am all about being a bargain bride.

I have so many things coming up to share, Today the wedding is 202 days away. I think I will pass out on Saturday when that 'lots of time to do stuff' 200's leaves me and 'time to get your ass in gear' 100's shows up..!

Flowers Flowers Flowers Flowers Flowers

Hi Friends! It has been almost two weeks since I have blogged-- I have a reason! No internets... yes it was a sad sad day. But I am BACK and sassier than ever. :)

Hokai, so today I want to talk about flowers. I dont really like flowers. They do not evoke any special feelings for me. But I know I want to hold em on my wedding day.

My one and only inspiration picture came from Mrs. Gummi Bear at WeddingBee:



Gah, they are so beautiful!

As you may recall, I am getting married on a cruise ship. That will be leaving the country. I can buy flowers through the cruise line, but (no joke) it's ridiculously expensive. Plus, since we will be leaving the country, I would not be allowed to take my flowers back with me at all. Customs no bueno.

Chris' mommy is known for her mad flower arranging skills, and she just so happens to have experience creating bouquets with fake flowers. Problem solved! She is creating 3 bouquets and 13 corsages/bouts.

What are all those for you may ask? Chris and I are very close to our family, and we wanted to make sure that everyone was properly flowered:

Me: Super duper fantabulous bouquet
Carrie and Chantel: Super duper fantabulous, slightly smaller bouquet
Chris, CJ, and Matt: Groom and Groomsdude's bouts
My mom, my grandma, my aunt, his mom, his grandma, his aunt: Pretty-full lady corsages
My dad, my 2 brothers, his step dad, his uncle & his grandfather: electric awesome bouts.

About 2 months ago, Chris, me, his mommy and his aunt went hunting for amazing flowers, and boy were we in luck!


Chris, his auntie, and his mommy

A few weeks ago, we were beckoned over to his aunt's house to see the progress, and make sure they are what we were wanting.. and oh my gosh-- I am in love with my flowers! Check it:


My badass bouquet


The beginnings of my bouquet and my ladies ones

annnnnnddddd



The boy bouts (bottom) and lady corsages(top)

Have you had to tweak your plans in any special way based on you wedding venue/location?

Hi Friends!

It has been a crazy week of working on the invitations-- but they are almost complete and they are looking uh-maze-ing! I can't wait to share.

In the meantime, I wanted to talk about my bridal party. I will be having my friend Carrie as the one and only bridesmaid, and my cousin/best friend Chantel as my matron of honor.

Carrie and I were out to lunch one day, and I just asked her to be my bridesmaid. Kinda lackluster, huh? I know..

I vowed that for my cousin, who lives in Washington, that I would make it special as I will not be able to ask her face to face.

I couldn't really get on board with the card idea that many brides use-- it seemed to overdone to me. I wanted (as you will learn, this is my LIFE goal) to be different. SO, I collected a few of my favorite pictures with her and played around in paint shop. This is what I came up with:


cute, right?

I mosied on over to www.walmart.com, and uploaded the picture to their website. As I type this, the above is being created by elves into an 8*10 puzzle. These aren't little pieces either, they are jigsaw sized:



I am laughing my ass off at the thought of Chantel sitting at her kitchen table putting this thing together. She will totally love it and will keep the puzzle for.ev.er. I can't wait to send it to her and hear her reaction.

Second to finding a photographer, the hunt for bridal party dresses was the second most difficult part of these planning shenanigans. I wanted my girls to look fab (not difficult, really), and be comfortable. I think it is highway robbery at gunpoint to charge $135 for a dress-- fabric that costs about $10 a yard at the max! I refuse. Needless to say, I have been searching for the duration of the engagement, until one night I was shopping (possibly for clothes for myself, not wedding related..) and I saw this:



Love.

I wanted one girl to wear pink, and one to wear orange, but I saw these and everything changed. I'm gunna lay it all out on the line for y'all -- I buy stuff on impulse and then suffer buyer's remorse, it's not cute. So, I slept on it. The next morning while at work, I knew I had to buy them. They are perfect, and will look so good on my girls with some black peep toes. Oh, and the best part?

For both the dresses, I paid $54. TOTAL.

I haven't had my girls try them on yet (they are both almost identical to my size, and it looks good on me. I can't wait till I can wrangle one of them over to model for me! I will definitely share as soon as I have some pics.

My new BFF

I would like to introduce you all to my new BFF from this weekend, her name is Ava:


We became such close friends this weekend! I told her all my secrets and everything. :)

The good news is, our invitations are almost done! We are just waiting on my order of pocketfolds from Cards and Pockets (with envelopes) but otherwise, everything was created, designed and printed by yours truly. And boy, am I exhausted!

I can't share until they are all out to our guests, but here are some action shots of our weekend!


I'm embossing something for our belly bands.. I don't normally sit with a propane heater in the middle of summer for fun... =D





I think Murphey's law completely applied to this weekend. But, being a perfectionist-- I had to get it done.. and now that they are (as much as can be for now) I am feeling so accomplished.

It's very intimidating and trying, DIY'ing these things, but I thinks its so rewarding when all is said and done.

What was the hardest part of the DIY process for you?

Love O Rama

Hey friends,

I must admit, to date, finding a photographer to entrust with our engagement pictures was hands down the hardest part of wedding planning. I have put a lot of faith in our engagement pics, because on the cruise ship, we can only use their photographer and that is, well, worrying me.. about the types of pictures I will end up with.

I guess I am kinda a photography snob. Many moons ago, before I was engaged, I stumbled across the website of an amazingly awesome, jaw dropping, photographer. Lets call this photographer Sebastian (cause I like that name. :) )

Throughout Christopher and my dating time, I knew he would eventually propose; so I was content in knowing that I had already found my dream photographer.

And then I found out that photographer Sebastian charges a minimum of $5,000 to shoot weddings.

Cue Heather passing out on the floor.

Once I regained consciousness, I resolved myself to the fact that it just wasn't going to happen. His engagement packages probably start at 2 grand I just (could not would not swing that. I love pictures as much as the next starry eyed bride, but it just wasn't happening.

I became a Google stalker. Like it was my full time job. I was determined to find a photographer that would do it for cheaper.

No luck.

And I kept wishfully saying to myself that they are not as good as Sebastian's work.

Then someone suggested Craigslist.

I went through postings for about a 200 mile radius. Most that posted on there were ok, and that was it. I was still heartset on Sebastian. FI suggested to contact them and just see how much they charge for an engagement session. At the same time, I found another photographer on Craigslist that I absolutely adored. Like, website stalking adored. I sent emails off to both to inquire about an engagement session at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.

Craigslist photographer wrote me back that evening. THAT EVENING, people!! He said that they(they are a husband and wife team) would love to do a shoot with Chris and I, and that I will get a CD of all images.

All for $200.

I was ecstatic. I booked immediately, and now Chris and I have awesome pictures like these to use:







total awesomeness.All photos are credit to the amazing Andrew and Britney Ramsey

Oh, and that other photographer? Finally emailed me back two weeks after our e-shoot, saying that they thought they replied, but their response to me had been sitting in their outbox for a month and a half. And they wanted to set up an appointment with me for a shoot.

Lesson learned: you can always find what you want, if you are willing to put forth the effort to work and search for it.

What vendor did you have a hard time finding/deciding on?