We just received the first set of our photos back from Melanie and I couldn’t wait to share them with all of you!

(You can click any of the photos to make them larger)

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I still can’t quite believe it when I say it, but I’m a married lady now!  A “Mrs.”!  After all, at 30, I had come to think that I may never get married.  And I was okay with it.  I was okay because I knew I hadn’t met the one for me yet, and rather than get married just to be married, I knew I would rather be happy by myself.  But then I met Chris, and all of that changed!  I wouldn’t trade my single days for anything - I really “found” myself and figured out what was important to me in life and in relationships.  And I had a ton of fun!! ;-)  But now that Chris is in my life, and is my husband, I’m happily and excitedly looking forward to the next chapter.

So, how was the wedding you ask??

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I wanted to take this week’s post to thank all of you who’ve read and shared your support, opinions, and ideas with me.  I still have a week to go, but as this week was swamped - I’m sure next week will be too.

I especially want to thank Elizabeth and Anne for all of their hard work and helpful guidance to me along the way, and for letting me blog about my experiences here.  I am truly grateful for all that they’ve done for me and for how kind and thoughtful they are.  I think their blog is wonderful, and it’s been so fun to read about all the different stories, ideas, and projects, and to look at all the beautiful pictures they’ve posted.  They truly are inspirational.

It seems like not that long ago I went on a blind date for lunch, and ended up spending 12 hours on the best date of my life.  I knew he was special, and could be “the one”, and was lucky that he felt the same way.  Through our two and a half years we’ve had our ups and downs, but I am so lucky to be marrying the guy who loves me no matter what - even when I’m grumpy, frustrated, or having a “crazy” moment.  I am thankful for having him in my life, and I look forward to sharing the rest of my life with him.

 
{Author’s personal collection}

I hope all of you who are getting married that are reading this remember that your wedding day is really a celebration of your commitment to one another, and all the other stuff - the dress, the venue, the cake, the pretty invitations - all of it is just gravy.  (But gravy is delicious, so enjoy it!)

Next week will be my last week as a single lady!  Is it sad that I used to identify with the girls on “Sex and the City”, and now I’m wanting to be more like Melinda Gordon on “The Ghost Whisperer” (without the whole talking to dead people)??  While I’m kind of sad that my fun single days are over, I’m definitely excited to settle down with my sweetheart!

Take care - and have a great weekend!!

And CONGRATULATIONS go out to Guilty Secret who’s getting married this weekend!!  Get your sparklers ready!

Since EAD is doing DIY month in November, I thought I would share with you all my DIY necklaces and earrings that I made for my bridesmaids!

Early on, a friend of mine whose hobby it is to make jewelry suggested that we make something for my wedding.  Since I wanted to give my bridesmaids something special for their gift, I thought this would be perfect.  After discussing different styles and looks, we settled on using freshwater pearls and incorporating gold accents in with it.  I thought this would be pretty with the gold accents I was using in the wedding and tie into their gold shoes.  Also, freshwater pearls are pretty affordable.  In Dallas, there is a place called the Rock Barrell that sells them, along with beads and findings for making jewelry.  My total for all the supplies - the jewelry wire, the pearls, beads, crimp tubes, clasps, the earrings - was approx. $130.  This also included 4 brooch backs that I ended up not using.

We decided on a double strand design of mixed freshwater pearls (whiter ones mixed with ones that had a “peachy” tone) and gold beads.  For the earrings, we went simple and did studs.

And voila!

Here is a quick run-down of how we made them.

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Something that I just thought about this week, as a cold front came through, is that I may get cold at my wedding - especially as we exit and take a carriage ride off.

That’s what happens when you live in Texas, where it’s always hot!  You forget that in mid-November, the nights are a little chilly!!

So I’ve been browsing around trying to get some ideas for something that would be cute with my dress, keep me warm, is affordable, and would be something that I would wear again.  I think my #1 fave right now is this classic style bamboo-fiber wrap from Amazon.com

At only $19.99, it’s a great price.  Plus, it comes in many colors.

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Hi everyone!

As some of you may know, my wedding is coming up in LESS THAN A MONTH now! November 15th, to be exact. Last Friday night, I met with my parents to go over the ol’ budget one last time and to see what else is left. Sounds like a pretty kickin’ Friday night, huh? Well, I have to brag a little, I was pretty much where I thought I would be. I am not one of those, what you would call, financial geniuses. Before we committed to anything major early on in the planning process, I did sit down and drew up a rough draft of the budget I wanted to try and stick to. From other friends’ weddings and lots and lots of internet research, I had some ideas of what things might cost and the prices that we needed to aim for. But the tracking spreadsheet?? Yeah, that was all my Dad. I got updates, and kept a notebook with all my contracts and info. I am by no means advocating that this is the smart approach… because it’s not. I should have been more exacting. But I wasn’t, and luckily it all worked out.

So in the interest of helping other brides just starting their planning, I thought I would share the rough rundown of my budget, where it went, and any tips I may have unknowingly picked up along the way.

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As we get closer and closer to our date (which is still 5 weeks away!), it seems like many of the decisions left to be made are kind of tedious… and stressful!  What color of ribbon should I use on my cake?  What print of paper for the programs?  How should I arrange our tables, and what about the seating chart?  You have much less free time to think about these things, and after months and months of planning - either you know exactly what you want, or you’re not as enthusiastic as you were at the beginning.  It’s not that I don’t care anymore, I just think that I’m really going to enjoy de-stressing on the honeymoon!

Like I have said before - some of these wedding decisions are much more fun to make than others!  So after discussing the programs and escort cards, and finding out how much it will cost us to make our exit via a horse-drawn carriage ride (which is ridiculous!!), I just wanted to look at some eye-candy.  That’s when I saw them, again.  Birdcage veils!

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At six weeks to go until our wedding, we are starting to really think about and plan all the little details like hotel and map enclosures for our invitations, small ceremony details, escort cards, and programs.  I would like to have some sort of program for the ceremony, but I  a) don’t want it to cost a lot and  b) don’t want it to be too complicated.  An idea that I had was to find an interesting printed paper, and use that for the programs and accent on the escort cards.  Originally, I had wanted something that incorporated both the navy blue (even if it was just touches of it) and the terracotta/orange color, but that wasn’t too Asian influenced.  This was much harder than I expected, so if any of you have great sources for paper with printed designs, feel free to share!!  But, while browsing at my local JoAnn fabrics store, I came across this paper which I thought was really pretty, incorporated the creams and golds we are using, and had a nice saying about the memories we make and keep throughout our lives.

One of the ideas I had for programs was to roll up the paper and tie it with a ribbon, like this:

This would be easy and simple to do.  But, after seeing A.’s beautiful programs, I was inspired to maybe take the paper and attach it to a piece of cardstock and do something similar.

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I am learning the true importance of leaving yourself enough time to deal with problems that come up in the wedding planning process.

This week, after E. worked very hard on Gocco-ing my wedding invitations, they have been lost in shipment.  Well, not absolutely and totally lost just yet (they are still looking for the box), but as of this moment, they can’t find them.  And, due to needing to get them out in the next week or two, we may be forced to go with a Plan B.  A Plan B that I’m very grateful to have!  Luckily, I gave myself a little extra time.  I’m thinking now that I should have given myself a little MORE time, but I have a little.

Here are some pictures that E. forwarded to me just last week of my beautiful invitations that are now (maybe) lost somewhere in a warehouse…

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Oh, hello Myra from Twigs & Honey!  Why, what a beautiful flower you’re wearing… what?  It’s for me??

That’s right!  This week I received this GORGEOUS flower in the mail for my wedding!!  It’s so beautiful in person, and I think will be so pretty in my hair on my wedding day.  It’s so tactile, I couldn’t resist the urge to touch it when it came (with clean fingers, of course)!

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