Planning Present From My Matron Of Honor

My Matron of Honor came up from Florida this past weekend to help get some planning done for the big day! I couldn't have asked for a better Matron Of Honor or a more fun weekend! More to come on the big weekend...

She brought me a great planning present...an accordion file and a leather bound journal. The file is perfect for all of the odds and ends of the wedding, and she even personalized it with a label "If found return to..." This really made me laugh because it just proves she knows me too well! The leather journal is embossed with sunflowers, which is the main flower I am using in my wedding. Now I have a place to keep all of my notes rather than on random notepads. They are both perfect!

We've Been Engaged For One Year

This afternoon I realized that my HTB and I have been engaged for one year!

Our engagement "anniversary" is February 22nd.

WOW how time flies when you're having fun! :)

Here we are on Valentine's day!

Save-The-Date Factory

So I had told y'all that I received my save-the-dates in the mail which was very exciting!

This week I have been working diligently to finish my wedding website through WeddingTracker.com so that I can send all of my cards out. I want to be sure to have all of the hotel information updated on the website so my out of town guests can reserve their rooms now!

I have also been gathering the last of the needed addresses and buying the very cute Wedding Hearts stamps. I also found out that in May the postage will be going up so I was careful not to stock up on too many of these!

This is a picture of the Save The Date factory on my dining room table. I am using double-sided tape to adhere the printed portion to the pretty brown stargazer paper. Then on to lick and seal...and finalize with the customized ink stamp my mom got for me. SO COOL!

The Man Band (Wedding band that is)

Saturday was a big day for our wedding planning. In addition to registering at Target we swung by Guvens Fine Jewelery to look at a few options for wedding bands for my HTB.

He had in mind that he wanted something simple and heavy duty as he has never worn a ring before, but felt pretty confident that he would be rough on it. We had looked at Titanium rings online and thought the material would be a good solution and hold up well with wear and tear. Titanium is not supposed to scratch or break as gold can. It also cannot be fitted, so often you have to order the ring in from the manufacturer.

We had only intended to look and try on a few different options, but we left with his ring in hand. Mr. Guven gave us a great price and the ring fit perfectly (no order needed). It was meant to be, and we came in far under budget.

The Save-The-Dates Have Arrived

Great news! Last night when I came home I had a special box waiting for me at my front door. My save-the-date cards have arrived from InvitationPie!

They look GREAT just as I had expected. Sandy at InvitiationPie was awesome to work with and she even tied all of the cards together with beautiful brown ribbon. What a nice touch!

More to come on the save the date cards as we have to assemble them!

Registering

This past Saturday my HTB and I registered at Target. We wanted to choose three stores that would offer a wide variety of things we needed for our home and to start our life together.

We have registered with Pampered Chef, Crate and Barrel, and Target. I was able to do the Pampered Chef registry all online. My aunt is a sales representative, and I L-O-V-E their products! You can check her site out here to learn more.

Our registry experience at Target was a little rough. We came into the store on a Saturday afternoon...which in retrospect was a bad idea. The customer service crew was not helpful. They directed us to a computer where we were to type in some information to establish our registry. They failed to tell us that we were using a computer which often does not print. We found that out when it failed to print and were told that we had made the mistake of using the wrong computer...grr...

So after being directed to a computer terminal that worked, we couldn't find the correct screen we had to be at to print out the needed information to get our scanner gun. Ok...so after being yelled at from across the room we were able to successfully print!

Now we had a scanner in hand and were off to the races. I chose Target because I wanted to get towels, table linens, some small kitchen appliances, yard games like badminton, and some home decor as well. When we started to scan items they rang up wrong. For example, I was scanning a serving dish and I was suddenly registered for a TV Stand. The other issue we had was we were told not to scan items that were on clearance as they were more season items. I can understand this, but they had all of their table linens on clearance. (Go check it out if you are in the market!) So I will have to add those items later or online.

All in all the experience wasn't my best. The customer service was poor, the equipment (scanner and computer) didn't fully function as advertised, and the items I wanted were on clearance and wouldn't be available in September.

What Will I Pick?

This Scanner Is Smokin' From All The Scanning!

Anybody else have a bad registry experience?

The First Dance

I have been thinking about the first dance for a long time, maybe even before I got engaged. I have been looking for a few good dance classes in the metro area so if anybody out there has any good recommendations please pass them along.

Now, I found this dance on YouTube when I was looking for some fresh ideas. I think this would blow my family away...what do you guys think? :) Click the link below to view the video!

Click Here To View The YouTube Video

Possible Wedding Songs

So I want the music to be fantastic during the reception. Here are a list of songs I have been thinking about...

• Aretha Franklin "You're All I Need To Get By"



• Tim McGraw "My Best Friend"



• Al Green "Let's Get Married"



• Nat King Cole "Unforgettable"



• Ben E. King "Stand By Me"



• Rod Steward "Have I Told You Lately"



• Elton John "Something About the Way You Look Tonight"



• Billy Joel "Just The Way You Are"



• Billy Joel "Shes Got A Way"

Oh there are tons of country songs that would be perfect...but that's for another blog post :)

It's All About The Bling- The Engagement Ring

So when my HTB and I started looking at engagement rings we were so overwhelmed. Everybody seemed to have really good advice for us. I had a jeweler that I had worked with in the past and I of course went to him first. We worked with Guvens Fine Jewelry. This is a family-owned jewelry store with a large and beautiful assortment of rings to choose from.


I remember walking into Mr. Guven's store at the Mall of Georgia with this awesome feeling...I felt special and like a one-of-a-kind bride to be. Mr. Guven worked with us to find the perfect setting then gave us a wide array of options for the stone. I picked two settings that I loved for their unique designs and then picked out two different cut of stones that I liked for each. I let the HTB do the rest at another time.


It was really fun to go ring shopping together, and I really recommend it to all the gals out there. This is a piece of jewelry that you will be wearing for the rest of your life, it only seems appropriate that you would help pick it out. (This is my practical side talking, not the romantic one). We did visit other stores and learned more about the pricing of diamonds because we wanted to make sure we were getting a good quality stone for our hard earned money.


So here is some of the knowledge that I learned that may help some of you out there when looking for your diamond...


The 4 C's

• Cut: This is the shape, proportion, and cutting style of the diamond. What you are looking for in a good cut is a stone's "fire" meaning that there is a lot of light and brilliance in the stone. If a stone is poorly cut it will appear to leak color out the sides, and will not show the stone's natural color. It will appear dull and lifeless.


• Clarity: Clarity is the degree to which a stone approaches perfection. Keep in mind that stones have natural flaws. Internally they are called inclusions and externally they are called blemishes. There are eleven grades in the Gemological Institute of America's scale that range from flawless (F or FL) to stones where inclusions can be seen with the naked eye (I).


• Color: Color, like clarity, is rated on a scale. A perfect diamond has no color and would be given a "D" on the scale. Diamonds with the most yellow or brown color would be rated on the scale at a N-Z rating.


• Carat: Carat is a unit measurement for a diamond's weight. One carat weighs about the same as a paperclip.

Diamonds are rated and priced with the consideration of the 4 C's. A diamond with a carat weight of one can be considerably more expensive it has very little color and has a near perfect clarity than another one carat diamond.

Breaking The News-- When it doesn't go smoothly...

OK breaking the news doesn't always go as smoothly as you hope...

While all of my family was on-board and excited that we were engaged I had a bit of a hang-up with an old friend...

My friend (we will change the name to save the innocent hehe) Sabrina and I had been friends since elementary school. We moved away from each other and slowly over the years grew apart. Although I still consider a friend, we are certainly not as similar as we had once been. We have different friends, different lifestyles, and different dreams than when we had been so close as children.

I called her a day after we got engaged to let her know the big news...the response I got was..."I had better be your Maid of Honor!". Okay that was not what I was expecting...she had met my HTB once and we had dated for four years! I was in shock and immediately I got defensive and froze. I didn't know what to say so I managed something to the effect of "Wow! I hadn't even thought about that yet". She went on to share her pessimistic outlook on my relationship which made me find a reason to get off the phone fast! Looking back I wish I had attacked the situation head-on and explained my true feelings instead of letting it go for so long.

Today, almost a year after that conversation, I have only texted with her once or twice and have avoided the wedding conversation all together. I have already chosen the girls that I want to stand next to me at my wedding, and breaking that news to my old friend will be really hard. Today I will be calling to get her address for the save the date that I am sending out...ohhh boy!

Setting the Date

My HTB didn't have a lot to say about the actual day that we got married. We were not attached to a date like a dating anniversary or the date that we got engaged and were wide open to suggestions for the perfect date.

One very unique thing about our engagement is that the day that my HTB proposed we had been dating for 1, 234 days. The joke in our family is that we will have a huge celebration when we hit 5,678...ok cheesy but strange at the same time :)

My mom, The Mother of the Bride (MOB), did have plenty of suggestions as to the date that we would be married. We chose September 5th. This is the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend. Any native Atlanta resident knows that we generally have awesome weather this weekend, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for pristine weather since we are having an outdoor ceremony.

The reason that the MOB wanted this weekend is to help accommodate our large number of out of town guests. Much of our family lives on the West coast and the extra day off from work will make travel easier. The downside of this is that hotel rooms and flights tend to be a bit more expensive. To help our family with this we made sure to let them know right away that our date would fall on a holiday weekend and to start booking early.

These are some holidays to perhaps think twice about before committing...

• April Fool's Day
• Christmas
• Father's Day
• Friday the 13th
• September 11th
• Superbowl weekend (HTB would flip if I messed up his TV viewing pleasure!)

Breaking The News...Our Engagement Party

So I am at that point in my life where a lot of my friends are getting engaged or married. My HTB (husband to be) and I did things a little less traditionally than some of our other friends. We announced to my parents that we were thinking of getting engaged, then suddenly we were thrown into full planning mode. HTB and I were purchasing a home before we knew it, and hadn't gotten engaged yet!

I tend to be a more practical gal, but I did want an element of surprise to my engagement story. After all you will tell this story for the rest of your life (and countless number of times for the two weeks following your engagement). Being a good HTB, I got a great story and a great ring and we were off to the races.

My future mother in-law (FMI) threw us a great engagement/going away party since we would be moving into the new home together prior to getting married. (this was a sticky subject with some of our family, but I have to say living together before marriage was a personal choice and it has worked for us). We didn't use a formal invitation for our engagement party, just a general word of mouth to family and friends about a month before the event. My FMI is a great cook and prepared a huge spread of yummy rolled tacos and appropriate side dishes. (she is Hispanic, and I just happen to LOVE Mexican food) The rolled tacos were perfect because they were hand held and contained...in other words they weren't messy and didn't spill! Many of our guests stood and mingled (because we had a house-full). We of course had chairs for those who wanted to sit.

I did of course ask my HTB to give a toast to thank everybody for coming together and sharing the special time with us. I know he was nervous about this so I showed him this website to help him put together a great toast. Click Here To Visit The Love To Know Site.

All in all, our engagement party was just what I wanted, a gathering of friends and family and really good food. It was less formal than others may want. Here are some ideas to make your engagement party perfect...

• The guest list should be limited to those who you will be inviting to the wedding. If you are unsure of your guest list for the wedding play it safe and invite family members and close friends.
• It was traditional for the couple to greet their guests at the door as they arrived at the party. This can make people feel uncomfortable and also create a long line at the door. Today, I would recommend creating name tags for each of your guests. The tags should include the guest's name and something like "Susie's college roommate" or "Steve's co-worker". This will help your guests mingle.
• You should consider activities to bring guests together. If you are having a backyard BBQ consider lawn games. You can also create a quiz about the couple to test guest's knowledge of the couple's history.
• Consider hosting the party at a restaurant. Many restaurants in our area have separate dining rooms for large gatherings. You can talk to the restaurant ahead of time to create a specialty menu to help minimize cost. Guests also appreciate a specialty menu as it alleviates any concern for their choice of dinner entree.

My Two Dads...At the Engagement Party

My HTB and FMIL (Future Mother-In Law)

One of My Besties (as in best friend)

I'm Engaged...Now What?

I am a local Atlanta resident and guess what...I just got engaged! Well...not exactly, I got engaged almost a year ago, but I am just now getting around to planning my wedding.

I am an only child, and my mom has been dreaming of the perfect wedding for me since I was five years old. The stories have varied from a Snow White wedding walking down Peachtree Street in Atlanta with the release of live doves. The most recent story has helped shaped my actual wedding which will take place over Labor Day Weekend this September.

This September the guests at my wedding with experience a near perfect Italian celebration of two people coming together to celebrate their love. (cough...it sounds a little mushy). This blog is all about the questions I have or had in getting to the alter. Anybody out there in cyber space is welcome to contribute or ask questions!