T-24 Days and Counting!

WOW! Talk about BUSY!! I have been running at super sonic speeds to finalize all of these last minute details for the wedding!! It's all coming together SO nicely and I'm impressed with myself for actually being pretty organized!!

These are just SOME of the things I have done lately...

• Ordered a photo guestbook that I made on the Shutterfly website: I am SOO excited about this guest book! It was my planner's idea, and I wasn't even going to do it... but she assured me that it doesn't take long to make, and it's so much more exciting and memorable than a regular guest book. Plus, they're pretty inexpensive on Shutterfly! I made the book with our engagement photos in about 45 minutes! The best part-- I ordered the book on a Wednesday and I received it the following Monday!! That's AWESOME!
• Ordered a directional sign to post in the yard outside the chapel on Etsy: I've already received the sign and I'm so excited about it! It's adorable... purple and white... and it will be helpful because the parking for the chapel is located in the rear of the building... so hopefully this will easily direct our guests so there is no confusion!
• Purchased tons of gold picture frames at Hobby Lobby
• Purchased crystal candle holders and taper candles for the unity candle set-up
• Purchased 20 inch wedding sparklers for the guests during our exit
• Designed and ordered the wedding programs
• Designed and ordered the rehearsal dinner invitations
• Purchased another mirror for the escort card display
• Purchased more crystals for the escort card display
• Attended a tasting at the Colonial and finalized the contract: Eric and I are so excited about the food we chose during our tasting! During the "Cocktail Hour" at the beginning of the reception, there will be 3 different appetizers served that we chose from the many delicious options they offer at the Colonial. We chose bite-sized southwestern chicken wraps, applewood bacon tartletts, and Brie and Raspberry cheese balls. Also during this cocktail hour, a "Bride's Drink" and "Groom's Dink" will be served. My drink is a purple passion martini with a lemon twist garnish, and Eric's drink is a whiskey sour with a cherry. During the entire reception, beer and wine will be available... (we were a little concerned about offering unlimited liquor drinks to our friends... haha!!) After the cocktail hour, we are having 2 buffet tables with 4 lines (hopefully this will allow everyone to get through the buffet quickly) and we will have Prime Rib, Crispy Asian Chicken, Mashed Potato Bar (mashed potatoes served in martini glasses!), Salad, and Cheese and Crackers!! THEN, an hour before the reception is over, they will be tray passing a "Late Night Snack"-- Taquitos and Quesadillas! I'm SOOO excited about that! After all the dancing {{and drinking}}, it's going to be nice to have something to much on! Haha!
• Chose all the music for the organist
• Purchased tons of cute purple wedding tissues to give to my mom, grandparents, and Eric's family
• Chose the wedding centerpiece vases: This was QUITE a task... apparently my vision of gold candelabras is just not meant to be. We found several options that were beautiful, but the price was NOT so beautiful. Every candelabra we found and liked was over $60 to rent... and I need 26 of them!! Yeah... I don't think so!! This forced me to come up with a "Plan B". Instead of gold candelabras, I chose glass champagne style vases that are about 28 inches tall. I'm going to fill the cup part of the vase with purple crystals. I know that's hard to picture, but I think it will be beautiful! I'm very happy with it... mainly because I'm SICK of trying to find gold candelabras at a decent price!! hahaha!!
• Designed a wedding itinerary brochure for all family and close friends with a detailed list of all events with times and descriptions for attire, etc.
• Ordered and received the wedding cake topper... so beautiful!!
• Ordered and received my fancy garter (not the one Eric will throw...)

I'm sure there's more that I'm not remembering right now... but WOW I've been busy!!

Not to mention, I trained Lizzie (my brother's girlfriend) for National American Miss Texas Teen and I worked on staff for Miss Fort Worth USA!!

On top of all that... Eric and I were doing millions of home improvement projects on our house and our rental property! We tore our 3rd bedroom down to the studs and re-built the entire thing in 7 days. New insulation, new sheet rock, new texture, paint, molding, etc... We also tore down the 2nd bathroom in our house and the master bathroom in our rental property and started completely fresh with new tile, vanity, mirror, lights, paint, texture... etc. It's been QUITE a project!! I feel like things are FINALLY slowing down a bit so I can really focus on the nitty-gritty details of wedding planning.

I'll be honest... I cannot WAIT for our wedding; it's going to be SO much fun and I am so excited to see everyone... but I'm going to be very relieved when all the planning is OVER! haha!

It would probably not be so tedious if I didn't have a million other things going on...

But I won't be negative Nancy...

I feel so blessed just to have the opportunity to plan a wedding!!

It's going to be incredible!!

Signed, sealed, delivered... they're yours!!!

A HUGE weight is lifted off my shoulders! The invitations are officially IN THE MAIL. But not without complications, unfortunately!!

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First, I wanted to have them mailed out during the week of June 20th... I took vacation that week and was planning on working on Wedding "stuff" and invitations the whole time. Then, TCU's baseball team made it to the College World Series, so naturally I HAD to go to Omaha, Nebraska and watch them dominate! It was SUCH a good time and I am so thankful to have the opportunity and availability to go... but it definitely put stress on my Wedding "stuff" Timeline.

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So, when I got back from vacation I immediately started practicing stamping with my super awesome wax seal stamper! I had one made probably around 8 months ago, and I was so excited that the time had finally come for me to put it to use! It was a Monday evening (June 28), and I mastered my wax seal stamping abilities, just in time for me to pick up the envelopes that Wednesday (June 30) and have them all mailed out by Thursday (July 1) .

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Then... my house cleaners came Tuesday morning.

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This is where things get interesting.

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I left my wax seal stamper out after practicing on scrap paper that Monday evening, and when the house cleaners came on Tuesday morning, they did their job and got everything picked up and put away. On Wednesday morning, my day off from work that week, I picked up the envelopes from the calligrapher bright and early with the intention of stamping and sealing the envelopes all day. So I set up my stamping station with newspaper, snacks and a good movie (knowing this would take HOURS upon HOURS), and then I went to get my wax seal stamper...

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The only problem:

I had NO idea where the cleaning ladies put it.

And neither did they.

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I came to the conclusion that it may have gotten thrown away on accident, because I literally tore apart the house for 3 hours, calling the poor house cleaning ladies intermittently, and I was never able to find the stamp.

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So, after ordering a NEW custom engraved wax seal stamper (that takes 10-14 days to arrive), I spent the remainder of that Wednesday stuffing the envelopes and getting everything BUT the wax seal completed and ready to be mailed.

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Then, the next fiasco happens...

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As I'm nearing the end of my envelope stuffing, I notice that I still have several envelopes, response cards, and reception cards left... but not very many invitations. I counted everything and realized that I only had 180 invitations and 200 of everything else!!! I had been shorted 20 invitations!!

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I was SO frustrated and in a total panic because I figured since the invitations are letter-pressed, it was going to take a couple weeks to get them back to me. PLUS, it was 4th of July weekend by this point! I called Byrd+Bleeker (where I ordered my invitations) in a tizzy on Saturday morning and explained the shortage on their voicemail... then sent an email to the owner and my friend who works there... AND sent a facebook message to my friend who works there... (can you tell I was a little freaked out?)

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Thankfully, Libby (the owner at Byrd+Bleeker) was FANTASTIC. She got in touch with Smock Press (the makers of my invitations) and had my missing 20 invitations pressed and delivered immediately. Only 4 days later, (July 7), I received my box of invitations via FedEx Overnight from the "Royal Dutch Printing Factories in Holland" (that's what the box said). I was so impressed and so thankful that this wouldn't cause further delay in getting the invitations mailed.

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Needless to say, when I received my wax stamper this Monday (July 12), I was OVERJOYED about getting my invitations COMPLETE!!

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So without further adieu,

(and with a sneak peak at the wax seal stamping process that took me 6 hours to complete),

they are in fact,

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Signed, sealed, AND delivered...

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Thank

{God}

!!

...Comment Away!!

Guess What?!

Ever since I started this blog over a year ago, nobody has been able to leave comments. I have no idea why, and I even talked to some expert bloggers about my settings to try and fix the problem, but to no avail.

THEN... LAST NIGHT...

I FIXED IT!

All I did was mess with the settings, and I changed the comments from being "embeded" to "pop-up window"... then I also changed it so that all comments are sent to my email for approval before posting.

It WORKED!!

I am so excited because this blog was intended to be interactive... not just for show. I want to hear feedback, opinions, tips, and advice from other brides-to-be, or veterans who have been-there-done-that.

I can't wait to hear from you...

so feel free to comment away!!

Bridal Portraits!!

Joe from JosephMark Photography has done it again!!

I am in love with my bridal portraits!!

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Joe was able to capture the exact look that I was hoping for-- shot after shot!! I am so pleased!!

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I'll tell you what... JosephMark Photography is worth every penny. He nailed our engagement photos and now my bridal portraits... I just can't wait to see what he will do for our wedding! He is so talented and dedicated. As a matter of fact, we drove around for over 40 minutes to find the "perfect place" for the shot in the field. He wanted a certain color field, and he wasn't going to quit until we got the shot! The shoot ended up being 4 hours long... and I loved every minute!

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Thank you to my BROTHER, who tagged along for the ENTIRE four hours to help move the settee and keep me hydrated in the 103 degree heat!!

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Also, Jacquelyn and Tessa... thank you for being there and being so helpful! It's so much easier to get things done when you have wonderful friends who are there every step of the way!

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So without further adieu...

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(and don't worry, Eric doesn't look at my blog because he knows I post wedding dress pics, and he REALLY wants to be surprised)...

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Here are my top 20 favorite shots...

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Bridal Portrait Sneak Preview... Via iPhone!

My bridal portraits were today, and although the weather forecast predicted nothing but thunder storms, it turned out to be a beautiful and sunny day!!

~WHAT A BLESSING!!~

We started at the Japanese Gardens in the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens, then moved to Trinity Park, and then ended up in a field behind an abandoned grain silo.

The vintage settee that I refurbished was SUCH a fantastic touch to the pictures. I absolutely CANNOT WAIT to see them!!

My brother, however, knows how impatient I am... so he snapped a couple shots with his iPhone!!! That was so super sweet of him... here are a couple of the pics!

Well... I took this one of myself in the car.

"Fashions fade, Style is eternal." -YSL

Well, I am excited to say that I received

{quite the compliment}

today!!

I received a "Stylish Blogger Award"!

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One of my beautiful Delta Gamma sisters, Lacey Shields at Mille Baisers, was given this award by Simply Girly, and she was told to pass along the award to two other Stylish Bloggers!

I love my blog and it certainly reflects my taste, style and personality accurately... so, how rewarding it is to receive acknowledgement from other very stylish bloggers!

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What a fun way to start my day...

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Now I need to pass this award on to 2 other Stylish Bloggers!!

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...And the Stylish Blogger Award goes to:

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1. Lyndsey at http://www.theloflands.blogspot.com/

2. Ashlee at http://www.davidandashlee.blogspot.com/

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Congrats, Ladies!! You deserve it :)

"I love luxury." -Coco Chanel

Fabulous news!!

My incredible planner, Kristen Knight of Shenanigans Weddings & Events, set up a meeting for me to meet with Lesleigh Smith of Lux Event Design to see what she what she had to offer for table linens and other decor ideas for the wedding. To my supreme amazement, she laid out probably more than 15 different fabric swatches for table linens and chair covers in the purple palette which matches our wedding colors. I was immediately drawn to this beautiful eggplant colored brocade fabric with lavender scrolling throughout. It's the most perfect linen design... literally, if I could have designed something in my head that would be the most ideal choice for our wedding reception table linens, this would be it. Additionally, she had perfectly matching eggplant lamour chair covers and lavender chair ties. We proceeded to decide on a design for the cake tables, cocktail tables, guest book table, etc... which we concluded would have a floor length lavender lamour table cloth with amethyst crinkle taffeta draped around the edges.

After deciding on the most perfect table linens I could possibly ask for, Lesleigh started talking to me about the candy buffet that I have planned for the wedding. I had initially planned on ordering everything and setting up the candy buffet by myself to save money. However, after Lesleigh started talking to me about her services and what she can offer, I realized that the cost of having Lesleigh's company do the candy buffet versus me doing everything myself was almost the same!! The best part is that I don't have to worry about expedited shipping so the candy won't melt, ending up with tons of glass apothecary jars after the wedding that I will never use, stressing out about making it to the venue early enough to get it set up properly on the day of the wedding, and so much more!
Needless to say, I said "YES" to Lesleigh and Lux Event Design on the spot!! It will be SO nice to know that several professionals with a knack for design will be setting up all of my table linens and the candy buffet so I won't have to spend HOURS on my wedding day completing these time consuming details!!

My advice to anyone planning their wedding...

Hire Kristen Knight from Shenanigans Weddings & Events to save your sanity...

and let Lesleigh from Lux Event Design help make your reception beautiful!!