Wedding Weekend Pt. II

Seriously. That last post wasn't a joke. It just continued today! Wedding weekend has continued into a two parter. So, to continue...

Today, the mother, me, and the future-mother-in-law met the sister to look at a venue. I've stalked this venue online for what seems like ever. I just keep looking and looking and memorized the price chart, the capacity, etc. But, man. Seeing it for real, in person; actually getting to visualize how my wedding could look was just amazing. I really loved it. I liked everything about it. It doesn't look like much on the website, but really... it's a great site. Very versatile. I can do a lot with it and it's so gorgeous on its own that I won't even have to do much decorating. Super plus for me.


Main Room for the reception.

Deck for the outdoor ceremony.

source for both pictures

The picture doesn't do the venue justice. It's got a huge deck out to one side, a fabulous view all around it, nice lighting. Oh, it's going to be amazing. Plus, a really reasonable price, tables and chairs included, 6 hour rental, free set-up, a bridal room, a kitchen, bathrooms, and a small storage area where I can go drop off some decorations a few days before. Oh, and did I mention I get to bring in my own catering and alcohol?! Huge savings to me.

It's got a gorgeous outdoor stone pavilion in the front for some really great photo backgrounds, and because I'm renting the venue, I can take my bridals up there whenever I want, I just have to let the wonderful wedding coordinator know. So, after signing some papers, dropping a check and walking away a happy bride, we all left to go get lunch. The sister had things to do, so it was me and the moms! We left to eat delicious meals, I had a rather "wild" salad... too wild for me, but I had a delicious dessert thing. We discussed wedding plans, logistics, etc all lunch. Amazing. I already have the most amazing mom ever, but I'm so excited to be getting such an amazing (non-psychotic, as so many are) mother-in-law.

We then went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to finish my registry. We spent oh, Lord, probably two or three hours just doing registry. The bridal registry lady was IN-TENSE. She wanted me to register for TWELVE sets of towels. TWELVE! Who needs twelve sets of towels? Also, she suggested three sets of sheets and two sets of eight place settings for my table. I was like... uh, Lori... you're crazy. We had a blast though me, my mom, and my future M.I.L. We found everything else I would need and even found some stuff I liked better than what I found at Target. So, the registry= complete. All I gotta do now is kinda putz around with various things, taking of double registered items and such.

Even after the registry, my mom and I ran to DSW to see if we saw shoes we liked, Charming Charlie's (an accessories store here in Allen) and then home. We later ran to Hobby Lobby to buy some things for a mock-up hair piece for my wedding, also to Kohl's to get napkins- which we found! Then finally, after a day of productive wedding-ness, we went home. I also got some really, really excellent news from my amazing future-in-laws.

They are going to pay for our cakes and for us to get our flowers done. That means saving me time from having to do them before the wedding. Not having to spend the money, and they gave Trenton and I a huge gift that I could not be more thankful for. I have the best in-laws. I had definitely already found a way to do my cake and flowers on the cheap for my budget's sake, but this. Oh, this was huge. I almost cried when my future M.I.L. told me she wanted, not to pay for my bulk floral, but for someone to do them for me. I couldn't believe it. AMAZING! I could not be more thankful and I have such generous family and I can only hope that they have as much fun going on cake tastings and floral meeting business as I do. It was such a blessing to have that taken off my shoulders. Gah. I can't even tell you.

The wedding is almost done. I can't even believe it. Now I really need to send out my Save-The-Dates!

Wedding Weekend

I am not even kidding you, it's been wedding weekend in the life of Sara.
In one day, I got my gown and started my registry, plus tomorrow I'm going with my mom, sister and the fiance's mom to go look at possible venues.

My dress-capades: I went to a teeny-tiny bridal boutique in Addison to just browse, no buying, just looking. We looked around, rummaged through the clearance rack and picked out a good 8 or 9 dresses. I tried the first one on, and it was amazing. I then tried on a smorgasbord of dresses ranging from the very good to the very bad. Many my sister liked, but I hated; some my mom liked, but my sister didn't; there were even some we ALL vetoed. But, in the end, I slipped back into my magnificent, glorious first gown and looked. We all looked.

This dress. This stunning dress. It fit me like a glove. I wouldn't need alterations, the saleswoman told me. Throw on a pair of heels and I don't even have to mess with the hem. All that would need to happen was adding the strings for a bustle and a steam press before the wedding. No weight loss or mega alterations needed. A perfect dress. Made for me. Simple, elegant, and so... so ME!

We looked at this dress. I walked in the dress to see it in motion. I bent over to make sure nothing was going to fall out or rip. I looked at my mom. I looked at the sales woman... she told me it was on sale. From the clearance rack, and still on sale. Cheaper than the clearance rack?! How could this be?!

This gown, this unbelievable $750 gown... this 100% silk, gorgeous gown... was on clearance. Down to $300. But alas! the gown was even further discounted! And for what, a small, unnoticeable stain!? This dress was priced at an unbelievable $99 before taxes. I looked at my mom, quietly, questioningly, "Are we going to do it?" She looked back at me and said, "I think so." I turned to the wonderful sales woman and owner and I said, "Well, we're taking it!" She smiled, excited I had found my dress in her store and said she would take it downstairs to get it ready.

We followed quickly downstairs, she got our payment, got our paperwork and put my dress into that take-home dress bag. She carried it out to our car, hugged me and asked me to send pictures of the wedding. I jumped up and down a little with my sister and quickly started sending the text messages. I haven't have felt more like a bride than that.

I love my dress. Love it. Almost as much as the man I'm going to marry. I'm glad I have such an amazing dress to marry the man of my dreams. It's fantastic.

Besides the dress shopping this afternoon, I also got my registry started. What a fiasco. Holy cow. Trying to remember what I had and didn't have. Thinking about what Trenton would like that I like too. We hadn't chosen a color scheme for the bathroom or living room, so I just kinda went with something that I liked that wasn't too girly. There are no flowers in what I registered for. I'm hitting up another store tomorrow for bedding and some other miscellaneous stuff. It's rather stressful trying to decide what to register for and what is good for decorating, and what gadgets you need. It's insane. I don't think Hollywood realizes.

A Woman's Best Friend

Aside from diamonds (which I already have!), shoes are the next best thing. So, obviously I've started looking for some shoes to wear with my yet-to-be-seen wedding dress. I haven't gone shopping for a dress, but I figure shoes are shoes. I can kinda decide my shoes and bring them with when I go dress shopping.

I've thought about doing something like this...

source

Going a little funky:

source

Doing something classic...

source

Being completely ridiculous:

source

Or just going barefoot. We'll see.

It was seriously like the apocalypse...

So... around 11:00 this morning, our hot water heater exploded in my apartment...
With my Save the Date cards sitting on the floor...

Anyone else see the possible destruction coming?!

Thankfully, all was not lost. The nice neighbors realized that water was coming into their apartment from ours and called maintenance. When my roommate, Meghan, got to the house at 11:30, the maintenance guys had huge vacuums sucking the water out of our apartment. By the time I got there at 12:30, all the water was off the tile, but our carpet was still a small pond. The carpet guys had managed to move all of our furniture- including things on the floor like my laptop, blankets, pillows, textbooks, and my Save the Date cards! YAY!

Absolutely nothing was ruined. We got very, very lucky with our small flood. Right now, my apartment is in total chaos with furniture moved off of wet spots, into my hallway, and some giant fans and dehumidifiers all over my hallway and the living room. They are hoping to get our carpet pads replaced in a few days and in the process of our carpet getting ruined, we got our stove top, toilets (yes, toilets. Both toilets in our apartment went out and we were having to use the toilet in the clubhouse.), kitchen light and base boards fixed. They are thinking they may have to even rip out part of our wall to fix it because of all the mold that's been growing for who knows how long.

On a happier note, I found an awesome website for free fonts! I literally downloaded close to 100 fonts for free! I'm planning fun ways to use them in invitations, programs, response cards, and whatever else I want. They're so cute!

Anyone need some free fonts!?

STDs!

Of all kinds, colors, and shapes. Except, the good kind. Of paper. And really only one size and one shape. And one color. To inform you avid blog-followers of the date of our wedding. Which, if you do read this blog, you already know, just now you'll have something to hang on the fridge. These save-the-date cards were finished in just one night! It took me all of... three hours? to line, print, cut, stuff, seal and address. I give you...

THE STDs!

Those are the self-lined envelopes I made. Pre-purchased envelopes, but the pretty paper was all me, baby.


These are self-made using templates on Word. Not the fanciest thing, but I'm proud of them 'cuz I made them myself.

Expect them in the mail relatively soon.

Invitations... again?

So, with our new color added to the basket, of course new invitations were created.

I started to look at pocket fold invitations recently and decided that I really liked the look of them. However, to purchase pre-made pocket fold invitations, even without inserts and such, is still ridiculously expensive. So... I give to you:

MY DIY POCKET FOLDS!

(All photos courtesy of yours truly!)

With the new color, it gave me new opportunity to try my hand at pocket fold invitations. I'm pretty excited about them. I'm going to change them up just a little based on how the response cards fit in. So, we'll see. But, I wanted to go ahead and give you a peek at what to expect when your invitation comes!

Holy Cow, Batman!

Yeah, Batman's got nothing to do with this post.

But wouldn't a Batman-themed wedding be epic? (Although, SO not happening!)

It's been a while since the last blog. Wedding planning came to a stand-still as finals happened, some plans got rearranged, and no date was set. For a few short days, I was not even going to come back to OU. I was planning on coming home to Allen, working for a semester and going back to school in the fall at UNT, UTD, etc. Those plans quickly changed because we realized that it would take me extra semesters to finish at home, and thus equal more money. So, in the end, it sums to the same amount of tuition. What up. Coming back to OU. My roommates were thrilled, I was thrilled, and I am taking an extra semester to graduate for my sanity. (Still graduating a semester early!)

But, then, coming back to OU after previously cancelling all of my classes, left me with few options for classes. After arguing with the bursar, I got my holds cleared and I came back to my apartment. Upon my return I checked my e-mail and found an e-mail about online science classes! WHAT?! So, I looked into it, got enrolled in every single one, and I am now in three online science classes (that will count for my major coursework!) and one online elective credit. Hooray for epic semesters.

So, with my free course schedule I get to do schoolwork when I want to do schoolwork-- within reason, of course. I still have to turn things in on specific dates. But, seeing as I have all this free time during the day, I got a full-time job to pay for said wedding epic-ness.

Speaking of wedding, we have changed colors up a little. I kept looking at wedding blogs, wedding sites, wedding magazines, anything for weddings, I was all over that. So, I started to think maybe I didn't like our colors. Maybe I should try something new that's not so typical "wedding" as pink and black. But, I couldn't get my favorite flower in any other color I like besides white and pink, so we (Yes, we. Trenton actually helped make this decision!) stuck with pink. However, we're adding green to the mix to add extra color so it's not so... girly. Even I was getting sick of the Pepto color that was our wedding.

More of wedding news: WE SET A DATE! Finally. Even though we've been engaged for a little less than two months, it's really hard to look at this pretty rock every day and know that a date is not set. There's not a date set for my bling to get a buddy-- known as my wedding band. I'm so excited to be a Mrs. and even more excited to be Mrs. Trenton Holloway! Now all that's left to do is, you know, everything. Lots of planning, crafting, scheduling, shopping, etc.

July 9, 2010, people! Remember it.