One Week From Today!

In exactly one week today we will be leaving for (well actually by now in) JAMAICA!! I can NOT wait!! Then the real wedding planning can start! :):)

I posted it as my Facebook status that I was starting to pack and one of my bridesmaids said that she was jealous and I told her in one year she will be going with me! She was really excited too and was talking about how she needed to get her passport and such. That made me really excited because I was afraid she wouldn't be able to make it. She is a single mom with a 1 year old little boy. She has talked to me before about having money problems and such, but I'm really really excited that she is planning on going!! :)

What frustrates me is my MOH said that she was jealous too, but since she already told me 6 months ago that she wouldn't be able to make it, I wasn't really sure how to respond to that. After all my friend that is a single mom is making ends meet to go, but she can't afford it. That leads me to believe again that it is because of her boyfriend.

I thought of doing something really like for the girls that are going because it means so much to me that they are spending the money to go with me. Then I thought that wasn't fair because my MOH is planning my bridal shower and bachlorette party. I even thought of paying for their dresses if they are going, but I don't think I really can afford that. Maybe I can pay for their hair and make up when we get there. I am putting together a gift bag for all of them that will have their jewelery, shoes, and name hangers. I am also trying to put together a cute bridesmaid survivor kit for them (I've found some really cute poems online). But I still feel like I want to do something that will know how much I really appreciate that they came all this way for me. Hopefully I'll come up with something. For my MOH though, I thought of going to the Coach Outlet and buying her a Coach purse or a gift card to say thank you for being my MOH. I guess we'll see how everything pans out.

375 Days :)

The Wedding Shoes Are Ordered!!

My FMIL wanted to buy me a special gift from me to her so she bought me my wedding shoes!

They are absolutely perfect (minus the fact I'm not sure how I'm going to walk in them)! If I at least get pictures with them I will be happy, the rest of the time I can wear my flip flops. 

Andy was super mad about these heels though. He said that I should look classy on my wedding day, not like a stripper. I just chose to ignore him, because everyone else LOVED them and they go perfectly with our Brewer theme! :)

My mom came up with a cute idea that I could have all my bridesmaids wear them, but #1 I can't afford to buy them for everyone, #2 I don't want them to have to pay for them, and #3 I don't want them to suffer the entire night. They would look super cute with a tea length dress though :)

387 Days :)

Bridal Showers

So my MOH bought invites for my bridal shower! To me that is really exciting because it shows that she is excited for the wedding :) The only thing is though, she wants to have my bridal shower and my bachlorette party all on the same day--at the end of summer. That is fine for the bridal shower but we are not getting married until March. The bachlorette party is supposed to be like your last horrah before you get married. I understand that she wants decent weather for it--but even though I hardly go out, I don't want my last horrah to be at the end of summer and have to wait 6-7 months before I get married.

I suggested that we do the bridal shower at the end of August and then combine my golden birthday and my bachlorette party at the end of February in Milwaukee. At first she did not seem thrilled about this. I think she wants to have it in Fond du Lac, which is where the majority of my bridesmaids are from, but most of my friends are in Milwaukee and I would not expect them to drive to Fond du Lac for my bachlorette party when Milwaukee is so much more exciting. She also brought up the fact that if there is bad weather in February she wouldn't be able to make it down--well how the hell would I make it up there then?! It works both ways!

I'm glad that we still have plenty of time to figure all this out. Right now I am taking everything lightly and trying not to let anything irritate me.

OH! As of yesterday we have been engaged for ONE YEAR!! :):):) One year, one month and one day until our wedding!

394 Days :)

Lots and Lots of Updates!

To conclude my last post I ended up asking for my money back and she refused. We emailed back and forth a few times but it became a losing battle. We will chalk this up as a loss. I edited the pictures myself and gave them to our families for Christmas. They loved them!

Over Thanksgiving Andy's sister got engaged and are getting married in August! She asked me to be her bridesmaid! The day after Christmas we went to see her dress she picked and it was gorgeous! We also got to try on our bridesmaid dresses. Picture a short Belle dress from Beauty & the Beast in Plum and that is what we'll be wearing. Pretty awesome, huh? Her maid of honor is great. I am actually really jealous of how great she is. Right now she is going through a divorce and yet she still manages to be extremely happy for Jean and supportive. Sometimes when I talk to Amanda I feel like I can't be as excited as I want to be. I am also jealous of how helpful and supportive her mom is as well. Don't get me wrong, they are very helpful and supportive of our wedding as well, but it's different when it's your own daughter. My mom never even asks about the wedding unless I bring it up, and even still we talk about it for five minutes and then the subject gets changed. I know a lot of this has to do with our wedding being over a year away still, but we have so much planned already and I just want the support that every bride wants from her mother and maid of honor.

On a positive note though, Amanda did text me saying that she found invites for my bridal shower! That really meant a lot to me because it showed that she is excited about the wedding. I know I just need to calm down because people will get more excited as the wedding gets closer. It may just not seem realistic now because it is still over a year away.

Over Christmas Andy, Mary (his mom, my FMIL!), and I made my bridesmaid name hangers! This was one DIY project I was really excited about. This is what they look like:

Instead of bridesmaid though they have their names (Amanda, Jessica, Lexi, Jean). Mary also tied a blue ribbon around the hanger and one within each girl's name to cover up some bloopers. I think Andy enjoyed this project the most because he got to figure out how to bend each girls name and he loves strategic things like that.

A few days ago mlb.com was having an awesome sale, so I ordered the bridesmaid's earrings. Now I will have all their jewelry ordered! I just need to find a cute tote bag and cute flip flops for them to wear. I also have been looking on Pinterest (my new obsession) and found a cute bridesmaid survival kit poem:

This Survival Kit was made just to say,I'm thrilled you're beside me on my wedding day!There's chocolate to give you that sugar high,And a packet of tissues in case you should cry.Lip gloss to help you care for your smile,If a nail should break, I've included a file.There is Shout if you should spill on your dress,And mouthwash to keep your breath minty fresh.There's Tylenol and Tums if it's ill that you feel,And Band-aids to help you tackle high heels.I've put everything in this handy pack,So you'll know that this bride has got your back!This kit was created so that you can see,How much you mean to the bride-to-be.

A few weeks ago Andy and I booked our DJ! We are going with Sound by Design. They do 90% of the weddings at Lakefront and are very reasonably priced! Since our reception is on a Sunday in the off season we got an even more incredible deal! Now all we need to find is a photographer and a baker. 

I know this is getting to be SUPER long, but there is still a few more things...

I was looking online at wedding dresses at a bridal shop back home. They have the dress listed that I have been eyeing up for a while and come to find out they are having a sale!! I was so excited so I called them first thing on Monday morning. Come to find out the company doesn't send out samples which means I would not be able to try it on before I buy it. That made my heart completly sink. I don't even buy a shirt before I try it on, much less a dress that could possibly be my wedding dress! I took this as a sign that I should just wait to try on dresses because I still have pleanty of time. We go to Jamaica in 2 months so after we come back I will start dress shopping!

Lastly (I promise), I made our wedding invitations! They look like boarding passes. Each person will get 4 tickets. One will be a Save the Date, next will be the acutal wedding invite followed by how to book and the resort, and lastly will be the RSVP. I can't finish them until we have the wedding booked, but I am pretty excited about them! We will get them professionally printed and hopefully have them sent out by April!!

424 Days :)

Engagement Picture DISASTER!

We finally got our engagement pictures back for the SECOND time. Just to refresh your memory, we got our pictures taken at the end of July by a UW-Madison student that a co-worker recommended to me. I looked through some of her pictures and they were great (apparently she gave up when it came to us).

The first time we got our pictures back she did a great job but edited all the WRONG ones! Then she got snotty and told me that I told her the wrong pictures and explained to me how to select the pictures we wanted. Well obviously our screens were clearly different and didn't have the same information. She figured out the pictures that we wanted and said that she was going to edit them for us.

We got the pictures back and NONE of them were edited. We were able to choose 10 and only 8 were considered "edited". I emailed her after seeing them on Friday night and told her I knew she didn't edit them because first of all her logo wasn't on them and secondly they looked the exact same as the website where we chose our pictures to be edited. Because I was in such an uproar I didn't see that she in fact did add her logo to the pictures (Andy caught that one) so I feel kind of stupid for that. I told her that I would just edit them myself. I still have yet to get a reply.

My dilemma is do I ask for a refund or at least half my money back? I mean we took our pictures in July and it is now December. It should not take that long to edit... or in her case "edit" 10 pictures. The only problem is I don't want to cause tension between me and my coworker. I have worked with her for 3 years now and we are fairly close. She feels so bad about everything because she recommended the girl to us even though none of this is her fault. I don't want to cause tension between her and the girl either because they are some how related and do see each other. What to do ... What to do...

470 Days :)

Online Dress Hunting

So I have been online wedding dress hunting and I finally found the style of my dress. It called a "high-low" dress meaning it short in the front and long in the back. I think this is PERFECT for a destination wedding because it's a short dress for the beach but you still get the feeling of being a bride and having a train. I am so excited, I found 2 dresses I like in that style! The only problem is they are not at the same store. My other concern is, I was reading a post on theknot.com and most women said that they didn't like the dress they saw online and went a total opposite direction. That makes me quite nervous. I plan to go dress shopping sometime this summer so my fingers are crossed.

473 Days :)

Bridesmaids

So I sent out all my bridesmaid's cards! Immediately, everyone said yes except my MOH. She wanted to go out to dinner and I figured I would get my answer then. In her text she kept putting :) so I figured it was a good sign, right? We get to dinner and we're chatting as normal. Then our meal comes and she starts picking at it. That's when I knew something was up (we NEVER pick at our food, we always dive right in). Then she looked at me and she had tears in her eyes and told me she doesn't think she would be able to make it to Jamaica and she really didn't want it to ruin our friendship. OMG! I would never let something like that ruin our friendship!! We've been best friends for almost 7 years now! I told her it was okay, I wasn't expecting everyone to be able to make it anyways. She then told me she would love to be my MOH at home and throw my wedding shower, bachlorette party, and whatever else there is to do.

Dinner continues and we are talking more about vacations and she brings up something that makes me second guess WHY she wouldn't be able to make it. She mentioned that because her boyfriend has MS they really can't take trips to warm places like Florida or JAMAICA. I WISH I would have something right  then and there because it is eating me alive now. I'm really curious if she is not going because her boyfriend wouldn't be able to go?! If so--that IS a deal breaker and potentially a friendship ender (and I would NOT consider that being over dramatic!)

So we go out to dinner another night and I decide that I'm just going to work up the nerve and ask if that's the case. We get on the subject which is a perfect segway in. Then a convo starts about who is all going. I mentioned that Lexi, Jessica, and Jean all said yes (the only other bridesmaids). She then gets really quiet. There goes my segway because how am I supposed to ask her when it looks like she is already hurt that she is not going to be able to make it. So after that I just convinced myself that it truly is because she cannot afford it and not because her boyfriend wouldn't be able to go. Let's hope I'm not lying to myself...

489 days :)