icefog34's Blog

home made bouqets

2009-12-15T16:28:00Z

Having had the DIY bug bite me, I spent a good 45 minutes yesterday wandering through the fake flower section of Hobby Lobby. Row after row, flower after flower, and so many textures, colors, shapes! I at least know where to start....maybe. Color? That's a good place; I'm thinking blues and whites. But what about adding another color like pink? Or yellow? And what shade of blue? Why didn't I bring my color swatch that I bought from David's Bridal!! How about how formal my wedding is going to be...not formal at all, so I figure I'm looking for a nice small bunch of spring time looking blooms. Easy enough. Or not. I think light and airy would be really pretty, and maybe ad a single big fluffy bloom like a peony or something. However when I try putting something together it ends up looking a mess! I've finally broken down and sent a text to a good friend of mine who is a GOD when it comes to floral arranging. He'll help me and I'm really looking forward to it! I will be posting pictures when it's all done. I don't suppose it's too early to be making my bouqet is it? I have a year and a half left yet!

on a tangent

2009-12-14T22:11:00Z

writing my previous blog got me to thinking about the differences between myself and my FI. Here I am: born and raised rural Alaskan. I love Carharts, flannel shirts, lots and lots of snow, snowmachining (or snowmobiling to the Outsiders) fishing, hunting, etc. I own a wonderfuly beat up 94 Jeep Wrangler with a 4" lift and big beefy tires and feel like the Queen of the World when I drive it!

Here's my FI : born and raised in Monterey CA, clean and neat (which isn't a bad thing!) his vehicle is a Jeep Rubicon, but it's....nice! lol. He doesn't like fishing or hunting...stunned me when I found that out, because I thought all men like that stuff! But I give him credit for enjoying camping. And I mean real camping, the kind where you have to sleep on the ground in a skimpy little tent.

That being said, I wonder how to merge a city boy's tastes with a bush girl's tastes. Has anyone else had to deal with this yet? Is it even an issue for anyone?

So happy I caved!

2009-12-14T21:47:00Z

I bought it. I bought the magazine (Brides) and am very happy I did. I like this publication. It doesnt swamp you with just a bunch of fluff...it actually has some meaty filling. I decided to browse through it while I'm sitting at my laptop and have found some pretty interesting websites. It's gotten me motivated to brush off the idea of ordering invitations from a company and...*gasp!* MAKING MY OWN! Omg, to top it off...I'm excited about the prospect and think I might actually be able to throw something together. Baby steps. This whole process may end up bringing the girly-girl out of me...I mean who doesn't like to shop, AND save money while you're doing it right??!!

I have no willpower

2009-12-13T18:44:00Z

Okay, so against my better judgement, the Bridal magazines are calling to me! Everything I said earlier....gone. I can't help it! It's a beautiful snowy day, I don't have to work, my FI won't be here, and I will have the whole house to myself. What better way to spend my time than to slowly drift through the pages of a magazine that will carry me off to some fairy tale dreamland. I will plan an extravagant wedding. I will find that perfect, out of this world dress (besides the one I've already fallen in love with at David's Bridal!). I will pick and choose the wedding cake, the food, invitations, and all will be right in the world!

All daydreaming aside though, I am looking forward to planning this wedding. However small it may be. And we all know that the bottom line is, we're marrying the men we fell in love with and want to spend the rest of our lives with. It's not the bells and whistles that matter, it's the union. Any ideas on budget cutting and FYI-ing would be appreciated though! I'm not particularly crafty. And how DOES one plan a destination wedding and still manage to negotiate great deals? I wish everyone the best of luck in their planning, and hope yours is the Happily Ever After that you've always dreamed of finding.

budgeting, and giving up!

2009-12-12T07:13:00Z

I've decided....long distance weddings are pretty lame. I can't even begin to figure out how to get done what needs to get done. I don't like relying on my FI's family to help out with the major details. They shouldn't have to shoulder that resposibility for us. Not to mention the budget. We never did settle on a figure really, but with both of us watching our pennies and not wanting to take out a loan that's going to leave us in debt for the rest of our lives for an event that will only last a few hours on one day of our lives.....well, let's just say that a public park for a ceremony and then maybe hitting a bar is about where I'm headed! I cannot believe the amount of money some of these venues want for just the ceremonies alone. $12,000!? For what?? I don't understand. So I'm trying very hard not buy every single bridal magazine out there that I come across, trying hard not to daydream about big fancy dresses and luxouriously decked out halls with a live band and fresh flowers from some far off exoctic local...Here's my thought, as well as my FI's, seriously. We'll rent a space in some beautiful public park (I imagine in Monterey, CA there should be no shortage of those) to have our ceremony in, and splurge a little bit more for a decent champagne and cake reception. It sounds lovely, it sounds affordable, and it sounds painless :)

Latest update

2009-12-12T06:56:00Z

Well, got my ring back finally, about two weeks ago. Still bugging me because it's spinning around and around and around.....*sigh* will I ever be satisfied? It's beautiful, it's "bling-y", and ... well, it's on my finger and now the reality has set in that I'm doing this again. Am I really ready for this? Am I certain that marrying this man, or even marrying again at all is the right thing to do? I imagine that most if not all, second time brides and grooms go through the same thought process, but I find I second guess most everything in my life. From the most important : should I really be doing this?!?! all the way to the mundane like : do I really want mustard on my sandwich?! maybe I should have chosen mayo! OMG!! It's funny I suppose, but then again, it's not. I am really going to work hard this time on making this marriage work. I want to succeed at this, and I want to demonstrate to my daughters what a healthy, loving marriage is supposed to be. My oldest has been doing great on dealing with this whole situation. She's opened up more and I think has come to terms with what is going on. I personally have plenty of issues to work through on my own, so I'm thankful that my FI and I decided to wait as long as we are.

finally got our rings

2009-11-30T00:29:00Z

The weekend before Thanksgiving, my FI and I finally bought our rings :) I was thrilled and I think he was probably just as happy to get his too. We both decided not to say anything when at work, to see how long it took anyone to notice...took a while! lol. I wore mine for a couple of days, but this last Monday I turned in my ring to get it resized so it would stop swirling around on my finger. I miss it! It'll be nice once it gets back though, because it has European style band, flat on the bottom, to help prevent the spinning as well. I miss my ring. Everytime I look at my FI's engagement ring I feel a twinge of jealousy. Hopefully my ring will be back by the middle of this week.

Wedding dates

2009-11-10T14:09:00Z

My fiance and I decided that we would take the plunge in about 18 months. I just pulled a random date up and chose June 6, but then I realized that March would be the 18 month mark. I don't want to wait till June but what kind of weather will there be in Monterey in March?? I suppose April would be a nice compromise. *sigh* I just can't wait. :)

On the other hand, the time between now and then will be good for my oldest DD to get adjusted to the fact that her mom is no longer married to her dad and is going to try again with someone else. I feel that it's the least I can do for her, give her time. 5 Days after the divorce was final her dad got married again and she's been struggling with that.