My grandparents were married for more than 60 years. Each day my grandfather got up and asked himself "what can I do today to make her life better?" And each night he asked himself "did I do those things?" He held himself accountable for her happiness because he knew she deserved it.
My grandfather passed away last fall, and he is going to be so missed. While at his funeral, I had the chance to visit with my family. I remember sitting with two of my aunts discussing my grandparents' marriage and the fact that I was in a relationship with someone who just wasn't right for me. We sat there and talked about how I deserved to be happy. A few weeks after I returned from the funeral, I met Brian.
SOURCES OF INSPIRATION, DIY STUFF AND DECORATIONS
Our color scheme
On the left are our wonderfully cute STD magnets done for me by a fellow knottie. Let me know if you want her contact info (for her privacy I don't want to post it on here).
On the right are the STD postcards with the magnet and the blue envelopes I found on envelopemall.com . Sorry for the bright spot in the middle - it's from the flash. I attached the magnet with those little glue dots so it can be removed from the card (and the back of the magnet).
Here's a very similar dress through Davinci Bridal. You can kind of see the detailing on the photo above. My dress has light blue beaded accents, which is perfect for our color scheme. Also, I'm having the detachable sleeves removed because I don't care for them on me.
The First Fitting - May 1st
I knew the dress was too big as I'd lost weight since I first purchased it. They ended up taking about 1/2" off each side. It was the happiest I've been to spend $95 in this entire wedding-planning process. The only other thing they are doing is adding a simple under-bustle. Thankfully because I'm 5'10" and wearing 5/8"-heel shoes (almost totally flat), the length is perfect. My final fitting is May 28, and I'm hoping to have it taken in even more at that point.
Just as a side note: For those of you dealing with David's Bridal alterations, I can not suggest enough trying to go at a random time. My fitting was at noon on a Thursday, and we basically had almost the entire store to ourselves. In fact, I saw only one other customer in the store. It was so much less stressful to go in there when the place wasn't a total zoo. Also, in case you're wondering about the price of their alterations, mine were:
$65 for taking in the sides
$30 taking in the hips
$50 for the bustle
$20 for 2-day shipping to Florida for the wedding (cheaper than doing it myself and they'll pack it much better)
I had not planned on taking a purse with me, but my mom surprised me with this one - it was hers when she got married - and it hasn't been used since. It's been in a box in her closet, and I love the idea of using it on my day. I don't even care that it doesn't match perfectly.
Matron-of-honor Maid-of-honor (but we're having it Bridesmaid
(minus the sash) altered to be one length) (she is adding spaghetti straps)
And here is the creepy dress your bridal party thing from David's showing the girl's dresses.
I found these beautiful, delicate necklaces on etsy.com (seller info in vendor reviews). I think they will be perfect for the dresses and something nice for the girls to keep.
HAIR AND MAKEUP TRIALS
Here are pics from my first hair trial. I also tried everything on and my dress is too big. Yay! It fit perfectly when I purchased it in November.
And a few pics from my Mac makeup trial. Wish I could have done both the hair and makeup on the same day, but oh well.
CEREMONY AND RECEPTION SITES
On October 21st, 8 months from our wedding date, we made it official and booked the Rusty Pelican on beautiful Key Biscayne. Due to the size of our group, we're going to have it in the lounge instead of one of the ballrooms. It has the most amazing view - there are windows on three sides and it even has a little sunken area that will be perfect for the dance floor.
Reception room Ceremony site
The Carnival Valor will be our honeymoon transportation for seven nights and eight days. We have reserved a balcony room on deck 8 (the highest level of balcony rooms). I know some people (like a travel agent I just talked to) don't like cruises for honeymoons because the room isn't very big, but we are excited. My FI hasn't traveled much, so we love the idea of getting to see four beautiful places without haven't to pack and unpack several times.
We got really lucky during a recent sale and they upgraded our room (for the second time). We paid for the lowest category of balcony room, and now we're in the highest category. We are so excited! Kenneth, our Carnival PVP (Personal Vacation Planner) has been amazing. There's info in the vendor reviews if you're thinking about a cruise with Carnival.
Port of Call 1: Grand Cayman
Port of Call 2: Roatan
Port of Call 3: Belize City - cave-tubing is a must!
Port of Call 4: Cozumel
David’s Bridal – Miracle Mile Review – F This location truly was awful to deal with from start to finish. We took my dress there a week before the wedding for a light steaming. It was supposed to be free but they charged my dad. Then on the day before the wedding, when I called to confirm my pickup appointment, they could not find the dress. The woman even said “don’t worry – we’ll just get you another one.” When I told her the wedding was the next day, she said “ooh – maybe not.” I gave them my name and my father’s name, and they never bothered to look under his. So for 45 minutes they kept me in a total panic (we were on our way to the rehearsal so this is what I was stressing over as we got ready). When they found it, they had not even started steaming it. A few hours later, when I went to pick it up, they did not even acknowledge what had happened earlier. Plus, it was storming like I had never seen, and the water in front of the store came up to just below my knees. I had to run into the store barefoot, and that was all they could focus on. I asked if they had a back door with better drainage since we had to go and were going to have to run through the rain in the dress, and they very begrudgingly said yes. They led me back there, and no one even bothered to help me carry the dress through the store. They glared at me and talked about me in Spanish (and I understood the nasty things they were saying) while I waited for my mom to drive around to the back of the store. There was not one friendly person there, and if that was the experience I’d had when looking for a dress, I would never have purchased from David’s.
David’s Bridal – Albuquerque, NM Review – C I have very mixed feelings about this store. I had a few bumps with their staff, but I loved my dress. I also had a few glitches with the alterations, but I was happy with the final outcome. They shipped my dress perfectly and it actually didn’t require much touch-up steaming.
Final Review - B As I said above, I had a pretty miserable experience with them in the months leading up to the wedding. But all of the people I dealt with had been fired by the time our wedding rolled around. My biggest complaint about our stay was that they had a list with all our group room names, and they still put us all at opposite ends of the hotel. Plus, my contract specified that we had half-price parking and no one there had any of the info. So I still have to follow up with them in order to get the extra money refunded to all of my guests. But the location of the hotel, the breakfast and the manager’s reception all were really nicely done and overall it was a good value for the money.
We closed on our home on November 8th. We had been living in a 675 square foot apartment for five months, and now we have 2,014 square feet. I don't know how we managed in that shoebox for so long (the house was delayed three months), but I guess it means we're meant to be together since we didn't kill each other. I chronicled our adventures on the way to home ownership in a blog. It details the trials and tribulations of building a home (and still liking each other at the end of it). You can read it here: House blog
We closed on our home on November 8th. We had been living in a 675 square foot apartment for five months, and now we have 2,014 square feet. I don't know how we managed in that shoebox for so long (the house was delayed three months), but I guess it means we're meant to be together since we didn't kill each other.
Description: Item: BRSMWCTPTB2 The three-tier cake measures 12" wide by 15 1/2" tall and is made up of five rolls of toilet paper, four cotton washcloths, four cotton hand towels, and one toilet bowl brush. The cake is decorated with white organza and lace, yellow silk roses, pink and white silk roses with dew drops. On top of the cake orchids surround a white toilet bowl brush. I always wondered where scraps of ribbon go to die. For the bride who wants to look like a swan on her wedding day. Now I know the answer. And a cornucopia of crappy cake toppers From the little-seen show, "Lassie Gets Married." Timmy was the best man. This card box can be yours for just $60 plus $15 shipping. And when the wedding is over, you can use it as your mailbox because there's "a real mailbox under there." Nothing says klassy like a $90 Dale Earnhardt Junior and Senior cake topper with a Budweiser-branded matchbox car. I can't find the words to describe this next item, so I'll just paste the description. We take a NEW commercial Indoor set of Mini Christmas Lights (20 clear lights per string) and add twenty fired Winchester AA 12 Gauge Silver (dark gray) shotgun hulls, which we have modified to go over the individual lights. Light Set comes with two spare bulbs (one being a blinky/flasher bulb) and the manufacturers instructions. Overall length is approx 8' 6" and plug is one end only (straight line). These lights are intended to add a little humour to your family or friend's weddings and can be used throughout the year, for bar decorations or unique lighting effects in hunting, trophy or reloading rooms. The pictures don't do these justice, they look really sharp! Other models available; please check our other listings. Our Bar & Party light sets are carefully put together. We hand pick each hull, using only the cleanest hulls, no rusted ends here, and all the hulls match. Individual lights are inserted into each hull by hand and carefully crimped closed, not held together with plastic cinch ties, glue or just flattened. This makes for a nice clean overall look. A LITTLE WEDDING HUMOR Cake Versus Wedding Cake South Florida Knottie wedding list