A Honeymoon!!!

What's the most exciting part of a wedding to plan WITH your fiance? The honeymoon of course!!! But when it came to planning our honeymoon, Ryan & I didn't think we were going to be able to have a honeymoon! He has an internship next summer which will take up almost the entire summer! We managed to find ONE WEEK between the wedding and starting the internship to take a honeymoon during!!! So, we got planning!

Ryan's Ring!

Recently, we did something REALLY exciting, I bought Ryan's wedding band!!! Although I won't see the actual ring for a few weeks and then the finished product for awhile after that, I'm still excited and love looking at it (online).

We really wanted to get Ryan something unique! (My set is super unique so it had to match the uniqueness factor). Well, I saw those awesome fingerprint rings on pinterest & Ryan LOVED them!

Half way there!!!

So this post is just to say, WE ARE HALFWAY TO OUR WEDDING DAY!!!!

Now, I guess this is normally a source of excitement for people (I don't know), but they are like ahhh its only (insert low number) of weeks/months away!!! Not us...

Dress Drama - Part 2

Ok, so if you remember last time, I decided to get rid of the original dress and start over with shopping.

Last Wednesday, my mom & I went to the shop in Dallas where my sister bought her wedding dress.  We explained the WHOLE situation to them & the consultant was really understanding.  When I told her that I wanted the dress to be white (rather than Ivory), she got it in her mind that I needed lace.

Dress Drama - Part 1

So, back in January (a whole 4 days after getting engaged), I went dress shopping.  I found a dress I kinda liked and the consultant pushed and pushed and I bought it that day.  That night, after realizing what had happened, I got really stressed & started crying about it! When I thought back to it, she had pushed us not only into the dress, but also into a veil I had never seen, a headpiece I didn't even see on me, an underskirt that was the wrong style & just chose a dress size for me! Well that really upset me & I had a HUGE breakdown!

Sampling the Cake

A while back, I posted about cake ideas I had and hinted that we would be tasting a cake soon! Well, we did have our tasting (a very different experience than other people have told me about), and I'm kinda excited to share about it!

One Stressed Out Bride!

Warning: This is just a rant post to explain/get out some of my feelings. (Yes, I know, by the pattern today should be a non wedding related post, but I don't have anything else to post right now!)
I am getting married on May 25th, 2013 (yes, just over 10 months away), but I am already super stressed. Reasons why:

1. Looking at wedding sites makes me feel like I need to get everything done NOW (which I really don't, just feel like it).

2. I am trying to DIY a lot of things to save money. DIY means putting time into it. Which is alright sometimes, but I cannot make place cards until I know who is coming, and I will not know who is coming until I get RSVPs and I will not get RSVPs until I send out invites and I cannot send out invites until the proper time (6-8 weeks is the given "proper" time, but I am sending them earlier - March-ish) - see how this all created stress?

3. I've already been engaged for over 6 months!! At this point, most people are either 1. at their wedding or 2. halfway there. I, on the other hand, still have 10 months left! Maybe its stressing me out because we haven't celebrated being engaged (just jumped into wedding planning), but mom is finally planning something for later this fall (better late than never I guess).

4. I am anticipating being SUPER busy these last two semesters and don't know if I will have any wedding planning time (plus, I have another event to throw in late April/early May). Reasons why I will be super busy: Finishing off a teaching degree requires a full time commitment 3 days a week fall and 5 days a week spring semester. I have the honor of serving as President of my sorority for this next year (reason I am throwing the event).  I will continue to work this fall. AND I have to find time for projects/homework/certification exams/a relationship with my fiance. PLUS any leftover wedding things I don't finish this summer... I makes me want to take a nap just thinking about it...

So, how do you deal with your busy schedule?

Votive Candleholders

If you remember in my post a little while back about centerpieces, I am planning on using votive candle holders for part of my table decor.  Although my centerpieces weren't going to cost a lot, I found a way to save even more! My sister for some reason (I think left from her wedding) had a bunch of votive candle holders in her garage.  She offered me as many as I needed and I grabbed a bunch and took them home. I didn't want them to be just plan clear glass, so I stopped by hobby lobby, grabbed some glass paint, and got to work.

This is the glass paint I recommend

Hole Punch Letter

I had a BUNCH of paint chips sitting around (not really sure why but I've been collecting paint chips but I have) and searched the internet (pinterest) for a use for them when I found this. An awesome letter made from paint chip hole punches!!! I immediately jumped in with a ton of zeal and got started!

Favors?

When we started planning our wedding, wedding favors were one of the first things Ryan & I decided on, but being me, I obviously have to change my mind about it like ten million times, so now we are down to 2 ideas (I think, well for today just 2).  One idea my mom loves & one we love. (See my dilemma?)

I swore I'd never do it again...

but I'm moving again.  If you remember last summer I moved into an awesome big apartment & decorated it all beautiful! Well, it has turned out to be a horrible experience! (I'll explain how later) So, when they offered to let me stay only if I started paying more a month, I decided it was time to move again!

Save the Dates

We have had a bit of an adventure with our Save the Dates, but we are FINALLY ready with them! I know what you're going to say: "Maddie, your wedding is 11 months away, isn't it a bit early to send out save the dates?" And I would obviously respond: "Well, according to traditional times, you would send them 6-8 months before the wedding.  However, a lot of our guests (read: pretty much all) will have to travel to be able to come to our wedding, so we want to give them as much time as possible to make those arrangements.  Also, our wedding will be Memorial Day weekend, and we don't want people to make other plans.  (But love that our guests get an extra day off after our wedding!) Finally, we decided that we might as well send them out earlier since we have such a long engagement!"

Hair Flowers

Earlier this summer, our sorority board had a leadership retreat.  It was a ton of fun! Since I was in charge of planning it, I wanted to have a craft for us to do! Our adviser helped me find this blog with instructions on how to make a no-sew hair flower! They were super cute, but the instructions weren't the best, so I will write my own for you! :)

Groom Duties

In planning this wedding, something that has been very important to me from the beginning was that Ryan be involved in the planning process.  He has been a great sport so far and this is truly turning out to be "our" wedding (not just Maddie's wedding that Ryan shows up to when he's told).  I know a lot of other brides who do it that way, and I'm sure it works for them, but we are taking this opportunity as a blessing to learn more about each other and learn to communicate with each other.

3 Simple Crafts

So, in finding all the old posts that I meant to write, but never did, I found pictures from when I created 3 really fast & easy crafts and figured that I would throw them all into one post for you! So sit back, relax, and enjoy the crafts!

Centerpieces!!!

The other day I was thinking about how much we had gotten done on the wedding (a dress, a photographer, a cake maker, a church & Celebrant, a reception venue & menu, my jewelry, his ring, flower ideas...) whew.. it felt like everything was finally coming together until I realized something... I had said no flowers as table centerpieces (which I still agree with, I do not want mini bouquets as centerpieces), but I hadn't figured out what to do!!!

So, on Saturday, Ryan had a LOT of school stuff to do, so I spent the day running around to craft stores to get inspiration for centerpieces (and came up with a beautiful plan!!!)

White Board Frame

Ok, so i did this a LONG time ago (like last August), but I just found the pictures & am catching up on my blogging I neglected so here you go.

For Easter last year, my parents bought me a GIANT white board! I love it! I use white board for EVERYTHING (future teacher) and this just made me super happy!

Cakes - Yummy, Yummy!

On Thursday, we had our first meeting with our cake maker :) I'm  really excited about both of our cakes & our baker! (We haven't gotten to taste test just yet, but that's coming tomorrow!!!)

First, our baker, she is super nice! Everyone thinks so! When I signed at our reception site, I mentioned I was considering going with this baker to see the event coordinator opinion & she was so excited! She said that Jaclyn was absolutely fabulous & who she gets all of her cakes from when she has events! This is exactly the type of recommendation I take to heart & I was so glad to know I would be getting to work with her! Part of the reason I picked this company was that it is a small, family owned bakery where the mom works out of her home, professional grade kitchen! There's something in me that loves supporting small businesses and I know she is going to work to make my cake dreams a reality!

Summer Gift Bag

So... This post was totally written a year ago and I forgot to post it, whoops! (It's kinda funny because I mention that this was for our President, which is now me, hehe, ok maybe I'm the only one who finds this funny), but you should get to read it anyway so here you go!

I'm on the board for my sorority. This summer, we drew names and each had another board member to show love for during the summer! I knew I had to do something cute for my girl (I pulled our President to do stuff for!) so I came up with an adorable summer gift bag!

Flowers

Ok so this is not set in stone yet, but I have some ideas of what I want for flowers so I want to show you all!

First off, if you hadn't noticed yet, (which, unless you actually know me, you probably haven't) my style is what I call off-beat traditional.  I do love tradition, but have to twist it a little to make it my own. A great example of this: my wedding ring! Now, when I first got engaged, I posted a picture of just my engagement band, but you'd have to see the whole thing (engagement & wedding band) to understand so here it is:

Scrapbook Whiteboard

Ok so here is a SUPER EASY 10 minute craft that I keep seeing on pinterest and finally got around to doing myself!!!

Dress Shopping

Note: I originally wrote this back in February, but spaced on posting it so if you notice some anachronisms, that's why (such as not having a date when I obviously already blogged about having one)

I feel like I'm doing things out of order, I have a dress (my parents are picking it up tonight), but still no date! (waiting on our priest to come back from a family problem for that). So you know, since I have done something so exciting, I'm going to blog about it! So, my dress shopping adventure will be in the form of "rules"for dress shopping (I say "rules" because I didn't follow a lot of them, so I guess they are more like guidelines ;)

Inspiration for a New Adventure

It’s been so much fun to be planning wedding details with Ryan, but I will talk about those later! We have something else we have been planning as well that is what I wanted to talk about.  Ryan applied for a scholarship that would pay for his last 2 years of school and give him a job after college and (while we are still waiting for the letter that says he got it for sure) it’s like 95% sure at this point! That means that once Ryan graduates, we will be moving to Oklahoma! 

We Have a Date!!!

After struggling to figure out which priest we wanted to witness our marriage, waiting a month to meet with him, and finding out he had to reschedule the day of that meeting because of a family emergency, we were FINALLY able to meet with him and set a date!!!

We knew that we wanted to get married right after my graduation (May 2013) and had been looking at the weekend after my graduation (the 18th).  That day also happens to be my parent's anniversary, which (although my mom was excited because I was going to cater to her & put in special elements for her) never really excited me because I don't really want to share our special day (sorry, Mom!) As it turns out, there is a big event happening in the diocese that day and the priest couldn't do a wedding then.  So, it was find ANOTHER different priest or change the date.  To us, the priest was more important and so we moved the wedding a week back!!

This is great because it gives Ryan's current roommate more time to move out & us to get my stuff moved in so our home is all set up when we get married & I move in! It also ends up being Memorial Day Weekend, so our guests won't have work on Monday & can enjoy the wedding a little more without stressing about running home the next day. (especially our parents).

So, the big day is May 25, 2013!!!! Now we can finally go talk to florists/reception halls/caterers etc!!! I'm so excited things are moving along!!!

A New Type of Adventure!

So this really exciting thing happened to me over Christmas Break: My wonderful boyfriend & best friend proposed to me!

So Pretty!!!

We are starting the exciting process of planning our wedding, but first, I wanted to get out how he asked me so that you can see it AND so that I'll have it written for the rest of my life!!!

So here's how it went down (and it's a long story, so buckle up!):

Well, before winter break, Ryan and I went to look at rings. (Yes, I knew this was coming.)  I was super picky and must have looked at every engagement ring in our town! Eventually, I picked an engagement and wedding band set that fit my personality AND wasn't out of the budget ;)  I kept bothering Ryan if he had bought it yet, but he wouldn't tell me!!!

So we went home for Christmas break to our own families and spent sometime apart.  Then, my mom took me out of the house for a whole day.  As it turns out she had a surprise for me: we were going to try on wedding dresses!!! And I wasn't even engaged yet!!! I felt a bit silly, but knew that the reason we were out of the house was because a handsome man was going to ask my father a certain question ;)

So, the next day Ryan came to spend a few days at my family's house.  That Friday, December 30th, I kinda expected him to ask me, but was disappointed because he didn't, but he had something up his sleeve!!!

On Sunday, January 1st (The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God) we drove to go spend a few days with his family.  We met them at his church and went to a mass in Latin.  After mass, Ryan was acting really sneaking with something & his mom accidentally let it slip that my parents were coming over for dinner (which I had requested of Ryan if he asked me while staying at his parents' house), but I already knew it was going to happen this day so it was ok.  We went out to lunch and then back to church for Adoration.

It took forever!!!! We stayed the whole time! (It was only an hour and a half, but knowing what was coming, it seemed so much longer!!!)

Afterwards Ryan asked me to say the rosary with him in this little park across the street.  (As a side note, ever since we started dating, Ryan and I have said a rosary together on the first of every month for the intention of our future children, so that was the other reason Ryan waited till the first.)  As we walked into the park, Ryan pulled out a pink rosary and said that he made it for me!!! It had all pink beads with a wooden crucifix and a wooden heart as the "Hail, Holy Queen" bead, but the heart was covered with two pieces of pink construction paper (hint, that's important!).

We walked around the park and said our rosary.  The longest rosary of my life!!! First, it was January, so it was FREEZING!!!! Also, I kinda had a guess it was happening when we finished so I was so excited I was shaking!!! I kept feeling the heart because I thought maybe Ryan had hidden the ring in there, but it didn't seem like it.

We FINALLY got to the end and Ryan walked me in front of the statue of Mary, tore the paper off the heart and on one said it said "St. Therese, Pray for Us" (the Patron of our Relationship) and he flipped it over and it said "Maddie, Will you marry me? Ryan"  And he got down on one knee and pulled out my beautiful ring!!!!

So then (yup still not done) I hear camera noises & clapping: his family came out from where they had been hiding & took pictures!!!

Look how happy he is!!!

 Putting on my ring!!!

I just wish I had pulled back my hair so you could see my face, but that's not all that important. So anyway, I  hope you are excited for lots of wedding related posts for the next year or so!!! :)

 Us at my friend's wedding recently!!!