Happy Brithday to My Wonderful Sister

My oldest sister and co-MOH is hands down one of the strongest women I know. She's been through so much, and she still has such a positive attitude and a unwavering faith.

 

She has welcomed David into the family and already treats him like her younger brother, which I love. She's been nothing but supportive of us and our relationship.

David's mom tells me almost every time I see her that I look more and more like my sister. I hope I look as great as her when I'm her age (and after 4 kids!) 

She's still doing whatever she can to help with planning my shower and helping out with projects, even though she most definitely has her hands full with 4 kids and 1 on the way (due at the beginning of May!) and is now raising them by herself. I love those kids like they're my own, and she is a phenomenal mother. I'm so thankful that she's chosen me as a godmother for 2 of them. 

 

I just had to share with you all how special she is to me on her special day. Hopefully she gets a chance to read this sometime today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

I love you soo so much and I'm so thankful for an older sister like you!

**David's coming to visit so I'm sure I won't be posting again until Monday. Have a wonderful weekend!

Incredible Talent

A while back I found A Very Chocolate Wedding (now A Very Chocolate Life). She was just starting recaps of her fabulous wedding, and I was SO inspired by so many of the projects she did. It's a little late in the game (we're only 7 days away from the 100 day mark!) for gathering more inspiration, but I just had to pass these gorgeous pictures along to those of you who are still at that stage. 

First of all, she made all of her bouquets out of paper flowers! And she's posted tutorials for several different types of flowers. They turned out SO well!

She made her boutouneiers as well - They're made out of modeling clay and she posted a tutorial for these as well!

And you know I loved the paper lanterns and paper poms hanging over the dance floor:

Did you notice the banners in the background of the last picture? She made all of those herself, too! They're inexpensive and they make a huge impact!

I loved her centerpieces and table numbers:

Another fun idea - Covering glass doors with kraft paper! She punched all of those holes so that light would shine through the design:

Ok, I could go on for days, but the moral of the story is you should go check out her blog! It's awesome to see the pictures from such a gorgeous wedding that used SO many DIY projects. I hope mine turns out half this well!

What weddings have you found that have beautifully incorporated lots of DIY projects?

**All pictures in this post are from A Very Chocolate Wedding

Take a Seat

I haven't really blogged about what we're doing in terms of seating for our 300 guests. For the most part, the people we're inviting know both of us and know each other, so I really wasn't concerned about having assigned seating. I don't think there will be any awkwardness, and it saves me a lot of time! :)

I did, however, want our families to all be able to sit together and near the head table and cake table, so that they'd all have seats and they'd be able to see. That, and I found these adorable eyelet place cards at Big Lots:

They were $2 for a package of 40 and they matched the garter I found there!

I'm going to do place cards for all of our family members, and I made signs that will be at each of the reserved tables:

I'm in love with the textured paper! 

I'll probably use something similar to these photo holders I made for David's brother and SIL's rehearsal dinner last July for the signs:

 Just imagine it painted black with pink ribbon

Since we pretty much know which family members will be attending our wedding, I'm hoping that this is another project I can get done ahead of time. Those are my favorite! 

How are you handling the seating of your guests?

Weekend Update

I apologize I didn't blog yesterday. I was definitely productive over the weekend, but I had two big tests yesterday and figured it was probably a good idea to spend my Sunday afternoon/evening studying instead of blogging. I think I'm getting sick too, which stinks. I definitely don't have time to be sick! 

Anyway, on to pictures of my progress. This is what my room looked like most of Friday and Saturday (granted, not much different than how it normally looks):

All spread out with the Olympics on and using the book I 

should've been studying from as a hard surface

Oh wait, I guess that means I made a decision about the coasters! I know a lot of you liked the first option I posted here, but I just didn't care for it. Both BM S and I LOVE the chandelier stamp in person, so we're going with it. Along with a different heart stamp, so there will still be a mixture of two designs: 

 

Are they perfect? No. But I love them, so I don't care! I also got some work done on the parents' and grandparents' wedding pictures project. I'm still missing 2 of the pictures, but I got the rest of them printed and framed, and they look SO cute so far:

 

*I apologize for the terrible picture, I'll take better ones as soon as I have all of the pictures!*

I also finished all 10 of our pomanders - I love them and it's such a relief to finally cross that project off my list!

I have a few more projects that I worked on that I'll post about throughout the week, so stay tuned for more details about my project filled weekend! I've been busy, especially with some etsy orders on top of everything else:

It's fun to work on someone else's wedding every once in awhile! 

Did anyone else have a really productive weekend? What all did you get done?

Busy Busy!

I've got a busy weekend ahead of me - A weekend FULL of wedding projects! I've been stressing about how many projects I have left to start/work on/finish, so I'm dedicating almost the entire weekend to them. Here are a few of the things I'm hoping to get done: 

• Finish the pomanders - Only 2 to go!

•  Figure out the coaster situation

• Print out lots of signs

• Get parents and grandparents' wedding pictures printed

 

• Finish the 2nd wreath for the church doors

•  Figure out what all is going in our OOT bags and finish printing the door hangers

 It seems like a lot (probably because it is) but I think I can get it done if I'm focused! I've got to start making progress on some of this stuff - It's starting to stress me out. I might even find time to study for my 2 tests next week, too. :) Wish me luck!

Do you have a busy weekend ahead of you? What projects are on your list?

PS - Everyone needs to wish Em a happy birthday! :) Hope you have a great weekend, girl!

More Great Deals

I know I've blogged previously about the great deals I've found at Dollar Tree, but I can't help but share these deals I found there this week! I know lots of brides use shepherd hooks, and it's difficult to find them at a reasonable price. I've been on the lookout for them since last fall when I decided I wanted to have pomanders hanging down the aisle for the ceremony. And look what I found:

 

 

*Please excuse the mess in the first picture!*

They're 42" tall, metal, and relatively sturdy. Perfect! My "vision" for the aisle is a more simple version of this:

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I loove the look of rose petals along the sides of the aisle, especially with a runner! We'll have a white runner, but I still love these inspiration pictures:

source 

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Since we're using very few flowers, and because real rose petals are expensive, I'll be lining the aisle with artificial petals. I debated for awhile over whether I thought I'd like the petals from Dollar Tree. After reading a post from Kristin at Unspecified Thoughts about dying the petals, I was sold. I've bought several packages (300 for $1) of white and just bought a few packages of light pink on this trip. I'll be dying the white petals hot pink, like Kristin did:

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And mixing them with the light pink:

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I'm so excited to see how it turns out!

The other thing I found on this trip was battery operated paper lanterns! And even more perfect, they're hot pink! I already have a bunch of paper lanterns to hang over the dance floor (that I blogged about here) but none of them have lights in them. These will be an awesome addition to the ones I already have! 

I know they had a couple other colors/designs, but they aren't listed on their website and I can't exactly remember what they were.

Have you found some good deals at Dollar Tree? Are you incorporating them into your decor?

DIY Detail: Coasters

Another small DIY project that I've been meaning to start is the coasters. Back in December I bought a bunch of coasters that Kristin (kmattso from Happily After All) had left over, and they've been sitting in my box of wedding project stuff since then. 

source 

After realizing that we have less than 4 months left until the wedding, I decided I should probably get started on some of these 'small' projects that have added up. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted on them, so I played around with some stamps and embossing powder I had. *I apologize in advance for the crappy pictures - Pictures without natural light don't turn out well for me.*

 

They turned out fine, but I didn't love them. David, on the other hand, thought they were 'very nice!!'

I played around with them a little more and came up with this:

 

*Ignore the black marks around the 'D' - I forgot to clean the edge of the stamp*

I loved the two colors and the way the letters have a distressed look to them. I sent David a picture (granted, it was from my phone, which takes awful pictures) and he said it was hard to tell what the middle stamp was and that they look more 'homemade' than the others. Uh, that's exactly what I want to hear..? I still like them much better than the other ones, but now I'm doubting myself.

So I'm turning to you guys! What do you think? Design #1 or #2? Or another idea altogether?

ETA: I ended up using a regular pink embossing powder (instead of the glittery powder) and they turned out much clearer. 

A Perfect Weekend

I promised a recap and pictures of the weekend, so here we go! I mentioned in my Valentine's Day post that David was surprising me with the plans for the day. That really should have read, 'David hasn't had time to plan anything, but he's telling me it's a surprise to buy himself some time.' There didn't end up being any plans, but the weekend turned out fabulous regardless. 

Friday night we went to our high school's homecoming game and got to catch up with old friends and teachers. I just love going back to our high school - Everyone is so excited for us! It makes me even more excited for the wedding. I got to see one of my good friend's little sister win homecoming queen, and M, one of our ushers was part of the homecoming court for the junior class. After the game we drove by our house (is that creepy?) and then rented a movie. *PS - Paranormal Activity wasn't nearly as scary as I was expecting..*

On Saturday we took Paisley to the vet and relaxed most of the afternoon. We decided to 'celebrate' on Saturday evening instead of Sunday, so we got dressed up, visited our high school's homecoming for a little bit to see David's brother and his girlfriend and I got to see a couple of my favorite ladies!

 

We had a yummy dinner and a nice quiet evening and it was perfect. And I think we looked pretty cute too:

On Sunday we went to church and had lunch with my family and then ran some errands before David had to ref. Sunday evening he gave me the sweetest card, which was the extent of our 'gifts' - unless you want to count the whole HOUSE thing earlier in the week. :) I'm a huge card person, and both David and I spend forever picking the perfect cards for each other, but this one was particularly meaningful. I've gotta share it - I feel like it fit us perfectly. It said:

"When I fell in love with you, I never could have imagined all the twists and turns our lives would take. We've had our share of laughs along the way - and we've held tight through some tough times, too. We're stronger and closer because of everything we've shared. Our life isn't always perfect - I wouldn't expect it to be - but it is always worth it. I wouldn't want to live a single minute of any of it with anyone else but you. I really do love you... more than ever."

And he added:

"Life is about to get crazy and I can't wait knowing that we will have each other to go through it with! The only thing this card is missing is that I am constantly falling more in love with you each day. Happy Valentine's Day! PS: Next year I can buy a card that says "wife" :)"

Yea, he's the best. And that card and the memories of the weekend were the best present I could've asked for. What's funny is that I had honestly thought to myself a couple hours earlier, "I can't believe that next year I'll finally get to buy a 'husband' card!" It's the little things in life. 

I hope all of you had a fabulous Valentine's Day and that above all else, you felt loved and blessed.

How did you 'celebrate'? Were presents an important part of your celebration?

Winner, Winner!

We have a winner for my Love is All You Need giveaway from MyWeddingFavors.com! 

The winner is....

kmattso2!!

 

 

Kmattso, MyWeddingFavors will be contacting you soon with more details about your $25 gift certificate. Congratulations! 

Thanks to everyone for entering! Keep an eye out for more giveaways coming in the near future!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm home for the weekend and David and I are celebrating our 7th Valentine's Day today (I'm not sure how - he's surprising me!) so I wanted to do another 'walk down memory lane' like I did for David's birthday and our anniversary. Hopefully you guys aren't sick of them yet - I think they're so fun!

Our first homecoming together was actually on Valentine's Day 2004!

I can't find a picture from Valentine's Day 2005, but our sophomore homecoming was 2 days before

 

I'm beginning to think we just used homecoming as our Valentine's Day date - ha! This is 2006/Jr year

2007

2008

2009

It's crazy to think about how much things have changed since last year! On this day last year I was (not so) secretly hoping for a proposal, but didn't get one. Little did I know, David informed BM S-who came home with me that weekend-about his plan for the proposal that night while I was a few feet away talking to someone! This year, we're now under 4 months out from the wedding, we just put in an offer on a house, and I'm trying to finish my last semester of college strong. I would choose where we're at this year any day, but it's fun to remember the anticipation and excitement of being nearly engaged, too! 

I'm looking forward to tonight, and I'm sure I'll fill you all in on David's surprise! I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend and a Valentine's Day full of lots of love! 

Do you celebrate Valentine's Day? If so, what are your plans this year?

**Don't forget that you only have a couple more days to enter my giveaway from MyWeddingFavors.com - It ends Monday at 5 PM CST!