Our Wedding by the Sea

I have officially finished shopping for my bridesmaids.  The damage was less than $25 each and here's what I got them:

Cute, over-sized totes from Target.  The patterns match the personalities of their recipients.

Beach towels.  I thought this was appropriate for a beach wedding and because who doesn't need more beach towels?  I got 2 blue and 2 red.

Flip flops.  They don't necessary have to wear them at the wedding, but again- who doesn't need more flip flops?  The blue/green/silver are for my attendants and the black/white/silver are for my celebrant.

Beverage glasses.  I bought the glasses from the Dollar Store and got vinyl stickers from Etsy to decorate them myself.  These glasses were less than $4 each and are probably my favorite part of my girls' gifts.

Dress hangers.  I'll be giving these to them when I give them their dresses (which are being shipped to my house).  These were free because I had all the materials laying around the house.  The white "J" is mine and there is one for Amy, too.  I had to touch up her brown paint before applying the rhinestones, and it was drying when I took this picture.

My matron of honour had mentioned possibly wearing a brown flower on her dress instead of blue, which comes with the dress.  So I ordered her the brown flower and will attach it to her tote bag.  She can decide whatever colour she wants to wear: it's not a big deal either way.  She could always wear it in her hair if she wanted to.

It's likely that I'll be picking up little things here & there for the girls as well.  Things that aren't matchy-matchy and more personal for each of them.

My mum ordered her dress for the wedding last week and I LOVE it.  I can't wait for it to come in!!  She ordered it in navy.

I ordered my girls' dresses today!  We went with Dessy D498 in Aquamarine.  My celebrant loved the dress, too, so she got one in black.  I ordered from ebridalsuperstore.com, which I heard from in Bridal Bargains and has great reviews.  Now I just sit and play the waiting game.

I also ordered the ties & pocket squares for Chris and the groomsmen.  They are the same colour & fabric as the bridesmaid's dresses, and are from Dessy as well so we should get a perfect match.

I ordered my barefoot sandals from Etsy last week and they are shipping tomorrow.  I'm going to wear them alone on the beach, and add a pair of ivory flip flops for the reception.

Also!  I finally got in contact with the lady from Vital Statistics in Stone Harbor about having our ceremony on the beach.  She told me I needed to send her a letter with our time/date/location on the beach and she'd okay it.  Another perk we weren't expecting is that it's free!  When we were considering Cape May, it was $50 for a half hour permit (that is, a half-hour to set-up, have your ceremony, and break-down), so we thought it'd be the same in Stone Harbor.  She told me it was free, though, so that's super exciting!  Another $50 we don't have to come up with :)  The letter is on its way to her now.

I went bridesmaid dress shopping for Kyle & Veronica's wedding.  They're getting married two weeks before Chris & I (on the 8th) and both of us are in the wedding.  She wanted each of us to choose a satin Alfred Angelo dress.  She wants black and it can be short, tea length, or cocktail length.  So we went to the store last night & I started to try on dresses.  Most of the samples are 8, 10, or 12.  I wore a size 8 in the wedding I was in in May, and when I tried on an 8 last night it was too big!  So exciting!!  I will probably order my dress in a 6 :)

Then today I went to (finally) get my fingerprints done.  I registered & paid for them back in August.  So today I go and the guy pulls up my registration number and asks me to confirm all the information I had entered.  And I saw that my weight was entered as 160 (!!!)  Let's just say I don't weigh 160 anymore... I've lost almost 20 pounds since then and am still losing :D  Seeing that was just crazy to me... Big success is simply the result of lots of little efforts.

I start training for my half marathon next week and I can't wait.  I took this week off to rest and I really can't wait to be up and running again next week.

Sent out my save the dates on Valentine's Day and I'm getting lots of positive feedback about them, so that's a good happiness too :)

My mum made an appointment to try on the dress she wants to buy for the wedding.  She's going next Wednesday.  I LOVE the dress she picked out and hope she does too when she sees it in person :) She wants it in navy, which I think will be beautiful.

Morgan went to try on her dress in Georgia the other night too and loves it.  That settles it then: that's the dress we're going with.  All the girls like it in aquamarine, too, so I'll have a lovely blue bridal party.

I love how things are just coming along <3

I can't believe there are only 300 days left!  I remember when I was counting backward from 455 (and had a different wedding date in mind).  It's amazing how much we have finished since then... and how much more we still have to do.  Our six-year anniversary is coming up, too, as well as Chris' birthday and Christmas of course, so this month will likely fly by.  I graduate on the 16th, so I basically have a lot of free time coming up as well :D

So here's the updates & plans for the coming month!

First and foremost, I sent out STD's to my OOT guests last week!  Only 10 of them, but still!  I've been hearing from everyone how they got them yesterday/today, and have been getting lots of compliments on them.  It makes it feel so real- we're actually sending mail to tell people that we're getting married!  And I checked weddingwire, and our website has had 11 hits!!  So exciting!!

Also, I went dress shopping with two of my BM's.  Morgan (in GA) plans to go on Christmas break to try it on.  If she approves, that's the dress we're going to go with.  Jen & Britta decided they liked the blue better and I agreed, but Morgan can choose if she wants to wear aquamarine (and match the others) or brownie (and be different) since she's the MOH.  Here are some pics of Jen & Britta trying the dresses on.  Jen doesn't have the flower accent belt thing on because it was too big for both of them and just looked silly hanging there- the smaller clasp size thing was broken.  The style is Alfred Sung D498.  It has pockets and is totally re-wearable.

So in December I need to DIY the serving set.  I also need to attempt (again!) to block hotel rooms in Stone Harbor for my guests since basically everyone is traveling for our wedding, including us.  The hotels I contacted months ago all said they don't "do" blocks.  So I'm a little nervous now about not being able to get this together, but I'll keep trying!

I will also be ordering paper for my DIY invites in December and starting to address the envelopes, cutting mats, and adhering them to the panel pocket or pocketfold (still haven't decided which route to go).  I don't know how to do choreography, but I plan to print everyone's address in a calligraphy font on printer paper, then use a light table to trace it onto the envelopes.  Could take forever, so I want to get started early.

Last but definitely NOT least!  I graduate from the University of Georgia on December 16th!  Finally finally finally!!  I am ecstatic and CANNOT wait!!  We are traveling to Georgia on the 15th so I can walk and are spending the weekend in Athens to celebrate my graduating and Chris' 25th birthday.  I got my cap, gown, and tassel in the mail last week.  The cap & tassel are fine, but the gown was messed up (it was sewn wrong) so they are rushing a replacement to me that should be here before December 7th.  Now I'm working on decorating my cap and need to figure out what I want to do with it.