Our Wedding by the Sea

Awhile back, I mentioned colouring my crinoline.  Well today I finally did it.  I would have done it sooner, but my seamstress had to hem it.  I just brought it home on Sunday night and this was the first time I've had a chance.  It isn't dry yet, but I am beyond happy with the results so far!

I dyed it in a plastic storage bin (I bought it at Target for like $3) because we juuuuust bought a brand new, super expensive front-loading washer that I didn't want to risk ruining.  Our tub is plastic, and I didn't want to dye that... so the plastic bin it was.

My slip is 100% nylon and, as you can see, the dye "stuck" just right.  I used 7 quarts (28 cups) of HOT water- I let it simmer on the stove before dumping it in the bin.  I added a cup of vinegar to help it soak as recommended by RIT, and added two bottles of aquamarine dye and 3 tablespoons of kelly green dye.

I am so in love with how it turned out and can't wait for it to dry so I can see the true colour!

So I know I haven't written in awhile, but it's not for lack of things to say.  I have been SO busy and haven't had much time for anything NWR.  When I do have a few precious minutes of not wedding planning or working, I don't want to spend them writing about wedding planning.  Haha- I am all planned out!!  Now I feel like I can write some stuff, so I'm going to :)

On August 5th I had my bridal shower.  It was amazing- beyond my expectations.  It was a Paris theme and I loved it.  There was a great mix of friends and family and I was SO nervous but had no reason to be.  My mum, FMIL, and bridesmaids did a great job.  We got some great gifts and everyone had a lovely afternoon.

We've also checked A LOT off our lists.  There is still quite a bit to go, but it's definitely do-able.  We bought the lanterns for our cocktail hour centerpieces, confirmed the reception set-up with our DJ (and made most of our playlist, just need to confirm a few little details with Fi).  We cancelled the Vieques leg of our stay in PR and extended the time in San Juan because of the hassle (ie- ferry times being unreliable, rental cars not being allowed to leave the main island, no full moon = no biobay, etc.).  We also went to Lowe's and bought the wood, paint, and nails to make our table numbers, as well as dowels and wood to make the base for our stacked paper lanterns for beside the bar.

Our RSVP deadline was today as well.  We are still waiting to hear back from 26 people, but we are officially below our max amount, so I am thrilled.  We are giving the mail until the end of the week to come in (we figure there will be a few stragglers) and then we'll start calling around on Monday.  If everyone else says yes (and there are a few we're expecting to say no), then we'll have 96 guests.  The smaller, the better, I like to say :)

We also made our final payment to the WCC today, which feels REALLY good.  We are really coming along!!

On Thursday we go to apply for our marriage license, which I am SUPER excited for.  Mostly because it means we get to go to the beach!  We haven't been AT ALL this summer because of work, and we're using all of our time off for the wedding and honeymoon :(  Which will be awesome then... but sucks a lot right now.

Finally, we took my engagement ring to be re-dipped.  I want it to be nice and sparkly for pictures!  They should all be back on the 28th, but I won't be wearing my e-ring again until the wedding weekend.  We engraved our rings, too.  His will say, "Big Spoon" and mine will say, "Little Spoon."  I am in love :)

33 DAYS UNTIL I'M CHRIS' MRS.!!

I literally spent the whole day yesterday working on invitations.  I printed everything out and cut it down (each invite was 2, 8x10 sheets of paper that had the invite, RSVP card, accommodations card, and directions card- I had to cut down the 8x10 page to get all the little elements).  Then I started mounting the invites to the pocket fold, and stuffing the pockets with enclosure cards.  That took forever, because I made a different set of directions for each person- to match the state they are coming from.

It feels SO good to be done.

I just need to go to the post office on Monday and buy postage.  We still need to add stamps to the RSVP envelopes, as well as the mailing envelopes... and then we'll send them off on Tuesday!

I hope we start getting some RSVPs this week!!

And we have 69 days left, but who's counting? :p

For the past several months, I have been holding off on printing my invitations.  Not because I wanted to- oh no- but because I *thought* there was a problem with the brand new, supposed-to-be-amazing printer that Chris' parents bought us for Christmas.  Every time I tried to print out my beloved documents, there was a series of dots along the sides of the wording.  I thought it was smudging from the rollers.  I can't even tell you how many times Chris cleaned those stupid rollers.

A friend brought my paper to her workplace and I sent her all her files.  I got desperate!  My invites go out on July 23rd and they aren't even freakin printed yet!!  She printed them and the same stupid dots were on them.

Turns out the stupid dots are on the document.  I could kick myself.  I am SO happy that it was something so small.  I just took an erase and removed them from that layer on Photoshop.  Thank the lord I didn't merge all my layers!!!

So as I write this, I am currently printing the invitations & RSVP cards for all of the parties of two invited to our wedding.  Then I'll do parties of one.  Then I'll do alllll the directions cards.  I had Fi buy new ink last night.  I am finishing these invitations THIS weekend.

Once and for all.





...wish me luck...

We are down to double digits-- 99 days!  Holy moly, I can't believe we are SO close.  At this time last year I didn't even have a date solidified, and now I'm down to mostly little details and getting super nervous about paying for all of this and making sure it's going to come together smoothly.

I haven't written in a little while because things are really busy right now between work, planning our wedding, and planning the pre-wedding parties for the wedding we're both in two weeks before ours.  But lots of things are done now and there are still some things I am just itching to scratch off of our "to do" list that I'm obsessed with these days.  I literally have a copy on this website, a copy printed out in my planning binder, mini lists everywhere, and a list of weekly checks in my iPad.  Crossing something off is so satisfying.

So here's what we've recently got done...
-We got our guest book tree in the mail!  I used a free graphic I found online, added our name and wedding date in PhotoShop and bought a Groupon to have it printed on canvas.  It is SO cute and I can't wait to hang it in our future house!
-We also got the picture frame for our sand ceremony.  It's a vase/frame combination that we got online that wasn't marketed for sand ceremonies, so instead of paying $50/60 we paid $9.99 on clearance.  Love!
-Bridesmaid's dresses arrived yesterday!  They are SO pretty.  The colour is amazing!  When we ordered them, we only got to see a small swatch of the colour, so we had to use our imaginations on the rest of the dress.  It is so vibrant and lovely.  We also got the guys their ties and pocket squares in the same colours.
-I figured out my something old/new/borrowed/blue and attached a sixpence to my barefoot sandal.  My old is the promise ring my dad gave my mum when they were teenagers; my new is my new last name (Mrs. undies!), my borrowed is a lady bug brooch that a close friend carried on her own wedding day, and my blue is my crinoline.  Nice to have those little details sorted out!
-I bought serving trays for our seating card display (we're going to fill them with sand and put the seating cards inside).  I painted them white and finished them with an acrylic clear coat, so those are ready to go!
-Started working on wedding cake stuff with my mum.  I think we have our cake!!

On my list for this weekend:
-Call about rentals (so nervous to do this for some reason- probably because I know it will be expensive!)
-Harass our caterer to send us a contract.  This is killing me!
-Call to make a fitting appointment for tuxes (the shop owners were on vacation so we had to wait for this one)
-Call about alterations and set up my first fitting

Hopefully my next update finds that bottom paragraph "checked off!"  One of these days I'm going to post a giant super post with tons of pictures of all the little details that are currently hanging out around our house and at FMIL's house.  Till then, you'll just have to use your imagination <3

After months- literally- of addresing envelopes here and there, I am finally finished!  I did more than half of them this week alone.  I got tired of seeing them laying around and just banged them out.  It feels fabulous.  I still have three that will need to be done later- two of my guests are looking at places and will be moving soon, and I'm still waiting on an address for one person from my FMIL.

I also decided to send invites to the Obama's, Mickey & Minnie Mouse, and JK Rowling.  I know that the first two send regrets, but I'm kind of taking a chance with JK Rowling.  I don't know that she responds at all to wedding invites or fan mail.

We had our tux appointment this week and confirmed suits.  The guys will all be wearing "Windsor" by Perry Ellis, in the colour latte.  They will be wearing aquamarine ties & pocket squares from Dessy, in the same material as the bridesmaids dresses (I ordered them with the girls' dresses back in March and they should be here in the first week of July).  Fi decided that he will wear brown shoes as well for the reception, and that the ushers will rent brown ties from the tux place.  His suit/shoes are free because he has 5 people renting suits, so that's awesome.  He's also considering wearing an ivory tie instead of an aquamarine one.

I also received my wedding shoes early this week and I LOVE them.  They are SO cute, super comfy, and exactly what I was looking for.  I am so happy with them and beyond thrilled that I found them.

I got my wedding and engagement rings back today from being re-sized.  I also had my e-ring re-dipped.  It looks brand new!  And fits so much better now as well.  I ordered a fake set to wear for the honeymoon and have been wearing that e-ring for the past week and a half or so, and it feels SO good to have my real stuff back!  I missed my e-ring haha.

Today I went to A.C. Moore and picked up three archive quality pens for our guest book tree, as well as the brown and ivory scrapbook paper I'll be using to make our "Mr." and "Mrs." chair back signs for the reception.  I also placed my order for my guest book tree canvas.  I got the digital file for free from Style Unveiled and printed it on a 16x20 wrap-around canvas that's 1.5" deep on the sides with a sweet Groupon that saved me $79.00!!  I can't wait to get it in.  I sent an email to an Etsy seller who prints her trees on canvas to see if she'll just sell me two ink pads, since I can't find the colours I want and don't know what brand to use.  Hopefully she'll come through for me!

We're in the process of booking the caterer we met with last week.  We just want to make sure they'll be communicative (that's been our number one problem with them so far) and want to iron out some small details.  Hopefully we'll be able to check that off our list, since it was on my list of things to get done before September 2011 and STILL isn't checked off!  To anyone getting married down the Jersey shore, make sure you do this FIRST because everyone closes for the winter and you won't be able to get anything done in those months!!

Lastly, we only have one thing left on our to do list for April 22 to May 21!!  We just need to book our stupid rentals!  That's the last big vendor that *we* need to hire.  I only work thirty hours this week, so I'll have time to call during the day on Thursday or Friday to talk to someone and get our stuff sorted out.  Hopefully we'll have everything checked off our list by the end of this week!  Then I can really start working on next month's list :)

140 days left!  We're getting closer and closer... ahhh!  I can't believe how fast time is flying now!

First thing's first.  We *still* have no caterer.  5 months out and still no food.  Can we say STRESSED!?  However, I've been talking to the catering manager at a restaurant in Ocean City (just north of Stone Harbor) and it looks like we'll probably go with them.  We're trying to schedule a tasting with them- hopefully for this Sunday- and really really hoping it works out so we can sign a contract and let out a HUGE sigh of relief.  Keep your eyes open for more info on that!

Second line of business: Tuxes.  We ordered ties & pocket squares back in March when I ordered the bridesmaid's dresses.  Since my dresses are Alfred Sung (and therefore part of Dessy), ties were available in the exact same colour & fabric as the dresses, so we just ordered at the same time.  However, we have yet to book suit/tux rentals.  Chris and I are both looking for the same thing, so thank goodness we don't have to argue about it.  Honestly though, if he wanted to wear something other than the idea I have in my head, I'd be cool with it.  As it is, we're hoping for tan coloured suits/tuxes.  We have an appointment this coming Tuesday at the first store I went to to try on dresses.  Chris and I are both in a wedding 2 weeks before our own, and the bride got her dress there.  The groom and groomsmen are also getting their tuxes there, so Chris has already interacted with their sales team and stuff when he went to get fitted for that wedding.  He said he found a suit there that he liked for our wedding, so hopefully that will be "the one" and we can sort out tuxes, too.  Then it's just a matter of having the groomsmen & ushers fitted, and Chris' will be free!  Luckily, his best man is the groom from the wedding we're in before ours, so the store already has HIS measurements AND we share a common groomsman who currently lives in Texas, so they have his measurements already, too.  We just need to have the other groomsman (currently living in Georgia) get measured, and have Chris' brothers (our ushers) get measured as well.  We need to find the two of them ties, too.  But at least there's an end in sight!

Finally, invitations.  I have really begun the assembly line.  About 15 envelopes are addressed.  It's labor-intensive and takes a long time, but I'm slowly working through them.  I ordered an address stamper from Vistaprint for the return address, so at least that's going quickly haha.  I'm pretty sure I'll be printing the return address on the RSVP envelopes though.  All of the invitation mats are marked so I know where to mount the invites.  The panel pockets are also nearly all marked so I can mount the mats onto them.  I'll probably start actually gluing the mats to the pockets this weekend.  I haven't printed the invitations yet because a) our printer keeps freezing in the middle of the page every single time I try to print them and b) we want to wait until we have a caterer booked so we can put meal choices on the RSVPs.  Fun fun.  But at least I'm making progress and getting finished with what I can.

Last (but not least), we have confirmed centerpieces!  I don't have my wedding jump drive so I can't post the inspiration picture right now, but I'll post it when I get home from work tonight.  It's going to be 3 cylinder vases with floating candles, the tallest of which will have 1-2 submerged purple calla lilies.  We're going to put either marbles or sand on the bottom of the vases.  I ordered the flowers (30 real touch callas) from Save-On-Crafts yesterday, as well as 36 cylinder vases, 144 votive holders, 36 ivory floating candles, 72 ivory votives, and 72 light blue votives.  They should be here Monday already so I can make some mockups and make sure that the colour on the flowers isn't going to bleed.

149 days to go!  Ahhhh!!!