Our Wedding by the Sea

Today we got a big box in the mail.

Our invitation paper is officially here!!  I'm so excited to get started on my invites.  I know I've been saying this with basically every check, but this makes it feel so much more real.  Ahhh!!

I also got an email from Carnival.  I had emailed them last week because we booked Early Saver, which guarantees the lowest rate.  They had a lower rate published for our cruise/room type and so I sent in a form and got our rate lowered, too.  So yay- that's exciting!  I'll continue to stalk the website to make sure we don't miss out on any lower fares as well.

Sunday we registered at Target and it was actually a lot of fun.  I can't wait to register at Macy's on the 15th now.  We had a really good time and had a lot of fun imagining what our future home will look like and stuff.

Last but definitely not least, our flowers are ordered!!!  We're getting a 23-piece package from Etsy seller ShayesBridalBoutique and I love love LOVE our flowers.

My bouquet will be wrapped in teal and ivory (in the pic above, imagine the green ribbon as ivory) and topped with a starfish brooch.

All other bouquets/boutonnieres/corsages will have purple ribbon.  I know it's not one of my wedding colours, but it is my favorite colour.  And blue & purple is my favorite colour combo.  AND Chris liked it better than the brown, so whenever he has any kind of opinion about the wedding I take that as a good sign.

Things are coming along swimmingly!!

I ordered the paper for our invitations last week and it should be here on the 6th!  Yay!  So I've been reevaluating my design, and I realized that I made all my enclosures for the regular pocketfold sizes, instead of the panel pocket (which is what I ended up deciding on).  So I completely re-did my invitation suite over the past 2 days.  Now I have 2 enclosure cards & an RSVP card and I feel like everything flows so much better & looks a lot better.

Here is my inspiration suite:

What I love about it is that the enclosure cards have graphics on them that align when they are on top of one another.  Mine now do this as well and I love them SO much better than what I was doing before.

I LOVE them and can't wait to start assembling!  Get here soon, paper!!

Annnndd we've booked our condo in San Juan!  It's gorgeous, affordable, in the Condado district, and right near everything.  AND right on the beach!  So excited about this check!

I also ordered my paper from C&P for invitations today finally.  Can't wait to start making them!!

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.

So I am going to be DIYing our invitations, save the dates, programs, etc.  Basically everything paper for the wedding.  I had done most of these things, but recently I was just so uninspired by the stuff I had put together.  Our save the dates (below) were just so blah and not us.  Our invitation suite was boring and again- not us.  Our program fans were cute, but didn't really match the feel of the wedding (neither did the save the dates, come to think of it...)

So this weekend I put in some serious time re-designing everything.  I am so much happier with everything now.  I stole the layout/design for our save the dates from Wedding Paper Divas.  I took the idea for the invites from Minted, and then used the same motif to make enclosure cards, thank you notes, and programs.  I would have done the same for our save the dates, but I don't like when save the dates are too matchy-matchy with everything else.  I just had to report because I'm just so much happier with everything now.

I also figured out how many invitations I need to send out (64) and decided to make 80 invites- that way we'll have extras in case some get lost in the mail or in case we need to add any last minute extras.  Also, we'll have one for our pictures on the wedding day, as well as one to frame for our home.  I then figured out what I'll need to order from C&P to start assembling them, and will probably order paper/envelopes in early December so I can start slowly putting things together & addressing my envelopes.

Last but not least, I have gathered almost all of the addresses I need to complete our guest list.  I still need to get them from Chris' mom, but nearly my whole family and almost all of our friends are finished.  Yay!