T-Minus 365 Days...

On Friday, Adam and I celebrated our -1st Anniversary.  And by "celebrated" I mean that I posted an anniversary message on his Facebook wall.

Friday was kind of a reality-check day.  It was neat.  I realized that it wasn't just another day, it is a date that we are going to celebrate each year from now on...for the rest of our lives.  While this year's celebration was quite minimal, I absolutely cannot wait for next year's.

As most of you may know, Adam and I have been dating for 8+ years now.  Neither of us know when we officially starting "going out." We know the general time frame, but that's all; sometime in late October or early November in 2003.  So, I think what I found most exciting about Friday was the fact that this is the first anniversary we've ever had.  We didn't do anything differently than on any other day, but the fact that we have something tangible is nice.

Now, I might seem contradictory here:  I'm excited about our anniversary, but we didn't do anything to celebrate.  I actually left for Tulsa on Friday right after lunch with a friend...for the Color Run!

Photo by H-Dogg (hope you like your anonymous name!)

So that's my excuse.  I could have done something cute for Adam that morning, but he gets donuts for breakfast at work on Fridays anyway.  I could have done something more creative too, but I didn't.

With excuses out of the way, let's look at the T-Minus One Year Checklist:

T-Minus One Year Checklist:

12+ Months

Set a wedding date June 22, 2013

Pick wedding colors Marine from David's Bridal...but maybe Peacock?

Reserve The Wareham $650 deposit paid

Reserve All Faiths Chapel Chapel fee paid

Envision the wedding

Design wedding logo

Work on bride dress hanger

Shop for wedding bands

Mr. & Mrs. chair signs

9-11 Months (June - Aug)

June

Find a wedding dress David's Bridal - post coming soon!

Order wedding dress to be shipped July 31st!

Purchase dress undergarments (bra, slip)

Start collecting photo booth items

Compile a "must-take" photo list for photographer

Make wedding luminaries

June 22 - Run around campus and make a list of photos that you want (look closely at flowers 

     and trees in bloom, sun and weather)

Wooden L & A letters with ribbon

Paint aisle runner (store cool/dry place)

Practice making bouquets and bouts

Insure engagement ring

Get in shape

Drive by Wareham at night - decorations?  numbers?  Marquis saying?

Choose bridal party

      Cute 'Will You Be My Bridesmaid?' idea

      Work on bridesmaids dress hangers

Find a ceremony officiant

Find a photographer

      Book engagement photos for August

      Take engagement photos (August)

Find a caterer / interview

      Plan reception menu

      Sign catering contract / pay deposit

Find a florist

Make wedding guest list (get contact info)

Work on Save-the-Dates

I feel like we're making pretty good progress!  It's weird to think we've been engaged for 6 months now, although it doesn't really seem like we've done much!  My big projects for July are: photographer, caterer and officiant.  I think if I can get these three things done, I will be in really good shape for the next phase of to-do's for August.

How did you celebrate your -1st Anniversary?  When did it start sinking in that you were actually getting married?

Bad Kitty

Meet Zur.

Adam and I adopted Zur almost 6 years ago.  His full name is Zur the Enchanter.  He is named after a Magic the Gathering card (don't judge me).

Source

Now, if you don't know about Magic the Gathering, consider yourself awesome.  Adam and his older brother have been playing for probably 10-15 years, although the "Magic nights" have diminished practically to the point of non-existence lately.  While I don't consider Adam to be a complete nerd, Magic does contribute to some of his nerdy-ness.

Anyways.  We named Zur after a Magic card, not to show our reverence to the Magic the Gathering creators, but rather we couldn't find a name we liked so we resorted to looking through Adams Magic decks.

I love Zur, but he is crazy.  And as this post title suggests, he has been a very bad kitty.

~~~~~~~~I imagine the Wayne's World (doodly doot) sounds as we flash back ~~~~~~~~

I started working on our aisle runner last week.  Went to Hobby Lobby, spent $18 on an aisle runner with the intentions of it turning out something like this:

Source / Excellent DIY blog by the way

I printed off our logo using Excel and starting tracing it onto the aisle runner...

...and then I spent the evening painting the C with acrylic paint while watching Game of Thrones.

(Definitely not perfect yet, but a start.)

All to wake up the next morning to Zur's wrath attempt at getting comfortable on the aisle runner while using his claws and teeth.

(It's kind of hard to see some of the spots, but I promise they are there)

Adam tried to convince me that you couldn't really see the marks, but being a perfectionist that I am, this is just not acceptable.  Luckily he only tore up a 2ft section above where the logo is so I am thinking that I may be able to repurpose it for our cake table like this:

Source

And as for the other 90 feet of aisle runner I have left, I am going to pop in the church sometime and see how well it covers the length of the aisle.  I actually haven't been in the church since the last time we went to a wedding there, so it will be a good chance for me to check everything out.  I'm hoping that I can use the remainder of the material for the actual aisle runner, but if it doesn't work out, I might use it to make the backdrop for our photo booth or to decorate some tables or something.  

And the moral of this story is: do not leave soft and cozy things that you do not want destroyed by Zur lying around the house unprotected.  Lesson learned.

Did you have any wedding details that a pet "helped" out with?

Your Lips Touching Mine in the Photo Booth

I love photo booths at weddings.  I fell in love with them last year when I went to a cousin's wedding in Ohio, which was the first time I'd ever seen one at a wedding.  It might have been the open bar, but I had SO. MUCH. FUN with all of the different props and getting together with my different family members.  To share, here are some of my favorite photo booth pictures:

  

      

Well, last weekend we went to another wedding and had another round of photo booth madness, reaffirming my love of photo booths:

  

Now, as much as I love photo booths, I am not willing to pay a lot for them.  Looking at some of the companies around town, you can easily pay $600 for 3 hours of wedding coverage.  I say nay, let's DIY it.

I went shopping today.  I looked online at orientaltrading.com, but the majority of their costumes and potential photo booth props were sold in bulk.  So off to Dollar Tree I went (best decision ever).

For merely $14, I got 14 props to use for our photo booth.  I already had the three-cornered hat and I have sombreros and maracas in my classroom that I will include also.  I made a list the other day of the items that I would need and this crosses off many of them....yay!

Props/Supplies for DIY Photo Booth:
Tiara/Crown
Wand
Glowstick something
Glasses/Nose set
Sunglasses (I'm thinking of gettings these as favors...like the neon ones!)
Giant Sunglasses
Sombrero (at school)
Maracas (at school)
Sparkly ties/bowties
Top hat
Eye patch (but I got a pirate hat...)
Boa (leis)
Knife
Wigs (I think I have some in my Halloween box, but there are wasps in my shed and I was too afraid to check!)
Mask
Moustaches
Magnet board/chalkboard (I'm thinking of using my student-sized whiteboards & dry-erase markers from my classroom instead)
Background

For $14, I think that is an awesome start.  I honestly think that I can come in under $50 for an entire photo booth package.  I am going to grab some items post-halloween this year to add them to the collection.

Next time:  Deciding on the photo booth background and the whole how-to-make-it-work-without-an-attendant-and-a-special-camera-thing.

At All Costs - Dresses They Are

My budget for a wedding dress is small. Ideally, I want to spend around $500, but the more I look, I'm starting to wonder how much of a reality that is going to be.

Initially, I went to David's Bridal in search of a dress.  They post their prices online, so it was clear that if I made an appointment there, there would be a large number of dresses for me to try on.

However, after not falling in love with the dresses I tried on, I am starting to branch out to find other bridal salons in the area.  Most of these places are two-ish hours away, carry certain designers, but do not list their prices.  And thus we arrive at my issue (well, one of them!):  I have a huge fear of walking into a bridal salon and finding dresses only outside of my price range.

It's one of those situations that you wonder whether you should honor the appointment (since you drove all the way to get there!), try some on and potentially fall in love with something you can't buy, or face the music and tell your attendant that the dresses are outside of your budget.

I would like to avoid that situation all together.  Thus I present to you:

  

source

The Wedding Dress Designer Price Guide

Theknot.com has lots of wedding dresses organized by price category ($, $$, $$$, $$$$ and $$$$$).  

I went through the pages upon pages of dresses, wrote down the designers, and compiled them into a document that is, well, awesome.  The WDDPG fits any budget and runs from $0 - $5000+.  You can either look up the designer alphabetically to see the price range of their dresses, or you can look by price category and find designers that cater to your budget.

I am so happy I did this.  I had been looking at several bridal shops in the area and I really had no idea where to go.  With the WDDPG, I was able to pull up the designers that each shop carries, analyze the salons/designers, and figure out which one was going to carry the most affordable dresses for me.   

I will warn you though:  all of the information is from theknot.com.  While they seem to be a pretty reliable source, I feel like Kansas is different than other states when it comes to cost-of-living and living/wedding expenses.  

I second warn you:  I make mistakes.  I looked at over 2000 dresses.  However, you can just click on each designer in the WDDPG and it will take you to theknot's page of dresses and you can always double-check there.

I hope that if you are stuck like me, not wanting to inconvenience your friends and family with a wasted shopping trip, you can put this to use.  Good luck!