Here, Birdie Birdie!

I just received an email from my Aunt Jane and Uncle Richie who live in Florida. They are two of the craftiest people I know. Recently, they asked me if I wanted any help with assembling any of the elements for the wedding. Seeing the list, they thought it might be a good idea to help out with the bird seed packets. SUCH a huuuuuuuge help! In the email that they just sent me was a picture of a beautiful bird seed packet idea! I could not have come up with something like this myself. Look at the pictures below!


They seem too pretty to tear open!!

Flower Power - Minus the Smelly Hippies...Part Deux

I woke up this morning to two hungry kitties and discovered...we have no cat food! I jumped right up, showered, and headed out the door. Ok, so I was also a little excited because PetCo and Joann's are in the same shopping center. Teehee! I got myself a few little things which included two yards of ivory tool for layering into my fabric flower project. I came home and got right to work. I decided to try the large Peony and was actually pretty happy with how it came out!! Here she is!!


I think I am going to make a bunch of the smaller ones and put them in metal pots. I will then hang the pots with ribbon on the chairs going down the isle.

One project figured out...a million more to go. It is snowing out right now which is putting me in cozy winter mode. Plenty of time to stay home and craft...ahhh.

Best Color Palette Tool EVER!!

After a long day of battling a migraine with heavy doses of caffeine and Excedrin...I am now up at almost 3am sans headache but plus energy...oh well, wedding planning into the wee hours of the night never killed anybody! I was on weddingbee and came across a post where someone suggested this page to help choose a color palette. Go to Multicolr and pick up to ten colors from the palette. Multicolr Search Lab will then grab a group of photos from Flickr that all contain all the colors on the palette you chose! Is this not the best thing ever?! Here are two of my examples...




Everyone must try this...it is actually really cool!

Color it UP!

When my mom and I went to check out Patriot Hills and to drop off our second deposit we got to take a quick peek at the reception room. The room was set up for a wedding and the tables had either a white or an ivory basic linen on them. It really washed out the room being that the room has a muted pallet. Don't get me wrong, half the reason I chose Patriot is for the muted pallet so that I can put whatever colors I want in there. It just needs a little something. So my mom and I got into looking at "specialty linens". Of course, these end up costing more money to rent them whereas the regular linens are included. I had found an apple green crinkle taffeta overlay which I loved! But, at $25 per table...it's slightly out of our reach. Searching online, I came across Efavormart.com. Here, they have what looks like the same ones, but you can buy them for under $10 each. They also have the organza overlays for under $7 each!! So tonight, what I did was I ordered a couple of the table runners in the two different fabrics for about $3 each to see what the colors look like. From there, I can decide what I want to do. Then, after the wedding, I can always sell them!

Photos are courtesy of Efavormart.com

Flower Power - Minus the Smelly Hippies

One of the projects I have been dying to try are these fabric roses and peonies from the Martha Stewart Weddings Summer 2009 mag! The good thing is that I won't need to use my sewing machine, which would be hard in this tiny apartment. The bad thing is that it looks like a lot of hand work...cutting lots of layers, hand sewing etc. I'm just thinking about how beautiful they will look at the end of the isles at the ceremony! I can get coordinating fabrics...soften with tool...oh my! It makes me giddy! I will post pics once I try it but for now here is the pic from the MSW site:

Checked Off Items & Checked Off Pounds!

Here we are, just a little less than 4 months away from our Wedding Day! I can't believe it!

One thing that I am thrilled to have checked off my "To Do" list is finding my wedding gown! I never thought it would ever happen but I did actually find my dream gown. It has every little detail that I love. I can't wait until it comes in so I can try on MY actual gown! I ordered it in the size that I am now and if I lose more weight (which I plan on losing a lot more) they can always take it in. In 2 days it will be one year since I started dieting and I have to say, for a girl who hasn't been strict at all with it, I have lost 31 pounds!! I plan on being a lot more strict with myself over the next 5 months but 31 pounds is a great starting off point. I found this picture of myself from last Christmas and almost died...I still can't believe how I let myself go. Once all of my unwanted pounds are off I am never going back to that...until it's baby time! Below are my before and after pictures (so far).

Me at Christmas 2008 - at least my hair looks cute! lolMe now and 31 pounds lighter:

In other news...
Lately I have been trying to figure out the DIY parts of my wedding. I have been searching and searching on the internet for ideas and possibilities. Martha Stewart Weddings and Weddingbee have been great! Now, I have to figure out how to execute all that I want to do. Here is a list of some of the projects that I plan to take on over the next few months:

-Invitations
-Escort Cards
-Programs
-Favors
-Bird Seed Packets
-Tissue packets
-Finishing touches on centerpieces
-Bathroom baskets for venue
-Putting together gifts for bridal party
-Guestbook or alternative
-Card box
-Ceremony decorations

Just to name a few. I hope I'm not getting in over my head. You all know how I love crafts and I hope they turn out to be fun projects. I'll let you know after I have started them!

Music and Mayhem

We finally managed to find a DJ! You would think being engaged to a former DJ that this would have been done a long time ago. For some reason it took longer than I thought to find one. Hopefully he will end up doing a great job. I still have to go through and make a must play/do not play list. This shouldn't be too hard. I just want to find something for everyone so that we get people dancing on the big night!

The search for an officiant is still on. We had originally decided that we wanted Father George to do it but he sort of booked someone else for that day. Honestly, I am a little bummed about it but what can you do? We have been trying to get in contact with someone else that Father George recommended...will post more when we hear from him.

Having some problems at work that really seem to be bothering me. I don't know why I let annoying people get to me. I keep trying to put that aside and remind myself that the big day is only about 6 months away! I can honestly say, I don't know what I would do without Pete. After a bad day at work, he can always get me smiling and laughing.

We had planned on doing our engagement photos a couple of weeks ago but we had some bad weather that day. We are going to try and reschedule in a few weeks..more towards the beginning of November. Rich takes some awesome photos. I am excited to see how they come out!!

I found this inspiration board on Snippet and Ink entitled "Rock-N-Romance" and I just fell in love with the color scheme!