Showered with LOVE!

I must say I have the best family and friends! My bridal shower was this weekend and it was FANTASTIC!! It started with some fabulous food and Sangria!

There were even goodie bags with crayons and suckers for the kiddos. And my sister made carrot cake cakepops for the favors!

The first activity was a scrapbooking activity. Because Greg and I have been together for 10 years, there are a million pictures of us. My party was broken into groups and each group worked on a page.

And the winner is......

My sister is going to add pages to the book with pictures from the bridal shower and bachelorette party. I thought this was a great idea and everyone seemed to really enjoy making the pages and looking at the pictures of us.

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The next game was trivia. It was fun to see who knew the most answers to questions about us.

I think the team that our moms were the one who actually won that game.

Then it was on to presents! Oh BOY! I was SPOILED!

Here is a pic of me with my dear friend Chelsea who came all the way from Hawaii for my shower. And her daughter Maddy who is my goddaughter!

Here is a pic of my fabulous sister (who was the shower mastermind) and my mother!

The shower was great and I am totally loved. I can't believe how many people came out for it since I am seriously rarely at home. I LOVED it! and had a blast! I can't wait to help my next friend/family feel this spoiled!

10 Years!

I know it's crazy but June 27th marked 10 years of dating for me and Greg. It's been a fantastic and fun journey and I can't wait for 40 more!

Here are some pics throughout the years...

Getting to ABQ...

This weekend was my bridal shower and we planned on getting a bunch of other things done, engagement pictures, cake ordering, looking at rings, etc. We decided to drive Greg's lovely 1994 Toyota Camry, that is just about on it's last leg.....at least it is now.

Yep folks that's right! Not one, but TWO flat tires! The first one happened a few hours into our trip and we were lucky enough to have a full size spare to replace it. I probably shouldn't have said anything, but I was like, "What happens if we get another flat?"

About 15 minutes after we ate lunch the second one blew and it was shredded! We really didn't know what the heck we were going to do. We had talked about getting AAA, but we never had actually signed up. We were still at least 3 hours from ABQ and we had a 4:00 appointment with the cake shop to order our cake.

Well as you can tell we weren't too sad about it. Greg's dad called into the nearest town and had a guy drive us out two new tires. He came within 20 minutes and we were on our way within 45 minutes of the second tire blowing. Greg's dad seriously saved our butts!

While we waited Gus was howling and singing. It was fun.....Oh yeah and about 1 hour outside of ABQ the air conditioner died too......

Ties for the guys

I started getting a little frantic last week and started ordering different things online that I would need for the the wedding. Today the ties for the guys came! We ordered black ties for the groomsmen and red striped ties for the papas from The Tie Bar

This is a picture of the black herringbone tie.

And here is the red, black and white striped ties for the papas.

The ties are very nice quality and were only $15 a piece. A great deal!

These will be part of the groomsmen gifts and gifts for the papas. I am very happy with this purchase and would definitely recommend them! One more thing checked off the list!

DIY Invitation Disaster: Update

Okay, so here is the update on the invitation disaster. Greg's letter to customer service is getting us a refund for the printing of the ruined invitations, and replacement invitations, but no refund for the ruined invitations, if that makes any sense. But, whatever. I think I have found an easier way for me to print the invitations at home without fighting too much with templates, etc.

I found this excellent website called DownloadandPrint. It is a website of free templates for invitations, rsvp cards, etc. And this website has really cute designs that she is frequently updating. The templates are designed for 8.5 x 11 in paper so that you don't have to fight with changing printing preferences, etc. She also recommends the type of paper to use for the invitations. Here is the one I've been messing around with.

It was very easy, I just downloaded the template and changed the information and font inside the text boxes. I printed and voila!

The RSVP card template had a few more things on it than I wanted so I just rearranged it to how I wanted it.

My version

I'm still messing around with the spacing of wording, etc. The other drawback is the cutting of the pages, however she gives you guidelines to make that easy. That will probably get tedious though. However, I really like the look of these invitations, I can still use the envelopes from the ruined kits and Greg actually said he liked these better than the other ones.

DIY Invitation Disaster

The invitations are driving me nuts. I personally don't want to spend a lot on them, I'm not into making them very difficult to put together (ie multiple pieces of paper, maps, pocketfold, etc). I have been trying to make this as simple as possible for myself while still not spending a lot.

WELL I SCREWED UP! And now my DIY Michaels invitations are ruined and I have to start over.

In fairness to myself, it's not really my fault.....it's the "printing store guy's fault". Or at least I am going to blame him to make myself feel better since I'll probably never see him again.

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Here are the problems:

1. He did not use the approved font that took me 2+ months to finalize and printed all of the invitations in Times New Roman......AGH!

2. He accidentally erased a line from the RSVP card.....you know the part that says

__ Number attending

3. He used all of my invitations

4. He didn't give a crap...at all

Greg was pissed and wrote a letter to customer service. I think I have a solution, but the subject is still a sore matter for me since my plan was to have finished invitations this week, and it looks like I'm starting invitations this week. Updates to come once I'm done with work this week.

HOLY MOLY 3 months!?!

I just realized I am getting married 3 months from TODAY!!!! I can't believe we are at the 3 month mark.

Things I've learned along the way:

1. Give people around you something to do....I have been trying to do everything myself and and it wasn't working...I finally delegated some wedding stuff that I was too overwhelmed to do and I am glad I did! Loads off my back!

2. Don't DIY everything. I am DIYing a lot, but I'm starting to realize that this is a bit much....I'm starting to scrap some ideas.

3. I hate invitations! HATE them! I bought some at a great price at Michael's and now they look ugly when I tried to print them on our laser printer....INK jet people!! I'm going to have to go to Officemax now.

4. Love your dress! I love mine and can't wait to wear it!

Dress Alterations...

SO before you get your hopes up...I will not be showing a picture of my dress until after the wedding. It's got to be a surprise right!?

But I can tell you about how I got my dress. I went to different bridal shops all over Denver and Albuquerque and really couldn't find anything I HAD to have. I think I tried on like 60 dresses. I knew I finally would find a dress I loved once my mom came along and that is what happened. However, dear mother picked out a very expensive, totally over budget gorgeous dress.......

So I started to look online for used dresses and almost bought one that I didn't love.....but then I checked ebay and found MY dress, new with tags, for 65% off the price the bridal shop wanted.....one problem.....the dress is a size 10.....and I'm like a 6.....hmmmm........

But I bought it! And since I bought it, I have been having nightmares about it not fitting, or the seamstress telling me she won't be able to size it down enough, or that it will cost just as much as the original to get it altered.

So today I went to The Wedding Seamstress here in Denver and she put my mind at ease. Not only can she fix my dress, but she can do it for about what I was hoping to pay. She told me she does 900 weddings a year and that they now have a waiting list, so I am so glad I got in when I did.

Huge dress crisis averted!