Groomsmen Gifts...check

Present time!! Now that everything for the boy's gifts has arrived, I wrapped them ALL tonight! I'm pooped, so quick blog update, mostly pics.

I have yet to blog about the gifts cohesively. Here is my attempt at cohesiveness. (My word of the day). Each boy is getting a custom made pair of Red Converse as I blogged about here.

Each boy is also receiving a pair of cuff links I made a million years ago and blogged about here. They are swarovski crystals!

And lastly, they are getting a beautiful black tie that we got from The Tie Bar. I blogged about it here.

I got some lovely white wrapping paper from Party City. Plain white wrapping paper was actually a little difficult to find. I have a TON of ribbon from the centerpieces so I used that to complete the black and white appeal of the presents.

E-PICS!!

Our e-pics are here! Yay! They were taken by Allison Ruth a photographer who works in the Albuquerque area. She is also doing our wedding photos. I love her style, especially her black and whites! A few notes before you look at them. Some interesting things happened on our e-pic session. Yes, we got pulled over and Greg got a speeding ticket. I actually LOVE those pics in the car, I think they are great. My favorite shot is the one of both of us leaning on the tree in black and white. And we LOVE sushi so we went to eat sushi during the middle of the session.

Here are a few teasers.....ENJOY!!!

The Slideshow

the password is : nob hill

First dress fitting!

I had my first dress fitting today. If you remember I bought my dress on Ebay....it was size 10 and I'm like a 4. I took my dress to The Wedding Seamstress here in Denver. Deedee is FANTASTIC!! When I dropped off my dress a couple months ago she took my measurements, had me put on the dress, pinned me, pinned the hem, etc.

Well.....it fit PERFECTLY! The hem, the size, everything is perfect! I can't believe it, first try!! I would highly recommend this place to everyone! Reasonable prices, first try!

DIY: Love Rocks!

When I do my DIY projects, my confession is that I watch The Bachelorette on Hulu. I still can't believe what Frank did to Ali this week!

Anyways, my project is our favors, I have totally nixed the baklava idea because it is not practical to get done ahead of time. So I'm doing "Love Rocks!"

I used a punch tool I got from Michaels to punch out the labels I made in powerpoint.

On one side it says "Love Rocks!"

And on the other it says "Thank you for sharing this special day with us! Love, Greg and Loriel"

I glued the two halves together.

We ordered white rock candy swizzle sticks from Oh Nuts! Greg and I tied black bows on each one and added the labels....Viola!

Here is the back view. It was pretty easy once I had all the supplies ready to go. We have about half done!

50 Days...

And the countdown begins......again......and I'm freaking out......again......

Things to do:

1. Figure out what the heck is going on with our cake (the lady won't call me back)

2. Our e-pics are to arrive sometime this weekend!

3. Pick our ceremony music

4. Write our vows

5. Figure out what we want to say for the ring exchange

6. Work on favors

7. Work on exit bells

8. Get Greg's suit

9. 1st dress fitting on Thurs!

10. Order our rings

11. Continue getting RSVPs

12. Programs

13. Menus

14. Make my mom go get a dress

15. Find a rehearsal dinner dress

16. Finish making bridesmaid jewelry

17. Put bridal party gifts together, wrap, etc

18. Reception music list including 1st dance, cake cutting, bouquet toss, garter toss

19. Get marriage license

20. Order flowers for DIY centerpieces and bouquets

22. Order flower strippers and get floral tape

21. Seating chart?

22. Sanity?.....Xanax? (I'm sure I've got like 45 more things to add)....maybe I should stop counting down the days.....

Custom Converse are HERE!!!

Yeppers! They have arrived....those beautiful 8 boxes that I've been waiting a few weeks for! They are here!!

It all started with Converse inspiration photos...

And the fact that back in the day Greg's uncles wore red Converse to one of the uncle's weddings. Greg instantly wanted to wear red Converse.

You can design your own Converse on their website....you can pretty much pick ANYTHING you want....it's very cool, plus you can customize a personal ID on each one!

The boxes!!

The shoes!!

And the personal ID....their name and 9410 which is our wedding date!

These will be a part of the groomsmen gifts! And we got some for our Dads too!

I Like You

Greg and I chose our ceremony reading yesterday. You may have seen this used before, but I just fell in love with it when I read it.

Yes, it's from a children's book, but it's perfect.

We chose different sections that we liked to shorten it a bit.

Here it is: (our edited version)

I Like You and I Know Why

I Like You Because You Are a Good Person to Like

I Like You Because When I Tell You Something Special, You Know It’s Special and You Remember It A Long Long Time

You Say, Remember When You Told Me Something Special? And Both of Us Remember

When I Think Something Is Important, You Think It’s Important Too. We Have Good Ideas.

When I Say Something Funny, You Laugh. I Think I’m Funny and You Think I’m Funny Too.

I Like You Because You Know Where I’m Ticklish And You Don’t Tickle Me There. Except Just a Little Tiny Bit Sometimes. But If You Do Then I Know Where to Tickle You Too.

You Know How to Be Silly, That’s Why I Like You. Boy Are You Ever Silly. I Never Met Anybody Sillier Than Me Till I Met You.

If I Pretend I am Drowning, You Pretend You Are Saving Me.

If I am Getting Ready to Pop a Paper Bag, Then You Are Getting Ready to Jump. That’s Because You Really Like Me. You Really Like Me, Don’t You? And I Really Like You Back and You Like Me Back and I Like You Back. And That’s The Way We Keep Going Every Day.

I Like You Because If We Go Away Together And If We Are in Grand Central Station And If I Get Lost Then You Are the One That is Yelling For Me.

I Like You Because When I Am Feeling Sad You Don’t Always Cheer Me Up Right Away. Sometimes It Is Better To Be Sad. You Can’t Stand the Others Being So Googly and Gaggly Every Single Minute. You Want to Think About Things. It Takes Time.

I Like You Because If I Think I A Going To Throw Up Then You Are Really Sorry. You Don’t Just Pretend You Are Busy Looking At the Birdies and All That. You Say Maybe It Was Something You Ate. You Say the Same Thing Happened to Me One Time, And the Same Thing Did.

If You Find Two Four-Leaf-Clovers You Give Me One. If I Find Four, I Give You Two. If We Only Find Three We Keep On Looking. Sometimes We Have Good Luck and Sometimes We Don’t.

If I Break My Arm And If You Break Your Arm Too, Then It Is Fun to Have a Broken Arm. I Tell You About Mine and You Tell Me About Yours. We Are Both Sorry.

I Like You Because I Don’t Why, But Everything That Happens Is Nicer With You. I Can’t Remember When I Didn’t Like You.

I Would Go On Choosing You and You Would Go On Choosing Me Over and Over Again. That’s How It Would Happen Every Time. I Don’t Know Why.

I Guess I Don’t Know Why I Like You Really. Why Do I Like You? I Guess I Just Like You Because I Like You.

RSVPs are pouring in!

We have received 8 RSVPs back already! It's only been a week....and it was a holiday so I'm happy to see them coming in. I noticed that the RSVPs look smeared from the invitations but WHATEVER! I'm over those damn invitations! Greg and I have been working on our ceremony planning and readings and we are starting to look into our bachelor/bachelorette parties. It's all coming together!

More to come!

55 days!!

Lovely kitchen

I got some great (FABULOUS) stuff at my shower. I wanted to post some of the really cute things I got because they are so perfect!

I got a great set of bowls that are funky and colorful just like my kitchen!

This is a set of measuring cups. How cute are they!!

I also got these "G" and "L" mugs. Greg and I love them!

(The bowls, measuring cups, and mugs are from Anthropologie)

And of course the GurglePot. It gurgles when you pour. And I'm a Pisces so it's perfect.

Just wanted to share some of the funky gifts that I'm enjoying in my kitchen!

Invite #1 received!

My Aunt just texted me and let me know she got my invitation! Yay! I had fears that for some reason :

1. The postage wouldn't be correct even though I checked it numerous times

2. The invitations would get wet and I would feel really bad about not using inner envelopes

3. That something else would go wrong with them

Now the BIG WAIT....for the RSVPs......

Rings!

During our trip home, I forgot to take pictures of the rings we chose, but I was able to find a few images that are pretty close.

Greg originally thought he would like something like this:

But in actually trying the rings on, he realized he really doesn't like "shiny". Every ring was "too shiny". It was sort of funny because I chose my ring in about 15 minutes. It took him over 45 minutes and every ring in the shop before he finally chose his ring.

It is really similar to this:

His is a little wider and less "shiny" but it's titanium and white gold. It's really cool and actually very "him".

I chose a diamond band similar to this:

My original inspiration for my bridal set is this:

Groomsmen Newsletter

So yes! I sent our groomsmen an email that explicitly states what they need to get and what they don't need to get. I thought pictures were appropriate. Did I do this with my bridesmaids? No. Why might you ask did I do this for our groomsmen? Well for a few reasons.

1. My brother is in the bridal party and I see him asking me at the rehearsal dinner what he was supposed to wear.

2. Since we aren't doing the commonly used rented tux I thought our boys might get confused. 3. One of our groomsmen was in another wedding a few months ago and he was frantically searching for suspenders the night before the wedding.

4. THEY ARE BOYS....did I really need the other reasons?

I sent it out a few days ago and a couple of the groomsmen were happy I think to finally get some sort of communication from us about the wedding. I made the email months ago but was afraid I would change my mind about what I was having them wear.

I don't know if this makes me a control freak (which I never really considered myself) or just fabulously organized for once.

I'll take the latter!

La conclusione invitos!

Well that was my lame attempt at saying "the end of my invitations" in Italian. I'm sure there are about 5 or 6 grammatical errors, but whatever! They are done and Greg is sending them out tomorrow! Yes that's right, Greg is sending them out. I have delegated the job to him for 2 reasons.

1. Like the time I had to take Gus to the vet for surgery, I had a hard time saying goodbye, so I fear this too may be the case for the invites that I have stressed over.

2. I work all weekend and won't be able to send them out until after the holiday weekend which means that I would be late for my July 4th deadline and I would like to at least make 1 of my major deadlines!

Here is the whole set. The invitation, rsvp card, stamped return rsvp envelope, and website card. All printed on my home printer and all cut on a crappy paper cutter I bought from Michaels.

Just a little shout out to DownloadandPrint where I got the fabulously easy template!

Here is my RSVP card

I took some advice from some fellow brides and numbered the back of my RSVP cards so I would know who sent them back in case they forget to fill out there names. I asked Greg what he would put after the M________ and he had no idea and had never heard of it. So I'm hoping most people know to put there names, but if not I have the numbers.

I included a card with our website information since I included hotel information, maps, restaurants, registries, and photos on it.

Lessons I learned about invitations:

1. They suck.

2. I should have paid someone to do them for me

3. I'm glad they are done.