1/29/10

Major Award

Did I tell everyone my major award came in the mail not too long ago? I was so excited to get it! Tom actually sat it right on the kitchen counter, the first place I go when I get home from work. He even cleared off all the junk mail, papers, random kitchen appliances, etc. off of the counter to make it even more obvious that there was a package there for me. I got a little giddy, jumped around for a second or two, then opened it up to a BEAUTIFUL book and a sweet hand written note from Red Bliss Invitations. It's the personal touches that really made me feel like a super star for a second. The book had TONS of beautiful pictures of wedding dresses, invitations, food, and decoration ideas all themed around Swarovski crystals...none of which I could ever afford in my wildest dreams, but soo fun to look at! I've stared and gawked over the pages for awhile, and feel like I need to share the prettiness! So friends out there-let me know if you'd like to see it! It's probably just going to sit on my coffee table, so I'd love to be able to share it with someone so let me know if you'd like it and I'll mail it your way!

1/28/10

New career path

I think I've decided I want to be a photographer. Forget all my crazy plans I've made so far. I just want to spend my time looking at pretty things and capturing the perfect moment and keeping it forever. What I've done since I've started planning my wedding is look at wedding pictures. Tons of pictures! I feel like I can now see the difference between different photographers and their work. If you show me some really famous wedding photographers pictures, I could probably tell you who they're by. I'm obsessed. It's totally fine. I admit it. And now I want to be the person who takes all those pretty pictures and gets to see all those pretty images on a daily basis instead of working 8-5 every day, looking at the same thing over and over and over...and over again.

This is such a pretty picture and I hope we have a pretty day just like this when we get married :)

From Suzi Q's beautiful blog.

1/26/10

Fairytale Ending

Girls, lets be honest, we all want that fairytale. Even sports loving, unromantic, emotionless (ha), reality focused girls like me. Ok, that might be putting my personality nicely, but if you know me, you know dating, drama, daydreaming, emotions...well, they've never really been top priorities. But even I, deep below my cold, blunt, heartless surface, have hoped and dreamed I'd find that special someone. You probably never thought you'd see the day I'd be planning a wedding...or maybe just my family thought that...but here I am! With my perfect guy, planning my perfect day, and it may even possibly bring a tear to my eye...gasp!

Well I just love seeing other people share the happy ending I've found! Even people who do crazy things to get there. So I just fell in love with I stumbled across 31 Dates in 31 Days. The whole story: a 31 year old who goes on 30 dates with 30 different guys and on the 31st date, goes on a second date with the guy she likes the best. And it makes me happy as pie to find out that she married her 31st date just a few weeks ago! How perfect is that? To find a guy, on a dating challenge, and in less than a year, be married! The wedding is on Style Me Pretty today which is how I found this incredible story.

I also think it's funny I've written a blog entirely on 2 other blogs. But it's just too cute of a story not to share! Apparently, there may even be a book about her big dating adventure and fairytale ending so I'm excited! Maybe even a movie? She could be famous just because at 31, she decided to date and blog. I need to get some original stuff before my life gets turned into a book or movie, but I'll work on that.

1/25/10

Big News!

I've got big news regarding the date of the wedding (October 2, 2010 for those of you who don't stalk me enough)! If this happens...there will be absolutely no excuse for anyone to not come to our wedding! We made sure to make our plans around certain football schedules. To some extent, kind of pathetic, but being with the wedding being so close to Penn State and having a football loving fiance, it seemed like the best idea to just avoid big games. So...the Penn State game is away so that frees up hotels in the area and will keep most Penn State fans just wanting to watch TV instead of being up in Happy Valley. For my Virginia Tech friends though, I wasn't too concerned with the games since most of us are in the real world, and can't get back to Blacksburg for all the games I'm sure you all want to attend.

Well, a dear friend of mine showed me that the big Virginia Tech vs. Boise State game might be moved to Labor Day! If it is, you all really have no excuse to miss my wedding since there will be no VT game and an away Penn State game. There is a bar/another dining area at the reception site that has TVs that we might be able to turn on, but men...just be prepared to possibly miss a few games. I think our wedding and reception will be so much fun you won't even miss it though ;)

I just wanted to share the big news with everyone! Thanks Amy for sharing :) Go Hokies! Go State! and check out our wedding website for more details on the wedding because plans are moving along!

1/22/10

Oh.So.Pretty

I've never been to Southern California but after seeing this picture, I couldn't help but want to move there.

Or atleast plan a wedding there and have Jose Villa do the photography because this picture is incredible! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the chandeliers. Here's another adorable picture from the same event planners, Bliss Event Productions, that would go great with our fall theme! So beautiful. I would love to have a wedding planner who thought of great details like these! But alas, you're stuck with a wedding planned by me and my mom so it probably won't be this pretty, but we're trying :)

1/19/10

Registry Woes

So if you read this blog, you know we registered for our wedding at Bed, Bath and Beyond a few weeks ago. It was very exciting because as much as we'd love matching dishes, some appliances, serving dishes, new things in our bathroom, etc., we have put ourselves on a tight budget this year and if anything still works, we can make it work, or find a way around it, we've avoided buying anything new. After grad school is done for the both of us and school is paid off, we'll talk about splurging but for now, our hand me down dishes and appliances are working.

So I was pretty excited to walk into a store and be able to just "shoot" the barcode of my dream items. And when the saleswoman (who is obviously trying to sell larger, more expensive items) is convincing me to register for items that I know very well are not in my, or any of my friends', price range...well I was a kid in a candy store. I know we probably won't get the big stuff but just the thought of having different glasses for white and red wine makes me feel like such an adult!

But part of me also feels really bad about the idea of a registry. For people like me and Tom, we have friends and family who I know will have no problem shopping and buying us our dream dishes and flatware. We also are living very comfortably in our little Florida house with dishes and pots and pans and what we need to get by. Other people aren't quite as lucky as us. So I started checking out ways to use the wedding as a chance to help others.

I know a lot of people donate to a charity instead of wedding favors. And that's a great idea! I also found out that if guests go to The Wedding Channel's website and find our registry on there, they will donate 3% of an item purchased off of our registries to the charity of our choice! All I have to do is click a button and sign up for it! Well...that was easy! Done and done! We also registered for charities, so instead of getting us a pot or pan or pillowcase, if you'd rather, please feel free to give to one of the charities we have chosen! It's all on weddingchannel.com, and they also have the details about our wedding (so far) and more information! So brides out there who have the same feeling as I do about registries, it's definitely worth checking out! The Wedding Channel makes it super easy and you can still get your dream dishes and The Wedding Channel will donate to a charity for you! There are a lot of websites that let you sign up for a charity as your wedding registry. Some charge administrative fees for donations (the costs for them to maintain their website and handle all the donations to make sure they get to the charities) or have a minimum donation amount. I'm still looking into it. I don't want anyone to feel like they have to give $10 when they only have $5 to give. So we'll see where that all leads...but that's my wedding though of the day.

1/18/10

Busy weekend

It was a busy weekend in Niceville, Florida! We had so much to do we thought we'd never get everything done. We didn't, but we did get a big chunk of things!

I am taking Anatomy and Physiology to start my move from the business side of healthcare to the clinical side. My career path right now is very up in the air. It depends on schools, where Tom gets stationed next, and my ability to finish some pre-req courses but we'll see what happens in the next year or 2! For now, there are a few classes I need to take no matter what...A&P being the biggest so I figured I'd get that taken care of and wait for Tom's orders in the next year and a half or so and then see what the best option is at that point. The purpose of this ramble...I had my first lab on Saturday morning. It was like high school science all over, learning how to use a microscope and basic lab terminology. This class will definitely keep me busy the next few months but in-state tuition is super cheap at Northwest Florida State College so I figure it's a good opportunity for me to get classes done.

We cleaned my car. To many, this seems like a simple, quick task. You haven't seen my car...or more importantly, my trunk. I had beach stuff in my trunk covered in sand from August. There were broken beach chairs and a lamp from my move to Florida. I had hangers and random clothing from moving/beach trips/random activities in the past few months. To make things worse, my car was covered in dust, you can barely see out most of the windows and there are papers and receipts from probably last winter. Tom has insisted for over a month now that we go out and clean my car. I have avoided it, knowing just how awful it would be, but this weekend we sucked it up, went outside and cleaned both of our cars. We organized all of our beach stuff (aka got it out of my car and put it in the garage in a somewhat organized fashion). And when we went grocery shopping later this weekend, we actually had room in my trunk for groceries! It was amazing. Well worth the ffort, but not so much fun while we were doing it :)

And what's a wedding planning blog without some wedding planning this weekend! We met with the priest at our church in Florida. We've met with him before and done some paperwork and everything to get the OK to be married in the Catholic church. We thought it would be many more months and much more drama before we'd get the official OK, but after some awkward baby talk with the priest, he said he had everything he needed and would send all of our completed paperwork to the church in Pennsylvania where the wedding will be and we were good to go! We asked over and over if that was it and he said that we were done! Well...that was easy. Almost too easy, so I'm bracing myself for something to go wrong, but we still have over 8 months so I'm sure it'll work out just fine :)

Other than that, our weekend was cleaning, P90X (we're on week 4 and looking buffer and buffer by the day!), and doing school work. No much fun, but we had a giant checklist Friday night and by Sunday evening, it was almost all gone, so it was a very productive weekend :)

1/11/10

To video or not to video...that is the question...

Should we have a videographer at our wedding? Anyone have thoughts on that?

When the idea first came up I was thinking absolutely not. Seriously, are we ever going to watch it again? Will having a videographer seem outdated in like 10 years and we won't even care about our video? They're on the expensive side so it's a bit of an investment. I've been to weddings where the videographer was just awkward and people avoided the video as much as possible. Lately though I've seen some super adorable wedding videos that has completely changed my opinion.


Laura & Chris from Buzz Media Company on Vimeo.

If I could find someone who did something like this is Altoona I'd be sold! So let me know what you think...or if you know someone because I'm really not so sure about this!

1/7/10

It's a major award!

and when it gets here I hope the box says "FRAGILE" just so I can say..."must be Italian". Ok maybe since it's just after Christmas time I still have that movie stuck in my head but I did win a major award! Atleast major in my mind because I never win and it's a really cool prize!

What is this major award you ask? It's an amazing coffee table book by Swarovski called UNBRIDALED: The Marriage of Tradition and Avant Garde!

Most of you know I'm obsessed with wedding blogs....mostly Style Me Pretty. They always have great giveaways and after commenting and hoping to win for months now I was finally picked as a winner! Go here to check it out! I'm beyond excited and I will tell you all about the book when I get it in the mail! :)

1/6/10

Freezing in Florida!

It feels like Pennsylvania in Florida these days! It's a high of mid-30's every day this week. At night it gets down to the teens. They're even talking about...wait for it...SNOW! Floridians don't know how to handle snow. They can't even handle the cold when it's sunny and clear. I would like to share a little tid bit with your Floridians out there...just because it's cold does not mean you have to drive like an idiot. Now, there are a lot of snowbirds down here these months which has slowed down all road traffic since late November. But this week, on top of snowbird traffic, people are just driving like idiots. They're going a little slower, cutting people off, acting like the roads are sooo awful when it hasn't rained in days and the sun is shining! Seriously people? You want to make me stress out about being late for work for this?? On top of that, the people on the radio are appalled by the temperatures! All they talk about it how to be careful on the roads because it's so cold out (seriously?) and that you should be careful because people are wearing sweaters this time of year which generates a lot of static so people might get shocked! Static is generated by sweaters? Not the dry air when it's cold and winter, just sweaters. Atleast Pennsylvanians handle the snow better. They don't like it, there's lots of complaining but there aren't quite so many cold weather idiots.

On wedding notes....we're working on the fun and excitement of weddnig registries. Where to register, how to register, WHAT to register for. It's crazy! So many options. And with our potential Air Force career and moving and getting a new house every few years, I'm not sure I can commit to a color scheme for the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, etc. Our kitchen right now is a bright green color which is just out of the question as a potential color scheme for our kitchen. Our bathroom is also a somewhat nauseating color of green. So should we get bathroom things that match the green or neutral? or what we hope our future bathroom will look like? Oohhh decisions! I am notorious for being bad at some decisions and committing to color scheme and styles for possibly many many years (luckily, I can commit to people in my life, so Tom is safe ;) haha). Styles are changing, popular colors are always changing and now you're saying I have to decide on something to use/like/want in my house for years and years? I can't handle this. Tom's making the decisions. This wedding stuff is getting overwhelming!

Ok that's my rant for today. I have had much worse snow experiences so I shouldn't complain too bad. I'll let you know if there is snow siting tonight. A few natives to this area that I work with are waiting up until later this evening in hope of seeing their first snow fall of their life! No, they are not 8 years old, they are all late 20s, early 30s. It's a very special place, this lower Alabama section of Florida. I'm sure all of you up north would die to be down here right now, but it's not quite as warm and nice as the Florida stereotype so don't be too jealous. :)

1/4/10

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful new year! We're officially into 2010 so we're in the year of the wedding! We're getting very excited but also a little nervous. While I've spent months looking at wedding blogs and magazines, getting ideas and dream wedding ideas stuck in my head, I actually have to put everything into action now! I can't just dream and not do any work. I'm trying to crack down and really get a lot of things done in the next month or so. Every time I get something done I think of 15 other things I still have yet to do. For example, I think Tom and I have finally settled on a wedding invitation. It was a hard decision, with so many beautiful invitations out there. We had a hard time because so many invitations were almost perfect, but not quite. There was always 1 or 2 things I would want to change on every invitation to make them my idea of "perfect". I really wanted to just make them myself, but we also tried printing a few ourselves and we realized neither of us have the time or patience to deal with that. So anyway...we picked an invitation that we like, I told my mom, I was like ok good we can get these ordered and knock one thing off the list! Then my mom chimes in with her logic...well before you order invitations you have to really finalize the guest list, pick your meal choices for dinner, nail down times for the ceremony, reception, finalize the details with the hotel, decide on how you want to do RSVP's (I guess it's the new cool thing to do it all online?)...etc. etc. etc...     Needless to say...invitations won't be ordered for a few more weeks probably.

I also made a decision on bridesmaid dresses finally! But then...once again...my mother reminds me that we need to figure out junior bridesmaid dress, tuxes for the guys, if there's anyone else in the wedding party we need to get clothes for, and my thought..making sure the flower colors are set in case we get matches vests and ties or whatever we decide to do with the guys. Great! One decision down, 8000 to go.

Eventually, someday the wedding will be planned. Hopefully before October 2!

Other than that, it's 30 degrees in Florida, it actually kind of feels like winter and I'm already getting excited for spring. I'm really just more excited for longer days. It's very depressing getting home when it's already dark. It also kills my workout motivation and I need to get in shape before the wedding! Tom and I are on Day 7 of P90X so hopefully doing the dvd will get me in shape and hold me over til there's light in the evenings and I can run outside!

I'm also scared of the dark in our neighborhood haha Not that it's not safe, but I don't like running outside on our little trail in the dark because there are a lot of foxes. While I've been told many times I don't need to worry about the foxes and they are more scared of me, than I am of them, with the crazy news I read in Northwest Florida, woman attacked and eaten by foxes would not surprise me at all as a headline. I'll just stay inside or take the dog out when it's dark and not take any chances with foxes or any other wild animals in the bogs and woods near the house.

New Years resolution: Keep up with this better so I can actually have some readers and family and friends back home can see what we're up to in Florida! Let's see how long it lasts haha