Black and Green

So people seemed to be very interested in the idea of a black dress...or really, just not liking the idea. So how about a green dress?

This dress and wedding made its rounds on the wedding blogs a few months ago. Such a cute wedding in Mexico photographed by Q Weddings. Now...this dress on anyone takes a lot of guts! The chest, if you can't tell in this picture, is open. It is very form fitting. The color is very wow. So to pull this off, you'd have to have a lot of guts just in general, but as your wedding dress...yikes! Don't get me wrong, this bride totally rocks it, but I will admit, I would NEVER ever have the guts to even attempt to pull of this dress in white, let alone in green!

So...thoughts anyone?

Spring Envy

With spring in the air (or in people's dreams if you live in the North) I feel like every wedding blog has nothing but super cute spring wedding pictures up! And I'm not going to lie...I'm a little jealous. Of course, I would like to have a wedding in every season because there are things I would love to do in each season. I love fall, don't get me wrong, I'm very excited for my fall wedding...but part of me wishes I could have a spring wedding with lots of bright pretty colors

On another note....black wedding dress? Really? I'm not sure how I feel about this...what do you think? Here's a picture from Jose Villa's blog. Love the dress...the color...well maybe it'll grow on me.

THON 2007 For The Kids!

This has absolutely positively nothing to do with wedding planning. But it's a blog...and I can pretty much say whatever I want because isn't that the point of blogs?

Not that this isn't a good thing to write about or to tell people about :) which is why I'm posting it.

Almost 4 years ago I transferred from Virginia Tech to Penn State...this is where you all say...and the point is? Well I was determined to make friends and to get involved in Penn State the way I was at VT, knowing very well I was starting way behind and would only be there for 2 years before I graduated, instead of the typical 4. My first endeavor in being involved and making friends was joining the Health Policy and Administration Club. There I made friends...Fefe, Roy, Mri Mri, all people I've mentioned in this blog and other blogs I've had throughout the years. And being so determined to be involved, Fefe somehow convinved me to go stand in the cold, for many many hours, with a can in my hand outside of wal-mart and on street corners....good idea? probably not...but I did it anyway and had no idea what I was doing it for.

I'd heard of Penn State Dance Marathon. It was on the local news when I was in high school (since I grew up not far from Penn State). But I didn't really understand what it was or how much Penn State is all about it. Seeing it was a big deal though, I jumped into THON a little farther and joined the Rules and Regulations committee. Once again, I had no idea. But there I made friends as well...namely the lovely BD (and when I get to the point of this story, you'll hear more about BD).

So I was raising money for THON through HPA, through my R&R committee and having a good old time doing it! Then came the time to pick dancers, HPA picked the 4 top fundraisers, the rest of us continued fundraising up until THON weekend and I kept getting ready with my R&R committee, and every weekend learning a little more, seeing how much work everyone puts into this one weekend, and how huge it really is. When we toured the BJC before THON weekend I was amazed at all the places we had to use, the different hallways and backstage rooms we had to use for storage, people to go, games to set up, etc. etc. etc. It was ridiculous. Then about 2 weeks before THON, 1 of our HPA dancers came down with pneumonia! And Fefe approached me and asked me if I wanted to dance. I had never been to THON, what I had seen was just a lot of backstage things and had no idea how this was all going to come together. But I agreed and 2 weeks later, this is me, about to embark on dancing in THON. 

This was in the very beginning of THON, when it had just kicked off. So let me back track a bit and tell you what THON is..

THON is a 46 hour, no sitting, no sleeping, dance marathon at Penn State. In the years it has become known as the largest student run philanthropy in the world, raising millions of dollars for the Four Diamonds Fund at Hershey Medical Center. The Four Diamonds Fund helps support children at Hershey who have been diagnosed with cancer. They not only help the kids, but their families as well, and support research to find a cure for pediatric cancer. The little girl in the picture was the HPA Club's THON child that we supported throughout the year, Aiyana. We would send her and her family cards, pictures, and toys, and then at THON they came to visit and hang out with us for the weekend. So I danced, and played with kids and sang, and jumped around for 46 hours. There were times all I could think about doing was just sitting down. My feet hurt, my back hurt, I was sleepy, but none of that can compare to what these kids go through. They were quite the inspiration that kept me going for the 46 hours at my first THON and dancing in THON. Crazyyy. We raised over $5 million that year and it was an amazing experience.

So since then I feel like THON has grown and grown. The next year I was the HPA Club Thon chair and helped raise more money than ever for the HPA Club for THON. I kept many of those friends I made in my first year at Penn State through the clubs and things I did, almost all of them related to THON.

So fast forward to today, celebrities like Khloe Kardashian are even helping out THON. THON 2010 was this past weekend and they had the best year ever, raising over $7.8 million for the kids at Hershey! My dear friend BD even had the chance to dance! I'm so proud of her and she did wonderful! I wish I could have been there to see her, but I watched all weekend long on the THON webcam. It's just so great, now that I know what THON is and what it does, to think I was a part of all of this. Standing in the cold in December with a can in my hand, I had no idea what a difference I was making and who I was helping. Now that I know, I think in some way, even if it's just donating a few dollars, I'll always be involved in THON. Here's a pic of me, L on the left and BD on the right, back in 2007, while she was doing her rules and regs job and I was dancing away! This is still the beginning, there are pictures of me later at THON hanging on to BD for dear life to take some weight off of my feet and looking like I may just pass out standing up on top of her haha but we're not going to post that on here ;) haha

I'm so glad I got to be a part of THON and make such good friends that I am still friends with today :) Love you all :) FTK<3

Engagement session with Bella Raema Studios

Tom and I went to Eden Gardens State Park this weekend to take pictures! A friend I work with told me about a friend of hers who owns a studio, Bella Raema Studios, who met us there to take pictues! We're hoping to use lots of the pictures for some wedding decor, DIY projects, Save-the-dates, and anything else we can think of. So we were pretty excited to finally meet up with her, get our pictures taken and get a chance to see the beautiful park! She posted a little sneak peak online that I wanted to share with everyone!

I was starting to lose interest a bit in wedding planning because a lot of things were put on hold, pending projects and such, but these pictures have excited me again! I'm so excited to see the rest of the pictures and start getting things ordered/put together/organized and ready to go for the big day!

In other news, I will be home in PA from July 3rd-11th to do wedding planning stuff...also meet up with friends and of course, Eask's wedding! So I'm pretty excited to go home, get stuff done and have a good time with everyone :)

A perfectionist in me?

I've never claimed to be a perfectionist. I'm not at all. I'm ok with the dishes not being done, with some things being out of place, with getting a 95% instead of 100% on a test. I don't obsess over work til it's absolutely positively perfect. I just do my best, move on pretty quickly, and just keep on keeping on pretty much.

With this wedding though, I think a bit of a perfectionist is coming out. Even with the blog. I must change the layout every other day. I just can't find one that is really PERFECT. I like the most recent one the best so far. But I've said that about all of the others...that I like this one just a little bit more than the last.

Maybe it's because I have so many friends getting married lately. I feel the need to not necessarily outshine them, but for my wedding to be remembered in the hustle and bustle of wedding after wedding. I want the wedding to really show people who Tom and I are and why we are in love and why we decided to get married. From all of our favorite sweets, favorite songs, and romantic kisses that make up our lives and will for..well..forever :)

I change my mind 1000 times. I am always googlings new ideas, picture, places, things. My mind is just overflowing with ideas and I want to use them all but have taken a step back and realized 1. it's not financially feasible to do every wild idea I have, no matter how much fun it would be (a picture booth? seriously, too fun! but not very practical or feasible for middle of nowhere Pennsylvania). 2. It's a fall wedding and as much as I don't want to be, I'm somewhat limited in colors and styles out of availability and how silly would it look to have bright green and pink and blue when fall colors are so classic.

So what I'm saying is...the best thing I've learned in some ways is how to be a perfectionist. I've learned how to really focus on 1 idea and make sure that it turns out "just right". But I've also learned, being a perfectionist is exhausting and frustrating and incredible stressful! Which is probably why, I've never turned into one. So I take each task for the wedding one step at a time, try to really make it perfect, but let it go if things can't be exactly how I want.

Not just bad luck....worst luck...ever

So my great weekend. My wonderful weekend at my best friend's wedding...it never happened. Everyone knows there was bad weather all over the US the past few weeks. Lots of snow and ice. But it's been sunny and beautiful in Florida, as is expected. It hasn't snowed here in almost 20 years. Most people I work with have never seen snow. We get rain and hurricanes in the fall, but sun and heat (which do not effect air travel at all) is the most common thing you see in the weather. But what happened on Friday night? It snowed. In Florida. But what made it worse, it snowed in Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and all these crazy states down here that barely know the word "snow".

So that was Friday. I was stressed about Tom coming home from being TDY in Virginia all week. Worried I wouldn't get to see him before I left for Shibby's wedding. That was my main concern. If I only knew.

Saturday morning, we wake up bright and early (or late, for some people) and were out the door by 4am to make my flight. I checked the internet before then, everything said on time. I get to the airport to check in and I find out ALL of the flights out of Northwest Florida Regional Airport were cancelled! All morning! ughh! Bad news...but I was put on a flight later that afternoon and pepped up a bit because I'd still make it to Vegas that night. I wouldn't miss the wedding, or bachelorette party, and it'd still be a good weekend. I went home, rested a bit, kept checking the airports website constantly for changes. Early afternoon rolls around and my flight still says on time. Some flights have even already left so I was excited. It sounded like things were back on track.

I go to the airport again, now it's flights to Atlanta that are majorly delayed because of snow there! Ok fine, Mr. Delta guy, what can you do to get me to Vegas tonight? and couldn't he just say the worst thing ever....he couldn't do anything! He checked flying elsewhere, skipping outo n Atlanta to get to Vegas. Nothing. Everything going to vegas is completely booked and has standby a mile long. Really people? Vegas for Valentine's day? You're really all that cheesey? So fine. Can I go to another airport near Vegas and drive there? No. Can I drive to New Orleans or Birmingham, or somewhere a few hours away and then get a flight from there that'll get me to Vegas or somewhere nearby? Can you get me there with more connections? Nothing, nada and zip were the only responses he was giving me. This is about when I burst into tears and the nice airport man goes and talks to all the other airlines about finding a way to get me to Vegas. EVERYTHING was booked, delayed, cancelled, or just wouldn't work out to get me to Vegas by Sunday morning.

So what did crying get me? My money back for my ticket. What did it not get me? To my wifey's wedding :( I made the Delta guy feel really bad, which I feel bad about now, so Mr. Delta guy, I know you tried and you were very helpful for the 45 minutes I bugged you and cried to you that I HAD to get to Vegas and he didn't understand how badly i HAD to be there RIGHT AWAY. So my bad.

I missed the wedding :( I missed the whole weekend :( I actually spent the rest of the day being very mopey and grouchy, so now, I also apologize to Tom for dealing with unhappy me.

But mostly, I'm so sorry to my wifey and teddy money for missing their big day :( I'm the worst maid of honor in the world :( I'm sooooo sorry! I'm happy things went well, even with me telling 24 hours before your wedding that I wouldn't be there. I'm sure I put a lot more stress on her that she didn't need right before her big day as well. So really...I don't think I can say I'm sorry enough. I think I'll go buy you another salad spinner or more dishes to try to say I'm sorry and I suck.

Who would have thought with guests coming from DC and Richmond and Pennsylvania and New York that me, in FLORIDA, would be the one who couldn't get there because of bad weather :( Go figure. I wish I had pictures and memories of my best friend's big day. But I have nothing. and that makes me very sad.

I love Google

I use Google for everything. Mail, calendars, blog, buzz has become my new thing to figure out...possibly use. But this one by far takes the cake. Obviously I found out about this from Style Me Pretty, because they're on top of all things wedding. But GoogleDocs just came out with new wedding planning tools that are amazing! I completely reorganized my wedding planning last night....instead of packing, cleaning, doing anatomy or anything that I should have been doing. But in the long run, hopefully it really helps. I mean, we are under 8 months until the big day now so I REALLY need to focus more on this wedding stuff! So you must go check it out if you are planning a wedding.

One thing it really makes you realize...budget! So I never really looked at total costs. I've seen all the costs as they come in, a few hundred for this or for that, a general idea of cost for food and drinks, etc. But not until I put everything in this handy dandy spreadsheet did I see the total. Wow. Makes you take a step back and really think if you're doing a good job at keeping the wedding affordable as it can be. Looking at the template, most of my things are SO MUCH cheaper than what they have in there, so that made me feel good, but still....weddings are so expensive! So...good thing my parents only have boys left so they don't have to pay for too much more!

On a happy note: I'm leaving on a jetplane tomorrow at 5:25am and going to Las Vegas for my wifey's wedding! Tres exciting! :) I'll share pictures when I get back, get caught up on sleep, and get back on track with life after a weekend of craziness I'm sure :)

Love love love

I love it when I check out my blog and more and more people are reading it :) makes me smile. makes me feel like I'm writing something somewhat entertaining so people come back. Sure it's not celebrity gossip, or even much news about my actual life (there is much more to it than wedding planning...nothing too much more exciting, but still...more), but weddings are pretty and fun to look at. As long as you're not single. 

I will share some random thoughts of the day though, somewhat about my real life. Valentine's day is next weekend. Every girl in 1st grade is excited to bring in her cartoon cards and M&M bags. Every hopeless romantic out there is anticipating their beautiful roses and candy from their loved one. And call me a bitter betty, or maybe my years of singleness loathing this holiday have permantly scarred me, but I don't like Valentine's Day. At all. Not even a little. I think it's stupid. Every store jacks up the prices of flowers and candy. Every male with a woman in his life scrambles to make reservations and get the best flowers and spend a fortune to tell someone you love them. Why can't you tell the person every day? Why can't you make reservations to a special restaurant and get flowers for your lady on August 15th or November 2nd...why February 14th? Yet, I feel pressure to want to like this holiday to "compete" with the other ladies in my life who have all these romantic and wonderful plans with their husbands and boyfriends or random friends. So not only do I hate it because I think it's a lame excuse to show someone you love them, but I feel like I have to participate in this pointless holiday!

So this year, despite my protest and disregard for February 14th, I will celebrate love on Valentine's Day...but not my own. My dearest best friend and wifey will finally marry this guy I call Teddy (that's not his real name at all, not even close, and the story of how his real name eventually turned into Teddy is pretty weird so I'll spare you all). I'm very excited to be a part of this event, that almost didn't happen like 5 times. After Teddy's patience, waiting for years while Sara "wasn't ready" and wasn't too interested in marriage, changing deployments, moving, training, change and set backs galore...they finally have a date, it's only a week away so I don't think there's any stopping it now! Which I'm glad about :) Very happy actually. T-money is a good guy. He is very good for Shibby. And out of all the guys she's been with in the 6 or so years I've known her, by far her best choice ;) So this weekend and next week I will be preparing for my trip out west to witness the event many thought would never happen...the marriage of Shibby and Teddy ;)

This is how me and the wifey have fun :) love her<3

Productivity x10000

Ok 8 months to go made me think that I have SO MUCH left to do. The wedding is going to be here before I know it and I have done...well...alot of nothing! So yesterday I kicked it in gear! I figured out the bridesmaid dress dillema, some of the girls even ordered their dresses already! I gave them a few weeks to do it, they only take 2-3 months to come in so it's not a HUGE rush but I'm glad the decision is made and they're getting that done so there won't be any last minute craziness getting a dress! I contacted our photographer and figured out engagement announcements so check those off the list! I contacted the country club and figured out chair sashes, found some places to buy them really cheap, all that's left to do is order them, but we're going to get a sample to make sure they're right. As long as they look like they do in the picture then that's a done deal! We are going to this state park in Florida on the 20th to take pictures for some extra decorations with a friend of a friend who happens to be a wonderful photographer, I've also talked to her about save-the-dates so once those pictures are done there are 2 more big things checked off the list!

I need to in the next day or so: call my niece and nephew, hopefully tonight, to make sure they are in the loop. My niece is going to be a junior bridesmaid and I need to see if my nephew wants to help out. I also need to call my cousin for some help. I need to ask the people I want to do the readings as well...that's a secret. Mostly because they might all be reading this so let's just say, I need to make sure all the wedding day jobs are taken care of and people know what they're doing!

I need to pick out MUSIC! ugh! So I need ideas! pretty please! We're having a Catholic wedding, very traditional, and the priest of the church (who is not marrying us, but may be there at the time so we're going to stick with his rules) will not let us have "Here comes the bride". Not the end of the world, there are a ton of songs out there. So I need 2 songs that will sound good with a violin and cello playing, 1 for the bridesmaids, ushers, groomsmen, parents, etc, etc, to walk in to and another for me to walk down the aisle to! Canon in D is on my list, but does anyone else have any ideas??? We'll also need a song to walk out to that will be played by the violin/cello duo. Catholic friends: we need church songs :-P for communion, psalms, the typical church music except no entrance, exit or offetory song :-P So ideas? anyone? Please help! :)

8 months!

Today is officially 8 months until wedding day! Which still might seem pretty far out there for some people, but considering we set the date around the first week of June in 2009, and at that time it was 16 months away, we've now cut that time in half! and we still have SO MUCH TO DO! It's a little overwhelming and I'm having a hard time seeing it all come together at this point, but hopefully it all works out and is just like I dreamed and all the work and stress is worth it!