I am now the queen of DIY

The title of this post says it all. Now that I'm really down to the wire (and I mean really. Like I can reach out and touch it I'm so close...) I have had to kick it in high gear to finish up my DIY projects.

First up, I finished my card box! Woo hoo! Took me long enough...




and this is where the cards go...

(like you couldn't have figured that out)

You may be asking yourself "why in the HECK did it take her so long to make such a plain looking box?!" Well let me tell you why. Because I am a procrastinator. Plain and simple. All I did was buy a $4 cardboard box from Hobby Lobby, spray paint it brown, and add some stickers. In total, it probably cost me $15 (including the spray paint). Not bad, eh? I just for some reason put this project off over and over. I'd do a coat of spray paint, do the next coat 2 weeks later. I had Matt cut the hole in the top for me, and then started the whole spray paint process over again. And just yesterday I finally got my butt to the craft store to find some stickers. I think it turned out pretty nice...especially for under $20!!


Next up are the (blasted) programs. This is another money saving DIY adventure I took on. And again, I have procrastinated. Now that we're 4 DAYS AWAY (holy cow) I can't really procrastinate much more. Matt and I stayed up until 11:30 or so last night working on these bad boys (isn't he a trooper!?) and we'll probably be up late finishing them tonight. But we did get a whopping 25 of them completely finished last night, so I'll let the cat out of the bag and post pics early. I doubt I'll have much time for blogging after tonight, so thought I'd get one final post in to relish in all of my accomplishments. :D


look at all those beautifully tied bows...









so...what do you think?? Please tell me how amazingly gorgeous and perfect you think they are. :) These puppies have been a lot of work. Yes, I saved about $100 by doing them myself, but I've been working on them for a good 3 weeks or so now. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, though (finally).

So there you have it...my last 2 big projects...(almost) in the bag. Next up - start packing for the honeymoon!!

I'm going to guess this will be my last blog post as an un-married chica...woah. The next time I post, I should have hundreds of wedding pictures to share! It's been fun chronicalling my adventures in planning this shin-dig, and I can't wait to come back and read this in 10 years and laugh at how crazy I was (am). If you're coming to the wedding...hooray! See you there! If you aren't...thanks for reading all my babbeling :)

I'll leave you with a lovely quote...that just so happens to appear on the back of our programs...


Adios! For now...

Bachelorette Party!

So Friday was the Bachelorette Party... we had a FABULOUS time!! It was lots of fun. And I am pretty proud of myself for getting pictures up so soon...what with 2 other parties and 2 rooms worth of painting that also went down this weekend!!

Here I am with my pre-party girls. :) Jess, Ash and I got downtown at about 3:00pm and begun the festivities (i.e. the drinking...)


The members of the wedding party that came (from left to right: Mom, Jess, me, Ash, Shelley, Caitlin). Check out our ADORABLE shirts! If you can't read them, they say "Mother of the Bride", "Bride", "Maid of Honor", "Bridesmaid". CUTE!! Jess & Ash are just so clever, aren't they?!


And here I am opening my slightly *embarassing* gifts...in front of the ENTIRE BAR. Yes, people were watching...and clapping...


Note my cousin Caitlin's face in the background...PRICELESS.


She wasn't the only one who was embarrassed...


Me with Brandy (left) and Carmen (right), who were troopers and came out drinking with us after dinner!


Let the fun begin...


And then my camera battery died. Again. Seems to be a recurring theme for me these days... But that's probably a good thing. At least I don't have evidence of the craziness that went down as the evening went on... (Although I'm pretty sure Ash does...)

So as I mentioned, we had a fabulous time!! Jess, Ash and I started off at John's big DECK (that's an E not an I ;) for some apps and drinks. We were only 2 shots and 1 beer down by the time we got to Gordon Biersch for dinner (not bad, eh?) which is where everyone else met us. We turned dinner into quite a long event, I think we were at the restaurant for something like 3 hours?? And I officially stopped counting beers and shots at that point...
After everyone left dinner, it was Ash, Jess, Brandy, Carmen and me left to take on the night. We hung out at P&L the rest of the night, enjoyed a free concert (Eve6) and a LOT of beer. :D It was a blast!!

Thank you to my fantastic family and friends for throwing me a wonderful (and mostly appropriate) Bachelorette Party!!!

P.S. I uploaded more pictures to our FLICKR site in case you are interested :)

Countdown update:

Bachelorette party - CHECK!

Only 2 more days of work until my 2 WEEK VACATION starts (including today) YEAH!

2 days until the wedding festivities begin

5 days until our WEDDING!

7 days until we're headed to the beach for some fun in the sun...

In other news: I hope to have one more update post this week...that's assuming I finish my DIY projects in time to show them off. :) But after that...it's all she wrote!! The next time I post, I will be showing off our WEDDING PICTURES!! AHHHHHHH where did the time go???

BB&B Registry...

So yesterday I had some "free time" at work, and decided to add a few things to our registry. I got so many gifts for my shower, I felt like I needed to bulk up the registry so that everyone has PLENTY of options for a wedding gift (I know, I 'm just so nice...always thinking of others...hehe)
So...to see the updated registry, click HERE (hopefully that link will work).
Or you can go on to BB&B's website and search by our names (first and last - and by the way it's under Steven not Matt...just to confuse you...), or search by the registry #, which is: 8734942.

Just for fun, here are a couple of the lovely items I found and added...


first up are these sweet TV trays...not the prettiest, but the only ones that slide under the couch - which is a must. :) We eat dinner on the couch probably 90% of the time (the other 10% we eat on the deck), we just don't have a good kitchen table and chairs to sit at. And yes, these are of the "As Seen On TV" variety :D
next up I added a few of the dishes in this awesome pattern...
(I got one of the mugs at my bridal shower, and just decided I needed more!) They go with the dishes that we had picked out...and that I received at the bridal shower!

The next 2 things are more home decor items, but I love them both, and don't entirely expect to actually get them, but want them on the registry so that I can get a discount when I go to purchase them after the wedding :) (I know, I'm a thinker!)

I put 2 of these night stands on there...

We are currently remodeling our bedroom and office, and have no night stands to speak of (right now we have nothing but a bed in our room, which is just lovely...), and these are perfect! Exactly what I've been looking for. I've searched craigslist as well as several furniture stores, and they all are way too expensive. But I thought this guy was pretty reasonable, and stylish too! Oh and not to mention functional... :)

Last is this ADORABLE lamp. I'm not sure where it will go, I'm thinking in the office on the desk. (I also added 2 other matching lamps for the bedroom, but they aren't nearly as fun as this one). There were some other things I added as well, but I'll let you check out the registry for yourself to find them. :)

P.S. I tried VERY hard not to cheat and look at what had been purchased...but that's pretty hard. But I promise I erased everything I saw from my mind (Men In Black style...) :D

Countdown Update:

5 days of work until my 2 week vacation begins

(not including today...it's half over!)

3 days until my Bachelorette party

8 days until the wedding events start

10 days until we're MARRIED!

12 days until we leave for Mexico

In other news: Final dress fitting is tonight!! Eek!! I plan to take pictures, so look for an update tomorrow!

Holy Cow... It's JULY!!

I just flipped my calendar at work, and it hit me.

It's July.

We're getting married...THIS MONTH!!!

Holy CRAP!!!!!!

I really can't believe how fast time is flying. I hope it will slow down just a bit for the wedding week, the big day, and the honeymoon. I want to be able to enjoy every single moment!! It seems like ever since the 2 month mark, time has escaped me. It's amazing how far away July 18th has sounded for so long, but once 2 months hit, it felt right around the corner. And now that it's actually JULY, it's crazy how soon it is.

Let the countdown begin...

Only 9 more days of work until my 2 week vacation begins (including today). WOO HOO

Only 9 more days until my Bachelorette party.

Only 14 more days until the whirlwind of "wedding events" start. (beginning with a family gathering of everyone in from out of town)

Only 17 more days until WE'RE MARRIED.

Only 19 more days until we leave for Mexico. :)


Have I said Holy Cow yet?!

DIY Programs...& more from the bridal shower!

Well here we are, less than 3 weeks to go!! HOLY MOLY! I'm doing well, though, not too stressed out (yet)... ;)

This weekend was another productive one! (I don't have much of a choice with only 3 weeks to go...I have to be extra productive these days!!) On Friday, Mom and I had a meeting at Evergreen Events with the coordinator, Julie, to go over final details and choose our table linens. It was all set up for another wedding this week, and it was kind of surreal walking around in there imagining it set up for OUR wedding! But the place is just gorgeous, and every time I go there I'm reminded of that. So we decided on the ivory table linens with chocolate brown napkins. I think it will look FABULOUS with all the coral in my centerpeices. We also put together our game plan for the ceremony music, and talked about lots of other small details (most of which I've already forgotten about...good thing Julie wrote everything down! :)

On Saturday, the family and I made our 10 millionth trip to craft store central. :) We started at JoAnn's, where I had an entire list of things to get, and then went to Hobby Lobby as well since I didn't quite find everything we needed at the first stop. My uber-crafty Aunt Terri and I had our wheels turning with ideas for my DIY card box (I will post pictures soon, it's not quite done yet!) and the programs. My original plan for the programs was to design them and have them printed at Kinko's or Office Max, but after getting my first quote of over $160 for 50 of them, I changed that plan. It is now my current DIY project. :) I found ivory paper at Office Depot, and will just print them at home. While at Hobby Lobby we found brown cardstock for 50% off (so $0.15 per sheet!) So I snatched up the 25 sheets there, and then we teamed up to hit the other Hobby Lobbys in town and got the rest! I got another 50 at the Olathe store, and Aunt Terri found 30 more at her store in Merriam. We also found a great paper puncher (not sure the technical name...) to use for the cover, and some awesome "love" quotes stamps. So now I just need some ribbon, and then to put them all together (that's going to be the hard part!!) All in all it's going to cost us about $60....much better than the original quote! So here is a picture of my first attempt at putting one together (sorry, fuzzy cell phone picture)

What do you think?? I love them. I need to get a smaller width of ribbon to use so the bow looks better, and I'm also on the hunt for a 2-hole punch. I think they're going to end up looking really cute though, and so much cheaper than paying a printing company!!

So that's where I'm at...still a lot of little things on the to-do list, but nothing huge. Like I said, I'm still not feeling too stressed, more excited than anything!! I really want to finish up all of these last projects so I can move on to getting ready for the honeymoon!!!!!

I'll leave you with a few more pictures from the Bridal Shower. These are some my mom took, and she uploaded to our FLICKR site... (ahem...anyone else who took pictures feel free to upload!!)

A better view of the table set up...wasn't it just ADORABLE?! And yes, those are Aunt Terri's 2 cutie pie doggies in that framed picture on the wall :) (check out this post on my photo blog to see them in real life...)

And this was our little ladies man...Bryce. He is my friend Brandy's son. What a cutie, huh!?Jess (my lovely Maid of Honor and best friend since pre-school :) and IMe & my beautiful bridesmaids!! From left to right: Caitlin, Jess, Me, Ash, Shelley. That's 4 out of 6, Elaine and Jessie live out of town so couldn't make it (but we know you were there in spirit girls! :)Like I said before, my bridal shower was absolutely perfect. I wish I could do it all over again!! A huge thank you to my family for putting it all together for me, and to all the ladies who came!!

Well, 3 weeks to go...keep your fingers crossed that this one is super-productive! I'll try to update this week, but no promises because we're headed to the lake on Thursday (WOO HOO) and then it's the 4th of July (which means the wedding is 2 weeks away!!!!!!!) But I'll catch up when I can :)

P.S. This is your last reminder for RSVPs. Our final count is due this weekend, so if you want to come, and haven't sent your RSVP back...DO IT!!! Otherwise there will be no food or alcohol for you :P

ONE month to go!

Holy Cow.

One month to go.

AHHHHHHHH!!



I can't believe that as of today we are officially one month away from our wedding day! The time has gone so fast! It seems like just a week ago I was coming into work showing off my ring, and the next day I was going on all the vendor meetings, trying on dresses, making a million decisions, and then all of a sudden here we are! I'm feeling pretty good, though, nothing major left to do. Other than mentally prepare myself for the biggest day of my life!!! EEK!

My bridal shower is on Saturday, as is Matt's Bachelor party. So I will have lots of pictures to share soon! I am also planning to finish up my DIY projects and our programs this weekend. Hopefully I'll have lots of updates come Monday. And after that it should be smooth sailing!

Just one more month until this happy couple becomes MR. & MRS.!!!!

P.S. If you got one of those pretty little invitations in the mail, and have yet to send back your RSVP card....Shame on you! Send that puppy back!! :) please.

2 months and counting

Holy crap. As of today we are 2 months out from the big day!! How CRAZY is that?! I feel like I still have 10 million things to do. YIKES. But I am making progress. I actually took off work Friday to run a whole bunch of wedding errands. That helped, although I didn't quite get to mark everything off my list. I guess I overestimated how much time is in a day. :)

The main task at hand this week is INVITATIONS. They should come in today, and then it's up to Jess and I to address, stuff, stamp, and seal the deal on those bad boys!

I also have several DIY projects going that I need to finish up this week and next...still haven't finished the FG baskets, and now I decided to DIY the programs as well. Oh and I also bought a basket to hold the programs that I need to spray paint and jazz up. :)

So as you can see, things are coming along. I have all of the decor for the ceremony, aside from what the florist is doing, and almost everything for the centerpieces. Just need to order some flower petals and hunt down a few more vases. Other than that I think I have all the decor pretty well lined out.

I had my first dress fitting on Saturday...it went great! (meaning yes, the dress still fits! :) I will be going back in a couple weeks for a second fitting, and to see the veil she is making me - oh, I guess I should mention, the veil I got from eBay is white. My dress is ivory. Once I put it on it was pretty obvious, so we decided to ditch that. Barb (The Lady Who Makes Dresses) is awesome, and is going to whip up a veil for me in ivory. I really need to work on finding my jewelry now.

It's really exciting to see so many things crossed off of my master to-do list I made back in February, but don't worry there is still PLENTY to do. So let the countdown begin...2 months to go!!