Cake!

YUM.

We had our final meeting with Annie O. last night to decide our final flavor choices (which meant we got to sample MORE CAKE!! :D )

If you don't remember, here is the inspiration picture for our cake...

Except ours will be 4 tiers, they will be off-set, and the flowers will be gerbera daisies.

And for our flavors we chose....


Drumroll please.....










The bottom layer will be white cake with a fresh strawberry filling. This. is. the. best. If you had any of Matt's Birthday cake, this is what it was. This will also be the flavor for the very top tier that we will save (or eat once we get to our hotel... ;).









The second layer is for all you chocolate lovers out there (ahem, Dad...) It will be chocolate cake with Oreo filling. Delicious. Let me tell you.










And the third layer will be Annie's delicious Marble cake, with a vanilla buttercream filling.

As you may have guessed, each layer will have chocolate buttercream on the outside, since that is what will make the cake brown :)

So, if you are one of the lucky ones on the guest list...get ready. You are in for a tasty treat. If you're not...sorry. :P Enjoy the pictures and just imagine the goodness that everyone else at my wedding will be eating. :)

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

My Bridal Shower!

Well, it's official...the first wedding event has come and gone!

Saturday (June 20) was my bridal shower. I can't believe it's already come and gone, but it was so much fun! My aunt Terri hosted it, and probably around 15 or 20 lovely ladies joined us! I am so greatful that I have such wonderful family & friends! It was a great time, and I got an insane amount of awesome gifts. My kitchen will now be fully stocked!

All together Saturday was a great day. We started off going to Mama T's (my grandma) for lunch, like we do every Saturday. We were all so excited to set up and get ready for the shower! ("We" being my aunts, cousins, mom & I :) We have been planning this event together pretty much since last June :) After lunch, we headed over to my Aunt Terri's house to get set up...

This was Terri's gorgeous centerpiece. (If you can't tell - or couldn't have guessed - we had a gerbera daisy theme :)

Caitlin & Shelley both did a great job helping us set up. :) Shelley and I made the punch...it started out a little lumpy but luckily it ended up being really good!

This was the table set up...how cute was it!

And the fantastic cupcake tree...Handmade "G" toppers by Aunt Terri. :) I'm pretty sure this idea was Martha Stewart inspired...

Caitlin enjoyed some R&R while waiting for everyone to show up. If you look on the table you'll see the adorable favors.

Aunt Terri & I

Aunt Rhonda & IMom & I

We only played 2 games (I'm not a fan of cheesy shower games for the most part...) they were really fun! One was using this board, the guests had to guess how old I am in each picture. The winner was Cassady, one of my bridesmaid's little sister, with 4 out of 8 correct!The other game consisted of each guest asking me a question that had previously been asked to Matt, and I had to guess his answers. I was less than stellar at this one, but it was still fun. :) And the prizes were scratch-off tickets.I jokingly told everyone that all the winning tickets had to be given back to me :) but they all went for it! So I got like $10 in winners. (Where's that big $1,000 winner when you need it?!)

Like I mentioned, I got a ridiculous amount of gifts. I am so thankful to my friends and family...they spoiled me!! I couldn't possibly list everything I got with a picture (you would get bored..) but here are a couple highlights-

Matt's mom gave me a basket to "stock the pantry" with. What a great idea! It was full of all sorts of good stuff from spices to noodles to soups- all the essentials. I am ready to cook now! (something other than mac & cheese that is...)

I got the entire set of everyday dishes we picked out!! I can't WAIT to bust out those puppies. They aren't very exciting, but so much better than what we have, and nice and neutral. :)

The gifts I was most excited about came from my mom (not that I wasn't excited about all the gifts...they are fantastic!!!! I was red in the face and sweating by the time I got through them all...it was so much fun!). The reason I'm so excited is because they will get used at the wedding!

She got us our cake serveware set and toasting flutes that match our china pattern!!

Close up of the cake server...

Just can't hide my excitement over the toasting flute! :)

That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all the gifts I got. My kitchen is seriously stocked now...I have it all!! I sure wish I had a big 'ol brand new kitchen to put it all in...but ya can't have it all, can you?! :) Once we get back from our honeymoon, I will be doing a COMPLETE overhaul on my kitchen. All the old, hand-me-down, mix-match kitchen stuff is coming out, and I'm stocking up with all of my new fancy stuff. :)

Oh, and also of note - Matt's bachelor party was on Saturday as well! He of course took one whole picture, and it was of the golf course...go figure. But the guys had a busy fun filled day - golfing followed by dinner at Jack Stack, and then a short break before hitting the boats and the bars. It sounded to me like they had a great time! (But what would I know...) :)

So here we are, just a few more events and then it's the big day!! I can't believe we're less than a month away now...yikes! I'm getting really excited! I really need to finish up all these details so that I can enjoy the anticipation...rather than stress about it. :)

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.