From this-----------------------> To This..............

Dear Target,

Please stop tempting me with your ridiculously cool merchandise and awesome sale prices. I am like putty in your hands and you will be the reason of my divorce.

Thank you much,

- Bridezilla

Let the Nightmare's Begin

So the wedding nightmares have begun. I don't know if I've been having wedding nightmares because the big day is so close or because I've had such a busy day at work or a combination of both all I know is that I want them to go away!

Last night's nightmare consisted of me, my wedding dress and a bottle of Crisco and I still couldn't squeeze into that thing! I have my second dress fitting tomorrow so hopefully I won't need any cooking oil and I'd still be able to fit into that baby.

*Sigh* and I was doing so well too.

50% off Michaels Coupon

Caring is sharing.

Here is 50% off Michaels coupon for anyone who may need it. These bad boys come in handy. Hurry up and make your purchases because this one expires September 6th 2009. Be sure to leave me a comment and let me know what you used it on.

I'm using mine on ribbon galore!

Love always,

Bridezilla

So I love the White Aisle and I love the girls on The Knot. White Aisle has processed my order super duper speed of light fast. I submitted my order last night and this morning I've already finalized my proofs. This is where the knottie's come in. They are the best pair of 2nd eyes anyone could ever hope for. These girls are so sweet and helpful it's just insane! I love posting requests for proof reading on there because they come up with the best suggestions and are the best spell checkers. {I once spelled "Islamorada" "Islamorda" and they caught that} Plus, when you want wedding advice the best person to ask is a bride. Fiancé's just get the deer in the headlights look and friends and family just look at you like you're crazy for even thinking to ask whether you should use ivory paper or white.

Here is my final menu proof. We used Magenta in for the motif, black for the text. Fonts used were "Bickham Swoosh Cap" and "Carleton"

Is that what I have to look foward to?

My soon to be- Mother in law came over tonight to drop off some baby pictures of my Fiance for safe keeping. I had told her that I wanted to have a baby picture or two of Lucas so that I could share it with our kids some day.

We were browsing through photos when I stumbled upon the picture on the left. I knew it seemed awfully familiar to me so I had to whip out my baby photos. The baby on the right is me and it turns out that my fiance and I looked a hell of a lot alike when we were younger.

Now I don't know who should be worried. Me because I looked like a boy, or Lucas because he looked like a girl.

Either way, if this isn't insight as to what our kids might look like I don't know what is!

I am on a roll! I knew today would be a good wedding planning day. Nothing like looking at a calendar and realizing you're almost 30 days away to really get you m-o-v-i-n-g.

So tonight I've also purchased my ring pillow from etsy seller romancingjuliet. Her shop has such beautiful wedding related items it was difficult to purchase just one thing!

I also pulled out all the bamboo fans I purchased and removed all the ugly bright orange ribbons which were attached to them. Now I just need to decide whether or not I want to leave them as is.

Good Things Come in Three's and Creativity can be Sparked Anywhere...

Today has been a great day! I guess good things really do come in three’s. First I finally decided on the ‘Lily’ menu/table number design and placed my order!

This is what my menu would like if it were blue. It's not ofcourse. It's going to be pink.

My lovely table numbers again I ordered mine in pink

I also came home to find flowers {and it’s not even my birthday} from Lucas. He bought me pink hydrangeas because he knows how obsessed I am. I had never personally seen pink ones before today. Although I’d like to believe these were naturally pink I’m afraid they’re only pink because they’ve been sitting in water with pink food coloring for quite some time.

These hydrangeas have also sparked my creative juices and got them flowing… I began thinking what if I used hydrangeas for the bridesmaid bouquets instead of tall calla lilies. Hmmm…

Then again {and as usual} I’m second guessing using pink hydrangeas and sticking with white ones in my aisle décor.

Now to put the cherry on the cake I have a new Drivers license with a fairly decent picture. Now I’m not saying I’m so pleased with the picture I’d gladly show my ID to anyone who asks for it but… it is an improvement from previous years. There’s something about the lighting at the DMV that either makes you look ghostly white or “I’ve been on vacation on a far away tropical Island for weeks tan”. Fortunately for me, mine was the latter.

One thing down a million more to go…

A DIY Bride's Job is Never Ending...

One more project down, a million more to go. I decided to create a different set of Invitations for Lucas' family in Colombia so I've been creating more work for myself left and right.

I decided to give them a different set of invitations for a few reasons. For one these invites were written in Spanish {I'm sure the 85 year old Colombian grannies will appreciate this} and two these invites are a lot more traditional {again, I'm sure the 85 year old Colombian grannies will appreciate this}

I purchased the Invitation kit and ribbon from Michaels using a 50% coupon so 50 Invitations cost me a total of $20.00.

I also purchased the wax seal kit for an extra $3.00

In total I spent about 1.46 on each invitation.

Not Bad.

Our First Wedding Gift...

We received our very first wedding gift this weekend. Ok first let me explain, my fiancé and I have been living in sin (heee hee hee) for almost three years now and as you can imagine, in three years you accumulate a lot of crap! That being said, because we accumulated so much crap we choose to opt out of the "obligatory" wedding gift registry. On our wedding day we really just wanted our closest family & friends to come out and celebrate our marriage with us. We wanted everyone's "Presence" not "Presents" so you can imagine how astonished we were to receive our first wedding gift!

My soon to be-mother in law surprised me this weekend with a trip to IKEA {God I love that place! Don't even get me started...} and purchased the Mongstad floor length mirror for our dinning/living room I had been eyeing. The mirror is a legendary IKEA bad boy with it's sleek modern design and it's cool $99.00 price tag it practically sells it's self.

We had to take full advantage of the 35 minute drive to IKEA of course so we also picked up two cool floor lamps for the living room and a new duvet cover for our master bedroom and guest bedroom.

I love IKEA...where else can you be tempted to buy children's furniture and decor for a child you don't even have?

Our new lamps in our living room

New Duvet Cover in our Master Bedroom

New Duvet Cover in our Guest Bedroom

Opinions are like elbows...

and everyone's got one. This weekend I had the miss opportunity of hanging out with some married ladies and I have to say I was a bit appalled at all the diarrhea that was spewing out their mouths when it came to many things but specifically wedding talk. In my humble opinion, because you've been married once does not make you an expert and does not give you the right to bash someone else's wedding because it may be a little different than your own. To each their own. Now, I personally don't like the typical posey posey pictures but who am I to say that "Those are the tackiest wedding pictures you can take" Ummmm.. excuse me? I'd also like to know since when was hiring a photographer for 8 hours to capture all the moments in your wedding "tacky" and "wasteful" Ummm... yea.

 

For the record, I hired not only ONE but TWO photographers to be with me for 8 hours on my wedding day, and not only do I plan taking candid shots but believe you me I am going to have the "ok you stand there and look at her and hold her hand" shots as well.

 

Oh and for the ladies who think it's tacky to wear a long gown to a beach wedding....close your eyes when you see my pictures.

 

Love always,

 

Bridezilla Tacky Bride

 

Ceremony Music

Nothing says "Island Wedding" more than the sound of steel drums. This is why we decided to go with David Herzog a local Key West steel drum musician for our ceremony and cocktail hour. Now that we have a musician, I need to start working on the lovely task of choosing our ceremony music. The only problem is, I don't have the slightest clue as to where I should start! Please tell me there is a "Ceremony Guide for Dummies" book.

So here is what I do Know...

I know that I will probably walking down the aisle to the standard 'Wedding March"
I also know that for the recessional I'd like Bob Marley's "Is this love" to be playing.

Here's what I don't know...

What should the wedding party be walking down to?

Now here is the easy part- Choosing songs for our cocktail hour. These are a sample of my "Must Play" list

Can't help Falling in Love
What A Wonderful World
Fly Me to The Moon
One Love
How Deep is Your Love
The Way you look Tonight
Have I told you Lately
Three Little Birds
Red Red Wine
Buffalo Soldier
Brown Eyed Girl
Girl From Ipanema
Yesterday

To hear a sample of David's steel drum wedding songs click here

Champagne & Pizza

My Fiancé and I have a Thursday night 'Date Night' ritual. This ritual started about a year ago because I was busy in class every other night during the week and we felt like we needed a night to just relax and do things as a couple. Well last night instead of going out for dinner we decided to stay in an relax. I was craving some champagne (Weird. I know) so we had a rose' champagne and pizza.

As uncouth and disgusting as it sounds it's rather delicious. I highly recommend everyone try it some time.

Nothing makes me quite as happy as a little bit of bubbly.

Everyone Love's Free Stuff!

Digital Room Graphics and Printing is having a FREE give-away for two of my lucky readers!

 

PRIZE WINNERS WILL RECEIVE

200 Custom Postcards (choose your size: 4x6, 4.25x6, 5x7"); 14pt gloss or matte, 13 pt uncoated

Full Color on both sides (4/4)

*Shipping must be paid by Winner. Offer Valid for UNITED STATES SHIPPING ONLY.

You can use these custom postcards as save the date cards, invitations, RSVP cards, menus, Thank you cards.. the possibilities are endless!

 

For the ladies who are already married you can use these as custom greeting cards After all, the holidays are right around the corner and what better way to celebrate than by sending your first Mr. & Mrs. greeting cards?

I think I would use these as invitations to our rehearsal dinner!

 

So how do you win? Simple!

 

Just leave a comment on this post telling me about the creative ways you'd use these postcards, but hurry up because the give-away ends August 30th 2009!

Last night was my mom's 54th birthday and my family and I celebrated by having dinner at Mr. Chow's. The food was awesome, but that's not what sold me on Mr. Chows. Mr. Chow's is located in the 'W' hotel on Collins and 22nd street in Miami Beach. I can tell you that that hotel/restaurant is every bride's dream. The dinning room is decorated with white exotic flowers and white chivari chairs. Yes yes I said chivari chair and yes it's ok to white the drool off your faces ladies. For those of you who aren't brides and who don't know what Chivari chairs are, consider yourselves lucky. These beautiful little chairs can run you anywhere from $6-15 dollars a pop for rental.

Before I continue to ramble on and on let me first warn you about my passion for white flowers.... I'm absolutely head over heels, excuse me while I wipe the drool off my face, I'm sorry I'm not listening to you nor do I care what I'm eating because I'm admiring the flowers nuts.

Ok now that I've warned you let me say that the flowers at the W and Mr.Chow's were breath taking! You walk in and there are huge arrangements of white cloud like hydrangeas in simple cylinder vases. Yep.. that's right, you can practically see the wheels in my head turning.

Thankfully, I have a small ounce of reasoning within me and I know that even though I love the look (PS- this is not an actual picture of the centerpiece at Mr. Chow's) it would never match my venue. In my opinion these center pieces look better at sleek modern space like the W. These flowers are also a great choice for DIY brides because the look is so easy to accomplish. All you have to do is fill a cylinder vase, wrap a banana leaf around the bottom, insert bundles of hydrangea's and you are done my friend.

At the entrance of the W there is a massive curly willow/white orchid display which was beautiful enough to stop me dead in my tracks.

This hotel is absolutely flawless. They pay so much attention to the tiniest detail making everything absolutely stunning!

I fell in love with an arrangement that has made me re-think my flower color scheme all over again. I originally wanted bright vibrant colors but decided to tone them down a lot because I wanted to use a lot of white flowers and because god forbid they're not the same exact color as the color's I've used on all my wedding paper! After seeing the combination of white flowers, and vibrant colored roses and orchids at the W I'm throwing all the rules out the window. I am determined to have white flowers everyone with a touch of color on the tables to add some pizazz.

This is my new inspiration.Please note how closely it resembles my original floral design.
How sad is it that I spent more time admiring the flowers than actually enjoying my food?

Slowly but surely getting things done!

So now that I've been able to put my pity party cap away I can tell you all about my successful trip to Islamorada last Sunday. First things first, drum roll please... I finally have a wedding cake! YEEEEESSSSS! We decided to go the Publix route, and as of right now, I couldn't be happier. For one, I was able to have a tasting with all my flavor/filling selections and best part it was free too! Do fancy schmacy over-priced bakeries in Miami offer this service? Psth. I think not.

The women at the Key Largo Publix bakery were super helpful and willing to accommodate all my flavor/design requests. After eating mountains of cake we decided to go with the following

Bottom tier- German Chocolate cake with White Butter cream Icing
Middle tier- Red Velvet cake, cream cheese filling with White Butter cream Icing
Top Tier- Carrot Cake, cream cheese filling with White Butter cream Icing

Yummy... Best of all no sticker shock there. The cake came out to a total of $265 (with fillings and 20% up charge because red velvet & carrot are special order) plus a $50 delivery fee to Islamorada and minus $20 coupon for cake. So all in all the cake came out to roughly $3.30 a slice. I can definitely live with that.

Ladies and gentlemen this is a picture of what my wedding cake should look like.

After visiting Publix we visited BobsBunz another bakery down in Islamorada to decide what our wedding favors would be. We knew we wanted edible favors because we figured people would enjoy those the most plus they're cost effective too. I wanted something with a "keys" flare but didn't want mini key lime pies because I know that key lime pie is an acquired taste.

Instead we decided to go with Key lime white chocolate chip and coconut cookies. No one makes these soft chewy cookies like Bobzbuns does! These cookies are like a party in your mouth. Absolutely delicious. They're so good, you can now purchase them online here.
After Publix we visited our venue and finalized seating arrangements and details. It's all about the details now.

Last but not least, on our way back home we stopped by Shell World and purchased Sugar Starfishes for the Groomsmen/Ring boy's boutonnières. As soon as I got home I whipped out the hot glue gun and got to work...
In about 10 minutes I had five boutonnières for a whopping $3.50 total. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Days When You're Probably not Even Safe in Bed.

I've been a bad blogger. I know. I had an awesome and ubber productive trip down to Islamorada last Sunday and was super excited to come in on Monday and tell everyone about it until of course Monday became a little too Manic to enjoy. Work was absolutely horrible, hectic, and exhausting. I was looking forward to ending the day, going home and making a nice home cooked meal. Ummm.. yea. That didn't happen.

So, I'm about to leave work and am organizing my desk when I remember that before I leave I need to file an order on the clerk of court's website. I grab all the documents, scan and send. As I'm about to walk out the door I receive an email "Court Order and Banquet Menu" My heart drops. I quickly open the email I received from co-counsel and ALL of my bosses. Turns out I not only filed the Court order on the Clerk's PUBLIC website, I also was kind enough to attach my final banquet menu I was mailing out to our venue.

The fun doesn't stop there... The banquet Menu also had our name's, cell phone numbers, home address, and last and best our CREDIT CARD NUMBER, AND EXPIRATION DATE. I can't even begin to tell you about the all sorts of heart attack's I was having.

Twenty emails asking about a formal invite, Three phone calls to the clerk's office, and nervous countless tears later I was able to put the ordeal behind me (Well, kindda but not really because now I need to monitor credit card statements constantly)

I'm such a tool. I honestly don't know how I get myself into trouble like this.

Best of all the guys are not letting me live this down. I swear I must have had five people come by already this morning to ask me if questions like "Can I bring a friend?" or "So, what sort of bar are we having?"

When I woke up this morning I was determined to have a better day today. I decided I'd wake up, have a good breakfast, take my time getting ready for work, put on my sexiest underwear, my tallest heels, a cute dress, and I'd be ready to rock & roll.

Everything was going fine too until of course my hair dryer in the middle of blow drying half of my hair goes up in sparks. Lovely. What a great way to start the day. Half of my hair is straight while the other half is a wavy mess.

Thought I'd share this for anyone who might be having a "off" day.

Remember, forget coffee. The best jolt you can get on a Tuesday morning comes from fighting off flame throwing hair dryers.

If bad things come in three's good things had better come in four's!

Yep, It's that time of year again.

Welcome to South Florida! We have the first storm of the season and her name is "Ana". We've been lucky enough the past few years to have mildly active hurricane seasons but... of course the year I decide to get married the hurricane season starts revving up. Perfect. With my luck, a hurricane will hit South Florida on my wedding day.

According to superstitions rain on your wedding day is good luck. It symbolizes a happy and fertile marriage. So what does a hurricane on your wedding day mean? Does this mean I'd be super fertile? Do I get to pop out my own soccer team?

I have no intentions of being the next "Octo-mom".

Ramdom Postings

Seriously, I've got the cutest dog ever and she's smart too!

We're 1/2 Married!

So it's a little embarrassing to admit this but, I couldn't sleep at all last night. Why I couldn't sleep? I'm not sure. I know this god-awful cold makes it hard to sleep but secretly I think I was also up thinking about going to court today and applying for our marriage license. I realized that if I can't even sleep because I'm too giddy just going to the courthouse for a marriage license I know the night before my wedding I'm going to be a hot mess.

So what did I do at 2 am when I got out of bed? I walked James, watched some television, played online, took a long shower, blow dried my hair, went to Walgreen's, went to Starbucks, and still made it into work before six. I am absolutely nuts.

At 2 pm today we finally applied for our marriage license. I can't believe how fast and painless it was! We filled out the pre-application online, brought in a form of identification signed the paper and that was it!

Less than two months to go now...

P.S- I decided against wearing white. I was feeling pretty colorful this morning so I wore a purple shirt and brown slacks. With my cold I really didn't feel like dressing up either and you know what? I'm glad I didn't. All in all it took us 5 minutes!

When Tattoo's aren't Permanent Anymore, What is?

For anyone on the fence about tattoo laser removal, this post it for you. You see many moons ago I had a lovely star tattoo on my left wrist. {yes, yes I know. I’m every mother-in-law’s dream} The tattoo was a large black star outline with a hot pink border. Point is, After some time and a sudden realization that as a lawyer most of my clients would likely frown upon my big star tattoo I decided to get it removed. I went to Ink-out tattoo removal in Miami and after a few sessions, and some gross scabbing this is what my wrist looks like now.

 

Looks like they got the "ink-out" to me. {Ha-ha! get it? Ink-out?}

 

I'll also say though that I never really finished all my treatments because quite frankly the treatment hurts and I was never able to trust myself to let it fully heal without picking scabs. Disgusting habit. I know. Either way, I've been pretty happy with the results and wish I had a 'before' picture I could share.

 

The cost of the treatment is $50 a sq. inch per session. Everyone's skin pigment is different but depending on the color and size of the tattoo you can probably expect to attend at least six sessions.

 

So what does tattoo removal feel like? Well It definitely hurts more than getting the tattoo in the first place. Think of tattoo pain plus lots of burning. On the other hand please don't get me wrong, the pain is absolutely tolerable. You just have to put your big girl panties on and deal. 

 

To be honest I think the unsightly red boils you get after being lasered are actually worse than the pain. Either way, I recommend it.  

 

 

The little White Dress

Dear Carrie,

Why did you have to look so ridiculously fabulous and business like at your courthouse wedding? Didn't you know that you would spark a "little White Dress" frenzy? I'll have you know I hold you solely accountable for my courthouse dress dilemma.

XOXO

Me!

How do I even begin to explain all this madness? Well it all began when FI and I decided we are going to the apply for our marriage license this Friday afternoon! Yes we are going to the chapel...errr.. courthouse, we're going to get half-marrieeedddd. Now, I know that I don't have to wear white I mean we're really only going to apply for our marriage license. No biggie right? I mean people go in jeans and sweat pants no?

Oh but why wear sweat pants when you have an excuse to wear a little white fabulous dress?

I just can't help myself though, I'm crazy that way.

Engagement Pictures

Because I've shared someone of my favorite pictures from our engagement party, I figured I'd share some of my favorite engagement photos taken by my brother in law who is a professional photographer.

Again, No mess. No fuss.

Engagement Party

I haven't shared our engagement party photos, so here are some of my favorites. We had our engagement party at our apartment surrounded by our closest family and friends. No mess. No fuss. Plain and simple. Obviously this was way before my “Knot” days when monogrammed napkins, ornate floral arrangements, and engagement party themes just didn’t exist in my mind. Things we much simpler then.

Our engagement party was catered by Costco frozen appetizers, Publix cheese platter, and wine purchased at Costco in bulk. The flowers were bought on a street corner and arranged by me. Our Ipod player was blasting Frank Sinatra and Barry White and no one seemed to care we didn’t have a live band. Our invites were purchased for $15 at Target and printed for $10 at Staples.

I forgot to mop my kitchen floor, order dessert, cut a cake, and play a slideshow of pictures of us throughout the years and you know what? The world did not end.

*Sigh* Those were the days… With our fur baby princess 'James'. She was the life of the party and we couldn't believe how well she behaved. She mingled very politely amongst our guests and disturbed no one. She was very curious as to why all these people were in her house, and yes, it is her house.

Toasting the night away...

No Pain, No Gain.

I haven't written in a few days but please don't think it's been because of a lack of wedding planning. Psth. I practically have wedding planning spewing out my ears. So what have I been up to for the past few days? I've been gathering ideas for place cards/escort cards, finalizing menu, working on seating arrangements, contacting our wedding musicians, thinking of song selections, and also collecting pictures for our sign in book. Somehow in between all that I have still found some time to go to the gym and have a personal trainer kick my ass. I had an amazing leg workout on Monday afternoon and I can still barely walk/sit straight. For one of the first times in my life I want to be a boy (The end of the month when aunt flow visits does not count. Naturally I want to be a boy at that time every month without fail) It's just to difficult to pop a squat and pee at work.

Heels aren't really helping my sore legs and bum either.

I have a very busy Sunday lined up this week. We are once again taking the drive down to Islamorada to meet with our venue. We're going to be measuring the dinner tables and finalizing the layout. We're also going to be meeting with the baker and finalizing the cake design, purchasing our sparklers from Phantom fireworks, buying our Key lime coconut wedding cookie favors, finding boxes to display them in, and also buying starfishes for the men's boutonnière's and for the escort cards. Phew. That's a mouth full.

With so much going on, I've decided to take it easy tonight. I'm going to make a nice home cooked meal, sit down with a glass of wine and enjoy the company of my hubby to be.

The Scale may lie, but alterations and Reina does not!

 

Muahahaha! (Insert evil laugh here) So I'm happy to report that my second fitting with Reina was an absolute success! Reina had worked on the neckline of my dress and now instead of my dress ending at my neck it now thankfully ends right above my boobs. She also worked on the bustle of my dress and on tightening the back of my dress. I'm sure I've lost five pounds because the first thing Reina said when she saw the back of my dress was "you've lost weight love" YAY! Healthy eating and cardio has been paying off.

 

Now I'm pumped.Maybe I'll even venture onto the scale again today. I'm hoping to lose another five pounds.Please spare me the "oh but your thin enough" speech. I know what -10 pounds looks on me, hell I even know what -20 pounds looks on me. I'm a pear shaped gal with plenty of junk in the trunk to spare if you know what I mean. -10 pounds on me is all on my hips, thighs, and stomach.

 

I can't wait till August 30th! I have another dress fitting then and by then the dress should be ready (unless of course I keep losing weight)

 

 

New wedding and paper obsession

I have a new obsession. Paper from White Aisle I've been eyeing their paper collection ever since I've seen Lauren and Jayme's wedding on the knot. They used the white aisle for their menus, programs, and table numbers. Lauren and Jayme had one of the most beautiful laid back Jamaica weddings I have ever seen. I feel in love with Lauren's paper and have decided to go the same route.

In my humble opinion you can't go wrong with White Aisle. I Y their motto "Modern Design Vintage Feel" ummmhmmm. Indeed!

Here are some of my favorite designs

This is a picture of the "lily" design I want to use for menus and wedding programsof course I also stumbled across this beautiful favor box and now I'm seriously considering gift wrapping my favors.

Now how in the world am I supposed to choose between these two boxes?

These were the boxes I was originally planning on using for favors. I found them online at papermart.

*sigh* I told you wedding porn is BAD!

While your at it check out Rebecca's(Owner of White Aisle) blog. It's a good read.