Cute idea for a wedding "guest book"

While reading WeddingBee, I saw a really cute idea to replace the traditional guest book. Guests can write a message to the newlyweds on black note cards, business card sized cards, or whatever size you choose.



A gal made it herself to match her other reception decor. It's kind of hard to see in the first picture , but the things on the points of the diamonds are simply thumbtacks with little flowers glued on (see below).




I am going to get a platter from Glazed and Confused. I used to go there pretty regularly with some ladies, but we don't go anymore. I like the idea of the platter, though, because it's something we can actually use! My parents guestbook is just sitting in their basement somewhere.

Debating on the size of the platters, I might get 2 different ones. I don't want people to have so write super small to fit it all on. Getting the platter is on my list of things to do in the next month or so. Would anyone like to go to G&C for a ladies night soon?

My relaxing morning

Yesterday morning I went to get a massage. I belong to Massage Envy, so I prepay for an hour massage once a month. I haven't been in a while (lack of time), so I decided to go for a 1 1/2 hour massage this time. It was heaven! I feel so relaxed.

Next time, I might even try a 2 hour one, if I can fit it in my schedule. I have a couple prepaids left, so I'm going to try to go again in a few weeks.

Yeah for Y98!

A gal (Mary) on my bridal boards posted earlier today about a $1.99 a gallon promotion three radio stations in town were having. The first 100 cars got gas for $1.99 a gallon, plus a free car wash. I was listening to Y98 at 3:00 pm to find out where they were. It was my lucky day - they were in O'Fallon, MO!

I was already in my car and started to head that way. I called Donna right away since she lives out this way, too. She ended up being in line right behind me - numbers 56 and 57. I was able to get a little over 8 gallons of gas for slightly over $16! I saved about $16 on gas. Plus, I got a free car wash normally priced at $9.99. While it took a while, I saved $26 today!

This is kind of what it looked like. There were a TON of cars. The line of cars trying to turn left into the gas station was backed up to the next light. It was crazy. I feel bad for people who waited in line for a while and then were told they were too late.

Thursday humor

I found out about a funny blog through the always entertaining Sarah. (She posted a funny conversation between a girl and her mother.)

The blog (The Customer Is Not Always Right) is about customers and the not so smart things they sometimes say. I'm sure my sister (who worked at Starbucks for a few years) could add some things on to there! I cut and paste a few in here for you to read. Enjoy! I'm currently on page 6. I figure I'll read a few more tonight and continue tomorrow!

One Dangerously Pressurized Coffee, Coming Up

Coffee Shop | Eugene, OR, USA

Me: “Hi, what can I get for you?”

Customer: “Can I get a 16 oz. coffee in a 12 oz. cup?”

Me: “No. We can’t do that here.”

Customer: “What are you talking about? They do this for me every time I come here!”

Me: “I’m sorry, but there’s no way we can put 16 oz. of coffee in a 12 oz. cup.”

Customer: “Yes you can! You’ve always done it!”

(The customer’s friend was standing next to her at the time.)

Customer’s friend: “Um, I think you meant a 12 oz. coffee in a 16 oz. cup.”

Customer: “… ooooh. Yeah, that’s what I meant!”

Me: *facepalm*

There Are No Stupid Questions, Just Stupid People, Part 2

Garden Center | Toronto, ON, Canada

(I overheard a coworker trying to help someone choose a plant.)

Coworker: “Hi, how can I help you today?”

Customer: “I’m looking for a nice plant for the front of my house.”

Coworker: “Alright, we have a number of excellent options to choose from. What kind of sun exposure does the spot get?”

Customer: “Well… it’s light all day, then dark at night.”

Me: *losing hope*

Next Time, Less Hair, More Planning

Buffet Restaurant | Ottawa, Canada

(My mother is a hostess in a Chinese buffet restaurant. Said restaurant only has Chinese employees. A woman with a fully stacked plate angrily approaches her.)

Woman: “Excuse me! There’s a hair in my food! You have to give this meal to me for free!”

(My mother looks at the woman’s plate, and what does she find? A single long blonde hair, neatly laid on top of her plate.)

More Frisky Than Frail

Retail | Cincinnati, OH, USA

(A man of at least 80 years of age came up to my checkout lane. Here’s what happened as I was bagging his last item.)

Me: “Man, I just don’t think this is gonna fit in here.”

Customer, completely straight-faced: “That’s what she said.”

Me: “I’m sorry?”

Customer, still straight-faced: “That’s what she said.”

(Needless to say, I nearly died of laughter. If

If I were this bride, my parents would kill me!

I read the Wedding Bee blogs. Today there was a post regarding a venue a bride no longer needed.

...last minute wedding in San Francisco but can’t find a venue? ...has paid a $15,000 non-refundable deposit on the famous Yank Sing Restaurant for the evening of 9/13/08 from 4-11pm and has planned to marry elsewhere. Yank Sing houses 300 guests and her event is fully-transferrable. She’s looking to recover $10,000 from her deposit, which means you can book the venue for a $5,000 discount. She’s also booked a photographer, florist, videographer, deejay and lighting package which she is willing to transfer to you if you’re interested, and looking to recover 50-75% of her costs on them. Check out her listing in the Weddingbee classifieds for more information.


It's a beautiful place, but wow - that's a lot of money! I'm sure the other vendors are equally pricey.

I wonder if she paid for the deposit, or her parents (or his) did? My parents would kill me if they put that much down for a venue, plus the other vendors, and then changed my mind. I'm hoping there's a better reason than just changing one's mind.

In all reality, though, my parents would never have been ok with a place that has a $15,000 non-refundable deposit. I wonder how much the reception was going to cost in all?

Another wedding problem to try to solve...

Since my FI is Chinese, we wanted to hang some paper lanterns at the reception. Plus, it will bring in some red color (a lucky color for the Chinese). I emailed the gal at WOW the other day asking how much it would be to hang the lanterns. It will be $15 each!! Goodness!

Since I have 25 lanterns (15 red and a pre-lit string of 10 white), that means it will cost $375 to hang all the lanterns. Not happening.

Now I have to see if I can find someone else to hang them for less, or I'm going to have to cut down the number of lanterns. :-( I obviously prefer the first option!

I emailed Exclusive Events to see how much they would charge. I'm thinking of having the ten white lit up around the dance floor (kind of like the picture below) with the red scattered around at different heights.

Any ideas? I'm not having a DOC. My mom's best friend was a DOC for a gal I went to school with, and it went great. However, I don't think Debbie's going to want to hang 25 lanterns....

I won!

Nothing super big, but I still won! I played Bunco last night with some teachers at my school. I won first place! I ended up winning $25. Considering that I put in $5, I only won $20. Second place won $20.

I'll take it! The sad part is...that's only about 1/3 a tank of gas for me!

When I started driving, I'm pretty sure that I could fill up my whole tank for $20, or maybe even less!



While winning is fun, the best part of Bunco was meeting baby Louie! Ramsey (a literacy specialist at my school) gave birth to Louie on May 23, so he's almost a month old. He is absolutely adorable! I got to hold him for a while. He kept moving around and stretching, but then fell asleep. I didn't realize how good babies are for your arms! After holding him for a while (maybe 20+ minutes?), my arms were sore!

Our friends are coming over tonight with their little boy Noah, who is about 6 months old (posted about him previously). Maybe I'll get another arm workout in! I definitely need to tone up my arms for my dress!

Why are houses so darn expensive?!

I'm having trouble sleeping, so I decided to check out Gundaker to look at houses. I fell in love with this house first.


I love that the main part of it is symmetrical. There's a beautiful bradford pear tree in the front yard, too. The front is the best part. There are a few things inside I could change (more cabinets and change the color of the bathroom).

I like the white cabinets in the kitchen, as well. However, it doesn't have a ton of cabinet space. (I know...it looks like a lot, but I have a TON of cooking stuff.)

Bad news...it's $400,000.

FI and I don't plan to move for at least a few years. During that time, we plan to save as much as possible. Hopefully our next house will be the last. So, we want to make sure we're in a good school district, and the house is big enough.

If we had unlimited funds, I would like to move to Ladue, Clayton, or Kirkwood.

Wow - what a house! It can be yours for only $3,325,000. (Cheap compared to the next one!) It has 7 bedrooms, 6 full baths, and 2 half baths.


Ok, this time I'm seriously in love. I think this would be the house of my dreams!



There is the main house, pool house & squash court, gatehouse, gardens, lake, dock & fountains. The 13,253 sqft home boasts 5 bedroom suites, 8 gas fireplaces, a home gym, and a private wine cellar with tasting room. Gorgeous views are enjoyed from each room, many with French doors leading to balconies & patios. [Some of the details]

Look at the gorgeous back patio!



The pool looks amazing!


Ok...I'm sure there are a ton more gorgeous houses in the area. I'm going to stop, though, before I get more depressed. Seriously - someone gets to live in this gorgeous place! I could work as a teacher until the day I die, and I could never make even close to what it would take to buy this place.

Ah...I didn't say how much it cost yet. Well, if you have $16,000,000 you could be the lucky owner of this amazing house! I need to win a REALLY big lottery prize...

New hair color

I had my hair dyed and trimmed last week. This is the lightest my hair has been in a long time, maybe ever! I'm still getting used to it, but I like it a little more everyday. Please be honest - do you think it's too light?

I look pretty pale in some of the pictures. Part of that is the lighting. Part of that is that I'm just pale! I'm going to start using some of the Jergens natural glow lotion to give me a little color. I think that will help. Also, I've been using a bit of bronzer since I changed the color of my hair to give my face a little more color.

I'm considering getting a slightly darker toner put on next time I go for my touch up. I think it's in early August.

Pardon the lack of smile.

Well, the smile's better here, but my nose looks huge! Bad angle!!

Pew buckets

**I've stuck a couple questions at the end to get your opinions. I'd love to know what you think. Please leave a comment!** :-)

Originally, we were going to put some of the standard white bows on the pews. However, I fell in love (and I think my mom did, too) with the look of galvanized buckets with flowers in them. (Sorry - I don't remember where we found this picture).




It would nicer, but more expensive, to get real flowers. However, I'm not sure it would make that much of a difference since they're just for a little extra decoration. All the other flowers at the ceremony (bouquets, bouts, altar arrangements, etc.) will be real flowers. We found these on sale for a nice price!

We have enough buckets (still working on the flowers) to do every other pew all the way down the aisle.

This is the front of the bucket, the side that would be facing out toward the aisle.

This the back view. They're not as full in the back, but this side would be against the pew.

I'm not sure what color ribbon we'll use. We could use white, black (the color of the BM dresses), or green (some of the flowers will be green and the table runners have green on them).



What color ribbon do you think will look best?

Do you think the buckets look full enough?

Loving Day

I was reading one my wedding blogs, Weddingbee, and found out that yesterday was Loving Day. I have never heard of this before. Apparently, Loving Day celebrates the legalization of interracial marriage. I had no clue that interracial marriage was illegal until 1967. Wow! That's not very long ago!

Loving Day is an educational community project. The name comes from Loving v. Virginia (1967), the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage in the United States. Loving Day celebrations commemorate the anniversary of the Loving decision every year on or around June 12th. (From Loving Day)

It's interesting to think that less than 50 years ago, my FI and I would not have been able to legally get married. Our good friends N and N (you saw their cute little boy Noah several weeks ago) would not have been able to marry either.

(Disclaimer - we've both lost weight and are still working on losing more!)

Monograms

So, I wasted some time this morning and created some monograms. Once I figured out how to download some fancy fonts, it really wasn't that tricky. I used some examples from websites, especially IDoOriginals.

Honestly, I'm not sure what we'll use these for. :-) One thing we might do is put it on a round sticker to put on our favor boxes. Now, I just have to figure out how to do this!

My favorites right now are the one with the large & and the one with the large L that aren't in circles.

Any in particular that you like?

The one below I have in about 6 different variations. The last name and date are in different fonts, but the rest is the same. The fonts are all script fonts, though, so it's not too different. I won't post all of them here.

Monograms?

Is anyone really good at making monograms? I've tried before in Adobe, Photoshop, or something like that. It's just not my thing. I'm not the best with artsy things.

I've heard some people say you shouldn't use one like the one I have below (with your married initial) until the reception because you will be married then. Is that true?

Here's one I made a while back before I'd decided on my accent color. It's not my favorite. I would change the L to a green color.

I know I can pay someone to make them, but I'd rather not. We won't be using it all over the place, so I'm not sure it'd be worth it to pay someone.

I was hoping maybe one of you lovely readers might be handy with monograms and be willing to make one or two for me? Some people say it doesn't take long. Well...it does when you're me, and you don't know what you're doing! :-) Or do you have any recommendations on how to make them? Fonts, sizes, etc.?

I believe this one belongs to Meghan (Matt-n-Megs).

This one is nice. I like the colors: black, white, and green. The background might be a little much, though.

First dance song?

I figured I would ask for help from the knowledgeable ladies who read my blog. FI and I need to figure out our first dance song. We don't really have a song that's "our song." We need to decide asap since we are having a band. If they don't know the song, they will need time to learn it.

A lot of the ones I like are Sinatra and Buble songs. I like that style of music at a wedding reception. The band we are having plays a lot of this type of music already. Some of these might be kind of cheesy and used a lot, but I still like them. :-)

Some songs that I like:

• The Luckiest (Ben Folds Five) - I always thought this song would make a different first dance song. I was surprised to find it on a website listing first dance songs.
• At Last (Etta James)
• The Way You Look Tonight (Sinatra)
• Everything (Michael Buble)
• Feeling Good (Buble)
• Best Is Yet To Come (Sinatra or Buble)
• It Had To Be You (Cheesy, probably...but I like those kind of oldie songs, as is evidenced by the Sinatra and Buble songs)
• What A Wonderful World (Armstrong)
  

Any recommendations?

Sweet FI

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I went to a wedding show today at West County Mall. My mom always helps me in my booth at these events. I couldn't leave the harp alone to get lunch or even go to the bathroom! Plus, it helps to have someone else to talk to potential clients if I'm playing a piece.

FI and my dad were working hard at my house while I was gone. My dad showed FI how to powerwash the deck, and FI finished it. We need to replace a few boards and restain the deck. FI also powerwashed the back side of the house. My dad was busy inside spackling some walls in the downstairs bedroom so my mom and I can repaint it soon. My sister's cat LOVED to scratch the drywall and left the walls pretty scratched up in some areas!

While I was packing up and coming home from the show, FI went to the grocery store to get food to cook for dinner. He's a great cook. His only flaw is that he tends to make WAY too much food for the two of us! He grilled some veggies (zucchini, yellow squash, onions, carrots, and peppers), made kabobs (chicken with veggies marinated in a greek marinade and steak and veggies), and made couscous. It was delicious and healthy!

He also bought me some of my second favorite flower - the stargazer lily. Most of them are still closed up waiting to bloom, so I will just post a picture of stargazer lilies.

Busy!!

Busy barely begins to explain what things are like this month (well, really every month!).

Last week, our last day of school (a 1/2 day for the kiddos) was Monday. We had a 1/2 work day Monday afternoon and a whole work day on Tuesday. Wednesday, I ran around to some errands - mall, try on my wedding dress, etc. Thursday and Friday I had professional development during the day. Last night, I went to see the SATC movie with my sister and my friend Anna. Today, I have 2 weddings. It's 6/7/08 - a very popular date this year. Sunday is the wedding show at West County Mall that I mentioned recently.

Over my (way too short) summer break, I have a lot of appointments. Not necessarily wedding appointments, but things like a hair cut, allergist appointment, etc. I have 4 consultations with brides during the week this month, as well as 4 consultations on a couple of Sundays. I have 5 more weddings this month still. That makes 7 weddings in June alone. Wowsa! I also have a 2.5 day training session for a committee I'm on at school.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, we have to make a decision about the invites ASAP because time's running out! We still have a LOT of wedding details to take care of, which is stressing me out. I do have a lot accomplished, which is good. However, it seems like the list of things to do is still insanely long.

I had a massage scheduled several times within the past month or so, but things keep coming up so I have to change it. I have one scheduled toward the end of this month. I can't wait! My neck and shoulders are ridiculously tight from stress. I tend to carry my stress there, which isn't good since I play harp, too.

Unfortunately, I haven't been sleeping well lately. I'm pretty sure it's due to stress. I fall asleep ok, but tend to wake up at least a couple of times a night, which leaves me extra tired in the morning. I think I'm going to talk to my doctor about this when I go see her this upcoming week. Hopefully she can help, because I can't take anything off my busy schedule!

Invites

Originally, my talented sister (and MOH) was going to design our invites. We went to a free "class" at Archiver's a month or so ago. While we were there, we kind of priced the invites. I think we came out to a little less than $3 each. That doesn't count printing or time involved to design them.

If you remember, my sis designed our beautiful Save the Dates. The pattern on the Save the Date is from our table runners.

We were going to do something coordinating for the invites. However, my sister moved out a month or so ago. That makes it much harder to work on invites. Plus, we're kind of running out of time.

Someone on StlWed.com ordered from Alaun By Design. My favorite invite there is called The Dreamy Collection.

While they won't be as unique as we were originally planning, I think we're going to have to go ahead and order from somewhere. The main reason is lack of time. I think it would take a while to figure out our invites, print them (plus, the cost of ink or cost to have someone print them), cost to assemble, etc. My "To Do" list is a mile long, and I have a short summer break! The cost isn't that much more to have someone else take care of them, which would be really nice!

So, we definitely need to get moving on the invites. Apparently, that is my task for this weekend. Hopefully mom and I can talk about it while we're at the wedding show on Sunday!

Loser with a capital L

The librarian at my school decided to start up a Biggest Loser challenge at school. We started in January and 13 people decided to join. Everyone put in $5. The person who lost the most weight by the end of the school year won the money.

Well...I tied for first place! The gym teacher (a guy) and I lost the same amount - 17.5 pounds. Personally, I think I should have won outright. I definitely lost a higher percentage of weight than he did because he is much bigger (taller and heavier) so it wasn't as hard for him to lose 17.5 pounds. Oh well...I still won $32.50. I'll take it!

My dress is in!

I posted about this on StlWed already, so sorry if you've already read this! Some people who read this aren't on StlWed. (Not many, but a few!) :-)

My mom got the call on Monday that my dress came in, well ahead of schedule. The store told us it would probably be closer to August. I went by today to try it on. My mom wasn't able to come since it's a bit of a drive for her and short notice, and I happen to have had some errands to run near my dress shop (Chesterfield).

I scheduled my first fitting appointment for mid-August. I asked the lady if we could wait because I'm still losing weight. I don't remember exactly what my ticker says, but I think I've lost about 35 pounds. I hope to reach my goal. If not, just getting fairly close would be good! :D

I don't want to post the pictures of my dress here, just in case FI sees this! Here's a random picture for you, though, so I don't post without a picture! What a classy cake topper! I cannot imagine putting that on my wedding cake...

Stop by and say hi!

This Sunday (June 8th) I will have a booth at a small wedding show at West County Mall. It is the Cake Dive event, where a few lucky brides get to compete to win some awesome prizes.

If you're bored on Sunday, are still looking for vendors for your upcoming wedding, or happen to be shopping at West County, stop by and say hi! The show is located in the old Lord & Taylor court area. I'll be the only one with a big gold harp in my booth!

Why I can't wait until June 2009! (long post...)

Since I'm a teacher, we're kind of limited on when we can take our honeymoon. Our wedding is during my district's fall break. Luckily, I will have 2 weeks off before the wedding to finalize things. I will have another week off after the wedding. A few of those days we will be in California (San Francisco area) for our Chinese reception.

We have a nice spring break. It's about 3 weeks. However, if we have a lot of snow (like we did this year), we could lose up to 1 whole week of the break. That only leaves 2 weeks, which is kind of cutting it close to get to Europe and spend a good amount of time there.

FI has never been to Europe. I am very lucky to have been 3 times. Summer 1996, I studied in France for 1 month, spending a week in Paris, 2 weeks in St. Malo (where I urned 16), and a week in a small town near Rennes. Summer 1998 I traveled to Europe with a group from my high school right after I graduated. We went to England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and France (Paris again). My longest trip was in 2001, when I spend a little over 2 months in Europe. I studied in Paris for about 6 weeks, living with a French woman. It was an amazing experience living in Paris! A few friends and I took some weekend trips to Belgium and Italy (Rome and Venice). My parents and sister flew over to meet me. We rented a car and drove around Europe, visiting Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy (Venice, Rome, Florence, Milan). I have been itching to return to Europe for quite some time!

We are waiting until June to take our honeymoon. I am SO excited! Our trip is going to be amazing. This is our tentative plan right now. We can't book some of the things this far out. We're hoping to finalize plans around the time of the wedding.

June 10th - Leave for Paris

June 11th - Land in Paris; take the night train to Venice (walk around Paris a bit if time)

June 12th - Arrive in Venice. Spend the day exploring Venice.

June 13th - Walk around Venice a bit in the morning. Board our cruise (Royal Caribbean).

June 14th - 19th - Cruise. We will visit Split, Croatia and several locations in Greece - Corfu, Athens, Mykonos, and Katakolon (near the Olympia site).

June 20th - Return to Venice. Take the train to Rome. Overnight in Rome.

June 21st - Day in Rome (Vatican, Sistene Chapel, Colosseum, etc.)

June 22nd - Morning/afternoon in Rome. Night train to Paris.

June 23rd - Day in Paris.

June 24th - Day in Paris.

June 25th - Day in Paris.

June 26th - ? Fly home?

If we have time, FI would like to take the Chunnel and visit London for a day or two. June 26th is a Friday. We might try to plan it so we arrive home on Sunday. We'll see....

I have a list a mile long of things to see in Paris. I definitely want to take FI to the museums (Musee d'Orsay, Louvre, Musee Rodin - The Thinker, etc.) We obviously will visit la Tour Eiffel, l'Arc de Triopmhe, and le Champs Elysees. Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, and Montmartre are beautiful churches. There's a million more places to visit. I'm going to have to do a bit of research/reminiscing to make sure I don't forget any of my favorite places! Les Jardins de Tuileries is a nice place to visit as well. If we have time, I'd like to go to Versailles again. Since FI has never been to Europe, he has never seen anything even close to the likes of Versailles!

School's out for summer!

Well...not exactly! I still have a work day tomorrow. Thursday and Friday we have professional development days to learn about the new literacy program we are adopting. Later this month, I am attending a 2.5 day training for an assessment committee I was asked to join.

It's always bittersweet seeing the buses drive away on the last day. All the teachers stand out and wave while the buses drive by. The drivers honk like crazy. The kids love it! My first class just graduated from 5th grade this year. I can't believe they're going to middle school!

Remodeling our bathroom

We're thinking of remodeling the master bath a bit, to help with resale value. I'm not quite sure when we'll work on this. Probably not until after the wedding, as I have a feeling I'll feel like I need to be working on a project since I've been working on the wedding for over a year now!

The master bath has the standard large mirror over a fairly long counter. There is only one sink, although there is room for a double vanity. I have a corner garden tub and a standard shower. The floor is linoleum with a bad pattern. Even though the house is maybe 10 years old, the floor looks more dated than that. Plus, it has cracked in a few places, so it definitely needs to be replaced. I'd love to use tile, but think we'll go with a faux tile.

Apparently, they now make vinyl tiles that you can grout to make them look more like ceramic tile. Depending on the cost, I would prefer that over just vinyl tiles.

I think it would be funny to use this pattern because it is named Gibraltar, which is the name of my street. I think it's pricier than I'd like to spend, though.

I think it makes a bathroom look a lot more elegant with 2 framed mirrors in place of 1 large one, like in the picture below. We definitely want to make it a double vanity. We're not sure yet if we'll keep our current cabinets and just replace the counter and sinks, or buy a double vanity something like the one in the picture below. The only thing will be finding one that is the right length for our bathroom.

I would also like to replace the shower doors, depending on how much that costs. Right now we have the ones that are kind of frosted - nothing special.

If we could spend unlimited money (which obviously isn't going to happen), I think I would take out the garden tub and put a large square shower in the corner. There's a tub in the other bathroom upstairs. I think I've only used the tub two times (maybe only once, even) in the 2 years I've lived in my house. I personally think it would be nicer to have a large built in cabinet where the current shower is. It could be used for towels and other linens, as well as extra bath products. That would leave room in the small linen closet in the hallway for other things.

The other upstairs bath (which is a full bath) will also be getting a tiny remodel. We're going to put in a nicer floor and probably paint it as well. The first owner painted it a kind of creamish color. However, whatever technique she used didn't work on some areas. It looks fine in some places, but some places look like there is water damage! There's isn't, but we want to fix it. It will just be a neutral color, though.