the day before forever...

Writing out thank you cards to the bridal party.
Checking and double checking packing lists.
Putting last minute touches on gifts.
Listening to FI speak to his mom about a small tux alteration.
Thinking I'll be calling him "DH" by tomorrow (whoa! and yay!)
About to shower and get dressed for the last time in our home as a fiancee.
Soon off to pick up the RD cake.
Nail polish change at 1 pm.
Bringing my dress to the hotel to check in as a single girl, with one day to go.
Thinking of the church run though and order.
Looking forward to the RD.
Excited.
Estatic.
Ready.

Tomorrow!!!

three rhymes with squeeee!!!!

Yesterday I finished work until a week after the wedding so, today was the official start of the wedding marathon and I've been running slow and steady. I slept in just a bit, did some laundry and finished up a few DIY projects before I headed out to run my errands. And, here's the last of the projects and stuff...

Table numbers with a different love quote on each. I made these double sided so the numbers can be seen from either direction. So happy with the results:

Silver clutch - matches my reception shoes perfectly:
Sign for the guest "book" table (signature mat):

Our completed card box:

Top of the box:

And, the front:Cocktail menu for the bar - thanks to knottie kwynn for the fabulous inspiration:

Our completed chocolate favor boxes. Each guest will receive one on their plate:

Our next task (by far one of our largest) is packing up everything we need for the reception to bring to the hall....tomorrow at 2:00 pm! A daunting task but, I'm so excited to get it all out of the house and into the capable hands of our Maitre'D and Bridal Attendant. One step closer to seeing all of the work and effort realized!

THREE DAYS!!!

one, two, three, FOUR...

Four days to go.

I woke up at 3:30 this morning with happy butterflies and couldn't get back to sleep. Way too excited. Everyone keeps asking if I'm nervous. Not a bit. I'm more sure of this marriage than anything I've done before and am sure that our wedding day will be beautiful. I'm just excited and ready to roll!

I've been keeping a close eye on the extended forecast and, although Mother Nature thinks it will be funny to rain for our rehearsal, our wedding day is looking like this so far...

Accuweather.com:

WeatherChannel.com:

single digits...

Us. Nearly eleven months ago and just moments after FI proposed during that beautiful late March sunset. Within days we had decided to plan our wedding in less than a year but, even that amount of time seemed endless. Now, here we are with nine days to go until we are married couple.

Another 2/28 bride (kwynn) posted her proposal story on her blog this week and I thought it would be a sweet idea to follow suit so, here goes:

Elias and I traveled upstate to spend Easter weekend with my family. We had talked about a timeline for engagement for months and I knew it was coming in the next few weeks but, knew he wouldn't do it on a holiday. A proposal that weekend was the farthest thing from my mind. We had a nice weekend with my family. On Saturday, my grandmother was visiting my parent's house for the day and while my mom was preparing dinner, my sister and I went out to the grocery store to buy ingredients to bake brownies for dessert. As it turned out, this was a ploy to get me out of the house so that Elias could ask my parents and grandma for their blessing to propose.

The next morning was busy, taking Easter portraits of my nephew and then heading out for brunch at a restaurant with my large family. Elias later told me that my grandma almost ruined the surprise by leaning over during brunch and asking him, "So, when are you going to ask her?" After the meal and saying our good-byes, Elias and I got in my car for the two and a half hour drive back home. When we finally pulled in to our complex, he suggested that we get changed and go down to the park on the water, just a few blocks from our house, to watch the sunset and enjoy the rest of the day (it was unseasonably warm that day). He quickly changed and off we went.

At the park, we sat on a bench facing the water and bridge and talked about the weekend. He was flipping though a folder of grad school brochures and telling me that he would like to pursue a second Master's. Then, he said, "Oh, I just found your Easter card in here. Close your eyes because I did something cute with it." I did and, when he asked me to open my eyes, he was down on one knee holding the ring box in one hand and a scrapbook page the read "Will you marry me?" in the other. He said what I'm sure were some very sweet things that I was unable to comprehend and asked me to marry him.

I cried. I said "yes." I took the scrapbook page and pored over it until he said, "Don't you like the ring?" YES, yes, it was (and is) breathtaking and I just couldn't wrap my mind around everything at once. He put it on my finger and well, here we are today...

NINE days from our wedding.

NINE days until the day we have planning and designed and saved for becomes a reality.

Just a few details remaining:

• Print escort cards and table numbers - DONE!
• Add a couple of e-pics to our card box and attach security hinges to the front
• Assemble bathroom baskets (already have all supplies) - DONE!
• OOT bags (water bottle labels below!)
• Finish making the chocolates for our edible favors and decorate the boxes (will finish all these tonight) - DONE!
• Wrap BP/Parent gifts and write cards to all

it's the final countdown...

heading down the aisle...

I decided against one (yet another DIY project).
I thought I wanted one.
Our priest told us we needed one.
I ordered one...in October.
I was thrilled when it came and I thought about painting it.
I thought about it some more.
FI plotted our monogram...in December.
We knew if we didn't do it soon, plain white would just have to do.
We traced out the design...in January.
This weekend we committed to (finally) starting it.

He painted half.

I painted half.
And, together, we finished it!

A couple of hours on a Valentine's Saturday night, exactly two weeks until our wedding.

2 weeks.

Two weeks!

TWO WEEKS!!!!

details, details...

This week I finally had a minute to take photos of some of our completed DIY projects. Although it was a lot of work doing these things ourselves, it was also very rewarding to see it all come together. I'm hoping these little touches will make our ceremony and reception very personal.

Our cake topper - ordered from Crafty Eddy and "blinged" by FI:

Our completed programs:

Ring pillow. I saw a similar pillow on a wedding blog post months ago and knew I had to have one. I found the material online, purchased all of the supplies and FMIL generously offered her time and impeccable sewing skills to come up with the final product. Just need to add a white ribbon under the button to tie the rings. L.O.V.E:Our dinner menus, one per place setting. Our venue does table side ordering with a choice of three entrees. To help our guests make their meal choices I thought these would be a nice touch. They were printed on our home inkjet printer on heavy, textured cardstock:
A closer look at our monogram on the menus: Flower girl's pomander. 3" styrofoam ball, many white and ivory silk carnations, heavy green Martha Stewart ribbon and a hot glue gun. Took about a half hour:

Bridesmaid gifts - Vera Bradley Purse Cosmetic, Small Bow Cosmetic and Crabtree and Evelyn toiletries. One other thing will accompany their gifts but, I'm keeping it under wraps in case my MOH peeks in (I'm giving her one, too):

And, not DIY at all but, after a long, long search for green reception shoes that were not meant to be, I ordered these silver ballet flats. Cute, comfy and I'll be able to wear them again:
CHECKS:

• Seating chart is DONE!!!
• Final count has been called in to our reception venue
• We had our final meeting with the DJ on Wednesday night and got our music squared away
• Photog/Video appointment is tomorrow morning

Then, other than a few little details (aisle runner, bathroom baskets, OOT bags, escort cards), we're done!

let's dance put on your red shoes and dance the blues...

After many hours listening to iPods, ripped mp3's and youtube postings, we've chosen our essential reception songs...

Parents/BP Entrance: "Let's Groove Tonight" by Earth, Wind and Fire
Newlyweds Entrance: "Nothin' But A Good Time" by Poison
First Dance: "When You Say Nothing At All" by Ronan Keating
Father/Daughter: "I Loved Her First" by Heartland
Mother/Son: "Find Your Wings" by Mark Harris
Cake Cutting: "Everything" by Michael Buble
Last Dance: "(I've Had) The Time of My Life"

The first dance song was the toughest by far. Back when we started planning over eight months ago (wow, really?), feeling all girly and romantic, I wanted to choose one right away. In reality, I was a little anxious about this one little detail. FI and I had never had the occasion to dance together and, therefore, never had "our song" arise. He said we had time, didn't need to choose yet. I got the same line every time I raised the questions for the next several months. Eventually, FI asked me to choose one, reasoning that he would be happy with whatever song I liked.

Fast forward to two weeks ago when we were really getting down to the wire and needed to make a decision. I brought out my list of potentials, we each had a glass of wine and I played each song for him. I wanted him to have some input. You can guess what happened. Yup. He vetoed them all. every. last. one.

So, we went back to the beginning and searched, a lot. Last night we finally found the one that we both love. And, yes, we danced.

It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart
Without saying a word you can light up the dark
Try as I may I could never explain
What I hear when you don't say a thing

The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all

All day long I can hear people talking out loud
But when you hold me near, you drown out the crowd
Try as they may, they could never define
What's being said between your heart and mine

The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all

keeper of memories...

For the past 13 years, I have been a scrapbooker. It started as an innocent little hobby and a way to document some of my college memories on the verge of graduation (okay, go ahead and do the math if you must!). Then I found a local craft store that was on the cutting edge of the hobby and I was in fast and deep. Within a month of finding that shop, I started teaching scrapping classes to adults - a part-time gig that lasted seven years and evolved into product design, online design teams and even having my work published in 4 major national magazines.

This "hobby" is just a part of who I am now. So, of course, I knew I would document our wedding planning process with both photographs (another passion) and scrapbook pages. I haven't shared my work here before but, being so close to the wedding, I thought it would be fun to post a few pages that I completed at a day long event with some of my friends yesterday (click on images to enlarge).

My make-up trial on 11.3.08:

Invitation assembly on 12.26.08:
Hair trial on 1.24.09:Getting our marriage license on 1.30.09:

you're invited...

Looking through some photos on my computer today, I realized that I'd never shared from our invitation assembly at the end of December. Clearly, I'm committed to documenting all details of the planning process when I share photos of myself without make-up (ouch!). Check out the assembly line we had going on my parents' dining room table the day after Christmas:

Our reply cards:

Doing it together, layer by layer (FI is not as thrilled about photo-documenting this experience as I am):

Our best decision in all of this turned out to be coding our response cards. We wrote a little number on the back of each response that corresponded with the guest's name on our excel spreadsheet. When some of the responses came back illegible, we knew exactly who they belonged to.

It's hard to believe that this all took place over a month ago and that we are now so much closer to the finish line! 24 days to go...