Well this is unfortunate...

As of late I have been with out computer. My motherboard on my beloved Toshiba decided to stop working and my baby is currently off at the Best Buy repair center ( I had to say goodbye to my ring and my computer all on the same day). J's mom generously let me borrow her old laptop, which has been great for getting my day-to-day internetting done, but it also means that I am without access to any of my pictures, links and ideas. I have so many great things I want to share with you, but in reality I have nothing to share...does that make sense?

My computer should be back next week, but in the meantime I will try to put together a few posts that don't rely so much on pictures and ideas stored on my compuer. We'll see what I come up with.

The ring has landed.

I just got word that my ring made it safely to the jeweler! Whew!

Yesterday I said "good-bye" to someone very close to me...

....my engagement ring.

That's right, my engagement ring is no longer on my pretty little finger. Before you begin to freak out...no, I didn't lose it. I parted with it willingly.

You see, for months and months J and I have been trying to come up with a suitable wedding band for my uniquely shaped ring.

"Penelope" in all her glory. (Yes I named my ring...so what??!!)

You can see that with the shape of the ring, finding a wedding band that fit was going to be difficult. I contacted several jewelers in Milwaukee about a custom band, but they were all having a hard time working within the budget we had and with the stones we wanted (no diamonds for this girl). I had pretty much given up on the idea of a engagement/wedding ring combo and instead had decided that I would just move my engagement ring to my right hand and wear a completely unique wedding band on my left hand.

On a recent camping trip to Bayfield, WI, J and I came across an add in the local tourist guide about a jeweler, Donalee Designs, who worked with semi-precious and gem stones. I was intrigued. We almost didn't stop...it was raining and we were tired...but in the end we did and I am so happy we decided to!
Donalee's studio is in her converted garage and is really impressive. Plus she is just the sweetest woman you could ever meet. Right away I knew I wanted to get my ring from her. I explained my ring situation to her and I started out trying on some stand alone rings that could serve as wedding bands. As we talked we started throwing around ideas for custom rings; Donalee got my style right away and together we came up with an amazing custom wedding band that will fit with my engagement ring! The stone is a 0.25 carat blue topaz that will be flush mounted into a white gold band. The band is going to be shaped so that it fits with the wave of my e-ring while still looking delicate and light. I am beyond thrilled with what we came up with and I can't wait to see the finished product.
But...before I get my hands on that beautiful ring I had to say good-by to my e-ring. Donalee needs the ring to make up the final sketches. Then my ring and her sketches go down to her caster in Chicago who will make a wax casting of the ring. At that point I get my e-ring and the wax ring back. I can make any suggestions or changes that I want (changes means parting with my e-ring again). After the wax gets the final OK, they cast it in white gold, set the stone and we are done! I was told that it will take about a month to get the wax cast made, which isn't too bad, but it's still a long time to be away from "my precious."
To fill the empty void that's left on my finger I've moved the sapphire ring that J gave me years ago from my right to my left hand...not exactly the same feeling, but it will do. I'm pretty sure that the guy at the FedEx store thought I was crazy when I mailed out the ring yesterday, I just kept saying over and over, "please don't lose it, it's really special, please don't lose it."
Now I'm just waiting for an email from Donalee saying that she got it; I'll breathe easier when I know that Penelope is safe and sound. But for now...I wait.....

The real reason people get married....the gifts!

Ok..so maybe the gifts aren't the only reason that people get married, but it certainly is a perk.
As we approach the 8 month mark I've had several people ask me where we were registered....was I supposed to be thinking about that already??? Apparently I was, so last Saturday J and I sat down and picked out where we were going to register and some of the must-have items we wanted on our lists.

I once read somewhere that you should have one store for every 50 guests, so with that in mind we set about the task of picking three stores that had the things we wanted at prices that were reasonable.

My first thought was the wedding registry go-to store, Crate & Barrel. It seems like everyone registers there, so why not us. But after browsing their website and walking around the Milwaukee store we decided that it wasn't for us. Don't get me wrong, C&B had some great stuff, but a lot of it wasn't really our aesthetic. So we crossed that one off and kept going. The rest of our list included some of the other registry regulars, namely Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond. In addition we had Kohl's, Boston Store, Williams Sonoma, Lowe's and Amazon.com I knew that my mom was pushing hard for Boston Store but the thing is, J and I really don't like shopping there. So at first it was scratched off. But then we started thinking that it really was a nice mid-range, one stop shop for everything we needed. Plus they had the cookware we wanted, where as Kohl's and Target did not. And let's not forget the 500 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets...oh the sheets! I have wanted a set of really good sheets for a long time and Boston Store has exactly want we wanted. So it was settled, Boston Store was in...that means Kohl's, you're out.
After that decision everything else fell into place. Target was a logical choice beacuse really...who doesn't love Target. Plus, Target is budget friendly, which was very important to us. With Target in, BB&B was out.

And finally our "wild card." Originally we thought that a large home improvement store would be a good choice, but reconsidered when we realized that anything we could conceivable want from Lowe's could be bought at Target. Amazon.com was never really much of a contender so that left us with William's Somoma, which made me all warm and fuzzy inside. I have had a love affair with WS for a ever and now...now I get to register there.

So there you have it. Our three registry winners; William's Sonoma, Boston Store and Target. I'm really happy with our choices and I think that it will give our guests a nice range of things to choose from.

What's on our registry....just you wait!!

The Mediterranean - The cheap version

In my continued search for the perfect, memorable, budget friendly honeymoon and my refusal to postpone the trip for a latter date I began looking for other options that would give us culture, beach, sun, relaxation and great sightseeing.

I kept noticing how on several Mediterranean cruises there was always a stop in Split, Croatia, which got me thinking that there must be something to this port if everyone wants to go there. Then this morning I was browsing through the newest issue of Utterly Engaged and there was a profile of a couple who took their honeymoon in Croatia and Italy. I had to know more. I started doing some digging and for the last 2 hours I have been researching flights, hotels and sights within Croatia and I have to say I WANT TO GO!!! Croatia has a perfect mix of culture and relaxation. There are hundreds of small Adriatic Islands that have gorgeous beaches as amazing resorts. On the mainland the cities are just dripping in history. Throughout it's history Croatia has been under the influence of several ruling countries and that history is reflected in the architecture, the art and the food. I know this is something that my history buff fiancee would love!

I had no idea just how beautiful this country is:

Paddling around one of the many Adriatic Islands

Rovinj, Croatia

Split, Croatia

I could go on an on....
Apparently Croatia has been gaining popularity among Europeans as vacation destination for several years, but here in the states it's fairly undiscovered. One of the best things about honeymooning in Croatia...the money! Hotels are incredibly reasonable and the high(est) season for tourism doesn't start until July! Which means we can still enjoy low(er) prices for our June honeymoon.
J is sound asleep right now, so I haven't has a chance to sell him on the idea yet, and it's taken all my self control not to wake him up yelling "look at this look at this!!!" Fingers crossed that he loves it!

Thin Thursday...uhhhh....what?

Ok, ok...yes, I am a horrible person. I have once again completely neglected my promise to keep Thin Thursday a weekly staple. Bad Bride! That isn't to say that I haven't been working out. I have...sort of.

I hit a bit of a road block on my way to health and wellness when J and I took a week long camping trip. The trip was fantastic, 5 days in the woods followed by 3 days at my uncle's lake house. Even though we were roughing it out in the woods we weren't exactly eating nuts and berries the whole time. Can you say bacon?

I think I consumed more bacon on this trip than at any other time in my life. And on top of the bacon there were S'mores and Pudgie Pies:

Hungry???

And then there was the 3 days with my uncle and his wife and kids where butter isn't a condiment...it's a food group! So between the bacon, chocolate, pie filling and butter my eating wasn't what you would classify as "healthy."

But...I'm back and ready for action. And with a new looming deadline I've got pounds to drop! And no, I'm not talking about the wedding deadline (I've still got time for that)..I'm talking about engagement photos! Yep..it's that time already. Originally we were going to have our photos taken in late October or November...but then we found out the wonderful news that our photographer was having a baby! YAY Casey! But..she's due in December and is going on maternity leave starting in late October. Which means we are now getting our pictures taken at the end of the month!! Holy crap!

So it's time to hop on the tread mill and get my ass in gear. Lucky for me, our school has a surprisingly nice gym and a great selection of group fitness classes, all of which is free for students during the semester. So now I can work in a work out while I'm up at school during the week. At least that's the plan....

Honeymoon??? Mini-moon??? No -moon???!!!

One of the topics that J and I have been discussing at length is our honeymoon. Since we both love to travel we want our trip to really be something special and something memorable, but we also need it to be affordable. Unfortunately memorable and affordable are two words that don't really get along very well.

Our original thought was to do a 12 night Mediterranean cruise. J and I LOVE Europe and to spend two weeks exploring the Greek Isles would be amazing. We found a great itinerary that we love with Princess Cruises. We'd be sailing on the Ruby Princess from Venice to Rome with stops in Athens, Mykonos, Croatia and several others.

We loved everything about this idea, except the price. We'd be traveling in June which is the high season in Europe. High Season=High Prices. The cruise price we could handle, the airfare was another story.
So we began looking at other options. There were some 10 and 12 night Caribbean cruises that seemed nice, but we don't really want to spend our entire trip warding off the local vendors. Although we did like the idea of having a few at sea days to just relax and enjoy the ship; something that we wouldn't have with the Med cruise.

I tossed out the idea of renting a beach house in the South Carolina.

We could pack up the car and the dogs and spend a week laying on the beach. Plus we would be an hour for Charleston and an hour from Savannah which would make for some great day trips. History and relaxation all in one. Perfect!

J countered with Disney World, which I shot down right away. I don't think that we are the Disney Honeymoon type of couple. Plus, I would like to try and limit our encounters with screaming children if at all possible. He agreed, and we decided to shelve the Disney vacation for an anniversary.

It was at this point that I just began naming random places that might make a good honeymoon spot. Fiji!? Costa Rica?! Niagra Falls?! Door County?!

Then J offered up the suggestion of postponing our honeymoon....POSTPONING???!!! Are you f&!*#g kidding me?? I know us..I know how we operate, if we postpone it won't happen. It just won't, we will find some excuse not to go or some reason not to spend the money. He suggested a short, in-state, mini-moon right after we say "I do" and a full blown honeymoon in January, but I'm just not feelin' it. I think that if we are going to go, we should just go.

So now we are back to where we started. I'm stalking every discount cruise website I can find in hopes of striking a deal, but so far no luck. I think the next step is going to be calling a travel agent and seeing what sort of magic they can work with in our budget.

Anyone out there in blogland have any suggestions?