I'm baaaaaaaaack

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!
I'm sorry that I've neglected this blog for so long...bad, bad bride. Between the holidays and some personal drama that was going on the time just got away from me and I found myself putting off blogging everyday and suddenly poof! Two months had gone by.

But never fear! I am back and I am armed with a butt-load of posts about the wedding. Speaking of which, 147 days until I'm married!!!!! I am beyond excited. It hit me this last week that this wedding is really happening. I mean, I knew that I was always getting married, and I never doubted that. But this engagement has really been a marathon, not a sprint. There was a lot of time spent just looking at pictures, bookmarking webpages and just waiting. But now, I feel like I'm coming up on the last 5 miles and it's just going to fly by!

There's a lot to do and a lot that still needs to be planned so stay tuned....

Today's the day!

No not our wedding day...that's still over 6 months away (thank God). Nope, today is the day that I break out the Gocco!!!

I got my Gocco a few months ago and aside from taking her out of the box to snap a few pictures she has been safely tucked away in the office ever since....until today.

Here it is still in the box right after it arrived.

J and I set aside today to work on our save the dates which means the Gocco gets to come out of hiding. I'm not going to lie...I'm nervous about using this thing. I've heard horror stories about Gocco mishaps...but I've also seen the amazing invitations and save the dates that other brides have made, so I have hope.

Let the misadventure begin!

SHOES!!!

I never used to be a shoe junkie. For a long time I was the type of girl who could slip on a pair of Birks and be on her way. And then I met K. K is my best friend (more like sister) and maid of honor. Once I met her it was all downhill. K is what I consider the ultimate shoe junkie...when she moved into her new house with her new hubbie she brought with her over 100 pairs of shoes!!! Needless to say that some of that shoe whoring has rubbed off on me. It also didn't help that for 2 years she lived near the best shoe store in the world (I call it my happy place) Kick on Main. When I would visit her we'd spend hours in there trying on every fabulous shoe in the place.
Now that it's time for me to start buckling down and seriously looking for shoes...I'm stumped. I have an idea about what I want, but I also know what I don't want...I don't want a frumpy old pair of white shoes that are categorized as "bridal shoes." Plus I would like to wear my shoes more than once...these would never see the light of day again.

Wedding shoes, in my opinion, need to be something fabulous. They need to make a statement, and the shouldn't fade into the background. I've seen too many great photos of wedding day shoes to ever settle for some plain white shoes.

Some adorable blue shoes...what a great "something blue"

From Leslie Spurlock Photography

Love love love this picture

From Still Motion

But finally...my absolute favorite (but I am biased...I'm the one in the yellow, K is in the white)

The other problem is that I am just slightly taller than J...which means that unless I want to pull a Katie Holmes and be all slouchy in my wedding pics, I need to go with flats or kitten heels.

Which sadly rules out most of my favorite shoes thus far....but for the sake of all things beautiful...here's a little shoe porn with a few of my favorites


You can see that I am a fan of all things sparkly. But obviously the 4" heel isn't an option...which means that I have my mission; fabulously sparkly flats! It's a tall order (please excuse the bad pun), and thus far, everything I've looked at has falled short (again with the bad puns). But I'm hopeful that my perfect sparkly, flats are out there.


Did height play a big part in your wedding shoe choice? Did you find your self limited in what you could chose or was the sky the limit?

We love bacon!

(Before I begin...I have to say that our 4th bridesmaid Chelsea wasn't able to make it to brunch...and even though she wasn't there physically, we kept her there in spirit!)


It all started innocently enough....4 girls getting together for brunch to meet and discuss wedding plans.

It was shortly after this picture was taken that we discovered that we all ordered extra bacon with our breakfast....hence "We love bacon!"

I don't know if it was the excitement of dress shopping or the over-abundance of bacon, but things quickly devolved into this...

With bellies full of bacon, pancakes, eggs and more bacon we headed out. Ready to dive headfirst into a world of taffeta, crinolines and sequins. Little did I know when I arranged this little Sunday outing that most bridal stores are closed on Sunday! Ooops! Undeterred, we soldiered on, to the one bridal store we knew would be open...David's Bridal. I have to say, that the enthusiasm displayed by my girls was inspiring. They dove right into those racks and started pulling dresses.

At first we made a serious attempt to find some dresses to fit my then non-vision. Unfortunately I wasn't much help in giving them any sort of direction about what to pull. But they persevered, but with slightly underwhelming results...

This dress featured the ever popular "schoolmarm" length

Is that a nightie or a dress?

There were no words, only laughter

Finally we succumb to the madness and tried on the three most ridiculous dresses we could find....

Halloween anyone?

and let's not forget the back...oh the back!

Eventually we did find a dress that looked good on all three girls. The only problem...it didn't come in any attractive colors.

Definitely the best of the bunch!

So at the end of the day we left dress-less, but I think it's safe to say that we everyone had a great time! It was great to see that everyone got along so well....but I guess bonding over bacon will do that!

How was your first dress shopping trip with your bridesmaids go?

The old switcharoo....

When we left off I was 99% sure that this was my ring:
In my mind I was done looking now it was just a matter of waiting for J to get down on one knee!

About a month before the proposal, out of the blue, J suggested that we check out one more jewelery store. We both loved the 5-stone ring, but we didn't love the jeweler (bad customer service, etc, etc..). I checked around and found a jeweler in the area who had the ring and a reputation for good customer service. So we headed out....

I have to say that the customer service alone was enough to make us buy from them. We sat down at the counter and started talking with one of the sales people about what I was looking for in a ring and pointed out the ring we had picked out. I slipped the 5-stone on my finger and thought that was the end of the discussion. The sales woman brought over a few more rings that she thought I might like; they were nice, but not it. As we were talking stone sizes and ordering times J spotted another ring. It was a small, unassuming ring, hidden toward the back of a case. White gold, one stone, and the minute I saw it, I knew that it was my ring. And when I put it on J said you could see my face just light up. That was it, I had found my ring, end of story. We didn't leave with the ring that day, because J wanted to surprise me with it....and surprise me he did. So here she is....

This picture was taken right after J proposed (that story to follow)....

And here she is with some tomatoes...because every ring looks better with tomatoes, right??

So there you have it...the story of my ring! Did you have a last minute change of plans when picking out your ring?

Penelope is comin' home!

That's right...my baby is coming back to me. I just got an email from our jeweler letting me know that she just got the wax back from her caster in Chicago and has already put everything in the mail (Fed Ex overnight).

I don't know what I'm more excited about...seeing the wax of my wedding band or getting my ring engagement ring back. Either way, I'm excited!

But, I thought that while I'm (not-so) patiently waiting for the FedEx truck to pull up to my house I thought that this might be the perfect time to tell you about how my ring...came to be my ring.

J and I began looking at engagement rings about 8 months before he actually proposed. Now when I say "looking" what I mean is that I started casually suggesting that we stop in to some jewelry stores whenever we were at the mall. For a long time I had always envisioned myself wearing a 3-stone diamond ring; similar to this:

But after trying on a few 3-stone rings I didn't really like how they looked on my hand....too much bling. I won't lie, I was disappointed...I had my heart set on a 3-stone ring, but it just looked so wrong on my hand. I guess I shouldn't have been suprised though, I've never worn a lot of jewelry and what I do wear is usually pretty understated. So after saying goodbye to my 3-stone dream we started looking into "alternative" engagement rings and by this point it really was "we," not just me persuading him to go into stores anymore. He was as determined to find "the one" as I was.

We considered a traditional anniversary band...but it didn't have the movement and the curves that I wanted.

Better, but still not right...

Then we found this little beauty and I was 99% sure that I had found the ring....

It's a 5-stone journey ring, but the one I liked was in white gold. It was different than most of the rings I had tired on, it had some movement to it and it looked great on my finger. I was just about sold on this ring...I even took some friends to "visit" it while we were shopping at the mall and they all agreed that it was a great ring for me. After that I thought my ring search was over.

But I was wrong....how did I end up with Penelope? You'll just have to stay-tuned to find out!

Was your dream ring "the ring," or did you have to search a bit before you found the one?

Dressing the ladies

Last week I got together with 3 of my 4 bridesmaids (our 4th, Chelsea, was on a research cruise somewhere warm and tropical, not fair!) for a little brunch and dress shopping. As soon as I get my computer back I will be able to share the photos from that little get together.

I had a great time hanging out with the girls and it was a relief to know that everyone got a long, but after our shopping trip I realized one thing...I have no idea how I want my girls to look for the wedding!! Absolutely no idea. I keep throwing out some generalizations..."a shade of pink or gray" "anything knee length" "they don't have to match" but really I haven't given them much direction as to what I'm looking for. Partly because I don't want to seem bossy and bridezilla-ish..."you WILL wear this dress and you WILL like it!!!'...but also because I really have no idea what I want.

But I realize now that I've got to get it together and come up with some inspiration. Besides, I've spent hours and hours toiling over details that were much smaller, and let's be honest, less noticeable...why shouldn't I give my girls and their dresses the same sort of attention? Plus, we are getting together this week for another round of dress shopping and I really need to be better prepared. So with my inspiration deadline looming I went on the hunt for dresses this morning and here's what I came up with....

Mismatched bridesmaids. I know it's a bit of a trend right now in the wedding world, but I think it's a trend for good reason. The women who are standing up with me are all wonderfully unique individuals, with their own style...by having them each in a different style that is suited to their personality I am giving them the chance to shine. And besides, when you are in something comfortable that you love, you are much more inclined to boogie down, right?

This first pictures has made the blog rounds before...and why wouldn't it? It's fabulous!

The dresses are so flattering on each of the girls

It's nice to see that the mismatched look works with a smaller bridal party too...

I adore this next picture...I actually found it a few months ago and it was the whole reason I was considering gray

But, since we've chosen silvery-gray table linens I think that I'm going to have to nix the gray dress idea...I don't want the girls to look like an extension of table cloth when they are seated. So I went back to my other color choice....pink. Not pepto pink, not energizer bunny pink, not baby pink. Antique pink.

So mismatched dresses plus antique pink plus vintage wedding led me to.....

my bridal party look! This picture captures everything that I want for my bridal party look. I love the mix of solids and prints. I love how all the different shades of pink manage to look cohesive and elegant. I love the vintage feel of the whole thing. Perfection (in my opinion). The funny thing is, I remember seeing this picture a while back and thinking "hmm...that could work," but not pursuing it because at the time pink wasn't part of the mix. But now with pink in the picture...I think we have a winner!

Was picking your bridal party look difficult? Where did you search for inspiration?

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?

Thin Thursday...oh yeah that!

You may remember that I had the idea for Thin Thursday a few months ago and then it kind of died out. Well, it didn't really die out so much as life got in the way. Unfortunately during the months of May, June and July health and exercise fell very low on my list of priorities. That was not a good thing to let happen and I am certainly paying for it now. My energy is at an all time low, I've put on a few pounds, my digestive system is a mess (somewhere Jamie Lee Curtis is telling me to eat Activia) and I feel really disappointed in myself.

But I can't beat myself up for it, all I can do is learn from it and move forward. And helping me to move forward? Why it's Bob and Jillian from The Biggest Loser!

J and I are big fans of The Biggest Loser. Unfortunately in the past we usually would watch the show while eating Chinese take out....kinda defeats the purpose, I know. But, despite the fried rice and singapore noodles, we have still managed to learn a few things from the show and hopefully those tips combined with a 2 other tools will help me get started.
My first tool...Bob's book.

Ok, before you laugh, yes, I know, most weight loss books are a bunch of crap. And I know this one looks super cheesy. But for some reason I got pulled onto the "Bob Train" and I just can't get off! So I thought what the heck...I'll give it a shot. The book isn't very long, but it does offer some good tips for diet and exercise, plus the first few chapters offer some insight into the emotions behind weight gain and weight loss. After reading through it I did have a few revalations about why I eat what I eat when I eat and why I have such a difficult time getting motivated to exercise.

My second tool comes from good ol' ball-bustin' Jillian.

This video has been all over the wedding blog world for the last year..and there are lots of women who have and some pretty amazing results with it. I've tried it a few times...and everytime I find myself sweaty, sore and exhausted by the end...so obviously its doing something. Now I just have to start doing it on a consistent basis; my goal is 3-4 times a week.
So it's with Bob and Jillian that I plan to start my body transformation...but that's not where it ends. Next week I'll fill you in on some of the other things I've got up my sleeve to make sure that I will be fabulously healthy, fit and toned on my wedding day.

Uh-oh

When I first started planning the wedding I came across a term over and over again; "two dress bride." I quickly learned that a two dress bride is just that, a bride that fell in love with a dress and then fell more in love with another dress and come wedding day she had two dresses. Maybe she wore the first dress...but usually not.
I always rolled my eyes at those girls wondering, "why would you buy a dress if you weren't sure that it was 'the one?' " I mean I tried on 30 dresses before I bought mine, but I bought what I was sure was my one and only dress....

until today.

Today I came across this beauty while perusing some wedding blogs...

Isn't she lovely?
And just look at that deatail...



The back? Oy-vey the back...

She's from the Christos Spring 2010 collection...and I am in trouble.

I know...it is so wrong for me to show off another dress when I haven't even debuted the dress that I bought yet...I'm not even giving my first dress a fair shot. But I can't help it.
I haven't even looked at price yet; I haven't even thought about what I might tell J or my mom, and I haven't even tried to find a store that carries it. All I can do right now is look at the pretty pictures, keep telling my mom that I love my dress (because I do) and try not to think about it.