Guest List and Save the Dates, or not?

So over the Holiday weekend, I did manage to get Mr. M's "side" of guests for our guest list. His super sweet sister took on the task for me and worried herself for at least an hour over who should make the list or be cut off forever! Apologies for the dramatics today... It's been a LONG day already... Anyway... Her list came to about 60 people to add to the list. So far, thanks to the wonders that is facebook, I have about 69 people on my list... So that makes for a total of about 129. And that's NOT. EVEN. CLOSE.


Mama Lil really needs to get on it and get me her list, for my side of the family... Then there's the addresses to personal friends that Mr. M and I actually know... Have you noticed how when creating the wedding guest list, people start popping out of the wood work. People the bride and groom may never have met, but are, for some reason or another, important to someone in the family and really need to be invited? That's ok. I've made peace with that. Everyone keeps telling us, the more invites sent, the more presents come back. Is that tacky... Haha, I don't care! I like the logic.


I am one lucky lady in that I work in proximity to a print shop. The entire thing is actually a family owned business and the print shop is a branch of the fam biz that I work under. Anyway, the generous, we'll call him Manager, of the print shop (I'm not sure what his actual title is...) offered to print our wedding invites as their wedding gift to us. I AM SO THRILLED and THANKFUL!!! Do you realize how expensive wedding invitations can become??? Really. So thank you to the big bosses at Kassi's workplace! That really makes my little freak out over the lengthy and becoming lengthier guest list much easier to take!


So... my next task, after completing the guest list first draft, which is obviously still in the works, is to decide whether or not we should send Save the Dates. I LOVE those little magnet ones that you see sometimes... Cause then guests have a memento to keep on their fridge! And who doesn't love another magnet on the fridge!?! AND then I'd have another use for our AMAZING engagement pictures, courtesy of Treehouse Photography... But really, are save the dates neccessary or even just thoughtful, or is that just another ploy to get unsuspecting brides to be to drop some MORE cash?? Any opinions here would be greatly valued!!!


If we do use save the dates, we would get them made at the print shop where I work, however, these are a few of the styles that I adore from  magnetstreet.com! Just in case... :)

I love the flourishes on this one... It's called, Something Blue. If we could get it in bright pink or turquoise, I would really love it.

The turquoise in this one is lovely! And you get to choose TWO pictures! It's called Sweet Love.

This one, named Tying the Knot, fits with our western/roping theme... But they seem the teensiest bit cheesy... :)

Well, let me know what you think? Save the dates or not?? I would LOVE to hear from you!!!

Oh and P.S. I added the picture of the place card holders to yesterday's post. Please go check them out also!!

I won!!!

I won a blog giveaway!!! YAY!!! A HUGE THANKS to Lyndsie at A Love Worth Waiting For for sponsoring the giveaway!!! I won a $45 gift certificate to CSN Stores!!!

Can't wait to get it and do some shopping!!! Goes to show it's NOT a waste to enter these blog giveaways!!!

~Kassi

Thankful for Family!

Well... we made it past Thanksgiving 2010! And Black Friday 2010! :) I got to spend some quality time with both my family and Mr. M's family. Which is nice! I'm lucky... I have great in-laws! And an AMAZING family at home!

Over the long weekend, my sister and I did some crafting! You can check out the crafts we did over the next few days on our craft blog, Truly Lovely. They included some just for fun crafts, some "Make it Your Own" tweaks to Christmas gifts, and some embroidery.

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Me, my sister and my mom watched Eat, Pray, Love over the weekend as well. Loved it!!! We all read the book, so it was nice to watch the movie together. I LOVED the book! The movie, was a super quick summary of the book, which I understand. It's hard to fit a novel into a 2-3 hour film without losing some of the content. But at the same time, some of the parts that were drug out  in the book were much nicer in the shortened movie version... (like her time in India)... Julia Roberts played the perfect Liz in my opinion. And Philip was also great! Good work on the casting, casting director! :) Anyway... my overall review of the movie... Good flick!

On Black Friday, I chose to do my shopping online instead of standing in line! I found some awesome deals and was able to mark my mom, dad, brother and sister off my Christmas shopping list. I only have a few people left now! Yay

Sometime over the holiday I caught a sore throat bug of sorts... I spent most of the day yesterday feeling super yucky... Hopefully it passes soon!

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoyed their time with family and friends!!! Now... only 26 days til Christmas... :) That being said, maybe it's time to change my blog background... State tuned for the new style!

Place Cards??

So Thanksgiving FLEW by!!! I spent some time with my family at home over the long weekend AND some time with Mr. M's family. One of his sister-in-laws has been working on some of the cutest little centerpiece additions!!! They're made from wooden blocks, wrapped in denim and then have a little wire sticking out of the top to hold pictures, place cards, etc. Then they're accented with pink bandana material and a turquoise star! They fit my theme perfectly!!! What do you think???

I'm pretty sure we won't be using place cards on our tables... Most of the weddings I've been to just don't... They kind of let you fend for yourself as far as seating goes... I'm thinking maybe we'll do a "Reserved for Bride and Groom's immediate family" or something to that affect on the two or three closest tables to the head table.

Anyone have any suggestions as far as using or not using place cards?? I just feel like they're unneccessary... But if you feel really strongly for or against, I'd love to hear from you!!!

It's almost a shame I'm not that into the idea, because there are some SUPER cute options for place cards out there... Like these using horseshoes...

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Here's another GREAT use of horseshoes for place cards, in the bottom picture!

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Hmm.... on second thought maybe I will do place cards... Just so I can use the horseshoe ideas... So cute! ;)

I LOVE the little horseshoes holding their name cards in the top left corner!!! And the twine is a nice touch!

"Ten" by Jewel

I heard this song on the radio when I was driving home the other night... It's a GREAT song! A funny video... And a GREAT idea... Definitely count to TEN, which gives you a minute to realize what really matters.
Have to admit... Mr. M makes me count to ten every once in awhile. :)

Ten by Jewel

Wedding Colors

I've decided on the 2 main colors for the wedding.... I've had this idea in the back of my mind for quite awhile, but now it's decided! I love making official wedding decisions... :)

That means another check mark on my TheKnot.com to do list!

Choose your wedding colors (if you haven't already), taking into account the existing decor of your ceremony and reception spaces.

And the winners are... drum roll please... PINK and TURQUOISE!!! And since these font colors don't do justice to the actual shades that I prefer, here are some swatches I found on google images that are fairly close to what I want. I think they look so pretty together! So now that the colors have been decided, anyone have any fun ideas of incorporating them together for decor, etc..??



Wedding Dress Inspiration Board

OK... So it's Friday...

I'm ready for the weekend and feeling a little useless as far as completing "productive" tasks...

So instead, I created a Wedding Dress Inspiration Board at
Style Me Pretty.
Just a few dresses and details that I think are lovely.
What do you think??

Yay Wedding Dress Try Ons!!!

Yay for trying on wedding dresses!!!

I am super stoked for tomorrow!!! I made a 1:00 PM appointment at Renee's Bridal to look for and TRY ON wedding dresses!! My mamasita and one of my bridesmaids, Miss Charli, will be there with me to offer assistance and, of course, opinions!

Finding the dress has to be one of the MOST fun parts of wedding planning. Somewhere, I heard, wait... It was actually on the Renee's Bridal website, that you need to order your dress four months in advance. Right now I am at about 7 months... SO I think it's time to start looking for and really finding out what it is I like and then ultimately what I actually want to order for MY dress. :)

To start with, the Renee's Bridal site has six links to wedding dress designer websites that they carry in their store. Here are a few of the ones I liked from the Maggie Sotterro Collection. Let me know what you think!!! I love getting comments!!!

Bonita by Maggie Sottero

 Hadley by Maggie Sottero



Allyssa by Maggie Soterro

I really like the A-Line skirts! And I think I'm leaning towards strapless, not the sweetheart look though...
I like the pickup skirts... It doesn't have to be white... Maybe ivory or a light grey or pink even.... but classy.
And it'll be an outdoor wedding, so nothing too fancy smancy... :) If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them!

Renee's Bridal... I will see you tomorrow!!!



The Ring!

I just realized I haven't talked about my ring! Or Mr. M's proposal!

The proposal was VERY Mr. M!!! You hear of these people proposing on the big screen at ball games. Or in front of a group of family and friends. Not us. Mr. M is a very private man.... I wouldn't even say shy, just private. He doesn't want any attention drawn to him... he'd rather hang back and let someone else stand in the spotlight.

Our proposal was very private. Quite representative of my fiance and his style. We were at home, watching tv, lounging on the couch when he asked if I might want to look at rings on the Internet. As I've said before, we live in a very rural area and a quick jont to the jewelry store would've needed a full day's trip, at the very least. So the Internet it was...

Sometime awhile before I had mentioned that I liked the princess cut diamonds. And Mr. M had remembered... He guided me to a specific princess cut solitaire which I agreed I liked very much. Then he left the room.

When he came back he had a small, ring sized box in his pocket... :) He got down on one knee right there in the living room and asked me to marry him.

Just me. Just him. And a beautiful princess cut, solitaire diamond. Perfect.

Of course I said Yes!!!

Thank you Kay Jewelers and of course, Mr. M!!!

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We set the Date!!!

We set the date for our summer wedding!!! It's set for June 18, 2011! We actually set it a few weeks ago, but since I just started this blog, I'm kind of writing in retrospect. Don't want to leave out anything important.... And setting the date is one of THE most important steps in wedding planning!

I also joined TheKnot.com and with that comes lots of little wedding planning perks! One of those perks is a fun little wedding countdown ticker...

I've been placing it on everything... Helps to show how much longer I have to get all of my wedding plans together!

I had a mini panic attack the other day when I placed it on my other blog. I realized that I only had 7 months and one week to go at the time. In the world of wedding planning that doesn't seem like much...

I also have a personalized to-do list from TheKnot! You enter your wedding date and it spreads your to-dos out through those months until the big day. In my mini panic attack, as mentioned earlier, I also realized I had something like 70 OVERDO to-dos... AHHH!!!

Then I took a minute, looked over those OVERDOS and found that most of them didn't even really apply to me as I am having a small town wedding where scheduling things half a year in advance isn't exactly required. It's not like I have to beat any of the other small town girls to the field (for an outdoor wedding) or the one usable venue because there aren't many girls getting married all at once. :)

You'll be glad to know that I worked through it and fought off mini panic attack Numero Uno! I'm sure it won't be the last one I am overwhelmed with, so I was glad to have handled that one with grace... heehee.

Meet Kassi and Mr. M

Introducing the bride and groom! <3

The Bride - Miss Kassi

I am 25 years old... Just getting started in the "real" world having graduated with my MBA in December 2010. I actually have a day job, which is a wonderful thing in this economy, and I really love! Blogging, and all things Internet really, are my fun things to waste time and just enjoy myself. :)

I love bright colors, fun with my friends and most of all spending time with Mr. M and our two dogs.

The Groom - Mr. M

Mr. M is my cowboy. He rides and trains horses for a living (at least for right now). We have the same Bachelors degree in Agricultural Science. Mr. M's passion is team roping. He'd rather be roping than doing anything else. Which is great! Gotta love a man with a passion for something!

We have known each other since we were  young (10-11 years old). We reconnected in college and "dated" off and on for the first two or so years...

Our anniversary, at least the one we use, is the first time we said I Love You, because we're not sure what other date to go off of... :) It'll be 5 years since that day this coming April.

Nate proposed April 2010 on our "anniversary" and since then I have been in wedding planning mode! So far I know I would like a western-ish theme and bright, beautiful colors! That being said, I've already changed my mind once from an original idea... But I feel like western/bright is really who Nate and I are as a couple. 

We both come from small towns in the southwest (NM and AZ) so a small town, western, but still fun and bright wedding is right up our alley!!!

Nice to meet you! Um... blog style. :)

Welcome to my wedding blog!

Hello!!! I am Kassi and this is my wedding blog, "My Road to Mrs"! Welcome!!

I'm fairly new to the blogging community, having just started my first blog a few weeks ago... But I already LOVE it! With that said, in getting acquainted with the blogging world I discovered several blogs where ladies (and gents) share their wedding planning experience. I think this is a GREAT idea! So here it is... my wedding planning, documented for prosterity. :)

I would've loved to call this blog Kassi and Mr. M (as I will refer to my fiance): Our Road to Mr and Mrs, but my guy isn't the blogging type. They say you marry someone like your father and Mr. M is very much like my dad (which has its advantages and its drawbacks...) Dad can barely use an Internet Search Engine.... Mr. M has mastered the art of e-mail, but that's as far as his Internet interest takes him. Which is ok by me! I need to have MY own thing anyway... :)

So again, welcome to my blog! I hope you enjoy reading about my wedding exploits as much as I enjoy blogging about them!

My Bridesmaids

We set the date for our wedding!!! YAY! June 18, 2011. That's 7 months and 1 week from TODAY!!! About 2 weeks ago I had a small panic attack because I realized that it's not that far off and I really feel like I've done nothing. Life has been pretty crazy the last couple months.... So, I decided I'd better get my behind in gear!!!

So far I've chosen my bridesmaids! I ordered these cute little cards online at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/ and mailed them to each of my ladies to ask them "officially" to be a part of my wedding party. I love doing little things like that because I like getting little things like that. My Granny used to always send me little cards for every occasion. Even just to say hi. I learned from her to really appreciate an actual handwritten note in the mail.

For my bridesmaids I've chosen my little sister, Kayli, to be my Maid of Honor. She knows me better than anyone and would make the perfect MOH for my wedding. My bridesmaids are Meghan (bestie and college roommate), Tracey (bestie from my hometown), Charli  (bestie and grad school roommate), Kayce (bestie and GF to Mr M's "most likely" best man) and Megan (bestie and long time college friend). 

I have NO doubt that I have chosen an amazing, super fun group of girls to enjoy this time with. Today Meghan came by my office and brought me some orange Gerber daisies (one of my wedding flowers) and a card thanking me for asking her to be a bridesmaid. MADE my DAY!!! See.... like I said, I LOVE getting and giving nice things like that!

I chose Tessie for my hostess She was also a roommate of mine in college and was on my State FFA officer team. All the wedding magazines I've read say to have a hostess or day of planner. They're supposed to help you stay focused in the wedding planning, greet guests the day of the wedding and sort of direct the overall flow of things so that you (and your family and bridesmaids) aren't so stressed out. Tessie will be PERFECT!!! I can already see her with a clipboard and a to do list, handing out orders! Plus I completely trust her and her judgement.

We're planning a girls trip next weekend to go to a bridal shop and check out some wedding dresses. So far all I've tried on is a couple at a little boutique in Silver with my mom. I know what size I am... sort of... but other than that I'm not exactly sure what I want. I do know I like the a-line dresses. And maybe strapless. But we'll see...

Don't worry, I'm really loving this whole blogging thing, as I'm sure you can tell, so I'll keep you updated! :)

Deer Hunting Day 2

Day 2 of Deer Hunting started out with us going back behind Mr M.'s house again and walking the hills... Again we saw NOTHING, so we headed back into town. As we were driving through town, we passed his cousin's house and saw that two of his cousins had each gotten a buck. When Mr. M asked them where they'd found them they said, "Not around here!!"

So Mr M. decided we needed to look else where. We called my dad who said he'd take us out so we drove up there. We spent the afternoon driving around with my mom and dad. It was a good time! Only I was pretty sleepy by then and kept nodding off... :) Anyway, we ended up seeing some elk and finally right before dark, we saw four doe. But again, no bucks.

The trip was worth it though because we took Mr. M to see some really neat places in the mountains that I had been to, but he had never gotten to see. And I had never taken any pictures, so I took a few.  This one is of the ruins in the area. The picture on the left is of an Indian house sort of carved into the rocks. Mom took a picture of Mr. M and I inside the little "house"... I'll get her to send me that one and maybe post it later.

It looks like they either pulled rocks out of the side of mountain to make little storage areas, or maybe they carved these circles into the rock... I'm not sure, but they make nice little cubby holes.

After leaving the ruins, we drove around some more and then finally headed out towards the main road. Up high in the cliffs along the road you can see another one of these living spaces carved into the side of the mountain. Below it, right along the side of the road is the large rock with petroglyphs drawn on it.

We like to go look at fun things like this... So again, even though we didn't get a deer again the second day, we got to hang out with my parentals and got to see some really neat places.

Day 2 of deer hunting = no deer, but still a success! :) Maybe I have a completely skewed viewpoint of what a successful deer hunt actually is...

But even if I do, Mr. M ended up getting a buck yesterday while I was at work. I'm kinda sad I missed the whole event, but I'm proud of Mr. M! It was his first time all by himself and he took care of the whole thing very nicely! So our deer tags weren't completely wasted... I was feeling kinda bad about not getting to use them cause my sweet little Granny paid for our deer tags as my graduation present. But I think we did her proud!!! Love and miss you Granny Ma! <3

Deer Hunting Day 1

Mr. M and I put in for deer in New Mexico this year and we got drawn! Yay! So this last weekend, we went on our deer hunt. I had the best time!

Day 1 we parked and walked the hills behind town for several hours. Here you can see Mr. M walking in front of me. He said he was proud of me for keeping up with him! I just laughed cause I used to have to keep up with my dad when we went hunting. The hills here were nothing compared to that... :) You can see I had to sneak a picture of him from behind, cause he hates getting his picture taken... 



After walking for a good while I realized that I am SO out of shape.... I definitely discovered a GREAT pre-wedding workout. It's a shame we can't arrange to go hunting every weekend... I really think that would speed up my getting in shape before June!!

This is the view of the mountain and the canyon below it. We were almost directly behind Mr. M's house right here... Several miles of course, but it would've been right in front of us (the other direction). We thought this little canyon was so cool. We saw alot of deer sign in it but there were SO many people around. On almost every hill you could see someone walking or a pickup parked. If there had been any deer there they were long gone and hiding! We didn't see a single deer that morning... So we decided to head to a different place that afternoon.

That brought us to the Silver Creek area. We parked at the old silver mine and walked WAY back into the canyons there. We kept thinking there had to be deer there, so we kept going and going... Over every little mountain, there would just be another little mountain. Then we climbed to the top of this HUGE mountain and we could see all the little valleys below. It was amazing!!

Here, Mr. M is trying to use his gun scope to see if there was anything below us (we didn't have any good binoculars). We were sitting below a tree almost at the top of this big bluff. It was so neat there!

Anyway... We ended up not getting, or seeing, anything the first day... But we had a great time checking out some new places and spending alot of time together... AND we walked several miles. We were both wore out when we got home...

So I would say Day 1 was a success!!!

My First Blog Entry!!!!

Hello blogging world... So it turns out there are several people on my in-law side of the family with their own blog. Needless to say I was kind of sad to discover some of them have had blogs for months, even years, and I was so far behind in the blogging community that I didn't even know it.

So I created a blogger account and began searching for the blogs of my family and friends... I found several. Then thinking I was clever I told my sister, Kayli, I had created a blog and that she should create one too! I thought it would be right up her alley! Not only was I correct... but I was BEHIND again... Kayli already has a blog too!!!

I'm usually up on the new technologies, so being behind as a blogger has really hit my ego... haha. So, NOW I have my very own blog!!! You can be jealous. Oh wait... everyone else already has one... Oh well. ;) From now on I will try to keep up.