Flower Girl Rope Baskets

This last weekend, my AWESOME sister-in-law to be, Arina volunteered to make the flower girl baskets for the wedding!!!

When I say volunteered...

What I really mean is I tried conning her into making some rope vases...

Which in all honestly are the MOST time consuming, TEDIOUS job in my wedding planning...

And although she graciously, and understandably, declined,

she started right away on the job of flower girl rope baskets!!

Arina, starting a basket

By the time they went home on Sunday, she had one almost finished and enough old ropes loaded in the back of their truck to make the other three and then some!

Arina working on a rope basket, while I worked on a rope vase!

THANKS ARINA!!!

Such a HUGE help! And they look adorable!

I can't wait for our girls to carry them in the wedding!

(Well, HER girls too! Two of them are Arina's daughters, Ada and Abby!)

While she was there and working on the baskets, it forced me to sit down and finish another rope vase. So... that makes three.

Um... Is it time yet to start panicking that I won't have enough...

I'm going to say no and charge on!!! I work best under pressure anyway! haha!

So what do you think?

Was there anything you felt really pressured to get done during your wedding planning?

Did you make it?

If not how did you deal?

Meet My Maids - Meghan Jo

I would LOVE to introduce you to my bridesmaid, Meghan Jo!!

Meghan at her bridal shower

She's the third bridesmaid to be introduced in my Meet My Maids Series!!

I met Meghan Jo our freshman year in college!

(We use the Jo, her middle name, to differentiate between her and other bridesmaid, Megan)

She grew up in the same town as Mr. M.

They were in the same class and came to college at the same time.

So... technically Mr. M is the reason for me meeting my bestie Meghan Jo!

(Gotta give him some credit...)

We became college roommates our Sophomore year of college and had a BLAST!!!

Really... Maybe TOO much fun sometimes... haha...

Our friend, Deidra, Me and Meg at the Thunder From Down Under in Las Vegas 2008 :)

Meghan Jo married Kenny (one of Mr. M's groomsmen) in 2007 (? I think... oops) and I was her maid of honor!!! It was a PLEASURE!! Again, we had SO much fun!

But we ALWAYS have fun... ;)

Me, handing Meg her bouquet on her wedding day... BEAUTIFUL bride, right?!?

Now, Meghan and Kenny live right down the road from us (until we move to our new house) and are some of our BEST friends!!! We go over for poker nights, birthday parties (Meg throws an awesome dinner party!!) and just enjoy hanging out!

Meghan was even my first recruit after I started selling Scentsy!!!

Me and Meg at the Scentsy Spring Sprint Event in Phoenix, AZ
February 2011

LOVE this lady!! MUCH!! And I am so thrilled that she is a HUGE part of my life and that her and her hubs are going to be a part of our big day!!

Dresses Weekend #2 Recap

This last weekend was WAY fun!!

Bridesmaid, Meghan Jo and I drove to Las Cruces after work on Friday and stayed with Bridesmaid Charli. We stayed up til 2 am chit chatting and catching up!!!

It was WAY fun!!

While we were there, Charli's current roommate, Raynee was packing for her honeymoon!

Her wedding was on Saturday!!

It was fun to get to see her before her big day!!

Aren't they a GREAT couple!!! *Nabbed from Raynee's facebook ;)

Raynee's wedding planning tip:

"PACK early!

Don't wait til the night before when you don't have any clean clothes!!"

:) GOOD tip! One you don't think about for sure...

Raynee's bridesmaids ended up wearing the SAME dresses that TWO if my maids ended up picking!!! We got ALL of the bridesmaid dresses ordered!

Charli's was already in... So we got to see what it looked like on... LOVE THEM!!

Shame on me... I know... I didn't take ANY pictures.

WHAT was I thinking?!?

But that's ok... It leaves the girls' actual dress choices as a surprise!

Suffice it to say we have one with a cute dress and cover up.

One with a cute bubble hemmed dress.

Two with the same cute dress as Raynee's maids.

And two with a cute strapless dress.

We also looked for my mom's dress... but couldn't find one that she really liked...

So we'll keep looking!

I'm starting to get REALLY excited.

We started talking about parties to come and getting them planned...

The invitations are sent to the printer!
Things are really coming together!! :)

IDEA:

I'd like to host a wedding advice blog hop here and on my Truly Lovely blog...

Would you all be interested in contributing??

A soon to be married couple can use all the advice they can get...

You would write up a post on your advice for a soon to be married couple...

Whether YOU'RE married or not. ANY good advice would be awesome!

And link it up to the hop...

I'm thinking open it up the first-ish of April...

Let me know what you think?

Good idea?

P.S. Check out this Guest Post by Alisha of All About Us over on Truly Lovely!
She explains how to attach your email address to your account within blogger,
so that you are no longer a
"No-Comment Blogger".
If you are that means you can leave me a lovely comment and sadly... I cannot write directly back to you via e-mail... Which stinks... So please, go read that and fix up your account!!!
Thanks!!!

Meet My Maids - Tracey

I'd like you to meet my bridesmaid, Miss Tracey!!

*Note - I am going to introduce you to each maid now in the order that I met them...

Makes for an easy way to decide who's next... haha!

Technically I've known Tracey longer than I've known my sister, Kayli... haha.

But only because Kayli wasn't born yet!

I met Miss Tracey after her parents moved down the road from my parents when we were just little tykes! She has been my longest (un-related) friend!!

Tracey, Me and RyRy

We shared a seat on the school bus, went to church activities together, then later Tracey drove me to school after she got her license (she's 1 year and 2 months older).

We played basketball, volleyball and ran track together.

We spent long hours swinging on the swings at our town park and just chatting!!

I LOVE this lady! And now I LOVE her two little boys!!

Ryan and Kaden

Just an FYI:

I'm going to go ahead and take the credit for suggesting Kaden's name...

'Cause I did... and I'm awesome like that... haha.

Little mister Ryan will be one of the ring bearer's at the wedding.

(Kaden will only be 3 months old..)

Tracey, Mr. M and Me

Tracey lives in North Dakota now with her little family... And I miss her ALL the time!!

We stay in touch through facebook and the phone...

Thankfully she sends me pictures of her little guys so I don't have to miss them growing up!!

And I AM so excited for her to come home for the wedding!!!

3 Months to Go & For Japan With Love

***

Hello friends!!!

Guess what tomorrow is... 3 Months until the BIG day!!

Already?!? Holy cow...

Things we're working on at this point...

• We're right in the midst of choosing our invitations.
  We have several options to choose from thanks to the awesome people at CMI Quick Copy... So right now we're narrowing down pictures, etc.
  Hoping to have it ready for printing after this weekend.
• This weekend will be another dress hunting extravaganza, this time in El Paso, TX.
  We're getting the rest of the maids dresses and mother of the bride taken care of then.
• We started looking at groomsmen outfits, hoping to have those chosen soon.
• I've got several DIY projects in the works including Bridesmaid gifts, flower girl gifts, glasses, etc.

So... Things are rolling right along. :)

Now for the reason I'm posting this today instead of tomorrow...

I'm participating in this...

It's a day of silence on the blog to show support for those effected by the disasters in

Japan!

Such a neat idea! If you want to participate check out their site for more info.

For Japan With Love

See you again next week friends!!

Dresses Weekend #1 Recap

This last weekend was a BLAST!!!

My soon to be sister-in-law, niece and nephew loaded up my little red Nitro and drove the 2+ hours to Phoenix Friday night after work!!

(I say soon to be in the context that they will be so legally, they already are as far as I'm concerned!)



Me and Sis-in-law, Brianne

Time was spent at another soon to be sister-in-law's house

 and then at the aunt-in-law's house!!

Bedtime at 11pm.

Thanks to two rambunctious kiddos... Awake at 5 am!! :)

Then it was a day of dress shopping for the wedding!

Brianne (sis-in-law), Bella (niece), Steph (sis-in-law), Diane (aunt-in-law),
Aimee (cousin), Kayce (bridesmaid)

The dress tally as of right now?

1 wedding dress (for me, sillies...) ;)

2 bridesmaid dresses ordered

1 sister-in-law dress ordered

1 aunt-in-law dress purchased

2 guest book/gift taker girls' dresses ordered

4 flower girl dresses purchased/ordered

For a grand total of 11 dresses for the wedding!!!!

This Saturday will be MORE dress shopping in El Paso, Texas!!

(My peeps are spread out over two full states... What'd you expect... heehee)

Hoping to have 3 more bridesmaid dresses and

the mother of the bride dress ordered by Sunday! :)

Rhonda (aunt-in-law) and Kayce

That only leaves one bridesmaid dress!

And Miss Tracey will be ordering hers from North Dakota! ;)

We're cutting it close to have them all in and if need be altered in time...

But we're gonna make it! :)

Stay tuned for the 3 months post on Friday!! :)

And if you haven't already... You can meet my Maid of Honor here.

Meet My Maids - Kayli

Since my bridesmaids are SUPER important to the whole wedding planning process...

I'd like to introduce you to each one,

with a little bit of who they are and why they're so special to me!

For today and the next 5 Mondays, I'll introduce you to one of my six bridesmaids...
I'm calling it the Meet My Maids Series... :)

So... To get things rolling...

Meet My Maid of Honor, my little sister Kayli!!!

My favorite Senior Picture of Miss Kayli

My little sister isn't so little anymore... She just turned 18!!

Which means if one of my maids wanted to say throw me a... ahem... dirty toys party.... Which may or may not have been mentioned a time or two... :) Kayli is now legal to go! haha!!!

That also means she is in her final year of high school...

Just picked her college...

(My alma mater... which is pretty much awesome if I do say so myself...)

And is getting ready for the big move into the "real" world!

Me and Kayli - My Birthday

I chose Miss Kayli for my Maid of Honor, because she is and has been one of my very closest friends. Sister or not. She is one of the VERY few people that I can be my complete SELF around and she knows how to take me and react to my sense of humor...

I kind of think that's because she inherited some of it... haha!

Brent (our brother), Me and Kayli

Together we created and publish the blog, Truly Lovely.

You can check that out here for a little more about Miss Kayli and to see a few of her posts.

Kayli is the perfect Maid of Honor and I am SO glad I picked her!!!

100 Days to Go AND My Bride Bag AND Birthday Wishes!!!

So guess what today is my lovely friends....?

***

Today is 100 days until our wedding!!!

Yep... it's getting closer and closer!!

We've got a whole lot going on for the next couple of weekends, and dare I say probably every weekend until the wedding from here on out!

For such a special day, I want to share with you a special item I made just for me!

My bride bag!

Every bride needs something to carry around her wedding planning essentials!

So I made this!!!

For a tutorial on exactly how I made it, go here to my craft blog, Truly Lovely!

Once I was finished crafting I filled it with MY essentials;

my wedding planning notebook,

engagement pics CD,

wedding ring brochures,
and

guest list draft.

I carry this lovely everywhere I go!

It now holds all of the wedding receipts and contracts, right where I can find them!

So, what about you?

How did you organize your wedding planning materials?

Or what do you plan to do?

AND!!!

I want to wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the Father of the Bride!!

Mom, Dad and I at my 1st college graduation

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Flower Girl Dresses

I am SO excited!!! We marked a huge item off the to-do list as of today!

Flower girl dresses!!

 Flower Girl Apparel

We have FOUR flower girls!

(And FOUR ring bearers actually...)

So getting that item done feels like a HUGE accomplishment.

You won't believe where I found them!!!

Good ol' Wal-Mart!

I stumbled by their Easter/Spring dress section getting groceries awhile back...

And there it was.

It was practically the dress I had dreamed up in my mind.

Click here to see it better on Wal-Mart.com

I wanted a light, pretty, cotton sundress.

In pink, the perfect shade of pink.

With some sort of cute little cover up.

Done! Thank you Wal-Mart!

And you know how most flower girl dresses cost upwards of $50...

Depending on where you shop...?

These dresses cost $16.50!!!

Yep... Can't beat good ol' Wally World... haha...

What can I say, I'm thrifty!

And finally... the last plus...

My flower girls range in age (remember there are FOUR) from 2 years old to 9 years old...

And Wal-Mart had sizes to fit them all! :)

I couldn't be happier!

What do you think of my thrifty flower girl purchases?

Did you have more than one flower girl? Or planning on more? Or none?

Did you/will you purchase a more traditional flower girl dress(es)?

Hope you're all having a fabulous (and thrifty!) week! :)

Mrs. Wedding Dress Hanger

In my wedding blog stalking occasional reading,

I have seen several brides or brides-to-be posting beautiful pictures of their wedding dresses hanging from a personalized hanger.

I decided to glance around Etsy, the perfect wedding shop... and see what I could find. To purchase or just glance longingly at any of these lovelies, simply click on their Etsy shop links underneath the pictures.

rockabuycreations

Lovely, right?!?

I am completely smitten with the idea!

Not only does it make for a fun bridal picture, but then it's a sweet keepsake from the day that you can keep forever!

blackscrapcat

You can use it to hang your dress in your closet or even use it on a daily basis by hanging your favorite shirt.

DawnsCraftStore

Turns out most run from $20-50, which although realistic pricing for the amount of work it takes to bend the metal into the personalized name, is still an extra expense that, although MUCH desired... Can be lived without....

But a girl can dream, right? ;)

Did you use a personalized hanger for your dress?

Or do you plan to?

Yumm!!!

For our reception, we're going the all about us route!

 Plan your reception menu -- decide on a caterer and hash out a rough price per head.
The Knot.com

Mr. M and I both love us some tacos.

And steak. But steak is EXPENSIVE.

So Taco Bar it is!

We're doing sort of a Mexican food buffet with the focus being a taco bar.

Build it yourself style I think...
We won't have a specific caterer...
But rather pull it together from several different sources thing...
haha.

There weren't many taco pictures on Style Me Pretty, but you get the idea.

For the casual atmosphere that we're hosting, a buffet will be fun.
It will also encourage getting up and moving around...
Don't want anyone to get bored.

Also, there's not going to be a whole lot, um any, extra room most likely, so a sit if you want, stand if you want, inside or outside idea will work best.

What did you/are are you planning to do for your reception eats?

Full, sit down dinner? Buffet?

What are you or did you serve?

Anyone have any fun ideas related to serving up some Mexican food, buffet style?