Mock up Candy Buffet

I did a mock up of what I want our candy buffet to look like last night and I think it is going to be a real success! I think I even found a table that we can bring with us to set it all up with. I am so happy to say that I am not buying any more purple candy! I'm not even going to look anymore. For the last month, every store I've been to I've looked for purple candy and I'm glad to be done! We spent another $18 dollars for another pound of purple m&ms at the Sweet Factory, and $8 for a pound and a half of purple jelly belly beans.

We also went back to Party City and got some dark purple sixlets, and lavender foil wrapped balls of chocolate. It looks like we won't be using the Dum Dum suckers, Smarties, skittles, or tootsie rolls. Oops, sorry I made you buy those honey. But hey, we can give them to the tricker treaters this Halloween!

My best friend and maid of honor will be coming home from Canada in less than a week and we are going to get manicures, her treat. Thank goodness because my new job at Michaels has caused lots of nail breakage. I got my hair cut the other day and now I have bangs, and I really like it. I also made my wedding day hair appointment so I am on a roll! Call me butter, baby!

Flower Girls and Ring Bearer Woes

My god daughters recently moved to Alabama and today I got a text message from their mother that said they couldn't make it to the wedding in two weeks. They promised me over and over before they even moved that they would make it no matter what. Needless to say, I am a little devastated. I guess they are a little hard up for cash right now, and that's completely understandable. Who isn't?

So, I think I can get them to come to the wedding if Kevin and I purchase the flower girl dresses and shoes for our god daughters. I feel horrible because we've already paid for five meals for them (3 kids, 2 parents), gifts for all three girls, the flower girl basket, and the ring bearer pillow. Not to mention I dyed hundreds of rose petals purple for the flower girl basket. So much effort has been put into getting them to this wedding, that if they didn't show up, it would literally ruin some aspects of the wedding.

I even made the programs already and included their names in the programs and I printed them on our home printer, so I won't print them again. Please keep your fingers crossed that they are able to make the six hour drive from Alabama to our wedding in Greenwood, Indiana.

This sad announcement comes just 14 days, TWO WEEKS, until the big day. With everything else that's on my mind and all the other things I need to tweak to make sure everything works out okay, I just didn't need this on top of everything. I hope they come.

Nervous Much?

Warning: This post may be construed as a pity party, woe is me type of post. If you don't want to read about what goes through my head all day, exit now.

I don't want to sound like my life sucks, because it really doesn't. In fact, some people would kill to have the kind of life I have. My parents are married, and have been for nearly 30 years now. I am getting married in 19 days to a wonderful man who treats me like a queen. I live at home rent free (for now, at least) and I work part time at a craft store that I have shopped at for most of my life.

The things that are bothering me right now are that my fiance doesn't have his own car, and works way on the north side of town, whereas I live and work on the south side. For the time being, since we can't afford our own place, we are going to have to stay at my parents' place, along with my brother, his girlfriend, and his best friend. By the time we are married, my parents are going to charge us rent to live there, and I wonder to myself, how are we going to save up for our own place if we are paying rent to my folks? But that's a small concern for right now, I suppose.

Kevin will have to move his things here, into my cramped square shaped room that is already overflowing with all my things. Did I mention I'm a borderline hoarder? I can't bear to throw anything away that could end up being useful down the line. Not only does he have to move down here to the south side with no reliable transportation, his allergies are very bad and we will be sharing our room with my two cats as well. It gets to the point where he can't breathe through his nose at all when he's been at my house for a few hours at a time.

I wanted him to try to get a transfer to the south side location of where he works now, but his manager says it's highly unlikely that that will happen because the south side location is fully staffed now. So, once he lives down here, how is he going to get to work? Take the bus?

Lord only knows how long it will be before we actually get our own place. With my car payment, loans, and other monthly expenses, an apartment, even just a small one bedroom is looking like a pipe dream. Believe me, I'm not asking for pity because I know how much worse it is for other people, but sometimes you just have to vent, even electronically I suppose.

Other things on my mind are my new job. Most of the important payroll information and scheduling information is now online through websites. You have to have a log in and password for three separate sites. I love this idea because I think it's great to be able to access your work information from home any time of the day or night, but right now, I am having issues with the technology and I am worried about how to fix it. Also, I didn't get to put in my direct deposit information like I was supposed to and now I don't know if I will have the option anymore. I read in the handbook that if you don't sign up for the direct deposit or the debit pay card, you will receive your check by mail and it will take longer.

Basically, I just want to get things squared away and be able to have direct deposit and not have to worry about cashing the check or going to the bank to have to deposit it myself if I have the option of it being automatically done for me. I will have to talk to the people at work about figuring this out. I hope they don't get upset with me and tell me that there is nothing they can do about it. Cut me some slack; I'm brand new, and I haven't worked in a year. Things get a little rusty.

I know I will bounce back and that all these minute worries will fade away once we are married and get into a routine. It just means figuring out who will drive each other to work and trying to save up to get an apartment, pay on my loans, and resume my car payments, which my father has graciously been paying since May when I ran out of money after leaving my job the previous October.

I know these are the kinds of worries that a lot of couples have, as well as many other more severe worries. Mine seem so elementary in comparison sometimes, but they are always on my mind night and day and have caused me to lose focus on other things because I am too busy thinking about the future and how to get through it. I really feel like I need something to combat this horrible anxiety and to get these butterflies out of my tummy because I am just going to worry myself sick and I really don't need that now. Or ever for that matter.

Counting Down!

Today we paid off the rest of the balance on the wedding venue! Such a weight has been lifted off our shoulders. We met with the caterer for thirty minutes where we finalized everything including seating chart, cake design, music selections, and menu. Couldn't have been easier. I strongly recommend Grafton Peek Ballroom to couples looking to have their reception or both the ceremony and the reception in one place. Couldn't ask for a nicer staff who are willing to work with you to make sure you get exactly what you want, or as close to it as they can get.

We picked out the flavors for the cake, which I hadn't even thought about because I was too busy thinking about what the design should be. The bottom (and largest) tier will be the classic white because you can never go wrong with white. The middle tier will be chocolate and the top tier will be spice cake. We are putting ribbon along the bottom of each tier and I'm gonna find some small purple roses to add as well. I'm so excited!

I need to do a dress fitting with all the fixings to make sure it all fits well together; I need to practice walking in my purple wedding shoes. Gotta get my hair done, and eyebrows waxed. (YOUCH!) Someday I promise I will try having them threaded. I hear it doesn't hurt as bad and won't leave the surrounding skin red.

There's really not the much left to be done, but I've been checking my list on The Knot to make sure I am on the right track for stuff. We still need to figure out some kind of honeymoon, if we decide to do anything at all. Right now, it's just more important to work and make money!

I Caved In....

I kind of talked Kevin into buying stuff for a candy buffet. Candy and bowls! I really don't think we spent too much on everything, but then again I haven't really added up everything. We went to Goodwill to get some of the glass containers and I ended up paying anywhere from .49 to 1.99 for about five glass bowls. I also got some at Dollar Tree and paid 4.00. That's not bad, right? All in all, we have 9 neat glass containers for the candy.

We didn't really get the typical apothecary jars, because we aren't really making this a huge candy buffet, and I want all the candy to be purple so it looks more formal, but it's SO HARD to find purple candy that's not super expensive. I am going to have to improvise on this detail. So far I have Hershey's Bliss milk chocolates, purple Nerds, grape Laffy Taffy, skittles, Dum Dums, Tootsie rolls, Smarties, Grape Mike and Ike, and some Hershey kisses in silver and purple.

Here are the price details:

Hershey Bliss 2 bags 3.68 each = 7.36

Nerds 2 bags 1.98 each = 3.96

Skittles 3 boxes .98 each = 2.94

Dum Dums 2 bags 1.00 each = 2.00

Tootsie Rolls 3 bags 1.00 each = 3.00

Smarties 2 bags 1.00 each = 2.00

Laffy Taffy 2 bags 1.00 each = 2.00

Hershey kisses in purple and silver 1.00 each = not sure because we bought a lot  

Grape Mike and Ike 2 boxes 1.00 each = 2.00

I'd like to get some more purple candy and I thought about going to the Sweet Factory but it's so expensive! After spending 15.00 on just one pound of purple m&m's, I'm kind of worried about going back and getting more. Kevin doesn't want to buy anymore candy, but that's because he doesn't like candy. Mom thinks I have too much candy, but I feel like there will be a good amount of people that will eat most of it. It's too bad the wedding is after Halloween; we could give the left overs to tricker treaters!

Still thinking about getting some purple gum balls, some rock candy, purple sixlets, and maybe some purple licorice!

Candy for Favor Boxes

Kevin and I finally found a place where we could buy quantities of purple m&m's to put in our favor boxes. In the mall, there is a place called The Sweet Factory, and they have a whole area for colored m&m's. The only bad thing about it is the price. We paid 15 dollars for just a pound of them.

Just a pound! That will probably only fill 20 or 30 of the boxes, if that. Of course we are going to have to go back and get more. I didn't think we would have to spend anywhere near this amount for the candy, but I guess I need to be realistic.

Can you imagine what we would be spending if we bought something as big as the above picture? The lady at the candy store told me she had a woman pay over 90 dollars just for her m&ms to fill her favor boxes. I guess I am a little cheap, or just uneducated when it comes to the price of candy!

Thank you, Michaels!

The place that I have been shopping for years and years has just hired me! Thank you so much, Michaels, for taking a chance on me and giving me work! It's been exactly a year since I quit my last job due to health reasons, and it took a year to find this job!

Right now, it's just seasonal part time help, but the manager said they do hold onto about 66% of their seasonal help after the holidays. I'm so beyond happy I could just scream! I'm also a little nervous because it has been a year since I have worked, but my fiance and my sister have both said the same thing: it's like riding a bike; you never forget how to do it. Right?

Having this job will be great because it increases our chances of being able to get our own place faster. Right now, we are looking at living with my folks after we are married, and this thought doesn't really appeal to me, but in the interest of having any sort of money, it's what's going to have to happen, even if it's just a few short months.

Anyway, in the wedding world, things are looking super great! I am still waiting on my family and friends to toss their reply cards back in the mail to me, and this makes working on the seating chart difficult, but all my other odds and ends are really looking good. We just have a couple more things to buy, such as mints for the cake table, m&m's for the favor boxes, and of course, the marriage license!

I have been spending a lot of time on weddingbee.com, just looking at pictures of receptions and centerpieces and other important aspects of a wedding. I guess I want to make sure I am on the right track with all my stuff. It's really good to know that I am not the only bride who just doesn't really care for flowers. We are doing our centerpieces without any flowers whatsoever and I'm sure they will look just fine. The only flowers we really have are the bouquets and boutonnieres, and those are fake.

Just 32 days before the I DO's!

Seating Chart Nightmare

I never thought putting together a seating chart for the wedding reception was going to be such a nightmare. Our tables comfortably seat eight people, but what if I have a table that has nine, or just six or seven? Lots of questions are just dancing through my brain right now. Here is an example of how our tables would typically look:

Imagine that table with purple linen napkins and chair sashes. Eight seats, eight napkins, eight favor boxes, voila? Right? WRONG! I want to put families all together; I want to put friends all together; I want people to know who they are sitting with, but in reality, people are just going to have sit with people they don't know and mingle as best they can. My ideas of perfection just will not come into play here, and that's something I have to accept. I know, I'm making a big deal out of nothing, right?

In other news, I think I've finally gotten a job! I mean, I hope I've gotten this job. It's at MICHAEL'S craft store! Can you believe it? The place where I have purchased about 75 percent of all my wedding needs will soon hopefully be my employer. Fingers, toes, eyes crossed!