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!



Please RSVP

Dear wedding guests,

Please RSVP whether or not you are coming to the wedding. I included a pre-stamped and pre-addressed envelope with the RSVP card, so please dig it out of your weekly piles of mail, check the box yes or no, and pop it in a post office box, please?

Thanks so much,
THE BRIDE

Anyway, our cake server and flutes arrived in the mail today. Pretty fast shipping. They are very delicate looking. Ooh la la. We need to figure out if we want to get them engraved, which is more money to pay, but probably worth it. We'll probably have them engraved just so we can show our children all our wedding keepsakes.

In other news, there are less than ten items left to buy for the wedding and this makes me so excited I could just squeal! We need to get the marriage license, which is only $18. We need to get mints for the cake table, M&Ms for the favor boxes, and a couple other little odds and ends. Nothing too extensive, or expensive. Oh yeah, and the rest of the venue bill, which is hopefully down to three digits!

Bridal Shower Success

Today was my bridal shower and it was a wonderful success! My mother, grandmother, sister, aunts, and cousins were able to come, as well as my future mother-in-law, her mother, and her sister and a few of my friends from work. There were games, prizes, fresh snacks, homemade cider punch and best of all, the cake...ok, well, the gifts! But the cake was UM-azing!

September was a super busy month with my friend's bridal shower and wedding, all of our wedding planning, and just generally busy days of this and that. My lilac satin padded hangers came in the mail, but I am still waiting on the paper purple lanterns. We also ordered the cake server and flutes yesterday, which made me very excited!

I had to add another table to the guest seating because I invited more people to the wedding after meeting some at my friend's wedding. In five years, I've hardly made any friends, but in 2 months, I've made a half a dozen new friends that I want to invite to the wedding, but money just doesn't grow on trees. Which brings me to other good news...

On Friday, September 30, my mom and I met with the wedding coordinator of our wedding venue and we were able to give him a large chunk of money, which has knocked the bill down a lot! We are down to only owing three digits now, hopefully. We also picked our chair sash color and linen napkin color. I was also able to convince him to let us do aisle seating since it's a small group. Oh, and we also finalized the menu.

I've been hard at work on D-I-Y projects for the wedding, as well as filling out job applications like crazy, and looking for somewhere to live once Kevin and I are married. It's been a really busy (and sometimes very stressful) year, but one of the best years of my life! We got wonderful gifts at the shower, and we've got wonderful friends and family to share our wedding joy with!