Gettin' Right for Life

It's the new year and everyone has their new year's resolutions and the FI and I were talking the other day about the popular resolution that most people make...to either lose weight, get in shape, or lead a healthier life. We estimated that this is probably on about 80% of people's lists but based on our prior success with this resolution we guesstimate that only 15-20% actually keep and follow through with it.

And once again it's on my list. Now I'm going to be honest here...I don't necessarily need to lose weight, I'm at a healthy weight as is. But I do feel like I could definitely be healthier overall and lead a more active lifestyle, so here are a few of the things that I will be working on throughout the year and beyond:

• Eating healthy and nutritious meals on a consistent basis...I find myself eating out too often on the weekends when the routine of the work week falls by the wayside so I want to start cooking more often as well as finding quick pre-made alternatives that are just as healthy.
• Find workouts that I don't dread...I really, really hate the treadmill, so I'm all about finding some alternatives to getting in some good quality cardio in another fashion. But I'm also going to start doing yoga on a consistent basis too.

And in the end who doesn't want to look their best on their wedding day. But being as though that's just one day, I really want to build habits that will stick with me way past just my wedding day.

My Dreaded To-do: The Website

I know it has to be done...but I really don't feel like working on this wedding website...uggh. I just haven't been that excited about it. But we have made a little headway...we chose the website provider mywedding.com and the design...see

I had to remove some of the personal info but you get the picture. For a while, I was looking for designs that matched my color scheme thinking that it would flow so nicely. But it was difficult to find a design that I liked that blended well with what I had going on. So I gave up that idea and just went with a design that we both liked.

And in terms of selecting mywedding.com, it was mostly because of the long list of design options that were available along with the different features that they have for me to use. I doubt that I will be using all of them because based on the type of guests that I have coming , I highly doubt that they will 1) remember that I have a website and 2) if they do remember, they're probably easily impressed so I don't need anything fancy.

The part that I'm dreading is actually adding the content but since we'll be sending out our save the dates shortly which will include our website name I need to get on the ball and make some updates. I'm thinking that I'm just going to keep it simple and straightforward. I'll give the people the information that will be helpful, provide a sneak peek into the wedding, add some FAQ's, yadda, yadda, yadda.

As you can see, this is one thing I'm not very enthusiastic about...yet. That could change though.

What's the one thing (or 2) that you aren't (or weren't) too excited about tackling?

$1.75 for Badgley Mischka's

I;m not kidding and yes, I know it's a little unbelievable but read on you'll understand in a few.

For my birthday this past September I received a $100 Gap giftcard and was told that I could use at any of their sister stores, i.e. Old Navy, Banana Republic Athleta or Piperlime. Seriously, I can buy fabulous shoes with my Gap giftcard! To say the least I was excited. I began the search for an awesome pair of wedding shoes and fell in love with these babies...

Badgley Mischka Hyde
*All photos from Piperlime.com

I was in love, my heart melted. But then I saw the price which at the time was like $150 or something like that and even with the giftcard I didn't want to shell out $50 for them because I just knew I could get a better deal if I was patient. So I stalked the website almost everyday, wondering if they would have a sale or some special promocode that I could use...but nothing. Until one day in November, it happened, they were on sale for $119 and there was a promocode for 20% off! I scooped them up with no hesitation, and with the giftcard I paid a whopping $1.75 for my pair of Badgley Mischka Hyde wedding shoes. I was on cloud nine and couldn't wait until they were in my hands.

When they arrived I tried them on and pranced around for bit, showed my mom and ignored my brother who thought I was crazy. But I only had them on for a good 5 minutes and my feet were throbbing! How was I going to make it through an entire day? I reminded myself that they were new, you just have to break em in, they'll be fine. So I tried them on at least once a week for about a  month. But I had to be realistic, they were just too narrow and there's not much I can do about that and they probably weren't going to get any more comfortable than they already were.

I waited a while but I returned the shoes last week. I thought I had one piece of my wedding day attire figured out but now it's back on my to-do list. I really didn't want to return them but I know that I can find a more comfortable and comparably attractive shoe, so I'm back to stalking Piperlime again. 

Wish me luck!

My First Wedding Project...The Bridal Party Ask

My FI had a pretty easy time figuring our who would be his bestman and groomsmen. I on the other hand, had a little difficulty. We both knew that we didn't want a huge wedding party so we kept it to four on each side. So after some more indecision (I'll get into that in a later post), I had my 4 girls and I was so excited to ask them. For some of them it would be a no brainer that they would be in my bridal party and for others it would be a surprise. But for each of them I wanted to do something simple and sweet to formally ask them to join me on my big day. So I decided to create little invitations for each girl.

Here's the final product (please excuse the picture quality, I'll do better next time), MOH got a different design and the remaining 3 bridesmaids received this design:

Front

The front of the card features a design motif I found on the Wedding Chicks blog here and here and fell in love with them so I didn't have any real design work to do that piece (I chose 2 different designs, but you could always work with just one). They even let you customize the design to your choice of colors and specific wording. I love it!

Back

The back features a simple quote from Aretha Franklin that I found while browsing my Glamour mag one month. It really sums up how I feel about each of the friendships and bonds I have with by girls.

Inside

The inside of the card featured a personal note to each bridesmaid which was tweaked a little for each person but the overall message was this (which was adapted or taken from a notecard that a woman at Papersource introduced me to one day):

"There are few moments in life when you get to pick those few favorite people to stand in line next to and face the world"

Supplies:

• Cardstock of your choice - I used an ivory cardstock purchased from Michael's
• Envelopes - I used small white one's approximately 3x5 that I had laying around the house
• Paper trimmer - to each notecard to size
• Powerpoint - this was my program of choice but you can use whatever you're comfortable with
• Stamps of course

I designed them in powerpoint so I was able to print them double-sided (on a regular inkjet printer) so I had to manually feed the paper but they turned out nicely. These were an easy project to tackle but I still ran into some roadblocks along the way, but nothing that has discouraged me from growing my list of prospective DIY projects.

I look forward to sharing more of my projects as they get underway so stay tuned.

Just Talk it Out

I had been having a tough time lately thinking about a wedding issue with one of my wedding vendors, catch up on the details here. But after a quick and much needed conversation last week with said vendor, I feel as though a boulder has been lifted from my shoulders. I hadn't realized how much this situation was bothering me and affecting my overall mood. It had been consuming my thoughts for weeks now. But from this situation I have learned one very important thing about dealing with vendors which is actually common sense but common sense kinda went right out the window for me in this situation.

They're wedding professionals NOT mind readers
And in this case, I thought since they had worked with many brides before me they sort of automatically knew what my expectations were...wrong! In any relationship whether business or personal it's important to communicate and sometimes over communicate. I had expectations of how our business relationship should flow that I hadn't expressed and this ultimately led to me being disappointed with the services that I was receiving. But you know what they say about assuming...so yeah...don't. So with any of your wedding vendors have a quick chat about what your expectations are when dealing with them. But before you have this conversation think about a couple of things:

1. What is your preferred communication style (phone, email, video chat, etc)? You could be bombarded with calls when you prefer email exchanges.
2. How involved do you want to be in the overall process? Are you giving them free reign and you'll just show up or do you want to be involved every step of the way.
3. What are your priorities? Help them stay focused on what you're placing value on for your day.

Jello Shots Anyone?

I found this post over at Austin Wedding Blog (one of the additions to my blog reading list), head over there to find more great pics and inspiration for your own jello shots.

 *All pics of yummy shots are from Austin Wedding blog.

This is definitely something that I could manage, I don't know if I could pull it off for the actual reception because of necessary refrigeration, etc. But I think for our shower or the rehearsal dinner both of which will be pretty casual affairs it could definitely be a cool element that can be both a conversation starter and a unique tasty treat. I will probably do some of the non-alcoholic variety as well to cater to the full range of preferences that we'll have going on.

Considering All Floral Alternatives

By now you know that were planning a wedding on a tight budget and what puts dents in wedding budgets...flowers! I've never been a huge flower fan. Some may think it's a nice romantic gesture but to me it's just money thrown out the window because they'll just die a few days later. I'd rather have something more tangible that will last which I can remember for years to come. But with planning a wedding that simple logic went right out the window. I now find myself searching for floral inspiration and getting lost in beautiful weddings that feature the coveted peony (cha-ching!!), every brides dream flower.

But what do you do when you have a meager flower budget? I don't want to rule out fresh flowers all together but I don't want to waste money on a bunch of botanical decor that will be wilted and dead the next day.

So I've been thinking about ways to mix it up a bit. Inexpensive yet, luxe looking fresh flowers with  paper flowers, fabric flowers, or fake flowers (thinking of that still makes me cringe a little) that can be arranged by yours truly. I've been stalking blogs and collecting inspiration pics of all these alternative flowers and I'm starting to think that if I can do it right and take my time, they could actually turn out alright and add some charm and help me save some money in the process.

Another reason that I've been thinking about going the DIY route in terms  flowers is because of the bouquet. I could save it for years to come until I get sick of looking at it and it will be a constant reminder of our wedding day. Take a look at this beauty...

Rock N Roll Bride