Kids books

While listening to my pharm lectures last night, I worked on a new project (new in that I hadn't started it yet, but was an idea I saved a while back!).  Personalized activity books for kids at the reception.  I had a bunch of pictures and random things saved, so I printed everything out last night!  I don't know how to attach the document, so I'll just show you a few of the pages:

So I couldn't get lots of the coloring pages cause they are saved in word, but you get the idea.  A few mazes, crosswords, coloring pages, and a mini story at the beginning about the wedding and reception.  I covered my sample starter one with purple cardstock and taped a cheesy clip art couple on the front with the words "Sean and Candice's wedding activity book"

It was Nico approved, so hopefully the kids will like them (AKA stay busy during all the toasts).  Sean's grandma is going to help me sew the kids bags with the damask fabric I bought way back before I just bought the table squares super cheap.  And I have boxes of 8 crayons to put a label over then that part is done!

  The plan is to put some baggies of goldfish/cheerios/snacks and a juice box or something too.  And I bought purple mardi gras beads~ basically just cause I couldn't help myself, so each of the kids will get one of those. 

Oh- and of course the kids scavenger hunt!  We've decided against the disposable cameras on each  table, but I still want to give each of the kids one with their postcard I printed from vistaprint.  Mostly cause I think that would be too fun and I love it when kids take pictures =)  I guess these bags may have to be slightly bigger than I thought!  (See how helpful this blog is for me?!?)

~On another note, one shoe disaster and one shoe victory!!  The ivory heels with the bow on the side (picture 1 from below) is a total no go.  Too platform and uncomfortable- a shame cause they looked SO perfect online.  But the PURPLE with the awesome diamante heel~ totally perfect- and the color is SO much better in person!  Slightly big on me, but like my mom told me- my foot will get fat with summer heat, so I should be ok =)  I don't think she would have said it if she knew it would support my purple shoes... But I did go ahead and order the same shoes in ivory, so assuming they are the same, they should fit too.  And they're suprisingly easy to walk in (and will be SO perfect for those pictures where they put your rings on the heel of the shoes...To die for!)  I know my mom will have a mini heart attack from my slip, so I think the shoes might result in a full on hospital visit.  Hence the ivory shoes and the purple.  I have time to figure it out, right?

Flower Ball....or whatever it's called

Here are some pictures of the continuing progress on the new pew decorations! More folding to ensue I am sure!








More fun put together, and the purple is hard to see but I think you can get an idea about them now. Or atleast I get the picture now...so to speak! Candice pick another night and I'll be over again for more folding and such!

OMG

This shoe thing is turning out to be a huge drag!  I had no idea it would be so difficult to find wedding day shoes...The problem seems to begin with my dislike of standard "bridal shoes" and end with my fat foot (some say wide, I say fat).  It is impossible to find ivory shoes that are not the traditional strappy very un-cute sandal style wedding shoes.  Or so I thought until I found these:

Ok so how awesome are these shoes??  The first 2 are actually from the Paris Hilton brand, which kinda makes me cringe but I can't help it~ I love her shoes!  Notice the rhinestone heel on the last 2 pairs?  I'm infatuated with these shoes.  And I'm convinced all the other shoes didn't work out so I could have all of these shoes.  So I ordered the first pair cause they are the most practical, shorter fatter heel so should be easier to walk in and available right away from myglassslipper.com (which is a whole site for wedding shoes- crazy!) .  They are on their way and hopefully will be here soon so I can either be incredibly disappointed or super excited!!  The snag with the other two- totally sold out!  The slide style pair (picture number 2) is completely unavailable in my size ANYWHERE~ trust me I looked!  And the third pair is apparently from this UK company that doesn't ship to the US.  SO I looked on ebay and look what I found there:

Yep its the same as shoe number 3 but in PURPLE!  And yes the heel looks really tall...I think it is like 4"...but I had to get them anyways cause that is how obsessed with that heel I am!!  The brand is actually a different UK brand (purple is "chix" brand and ivory above is "faith" brand) so I'm not sure if they have same qualities as the faith brand when I was doing research~ we'll see when they get here I suppose!  And so I continue my search for the pair in pic number 2 and hope and pray these are comfortable!!   Can I just say thank god for free shipping and free returns?!?  Why would anyone buy shoes in the store anymore? =)

Attention all purple fans- Important announcement!

Ok guys- I spent the better part of my afternoon on this project, and as Sean loved to say I actually finished it the same day I started!  OK before, I get ahead of myself, here is what this project looked like as it was in progress:

And here is the finished project (after about 2 hours of sweat and tears...):

YAY for purple crinoline!!  The color looks a little off in the picture, but you get the idea!  It is pretty purple and I can't wait to see it under my dress! =)  I hope no one has a total cow over this, but it stays hidden until the fun parts anyways- Ha!  I haven't actually been to a wedding where this was done; has anyone else?

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, look who came to visit with me and Sophie:

Yep its Elvis ladies and gents.  Check out the black tux~ he'll fit right in!  We will have some logistics to figure out with actually getting him into the photo booth, but maybe he'll have to bend or something...I'll make it work =) 

And since I'm doing updates, here are the pinwheels so far (for those who haven't seen): If you can't tell from the pics, those bins are the huge plastic storage bins so you can imagine the giant puff of pinwheels coming out of those bowls...And there are still more to be finished too (almost done, should be less than 50 left!)- I'm doing extra so I don't have to worry about fixing broken ones!  Sean laughed when I told him I probably needed craft glue in my emergency kit for the day, but I can totally see myself running around re-glueing broken pinwheels or something!  I think I need a coordinator; anyone have a friend who likes stuff like that?? =)

And one last piece of news: I found purple flip flops at Target today (only $1 each!) so I picked up a bunch.  Now I need to figure out how to bling them out or something, so if anyone already knows how, let me know...  Here is a pic of the bag of them:

I think I ended up with about 8 pairs of purple and I got a few in black too (just in case any of the boys wanted them!) including for Nico, Zach and Connor.  They didn't have purple in the smaller size, so keep an eye out for Katelyn if anyone sees little girls sizes in purple!! 

I feel so accomplished, and yet now I've added on another project with the flipflops!  Anyone want to come help with that?

Party aftermath

Hello and good morning (if you are still in your pajamas like I am...)  Ha- it's been a lazy day to say the least!  I missed shopping but I did get a start on Thank you's and homework, so thats ok.

I have a few pics from the party, and I'm going to start with a long awaited Jake and Jeremiah shot as they were finally captured by my camera- so long for now Elvis:

Too cute, right? Just wait till the wedding boys, there will be plenty more picture opportunities...




And here is a pic of the cute couple (right?):

More on my facebook page if you are interested!

Looking back, I should have gotten a girls shot as all the bridesmaids were there (thanks ladies!) and all the boys that are in town were also there (thanks boys!) and all the support ws great with all that family around- Ha!!  Dad's tab (thanks daddy!) and good food- it turned out to be a great party =)  Hope all of you that were there had fun and for those that weren't- we missed you!

I'm back to work (for school and wedding) so see ya'll

Party- woo hoo (or something like that)

Jennie's comment to the last post reminded me I should probably do a post on the engagement party- this sat 3 pm at the club...and No thats not the country club, thats the St Ambrogio club in the ghetto of south rockford.  Truly.  But its a nice place and cheap drinks, so its on.
 And I will need those drinks thanks to the plethora (I think thats spelled right) of cheesy games Mom T is coming up with.  Thanks for that.  I'm sorry but "what first attracted you to Sean" is not something I want to have both sides of the families guessing on.  Besides, she didn't like my answer of "he was the only boy in our class!" =)  Haha
I have my shoes picked out (purple pair #3) so all I have to do is find an outfit to match...Prob black as I doubt I can find the exact shade of purple.  Such is life.  And of course I have one day to find said outfit, along with 2 meetings for my classes and getting as much reading done as possible as I don't see myself having time this weekend!!

And if anyone has lots of extra time on their hands (and nimble fingers!) I have a new DIY project I decided to tackle: origami flower pomander balls to decorate the aisles at church and loose to scatter on tables at the reception for some color.  The technical name for these is kusudama and they are some sort of good luck charm that ensures happiness and good health.  Can't hurt right? =)  So what are these you might be asking: first off look at a few pics I found:

So the first pic shows the individual flowers and the ball, the second pic shows one plain example and the third (red/white) shows a really pretty one with beads that would be awesome but probably not going to happen!

Let me tell you what you're in for if you volunteer:  The "ball" is made up of 12 flowers.  Each flower is made of 5 petals.  Each petal is folded out of a 3"x3" square and then glued closed.  Then 5 glued petals are glued together to form the flower.  Thats as far as I've gotten.  I don't have 12 done to even try the ball, but I guess you glue half together to form a half circle then add your ribbon in the middle with a loop (for going over the pew at church) then glue the 2 halves together to form a circle holding the ribbon in the middle. 

Totally insane, but I hate the tulle bow alternative, so I have now obligated myself to hours upon hours of cutting and folding~ each ball requires 60 squares of 3x3 paper, and yes that means 60 petals folded and glued.  And I love every crazy minute of it and every single petal I've done.  We'll see how many pews actually get decorated...
So who's up for helping?? =) 

Just thinking about this overwhelms me right now, so I'm off and hope to see you all Saturday!! =)

More Shoes...

I was out yesterday with my mom and god mother shoe shopping in general. I came across some cute shoes at shoe carnival flats and low heels. My mom bought a pair of higher purple heels just for fun, probably wear them to the engagement party or the rehearsal dinner. If you go hers are by Delicious, dark purple with a snakeskin purple line around the edge. Like I said shoe shopping must end for me, but I am all about helping anyone else! haha

This is what my shoes look like. Shiekshoes.com has a bunch of cute purple shoes at all heights if you do an advanced search for purple shoes. Also it has free shipping, good sale right now on there! -Candice stay away from it, bc I have to also since I am moving out in March! Time to save money with my shoe fetish haha :-(

A few pics...

Ok Caurie- I said I would post the purple shoe pics, and here they are~ This is a pic of caurie's awesome purple shoes with the black dress tried on at Davids:

And here is a pic of my purple shoes (not on as it is very hard to get a good picture of shoes when you are wearing them!!) =)

And we went to the tux store today and picked out some awesome tuxes if I do say so myself... Here are the combos we decided on:

For the groomsmen- all black (the pic is kinda light, but you get the idea!) Love this- I think it looks really sharp and I'm SO pleased with it!:

Now for the groom (and Nico and Zach will match Seans, so they will have this same combo: ivory vest and tie but same black shirt:

And for the Dad's, a nice mixture, they will have the ivory tie but with the black vest!:

Ok so how awesome are we?!?  I had no idea there was so much that went into picking out a tux!!  But I think it went smooth and the guy there was very patient with getting the mannequin down and changing the combinations a million times so we could see everything!  I don't have the group number in front of me but I don't think any of the guys actually look at this blog anyways, so they can get the official numbers later! 

Alright, I'm off to bed as I have to be at work in less than 8 hours...More updates as they come! =)

Music, Music, MUSIC (and more!)

Music is turning out to be a giant pain right now!  Sean and I realized we are supposed to have done our "homework" before out meeting with the DJ next week, and we hadn't even started...Our homework was to start looking at music and get an idea of what we wanted for certain dances/entrances, and also songs for a "must play" and "do not play". 

So far, here is what we have: 

Absolutely nothing for sure....=) We have a lot of ideas but none that we are 100% on yet, so any ideas would be more than welcomed.  I want to pick songs that are "us" but really we have lots of different tastes in music, with some overlap, but the overlap is not exactly covering all the areas!  Here is what we have tentatively come up with (and this is just the reception, I don't think we have much choice for the ceremony as the church pretty much dictates that one!)

Cocktail hour:
both of us like the idea of doing a mix of Frank Sinatra/Dean Martin for this
and this would have to include: Mack the knife, come fly with me, I've got you under my skin, the way you look tonight, my way... as well as Dean's Sway, Volare, Thats Amore

I like these songs for dinner time too though, so we'll have to see what fits best...

Bridal party entrance:
I like either Justin T "Sexy Back" or Pink "get the party started"; Sean's pick is Flo rida "in the ayer" which Nico knows word for word and would be really funny if he would actually dance to it =)  Maybe it can at least be the song for him and Zach when they walk in!!  I also like Black Eyed Peas "I gotta feeling" or "lets get it started".  See- WAY too many choices...=)

Not sure for our entrance but I'm hoping to convince Sean it should be Elvis (maybe burning love...) ha- love it!!
We are having a hard time deciding on a first dance song; originally we had Jason Mraz Lucky, then we changed it to Brad Paisley "then" (which is still my vote) and then as we are looking for music there are a ton of good song possibilities, so we'll see!

One that we are about 95% sure on is the song for the garter (I know, of all the things this is low on the importance list, but we came across this and both died laughing when I said we should use it for that!):
Christina Aguilera "dirrty" ~ awesome~ I figure those that may not appreciate it won't know the words anyways, so oh well!

I kinda like other Christina songs for the bouquet toss too, like Lady Marmalade or Aint no other man

Random songs we'll have to play at some point include: Pink "so what" (for Nico), Shakira "hips don't lie", some elvis classics, Miley cyrus "party in the usa"- don't knock it, its a good song =) And we'll have to play some Jason Mraz and Brad Paisley whether they are for specific dances or not. 

So thats kinda where I'm at right now.  I do have a few songs on my Do not play list including the macarena, chicken dance,  and others I'm sure I'm not thinking of for a reason! Ha

Let me know opinions on the music and if you have any suggestions/requests~


Also, real quick, I have a few updates!

-Bouquets are in and fluffed and carefully stored, but can be taken out and admired at any time so please stop by and see (I can't stop getting them out and looking at them~ I'm kindof obsessed with them and TOTALLY LOVE THEM!)  
-Pinwheels are coming along, most of paper in pinned on, just need to add the beads to cover the pin poking out of the wood in the back, and thats the easy part!  Less than 50 I would say to still be put together completely- and I think I have way more than I need, but this way I can just toss the ones that get crushed or ruined and not freak out day of because I don't have enough nice ones!  See- I'm thinking ahead to prevent bridezilla...
-Speaking of bridezilla, she reared her head along with (because of?) my monthly stress time and I had complete photography meltdown!  As you know, or don't know, we hired a super inexpensive photographer really early on and she is the one that did our engagement photos.  Well, I've had a few nights of sleepless tossing and turning freaking out slightly (tons!) about the whole "you get what you pay for" with the photography. 
To sum up my craziness and not go into the insane thought processes my mind went to, I ended up asking Sean if he was ok if I switched photographers.  To which he replies something like: "No, I'm not okay with it, but if it is what you want, then ok"  Thats why I love him =)  He really does want me to be happy, and hopefully I can be happy without him having a heart attack from the expenses! 
So anyone interested can check out our new photographer, deposit paid today!, ae photography at http://www.photographyae.com/  They also have a blog thats pretty sweet and shows more picture examples.  I'm totally in love with them and an SO excited to have made this decision.  The only thing now is I have to break up with our previous photographer (who actually has a refundable deposit if we cancel early enough- which this is, and it was only $75 anyways, so we'll see!)
And I am at peace once again =)  My sanity is worth the extra cost, right?  What do you guys think of the photographer switcheroo?

Candice

hair and such

Hey guys I have 2 others I am going to ask about doing our hair for the wedding and what they would charge. I know who is doing Candice's hair and 1 person can't do all of us in the time before the wedding so I have a couple friends that might be willing to help for a decent price. Did we find out anything else about make-up? I think I will start tanning in April so I can be golden-toasty by June. How has the shoe hunt been for everyone else? Any luck? Candice let me know when you are ready for some help call me up it's only a 3min drive max. and I'll be over to bruise my thumb or whatever is needed!
Bachlorette party....I'm up for anything spa's are nice, so is bar hopping, whatever you figure out will be a blast I'm sure! Can't wait.
I also want to say Heather I continue to hope for your multiple blessings to continue! Good luck with everything, you deserve it!
Anyone else get their dress besides Jennie? I should be getting mine in the next couple weeks so I can have time to shorten it. I dono how to get my picture of the dress with my shoes up here yet so I will work on that before the next post I hope!

pinwheels!

Candice-I don't know why I forgot to tell you this when I talked to you yesterday but I had an idea on how to store/display the pinwheels.  Last summer I had a container garden and have 4 long rectangle flower pots that we could spray paint and put the pinwheels in.  They would look like flowers!!!  They are plastic so I don't know how well the spray paint would work but if you want to try it they are all yours!!!