It seems like, as soon as it turned 2009, all I can think about is the wedding.  Everytime I have a free moment my thoughts drift to what I still have to do, what I still have to buy, what projects I have yet to complete (or start).  Every free moment is spent searching online or updating my wedding excel workbook.  I’m loving every minute of it!  The  only thing I am sad thing is that I go back to work tomorrow, so I won’t be able to think about it AS much

So what new things have I been up to this week?  Well I bought/made some gifts for the smallest members of our bridal party.  Im pretty sure that I have said in an earlier post that buying and making these gifts has been one of my favorite projects so far, and this still holds true!  I have also begun designing our wedding programs.  Upon doing this I realized that we are going to need more paper because of everything I want included, so I went to order more paper from my favorite paper site when I found the coolest address stamps ever!  I had found stickers similar to them before that I was going to use for our invitations, however they were to much money to justify it…but since these stamp pads will be good forever Rob & I picked one and we bought that too!  The best thing about it is that they are running a sale right now!  15% off everything in the store!  Things couldn’t have been better.

Rob also came up with an idea that I fell IN LOVE with for the tables at the reception!  We were driving to his parents house on Thursday and I was asking for his help on how I could easily get all of the pictures that our guests take at the wedding without having them burn CD’s.  His idea was fantastic, but I don’t want to share it on the website and ruin the surprise.  Plus Im not positive that we can pull it off since I have never heard of anyone doing it before…but you all will just have to wait and be surprised!

The last big thing that I accomplished in these last 4 days (I told you I have been busy) happened while shopping with my mom for her dress for the wedding (which she found and look beautiful in!).  We were at the mall and walked into Yankee candle shop because they were having a big after christmas sale.  Up by the register was a rack of random things that were marked down 75% off and there I found them…the exact vases that I had wanted for the centerpieces at the reception!  They were priced at the exact amount I wanted to pay!  I could not believe it…it was obviously meant to be! So I purchased 10 of them, enough to fill a third of the tables.  We will be doing different centerpieces at different tables, so I plan to go with my anut to a craft warehouse store where I have heard I can get the rest.  I will keep you posted!

I warned you this is all I have been thinking about!  Im sure I will begin to update more often as thing begin to come together!  I am finally starting to get excited about the wedding again since it is so close!  I can’t wait for all of the festivities to begin

I pretty much spent the entire weekend working on wedding projects…and I actually had a fantastic time.  I made a HUGE dent in my invitations (which I realize don’t have to be done for a good 4 months, but since they hae been sitting there half finished for six it felt great).  I even had some time to work on my favorite wedding project…the bridesmaids gifts.  Im trying to do something special for them, and I found the perfect project and have been working on it here and there for the past few months.

The craziest thing is, there is exactly 6 monts to the wedding.  Six months from now we will be dancing the night away having the greatest time of our lives.  I can’t wait!  I am probably more prepared then anyone has ever been at this point in time.  The only thing I still have to book is the limo and the tuxes(although I do have a style picked out).  All other decisions have been made and vendors have been hired.  It’s pretty crazy to me to think that with six full months to the wedding I barely have anything to do…I guess that means I will have to find more projects to keep me busy

The one other item that I still need to find is my shoes.  I had some amazing shoes picked out, but when I tried my dress on a few weeks ago I found out they will be much to tall.  If anyone has any idea where I can find cute 1″ white heels please let me know, because I am all out of ideas!

I haven’t had time to do to many wedding projects lately, but I have gotten a few of the bigger things done.  We booked out honeymoon.  We will be staying at the newest sandals in Jamaica, it is beautiful and every room has a  beach view, which I am the most excited about.  We also booked the room for the night of our wedding.  It is a gorgeous hotel and I am super excited about it!!!

Today we are going with Adam, our best man, to pick out tuxedo’s for the guys.  Rob and I have different styles in mind, so we need a mediator there to help us decide which will look better

The other thing I have been focusing on latley is that I have som sort of a theme to the wedding.  In the beginning of planning I have not really though about it much and bought anything I thought was pretty.  Now Im regretting that decision and trying to come up with an overall theme for the wedding.  I wil probably be selling some of the things I bought in the early stages of planning and buying new things that fit better with everything else.  Its a good thinkg I have help with this because otherwise I would be in trouble! I guess thats what happens when you have too much time to plan…

I have been doing a lot of browsing online for wedding ideas latley and have found a ton of Do It Yourself (DIY) projects.  I had always known that I was going to do my invitations and prorams myself…but I have found a ton of new projects to add to the list.  I figured since we still had so much time, and I have most of the big items completed, these projects would give me something fun to keep me busy.

Between work, school and working on my invitations I hadn’t had a ton of time to actually get many of the fun projects started until this weekend.  I actually finished one of my projects.  I created some “Reserved” signs for the chairs at the reception.  I know that was probably the least important project on my list right now, but it felt so good to complete it and it was a lot of fun to do.

I think what got m in the wedding spirit again was visiting my dress today with Krystle.  She and I went to order her dress and then stopped at my bridal store to try my gown on with some headpieces.  When I put my gown on it fit like a glove.  I was so excited that I didn’t want to take it off when it was time to leave.  We even found some headpieces that we liked…which made it even more fun!

Well it’s been a great day today.  Hopefully I will be able to keep up with the blog more now that the wedding is getting closer and I will be giving it more attention!

Yesterday Rob and I went to Rochester Hills museum to meet with the wedding coordinator for the first time.  When we were initially looking for places to hold our ceremony, we had a very hard time finding one.   We went to a ton of places and walked around to see if we liked what they looked like.  We never met with anyone though (since we are having our wedding outside, we really could just walk around and look without having to make an appointment.  When we got to the museum I fell in love instantly, so I just called them and asked them to send me a contract in the mail.  We never actually spoke to anyone about how it would run.

Once I began trying to plan the ceremony, it became difficult having not spoken to anyone about the location and how they typically run weddings.  So we made an appointment and went up there yesterday.  We had a fabulous time and learned so many things that we did not know.  It also helped relieve a lot of the stress I have been having about this place.  And we got one piece of news that made my entire week…our flower girl gets to throw petals as I had hoped.  When we first signed the contract it stated that throwing petals was not allowed, but when we were there yesterday and asked about it she stated that it would not be a problem at all.  I was the happiest bride in the world at that moment!

I can’t believe there is only 8 more months until the wedding.  Its coming fast now.  We are finally to the point that when I tell someone our date, they say “It almost here” instead of “you still have awhile”.  It’s getting really exciting.

I did a lot of searching online this weekend and found some great ideas for DIY projects.  My mom and I are going to go shopping this week to see if we can find the supplies for some of them so that we can start working on them.

It has been nice to be organized so far, since the work has been spread out and I have not been stressed about anything.  I have had plenty of time to make decisions and work on projects.  Planning the wedding has been a lot of fun for me (so far)!

So I ran into my first small snag in the wedding planning arena this week.  I tried to print my invitations and apparently my printer can not handle them.  They are weird sizes and cardstock so it is haveing a hard time printing them.  I am going to have to find a print shop that can print them for me, so that is my next task.  We will see how it goes!

Things are coming along with planning.  We have pretty much everything together for the ceremony, which is a nice amount of stuff to check off the list.  I also designed our invitations this weekend, so as soon as we get the paper, I will be able to start putting them all together. That felt like a huge accomplishment, so I was very excited.  We also started buying some of the small items for the favors, so its fun to start seeing all of the stuff come in.

The girls and I went shopping a few weeks ago and found great dresses for them.  They all love them, which makes me happy.  The dresses are going to be pink with a brown sash around the waist.  It’s super cute!

Rob & I also picked out our honeymoon location today, which is very exciting.  We will be staying at two different all-inclusive resorts in St. Lucia.  One of them is so neat.  Its named Ladera and it is up on a cliff overlooking the ocean.  All of the rooms have their own pool, and the best part is that all of the rooms have only 2 walls, so the rooms are very open.  The beds have a netting over them so no bugs can get in while you are sleeping.  We are very psyched about it.

Well thats all for now, I will continue updating as things come up.

So we had the best day today. Not only did we find out that our offer was accepted for the house that we wanted, I also got a ton of planning done. After hours and hours of indecisiveness, I have finally decided on both favors and centerpieces for the wedding and could not love them more. I also found all of the materials that I will need for my choices and began purchasing some of it. I am finally starting to feel like I am able to plan the wedding of my dreams.

We started to interview videographers today. This is the first vendor (besides the hall) that we did not choose after the first appointment. We already have a good idea which company we are going to go with, but since we did not get any referrals from anyone, this decision will be a lot harder then all of the other ones. It feels good to almost have all of the vendors chosen so far away from the wedding. I am already getting a little overwhelmed with all of the little details that I know that I need to keep in mind, so its nice to know that all of the big things are complete! (well almost ;))