Wedding Day Perfection!

After a 2 month hiatus, I'm back!

The week leading up to the wedding was cold, windy & rainy here in Northern, NY. My ever-so-calm nerves gave way to a few (or a lot) of bride-zilla moments. I'm glad that I am only getting married once-boy was I a crab! Special thanks goes out to my new hubbz who took the brunt of my crabbiness and took it in a stride.

I woke up the morning of the wedding, loaded up the pups and took them to the kennel. As I dropped them off and pulled away, I cried like a baby!...I blame it on lack of sleep. I quickly recovered as I realized that this is my wedding day and the weather was beautiful! Sunny and about 65 degrees!

I made it up to Mom and Dads by 10 am and with the help of my mom and sisters, began taking all the goods out to the reception tent. Hunter was such a great help, he loaded up the trailer on his little 4 wheeler many times and was driving back and forth bringing all the supplies.

The lovely and talented Natalie Hickey came to the house and did all of our hair. I have seriously never seen more beautiful wedding hair on anyone-she is amazing! As Nat was doing our hair, Chris from Static Moments was taking lots of great pics! Once we were all set and ready to go...we began taking the photos ( we decided to take the pics before the wedding, a decision that turned out to be a great plan). We did some shots at Mom & Dad's and then traveled to the 3rd bridge to do the rest. Once that was done, we headed to the ceremony.

I began walked down the aisle, and I LOST IT! It hit me like a ton of bricks. I was FINE all day, not a hint of wedding tears, and I even kissed Double J right before he walked up to the alter. It was very overwhelming (in a good way) to have everyone that loves and supports us all in one place to witness me marrying the man I love. I proceeded to cry and laugh, and laugh and cry throughout the ceremony. It was a hoot to say the least.

Off to the reception we went, and since we took the photos before the ceremony, there was no lag time between the events. Everything "they" say about your wedding day is true- it goes by super quick, and you don't get to eat! We danced the night away, and couldn't have imagined a better wedding reception. The tent was beautiful, and I felt blessed all night long. Thank you to everyone who made our day so special!

Save the Dates!

My mom told me it was too early to send out my save the date cards (it's the first weekend of March right now..and my wedding is the first weekend of October- 7 months from now!)- I kindly reminded her that it is never really too early to send out save the dates!





Double J and I knew that we wanted our save the dates to be magnets...partly because we liked them, but mostly because they are practical! Plus..who doesn't want a pic of us on their fridge!



After scouring the internet for literally MINUTES...I found Totally Magnets-every sort of magnet you can imagine. The part that I liked the most is that I could design my own save the date magnet. If you aren't inclined to do that...they do have ones that you simply insert your photo into. Krista at totally magnets was great....I called her with questions and she was on the ball. They send you a digital print of your design before they go to press just to doubly make sure you are happy with the product. They were pretty in-expensive if I do say so myself. 150 magnets + shipping was only about $130.00-sweet.



I sent out a bunch yesterday- not all of them - still waiting on Double J to get me some addresses!



Hope you like!

Tuxedo's

I really wanted Double J to wear a snazzy suit for the wedding...he was not into it-at all. So we decided on the traditional tux-minus the bow tie.

A local place, Nelson's, had a February special-Ring Bearer & Groom's tux free, and free shoes for the entire wedding party. So, last week, I went to Nelson's and picked out great tux's for the wedding. They ended up being Ralph Lauren ones. We also decided on the regular windsor tie.

My dress is not crazy formal so I didn't think the tux's should be.

They even had ties to match my bridesmaids dresses.

All in all...30 minutes...and I was done.

Check that puppy off the list.

Step #3 The Dress

So...I wasn't actually planning on my wedding dress being one of the first things that I could cross of my wedding to-do list..it just sort of happened.

My sisters Aimee & Stacy (Maid and Matron of Honors) are busy mommas and have very little free time, so when Stacy called me up on January 7th, and said that she wanted to go to Syracuse on Saturday the 10th, and maybe we could go wedding dress shopping...and Aimee is also free that weekend...I jumped at the chance.

Stacy called me back like 3 minutes later to say that she booked me an appointment at David's Bridal at 10 on Saturday (wow she is efficient...must run in the family.)

We called mom and she was in too.

Being the planner that I am...I went to the David's Bridal web-site about a million and a half times between Wednesday and Saturday. David's has a nice selection of dresses for those of us that are lacking in the skinny department! I picked out some ones that I liked from the website...and noted their order number. Then...I found this little link on the bottom that allows actual brides..not the model posing as a bride...to post photos of them wearing the gowns. I found this to be EXTREMELY helpful! (Who would have thought that a real person wearing a dress would look very different from a model wearing that same dress???? go-figure!) Needless to say...my favorite dresses were not the same as before.

Saturday morning (bright and early), we all pile into Stacy's SUV- Mom, Me, Stace, Aim and baby Mattingly who is my flower girl. We make the snowy trek down Route 81 to Syracuse in search of a gown.

A special thanks to my honey for buying me a Tom-Tom for my birthday, we got there with time to spare.

I should preface this by saying that I had no idea what to expect while trying on wedding gowns, I am not a real girly girl, and the idea of shopping for hours actually makes me ill...So I went into this thinking that I was just going to try some on..get sick of it..and look another time.

I sign in with the nice lady at the desk..and she assigns me Jackson (the wedding assistance from HEAVEN) She was so great...she (very discreetly) asked me what size I thought I needed and pointed me to that direction. She asked me to pick out a few to try on for now, and stated that I could try on any and all that I wanted. I picked out a few, with the help of Aimee (Mom and Stacy were in the bathroom with Matti...she had an "up the back-er"..I know the Mommy's out there know what I mean!) and took them to the changing room. Jackson appeared with headpieces, veils, slips & bras...everything a bride to be could want. Jackson would play with Matti, while Aim & Stace were helping me in or out of a dress...she was just wonderful, and her manager (didn't catch her name) was fantastic as well. At the end of the day..I try on a hand full of dresses, about a dozen in all and ended up falling in love with the very first one that I tried on! So..just to be sure, I put it back on, with the slip and veil..and a head thingy.
I gave the final the a-o-k to Jackson, and tell her that this is the one I want...she says "I think you need a smaller size." God love her!

-my best advice to a bride who is shopping for her wedding dress....take your sisters:) and your mother, and enjoy it...it is supposed to be fun, and it's true what they say, you will know it when you put it on!-

Everyone else is!

So....I figured that since I spend a lot of my down time (both at work and at home) online, looking at the blogs that my friends (Jess & Jacy) have created, I should start one.

This all really started because a great friend recently told me that I should write a book about efficient (and very cost effective) wedding planning. I imagine that this dear friend thinks this since I've been engaged about 24 days at this point and I'm just about done with everything.

My plan is to post the different stages of planning my wedding, in hopes that your comments and ideas can help me nail down the details that I have yet to solidify!

Talk to you soon!