Freaking Out!

I took a little break from Wedding planning the last couple of weeks...I needed to focus on me...And get ready for Christmas.
I actually enjoyed the time off...Which is VERY un-Christinalike of me!!


All day I was excited that there are only 8 months left until the Wedding.
Until it just hit me...And now I am freaking out.
So it just hit me that starting tomorrow there are less than 8 months until the Wedding...So now I am freaking out that with only 7 months and change left to go, I am quite behind!! :(


How can I, the Queen of Wedding Planning, be so behind in planning my own Wedding?!


I don't have any Save-The-Dates, Invitations, or Favors picked out.

I don't have a photographer, a videographer, a baker, a florist, a DJ, a limo, a tuxedo place...

*Sighs*

Countdown

EXACTLY 8 MONTHS UNTIL OUR WEDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!

Twitter

Last night I decided to join Twitter.
I have no idea why...But, why not?


So if anyone is interested, here is my URL: http://twitter.com/Born2BMrsHines


Anyone else use Twitter, so I can follow you?

Hi!!

I have been so sick and so busy trying to catch up on all of my Christmas shopping that I got behind on that I really have not done any wedding planning in like 2 weeks!!

This is the first time that I am attempting to blog from my new iPod Touch...Early Christmas present from my Great Aunt! :)

Wedding Jewlery

For the last several years I decided that I would wear a pearl necklace for my wedding. I have never owned pearls, but I think they are so classy and elegant.

However my wedding dress is quite busy on the neckline to have a full strand of pearls. The halter is just like the rest of the dress; covered in lace, pearls, and diamonds. So it would look bad to have a big necklace.

When I first tried the dress on I also tried on different necklaces for ideas. I am a jewelry person, so I definitely want to wear a necklace, but the more simple ones looked the best with my dress. And I really didn't want to wear costume jewelry.


Well my Mom found a jewelry set that she thought would be perfect...But she wanted to make sure I loved it before she bought it.

So she took me to go see them, and I loved them...So she bought them. But I will wait until August to get them. If she tries to give them to me for Christmas, I won't let her. :)


The set (which doesn't come together, but I am just calling it a 'set') is 14K White Gold, Freshwater pearls, and diamonds:

Necklace


Matching Earrings

So I would obviously wear those studs in my first earring holes...But I have a total of three holes in each ear. So do I not wear any earrings in my second and third holes?
And actually, I have the upper cartilage in my left ear pierced, I usually wear a heart-shaped diamond stud in it every day...But I can leave it out for the wedding if it will look better.

Speaking of ear piercings, Jon has a barbell in his cartilage...I haven't decided if I will ask him to take it out for the wedding or not.
Maybe we do the classier, less earring look for the Church Ceremony...And then wear whatever earrings we want during the reception?
I dunno yet.

Wedding Dress Update

So my dress came in last week...And my Mom, my Gramma, and I went to David's Bridal yesterday to pick it up. So of course I tried it on, and we found some flaws. On the front part of the halter, right by my collarbone, there is a lace finish on one side and no matching trim on the other side...I don't really know how to explain it, but it is totally noticeable.
Also, I think one of the pearl beads fell off.
And there was a pull in the train.
Also, at the top of the dress...Like the top of my chest...Where there is a 'bone' something-or-rather, one side noticeably sticks out and one side does not. Ideally, neither side would be sticking out the top at all.

So they got the seamstress or the manager or someone important to come look at it. And without hesitation she said they will just order me a new dress. Because the issues were too delicate and important to risk trying to fix on the dress...And possibly not even being able to fix it.

So that was nice of them...Considering how rude they have been some of the time.
So that's cool.
She asked how long until my wedding, and I told her 8 1/2 months. She said my new dress should come in after the New Year...And that will be plenty of time before my wedding.
So that is one thing I am NOT stressing about right now, surprisingly.

I am glad we don't have to try to ignore the dress issues, since they will not only be fixed, but they will be non-existent since it will be another new dress.

It worked out well, since the dress would only be chillaxin' in the closet for several more months. Since we got the dress in a Petite, it shouldn't have to be shortened...As long as I have a heel of probably at least 3 inches. (Which means that Jon will need shoes with a heel or a lift or something...Since on flat feet he is only like 3 inches taller than me...But that's another post for another time!)

So the only alterations that really need to be done are to the halter strap...It is way too big. And the chest and waist have to be taken in a little bit.

But I am holding off on those alterations until closer to the wedding, because I have no idea how much more weight I will lose by then...And I don't want to keep taking it in a million times. So I will wait until closer to the wedding...Not the last minute of course, but just a bit closer.

I really don't know how much weight I will lose...Presumably I won't gain any weight.
I go to my personal trainer for Boot Camp Class every single night, Monday through Friday..And sometimes Saturdays too.
I have lost 10 inches since mid-September. So, we'll see what happens.

Too bad we can't go back to a few years ago when I was still underweight. I mean, I am not overweight now or anything...But just definitely not underweight.
Anyway, the whole weight topic can be a post for another time as well.

So that is the update about my wedding dress.

I don't feel like it was a waste of a 2 hour trip, since we came home empty handed...Because we did accomplish something...I am going to get another new dress in a month that will hopefully be perfect. And we have plenty of time. So, hopefully everything will be wonderful.


EDIT: I found the shoes I tried on with the dress...I don't know how high the heel is...But this should hopefully give an idea of how high the heel needs to be about:

Willow

My Centerpieces

More detail about Update Topic # 2...My Centerpieces!

There it is! Gorgeous, right?

Well, of course that is just the stock photo...But the idea is still the same.

It is hard to know how many of them to buy right now...Since we do not have a final guest count yet...But I was not willing to wait until the summer to start purchasing these.

Last Friday Mama Hines and I went to the local Joann's Fabrics and Michael's stores and bought every centerpiece they had in stock...So we ended up with 7 of them. And the stores said they are probably not getting any more in. I can order them online, but I would rather hold off on the extra added cost for shipping and handling right now.

On Friday my Mom and whoever else from my family that she forced to help me, ran around and bought 9 more.

Mom and I went looking all around on Saturday and Sunday, but came up empty-handed.

So for now we have 16 of these guys. My guess is we need about 20 of them.

They do not come with the tea light candles...So since there are room for 6 candles, I originally wanted each centerpiece to have 2 white candles, 2 black candles, and 2 fuchsia candles.

But I CANNOT even begin to explain how difficult it is to find any shade of pink tea light candles! If you are lucky, you can find a pale pink color...But that seems to be it.

Minus of course if you want to spend a fortune on actually making your own custom candles.

So I might have to settle on black & white candles...Or just white. The base is more like pewter than black, but that's close enough to black I guess.

And then I can just do hot pink flowers.

It looks like you can fit a dozen roses in each vase...But there is no way I am spending that much money for each centerpiece to have a dozen of any flower.

So one of these days I will buy some experimental flowers to make some mock-up centerpieces...And see what flowers and what quantity look good, without looking too cheap.

Also, I am determined to try out bamboo in them. If it doesn't look good, at least I will know that I tried it out!

Also, I am going to buy some mirrors to see how necessary mirrors under the centerpiece are.

Well, I guess that is about all I have to say about my centerpieces right now.

Oh, and if anyone is in a 3 hour radius of me and is looking for those centerpieces...Sorry, I probably bought them all! :(

K, 1 update down...6 more to go! ;-)

UPDATES! UPDATES!! UPDATES!!!

Boy do I have a lot to update about!!

I do not have time to write about everything right now...So I will make a list now to remind me what posts I need to write about later.


1) I got my Wedding Dress, my Bridesmaid Dresses, my Mother's Dress and Jon's Mother's Dress! Surprisingly, none of them are by Alfred Angelo...And surprisingly I am totally fine with that.

My Mom surprised me by purchasing my dress for me. She also got me a nice new tiara, and a double veil with sparkles and pearls just like on my dress.

I have yet to pick out jewelry and shoes.

2) I finally decided on and started buying my centerpieces…Very exciting!

However, I have not decided on favors yet. Or about the photo booth. Or a charity.

Or a dessert table. Or a candy buffet. Or an ice cream buffet.

And speaking of desserts, we haven’t gone to talk to the baker I think I picked out…Or gone for cake tastings yet…To make sure that the cake I designed will also taste delicious!

Come to think of it, we haven’t even gone for tastings for what we will want for dinner at our reception. I wonder when we are supposed to tell the lady what we decided on…

3) I spent my first Thanksgiving without my family...But I also spent my first Thanksgiving with my Future In-Laws! And Jon's Mom took us to pretty backdrops around her town for a set of our Engagement Photos! :) She took us down by a lake and the court house that has really nice scenery.

It is a good thing we took advantage of the sunshine in the afternoon on Thanksgiving, because it was all crappy and rainy out later on in the day as well as for the rest of the days.

4) We asked Jon's Aunt and Uncle if his cousin could be our Ring Bearer...So we have that all set.
And the search for a Flower Girl is finally over...As we asked one of his Groomsmen and his wife if their daughter could be our Flower Girl.
So by the time of our Wedding in 8 1/2 months...Our Ring Bearer will be about 4 1/2 years old and our Flower Girl will be about 2 1/2 years old.
Should be cute.

5) My hair dilemma. My dress is a halter…Which is a style I hadn’t originally planned on…And it changes the whole idea of how I will want my hair done. I have been growing my hair since before I was engaged, so I can have long curls…But the halter has gorgeous beads and sparkles all around the fabric…And if I wear my hair down it covers the gorgeous details.

But I don’t really want my hair completely up either. Sooooo maybe I can do a half up/half down type style…To try to get the best of both worlds. Or maybe I can try a style that is mostly up, and displays the beautiful halter, but also has a lot of long curlies hanging down too.

So I have a lot of ideas to try out.

6) I can’t remember if I have written about it before or not…But I have always dreamed of having an Engagement Party. Everyone I talk to about it, just sees it as an unnecessary cost.

My Mother has offered to pay for an Engagement Party for us. However Jon (and everyone seems to 100% agree with him) would prefer to take the money that would go towards the party, and put it towards the wedding.

I can see how that makes sense and all…But I just feel like I am making a lot of compromises to my dream wedding as it is…To make it more affordable and all. Why should I kill yet another dream of mine?

So I thought maybe we can compromise…And have a more low-key Engagement Party, or just invite less people…And then there should be leftover money that can also go towards the wedding.

Etiquette says that you CANNOT invite someone to your Engagement Party that is not invited to your wedding…But it also says that you DO NOT have to invite everyone to your Engagement Party that is invited to your wedding.

So what if we just invite our immediate family, very best friends, and the Bridal Party?

I don’t think that there is anything wrong with a smaller more intimate setting to celebrate our engagement.

We were thinking of trying to have the party in February or March. It will be hard to plan it too far in advance, since there is a huge possibility of a snow storm in either of those months.

7) Since I was away from Wednesday until Saturday, I got very behind on my email...So I was just getting around to checking my old unread email this afternoon...And lost among a mess of emails was an email I got from David's Bridal last Thursday. I was very close to not opening it since I get a lot of emails from them about sales and such.
But this one was a very important email...Telling me that my dress was ready for pick-up!!
HOW EXCITING!!

I can't believe how fast it came in! It's only been like 2 weeks! None of the other dresses are in yet...And I expected mine to take the longest!

I mean it isn't altered or anything yet...
So I don't actually know if they had to make a new one from scratch or just order the dress in my size...
But still…We are talking about the most important garment I will ever wear in my entire life!!

I can’t help but be giddy. :)