May242010

April 6 TMW Post

Disclaimer: For all y’all not following my wedding planning antics over on TweetMyWedding Tuesdays, I’ll try to remember to post them all here.  Unfortunately I’ve been seriously lagging at that and so there’s going to be in flux… apologies!
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Tweet: quite a lot to do today. i have 5 days to wrap up everything & file/ organize the last 1.5 years worth of stuff for my successor.

There hasn’t been a whole lot of wedding planning going on this week due to the fact that we are moving to Miami next week and are crazy busy packing, packing, packing. Also, I have 2 major papers due this Friday; one in each of my 2 classes. Also, this coming Friday is my last day at the job I have loved like crazy for the last 19 months. They’ve been interviewing for my replacement over the phone and today one came in. She was nice, and got the thumbs up from me. Three more are interviewing this week.

Tweet: custom designer in miami, styles: http://bit.ly/9L5euH http://bit.ly/b5nEPK http://bit.ly/dws7Sd http://bit.ly/cTy8ur http://bit.ly/90AhLN

Tweet: i really want this dress: http://bit.ly/9L4GCY #wedding

One thing I did play around with was my dress. Since my original dress is gone and in the hands of her new mama, I started looking for a replacement dress. During a random Etsy search, I found a fantastic custom dress designer. Not only that, but she is in Miami! After many emails back and forth, it seems that she will custom make anything I am willing to pay for AND she’s planning her own wedding! The tweet with the 5 links are all hers that I initially loved. I’d been leaning towards a custom made, or custom fitting dress (like the second tweet) for a while now. And if I can make a new friend out of it, all the better.

187 days left! It’s nice to have something considerably far away since everything else is bunched up in the next few weeks.

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May242010

March 30 TMW Post

Disclaimer: For all y’all not following my wedding planning antics over on TweetMyWedding Tuesdays, I’ll try to remember to post them all here.  Unfortunately I’ve been seriously lagging at that and so there’s going to be in flux… apologies!
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Tweet: i think, cuz i’m wearing sneakers to it, that i need to knit some cute ruffled socks for my wedding. got a good pattern for me?

Tweet: i decided to knit another pair of these as i absolutely love them. but in an orange &/or blue color: http://bit.ly/byaykZ #wedding #socks

I am a knitting fool. With so much time remaining until our wedding, I feel like I need to keep busy with wedding-related tasks. At least The Fiancé likes that idea better than baby-related tasks – namely reminding him that we need to have babies soon. But anyhow, with as simple as The Wedding is, I occupy my time with other projects that take a long time… like the veil that took 5 months to knit.

Our move to Miami is in less than 3 weeks and, at this point, I am avoiding ordering anything. Granted, this is mostly due to the fact that I should be spending my time packing up our apartment or writing the 2 papers due next Friday or completing my take home midterms. But give me 5 free minutes and I am browsing Zappos or David’s Bridal or Light In The Box or The Unique Sheep and coveting all the pretties. Am I the only one with an online shopping addiction? I highly doubt it. =)

I am currently avoiding travel sites and trying to convince myself that waiting a few more months will make airfare drop. It’s not really working, but at least I am avoiding the sites.

Tweet: it amuses me to NO end that everything in my @zappos favorites costs $42. 42= binary of 10.10.10 & the next tattoo i will get. #geek

Speaking of shopping, this one literally had me giggling uncontrollably for about 5 minutes. I am a self-professed geek and lover of Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. OK, so what? If you’re a H2G2 fan, you know that 42 is “the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” Have I mentioned that I am easily amused? As I recently learned in my networking class, calculating out 101010 in binary really does add up to 42. I also recently learned that the total number of spots on 2 dice (die?) adds up to 42.

And because I love numbers so much…
In 8 days, I will no longer be a YMCA employee.
In 19 days, I will no longer call North Carolina home.
In 37 days, I will be an MBA graduate.
In 194 days, I will be a Mrs.

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May162010

New Techie Toy

I got a new iPhone last week and after much battery draining, I finally think I have it all [ok, mostly] figured out. Now, what are your favorite apps? I’m really only looking for the free ones right now.

I have:
Echofon
Facebook
Emoji for Free
Bump
Fandango
Foursquare
Kindle
Livejournal App
myStarbucks
Sudoku 2
Unblock me Free (addicted to this!!)
UrbanSpoon
Weather Channel
Words with Friends Free (i’m msrib on there.. find me!)
Yowza!! Mobile Coupons

Looking for wedding planning, fun games, baby planning (nothing yet, just planning), and other fun stuff. What are your faves?

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May152010

Dress and Shoes… CHECK!

Fantastic news… I bought my [replacement] dress this morning!

Steve has to spend 6-7 hours at a work orientation in Miami, so I was a nice fiancé and drove him up there. Good thing too since the most direct route was all torn up and I needed to use my old shortcuts around the city. Rather than drive the 45min back down to Homestead, I hung out in my old stompin’ grounds. I went to Dadeland mall, with the intention of hitting all the anchor stores and seeing what they had.

Nordstrom, not anything of my taste in the dress section. Moved on to Macy’s, wandered around checking all the rack, honing in on white and blue and finally saw it. White, short, lace, full skirt, ribbon belt. I grabbed 2 sizes, wandered some more, then hit up the dressing room. A-dor-able!

I could envision it with a different color belt. The skirt is full enough to allow for numerous petticoats, depending on how full I want it. The straps are wide enough that I don’t need to worry about special undergarments… hello, Spanx! And the lace is simply gorgeous! I texted a handful of friends with a picture and posted it to twitter. The reaction was all positive and for a whopping $75 plus tax, the beauty was mine! Yes, she was on sale, but even the regular price of $99 was damn reasonable.

At the “suggestion” of a friend, I ended up hitting up all the shoe stores in the mall and found some super cute cobalt blue wedge sandals. Granted, by the time I bought them, I felt like my feet were going to fall off between the blisters – Chucks with no socks is evil! – and walking on the sprained ankle. The sales girl was wearing them in black, which is always a good sign of extreme shoe comfort, and told me she is pregnant, another good sign. They were mine. Another $45.

Bear in mind that the other dress sold for $279 plus shipping, so I am definitely under the budget I set for myself.

Here’s a little sneak peek of the gorgeous lace and shoes:

I purchased 1.5″ wide orange ribbon and 5/8″ blue ribbon. My plan is to sew the blue to the orange and replace the black ribbon currently on the dress. The ribbon currently falls higher up that I like, so I’ll be cutting off the loops as well.

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May072010

Accomplishment

Today I am a graduate of East Carolina University with my Masters degree. I can officially add “MBA” to the end of my name. A name that I will be changing permanently in 5 months and a few days.

I spent the day with my dad. First shopping at Home Depot (wooo!) and later helping him hang the new cabinets in our kitchen. We have lived ere for 3 weeks and finally have half a kitchen… just not the cooking half.  After working in here, I hobbled* to my parents house to make my fabulous fried chicken for our dinner. And after dinner, I was presented with…

*Hobbled as I found the hole on all the 8.5+ acres that I could manage to fall in and sprained my ankle for the 843rd time. Oh yes, it was fun! Good thing I’ve carried my crutches with me state-to-state and apartment-to-apartment.

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May042010

New Reads! The Urban Bride

The absolutely fantastic Amanda Young and Meghan Magritz started a fabu new company.. You really need to check it out! It’s called The Urban Bride: the modern bride’s guide to a city-chic wedding.

You’ll recall that Amanda is the utterly talented calligrapher that is penning our ketubah for us. Head over and wish her and Meghan a bit of luck on their new venture. I know I certainly can’t wait to follow all their posts.

An excerpt:
“The Urban Bride is not just any blog: it’s a blog about real brides. Because, let’s be honest, we all love garden weddings, but we don’t all get married in a garden, now do we? What about the millions of brides looking for an urban affair? No tulle or princess dresses. No macarena at the reception.”

Now I don’t know about you, but that certainly sounds like my kind of blog! While, sure, I love reading about fairytale weddings and seeing the crazy gorgeous pictures, it’s not realistic to me. We’re having a supremely low-key wedding and backyard BBQ as our reception a few months later. And it’s all about budget and DIY goodness. I’m all about reading about “real” wedding and maybe being featured one day! *wink wink nudge nudge*

To commemorate their launch, Urban Bride is having a giveaway, so head on over there and enter it for some fun city-chic swag!

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May012010

A real update!

I know I do not post nearly as much as I should. But in all honesty, I do the majority of my wedding “planning” on twitter these days. I am also the featured bride on Tuesdays over on TweetMyWedding. The other brides are amazing and you should really go check us all out. 🙂

sneak peek of the design for all the “invites”

That little plug aside, I’ve finalized the design for our “invites” and just need the final head count to order them. I put it in quotes because it’s a whole package of Vegas wedding announcements, Miami reception invitation cards, Miami reception RSVP cards, and little cards for our photo dump website. Our what? You know… when you go to a wedding, take tons of pictures with your camera then eventually get around to putting them on Facebook. Well, I created a Shutterfly site specifically for people to be able to upload everything there so we can see what everyone has done. We, and anyone viewing the site, can create books, bags, or whatever else from those pictures.

My main reason for posting is that we have been working on the guest list in the last few days. We have a fairly comprehensive list of family and friends. The problem lies in my father’s family. To say they’re all estranged is probably too harsh of a word. I am good friends with one of my cousin’s, and facebook friends with her and 3 others. However, my father hasn’t uttered a word to his step-mother, step-brother or step-sister in years. We kinda like it that way. My dilemma is do we be the bigger people and invite the lot hoping the “adults” decline and the cousins I like accept, or just not invite anyone?

What do you think? I can give back story if you want via email.

Thanks!

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Apr222010

Hello Lovelies!

I am still alive! Things have been crazy hectic in the last few weeks between packing, writing 2 huge papers, working on finals, wrapping up my old job, preparing for my new job, and moving to Homestead! Yes, that’s right, we uprooted our lives and already moved down here. The drive was about the longest on the planet. Seriously, it should have been about 13-14 hours max and we managed to turn it into nearly 21 hours….. but way more on that later.

Graduation is in a few weeks. And, thankfully, we’ll have 5 months until the wedding after graduation. I will be so happy to have a break from huge life events right in a row.

I also need to start planning the wedding reception party and am contemplating mid-January as a combo reception/ Steve’s 40th. Oh dear, maybe I shouldn’t advertise that… 😉

Anyhow, I am writing this super quick post so y’all don’t forget about me. 😉

Cheers!

sent from my BB Bold… sorry for any typos!

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