Apr022010

Possible Budget Resolution

Yesterday’s April Fool’s post earned me the highest daily click thru’s on the blog since it began last July. Wow, that’s crazy. Apparently I disappointed a lot of people. And one person used it as a spin-off fooling to my poor best friend.

Anyhow, during my mass procrastination and crying fest last night (over homework, moving and not having time for either) I cracked open the wedding budget I started in the very early stages when we were still planning a cruise wedding. This was about 5 date/ location changes ago. =) So yeah, opened that sucker up, added a bunch more tabs, and feel pretty OK with it.

On the Vegas Only tab, I am including Vegas-specific items. If it can be used elsewhere or won’t be coming to Vegas, it’s not included. I have the flight/hotel estimate as $1200, though it might be a smidge less. Our huge suite for 4 nights/ 5 days with the major discount is $594, including all fees and taxes. From all estimates I’ve seen, flights should be about $550.

Other than that, I included tips to the hair dresser, limo driver, photographer, and officiant. The wedding package itself (duh!), the marriage license, the cupcakes and wine (reception), wedding hair, the favors (kick ass polycarbonate water bottles), and a handful of other items are in this list. I didn’t put food and entertainment on there cuz I don’t really know how to budget for those. Ideas?

Glaringly missing from that tab is the dress, veil, and his suit since we will be able to wear them again. Actually, we’ll wear them to the Miami reception. Also missing are our wedding rings, ketubah, the stamp I bought, cupcake wrapper pattern (totally reusable!), “something blue” necklace (I wear it 2-3 times a week already), fake flowers (future home décor), and a handful of other things that I’ll think of in the future.

The Miami reception tab is still relatively blank. Well, it does say “Publix cake” in large letters but is otherwise blank. Ha! I think only Southerners will get why that’s such a big deal.

Mar312010

News, Kinda huge.

So… considering how much I share with the world and how open I am with everything about my life, this one has been ridiculously hard to keep quiet. I mean, my parents hear details about my wedding from friends of theirs that I don’t even know. Someone, somewhere tells them stuff, which I find highly amusing considering how non-tech savvy my parents (OK, my mom) are.

But anyhow, this news. Looks like it’s a good thing that I sold the dress cuz if it didn’t fit me now, it’s certainly not going to fit me in 6 months when I’m closing in on the end of my pregnancy. Anyone want to send some ridiculously cute empire waist maternity wedding dresses my way??

How many tests did you take to make sure it was really real?? Yes, I knew I’d be posting this eventually and have been keeping a pregnancy journal. Oh c’mon, I can’t keep anything to myself!

Mar302010

March 16 TMW post

Check me out every Tuesday on TweetMyWedding!
++++

Tweet: @msrib our vegas budget is $1500, but flight & hotel is about $1100. methinks we need to rethink that budget. *sigh*

One of the biggest wedding-related things on my mind lately has been our budget. We picked Las Vegas to keep our budget low – as well as about a hundred other reasons. Being tight on funds, and unsure when Steve will find a job in Miami, our budget is even more precarious. That said, I have been trying to re-figure our Vegas budget. It’s basically come to my attention (due to crazy amounts of research) that a destination wedding can cost upwards of about $30,000.

Not ours!

We have the ceremony/ officiant, photographer/ videographer, limo, flowers, and I’m sure other things booked with Scenic Las Vegas Weddings for the grand total of $399. They came highly recommended by 2 different friends and have been amazing about responses via both email and their Facebook page.
Our hotel suite for 5 days/ 4 nights is roughly $600 at the Luxor. No, it’s not the classiest hotel on the strip, but it’s affordable and fun. We both love Egyptian things so it is perfect. Also, with their nearly weekly Twitter Tuesday specials, all our guests can stay in the same hotel if they choose.

Our airfare is the problem. Having never purchased 2 airline tickets anywhere, it’s baffling to me that they’re between $5-600. Sure, that’s 2 round trip tickets from Miami/ Ft Lauderdale to Vegas, but still.
Pretty much, as our budget stands, we’ve blown the entire thing on flights, hotel and wedding. This leaves no room for food, Grand Canyon day trip, souvenirs, food, food, food. Notice a small problem? We need to figure this out, and sort of soon.

How would you handle something like this? I’ve seen DW wedding budgets handled as adding what you’d spend on the honeymoon and what you’d spend on the wedding. Considering we’re having a reception sometime in 2011 in Miami, our budget is ridiculously low.

I think our “problem” is we’re both thinking of this as a one day event when the most amount of time, energy and money should be spent on our relationship and marriage. On the other hand, this is a vacation trip with a couple hours of wedding-related things shoved in there. Yes, we’re kinda weird that way. =)

Tweet: @msrib I am so happy that the gorgeous wedding dress i no longer love & adore will be sold today & go to a new home this week. thank you, @ebay

That’s right, it finally sold. For a whole lot less than I paid for it and after being posted on 5 wedding resale sites and on ebay 8-9 times since May. I will be getting a grossly lower price than I wanted, but at least it’s gone. I took a friends advice and dropped the price and voila! gone…

Tweet: @msrib i had the not-so-startling realization this morning that i only have 15 more working days at my wonderful job.

I am fortunate for having so much time until my wedding due to the fact that we are making a North Carolina to Florida move in just under a month. And I am graduating (read: loads of writing and studying and exams) with my MBA in about 6 weeks. I have no idea when I’ll be starting my new job, but there’s leeway on my start date.

Mar262010

Bringing in Food

This is me not working on my midterms or paper. My brain seriously hurts.

But anyhow, I started looking for a hair salon – cuz hey, why not, right? I asked @luxorlv if there was a salon onsite for us (ok, me) to get our hair done, and she pointed me directly to their price list (PDF). Bueno! Last time I’d checked, I only saw stuff about their spa.

I’m definitely thinking of getting my hair done. Since I’ll be wearing Converse, I won’t need a pedicure. And since I bite the hell outta my nails, I won’t need a manicure. Granted, if I really wanted a mani or pedi, I could easily get them at home the day before we leave.

I also started playing around on the Amenities page to look at the food prices for a possible in-room meal. They are crazy! I’m still totally OK with the whole group heading to one of the many buffets in Vegas after the pictures are done. However, after reading their Policies (PDF) I’m worried that we may not be able to bring the cupcakes in from Retro without an extra charge. I’ll give them a buzz on Monday to double check. Pretty much because while their cakes look amazing, they are also pricey (PDF) for wedding cakes or even “special event” cakes.

198 days until we’re married. Um, wasn’t it just like 300++ yesterday?? Seriously, time is flying, but not fast enough.

Mar252010

The Dress… she is GONE

She is currently in the hands of the very capable USPS folks. I even paid for insurance and spent more than she paid me for shipping. But I don’t care, cuz she’s gone baby gone!

Mar232010

March 16 TMW post

Check me out every Tuesday on TweetMyWedding!
++++

Tweet: @msrib we had a very productive day: goodwilling, food, packing supplies, & paper/ stamps/ ink pads for wedding cupcake wrappers. to emboss or not?

We’re having so few actual “wedding” items in Vegas that I feel the need to DIY everything that I can possibly make. For example, we’re having a champagne (or wine) and cupcakes reception in our suite after the ceremony and pictures. Should I be content with the cupcakes as when I pick them up? Of course not! I’m planning on making super cute wrappers and cupcake flags for each one. Or at least the wrappers as both might be overkill. This weekend I started working on a stamp to have made to use for things like embossing the wrappers, stamping napkins, and post-wedding, using to stamp letters.

Tweet: @msrib: http://twitpic.com/18o4k8 – Revised font.. Like so?

Our favors are 32oz polycarbonate water bottles that I’m putting our logo on. The good thing is we’re moving to Miami in a few weeks where the company is, so I have plenty of time to order and pick them up. The biggest problem is settling on a logo I like. As the designer, I’m the picky one; Steve isn’t all that concerned with what the logo looks like.

After a bunch of different logos and polling my twitter friends, I ended up ordering the stamp off Etsy from BlossomStamps for really reasonable. It’s $10 plus like $2 shipping for a 1″x1.5″ custom stamp. Now to find the embossing powder, cute paper, and free time to work on all the projects.

208 days left!

Mar222010

Vegas On My Mind…

The dress? She is G-O-N-E! Seriously. The 843rd time was the charm I suppose. It was lowering the price considerably and just continually reposting it on ebay that most likely worked. Within 2 hours of the auction ending, I already had the money in my Paypal account. It is amazing! And it only took 10 very freakin long months to sell…

Now onto other things…..

Steve keeps asking me what I will do with my free time after the wedding is over. Seriously, I can sit online for hours and look at cake boards, dresses, cupcakes, new projects to undertake, ketubah imagery, look up and customize favors, and the list goes on and on and on. I could occupy a very large chunk of my days playing with wedding things.

Want to see our suite and Vegas party reception? I am so excited and can’t wait to stay here! Sure, it’s not the highest end hotel, but I don’t care. We’re staying in a suite for 4 nights/ 5 days and enjoying ourselves the whole time. Our wedding is actually going to be IN our suite, followed by a cupcake/ champagne reception.

Image from Luxor Las Vegas

Slide show and 360 video

Info page with the floorplan

She’s just a really pretty room and I’m super excited. 6.5 months to go.

Also, we’re moving to Miami in a little less than a month. 17 hours away by car. It’s been coming for a long time, but was finalized a few weeks ago. Well, about a week and a half ago when I gave my notice at work. It seriously hurts that I’m leaving such an amazing job and the best bosses I’ve ever had (sorry Jeffy) but I have to do it. Also, after giving my notice, I learned that I don’t take praise all that well. I am the person that laughs it off or turns 6 shades of red. Who knew I was so.. humble?

We’re leaving to move into my parents place, well, the cottage on their property. It’s a 2/2 complete with kitchen, family room, dining room, and everything. It’s really cool. Right now my family (yes Cathy, you’re my family too!) is renovating and painting it for us. It will be difficult at first moving back to the place I swore I wouldn’t return, but it will definitely help when we have children. My parents are about 150 yards away, brothers, aunts, uncles, everyone are super close.

As crappy as I feel about leaving my job, this means I will be able to have a bridal shower. And start planning our Miami reception. And plan for zee bambinos. Ahhh bambinos!

Mar192010

Veil, Blocked!

It’s finished. It’s blocked. Now I just need to sew the comb onto it. It’s currently sitting pinned to the blocking mats in our spare room.

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