hotels

June 8 TMW Post

Tweet: i’m shaking just a little bit, but $400 just couldn’t be passed up. incl taxes, fees, and travel insurance.

Tweet: Taking my chances w/@SpiritAirlines. Plenty of time built-in to our agenga for bad stuff to happen. Gotta be like a duck & let it roll off.

This post is all about completing the bookings for our weddingmoon, which is, rightfully so, the largest part of our planning.  After a few back and forth emails with Heather, the heard of customer services and person running the @spirit_helper and @spiritairlines twitter accounts, I booked our flights. As I was checking prices, an email came in with dirt cheap prices during October. Now, I’d been getting these emails for a few months now and they’re never more than a month in advance. After booking, I emailed Heather back and she immediately replied saying she sent that one out for me.

I know Spirit has terrible reviews, but I’m willing to take a chance. I booked nonstop flights both ways. To get the crazy low price of under $400 for EVERYTHING, I joined their $9 Fare Club. My brother’s future sister-in-law just started working for Spirit and will hopefully be able to request to get on our flight, at least one of the legs. We saved over $250 off all other airlines, even previous times I checked Spirit. It seemed to be kinda a no-brainer to me.

Tweet: booked the hotel for the 8th. now our weddingmoon is officially and 100% booked. i feel sooo much better!

After tweeting back and forth with the @luxorlv tweeter, she gave me a promo code to use for the additional night and I booked it last night. Oh yeah, to book the dirt cheap airfare, I had to extend the trip by an extra night. We’ll be arriving into Vegas around 11:30pm their time (ugh… that’s 2:30am our time!) so we basically needed a place to sleep. Seeing as it’s a long holiday weekend with tons of conventions in town, hotels are all roughly $100 for on or near the Strip. Using the Luxor code, I just booked it. The difference is our “formal” reservation is for the Tower Suite – big, lush, super fancy, high floor, huge Jacuzzi – and the single room reservation is for a Pyramid Deluxe room. I could care less what features it has.

124 days left!

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Not so Quickie Update

In the last few weeks, we’ve had the following wedding progress:

* booked our airfare — yes, this ranks as the absolute highest since it was such a chore! But alas, we have non stop flights to/from Vegas from the 8th to the 13th for $390.99 including the flights, taxes, fees, airline club fees, AND insurance. I may be taking a risk by booking on Spirit Air, but there’s a few reasons why I am OK with it. Namely being in touch with their head of customer service via twitter and email the last few weeks, and also Cat’s sister is working for them. Both make me feel good about the decision. Also you can’t beat that price for 2 people ON a holiday weekend with a stick! Now the problem is finding a hotel room for the 8th since our reservation in the suite is for the 9th-13th. Also, this puts us $200 under our travel budget!

* guest list — I finally typed the names from all the labels and the slips of paper mom gave me into Excel. I was somewhat shocked to find out that it added up to 189 warm bodies including children. The reception will be open to all families, totally casual and just plain fun. Honestly, as much as my head is saying no, I think it’d be completely fun to have a bounce house! The whole shindig is in my parents back yard and guests will have roughly 4-5 acres to roam and play on during the party.

* designed and had printed 2 more stamps for wedding/ post-wedding use — the first is a super fabu address stamp that went through tons of changes before being agreed upon. The other is a stamp for the back of the RSVP envelopes. The envelope stamp says “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” Love Robert Frost! These 2 and the original one I had printed were done by the crazy talented BlossomStamps.

* purchased clear labels and downloaded loads of new fonts — yes, I am both lazy and cheap and will be using labels for our invites. The font I finally decided upon is called “MA Sexy” which amuses me, but whatever. It is both easily read and super flourishy. LOVE!

* cupcake tower — during a shopping trip to Home Depot to get the pieces for the tower, dad pointed out that we can do as many projects for the Miami reception, but not Vegas. His idea is to use short pieces of PVC pipe since I was going to wrap whatever I bought with blue painter’s tape anyhow and he has tons of piping. I’m also going to use 2 of the leftover door knobs from our new cabinets since there are a bunch left over.

* cupcake wrappers — I bought 3 shades each of orange and blue 12×12 card stock from Michael’s. After cutting them all out, I’m planning on stamping and embossing the following logo onto each. Steve said he prefers mini cupcakes, so we’ll be getting 4 dozen of those from Retro Bakery. I asked and was told we get 2 flavors per dozen, which is great and all, but their flavors are aMAZing and picking 8 will be torture!

* crinoline — I haven’t ordered one yet as I’m sort of hoping to find one locally. The only problem is I can’t find a store locally that sells square dance outfits. I might just suck it up and order the one from Petticoat Junction. I want a pale blue one, but think getting white and dying it on my own might be a better option than hoping they sell the right color.

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In totally non-wedding related news:
* ECU finally recognized me as a graduate with 2 degrees (the MBA and the MIS certificate)
* I am officially a Florida drivers license holder, now to get Luna transferred as well
* I am the somewhat proud owner of an iPhone. Somewhat because the signal is horrendous, but that may be due to it being an old phone.

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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.

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!

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Stinkin Budget

21:31 debating pro hair/makeup for the wedding. seems silly to only have for our day after photo shoot. suggestions? besides @ameliacartist 🙂


16:26 is $180 a lot for wedding day hair & make-up? i know i know, the pictures are priceless, but …..


16:31 & the $180 is including coming to our hotel room for me only. no one else. @seblagg @diybride @brideonbudget

So, in discussing Vegas nuptials with another bride on FB using the same company, I started thinking about getting pro work done for the wedding itself. I will be totally pro (for FREE) during our day after shoot (or rather 2 days after) and it seems kinda silly to not be made up similarly for the actual wedding. When I put the question out to my consultants on Twitter, by this I mean all the brides and wedding planners I’m friends with, they said $180 is damn cheap considering they come to your location. I’m still not sold on it.

Which bring me to another reason…

16:44 i wish i could remove our flight/hotel to vegas from our wedding budget. it’s so much prettier w/out them.


18:24 are you including travel & hotel in your wedding budget or is it an extra expense?

Considering our wedding is a destination wedding, I automatically including hotel and airfare in our budget. The hotel is deeply discounted (yay for @LuxorLV and they’re amazing deals), but still about $600. The airfare, when I last did estimates, is between $600-750 for 2 round trip flights. Now granted, that’s from Raleigh; Miami is about $60 less. Without including hotel and airfare, our budget/ actual spending is really low. The wedding is $400, marriage license is $60 and cake/ cupcakes are about $100. With a budget of $1500, that leaves plenty for tours, shows, dinner, rental van and gas out to the Grand Canyon, and so much more. Also, if this damn wedding dress does sell, that’s an extra $400 towards the purchase of the $125 dress I want. So obviously, now I’m reconsidering how to figure our budget.

Now onto a much more fun topic… graduation and bling!

18:57 have been looking at amethyst & citrine for grad rings. (school colors are purple & gold) just realized i can get any stone! #noclassring


19:13 i’m considering this: bit.ly/cFAeEA to wear with this: bit.ly/2SmvHm (already have) whatcha think?


19:19 the ring will be a “hooray i now have an MBA” gift to myself 🙂 @Tryphyna


19:24 oooooh another option: bit.ly/cWC5Jj


20:36 new options, graduation gift: bit.ly/bRYwgw, bit.ly/9Bfpnw, bit.ly/dCIFww, bit.ly/9XqiHm, bit.ly/9UxqRm


20:46 and bit.ly/bh4Kvp – yes, i’m indecisive!

23:00 big surprise, more choices: http://bit.ly/bjyh4Y, http://bit.ly/db4hvj, http://bit.ly/aOcBk8, http://bit.ly/b44uOH in order of pref.

I have been checking out different websites with gorgeous rings for my graduation gift. After graduation from UF, I bought myself an utterly gorgeous diamond and sapphire ring that was stolen a few years later. I loved that damn thing. So yeah, I started looking at other rings for my ECU graduation gift. So far my favorites, in order, are: http://bit.ly/bjyh4Y, http://bit.ly/db4hvj, bit.ly/9UxqRm

Did you buy yourself anything for graduation? It’s such a huge accomplishment and… why not?! Also, making payments is my friend. 😉

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Our Hotel is Booked!

You read that right! This morning I received a DM from the @LuxorLV twitter account telling me to hang tight, that their Twitter Tuesday rates would be published shortly. I’ve been all over twitter the last few weeks asking which hotel we should stay in: the Luxor or Excalibur, the Luxor or Flamingo, the Flamingo or Tahiti… you get the drift.  Well, the Luxor has been on my short list for a while, and actually kept retweeting my questions out the their follower base.

Today, when the twitter-only rates were published, I was floored. I was able to book a Tower Luxury Suite for not much more than the normal price of the Tower Deluxe room.

Yes, we are staying in a huge suite that is larger than my first apartment in North Carolina for 4 nights. We will have plenty of room for the cupcakes and wine reception I’m envisioning. Also, with as big as the room is and as pretty as the pictures are, we can totally have the ceremony and take professional pictures in the room!

This after I emailed the link to this top secret special deals page to all our Vegas invitees and some have checked it out and booked their room already! I actually wonder if I should bother to get a room block. I should email again and see who hasn’t booked yet and if they want to book there and then decide. 

When I was chatting with my younger brother’s girlfriend earlier, she was telling me all these places they (she) want to visit during our Vegas trip. We’re totally doing the Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Red Rock Canyon and Zappos! Where else should we go?

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Wedding Update

Hi! *waves*

Here’s the latest happs in our wedding world…

Ketubah: I’ve been conversing with the very talented Amanda of SwoonOverIt over writing the text for our ketubah. Steve will be drawing the artwork. We’ve been talking about different ideas for the artwork. These days I’m thinking a mosaic/ collage of us things.. still working on it. Right now I’ve decided on 12×12 paper and found a great deal at PaperAndMore.com for a 50 pack for $12.99. I’ll post examples eventually. I sent a bunch to Amanda for text placement, but I’m not really in love with the designs.  But, promise, examples soon!

Hotels: I’ve been checking out a bunch of hotels on the Strip.  It seems like the prices change so much from week to week depending on when I check. It would also appear that we’re hitting October 2010 within the next few weeks! 

Cupcakes: definitely doing the cupcake tower from Retro Bakery. My only thought now is making the tower myself instead of buying the one from them for $15. It’s just a few cake plates, cardboard or Styrofoam, that I could decorate and assemble in Vegas. Who knows?  Like I need another DIY project, right?

I totally started knitting my veil last week. I’m up to about row 27 out of like 130

Ok, I think that’s enough for know. Yes?

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Hotels, Cupcakes & My Veil!

I realized pretty late last night that I should stop price checking hotels and flights from RDU. Why, you ask? Because we have no flippin’ idea where we’ll be living in 6-7 months! For all I know, we’ll be living in Vegas or Virginia or Orlando or any number of other places. And of course, the prices I’m checking are all non-refundable!

Last week, the lovely Jennifer of @TheNearlyWed sent us 4 cupcakes from Retro Bakery. While they priced quoted us a lot more than I expected for a simple cake, their cupcakes are reasonably priced and I’m pretty sure (like 95%) that we’re getting a cupcake tower from them for the wedding! Also, they are aMAZing! Jenn sent us 1 each of their Red Carpet, Peanut Butter Cup, Cinnamon Toast, and Mint Chocolate Chip. We loved them all, in different levels of *love* but any way you look at it, we LOVED them all.

Yes, I broke SoBe to eat wedding cupcakes. It was worth it too!

Also also, the yarn for my veil is back in stock! So guess what I’m doing today? That’s right, ordering 7 skeins of yarn from Knitpicks, 5 in Cream, 1 in Sweet Potato (orange), and one in Blue Note Heather.  The orange and blue are for the trim to have a few rows of each color. Granted, I don’t know when I’ll be able to start on it since I have about 800 projects for events that occur before our wedding, like 4 pregnant co-workers! Seriously, my friends need to stop having babies so I can catch up on my own knitting! 

OK, I think that’s about it. Happy Wednesday!

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Big ol’ Post about shoes & other important things

OK, so here’s the latest…

I found a ketubah that we both agree on.. until Steve said he thought he was drawing it. So, yay! It’ll be totally personalized and totally us. Now to find a calligrapher since, while my handwriting is nice, it’s not that nice. I’ve got a few calligrapher friends on Twitter, so I’m putting the word out over there.

I started calling/ emailing around to hotels on the Strip about food. Aside from the debacle with the cake bakeries, I think Albertson’s is the way we’re going to go. After getting prices for receptions and even restaurants, I’m thinking cake and champagne reception in our room after the ceremony and pictures are done. The cheapest meal so far is the buffet at the Flamingo, but it’s still $22++ per person and we just don’t have $400 extra floating around.

As far as our hotel room goes, I’d love to stay in a really snazzy hotel with gorgeous furniture in it, but those are way pricey. We’re talking like $200 a night pricey. Our whole trip/ wedding budget is $1500, most of which is being eating by hotel and airfare expenses. Just out of curiosity, I asked 2 of my friends with husband’s working at hotels about discounts. As it turns out, they get friends and family discounts for the MGM family of hotels! Oh so amazing. I think bookings should be open in about a month. Trust me, I check religiously!

Y’all saw the invite design I recently posted. I’ve made the suggested changes and sent it to a printer for a quote. I also quoted the announcement cards, RSVP cards and, sure why not, graduation announcements. I love our printer. It’s going to be under $100 for 20 invites, 10 RSVP, 100 announcements, and 200 grad announcements.

Shoes? Who doesn’t love shoes?? Oh, especially for wedding shoes. I love these shoes Gabriella Rocha: Ginger in turquoise leather:

and these Annie: Lola in blue satin. And no, not *just* for the name either!

And not wedding related, graduation is so on! My adviser emailed me last night – after midnight! Talk about dedication – about my missing MIS elective. It turns out there is a whole Master’s program for Information and Computer Technology. Dammit, if I’d only known before applying for the MBA. Oh well, it’s been a good 5 years and I’ve made some great friends.

I officially have a replacement class! I’ll be taking Networking Technology for Industry, which may sound horrible to you, but it sounds amazing to me. I am so excited about it!

See? I’m totally stoked!

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