Awesome Blossom

That^ title was both inspired by Michael Scott's  love for Chili's Awesome Blossom, and the topper that went on my wedding gift for my best friend's recent nuptials.

Something I will confess:  I am not a particularly crafty person.  I love and appreciate all things "craft", but I have never been interested or motivated to dive into that world.  Until I had an idea for L's wedding gift!

This is foolproof, easy, and can be inexpensive.  You should definitely do it the next time you need to gift someone, whether it be wedding, birthday, bridal shower, baby shower, etc.  Buy the towels from their registry, design them to look like a tiered cake, and decorate with the theme colors!  TA-DA:

It is easier than it looks, I promise!  Watch:

1.  Gather all of your materials.  You will need towels, ribbon, decorations, tape, thick floral wire, and maybe a glue gun.

2.  Now, before you go and ruin the towels you are about to give to someone for their new home, test a little bit of scotch tape on a tiny area just to make sure that it doesn't rip the towel apart when you pull it off.  Mine were safe!  Fold and roll the largest towel to your desired size VERY tightly and tape it together so that you are sure it won't fall apart.  I used the trial and error method on this one to get the size just right.

3. Bend the floral wire in half and slide both ends through the bottom of the bottom tier.

4. Follow Steps 2 and 3 for the second and third tiers.  I found that twisting the wire tight helped to keep everything in place.

5.  Add ribbon of your choice.  L's wedding colors were cornflower and gold-ish, so I chose these ribbons and taped them in the back.

6. Decorate!  Be careful if you need to glue anything.  Make sure it's dry before you put it on the towels!

7.  I found this awesome bouquet of silk flowers at Michael's (you can see them in the top pic) and tore the bottom stems off.  I just shoved the floral wire into the Styrofoam ball that was holding the flowers and VOILA!

It's true that both the bride and groom professed that it was the best gift on the gift table... That's all I'm sayin'...

Our Perfect Day

It was absolutely perfect.  I couldn't have asked for anything better.  And on top of that--it was FUN!  It's hard to believe that we have actually been married for three weeks!

People stayed all night and danced.  We didn't even stop dancing until almost 1am!  Everyone was dancing, not just kids our age, but everyone!

I promised myself that I would let nothing get to me... no matter how wrong it went or how frustrating it was.  And I kept my promise!!!  (Which is particularly difficult for me considering that I have little to no patience and I am a perfectionist)

Here are just a few examples of things that I wish hadn't happened:

1. My Beautiful Rose Pomander.  Yes, this beautiful one that you can see my brother hanging in the reception hall.  And yes, I made it myself (with the help of my mom-in-law).  I literally put every rose on it with my bare hands:

As we were walking into the reception hall the day before the wedding to decorate, Josh was carrying it and the string broke and it hit the ground.  I turned around to see the roses scattered everywhere.  I nearly cried.  But I just looked at it, turned around, and walked into the hall.  GO ME!  Although I will admit that I gave Josh a little evil eye, but I think he knew it was only because I love him :)  Someone must have fixed it, because there it is, looking just as beautiful as ever!  I also made tiny ones and put them on vases with branches and rocks in them for centerpieces (with Josh's mom posing beautifully):

2. The DJ.  For some odd reason, I forgot to hire a DJ until about two months before the wedding.  For goodness sakes, Maria, the centerpieces and decorations were completed in OCTOBER!  So, my brother knew a guy through a class that was a DJ and trying to get his business expanded.  He gave me the business card and my mom called (since she had offered to pay for it).  He offered to do it for half price!  When we met him, he was SOOO nice and it seemed like the perfect match.  Fast Forward--->Day of the wedding.  I am getting my hair done at about 9:30am with my bridesmaids.  So relaxed... having fun.  I get a phone call from my DJ.  I ask my hair dresser to hold on while I take a phone call.
DJ: Hey, Ms. Bride, How is your special day going?
MNM:  It's going great, thanks!  How are you?
DJ: Doing good.  I just wanted to clarify something real quick.
MNM: Sure.
DJ: When you emailed me the time line of the reception about a month ago, it says that the reception will be over around 11pm?
MNM: Yeah, the city ordinance states that the music has to be off by 11.  So I figured that would be a good time to stop.
DJ: Well, when your mom called me a few months back, I kind of remember her saying that it would be over by 10pm.
MNM: Nope, it's 11.
DJ: Oh, okay.  Well, I actually have a previous engagement at a club that I DJ for. And I have to be there by 10-10:15.  I don't have a choice.
MNM: Alright, then I guess it's over at 10.

You see? I didn't go crazy or freak out.  After I hung up, one of my bridesmaids, Lauren, said that her boyfriend, Eli, could probably borrow a friend's DJ equipment and set up after our DJ left.  Well, that's what we did.  And it was AWESOME!  Eli did such a great job and he had some helpers.  We actually danced and played music until about 12:30 or 1am!  Who cares about a city ordinance?

3. The Hall. Long story short:  It sucked.  It was beautiful and looked amazing.  All of my decorations were perfect.  The service was terrible.  The floors hadn't been cleaned when we got there.  Our contract said that they would set up the tables.  They weren't set up when we got there, so we did that.  Our wedding coordinator didn't even show up to the wedding.  We were promised a bunch of coolers that weren't there.  A week before the wedding, I tried to get in touch with our wedding coordinator there to finalize some details.  Well, I called the office, her cell phone, her home phone and left messages.  I emailed.  Nothing.  She didn't get back to me for FIVE DAYS!  It was two days before my wedding and I was really worried!  But needless to say, we took care of everything and it turned out just beautiful:

A photo of the finished, decorated product. I literally made every decoration by hand.  And saved a TON of money.

One particular table.  My mom's dad, grandma's husband, and my pap is in the photo frame.  He passed away about two weeks before the wedding.  Two of my favorite pictures EVER.

A picture of my newly engaged bridesmaid, Lizz, with our candy buffet.  A LOT of work went into this.  And it was beautiful!

See?  Everything turned out just perfect.

We Are Married!

... and we are back from the honeymoon.  ...and Josh is sick.

We got back at 1:30am and I am exhausted and it's my birthday!  I am going out to dinner with Josh, Bryana, and Stephen soon.

I can't wait to post wedding and honeymoon photos and tell some fun and awesome stories.  But for now, just a glimpse of our PERFECT wedding (click on any photo to enlarge it):

I LOVE this photo.  It captures so many emotions.

Aren't we just so darn pretty?  We should probably get our hair and makeup done EVERY day.

And another favorite.

My Fourth Confession!

I have yet another confession to make...

I am SCARED TO DEATH to walk down the aisle!!!

Let me make myself clear...

1. I am so very happy to (almost) finally be married to my (future) husband.

2. I am so excited to finally have the wedding day I have been planning for.

3. Just thinking about the cake, dancing, flowers, family, friends, etc. makes the butterflies in my stomach start to flutter.

However,

The idea of everyone looking at me all at once scares the pants off of me!  What if I cry?  What if I sneeze?  What if I fart? What if I get so consumed with everyone else looking at me that I forget why I am here?  What if I laugh (which I often do when I am nervous)?  What if I drop my bouquet?  What if I trip and fall on my face?  And my nose bleeds onto my new, expensive, white dress...?

Wait.  This is ridiculous.  I am probably going to come through those doors with my dad, see Josh, and forget that everyone else is there.  I will be so happy that I am walking toward my future husband that I will have a huge, genuine smile on my face and be so excited to marry my best friend.

...just pray that I don't trip.

Dear God, Thank You...

...for giving me 23 years with my Pap

...for a very supportive and loving family

...for an awesome future husband

...for providing us with what we need to live

...for what will be a beautiful wedding

...for giving me time to get to know you

...for Oreos

...for the things that make me happy:

art.

love.

and relationships.

My Third Confession: RSVP Horror

My RSVPs were due 2 1/2 weeks ago.  Here are the trials and tribulations of RSVP horror:

I am still missing a bunch of them.

We had more than one of our guests RSVP with people who were not invited to the wedding.  For instance, we would send an invitation to a family of four, and the RSVP would say '6 attending'.

One person sent in two RSVPs--both said the exact same thing.  Still not exactly sure how they got two invitations in the first place...

Recently I ran into 3 people who hadn't sent their RSVPs.  I assumed they weren't coming until they said, "Oh, I can't wait for your wedding!"  I guess they will be there...



My confession:  This makes me insane!  

And I thought my situation was bad... until I searched online and found these RSVP Horror Stories:

We are having a formal plated dinner and have gotten back two RSVP's with no names at all... just post marks from cities we didn't even send invites to! Now how do you figure that out?!?

I received an R.S.V.P with no name, no return address, just no checked on the invitation

I’ve had people write 6-8 on the number of attending even though it says 2 reserved. Now that is just plain rude.

Our big RSVP issue is since we are having 3 meal choices we asked people to put their initals next to their meal choice. About half the ones we have gotten back just have “x” or checks next to the choices so we have no idea who wants what, unless they want the same thing.

At my niece's wedding, four families (with kids, in-laws, and even boyfriends and girlfriends and dates!!!) showed up when they didn't RSVP. One family showed up uninvited!

 I guess it could always be worse...

Pictures from the Bridal Shower! ...more later.

I wake up every morning in a bed that's too small. Drive my daughter to a school that's too expensive and then I go to work to a job for which I get paid too little. But on pretzel day....Well, I like pretzel day.

Today was pretzel day!  My mom mentioned that she would like to have chocolate dipped pretzel rods at the bridal shower.  It was the perfect opportunity for me to jump into a project!  My friend, Annie, also had these at her shower and they turned out great!  I knew it would be tons of fun.

Lauren came over this morning to get started.  Our supplies:

We decided on white chocolate, dark chocolate, pink (white) chocolate, and milk chocolate.  We heated up the chocolates in the microwave and on the stove and poured out all of the sprinkles onto plates:

We dipped the pretzels in the melted chocolate, rolled them in the sprinkles, and laid them out on cookie sheets.  We tried to mix up the chocolate and sprinkle combinations as much as possible.  We made 90 total:

Then we wrapped them all up into cute little baggies and we will stick them in the favor bags tomorrow!  I will be sure to take photos at the bridal shower to share!

41 days!

Time is going by so quickly!


Today I went to Elder-Beerman where Josh works and met some of the makeup ladies that work there.  Josh asked them if I could come in to get some makeup tips and pointers.  They were all so excited!!!

I told them I wanted something a little along these lines:

HAHA!!!  Just kidding.  I told her I wanted something subtle, but classy.  And something that would last and look good in pictures.

Brenda used all Clinique makeup and wrote everything down that she did... and I will say... it looked amazing!  She added tons of stuff that I have never even heard of.  It was subtle, but beautiful and I basically just looked enhanced.  I think I am going to take the list of the products and colors she used and take it to another Clinique representative in Cumberland and have her do it on my wedding day!  I don't normally wear much makeup, so I was getting kind of nervous of applying myself.  Basically because I don't really know what to do!

I really wanted to take a picture of the final "product", but I kept trying and I couldn't really see the details in the lighting and my (only) decent camera.

My Second Confession

I am spending WAY too much time and effort in the place cards.

I just kept getting more and more ideas and I couldn't stop myself.  I honestly think my DIY place cards are going to be the biggest project of the wedding!!!

I will post pictures and updates later... then you will see how crazy I am!

My First Confession

I have a long list of wedding confessions.  Today I will confess just one.

I WANT CORNY WEDDING PHOTOS!

I have always thought that the following wedding pictures were just corny!  Who wants a picture of people jumping?  It's just silly and unnatural.  See below:

But aren't they SOOO cool?!?!  I have put together a few of my favorite corny wedding photos that I found online.  Would I be a total dork if I wanted to recreate some of these...?   Probably.  Oh, well.

**Sorry for the blurriness of some of these!

These make me want to go out and buy a million huge frames to get ready! :-)