"Marry Me"

I am a very "non-traditional" bride.

That being said, the bridal march just doesn't do it for me.  I feel no connection to it, it doesn't even make me think wedding!

But THIS song....this song gets me.

Every time I hear it, I know that I have to have it at my wedding.  And then it hit me--I'll walk down the aisle to this song!!  I heard the song on the radio not long after I decided this and I actually teared up.  Guess that's a sign that I made the right choice! 

Anyone else walking down to the aisle to something non-traditional?

Sexy thoughts...

Like many of us out there, I love a good deal.  Being a DIY, budget conscious bride makes a deal feel like prey I've pounced on.  Since my current life as a full time graduate student with a Mon-Fri internship means that I am completely relying on my fiancé’s income, I am even more of a saver.

With that being said, of course I am a subscriber of Groupon, Livingsocial, and Buywithme.

And today's LivingSocial for my area couldn't have been more fated.

I will begin this by telling you a little story about my drive to work this morning.  Teachers have to be at school pretty early, and I leave my apt at 6:15 to make the drive (I know many people have to get up much earlier!).  It's dark and cold and bitter...but my XM radio always makes me happy to be in the car.  Listening to one particular morning show, they were chatting about Preggers (naked) Photo Shoots.  One host, who is female, was complaining that her friend shouldn't do a (naked) Preggers Photo Shoot without telling her husband.  She kept discussing that he would be really upset if she did that without telling him, that he would get angry if she had a male photographer, that it wasn't right.  And many callers agreed (at least the ones calling at 6 in the morning).

This got me thinking about a little thing called a Boudoir Photo Shoot.  I had decided quite some time ago that if I lost the weight I plan on losing, I would like to do this for my fiancé.  Presenting him with a "little black book" on our wedding day would really surprise him--especially since it is so not me.  I mean, I have my moments, but to pose in lingerie...hey now!  It's the only good idea I have had.  My fiancé is not like those guys out there that like "stuff".  We have an Xbox 360, but I play rockband more than he plays any of his games.  We have a nice HD TV with a blu-ray player, but my movie collection is the only one in the house.  He thinks that "Watching a movie twice is ridiculous when there are new movies out on DVD every week".  (I think this is preposterous and love my move/tv show collection). 

Anyway, I continued to think about this on my drive.  I thought about how being a budget bride really didn't leave room for a $300ish photo shoot plus whatever pics were posted.  I even thought about how handy it would be to get a Groupon for that!  I then decided that I wouldn't do this unless I found a great deal...maybe a Groupon for a photo shoot with a photographer who happened to do Boudoir...or if it was an option with whatever photographer we settled on...then I could do it.

I get to the school and get to work.  Once I've copied all my goodies for the day and prepped the room for my fun math activity (MATH IS FUN!), I have some free time to check my email.  Guess what completely fated email was sitting in my inbox.  A $99 Boudoir shoot with a (very teeny) Black Book included from LivingSocial.  WHAT?!?!?  Seriously...exactly what I had been thinking about this very morning...who was reading my brainwaves.......  So I e-mailed my mom to see if she minded my using her credit card (fiancé would have been curious to know what cool deal I got when it popped up on the CC bill) to buy this.  She had no idea what this was, which was reeeeaaallll fun to explain, but she seemed to have her interest piqued.  She told me I could indeed use her card, then asked if she could see the photos.  Okay...my mamma and I have a pretty close relationship if you couldn't tell.  I told her I'd decide that after I had the photo shoot.  I mean if I take some tame shots and some risqué ones, what's the harm in letting her see the tame ones??  She did birth me after all.  Plus, from what I've seen, the shoots tend to cover more than a bathing suit does.

I looked into the company to see if they seemed reputable before I made the purchase of course.  I was immediately directed to their blog from the LivingSocial link.  What I noticed right away that made me very happy--not one boudoir pic on the site.  There is now one, which I think may have been in response to the overwhelming amount of calls/emails they probably fielded today.  That one is very tasteful, and makes me even more satisfied with my decision.

What about you ladies--boudoir shoots for you??

Whoa there

Hey my (slim amount of) followers!  I am really truly sorry about my absence!!  Unfortunately, my student teaching put a little damper on my time to blog, or even attempt wedding related fun!  For those of you who aren't in the know, I live in Northern Virginia, way too close to DC for my taste, but I make do.  We got some snow fall recently, nothing at all like my homestate of NC, but enough to close the local elementary schools here and there.  I know what you are thinking.  If the elementary school I intern at is closed for a day, then shouldn't that give me more free time?  Absolutely not!  What it meant was that I could actually catch up on myself.  I could actually take a second to breathe, and not feel overwhelmed by papers and lesson plans and observation forms and biweekly reports and hour logs, etc. etc. etc. 

And then the fun started...the lovely snow pushed my nice little collection of lesson plans for independent teaching not just one day behind, but one full week behind. ACK!  In just a very tiny amount of time, I had to generate a new week of lesson plans, get them approved by my clinical faculty, my site facilitator, and my university facilitator, and feel confident in my abilities.  Not to toot my own horn, but I do believe that I created some pretty fun lesson plans in the shortest amount of time I have ever created them. 

On top of all of this fun...my mamma hurt her  back so badly that she ended up having to get cortisone shots repeatedly and put on bedrest for a week.  She was in a car accident when I was really small that caused her to have major spine issues/slipped discs.  This means that she has had quite a few significant injuries over the years.  So, I haven't actually sent out my save-the-dates yet!  We have had some list drama that we need to work out that I didn't want to dump on my mamma when she was a hurtin'.  Now that she's better--all bets are off this weekend and I'm putting up my fighting hands :)  Or at least successful blocking-over-the-phone-no-drama hands.

Now things are very settled.  I actually have free time during my day as a student teacher and I have been able to really commit myself to get inspired.  And, I have set "facebook limitations" for myself.  I am a pretty committed little person, and glued to my laptop at night because I have to be so non-connected to a computer during the day.  I do get my technology fix courtesy of that nifty Promethean Board though!  My one and only guilty pleasure is Facebook!  I play the games, I stalk my friends, I sift through photos, I post all over the place...and it is a time hog.  So, I have forced myself to only have one hour of facebook time on Friday/Saturday/Sunday and only 30 minutes/day the rest of the week!  I just started this, so let's see if I can stick to it :) 

Now that I've updated you, I am going to write an actual "wedding related" post!

How many of you have a facebook addiction?

YAY!!

The final pieces of the Save-the-dates arrived :)  So guess what we'll be doing all weekend!!!  I was really excited to crack the box open and see how the edited versions turned out.  Not to mention all of the other fun goodies that were in the  box, all practically free!

This is a big ol' thumbs up to vistaprint and their awesomeness!  Anyone else feel super excited when they finally had something to hold in relation to their wedding?  I haven't seen my dress since the day I purchased it, so these little magnets and postcards makes me feel like it's actually finally happening.  Feels all tingly!

My Inspiration!

I know my colors.  I do :)  The problem is that my idea of "turquoise" doesn't seem to match everyone else's.  So, after skimming through my collections of photos and googling some additional images, I put together my inspiration board.  The colors I have chosen are turquoise, lime green, and a hint of yellow.  I know there are two pictures that don't match--one has a bit of orange in it, but the driftwood number is exactly what I am doing; the other has the navy lanterns in it, not using those, but using turquoise and lime green ones!  Now, typical disclaimer, I have no idea where most of these photos came from.  Some are from theknot, some etsy, some I just googled "turquoise".  I do know that the dress is a J. Crew dress.

Second save the date magnet!

Whoops :)  I really didn't mean to let the time slip by since my last post.  I actually just started back to school right after the new year and the time vanished.  This is probably a really bad sign for my wedding planning!!! 

Anyway, as promised, here is my other save the date magnet!  I actually decided not to do the plain white one with the calendar.  I ordered mostly the blue and green one from the previous post and then only enough for our friends of this one:

I decided that this one is best for those that know us well, and not for the "more traditional" older family members.  This is one of those really old pictures from a few years into our relationship, but I've always felt like it really shows us (even if I am a little tipsy!).  Plus, I just think it's funny :)

A note about vistaprint:  I actually ordered a set of magnets and postcards and received them.  When I got the magnets, the last letter on our website was cut off on several of them.  I "chatted" with a customer service rep online to find out what the deal was and to look into the "100% guarantee".  The conversation was very pleasant, and it was discovered that when I uploaded my picture, it was "outside of the dotted line".  Now, I had no idea that the dotted line was where it would cut the image.  There wasn't any note about that anywhere.  It appears that the area outside of the dotted line is the "bleed area".  This is where there is flexibility.  Whatever is inside the dotted line will be on the magnet no matter what.  Anything outside is the cutting area. 

Now, I kind of thought, crap, that's my fault, so now I am going to be out money and time and effort, etc. etc.  In actuality, they not only fixed the problem, they fixed my pending orders, AND they are sending me another batch of the first ones and corrected versions of my other ones.  Pretty sweet.  Now, I spent quite a lot of time on the phone for this, and they will be arriving later than I hoped....which stinks for getting them out by Feb 1 as originally intended, but they will be right.  Also, they let me tweak some of the issues that I noticed on the first print (such as the writing being a little smaller than I wanted) before "reordering them".  Plus, I still have the original batch, with more than half of them perfectly fine!  Good job VP!

Save That Date!

Woo Hoo!!  Not only did I achieve my goals of creating a fun and brightly colored save-the-date, but John loves them too!  I had inspiration from a save-the-date I had come across in my searches a long time ago, but I didn't have the original image.  I had sketched out a rough mock-up and couldn't even remember what the first one looked like.  Anyway...drumroll please....

We are going to use vistaprint to print postcards and then add magnets as well.  The magnet will actuallly be placed over the "Save the Date" section at the bottom.  I have drawn up 2 magnets so far that I like:



I basically looked around on all the sites out there and found pieces of magnet std's that I liked.  Once I got the ideas, I spent some time working in powerpoint to draw out what I was thinking.  I plan on doing a third magnet that will be a bit of "play on words" for our younger, non-traditional friends.  I'll share once I do!!

Has anyone else created their save-the-dates on their own?