On children at weddings….

Hey friends,

So, anyone who knows Tim and I know we don’t have children, and at this time don’t want to have any, any time soon. The “friends with kids” ratio FAR outweighs the “friends without”, big time. We have nieces and nephews and enjoy their company just fine, but when it comes to us, we could be, some might say we’re a bit selfish. That’s OK with me. Say what you want, when/if the time comes for us to procreate, just know that our kids WILL be perfect.

With that being said, we’ve come to the decision of not allowing friends children at the wedding. There are a few reasons for this;

Like I mentioned above, we have plenty of kids in the family that will already be RSVP’ed in with their parents. Don’t think we won’t already be worrying about these ones, so we don’t need anymore to worry about.

The venue has limited seating, and sorry folks, we’re not reserving a seat for your kid when there could be a cool ass adult in that spot instead.

The location of the venue; it’s not the kid-friendliest. With hills, landscaping without fences, and trails that lead to god only knows where, they’ll end up hurt or lost. We don’t want that at our wedding, we want adults to have fun!

No babysitter. Sorry again friends, we’re not hiring a babysitter and let’s face it, you didn’t come to our wedding to have your kid/s babysat while you party, or are forced to leave early due to your child.

Kid friendly foods and activities; There will be a limited amount of anything kid related, limited to family of course.

Last but not least, no one wants to hear a baby cry/scream/throw a fit during the ceremony. The first person on that list being me. Call me a bridezilla, this is how I feel and I think that’s OK, this is my special day, right?

That’s what I thought.  ;)

This is a touchy subject, I know. I’ve been contemplating this for weeks now. The one thing I worry about is making friends feel singled out because they have 1 or 2 or more!

Well friends with kids, there are a lot of you, like I said about 90%. It’s not that we don’t enjoy your child’s company, we just enjoy yours far more.  We want you to come enjoy in our special day with us, dance a little and drink a little, eat, and drink a little more.

Besides, the reception ends at 9pm, early enough for you to go home and tuck your kids into bed.

I hope I didn’t offend anyone and that our beloved friends respect our wishes. This was a tough decision,

Thanks for reading!

p.s. if for some reason you feel offended by this,(which hopefully equals no one) there’s a comment box. Feel free to say how YOU feel. Everyone deserves at least that.

 

Honeymoon, maybe? … Possibly!

Hey folks,

So with the venue money set aside and wedding dress altered, I feel like a honeymoon could be possible. At first, there was no way in my mind, NO WAY. Too much money we didn’t have, and time off we wouldn’t get paid for. HOWEVER, I feel like now, with both of us working full-time and few necessary monthly expenses, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

I’ve been doing my research. Neither one of us  want to have to get a passport but still want to go somewhere warm and tropical.

Hmmmm… So many choices.

NOT.

Yeah, you guesses it, Hawaii. Not Honolulu, not Maui, and not Oahu.

Kauai.

 

 

“The Garden Isle”

Sounds pleasant to me. My sister and her husband went there in 08 and she swears to me, its beautiful and everything I could ask for in a tropical USA location. I seen the pictures, big beautiful flowers, fresh fruit, and white sand beaches. She even said, if we do go, she’s going to sneak in a suitcase just so she can go back. My cousin just recently went to Hawaii, I seen her pictures too. I could live with a Hawaii honeymoon, shit, anywhere warm and tropical sounds just lovely in the middle of January.

So, we’re going to keep saving, try to get a hotel and airfare deal and get the hell outta Washington for a change.

On another super awesome note, family friend Mr. Jim Adams, AKA Sticker bush (Alaskans and their nicknames…) a man I’ve known since I was just a little Sweetpea Scissorbill (another Alaskan nickname) has offered to come and take pictures and video of our wedding as a wedding gift!

Do you know how much money that alone saves us?! So much that it’s making the honeymoon dream almost a reality.

There are still a few undecided factors which will need to be addressed soon, like;

Who’s going to marry us?

Who’s going to be the MC/DJ?

Those are my concerns right now. I’m sure the right time will come and it will hit us, but for now, you could say I’m a bit concerned.

Besides that, I’m feeling good and I’m excited to see what happens in the next 8 months.

Thanks for reading!

Invitations – Coming your way, soon!

Hey folks.

Back with an update, nothing big and important, but I still felt the need to put it out there.

First off; I got a new job! I was sort of forced into looking for a new job by my last boss. She told me I had to “look out for myself” and that they weren’t sure they’d even be in business in a year. That was August. Luckily, I found an add online with a company called Dogwood Industries looking for a, um, errrrr I don’t know how to explain the position they wanted to fill, all I can say is that I fit it to a tee. A little shipping/receiving experience, a little office experience, manufacturing experience, welding/fabrication experience, a little bit of everything really. Early September I had an interview with the owners and were pleasantly surprised to find it’s another local, family owned and operated business.

I wooed Jean (my boss and owner) with my extent knowledge of manufacturing and desire to learn more. I love a challenging job. As a matter of fact, I’ve been working full time and overtime since I started and there’s no end in sight. Which for someone trying to save for a wedding, it’s a godsend. I get paid weekly and make more here than I ever would’ve at my last job. Bonus; getting to wear my crusty carhartts, greasy hat and holey sweatshirt, DAILY!

Now for the exciting part. We finally ordered invitations! I waited so long I thought my design was obsolete, I was sweating I’ll tell ya! FINALLY I found it and had a huge sigh of relief. However, the envelopes that match were horribly expensive so I ordered some pretty green ones from http://www.envelopemall.com and those are coming a day after the invitations are supposed to arrive.

Needless to say, I’m pretty excited to get back on the wedding wagon. I’ve been relaxing from it for a bit just so I could get my personal life in order.  With the wedding dress altered, invitations ordered and venue located, I feel more prepared to deal with all the little details that come along with it, and I have quite the eye for detail.

I’m also excited because my soon to be sister in law Marie is coming from Indiana a few weeks before my wedding and I’m hoping to recruit her to help me decorate the cupcakes! She’s been taking classes and I’ve seen her work, I think we could make some epic wedding cupcakes.

That’s all for meow, thanks for reading!

One year mark – coming soon!

Holy crap, we are almost one year away from the big day!

It DOES sneak up on you!

Thankfully, starting early in the planning process has been extremely helpful. I know what I want, and I know what i don’t want. There’s some small details that have to be worked out, but hey, we still have a little over a year.

I added a few new pages to assist anyone who plans like I do – early. I have a registry page and a page with a link for directions to the venue.

One thing I’m not sure about is maybe adding links for hotels nearby. I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s just going to be close family and friends, but it may be helpful?

My sister (maid of honor) and I are still bumping heads over what dress for her to wear. Her favorite color is black, mine purple and pink. We are opposites, if you can’t tell. I want her in something pink, purple or dark green and have pinned oh lets say, 30+ dresses that I approve of, yet none of them are up to her standards!

I don’t want to be the typical bridezilla and force her to wear AND buy something she hates, so we’re still working on the perfect dress. A shopping trip down south will probably be what we’ll have to do in order to agree on one. The hardest part is finding something elegant, yet affordable. I mean this dress is F*CKING gorgeous, JUST GORGEOUS, but the price makes me wanna vomit.

$7670?! I think I’d rather have a car…

At one time, when Tim first proposed, I thought I could have a few bridesmaids as well, but that’s just too complicated for me. I love all my close ladies very much, but my sister and I are cut from the same cloth, I really wouldn’t rather have anyone else up there with me.

I’m going to visit my wedding dress tomorrow in Bellingham. I haven’t seen it in a few weeks and am hoping Amanda finished some of the lace detail we talked about last time I was up. Funny how a simple alteration to a vintage lace dress will open ones mind up to OTHER small details, which then form the dress you never knew you always wanted for your special day.

Classic, yet unique. That’s the theme for my wedding. I’m hoping for guests to take that in and roll with it.

Now for the important stuff.

CAKE.

While at Sam and Jessie’s wedding last month we had a taste of the cake her mother made. It was a lemon box cake with homemade buttercream frosting… BOX CAKE!!

WHO KNEW BOX CAKE COULD BE SO GOOD?!

I decided then, I’m not paying hundreds of dollars on a cake. CUPCAKES IT IS! Tim and I will have a small cake and guests will be treated to gorgeous little cupcakes. I have a hard on (excuse the french) for flower covered cupcakes. Edible flowers, of course. Fondant flowers, perhaps? Just a thought for now, but am leaning STRONGLY towards that idea.

I like the randomness of these

I like the floral theme with these cupcakes

Well friends, that’s about all the babbling I can do about the wedding for now. Tim makes me wait for the weekends to talk about it!

Ugh, such a man!

Planning … 13 months to go!

Whoever said that planning a wedding is stressful, intricate, detailed and crazy, surely wasn’t kidding!

I have finally sent out ALMOST all the save-the-dates, still waiting for a few addresses for family friends and long distance relatives, but we still have time… THANK GOODNESS.

I started a wedding registry at www.myregistry.com and have been S L O W L Y adding things I find online. (mostly from Bed, Bath & Beyond) There are some household items we don’t have or need new ones, especially a new mattress.

(For the honeymoon, if you get my drift wink wink )

Jokes, jokes, I keed, I keed.

I have been thinking about the menu nonstop, I want to have a dessert table because let’s face it, who the hell doesn’t like desserts? I want it ASIDE from the favors and guestbook table and the main cake table, but I need to know what I want to have for dinner before I should start thinking about the desserts.

I love food, I love eating it and I love cooking and creating it. Since this is a menu I have to plan, I want it to be my style all the way. I’m talking, savory comfort foods like 3 cheese baked mac and cheese, garlic mashed potatoes, double barrel BBQ coleslaw (you have no idea, this coleslaw is AMAZING, and I HATE traditional coleslaws, with a passion) and BBQ’ed Alaskan salmon that my parents will bring down with them.

No holds barred, that’s how I roll with my food.

I want to pair foods like that with cool, tart and yummy summer desserts like lemon cheesecake cups, mini cream pie bites, and s’mores bars for the chocolate lovers. I’ll also have a fruit salad and veggies for the healthy folks …  or folk, because there might only be one in each family…  MAYBE!

On another wedding note, I was invited to my bosses daughter’s wedding last week. It was beautiful, a fantastic celebration of love and I was honored to be a part of it. I cried, like I always do, we ate, we danced, we drank and my boss, GAVE ME A HUG. I don’t think you understand, although these people are like my Sedro-Woolley family, I never thought I’d be a part of something so personal. It was awesome, I was seriously in awe when we left.

Of course I invited them to mine, I always wanted them to go anyway. They’re wonderful people, and I couldn’t be luckier to have such a cool family in my life.

Hey, thanks for reading!

 

 

Venue Pictures

This gallery contains 32 photos.

So far, so good!

Hello friends!

I’m here with a monthly news report, in case anyone didn’t know, planning a wedding is VERY detail oriented. Number one, MOST important of them all…. My mommy is here and I’M ON VACATION! Wooo hoooo!!

Ok, enough celebrating, sorry, my one vacation a year is DAMN exciting for me!

NOW for the real news. I’ve finally decided what we’re going to use as favors, and I’m SUPER excited to share it… JAM! Yes my friends, homemade strawberry/raspberry jam, (not sure if I’ll go with one, both or a mixture of both yet though!) and my mom is going to make spruce tip jelly!

I know what you’re thinking… Right?! How is SPRUCE tip jelly going to taste!? Well, I can tell you one thing folks, my mom does NOT fool around when it comes to jam/jelly. Some MAY say she’s a bit of a jam Nazi… BUT when you’re preserving food, you have to be serious!

Anyway, back to spruce tip jelly, the taste, the taaaaaaaaaasstte. To me, it tastes like NOTHING ELSE I have ever eaten.Like nature, like going on the best hike in the most beautiful place, where the air is fragrant and sweet, THAT smell, flavoring this jelly.

Pretty much what heaven is like I’m sure.

We’re going with these mixtures mainly for their color, pink-ish/purple-ish (close enough) and green, not just ANY green though people, Philadelphia EAGLES green.

See what I did there? Pink-ish, no one true shade of pink, I like them all really, and purple-ish, same thing there, I can’t discriminate, I love them all.

HOWEVER, when we get to the Eagles green, I mean Eagles green, not light green or sage green, but DARK green, like a forest green.

Here’s a perfect example

(not necessarily the blue or red, just green, pink, and purple, MAINLY green)

On another note, my Save-the-Date postcards have been shipped and I should be expecting them later this week! And since my mom is here and will not be back until before my wedding, her and I are going out to the venue on Monday, hopefully a sunny and beautiful day, so my mom can see it in all of it’s glory. I sort of want to see it on a nice day too, I’ve only gotten to see it on cloudy/rainy days. I’m thinking about taking my camera with us so I can get some of my own pictures to share, considering the website does NOT do this place justice.

We also went into Bellingham on Friday and she got to see my wedding dress transformation. It’s pretty amazing I must say! I cannot say enough awesome about my seamstress Amanda, she even went to school in Sedro-Woolley! Who’d have thought? I mean, if you ever come here, you’d understand what I mean

Hey, thanks for reading!