Tack-the-Map Guest Book

I mentioned this guest book idea in an earlier post. Instead of signing a tradition guest book, guests will instead place a pin in a map to indicate where they travelled from or (going along with our adventure theme) "where their adventures began."

Well, as I was perusing one of my favorite wedding blogs (weddingchicks.com), I came across the exact idea, played out at a couple's wedding. This will be helpful for us when we design ours. Cute, right?

(photo by visionari)

Bridal Belt & Bmaid Dresses

I purchased a belt for my gown on etsy.com (from user Daniel12). I haven't had the chance to try it on with my gown yet, but I have the feeling that it's going to work out just fine. 


And here it is:

Also, we officially have a pregnant bridesmaid (congrats to Em and Bubs). Don't worry... I put my superior internet search skills into attack mode and found a maternity bmaid dress almost identical to the one the other bmaids will be wearing within 5 minutes. Check it out:

  
I think they're pretty darn close to each other. Obvi the maternity dress will also be navy (and not Easter-Sunday pink). Em is going to get it hemmed to the length of the original dress a few weeks before the wedding. It's going to work perfectly and look great. Go me! 

The Groom's Suit

Here it is, folks. John has picked out and purchased his suit (and green tie). I thought I'd post a pic for your viewing pleasure.

Isn't he just the most handsome groom-to-be around? Love him!

wedding workouts

This bride is busting her butt to get into bridal (and honeymoon) shape!

I joined the Y about a month ago and coworker/friend Veronica has been my workout buddy ever since. We take Zumba, Step & Sculpt, Spinning, and BodyPump classes together! Last night was BodyPump and my body is so sore! 

I've also started tracking my calories on loseit.com. It is awesome. Well, the grumblies in my tummy aren't always awesome, but the way the websites works is pretty great. You input your current weight and your weight loss goal, and it spits back the amount of time it'll take to reach it (for me, at the pace of 1 lb per week). Each day, you log the food you eat and it calculates your calories for you. And when you exercise, you get to each extra cals! Mmmmm. There's also some peer pressure involved. You can find your buddies on there and see their daily calories and workout summaries! So far I have friended 4 buddies on there, and we keep track of each others' gains/losses while gently encouraging each other to keep with it. 

This might all sound a little conceded, but I feel like many marriage prep regimes involve the bride and groom making their efforts to look their best on the big day. Don't get me wrong... I love John just the way he is and I know he feels the same about me. Heck, we could each gain 100 pounds and still be happily married come July. Honestly, it just feels good to push myself to be more healthy. Right now I have the wedding motivating me and hopefully this motivation will turn into a lasting habit. That way, John and I have as many years with each other as possible (as we'll be avoiding many health complications).


Anyway, to stay motivated now (and to push through the tummy grumbles and sore muscles), I need your help! Find me on loseit.com and friend me. Or let me be talk about being a health nut for a while. Congratulate me when I lose a pound. Tell me I look saucy, sassy, and bride-iful on my wedding day :) And I'll make sure to thank you for the support.

Save the Dates!

The save the dates are in and about ready to be sent out! And we think they're perfect. My brother (Matt) did an amazing job designing them and getting them printed in a very timely manner. Here's a pic:

A new gown?

Check out this sweet, vintage gown and veil set:

After all the mistakes they made with my gown this weekend, I'm thinking of just starting new and wearing these pieces I found. They would go perfectly with the vintage theme.

What does everyone think?

Dress Fitting & Deets

To all my brides out there:


Were the dress fittings ever stressful for you? 


Today I had dress fitting #2. There will be 2 or 3 more fittings until the schwedding (5 months away!) so there's certainly room to fix things up, but I wasn't majorly impressed by the way things went for fitting #2.


When I put on my dress, they couldn't zip it up past my waist (it got stuck at the chest area). Normally, I would taken this as the obvious sign that I've gained a little weight, but I know this is not the case. In fact, I know I've lost weight. I've kicked it into gear and am going to the gym 4 to 5 times a week now. As it turns out, they took in the chest area WAAAAY too much. We're talking 2 inches too much... seriously. They're going to add 2 inches back to my bust area. Thank goodness, because I was spilling over (in the front AND back) and the girls did NOT look good. They must have just forgotten that I was a busty girl, but seriously, I was kind of upset by it. 


Then, on to the bustle. Apparently I have very expensive bustle taste because I prefer the look of a French bustle on my dress (I'd done some research and saw pictures of brides who've worn and bustled my dress before). But this requires a lot of work on the seamstress's part. We're talking sewing 30+ ties into the dress. And to top it off, the train is LONGGGG and heavy, so the woman working on my dress was struggling to bustle it the way I wanted (even with a picture to reference). She ended up creating a reeeeeally ugly bustle (it just looked like a big POOF) that Veronica and I both agreed was no bueno. But, she just sort of looked at us and said she wasn't going to be able to do anything better (maybe she just lacked the skills to do a complicated bustle?). This saddened me because during fitting #1 I showed them pictures of the bustle I loved and they said it would definitely be possible. Well, I wasn't sad for long because another seamstress popped in and figured out a way to bustle it that was sort of a compromise of the ugly one and the one I loved, but with no ugliness to it. I was really happy with the new bustle so we shall see how it turns out.


I guess it was just a little stressful because you're paying a bunch of money to give someone your already pricey gown, just to have them play around with it a bunch of times until it hopefully looks and fits right just right. 


Here's to hoping it looks wonderful 5 months from now. I'm pretty sure it will because they listened really well to my input today after the bust issue and the ugly bustle. We shall see!


And then Veronica and I ventured out to High Fashion Fabrics to look for some beaded appliques for belts. Here's my favorite one:

Pretty :)

Aside from the dress fitting, all other wedding planning deets (details) are running smoothly. We're narrowing down the guest list so we can send the Save the Dates. They've been ordered and will hopefully be sent out in the next two weeks. They are PRECIOUS. My brother (Matt) did an amazing job designing them and we can't wait to share them with family and friends. I'll post a picture of them soon. 


Also, I've been working on creating a budget that lists all expenses and totals below the amount of money we have for the wedding. I'll be honest, guest lists and budgets are definitely a bit stressful (and go hand-in-hand, btw... the more you invite, the less moolah you have for other things), but we're getting through them just fine. You've got to keep your spending under close check in order to stick to your budget... but by doing this I have a feeling we're going to be just fine and under budget by July 16th. And married. That's the important part :)