BACHELORETTE party

Last Saturday, my sister and friends threw me an AWESOME bachelorette party. The whole night of fun was in Newport and it seriously was a blast from the beginning to the end!

All the ladies met up at my parents' house and then (after a few cute pictures) we headed to Newport to catch the Newport Dinner Train. That night, the train was putting on a broadway revue show for their guests. They sang songs from musicals such as Grease, Jesus Christ Superstar, and the Sound of Music. Let's just say it was ... pure CHEESY! The singers weren't professional enough for it to be an awesome show, so instead, we enjoyed chuckling to ourselves at the ridiculousness of it all and singing along to the best songs. At one point, I even got called up to help the singer dance to the number "Dancing Queen" from Mamma Mia. The whole train was clapping and cheering for me. I hammed it up big time and a few guests told me I stole the show!

From there, I knew we had to go to karaoke next. So I suggested it and when you're the bachelorette... ask and you shall receive! We headed to a bar we found online (searching on the train) called Jimmy's Saloon. It was basically empty when we got there which was great because we got the stage first! I started with a little Alanis Morrisette and nailed it. I love karaoking that song. I also did "Oops! I Did It Again" by B. Spears and dedicated to my hubby-to-be. Obvi I was aiming for ridiculous/hilarious. Then the ladies also did other songs like, "It's Raining Men," "My Humps," "Love Shack," and "No Scrubs." Lauren and I ended the evening by singing, "White Trash Wedding" by the Dixie Chicks. Very appropriately hilarious, if I do say so myself.

We seriously all just had a fab time being goof-balls, enjoying the people watching, dancing and singing the evening away. It was perfect and I'm so thankful to my sister for putting it all together for me... and to my great friends/family for partying with me too! And I must throw this out there... probably the best part of the evening was watching the REALLY awkward loner at the bar (the one who sat alone the whole time and got up every once in a while to karaoke some random rap songs) get up to dance to a Rhianna song, shaking his little booty and gyrating his hips faster than I've ever seen. Good thing Sarah got video. We'll remember that forever.

Thank you so much ladies! You made the night better than I could have ever imagined.

Here are some pics of the fun/happy/silliness:

All the ladies, ready to head out to Newport

Dancing on the train to Dancing Queen
It was very tricky to pull off, with the train moving and all!

This one's hard to see, but we're all posing in front of the Newport Dinner Train.

The ladies singing "It's Raining Men"... getting the crowd pumped!

Dancing to "SHOUT!" The guy in the plaid was AWESOME
at karaoke. Great voice. Fun dancing :)

 

everybody's workin' for THIS weekend!

Well, the ball keeps rolling. I've gotten almost everything on my ta-da to-do list finished... and with no surprise, there's still more to do! It's pretty great though. I feel like the end of all the planning is almost here and soon it'll just be time to relax and enjoy the wedding! If there's any advice I have to give about the final week of wedding planning, I'd say get it all done by two days before the wedding at the latest, if you can. I've been working my tail off these past two weeks, but the pay off is that the two days leading up to the wedding, I can be a calm-as-a-cucumber, to-do list free bride. So here's what I've gotten done in the past week:


Perfect programs for the ceremony
My brother Matt took over on this project and they look great! They still need to be printed, but they're basically done.


Design and print signs for the reception hall
These are all set! Matt designed these as well. He used the fonts the we used on the invites and save-the-dates so all the printed things sort of go together. I'm not going to show pictures of any of these now though... I want them to be a surprise to all the guests.

Design and print inserts for the luggage tag favors
Matt designed these as well (seriously, he's awesome) and FedEx Office took care of the printing today. I tried Staples first but they were going to be a bit more expensive. Lesson learned, if you have printing needs, choose FedEx Office. Other lesson learned: FedEx Office = Kinkos. Kinkos doesn't exist anymore. That was confusing for a little while. 


Make the tack-the-map board
My dad helped me put this together tonight. We decided not to use a map of the whole world because all our RI guests wouldn't have had room to fit their tacks on the map (insert RI-is-super-tiny joke here)! Plus, we don't have anyone coming from out of the US. Problem solved! So, we ended up finding a great vintage map of the US at Staples the other day that we glued down to the cork board tonight. We had to glue blue ribbon borders around the map since it didn't quite fit on the large cork board we had. Oh well! It actually looks really neat. Can't wait to have our guests tack their locations on to the map! It'll look even better. 

This was before we added any of the ribbon...
 a very early version of the tack-the-map project.

Meet with the DJ
I met with the DJ (my brother's friend Chris) about a week ago, the same night I worked with my brother Matt on all the printed stuff for the wedding. It seems like the night will flow smoothly! He knows all the songs I want to be played (which will be collected by my brother, loaded on to my computer, and played from my iTunes on the night of the wedding... saving money!), when to introduce things, who to introduce, etc., etc. I was a little nervous about music before I met with him, but I'm much more comfortable now. We still have a lot of music to find and load on to my computer, but this should come along over the next few days. 


Work on speech for rehearsal dinner
I let John take care of this and he did an AMAZING job on our speech, trying to convey our deepest gratitude for all the wonderful things our friends and family have done for us... not only to help in planning the wedding, but just overall throughout our lives. I'm so glad I let him take over on that. It should be very moving that evening :) 


Make bags for out-of-town guests
This wasn't on my original to-do list, but my mom had the idea to put together some bags for the out-of-towners staying at the Radisson. We found some of those reusable grocery bags and filled them with information about Newport, RI, directions to the church, water bottles, snacks, my dad's ideas for touring Newport, RI and my top 5 list of things to try in RI. I'm excited for our guests to see/use them!


Perfect the seating chart
This was one of my most challenging tasks in prepping for the wedding. It was just really difficult to get the right combinations of guests in the right numbers at the right tables. Then, after finally figuring it all out, I had to write it all out for the Radisson, which ended up being a stressful event in and of itself... because included with writing it all out, I had to list the food counts... chicken vs. beef vs. vegetarian vs. kiddie meals. The numbers kept turning out  wrong. We ended up with 130 guests, but the food wasn't adding up! It took me a little while of counting and re-counting and re-re-counting, but eventually I figured it out. All's good in the hood now! My suggestion though... don't offer more than one meal option. It'll make the seating and organizing WAY earlier. Just my two cents!


While I'm here in RI working on all this wedding stuff, John is still back in Houston putting our apartment together! He is about 96% moved out of his apartment as I type this and has been working on moving all his stuff over for about two weeks now. I felt bad leaving him behind to put our new place together, but he's doing such a great job! It's so exciting to talk about "our" apartment! I'm not used to saying that. Can't wait to be his official roomie!


And even more exciting is that I get to see him again in about 48 hours. He arrives in RI on Wednesday late into the evening. Before he arrives, we'll be having dinner with his parents and siblings (because they fly in before him!) at my parents' house on Wednesday night. Then, after that, just a few short days left til the wedding! I really can't believe this... it's almost here!! 

Bride on a Mission

I'm getting stuff done! Here are the few things I've checked off my to-do list.


Travel home to RI
This was probably the easiest task on the list. Not going to lie, it was a stressful day of travel (had to deplane the first plane for mechanical issues and got pushed to a flight 5 hours later. Then had a "lost luggage" scare in RI after landing.) A long day, but made it home safely with the gown!

Run to the craft store to buy stuff for reception hall decorations
This has taken us two days. I'm pretty sure we've gotten all the supplies we need. We've been to about 10 different stores buying lots of different do-dads (corkboard, vases, string, sharpies, etc.). We'll probably need to do a few last minute runs, but I feel good about getting almost all the shopping done. 

Make the seating key cards and attach to keys
It's taken me a few hours to get this all together. Yesterday I stamped every one of the envelope cards, then labeled all of them with guests' names. Today I attached the keys to each one. All that's left is adding the table numbers... but we haven't 100% figured out where everyone is sitting yet, so we'll have to wait for that.

Finish bridesmaids gifts 
They're all bagged and ready to go! I had lots of fun putting these together. Can't tell you any more because my b-maids are probably reading this now. 

Have a make-up trial run
It turned out great! This was a pretty easy task too. Just sit in the chair and let the professional make you pretty :) We had to adjust the lip color a few times, but in the end, I think we got it right. Loving the smokey eyes...

Have another final fitting with my gown
Well... there's a bit of craziness to this one. I mentioned a few posts ago that after my final fitting in Houston, I wasn't 100% happy with the way the gown was fitting. So, I set up an appointment at Sassy & Classy here in RI and went in expecting to make just a few small adjustments. An hour later and that wasn't the case... one look at the dress and the seamstress could instantly tell that it needed a lot of work. We took in the sides more, fixed the completely crooked hem, changed the bustle completely, and even discovered some pins that the seamstress in Houston had left in the gown! Talk about crazy. I'm a little stressed about how much it's going to cost to fix it all, but to be honest, by the end of the appointment I felt SO much better about the way the gown was fitting. Looking back on pictures from today, I can finally say that I feel that I look like a bride in my gown, whereas before (after fittings in Houston) I never quite felt that way. Sorry I can't show you pictures of this one, but you only have to wait a few more days to see anyway :) I can't believe I've kept it a secret for this long!!


Tomorrow we have another meeting at the Radisson to finalize plans with Linda, the event coordinator. There will probably be more to report in the afternoon. Stay tuned!

Reception Vision & the To-Do List

I've already shared a bunch of these pictures, but here are my ideas for the reception all in one fun inspiration board!

The top left is what I've asked for the cake to look like and the bottom right is what Kate Niemer is working on replicating for our cake topper! The keys up top will have guests names attached on a key card, helping guests to figure out where they'll be seated. The hard-to-see pic in the top right is tables with white table clothes, silver chairs, and blue napkins... the exact look we're going for. I hope it works out with the maroon/yellow rugs and golden chandeliers. Hrmmm. Below that is the tack-the-map board that guests will tack with their spot of origin... we're going to work on that next week. Then there's the head table (love all the candles), the teacups, which will be on a lot of tables, and a view of the courtyard at the Radisson. It's nice to see it all come together like that.

So, am I freaking out right now because the wedding is less than 3 weeks away? No-sir-ree! I'm going to be honest, blogging about the whole planning experience has actually helped me stay on top of all the planning. There aren't many things left to be done, so this bride is one calm cucumber. It also helps that she's had the past 1.5 weeks off from work (teaching) and has more free time ahead leading up to the wedding.

You're probably wondering now, what does Stephanie have left to do in the next 18 days? Well, I'll tell ya. Here's the ta-da to-do list! (I say ta-da because it's very manageable):

Travel home to RI
Perfect and print the programs for the ceremony
Design and print signs for the reception hall
Design and print inserts for the luggage tag favors
Run to the craft store to buy stuff for reception hall decorations
Perfect the seating chart
Make the seating key cards and attach to keys
Make the tack-the-map board
Meet with the DJ
Work on speech for rehearsal dinner
Finish bridesmaids gifts & purchase other gifts
Have a make-up trial run
Have another final fitting with my gown

... and that about sums it up. Yes, you read that last one correctly. After my last fitting (where I claimed on facebook that my dress "fit like a glove"), I tried the gown on again and it just isn't perfect. I think I may have been bloated when I tried it on. Plus, I wasn't super happy with the way it was taken in in a few spots, so basically, I'm going have one last final fitting in RI (at Sassy & Classy) to make sure things are perfect. They'll also be steaming my dress for me! Bye-bye wrinkles. I'm taking my gown with me in a carry-on on the plane home to RI, so the steaming will be a must.

Sorry, I've got to run! Time to work on checking more off that ta-da to-do list!

DIY Photobooth Project

Well, here we are! About 3 weeks away from the big day and things are progressing nicely.

Recently, I took on a small project to keep myself busy in these days leading up to the wedding. My brother Matt is going to run a photobooth during the dancing hours of the reception. He explained that most of the pictures taken during the dance portion of a reception end up all looking the same. So, instead of snapping away at the sweaty folks of the dance floor, Matt's going to be snapping snazzy photos of our guests in fancy photobooth fashion. He mentioned that I should buy some props. Well, this is where I up the ante... I decided to make some props instead!

I used some shops on etsy for some inspiration...

From etsy user ThePaperStache

From etsy user thelittleblackshop

And then created my own little masterpieces:

The assortment!

Cuttin' out some 'staches. 

I look good with a 'stache and bowtie!

I'll probably purchase a few other props to throw in the mix... maybe a tiara, or a crazy hat, or a feather boa. In the end, I'm just really looking forward to seeing hilarious pictures of our guests gone wild.

A Bride on a Budget!

Over the past 9 months, this bride has tried her hardest to stay on a pretty strict budget. And I feel as though now that I'm almost on the other side of it all, I've got some wisdom I can share with those who are just starting to go through this crazy wedding planning thing and help you avoid spending $50,000+ for just one night of fun. I won't break it down penny-by-penny for you, but I will give you some helpful hints for getting to the altar with out breaking your (or your parents') bank.

Set a budget and stick to it.
I can't stress this enough. As soon as my parents gave us our wedding budget, I went on over to weddingwire.com, signed up for a free account, and used their budget planning tool to figure out exactly what amount of money would be spent where. From limos, to flowers, to my gown, to the food... every costly piece of the big day was estimated and accounted for before we started spending any money. That way, I knew I wasn't allowed to fall in love with a $5,000 way before I went crazy trying on gowns, thus preventing me from getting my heart set on something out of the budget. Talk about a stress reducer!

Use your resources.
You may not realize it, but your friends and family are made up of awesome people who are extremely talented in many ways. And I highly encourage you to figure out what these good folks are good at... and then ask them to do it for your wedding! The best part is, most of them will offer their skill to you in place of a wedding gift. A pretty sweet deal, if I do say so myself (and I do). As for me, my wedding planner, florist, photographer, videographer, hair stylist, invitation designer, reception musician/dj, and personal first-dance teacher are all family members, friends, or friends of friends. And I couldn't be a bride on a budget without them.

Dream big, but not too often.
There are going to be some things you just really need to have for your big day. And I'm going to tell you right now... that's totally ok. But, the key is that you can only have a few of these "really important things" on your list. For me, it was chiavari chairs. I had to have them. And by the way, they're not cheap. But, that was basically the only "must have" on my list. Oh, and the limo big enough for the 12-person wedding party. Yes, expensive. But, one of only a few splurges. Once you decide what the big ticket items are going to be, put aside the money for them and then make sure to be more flexible and frugal with pretty much everything else on your wedding-spending list.

Find cheaper alternatives.
Or in other words, shop around before you settle. So, you fell in love with the $5,000 dress even though you knew your budget was 1/5th of that. Oops! Well, the good news is, you can still make it in under your budget and have the gown of your dreams. You'll just have to do some research. Usually you can find used or even unworn wedding gowns for sale online. Or, you can check out your local bridal consignment shop. For me it was Merry-Go-Round in Houston, TX (where I found both my gown and my veil for half of their original prices). Or, even better yet, you can usually find a gown similar to that expensive designer one at a more budget friendly gown shop, just made by a different designer. When you think about it, there aren't many designs out there for gowns, so you're bound to find an almost identical gown made by another designer somewhere out there. And, never forget to check out etsy.com for anything and everything wedding related. The sellers on that site are more than happy to custom make pretty much anything you need for your wedding and usually at reasonable rates.

Do it yourself. 
Don't be afraid to tackle some wedding projects on your own. You can save hundreds (even thousands) just by spending a few extra hours working on something for yourself. For example, if you're not careful, you can spend thousands on your wedding invites alone. Why not design them yourself? There are plenty of sites out there that print them for cheap... or you can buy some cardstock at your favorite paper-carrying shop and print them at home. Then, have a small party with all your bridesmaids and have them help you assemble and address the envelopes. Sure it won't have the fancy, swirly calligraphy, but who's going to keep the envelope anyway? Just be careful with DIY projects. As the bride you've got plenty to do, so don't take on too many tasks for yourself.


Overall, just remember to relax, smile, and have fun. Planning can be stressful, and trust me... it's even more stressful when a strict budget and an over-priced wedding industry are involved. But, if you heed my advice and plan that budget early on in the process, I promise it'll all work out and be 100% worth it in the end.

And if you have any "bride on a budget" tips from planning your own wedding, please feel free to share...

Words of Wisdom

John and I are in the process of picking out the readings and music for our wedding mass. We're almost certain that this will be the 2nd reading at the wedding. It's beautiful.

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3: 12-17