New Years Eve

Chris and I have been lucky enough to spend every New Year’s Eve together since we started dating (which isn't always easy when you're dating someone who works on holidays)

Us out in Dallas ringing in 2008

A quieter New Year’s Eve at home to ring in 2009

Every new year brings challenges and triumphs and I am so happy to be able to share those with Chris.

Cheers to another wonderful year together (and one more year closer to our wedding)!

Tis the season

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Chris helping Gypsy with presents last year.

I am celebrating the day with my family and Chris up in Columbus! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!

Our holiday photo this year

Reality Check

Funny how something I didn't even think I wanted when I began planning this wedding is now something that I have fallen in LOVE with!

I'm referring to my new found love for videography. At first I didn't even factor it into the budget because I thought that pictures would be enough. But after reading and seeing trailers of girls' wedding on the Knot and Weddingbee, I started to think of it as a possibility.

So one day, pretty much like any other day where I get off work and catch up on all the Weddingbee blogs for the day, I came across Miss (now Mrs) Lab's post about finally finding a videographer for her wedding. Indy Productions wasn't her first choice, but was a name given to her when another videographer was booked on her day. I clicked on over to their blog to find pure awesomeness!

I fell in love. I fell hard! Watching the trailers (and some full wedding videos) was like watching mini movies. The cinematography was breathtaking. I headed over to his webpage and saw the starting price for his packages. In all honesty I truly didn't think about the actual price or how we would squeeze it into our budget (details, details), I quickly sent him an email for more pricing information. Then I realized something.

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Reality Check! He's in Georgia, our wedding is in Texas. The travel expenses alone would probably make this an unattainable vendor.

So I thought of the next best thing. I sent the link of Indy's blog to our wedding planner and asked her to find someone local with that type of style. She was great and quickly sent over a list of names/links for me to check out. Hopefully we'll find someone with a similar style that fits into our budget.

Do you ever need a reality check when it comes to your budget/planning?

Commemorating the year

YAY! We're heading into the final stretch before Christmas. Unlike a bunch of my friends and co-workers, I will have to make it through 4 more days of work before I can start my end of year vacation time. Chris and I have finished our Christmas shopping, and will start to pack for the cold weather up North.

One tradition I thought I would start this Christmas is to pick up an ornament that will commemorate the past year, somewhere we traveled to or something that we did together. I was going to look for one online, but through my current love for Etsy I decided to have one made for a year that I will never forget.

There were many moments that I will remember for this year, but the two I treasure the most by far is our engagement and our big trip to Disney & Caribbean cruise where we celebrated with my family. I contacted the Etsy seller Peg's Clay Ground, which happened to be one of the first sellers that came up during my search and had her make an ornament that combined those two memories.

So you wanna see it, right?? Well here it is. I can't wait to put it on our tree next year! (I was too lazy to put up the tree this year, hehe)

Isn't it cute?? Do you purchase ornaments to celebrate the year?

Dealing with time apart

Chris is a manager of a retail store and there was a slim chance that he would be able to have off at the holidays (he has worked every Thanksgiving and Christmas for the past 6 or 7 years). I'm so excited to say that he will be able to get off and will be flying up to Columbus with my family for Christmas!!

We have actually only spent 1 major holiday apart since we began dating, which was the first Christmas we were together. I went to Atlanta with my family and he stayed behind in Texas to work. Thankfully Thanksgiving is held at my parents house, so he can open the store, and we just wait to eat until he gets off.

It’s hard to spend time apart from someone you love, especially when it’s during the holidays, but you always have to look on the bright side of bad situations. How do you deal with time apart from your significant other? Is it harder around the holidays?

Another Weddingbee inspired DIY project

As mentioned before I am slightly addicted to Weddingbee. I have picked up a couple of ideas that I think would be a great addition to our wedding plans.

While going through the archives I stumbled upon Mrs. Sushi and her passport save the dates

Mrs Sushi’s awesome save the dates (Source)

While we aren’t having a destination wedding, we are having a travel theme that would benefit with the addition of the passport ideas. I have already purchased and cut most of the scrapbook paper for our save the dates, so this idea couldn’t be used for that. There are 2 other options that I am planning to DIY, that the passports could definitely be incorporated into.

The first idea was to use them as the welcome letter in the OOT boxes, which would be great, but not everyone (as in half of our list that live in the DFW area) would get to see them. My next thought, which could be enjoyed by all of our guests, is to use them as the programs. How cute would that be? For those guest that don’t notice little details (like the travel tag on the STD magnet), this would be a connection into the travel themed reception (which includes the escort cards (more on those later), table names and cake).

What do you think? Would the passports make a cute program?

500!

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Nope, I haven't seen this movie, but I'm sure it will be on the Netflix list when it's out on DVD.

Today marks 500 days until our wedding!!! It seems like alot (because it is), but it's 255 days less than where we started. Just keep on trucking!

What to walk in?

I’m no Carrie Bradshaw. I do not have an obsession with shoes. In fact, I probably have less than 7 pairs that I wear on a regular basis, and 2 of those are flip flops. I can never really get over the pain of cute shoes to wear them to work, so I try to stick with flat or boots in the winter.

With my normal non interest in shoes, Mama Elephant was pleasantly surprised when I said that I wanted some awesome blue heels for the wedding. I love looking at wedding pictures where the bride has a little color hidden under her dress, and the blue heels can also count as my something blue! Below are some pictures I’ve found online when googling blue shoes:

These are cute. (source)

A little more bling (Source), which is a good thing ;)

 Extra support with the ankle strap! (Source)

As we all know, shoes can be a bit pricey, so I’ll be looking for styles like the ones above, but of course at a good price! Since I probably won’t last all night in heels, I’ll probably also look for a pair of blue flats to change into after the first dances.

Mrs Moonbeam's flats (Source)

Will you be changing into a second pair of shoes to dance at your reception?

Hobby Lobby to the rescue

With the sand ceremony vases blinged out, all that was left was to find blue and green sand. Easy, right?

Wrong! I swear I made at least 4 stops to craft stores before I was about to give up. I started with my go to, Michael's. They had some sand in the floral accessory area, and found a bright blue (a little brighter that I wanted) and a pale sage green (not as bright as I liked). I wasn't sold so I left it there and headed over the JoAnn's where I found one single bag of beige sand. I asked if they had more of a selection and was told "doubt it, it's not that really popular".

Hmmm.... So I turned to the Internet and found the colors I wanted on JoAnn's website, but the shipping was twice as much as the cost of the bag... no thank you! I headed back to Micheal's and picked up the blue... not happy but I at least had one down.

Well I happen to be the area of Hobby Lobby and started looking around. I was about to give up since I could only find "Moon Sand" (which is mold-able, but not what I wanted) and then there it was! Jars of Sand, in the bright green and dark blue that I wanted! And it was only $1.99 per bottle, not too shabby at all.

Did you have to make several trips looking for a DIY material?

Awesome Save The Date Video

I was just checking out Broke Ass Bride, and she posted this awesome save the date video she found on you tube. Thought I would share...

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