Let them eat cake!

I have spent the last month or so researching different vendors.  When we hit the 8 month mark I realized I needed to get my act in gear and start contacting possible vendors. What better place to start than the yummiest vendor?  Mom and Jamie (sister) drove down and we made it to the cake shop right before they opened. There was already a line.  Good sign though right? 

Clockwise from the top: white, lemon with raspberry filling, and marble

 The bakery had three flavors set out: yellow cake with strawberry filling, red velvet with cream cheese, and chocolate with fudge filling.

We also were able to request three other flavors to be prepared for us. Everything was so good! (Except the marble, it was just boring) Although for future reference: if you go cake tasting do NOT eat a pop-tart for breakfast. By the second bite of cake I was ready to be done! Luckily they had bottled water but I was still on a sugar high for the rest of the day! 

Cody and I decided on a cake design early on, so after we decided on a couple great flavors the cake was BOOKED!

Fixing little things

A few weeks months ago our pantry door starting biting us. While this could be a good dieting technique, it's just not nice when you are putting away groceries.  Gradually we went from being bitten by the door knob every few weeks, to every day, to pulling the knob completely off.  Savvy college students that we are we just kept putting it back on the door.  Works right?  Well, I finally got fed up with this process and this mess:

 

When it first started biting you couldn't even see the crack

Now it bites and pulls off at the same time!

 So, on my trip to the store this morning I picked up one of these:

and did this!

Shiny!  Tea and blueberry pancakes anyone?

Ok, so this isn't a huge deal.  Anyone can fix a door knob right?  I just always have Dad fix things, and had every intention of waiting for him to come fix it for me.  Lesson learned today? I just may be able to fix things around the house when Cody is deployed...or at least little things.  We are still going to need to hire someone to mow the lawn though!

Adventures in Mississippi

Over Labor Day weekend I was able to go visit Cody in Mississippi! 

Beach in Mississippi

We had a great time hanging out watching movies, swimming, going out to eat, and the beach! 

I wasn't too impressed with the beach in Mississippi.  The sand was nice but the water looked so dirty and gross.  We went back at low tide which was a lot better and we could walk out farther.  We saw a ton of jelly fish!  Then we were literally surrounded by sting rays!  It was scary but hilarious once we got out of there.

On our way to Pensacola

We decided to go see some water that was a little nicer, so we took this very long bridge to Pensacola, Florida. We had so much fun!  The water was so amazingly clear, even farther out.  We had burgers on the beach, went for a swim, and found some awesome sea shells!

Shells from Florida, sand and driftwood from Mississippi

 

 

We also went and registered.  We were both excited to get to do this, and Cody really looked forward to using the scanning gun.  The lady who set us up ended up walking around with us, which was good in some instances because she was on hand to answer questions and point out when we were (silently) making "I don't think so" faces when either one of us picked something the other didn't like.  Unfortunately, she was also using the scanner.  By the time we finished with the kitchen stuff we were exhausted and overwhelmed.  So we ditched the registry for tons of food and sleep...and went back the next day to finish up.  We got to go around by ourselves...which meant Cody finally got to use the scanner!!

Oh, and in case anyone is planning on traveling to Mississippi and baking a pie....

they don't have pumpkin pie filling there. 

Seriously.  

No joke.

  We tried multiple stores and nada.  

I guess living in the same state as the Pumpkin Capital of the world has its advantages!

Wedding Wishes

Thought I'd share some wedding ideas I've found that are really neat, but aren't going to make it into our wedding day.

Save the Dates

Flower petal lined aisle

Heart boutonniere

Unity Sand Ceremony

Mason jar centerpieces

DIY Cupcake Bar

Pie Bar

Something Blue 

Still trying to convince the future Mr. this would make a great Christmas/Bday gift! ;-)

A little sparkle

When I first starting planning our wedding I fell in love with pictures like these:

(Source)

 

I have always wanted to get married in sneakers but once I saw these pictures I knew I had to have purple heels! I'd find amazing purple shoes, snap my fun photos, and change into sneaks for the reception.  Good plan right?

Not so much.  My feet have always been narrow and my ankles are skinny mini.  The result?

(Source)

 Ok, not exactly but I think you get the idea!  Frustrated, I decided to go the Scarlett O'Hara route and "think about it tomorrow" (or months after tomorrow) and focus on reception sneaks.  Fun, shiny ones.  Mom suggested I just get high-tops and not worry about it.  High-tops aren't my thing but checking out the website couldn't hurt.  A trip to the mall to check my shoe size and five shipping days later this arrived...

 which held the most perfectly perfect compromise of purple heels and sneakers!

(They look gray here but they are the same color purple that is on the website)

I love them!  They cover both the color and type I wanted, so I'm going to wear them for the ceremony and reception!

They even work with jeans for after the wedding!

 

 

 

 I managed to get them on a one day only 20% off sale with free shipping!  This seemed like a great deal until I ran across them at a new shoe store in the mall for $10 cheaper...two days after I ordered them.

Awesome.

Snippets

While home on break this week I have been zipping around town (ok, three different cities) picking up wedding supplies - and finding some great deals!!

Well, hello there Mr. Fisk...

(Left: Punchy   Right: Mr. Fisk)

We met in the clearance aisle at Michael's and since he was only $7 (60% off!) I had to scoop him up. I mean seriously, how many times do you wish you owned a paper slicer...especially a cute little orange one!  I scored the Martha Stewart paper punch for 40% off, and both items are hard at work on our wedding paper goods!

Sneaky peek..

These may, or may not, be the aforementioned paper goods.  IF they were I bet I made multiple trips to a local craft store in order to use a 40% off coupon on every box I bought...or might have bought...

I found the perfect paper to add to the invitations...and thanks to the Crazy 4 hour Summer Madness Sale I got everything for 25% off!  The next day I found a different type of invitation paper I needed for 50% off. Turns out it wasn't suppose to be on sale...someone forgot to take the sale sign down from last week, so I got the deal this week too!

Stitchery

The Momma is hard at work on this little number!  It will make it's grand debut at my shower (which isn't for a long time).  Can you guess what it is?  She also whipped up a keep and toss garter set and they are so awesome - but a surprise for the Mr. so no pictures! Yes, more coupons and sale items were used!

A little sparkle

 This item was probably the most exciting find of the week! I got a deal on this as well, although some frustration may have followed.  Hopefully I will be able to do a full sparkle post in the next couple days!!!

I think all of my wedding purchases so far have been made with some sort of discount or coupon involvement.  Not a bad way to start off and I'm excited to find more deals!

The little things that matter

I was browsing wedding items one day on Etsy and I tripped over something rather fantastic. I knew at once that I absolutely had to have this item...until I realized it might be a little silly and possibly bridal-craziness to want something so trivial.  So I bookmarked the page and tried to forget it.  Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore and caved  "Hey Mom?  Look at this."  She loved it!  Of course all I needed was for someone to think it was just as neat as I did and to assure me that it wasn't a silly thing to want.  So what is this amazing Etsy find? 

(personal photo)

Bride and Groom FORKS!  Necessary? No.  Will anyone but us notice? No.  Adorable? Yes! 

 The seller actually calls them cake forks, but they are so awesome we will be using them all night.

Jamie also suggested we use them on our anniversaries, which of course makes them even more perfect.  A well spent twenty bucks in my opinion :)