Color crazy

I have officially become a crazy bride.  

A couple of my bridesmaids and I stopped in David's Bridal to order their dresses. I had previously been in to purchase color swatches and learned that they didn't carry plum in a swatch.  So I came armed with various objects to color match to the dress while the girls tried them on. The sales lady was super nice but definitely gave me the "are you serious?" look when she saw me pulling out purple things and holding them up to the dress. (I blame all my years as an art student)  Then again, I think I gave her the same look when she told me "that one is close enough, you can use a variety of different shades".   Which is true, and we are, but still: "close enough"?!

One thing I brought did match almost perfectly...my hairbrush!  (See?  I wasn't kidding when I said she gave me the "are you serious look"...you just did the same look at your computer screen too!)  I can't cut up my brush to give color samples to vendors though, but tonight I realized my umbrella was the same color purple! Yep, crazy me took scissors to my umbrella and ended up with this!

Don't worry, I seriously contemplated my actions before diving in!  Oh, ok so it's brand new and I haven't gotten to use it yet.  However, the winds on campus are crazy so my umbrellas never last long before popping inside out and breaking.  It's only a matter of time, so I might as well cut it up now right?  Right?  Not convinced yet?

See, I told you I thought about it first!  Turns out the strap that wraps around it to hold it closed was two layers of fabric.  So I just cut off the inside layer and voila! Perfect color swatch and my umbrella remains intact!  A little crazy? Yes. Worth it? probably not Of course!

Just dance

We booked our DJ!  

Cody was awesome and found them, got a quote, called them, and set up my appointment!  All I had to do was show up at Bread Co. eat a muffin (by the way, orange-cranberry = SOUR!) and chat with one of the owners.  She was great and pretty much answered all of my questions before I asked them.  Seemed very knowledgeable, personable, and easy to work with.  So after double checking with Cody, we went ahead and booked them!

 

This is probably the one thing I worry about the most for the wedding.  It is super hard to know if you are booking the right company since you can't really see their work first hand.  We could taste the cake, see the venues and flowers, but the DJ? Tricky. Plus, I feel like the music is pretty much make it or break it.  If the cake doesn't taste great oh well. (although it will be awesome)  If the flowers aren't great, not a big deal. Bad music can kill the party though. Cody has assured me that if they aren't making me happy, he will take care of it. So I'm just not going to worry about it!

Next up I am meeting with florists!

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.