Holiday Nuptials

Seeing as how Mike (that's his name, I was referring to him as MJ because those are his initials (pretty soon I will be CJ) and I thought using his initials would bring some sort of privacy, but knowing our first names isn't giving away tons of info.) and I are getting married on a holiday weekend, I thought I would share some holiday themed weddings that I've come across. We'll move through the year accordingly.

New Years Wedding: I love the oh so sleek black, white and silver theme that most New Years weddings take on. It really is such a sexy theme (hello, you get to kiss someone at midnight, could you imagine if that was the custom of more than one holiday??). Only down side I see is the cold weather, but some people love the idea of a cold weather wedding.



Valentine's Day Wedding: There's something about Valentine's Day that puts people off because it so successfully raises people's expectations so high that it's easy to feel disapointment. However, I think a Valentine's Day wedding would actually be a treat because the day would be completely filled with love (what better way to share love than to surround yourself with those who mean the most to you?!?!)



St. Patty's Day: Originally, Mike and I wanted to have a crisp green and white wedding. Then we added black and all I thought of was the Wicked Witch of the West. However, the green and white or green, white and black weddings look awesome. And I think St. Patty's Day weddings are so fun because of the little charming additions of four leaf clovers, etc.



Easter: An Easter theme wedding would actually make for a very sweet little wedding day. The pastels and birds eggs are already regular features of weddings without holiday affiliations.



Cinco de Mayo: A Mexican theme wedding sounds so fun to me! The bright colors, delicious food, great danceable music and yummy drinks. I hope someone we know gets married and has a Cinco de Mayo wedding and invites us.



Independence Day: I think a couple could really have fun with a 4th of July wedding. Personally, I think the color scheme would really lend itself to a rustic barn wedding, with very charming accents of stars and stripes.



Halloween: A Halloween wedding isn't my cup of tea at first impression, but the more I think of Halloween (beyond costumes and candy) the more I see the potential. Pumpkins, fall leaves and warm hued colors would make for such a delightful and upbeat wedding.



Thanksgiving: This wedding color pallet is so appealing to me. Gold, deep warm chocolate brown and cranberry red are so luxurious and inviting. Plus, can you imagine the meal that would be severed? Haha, actually I think doing little mini versions of Thanksgiving classics with lots of Champagne and beer would be even better. Yum-o!!



Christmas: I think there are many different ways that a couple can go with a Christmas wedding. I think green, red and white actually come off as being pretty fresh. Yet using a silver, gold and red theme would still equally fit a Christmas wedding and offer a warmer, less fresh but more traditional feel. My opinion at least. ;) So for Christmas I included two pictures.




I didn't include Memorial Day (our wedding holiday) or Labor Day because they are mostly red, white and blue holidays like the 4th of July. That said, just because our wedding is sharing a weekend with a holiday doesn't mean in anyway that we are having a holiday theme wedding. :) But I know that there are some people getting married this weekend that WILL have a Halloween theme wedding which made me think about all of the holiday theme weddings out there.

Would you ever consider having your wedding incorporate the theme of a holiday? What was your favorite, which do you think I like the most?

Fabu Sugar Doll? Thank you!!

Sweet lil' Miss Mojito honored me with The Fabulous Sugar Doll Blogger award on her blog yesterday. YAY!!



Upon accepting the Sugar Doll award, I need to post 10 fun facts about moi, and then pass this lovely little award on to some other fabulous bloggers! Without further ado:

1. MJ and I have the cutest little puppy dog, Sox. She is 7 months old and we had her spayed a week ago today. She was MJ's graduation present to me. We picked her out right after my graduation from college.



2. Although I've always loved fashion, I'm slowly realizing that I am a total Francophile too. I've always been fond of France, but the more I'm learning about the culture and the people, it's intensifying my lust for all thing French. Oui! (I so want to learn French now!!)



3. I hate wearing socks. Even though I love wearing boots in the winter (they're soooo flattering and sexy!) I hate that it means I need to wear socks too. I'm weird, I know.



4. Christmas is my favorite holiday. I absolutely love buying gifts for other people and thinking about what our friends and family need or what they would enjoy receiving. :)



5. I can eat an entire large pizza all by myself. I haven't been eating much in the way of pizza lately (or any carbs for that matter) but I can eat large amounts of food in one sitting, and when I do MJ will say something along the lines of "That's impressive." haha



6. My favorite movie is Singin' in the Rain. I love love love love old timey movies with sining and dancing, and although I've tried to get MJ to catch on he just doesn't share my interest in Dorris Day, Debbie Reynolds, Carry Grant, Gene Kelly, Don O'Connell, etc.



7. I have been having baby fever lately. Everywhere I go I've been seeing the cutest little chubby babies and it sooo makes me want one. (I think having the puppy inclines me to feel that way too.)



8. If I won the lottery the first thing I would do is pay off the debt of my family and friends. Then I would take an awesome vacation with MJ and the rest would go into the bank. Boring huh? That's the accountant in me, INVEST your money!



9. I applied to be a WeddingBee blogger a few weeks and recently received a rejection email. But I will apply again in another 4 weeks. :) Hopefully 2nd time's a charm! :)



10. I don't like chocolate. I love vanilla and I think white chocolate rocks, but I've never been a big fan of regular chocolate. It tastes alright to me...again, I know I'm a wierd-o.



Now to pass on the blog love (I know that some of these peeps have already received the award but I'm going to give it again anyway):

1. THOUGHTS OF THE ALL CONSUMED BRIDE

2. wheresmydessert?

3. RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A NEW MILITARY WIFE

4. happily after all.

5. Chocolate Lover

6. THE PERPETUAL PARTY PLANNER

7. Lucky in Love

8. Joy is the Best Makeup

9. Girl with a Ring

10. Miss Frogger

A Little Laugh for the Day

Today I had a revelation that the upside to being suddenly unemployed (albeit by my own choice) is that I suddenly have all sorts of time to create DIY masterpieces for our wedding. I'm feeling particularly inspired by Mrs. Perfume's reception dress (yes, she had TWO amazingly beautiful dresses, lucky duck!) that was handmade by her mom, and her veil was also handmade by Mama Perfume:





Like many DIYers I saw these gorgeous DIY pieces and thought, I can do that! Unlike most DIYers, I had a crazier idea; I bet people will love my creations so much that I can sell them. Hence I can solve all of my problems (what, you think I'm nuts, hear me out) with a sewing machine!

If you're a avid follower of my blog you've read the Kreativ Blogger award facts that I posted here. So you know that it's my dream to be a fashion designer. When I was in high school my mom drove me to San Francisco every Saturday to take classes at the Academy of Art on Fashion Design. I was going to go to college in SF after high school graduation to study fashion design up until I met the man of my dreams, MJ, and decided that I didn't need to rush off to the big city quite yet. Alas, after not going to art school (and it was becoming clear that it wasn't in the plans) I decided to get my lovely tat' on my back to remind me of what I love, even though I was to pursue a career in accounting, which I greatly enjoy but don't quite love.



Flash forward to last week, I quit my job and am trying to sort through all of my options. MJ suggested that I buy a sewing machine, design and make clothes and sell my wares to the little boutiques here in downtown Sacramento. Yeah Right!! Then this afternoon, I found my inspiration and suddenly it sounds like genius idea. I would sell my wares to boutiques and on etsy, it couldn't get any easier! Then I started reading the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly which highlighted this weeks Must List, in which it featured www.Regretsy.com - dedicated to totally weird etsy finds like overly anatomical dolls, tacky taxidermy, celeb-themed cat toys.







Then www.cratfail.com popped into my head too. Hmm...my first round with the Gocco was a total DIY fail too. So this plan might need a little more thinking through before it should be considered. However, I must say that I would drop a few pesos on the dress that Mama Perfume made.

Have you seen any DIY projects that you would actually pay for?

One day you're in, the next day you're out

I NEED to finally go dress shopping. So this week while I have some extra time I am going to start making some appointments with dress shops in both Sacramento and San Francisco. This is good. However, I don't necessarily know that I want a whole entorage of peeps going with me. Enter my delima, telling people that they're out, a la Heidi Klum.



Of course when you get engaged people always want to ask about the dress.

Mainly, "have you found one yet?"; the answer is no. I've received a lot of responses that are similar to "oh when you go shopping I want to go with you." To which you can hardly shoot someone down, so I've made a lot of commitments knowing full well that I probably only want about 2 or 3 people with me, tops. Mainly because when it comes to clothes, I know what I like and what I don't like. That and too many episodes of Say Yes to the Dress have me freaked that someone is going to hate my IT dress, and who needs that kind of negativity? Not me!! :)

Next, "Do you know what you want?" Oh, yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. Sadly, when I've searched for it in stores, I haven't had any luck finding it. Since about a month into being engaged I found the dress of my dreams inside of a wedding magazine. Allow me to share:







This is the Jim Hjelm Spring 2009 Style 8904 gown. I'm in love with it. Siiiiiigggggggghhhhhh. The back is so deep and sexy and the front is so very sweet. I absolutely love that this gown isn't strapless and the lace makes me drool. Not to mention that the sash is the perfect shade of champagne. Swwoooooooooooon.

However, that being said, I haven't tried on a single, solitary dress yet. And every bride that I've talked to says that you may think that you know what you want and then you try on a ball-gown and suddenly you are princess bride and you didn't even know until you put the dress on. Me being me, I am pretty sure that this is IT, my dress, 8904 is the dress that I was meant to be married in and I can't find it ANYWHERE!! I'm hoping that I can find something VERY close otherwise I am going to look into having it custom made, but that makes me nervous too...

Did you know what you wanted your dress to look like before you went shopping? Did you get something similar?

RCIA - My first class

This past Sunday MJ and I attend a Catholic mass at the Newman Center in Sacramento. Most colleges and universities have Newman Centers, they are mostly aimed at young people and they hold all kinds of events and activities for students who want to be Catholic or are already Catholic. The reason that I am doing my RCIA classes through the Newman Center instead of at a traditional church is because I can complete all of the sacraments in one school year (or two semesters) instead of the standard 18 months that it would usually take at a traditional church. The result is that I will be Catholic by our wedding, meaning that I can accept communion during our ceremony, yay!



So how was it? Okay I guess. Being that I was raised mostly without religion in my life, singing songs and praying with other people around me feels a little awkward (read: dorky, hey, I'm being honest). Thankfully, MJ is going to be my sponsor (anyone who wants to be Catholic needs to have a Catholic sponsor to have discussions with and talk about any questions or concerns regarding conversion) which means he has to attend all of my RCIA classes with me. (I can make comments about Christ Chex and now someone will know what I'm talking about!)

This cracks me up!


I feel like the RCIA classes, and mass in general, will be more fulfilling the further along I get, but the best part actually happened afterwards; MJ and I had a lengthy discussion about what we want from our marriage and the values we want to raise our family with (you know, our future 2.5 children :)). I like to believe that most people get married because they love each other, but I want our marriage to share more than just our love, I want to share common beliefs and find know that our core values are the same. (That said, we have differing views on political things that are often said to be religious views too, such as abortion and gay marriage; we don't see eye to eye on those two things but we think they're more political than anything else.)

Anyway, I will receive all of my sacraments that will make me Catholic on the Saturday night before Easter. It's kind of like a wham, bam operation. I will be baptized and confirmed all at the same time. That means I will have been Catholic for about two months before we're married and everyone I love will watch me receive communion.

Have you had any "big" conversation with your honey about what you want out of your marriage?

Because Life Happens

Sigh...these last two weeks have been insane. Suddenly we have 216 days left until our wedding day and I still have BIG items left on my to-do list (flowers, music, dress!!). This week I quit my job (one of the partners at my firm was a complete jerk and MJ and I agreed that I shouldn't put up with being treated without respect, and while we can afford for me to not work, we have a wedding and honeymoon that we need to finance, so we actually do need my income) so now in addition to feeling behind in wedding planning, I'm now looking for a new job. Our new financial position means that while I'm looking for a new job, wedding spending has been frozen. BUT because I have some free time while I'm looking, I actually have time to do some wedding planning. Have I mentioned that I've still yet to ask one of my friends to be a bridesmaid in my wedding?

With my extra time this week, here's what I'm looking to conquer (while I'm not job hunting of course, or working out at the gym, or taking care of our puppy who was spayed on Friday):

Set appointments to go dress shopping (preferably in San Francisco) and notify those that I want to accompany me (I will post more about how I feel about this in another post soon.)

Ask my prego friend if she will be a bridesmaid in my wedding (she will have her first child in March, so I'm prepared that she may decline. In which case I'll move on to plan B (I will post about this soon too...))

Research florists in Carmel (I've already interviewed one via phone, I will post about this soon)

Research DJs in Carmel.

Set up room blocks with our reception site for friends and family.

Hire a local printer to do our Save the Date cards (I plan to DIY the rest of our STD suite, I will post about this during the week, these things need to go out in the mail STAT!!)

Book our DOC (I've already interviewed her, but I haven't had a chance to actually review her contract yet.)

Drag MJ to the post office to renew his passport.

Talk with our officiant about what we need to do before our Catholic ceremony (I will post about booking our officiant and my first RCIA class this week.)

Finish setting up our wedding website through WeddingWindow.com.

If I could check most of these items off of my list I will be on my way to getting back on track. The only hang up is that I can't really put a deposit down on my gown, the florist or the DJ until I have something set up for work. But at least I can still do research on who I like and who I don't like. However, I understand that it's hard to hold on to vendors (especially on such a popular weekend) without putting down a deposit. So I'm crossing my fingers that everything is ironed out (work wise) within two weeks from now and I want all of the above wedding related items figured out by the beginning of December.

Did you experience a major setback while planning your wedding? How did you get around it?

The Wedding Checklist

It seems that wedding planning involves lots of checklists. This can be a good or a bad thing. For me, it's a good thing.

I'm a total type-A personality (it's actually pretty bad. MJ isn't allowed to do the dishes or the laundry because I want both to be done a certain way, and I think it's better that I just stay on top of these chores myself instead of getting frustrated with MJ does it "wrong," which just means that he didn't do things the way that I want them done. I told you.) Accountants generally feel at home with checklists and crossing of to-dos for a major project. So I'm right at home. The problem that I have is that I'm finding that my time is growing smaller and I haven't been checking off any of my to-dos. :(

Right after MJ and a I were engaged my MOH bought me this book: The Knot's Book of Wedding Lists. (She loves doing lists too but she's just not as neurotic as I am. :) ) Right away I started going through the chapters on reception and ceremony sites. I started checking things off and making notes in the book and emailing our site coordinators and asking them questions that were in the book. I was a lot of help!

Then when I started my wedding planner (the crazy binder that I carry around with me and look at almost daily, it's chocked full of magazine tear-outs, etc.) there were more checklists about my planning timeline. When I first started with my timeline checklist there were items that I knew I was behind in but I thought I would get them done quickly so I wouldn't fall behind. However, now that I'm revisiting my timeline checklist I'm faced with the realization that I am behind. :(

Here is my wedding timeline checklist and what I've accomplished and what I'm waiting for:

9 - 12 months before:

• Announce Engagement - umm...I think the important folks know via word of mouth
• Determine Wedding Style - Classic, elegant
• Set the Date - Done! May 29, 2010
• Determine your budget - $25,000 - $30,000 (MJ and I are paying for it ourselves)
• Create the inital guest list - Around 90 or so...
• Research & reserve ceremony site - Booked the Carmel Mission
• Research & reserve ceremony officiant - Booked Bishop Garcia
• Research & reserve reception site - Booked the La Playa Hotel
• Select your wedding party attendants - half way there, I still have one friend to ask...
• Shop for and order our wedding gown - haven't started yet, yikes!

6 - 9 Months Before:

• Choose your colors - Champagne, pink & chocolate
• Select bridal party dresses, shoes & accessories
• Apply for or renew passports/visas as needed - MJ needs to renew his, I have mine!
• Research & select the essentials:
• Florist
• Photographer - Jen Slot Photography
• DJ/band for reception
• Baker - La Playa Hotel
• Caterer - La Playa Hotel

4- 6 Months Before:

• Finalize guest list
• Select, print or order your invitations and other stationary - I won these!
• Mail Save the date cards
• Select/purchase/reserve attire for groom, attendants, etc.
• Plan rehearsal dinner
• Meet with essential people
• Florist
• Photographer
• DJ/band
• Baker
• Caterer
• Officiant
• Shop for and order rings
• Plan the honeymoon - Going to France & Italy, but nothing is booked yet...
• Arrange hotel and/or lodging accomodations for wedding night and out-of-town guests
• Book transportaiton for wedding day
• Register for gifts - Done! Registered through Macys and Crate & Barrel
• Obtain a marriage license

2 - 4 Months Before

• Assemble and address the invitations
• Buy undergarments and shoes for your dress fitting
• Purchase gifts for the wedding party and others as appropriate
• Send out wedding newsletter for out of town guests
• Attend showers, bachelorette party, etc. Don't forget hostess gifts!!
• Finalize menu items with caterer
• Order/make favors
• Finalize music for reception and ceremony
• Schedule appointments or dress fittings
• Schedule appointments for nails, hair, makeup, etc.

4 - 6 Weeks Before:

• Mail invitiations
• Select readings for the ceremony
• Meet with officiant
• Purchase gift for the groom/bride
• Create, print and assemble your wedding programs
• Pick up wedding rings and make sure they are properly insured
• Send out invitations for the rehearsal dinner
• Start preparing a seating chart for the reception
• Purchase accessories such as guest book, ring bearer pillow, toasting glasses, etc.
• Make sure to all transportation details are coordinated and finalized
• Finalize details with all of your service providers
• Attend a test run for hair and makeup

2 -6 Weeks Before:

• Contact guests who haven't responded
• Confirm ceremony details with officiant
• Finalize rehearsal dinner plans
• Finalize head count with caterer and figure our table layout and seating
• Complete menu cards, place cards, escort cards, table numbers, etc.
• Arrange final fittings for wedding gown, bridesmaids dresses
• Confirm honeymoon plans, tickets, reservations
• Provide attendants with list of duties

Final Week

• Pack for wedding night
• Pack for honeymoon - Don't forget your passport!!
• Pick up and properly store bride/groom attire

Rehearsal Day

• Deliver favors, decorations and guest book to ceremony and reception locations
• Provide each member of your wedding party with a detailed schedule of events for wedding day
• Review ceremony seating with ushers
• Hand out payments to select vendors

And that's just the checklist from my wedding binder. Each source seems to have more and more to-dos.

I'm feeling behind, and I'm worried that it's going to snowball and I'm going to be one of those brides that you see on Whose Wedding is it Anyway that has to hire a planner 3 weeks before the wedding because they haven't planned anything yet.

The Ring

First, sorry I've been MIA recently. October 15th is the final annual deadline for all individual taxpayers who elected to file their tax returns per the IRS extension. To say that I've been busy this week would be a gross understatement.

Anyway, on to the engagement ring goodness!!



Long before Mike and I were engaged I purchased InStyle Weddings, initially I tried to hide this book from MJ, but as years passed and I grew more and more comfortable making hints to MJ that I thought we should get engaged and married I eventually began showing him pictures of the weddings that I thought would be cute for us.

One of the best parts about this book are the ginormous pictures of the many styles of engagement rings. :) My taste and style is very classic and the classic solitaire was calling my name from the page. I think I've told MJ about a billion times that this is the ideal engagement ring for me. (I'm sure about a half billion of those time I phrased it this way "some day, when I meet a man who falls madly in love with me and decides that he cannot live another day without making me his bride, I hope that when he bends down on one knee and proposes that we be together always, that he will present me with a ring that looks exactly like this. I've never seen a ring so beautiful.")



So when MJ dropped down to one knee on a very special Thursday evening and proposed to me that I be his wife, the ring he presented me with was exactly what I had been dreaming of and hinting at, the classic solitaire.


I wish I had pictures from MJ proposing to me but honestly it was so sweet and intimate that there was no way that pictures could have been incorporated.

I have taken some pictures of my ring with limited success of catching all of the fire and brilliance (actually getting any clear pictures of the rock is difficult.) The above is the best picture I've ever taken of my ring. I am going to make sure that a detail picture of our rings is on the "must" list for our photographer on our wedding day. I absolutely love everything about my ring. It's the perfect classic cut, I love the band and the fact that it has 4 prongs instead of 6.

What does your engagement ring look like? Did you have an idea of what your e-ring style was before you were engaged?

Cowboy take me away

So...MJ and I have officially decided that we'll be spending our two week honeymoon in France and Italy!! Oui! Si!



Ahh...love! We were waffling between going to Europe (I've never been but MJ studied abroad in Ireland for a semester in college) or going somewhere tropical like Bora Bora and living out a Corona commercial, something like this:



Ultimately, we realized that two weeks of laying in the sun would make two pasty skinned folk like us pretty sick and MJ isn't a big fan of water activities so it could get pretty boring after a few days.

Since we've settled on France and Italy we've decided that we'll be visiting the French Open (sooooooo excited!) and we'd both LOVE to go to a European league soccer (futbol) match! And of course we can still spend a few days living out our Corona Commercial fantasies in the South of France but still do all kinds of other fun activities and have lazy days strolling through small French and Italian villages.




Have you decided on where you'll be going for your honeymoon? Were the activities at that location a deal breaker?

Kreativ Blogger Award

I found out this morning that San Diego Budget Bride awarded me with the 'Kreativ Blogger' award! Thank You!! So cool, this of course allows me to talk about the subject I know most about: Me! :)

I'm supposed to share 7 facts about myself with you and then pass this award on to seven other bloggers. I now present you with 7 random facts about me:

1. I love to run and have completed 4 half-marathons. Actually, this is the first year that I won't be running in the Nike Women's Marathon in SF. :(

A picture of the some of the crazy crowd getting ready to run!

2. MJ lived in Milwaukee for 6 months a few years ago (for work) and I flew there to see him every weekend. I fell in love with that little city and I feel like it's my hometown. I miss Milwaukee dearly.

MJ in his apartment in Milwaukee, I LOVE this picture of him. He's so freakin' cute!!

3. I have an evil plan to take over the CPA firm I work for and become the only female partner. (Cue my evil laugh.)


4. I am terrified of ants. Something about those creepy crawly bugs just really gives me the heeby geebies.

5. I have a secret fantasy that MJ and will elope before our wedding day (it will be something completely spontaneous and oh so romantic. I think I'm too chicken to actually do it though, it's just a fantasy.)

6. I have a tattoo of the Chanel logo on my back. I love fashion and I plan to get back into fashion desgin when I'm older.


7. In the last 4 months I've developed a severe addiction to my iPhone and wedding blogs. (MJ refers to me a Miss Carmel when we're at home beacuse of my addiction to WeddingBee, but the other day I Googled "Miss Carmel" and discovered that it's actually a porn site, niiiice. I feel like I should change my name on WeddingBee now. Ick!!)


Now that you know some completely random facts about me, it's your turn! I'd like to present the following blogs with the Kreativ Blogger Award:

(1) Eating in the Rain
(2) Gettin' Hitched
(3) The Handcrafted Hitching Post
(4) With This Ring, I Thee Blog
(5) Rants by Jennifer
(6) pearls & such
(7) Laylaville

Our Save the Date Design

I thought I'd go ahead and post my rough draft of our Save the Date in hopes of receiving some feedback (I used Paint to hide all of our personal info.)



I've already sent a copy out to a few people for opinions and so far the response has been really positive. :) So that's good. But I'm still not 100% psyched about the design...I think it has something to do with the pink and I can't really put my finger on what I don't like about it.

Here's my inspiration:



I think it has to do with my fonts and the coloring...I'll be doing a little tweaking on this tonight. I'm going to experiment with a lighter shade of pink and experiment with some new fonts.

All said and done they will be printed out on 4x6 card stock, and will include a little magnet with our date on it. Finished off with a cute little belly band I think, I'm still brainstorming.

What do you think? Any constructive criticism out there?

Bridezilla vs. Groomzilla, round one. Ding Ding

How involved is the groom supposed to be?




I know there are the outliers who want nothing to do with planning the wedding, they just want to know when and where they're supposed to be and what has been chosen for them to wear. On the other end of the spectrum are the grooms that want to be very involved with the wedding planning process from selecting color schemes to designing the save the dates. I have the latter and am struggling with keeping him at bay.

MJ called me a Bridezilla this morning...what happened? Well it all started last night, I was graphically designing our save the dates and MJ wanted me to stop and spend time with him. After half a dozen "one more thing" statements by me I finally closed my Mac and hung out with my soon-to-be Mr. For our save the dates, I've been planning to have them printed at Kinko's which I told MJ about a while ago (I will now research other printers and see if I can find someone else to fit in our budget.)

Flip to this morning, MJ and I are talking on the phone while we're both commuting and MJ suggests that we should take our save the dates to a professional printer instead of Kinko's. This translated to me as "you have no idea what you're doing and the save the dates are going to be embarrassing if you do them, please take them to a printer" (I'm not insecure for thinking this, MJ begged me to not do our invites on the Gocco machine that I purchased, lucky for him I won our invites...) MJ didn't understand why I was being so defensive and we basically got into a little spat, and that's where the Bridezilla comment entered.

What it comes down to is that I don't want his input on how to print out our save the dates. I've already spent time trying to figure out the best design and print methods. If it was in our budget to use a professional printer, I would take that route in a heartbeat! Alas, each time I want to splurge for something (like our day of coordinator) I also hear the other end of it about how the wedding is super expensive. I'm finding myself longing that MJ didn't care about the details, but at the same time I like asking for his opinion on some items.

When I got to my office I emailed MJ a list of items that the groom is normally involved with (along with an appology for our arguement):

- How much can be spent on the event and by whom
- Where the ceremony and reception will occur
- The size and division of the guest list
- The degree of formality for both the ceremony and reception
- The number of attendants each of you will have, and who you will ask
- Which stores and specific items should be part of your gift registry
- Where your honeymoon will occur and for how long I really do want MJ to take the reins on planning our honeymoon.

I also sent him the link to this article that I for the most part agree with. (MJ wrote this about the article: Apparently, there is some guy out there who has experienced exactly what I am experiencing. Thanks for sending this and I will take the tips seriously.)

I know this day isn't about me, it's about US. It's difficult to hear opinions from everyone when I know I'm the only person planning and researching (with the exception of my MOH :)) this wedding, so although I appreciate the thought I've already hunted down the choice that will work best for us.

Do you have an over-involved groom? Am I the only that doesn't like it?

I'm so vain, you probably think this post is about me...

But after going through all of our engagement pictures, I found my true favorites. (Side note: I sent the moms (mine and MJ's mom) to view ALL of our pictures on our online gallery, my mom's first response (via email)? "I do not like your blue dress, at all." Uh, thanks mom, self appointed fashion critic.

Anyway, I have to share these too:





This first picture is the one that we'll be using for our Save the Dates. I'll be designing them tonight and I'll post tomorrow what I've come up with.

I'm a little torn on doing magnets...the idea of postcards with this image seems like it would be a little sweeter and then I imagine that all of our guests will hang the postcard up on their refrigerators. MJ thinks that there is only one option: magnets. But what about people who can't stick magnets on their refrigerators because it's not magnetic (we're friends with a couple where this is the case and their garage fridge has a few STDs on it, probably where ours will end up too) I feel like we should send the STD and then maybe a cute little magnet for those who want to put it on the fridge. It's still an idea in process...

How did you mail out your Save the Dates? And what would you do with a Save the Date postcard? If it came with a cute little magnet would you hang the postcard on your fridge?