Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Cold, Snow and Ice

Well the decision has been made. A winter wedding it'll be. In Wisconsin. In the cold, snow and ice. I'm sorry. We've decided to stick with the wedding we had been planning instead of the warm...sunny...sandy beach wedding Tony threw at me a few days ago. Trust me, it wasn't the easiest decision I've had to make. I mean who wouldn't want to get married on the beach with the sun shining and the clear blue ocean in the background while the sun sets and a bahama mama has your name on it...what silly person wouldn't want that...but it's made and there's no going back. I will say this, if I hadn't just purchased a dress three hours prior I would've said find me a computer and I'll book the flight now. But thanks to his impeccable timing we are still going with the winter wonderland wedding.

After a few long days of intense deliberation I'm happy to say I was back into the wedding planning today. And after buying a dress I am finally getting excited about this wedding stuff. That's of course with the help of numerous blogs and wedding websites giving me fabulous ideas and keeping me motivated. Thanks to a co-worker I fell upon this little blog thingy called the weddingbee. It's fabulous. It's like a every brides inspiration board in one spot.

The one thing I found today that really got me going was this little number...




I LOVE IT!!!!!!! I can see little Presley stumbling down the aisle in her little tutu now. I can't wait! I just have to figure out what the two older girls will wear. We'll make it work. 

That's all for tonight. Mr. Meyer is off at work again for the evening (the joy of being on call) so I'll be able to do a little more wedding research without being interrupted. Those who know Tony, know what I'm talking about. Love you honey! Good news for all you other readers out there-this means more blogging tomorrow!!

Whoop Whoop! Get ready B*s the wedding planning has just begun!! 

Monday, February 21, 2011

Finally

I found my dress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it's about time! I was getting a little worried, I'm not going to lie. I think that was part of my stress for the entire wedding as a whole. I was stressed out about the size of the wedding and not wanting that large of a wedding already. I felt like all the searching and searching for this "perfect dress"  for the wedding that I didn't want to have wasn't making me feel any better.

Saturday we went to Stillwater to check out one more shop, hoping it was the place. I had this super nice lady who knew what she was talking about and made me feel a lot more comfortable trying dresses on. She did a lot of talking and asking questions about our wedding and getting to know my personality. One thing that I really liked about her was that she stood in the dressing room with me for a minute before I walked out into the big mirrors in front of my family. It gave me a chance to look at the dress by myself and she asked my opinion of it before hearing others. She paid attention to me and could tell right away whether I liked it or didn't. All of the other ladies I've worked with just zipped the dress up and walked me to the mirrors. No help what so ever.

I had tried on a few dresses before I tried on "the one", it was actually the last one I had picked out. When I put it on I liked it a lot-I wasn't in love with it-but I liked it. It was very similar to the dress that I had mentioned in my previous post-the one that I kept going back to. However, this one had a little different bottom to it. A little more fun shall we say? :) I walked out to the big mirrors and my mom agreed, it was so much like the previous dress. The only thing missing was a little bit of sparkle below the bust. The sales lady went and grabbed a sparkly sash and tied it on. I liked it a little bit more. We then discussed the fact that I will be wearing my pearls I received from my grandma. She went and grabbed a pearl sash instead of the sparkly one. As soon as she put it on I knew it was the one. It completely made the dress. It was perfect for me.

I am so happy I finally found my dress. I can't explain to you how I felt on the drive home. It was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. Even the sales lady said after we decided on the dress that she was nervous that I was over shopped and wasn't ever going to find "the dress." But I did and I couldn't be happier.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Big vs. Small...Or No Wedding At All?

95% of young girls dream of having this big lavish fairytale wedding. I am part of the other 5% of girls who could care less. I grew up thinking one day I'd find my prince charming and one weekend we'd come home married. No mess, no fuss. Easy as that.

My family is reasonably small compared to most. It consists of my parents, one set of grandparents, one brother (sister-in-law & niece) and one sister (one brother-in-law & niece). I'm not complaining, I wouldn't change any part of my family.

Tony's family on the other hand is the complete opposite. He not only has his immediate family but his aunts, uncles and cousins are practically "immediate" family. Not a week goes by where we don't see one or more of them. It's uncommon if we go a few days without talking to any of them. Again, I'm not complaining. In Hannah Montana's words-I get the best of both worlds. --Sad that I know the lyrics, I know-don't judge--

When we first started planning I feel like we got wrapped up in all the excitement of planning a wedding. It got way too big way too fast. But when you sit back and look at it, we can't not go big. Just Tony's family alone-just family, this is close family-totals 64 people. That's cutting out some family that we haven't seen in a while. I can't do that, that's not acceptable to me. So then you bump it up from just close family to the entire family and you are over 100. Did I mention this is just FAMILY. I haven't even included friends yet. And lets face it, if you know anything at all about Tony you know he is friends with everyone. If we were to include just our "close friends" it would be an extra 100 just on Tony's list of friends. I stopped making the guest list once I hit 350. I wasn't finished yet but the number freaked me out. I know you are supposed to take a certain percentage of how many of those invites actually show up but it still freaked me out.

I am not an outgoing person. Everyone knows this. I hate being in crowds. I hate standing in front of people. I hate people looking at me. Just let me sit in a corner and mind my own business and I'll be fine. So standing up in a church in front of 300 people is a little nauseating to me. I can already feel the nerves. Cassie, my matron of honor, will have to put Tony's ring on his finger because my hands won't stop shaking. That's if I can get the vows out.

We have three choices -

1- We randomly run away some weekend and get married-just the two of us

2- We have a small intimate wedding with just immediate family and immediate family only

or

3-We have the large wedding we've been planning for-with our entire family and group of friends-Go big or go home right?

Problems with those three?-No, never!

Again, I hate decisions.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Dana Seleski - Bridesmaid

I wanted to write about Dana today because she just happened to email me recently about this lovely blog I've started. She mentioned that she feels like my stalker when she is catching up with it. So, since she is obviously reading this I may as well give her something good to read! :) Love you Dan! I met Dana, like all my other bridesmaids, thru work. I had been working at Wells for about a year when she started. . When someone starts out at a bank, especially when they are brand new to banking in general like she was, they don't really say much and they tend to keep to themselves. Worst of all, they learn slow-normally. Dana surprised us all when she caught on quickly with the process. But it wasn't just the process that she surprised us about. The girl wasn't shy-at all.
*I should pause and give a little background information about our little branch. We were extremely close. There were probably an average of 10 of us at the branch between tellers, bankers and managers. Because we were so small we worked together closely on a daily basis. This is horrible to say, but if you didn't "fit in" with the group it most likely wasn't going to work. We were more like family, brothers and sisters. We gave you a few weeks to see if you were really shy or if you could be loud and outrageous like the rest of us. Or at least be able to put up with us.

Anyways, back to Dana. It was only a few days, if that, before she was "one of us" and showed her true self. I think I can speak for the rest of the IGH group when I say her attitude was everything. She wasn't afraid to speak her mind, she fit right in. One day, while Nicole was yelling for me, using my nickname-we will discuss that during Nicole's post-I decided I shouldn't be the only one with a silly nickname. I listed off a few for Dana and decided on Dan. Of course Dana hated it. I said I would use that til I thought of a new one. Eventually we stopped trying to think of a new nickname and just called her Dan. Whether she likes it or not, that's her nickname. :)

When you work in a small branch like ours with only a few people you learn a lot about each other fast, you form friendships. I always looked forward to the time I was able to work beside Dana, she always found a way to brighten my day. Whether it was her sense of humor, attitude or her random comments she always made me laugh. It was well needed during those months of transition from moving from Osceola to Prescott and not having any of my friends near by. I used to cry to Tony about missing Cassie and Amy and wishing I was back home with them. There are times when you need your friends and your other half can't take their place and Cassie and Amy could only do so much from where they were. My entire life had completely changed after being picked up and moved. It was a new town, new work, and new school with no family or friends in site. I hadn't yet caught my balance until Dana and Nicole came into my life. 

I can't see my wedding day without her.

I love you Dan!!

Save-the-Dates & Wedding Party



This stamp is a great idea for these vintage save-the-dates. I thought they were adorable! Such a fun and creative idea. I was doing some research on prices and whether I'd even be able to find any postcards. It's insane how many postcards are out there and the variety they come in. They are insanely priced tho. I'm trying to think of a something similar to this idea but without the impossible hunt for postcards. Let me know if you have any ideas!


** Throughout this little blog adventure I'll be occasionally posting about our wedding party. When we go to weddings it's always fun to see who's in the party but sometimes you don't know everyone. My sister went to a wedding this past summer and in her program below each attendant the bride wrote a small paragraph about them and their friendship/relationship. It was such a cute idea!

Keep checking back so you too can fall in love with our friends and family like we did.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

My new obsession-Birdcage Veils

I love birdcage veils. Love, love, love them. I have to say this type of veil is what brought on the whole theme of our wedding. It gives such a unique and delicate feel to a wedding.  Veils I feel can be overwhelming and can take away from the bride.

Again, I have to have more than one option. :) During the ceremony I will wear the traditional ivory birdcage veil with some sort of flower/design off to the side. Something similar to this-



For the reception, I plan on changing it up a bit.


Going along with the red theme I'm going to switch to a red veil. The flowers will be red and again off to the side but the veil will be pinned back under the flower piece. I still want the veil visible just not in front of my face. I CAN'T WAIT! I think right now I'm more excited about the veil than my dress. Hopefully that'll change soon.

I haven't found a veil yet, I suppose I should wait to find my dress first huh? Silly Dress. I'm debating on if I'll buy one or attempt to make my own. I found this easy way to create your own birdcage veil. Looks easy,  hopefully I can figure it out.

Depending on whether I succeed on making my own veil I may or may not need this next step. I was trying to think of places I could go to find a flower to attach to the headpiece. I found this handy little tutorial on tulle flowers. This should give it some character-if I succeed at the first step of course!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Second Guessing...

I started my search for a wedding dress not long after we got engaged, quickly realizing it takes 8 months to order plus 2 months for alterations. I think I tried on a total of 50 dresses before I found "the one"...or so I thought. During yesterdays lovely drive home I realized that maybe I wasn't so sure about my dress. For some odd reason yesterday I kept thinking about a specific dress I had found on my second stop. I can guarentee you as my mother is reading this she knows exactly which dress I am thinking of and is saying to herself "oh, no" - don't worry ma, so am I.

This is why I hate making decisions. Just tell me what to wear, where I am supposed to be and at what time. I'll be there. Easy as that.

Now we are sitting right on the line as far as time. I was just feeling pressure of finding the right shoes before the end of February so we could have the correct measurements before ordering. Now, I'm feeling like this is the wrong dress and I have to make a new decision. SOON.

It would be easier if the dress that I keep going back to was in my price range. I would just switch. But now I feel like there has to be one similar, somewhere out there and I have to find it.

Decisions, decisions oh how I hate you.