DIY project: One man's junk is another's treasure

Last summer while walking with our friend Diane, we came across a box of glass jars that was marked "free." I immediately squealed with joy as thoughts of using those jars came to mind; Scott looked at me with his "are you sure?" look. I happily grabbed up the box and carried it back to Diane's. Now I will have to say it's been over a year since my great find but I have finally come up with a wonderful idea on how to use them.

We have made decisions on the rehearsal dinner-location, colors, invites, decor, etc. and it's been as equally fun to plan as the main reception. I wanted to paint the glass jars and use them for the centerpieces to hold flowers. So I had some spare time on Saturday and thought I would run to Lowe's to pick up the paint. I took one of the lanterns that we will be using for decor to match the paint. I get to the paint section and I am looking for the right color. One color too light, one color too dark, and the color that is in between that might be the exact one is gone. I asked the guy if he had anymore and he said no but that the other Lowe's across town had some. I gladly drove across town only to find out that that store was out too! Sigh----guess the same person that bought out both stores really needed a TON of teal spray paint! Geez...nothing is ever as simple as how think it will go in my head. ; ) (just ask Scott) After two strikes, I made my way to Home Depot (should have gone there first anyways). I walked right in, found my exact color (perfect match), and was out of the store in 3 minutes! Below is the project with pictures.....

My awesome find!

First, I washed them really well and let them dry.

I sprayed them and was amazed how well they covered!

Finished project-the sun is actually shining bright so they look more blue than what they actually are.

A small mock up of what I am envisioning. We are doing teal and white for our colors and will have white linens, the teal jars with white flowers and small votives of candles in between.

My Mom has a ton of old jars and she will be helping by painting the jars she has the same way. Thanks Mom! I will share more details as it gets closer and the invites are designed and made! : )
~A.
Amanda + Scott

Catching up

So I must apologize for our absence in the blogging world! : ( We have been busy and have been making progress on the details of the wedding though along with having some fun! In May, Scott's roommate from college, John and his girlfriend came out to visit from Minnesota. It was great getting to meet them before the wedding and we even made a quick trip to Vancouver too. In early June, Scott and I traveled to Texas for my bridal shower and some serious wedding planning. Actually serious is not even the right word, what's more serious than serious? Because we dominated the wedding to do list while we there. It was a blast, alot of fun, and very tiring to say the least!

More updates to follow soon.....
~A.

Amanda + Scott

6 months and counting....

Last Thursday we officially hit the 6 month marker! : )

It was a bit of a wakeup call. Since Scott proposed in the fall, and we always wanted to get married in the fall, we had two choices. Either get married in fifteen months, or get married in five weeks.

We think we picked the smarter option.

After nine months of waiting, planning, waiting, planning, and planning some more, we have less than half a year before we're officially wed.

Not that we've been lazing around for the last nine months. We've booked our enviable photographer, our fabulous florist, our famous venue and our dramatic DJ. We've sent save-the-dates, arranged guest lists, and planned the honeymoon. We've been very busy.

Still, we haven't had the chance to introduce you to our vendors yet. When the special day comes, they'll be the ones in the background, making it special, so we owe them a little thanks and a lot of praise.

So over the next few weeks, we'll introduce you to our vendors, who also happen to be our friends. If you're getting married, or if you just happen to need excellent pictures, flowers, or a really good dance track, they'll probably be able to help. They're very brilliant like that.
~S.

Amanda + Scott

Four Christmases

If you have seen the movie, MISTLETOE! It's great and very funny, however, the movie is not what I am going to write about. In some sort of way, I will get to have four Christmases soon.

I have been using the power of online purchasing like crazy! The internet has vastly opened the selections for people. Just think about it-back in the 1950's brides would only be able to buy items that were primarily local. How cool is it that a modern day bride can purchase items from around the world from the comfort of pj's at home? Thank you internet!! : )

I have successfully bought my wedding shoes, rhinestone wedding shoe clips, my bridal headpiece, and a marriage book within the past few weeks. Each of these things should start arriving anytime now and I have to admit, I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve night!

I won't share the details of the wedding day attire but I will share this amazing book that was recommended by Chad, my previous Youth Minister, who will be performing the ceremony.

It's called Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. And you can check it out here. We are really looking forward to reading and studying through the book.

Alright it's time to end this blog: MISTLETOE!

Amanda + Scott

Date Night=Unusal Wedding Purchase

To start this story, we need to go back to Sunday....

Sunday: 9pm
I signed into our registry to Macy's just to make sure everything was good to go and noticed that our bedding was being discontinued. Now, I realize we registered quite early and some things make be discontinued and we won't get-no worries. However, NOT the bedding! That was actually the first item we registered for and I remember how long it took us to find that PERFECT set that fit both of our tastes with a great mix of masculine and feminine touches. It was completely unavailable-no ordering online even! Don't worry, there were no bride fits at all.

Monday: 6pm
Last night, Scott decided we needed to treat ourselves to our favorite Thai restaurant that is near my apartment inside the local mall. We enjoyed dinner very much and walked around afterwards and when we say Macy's I said, "Oh, we should go in there and check it out to see if we can find another set to add to our registry." Scott shakes his head in agreement unknowingly agreeing to be a part of an adventure that we weren't aware of heading our way.

We start browsing the bedding section and find disappointment in the selections. Then we saw a clearance bin and all of a sudden the idea of the possibility of our bedding set being there hit us. We started searching through all of them, and then I turned into a shark! Seriously, I don't think I have ever moved that fast in my whole life! It was there-our perfect bedding set-just laying there screaming, "here I am!"



Isn't it great? :)

Anyways, I won't bore you with the details but we ended up getting it because it was such a great deal. Although, Scott did remind me that a wedding registry probably shouldn't be treated like a personal shopping list. But in this case, it was all right - we got the bedding we wanted and the first item off our registry! How many bride's and groom's can say that? ~A.

Amanda + Scott

Save the Date

Well I am sure by now everyone has received their Save the Date. I must say that Scott did a great job on the design of them. We had fun working on them together and getting them just the way we wanted them to look. Another thing I would like to mention is the blessing of free printing! Scott through his business contacts asked a printer to quote the job for us and instead wanted to do them as our wedding gift! Words can't describe how awesome that was! (Because they were massed produced we have 1000 of them!)

We hope you enjoyed reading our story and find the travel information helpful when you plan your trip. Only 228 days to go until we tie the knot! ~A.

Amanda + Scott

With this ring

We have made a game plan and have a wedding budget that is quite detailed. I have decided to let my obsession with the budget go and because of that like all brides I sleep much better.

We have done such a great job of saving for the wedding but I give that to my two things I say when I want to buy things I don't really need. 1. Do I really HAVE TO have this? and 2. It's wedding year. I can buy it in 2012! haha

However, we have started buying things for the wedding. Small things, here and there, and my poor Mother has been receiving boxes and all sorts of things from around the US. We knew early on that we wanted something different for our ring bearer pillow.

Paloma Nest is a company based out of Austin, Texas :) (woohoo) that makes really awesome customized gifts and items. I ran across the "Ring Bearer Bowl"  last year and fell in love with it!



Is this not the best?



Here's a picture of ours (not a professional one) but you get the idea.

I am so excited about using this!

~A.
Amanda + Scott

And we're back!!!

So we’ve been pretty absent from the blog lately. Sorry, everyone! But we’ve spent that time well. Over the past few weeks, wedding planning has picked up again, and we’re getting more and more excited for November. Just 255 days!

A few quick bits of news. First, Amanda has worked her poor fingers to the nub addressing the Save The Date cards by hand. I would have helped, but I was distracted by television. Because of her hard work, we’re almost ready to put them in the mail.

Keep an eye out! They were meticulously designed by someone of great skill and handsomeness. We can’t reveal his identity, but it’s safe to assume he’s brilliant, cheery, charming fellow. Probably well-dressed, too.

Secondly, we’ve almost figured out our honeymoon plans. I won’t ruin them here, but suffice it to say my walking tour of English soccer stadia was soundly voted down. And in the cheery British November, too! Some people have no taste.

Instead, we’ll honeymoon somewhere with a more agreeable climate. We’ll announce that news in a little bit. Details are coming.

Lastly, while our bridesmaids have efficiently ordered their bridesmaids dresses, my groomsman are at a loss for tuxedos. Don’t worry! We have a few marvelous contenders that we’ll rent soon, once I convince Amanda to let me rent something powder blue, with ruffles, or perhaps one of those t-shirts with the picture of a tux printed on them. Classic. ~S.

Amanda + Scott

Put on your dancing shoes.....

Since I have been to a million weddings, I try to file away the really good, unique ideas that I have seen. This past September, I had a bride that was DIY crazy (like me) and had some amazing ideas. I decided I must use one of her ideas since I had never seen it......

She had bought Old Navy flip flops to save the women's feet from heels during the dancing! How thoughtful!

I receive points from my credit card and happened to score a $25 Old Navy gift card. On top of that, I went to oldnavy.com and signed up for their offers via email. I was immediately emailed a $10 off coupon on a $50 purchase. Also, what makes the deal even sweeter is that Old Navy offers free shipping on orders over $50. I always love a great deal and have to brag about scoring 20 pairs of flip flops (in my wedding colors of course) with tax, shipping, and all that jazz for a whole $17.70. A little less that .50 cents for a flip flop, or should I say a flip, or a flop! haha


Now I just have to remember to tell my Mom why she will be receiving 20 flip flops in the mail next week!

Get ready to dance and celebrate!! And don't worry about your feet-they'll be taken care of! : )
~A.
Amanda + Scott

Suit Up.

aI'll be honest with you. I'm not a perfect fiancee. I give terrible gifts. Awful, regrettable gifts. I can't recall the last time I cleaned my kitchen floor. I have, in the not too distant past, made Amanda watch a seven o' clock Liverpool game with me. I have even tried to get her to pretend to care.


But I have my good points! I wash dishes pretty regularly. On occassions, when I'm feeling particularly ambitious, I'll even make dinner. And, on the very rare days when I'm required to present myself to polite society, I can usually clean myself up and dress in a fairly respectable fashion.


So when Amanda asked me to write another wedding blog, I figured I'd help out with only the really worthwhile information I have stored inside my head that doesn't include the starting eleven of Liverpool's 2005 Champions League winning squad.* I thought I'd write a few tips for the guys out there who are looking a suit to look their best for the wedding. Because I care. And because Amanda won't watch another Liverpool game with me until I'm finished.




1 - The Fit Is Hard. The Fit Is Everything.


Buying a suit isn't easy. Most of us have absolutely no idea what we're doing. They all look a little bit alike, and they're almost unbelievably expensive. And, unless you're lucky enough to be an actively playing cornerback in the NFL, they are unlikely to fit you straight off the rack.
Don't believe me? Go to nordstrom.com. Click on the search box. Type in "42R". This is a pretty popular suit size. Count how many results you get.


Now type in 38L. I wear a 38L. How many do you have now, sucker?


I know. This is why I drink.


But we digress.


The point of this is not to depress you. The point is that no one gets the suit they want straight off the rack. The same goes for men's dress shirts, which are made by a secret cabal of easily annoyed Frenchmen and universally have sleeves two sizes too small.


So take a deep breath, and find a tailor. It's easier, and cheaper, than you think! And it the difference between a suit that fits you and a suit that looks like it was made for you.  Not a bad deal for about fifty bucks.


2 - Cheap Isn't Worth It


I am not a snobbish guy. Frankly, if I could convince WalMart to open a store in my living room, I would be a deeply satisfied human being. But the nasty, horrible, inconvenient truth of men's formal wear is this: You can tell when it's cheap.


Your wives and girlfriends will probably scoff at this, but it is almost universally more expensive to be a well-dressed man than a well-coiffered woman. And what's worse, cheap suits don't hold their shape well. They start to look a bit like you've wandered into your father's closet to dress yourself to work. It's not a good look for a guy.


And sure, you might look fine. But you don't want to look fine. You want to look like Matthew McConaughey, only with moderately better sex appeal. You want to look good enough that, if you were to happen to hang out in a bar with James Bond, and you and James met some women, they would later refer to you as, "James Bond’s much better-looking friend."


If all of this seems hard, don't worry. You know the best part? You don't have to pick it out yourself. Stores like Nordstrom pay a small army of sweaty, desperate, barely employable college graduates who would love to help you pick something out. They have better taste than you, they are more fashionable than you, and they work on commission, which pretty much guarantees they'd like to help you pick out something nice.  So go ahead. Leave this stuff to the professionals.


Which brings us to my third, and most important, point.


3 - It Is Not All Right To Let Your Wife Tie Your Tie


Sweet fancy Moses, man. I cannot count the number of people I've met, from highly skilled construction workers to ACTUAL NUCLEAR SCIENTISTS, who cannot manage a simple four-in-hand. I have met professional sailors, people who will voluntarily pilot a ten-foot skiff across the Pacific Ocean with a butter knife and a spool of bailing twine, who cannot face down a double windsor. I have spoken to rock climbers who trust their knot tying abilities to strap their bodies to the face of inverted cliff faces at heights that seriously endanger passing airplanes, who balk at the site of a double-knot. It boggles the bloody mind.


Man up, men. Teach yourself on Google. Download the app. Because, honestly, the only time someone should ever tie your tie for you is if you are five, or if you are currently being prepared for your funeral. Other than that, it's up to you.


*Dudek, Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Traore, Alonso, Garcia, Gerrard, Risse, Kewell, Baros. In case you were wondering.

January Progress

Well January was a bit of a blur for wedding planning (along with all the other festivities)!

We managed to do the following:

• I took my calligraphy class which was about a 6 hour class on the second Saturday of the month. I have yet to practice but will do so soon-or that is what I keep telling myself : )
• We recovered nicely from the Bridesmaid dress hiccup. All of them are ordered and are due in April 7th. I picked up the color swatches from the wedding dress shop last week. For those of you who don't know, these color swatches are vital for the rest of the planning to pick out linens, shoes, tuxes, etc. : )
• I ordered my dress finally! I am thrilled and can't wait for the 5 LONG months it will take to get it here but it will be worth it.
• After a 2 day marathon, we are registered! More to come on that.
• The save the dates are in and we bought our stamps and envelopes. These will be going out very soon.
• Started getting bids on invitations.

And there is our wedding progress report! ~A.
Amanda + Scott

Hiccup...Hiccup...Hiccup....(hold breath)

We had a case of the hiccups this past week. The ever so dreaded "wedding hiccup." This what I like to call "an unforeseen event or situation, that pops up no matter how well you have planned that presents itself as a severe problem at the time."

I would like to state for the record that I did not act like a Bridezilla at all during this whole time : ) Honestly, I didn't. You can ask Scott. I was the perfect Bride.

Now during my years in the wedding industry I have encountered and solved many wedding hiccups.
Here's a list of a few that were seared into my memory:

• The one where the bride was pretty tipsy but at the end of the night, one of the bridesmaids blurted out in front of the MOB (Mother of the Bride) the secret information that the bride was pregnant.
• Or how about the one where the cake had gumpaste lilies falling off of it? Or better yet, the cake that was made by a close family friend of the bride that had these tiny little hairs covering it? Perhaps the lady had got a haircut that day? Or that's at least what I would like to think. I didn't eat cake that night!
• Lights going out during the reception
• Divorced parents acting like kids and refusing to sit in the same row during the ceremony
• The Groom being caught on fire by a sparkler (He was okay)
• The Maid of Honor forgetting the Groom's ring and I had to get the ring to the last bridesmaid so she could pass it down.
• Or my personal favorite, having a 200 person wedding in pouring rain and no tent and no where to put the people. This day I seriously questioned my career move.

In the end, I made it through each and every one of those hiccups. Every wedding has at least one; it's the Golden Wedding Rule. Some are bigger than others, but they are all part of the process of planning a wedding.

We had our first hiccup (and hopefully our last) this past week. Our bridesmaid's dresses were being discontinued and we only had a few days to get them ordered. This may not seem to be a big deal but here's the back story on the bridesmaids dresses. We weren't supposed to order the bridesmaids dresses until April 15th still giving us a 2 month cushion before the big day. All the bridesmaids were told this and knew it but bumping up the order 3 months earlier does present some type of problem. In the end, we put in the order today and we will get the ones that Scott and I choose. : ) They are beautiful and ironically, scheduled to be here April 15th.

A special thank you to my dear friend, Orison, who will be standing by my side when I marry Scott. She's the one who sent me a text at 7am on Monday morning saying that the bridal shop in Dallas said the dress was discontinued. She saved the bridesmaid dress : )

Now, if it just wouldn't rain our wedding day.......
~A.


Amanda + Scott

Obsessions & Wedding Progess Update

I have to admit, I have a few obsessions when it comes to weddings. More when it's OUR own wedding! I have already had 2 nightmares about the wedding day and don't even get me started on those. haha Let's just say it was short of heavy sweats and waking up, jolting up and screaming in sear terror. Now that those are out of the way, I am sure I will sleep peacefully from now on.

Obsession #1: I love paisley anything. I love the design, I love the way it looks, I love the way it makes me feel, yada yada yada. If it's paisley, I am instantly drawn to it. Now with that being said, paisley will not be making into the wedding theme. Or at least it hasn't yet. Scott has let me but I am working on breaking that down. : ) jk

Obsession #2: DIY projects. And for those of you that are clueless, DIY= Do It Yourself. I am crazy about crafts and since the engagement I have found myself submerged in DIY wedding projects. They are really fun and believe it or not, a stress reliever for me. I take joy in creating something and have a deeper appreciation for it afterwards. I have already completed a number of projects for the wedding. Bridesmaids boxes filled with chocolate asking them to be my bridesmaids, customized wedding day wooden hangers for Scott and me, etc. Some of the projects I won't be able to mention until after the wedding : )

Also feeding this obsession is a book I received for Christmas. The DIY Bride Crafty Countdown. Thanks again Jo and Vicky!

I love this book. You must buy one for any bride you know! I haven't officially done any of the crafts in it-mainly because I already had a long list of my own ideas but I plan on it. Also, it helps feed the creative pool too.

Obsession #3: Wedding ideas. I have dozens of wedding ideas a day. However, this was something that happened ever before we got engaged but has start spreading like wild fire now. Scott cringes on the inside when I turn to him and say, "I have a new wedding idea!" Of  course I say it so enthusiastically and vibrant it's hard not to smile at it. : )

Wedding Progress Update

This month we are going to finish the following:

• We are going to go register! I know this will be one of the most fun things Scott and I get to do together as part of the wedding process. I have always wanted to be able to hold that scanner gun and run around the store zapping everything in sight. The real trouble begins when we start fighting over "who gets scan" but I am sure we manage it. Also, I think we have decided since we both have so much household stuff from living on our own, we will be registering for the honeymoon as well. It's a modern invention to the wedding world but I think we will give it a try. Place is still being determined so if you have any suggestions, send them our way,
• Order my wedding dress! I LOVE my dress and can't wait to have it. The only problem is that I will want to "try it on" several times before the big day.
• Save the Dates-they have arrived! We got them from the printer and they look great. Scott did an amazing job on the design. We will be sending them off hopefully at the end of this month.
• Calligraphy-I took an all day class last Saturday and I am in love. More on that later though : )
• Wedding bands-We are going to start looking this weekend. I am looking forward to buying Scott his ring and can't wait to see which one we pick out!

Well, that's all for now but be sure to check back as more news will be coming! ~A.

Amanda + Scott