The Blonde Diaries

Ring Watch ‘08 Update

I thought it would be fun to track my Ring Watch ‘08.  Basically this is my countdown/up from the day Mike and I got serious about a 2009 wedding and went ring shopping. I found the most perfect ring so now he just has to give it to me!  So without any pressure (lol) here’s the official ticker.  I’m not so patiently waiting but figure I need to learn so patience so that I can be excited once it does happen.  Nothing worse than to build up all of this excitement and then get to the big event and feel deflated.

Guess who’s getting married…

ME!!!

YAY!

At 9:05am at the Houston Zoo in front of the lone koala (and no other guests) I said good bye to my single days and said yes to Mike’s proposal. I’m super excited as it is a beautiful day and we both love the zoo so it was a great way for Mike to do it. Short, simple, sweet, and no bended knee just how I always imagined it (and requested) and in front of a cute animal. So now the fun part of getting to plan and get into shape can start. I was already trying to get back into shape in time for our vacation in September so this will just be a little extra motivation for me. I’m going to do some surfin on the internet now for some songs for my iPod and hit the gym. I’ll be back later to post some photos. 9am in Texas feels the same as 12pm in Texas and I’m a sweaty, smelly mess right now.

Engaged for 72 hours and already overwhelmed

Yes that is correct. I have been engaged for about 72 hours and I don’t know where to begin with planning. Luckily, I started 2 magazine subscriptions back in March when we went ring shopping and picked up a couple of books and Houston specific wedding magazines Monday at Barnes and Nobles but otherwise not quite sure what to do. I feel like I need to be doing something or come up with a plan of attack but maybe I’m over thinking things and just need to step back and enjoy this week.

Every book I pick up and person I talk to say pick a date so I guess I’ll do that this weekend. Our church is wide open so that should be good. Hopefully my first choice for wedding reception places are open as well but…

I’m worried about the budget part. I am NOT a budgeter and have the worst time sticking to a budget. I prefer lump sums or monthly maxes with my regular bills/expenses and stick with that instead of x amount for food, x amount for entertainment, etc. Not sure how this way is going to work. I guess I’ll keep reading and thinking about it so that I will be ready when it all starts coming together.

Oh this is going to be so fun…NOT! I hope I can make it through in one piece without blowing too much money or being too cheap. That is my other fear. I can be too cheap with important items so I hope I don’t do that. This is a day I will remember for the rest of my adult life. I know it won’t be perfect but it will be close.

Wedding Planning Update

Ok so I have since calmed down since last night as it seems like me, my fiance (how cool is that), and my mom are all on board and on the same page with what we need to be doing and when. This makes things 100 times easier than I was thinking. Even got the ok for a July wedding in Houston as long as every place had air conditioning!

So yesterday Mike and I’s tasks were to start creating our guest list wish list so that we could start seeing how large of a wedding we will have and how many invitations we will need. I started looking at my magazines a tad harder and visiting some wedding invitation websites but so far they are a tad pricy at $2.00 and up per invitation! I was hoping to save a bit of money on the invitations so I kept looking and remembered a recommendation I found on a message board for other printing needs: Vista Print. Sure enough Vista Print makes party invitations including wedding invites, save the date cards, and thank you notes. The best part is that they look professionally made at a design studio and are all $1 or less per invite. Finally, something that will help me stay within budget on this shindig. So if you are planning a wedding or any type of party try Vista Print for your printing needs. Since the prices are so low ($8 for 10 invites) I think I will create a sample and go ahead and order one to do a quality check. I’m sure I won’t be disappointed and then I can place the larger order once I know our final numbers.

Another roller coaster of a day!

I have had yet another roller coaster of a day.  You know- those days that are up and down all day long.  I tend to hate these days as they stress me out the most.  Today’s biggest issue was trying to get the 2nd choice for a wedding reception to return my emails/phone calls.  All I want is to get married.  Nothing fancy, no huge wedding that costs a fortune.  Just family and friends and a decent price.  Well, little did I know Houston has a bit of a markup in the inner-loop and most places are a tad out of budget.  I found one place but there is a summer minimum which is double what we wanted to spend so had to nix it.

Now I’m on to choice two which was a really obvious choice that I hadn’t thought of first - don’t you just hate that?  I called 4 different numbers today, had Mike call each number as well, and sent 2 email requests for information (all before noon) and nothing/nada.  So by 6pm when Mike got home I was in a stressed out/mad and nearly in tears over all of this.  So off to the gym he took me and I worked out my issues and felt much better.  While there I realized I am back down to 150 (yay!!) and have really increased my stamina on the cardio machines (another yay!).  So 2 good highs were nice to counter against the stress.

While I was working out that stress, reception choice #2 called so all my worrying about whether a live person worked there seemed to get answered and I feel much better.  Now I just need to try to call again tomorrow and pray that there are no crazy minimums.  I think not since there is a cap of 120 guests in the one section I want to have the reception in.  Hopefully I can set my date really soon and get the church and reception booked.  Wish me luck tomorrow!!