Sugardoll Award

I started browsing new blogs and found this:
Mireya over at :: Pearls and Such:: has given me the Sugar Doll Award (almost two months ago)! I just found her blog, but she’s been following mine for awhile. She has a great blog and tons of yummy recipes I’ve found (there goes my new year’s resolutions)!

The rules are: Post this award on my blog, write ten interesting facts about myself, and then pass it on to ten other bloggers, so here goes!

Honeymoon: Days 4 and 5

The fifth day was hard, for a few reasons. The first was that we knew it was our last full day there (we wanted to stay SO bad – forget the kids and our jobs). The second was because I woke up with a full-blown UTI. I’ve had a history of really bad ones and for a long time I was on a daily antibiotic to fend them off. I hadn’t renewed my prescription and I left what I had leftover at home. Grrr… I was in a lot of pain, but finally broke down and called room service (one perk for Concierge Level – fee room service) and asked for three large glasses of cranberry juice. I downed all those and kept going to the bathroom and I finally got it flushed out enough so I could walk without cramping over and didn’t have to pee anymore every five seconds. Whew! I wasn’t out of the woods, but at least it was somewhat better. Lesson learned: NEVER, NEVER leave your home without ALL your medications!

Anyway, we walked to breakfast; it was pretty humid out that day, as you can tell from the pictures.

Honeymoon: Days 3 and 4

Our third day of our honeymoon started off pretty slow. We took our time that morning getting started out for breakfast and then wandered around the resort checking out the shops and other things going on.

(Mr. S floating in the lagoon)

Honeymoon: Days 1 and 2

Our honeymoon to Riviera Maya, Mexico started VERY early on Monday. We got to the airport about 4:30 AM. Mr. S upgraded our flights to First class when he checked us in so that we didn’t have to worry about baggage fees and so that we’d have a little more comfort for our special trip. I’m so glad he did. Our first flight was on a little plane though, so no first class and it was delayed because of an engine issue. We were nervous because our next flight was only 50 minutes after our scheduled landing and we had to get across the airport. The stewardess assured us that we could probably make it and since there were 18 others on our flight going to the next flight, they’d probably even hold the plane. When we landed in Houston, we jumped off the plane and ran with some other couples to the next one; luckily we got to the next plane just fine. We had a really yummy breakfast on the plane and tried to get a little cat nap in, but we were too excited.

Honeymoon Packing

Since I had to pack really quick, I had a list that I had compiled over a few months all ready to go. It really helped my packing to be already. This is for a tropical/beach honeymoon. I’ve also made notes about what I SHOULD HAVE done too.

The Day After

The morning after our wedding Mr. S and I were able to go across the hall for our Sunday Brunch. I was a little disappointed with this since it was something we planned pretty early on. The food and the service fell a little flat, but at least our tummies were full for the long day ahead.

Reception Fun

I’m a really bad blogger. I’ve had a ton of fun with my new blog and between that and being a little sad about actually putting a final stamp on this one, I’ve been procrastinating. I even fell off the wagon and quit going to WeddingBee.


I got good news yesterday though; I’m now going to be a Hostess on the WeddingBee Boards so I guess that means I need to hike myself back into the wedding saddle. I also have a goal of wrapping up my own wedding recaps, honeymoon recaps, and a few other posts by the end of the year. I’ll still be around though like I said on WeddingBee and I may bring some topics here. Also, a cousin of Mr. S is getting married next year, so I may have some more posts about that.

So, without further ado, here is the rest of the reception…

First Dance

After the cake cutting, it was time for our first dance.  The band played "Someone Like You". 

I love this picture of Mr. S over my shoulder.  He looks happy.

Once that was over, the dance floor was opened up to everyone. 

What song will you use for your first dance?

Cake Sweet Cake

I'm really not a sweets person, so cake was on my lower priorities.  I also agonized for weeks about what cake to have.  I finally settled on a cupcake tree with a small cake for the Mr and I to cut and save.

And the food keeps coming

In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday and just getting through eating a TON of food this weekend, I thought I'd share our wedding dinner menu. 
After a quick blessing by my dad...

(Isn't Little Miss Snowflake so silly...)

Cocktail Hour

Cocktail hour was very improtant to Mr. S and I when we were planning.  Originally, we had planned on doing cocktail hour before the ceremony (Mr. S's idea), but when we realized that was screwed up by our band contract, we decided to have it after the ceremony.  I think it might have actually been better before for one reason...there was SO much food!  And yes, I did get to try it out (I even had my mom sneak up and get me seconds).  Dwayne and his group at Yesterday's did a great job of keeping us fed. 

Making it Legal

Now that the ceremony is over and we've (I've) greeted all the guests, we need to make it legal.  Our JP pulled us over behind the bar and we signed our marriage license.

The UnPlanned Greeting Line

After the ceremony and our surprise first dance, I pulled Mr. S to the front of the Lodge so that we could have a few minutes together.  He thought I was nuts, but I was adament that we needed to do this since so many other brides on WeddingBee had said this was something they really cherished.

Us coming back inside

Mr. Snowflake's Surprise

After we kissed and turned to walk down the aisle, we had no music.  That was weird, I had given the band the disc and they had tested it before the wedding.  Oh well, I shrugged it off, all our guests laughed and we walked down the aisle music-less.

Our Wedding Ceremony

It was finally time...
Mr. S took his grandparents to their seat and then he and our officiant waited at the front.

The band started playing the CD I burned with Norah Jones singing "Love Me Tender".

Killing Time

Once the pictures were over, all there was left was to get the bar opened and kill time before the wedding.
Some people played...

All of the family

The majority of our wedding guests were family, so of course we had to take pictures with these wonderful people that have supported us all of our lives.  Sadly, there was one side missing which was Mr. S's mom's side.  Her wonderful brother and his wife did attend and we're so thankful that they did.
First up, my side...

Cute Candids

As we were taking pictures, the photographer also caught some cute candids.

My mom helping one of the twin snowflakes with his flower.

My dad and brother watching Mr. S and I take pictures.  Mom and SIL are helping the kids get ready for their close-ups.

Me and the boys hanging out.

Yikes, Little Miss S is T-R-O-U-B-L-E...Look at that cute smile :)

Don't forget your deodorent and perfume ladies...I forgot and realized it halfway through pictures.  Oh well.

Junior Mr. S hanging out...

Brother and SIL, too cute for words

Not sure why my mom was running...

Jr. Mr. S helping my sister with her dress.

Okay, enough cuteness from you two...

What were some of your favorite candid pictures?

"Bridal" Party Pictures

As you know, we didn't have a traditional bridal party.  Mr. S decided that he didn't want anyone standing up there with him, but I really wanted my sister and sister in law to have a role in the day.
First up, pictures with my ladies...

As we were completeing these we had to run off another bridal party that was trying to get shots at our location.  Sorry to be a b*tch, but the beauty of the place is why I PAID to rent the place.  They were upset when we told them they needed to go farther down in the park to get their pictures.  Oh well.

Anyone else have picture-crashers at your ceremony/reception site?

Pro Pictures

Now that we had the first look over with, it was time to get more pictures taken care of.
First off, a few of just us...

My New Blog

I know I still have recaps to finish, but I feel like it's time to move on from the wedding world and start a new blog about our family and things on my mind.
I'd love to have anyone intersted start following there: http://bunchofsnowflakes.blogspot.com/
I've really enjoyed sharing with all of you and I promise I'll get the rest of the recaps and honeymoon posts done soon.
What's next for you?  Will you continue to blog too?

Our First Look

Now we get to the wedding and pro pictures (with some of the family ones mixed in).
This was a moment that I had planned a long time. From the moment we got engaged, I knew I wanted to do this. There's no way I could have waited all that time before seeing him. It was so sweet.
We got Mr. Snowflake all posed on the dock by the Lodge and I started my long walk down. I was so nervous.

The last hour

The last hour before leaving for the wedding was pretty busy with all the girls getting ready. I was supposed to have more time, but the photographer called and didn't know how to get to the wedding location. Since Me. S was supposed to get there early for pictures, I knew he'd be sitting there a while if I didn't get moving.
This is the only "hanging dress" picture I have. I totally didn't follow other brides advice to get a great picture and a beautiful hanger for it (Think august15bride for inspiration). Oh well.

The Girls Get their Pretty On

After a filling breakfast, all the girls left my dad and brother and headed to the salon to get our pretty on.

WeddingBee Gallery Feature

My wedding was featured again :). This time it was adorable daughters and the DIY pomanders that I created. Check it out: http://www.weddingbee.com/2009/10/12/gallery-of-the-day-69/

The wedding day - Finally! Part one

Yay! It's wedding day!
I didn't have too much of a problem sleeping, but that was partly due to me taking a Unisom. I may have been a ball of stress if I hadn't and I wanted a good night's sleep. About 6:30 in the morning, I woke up and took a long, relaxing shower. I felt bad because I woke my sister up in the process and she hadn't had a very good night's sleep.
After my shower, I tinkered around the hotel room and had my daughters take showers so I could roll their hair.

The rehearsal

We had the rehearsal at the outdoor area next to our cabin because the lodge was rented that day. It worked out fine, but I wish my planner would have been more proactive about it. I felt like most of the time I was directing it and that was her job. Her husband also came to pick up all of the decorations and stuff and I didn't feel like he was treating MY stuff very nicely - just throwing it into his Suburban - yikes!
As I mentioned in my last post, right before the rehearsal, I got into a huge fight with my sister and mom, so the half smiles are because everyone was a little butt-hurt still. I did apologize for what I did in the argument, but my family holds grudges for a long time and didn't exactly "get over it" too fast. Whatever, this is my rehearsal and I'm going to enjoy it. Okay, drama over - moving on...

Last day of being single

Now that I'm finally finished with a big company party I can move on to wedding recapping. Note for future brides: DO NOT plan a major event only one month after your wedding - you will have planning/event burn out. I literally had to just do NOTHING this weekend to recover from the hectic week and party.

Friday was a beautiful day. We started out the day the same way as Thursday, but since I had no errands to run - thanks to my wonderful sister and SIL, they did them for me - I was able to enjoy the day boating and spending time with my fiance - the clock was ticking down on that word :)

My wedding cake holder

After the boating and before our party, my sister and I assembled the cake/cupcake holder that I purchased from http://www.cupcaketree.com/. Before we left, the weekend before the wedding, Mr. S and I spray painted the cardboard with the same paint we used on the hooks. This way it will be sturdier and it can be used more than once. My sister and I hot glued ribbon around each layer after assembling.

Then using some dragonflies that I bought from an Etsy seller, we hot glued them around the layers. We also connected a few to florist wire to that they looked like they were flying.
This was our final product. I think it turned out really cute.
Are you doing anything different for displaying your cake/cupcakes?

Pre-wedding party

One of the many aspects of our wedding was making it a family event for the whole weekend. Since everyone had to travel, we wanted people to know how much we appreciated the effort. On Thursday evening we planned a pre-wedding party at our cabin. Everyone in town came over for a bunch of yummy food:
Tortilla Roll-ups (Strawberry, Jalapeno, and Chives - surprisingly the Jalapeno were a HUGE hit)
Chips and Dip
Chips and Salsa
Beef Brisket
Rolls
Baked Beans
Strawberries and Cantaloupe
Veggie Pasta Salad
Smores for dessert

Happy 1 Month Anniversary!

Today is our 1 month anniversary. I can't believe a month has already flown by. It's been a good month for us, however very busy with the kids and work.
I mentioned it to someone yesterday and they laughed and said, well, if you made it a month you'll make it forever. :) I really hope that holds true.
I love you Mr. Snowflake - here's to making it forever, honey.

Taking time to chill out

Once we had the ring, all my troubles melted away. For the next few hours we boated and tubed on the lake.

The ring comes!

First of all, I've been a bad blogger, but to my defense I was waiting for the pro pictures. That and life catches up to you very fast - especially when you have the gall at work to actually take two weeks off. Please forgive me...pretty please...
Okay, now on to the recapping.
So if you remember, the jewelers broke my ring a week before our wedding. As a compromise, they were going to order the head to my engagement ring, cut one of their solid bands, mount my diamond, and solder my wedding bands to it. The problem was that the ring would not be ready before we left for our semi-destination wedding. It had to be overnighted to the hotel. So about 10 am on Thursday, my mom, sister, sister in law and I settled into the hotel's front lobby. The front desk people were very nice and offered many refreshments while we waited - patently.
(No ring - yet)

Weddingbee Gallery Feature

I got featured today on Weddingbee! Well, not exactly me, but my cake did, see here: http://www.weddingbee.com/2009/09/16/gallery-of-the-day-47/. I know it's kind of dumb, but short of being a Bee, it's an honor to be featured among so many other creative brides.

Ringless...again

I'm ringless again. It really sucks since I had the rings taken in before the wedding to avoid this. I miss my ring :(
If you remember, my ring was broken by the jewelry less than a week before my wedding. I had a designer engagement ring, so they couldn't just order it and it would come in the next day. To solve the wedding day issue, they changed a plain band, put a head that matched my old ring on that and soldered my wedding bands to it. They overnight shipped it to my mom's hotel and we picked it up two days before the wedding (cutting it close!). It looks beautiful and all, but I know it's not the ring that my HUSBAND (I've had the hardest time using that word) lovingly picked out all by himself. So, today I went back to the jewelry store to decide what to do. The band they gave me appraises at about $3000 more than my old one (can't figure out why though), so there was an incentive to keep it. The new band though is all flat and my wedding bands and my old e-ring was rounded - I think it would look better all rounded rather than the flat sides sticking out. They also had soldered one of the wedding bands just slightly lower than the other and while no one else noticed it, it bugged me. So, they're in the process of polishing the middle ring round and re-soldering the bands so they're even. I really hope I don't have to go ringless again.
Has anyone else had to go without their ring/rings more than once?
P.S. I know I left off in the recaps, I'll start those again soon, I'd really like the pro photos though.

Hair and Make-up trial

Because we don't live in the same area as the wedding, the salon suggested that I wait until the last few days for my hair and make-up trial. This way they wouldn't forget what they had done and it would be fresh in their memory - plus they can never get things the same twice, but this gives us a little better chance of getting it close. I was a little nervous about that, but Heidi at Bella Via in Okoboji was AWESOME! Mr. S wanted LOTS of curls. I wanted my flowers and dragonflies. She did great.

The make up the salon used is like Bare Minerals. We didn't do a full make-up trial, but we tried out colors. I think it came out nice.

What would you have changed with my hair trial?

Pack it up, move em out

I picked up my sister on Tuesday before the wedding. She was so nice to come out early to make sure that Mr. S and I had the help we needed with packing and the kids. When we got home from the airport that's when the work started. We loaded up the majority of everything we were taking to the lake in the van, truck, and boat. Even though we got all that work done it still didn't stop me from not being able to sleep the night before. This is basically when I had my jitters I guess. I woke up about 3 in the morning with an upset stomach worrying about things. To bide my time until I woke everyone else up, I did something a little bridey and watched Bride Wars and 27 Dresses. Surprisingly, this helped me to relax. :)

Let's go back in time...

I'm sorry, I don't mean to tease, but I want to wait for the pros pics before I start recapping. Trust me, I have plenty to start, but it's only fair if I have hers first - from what I've seen in the previews, they're awesome.

So we'll go back to the weekend before the wedding (cue the music that makes you spin and go back in time...hehe)

The weekend before the wedding was SO busy. One of my major wedding projects was to get my bouquet done. I only tackled this when I had to cancel my florist order (long story), but I was determined. I'm a bad blogger and didn't take detailed pictures for instructions (I basically used the instructions on Wedding Bee and modified them to suit me), but here we go:
1) I decided to use fake flowers because this way my flowers are already preserved and I have something to keep. I originally was going to use white calla lillies and roses, but when the order was canceled, I decided to use the GREEN calla lillies I had already bought (and had no idea how to use them anywhere else in the wedding) and white roses. My suggestion for step one is to "play around" a lot before you make any cuts and decide how you want it to look. At first I played around with some cheap ivory roses with the calla lillies just to get an idea of what I wanted and then later I bought the "real roses" from Hobby Lobby to use for the actual bouquet.

2) After you "mess around" with deciding how you want your bouquet to look, that's when you start cutting things. I estimated that I needed to hands length at first, so that was my cutting length - I was better to cut things too long than too short. I started by cutting about 3 callas and 4 roses. I decided I wanted it more ivory than green so the rose was in the middle as the base.

3) After you create the "middle" you start wrapping the other flowers on singly with florist tape so that you have a nice circle (if you're just doing a basic bouquet). This step took me a long time to get to look just right - I pulled it apart at least once (maybe more).

4)I used 12 ivory "real" roses and 10 green calla lillies to get my bouquet to look like below. After all the flowers were attached, I hot glued rose leaves to wire and attached those to the bouquet to give it a little more "reality" and greenery.

5) After I got it all wrapped up, I decided it need to be slightly shorter and that's when I trimmed the stems.

6) Then I hot glued ribbon that matched everything else to cover the florist tape. This took some time to make sure it was absolutely smooth.

Whew! In all, it took me about 3-4 hours to complete. I liked using the fake flowers because then I had room for mistakes since I'm not exactly a pro when it comes to flowers. I also had all the time in the world (ha ha) to finish.

What do you think?

I also decorated a vase I already had with a ribbon for it to sit on our sweetheart table. I followed the same instructions I used for the jars to get the ribbon on there.

(This is my mess after I finished)
Will you try to tackle something like this? Who is doing your flowers?

Getting back into a routine

Do you know what happens after you wedding is over and you've gone on your honeymoon and then loaded a MILLION pictures over your free two days over the weekend? Nothing...you gone on like nothing has changed. But TONS has changed. Although it's not official I have a NEW last name, trying to think of the millions of places I have to change it makes my mind explode (cell phone screen saver - check; Facebook - check), oh - it makes me exhausted just thinking about it. The fact that I have a HUSBAND is huge. When we were just engaged, I didn't really let him "rule" my life or my daughter's lives. Last night he put his foot down about one of my daughters and although I wasn't exactly happy about the punishment (it wasn't harsh or anything) I still upheld it because not only is he my husband, but right now, he's the only father my daughters know (their father has skipped out of their lives once again (maybe for the last time - I'm sick of his crap). It makes me proud that he feels the responsibility to step in (when my father and I did our father-daughter dance - Mr. S danced with one of my daughters like she was his own - AWW).
So the whole getting "back into a routine" is not exactly the same. Yes, I feel pretty much the same about Mr. S (I love him to death), but really...things are different and I'm excited about the change.
How did you feel about the change from fiance to husband? Or if not married yet, what do you think will change?
P.S. I promise, I'll start recaps soon!

Well, we pulled it off

It's over, it's done. What everyone says about your wedding day flying by is all true. Remember all you can because it FLASHES by! It was a beautiful wedding. Most everything I fretted over the last week worked it's self out or didn't matter in the end.

Now we're leaving for the honeymoon, so I'll have to start recapping things when we get back.

Thank you for all of your comments.

Here's a sneak peek...

So long, farewell...

This will probably be my last post as a Ms. We leave in the morning for the lake and with everything going on I'm not sure that I will have time to blog. I do plan on coming back after it's all over and showing you the last of my projects and the recaps of all the events. Thanks for following us and for your comments.
See ya on the flip-side!

Busy, busy weekend

This was probably one of the busiest weekends I've had in a LONG time. Friday evening I had to take my car in for repairs (ugh - sucks), Jr. Mr S had a football practice, and I worked on my bouquet. Saturday, I had to get my hair done, go to Jr. Mr. S's football scrimmage, go grocery shopping, pick up my car, clean house, start laundry. Sunday was super-long. I couldn't sleep, so I got up early and finished by bouquet (I'll post later), finished cleaning house, made sure the boat was ready to go, took the boat out to make sure it was running correctly, finished laundry, started packing for the wedding and honeymoon, painted the cupcake holder, cooked for three hours, and cooked dinner.
Except for the boating, I was on my feet ALL DAY LONG! Ugh!
What did you/plan to do on your final weekend of single hood?

Is this a dream?

I don't think so, because usually I'm naked in my nightmares...

Please tell me this is the worst it's going to get.

Love Survey

I totally "borrowed" this from a fellow blogger, at TheRoddyBride. She totally said I could - so I did.
♥ What are your middle names?
Me: Elizabeth
Mr: Daniel
♥ How long have you been together?
Will be 2 years on Sept. 5th.
♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?
no time - we met online and started dating right away.
♥ Who asked whom out?
He asked me - he was quite pushy.
♥ How old are each of you?
Me -29
Mr -33
♥ Whose siblings do/did you see the most?
It's about the same. Even though his sister lives close by we hardly ever see her. My sister has come out several times this year. We've only seen my brother once though in the last year.
♥ Do you have any children together?
No - kids from previous marriages
♥ What about pets?
Whiskey - his hunting dog
Nessa and Elphie - kittens I adopted since they wandered into our yard
Peanut - another kitten that has just become ours
♥ Did you go to the same school?
No.
♥ Are you from the same home town?
No
♥ Who is the smartest?
Probably him - but don't tell him I said so.
♥ Who is more sensitive?
Me definitely.
♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?
Fernando's (local Mexican restaurant)
♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
San Diego, CA
♥ Who has the craziest exes?
Hmm..that's a toss up. I'm going to say him since I'm completely ignoring mine right now.
♥ Who has the worst temper?
Me, I flip out all the time. He is more laid back.
♥ Who does the cooking?
It's about even - although lately I've had to do all the cooking :(
♥ Who is more social?
Me. He's totally anti-social
♥ Who is the neat-freak?
Me, but I've gotten way more relaxed about it since combining our households and having five kids running around
♥ Who is more stubborn?
Probably him, but it's a pretty close race
♥ Who hogs the bed?
Him. I usually have to push him over so I get more than 3 inches
♥ Who wakes up earlier?
Me.
♥ Where was your first date?
Lunch at the Ice House (a bar)
♥ Who has the bigger family?
It's about even
♥ Do you get flowers often?
Yes, he's so sweet about keeping me in flowers
♥ How do you spend the holidays?
Xmas Eve: his dad's side of the family
Xmas: just us
T-Giving: both sides of his family
♥ Who is more jealous?
Neither. Well, him more than me, maybe
♥ How long did it take to get serious?
He jumped right in head first. It took me a bit longer.
♥ Who eats more?
Him but I can keep up
♥ Who does/did the laundry?
Me - I get mad if he does it - seriously, you HAVE to separate the clothes!
♥ Who’s better with the computer?
I would say I am when it comes to working with documents - him when it's software
♥ Who drives when you are together?
Him - he hates the way I drive

I'm naked!

Yesterday I dropped off my rings at the jeweler to get them soldered together and re-sized (since the ring will be wider, it has to be bigger). I feel so naked. I've reached for my ring so many times and I freak every few minutes when I can't find it.

Anyone else feel naked like me without your ring?

My bridal shower

I work with some really fabulous ladies. Even though this is my second marriage, they were adamant that I was having a shower. I was really nice and simple. Cake, punch, and presents. I love me cake. It had icing as think as 1 1/2 inches in places :)

Mr S and I mainly registered for our honeymoon, but when they asked me to have the shower I also registered at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and Williams Sonoma. We haven't gotten anything for the honeymoon, but we got some nice things from the other registries. One of Mr. S and I's favorite gifts was the Swivel Sweeper - now the kids can totally clean up after themselves - Yay!

I also got some really pretty cereal bowls for the kids and gift cards :)
Did you get showered by some unexpected people?