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?

Flowers - should I really take this on?

I made a decision a few weeks ago to cancel my florist order. Costs were getting out of hand and this was an easy chop for me. First of all because I already have flowers incorporated from my Sam's order and secondly because they just weren't that important to me. The little girls will hold pomanders and I had also bought them parasols, but I'll give them to the big girls to carry. Mr. S kept trying to talk me into just getting my bouquet - we could then preserve it, but at $180 for just that, it seemed excessive. The decision was made.

When I started organizing everything into totes though, I realized I had a bunch of flowers at the house that could be used and I actually wouldn't have to buy much if I went with fake arrangements. Plus, this way my bouquet is already preserved. I had a ton of energy last week, so this is what's done. I'd really love comments.

Mr. S's Boutonniere.

All of the boutonnieres

I also made corsages, but the pictures are just on my camera phone, I'll have to take pics later.

I haven't completed my bouquet yet, but here is two different versions:
Mostly green (I bought "real" roses after this that I will use instead of the bulk flowers that I mocked it up with)
Mostly white (using the "real" roses)
Which bouquet would you go with for my green and ivory colored wedding? What do you think of my DIY-boutonnieres?

Weather Stalking

I've started...I'm now weather stalking. Our wedding day doesn't show in the 10-day forecast yet, but we leave on Wednesday, so that whole week also matters to me. So far the weather outlook doesn't look to bad, in fact it may be downright COLD for the Arizona people coming in:
Will you start weather stalking as it gets closer to time for you?

2 weeks - oh my!

I just posted for august15bride and it made me realize that in two weeks I'm going to be sitting in her shoes. At the moment I write this - in two weeks - my hair and makeup will be done and I'll be waiting to don that pretty dress. Wow!
Good luck to all other brides getting married today and to all those freaking out about the last details like me.

Congratulations august15bride!

Good luck and congratulations today. I hope it all goes well and I'm sure you'll look so beautiful.

In the final stretch

We're in the final stretch and I'm trying to get things done. One of my major tasks the last couple of days was to create setup directions for the wedding coordinator. I also included a site map to show her where things should go. I have posted it on google docs to share here. The other document I created for her was a schedule for the weekend. There's some great ones on wedding bee wiki which is what I used. I'm very anal about being on time and on schedule, so hopefully this will help me stay sane.
What are you doing to make sure your wedding is set up the way you want it or to stay on schedule?

I only really have 20 days

How do I figure out that math when there's actually 23 days left? We actually leave for Lake Okoboji on the 26th. Everything has to be done, or the project has to be forgotten by then. That's one problem with having a semi-destination wedding.
I don't have a ton of things to get done, although last night instead of helping my to-do list, I've decided to add to it (I'm making my own bouquets - crazy, I know). I just need to stay on top of my list and TRY not to add to it. I think I can get it all done.
Anyone else have weird math when counting down to your big day?

Getting things accomplished

This week has been very productive. Last week I wrote about how much I still have to do and I realized today that between what got done this weekend and during my daughter's sick day I was able to get half of the items checked off in addition to some that were not on that list (Yay me!). We're coming into the last days (24 now) and I'm not going to have as much time to dedicate to the wedding because of life going on. This weekend is full because we have to clean the stupid rental house that the last renter destroyed (ugh) and I have to take my daughters school shopping (I can't believe the summer flew by so fast), next weekend is Mr. Snowflake's and Twin Snowflake's birthday, so that means I really only have one more weekend to get things done - the last weekend bore the wedding - of course that's already full of last minute food shopping, my hair appointment, and packing. In the middle of all of that I still have work, school registration, back to school night, first day of school, and my work shower. Whew! Sounds like I need another sick-kid day (kidding).
How are you coping with getting everything done right now if you're close to your wedding date? If you're not, do you have a plan in place so that you can get it all done when the time comes?

An Illuminating Project

I LOVE candles. We don't use them a whole lot around the house, but I do love them. We're using candles in a lot of places at our wedding and at least our venue doesn't have a restriction on them. I already showed you the candles I created for the hooks which I think will look really pretty lining the lake shore at night (plus it's a safety thing for our guest, they'll know where the edge is).
I'm also putting some citronella candles on the cocktail tables outside: (The light green pail)
Then I want these on the buffet table (May have to move somewhere else if they don't fit - we'll see)

We'll have two different table designs for the dinner tables (I'll explain the second one shortly). One will have two jars of flowers (the ones that will hang on the hooks during the ceremony) and two jars with candles. Late last night I put together the candle jars for the table:
Started with a wide mouth mason jar.
Put a little bit of hot glue just under the lip.
Attached the ribbon - the trick is to fold the ribbon in half and then press down so that it comes out even when you tie it.

I turned it over and put a little hot glue under the lip on the other side and tied a ribbon on top of that to hold in place.

I put in a candle.
and I added river rocks and pebbles around the candle.
My final project of the night was for the second table design. We're going to put a net down on the table, put floating candles in the center, and then spread 24 candles across the table, like this:

I bought 144 candles and votives on Candles4Less.com. The votives and candles are packed separately though and instead of having the wedding planner assemble and have to light all of these on the day of, I saved her one step.

All Done!

How will you be illuminating things at your wedding/reception?

Saving the toes

Since our venue is mostly on grass and we're dancing outside I thought flip flops sounded like a perfect gift for some of our guests. I debated buying enough for everyone, but that seemed like a bit much, plus I couldn't find any in our wedding colors and it was hard enough to find the ones I wanted in the alternate colors. I was also going to attach the size with a monogram sticker, but since I'm trying to get as much done as possible and not stress about the details, I just labeled the buckets.
(This is what I wanted - didn't Jess from Project: 10K Wedding do a good job?)
The buckets were also something I bought last year on clearance before the "theme" was decided, but I think they came in handy.

First, Little Miss S helped me sort them into sizes and we put them in the appropriate buckets.
Then, Miss S and Little Miss S took off all the tags and stickers.
I turn the flip flops so they the kind of hooks on to each other and then I tied simple gift wrapping ribbon on.

One down
One completed bucket...
...four more to go.
Are you planning on saving your guests' toes by providing flip flops or slippers?

Bathroom Baskets

Another project that is almost complete is the bathroom baskets. I just need to add a couple more necessities and I'll be done. I bought these containers last year on clearance before I had really perfected my "theme" and I didn't really know what I was going to use them for (favors, just for looks?). Here's what I have so far:

In the woman's one there is tampons, maxi pads, Wet Ones, sunblock, Off Wipes, Kleenex, cotton pads, Scope mouthwash, antibacterial gel, hairspray, a brush and mirror, bandaids, and Tums. The men's basket has all the same, except the feminine items. I still want to pick up some single packs of Advil and Tylenol.
What else would you add to your baskets?

Creating the card box

I had an original plan to create a fish like our bathroom baskets, but that went to the wayside. I thought about just using a basket, but since our wedding is in a public state park and just anyone could walk through, I decided I wanted something more secure. I ended up going simple and created this for our cards:

How did I get here?
Step One: I started with a box big enough to hold several cards and cut a hole in one side (not the top or bottom since the four flaps would be in the way):
(this was actually the box our wedding invitations came in)
Step Two: I wrapped the box in some wedding paper I bought for a friend's wedding.
Step Three: Re-cut hole in paper and tape back.

Step Four: Trace the thank you message on paper from printer with a sharpie that will bleed through.

Step Five: Re-trace the message that bleed through.

Step Six: Color in the message and tie on ribbon.

What are you using to secure cards that your guests bring?

For the hooks

I'm finally getting things done and Mr. S is helping out a lot (Jr. Mr. S is too). To start with, Mr. S painted our hooks for us:

(I'm weird, they need to match wedding colors and our house for later - they're half done in this picture and for future reference, it takes at least 3 1/2 bottles of spray paint to cover 12 black hooks)
To start the ceremony, we'll have flowers hanging on the hooks. Jr. Mr. S and I worked on these this weekend:
Step One: Cut all wire to a length so that it wraps around jar and creates a hook.

Step Two: Wrap the wire around the lip and create the first side of the hook.

Step Three: Push wire under the other side to complete the hook.

Step Four: Wrap wire around the wire around lip so that it creates the hanger.

Step Five: Jr. Mr. S would twist the wire for me.

Step Six: I'd finish twisting the wire so that it didn't poke anyone - especially clumsy me.

Step Seven: Tie ribbon on - I'm anal so I measured each ribbon so it was the same length.

These will go on the tables after the ceremony and in their place the wedding coordinator will hang candles.
They couldn't just be any candles though - they have to be pretty and functional. I used citronella candles to help with the bugs. I didn't take pictures of each of the steps, bit basically I measured each of the ribbons to the same length, hot glued the ribbon to the back (because otherwise the ribbon slipped down and fell off) and tied a bow.

How is your FH helping out with your DIY projects?