Friday fun

I figured as a friday special, I would post the wedding dress I wanted when I was in high school. I don't remember where I found it or who the designer is, but I doubt it's still in production.

So without further ado:

17 followers!!

I don't know what to say!

I love reading other bride's blogs, but I didn't imagine mine would be interesting to anyone else. I feel so loved, thank you all!! :D

What another giveaway!?

You got that right! Geezees is celebrating its one year anniversary with a giveaway! Check it out here!

The winner will receive a 9x12 Geezees or 10x10 canvas of your choice. You have until September 15th to enter so chop chop!!

Postcard giveaway!!

Head on over to Sweets and Life and check out their giveaway!

200 postcards to two people from My Postcard Printing! That sounds like an awesome deal to me!!! I would totally use them for my save the dates that I've designed, but they could be used for anything.

Wedding website!!

So we're six 1/2 months out, according to The Knot ticker.



And we finally have our wedding website up!!! So go check it out!!

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/NicholasThompson&SamanthaPedersen/

Tomorrow is 200 days to go!!!!!!!!!! Whoopee!

What have we done in the last few weeks?
-Designed STDs (save the dates) - they will be ordered with my next paycheck and after sent out, you get to see them.
-Decided we're not going to Fiji for our honeymoon, so now it is a surprise to me. But I am totally fine with that decision. All I require for a honeymoon is Nick (and a little sun would be nice).
-And we booked our DJ, but I already told you that.

What needs done soon:
-Get the Preparedness survey from our officiant so we can start counseling
-Order, address, & mail STDs (already said that)
-Nick needs to design our invitations
-Buy a pattern and fabric so Granny can take it with her to Arkansas to make the flower girl dress.

I love planning my wedding!!

I can't wait to show you!!

I received our engagement pictures today from our photographer, Jessica Lemmons!! Yay!!!! I am so excited to be able to show them to you all!

The shoot was so much fun even if it was a little windy and cold. Jessica found some really amazing places to shoot that I would have never even thought of.

Warning: There are a lot of them. :)











































And this one is my absolute favorite:


Hope you all enjoyed them as much as I do. I love Love LOVE them all!!!

The check is in the mail!!

The deposit for the reception DJ that is, since Nick finally chose one. His excuse for waiting so long? He was waiting for me to have a meltdown and demand that we elope. Ha!! Like that's going to happen! As romantic as eloping would be, I want my family to be in attendance when I get married. Sure I may have the occasional meltdown (what bride doesn't?), but I'm not going to call off the wedding.

ANYWAY, so he decided on Kelcema Productions out of Portland and Seattle (two branches). The head of the company (I think?) has been in contact with me since January so I forwarded all of the information to Nick. I guess persistence pays off huh? They have all sorts of music and seem very reliable and prepared for big events. Still looking for your DJ? Check them out!!

So that is one more checkmark I can make on my to do list!! One down and I don't know how many more to go.

I love our engagement pictures!!

Nick and I had out engagement pictures taken last sunday with the photographer that will be doing our wedding, Jessica Lemmons. Well today she posted her favorites on her blog and they are amazing!!!! Go check them out now!!!

http://jessicalemmonsphotography.com/blog/2009/07/weddings-and-engagements/promised/

If you are a bride in southwest Washington, I highly highly HIGHLY recommend her!

When I receive the pictures, I'll post them, but for now GO CHECK OUT HER SITE!!!!

Ring A Ding Ding

I'm ordering Nick's ring this weekend! Yay!! I know it's early, but he will wear it as an engagement ring until the wedding. I'll get it engraved at some point before then with the wedding date, but that doesn't need to be done right away.

The ring he has picked out is tungsten and blue carbon fiber. He and I really like the style of it, very modern and very affordable. Wanna see?


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Two awards! I don't know what to say!!

Thank you very much, I feel loved!!

My first came from august15bride, whom I am an avid reader of.



Let's see, who will I nominate?

1. Kiss the Groom
2. Polka Dot Bride
3. Two Kids and a Wedding
4. A Boardwalk to Remember
5. Bridal Bliss
6. Boots & Lace


And the other one is from The Snowflake Wedding and I love, love, LOVE that blog as well!!



Another six? Oh dear.

1. The World Around Her
2. Sweet Lorraine
3. We Shall Wed!
4. The Roddy Bride
5. A Practical Wedding
6. Marrying the Navy

There are so many blogs I could name and I'd love to name all 190 (yes really) that I am subscribed too!

Thank you both for the lovely awards. Have a happy weekend!

30 Day Shred?

More Like 20 minutes in hell for me.

That's right, I've jumped on the Jillian bandwagon and I have the 30 Day Shred DVD at home that I am agonizing over. The first two days were absolute torture and I could barely move afterwards (I am not fit at all). The third day wasn't as bad, but I know it will get better (at least I hope so).


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After doing it for three days (with a break in between two and three) I actually feel good and I'm getting used to it (read: less sore). I'm kind of excited to see the difference at the end of the 30 days.

Now before you lecture me for taking a day off, I'll have you know I walked three sections of the lake with Nick that day so it wasn't a total break.

Anyone use this video and notice a difference in how you look and feel?

What does my dress look like?

Well I'll show you!!!

Here's me in the dress:


And here's the detail:


And this isn't me, but I don't have a good picture of the back:

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I am getting the color that I am wearing, ivory and cherry and then the bridesmaid dresses are cherry.

Yay for checking it off the list!!

Ordering my dress that is! I am so excited that I got to order my dress this weekend and on the 13th too, which means nine months until the wedding!!!

Side note (but not a small one): My dress was about $200 less than I thought it was going to be and that is just awesome! And my two girls that ordered their dresses were also less expensive than we were figuring. I am so glad I stayed local and bought at the boutique in town and she honored my coupon which came from the dealer and not her shop. Now I just have to wait the six months to get my dress in. *sigh*

I was naughty and only took one picture with my phone (sorry if it's blurry or grainy) because I was not going to take a picture while we were being measured.

Here are my MOH and one of my bridesmaids paying for their dresses, Shannon & Kristen (is behind Shannon and kinda hard to see).


My third bridesmaid, Megan, was there for a while, but wasn't buying a dress because her crafty mother is making it!! Wish I was that talented, but oh well. :)

What a week

So let me give you the run down. Tuesday I took my car into the shop because one of the rear brakes was grinding. I got a call later that day telling me I needed new brakes on all four wheels. Yikes!! There goes my savings account, but it needed to be done. Then yesterday I got my tattoo and it's AMAZING (as well as expensive, so my funds have depleted even farther!!!! But...


I get to order my dress tomorrow and am SO excited!!! I can hardly wait even though I know I won't get it for about six months. And my cousin is coming tonight that I haven't seen since March (I think, maybe February)!

Happy weekend! I know mine will be :-)

Friday fun

Happy friday yet again. I thought I'd post pictures of animal weddings since I love dressed up animals (yeah, I'm one of those, but my dog doesn't wear clothes very often).








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Happy friday!!

Ugh!!

I just want to say that I hate the myth that the wedding day is all about the bride. Ah!!!! I want my wedding to be about both me and my groom.

That's all I have to say about the matter.

Friday fun

So a couple weeks ago I did this and thought I'd do it again in honor of the 3-day weekend. This time with the ever popular, bridesmaids dresses! Everyone loves to make fun of bridesmaids dresses and I'm no different!


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And here are some really cute bridesmaids:


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That's really tempting, but I'm just not the type of person to include my dog in the wedding. Maybe I'll get her something special to wear that day while she's home alone. Happy weekend!!

10 months to go!!

I've made an appointment to order my dress and a couple bridesmaid dresses. The date is exactly 9 months from the wedding so what better day for it!!

Note: I have 5 followers? That's awesome. When I first started, I figured this would be just to get my thoughts on "paper" and out of my head. This is fun now!!

What would you do with an unlimited budget?

I thought about this yesterday and I wouldn't change the majority of what I'm doing. I would definitely still buy the dress that I am going to buy and I would still get married at my church.

Things I would change:
1. Bigger reception venue
2. Buy my grandfather a 1957 Chevy so he could drive us to the reception from the ceremony
3. Buy all of the wedding party's attire
4. Fly my friend here from Colorado so she could be a bridesmaid
5. For sure go to Fiji for our honeymoon
6. Bigger photo package (or at least more locations, might see if I can get more locations anyway)
7. Dance lessons
8. Invite every guest from my original list (I took about 100 off the list)

What would you do with an unlimited wedding budget?

First DIY project

So I've been looking into getting engraved toasting glasses for the party, an engraved vase for the sand ceremony, and an engraved memory vase for Grandpa Nye. All that added up is expensive!! So I decided to do my own glass etching and hopefully save some money (we'll see if I actually save money).

Will need:
-8 glasses - found box of 10 pilsners for $11.00 and will use those (for the record, I don't recommend using pilsners because the one I bought were tapered and the stencil doesn't really like it, but I did get it to work). The extra two glasses will probably be used in the sand ceremony for our separate colors
-2 vases - $1.00 each at Dollar Tree
-Glass etching kit - this was the expensive part. I got the starter kit, a wedding stencil kit, and two alphabet kits for a total of about $50.00. Starter kit includes: Cream, stencils, paintbrush, Popsicle stick
-Masking tape - about $2.00
-Gloves - $1.00 for a whole bunch
Total spent: about $65.00. So far Bridesmaid Megan and I have done 3 of the pilsners so there may be more costs later

I took pictures to show how easy the process was (and it was super easy if I could do it).

Step 1: Wash the glass to make sure there are no fingerprints. Cut out and position stencil on the glass. Tape down with masking tape.

This process was a tad difficult because the glasses were tapered and we had to measure a couple times to get all of the stencils in (roughly, I hope) the same spot.

Step 2: Use a Popsicle stick (or fingernail, or back of a butter knife, etc.) to transfer stencil from plastic to glass.

(Yes I switched glasses between pictures. I forgot to takes pictures of the first glass I did.)

The stencil bubbled slightly again because of the tapering of the glass. On something that is the same width from top to bottom, it won't be an issue. The bubbles are pretty easy to rub out anyway.

Step 3: Make sure there are no holes in the stencil that aren't supposed to be there and cover the edges with tape.

Taping down the edges of the stencil insures that you won't get any of the edging cream where you don't want it. You will also want to put tape over any holes that got put in the stencil.

Step 4: Spread a generous amount of etching cream over the stencil.

Make sure you can't see any of the lettering or design and let it sit for 60 seconds, that was all the time that was required for this cream. (I left the cream on for about 15-30 seconds longer and it looked just fine.)

Step 5: Rinse off all of the cream and remove the tape and stencil.

Run the glass under water to remove the rest of the stencil that didn't come off with the tape.

Step 6: Wash the glass and check out your handiwork!

You can kind of see the etching, but it was really hard to get a good picture, so I will try again later.

The process doesn't take very long. Megan and I had an assembly line at the beginning so all of the stencils are on and positioned and that part takes the longest. I really like how they turned out!