Nesting...

Trying to kick the bridal habit is hard. I received a bride magazine in the mail the day of the the wedding....and I really wanted to start looking through it immediately.

Hi, I'm Andrea and I am a brideaholic.

I am trying to get in the groove of being a newlywed and have started nesting. I feel that I need magazines...pretties to look at to help ween me off wedding and on to home.

I need suggestions...for really good magazines. help a brideaholic out won't cha!

Wedding Goodies

I started unpacking wedding goodies last night. It just seems like I should make a special dinner to christen the new dishes! AND a dessert for the many cake plates I received! Hmmmmm.....sounds like I need to go to the grocery.

...Exclusive Events decor peek!

Check out a peek at some of what Exclusive Events did for our reception!

Road Trip Installment I: Day Trip

I have all the pictures I want to post from our road trip today....it was just a day trip, but blogger does not seem to want to cooperate. So....my post will have to wait.

We intended to go up to Clarksville, Louisiana, and Hannibal this morning...but that did not happen. I was in charge of the alarm this morning and well...I should not be in charge of the alarm.

So SIL and MOH Jill, suggested going to St. Genevieve and visit Chaumette Winery. I was sold.
I do not know how to put their little photo gallery on this post so this will have to do.

Long story short, we did not go to Chaumette. I will explain more later....when I can post pics.

Up for tomorrow...we decided to be St. Louis tourists. We are going to go to the Arch, maybe the Art Museum, maybe Ted Drews, and to The Hill for dinner. Who knows what else we will do. There is going to be an art fair at the Galleria mall...maybe we will check that out too! I love art, but I typically never go to art fairs or outdoor art events. strange I know, especially if you know me and my relationship with art.

I digress....Blogger has decided to play nice...so I will now share my series of images from the day.
Um...yeah. Hello, Red Bud, Illinois! We had lunch at the China King and no we did not streak. I follow the rules.
Then it started to rain....really hard. We were on our way to St. Genevieve.
I brake for moo cows. Or actually, I make Chris brake.
This was out my side mirror...the rain drops look kinda cool...and how creepy is that large cloud?

Warning....this next one is nasty. Lets just say it was a strawberry or something. I almost tossed my cookies when I spotted this.
Anyone see that guy that analyzes this kind of thing? We just saw it the other day, and WOW. Reality is so much more ummmm real? And wouldn't you know, it was just below the wiper range....gag. Just wanted to share.

Hello Chester! Home of Popeye the Sailor Man! toot toot!
Apparently they have statues all around of the Popeye characters....I so wanted to see Whimpy. Here is Olive Oil. She is by the Courthouse.
Also by the courthouse was the most outlandish display of potted fake flowers I have ever seen! I so had to make Chris stop. This was only a portion of what was on display. Trust me, there were more.
Finally we see Popeye...before we go over this narrow bridge...to where? Missouri. Hmmm....I did not quite figure out this one...start in Missouri, go to Illinois....back to Missouri...all for good reasons, but boy was I confused. We know, or rather Chris knows, this is not the most direct route to St. Genevieve, but we needed to go to Red Bud first. :)

River was HI-IGH.

We did have to detour to Walgreens. I am not a good passenger. I get so car sick. I could not find the dramamine...finally I did. Chris said he was going to send a search party for me, I took so long...I got two different dramamines...chewable and regular (less drowsy), tums, ginger gum, favereds starbursts....hmmm. I think that is it. And we are off again.

Mistake #1...when driving down road to a small town, do NOT stop and stare at decrepit old historic building/house thing.


The "caretaker" (with beer in hand) asks us if we want a tour. Foolishly we said yes. We park on the drive....nope, he gestures for us to park in the grass....ok, we move to the grass. We get out and have to wait for "Momma" to bring down the keys...oh boy. We finally get inside...I am so not interested and ready to leave and have to seem interested and make nice. I feel there is something crawling on me even if there is not really anything so I am itching and swatting all around me...cobwebs are everywhere...fake flowers (so true to the period of the home) just strange....Chris is just laughing to himself and being really nice to the people. As soon as we could, we got out of there and took off....it was a really strange experience. Did I say strange?

Finally...St. Genevieve. I just love this hotel sign. So cute.

You see the problem with arriving in St. Gen (as the locals call it) at 5:00ish on a Friday, is that EVERYTHING is closed.....well, I guess not everything.
Sara's Ice Cream Shop. (my fav pic of the day)
I told Chris, I just want to go somewhere cute and get ice cream. Well, that is pretty much what we did. Since everything was closed when we got there....yeah...Mistake #2 call before you go. We decided to go home. I called Chaumette Winery thinking at least we would go there for dinner....but nope...All full for the evening. um. thank you.

And what is a Gewgaw? Someone please help me with that one.

Back home we went....we gathered up some Crate and Barrel gifts we wanted to return and purchased some new items with a gift card.
We had a gift card to Magiannos...neither of us had ever been....it was quite yummy.
Tried to take a pic of my dessert....pic not so good. Dessert was ok.
And the best part...of maybe the whole day?
Our waitress gave me this? Know what it is? I do not mean the sugar packet either! Boy I am easily amused sometimes! ;)

More tomorrow! hehe.

blog makeover

Time to beat the Post wedding blues (ugh, totally a whole other post, chapter, novel)....we have yet to leave on our honeymoon....and while we are gearing up...I have been playing around with the ole blog.

Is it time to start a new one?

Do I just revamp this one?

I feel this one is pigeon-holed for "wedding", and in the next chapter I do not plan to be doing much wedding.

I do not know. I started laying out a new blog. Is it time to leave leave it behind? hmmmm...

We're Married!

Well, it is official...we are married! Tomorrow we will plan our honeymoon, pack and then head out on our road trip! I am so excited!

There will be so many posts coming in the future. I do not have any pictures of us yet. I intentionally had my camera and even put it in my pocket....yes my dress had pockets! and I totally only took 10 pictures...none of which are of me! So you will have to wait until Clary
posts a preview!

I do want to share one story.
One night Chris decided to look through a bridal magazine...he then says to me..."I think I picked out your dress". So this was a magazine with probably a 1000 dresses in it. We went back and forth about whether or not I should tell him, and I said well, I cannot tell you if it is or isn't. Cause even if it was, I could not tell him! So he marked the page for me to look at later. When he left, I opened the magazine and low and behold....out of all the dresses in the entire magazine, he picked mine. What are the odds?

Of course, just like a guy, he totally forgot what which one he picked. He asked me sometime yesterday...maybe while we were laughing on the alter or alone in the limo bus if he was correct...

Here is the picture he saw in the magazine.

{Vineyard Collection, Maeve}

DIY dye job

{Touch Ups, Abby}

Finally, I have decided on a shoes. They are comfy...much lower heel than my previous beauties. BUT their color is a very icy white. I could not stand the thought of dying these shoes...I have heard how expensive that can be. So, google to the rescue. I decided to see if I could DIY my wedding shoes. AND yes it can be done. Armed with a sample of my dress fabric, I brewed some tea. I soaked a cloth in the tea, and very carefully rubbed it over the entire surface of the shoes. I re-dipped very often. After allowing the shoes to dry overnight, they are practically a perfect match to my dress!!! Woohoo! I added some bling courtesy of Absolutely Audrey and voila! new shoes.

My details have details. Day 6

The past six months or so, Chris has started saying to me that my details have details. I am a lover of details...so why not have details to the details? Maybe that is too detailed. In my quest to let go, I have decided to let go of some of my details. Will anyone even know....is anyone going to even say..."I cannot believe that she did not do xyz". I think there is enough going on that I should be ok.

Yesterday I met with my wedding planner...Krissi of Proposing Dreams and her assistant for the day, Amanda S. I am so glad to be working with these two girls on the big day! I still have things to organize and get accomplished, but I will say that I have scaled back on some items as they were honestly not that important and so they were cut.

There are a few more things to do...finish packing up tubs, create checklist so I do not forget to pack anything. Label all the tubs with their contents, finish my wedding day earrings, find a bracelet for the rehearsal dinner, wrap gifts for everyone, work on rehearsal dinner centerpieces (these have been scaled down....know anyone who may want to buy mitsumata branches?) I know there is more, but my brain can only hold so much these days.

I am still waiting for 2 pairs of shoes. My final fitting is today at 3pm. Will the shoes arrive by then? who knows. I just hope one of them works. ugh. how upsetting.

My veil arrived last Thursday so fortunately I did not have to go all bridezilla on them about that!

Well that is it for now. plenty I think.

Oh, one more thing...sorry for no pics in these random musings of a bride, but I promise so many pics in the coming weeks!

Wedding Party Entrance

What song did you or do you plan to have played for your wedding party entrance?

We cannot agree...did I mention that we have not picked a first dance song yet either? Um...we need to get on this!

in response to my last post...

From Chris...

Ok, I don’t twitter either, but I just sat down at my desk and I am typing an e-mail to my fiancé like I am twittering, I hope she gets this before something else happens so I can tell her that too. Ok, now I am going to go to the bathroom. End tweet : p

Smart ass.

tweet tweet!

I don't twitter, but I just got back from tanning and whitening my teeth at the same time. I am so seriously excited about this teeth whitening business while you tan! It might be my subconscious but I totally notice a difference! end tweet.

let go

Words of the day. let go.
I have decided to make a list of all that I hope to accomplish for the wedding. If I do not get it finished by the deadline....I am thinking Sunday eve...then I am letting it go.

I am having random attacks of a bridezilla persuasion. The victims so far have been my fiance and my mom. the photo person at Walgreens. ugh. I hate being mean.

I cannot explain the pressure and stress that I have been feeling. I have been so frantic to find shoes for the wedding. Finally some arrived today. And none work. So tonight I re-ordered 2 in different sizes. fingers crossed. There is still another shipment of shoes expected to arrive in the next day or so with some different styles.

Today my mom and I went to finalize the details of the reception. All is good and the venue has been paid. After that 2 hour meeting, and impromptu wine tasting, we went to lunch. While having an amazing Lobster Roll sandwich from Cyrano's Cafe in Webster Groves, I got a phone call. The call I have desperately been waiting to receive. My veil has finally arrived...for the second time. Long story short, my custom beauty turned out to be a beast when we first met the end of April. So after a trip back, the new veil has arrived and became two veils!

I feel much better now. I am also have a trial tomorrow so I plan to take the short veil and give it a whirl.

Well, time to tackle some more tasks before bed. Tomorrow will be a big day for packing up wedding stuff...and hopefully getting the marriage license!

p.s. 10 day forecast has now changed! Wedding day is scheduled to be partly cloudy and 81 degrees. Wonder what it will be tomorrow!

The Weather

I cannot change it, so I must embrace it! I mentioned purchasing some giant umbrellas....maybe it I got them, then it would not rain? Chris put the kabosh on that idea and basically forbade me to purchase adorable umbrellas. Hmmm....what he doesn't know won't hurt him? heh.

SO I agreed to hold off purchasing until closer to the wedding...but you know that if I find something that I like, I am going to get it. I will be so p-o'd if I cannot find any closer to the day!

Oh boy. 9 days.

See the problem with posting after midnight is that I feel that I have already lost a day before it has begun. Make sense? I am not really following that either.

So I had a list of tasks to do today and I am sad to report that I did not get get them all finished. But, many tasks not on the list were crossed off!

I started several months ago a little notebook and when I had a thought about something wedding that I wanted to do, I wrote it down. The idea was to not forget something I really wanted to do in all this wedding planning craziness! Well. I feel that it has actually worked. Everything on the list has now officially been crossed off the list.

The time has come to begin to pack up all the wedding goodies. I started creating a checklist so I would not forget to pack something and also so our planner does not forget to unpack anything.

I did get the parts of the presents together for the flower girl, Audrey, and the ring bearers (my nephews) Nate and Tyler.
I am still waiting on some pieces for their gifts.

How cute are those suitcases! I ordered the vinyl labels from Etsy seller Decal Monograms. She was very easy to work with and sent them VERY fast. I love etsy to pieces!

Tomorrow my mom and I have our final meeting for the reception to finalize all the details. Slice of Lime is creating so fab paper goods for the ceremony and reception....It is all coming together...

I am beginning to ramble, but I am on the craziest sleep schedule. I am up until about 2am. Them I will sleep until 4:30am or 5am, get up for an hour or so and do wedding stuff, then back to be until 9:30 am. How strange. That is the way is has been since Sunday. I just do not get it. Maybe too much on my mind!

Tomorrow, I will update my lovely readers on my progress. The biggest set for tomorrow is to pack up the candy buffet jars and sweets!

Day 11 Tasks

What a busy day. I survived the CRAZIEST storm that I have even been out in. I got lots and lots of wedding stuff accomplished too!

The main gift for the Bridesmaids were wrapped today!
Purchased gifts for our Greeters
Purchased frames for family photos at the reception
Worked on music for DJ
Purchased new MAC lipstick
Ordered potential Rehearsal dinner shoes from Zappos
Gave final count to Catering St. Louis for the Rehearsal Dinner.
Went tanning AND whitened teeth at the same time (LOVE IT)

I am VERY excited about the frames. I loved this frame from Target, but did not purchase as I did not have a reason. I know, it is NOT like me to purchase responsibly. SO....when I decided to display some photos at the reception, not just any old frame would do. I was so bummed that I could not find this frame again at Target.

{Frame, Target}

I looked so many places....Hobby Lobby, HomeGoods, TJ Maxx...and no luck finding frames with this vintage modern feel. I bit the bullet and went to Art Mart...not wanting to pay a bajillion dollars for one frame. I found two fabulous frames....made by Umbra. A wee bit pricey ($18 for a 5x7) for my project, but oh well. The sales guy at Art Mart was very nice. I decided to rush home and google Umbra and find more fab frames. Low and behold, my coveted Target frame is made by the same company! Woot! So in the end, I was able to score some great frames that I will love to decorate my home with. AND they fit the feel of our reception so they will be perfect for my photo display! eeeeee! I cannot wait to see how it turns out. Now, I just need to get prints made of the vintage family photos!

Tasks for Day 10:
I decided to put these in writing so I stick to them!

Ok....Tasks for Day 10:
Finish stickering candy bar take-out boxes and tin tie bags
Get prints of family photos made
Soak rehearsal dinner branches (so excited)
Clean house
Get flower girl and ring bearer gifts together
Work on reception layout
Finalize Father/Daughter song
Finalize wedding day accessories-finish bracelet, decide on hair accessory

oh boy....that is a lot to do! Another post coming tomorrow!

Officially 11 days and counting

Since it is just after midnight, we are officially 11 days to the big day. So I had a fitting Monday...everything was going perfectly and then I walk out and oh my, my dress is too short. Too short. Hmmm....I am 5'5ish and did not have the dress hemmed. So how can it be too short. AND since it is a ball gown, when it gets steamed and pressed, the skirting will actually get fuller and according to the seamstress...will actually get shorter!

I am so bummed. I love, love, love my shoes. I had them before I had my dress...so with 11 days to go I need to find a 2inch heel or less...yikes.

Boy do I love these shoes.
Lets hope I can get something that will work. in time. stressful? hmmm...not as stressful as the fact that my veil is still not in. that is another post.