Wedding Centerpieces

With only 55 days left till the wedding, we are officially at crunch time. All the things that are left to do, really need to start getting done. This includes my DYI wedding centerpieces. I really want to get as much done in the next few weeks as I can, that way I'm not completely stress out right before the wedding.

Awhile ago, I wrote about my plans for my wedding shower centerpieces; however, I didn't end up making those for the shower because Sam's mom bought her own. So, I'm making sure that I get some use out of the vases I bought. With that said, I have already gone ahead and made one of my wedding centerpieces with them. (How I made these will come in a later post.)

The colors I'm using for my wedding are black, purple, and silver. So these have a little bit of all my colors in this one centerpiece. 

I really like how these turned out, but I love when there a few different types of centerpieces at a wedding. Also, I love when there is a mix of different heights between the centerpieces as while. So now my challenge is to try to get all my centerpieces (I think I'll be having 4 to 5 different centerpieces throughout the room) to look like they "go" together.

For my wedding shower gift my mom bought me 3 other types of vases to use for my centerpieces. So here are the other vases I'll be working with....

My mom bought 6 of each of these vases. Plus, I still have 12 of the vases I bought for my shower giving me 30 centerpiece (if needed).

Currently, I have ideas for the first two vases but the "fish bowl" is the where I'm having a hard time figuring out what I'm going to do with it. I know I'll figure something out. I just hope I get an idea here in the next week or so because time is starting to run out.

Question: Did you/ would you try to make your own centerpieces? 

Busy Bee with Wedding Activites

Hi everyone! What a crazy few weeks. Here's a quick recap of what has gone down.

Ended both my part time jobs.
Started a new job.
Had our wedding tasting.
Had our wedding shower.
Started teaching my first class ever.
Went shopping for my DIY centerpieces. (To be talked about soon.)
Order my wedding veil. (Sorry, you'll have to wait till the wedding to see what I picked)
Started writing my thank you notes.
Made our final wedding menu selections.

I'm sorry I've been slacking on my posts but I haven't forgotten about you.

I'm excited for the holiday weekend. I hope with the 3 day weekend I can get caught up with all my loose ends that need to be tied up and get into a regular routine again. (which includes posting more often and reading more blogs)

Have a great weekend and blog to you soon!

Wedding Shower!

Hi Everyone! Did you miss me? I missed you!

I'm sorry I haven't posted all week. Being that this was the first week at my new job, my first week ever teaching a class, and my first (and only) wedding shower, it's been a bit crazy.

 (Sam's brother Jimmy and his hat)

So I have to admitted, I was a little nervous about my shower. My soon-to-be mother-in-law planned the whole thing, so I wasn't sure what to expect. However, she did a beautiful job! I really couldn't have asked for a nicer shower.

  Sam's mom got us corsages, and my went on easy enough. Sam's... well not so much.

Does he look scared? Yeah, for some reason he doesn't trust me with a sharp pin by his chest; but no one was hurt in the putting on of this corsage.

Our showers was much bigger than I ever expected it to be, but I guess I should have known better. I mean we are inviting 335 people to the wedding, so I should have expected a big shower. Everyone was so generous, and I feel so bless by everyone's givings.

I love that Sam was so involved with this wedding shower. He seemed really happy to be there. However, considering he picked out more than half of the kitchen stuff we registered for, he should have been. He has already gotten into many of new kitchen gadgets. 

I feel blessed because we had people come in from out-of-town and even out of state. All my family lives out of state, so I was really happy that my cousins, grandma, and aunt were able to come. 

Also, I bet I'm one of the few girls who got to have a fire truck at her wedding shower!

One of Sam's groomsmen is a fireman, and he decided to come crash the shower- with the fire truck.

I really can't explain how excited I was to get to take pictures with the truck. I don't know, I became I little kid again and just couldn't stop smiling.

We had a great shower, and I'm now really starting to get excited for the wedding. I know it will be here before I know it, but there still a lot to do. On the top of that list- is getting out the "Thank You" notes to all the guests who made my shower so special.

Question: Do I have to hand write every note? Or could I type something up? (I really don't like my handwriting, and I want to make sure people can read the notes I send- so I'm not sure what I should do.)

Big Girl Job with my Big Girl Lunch

Happy new job day to me!

It went down without too many issues. Currently, I don't have a office because the advisor I'm replacing is still working for the college till the end of this month. However, it is nice that I can get trained by both the advisors first and then find my own system that works for me.

I have to say the campus I work on is very confusing because they have tons of random hallways that go in every direction, but I think I'm starting to figure out my way around.

I figured I would enjoy my first lunch hour enjoying the beautiful sunny afternoon. I sat at the picnic tables pictured above, and tried to get a little color in my skin while I can. I even got to use my new sunglasses!

So for my first day at my "big girl job", I thought I should be an adult and pack a "big girl lunch". With the wedding getting closer, eating healthier probably is a good idea.

There also was a left-over square of pizza, but that was eaten before I thought about taking photos of my lunch. But once I saw how pretty my fruit looked, I had to take a picture- which lead to a blog post.

Doesn't it look good! And let me tell you it was. Other than the tasty fruit, I also got to enjoy the view from my picnic table of the pond which the building over looks.

However, I think my attempt to eat a healthy lunch was undone with our wedding tasting we went to tonight. (Sorry, I didn't take any pictures.) But all I can say is, there was A LOT of food to try. And they didn't just give you bite size tasting portions, it was done buffet style so you could try one of everything. I'm so full! However, Sam and I pretty well  know what we are going to be serving at the wedding, so that's one less thing to worry about.

All in all, it been a good day in the life of Stacy!


Question: Did you do a tasting for your wedding? What would you say is the best wedding food to serve? (I think I had one too many banquet dinners in my life to be objective on the subject.)

Wedding Wednesday

I have noticed that a lot of bloggers have day of the week themes to their blog. So I figured I would do a "Wedding Wednesday" post.

This post came from a video my DJ posted on his Facebook page that really just really wanted to share. This video is about a bride going to her "surprise wedding". The video is really sweet and if you a wedding junkie, you'll love this video. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53-6dPB1hkg

On a non-wedding note: I did treat myself to my spa day today. I got my eyebrows done and a 50 minute massage. Plus, I bought myself 3 new tops and sunglasses. The is really unheard of for me, but I start my new job tomorrow so it was nice to treat myself for once.

Last Day of Work

Good-Bye Cubicle!

Today was my last day work at my current job. I have quit other jobs in the past, but this was my first "real" job (even if it was only part-time). Saying good-bye can be hard to do, but I know I'm moving on to bigger and better things.

This week is going to be a bit crazy. Let me give you the run down of what is in store.

• Monday (today): My last day of work!
• Tuesday: HR Orientation for my new job and maybe working at the dentist in the evening.
• Wednesday: Going to a training needed for teaching/ Spa Day! (A girl needs to treat herself every so often.)
• Thursday: Start my new job! And go to our wedding tasting!
• Friday: Second day of work!
• Saturday: Relax (or I hope to)
• Sunday: Bridal Shower!
• Monday: Teach my first class! Then off to my the full-time job.

As you can see this week is a transition week. I'm excited to start getting into a new routine with my new job and teaching, but I'm nervous because it's a lot of changes all at once. Wish me luck and I'll keep you posted!

Question: Do you have an advice about starting a new job? Any questions I should be asking?

My "Extreme Couponing" Sister

Being that I'm a TLC junkie, I have seen many episodes of the TV show "Extreme Couponing". This is a show where they follow a bunch of "extreme couponers" who go on these crazy shopping trips and save hundreds of dollars on everyday items.

Well needles to say, my sister is starting to really get into this "extreme couponing". At first she started off by just signing up for "freebies" online. You maybe surprised on how different things you can get for free if you really try. I was most impressed with the 4 free tickets she got for the White Sox games. However, she has taken her obsession of getting free stuff to the next level by getting into this "extreme couponing". 

 
As you can see she has taken over the kitchen table with all her coupons. She has created her own system of keeping them organized, and  she loves to calculate out how much she thinks each trip is going to cost her. She been doing this for about a month or so, and I'm a little surprised at how well she doing with these shopping trips.

So today I decided to tag-along, and see my sis in action for myself. Today's shopping trip: Target

With her coupons in hand- we started in the travel size items aisle. A lot of her items she buys are travel sized because you get the best value out of your coupons.

She also had a few coupons that were for a free item. She got most of those coupons through her "freebies" she signed up for online. Those included 3 different kinds of hair care products, peanut butter, and bag of candy (which we had problems with at the register with but it worked out ok).

These are all the items (total of 36) that she picked up on this trip.

Does she look worried about how much this is all going to cost? Originally when we walked in the door she was only planning on buying the Tide and peanut butter... so we weren't completely sure how well this shopping trip was going to work out.

The results:

Her total (before tax): $0.04
Her total (after tax): $3.07
Her total saving on the trip: $45.69

What can I say- the tax will get you every time. I'm proud of my lil sis. She has found a hobby that doesn't cost a lot of money and can come in handy.

If you want to see my sister's video about today's haul, check out her YouTube page here!

Question: Do you like to use coupons when you shop? Or have you every tried an "extreme couponing" haul?