Weekend Full of To Do's With My Mom

Wow is all I can say after this exhausting weekend of knocking to do's off my list. I thought a weekend at home would be relaxing...not when you are 6 weeks from your wedding. I don't believe my mom or I stopped from the time she arrived on Friday afternoon until she left Monday night. There were a lot of little wedding related projects that needed to be done so that I can breathe a little over the next few weeks.

First up we completed the personalized water bottles. When I realized I wanted to have personalized water bottles I took a look online and realized how outrageous the prices were. So I figured if I could get sticker labels printed I could do them myself. I went to Sam's club and bought 6 cases of water (35 in each) for $2.98. I could not believe how cheap it was. I had my coworker who made my invitations design and print 200 labels for me. She did a wonderful job and delivered them to me last week. She incorporate the BHK that was also on our invitation. So, away we went cutting off the Sam's club labels and replacing them with our labels. The best part is what she creatively came up with for the nutrition facts...LOVE! They turned out great! We will have them in a party bucket I had made with our new initials. This bucket just arrived today and I absolutely love how it turned out. I ordered it off the website Etsy from Monkey See Boutique, which is where I have ordered a lot of my little "extras". We will have the bucket at the entrance to the ceremony with waters in case anyone wants one during the ceremony. Then it will be moved into the reception for guests to grab waters at their leisure.

Next up was the flip flops. Many months ago I decided to have buckets of flip flops as one of the favors at our wedding. I went to a wedding last year that had flip flops and I thought it was the greatest idea. Girls were grabbing for flip flops before they were all gone. So last summer when Old Navy had their flip flop sale I bought them out of yellow and navy blue. Then I ordered cute little buckets that match our beverage tub with our new initials. Also ordered from Monkey See Boutique. I got varying amounts of varying sizes to try to accommodate all the girls. Then I got the bright idea that I didn't want them to be plain Old Navy flip flops...I had to add a little something to them. I decided I wanted to tie ribbon bows on all of them. My mom got me all kinds of varying navy and yellow ribbons. We began tying and tying and tying mini bows. It seemed like that took most of the weekend. However, the work was worth it. I LOVE how cute they turned out in the end. I even got a few visitors (Annette and Suzanne) to help when they stopped over on Sunday. I can't wait to see the girls go grabbing them once they are brought out during the reception.

While I was working those projects my mom was working a few others. She altered both Austin and Kevin's suit pants for the wedding as well as my dress. All I can say is my mom is super talented when it comes to her ability with a sewing machine. We have one more thing to complete on my dress before it is 100% ready for my big day!

There were a few other crafts I worked on this weekend but I will have to fill in the details later as they were part of the bridesmaid gifts and the ring bearer and flower girl gifts. Needless to say it was a busy weekend but I feel highly accomplished and good about the to do's we have left to complete over the next few weeks.

On top of that I believe we found both Kevin's moms mother of the groom dress as well as my moms mother of the bride dress. That alone is a huge accomplishment because I know they were both getting a little nervous.

Next up this weekend...MY BACHELORETTE PARTY!!!!

I cannot wait to be surrounded by 15 of my best friends, including my sister, for an entire long weekend. We are headed up to the mountains of WISP in McHenry, Maryland. We will ski/snowboard and play all weekend in a beautiful house that is ski in/ski out off the mountain. I have been looking forward to this weekend and am so excited it is almost here. More details when I return...

Here is a picture of the house we will be staying in

North Carolina Bridal Shower

This past weekend (January 25th-27th) was a busy one. Kevin's Aunt Anita and cousin-in-law Daniella planned a bridal shower for me in Greensboro, North Carolina. Kevin was off on his bachelor party in New Orleans so don't feel too bad for him. He was with his closest friends having a blast for 4 days in warm weather roaming Bourbon Street.

My friend Molly (from Baltimore) decided to make the road trip with me. I was so thankful not only would I have someone to make the trip with me but I'd have the whole weekend with Molls! Needless to say we had a blast. Friday night we stayed with Kevin's mom in Winston Salem. It was so nice to spend a little time with Kay. We went through pictures of Kevin growing up so that I can begin to compile the slide show we plan on running during our rehearsal dinner.

Saturday morning we took off for Lexington, North Carolina. Kevin and I had stopped in to a a local jewelry shop, Hayes Jewelers, a few months prior. He found the ring he had been looking for but I wanted to shop around just a bit more. In the end this place seemed to be the best price so off I went to make the big purchase of our wedding bands :) They still had Kevin's ring on file so now it was up to finding mine. After a short time there I found the exact ring I wanted for an AMAZING price. So we rapped up the purchase of our bands and jumped in the car for our next stop.

Next up was Greensboro to Kevin's cousins house for the shower. The party was so much fun from start to end. Not that a party in your honor wouldn't be fun enough, but to top it off I got to see many of my friends and family I don't see very often now that I no longer live in North Carolina. The food was amazing! Kevin's Aunt Anita is so creative and found many different ways to shape the food into a heart (see pics below). They themed the party and invitation in pink and green and gave all the guests pink and green Lilly cups with our names and wedding date on them. I wish I had gotten a picture of them because they are super cute. In fact, I was so busy visiting with all the guests that I didn't get a single picture the entire time I was there. Good thing there were plenty of other cameras around. I was able to steal pictures from a few of my friends. After the delicious food it was time to open presents. I'd have to say my friends and family are too good to Kevin and I! We racked up with all sorts of fun gifts to make our home and kitchen a bit nicer and way more stocked! I can't wait to try new recipes with the neat stuff we got.

The best surprise of the weekend was a sweet letter that I got from a very good friend of mine. I will never forget what it said or where I was when I got it :) Details to be disclosed in a later post!

After the party we headed over to my high school friend/bridesmaid Brittanie's house to see her little girl Liza Grace. LG is my flower girl. Lord...that girl is something else. She was pure entertainment from the moment we got there until the moment we left. We brought over a sample of the flower girl dress my mom will be making for her to try on. Once she had it on she was strutting all around for us to see. Best of all she now calls me "BEE". I love it and can't wait to see that little ball of energy on my wedding day.

A few of my friends stayed in Greensboro and off we went to make a night of it. We went to a little bar that had a live band playing. The band was great and so was the night catching up and spending time with my friends.

Sunday morning we jumped back in the car to begin our long haul back to Maryland. But...not before stopping for some good ol' BOJANGLES!!!!!!!!!

The DELICIOUS food...

Present time...
All the fabulous ladies that made it to the shower...
All my moms! My mom, me, Kay (Kevin's mom) and Karen (Kevin's step-mom)

My wonderful girlfriends that made it to the party...

Brittanie, Theresa, Molly, Tiffany, Me, Lindsay, Erin, and Kelly- Anna had already left :( Page High School Friends...

Theresa, Brittanie, Me, & Linds- 10 years later!!!
Thanks to all of you that made it to the shower and made it such a special day!

Wedding Invitations are out...Check!

I wanted to wait and post about our invitations once I felt our guests had received them. So...about a week and a half ago I received all the pieces and invitation assembling had begun. I spent all weekend putting those suckers together. My coworker who designed and printed them could have done it for an additional charge, but I'm glad I made the choice to put them together myself. It added to the fun of officially sending off my invites knowing I had worked at piecing them together. I even got Kevin to help at the end! I don't think I realized how many steps each invitation would take to piece together. It was quite the process but a fun one knowing what they were for :)

I absolutely LOVE how they turned out. My coworker Bridget did an amazing job bringing my ideas into a beautiful invitation that really fits with the theme of our wedding. I ended up going with a navy trifold with creme for the base of the actual invitation part. She used navy and yellow (our wedding colors) for the writing. Our response card was also in creme with navy and yellow writing and fit into a navy envelope. One of my favorite parts that I didn't even know until I received them was the way she designed the address labels. They wrapped around the invitation rather than just sticking on one side. It really added a little something to make them fancier.

Below are a few pictures of the process-->

The assembly process begins...

My handsome future hubby helping me :)

The invitation and enclosureLove the fancy H...my new initial :)Response cardReady to be mailed...FINALLY!!!