Bridal Look Confusion

Shoes, jewelry, dress, hair, makeup, oh my! Seriously its giving me a headache. I have had the worse dress drama with this wedding. But I think Ive finally found thee dress, so now Im on the hunt to finish the look. Who would of thought it would be so hard?

Of course its hard...I can barely put a look together for my day to day life. Im a great candidate for What Not To Wear. Seriously.

The dress I had to emergency order at the last minute should be arriving tomorrow. I feel confident that this is the dress, Ill save that story for another day. Id talk about the dress a bit, but afraid Grant might read this. Although I think he fell upon the dress today, even though he says all he knows it is tea length. He may be telling me that so I dont have a spaz moment. I thought the shoes were a task..but it turns out EVERYTHING is quite the task!

Lets talk shoes first....my dress is ivory...with possibly a little bit of light pink. Now here is the trick part. The property is mostly sand, but the ceremony is in a pergola with a brick path. So technically I could get away with heels. But wedges would probably be ideal. Well I thought either silver or white wedges. Very hard to find. Especially white wedges that arent cork. Ive found about 4 that Im picking from...and with the time constrait I need to make a decision quick. These are what Ive found...




Than there are one pair that I love that is not a wedge, that Im talking myself into. LOL

So Ive been consumed with dress and shoe decisions....I havent even thought about jewelry. The dress has a weird neckline so I think I can get away with no necklace. But earrings would be good. Maybe a bracelet, but I dont want overkill. I love pearls, so have started to look at earrings with pearls. Maybe a pearl cuff bracelet....Im so confused. I also dont really know the difference between elegant and gauty to. LOL Heres a few I like...



Than hair...do I put an accessory in my hair? I havent decided fully on a hairstyle yet. I wanted to go half up half down, so a flower might go good. Or maybe some sort of pin. Im not wearing a veil...so Im thinking something should go in my hair. Maybe something like these...




See all these things dont seem like they go together. Not to mention do these go with a seashell bouquet? Does it even matter? Wouldnt you hate to be my brain these days? It hurts. LOL I think Ill give it a break and call it a night.

P.S. We leave in 10 days!!!!!!

Wedding Invites - DIY Pocketfolds

I LOVE our wedding invites!!!!! Grant and I decided that we wanted to do as much DIYing to our wedding as we could. One to save money for our super tight budget. And two - to give everything our special touch :)

So the wedding invites definitely were going to be DIY. We did get some help with the supplies though, so its not 100% hardcore DIY. We used the website, www.cardsandpockets.com, who I HIGHLY recommend. We bought 20 sets of the invites. That set included the pocketfold, invitation card stock, invitation mat card stock, 2 precut card stock inserts, RSVP card, RSVP envelope, and mailing envelope. They have a ton of colors to chose from. They offer samples to which is nice. So before you place a big order you can order the samples, either in the actual product or just small cardstock samples to see if the color is what your looking for or size. So after ordering what seemed like 20 samples, we decided on our color selection.

While we waited for our shipment to come in we started working on the invitation. We weren't really sure what we wanted to go with. Palm trees, star fish, etc. We loved how we designed our website, so we went with that same theme. It worked out perfect! The more we hashed out the details the more excited we got. Dont you love how those small details really pull everything together? We than worked on the inserts. First up was the map. I spent a good 4 hours working on that thing in PowerPoint! After slaving on it I realized it was to big, so we had to adjust. That always happens to me though! The wedding details insert was easier, just text mostly. The last thing was the RSVP. We were debating between a mad libs RSVP or not. We thought some people might get confused so we did more along the norm.

We bought the inserts precut. But they sell them uncut and its a little bit cheaper. Being perfectionist we thought it was better to get them precut. ;) We did have to trim the map insert so we could get the staggered look in the pocketfold. But that was a simple cut. Besides that nothing in the invite needed any additional cutting. Dont worry I didnt get off that easy as you will see as you read on. Ha!

The most tedious part was probably the belly band and monogram. I found our ribbon at JoAnns. I wanted something with a design vs the solid color ribbon, and found the perfect retro-like design ribbon. While at JoAnns I also picked up some card stock for the monograms, and monogram mat. Being cohesive, we designed the monogram to match the website. All the text on our website are in billboard like signs, so we made the monogram a sign to. We were able to print out a ton of monograms out on one sheet of card stock, and than I just cut them up with my handy dandy cutterbee trimmer. I was also able to cut the mats for the monogram out of one sheet of card stock, which I used my lovely trimmer again. This is when the perfectionist in me worked against me! I cut probably three times than I needed to so I could find the best 20 to use. LOL When I was finally satisfied I started to put everything together. I used scrapbooking adhesive which was much easier than glue. Soooo happy with the finish product. Check it out (warning my pictures suck! I couldnt get the lighting right) :












We ran into one big snafu. We printed them at home on our inkjet printer. We weren't sure how that would work but it actually printed them quite nicely. But our printer does not print borderless on custom sized paper. So everything was printing out with this weird border. We just readjusted the design and created a brown border on everything. I actually liked it better. It really brings everything together nicely. The pocketfold is a tight fit so we couldnt mat the inserts (which is what my original vision was), so it all worked out in the end.

I went back and forth on the addressing of the envelopes to. I know there's all these etiquette rules, but honestly we arent really paying attention to them. The envelopes we got had this shimmer to them so I wasnt sure how the handwriting would look. So we ended up doing labels. We created the brown border on the labels to give it an extra special touch. The problem with that was our inkjet printer again...the ink easily smeared. I learned that after about 5 labels. So I had to peel the labels off carefully, and stick them on the envelopes holding on to only the sticky part. Than I smoothed them out with a blank sheet of paper. That effort had to be as good as handwriting didnt it? :) That printer rocks, we didnt even have to refill any of the ink!

Get this....the cost per invite came out to $3.11! Not bad at all! Especially since the cheapest invites we priced were $6-$7 each!

After we finished I sort of wished we would of went with a more daring pocketfold color. Like the orange or green. Besides that one small regret, Im soooooo happy with the outcome! And cant wait to work on our next project :)

P.S. Of course we have a mock up invite done in photoshop that I also have to share. This will help you see the invite in better details, since my pictures are so crappy! Once you click on the link, than click on the image and it will enlarge. :)

http://melissaandgrant.com/images/invitation.jpg

Not At All What I Expected....

wedding planning. I went to a bridal shower yesterday. Ive been friends with this girl for a few years now, and Im really happy for the couple. They both are such great people. But going to the bridal shower feels like it wasnt the best choice for me right now.Than again its never the right time for me these days.

As I sat at the bridal shower and watched the interactions between everyone I felt a void. I don't have that. I dont have an excited family to plan with. I don't have a mother to help plan the most amazing day of my life. And I definitely don't have a father who gushes over walking his daughter down the isle. While I have many friends, I certainly dont have that best friend to vent to when I need to. It makes me very sad. I know I need to stop thinking of what I dont have and focus on what I do have. But its hard. Very hard.

Wedding planning has been a extreme emotional roller coaster ride for me. Im so excited and happy to be marrying the man I love so much. But maybe I was expecting I would feel differently. More happy. More excited. More positive. But its the opposite. I often feel sad. I avoid wedding planning as much as possible because its just not what I expected. I have 3.5 months till the wedding and have very limited things done. Anytime I start something I get sad.

Im so angry that my life is where it is right now. What did I do to deserve this? Why am I here? Why didnt I stick to eloping? Instead Im hosting events that I think are going to make me more sad than happy.

Is not at all what I expected. Not one bit. Its lonely. Very lonely.

Our Wedding Website

Ive been meaning to share this for a little while now, but kept forgetting to blog about it! Probably about a month ago we started to create our wedding website. We sent out our Save The Dates, which included a magnet with our website. So we figured we should probably get that up and running since we are advertising it now. lol

So first we had to chose a domain name. Everything we came up with was taken, except www.melissaandgrant.com. It worked but wasnt our first choice since we thought the double A would throw people off. But we couldnt come up with anything more clever, so www.melissaandgrant.com it is :)

We had a few ideas bouncing around in our heads on what we wanted. So we started doing some mock ups, and were excited with the ideas we came up with. Grant is an awesome web designer so he would be doing all of the design work. So later that day I had a lia sophia show, and than went over a friends house for a spa/game night. I came home later that night to a wonderful surprise. Grant pretty much had the meat and potatoes of the website done. (Even when I talk about wedding stuff I reference food. Geez Mel!) When I looked at it I just grinned ear to ear. I had a image in my head of what it would look like, and this was above and beyond that! I LOVED it! It is so us to. Which a lot of people have told us :)

So next thing to do was the content. So as I worked on finding photos and writing up our love story...Grant had this great idea of a quiz. He was going to hide the answers within the site. He was so excited about this. I told you I have the best finance ever :) And I have to say, its been a bit hit. Its the first thing everyone talks about in reference to the site. :)

Just a few short hours later we had all the content filled out. Unfortunately we don't have a ton of info yet. (Im thinking we should though....we are almost at the 6 month period...should I be freaking out yet? LOL) But once we get more info...such as accommodations, venues, at home reception details, etc....than we will update the site with all that additional info. Or if another clever idea comes to mind that may get added sooner. The two of us are always bouncing ideas off each other...so you never know what we might come up with!

We had so much fun putting this site together! Check it out and tell me what you think :)

www.melissaandgrant.com

Save The Dates

Our Save The Dates came in the mail today, and we love them! Well almost. We realized we should have gotten glossy for the invite instead of matte. So we are re-ordering glossy. The matte looks like we printed them at home.

Grant and I designed our STD's ourselves. We made an invitation with a personalized poem that the two of us made up. It took us weeks to come up with a final draft. LOL But are pretty pleased with our cheesy poem. :) We are cheesy, we will admit it. We than created a postcard that will be mailed back. This is so we can get a general idea of how many people plan on attending. Of course we know its hard to commit this early with the economy the way it is, and things may come up by October, but its just an estimate for us. Im sure our wedding planner would appreciate a close guesstimate to find a reception spot! We also made magnets, although I told myself when I get married I wouldn't do the magnets. I am finding myself doing a lot of things I said I wouldnt do. :p We figured they could use the magnet to hold up the invite on their fridge. Or just toss the invite (all our hard work on that poem!), and just use the magnet. We used vistaprint for all the printing, so got everything done fairly cheap. I wasnt sure if I should post them before I mail them, but I dont think anyone really reads this blog (except you Meg, XO). So here is the finished product...(you can click on the pictures to see a bigger version)

Magnet:

Invite:

Postcard RSVP Front:

Postcard RSVP Back:

If you want to see them larger all on one page, you can click on this link.... http://melissaandgrant.com/savethedate.html

So we re-ordered the invite portion, as well as the postcard RSVP (to change the date to RSVP by), and should hopefully get them in the mail by next weekend! We are still working on the guest list, so I guess we will have to have that complete by next weekend eh? As well as with our website since we are advertising it. LOL

Have I mentioned how I love that Grant is so into the planning? He goes through phases, just like me. But when we are working together, we get so much accomplished. The poem was his idea...hes to cute!

Location & Date Are Set - Let The Planning Begin!

This weekend we got quite the snowstorm, so while being snowed in, having a broke tv (they cant come out for 10 days to fix it!)...it led me to what type of entertainment you ask? The interweb of course! So I dove into some wedding planning! And wouldn't you know we have made some progress. Go us! We have officially decided on a location, Sanibel Island, FL. We also decided on a date, October 14th, 2009. We figure its a Wednesday, and its just the two of us so we should be able to find someplace to have the ceremony on that day with no problem. Only 9 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days! LOL

So all weekend long I have been doing more research/planning. This stuff is fun :) Since the resorts and wedding planner have got me at a crossroads, I decided to look at dresses online. I cant believe how many I like. There is probably 3-4 traditional styles I like, and than I started looking at more simple styles and found some pretty inexpensive dresses that I LOVE. I think in the next few weeks I may go out and start trying some dresses on. Im definitely not at the weight I want to be, but at least I can get a feel for what I think looks good on me vs looks good on the models! LOL

I think I need to probably start some sort of planner so I can keep track of everything in one spot. I definitely think staying organized will mean less stress! Im debating with myself on the wedding planner thing right now. I spoke with a wedding planner that had an awesome rate, and an even better rate with a photographer...but Im not sure we will mesh together. And her professionalism was not impressive. So Ive contacted a few other planners.

We definitely want to stay on a resort. I need to do plenty of more research on that because the research Ive done is conflicting since it is all mixed reviews! We got plenty of time for all that.

Eeeeeek!!!! This is so exciting. I can not wait till Grant and I make our trip to Florida to become Mr and Mrs. Grant Goulet :) Its going to be an amazing time :)

Road Trip Wedding

Grant and I have been toying around with an idea Grant had a few weeks ago on a road trip wedding. When we realized that we cant really afford to go to Hawaii for our wedding and honeymoon, and still have the at home reception we want to have...we knew we would have to start researching other options. Two of our favorite spots in the U.S were Sanibel Island, FL. Or someplace in Arizona. We have been wanting to take a road trip ever since we bought our mini cooper last year. It would be so much fun to wrap the wedding into a trip like that. Since its just going to be Grant and I at the wedding,this sounds like the perfect plan.

When you think of destination wedding, and eloping...you image something tropical, relaxing, breathtaking, etc. Like Mexico, Jamaica, Virgin Islands, etc. But this trip sounds just as fun to me and I think could fullfill those elements to us. We are easily pleased. We arent like most people, we always like to be different and out of the norm. :) And while driving across the U.S. may not sound relaxing....I disagree. Motoring across the U.S. in the mini cooper sounds pretty relaxing to me :)

We can map out places we want to stop in and see along the way. Its like planning a few mini trips into one big trip. We will probably be able to find cheaper places than if we were to stay in some tropical place for 5-7 nights. When we were researching places outside the U.S. as in condos, hotels, etc they were pretty pricey. Double sometimes triple of what hotels will cost us on this trip. Although Mexico does have its benefits with their all inclusive packages. LOL But on a road trip I defintely think you would find better prices for your buck - for budget couples like us ;) Maybe not as five star, but sometimes its not about that. And there is always the thought of staying at a few B&B or cottage type places. Which gives a romantic, cozy feeling to me.

The wedding would be on Sanibel Island. And of course we would do a few romantic days on a resort there, and enjoy the beautiful island and all it has to offer. And than head off for more exploring within the state before we head back home. So I started some research today on Sanibel. Before I knew it 5 hours has gone by! There is so much info out there. So added to our list is a possible road trip wedding. Im sure our minds will change again before the end of the year. We decided that we will make a definite decision in the beginning of 2009 on what we are going to do. We will put a deposit down at that time. So we still have more time to research. We definitely want to try to do an Oct or Nov 2009 wedding.

This idea is really sticking with me though. Its something Ive always wanted to do, and would just be an awesome way to start off our new life together. Although laying on the beach in Jamaica or Mexico doesnt sound to bad either. :p

One problem we will have, both of us are so indecisive! I know whatever we decide it will still be the trip of a lifetime :)

Finding Our Destination

So Grant and I got engaged this past April. Sadly my dad passed away a few weeks after we got engaged. So in the midst of grieving, we decided to put the wedding plans on hold till the fall.

Well now that fall is here, and everyone seems to be anxious to find out our date, so we have touched the topic of where again. We have decided that we are eloping, with just the two of us. Most people know this, so I wonder why the date is still a question most ask. Anyways, so we had our hearts set on Hawaii. But realistically we are not going to be able to afford Hawaii. Getting married in Hawaii and having our honeymoon there, and than having a at home reception will be way over our budget. So now we begin some extensive research.

We have decided to research the following locations: Hawaii, Sanibel Island, Vancouver, Lake Tahoe, Key West, Arizona, San Juan, Sandals, Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Cayman Island, and Mexico. Phew! What a list eh?

We have tossed around the idea of going to Sanibel Island by driving there. Making it one big road trip. I dont know about driving 20 hours straight there. But Id be up for the adventure of stopping by a few places on the way there. That would be fun. Especially in Sgt Pepper, aka our mini cooper. I have to admit Sanibel has one of my higher votes right now :)

I also really like the idea of Vancouver. I hear its beautiful there, and its just different than the norm place to get married.

Once everything is in black and white. All the different costs, and different times of the year we can go...hopefully we can make a well rounded decision. I have a feeling that decision isnt going to be as easy as we think though. lol