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!!!!!!

Geez let me remove the dust off this blog!

Kind of ridiculous how long its been since I blogged. 2 months.....pure laziness. Its not like I havent had things to talk about! Well dusting it off and more frequent blogging to come. Pinky swear ;)

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

Super Successful lia sophia Fundraiser!

One of the reasons I became a lia sophia advisor was to offer fundraisers, especially to Breast Cancer 3 Day walkers. Being a participant myself I know how difficult it can be to raise $2k+, so I love to help people when I can. Since Im not walking this year I was hoping that I could help another walker by hosting a lia sophia fundraiser for them. And I got that chance this past Thursday :)

Sheri is a friend I met through the Pink Ladies. She has two friends that are walking this year with their daughters. That is $9200 they have to raise! Sheri contacted me and asked if I was interested in doing a lia sophia fundraiser for her friends. Of course I was! Debbie, the host of the party was great. She really knows how to throw a party. We never got a final headcount, but it was close to 50+ people there. In the end I had about 30 orders. I have to admit it was a little overwhelming, but exciting at the same time. It felt good to be in the presence of 3dayers. Ive missed it!

Ive never done a fundraiser or party that big yet, so now I have the experience under my belt. I'd bring a assistant next time, so the orders can get written up faster. And so I have time to talk more to the guests and tell them about the great benefits of lia sophia. I didnt really get a chance to talk to anyone really!

Total in sales: $2280!!!! How awesome is that?! When I do fundraisers I donate my entire commission, which is 30%. Im rounding up so she made $700! Not to shabby for a few hour party. Also, another benefit I do with my fundraisers is anyone that books from the fundraiser show I will donate 10% of that future shows sales as well. She got 2 bookings so she will be getting even more money donated.

Not being able to walk this year I was so glad I could help another walker out :) There was also a Partylite Consultant at the party, so I think with my commission and hers that will put these girls over their minimum to raise. Awesome!

Cant wait to cheer them on in a few weeks on the Breast Cancer 3 Day!

Could Iodine Be My Missing Link?

So Ive talked about many thyroid issues a few times in here. Its been an ongoing issue since 2006 when I was diagnosed with Graves disease. If I only knew what I know now....I would of never had the radioactive iodine treatment. But whats done is done. So I have been on the quest to feeling better since than. Its been a tough road and Im no where near feeling better.

Ive been on armour thyroid since March. Armour thyroid is a desiccated thyroid brand. It contains the same thyroid hormones as our bodies, and provides T4, T3, T2, T1 and calcitonin. The T4 is the storage hormone, T3 is the active, energy-giving hormone, and both are found in a 80/20 ratio in each 60 mg of desiccated thyroid. The T2, T1 and calcitonin are not measured, but it’s there, according to Forest Labs, the makers of Armour. Ive been on Armour since March. I felt a little bit of a change, and than right around Memorial Day I started to take a turn downwards again. Gaining more weight, dry skin, depression, fatigue, and muscle aches. I also started getting a really bad case of hives. And still do get the hives from time to time.

I was reading online that Armour has been reformulated, and lots of patients who never had problems on Armour before are having extreme issues. As I researched further I also read that some people were possibly allergic to the fillers which would explain my hives. I recently saw my endocrinologist and told him what I had found in my research and he blew me off. That was after waiting 2 hours in his office to see him. My TSH level was high so he increased my armour and told me to go see an allergist about the hives. He said to look on the bright side...at least my symptoms arent as worse than when I first came to see him. I just looked at him with a blank stare. The symptoms are worse. Ive never felt depression as bad as I feel it right now. It has to be related! I read about a woman online that was on steroids for the hives outbreak due to the armour, and than the steroids made her so depressed on top of the side effect of depression from the new forumulated Armour that she had to get put on antidepressants for that! Thats just insane!

Meanwhile I went to see my other doctor, hes a nutritionist and practices acupressure. I started seeing him about 2.5 months ago. This doctor listens to me. Explains things to me. And the things he says, make sense! He determined that my adrenals were in bad shape, so he has me on Drenamin and a B12 supplement. When I went in to see him shortly after my visit with my endocrinologist, I explained the same thing to him. How awful I felt, so out of control. And the research I found. He assured me Im definitely on to something. Than he brought up the subject of iodine. Ive read many books on taking iodine as a supplement, but had not found a doctor that agreed with me and would suggest a supplement. Basically your adrenal glands is a backup to your thyroid, so when you thyroid isnt working (like mine), than your adrenals go into overdrive. After working so much in overdrive they basically are way to exhausted to do what they are suppose to do. They still work but they are very weak.

Lets see if I can explain this right (with the help with some trusty websites of course ;)) .....he did acupressure around my thyroid and adrenals while laying down and they were somewhat strong. Than he had me stand up and jog in place for 5 minutes and than lay down and did acupressure again and it was completely weak. Since I have fatigued adrenals, doing any high intensity exercise is causing more stress on them. So I could be doing more harm to myself by running, cycling, kickboxing, etc. Which could explain why I can not lose weight. Its more recommended to do a brisk walk, yoga, and light strength training (not lifting more than 60 seconds and taking one minute rests in between sets). Im doing more research on this to find out what I should be doing....I dont want to try to take the easy way out.

Besides my adrenal fatigued, he also thinks I have a high iodine deficiency. These two things could be the missing links to our puzzle. Iodine is an essential element that enables the thyroid gland to produce thyroid hormones. Three iodine molecules are added to make T3 and four for T4... the two key hormones produced by the thyroid gland -- so iodine is essential to the production of these two hormones of the master gland of metabolism. One needs the proper amount of iodine for optimal thyroid function. Also, iodine is the main component of thyroxine, the thyroid component which controls metabolism. As metabolic rate controls the amount of "fuel" burned by the body for energy, iodine deficiency can result in a decreased metabolic rate, so we need to take an iodine supplement.

So now Im taking an iodine supplement as well. Ive only been taking it for a few days now, but I go back to see him next week. He said I should feel something by than. If not than we will see what else might be wrong. I love this doctor. I truly feel like he cares about how I feel, not what some test says. So now Im on a search for another new endocrinologist. No more 2 hours in the waiting room to see the doctor for 5 minutes. And than have him think its all in my head. Im over it! The more research I do the more these things seem to be right on. Im not getting to excited yet, but am remaining hopeful.

Credit to these awesome websites: www.thyroid.about.com & www.stopthethyroidmadness.com

Acceptance - HYC

So I have come to realize that in the next 3 months I am going to have to learn to accept myself physically for who I am right now. I truly believe that my health is holding me back from having the body I long to have. Although that does sound a little superficial. Its suppose to be about health first, right?

I have been working out for 4-6 days a week for the last month now. I have lost zero pounds. I have lost zero inches. My eating isnt perfect, but it isnt horrible either. For someone working out that much I would think that eating with a few mishaps would be okay. I have been seeing a holistic doctor in addition to my endocrinologist since the beginning of May. I know its a slow process to feeling better but Im not feeling any different. Im still exhausted. Im still fatigued. I simply can not lose any weight.

Do I feel more fit? Yes. Do I feel like Im getting stronger? Yes. So why cant I be happy with that? How come every time I see myself in pictures I get depressed? I avoid pictures at any cost. Which might be difficult to do on my wedding day.....

So I need to love myself. Inside and out. I know theres a 99% chance that I will have the body that I have now on my wedding day. While thats sad, its something I have to deal with. And not let it consume me. I have to accept it. I just keep remembering that first time I tried on my dress. I was maybe 10lbs lighter than I am now, but I can honestly say when I saw myself in the mirror I didnt see the image that I see in pictures now. I truly did feel beautiful. Ill pull out those pictures every now and than (ok maybe more than that. ;p) and I still feel beautiful. I should be happy with that. And I have to keep that in mind.

I need to turn my focus. Maybe focus on weight lifting a bit more. Buff up my arms, shoulder, and back. Accentuate the body parts that my beautiful dress shows off! It doesnt matter what size I am...it matters what the day is about. And that is marrying the man I love. And he has always loved me unconditionally, no matter what size I am. One of the many reasons I love him!

With all that being said, it still is difficult getting to that acceptance point. But I owe it to myself to get to that point!

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.