The Theme

I don't know how much I mentioned about the "theme" of this wedding, so I thought I would clue you in. Originally when I had found my invitations, Falling Petals, I thought that would be the perfect theme for the wedding. We could use loose petals as the base of the place cards, incorporate them with the centerpieces and even on the chocolate drizzle cake that I had originally spec'ed out. The colors would be Black & White with a deep Red as the accent color. So all the petals would be the deep Red.

Well as time went by and I browsed the net constantly for ideas I realized that I didn't like the Falling Petals theme so much anymore (this is common for me -- buyer's remorse, remember?). So instead, I decided to make the theme about us. I know it is a general term but I wanted our guests to see what we are about. To show them what we like and what we do together instead of picking 1 theme that would represent who we are.

So because of this, there were changes made to just about everything. I kept the invitation suite and the colors are still Black & White with the deep red accent color. This time I incorporated us into the decor. Here are some of the changes.

The Table Numbers:

My FI and I love to paint and paint together, so I found these mini-easels with their own mini-canvases that we will paint numbers on to serve as our table numbers. We will paint the actual number and underneath will be the number printed as a word but the word will be in Spanish. The painting will respresent us but the Spanish word for the number will be a small respresentation of me and my Puerto Rican culture. Here is a mock-up drawing of what will be painted on the canvas.

The Cake:

I also ran with the painter's theme by having our cake topper be rolled fondant (I believe) shaped into a paint palette, paint brushes and tubes of paint with one tube dripping paint onto the side of the top tier creating the letter 'R'. I know it might sound weird but trust me we like it. So that is the top tier and it represents the both of us. The middle tier will be a representation of me by having a black fondant base with a white argyle design and red dots connecting the argyle diamonds together. The bottom tier is a representation of the Mister. It will be a white fondant base with black "floating" musical notes since my hubby-to-be loves everything music. Here is a mock-up that I did as my first Photoshop exercise =).

The Garter:

I cannot show you a picture because it is a surprise for the groom but what I can tell you is that is something from my groom's past. I will be sure to show pictures once the wedding is over so I don't ruin the surprise.

Did you originally have a specific theme or decor item picked out and had second thoughts?

Back to Business...

Well I am back from vaca, so now it is time to move full steam ahead with the wedding plans. Since my FI does not have classes until July 6th, I am trying to take full advantage of his off time to help me accomplish a few of my wedding tasks. My main goal for this week is to finish up the DIY coasters that I made from instructions courtesy of Style Me Pretty. I also want my FI and I to start painting our mini-canvases for our mini-easels that will serve as our table numbers. He came up with a mock-up of the painting last night and I am oh so excited to see how they look once they are finished.

So as you can see, there is more to come. Stick around!

-RB

In NC Ya'll!

Well HELLO there!

My FI and I needed a vacation and fast! So we were able to squeeze out some time to go to North Carolina to visit his Mom and her husband. We left yesterday around 4am and got here in just about 7 hours (our fastest time yet =)). It is great because it is our time away from home which was desperately needed.

So far during our vacation, we went to a Brazilian steak house...YUM! If you have not tried it, and are not a Vegan or Vegetarian this is one place you will enjoy. How can you go wrong with Oodles of different kinds of meat, veggies and fruits?? Everything but the lamb was delicious (sorry just not a fan), even the roasted pineapples. Unfortunately, this was not good for me wedding semi-diet =) BUT I am on vacation. Anyway, check one out if you can, it is worth every penny.

If you have never heard of one, I will try to explain the premise of these places. At your place setting, you are given a coaster that is red on one side and green on the other. Red signifies 'Stop' and green signifies (you guessed it!) 'Go'. You start the dinner by getting your side dishes (you better pace yourself). When you return to the table, flip your card to green to start the never ending buffet of MEAT! Servers will come to your table with large skewers with many different cuts of beef, chicken, pork and lamb through out the night and you choose whether you want any of the meat. Then right in front of you they carve the meat and you use your little tongs to grab them. The slices and chunks of meat are small but it is to allow you to taste their entire selection , that is if your belly allows it. I definitely would go there again.

Well as you can see I am not home so I have not been able to post but I promise as soon as I get home I will post some more wedding details.

Stick around! I'll see ya soon!

--RB

The "Other" Dress

Yup, you saw it right. There will be another dress. Lately, I have been having second thoughts about THE wedding dress. Don't get me wrong I do love the dress but I am an impulse buyer with buyer's remorse. When I bought my dress in February, it was the only dress that I saw that I liked and was in the budget. Almost 100 other DB customers gave it 4.8 out of 5 stars, so that helped a lot. So because of this, it was the only one I tried on.

Fortunately (but unfortunately), I found the Wedding Bee which turned my life upside down in terms of wedding planning. I found so many other dress styles that I liked which made me start "regretting" my dress decision. What also didn't help was that quite a few brides of the WB community absolutely hate pick-up style dresses because they are outdated and can look cheap. Well guess who has a pick-up dress?? ME!

This is it...

Source

This is how I want to wear my sash in the back.

So I needed a little reassurance and the best person for that is my Mama. I emailed her (she is my email buddy when at work) and asked her to be truthful about whether she liked my dress and she wrote back saying yes. And I believe her. One thing that she had mentioned is that she has NEVER seen a pick-up dress at any wedding she has been to so it really isn't overplayed in this area. Anyway, when we chatted about this on the phone, she offered a suggestion. Why don't you buy a party dress that you can change into at the reception... WOW! GREAT IDEA!!

Since the main dress is not returnable and I only spent $250 for it, I decided that I will be on the hunt for the "Other" dress. I will wear the main dress from the time I get ready until about 7ish so that we get all the pictures with the dress. The remaining 4 hours I will wear the party dress. This is great because then it will be easier to get down and boogey with my hubby. Oh and I get to show off my shoes!!

So here are some ideas I have for the party dress that I am loving so far... What do you think?

Source

Did anyone else have second thoughts about their dress or any decision they made about the wedding?

The Tux

A few weeks ago my FI and I went for his tux fitting. I have to tell you that we weren't quite sure exactly what he should be wearing BUT my FI insisted that he wanted to pick it out. After looking around at what the store had, I felt like I was in a sea of basic black tuxes... and there it was. One look is all it took to hook, line, and sink my FI and I.

I don't have pictures of the entire gear, which I regret but I will do my best to describe the gear even though I won't do it justice.

The Mr. will wear the white with black pinstripe jacket that you see in the pictures below. He will combine the jacket with the traditional black tuxedo pants, black tuxedo style shirt (center vertical pleats), a black vest and a black tie with a white pinstripe tie. His shoes...black and white dress shoes. Let's just say he will be PIMPED out!! lol

Just trust me...the entire tux looks much better then the blue t-shirt and basketball shorts he is wearing in the pic. Sorry for the quality of the pics.

The Mr. HATES taking pictures

Here's looking at you, kid!

The rest of the guys (BM and our fathers) will be wearing the basic black tuxes with white shirts and black ties and vests. My 2 year old nephew who will be our ring bearer is just too small for a tux so he will wear a toddler's suit. We will probably pair up the suit with either black Chucks or a pair of black Nike's. His dad usually suits him up in the newest Jordan's so either way he will be wearing sneaks...

The Invites...Completed

I did it! I finally got my lazy butt up and finished writing up the invites. Prior to today, I had already written up the inner envelopes and the RSVP cards. I also was able to accomplish writing up 20 + outer envelopes a few weeks ago but that still left 100 + envelopes to go...and since one of my talents (that I am proud of) is that I have great handwriting, you guessed it. I.wrote.them.all.

Besides my arm falling off, I am super excited that I have finally finished the invites and doing so a week and half early from the due date!! Although it was only the outer envelope, I was able to write up 100+ invites in one sitting. It seemed to haven taken soooo long and my body will pay for this marathon session tomorrow I am sure. None the less, they are completed. Now I can rest before our little vacation to NC to visit Mama L (Mr.'s Mama).

Now things are starting to feel so real now. I mean we have less than 12 weeks before we are married. Crazy, huh? YES!!

Well I will be sure to share the pictures of the invite send-off! I cannot wait!!!

The Craziness

Hey All:

I apologize for not updating the blog this week but there has been some craziness going on in the Roddy life this week that I haven't had much time to dedicate to the wedding.

Mr. Roddy has started his basketball league once again but this time he got hurt. We had an ER visit late Tuesday night / early Wednesday morning because he had some excruciating pain in his lower back so we thought it was his herniated disc acting up. Luckily it was only muscle spasms but in the same spot as the herniated disc. OUCH!! Poor guy was suffering and it broke my heart!

Anyway, stayed tuned there is much, much more to accomplish in the last 12 weeks. Thanks for sticking around!

More to come...

• Roddy Groom's Tux
• More DIY
• Sending Invites

The Candy Bags

Ah...The candy bags. Let's just say I was over ambitious for this project. These are for the Candy Station that will serve as our favors for the wedding. Because I failed at getting Chinese takeout boxes for the favors (I'll tell you later), I wanted to go the simple and easy route. Then there was DIY...

My friend purchased these white lunch bags from a paper store in DE for me and they were exactly what I was looking for. They were cheap too! They sold 100 bags for $4 + some change. Since they were plain and white, I wanted to jazz them up. The first attempt was to make the opening a zig-zag or scalloped edge with scissors. You know the ones that have the designed pattern blade...yeah, well that didn't work. It would neatfully cut like 3 zigs and then not cut the rest of the paper. So I took my new paper trimmer and cut off nearly two inches off the top. Now they are a cuter size and still plain.

The next thing I had tried was using my DIY stencil (foam paper, exacto knife, & print out of monogram) to stencil the 'R' onto the middle of the bags. The stenciling was fine and very easy... The hard part? Painting or coloring in the 'R'... Not on 1 bag but on 250 - 300 bags. =(

I tried to color with a black marker, but as you know you can see all the streaks of the marker when it dries... so that didn't work. So the decision was to outline with the marker and paint the 'R' with acrylic black paint. They look so darn cute but I just can't justify coming up with time to paint 300 bags (YIKES!!). Yesterday, I did about 30ish and my body was killing me.

So my FI and I made an executive decision to just have the 30ish painted and leave the remaining the plain white. We will however, make sure the 'R' painted bags are in the front of the basket so they look perty!

Sample of completed bag... Simple but I likey

The batch that I completed

The Card Box

This is also a DIY project but without the How To. Mama A was my victim in making my vision of our card box to come true. I know I haven't mentioned it before but Mama A is very crafty. I know she is where I get my skills from. It is great to have something like this in common because we have so much fun with it.

So last weekend, the two of us got together to start on some of the DIY projects. I was working on the 'R' while Mama A worked on the card box. Because I like things a little different I definitely didn't want the pre-made boxes or even the bird cage. Don't get me wrong, I have seen some beautiful mock-ups for them. They just weren't us.

So we roamed the aisles of JoAnn Fabrics and found a collection of cardboard boxes. We decided to purchase a large, medium and small box so that they can be stacked up on each other like a stack of presents. Our goal was then to find 3 different black and white patterned fabric to cover each tier. We ended up choosing a striped pattern for the bottom tier, a damask like pattern for the middle and a polkadot pattern for the top tier.

And this is what we came up with so far...

Our blank canvases

Mock up with the fabrics

Mama A working on the top tier

The top tier card slot

Work it Mama, Work it!!

Mama A smiling as she is probably burning her fingers

Bottom tier

All 3 tiers together (somehow missing top tier lid?!)

When we get together again we will embellish the boxes with all types of goodies so that we can finish this project once and for all!

BTW - I just wanted to give a shout out to Mama A for being such a trooper even when the hot glue gun attacked her over and over again. Don't worry, her finger tips did heal and NO blisters =)... Love ya Mama!

The Invitations

So let me start out by saying that if I would have discovered sites like Etsy or WeddingBee sooner, I would have probably gone a different route with the Invitation suite. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE the invitations that we picked out but I was in the dark. I had no idea the kinds of things that can be created when doing your own DIY or allowing another to handmake them. It's like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz discovering how different Kansas was in comparison to the land of Oz. Well I won't dwell on this anymore.

So without the knowledge of the other sites, I had done plenty of research on the net trying to find the perfect black & white invites. During work one day (shhh don't say anything =)), I came upon the website WeddingPaperDivas.com. Boy was I impressed. They had so many options and all we very beautiful! And then there it was staring back at me...The Fallen Petal collection. Aren't they perty?!

Save the Date

Invitation

RSVP

(I tweaked to allow # of reserved seats to be included)

My hubby-to-be liked them because they reminded him of the tree that was in the backyard of a place he used to live. When the petals fell it looked like it was snowing...

The Engagement

I realized that I never mentioned how the engagement went down... Well here is our story!

It all happened on my 27th birthday on December 16, 2008. I was definitely surprised and really didn't see it coming or at least not in 2008. Almost the entire day was special...

All I knew about that day was that my FI was taking me to a secret bistro for my birthday dinner. We braved the sleet, snow and rain on that day just to go to dinner. So we arrive at the surprise location. This bistro is connected and associated to a local theatre. The first surprise was the location but somehow I still didn't figure it out. So we have some wine and order our food when he puts on the table 2 tickets to see Cinderella, a play that I have been wanting to see since the summer. That was surprise #2.

Once the play ended we were heading home. Just as we were about arrive home he tells me he has one more place to take me but I had to close my eyes. So I closed my eyes the entire time. We finally get to the location (a local park) and he guides me in the snow (still with my eyes closed too) to what happened to be a gazebo. The gazebo was lit up and blanketed in snow. In the center of it there was a large Christmas tree with bright white lights. Right next to the Christmas tree, he got down on one knee and had me open my eyes. I don't quite remember the exact words he used =) but all I know is that I said "ABSOLUTELY"!!

Now that was surprise #3 and the best surprise thus far!!

The Photo Cards

I apologize in advance but this is not a How To. What I can tell you is that I used Microsoft Publisher to accomplish creating the photo cards.

The photo cards will be distributed at each place setting which notifies the guest that we have a website on Shutterfly setup for them to view or post pictures of all the wedding events. From reading blogs from Bees that had done this, I thought this would be a great idea since I know off the bat that there are at least 4 guests that have professional cameras that they plan to use at the wedding. What better way to see these photos then for them to post them? This then gives me the option to develop any of the pictures.

I will print these on cardstock purchased from Michael's. I am hoping our printer can handle it =)... Wish us luck!