Once again I neglect my blog...

I try to write more than once a week people, I really do, but things at work have been rather chaotic recently and I can't always put my thoughts down on paper in time for a good blog post/idea.

The fiance and I had a great weekend!  We were super productive in regards to wedding planning and we checked some rather big things off of our list including:
-Buying our wedding rings!
-Figuring out the style for the tuxedo's for the guys
-Ordering our INVITATIONS!

Yeah so I had my heart set on doing pocket invitations at one point but at the recommendation of a friend, I decided to go with a much simpler route.  The Seal-n-Send!  The beauty of this invitation is it's simplicity.  The sheet is long with creases that stagger along the length that designate where it needs to be folded, when it's all folded up, you throw a sticker on the invitation to seal it, address it and mail!  My favorite part is the fact that the bottom of the invitation is the response card with a serrated edge that can be ripped off and it's a post card!  VOILA!

If you plan on going this route, I highly recommend Ann's Bridal Bargains website.  I promise I'm not getting paid to sponsor them although if they wanted me to I just might!  What I liked about this website was that it was easy to design the invitations and see a preview.  Other websites I tried were very old and seemed kind of shady... so yeah!  They're coming in a few weeks/days/whatever... I'm just glad we're getting this done!

By the way, I don't care if it's uncouth or something, I totally included my wedding website on the invitation.  I couldn't find anything really regarding etiquette (except for pocket invites?) about including your wedding website on the card.  

So now that we have these big things done/taken care of, I'm eager to start working on the smaller things.  I feel like the invitations and all that other stuff was some of the bigger things that needed to be taken care of.  The fiance and I now have to come up with an order for the wedding itself (the shorter the better in my opinion thankyouverymuch) and general order of the weekend.

Overall it's been exciting to plan so far and I'm excited for the big day, only 131 days away!

Weekend Roundup

Whew!  This weekend flew by...  It's Sunday night and the fiance and I have had a long/tiring weekend.

The poor fiance had to work a "half" day on Saturday, which for him means from 8-3.  By the time he came back I was bouncing off the walls to do something.  I was practically begging him to go to the mall with me because I wanted him to get some new clothes and I felt that I needed to be there to supervise his purchase of jeans from anywhere but Wal-Mart.  His rule of thought is to not spend more than $20 on jeans, I tell him that he'll spend $20 on a case of beer so why not splurge on some clothing that will last years?

We did not end up going shopping on Saturday, but I went to Target though and made flash cards for my new German vocab and some markers to make them pretty! 

Do you like my airplane?  Or my impressive use of space for the "to cover" verb.  Klingeln is my new fave verb as it means "to ring a bell".  Seems like an unnecessary verb for one starting out but I'm loving it.

So today, Sunday, the fiance and I went to Bed Bath and Beyond to register for gifts.  Does anyone have fun doing this?  Registering is harder than it seems like it should be... but there for sure was a distinct difference in our Target and BBB experience.

To illustrate the difference in service I'll first explain our Target registration:
"Here is your scanner - have at it"

For our BBB experience we had a much higher level of customer service, which you think I would love, right?  Well it was actually quite annoying...  The fiance and I come from Iowa, we're not exactly the epitome of class.  Before even registering we decided that we don't need a china set that costs $100 or more, we want the practical every day use china.  The woman that was "guiding" us through our registration was convinced that we needed high end stemware and china etc.  In an effort to get her to leave us alone I gave in and said that her opinions of things we don't need were fine and to add them to the registry... so I'm going to have to delete some things from the registry right now.  

The whole experience was way too involved, like this woman really doesn't need to be there to throw in her input for what she thinks looks good together...  So anyways, we have a follow up appointment next weekend to "finish our registry".

This begs the question:  If you knew someone was registered at Target and Bed Bath and Beyond, which store would you choose to purchase a gift for the couple?  The fiance and I think we have our answer but I'd like your input.

We have less than 6 months til the big day!  I am getting so excited!  I should mention that this weekend was an epic fail in the health category, I haven't worked out since Wednesday, I've ate far too much ice cream and other "bad" foods.  Oh well, just need to make better choices tomorrow, right!?

Changing My Name

How can I POSSIBLY part with such an amazing last name? I mean, EASLEY, common. How does one let go of such awesomeness. I consider myself somewhat of a feminist, I have asked myself why does my identity have to change? Why do I have to wait in line and pay outrageous fees for changing multiple forms of identification?

Well let's just say the fiance and I have come to a compromise, the terms of which we've decided are between the two of us. So in 6 months from now, I'm gonna be Mrs. Salton. I will bring on the awesome. I'm really good at that.

Tanning?

Ok, I have to write a new post for several reasons, mostly because I want that last post to not be the most recent thing that people see when they look at my blog. Also, it's been a while and I missed you!

I'm not tanorexic, I'm pale-orexic if anything. I don't go tanning unless there's a big event coming up and I was wondering what my adoring audience thinks of tanning in advance of my wedding. I'm pretty much sold on doing it once a week for about a month in advance (with a week buffer in between the last tan and the wedding) of the wedding despite the risks of tanning beds.

My reasons for wanting a little sun on my skin are:

-Preparing for a honeymoon in Mexico IN JULY, I want a base tan to prevent that big burn I usually get if I'm not prepared.

-Having a little color so I don't look ghostly in my dress.

-Going to a tanning bed to prevent tan lines! HOW TACKY WOULD THAT BE?

How does everyone feel about tanning? Do you go regularly? If so, how often do you go?

200

Can we please talk about how I'm going to be married in 200 days!!!

I have so much to think about still. Here's a list of a few things:

-When should the wedding start? Does anyone know how long a Methodist wedding lasts? I'd like to keep the break from wedding/reception as short as possible to start the party!

I would like it to start around 5:00 or 5:30

-Do we want to do a shuttle from the MU to the Gateway? This is important for family members who want to drink and stay at the Gateway... I don't want drunk drivers!

Safety First!

-What do we want for food? We are definitely doing a seated dinner with Chicken, Beef and a Vegetarian option... also a kids menu!

NOM NOM

-How do I want my hair to look? Makeup?

Basically I wanna look HOT!

-SHOES, when are the cute peep toe shoes coming out (fashionable readers, please tell me when the summer shoe styles come out!)

Purple shoes please :)

-Invitations, definitely doing the seal-n-send ones. But when do I order them and the wording!!! Oh the wording is an ART!

Keep it simple, stupid.

-Wedding Songs: Me coming down the aisle, first dance, entrance song??? There are so many to decide!

No dollar dance, please.


And this is all I can think of in 5 minutes.

The Making of a Bridezilla

Ok, I am going to confess something here. I will probably be a bridezilla. At least a mini-one.

I came to this understanding on Sunday when watching Bridezillas with my fiance. I should rephrase that, while I was watching Bridezillas and the fiance reluctantly sat next to me on the couch hoping I would turn it off.

So anyways, here is when you'll see the bridezilla in me come out, this isn't exclusive to wedding related events.

-If you provide extremely poor customer service
example: Fitness Together when I completely ripped the guy a new one...
-If your doing or lack of doing something makes my life harder
example: people that don't shovel their sidewalks. I called a complaint line on Sunday to report a stretch of sidewalk that was covered in thick snow.

I'm sure this list will add up quicker than I care to admit. But in the meantime, I need to practice on creating crocodile tears and overuse of the phrase "I was PROMISED _____".

I'm sorry in advance.

These Pretzels are Making me Thirsty!

Soooo I found something that I think would be a fun DIY favor for the wedding guests! Once again I seek inspiration for Squirrly's Blog!

I like the idea of having a snack for the guests that they could enjoy. It doesn't seem too difficult to make either.

I've made the twist pretzels in almond bark before in the past and it's not too difficult! The best part is that we can eat whatever mistakes we make hahah (evil laugh)

I think I could probably do this a week or so before and they would be fine. I can't do them this far out though which is kind of a bummer since they look so tasty! AND FUN TO MAKE :) If I decide to do this there will be pictures to follow!

Narrowing down the list

I should be recieving the Save the Date magnets sometime today and now it's really getting real! This is the part that I hear is the hardest, narrowing down who can come vs. who can't. I think I've got the list in relatively good shape though.

**NERD ALERT: I'm using a spreadsheet in Excel to say the name of the person, if they can bring a guest, and the percentage chance I think they can come. For instance, my mom is 100% yes, whereas my cousin who lives in Japan is a 0% yes. This is helping me calculate a number of those that actually may attend vs. the number of people receiving an invitation.

So basically when I got engaged I loosely said out loud to my coworkers that "you're all invited" and dammit if I'm not eating those words right now... I've looked closely at the list and if I invited all of my co-workers and 100% of them came, that would be 20% of my guest list... Granted I work for a small company and I also took into account that at least 1/2 of them wouldn't attend but I didn't want to gamble and take any risks. I cut the list down, way down. I'm sorry to those I'm not inviting but if they've ever planned a wedding/will plan a wedding they'll understand.

Then there is the case of those that are friends of friends that I'm not very close with that actually ASK me to come to the wedding. Well SPIT! If I invite you then where does the line stop?

So recently I sent out a facebook blast to a few too many people asking them their addresses. Hindsight is telling me that many of those people are actually on the B-list and now I'm just trying to figure out how I'm supposed to skirt the fact that many of them may not be on the A-list. YEESH!

Let me know your experience in cutting down a list and how you made your tough decisions!

I bought my dress!

So now things are getting interesting, I bought my first tangible piece of evidence that I'm actually getting married!


I am trying to keep the dress itself somewhat under wraps but there are pictures floating around if you can keep a secret and just really want to see how effing hotttt I'm gonna look on my wedding day! I don't even want to discuss what it looks like on here for fear that my fiance may actually read my blog before the wedding. That would be a major bummer!

Anyways, I went shopping with Maid of Honor, Liz, Sisters/Bridesmaids, Rachael and Sarah, and my Mom! We had an early appointment at David's Bridal and got there before the doors even opened. I'm glad we did because it appeared that they were relatively busy. I walked in there a little nervous but luckily my consultant, Rachel (no second "a" in her name) asked me my bra and pant size in front of everyone, so that breaks the ice.



I tried on 5 dresses in total which makes me wonder what it's like working with one of those brides who tries on like every dress in the store! I watch way too much Say Yes to the Dress to know that people have tried on over 80 dresses before. All of the dresses were pretty except for number 5 which I just tried on for fun which really was more like a comforter than anything else.

The wedding dress was a gift from my mom! She cried a little when she saw me in it and that made ME cry and then it was an all around cute moment :) Now my biggest problem is that I want to wear the dress EVERYWHERE. And second biggest problem is that my dress is too long to hang in the closet so I'm hanging it on the closet door so it's always in view (in a bag). Sigh... I wish that we could just start this party already!

So yes, if anyone wants to see a picture of me in the dress I might send it to you only if you promise to never show my fiance... unless you want to show him after the wedding then that would be ok.

Here are the losers:

Dress 1 - I really liked this, especially the corsette top and the rouching (spelling?)



Dress 2 - this one was fun and elegant but not really me...





Dress 3 - I didn't really like this one at all! Too plain!




Dress 5 - I tried this one on for fun, the mermaid shape... I found it to look too much like a comforter for my taste.


I said yes to dress #4! SO EXCITED!

Seating Arrangement Cards

So Fiance and I decided that since we're doing a plated dinner we're going to do assigned seating... now don't be scared, it's not like I'm seating you next to the smelly kid in class like what happened in 3rd grade.

So my point is, how COOL is this idea for a seating arrangment layout!

I seriously LOVE this look, the background is a mosaic of the city which I was thinking would be fun to do of Chicago and really copy this idea. Other ideas of course would be some awesome ISU mosaic but I'm kind of getting nervous that my wedding is going to turn to some ISU orientation or something for incoming freshman... thus I must draw my distinction.

The color of the paper surrounding each picture designates the food preference for that individual which would make things easier for the waitstaff. I honestly love this idea and plan to "borrow" it from Squirrly. Squirrly, if you ever read this, please know that I'm borrowing this idea because I think SO HIGHLY of you :) Your hair was so cute too!

I digress... and much to my future husband's resistance, we will be doing a seating arrangement because dammit I'm the bride(zilla).

I'm gonna give you an STD

I should clarify that STD is my abbreviation for "Save The Date".

Dresses

Ok, so I'm no fashionista... or facist (fashist) as Joey Tribiani would call me. But I've gotta start talking about my wedding dress. Here are a few that I really like and would like to try on next weekend.

There is something about this fluffy bottom that I really like... I'm sure that "fluffy bottom" is the exact fashion term for this wedding dress... gown. I don't know why but the word "gown" totally is annoying to me! Wedding DRESS.

Other styles I like but am too tired to look for pictures:

-flowy, no "fluff", but I also dig the fluff

-A-line, something with a little shape I guess

What I don't like are the big poofy Ball Gown (those can be called gowns) cuz they're too, .... (5 minute pause while thinking for the right word) awkward? That doesn't quite capture it. I guess in my mind the ball gown would be awkward to dance in, like how are you supposed to "get low" and "to the window and to the wall" if you've got this like 8 foot diameter dress surrounding you all day?

That's my fashion advice, take it with two grains of salt and call me in the morning.

Bikes vs. Brides

Today I bought a BIKE! The first one I've had in years. Let me tell you, in college I took my bike everywhere! Every single class, I biked. When I worked at Target, I biked. I love to bike recreationally but haven't had the chance to bike since I moved to Chicago.


For the record, I will probably spend LESS on my wedding gown than I did on my bike today. And I'm totally ok with that!

Don't adjust your eyes...

That's right, I'm sitting here in my bed at 5 am on a SATURDAY writing this. Yikes.

To take you a few weeks back I saw the movie Inception, the quick synopsis is that there are people that can enter your dreams and manipulate what your dream is all about. I definitely recommend the movie, but I'm almost positive it's been making me more aware of my BIZARRE dreams.

Well I just had a "bridemare"... or a "nightmarriage"... or just a stupid nightmare involving my wedding. This is the 2nd completely different dream I've had involving something really nutso involving my wedding. Saying in my dreams that things didn't go as planned would very much imply that I actually have planned everything for the wedding, but that isn't the case.

It was our wedding day, I was standing up at the alter looking at our officiant. It was a woman, heavy-set, maybe 50-some years old. She was giving her sermon but she kept mispronouncing things over and over again, for instance she said Piccasso like "Pick-aye-so" and we started to hear snickering in the audience (read: family and friends). I was mortified by this because no one wants people laughing at your wedding unless I do or say something incredibly funny ON PURPOSE! So we are reading our vows and I guess part of that mean that we would get ice cream cones to "enjoy" while doing so. Some sadist gave me a chocolate one that kept dripping on my dress! Well this was all happening while people were snickering and so finally the officiant calls out to everyone in the office, as if they're children in a classroom, that it's not a funny situation and they should try doing it (or something to that effect). Then the woman proceeds to turn to me and start bitching about everything. I literally said "Lady, I don't care, just move on with it!"

And then I woke up.

Please, stop your tears, I know that this dream was very moving and scary that the effect may have transferred even via blog post. Or rather you understand that it was just a dream, a stupid one at that, and you wonder why I am still awake at this hour instead of lying peacefully cuddling my favorite soft pillow?

Well my heart was POUNDING when I woke up!

Almost as much as the dream I had last week which was probably much bigger of a nightmare.

Since the dream was a few nights ago the details have faded but... I woke up in my dream next to my fiance! Well I had to RUN out of there so he didn't see me on our wedding day. So I'm out getting ready, hair, nails whatever you do on your wedding day and I go check out the reception hall. Turns out they put tables and chairs in the CHURCH, like actually where the pews are and the Crucifix and all! So basically my reception was going to be in a CHURCH with Jesus staring down at us the whole time. I kind of got the vibe that having this type of presence would be a major buzzkill and people would basically leave because it feels so wrong to get drunk and dance in a church. If you want a clearer picture, it was at Holy Family in MC (assuming you've been there), but kind of a hybrid with St. Joseph, all wooden but apparently they had some sort of balcony you could go to also.

Also, I realized in the process of things that I didn't even pick out a pair of shoes to wear or buy a garter. So I either asked my Maid of Honor or was going to go myself, not quite clear on that because right around then was when I woke up!

Fwew. Feels good to write out your dreams. Now in few years I can look back on this and totally laugh at how much of a fuss I was making while subconscious!

I know I have a few readers (probably most of you actually) that are married, did you ever have these wedding nightmares? Can I call them Bridemares or does that seem stupid?

Where did I put that wagon again?

So I'm falling off the wagon - sort of. After getting engaged I decided it was a good idea to call it a quits with my WW membership ($40/month) and my gym membership ($80/month). To be honest I was kind of getting sick of going to WW meetings and my gym doesn't have any classes so the expenses were a little too high to keep up considering we have to buy dinner for like 230 people in 11 months! Not that I'm complaining!

To be honest AGAIN I'm kinda sick of writing about this stuff soley on my blog because when I'm not always perfect it's not exactly fun to confess to my 3 readers haha. Anyways, this will morph into a mashup of wedding planning/working out! If you can't tell, I haven't really found my blog voice yet.

Anyways, so many people are asking about our plans and I am excited to announce that we picked a date, location, DJ and now we're in the works with picking our photographer!

So far we've been bleeding money with these deposits and what not, I must say, I'm very VERY fortunate to be marrying someone with the good sense of not spending every nickel like I do. I currently am paying what I can on my student loans and paying credit cards every month (by the way I'm 100% credit card debt free, I just pay off what I use that month! HUGE ACHIEVEMENT!).

I'm really excited for my wedding, last night though I had a dream-mare (that's my word for a dream that goes bad but doesn't really fall into the nightmare category) that my whole wedding just came and went but I didn't get to hear any toasts! So I decided that I need to make a list of things that I definitely need to happen at my wedding:

-Hear toasts from Maid of Honor, Best Man and SIBLINGS (this means you R) if they want to give one
-Dance to Cotton Eyed Joe
-Dance with my mommy! (tear if I don't!)
-Make by brother pay up to the $5 bet we made when I was in 8th grade about whether or not I'd play "My Heart Will Go On" at my wedding (shhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I don't think he reads this, it's gonna be a surprise!)

So yeah, that's about all that's going on right now... oh and I guess we kind of picked our colors, purple and silver! If you don't like it, well who cares!

Tonight I'm going to try to go for a run, last time I ran for approx. 1.8 miles according to my app runstar (it's on the droid, but you might get it on iPhone too). It's a free application that tracks where you're running with GPS and plays music with a "power up" song in case you need a little boost! It's really pretty sweet. I've set my goals to run 12.4 miles this month - that is totally achievable! And I'm gonna do it all outside! For resistance training I'm getting back into Pilates after years of not doing them. I can't wait til I can do the teaser without looking like a total goon!

Funny Friday!

Happy Friday to all and to all a Happy 4th of July! May your weekend be filled with fireworks, fun, grilling, swimming, accompanied by gorgeous weather!

My plans? Well thanks for asking - I just bought tickets to go to a Cubs game this weekend. I'm not one with much desire to watch sports but I do enjoy the beer drinking and hot dogs! Besides, my fiance had never been to a game at Wrigley Field so I thought it would be fun to treat him to a day of sports since I so often veto watching ESPN in favor of watching some show that he has no vested interest in. But who doesn't watch Pretty Little Liars now? For my own sanity I'm going to assume you all do enjoy this show about 16 year olds as much as I do.

This picture is super blurry but something really funny I found on lamebook.com today. I'll transcribe the status update in case it comes out blurry on the blog:

I'm going to take a picture of my firstborn and use age progression software to figure out what he'll look like when he's 16. Then I'm goin gto fram the picture and keep it as a centerpiece in our house, something he'll grow up looking at. Then when the appropriate time comes, and he realizes that the picture is of him, I'm going to try and convince him that he is a time traveler.

So the deposit has officially been put down for the location for our wedding reception! This is a big celebration as it means that we've finally set the date!! Just a little over a year from now left til I'm a Mrs. Word on the street is that we may have a very special guest at our reception and I really hope that they can come! I think it would be a treat for everyone!!

Other wedding related news is minimal - except that I'm now officially addicted to reading the articles on theknot.com. I'm trying to find out what might be a nice wedding favor and how we can decorate the tables.

Food & Exercise related news: I'm getting quite sick of hard boiled egg whites - as should be expected. I just liked the amount of protein and how full they made me feel... Gotta find something else healthy and filling to eat at breakfast. I've worked out now 3 days this week and plan on going tonight after work. Probably doing some light lifting and maybe some cardio - but I'm going to keep it short. My weekend is screaming at me to go have some fun!

Question of the day: What are you doing this weekend to celebrate the 4th?

Day 2 - Challenge

Today is the 2nd official day of the challenge that my Fiance and I have started... The winner will clearly be me!

So far today, I'd have to give my motivation a 10! I'm raring to go work out tonight, which I actually didn't do yesterday because of a storm. Long story short, I could go to the gym and get done right when tornado-type weather hits with rain and walk home in that, or I could walk the 1.5 miles home straightaway - so I skipped the gym. I figure the 1.5 mile walk is great (even though I'm training myself to do that after I work out anyways) as a form of exercise.

Food Diary:
Yesterday's Dinner: Salad with garbonzo beans, romaine lettuce, tomatos, hard boiled egg (whites) and olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
I also had an ice cream cone :) - Yummy, and worth it! My little treat!
Later I had a small handful of almonds

Breakfast (today): Light and Fit vanilla yogurt with fresh strawberries.
Snack: Banana
Lunch: Small handful of almonds, instant oatmeal
Snack: String Cheese

Dinner is TBA, probably will just have to write that stuff down tomorrow again!

----

Things going on other than being motivated and eating right, well there's the obvious stressors but I think things are going really well! I'm going to check out wedding venues in my college town this weekend, and hopefully set a date!!! Between you and me (and the world) I want to get this nailed down THIS weekend, better tell the Fiance to get his checkbook ready cuz we're making a deposit if things go as planned!!

Other wedding stuff, I have no idea how to plan for a certain number of guests! Honestly, I think we're going to have like 250-300 people show up. That's so nerve racking! Mostly because that's a lot of names to remember! More than anything I hate it when I can't remember one person's name out of a group of people, then when a new person joins our conversation I feel obliged to introduce and don't because I don't want to have the awkward "what was your name again" speech... sigh... I'll have to take pictures and study them at any showers that are held and such.

Any tips you have to remember names? I'm not going to use the Michael Scott method.

:)

I GOT ENGAGED!

May 24, 2010 - After driving home from Iowa City the day before, and arranging with our work that we'd take off Monday to recoup, my boyfriend suggested that we go for a walk the next morning in the nearby park where we have walked several times. The place is beautiful, in the middle of a bustling suburb there are multiple paths, both paved and gravel, surrounded by trees and birds... and those little floating cottony things everywhere (that part kind of reminded me of Avatar)

I should back up, this day was HOT! I mean really REALLY hot! So before going on any walk I insisted that we get ice cream. We began a search:
Ben & Jerry's - CLOSED

Dairy Queen - CLOSED
Wendy's - OPEN, ok sold. We went in and I got a cookie dough twisted frosty and he got a strawberry shake.

We started our walk and these white cottony things were flying everywhere, that and the fact that my ice cream was quickly turning to liquid made me think we needed to sit down in the shade.

We walked up to one of those park shelter's (for my own memory, and for the stories that I plan to tell my future kids, I want to take pictures of this place), right away we noticed that birds were flying everywhere so I nixed the whole sitting under the roof part. Next we sat on a picnic table just outside of the shelter but still close to the birds, and right adjacent to the dumpsters.

I think something inside me knew I wanted to make this nice moment special so I moved us over to a nearby tree which offered us plenty of shade. We sat down and enjoyed our ice cream (finally!). Nearby there were some remote control airplanes flying overhead - which when you first hear them sound a lot like cows mooing - so we sat and watched those for a second.

Time came to get going with our walk so I picked up the cups from our ice cream and threw them away. When I returned to the tree, he rose from sitting on the grass to on one knee and asked me if I would marry him. I was shocked but of course I knew my answer had to be "YES!" I looked at him and the ring for a few seconds and then said that he needed to put the ring on my finger (I insisted, rather).

LOOK AT THAT ROCK! He picked it out himself!!! It's just so pretty I can't stop staring at it! Or taking pictures of it!