HALF-WAY TO THE RECEPTION!!

Well, we're halfway to paying for the place anyway. Still have several months to go before it's actually here =)

My lovely mother whom I love ever so much has decided to donate to our wedding funds, thus giving us half the amount we need to reserve our day at the venue of our choice! I couldn't be MORE EXCITED!!! THANKS MOM!!! I LOVE YOU!!!

Since I'm about to head to work, I'm just going to post some fine pictures of other things that have been purchased/wanted since my last picture post =) Enjoy!!









HAHAHAHAHAHAHA That last one was a joke... it's a pic of some Asian man marrying his pillow with a picture of a half-naked anime girl on it.... can you say WEIRDO??? Got it from wedinator.com

New wedding date

Soooo, originally it was going to be April 28, 2011 (thursday) and the reception would take place saturday the 30th, but then we just decided to have it all on Saturday the 30th. However, due to all the stresses piling up at once as I forsee them doing, I spoke to Alex briefly and we've collectively decided to change our wedding date.... again. As of right now, it will either be the last week of March or the first weekend in April of 2011.

We had planned on taking a honeymoon almost immediately after the wedding in hopes that my mom would fly out a few days before the wedding and then stay for a week or so AFTER the wedding to watch Landon. Again, this is another idea that isn't in motion so much as in thought. However, our lease is up May 25, and since we dedicated another year to this crap-tastic apartment we live in, we promised ourselves come hell or high water that we WERE going to move out next year as our wedding present to each other... hopefully purchasing a home. However, to do this we decided it would be easier to use the money from our gifts as well as our income tax rebate next year. And it also means we would have to give our month notice of vacating the premises by April 25... which would be very hard to figure out the last few days of a wedding, find a new place to live, go on a honeymoon and then come home to pack up all of our stuff and run off to a new home.

VERY. STRESSFUL.

Anyway, I will post later when we decide on something. Not that anything is concrete yet because we STILL haven't put money down on anything.......... I hate being poor some days. I love and enjoy the simple things in life for sure, and I love my family and I feel VERY blessed to be in the position we are in right now overall..... but DAMN do I hate money always being an issue =(

Oh well =) Off to brainstorming some more......

So forget everything I said on the rings...

While we have Alex's ring purchased and the credit card completely paid off, I no longer have ANY rings for myself. At all. As in my engagement ring AND the ring Alex and Landon got me for my 21st birthday present. Where did they go, you ask??

If only I could be certain... but my mommy-instinct screams at me saying my son flushed them down the toilet. Ohhhhhhhh Landon... my dear, sweet helpful two year old... You always keep us on our toes and I don't know where we would be without your helping hand every step of the way.

We turned our entire apartment upsidedown on more than one occasion in the last month to no avail. Those rings are literally nowhere. *LE SIGH*

The good news is that Alex has given me permission to go ahead and pick out a new engagement ring/wedding ring set... however while we can easily rack up another credit card bill, I would MUCH rather wait until we could just put the money forth on it. This too will come in time. And anyways, in the meantime I am FULLY enjoying window shopping!!! It's SOOOOOO much fun!!

In a previous post I had posted about some recycled materials rings from a seller on Etsy named SingleBbeautiful, but have since been told by Alex that he absolutely cannot stand the sight of them. It made me laugh but I figured half of the money we put forward on new rings for me will be his so I'd like him to like my bling just the same as I do.... well, at least a little bit =)

I've hit a dry spell

Well, when it comes to planning the wedding, I have. It's exactly 1 year until we say "I do", and I can't focus or come up with money for the wedding to save my life. Our savings are quickly drying up, and the early glow of being newly engaged and full of expectations has warn off. I've been looking at ways to downsize our wedding and reception. We even decided we aren't moving. I greatly dislike our apartment, but in the long run, what's another year of our life in this place really??

Anywho, that being said, I HAVE put together my bouquet and toss bouquet. Both are made from artificial flowers and I am quite pleased with both. My bouquet for the ceremony I think is, in my HUMBLE opinion, ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!! And my toss bouquet is quite playful and spunky. It looks cheap and fake but who cares? Some lucky girl will be catching it and throwing it away later anyway, so why not make it the bare minimum?


Lets see if you can tell the difference between the two!! *insert smile here*

Ring-a-ding-ding

So let's talk rings for a bit.

They are gorgeous; they are breathtaking; there are so many different to choose from; and finally, they are WAY OVERPRICED!!! I mean, seriously. They are supposed to symbolize the eternal love shared between you and your chosen partner, and are placed on your left finger because it was believed that the left ring finger carried a vein that goes straight to your heart. People now day have gotten SO caught up in the whole vanity of weddings that they end up spending several paychecks worth on an engagement ring, then another few paychecks on the two wedding rings. Don't get me wrong, I too entertain the idea of walking around and showing off some "bling" to my friends and family. Who doesn't?

But when it comes down to it, the only thing that REALLY matters to me is that on our wedding day I have Alex there at my side ready to be my husband and I his wife, and our son there to witness the commitment that his mommy and daddy are going to make to each other, to our family. I could have a piece of string tied to my finger and I wouldn't care. And believe me: At times I've been close to to saying "eff it all" and just going that route.


Alex has bought me a gorgeous engagement ring that I am completely in love with. It's unique and it's VERY sparkly, which are always awesome when combined together. However, being as it's a unique shape and was not purchased from a jeweler, it was very difficult to find a wedding band that would go with it.

We found one at kay's. It's absolutely beautiful and fits my engagement ring PERFECTLY. The downfall? It's $600. While that is relatively dirt cheap for a ring these days, it's more than I'd like to spend. We have already purchased Alex's wedding ring and it's all paid off, so the only one we have left is mine. So, naturally, I've decided that if I could find a substitute for my engagement/wedding rings that will be cheaper combined, I would do that. I can always put my current ring away for later and upgrade to my $600 enhancer that I was looking at when we have the spare cash.

I am a follower of another blog and she had a post last month about these unique rings on Etsy. They are SO gorgeous and are made of recycled metals. While there are several rings available with diamonds in them, the engagement ring/wedding ring I am looking at have white sapphires in them and together will only cost me around $300.


HOORAY!!!!!!!

They are so unique and interesting and absolutely gorgeous!!! Alex has told me he is not a fan of them but he has never been one for bizarre and unique jewelry. I, on the other hand, have always been the opposite. But who knows what will happen.... I just know that the extra $300 we would be saving on my ring would be nothing short of beneficial for the rest of our wedding.

Dedicated to my son, who is everything to me.

So today has only just begun, seeing as it's almost 11am, but I've had a bit of an epiphany I'd like to share with the world.

My son entered our room this morning whining and wanting to be paid attention to around 6 this morning which is about an hour or so before he usually wakes me up. A little annoyed, I got up with him and turned on The Land Before Time while I got him a glass of milk and we cuddled up on the couch. He felt like he had a fever of some sort and was a bit sweaty. This came as no surprise, since his allergies have acted up a bit over the last week and he's been teething pretty intensely which sometimes causes a fever.

Fast-forward to about 8:15, where we have already taken Alex into work for the day and came back home (we only have one car, so it's common for us to drive each other to work.) I was in the process of making breakfast for my little man and myself when he comes into the kitchen slowly (VERY uncommon) and is rubbing his tummy, crying. Requesting me to pick him up, I kept insisting he grab his stool if he wanted to see what I was cooking. (Being a two year old, he often likes to be helpful and asks a LOT of questions about everything.) I finally look down at him while he's grabbing at my leg and see he's almost purple-faced and gagging. I immediately start patting his back, knowing full well I didn't give him anything to eat yet.

As it turned out, he was gagging because he was sick to his stomach. He vomitted all over the kitchen, himself, and my legs. Less than impressed, but feeling terribly for my son, I clean myself, my son and the kitchen up. Afterwards, I went and sat on the couch with him laying on top of me while we watched Diego.

I realized then how much I've missed him being VERY little. We used to cuddle like this all the time and while I know he's growing up and will continue to do so the rest of his life, I still can't help feeling a little sentimental when I reflect back on it.

Then I felt so selfish and disgusted with myself.

I've been spending the last few months excited about planning a wedding and paying off my credit cards that I've all but pushed to the farthest corners of my mind that my son is all that matters to me in the end. Period. He IS my everything and the ONLY thing that will ever matter to me no matter what happens in my life.

Don't get me wrong: I love Alex dearly. He is my soul mate, my partner, to say the least. Along with this, it is simply put that Landon is my heart. People can live without their soul. Hell, there are soulless people living all over the world. While it's not a preferable way to live, it can be done. But NOBODY can live without their heart. What would I do if something were ever to happen to him?? God in heaven FORBID anything ever happen to him, but I can simply say I don't know if I would be around long enough afterward to find out if it's possible to live without a heart.

It might sound tacky and silly, but sometimes these kinds of things need to be said. I have to remind myself constantly that while I am a bride-to-be, I am FIRST and foremost Landon's mother; the only mother he will ever have. Nothing could ever be more important to me than he is. While this whole wedding and celebrating Alex becoming my husband and myself becoming his wife is exciting and easy to get caught up in, I am ashamed to say that I had almost forgotten myself. Landon will only be two years old once, and it really is a fun age because he's excited by EVERYTHING and wants to learn.

I can't wait to see what kind of person he grows in to! I know for sure he will have Alex's intelligence and my drive to get things done. Nothing can be more exciting than imagining all the things he's going to be capable of doing as an adult.

I love you more than anything Landon and I cannot say how privileged I am to be your mommy!! =) You are my greatest gift and joy when all is said and done. You are amazing, my love!!

Invitation Declaration: It just needed to be said

While I have a hard time paying $10-20 for a wedding magazine, I still managed to ignore the unethical amount I paid for the 3-4 big ones I purchased. The latest one I bought about 2-3 weeks ago from theknot.com. While flipping through it, I marked pages that I liked and wrote down ideas that certain articles/pictures had given me, and I came across an ad for a printing company that I'd never heard of before. While we knew the basics of what we wanted and could afford for invitations, save-the-dates, etc., we hadn't settled on a design or where we were purchasing from.

Normally, articles for wedding-related materials in magazines (especially invitations!) turn out to be WAAAAAAY beyond our budget. Originally, the bill for our invitations was going to be around $300-400 for what we need to do. Again, not quite as budget-friendly as we had hoped for. Since we are having our wedding and reception on two separate days, and the wedding only has room for half the people we are inviting, we needed to make two seperate kinds of invitations: One for JUST the reception, and one for the wedding with a reception card.

Can you say "YUCK!!"??

So back to this article I had seen: I decided, "What the heck" and went to their website (vistaprint.com/bliss). I went and found an ADORABLE cherry blossom invitation base I liked. So, I input all the information and made different invitations like I previously stated we needed to do. Went through all the steps and went all the way up to the very end when you put your credit card info in.

Can you guess what the price turned out to be??
A Whopping $75!!!!! SEVENTY FIVE DOLLARS FOR OUR ENTIRE WEDDING INVITATION ORDER!!!! HOLY MOLEY!!!

I knew right then and there, obviously, we had found the company we were going to be ordering from whenever we set the dates in stone. And you know what else was absolutely thrilling?? TODAY I got an email from them and ended up getting SIXTY FREE save-the-dates!! No joke... COMPLETELY free! Didn't pay tax, shipping, ANYTHING. It even bumped up my shipping from their 12-14 day to 7 day shipping... FREE!

HOLLA!!!!



My advice on them? USE THEM!!! They have a nice variety of different invitations (not only for weddings, but for any occassion really) and are all reasonably priced. For those of us on seriously tight budgets, like Alex and I, this company is a SERIOUS MONEY SAVER!