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!

For my lovely maidens!

<*So the point of this post is mostly eye candy.... lots of pretty things that I would love to see become (or already are) part of my wedding!*>

There is going to be a total of 4 people in our wedding party: two for my side and two for Alex's side (minus the ring bearer and flower girl). While Alex may or may not have chosen who he'd like to stand with him, I have had the two people I'd like in my mind for quite some time.

The first being my maid of honor and best friend since 4th grade: Heather! She may not always be everybody's favorite person and I've even been asked what I see in her at times. We've been unlikely friends for forever though and we understand each other completely. I love her dearly and she is like a sister to me. The only issue we have right now is distance: I live in Missouri and she lives in Alaska.

Secondly, my other bridesmaid is my dear friend Jessica. While I've only come to know her over the last three years, she has been a better friend to me than some people I've known and considered my friends my whole life. She lives about 20 minutes away from me and has been a life saver for all this wedding business! Her oldest daughter, Samantha (who is 3 weeks younger than Landon) is going to be our flowergirl. (Below: Landon and Samantha 12 and 11 months old.) She is quite a doll and has recently become a big sister to Abigail, Jessica's second daughter. She and Landon together walking down the aisle on our wedding day will be an adorable sight! I can't wait!!

That being said, I've already gone ahead and picked out a bridesmaid's dress style and the flower girl dress. I wanted to incorporate both colors into the dress, so I went with sashes for both. I spoke to both of my girls, and they collectively decided they'd like to wear strapless. To be quite honest, I didn't mind what style of dress they wanted to wear, so long as it had our colors in it. Jess and Heather will be in brown dresses with a pink sash while Sammie will be in a pink dress wearing a brown sash. Beyond the dress, I really do not have anything set in cement for them. They will be carrying parasol's instead of bouquets, but as far as jewelry and shoes go, we are all still talking and deciding!

I have briefly been browsing through possibilities for shoes and the like, and came up with a few options. Nothing is going to be final for quite some time. Since the girls' dresses are knee length, they can pull off flats OR heels. Heather, being just shy of 5' tall, I'm sure will want some lovely pumps. While Jessica, being a mother as I am, will probably be more willing to sport a stunning pair of flats while she chases around her girls. Whichever they choose, my main concern is that everybody is comfortable and happy. The LAST thing I want is for people to feel pressured into doing something or wearing things they hate.

I was thinking about bridesmaid's gifts as well, and thought to myself, "Self, maybe since you can't decide on what to get your girls, you could buy their jewelry for them." "What a wonderful idea, self!! Where ever did I get a brain like yours??"
On that note, I started looking into bracelets mostly. I will be looking through several other options but above is a bunch of one's I've found on etsy.com (amazing website by the way!! Not always the cheapest stuff, but there are MANY things on this site that have reasonable prices and are absolutely goooooorgeous!) I like the pink ones more for Sammie, and the darker ones for Heather and Jessica.

Here is a picture of the flower girl basket and petals for Sammie. Ignore the aluminum foil box in the background please.

She will be the life of the wedding when she and Landon head down the aisle together spreading these beautiful cherry blossom petals.

This is Landon's ring bearer pillow with Alex's ring on it:
















This is the gorgeous parasol the other two will be carrying instead of the traditional bouquet. We thought it gave the ceremony a more asian-inspired theme like Alex and I wanted, as well as interlocking the cherry blossom theme with the design. It will also save us around $20! Yummy!!!



Isn't it to die for??? Another few simple, inexpensive ways to make this a cheap and chic wedding!