Yesterday wasn’t so Great...

After a terrific hair trial, I headed home to knock out some last minute tasks that seem to creep up. I tell you, brides, no matter how hard you work, how much you THINK that you get done ahead of time the very last week before your wedding things crop up that you don’t anticipate. So I was dealing with things like that. I was having a few problems to be perfectly honest...iTunes was not being cooperative, B was stressed out about his suit problems, so we made THREE trips to Men’s Warehouse to get the problem solved (more on that later), and everyone was calling about logistical questions for the next few days to which I didn’t have all the answers for.

I’ll admit that B and I got into a little fight. You see, he did what so many people do in assuming that something would be ok, when in fact, doing this thing would cause a lot of stress that was unnecessary. Which I would have told him about and explained, had he not already acted on the whole thing by the time that he was asking me about it. He was trying to do a nice thing, he really was, and his heart was in the right place. but he just didn’t think about it very well. He told one of his groomsmen NOT to rent a car while he and his fiance were here for the five days for our wedding, that we would give them one of our cars to drive around. Normally, doing this would not be that big of an inconvenience for us as we live relatively close to most things that we need to get out and about to do.

But for the three days before our wedding? Maybe not the best timing. I don’t know. B seems to think that I made it into a bigger deal than it needed to be...and I stuck to my guns that he should have discussed it with me before acting on it...and now we were arguing a few days before our wedding. Just not what a bride needs. Even worse? It all happened at like 11:30pm at night, right before bed. Which got me all stirred up...which meant that I didn’t sleep much Monday night. And you know what that means...a ROUGH Tuesday! J

I was tired, feeling overwhelmed, and just generally stressed about it all when I got the question that broke down the dam. For the 80th time this week, B asked me what I was stressed about or what all was it that “had” to be done that was making me all cranky. I don’t know why it struck me wrong...the other 79 times this week, I’ve answered the question as patiently and politely as I can without EVER saying something about this not being the first time that I’ve answered this exact question. I’ll admit that maybe a little bit of the bride-zilla that lives in us all came out a teensy bit this time when I answered him.

But I didn’t get mad. I cried. Just broke down and had a boo-hoo sobbing session right there in my car while I was driving home. Couldn’t even stop in Hobby Lobby to get the things that I had forgotten earlier that day (I seem to stop there daily now!) because my face was all ugly from crying. I got home, and it got better. Then he came home and it started all over again. There wasn’t a fight. We’d already worked out the car situation...so honestly, it was just that I was SO tired from the last few weeks and especially the previous night. I kept thinking that it was a day ahead of when it really was, which puts a little stress on a bride, and there just seemed to be SO much that I wanted to get done before people started showing up.

I didn’t really feel any better the first time that I cried in my car. But when I got home and cried again with B...I actually felt MUCH better. Being open and honest, not worrying about coming off like some crazy-obsessed bride really helped. I was honest in telling B how his repeated questions were driving me crazy, that if he would just LISTEN when I answered the question the first time, then he might not have to ask it again five more times. I was truthful when I admitted that although this feels like a big party to him...this is a lot of work for me. And my Maids. I seriously had not heard him offer help on Friday or Saturday (other than doing the one pick up that I had asked him to do) and had heard no mention of the guys being available to help out as well. Seemed to be a big party happening for him and I was the slave making it all come together. And that’s seriously frustrating, you know?

But once it was off of my chest, and B assured me that he would be there with me every step of the way Friday while we were getting it all ready, I felt MUCH better. I was relieved, and it wasn’t all on my shoulders. Do I really think that he’ll stop asking me the same question over and over? Nah, but maybe he’ll only ask it 2 or 3 times...which is a help. Do I think that the guys are going to be very productive setting up centerpieces and such? Not really, but knowing that they’ll be around to be our muscle when we need it is comforting.

So, I think that my biggest piece of advice that I would give an upcoming bride would be to GET ENOUGH SLEEP. Seriously. I know the stress of finishing things. But you can’t finish things in a good way if you’re tired. And trust me, after a Tylenol PM and a good 8 hours of sleep, the whole world looks different and you feel better able to handle it all. I know that when I woke up this morning, it was like being a whole new person. I feel that I’ll be able to get done what I need to get done, making time for the important things, and weeding out the rest that’s just fluff. Seeing my daughter tonight is important. Making time to do some prep work on the flowers? I would like for it to happen, but if it doesn’t then it’s NO BIG DEAL.

So after a pleasant night spent working on bouts for fathers, corsages for mothers, getting a really GREAT gift in the mail...and sleeping a full night's worth of sleep, I woke up feeling refreshed. Yes, there will be snafus and things that don't go right during the next few days, but it'll be ok. It's really not that big of a deal. And I feel LOADS better!

We’re three days out from our wedding...hopefully the breakdown last night was my big crying jag...and I’m super excited that our guests start arriving tonight and the festivities officially kickoff tomorrow! We’re spending a day of relaxation and fun with our girls and guys...having a night out on the town with good food, good drinks, good live music and good friends. Then we’ll get up on Friday morning and start working our butts off! LOL.

Any other brides second me on the getting enough sleep? Or do you have a better suggestion for how to cope and deal with all the stress that planning the happiest day of your life brings?

Magic Budget Guidelines...

**I'm SO sorry - I realized AFTER this post hit the blog that I forgot to include my "dummy" slides! There here now...

One of the hardest things that I’ve done while planning our wedding is definitely, hands down, no questions asked...keeping myself on budget. I say myself, but B’s wishes are in there too...surprisingly there have been a few things that he’s asked to have on our wedding day that just isn’t in our budget. But for the most part, it’s curbing MY spending that does the trick. If he sat around and looked at wedding blogs and wedding magazines all the time too, then he’d have just as much trouble as me!

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But seriously. When we first got engaged...OK, to be honest, I did this BEFORE we got engaged, who doesn’t?...I went out and bought a handful of wedding magazines (right after payday of course!) and a binder. Everyone needs a wedding binder, or maybe I should tighten that broad statement down to every anal, organizational freak like me, needs a wedding binder. And I would go through the magazines like everyone else either marking things that I liked or just tearing out the pages and punching holes in them and then putting them into the appropriate divider in my binder. (OK, that’s the anal-retentive side of me coming out, but yes, it really did happen that way!)

And one thing that I really focused on in those early days were all the articles that I could find on budgets. You know, how they tell you that this portion of the wedding should be roughly XX% of your overall budget? Yeah, those charts. They look something like this:

Ceremony 3%
Attire 10%
Flowers 10%
Photography 10%
Reception 45%
Music 5%
Stationary 4%
Transportation 8%
Extras 5%

My first problem here? The categories were too broad. For example, the category of Attire. Would that be Attire for everyone – bride and groom? And just exactly where did the garter fall into? Would that be attire, since technically you do wear it, or would it be extra since it wasn’t really attire? What about hair and make-up? I don’t see Beauty listed on there anywhere. And the category of Reception just covers everything related to the reception – venue, rentals, food, drink, favors, décor? My list of questions could really go on and on...

You see, I was trying to figure out how much we wanted to spend overall. And all of these articles weren’t really telling me that. They were helping me allocate the budget that I had in my head into general categories, but not really telling me that if I wanted to have A, B or C at my wedding, then I needed to plan on spending about $XX amount of money.

So I did what any sane, reasonable, anal-retentive, control-freak bride would do...I turned to my friend Excel. I created a spreadsheet that listed those loose guidelines and categories at the top and then extrapolated those figures out over 3 or 4 budget options.

Slide #1

Since I didn’t really know what we wanted to spend, or what we could expect to spend on a wedding in Austin, TX I was trying to leave myself some wiggle-room, while still getting a general idea.

Then at the bottom of that same spreadsheet, I took those main categories and broke them down further...so that Attire now had subcategories of Bride, Groom, Flower Girl and Ring Bearer (since they’re our own kids, we have to pay for their attire!). I did the same thing for most of the categories, even going so far as to break down the general Ceremony into sub-categories like Officiant, Venue, Décor (not flowers), and Flowers. Yeah, I know...anal much?

Slide #2

Then on the next spreadsheet within that same file, I copied my broken down categories and then made columns for each month. This way I could enter in expenses as we had them, and I could keep track of how much we were spending. I also inserted columns for total price (contracted vendors), down payment amounts, and final balance totals so that at a glance I could see how much we still owed a particular vendor. Then I put a subtotal at the bottom.

Slide #3

Lastly, I went back to my original spreadsheet and out to the side of where I had made my new categories and sub-categories, I listed the months until the wedding and linked the totals to the previous spreadsheet where I was entering expenses. At the end of the columns, I inserted a percentage calculation column...so that I could see how close (or far off) I was from the “suggested norm” of the wedding industry. (You can see that back under Slide #1) It all sounds complicated, but if you’re familiar with Excel, it was a piece of cake.

I’ve been diligent with keeping receipts on my person until they have been entered and logged into the appropriate category on my spending spreadsheet, and afterwards then they are filed into my wedding binder in the special zippered bag that I got just for receipts. Any receipts in the form of contracts go into the Contracts divider, but other than those, all receipts can be found in the zippered pouch at the back of the binder.

This spreadsheet has literally saved my sanity. I don’t use it as a hard and fast rule...for instance, the guidelines given show that the photography portion of our budget should fall somewhere between $1,200 and $2,000, depending on which level of overall budget you’re looking at. Our actual amount was more than that...but I knew that going into things that I wanted to spend whatever it took to have the photographer that I wanted to have. If anything, this spreadsheet just helped me see that I would have to spend less on another category to compensate for the over-expense on the photographer. The guidelines also suggest that we should spend between $960 to $1,600 on our Transportation, and that is being gifted to us by a friend that’s in the business, so we have no expense for that category at all. That’s just one example where the guidelines have been a little “off”...there have been many.

This is what initially helped me plan out our choices on vendor selections and décor options, seeing what I “should” be spending and knowing where I had some wiggle room to play. Towards the last few months of planning, I also added some entries below the sum total of all of my expenses on the second spreadsheet to show what else we would be paying for. The top of the sheet already calculated balances that we owed vendors that we had contracts with, but it didn’t factor in things that we hadn’t yet contracted or spent money on. Since I was looking to find an amount that I HAD to have saved/put back/earned through investments in our Wedding Account, it was helpful to see a “Remaining $$ Needed” total as well. This amount changed frequently, but it helped me in planning for adding and taking away projects and ideas.

And this has surprisingly been a handy tool that B checks in with often. At times, I’ll post the latest version on Google Documents and share the link with him. That way he can see where we’re spending our money and how much left we need to save to reach our goal. He can also see why something that he might want to have on our day won’t work...

In the end, after the wedding is done and over, and the recaps have all been done, I’m hoping that this spreadsheet will make my Final Budget post a very simple thing to do. It should all be entered. All expenses should be accounted for and tallied up into the appropriate categories...making my Final Budget post a walk in the park. We’ll see if it really works out like that or not...

How are you keeping track of wedding expenses? Did you buy a tool to help you, or did you just wing it? (I’m SO not that brave!) Did you use those guidelines, or create your own?

Being a Bride...

is kinda like being pregnant. No, no – it’s true. I swear. Or maybe like being a blonde, you know the one that’s always the butt of the jokes? There are just moments when you’re planning your wedding that you would swear that planning this day has eaten a major portion of your brain for dessert, and it’s all gone. Just disappeared out of your body, because there are things that you do or say as a bride that you would NEVER normally say or do. And that’s what it’s like when you’re pregnant and the hormones take control of your body...

I had one of those moments this week. And it was a doozy! I’m not ashamed to share it with you...we all need a good laugh!

I’ve mentioned a few times that we are opting to do the charitable donation as our main favor. But since I can’t just give my guests a piece of paper telling them that, B and I also decided to give cookies out with that paper. And not just any cookies. My snickerdoodle cookies. These are slightly famous in my world. If you know me, and you’ve done a trip or something fun like a girl’s night out with me, then my snickerdoodles have more than likely made an appearance or two. In fact, I’ve been told many times that I was invited back solely on my ability to bring more snickerdoodles. So, I’m guessing that they’re good.

Good enough to be our wedding favors. I’ve known that I was going to do this treat for a while. And being the dessert chef that I am, I know that I can start mixing the dough up and getting cookies rolled and pressed before the wedding and just freezing them to bring out and bake the day or two before the wedding. Now that the 30-day mark has come and gone, I figured that it was time to get cracking on these. I had been buying extra butter and things for a few weeks now, anticipating this day.

The other night, I get everything out...follow my recipe and mix up one batch. I was tired, and my back hurt, so I figured that I had enough in me that night to mix, roll and freeze one batch before I pooped out. I tasted the dough (who doesn’t?!?!) and although it seemed a little off, I went on with my work. I scooped the dough, rolled it out in the cinnamon/sugar mix and proceeded to freeze them.

Skip to the next day. B asks me if I baked any of the cookies the night before. I said no, but that I would bake a couple tonight for us to enjoy after I mixed up another batch or two. I got home from work, and ate dinner and then proceeded to start up another batch of cookies. I accidently over-measured one ingredient, but figured it would be no big deal to make two batches, so I doubled the ingredients on everything else. While doing this, I popped a few of the cookies from the night before in the oven and baked them. They came out wrong.

Really wrong.

I was just starting the next batch and I was perplexed. Finally it hit me like a bolt of lightning. I had used baking powder instead of baking soda. Doh! Silly, rookie mistake. But oh well. I threw the batch from the night before in the trash can, and literally had to SCRAPE the ones that I had just baked off of the cookie sheet. I went on mixing my batch of new cookies (with the RIGHT ingredients) and went on with life. Fast forward and all cookies are mixed, rolled and ready to be frozen. Before freezing them, I take three cookies off the sheet and pop them in the oven to cook.

Like a mother hen, I watch over these as if they are truly babies, and they rise and puff out and look SO much better than the other ones. They get done, the others get frozen, and I take the cookies off of the baking sheet. That’s when they fell - like little cakes. I took the plate of cookies over to B and he immediately asked me what was wrong with me...and I know what he means, because I do NOT screw up snickerdoodles. It’s like, my law or something.

I bite into the cookie and the middle is hollow. Yep, you read that right. Hollow. I run back to the kitchen and pour over my recipe, thinking that I missed something else. No. It’s all there: flour, sugar, baking SODA, salt, vanilla…etc. I wrack my brain for a few minutes and just can’t figure it out. I even had the thought that maybe the baking soda was bad, or the cream of tartar had aged too much. I just couldn't figure it out. That’s when B decides to be really helpful and tell me that the messed up cookies taste good, they’re just really sweet. Hmmm...I had noticed that too when I sampled the cookie dough.

And that’s when the sign hit me in the forehead. I grabbed the bag of sugar and pull out the measuring cup that I leave in there. (We drink sweet tea, and we’re constantly making it, so a scoop is always in the sugar bag.) Yep, it’s the WRONG scooper. I normally leave a ½ cup scoop in there, because that’s how much sugar I put in a pitcher of sweet tea. (OK, OK...being honest I use more than 1 scoop, but less than 2 scoops!) Someone had replaced my ½ cup scoop with a FULL CUP scoop. I had used too much sugar!

This also explains why the tea had been SO sweet the last few days! (B is making fun of me...but I’m laughing too, so it’s ok!)

So the newest batch (which was a double batch) also went in the trash last night...I actually wanted to shed a tear or two at the two nights of hard work going out with the garbage.

Have you had some silly “bridal” moments during your planning process? Has anyone else noticed?

Whittling the List Down...

Well, now I’m a liar. I’ve made myself a liar, so I really have no one to blame except for ME! I posted here about not looking at my To Do list...and I haven’t. But I made a new one the other day while I had some time to kill at home the other night and I’ve been knocking things off of that list right and left!

Right about now, you’re saying to yourself “why is she a liar?” I guess I’m not really. I haven’t looked at the REAL To Do list still, but making a new one and scratching things off of it kinda makes me feel like a liar. Doesn’t that count? It should. My mom always said that if you feel guilty about something it was probably wrong. Applying her rule of thumb, having a WHOLE Totino’s pizza and a vanilla coke the other night for dinner was SOOOO wrong! LOL.

Anyway, so here’s what this busy little bride worked on this week:
Booked hair/make-up person for certain (there was some confusion on this point)
Scheduled hair/make-up trail for later this month
Started the search for a shop to do my alteration on my dress – it’s just a hem and a bustle, so nothing major
Finished printing out AND mailed all invites - BIG one for me!
Finished printing the drink tags (remember these will attach to the Mason jars so people don’t lose their drinks!) - well, almost finished...
Worked on ALMOST finishing my garters (post coming as soon as I really finish!)
Ordered the crystals for my veil, now that it’s finished
Made the pattern for the crystals to go onto my veil

Yep, I did all of that this past week. And with a long weekend, the possibility of finishing even MORE projects looms before me. Actually, we’re travelling out of town to visit one set of my parents so probably WON’T get to any wedding projects. Insert sad face...

You know, when you write it all out, it’s not so much...it really felt like more! But maybe that’s just because the invites was SUCH a major project this week. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened my Outlook calendar and saw that the ACTUAL deadline date wasn’t until Friday, Sept. 4th...so I feel better about being a few days off, since it was just in my head to have them all out by Sept. 1st. And low and behold, when I checked my post office box for the THIRD time Friday at lunch, the stamps had arrived and ALL invitations went out on time! Yea!

So this next week should be a good week for posts...I have LOTS to show you...garters, invites, drink tags with double as the escort cards...just SO much getting worked on and done right now. It’s good that I’m working so hard...less than 6 weeks to go!!!

How are your DIY projects coming along? Are you getting close to finishing? Did you take a break when you finished something kind of big, or just move right along to the next one? I’d love to hear about it!

Ugh...

Yeah, I don’t even have the creative juices left to come up with a snappy title...it’s that bad! You see, I’m up to my eyeballs in rose petals. I've run the numbers like three times trying to figure this out, and I'm just about cross-eyed. This is the vision that I had in my head about how I wanted our aisle decorated:

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I bought the shepherd’s hooks, made the little pomanders, and now I need to figure out the rose petal situation. In all of those tasks, you would think that the rose petal portion of the plan/design would be the simple part, right? Wrong. Or maybe I’m just making it harder than it needs to be...where, oh where did I place my award for being the Least Stressed-Out Bride???

At least I’m honest, and I’m willing to take it away from myself!

Since I might possibly be making this process harder than it needs to be, I’m going to turn to you for help. Please, please pretty please. I’ll even add the sugar on top, if you can give me some advice.

Here’s the dilemma: I want rose petals mixed in these colors: cream/ivory, lavender and eggplant. Typically, you can’t find eggplant-colored roses (they MUST be related to tablecloths MOH!) so I was going to use silk rose petals just for the eggplant ones. Good plan, right? Yeah, well, my venue doesn’t allow silk rose petals.

Hmmm...that could be a tiny problem. I wonder why not? I can only assume that it has to do with real petals being bio-degradable and silk ones essentially being litter on their property. So do I ignore their rules and sneak some in anyway? I’m thinking like 10% of the whole order would be eggplant, just enough to put a touch of eggplant in the mix. And then I could offer the kid (since there are like 50 invited) that picks up the most of the dark purple petals $5. Sound like a fun game during cocktail hour while we’re doing pictures?

But there’s a hitch...there’s always a hitch...I’m not really what you’d call a “rule breaker” kind of girl. I’m more the type that does what she’s supposed to because you might get in trouble if you don’t follow the rules. I like Danny, the manager of Texas Old Town, he’s been nothing but the nicest person to work with and I certainly don’t want to do anything that might upset him.

Regardless of what happens with the eggplant petals, I still need to order the lavender and cream petals. Here’s the question that I post to the blog-o-sphere: would you recommend freeze-dried petals or fresh? I’ve got suppliers with pricing in each category and I just can’t make up my mind.

Freeze dried petals seem easier since they don’t have to be stored in a fridge at a set temperature, and I could go ahead and order them and make up the toss bags. I could do them now, and get that crossed off of my To Do list – doing things ahead of schedule ALWAYS gets my vote!

But I can order SO many more petals if I go the fresh petal route...which is SO tempting! And since we’re mentioning the number of petals, can anyone tell me why there are like 50 different calculators and guidelines for exactly how many petals you need? One site says 4 cups per square foot for moderate coverage, the next site recommends 8 cups for the same space and coverage, and yet another site says you’ll need 2,000 petals – using an entirely different measurement system!

Another factor is that the web sites that I’ve checked out mention that fresh petals are only good for 72 hours...which means that making up those toss bags would be left until Thursday or Friday before the wedding. A time when I don’t want to be making toss bags...and since NONE of my Maids sew...you see where I’m going with this, right?

So there’s my problem laid out for you.

Can anyone help me out a little bit?

Did you use fresh petals or freeze dried? Did you like them or not and why not? Can you tell me how many your ordered and if it was enough? I would LOVE to have some help or ideas on this...

Toot My Own Horn...

I’m sorry, but it must be done. I’m going to do it, since no one else will, I mean, let’s be honest here...if you can’t pat yourself on the back, then who will?

Insert big goofy grin here...

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Yeah, I’m just going to go ahead and nominate myself for the week’s least stressed-out bride award. This award comes with hard work, lots of meditation, and an amazing sense of self-control. I mean, if regular people realized exactly how much harder they make things for all brides out there, they would truly understand the term bridezilla. It wouldn't even need to be a joke! Not all brides can control the urge to growl, scream, shout, and be well...I have a word in mind, but maybe it’s not so nice, so we’ll just say...touchy. I know all of these things because I have been or done all of these things.

But not for the past seven days! That’s why I’m nominating myself for this prestigious award. I have held my temper, resisted my own OCD complex, and silently worked on my DIY projects without a single curse, slap or errant thought running amuck through my head. It’s been rather nice.

And B will tell you that it’s nice too! Here...let him tell you:

“Hello blogging world. This is B. S tells me that I have to tell you how good she’s been lately...”

And the beating starts. Sorry that his “broadcast” was interrupted folks, but he’s not supposed to repeat my words...he’s supposed to speak from his heart and be honest about how good I’ve been. Or at the VERY least, paraphrase what I said!

But seriously, I have been being SUCH a good-tempered bride lately. I think that it has something to do with my invitations being finished...or SO close to being finished that it almost counts. That was my biggest DIY project that I chose to tackle, and although there were days that I wanted to rip out my hair and cry, I survived. And so did the printer...but it was touch and go there for a while.

So, in honor of my good behavior this past seven days, I just wanted to congratulate myself. I know that it sounds conceited, I get that. But isn’t writing a blog in general kind of conceited too? It’s ok that it is, I’m totally 100% ok with that fact. I think that I’m pretty cool. I just want the rest of the world to clue in to that little fact! LOL.

I think that I deserve an ice cream cone. What do you think? Maybe we could put our heads together and design a little award and pass it around amongst ourselves...let me know and I’ll work on it!

Later...

Did you know that there is life after your wedding? I’m not sure that I do. Especially right now. We’re at T minus less than 60 days and it’s getting close. Like really close. For almost a whole year now, mine and B’s conversations have revolved around our wedding. What we liked, what we didn’t like, the overall feel and atmosphere that we wanted to create...you get the picture, right?

It’s the oddest thing, but our conversations are starting to begin with this sentence: “After the wedding is over...” and then fill in the blank.

It’s really an amazing feeling. To know that there is a time AFTER the wedding. When we’ll be husband and wife. When every spare penny won’t be pumped into our wedding account. When there won’t be piles of this and that scattered around our house, waiting for me to have 10 uninterrupted minutes to “finish up just one little thing.” When I will have time to watch TV again.

I might not know what to do with myself. Honestly. You think that I’m joking here, but I’m not. I’ve been so focused on this wedding, and all of the DIY projects that I’ve had on my plate that it’s almost mind-blowing to find myself wrapping things up. And since you know all about B putting the restriction for new projects on me...I’m becoming reacquainted with someone that I haven’t seen in a while – Free Time. Isn’t that crazy?

Please tell me that I’m not the only bride to feel this way. To feel that there’s actually light at the end of the tunnel, and instead of getting smaller and smaller, it’s starting to illuminate the space around me. I actually took the time to vacuum my house last night. In the middle of the week. AND I did the stairs, which involved pulling attachments out of the closet. You’re snickering at me right now, but I can’t honestly tell you the last time that I did household chores on a week night! For real.

It’s kind of nice. I’ve been a little apprehensive about what I would do with myself once the wedding was done and over with...could it be possible that the day that happens is getting closer and closer? Yes, I do believe it is. Wow. I might need to sit down and put my head between my knees for a minute as this idea takes hold...otherwise I could fall and trip in my excitement as I skip down the hall!

How are/were you feeling at 60 days out from your wedding? I’ve been SO stressed the last month (like worse than normal) that this peace coming over me is SO nice! But I’m sure that it’s bound to be short-lived as we get closer and closer to our date. Do you have any stress-relieving tips to share with us?

70 Days and Counting...

Yep, can you believe it? We’re just a few days away from the big TWO MONTH mark...and it’s official. I’ve been cut off from DIY projects.

Wait. Let me rephrase that. I’ve been cut off from coming up with NEW projects. You see, this is what happens when you’re a bride. You know the engagement is coming (or at least in my case I did) and you start looking right away at wedding magazines. You see some things that you like, and some things that you don’t. You buy a binder (or I did) and you start saving those pages out of the pile of bridal magazines that you blew your last paycheck on (those things are expensive!) starting to compile your “vision” for your wedding.

If you’re a nice bride (like me) you consult with your groom about things that you like and don’t like. You compromise and come to terms with your “vision.” As the wedding process and planning goes on and on and on that “vision” sharpens and becomes clearer, more in focus than it was in the beginning. And THAT is when people like me get into trouble. I’m FINALLY starting to see it all come together. All the little elements that I’ve carried throughout the wedding like a theme are coming together and creating the look that I want and feel reflects us as a couple. And in these last stages of the planning process is where I have gotten the most inspiration.

Now I don’t look at the pretty pictures and think yeah, I like that. I look at the pretty pictures and say yes/no that will/won’t work in our wedding. It’s SO much easier now. Really, it is.

But of course, now...at 70 days and counting...I’m out of time. So B has done the deed. He’s stepped up the plate and put his foot down and said these words to me: “NO MORE PROJECTS...or I buy a motorcycle.” You see, that’s the sneakiness of being the guy. A motorcycle is the ONE thing that he most wants that I don’t want him to have. Please don’t hate me, it’s nothing personal. I just worry. A lot. A whole lot. Forgive me, please.

Since I understand that I’m at the crazy point of being a bride (Yes, Maid Britney actually called me Bridezilla the other day!) I have agreed to his terms. But, like any good woman, I bargained a little first. I cleaned up the blanket statement that B made and we agreed that I couldn’t start any project that I hadn’t already mentioned to him doing. Because, in all fairness, there are some projects that just can’t be started until the last two months...and maybe I already have the materials for those projects...what a waste of money to not do them now all due to a little bit of stress?!?! No way.

And, when there was one project that I hadn’t given him the specifics of, just the general idea, he was nice enough to let it slide in too. Yes, my negotiating skills are at a peak right now! He’s not being unreasonable, just trying to help me. He even agreed that I could do a new project that I hadn’t mentioned to him yet if I could give an equal project to someone else (either paid or unpaid). But I’ll give him that one – it’s a little sneaky. He knows good and well that I’m obsessive and “slightly” control obsessed...give up one of my projects? I don’t THINK so! LOL.

So we’ve struck the deal...shook hands on it...and I am now forced to stop coming up with really cool ideas. No matter how super-duper really cool they might be...it’s not worth my sanity. I hope that he’s noticed a significant improvement in my general mood and decrease in my stress level the last few days. It really WAS in my best interest...
To you brides out there, have you had to be “curbed” in by someone? How did it feel and did you adjust ok? I’m trying to tell myself that it will be ok and that I’ve already mentioned all the really important projects to B...crossing my fingers anyway!

It’s the Little Things...

Believe it or not, there are some days when you’re planning a wedding when nothing goes right. When things are driving you so crazy that you don’t even care anymore. When you argue, fuss or fight with the one that you love the most over the smallest, most inconsequential things...until you’re both just cross-eyed and weary of it all.

It’s kinda like being pregnant, when your brain is fried by hormones and you go kinda loopy. Planning a wedding does the same thing – it kills brain cells. Makes you completely crazy some days. Makes your eyes cross or go wide...to the point where you understand why that bride ran away!

I had that moment one night last week. And to be perfectly honest, I think that B was really worried that I was on the edge of a breakdown. I think that he was a little scared. Both scared for me and maybe even a little scared of me. (There is a difference) You just get so frustrated that you take out these little things on the one that you love the most, when you don’t mean to.

The good thing in all of this?

Even though you might fuss and argue with each other, at the end of the day you still love this person that you’re planning this with, even if they occasionally have crazy eyes. For me, it’s the little things that this person does for you to let you know that they still care. What is this for me?

It’s walking into my bathroom after a trip and seeing my toiletries all put back onto my side of our bathroom counter. Knowing that even though he gave me grief for using SO many beauty products...he lovingly took the time to put them up for me. It’s not much, but this is the man that I will marry. This is my best friend. And this is just one small example of showing someone how much you care.

I don’t need flowers every day or fancy things. Words spoken, but not meant don’t mean much to me either. But a man that will put away your toothpaste, deodorant and multiple bottles of lotions that you use? He’s a keeper.

There may be things about your loved ones that you would try to change or wish were different, but maybe it’s more important to focus on the good things. The big things and the little things that really matter. Maybe it’ll help keep you sane through the last few months of planning a wedding.

Thank you, B. I love you.

A Love Story – The Saga Continues

Well, I’ve gotten some questions regarding this post...it was a few weeks back and I was just starting to work on printing my invitation suite out. The choice for me to DIY my wedding invitation was a simple one for me to make...really it was. I scrap book, or used to back when I had free time, and so the thought of putting my invitations together didn’t faze me one little bit. Although to be perfectly honest, I thought that the design piece of the process would be the painful part since I’d never done anything like that before. But printing, cutting, and assembling the paper products? No problem.

Of course, that was many stress headaches, many curse words, both muttered under my breath and yelled out loud, and many urges for a margarita later...and here I am.

And yes, the printer beast is just about to kill me.

There’s just no rhyme or reason to when the printer will cooperate and when it won’t. I know that this seems totally unreasonable and against all known logic, but it seems that the printer prefers to print the best during the middle of the day. You know, when I’m at work. I know what you’re wondering – how do I know that that’s when it prints the best? Don’t go all crazy on me, I didn’t play hooky or anything, I simply printed ALL weekend long last weekend and the darn thing worked fine during the middle of the day.

Too early in the morning – it eats my paper. Too late at night – it stops printing halfway through a print, which in a sense also eats my paper since you can’t print over it or finish just half of the image...

Last week, I determined that the paper’s opalescent quality was bad for the wheels on the printer which grab the paper...so I made a blank 10 page document and called it “printer cleaning” that I can run after each set of printing with normal paper to help clean the wheels. This worked good for about a day. I could print 5 pages off...then run the cleaner. Print 5 more...run the cleaner. Tedious, but it worked.

Yeah, I’m down to 3 pages now...not really sure what happened. But I need 80 invitations printed and each piece of paper has to be run through the printer FOUR times to get all the printing done...you can do the math on your own, or you can pour me a margarita...I need it, and trust me – I’ve EARNED it!

Is there good news? Maybe. This last weekend, since I was at home during the “prime printing times” I was able to finish 45 of my 80 pieces. WOOT! And although the optimist in me is shouting out “That means that you’re more than halfway through!” the pessimist in me is reaching over trying to slap the sh*t out of the optimist. That happy girl needs to shut up!

If I can manage somehow to finish the last two sides of the cards that I did manage to work on last night, without ruining anymore, I might be able to say that I’ll hit the 60 mark by this weekend. And that would leave me with only 20 left. I’m not so certain now that I can’t un-invite people just so I don’t have to print off anymore of these DA*N invitations.

The other bit of good news? I love them. They are beautiful. If I didn’t love them, this would all be a cruel joke...

Anyone else having invitation problems? I seriously cannot recommend printing on cover weight Stardream paper out of your own house. Does anyone have any tips for me? Things to try that I haven’t thought of yet?

Too Appropriate!

I promise this is NOT a joke. I didn’t alter my horoscope reading in any way. Since I just copied and pasted it here, you’ll just have to trust me on this one! I have a gadget on my iGoogle page that tells me my horoscope each day. Imagine my surprise when I opened my page to see this the other morning:

"It feels as if you are nearing the end of a cycle and the current opportunities won't last. For this reason, you could grow impatient, even panicky, when you realize how much you have on your plate and how little time you have to finish it all. But this kind of anxiety will only make matters worse. Instead of worrying about what you haven't done, be grateful for what you have already accomplished. Now take a deep breath, roll up your sleeves and get busy."

Like I said, you’ll just have to trust me that it was really posted there, but it was! I thought that it was TOO appropriate to how MOST of my days feel now that we’re under 85 days!

Have you had any horoscopes that completely fit your life lately?

I feel a little better…

Well, the sense of impending doom and gloom is gone...for now. Don’t worry, I’m not silly enough to think that it’s gone forever! I just had a really productive weekend...and I even travelled out of town for a “family” member’s wedding!

So here’s the skinny and what I’m proud to share:

- I FINISHED the 120 arcs that make up the wedding rings on our guest quilt!!! Yeah, go ahead, do a little happy dance with me – you KNOW that I did one Friday night when I realized that I was done!
- The signing pieces are all traced and cut (THANK YOU to Mom and B for taking charge of that project while I was in my “injured” state this weekend!). I also put the “signing border” on all of them last night and attached them all to freezer paper. Nearly done with what I can do before the signing pieces are signed...which is a BIG relief! I even went ahead and put the sewing machine up – you can see our dining room table again!
- The wedding invitations got a final proof from Mom this weekend (she’s the BEST at catching things!)
- I did an almost perfect trial mock-up of the invitation suite Friday night – Printer Beast 4...Fair Maiden 2! After the corrections are made, I’ll start running those bad boys off this week...
- We left Mom’s house early yesterday to make some decisions regarding the men’s attire, and got LOTS done and decided...more to come on that later!
- I got a rough draft of our ceremony that I “think” that I like...now to pass it off to B to see what he likes/doesn’t like.
- I weighed in this morning and didn’t lose any progress on my fitness goals. I was worried about this as I missed two normal workout days last week and ate horribly over the weekend!

Looking back at it now, it doesn’t seem like all that much, but I tell you, I re-did my To Do list this morning as it was looking a little rough...and it’s back down to just one page (front only!)! YEA!

So, I was either really productive this weekend, or I removed some things that were on the To Do list that didn’t need to be there yet. Or maybe it was a combination of both. Either way, I feel a little better than I did when I wrote this post the other day.

Any other brides out there have a productive weekend? Is it really possible to knock just a few little things off of your To Do list and feel THIS much better?

Tired of Making Decisions...

Please tell me that other brides out there with about 3 months left until the big date reach this point too...it looks like this, and carries with it a lot of stress and turmoil.

source

Yes, ladies, that is the face of “I do NOT want to make another decision!” I feel like I wear this face some days. Some items are so easy to cross off of my To-Do list...while others require constant and endless decisions. Is this just me making things harder on myself than they have to be?

I don’t know. I know that I’m anal retentive. With a side serving of slight OCD. I get that. And despite it all, B loves me anyway. And we’re getting married in 90 days. Nothing will change that fact. Whether we have flowers or not. Whether The Guys wear suits, tuxes, or overalls...the wedding WILL still occur.

That’s what I try to keep foremost in my mind. That no matter what else happens. No matter if the caterer backs out, the cake tasting is a bust, the ceremony isn’t exactly what we wanted, or if it rains on the big day...at the end of the day, we’ll still be married.

It seems weird to me. There are so many details that go into planning a wedding that I couldn’t care less about. And then there are things that I get stuck on that have to be perfect – that’s probably just the OCD talking! It’s just easier to focus on what I want to focus on, and leave the rest to fall as it may.

Many days, at the end of the day, I feel like I’ve made SO much progress...and I scratch so many things off of my To Do list that I have to re-write the darn thing just to keep all my marks straight. So here’s the question for you: If I have to re-write the list because of all that’s scratched off, how can it possibly double in size when I re-write it???

Can someone please answer that little bitty question for me? Please? That’s all I want to know.

Regardless, this IS fun. I want the big wedding. I’m sorry, WE want the big wedding. And I love my family and friends for stepping up and offering to help. Unfortunately, none of them are close enough to do much good other than offer me advice from afar...mental note, find closer slaves. I mean, friends. Yeah, that’s what I meant!
Are you other brides out there struggling with these issues too? Are you tired of designing and printing, not to mention folding and taping and hot-gluing? I love it all, don’t get me wrong...but there are days when Vegas SCREAMS my name...

100 Days and Counting…

I don’t know about other brides out there, but MAN – time is FLYING by me at the moment. I’ve got a slew of projects on my plate, and time is slipping past me. I looked up at my calendar yesterday and saw that today marked the 100 day mark. Yep, that’s right, there’s only 100 days until our wedding…

Breathe in. Breathe out. Deep, calming and relaxing breaths Miss CC…you can do it. Double digit numbers are your FRIENDS!

So, just in case you’re a bride and you’re thinking that I’m crazy right about now, I thought that I would share with you my to do list. This is the list that I carry around that keeps me on track with all the craziness that resides in my head. Ok, maybe not all of the craziness, but at least the wedding related craziness! J

To Do:
Toss packages
- work on tag verbage
- do mock up
- order petals
Favor packages
- work on tag verbage
- do mock up
Set up Target registry
Set up registry at Lowe’s
Bring flower girl dress back to Allie
Quilt project
- need 1 ½ more yards of muslin from Hancock’s
- need ½ yard more of black sateen from Hancock’s
- need ½ yard more of black/white floral print fro JoAnn’s
- trial run with Sharpie (med point and fine point)
- piece together “mock up” for display at reception
- work on sign verbage for display at reception
- need 60 smaller “sign in” pieces (38 already made)
- need 120 black squares (60 already cut)
Work on invitation wording and start design in Photoshop
Start music lists for DJ
Inquire with TOT about using ovens on site?
Nail down time of ceremony (for invites). Get with Christina (photo) on this, as she’s the expert!
Decide about adding another hour of photography to contract

Hmmm…you think that doesn’t look too bad, huh? Well, consider that I work full-time and am mother to a seven-year old child, soon to be step-mom to an eleven-year old son who is staying with us every other two weeks all summer long, my fiance plays on a softball league which has at least one game each week, we’re on a fitness “plan” to work out at least 4-5 times each week…

source

Are you feeling my pain yet?!?! This list is the only thing that keeps me sane some days. I’d love to hear if there’s a better way to do this. I think that my list is great, but maybe there’s a better way…then again, I get SUCH satisfaction crossing items off of my list, that I’ll probably just stick to my list!

How are you tracking your progress as you get closer and closer to your big day? Are you feeling the stress watching that countdown?

TGIF!!!

Can I get an AMEN on that?

Anyone?

Whew. What a week. I don’t know about all of you out there in the vastness that forms the world wide web (or the five people who actually READ this blog!) but this has been one rough week for Miss Cotton Candy.

The good news? Well…I got my hotel block of rooms set up! And I started the week off right with finishing the tissue paper flower pomanders that I’ve been working on since…well, February. So that does deserve a good pat on the back.

The bad news? I don’t really know that I did much else. Work was a bear this week. I don’t know what happened, but a project hit me out of the blue last week and as much as I tried my darnedest to contain it to JUST last week…didn’t really work out that way.

I work for a large company. And this company has several divisions. And within each division there are more divisions. Right now, the Home Office is trying to get all of us on ONE computer system for ease of reporting. They’ve been working on this project for a year and a half now, and I’ve been heavily involved since about this time last year. It’s not going so well. We’re STILL having design meetings, since what was designed and delivered and is now currently operating (notice I didn’t say that it was operating well?) doesn’t meet the needs of the “business.” But the problem with meeting the needs of the business is that each little division has its own needs/requirements. And we’re not backing down or agreeing to compromise on anything.

Frankly, it’s starting to annoy me. I can only imagine how the designers/developers/programmers feel. Not to mention the Help Desk support team. This is nuts.

Someone just needs to make a decision and tell everyone else to follow that decision. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. Apparently when you get to the point where you work for XYZ big corporation, each division has a leader (CEO) and that CEO has to take advice from the smaller division leaders (not really sure what those people are called). I don’t know if Chief Head-Honcho just can’t make up his mind, or won’t. I really don’t know what the problem is.

But do these people just not get that I don’t care anymore at this point? I’m so tired of it all. I mean really. Does it take a committee to discuss the decision from every possible angle (and a few angles that you might NEVER have thought of) hemming and hawing over each minute detail of the decision to be made. Then that committee takes the decision to the business and hears what the business has to say (we gripe and complain a lot, us peons!). So the business hears all sides, but isn’t told the decision. The committee takes the discussions of the business and forms its opinion and give it to the Chief Head-Honcho. And then in the end, the Chief Head-Honcho does whatever he thinks is best.

Which may or may not go along with the recommendations of the committee.

Repeat said process for EACH and EVERY single decision to be made…

You see how exhausting this is? I’m beat.

Maybe they don’t know that I’m planning a wedding. Well, they all know that I’m getting married, but maybe they don’t realize that I want to enjoy my weekends, so wedding planning has to happen during the week. And they’re REALLY cutting into my internet surfing for more inspiration time. How uncool.

Maybe I should form a committee to discuss this and let the Chief Head-Honcho know that this is upsetting me greatly…because I’m SURE that he cares! Not really. So here’s to a happy Friday to all of us (the 5 people reading this blog and myself). I hope that you have a good weekend. I will. Soccer game, parents are visiting, eating some delicious Salt Lick BBQ (and peach cobbler), time with friends and fiancé. What more could a girl ask for?

Have a GREAT weekend…before you know it, Sunday night is here and the conference calls begin again…

Asking the Looming Question...

So, I’m going to post about a subject that I know at least ONE person will probably hate me for, but here it is.

The question of the day is this: IF I did change my tablecloth color (Gasp!) what could I do to bring the color of eggplant back into my reception venue?

Yeah, I know MOH, I know. It’s almost sacrilegious typing the question…but it’s out there anyway.

I’ve come up with a few options, but maybe you will be able to help me think up something else…since I SO do NOT want to choose this option, that might have the teensiest little bitsiest part of why I’m having decorator’s block when I think about this option…

The first thing that I thought of was to incorporate eggplant napkins, elegantly draped or folded to take up a good portion of the table top. Not my favorite option, but an option that would bring eggplant back to life at the venue. The main concern? If I’m having this much trouble finding eggplant tablecloths, will I run into the same dilemma with napkins? Possibly. But it’s also possible to me that I could make 200 napkins out of that elegant eggplant satin that I found in Dallas on my last trip up there…and with my serging machine and the right shade of thread, it would be a simple matter for the most part. Of course, they might be simple to find and buy, I haven’t looked into the cost of doing that yet…but it’s an option. Also along those lines is maybe finding or making eggplant table runners…or those draping cloths that cover the tops of the tables, but don’t go all the way to the floor. Something like the picture above. My problem with this option? Once again, finding the right color in a full tablecloth is hard enough…yada yada yada, you get the point. And I’m not sure that I like the look of table runners. It seems to me that the table might get a little busy with runners, napkins, plates and glasses. Not to mention the centerpieces and anything additional that I put on the tables to jazz them up…so I’m not sold on this option.

The only other thing that I’ve thought of is incorporating my beloved eggplant color into the flowers. One of my Maids got married just last September and had some LOVELY centerpiece vase/candle holder combo thingys that Mr. CC and I liked and she has graciously offered us use of them before she sells them. So, when I first started planning this shindig I wasn’t sure about using flowers on the centerpieces, but now it looks like I will have vases for free…a good reason to now use flowers in the décor. So can I incorporate enough eggplant in the flowers to appease my whims and desires?

I don’t know. I honestly don’t.

And the whole reason for trying to bring in more color is because my photographer mentioned that her only complaint about shooting out at Texas Old Town, our fabulous venue, was that everything in sight was wood, which tends to cast a yellowish hue on everything. She photoshops it out, so that it’s not something that I have to actually deal with in my pictures, but I was hoping to bring in enough color to combat some of that for her. Plus, I think that it will look nice…

Other than those ideas, I’ve drawn a blank. Can you come up with anything else that I could do to bring in more color than just the black and cream theme that I’ve got going? Or maybe I should just leave it black and cream and go with that? I don’t know right now….I need HELP!!!

The Saga of the Eggplant Tablecloth Continues...

If you remember, from here, here and here...I'm having a "little" bit of trouble finding the linens that I envisioned having for our reception.

Isn't that how it ALWAYS happens? It does for me, it seems. You would think that linens really wouldn't be THE hardest part about planning my wedding...but that's what I get for loving purple, huh? And a SPECIFIC shade of purple, no less.

I've just quit thinking about it, to be honest. I've had the poll posted to the side here letting readers vote on what they think that I should do - and you're all SO funny about the voting process. Mama CC doesn't want to offend with her vote, and two of my Maids were the obvious other votes...you gals are great!

So I've just been coasting about it all. Letting my MOH (who now considers finding eggplant tablescloths her personal life's mission!) work her magic. Just sitting here crossing my fingers, hoping for the best, all the while starting the conversations with Mr. CC about possible changing the color of the tablecloths...Just In Case.

And low and behold, I get an email on Saturday - my dear friend may have done it again. Now, she's offering me no guarantees, but she found three places in/around our area that MIGHT have something CLOSE to eggplant. And to be perfectly honest here, she and I aren't really sure why there is a problem with people understanding what shade of purple eggplant is...even straight men understand the question, so why is it that linen rental company women CAN'T get the right shade? We don't know...we would lose SO much sleep at night if we continued to wonder on this.

Anyway, so I'm going to start the process of checking these last few out. And then weighing my options. One place will send me a sample of what they call eggplant, and I like that. Another place can't send me a sample, but does have a book that either myself of MOH can go and look at sometime soon. The last place...well, I can't remember what the deal was with them...do you see how tiring this all is? If it wasn't for my FABULOUS MOH putting in such long hours on this "little" project from H*LL...well, you know.

So off we go again. I'll be sure to keep you updated on what we find out. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Did ANYONE else out there have THIS much trouble finding their perfect linens????

What Does A Girl Do NOW?!?!

I’ve been putting off writing about this for a while now…hoping against ALL hopes that it would all work out...

If you remember, I wrote not so long ago here that my maid of honor had saved the day on the dilemma with my table linens. And then I wrote this post about how the tablecloths situation didn’t really resolve itself…so when I left off, I was going to check back in with her in a week and see what she was able to find for me.

Well…one thing led to another, and before I knew it three weeks had passed. Oops! I guess that I got busy with other things. So, I was talking with MOH this past weekend (she HAD to apologize via phone about the April Fool’s joke!) and she asked me what had ever come from the whole tablecloth situation. When I realized that I had not called back yet, MOH offered to go by there one day this week and take a look at things if they were in stock now since she was going to San Antonio on another errand already.

Great. I checked with Adrianna and sure enough the eggplant tablecloths were in and MOH could easily stop by and look. I waited “patiently” for Wednesday to come around. And waited patiently for the afternoon to pass…until I got MOH’s text message. It’s too funny not to share…

Okay-No it is no April fools joke ~~~~~~~~~~~~we are back to square one. I guess know one understands the color eggplant!!!!!!! It's on my dam computer as a color!!!!!!It is no more Dam you and your colors, it's WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE!!!!!!! I never thought it would be this hard to find or hard for someone to understand the color, but I assure you I am not done trying. Okay- Adriana tried, it is a deeper purple that a normal purple but it is not DARK DARK purple. She showed me the table cloth as soon as I got in the door and I explained to her what we were looking for and I even had a fan deck for our paint with me and I showed her something close to what you want, she went back herself to make sure that they did not pull the wrong one for her, a few minutes later she came back with another table cloth and I thought YEA YEA YEA, I got excited to fast, it was the same color as they brought up the first time. So~~~~~~~~~~~~~I will be contacting people over the next few day to try and find them for you. I will be in touch!!!!!

So we’re back to square one on the table linens…while MOH is searching frantically for them elsewhere, I’m trying to consider other options.

While I was in Dallas last week with work, I managed a quick trip to Harry Hines (fabric deluxe shopper’s mecca!) and found the perfect shade of purple in a satin material that would make beautiful tablecloths…but there are issues. #1 – it’s WAY out of my budget for this and #2 – I’d have to make them and last, but not least, #3 – the store didn’t have enough material anyway….

So I’m back to square one…what options do you think that I have? Here are the ones that I see:
#1 – keep looking – they HAVE to exist somewhere
#2 – buy them online and try to resell them after the wedding to recoup some of the extra cost vs. renting
#3 – find the material somewhere and make them
#4 – change the color of the tablecloth and go with either black or cream, letting purple just be a true accent color in the floral arrangements

What do you think? Am I crazy for even considering making them? Can you imagine how many yards upon yards of fabric that I would need to accomplish this? Vote on the poll to the right on what you think I should do…I can’t wait to see the results!

Adobe Photoshop...Love It? Or Hate It?

I really don’t know which camp I’d like to take residence in. I originally wanted the program because I was interested in doing digital scrapbooking. The frugal side of me was just overjoyed at the thought of being able to purchase digital paper that you could use over and over and over again. Do you realize how many solid pieces of paper a scrapper like me has in her book of papers? A LOT! I’m a BIG fan of matting pictures out…I tend to scrap with patterned papers for the background and matting the pictures on solids on top of that. Just a style that I personally like. I can’t tell you how many pieces of Bazzill black textured paper I have bought over the years since I started scrapping…

So this thought appealed to me…and I did some research into which program was the better one to get. Hands down, Adobe Photoshop won. But the part that I didn’t like was the big price tag that comes along with it…lucky for me, Mr. CC stepped up and got the program for me last Valentine’s Day (2008). Then I was a BAD fiancé and didn’t actually try to use the program until this Valentine’s Day. Yep, you read that right – I let the program sit for about a year. You see, he got a great deal from a friend of his. The family owns or works in computers and has access to lots of programs, and this friend just downloaded the program onto Mr. CC’s home computer for him via the net. Then he put a folder on the desktop that would allow us to burn another copy of the program and install it on my own personal laptop too. Mr. CC’s friend was up front about the fact that doing it this way meant that I wouldn’t get the user’s manual.

Uh, who really cares about a silly user’s manual when this expensive program is mine for free? Not me…

Yeah, I actually had that thought. Silly me.

You see, I didn’t realize how complicated Photoshop would be to work with. It was overwhelming. At the time, Mr. CC and I didn’t live together and there were several nights when I would have little CC that we would not spend together. This was the perfect time in my mind for me to put Photoshop on my laptop and “teach” myself the program. No big deal.

Until I ran into a snag on getting the program to load. It downloaded just fine, but when you get to the part of registering the product, the number that our friend gave us didn’t work. Mr. CC tried for several weeks with no luck to call his friend back and get it straightened out. I think that we did make contact with said friend one time, but something was going on and he would call right back…so we waited…and waited…we’re still waiting.

So I guess you could say that I got a bad taste in my mouth right away with my new beloved program. What’s the fun of this if I have to sit at a desktop computer to do this? None in my mind. The fun of scrapping for me is doing it in front of the tv…involving others – since I scrap with several friends at given times…being mobile is part of the new era in computers. So now that I’m stuck upstairs at the desktop without even a tv to keep me company, this is no fun. Plus, splitting my time between travel for work, time alone with little CC, time with our whole family, and time alone with Mr. CC just didn’t leave me a lot of time to sit down and learn this.

Then I got engaged…and several wedding projects popped up in my head, and I became determined to conquer Photoshop. I mean, it’s just a program, right? I can’t be THAT hard…yeah. I know, silly me.

In a lot of ways, Photoshop is easy to use. On the same hand, in a lot of ways it’s really hard to use. Learning the ropes takes a little bit of patience and practice. And the manual REALLY would have come in handy, it turns out…because it’s a graphic design program, something that I know nothing about. There are a lot of little tips and tricks that you can do with this program, but you have to know that the tricks even exist and then how to do them…to say that it is a bit difficult for a newbie is an understatement.

But I have this wedding project for the centerpieces in my mind that would be SO easy if I could conquer this monster…so slowly but surely I’m learning. I’ve been able to find a lot of free tutorials by surfing the net, but that’s time consuming as well. And I can still only do it at our desktop which annoys me. I spend all day long on a computer at work, so there are days that I just DON’T want to be on the computer at night. And even though I’ve now decided that spending $80 for the newest version of the program is really NOT that expensive…I don’t have my personal laptop anymore and can’t load the program onto my work laptop…so I’ll just stick with the version that I have at the moment.

So, I slave away…upstairs in my “tower”…all alone. With the help of my webinars that are slowly teaching me the ins and outs of Adobe Photoshop. Luckily for me, I’m a quick learner and I’m really not afraid to just push buttons until I can get it to do what I want…I’m stubborn like that. LOL! Due to my progress, I’ve also been able to design our magnets for the STDs and come up with a monogram that Mr. CC and I love that we will use in our invitations. And the thought of doing my own invitations no longer gives me terrors or weak moments…

Adobe and me? We’re progressing. We might not be tight and close and all, but we’re on a first name, acquaintance-type of basis for the moment…

Which camp do you fall into? Or did you attempt something like this just to discover that it really was easier to “hire” out the design portion of your DIY projects to the many designers that are available on places like etsy.com? I’d really like to know…

The Crazy Ways a Woman's Mind Works

So just in case you’re all wondering…I’m ok. Really. I just had a REALLY bad day the other day. You know the kind of day that I’m talking about? The one where on a normal day the fact that you can’t decide if you want a ham or turkey sandwich really isn’t a big deal, but on this one particular day, everything seems like the most ginormous decision that you’ve ever made?

I’m sure that you have, or for the sake of my own sanity, I’m gonna tell myself that!

So Wednesday was one of those days for me. But luckily, I’m engaged to the most wonderful guy ever. Mr. CC, although adding to my troubles the other day, grasped the situation and realized that I was just under a tremendous amount of stress. And without me telling him, he understood that his actions had only added to and magnified my stress level to the breaking point. (thus the tears all day long…)

And just like a good fiancé should do, he swooped in and helped save the day. He offered to help more with the wedding, including helping me make decisions that I know that he could probably care less about. But just being a sounding board for me really helps. He offered to call another caterer for me, and he also took care of booking the dj that we had heard about. After that was done, and the color choices were cleared by him, we tackled the house. We divided up the chores and came up with a game plan for keeping things under control so that neither one of us would feel like we were doing the lion’s share of the work. And bless his heart, he wanted to do it all that night so that I would immediately feel better…little did he know that just having a plan that we had committed to made me feel better!

Once I calmed him down and assured him that we could do a little bit each night to get the house in order, I took a step back and looked around. A HUGE weight had gone off of my shoulders, and I took a big deep breath. It’s true what they tell you – to relax a little, you just have to breathe…

By that afternoon, I felt better, was ready to tackle new projects and had a better outlook on the whole wedding process. I know, that this sounds a little crazy to any guy out there reading this, but just crying about it, and getting it off of my chest to someone who then turned around and offered to help, made me feel 110% better about the whole thing.

I just realized how lucky I am. He’s not perfect, and he knows it. But then again, neither am I. But maybe, just maybe….we’re perfect for each other. I love him more than I could have ever imagined loving someone, and I know that he feels the same way…even if I am controlling, neurotic and stressed out sometimes! I guess that’s what the part of the vow that says “for better or worse” is talking about, huh?

Have a great weekend! Talk to you next week! Oh, and enjoy Valentine’s Day – take a minute to tell someone how much you care, because even if you think that they know it’s still nice to hear the words every once in a while.