Old Soul, Young Heart

This one was the easiest of the something old/new/borrowed/blue, because basically I bought everything new! My dress was from Bridal Elegance. I really do feel like this dress was meant for me. It was on the sample/sale rack and the sales girl brought it to me. I wouldn't have found it otherwise. I loved it. I loved the ruching, the modified sweetheart neckline, the fit and flare (really I think this one is considered mermaid), and the asymmetricalness of the bottom. Despite some of the issues I had with it later on (expensive alterations and cleaning), it was so worth it. That freaking sash. Hahaha. You all remember the sash saga. After all of that, I found the perfect one on Amazon, of all places. I knew that I wanted a bolder earring since I wouldn't be wearing a necklace. I saw these at Von Maur and fell in love immediately. I knew that I wanted pear-shaped ones because to me they have more of a classic, elegant feel. I just couldn't stop thinking abou...

Christmas Eve and Christmas got in the way of Marriage Monday... I had a really hard time coming up with stuff for my something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. I wasn't opposed to not really doing it if I didn't find something for each thing. One night my dad and I scoured my mom's jewelry looking. I found something that I thought might work for my something old/borrowed/blue and I kept it in the back of my mind if I didn't find anything else over the months and weeks leading up to the wedding. It ended up being my something old and borrowed. Actually I ended up putting it in our wedding keepsake box, so I guess I can't even call it borrowed. But it is, in a sense. So my mom collected Precious Moments. Our whole house is full of them... there are curio cabinets and shelves of them all over the downstairs. As a kid, she tried to get me on board by buying me pieces. I myself have two shelves of them to this day in my bedroom. I thin...

I skipped last week's Marriage Monday because I wasn't in the mood and was seriously lacking the motivation... Like I said in the previous week's Marriage Monday, I was very calm the morning of the wedding. Our photographer and videographer commented several times that I was one of the calmest brides they had ever been around haha. My aunt and I went to get the flowers, we hung out while the others were getting their hair done, and all of a sudden it was 11:01. And I looked at the clock beside the bed and said... "Oh my god--I'm supposed to be at Fox and Hound's right now for my makeup appointment!" I just could not believe that I did that! I never forget about things like that. I grabbed my aunt and we sped away. I called F&H on the way there; luckily we were only like 15 minutes late and the girl doing my makeup was running behind anyway. We even got done earlier than I had anticipated. (Sidenote: The trial for my makeup was not good. ...

Remember about a year ago when I wrote about a book that I found randomly on Pinterest called Motherless Daughters ? If you don't, here's what I wrote about it on Dec 21, 2011. Motherless Daughters   was pretty much all I had hoped it would be. There were several quotes in there that hit me in my gut, that made me feel as though I'm not alone in this life that has been forever changed because my mother died when I was 19. Sometimes I feel a little crazy because of it--like I'm reacting wrong or just plain overreacting--because I have no one in my life that truly understands what it's been like for me. (I'm not trying to be dramatic about this; it is just a fact of who I am. There is no other component of my person or my personality that is as pervasive to who I am as the fact that I am a motherless daughter. It enters into every part of my life, pretty much every day.) It's made me feel better about my experiences as a motherless daughter and about my fut...

I woke up quite calm about an hour before my alarm went off on our wedding day. Luckily, I didn't have to get up too early. Michele and I chatted for a little, I showered, and then waited for my aunt Peggy to arrive. She found our suite, we hung out for a bit, and then we went to pick up the flowers at Casey's. (A Marriage Monday post on the flowers coming soon!) TJ arrived to start working on the girls' hair! Mama Bourque was the first up! I'm now realizing that I don't really have any pics of Michele throughout this whole part of the day. She was running around taking pics of everyone else! What a great friend/maid of honor, but I'm kind of sad now about not having any pics of her or us together. :( Michele got her hair done too, while my aunt and I were getting the flowers! And then it was Brooke's turn. After getting my make up done, my aunt got her hair did. The little girls were also getting primped! The general mood was pretty relaxed at this...

Little Joys in My Life Someone must've ordered me US Weekly because I've gotten it for 2 months now. I get it every Friday. Celebrity gossip is just a guilty pleasure of mine. Seeing my husband every day when I get home from work. That's super cheesy, but I really do get excited to see him. :) Chocolate. Every day. My daughter/kitty, Chloe. That 30 Days of Lists is done because I'm so over it!

What I Accomplished in the Past Week Well, let's see... Put up the Christmas tree and decorated the apartment Made my aunt's famous pumpkin cookies to take to Philip's parents' house Got about 20% of my Christmas shopping done Finished a big project at work (registering the HALO students for spring 2013 classes) Conducted a bow-making clinic at work I feel pretty good about those accomplishments, since usually I'm uber lazy!

Things I'm Thankful For And yes, I did change that day's topic to reflect the fact that it was Thanksgiving. :) My husband The rest of my family Having a place to live Having a car My job (that I even like) My health My happiness What I Bought This Week 3 shirts for myself (Eek! Oh well--Black Friday deals!) One Christmas present for Philip A calendar for my dad and some Hickory Farms stuff Cute socks for our nieces for Christmas Earrings and a Monster High doll for Faith Two Diary of a Wimpy Kid books for Briana 30 bolts of ribbon for my bow-making clinic here at work tomorrow :) Other random Christmas goodies for decorating Places I've Lived Normal Cambridge Yesterday was... Pretty typical Kinda busy at work Not as busy as I expected (in terms of emails and phone calls) Bravest Things I've Ever Done Went to England all by my lonesome Faced my mother's death at the tender age of 19 (not all that tender, b...

After kissing my hubby-to-be for the last time outside of Swingers Grille, Michele drove us back to the suite at Eastland. It was quite surreal that I wouldn't see Philip again until I was at the end of the aisle walking toward him. Michele stayed at the suite with me; it's a loft with two bedrooms and bathrooms. We spent a couple of hours just talking about how unbelievable it was that it was actually happening and she got me crying about my mom haha. It was so nice to just have a few hours to chat quietly in a comfortable space before the craziness began the next day. It only took me about an hour to fall asleep that night and I slept very well, which surprised me because I thought for sure I'd be tossing and turning. I was just peaceful. :)

Current Favorites Food Okay, this is really sad, but... pretzels with nacho cheese from Kroger! I am on a pretzel kick right now! Season Summer and fall are always my favorite seasons. Way to Waste Time Watching tv. Always. Or sitting on the internet. Facebook. It's bad. Outfit I am generally not impressed by my wardrobe these days. I typically feel that way every time the season changes. TV Show Part of the Day Depends on what kind of day it is. Weekend day? Late morning because I still have the majority of my day to be lazy and/or get things done. Work day? 5:00... time to go home! (But I do love my job!) Color

Fictional Friends

Our rehearsal dinner was at Swingers Grille , which is a pretty fancy place to have a rehearsal dinner. :) When we first walked in, I saw two coworkers from Heartland--it was so funny to see familiar faces in the whirlwind! We got settled back in the little banquet room and had our delicious meal. Then it was time to open gifts! Other Marriage Monday stuff: Philip was sick with the flu a little while ago. It was the first time he's actually been sick that I've been around him and able to take care of him. "Taking care of him" consisted of me buying him medicine and a vanilla milkshake from McDonald's and saying "oh honey," when he looked at me all miserable. Poor thing. Our wedding announcement was in the Pantagraph yesterday. My dad mentioned yesterday that he had a phone call from one of my mom's old colleagues from State Farm. She called to say that she had seen the announcement in the paper and that she wanted to tell him how beautiful a...

Favorite Girl Names Natalie (Do not steal it... I have no qualms with stickin' you. Name that movie.)  Audrey Jenna (Philip doesn't like those two names. Right--like we're actually ever having kids to use these names, anyway.)  Elisabeth as a middle name Favorite Boy Names Elliott Elijah Tristan Kieran Dinner Party Guests Oh gosh... I can't wait until we have our own little house and we can have people over. I will be nervous, though, and will inevitably feel like an inadequate dinner party hostess. But in any case... Family! Dad, Ryan, Peggy, Randy, Adam Family! Joy, Phil, Grandma Bean, Brooke, the girls Friends! Hannah and Mike Events I'd Like to Attend Any red carpet movie premiere Olympics Las Vegas on the 4th of July There are a lot more, but I can't think right now. Things I'd Like to Learn To cook fancy things and normal, non-fancy things A foreign language and sign language Proper photography skills History (Brit...

How I Know I'm Getting Older Gray hair... a lot of it Random body issues Students at work look real young sometimes I feel old shopping in the juniors department and going into American Eagle, Forever 21, etc.  Memory is getting worse or I've reached my brain capacity!

Getting waaaaay behind! Scents and Smells I Love Baked goods Freshly cut grass My hub I am at my best when... I'm fully rested Can take my time Can be a little creative Am around people I feel comfortable with Have time to myself Out my front door, you'll find...  A small front yard The road The police station I know I am young at heart because... I still feel 17 and always will I laugh at immature things I try to look at things innocently Today you'll find me... At work--busy busy busy! At home, watching tv with my husband That's it--the super glamorous life of a working girl

I've decided to call it "Marriage Monday" instead of "Married Monday" because marriage can also mean the event of our wedding and since that's probably all it's going to be about, let's go ahead and call it that. I've also decided to have a topic each week related to the wedding, so this week is... *drumroll*... Our Rehearsal The rehearsal was on Friday night at 5:00 pm. It was kind of chaotic because everyone showed up at the same time and I was being asked a lot of questions. I was sad that I didn't have time to say hi to anyone; it was especially sad since almost everyone was from out of town and I hardly get to ever see any of them, so it was just kind of awkward. We were a little late getting started and I was kind of stressed because we only had the musicians for half an hour. The first run-through of walking in was a mess. We did it a second time, but Philip and I left feeling like we didn't know what was going on. In hindsigh...

Sorry! I got behind! Reasons to quit... Facebook I would have time for more important things I would stop creeping on people that I never see or talk to I would probably stop comparing myself to those people I feel as though it would lead to a simpler life, in general Midnight Snacks I'm not a night snacker, but if I were... Chocolate covered raisins or really anything else that's chocolate, preferably something homemade Swedish fish Cheese popcorn Fictional Places I'd Like To Live Hogwarts Camelot Carrie Bradshaw's Sex and the City

When I need a timeout, I... Sit on facebook Be by myself Read a book Watch a movie Snuggle Chloe BORING!

My bff / officiant and maid of honor at our wedding, Michele, emailed me on Saturday saying that for awhile we had Wedding Wednesday and that she had thought of some suggestions for what I could do instead now that we're happily wed: "Married Monday!!! Terrific Tuesday Wonderfully Wedded Wednesday _____ Thursday F(Ph)aleep and Sara's Fabulous Friday Sara and Philip's Spectacular Saturday Seriously Sanctified Sunday!!!!!" She is hilarious. You have to know her amazing personality to fully appreciate this email. I do miss Wedding Wednesday and so I've decided to adopt her idea and start doing Married Monday. So welcome to the first edition of Married Monday! Perhaps I'll carry this on until our one year anniversary, just to be completely annoying. :) So in honor of Married Monday #1, here's a photo of Michele from our wedding that might help you understand how awesome she is. Truly, truly awesome. Married Monday will probably just ...

Reasons to... Hug My Cat She's my daughter She's so fluffy and soft I love her She loves me She's just so stinkin' cute Okay, lame list today, but I didn't feel like writing a list like "reasons to start exercising again."

My friends and family would describe me as... I hope they would also describe me as caring and giving, but they probably would just say bratty and self-important! :P

This Month's Goals Keep up with 30 Days of Lists! Get back to watching what I eat a little better. It's been ridic since we got back from our honeymoon. Not wish and wish and wish that it was Christmas and just take each day as it comes. And that's it. I'm not making myself any huge goals in the near future. I just need some time to relax!

I am a lister because... It gives me something to do. It gives me an excuse to actually blog consistently. It helps me feel a little creative when I need some sort of outlet. I get satisfaction out of the organized-ness of it. Happy November! I can't believe it's this late in the year already...

So... new layout! I think it's super cute. It took some of my html skills to get it exactly how I wanted it and it looks pretty good, I think. I'm sad, though, because something must've happened to all the pics I had on this blog when I switched over to my new name. All of them come up blank now, which is really annoying to me, but I'm gonna just let it go. Let. It. Go. This morning we had a Halloween brunch at work. Typically I don't make anything for these extravaganzas, but I was feeling sort of guilty about always eating and never bringing, so I decided to make something. Pumpkin coffeecake! I saw it on Pinterest; you can find the recipe  here . It was delicious and easy to make! And when I say it's easy, it's easy. (I don't have any cooking/baking skills yet. I legit just made my first grilled cheese last night. And this was my first coffeecake!)

Get it... meow-ied? I had started to write a big ole blog about the wedding right after we got back from Punta Cana. I wanted to add photos to it to correspond with every part of the day, but it proved to be too big a task for what I really wanted to take on at the moment. I let it sit and didn't finish it and then it all started to feel irrelevant, so I decided to delete it today. Suffice it to say that it was a beautiful, wonderful day. The honeymoon was pretty awesome too. Here are a few brief updates: I'm working on changing my name to Sara Bourque on everything. The blog has the new name as the link! It's quite a process, but not as big of a deal as I thought it might be. I feel as though changes are coming to the blog. I have new fonts! It's a start. And with November around the corner, I'm going to start the 30 Days of Lists that happened in September that I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with. So get excited for that, y'all...

This is the last Wedding Wednesday!!! Isn't that so sad?! Not really, because then we'll be married and honeymooning. Woot! We met with the dj on Thursday. I'm glad that he was so open to all the songs we want to play, because a lot of them are ones that people have never heard of. I was afraid he'd be annoyed by that, but he was cool with it! I made a cd of "cocktail hour songs," "dinner songs," and "dance songs." Hopefully they stick to those! We picked up Philip's wedding ring on Friday. We had to order a different size for him--glad they were able to get it in time and that it fits! Over the weekend I got a lot of stuff done. I was running all over the countryside picking things up. Saturday especially I felt like I got a lot more organized. All of the stuff for the chapel is now downstairs, as well as gifts for people. All of the stuff for the reception is still upstairs. Picked up my dad's suit on Monday! I took my dre...

No pictures this week, so kind of a boring post... sorry! Dad got his suit. He even got his tailoring done. He looks super cute! I met with the guy from Casey's on Friday about flowers. We've firmed up the details and I'm so excited! They will be very pretty. I picked up my wedding gown on Saturday! It's beautiful and fits me like a glove. I can't stop looking at the pictures of me in it that my aunt took. It is very me . I can't wait to wear it alllllllll day. I didn't want to take it off! Joy (Philip's mom) and my aunt Peggy picked up their dresses on Saturday too. It was fun to have a little trying-on party at the alterations place. I still need to get my dress steamed. There are a few tiny spots on it (it was a sample, so lots of other girls tried it on before me), so I need to get those cleaned too. I'm really scared to take it to the dry cleaner's, but I gotta have faith! I need to do this soon since I don't know how long it'l...

We got our marriage license on Friday! Centerpiece saga: So I Do Events it is. Simple Elegance neglected to get back to me (though responded quite quickly when I emailed them again asking for an update on what we had talked about a week earlier!) and they don't have enough centerpieces for all of the tables. I had a good experience with I Do Events a couple of months ago and they've been responsive, so I'm going to reward their good behavior with our business haha! We met yesterday and I feel confident that it'll be beautiful. The only bad part is that they are located in Washington, so I'll have to pick up the glass on Thursday and someone will have to return it on Monday, but we'll survive! RSVPs were due on Saturday and we received 97 out of 136 by the deadline. A few have trickled in since then. C'mon, friends and fam! It ain't that hard to drop something that's pre-stamped into the mail. Guess we'll be doing a little research on those w...

Centerpiece saga: Simple Elegance finally called me back on Wednesday (after I posted last week's Wedding Wednesday). I emailed back and forth with a girl there about what I'm looking for, but haven't heard from her since last Thursday. I randomly got an email from I Do Events, so if they're more responsive, I'm going to go with them instead! My aunt and I took my dad to Men's Wearhouse on Saturday because he's in dire need of a new suit. My pops is a big guy, so I was concerned that we wouldn't find something to suit him (ha!), but we found two that will possibly work. They are ordering one into the store in his size so that we can compare the two different options and choose one. Finally heard back from the musician ( Heart Strings ) for the ceremony after giving her a call at home. We met on Monday and I have to say that I am unimpressed by this person's professionalism. I feel as though I am generally not too demanding of customer service, but ...

Well, it is that time of year again. It is time to get a new planner. Was the importance of having a planner pounded into your head during junior high like it was for me? This was the first time that I remember being told about having an "assignment notebook" and how crucial it was to my success as a student. I didn't fully appreciate the planner until college and, especially, grad school. (I don't think I could've made it through grad school without one!) I am now a full-on planner fanatic. It's with me everywhere; it's out on my desk at work at all times. I consult it probably 8 times a day or more. Because of this, it's hugely important to have a super cute one... and the photo above is the one I've chosen and am now stuck with for the next 12 months. (Also, can I say how annoying it is to me that a 2013 planner goes from July 2012 through December 2013? When am I supposed to start using it? Is it supposed to run for the academic year or for ...

The ceremony service is nailed down. We met with Jim and Michele (co-officiants) on Monday and went over a lot of logistics. Michele and I also made a quick trip to Evelyn Chapel since she had never been there. I just love that place. I can really visualize now what everything's going to be like. It is both exciting and scary, because it's getting so close!  With the service fully figured out, I can start making programs now. I feel as though this part might be a larger undertaking than the invitations, because there will be double the amount! The actual construction should be easier, though. Menu card printing/construction will also start soon. We met with the travel agent to go over our honeymoon itinerary. I'm so excited to be on vacay with my new husband in just 5 weeks. (Husband! So weird!) I am disappointed that I've been unable to reach our musicians for the ceremony. I've emailed twice in the past 3 weeks... still nothing. Maybe they're on vacation? I ne...

I woke up this morning and on the handle of the front door I see a menu hanging. But not just a menu... a "Drunk Card" from D.P. Dough. Everyone knows that, even before I could drink, I wasn't a fan of alcohol. I've let up a bit in terms of my opinion of it and those who consume it often, but hearing about or being around college students who drink to excess still annoys me more than a lot of other things. I understand that it's the culture and that it's possible to be responsible. I put that responsibility into the hands of the students themselves that are making the decisions. However, it really grinds my gears that a local restaurant would put this out there the Sunday before classes start. It really shouldn't surprise me--it didn't surprise Philip at all--and what can I expect living close to campus? But what kind of message is D.P Dough sending to students? They have their business to make--sure, but if they're going to do this, why not als...

Philip tried on his suit at Men's Wearhouse on Wednesday. The tailor wasn't in, so we need to go back for him to actually get fitted, but it was cute to see him in his full get-up! I took a picture of him, but I'm trying not to share too much so that some things are still a surprise at the wedding! The RSVPs are a-rollin' in! Coming home to see who has responded is kind of the highlight of my day! We had our food tasting at Eastland Suites on Friday. We got to try 2 salads, 4 dressings, 4 hor d'oeuvres, 4 entrees, 4 starches, and 4 vegetables. The food was delicious--even more so than we were expecting! It was fun to talk to the planner about all the logistics, too. It makes me so excited! On Monday we met with Jim, one of our officiants, to talk about the ceremony. Michele (the other officiant and my maid of honor) had sent me some ideas already and I had thrown it together before we met with Jim. He was open to what I had typed up; he even let me borrow his lit...

The title of my blog has been "Old Soul, Young Heart" for as long as I've had it, which is now over 3.5 years. (Wow--I can't believe it's been that long! I'm pretty sure I'm calculating that right, anyhow!) I like the title, because I really do think it represents me. At the same time, though, I think it's pretty cheesy and I've always felt that way. I'm very uncreative at thinking of titles and catchphrases and so when that name came to me, I went with it. Lately I've been feeling like I want to change it, though. To what? I have no idea. I have a lot of friends that have "The Adventures of..." as their blog title and I think that's cute and pretty true, as well. I need to do some perusing of the internet to see if I can steal someone's title for myself. Maybe some changes will be coming soon!

Wedding Wednesday So now that everyone (for the most part) probably has their invitation, I thought I would post pics of them! I don't know if anyone cares, but I'm kinda proud of them since I designed and made them from scratch myself (well, everything but the envelopes and pocketfolds). The assembly line. Wrap-around labels. We liked the black envelopes the best, so I broke the etiquette rules and printed on labels. I'm sure black envelopes for a wedding is also against the rules... The return address is on the flap-side of the envelopes and on the flip-side of the wrap-around labels. Pocketfold invitations have been done, but I still like them. There's the logo! Envelope ready to be sealed! Let's take these babies to the post office! I checked with the post office again to make sure I had enough postage. I read a really bad story on Weddingbee about some girl's invitations getting returned to her due to insufficient posta...

Philip got this fortune today. It was one of many fortunes since he ate like 6 cookies at once. But I still kept this one!

Wedding Wednesday Grandma Bean (Philip's grandma) hosted a bridal shower for me at her house on Sunday! I didn't take good pictures of us with who was there because my camera went dead at the end. :( It was a lot of fun, though! We played some games, we opened some gifts, we ate some food... good times all around! Here are a few pics. The direction sheet got done. It wasn't perfect, but it got done. I need to let go of perfect. Oh and I assembled the invitations on Saturday and will send them on Friday! I changed my mind a little about when to send them. Traditionally it's supposed to be 6-8 weeks when people receive the invitation, so if I send them on Friday, it'll be right at 8 weeks until the wedding. I don't want to be too jump-the-gun, even though I'm really excited (to both send them and have them out of my possession because I've been working on them for so long). Surprisingly, it only took me a couple of hours to put together 65 invitati...

I should really do better about posting things sometimes that aren't wedding related, but alas... Wedding Wednesday See previous post about my bridal shower that aunt Peggy hosted! I forgot to take a picture of Grandma Bean's shower invite from a few weeks ago. It's this weekend! Candle holders for reception centerpieces arrived from ebay. They're alright. I recruited my dad to spraypaint them silver (instead of black) and I definitely like them better now. I'm not totally thrilled with them, but they're good enough, I guess. Still plugging away at that direction sheet for the invitations. I'm pretty sure I've got it figured out, but I'm honestly just annoyed by it at this point! Invitation assembly line to commence shortly. I feel like I'm behind on this, since I want them to go out on Monday. I'm having trouble falling asleep because I'm thinking of all the details that still need to be nailed down. I also had my first wedding d...

This is a wedding related post that is being posted on a day other than Wednesday. This one merits its own, though! Today was my bridal shower that my aunt Peggy hosted. It was so cute and perfect. She is 100% amazing! Do you remember what the invitation looked like from a previous post? You don't have to, because the cake looks exactly like it. Nicely done, Janet's (minus spelling his name wrong, but we'll ignore that). This is a little poem about our new lives together, featuring words such as "era" and "dove" and "secret" and "snuggle," which were represented here by cleaning supplies/personal items for us to keep. So clever! We are so incredibly lucky. And we have another one next weekend, hosted by Grandma Bean!

I think perhaps the most beautiful compliment one could receive would be the following: "You have a wonderful mind." Tonight I watched the movie Sylvia , which is about the author Sylvia Plath. I like movies about individuals who once lived because I love history. Also, one of my favorite movies is The Hours and I thought this movie might remind me of it and it kinda did. Sylvia Plath had a little mental illness like Virgnia Woolf did and she also committed suicide. Sometimes wonderful minds have a hard time living, it seems. I also love watching movies about creative people because it makes me wish I was creative. I think deep down I might like poetry, even though I don't understand it. I took a poetry class in college and enjoyed it; I took a creative writing class in college and enjoyed it very little. So I guess the moral of this story is that I can appreciate creativeness, but I can't harness it myself. Seems about right. Oh and the movie had my attention ...

Wedding Wednesday Let's Party Rentals has lost my business. I was in there two Fridays ago, if you so vaguely remember, to look at centerpiece ideas. She let me bring home a few things to play with (which I thought was great customer service). I went back the next day to return them and she said she didn't know how many of the tall centerpieces she had, but that she would check and call me. Two weeks passed and I never heard from her, so last Friday, I contacted her to see what was up and she says, "Yeah--sorry I didn't call you back. We only have 5." I need 15, but still, lady, call me back to let me know! So I don't trust that kind of unprofessionalism and will now be seeking out other ideas for centerpieces. I ordered candle holders from ebay at a little over $10 each, so hopefully they work out. Afterwards, I'll attempt to resell them on Recycled Bride . (Sidenote: I need to open up a wedding rental business in Bloomington-Normal. Let's Party h...

Wedding Wednesday Last Wednesday was the 4th of July, and then we went on a little vacay down to Six Flags and some caverns in Missouri this past weekend, and then I've had "homework" for work the past two nights, so I honestly haven't had the time to do much wedding stuff since last week. But here is the little news that I do have! Sash news: Done and done! The one from Amazon came and I liked it better than the one from ebay, so that's a wrap! (My dad liked the one from ebay better, but, sorry Pops!) I have only a bracelet to get and I know exactly which one it'll be--it's part of my late birthday present from Philip. I asked my friend, Sheila, to help do some logistical things at the ceremony. She'll be handing out programs and a few other minor things. I'm so grateful to have her help because I know she'll be good; she's an event coordinator for her job at UNLV! We ordered the suits for the guys from Men's Wearhouse. The guys...

I made some festive cookies last night. These are the firecracker cookies that I found on Pinterest. They're made from a french vanilla cake mix and taste like Funfetti cupcakes in cookie form. Pretty good! I used a whole bottle of red, white, and blue sprinkles and they still don't look as good as the ones from the pic. Oh wellz.

Sash news: I got the two sashes from ebay on Friday. I liked both, but one definitely stood out to my dad and I. I'm returning the one we know is a "no." I did order another one from Amazon, just to see. So I am down to the final two. I'm just so indecisive and have to know what all of my options are! The custom sash girl was surprisingly gracious when I told her that I'm going a different direction. Definitely use her if you ever need a custom bridal sash ! I ordered purple shoes from Von Maur and they are the perfect color! They aren't as dressy as I would like, but Philip reminded me that the boy shoes aren't dressy, either, so I guess it makes sense that mine are also pretty casual. And no one will really be seeing my shoes, anyway! I left work a little early on Friday to visit the rental place. My goal was to nail down centerpieces. I spent like an hour in the showroom, looking and thinking, thinking and looking. I'm sure the woman working th...

Wedding Wednesday: Part 2 I wish that I would've applied to blog on Weddingbee . I knew of the website, but didn't even think about it. There is a girl who blogs on there whose wedding was a few weeks ago at Mackinaw Valley Vineyard  right outside of Bloomington and Jamie Grant did her photography (which is who I wanted). I can spend hours reading those girls' blog posts. People have such good ideas. Anyway, as I was reading Weddingbee today, I saw that one girl got her headpiece from Amazon and I thought to myself, "Why didn't I think about looking on Amazon for a sash?" So like an idiot, I had to search on there and two bad things happened:  One--I found one of the sashes that I bought from ebay for $20 cheaper. I'm pretty sure it's the same supplier. Lame! T wo--I found about three others that I like a lot.  I mean, I guess the good thing is that there are more options for me if I don't like the two that come tomorrow.

Wedding Wednesday I did some craftin' this weekend (while listening to the "Cocktail Hour" mix that I've created). I still feel as though it's a little early to be working on all the small projects that I have, but I'm bored right now and I'm sure I'll be thanking myself later for doing these things now before I have so many things to think about and work on. I was at a standstill with the invitations because I was waiting for the paper to go on sale at Hob Lob, so this is what I did instead. Expect to see this goodies in some capacity on 09.22.12! These are pomander balls and  the colors are more  pretty in person. I'm going for the ombre look. Not done yet, clearly! The flower girl dresses are going to work! Yahoo!!! I bought two sashes from ebay. I'm hoping they arrive quickly (got an email saying tomorrow!), because the girl from Etsy is waiting to hear back from me about creating a custom sash. She'll just have to wai...

Not gonna lie when I say that I feel a little like Kate Middleton when I put on my new nude pumps. And I like feeling like Kate Middleton. Ignore the dirty full-length bathroom mirror. But don't ignore the kitty.

Wedding Wednesday We were in the Pantagraph this weekend. The actual picture in the newspaper turned out bad, I think, but the internet link is nice. Here it is:  Sara & Phil in z Pantagraph . It's so cute when people mention to me that they saw it. :) Went to Champaign this weekend and could only find one bridal store that had a lot of sashes that actually weren't that bad in price. The salesladies didn't know if the one I liked the best could be sold separately from a dress, so whatever. (Then why have it hanging up as if you can?) If they would've looked into it more for me, I might have bought it, but they didn't seem that interested in helping me, so whatever. Wishing I could find one and just order it because it makes me nervous getting one custom-made. Which brings me to... Custom-made sash info: I'm seeing if a girl on Etsy can design one for me that looks similar to another one that I loved. She said she can, but now my concern is that her whit...

Can you believe that this is the fourth edition of Wedding Wednesday? I can't believe I've been doing this for a month already! Wedding Wednesday We were in the Farmington Shopper--front page! We were also in the Peoria Journal Star, but I haven't seen it yet. This weekend I ran around to five bridal stores (two here in Bloomington, two in Morton, and one in Peoria) to see what types of belts/sashes they had. I found one that I really liked at a store in Morton and would have bought it if it were the right color. It was even on sale! Did you know that Diamond White exists as a color? Oh, it does. And it's in between the colors of white and ivory. My dress is white and the sash that was on sale was Diamond White, so it didn't work out. Poo. There was another one that I loved, but it was $330. Yeah. I'm researching websites to see if I can find it any cheaper. The bridal store in Peoria had sashes that started at $350 and went up to $650. For a sash! T...