Dying Queen, Young and Sweet, Only Twentyyyy

I died my own crinoline! In all, I think it turned out great, I honostly have no idea why I've been fretting about this the past couple of days. Oh well, its over with now. Heres the finished product.

It came out so bright, I'm so excited to wear it. I know it will look even better in natural sunlight and photographed by the pros. I was actually really nervous doing this though. I thought for sure I was going to end up with a tie dyed mess.

As I let the washer fill up with hot water and very little detergent I made the dye bath mixture of two cups hot water and one box of dye. I then added it to the washer and let it agitate for about ten minutes. White it was sitting I soaked my crinoline in the shower with hot water. After that I just added it to the washer and ran it through one wash cycle.

To take the crinoline out of the washer I put three old towels down on the floor of our laundry room (its tile). I then would set the entire crinoline down on that to straighten it back out and unwind it. I tried to just do it in the air but it was so heavy and water was getting everywhere, ha.

I ran it through two more wash cycles with the dye before one more normal wash. All the while removing it from the washer every so often. To dry I just hung it up in the washroom off the door.

Pretty blue water :)

The bottom even picked up the light blue, I was kind of hoping this would stay white though, oh well.

The whole thing was pretty easy. If I had to do it again I would take it out of the washer more. I let it run through one whole wash cycle before I took it out to untangle it and the top was pretty light compared to the bottom. Thats why I had to run it through the wash cycle two more times- to get it to even out and be dark enough, so that sucked. Other than that it was a piece of cake!

Crinoline Inspiration

I decided I needed to search for blue crinolines that other brides had dyed to see their results. I found this picture, which is exactly what I want!



The blue is so bright and perfect! I couldn't find out who this was/where it came from though so I didn't know which shade she used.


I ended up buying a box of royal blue rit dye and testing it out on another washcloth. I then re-dyed the evening blue washcloth with more powder since it originally looked like light baby blue. When the two came out, they looked almost exactly the same. In general, they both looked pretty good. They were both bright blue and there wasn't any tie-dyed spots. I think the color will come out on the crinoline a little different since their different materials but thats okay. Now that I've realized they're both great colors I'm just going to dye it evening blue since I have an extra box of that. I don't know why I was freaking out about this so much! ha


More Inspiration photos:

Unsure who I stole it from-Evening Blue




Knottie tjh186-Royal Blue

Knottie kreeves72-Evening Blue

I plan on dying mine this weekend, I'll let you know how it goes!

To dye or not to dye?

I've been so busy lately and have had no time to write a real blog entry. My mom, stepdad and brother came into town for the week of Thanksgiving. We didn't do to much while they were here. We went bowling one night, did the Budweiser brewery tour another and some shopping. We did drive down to Denver the night before Thanksgiving to pick up my dress though. Little did we know that they were going to be running on holiday hours so when we arrived at 5:04pm we soon found out they closed at 5:00 that night. I was so upset because I really wanted my mom to see me in my dress before the wedding and she was leaving early the day after Thanksgiving so now she couldn't. I ended up going back down by myself and getting it the day after Thanksgiving so now my dress is hanging in my closet! It's sooo official now and I can not express how happy I am! When I picked up my dress I also bought a crinoline too :)

Now that I own my crinoline, I just have to figure out what color to dye it. I have been debating between yellow and blue for weeks now! I really wanted to wear yellow shoes under my dress to spice it up, meaning I would want a yellow crinoline to match. After thinking about it, although I really want to wear yellow shoes I highly doubt I will. I HATE shoes. In the winter I wear flip flops because I can not stand shoes. I know I will end up taking them off right after the ceremony, therefore they would just be a waste. Having no reason to dye the crinoline yellow I was thinking then I could die it blue and have it be my something blue.

I went to the store and bought a box of Evening Blue. This color looked perfect in the swatch below. If I'm going to use blue I want it to be nice and bright which I thought was a dead on match for the shade in the picture! Well after I dyed a washcloth this color I found that this is just a light sky blue, not what I wanted. Since I wasn't sure how much dye to put in the wash for just one washcloth I kept adding more but I still wasn't getting the results I wanted.

My two other choices to dye my crinoline are Yellow and Royal Blue. Neither look anything like how I was imagining my crinoline though. I know these are just pictures but the yellow looks way to bright and the Royal Blue looks very deep. I'm debating if I should even dye it at all now. I really do not want to mess this up and will hate it if its a nasty color, I'm way to picky. I think I'm going to have to go and buy both the royal blue and yellow and do more experimenting.

Anyone else dying theirs? If you've already one it, any tips?

Blogging Bride Part II

Last Tuesday, Masterpiece Weddings-Adventures in Wedding Planning posted the second piece on me. Its a short story about a stressor I've been having, also which I've been waiting to blog about. If you read the story you'll know I'm changing my date to June of 2009 so one of my bridesmaids can remain in the wedding. If I don't, she'll be studying abroad in New Zealand and not at the wedding, so a date change is a must. I called Julie, the coordinator at my venue, today and left her a message to call me back so we can discuss a date change. If all goes as planned, I will be a June 2009 bride!

Blogging Bride

This week I'm the blogging bride over at Masterpiece Weddings-Adventures in Wedding Planning blog.

This past Tuesday I introduced myself and next Tuesday I'll have a story to tell. I'm excited to be a part of this as I'm a major fan of the blog. Be sure to check them out!

Gown Bag

At the beginning of the month Davids Bridal called to let me know my dress was in. I hadn't planned on it getting here until atleast January so I hadn't yet bothered to look for a gown bag. After searching at my local Macy's and luggage stores with no avail I decided I would have to order one online. The one the bridal shop offered seemed very cheap, like just a think garbage bag almost, so I didn't want to buy one of them.

I ended up finding one online at ebags. It was originally $49.99 but after some googling I was able to find a coupon code for 10% off and free shipping and handling. Since I couldn't get it to work online I called them though and they applied it without any problems. I had it within a week and I only paid for regular ground shipping.



I highly recommend this bag. The one side is kind of flimsy like normal plastic but the back is made of a stronger material. Its definately big enough to hold a gown as its 60". It folds in half and even has a place for the hooks of hangers to stick out the top if wanted. I ordered mine in black but they also come in green and blue.

And they're off!

This past week Jerry and I finished all of the Save the Dates. I am so proud of these, it took me forever to tie all of the bows!

The hardest part was the bows. Since the cards were ready to go after I tied the ribbon on them I wanted to put them in the envelopes to store them before I sent them. Unfortunately, doing this caused the bows to smoosh. I had to take them all back out of the envelopes until the day before I was going to send them that way they looked fresh when they arrived in guests hands.





The poem on the front reads:
Our big day is fast approaching
And we can hardly wait,
So put this magnet on your fridge
And be sure to Save the Date!

I was waiting to post about these because some of my guests read my blog so I wanted to wait until they got them. Now that I know most have, here they are!

The magnet is 2 x 4 and I designed it in Microsoft Publisher.
The cardstock is 4 1/2 x 6 1/4.
The envelope is 4 3/4 x 6 1/2 which I ordered from Anchor Paper.
I ordered sheets of magnets from Oriental Trading Co they were like 8 x 11 sheets. I just attatched the sheets of my magnet design that I printed off onto a whole magnet sheet, then cut them using a normal paper cuter I bought from Michaels.
Then I just attached the magnet onto the cardstock with two photo sticker dots.
I bought a custom return address stamp off of ebay and addressed the fronts with a marker that matched from Joanns.



Fi stamping the return address on all of them!

I love having my own website!

A couple of months ago I decided I wanted my own personal website that resembled my Save the Dates, not one of those template ones you find online. I decided to hire Michael, who made me the best website ever! He started the project in August and it was completely finished yesterday. Its designed to resemble my Save the Date which I just finished this week (I'll take pictures later and post them.)

You can check it out here.

Uber Excited!

I've been a bad blogger and haven't been checking on mine or any of my favorite blogs in a while. Today I started going through my favorites and went to Starry-Eyed Barefoot Brides' blog to find that she had nominated me as having a Uber Awesome blog.



The Uber (synonym to Super) Amazing Blog Award is a blog award given to sites who:

~ inspires you

~ makes you smile and laugh

~ or maybe gives amazing information

~ a great read

~ has an amazing design

~ and any other reasons you can think of that makes them uber amazing!



The rules of this award are:
* Put the logo on your blog or post.
* Nominate at least 5 blogs (can be more) that for you are Uber Amazing!
* Let them know that they have received this Uber Amazing award by commenting on their blog.
* Share the love and link to this post and to the person you received your award from.

I pass this honor on to:
Maggie from Wedding Bash with a Bang
Amy from {with the pixie grin}
Heather (and Tessa!) from Heather Drive
Amber from Amber's Delectable Delights
and Cierra from The Middle

Boy, you lookin' good!

Yesterday, Jerry and I took a ride to Mens Warehouse to check out what they offered for tuxes. I didn't plan on picking anything out yet, I mean we have months to do this so I just wanted ideas, but when we went in and sat down it was just so..easy! We walked out having all the guys dressed in under an hour!

We're allowed to make any changes we want up until 14 days before the wedding. Right now, I haven't even picked out the Bridesmaids dresses so depending on what color we end up getting for them we may need to alter somethings. I'm hoping the girls dresses will be yellow though, which is why we've went with the following.

All of them will be wearing this tux. Its a Calvin Klein one button. The shirt will not be that ugly lapel though, it'll be the normal notched kind.



The Bestman and the Groomsmen will be wearing this vest in Canary yellow. Ties will also be the same color but instead of a bow tie it will be the normal euro tie. I really want them to match the Bridesmaids which is why I chose yellow. If we end up getting green for the girls then we'll switch the vests to green.



And this is what my man will be wearing! Awww we're going to match and its going to be sooo cute :) I'm excited!



I haven't quite decided what I want for my father (Jerry's father is deceased). Currently we have him down to where yellow too, but I really want him to have a different color. Theres not a whole lot left to choose from so it will probably be either black or platinum. I was thinking maybe black with a yellow tie but who knows. I have awhile so I'm not stressing.

They ended up being $170 per tux. This includes the jacket, pants, shirt, tie, vest, suspenders, cuff links, pocket squares and shoes. Plus we signed up for 'The Perfect Fit' club, which is free, and you get $20 off each tux so really they're like $150. Also, if you buy four you get one free, so one of them is free!

Its beginning to look a lot like..Halloween!

This weekend Jerry and I started to get into the Halloween spirit. Friday night started out by baking sugar cookies. The dough was a little sticky so it made it hard to roll out but they turned out pretty good. I think I added a little to much lemon extract as they tasted a little more like that but they were still really good!





After that we then went and saw SAW V at the movie theatre. I hate to break anyones bubble but it sucked. It was a good movie but compared to the first four it was nothing. I felt like everything was predictable and even the 'scary' scenes weren't scary. Oh well...if they make another one I still plan on going to see it, but still. ha

On Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch and picked pumpkins to carve. There wasn't a hole lot left to choose from but we each got a decent one. It was a little windy but other then that it was pretty nice out, thank god for that Colorado weather. Jerry was able to hold both pumpkins for the picture, unfortunately I could only hold one..ha





We had fun carving them though. They're already out on the porch for people to see! Not the greatest but good enough for amateurs. Next year I want to do an actual design, like an owl or something.

Jerry, cutting the tops off!


As you can tell, I'm in a deep concentration..carving the perfect pumpkin.


And the final results..


So which one do you like better?!

its 'THE' one!

On Saturday my bridesmaid Emily and I went out dress shopping! I NEVER though I would buy a dress from Davids Bridal, I always heard bad things about them and considered them cheap, but as soon as I put this dress on I knew it was the one I'd buy that day. I know everyone says this but, the pictures do it no justice. Its kind of wrinkly so it doesn't look the greatest but I love it!

I ordered it in diamond white in a size 6-yay!




I tried on some other ones, including the Sophia Tulli and the Rina di Montella one I tried on last time but I knew those weren't me. I wanted simple elegance and I think I accomplished it well :)

My Real Ring!

After staring at the picture below and realizing how much that ring looked nothing like mine, I had to take a picture of my real ring. I have a camera that can take pictures of jewelry just fine, but I didn't have a cable for it to get the pictures off the camera to the computer. I've had to use my crappy camera to do that, and it wouldn't take the picture of the ring without ruining it. So I went to Best Buy yesterday and bought a card reader to use for the good camera.

Here's what my wedding ring REALLY looks like :)



Of course the solitare diamond isn't in it because its in my E-ring.



I'll get them both put together about a week before the wedding. I am so excited!

It can only be Jared*

Yesterday, Jerry and I went down to Loveland to look at wedding rings. We were just going to look, and after looking in two stores we were getting ready to go home when we stopped at Jared-The Galleria of Jewelry. I knew I wanted a square shape of diamonds to incase my princess cut solitare e-ring. We always buy our jewelry from Kays because Jerry's cousin works there and we can use her store discount-which is huge when spending that type of money. Unfortunately, Kays didn't have anything in stock like I wanted..but Jareds had TONS to choose from. Well after being there for an hour and a half, we walked out with my wedding ring!

The picture below isn't my exact ring..but its the closest I could find. I tried to take my own picture but that didn't work out so this will have to do. Mine is almost like this-minus the band-mines just a single band with a couple of stones going down each side. Also my solitare sits up much higher since its a 1 carat.



Its exactly what I wanted and its soo shiny :) Since he spent $4,000 on my E-ring-my budget was $1,000 for my wedding ring, so it worked out perfectly as it came to like $900 some odd dollars!

I have a monogram!

Actually I have two! I was going to make my own, but my Microsoft Publisher Trial expired at the end of September, so I had to find someone to make one for me.

Both of these were made by Megan who has her own etsy shop 'Megastar Designs'. The second one I probably wont use at all, but I liked how it matched my STD's and stuff. I like the first one, but I still don't know yet. We'll see...ha





Don't mind the white boxes behind them, obviously when used that won't be there.

Grooms Gift

Yesterday, while looking at one of my favorite idea blogs, I Do{blog!} I found the perfect gift (besides a boudoir picture album) for Jerry.

Its a watch which holds a picture. His dad passed away the summer of '06 from pancreatic(or some other horrid type) of cancer. It was very sad, I've never seen a person look that sick. Anyways, I thought I'd put a picture of him and his dad in it and have something engraved in it. Although Jerry doesn't really wear a watch, I figured this would be a good sentimental item, especially if given to him on our wedding day.



The watch can be found on HourPowerWatches for only $100. Not only is it a good gift, it has a good cause. Their discription on their website displays the following:

"HourPower is dedicated to the belief that people can enhance connections to loved ones, to goals, memories, or inspiration by the use of our unique patented timepiece. Every one of our watches open to reveal a secret chamber for special words and photo that can be viewed often throughout the day.

The watch design was the "brain child" of a clinical psychotherapist and life coach as a simple way to galvanize the power of intention. Now, an emotional connection or touchstone, is actualized as you check the time-And just knowing that there is a secret inside reinforces one's commitment and resolve."


Good idea huh?!

You can never be to full of yourself..

My bridesmaid Emily came over last night and we managed to get ALL the magents done :) It only took us an hour and a half to.

Here's Emily putting the sheets of paper onto the actual magnets. I then took it from her and cut them all.



Heres a picture of the finished products-all almost 150 of them, on our fridge...What can I say, we love looking at ourselves. ha Hopefully we don't have any company this weekend or they'll be like what the..?



Next we'll be printing off the cardstock that will hold the magnet then tying ribbon on them all, oh fun. After that we can attatch the magnet though and get them out the door!

Are you ready to ASSEMBLE?!?

So last weekend Jerry and I went to Office Max and got our Save the Date designs printed. We tried to do it on photo paper but the picture came out really blurry, so we had to use regular. Its alright though since the magnet sheets I bought from Oriental Trading were thick. I got all the stuff out and I'm going to start getting all the magents made today.



I also ordered envelopes from Tom at anchorpaper and they came in last night. Their the same color yellow that I ordered my pocketfold invites in. They'll hold my save the date card which is a white micah color and the save the date magnet.

I also have to address all the envelopes, which I plan on starting today. I have to run to the craft store on my lunch break to find a pen to use to address them, then I'm going to get started. Once their addressed, they can then be stuffed!



I only needed 150 and they came in boxes of 250, which is why peanuts are filling half the box. Atleast he sent the box though, I was wondering what I was going to use to carry them all in beacuse I have no boxes whatsoever.



The only thing I have to do is print off the sheets of cardstock that the magnets are going to be attatched too, which I've alredy designged, and get the magnets together. I should have everything done by Sunday at the latest. I do have to wait for my wedding website to be finished before I can send them out though. Not sure when that will be done, but I should have an idea here soon I hope.

Condo #2 booked!

We've officially booked the second condo. This is actually the 1st one we'll be staying in-we arrive July 28th and stay for 5 nights then off to the next one for 4 more. I am sooo excited. Now that we've booked this its so real.

Although this is only a studio it seams really nice and its right in Lahaina, and on the only complex in the town thats beachfront. The best part is its only $200 per night. I wanted to feel some luxery without going broke, I think I've accomplished it.

Honeymoon Registry

The honeymoon registry is up and running! I made our registry through Just Together. Theres 18 gifts on there totalling about $3300. I dont expect everyone to buy everything-but they have options. Gifts range from $25-$140 and most are actual activities/entertainment. I only added a couple of dining options and didn't add the airfare of condo rental to it at all. I figured if its our honeymoon we should have to pay to get there and stay ourselves, not rely on guests to do that as well so they'll just be buying us excursions.

I chose Just Together for a couple of reasons though
1-You could pick your own url-I wanted it to match our wedding website url so guests wouldn't be confused so this was ideal for us!
2-You could add your own gifts-customizing prices, pictures, everything=Perfect
3-Its only a 6% fee to use and they don't add this onto the gifts-that way the guests don't have to pay it-they'll just take it out of the total in the end-although that sucks for us but oh well-we're not greedy.

The only thing I didn't like about the site was you could only have your money deposited on the 1st or 3rd Wednesday of the month-I emailed and will be having them deposit money on both dates-the 3rd Wednesday in July and the 1st Wednesday in August-That way those late buyers will be covered. So I guess they worked with me on that-but I would've rather just preferred having the money deposited a day or two before the wedding, but oh well.

Maui it is!

We booked a condo yesterday for Maui!

So I wanted to stay in the town of Lahaina-its the main town on Maui and where we'll be the most so the closer the better. Unfortunately, the rates were ridiculous compared to ten minutes north so we came to a compromise. We'll stay in Lahaina the first 5 nights-then we'll move up north and stay for 4 more nights, this allows us to do a 9 night vaca instead of just 7.

The condo we booked now is about 4 miles north of Lahaina but takes about 10-15 minutes to get there by car because theres only one, one lane road going there. ha The condo is called 'Honeymooners Dream' and its at the Kuleana. Its pretty nice, not as nice as we could've got but def. way cheaper then anything else I looked at thats groundfloor. Its only $165 per night!

Although its groundfllor, theres no beach directly in front, just ocean, but we can always drive to one. Plus there will be a beach in Lahaina so we'll have one the first 5 nights right outside our door.

This is how a honeymoon should be..hell yeah Hawaii!







Now I just have to find a condo in Lahaina I like!