First Wedding Shower

I was back home this weekend and my mom and sisters surprised me with my first wedding shower!  It was great! Tom and I are so blessed to have such great family and friends.  It's exciting to have things to put into our home and now that we have a place we will call home its exciting.  The house is ready for us to move into (freshly painted, new carpets, etc). But there are some changes that we plan to make that will make it ours.  One being the dumb cupboards that were added to the kitchen that took out over half the front hall closet and 2nd access to the attic.  We also want to put in new counters in the kitchen.

But one thing we will be working on before we get married is the bedroom.  When I got my 2nd apartment here I needed a dresser (the apartment before had a GIANT closet with shelves so it was not necessary). So in looking at dressers and what they cost Tom and I ended up finding a nice bedroom set that got me not only a dresser, but also a queen bed, mattress (much better than the futon I had been sleeping on) and bed side table.   So we have that bought and good to go.  We have found a sheet/duvet cover set that we love and hope to get.

Our plan is to then paint the walls a light grey and bring in pops of colour (ok the last little bit is my plan but Tom will go along with it). For now it will be with my red curtains.  So that is exciting!!

So the countdowns continue: 37 days until we get our house! Only 88 days till we are married and will be husband and wife for the rest of our lives! Time is a flying! 

96 days!

We are at less than 100 days!! It's crazy to think that in just 96 days we will be husband and wife.  There is still so much to do. Since the last update we have done a few things (slowed down by buying a house).
So in the past week:

• we received our favours and are working on those
• ordered the groomsmen gifts
• ordered some of the ladies gifts
• we've finalized the wedding cake and dessert choices (thank you Two Cups of Sugar sistas!!)
• we've also put our 2 MC's in contact with one another so they can start planning and talking

So lots still to do this month to keep up on the checklist. A good number of things are in progress/ongoing. These include:

• program design - almost finalized (will start printing once we confirm readers, and music)
• waiting to hear back from our caterer so that I can get started with either printing or ordering our menus (from vistaprint - sweet site!!)
• reception decor - ridiculous!!!!  so hard to figure out
• Church decor - to flower or not to flower...that is the question!!
• music -  working on figuring out songs and such for the reception
• gifts for me ladies!

So lots to do but its all exciting! And now we can add thinking about house renos to the list!! But wedding first....then marriage and house renos!!!  

We bought a house!!

Yeah!! We will be officially home owners come April 1st!! So excited! Its a 4 level back split with 3 bedrooms and is so perfect for us!  A lot of the houses we looked at were houses that we could be in for a few years. This house when we walked in and looked around we knew it was something that would be more long term for us. Something we could make our own and not worry about needing to get our money back in a few years when we sell it again.

 So here are some pics from online. We didn't any while walking through or during the inspection (darn!). But in just 46 days it will be ours so pics of it as ours will be shared then!

This is our lovely kitchen and living room. We plan to focus our time on the kitchen and fix it up a bit.  That will be our first reno (including pushing a wall out of the closet that previous owners had built into to allow them to put a set of cupboards in-silly)

The bedrooms are on the top level off the back of the living room.  The 3rd level is a complete basement seen here.  Then off this room there is a bathroom and the 4th level which is unfinished and includes a HUGE laundry room and storage plus a little workshop for Tom to keep his tools in.

We are very excited to have a place to call home!!!

We look forward to sharing with you our adventures of renovating and decorating our first home together!

A new Outlook

Life is good. This week has been good. Ever since Tuesday I cannot complain.  I was successful in crossing things off the list....let's see the list and what I accomplished: 

So up for this month is:
-Schedule Dress fitting early February done
-Design Menus (mostly designed - waiting to hear back from caterer)
-finalize wedding cake and desserts 
-Reception Décor (by March 1st)have contacted another rental place about a backdrop and have been pricing out DIY options
- Ceremony Décor  simple....is key....
- Decide songs for dances (parents, BP) and what not to play list       
-Wedding Programs 
-Wedding party gifts am having some brilliant brain waves for my ladies!! Tom has the guys figured out just need to purchase.
-Order/buy favour supplies bought half!!!!!  waiting till next month when my Mom's down to buy the other half....or maybe not.....forgot about a discount a certain STUDENT can get me....hmmmm
-Jr Groomsman attire and shirts for the guys
-sort out bar with the hall have contacted them
-finish card box (ribbon around it-will do when home in 2 weeks) 


So looking good. Plus we have a hot prospect for a house!! Stay tuned!!!

Today I will

BE HAPPY!!  Lately with everything that has been happening with work, wedding and house hunting, I have been struggling with stress! It has taken its toll on me. I have noticed I've been crabby and irritable and just overall not myself. Which in turn makes me angry and stressed out - its a horrible circle I am caught in.  I am taking time this morning before heading into work for me.  I think I have been pouring myself into work, and wedding planning and now house hunting that I have forgotten to breathe and relax. So that is the goal for the next 1/2 hour before I start getting ready for work.

So today - happy thoughts - I hope it works!

I think today I will try to cross some things off our list. There are some easy things to cross off so for today I will aim to schedule my dress fitting.  This is a stressful part. Since I bought my dress at David's Bridal in the States I am getting the alterations done locally. My goal has been to just get the bustle added because it fit perfectly everywhere else. Now it seems as though I may have lost weight and need to get it taken in (booo...but yeah I guess!)  I could also contact our DJ and set up a meeting for next month....so many opportunities to be productive....and happy!!  And when in doubt remember....we get married in 109 days! and just BREATHE!

110 Days

Almost in the double digits!! So exciting....as it is the end of January let's review the to-do list:
-Tuxedos
-Tom will finalize
-Invitation envelopes and RSVP cards
- Contact caterer and Finalize menu and desserts (emailed him just waiting to hear back.....)
- finalize wedding cake and desserts  (in the process)
-Reception Decor
-Ceremony Décor
-Decide timeline for reception 
-Wedding Programs (designed just need to ask readers and finalize songs)
-Hotel for May 21st and May 22nd
-Gifts for Bridal Party
- Finalize favours (more or less decided)
-Ask Readers
-Baptismal Certificate


So not the most productive month but better than nothing. A lot of the items have been started and were going to carry over anyways. But we can add to the list something that was on the list for March - we bought Tom's wedding band!!

So up for this month is:
-Schedule Dress fitting early February -Design Menus (mostly designed - waiting to hear back from caterer))
-finalize wedding cake and desserts (see above) 
-Reception Décor (by March 1st)
- Ceremony Décor
- Decide songs for dances (parents, BP) and what not to play list      
-Wedding Programs (same as above)
-Wedding party gifts
-Order/buy favour supplies
-Jr Groomsman attire and shirts for the guys
-sort out bar with the hall
-finish card box (ribbon around it)

So lots up to do this month.
PLUS we are also starting to seriously look for a house. That is taking time and energy. The past week I have done nothing wedding related because my free time was looking at houses. I need to get back into the groove of wedding planning and cross things on this list!!!

Blogging FAILURE

So my goal of once a week clearly did not work out! But here's hoping I get back into it. Many times I thought to myself, "I should go write a blog and get this out of my system."   Oops!!

So life is zooming along.  last I posted I was moving into Tom's parents and I have. Its been an adjustment to going from living alone to living with 3 other people. Then Tom's friend John moved in shortly after while his parents are finishing the house they are flipping. So its been fun!

Wedding planning has been busy. Only 123 day to go! Over Christmas Tom and I picked out flowers and booked a limo. I am very excited for our flowers. I really don't have a favourite flower so what was more important to me was the colour.  Since researching for flowers, I had discovered dahlias which I loved. So we are having roses, dahlias and wax flowers (which are real flowers).  The roses will be the colour of this rose and all the rest will be similar.  The girls will have more white and some colour.  I am excited!!

On our way home from my parents for Christmas we made a very organized list with what was left to be done and what month we should do it in.  Most things according to the list should be done in April with the exception of a few things that need to wait for rsvps.

So this is our to do list for January 2011
Tuxedos - Tom will finalize
Invitation envelopes and RSVP cards
Contact Brian and Finalize menu
finalize wedding cake and desserts 
Reception Decor
Ceremony Décor
Decide timeline for reception 
Wedding Programs
 Hotel for May 21st and May 22nd
Gifts for Bridal Party
Finalize favours
Ask Readers
Baptismal Certificate 

Some of them will carry over but that is ok. It fits into the plan! At least we have some things crossed off!!

Hopefully Ill write again soon!!