GIVING YOU APRIL'S UPDATE!

My Wedding Bible

This past month has been yet another successful month in wedding planning and getting stuff done. We, as in the girls and I, have been busy little bee's getting stuff done here and there via text messages, emails, and in person when time allows. Looking back on it all now, I DO feel like I (and my wonderful bridesmaids) got a lot accomplished this month.

So, as promised, I said I would keep you all up-to-date on where we are and we have going on, so here it is--what's gotten done this April:

Wedding Party ü
First and foremost, I can officially say I have my entire wedding party picked out, asked, and they all said "yes!" As I've mentioned before, this did take awhile as I wasn't going to see all the girls at once, but it is officially taken care of. I am SO excited about the girls I have standing next to me, and couldn't ask for better bridesmaids. They have truly been a blessing to me in the wedding world, but more importantly, in the friendship world. I would not trade them for anything!! See how I asked them, here.

Flower Girl ü
Along with my bridal party, I also got my mini bridal party asked--the flower girl. The weekend of my birthday, Ryan and I got the pleasure of having little Miss Faye stay at our house and got the chance to officially ask her to be our flower girl... she said yes! See how I asked her, here.

Rehearsal Dinner ü
I cannot take credit for this, as I certainly did not set this up, but it is officially booked...in BIG thanks to Ryan's wonderful mother. We all agreed on a place, time, and date and Ryan's mom took it from there! She got the place (Honeycreek Resort) contracted, a head count, and our meals figured out right away. This was a big weight off my shoulders and I could not be more happy with the location/meal. So excited, and one less stress for me!

Photographer ü
As I mentioned in March's post, this was something that was occurring right as the month was ending. Well, I am happy to say, it is officially done. We have our photographer hired and have even set up a time to do engagement photos/save the dates--puppies included!! I am so pleased with my decision and excited to work with her!!

Bridesmaid Dresses ü
Yes! It is true, we have our bridesmaid dresses ordered already!! I am SO relieved that we have this done and taken care of, I can't even explain. The girls and I went on "the hunt" a few weekends ago and after a few "iffy" experiences, ended up with the dress they will all wear! Every single one of them looked BEAUTIFUL in it and I'm positive they will all look stunning on the day of the wedding! My secret?? I'm thinking of ordering the same one, in white, to wear to rehearsal dinner! (I will post about our shopping experience later this week)

Guest Addresses ü
I have finally started the daunting task of rounding up guest addresses. I am truly a child of modern society and do not even own an address book--my grandma would be so ashamed. Heck, now that I think about it, I don't even know her address! So with that, I have NO information on anybody! I am literally going through our guest list organizer and tracking down people and trying to get their addresses one letter at a time, one free moment at a time. This has definitely proved to be annoying, harder than anticipated, and lesson-teaching!

Marriage Counseling ü
Being Catholic, it is mandatory that each couple who wishes to get married in the church goes through "marriage counseling." So, this past month, Ryan and I started our journey doing this. I will post more about this another time instead of boring you all with it now, but it has certainly been interesting discussing everything from finances to hanky panky. I was SO nervous to go in for our first one, but with our last session right around the corner, I can honestly say I've looked forward to the meetings since and have learned a little along the way.

I think that about wraps it all up for April. I am happy with what has been accomplished this month in the wedding world and looking forward to what I can get done in May (right before summer hits). ....only 8 more months to go!

My BIG thanks this month definitely goes out to my bridesmaids--they have all been amazing in helping me with everything and giving up their Saturday's to go dress shopping and doing various other wedding things; I don't know what I would do without them!

Click here for the rest of my wedding updates

...IN A LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH SPRING.

Just a few pictures from this weekend....

Seriously the brightest rainbow I've ever seen!

I LOVE this picture!

take 1...

take 2....

take 3....got it!

Dezi before we left for the day; she was so sad she couldn't go this time :(

We didn't do anything too exciting this weekend, as you can tell by the pictures :).  Friday night we chose to stay in, grill out for supper, and get caught up on some television and rest. We spent the night lounging around in sweats and going to bed abnormally early, but it was oh-so-relaxing.

Saturday afternoon, after being slow to get around, we headed to DM to run some errands. I needed to order my bridesmaids' dresses, return a pair of shorts, look for moisturizer, stuff like that; Ryan needed a new pair of earrings and some Double Douzies--really. We ran all of our errands in a few hours, got some takeout Chinese for supper, and headed back home. The skies looked clear when we took off but about half way home we ran into a terrible storm! Naturally, I was freaking out and thinking every leaf being blown was a sign of a tornado, while Ryan was certain it was just a light spring shower! Pssht. Anyway, through the storm we got to see the most beautiful rainbow I've ever seen! It was totally worth it!

I've been fighting a cold for a few days and it finally won last night. I woke up today feeling like I'd been run over, so we hung around the house again today, spending the afternoon/evening doing laundry, getting groceries, and watching television--did anyone else get goosebumps hearing that Mark and Bopper weren't getting eliminated?! We also fried fish for the first time ever--how healthy.

And that was our weekend. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend--maybe some of you were lucky enough to get caught up on sleep AND errands like ourselves.

**Wordless Wednesday**

....25!!!!!!

Can you see my crow's feet, wrinkles on my forehead, or gray hair? :)

Yes, it is true; I am a whopping 25 years old--a quarter century!! I am officially too old to be on The Real World, too old to be caught purchasing Cosmo magazine, and too old to go to the Iowa City bars, but just old enough to rent a car and still young enough to stay on my parents insurance--winning!

I was a lucky girl this year in that I got to share my birthday with the resurrection of Jesus. Yes, my birthday was on Easter this year. To some, this may be a complete downer, but I was pretty excited about it personally. I mean, I got to see the majority of my family, dress like an Easter egg, and have multiple celebration meals--the majority of them were for Easter, but I like to say they were actually for my birthday. :) Easter/my birthday was pretty special!!

So...how did I celebrate? Where did I celebrate? And who did I celebrate with?

Thursday

Lets start with Thursday--afterall, it WAS "birthday weekend" all weekend! Thursday night a couple girls asked me to go to dinner with them. Feeling absolutely exhausted, I told them I had on workout clothes and no makeup and wasn't really in the mood, but after a few arm twists, they finally convinced me to get out. I didn't plan on staying out long, but after a couple drinks and no dinner, I was in it for the long haul. I spent the rest of the evening/night chatting away and talking about nonsense all while convincing myself I would be ok in the morning.

Friday

Then Friday morning came and I was definitely was regretting my decision to stay out all night. I spent the better part of Good Friday lounging around and catching up on TV shows--what I'm best at, then spent the afternoon trying to decide what to do (if anything) that evening. I knew one of my besties was coming home later that day and I HAD to get my butt in gear.

After a few texts from the girls telling me to get ready for "birthday weekend round 2" and another friend telling me to "bite the dog that bit me," a few of us ended up getting around and heading uptown for dinner. (Ryan chose to forego dinner and take a nap as he had only gotten a few hours of sleep the night before.) To our surprise, it seemed that ALL of our friends were already up there, or in the process of getting there. It was absolutely packed and there was only one table left--it was calling our names! The girls and I ended up getting some dinner, having my cousin meet us up there, and then having a few birthday drinks. Later in the evening, we even convinced my bff to get out of BED and come up for awhile!

We spent the better part of the night at one place, and then headed over to another to meet the rest of our friends and indulge in some #birthdayweekend champagne--that really happened. Ryan came and got us later that night and I stayed up super late talking to my cousin before finally calling it a wrap and heading to bed--I had a big day planned for the next day.

Saturday

Ryan and I had made reservations in IC for my birthday supper several weeks previous. We had planned to spend the afternoon up there (or is it over?) doing various things, then go to dinner, then come home. Well a couple weeks after making reservations, we got asked if a pretty little girl (who I like to refer to as my flower girl) could spend the night with us. I had said yes, obviously, assuming we wouldn't get home too late, but the more and more I thought about it,the more and more I figured we probably should just stay closer to town to make it easier on all of us.

Well, when Saturday finally rolled around and I rolled over in bed to look at Ryan, he just KNEW I didn't feel like heading up there . It is a LONG car ride and quite frankly, "biting the dog that bit me" only lead me to feeling like I had been devoured not bitten! Also, with Faye coming, it just didn't seem to fit the equation anyway. So with that, I voted against IC and immediately called to cancel our reservations while trying to figure out what to do instead. I opted to spend the afternoon at home and then run to DM for a few things (that didn't require me putting myself together) and then spending the evening at home. That is exactly what we did.

We ran a few errands, ordered P.F. Chang's takeout for dinner, got home, and spent the evening in--a far cry from what I had originally planned but oh-so-perfect. We hung out on the couch watching tv and talking and laughing at Faye while she played with the puppies for HOURS. Bella certainly got a run for her money in the energy department and Faye was quite amazed that they would "sit" on command for her. It was fun watching her play but we all had to get to bed early--the Easter bunny was coming in the morning and I had to be ready to celebrate my actual birthday!

Sunday (My birthday/Easter)

Sunday morning we all woke up, had breakfast, and laid around for awhile watching Faye's new Barbie movie that the Easter bunny had brought her. We had originally planned on going to mass that morning but our lack of getting up early and getting around ruled that out--no excuse, I know. At about 10 we finally decided we needed to get ready to head to Grandma's if we at least wanted to make it to that! This is quite the process when it's more than just Ryan and I getting ready; our bathroom is about as big as a linen closet.

We all got dressed in our Sunday best and headed to Grandma's around noon. The entire family wasn't there but there were a few of us. My cousins who didn't plan on coming even showed up to say hi to everyone. We all had lunch, chatted, and took a bunch of pictures before we said bye to everyone and headed out to Ryan's parents--once again, holidays ARE a juggling act. We didn't eat lunch here, as we had just eaten a big meal, but got to chat a bit and watch baseball with the fam...Easter at its finest :).

Ryan kept teasing me all day saying I was the best fiance in the world because I was going to spend my birthday on the golf course with him--I know he was just kidding (kind of) but once out at his parents, I got a little antsy and was ready to enjoy the weather so IIII asked HIIIIM if he wanted to go out there for a few holes. We said goodbye to everyone and headed to the country club. To our surprise, it was dead there and we got through several holes rather quickly but I soon started to get cold and even wrapped in Ryan's Northface, I told him I couldn't stay out there much longer--I felt like an ice sickle. We called it a wrap and headed back home to relax for a little bit before heading to my birthday dinner (yes, it really was my birthday dinner) with my parents.

We spent the evening with my parents having dinner at the resort, my favorite restaurant, and celebrating Easter and my birthday. My mom gave us a cute little Easter basket that was filled with Easter things and my birthday gifts. So cute! After dinner and desserts, this birthday girl and Ryan were ready to head back home to the puppies and our television!!

It was quite the busy day/weekend--I am SO blessed to have so many people I got to share it with!! I hope you all enjoyed Easter as much as I did!!

Funny story: Faye was really poking and prodding about the Easter bunny Saturday night; she was concerned that there was no chimney for him to come down, meaning he might not remember she was at our house. We assured her that he finds a way to get in, just as Santa Clause does. Then, as she went to bed, she asked to keep her bedroom door open and said "I hope the dogs bark at him so I can catch him!" :) It was so cute. She fell asleep right away and coincidentally, the dogs DID bark when they heard commotion--I could have killed them! (Luckily, I don't think she heard a thing.) The next morning after getting her gifts she wanted to go outside and see if the Easter Bunny had left any tracks haha. She was looking all around the house and out the window to see if she could see anything. Ooooh the innocence.

Birthday flowers that the girls got me

My parents and I that afternoon!

My Easter lillies that Ryan got me Friday afternoon. They REALLY blossomed this weekend!!

#birthdayweekend

Me on my birthday with my b-e-a-utiful flowers

The flowers from the girls again...isn't the note cute?! I can't believe they wrote that :)

Getting ready to leave...I don't think they were ready for the picture haha whoops!

My birthday/Easter outfit I was SOOO excited to wear!! Ryan kept telling me I "looked like an Easter egg" though. :)

Miss Faye in her Easter dress

Ryan and I Easter morning

Miss Faye and I, getting ready to head to Grandma's

They smelled sooo good!!

I know some people might be completely down about the fact that they are turning 25 (or even older), but I have absolutely no shame in it! I don't look at it as what I haven't accomplished in these 25 years, although I swore I would quit picking my nails 17 years ago; or where I thought I would be compared to where I actually am, I always figured I'd be married with a plethora of kids by now. Instead, I view it as being able to celebrate another year of this crazy life, being one step closer to all those dreams I haven't yet reached, and being alive and healthy--which I sometimes take for granted! So happy 25 to me!!

**Wordless Wednesday**

...WILL YOU BE MY FLOWER GIRL?

As you may have noticed in my earlier posts, I officially have my entire wedding party picked out--flower girl included. And as I posted before, I tried to think of meaningful ways to ask each person instead of just the norm (click here). This held true when it came to my flower girl too. I had already asked her awhile back to be my flower girl; actually, I had probably asked her before I was even engaged, but I had never asked her officially until just recently.

After going back and forth on what to do for her, I finally decided I should do something involving stuffed animals--she is in LOVE with stuffed animals and her mom says they are overtaking her room!! But just what, I wasn't sure. I started snooping around on the internet and suddenly it dawned on me...I should make her a Build-A-Bear dressed in flower girl clothing. I immediately got on their website and discovered they didn't have flower girl apparel, (what store would?) but did have a bridal collection. I figured that was close enough and I could figure it out when I got there.

I headed up to Build-A-Bear that following weekend and walked straight towards the clothing. They DID have in the bridal collection in, but it almost seemed too off key to me; the set came with a dress, a veil, a garter, and a bouquet. Not satisfied, I started looking around a little more and finally stumbled across this little white dress with a tulle bottom and flowers on the top half. It came with a cross necklace and a veil that could be attached to the back of the dress to make it more full or the head--perfect. I picked that up and then began searching for the bear itself.

After going back and forth for quite awhile, I finally chose Brittany from Alvin and the Chipmunks (Faye loves this movie) instead of a traditional bear, praying she didn't already have one! I built the bear and headed out the door, knowing I needed a few more things to complete her attire--what's a flower girl without a basket and flowers?!

After a couple more stops, Brittany's attire was complete...She had a flower girl dress, white ribbons in her hair, a basket, and flowers!

Brittany!

Faye with Brittany Easter morning

I was more than satisfied with her outcome and thought she was THE cutest thing ever. I put her back in her box and slipped a note in her basket and waited until Ryan and I would see Miss Faye to give her the gift. After receiving it, she was more than thrilled. She smiled ear-to-ear and informed us that she didn't have a Brittany yet but had been wanting one...perfect. She is THE sweetest little girl and I am so glad she said "yes!" to being in our wedding :) We can't wait.

....SPRINGING ON SUNDAY :)

The weather here the last few days has been absolutely, positively, nothing short of wonderful! It has been SO warm and SO sunny we have all been soaking it up!!

Ryan spent the first half of the day (yesterday) at the golf course, while I stuck around home and did a few things. After he got home, we decided to take the girls to the lake for a walk. Not only is it more scenic, but we also wanted to check out the water levels and the beaches and what better way than to make it a family outing?

Here are a few pictures I took...

It made for a fun afternoon and we were all worn out when we got back home. The girls were so sandy and smelled like lake water so bad that I stuck them in the shower with me one at a time to clean them off...unconventional, but it worked. :)

I hope you are all enjoying this b-e-a-utiful weather as well!!

...POPPING THE QUESTION!! :)

After deciding who I wanted to be in my wedding party, the next decision was how exactly I wanted to ask them. I wanted to do something special for the girls, something that made it seem like I cared versus just sending a card or even just asking over lunch, but I wasn't exactly sure what. I had seen something on Pinterest where a bride had used ringpops (the candy) to ask her bridesmaids and though I thought that was cute, It definitely would not have been my from own heart.

So I started the process by looking for a cute gift as the main idea, aside from ringpops. I looked all over the internet and in wedding magazines and nothing really stuck out. Finally, I was online one day looking at these wine glasses that were custom made and it dawned on me--that would be the perfect gift for my bridesmaids, if only the lady could customize them the way I needed! I immediately emailed the business who makes them and asked everything I needed to know. To my surprise, I got a response back that same night and the lady making them said she thought she could do what I had asked and quoted me a price--it was that easy! I sent out all the information needed the next day (names, colors, etc.) and within a few short weeks I had these!

I chose the colors blue and white as those are our wedding colors (along with silver). Each glass has swirls all over it, and then on one side, a dress, with the initial of the girl on it. On the back side, written in cursive, the glass reads "Will you be my bridesmaid?" On the bottom of the glass it has the girls name written out and also has swirls all over it. I thought they turned out wonderful!

After receiving them, I went to Target and bought blue shredded paper, gift baggies, and Hershey Hugs-n-Kisses. I stuffed the shredded paper down in the glass about half way, then put the gift baggie in and filled it with the candy. I then tied it off with gold or silver ribbon hanging off the top. I thought filling the glass this way was the perfect way to make it look full, since I obviously couldn't send them a glass full of wine :)

With that being complete, I started thinking of something small to add to it, that reiterates the fact that they not only mean a lot to me, but also that I want them beside me on my special day. Finally, I was laying in bed one night and literally just started typing away on my phone. I was starting over and editing, starting over and editing, and finally I ended up writing this...

Once satisfied, I saved it as an email until I could think of what to actually do with it! The next day I thought of making magnets, maybe just putting it in a card, and then finally I thought of turning it into a bookmark. I used bookmarks all through college in my text books, in my cookbooks at home, and since I'm from the stone ages, I even use them in my leisure reading books to this day, so I figured "Hey, this could be something they would look at all the time AND be able to make use of."

I dragged Ryan to a few scrapbooking stores the following week and ended up buying all the paper and ribbons needed and got to work! I have to admit, I didn't go with the theme colors, although that would have looked better, simply because this leopard print paper was too cute to pass up! I ended up printing them, piecing them together, laminating them, and finishing them off with ribbon the following week.



I changed them all a little bit, depending on which girl it was going to..."BCF" is what my cousins and I call ourselves; it's like BFF but Best Cousins Forever...silly, right? :)

I then tied them to the top of the wine glass and wrapped them up in pretty tissue paper. Finally, to make each more individual, I finished off each gift with a card made specifically for each bridesmaid. I told them how much they mean to me and how thankful I am to have each and every one of them in my life.

Finally, I was ready to give them each their gifts. I was so excited to give them to each of the girls, that I could hardly contain myself--I wanted to tell SOMEONE. Of course, the people I wanted to tell ALL ABOUT THEM were the ones who would be receiving them though, so I had to keep quiet for a few weeks as I found the time to give each theirs. Finally, after they all got theirs, I was more than happy with the outcome!! The girls seemed to really enjoy them and one friend in particular (my bestie) said she couldn't quit smiling for two days and her whole family kept asking what was going on with her haha. So cute! My sister couldn't stop crying for 20 minutes when she opened hers! :)

If anyone reading this has been a bride, I would LOVE to hear what you did for your bridesmaids!! Were you as excited to ask them as I was?!

I just recently got asked to be the Maid of Honor in a friends wedding also!! (So excited!) Here is how she asked!! Now share YOUR stories and ideas with me! I'd love to hear how you asked your bridesmaids/maid of honor!!

**You can find the rest of my wedding planning/proposal things here
**See how I asked my flower girl here