And we're married :)

Well, I am officially a married woman and it feels great! My hubby is amazing and I'm so glad I have him for life now! We got back from the honeymoon almost a week ago now and we've been very busy merging our lives together lol.

The wedding was wonderful! It was such a whirlwind though that I can't wait to see the video so I can see it all. There were people that were apparently there that I never saw lol. It was incredible to have everyone you love at the same place even if it was for a brief moment in time.
It's been fun talking to everyone about their experiences from the day. You prepare so long for this one day and it's over in a flash! Well I guess all I need to remember is I was the happiest I've ever been and the whole day was beautiful (even the rain)

Honeymoon was awesome as well, but that will be a separate post. For now, I'll just leave with you with a few edited pics I created on picnik.

Blah...

Woke up this morning with a sore throat and as the day is progressing, I'm feeling worse by the hour. I know its because of all this stress with the wedding in 8 days. However, I'm thankful this isn't happening a week from now or on the honeymoon no less! Just trying to down some vitamin C and rest up. Nothing too exciting to update.

Only thing getting me through is knowing I will be laying out here in 10 days.

And sleeping here...lol okay a little sleeping ;)

Speaking of, I had my bachelorette party and it was a blast! Got lots of fun things. I pretty much packed those things I received, swimming suits, and a few fun dresses. That's all I need right? lol

Fun Things

Our ceremony fan programs!

Altho I really wanted to do these myself, my loved ones convinced me that it was too much work so I found a lady online who will do them! And boy am I thankful I'm not stressing about these right about now.


For Justin's Bachelor party, his best man (and wife) made this adorable polo for him!

And here are some cute matches we had made for the sparkler sendoff! lol it sounds so official! When we're ready to leave for the honeymoon, probably around 9:30 we're going to have sparklers and matches for people to light.

Here is my inspiration pic.

Here are the cute little birds nest and jordan almonds that will go at every place setting. Love em!

This weekend I have my final dress fitting and my bachelorette party! I'm getting excited!!

Hair Trial

Last weekend, I had my hair and make-up trial. It went pretty good for the most part...except the lady kind of made me look like a clown with all of the lipsticks she was trying on me.

I loved how the hair turned out tho!

Before the make-up

After (without any lipstick on)

I'm not posting the clown pictures on here because they are too embarrassing!

2 weeks from tomorrow I'll be doing this for real!! CRAZY!

Progress :)

So, I've been so busy with getting stuff done, I've hardly had time to blog about it all!

I just finished the photo sharing cards to put on the tables.

It amuses me that all the pics I pick out of the two of us, I have him in a choke hold. :0)

The current project is working on these centerpieces. A 1/3 will be tall vases but the other 2/3 will be short and look like this with different pictures of the two of us laminated and floating in water with a floating candle on top. I love the idea and I'm sooo excited!

Okay now I need opinions. This is (I think my new) rehearsal dinner dress. I went tanning yesterday in this really high powered bed and I feel like a new person! haha cant wait to get rid of this pastiness. This dress cuts off at the knees, J just didn't get it all in the pic.

This is the orginal one. I feel like its cute, just not fancy enough for rehearsal dinner. I don't know? Funny thing is that this dress cost twice as much as the above white one. Ah well...

More to come, have lots more projects/pics to share with you!

Pampered Chef Shower

I had my first wedding shower two weeks ago for all the Iowa people. It was a Pampered Chef Shower and sooo much fun! We got lots and lots of goodies too-Now we can get rid of both of our nasty hand me down kitchen pots and utensils!

Everything was so adorably decorated with blues and browns and check out these amazing little chocolate brownie bites things!


Here we are with our adorable little waitresses for the evening! Sad thing is I'm wearing 3 in heels and Logan is almost as tall as me still!

I got an apron with every one's names on it and then had to go up and put together the trifle (which I did NOT know about) It was a little nerve wracking considering I don't know how to cook or even hold a knife! But I thought it turned out delicious!

And of course we had to play the Newlywed Game. People tended to guess we would do better than we actually did, but it was still fun! I was asked what my favorite TV show the year we met, which was 1993. I'm not sure if I was even allowed to watch TV back then but I said My little Pony and then changed it to Carebears. When Justin was back in the room, they asked him what I would say and he said "Carebears, but a close 2nd is My little pony" Lol that was just a lucky one tho, the other ones we botched!

We closed our show and got all of our stuff within 2 days! Now, just finding room for it all in our tiny kitchen!

Tuxes!

We FINALLY have decided on tuxes. They are a light khaki with a linen look to them. The groomsmen, fathers, and ushers will be wearing these as well. Originally we were going to have the groomsmen just wear khakis and white shirts, but that was a big hassle. Sooo, everyone will match now! Pretty nice looking eh?

And we put down our final payment for the honeymoon! Woo hoo- cant wait to go here!

44 days

I am a little over my head in DIY things. Here is a list of do-it-yourself things I still need to do.

Programs

Seating Table/Table #'s
Centerpieces for ballroom & outside deck

Guest book (snapfish one)

Favors

Welcome bags for out of towners

Table runners

Aisle runner

Frames of Heirloom wedding pics

Treat bags

AGH!

Did I mention that there are 44 days? No? Okay, just clarifying. 44 DAYS!!!! My goodness where has time gone?

On a good note, invites are out! That's about all I can say is accomplished. Here's a pic of my Iowa girls helping me tie the little bows. Sorry I didnt get a pic but Lins & Case helped lots too!

Here's a pic of Mom & Cory having a fashion show in our dresses. I cant put any pics up of all 3 of us because I dont want J to see my dress but arent the two of them cute?




Close up of the dresses

And just for fun. This is Spud & Justin "Preparing for Marriage" (our premarital counseling book)

And this is what happens when you give Spud a pillow to lay on and leave him in his kennel lol oh well...

We finally went to Target to register earlier today. It was definitely fun, but when were burned out, they wouldnt let us leave because of tornado warnings and high winds so we had to power through and finish. We were there for probably 3 hours! I told J I wouldnt mind living in Target (much better than Walmart) ;)

We also have our first shower on Sunday in Iowa! It's a Pampered Chef one though so we dont actually have to open gifts, we just get to eat and have people decide what they want to get us lol!

Internet hasnt been working, but I know that's not a good excuse for not posting! I'll try to do better!

My first rut

So, I think I've hit my first blogging rut. I'm sorry it has been a while since I've updated. It's not that wedding things haven't been going on, but I've just been too tired from planning to post anything!

I received all of my invites this week. Well, let me rephrase that. I received all of the paper for my invites, all blank and beautiful. Why did I have to decide to be a DIY bride?! Lol, I'm excited to do them, it will just be a lot of work and am always recruiting people so let me know if you want to help! They have to be out in 6 days :) Yup, gotta love the DIY!

On another note, Justin saw the Ramada a few days ago and loved it! (Thankfully) We met with the new wedding planner and was relieved to find she was more organized than the first one! We're doing a few off the cuff, unexpected things and I'm very very excited for them! Did I mention how much I love my venue?!

This is us at our cermony site, where we'll say "I do"

We also met with the cake lady (Patti Cake- lol that name cracks me up) and decided on a cake. I'm pretty sure we have the most random cake. The flavors are the following: white, amaretto with raspberry, chocolate with fudge, and carrot cake with cream cheese. Nice combo huh? I'm such a people pleaser, even with my cake choice!





We're meeting with the florist on Monday and then all we have left to meet with is the DJ. It's actually coming all together, it's a little big scary!





I'm also borrowing the vases from Lindsays reception (Thanks Lins!) to use maybe as centerpieces in the ballroom or on the deck tables, they're SWEET and TALL!





Okay, enough with the random details. Leave me some love so I can be motivated to keep blogging! I don't want to burn out after only a month lol!

Shopping is dangerous

So I've been shopping for the past few days for wedding things. It's very dangerous and addicting but don't worry I use lots of coupons!

Here are the centerpiece ideas I had. I'm trying to save money by not using flowers for centerpieces but we'll see when I meet with the florist. For now, this is just an idea, but i like it lots. Maybe I'll get a floating candle and put it in there.

My first DIY project! I saw this picture of the " I DO" letters on the cake table and they were soo cute! Here's the before:

After:

See aren't they cute?

Here's my splurge! I used a 40% coupon so it really wasn't that bad. But I LOVE IT! It's an antique looking birdcage for people to put cards in. I can just picture it outside the ceremony site now!

And just because they match soo stinking well: Thank you cards


In addition to getting my rehearsal dinner dress, shower dress, and engagement outfit, I also got my wedding shoes!

And my earrings. Like that $12 dollar pricetag lol? Funny story...I showed Justin these and he said "Ah, I don't want to see them" He's so cute about not wanting to see or know anything about what I'll look like that day.

That's all for now!

Honeymoon...CHECK!

So today Justin and I went to the travel agent and finally got our honeymoon taken care of. It is such a relief to have that taken care of. We were looking at a few resorts in Mexico that our travel agent had just visited. We were excited and even though she said they were steals at $1450/person, it was beyond our price range and were dreading having to pay the extra money.

Then she noticed something on her computer and she just kept shaking her head, saying she couldn't believe it. She thought the price was for sure an error at $993/person. She said she's never seen it that low to one of the best resorts in Cancun, all inclusive, with cancellation insurance, airfare, and flu-free guarantee (where they give you 3 free vacations if you get swine flu)

She called to make sure the price was correct and the guy said it seemed crazy but if that's what it said, we should put down the deposit and guarantee the price. So we did, and we are for sure going to Cancun (well 15 miles south) for our honeymoon :) we're pretty excited!!

The resort has 8 restaurants we can eat at and 8 pools!
Okay, want to see the link now? Here it is

Wedding Song

I thought I would explain Justin and I's wedding song and the meaning of my blog title (which coincidentally happen to be the same thing) Imagine that...lol
The song is called, "Then" by Brad Paisley and I am in love. Seriously. Okay, well the first 50 times I heard it on the radio, I teared up. But not anymore. Because it's played A LOT on country radio. Still, it doesn't change how I feel about it. And in the moment in 74 days, I'm sure I will bawl. Another reason Brad Paisley needs to be involved is because he was there for our engagement with his song "Wrapped around" so it only feels right that he is here for this!

So go here and listen... http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.artistalbums&artistid=12062261&ap=0&albumid=11203861


I remember, trying not to stare the night that I first met you
You had me mesmerized
And three weeks later, in the front porch light taking forty-five minutes to kiss goodnight
I hadn't told you yet but I thought I loved you then

And now you're my whole life
now you're my whole world
I just can't believe the way I feel about you, girl
Like a river meets the sea, stronger than it's ever been.
We've come so far since that day
And I thought I loved you then

And I remember, taking you back to right where I first met you,
You were so surprised
There were people around, but I didn't care
Got down on one knee right there once again,
I thought I loved you then

I could just see you, with a baby on the way
And I could just see you, when your hair is turning gray
What I can't see is how I'm ever gonna love you more
But I've said that before

And now you're my whole life now you're my whole world
I just can't believe the way I feel about you, girl
We'll look back someday, at this moment that we're in
And I'll look at you and say
And I thought I loved you then

This pic is from the summer we ran into each other again and a few months before we started dating. Strange enough, both of us said that this night that we had an unexplainable feeling when we were around each other. It's hard to explain unless you've felt it lol

Anyways, I'm just soo happy I'm this blessed to be marrying my best friend who I've known since I was 5. I mean how many people get to say that? He is amazing and I thank God everyday for placing him in my life!

Registering = my new favorite thing

Yesterday, Justin and I went to register for gifts. We had put this off because we felt like we didn't need very much and we are cheap people. But we went up the road to Bed, Bath & Beyond and it was amazing! We were there for over 2 hours because it was just that much fun! We got a lot accomplished too. My favorite part was about halfway through when our lady sat us in the massaging chairs and gave us bottled water. It was a much needed break!

Picking out items made us think about how we want to change the house. With this long weekend coming up, we may get a head start on painting/redecorating since I wont be here that much this summer and school will start a week after returning from the honeymoon.

I would love to paint over the tiny red bathroom with something lighter. And I think we're going to change the light green bedroom to a light brown and blue (surprise surprise).

On another note, I ordered a sample invite that should be coming in the mail in a few days. I love them, so hopefully they are as cute in person! And we also have an appointment with a travel agent on Tues so hopefully the honeymoon will get booked soon.

Honeymoon

Ok, so we still have no idea what we're doing. Justin and I's requirements are the following:

• It needs to be warm, by a beach.

• It needs to be out of the hurricane belt. (I'm paranoid since Aaron & Amanda's honeymoon was canceled because of a hurricane)

• It can't be Mexico (Ick..swine flu).

Suggestions??
Do we need a travel agent? I'm so overwhelmed...
Do we book now? Or wait for a deal to come by?

Bridal party attire

Here are the Bridesmaids dresses. I am in love with them! I'm thinking about picking one up for myself in a different color maybe. They even have pockets! And the good thing is all of the bridemaids love them and will wear them again, which I really wanted them to do.

I still have no idea what to do for shoes. My mom said no flip-flops so I'm trying to find a cute, simple flat or sandal in either brown or silver? Or we could go with the whole very casual mood and have the bridal party go barefoot. What do you think?

Here are the guy's ensemble. Figuring out what they should wear has been the most trouble! I think we finally nailed it down. We bought these ties this past weekend at an outlet mall in Aurora- They're really nice Italian silk and they match the girl's "pool" perfect! All the guys will wear the same khakis, white shirt and this tie. Justin, though, will wear a khaki-ish suit as well as the dad's. I'm thinking it will look pretty hot lol ;)

So here's another big check that I'm pretty excited for ;) This next week I'm going to tackle the honeymoon and invitations...wish me luck!

Proposal story

So I realized that not everyone may know about the proposal story (ahem..Steph) So here we go...

First off, I'll share about how long it took for Justin to ask my father for my hand in marriage! This was one of the funniest things they shared with me about all the lies they had told me over the previous months. Justin had bought the ring in November and came home with me to see all my family at Thanksgiving. He had called my dad the day before to ask him to go out to breakfast. At that time, my dad knew what must be coming. Casey took me out for coffee in the morning so I wouldn't know the two of them were going to breakfast. However, at breakfast Justin could not find the courage to ask him. My dad was waiting for it the entire meal so when he didn't ask he told my mom that maybe Justin just wanted to go to breakfast.
In the afternoon of that same day, Justin was going to ask him when they were out chopping wood. However, my brother Ryan decided to join them and Justin thought it wouldnt be a good idea to ask him while the dad and the brother had axes in their hands!
So, finally that night when my dad was going to go pick up pizza for dinner, Justin jumped out of his seat and volunteered to go along. Finally, as they were pulling back into our subdivision, Justin finally asked his permimssion to marry me. My dad said later that it looked like the weight of the world had been lifted from Justin's shoulders when he finallly got the words out. Of course, my dad said yes!

It was the weekend of finals week in December. On Friday, I was completely exhausted from the previous week of studying and was very upset that my parents had called and said they were coming to visit that weekend for some "last minute Christmas shopping". A visit from my parents includes a top to bottom cleaning of the condo and it was currently a mess due to my negligence of the intense previous week of studying. Saturday, I was supposed to babysit all day anyways so I did not see a point to them visiting. Meanwhile, they were scheming behind my back, planning a way for them to be in Iowa to share my meaningful night!
The family I babysit for changed plans so I would be off earlier so Justin called me and suggested that we go for a walk in the park with Spud. It was a beautiful day and big snowflakes slowly started to fall. It was the first pretty snow of the season so I was so excited! During the walk, Justin was being very romantic, and I thought it was odd. He asked me what I wanted for Christmas and was slightly aggitated that he hadn't even thought about it 5 days before Christmas!
After the walk, Justin took me over to his parents house for hot cocoa where my parents had just arrived. Justin's dad asked us all if we would mind watching a video he had made for a marriage conference for church. This was not unusual, I do this for his dad frequently so when the video began, I started criticizing the size of the font! Instead of a church video however, Justin had made a video of pictures of him and I with Brad Paisley's song "Wrapped around her finger". I was so confused because I had made a video of us to a different Brad Paisley song that I was planning on giving to him for Christmas. He had pictures from my camera on the video and the entire time I'm confused and keep looking at everyone to see what's going on. I did not expect a proposal for at least 3 more months. I thought I would be able to predict when it was coming because I knew he couldn't slip away for 1/2 day and go ask my dad. I still had no idea that Justin would propose until the very end of the video when the words..."Christi, will you marry me" popped on the screen. He got down on one knee. Meanwhile, I'm peaking around him to read the tv screen again and am saying "Nu huh" "You are not doing this!" When I finally shut up, he asked me to marry him. There is a video of my reaction to prove just how shocked I was.