Reception Venue Changed

So after a lot of thought we decided to change our reception venue. Our original venue was about 25 minutes from my church which isn't too bad but it's in a some what unfamiliar area even to me, some who grew up around Annapolis. Since my church is right in downtown Annapolis we opted for the Annapolis Yacht Club. At first I wasn't too sure but now I am very happy!

The Annapolis Yacht Club is literally 2 blocks from my church right at the end of the street, so we figured this would be much more convenient for our out of town guests and it would alleviate the need for everyone to drive because they can walk from hotel to church to reception. Plus it will feel like a real Annapolis wedding being right on the water and with lots of boats!

The reception will be in the Skip Jack room and on the Skip Jack Deck. We are getting married at 1:00pm so we are having our reception right afterwards at 2:00pm. We will be doing heavy hors d' oeuvres and carving stations instead of a seated dinner (which will save us some $$).

Luckily I having navy blue and cream for my colors because since this is a yacht club it has a very preppy look to it, which is perfect for me.

I've added some pictures below! Enjoy :)

Skip Jack Bar

View from the deck

View from the deck

The deck (the sides will be up and the heaters will be removed since it will be August)

The Skip Jack Room

My Life in the Recession

So I was listening to NPR (national public radio) yesterday and they were talking about ways people have changed their lives in the past few months and they wanted listeners to write in and tell them about it. Well it got me thinking, Have I changed the way I make purchases/live my life since the DOW dropped 777 points about 4 months ago?

At first I thought, well not that much because I don't have that much to begin with but the more I thought about it the more I realized I really have changed. I don't know if I mentioned this before but K works in finance in Washington DC. He is in one of the most vulnerable jobs right now and has been working his tale off the past few months (ie: working until 10:30pm every night and traveling every other week). We didn't really start to make changes until his company laid off 10% of their work force in early Dec. (K was fine, praise the lord) but he watched senior level execs walk out of their offices with their heads hung low leaving behind everything they had worked so hard for and that is when it really sunk in that that could be him at any minute.

Since then we have completely slowed and/or stopped our spending on material goods that we don't need. I find myself avoiding the mall and shopping at Target, Kohls, Wal-Mart even more than I did before. I now have a rule that I only buy enough food for us to eat that week so nothing goes to waste. I used to say things like oh my gosh those pants are only $100, now I scour the final sale items and try save as much as I can. Because as we have learned you never know what could happen. We have savings so we're not super worried but still you never know, what if we lose our jobs at the same time or what if the savings don't stretch as far as we planned?

It's definitely been hard trying to plan my wedding as I watch the economy. It really makes me think twice before I splurge because I start thinking, I'm upset about whether or not I'm going to have the right food or flowers at my wedding while there are people out there losing their jobs and taking their families down with them.

So I was just wondering, has anyone else felt the pinch of this economy?

Snow is only cool if you're a student or a teacher

I used to live for snow. Now I dread it. Now when it snows instead of jumping back in bed and curling up under the covers I have to continue through my morning routine and then drive my little civic through the ice and snow. I don't know if anyone else drives a civic or small car but I barely made it out of my parking lot because my car didn't fit over a big pile of ice. That is right. I to scrap the bottom of my car over the ice pile. It was fun. Then I had to pray that on every turn I made my car didn't go sliding 3 lanes over.

Luckily I made it safely to work but I am dreading my commute home. Hmm this seems like another good reason to be a teacher :)

Jessica, Sweetheart, What are you wearing???

source

I don't care who you are, those jeans are not flattering and the double belt thing doesn't help either.
Where is her stylist? I also need to speak to Ken Paves I'm not a fan of her current hair style.

Honestly Speaking

I won a blog award, isn't that cool? Jane over at in the waiting line tagged me with the Honest Scrap Award! Thank You!

So here are the rules:
1. choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brillant in content or design
2. show the 7 winners names, link them on your blog, and leave a comment on their blog informing them they were prized with "Honest Scrap"
3. List at least 10 honest things about yourself

Here we go:

1. I love video games and computer games. I could sit and play them all day long. K bought me an old school video game system for xmas and I play tetris and super mario brothers 1 at least 3 times a week when I get home from work. I am a huge nerd. I know.

2. My entire top row of teeth are fake. I was born without 7 of my permanent teeth on top. I wore braces for 7 years and I used to wear a retainer with a tooth on it in high school, my friends would make so much fun of me, now I have veeners

3. I hate my job and I want to be a teacher. I'm in the process of figuring out how to do this

4. I love crime shows. My favorites are: Law & Order, CSI: Miami, City Confidential, The first 48, Cold Case Files. I especially love documentaries on unsolved murders.

5. I hate shaving my legs. It takes too long and I'm lazy, if you're lucky I shave them once a week

6. I never make my bed. Ever. I don't see the point I'm just going to get back in it 10 hours later.

7. I hate cleaning. When I have more disposable income I am hiring someone to clean for me. If I didn't care about appearances my house would never get cleaned. I hate vacuuming more so that is K's job.

8. I love to talk and I talk a lot. When I was little my mom said I would fall asleep in the middle of my stories. Now when I drink a little too much wine I tell long stories which my friend's refer to as Nat's long stories long

9. I am afraid of Whales. In psychology class in high school we had to make up a phobia. Mine was Free Willy-a-phobia: The fear of whales.

10. Pizza is my most favorite food on earth. I eat it at least 3x a week. I spent a week in Italy and I ate pizza for every single meal, not joking, every meal. The best pizza I've ever had was in Florence, Italy

It is going to be hard to pass this award along since most blogs I read already have the award so here are a few:
Making the Bride
Mrs. Preppy
Sarah and Melody at Historic Events

My Wedding Flowers

Hydrangeas, those are going to be my wedding flowers. I love them for many reasons, the first one being my parents have always had hydrangeas growing in their backyard and they were always my favorite flower. I just remember that the hydrangeas blooming always symbolized summer time, plus dried hydrangeas make great home decor. The second reason is that since the are so big, they take up lots of space meaning less flowers needed, more money saved :) As another money saver I would love to use the ones in my parents backyard, especially since they will be in season in August but we'll have to see how those blossom this summer.

My colors are going to be navy blue, light/ice blue, and ivory. So I would like to carry ivory/cream hydrangeas and have my bridesmaids carry blue hydrangea. Then I am thinking of doing blue and ivory center pieces. I am hoping to do DIY centerpieces and possibly bouquets... I will need to work on my craftyness (I don't even think that's a word) !

Here are some ideas :

Source: The Knot

"Offically" asking the maids

I'm been scouring the web for different and cute creative ways to ask my girls to be my bridesmaids. I couldn't really spend a whole lot of money because I am having 1 MOH and 9 bridesmaids. Yes, I know that is a lot, I've been told by many people but as I've said before K has a 4 brothers and wants to include friends too so 10 on each side is how it is going to work. So instead of spending money I came up with a nice heartfelt idea.

I bought these adorable photo cards below at Target and I am going to put a picture of myself and my bridesmaid in the card and then write a note about our friendship and ask them to be in my wedding. Many of the girls already know because we've talked about it before or I got to excited and slipped up! oops! But I'm excited to "offically" ask them to be in my wedding.

How did you ask your maid of honor and/or bridesmaids to be in your wedding?

Welcome to Washington, DC President Obama

I should be sleeping..

but I'm not. We had people over to watch the championship games so I stayed up to clean because I hate going to bed to a messy house. K is passed out on the couch downstairs, he was partying a little to hard during the Eagles game(sad loss) so I'm just going to leave him there for now, luckily tomorrow is a holiday and he gets Tuesday off because of the inauguration.

So instead of sleeping I've been browsing the web and came across J.Crew's new 2009 swim suit line and I'm in love with the suits below:

Ellora print bandeau tank with gold trim

I usually don't like one pieces but I LOVE this one!




Swimming starfish banded halter top

I LOVE starfish!!


Palace floral wideband halter top

I think this one would make me look tan :)

P.S. Do you recognize the model?? It's Mallory from Real World Paris!! haha

Tuesday

I have decided that Tuesday is my least favorite day of the week. It is just a really uneventful day, I mean you rarely look forward to a Tuesday. It's a day with no meaning. I mean at least Wednesday means the week is half over, Thursday is the day before Friday so by the end of Thursday you only have one day left in the week and well Friday is great because it's the end of the work week and the start of the weekend.
Mondays are usually pretty dreadful but mine are also usually busy since it's the start of the week so they go by quickly.
I don't even need to explain how wonderful Saturday and Sunday are, that's a given.

Well just think tomorrow is hump and the week will be half over!! :)

I have a church, a reception site, and a wedding dress...

So far this wedding planning stuff has been easy! Well not that easy but I've learned that if you want to have a wedding in 7 months you need to get on the ball and get your stuff done ASAP! Apparently I should have been doing all this stuff months ago! So our wedding date is set for August 29, 2009!

K and I are getting married at my family church St. Mary's in Annapolis. I will be honest with you and say K and I were a little hesitant about getting married in the church because we never go to church anymore, I know being busy is a bad excuse but we really are, Sundays are our 1 day to sleep in so it's so hard to drag ourselves out of bed to go. We both grew up Catholic and I went to Catholic school for 12 years and I immediately felt that Catholic guilt when we sat down to have the meeting with the priest about getting married there. I will say that even though the Catholic church is little old school in it's ideals our priest, Father Harrison, is awesome and super sweet like a grandpa so we're happy. Plus I completely forgot how gorgeous my church is I almost couldn't not get married there. We are a little nervous for pre cana though...

St. Mary's Church

The reception site we picked is Historic London Town Gardens in Edgewater, MD. It is one of the most affordable waterfront venues in the Annapolis area and the only Saturday they had available for the rest of the year was 8/29/09 so I felt like it was fate! (I know soo cheesy!)
The venue has an indoor pavilion with glass windows, a deck, a 40x40 area for a tent and then big open grass area that we'll probably scatter with cocktail tables. We will actually have access to 8 acres of gardens with walking trails that line the water, so it will be a good place for pictures and will give our guests something to do.

I am actually shocked that I found my dress! I will admit that I spent about double what I had planned to spend but I also got the dress for 65% off because it was a designer sample sale!! I also found out that the dress that I was in love with did not look good on me at all, which was a little depressing I must admit. I am so happy with the choice I made and I am even happier that I got it at a sample sale because let me tell you, wedding dresses are expensive. Actually weddings in general are turning out to be very expensive.
Here is the dress minus the unattractive jacket the model is wearing in the picture, I did not get the jacket!

Now that I got all the big stuff out of the way I can work on the fun stuff. I think as far as colors going we're working with navy blue, champagne, and ivory because my dress is a little bit more romantic than I had planned it to be.

Dilemma #1- The Guest List

Ok fellow bloggers, I need some help!!

So as I mentioned before K and I want to get married in Aug 2009. Well planning a wedding in 8 months puts a lot on constaints on what you can do because most places are already booked by now.

So my church is available on Aug 29th and I have found a venue (on the water that I love and is totally affordable) that is also available on this date, so perfect, right! Well no. The venue can hold 150 max but the event director said we could squeeze in 160 people. Well our guest list currently contains 195 people give or take. Basically Kyle comes from a huge family and I have a lot of family and friends that I couldn't imagine not having at my wedding.

We have already taken children off the list, which is currently killing my mother and have also taken off some dates for friends we know are single and most likely won't be bringing anyone. But I don't know what else to do. My mom thinks we should just invite that many people and count on people not coming, but I don't know if I'm comfortable with this.

Does anyone have any good advice?!?!!?!? I'm at a loss and completely freaking out because we have to decide on the venue by Friday b/c the event director is kindly holding it for us!! I don't wnat to cut people just to get a venue but I don't want to be stranded without anywhere for a reception!

2008: Year in Review

So it is officially 2009! I felt it was appropriate to recap my 2008, as this past year has been absolutely amazing!

Let's see, where should I begin! Well last February I left my job in property management/real estate the field I had worked for almost 3 years and took as job in corporate events. It is definitely different as I went from stressing out about people not paying rent and flooding apartments to stressing over whether or not the cake was going to arrive on time and were the tables cloths all the same color red? It has been very interesting and fun and has been challenging on a whole new level. The best part is that now I won't need a wedding planner because I pretty much know (almost!) everything I need to know to put on a good party.

Then in July of this past year K and I got the opportunity (thanks to my future sister-in-law's parents!) to go to Italy! This was my first trip to Europe and it was absolutely incredible. We stayed in a villa in a small town north of Florence. Florence was amazing the history and architecture are beautiful, I think it is one of the most beautiful cities on Earth. I would go back in a heartbeat! We also saw the David in person, I cannot even explain how magnificent this work of art is in person, see it if you get the chance. We also spent two days in Cinque Terre, which means the 5 lands and are 5 towns along the coast. These were beautiful also, of course everything in Italy is!! The pastel houses and buildings build right into the rugged rocks were gorgeous. Plus the water was amazing and refreshing since it was a sweltering 98 degrees the whole time we were there! I would love to go back to Europe there is so much more I want to see- maybe a good honeymoon?

The Duomo in Florence

Cinque Terre

Then K and I made one of the biggest decisions of our lives- we bought a house! Basically we were living right outside of DC in Bethesda, MD. Love, love, love this area and would love to move back to Montgomery county! The only problem EVERYTHING was out of our price range. Basically we had been thinking about buying vs renting just because it's a better investment of our money and K being a finance/accounting guy we only spend money when "it's a good investment." Well we couldn't find anything decent under half a million dollars and well that is just a little out of price range and I wasn't about to live in a one bedroom condo either. So we compromised and moved back to Anne Arundel county close to Annapolis (where I'm from) but still close to DC for K's job. We bought the most adorable townhouse that needed a lot of TLC but we got that taken care of and having been living here for 3 months. We love having our own house and our own space to do what we want with it.

Our House

Then last but certainly not least K and I got engaged!!! If you know me then you know I've been waiting for this diamond for a long time and I will say it was totally worth the wait! K and I dated for a long 5.5 yrs and people were starting to go crazy (myself included) wondering if we were ever going to make it "official" Well now we are and I cannot wait to start planning our wedding for 2009 but most importantly because I can't wait to start the next stage of our lives together.

Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009!!
I have to say I really can't complain as my past year has been truly amazing!! I really have so much to be thankful for! I cannot wait to see what the new year has in store for us!

Happy New Year Everyone!!