To Do List.

1. Finalize table linen rental order.
one of the stupidest things we've had to spend waaay too much money on.

2. Finish custom wedding cake topper.
pictures to come as soon as they're completed!

3. Talk with our caterer and awesome friend T about extra platters/dishes we need to buy.
going to do that in about an hour!

4. Cash a check work gave me as they took insurance money out of my paycheck, even though I paid it while I was on leave for my dislocated knee.
Apparently it was the first time it happened to anyone ever in the history of the company.
Lucky me?

5. PICK OUT MUSIC!!
Enough said.

6. Find some "must have" wedding photos, and show them to our photog. K.
I've seen some really cool ones, and some not so awesome ones. Eep!

7. Watch the Giants hopefully destroy the Marlins and end this four game series already!

Plus, ya know, 10,000 other things.


Until next time,

Sarah

Terms of engagement....or something.

Engagement rings are spreading around like wildfire these days.I have two friends who became engaged this year within a week and a half of eachother (one being my BFF and bridesmaid Jess) and today marks a third today.
Shella!

I knew when my phone didn't stop ringing at the crack of nine am this morning, it must have been important. It totally was.Shella and her now finance J, both work at a camp down in California. I guess each day they get a task list. Today, Shella's lead her on a trail of love notes from J, to the ending point of rocks spelled out "will you marry me?" SO ADORABLE! Also, Shella, please forgive me if I butchered your story in any way, as I was half alseep. Alsoalso, thanks for calling me ASAP!! Here is one of my favie fotos of them:


It gets even cooler! As thrilled as I was for them, Shella asked ME to be her maid of honor!!
Very exciting stuff, folks. Now all my bridesmaids are engaged, with the exception of my sister who will have been married for 20 years this August. Foo to anyone who says you're too young to get married. They were 18!

Until next time,

Sarah

Love.

So, while looking for some sort of filler for the ceremony (I swear if my brother/officiant points to me and N and says do you and do you? OK, then! I'll murder him with my bouquet*) I came across this poem posted via offbeatbride and I really liked it, becuase it sums up a lot of how I feel about N.

Love by Roy Croft
I love you
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.
I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.
I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find
I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple.
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.
I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good.
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwl. What do you think? Should we use it? HOW do we use it? Less than a month to go, squeeeeee!

Until next time,

Sarah

*I have complete confidence in my brother. If I didn't, I wouldn't have asked him to marry N and I in the first place. He just wouldn't stop making that ridiculous joke until I gave him an icy stare o' death. :)

What's in a playlist?

N and I are drawing a complete blank when it comes to music for our wedding reception.
We're having DJ iPod (in case you live under a rock, that means we'll just have an iPod hooked up, on a shuffling playlist) so we can pick exactly what to play......

.........but what do we play?!

We originally wanted to stick with fun hits from the 80's and 90's, preferably no songs about boots with da fur. However, when I get ready to get a list started, I draw a blank. I've tried iTunes searching and whatnot, but it seems like I get amnesia and can't remember what particular song I was trying to find.

So, any of you 6 readers out there, if you have ANY suggestions, please feel free to share. I don't think our guests would appreciate a 7 song playlist shuffle, no matter how good the tune.

Until next time,

Sarah

Soooo you DIDN'T want to look like a drag queen?

OK, so my make up trial wasn't that bad, but it made me realize I am just going to suck it up and do my make up myself. The woman who did my consultation was stick thin, and I kept getting the up and down looks from the fellow boutique employees (I had to go to work right after my appt., so I wore my uniform, which consists of white pants that are 3 sizes too big and a white button up shirt. Hawt, right?). But I was determined not to let them make me feel bad about myself. Which is stupid, but it seems like whenever I go to a place like that, I'm getting the third degree judgment looks. My artist, C, kept pushing the airbrush make up on me. No wonder, it's an extra 10 bucks, but it gives "great coverage, and makes you look flawless!" So I tried it. All I could smell was the airbrush on my skin. I don't know if it normally smells that way, but it was really hard for me to not gag. Also, I didn't see too much of a difference in my complexion. I'm very lucky in the way of having good skin.Then C put this HIDEOUS shade of blush on me, from the apple of my cheek almost all the way up to my ear, in a thin stripe. WHAT THE WHAT?!
"Oh, that's not a great shade for you, but we'll do it better next time."
DUH. I LOOK LIKE BOZO THE CLOWN.
In the beginning, I said I wanted a natural look. I barely wear make up, and didn't want to be one of those brides that no one recognizes because they look like they dunked their face in a bucket of eye liner and called it good.
I ended up with purple eyeshadow, clumpy lashes, and thick, smudgy eyeliner because I was too "flinchy." I would like to know how one does NOT flinch when their eyes are closed, and someone is stabbing at them with an angled brush.
Have I mentioned me and my sister both were blessed with the gift of under eye circles?
Thanks, Dad. Well, that was one of the main reasons I wanted my make up professionally done, so I could get perfect under eye coverage. That soooooooooooo didn't happen. I was very unimpressed.
I'll give it to her, the purple did bring the blue out in my eyes, and while I looked very glam, it just isn't me. I know some girls (and boys-lafayette!) can pull that off, but I'm not one of them.
I was originally excited when I left, but the more I thought about it, the more I was uncomfortable with the idea of walking around in this get up all day.
Work was awkward. I could hardly make eye contact with people without feeling like a jack-ass. I couldn't wait to get home and scrub my face in the shower til it returned to it's former self.
I bet you want pictures, don't you? Well, that's just too damn bad. I'll leave you with this though. Remember those pom poms I wanted to make? Well, here's how the first one turned out.
After four attempts, I decided it wasn't worth my time, ha ha! By the way, please forgive my flippy wonko bangs. It was early in the morning.

Until next time,
Sarah

Look what I made!

Feel free to Ooo and ahh all you like. These took me and my mom almost eight hours to make yesterday! Don't worry, there was a meal involved. We made 12 all together. My plan is to have them hang from the open space in the gazebo that N and I will be standing in front of during the ceremony. It'll be like a really pretty backdrop! Get for photos, I hope, I hope. We put little beads between each flower space for extra razzle-dazzle.



Maybe THAT'S why it took so long. Oh, well. I love it and think it was totes worth making. However, my weekend is now over, and I have a make-up trial tomorrow before work, eep!

Until next time,

Sarah

Busy,

When I saw I would be working a couple of 4 hour shifts this week, I thought to myself "hey, that should be easy enough!" HA. How wrong was I. It was complete chaos today, and I felt like I could hardly get anything done....because I couldn't. Very frustrating.
I knew the hour cuts were coming, as we're always slower in the summer, but being the overachiever that I am, I always want to get EVERYTHING done, and do it perfectly. I just need to realize that, sadly, it can't always be the case, and I just need to do the best I can.
Any frustration, my weekend is already here again, after a strenuous 12 hour work week...heh.
Do I have plans? You bet! Thanks for asking.
My niece and flower girl A will be coming down with my sis and bro-in-law for his HS reunion. She'll be staying the night with with me and we're going to have an awesome time! Full of pizza, candy, and Despicable Me, in 3D, of course. I can already feel the stomach ache.
Sunday and Monday I'm going to try to get some wedding crafty things done, pictures soon.
I have a make-up trial on Tuesday before I go into work. She's trying to convince me that airbrush is going to just change my life, We'll see.

Until next time,

Sarah

Here's what I'm doing tonight.

At midnight! Luckily I don't work until 1pm tomorrow.

Until next time,

Sarah

I'm going to be a pretty pretty princess, dammit!

So I'm in love with my hair stylist, and she hasn't even done anything yet!
We met up earlier today, and she was super friendly, and offered to come out to my venue the day of to do hair, since the salon is closed on Sundays! I wouldn't haven't even had known about J's greatness had it not been for my co-worker D!
I'm still on the hunt for a make-up artist that doesn't require a down payment of my first born child and can guarantee they keep me from looking like a drag queen.
Is that so much to ask?
I've only had my make up done professionally one other time, and while it looked GREAT, I received a bit of verbal abuse of the woman. I was told I had man-hands, and really needed to take care of my eye-brows better. THE EFF?! I was 17 at the time....but I have very slender hands, and my brows are lovely, thank you very much!
Anycrazy, I'm looking forward to being pampered on my wedding day. I'm very much a minimalist when it comes to hair and make-up, so it should be a lot of fun!

Until next time,

Sarah

How to trick people into thinking you're good looking

Hrrrmmmm.

Hey errybaudy! Sorry I haven't been around, nothing too exciting has been happening in the world of Sarah. Hope you had a good weekend A drawback of not having a set work schedule is the days kind of blend together, as your weekends aren't always on the weekend. Like today is my Friday, while in the "real" week, it's only Tuesday. I'm also working a ridiculously short shift today, so it's going to whip right by. Gotta love those slow summer hour cuts....frownfacehere. On the bright side, it does give me some time to work on wedding related doo-dads. I made a big to-do list, which seems to help, for now.
N's ring came in yesterday, and I have my hair-trial tomorrow, eep!
Now, I'm going to leave you with this video, that was circulating so much on Facebook last night, I had to watch it. I'm glad I did, she's pretty funny.

....and since youtube.com is being redonkulicilous, it'll have it's own SEPERATE post.

Until next time,

Sarah

My mom must love me.

Because she bought me THIS:


I had only mentioned this one time, the other week, when I was in a bad funk. I saw it at Michaels and then saw the price tag....and watched the dream flutter away. Luckily my mom is a good bargain hunter, and apparently wants me to be successful. Love you, Mom!
Wondering what the what this is? Well, it's a Cricut Cake, DUH. The gist is you insert the material (gum paste, fondant, ect) you want to use to decorate a cake with, and this bad boy will cut just about ANY shape you desire. This will come in handy if you need a ton of intricate designs, for say a wedding cake, and you just don't have the man power (or time!) to pipe it out. Here are a couple of shots of what Cricuts are capable of.




This is even just the tippy top of the iceberg guys! Do you know how long it would take (and how frustrating it would get) to have to hand pipe that intricate lace pattern?! I'm not saying it can't be done, and I'm not saying people should ONLY use cut out designs, because when something is done hand piped, it can create a beautiful look. I guess one thing I really like about this Cricut is how clean of a line you get from the image.

Nerd alert.

What can I say? I'm passionate about pastry.

In wedding related news, my dress fitting was fabulous!!
She had to take it in two inches because of how loose it fit.
That made for a happy happy Sarah, as that dress fit like a glove when I bought it last year.


Until next time,

Sarah

What's that you say?

You finally have engagement photos?
Do they even count as engagement photos if you've been so for a year and a half?
No matter. They're done now, and they're magnificent! We're going to do another session with our fabulous photographer and friend K, who's offered to do these and our wedding pictures pro boner bono.We went down to the U of O campus, which despite it being summer, still had people swarming all around. I'm pretty sure my face is sun burnt, but it was well worth trekking through the hot hot sun.Here are a few highlights, yet to be edited.
Pretty cute, right?

Oh, and can I say how completely AWESOME it was to see my Giants des-troy-ah the Brewer's 15-2?! Homeruns and grand slams for all!
Until next time,

Sarah

47 days to go.

When did THAT happen?

People say that the time just flies riiiiiiiight on by when you are planning a wedding. I'd agree with that statement about 62%. While yes, I can't believe it's already July, and I am SO ready to marry N, I still feel like it's so far away.
You know when people say that knew within a day/week/month/ect that they knew they were meant to be with their significant other? Did you ever scoff at such a statement? I did. Now, don't get me wrong, I believe in true love and soul mates and all that junk, but how could you separate the infatuation for the real thing soooo quickly? What happened when the honeymoon was over and their little ticks started to drive you insane?
My mindset completely changed when I met N.
I dated various guys during my teenage years, and definitely had my heart broken a time or two, or three...but I healed, and moved forward.
Did I ever mention I was kinda dating someone else when N and I started really hanging out? (We both have worked at the same establishment for almost 3 years now. We were introduced but didn't really even have a conversation until about a year later) There was a group of us from work that would go to midnight showings of movies during the summer of 2008. The more I got to know N, the more I realized we had in common, and how much other guy and I did not. After a horribly messy and embarrassing "break-up" with other dude, N and I were almost inseparable.
We ended up moving in together that November. I was waiting for the honeymoon period to end, but honestly, and this may sound corny, I don't think it ever did. While yes, there are things that N does that get under my skin, and I'm sure vice versa, but the good SO outweighs the bad, by far.
We got engaged January 2009.
Now, I was not one of those girls who would zombie crawl a display case full of engagement rings, drool over wedding dresses, and whine about EVERYONE getting married/engaged. I knew I wanted to get married, but didn't really have a set deadline as to when. N was actually the first one to bring it up! I was in Disneyland with my family for a week in December, and it was torture being away from N. I remember he sent me a text that more or less said he'd propose when I got home, if he had a ring.
That made my ears perk up!
He proposed at none other than the movie theater, as we always said that's where we got our start. It was very sweet, and very surprising, even though I knew he had the ring already!
So we've come this far, had a longer engagement because we didn't feel we needed to rush, and so we could save up some cash.
...and now we're 47 days off from our wedding.
maybe time DOES fly, sometimes. :)


Until next time,

Sarah

My turn for a three day weekend!

Sorta.

I have the next two days off, work 6 hours Thursday, and then have Friday off. Which is fine by me since Friday is when I get to see what my dress looks like after alterations!
Btw, did I mention we finally bought N's wedding band! For the lovely price tag of 99.99 before sale, we got this nice little titanium beauty at Fred Meyer Jewelers. Did I mention they were having a fourth of July BLOWOUT sale, so we got an extra 10% knocked off.
Now, while it aint no Men's Bold Ring, and by bold, I mean pimp-tastic, N liked it a lot. There was another one we were looking at, but it was about 3x the price....which made me feel bad, because I'm broke as a joke right now, and it stresses me out, a lot.
And yesterday at work, I discovered this little gem, for 9.99. I had to have it. The lid screws on, it came with a plastic straw. It holds cold AND hot drinks, and it's a great conversation piece. This and more fun finds can be located at vesseldrinkware.com











Just TRY and tell me you don't find this the least bit entertaining!


Until next time,

Sarah

I should be folding laundry...

But I felt a Happy 4th! was in order.

Am I big on fireworks? Not really. They're usually just loud and obnoxious and it drives me CRAZY when people set them off during the day. What's the point? They're much prettier in the dark.
I have spent enough years craning my neck into the sky, waiting for the "big" fireworks to happen. Besides, I'm always going to be stuck at work on the 4th, so camping or anything that involves going somewhere doesn't work so much. I'm sure once I have kids, I'll take them to see what all the fuss is about.
But for now, I'm perfecting content being at home with N, grilling up some stuffed mushroom burgers and corn on the cob (see, I'm still an American!) and watching the Giants game.

Until next time,

Sarah

Lost: Brain.

Last seen a few months ago, before it got sucked into the vortex that is anything wedding related. While I'm so proud of myself for trying to do a whole lot of DIY, and staying on a very limited budget, while working 40+ hours a week, there are days where I'd love to have the option to splurge well, anything really. There are also the days that I wish we could just elope and get the damn thing over with.
Today was one of those elope days.
I worked the early shift again today, and it flew right on by! Which was great because afterward N and I had plans to (finally) go purchase his wedding band. Too bad the time flying stopped at around noon. All morning I had been talking about how next Friday, at noon, was my first real dress fitting since I had it brought in for alterations. At 12:05pm, I notice I had voicemail. I had a very pleasant message from my seamstress asking if I was going to be able to make it in today, as it was five after and I had an appointment scheduled today for noon.
WHAT THE WHAT!?
"No, no, silly" I stupidly thought to myself. It's the next Friday, the 9th. I even made sure to ask for the day off and everything! I even wrote it on my little wedding print-out calender at home! I couldn't be wrong, could I?
So I call her, and apologize profusely because I don't want to think I'm some unreliable and/or incompetent ninny. WHY I thought the 9th was the day, I don't know. I was still convinced, even after I talked to her. Luckily for me, she was free at the time I thought I was supposed to be meeting with her next week. After getting off the phone, I was still irked, and my stomach started hurting. Have I mentioned I'm a stress case and have been plagued with horrible anxiety for as long as I can remember?
Thanks, Dad.
So I call N, because it's driving me up the wall, and I just had to know. I ask him to pull up her infoz from my handy-dandy wedding folder, where I've put every piece of info/receipt/contract that involves the wedding.
What do I have written on my appointment card? The 2nd.
What do I have written on my calender? The 2nd.
Who feels like an incompetent ninny? Me.
At least she was nice about the whole thing!
They do say the mind IS the first to go.....

Until next time,

Sarah

RnR Thursday Returns!

My poor neglected specialty post! My work schedule has been so erratic lately I'm lucky if I remember to leave the house wearing pants. Anyways, this is going to be short and sweet, as the Giants are playing, and I need to get my baseball on.

Rant: I was SUCH a Debbie Downer yesterday, and for any of you 5 people who follow me on Twitter, sorry for all the negativity. I was just having one of those days where nothing could go right, was way too overwhelmed, and stressing hardcore with just about everything. I'm feeling better now, but I'm ready to be done with all the wedding planning. Don't get me wrong, I'm really, really, REALLY excited and ready to marry N. It's just having to worry about the stupid crap like table linens and what the heck we're going to serve food on, ect. not so fun. Being on such a tight budget will pay off in the end. I just need to keep telling myself that.

Rave: I'm starting to get pretty good at bowling! They do dollar days every Thursday at the alley down the street from us, so we've gone the last couple weeks. Before then, I hadn't been bowling since 2007. My very first game was a 49. However, today I finally broke 100 which I was pretty happy about! Woo-hoo!

Very exciting stuff, I know. Btw, can you believe it's already July?! I can technically say I'm getting married next MONTH! Eeeeeeeep! Summertime usually means hours cut for my dept. which will suck for my paycheck, but maybe with more free time I'll actually be able to get stuff done? Heh, we'll see.

Until next time,

Sarah