So we finally had our engagement session! My fiance looks great, I wish I could have lost weight instead of gaining a ton of weight before the session! But hopefully I could use that as inspiration before the wedding!

Here is the slideshow!

 Enjoy!

The Groom will be wearing this tux, with a ivory tie and vest, to match the color of my dress! While the groomsmen will be wearing the same tuxes, with ties and vests in the cornflower blue vest to match the bridesmaids. The Dad's will also join in the fun, but wearing a yellow color bow ties and vests to match the flowers!

I had to search high and low for the Maggie Sottero dress I got, since they no longer make it. It is absolutely gorgeous with a corset gown made of Dynasty Organza and has a bunch of Swarovski crystals, glass beads, bugle beads and pearls. I was able to find this on ebay, ironically enough from a dress store in West Virginia, it was brand new, in the color and size I exactly needed and I haven't seen another one on there since. It was truly meant to be:)!

I had my first dress fitting today and it was wonderful, Janet is super sweet and has a wonderful eye for details. I have decide to go with the ballroom bustle (with the dress pulled underneath) and I am quite pleased with the way it will look. I can't wait to finalize the fittings, the dress will look truly beautiful!

Unfortunately due to the fact the same color we were expecting is not available for our organza overlays, we have decided to go with a colored table cloth.

So here is the new plan:

Light Blue table cloth
White Napkins with Menu Cards on Each
White Chair Covers with Light Blue Sashes

This is the table cloth color (which will make the yellow roses petals pop on the table)

So we finally got the Groom's Ring!

I couldn't have imagined something more beautiful!

Blue Nile is awesome, this is the matching wedding band to my engagment ring.

Here is sample invitation from the Costco Website we ordered! They did a really good job! I designed the maps at home, since our Church and reception venue are at two different locations. We had Staples print and cut them for almost next to nothing.

A good friend of mine who married a while ago, gave me a wonderful tip! Check your local grocers, since the flower are a 1/3 of the cost, they are fresher and more willing to work with you. Keep in mind, in my wedding, we are using the flowers for the ceremony only, but the this is saving us a bundle.

Just a note on this, not all grocers will be able to provide the full service you may need, but I only ran into that issue with one of them, the rest were great!

So I am trying to determine which flowers to go with, it will be one of the following inspiration bouquets. My wedding colors are yellow and blue.

I like the brightness and contrast of the yellow here.

I like the simplicity and beauty of the yellow on this bouquet.

So after finding out that the yellow roses are the more cost effective way to go... we are going with the yellow roses.

My bouquet will be a mix of yellow and ivory roses, tied with a blue ribbon like the color of the Bridesmaid dresses.

The Bridesmaid's will carry the a smaller bouquet, with just yellow roses and a blue ribbon.

The Groomsmen will have yellow rose boutonnieres and the Moms will have ivory rose corsages (2 or 3 roses).

I received a great deal from www.asianideas.com on these Yellow Parasols, they will be excellent for pictures after the ceremony. We will have one for each of the girls in the wedding party! I got it in the mail the other day, it is more beautiful than pictured!

We will be using this birdcage (with yellow rose petals!) to store wedding cards at the reception!

So we are checking things off our list. I finally settled on a cake sever from Mikasa to use during the cake cutting!

Our party favors for all our guests! We received these and we added our favor tags to them!

1) I made the Table Names and Holders for the Tables inspired off of the places my fiance and I traveled in the world! - Done!
2) I will be adding ribbons on the votive candles (I am not sure if this qualifies, but I am including it here) - Done!
3) Unity Candle - Done
4) Flip Flop Basket - Done
5) Program Basket - Done
6) Decorate Bird Cage for Cards - Done
7) Guest Book with Engagement Pics  -Done
8) Wedding Programs - Done
9) Wedding Placecards - Done
10) Wedding Slide show - Done
11) Menu Cards - Done
12) Painted "I Do"  and "Amore" Letters for the cake table and guest book table - Done

Since the ladies on Project Wedding have inspired me with all their DIY projects, I have decided to bling out my votive candles which are part of my centerpiece for the wedding. It is actually not bad after you get the ribbon as straight as I could, I added 4 rhinestones around it. Wallah, instant sparkle! I wish the pics could have come out better!

Here are the table names we created. We ended up going with all the countries we have been to across the world! What I didn't realize was how long it would take to add the Rhinestones to the Monograms on them, but in the end it was worth it!

I just finished the Unity Candle. After searching for a Unity Candle and not finding one I liked, I decided to go make a simple one for our ceremony (with a matching ribbon to our colors in our wedding!)

Thanks Ladies for the brillant idea, I am really excited about this one! I didn't have to do much, I put a ribbon around each of the shoes with a tag on them and added ribbon around the basket. The day of the wedding I will add a sign to the baskets too.

The flip flops by themselves.

I am going to use the I DO for the cake table.

And we are going to use Amore letters for the guest book table.

I will be having my hair and make up trial soon, I am trying to decide between these three options!

I love the way this works with the tiara and veil!

I love the way this looks from the back!

So this will be really similar to what our cake will look like! It will be two layers with yellow rose petals on it. We will do two flavors, one on each Layer. One being a banana flavor... which I love and another being strawberrys.

We have decided to have menu cards placed at each place setting!

For our catering, we decided to go with the best Italian food in the area, Peppinos. It seems like they must be overlooked on Project Wedding, since I don't see a vendor for them. BUT we highly recommend them, they have gone out of there way to help us out and provide us with excellent service!

So this is where we will be staying the night of our wedding!

Here is one of our Hotels! I can't wait!

We booked some of excursions which include:

Zip Lining

Suspension Bridges

Volcano Watching:)

Horseback Riding

Tram in Monteverde!

With 1 more days to go... we are making headway on our To Do list!

This Week:

1. WEDDING!!!! YAYYY!!!
2. Start working out more (hmm... better late than never!)

It has been quite a week, not only did receive quite a few RSVPs, my worst nightmare was we wouldn't, but we got them almost a month in advance of the wedding. We also started receiving gifts and I am overwhelmed by people's generosity! I feel like we are making some good headway, so hopefully I won't be running around like a chicken with my head cut off a few weeks before the wedding:)!

I had my Bachelorette Party last weekend and I had a blast! I was joined by 11 good friends at the Saddle Ranch in Hollywood were we gorged ourselves on food, desserts and drinks. I even got a chance to ride a Mechanical Bull, how often does one get to do that in life!

We then followed that up by dancing the night away at a 80s club, yes the music I love and grew up listening to:). Overall, I just have to say my Bridesmaids are awesome and I was touched by so many people showing up for the evening. It was definately something I will always remember!

I had an absolutely beautiful Bridal Shower (with the theme of an Afternoon Tea)! My Bridesmaids put much work and effort into it and I appreciate it with all my heart!

Since not all my vendors are on project wedding I decided to post it here to:

Caterer:
We are using Peppinos Catering, which is also an awesome resturant in Orange County. The food is so delicious, you can't as for more. They have had wonderful professional service to us so far. To find out more information, check there website:
http://peppinosonline.com/

Bakery:

Solomon's Bakery. The cake is delicious!

http://www.solomonsbakery.com/

DJ:

We are using Freestyle DJs, we have heard rave reviews from them from several sources. So we can't wait to use them! From meeting with Mike we felt very confident that they will do a great job!

www.freestyledj.com

Bridesmaid Dresses:

We used Ann Taylor and I love the dresses we got! The only disapointment was after calling there help line several times, they were not able to tell us what dresses would be available in red in the next season or if red would be available at all, so we had to change colors. The dresses are beautiful though and we really love them!

http://www.anntaylor.com/catalog/department.jsp?N=1200042&categoryId=193

Wedding Dress:

I got a Maggie Sottero dress! What more can I say about this wonderful designer, her dresses are beautiful and affordable. I was able to find a new wedding dress on ebay, since my dress was hard to locate since it was no longer being made!

http://www.maggiesottero.com/


Invitations:

We ordered our invites at Costco, which not many people know that you could, but they were beautiful and they came right away. The best part is many of them are normally 30% off, we were able to catch it during another sale and got it for 40% which helps when you are ordering 200 invites:)

Here is the link... but you may need to go through the costco link to get the discount!

http://pal.einvite.com/?Cobrand=PAL&Site=PAL&vk=1777211146


We will also be getting alcohol there, which is great, since you can return items that are not opened!

I am sure every bride says this, but the day was more beautiful and more perfect than I could have imagined! Here is a sneak peak of one of the pics (this was of our tables), I will be adding more later with all my items I will be selling!

Just wanted to post this since I am so happy with it! It was a beautiful perfect day!

www.jimkennedyphotographers.com/movie/rego