My FI and I went on our first date on May 1st 1999 and moved in together about a month later. I am 28 and he is 36. I had a 2 year old when we met and he had a 7, 5, and 3 year old. I have helped raise his children FULL time (mother is not in the picture). Our children are now 11, 12, 14, and 16. We are getting married May 1st 2009 on our 10 year anniversary. After this many years, a mortgage, 2 doggies, and of course the children..... Why now? I guess pigs are flying : )

I fell in love with this dress the moment I saw it online. I ended up ordering it without trying it on because I couldn't find it anywhere. I am so glad it looks so good in person!

It's from the Dessy collection.

FI's:

He never thought he would like a ring, but when he saw this one, he had to have it! It's a titanium band with 6 diamonds. To him, the diamonds symbolize the two of us and our 4 kids. We ordered it in his size and we were told it would be mailed to us in 6-8 weeks. When the store called 2 weeks later to say it was in I asked them to send it to me. I took him to the chinese place where we went on our first date, I made a sappy speach, and told him I wanted him to marry me. Then I put the ring on the table. He was shocked! mostly because the ring came so early! LOL!  I just hope he really wears it!

Mine:

I got a lovely E-ring that was much like the middle ring of the E-ring you see here. My first E-ring did not have the 3 small diamonds on each side. Right after I got my first ring we had an engagement party. FI now X-BF and his girl friend at the time saw my ring and within a week they went to the same place and bought the same ring! I was devistated. About a month later I saw that the store where I got my ring had a new selection. The ring you see here in the middle is the one I fell in love with. So FI being the sweetie he is took me and let me trade in. Well I had to trade up to trade in so that is how I ended up with the 2 rings on the sides. I wasn't sure at the time what I was going to do when we got married and didn't really think about it until I started planning the wedding 7 years later. So this is what I came up with.

I am taking addvantage of the fact I have long finger.  :)

This is my E-ring:                                                   This is my ring gaurd:

This is it all put together:

This is my invitation wraps. I went to the craft store looking for an idea and this is what I came up with. You can get the toggle clasps in the bead section at any craft store or even at wal-mart. They have a lot to choose from and it's a super cheap and easy way to dress up your pocket fold.

I tied the ribbon in the back.

The flourish is from istockphoto.com

All the supplies, including the pre-made pocketfolds and the envelopes, all came from paperandmore.com.

I didn't plan on having platinum as one of my colors until I found this dress. I fell in love with it and added in this color!

I found this glass box in my shed and thought it would make a great card box.

I found this basket at a thrift store for $1 and the fabric was at a craft store in the remants bin for $1!

Before:

After:

I had fabric left over so I had my mom make a pillow out of it and I dolled it up with some ribbon.

I found these waterproof labels online and deecided to try them out. FI designed the label and printed them out.

He didn't think they would really be water resistant so I soaked the for an hour! They turned out great!

Here is the link for the labels: http://www.labelsbythesheet.com/items/water-bottle-labels/water-bottle-labels~for-your-inkjet-printer-/list.htm

Sweet Love banner for our candy buffet:

Welcome dinner invites:

Pint sized chinese take-out boxes for candy buffet: