Changing our date.. again!

Job transitions...ugh. Three months after changing the date to June, Lance had a little set back in his job.  He told me he didn’t feel comfortable with a June wedding anymore and that he wanted to push it back, yet again.  I told Lance this is the last time I am changing it. Next time we have to do anything this dramatic, we are just going to elope… and not tell anyone about it until a few weeks after. 

Cue all those same feelings I had after the last time we had to change our date.  Luckily, I didn’t have to change anything I had planned so far.  Besides a slight shift in my wedding colors to accommodate for the “fall” date we moved it to.

    So anywho. Now the date is set for September 2012.  At first I was less than thrilled about it. It took me long enough to get excited again when we changed stuff last time.  However, like last time, after about a week or two, my excitement started to come back.  I really do refuse to change anything again.

At this point though, I don’t think anything is going to go wrong.  (knock on wood!)

Our Save the Dates!

I'm a pretty crafty person. I'd like for there to be a whole bunch of DIY projects in my wedding, but I'm just not sure how many I will actually do.  I did make my save the dates though!

With the date and state changes we had going on, nobody really knew when the wedding was. Half of my family still thought it was in Louisiana in April! So how do you make sure everyone is on the same page? You make it super -in their face- obvious.

I started by designing them in publisher. I knew I wanted them to have the mis-matchy wording look. If that even makes sense. Then I added the state of Michigan. (there's your obvious!)  After printing out a test page I realized that I wanted them to have some dimension to them.

Printed and Cut out Save the Date Card

Enter in ETSY seller MariaPalito. I had bought some cut out scalloped circles (for my sisters baby shower invites) from her a few months before starting my save the dates. So I went back and asked if she happened to have a Michigan cut out, and it turns out she did! So I ordered 100 of them.  Then I printed 50 (two per page) save the date cards. Well, I didn't print them, Office Depot did.

Some of my supplies

The top right hand side of this picture show my calendar stickers. I honestly cannot remember where I got the idea for this from, but I love them! I had the stickers and the cards both printed on vistaprint.com. The cards were FREE!  I did have to get 250 of them, but I'd say it's worth it to have too many when you are getting them at no cost besides shipping.

Close up of the card and sticker
 

I cut each sticker out, still on the sheet, and glued them to the card. Pretty simple. Then I just put them into envelopes when I was ready to seal them.

 My other supplies!

Once my Michigan cut outs came in,  I went out and got some craft glue, rhinestones, heart shaped brads and a brad tool. All from Hobby Lobby. I love that store.

I had been taking my two per page printed save the dates to work to use our paper cutter. I could only do it on my break and at lunch after I was done eating.  It didn't get done quick, but I wasn't in a big hurry.

Each day I brought home the cut out cards, I would paste on the two piece Michigan, then the rhinestones, and after they dried good, I punched the hole and put in the brad. Ta-da!!!  They were complete.

They are so much nicer without the names and date blocked.

 
I had SO much fun making my save the dates! That being said, I never want to see a tiny rhinestone or craft glue every again in my life.   Just kidding!  They were a labor of love though. I sent out around 106* of these babies. I have gotten a lot of great feed back on them too. Which makes me very excited!

* = Yes, 106, even though I said I only ordered 100.  Guess what happened after gluing all the Michigans on? The glue soaked through and left this weird darker purple sploch on them! GAH! I basically ruined 30 save the dates. I didn't even put that much glue on! So I had to order more. Which I was going to have to do anyway because our guest list ended up a little longer than we thought!

To finish them off, I put them in a pink envelope, added a wrap around label (designed in publisher and cut out by me), and put a cute stamp on it.

The front of the wrap around label.

The back of the wrap around label.

They sat on my coffee table for about a week because I was kind of scared to send them out. I don't know why I have a fear of people judging me and my crafts. (I say this as I am writing for the world to see them!) Eventually I just took them to the post office and did it already.

I have to tell you though, about wrap around labels. If you put them down too low, the post office machines can read the BACK of your envelope, and you will get your own save the date back in the mail. Yes, this happened to us. Twice.  I am not sure how to fix this besides putting the label up further.

Did you use wrap around labels? Did they get sent back to you??  How long did it take you to do your save the dates?

Life with a truck driver

            Life in Louisiana was wonderful from the beginning. The weather, the people (who are WAY nicer!) and just the vibe you get being down here. If you haven’t been to New Orleans, you need to go! I’m just sayin.

Love the Azaelas

(personal photo)

Look Mom! I caught crabs!  (hahaha get it?! No?  Bad Joke?..anyway..)

(personal photos)

           

            Of course I mentioned that Lance is a truck driver. He can be gone anywhere from 2 weeks until who knows how long. The longest we went between seeing each other is a little over 2 months. That basically sucked. Such is the life of a trucker's wife.  (hey! I'm a poet!)

            Don’t call him a trucker though. He HATES that.  He prefers “relocation specialist.”  Oooh.. Fancy!  Just between us?  I like to call him that sometimes just to push his buttons. I also call him lancey-poo to push his buttons, but that's neither here nor there.

            Back to what I was saying. Basically I’m alone in a city where I don’t know anybody.  Since moving here, I am friends with my neighbor (who works at the agent where Lance works) and I do have a cousin about an hour away that we got to know each other waaaay better than just saying hi at Christmas.

New Orleans across Lake Pontchartrain - Just because its pretty

(personal photo)

            I am not sure if you would call us “long distance” because technically his home is my home. But it sure does feel long distance sometimes.  He’ll come home for a weekend and have to leave right back out. I got used to it though. Being by myself, and then kind of readjusting when he got home… it was kind of like living two lives. One life involved him being home- he was my priority. He works so hard all the time that I made sure he was as comfortable as possible. Then the other life is just me. I am my priority. We talk on the phone and text but that is about it.

Oh Droid3, where would we be without you?!

(photo via accessorygeeks.com)

I am okay on my own for the most part though. I don’t mind going to the movies alone, going to dinner alone, shopping alone.  I CHOSE this life. I knew what it entailed. Does that make it any easier?  Not really, but I can handle it better. There is a definite pattern to how things work when he leaves.  (This is kind of embarrassing so bear with me!) 

When he first leaves, I cry.  I cry HARD. I can still smell his cologne, so I cry. His socks are on the floor, so I cry. The cup he used is on the counter, so I cry. It’s bad. Most of the time I’m walking around the house like a zombie, crying, smelling his shirt or coat and saying “he was just here, I just want him back home.” I’m a hot mess.  After about an hour or so… It’s like I’ve switched into my second life mode, and I am fine. We are back in our normal roles.  Is that odd?

I can hang onto my sanity for about 2-3 weeks. If he isn’t home by then, I repeat what I told you up there. Embarrassing. Sheesh.  It’s like a need a good, snotty, tears-everywhere cry in order to get through the next couple of weeks. 

Sounds kind of bad right?  I have to say though, I have never been happier in my whole life. He is worth all of this. Being away from my family and friends, being sad and/or stressed that he is gone, it doesn’t even compare to the happiness that I feel knowing I get to spend the rest of my life with him.

Our key to success in this?  COMMUNICATION.  Our whole relationship was built on communication alone, because that is all we had. We can talk about anything and everything. If something is bothering one of us, we just talk about it. We don’t raise our voices, we don’t place blame for anything, and we can say sorry and mean it. We know we aren’t perfect, and we accept each other’s flaws.  It makes everything so much easier. I wouldn’t trade my life for anything.

Who else is in a long distance relationship?  How do you cope? Any tips are welcome!

Dress Inspiration

      After going through a few different desingers websites, I found out that I like a bunch of different things in a wedding dress.  Rouching, Ruffles, and Poof.   I also prefer corset dresses, but not from pictures, thats just from wanting to feel... secure (?) in my dress.

       Here is what I have come up with for dresses that I like...

Aire Barcelona-  Oh.My.Goodness.  I love these dresses. The flowy ruffles, the subtle bling. They are just beyond gorgeous. I want them all.

Photos from airebarcelona.es

Allure Bridal - They all kind of speak for themselves. Simply Gorgeous.

photos via allurebridals.com

Maggie Sottero- I have always seen posts about Maggie dresses on the boards. Her dresses are beautiful and well structured.  She always has an element on each dress that sets it apart from other. Some lace, ruffles, a little bling. Love it!

photos via maggiesottero.com

Justin Alexander- I still, to this day, drool over the second picture here. It's so simple, and stunning. All of these dresses are fabulous though.

photos via justinalexanderbridal.com

      So going through all of these did help me narrow some things down. Kind of.  We will just have to see what my next dress shopping experience brings!

      What is YOUR favorite style of dress?  Are you just as all over the place as I am?

One of my great loves... (besides Lance)

Dressing up!

      I love being fancy. Getting my hair done, wearing something sparkly, a new dress. I love it all. So searching for a wedding dress was something I couldn't wait to do!  I didn't go through websites and find dress inspiration, I just went. Which, I don't recommend. After going to three places, I DID end up deciding to take a look at some desigers websites to find what I liked, but thats a whole other post. 

      Right now lets talk about some of the first dresses I tried on. I ended up going to three shops before figuring out I needed to do some research first.

      The first one I visited was David’s Bridal in Slidell. I have to be honest. I’ve always had bad experiences at David’s Bridal. So I wasn’t really looking forward to going. However, this time was actually pretty good. I tired on about 6 dresses, mostly strapless ball gown ones.  I only took one picture, because I only liked the one dress.  I have to give the sales associate some props though. She suuure could get me zipped into a dress I didn’t think was gonna go. This one was one of them, but.. I could still breathe so.. I liked it! 

Davids Bridal  Style #WG3057

photo via davidsbridal.com

      The second shop I visited was Ashley Renee Bridal in Livingston, LA.  My cousin Courtney recommended it. So we took a drive out there.  At this store, I found about 6 dresses I wanted try on… but I only actually tried 3.  Reason being… there’s certain sample sizes you can still try on.. Just not zip- and still get the general idea of what it would look like.. The other three dresses.. Well. I’m not a size two and it just wasn’t happening.

      I tried on 3 dresses, but again, only liked one dress. It gave me back the waistline I lost after moving to the south!  I seriously thought this was my dress. THE DRESS. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision.... oh well, here she is!

Christina Wu, Style # 15432

photo via christinawu.net

Hello waistline. I miss you.

     The third dress store I went to was kind of on a whim.  I had to drive to Baton Rouge for a doctors appointment and figured might as well make the most out of the hour and a half drive from my house. So I went to Alfred Angelo.  Again, I tried on a few dresses, but only like the one I originally wanted to try on to begin with.

Alfred Angelo- Disney Tiana

photo via alfredangelo.com

clearly, I look thrilled.



      Not that it isn't a pretty dress, it was just a sample size like 4 sizes to big for me, and I knew it could look better if we could just lace it better. Oh well. In the end I didn't like it ON me as much as I liked the picture. Sales lady here was a tad too pushy for me too. So I left, and decided nows the time to really start looking at other possible dresses instead of just hoping I find something at a random store.

       How many dresses did you try on before finding THE ONE?  Did you actually research first, or did you just go and start trying things on?

Changing Our Date

            So yeah. Everything has not been all sunshine and roses in wedding planning world.  Last May we came to the conclusion that there is no way we are financially able to have an April wedding in Louisiana. So we changed the date, and location.  Michigan in June it was!

            My family was ecstatic that we were deciding to have it in Michigan.  I think mostly because they wouldn’t have to travel so far.  It would have been super expensive for them to all come here.

            I personally, was not so thrilled. I didn’t want to change anything. I wanted my bayou wedding in the warm April Louisiana air.  I wanted everyone to see my new city, and to be able to visit New Orleans and just enjoy the south as much as I do! I was SO disappointed. Lance felt really bad too. He knew how much I wanted things the way we were planning them.

            Sometimes though, things don’t go exactly how you want them to go -especially in the wedding world. The closer to the date we get the more I realize this, and the more I tell myself: “Kari it’s just one day, you won’t remember if some things don’t work out, you will just remember the happiness you felt to be marrying Lance. This is all that matters.”

            After two weeks or so, I started to feel my excitement build back up. I guess there would be a lot more family members there because they wouldn’t have to make the big trip down. More of my friends, more of Lance’s friends. It would also be significantly cheaper.  I find that things in the North are generally cheaper than in the South. So that was a plus to the whole situation too.

            Hopefully I am not the only one who has had to push their wedding back??  Does anyone else have a story like mine?

Our Venue (The original)

**I am going to leave this exactly as I wrote it on 4/13/11. Can’t you just feel the excitement? I’m still a little sad we don’t get to have our wedding here**

The place we chose for our venue is.......

    Palmetto's on the Bayou!!!  I love love LOVE this place. And no, the building isn’t crooked, but my phone was when I took the picture. (whoops!)

My words cannot do it justice though. Here are some more pictures... (all personal)

ceremony site

    Of course this is just from a visit, when it is all set up... Oh my goodness! It will be fabulous!!!

    Now that I have everything confirmed with Palmettos, I can officially open up those parts on the wedding website! YAY! If you haven't ventured over there yet... then you never really noticed that they weren't up.  Oh, and if you do go there, and read about the group picture that I wanna do... here are my two spots that I like the best to have it...

    The first one with the tree is my favorite! The only problem.... our photographer, Sarah, would have to climb up on a ladder to get the shot. I actually just emailed her about it with the two pictures.. but either way.. it’s happening. The second picture is actually up on a deck, which would work very well for her, and wouldn't require any climbing.

    So, yeah.. YAY!! Palmetto's it is, and I can't wait!

**Seriously. Sadness… ugh! No more group picture under the oak tree, no more ceremony on the bayou… and I was even going to arrive by boat. Yes, by boat. ::sigh::  Oh well.  As long as Lance is at the end of the aisle waiting for me, we could get married anywhere!**

Finding the perfect venue

I started looking for a venue like the day after he proposed. I mean, that’s one of the most important things to get, right? Seeing how I’m basically brand new to the Slidell scene and really only know where the best places to shop are… I had to get online to find these places.

Not a whole lot comes up when you are looking for Reception sites in Slidell. Actually let me rephrase that.  Only four of the Six places that I am about to talk about came up… then we started getting into all the places in New Orleans.  I would LOVE to have my wedding in the Big Easy, Lance on the other hand hates the city like I hate needles.  So basically… he only goes if he absolutely HAS to. (Like when I decide to plan our date nights down there, which happens more often than not, tee hee. I know... I’m bad)  I’m probably making it sound a tad worse than what it is, the point is, New Orleans was out. So here’s what I had to choose from…

St. Tammany Yacht Club (Actual Visit)

PROS-  SO beyond charming, and the woman who showed me around, was probably one of THE nicest people I have ever met.  The most Gorgeous view of Lake Pontchartrain, especially when it’s sunset, a covered deck, and a room just for the kiddies- with games, TV, Wii, crayons and all that good stuff.  Sunset Ceremony-  um… yes please! They were very accommodating, if you had an idea, just let them know and they’ll see what they can do! On site bar.

CONS- It seemed a little too cramped for me, and the dance floor would have been pretty tiny.  Originally there would be no spot for the ceremony. (I later got the call that… they could do an outside ceremony, but they wouldn’t be able to put out many- if any- chairs). We would also have to bring in our own caterer. I was really looking for someone who had on-site catering.

Sorry its so tiny!

Photo from tammanyyachtclub.org

Abita Quail Farm (Phone Call)

PROS- very pretty site (from the pictures I saw online), they do all the set up and clean up.  Quite a few discounts, and catering on site.

CONS- Very high ceremony fee. The gentleman I spoke with told me that they do their best to beat any competitor’s prices (which would have been a pro), when I told him about a ceremony fee I had found cheaper he proceeded to tell me “They aren’t even in our class.”  WOW, really? At that point the whole conversation just started to go downhill.  I think he was a little offended that I even compared the two? (I’d rather not say which I compared), but I did not like the way he handled this whole situation, and I never called him back.  

Photo from abitaquailfarm.com

Palmetto’s Bar & Grill (Actual Visit)

PROS- It’s right on the bayou, which I think is awesome.  The reception would be outside on the deck. Half of which is covered by a huge white tent, the other half is out in the open. It is surrounded by trees and plants… it’s quite literally right on the bayou.  Reasonable ceremony fee. Additional  room where the cake and buffet will be served. Catering and bar on site.  Day of wedding  ”Personal Assistant” available for a reasonable price. Willing to work with whatever you come up with.  They cut your cake for you.  Very reasonable kids prices. The bar is ALL brands, not cheapies and not a whole bunch more money for the good stuff.  There are two bars on site. Large area for dancing. Multiple Ceremony sites to choose from.  I’m in love with this place.

CONS – price per person is a little more than we want to spend, and that was BEFORE I decided to add more on for an extra hour.

Palmetto’s actually wasn’t even on the list I found online of sites to go to. It was recommended by a friend at work.

Personal Photo taken while visiting site

                  Just a little something I wanted to share after we visited.  As we were walking out to the car and talking about the fact that it was slightly over our budget, we were going over all the things we liked- which is really me talking and him listening… this was the end part of the conversation.

Me: So overall what did you think?
Lance:  It was nice, I wasn’t really paying that much attention to what she was saying though.
Me: What were you doing then?
Lance:  I was watching the basketball game on the TV behind her head.

                I stopped dead in my tracks and just stared at him. He just gave that little smirk and was like “what?” Good thing he's so cute. I'll probably just stick to going to look by myself, and then letting him know what it’s like.

                I did look at a few other places in person and online, but they just didn’t meet the criteria I needed. Like… having a working email so I could get a hold of them. Not exactly the way I would run a business, but it’s not my business.                

                 There was one thing about a lot of the places I looked into that kind of bothered me, and maybe you have run into this as well.  When I told them how many people I would be having at the wedding, a couple of the places told me that I didn’t have to put out that exact amount of chairs because: “Not everybody is sitting down at the same time.”  Excuse me?  I don’t want people LOOKING for a place to sit after traveling all the way here to attend the wedding.  I actually went to a wedding last year where people were looking for somewhere to sit. I was kind of embarrassed for the bride to be honest with you.

                How did your venue search go?  Did you accidentally offend anyone like I did?  And seriously, did people tell you that not everyone sits at the same time, and try to get you to have less chairs? 

Setting a Date

             Back to the good stuff! There wasn’t really a rhyme or reason to picking a date. We decided we wanted to have the wedding in Louisiana and that automatically narrows down when you can have it.

            May-August?  Forget it, I don’t want anyone in my family having heat stroke. Hurricane season starts during that and runs through November. We didn’t want it in the winter. Then there is Mardi Gras in February/March, so April it is!  Haha. That was easy.

            We looked at all of the Saturday’s in April.  The first weekend was Easter weekend, so no, that wasn’t going to work. Between the other three dates, we chose the 21st. We started dating on a ‘21st’, so why not have the wedding on one too. We weren’t really that picky.

Image from 2012calendar.co

            I know you are thinking that that isn’t right. Our wedding date in my profile is in September. Well, since starting to plan we have had to change our date 2 different times. Also, our wedding is going to be in Michigan, not Louisiana. Yes, along with that date change, came a state change too.  I was not happy about all of this. I will get to all of that eventually though.  So much happened during trying to plan a Louisiana wedding, that I wanted to share it with you, if you don’t mind.

            So as of then, the (Louisiana) wedding planning was on! Trying to plan in a city you haven’t lived in that long is not that easy, let me tell you. So there was a lot of internet searching and asking people at work their recommendations. First on my list – and my next post – Our Venue.

How to tell your family you're leaving

Or… how to tell your family you’re a little crazy.

I know I have already told you our proposal story, but I thought I should share how I went about telling my family about moving. Just in case any of you bee's out there are struggling with the same thing.

I went with the “just blurt it out” method.  Maaaybe I should have slowly eased them into it, but at that point in time I had told my **new** boss that I would be there in two weeks.  Oh yeah. That’s another thing.  On top of telling them I was moving across the country basically, it was also happening in a mere two weeks.  I guess I didn’t really think people would take it so bad, but they did. 

My mom was in denial the first week, then sad and crying the whole second week, my little brother didn’t really understand, my sister was sad but told me if it was what I really wanted then I should do it, my friends all said “well, you’ve been wanting to get out of here for years now!” and they were all happy for me. So that helped.

The Browndog helping me pack

Yes, her name really is "browndog"

(personal photo)

The day I left, I will never forget. My dad was standing at my car door after I had gotten everything packed and said “well love, I’m gonna miss you.”  His voice cracked, like he was trying not to cry. I almost lost it right then and there. My dad NEVER shows that kind of emotion. I told him I missed him too and that I would call him and check in along the way. Gave him one last hug, and pulled out of the driveway. Leaving the place I grew up in my rearview mirror.

Me and my Daddy-o a few days before I left

(personal photo)

So yeah, that was the first step in greatest thing I have ever done in my whole life. The best decision I have ever made. Slowly but surely my family came around too, and saw how great Lance is and and well he treats me, and naturally, they love him. So what started out as a (more than likely) stressful situation, turned into something (and someone!) they are very grateful for.

Did you move across country for your guy/girl?