58 Days

I saw this tradition on Martha Stewart Weddings when I was newly engaged, and this tradition has stuck with me all of this time later. Want to know what tradition has left such an imprint on my sole (Ok... bad pun!)

Sole Signing!

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This is an old Turkish tradition to find out who will mary next. Before you start down the aisle you are supposed to have your single bridesmaids (or any female friends or relatives who've yet to marry) sign the sole of your bridal shoe. After you've danced the night away (and tossed your bouquet), legend has it that the person whose name has faded the most will be the next to marry. 


I think I will only have my bridesmaids sign my sole, since I will be the first of us to get married! I'm excited to do this on my wedding day, and I hope to start this as a tradition among our friends (even though I won't be able to partake since I will already be married!).

Will you be using this or any other similar "who gets married next" tradition? 

59 Days

"And baby I’ve got a feeling

This could be one of those memories

We want to hold on to, cling to, 

One we can’t forget

Baby, this could be our last first kiss

The door to forever

What if this was that moment

That chance worth taking

History in the making"

 - Darius Rucker

Ever listen to a song and think about the words and get all choked up? I do it all the time, especially when I'm sitting in my car at a red light all by myself. (I'm an emo kid at red lights!)

History in the Making came on yesterday when I was at a red light, and I was singing and started to think about the words, and the meaning behind them. I sometimes stop to wonder how my life would have been if Rob and I had never gotten together. I'm not going to lie, it's hard for me to imagine. He is such a big part of my life that I can't imagine where I would be or what I would be doing without him in it. I think I would still be in school for teaching, but I don't think I would be involved in half the things I do without him being in my life.

This song made me think about how every decision, every moment you live your life changes the rest of your future, be it for the better or worse. I'm glad that Rob and I took a chance and that he is part of my 'history in the making'!

Do you ever listen to songs and have an "ah-ha" moment?

60 Days

I have mentioned a few times before that Rob and I dj on the side. We love to do it! It is a way for us to make extra money (which we usually spend on a vacation!) and to be together all at the same time! We mostly do birthday parties and dances, however, we have done five weddings.

When we first meet with the couple getting married, we have a list of questions we ask them about what songs they want played, what their special songs are, and what songs they don't want played. Surprisingly enough, to Rob and I, most couples do not want line dances.

Maybe they are having bad dreams about this happening?

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However, there are so many other line dances out there, such as the Electric Slide and Cupid Shuffle. Many people who won't dance to anything else that is played on your big day will get up and dance to these safe songs. There are actual steps, you can't look funny doing these dances, you just follow the steps. People at the parties we dj always get up and dance for these songs. In fact, the dance floor is packed the most during a line dance.

I, as you can see, am in favor of line dances, and am not going to tell the band at our wedding to not play them. In fact, I am going to encourage them to play these fun get-up-out-of-your-seat-and-shake-your-behind songs! Because, a wedding is after all a party to celebrate your love!
And whats a party without some good booty shaking? ;)

What's your feeling on line dances?

61 Days

Back in January, Rob, MOH S and I went snowboarding. Want some proof??

The three of us before snowboarding

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Does that prove anything? No? Well keep reading to see the proof. :) Anyway... Rob, his sister (MOH S), and I went to take a class to learn how to snowboard. Well, let me just say this: It is easier than it looks! But thinking back on the experience I am again thankful for what a strong understanding relationship that Rob and I have.

Snapping on my boots.

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When I do something new and challenging I tend to say that I can't. I never give up, but I have the horrible need to whine that I can't do something while doing it. It is a horrible habit, but something I am working on.  I did it this weekend within half an hour of starting our lesson. My legs where burning, and I told Rob - "I can't do this." I think I told him a few times that I could not do it until I finally got over the hump and realized that I COULD do it. Rob understands me, and just kept telling me that I could do it each time I whined to him. He knows that I really won't quit, but knows that sometimes I just need a little extra motivation.

What this weekend shows me is that Rob helps me when I can't help myself, and that is another reason why we work so well together. We understand each other and know when to push the other, and when to offer a little extra help and motivation.

And lastly, a picture of me snowboarding, I CAN!

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And... yes that is snow on my butt, I spent more time on my tush than on my feet!

What was a recent event that made you realize, again, why you and your fiance are perfect for each other?

62 Days

Sometimes it's crazy to think that Rob and I have been together for six years... after first meeting at a school dance, and then coming together over a simple text message. Did I think back when I was a freshman in high school that I would be sitting here a little over six years later writing about/planning a wedding? Heck no. But once Rob and I did realize we both liked each other, and decided to date, we knew from the start that we were going to get married. We even had a timeline! (Which we didn't completely stick to due to college, but -hey- we're only a two years behind!)

Just like you know this picture is fake, we just knew we were going to get married! :)

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Just like that, we knew. Being only a sophomore and a senior in high school we 'just knew' we were going to get married. But since I was so young when we started dating I never really stopped to think about how weird it must sound for a couple, especially as one as young as us, to say that they 'just knew' that they were going to get married. But I am living proof, as are a lot of other happy couples out there - when you meet the right person, you just know that this is the person you want to spend you life with! I can't describe it, because I have a feeling that this 'just knowing' is a little different for everyone, but to me just knowing is a lot of different things. To name just a few:

-we can read each others minds

-we're alike, but also different

-we balance each other's personalities out

And the biggest thing, at least for me:

We're each other's best friend. 

 

I'm sorry that I cant say much more on this feeling, but did you "just know" you and your fiance where meant to be?

63 Days

As I look at my phone everyday, and watch the numbers get closer to our wedding, I can not believe it. It's like each day is a little more real. I can not believe that I am getting married in 63 days ya'll! As I'm sitting here in the library at school, I just want to scream with excitement, and nervous energy, and at everything that still needs to be done! (But I won't, because I dont need any strange looks thrown my way!)

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As your countdown ticks away days do you feel as if your wedding is getting more real?

64 Days

I know that I have mentioned before that Rob and I are getting married and having our reception at Willow Valley Resort. However, what I did not tell you is that we, (yes, the ones who are completely laid back about planning our wedding ceremony and reception) rushed into a wedding decision soon after getting engaged.

A few weeks after our surprise engagement, we desperately were looking to get some wedding related items done so we started searching for a venue. We called a few different places, but the only one that was able to show us their facilities, right at that exact moment, was a local restaurant Adelphias. Rob and I instantly fell in love, it was gorgeous, and we were amazed at all they had to offer us for our wedding reception. We knew this was the place we wanted, and set up a time to get our families together to see the site. After our families had seen it and stated they loved it as well, we went ahead and placed our deposit down.

However, after looking at it financially, my parents realized that the wedding was going to be way more expensive then they could handle, and we cancelled our booking and my parents lost the deposit. After this, Rob and I spent some serious time having heart to heart conversations about what we could truly foresee for our wedding. We contemplated a backyard wedding, a park wedding, and even eloping. However, none of those options seemed right for us.

However, while I was at a baby shower for one of Rob's cousins, another cousin, M, was talking about how she had recently been to a wedding at Willow Valley and how much she loved it. My mind went into overdrive and the first thing I did when I got home that night was look up info on Willow Valley. Rob and I drove the two hours to Lancaster, PA and checked out the site. We loved it, and talking about it we realized that in rushing into a decision the first time we had sacrificed making our reception "us". Willow Valley was a place that we enjoy going to together at least a few times a year, Adelphias we have only been to about four times, and it is only about 20 minutes away!

So, to end this post, I want to leave you with some advice. Enjoy being engaged, and don't rush into any decisions until you make sure that the decision is made because it is 'you' and not 'i must mark something off of my to-do list'! Take your time, you are only engaged for a short time before you get married, enjoy it. In the end, I'm sad that my parents lost their deposit, but I am glad this little incident happened. It has made Rob and I much more laid back and we now consider every decision we are making to make sure we want to do it, and not that we are doing it because we feel we should. Besides, who can pass up such picture perfect grounds, just right for wedding photographs and the adorable little white church?

Did you rush into a decision regarding your wedding? Did it work out, or did you learn a lesson, like us?

65 Days

In order for our pastor, who is Rob's childhood pastor, to marry us, we needed to have five (or more) sessions with him where we talk about marriage and look over scripture. In doing this, we have had to come to some decisions together. In our very first meeting, Pastor H asked us to consider if we wanted to do traditional vows or write our own.

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We had never talked about vows before but we both want to say traditional vows. In talking about why we like the traditional vows, it came up that our parents, and grandparents have all said those exact vows. Both sets of our parents, and all four sets of our grandparents had happy, long, fulfilling marriages. We want to have that kind of love and support surrounding us on our day, so by saying the traditional vows, we feel that maybe a little of their love will inspire us! 

Are you and your fiance using traditional vows, or are you writing your own?

66 Days

So now that you know the wedding gods smiled down on us through the magic of Facebook, Rob and I then had to figure out exactly what we wanted our invites to look like. So, on to some invitation p0rn!

The little rather large part of me that is a perfectionist loved how these two invitations were organized, this was the first type of invitation that caught my eye. However, even though both Rob and I liked this type of invite, we realized that the only thing we really wanted from our invitations were that our response cards be postcards. In this layered style, a postcard would not work. ::Insert sad pouty face here::

So then we started looking at some more traditional styled invites so that we could still have our postcard response card. 

However beautiful some of these styles where, since we where getting them professionally done, I felt they should be a little more involved/complicated than these simple, could be printed at home on your regular printer, flat, one page designs where. I also was unhappy with how these invites didn't feel as clean and pulled together as our original favorites.

vellum overlay maybe?

However, in the end, we decided on none of the above invitations. We found one that fits our needs perfectly... but I'll reveal them soon! ;)

Did you have an invitation that originally caught your eye? Did you/will you use that exact invitation, or did you  change your mind many times like we did?

67 days

When we first started planning our wedding, Rob and I had every intention of making our own invitations, however, after making our own Save The Dates, we realized the amount of time we would be committing ourselves to. This is when the wedding gods smiled down on us through the magic of facebook! :)

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My mom recently signed up for a facebook and has reconnected with friends whom she has lost contact with over the years. One of those friends, C,  was actually in my moms wedding! The two started emailing back and forth daily, and eventually they got together to meet.  Turns out that C's husband works in a print shop that his brother owns. Her husband, B, offered to print our invitations for us, at cost to him. This is when Rob and I knew that we would not be making our own invitations, the amount of time, and probably money we will end up saving, we just couldn't pass up. Now we just had to figure out what we wanted....

Did you have the intervention of the wedding gods when  a friend offered to do your invitations? Did you accept, or did you still make your own invitations?

68 Days

Lately, I have been really into looking at garters. It is probably due to the fact that I really don't know what I want it to look like... however I do know that I want to have two, one that I keep and one to throw. Other than that, I don't know what I want.

So, a quick etsy search revealed:

his favorite team....

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a silent nod his love of music 

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I still have some time to decide... but right now,  I love the music notes! 

Did you have a hard time picking out your garter? What did you end up with?

69 Days

Once Rob and I got down to 100 days (AHH!) until the wedding, I wanted to be able to keep a countdown handy. So, check out my phones home screen:

personal photo... and I obviously write my posts a few days in advance!

I change it everyday, but it's a nice little reminder as to how close we are to the wedding every time I use my phone. 

Do you have any special way you are counting down to your wedding?

65 Days

So, you saw the many different styles of invitations we considered, but I held onto the crown jewel of invitations, at least for us, until this post. Are you ready to see which invitation we picked?

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Rob and I both love it! It comes in our wedding colors, keeps everything organized with the ribbon, is more complicated than one could make on their home printer (at least an invite like this would not be easy to do, but I bet someone out there has made their invitations like this by themselves, and I salute you!), and we can still have our post-card style response card. 

Now that we picked the invitation though, we need to figure out the wording of the actual invite (Who knew that would be so hard?) and then figure out what insert we want/need to include with our invitations. 

We figure we will include directions, response card and an accommodations card. Did we miss anything? What did/will you include with your invitations?

70 Days

Every mom envisions watching their daughter walk down the aisle. However, this may not be a reality for my mom. My mom is a 48 year old woman with glaucoma. Glaucoma is a disease in which the tiny holes in the surface of your eye close up. Everyone has these little holes, they are how the pressure in your eye gets released so as not to build up. However, my mom's eyes don't have a way for the pressure inside to escape. Because of this, the optic nerve in her one eye was irreparably damaged due to the high build up of pressure, leaving her blind in that eye.

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In a routine appointment about a month ago, she was informed that although she had had laser surgery on her other eye (which already has limited vision) to make new holes in her eye, the pressure in her 'good' eye was at 40. Normal pressure in an unaffected eye can range between 10-20. She was double that! They scheduled her for a surgery to put a stint in her eye to help relieve the pressure. The risk of the surgery was blindness, but as my mom put it "If I don't do the surgery I will be blind in a few months, so I want to give myself any chance of saving the sight I have." She had her surgery a little over a week ago, and her sight is still not back. However, the doctors say that this is normal since her eye has been through so much, (surgery, stiches, eyedrops, and the quick relief of pressure). Luckily, her pressure was down to 10 at her post-op appointment on Wednesday, so now it is a waiting game to see if her vision comes back. (Today she could sort of tell the time on our big clock!)

My mom is a strong woman, and I look up to her for the amazing strength and determination she has shown throughout her life but especially since she was diagnosed with glaucoma (6 years ago!). 

4 Generations of Strong Women - my mommom, my mom, my greatgrandmother (mommom Clara) and baby me!

Who do you look up to for their strength?

71 Days

Now that you obviously realize that Rob and I have trouble picking an idea and sticking with it, lets remember where we stood with centerpieces as of last post...

I found the original picture that inspired us! However, I'm not sure of the source... :(

Remember these would have pictures of Rob and I and would say something like, "Thanks for lighting up our day! Rob and Caitlin"

However, when we met with our caterer to talk about all of the wedding details, she asked if we were bringing in our own centerpieces, or would be using theirs....

WAIT... back this bridal train up... did she just say that they provide centerpieces?? Oh yes she did!

What Willow Valley provides looks similar to this:

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These are almost exact, except our candle will be the red of the girls dresses. However, as much as we liked these, (who turns down FREE?) we felt that they needed a little TLC. So, we went to our local Dollar Tree and picked up some scatters of pumpkins, and fall leaves. We are going to fill a bag per table so that when they set up in the morning, it is easier! 

Did you collect ideas on a project just to realize that there was a simpler, or free, alternative?

72 Days

Let me tell you a little story about centerpeices....

Rob and I wanted our centerpeices to be relatively inexpensive, so flowers were out! However, we did want to make a statement, so we have been trying forever to figure out what we wanted to use to decorate the center of our tables. Lets take a little stroll down memory lane and see the many ideas we have come up with.

First, in going wilth a fall theme we thought pumpkins:

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We bought a fake pumpkin from Michaels, however, we realized that these were very orange, and very fall, and we were not sure if we wanted to go there with our wedding. (This was in the very early stages of planning - Turns out we ended up going with a fall theme after all!)

Then when we were in a candle shop in the Poconos, we had the bright idea of floating candles and cranberries,and we like the idea of including a submerged flower:

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The floating candle centerpieces were solid for a while, but they eventually got nixed because we were starting to think about ease of setup the morning of our wedding. So then our minds wandered to centerpieces that could be set up before the day of...

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Then we thought something like this with colored river rocks, sand or some ribbon. Easy, and could be set up beforehand. 

Then came the biggie... in fact, the above centerpiece was it until Rob's mom found this idea in one of her magazines, and this new idea kind of just bowled over the other one to become the one! (And of course, I can't find the picture she found, but use your imaginations please)

Instead of angels, there would be pictures of me and Rob, and on the back we would make them say, 'Thanks for lighting up our day! November 27, 2010'

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OR you could even make them in your wedding colors! How cute!

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Now you know what's coming... we didn't end up with any of these centerpieces! Wanna know why? Come back tomorrow!

73 Days

Can I let you in on a little secret? ...

The guest list, in my honest opinion, has been one of the hardest things that Rob and I have had to tackle in planning this wedding. There are many issues that arise when dealing with the dreaded guest list. 

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First, you want to please everyone. Rob and I both wanted to invite all of our family, our friends, and close coworkers. However, how do you only invite two out of the 6 coworkers you work with? We couldn't do that, some people can, more power to you! However, since we decided that only inviting part of a 'group' wasn't for us, unfortunately some people, such as coworkers, had to be left off of the list. 

Second, you can only feasibly pay for so many guests. My parents are generously offering to pay for 200 guests. Now, this is a lot of guest! However, when we started we had a nice little guest list of 200, and then everyone slowly realized that they forgot Aunt Mary, or their closest childhood friend who just all had to be there. Slowly, our guest count creeped up, we are now at 272 people!

Third, your ceremony and reception site will only hold so many guests. This is where Rob and I run into an issue. That nice little guest list of 200 that has now ballooned to 272? Well, our chapel only holds 200. We have not figured out yet what we are going to do if over 200 people RSVP yes.... any ideas?

Was creating the guest list the hardest part of wedding planning for you? Did your guest list keep blowing up like ours did? What did you do about it?

74 days

The other day, Rob and I made a run to AC Moore. We only planned to get escort cards, but asking an engaged couple to walk up and down the wedding, and flower aisles is like asking a child to walk up and down the candy aisle without picking anything up...

Part of our receipt:

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As Rob and I were getting checked out we both made a guess about our total, Rob said $250 and I said $300! Ended up our total was only $181!! YAY!

Did you ever walk into a store intending only to buy one wedding item, and instead walk out with more? (Such as.... 37 items??)

75 Days

Yesterday I told you about my idea for chocolate covered pretzel favors. Today I thought I would share exactly how easy these little loves are to make.

You will need a double boiler, chocolate melts, wax paper, pretzels and any topping you like (i.e. nuts, carmel etc.)

These are the melts that I get, you can get them in Michaels and AC Moore. Walmart sometimes has melts too!

Alright, here are the very simple steps:
First, you need to boil water in the bottom of your double boiler. (I also have a fondue pot that works wonders too for larger batches of chocolate. - If you are using a fondue pot keep the heat super low as to not burn the chocolate.)

After you have boiling water, turn off your burner, and then place the top pan of your double boiler into your bottom half. Fill the top half with the chocolate melts.

Continuously stir the chocolate or it may burn. If the chocolate seems to not be melting fast, you can put your burner back on under the double boiler, but very low! This is how you can burn your chocolate!!

Keep stirring your chocolate until there are no lumps and it is nice and smooth. It should look like this:

Once your chocolate is melted all the way, it's time to dip! Dip your pretzels as far up as you like, if you only go about halfway up the pretzel you get more pretzels per pound of chocolate, but people love mine because I go as far up the pretzel as I can!

After you dip them place them on wax paper to let dry. Continue the process of dipping and placing until you run out of chocolate. While they are still wet you can put our topping on. This batch I left plain. 1 pound of chocolate yielded me about 50 pretzels!

So there you have it, the super easy way of making pretzels! Also, sorry for the sideways cell pictures, but it was all I had on hand when making these last time!

76 Days

Favors...

There are so many kinds of favors, and I do not want to spend a lot of time and money on favors that are only going to end up in the trash the day after our wedding. So, to avoid the trash collectors, I figure something edible is always good!

Once I started thinking about edible favors, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Chocolate covered pretzels! How perfect! I get requests to make these little babies all of the time, and love using different toppings. (My favorite experiment was when I drizzled caramel on them... yum!)

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I could do pretzels in little bags just like this tied up with ribbons! How cute would this be? I also want to make our tag say something to the effect of "Thank you for sweetening our day!' 

Would you enjoy chocolate covered pretzels as a wedding favor?

77 Days

Many couples now-a-days like to get what is know as an 'Engagement Shoot' done by their wedding photographer. Since Rob and I had not found our wedding photographer until recently, but still wanted photos for our Save the Dates, we decided to take them with my camera and we had Rob's brother take them.

While we have fabulous photos of our actual engagement, we still wanted something different for our save the date. (We used our actual engagement photos for our engagement announcements). So we decided to go, where else, but back to Lancaster for our engagement photos.

Want to see some of our favorites? (All photos in this post are personal photos)

We where having so much fun!

One we seriously considered using for our STDs.

The picture we did use on our Save the Dates.

Now, I am very happy that we where able to take these photos, and we had a lot of fun taking them. I am also glad that I have such a nice camera, (thanks, Rob!) and that Rob's brother, Tim was willing to take them for us.

However, let me just offer some tips for those couples out there trying to do your own Engagement Shoot:

 Tip 1: Make sure the person taking the photos is used to and knows how to change settings on the camera to be used. We have some pictures that are really cute, but can not be salvaged due to being taken in the wrong setting. (i.e to blurry, dark, saturated, etc)

Tip 2: If the person taking the pictures is not a professional, be ready with plenty of poses! Rob and I pulled out all different kinds of poses, some worked, and some didn't work. If you are in need of inspiration, search photographer's blogs.

Tip 3: Try a variety of settings, we did almost all inside shots but moved around since light was better in some areas, or angles where better in another. Don't be afraid to take lots of pictures!!

Finally, I will leave you with this last photo and tip... not all photos come out exactly like you think they will, but sometimes those imperfections make the photo all the more perfect:

This photo was taken at night in front of the chapel where we will be married in 78 short days, and those little white dots are just the little blobs that sometimes happen when you use a flash at night, however, many people tell us they think it's snow!

What do you think?

Did you have a professional take your engagement photos, or did you take them yourselves?