The beginning

It's officially less than one month until I marry the love of my life and begin our new journey together.  Plus that means it's almost time for Walt Disney World, our honeymoon destination!!!  *squee* I cannot wait to be there and  to celebrate with my love!

In honor of the wedding (and because I felt like I wanted to write it), I thought I'd share our story from two singles to KC squared :)

Setting: A dark dreary night on the scary internet LOL! Just kidding, this is a love story after all!

Let's backtrack about 2 years to a single Kristen, living in Philadelphia, enjoying time with friends and family. Kevin's living at his parent's house after finishing his Master's degree and working a crazy schedule at a warehouse facility. 

A few of my friends were talking about online dating, over a few beers at the local bar.  Online dating was everywhere: on TV commercials, in radio ads and even billboards driving up and down I-95.  I had dabbled in online dating before, mostly through Yahoo Personals, but it always felt cheesy to me - sort of it's own version of MySpace (Does that still exist??)

My dear friend C wanted to try speed dating, where the participants are thrown into a bar and given minutes to talk to each person.  She asked me if I wanted to participate and the thought terrified me.  That was WAY too up close and impersonal. I politely declined her invitation but encouraged her to try it out because it might just be her speed (She did and it wasn't)

I went home that night, grabbed my laptop, sat in bed and started to surf the web.  I knew of eHarmony & Match.com but I had never tried them.  So in a moment of pure abandon, I signed up for eHarmony. 

Let's fast forward through the crazy men, the ones with Mommy issues, the ones with ex-wife issues and the ones generally unfit for coupledom.  I exchanged emails, went on some dates, did some dumb things (not THAT dumb!) and generally felt a little defeated.  There's only so many times you can introduce yourself and talk about everything and anything. 

Then one night, it all changed.........


STAY TUNED!

Wedding Crafting!

So the past few nights have been about wedding crafting or at least buying the things  I need to finish some of my crafts.  Let me tell you, I love the craft store, but even I'm sick of them after 3 visits to 3 different stores.  


But guess what?!  I finally made two things for the wedding!  WOO! 


The first craft I took up was making the jewelry for my bridesmaids.  I knew I wanted to make their jewelry so that it was somewhat special.  I was also realistic that it would never look like fancy store-bought jewelry but that was a-okay with me :) 

Our colors are chocolate, ivory and cranberry.  The girls' dress are from David's Bridal and look like this in Truffle (think milk chocolate) color:

They are cute and simple.  They can have straps if they want or not. I left that up to my ladies to decide what was comfortable for them. 

So for my not so fancy but made from the heart jewelry:

What do you think? I am glad about how they turned out but also my own worst critic so I've asked a few folks their thoughts and all were positive. 

As for the second craft, our Flower Girl is our niece and she will be 4.  I didn't make her jewelry because I didn't want to overwhelm her.  I decided to make her a hair barrette (which I forgot to take a picture of) and a flower girl basket.  Please excuse my fingers in the picture.  I was tired and uninterested in fiddling with it. 

And now because you made it this far :) 

The lovely Tara over at Nowhere to go but crazy is hosting a giveaway!  Who doesn't like free stuff?!  Not to mention that her Etsy shop is full of beautiful things! Please check her out and send some love her way :) Go!  NOW!

Wedding Cake Bliss

If you knew me in real life, you would know that I'm a really nice, friendly person.  I'm easygoing and usually pretty simple in my tastes.


If you would have seen me at the two places we have visited for wedding cakes so far, I think you would think I'm a crazy person with the emotional capability of a 2-year old. My apologies to all the 2 year olds out there. 




Thankfully my Mom is a good take-care-of-business lady and called several bakeries for me to see if they could make an appointment to see us.  A very wonderful lady agreed to meet with us on June 2nd for a tasting and to talk about designs.  


Here's crossing our fingers for success! 

DIY Wedding Wonderland?

When we embarked on this journey to DIY (Do It Yourself) Wedding Wonderland, I naively thought it would be fun and exciting and a little easier than the non-DIY route since I already enjoy crafting.


Guess what?!  I was....a tiny bit...WRONG! Not completely but a little bit. 


It's stressful (maybe because I'm wanting it to be too perfect) and overwhelming (because we are trying to do it on one income while the Big Man job hunts) but I'm holding out that it will get better as we keep going.


This weekend we went to check out our reception site.  You see when we booked our wedding in 2010 for 2012, we did not know what the reception site would look like because it wasn't built yet.  Yes, we paid for a site that we had not seen.  


Stepping in the door on Saturday, the Big Man and I were blown away.  It's a beautiful reception hall with a gorgeous entry way, complete with a roaring fireplace.  There's a beautiful bridal suite for us and the bridal party to hang out in and relax before the big introductions.  We picked out table linens and looks at centerpiece ideas and FINALLY felt like the wedding was coming together. What a feeling!


I won't tarnish this post with my feelings about finding a cake baker for our wedding cake - that's another post but I am in love, happy, healthy and excited about our big day just 4 short months away! EEK!