First Cake Tasting!

Today is our first cake tasting and poor Drew woke up feeling really sick but, still came with me. I don't know how he does it... he's my superman! So, Drew and I picked up my sister and drove out to "Sugar Bakers" and, of course I passed it and had to turn around. Leah met us in the parking lot just as we were walking up to the place... talk about perfect timing! When we walked into the bakery, the place was packed! The owner came out and got us and took us to a little room on the side and there was an other couple doing their tasting. We all looked through her giant book of cakes but, I like one of the cake pictures I brought but, I did get an idea from one of her cakes. She said we can't have a cake with the wrapped sugar in May because it will melt so there goes one of my cakes so, we moved onto my number two cake. Our budget for the cake was about $500. We want a good cake but, it didn't need to be the best since are food is going to be awesome. Drew's favorite flavor was the coconut and mine was the yellow cake with the raspberry and amaretto filling. We all loved the french butter cream... it was to die for!!!! After the lady totaled up our cake and the total was $957.00 I knew we were going to have to keep looking. I swear I have "Champagne" taste on a "Beer" budget!

After we were done Drew went off to work and Leah took us home. My sister said she will look into what it will cost her to make the cake. That would be awesome! My sister makes amazing cakes! She's nervous since she has only made a few that could be considered professional but, we all think she can do it. The cake we picked is pretty plan and dressed up with simple things. I have to keep some surprises! ;)

Comments

As you can see I really don't have many comments on the blog since I never got around to sending out the save the dates. I was thinking about printing them and adding them to the wedding invitations and I figured people could put the picture on their fridge or something but, "nah" they should have gone out a few months ago. So, my plan for everyone to follow us along as we planned the wedding kind of blew up in my face and now it's just another journal for me. But, I've always liked keeping journal so, it makes sense I guess.

Today I also had to call Nicole from Sota Dzine Photography to tell her we can't afford to go with them. That was such a hard call for me to make but, I know when I talk to Drew I will lift some much needed stress off his shoulders since he wanted to get them for me. Drew and I talked about hiring them for our one year anniversary and we could do something really cool and different. I told Nicole our plan and she likes the idea. It's tough when you do the right thing sometimes I just hope I can find a photograph that I will love. I know th

ey won't compare to Nicole and her team but, if they are close too it I'll be happy.

This is an example of their work found in the newest "Washington Bride & Groom" magazine.

The invitations are in the mail!

Today is the day we finally mail out the wedding invitations! I'm still waiting for about 8 addresses from Drew's list but, I can't let the rest wait any longer! Using the wax has actually been the hardest part of the process. There is a trick to melting the wax as not to burn it, otherwise you get a silver and black mix instead of just silver. It takes about 5 minutes to do each invitations so, it's much more time consuming than I thought. I am very proud of these invitations and I'm glad I took on the task. At times I didn't think I could transfer or convey what was in my head to paper, but it all worked out in the end. I would recommend making your invitations whether it's for a wedding, baby shower, birthday, or an anniversary party. I know this will not be the last time I make them. It might take a lot of time but the end product is more special with the blood, sweat and tears included. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

This video is for other Brides that might come across my blog. I found a lot of inspiration from blogs I would find and, from this site http://www.weddingbee.com so, I hope this helps. :)

Open House!

My Mom picked me up and we drove out the the Cloister's for an open house they were having and Dad met us there. It was the busiest opening I've been too so I wasn't even able to sit down with the event coordinator "Annie" to go over the ideas I had for the layout of our tables. Mom fell in love with the castle just like everyone does when they see it. Drew and I knew it was perfect for us as soon as we drove up to it. It was great being able to capture these photos of the big blizzard we just had not that long ago! It was nice to run into our caterer Daniel, too bad Mom and Dad didn't get to met him. We had to leave early for Aly's birthday party so I didn't get to talk to all the vendors there. Which means Drew and I are going to have to go back up so I can talk with Annie, which is fine with me.

The PINK room is where me and my girls will be getting ready and the room next to it is Drew's room. The guys will like that room since it has stairs that lead right down to the bar.

Drew is definitely giving me my fairytale wedding! I know it's going to be a dream come true and I can't wait till May 15th!

Later in the day Drew asked my brothers and Chris to be in the wedding and I was able to capture him asking Chris. :)

Bought the stamps... time to mail out!

Today I was finally able to buy the stamps for our invitations! The post office line was insane as usual but, since I was only buying stamps I didn't have to wait long at all. I was hoping I would only need to use two stamps per invite but, it looks like I'm gonna need to use three. I was considering making our own stamp on www.zazzle.com but, when it was going to cost at least a $1.00 per stamp I passed, 44 cents is bad enough. Instead the post office offers the "King & Queen of Hearts" stamps. They fit our theme perfectly since we are getting married in a castle. My the laptop cord split over the weekend due to my little brothers new puppy and I can't get my mailing address labels off to print... another hold up... just great! To replace the cord "Best Buy" wants $169.99! Not paying it for a 6 year old laptop that's been on it's last days. If I order one for "Sony" it's $89.99 and I found one online cheaper but, I really don't have the time to wait for it and don't have the extra money to spend on a cord. These invitations should have been out in the mail no later than February 1st but, finances held us up! Hopefully I'll get them out soon.

So, I called my Dad and asked if he would at all be able to fix my laptop cord and he said probably. I brought it to the house and while I watched my Dad do some "Macgyver" moves my Mom made me some of her homemade ham soup. One of my favorites and it was perfect since it was freezing outside! Well, my Dad fixed it... he's my hero! Oh, how I missed my laptop but, this is a for sure sign that I need to invest in a new one soon. My Mom and little brother helped me tie the ribbons on all the invitations and my brother was thrilled to help to say the least. As I was leaving his puppy decided to leave me one more surprise... he pulled one of my gloves (nice black leather gloves) out of my purse and chewed a few holes in it as well as the thumb off! This puppy and I are getting off on the wrong foot! It's a good thing I love dogs and he's so cute. But, hey my laptop works again and I can get the invitations out now!

Change of plan

So, this wedding has become way to stressful and lately I've been feeling like Carrie from Sex in the City the Movie! I just haven't had a magazine company come to me wanting to do a wedding story, that part I would love to do! Can you imagine getting to wear all those amazing dresses and than having your hair,make-up, and photographs taken by all those top pros! That would be awesome!

Like I have said before it's suppose to be about us but, we stress over making everyone else happy and not hurting feelings. I really don't know how people have small weddings. From the very beginning we always talked about wanting a 70 person max guest list. We've cut the list down numerous times but can't get below 100. The Cloister's max is 150 so that helped. If money wasn't an issue we would be having a 300 person wedding easy! I just want this wedding to be over with soon! I just want to marry Drew! I'm glad it will be a long time till I have to do any of this again with our daughter (if we are lucky enough to have one). I talked with our caterer "Daniel" yesterday and he really is an amazing guy! I would highly recommend him to anyone getting married or having a nice party! He's working with us in making the menu a little smaller but, just as delicious! He is also helping me get into wedding photography. I'm going to be working with his lower budget brides to get my name out there! Very exciting!!!