I don’t really consider myself to be that sentimental.  I don’t keep movie stubs of first dates, I don’t keep old yearbooks for memories (I barely know where my college diploma is……hmm, I should find that), etc.  I just never was good at that stuff.

But today, I looked at my counter which counts down to my wedding day, and my heart gave a little jump.  I can’t believe I’m actually getting married this month!  So I started thinking about all of our years together.  Whenever I get like this, I go to my email account.

As of today, I have 1,300 emails from Mr. Butterfly.  I have the very first email he wrote to me, which I love.  I have our first email fight on record.  I have the first silly rhyme he ever wrote me (of course, he no longer does that).  Some days, I will spend hours just reading these emails, remembering all of the things that we’ve been through together.  All of the ups and downs are in these emails…and I never want to forget them.

I guess underneath it all, I really am a sentimental fool.

What do you keep in your relationships?

Mrs. Bee wrote yesterday about our little field trip to Spa Butterfly.  I was so excited when they contacted me and gave myself a pat on the back for choosing the right bug.  Yay me.    Anyway, I thought I should write about my experience there too.  But sorry, I have no pictures.

I was pretty impressed by the space of this spa. It doesn’t look like it from the outside, but its really spacious.  They had us in a little waiting area and gave us tea.  Then I got called in for my aromatherapy massage.  I’ve had this specific massage before in other spas, but this was the first time where I got a hot pillow for my neck while they massaged my face and neck.  Oh man, when they stretch your neck, it feels sooooooo good.

Then I went out for my manicure/pedicure.  I really wanted to try their specialty, the Butterfly signature manicure and pedicure, however I had to run off to my dance lessons.  Instead, they gave me a quick mani/pedi with a paraffin wrap, which I’ve never had before.  My hands were so smooth after that.  Wow.

It’s really a shame that I ran out of time, because I really wanted to try everything they offered, including a facial.    But from what I did get to try, I would recommend this place to brides-to-be.  I think it’s really a good opportunity to pamper yourself for the wedding, because we all need a good pampering now and then, right? 

I wrote a post a while back about what to wear to a wedding.  Last night, as I was walking down to my acupuncture appointment, I noticed a dress in the window of Ann Taylor Loft.  I gotta say, their clothes have really surprised me because its pretty trendy and yet perfect for work (although, I have been told that I buy conservative clothes).  They have a great petite section too!  One of the best I’ve seen.

I will be attending Ms. Snail’s wedding in December, and I was wondering what to wear.  Also, I needed a dress for my rehearsal dinner, as well as the opening night of a Broadway Show in two weeks!  That’s a whole lotta reasons to go shopping!

This is the dress that I bought from Ann Taylor Loft

And here is the top that I bought as well

Pretty, huh?

I also bought another dress very similar to the first one above from Macy’s a few weeks back.  Unfortunately, I can’t find a picture.  It’s pretty much the same dress but with an orange layer under it instead of beige.  Can you tell that I’m very into the lace look right now?  Its soooo pretty!

Hopefully, this will give you some idea of where to shop when looking for holiday party dresses!

As the date gets closer and closer, I find myself with less and less things to do for the wedding.  Aside from confirming every vendor, I barely have anything left to do! 

At the moment, my to-do list looks like this:

• Wait for programs, escort cards, menus and table cards to be delivered. 
• Make petal cones.
• Write out the responsibilities and schedules to hand out at the rehearsal dinner for bridal party and family (I think this is very important since everyone will need to be at different places at different times, and I certainly do not want to receive phone calls asking me where they are supposed to be). 
• Confirm “must play” and “do not play” list with the DJ.
• Final hair touch up – scheduled.
• OOT gift bags for the 3 rooms that we actually booked – already bought, just need to throw into a box.
• Bathroom kits – already bought, just need to throw into a basket.
• Final dress fitting one week before the wedding.
• Create a “must take” photo list, including family portraits.
• Purchase: evening bag, dad’s tie, roses for petal cones, ring bearer’s gift, new hole punch for my story (?), Minnie/Mickey Mouse for the guest book table (don’t ask).
• Put together favors.
• Make a money/gift box.

Not too bad, huh?

When I make the petal cones and the money box, I will be posting it up.  Although, I gotta say, for the money box I will just be getting a large shoe box and covering it up with nice wedding wrapping paper.  I saw a ton of money boxes online selling for over $35, and I just could not bring myself to buy it. 

Oh, and one last item to do on my list:  get my wedding band resized.  I’m going to Fortunoff today to get it done.  Every item I check off of my list makes the wedding feel more concrete!  EEEEK – I’m getting married!!! 

I’m overwhelmed.

Work has been incredibly stressful lately.  I really have to finish several projects before I leave for the wedding/honeymoon vacation.  I also have a ton of school things to do, including studying for a final, writing a paper, and trying to participate in my group project while I’m on my honeymoon.  Add the two things to my hectic schedule and every little thing I have to do for wedding planning, I’m surprised that I’ve gotten this far without having a breakdown.

That all changed on Sunday night.  As I was getting ready to go into work (yes, on a Sunday) to finish up a few things, I realized that I just had so much to do on my plate.  I got incredibly emotional and upset at nothing, and tears started to leak out of my eyes.  Enter Mr. Butterfly (my hero), who catered to my every whim and just said, “give me everything you need to do for the wedding, and I’ll do it.”  Which just made me cry harder. 

He even offered to come into work with me for several hours, because I hate sitting in this big office suite alone during the weekends. 

I ended up only picking up a few things from work because we wanted to go out and eat dinner.  Afterwards, we even updated our wedding and household budgets, which really made me think of our future together. 

What little things does he do to save you from a meltdown?

Ok….I can barely contain myself as I write this.  My photographer is freaking AWESOME.  We took the pics on Monday afternoon, and he had them uploaded to pictage on Thursday night.  I chose several shots that I wanted to post, and he customized the toning and processed them today!  Isn’t he amazing??

Most of the pics are in black and white, since those are the ones I will be using for the table cards.  But all of them can be turned into color. 

Here is an idea of what my table cards would look like.  They will have a champagne backing, not orange, and the image will be a bit darker and clearer.  But you get the gist….

So of the pictures below, which three do you think I should choose?

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Which 3 should I choose for my table cards?

1.  Pictures #1, 2, 3
2.  Pictures #1, 2, 4
3.  Pictures #1, 3, 4
4.  Pictures #2, 3, 4

And here are a few color photos, just for fun!

The last picture – I forced him to do the peace sign.  I rock.  

And yes, that is our dog.  He was so bratty that day!  I’m surprised we got just a few good pictures with him in it.  A tip for anyone thinking of having dogs in professional pictures:  make sure your dog is tired out before the pictures start.  He will be easier to handle and won’t get overexcited by the camera or the photographer.

For anyone looking for a great photographer, who is actually very reasonably priced, here is the info. They also do video!

5 West Studios
email: info@5weststudios.com
phone: 646-280-7033

I know I posted some of these pictures before, but I wanted to elaborate on them just a little bit because I’m on a roll with posts about gifts!

Ok, I have never been a scrapbooking type of person.  But after receiving this scrapbook, I really can see myself getting into it!  Who knows?  I may make a scrapbook of my honeymoon after I get back.




Let-Me-Tell-You Bride-to-Be scrapbook

I took close-ups because you can’t really see how creative this book is from the pictures above.

The scrapbook has two pages of “bridal” stickers, mad libs, a section for your friends to fill out, etc.  The best part is that the pages are bound together with a ribbon, so the whole book can be taken apart and the pages can be put in any order that you like! I mean really, who wouldn’t want to get into scrapbooking when you receive this as a gift along with some cool stickers?

Seriously, I want to buy myself the Me and My Honey scrapbook for a honeymoon keepsake.

The gift below, I have not used…..yet.   A blindfold scarf that doubles as silk handcuffs from Spoylt.  Talk about sexy!

 What is this?

 Ooooohhhhhh!!! Ta-da!!

I will definitely be taking this on my honeymoon!

I cannot thank my bridesmaids enough for my wonderful shower.  I absolutely loved everything about it!  My favorite part?  The shower favors, of course!

I’m not sure, but I think in reponse to my cry for help on my seriously bad habit, the girls came up with such a brilliant idea for shower favors.  Its something that I desperately needed, and yet something that everyone could use!

From left top to right:  A buffing thing, an emory board thing, cuticle oil, base coat, pink polish, top coat, yogurt sheet mask for your face, yogurt foam cleanser, and a sugar glow rub for your hands. 

I wanted my nails to look pretty for my engagement photos, so I used all of the nail products this past week.  Of course, I suck at polishing my own nails and they looked like a 3 year old did my nails, but it did the trick!  My nails are just long enough for a French manicure for my photo shoot!  Yay!

And that concludes my bridal shower.

I’ve been a gooood girl.  I sent out my thank you cards for the bridal shower gifts one week after receiving them.  Aren’t you so proud?  Ok, to be honest, I just really wanted to use my thank you gift box that I recieved from Mrs. Bee.

Delux Bridal Gift Box from Paper Bride

This box contains the cutest, most adorable thank you cards ever!

From “will you be my bridesmaid?” cards to “thanks for being on the frontline” to special thank you cards for each vendor, this set really does contain everything!  It even has a card (not pictured) specifically for your in-laws which says that you are thankful to be adding your name to their family tree.  What a clever, clever way to suck up to your FFIL, don’t you think?

I am saving the cutest ones for later, because many of them refer to things after the wedding.  But overall, I would rate this as one of the best gifts to give to a bride.

Thank you, Mrs. Bee!!

I’m in love with my progams.  Seriously, I never thought of myself as a very creative type, and I haven’t particularly been that creative during my wedding planning process.  But with a ton of help from Custom-Programs, my invitations, programs and menus came out to be beautiful!

Here is the mock-up of my program.

Its so simple and yet, I adore it! 

Adrienne (from Custom-Programs) also sent me examples of two other ribbons which could go with my color scheme.  That’s what I love about her – I didn’t even have to ask.

We decided to go with the gold (on the left), because it seemed to go with our color scheme the best.  What do you think?