5 days to go!!  We are so excited that this day is almost here!  I thought I'd be a nervous wreck by now, but I'm not!  I still have a few DIY projects to do and a few more things to buy, which I'll do on Wednesday, and I also have to prepare more food, but everything is planned!  We have worked so hard and this day is finally going to become reality!  All of our guests finally get to see what we've been planning for months and months!  After the wedding, I'll update our website and add plenty of photos!  And I'll probably add a "For Sale" page!  I have lots of wedding items that I won't need anymore!  So, please check back!

I've been so stressed...trying to do a million things for the wedding.  Yesterday and today, Faith came over to help me with the candy labels and water bottle labels!  I couldn't have finished all those without her!  She's so awesome!  I will post pictures soon and templates...I promise! 

Looks like things are coming into place...we did decide on our music!  Paula Inman and W.C. Butler will be singing at the the ceremony.  We are trying to get the music now.  With only 3 1/2 weeks to go, we don't have a lot of time to get it all together.  I know we will, but it makes it more stressful when things are getting finished at the last minute!!  We are meeting with Kerry Peeler (the officiant) on Sunday evening.  Hopefully after that meeting, we will be able to start working on programs. 

Tomorrow I have another flower meeting.  Hopefully I'll be able to get some flowers at a reasonable rate! 

Totally off the subject, this weekend is both Jason's and my birthday, so we are getting together with the rest of the wedding party and their wives/husbands or gfs/bfs and a few more friends and heading to the beach!  We are going out to eat and just planning to have a good time!  It's going to be nice to get away and get our minds off of the wedding for the weekend! 

I have been checking with different florists because the first quote I received for our bouquets, bouts, and corsages was very high.  I can't see paying close to $1,000 for flowers to use for an hour.  So, I'm trying to see what our other options are.  I am meeting with another florist next Wednesday.  I may end up doing the bridesmaid bouquets myself using the same flowers I'm using for the table centerpieces that I am ordering from Sam's Club.  I don't think it would be too difficult!

Today was a busy day!! 

We officially booked the rehearsal dinner location.  We will be at the Country Club for sure!  I walked in there today and it's a really nice, big room with a decent sized kitchen!  I think I'm just as excited about the rehearsal dinner as I am the reception!

I went to the florist today to order all the bouquets, boutonnieres, and coursages.  I still need to meet him again to finalize everything and I need to decide if I want him to do anything else.  I still think I'm going to be brave and do my own table centerpieces!

Fifteen days AFTER we wanted them to go out, our invitations are finally out!!  I am so glad we can FINALLY cross this off out list!!

I love it when my hydrangeas and gardenias are blooming!  I wish they bloomed all year long...I love having fresh flowers in my house!!

I just realized I haven't posted all week!  So, what have I accomplished this week? 

Monday, we met with our officiant!  It went well and it was exciting to walk in the church and talk about how everything was going to be.  We are going to meet again soon.  He is going to work on getting some vows together for us to do with the children.  We feel like they are as much a part of this marriage as we are!  Not only am I getting a new husband, but I am getting two new stepchildren!  And Jason is getting one new stepchild!  I'm so excited about us being a family!

Other things that I did this week:

We got a videographer!  H.B. Moore will be our videographer!  He is very reasonable and will give us one or two DVDs of the ceremony and reception.  I am thinking of asking him to come a little early to get some footage before the ceremony when we are getting ready.  He also said he would do the rehearsal dinner if he didn't have anything else going on that night at no extra charge.

We finished registering for gifts!  This has been so frustrating!  We registered at JCPenney a couple of weeks ago, and that went fine.  Today, Crystal and I went to Walmart to register, only to find out that they no longer have a scanner in the store.  They said the only way to register was online.  Problem is....they don't have some of the things I need online.  So, I ended up adding a few things tonight anyway.  I hope my guests can find them.  I also registered at Belk today.  I scanned every item that I wanted, then we checked the registry.  None of the items were showing up!  So, I had to go back again tonight and scan everything again!  It didn't take as long, but it was rather annoying!

I purchased 6 shepherd's hooks for a project I'm doing (with the pomanders).  They are black, and I'll be painting them ivory or white.  I found them at Family Dollar for only $3.50 each!  That's the best price I've seen!  And they look like they are about 4 foot tall!

Besides all that, I have one shower on the 27th and one on the evening of the 28th!  I need to go dress shopping because I have nothing to wear to these showers!!

Good news....School's out for the summer!!  I will have plenty of time to do wedding stuff...I hope anyway!!!!

 

I spent the entire morning going through appetizer recipes on allrecipes.com!  I found some that look really good!  I'm going to give them a trial run sometime before the wedding.

I also found some photos of fruit and/or vegetable displays that I like.  I want to go buy a watermelon now to see if I can carve our initial in it! 

I'm sooo tired of researching online for the best prices.  I wish somehow it were more simple.  I ordered organza bags for the candy buffet and tissue paper from Nashville Wraps.  The prices were great, but then shipping was pretty high. 

So, are you wondering why I ordered tissue paper?  I am going to make pomanders, which I will probably put outside the church on both sides of the walkway.  I also want to make a tissue paper wreath.  I know it sounds cheap, but here are a couple of pics...I love them!

I had not thought about putting them on pews, but I actually like that.  It would be better to use silk flowers if you have to make that many, though!  Click here to go to the directions on how to make the tissue paper wreaths and pomanders.  I think it will be a fun project!

I spoke to our officiant, Kerry Peeler, tonight and we are meeting at 4:30 on Monday if anything doesn't change.  I can't wait to talk about the ceremony...it's going to be exciting!  Also, I called the Country Club and they are available on July 31st for the Rehearsal Dinner!  So, we need to put our deposit down and get that booked!