Excitement

I remember a certain post a few months back where I said my New Year's Resolution would be to blog more. HA. Apparently I forgot how crazy life gets during the holidays and the last few days of winter break. I am about to start my third week of classes (OF MY LAST SEMESTER before student teaching!!!!) and have finally gotten ahead enough where I have a minute to do a post. 

First off, we are just under seven months on the wedding countdown. I can't believe It has almost been a full year since I got engaged and started planning this wedding. I also can't believe how little I have gotten done! I truly had no idea how much it takes to plan a wedding, and how crazy life as a single(ish), student mom is. We have found some really cool, cheap ideas for things to do for the wedding. I have been working on making is as cheap as possible for my mom. 

A few ways we are doing that:

1. Instead of hiring a band or DJ, we have decided to make a playlist, in advance, of the songs we want played and are going to put them on an iPod. My dad has all of the equipment to do the sound and we will have someone in charge of the iPod so nothing crazy gets played. I figure it saves us roughly $500-$1000, when you figure in the tip and all that. 
2. Buying a keg, or two, and the rest with be a cash bar. I figure most of the people will be okay with a Keg of Mich Golden Light. If they aren't they can buy their own drinks. I don't think it is necessary to provide people with unlimited free alcohol especially when they don't have to drive. That bill would be incredibly high!

There are definitely more things we have planned but I can't think of them because I have something bigger on my mind!

WE PICKED OUT A HOUSE! I am beyond excited. We are one step closer to not living back and forth between both of our parents houses and just having out own place! I am so happy all I wanna do is go buy stuff and start getting it ready for MAY! But then I remember I don't have time or money. :( 

Anyways it is a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom with kitchen, laundry, living room dining room and den. Plenty of space for the three of us to live for a while. Best of all the master bedroom has plenty of room for our King bed and other stuff! It is a beautiful thought having more than just our bed in a room! I simply cannot wait. I am scouring Pinterest for ways to decorate my home. I took a million pictures so I remember what things look like and can do before and after shots! 

Anyways, life is good this week. Excited to finish school, wedding plans, and move into our own place! AND I am seriously going to try to get on here more. Wish me luck!

Until next time!

-Amanda

Bridesmaid Gifts

In my attempt to have a small wedding, I have decided to have a pretty large wedding party. Surely having 8 bridesmaids isn't that many right? Okay, I will stop kidding myself, it's a lot. But since the wedding is out of town we are making a weekend out of it. And hey, the more the merrier! So anyway I decided to have 3 maids of honor, and 5 bridesmaids and I wanted to ask them in a special way. I started looking around pinterest (obviously!) and I found a few cute ideas, but couldn't quite decide. I kind of knew I wanted to do a box of some sort with stuff inside. So I went to Joanne's and this is what I bought:

I got a cardboard chest looking box for each girl, paint in my wedding colors, paintbrushes, little flower embellishments in my colors and some scrapbooking paper. The total for all of this was around $100.

I guess I should mention I already decided that the MOHs would be wearing purple and the BMs would be wearing the aqua (Malibu). So I painted the outside of each box the color of the dress they would be wearing and the inside the other color.

Ex: of MOH box

After this I had to decide what I wanted to put in the box. On a random trip to target, I went in the travel section and decided that it would be a cute idea to put some travel sized items that they could use that weekend. Inside I put a shampoo and conditioner, deodorant, sunscreen, hairspray, toothbrush and toothpaste, and mouthwash. I also found mini bottles of flavored margarita mix that made one drink (non alcoholic). I put in one bottle per box. I also bought little plastic diamond rings that I put in there too, along with a little cards that said a little about the wedding and wedding party.

Here is what they looked like completed:

I used Modge Podge to attach the scrapbooking paper with their names onto the lid of the box, and the "Will you be my Maid of Honor?" sign to the inside. If I had unlimited resources I would have wanted to add some rhinestones, but I think they turned out pretty nice!

You can see that their are cards inside.
Card 1: Was just a little thing I wrote saying that we had been through so much together and that I wanted them to be up their with me.
Card 2: Explained that the wedding was out of town, it said the date, the name of the resort, and that we would be staying together in a townhome that weekend.
Card 3: was a picture of the dress wit the price.
Card 4: Told them the name of everyone in the wedding.

It was a little time consuming, but it was worth it!