Hair Update

Here are some real pics of my hair - these were taken right after my finished doing my hair, so it still looks good. Plus my friend took the pictures instead of me so they're actually from a distance and you can see the back and sides.

Bachlorette Party

My bachelorette party is next weekend! My Maid of Honor gave me my invite today. I'm super excited! We're doing a spa in the morning and then afterwards, we're going out! Unfortunately, only three of us are doing the spa, but I think it'll still be fun. Hopefully most of my girl friends join us in the evening!

Oooh la la!

Just purchased a corset for under my dress! The following except in white:

Hair Trial

So I finally got together with my friend from work who's going to be doing my hair for the wedding. We went to her place, put in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and went to town. At first, we both didn't know what we were doing, but as she went along, I think she got better at it, and certainly more confident. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera while we were there, so I don't have any pictures right after she was done. We also didn't have any hairspray, so it didn't stay as well as it would when we have hairspray (hopefully). I did take some pictures when I got home though.

Self portrait from the front

Trying to view the side

You can kind of see the back in the mirror

Shoes?

I went shopping last night in search of some supplies for Hawaii. Mainly I was looking for t-shirts and shorts since I don't have very many of them. I decided to just stick to Target because if I was buying a lot, I wanted to keep the cost down. Unfortunately, I ended up only buying one t-shirt and one pair of shorts. I also bought a pair of jeans, a long sleeve shirt, and a skirt. Hopefully the skirt will still come in handy in Hawaii. But I also bought potential wedding shoes!

Okay, pretty boring, I know. But they were the first white sandal I've seen that might actually do the trick! I wanted something that had both a white strap and a white sole and these were the first that were like that. Plus they're pretty thin, so I'll be pretty much as flat as I can get and still protecting my feet. I think this sandal will do the trick if I don't find anything better.

Rental Car!

Holy crap, I love priceline.com! You literally can name your own price on things and then companies decide whether to accept or reject it! I had recently decided that I wanted to get a rental car for Hawaii because I want to be able to drive the Hana road and I don't want to worry about getting a shuttle or cab to and from the airport. This will give us a lot more flexibility to do things.

So anyway, I heard that you have to get a convertible for Hawaii, especially if you're doing the Hana road, so that you can see everything while you're driving because the views are amazing. Unfortunately, all the convertibles seem to be going for roughly $53 a day, cheapest. So I figured I'd try this whole "name your price" thing and see if I could get something cheaper.

So I'm thinking I'll just go out on a limb and try something like $25. I'd be willing to pay $35, because even that would save us about $20 a day, but I thought I'd start low and then keep going up if I have to. But guess what! $25 was accepted!!! I should've started lower, haha! Thank you Priceline!

Honeymoon

This morning I did the funnest thing ever! I booked our honeymoon! I'm soooooo excited. We'll be spending seven days on the beautiful island of Maui! We would've gone longer, but we're actually still planning on taking a second honeymoon next summer to Greece!

We'll be leaving early early Sunday morning after the wedding and flying to San Fransisco to meet our connection and then continuing on to Maui. We should arrive in Maui around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday (Hawaii time). Then we'll be leaving the following Sunday around 9:30 p.m. and getting back here around 2:30 p.m. on Monday. Fun! Check out some of these gorgeous pictures I found of the resort we're staying at (Aston Maui Kaanapali Villas):

Suits!

So Sunday was a productive day, in my opinion. Seth's best man came down and we (Seth, his best man, his sister, and myself) all trucked downed to the local Men's Warehouse to look at suits. Seth has bought suits before, but only cheap ones from like Sears or JCPenney, so we really didn't know what we were doing. Luckily, we got a pretty cool sales assistant to help us. We ended up spending a ton though, which sucks, but at least the boys are going to look really sharp.

Here's the suit we ended up getting. I really like it. I think it's nice that it's not just black, but it's still dark. And the boys look really good! Different tie of course, since our colors are blue, but the suit's the same.
After the suit shopping was finished and Seth's sister and best man had headed home, I decided I needed to work on the Rehearsal Dinner invitations. I wanted to make something fairly casual, but stick with my lovebird theme. Here's what I came up with:

Bridal Shower!

My bridal shower was sooooo awesome! It was actually a lot better than I was expecting! The only bummer was that because it was hosted at my house, I had to clean! Boo cleaning! But at least now the living room, first-floor bathroom, and kitchen are super clean! Except the presents are still scattered about...

The day started with my maid of honor showing up with supplies. She had the favors, which were coffee mugs, plus the gadgets and ingredients needed for making lattes, yum! She even brought me a gift, which was such a surprise! One of the girls at work had 7 bridesmaids and they didn't get her anything when they threw her her shower! My MoH is clearly the best! After we had set up, we had a quick lunch, and then waited for my Mom to show up with the rest of the supplies. She showed up, we finished setting up and setting out the food, and then the guests began arriving.

Okay, seriously, look at all this food! We were fit to serve a king with all this food! My MoH had made a blueberry pie and zuchini bread and also brought scones. I made a cheesecake. My mom made an apple pie and a raspberry pie. And then one of my friends brought coffee cake! Soooo yummy!
These are all the gifts! I'm so lucky! I felt really blessed to have so many people arrive (there were nine of us total - I had originally thought there'd only be six), and I got some really good loot!
Here's all the ladies (minus one who was late) with our coffee mugs (which were the favors) and we'll all drinking lattes, coffees, hot chocolate, or some derivation of! It was awesome!
Now for the gifts! First gift up was from my Mom. I already knew what it was, but I was super excited to open it. Plus I didn't know what color she ended up getting.
Silver! A Kitchen Aid Mixer!! I was super excited. It definitely would have come in handy when making the cheesecake, but oh well! Next time! And now making food won't be such a hassle.
Towels and sheets from one of my coworkers!
Seth's sister got us picture frames and a picture. She has great taste when it comes to this kind of stuff, so I was glad she decided to venture out of the bedroom/bathroom/kitchen theme and get us something else!
This is from another coworker. I'm trying really hard to undo the double or triple knot she decided to put on this thing. Supposedly the number of ribbons you break is the number of kids you're going to have. I didn't break any... but I hope I still have kids!
Sexy lotions! I think they're called Seduction or something like that. I'm glad someone decided to get me something totally random like this!
Yay! Opening a gift from my grandmother who couldn't make it to my shower!
Towels and a cute basket! Purfect! Now I not only have more towels, but a place to store them in in a decorative way.
Thank goodness someone got my a cookie sheet! Seth and I only have one and it's looking pretty beat up. Now we have a new one to ruin! This was from one of my roommates in college who also gave us a cooling rack (yay!!!) and a super muffin tin! Very cool!
I was really surprised that Seth's stepmom went all out with the gifts at the shower. I knew she was coming, but I didn't actually expect her to get us anything! Seth's dad and stepmom had already purchased our very cool washer/dryer earlier this year when we moved into the house! She ended up getting me a bunch of serving dishes and forks and knives, which is sooo perfect. They love to serve people whenever we come over their house, and now we can return the favor when they come over ours!
A waffle iron! This was the gift from my maid of honor! She got a pretty sweet one too. This is the one gift I've actually already used! This morning, I looked up a sweet waffle recipe and Seth, his sister, his best man, and myself went to town making waffles. The first one looked pretty silly because I didn't put enough batter in the iron, but the rest came out great!This is my finished ribbon bouquet! I was really impressed how it came out! I was worried I'd only have like four ribbons and it would look pretty silly, but this actually looks respectable. I'll be using this at the rehearsal dinner on the 26th.
Finally a group shot of all the lovely ladies who came to my shower, including my friend's newborn baby (3 days old)! Thanks girls!!

Boo People!

So this morning, I'm feeling really sick just thinking about the wedding! People (read: Parents) have been making me feel really stressed about pretty much everything. My parents and Seth's parents (even Seth's sister) keep making comments about how the aunts and uncles really wanted to come and are really disappointed that they're not invited. Okay - that's nice, people. How about instead of complaining now, you just keep all that information to yourself? I mean, you all signed off on this whole small wedding idea back when we started planning. If you had a problem with us not inviting aunts and uncles, you should have said something back then. Now it's too late and all you're doing is making me, the one who originally thought up this whole small wedding thing, feel really guilty and bad!

So I have this vision of what my wedding's going to look like, but even though I do, I've been trying to involve people (read: my mom) who want to be involved. I went dress shopping with her, I went rental company shopping with her, I show her all my ideas and ask for advice before I go through with anything. I got her input on my wedding invites and my favor ideas. I showed her my ideas for flowers and ceremony pieces. Pretty much anything I've worked on, I've shown her and asked her what she thought. But is that enough? Of course not.

Snippet from this morning's e-mail from mom:

I kind of wish you had stuck to your original idea of a big wedding. I enjoyed being a part of the planning, helping you look for places on the internet and I was looking forward to visiting places with you and helping to pick out the menu and stuff.

Thanks Mom, that's really helpful. How the heck am I supposed to respond to this? "Okay Mom, sorry you're bummed, I'll just go ahead and cancel the wedding which is supposed to be in 46 days and start over from scratch so you can be more involved." I mean, seriously! What was she trying to do with this e-mail? Make me feel bad? Well, you've succeeded Mom, thanks! I feel awful and don't really want to get married anymore since it's becoming such a problem for you and the aunts/uncles we didn't invite.

So much to do!

I have so many things left to do! According to the Knot, I have 103 tasks left, and according to my own Gmail tasks, I have 22. The 103 includes fairly minor tasks like "Grooms: If you are renting a tux, visit the formalwear shop to get measured." My 22 are major tasks like "Book honeymoon" and "Buy suits for boys." I'm starting to feel stressed, haha!

These are my tasks and when I want to have them completed by. The first two, clearly, I'm behind on:

Buy Shower Thank You gift - August 16, 2009
Start making favors - August 16, 2009
Make Rehearsal Dinner invites - August 23, 2009
Book honeymoon - August 30, 2009
Buy suits for the boys - August 30, 2009
Send Rehearsal Dinner invites - August 30, 2009
Discuss music with DJ - August 30, 2009
Finalize menu - August 30, 2009
Look for pearl earrings - September 6, 2009
Look for lingerie for dress - September 6, 2009
Look for shoes for dress - September 6, 2009
Get marriage license - September 13, 2009
Finish favors - September 20, 2009
Buy alcohol - September 20, 2009
Figure out ceremony wording and vows - September 20, 2009
Buy guest book - September 20, 2009
Get haircut - September 20, 2009
Figure out wedding day timing - September 20, 2009
Compile centerpieces - September 20, 2009
Finalize vows - September 25, 2009
Get gifts for Best Man/Maid of Honor - September 27, 2009
Get manicure/pedicure - September 30, 2009
Get married! - October 3, 2009

Makeup check

So I finally bought a foundation: Covergirl's TruBlend. I like it, but still, same we all makeup, it seems kind of cakey. I end up putting on the liquid foundation, setting it with a powder, and then when I'm all done, patting it all down with some water to make it look less cakey. End result looks okay, but I'm either not using enough or missing something. I don't look totally great, but better:
This I need more makeup around my eyes to hide the dark circles. And maybe I need a thicker foundation in general? I feel like you can still see all my faults! Ugh! I don't want to look like this for the wedding.

Table Luminaries Complete!

So after lounging on the deck for an hour in the sun, I decided to go back to being productive and finish my table luminaries. I was supposed to start the favors today too... but... looks like that's probably not happening today! At least my luminaries are complete!

50 days!

There's only 50 days left! That's less than two months! Really, I think it's something like seven weeks! Ahhhh!!! I'm totally starting to feel the pressure! I mean, I don't think there's a lot left to do, but really... there's a lot left. Still need to get suits for the boys, still need accessories for me, still need to buy some supplies and then make all the favors, still need to finish making the table luminaries, need to make a playlist, need to make table seating cards, need to write vows and the ceremony, need to make rehearsal dinner invites... Ahhh!

Okay, breathe Megan, breathe. I think it'll be okay. On the 23rd, the boys, Seth's sister and I are going shopping for suits, so hopefully we'll find something nice and get that all taken care out. Maybe this weekend I can go accessories shopping for myself... might have to wait until later though so I can bring my MoH with me. I'll probably get the table luminaries finished this weekend and I'm going to at least start making the favors. I think the playlist and the ceremony are going to be my biggest hurdle. Anyone have any suggestions for either?

Table Luminaries!

So this is me copying Heather again. She made these wicked cute Table Luminaries for table numbers and I'm doing the same. Mine are almost identical to hers - hope she doesn't mind! She never posted directions, so I figured out how to do it on my own. Different font and different ribbons, but the end result is the same. So far I've just got the products to make all five, but I've only made one. I think it turned out pretty well though! Here it is alone as well as with the rest of my centerpiece (minus the flowers):By the way, here's the centerpiece with the candles lit (and the bowl actually clean):