A Surprise Disneymoon - Oct 2011

[brookelynpenguin]

Oh my goodness, so I was talking to the girl who is going to do my hair for the wedding and she was asking about a veil. I told her I wasn't wearing one and then she asked about a tiara or hair clips or anything. I told her no but she insisted that I'm going to want something in my hair to accent it and I relented because I knew she was right.

I went online to etsy and typed in Labyrinth in the search box and up popped some combs similar to Jennifer Connelly's in the movie! I sent a quick message to the seller asking if they could be done by the 28th at the latest and she said yes. Of course she did...I'm paying her money for these combs; she didn't want to lose a potential customer. Anyway, I just bought some gorgeous combs for my hair. They have rose colored crystals, sterling silver leaves, and pearls. The finishing touch: some ivory colored ribbons tied to the comb to trail though my hair.

Naturally I pulled out the movie and just had to watch the ballroom scene to study her hair closely. The combs are not exact replicas but are definitely inspired by the movie which was what I wanted. I'm gonna be the prettiest girl at my wedding (obviously)

Kay, I guess I should clean up my packing mess and retrieve Ian as he doesn't seem to want to nap today. I think I'll make some cookies too. I have two hours before James gets home so I should accomplish it. I'm sure Jay and James will appreciate some fresh from the oven cookies. Jay is nice enough to replace James rotors in exchange for a home-cooked meal. I'm sure he'll love the cookies as a nice bonus.: yay: His price is much lower than at a shop. 70 dollars for the rotors and some time in the kitchen (which James loves anyway) as opposed to the 200 or something the shop wanted.

 

[Princess.Rachel]

That sounds gorgeous! You should post a picture

 

[brookelynpenguin]

That sounds gorgeous! You should post a picture

I'll try. I'm a little unsure on how to post links though.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/68184641/silver-leaf-crystal-bridal-combs

Ooh, I did it! The beads are going to be rose colored and the ribbon will be ivory to match my dress

Today I emailed Vonne (our photographer) and am working on setting up a bridal shoot. Last night I was talking with my MOH about the bachelorette party. She wanted to do a club but some of the girls are underage so I suggested that just she, another friend, and I do drinks somewhere. All the other girls I invited I work but I never get to see the two of them

For some reason, James has the day off tomorrow instead of his usual Wednesday so we are going to the dance studio to practice some more. Our dance instructor added on some new moves and we have absolutely no room in our house to practice them now. After the wedding I'm going to see if James and I can't continue dance lessons somewhere. Maybe swing or tango and not so much ballroom (though it's so pretty).

James and I started work on the centerpieces last night. We just painted the roses red and then set them out to dry. I plan to finish them tomorrow then we'll have four of our ten centerpieces done. I still need to buy some more roses though. I didn't buy them all at once because it was 2.50 per rose.

Did I ever share my centerpieces yet? We're taking white roses and dipping them into red fabric paint then we're putting three into a clay pot and scattering some reindeer moss around them. We're finishing them off with a playing card in each pot and a phrase from the movie around the rim of the pot in silver sharpie. I'll post pics after we finish them tomorrow. I'm still worried about paying off our venue as it's $1,000+ but I have half of it for sure and still have until the 15th to collect the rest. I can't wait until vacation.

17 more days of work (assuming I have my usual two days off a week)
25 more days until the wedding
28 more days until we leave for DisneyWorld

 

[brookelynpenguin]

Thought I'd post some pics before bed quickly

Sorry it's so fuzzy. I'm horrible at photo taking.
The invites say:

Brooke & James request that you celebrate our wedding in Wonderland

Thursday, September 29, 2011 at noon

Follow us down the rabbit hole to...​

The words are printed backwards and on the top right corner it says read through the looking glass. I wish I could have gotten a better picture of the invites.

Aren't my shoes gorgeous? I need to remember to clean the scuff marks off them though. I suppose it wouldn't matter as my dress will hide my shoes but I know they will be there.

I found these at the Disney Store on sale after Easter. I just had to buy them!

 

[brookelynpenguin]

Last night was my bachelorette party. We went to a martini bar and then a club. I don't like alcohol and don't dance so it was a very awkward night for me. I don't like alcohol and all they insisted buying me was shots. The whole night I had half a vodka shot taken in very small sips. I wanted something fruity and girly but didn't get it. Oh well.

Moving on from my first and probably last club experience, I bought some more stuff online for the wedding. I bought some AIW mini coloring books for the kids gift bags. A few days ago I watched the newer Alice movie (I just loved Mia Wasikowska's gorgeous Colleen Atwood designed costumes!) and put what I had into the gift bags. Then I added their names onto the bags with stickers. I'll post pics once I get the coloring books which should be soon; they shipped on Friday. I also bought some folding fans for the guests because it's probably going to be hot outside. I think I might have bought too many but I'll find a use for whatever doesn't get taken. I bought 16 pink paper fans and 16 sandalwood fans.

I'm also expecting my thank you cards in the mail soon as well. I got word that they also shipped. I'm hoping to get them by Tuesday at the latest. The rest of my time will now be super busy. James and I have a meeting with the officiant at Braum's on Tuesday. Wednesday we have dance class and I'll have to track down all our guests as head count and payment is due Thursday. James and I are gonna do centerpieces, another Alice drawing, and I'm hopefully gonna have a little bit of money leftover to buy the rest of the roses (15) needed for the centerpieces. Then there's a baby shower this Sunday and after that I'm gonna do the bridal shoot. Oh and I got invited to dinner Friday night. I'm probably not going though; I'm gonna have no money leftover for dinner after head count, roses, and baby shower gift. James and I usually head over to the dance studio to practice Friday night anyway. I can't wait until we head to Disney World. No more stress.

 

[brookelynpenguin]

I just absolutely love my DVR. Do you know how amazing it is to record movies to watch later? I record movies a lot faster than I can watch them so I have to constantly keep my eye on the DVR to make sure I have space for everything without something I wanted to watch being deleted. Anyway, I just finished watching Lady Gaga's Monster Ball Tour from Madison Square Garden on HBO. I love Lady Gaga I'm a little monster

Well apparently my grandparents think the wedding is in October. Gran was telling my mom about coming down in October blah, blah, blah. My mom asked why she wasn't coming down for the wedding and gran said she was but my mom told her the wedding was in September. Well Gran swore up and down that I told her the wedding was in October I don't know where she got that idea but yeah. I need to call her and double check that they are coming down on the right dates.

And another thing, why do people keep asking if I'm nervous about getting married? James and I have been together for four years. We've lived together for four years and have also worked together for the same amount of time. Our neighbors already think we are married and our insurance agent also counts us as married (we are according to common law I suppose). So why should I be nervous? It's just weird.

Still counting down the days of work left before my two week vacay from work. Oh, and I am now down to a 1 in the Disney countdown. 19 days to go

 

[brookelynpenguin]

Oh my goodness, how did I fall so far behind in everything? How? I don't understand. I'm getting married on Thursday. Eep. I still have lots to do. The girl who was supposed to do my hair keeps flaking out on me so I don't know if she's still gonna do it. If she doesn't I'm probably gonna just curl it. The only reason I agreed to go with her was because she was gonna do my make-up for free. Oh well. It's not my fault she can't keep appointments.

Moving on, today I bought the last of the roses for my centerpieces and James just finished painting them. They are now sitting outside to dry and tomorrow night I'm going to assemble them. I've also been playing with an idea of bending some cards to look like the wickets (is that the right word?) and then setting them up around the base of the centerpieces. I'll see how that idea works out.

For the honeymoon, I bought some big notecards to hang on the door at our hotel room inviting people to sign them and hopefully give us well wishes on our honeymoon. I'm gonna put some Halloween stickers on the cards too just for the seasonal boost. At the dollar store I bought a cute glittery orange foam sign that says Haunting Season. I'm gonna tape that up with the notecards as well and throw a lime green Mickey head up there. I also bought some little honeycomb pumpkins to put in our hotel room just because I think it will look cute and I never thought about decorating a hotel room until I started reading these boards.

Lets see, I received my hair clips in the mail and they are gorgeous. They are a little smaller than I thought but well worth the money I paid for them. Oh, and I got my last piece of Mickey mail finally.

Finally James and I have been cleaning the house like mad. We like giving the illusion that we have a clean, orderly house even though we have a destructive 2-year old living with us. We've been scrubbing spots on the floor, cleaning the microwave, etc. My auntie is going to be staying with us as well. She was asking for nearby hotels and I asked James and he said she could stay so I got super excited. I love my auntie to death and I knew she wouldn't mind sharing a room with Mr. Ian. She hasn't actually met him yet; I send her lots of pictures but those don't suffice. Ian's cuteness can't be captured sufficiently enough on film!

Anyway, enough for tonight. I'll try to get some pictures up before the wedding but I am a hot mess so I can't promise anything. Oh, and two people bought me presents of Traveler's Joy (our honeymoon registry) so we now have a little bit of extra spending money for our trip. I just hope someone else buys us something from there. We need a fun vacation more than stupid kitchen stuff for James. Haha, I can't believe I said that. Kitchen stuff for James means he'll want to test whatever out by cooking something and I'm his very willing test subject. Blah, I'm tired. Good night.

Awesome Lion King bag from Ian's Subway kids meal

Rajah Ann enjoying our test centerpiece

My KTTW card holders...Stitch is for me and Jack goes to James; so cute I had to buy two

 

[brookelynpenguin]

Good morning, whose all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning? Just me, okay.

It's gonna be hot outdoors so I bought some cute fans

I went through all of them and wrote our name and the date in silver

I am finished with the centerpieces...mostly

I just need to drip a little bit of paint down the sides to make them look freshly painted...or something to that effect

Okay, I've got to go to work but I made good progress last night on getting everything done and taking pictures of it all. Oh, and only 8 hours of work left before I have 2 fantastic weeks off work! I really have to go now though or else I'm going to be late for work.

 

[Darkfirewolfe]

OMG - How exciting!! I wish I had been here sooner to see all the progress!

I LOVE YOUR ROSE POTS!! That's a super cute idea

We are headed to WDW at the end of October, but you'll be there shortly. We are also staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I'm totally subbing and I can't wait to see after pictures!

 

[brookelynpenguin]

Look at what James drew!

We're gonna have our guests sign this picture

A close-up...isn't it good

We aren't having wedding favors but I did make up bags for the kids

The Tinkerbell halo is for the girls and the Mickey Mouse ears are for the boys

I remembered that my auntie had a Mickey Mouse hole punch so I asked to borrow it for the bags

Since there are only going to be 8 kids, it was easy to personalize names on each bag

So the morning moved by pretty quickly...and then lunch hit. Eventually, I looked at the clock and it was 12:30. I could've sworn it was 1:15 (I get off work at 2). After work James and I headed downtown to get our marriage license then ate at Taco Bell. With all this marriage stuff going on, we've had no time nor money to buy/cook food and it's driving me crazy.

 

[brookelynpenguin]

OMG - How exciting!! I wish I had been here sooner to see all the progress!

I LOVE YOUR ROSE POTS!! That's a super cute idea

We are headed to WDW at the end of October, but you'll be there shortly. We are also staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I'm totally subbing and I can't wait to see after pictures!

Hello! Thank you, I am very proud of my rose pot idea. I can't wait for WDW and I have never stayed on property before so we had to go deluxe for our honeymoon and first on property stay.

 

[brookelynpenguin]

The wedding went pretty well and tonight we packed for the honeymoon. It's all sitting in the living room ready for us when we leave around 4am . We'll be in sunny Florida in the afternoon though I'll definitely post wedding updates, pics, and honeymoon stuff on my return. Me and James super excited!

 

[Darkfirewolfe]

WHEEEEEE!! Congratulations!

I just checked the weather in Orlando and it is 20 degrees warmer this morning there than here (Atlanta), so sunny Florida weather awaits you!

 

[brookelynpenguin]

Our honeymoon was a-mazing. We had lots of fun although we decided that seven days in the off season is a little too much time for us. The good thing is we got lots of pics, lots of autographs and some amazing food at Jiko. The last two days were a little rainy but we braved the elements. Really, who's going to let a little rain spoil the fun in Disney World? Anyway I just started a trip report and the link is posted at the bottom for those interested in joining me on my adventures. I promise lots of pictures;we had about 600 wedding photos, almost 400 photopass photos, and 200 photos from my own camera. I'm not going to post them all but there are plenty to choose from.