Amber and Wes 11/16/13 Swan/Fantasmic!DP Update 12/18 -Disbride ideas!

[celerystalker]

Updates
So I started typing this yesterday, but photobucket at work wasn't working, so now I'm posting it!

Erin at Just Marry! is drawing up our contract as I type! Eep!

This makes it very real.
What will make it even more real is the money leaving my bank account!

Confession time – Wes lost his job at the end of September. It is soooooo stress free planning a wedding with only one income!
Dave Ramsey meant for the emergency fund to be used for a wedding deposit, right?
Ha.
On the bright side, Wes is selling some of his stuff his dad left him to raise some funds. Currently he’s selling an old gas pump he refinished – a guy has made an offer for $2000, so hopefully that will be completed soon!

Wes has also catalogued his dad’s G.I. Joe collection and I’m sending the info to a specialty shop to see if they want to buy any of the collection.

Save the Date!
Since our contract is being drawn up, I figured it was time to order the Save the Dates!
I created 3 designs on Vistaprint and asked Wes to choose one.
He chose this one:

The wording on the back is borrowed from CityGirlLost (Juli’s) Save the Dates.

Thanks to CMDbuddy’s post, I got the Living Social Vistaprint deal - $50 worth of merchandise for $10! I ordered 80 Save the Dates (more than I’ll need) and still hadn’t met the $50 – so I ordered two t-shirts as well!

I think Wes will look very fetching in his! Just kidding. I’ll probably wear the extra around the house.
All that for $24 bucks! I love a deal!!!!

Update to the update - Erin sent the contract. Eepeepeep! We're not signing it until Wes is back in town next week.

I also heard back from Disney Event Planning - the menus for Hollywood Studios sound sooooo good!

 

[SeaBreezeBride]

Love your save the dates and tees! so cute! Gotta love vistaprint!

 

[charliegirl76]

I love your Save the Dates! They're beautiful!

 

[celerystalker]

Sorry I haven't updated in forever! I blame the disbrides group on Facebook! It's so easy to post something quick there and I put off updating the PJ!
I also blame them for my latest obsession - shopping for wedding dresses!
Several of them have posted pics of themselves trying on REAL wedding dresses - so I decided to go try some on.

Here's the result:

(Sorry for the bad pics - my sister is not the best with my phone! She's good with a camera though - she took the engagement pics I posted earlier)

My mom's favorite because of the train:

My two favorites:

Since spending over $1000 on a dress, plus another few hundred on undergarments and a veil isn't in our budget, I've been searching for similar styles on ebay.

It's become quite an obsession!

In fact, I think I've found THE DRESS, but I haven't won it yet. In the meantime, I bid on a dress - only $49 bucks - I didn't think I'd win it, but I did!
Eep.
I have a veil on the way from China - $6.50 (that includes shipping!) - we'll see if it's usable at all.
I have a longline bra coming from a bride for 15 bucks...
I have a crinoline coming from China for 15....
AND!!! I found my shoes this week at TJ Maxx - they were $15 and will be my "something blue!" I love them!

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Wow, you have quite the international collection. If you need something old, I still have my wedding dress from Germany for 1970. Just saying....

 

[CityGirlLost]

I love everything, but I'm a dork like that!

 

[redlight]

Joining in. I love your dress!

 

[tashka87]

The shoes are amazing! And looks super comfy- great for dancing

 

[celerystalker]

Disbrides inspire me!
I get so many great ideas from other brides on here!
But first, I need to discuss how my DF has definite opinions about odd stuff. I figured he wouldn't be into the whole wedding planning thing - so I started making plans.
I think these are really cool and they match our colors!

He doesn't like them.
I mentioned the groom top hat ears. He vetoed them.
I decided we would have a cake pop cake since my friend Julie makes some awesome ones! (her website is partypopsbyjulie.com, if you're interested!)

Wes decided he wanted a traditional cake, not cake pops.

So since our colors are blue and teal, I found this!

He didn't like it.

At this point, I started getting a little frustrated! So I made him go with me to a wedding place. It's hard to describe what it is - it's called wedding 101 and it's like a co-op of vendors - lots of vendors have information and displays there and you can browse and possibly book a vendor. My aforementioned friend Julie has her stuff there.
I showed him cakes, and it turns out he likes topsy turvy ones (sometimes called mad hatter cakes). I personally love them, but I told him they are usually more expensive.
He also was not opposed to the pomanders they had hanging - I explained that I would want some of them to be Mickey pomanders, and he was fine with that.
He also said throwing fruity pebbles for our exit like icecoldpenguin would be fine with him.
Success!
So I started some craft projects!
Thanks so much to princesswendy720's tutorial on the mickey head pomander!
And here's the first prototype:

Now back to the ideas from other brides -
Freckledginger used two vendors that I absolutely fell in love with - her cake topper was by sophiasworkshop (She has an etsy store and a website) and some of her flowers were by dk designs hawaii (she has an etsy store as well).
Here are some samples of their work:

Wes loves the cake toppers and doesn't care about my flowers - so we're in business!
I've contacted both sellers and negotiations are in the works!
The only problem is I think a topsy turvy cake will take away from the awesome topper - So I think maybe a plain cake with a ribbon or something simple will be good.
I'm so excited about having a permanent reminder of our wedding to display - both the flowers and the cake toppers will be uniquely us and can be displayed for years!

In other news, we have a new addition to our family!
Meet Natalie Mystique Gomes (I'll post a picture later since photobucket and work don't always mix!) Her big brothers Riley and Moxie aren't too sure about her, but we think she's awesome!

 

[NAB]

I love that cakepop cake and the big rings on it the top. So cool.

The unique tops are cute too.

I found the flowers the hardest to pick because I love them all. Love that blue and white one.

We also went to a wedding show ,they have them here every Jan. Everything from limos to honeymoons draws. You can get some real cool ideas you never thought of but weddings eat a lot of money that's for sure. You can get sticker shock.

 

[redlight]

Love he cake toppers!

 

[celerystalker]

Here's a pic of the puppy!

 

[celerystalker]

I have what could be the most awesome future mother in law! Check out some of the Christmas gifts she got me! I think they will look awesome on the cake table!!!!

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Awesome! Both the gifts and the MIL

 

[monymony3471]

Sorry I'm late! Sound familiar?

Lots to catch up on, be patient with me!

So happy for you and that you have this little thread going!

 

[charliegirl76]

Just catching up.....did you find a dress? Did I miss the choice?! I must say, I'm with your mom and love the second dress. And I love those caketoppers (even checked them out for our cake).

Natalie is adorable.

 

[celerystalker]

I know I've said this before, but the disbrides are a really bad influence! Several of them have been married for 6 months or so and have decided to all buy houses about the same time.
So what did we do?
Bought a house.
We finally closed on Monday and now we're leaving tonight for our first ever vacation!
I really wanted Wes to experience WDW before the wedding, so we're flying from Knoxville tomorrow. We'll be there for 7 nights and we're staying at Bonnet Creek.
We'll also be getting some wedding planning done.
On Saturday, I'll be stalking the weddings of two disbrides! Yay!
On Tuesday we have an engagement shoot with Randy Chapman.
On Wednesday we're meeting Heather from It's Tasty too for a cake tasting and design session in the morning and then that afternoon we're touring the Swan and Dolphin with our day of wedding coordinator.

Yay!
But mostly Yay because I haven't been to WDW in two years.
I sure hope Wes has a great time and loves it as much as I do - - and will hopefully decide that yearly trips make sense.

Dress - I got THE dress on ebay for 100 bucks - it's been used once and isn't in too bad shape - but the woman used self tanning lotion and the inside is yucky. Blech! It will cost me about $140 to get it cleaned.

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Have tons of fun with the wedding planning!

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

Just caught up on your PJ. Loving all the details you have planned. The invitations are so cute. Did you finish them?

Love the save the dates and the t-shirts!

Congrats on getting the dress! Hope you will post a pic! And getting so many great deals too! Love the shoes too! Very cute!

Your puppy is too cute! And the gifts from your MIL are great! Love them!

Congrats on buying a house! That was a plan for DF and I, but given the insanity of the housing market near where we live we've forced to postpone the plans and just rent for awhile.

Have fun on your trip and wedding planning! Looking forward to reading all about it!

 

[marvelgirl2010]

I really relate to your story. My fiance and I planned our wedding and even had our appt at Franks before we were officially engaged. Your cutouts look great!! Nice to see another November bride!