All is well...

The invitations have started getting delivered - we recieved our first phone call confirming it! Steve - ever the wonderstud - got them to the post office yesterday and the first recipients have reportedly gotten theirs! So, the RSVP numbers should start rolling in....

You know, all things considered, planning is going quite well for our wedding. I've received numerous compliments and comments about doing the wedding "by myself." Because my family doesn't live in the area, and I haven't lived in the DFW metroplex for very long (just over 3 years) I don't have a lot of tight friends. We don't have the money to hire a professional, and with the experience I've gained by planning activities and other socials, I didn't even think about hiring someone. Sometimes, I wish we had.

But overall, things are right on target, and everything should run quite smoothly for our wedding. The only things we really have left to do are:

• Flowers (Bridal boquet, Grooms Bout., Toss Boquet,Corsages, and guys bouts)
• Wedding Program (designed, but not all of the details are carved in yet)
• Thank You cards (also designed, but not printed yet - no I'm not making them. Thats too much work for my tight schedule).
• Clean Steve's house (thanks to a few awesome friends, this will be done on Oct. 15th)
• Verify/Finalize wedding music - we are hoping to have a violinist and cellist play. If not, we'll use a CD.
• Order photo mat for Open House. We're going to invite our guests to sign a large photo mat instead of having a guest book. Inside it, we'll have an 8x10 photo of us, and we'll display it in our home. Fun ide! Thanks to Michelle F.H. for doing it at her wedding.

Everything else is done... I think.

• Our attire is squared away (picking up my dress tommorrow morning. Steve's suit is done (and boy does he look GOOD in it!). I do need to take his shirt to be dry cleaned, but thats nothing big.
• The botanical garden is reserved.
• The invitations have gone postal.
• Rings have been purchased and are here.
• Plane tickets have been purchased and hotel accomodations reserved.
• Decorations for the open house (not much... really it's going to be simple - like we want it) have been aquired.
• Menu for the open house has been decided. Now I need to make the master grocery/purchasing list and get that done.

The only major items we have to get done, which aren't directly wedding related are:

• Unpacking my storage unit stuff.
• Move my papercrafting studio over to Steve's and keep it organized/tidy. (this could be an incredibly huge task!!)
• Move my bedroom over to Steve's (this can't happen until a few days before the wedding anyway... so I'm just playing it easy..)
• Get the cars cleaned.
• Clean up Steve's front flower garden (yeah! for mulch!!)

Am I missing something? I think everything is squared away... what did you forget for your wedding?

Mission Accomplished: Invitations have gone postal

Wahoo! Another major task marked off of the "To Do" list. And thankfully, all of the players came through and the announcements are finished! They are going postal in a few hours (yes, it is 3:41am here). Here are a few pics of the mess I had going on, on Steve's dining room table. Steve was a super stud and helped as much as he could. I really really appreciated his help - it took more time than I thought it would!

Engagement Photos are IN!!

Okay happy wedding info readers... our engagement photos have arrived! Here are a few of my favorites for your viewing pleasure! Melissa really did a great job with them (and for those of you in the DFW area, she is available for your photography needs too)!

WOW..... 28 days left until our wedding

I was SO prepared to be productive this weekend. But, then Hurricane Rita decided to threaten us. Not just us, but our gas supply. So, my weekend with Heather B. fell through. Actually I cancelled it. I didn't want to have to worry about finding somewhere to buy gas for my car when every single gas station I passed on my way to work on Friday (and on my way home too!) was out of gasoline.

My plan included getting the invitations assembled (but the printer had other ideas), and getting my flowers done. I did manage to get most of the flower shopping finished (don't forget I'm doing silk flowers instead of live), but I didn't get any of the actual arranging done. I think I'm going to stray from my original design and am going to include red hydrangeas in my bridal bouquet. The corsages and bouts will still have roses and I think my bridal bouquet will have rose too, but I'm adding hydrangeas.

Christa and I went over to Steve's to check out how the house was going to have to be laid out for the open house, and with her help we managed to get a few other things done too.

Otherwise, the wedding plans are still in FULL motion and going full stream ahead. We're seriously thinking about having a violinist and cellist play at the wedding instead of using the Knot's wedding CD. It would be absolutely LOVELY I think! I'll let you know how that pans out.

Mom and I have been finalizing the Open House menu, and getting the grocery lists ready (we're list people). Everything that will be used to decorate for the open house has been purchased. Now, I need to get my stuff from storage unpacked - and then get the open house stuff set up. My sweet friend Krista and Christa (my roommate) have agreed to come over to Steve's with me the Saturday before the wedding to scour the house. It will be spick and span for the wedding, and Steve is on STRICT orders to not mess ANYTHING up.

tomorrow we pick up Steve's suit (seriously, he's HOT in it!) and Saturday I pick up my dress from the seamstress (or as the suit dude tells me, they're Tailors - not seamstresses. It's an insult to call a tailor a seamstress... okay. whatever. Sorry to offend.... blah!). My veil and tiara should be here any day, and I have my shoes. So, we're both set to go.

Does anyone have any wedding program examples? I know I can do a Google search on wedding programs, but I wonder what you've done that was uber cool, or saw that was just plain neat.

The only major things left to do are:

~ GET THE INVITATIONS OUT! Could I make this any more bold?? They'll be in the mail on Tuesday though, so keep your eyes open. (Side note - they're being mailed in red envelopes. When I designed the inviations, I didnt think about finding lined envelopes or envelopes that were thicker than 24lb. Everything showed right through the white envel0pes, so I switched to red. I know it's not proper - but you'll get over it.) I have all of the supplies to get the invitations assembled, so thats what Steve and I will end up doing Monday night after everything else is done. We're going to get the photos back from the photographer tomorrow evening, and they'll be printed and in the invitations by Tuesday!

~ Get the master bathroom tile finished (This would be a Steve project. He's been otherwise occupied over the last few weeks helping me out, so I can't give him TOO much grief. But, it HAS to get done this week. If not, I'm going to do it myself - and that won't be a pretty thing.

~ Get the flowers done. (that would be 1 bridal bouquet, 8 or 9 corsages and 6 bouts. I am SO feeling a movie night coming on!).

~ Get the cake ordered (I've been working on this for what seems like FOREVER! But, I think I might have found someone who can do exactly what I want in a cake - will keep you posted!)

~ Get the front garden covered with mulch, and hang new flowering plants on the plant hooks. (Mulch is THE best at covering up stuff! Note to self: even Martha utilizes mulch!)

~ Get the wedding program written and printed.

~ We're going to have copies of the proclamation for wedding attendee's. So, they should soon be here and they'll need to be rolled and have the wedding ribbon tied around them.

Okay, what am I forgetting????? HELP!

The future Mrs. Ales...

My nameplate on my desk at work has been upgraded! What a fun! Thanks ladies!

More great news!

Grandma Cash is coming to the wedding too! Wahoo! I'm so excited that she'll be able to make it! We're going to have oodles of family with us - and it can't start off any better than that!

Shoes, Shoes, and MORE Shoes!

Okay, so I admit it. I love shoes. Make that flip-flops. I adore them. I love how you can find fun sparkly ones. I love how society has made flip flops more acceptable in the business environment. I love that they're not just for wearing around the swimming pool anymore or in the shower. THey're just fun - and COMFORTABLE. I have them with sequins. I have them with turquoise beaded on them. I have them plain. I have them with rhinestones. I have them with flowers. I have them with ribbon - and I love them all.

A co-worker bought me a pair of bridal flipflops as a gift. I HAVE to wear them on my wedding day - they are SO me.

Admittedly, Steve hates flip flops. Actually, he hates it when I wear them. They don't have any support for your feet, and the noises that emit when I wear them is irritating. I tried to make a deal with him though. He's been working on tiling the master bathroom for a while now. Make that 5 or 6 (or 7 or 8) months. I've been bugging him to finish it and it hasn't happened yet. Months ago, he used to joke (before we were engaged) that if I was lucky, he'd finish it up as a wedding present (har de har har). I told him that if he finished the bathroom up, I'd stop wearing flip flops for the rest of the year. I even changed that to not wearing flip flops for a full calendar year - from the time he finished it. But, alas - the tiling remains unfinished. However, I've been promised that it will be done sometime within the next week or so.

Saying I love you...

Warning: Mushy content in today’s post!

So, this morning on my way into work, I was listening to a Pop Radio Station, and they were playing a re-made version of “More than Words” originally by the group Extreme. Normally, I don’t listen to the words, I just bop along with the tune and drive along. For some reason, today, I listened to the words – and started to cry. Here are the words that stuck out the most to me:

Saying I love you, is not the words I want to hear from you
It's not that I want you not to say, but if you only knew
How easy it would be to show me how you feel.
More than words is all you have to do to make it real
Then you wouldn't have to say that you love me
’Cuz I'd already know.

Steve is SO fantastic. He tells me he loves me, and he also does things to show me that he loves me. I am SO lucky and blessed to have him in my life – and to be his wife (in only one month from today!!). He does the most amazing things for me, and he goes out of his way (in a HUGE way) to do things for me. For instance, he’s been driving over to my storage unit and getting truck loads of my stuff from the storage unit – and bringing it to his house. AND he’s been doing it for a few weeks. He finished it all up yesterday with help from his brother – when it was Steve’s day off from work.

Steve does so many things for me. He puts together furniture, he starts to paint my studio, he goes to the health food store and buys me a case of my protein drink. He doesn’t laugh (too hard) when I’m having an emotional moment, and he lets me bawl when I slam my finger into the garage door – and he takes care of me. He snuggles with me, and naps with me. He calls me his "Heatherbear" (and I LOVE it!!). He’s one heck of a great guy – and I love him more than my words show too.

I am THE luckiest girl in the world!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

Okay, so the plan has changed again. Here's how our wedding day is going to "go down."

We're going to get married at the Fort Worth Botanical Garden at 11:30am. Afterwards (and after we're done taking photos) at 1:30pm we are having an open house at Steves (well by then it will be our home) home from 1:30 - 4:00pm. What we're doing after that, is up in the air.

Something tells me that everyone will not be hungry for dinner after the Open House, so going to dinner would be silly. SO, we might just go down to the stockyards and have dinner down there - OR we might do something completely different.

All I know is that anything could change without a moments notice! :)

Our Open House will be simple. My awesome mother is a fantastic cook! And, she taught me everything I know (well between her and all of the cooking classes I've taken anyway! ). She is bringing her awesome and famous Strawberry Punch (this stuff is SOOO yummy!) , sweet/sour meatballs, and her party chicken/pork. With that we'll have mini quiches, ham roll-ups, vegetables and dip, cheese balls, other dips, crackers, maybe a fruit try and dip. We'll definitely have the traditional mints, nuts (although the nuts could be my family...) and cake.

We're not going to any major expense (flowers, white lights, more photos of us) to decorate. The Open House will be comfy and cozy!

More Happy News!!!

So, my awesome brother, Robert is coming to the wedding also! My other incredible brother, Scott, is checking with his place of employment to see if he can come also! FANTASTIC!! We're going to have a lot of family - which is really what Steve and I want! Family is super important to us, an we are absolutely thrilled to have them join us! So.... family wise we will have...

From Steves Family
~ Dad & Stepmother, Russ & Jill
~ Sister, Kimberlee
~ Brother, Thomas
~ Sister, Nichole
~ Grandmother, Joyce

Heathers Family
~ Mom & Dad, Mary & Don
~ Sister & new Niece, Bekki & Ainsley
~ Brother, Robert
~ Brother, Scott (hopefully)
~ Birthmother, Sheri
~ Aunt, Candy (hopefully)

Yeah! LOTS of family! This is going to be awesome!

Wedding Day plans....

Oh the fun of planning... it really IS fun, but man, trying to navigate through everyone's arrival/departure schedules and make sure that they get to have some fun while they're here -- AND get all of the wedding stuff done too, can be a challenge! We have so many family members come into town, and they've never been to the area so I feel like I need to show them part of Texas. AND I'm going to make it fun. So... here's my idea of our wedding day itenerary.. well an outline anyway...

1. Wedding
2. Wedding Photos
3. Wedding Dinner (well late lunch) 2:30 (or whenever we get to the restaurant) - 4pm.
4. Change clothes @ Steve's house (and/or everyone meet back there)
5. Fort Worth Stockyards and attend the rodeo. (Tee Hee! I'm going to get Bride and Groom T-shirts made for steve and I to wear. And of course, I WILL wear my veil and tiara! What a GREAT excuse!! And we all know that I'm a princess! )
6. Get everyone home - and Steve and I will SPLIT for the night.... WAAHOOOOO!

Whaddathink??

Invitations and Announcements (and UBER good news!)

Well, anyone that knows me would know that I love to design. It's just fun to doodle out and then make my doodle. Such is the case of our wedding invitations and announcements. I've created 4 (yes FOUR) different announcements/invitations just for our wedding. I can't make up my mind on them. I think I've narrowed it down to one design, but now I need to decide if I want the print done via thermography (think embossing) or if the cost is too great - do it on my laser printer at home. I know I want something VERY simple and casual. I think i've achieved it! Now, I need to decide if we are going to include a photo with the invitations and announcements and if I want to use the same design for both the invitations and the announcements. Decisions, decisions, decisions! So, if you haven't gathered from the post... yes, I'm making the announcements and invitations too! :)

UBER Good News: Steve got a call from his mother last night. It looks like his sister Nicole and Grandmother Depsey will be able to come for the wedding! Wahooo! I'm so excited! I had the chance to meet Grandmother Dempsey, but not his sister Nicole! I also talked to Sheri (my birth mother) and it looks like my Aunt Cindy (her sister) may be in Austin the following week, and might be able to come a few days early to attend the wedding. Fantastic! I'm absolutely THRILLED!

Man, the expenses!!!

WOW.... You know. I definitely did not have a realistic view of how much it costs to have a wedding. I thought (at least in my happy little mind) that they were relatively inexpensive. And, mine should cost a LOT less than the average wedding. But, even with cutting corners, and expenses - it's expensive! It's the little things like getting a marriage license, your wedding attire, postage for invitations and announcements, travel arrangements and accomodations (that's a HUGE chunk) ... slowly it all adds up! Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to be getting married. I'm SO excited to begin my life with such an incredible man - but the costs!! No wonder people elope! And don't misunderstand, I'm excited, estatic even, that we're able to have our families come. They are the most important people we want there. SO, even though it's going to cost us - we're happy to do it.

Taking time to smell (actually arrange) the roses

So, brilliant me decided to do all of our wedding flowers myself. Yes, I am directly related to Einstien, and Mr. Bean too. Of course, I'm thinking I'll do them myself because it will be SO much cheaper. (Which is true.) So, last night, I start searching around local craft stores for the floral choices I'll have at my disposal. I know I want my bouquet to have red roses, white stephanotis with pearl centers, and LOTS of Swarovski white crystals. I think that is all that will be in any of the arrangements. I don't think I want any greenery. I just want red, white, and bling. Hmmm... that sounds almost kind of patriotic! :) I can't find a photo of exactly what I want my bouquet to look like, but here are a few photos with the pieces I want to incorporate into it.

The first photo is basically my bouquet except that it will be in red, and will have crystals and the stephanotis in it too. SO, really the only thing you can get from the photo is the shape of the arrangement and the roses. :)

The second is an example of the stephanotis with pearl centers. I really like the pearls along the stems too. Very pretty!

The third photo is of a bouquet with pearls (imagine the pearls are crystals) in it, but the example is TOTALLY not of the arrangement I'm going to have. See, you have to envision all of my ideas!! :)

What do you think?

We're IN!

We have officially gotten the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens for our wedding site! Wooohooo! It is such a beautiful site, I can't wait to see it on our wedding day! We'll be married on the south end of the area, in the Lower Rose Garden. The fall roses are supposed to be blooming the end of September through the beginning of November - so we should be in FULL bloom! Yeah!

Rings and Resizing

My ring flew off of my hand this weekend. When I got sized, and resized (a few months later) they asssured me that my knuckles would not shrink, and that a size 5 would be fine. Okay, fast forward another month (or so) to this weekend. The ring has been turning around on my finger for a few days (I've only had it for just over a week!). I was demonstrating how it would not fall off by flailing my hand about. Whoops! Off the ring came! Steve and I had talked about having it sized when we have the wedding band soldered to the ring. So, I think I'm going to get one of those sizer thing-a-ma-jigs to put onto it.

I'm worried about having it sized. When I get pregnant (in a few years) and my hands swell, won't it be a problem then? I don't plan on losing much more weight. Maybe another 10 or 15 lbs, but I don't want to lose much more than that. I need some padding to my body! My bones are starting to stick out!

Comments, Comments Everywhere!

I love it! Oodles of comments! Thanks Michelle, Alice and the other Heather B! Michelle, we're waiting to honeymoon - probably until March. We've decided to take a trip each year halfway between our birthday's (March) for our birthdays! Alice, thank you for the cake information! I think we might use them for the ring ceremony/reception next year! Beautiful work! Heather B - what would I do without you? Flounder of course! We do have a minister and believe it or not, we're playing a music cd (The Knot wedding music compilation) for and during the wedding. If you're going flower shopping with me, then we must have everything covered! You ladies ROCK!

What's left to do....

So, now that we've had a productive weekend (wahooo!), here's what I think I have left to accomplish:

• Invitations to Wedding
• Marriage Announcements (to be sent out after we're married)
• Flowers (I think I've set my mind on silk so that we can use them again for the ring ceremony and reception - and so that I can keep my bouquet forever!)
• Steve's Attire (black suit, white shirt, red tie and hanky!)
• Family Dinner arrangements
• Finish Wedding Registries
• Get Engagement pictures done (LOVE Melissa's work! She did our bluebonnet photos too!)
• Schedule Wedding Photographer (Melissa again!)
• Order small wedding cake for family dinner.
• Marriage License (How could I forget??)

Am I missing anything???

Wedding Location: FOUND!! (hopefully!)

Something else we accomplished this weekend.... scoping out the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens! We went and viewed all 8 (yes 8!!) of the gardens, and selected our top three. After emailing with the event director, it looks like our first choice, the Lower Rose Garden, is available!! We won't know whether the wedding will be there or not for about a week. But, keep your fingers crossed! It's BEAUTIFUL!!

Check it out! Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, Lower Rose Garden.

My Challenge: Finding the Perfect Dress

When planning a wedding in only 6 weeks, many of the normal tasks must be completed on a highly accelerated schedule. For instance, finding a wedding dress. Normally, a bride will take weeks, months, even years to select the perfect dress for her wedding. Now, I've always had an idea of what I wanted in my perfect dress. I've always envisioned myself in a white, empire waisted, short sleeved, scooped neckline, floor length gown. The bodice and sleeves would be beaded with thousands of brilliant Swarovski crystals, and it would be a gown fit for a princess - and certainly any bride! My dress most certainly would not have any lace, lace frills, bows, lace inlets, flowers, hearts, or pearls. See, I'm not particular at all!

However, upon visiting 9 of the bridal shoppes located in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, I soon came to realize that I was the only one with my vision. Of the 9 shoppes, 7 of them did not have a single dress with short sleeves. I'm in the middle of a sleeveless/strapless dress revolution. I started calling shoppes to see if they even had something like what I was looking for (or even a dress with short sleeves at all) when we went to the 8th store. The 8th shoppe had a few dresses, and one was absolutely beautiful - but, it just wasn't me. Before we gave up, we found a shoppe that was only about a mile from my house that carried bridal dresses (www.lynnesbridal.com). It's a TINY, hole in the wall place, but they had a room (about the size of my cubicle at work) that had bridal dresses. We found one that was empire waisted, and another one that Christa thought was beautiful - but I thought it was way too small (size 12). I humored her, and we took both dresses into the dressing room. She had me try on the empire waisted dress. Most brides know the moment they see themselves in the dress that it is the dress for thier wedding. This was not one of those moments. Suddenly, I felt pregnant. It was a lovely dress - if I wanted to have a vintage (think of the movie Emma) wedding. Soooo NOT me. We laughed and I put the next dress on.

This was the dress. It is not what I had in mind at all. But, once I had it on - it was perfect for me. And shock of shocks... the size 12 fit. It fit me. ME. IT FIT ME! I almost cried! This formerly BBW (big beautiful woman) was going to get married in a size 12 dress (and not to rub it in but wedding dresses are normally 2 sizes bigger than your normal size I am not a size 10, but one can always dream right?) Well, it fit except for a few minor alterations that will be done - I am 5'4" you know. It's a lovely dress. The bodice is embroidered with swirls. It's beaded with pearls in the shape of flowers (I recind the pearls and flowers comment from the first paragraph above). It's floor length and has a chapel length train that will bustle with in only one place. It has short sleeves, and a scoop neck. The back is lower than I would have liked, but it looks great and I'll have an insert created for our ring ceremony/wedding reception next year so that I feel more comfortable. It's a fabulous dress and I can't wait to wear it for OUR special day!

I looked ALL weekend to find a photo online of it (the tags are gone from the dress) but couldn't find one. Which I suppose is a good thing. Steve isn't going to see it until our wedding day, and even though he doesn't comment (something in common with most of you!) he reads the blogs (mine and ours) religiously.

~ heather

Here's the official plan...

Okay, so it's decided. Here's how it's going to work...

We're getting married on Saturday, October 22nd at 11:30 in the morning. We're going to have a VERY small wedding with only family and close friends in attendance. After our wedding, we'll go have photographs taken at the Dallas Botanical Gardens and Arboretum. Then we'll have a family dinner.

Next year, on October 28, 2006, we will have a ring ceremony and wedding celebration (reception) for all of our friends and family. It's important to Steve and I that everyone feel included in our special celebration!

Please be sure to mark October 28th, 2006 on your calendar! We would love it if you could join us in celebrating!

The word is out....

The word is slowly getting out! Yeah for technology! Well, we knew the first question we were going to be asked would be "Have you set a date?". And, we didn't have an answer until last night. As crazy as this is, and as wild as it's going to get, we've decided on October 22, 2005. Yes, that's right, 2005. Yes, we know it's in 6 weeks. Yes, we are out of our minds. But, yes we're happy.

It will be a small wedding. VERY small wedding. We're getting married in a small room, and it may end up only being family. As much as we love you all, it's most important to us that we have our parents there. We are going to try and make sure that all of our parents are there (go blended families!). We will have a reception, but it will also be small and not fancy. We're looking at gettting married at 11:30 am, and then having a light lunch (read: sandwich fixings/salads/chips/vegi tray) kind of reception. There won't be any alcohol, but there will be an incredibly awesome punch!! We'd love to have you join us for the reception, and it's going to be very short, but nice.

We're hoping to get announcements out quickly (well with only 6 weeks, it's going to be quick!). Please make sure I have your mailing address. You can email it directly to me at hbeste@yahoo.com or to us at steveandheatherales@yahoo.com.

Love,
~heather