Free Choc Chip Cookie from Mrs. Fields Oct 1

Celebrate National Cookie Month with Mrs. Fields! Get a FREE Chocolate Chip Cookie on October 1, from 11 a.m. To 1 p.m. At all participating Mrs. Fields Stores, and don't forget to ask for your frequent buyer card to get up to 6 more FREE cookies through October 31. Go *here* for the store locator.

I'm so excited about my wedding photographer!

After MONTHS of searching, subscribing to photographers blogs, looking up reviews on project wedding and asking around, we have finally found the perfect wedding photographers! Furious Photographers! They are the only photographers that I found that had different elements to their style, most other wedding photographers right now stick to one style, either they are doing the pictures with intense colors or they are doing them in a vintage style, but I did not find any other that had as many dimensions to their style as Furious Photographers. Photography is really important to me and mi amor because they are what we will have to look back on our wedding day and you want to have someone taking your pictures whose artistic ability you admire, another important past of finding the right photographer is being able to click with them. It was easy to talk to Doug from Furious Photographers from the very beginning of when I emailed him and when mi amor & I went to have our first meeting with him to discuss hiring him, we ended up talking with him for over 2 hours about so many different subjects, he really made us feel at ease. I'm so excited to have him shoot our wedding in April!

DIY Wedding Water Labels all over the web!

{Source Inspire The Bride }

I have found so many diy water labels online that were so generously shared by other brides that I wanted to put them on in one post. I wish I was as talented & creative as these ladies!Please remember to give them credit for their work, if you re post this or use the templates. In total there are 20 labels from 7 wonderful brides who were so sweet to share their templates.

1. knottie krhagen has graciously shared 9 water bottle templates! *here*
2. Lauren Egkan, Wedding Planner of The Royal Engagement is the creater of the blog Inspire The Bride and has shared a damask, polka dot & black & white pattern water label
3. Here are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 templates from DIY Bride.
4. Mrs. Lemon shared 3 templates on weddingbee
5. Mrs. Firefly also has a water bottle template *here*
6. Kari aka Knottie macdidlyicious, shared her pretty pink lables on Vintage Glam Blog *here*
7. Abbie from A Glimpse of the girl next door has a tutorial on water bottle lables.

{Source Vintage Glam Blog }

Dress Shopping at the superstore

Saturday Dress shopping Day 1:
text between mi amor & me:
him: How is it going?
me: good, we are on our way to store #4
him: 4? how many are you going to?!
ME: 4, this is our last one but it the BIGGEST!
him: good luck! muah!

Unlike the other stores, David's Bridal has dresses in all sizes, and the store is HUGE. Your consultant goes through the store and picks dresses for you, but all the ones that she picked out for me did not match any of my criteria, but since I was open to anything I still tried them on.
They give you a strapless bra, slip and some heels and help you in & out of the dress. I definately felt that David's Bridal tries to sell you on a dress, but outfitting you with a tiara & veil. I don't like that they don't let your friends go look for dresses for you and that the consultant is the only one that can pick them out. (MOH & Bridesman got in trouble for this) If I *had* to pick a dress from here it would be Style: WG9828, (see pic above) it hugged my body nicely and I loved the beaded lace peek-a-boo neckline.

Things I learned: Apparently there is something called a blusher that you wear with a veil, it covers your face, I thought that you just move the veil to conceal your face, you know like how dracula does with his cape...but nope you need a veil.

Who Needs Friends When You Have Craigslist?

I had to post this because I thought it was hilarious. The site recently created a "Best of Craigslist" section voted by readers. Awesome, right? Craigslist is more a form of entertainment for wackos now than it is about serious business, but I digress.

I have to admit... I have a secret dream that some dashing fellow would write about me in missed encounters section - what a girl can dream right?! Woops, sorry I digressed again. Anyway...

Here's an idea: if you need some bridesmaids why not post an ad on craigslist? This girl did.



*image from JociePosse

Does This Chiffon Make Me Look Trashy?

Bridesmaid dress shopping (Round 1). First allow me to give you the play by play via twitter of Saturday's excursions (from my POV).

Correction: omw to wake up @westsidewedding then look at wedding dresses. about 14 hours ago from UberTwitter
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Help me! about 13 hours ago from UberTwitter

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Bridesman brought a can of b*tch slap in case of emergency. about 13 hours ago from UberTwitter

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Bride to be: "Have fun!" Got curtained into fitting room with 8 dresses in 8 sizes in 5 colors. Tripped over podium and banged knee. about 13 hours ago from UberTwitter

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White padded wall of wedding dresses. http://pic.gd/207a52about 12 hours ago from UberTwitter

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Started crying. Wedding dress delirium setting in. I should have packed GU. about 11 hours ago from UberTwitter

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#BridesMaidRelay Leg 1 complete. 3 more to go.

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RT @mtganzer A VERY fast runner/triathlete took less than an hour to buy wedding dress. The cross-training carries over :) about 12 hours ago from UberTwitter

...Cake topper. http://pic.gd/9952f4about 10 hours ago from UberTwitter

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David's Bridal can suck it. about 10 hours ago from UberTwitter

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The bride to be treated us to Sizzler lunch. about 8 hours ago from UberTwitter
Revelations were made. European satin FTW. Neutral colors might not be so bad. I need some spanks and can't eat carbs for the rest of my life and for the love of GOD no more consumption of anything that might cause me to retain water. Seriously. In all honesty though, I am so ready to kick the next round's ass. I am feeling like Rocky about to battle the Russian dude. Those dresses will NOT knock me out next time!

I finally went dress shopping

I've been engaged almost 6 months from the date I went dress shopping, (March 29/Sept 27), I did not even start looking at dresses online till about 2 weeks ago, crazy huh? You would think I would have gone months ago, but nope not me. Truth be told I was scared to go dress shopping, I have a long history with having these high expectations for how I want a special occasion outfit to look & most of the time it exist only in my mind. After looking online I tended to favor trumpet/mermaid dresses, satin, dresses with with small details like buttons on the back or a nice train, but I did not think dresses with ruching or embroidery on the front of the dresses suited me, I also noticed there were not too many dresses that fit these criteria and if they do, they did not fit my budget...hmm I think I may need to re think these criteria.
After trying on dresses at 3 places, I realize that I do love the mermaid/trumpet style but was told that I can get an A line and have them alter it, lace makes me look 15 pounds heavier, ruching in the bust area is a girls bf, still not digging ruching in other areas for me but saw girls trying them on and they look beautiful, ballgown didn't look as bad as I thought it would be but still not my style and I totally dig the cathedral veil. My bridesman had some great advice, saying that you should try on different dress styles even if you think they are not you because at least you will know for sure they are not you and you don't have to question it later. My MOH/cousin/co-blogger on WW was such a trooper on Saturday, she tried on countless BM dresses and always had a great attitude! Stay tuned for her post! I will write more later on the places I went !
Tools for dress shopping:

• boy short undies
• strapless bra
• digital camera
• notepad & pen
• gps
• 2 supporting no holds bar MOH/Bridesman/BM
• 1 spray bottle filled with water for your MOH/Bridesman to spray you with if you get out of hand. (this technique worked for my kitty hobbes, still not sure if it works with people.
  

Runaway Bride (Literally)

Here's a fun way to get married (if you are as out there as I am). For those of you who don't know, I am an endurance athlete/distance runner and plan to celebrate my 29th birthday in Las Vegas by running one of the world famous Rock & Roll Marathon courses (the Half Marathon). Since it is Las Vegas after all, what course wouldn't be complete with an option for a RUN THROUGH MARRIAGE. That's right, you can get married while you are running the half marathon or marathon course. You can even invite your guests to run with you!

How cool would that be?! (Cue: sound of crickets.)

Is this why I'm single? Seriously. Hehe, I'm almost relieved that I have yet to find my kooky, colourful and just as addicted to running counterpart because I'm 100% certain my mother would pass out on the course as one of the guests. Also, Westside Wedding has bad knees and we can't have her injured pre wedding day!

In case you are curious here's the link to the site to register. If you end up doing this... let us know! I'll be green with envy! We'll be sure to video what we can while we're out there, kicking major race butt of course! And by we, I mean Westside Wedding, this girl (meaning me) has to a race to run!

image: Runaway bride by calanan

Wedding Favor - Caramel Apples

Back in May, I had decided that I wanted caramel apples as wedding favors, they are delicous and budget friendly. I spent some time researching online and found that Daffy Apple had the best prices - $26 for a case of 24 apples! sold! but alas it isn't meant to be they ship September 15th through mid-May and our wedding is April 10. With all the fall wedding planning going on, they seem to be a great idea for a fall and winter wedding.

{source The Knot}

If you are in Southern Cali you may want to check out California Snack foods Inc., it does not show their prices online but they have a 5 star rating on projectwedding.

The 411:

California Snack foods Inc.

2131 N. Tyler AvenueSouth El Monte CA., 91733

Open MON-FRI. 8-5 PM SAT 8-12

Phone: 626-444-4508 Fax: 626-579-3038

The groom wore white

One day, 5 months ago, my BFF/Bridesman tells mi amor that he should wear white

on the wedding day to which mi amor responds "that is a great idea!" I was not sure if he was joking or not because those two joke around all the time, and since I am going dress shopping this weekend (gasp!) I needed to know if he was serious because it would kind of set the tone for the wedding and would be a factor in the color of my dress & the BM dresses, so I asked him if he was positive if he was wearing white and he enthusiastically said YES! BFF/Bridesman and mi amor are suppose to look at tuxes soon, he is very excited about it and told me that since he can't see me in my dress, I cant see his tux. I think he was joking but now I am not too sure.

Although I still don't know my wedding colors at least I know what color the bride & groom will be wearing!

I wonder if he will go with the all white tux, or with something similar to what Sean Connery is wearing in this picture...

Fonts I am loving for invites & addressing envelopes...

Fonts I am loving for invites & addressing envelopes...

Fonts:

Albemarle Swash
FontleroyBrown
Andes
CoventryGarden
ChopinScript
Renaissance

I don't know about you guys but I spent WAY too much time looking for the right font for the save the dates & envelopes. What fonts did you use on your envelopes?

Flower Girl Dresses

Yesterday I research flower girl dresses for HOURS online & I still am not sure which one I like the best. My problem as usual is I like too many different styles.
I am loving the tutu for flower girls, this has to be my fav of all of them, but I'm not sure if it would be too casual. If I do go with this option, tiara's tutus on etsy provides for a lot of color options and lengths, she even can make adult sizes! I'm thinking if my nieces get these, their auntie is going to have to get one too ;-)

via tiarastutus on etsy $27

I spent a lot of time on http://www.mygirldress.com/, they have a large selection of dresses and most are 50% off, ranging from $35-$70. I am digging this dress because of the tulle & cute flower on the waist & it's a steal at $39.99 but I am not sure about the colors.

via mygirldress

I ADORE the detail & bow on this dress, can you believe it's $46.25!

via mygirldress

I'm not sure when I should get their dresses because they are 4 & 2, and who knows what size they will be in April. Maybe January is a good month to get them? How far in advance did you buy your flower girl dresses?

Update: The 99 Cent Wedding

If you recall the posting earlier about the 99 Cent Store Wedding Sweepstakes... here's the update!

I came across a posting on LA Weekly about the 09/09/09 99 Cent Wedding Sweepstakes (complete with great pictures). Looks like a cool concept... not sure if I would have wanted to be the one participating.

Check it out.

Pantone Wedding

When it comes to choosing colors, I know it is pretty hard to find the "exact" shade of yellow, blue, grey, etc. to match your vision, especially considering all the different areas that come into play (invites, dresses, etc.) 

The Dessy Group has a pretty neat tool called "PANTONE Wedding" that lets you share your inspiration board with all of your wedding vendors. Pantone colors are a standard in the print industry, so when you have the color code and order something using Pantone, you know you will get *exactly* what you ask for. It also helps with choosing color combinations (better than a color wheel would if you ask me) if you are in that stage of planning. 

Check it out. 

Make your own online RSVP for your wedding website

After looking at all the free wedding website, I thought that weddingwire.com had the best tools but I liked the themes that projectwedding.com had, so I went with theme! After looking at the budget, mi amor decides that we can save some money by having people rsvp online, since projectwedding.com does not have an rsvp option, I decided to make my own rsvp link, by making a google form. It was easy to make, the thing that took the longest was to find the right wording, to prevent people from bringing more guests than were invited, but at the same time to make sure we know exactly who is coming. Although the form seems to have an option to embed on a website, it did not work for me and when I checked the help section in google a lot of people have problems embedding the form, so instead I just put a section in our wedding website titled RSVP and instructed people to click *here* to rsvp.
Also make sure to list on your website when you want them to respond by.
Here are some pics of the form, sorry they don't look that good, I have no idea how to get screen prints onto blogger.
Creating the form: You can add text, paragraph text, multiple choice & choose from list. I used text for everything except for the actual rsvp question, I put the check box option, we are having buffet, but for those of you that are having a sit down dinner you may want to use the check box option for the entree.

This is how the form looks but to get a better picture click *here*Once people use the form, google sends you an email notification and the RSVPs are in a spreadsheet!
They have different themes to choose from go *here* to learn more about google forms.

Wedding Cost

I don't know about you guys but mi amor & I had this imaginary # in both of our heads of what our wedding would cost, after all, all we wanted was a nice place, a buffet dinner and be able to provide our guest with an open bar. We soon found out we were way off base, just the cost of the food and drinks was barely in budget. If we would have checked out costofwedding.com we would have realized that the average wedding in our area (West L.A) is $18,511 and $30,852 -This does not include cost for a honeymoon or engagement ring. Every time I think about the budget it really stresses me out, to the point I now understand why some brides just say they are ready to elope!

After we realized we were way off base with the over all budget, we started wondering what was the average cost of items such as cake, centerpieces etc. I found costhelper.com it's a great resource to find out how much anything cost, not only wedding stuff but pretty much anything. In their wedding section they have the info on how much typical wedding related items cost such as wedding dance classes, They tell you what the typical costs are and what they may include and even mention discounts you can get. I found it really helpful, it educated me about what wedding items may cost instead of what I think an item may cost.
What resources do you use to determine how much you are willing to spend on a wedding related item?

My Craft Coupons

Where the heck are my Michaels coupons? That's what I have been asking for the last few weeks, I get emails from them but when I click on get coupon it showed me a measly 20% off coupon! But all is well now that I found mycraftcoupons.com they have links to weekly craft coupons like Michaels, Joann's, Aaron Bros and Hobby Lobby (not in CA), how awesome is that! Ok, now time to go shopping or the way I like to see it, time to go save some money!

Getting Married? There's an app for that.

To add to WestsideWeddings growing list of iPhone apps... Here's a list of some pretty interesting iPhone wedding applications I've come across recently:

iWedding - wedding event planner (comes with counter, budgets, lots of lists).

iBridalGown - need to find a wedding dress? There's an app for that! (Sorry that line is pretty catchy.)

Wedding List - Wedding guest list app by the folks from iWedding.

Wedding Day - Countdown app till the big event (I know I have one on my iGoogle!)

Personally, I'd like to take over the whiteboard at Westside Wedding's place and start making some flowcharts!

Free printable boxes!

{Source don'teatthepast.com }

I am on a DIY kick and what I mean is there are a lot of things I want to DIY but have yet to actually do any of them :-) One of them is cupcake boxes! I *must* have them so when I bake cupcakes I can put them in these pretty boxes and give them to my peeps. I recently came across don'teatthepast.com and she has such great printable favor boxes and they are FREE! and when I make said cupcake I am going to top them of with these cupcake flags thanks to Martha Stewart!

{Source Martha Stewart}

Maid of Honor Checklist

I came across a pretty thorough and cool Maid of Honor checklist from lovetoknow.com.

I toggle between having excel sheets and the paper pen method of doing things, I think with all the wedding stuff going old school would be the best way to know.

Click here for the printable checklist.

Be organized! The Maid of Honor is to remain cool, calm, collected at ALL TIMES (see picture).