Showing posts with label Reception. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reception. Show all posts

September 12, 2011

Wedding Day Recap: Some Time Alone Together

Once the party really started and everyone jumped on the dance floor, we walked around and talked with our guests.  It was an exhausting couple of hours… running around, trying to make sure we talked to everyone.  I know that no one expected to have much time with us, but we wanted to make sure we at least got to say hi to all the people who had traveled to our wedding.

 Jason's old coach and his family from North Dakota
 My aunt and uncle (dad's brother) and my cousins from North Carolina
 Cousins from Michigan, Vermont and D.C.
 Cousins from Cleveland
 My kiddos, who came all the way from Texas (p.s. I miss them so much)
I think we actually did make it around to everyone, but before it was time for the exit, our photographer wanted us to go outside and have some fun with our sparklers.  It was the first time as a married couple that we had any time alone together.  Kind of like the night before after the rehearsal, it was so great to just have some quiet time to get to stand next to each other and take a deep breath and not have to be “on”, talking to people.  We got some cute pictures with our sparklers and got excited for the last part of our wedding!





















Next Up: Wedding Day Recap: The Exit

May 14, 2011

1st Dance Lessons

We went on Thursday for our first dance consultation at Dance on the Vine in Grapevine.  It came very highly recommended from a friend of mine at work, and I'm really excited to start our lessons!

They listened to our music and showed us two options for dances.  We decided on a rumba and I think it's going to be a lot of fun to learn!  They are slightly pushy when it comes time to decide how many sessions you want to pay for, but overall I am really excited to get our lessons started.

We are going back next week for our first lesson and we will get to start on our choreography.  Once we get our lessons started we will make our final determination on how long we want our dance to be.  J's initial cut of the music makes our dance about 2:45 and I still think that's going to be a long time for two reasons...

1. He doesn't like to be the center of attention
2. We are doing 5 lessons and I don't think we will be able to learn that long of a dance in such a short time

We will just wait to see how things go, though... we have plenty of time to make the final decision on the music.  More to come after our first real lesson!!!



April 8, 2011

Card Box

So, I kind of went around and around about what I wanted to do for our card box.  I was originally looking at something really cute and totally homemade like this...



















The DIY Bride

or this



















Megan and Michael

But when it really came down to it, I didn't trust myself to make it what I really wanted it to be.  I have a problem when it comes to expectations of myself.  My brain can come up with really great ideas, but when I create my own vision of something, if it doesn't work out just how I saw it in my brain, I'll be disappointed.

So, I decided that I'd go with something that was still cute and creative, but that was also simple enough that I wasn't going to drive myself crazy with it.  My mom used to semi-collect bird houses.  Well, maybe not collect... but she had a bunch of them in the kitchen of one of the houses we lived in.  Anyway, she had this pretty wire birdcage with her collection that I always liked and she said that I could have it and paint it whatever color I wanted.  SOOOOOOO...















Please pay no attention to the purple carpet... it's in my dad's office, where we normally close the door.

This is step one in the process.  It's hard to tell here, but the top of the cage (the two triangles and the space between) actually lifts up.  There's also a little hook that I figured out not only keeps it closed, but that I can use to keep it open just a couple of inches.

I also plan to get a piece of poster board that I can cut to fit in the bottom, so the cards don't fall out when one of my awesome bridesmaids makes sure it gets into my mom's car at the end of the night.

I haven't decided what else I'm going to do with it to decorate it and make it cute, but I was also thinking some ribbon around the two sides and the back so cards don't slip out there either.

So step one is done and I feel like the rest of it should be pretty easy to get done the week of the wedding... maybe an hour of time to allocate to this and it should be done.

February 28, 2011

Photo Share Cards - CHECK!

One more thing crossed off our list.  We were going to put our photo share cards inside our place cards, but when I tried to print them it was a lot harder than I thought it would be, I couldn't get it to line up right and I have a feeling it would have been the source of a lot of stress.

SOOOO, I went back to Vista Print and looked through their business card options.  I found some cute ones and when I went to order them, they gave me a GREAT deal... I got ended up getting 500 cards for less than $20 (including shipping).

I know 500 is a lot, but they came in sets of 250 and we are probably going to have 300+ at the wedding.  I figure that I'll have the chance to give them out at my bridal showers... and MAYBE at the bachelor and bachelorette parties... but only for the appropriate pictures  : )

So, here is what our photo share cards look like... COMPLETE!!!









January 23, 2011

Escort Cards and Photo Share Cards

So I was pretty confident that I wanted to combine my escort and photo share cards into one, just for ease and so there weren't a million little pieces of paper all over the place.

The current plan is for the escort card to be a small, tent folded card, that has the family on the front and the photo share info on the inside.  I was planning on doing one escort card per family/invitation instead of one per person.  SO, if Mr. and Mrs Smith and their two kids their escort card would say something like:

SMITH
John, Jane, Jimmy & Sally
Table 27

They are going to hang on our DIY Display Boards for people to grab on their way in to the reception.  On the inside of these escort cards, I was planning to print info about our photo share site that would look something like this:


















HERE'S THE ISSUE... we decided to put our escort cards on a pretty pearl card stock (it's the same one we are using in our invitations) and it came in huge sheets so I had to go ahead and cut them down to the correct size.  So when I put them in the printer, they don't come out exactly right... the text is kind of hard to see... and above all, I don't know if people will notice the printing on the inside.

So now I'm second guessing myself.  I want to make sure people see the info and I want my escort cards to be pretty and simple.

For those of you who don't know about Vistaprint.com, I suggest you check it out.  They have a lot of free and nearly free products that are decent quality and can be made into plenty of DIY wedding stuff.  SO, I got back on the website and found out that for about $30, I can make 500 photo share cards that look like this












I could put one of these at each place setting, in the napkin pocket along with their favor and a note about our guestbook quilt.  With this, I would make sure that everyone got the information and it would be pretty.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!!!  This may seem trivial and stupid, but I don't plan to put all of my wedding pictures on Facebook... this would be a way that I could show pictures to my guests without it having to be there for everyone to see.  Jason says that we can't make everyone see the website info and that the inside of the escort cards don't have to be exactly perfect, but "not perfect" sounds like settling and if I don't have to settle, I don't really want to.  Would notice something like the first example inside an escort card or do you think it would be better for us to get something like the second example?  Ahhhhhh!

January 17, 2011

Table Numbers

The only decision we have not made yet is how to mark out tables.  I've been doing some research on table number options and have found some really great ones that J and I can choose from!


These are so cute and you may not be able to see this very well, but at the bottom of the card the names of the people at the table are listed.  With so many people needing to get in the building and find their tables, it may be best to have the escort cards AND the table numbers with names on them to make seating easier for everyone.


via

These are really cute and it would be fun to have our pictures on our table numbers.  We would have to make a few adjustments to it... changing the font to the ones we've used on everything, change the colors, and I'd probably use actual numbers rather than spelling the word out just because there will be so many tables and a large number would be easier for everyone to see.









 via

I really love the simplicity of these.  There' not much more to say about them... they are just wonderfully simple.











 via

This idea came from The DIY Bride blog.  She took photos, cut letters out of them and matted them on card stock.  They are so cute and creative and what a great way to share engagement or favorite photos with everyone!






We'll have to figure out what we want to do and get going on it.  I want to have things ready so that we can just print and put together once we get closer to the wedding.  I will also have to figure out how to incorporate these in to the centerpieces.  Only a few more decision to make!!!

December 26, 2010

Fort Wayne Planning - Recap

Sorry for the delay in getting this written... I've been spending time with my family instead of my computer (pretty good trade, if you ask me).

So, on Tuesday, we went and got my dress fitted, met with a potential wedding officiant and went to our ceremony/reception venue to make some final decisions and meet with the party rental place about lighting.  So here is a recap about the day...

Dress Fitting - although my cousin did document this occasion in pictures, I obviously can't put them on the blog.  The tailor is a really nice lady, but the dress shop (who is now closed) is not my friend.  They ordered me a size 12 in the dress.  I definitely could have fit in to a 10 and still had room.  This pisses me off because now I have to get it altered, including the lace, which is NOT what I wanted to have to do.  If you buy a lace dress, make sure you ask them what size they are ordering for you because it's one thing to have to take in satin, but lace is so much more difficult.  Hopefully my tailor is as good as she seems!!

Officiant - the lady that we met with is very nice.  She is also very organized, which I have an extreme appreciation for, especially since we are doing this from 1,000 miles away.  We talked to her and liked her and I don't really know what I'm looking for, but I wasn't immediately sold on her.  I didn't have that feeling with my dress, either, so maybe I'm just not that kind of bride.

We don't have someone here who either of us grew up with.  The priest that married my mom and dad and baptized me passed away quite a few years ago, and there isn't really anyone else who knows both of us and would be good at officiating the ceremony so I think that the nice officiant who is very organized, has good ideas and is in our budget is going to be as good as anyone else we will find.  CHECK.

Reception Venue - I need to start this section by talking about how fantastic Callie is at Ceruti's.  She is our event coordinator and she is so helpful, she keeps in mind that we are on a tight budget and she has been fantastic to work with.  I would recommend contacting her if you are thinking about booking a Ceruti's venue.

Being in the room makes things SO much easier to visualize and decide.  We picked out our table cloths in about 3 seconds.  We decided that we are going to do a two tiered head table so that we can center it and put pipe and drape behind it that we can up light.

Those are really the only decisions that we had to make there, but it was nice that J got to see the place again... it's been a while since he was there.

Lighting - the biggest "issue" I/we had with the reception venue was the lack of color.  Obviously, it's nice to be able to incorporate your own color into a blank slate, rather than having to deal with an already existent colored decor.  We decided that we wanted to add some color through lighting on the walls so in October, my mom and I went to a party rental company and this week, they came out to Ceruti's and met with us to make a final decision on how many and what color.

She brought colors that were exactly what we want... a dark purple and a lime green and they are going to be great!  We are putting lights on three of the four walls.  Initially we were going to only light two of the walls, but the one we weren't going to light is the one you see when you walk in, so we added three lights for that wall and we are all set!  The lights are going to cost about half as much as I thought they were, so that was a bonus as well!!!

Flower Girl - I also so my flower girl today and talked to her about a dress.  I decided I really want her to have lace on her dress in some form or fashion.  I found a few options, but I think I'm going to ask Jason's mom again if she could make a dress with specific measurements and then she could have it altered here.  OR, I may check and see if the lady who is altering my dress could make a flower girl dress with some of the lace from my dress that she has to take off.  Hopefully I'll figure out what direction to take on this in the next week or so.  I'm kind of apprehensive about buying a dress online, so that would be my last choice, but here are the dresses I found online and liked.




















via




















via




















via

There's also been a lot of projects going on around the house, but there's more to come on that later!!

December 16, 2010

Indiana To Do List

I am so excited to go to Indiana tomorrow.  I have been looking forward to Christmas since Thanksgiving, for MULTIPLE reasons...

  1. It's Christmas... nuf said
  2. Snow
  3. Some time away from work
  4. HOPEFULLY a finish to the wedding "planning" and maybe even some DIY projects done
So we leave on Friday evening, and we were lucky enough to get two of our three flights as direct.  We will start by going Texas to Indiana on Friday and then on the 29th, we'll go to South Dakota to J's sister's house, where i get to meet my almost-niece.  Then it's back to Texas on the 1st, but it will be 2 weeks of no work and all family!

SO, let's talk about number 4 on my list of reasons for excitement.  I have booked us pretty solid on Dec 21 with "wedding" meetings.  My mom and I are starting with a trip to the tailor to get my dress altered, and by altered, I need to have a hook and eye put on the bottom of the back opening so that it doesn't gap.  That's all I am willing to do to my dress, and no one will talk me in to more.  OH, and she's hopefully going to bustle it, too (rats... I just figured out that means I have to have my shoes with me... so much for only having to pack 1 pair).

After that, J and I have a meeting with a lady who may be the person who is going to officiate the ceremony.  Yes, we still don't technically have someone to marry us.  If we don't like this lady, we are going with my mom's friend's daughter, and that's that... no more searching.

Last meeting on that day will be at our venue.  We have a few things to do there... 1. meet with a party rental company to talk about reception lighting.  2. pick a purple table cloth.  3. Take some more pictures of the venue so I can a. post them, and b. have fun playing with them while I try and figure out exactly where everything should go.

ALSO, we have to go to the place where I've already put down a deposit for the guys' suits so J can see what they look like and approve them and I'm hoping they have SOMETHING that is not a computer screen to show us so I can see what the color of the green for the groomsmen really looks like.

ALSO ALSO, my flower girl will be making an appearance at the holiday festivities and I'm sooooo excited to get to spend some time with her, looking at flower girl dresses.  I can't wait to hear what her favorite styles are!!!

No, it's not nearly as much as we've fit into wedding planning days in the past, but it will still be a very full day.  The other wedding related tasks have to do with our DIY projects.  We have a birdcage/card box to spray paint, we have a flower girl basket to spray paint and accessorize, we have some teapots to spray paint (the shapes work, but the colors just don't), we have some flowers to put together so that we can just toss them in the teapots, we have favors to put together (this one is not essential), and we have 40 pomanders to make (this one is essential).  I'll feel SOOOO much better about my DIY projects and my long distance planning if I can get a good amount of this stuff done in the 10 days we are in Indiana.  I think right now, we technically have 3 days with NOTHING scheduled, so hopefully we can put some of those to good use!

I CAN'T WAIT TO GO!!!!

December 10, 2010

Reception Lighting

One of the things that I've been trying to figure out is how to add color to our big white box of a reception hall.  We decided that we are going to use dark purple tablecloths, but our centerpieces are not tall and the ceilings in the reception room are, so I still feel like we need something to add some color to the walls and really bring our wedding colors into the room.

I don't have a huge lighting line in my budget... in fact, I don't have a lighting line in my budget.  I'm going to make it happen, but I'm going to have to get a lot of bang for my buck on this one.

The lighting decision is going to be made while I'm in Indiana for Christmas... so here's a glimpse into my research.

Let's start with what I'm NOT going to do... this is a good example.  There's no need to make the whole room one color... it's already white... not need to just turn it in to some other color.













via

I'm also pretty sure something like this is not in the cards... there are too many lights involved.
















I think we are headed more along the lines of these...


minus the stars and monogram



Plus purple table cloths


This one is AWESOME!












via


As is this one...










So I think that I know the look I'm going for.  I can't afford to put lights all around the room, and really, I don't think I'd want to because basically an entire wall of our room is taken up by a bar, so that would leave 3 walls with lights and I'm too symmetrical a person to be able to deal with that.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with lights behind the head table and a few behind the buffet lines to add a little bit of color on either side of the room.  I just don't know where to put them, how many I'll need, or what color(s) I should to with, but I guess that's why I'm paying a party rental company... so that they can help me with things like that.  

What do you think?!?!?

November 19, 2010

Photo Share Cards

I have a fantastic photographer, and in fact, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have TWO fantastic photographers on the day of the wedding (clarification... I will have 2 photographers, and I'm pretty sure they are both fantastic).  I also have a huge family full of people that love to take pictures, and want to see theirs as well as our photographers'.

I know that I'm going to have a million great pictures of us getting ready, our first look, the ceremony, and all of the traditions at the ceremony, but with a guest list as crazy big as ours, I don't expect that our photographers are going to be able to find time to get pictures of all our guests.  I am confident that our families will feel comfortable bringing their cameras and taking their own shots of the fun that they have that night, and I'm actually considering adding a note to our invitations requesting that they do!

We also want everyone to have the chance to enjoy all the pictures, so we have set up a group on Snap Fish where people can share their photos.  We are planning to use the insides of our folded escort cards to give them the website and information on how to add their photos.  The inside looks something like this:


















Hopefully it will give us the chance to enjoy the pictures that our families take along with the ones from the photographers.  Plus, the thing that is better about this than the disposable cameras is that everyone can see them, you can delete the bad pictures, and we don't have to pay to get everything developed if we don't want!

November 10, 2010

Welcome Knotties... Part 3!!!

Do It Yourself!!!


Part of our major focus has been our budget.  We are trying to save as much money as we can by doing things ourselves, which also lets us personalize things more than the standard decorations that our banquette hall offers. You'll see a LONG list on the left sidebar of stuff that we are doing ourselves.  Here's a quick summary of our long list...

Bouquetes - this is something that I'm not really doing by myself.  I'm kind of a freak about flowers... I love them, but I don't love how they wilt and how you just can't be sure that you're going to get the exact color that you're looking for.  Since I'm so far away, I've decided that I'm going to use silk flowers instead of real because 1. I can't afford a florist on my budget... there are too many other things that I want to spend our money on, and 2. The silk flowers don't cause NEARLY as much stress.  So, I found a great lady who creates beautiful silk bouquetes at an antique shop nearby.  I bought the flowers for my bouquete and she's getting the ones for the bridesmaids.  I'm sure they will be beautiful.

Boutineers - our boutineers are going to be herbs.  We are going to make these the day or two before the wedding.  They should be pretty easy... just some herbs and some ribbon and a pin and they'll be done!

Invitations - We have a few different invitations to create... rehearsal dinner, bridal brunch, and obviously the wedding invitation.  We started out with a Target invitation kit, and although they were really cool, they were brown and I could not find out a way to incorporate our colors into it the way I wanted to.  So we switched to an invitation that's ALL do it yourself.  We bought the purple petal fold envelopes, we bought and cut lime green and the ivory cardstock and eventually we will be printing the invites and put them together.  They are going to be AMAZING when they're done!!!

Card Box - the card box is a bird cage that my mom's had for years.  We are going to spray paint it, put some ribbon on it and TAH DAH, it will be a card box!

Centerpieces - our centerpieces are teapots because that's how J proposed.  They are all different and we bought each of them for less than $5 and we are putting hydrangeas in them.  We only have a few more teapots until we get to the 40 we need and then we just have to put them all together.

Escort Card Display - We have 2 easels, 4 foam boards, 2 rolls of wrapping paper and lots of rolls of ribbon to make this... hopefully we will have this done in December!

Favors - we are making our own teabags... which are really teabags inside a big teabag.  We have to print the little tags for the ends of the string, buy and cut the string and put them together, but they should be very easy to make!

Groom's Cake - J and I both LOVE Rice Krispies and when I saw a picture of a grooms' cake made of them on The Knot, I knew that I wanted to do it!  We have our pans and we may test (at least the first couple of layers) the cake at Christmas time.  This is going to be a really cool!!!

Guest Book - This is probably one of the crazier things that we are doing.  Both J and I have quilts that we just love.  His mom is a big quilter and so is my Grandma.  I have always loved quilts and once I saw a quilt that a friend from high school did for her baby shower, I was hooked.  So, instead of the traditional guestbook, we will have a queen sized quilt for all of our guests to sign!!!

Monogram - this is the first project that we completed!  We did this ourselves and printed it and put it inside the front of our wedding binder.  Then, I found a place where you could make your own stickers and NOW, we have 1,000 stickers with our monogram on them!  I don't know if we'll use it anywhere else, but I think we will have plenty of chances to use our 1,000 stickers.

Out of Towner Packets - I contact the Ft Wayne Visitors Bureau and they were really nice and told me that they would be happy to give me any information and brochures about the city that I'd like, as well as a list of restaurants in the area of our hotel and a bunch of coupons to give to our guests.  These should be a really easy project that will hopefully make our guests feel welcome in Ft Wayne!

Photo Share Cards - J and I both have families full of shutterbugs, so we are hoping that we can get people to share their pictures with us and with the other guests.  We have created a Snapfish group page and we are going to try to either put the info inside the escort cards, or make business cards with the information.

Pomanders - these are going to be a HUGE HUGE HUGE project.  We are planning to make 40 pomanders, 20 green and 20 purple, that we are going to hang on the aisle chairs at the ceremony to add some color to the space.  We are currently cutting a BILLION circles out of fabric and eventually we will get around to putting them on the styrofoam balls.  Part of me is COMPLETELY overwhelmed by this and the other part of me is SO excited because they are going to be amazing!!!

Programs - these are going to be simple.  We are printing them on pretty, light purple paper and folding them in half and handing them out!  They are already designed and once we finalize all of our details, they will be ready to print.

Ring Bearer Pillow - This project was my first adventure in sewing machines.  J's mom taught me how to use a sewing machine last summer (and now I really want one) and I made the inside of our ring bearer pillow.  J's mom covered it with satin and is putting some purple and green ribbon on it, and it's going to look great!

Save the Dates - we didn't do these completely by ourselves.  A friend of mine from work who's also getting married found a website for these and I loved them!  SO we picked our layout and our colors and had them printed.  They are awesome and they gave us extras and envelopes and we just labeled, stamped and sent them out!

Table Numbers - we have not decided how these are going to be done, but they are going to be incorporated into the centerpieces.  More to come later...

Veil - again, I didn't really do this myself, but it is homemade.  One of the student workers in my department is a fantastic seamstress and she made it for me.  It's exactly what I wanted and the less than $30 I spent on the whole thing sure beats what I would have paid at a bridal store!!!

So, that's my complete list... it's a long one and I have a long way to go in less than 8 months, so I guess it's about time I get to work... wish me luck and you can keep up with my progress on the left sidebar where I'll post the finished products!

October 26, 2010

Escort Card Display

With as many guests as we plan on having at the wedding, we needed a creative way to display escort cards, but something that also wouldn't take up a lot of space.  I got this idea from Danielle, another DIY bride, and I think this is something that we could do!

It's as simple as a couple of foam presentation boards, some spray paint or fabric, some ribbon and a couple of easels.










They are simple, and when you put a folded escort card on them, they look great












Plus, with something as light and simple as this, we can expect to fit two on an easel like she did












I think this is going to be a great option for us, and I'm really excited to make them!!

October 14, 2010

This Week's Trip

I'm on my way to Indiana today.  I get there this evening and have a full, but not full weekend.  I haven't really decided how busy we will be while I'm home.

Friday is going to be BUSY!

10:00 am - Hair Appointment
11:00 am - Meet with Catie (photographer) for bridal portraits
12:30 pm - Lunch with mom and Catie
2:00 pm - Visit Ceruti's to find a "First Look" location and to remind myself what it looks like

I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but it will be an exhausting day!

While I'm there, I also plan to get my card box painted and done, and I hope to get at least some of the teapots painted.  I have a few metal teapots that I have been planning to paint in either purple or green to make them work with the color pallet.  I think I also want to add some accents of either lime or purple to some of the teapots that don't have either color in them, so I may try to do that while I'm home, too.  We have decided that we WILL be making pomanders to use as ceremony decorations, so I may take a couple of the Styrofoam alternative balls home with me and see how the pomander making goes.

I know my mom and I are getting massages on Saturday and we are going out for her Birthday (the big 6-0) that evening.  I think I'm probably also going to take her shopping for a fun Birthday outfit because I'm planning to wear a new dress that I haven't had a chance to wear yet.

I'm so excited to take a few days off and go home this weekend.  I haven't been there since July and I can't wait to see the orange and red leaves and have the chance to wear some sweaters!!!  It's been near 90 here again for the past week, so all I have to say for my weekend is... HOORAY FOR FALL!

September 4, 2010

Groom's Cake

We found the coolest groom's cake ever on the knot, and our plan is to make it ourselves...






















We just have to figure out how to make it.  J's mom has a 12 x 12 x 6 tupperware that we can use for the bottom layer, but it's IMPOSSIBLE to find tupperware with square edges these days.  Probably because they are harder to clean, but basically all the new tupperware you can find have rounded edges, even on the square containers.

So, we will have to get creative between now and July and figure out how we can make it happen!!!

I keep watching these cake shows (Cake Boss, Ace of Cakes, these shows are so popular lately) and I see them make parts of their immaculate cakes out of "cereal treats" as they call them.  The only difference between them and me is that I don't want to cover mine with ANYTHING, so I can't just trim the edges and make it square because then it looks like we cut the edges.

I keep wondering if we can use the paper mache boxes that I found online and originally intended to use for my card box (that I'm no longer making) to make sure we have nice square edges.  This is one of the things I'm most excited about making for our wedding, so I hope I can figure out how to do it! Suggestions are welcomed!

July 8, 2010

The Guestbook Quilt

OK, not only did we purchase the fabric, J's mom cut it into squares and we layed it out.  Talk about progress... I'm OFFICIALLY crossing it off my list now that it's out of my hands and into the hands of the future MIL.  I thought I would share the "finished product" with you...

July 7, 2010

The Guestbook and Ring Bearer Pillow

Just a quick update...

We went fabric shopping today.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a combination of patterns and colors to put together in a quilt?  IT IS TOUGH!!!  But we were victorious, and the fabric is currently being washed and will be cut into squares and put into a pattern before we leave Minnesota.

We also bought the satin for the ring bearer pillow and we even made its guts.  Let's be more specific... I, ME, MOI, yes... I made the guts.  It was my first experience with a sewing machine and I LOVED IT!  I need to get myself one so that I can go take some classes and REALLY learn to use it!  I am so proud of myself that the next thing on my list (after this post) is to call my mom and brag some more!

I'll post some pictures eventually, but I can go ahead and cross those two things off my list because as far as I'm concerned, if I'm not the one that has to finish making them, they are done!

OH, and we found 2 more teapots, bring our grand total to somewhere around 25... so we are almost 1/3 of the way done!!!

OH OH OH... I also talked to my photographer (Catie's Captures) and we have pretty much determined the places we are going to go for our shoot on Tuesday.  We are going to the tea house that has become a summer tradition, we are going to another cool place called The Orchard, and we still headed up to the lake to finish the day.  I can't wait...