Wedding Party Presents

With 17 days to go before the wedding (eek!), I’ve finally picked out the gifts for my attendants & for Daniel.  The gifts for the bridesmaids will be a silver monogrammed compact inside these adorable personalized makeup bags:

I thought a long time about what I wanted to get Daniel.  I wanted it to be something small, but meaningful. Since he’s so crazy about guitars, I finally decided to order him some personalized guitar picks (in green) with this written on them:

I really hope he likes them!

Monogamy

Monogamy.  Not the idea of ‘only having one spouse at a time’ (definition.com!), but the WINE.  After much consideration we decided to change our wedding wine to the superb Target brand Monogamy.  Although the wine IS delicious, I will admit the main reason I decided to change it is because of the absolute irony of the name.  It’s perfect for a wedding wine!

We got 30 bottles of Monogamy wine in today from Target (15 cabernet, 15 chardonnay).  Now if only I can keep my hands off it until the wedding….

I’ve also finally come up with wedding music for the ceremony & reception.

So far:
Prelude… Air from Water Music – Lumiere String Quartet
Processional… Pachelbel “Canon” – the exact version from Father of the Bride :)
Solo (performed by my mom during hand fasting)… Come What May – from Moulin Rouge
Recessional… Crazy Little Thing Called Love – Queen
First Dance… All I Ask of You – Phantom of the Opera
Father/Daughter Dance… Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
Mother/Song Dance… You'll Be in My Heart - Phil Collins

I have these songs in a Wedding Music playlist on my iPhone that I listen to over & over.  Plus I’ve changed Daniel’s ringtone to All I Ask of You & my generic ringtone to Pachebel’s Canon—I’m definitely NOT obsessed at all!!!

I’ve also been thinking about how to tell the makeup/hair artist to do the bridesmaids hair.  My MOH & I have been thinking about a low side ponytail, I think that may be my final decision.

Like so:

Another Bridesmaid & Our Marriage License!

Last week I asked another girl to be in the wedding party as a bridesmaid (since Christie left we have been at uneven number).  This weekend, she said yes!  Courtney will be standing up with me at my wedding—I’m so happy!  I bought a very similar dress to the other bridesmaids’ for $25 on eBay, and it should be here by the end of the week.  I just need to get it altered to fit Courtney & we should be good to go!

Daniel & I also went & picked up our official wedding license today!  It’s really pretty… I can’t wait to hang it up on our wall :)

 

Bachelorette Party Part I

Last night a bunch of my coworkers threw me a bachelorette party – it was so much fun!!!  One of the girls took me to a pedicure early in the afternoon, then we went back to another girl’s apartment & had a couple of drinks (champagne punch, big YUM).   They really went all out for the party-- they had a BRIDE white tank top for me to wear, along with cat ears attached to a veil (since my name is Cat), a pink & black feather boa, & a bride-to-be sash!  Everyone got a pink, white & black pin to wear that said things like ‘Flirt’, ‘Bad Girl’, & ‘Vamp’ - I was a flirty bad girl :).  Plus they had made bachelorette party mix tapes with an awesome mix of 80’s rock songs – that’ll be in my CD player for a while!

One of my coworkers even brought me the cutest towel dog ever:

We went to BJ’s for dinner, which was fabulous as usual.  After dinner we went to Pete’s piano bar and had a blast!  Being the bachelorette, I had to get up on stage & dance to a “German” song that involved touching whatever body part the song mentioned (so, head, nose, mouth, boobs, stomach, crotch, butt!). 

A few pictures from the night:

I’m really thankful to have such great office buddies :)

Wedding Hair & Makeup

I had my first hair & makeup trial run today!  It went fabulous, I LOVE how everything turned out!  I am doing smoky black & silver for my eyes, and curly, partially up for my hair.  See pics below :)

Ceremony Accessories

After researching several different wedding traditions, Daniel & I have decided to do a handfasting ceremony right before we say our vows.  This is an old Irish tradition & is in fact where the term ‘tying the knot’ comes from.  The officiant will say a little introduction to the ceremony, then bind our hands together with the ribbon, go through our vows, & finally end with “The knots of this binding are not formed by this cord, but by your vows. You hold in your hands and hearts the making or breaking of this union. May your marriage be blessed with patience and dedication, forgiveness and respect, love and understanding” before untying the ribbon.  I think it is a really sweet ceremony.


I ordered the Celtic knot handfasting ribbon:

I also ordered Ty’s ringbearer pillow, he’s going to look SO cute!!

And a sixpence for good luck that I am going to tape to the bottom of my wedding shoes:

For the rest of the rhyme (Something old, something new, Something borrowed, something blue , And a silver sixpence in her shoe), I’ve decided to sew my deceased grandmother’s first wedding ring to the inside of my dress (old), my mom bought me some adorable dangly earrings (new), & I have my police-themed garter (blue)… but what to borrow???

My wedding earrings:

Dancing the Days Away

Daniel & I are having so much fun with our dancing lessons (or at least I am!) that we’ve decided to sign up for a few more.  We’ll be going every Monday & Tuesday until the wedding in order to get more practice – and trust me, we need it!!  We’re getting better, but I still managed to nearly fall down today when I didn’t spin into the ending correctly.  Plus, we’re going to learn a few extra dance steps so that we can dance to other songs at our reception.  We’re starting out with the RUMBA—the dance of LOVE!