I'm a 3 Veil Bride!

I put in an alchemy request for a chapel length veil and The Silk Purse Accessories offered to do it for me.  It took her a couple weeks to do the custom request, but I received it last week and it looks awesome.  It's a shinier tulle and it's sewn into a clear hair comb.  She also hand sewed crystals onto the veil so that it has some sparkle.

I personally think this veil looks so much better than the other two so far.  It's just enough length to make me feel like a bride, but it's not enough to make me look extremely short.  I can't wait to try it on with  my dress.

She doesn't have too many items in her shop right now, but if you're interested in a veil like mine, message her and I'm sure she'll work something out with you!

What do you think?

This is a sponsored/compensated post.  I received this veil in return for the review.  The review is my own thoughts and feelings about the seller and have not be altered or scewed in any ways.

FSU vs. UF

The huge rival game is today at 3:30pm in the swamp. Even if you're not a fan of either team, you should watch it because it's always an awesome match-up.  I will be cheering on my Seminoles at my mother-in-laws house. 

This picture was taken in the hall of my dorm before my first ever Florida State football game.  I've been a fan ever since!

Let's Go Noles!

Black Friday Steals!

We went out shopping for Black Friday and found some great deals.  Here's some of what we got!

Kitchenaid Classic Stand Mixer: Originally $199 and we got it for $134 (Total of $65 savings)

Cricut Personal Cutter: Originally $199 and we got it for $74 (Total of $125 savings)

Western Digital 1TB external hard-drive: Originally $99 and we got it for $59 (Total of $40 savings)

Black dress pants: Originally $39 and I got them for $13 (Total of $26 savings)

I think we did very good and I can't wait to get home and play with all my new toys!  I would have love to get the Cricut Expressions, but it was about $100 more.  This one will work just fine!

My grandmother actually paid for both the mixer and the Cricut.  The mixer is going to be my bridal shower gift.  I'm going to test it out when I get home and see how it works and then wrap it up as a present for her to give me at my shower.  I guess I need to practice on acting surprised.  The Cricut is a Christmas present from them and she said I can start using it whenever I want.  I've already started bidding on cartridges on ebay.  I can't wait to do my first scrapbook layout with it.

What good deals did you get on Black Friday?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope everyone is having a great time with their friends and family.  Eat a lot and stay safe!

If you're going out for Black Friday tomorrow, don't get trampled!

I'm sitting here waiting for the pumpkin pie to be done.  What is your favorite Thanksgiving food?

Black Friday Ads

I am an avid Black Friday shopper.  We go every year, even if I don't find anything I particularly want to buy in the ads.  I usually find something in one of the clothing stores in the mall that I like.  I can't remember a year where I haven't came home with something.

So, here's some of the deals that struck me this year.  I hope this will help some of you in your Black Friday shopping.  All of this information came from bfads.net.

Sears
- Shapewear 50% (Great if you still need undergarments for your dress)
- SanDisk 4GB SD Card $8.00 (More room to take pictures on your honeymoon.

Kmart
- 3 pc. stem candle holder set $14.99 (Cute for wedding decorations)
- Stability ball $5.99 (Great for pre-wedding shaping up)

Target
- Western Digital 1TB hard drive $59.98 (This is what I'm getting J for Christmas)
- Dyson DC17 $349 (If you have dogs and don't want to wait for someone to get it off your registry)
- Chefmate 1.5 qt slow cooker (For a romantic fondue night)

Joanns
- Cricut $74.88 (Great deal!  Can be used to make table numbers or a monogram)

Walmart
- 2 pc. track suit $9 (To get ready in on the day of)
- Collage frame $7 (To put wedding pictures in)
- Kitchenaid stand mixer $139 (This is my grandma's bridal shower gift to me)

Overstock.com Review

As you know from my post the other day, we ordered J's wedding band from Overstock.com.  We recieved it in the mail at the end of last week and it looks fantastic!  It's exactly how it was pictured and described on the site.  I'm so glad that we went with them because of their wonderful price and their wonderful quality. 

I'm not sure if I personally would ever order my wedding band from there (I like to see diamonds before I buy them), but I know other ladies who have and they raved about them for their bands as well as their fiances. 

So, if you're looking for a good quality ring on a budget, I definitely recommend Overstock.com.

I DID NOT receive anything for free or in compensation for this post.

Cyber Monday Etsy Discounts

Here's a link to some great Cyber Monday Etsy discounts.

http://etsyweddingteam.blogspot.com/2009/11/cyber-monday-sales-from-etsy-wedding.html

Luggage Charm Review

I ran across this company called My Charmed Life and they make luggage tags and charms.  I thought this would be a great idea for a destination wedding favor or even as something for the bride and groom for their honeymoon.  They sent me over a couple of their luggage tags to review.

On one side is a picture and the other side there is a place to write your information.  On first glance, I was thinking that this would be something that I could DIY.  But then I started thinking about it and realized that it would be a pain to make these with all the cool patterns and pictures she put on them.  They're not badly priced either at $5 per tag.

They also have luggage charms which I think are just cutest things.  I didn't receive on of these, but just looking at them on their website, I like them!  They have a lot of different categories to choose from including bridal themed and sorority themed.  They also have cake charms to use at your wedding.

So, if you're looking for a cute favor or bridesmaids gift, head on over to My Charmed Life and take a look!

Hear ye, Hear ye!

Not really sure why I decided to get into a Medieval Times mood.  I guess it's cause I have an awesome announcement!

Most of you know that I'm pretty active on The Knot (I'm the mod for the Budget Weddings Board) and I saw a post a while back asking for bloggers to email them.  Well, I did and they emailed about a month later saying they loved my blog and they wanted me to be a featured blogger for their new feature, The Knottie Diaries.

So, my blog is going to be on a feed on The Knot for the next few months along with three other wedding bloggers.

Here are their links if you're interested:
Brie at The Fit Bride
Misty at NC Bride to Be
Kate at Kate the Bride

So, in honor of the awesome new feature The Knot is releasing, I thought I let you in on some of my favorite features of their website.

• They have a checklist that features almost anything you could everything think of to do for your wedding.
• They have tons of photo galleries to browse to get inspiration for your wedding.
• The have a list of local resources you can check to find vendors in your area.

Along with all those great features, they just rolled out a brand new look for their message boards.  I've made some great friends in their community as well as got some great advice.  So if you haven't already, go check out their new look.  It's still got a few glitches, but they're working hard on it and I'm sure you'll like it as much as I do!

Thrifty Thursday

Discounts
Victoria's Secret -- Free shipping on $100+, Code: 100FREE
Victoria's Secret -- $30 off $175+, Code: 30OFF175
Oriental Trading -- Free shipping plus 10% off on orders of $49+, Code: WCX8679
Go Against the Grain -- 15% off your purchase, Code: FF15 (Enter code in seller notes when you place your order)
SeeHere -- 50 Free Photo Cards (Click on the link for more information)
Crocs -- Sports team crocs $9.99


Giveaways
Win a copy of Southern Weddings Magazine over at DIY Bride
Week 9 of giveaways is going on at Etsy Wedding Street Team
$1000 ultimate honeymoon shopping spree at Shop.com
Win a $100 giftcard to I Do Originals

Sorry ladies

I am so sorry about the lack of posting these couple of weeks.  With the vacation and then this horrible toothache, I've just had a hard time getting some blogging in.  Plus, it doesn't help that it's the end of the semester.  But my tooth is feeling much better, so I'm back now. 

I will be working on Thrifty Thursday later this afternoon.  It will be up a little bit later than normal, but I promise it will be here.  Plus, I have some great reviews for you, including the review of J's wedding band from Overstock.com and also a review of an etsy seller who did my veil.

So stay tuned and promise you that I will have some new stuff for you as quickly as possible!

Glitch in Scheduling

I had a couple reviews planned for this week (J's ring and my veil) but I have a horrible toothache and just don't really feel up to do much at all, including blogging.  I'm contacting the dentist tomorrow to try and get an appointment, so hopefully I'll be able to update you ladies to my condition and also get those reviews out to you as soon as possible!

Uprinting Rolled Canvas Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations Jen!  You're the winner of the Uprinting Rolled Canvase giveaway!  Jen from A Girl in Pearls just recently got married in September and plans on using one of her wedding pictures.

I'm Back!

I'm back from Orlando and had a great time.  This vacation definitely took a lot out of me though.

On Thursday, J had to take his brother to the VA hospital to have some tests done.  Then, afterwards we drove to my parents house to visit them.  I haven't seen them in over a year (before we were engaged) so it was nice to get a couple hours to spend with them.  They also hadn't really  had a chance to meet J, so this was their first time actually being able to have a conversation with him.  I forgot to take my camera, so I'm waiting on my mom to send me the pictures from our visit.  Oh, and they got me a panini press for my birthday.  I'm so excited because I love paninis!  Can't wait to make some with my new pan.

On Friday (my birthday!) we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom.  I got in free for my birthday and J got in free for military.  Very nice deal!  This is definitely one of my favorite parks at Disney.  We both love zoos and theme parks, so when you combine them, we're in heaven.  Their safari ride is awesome because you get to see the animals without any glass or fences between you. 

On Saturday, we went to Busch Gardens.  Again, we got in free because of military.  This is another one of those awesome parks that combine a zoo and a theme park.  J loves roller coasters, so this park is definitely one of his favorites.  I was sad because my favorite ride, Congo River Rapids, was down for construction.  Boo!  We got lucky because on Saturday, Jack Hanna was there!  He did an awesome show and we got to see tons of cool animals, including a cheetah!  It was definitely work it.

Then, on Sunday, we took a short trip to Ikea to pick up tealight candle holders for our centerpieces (look out for mock-ups of those next week!).  We got a pack of 12 for only $1.99.  On our way back home, we took a detour to Clermont to visit J's aunt and uncle. 

We had a great trip, but it definitely wore me out.  Can't wait to our next vacation because that will be our honeymoon!

Happy 23rd Birthday to Me!

Today is my 23rd birthday and we're spending the day at Animal Kingdom. This is actually where we spent my birthday the first year we were together (my 21st then). Here's a cute picture from when we went before:

Wow...I was so skinny back then. I'll give ya'll a trip review when we get back!

Weekend Off

We're heading down to Orlando for my birthday. We're going to visit my parents who haven't seen me since I got engaged and we're also going to Disney and Busch Gardens. I'll see you when I get back!

Animoto

Animoto is a really cool website that lets you create free 30 second videos of your pictures put to music.  You can upload pictures from you computer or even facebook.  They have a selection of music you can choose from or you upload your own from your computer.  You can also choose the starting point of the video.  I think it's a pretty cool tool.

Here's the video I created of our engagement pictures.  I was going to put it on our wedding website, but apparently html isn't accepted on there.

Bouquet Wraps

Since I'm just having a simple bouquet with one type of flower, I want something to make it stand out. That's where a bouquet wrap comes in handy.

Here's a couple of my inspiration pictures.

Mine is currently being made. I'm getting all three of my initials with my wedding date underneath. I can't wait to see it when it's done!

DIY: Program Fan Mock-up

I did a mock-up of our program fans the other day. There is definitely a lot of changes I need to make to them, but I wanted to show you what I have so far.

I used a program fan template from Aylee Bits for the white part. I just typed up my information on there. I also did our initials in the script font from our invitations and sent them to the back behind the text. On the back side, I put thank yous to our guests, bridal party, and family. I cut a piece of pink cardstock and then taped the white part to each side of the cardstock and stuck a stick in between. Then I tied a ribbon on.

Here's what I'm going to change:
- Instead of using the template, I'm going to just print them with square corners and then use a corner rounder. I had a really hard time getting the corners right with the template.
- I'm going to use a corner rounder for the pink cardstock too because as you can see, my cutting skills suck!
- I'm going to have to use two pieces of pink cardstock and put the popsicle stick in between them. It looks weird having it between the pink cardstock and then white cardstock.
- Someone suggested I paint the popsicle stick white, so I'm going to try that out and see what it looks like.

I think it will look really cute when I fix all these problems. Not bad for a first mock-up though!

Winner of the Thank You Card Giveaway!

Congratulations Danielle at Small Town Bride! You are the winner of the Uprinting thank you card giveaway! Danielle plans to use these as thank yous for after her wedding shower.

Uprinting Rolled Canvas Giveaway

 This giveaway has ended!

In honor of my birthday week, I'm hosting another great Uprinting giveaway! This time it's a rolled canvas print, which would be great to use for one of your engagement pictures or even wedding pictures if you're already married.

Here's what you'll get if you win:

Giveaway Prize: (1) 16x20 Rolled Canvas for One Lucky Winner

Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping in the US

This giveaway will be from today until 5pm EST on Monday, November 16th. Here's how to enter. Please leave a different comment for each entry that you have completed. Also, make sure to leave a way for me to contact you!
1. Leave a comment with what picture you'd print on your canvas. I plan on using one of our engagement pictures. (This has to be done to be entered into the giveaway!)
2. Blog about the giveaway linking back to this post and also Uprinting. Make sure to leave an extra comment if you do this.
3. Be a follower of my blog.

Uprinting Thank You Card Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed!

Since my birthday is coming up, I'm going to be hosting two giveaways. This weekend, it's going to be 50 customized Thank You cards from Uprinting!

Here's what you'll get if you win:
Prize Offered: (50 ct.) 7 x 5" (folded to 3.5 x 5") Custom Thank You Cards with plain envelopes
Shipping: Free UPS Ground within United States

I will be using the 50 thank you cards I will be receiving for hosting this giveaway as bridal shower thank you cards. Since my bridal shower is in December, they'll be here just in time!

This giveaway will be from today until 5pm EST on Sunday, November 8th. Only 2 days to enter! Here's how to enter. Please leave a different comment for each entry that you have completed. Also, make sure to leave a way for me to contact you!
1. Leave a comment with how you'd use the thank you cards if you won. (This has to be done to be entered into the giveaway!)
2. Blog about the giveaway linking back to this post and also Uprinting. Make sure to leave an extra comment if you do this.
3. Be a follower of my blog.

Sorry, but this giveaway is open to US residents only.

For more information, please visit these links:

http://www.uprinting.com/custom-greeting-cards-printing.html

http://www.uprinting.com/envelope-printing.html

http://www.yelp.com/biz/u-printing-los-angeles

Keep an eye out on Monday for another great giveaway from Uprinting. You will really love this next one!

Thrifty Thursday

Discounts
Wedding Paper Divas -- $15 off an invitation order of $99+, Code: WEDSALE
Cards and Pockets -- 25% off everything!, Code: 305568
Blurb -- 20% off books, plus free shipping, Code: BLURBTREAT

Giveaways
$25 Starbucks gift card at For the Love of Stilettos
Crystal Headband at With This Ring
GU HolidayGels at Run, Sleep, Rinse, Repeat
$500 gift card at Oriental Trading (Enter Everyday!!!!)
Gingi Skincare Emmy Box at Project Wedding

J's Wedding Band

We finally bought J's wedding band. MyPoints was offering a special of 10 points per $1 you spend at Overstock.com, so we decided it was the perfect time to buy it. If you're not a MyPoints member, you definitely should be. Every time you buy stuff from certain stores, you get points. You also get points for reading emails. You can use your points to get giftcards. It's awesome!

But, back to the ring. We saw almost this exact same ring in Kay for $400. We found it on Overstock for $67! I can't wait until it gets here so we can actually see the real thing.

Boudoir Photography

I signed myself up for boudoir pictures! I'll be doing them at the end of January with The Bond Between Us. She's going to be holding a marathon, so you're welcome to come join if you're in the South Georgia/North Florida area. We're not 100% sure on a location yet, but it will either be in Valdosta, Thomasville, or Tallahassee.
So far I think I'm going to be doing 3 outfit changes.

Outfit #1: FSU jersey with black boy shorts and gold high heels

Picture by Monarch Photography.

Outfit #2: White button down t-shirt, a tie, and a thong

Picture by Forever by Kylene.

Outfit #3: Black lingerie with my fiance's military hat

Picture by The Boudoir Divas.

5 Months To Go!

Oh goodness, 5 months to go! So much to do, so little time!

Here's what I need to get accomplished in November.
- Book florist
- Book baker
- Start researching seamstresses to do the alterations on my dress
- Decide on location for the rehearsal dinner
- Do mock-up of both invitations and programs
- Print invitations
- Call David's Bridal about the decision on bridesmaid's dresses
- Decide on men's attire
- Do mock-up of centerpieces
- Buy outfit for bridal shower