Author Archives: Mary B

Wedding

Yesterday Marriage License; Today Wedding Rings

Hard to believe that the wedding is only 5 weeks from today! Yesterday, Nick and I obtained our marriage license and today we bought our rings.

Obtaining the license was quite uneventful, it just required waiting in line for about 40 minutes. The woman who issued our license said most people in line were getting the license for the next day. Yikes, I couldn’t image doing that.

I think buying our rings was more exciting for both of us. We did a first look for rings about 2 months ago, to get an inital idea. Today, we started with the jewelry stores in the mall. After waiting 10 minutes at one place and not being greeted we left, wandered around to other shopping stores, got a Starbucks coffee and went to another jewelry store. At this store, all of the men’s rings were the “average” size for guys, which meant none of them fit Nick’s finger, so he was done. Then the saleswoman (wrongly) assumed the size of my ring (which irritated both of us since she was off by 40%!). And she pushed me towards this crazy-huge ring wrap (I can’t remember the formal name) which meant she wasn’t listening to what I said I wanted!!

Finally, Nick and I looked at each other and decided to go to Jared’s where Nick purchased my engagement ring. The experience at Jared’s was beyond wonderful – they have excellent customer service, attention to detail and were so helpful. We were immediately greeted and one woman started helping us with my rings. I pointed out what I liked last time and started trying them on, although still wasn’t sold 100%. The woman started to get a feel for what I liked and pulled out the perfect ring for me! I put it on and knew it and Nick knew it too; I started to tear up. Then another woman helped us find Nick’s perfect ring – a yellow gold comfort fit band. Both women were so knowledgeable, helpful and FUN!! They brought us bottled waters, cleaned my engagement ring and took such good care of us. We won’t be shopping anywhere else for jewelry, and Jared’s now has two customers for life.

Marriage License with Wedding Rings

Marriage License with Wedding Rings

Nick with Wedding Ring - I love it!

Nick with Wedding Ring - I love it!

My ring - so dainty and perfect

My ring - so dainty and perfect

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Travel, Wedding

Travels in Switzerland

Note: I wrote this post one evening this past week while in Switzerland for work, but since I didn’t have an internet connection at the hotel room I’m finally getting around to posting this today (from home – it’s always great to come home)…

So I’ve already failed my 1-posting-a-week promise. What can I say, things got busy (insane). I’m writing this 6 time zones away from home base. I’m currently in Zurich, Switzerland for the week getting introduced and inundated on a new project. It’s nice to have a short break from the day-to-day wedding planning, but it feels odd to be so far removed.

On Friday last week I took the day off to accomplish two major items:  Finish moving out of my apartment  and mailing all of the invitations.

I’m happy to report that I was able to complete both with tons of help. Thanks to my Aunt Carol and cousins Lexie and Katie for helping me finish with the last few things to move. Also thanks to my Grandma Rosie and cousin Nicole for putting the final stamps on the invitations (and thanks to Maria, Lindsay, Heather, Christine, Catherine, Aunt Sue, my mom and of course Nick for helping assemble them throughout the week). A note to those who will be mailing ridiculously-large invitations in the future: Make sure you go to the post office and have them weighed for postage rather than guessing!! I can’t stress enough how happy Mr. Postman was that I came in BEFORE I mailed them. He told me that he often has visits from disgruntled brides who mailed invitations without consulting a post office first.

I mailed the invitations at 6:30 pm on Friday evening at a post office and on Saturday Nick and I started receiving text messages and phone calls from those who had already received them! Wow, that’s service!!

Here’s where project wedding currently stands (I love lists, hence, a list):

  • We met with the caterer last week to finalize the food details. I can’t say enough good things about TJ from Berwick. Wow, wow, wow, do I feel great about having him cater our wedding. Oh yeah, and come hungry. There will be insane amounts of food.
  • The invitations were ordered through Paper Occasions. The invitations look wonderful, although there were a few issues with the timing of when they were ready and when I had requested they be ready. I also did not receive enough of the reception inserts. These delays caused me some unnecessary stress in getting them mailed before I left for Switzerland that I could have done without (thank goodness for all those that pitched in to help – again, THANK YOU).
  • I have not had a good workout in 2+ weeks and that doesn’t make me feel so good. At least this week in Switzerland I’m walking at least 3 miles a day between the hotel and train and then the train and work, so at least I’m doing SOMETHING! Granted, the pressure to workout is all me. Nick repeatedly tells me how much he loves me the way that I am!!
  • I’ve started to nix some unneccessary details. Cocktail napkins = cut. Cupcakes for the kids = cut. (We’ll have cake, ice cream, Italian cookies and swiss chocolate, I think that’s enough for a sugarhigh).
  • Theknot.com message boards make me slightly crazy. I need to avoid them.
  • I’ve been buying some good Swiss chocolate for the wedding favors this week. I’m not able to buy truffles as carrying 600 of those home would be painful, but I am buying my second favorite swiss candy, little Lindt candy bars. Now I have to keep Nick and I from eating all of them…

Time to find some dinner. A little over 6-weeks to go…

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Wedding

I found the shoes!

After searching high and low for white or ivory shoes, I finally gave up and decided to go for silver. I had some strict criteria: not a big heel, very very comfortable and shoes that I would wear again… lo and behold the first pair of silver sandals I tried on were perfect. I love Aldo!
my_aldo_wedding_shoes
So today I went to my first dress fitting and the shoes were P-e-r-f-e-c-t. My dress barely needs hemmed and the little bit of sparkle on my shoes matches perfectly with my dress. *sigh* I love it when the little details are oh-so-perfect :)

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family, Heritage Makers, Wedding

Wedding Shower Weekend

The first weekend of May was packed full of wedding related activities. On Saturday, I attended the shower of my childhood best friend, Jenice. The shower was at the Worthington Inn. One of my gifts to Jenice was a storybook of our childhood memories together. I had fun gathering the photos at my parent’s house and remembering the funny things we did as kids. I was really excited to give her the gift and of course once she opened and looked through the book, it was passed around the entire room for all to see. Jenice’s future mother in-law loved seeing photos of her as a little girl. To see the book I made Jenice (and to see hilarious photos of both of us as little girls, click the image below).
 Jenice_Heritage_Makers_Book

I made Jenice’s book following a really simple 4-step formula that anyone can copy for their own project:

  1. First, I spent an hour or so of gathering the old photos that I wanted from my parent’s house.
  2. Next, I scanned the photos with my high speed scanner and wrote out my favorite Mary & Jenice memories to include in the book. [Interested in having some of your photos scanned? Check out my scanning services!]
  3. Then, I searched the Heritage Makers template gallery to fine a template to use (this was my starting template: http://heritagemakers.com/index.cfm?event=projectBrowse&projectID=9b251d5e-70f5-4269-b242-eb4ad6753850&productId=1)
  4. Finally, I spent 2-3 hours dropping the scanned photos in the template, modified the template slightly and added my personal notes.

Jenice’s book was by far one of the favorite projects I’ve made so far with Heritage Makers. It  gave me the opportunity to look back and remember so many fun things we did together!

On Sunday of that weekend, May 3, was my first bridal shower with Nick’s side of the family. It was a very nice shower and I enjoyed it! Here are some photos:

The women in Nick's Family (plus Nick)

The women in Nick's Family (plus Nick)

The hosts - Phyllis and Wanda (THANK YOU!!!)

The hosts - Phyllis and Wanda (THANK YOU!!!)

Princess Hannah, Lindsay, Me, Patty and Rosie

Princess Hannah, Lindsay, Me, Patty and Rosie

 

Two more showers to go…. Next weekend is my family shower and my I’ll get to finally see my third bridesmaid, Christine! She’s hosting the shower and here’s a peek at the super cute invitations she created:

invite photo

Here is what I’ve been reading lately on weddings:

From here on forward, I am going to post weekly until the wedding…. Things are starting to happen everyday and I want to capture them!! (This morning I had a trial run of my wedding hair and so as I write this I’m sitting here with my hair all curlyand wearing my glittery headband — I feel oh so cute!).

Next up: Photos of the painted upstairs of the condo!

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