5 DAYS TO GO | Last Minute Shopping

My mission today was to pick up a few items that I'd forgotten all about until the last minute...

The first thing I purchased today was a brooch/clip for my birdcage veil to make it pop a little bit more, so many to choose from...

... they cost much more than I thought but in the end I had to go for the piece that was going to work out the best (I did manage to get a $10 discount). Since I'm now for my big curls and will probably be wearing my hair like that for my wedding, I needed something that wasn't going to look bland as was as bold as my personality...and hair (lol). I ended up settling on this piece:

(sidebar: I know you think my chipped black nail polish is uber classy...I apoligize for you witnessing that) I wasn't 100% sure on it, so I tried it on with my veil and it seems to be ok. Crisis averted! I also stopped by my florist and completly paid off my balance (thank you Jesus). Originally I'd paid in full when my fiance was here, but we decided that we needed them to do the Sweetheart Table as well so we threw that in.

At some point we ended up in Walmart and we made our way over to the wedding aisle. There I picked up

- the flower girl baskets (3 of them)

- the guest book and pen

- the Unity candles

- ring bearer pillows

...and some other stuff that I can't remember right now...by the way, if you or someone you know is on a tight budget for invitations, Walmart has tons of really pretty ones for just under $20:

...there are so many to choose from and they're really nice looking. But here was my favorite aisle:

...my candy bar may be scrapped from the wedding. Towards the end of the planning process you kind of realize what's really important to you...and I don't think this is so important to me...plus I'm broke...so that's pretty much the deciding factor as far as that goes...lol...

QUESTION:

How do you feel about garter removals at weddings?

Are you doing it?

{MY NEW BLOG} this is going to be amazing and I need you to be apart of it

It's hard for me to believe that this time next week I'll be a married woman. After all these months of planning, all the stress, the times I didn't even think I was going to be able to have a wedding...it's happening in 6 days - yes - I'm just 6 days away from being married!

There are going to be so many changes going on - getting married - moving to another state - searching from a home and tons of other things. To coincide with the big changes in my life I will no longer be blogging here after the wedding, but instead will be blogging from a new site that is a combination of this blog and my other one...

(actually click HERE)

I will continue to be here this week as I do my last preparations and share the rest of my planning with you, but wedding recaps and all my other interests will be documented on the new blog.

Lastly, I'm currently putting my blogroll together and if you'd like to be added please let me know - but please return the favor. Thank you to those who have been reading since the beginning and my newer blogger friends that I've picked up along the way....but I will say this, my new blog is going to be filled with tons of new adventures and lots of photos to document the process and so much more - IT'S GOING TO BE FIERCE & FABULOUS!!! It's basically a mash up of all the things I love and obsess over - FASHION, FOOD, MAKEUP & MORE

...please join me...

9 DAYS TO GO | {SNEAK PEEK} my wedding day jewelry

So many last minute things to do...one of those things being to purchase my wedding day jewelry. You would think I would have done this already - but no! Not me! Some brides have the opportunity to pick out their wedding day jewelry from places like Tiffanys and have sales associates pouring them champagne and bringing out piles of jewelry to adorn themselves with - not over here! I've been browsing the mall this week after checking out my options.

We got in some new accessories at my job today and while I was being nosey I found the perfect pair of earrings that I thought would look great with my dress. Yesterday I had found bracelets at another store but decided to sleep on it. The earrings cost me around $7 (so that was no brainer, I snatched them up right away) and the bracelets were around $21 (which was expensive to me...damn I'm broke) so I got the lady to bring it down to $17, lol. And there you have it, I got my wedding day jewelry for approx $24...

...I got exactly what I envisioned for much cheaper than I thought I was going to spend. I saw a similar pair of earrings at a bridal shop for around $100 - I was actually going to buy them because I thought "what the heck it's my wedding!"...but $7 - can't compete with that, and I actually like this pair better. The jewelry has a vintage/antique look that I was going for. I don't really need a necklace with the dress I'm wearing - but I might go for it anyway - something simple as I don't need much.

J.BRIDE TIP:

If you're on a budget for jewelry think outside the box - why not costume jewelry! Forever 21, Target even Claires has great costume pieces that will look just as elegant paired with your bridal gown. Just because you don't have hundreds to spend on jewels doesn't mean you have to go bare!

PS: Tomorrow is my last day @ work ... next week is strictly about the wedding! Wedding all day all night! Family is starting to trickle in as early as tomorrow - this is one of my favorite parts about this whole wedding thing - having all the people I love in one place - so excited - more to come...

11 DAYS TO GO | It's Our (5 Year) Anniversary

Boy does time fly! It's been 5 years since I asked my now fiance, "So am I your girlfiend or what?"... I had no idea how much that question would change my whole life. We've been through a lot over the past couple of years and I can't thank him enough for never loosing his patience with me. I can't wait to officially become his wife next Saturday. I'm looking forward to more times like these:

..lol...by the way, originally I was planning the wedding for this Saturday but someone snatched the date fromright under me - it's ok though, lol....I wish he was here with me right now - just one more week until we're together again...

13 Days To Go | THE PLANNING MARATHON

This weekend, my fiance flew back down to Florida so that we could file for our marriage license. Can you believe that we both completly forgot about it? I wasn't happy about the unplanned expense, but it needed to be done in order for our marriage to be legal...and I guess that's sorta kinda important, don't you think? lol...Anyway, I thought he was landing at the airport at 2am Friday morning, only to have him surprise me at home when I got there from work on Thursday. I screamed my head off...and of course I cried - I hadn't seen him in a whole month. We quickly got down to business and made our checklist for Friday with the marriage license being on top.We were in and out of the courthouse within half an hour...completly painless!

Afterwards we headed to the mall and purchased our wedding bands - that process also took about a half an hour...we also headed to our videographers to get an extention on our payment (him flying down last minute really through us off), luckily they were cool about it and everything was squared away within minutes. We then headed down to the florist so that we could pay off the balance...next was the tuxedo shop where fiance got fitted for his tux...

...afterwards we headed to more vendors and paid our balances - which felt so good. From 10am to around 6pm, we literally drove all around to our vendors and took care of business. I have to tell you that there's no feeling like when you've paid off your vendor...I can't tell you how much sleep I've lost wondering if I'm going to be able to pay for these things - but it has all worked out and all we have left is videography and the venue.

After our day long marathon we decided to have date night since we haven't been able to in a month - dinner and a movie! We ended up at Longhorn Steakhouse...

After all those errands...and all that food...we skipped the movie and called it a night, lol.

Fiance is now on a flight back to New York and although I'm sad, I know that once he get's back we're only going to be days away from our wedding. Hey, if I can do a whole month - I should be able to get through the next 10 days with no problem right? Did I mention that I'm moving back to New York with him the day after the wedding? It's going to be crazy around here! This is my last week at my jobs - I'm sad to leave the friends behind that I've made, but I'm happy to be starting a new life with my ::ahem:: "HUSBAND".

So tell me, what were you up to this weekend?

ps: when i switch to a 3 column template my blogrolls were deleted...that makes me sad :(

20 DAYS TO GO: CANDY BAR

I'VE BEEN RUNNING AROUND LIKE A CHICKEN WITH MY HEAD CUT OFF - NO MATTER MATTER HOW MUCH YOU PLAN IN ADVANCE OR HOW MUCH TIME YOU THINK YOU HAVE, THERE ARE ALWAYS LITTLE THINGS TO BE DONE HERE AND THERE AS THE WEDDING DRAWS NEAR.

I DON'T HAVE THE ENERGY.

I'M USELESS DURING THE WEEK WHEN I'M WORKING, SATURDAYS I SQUEEZE IN ANOTHER JOB AND ON SUNDAYS ALL I WANT TO DO IS SLEEP. MY MOM HAD TO DRAG ME OUT THE HOUSE TODAY TO RUN WEDDING ERRANDS...

TODAY MY FOCUS WAS THE CANDY BAR...

(photos via: Amy Atlas)

I went to Old Time Pottery and got the containers for the candy...since it's Halloween time I planned on buying the candy...but I figured I should check online first and try to have everything color coordinated - let's see how that works out.

I can't believe I'm just DAYS away from the wedding...this time last year I didn't even know I would be able to have one. We were planning on either going to the court house or just throwing something together in the backyard - what a whirlwind!

HA HA, CHECK OUT MY POST FROM 1 YEAR AGO...(SIDEBAR: DIDN'T REALIZE THAT I'VE HAD THIS BLOG FOR SO LONG....WOW)

33 DAYS TO GO | My Bridal Shower (south florida)

This past weekend one of my bestfriends hosted a bridal shower in my honor at my moms house. Originally the party was supposed to be outside but it was so hot on Saturday night that we had to move everything in doors. Everything turned out perfect and there was lots of laughter and (happy) tears.

The theme was supposed to be SEX AND THE CITY! We were all supposed to dress like characters from the movie but I don't think everyone understood that from the invitation - it's ok though - I had fun dressing up...and so did a couple of the other ladies who got the memo. Here's my outfit accessorized with random bridal elements, lol:

How funny is my veil? I got it from my job at the bridal shop - I don't even know where we found this but when we did, we thought it was so funny and I knew it would come in handy some day. It obviously would not sell so they said it was ok for me to take it home...

39 DAYS TO GO | my bridal shower invitation.

This weekend I was so excited to open the mail and see my bridal shower invitation. My friend and bridesmaid Twanda has been obsessed with throwing me a bridal shower ever since I got engaged. With just a couple weeks left until the wedding she along with my other girls have planned a fun night filled with food and games - I'm so excited about it. Twanda worked very hard on the invite and worded it herself to personalize it. She then bought the stationary and had it printed, heres the result...

This is me...lol...
I can't wait to play games and eat food with all my girls, lol

With the hubby to be gone, I'm excited to get together with everyone and have some "Girl Time". With another chunck of family and friends in New York, I had another bridal shower in Long Island to celebrate with them - read about it HERE if you missed it.

45 days to go: Hotel Accomodations for Guests

...yes, yes... only about 7 weeks left until my wedding. I apoligize for not blogging here as much anymore, but the truth is that I hadn't been doing anything wedding related for a while. Planning is interesting... there's so much to do in the beginning...things kind of cool down...and then there's a mad dash at the end - I'm now at that mad dash!

One thing that is great about living in South Florida is that you don't have to go far to find a great venue - our venue is about 10-20 minutes away depending on traffic. With out of town guests coming from Jamaica and New York we had to find hotel accomodations nearby. Today we secured rooms at the Sheraton Suites which is a two minutes drive from the venue. I'm so excited about this and I know the guests will be too - here are the reasons why I chose this hotel:

* The hotel is a 2 minutes drive from the venue

* They provide a shuttle from the hotel that takes the guests to and from the venue

* It's in walking distance from resturants and a mall

*we got a sick deal on the price

*the price is 10x's worth it because they're suites, not just regular hotel rooms

***(this is what I'm most excited about)*** The one thing that I didn't like about my venue is that there is no alternate area in case it rains (I'm having an outdoor ceremony) I would have to go into the reception room which would be set up for dinner (who wants that)...I asked the Sheraton if it's possible for me to have a ballroom for the ceremony in case it rains and they said "yes"! The ballrooms are gorgeous, so rain or shine, my ceremony will be perfect!

Fiance and his groomsmen will be getting ready at the hotel...

The girls will be getting ready at my house...
...although the rooms are suites, 15 women and 2 babies getting ready in there would be torture. At my moms house we have more than enough room to spread out and have our own space.

In other life changing news, the fiance and I will be moving back home to New York sometime after the wedding. I will be leaving either November (right after the wedding) or December. He on the other hand will be leaving this weekend...I'll be spending my last few weeks of being engaged without him...which I'm extremly sad about. I'm not looking forward to sleeping by myself and not having him here to kiss me or give me a hug when I need it, but I know that it'll be worth it.

photo credit: Punam Bean

69 days to go: nightmares, flowers & planners

How many of you brides to be out there have had atleast one nightmare about your wedding?

...so I hear this normal - which makes me feel better because I've had 2 of them! Both of them had the same underline problem - they day was out of control, unorganized and chaotic. In my last nightmare (a couple nights ago) it was the day of the wedding and no one knew what was going on. We didn't know if vendors had been paid, or if they were even confirmed - it was ridiculous!

A few months ago I had the pleasure of meeting with a few Day of Coordinators and we found one in particular that we really clicked with. However, at the time I was in my last few weeks of college and wasn't able to contribute a lot financially to the wedding. Luckily, I'm now employed full time which is taking some of the pressure off my fiance, so I figured I'd put some of the extra money towards this service.

I invited her over to my house to visit our little workshop so that she could see all the DIY projects that Team J.Bride has been up to...

Invitations have been sent out and at present time we have 60 confirmed guests out of the 100 that we invited. We budgeted for 80 so we're doing pretty good right now, lol.
...here's a centerpiece that we were messing around with - of course it will be more refined and put together but we just wanted to give her an idea of what we're trying to do...

What I'm most excited about are my bridesmaids bouquets...
My aunt made these for my 10 girls and I have to tell you that pictures don't do them any justice - they're gorgeous...

My bouquet is being done by a florist as well as a few other things - but full bouquets and boutenierres for a large bridal party is way more than I can afford so we chose to go artificial. Of course we didn't want them to look super cheap or anything so we found the best that we could find at a wholesaler in Miami. I love that we're able to do these and store them until the day of.

Needless to say, it's all coming together quite nice and I can't wait to walk down the aisle. The funny thing is that this time last year, I wasn't even sure I was going to be able to afford a wedding...but somehow everything is getting paid and now here we are just over 2 months away from the big day.

How are your wedding plans coming along?