Tricia's favorite things

Scrap Mania - January 2, 2012

2012-01-07T23:34:00.002-05:00

Scrap Mania - December 27, 2010

2011-01-17T17:01:00.002-05:00

Boy have I been slack on this blog and with scrapbooking in general. I am going to try to do better with my scrapbooking this year. Starting my photography business really made my scrapbooking take a back seat, but this year I hope to be able to do my two favorite hobbies a little more equally...that's the plan at least. :)

I went scrapbooking with my friend Teri back in December, and these are the pages that I made. I had totally different pages planned that day, but when I saw all the pretty papers at Archivers, I got inspired to do my back up pages first instead.
The Halloween pages were planned pages, but for some reason I didn't embellish as much this time. I'm not sure if it's because I liked the paper without embellishments or if it was more about the pictures this time...either way, these pages are a little more simple than I usually do. The Noelle pages are just because she is so darn cute! :) and these pictures don't do the paper justice at all. The papers are beautiful, but messy! I was covered in so much glitter that day! I probably got more on me today just scanning them, but I think they are sooo pretty!

That's all for now...I'll try to be back with more soon. :)

Scrap Mania - July 6, 2010

2010-07-06T22:08:00.002-04:00

I'm still not even close to being done my wedding album.

I haven't even finished my actual non-scrapbooking album.

I hope to have that completed this month.

I've been super busy.

Up until last month, I was working with my wedding photographer Shannon and her boyfriend.

It was such an awesome experience and I learned so much from the both of them, but it ended up taking up too much time.

With 1 husband, 3 dogs, plus one full time job, wedding photography just became too much for me to handle.

Now I will just work w/ them from time to time, but I am so thankful that she let me work w/ her at all and honestly, I will miss it.

It's hard to give up something you enjoy, but I think it's the best decision for me and my family.

I will still be doing my own photography and catching up on some much needed scrapbooking, so I'll still keep busy! sooooo, this brings me to today and the pages that I completed.

My bachelorette page didn't stitch well, but I think you get the idea still.

It looks really pretty in person, b/c the chandeliers stand out much more than you can tell here.

I love the colors of the other two pages.

I ordered this paper back in February and it took close to 2 months to finally arrive.

I guess it was worth it, but I can't say that I will pre-order things anymore.

Scrap Mania - March 21, 2010

2010-03-21T21:44:00.002-04:00

what to do for the groom??

2010-02-28T21:01:00.001-05:00

I saw so many cute ideas for gifts for the groom while planning the wedding. I'm pretty sure I was on another blog...shocker!...when i came across the two most fabulous gifts. they were available to purchase on etsy.com, but i thought to myself...why buy them when I can make them myself.
I do realize that I said that often and probably more times than i should have, but this time I didn't bite off more than I could chew.
These gifts were honestly very easy to replicate.

here are the pictures that I took after I assembled the gifts...

these are shannon's pics from the wedding day...

ok, so obviously, I got Jeff a bracelet and a pair of socks.

for me though, the story is more in the packaging of each item and not so much the gifts.

let's start with the bracelet.

I knew that I wanted to get Jeff something nice to wear on the wedding day.

Originally, I thought I would go with cuff links that had some kind of significance. I thought I would find something having to do with the honeymoon - Vegas!

well, let me tell you, Vegas cuff links don't come as cute as you might think...most were down right tacky!

soooo...scrapped the cuff links idea and moved on to finding a bracelet.

now remember, the most important thing wasn't the bracelet, it was the box. I know that sounds funny, but ever since I saw the idea on etsy, i knew that I needed to find something to give just so i could make this box to put it in. :)

the original item to purchase had the albums as coasters. You can see how the final product came out with a saying that only those of you out there that watch VH1's "Rock of Love" will understand. :)

next...the socks.

again, the whole point to this gift was the packaging.

I fell in love with the cute saying about cold feet, so again, i had to make it myself.

Later on after the ceremony, I found out that Jeff hadn't even read the saying. he thought it was just a label that came on the socks, but thought he had better wear the socks so he didn't get in trouble! Apparently, nobody understood why I had given him socks.

HA!

so much for that one!

At least one out of the 2 gifts was a hit, because he loved the bracelet, and understood the message in the box. :)

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T22:00:00.001-05:00

I hope that everyone enjoyed their Valentine's Weekend!
Jeff and I went for a yummy dinner last night at the melting pot. The last time we ate at the Melting Pot was the night Jeff proposed! :)

Today, I finished making his cards.
With a little help from me, the dogs made a very nice card. :)
I kind of like their card better than mine!

I had a fun time trying to get the dogs to pose for the pics....

Never a dull moment with the peeps!

crossword style!

2010-02-01T22:52:00.001-05:00

the weekend before the wedding, I began the task of creating our wedding programs. I really thought this would be easy, but as usual, nothing can go smoothly when you think it will.
i ran out of ink.
archivers ran out of the paper that I had been using.
Word wouldn't seem to cooperate at time with the double page layout.
hmmmm what else....i think that about covers it all. honestly though, i couldn't have been more pleased with the programs. I tied in lots of different elements from the wedding and in the end, i loved our wedding programs.

the first piece....the crossword puzzle.
i created this months ago....probably 5 months before. I knew that i wanted it somewhere at the reception, i just didn't know where. eventually, i decided it would be part of the programs. that ended up being a great idea because later, i heard that it made people that didn't know each other talk to one another during the cocktail hour and reception just to get answers that they didn't know.

right before the wedding, i did a preview of things that would show up at the wedding. one of those was the programs, but since it was only a peek...i only showed the tops which was of all the ribbons.

the inside of the programs had the wedding party on one side and the ceremony on the other.

I'll show them later, but you'll see how i coordinated the programs to menus, place cards, table numbers and favors. Lastly, to go with the fall theme, I placed all of the programs and pencils in a cute pumpkin basket. This basket also coordinated with the one that the flower girl carried and the one that the going away bubbles were placed in.

I used various shades of ivory cardstock. not on purpose...only because every time that i went to archivers, they never seemed to have the same paper in stock. I think this is one of those details though, that no one noticed but me. I printed all of the various pieces and trimmed everything down to the correct size. then I punched holes and used bronze colored brads and pearl brads to hold the paper together and then tied a ribbon around each one. The ribbons i used on these, also coordinated to those that were used on the cork place cards.

soooo...what do you think?? :)

that's all for now....i still have to tell you about the flower fiasco!! ugh! Also, need to share the cute gifts i made for jeff and all the other things that I made for the reception.

lots and lots left to tell, but not tonight...it's time for tea and bed...

Scrap Mania - January 23, 2010

2010-01-24T08:32:00.001-05:00

I went in planning to work on my wedding album.
I don't know if it was the layouts I had planned, but I just wasn't feeling it. I couldn't find any paper that was jumping out at me, so I moved on to the others....Noelle and Riley.
I never really get tired of doing dog pages and I absolutely love the papers that I used and the colors of these layouts.

been away too long...

2010-01-13T19:54:00.001-05:00

wow, it's almost been two weeks since I last posted. being a new puppy parent is soooo much work! I still have so many things from the wedding that I promised I would share. then came the holidays and I barely had time for those! sadly, I am left wondering where the year went! I guess this year, I need to stop and smell the roses. I wished away last year too fast because I couldn't wait for October.

I'll do my best to keep up with the recaps, because I still have bunches to show and talk about.

sooooo before I go back, let's have a few pics of noelle and riley, shall we???! :)

snuggle buddies

oh yeah...our snow last week...

i don't particularly condone this behavior...but it does make a cute little picture.

ok, so back to wedding stuff. the next thing I want to talk about are the personalized pumpkins that I made. I got the idea from one of the many other blogs I looked at over the past year. the original idea was to carve a real pumpkin. well, I have never actually done that and it just sounded messy. I knew if it didn't end up working, I might scrap the whole entire idea. I went the next best route and got a fake carvable craft pumpkin. my mother had the idea to practice on a small one first so I wasn't wasting a bunch of money if I messed it up. I think I ended up waiting a few weeks before the wedding before even attempting since I was so nervous that I wouldn't be able to do it. I looked for a font that I liked and also purchased some artificial pumpkin cutting tools. I drew the letter T on the pumpkin with a pencil and started to carve. It really wasn't so bad once I got started and stopped holding my breath. When I was done, I added some bling and voila! pretty personalized pumpkins!!

When I realized that I could in fact do this, I purchased a larger pumpkin and used them both at the entrance and the reception.

you can see in the picture below where these were placed at the entrance to Little Gardens for all the guests to see.

and the little one, placed at the gift /card table...how fabulous does it look in pictures?? :)

I got lots of compliments on them later, so I was so happy that I didn't give up on my pretty little pumpkins....and bonus, I used them for halloween decorations after the wedding!! :)

introducing noelle and goodbye 2009, it's been great...

2009-12-31T16:25:00.001-05:00

ya know, i remember right before i turned 28, a coworker told me that age would be the best year of my life. since i can't remember too many things from that year, chances are it won't make the top 5 in the best years of my life. With the exception of losing Raven this year, I would have to say this year has been pretty great. I would be even willing to bet it's currently #1 on the top five, but since i'm optimistic i gotta believe there are some pretty great years ahead of me as well. :)

Because of Jeff, my family, friends, and of course, my dogs...2009 was an awesome year. I hope that everyone can look back on this year with fond memories, because I know that all of you have played a part in why my year was so great. I truly look forward to 2010 and all the years to come!

so as my last post of 2009, I need to introduce our newest member of the family...Noelle.

I flew up to North Carolina last Sunday and met Riley's breeder to pick her up. Noelle is technically Riley's niece. Riley and Noelle's mother have the same father.

I hope that everyone had a fabulous holiday season! See you next year!

what's a bridesmaid without a bag full of goodies??

2009-12-14T22:40:00.005-05:00

When you are planning your wedding, you are surrounded by tons of fabulous ideas. Among all the things for you and your groom, are all of the goodies for your bridal party. Since we only had honorary bridesmaids, we only had half the task, but still...what do you get them??

From the beginning, i knew i wanted

to get the girls bracelets.

then, I had to have boas for them.

then, I had to get them flip flops.

then, everything had to go in a cute bag.

of course, that bag had to be personalized.

I knew that I wanted to create something for the girls that wasn't just a bag full of stuff. I wanted them to know that I spent time and effort and put a lot of thought into my little bag of goodies.
and certainly, you can't forget your flower girl...she had miniature versions of everything. :)

In the end, I loved the bags that I created for the girls. I hope they enjoyed them just as much as I did in making them.

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas....

2009-12-06T23:59:00.003-05:00

This week, I finally finished up all the thank you cards and got all of those in the mail!! yeah!! Similar to what I did for the bridal shower thank yous, I used pictures from the wedding for the thank you cards. I think they came out very nice and I hope that everyone liked them.

I still have 3 extra cards that I made. I'm not going to say who those are for or post the pics of the cards yet. I know that one card recipient reads the blog, so i don't want to ruin the surprise. i'll finish up those tonight and get those in the mail tomorrow. I'll show you those later after I know that they have been received.

We got the house and outside all decorated for Christmas. I love to see how far Jeff has come every year since that first Christmas with the Avocado pit / tree....long story...for another day. Every year we start our tradition with egg nog! i love it! Although I gotta admit, now that I watch my calories, I don't drink as much as I used to or would like to...need to find my own low cal recipe for egg nog as well i guess! :)

Duke turned 15 years old this week! That's pretty huge for a shar-pei...i believe the oldest shar-pei was 18. Duke's already told us, he's shooting for the record! :)

and finally the outside lights are done. Jeff pretty much is in charge of the outside. Every year, it's seems to get bigger and better and that's just fine with me!

and lastly...i better keep one eye open when i go to sleep for taking this picture!!!

say yes to the dress

2009-11-30T22:01:00.009-05:00

I was never one to watch wedding shows before I got engaged. I'm not sure why. I was just never one of those girls who obsessed about planning a wedding before I got engaged. Now, after I got engaged...that's a whole different story.
I have probably dvr'd every wedding show there is out there. One of my favorite shows to watch over the past 10 months was TLC's Say Yes to the Dress. In fact, I still watch the new episodes. All the other wedding shows don't really interest me too much anymore, but i still love Say Yes to the Dress! :)

soooo...here is the quick version of how I said yes to my dress....

back in January, not even a month after I got engaged, my mother and I went looking at dresses for the first time. I was so excited, b/c i totally thought i would be standing on a pedestal, looking in all these mirrors...not!! it soooo wasn't what i expected, but it was still fun in it's own way. the dressing rooms were like little outhouses made of cloth and wood. it was kind of funny actually and I certainly never thought I would go home with a dress that day.

oh, forgot this is the short version...

i had a favorite.

my mother had a favorite....

....and they weren't the same dress. at the end of the day, i tried on the last dress with 5 favorites in mind. I came out in that final dress and my mother and all the other women said that was the one. I wasn't quite sure at first b/c I wasn't even sure if i could sit in it since it was a mermaid style. A dress that I didn't even want to try on originally became the one and I'm so glad it did.
When I first went dress shopping, i never had the mermaid or trumpet style in mind. Much like "Say Yes to the Dress," sometimes what's in your head, doesn't even come close to what looks great on you or what you will end up in walking down the aisle.

As many times as I changed my mind about the invitations or any other small detail, thank god i never changed my mind about my dress. In fact, as time went on, I started liking the style even more. now looking back over all my first choices, I'm so glad I tried on that final dress.

Months later, I would finally get my chance to be on a pedestal in front of all those mirrors. It was so much fun, but like everything else, it doesn't last long enough.

the below pics are of the "trash the dress" dress

so i guess the best advice that I can give any future brides out there...try on the dresses you never thought you would like. then, when you find the perfect dress, savor every minute of wearing it, because no matter how many times you put that dress on, it will never feel like enough. :)

I have a lot to be thankful for...

2009-11-28T23:24:00.002-05:00

As the holiday weekend winds down, I figured that I should make time for a blog post.

Even after the wedding, things are still crazy. I know a while ago, everyone thought i would go into a coma after the wedding because I would have nothing to do. I have to admit, there is some sadness that all that hard work seemed to go by like the blink of an eye, but thankfully because of the holidays and work, there has been nooo time for that post wedding depression!

This year, my family came over to our house for thanksgiving. It's not the first time we have had everyone over, but it definitely was the first time for crazy holiday drama!

first it just started off with some minor things, like running out of black pepper and running out of dishwashing liquid. no biggie, a phone call to few family members and crisis over.

normally, jeff cooks the meat. i take care of the sides. This year, Jeff decided to make a turkey and a ham. I'm not a big cooked ham person and in fact, I turned up my nose at first. Jeff is a great cook though, so I knew it would be tasty no matter what. soooo onto the next problem....ham and turkey cannot fit in the oven at the same time...woopsie.
solution - put the ham in a smaller pan.
voila, problem solved.   for now....

couple of hours go by, everyone is socializing.
things are great. I walk out of the scrapbooking room to a very smoky house.. and i think...hmmm...this can't be good.   I don't have to worry for too long, b/c jeff has it under control. it would appear that the smaller pan for the ham wasn't working out and drippings had overflowed, thus the smoky house. everything appears to be good and then i open the oven and whatta ya now...fire in the oven!

thanks to michelle for being so quick to remember the camera!

I don't really remember how i reacted, but my mother told me that i was surprisingly calm about it. a little while later, a lot of salt to put out the fire and yet another crisis done...well, except that now we were pretty much out of salt. hope everything is seasoned well! :)

next up...time to get out the publix pilgrim dinnerware from the top shelf that i can barely reach.
reach, reach, reach....splat....sadly, one pair of publix pilgrims landed right in the pan of grease and that grease ended up all over me and the shirt that i have only worn one other time and really really like.
oh, and did i mention i think i look really cute in this shirt?
well, not anymore, b/c that shirt ended up in the trash.

from there on, the rest of the evening was pretty uneventful... thank goodness.

even after all that, I truly have so much to be thankful for...jeff, my family, my friends, my job, my dogs....really i could go on and on.
Instead, here are a few of this year's thanksgiving memories...

This year has brought so many wonderful things and for every one of them and eveyone of you...I am thankful.

fun stuff!!!

2009-11-23T21:13:00.000-05:00

today jeff called me at work to say, "hello honey! happy one month anniversary!" how sweet.
:)
that was a very nice start to my day.
then, just now I was checking out shannon's blog and look what I found!

Shannon told me about this the other day...but seeing it so puts a smile on my face!
:)

I got the pictures back from Shannon this weekend, so I'll start catching you all up on all the details that I didn't want to show until I had her super cool pictures.   Now i have them so now i can share...except not today.
:(

sorry, but i need to finish addressing the thank you cards, make my thanksgiving grocery list to give to jeff, and move all the christmas tree / decorations boxes into the garage...and look it's 9p and i still haven't eaten dinner!

toodles for now!!!

hee hee....i know, i'm a dork

2009-11-18T19:50:00.000-05:00

but it truly makes me giddy to see blog posts about us.
:)

I know...soon the day is going to be here that the pictures are in the past, the wedding and all the hard work will be only long ago memories, so until then I'm going to sit back and enjoy the times that I have left. :)

so, why am i a dork, you ask??? well, because shannon added a post about the various things that I have made...how cool!!
her pictures are so much better than mine, so it makes it that much cooler.

anyway, check out the post over on her blog.

thanks Shannon!!!

if I were an invitation...what would I be???

2009-11-17T21:51:00.003-05:00

while I didn't have many meltdowns, thankfully, during the whole planning process...the invitations were mini-meltdown #1.

When I first started planning the wedding, early on, I designed invitation #1. I was so excited because, I thought, "wow, that was easy...this stuff is going to be a piece of cake."
Then I made my save the dates.
I absolutely loved my save the dates and then suddenly invitation #1 wasn't good enough, in fact, I hated it.
I thought over and over...you can't follow up the save the dates with this!!
so back to the drawing board I went, over and over and I think over again.

one day..an invitation magazine came in the mail and it had some invitations with chandeliers on it and I fell in love with them. I immediately started searching for all sorts of cool chandeliers on the internet. i made a mock invitation, walked into the living all proud of myself and said, "honey, look what i made"
...and then it happened...that face.
the unmistakable face of "I don't want to tell you, but I really don't like that."
uh oh!! what would i do now??

well, this just wasn't going to do, because for the first time since the invitation saga began, I really liked what I had created. the next day I added a little bling and some ribbon...and voila!! the little invitation that could finally won over jeff!

I would end up changing my mind one more time..not on the design, but on the chandelier.
Originally, I had the same chandelier on the invitation, rsvp and accommodations. I settled on a different chandelier for each and those same chandeliers ended up being the inspiration for several other elements at the reception. I'll share all of those later, but finally, here is the complete invitation set.

can't wait to check the mail next week...

2009-11-13T21:24:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited!

My friend Naomi in Sarasota did a blog post about little ol' me!
how fun!

the best part though is that it's about this super cute card that she made for Jeff & Me....check it out!

She is an amazing card maker!!
Isn't it adorable?! Can't wait to see it in person.

thanks Naomi!!! :)

the pictures are done, the pictures are done!!!

2009-11-12T20:53:00.000-05:00

ok, so I don't have the cd yet, but I wanted you to see one super hot pic!

Shannon is truly amazing and I can't wait to share more of the pics, but until then...check us out!!
:)

finally - i can unveil "the dress" scrapbook pages

2009-11-08T13:15:00.001-05:00

a while back, i posted the scrapbook pages that I made of the day my mother and i went dress shopping.

it had all sorts of boxes over the pictures and journaling because I didn't want Jeff to see or figure out which dress it was.

now that the wedding is behind us....here is the layout!

let's go back a little, shall we??

2009-11-07T18:56:00.001-05:00

I had lots of fun pre-wedding activities, but I never got around to posting my last day at work before taking off for the wedding. Some of my co-workers took me out for lunch and to get our nails did! :)

First, we had lunch at Verde, a cute little restaurant in Brookhaven. yummy tacos!
can't wait to go back again!

Next stop, let the pampering begin!

I'm telling you, I don't know what took me so long to get a pedicure. My boss Jana took me for my first one last Christmas. I had no idea the little piece of heaven pedicures can be!

We went to a nail place also in the Brookhaven area. They were so incredibly nice and really did an awesome job.
It was such a fun day! I think we need another excuse to do it again soon!

thanksgiving mani/pedis anyone??
:)

the colors that I used

"baby, it's coal outside" for toes and "tickle my france" for my nails

2 weeks already???

2009-11-06T21:08:00.003-05:00

so we have been married for 2 weeks now!!
and it's almost Christmas!!
I was laughing last night that someone in our neighborhood already has their Christmas tree up! can you believe it?? I'm a little miffed by that one.
:)

back to the wedding....I have so much to catch up on, but thought first I would share from the wedding day:

our getting ready, pre-ceremony and ceremony.

our photographers pictures aren't back yet, so here are a few that friends or family took to keep you busy until Shannon's come back.

on our way to little gardens

100% chance of rain and thundershowers didn't hold us back!

my hair held up and the ceremony went indoors.

arriving at little gardens...showing off my bride tee and hoodie!

(that's shannon, our fabulous photographer, behind me)

bridesmaids - kristi, ann, caren, teri, angie

zipping me up

jeff and his nephew

our flowergirl

my honey...

walking down the aisle with my father

exchanging rings...i couldn't tell which hand was the left one! woops!

the kiss!

mr & mrs!

We're back, but first...

2009-11-01T16:02:00.003-05:00

After today, I'll get back into all the wedding details and honeymoon, but first wanted to take a break to remember our little girl Raven, who passed away while we were gone.

Raven would have been 8 years old this December. She was a gift to me from Jeff on Valentine's Day 2002. I remember walking into the house and the cutest little black ball of fur walked over to me for the first time.

We already had 7 year old Duke at the time. He could have cared less about that little pest, but she never let up and I think after years, she finally wore him down. We know this, because he let her lick his ears.

that was it, no snuggling, no sitting too close... but for Duke that was a big step.

Years later, we got Raven another little shar-pei. She had such a loving personality so we wanted her to see it was ok to snuggle and to love another dog.

We got her Riley.

Now, Riley is just as stubborn as Duke, but he and Raven loved each other as much as we had hoped.

They were inseparable. They loved to snuggle and give each other kisses and chase each other around the house.

Raven was always the sweetest little girl. In her first year of life, she had many ailments including her first time with cancer. Whatever she faced, she was always a trooper. you would never know that she was sick, because she never let it show. This past March, she was diagnosed with cancer again, for the 3rd time. She was only given 2-3 months to live. Typical Raven made it for 8 months. I asked her to try to make it to the wedding...and she did, but sadly couldn't make it until we got home on Friday. I know that she must have tried though.

I think Raven touched Duke and Riley's lives more than we will ever know and for that I'm grateful. I know that she will always be part of Jeff and I and we will miss her always.

what a week - where did the time go??

2009-10-19T00:19:00.003-04:00

well, we are finally approaching wedding day, and what a busy week it has been. I have been finishing up a lot of projects...lots of late nights. in the end, it will all be worth it and i can't wait to see how all the hard work comes together on Friday. this time next week, we will be married and celebrating our first night of our honeymoon. hope i don't sleep through vegas!!
:)
nah, i'm kidding, well maybe a little.

this coming week brings finishing up some projects, picking up the flowers, making the bouquets and trying to chill a little bit.
I hope that happens. :)
everybody comes in thursday and we'll have our sort of "rehearsal."
more like a meeting with the wedding director.
since we aren't having a rehearsal, we aren't having a rehearsal dinner either. just a low key dinner with all the parents.

I'm not sure if i will post again before the wedding.
there isn't too much i can show off at this point, since i want to keep some things under wraps until the ceremony.
maybe if the bouquets turn out ok, i'm show a little preview. here are a few snippets of items that will be at the wedding:

We Survived!

2009-10-11T23:26:00.004-04:00

with only 12 days to go...this weekend was busy and hectic. Yesterday morning, i had my second hair trial...a huge relief!! so long as we don't have rain or humidity, i think we should be OK.

The bachelorette party was last night and let me tell you, I'm not as young as i used to be. I think you get out of practice when you aren't going out all the time.

:)

I finally get to share with you the cute little gifts I did for the girls. I got each of the girls a little clutch purse/wallet and made everyone their own special card/agenda for the evening.

I loved them all and really didn't want to give them away, but instead i just made myself one of my own.

these are the super cute clutches....should have picked up one for myself!

And lastly, some pics from the bachelorette party....lots of fun!! :)

who's ready for the bachelorette party??? :)

2009-10-08T21:42:00.001-04:00

I am!!! It's in 2 days and I'm so excited.
I'm not kidding when I tell you that I have been planning this since January!!
I'll have plenty of pictures after Saturday but first I want to show off a little preview of something cute that I made to give to the girls.
I'll show the rest of them off after I have given them all away, which is going to be sad, b/c they are so cute.
i wish i could keep them all!!
:)

BOO!!!

2009-10-04T22:48:00.001-04:00

I love scary movies and halloween!

I decided to take a little break from wedding planning last night and took a trip with some friends to Netherworld.

you can't take pictures inside, but outside is fair game and trust me, half the fun is outside.

all sorts of scary ghouls are hanging out, ready to scare unsuspecting people.

i gotta admit, they did get me a few times.

It's so much fun!!!

thank you, thank you!!

2009-09-30T22:47:00.002-04:00

I think everyone should have received their thank yous by now, so i can finally share them!!

I wanted to have a more personalized thank you than something that would just get looked at and then thrown away, so at the shower i asked my mother to take a picture of me with all the girls individually and one with my mother as well.

I made each thank you unique, by changing the color in photoshop and then using different fonts. I adhered each photo to some cardstock and then wrote a thank you message on the back. nothing fancy, but i like them.
:)

then for each of the girls who hosted the shower....
I read about various cute ideas...some bath stuff, some umbrellas, but all with the theme of "shower." I found these really pretty bars of soap. actually the big bling on the front of the them is what originally caught my eye...it was really a bonus that they smelled so good! I wrapped each in a wash cloth and tied a ribbon around them...voila! I think they turned out cute and I hope the girls like them.
:)

this past weekend, my mother and I went to pick out theflowers that I will make the bouquets with....ugh...no pressure!!

I also finished making the remaining labels for the bubbles and the favors and put the last of the corks together for the escort cards. Tomorrow is the final planning appointment...final headcount, final menu selections...no backing out now Jeff!
:)

and the stress has begun...

2009-09-27T00:42:00.001-04:00

maybe it hasn't really just begun...there is just more of it now because the wedding is less than a month away...oh my!
:)
not entirely bad stress, just stress because I really have enjoyed planning this wedding and all the details.   I'm probably going to be sad when there is nothing else to plan, but I'll be happy in a little over a month that I can clean the scrapbook room, get back to a normal routine, keep the house clean (jeff's probably been wondering for years when that would happen), ya know all that regular every day stuff.
:)
I won't have to worry about the numerous to do items that I have to look at everyday.
in less than a month, it will all be over...and I'll be wondering what to do with my time...

but for now....back to the list.   :)

I feel like I don't get to update the blog as much, because so many things have been occupying my time, but I will continue as best as i can for the next few weeks.

I picked up the dresses today - finally!! they look so pretty and I cannot wait to wear them!
Jeff and I worked on the song list today. that has literally taken me about the past 4 hours. I'm such a dork...if i had the song, i would play it and see if it was a good song to dance to b/c while I might like the song, it may not be dance-worthy! (picture me dancing around the scrapbook room) this was definitely a good test, because while I may like nine inch nails' "head like a hole," it's not the most easy song to dance to!

:)

tomorrow, I'm off to my mother's again. gotta go check out flowers for the bouquets and make the last few cork place card holders.

I'm a little bummed because so many things that I will make in the next few weeks, I won't be able to post here, because I will want things to be a surprise for the wedding day.   I'm keeping myself a list though, so after the wedding, I'll remember all the pictures that I want to show everyone. Like this past week, I spent every night working on the thank you cards for the bridal shower. I wanted each person to have their own unique thank you. I also made the girls that hosted the shower some cute little gifts. after I'm sure everyone has received theirs, I will post some pics.

For now...I need to post one quick picture of something that I have been waiting for a while to post - the invitations that i made!
I need to edit some of the pictures, so for now, here is one.

time for bed...good night everyone!

showers and dresses and hair/makeup...oh my!!

2009-09-21T00:35:00.001-04:00

so the title of this post actually refers to my bridal shower, but if you live in Georgia with me, it could totally be referring to the ridiculous rain amounts we have been getting lately!! and it's not over...they are talking rain for another 4 days!! geez!
anywhoo...back to fun showers!
My bridal shower was on Saturday and it was a star studded event! We got to walk the red carpet and we all had our own stars on the "Matson" walk of fame! When i first walked in, I was greeted by the paparazzi, all taking pictures of me and asking me who i was wearing!

:)

the theme was a lot of fun and my family and friends dressed for the occasion! the decorations were awesome, the food was yummy. I didn't win the bridal shower bingo, but I guess you can't have it all, now can you??
:)

My mother made the cakes and they came out so incredibly cute!!

totally forgot to eat some at the shower, but i kind of had some for breakfast this morning! shhhhh....don't tell anyone that I ate carrot cake for breakfast.

:)

Angie's mother made some super yummy cookies!!!

my friend Ayaila always makes the most adorable things. you might remember for her own wedding and for the pink pineapple design studio opening, she made the cutest personalized water bottles. well, not only did she make our very own "jeff and tricia" water bottles, but she added this song that used to get stuck in our heads when we worked together and it's still stuck in my head since yesterday. :)

aren't they cute?? oh, the song, is "Happy Together."

so this one's for you ayaila!! "Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba!" :)

and then finally.....the moment that inspired the entire shower...the annie leibovitz photo shoot. I have to work on some of the other shots, but here is one of the pics from our little fun photo shoot:

thank you everyone for making the shower such a memorable day for me! I love you all!!

I had my final dress fitting today...sort of. the bustle wasn't quite right, so they are going to redo it and then i can pick up both dresses this week. the lady that did the work, Dora, was awesome. she really did such a good job and is so super sweet.

Later in the day, I had my hair and makeup trial. I love the girls from Trio. They are a lot of fun! we listened to jock jams and 80s and had a great time!

I'm still a little on the fence though. first off, let me say it's me, not them. I'm horrible with allowing other people to do my hair, seriously. I don't like how anybody styles my hair and I do mean anybody.
:)
i try, and try, but it's just a problem that I have and I've been this way all my life. :)
soooo...I'm going to send them some notes on different things and see what happens from there. truly, it could be that I just don't have the type or amount of hair to pull off the look that I envisioned. I'm just not sure, so we'll see...

and look at that...another late night and I'm not in bed, yet again!! shocker! :)

5 weeks...uh oh!

2009-09-12T23:32:00.001-04:00

I'm freaking out a little...

I have a lot done, but feel like there is still so much left to do. Last weekend I assembled the bridesmaids bags, made all the labels for the favors and for the bubbles for our departure and finished gluing all the corks together for the seating cards.

here is a preview of the label that will go on the favors

I made as many so far as I have rsvp's, so all I will need to do now are the remainder, which is probably 7 of each item. I still have the programs, menus, printing the seating cards, and the table signs. I still need to finish the video for the reception, but I'm going to wait until after the bridal shower and the bachelorette. I'm sure there will be some cool pictures to add to the video from each of those.

The bridal shower is next weekend and I'm really excited. A little over a year ago, I came across the Annie Leibovitz Vanity Fair cover photos and I really loved them. I told my friends we needed to do a little photo shoot like the pictures. We had already done a mini photo shoot on the train tracks and a rock star album cover (you can check these out in the scrapbook pages photo album to the left), so I thought this would be cool to add to our collection . I was super excited when I found out my little idea was the inspiration for the bridal shower. I already went out and got a dress. now I need to head out to my favorite accessory store to add some bling!! :)

These are a few of the pictures that were the inspiration for the shower.

My mother is also making the cake for the bridal shower. She sent me a picture of the "mock" cake today and it's super cute! Next weekend, I also have my final fitting and my hair and makeup trial...things are moving so fast!!

that's all for now...have a great weekend everybody!

Bridal Shower - i'm going to walk the red carpet!!

2009-09-04T19:32:00.004-04:00

how fun!!
i got my bridal shower invite in the mail today!
i love it!!
i can't wait to see what the girls have planned because i think the invitation is sooooo cool!!
2 weeks from tomorrow!
can't wait!!

Scrap Mania - August 29, 2009

2009-08-30T00:53:00.005-04:00

it's almost 1am and i'm finally done the 3 whole pages that i started at 4p today.
:)
of course, i haven't been working on them straight since 4p, but it kind of feels like it.
the good thing is that i'm done and the scrapbook room is put back together...well, as good as it's going to get until after the wedding.

Ayaila & Mario - remix!!

2009-08-27T22:18:00.010-04:00

Ayaila and Mario were cool enough to meet me out one Sunday morning to take some pictures to add to their collection from their wedding.

Ayaila is probably one of the coolest girls to take pictures of because she can bust out poses like you wouldn't believe!
:)
Tyra has nothing on this girl!

Since the wedding was a little more than a month ago, Ayaila & Mario had lots of cool ideas left of pictures they wanted to make sure that we took. They brought lots of cool props...just a fun, fun time in general. I really do love it when the guys are good sports about the whole picture taking and while it was a little warm out, Mario did an awesome job.

here are some of my favorites (i had lots of favorites):

it's been a busy week

2009-08-23T00:05:00.006-04:00

Since last weekend, we celebrated my niece and my brother's birthdays.
My mother made two really great cakes.
Can't wait to see what she does for the wedding. it's going to be awesome!
I haven't uploaded my brother's cake yet, but here is my niece's.

Jeff and I got our rings. He had ordered mine to match my engagement ring and we picked it up last weekend.
It turned out so nice. I ordered Jeff's online because it was such a great deal.
much better than had we purchased it in a store and it arrived today!!
I took some pictures of both rings, but i have been told by both my mother and jeff...no blogging the rings, well the pictures at least.
:)
sooooo...you all will have to wait.

I had my first dress fitting this past thursday.
it was nice to see how everything is going to look. I am having both the wedding and the trash the dress gowns altered and I'm really excited.
Since I never went to a dress salon for my own dress, it was cool to stand up there in front of all the mirrors!
I go back again in 2 weeks. i won't be able to breath, but darn it, i'll look good!
:)

lastly...the invitations are done, done, done!
I'll be sending them out this week. Once i know everyone has received theirs, I will post the final product. I may have changed my mind a ridiculous amount of times, but the end result was worth it.
can you believe we are already at 2 months until the wedding! holy cow, where did the time go?!?!

Also, one last thing that was keeping me busy this week was pictures!
my other favorite thing, other than planning the wedding.
You all probably remember Ayaila & Mario, since I have mentioned them a few times here.
Well last Sunday I took their pictures.
Ayaila and I had been talking about this since I did the Design Studio Grand Opening.
At that time, she wanted more pictures of just she and Mario because she didn't feel like they got that many taken of just the two of them after the wedding.
I totally forgot about that until they showed up in their wedding attire...how cool!
I guess technically i did my first day after..or i guess month after and it was a lot of fun!
I'll post some of the pictures next time.
it's late and i need to read some before i go to bed.

hope you all are having a good weekend!

welcome baby j!

2009-08-16T22:14:00.007-04:00

I'm a little behind on this, but baby j arrived last week!
I know that her parents are more than happy, especially her mama!
I went to visit the new baby and mother last week and took a few pictures.
as usual, i wanted to share a few and debut the first official pictures that I took with my brand new camera that I got for my birthday!!

sooo many things...

2009-08-06T21:17:00.006-04:00

so first up...happy belated birthday to my mother!!! not that i haven't told her, because i have...we actually celebrated this past sunday with a great lunch and 3 hours at my favorite accessory store in the whole wide world..charming charlie! if you are around the forum in norcross, you gotta check it out.

she made me this awesome, really big card for my bday which is in a few days! the pictures really don't do it justice!

then yesterday jeff told me that i could get a new camera for my bday!!!
yeah!! talk about the best news!!
so now it won't seem so silly when i tell you that i got myself a new camera bag about a month ago....for the camera that i don't yet have!
i know, i know... but it started out innocent enough.
:)

i saw this super cool camera bag, that truly looks like a cute purse and thought, "awesome, i'll get that for my mother for her bday."
when i saw the bag in person, i thought, "what the heck, i'll get one for me too!"
so i did, hoping that one day, i would get a camera to fit into my super cool bag, b/c right now, my current camera is swimming in this big bag.
:)

how cute are these?? mine is the giraffe, and the zebra is my mothers.
they have all sorts of compartments and cool places for lenses and accessories.

so that brings me back to charming charlie...my mother and I were looking for jewelry for her to wear to the wedding.
We ended up getting her jewelry, our flower girl's jewelry, and me - these fabulous shoes!! (i couldn't help myself)

in keeping with the big ring theme for my bridesmaids....my mother got a really fun big ring as well, so we also got our flower girl a big ring too!!

my mother's fun ring!

this is for our flower girl....the ring is hanging off of the necklace

that's all for now...have a good night!

such good friends...

2009-08-04T21:22:00.006-04:00

Ann & Marc are just that!
they sucked it up on a hot saturday afternoon this past weekend for me to get more practice.
2 hrs and some bug bites later, i think we all came out with some great pictures!
This wasn't the original location we had in mind, but some of the pictures came out awesome...if i do say so myself.
i can do that, right??? :)
I'm glad ann & marc came up with it when my original idea fell through.
and how cool is the picture that looks like a graffiti wall?? :)
it's actually a piece of the berlin wall. super cool!

have a good day, my honey

2009-08-01T00:33:00.005-04:00

in a couple of hours, my honey will start his first day at his new job!
I decided that i would make him a card and surprise him by putting it in his car so he'll see it first thing in the morning!

much better...

2009-07-26T15:38:00.005-04:00

ok, that flowergirl layout was bugging me.
As you can tell by my scrapbook room pics, I have my most recent layouts hanging up.
Every time I looked at this layout today, it was just glaring at me to change it. :)
soooo...i did.
:)

Scrap Mania - July 25, 2009

2009-07-26T11:49:00.009-04:00

Here are the layouts that I completed yesterday.
I only got the engagement ones done at Archivers.
I just take too long to complete a layout! :)
When I got home I still was in the mood to scrapbook and since I don't know when I'll have another chance before the wedding, I decided to finish the flowergirl layout.

for these 2, I used paper from Basic Grey's Scarlett Letter collection and what appears to be overlays are Prima Clear Paintables. Basically, they are overlays you can use ink or paint on, but I kind of like them just the way they are. The "US" was part of the overlay, but just didn't stand out at all. I drew out the letters on another piece of paper and cut them out. I then drew some black dots, inked the edges and added some bling! You can't get a good idea of how cute they look in the scanned image, but scroll down to the picture that I took and you can tell they really do pop and stand out from the page.

Engagement Pictures Layout Pg.2

closeups from pg 2

I absolutely love this paper! It's from Glitz Designs Plum Crazy collection. When I saw it, I knew I had to do the flowergirl page with it. The only thing I might have done differently is making the picture larger, but overall I like how the layout turned out and how cool is it that I actually found some black flowers!

My stitching software stitched right over her face, so scroll down for a better image.

closeups from pg. 2

closeups from pg. 1

bridesmaid dresses - redo!

2009-07-25T13:19:00.009-04:00

I don't feel so bad now for changing my mind a "few" times, because it must run in the friend family.
:)
both angie and ann have purchased 2 different dresses than they originally thought they would get.

Ann has had a dress for a little while now but still was looking, because while the one she had would have worked, it didn't seem like she was "in love" with it. this is the new one that she got this past week and it's super cute. Sadly, i won't have a picture of her in her dress yet, because it won't be here for a little while, but I'll have plenty of pictures later!

Angie went to pay for hers this past week and decided to try a few more on. Between last weekend and this week, she had 3 favorites and all of them looked great. This is the dress the won! :)

Teri is the last bridesmaid left. She is going to have baby Jordan in 2 weeks though, so no dress shopping yet.

Then they will be all done!!!

yeah!!

if only I could say that about some of my other tasks! We are 2 days past the 3 month mark.

holy cow!!! where has the time gone!!!

well, gotta go get ready, because i'm off to scrapbook tonight. I'm going to work on layouts for my engagement pictures and flowergirl dress shopping!

oh, one more thing....i want to come up with a cool name for the whole photography business! should it turn into something, i gotta have a name!
let me know what you think:

1 - TT Photography

2 - SassiGraphs - Photography by Tricia

3 - Tricia (last name) Photography

have a great weekend everyone!

congratulations to my honey!

2009-07-25T12:16:00.004-04:00

yesterday, jeff found out that he got promoted!
I'm so happy for him! He has worked hard over the years to get here, so I know how much this means to him.
It was a good day for him and if I had to guess, I would say this year will go down as one of the best for the both of us!
:)
love ya homey!!

practice, practice

2009-07-22T23:48:00.008-04:00

so i was telling my friend Melissa about my new favorite thing...other than planning my wedding, of course...and how after the Pink Pineapple grand opening, I feel like I need more practice taking pictures. If anything should come of this, after the wedding, I need more pictures to show off.
Melissa volunteered herself and her boyfriend Michael to get together and help me practice. They both were really good sports about the whole thing. We went to this cool little park that I didn't even know existed.
it was hot and there were some large bees buzzing around us and oh yeah, we got locked in the park! but other than that it was a lot of fun.
:)

these are a few of my favorites from our little practice session:

this picture was supposed to show up last, but for some reason, when you upload, your last picture shows up first...anyway, I at least wanted one shot of me w/ Melissa and Michael. :)

4 out of 5 bridesmaids dresses - done!

2009-07-19T00:26:00.004-04:00

I am soooo excited!

not only was today fun because we went to my new favorite accessory store, Charming Charlie, but 3 more of my bridesmaids got their dresses today. wahoo!!

They also bought their shoes and a big, fabulous, funky ring! Kristi noticed the rings and they are too cute. I love them!
I noticed the shoes the other day, and I couldn't believe it, but they all liked them and the best part is they can totally wear them again after the wedding.
They are going to look soooo good! I think they all made great choices and it was so much fun!

Just one girl left and then we are done!!

bling, bling

2009-07-15T00:14:00.006-04:00

quick little post...need to try to get to bed before 1am tonight. :)

Ayaila and I were talking the other day after she saw the pictures that I took of my ring.
she was telling me how she was a little disappointed that she didn't have any pictures of her ring. Naturally, I thought.. ah ha...another stationary object for me to take numerous pictures of without complaint!
Since Mario was also there, I took several pictures of both of their rings and some of them I really love, so I thought I would share.

Pink Pineapple Design Studio Grand Opening

2009-07-13T22:45:00.007-04:00

I had the coolest Saturday!
As most people already know, I love taking pictures and lots of them.
Because of scrapbooking and now planning my wedding, I have really taken an interest in the quality of the picture. I love looking at wedding photography blogs and seeing all the cool styles of taking pictures.

At Ayaila & Mario's wedding, I did my normal routine...taking pictures of absolutely everything! just a normal day, right?? well, not really because Ayaila shared those pictures that I took with her friends and family and to my surprise, I received lots of compliments. The story could have ended right there and I would have been perfectly happy.
Then last week Ayaila texted me to see if I would be able to photograph a design studio grand opening. After I picked myself up off the floor, I said absolutely!
:)

soooo....that brings me to this past Saturday.
I already knew Ayaila's friend Jamye and just looking at her, you can tell that she has style, but I had no idea just how much!
I pulled up to the building Saturday afternoon and my first thought was, "how super cute are these!"
Her boutique is located in the Tudor Villages of Avondale Estates.
Then I go upstairs and into the boutique, and I'm so not kidding when I say that I could live in the one corner of this room.
The chair, the rug...the chandelier - I fell in love with all of it!
Her boutique is for meeting with interior design clients, decorating classes and hosting purse parties. It really is the cutest space you have ever seen! You can check out Jamye's website here.

This being my first photography job, I went crazy with the picture taking and I had a blast. It was really cool to just take tons of pictures of everything and everybody and nobody say, "why are you taking so many pictures?" because that is exactly what I was there to do!

Even if this is the one and only photography job I get, and I hope it's not, it really was an awesome experience! I am so grateful to both Ayaila and Jamye for thinking of me.

here are some of my favorites from the evening:

Ayaila, Zoe and Jamye

thanks to Zoe for taking this one. :)

and the corner that I could live in!! love it!!
I look at this one and say, wow...did I really take this?? :)

just call me gollum...

2009-07-06T23:36:00.006-04:00

ok, you don't really have to call me gollum, but if you have a really pretty ring, hopefully you will understand.
and if you never saw Lord of the Rings, you may not understand that reference at all. :)

anyway, i have a new obsession.
it's one part - new camera that I'm just starting to really learn all the bells and whistles and one part - anything that will stand still long enough for me to take a picture of without complaining.

yesterday, was a rainy, lazy day.
i wasted a lot of time playing on the computer and checking out blogs and what I realized is that lots of brides take lots of pretty pictures of their engagement rings.

When I first got my ring, I still had a camera that I had for about 5 years.
great camera, but it didn't have great close up ability.
2 months later, that camera died...by the way, I swear that i had nothing to do with it's untimely death....seriously.
:)

after being really upset about my camera dying, sadness turned to happiness when Jeff and I purchased our new camera.
It was like a whole new world!

that brings me back to yesterday and my being a really big dork and taking lots of pictures of my ring.

normally I wouldn't post something like this, but I've also come across some really great effects for making pictures look super cool.
soooo...after that really long winded explanation of a rainy, lazy, ring picture taking day - here are some pictures that I'm really proud of:

and teri...i know what you must be thinking....
:)

Ayaila & Mario's Wedding - July 4, 2009

2009-07-05T13:29:00.009-04:00

Ayaila & Mario are finally married!!
I can't wait to talk to Ayaila about this past week.
Everything was so beautiful. Ayaila and her family and friends did an absolutely amazing job.
I love all the details from their guest sign-in records to their personalized water bottles.
For a girl whose middle name is Unique, literally, I wouldn't have expected anything less.

Here are a few of my favorite pics from the night...

The Bride....I love this picture as she is walking down the aisle

the wedding party:

I got to sneak in a quick picture with Ayaila, before she was back to the dance floor:

Thanks to Karen & Mark for snapping a few pics:

the details:

and finally, a quick little video of the first dance....don't they just look adorable!!

Congratulations to Ayaila and Mario!

put on your dancing shoes and magic moments design

2009-06-30T22:36:00.004-04:00

Today was the big design decision making day! I gotta admit, I was a little nervous about this. I don't know why, because I was really excited all at the same time. Maybe it's because, instead of just a bunch of ideas in my head and in pictures, we are finally making some progress and this is totally happening!

This image below was the inspiration for the table centerpieces. One of the few elements that I have wanted from day one was lanterns. I just love lanterns and thought they would be perfect for a fall wedding.

so my first attempt at embellishing shoes for the wedding failed miserably. i don't think i have ever been so annoyed with feathers in all my life!

:)

well, i gave it another shot, not with my shoes for the wedding, but with my shoes for the reception.
when my poor feet can't take another second of wearing the other shoes, I'm going to bust out the blingy flip flops.
All of the "wedding" flip flops that i found online were about $35 + shipping.
i thought, no way, i can totally make those myself and that's just what i did.
I purchased a pair of wedge flip flops, some bling for flip flops and added some ribbon and voila - blingy reception dancing shoes!

hair, hotels, honeymoon, food and a baby (not mine)!

2009-06-28T20:54:00.005-04:00

We finally booked the honeymoon, exciting! 4 months from right now, we will be in vegas for our 3rd day.
:)
how fun is that?!

We now have the rooms reserved for our out of town guests and us for wedding night.
We did end up going with the hotel that said they would price match the first hotel.
After I think I gave the woman a mini heart attack when I told her the price, she agreed and yeah, for us..we have hotel rooms!!

I have my hair / makeup trial scheduled in September. I'm sure that will be a stressful experience.
:)
just ask my mother...i can't tell you how many times I probably embarrassed her when she would take me to get my hair done. If I didn't like it (probably every single time) I would go into the bathroom before we left and "fix it" before I would walk out of that salon. I guess you could say I'm a little "particular" when it comes to my hair.

Jeff & I went to decide on the menu on Thursday. I would have to say that I'm most excited about the lobster macaroni and cheese!!
yummy!!!!!!!
Jeff already warned me to not be counting calories that day, but with that on the menu, I don't see him having to worry about that.

lastly, I want to share a little bit about the baby shower I went to yesterday. My friend Teri is having a baby girl in August.
the theme for the party was High Tea and Big Hats.
I'm not a hat person at all, but I was really excited about this.
I found a big floppy hat and a dress months ago.
We do look for excuses to dress up, don't we?!?
:)

cute little card and short update

2009-06-21T22:07:00.004-04:00

I hope that everyone enjoyed their father's day today!
I thought I would share this cute little card my niece made for her father (my brother).
Looks like we have another scrapbooker / card maker in the family and she's only 7!
can't hurt to start them out early, huh?!?!

:)

While I was at my mother's house today, she showed me more of the flowers she has been making for the cake and we worked on how they will actually be placed on the cake. I think it's going to be beautiful. She has put in so much work on these. I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

As I mentioned before, I started printing the invitations. Well now, all of the invitations have been printed as well as the directions and one little surprise that I haven't shown anyone. Well..Jeff has seen them, but I have managed not to show anyone else. :) I just need to print out the rsvp and accommodations and I'm ready to assemble! No more changing my mind now! I doubt that I will get them all done this week, but it's not like they need to go out yet, so that's ok.

In true "changing my mind" fashion, I said last week that we had picked our hotel. When I was driving to work this week, I noticed another hotel right next to the one we picked. I went online to check it out and the rooms are awesome. I called them to check on pricing, and while they haven't given me a price yet, they told me they would match the one given to me next door.....so keep your fingers crossed! Our appointment to meet with them is this Wednesday.

Thursday, we have our first planning appointment at the venue. Next week, we have our design appointment. I'm really excited about these. We are going to plan the menu and the design of the ceremony and reception.

In 2 days, we'll be at the 4 month mark. It's crazy how fast it seems to be going by and I still have so many things to make!

that's all for now. time for tea and bed...

feeling a little more productive

2009-06-14T19:34:00.005-04:00

I can check 3 things off of my list, so this weekend was a good one!

We picked our hotel yesterday. the suite was a good size..plenty of room to get ready!

Got Jeff's tux ordered and off the list. He decided to go with an ivory vest and tie and I love it. I think it's going to look fabulous! ok, maybe I should say handsome instead. I'm not sure if he would appreciate being called fabulous. :)

I met with the ladies for my hair and makeup today, and I absolutely loved them! I'm so happy I found them. I have been truly stressing about the hair and makeup, so this is such huge relief.

what a productive weekend! I'm so happy. oh, and I even printed 4 of the invitations. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but that means that I've committed to the design and that's a big deal! :)

gotta run - gotta make dinner and settle in to watch the True Blood premiere!
I hope that everyone had a great weekend!

what have I been doing???

2009-06-12T22:13:00.007-04:00

I feel like I've been doing a lot, but not getting a whole lot done! do all brides feel this way??
:)
I just wish I could cross a few more things off of my list.

I have been working on my invitations probably since February. Much like my shoes, I have changed my mind about the invitations a ridiculous amount of times. I think I finally may have settled on a design...just need to hurry up and print them before I change my mind again!!
my goal is to have them printed and assembled in 2 weeks. don't know how realistic that is, but we'll see. I know they don't need to go out yet, but seriously, I cannot change my mind anymore...I need them to be done! :)

I have also been working on the place card holders for the reception. My mother and stepfather did most of the work on these. my part is to assemble and run the ribbon through them...that took about 3 hours last Saturday. :) they look super cute though.
still gotta glue them together. that can wait for a little bit though...

I still have been trying to decide on when to book the honeymoon...just been watching prices for the past couple of weeks, trying to get a good deal. I'm not sure if I ever even mentioned it here, but we finally decided on Las Vegas!! We both are so excited. I can't wait. I even bought some honeymoon bathing suits the other day!

this weekend we are going to check out the hotels we are thinking of reserving the rooms at for overnight guests and for us on wedding night. I need to check out the suite to make sure it's suitable for picture taking!
:)
I certainly cannot be getting ready in some room that's decorated from the 70s! ok, i'm playing...well... sort of. :)
I'm also going to meet with some ladies on Sunday to possibly do my hair and makeup for the wedding.
Keep your fingers crossed for that!!

that's about all for now...and for any of you other sookie stackhouse fans, True Blood Season 2 starts on Sunday!!

have a great weekend!

Ayaila's Bridal Shower

2009-05-31T14:34:00.006-04:00

It's a lot of fun to have another friend to compare notes and share the whole wedding experience. Ayaila is a diy bride as well and is very creative. Her wedding is in about 6 weeks. I can't believe it's almost here!

The bridal shower was yesterday and her friends and family did a wonderful job! The games were lots of fun and the food was great! I think my favorite thing was the bustier cookies her mother made. Not just because of the taste, but because they were sooo adorable! I was going to take a better picture of it when I got home, but it broke, so I just had to eat it. what a shame... :)

I can't wait to see all of the fabulous creations at Ayaila & Mario's wedding.
I sure hope I don't cry....

:)

our guestbook is here!

2009-05-30T23:13:00.005-04:00

When I got back from Ayaila's Bridal Shower, I saw on the counter that our guestbook came today! Jeff & I both love how it turned out.
I chose not to do a typical guestbook style with a bunch of lined pages.
We just don't have enough guests to take up that many lines, so I opted for more pictures and a few blank areas.
Think of it as more of a yearbook style. Guests can sign on the inside of the front and back covers and then the few areas within the book that are left blank for writing.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about ayaila's shower and some of the super cute details and decor.
it was a lot of fun!

preview of our guestbook and update on my shoes

2009-05-22T22:19:00.008-04:00

I can finally check our guestbook off the list! whew, what a relief! I have been on a mission to make our engagement pictures into our guestbook. it's such a great way to display all of the cool pictures that we have. I made ours on Blurb.com. I read about them on another bride's blog and thought I would check them out. I have been on many photo album making websites lately and really like their layout options the best. If you are used to my scrapbooking, this is definitely on the plain side. I didn't want any flashy backgrounds though. I just wanted it to be about our pictures and I love how it turned out! It's really user friendly. Another cool feature is that it utilizes fonts already on your computer and not just a random small choice of boring fonts. I chose a font that i downloaded from the internet that looks like the doodling you might have done back in high school on your paper bag book cover.

here is the cover of our guestbook...

a while back, I posted how excited I was about making my shoes. I had all the pieces and just needed to put them all together. that night, I noticed the red feathers I have for my bouquet. I put them up against the shoes and thought, uh oh, this looks sooo much better than the zebra material. after asking several people, it all seemed unanimous - feathers!
now, just how on earth was I going to be able to adhere these feathers to the shoes!!??!
I've tried several different ways, until i think part of me just gave up. Not entirely though, because I still loved the idea.
then, the other day when we got the flower girl dress, I was trying on shoes in one of the bridal shops. I came across these beautiful shoes with the right amount of bling, but with that, came a price that I really didn't like as much. well, those silly shoes have stayed in my head for about a week now, so much so that I could care less about the feather shoes anymore.
I called several stores to see if I could find the shoes for cheaper and scoured the internet.
I came across one website that had them about $15 cheaper, but I hadn't quite made up my mind. last night, I decided, that's it, I'm getting these shoes. I did one last search and I ended up getting my $100 shoes for $56.99! I am so excited!!!
here are my beautiful, blingy shoes! i really don't think the picture does them justice, so you'll just have to believe me that they look amazing!

Trash the dress - the look is complete!!

2009-05-20T20:53:00.005-04:00

My shoes for the trash the dress session came today and i love them!
super cute and totally complete the look now.
I gotta admit, they weren't my first choice. As usual, I have spent a lot of time and energy on looking for the perfect shoes.
first, I thought perfect meant boots. last week, I bought these killer red boots.
came home, put them on, the dress and the necklace.
If I were attempting to look like a super hero or a matador, i think i would have nailed it! picture wonder woman in a wedding dress. trust me...not cute.
unfortunately, that's not the look i was going for, so now i just have some killer red boots that definitely will not be making an appearance for the trash the dress session.
:)
no biggie though, i think they will show up at the bachelorette party!
anyway, here's the shoes...gotta go for now to root for kris on american idol!!

check out these invitations!

2009-05-15T21:04:00.003-04:00

My friend Ayaila is also getting married this year.
her wedding is right around the corner and I'm so excited for her!
It feels like ayaila and I have been talking about getting married for about the last 10 years.
I suppose, in a way, we have!!
:)
I received her invitation in the mail yesterday and just had to share it, because I love it!
It's so beautiful and such a creative idea!
Ayaila told me that she had been planning these invitations for years and you can tell all of her hard work paid off!
Her invitation, rsvp, directions, a cute little story about how she and mario met, are all on the CD once you play it.
and check out the cool label for the cd! too cute!!

she did such a good job!

Trash the dress - all you could ever want to know

2009-05-10T22:47:00.005-04:00

For anyone who isn't quite sure what this type of photo session is, here is the definition from wikipedia...

Trash the dress, fearless bridal, and rock the frock refers to photography that contrasts elegant clothing with an environment in which it is completely out of place.
Usually brides decide to have pictures taken on the beach, but possibilities are endless. City streets, rooftops, garbage dumps, fields, and abandoned buildings are only few examples of trash the dress session locations.
Some sources claim that the trend was originally started in 2001 by Las Vegas wedding photographer John Michael Cooper. However, the idea of destroying a wedding dress has been used in Hollywood symbolically since at least October 1998 when Meg Cummings of the show Sunset Beach ran into the ocean in her wedding dress after her wedding was badly interrupted.
A model often wears a ball gown, prom dress or wedding dress and may effectively ruin the dress in the process by getting it wet, dirty or in extreme circumstances tearing or destroying the garment.
It may also be done as an additional shoot after the wedding, almost as a declaration that the wedding is done and the dress will not be used again. It is seen as an alternative to storing the dress away, never to be seen again.

thanks for the question jess!

flowergirl dress....check that off the list!!!

2009-05-09T22:54:00.006-04:00

3rd time's the charm I guess!
after 3 trips and I can't tell you how many dresses she has tried on, we finally got a dress for hunter!!

Actually, this was probably the best trip of them all. Mostly, because we actually got a dress, but even the first store we went to had 2 dresses that we really loved.

then onto the second store, again...lots of dresses to try on and at least 2 more that we liked...and then the last one was perfect!!

All of us love the dress.

I didn't know if we would be able to come up with a dress we all liked. It certainly didn't seem to be leaning that way.

It needs some alterations and possibly a little shrug/capelet for her to wear if it's chilly and the outfit is complete!

You can't quite see the detail and the beading on it in this picture, but it is beautiful! What a huge relief for all of us.

finally!!!!!!

2009-05-07T21:22:00.007-04:00

after almost 2 weeks, my "trash the dress" dress finally showed up!

whew...my goodness...who knew that it would have to come all the way from California.
arrive in Atlanta last Friday.
hang out in Atlanta for the weekend.
show up in Dallas Sunday evening.
dallas, texas...not georgia.
come back to Atlanta 2 days ago, before finally showing up on my doorstep today??

i mean really, who knew?? :)

whatever sightseeing the dress decided to do while on it's way here, it's finally here now and the best news of all...it fits! well, technically, it's a little bit big. I was worried that the hips might be a little too snug based on the measurements, but all is well. just needs a little work and I think it will be perfect for the pictures.

Originally, I was antsy to do the photo session before the wedding. I thought, why wait...it's not like I need to worry about the dress getting dirty. then I thought about the fact that Jeff reads my blog and goes on our photographers website. I didn't want him to see the pictures by accident, so I have decided to wait until the week after the wedding now. that's a little bit of a bummer, but I also know me very well and if I do them earlier I'll want everyone to see, including Jeff, so I'm gonna wait.

in the meantime, here's the necklace that I got for the trash the dress session.

the Save the Dates are done!!

2009-05-06T20:58:00.005-04:00

Everybody should have received their save the dates by now, so I figured now was a good time to show off all the hard work. With a small, intimate wedding, sadly comes a small guest list. I wish that I could invite absolutely everyone, but unfortunately cannot, so only 20 save the dates were made. after 12 1/2 hours, over the course of 2 days, I was happy to say, whew...thank goodness I only had 20 to make!! :)

I got all of my supplies (patterned paper, cardstock, ribbon, envelopes) at Archivers and downloaded the fonts from the internet. The final touch, of course, was a fabulous photo from our engagement pictures.

These are pictures of the progress and then the final product...

bridesmaid dress shopping

2009-05-02T21:59:00.011-04:00

All the girls met up today for a little catching up, dress shopping and lunch. It was good to get out and see what's out there for dresses.

we really struck out at the mall - we spent more time looking at cute shoes than dresses. the bridal shops were better, but the first store we went to seemed to not care if we were there or not. that was a little disappointing, but the next store made up for it, because they were so helpful and nice and made great suggestions for the girls.

nobody bought anything today, but at least we got some good ideas and I think kristi is really close to getting her dress. Ann already has hers, so that's 2 down, 3 to go!

here are a few pics from today...none of these are the actual color - just a test run! All of the dresses will be chocolate or espresso brown, but each bridesmaid will have a different style of dress. I thought this way each of them could add their own personality to their outfit and hopefully find something they can wear again.

you rock!

2009-05-02T00:48:00.004-04:00

ashley newell, one of the card making blogs i follow, made a really cute card a couple of weeks ago that said "you rock" on the front of it. If you read our photographers blog at all, you might notice she says this a few times, so naturally, when i saw this card, i thought of her. :)

After the great job she did with our pics, I thought i would make her a card to say thank you and I thought what a great idea!

i also need to give naomi in sarasota some credit when it comes to my recent use of pom-poms! i absolutely love them!

here is the card that i made for shannon.

I WON!!!!!!!!

2009-04-25T17:18:00.003-04:00

you can't see me, but I'm doing a happy dance around the scrapbook room!!!! Ever since Shannon brought up a trash the dress photo shoot while we were doing our engagement pictures, I have been searching for another dress. I didn't want to wear my actual dress, b/c it could get dirty or ripped or whatever. Soooo...I have been on a mission to find another dress, similar to mine for $50 or under. I first looked online at David's Bridal in their clearance section and found a dress very similar in style that I really liked but it was sold out. Then onto EBay I went and last week, someone posted the exact same dress! today, I stopped everything I was doing 8 minutes before the auction was over and with 25 seconds left, I swooped in there and beat the one and only person who was bidding on it!!! so sad for them, but wahoo for me!! :) oh, almost forgot to mention, I didn't quite come in under $50. I ended up at $65.98, but I'm totally not complaining at all!
did i say wahoo?!?!
:)

engagement pictures!!

2009-04-24T19:59:00.010-04:00

We got the engagement pictures today!!!!!!!!!!! The wait is finally over! well, technically it was over 2 days ago when Shannon added them online, but today the cd came in the the mail and i love them!!!! how will i ever decide on a favorite!??! good thing i don't really have to choose, because I am going to use one for the save the dates, pick a few to scrapbook and then i think i will use the rest of them in different ways at the reception. that being said, I'm only going to show you a few and then you can go on over to shannon's blog and check out some of them there too: Photography by Shannon: Tricia and Jeff

Fun with photo albums

2009-04-21T22:50:00.005-04:00

finally...i figured out how to add photo albums on here! took me long enough. :) My friend, Naomi from Sarasota, just finished her scrapbook room and sent me pictures. it reminded me that I really needed to figure out the whole photo album thing, so I could post some older scrapbook pages and my scrap room that i love so much! In the Scrapbook Pages album, the 8 1/2 x 11 pages are the from the first album that i created...whew..i think my style has come a long way. :)

that's all for now...hope you enjoy!

Scrap Mania - April 17, 2009

2009-04-18T00:21:00.004-04:00

this is the 2 page layout that I made tonight. This is from the Murder Mystery Party that we had last year on the day after Halloween. It was really a lot of fun and I would love to do another one again someday. I had so many pictures to choose from, so obviously they couldn't all make the cut. We did end up winning party of the month, so if we ever do another one, it will be free! My invitation didn't make the layout, but i loved it so much, i included the picture here as well.

"Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world."

2009-04-16T22:09:00.007-04:00

so i already had something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. I had them all checked off the list, but i just had this nagging feeling about the something borrowed...the shoes. One of my coworkers, Beth, got married last October.
beautiful wedding, beautiful shoes.
She offered to let me borrow them, so I accepted. I love the shoes and they look great with my dress. they were everything that i wanted in a shoe, except for one thing...i just felt that "my perfect shoes" were still out there somewhere. obviously, i check out other wedding sites and blogs all the time and fell in love with the funky, look at me style that is the trend right now. i seem to have a problem though, because all the shoes i love, just aren't worth the price tag.
soooo, what's a girl to do??? well, this girl, is going to make the perfect shoes! i know what you are thinking and clearly i'm not going to make, make them...but the scrapbooker in me knows some good embellishments when she sees them! I have this swatch of fabric that follows me everywhere i go and is the inspiration for some of the wedding elements.
so without giving too much away, here is a preview of what will become "my perfect shoes."

oh, one more thing...yes, these are earrings, but don't worry, they are going to look awesome!! :)

Engagement Session

2009-04-12T21:11:00.003-04:00

Today was probably the most fun I have had so far with all of the wedding preparation. We finally took our engagement pictures today. As some of you know, we hit a little snafu with Jeff's surgery, so we had to postpone the pictures for 2 weeks. Honestly though, I think it worked out all for the best. The weather on the original day was pretty crappy and today's weather was beautiful! I had so much fun and Shannon was able to get smiles out of Jeff and I'm sure you know that's no small task. :) seriously, Jeff and I both had a great time and I can't say enough great things about Shannon. She is so talented and creative and so super nice. You'll have to wait a little bit for the pics though, but in the meantime, you can go to her website and check out some of her great work: www.shannonseye.net.

gotta go watch the rock of love finale...yeah, i know, sad but true. :)
happy easter everyone!

flowergirl dress shopping - take 2

2009-04-05T11:37:00.004-04:00

Saturday, we took Hunter dress shopping again. This time, we hit four bridal shops. I'm not sure why it is, but there just isn't a whole lot out there to choose from...nothing is wow-ing me yet. We still have 6 months, so there is plenty of time. I just wish we could find that perfect dress for her. I'm still confident that it's out there though. :)

this wasn't a top choice, but too funny not to post. just look at that face! :)

creative invitations

2009-04-05T11:11:00.007-04:00

I found this video on one of the many blogs I follow http://www.intimateweddings.com/blog/

It's so cute! too bad I can't animate too, but since I can't you can enjoy Jeff & Natasha's really creative invitation here...

bouquet redo

2009-03-29T15:26:00.003-04:00

I'm sure I'll probably do this a few more times before the wedding, but I obviously wasn't crazy about my first attempt. I realized that I had the stems too long, so I snipped those and adjusted the ribbon to cover less area now that I have less stems. I also added a copper ribbon. I think it gives it some oomph...or at least some of the oomph it was lacking.
:)

Of course, later I'll add some bling and put the feathers back in, but I feel a lot better about this one than I did last night.