Greetings all!!!

I am loving every minute of be a blogger on getmarried.com and learning/sharing all I can so that we can all have amazing weddings!!

And now it seems my experience here has earned me a reward (although I'm rewarded every day by having great bridal blog friends like you). I have gone to many of your getmarried.com profiles as well as personal profiles since being here in this community.

I just found out today that I am a finalist in "Motif Designs" wedding logo giveaway! (YYYEEEAAA!!! Thanks Motif for thinking enough of me to include me in the final round!)

Now it's YOUR turn to help this Bride fulfill her dream of having a beautiful, custom, personalized wedding logo! WOW, How cool is that? I could really use it considering one of my themes is "monogram". I even choose my reception site because they throw in a monogrammed ice sculpture with most of their packages. :-) LOL

So, I graciously ask you to please go to Motif Designs Company Blog (click the link above that is highlighted as "motif wedding logo give away") and vote for your buddy in the Wedding Logo Giveaway!!!! The winner will be chosen next Saturday.

Hey ya'll!
It's New Years Day and I'm sitting on the sofa with my FH watching music videos. ( I know I said I wouldn't post anything new today but I absolutely can't contain myself since this is the first time in about four months that there is positively nothing written on my calendar for me to do today! Whoo Hoo!) So, I really hate watching music videos because I am convinced that it slowly kills your brain cells but there is something sweet about being able to watch them with my FH. Actually it's kind of turning out to be a somewhat intellectual experience because we are able to discuss some of the trends and sociological effects of what we see (the sociologist coming out in me) on the videos. Anyway, since I'm half watching and half on the computer I figured this would be a good time to post a little something about my love bug!!

I'm more of a bullet point kinda girl as opposed to the paragraph type so I'll highlight ten random fact about my baby that I love:

• I love him because he keeps telling me he's going to cut off his braids for the wedding. hahaha, the wedding is 2 weeks before our 30th birthday so he says we gotta grow up. LOL
  
• I love him because he's from Detroit and since I'm from Oklahoma, he has a little edge that's kinda sexy.
  
• I love him because he prays; and although he wasn't big on praying in front of my family at our big Christmas Dinner, he took my hand and braves through it. He even got the "pat on the back" from my dad when it was over.
  
• I love him because he is a good listener. And unlike me, he is very good at retaining information.
  
• I love him because he wakes me up every morning with a text message that says, "Good Morning Beautiful!"
  
• I love him because he always gets mad when I let my gas tank get below the half (or especially quarter line).
  
• I love him the because he always grabs my stomach and tells me he likes my belly.
  
• I love him because he road trips with me even when he doesn't feel like it.
  
• I love him because he's loyal and genuine.
  
• I love him because he's happy when he's eating my cooking.

Being a marketing professional, a large majority of my job is placed in a category called, "business development".

From what I've learned so far about business development, this is how I've come to define it. Business Development is when you come up with strategic plans and initiatives to enhance your ability to get and retain client relationships. It is creating a group of standards in which to operate so that you are best able to maximize your relationship with the client.

Image: Source

What does this have to do with a wedding and marriage....................?

Well, I recently created my wedding website and one of my dear friends posted a message in my guestbook about making sure we put as much effort into preparing for our marriage as we do into preparing for our wedding. I think that's great advice!!! So I decided that every time I make a move in my wedding planning, I will make a move to better my relationship. I'm sure this will help my marriage in the long run.

Image: Source

So from this day forth, in an effort to keep my head in the right place as it comes to this wedding/marriage planning and not to get too consumed in the EVENT, I will do a "Relationship Development" activity at least once a week. Maybe I'll keep a calendar!

Image:  Source

I'll let you know how it goes.....................

This week's activity was a trip to New Orleans for the Saints/Falcons game (It was on Sunday so it counts for this week). My FH was really happy even though we didn't have the best seats, I endured a Football game, and we spent some quality time. Plus we toasted to our 3 year anniversary of dating (although its on the 29th.)

I got the bug yesterday to do one of my DIY projects. I made my bridal bouquet pics. I went to Michael's and got the wire and jewels and let my creative juices flow.

Here are some pictures, enjoy!!!!

Okay so I gather that one of the first steps in wedding planning is confirming a theme. Many people say that your colors ARE your themes but I guess I'm wondering how many theses can you have before it become tacky? AND how much of something do you need to have before it becomes a theme?

So my colors are blue and yellow. I don't really think that is enough for a theme but maybe it is. So since I am not really satisfied with the "color being the theme" idea I was trying to think of what things in my our wedding will be fluent throughout the weekend. As I pondered, i realized that there would be many things that will pop up through my wedding weekend, and then the thought process became over whelming.

So now, I'm confused.......................

So this is what I've come up with for the theme:

1. Blue/Yellow - the colors will be everywhere from the flowers to the decor, the programs to the welcome baskets, M&M's to candles.
2. Formal - the wedding is an evening wedding with semi-formal (people wouldn't understand black-tie even if I put it on the invite so I'm not even wasting my time or expectations with that one) Lots of candles and I'm spending the bulk of my "extra, bride, have what you want, left over money" on special lighting.
3. Lastly, I would like a theme to be included that kinda glamorous - it would be nice to have lots of crystal things and rhinestones, maybe some pearl/gem type accessories. I also want pillars for my wedding cake (old-school) instead of the newer versions of cakes that have the multiple tiers attached. I want 6 separate round cakes (the bottom two will be cheesecake instead of traditional wedding cake, I absolutely love cheesecake) of different sizes connected by pillars and maybe a small fountain if I can rent one for a decent price.  Many of the pillars are acrylic and are hollow inside so I'd include some sparkly gems in the hollow tubing of the pillars to add glam to the cake. The cake would be white and pretty basic, but will sparkle from afar. As glamorous and diva as I can get without it being tacky.

Okay so I guess I'm kind of set o that. Now, the tough part is that there are two more things that will be pretty consistant throughout the wedding weekend but I am not sure if its a theme.

I will have monograms on many items and I will have some calla lily stuff going on. As far as the monogram, I would like for the cake topper to be monogrammed instead of traditional, the programs will have monogram on the vellum cover, there will be a monogram on the aisle runner, and the favors will be either monogrammed candle holders or monogrammed wine stoppers. As for the Calla Lilies, I might let them go because the only thing I am really associating with them would be the flowers. But I keep finding so many inexpensive calla lily wedding favors, that I can't help but think maybe this should be a theme.

PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!

Below are some pictures that I found that I'd like to see if I can work out: (These items are from www.graciousbridal.com, www.jeanm.com, www.decoratingstudio.com, www.shopforweddings.com). Please click on the links next to the pictures for more information.

Photo Credit for both

Photo Credit for serving set

Photo Credit for place card holder

Photo Credit for cake topper

Photo Credit for place card holders

Photo credit for wine stoppers

Photo Credit for bouquet picks

Okay so I am planning a wedding from afar (1000 miles to be exact) and I am really excited because during the Christmas holiday, we will be traveling to Dallas to view some reception sites. Actually, we have narrowed it down to 2 places. At first the list contained 30 places found via the web and wedding websites. That list got cut to about 15 due to geographical location to our ceremony church. Then the 15 got cut to about 5 due to price per person. Okay, now things got tricky. One of the five was cut out due to terrible online reviews and it was the priciest of the 5 so that sealed the deal. Then two were cut out because they looked to "commercially wedding". They were very nice and all inclusive but something about them said "WE DO WEDDINGS ONLY, THAT'S WHAT WE DO, WE WOULD HAVE A DRIVE THRU IF WE COULD BECAUSE WE DO WEDDINGS".  For some people, that would be a great perfect solution and a one stop shop but for me, I wanted to have a little fun turning my perfect place into a reflection of me us. Maybe I'm glutton for pain by saying that but I am looking for something that doesn't just do weddings one after another like an assembly line. I don't know, maybe I'm just crazy. Anyway, that leaves us with the final 2 choices. What's interesting about these venues is that they are both country clubs that are owned by the same company. They are 10 miles apart but one is on the exact same street as my ceremony church, so it has an advantage. However, the other has slightly better prices and better customer service (over the phone, anyway) so I'm a little torn. And I must admit, one has a more detailed wedding section on their website with more information so that seems to influence my decision sometimes.

At any rate, we are going to see them the Saturday after Christmas and I couldn't be more excited. I just confirmed the appointment.

Here are pictures of my two choices: (All photos are courtesy of www.clubcorp.com, The two country clubs shown are Timarron Country Club and Hackberry Creek Country Club)

Timarron Country Club

Hackberry Creek Country Club:

I will keep in mind that since I have done all the research over the Internet only, that there is a chance I will end up starting from square one once I get back home but we'll see what happens.

My question to you is: What should be most important in reception site selection? 1) price, 2) location, 3) appearance, 4) customer service?

Hey everyone,

I've run into a bit of a dilemma. For those of you that have been following my blog, you know that my FH and I are having a "wedding weekend" due to the fact that the wedding is out of town for 90% of the 300 guests (which I'm sure will be cut down once I get to the nitty-gritty of the financial process, but for now lets dream ideally). So, since the "grand affair :-)" will be a weekend full of exciting activities, I am trying to get started early on planning things for my guests to do and places to eat and shop. I have contacted the local businesses and requested everything from coupons to samples to passes to include in my welcome basket contents. With the goodies and itinerary in hand, I must admit, there is one thing that is not yet complete on my list of events. 

No plans for the rehearsal dinner. I mean, of course it's going to happen, but HOW it's going to happen is a different question. I guess it was a bad assumption on my part to think that they already knew that they are responsible for it but now I'm not sure.  

Photo Credit: www.crane.com

How do I ask them if they are going to be responsible for the rehearsal dinner?

As far as a theme for the wedding, I am going with a classical, formal, evening wedding with a ballroom style gown and monograms slightly throughout. So it would only be fitting that the responsibilities be traditional also. That being said, I would love for them to take the role of planning it. However, if they do not want too that's fine too. No hard feelings or anything but I would need to know in time for my fiance and I to plan it. I wouldn't want to ask my parents to do it since they are doing everything else so we would be happy to do it, no big deal.

But how to I take the first step without being insulting or suggestive?

Hey BloggerBride family, so I am a little discouraged because I have hit my first little bump in the road. My FH were planning on taking our engagement pictures for just about every weekend since I first started blogging and planning our wedding. However, every single time we got ready it either rained or one of us had a cold.

Photo link

Photo Credit: Kleenex.com

So, needless to say, now it's the middle/end of November and it's too cold to take our pictures outside in front of the waterfalls (see previous blogs) so we have to wait until Spring.

I'm so upset!!

I had a really good deal on magnets from www.vistaprint.com and had my design picked out and everything. All for nothing because now there is no picture to include on my designed save the date magnet. here is a preview (but of course, we were going to take out the generic picture of ourselves and include the real picture taken professionally):

They have really good deals like 25 free and addl 25 for $7.00.

Granted my wedding is 17 months away so taking the photo in the Spring is not so bad, however, since the wedding is in April of 2010, I wanted to send out the Save-the-Dates in April of 09. I wanted them to be "ready to go out"!!!! Not "photos just being taken." 

Anyway, those are the breaks............

I've been in the planning stages of my wedding for about 2 months now and I continue to get the same advice from a lot of people so I thought I'd share it on to my bloggerbride family.

It's very simple actually but apparently, many brides don't take it to heart.

"When it comes down to it, this is a time in your life that is about you and your FH. Although you should have some considerations for the family and friends that will be apart of the event, Ultimately, you and your FH are most important. Make decisions based on that and take time for yourselves during the process. This is a great time to continue to develop your relationship so don't allow all the hustle and bustle to distract from the fact that this is the time when you and your FH make a vow before God to honour each other as you spend the rest of your life together."

Hope this helps!

Peace and Blessings,

Bride loving CJ

My fiance' and I are considering having custom wedding cocktails for our reception. Since our color theme is blue and yellow, it shouldn't be very hard to come up with the look of the drink using Blue Curacao and a lemon wedge. However, coming up with the ingredient mix is a much more complicated issue. At first thought, I considered using champagne as the main ingredient. That way, we would save money by having only one type of liquor at the affair. (We are not having a bar for various reasons not associated with cost) However, this really sounds boring to only have one liquor. I mean what's the point of a signature drink if it's the same as the traditional toasting drink? (we are doing the traditional toast in addition to our signature drink). I was thinking maybe something along the lines of a mojito.

This is a nice drink but it's frozen so I am not sure how it would go over with a mass of people.

This one is nice also. But I'd have to replace the strawberry with a lemon wedge.

I like this one. It appears to be a margarita. I'm not sure if Tequila is a good idea. I don't want people to be drunk!

So, now it's your turn...............

If anyone has any ideas on the type of liquor we can use in the signature drink that will make it tasteful and colorful, please comment below.

Also, were having a hard time coming up with a name.

Any suggestions?