Bad, Blogger!

I know, I know. I haven't written a real post in 2 1/2 weeks. Does anybody even read this anymore?

We are almost 1 month out from the wedding.
My map business is keeping me busy!
I'm starting a photography business. That takes up the remainder of what little free time I have.
Along with that, I'm still working full time (duh).
And, I ran a half marathon on Saturday.

So, pleeeeease forgive me for my absence!

Here are some photos from my Bachelorette party a week ago to make you feel less neglected...


11 of my awesomest friends came to Chicago for the day to celebrate my bachelorette-hood. I was 100% in the dark about our plans for the evening, but they made it awesome.

Obviously, we all dressed as catholic school girls. That was my wonderful Maid of Honor's idea. How fun. She hand-made all those pink ties so we would match.

Our first stop was an all-male revue. I don't have many appropriate photos from that, but I was called up on stage. It was super fun and totally mortifying at the same time.

After that, we went to a western-style bar where we danced on the bar and rode the mechanical bull (a first for me).

Then, we headed to another bar for some more dancing. I had to find guys to perform weird tasks like serenade me (the bottom photo).

We ended the night around 3am back at our posh penthouse suite, after I had 10+ drinks and an amazing time.

I never expected it to be as much fun as it was. And it was so cool that my friends from different places could all get together and get to know eachother... so now they won't be strangers at the wedding.

Stay tuned... I'll post tomorrow about our RSVP numbers!

Outside the Box

I was going to write about invitations (I promised), but considering we've made absolutely no progress in that area, I'll postpone that topic for another day.

Ryan and I spent the morning cleaning up our apartment that had been taken over by boxes.


I seriously love all the mail we've been getting recently... but man, does it make a mess!

Amongst this pile of boxes was part of my bridesmaid gifts...


An invisible-ink pen for numbering our RSVP cards...

"Hi Ryan!"

Bulbs and Screens for printing our invitations on my Gocco...


Another necklace for one of my bridesmaids...


And lastly, cardstock and envelopes for our invitations...


Sidenote: We ordered 150 of each card, but the labels say "150+" with a little smiley face next to it. Thanks, cardstock people!

On my personal "To Do" list for this weekend? Work on our invitations! Stay tuned on Monday... I have something very interesting for all of you!

Saying Thank You

Ages ago (last May), before I even knew who my bridesmaids would be, I bought them all makeup bags at our annual Vera Bradley outlet sale.

But that was all I had for them... and no idea of what else I should buy to go with it.

... until now.

I browsed Etsy for what seemed like forever until I found the perfect silver necklace for each of my ladies. They will in no way be expected to wear these to the wedding... but I got them all silver ones just in case they decided to.

First up, from seller SmileSophie, this lovely flower necklace...


Next, I purchased this leaf necklace from seller IrisJewelryDesign...


And lastly, this bow necklace from seller LimeGreenModern...


I love them all so much... and I hope my bridesmaids do too (or at least don't hate them... that would be awkward).

To supplement the makeup bag and necklace, I bought them some goodies from Bath & Body Works, who had a half-off Groupon yesterday and was having a sale today. Score!

Here's what I bought...

Mentha Lip Shine

Scented Candles

Anti-bacterial Hand Sanitizer

All that totaled up... and I came in at a whopping fifty cents under my $40-per-person budget.

What can I say? I'm a rockstar.

Dressing the 'Maids

Welcome to my newest follower, Manda Mack!

Two of my bridesmaids took time out of their busy schedules to spend all day with me on Saturday. Yay for friends! We all met in Indianapolis (where BM Jess lives), had lunch at Olive Garden, then headed over to the Alfred Angelo store.

We immediately hit the racks and pulled everything.

Seriously... I think we grabbed about 30 dresses. Other consultants kept having to steal dresses from our dressing room because there were none left.

Here is BM Colleen browsing the samples. She likes to make awkward faces and poses in photos (just a warning)...


BM Jess was feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the dress options, so we had BM Colleen model them all first.

We thought this one was lovely, but a little too plain for BM Colleen's quirky personality...

Here, BM Colleen is making the "what do you think of this dress?" face. I'm responding that it looks like a gross yellow bathrobe...

She really enjoyed this dress, but wasn't sure if it was right for the occasion...


This was one of my favorites of the day... but it may have just been because it came in this saucy red...


BM Colleen's a professional seamstress, so she totally fell in love with the material of this dress (which came off of Alfred Angelo's eco-friendly line). She knew this was the one...


She had her measurements taken, and was about to swipe her credit card when the consultant informed her that her dress doesn't come in navy.

Sigh.

Back to square one.

After a whole 'nother slew of dresses, she ended up in this pretty little number...


As much as BM Colleen loved the lime green, I found it distracting, so she tried on the same dress in black.

I think we have a winner!

(It doesn't have straps... those are her bra straps.)

After Colleen had tried on every dress on earth, Jess took her turn. She only tried on two. While wearing the second dress, she turned to me and said, "I think this is it."


Easy enough!

I have one more bridesmaid... but she lives out in Maryland. Luckily (and by no mere coincidence), she has an Alfred Angelo store 30 minutes away from her house. She's going to head over this weekend and order herself a navy dress.

I'm so happy to have this huge item off the "To Do" list.

Go team!

Fitness Friday: WW Week 3

I went to my fourth meeting yesterday, rounding out week 3 of Weight Watchers. I lost 1.2 pounds this past week, with a total weight loss of 6.8 pounds. It's not a ton... but they say you're supposed to average .5-2 pounds per week, so I'm right on target.

Cue the cheesy high five moment!

I changed my tracking week so it ends on Saturday (it used to end on Wednesday, the night before my weigh-in). I figure I usually eat the most on Saturdays anyway... so now I won't be able to blow through all my extra points at the beginning of the "week" anymore.

In fact... I've been trying to save up all my extra points this week. I've only used 8 out of 49. The rest will go towards tomorrow's trip to Indianapolis to meet up with my bridesmaids. They expect some eating out, drinking out, and possibly even drinking in (one of them mentioned something about beer in the hotel hot tub!). So I'm gonna need all the extra points and all the will power I can muster!


In the past 3 weeks, I have tracked every morsel of food that goes into my mouth, and I have never gone over my points for the week... I don't want this week to be the exception!

I hope everyone else is doing great working on those fitness goals. Remember that while the big white dress may be motivating... it shouldn't be your entire reason for getting healthy. I'm going to start my new family with a new me!

The Cost of Being a Bridesmaid

Welcome to my newest follower, Sassmeister!

Back when we first got engaged, I grappled a lot with who I should choose to be in my bridal party. I had to take a lot of things into consideration... my relationship with these ladies, how often I see them, how often I talk to them, and of course... whether or not they could afford it.

It's no secret that being a bridesmaid isn't cheap.

Source

According to this article, bridesmaids can spend anywhere from $500-$1500 in the name of the wedding. Here's an example:

Dress: $210
Alterations: $75
Shoes: $25
Strapless Bra: $40
Hair, Nails, and Makeup: $150, including tips
Travel: $300
Shower Gifts: $70
Contribution to Shower: $30
Bachelorette Party: $100
Wedding Present: $100

Total = $1100

The cost can be even higher if you're a Maid of Honor. But this girl? She's not a bridezilla. So what am I doing to keep down the costs?

• I'm asking my ladies to choose any dress they'd like, as long as it's navy blue and knee length. I would never demand they wear a $500 dress of my choosing.
• My bridesmaids will be wearing non-matching silver heels. I'm hoping they already own a pair... but if not, I've given them enough notice so they can score a good bargain before June.

Source

• Their wedding day hair will be paid for. My hairstylist will be doing everyone's hair, and is offering of a steal of a deal.... so covering their 'dos is no problem.
• Bridesmaid makeup will be 100% DIY. My girls are adults and have been doing their own makeup for over a decade. They know what looks good on them and what will make them feel the most comfortable.
• Travel is an unavoidable expense, but I'm trying to help out by having us all meet in the middle (that being Dayton, Ohio) for dress shopping. I will be paying for our hotel room while we're there. It's the least I can do.
• Lastly, I have requested (more like demanded) that none of my bridesmaids throw us a shower or buy us gifts for the shower or the wedding itself. Being by my side is gift enough.

Let's see how these little adjustments affect the cost breakdown...

Dress: $200
Alterations: $75
Shoes: $25
Hair, Nails, and Makeup: $15
Travel: $200 (on average)
Bachelorette Party: $100

Total = $615

It's still a good chunk of change, but we knocked off a whopping $485! And since I'm only having 3 bridesmaids, I'm hoping that they really grasp just how special they are to me. It's not one of those situations where they are one of twelve and don't feel appreciated.

Source

I love them all to death and am so proud to have them there for me during this time.

Wrangling the 'Maids

Welcome to my newest blog-tastic followers, Lauren and Rebecca!

Today I'd like to discuss my bridesmaids.

I love these girls to death... but gosh darn it, sometimes I just want to knock them over the head for living so far away and/or being so busy all the time.

(Don't worry. I would hit them with something soft... like a pillow or a kitten.)

Source

They each live between 2-8 hours away, and two of them I haven't even seen since before Ryan and I got engaged (that was a whopping 7+ months ago!).

All of this makes for a very difficult bride-to-bridesmaid relationship.

Every time I speak with them on the phone, they're all like "how is planning going?", and all I can respond with are generalizations like, "great... fine... fantastic." It's just too much of a hassle to fill them in more specifically than that when they aren't really around to be involved in the planning.

(Everyone take a moment to shed a tear for sad little me.)

Don't get me wrong... I don't regret picking any of my ladies. They're wonderful friends, and I can't imagine not having them next to me on the big day. But I guess I just thought this whole experience would be different.

TV tells me that my bridesmaids and I should be lounging around in our pajamas reading bridal magazines and giggling.

What? This isn't normal?

Why is TV lying to me?!

Instead, I'm stuck here sending out email after email trying to plan a bridesmaid get-together for January and figure out what city we should meet in so that each person will have to travel the least amount of distance.

Does anyone else have long-distance bridesmaids (or ones who work weekends), and have any good tips for getting all the gals together?

Pretty Pink Package

I'm feeling extremely popular with all these packages arriving all the time. I'm going to pretend that companies are sending me free promotional swag... instead of the reality where Kelly spends all her hard-earned money on junk from the internet.

Oh well. That's the life of a bride-to-be.

My latest package was an exciting one, though... my shoes arrived!


Even though I was on my lunch break, I immediately ripped open the box and pulled out my lovelies to admire them in person.


Ooooo... ahhhh. Sweet, beautiful, bright bright pink.

Of course I couldn't stop there. I had to try them on, prance around the house a little bit, and take a bunch of photos.


So what's the verdict?

They are hot!

Besides that, they may be a tad large (they don't come in half sizes, so this is as good as it gets). But the back of each shoe has an elastic band, so the size shouldn't be an issue on our wedding day. It's not noticeable at all when you look at them.


I'm so glad that I was able to find comfortable and cute shoes at such a great price. Every dollar that I save on little things like this really adds up in the end.

Plus, I came up with a great idea. If I can't think of anything else to get my Bridesmaids (so far, I've bought them Vera Bradley makeup bags), I could get them each a pair of silver flats.

Source

They will be wearing silver heels for the ceremony, but they might want some comfy shoes to change into for the reception (for all the hardcore dancing we'll be doing!).

I Heart Weekends

1) The paper arrived and the Save the Dates are done! The Gocco wasn't nearly as scary as I had pictured, although I probably could have done a slightly better job with my printing. Well, practice makes perfect. Hopefully by the time Invitation-printing rolls around, I'll be a regular pro!

2) My handwriting is way better than I thought. And, surprise-surprise... I remember cursive! All this means that self-addressing my Save the Date envelopes (and dare I even say... our Invitation envelopes) is not at all out of the question.

3) Major Honeymoon research is happening. Despite our instant gut reaction of "bleh", I think we are actually leaning towards Mexico. I am amazed to discover that they have some fabulous all-inclusive resorts. I'm wishing it was time for our honeymoon right now.

4) I informed my ladies they should be on the look out for a knee-length navy blue dress and silver heels to wear to my wedding. Cut, style, fabric all optional. Gigantor orange floral print not (that's a "no").

5) Now off to tan myself! Ryan and I are headed to the Michigan dunes tomorrow for some much needed beachy relaxation. Mmmmm.....

More detail-oriented posts are in store for next week, so stay tuned. Happy weekend!

They Said Yes!

I proposed to my bridesmaids via snail mail, so they all received their packages at different times.


Bridesmaid J got hers the morning of my birthday party, so when I saw her that night, she said yes. She followed it up with a "but I don't know what I'm doing" disclaimer. I told her no problem... I don't know what I'm doing either!

Maid of Honor C got hers a few days ago (she's been off jetsetting, so I had to mail it to her parents' house). I received a voicemail, "KELLLLYY! I got your package! Of course I'll be your Maid of..." "End of message. To repeat message, press 4." I laughed hard. She called me back the next morning and told me how she had teared up a little when she read the card. Awesome. Just the response I wanted!

Bridesmaid M hasn't gotten hers yet (that I know of). After her and her boyfriend broke up, I held off on sending the proposal package. It should have arrived a few days ago, but she doesn't have a mailing address... just a P.O. Box, so she may not have checked it yet. So now I just have to wait for that phone call.

I'm super excited to have 3 of my best friends there to celebrate this big day with me. I only wish that they were friends with eachother! Hopefully by the end of this process, they'll get to know one another better and they'll see what I love about each of them!


(Aren't these dresses super cute? Three bridesmaids in short, gray, non-matching dresses... this is totally the look I'll be going for!)

Edit: Only a couple hours after posting this, bridesmaid M left me an adorable voicemail telling me how much she loved me and of course she would be my bridesmaid. In case you're keeping count, that's 3 yeses.

Let the fun begin!