Thankfully M and I had two yes TWO people who wanted to view the townhouse yesterday.  One a potential renter (who will inevitably drive me nuts I am sure) and a potential buyer.  Both showings went well and the buyer is coming back this afternoon for another look.  Hopefully we will have something done by next week.  I don’t know why, but I get so nervous showing my place.  I guess its because its mine.  Everything in there from paint colors, to lighting, to flooring, to the furnishings are mine.  These are all things that I picked out based on what I like and I guess I am scared someone else won’t like it.  Good thing everyone has said it looks really nice, so far.

Anyway after 2 semi-hectic showings we headed home.  As soon as we sat down I decided to show M my arts and crafts project for the day.  You know, the save the date holders.  Well M very quickly informed me that it was fine if I wanted to make envelopes out of card stock but he was not helping.  That’s when it hit me, I made paper envelopes.  *hand to forehead*  I thought I had a good idea but obviously someone else has already beat me to it in a more efficient and effective way.  So back to the drawing board or the craft table filled with notebook paper and highlighters 🙂

I have to sit here and chuckle as I think about it.  It is a little humorous.  Ugh I hate it when he is all logically and not crafty and doesn’t see my idea!  🙂  Oh well.  Off to show the house one more time (and hopefully for the LAST time).

Thanks to M’s mom, I now have a nice little collection of bridal magazines.  You don’t realize how many fun and cute and even practical things you can find among the plethora of gowns.  I have found articles ranging from wedding etiquette to fun and inventive ideas.

I love the idea of having enough time to be able to get “krafty” with various things.  Or the save the dates.  🙂  Since M and I will not have much say in anything other then the save the dates and invitations,  I am continually looking for new and cool ideas to help spice up these items while still being thrifty.  My latest and greatest idea is some form of holder for the save the date magnets.  These will turn out to be the most important items our guests receive since they will contain all of the travel information.  Now I just have to figure out what I am GOING to do.

Throughout the day, while I should be working, I get these moments of kraftiness.  This then leads to a google search and several minutes of browsing different websites for ideas.  Now if I could just find that ONE idea I need I think I will be set.

Oh the joys of having so much time on my hands.  (to think about ideas, not to not work 😉 )

Since M and I got engaged we decided it would be best to put my townhouse on the market, either for rent or sale. Of course we would prefer to sell it and not have to worry with it anymore.  This also will allow us to save almost a whole paycheck of mine.  Saving that kind of money means we can finally make a realistic wedding budget and decide where we want to get married.

We’ve only had it on the market for about a month and up until last week we’d really had no bites at all. Hopefully as spring is arriving and leases are ending we will have more luck.  And actually we have had a bit more interest in the past week or so. And maybe if we are lucky something will pan out really soon 😉

So for now I am hoping, and wishing, and praying. 🙂

Over the weekend M and I noticed that the upstairs was quite warm compared to the rest of the house.  After some investing he realized the upstairs AC unit wasn’t blowing any cold air.  This can NOT be good, right?  Thankfully we have 2 sepearate units.  One controls the first and second floors and the other controls the top floor, you know, where the bedrooms are.  As Sunday afternoon passed we mostly avoided going upstairs.  I had hoped that once the sun went down, so to would the temp upstairs.  No such luck.  As I was getting ready to go upstairs for bed M asked if I had been up there.  Of course not, duh, its hot.  Well I didn’t realize just how hot it was until I was met with a WALL of hot air on the stairs.  Still I figured a fan and an open window and I would be fine right?  NOPE!  M very quickly convinced me that we should not sleep upstairs.  After some arm twisting, okay very little really, we decided to move the mattress downstairs, to the living room.  Well this is where the bed has been since the weekend.  Classy right?!  Nothing like a bed in the middle of the den.  I feel like we are living in a 70’s style porn 😉

And while I feel hauntingly connected to the 70’s one member of the family thinks this is AWESOME.  Julio has more than enjoyed the bed in the living room.  He is constantly playing under the blanket, laying on the bed or just causing chaos.  :)  Unfortunately for him the AC repair guy FINALLY was able to come today and thankfully the unit was just low.  Apparently this means there is or could be a leak in the unit but we will just have to wait and see.  But for now we can move the mattress back upstairs and enjoy our bedroom once again.  I have to say I am looking forward to joys of my own bedroom.  Plus it will be much nicer for M’s parents this weekend when they come up.

While M and I are on a pretty tight wedding budget, there is one item that I’ve decided I MUST have.  Save the Date magnets. Yes I know but I really really want them.  (It doesn’t help we just received a save the date magnet for an upcoming wedding.)  I told M that I would choose cheaper invitations if I could have this one item.

Once I decided this was my one MUST have item, I began the search for the perfect Save the Date.  I have a pretty good idea of which invitations I want to use so I have been using that as my starting point.  After several weeks of searching I realized, these things are EXPENSIVE!   And the cheaper ones, well look cheap. On top of the fact that I couldn’t find that “right” one, I decided I was going to have to conquer Photoshop and make my own.  Somehow designing my own is cheaper then choosing a pre-made design.  Plus the personal satisfaction that I MADE this.

With my mission set I began, searching and looking and playing around.  Trying to find my “perfect” design with the perfect background.  Once I realized the kind of file I needed I began to search for the perfect damask background.  After more searching and a total loss of creativity I finally found a design that I liked and could/should be able mimic in photoshop.  And I must say, I think I have successfully created our Save the Dates!  Woo Hoo!  It only took several weeks, a little help from a few friends, and well lots of four letter words aimed at Photoshop. 😉

Obviously they are not ready for print as we STILL have no date or location but I think I can rest easier knowing they are ready to go.  And maybe I will stop dreaming of damask patterns.

This is my soapbox post.  If  I happen to offend anyone I am sorry but this is my rant and how I feel.

M has several online forums that he regularly keeps up with.  One of these forums he has shared with me so I read it daily but mainly look at picture posts or things of that nature.  Naturally I am NOT allowed to post anything since it is his account.  But I can look 🙂

Yesterday M posted on the forum asking if anyone had planned a destination wedding, where they went and what they though.  For the most part the people who has chosen this option responded with where and and various other details.  There were a few people who posted saying that it was “dick/douche” move on our part.  That basically “it is a way to make sure you only get get the people you want.”  Of course M and I both talked about this option before we became engaged, discussed that fact that many people, friends and family, may not be able to come.  We both agreed that we would be thankful for the people who were able to come but would understand those that couldn’t.  Since ALL of M’s family, minus his parents and brother, are  located in or around London we knew that his family may not be able to come regardless of locale.  But as we began telling people our idea, everyone seems more then happy we have chosen this idea.

So here’s my rant.  Why is it that other people feel so inclined to make YOUR wedding about them?  M and I are paying for OUR wedding.  We are paying and planning for this to be OUR day.  Sound selfish?  You bet your ass it is.  I am marrying him and he is marrying me.  WE are NOT marrying our friends or family.  And while we would love for everyone we invite to come we understand that is not possible.  But who are you to judge MY/OUR special day and tell us it’s a douche thing to do?  Who are you to say that we are being selfish because you don’t get to chose the locale?  Who is really being selfish and douchey here?  Yes this option might cut down on our invite list but if the wedding were in Raleigh the list would be the same.

I don’t even think I have touched the surface of the anger I felt yesterday after reading one particular persons posts regarding this issue.  I was livid!  And I am still getting worked up as I type this.  It also annoys me to no end to continually hear people who think they are “entitled” to bring an uninvited guest, a child – or think their children should be allowed to come. (That is a completely different rant that I won’t get into.)  When did saying “I do” become about the guests?  If you are invited to our wedding (or any wedding) you should feel honored that YOU MADE the list.  Don’t give me grief that I am not catering to YOUR needs because last time I checked, this is OUR day!  So deal with it!

**Rant over!  Again, sorry if this offends but well it’s my blog and my feelings 🙂 **

M and I had a nice long weekend at the beach.  It was a family gathering of sorts.  M’s cousin Kim has been trekking around the world for about 5 months and the last stop on her journey landed her at M’s parents house for the weekend before heading back to London.  M’s grandmother is also in town from London and his brother Pat drove up from Atlanta. 

Friday morning M’s mom Jill made an engagement cake for us.  She even raided the local gas station so she could put ring pops on our cake :)  The guys had an afternoon tee time so the girls decided to head to the beach once the clouds cleared.  Kim and I found a nice spot on the beach to set up our chairs while M’s mom and grandmother set up shop at the club house.  After a few hours of basking in the sun Kim and I headed back the club house to have a piece of cake.  Then we all headed back to the house to get ready for dinner.  A couple that M and I know from Raleigh were in town for the weekend so they stopped by the house to have dinner with us.

Saturday M and I had plans to go to the beach most of the day before heading to dinner.  Unfortunately the weather had other plans.  As we all sat around waiting for the sun to come out the day slowly passed away and there was no beach trip.  M’s parents made reservations for dinner Saturday night at Sea Blue in N. Myrtle Beach.  We arrived to find a complimentary bottle of champagne waiting to toast us.  :)  After a delicious dinner we all piled back in the car and headed home.

Sunday was pretty uneventful.  We woke up to more clouds.  So after lunch M and I packed the car and headed home.  We got home only to find someone had managed to knock over my ONLY living plant!  Of course we knew who had done it, Julio!  After cleaning up the reminder of the dirt we were finally home.

So M and I are headed to the beach in a couple of hours.  I feel like there are so many things I want to write about but that could just be the lack of focus and excitable energy coursing through my veins.

M’s parents live at the beach so really we can go whenever but this trip should be fun.  M’s grandmother and cousin from London are both at the house.  His brother is driving up from Atl tonight and a  couple from Raleigh will also be in town.  M, his dad and brother are set to hit the links tomorrow afternoon.  I fully intend to sit my pale self beside the pool and lounge.  Or maybe shopping, who knows.  Then we are going to have a cookout.   Saturday should be filled with nothing more then sand and beer.  I am looking forward to doing nothing more then laying on a beach drinking a nice frothy beverage or two or three.  See I am way too excited to be writing this.  But let’s face it, it beats doing the work I am trying to put off.  Hence I am blogging at work.  I’ve also managed to play around in paint for some save the date work oh and downloaded a few prints to help with that.

YAY Beach!!!!!!  T-minus 3 and a half hours……

As each day draws to an end we get another day closer to our wedding.  With no location picked or date set in stone it makes tasks such as invitations or save the dates nearly impossible.  But hey a girl can start looking right?

Well I have been looking and looking and looking.  I love the fact that M and I will wed on a white sandy beach someplace tropical but this does pose a few obstacles, like what you ask, color schemes for one.  I have no idea what our reception might be and have no illusions that I will have any real say it what colors are provided.  I mean we are doing this on a pretty tight and right now, invisible, budget.

I would like to keep things as cohesive as possible but I don’t really know where to begin.  My colors, hot pink with some teal thrown in for good measure?  M has made it pretty clear he really doesn’t care which is good but also leaves all of this to me.   How hard should it really be to coordinate invitations and save the date magnets?  Not as easy as you would think since I am trying to save on invitations so I can get save the date magnets.  :)  I knew I’d looked at too many invitations when I woke up this morning.  I dreamed I was personally writing each invitation to random people.  HA!

~Oh a side note, M and I have been engaged for one whole month today 🙂

Today I saw this status on Facebook and thought how true it is.

There are 4 things you cannot recover.  The stone, after it is thrown.  The word, after it is said.  The occasion, after it has past.  The time, after is it gone.

Insightful, maybe.  True definitely.