Because it makes you feel all warm and tingly inside.

I am of course talking about crossing things off my Wedding To-Do Lists….duh.

The following were completed this past week:

-Make Cake Topper

-Touch base with DJ (who in case you were wondering is the male performer in this video. Amazing I know)

-Touch base with Photographer

-Reserved Room blocks at hotels

-Finished making 5 cake stands and a cake-pop stand for the desert table

-Ordered Coasters

-Mailed out the last of our invites

-Recieved the invite to my own Bachelorette party! SQUEEEL!

-Ordered a dress for my bridal shower

-Made some photo props (a Thank You banner)

-Confirmed who is going to mary us and began discussing ceremony ideas

-Found a tailor for my dress alterations

This weekend will be more planning, like always. We get paid on Friday and all extra fundage of course will already need to be shelled out to the vendors we owe money to. Someone asked me recently about our wedding budget. I’m sure I could do a whole boring post on that, but in short we really don’t have one. We are doing as much as we can, and trying to be savvy with making lots of stuff ourselves and enlisting the help of friends and family. In the end though, YES it is crazy expensive. I’m not willing to say it’s not worth it though, because it’s going to be awesome and amazing and something we will never get to do again! In a weird way it has also shown me that if we prioritize and really focus, we can make things we want/need really happen. I’m proud of us for taking on so much and not going into ANY debt for it. Its been quite the learning experience.

So that’s that. We have ummm…FORTY FIVE DAYS until the wedding. That is insanity and I know they are going to fly by in no time, especially since really that means we have SIX weekends left to get stuff done…OMG. In case you are in the beginning stages of planning I seriously suggest doing everything early as time will fly by. Especially if your taking on a lot of stuff yourself. Alright I’m off to bed with visions of wedding bells dance in my head.

Check Yourself, Before You Wreck Yourself.

-Make six awesome (and non traditional) Boutonnieres.    CHECK!

-Make 80 (equally awesome and non traditional) wedding invitations.    CHECK!

-Place said invitations in stamped envelopes.    CHECK!

-Order 200 clear Address Labels.      CHECK!

-Order 80 Cat stickers (you heard me right).      CHECK!

-Score a sweet deal on Grey M&Ms and Yellow Chocolate Covered Sunflowers Seeds on clearance at Michaels.      CHECK!

-Order Straws, fans, cupcake wrappers all in corresponding Grey and yellow.     CHECK!

-Create “Day Of” Schedule with corresponding music for DJ.      CHECK!

-Get Saturday off from work so I can go Dress/Shoe shopping with my MOH on the 16th.      CHECK!

I attempted to make a short “TO DO STILL” list, but it quickly became a mile long. Lets stick to the positives for now. And by positives I mean that I ordered 80 stickers of my cat today…amazing, I know.

A Wedding Is Comming!

Oh yeah…I almost forgot.

What with living in a renovation disaster (the plumber is here now trying to “fix” things) and anticipating the arrival of Mr. Gaunt, I had plum spaced out any wedding planning. According to My Knot To Do List, the following I am BEHIND on:

-Book My DJ: We have a DJ in mind, although a smidge out of budget. Mr. Gaunt wanted to have a face to face with him before we book, so this will happen in the next month.

-Hotel Blocks: I need to call around to some hotels to “block out” some discounted rooms for our out of town guests.

-Bridesmaid Dresses: I’m not too concerned about this because my bridesmaids can wear any grey dress they want, so they don’t have to order anything. But the ladies and I will be planning a trip to Seattle in the next few months to help them hunt for dresses.

-Groomsmen Attire: I told Mr. Gaunt that as soon as he gets out here we need to spend a day hunting around and locking down what his men need to wear. Im still a little up in the air about this one.

-Work on Invitation Wording and Design: Mr. Gaunt and I have already come up with our idea, and he has been working on it all month. I’m sooo excited about it!

-Decide who will marry us: This one is super tricky. We are undecided if we want to have someone we know marry us, or if we should just hire someone. I think its a very important job, so I don’t want to just wing it.

After all that junk, we need to sit down and re-budget. Find out how much we can spend on all the little stuff, and start a wedding notebook to stay a bit more organized. Up until now it’s mostly been brainstorming, but now we need to get a movin’!

And I leave you with a few fun wedding idea photos. Its nice to see fresh ideas!

(click on the photo for source)

A List::

of things i want to do:

-Work through all the beautiful indie music out their and make a wedding play lists. With help from Mix Tape Love, this should be easy.

-Use the video camera I bought Mr. Gaunt 2 years ago to make sweet little movies for our future selves and children.

-Pick one of the many cookbooks I have and work cook my way through it.

-Buy All of these shirts.

-Make an Advent Calendar Pyramid Garland

-Rent some Phoenix Cd’s at the Library

I also found the most amazing song tonight, oh how I wish I could share it with you! However I’m going to try to convince Mr. Gaunt to use it for our first dance, in which case it would be a surprise so I can’t share it. But lordy its amazing! I’m sitting on my couch wearing headphones (while the boys play DJ HERO) and I keep listening to this song over and over and smiling.

Im Going To Be A Crazy Hippie and….

-Make My Own crackers!

-Make My Own Deodorant!

-Can and Dehydrate Food!

-Make Vegan Fruit Leathers!

-Make Tie Dye Cupcakes for Ms. G’s Birthday!

-Make Avocado and Cilantro Dressing

-Start My Own Windowsill Herb Garden!

-Make Cinnamon Graham Crackers!

-Make Thai Ice Tea Concentrate

Ok these will not all happen today, or this week, but its a great summer planning list. I will continue to add. Click any of the links and you can make em too!

A Plan for Success

Well my shoulder feels slightly better, but I still havent heard from my job so in order to not let my mind wander (ahhh you have no money and your getting fatter!!!!) I decided to make a list of things Im going to do this week as well as a menu of things Im going to eat! Woohoo I love lists.

TO DO OCTOBER 4th – 11th

1. PAINT! We renewed our lease at our apartment, but I really want to paint my entry way! So this week Im going to pick out a color and then hopefully paint on Friday or Saturday.

2. FRISBEE GOLF! We made plans with our friends Ben and Casey to go play frisbee golf this weekend. Apparently its kind of a hike through the course which makes me a little nervous (me and hiking arent always friends) but Im gonna give it a shot, and I love frisbee golf, it reminds me of playing with friends at Cornwall park back home.

3. WAX! I need my eyebrows waxed this week.

4. GYM! I need to get my but to the gym at least 4 times this week (hopefully my shoulder will chill out so this can happen)

5. WEIGH IN! Hoping to do this tomorrow

Now for the MENU!

MONDAY: Quinoa (or Brown rice) Stuffed Acorn Squash

TUESDAY: Weight Watchers Corn Chowder

WEDNESDAY: Roasted Three potato Salad

THURSDAY: Tuna and Avocado Salad

FRIDAY: Pasta with Shrimp Spinach and Lemon

Ok the weekend I will hold off on. Also please note the links for these meals are more for inspiration and will probably all be modified to be healthier! I will take pics of everything to show you along the way! xoxo

Oh and we have a million peppers so if anyone ahs any great pepper recipes you shoudl leave them in the comments…thanks!