FINALLY!!!

I know...my bad.  I have had the professional pictures for quite a while now and haven't posted my favorites.

But here they are!!!  I love the way they came out!  Tonya and Steve are really talented and really captured the special relationship that Mr. Teddybear and I have and the relationships we have with others.  I would highly recommend Tonya from Moments to Embrace for anyone getting married!

 My baby girl getting ready!

My mommy and I.

Whispering sweet nothings into my ear!  :-)

 One of my favorites!

 My DIY Programs!!

 My DIY CD Holder!

 My rings

 My DIY Table Numbers!

 My absolute favorite of Mr. Teddybear!!

 My girls and I!

 Mr. Teddybear and his bestman

 Yes, they are this goofy at regular family events! 

My other favorite of Mr. Teddybear and I.

As you can see from these pictures, Tonya and Steve were able to take beautiful pictures and it was a joy to work with them.   They worked with us on our budget and they are really cool people!  I highly recommend them to anyone getting married!

My wedding in review.

I was hoping to be able to post a blog reviewing my wedding and including professional pictures, but I'm not able to get them for another week.  So, I will do my review and use the non-professional pictures I have received.

THE GOOD

There were several good things that happened at my wedding.  I was really worried that it would go by so fast that it would be a blur to me, but thankfully it didn't.

1.  The weather - On October 3rd, we had wonderful weather for an outside ceremony.  It was perfect weather and the church custodian was able to get all of our chairs in the shade and no one sat in the direct sun.  It was exactly how I envisioned it! 

My daughter giving me away. (photo credit to Maria E.)

2.  The Florist - Orie and Evie, Flowers by Orie, did a wonderful job on our flowers.  They worked within our budget and was able to give us exactly what we wanted.  I love the aisle pomanders and the arch decor and they did a magnificent job on the centerpieces.  I loved my bouquet and my girls bouquets too.

Centerpieces with table numbers.

3.  Church Custodian - Billy is an awesome dude!  He understood the look we were going for with the layout for the ceremony and he did it the exact way we wanted!  He also had everything set up at the reception the way we wanted to as well.

4.  Photographer - Tonya, Moments to Embrace Photography, and her assistant Steve, were fabulous photographers!  Tonya was awesome with me and my girls and Mr. Teddybear raved about how Steve got the craziness of Mr. Teddybear and his bestman.  Mr. Teddybear loved how Steve captured their zaniness and Steve showed me some of the pictures.  They were pretty funny.  Steve took some pictures of me too and I loved how they came out.  I will post my favorite ones once I get the professional pictures back.  I'm excited and can't wait to see them!!!

THE BAD

1.  The caterer - Sal Gallardo, La Fiesta Taco Catering.  What can I say about this company?  They did not live up to their contract.  His employee, the chef, arrived 1 1/2 hour late than what was contracted and this led to a sloppy presentation of the food on the tables and our guests and Mr. Teddybear and I had to wait to eat.  I had planned to have the food served at 3:30pm, not 5pm.  Besides cooking the tacos, we were supposed to also to get quesadillas.  Well the chef never made them.  When Mr. Teddybear confronted him about it, he said that he offered it to everyone in the line.  Well we know for a fact that he never offered it to us, the bride and groom!  I have also asked several of our guests and they have all responded that it was NEVER offered to them either.  I have emailed Sal Gallardo giving him the details of what happen and requested a partial refund, but have yet to hear back from him.  I will also file a complaint about this catering company with the Better Business Bureau.  We will see how that turns out.  I will also be posting negative reviews about this company and their unprofessionalism on other wedding sites.  I would hate to have another bride and groom to go through what we did.  I was very embarrased and unhappy with the service from La Fiesta Taco Catering, their chef and Mr. Sal Gallardo gave us.

 MORE PHOTOS!

Here are more non-professional pictures:

CD Favor/placecard

Cake Topper

Winners of the Bethany 500 going down Marriage Lane!

Cutting our cake.

 

Me and my Dad!

Bridal Group photo!

Elena walking me down the aisle.

Mr. and Mrs. Stanard!!

My Mom, Brother with Mr. Teddybear and I.

Mr. Teddybear and his Grandma.

Mr. Teddybear and his Mom!

Well that's all folks!  As soon as I get my professional pictures, I will post our favorites!

Have a great Monday!!

Its all good!!!

Today has been an awesome day!  We are not only on track with all of the DIY projects I have on my list, but we had a meeting today with the Church staff and everything is falling into place.

It is a very good feeling when you see the vision you created for your wedding day, comes to life and that others around you see your vision as you do!  Nothing beats that feeling of accomplishment!  The meeting we had today was awesome.  The Church wedding coordinator, facility coordinator and custodian all see my dream and are excited to help make it a reality.  This put me in such a good mood that I not only finished the seating chart, but also finished the table numbers, the programs and started printing the photos that we need.

We are all set for our wedding in 7 days!!!  A lot was done today and I am estatic!!!  :-)

Long time no blog...

I'm sorry that it has been a long while since I last posted on my blog.  Things have changed at my work and it has affected my wedding plans.

Mr. Teddybear and I have decided to move our wedding and reception from the Golf Course we originally wanted to our Church.  This was mainly done for financial reasons.  Again, we did not want to cut the guest list because everyone on our list are near and dear to our hearts.

So, several of my DIY projects have been deleted as well due to costs.

• Wishing Tree - The trees are not cheap and it would also take a good amount of time to put together at the reception and I didn't want either Mr. Teddybear or I to be stressed in getting it put together.
• Foam Hearts -  I just couldn't find these foam hearts any where and they were more than I planned on spending to buy them online.  I couldn't justify this project.

What has been done:

• The Invitations - They have been completed and mailed out.  We are starting to get a slow trickle of RSVP's in too.  Here are some of my picts of the invitations.

• My Dress - My dress has been ordered, paid off and I have pictures of me in it.  My first fitting will be next week.

• The Guestbook - Well since we are not able to do the Wishing Tree.  Mr. Teddybear and I decided to go with the traditional guestbook with photos of us in it.  The guests would sign in the space around our photos.  However, this isn't going to be just a book on a table and that's it!  No, we will have the guestbook surrounded by family photos.  We found a great deal at BigLots.  It was a fram that had 3 areas for pictures and on top of these pictures was the word "Family" carved out.  This frame will sit on a gold table-top easel and will be surrounded by other smaller frames with pictures of our family members and extended family members.  We will also have small votive candles on the table as well.  As soon as I can, I will post pictures and hopefully a mock up of the table.

Still to be done:  We have a few DIY projects left to be done.  I am thankful that I have plenty of time to get it done.

• Programs - We haven't had our ceremony finalized by our Pastor.  Once he finalizes our ceremony, we can commit it to paper and get the programs printed.
• Table Numbers/Names  - We have decided to use Mr. Teddybear's favorite Nascar Drivers and their car numbers as our Table Names/Numbers.  I will be working on a mock up of this this weekend as well.
• CD Favors/Tablecards - Well I don't want to make too many CD holders so I have only started cutting for 60 favors and if we get more RSVPs then I will make more.  I just have these cut.  I haven't put them together yet.  I do have a mock up and when I take pictures of it, I will post it here.

Well, it is 5 weeks until our wedding.  Mr. Teddybear and I can hardly wait.  We are both so excited to be marrying each other and are looking forward to our future together. 

Have a great weekend everyone!!