4 more days... ONLY 4 more days!

Man this weekend has been a whirlwind! We certainly spent our last weekend as an engaged couple in style. We went to a Rodeo, Rib festival (with some damned good ribs) and even got to see the newest Batman movie. Completely worth it!

That being said, I am starting to realize how little time I have left and how much there is to do. Mr. Sunshine still has to buy groomsmen gifts, I have to contact my bridesmaid to ensure she is still coming on Thursday to our rehearsal and to make sure her dress is okay. My mom is panicking over getting a late night table together, and as of this moment, we aren't sure whether we will have one or two photographers for the day of. It's a lot of last minute hassles, to be sure. Oh, and we have to clean our house top to bottom for the photographer. Oh, and of course I STILL can't find any damned bells to put on the tables.

I guess the good news is that I can basically finish off most that list in an hour. Perhaps I should. But honestly, I'm enjoying the lazy days of summer doing just about as little as I possibly can.

I'm sure I will post in a massive panic soon, but until then, wish me luck!

Miss. Sunshine

The bachelor party that wasn't. NSFW

When we first got engaged, Mr. Sunshine clearly told me that there were some things he was not interested in. One of them was a bachelor party. Having been married before, he felt that it was both bad luck to have one now (no idea, but I respected that) and he didn't really feel up to it. For his brother's bachelor party two years ago, they all went to a football game. I asked him if he was interested in something like that and was met with a firm no.

So it was never planned.

I also was all for the "no parties" idea and did not want a shower, bachelorette party or engagement party, but the bachelorette was a surprise party hosted by my sister, and, well, how can it NOT be fun when you are greeted at the door by this:

Picture blurred to protect the innocent. And yes, that is a giant penis costume.

Anyways, I ended up having a great time, asked Mr. Sunshine if he wanted to reconsider, and he was still cool with being bachelor party free.

But clearly he underestimated my dad. About two months ago, my dad and godfather asked when Mr. Sunshine's party was going to be. I told them he wasn't interested, etc, etc. I think as a result of not having really partied in 20 years, they were both disappointed and asked me to get Mr. Sunshine to change his mind. Wasn't happening. I explained that, unfortunately, he just wasn't interested. The matter was dropped.

I thought.

A week ago my dad comes up to me and says, "Tell Mr. Sunshine godfather and I are taking him out for dinner. Ask when he wants to go." I asked what it was for, and they said dinner. Mr. Sunshine politely agreed and that is where this has gone from "dinner" to "unofficial bachelor party under the guise of us all having a good time". Why do I say that? I say that because I have been subjected to the following from my father:
1. "Crap! We never invited his brother out! Should we have invited his brother out? Well I guess it's just dinner."
2. "Er... Miss. Sunshine, can you pick up Mr. Sunshine around 1 am from our house? He won't be able to drive home."
3. "Is there still a Hooters in Brampton?"
4. "Does Mr. Sunshine like tequilla?"
5. "Do strippers make you angry?"

Now, I haven't told Mr. Sunshine this because I am clearly a HORRIBLE fiancee, but I'm also secretly hoping that he goes out and has some fun. I know he will enjoy himself, as he loves both my dad and godfather, but beyond those two conniving men, neither of us have any REAL idea of what will happen.

Did anyone surprise you with a party? Did you have fun like I did or hate the entire adventure?

~Miss. Sunshine (only 6 more days until I'm a Mrs.!)

The Final Preparations

I can't believe it. I was crossing off the calendar (I like to make giant X's to mark the days) and today it said "Facial 2:00" and "10". 10 for only 10 days until the wedding. Where has the time gone?! I remember having to write in dates and marks and flipping page after page to get to July. I remember getting engaged and thinking 7 months seemed like an eon.

And it's almost here.

I think I'm getting the post-wedding blues a bit early.

As I look around my house I realize I have so little to do. I printed out wedding tree (which took forever because my darling sister made it to fit a 20 x 15 frame, which of course is too big to print almost anywhere on non-glossy paper), started tanning in a salon to get rid of the rest of these tan lines from hanging out at the pool, and my to-do list only has "car tune up" (tomorrow), "bridesmaid gift" (just have to give it to a Bridesmaid), "groomsmen gifts" (Mr. Sunshine is handling that one), "small container for wipes and disposal" (going to ReUse store to deal with that today), and "pack for honeymoon". Ughhh. So sad.

I also have to say I finally broke my cardinal rule about tanning salons. I, Miss. Sunshine, at age 25, have finally been in a tanning bed. There actually is a good reason though. I have these faint tan lines from my halter bikini I got a few months ago. I tanned and swam at my parents place a few times in a strapless bikini to try and get rid of them, but it is the weirdest tan ever! From the side, it is super obvious, from the front it is very faint, and when I wear a white dress, it looks crazy. It sucks. So after 2 weeks of tanning 3 times a week at my parents, I decided I might need a salon to help me out. I bought 100 minutes in a super bed, bought the lotions and decided to go. Only one problem. *duh* When the lady asked me if I had been tanning, I said, "Yes, of course!". I am quite dark, actually. So she told me to use the turbo bed for 7 minutes. I threw on some bronzing lotion, jumped in, and left. This morning I woke up my breast and bikini area are pinkish while the rest of me tanned nicely. Why? Because those areas had NEVER SEEN SUNLIGHT. No wonder I got a slight burn! I didn't even think to cover them at all because I am currently so paranoid about getting rid of my unsightly lines.

So now I'm playing the waiting game to tan again, and perhaps a bit of sunscreen on those bits!

Also-- never had a facial before. I think this wedding is turning me into a girly girl.

ALSO-- lost another 2lbs. This dress better fit, damnit!

Have you thought about or done something new and exciting for a wedding day prep? Are you tanning or doing any of the "girly" things?

~Miss. Sunshine

Tick-Tock

My goodness how time is flying by! Today is my Uncle's birthday and I remembered back to when Mr. Sunshine and I were looking at venues. Our backup, second choice venue had today as their only available Friday in July. Can you imagine? I can't. I am so glad, at this point, the wedding is not for two more weeks because there just isn't enough time. Every single moment I think we have gotten to the end of a task, it seems that 10 more pop up.

For example, things that I still haven't completed:
-seating chart board
-photography schedule
-day of schedule
-how the hell are we getting home?

The last one on that list is kinda the big thing here. Originally my parents were going to hire a limo. After both them and us humming and hawing over it, I took the lead and called up a few places. Because we are outside Toronto (not by much, mind you) and we are a wedding, a 30 minute drive to the venue and 30 minutes back several hours later was $650, plus tip and fuel charges, etc, etc. For 8 people. Insanity. That was also the BEST quote I got from calling several places. The most expensive, all in, was $1200. For the same effing thing. One hour of driving. That's $200 a minute for services. That's not having a limo waiting in the parking lot. That's not being able to leave at alternate times. That is straight up from 3:45-4:15 and 1:00-1:30.

Anyways, my parents are looking into option #2, but I think in the meantime I have to look into getting a town car. I am fairly sure the local cab company provides them, and that is fine with me. Mr. Sunshine is adament about not getting into a big yellow taxi, so I will certainly do my best. Also, if it is just the two of us it is one stop and 9 minutes from the venue, so hopefully it will be under $100.

I guess the last thing to mention is that I have hit one of the final stages of wedding planning, and that is the nerves/crazy mood changes. Seriously, my thought process recently looks something like this.

*looks at Mr. Sunshine* Oh my god, we are getting married in two weeks! *super excited and smiling*
Holy crap, I'll be Mrs. W in two weeks! *super excited*
I guess that means I'll no longer be a J_____. *getting sad*
No one can call me JJ anymore *starting to be really sad*
I'll be the only one in my family--- omg--- they aren't even like family cause we have different names *tears*
*Mr. Sunshine asks what's wrong*
"NO ONE WILL LOVE ME ANYMORE BECAUSE I'M MARRIED AND DIFFERENT!"

As you might imagine, this suddenly leads to extreme happiness and "OMG WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!"

It's a sad, sad (poor Mr. Sunshine) time to be a male in this household.


Oh well! Gotta get going on projects. Being that I volunteered at a camp all week, I am way behind and must catch up!

~Miss. Sunshine

Favours Complete!

Well, I wrote awhile back about how I was inspired to create favours. As a recap, I originally was not going to do anything, then saw this, then fell in love and c'est la vie!

Then I stumbled across a problem, in that same post. How the hell was I going to package these things? I seriously didn't know. I posted some ideas and was beyond smitten with these Weddingstar favour kits.  The problem was that they were $20 for only 12 boxes (and I needed 60), plus shipping and handling ($8 per item). For over $2 a favour I knew I could do better, especially since my favours were only pennies to make!

Still amazingly gorgeous. C'mon!

And so began the hunt. I finally tracked down kraft boxes at Creative Bag, but had to decide between square boxes that were 3" by 3" (vs the 2" by 2" in the pic above) or rectangular boxes. I ended up going for the extra large to keep them square. For $56, I scored 100 boxes (mostly cause they only came in packs of 100) and was able to have a bunch left over for my jewellery making.

After that was done, it was time for paper and ribbon. The paper was simple, as it went on sale for $0.25 a sheet. I picked up 6 sheets for $1.50+tax and that was done. The black and really thin ivory ribbon I ended up using was $0.33 each, on sale. I used two packs of black and one pack of white for a total of $1. The most expensive ribbon I used was a boned ribbon for $2.34 with my coupon at Michaels, expensive lace at $3 for BARELY ANYTHING with my 50% off coupon and then 3 rolls of "bobble lace" (packaged in a plastic egg and you get tons) for $1.27 each with my discount. I ended up using 3 roller glues from Dollarama ($3 +tax) and a leftover pack of stick on pearls (free, but I think they are also from Dollarama). The tags were $3 a pack at Staples (they are Martha Stewart), and I spent $1 on the stamp, using the same silver paint I used in previous projects.

In total, 60 of these wrappers were done for $84-$23 in left over boxes I am using for jewellery, which is only SIXTY-ONE DOLLARS, or about $1.02 per package vs the $100+shipping+taxes Weddingstar would have charged.

Anyways, without further ado, my awesome favours:

The tag, side one (our wedding date)

Our tag, side two, so they know what to do!

The 8 styles of boxes

Did you end up doing favours? Did they worry you as much as me?

Miss. Sunshine

The One Where Miss. Sunshine is Productive

For serious, it is. I was SO productive today that almost HALF my list is done! I know! Someone should give me a hero cookie!

Anyways, for all you curious ones, here are some awesome pictures of my finished accomplishments (not including scrubbing the kitchen top to bottom and sorting my classroom for FOUR hours. Gah!).

Centrepiece completion. Sort of.

I finally (mostly) completed my centrepieces. These were actually quite a deal too! Each of the tall vases were about $3.70 after using my teaching discount (15%) on Michael's sale (2/$4 for vases) months ago. I purchased 12 of those. The smallest big vase was from Dollarama for $1.25. Those little cups to the right I found on Christmas clearance for $0.50. I cleared them out! The flowers ended up being about $3.50 a stem after a clearance price for some and massive sale for others. I bought 11 stems. The candles of course are floating and from Ikea at CHEAP! And the rocks were $1 a bag, with each bag competing one centrepiece. Anyways, in total, I managed to scrounge together 8 centrepieces for about $130, or about $16 a shot. Not bad, if you ask me!

Booze

I didn't actually complete this today, but I had to brag. See all the boxes in this picture? 3 on the right, 2 in front of the ladder and 6 to the left of the mailbox? FULL OF BOOZE. I will never again see this much alcohol in my life, so I'm enjoying it.

Frame

Details on that cute frame I bought a few days ago. So nice! I love how the scroll work continues in the matte of the frame.

No one will ever know how I painstakingly decoupaged the CRAP out of this sign, but I did. I love it! The texture and details seem awesome. It needs a bit of oomph, but I figure that is something to work on at a later date, if I have time. The fact I even HAVE a sign is a good thing right now.

I have talent. Serious!

I don't think I've posted it, but I actually learned how to bead specifically to make my own jewelery so I could reuse my grandmother's earrings as a part of my outfit. It looked beautiful. Now that I can wear earrings again, I felt it was time to get that done, so I made these beauties! Are they perfect? Likely not, but I love them all the same.

Also, while there are no pictures of this accomplishment, I emailed my flower lady to confirm, booked a car appointment with good old VW to tune up the car before our road trip, booked a nail appointment for the day before the wedding, and made some phone calls to local limo companies to see if I can anything for LESS than $750 a night for 2 hrs of service.

Wish me luck on my hunt for ribbon tomorrow!

~Miss. Sunshine

The Last Minute Lady

So annoyed my friends. And it starts with Michaels and ends with ribbon, but who is suprised?

In January I found this PERFECT, AMAZING, GORGEOUS ribbon I knew I had to use for my invites (and I'm not that type of person). Of course it was on clearance, so I raided every bin within 40 km and came up with 3 rolls, or about 10 yards. Sounds great except I am about 2 yards short of having enough ribbon to complete the menus. *cue anguished screams* Of course, to make it better, they no longer sell any ribbon that is even remotely similar and I can't find anything with this beautiful and unique colour anywhere else.

As a result, my sister is taking me ribbon shopping on Friday. Poor girl.

In my extreme frustration yesterday, I cleared out our spare room and decided that yesterday was the day to make up all the centrepieces and they look good. I love them! I was short two vases (I bought them way back when I thought that we were only going to have 40 people invited, tops), but it an easy fix since Michael`s still sells them.

That becomes part of the job today, though. I have to go to my new school to drop off a load of stuff that has been taking up every inch of space in our room, then it`s off to Michael`s to return a branch of floral and pick up two vases, and finally back home to call the nail place, Volkswagen, limo companies and the flower woman to arrange a few things.

Ohhhh last minute things are getting me in some serious hot water!

~Miss. Sunshine

A Word About Michaels

Oh Michaels... I think I have kept you in business for the last six months. I worked at a location for a year, I did store set up and I know all the ins and outs of the system.

That being said, I have a huge rant about you, you SOB!

1. Why can't you carry the same product in more than one location? In the nearest city, there are two locations, lets call them A and S. At A, yesterday, I bought a few stems of flowers and was short one stem. It was on sale for 60% off, so I assumed you carried that line at S since it was on sale and in the flyer. I wanted another type of stem and since S always has a bigger selection of flowers (don't get why since it is a smaller store), I went there. S did not have any flowers I needed, not even the brand, and I ended up going back to A. I hate how if I want flowers, picture frames and paper I typically go to S, while if I want beadwork, vases, decorative supplies or cake products, I have to go to A. On top of that, how come you have a smaller selection of flowers at location A with totally different flowers at S?! Can you not carry the same merchandise!?

Which brings me to point two.

2. WHY DOES IT COST MORE?! Today I was looking for ribbon and found myself wandering into the bridal section. Do you remember all that ribbon I bought?

Yeah, this stuff.

See the black ribbon? It is translucent in the middle with solid edges. See it? It cost me $0.33 for a spool. At Michaels. In the ribbon aisle. Seriously. Mind you, I bet there is only 5m on there, but whatever. It is regularly priced at $1.29. Today in the bridal section I saw the SAME ribbon, likely a bigger roll... for $14.99!!! It would have to be OVER 58 metres to justify that pricing!! I don't get it. I felt it, and it was even the same quality. No idea.

3. Why does a sale at store A not transfer to store S, even though they are in the same city? I'm not talking about flyer sales (although that is true if there is a product that one store carries and another doesn't) as much as I am talking about clearance merchandise. I've seen this with a lot of things, but the one that sticks out the most to me is with hand stamp pads. These are pads made for kids that are giant washable ink circles. Great for crafts. The regular priced ones were $6.99, but the green and black at location A were on sale for $0.69. I cleared them out. At store S, they were $6.99. When I asked why, they had no answer.

4. Finally, I'm not sure if this is still the case, but why can't you guys order things in? I mean, seriously. I remember working at Michael's in a town where the nearest location besides ours was over a 4 hour drive. You won't be skipping around with that! Anyways, this bride was in full panic mode because she was short three invites and we were sold out-- for 7 weeks. She came in EVERY DAY after work trying to get her hands on the invites, but they never came in. Our manager explained to us, and her, that they hand no control over inventory, rather it was controlled by demand at head office. Not sure if he was just a jerk (he really was, which is why I quit), or if it was true, but being a bride I realize how horrifying that is.

For now, I'm back to finishing menus and cleaning the house. So much to do and so little time! Tomorrow will be filling vases (cause clearly I don't torture myself enough!).

Wish me luck!

Miss. Sunshine

The Return of the DIY Monster

With 24 days left, I decided that today was the day to get on that DIY! I ordered favour boxes, made lists, printed out Michael's coupons, went shopping and returned to accomplish this...

Our poor table was so clean for an entire 6 weeks...

Although it might be hard to tell from that photo, I completed the following today:

1. Bought floral stems on sale (70% off!!) that I loved and had my vision finally come true. I cut up the stems to the appropriate heights, placed them in vases, made this awesome mock up, and realized that I need something for the little vase (right now it is holding odds and ends). Another trip to Michaels will be in order tomorrow, but for today I have this...

Side one...

At an angle

Best part so far? I burned the candles to see how long they would last. I thought that anything over 3 hours would be AMAZING, since they are Ikea and were really, really cheap (I think $4 for 24? Maybe $3?). Anyways, I lit them at 3:10. It is currently 6:45 and we are going strong.

2. I did menus. Gah. I forgot how much I HATE assembling paper. Anyways, I cut the menu's out from the form paper (60 of them), changed the blade and cut out backing papers. I then hand glued, using tweezers and a toothpick with my E 5000, 60 crystals onto them. They dried, I realized I ran out of ribbon, and they are currently hiding on a chair in hopes of being finished. In the meantime, they are all but complete!

Drying crystals. Stupid SOB's!

3. I bought the ribbon for my vintage style favour boxes. All I need now is the boxes (I ordered them yesterday!), to cut up the strips, and a cute card telling people the vials are full of seeds. I'm getting on it... eventually...

Ribbon. It's sexy, but not the right stuff for my menus. DAMNIT!

4. Got a picture frame! Seriously. For the fingerprint tree. I was actually really happy about this one because, first off, I love it! Secondly, it was originally $54.95, but was on sale for 50% off, making it, essentially, $27.50. On top of that, I had a coupon for 15% off your entire purchase, including sale items, which made that go from $27.50 to $23.38. AWESOMENESS! All I have to do is print the fingerprint tree, get an acid free pen and find some wet wipes for people to get the ink off their fingers.

What's next on the DIY list? The card box is in need of a sign, I might still want a round something under my centrepieces and my printing list is getting higher by the second. I still have the escort board, dress pick up, earrings to make.... ugh. Anyways, expect more posts!

Miss. Sunshine

Selecting many, many songs

I can't say I am the best bride, in the traditional sense. In fact, I am not fussing around with much of anything. One of the reasons we chose our venue was because it is essentially always decorated, being that it is an art gallery.

Anyways, in the process of figuring out what we .still.have.to.do. I was given a sheet by our DJ. The DJ, by the way, so far, amazing. Anyways, this sheet had a list of things that needed to be filled out and returned to them so that we get the best service possible. The sheet started clean, fresh and nice looking and has ended up with so many strike outs. Here's a list.

THINGS THAT CONFUSED ME/WE AREN'T DOING:
1. How will you be announced? I actually had to do research to see what that meant. This means, will they say, "Now welcome Mr. Sunshine and Mrs. Maiden Name!" or will they say "Mr. and Mrs. Firstname Sunshine!" or whatever. The possibilities are endless. And I don't care. I went with the 'mixing old and new' tradition of "Mr. and Mrs. My firstname and His firstname Sunshine".

2. Songs are needed for processional (duh), signing the register (really?), recessional (crap! I totally forgot!). Considering that we have been having heated debates (and that's mostly me saying "how about this" and Mr. Sunshine saying "nahhh... my last wedding.... *awkward silence*) just over the processional, the recessional sucks. So we are vetoing a signing song (for three minutes, the guests can live without auditory stimulation) and now debating as to what to walk up the aisle to. Mr. Sunshine's contributions have been funny, albiet totally inappropriate. And that makes me laugh. Which makes the fact that we have no song much less stressful.

3. Cake cutting song. Like the registry signing song, confusing. Why do I need a song? Does cake cutting take that long? I'm about 90% sure we are just cutting the cake, dancing and then eating. I don't even have a fancy cake cutting knife. Seriously. I think we need like a die with all the best slow, romantic country songs on it so we can just arbitrarily assign them. I feel bad for brides who care about these things. It took us 2 weeks to settle the only important ones (first dance and processional). I can't imagine arguing over the others.

4. We are not doing a bouquet toss or garter toss. Thank god, because that would involve AT LEAST two more songs. Serious. So far I am 1 for like 10 on song selection.

5. Mr. Sunshine is still debating the mother/son dance. I MUST dance with my daddy. I told Mr. Sunshine that this is non-negotiable. He doesn't want to do any of those dances, but I think we should ask his mom first. Speaking of which, shockingly, we need a song!

6. The kissing game. I actually remember stressing about this when we first met our DJ, and then it was thrown on the back burner. Now it's back on in full force and the problem is... I don't care. My revised to-do list is actually LONGER than my original list, making the fact that we don't have a kissing game easily solved by bells. Mr. Sunshine doesn't want bells, but has no other suggestions. Maybe I can pawn this task to the maid of honour instead.... BWAHAHAHA!

7. Finally, there was the "do not play" song list and the "must play" song list. Well, we are using all of our favorite songs so far, so that isn't a concern on the must play. I think we listed three of ten. As for do not play, all I could think of was novelty songs and sexual songs.


How has your DJ experience been? Any kissing game suggestions? Did you realize just how MANY songs you would need?


Miss. Sunshine (for only 24 more days!)

Summer Reading

I'm a reader, friends. I am a reader from a young age. A lover of books. A person who balks at the thought of reading from anything other than the pages of a book.

I have so many stories of being a reader as a child-- books being confiscated at night, reading all the Harry Potter series before my friends could dig in-- and that continues today. The one difference is time. When I was younger, I read every day. I would go to bed a bit early, or sit with my family while we watched television, and stuck my head into a book. These days, it doesn't happen. During the school year I try-- seriously do-- but I always have so many other things to do that a book gets pushed to the back burner until I realize, weeks later, I'm still on page 50.

But then the summer comes, and I make up for ALL of that reading! A couple weeks ago I re-read The Book of Negros in less than 72 hours. Soon after I flipped through 50 Shades of Grey and almost cried at how horribly written it was. Honestly, I have no idea how I finished that book. Yesterday (yes, in 24 hours), I re-read the 700 pages of The Chamber by Grisham and today I read The Birth House.

The Birth House was my book in every way. I loved the way the writer painted the story, the Canadiana, the history of doctors and midwifery, and the plot line which was not so much predictable as it left you wanting events to occur. Amazing! I am kicking myself, now, because I remember working at Chapters when that book came out and thinking about buying it, but I never did. With hundreds of thousands of books and 15% off of any books I wanted, it was a dangerous place and I had to carefully plan every purchase. Somehow this was one of the many books that fell to the bottom of the list before I managed to pick it up.

As the summer goes on, I am looking for new books to read. I went to good old Value Village yesterday and picked up a bunch of books for under $20. There are a few great titles I'm excited to read, such as The Birth House, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and Belong to Me, but we shall see how it goes.

How does your summer book list look right now? Are you an avid reader?

Miss Sunshine.

The final stage

Well readers, I have officially began my transition into the last stage of engagement. I first thought about the stages reading this awesome post by a blogger on weddingbee, and it got me thinking about how my stages have gone.

Some people say I've had a whirlwind engagement, being that from start to finish it will be just over 7 months, which this day and age is nothing. Of course, don't tell this to my mom who planned her entire wedding in less than four, I believe! Anyways, when reading that blog I got to thinking about how I have dealt with it... and my stages have been slightly different. So I bestow upon you the stages of engagement in the life of Miss. Sunshine.

Stage One: The Engagement. This stage lasted about a month for me. I stared at my ring. I told everyone I knew that I was engaged when I saw them. I jumped up and down with excitement. I was so fricken happy I'm sure people began to want to wipe the smile off my face! But instead, I looked something like this for an entire month...

My jaws started to hurt after a bit. I swear.

Soon, the engagement turned to "holy sh*t, I need to plan!" which is where stage two came along.

Stage Two: Insanity. This is where wedding nightmares, venue disasters, searching for the perfect xyz and intense worries about the budget came in. Because I am a wedding planning hero, I actually transitioned through this phase from January to February, leaving everything done and decided before March Break. Trust me, that was well worth it. I believe stage two will kill any unsuspecting bride who does not realize the importance of choosing between venues, finding pastors and looking up every liquor law for the area.

Add in about 30 more post-its and that was me.

Stage Three: The DIY Excitement. After the vendors were picked, I, of course, realized I had tons of time! In fact, at the time I realized that I had, in fact, five more months until the big day! So what did I do? I became obsessed with Pinterest and DIY project. In five months I made my bridal jewellery, a hand beaded cathedral veil, a set of bridal flowers (now being used in vases), bridesmaid jewellery, bridesmaid canvas bags, glittered wine glasses, escort card holders (in my pile of garbage), an escort card board, 60 invitations, 120 envelopes (check the trash), card box sign (dogs ate it), decor, and, of course, I had at least 20 projects I started and then stopped for no apparent reason. Trust me when I warn you future brides that the DIY gets old after awhile.

I seriously looked like this at one point. If you require power tools, you are too much into DIY mode.

Stage Four: The Lull. After you finish yet another DIY and realize you need a break, you stop. Life happens, you get busy, things are pushed aside and then one day someone says, "Miss. Sunshine, do you realize you are getting married in ONE MONTH!?" and the lull ends. Seriously. It was like I went into a bridal coma and had to wake up.

Life was rainbows and unicorns. Sooooo nice.

Stage Five: Mass Panic. So, no matter how prepared you were (and I had NOTHING left on my to do list except seating chart, escort board, card box sign, gifts, limo and get my car tuned up), all of a sudden every vendor on your list will have a thousand questions that needed to be answered yesterday. Where are the tables going to be set up? What is the timeline? How many of each meal do you need? What is the final head count? What is the music list? What about photography shots? Is there still no special allergies? Can we have the money you owe us now that we are one month out? It sucks, and it is where I am.

Just tell me if you are actually going to show up, GODDAMNIT!!!!

I'm curious about stage six, but not there yet. I think it will be blissful ignorance and excitement will come back. It is in twinges, but not steadily. Too many other things on the go.

What were your stages? How is planning treating you?

Miss. Sunshine