Amanda Mae's Bridal Shower

It was time for a PARTYYY! As I mentioned before, one of my best friend got married 3 months before we did.  I was her Maid of Honor and she was my Matron of Honor, pretty awesome huh? 

I was holding Amanda's Bridal Shower at our place, so first things first, here are the invites I made to invite everyone to 'shower Amanda with Love'. 

A few other projects I made for the party were pink hanging tissue paper pom-poms, chalkboard wine glasses, and of course her gift. For her gift, I got her a basket full of wine to help her get through the first year of marriage.  

Everyone had a great time and the weather was just beautiful! One of Amanda's cousins was in charge of the games and she did a great job.  

Later that night we went out to have her bachelorette party. The group of girls went downtown and enjoyed an evening out to celebrate Amanda! Such a fun weekend : ) 

Much Love, 

Liz

Wedding Planning

Okay so here I go! My goal is to get this blog caught up on our life by the end of July… aka if you are not interested in pre-wedding life skip to August.  Here are my thoughts on planning a Destination Wedding. 

First decision, location! So if you don’t know already, I’m a little indecisive on things that don’t truly matter. I knew any place we would choose, it would be absolutely wonderful (I mean come on—your closest friends & family all on vacation in one tropical location plus you get to marry the love of your life—seriously brings a smile to my face just thinking about it) BUT a small part of me worried the hotel would be dirty/falling apart and not ‘good enough’ to be up to everyone’s standards. 

After lots, lots, lots of debating & research…. We decided on Moon Palace Resort!

Moon Palace Resort has something for everyone and the prices/reviews fit just what we were looking for.  Plus it had some wonderful offers going on that gave us great deals! On top of that one of our groomsmen is a ‘member’ of Palace Resorts, which means we could all us their membership number to get those rates. 

I did lots of research on how to make this wedding what I wanted.  Here are a few things that helped me along the way…

Best Destination Wedding Website-- http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/

Okay this is a seriously great find for anyone planning a destination wedding.  Tons of brides and businesses post information... I read ALL of the 2012 Moon Palace Brides posts.  Never had the guts to post my information but I so enjoyed hearing people going through the same struggles and triumphs that I was. 

Wedding Magazines/Books—

I read so many magazines, I couldn’t even come close to guessing how many.  I was obsessed! I don’t know why but when you are planning a wedding that is the only thing you think about!  Here are a few of my favorite books on wedding planning…

Left: Everything Destination Wedding Book

Middle: Knot Guide To Destination Wedding

*Seriously read this book cover-to-cover when I started planned.. I even read some of it out loud to Chris on a road trip (I'm sure he enjoyed it as much as I did, right?)

Right: The Everything Wedding Book

Wedding Look-Book—

I ripped and printed out things that I LOVED about other weddings.  I put them in sheet protectors and a HUGE binder... it became my wedding look-book! It was great to help me organize my thoughts and what I liked.  After it got so large, I put in tabs with sections on location, dress, bridesmaids/groomsmen, inspiration, gifts, etc.

Friends & Drinks—

Okay so I was really lucky to have one of my best friends, Amanda, planning her wedding at the same time as me.  So thankful because it just so happened that many of my friends moved out of town (graduation from college and starting new careers will do that to you).  Amanda and I would have girly-drinks, looking at wedding magazines and chat about our excitement and fears.  What would a girl do without her friends?!?

For anyone out there planning a destination wedding, I know it might not be the most enjoyable all the time but it is SO worth it! 

Much Love, 

Liz 

Passport Save The Dates

Hola! 

So we decided on a destination wedding and I was in full swing planning mode! Everything was so exciting and after details about location, date and invite list were set, I was on to Save the Dates!

I knew right away that I wanted to do passport Save the Dates but didn't want to spend a million bucks.. so DIY it was. I will say that the printing took some time but this project it TOTALLY do-able for someone wanting to save some money.  I got all of the paper at Michaels, along with a few tools to help with the job.

For the paper, I used white card stock and textured colorful card stock (but make sure the back is white).  I made the template in the program Microsoft Office Publish. I put 4 of the passport pages on to 1 piece of card stock as well as printing on the front and back of each page.  Here is how I did the lay out for the template...

At this time, I couldn't decide on our 'wedding colors' so I just wanted them to be fun and bright colors.  After I printed all of the pages out I used a scissor, paper cutter and a paper corner rounder punch to get the pages ready to put together.  Thank goodness for my helpers, my mom and Kevin! 

Thankfully my mom had a long-arm stapler to reach the middle of the fold line.  We scored each of the pages and stapled the books together.  The last piece was to add the magnet on the last page.  I used clear removable adhesive zots to attach the magnets to the last page.  The magnets I ordered off of Vistaprint.  

Here are some pictures of the final product.  I LOVED the way they turned out and got so many compliments on them!

Please let me know if you have any questions about our Passport Save the Dates. Thanks! 

Much Love, 

Liz 

Engagement Photos & 'Save the Date' Circles

So a few months after we got engaged we had Chelsae Carlson with Chelsae Carlson Photography take our engagement photos.  Chelsae is based out of Fargo so it meant a drive for us but she is so nice to work with and very reasonably priced! We are so happy with them and they were perfect for our save the dates (next post on those).

For photo props, I brought along old travel suite cases (that were borrowed from a friend) since we decided to have a destination wedding.  I also made these 'Save the Date' Circles with the date of our wedding, 10/20/12.  

 'Save the Date' Circles:

I purchased all of the supplies at our locale Michaels.  

-Wooden Circles

-Wooden Sticks

-Wooden Numbers

-White Paint

-Bright Colored Paper

Super Easy To Make: First, I painted all of the wooden items white at the same time.  Since is was just for the photos, I didn't worry about the back. After all of the items were dry, I took out my glue gun and scissor.  I traced and cut the circles out of the bright colored paper.  Cut the circles slightly smaller then the wooden ones so you can see the border.  Then I used the glue gun to put it all together! Tip: I put the sticks on last to have an even surface to align the circles and numbers.  Done & Enjoy! 

It turned out to be a very fun day! 

Much Love, 

Liz 

Our Engagement

For my first post, I decided I would start at the beginning with our amazing engagement. 

This Story of How Chris Asked Me To Be His Wife…

One night in July, we had plans to have dinner at our friend's house.  I was suppose to bring the salad, so we stopped at the grocery store. Meanwhile Chris gets a call and explains that we’ll have to reschedule dinner because Erica was not feeling well.

 We changed our plans to make dinner at Chris’ apartment. After putting the potatoes in the oven and lighting the coals in the grill, Chris asked if I would go with him to take Kevin (our dog) on a walk. I agreed, even though I was a little apprehensive due to leaving the oven on while we were away. We walked across 24th Ave which wasn’t the ‘normal’ walking path but Chris convinced me that Kevin likes to go by the park.  I love to see my old elementary school, the park I had spent so much time at when I was younger, and the Cox (my maiden name) Park sign that we have taken so many photos with.  

As we got to the corner with the Cox Park sign, Chris said that he thought we should start planning our wedding and I stated that we kind of have already been doing a little planning. Chris said that we should start putting some details in place and this is why… he dug in his pocket, pulled out a beautiful diamond ring and got down on one knee. 

I started to freak out (I hate surprises and wasn’t expecting this at all!) 

It’s all a little bit of a blur but soon I heard him asking, “Elizabeth Dawn, will you marry me?” I managed to squeak out an “of course I will!” 

After some hugs, kisses and calling him a jerk about 5 times, I noticed a man walking towards us with a camera. It was Pastor Bruce from Hope Church who had been taken photos the whole time! It was a very happy, exciting and surreal moment. After posing for a few more photos we headed back to the apartment. 

On our way back, Chris told me that he had planned a surprise engagement party at my parents’ house and everyone was waiting. I was so eager to tell everyone the good news, so we turned off the oven and rushed over. 

As we drove up to the party, I notice many of our closest friends/families’ cars. It meant so much to us to celebrate this special day with some close loved ones. We walk to the backyard that was decorated in colorful lanterns, pink roses, champagne glasses and even rainbow cupcakes. “Guess what?!?” I yelled to the backyard “We’re ENGAGED!” 

Cheers, hugs and champagne toasts followed. It was one of the best days of my life and I can’t thank Chris (and all of his helpers) enough! While talking with friends, I was reminded that I had just caught the bouquet at one of my best friend’s wedding the previous weekend, guess it really does work huh! 

Much Love, 

Liz