The Day Before The Big Day!

It's hard to believe the big day has come and gone.. and boy did it sure fly by.

Here's a little recap of the night before the wedding, including some pictures.

The whole event began on Friday, May 20th with rehearsal at the Officer's Club. Things went real smooth and everyone was pumped and excited about the big day to come. Without wasting time, we headed to California Dreaming for dinner. We were joined by the wedding party a long with some of our family from out of town. Dave's mom did a amazing job decorating and organizing the dinner. It was perfect.

After dinner, we recognized each of our wedding party for their friendship and thanked them for being a part of our big day. 

Mandy & Chaunte'

Dave & Tracy

The Girls

I gave each of my girls a hanger with their name on it..  made out of wire. (I took a picture of them but can't find it right now), a fused glass pendant made by Dave's mom, along with a small photo album and a monogrammed bag.  For the guys, Dave & I made personalized beer bottle opener mounts for the groomsmen and a cornhole set for Ryan, the best man.  I hope everyone enjoyed their gifts because we really appreciate their support.

Melissa, Me & Mandy

Seeing Ashleigh For The 1st Time In 10 Years

After dinner, the girls headed back to the hotel before heading out to meet a bunch of our out-of-town guests at Wild Wings in the Vista. We got to see my friend Ashleigh and her husband, who traveled from Colorado, my friend Bryan came in from Alaska, Dave's Marine Corps buddy Bobby made the trip from California and my mom's best friend from high school and her husband came in from Alabama. We can't thank these people for traveling so far to be with us.  We had a great time drinking and dancing and just getting to celebrate and have fun before the big day!

The night before the wedding, I got to stay with some of my amazing girls.. Amanda, Melissa, Christie and Krystle at The Whitney Hotel. We had a great time and of course had girl talk before going to bed.

Time for me to get going.. I'll be back to recap the BIG DAY sometime this week!!..

Until Then....

Blinging "I Do"

I've been in the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) mode with lots of wedding things... From the programs (which I just bought all the ribbon and handles for on Black Friday) to designing the invitations and photo share cards.

One other thing I wanted to do was "bling out" my wedding shoes.  The first thing to decide...what shoes to wear. I finally decided on my hot pink pumps I got for our engagement pictures.   They are super cute and the height on them won't make me have to get my dress altered on the bottom... I won't be able to wear these all night.... but I never do at any wedding. I always switch into my flip flops so my wedding will be no different.   So it was time to start blinging!

Below are some step by step instructions (with pictures) on how to do it.

Besides my shoes, I got my invitation samples in the mail this week and I absolutely love them!!! I will be ordering the complete order this week so I'm so excited!  I can't wait for Dave's mom to address them with her beautiful calligraphy. 

Secondly, we booked and planned out rehearsal night.  Rehearsal will be at 5:30 with dinner at 7:00 p.m. at the amazing CALIFORNIA DREAMING next to the USC Campus. It's actually located right across the street from the dorm I lived in when I first met Dave!  We also celebrated my 24th birthday there... which is the first "holiday" we celebrated together as a couple.  The inside is so pretty.. The restaurant first opened its doors in 1984 in a historic railroad depot at Union Station.
On the back side of the bar (which you can see here) is a private dining room, which we have booked.  It's a great set up and I love what they have to offer.  You can select items from the menu to create to your own or have an open men. They also have waiters that will concentrate on our party and not have to worry about other tables in the restaurant.  I can't wait!



Okay so it's time to share my DIY project....

Rhinestones -- I decided to go with clear/silver and blue 5mm rhinestones. 
Then,  I had to decide what I really wanted to put on the bottom.  I thought about our initials & the wedding date, "I Do" and the date...  and that's what I went with. I printed a few of my favorite fonts to test out which one I'd like best. I cut them into little squares and decided on what I liked best...then I printed out different sizes of the chosen font to see what would be the best fit.

Next, I taped the square onto the shoe and used a safety pin to poke holes to trace the letter onto the rubber sole. Once I peeled the paper off, there was a faint outline of the letter.

Then I traced the holes with a permenant marker to make it stand out a little more so I could see it.  I then used Tacky Glue and a thin paint brush to put the glue on the shoe.. then used tweezers to put on the rhinestones.

I love the way they turned out!

More Wedding Planning

Well well.. time is drawing nearer! Less than 9 months to the big day! WOW!!! So exciting yet lots to do.
We've gotten a few things taken care of...small things but it's done.

A few weeks ago, my mom was in town for the weekend.  We had a softball team gathering on Saturday to kick off the upcoming season and celebrate Dave's team winning a championship, but on Sunday we spent the day picking out songs for the reception.  Dave had no idea it took so much to plan music.  He didn't know you had to pick all these songs out for everything like cake cutting, garter toss, entrance, etc etc.  So we probably spent about 4 hours deciding on songs.  We had a few disagreements, especially when it came down to the cake cutting song... click here to hear what Dave's choice was...Needless to say, I was totally against it and that's not what was chosen.

This past weekend, Dave's mom came into town from Vermont so we could do some rehearsal dinner planning.  We aren't really sure what we want, so we looked at all our our options. We started in the Vista and checked out Blue Marlin, Liberty Tap Room, then we decided to head over to California Dreaming, as that restaurant is one of the first places we had a date. We started thinking we wanted some more casual, so we started looking at catering options.  Dave loves BBQ and of course, there are some great BBQ places in Columbia.  We went by Doc's Barbeque and really enjoyed what they had to offer. Besides BBQ, they offer a wide variety besides BBQ.  Before heading home, we checked out Dianne's on Devine  but thought that was too much more than we wanted.  We never came down to a final decision, but we our final choices are California Dreaming and BBQ catering.

One of the things I've had the hardest time with ....invitations.  I can't find one that I'm in love with.  I finally found a website when I could design whatever I wanted and I love what I came up with.  I ordered a copy of it and it came in the mail earlier this week and I was disappointed with the paper it was printed on.  Now I'm gonna have to see if a printing company can make them for us.


Until next time....