From Hero to Zero

Silly name for a blog post but both Groomzilla and I were so disappointed when we got the mail today only to find a whopping 0 RSVP's. Today was the first day in a week and a half that we haven't gotten any. :( We still have about 100 unclaimed responses. Is this usual to get an influx of yeses the first week and then it completely tapers off? I figured it would but not this fast. So far we have 43 yeses and only one no. I'm definitely not looking forward to tracking down those last few stragglers when the time comes!

Our Yes Pile. I also love when guests write an extra special note :)
Hopefully it was just a really slow mail day. But to make it up I did receive 3 packages in the mail of gifts for various VIP's that I had ordered, so that made up for the lack of RSVP's and some of my RSVP withdrawal.

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I'd love to hear from you. Email questions, comments, or photos to blogzillabride@gmail.com

My First Fitting

I had my first dress fitting this morning and of course I arrived ten minutes early. When I walked into the seamstress shop there was already another bride dressed in her gorgeous wedding gown for her first fitting, I immediately smiled at her and told her she looked beautiful, she really did. It was as if we had an instant bond as we both knew what each other was going through. I waited my turn and again I couldn't wait to slip into my dress with all the trimmings.

I came out of the fitting room and at the same time a man and his adorable daughter around the age of three or four were walking into the shop for alterations. I overheard the little girl say to her father "Daddy, that lady is wearing such a pretty dress". He replied "Yes honey, she is getting married." My heart melted right then and there.

Judi pinned me up, showed me what my bustle would eventually look like, and voila, I was done. It was much easier than I had anticipated. As I left the shop, I had such an amazing feeling of excitement and now know that we are that much closer to the day!

How did you feel after your first fitting?!

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I'd love to hear from you. Email questions, comments, or photos to blogzillabride@gmail.com

Take My Breath Away

For the first time last night I finally had the chance to try on my dress with all of my matching "flair" (sans jewelry). When I looked in the full length mirror and please don't take this the wrong way but I literally took my breath away. There I was in the full package of what I would look like on my wedding day (shoes, veil, purse, dress). It became so real and got me even more excited. For one day, I will be allowed to look and feel like a total princess, especially since my dress, as my sister quoted is "Balls to the Wall".

Did you ever surprise yourself by the way you felt in your wedding day garb?

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I'd love to hear from you. Email questions, comments, or photos to blogzillabride@gmail.com

It's Time to Unveil the Invitations!!

Truly, way back when, I was completely dreading the invitation process, but I can't tell you how lucky I was when in the beginning of my invitation search I accidentally stumbled upon The Paper Persuasions website all by accident and boy, I can't tell you how ecstatic I am that I did. I had sent them an email letting them know my wedding colors and an idea of what I was looking for. A few days later the amazing Stephanie had written me back and referred me to an invitation on their Etsy site. It was love at first site. I kept the link saved to my favorites and when it was time, I placed the order for a sample. It was the ONE and ONLY sample invitation I ever ordered and when I received it, I knew these were going to be our wedding invitations.


Etsy Navy and Blue Blooms
I can't even begin to explain how easy my invitation process was. For me, it was effortless. Stephanie was amazing to work with, just amazing. She did all of the printing of guest addresses on my outside envelopes, all of the return address printing on the RSVP envelopes and it was all included in the final cost as well as shipping costs.

Here are my invitations, they don't look nearly as nice because I tried to white out our names and addresses so they are a bit skewed. My version is a tad different as I added the inner silver envelope which I had ordered from Paper and More and printed each invited guest on the front. I believe the inner envelope added a whole new element to the invitations.









Many have complimented how beautiful they are, and I don't have one regret whatsoever with my invitation process. Everything was truly amazing and went off without a hitch! :)

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I'd love to hear from you. Email questions, comments, or photos to blogzillabride@gmail.com

Until We Meet Again

I know I still have to recap the rest of the DC bachy weekend and post photos of the invitations as promised but this week has already started off so busy that I just have not had the time to post a real in-depth post.

Tonight is the night that I meet my dress again. My dress has been stowed away at my gal pal's house for the last 10 months and I have not laid eyes on her since. Saturday is my FIRST fitting! I don't even know what to expect, I am excited, nervous that the seamstress will say "Oh My! We have a lot of work to do", and I still can't seem to kick that anxious feeling of the unknown of what to expect. Hopefully it will just be easy as pie.

As you remember the dress I did not pick...Sarah Jessica Parker-look-a-like dress that I just HAD to try on for a photo-op (I'm not even sure if I had this on with the right side in front).


Read all about my dress shopping experience here and how I did choose the one..sorry no photos though.

How did your first fitting go? What types of things should I expect?

P.S. We received 4 more RSVP's today!

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I'd love to hear from you. Email questions, comments, or photos to blogzillabride@gmail.com

Music....CHECK!

Despite the anxiety I started feeling last night and into today, I am still plugging away at wedding planning. RSVP's have started rolling in. So far we have 4 yes'es! I will unveil the invitations to you tomorrow. I know our up north friends and family only received them on Friday.

As some of you may know I had secured an acoustic duo (which were two of the band members) to play at our ceremony and then they needed to take a break before they joined the band to begin our reception music. This left our cocktail hour completely music-less. I had put Groomzilla on the task of downloading music but I decided I really wanted to have some live music for our guests to enjoy. I remembered awhile back I had gone to a fun outdoor bar with a group of gal friends and a gal was singing/playing the guitar and I loved her and grabbed a card. I called her today, figuring that her still having the date available and wanting to travel all the way to my wedding site to play for only an hour would be out of the question..but NO, it was not, she offered me a VERY reasonable quote and was so excited that I had called.

This is a terrible quality video I found on You Tube but this will be our cocktail hour music!



I have to say I am pumped about this. Groomzilla was mad that I am now taking over his tasks but I said..well if you are not getting them done then I am moving on in!

Hope you all had a fab weekend..were there any last minute music changes for you?!

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I'd love to hear from you. Email questions, comments, or photos to blogzillabride@gmail.com

One of the Top Moments of my DC Bachelorette Weekend

I know I promised a full recap of the Bachy weekend but I am still sifting through photos as they come in. The girls far exceeded my expectations throughout the entire weekend. I just wanted to cover something extremely special they did for me that completely blew me away, a tribute to "Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue." They all chose a category and fulfilled each of them for me, each came with a very heartfelt and sentimental handwritten note.

Something Old - A ribbon used at BFF Kiki's wedding in 05'. The ribbon has been passed around in our circle of friends to all those that have had a special time in their life, a wedding, a baby, etc. My sister had it passed onto her last and she now passed it on to me. I wonder who I will pass it on to??


Something New - OH YEA! Watch out Groom!


Something Borrowed, a garter and sixpence given to Kiki by her aunt to wear on her wedding day.

Something Blue - A couple goodie bags full of all sorts of fun blue items!

A Day of Emergency kit!


Some Blue Vodka


Which was followed by this hideous face..I was forced to do this.



So there is the re-cap of my fun "Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue."

I promise to post more about the weekend but I just didn't want it to be too picture heavy!

Happy Hump Day!

We have left the Building!

Invitations are currently in the hands of the USPS and on their way to their recipients. I couldn't sleep this morning and was up before my alarm, I'm not sure if it was due to the anticipation of having my annual physical this morning at the doctors or the idea of sending out our wedding invitations, I am going to go with the latter.

I left a few minutes early so I could stop at the Post Office before my appointment. I felt a little silly sitting at the blue box and holding up the line of cars behind me while dropping off a box full of invitations. I parked and went in but the Post Office was not open yet. I then proceeded to do a "walk up" to the blue box drop offs since at the time there were no cars in line. The drop box was packed full, I assume because yesterday was a holiday and there was no mail pick up. I made sure that each one went in flat as to not crinkle them and that they went all the way into the box without falling out or getting stuck. At this point a line of cars began forming so I waved and smiled to the lady behind me and mouthed "sorry!", I wonder if she could tell I was a crazy bride.

I can't explain the feeling but I was nervous, excited, and anxious all at the same time. I wonder what the doctor thought when he took my pulse and it was beating a million times a minute!!

I am excited to receive our first RSVPs!!!

How did you feel when you finally set your invitations free???

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I'd love to hear from you. Email questions, comments, or photos to blogzillabride@gmail.com

Prepping for Bachy #1

Tomorrow morning I leave for our Nations Capitol, Washington DC where I will meet up with the girls for the weekend to celebrate my departure from the land of bachelorette-hood! This is the first of two bachelorette parties that have been planned (one for out of towners, and one for local gals). I am super excited as I don't get to see these girls as much and I know they have lots of fun planned for us. I can't wait!

Some photos of my sisters bachelorette in West Palm Beach a few summers ago. A very generous mother in law loaned us her house, we drank, ate, took a limo to South Beach for a night out on the town, relaxed on the beach, and sent Waggie off into wife-hood on a great note.

One of the Bridesmaids suggested all buying the bride a pair of undies and writing a special memory or note to the bride and not sign the card, the bride had to guess who they were from. Obviously one of the gals was a joke-ster by including these granny panties.


The Beautiful Bride to Be

On the way to Miami

Sisters

All the gals (and Cory, a friend who lives in the area) before going out to a nice dinner

So past brides, what types of embarrassing moments should I expect?! Full recap to come when I return.

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I'd love to hear from you. Email questions, comments, or photos to blogzillabride@gmail.com

Sneak Peek at Welcome Bag Tags

Since I was hot on the topic of welcome bags for out of town guests, I was inspired to create some fun tags tonight. I started planning these early and have gotten the creative bug with some other fun things I will be including in the bags (which will be featured on the blog at a later date).

Here is a sneak peek of the labels!!


I know it may seem awfully early to be getting started on these but I figure the more I get out of the way now, the less I will be stressing about closer to the day.

Will you be making personalized welcome bag labels?

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I'd love to hear from you. Email questions, comments, or photos to blogzillabride@gmail.com

Welcome Bags

My newest DIY task that I am concentrating on is welcome bags. Anyone else doing these? I know its just one more thing to stress/worry about but I think its a nice gesture to our out of town guests. I am definitely one to immediately paw through a goodie bag when I first check into a hotel.

Here are my thoughts so far on what to include in the bags:

Directions - including to rehearsal dinner venue and to the wedding venue
Schedule of events and things to do in the area
Granola bars
Bottles of water
Mini bags of chips/fritos/doritos
Gum
Mints
Tea Bags


I bought the actual bags today and will hit Sam's/BJs/Costco for non perishable items in a few weeks. I also will be printing/creating our own personalized tags.

Anyone else doing or have done these? What sorts of things are you including?
Any other good suggestions out there?

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I'd love to hear from you. Email questions, comments, or photos to blogzillabride@gmail.com

How Low Will I Go?

Today I found myself hitting an all time new wedding multitask low. At around 3:00 PM today, I looked in the full length mirror in our bedroom to see a scary reflection staring back at me. Let me try and paint the picture for you:

I was wearing my Old Navy Rockstar Jeggings, A Green tank top, I was sporting my 4" wedding shoes while trying to break them in (which actually looked quite cute with my jeggings), I had a white DIY face mask of Greek yogurt and egg whites caked all over my face, a shower-cap on my hair because I literally just got back from the salon and didn't want egg whites in my freshly highlighted hair, and I was pacing around the room while lifting my three pound pink arm weights.

So there you have it..I was breaking in my wedding day shoes, working on my beauty regimen, and toning my arm muscles all in one shot!

I admit, I have finally hit wedding rock bottom..I can not post a picture of this as it was truly too embarrassing of a moment to share.

What crazy things have you found yourself doing in order to get game day ready??

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I'd love to hear from you. Email questions, comments, or photos to blogzillabride@gmail.com

Post Office Visit

I hit the US Post Office today on my lunch hour with my invitation suite in tow. I wanted to make sure I had the invitations weighed to ensure I purchased the correct amount of postage for each one before placing them in the mail.

At the Post Office I was informed that the price of the stamp is going up 1 cent on January 22nd and that I should probably send them out before then. Yes of course I will just to be sure, could you imagine if 100 invites got returned back to my doorstep for lack of a penny on each?? I would be heartbroken and very upset to see my beautiful invitations stamped with RETURN TO SENDER all over them. Oof I bet I will have nightmares about this tonight.


I was planning on sending them out on January 24th as that marks the two month/8 week mark, but I suppose a few extra days early can't hurt.

I spent my Friday night tonight behind an assembly line stuffing 100 envelopes, and they are boxed and ready to go. Being the worry wart that I am, I stamped my parents invite and mailed it out to them JUST to make sure it makes it to them safe and sound with the correct amount of postage before placing all the stamps on the invites.

My Assembly Line (Flipped over - No Peeking until our guests receive them)

Did you have any worries about sending out your invites? How relieved will I feel once these babies are out of my hands??

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I'd love to hear from you. Email questions, comments, or photos to blogzillabride@gmail.com

Check out this Giveaway!

Hey Gals, just got word that Lillian and Alice is kicking off the new year with a bang with this fabulous giveaway!

I am loving gold this year and even received some beautiful gold bracelets for Christmas that I can't seem to take off my wrist!

Entry to the giveaway is as simple as 1.2.3! Here is the link!
Lillian and Alice Feather Necklace Giveaway

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I'd love to hear from you. Email questions, comments, or photos to blogzillabride@gmail.com

Happy Holidays (Even if a little late!)

Hello there blogger world, hope you all had a wonderful and happy, healthy holiday season. My last few weeks have been insanely busy hence being MIA on the blog for a short bit. I hope to ease back in slowly by giving you a recap of how I spent my holiday season.

I spent Christmas with my beautiful family up north in Connecticut, luckily for this wimpy Florida girl it wasn't freezing cold up there so I was able to survive. I spent a wonderful five days with friends and family and as always it was tough to come back.

I got to hang with these adorable mugs.



Coming back was especially tough because when I did make it home, I was plagued with a cold/virus/lost my voice situation. Its been a week and a half with me hacking and having no voice and I FINALLY went to the doctor today after Groomzilla told me last night "I think its time you head to the doctor". I'm pretty sure he was getting tired of me keeping him up all night with my uncontrollable cough in his ear or not being able to hold a proper conversation with me for a whole week (actually he was probably happy I could not nag him regarding his wedding task list).

Groomzilla and I started the New Year out with a bang, we attended the Citrus Bowl Parade, as we have decided to make it an annual event, two years in a row we have gone!


New Years Eve we threw a party at our new place, we had a blast and the night flew by. I thought we were going to have TOO much food but in the end I was bummed we had zero for leftovers the next day :( I also sang a little too much karaoke this night.

Some of our guests lighting off biodegradable sky lanterns.


I created a New Years Eve Resolution board and encouraged all of our guests to write down their New Years Resolution. We later turned them over and tried to guess who we thought wrote each one. It was a hit and fun for sure. I used a cork board and decorated it with scrapbook paper and then just cut out all the squares from card stock.

Before shot

New Years Day - After shot


New Years Day, those that spent the night stayed for breakfast and mimosas and we re-capped the previous night and spent a nice holiday together. At one point the karaoke started up again. :)

Gromzilla scored some tickets to the Capital One Bowl Game so him and I and three of our mutual friends tailgated for a bit and then watched the game.


Sooo is it any wonder that I started the New Year out without a voice?!

This week I have fallen back into my routine and kicked it up into high wedding gear, we are getting there..12 weeks to go and less than 80 days, yes 80 days!!!

How did you spend your New Years Holiday!?

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I'd love to hear from you. Email questions, comments, or photos to blogzillabride@gmail.com