DIY bouquet trial run

Inspired by some pretty flowers I saw at Publix after picking out my bridesmaids' dresses and this article from Real Simple, I decided something crazy. Why don't I make my own bouquet for the wedding?

Materials I used:
7/8" silver ribbon ($2.00 for 7 yards)*
floral wire ($1.14 for 175 feet)*
floral stem wrapping tape ($1.00 for two 1/2"x90' rolls)*
long pearlized pins ($2.47 for 100)
2 dozen pink & white roses ($5.00 per dozen)*
kitchen scissors
* indicates sale price

First thing I did was open up the cellophane and lay out the roses.

And then I decided to take some completely unnecessary photos.

Then, I actually got to work and took all the leaves and thorns off the stems.

Then I tried to take an action shot of me bundling the roses. I failed miserably and cut off my head. Take your time bundling, though! It's easy to get your flowers uneven which, if you continue, you'll see that I did just that.

Next, I wrapped floral wire around two points on the stem. This is hard than I anticipated because it doesn't hold super great and is kind of slippy. What I did was not the two ends of wire together and the wrapped the excess wire around the opposite way from which it was originally wrapped. I did this so the wire would fold at the knot area. Does that make sense?

Following the floral wire was the floral tape. This stuff is sticky on both sides which is great. However, it looks like mini-crepe paper and is about as thin. It doesn't stretch a ton so you can't use it to wrap the stems super tight. I was grateful that I had the wire down before the tape to really hold things.

After the tape, I wrapped my ribbon. I didn't know how to begin and I had this great idea of weaving it in and out of some of the stems. I'm not sure how I like that. The ribbon isn't as smooth as it is on professionally done flowers. I don't think I care though.

I used to pearlized pins to keep the ribbon together. I just shoved them into the shaft a teeny bit of the way (enough to get past the tape but not enough to get down to the stems) and then up.

Next, I cut off the excess stems. This was kind of crazy and bits of stem went flying everywhere. It's a little longer than I wanted but not bad for my first try at a bouquet, eh?

Next, I took more completely unnecessary photos. See the photo with me holding the roses looking silly? That's the real color of the flowers I was using. The rest are peachy due to yellow like and my general dislike of cheap camera flash. (Neither color, pink or peach, are mine, by the way. I just bought the flowers that were on clearance.)

While it's not a horrible bouquet, it is certainly not a lovely one either. I think I may unwrap and try it all again. I'm glad I decided to do a trial run before it got too close. I'd hate to get to my wedding day and realize all I could make were ugly bouquets. Please, let me know what you think. And if you've done this before, I'd love some tips!

Next trial run: hair and makeup. Those pictures will NOT be posted as Mike reads this blog. ;)

In last night's bad dream...

I took a nap and ended up sleeping through most of my wedding reception.
I find the photographer finishing up taking photos. And I missed them ALL.
There was a Halo 3 tournament at my reception which was catered by Chick-fil-a.

They say that something will go wrong on your wedding day so be prepared and don't freak out. I'm mentally prepped for rain (the wedding is outside) or flower mishaps. But not for a Halo 3 tournament. I texted Mike this morning and told him about that part of my dream. His response?

"was going to surprise you"

try a little tenderness

pack rat

I've slowly been accomplishing one of the most daunting tasks on my to-do-before-August-15th check list. Packing & moving.

Luckily, Mike lives ten minutes on a bad day away from me and so I've been able to take a few things each trip. The biggest load of little stuff was my first trip: books! I intended to just take a few, but then my roommate and I just put ALL of them in the trunk of my car. I only have about a hundred-ish books but together with Mike, our books fill up five bookcases!

This evening, while Mike led a guys' bible study, I started weeding through my stuff and was amazed at how much junk I like to stuff into my tiny bedroom. I'm a recovering pack-rat, you know. After a move in May 2008 and a de-cluttering sometime in the past six months, I still have a lot of clutter.

Oh, and I'm being serenaded by my Pandora playlist based of of "At Last" by Etta James. The songs have included ones by The Platters, Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding, to name a few. Loving it! :)

4 weeks to go...

Who ever thought that would seem like such a long time?

So, when are you getting married?

My roommate asked me this shortly after barging in my room to see my ring. (Barging in rooms in not always acceptable. When it involves engagement rings, however, it totally is.)

Like, three months. I said, nonchalantly.

Oh my gosh! You're already into your 90-day countdown!

But our 90-day countdown only lasted one day, because the next day, Mike threw out this idea:

Would you be open to....if God just opened up doors and let everything fall into place...getting married in, like, six weeks?

It was a crazy thought. Six weeks? Is that even possible? But I agreed. Hey--the sooner I'm married to this wonderful man, the better! Well, we decided to try and plan a wedding before I started school. The new date gave me exactly five weeks from the day I got engaged.

Oh. my. gosh.

But guess what? God really is just bringing everything together.

We've started pre-marital counseling. I've bought my dress and I'll get it back from the alteration shop at least 10-days prior to the wedding. We've got places for the ceremony and reception. We've got a caterer, a photographer, a videographer, and a pastor. The invitations went out today. We've got a website. We've got our attendants, flower girl, & ring bearer.

And we've been engaged for less than a week!

picture time!

Mike and I right after he proposed.

and a few shots of the gorgeous ring that he designed just for me ^_^

How many days does it take to plan a wedding?

And praise God, everything is really falling into place. ^_^

Proposal

I knew it was coming. I mean, I didn’t know it was coming *today* or anything...but I knew that it would be here soon. We even went ring shopping a few weeks ago. The trip was thoroughly unsuccessful, though, because it is impossible to get something “uniquely from him” FROM THE MALL. 

In order to get that unique ring, he had been designing one, but it was slow going.
However, when we planned on going hiking, nothing seemed amiss. After all, I was the one who first mentioned wanting to hiking a few weeks ago. We were headed there and he was unsure as to whether the hike would be successful from the get-go. He hadn’t been out there in nearly a decade and wasn’t even sure if he would be able to find the trail.

But, yay, we found the trail. It was off behind an old baptist church and by the way he spoke of it, no one used it much. “Great. We’re going to get eaten by a bear,” said the gal who only ever had done hiking by the book. There were definitely no blazes on this trail. Luckily it didn’t seem to be wholly unused and the trail was fairly easy to follow. The hike was a whopping five minutes--maybe ten--to the top of the little waterfall and a few more to the bottom.

We slipped off our shoes for a bit. We hopped from rock to rock, waded around, and splashed each other before attending the call of the stomaches.

After making our way back up to the top of the falls, we found a perfect spot to set down our blanket and have lunch. As I munched, I looked around and thought that this place would have been such a nice place to get engaged. But I didn’t say anything about that! I was so convinced that the ring was still at least a month away that I was clueless as to what was really going on.

After we were full we lay in the sunlight listening to the waterfall. We chatted some and we napped some. I couldn’t tell you how much time had passed but eventually we started getting ready to go. I slipped my shoes back on and turned around to pick things up and there he was kneeling before me!

“Before we go, I have something to ask you.” He said, reaching into his pocket.

I froze in disbelief as he opened a black velvet box and oh-my-gosh-that-is-an-sparkly-engagement-ring-in-there. I could barely focus on the ring. Was this really happening???

“Will you marry me?” He grinned this goofy grin that I just love.

I started giggling.
And then crying.
And then giggling.
And then I threw my arms around him.
“Yes!”

He laughed. “Really?”
“Oh, no." I said, through my laughter and tears, "Maybe I should think about it overnight.”

And then we laughed even harder because that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Wedblog, the introduction

What's a wedblog? Well, the word itself is part wedding, part play on the word "weblog." Oh, yes, you did read that right. WEDDING. As in, Mike and I got engaged on Saturday. It was beautiful and perfect and I'll tell you the story soon enough.

I was planning on waiting for pictures before I posted the news to the world wide web, but either my card reader or my usb ports are bad and I cannot currently upload any photos. And I'm eager to start writing about it!

The number two question we get asked (after how did he propose?) is When is the date? Well, we've decided that we've been dating long enough and we want to get married as soon as possible. I'm not entirely sure what that will mean until I finalize a venue. But it definitely will be an adventure!

Bones

Ever watch the show Bones? I love that show. It's like my new X-files. The good-looking FBI agents, the tension between the main characters, and the weirdness and mystery behind the cases. I'd write a full-blown review...but the commercial break is over.

Cupcakes!

Overheard at the pool

Teenage boy: Man, you've gotta eat breakfast. It's, like, the most important meal or whatever. I know people who don't eat breakfast and they're, like, always tired
Teenage girl: I don't ever eat breakfast.
Teenage boy: Well, yeah, except for girls. They can get away with it 'cause they're used to not eating breakfast.