Breathe, Just Breathe....

A few posts ago I wrote about how I was trying to stay afloat in an ocean of stress.... the ocans waters are really rocky these days! The election came, the election went. My boss lost. I am getting married in 107 days, I am unemployed in 27 days. Perfect timing huh? To add a little cherry on top, I will have been with my employer 5 years July 17th, I would be what they consider "vested" after five years, being vested allows you to collect your retirement once you are of retirement age. Seeing that I am in my twentys its still a ways out. I have to try to talk to the administrator beg them to let me stay working here until July 18th or I will loose 5 years worth on contributions to my retirement.

(photo from atr.org)



Just like that, I can watch my hard work flushed down the drain if they wont let me work an extra two weeks. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale (sorry just reminding myself again)  I know "everything happens for a reason", and "everything will work out" I am trying to think positive, keep my  head up and move on to the next but I can help but think, what if.  What if im not able to secure a new job right away, what if I have to tap in to my savings and wedding fund to pay the monthly bills.

I am not sure if I want to curl up and cry or just scream. I am a strong woman I will figure it out, but in the mean time.... please send positive thoughts my way! I can use each and every one of them!

Inhale, exhale... It will all work out, right?

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

Our engagement pictures are in and are as fabulous as I hoped they would be! Our venue is semi "all-inclusive" they have a photographer they use, but if we wanted to bring in our own we could with no penalty or problems. I was fine using their photographer as long as he/she was reputable and I would feel comfortable around them.

I was browing the venue's photographers website and the photos were Eh, it looks like he only does mostly out of town brides as most of his photos are taken on the strip.  I am a local bride, born and raised in Las Vegas and do not feel the need to take a photo in front of the Bellagio water show.

Another thing was I did not get a good vibe from him, just looking a photo of him I knew I waould not feel comfortable with this strange guy taking pictures of me getting dressed on my wedding day.

Here is where Adena, my amazing photograper comes in to play. I have known her since I was in high school and she takes stunning photos. She is new with weddings, but the ones she has shot are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! With out futher a do, here are some of my favorites from our engagement shoot.

We thought just posing in FRONT of the watefall was a little too boring for our taste. So we decided to climb it for some fun pictures, yes I climbed it in hot pink 4" heels!

This one makes me giggle.

Ahhh, I love my pink shoes!

All photos taken by Photos by Adena



Think Pink!

Pink is by far one of my favorite colors, I knew I wanted it to be one of my wedding colors. However, I did not want an overkill of pink. Such as :

(Project Wedding)

I wanted pink to be more of an accent color rather than THE color. I decided to add little pops of pink here and there. I knew I wanted pink shoes, and I found them! (see previous post)  I also knew after looking through the brilliant ladies on weddingbee.com that I wanted pink crinoline. I thought it would be near to impossible to find pink crinoline! I then learned (thanks to weddingbee) that I could dye my own crinoline in the washing machine. I did just that!

(personal photo)

This is how I dyed my crinoline:

1. Place crinoline in the washing machine around the center post, it helps prevent it from getting into one big knot.
2. Run crinoline through the wash on hot with no detergent, just with plain water to get it wet and rinse off any thing that may be sticking to the material.
3. Remove wet crinoline from machine and set aside.
4. Start the washing machine and allow it to fill with the hottest water possible. Choose the most extended wash cycle, and a load size that allows the crinoline to easily move within the machine.
5. Turn the crinoline inside-out, so that the netting is facing outward.
6. I suggest using the liquid rit, much easier than mixing!  I used two full bottles of the fuchsia to get my crinoline bright pink.
7. Wearing rubber gloves, add the crinoline to the dye bath. Allow it to agitate for at least 30 minutes. Reset the cycle for another 30 minutes of agitation if you prefer a darker/brighter color.
8. After the agitation cycle, let the crinoline finish out the rinse cycle in the washing machine.
9. I washed my crinoline with detergent to make sure the dye was set (didn't want to have pink rub off on my dress on the wedding day)
10. Hang to dry.
11. Clean the washing machine by running a large, hot water cycle and adding detergent and one cup of bleach.

I was so happy with how bright the pink turned out, The outside is a little brighter/darker pink than the mesh/tulle inside but it gives it a nice look with the various shades of pink!

(Personal Photo)

I couldn't wait to try it on under my dress for a few reasons: 1. to make sure my entire bottom half of my dress did not look pink with the crinoline under it (it didn't!) and 2. I wanted to admire my handy work (ha ha)

And it is exactly what I was hoping it would be!

Hello, my name is Shelby and I am addicted to shoes!

For my wedding day, I knew they had to be special! Since I was a little girl my mom always called me Imelda Jr. because I have always loved shoes, and lots of them! I have two pictures up in my office that sum up my love for shoes:

(Personal Photo)

I went through several pairs before I found the ones that were just right for my wedding day. Lets take a trip through the failures.

The first pair, I loved the bling on the side, and I loved that they were peep toe. However, size 7.5 too small and size 8 too big. Not to mention the color they called "Pink" was more of a maroon. FAIL.

(zappos.com)



The second pair, I loved the color I wanted pink and these were pink! I was not a big fan of the material, I was looking for more of a bright pink satin. The bow was cute, but I could do with out it. The would do, but I just knew these were not my shoes. NEXT.

(zappos.com)



THE pair! I loved the color, they were hot pink satin peep toes which I was looking for all along. They had a bling on the heel. They were perfect, and they are mine!!

(zappos.com)

The zappos photo does not do these beauties justice, so here are a few more....



(Personal Photos)



My name is Shelby, and I am in love with my wedding shoes!

DIY Pocketfold Invites.... labor of love

I decided early on I wanted pocketfold invitations, I loved the look of them and knew I had to have them. I got a few price quotes and quickly decided these invitations are not in my budget. I was going to settle for something more budget friendly. I thought I would give the whole DIY invitations a try and see how hard they could possibly be. To my surprise, I was able to do them! And not just a so-so job either. ( yes I am singing my own praises!) I am so very excited how my invites turned out. For all of the DIY brides out there here is one major word of advice... start early! I did my invitations early and am so grateful that I never once felt the need to rush through them.

The supplies:

- LOTS of patience
- 12x12 linen texture black cardstock
- 81/2 x 11 linen texture white cardstock
- hot pink satin ribon
- lots of glue runner
- 3mm pink rhinestones
- 3mm, 4mm and 5mm clear rhinestones
- scroll paper punch
- good papercutter
- Martha Stewart paper creaser... this was my lifesaver!

(Personal Photo)

My pocketfolds were made to 5x7", for me I found it was easiest to cut all of my paper first, then assemble. For the pocket, I wanted to add a little extra and found a scroll punch that added the touch I was looking for.

I cut out all of the inserts and then put them in the pocketfolds once I had all inserts cut and sorted out.

(Personal Photos)

To make the belly bands, it was easiest to cut all of the ribbon and tape the ends like so:

(Personal Photo)



I made my tags for the belly band by printing on the white linen paper, gluing it to the black linen paper so it created a border. I cut a second piece of black paper the same as the first. Place the second piece of black paper linen side down, wrap ribbon around pocketfold and tape to the black paper. Glue the top piece of black on top of the ribbon to complete the belly band.

(Personal Photo)



Here is a photo of the invitation closed, I have changed the envelope liner since I took this picture. I will post a photo a little later in the post.

(Personal Photo)

I knew I wanted pink envelopes and I was going to make them, but decided to save my sanity and just purchase the pink envelopes for the invite and the rsvp's.

The original envelope liner was replaced with this design. I was originally going to hand stamp the damask print then cut to fit the envelopes. I quickly decided against this extremely time consuming task. Enter beautiful damask scroll print paper on sale from Joann's!

(Personal Photo)

To have inner envelopes or not to have inner envelopes.... I decided not. I also decided that for my budget, calligraphy was just not going to work. I did not want to just slap any ol label on my beauties and call it a day. I loved the look of the wrap around labels and decided to make my own.

And that my lovelies is my invitation suite. A labor of love, but well worth it!







Been missing... trying to stay afloat in an ocean of stress

So, I appologize for not updating in the past few weeks.... I have been a little extremely stressed. Yes, wedding planning can be stressful, what color linens, flowers and details oh my! But, life and work has been getting the best of me in recent weeks. I think someone is testing my limits to see how much I can handle before I just fall apart.


Let me explain, I work for a Judge in Las Vegas. My employment is determined by his re-election. Usually, this wouldn't be overly stressful. He is very respected in the community, well liked and should have no problem getting re-elected. If you google Judges son arrested for Bellagio Heist.... yep you will find my boss' name. That is why my stress level has gone up and up and up.


As if that is not enough to try to handle on top of planning my own September wedding and being in one of my best friends weddings in July my fiance job added a whole new twist on things. He is in law enforcement and has to go to an academy to get his POST certification in Nevada. We have known this since January and they have not given him any information as to when it will be, just "sometime this year". He asked about our wedding and the dates we were planning our honeymoon for and was told that it should be no problem and to go ahead and book the honeymoon.


Never trust government employers. End of story. We book our honeymoon, 7 night cruise to the Carribbean balcony suite. Life is good, we are counting down the days. His Sergeant then tells him that his academy will be 8 weeks long and it starts on September 6th. Ummm we are getting married September 24th and leaving for our honemoon on September 30th. Well we WERE leaving for our honeymoon, now we get to cancel it and plan on going sometime before the end of the year hopefully.


So, that my friends is why I have not been keeping you updated on my wedding plans! But, I have been hard at work. Invitations are done. They were a labor of love and turned out amazing! I will post about those soon. I am currently working out final details on our centerpieces so I can get started. It seems like we have so much time left, but in reality we are just over 4 months away!

I bought the dress....then returned it for THE dress!

Before I was officially engaged, I went into David’s Bridal with one of my friend’s who was looking for her dress. When we walked in I saw what I thought (at the time) was the most amazing dress I have ever seen! I HAD to have it! I talked to the sales woman who informed me it was a sample and they have not officially added it to their line so what they have in stock is all they have. It cannot be ordered. My heart sunk, I wasn't engaged yet but we were talking about it a lot! Do I buy the dress before I have the ring? Is it bad luck? I kept going back and forth on it.

I brought my mom with me to go look at the dress that I fell in love with. When we got to the store she wanted me to try on the dress we went there to see, but also some that were a different style to make sure I was still set on the one dress. Looking back, I had such tunnel vision that day! I didn't even want to consider any other dress. This is the FIRST dress I bought( and later returned)

“It’s nice” .... wasn’t the reaction I was hoping for from my mom. I thought she was going to love the dress as much as I did. She told me that "it’s not what I pictured you in" While I was standing there in the fully mirrored room another bride-to-be walked out and my mom said... THAT is what I picture you in. Me, being stubborn didn't want to even try it on.  She told me that she would not pay for my wedding dress before I was engaged. (My mom has always said she wants to buy my wedding dress, I knew this was her way of saying I don't like this one bit) I decided to go ahead and order dress number one.

Fast forward one month.... I am now officially engaged! (yay!) I am thinking about our wedding plans, colors, all the details, etc. We decided on Hot Pink, Black, Silver and White. Uh oh! My dress is Ivory. My mind starts to go crazy, did I make a mistake, should I have waited, ahhhhhhh!

I decide to stop at David's Bridal on my way home from work; I know I know, you're not supposed to have dress regret. I did. I decided to try on the dress my mom loved, because even though I didn't want to admit it the day we were at the store.... a little part of me loved it too!  I asked if I could try on the dress I already purchased and the one I couldn't stop thinking about.  First, I tried on the dress I already bought.... it had lost its "wow factor" and I realized.... this thing is really heavy!  I got into dress number two..... walk out to the mirror and realize THIS is my dress, I felt like a bride.

I called my mom, told her my dilemma, asked her to go with me again to look at dresses. I also had my bridesmaids come with me. I again, put on dress number one…. Eh so so. I changed into dress number two and when I walked out my mom had a huge smile on her face, one of my bridesmaids got teary eyed… I knew this was THE dress for me.

Oh wait, of course there is a BUT… this whole dress situation has to be difficult for me! (Sorry Andrea at David’s Bridal! Thank you for being so patient with me!)  The dress I tried on was Ivory… I wanted to order white. And also THE dress is made out of delicate material and I was afraid that with a bustle, one wrong move or an accident step on the dress and my beautiful gown will have one not-so-beautiful hole.  Not to mention the lady showed me what the bustle on my gown would look like; it was a train wreck.

The picture speaks for itself! I opted for no train, in white with a cathedral veil. I will have the look of a train walking down the aisle, and the convenience of no bustle. Best of both worlds! Dress is hanging safely at my parents house and is so beautiful I cannot wait to wear it! Did any of you have dress regret? Change your dress? I did, and it was the best change I could have made!

(all personal photos)