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!