Project Wedding Gft

I'm just going to come out and admit it. I'm a scrapbook-er. I'm a scrapbook-er who has no time to scrapbook, but I have decided to make a little gift for my future hubby on our wedding day.

GET OUT OF HERE MR. PEARL! Thank you honey. Kisses!



Mr. Pearl loves that I scrapbook, and he's always asking me to make a scrapbook for him, but I'm not so sure he understands the time and energy it takes to make a whole scrapbook. So I've decided to make Mr. Pearl a miny scrapbook that I'll hand him as his wedding gift.



The concept is easy, I used old or junk CD's, outlined them, cut them out and pasted them onto the cd. I'm using shades of black, white, grey and green and navy in order to keep the miny album cohesive. When I've finished all the CD's I'll drill through them and slip a ring clip through them. TAA DAAA... and then I will be done.

Ya, you bet I sent that baby to Photoshop and blurred out all the cheesy-ness that I wrote to the Mr.


This last CD is a work in progress, somehow I'll have to be sneaky and get Mr. Pearl to make a list of all the reasons he loves me :)

This has been my favorite wedding project so far. What are you giving to your SO as your wedding day gift?

Together At Last

It was the summer before my senior year in high school, and I was working at a small jewelery boutique, I walked into work one day (our store was in the same building as the town's fav. ice cream shop) and saw a verrrrry cute "older college boy". I was shy, and we barely even said a word to one another.

We stalked each other on Facebook for awhile, and talked occasionaly, but lost touch as the school year began.

The next summer, when he was home from college, he sent me an email, and asked if I wanted to go mini golfing with him. I was hesitant at first, just because I didn't really know him and was always shy around new people, but I knew just from our emails that he was someone that I would get along with.

After that night, we were pretty much unseperable. We spent the entire summer together and had so much fun! That fall, Mr. Pearl headed back to school in Minnesota, and I was stuck in Wisconsin.

We were in a long distance relationship for a year, and let me tell you, it was tough! We were only 5 hours away and we were able to see each other about once a month, but it was still so hard to say goodbye. And when I would go to visit him in Minneapolis, I would have butterflies for my entire trip.

After that year, Mr. Pearl and I knew that there was no way that we could keep doing it. We HAD to be together! So we made the big decision that I would take my college courses online, and that Mr. Pearl and I would move in together. It's been more than a year since we've moved in together, and while the adjustment period was def. difficult (especially because Mr. Pearl thinks he's an interior designer... ) kidding lover, kidding! we really couldn't be more happy!

I give so much credit to couples who are able to be in long distance relationships for longer than we were, or who literally never get to see each other.

While I would never want to go back to having a long distance relationship, I think that it made our relationship so strong. We had to learn to communicate with one another, or our relationship would have never survived.

Project Ringbearers Pillow : Fail

The title says it, I tried and came up with a BIG FAT FAIL. While I have to say that my idea was cool and would have been super cute, my execution was horrible. I will NOT be making an appearance on Project Runway in the very new future.

On Monday night I dragged Mr. Pearl with me to JoAnne Fabrics. He was pretty much hating me the whole time, for making him come with my to a craft store, but then again, it's not like I told him we were going somewhere he would find interesting (Yes honey, you did agree to go, on your own free will)

When we got back I pulled out the old sewing machine, which I haven't used since I tried to make myself a dress a couple years back (Again, that was an epic fail) and got to work.

Measure fabric and cut out 2 pieces of the same size, pin fabric together, so that the back of the fabric (or the part you want on the inside of the pillow) is facing OUT!

Mistake 1: And this is a biggy!!! Measure your fabric and PLEASE cut in a straight line. I did not, therefor my pillow came out lopsided and ugly...


Sew 3 sides of the pillow from end to end, your corner stitches should OVERLAP to get a nice pointy corner! On the 4th side, only sew 3/4th of the way across. Flip the pillow inside out.

Notice the lopsided and already unsightly sew-manship.

Next take batting, or fiberfill and stuff the pillow, it's important to push batting into corners. Use your hands to mold the pillow.



When your pillow is stuffed to your satisfaction it's time for some old fashion' sewin', so pull out that needle and thread! Flip the unfinished end of the pillow into- itslef and continue the stich where you sewing machine left off.


When finished, you'll have your basic pillow, I decided to sew on some details, the pleating on our ringbearers pillow will immitate the pleating on my dress.


So I pinned the pleats in place, and now I'll begin hand-sewing them, directly to the pillow. I really just folded some material until I got the desired effect, there was no technical skill behind this.

Finished product, big fail, BUT.... Mr. Pearl and I both agreed that while the idea was a good one, the execution was horrible, and that I'll have to make another one and just be a little neater!


What was your biggest or worst wedding fail? Did it turn out alright in the end?

The Big B Word

Yup, you guessed it, budget. Dealing with the budget has been an ongoing inner struggle for me.

Even before the engagement, Mr. Pearl and I did our homework, and while I knew that weddings were expensive, the costs really shocked me. When we plugged in our towns zip code, the average wedding cost was between 36 and 60K *gasp* Mr. Pearl and I both knew that now matter what, we could not justify spending this much on one day of our lives. So, we instead decided on the rather conservative estimate of 20K.

While that first wedding decision was early on, it was fairly easy for Mr. Pearl and I to come to an agreement. And while yes... I admit I did agree initially, I am now having some regrets. It physically pains me to spend this kind of moolah on one day of our lives, and I am still trying to convince Mr. Pearl to run away with me so we can elope. He's not really going for that.

So what is the budget break down you ask? Well theknot.com's budget tool has become my new best friend. My favorite thing to do is plug in numbers and see how much under budget I can get us.

Venue/Catering: 9,000.00
Decor/Flowers 1,000.00
Cake: 1,000.00
Ceremony: 500.00
Attire/Beauty: 2000.00
Music: 800.00
Photography/Videography: 2000.00
Wedding Ring: 500.00
Stationary: 200.00
Gifts/Favors: 550.00
Wedding Coordinator: 1200.00

Which leaves about 1200 for whatever else I haven't thought of yet.

The ridiculous goal? Come in UNDER budget. Think I can do it?

Did you ever have regrets about your wedding budget. In ten years do you think you'll wish you were spending more or less?

Ah Paper Source, How I Love You

This weekend I stopped into one of my favorite stores to pick up some much needed wedding supplies. While I've shopped Paper Source online, I had yet to step foot into one of their stores. But when I did, I'm pretty sure my mouth might have dropped just a little bit, and I had to make a conscious effort to close it.

I only had a few minutes to look around, but I swear that I could have spent many, many hours there, just looking at all the different stationary and crafting supplies. You could basically say, that I was in a crafters heaven.

While there, I picked up a white stamp pad and navy envelopes, just to see if I liked that better than the current lime green envelopes we had for our invites and other wedding papery.



And this is what I came up with:



Now I'll let you decide which you like better, navy envelope with white stamping? Or, do you prefer the lime envelope with black stamping?

Simply Sub-LIME: The Photographer Extrordinare

If there was one thing that made me cringe when it came to plannin' it was definitely finding the right photographer. Finding a wedding photographer was utterly terrifying to me. It seemed that every photographer I saw just didn't have that "it " factor. I mean we were looking for "drool worthy" photos! I wanted to see something that made me say, "WE NEED TO BOOK THIS GUY IMMEDIATELY" I didn't even know where to start. So I did what I always do and posted on Craigslist.

This resulted in hundreds, and this is not an exaggeration, of emails. This led to the good, the bad and the ugly, and then to our surprise, downright AMAZING Robert Wojtowicz.


All images by Robert Wojtowicz
Mr. Pearl and I love the way that he uses light and editing, to make pictures look more interesting, and vingate-y ( I hope you learn to love that word as much as I do)


He catches every carefree moment, something Mr. Pearl and I both knew that we wanted. I want to look back at our pictures and feel that raw emotion that we were feeling right there and then... cheesy? VERY! Do I care? NOPE! :)


We are so excited to have Robert as our photographer!

How did you go about finding a photographer? Was it stressful?

Relationship Series: Hobbies

What are your favorite things to do together/hobbies you both enjoy together?

Wow this one is a toughy! I don't really consider the things we do together "hobbies".

Mr. Pearl and I both enjoy watching movies, even though I think he enjoys it a little more than I do. We love to people watch, some Sunday's we just go to the mall, get a huge tub of orange chicken from Panda Express, and just sit and watch the people go by. We also enjoy spending time with our pets, Kit and Maverick.

We both think it's important to keep seperate interests and hobbies though, so when I'm being crafty, baking, painting, and shopping, Mr. Pearl likes to be involved in photography, sports (both watching and playing) and playing guitar and listening to music.