Decorations...

Ryan and I went to Michaels yesterday to work on decorations again. We came home with a couple of ideas. I put most of it together today but now that its done we have more stuff to add to it. I am going to pick up that stuff either on my way out of town tomorrow or my way back into town on Friday. I will definitely have pictures up by next Sunday.

Ryan and I are sitting down with my parents next weekend to go over budgets and the money we have already spent. Ugh! Not looking forward to it at all! Weddings are not cheap! Ryan and I just really need to figure out how much the wedding is going to cost us so we can start planning the honeymoon! Yay!!

We are trying to get all wedding stuff finished before the end of spring break. Our lives are just going to get crazy busy with finishing up our final semesters plus the stress of getting jobs/internships, moving and this summer is going to be full with me working atleast 50 hours a week and trying to finish up projects along with the all the festivites that are going to be taking place!!

We put together a sample of our favors! Here is a picture!! Let me know what you think!!

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I am getting to the point where I just wish that Ryan and I would elope! I just want to be done with this. We booked our cake baker yesterday so we are almost done. Decorations is all that is left. Ryan and I just can't decide on what will look best and still be a decent price because we have 50 tables. Ryan and I are going to spend another evening tonight in Michaels and JoAnn Fabrics trying to design our tables.

I worked on the guest list again today! We are still at 740 people! Oh my!

New Centerpieces!

Here are some pictures of centerpieces that Melissa has put together for us!! Thanks for your help!! Ryan and I both really appreciate it!!

Some of our decoration ideas... HELP ME!!

I am not creative! Its a problem I have! These are some pictures of ideas I have found. The pails we are ordering will not be this tall we are going to have more wide ones. The pails will be full of white gerbera daisies!! I love the little lanterns, we are thinking right now that we will have the pail in the center along with the lantern but the other end of the tables have not been fully decided. Melissa made the suggestion of doing glass bowls with sand, shells and a candle! So far that is the winner! Any suggestions?!?

Here is another picture of life perservers we will have at the wedding. One will be at the entrance of the hall and another will be placed behind the bar. Our life preservers will be blue and not red but this gives you the idea!!

The Cake!

Here is a picture of the cake that Ryan and I picked out. We are not sure if we are going to add another layer to it or not. We are using the cake as a decoration and for dessert so we aren't sure if its big enough! According to the magazine it only feeds 70 people and then we are either going to do cupcakes or sheetcakes!

250 Days and Counting!!!

Yay! I know that 250 days seem so long but after waiting over 5 1/2 years to finally be married to my best friend, I cannot believe that there is only 250 days to go! The time is going to fly by!

This morning I finally booked our photographer! I feel so much better now! I love this photographer! She is willing to bend over backwards for whatever Ryan and I want. Her pictures are adorable and her price cannot be beat. She is even willing to ride the bus between the ceremony and the reception!

We also decided that we are going to have Jelly Beans for our favors. They match our colors perfectly, they will add color to our tables and they will be a yummy treat before dinner! I have a feeling the line for dinner is going to be forever long! So we are ordering 30 lbs of Jelly Beans in white, light blue and dark blue! We are just going to wrap in tulle and tie them with ribbon! Simple and hopefully cute!!

Hopefully we have everything done for a while. We have the church, deacon, bus, hall, caterer, DJ and photographer! So far so good. We have to find someone to do the cake and we will be set for a while! Yay!

Wedding Updates!

Ryan and I have just been doing little things for the wedding here and there. We have our DJ picked out all we have to do is finish the contract and send it back in.

We started to work on our favors. So far we are between Jelly Beans (my favorite), Mints (Ryan's Favorite) or Kisses. They are all pretty reasonable so we cannot eliminate because of that. I just think its funny when you go to order the Jelly Beans we need 30 lbs.! Thats so many jelly beans!!!

We picked out Mackensie's outfit! She is going to be so cute! We have not decided what Justin is going to wear yet. But this is Big Mac's outfit!!! Let me know what you think!!





















We are still working on the photographer. Ryan and I have an appointment to meet with a photographer over spring break but hopefully we can actually move the date up a little bit. The photographer will not let you reserve a date until he meets with you and pretty much see if he likes you or not. Kind of interesting but we get new engagement pictures out of it so hey thats the worse case scenario. Hopefully we will get along so we can finally say we have a photographer. That would make me feel a zillion times better.


We are also starting to work on decorations. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Our flowers for the tables are white gerbera daisies and they will be placed in silver pails but that is pretty much all we know. We do plan on scattering seashells on the table also but thats it so far.


Ryan and I looked at our budget today well over the phone anyway. So far we are staying right on budget which we were way worried about but so far so good!!! Yay us! The nice part is we do not feel we are skimping on any details.

Wedding Information!

With school I have been trying to get some wedding tasks done but unfortunately school comes first. The last couple of weeks Ryan and I have made some decisions but not too many.

I had a phone conference with our Deacon. He wanted us to make sure we were positive we did not want to have a full mass. Ryan and I took about 4.6 seconds to make that decision. A short mass is for us. We are afraid we will not have enough time to get through the receiving line, pictures and some fun before the reception. Plus I am totally bashful and am so nervous about standing up in front of that many people as it is. A long mass is just more time for me to fall on my face. Also I had to set up our first marriage counseling. We do not have to start until April which is a relief because its just one more thing to fit into our super busy semester!

We picked out the bus that we are going to have between the ceremony and the reception. This bus is awesome. It fits 30 people which we needed and it allows all of the people in our wedding party to bring their dates. Which we are very excited about. This bus comes with obviously a driver and a DJ too! We are both very excited about the bus!!! Here are a few pictures!!

We are still working on the guest list. What a job! It seems like as soon as we found a place to cut, we think of someone who is missing. I am just about ready to say that everybody can come. It would be so much easier until my caterer hands me the bill. Although our caterer is super super reasonable ($6.15ish a person, depending on what Ryan and I select for our menu in September), the money adds up extremely fast and we are trying to keep the budget as low as possible. We both keep looking at the money and saying things like its only one day,thats the price of a car or that would be nice to use a down payment on a house. We want our wedding to be nice don't get me wrong there but we are just finding ways to keep the costs down.

We still have to find a DJ, Baker for our cake, and a photographer. Photographers are kicking our butts. We are having a hard time finding a photographer we like and with the price tag we like. Not an easy mission. I have spend probably 4 or 5 hours on the phone with different places and still no contract has been set. We found a guy we really like in Grand Rapids but Ryan fears him not showing up on the big day which would be horrible. He didn't feel the need to have a contract so we are still searching. Right now I am waiting for another bride's decision on G'Vinci Photography in Linwood. If they decide to go with her then I am still on the hunt but if they decide not to go with them then we have a photographer. The lady is super nice and I really like her work plus you cannot beat her price at all. So keep your fingers crossed that the other bride does not choose her!! Here is a link to her site, its not her newest work but it kind of gives you an idea.

http://www.gvinci.com/weddings.html Let me know what you think! Also if you have any suggestions at all please let me know!!!

I think that is all of the wedding news I have right now! I will update with more as it happens!!

Biggest Loser Competition Standings!

Ryan and I have been dieting for almost 3 weeks! It actually has been alot of fun competing with him. We keep teasing each other and trying to get the other to eat cookies. Also its just nice to have your best friend going through the same things as you.

Last night we were going to rent a movie so we stopped at Meijers on our way to find a tasty snack. We spent about 25 minutes in the ice cream aisle picking up boxes and flipping them to the nutritional facts side, get disgusted and then put them back. We finally walked out with a pack of sugar free popsicles, fudgsicle and creamsicle combo! I never thought in a million years that Ryan and I would be doing that on a Friday night!

I have been a little frusturated with Ryan's progress but don't get me wrong I am so happy for him. I spend atleast an hour at the gym each day, I cut my calories to 1200 and I am trying to drink atleast 3 liters of water a day. While Ryan just watches what he eats a little and doesn't drink pop. Also he plays Wii when he gets a chance. And of course Ryan is kicking my butt.

Current Standings:
Ryan -16 lbs or 6.04%
Amanda -10 lbs. or 5.21%

Atleast the weight is coming off both of us and extremely fast so far. Hopefully it stays this positive until we both reach our goals. I personally feel maintaining would be much easier than losing!! We will update our totals again next week!!