Third time is a charm

This is my third attempt of writing out my budget. Why three times you say? Each time I would start I would get to the point of remembering something not done or someone not called. I would think about saving what I had done but then disheartened by the massiveness of what I have yet to do. Hence why this is my third time at this. But Finally I am at a point that I don't care what I have left to do! I am going to be strictly positive about what I have accomplished. And I have accomplished a lot (see positive thinking already at work). I will make this as reading friendly as possible. Please keep in mind we are not quite married yet so some numbers are the estimate. Our budget was loosely set at 12,000 with a 150ish guests.

Reception Venue $1150 tables included *discounted rate since we are members of the community.
Church $950 including pastor, building fee & coordinator
Pianist $150
Dress $1600 with alterations
Veil $25
Shoes $40
Hair $230 with trail a few weeks prior
Make-up $30
Garter $12
Groom tux Free! Gotta love Men's wWearhouse!
BM gift also Free! My grandma made each girl an crocheted afghan.
GM gifts $100 total
Parents gifts $150
Invitations and Programs DIY $450
Favors fans with menu & donation info $50
Donation to charities as favors $200
Chartering $4500 Full dinner buffet. including plates, flatware, glasses and waiters
Rentals $750 chairs and linens
Cake $300
Cake Topper $50 DIY
Flowers $1600
Photographer $2400
Videographer Free We are having a family friend do it and then we will edit it later.
DJ estimated $800 *due to a family emergency we are looking for a DJ still so this is my max amount I would like to spend.
Photo Guest book $35
Flower girl dresses $80 *apx for two
Flower girl baskets $20 for two
Petals for aisle $100
Total cost of wedding to-date 15,772

Memories that will last a lifetime...Priceless. :)

Ok so we are over budget, but as I said in the beginning our budget was loose and I knew I would have some wiggle room. I went over on my estimated photographer, DJ and floral costs. I really did do a lot of research and tried to get the most bang for my buck on all aspects of the wedding.
I didn't include the rings because they were not really a "wedding day" expense in my mind. I also didn't include the honeymoon or rehersal dinner costs because they too were not a "wedding day" expense in my mind.

Milestone moments

I got to thinking this morning and realizes my vacation to Miami is my last vacation before the wedding. Gulp! I started thinking about all the vacations I have taken as a "single girl" and next vacation I will be a "married woman". Smile! And then the best thought popped in my head- when I get back home I will officially be able to say I am getting married next month. Yippy!!! I just love all the big and little milestones I have had during our engagement. There was the-we set the date moment, thank goodness I found my dress moment, the venue I love has our date open moment, finally the wedding is in 100 days moment and now the we are getting married next month moment! Of course we all had the oh my gosh we are engaged moment but what have been some of your favorite moments so far?

No, not the kid question again...

“When are you going to start having kids?” Ever since we got engaged this has been the question. I feel like I should have a little note taped on my head that says "we are not having kids right away". Family and good friends I don’t mind so much when they ask. But casual acquaintances that see I am engaged and start in with that it does hit a small nerve. Normally I will politely smile and “answer no time soon” or “in a few years”. But in my head I am thinking “Can we just make it through the wedding before you ask me that!” What questions have you been asked while planning your wedding that drives you up the wall?

P.S. Prior to being engaged the question I constantly got was “so when are you getting married” which is just as bad ad the kid question.

S.O.S to Miami brides

I need a vacation before my head pops with wedding ideas and house buying stress. So off I go later this week to the fabulous city of Miami with my one of my best friends. The original purpose of this trip was planned before I got engaged. We were to visit my brother who is attending college down there, but what perfect timing! I have heard some really great things about Miami. I am ready to enjoy the sun, the food and I am dying to go shopping! I figured while I am there I would also look the last item on my list. A simple (and I do mean simple) white flower girl dress in size 2T. I already have one taken care of but unfortunately the sale rack didn’t include 2T :(. Not that it has to be on sale but come on $100 for a toddlers dress is just not what I planned on doing. Can any of you Miami brides give me some suggestions of places to look while I am down there? Here is what my other flower girl dress looks like.

Also this is our first visit to Miami. I would love any suggestions that you could offer for fun places that we should not miss!

Ceremony Decor

As I have mentioned before our ceremony will be held in Church. Its a lovely. Huge bell tower, beautiful stain glass windows and wooden pews. Now here is my dilemma. How much do I need to decorate? How much are your decorating your ceremony venue? Come on all crafty brides here is your time to shine! And all of the brides that feel like they have a black thumbs when it comes to crafts tell me what you plan on doing too, I am all ears of any ideas!

Shy guy

I am a very open and vocal kind of bee. I love to meet new people and standing front of a crowd to make a speech has never scared me. Mr Butterscotch doesn't feel the same way. He isn't really into meeting new people if he doesn't have to and he hates taking pictures. Some may call it anti-social but I just call it shy. And I love my shy guy :), I think we balance each other out. One thing he has requested from me is to always leave his name off my blog along with any pictures. But wait I love taking and being in pictures so, ugh, to him! So I apologize in advance for any pictures that are posted with his face dotted out.
Now that said, I just ordered my picture filled guest book (yes he actually gave me the green light on this). It will be in my hot little hands sometime next week. I chose photos of us through the years along with shots of us as kids. I will post my review of the quality once I get it. I used my publisher and I know they have had a bad rap within the hive. But the cost and basic easiness of organizing the book were too good to pass up. Here is the layout. On the opening page I put the proposal story followed by many years of pictures of the Butterscotch's. What do you think?

and the winner is....

Yeah I am Miss Butterscotch! They just posted my intro on weddingbee.com. Take a look. I will be posting my "get to me a little more" tomorrow. In that I will tell you a couple of the reasons why I chose butterscotch as my name. And a little more about me and the Mr. Butterscotch.

Last major thing to check off...

DJ and Tuxes. And that is it...Well that and a handful of other random small task here and there. This weekend one of my dad fathers day gifts will be to go to the tux store with me. We thought about having him in just a suit but since his job doesnt have a dress code like taht we decided it would be much more cost effective to rent. My wonderful fiance is busy doing wedding tasks today and he just informed me that Mens warehouse says its crunch time for rentals and we should get our order in FAST. But I have two months! Oh wait I only have two months.

Exciting News...

Yesterday after a long day at work I got a wonderful email from my favorite wedding site weddingbee.com and drum roll please.....I get to be a new bee! So exciting! They gave me a few choices of names too but I am keeping mine a secret until my grand debut next week. Wish me luck!

A penny saved is a penny earned...

That is my motto when it comes to some wedding items. Sure I was willing to drop a small fortune when it came to my venue and dress, but luckily I didn't have to on either. So whenever I see a chance to save a few pennies I go for it. For example my flower girl dresses. We waited until after Easter to find the dresses. Well although that was a good plan in theory it did still have a few bumps. My girls are my sister 9years old and our niece 1 1/2 years old. So that is about a size 8 and 2T. I found my sister one dress at JcPenny on sale for $29 originally $59! It's a plain white dress so I felt $29 was a great price. And I added some customizations to the dress to give it some pizazz! What do you think? I also made our ring pillow in the same material. The material was also on sale and I had my 40% off coupon from JoAnn's so for the 3 yards I bought it was only $4 for silk!
Before


And After


The fabric and the ring pillow

Miracle cream

I am pretty lucky and I have really good skin, but like any well planning bride I am thinking ahead to the big day. I rarely breakout (knock on wood). But I do get tiny bumps on my forehead if I don’t wash my face after I work out or if I am really stressed. That was until I found my miracle cream about two years ago. I love this stuff! I went in and got a facial and my tech recommended I try this. Ahhhhh it feels like a breath of air on your face! So I used it for a year with true dedication. But then I got cocky and decided I didn’t need it and would switch to a different and less expensive brand. Well I used the lesser brand for like 3 months and in that time my skin was not as semi-flawless as it was on the daily moisturizer from skinceuticals. So back on the skinceuitcals for about a month now and my skin is glowing! No really it is so wonderful! I have recommended it to all of my girlfriends and now I just wanted to share it with you. For this jar it is about $40-$50 it last a long time because you don’t need to use gobs and gobs of it. I think it last on average 4 months. Sorry I don’t have a before and after photo for you but if you ever see this out you should ask the counter for a sample and see what I am talking about.

P.S. I took this to Sydney with me and I got a little over baked from the sun and my skin felt like heaven when I put in on and I didn’t peel at all either.

Sexy back!

Ok so here is the picture of my gorgeous maid of honor in her dress. What do you think? I love the jewel toned color. All of the girls are either olive toned or dark complexion so the dress looks great on them! The shoes are dark in this picture but they match the dress perfectly and they were only $15 on amazon and no dying needed!

2 months are you kidding me?!?!?

UGH!!! As of today the wedding is in exactly two months! CRAP!!! We got engaged in late September set our wedding date in November, I had so much time ahead of me! And now in two month I will be walking down the aisle, are you kidding me? Don't get me wrong I am way happy, but talk about how time fly! I have finally gotten out of my slump (my uncle wouldn't want me to be sad during this time) This weekend was really productive. I finished the flower girl sashes and the ping bearer pillow I even started on the wedding fan favors. Oh and the major vendor I was able to check off is rentals. My dad and I went to the rental place and placed our order and paid for it. So here is what I still need to do at with two months to go...
1. Hire a Dj
2. Find 2nd flower girl dress
3. Finish initial banner to hang on door
4. Fan favors
5. Order picture guest book (also finish scanning in picture of us)
Hmmm....that is all that I can think of but as you can see they all all pretty important.

Long time no blog

Sorry I have been away. My wonderfully amazing Uncle Darien who was battling lung cancer passed away just about two weeks ago. He was only 45 and never smoked a day in his life. The only thing that has given us peace is to know he is no longer in pain. I had originally planned to make donations instead of favors at the wedding. I was hoping that I could have his say in honor rather than in memory. I am grateful that I am able to donate to hopefully help another family going through this. Personally I think donations is much more useful than a favor. We are already feeding the guest a full and yummy meal, not to mention how grateful we are everyone can be with us on the day. So I wanted to memorialize the three uncles that are no longer with us. What do you think? Do you love getting favors at weddings or do you appreciate a donation more?