I'm No Florist...But These Things Look Pretty Good!

MOH K and I took the day Saturday to do some much needed wedding planning. Here's what I had on my list:

• Flowers for bouquets/bouts/corsages/mason jar centerpieces
• Shoes for me
• Order sash for my dress
• Fabric for mason jar centerpieces
• Discuss timeline

While we didn't accomlish everything on that list, we did have quite a productive day, because...

We figured out the bouquets!

One of my finished, handcrafted bridesmaids bouquets! Personal image

We made a stop at Michael's to look at a few things, and found these cute little Ashland Spring Stem Bundles on sale for 50% off, regularly $9.99. They contained an assortment of about 7 different stems, in a variety of purple colors.

Ashland Spring Stems from Michael's - Personal image

We found 3 at that store, and had an employee call around to the other 2 stores in our area. Altogether, we were able to get our hands on 7 bunches. Unfortunately, this was a Spring item, which meant they couldn't order any more (of course). And we figured that we would need at least 11 to make all four bridesmaid bouquets plus my bridal bouquet.

Yesterday, I stopped in at a different location to pick up two that they had on hold for me. Mr. S and I went back to look at the floral section to see what other options we had to fill the bouquets. As I looked, he reached down and pulled out a small stem bundle, with many of the same purple flowers in it, plus some light green hydrangea stems, for only $7.99! Plus, the 50% off sale continues through this week. We grabbed 5 of them, thinking that should be enough to fill up all of the bouquets with. I also had a coupon good for 15% off your entire order, even sale items. Altogether, I spend only $50 on all 5 bouquets, plus ribbon to tie around the stems, and pins with little pearls on the end!

 I spent the afternoon on the couch separating these bad boys out, and experimenting with the arrangements. Here is what I started with:

All of the bunches together, plus the ribbon and pins I plan to wrap the stems with. Personal image

And here is how the four bridesmaid bouquets ended up looking:

Bouquets for my ladies! Personal image

 Side note: they look much better in person. I kept trying to send MOH K images on my phone, and it just doesn't do them justice.

I didn't think I was going to use any of the green hydrangea stems because I wasn't feeling the color. But I was able to use them as a filler for all of the bouquets. It turned out perfect!

Here are some other angles and closer up images (all images personal):

 The Little Noodle's comment when I pulled them out of the bag, was "Those look real!". As honest as 6-year old's are, I took that to mean they looked good :) Did you DIY your flowers? How did they turn out?

Happy planning!
Miss Spaghetti

Passports

When I talked about me and Mr. S's sweetie-moon a while back, I was also researching the steps we needed to take to get our Passports. In order to travel out of the country, we kinda need 'em. So I'm happy to say that we have both successfully applied, and received, our U.S. Passports! In case anyone else out there is passport-less and needs to get theirs going, here's how we did it...

Step 1: Call your local Post Office and see if you need an appointment. My Post Office required one, but my sister MOH K's didn't. If you need an appointment, they are usually during business hours, which meant I needed to leave work an hour early to make their latest appointment (4:00 pm). Keep in mind late appointments fill up faster too, so you may need to make it for a week or two out.

Step 2: Take your picture. Many stores offer Passport photos for anywhere from $10-$15. I took Mr. S's photo in our living room using the guidelines from the Department of State's website, and they accepted it, no problems. If you are not camera-savvy, I wouldn't recommend going this route. But if you are like me, I would give it a try to save the money. I had the Post Office take mine, simply because we forgot to take it at home before my appointment. It was $14.95 there. Trust me, it was NOT pretty. The guy even said I look angry and tough, so no one will mess with me in customs! HA

Step 3: Download the application form and fill out COMPLETELY. Again, the Department of State's website has tons of helpful info, including a fill-able PDF application. Just fill it out on your computer, and print it. DO NOT sign it until you are asked to at your appointment!

Step 4: Make a photo copy of the front and back of your ID. They will ask for your ID, but they also require a photo copy.

Step 5: Find your birth certificate. No copies of this needed. They will actually take your birth certificate and send it out with the application. This is normal. They will tell you that you should get your birth certificate mailed back to you a few days before you receive your passport. In Mr. S's case, they arrived in the same day. In my case, I received my passport already, but not my birth certificate. I need to check into that because it seems odd...

Step 6: Fork it up. The fee for a first time applicant for a passport book is $110 plus a $25 execution fee at the Post Office. Expedited service is an extra $60 (see Step 7).

Step 7: Figure out when you need it. The average service time is 6-8 weeks. Expedited service runs 2-3 weeks. Mr. S and I both used the normal service, and got ours back in under 3 weeks. Mine actually came back in 2 weeks (still waiting for birth certificate, however). MOH K and her hubby L had about 5 weeks in between when they scheduled their honeymoon, and the actual day they leave. She went back and forth about whether to go with the normal service, or to pay the extra for the expedited, knowing how quickly ours came back. It's up to you if you want to chance it!

Step 8: Check out the website for info if you have questions. Seriously, there is a ton of it on there, and it was really easy for me to figure all of this stuff out when I utilized the site.

Phew! I know that's a lot of details, but if you do it right you can avoid costly fees and wasted time compared to applying improperly. I hope this info helps someone else out! Anyone else planning on applying for their Passport soon?

Happy planning!
Miss Spaghetti

Double D's & Dreams

Don't be dirty, I'm talking about the double digits! They crept right up on me. I was on my Weddingwire page today and the numbers "99" were blaring at me from the countdown box. How did that happen?!

Fittingly, I had my first wedding related dream last night. It wasn't necessarily a nightmare, thankfully. But it was quite odd. After researching mason jar ideas yesterday, it would only make sense that they would make an appearance in my dream...

So it started with all of us girls in a dress shop looking for dresses for both myself and them. It was packed. There was another group in there that we started talking to. Somehow, the other bride and I decided to move or weddings up to the next day, and get married together. So the next day came, and we both got married quickly and quietly, and somehow had hotels booked for the night (separate of course). Only we had the Little Noodle with us. He kept telling me that he was disappointed that the ceremony didn't go like he had planned. And I told him we could still have a reception because we have the venue booked for June 8th.

We got to the hotel, and I went in the bathroom and started thinking about the "wedding" we had just had. I started thinking about all the things we didn't do, because it wasn't planned, like Mr. S didn't even have his wedding band. I didn't use my mason jar decor idea. Things like that. And it made me really sad. Somehow I was excited that I was finally married to my sweetheart, but things just didn't go as I had planned. And it was, as Little Noodle had put it, disappointing.

The end.

I'm usually pretty good at figuring out the underlying meaning behind my dreams (and I have some STRANGE ones). I guess this one could mean that even though I'm not too particular about things on our wedding day, I still want it to be special and about us. The ceremony in my dream was impersonal and not at all meaningful. The exact opposite of what I want for our actual wedding. Perhaps this dream is just reminding me to always look at the big picture and what is really most important.

Anyone else having wedding dreams, good or bad?

Happy planning!
Miss Spaghetti