Alrighty, ladies! I'm starting to get super stressed! All those months thinking "OH, I've got plenty of time to..." and "I'll have saved up enough by then..." etc etc... Okay, well... It's crunch time! I officially have my paperwork back from the cruise line and I have the forms to submit the final payments for all of the 'extras' but in my case it's only the $20/guest fee and the 5 Mickey Crystals I'm adding to my bouquet (Did you know that they raised the price from $6 each to $9? That's $15 extra for the same darn thing! Grr). My ceremony and reception are being held in the D Lounge, as I've been dreading. It'll be fine, I know- but of all of the breathtakingly beautiful spots on the ship, I don't consider D-Lounge to be one of them! *sighs* And my event is happening from 4-5 PM plenty of time to take photos before and afterwards and my guests can still catch the stage show and make it to dinner while all dressed up. I submitted my seating plan to Meredith about 12-hours after she gave me the tables (one 10-top, three 6-tops, and five 4-tops.) What is unfortunate about submitting the seating chart is that ABSOLUTELY NO CHANGES can be made after it's been submitted (also, guests in the same room cannot be split up between different tables).
Okay, So I guess I didn't LEARN a lot from getting my paperwork back. A lot of it was just a regurgitated version of my planning guide. One thing I did notice was that they cut the "parents/grandparents" seating song... It just vanished! I wasn't that attached to that song, so I'm not too worried about it. Just be warned if you pick a special song for that part that it might be scrapped!
Okay, now for some fun stuff including Show and Tell! The person who made the floral for my wedding party made an additional bouquet for me to use for my legal ceremony (I think it's in the pictures in another post) but he used these periwinkle/pale blue flowers amidst the pink, red, and white... Not a great look, I really don't like it at all. SO instead, I ordered a BLUE feather bouquet and matching boutonniere for my legal ceremony! Now, This isn't the one yet, but it'll be similar- I only asked that she flip/flop the amount of blue with the amount of white so it's MOSTLY blue with ivory feathers.
I was recently nudged by Michael who was nudged by his mother (who was probably nudged by somebody else!) that I hadn't gotten to the parents of the Flower Girls about their dresses! SO I sent a photo of my dress to their dad and hopefully they get dresses that compliment mine! Either way, they're two adorable sisters that are 2 and 4 years old and they'll look great regardless! SO, after thinking about what I should do for the flower girls, I started searching Etsy and I convo'ed a couple sellers and Victoria of Sweet Metal Jewels caught my attention and started working on my order right away (even before I'd paid!) With her help, I altered one of her flower fascinator hair clips to make it smaller, changed the color of the feather, and added a hidden mickey! Just today she sent me photos of the first one completed! It's darling! I'm having them made mirror image so they'll be visible when they're walking down the aisle side-by-side.
And while on Etsy purchasing those two above items (I can't wait to get them!!!) I also ordered some parts to make (AS IF I NEED ANOTHER PROJECT
) pendant necklaces for the flower girls and my maid of honor. I purchased some Swarovski crystal pendants- Two of the sparkly clear ones for the girls and a Bermuda Blue one for my MOH. (I also got a larger starfish like the FG's for me, too! I might have added a Swarovski Clam shell too! haha) The pendants were only a few dollars each, I bought 20 pinch-bails and I got 4 chains. MUCH cheaper than if I'd bought them pre-assembled from another seller! Use your imagination for a finished product! Here's pictures:
Alright, photo time is over for now
I think Show and Tell is my favorite part of my PJ!
Good News, Bad News for my bath salt project. I'm scrapping everything I've made so far. Oh, I'm not throwing it away, OH NO! I'll have plenty of bath salts to use for a LONG time! I may start giving zip-lock baggies to friends if I get sick of them
BUT I tried something new and it DIDN'T clump, not even days later! I think my original problem is that the Baking Soda, the Citric Acid, and the Dendric Salt were all powder-fine in texture. The Sea Salt and the Epsom salts were large chunky crystals. I think the combination of the fine ingredients with the oils and some liquid-glycerin diluted colorants made everything stick together in big clumps. But a few days ago, I added the chunky Sea Salt with the chunky Epsom salt, some mica colorants
(dry colorants) a small amount of Baking soda and less sweet almond oil and fragrance oil. The jar I made is still loose and perfect! Success! So now I'm just going to go to Walgreens and buy a big tub of Epsom salts and I got my big tub of Sea Salt from Hobby Lobby
I'm hoping to get that project out of the way on my next day off!
I know everything will work out and I'll (eventually) get everything done, but right now I'm getting super stressed about it all and I'm starting to lose my marbles! I've got so much on my mind that it's started to give up! For example, at work today, I called something pink that was actually yellow... TWICE! Yesterday at Work, I was delivering pretzels and churros to a cart called Pretzel Garden and I forgot the pretzels in the kitchen! And at home today I've had about 3 different slip-ups where my brain chose the wrong for what I was trying to communicate! I'm hoping my several days off next week for my Chicagoland trip will help by seeing my DM and my MOH for my color and perm, bridal shower, and final fittings, but I'm afraid it'll just bring up more and more and more little things that I need to get done! So, my dear ladies, I appreciate any advice for keeping cool! Also, wish me luck and sanity as I enter the last month and 10 days until I tie the know! I'm starting to wish it was time for the wedding so it can be over with and I don't have so much stressing me out
Of course I'm looking forward to the wedding, and it'll be bittersweet when it's over, but I'm hoping that opening an Etsy shop will keep me from being bored and help me flourish creatively! I bid you adieu, and Happy Planning to you!