NOM NOM NOM CAKE!

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I'll admit, cake isn't my favorite baked good or sweet treat. Brownies and cheesecake come before cake on my list. That doesn't mean, however, that we wont be having cake at our wedding. I definitely love me some cake, and our wedding package comes with one, so we will carry on the tradition of serving cake.

We have our cake tasting next week with Wild Flour Bakery. When I booked the appointment I spoke with the loveliest woman named Mona. Honestly, she is the nicest vendor I've come into contact with during this whole wedding planning process. She made me so excited just by talking with her for a few minutes. But then...THEN she told me the best part: we get to take home 7 (SEVEN!?) pieces of cake to try. One word: pumped.

As for our design, I hope to finalize it at our tasting. I like very simple (plain, even) cake designs. Luckily, Josh doesn't really care as long as it tastes good. Here are a few samples of what I like.

This is one of my absolute favorites. We would replace the red flower with a green one.

Are we seeing a pattern? One quick note, our package doesn't include the use of fondant, which is just fine with us. In our short conversation Mona told me that fondant is mostly for intricate designs and they can create the same look with butter cream as they can with fondant. Luckily we don't want any intricate designs, so we're good to go. More pics...

Again, with green flowers.

And finally, this next one might be my new favorite.

Imagine it without the icing scroll-y things.

Basically I want white butter cream icing, black ribbon, and either a single green flower or very few green flowers strewn about. No scrolls. No dots of icing. Plain, simple, modern, structured, minimalist. I can't WAIT to report back after our tasting on Tuesday.

Did you know exactly what you wanted in a cake, or did you give your baker creative license to make something fabulous?

*All cake photos from Project Wedding.

Many Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!! I just got back from dinner #1 at my dad's house and in a few hours I'll be munchin' on dinner #2 at my mom's. I have so much to be thankful for this year: Josh, my family, my friends, my health...the list goes on and on. But not to be left out are my dear readers, followers, and commenters. Without you, I would not have the drive to continue blogging. Your endless support and helpful opinions are what's getting me through this whole wedding planning process. So I wish each and every one of you a very happy Thanksgiving. You're the best!!

And to keep this wedding-related, here is a Fall-themed inspiration board for your viewing pleasure.

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Facebook Official

Today Josh and I are celebrating 4 years of "officially" being together. And by "official" clearly I mean "official on Facebook." Because that's how my generation rolls, apparently. You're not really with some one unless you make it public to the world of Facebook. So 4 years ago that's what I did. Yes, *I*.

The short version is that I wanted to be in control of how this "relationship thing" played out. I was "married" on Facebook to one of my bff's and now-BM, Nikki. I wasn't sure I was ready to go public with my relationship with Josh, so even after he and I started dating I kept my relationship status with Nik. On Thanksgiving Eve 2005 (wow...really? Wow...) Josh and I were in our respective towns enjoying some adult activities. He drunk dialed me, called me his girlfriend, and asked if that was OK. I told him yes, and when my night ended I logged on to Facebook and requested to be "in a relationship" with him. The rest, my friends, is history!

Today also happens to be my last day at my temp job! So tonight we're celebrating 2 things with a nice dinner out. I plan on drinking copious amounts of wine to mark the occasion.

So here's to us, babe, on our last dating anniversary before we become hubs and wifey.

What do you think of the whole "Facebook Official" policy our generation seems to have?

It was bound to happen

Well, ladies, it's finally happened. We've hit our first real snag in wedding planning. It has to do with, of all things, bridesmaid hair logistics. I think writing about it will either calm me down or fire me up, so we'll see how this post goes. Plus it will help to at least get all of my thoughts out coherently so when I eventually have a very awkward conversation with my hair stylist I don't um...freak out. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

One of my more minor requests (in my opinion) for my wedding is that I get ready with my bridesmaids at a hotel. I want to be comfortable, I want to dance around to a great "getting ready" playlist, and I don't want strangers watching me with no make up and rollers in my hair. I want it to be *my* space for the day. Seems like a simple enough request to me. Please, tell me if I'm wrong.

Another reason I want to be in my own hotel room to get ready is because BM Bree is doing my hair and I am doing my own make up. I don't want her to have to work in another stylist's chair and I want to be able to spread out while putting on my face. Again, simple and reasonable requests.

Over the weekend while getting mah hairs did I asked my stylist about hiring 2 girls from her salon (she is the owner and doesn't do updos) to come the morning of the wedding and do my BMs hair. Without replaying our entire conversation, she essentially said no. She didn't understand why everyone couldn't just come to the salon. (Because I don't want to.) She didn't want her girls working before her normal business hours. (I just need them there at 8 am, they'll still be making money.) She said it was a lot of trouble to haul equipment to a hotel. (Um, that's your job?) She's never let her stylists travel before. (There's a first time for everything and hello, I'm paying them!)

This was not just a blow to me as a bride, but a blow to me as an extremely loyal customer. She's been doing my hair for nearly 10 years and I shudder at the thought of ever having to go to some one else. The fact that she was pretty unwilling to work within my parameters was incredibly disappointing to hear.

The next night I called up BM Bree to get her professional opinion. She basically confirmed what I already knew but didn't want to accept: my stylist told me no without actually saying it. A cop-out, if you will. Needless to say, I'm sort of crushed. I know it's just hair, and I know it will be fine, and I know in the grand scheme of things it wont matter, but right here, right now, it does matter.

Luckily we have a very good family friend in the business who has offered to help us with whatever we need. I'm really looking forward to getting this resolved and reporting back with good news.

What was your first big snag in wedding planning?

This stuff NEVER happens to me!

I'm so excited to announce that I just won 50 (FIFTY?!) custom thank-you cards from UPrinting.com and Katie over at Random Reflections of a Perfectionist. Seriously, this kind of thing never happens to me, so I'm super duper excited. Once I receive the cards I'll be sure to post pictures.

Katie is holding another giveaway on her blog right now, so hop on over and check it out! Trust me, ladies, it's a good one :)

Have you ever won anything wedding-related?

"It feels like you're home"

Today on her blog, Meg over at A Practical Wedding shared a very powerful clip from Oprah. I would like to share it with all of you, as well.

I'm a huge supporter of gay rights and marriage equality. If two people love each other, whether a man/woman, woman/woman, or man/man, I believe they should have the right to marry. Ellen Degeneres and Portia De Rossi are a pretty perfect illustration of why I feel this way. I'm not trying to change any minds, but just watch this clip, found on HuffingtonPost.com, and tell me those two do not deserve the same rights as you and I.

Now please go watch.

Fabulosity

I really can't say enough kind words about this whole wedding blog community that I seem to have become a part of. You all are just the nicest group of gals, and it warms my heart to know that the "Bridezilla" tag doesn't apply to any of you.

The lovely author of Life, Love and Mawwaige gave me the Fabulous Blogger award. Thanks, sweetie!

I'm now to list 5 things I'm obsessed with.

1. Celeb gossip. Can't get enough of it. Yes, I am a Perez Hilton junkie. Judge if you must, but it's my (not-s0-guilty) guilty pleasure.
2. Showering. I love showering and feeling clean. Until Josh tells me that we need to get our water bill under control, I'll keep showering as much as I need to.
3. My cats. I just love them so much! Pets really do become like your children. We've only had them since April, but I can't imagine my life without them. Gratuitous kitty (and fiance) pic:
4. My Google Reader. I'm not sure how I would make it through my work day (or any other day, for that matter) without it.
5. WEDDINGS! Duh...self-explanatory.

And now, 5 bloggers much more *fabulous* than me.

-You Can't Take It With You
-Cross Country Wed
- Random Reflections of a Perfectionist
-Lucky in Love
-Little Miss Wedding Planner

You girls are the best!

Really?

Riddle me this, dear readers: why do friends/family/random strangers feel the need to inject their opinions into MY relationship/wedding plans/impending marriage? Is it because they're insecure about their own relationship? Just trying to be funny? Figuring out a good ice-breaker? Because I can't for the life of me figure it out.


Whether it's shouts of "Don't do it!" or the more stuble suggestion of "Maybe you should wait just a few more years", it's kind of insulting. I've been with this man for nearly four years. Do they not think that I've given this whole "marriage thing" some thought? Or is it because I'm young they think I couldn't possibly have found some one I want to spend the rest of my life with? No, I know what it is. It's that they have so much more life experience than me (probably due to their age) and feel that they can speak on these things with a greater level of intelligence than me. *That* must be it. Please, enlighten me.

If I were 26 or 27 I doubt anyone would blink an eye. If I were in my mid-30s and had been with some one for 4 years people would start to gossip about why we waited so long.

I've found the person I want to marry, have children with, and grow old with. How dare some one try to discourage that. Do people really feel that it is their responsibility to steer me away from marriage?

Have you encountered any Negative Nancys during your wedding planning?

Dating Ourselves

One of my favorite "wasting time" websites is My Parents Were Awesome. Readers submit photos of their parents' younger days for our viewing pleasure. I love seeing vintage photos of parents before they were *parents*. One of their recent entries was a great photo of a bride and groom on their wedding day.

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Those shoes! That tux! THOSE CHOPS!! I mean really, how amazingly retro does this couple look? Hopefully they look back on these photos and think the happiest of thoughts and not "What were we thinking?"

Like it or not all of our wedding pictures are going to look "dated" at some point. No matter how "classic" we try to make our wedding, a generation from now it's going to be viewed as what was trendy "back then." And you know what? I'm totally fine with that. I hope I can look back on my wedding photos in 10, 20, 50 years with zero regrets. The choices I'm making for my wedding are what is right for me right now, not what is right for me 20 years from now. When I show my wedding photos to my (future, hypothetical) kids, I'm sure they'll laugh and say "Oh, Mom...strapless mermaid? Really?" Yes, really, and back in "my day" it was awesome.

Are you worried about your wedding photos looking dated?

Kaboom! Crash! Splat!

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Hear that? It's the sound of my head exploding while I have a mini nervous breakdown and throw myself off a cliff. Why the dramatics?

I just set a date for Josh's parents to meet my dad.

Dun dun DUUNNNNN

"Hold on a sec, Em," you may be asking. "Haven't you and Josh been together for almost 4 years?" Yes, yes we have. Josh has met my dad and his parents have met my mom, but I've been putting off this particular meeting for a long, long time. And I'm seriously, ridiculously really really nervous. For real.

My dad and I get along fine. We're actually pretty similar and I know I get my outgoing personality (along with my long limbs) from him. But our relationship has always been less-than-ideal. You see, my dad has a lot of children. I have 2 half sisters and 4 half brothers. The custody agreement between him and my mom stated that I had to see him two times a week, Wednesdays and Sundays. With so little time to see him and so many other children (and activities of said children) to manage, our relationship never really took off the ground. I struggle with who is to blame for this, but is it really a 10-year-old's responsibility to try to foster a relationship with her father? Therapy someday might give me an answer.

Anyway, I could write much much MUCH more on my relationship with my dad, and maybe I will in a future post, but that is our relationship in a (very small) nutshell. The point of this rambling is that I'm really nervous and I can't figure out exactly why. Part of it stems from the fact that I haven't exactly painted my father in the most positive light when describing him to Josh's parents. My dad has made some very poor life choices and hurt me more times than I'd like to count. I'm not one to hold in my emotions and I consider myself an open book, so yes, I've called him every name in the book while retelling certain stories about him. That's bad, I know. Hopefully they go into this with open minds and open hearts. I'll just be happy to get this over with.

I'll give you a full report next week. That is, if my head doesn't actually explode, first.

How did things go when your parents met the future in-laws? Also, any words of encouragement? I really need them...

Ps, I'm starting this new thing where I bold certain sentences in my posts. Some of my favorite bloggers do it so I figured I'd give it a shot!

Calling all Brides...

...with cute blogs!! I want to give my little corner of the interwebs a face lift. The customization that Blogger offers just isn't cutting it anymore. So I'm turning to you, my beautifully creative readers, for help. Comment with any sites you used for templates or any other tips/tricks/advice you might have that will help me "Pimp My Blog." Thanks, you girls are the best!

Bragging

I must take a quick second to give a HUGE shout out to my man. This morning I started freaking out a bit because, well, there are less than 200 days til the wedding and there is still A LOT to get done.

The next few things on our to-do list are transportation, hotel room blocking, and the rehearsal dinner. Sounds easy enough, but with both of us working full-time, and many vendors unavailable on the weekends, I was sort of having a mini-breakdown. Enter in: Josh's day off!

I fired off an email to him this morning with names, websites, and email addresses of a few limo companies and asked him to email them. I gave him all of the info he needed and within 10 minutes the emails had been sent. What a good boy he is!!! (Not to make him sound like a dog or anything of course). He asked if there was anything else and I thought to myself "Why yes, lovey, there is!" I sent him RD info and he contacted them as well! This all made me the happiest 'lil bride in all the land. A weight has seriously been lifted off my shoulders and I'm so lucky to have a man who will help me with wedding planning. I know not all women have that luxury, so I'm milking it for SURE.

How hands-on is your fiance with wedding planning? And go ahead, brag in the comments about something great he's done lately!

Getting to know you!

Fellow blogger Katie over at Random Reflections of a Perfectionist just posted this survey about herself and her FI, Justin. I've never met a survey (or a chance to talk about myself) that I didn't like, so here are my answers:

1. What are your middle names? Mine is Alexandra, his is Matthew.

2. How long have you been together? Just about 4 years! I can't believe he's stuck with me for that long.

3. How long did you know each other before you started dating? We "knew each other" over the internet for about 3 months before our first official date.

4. Who asked who out? He pursued me for soo long and asked me to hang out countless times before I eventually said yes. For our first date it was the same, he asked me to dinner for an official "date."

5. How old are each of you? I am 23 and he is 27

6. Did you go to the same school? We went to the same college but didn't know each other.

7. Are you from the same home town? Nope! Our hometowns are about an hour apart.

8. Who is the smartest? I think we're equally smart but in different ways. He's incredibly computer/technology smart. I am a little more "street" smart I guess, but I really hate using that term. I'm making an executive decision that this is a dumb question.

9. Who majored in what? I majored in Communication and Josh majored in Computer/Electrical Engineering.

10. Who is the most sensitive? Hmm that's tough. I am probably sensitive more frequently, but he gets sensitive about certain things.

11. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Oh we've been all over! Probably the furthest is the Caribbean.

12. Who has the worst temper? Haha ohhhh that would be me. But like the sensitivity thing from above, I think I have a temper and show my emotion more often. Josh can definitely get upset about things, though. Luckily, he doesn't ever take his stresses out on me.

13. How many children do you want? Probably 2, definitely no more than 3.

14. Who does the cooking? We share that load equally!

15. Who is more social? I'd say we're pretty much the same. We both enjoy being the center of attention, but we don't crave it. (Ok, maybe I do a little bit.) We both know how to work a room and feel comfortable meeting and talking to new people. If we're at a party or a bar we're comfortable going off on our own and talking to people. I'm so thankful we don't have to be stuck to each other all the time. I don't know if I could be with some one who couldn't keep up with me on that level.

16. Who is the neat freak? Ugh...I don't wanna talk about it.

17. Who is the most stubborn? That would probably be me. But he has a stubborn side to him, just not as much as me.

18. Who wakes up earlier? I do because I shower, put on make up, and do my hair every morning. I wish I could be a brush my teeth and go type girl, but I just can't. Josh wakes up 15 min before he leaves, but I turn the light on when I leave the room so he can start the "waking up process."

19. Where was your first date? Our first date was at this cute restaurant in our college town, Athens, OH called Stephens. Or Stevens. I can't remember. Doesn't matter. But it has great food and you can BYOB!! We went on many more dates there and drank many bottles of wine. I'd love to go back next time we're in Athens.

20. Who has the bigger family? We're actually pretty close in size when you add up extended family.

21. Do you get flowers often? The last time I got flowers was on our 1 year til the wedding anniversary back in May. So unexpected and so pretty. I'm glad I don't get them often because that makes it all the more special when I do get them.

22. How do you spend the holidays? Please see this post.

23. Who is more jealous? Oh definitely me. It was a big problem early on. I just chalk it up to immaturity. I'm much better now.

24. How long did it take to get serious? We said "I love you" about 2 months after our first date, 3 months after we met face-to-face, and 6 months after our first correspondence. Not sure if the math is right...exactly why I was a Coms major.

25. Who eats more? Josh. Hands down.

26. What do you do for a living? Currently I'm a temp at a large corporation. When I grow up (whenever that may be) I want to get into event planning.

27. Who does the laundry? We do our own.

28. Who's better with the computer? Josh definitely. But I'm fairly computer literate.

29. Who drives when you are together? Usually Josh. Although most of our fights stem from his driving, so maybe I should start sharing the load.

30. What is your song? You know, we don't really have one. We have lots of songs that we love to sing together, though.

Copy, paste, and add your answers on your blog!

Happy Holidays?

Weddingbee posed another fabulous question today for their Relationship Series.

How are you deciding where you spend the holidays? Was it a big issue between you and your FI? How did you come to a decision?

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Oy. That's all I have to say about THAT. Actually, that's not true at all because I always have an opinion on things or a story to contribute.

My parent's were never married so I've always split holidays. Ever since I was little I've eaten 2 meals on the Big Three: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. A few things happened that ended this: Josh and I started getting serious and my dad split with his wife. Now if I see my dad on the holidays that's great, but if not I don't worry about it too much.

Before we got engaged, Josh and I spent the holidays (day-of) with our respective families. We would figure out a day either before or after the actual holiday to see each other's families. However, once we got engaged I really wanted us to spend the days together. Luckily, our parents only live an hour apart. His parents do dinner early and my mom does dinner late, so it all works out. The only issue is the driving. It's not so bad on Thanksgiving, but for Christmas it's a bit of a nightmare. I won't even get into specifics because it might make your head explode. Let's just say I'm looking forward to the day when we can host everyone at our place.

Have the holiday gods made life easy or hard for you?

Feelin' the love

Stacy from You Can't Take It With You awarded me this fabulous blogger award!

I must say, she is one of my favorite blogging brides right now. She manages to post nearly every day! Something I wish I could accomplish.

I'm supposed to tell you 10 interesting things about me, so here goes:

1. I'm totally not that interesting, but I'm pretty good at faking it.
2. Sometimes I make Josh play video games so I don't feel guilty about blogging or wedding planning. Win-win!
3. I'm addicted to carbs, which is REALLY not good for my waistline, especially since my freaking dress is a wee bit tight.
4. My current temp assignment is up at the end of this month. I complain about it a lot, but I am really going to miss some of the people there.
5. I take sooo many pictures of my cats but never post them for fear that people will find out that I am a crazy cat lady.
6. I survived all of college without a single cup of coffee. Now that I'm working I have to have at least a cup in the morning before I can fully function.
7. I'm a news and current event junkie. In the mornings you can find me watching Morning Joe on MSNBC and after work I'm all about Hardball with Chris Matthews.
8. I can't paint my own nails to save my freaking life. That girl gene didn't make it to me, apparently. I've also never had a pedicure and plan to keep it that way. Ick.
9. I'm terrified of getting sick and constantly trick myself into believing I am actually getting sick. I forsee it getting worse as we near W-Day.
10. I'm in love with classic names. If I hear of another Aiden, Caden, Jayden, or Brayden being born, I might puke. Also, stop adding random letters to normal names. (Of course, if anyone reading this is named one of those names or has named their child one of them, please don't take offense. It's just not my thing.)

Now here are a few of my favorite fellow bloggers that I would like to recognize (in no particular order):

I love you much
Random Relfections of a Perfectionist
Run, Knit, Get Hitched
Little Miss Wedding Planner
bride-on-purpose
The Roddy Bride Recipes <---Brand New!! Cross Country Wed
Life, Love & Mawwaige!
Wifetacular <---pretty sure she just got married

Thanks to all of you ladies for being so freakin' fabulous!

Edited to add: LauraLou over at Lucky in Love awarded me this as well. Thanks, gal!

It's the final countdown!

Duh nuh nuh nuh, buh nuh nuh nuh nuh

Europe, anyone?

Right. Well then.

When I opened up my iGoogle this morning, this was staring me in the face:

Well, that's not entirely true. When I saw it this morning there were more hours left. But that's not the point. The point is that we're at the 200-day mark, people!! This journey to the altar started way back in July 2008. Now we're nearing the end of 2009. Time truly does fly when you're having fun/planning a wedding. I hope you all will join me in these last 200 (!) days before I say "I do."