The BEST this week

1. Lennon said SHIT. That's definitely the best, worst, and funniest thing on my list this week. It was too funny but immediately I thought, "do I laugh or do I say no-no!"

2. I found the perfect nail polish for my piggies and fingers at Ulta and had to get a mani & pedi! Hot pink, of course!

3. I packed! Finally. That crap sucks. Down to the undies and the swimsuits, I'm packed except for a good magazine and journal for my carry on, I'm good. I can't wait! If any of my friends know what Nina Needs To Go is, then you'll understand when I say, "CANTWAIT!CANTWAIT!CANTWAIT!"

4. Lennon has been so good this week despite the fact that she's teething the worst teeth known to mankind. She's been a trooper, still sleeping through it and being so good. I'm amazed every day that she learns a new word, helps us out all the time and doesn't bat an eyelash when it's appropriate to say please or thank you! She's amazing! 

5. I talked to the CEO of the company I work for this week to resolve an important issue and I felt so happy after, I truly love the company I work for and trust that when a very important matter comes up it will be resolved immediately. Why is it always me that bad things happen to? Ugh. 

6. Little L is packed and ready to go to stay with Family while we are gone on our honeymoon. I will miss her dearly but after getting medical release forms notarized and packed away we should be all set. 

7. It was jean day at work Friday, Saturday and again this coming up MONDAY! When did I get so blessed? I pay $$$ to wear jeans, I'm happy and the cash is donated to help a local family in need. WIN-WIN.

8. Valentines Day was great! I got my fav. flowers & a IOU for a tattoo when we get back from Mexico! I got the hubs champagne and cupcakes, and his fav beer! Win for me and him - what girl doesn't love champagne and chocolate? 

10 Things [& more] I Wish I Knew...

BEFORE MY WEDDING DAY!

 

1. Trial your hair & MAKEUP - I did a trial run with my hair and I am SO thankful that I did. I trust my hairstylist SO very much that I didn't feel that I needed a trial run, and I thought I knew exactly what I wanted. Well, I was wrong about the "thought I knew exactly what I wanted" part. I did my hair for the trial run, and then I changed my mind that night. Without that trial run I wouldn't have been as happy as I was when I found the hairstyle I ended up with. Makeup - I didn't trial run with. Why? Because it was too costly... But, I wish I would have. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED my makeup the day of my wedding and it turned out PERFECT for what I had envisioned but playing makeup is fun, and I wish I would have gone with a more "catty smokey eye" to see what it would have looked like. I just didn't want to waste time the morning of the wedding or mess up what was already so PERF. 

2. Don't change your daily routine just for your BIG day - For example, If you normally get 8 hours of sleep you really want to make sure that's what you get the night before. I didn't sleep... let me rephrase... I REALLY DIDN'T SLEEP AT ALL!!! If you're anything like me, you'll have high anxiety and feel like you're going to lose your intestines out of both ends. Don't stay up late, don't get up too early if you don't have to and don't force yourself to eat, or take vitamins just because every blog you read tells you to eat and drink and take pills. I didn't get home until after midnight the night before due to decorating and cleaning the hall for the reception. I came home, hubs was already sleeping and if you know him, he snores like a freakin' monster. I couldn't sleep, I woke him up, we chatted for a while and talked about our big day, before ya know it, it was getting earlier... and earlier... My alarm went off just as I was dozing away and walking into la-la-land. Damn, 6:30AM came fast. I got up, showered, tried to eat, took some vitamins, drank some water but I had such a lump in my throat that I couldn't eat or drink a thing. Turns out, the vitamin, no food and queasy tummy made everything worse. Stick to your routine and you should get some rest!

3. Take YOUR time - Everyone is rushing you to be ready for the next thing... your bridal party, your photographer (at least she/he has a reason to), the person running the hall, your limo driver, etc. BIGGEST piece of advice... Take a moment to breathe, soak it all in and just relax and enjoy your wedding day! Everyone says that your wedding day goes by so fast, and truth be told, it DOES! Your photos will turn out beautiful in the end, your limo driver will get over it, your bridal party should just do what you say anyway, and the person running the hall should learn how to make people happy... (seriously, if I am there 5 minutes over my allotted time frame and there is NO wedding after, GET OVER IT and don't rush me...).

  4. Pick a time for your ceremony that DOESN'T interfere with NAP time for the "littles"- My ceremony was at 1:00PM. That's NAP time so that means it was the WORST TIME EVER for a ceremony that involved our little one. She was our flower girl and she walked down the aisle in her little tutu that matched the colors to the wedding... holding my little brothers hand and smiling a little and sucking on her paci to keep her calm. But, once she got to the end of the aisle she saw DADDY standing up on the stage so she yelled "Dada!" and tried to crawl up the stairs! Everyone said it was the cutest thing ever but of course, due to her being so overly tired she wasn't too happy when Nana and Papa tried to calm her down and take her away. She didn't sit through the ceremony and I wanted sooooooo many cute mommy & daughter photos, and family photos and we got... about 3 ALL of which are teary eyed and red cheeked. If I knew this BEFORE my wedding I would have chosen a 4:00 ceremony... Oh, well... She still looked ADORABLE!

 

 

 

5. You will NEVER make EVERYONE happy - This was by far the HARDEST part of planning our wedding! When we made our guest list it started at about 275 people. We quickly realized that we needed to cut that in half and then in half again because let's face it... at $30 per person that's a ton of freakin' money! So, we cut people.... a lot of people. We cut mostly extended family, and a lot of friends who we asked ourselves, "have we really talked to them recently... or in the last 3-6 months"? If the answer was no, then we cut them. Simple as that. But, it didn't seem simple to explain that to the family and friends that weren't invited. Especially, the family part. That wasn't so easy. I come from a family where I am the oldest grandchild on both sides, oldest great-grandchild, and I have a TON of cousins. Fact of the matter is... you cannot and will not please everyone. Everyone has their opinion on who should be invited, where they need to sit, and who they don't want to sit by. Stick to your plan, invite who you want to, try to make your soon to be husband, mother, and in-law happy and that's all that matters. Chances are people will still bitch about it but those are the people who shouldn't have been there anyway!

6. The LITTLE things don't matter so DON'T worry about them - If you forgot hairspray, buy the $8,00 travel size one at the salon. If your boobs are sweating, ask your MOH for a tissue, if you're a crier, make sure you have backup makeup. Don't sweat the small stuff, it will make you crazy... and make sure you hire a hostess. My hostess is like a mom to me, she was phenomenal, I cant stress enough how amazing she was!!! The morning of my wedding, I was a hot mess. I cried, I panicked, I took a shot, it didn't help... I was a mess. I was too worried about all the things to come. I had to get my daughter ready, I had to get dressed, my girls had to get dressed, etc. I went crazy just because of my OCD tendencies and wanting to make sure everyone was happy. If your girls stress you out, tell them to shut the F up. That usually does the trick. Thank God I had great bridesmaids, for the most part, and an amazing MOH that helped!

7. Don't WORRY - During the ceremony you might not be able to get the ring on your spouse's finger. Stress, heat, nervousness and etc. all result in swollen fingers. That ring that fit just fine last week totally won't fit without some serious shoving after saying those vows. Don't push it on, don't squeeze his hands in nervousness because it will end up in a swollen finger and a cut in the middle where you shoved the damn ring on. My hubs was about to rip my head off as soon as we walked back down the aisle! Whoops!

8. Don't buy a tight dress you can't breathe in - At the beginning of the day, my dress was PERFECT. It was snug, tight and exactly what I wanted. But, toward the end of the night it was terrible! I was MISERABLE and couldn't wait to get that damn thing off. I hated my own wedding dress at the end of the night. With drinking, dancing, eating, running around like a crazy person makes that tight ass dress even tighter, which makes sure you can't breathe! It was terrible, I can't even explain it. My dress was absolutely beautiful but if I would have known, I would have went with a dress without a corset, that was flowy, roomy, and still sexy.

9. ONLY pick the girls you CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT - I picked my girls about 9 months to 1 year in advance. I was close with every single one of them but there was 1 that I had doubts about as soon as the parties started, bridal shower party, bachelorette party, etc. I REALLY wish I would have gone with my gut feeling and had only my true friends, my real friends in my wedding. I am so thankful for the girls that made my wedding day special! Thank you so much Jes, Court, Katie, and the best MOH - Mac(sauce)! LOVE YOU ALL!

 

 

 

 
10. CAKE = WASTE OF MONEY - It's your wedding, of course you want a huge, beautiful cake but let me tell you... it's pretty, it's everything you want but... 1. No one looks at it 2. No one cares 3. No one eats the damn thing... NOT EVEN YOU and YOUR HUBS. We ordered a small two-tier cake for just us at the wedding, and that was PERFECT and we didn't feel that it was a waste of our money ($88.00 for our own cake, sure.) but buying cake for everyone at the reception was the biggest waste. No one hardly touched it and we ended up taking over 80% of it home, and didn't eat it there. You live and ya learn... right?

& MORE

You NEED an amazing photographer but... DON'T forget that you need a photographer that's personable and takes the time to get to know you and I am so happy my photographer and friend did both! Photography by - Heidi McGrandy

http://www.heidimcgrandy.com/

You WILL NOT be able to pee ALONE - So, make sure your MOH is up for the challenge of being free when YOU need to pee, lifting up your 100 pound dress around the toilet so you can pee [that's if you can find the toilet in all that tulle] OH, and make sure you take a pic like I did... ^^ Shown above ^^ :)

Screw 5 inch heels of hell - WEAR FLATS - I actually wore flats because my dress was too short to wear heels with but I foreseen that the heels would KILL my feet anyway so I was dreading wearing them. So glad I went with flats.

You NEED Chair Covers - Also, did this for my wedding but feel the need to add this to the blog because I ordered them not even 1 month before my wedding. Last minute rental and SO WORTH IT! Hubs and I debated about this being in the budget for months and still, just could not bring ourselves to add it in... but, then we came across Chic Chair Cover Boutique and we fell in love. Our wedding was BEAUTIFUL and so elegant with these chair covers. It really made the wedding 10x more amazing! Thanks, Stef! Check out her website here -- Chic Chair Cover Boutique

Uplighting - I wish, wish, WISH I had uplighting at my wedding around the walls. I feel like it would have added that "romantic" feel to the wedding and we didn't have it. Many DJ's and venue's have this included in the price but ours didn't so I really regret that one thing.

WAIT to WALK IN - Our reception began at precisely 6PM and we walked in right at 6PM when the DJ announced us... Regret - I wish we would have waited another 10 to 15 minutes until ALL of our family and friends arrived there and took their seats. 1. It was winter, roads weren't the greatest and when people arrived they had coats, mittens etc. to put away 2. NO ONE arrives on time... giving them 10 more minutes probably would have ensured everyone was there 3. All of our family wasn't there... so my aunts and uncles didn't even get to see us walk in!

Plan EVERYTHING, ORGANIZE & BUDGET - If you know me, you know all too well that I plan everything, make to-do, honey-do and to-don't lists... so we were set on that aspect. So, next was the budget... We budgeted things, to a certain extent. We still ended up having money for everything but if we would have held ourselves to a tight[er] budget we may have had more money left over to afford Jamaica instead of Mexico for the honeymoon. Oh, well.

GET A LIMO for AFTER - Also, did this... but feel I need to include it! Don't stress over your bridal party finding rides after a night of drinking... GET A LIMO! We had a limo bus for in between the ceremony and reception and also had it at midnight until 3AM for the bridal party and us to get to bars and our hotel. Although, we were too tired at the end of the night to go out to the bars and party... we enjoyed our limo ride to the hotel from the reception and enjoyed our wedding night in! But, the entire bridal party really enjoyed it and they all got home safe!

Happily ever after starts once the wedding is over -  My wedding was not the best day of my life (duh, Lennon being born was)! But seriously, don’t get me wrong… my wedding was an perfect, exactly what I wanted and so beautiful. It was a dream wedding. But, it was stressful, overwhelming, fast, busy, tiring, expensive... you name it. I have not met ONE single bride that said... "well, If I did it again it would be smaller and not as expensive... or on a beach with close fam & friends!" ... and that's so true. Was it worth it? YES! It was everything I wanted... But, the best day of my life was the next day, the day following my wedding when I woke up next to my husband with his wedding ring on. I knew right then and there that everyday following our wedding would lead to the best day of our lives. It was finally over, that feeling was amazing. I was married! I had been surrounded by amazing friends and family all night, I had a blast! My feet were sore from hours of dancing. Empty champagne bottles and chocolate candy wrappers were everywhere in our hotel room. The wedding stress was over. That’s when my husband opened his eyes and said “Good Morning Mrs. Klepsch”. That was the best day of my life and every day since.

xoxo - the Mrs.