Wedding Prep Meets Scrappin'!

So i'm one of those people. You know, the overly prepared for everything, waaay too far in advance kind of people. My wedding has been no exception. I had my wedding dress before my fiance proposed (but don't worry, i'm not crazy. I'm not that girl).

I literally started planning my wedding as soon as we started seriously talking about marriage. We had been discussing it for years but this summer while Kye was away with the military we were faced with an important decision. He was getting a lump sum of money for being away and he asked me whether we should use it to take a warm-weather vacation or to get me a ring. I, at this point, had never travelled outside of Canada, not even to the States, so this was something I had to consider. I figured we'd probably get a honeymoon after we got married (so we'd get that vacation eventually!) and we are hoping to start a family sooner than later so we decided to start saving for a wedding. Thus, I ended up planning things before I was offically engaged. Not so crazy sounding now? Maybe? Okay.

So this is what I have offically booked/purchased so far:

• Dress (Including veil and headpeice)
• Reception Hall
• Ceremony Venue
• Save the Date Cards
• Engagment Photos
• Wedding invitations
• Most of the decor including rose petals, tulle, twinkle lights etc.
• Linens will be done by the end of the week
• Programs
• Cake (which is a Bliss Cupcake cake. Yum!)
• Officiant
• Deejay
• Caterer
• Bartender
• Favor Boxes and Canadian Cancer Association Donations for favors
• Guest List

...And i've been engaged for almost exactly a month :) Whos proactive??
Heres the thing though. I am doing this so soon because I know that, first off, most people book things years in advance. I learned this when we tried to book Baker Park for our wedding and the lady at Parks and Rec. laughed at us and said it has been book for a year (thats over two years in advance). Also, we are getting married in August. August is a popular month to be married and is going to be a busy month for us. I am writing finals, graduating, Kye is away with the military, We are going to be house hunting and moving to Edmonton shortly after. So I know that if I don't get this done now, I will be too overwhelmed to do it closer to the date.

So the other day when I was getting a little bit bored of scrapbooking my trip to Vancouver I decided i'd work on the cards we will have at the bar. We decided to do a donation bar instead of charging people for drinks or having them for free and taking a total loss. So I scrapped some tented cards in our wedding colors, Turquoise and Purple.

In case you were wondering I won't be making my own invites and other stationary. I priced it out and it was too expensive! My sister Katie will be scrapping the cupcake menus using The Sweet Stack paper by My Mind's Eye. Can't wait to see them!

Just Add Water

This is Milo veeeery unhappy about being bathed.
I used Deena's Penny Lane Paper pad by My Mind's Eye as well as some buttons and handmade bath embellishments I got from the dollar store. The cardstock sticker letters are from Sassafras.

This was my first crack at making the flower embellisments from paper. They were very easy to do.
First, cut out a circle using a punch or by hand. I did 2 inch circles. Then cut them in spirals and roll them up along the spiral cuts. Ta-Da! Its that easy.

November Contest

As I mentioned in my last entry, the scrapbooking kit for November from Scrapbooker's Bliss was very hard for my sisters and I! When I picked it up the lady there told me it was going to be easy. Of course I couldn't contain my excitement so I opened it as soon as I got to my car and it was full of sports related items!

Yikes. Not only do I not play sports, I have no pictures anyone I know playing sports either (unless we count childhood photos). So, needless to say I was stumped as to what to do. Almost every other month I have chosen to go against the grain when it comes to these kits. For example, a few months ago we got a kit that had paper with clouds and grass and things like that. I flipped the paper over and used the brown back and went with that. I thought it might be nice to scrap something obvious.

The kit sat on my table for a few days while I pondered various ideas. I went back into Bliss and asked to see any pages that had already been submitted (so I would know what I was up against!). Turns out someone had already submitted a beautiful page of her daughter at graduation. They were able to use all of the items and not make ot sports related so I decided, "To hell with it!" I will too! Now a page generally doesn't take me more than a few hours at most, but after seeing the page that was already submitted I was constantly second guessing every decision I made! This page literally sat on my scrapbooking table for 4 days. I stared at it a while every time I passed. Seeing as this was Thanksgiving long weekend I was pretty busy with family so I didn't have much time to work on it but I found a few minutes here and there. I was cosntanly adding things and changing things. I'm still not sure if i'm going to leave it as is.

This is what I came up with. This is mine and Kye's trip to Washington. I This was my first time experimenting with glossy accents so I went a little crazy. See if you can spot all the materials and how I used them!

I'm Fairly Green

I hope that those following this aren't anticipating pictures of mind-blowing scrapbooking layouts and ideas. I have been scrapbooking for almost a year to the day and I must admit that my skills are lacking in many areas.
I recently looked through my first every album and found the very first page I ever scrapbooked.

When comparing this to my most recent page (which I completed last night when I should have been studying for a Midterm) there are many marked improvements! I credit this first to my sisters and secondly to Scrapbookers Bliss.

My sisters and I until very recently would meet a few times a week and scrapbook in our mother's basement. Now this is no ordinary basement. It came to be referred to as "Scrapbook Central". Now how to describe it... I suppose "Unhinged Paper Pandemonium" would suffice. Quick, name your favorite scrapbooking item...We have 10!

Unfortunatley my mother required use of the long-armed quilting machine table upon which we were set up. She is currently in the process of setting up a new area in the basement for us but in the mean time I decided pack up and move my scrapping stuff elsewhere. After some discussion (read: nagging) I was able to convince Kye (my Fiance) to give up use of the spare room for me to set up a scrapbooking room! Or, more descriptively, scrapbooking "space". We live in the top floor of a house and we are running low on space. The spare room currently functions as a scrapbooking area, storage for wedding supplies, grooming supplies (including 2 dog kennels and enough shampoo to wash 3 elephants), my closet which spans an entire wall, Milo's bed and our pantry. I love it all the same though.

As much as I miss the company of my sisters and their advice ("Which damn ribbon matches?? I can't decide!!") it is nice to not have to travel 45 minutes to my paren'ts house when I feel like scrapping (which is daily).

But, I digress. This will happen often. I also owe my improvements to a store by the name of Scrapbooker's Bliss located near Mount Royal University in Calgary. I came across this little store after finding a $5 off coupon in a coupon book. Of course being the savvy shopper I am, I had to check them out. Up until this point I had been relying on Scrapbooker's Paradise, the dollar store and Micheal's for my scrapbooking supplies. I was pleasantly surprised by the incredibly friendly service and affordable prices they had! Not only that, but they have a monthly page contest that my sisters and I started participating in. The winner gets a $25 gift card but the bragging rights are infinitly more important. I have participated for maybe 5 months now and my sisters got on board soon afterwards. They sell $5 mystery kits, each containing identical items. Each contestant can use their own layout, pictures and other materials but it is required that you use at least a piece of each of the items provided. This causes one to venture quite far out of their comfort zone. They usually post the winner on their blog page so watch out for my name! None of "the sisters" as we have come to be known, have won a contest yet. Wish us luck on the october page. Here is the link for the April contest we participated in.

The First of Many

And it begins. This is my first crack at blogging! Lets see how it goes.

Well when I decided to start blogging (a whole 20 minutes ago) I found myself faced with a monumental decision: What should I blog about? Most of the blogs I have come across tend to be geared towards a certain crowd. So I thought to myself, "Self, whats so special about you?" Of course the answer is, not a whole heck of a lot. So, alas! This is what I shall blog about. It'll be like Seinfield, which claimed to be about everything and nothing. You will find my entries will center around such topics as: Scrapbooking, Wedding Preparation, Being a Military Spouse, My Cocker Spaniel Milo, Family, School...and whatever else pops into my mind. Of course this is the plan, but how often do things go according to plan?