Another Change?

Thanks to one of my Knottie sisters, Cincy, and her helpful daily gorgeous wedding posts, I realized today that I want small simple, elegant centerpieces! What we plan to have currently is tall vases filled with limes with calla lilies at the top. GREAT! Because our colors are navy and lime, so that matches the color scheme. But now, I'm thinking small, sexy centerpieces. Something with classic flower and some candles. {Similar to those in today's daily post, wedding #1.}

With that said, I'm trying to figure out how to make navy and lime {and some silver} classic and sexy. Or I'm thinking maybe we should just change the colors. It's not like we've bought anything in the colors anyway.

I pose this question to whoever might be reading, as well as the ladies on TK:

Do you think I can do the sexy, dim room with up-lighting and pull it off with the navy and lime or should we change it to something else, like red and black or something?

Also, with the new simplicity, I think I'd have to change up our table numbers {that I need to post on here.} Maybe something with just numbers instead of our e-pix. Or I can do the e-pix in black and white.

I think I'm just rambling.

Here are some small centerpieces that I like:

I wonder if I could do this with limes, calla lilies, and candles.


Or this with callas and candles.


This with different flowers.

Or this.

I should be deciding soon what way we're going to go with the colors and centerpieces. I'm hoping that the smaller centerpieces will cut some cost, but candles can be expensive. BUT they can be bought in bulk. So, who knows?!

Polished Up

Saturday, I went to get my nails done because it was that time! I have an overlay over my nails and I keep them with French tips. It was time for a pink and white refill. I initially wanted to get them soaked off and get Shallac, but when I went last week for the lady to fix a chip that broke, she clipped my fingernail real short. So, basically, I have all long nails and one short, and I didn't know how that would look. So, I opted out of the Shellac. But what I did want was a solid color on my nails! I've NEVER liked solid colors on my nails. I've always had French tips or clear. I've been getting solid colors on my toenails, though. Anyway, Babe doesn't care for solid colors either, but I explained to him that I was tired of seeing those white tips! I told him to pick a color for me, and he came back with four. I picked the orange like color.

I love this color! It's so pretty to me! BUT I do kinna miss my French tips. Bittersweet.

Save That Date!!!

I FINALLY ordered our STDs!!! Thanks to VPs free magnets and 50% off uploading coupon {then the upload is free after paying once} I spent $27.09 for 50 large magnets!!! YAY!!! Now I need to go to Office Depot to get some envelopes. But I guess that can wait until the STDs come in. Don't wanna get the wrong size envelopes.

With This Ring....

So, the other day, like two weeks ago, I picked Babe's wedding band! No, I don't have a pic. Yeah, I know, I suck, but I just remembered! It's 1/4 ct and it has round diamonds, like my ring, and the grain {or whatever it's called} that matches my ring! So, I love it, he loves it, and that's all that matters. I will update with a picture later.

You're Invited

So, I've been looking for a graphic designer for my invitations. I've gotten quotes from $20-$150 just to design my invitations and RSVP cards. Last night, I decided that I would give it one more try. So, this morning, I got on Publisher and sized the paper to the size it needed to be for my invitations. {Glad I figured out how.} Then I designed two invitations, one portrait and one landscape. I emailed them to Babe so he could tell me which one he liked. We agreed on one. So, I started playing with printing it. I was printing it on 8x11 paper. So, it was printing in the middle of the page.

The font I used as a design wasn't printing out. I copied it to paint and pasted it back to Publisher, so it printed. THEN I had to play with the color of the design. Finally got that right. So, I tried to print it on my 6.5x4.5 paper from Cards and Pockets. It wasn't coming out right... PISSED!

FINALLY, I figured out how to tell the computer/printer what size paper I was using and it came out great!!! So, my invitations are designed! Now, I just have to buy some ribbon for a real mock up. But here's a pic I took.

It looks crooked because it's not glued together. And the font design looks like I was running out of ink, but that's how it looks... so I might change that.

It says:

A friendship that was shared by two

has turned into a love so true

please share our joy as we

TAB & BJG

exchange wedding vows

and begin our new life together.

So glad to have this done! Now, maybe I should order my save the dates! Speaking of save the dates, I should post them on here! lol

Mama's Baby

Because Future Mrs. A asked, here's an update on my baby. Look at mama's baby. Her name is Brownie! She'll be 7 months old on the 7th. Yeah, she needs a hair cut. But whatever, she's still a cutie!

Cakin' PT2

We went to visit the baker today at Cakes Houston. We LOVE Francisco! He's amazing. AND his prices are even more amazing! My cake also comes with a complimentary groom's cake. We are going to book our cake through him. In honor of looking for our cake today, here's part 2 of what I started earlier. I showed the baker 3 cakes I like. I'll show you guys which ones I showed him.

I love the decor around this cake. I think we will do our last name instead of "amore".

I LOVE this cake! I love how the cakes are side to side like that.

This is one of the cakes I showed the baker. I love the designs. The stripes and swirls are so pretty and fun.

I also showed him this one. I love these stripes.

I also showed him this one. It classic and pretty. And I like the monogram being on the cake.

I'm sure Fransisco will do an amazing job on my cake. I'm so ready to see how it's going to come out.

No Kids

I don't want any kids at the wedding. Babe's daughter and my little brother are enough for me. With that being the case, I was trying to figure out what I would use as an alternative to a ring bearer and a flower girl. I suppose since ring bearers don't really carry the rings that the Best Man and Maid of Honor would be in charge of that, as usual. But I want "Coming to America" flowers! lol. So, I saw this:

I think this is beautiful! BUT everyone would walk on it before me! That's not cool. I'll come up with something. This whole no kids thing is becoming harder than I thought!

What the VEIL?!

I was on TK this morning on the African American board, where I spend most my life. One of my Knottie sisters, Cincy, posts a "Daily Gorgeous Wedding". Today's was bridal portraits edition! I'm not sure that I want to take bridal portraits, but it's something to think about. Especially when the photographer that took our engagement pix won't be our wedding photographer. Anywho.... I was looking at the beautiful bridal sessions that she posted, and I came across this:

{Found here.}

All I could say was WHAT THE VEIL?! I mean... really, WHAT THE VEIL?!

LOL! I mean... I like it! It's... different, to say the least, but I'm hoping that that's not the wedding day veil. Even if it is, I'm sure she rocked it well!

I think I'll start doing more post like this in between my lack of personal wedding related stuff to talk about.

Hey Girl Hey!!!

I decided to dedicate a blog post to my Bridal Party!

This is my lovely Maid of Honor, Tiffany. She's my best friend and sister. Love her to life!

This is Adrienne, one of my Bridesmaids. She's an amazing person! Love her to life!

This is Deshaunte, my Bridesmaid. She's my little sister! Love her to life!

This is Krishawna, my Bridesmaid. She's also my sister. Love her to life!

Cakin' PT1

It is almost 4am and I'm wide awake! Don't ask.... I've been wanting to post about my cake ideas for some time now, but I knew it would take a while. Especially the way you have to upload pix on here. They should come up with a better way! I have about 10 cakes that I love and would like to somehow come together as my own. As I always do, here are the pics and what I like about them! I'll start with what I like about the round cakes, though I want a square cake.

I love the simplicity of this cake. The ruffle thing really adds a little {very LITTLE} POP.

I also love the simplicity of this cake. What I like the most are the ridges.

I LOVE the dots on this cake!!! But I also like that the base tier is square and the top layers are round.

I like the swirly designs on this cake and the alternating shapes.

I also like these swirlies, but I like the way the squares change directions instead of alternating shapes.

This is only half of my cake ideas. I could have finished the post, but I wanted to save some for later. Plus, I thought that this would be too long of a post. All of these cakes were found on The Knot. The next cake post will consist of my square cake inspiration and the decor that I really want for my cake table!!! Stay tuned!

The Pretty Stuff

I'm a very visual person! So, looking at the emptiness of my ceremony space really leaves room for my imagination. My coordinator will be handling all of my floral arrangements. Since I don't like columns, I didn't want floral arrangements sitting on top of columns. So, she'll be doing them a different way. I don't quite remember.... But I was thinking that the aisle could be decorated like this:

{Found here.}

I don't really want an aisle runner because I like the floor in the room. But I would love to have the rose petals and vases with the floating candles. I think that is so beautiful! The ceremony will be at 4pm, so it won't be dark outside, but the curtains will be closed. I think we should be able to dim the lights and make the candles work. My only problem is... where the heck am I gonna get some vases similar to those and who the heck is paying for them?! lol

The Perfect Place!

Babe and I totally forgot about our meeting with the venue on Monday, so we rescheduled for today. I don't think I've said this on my blog yet, {I could be wrong} but we found another venue! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Shady Oaks, but things happen. Here's what happened.

Babe told me that we should go back and revisit Brady's Landing just to compare the price to that of Shady Oaks. I was cool with that. So, one Wednesday, after getting my hair done, I went up to Brady's. I spoke with the lady we met with when we first went there. {Brady's was the first venue we ever looked at.} When I got there, she told me she is retiring in December. I was like, "Where are you going?! You going to travel?" She then told me that she was opening her own wedding facility. GET THIS: It's in DOWNTOWN HOUSTON! Ok, so she tells me that we can go see it that Saturday. We went and we were in L-O-V-E!!! We left with a general price, but no set numbers. That sucks when you're trying to plan a wedding, right?!

Fast forward to today. We went back and I'm still in L-O-V-E!!! Here are some pictures of the venue. The venue's name is Column-A and they will be having their first event on this Sunday!

This is the front entrance. I didn't want to run across the street to get a full picture. {Remember... downtown Houston!}

These are the doors after you enter the building. The doors to the reception rooms and restrooms. At the top will say Column-A.


This is the seating area that's to the right of the entry way. It's before you go through the previous doors. {It's right outside of the ceremony space.}


Doors to the ceremony.


The ceremony space. {Sorry, the lights were not on, and IDK where the switches were.}


The ceiling and chandelier.


Doors to The Venus Room, my reception room.


The Venus Room and its dance floor!




The little bridge. {New plants coming soon.}




The restrooms. {Men's on top, women's on bottom}



Mini mock set up.



Our dance floor. Babe was showing me how I could walk down the aisle... he thinks that dance floor is bigger than the other one that we'll get married on. And he figured they could use the partition wall and make it a room for the ceremony. Then open it later. NAH!


Ok, enough with the pictures. Let's talk about why I'm loving this place so much. My venue will be providing EVERYTHING except for the cake, photographer, and videographer. Here is everything I'll be getting {for 100 ppl}: The ceremony room with floral arrangements and chairs with chair covers, the reception room, tables and chairs, linens and chair covers with sashes and napkins, centerpieces which will be limes in tall vases and calla lilies, glass plates, silverware, and glasses. Also, I will have a plated meal of salad, chicken Alfredo with the chicken kabobs, two vegetables, and juice. I will also have all my flowers, cake table, candy buffet, DJ, and valet parking.

ALL THIS FOR... under $10,000!!!

Needless to say, I'm super excited about this place! And I'm glad to officially end the venue hunt!

Special Programming

I'm sitting here watching my court shows {Divorce Court, Judge Alex, Judge Pirro}. I'm going to O-K Paper Source when I'm done watching my shows. I plan to price card stock for my invitations and programs. I already know how much my card stock will be for the invitations, but I want to see what I'll want or need for the programs. Part of that, though, will include me knowing what I want for the programs! I initially wanted them to be made exactly like the invitations, but now I'm not too sure. I would love to keep that theme, but I think I'll just try to keep the similar. Here are some programs that I'm loving right now and the things I like about them. {All programs found on The Knot}

I love the simplicity of the monogram on the cover.


But I also like the cute, fun style monogram and cover of this program. And they are almost my wedding colors! :-)


I love the simplicity of these. Seems very inexpensive to make... which I like!


I'm not too sure what I like about this one, but I like it! lol


I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the big bow!

I thought that while typing this, I would come up with how I'll do my programs. I still think I'm a little clueless! I think that for money sake, I'll do the simple 3rd one. Maybe have the words in navy and the ribbon green, like the invitation. And I can use the same fonts from the invitations. Whatever I do, I'm sure it'll work together!

It's Official

I FINALLY HAVE MY BLING!!! Ok, here's the story:

I had plans yesterday to go to my MOH's house for a "wine and jacuzzi" party. Babe called me while I was at work and told me he forgot he promised someone that we would come somewhere. I automatically capped an attitude because I figured he was going to drag me to church. When I got home from work, he was showing me the outfit he picked out to wear and was telling me I had to dressed up. So, I got dressed and did my make up.

So, we get in the car, and he won't tell me where we're going. We ended up at Perry's Steakhouse and Grill. {If you've never been, GO!} We ate and the food was oh so delish! Everything was going great! Then he started talking about how in the beginning I didn't want him, but I kept coming back. And how I gave up my other "men" for someone I didn't want. Blah blah about how I didn't want him.

Then this guy passes by the table. There were some mirrors behind Babe and I could see the man walk behind me. Then I saw him putting a plate in front of me. I was thinking, ok I didn't order desert. So this is what he put in front of me:

And another angle.

So, I burst out laughing! Both of us were cracking up, hardcore! I gave him a high-5 and said that was a good one. So, I was like are you gonna get on your knee and ask me. He said no. LOL! So I said, "I suppose." HAHAHAHA!!!

Me afterwards.

Us at our table.

Us by the fountain.

Us again.

Here's a pic of my bling!