My Wedding Album

My Wedding Album came in the mail about two days ago. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

It's 11"x14" and weighs in at around 8 pounds, no joke

It's fantastic, beautifully laid out, and my personal favorite feature is that the photos are printed on this thick chipboard overlined in plastic, on other words, fingerprint proof, waterproof, "sara"-proof!



In other news my lovely wedding photographer, Faith, got engaged over the holidays! Congrats Faith!!!!

7 months

Wedding Album Proofs

Hey everybody.

So my wedding album proofs got emailed to me from my photographer yesterday (Thanks Faith!) She did such a great job. If I haven't said this already if ANYONE is thinking of getting married in the Newport area you should look into her photography, it's stunning.

I am going to go over it again with my mom when my family gets here on Monday. This is the first run, I think it's 99% of the way there.

Sara & Kyle's Wedding Album

Enjoy it! and let me know what you think!!!

6 months

I can't believe it has been 6 months already since my wedding day. It seems like it was only yesterday I was hyperventilating in the back of the Church, then down the aisle, then at the altar.

I would have liked my first 6 months of marriage to include my husband a little more (he's been gone for about half of that time now) but I guess we will have an excuse for still being in the honeymoon newlywed phase when he comes back and we close in on a year together as man and wife. Even typing it I can't believe it...

High Five for Half a YEAR!!!!

Wedding Album Design Picked!

The Friday I was in Rhode Island my mother and law and I went to see my wedding photographer at her studio to pick out my cover art and leather for my wedding album. Since she is nose deep in weddings right now her time for album design is short but I am the next on her list. I am SO excited to see the final product.

Here are some shots of the album design I picked and the leather I chose

**photos taken from My Photographers website **

She is the BEST! Any New England Brides PLEASE check her out. You won't be disappointed!

Faith Dugan Photography

a>

This is the show album from her studio, the picture I chose for my cover is very similar

The albums are surprisingly heavy and very well constructed, built to last a lifetime!

Close up of the spine.

Back Cover, I love the silver ostrich pattern!

This is the Picture that is going on the cover.....

ta da!

2 Months

I cannot believe that it has been 2 months since my wedding day. It seems like it was only yesterday that I was on the alter of my childhood Church surrounded by my family and friends, telling the man I love that I will continue to love him for the rest of my life. Now I have played wife for two months and I think I am getting used to the role, as a matter of fact, I might like it!

People have asked about how married life is treating us, and I think we are adapting quite well.
Sometimes when I get home from work and Kyle is already asleep I lie in bed and look at his left hand with his wedding ring on it. I can feel my heart swell up with love when he hugs me. Our relationship was filled with love before, but the dynamic has completely changed. It is almost as if the sense of commitment that our relationship is now founded on has made us even more in love.

Our day to day life hasn't really changed all that much, since we were living together before the wedding. He still goes to work, then later that day I go to work. He is still asleep on the couch when I get home from work at 12am. The only major change I can say is the combining of the finances, and obtaining "Navy Wife status." Now my car has decals on it so I can get on the Navy base myself (schwing!)

The best decision I have ever made was that day 11 months ago when I woke up and walked to the beach in my PJs, and found my dream had come true....
..the man of my dreams on one knee with a ring...and I said yes....

Wedding Professional Pictures are HERE

I am going to spend the next couple of days back posting with lots of photos and a play-by-play of the day, from the Bride's point of view!

Since I have almost 800 photos I'm only posting the best of the best, (even so there will be ALOT)

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE NEVER BEEN TO A SOCIAL SECURITY OFFICE, CONSIDER YOUSELF LUCKY!

O.K. so that might be a little drastic of a statement, but seriously Government offices really impresses me sometimes. By impress I mean that they do leave an impression, not necessarily a positive one. But I digress….

I went online to find my local Social Security office so I could go and get my name changed (After careful consideration and talking with my wonderful new husband I decided that I’m going to go with Sara Connie Oldlastname Newlastname, so I will essentially have two middle names.) The online search told me that the San Diego office was open Monday-Friday from 8-5. O.K.

So I drag my tired ass out of bed at 7am on Monday morning so I am able to get to the office on time. I get there and lo and behold the big sign on the door says Open 9-4:30 (grumble grumble) So I spent the time going and running a few errands and make it back to the office at 9:05. There are literally people flooding the place, people lining up outside, people everywhere. So I have to go and take a number. TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER I got to go to Social Security Mecca (otherwise known as the window with the employee on the other side). She looked at my marriage license gave me a receipt and sent me on my way.

Waiting in line at Social Security: 2 hours
Actual help time at Social Security: 1 min 30 seconds (the girl typed fast!)
Getting to see a Rep get spit on by a small child: Priceless!

Hair!!!!

Random Shots from getting my hair done!!!!

Lisa

Dawn!

Me!

Marriage Licence, Hair Trial, Gown, Fur Wrap, Programs...I give up!

Today was soooo busy. In the morning we went to get our marriage licence from the town hall, pretty painless actually. We went in, signed some stuff, viola! We’re 90% married already (all that’s missing is our witnesses signatures and our minister’s signature.) After that I had my Hair trial at the Salon where my entire bridal party is getting their hair done on Saturday. I have decided to go with pinned up curls that are low on the nape of my neck. The picture explains it better I think….

After that we went to Warwick to pick up my dress, we picked up my MOH Lisa along the way. It was good to see her since I hadn’t seen her yet this week. She picked up her dress as well and she tried hers on. I didn’t get to try mine on because it was already pressed and wrapped in tissue paper so it wouldn’t wrinkle. Unfortunately that meant that the first time I will try on my dress in over a month will be the day I put it on to get married!

Lisa feels that if we have to have a complete and total melt down, we might as well have it that morning ☺

So after that we went to Fall River to get my Fur Wrap to go with my gown and came back home to make dinner. After dinner Kyle’s mom came with Kyle and a few friends and we started putting together programs and centerpieces. To my utter surprise and delight all of our projects were finished by the time everyone left.

Bachelor & Bachelorette Parties tomorrow!!!

Lunch with old (and good friends) and DJ

So today Kyle and I went to lunch at Yesterday’s with my good friends Adam and Laura. I was incredibly close with both of them in High School and have been keeping tabs on them as often I can (but not as much as I would like) we had a good time talking and laughing, cracking jokes and talking about the Wedding. I had a cup of legit New England clam chowder (which I was excited about). My DJ also called me during the lunch to go over the final details with me about the wedding. My DJ is coming down from New Hampshire to do my wedding, I’m really excited about him! After our phone conversation I am really confident that we are going to have a good time with him!

Tonight we spend almost 4 hours putting together programs and centerpieces…..arg…

RECOVERY DAY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLE!!

So last night I went to sleep at 11pm and woke up at 11:30 am, 12 and a half hours later! Man I felt great, like a new person! My sinuses were clear and I felt really good. It’s a good thing because I was dreading having to get married with a stuffy nose! Today was just that, A recovery day. I spend it hanging out, and not getting a lot done (ha ha) I did go to the dollar store and stock up on stuff for my Bathroom Baskets. Picked up my brother from work and spent some time with him!

My fiancé Kyle, turned 23 today. We all went over to his house to celebrate! We had a wonderful dinner, salmon and roasted veggies with salad. For dessert we had carrot cake my FMIL made. We have this running joke because Kyle wanted our wedding cake to be a carrot cake, but I had to tell him that not everybody likes carrot cake, so he got it for his birthday, so there!

5 Days, I can’t believe it…..

Flight Home and SNOW!!!!

So last night I couldn’t sleep because I was lying in bed awake wondering what I forgot to pack. Luckily in that session I remembered that I forgot to pack my birth certificate. Which would have been really bad because without that we wouldn’t be able to get a marriage license! So this morning bright and early Jared picked us up from our apartment, and we were whisked off to the airport. 7 hours later we landed in Providence (also known as Warwick) and were greeted by our two mothers. It was so nice to see both of them and get lots of big hugs!

It was snowing pretty hard when we were driving home. Kyle and I just spent the whole ride home gazing out the window with huge smiles on our faces!

The only really awful part of the flight was the fact that I was having sinus problems so I had a lot of ear pain when we were making the descent. I swear at one point I just wanted to rip them OFF!

Menus and Programs.......15 Days

I wanted to post pics of the menus I made as well as my black program draft

Constructive feedback would be appretiated

15 Days OMG!!!!!!!

Wedding Picture Location Booked!.....18 Days!!!

I Booked my Location for my Wedding Portraits after the ceremony. Ochre Court is an old mansion located at Salve Regina University in Newport Rhode Island. This is a blub about it from their website

"For this limestone palace overlooking the reddish seacliffs that give the estate its name, Hunt drew his inspiration from the late medieval period in French architecture. With its high roofs, turrets, whimsical gargoyles, and tall chimneys, Ochre Court recalls the style of Francois I, a transitional era when established medieval elements like the pointed Gothic arch and heavy stained glass were lightened by newly-emerging Renaissance details including rounded arches and delicate lacy ornamentation. Inside the mansion, Hunt used details from French Gothic chateaux and churches to create a Great Hall, which soars upward for three stories and dramatically frames a seaward vista. Radiating off the Great Hall, both the impressive ground floor reception rooms and the private upstairs family rooms, which are now University offices, were richly designed with imported antique fireplaces and lavish wallcoverings."

gorgeous no?

Affordable DIY Magnets

A lot of the WBC Brides have asked for instructions to make these magnets, which I used for my Save the Dates. It was really very simple.


Supplies:
1) 8 1/2 x 11 magnet sheets - Purchased from Oriental Trading Company
2) Card Stock - Mine measured 5 x 7 to fit into the envelopes I purchased. I bought the card stock at Michael's
3) Photo Corners - Michael's
4) Ribbon - Silver and White - Michael's
5) Glossy finish printer photo paper - Wal-mart
6) Hole punch

I designed The magnet in Microsoft Publisher measuring 3 x 4 and printed them on the photo paper. I cut out the "picture" using my fiskars paper cutter and set them aside. Then I cut the magnet sheets (they are peel and stick) using a heavy duty paper cutter at staples to also measure 3 x 4. The I peeled the paper off the magnet to expose the sticky side, slapped the picture on there and voila! A save the date magnet! I affixed the magnet to to the card stock using the photo corners and used the hole punch to make holes for the ribbon.

I hope this helps you guys!

Wedding Errands.......25 Days

Today I spend many hours writing in purple ink :-)

I FINALLY wrote out my Bridal Shower thank you notes and designed, printed and mailed out my rehearsal dinner invites.


I made the photo-card thank you notes on Shutterfly. I just wrote a quick thank you on the back. I am going to see all of these people in a little over three weeks anyway.

Even though I have to work for the rest of the week, I have a lot to do before Kyle and I go skiing this weekend. I have to get good ski gloves, that is absolutely essential since my fingers get really cold really easily. Even though we are in southern cali, we will be around snow, which from what I remember, can be quite cold haha.

We are going up early Saturday morning and I am having a lesson before we try and go out together for a half day Saturday then a full day Sunday. Kyle has been skiing a lot more then me (this will actually be my first time on skis) so it should be quite the experience.

When we honeymoon in New Hampshire we are going to ski for two or three days at Attitash which is a much bigger mountain then the one we are going to this weekend. I hope I can make it, baby steps...

Bridal Shower

Hopefully these pictures will make up for the fact that I didn't take any other pictures all week...haha

Three out of five bridesmaids, Kate, Lisa and Kelly,
and me with my bow bouquet on my head

My Family (and future family) : Me, Grandma, My mom (black),
Lynn-kyle's mom (red), Aunt Claudia, Kelly-kyle's sister

Me and lisa

The whole crowd

Kate opening up a mini champagne bottle, I love the fresh fallen snow outside....

Me, Mary-Beth (white) and Amanda (red)

My Aunt Claudia and My mom's good friend, Margaret

Lisa (brown) Kate (green)

My lovely Grandmother and My good friend Elena

Me, My Grandma, and Mrs. Beltz (host)

The shower was incredible, I got so many wonderful gifts and it was really great to see everyone. The favors my mom made were so cute! Mason jars filled with all of the dry ingredients for chocolate chip cooked. The labels were titled "Lovin' from the oven." All in all an amazing day with some amazing women, thanks to everyone!

And they shall eat CAKE!

So today I had my second dress fitting and (WOO HOO) after 5 months it still fit like a glove, the hem works perfectly with the shoes I got! it's just perfect!

So after that trip to Davids Bridal I went to Cappuccino's and booked them to make my wedding cake. It is going to be 4 tiers with a swiss dot pattern, white cake with chocolate and raspberrybutter cream. I'm telling you it's the best cake I ever tasted!

and again, i didn't take a picture.....man i suck!

Big Day of meetings....

So I'm going to just map out my day today timeline style because so much happened I can't even keep it straight

10 am: Meeting with wedding ceremony organist. My organist Ann, has been the organist at my Church at least ever since I started going there in the seventh grade. I worked with her when I was in bell choir in high school and when I was the "choir mom" for the youth choir there my junior year in high school. We walked through the ceremony and I provided her with the list of music that I am thinking of using. She mentioned the use of a soloist and I immediately remembered my friend Chris had mentioned that he wanted to sing way back before I moved to San Diego. I decided to call him as soon as we were done at the church.

Ann and I finalized the music choices and she played examples of them to make sure I was happy with them, and I was! She is so talented and I am very excited to have her play. The we hugged and she gave me a bridal shower gift! YAY

11 am: Meeting with Minister. My Church minister, along with Kyle's minister at her church and my Grandfather (who is a retired minister) are all presiding over my ceremony. (People are joking that we are going to be married three times over!) We went over the ceremony piece by piece and got a rough outline completed. My grandfather will be doing the vows and the rings, Kyle's minister will be doing the opening prayer and My church minister will be doing everying else...confused? haha It will all make sense that day, and it will be beautiful.

1230 pm: quick lunch at McDonald's on the way to the florist. Called Chris and he will be happy to sing at the wedding...YAY!

1 pm: Metting with the florist. Everyone has flowers now yay! My bouguet is white and cream roses, white lillies, hydrangeas and dark purple orchids.....man I wish I took a pic of the example she made for me......damn

2 pm: Dropped by the hair stylist to pay the deposit and book the appointments for me and my five girls

3 pm: First cake testing at fatulli's bakery in Middletown. Fatulli's has made my graduation cake for my highschool and college graduation. It my profile pic the massive cake I am standing next to was my chocolate strawberry cake from my graduation from nursing school. The cake was amazing of course.

4 pm: back at home for a nap

6 pm: out for drinks with my friend Laura, my best friend (and best man) brian also was flying in that night from GA to visit and he met us out for drinks too yay!

1130: ASLEEP

quite the day huh? but now I have a wedding planned!