I'm late! I'm late

This weekend I was working on the final details of my invites before I send them out to print... Then it dawned on me. What time do I put on the invitation?

The oh-so late white rabbit from Alice in wonderland
Image courtesy of Allposters.com

I mean you think its a simple question but honestly - do you put the time the ceremony is scheduled to start or do you give a 15 minute time difference to ensure everyone will arrive on time?

I don't want people to arrive after the ceremony started (though I know some of my guests will be late no matter the time I put on the invitation.)

What time did you put? The right one or a time slightly earlier?

Everything is under control

After my panic attack about the whole bridesmaid dress issue, I would like to reassure everyone, that everything worked out fine. Phew!!! I really was stressing that whole weekend before our dress shopping day. I mean I had every single negative thought go through my head.

We started off by going to eat breakfast together as a family. This included my sisters (all three of them) and my step-mother. My MOH (cousin) wasn't able to make it, but that wasn't really an issue, since she a size 0 and everything seems to look good on her. We arrived at Bridalane (same place where I bought my wedding dress) to model away...

Here are some dresses my sisters tried on - (that we didn't choose)

Green tea
Simple and cute but not my favorite

The Flamingo dress
well the color is very flamingo-ish

The Gone with the wind styleI mean watch out if its windy - shes bound to fly away

The Gothic Cinderella We loved this dress but it was too much in competition
with my own dress so we abandoned the idea.

Then, after trying on practically every dress available, the salesperson (a guy) that was with us suggested a dress. I mean looking at it on the hanger I was like "No way! This looks horrible" but we had nothing to lose and my sister tried it on. She came out and I was impressed. It was so elegant and glamorous, we had to go with that one. Everyone agreed and so we purchased the dresses. Though they were a good 225$ each, its basically the price to pay when your last minute like that.

Alright heres the final choice:

Front (obviously)

Bottom (we will add a layer of the stone color found in my sash )

Back (it has a mini-train)

Hopefully the dresses will come in before the June 1st mark. Otherwise that will be another stress I really don't need to have. So what do you think? Is it a good choice ? (please note, even if you say no - its too late. lol)

Finally .... Emotionally unstable

I've always been a fan of Stacy Ann Ferguson. Even when she came out with her first album back in the 90s (she was part an all girl group called : Wild Orchid - FYI - shes the blond bomb shell) You're probably wondering who the heck I'm talking about - you all know her by the name of Fergie.

When I purchased her album - The Dutchess, apart from loving all the tunes I particularly fell in love with her last track entitled Finally (featuring John Legend). The words were simply beautiful and I envisioned having this tune play during my preparation the day of my wedding. Last week, the song played on the radio while I was on my way to work... and I started crying. Its the first time really that I start crying of joy for something wedding related. It was kinda weird. (If this is a preview of the actual wedding day ... someone crazy glue a kleenex box to my hand)

She preformed a preview of this song at the Grammys. It gives me shivers everytime I hear it. You can hear the album version here.

Here are the lyrics:

Ever since I was a baby girl I had a dream
Cinderella theme, crazy as it seems
Always knew that deep inside
That there would come that day. But I would have to wait
Make so many mistakes
I couldn't comprehend as I watched it unfold
This classic story told
I left it in the cold
Walking through unopened doors that led me back to you
Each on unlocking more of the truth
I finally stopped tripping on my youth
I finally got lost inside of you
I finally know I needed to grow And finally my mate has set my soul

Chorus
Finally now my destiny can begin
Though we will have our differences
Something strange and new is happening
Finally now my life doesn't seem so bad
It's the best that I've ever had
Give my love to him finally

I remember the beginning
You already knew
I acted like a fool
Just trying to be cool

Frontin like it didn't matter
I just ran away
Put on another face
Was lost in my own space
Found what it was like to hurt selfishly
Scared to give up me, afraid to just believe
I was in a jealous insecure pathetic place
Stumbled through the mess that I had made
Finally got out of my own way
I finally start living for today
I finally know I needed to grow
And finally my mate has met my soul
Finally now my destiny can begin Though we will have our differences
Something strange and new is happening
Finally now my life doesn't seem so bad
It's the best that I've ever had
Give my love to him finally
Finally,Finally
Finally now my destiny can begin
Though we will have our differences
Something beautiful is happening
Finally now my life doesn't seem so bad
It's the best that I've ever had
Give my love to him finally
Finally,finally

Anybody else love this song?
Do you have a song which makes you emotional unstable...lol?

The Biggest Loser...

It's a given, brides-to-be generally do a weight loss program or something of that sort to loose weight. We all want to look extra beautiful and a few pounds less is always a positive thing. Mr.Flamingo and I, are no exception to this rule. Yup, Mr.Flamingo too needs to shed some pounds.

I've always been someone you consider big boneded. I am not ashamed of my weight, especially since 95% of the people don't believe me when I give them my actual weight. I'm not very tall... 5 feet and 3/4 so that's also is a factor to consider. (The three quarters is very important when it comes to my height- remember that =) )

I tried looking for full bodied pictures of me to give you an idea that I'm no skinny minny...unfortunately I had no luck, so you will have to bear with the ones I will show you.

This picture was taken on our Cuba trip.
This was my max weight - I was 182 lbs.

This picture was taken last year at a Club (with my eldest sister).
Here I weighed about 179 lbs.

So now, we've started a Protein diet. Okay, let me rephrase that because its not a diet but more changing the way you eat. Don't think I'm starving, on the contrary I eat alot - 6 times a day with food that is high in protein. (Its a known fact that proteins make you full. Result : you eat less)

Our first visit at the clinic was last thursday. My official starting weight 176 lbs. Now a week later I took off my shoes and got on the balance. It read 171.4 lbs, so I lost 4.6 lbs in 1 week. How exciting!

Know you must think its alot, but after the first week if I don't cheat too much, I should loose an average of 2-3 pounds. Men, on the other hand lose 4-5 pounds a week. Wish I was a man just for that ;) So its obvious Mr.Flamingo will be the biggest loser, but still... already I am happy. Losing weight is so fun.

Any one else done a protein diet?

Wedding website - makeover

When Mr.Flamingo and I decided that we were officially gonna set the date... my designer in me could not help but to design our wedding website. Though, I wasn't very fond of the idea of doing it from scratch... I opted for a basic template design from Weddingannouncer.com

Everyone in my family had never heard about a wedding website before so they thought I was the most organized and smart bride ever. (hahaha - I found that very funny) So of course when they saw the design of the website they were amazed - I being a designer couldn't help but feel a little ashamed. (On a side note- our wedsite needs to be perfectly bilingual so with wedding announcer there were certain things that I couldn't translate)

First attempt - using wedding announcer (click to enlarge)

Then I read Miss Lovebugs post about her blogger wedding website. It was official, I had needed to redo our website. Especially with all the resources out their on the oh-so fabulous web. I just had to. When I told Mr.Flamingo about it... he thought I was nuts!

When I decided on my invitation design it was easier to design the website for it to fit the whole theme and style. I used the back of the invitation as the background image and I created vintage looking buttons. I"m having issues with the header. Since I have various elements in my invitations, I don't know what I should use.

Please tell me which one you would go with. (Click to enlarge image)

option a: Chandelier



option b: Street with clock



option c: Decorative elements



option d: - None of the above.

(If you choose this option, please specify what you would do- as to not leave me hanging)

I want to show you all the elements when they are completely done. So tell me which header you prefer, so that I can add it. I got to get crackin' on the rest of the content of the website...

Since I have not completely finished the design of our website, I will have a part 2 to the makeover story... so stay tuned...

On the same page - almost

Our ceremony will take place in a beautiful 1789 historical church approximately 10 minutes away from my house and from the reception site. To be completely honest, I chose this church because of its beauty. (Hey... you only get to do this once, so might as well be gorgeous at the same time... =)

The ceremony will only be in french. Even though my family is pretty much bilingual french seemed the easiest way to go (especially for Mr.Flamingos side of the family.) Either way, it will pass by so fast that I won't remember a thing (unless I find a videographer to capture it all).

Three weekends ago we had our 2nd meeting at the church. This was to explain to us our text choices and how the wedding day will go... but Mr.Flamingo and I forgot to go. I'm serious... it completely slipped our minds. Luckily the wedding coordinator- if I can call her that, was very understanding and said I could go sometime in during the week for approx 15 minutes. Wow what a difference. It went from what was suppose to be a 3 hour meeting to 15 minutes. I like it when its quick.

So over the weekend I asked Mr.Flamingo to read the text choices and choose what he would prefer for the ceremony. Wow, to my surprise he read every single passage. Not to mention his choices are what I had considered. Its nice to know we are on the same page.

Now one thing we aren't on the same page - would be the ceremony music. We have a beautiful organ... its stunning, but Mr.Flamingo doesn't like organs. I'm still trying to convince him otherwise --- especially since I don't want to spend another penny and we all know hiring musicians can be costly.

What will you be doing for your ceremony music? Any suggestions?

I'm nuts - its as simple as that

Part 1

Part 2

Here is installment # 3 of my Venue adventure. Last time I left off I mentioned that on my way to my friends house we stumbled upon a sign “New Hotel - Opening Summer 2007". As you know our criteria for our venue was that we wanted a hotel - simple as that. Mostly because it is extremely convenient, so its obvious that when we saw the sign we were both quite excited. Mr.Flamingo and I noted the website and as soon as we got home, guess what was the first thing we did... We checked out the site - this is what we saw. (click to enlarge)

I was pleasantly surprised - it looked beautiful... well the illustration that is. Things like this can be extremely tricky because the final product might not come out as we imagine it. Regardless, we called the number listed on the site and scheduled an appointment. FYI - we are in april and there is still no beams or any slight indication that some construction is on its way (and they are apparently opening - summer 2007)

Everything was so fast. We went to the appointement, we checked out their construction plans and their inspiration board. At least we could see their colors, patterns and furniture choices (but then again it could be all tricks to have people sign). We called Mommy Flamingo, we discussed and we signed. Could you believe it... we signed our venue and have never even seen it. At this point I think I was going nuts. Who in their right mind signs something without seeing the final product. I mean its ridculous right???? I could understand for something small... but for a 20K venue. Oh my! At this point I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

Have you ever done something like this? Something as crazy as what I did...

More of this story to come...

(please note: I did not give the website to the hotel
because I don't want to spoil my next post about my venue)

Not Paris or Disney... somewhere sunny

Going back to our honeymoon discussion, both Mr.Flamingo and I still don't agree on our location. I tried on several accounts to bring out all the pros of Europe or other places he hasn't gone in Europe but it doesn't interest him like Disneyland doesn't interest me.

Of course the second option, we would most definitely somewhat agree on, would be a sun destination. Though I feel that a honeymoon destination is somewhat special, like one you wouldn't necessarily visit on your yearly vacation spot, I tend to be picky on the location. Secondly, I wouldn't want to go somewhere we've been before - Cuba.


We would like to go for an all-inclusive package. That way we won't need to be worrying about anything and its almost hassle-free. I like that option and so does Mr.Flamingo. Another point is that I would like to relax (meaning some sort of spa option) go to the beach and visit some historical places of the destination. Of course there's the classic Mexico destination where all these option seem possible... but I don't want to go somewhere too touristy.

Due to the fact that Mr.Flamingo is still in school (and isn't really allowed to miss any days) Our honeymoon will basically fall, when he is allowed to. That being said, the choice is limited and maybe the amount of days too. (Still don't know if we will be able to leave for 2 weeks) Because of this, I thought a one week vacation with lets say 4 days on land and 3 on a cruise was an interesting idea - but nope... how could I forget Mr.Flamingo is afraid of the ocean.

Then we thought, if we have two weeks vacation we could do 2 destinations. That way the trip would be extra special and we will see twice as many things. I really really like that idea and so does Mr.Flamingo. Are we ever gonna find a destination... the wedding is almost 3 months away, and I'm not liking this lack of organization.

Am I the only one having any problems agreeing on a location? Are you opting for the sun destination, if so any suggestions on places we can go?

Image found here

Beauty... will eventually fade.

I really like the idea of having a polaroid guestbook. Its fun, and it captures those moments that will definetly be remembered when you look back to read all the words of wisdom left by your guests.

To be honest I haven't really given much thought about the whole guestbook aspect of the wedding. I might not even go the polaroid route, but because we all know the sad news about the polaroid, through the eyes of Polanoir... they are eternal. Thought I would share some awesome polaroid imagery.

Images courtesy of : Polanoir

Polanoir is the first gallery worldwide to exclusively dedicate itself to Polaroid photography. Everlasting moments captured by both established and unknown young artists from all over the world to pursue one major goal: to convey the indescribable fascination of Polaroids. Snif! Snif! Because the beauty will eventually fade away...

Back to the guest book aspect - if you would share some neat guestbook ideas, I'm all ears ;)

Adressing the Guest list

Since my wedding invitation design is pretty much set, it's time to finalize the guest list and get all the famous addresses. Finalizing the guest list itself is a hard thing to do. I mean it was to the point that Mr.Flamingo and I were flipping coins to make a decision. Overall we are happy with our choices but now collecting all the addresses seem to be even more a tedious task.

Now, if I am not mistaken etiquette says that the parents of the bride and groom get the job of collecting all the addresses, but what do you do when they simply don't? I've asked them politely, but not everyone is taking their job to heart. In that case, what do you do?

How did you asked the parents? Or are you avoiding that whole step and doing it yourself? Any tips that would help me and other brides-to-be?

{images courtesy of : gettyimages.com and weddingbells.ca}