The Shred

So, I have less than 6 weeks until the wedding, and haven't lost any of the 15 pounds I planned to lose a year ago. Woops! I should have known I would put it off until last minute!

On Sunday, I started on The 30 Day Shred DVD. It is REALLY hard! Seriously! I'm sore...but not sore enough to skip a day, I've done all three days so far. And with only 38 days left before the wedding, I'm definitely motivated to do the video every day, no skipping, and I may just do extra when the 30 days is up. Typical results are to lose 5-10 pounds, and I'm planning to do extra cardio at the gym every other day, which will hopefully put me closer to losing about 10 pounds. But, I'm realistic, I know that even if I don't drop that many pounds, at least I will be much more toned!

I also got another DVD called No More Trouble Zones for specific areas like arms and belly, but I'm not going to start on that until my initial Shred soreness goes away. Ideally, by next week I'll have a nice schedule of Shred DVD everyday, with gym cardio and Zone DVD alternating days. And I'll get back into Beginning Yoga class on Mondays, and if I start feeling buff, maybe the harder Thursday Yoga class also.

I also gave up soda. I give up soda every few months, but I always end up giving myself "exceptions" like if I'm at a restaraunt that happens to serve Pepsi products, I would order one, or if I had to stay after school with a student, I would get one from the vending machine, or if I had to drive to Union or St. Louis, I would get one to drink in the car. But, now NO EXCEPTIONS! Absolutely NO SODA! So, I'm drinking a lot of tea, but unsweetened. I need to get more water in, all the caffeine is really messing up my sleep schedule, which you can see with the time I am posting this.

Well, to keep track of my progress, I weighed and measured myself on Sunday, and I'm going to TRY to not weigh myself until 30 days into the program. I have the scale right next to my shower, so I usually check it EVERY morning before stepping in the shower, but I need to go tuck the scale away in the laundry room so I'm not tempted to check. (OK, just did it, it's now under the drying rack, so I would have to make an effort to pull it out to step on it)

Here are the "before" stats: (I also took a swimsuit before photo but am NOT sharing that online!)
arm: 12 in
thigh: 22 in
bust: 35 in
waist: 30 in
tummy (the pooch): 37
hips: 36
weight: 150.5 lbs

I've always considered my thighs un-proportionally large compared to the rest of my body, so I'm used to them by now. I assume that building muscle will only make them bigger, so my thighs are really not a priority.

What I am really ashamed about is that my tummy pooch is larger than my hips! Seriously! The tummy is what I want to lose the most, and hopefully should be the easiest to lose.

Alright, if you read this whole thing, you now have to keep me accountable. Ask me if I'm doing the shred everyday, keep me in check! You have my permission to get mean if I start to slip.

By the way: 38 days until the wedding and 26 days until I see Jake & my sister & brother-in-law (they all get to Missouri on the same day!)

Blue Suede Shoes

Last year I bought some shoes to wear under my gown. Here is my original post about the shoes.

When the shoes arrived, I tried to wear them around my apartment, I even planned to wear them on New Year's Eve to break them in. Well, the shoes were definitely worth what I paid for them! They cost $17, and they were horrible quality! They fit right, but they slipped right off my heels. I guess I should have expected bad quality for how cheap they were.

So...I bought new shoes and they are so nice! I've been wearing them around the apartment to break them in and I haven't had any blisters or pain at all! And Jake says he loves the color!
By the way: 42 days until Jake is here & 54 days until the wedding!

Getting Hairy!

As the wedding date gets closer and closer, I have been moving alot of things from my "DIY list" to my "To Buy list!"

I'm starting to realize that I just don't have the time or patience to DIY as many things as I originally hoped to! Especially the things that I can actually buy for cheaper than it would cost me to make, such as a hairpiece.

I found great ones at etsy.com, seriously my FAVORITE website!

I got sunflowers for our nieces, who will be the flowergirls/ring bearess/program hander-outer.


I also found a great one for my hair from etsy.com.


The original hairdo photo that I have keep during this whole year of planning actually has this exact hairpiece! When I saw the photo on the etsy website, I realized that this hairdo that I have been wanting all year is a photo of a manequin! Seriously, fake hair! But...I still like the hairdo!

Goodbye Invites!

I took my invites to the post office on Friday. It was more complicated than I expected. We had some flash flooding that day and the first 5 routes I took had water flowing over the road. I finally made it there, by going to the neighboring town and coming from the opposite direction.

Check it out: 100 invites!


Once I finally made it to the post office, I said goodbye to the invites. I expect most people will get theirs today or tomorrow. I can't wait to start getting RSVPs back!

Invitation Design

I originally designed this invite last summer. I loved the idea of having a big bright sunflower somewhere on the invite, and by just using part of the sunflower, I think it makes the invite look really modern. My design has changed a little bit. I found a prettier sunflower a few weeks ago, but the yellow was just a little too light, so I had the printer darken it just a little, too make it more of a golden yellow.

Here is my final design, if it looks a little funky (especially the map) it's because I took out all last names, city names, and highway numbers to be internet safe.

They are finally done!!!!

My invites are done! I owe ALOT to my fantastic bridesmaids!

Because I live so far away from the printer and would not have been able to even pick up the invites until this weekend, my sister-in-law, Hilary, and her mom, Denise, picked up the invites and inserts from the printer last week and put them all together for me! They cut all of the yellow backing to size, then taped the invites to the yellow backing and taped that yellow backing to the pocketfold, and they also put all the inserts in the pocket! All 102 of them! They are lifesavers!

After I picked up the invites from them, another of my bridesmaids, Shannon, came over to help me with the wax seals. She did the wax dripping (and suffered many burns, what a great friend!) and I did the stamping. I'll admit, none of them looked perfect, but Shannon likes to remind me that gives them character!

Just a quick review, this link shows how I made the pocketfolds.

Here is the pocketfold filled with the invite and inserts. I will post my design of each of the parts of the invite once I make them "internet safe"

And a finished invite, including the wax seal.

And a close up of the wax seal, so you can see the J & M. I bought this wax stamper when we were in Rome last summer, at a little paper store that was literally RIGHT behind the Pantheon. I've always seen the fancy script initial, but I loved that this one had both of our initials, and wasn't in script.

Thank goodness they are done! I have them all in envelopes and all envelopes addressed with stamps. I just need to seal them and drop them off this Friday!

So exciting!

Shower Time!

My bridesmaids had my bridal shower yesterday. It was very nice! We got a lot of great things off the registry and had some awesome cake!

The two things I wanted the most were a stand mixer and a hand vac, and I got two of each! When I take the duplicates back, I'll keep the store credit for Jake to buy a grill. We also got lots of money that we're saving to buy bedroom furniture after we move back to the US.

My mom also gave me a beautiful wall hanging that she made! Since it's fits so well with the wedding theme, we will probably display it somewhere at the reception.


I only got 2 pictures yesterday with my camera, but when I get the other photos from my bridesmaid I'll post them.


Here are most of my bridesmaids, my niece Alex (Junior Bridesmaid), my sister-in-law Hilary, and my best friend Shannon (bridesmaids). My sister (matron-of-honor) is overseas and couldn't make it to the shower. But she is planning a fun bachelorette party for when she comes home in June! I can't wait!

And here I am with Jake's sister and Mom, Jacie and Sandy. I'm so glad they were able to make it to the shower, and that my directions worked!

2 months...really!

2 months left until the wedding! I really can't believe that! It's seems like just a couple of months ago when we got the ring and announced the engagement, but actually it was almost 14 months ago! Time has flown by. There are 12 1/2 days left of school and 7 weeks until Jake is home. And of course, 60 days until the wedding! I have a lot of work to do!