Planning Our Wedding on a Budget

Ladies! My wedding planning adventures are starting to get underway. And of course it's so super exciting!! But I'm not gonna lie though, it's also a little bit daunting with everything that comes along with it. There are about a million things to think about, and people to include, and ways to do every little thing - and a lot of that is swirling around in my head. But the biggest issue for me?? (And probably most brides in some way or another I'm assuming...) The biggest issue will definitely be the budget.

We had always been thinking about a handmade/DIY wedding, and we most definitely still are. I can't wait to see what kind of beautiful decorations and things we can come up with in order to make this wedding unique and special for us! We are planning a casual wedding at the beach in the fall (October, more specifically), and a lot of our ideas are centered around the beach theme as well. Right now we're thinking lots of sand, seashells, mason jars, twine, burlap, bamboo, bright blues and teals with light greens, candles and twinkle lights. And we want to make and create as much as we possibly can on our own. And luckily, I have a super crafty man who will be awesome at stuff like this. (Y'all remember my handmade Valentine's card?!)

But at the same time, there are things that we can't do or make on our own, and those will probably end up being the most expensive. For one, we'll probably have to rent tables and chairs. That's kind of unavoidable, so whatever... But other things like invitations? I'm not really planning on hand-making those, but I also can't spend tons of money on them either! And I want to be able to do cute favors, without spending a fortune.

Sooo...I'm calling out to all of you! I would looove to hear your ideas, tips, tricks, awesome websites, places to buy bulk for cheap, or just whatever you can offer. If you've already planned your own wedding on a smaller budget, let me know how you did it! Or if you haven't planned your own wedding and just saw something cute that you want to share, leave a link for that too :) I need all the help I can get here ladies. Help me out with whatever information you have, and I'll be sure to check it out. And I'll of course be so grateful for the assistance of this amazing blog community!

But mostly, I cannot wait to marry this goofball with crazy hair, no matter how much we spend on the wedding :)

Progression

Good morning blog world. I'm slowly starting to actually get better now. I'm still all congested and I'm coughing pretty nasty in the mornings, but overall I don't feel like absolute crap anymore. That's a praise at least! Maybe I'll finally kick this thing in the next few days... Until then though, I'm carrying on as usual and of course that means today is Weigh In Wednesday, and I'm linking up with Alex and Erin. And here's the glorious site I saw this morning....!!

Initial starting weight = 227

January starting weight = 217

Last week, February 27 = 199.5

Today, March 6 = 195.5

Which means holy crapola peeps - I lost FOUR pounds this last week! And that's while I've still been sick! I honestly don't know how this happened. I think I got lucky this week. Or maybe my body is just finally used to burning more calories or maybe my metabolism has increased... (And it probably has something to do with my 2 a.m. horrible tummy discomfort in the bathroom this morning...ugh) However it happened, I'm freaking pumped!! And for some totals - I've lost 21.5 pounds since January!! And since I was at my highest, I've lost 31.5 pounds!!!

My exercise log for this week is going to be short and easy, because it only happened twice...

Monday: 45 lunch time walk with my Aunt (approx. 125 cals)

Tuesday: 50 minutes of Zumba (435 cals)  -- I left early to make it to a movie ;)

And that's it folks. I was still feeling too crappy to do much more than that. However, I'm finally on the mend, so I'm ready to get back at it. I'll be attempting to run this afternoon after work, and hopefully that goes well! 

Oh, and I got my new Polar watch in on Monday night, and used it for the first time yesterday! It was pretty awesome, and I liked being able to see exactly how much I was burning during each Zumba song. I wasn't going all out yesterday in order to not overdo it for my first workout again, but I burned about 30 calories per normal-pace song, and about 60 for the high-intensity, fast-paced songs. That made it a total of 435 calories for the 50-minute session. I'll be excited to see how it goes on Thursday when I'm working my hardest and giving 100% for each song, and I stay the whole time. Hopefully I'll hit somewhere between 550-600 calories, according to the watch!

Oh, and I'm playing one of those DietBet games as of today! Erin (this one hosting this link up) is actually the one hosting this DietBet, and I'm excited about the chance to win some moolah!! The super simple explanation of what this is: you pay a $15 entry fee, you have six weeks to lose 4% of your body weight, and whoever does that splits the pot! Right now, the pot is up over $3,000!! Crazy awesome. So for me, my official weigh in for this was at 197. Which means I have to lose 7.88 pounds in four weeks in order to win money. That means I need to hit 190 pounds by April 3! I can totally do this. And so can you! You can still sign up to join us if you want to, so go HERE to check it out.

And in case you missed it yesterday, I wanted to share this again to show off a couple of progression shots...

Slowly but surely this weight is coming off. And it feels great. I'm not gonna lie - it feels good to look back at old pictures and see the differences in my body. I like being able to physically see that my body is changing and getting healthier. And I like showing that off too. It gives me more confidence. And it also holds me more accountable. And lately, some of you have been telling me that I'm motivating and inspiring you. But guess what? That just motivates me even more! So it becomes a nice little cycle of motivation for all of us. Thank you to all of you who encourage and congratulate me! It really means a lot, and helps keep me going sometimes. I'm glad I can share this journey with all of you!

Pride, Accidents & the Fridge - First Things First

Good morning and happy Tuesday blog world and friends! I don't know if y'all have noticed or not, but I'm always super happy and peppy and excited on Tuesdays. And that's because I'm reeeeally loving our First Things First link up! Last week's link up however, was rough you guys. Why? Because it made me sooo hungry and crave such unhealthy things! I read each and every one of your posts that you link up, and so seeing almost 30 posts full of delicious food was kind of torturous for this girl who's trying her hardest to eat right! I'm thinking I need to ban food-related posts in the future, or maybe just do healthy food-related ones!

Today we've got two more awesome ladies co-hosting with me, and I know you'll love them too! Today's co-hosts are Jess @ City Sequins and Robin @ The Sunshine Diary! And once Robin sent me that beautiful, tropical picture of her and her man, I knew I had to make a theme out of it, and made sure Jess and I got in on the beachy action too :)

And this week's First Things First topics are:

First thing I reach for in the fridge

First car accident or traffic violation

First BIG accomplishment I'm proud of

First thing I reach for in the fridge
Well that all depends on a lot of different factors, but mainly the time of day. Is it morning? Maybe I'm reaching for some strawberries. If it's lunch time? Then I'm probably grabbing some condiments for my veggie burger. For my afternoon snack? Definitely a low-fat string cheese stick. And dinner time? That could be only Lord knows what... 

First car accident or traffic violation
Sooo, anyone who knows me in real life knows that this used to be a big issue for me... in high school, I had two speeding tickets, and a handful of minor accidents before I even made it to graduation. The first ticket or accident I had was a speeding ticket just three months after I turned 16. However, I already recapped my first speeding ticket issue back in my first ever First Things First post, so instead I'll tell you about my first accident...

However, I'm really embarrassed about this actually, because it just proves what a typical, dumb blonde I was in high school. (Really, I have gotten much better now. And I'm hardly even blonde anymore...!) But it was around June of that same year, so I'd only been driving for about five months. My sister and I had gone out to my Uncle's house to go swimming one night. When it was time to leave, I put the top down on the convertible, and just started backing down their extremely long driveway, without paying too much attention. And then BAM! I backed right into a tree. It crushed the right side of my back bumper and shattered the tail light as well. I of course freak out and start sobbing uncontrollably like my world had just ended. It was a major deal people.

And the reason I feel so stupid about this - is because I was in a convertible, with NO blind spots or anything, because the top was down. There's no reason I shouldn't have seen a giant TREE! But such is life, and I had to learn the hard way that I can't reverse down a driveway and talk to my sister at the same time, without a care in the world...

First BIG accomplishment I'm proud of
I feel like that's kind of hard to say actually. I mean obviously, I'm proud of my college degree. But I think anyone that has one would say they're proud of it. So I'm gonna go with back in 2011, when I successfully lost 35 pounds for the first time! I started out at 227 pounds in April 2010, and by August 2011, I was at 192 pounds! That was definitely an accomplishment I was proud of. Unfortunately, I didn't keep it all off, and so now I'm fighting to re-lose some of that again. At the beginning of January 2013, I was 217 pounds again. As of today though, I'm back down to 197 pounds! And my goal is to be 185 by mid-May for my sister's wedding! You can read my entire weight loss story here and you can read all of my weight loss posts here.

If you'd like to join in on this fun link up, check out the super simple 'rules' below, and get to writing! Can't wait to see all the new link ups this week, meet new friends, and read y'all's posts!

1. Write your own post about this week's topics

2. Please follow me, as well as this week's co-hosts,  Jess & Robin.

3. Put the new button on your post or somewhere on your blog

4. Link up with us! (Link will appear on all three blogs.)

5. Visit some of the other links, and share the love with them on their posts!

6. Spread the word on Twitter and/or Facebook

Tweet

And if you'd like to prepare and get ready for next week's First Things First link up, start by checking out next week's awesome co-hosts, Carrie @ The Carrie Gland & Allie @ Tales of a Twenty Something.

1. First real piece of jewelry you owned

2. First magazine subscription

3. First time staying home alone

Peg-leg Pirates, Percy & Planning

Well folks, we're back here again on another Monday morning. And I'm still sick. And I've even been taking my Z-pack for four days now. This is just ridiculous. I'm more than ready to be over this mess. Luckily though, even though I felt like crap for the majority of the weekend, I still managed to have a great couple of days, and enjoy myself despite how crappy I felt most of the time... prepare yourselves for a wordy post, because I feel like writing today! But to make up for all the words, I promise to include lots of pictures as well :)

Friday after work, we had a few more hours of watching my friends' little girl (Danielle/Beans) before she got home, so we just hung out and fed her, and cleaned up their house a bit. Then when Lacey got home, we all went to dinner at Chili's, then came home and watched "V for Vendetta." I'd seen it before, but it had been a while, and so it was almost like a brand new movie to me, because I didn't remember a lot of it. But it was soo good! Then I went home kind of early, watched an episode or two of "Say Yes to the Dress," and passed out. 

Saturday morning I was able to sleep in a tiny bit, and then I got ready and headed back to Lacey's house, to help set up for Danielle's princess themed birthday party. We did some decorating and set out the food, and before we knew it, little princesses were showing up! The weather was great, and the party went awesome, and we're pretty positive all the kids had a great time! 

After the party, Jeff and I headed over to one of his friends/co-workers house, to get massages! She just finished massage school, and so she wanted to do some practice massages before she started sending out resumes. So she was doing them for free! This was the first massage I'd ever gotten, and it felt great. Especially since I've been feeling so crappy lately. I only wished it could have lasted longer. But she did an awesome job, and it made my 2-day headache go away for the next few hours, which was definitely a welcome relief. Oh, and she has a cute little pet bird, Percy, and she came out of her cage to visit Jeff for a minute while he was reading :)

We then stopped at Books-A-Million to check out some wedding books, and bought two books to help with our planning. One is all sorts of awesome DIY tips for a handmade wedding, and one is about planning on a small budget - because 1. we want to do a lot of cute projects and stuff on our own, and 2. we do not want to spend a fortune on this bad boy. So we're trying to keep it simple, pretty, crafty, and inexpensive! Saturday night was spent at Jeff's house eating homemade chicken noodle soup, doing a little bit of wedding planning, talking out some of the budget issues, and figuring out a few initial details! 

Sunday morning I helped my parents with 3rd grade Sunday school, met Jeff at his church, picked up some cabinets for his mom, we ate a quick lunch at Sonny's, dropped off the cabinets at their house, and then we went on a mini road trip for the rest of the day!

We drove down to Apalachicola, Florida, for a day of exploring and just hanging out together. We made our way slowly down the coast, with a few random stops on the way to check out some pretty spots. When we got down there, we went to a pretty little B&B to talk to them about a beach house they own as a potential wedding site :) The girl that was there for the day didn't have much info, but at least we got the owner's number to call... 

Then we headed into their 'downtown' section to check out some little shops! Unfortunately, most of them close down on Sunday's, but we went to as many as we could find that were open. And they were so dang cute! My favorite was one called the Tin Shed, and they had some really awesome stuff in there. And they had statues of peg-leg pirates all over the place! We only bought a few older-looking, 'vintage-style' maps, and they were a great price. Then we just had fun looking at all the cool things at that shop, and a few others as well!

Around 6 p.m., everything there is pretty much shut down, so we started our drive back home. And we decided to do kind of a 'progressive dinner' up the coast! So we stopped at one tiny place to have an appetizer of fried crab claws, and then drove another 20-30 minutes before we stopped at another restaurant to have our actual dinner! It was cold, but we sat outside on the deck, in order to see the beautiful sunset, the water, and hear the live music, and they turned on a giant heater for us anyways! We both got the grouper sandwich, and it was pretty good. We decided we definitely want to come back to that restaurant in the summer, because it would be a great place to hang out once it's warm!

We got back to his house around 9 p.m., and we decided to take it easy and watch "Up" for a little bit. My head was killing me though, so I ended up falling asleep, and missed most of the movie... Then it was time for me to go home, and bundle up with about four extra blankets on my bed, because it was going to be freezing  here in Florida! In fact, when I woke up this morning, it was 27 degrees. That's just craziness for this sunshine-loving girl! I'm hoping it'll warm up again over the next few days, and that some warmer weather can help zap this cold I can't seem to shake. And then once I feel better, I'm actually really looking forward to be able to start working out again! I haven't done anything this past week, and I kind of miss Zumba and running... ready to get back to it again!

How were y'all's weekends? Did anyone else take a mini road trip? Or get a free massage?! Or maybe you had a low-key, relaxing weekend? Tell me all about them people! 

Linking up today with Covered in Grace, Sami's Shenanigans and Synfully Delicious.

Pinwheels & a Polar Watch

Dear March: You kinda came out of nowhere there, didn't ya? As long ago as January seems now, it also feels like February really just started, and then you came along and just bumped that out of the way. But now I've got a cute new printout calendar for my desk at work, with happy little pinwheels to stare at me for the next 31 days.

Dear Polar Watch: I just ordered you last night, and even though I selected free 5-8 day shipping, I'm ready for you to be here now! Not that I can actually workout or anything right now because I feel like death, but I just want to check you out! I can't wait to see how you track my calories burned and my heart rate and other fancy, exercise-y stuff's. I'm gettin' legit about my workouts people...just watch out!

Dear Sickness: You must have no idea how tired of you I am. And now I'm just getting mad. Because it feels like I'm only getting worse every day instead of better! And that's unacceptable. My nose is snottier and my cough is nastier, my voice is sounding super manly and my head feels like it could explode at any second. (Sorry friends - TMI?!) At least I'm making sure I'm getting plenty of liquids  If I could, I would kick you in the back, pull your legs out of from under you, and then casually walk on top of you -- just to show you who's boss. It's time for you to go. End. Of. Story.

Emergen-C, hot tea, and 18 oz. of water. This happens twice a day at work...

Dear Anytime Fitness: Thanks for sending me that free, 14-day pass to try out your gym. I was actually pretty pumped about that. But then this illness of death came over me, and it's already been like 5 days into my pass. Think you would let me push it back a little bit? Can you please make an exception for me?

Dear Beans: It has been fun hanging out with you this week while your Mama was on a work trip! I hope you had a great 5th birthday at Chuck-E-Cheese's the other night! And thank you for being so awesome and perfect last night. Jeff and I loved taking you out to eat, and then you were so stinking cute 'helping' Jeff drive the cart at Walmart :)

Dear Weekend: Even though I need to rest, there's kind of a lot happening: tomorrow is Beans' birthday party, I want to go buy myself a wedding folder/planner thingy and start doing a little more planning, and I need to repaint my nails... Then my cousin has his Eagle Scout ceremony thingy-ma-jig on Sunday night. And of course there's regular church schedule Sunday morning. And I need to pick up some cosmetic stuff as well too sometime. As long as I can sleep in a little bit tomorrow, that should make me happy. So listen up neighborhood (and my sister's dog) -- keep it quiet in the morning please!!

I hope all you lovely blog friends of mine have a great weekend. And I sincerely hope none of you are sick right now! But if you are, I hope your recovery is faster than mine. (However, I think I just discovered it might be a sinus infection rather than just an ordinary cold, so I'm about to call the doctor...) Happy Friday to y'all, and happy weekend too!