Om Nom Nom!

I had an awesome idea to gather all my girlies for some bonding over lunch and dress shopping. So I e-mailed everyone and the moms and set a date for the 26th of September and got excited. My sisters, my mom, Mr. Tal's mom, and soon-to-be-sister-in-law were all able to make it. Unfortunately, my maid of honor and bestie ended up needing to be out of her apartment by the 1st, so she had to move over the weekend of the lunch. I was a little sad, but it still worked out, they'll all meet eventually after all!

The morning of the 26th came around and I was actually pretty giggly and excited. Everyone gathered at our place around noon and we all took off for my former place of employment the Olive Garden. It was scrumptious. We had a great time just chatting and I was so excited that sister-in-law was getting along great with my Mom and my sisters. We ended up taking off for David's Bridal after lunch, which we all agree was the wrong way to do it. Should have went dress shopping first, oh well, hindsight and all that.

Oh, yeah, I bet you're wondering why we went dress shopping when I already had a dress picked out. That fell through. The seller that I was in communication with didn't get back to me for about a month and I decided that while I can understand that she was busy, I didn't want that kind of stress surrounding our wedding. Like I told the ladies at lunch, I want our wedding to be as stress free and fun as possible. Thus, the need to go dress shopping emerged.

Luckily, I made an appointment at David's Bridal since when we walked in the place was packed. It is one of the two bridal stores in Toledo. We checked in and started perusing the dresses, there was one in particular that I wanted all the girls to try on, which we found for each girl. I also told the girls to try a few that they liked on to see if they liked anything else. The dress I had picked out didn't work for everyone, which was fine. I ended up going with my original gut feeling on the whole dress situation and allowed the girls to pick whatever they wanted as long as the dresses were short and red. The consultant that worked with us was so suprised at how laid back we all were, the look of suprise on her face when we told her we were done after a half an hour was priceless.

The whole afternoon was wonderful and went just the way I wanted it. I think I've choosen a great group of girls to be by my side on the big day. They are so wonderful and supportive, I can't wait to see what they decide to pull out of their hat for my Bachelorette party!

MIA

It's been a while, but I've been busy, busy, busy, like a little bee. School is just zipping along, Mr. Tal's birthday was last weekend, plus our official anniversary, and I had a wonderful bridesmaid's luncheon. It's been an amazing few weeks. Oh, and the biggest news of all, my save the dates arrived (!!!) and went out (well at least a few of them, some people *ahem, mamma and poppa* haven't given me addresses).

Without further ado, here are my Save the Dates:

I love it, it's so us, the back is just our website info, so I'm not posting that up, but it's till pretty rock and roll as far as the font goes. We have had a few issues with people accessing the website, mostly because the font made a few of the "L's" look like back slashes, which is an oopsie on my part. Mr. Tal insists it looks fine and people just don't know how to read websites, but I think he's just trying to make me feel better.
I'll post more on the other events, at least the wedding related ones soon, promise, no more slacking.

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY Bride.

G is for Grrr, Grreat Idea that is!

I have been sick-which has put me behind workout and blogging wise, though there isn't much to write. This post is more me ranting than anything else, but maybe if I write it I'll feel better.

My mom and I attended a bridal show for funsies on Sunday, I was sick, so that might have had a bit of an affect on my view, which was negative. First of all they had these lovely little "Bride" stickers, which almost every show has, but it said something along the lines of "I'm the BRIDE and it's all about me." Umm, no folks, it's not. I'm the bride and he's the groom and this wedding is about us and our love for one another. Walking in it was amazing to see some of the beautiful table set-ups and the craziness of the vendors, but after about 15 minutes I had a major palm-smack-forehead moment, see we pretty much have everything covered and know what we're doing, we didn't really need to be at the bridal show. I did fill out some forms to win some stuff because I figured it couldn't hurt, I didn't win, but it was worth a shot. Another thing that irked me was on the way out the limousine company stopped and asked me if I wanted to take a look, when I politely declined, she asked me if I was sure. Yes, I'm sure, we aren't having a limousine. The horrified look I got was priceless. By the time my mom and I made it to the car I had a few retorts I wanted to share with the limo lady, but instead I'll share them with you. Why would I pay hundreds of dollars for a limo when my wedding party are more than capable (and willing) of driving ourselves? I realize some people dream of limos for their wedding and that's more than okay, but it wasn't for me. I would much rather have a day of coordinator so none of my guests have to worry about anything that day. The whole situation just made me angry, which lead me to the most fabulous idea I've ever had.

I told my mom that she and I should have an offbeat bridal show. We could team up with sites like Weddingbee and Offbeat Bride and share how to DIY, sell supplies, and raffle away gift cards to Michaels and Hobby Lobby. Our vendors could be student musicians and photographers, Etsy sellers and former brides and grooms. We could set up a bartering booth where people can match brides with vendors that could use the bride and groom's talents in exchange for their services. Seriously, how much fun would that be? I think it's genius, but I don't know how it would work in our area, might be better suited for larger metropolitan areas.

Would anyone be interested in my Offbeat Bridal Show? Or am I just a crazy dreamer?

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY Bride.

The Save the Date Dilemma

Once upon a time, I knew that I never wanted save the dates. I found them to be an unnecessary use of paper and my eco-friendly-self said I wouldn't need to kill anymore trees. Now I do realize there are some eco-friendly options out there but all these thoughts were prior to my actual engagement. When I actually got engaged I realized that most of our family and friends were spread all over the place. I also realized that our wedding date wasn't the most convenient of times. Friday weddings are becoming more and more common among brides, especially those on a budget, but it's still difficult on guests and I'm respectful of that. So when it came down to it, I knew that even though we had done a good job spreading the date through word of mouth, some little piece of paper with a reminder and a website would probably be helpful.

Then came the options...wow, there are so many different types of save the dates that brides can use. Magnets, postcards, cards, oh my, the options were pretty much limitless. We originally wanted to use magnets, we even priced the little kits and were ready to buy, but then came a fateful day when I logged into weddingbee. There I saw postcards and fell in love, luckily Mr. Tal agreed with me as well. We decided to design our own save the date postcards. This was both economical and a way we could get our own personalities into the mix.

We decided we want to get these babies out a little earlier than suggested in case people need or want to take the day off. In all honesty, I came home last night to work on the guest list with Mr. Tal and maybe find the website we would use to design the postcards. It turns our the guest list is really only a one person job once we got all the names figured out. I decided to grab my laptop and do a little more research, that's when I found http://www.zazzle.com/. I fell in love with the design template that the website offers and ended up designing a wonderful save the date postcard. We ordered 100 of them last night for $60, which I didn't think was too bad in comparison with most of the other save the date options we saw. I will post pictures of them as soon as they arrive but I can't post them today because they are now filed in my account.

Any one else decide on something they never thought they needed or wanted for their wedding?

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY bride.

Stalker

Last night was our engagement shoot, complimentary with our photography package. We decided to have the shoot at a local park where we have had a few dates and like to take our dog Pepper to walk. It was important to us to include Pepper in part of our wedding and unfortunately, she isn't welcome at our ceremony or reception. Not only do they not allow animals, Pepper is also quite skittish around strangers, specifically men. We can't know for sure why this is, but I found her running down the highway and it's possible she was abused at one point. Anyway, we decided that having Pepper come with us to the park would be a nice way to have her take part in some of the wedding stuff.

We arrived at the park 45 minutes early, partly to scope out photography locations, partly to tucker Pepper out a bit. She's a bit high stung and we wanted her to be a little mellow when the photographer arrived. As we were walking around we saw the cutest little yearling buck laying by a creek and eating. We found a foot path to get a little closer to the deer, which peaked Pepper's interest. We were probably 15 to 20 feet from the little guy and he got up once we were that close. I figured he was going to hop into the wooded area, instead in slowly started walking towards us. Slowly but surely he made his way within about 3 feet of us, bobbing his head from side to side at Pepper. He had no interest in Mr. Tal or me, just Pepper. This interaction went on for about 10 minutes, when we figured we should get going. We gently tugged Pepper away from her new found friend and headed down the foot path. Bambi decided he didn't like this and stopped his hoofs at us and followed. We crossed the bridge over the little creek and the path followed the creek. On the opposite bank the little guy followed, then he went down the bank into the creek and crossed to follow us. Seriously, my dog had a stalker. I don't know why, Mr. Tal wondered if the young buck smelled something on Pepper that he liked. Eventually, I got a little scared that the deer would get mad at us for taking his girlfriend away so we picked up the dog and headed out towards the parking lot to meet our photographer.

The shoot itself went well and I think we got some great shots. Our photographer said we should have the disk of images next week to choose ten from, he'll then edit those and send us the digital files of those images. We also will get an eight by ten of our choosing. I'm excited to see the shots, it was a beautiful day and a beautiful setting.

How about you readers, any funny stories from your engagement pictures?

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY bride.

Cone Heads

"You know Connie, I read in a magazine that you can talk to me about anything." Ha-I have to watch that movie now, but I don't think we own it. How sad. Anyway, the real deal with the cones is for our ceremony site. Our beautiful, wonderful opera house needs very little to add to the decor which makes me a happy bride. It does need a little oomph, so in comes another DIY project. Luckily it is ridiculously easy! Yay for easy DIY! These cones will hang at the end of the aisle, alternating every other row.

List of supplies:
Roll of Embossed Wallpaper
Metallic Spray Paint (Gold or Silver)
Hole Punch
Hot Glue Gun
Tape Measure
Scissors
Ribbon/String/Wire

I don't have pictures for the beginning steps, but it is super easy.

Mark the wallpaper into 8.5 inches tall by 9 inches long. You may actually want these bigger or smaller, mine a just a tad smaller. Our seats aren't that big, play around with it. One roll of wallpaper goes a long way, trust me.

Cut the wallpaper into as many cones as you'll need. Lay them out and spray paint them. Wait for the pieces to dry.

This is my little pile of cones to be after they have dried.

Next, heat up your hot glue gun and practice rolling the paper into the cone shape. I had problems with this step, so Mr. Tal rolled and I hot glued the edge to maintain the cone shape. Voila, a cone like the one pictured below:



Then punch a hole at the top center point for your ribbon/wire/string, or in my case raffia. Like so:

Side note: Another hole towards the bottom of the cone could be helpful to stabilize it when you go to hang it, we're going to need to do this to all our cones because they aren't centered or stable when we hang it. Luckily we only made about two to test, so we don't have to redo all of them.
Easy peasy, you have some cones for your ceremony site. Add whatever flowers you want, I used a giant Gerber daisy from Michael's. It works well, I just needed to add some paper to keep it from sliding around. This is what the cone looks like finished with the flower. Sorry the one picture isn't vertical, we're having technical difficulties in the Tal household.

A Healthy Middle

I want to let you readers in on a little secret, for a majority of my life I've struggled with my weight. Now this may not shock anyone, because a lot of Americans this day in age do struggle at some point with their weight, but my struggle has been one on the lower spectrum. You see I have struggled a majority of my life with being underweight. I have never had an eating disorder or anything of the sort, I have just been under the ideal weight that my physicians felt was healthy for me pretty much my entire life. Most people I encounter have a sort of flippant response along the lines of, "Wow, I wish I had the problem." It's a little hurtful and a little ignorant, but it still happens. I get it, people don't really understand, they think that it was lucky that I couldn't gain weight. It seems like a dream to some people and I understand their view point, but I'm here to tell you that it's not a dream at all. Being twenty to thirty pounds underweight is no healthier than being twenty to thirty pounds overweight, both are a serious health concern. It was irritating and disconcerting that I couldn't gain weight no matter what I tried. To gain healthy weight one needs to eat a great deal of protein and gain muscle mass. It's a lot of work and most of the time I couldn't gain a pound no matter how hard I tried, so around the age of 21 I just stopped trying.

Then I met Mr. Tal and things changed. Dinners out, bar nights, parties, road trips, plus my metabolism slowing down made it easy to gain all the weight I ever needed and then some. I don't blame our relationship at all, I became comfortable with him which made it easy to let my eating habits fall in the crapper but that's my doing. It became apparent with the wedding approaching that I needed to shape up. If you recall I wrote a blog in June about that need to shape up. I currently am on the higher end of the weight spectrum for my height and I'm not happy with it at all. I was doing well working out and eating healthy until medical issues put me on bed rest for two weeks. My depressed mood combined with my doctor ordered down time had me falling behind in the working out and eating healthy department. I let it go on for about a month and a half, drowning my sorrows in ice cream and pizza. However, I need to get back to that goal I set for myself a few months ago. I'm starting up my routine again and feeling really good about trying to be healthy. However, I feel an inner struggle, one that I felt when I originally began my journey to a healthier me. For so long I struggled to gain weight, it seems odd that I'm trying to loose some now. That's not exactly the truth of it though, what I'm really trying to do is be as healthy as I possibly can. I'm trying to eat right and exercise and that is a wonderful thing. Getting to look beautiful and radiant on my wedding day is a fringe benefit of all that.

So now to share my plan of action to getting to a healthier me. Exercise using my EA Active for the Wii, 30 Day Shred, walking and running. Exercise will be two days on one day off in order to achieve a gain in muscle mass. Eating healthier, which means no fast food, or very little, no junk food in the house at all, well rounded meals, with necessary amount of protein. I'm hoping for now that this will be enough. I hope to see results in a few weeks and that my inner struggle will subside when I hit that middle ground I'm aiming for.

So readers, do you have any plans to get healthier? What do they include?

Tune in next time for more tales of a DIY bride.

Happy Anniversary!

Mr. Tal this post is for you.

Two years ago today a guy in a soccer jersey showed up at my apartment door and took me on an incredibly long first date. Who knew that it would lead to this? That the guy would turn out be my partner, my companion, and most of all my best friend. Happy anniversary my love, in seven and a half months we'll be joined in marriage. I would say that we're beginning our lives together, but in many ways, our lives together have already begun. In our daily talks, our cuddles on the couch, in our dinners in and out, in our daily laughter, our nightly walks, we've begun our life together already. However, in just a short time we will pronounce our intentions to spend our lives together in front of family and friends, we'll announce to the world what we already know, that we belong together. I love you. You are my inspiration, my hope, my rock, and my strength. I'm so glad that two years ago today you came to my door and started this journey with me.

I'm a little achiever

If you get the reference from my title I totally am high-fiving you through the internets. I have to say I'm quite proud of myself, I've gotten a lot accomplished this week, none of which is wedding related. I will say, if it weren't for the crafty skills I have developed the one project that happened this week, probably wouldn't have happened. See this weekend marks the very important second anniversary of my first date with Mr. Tal, it's the GAF, or German American Festival for all you non-Toledoans. This doesn't actually mean a whole lot, except the festival is this weekend and many a fraternal brother, sibling and friend treks back to Toledo for this shindig. This means we open up our apartment to whoever needs a place to crash. This year it's my best friend (and MOH) and her boyfriend, and was supposed to be Mr. Tal's brother and his girlfriend. I got really pumped about this and dove into planning mode.

The way our apartment is set up, we can sleep two couples pretty well, with one in the second bedroom and one in the three-seasons room, so long as the weather doesn't become too hot. This is when I decided to make our place themed like a B&B. Totally crazy with everything else on my plate right now, but it sounded fun. I went out and started to buy a few things, like some guest towels. Yeah, we don't have guest towels, found that one out the hard way. I got some snacks, mini-shampoo and conditioner bottles. Then I got a basket to make it like a little welcome kit. I bought some raw hide, a rope toy, and a squeaky toy for the couple bringing their dog. I got mini-bottles of sparkling wine and I'm getting some plastic champagne flutes. Then I put it all together and made it look all pretty. I'm a little sad that only one couple is coming now because I have these little baskets made, so I guess Mr. Tal and I will have one for ourselves. Poor brother Tal and his girlfriend couldn't make it this weekend, too many things to do and not enough time to do them...sad, I was really looking forward to some time with them. Anyway, I've got to also set up the room for MOH and her man and figure out the best placement for the "Welcome Basket." I may even be cute and print off some German phrases to put into the basket, but that might be crossing the cute line. I blame wedding planning, I doubt I would ever do this prior to thinking about guests needs and out of town bags.

At least now I've gotten a good idea of what the out of town bags will take, I need to scale it down tremendously, but it really made me think of what our guests will need and want when they are away from home. Those are a ways off, I'm not planning to do that until maybe two weeks before the wedding, but I like getting an idea of what should be in the bags and what people will want. It's really difficult for me because I like having a lot of stuff when I'm out of town. Mr. Tal says I like my home comforts and it's true, so I want to shower people with things they will need and want. However, our budget doesn't really allow for that, so I need to think of the basics. It'll come to me. Plus I have Mr. Tal to help me narrow down the list.



Any fellow brides have problems narrowing down supplies for the wedding? What did you do? How did you make it manageable?



Tune in next time for more tales of a DIY bride.

Future Mrs.Tal and the Thousand Paper Luminaries

Way back in the day, in elementary school we had to read a book that had a similar title, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, I remember it vividly because it was my first encounter with origami. In Asia it is believed that if a person folds a thousand paper cranes they will be granted a wish by a crane. I wonder if a similar legend holds true for paper luminaries? I would love a nice little wish, maybe a new car…oops, lost myself in fantasy (or as I call it if-I-had-money) land for a minute; I’m back now. Anyway, I would love to know if there is any special treat for folding paper luminaries because I’m sure I will have a thousand of ‘um when I finally finish.

I’m making all these luminaries for our centerpieces. Centerpieces that I haven’t really seen beyond the visions I hold in my head. I guess I’m just crossing my fingers and hoping these centerpieces stick and I’m not wasting time and energy on this project.

The luminaries themselves are super easy and to do only 2 or 3 of them takes a just a few minutes, however, I need about 75-100, perhaps more. So each time I’m watching TV I pull out my little luminary making supplies and bust out a few paper luminaries. It slowly adds up and it’s easier on my hands, which I noticed start to ache if I do more than 10 at a time.

What’s that you say? You want a tutorial…so far ahead of you sister friend (or brother man, can’t forget the brothers).

Supplies needed:
· 8.5 x 11 paper (Standard Size Letter) in whichever color your heart desires
· Scissors
· Paper Cutter of some sort
· Standard Hole Punch
· Glue or Double-sided Tape
· 16 mm Circular Hole Punch (Or any shape around that size would probably work)
· Pen/Pencil/Some sort of marking implement

Doing this on a flat surface is helpful; I just used a cutting board while sitting on the floor.

Step 1: Cut paper into 4 inch by 8.5-inch strips, each piece of paper should make 2 luminaries.

Step 2: Fold the strip in half the long way. (Or make a hot dog bun, if you’re familiar with that term)

Step 3: Open up the paper, then with your tape measure, make marks every two inches, (1 mark at 2, 4, 6, and 8-inches)

Step 4: Fold the paper at each mark

Step 5: Cut at each of the section folds just to the half fold. Cut away the bottom portion of the small half inch fold.

Step 6: Glue or tap the small half-inch piece to the inside of the first square, so it makes a box-like shape. Then fold all the bottom pieces under and glue or tape the last piece so that you have a box without a top.

Step 8: With the small hole punch, punch two holes opposite of each other, do the same with your larger hole punch.

Voila! Add a tea light (mine is battery operated) use ribbon or craft wire through the small holes to hang your finished product wherever you please!

Flashback: Our First Date

The last post in my flashback series, Our First Date, was going to be posted next weekend, on the anniversary of our first day, but I just couldn’t wait that long. I have some projects that I worked on this weekend that I would like to post about and I don’t want this post hanging over my head. Here it goes again, cue wavy flashback lines and music…

Finally, Sunday arrived in all its glory. Mr. Tal was picking me up around 12:30, so I worked meticulously to make my appearance look wonderful with just the right amount of casual. He arrived pretty close to the time he said he would and he came to the door walked me to his truck and opened the door for me. As we drove to the bus stop it seemed very strained and quiet, this continued for the duration of the bus ride to the German-American Festival. We talked a little but for the most part we were silent and observant. When we finally got to the festival I paid for the bus ride myself, which irritated Mr. Tal. We had to get our IDs checked at the gate if we wanted to drink and I forgot mine, pity because it may have broken the ice a little more. Finally we got some food and beverage, which I let Mr. Tal buy for me and sat down. I think this is the moment that the entire date turned around for us. As we were eating I noticed that Mr. Tal had gotten some green ink on his nose from the hand stamp that was used to identify he had paid for his entry. I giggled a little and pointed it out to him; he smiled sheepishly, wiping it off with a napkin and a laugh. From that moment on, it was just easy. We walked around and talked, laughed and ate some more. When we realized there wasn’t much more to do we went to wait for the bus. We both knew we didn’t want the date to end but I wasn’t sure how to vocalize that. As we sat in the grass talking Mr. Tal asked if I would like to go catch a movie or something, I eagerly agreed to the suggestion.

When we got back, instead of going to the movies, we ended up going to his apartment to watch a movie. I believe that nothing good was playing in theaters at the time. He had me pick a movie from his DVD collection, while he built a couch for us out of blankets. (If you remember correctly, he only bought his couch the night before, so it still wasn’t there). So we sat, or kind of laid down, and watched a movie together. By this point, I knew I liked this guy but the chemistry element hadn’t been explored. I needed to hold his hand or maybe even kiss him to know if that chemistry was there. I held my hand out awkwardly trying to bait him. It didn’t work. We then went out to dinner, then back to his place. By this time, our date was about 7 hours and it wasn’t over yet. We watched another movie, again I held my hand out, and eventually he took it. It was like sparks, amazing. We watched the movie, held hands and talked a bit more. I don’t quite remember how it happened, but somehow we got close enough to kiss and I went for it. BAM! That was it. I was hooked. He eventually took me home around 12:30 that night; when he dropped me off he kissed me again and asked when he could see me again (!!!). Our first date lasted 12 hours, so I like to say it was 3 dates rolled into one. When I walked into my apartment, Miss Ann looked a little relieved (I think she thought that I had been kidnapped and stuffed into a trunk), she asked me how my date was and I told her, “I think he is the one.”

So there you have it, the beginnings of the Tals. It’s not the greatest story ever, but it’s our story, which is what matters to me.

Up next, some project posts.
Tune in next time for more tales of a DIY Bride.

Our Vedors: The Ceremony Site

I always knew I wanted to get married in a church, always. I loved the stone church in my hometown where I grew up with the beautiful archways and high ceilings. It felt holy and special, which was perfect for a wedding. When Mr. Tal and I decided to get married, this was one of the first things we talked about, my desire to get married in a church. The problem was that we lived in Toledo, it's a nice central point for both our friends and family to access easily. This made my hometown church out of the question, we needed to get married in Toledo, so the search began for the perfect church.

First we scoured the area for Lutheran Churches, because no matter how pretty a church it is, it wouldn't be so much if it killed our grandmothers. We found two, we started to go to one and felt pretty okay there, not super comfortable but it was nice, the pastor seemed nice, so it seemed decided. I should've known that if I didn't feel at home there that it wasn't the place for us, but I didn't, so we continued down that path for probably a month and a half. Then I actually had a conversation with the pastor via e-mail. He actually mocked my words, mocked them, it was horrible and humiliating. We were done. D-O-N-E, done. I don't deal well with condescension. We were also back at square one. This is when my mother, the God sent angel that she is, brought to our attention an opera house in a small suburb outside of T-town. We decided to go take a peek, couldn't hurt, right?

We walked into the Pemberville Opera House to behold this:

Picture courtesy of Pemberville Opera House Website

It's beautiful isn't it? And we felt at home the minute we walked in. It's perfect for us. A historical opera house, beautiful and classic. The historic aspect did it for me for me and Mr. Tal practically grew up in a playhouse so he loved it. Every inch of this place is fully restored from the original opera house that was used around the turn of the century. (The price was right too!) This picture really doesn't do it justice, but it's all I have right now. The rows seat five and they are the same seating used when the opera house was first opened, bonus is that they can be moved anyway we want to, which we played with today when we visited for decoration ideas. I wish I would've taken some pictures while we were there but I'll go out there again soon to get some more. I loved it even more today. My sister tested the acoustics for when she sings at the ceremony, it was so beautiful I was almost moved to tears. I'm so excited about this, it didn't turn out how I thought it would, but I'm happy with our ceremony site.

How about you readers, did your original plans come how differently? Better?

(I know the original plan was to finish the flashbacks but I have a plan for The Big Date post...muhahahaha! So I'll post it soon, promise, just want to wait a few more days.)

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY bride!

A Pause

I want to take a post to really pause and reflect about my impending nuptials. In recent weeks I have had days where my nerves get to me and I wonder if I am doing the right thing. I’m young, according to some too young to get married. I’m 23 and tantalizingly close to the finish line for my undergrad. I have lived on my own and I live with Mr. Tal now, I have dated, I have had previous serious relationships, well at least one, I have traveled from a very young age, but I know there are many things I have yet to do and want to do. I want to go to Europe and Africa, I want to get a job that has something to do with my degree, I want to have an income with some breathing room, I want to buy a house and a car, there are too many things to really list. I do realize that just because I get married does not mean I can’t do all those things; it’s a great growing process for Mr. Tal and myself but it’s these things that cause me to pause.

Yesterday was one of those days in which I started to pause; the ring on my finger felt like a weight and my impending marriage loomed in the coming months as an apocalypse. This does not happen frequently, but it does happen, I start to see my “single” days as numbered and somehow it becomes a bad thing. It’s mainly comments that spur these days, like in my classroom yesterday when students talked about how couples that co-habitat before marriage have higher divorce rates (why is this by the way?). That sent me into a tizzy, mostly because Mr. Tal and I don’t believe in divorce; our theory is that if you were in love enough to make the commitment of marriage, you can work it out (there are exceptions to this theory, but I don’t expect those exceptions to occur in our marriage). So fully believing that I have no “out” from this marriage really makes me pause and appreciate the gravity of what I am about to do. I am committing myself to one man for my entire life; do I really want to do this? To never again experience the thrilling life of a single gal? I know in my heart that I do want to spend my life with Mr. Tal and that I detested being single and dating. However, my head is telling me to be rational and think about it. I don’t think there is anything wrong with thinking and having moments of doubt.

Marriage is serious business and very hard, it takes a lot of work and commitment, and this is the rest of our lives we’re talking about. I think entering into a marriage without any pause or moments of doubt is a mistake. This is only my opinion here, but I think it’s natural to think these things and allow yourself to have the occasional freak out. Entering into a marriage without the slightest thought, worry, or doubt seems a little irresponsible to me. Perhaps too few people really actually think these things and that’s why the divorce rate is so high (only speculating!), but who really knows.

Eventually I did talk myself down off the doubt ledge, I reassured myself and Mr. Tal is the one for me and our marriage will work. We have the drive, determination, and the communication to work through any problem that challenges us. I think our mindset also helps as well. I'll step down from my little soapbox now and I’ll resume the flashback series soon.

Any readers have those moments of pause? I’d love to know I’m not alone!

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY Bride.

Flashback: The party, the cookies, and the sleepover

As I said in my previous post, with the wedding planning slowing down, there is not too much to write about at the present moment. While there are still many things I could share (vendors, wedding party, budget, etc.) with you readers I have a confession: I have a deep desire to be a Bee on Weddingbee. So I'm secretly hoping (okay, maybe not so secretly) that I'll be picked and at that time I will want something to post about on there. I'll continue posting little niblets here and there about the wedding planning because some things are still happening, like my mock-up of the new centerpieces and choosing soe vendor. However, I'll also be dispersing little stories along the way like my previous post about how we met, or today's post, "The Party, the Cookies, and the Sleepover."

Probably one of my favorite stories to hear Mr. Tal tell is the story of the first time he slept over at my apartment. I know, I know, you’re probably all thinking, that’s dirty, but it wasn’t like that, it was before our first "official" date even! I should probably let him share some snipets in here so one can get the whole story. Now cue the wavy flashback lines and some good flashback music…

The next night after karaoke night, there was a big party going down at one of the fraternity brother’s houses. Miss C, Miss Ann and I got the brilliant idea that we should stop by after we heard about it. Secretly, I was hoping Mr. Tal would be there so that perhaps we could break the ice a little more before the big date on Sunday. Thanks to Miss C’s quick thinking and some lightening fast text messages, we found that in fact Mr. Tal was at said party. (Insert 3 girls giggling here) We arrived to find Mr. Tal intoxicated…not exactly what I had in mind, but it was a frat party, not really sure what I expected. So Miss C, Miss Ann and I made the rounds, saying hello to those we knew, but Mr. Tal wouldn’t even look my way (I know now that he was nervous, however, at the time I was pretty upset). The party actually became pretty boring pretty quickly, even with some drinkies in me, Mr. Tal did say hi but he didn’t really say a whole lot more.

Finally, our little gaggle of girls decided that making cookies sounded amazing and we were going to leave. Mr. Tal overheard this and practically jumped on us to take him with us. In my head I’m thinking, dude, you’re drunk, how will you get home, luckily Miss Ann asked this and Miss C said, hey someone can bring him back to his car tomorrow…this is a bad plan, a very bad plan. After some logistics were figured out, we took him with us to the store and back to our apartment for some 2AM baking. Peanut butter cookies with Hershey kisses (mmm, I want to bake now!), while Miss Ann baked, Mr. Tal, Miss C, and I sat in the dining room and chatted while flipping through Cosmo, it was fun and weird all at once. Finally the cookies were finished (and some devoured) and sleeping arrangements had to be made. Mr. Tal insisted on sleeping on the couch, which didn’t make much sense seeing as both Miss C and Miss Ann had to get up early for work and they would end up disturbing him. So he slept on my floor. Weird.

The next morning it got really strange, because I didn’t really think about the whole, there’s-a-boy-in-my-room-and-I-have-to-take-him-home-thing. I was just jazzed that I got to talk to him a little more before our date. Then I woke up and realized he was there, I quietly snuck out of bed, got dressed, brushed my teeth and made some coffee. Then I waited and waited, and waited some more until finally he emerged from my room. This was probably the most awkward moments in our entire relationship because neither of us knew what to do. He finally asked if we could go get breakfast, so we went to Waffle House. Any attempts at conversations would end in a crashing halt, it was sad. Towards the end of the meal he asked me if I would mind going with him couch shopping. I couldn’t believe it, we didn’t really seem to be having a good time, but he still asked me to go with him, so we went couch shopping. Seriously, I helped him pick out a couch, he bought it that day and everything. Now I’m quite fond that couch because every time I sit in our living room I think about how that couch was picked out when we barely knew each other and things were weird and awkward. Eventually we found our way back to his truck and we awkwardly hugged goodbye and said we’d see each other tomorrow. That was it. I didn’t and still don’t consider this day we had together a date. It was more of a hang out session, an awkward, slow to warm up hang out session, but I love that story because it’s quirky and fun just like Mr. Tal (and me.)

Next up, The Big Date

How about you readers, did you have some awkward beginnings with your guys?
Tune in next time for more tales of a DIY Bride.

Flashback: How we met

My DIYing has come to a halt as of late, in reality there isn't much I can do, the wedding is about 8 months away and I start student teaching on Monday. I'm really happy with where I am at with my projects and progress with the wedding, however, that means blogging is going to be more difficult. It's easy to write about projects and progress, but what happens when you hit that slow patch in wedding planning? I've heard all about it, even dreaded it because I love it, it keeps me busy and sane while I'm unemployed. So I've decided that while my projects are slow and I'm busy with other things like teaching, I'll write about our relationship, vendors, and anything else that comes to mind dealing with this wedding! First up, how we met (cue the wavy lines and flashback music):

I moved to Toledo from a rinky dink little town about 45 minutes away from Toledo in the middle of July 2007. I transferred from my community college because I had finally decided what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and I wanted to complete my degree. This wasn't too big of a deal for me, I already worked in Toledo, I had friends in the area and my best friend from back home was going to be my roommate. Once we moved, we had a lot more time on our hands. The 45 minute commute turned into 10 minutes and we didn't start school for another month, so Miss Ann (my roommate) and I started going out with our Toledo friends and co-workers a lot more. We had already been joining them for a Thursday night special at a bar called Mutz for several weeks before we moved. It was karaoke night and so much fun. We would head there with our friend Miss C and her boyfriend Mr. S, usually a group from Mr. S' fraternity would be there and it was quite a lot of fun and mischief. Each Thursday we'd meet up and have drinks and sing the night away, often I'd flirt with some boys at the bar, trying to see if I could score a date. This was the first time I'd been single in 6 years and actually been able to date, I found out that dating is actually highly overrated after a date or two.

Finally, August 9th arrived when a guy named Mr. Tal walked into the bar and joined our group of 15 to 20. Miss C and I whispered back and forth about him for a minute when I inquired who he was, "Oh Mr. Tal is in Mr. S' frat, he is cool, really nice, you should date him." to which I responded, "Umm, no I'll pass," and made a little wrinkled up nose face. I can't remember why he was so unappealing to me that night, maybe because I had a bad date earlier that day. The next Thursday he showed up again, this time he peaked my interest a little, he could sing, he laughed a lot, and from what I heard he was a certified geek, my favorite kind of man. So after a few drinks I got brave enough to tell Mr. S to give Mr. Tal my number and then we got home and I facebook stalked him. (Creepy, but after the dates I had been on I needed some reassurance he was semi-normal). Four days later I sent him a message saying hello, he responded, saying he'd seen me out and about and inquired about me. He asked if I'd be at the bar again the following week so he could say hello in person. I responded with a yes, he responded with an inquiry about my plans for the following weekend. I was suppose to work but could get out of it if need be. He asked if I would like to go to the German-American Festival with him, I immediately gave up my shift as quickly as possible and told him I could go.

Thursday night couldn't get here quick enough, I was excited and nervous. I had said yes to a date with a guy I'd not even spoken to and barely knew, I needed to remedy this in the course of a night. As always Miss C, Miss Ann, and I arrived early and grabbed drinks, he wasn't there and I was sad. So we decided to all sing together, we picked Queen's "Somebody to Love," (Oh the irony). He showed up halfway through our song, I was ready to stop because I wanted to look cool but the show had to go on. After the song, he was sitting at our long table looking through the song book, Miss Ann and Miss C were coaxing me to go say hello but my liquid courage hadn't kicked in yet. Finally, I bit the bullet and walked over to the stool next to him and sat down. I think I said hey, he asked me to help him pick out a song since I had chosen such a great song to sing earlier. I don't think I ever did pick a song, but we sat and talked a bit, nervously trying to make a good impression. I was comfortable enough by the end of the night that I felt that we could go out on Sunday and have a good time.

Up next: The party, the cookies, and the sleepover. Followed by: The First Date.

How about you readers, any interesting "how we met" stories?

Tune in next time for more Tales from a DIY Bride.

I've seen the light!

Throughout the wedding planning process I've used my gut to make my decisions. Obviously, careful thinking and planning was involved in the decisions as well, but ultimately, I knew in my gut when a vendor or decision was right. That's actually a little weird for me, I'm usually a think-it-through type of person, but the wedding has been easy. Caterer, flowers, venues, all gave me a certain feeling. This feeling was what I felt when I found the centerpieces in The DIY Bride and fell in love with them. They were clear vases, filled with water, rocks on the bottom, with a table number suspended in the water, very pretty, very simple. I loved them. I made a mock up of them several weeks ago, which you can read about here.



That was all well and good, but ever since the mock up I've had a nagging feeling about those centerpieces. They just aren't what I want. Plus, they aren't very big, and at a table of 8 with no place settings or favors, the tables would look very bare. So after some deliberation and some research, I've decided I want to do luminary centerpieces. Images like this made me love the idea. It's simple, elegant, and beautiful. However, will it turn out like I plan? I don't know, I'm still going through the materials to see if it's in the budget. I have lots of paper from the original centerpiece idea, which can be crafted into very pretty luminaries (I know I tried it!) and hung from branches with floral wire. The branches we can get for free from local parks and family back yards. We plan on using clay or plastic flower pots which can be spray painted those aren't very expensive, neither the sand or rocks to hold the branches in place are too horrible, and we can get tea lights for a steal as well. Well at least candle tea lights, see Mr. Tal is adamant on using battery powered tea lights for fear of fire. I understand his fear, especially with children running around. However, these are the expensive portion of this project and after some online research it didn't seem that it would be in the budget. Then I went to Meijer, 99 cent battery powered tea lights!!! It's in the budget, which means I can at least try this project.

Now all I have to do is make a mock up and hope that my gut likes this one. I hope it does, I don't want to have to pick something else again!

How about you, readers, have you ever had decisions made and then end up changing your mind about it?

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY Bride!

DIY FAIL

I've had my first DIY fail, I'm actually happy about it because I knew it was going to happen and I would rather it happen early so I can fix it. I headed to my parents house yesterday because I had some fume related projects that can't be done in my apartment. I had hoped that I could get the projects done quickly and then spend some time with my mom and sisters, but the day took a turn as soon as I got there. My mom and sisters wanted to hit up a local antique store for brooches and go grocery shopping. This ended up eating up most of the afternoon.

We got back home and got to work. I had two projects in mind for the day, pew cones and cufflinks. I only really wanted to spray paint the embossed wall paper I was using for the pew cones, so that got done quite quickly. We ran out of spray paint. Sad, but it's easy so I can buy some more and finish them a little later. Then we sat down to work on the cufflinks. This is where the DIY fail really happened, I had the bezel cups, the cardstock with the printed emblems I was using, all the supplies. I hole punched the emblems out and my sister glued them into the bezel cups, almost immediately my mom poured the resin into the bezel cups. Everything looked ok at that point, there were a few bubbles in the resin but that's about it. So I let them sit to dry and brought them home with me last night. I checked them this morning and well, the emblems are all blurry, like the ink ran. I think we should have let the glue on the paper and bezel cup dry first, also popping those little bubbles in the resin with a straight pin is important too. So I have a redo on my hands. No biggy, I'll post about the DIY success on the cufflinks in a later post when I actually am successful. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the smell of that resin (gross).

How about you readers, any failed DIY attempts? Did you do a redo or just drop the project?

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY bride!

My First Tough Decision

Let me tell you, I have felt that I was getting off pretty easy with this whole wedding planning bit. Photographer, hall, ceremony site, caterer, the big things were SO easy, I should have seen it as a sign. A big ominous sign, you know all flashy and neon-y, Vegas style! I say this because I've started to look into various smaller tasks since the official engagement and it hasn't been all the pleasant.



I had ideas for my bridesmaids, great ideas. Originally, I was going to go with David's Bridal but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted something different, something the girls could wear again and something affordable. After pouring over the internet, I found the Victoria's Secret convertible dress, very unique, beautiful, and best of all affordable. I said that was that, and didn't think about it again until a few months down the road. I knew that I wanted to order a dress and see how it looked, but it was just a formality, I was so sure that this dress was perfect for my girls. Three weeks ago we ordered one for my youngest sister, she is curvy and we figured her figure would probably be hardest to fit. The dress came in and it was an EPIC FAIL! I mean, it was cool, the long straps could be used to tie the dress into many forms, but the back was very open, way too open for a wedding, and the top dipped way too low for my taste. It was back to the drawing boards for me.



I scoured the internet for the next week and a half trying to find something that I liked, could be re-worn, and was under $150. It was like pulling teeth, it was awful. Nothing was what I wanted, nothing seemed good enough. I began to recant and told my mom that it was just going to have to be David's Bridal because I couldn't find anything. It didn't stop me from searching, but the more I searched the more David's Bridal seemed appealing. I wasn't happy at all with this decision, in fact I said numerous times to Mr. Tal that the dresses were going to be the death of me as far as wedding planning goes. Finally, I turned back to Etsy.com. I had searched Etsy before and found some okay options, even found a fabulous dress for my mom to have made, but nothing for my girls. However, Etsy is so massive I figured I should give it another go and utilized Weddingbee at the same time. I recalled a post Miss Mouse did about her E-pics and her perfect dress. I loved that dress so much so I looked up that post and went to Miss Brache's shop on Etsy, where I found this number:

My mouth hit the keyboard and I started screaming a little. This was the one, my bridesmaid's dress. It's in the higher end of my money spectrum, but it's reversible, cute, and I love the vintage feel to it. Miss Brache will custom make this baby in my colors, red and white, for each of my girls. I'm actually considering going one side red, one side black and leaving the straps white, that way the girls have a little black dress to wear again (thoughts anyone?) I'm even considering having one made for me. So ends my first tough call as a bride. There was much celebrating in the Tal household the day I found this dress.

How about everyone else, what was your first tough call as a bride? How did it play out?

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY bride!

For Real

I wish I had a picture of our apartment, actually no, I take that back, no one needs to see this. We've been in this apartment for nearly a month and it still looks like we just moved in yesterday. Like many things (blogging for example), unpacking has taken a backseat to the other things going on in my life. My health was an issue and I was "bed ridden" for a week, still dealing with the doctors with that mess. School wraps up this week and I'm both excited and nervous, student teaching starts in one month. That makes me giggle and want to hurl at the same time. Also our grand vacation last week made be giddy, more so after because I have a great proposal story and beautiful ring.

It's amazing, I never thought that the proposal and ring would make a difference the way it has. It feels so much more official than before, even with our wedding date being set. I catch myself staring down at my hand in amazement, I'm getting married!!! I think it also helps that so many of the people in our life are now taking our impending marriage more seriously since I have a ring on my finger. Ridiculous to me but I understand that it's a hard concept to grasp when you're from a different generation or even just traditional. It's hard to believe in 9 short months I'll be Mrs. Tal...gah, there is so much to do still. I'm glad that Mr. Tal and I decided to get so much done before the official proposal, we have our major vendors booked, but there are still parties to plan, decor to pick out and DIY projects to get done.

I think my next DIY project is going to be our Save the Dates. We originally were going to order some magnets and send them out but I was inspired by a post on Weddingbee the other day to create our own postcards. We have that gorgeous sunset picture and I think with a little help from my latest bridesmaid (YAY!!! FSIL agreed to be a bridesmaid!), we could design a great little postcard.

How about you readers, what made your engagement feel official, a ring like me, setting a date, booking a vendor? Share please!

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY bride.

It's Official!

An appology is due for my lack of blogging, I've been under some stress lately, mostly dealing with some personal health issues, moving and finally this vacation, which was needed badly. Still I should blog more, it's my goal during the next few weeks, I think it'll happen. the story below has really made me feel the gravity of my engagement.

As you may or may not know, due to certain circumstances and a tight time frame surrounding our wedding Mr.Tal and I have been planning without an official proposal. He wanted to do his own thing and have an official proposal but he did want imput on my ring and what I wanted
Well, this past week we had a vacation to Gettysburg and Hershey, PA. Mr. Tal and I are both HUGE history nerds so this was quite an exciting trip for us. We arrived on Tuesday in the late afternoon and met up with my family (this was a family planned vacation). Wednesday was our first full day there and the day began early with a Segway Tour of the battlefield. Not only was this a fun activity but it was a great way to get introduced to the battlefield and get your bearings. Well that was a family activity with my parents and two younger sisters, lots of fun and a great morning.

Unfortunately the day before our bearing went out in the car and we had to take a break from vacation activities to get the car fixed on Wednesday afternoon. We relaxed for a bit while it was getting fixed, then headed back into town, fixed bearing and all. We walked around the National Cemetary and the shops downtown for a bit (all while I noticed Mr. Tal getting a bit antsy, but he's like that much of the time anyhow...). We met up with my family and went to an awesome Irish pub for dinner. After dinner around 8:30 my sisters, Mr. Tal, and I wanted to see a little more of the battlefield before it got too dark. We chose to go back up a hill called Little Round Top, mostly because we saw the sunset approaching and thought it would be awesome for some pictures.

Up at the top we took a couple pictures and climbed out on some big boulders that dotted the hill. In one particular spot, there was a little crevice between two huge boulders that I climbed down into to watch the sunset for a while. Mr. Tal snuck up behind me and had my sisters take some pictures of us (see the first picture below!). I turned to watch the sunset a little more and unbeknownst to me Mr. Tal waved my sisters away so he could have some privacy.
He pulled me in a little closer, kissed a couple times, then started to say how he was sorry that our engagement wasn't exactly unfolding as we had thought. He then said "I was really waiting for the perfect day and place to ask you, but really every day with you is a perfect day. So, be that as it may I have something to ask you...". He then dropped to one knee on the boulder, fished into his pocket (where he had been keeping the ring ALL day), and pulled out the box. Apparently I started giggling and hyperventilating while this was going on but it's a bit hazy. He looked up into my eyes and asked me to marry him. It was perfect.

Disaster Transport

I vaguely hinted at the failure of my adventures into centerpieces in my last blog, so I shall tell you the tale. Oh, and if you guess where the title of my post is from I'll give you a cookie, or at least your computer a cookie (that's right, starting off with the geek jokes, we're in for a ride).

Anywho, like I said before I have stocked up on craft supplies like Armageddon is on the way and they are burning a whole in my pocket, figuratively speaking. I've been itching to do some crafty wedding things since my friend announced her engagement two years ago (and has since been married), but it wasn't her style so I had to wait until now to do some wedding crafts for myself. I know it's early, but I like to jump the gun on things. Like this whole wedding, I'm planning without the "official proposal" (BAH I say to that!). So I made my little earrings, and some matching bracelets (they are cute, but again super easy) for my BM, but I yearned for a bigger challenge. Bring on the centerpiece mock up. Mr. Tal and I sat down and carefully read through the instructions in The DIY Bride (aka Future Mrs. Tal's Bible) for submersible table number centerpieces. It seemed relatively easy. Ha.

The process was fairly simple, it involved: some white card stock, a pretty paper of our choice, printer, laminate sheets, a hole punch, craft wire, heavy weighted objects of our choosing and a cylinder vase (in this case 10'' tall 6'' wide). Basically, after cutting the card stock to a predetermined size, we had to load it in the printer and just format a word document however we wanted. This was the easy part. We made our pretty table name in the font we liked, really made it our own. Then tried to print it...nothing. It ended up taking 2 hours to try to print this tiny piece of card stock. That was merely a technical difficulty at the time, but as I look back, I think it was a sign from the DIY gods that this project was not meant to happen. We finally get it printed and then we have to use double sided adhesive to tape it on to our pretty boarder paper and then we laminate it. All of this goes down easily, YAY Team Tal! Hole punch the bottom of the laminate, use the craft wire to secure it to a rock. Done. Rock on Team Tal! Then we go to put that laminated piece of beauty into the vase and it doesn't fit. Fail Team Tal. Fail hard. Not really, just a minor set back, so we trim it down and get it into the vase. Then comes the big moment; adding the water, and our submersible isn't submersible, it looks more like a bobber. Tie more rocks to it. Still doesn't sink all the way. At this point, Mr. Tal tells me it's just a mock up, the real vases will be higher so just breathe. Then I see the ink begin to melt like the make-up off an extra-sad clown in 100 degree heat. UGH! Only a mock up, only a mock up. It's my mantra with this project. We figured that we hole punched a little too close to the paper, no biggie, just have to remember for the final version. Mock-up centerpiece was a nice learning experience and we both did like the way that it looked.

Now I realize that this doesn't sound too bad, and really it wasn't. The horror part of the story hasn't come yet. When we finished up I realized that I don't know how big the opening of the vases we plan on renting are. This actually gets me a little giddy, because I'm hoping for an extra half inch or so. I immediately e-mailed the rental facility and asked this question, not caring when the response comes. Well she got back to me quickly to tell me the openings on the vases we want are 3.5'' (Internally, !$&*#@) Externally, I say to Mr. Tal, "Umm, honey, we have a problem with the rental place..." And I proceed to explain. Basically it all boils down to this, we now have to buy 15 cylinder vases for our centerpieces because the size we need isn't available for rent in our area. ARGGGGG! We've found them at a decent price in bulk online, but it's still the matter of paying for something that isn't within our budget. The plan is that we can hopefully sell the vases after the wedding and maybe only lose the amount of what we would of paid renting them. I'll cross my fingers on that one.

What about you fellow DIY brides? Any projects that didn't go quite as planned or unexpected expenses because of projects?

Tune in next time for more tales of a DIY bride.

My First Project!

I apologize dear readers (all four of you), but I've been down and out with the stomach flu after a weekend at FBIL and SIL's lake house last week. However, in my very restful state I decided to start working on some of my DIY projects, or at least buying the stuff for them. It's with all good intentions either way.

So today I went to Hobby Lobby and Michael's and spent way too much moolah for some of my projects. It's a little early for me to be starting some of these, but I wanted to get a feel for the projects I'm undertaking. So I bought supplies for a mock-up of my centerpieces, supplies for tote bags, earrings, and bracelets for my BMs, and supplies for making cuff links. I think I was a little over-ambitious, but my mind processed it and my reasoning makes a lot of sense. Right now I'm unemployed and only doing 3 classes this summer, I do have a lot on my plate, prepping for student teaching and all, but still free time is abundant. I figure before the wedding that might not happen because I'm going to have to have some form of a job, even if it's just a retail gig. Therefore, doing my projects now rather than later may save me from stressing down the line. (Though storing said projects may not be as much fun.) Yay for logical reasoning!

This was the first time I've ever tried to do anything crafty. Ever. At least with any amount of seriousness, not like that Popsicle stick house I built when I was 8. I decided that starting out small would be the best option, so I picked the BM's earrings to start out. The instructions for these came from a book called "The DIY Bride" by Khris Cochran, which is my Bible currently. She states that they are ridiculously easy drop earrings but I had little faith in myself. However, they were ridiculously easy, so easy that I ended up making a pair for every bridesmaid in about 30 minutes. I was a little afraid that I screwed them up because they were so easy, but when Mr. Tal came home he said they were beautiful. He was either trying to make me feel good or being sincere, I'll let you decide. [Mr. Tal's Note: I was sincerely making her feel good.] So here's the break down of the steps for anyone wanting to make these babies for a project.

Supplies needed: Your choice of Crystal Beads, Metallic Spacers, Faux Pearls, 3 or 4 inch Head Pins (depending on your size of beads, mine were small so I did 3 inch head pins), and Ear Hooks, as well as Needle Nose Pliers. All of which are pictured below: (I apologize for picture quality, I had to use Mr. Tal's iPhone, as our camera is packed in a box right now)

Step One: Place the crystal bead, then silver spacer, then pearl on the head pin, like so:
Step Two: With the pliers as close to the pearl as possible, bend the head pin to a 90 degree angle:

Step Three: Trim the excess head pin, I guess-timated, it was about an inch that I took off. Just make sure there is enough head pin left for step four.

Step Four: Use the pliers to form a nice little hook to pull through your ear hook.
Final Step: Loop the curved head pin through the ear hook, and close with the pliers. Voila, finished product:

Seriously, that's it. I think I have let the project go to my head a bit, I've tasted the craft nectar and it is so sweet. I'm ready for bigger and badder projects. In fact, Mr. Tal and I decided to try to make a mock-up of our centerpieces, it failed a little bit. Only a little. More on that next time.

So what do you think readers? What were your first DIY projects? Were they a success or failure, or somewhere in between?

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY Bride.

DIY Workout

Yeah, it's kind of a weird post title, but roll with me for a little bit.

I'm a fan of fitness, I mean, I like to watch sports, I like throwing the dog a ball or Frisbee, and I love my little jogs from the couch to the kitchen. OK so as you can see, I don't do a lot of what society would call "working out." Mr.Tal, however, is like Clark Kent, geeky on the outside with a body like a Greek statue underneath. I like what fitness has done for him. I find it quiet yummy in fact.

Now, I'm not saying I'm overweight, not even close, but I do have some squishy bits that I'd enjoy trimming up. I think some brides feel this at one point or another. However, unlike other brides I've read about, I lack motivation. Mr.Tal likes to say I get bored easily, which is true. I'm a fan of the whole working out at home, I like the little workout kits and DVDs. However, when I get a new workout method, I end up chucking it in the pile with the rest of my former "methods" because doing the same thing daily bores me to tears. It doesn't help that I'm not really unhappy with how I look, I just want to tighten and tone.

All this was true until last week. I tried on my dress and it was *ahem* a bit snug. That wasn't so big a deal, the major deal breaker happened after the dress snugness was stepping on the scale and seeing that I'm only 5 pounds behind Mr.Tal. That sent me into tears for an hour, and finally pushed me to make the changes my life has needed for a while now. I knew the healthy eating bit, Mr.Tal is like a nutritionist in his own right so that is actually easier for me. I knew automatically that the difficult thing would be finding a work out that worked for me. In steps my Greek statue, with a grand idea, "Why don't you try EA Sport Active for the Wii?" he says.

That was the first thing I did the morning after my scale made me cry. Now I was a doubter, I had tried Wii Fit, and while it was fun, it wasn't the workout I was looking for. I had little faith in this system but I knew another DVD wouldn't do it for me. I brought it home, stuck it in the Wii, and went ahead with the 30 day challenge. Wow, I have been using this for a full week now and it is a great workout. Not only does it switch up the activities everyday, I can also build my own workout if I choose, yep, DIY workout. (You didn't think I'd be able to pull it off did you?) You can choose from a myriad of activities to create a balanced workout for cardio, upper, and lower body. I haven't done it yet, I'm still battling it out with my trainer in 30 day challenge mode. I'm surprised that I've been sticking with it, surprised but happy. I love that I'm getting a good workout at home, without the hassle or cost of the gym. Though I'm pretty sure with the money I've spent in the past few years on DVDs and workout kits, may be enough to afford me a gym membership. I like the convenience of working out at home and the quick 20 to 30 minutes that it takes me. After this 30 day challenge with EA Sports Active, I think I'm going to try 30 Day Shred. I've heard a lot of good things about it and perhaps by the end of this 30 days I'll be in shape enough to handle something like that.

What about you fellow brides, are you trying to shape up for the big day? If so what are you doing and how is it working?

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY bride.

It Never Turns Out How you Think it Will

I always thought that I was traditional. When I was younger, I always scoffed at the idea of living together before marriage, planning a wedding without a ring, and believed my wedding would be a big frilly production complete with a Church and hall. I don't want to say that I was naive, but I think when you are younger you have all the expectations of the way life is going to be. Maybe it's from TV, maybe it's from your parents, maybe it's from books and movies, who really knows? All I know is that when I was younger, I was very traditional with my beliefs and values.


Then along comes real life, boy, was that a smack in the face. When I met Mr.Tal all things I thought and believed turned upside down. First of all, he was not my type, but that's a story for a different post. Basically, Mr.Tal and I dated a full 9 months before we moved in together. Strike one against my younger self. See it turns out when you meet the love of your life, they are actually your perfect roommate. Also, my first and only experience with a roommate was with my best friend, which turned out to be a big mistake. Anyway, where were we? Oh yes, strike one.


Fast forward to January of 2009, Mr.Tal and I are in our crappy apartment on a Saturday, the snow is coming down hard, and we are bored. No good movies out on DVD, nothing good playing at the theater, and we had already eaten. It makes perfect sense that we go to the biggest bridal show in the area just to blow some time. After a few hours browsing through the vendors, we come home and have one of the biggest conversations of our lives. We discuss marriage and where our relationship is going. I think we had always assumed marriage was it for us, we just didn't know when, but that day a timeline became very real. See, while Mr.Tal has a great job and has been out of school for years, I am still finishing my double degree in Education and History. That long awaited accomplishment will be completed in December of this year. I need to move out of state, because Ohio isn't the place for teaching jobs, so I need to move not too long after graduation, say by summer of 2010. We had to seriously talk to each other, about what we wanted, what we needed, about our future and where we each fit into each others. We decided that our lives were entangled hopelessly in each other and that Mr.Tal would relocate to be with me. I was insistent that we get married before we move, so I had the gusto to ask if he was planning to propose this year. He said yes. I asked if he minded if I started to plan our wedding. He said no. With a busy school year the rest of this year and moving by next summer, we only really had Spring 2010 to pick from for our date, so we set the date (April 16th, 2010) and I didn't have a ring yet. Strike two.


Almost immediately, I started planning, I looked into venues and vendors I had always dreamed about and saw the price tag. Ouch. A serious decision was needed with the parents, the mother-in-law, and Mr.Tal. This was hard, because sometimes people don't understand when you don't have a ring how you could be planning a wedding, but we worked through it. We set a budget $8,000, that's what we could afford with the help we were getting. At that point everything had to change and I had to become thrifty bride (cue superhero music). I looked into DIY and found a world where I could have a pretty wedding and SAVE MONEY. Those in the wedding planning stages know how weird that statement is. However, with a budget, my ideas of a perfect wedding started changing. In fact, I think they really started to change when I decided to spend my life with Mr.Tal. All that really mattered was marrying the man I love, the pomp didn't matter anymore. I believe that starting our life together in as little debt as possible became more important than a big poofy dress, huge beautiful bouquets, and a huge guest list. Strike three, younger self.



Life never turns out how you think it will, in my case I think it's turned out better. So I'm living an nontraditional life, big deal, I've never been happier than I am now. Sorry younger self, you end up living with a boy before marriage, planning your wedding before the ring, and the wedding you always dreamed of isn't happening. In your older self's opinion the life that ends up happening for you is even more amazing than the one you had planned.

What about you readers? Think back to your younger years, has life turned out the way you thought it would then?

Anyway, tune in next time, for more tales from a DIY Bride.