The SalTal Wedding: 10 to 7 days before

When I left off yesterday I was telling you about the Monday from H-E-double hockey sticks. That Monday set the tone for the rest of week.

Tuesday, Mr. Tal and I were in full DIY mode but things weren't turning out as planned, our ceremony decor needed a complete overhaul, we still didn't have everything we needed, and the stress was causing a lot of pointless bickering between us. At the time I was furious with Mr. Tal for waiting until the last minute to do the projects he was in charge of and he was furious with me for being a stressed out nut case (So sorry sweetie, I'm better now). There was a lot of stress and tension in our household that week.

Tuesday wasn't really that bad but bickering, as I'm sure many of you can attest, can nearly break already frayed nerves. Then came Wednesday, oh Wednesday, you were the mother of all bad days. Wednesday day wasn't too bad, but it was Wednesday night that was the end all and be all of our week. See Tuesday night Mr. Tal had brought home a roast chicken from the store for dinner since we needed to eat quickly. I threw that in the trash Wednesday morning while cleaning. This is important, I left the trash in the house thinking Mr. Tal would take it out when he got home. Well he had decided that we should meet after work to sign up for a few tanning sessions. I waited in the parking lot at the tanning place, I called him to let him know that traffic was being re-routed only to find out that Mr. Tal had gotten rear-ended...yeah totally not cool. Mr. Tal, the truck and the other people were fine, but it still stopped my heart for a minute.

After we tanned, we decided to run to the store quick and then went home. When walking in, I noticed that Pepper was doing the I-did-something-bad butt wag. I went around the corner and saw that the trash was dumped over, I picked it up and noticed there was no chicken. Do you see where this is going? Mr. Tal and I searched the entire apartment, there was no chicken anywhere. This was an entire roast chicken with just a few pieces cut off. We called the vet and ran in as quickly as possible, an x-ray confirmed that Pepper had indeed eaten an entire roast chicken. The doctor suggested we go home and feed her mashed potatos every few hours to help the bones pass. So Mr. Tal and I alternated getting up every few hours to feed the dog and make sure she wasn't in any pain. We returned to the vet over the course of the next two days to ensure all of the bones had passed and we were out of crisis mode. Although I would never want to repeat that event, I can look back and find it funny that our dog ate an entire roast chicken, bones and all.

That crisis was good for both of us because it ended the bickering and reminded us what is really important, don't sweat the small stuff and all that jazz. We remembered that at the end of the following week the only thing that would matter is that we would be married. Although that week was horrible and it stressed both of us out I wouldn't trade it because we remembered how well we work together through the bad times. Plus I do believe that all of our bad luck really allowed for us to have a wonderful week of the wedding.

Next up: The SalTal Wedding Week

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

The SalTal Wedding: The week before, 11 days before the wedding

I don't have any pictures yet but I figured it has been long enough that I can talk about the week before the wedding without breaking down in tears. (We are talking about April 5-9 and days 11-7  in the wedding countdown not the week of the wedding). This is pretty important as far as recaps go, because this week literally had me chewing on my hair rocking back and forth in the corner. During this time I really felt like the wedding wasn't going to happen. It's only recently that I have enough perspective to find the events a little humorous.

Day 11 in Wedding Countdown (aka April 5)

I remember this day crystal clear because I had a lot to do, I was going to run some errands and come home and finish some DIY projects before Mr. Tal got home from work, then we were going to print programs all night. It all started out well enough, I ran to Target and Michaels to get some last minute project items. Then I had to run to the bank to deposit some checks from our parents, this is where things started to go down hill.

What should have been a two minute errand turned into me standing with the teller for twenty minutes trying to figure out what to do. See these checks were our parents gifts/help for the wedding so they weren't small. There were multiple checks that totaled in the thousands, the smaller checks could be cashed and deposited but when I tried to deposit the larger checks they said that the funds would need to be held for ten days. Umm, yeah that won't work, see that's the day before my wedding, this is to help pay for the wedding, most payments are due this week. So the only solution that the teller (who was a doll, honestly) could come up with was for me to go directly to the bank that the checks were written from and get them cashed. Okay, I could do that for some but not all, the closest bank was about an hour away in my home town.

At this point I was just irritated my day and schedule were just interupted but I could handle it. I called my mom, who works for the bank we have our accounts with and she confirmed that cashing the check at the home bank was my best option. So I headed to Fremont (not my home town, trust me it's important) to get the check cashed and then I was going to see my mom at her branch so she could deposit everything for me. Usually I take the turnpike everywhere, it's faster and easier, but today I hadn't planned on a trip so I had no cash. I had to take the other main road to Fremont. Can you guess what happens next? On the road I needed to take there happens to be a couple small towns, in the middle of one I got a call from the bank, one of the smaller checks we had couldn't be run through for the amount it said because it wasn't made out correctly. Next thing I see is flashing lights in my rear view. Great. The next thing I know, the cop is telling me I was doing 38 in a 25 (I don't think so, but whateves), he takes my license and comes back 10 minutes later with my ticket. I had the decency to wait until he walked away to start sobbing.

I think it was the combination of events topped off with the amount of stress I was under that caused this breakdown, I literally sobbed for about 10 minutes before I pulled away from the side of the road. Eventually, I made my way to Fremont, got the check cashed and my mom deposited the total amount into our account then she took me to lunch for some comfort food.

Let me just say this was just a taste for the rest of the week. It was a bad week but it has a happy ending, I promise.  I'll tell you more tomorrow.

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

Bad blogger...

No cookie! Last weeks events threw me into a bit of a tailspin, so I took a little break from all things wedding, including blogging (minus the one little entry to explain the goings on). This week is all hands on deck as we are almost into the single digits until the wedding. Zoinks!

This week we have a boat load of projects to finish: centerpieces, table numbers, place cards, music, picture scanning...the list is ever expanding. Mr. Tal and I are working every night,  plus I am shopping every day, trying to scrounge up the last bits and pieces we need. It's an exciting time, I'm actually glad to have so much to do because it is keeping me distracted from the fact that I am getting married in just days.

Did you keep busy with projects in the days leading up to the wedding? Was it a good idea or bad?

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

Alohomora!

(Yes, I am a geek)

Before I get this party started, I have to note that today marks the big countdown. That's right people we are officially one month out from our wedding. Sweet chocolate candy, marshmallow, jelly bean! Srsly, when did that happen? People were asking me at all the weekend festivities if I am getting nervous, well, I wasn't until last night...gulp! I know all this stuff will get done it's just daunting. Anywho, let's move on.

So Friday, ummm, yeah Friday. I am proud to say that I made it through Friday like a champ. We hit up Longhorn for dinner, had a nice meal, chit chatted, then headed to the bar. This is where the strawberry margarita came into play:

So yummy! I promised myself that I wasn't going to do shots at the bar but my friends had different ideas. I only had two and never was I crazy drunk. We had a great time, did a little dancing, a lot of drinking and just a general crazy night. Some pictures:

                                

Friend A and her beer!

Co-worker T, Friend C, and Co-worker C

Bestie and MOH K

Me throwing down the kissy face and peace sign...note, I do this almost everytime I am drunk.

Friends A and C!

Mr. Tal came and picked us up around 1AM, K and I went home and had some food and more to drink. I don't think that I went to sleep until 3AM and we all slept until noon the next day.

Saturday was a day of recovery, then Sunday was my Harry Potter Shower!!!

This shower was for my side of the family and it was a lot of fun. Take a look at my cake:

                                 

                                

Yes that is the sorting hat with a veil, and there are wands behind it. When we got there we were sorted into houses and everyone sat at seperate house tables. We had some yummy food (shredded chicken, veggies, ballreich chips, and baked beans), played some games:

                                        

A few rounds of bingo and a timed word search. And Mr. Tal came and helped me open gifts! My sisters did a great job with my shower and it was a lot of fun. I'm trying to let go of the fact that there were a few people that didn't bother to call and tell my sisters that they weren't coming. But I can't do anything about it and if they hadn't had told me then I wouldn't have known, and really since I didn't plan it, I shouldn't know. Those of us that did show up had a lot of fun and I'm grateful that they did come and help me celebrate.

Tell me about your bachelorette parties and showers!

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

Wedding Apathy

Since the beginning of this week I have suddenly had a case of "I don't cares" related to the wedding. I can't really put my finger on what is causing this little case of indifference but I am really hoping that it goes away soon. There is still a lot to do and we are 37 days out, but I just can't bring myself to care. I need to work on our guest book layout, there are some little DIY things that I need to do, but I just don't want to. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that for the past few weeks I have been cranking out wedding projects like none other and also blogging about it. Maybe it's because Mr. Tal and I have also had very little down time. He's been working late during the week to help make some final wedding payments, once he gets home we have to run around town buying supplies and doing the weekend errands, since weekends are consumed with parties and projects. I knew this month was going to be difficult, the month before the wedding usually is, it is just turning out to be a lot harder to handle than I thought.  Maybe it is because there has also been some problems completely unrelated to the wedding that have been giving me some awful anxiety. Whatever the reason, the indifference is there.

I think I might just ride the apathy wave for the rest of this week and try not to worry about wedding stuff, maybe a little break is what I need. I am also hoping that some time with Mr. Tal tonight will help as well. Maybe by next week I will have kicked the indifferent attitude out of my system and I can get on track with wedding things.

Has anyone else hit an indifference road bump close to the wedding? How did you handle it?

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

WAIT!!!

If you could please pretend to have a Skeksis (from Dark Crystal) voice screaming that I would appreciate it.

I just got an e-mail from theknot.com reminding me that it's 2 months until the big day. Wait, what? Seriously? Umm, yeah, they are serious. Where has all the time gone? I mean it really seems like only yesterday Mr. Tal and I were discussing getting married and now it is getting down to the wire. It feels like we have so much to do still, combine that with two bridal showers and two bachelorette parties in March (Woot, woot seriously!) and our weekend time is really short. I feel a little bit crazed, a little nervous, and a little excited. I mean I'm only two months from my wedding day and my honeymoon (!!!), that to me is amazing and enthralling. I have to get my butt in shape, I have a million little things to do, but it is so worth it because in two months I will be Mr. Tal's wife. How cool is that?

I'll have some more engrossing post later this week, the e-mail from theknot.com just suprised me.

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

A Home for the Hallmarks

Well, my blog still looks funny but I can't hold back any longer. I've been busy, busy, busy like a really big bee. The knot countdown has been making me a little nervous we are currently 66 days out and that just feels really close. I just can't procrastinate any longer. So yesterday I got my happy feet into Hobby Lobby and Michaels (a.k.a. my second homes) and got the last of the supplies to finish the card box, my bouquet, and one of the bridesmaids gifts. I cranked out the first two projects no problem, the third is taking a little longer because I have four to make. Anywho, without further ado, here is our card box:

This project was so easy that it was a little ridiculous. I got the metal greenhouse type thing (obviously that is the technical name, from here on out it will be known as the box) at Hobby Lobby a few weeks back. I knew it was perfect, especially when the original concept for the card box fell through. Originally I had two hat boxes that I bought in two sizes, the smaller one would be put on top of the larger one and the bottom of the small one and the top of the larger one would be cut out and they would be attached somehow. Well, I did it and it looked bad so it was back to the drawing board.

For this project, I bought the wooden letters and paint at Michaels and I had some floral wire already. All I did was paint the letters (dolphin grey) waited for them to dry. I took the dried letters and spaced them evenly across the front of the box, heated up the glue gun and glued the wire to the letters. I then slipped the wire ends through the sides of the box. The windows of the box are just a flexible plastic which are easy to push in if space is needed to put stuff (like wire) around the metal supports. Now I just need to figure out if we should prop the top open so people can just drop it in cards or if people can figure it out for themselves or if we should cut out the top roof panel. Thoughts anyone?

I really love how this card box looks, it's so rustic feeling and it looks great. I am actually happy that the original card box idea failed because this one is so much better.

Anyone else have a project failure turn into something better?

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

P.S. Lauren- I turned on the comments, I think!