What comes before Part B?

PART-A as in Wedding Party!! My fiancee is an expatriate Yankee in Texas, so many of his friends will not be able to make the trek to Texas for our nuptuals, so he will only be having 3 groomsmen. When left with the challenge of limiting my bridal party to 3 of the wonderful ladies who have graced my life with their presence...I found the task impossible!

After much thought and a few diagrams (I'm an accountant...I need flowcharts!), I decided on 5 bridesmaids. Since the ladies will walk in separately from the dudes, that's not an issue, but for the recessional, its another story... My MOH will recess...recede...LEAVE with the Best Man and then the remaining 2 groomsmen get a BMaid on each arm!! We'll be a little lopsided at the front of church, but I am still deciding if I want the guys on CityBoy's side and the girls on mine or if I want the Best Man & MOH on their respective sides and then a strange conglomeration of Bmaids and Gmen to even out the sides...

Anyway...Each of my 5 Bridesmaids represents a very important part of my life:

My big sister, C, is going to be my MOH. She was a shoe-in... As long as I can remember, we've had our skirmishes...one time she KICKED me in the eye right before we went on vacation and I had a shiner at the beach. By the time we reached high school (I was a Freshman, she was a Senior), we could hardly stand each other! When she graduated and moved to college, we learned that absence really does make the heart grow fonder...distance didn't hurt either! When I graduated and moved even FURTHER away, we just got closer. Now she's a half-a-country away and we talk everyday! She's my wedding designer ;-)

Next is my friend, S. She represents my crazy college years. She and I interned together and over the course of a few months became fast friends and had some of the wildest times together including a Monday night on 6th street that ended in us walking down the street barefoot (YIKES!). She knew CityBoy and me before we really knew each other!! S has been a great friend to me and I know no matter where our lives take us (we're just down the street from each other now), we'll always be able to pick back up and be crazy together!

My friend, SA (too many S's!!), has been around since I was just a kid. We did SO much together...swim team, band, UIL academics...and we've always been the best of friends. We may not see each other often, but I know she'll always be a part of my life! She's the most amazing person I know and I am so proud of her...ANYTHING she puts her mind to, she can do. I know she's going to do AMAZING things with her life and I can't wait to see where she goes.

I practically grew up with my cousin, B. Our mom's are sisters and we were born only 4 months apart, so we've gone through everything together, including matching pink & black dresses, our obsessions with My Little Pony and Hanson, and planning our weddings!! B got engaged a couple months after me and will be getting married in June!! I'm so glad we get to go through this together and be a part of each other's big day (I'm her MOH)!

My 5th Bmaid is my cousin, W. I was the flower girl in W's parents wedding and I was very, very close with her parents as a kid...as a matter of fact, I was their "test child" before their first child, my cousin D, was born. W has lived within walking distance of my childhood home since she was 3, so I watched her grow up and she's more like a little sister than I could ever explain! She's 17 and I still see the little girl who would ride banana seat with me on my bicycle!!

I love all 5 of these ladies and I'm so glad they'll be standing up with me on the most important day of my life!!

My New Grown-Up Kitchen!!!!

So, lately, I have been thinking about decorating and my wedding registry. I love the color Red, but I've decided I need to stray from my Reds/Pinks/Oranges in my decorating style. I did a really great job with our bedroom (in an effort to de-feminize it for CityBoy) by going with super cute curtains from Anthropologie and a Lime-ish Green DKNY bedspread!! There is some deep red in the curtains, but the colors we've chosen to focus on are the Lime Green, Navy, and Turquoise blue! I have to say its not what I would have first chosen, but now I LOVE IT!!!

Here's a photo from awhile back, its taken on my iPhone, so its sorta fuzzy, but its a good general idea!!!


Anyway, so back to the point of this post.....


I'm trying to decide the direction I want to go with my kitchen... Right now, my kitchen is rather small and not a very good canvas for decorating, but since we're registering, I want to keep future kitchens in mind!!


My current kitchen is full of hand-me-down dishes, including Mom's tricked-out-70s-style Corelle featuring Orange and Teal flowers!





I'm definitely ready to have my own kitchen style!! I had thought about going with black & white for my kitchen with red accents, but after I saw this gorgeous piece of kitchen machinery, I changed my mind:


RED & ROBINS EGG BLUE!!! Um, yes!

I have 4 gorgeous Red Glass canisters from my mom that I would love to keep in my kitchen, but Red & this gorgeous-almost-Tiffany shade of Blue go PERFECTLY together!!!!!

Busy Busy Bee!

I've been amazingly busy with work lately and the absolute last thing I want to do when I get home from work is be near a computer, so its been awhile. In addition to the busyness of work, I just started a weekend class (9-5 Saturdays & Sundays) for the next 3 weekends!! I'm about 12 hours shy of the requirements to sit for the CPA exam, so I'm trying to bust through those as quickly as possible so that I can use CityBoy's study materials before they are too terribly outdated!! I'm also planning on taking a Winter Term online course, so that maybe I can be eligible next summer!!

Anywho...I've been very, very, very addicted to WeddingBee lately, so I waste plenty of time there on a daily basis. I love the way they have so many Brides-To-Bee and even Newlyweds and Not-so-Newlyweds contributing!! I love the different ideas each of these lovely ladies have and they really inspire me!!

One of my favorite ideas was this cake topper from Miss Fondue, I really think we might order one of these, maybe not for on top of our simple wedding cake, but maybe for next to it???:

In addition to all of the cool things these ladies have tipped me off to, they also talk about some great wedding topics, such as wedding trends, name changing, and vendors!!

I'm in love...and spend WAAAAAY too much time on this site!!

Also, I've recently found CakeWrecks, also a good time waster and pretty dang funny!!!