No Ordinary Cake!

As you might know from previous posts, I'm a bit obsessed with a show on Food Network called Ace of Cakes. For those of you who don't know, it's a reality show where they follow the shop owner, Duff Goldmen and his staff at Charm City Cakes to see what it takes to make some of the countries most interesting and amazing cakes.

The show is based in Baltimore (thanks for the correction "L", no more blogging before coffee for me), which you may notice isn't exactly near Minnesota...so needless to say when it came time for look at wedding cakes and grooms cakes, I had to write the fine people at Charm City Cakes off my list.

I searched and searched for a place in Minnesota that would make me something unique, but after a month of looking I realized no one was going to step out of the cake pan for me.

Until one day, completely by accident I come across a website for a gal based in Minnesota who makes unique and amazing themed cakes! Miss Sara of Miss Sara's Cakery I was thrilled and wasted no time in placing my order for Alex's SURPRISE grooms cake, to be delivered to him on the night of the rehearsal dinner.

The cake was a recreation of a pond he used to fish at in England, with him sitting on the bank. A plate of food sits next to him as he would never come home for dinner, his mother would bring it to him with. The main part of the cake is a HUGE carp, to represent the amazingly sized 19.5 carp he caught at the age of 11.

I had no idea what this would look like until it showed up, and I was so in love with it I almost didn't want to eat it!!! Alex loved it as well, and to look on his face was priceless!!

If you are in the Minnesota/Wisconsin area and are looking for great unique cake for ANY occasion - call Miss Sara! I highly recommend her shop and will certainly be going back myself!!!

A Beautiful Video

The second best decision I made in life, next to marrying Alex of course, has having a videographer at the wedding to capture everything. I had heard over and over that it was the best investment anyone made, and those who hadn't were upset they didn't.

I found the BEST videographer in the cities, Jeff Achen! He was professional, fun, had a great eye for what needed to be caught, and when the time came that we felt we couldn't afford him, he actually took our budget and made us a package!! He said he believed this is something everyone deserves to have, and for him it's not as much about the money as it is about capturing the memories. He is HIGHLY recommended by our whole family!!!

He provided us with a music video, a highlight of the day mostly. The ceremony and the reception - and it's so fun to be able to watch it, I actually feel like I was there now...hahha.

Here's the wedding music video, it's set to generic music for the web but I have a much nicer song on my actual DVD, he just had to do it this way for copyright reasons since it's published to the web. You might want to let it load and run through once, then it won't be so choppy - all the technology in the world and videos still take forever to load on the net! LOL

Amber & Alex @ Yahoo! Video

Vendor Reviews Part 1

As I've had so many vendors so far I want to get this vendor list started for everyone!!!

I'm giving a grade to each vendor based on my experience and MY experience alone This is simply my opinion and I am not intending on "slamming" anyone, simply giving honest information based on my use of the vendors listed:

A/A+ = Exceeds Expectations
B = Great
C = Average and/or information unavailable as it wasn't needed
D = Not was expecting/Poor
F = Not recommenced by me and my experience

Candles for all items at wedding:

Candles For Less
Awesome customer serviced and fast shipping! When my box of candles was going to be late, they called, apologized gave me an exact date and even makrked my wedding date down ao as not to miss it if something happened!
BEST DEAL: 72 votives with candles for $36.99

A+ Customer Service rating
A+ Product Quality
A+ Price

Accessories for reception (toasting flutes, cake topper, cake cutting set, personalized napkins)

Exclusively Wedding
Ordered everything online. Website was very easy to use and navigate. Shipping is regular - not super fast, but also not incredibly slow. Replaced 2 mugs with scratched etching on them with no questions or return needed.
BEST DEAL: Toasting Flutes - $39.99 a set (yes they come cheaper other places, but I couldn't find these anywhere else)

A Customer Service
A Product Quality
B Price


Accessories for Reception (cont.) (bird cage for cards, glass bowl for guest book)

Save-On-Crafts
Possibly one of my favorite places to shop online for crafty things! Awesome selection at amazing prices! You may need to have a little DIY Diva in you to create - but it's worth a look and I highly recommend them!
BEST DEAL I FOUND: Bird cage for the cards for only $11.99

A+ Customer Service
A + Product Quality
A+ Price

Black 6x6 Pocketfolds for Invitations

LCI Paper

Great quality product, met all my expectations. Sturdy and beautiful. After looking around more after buying items I found cheaper pocket folds at www.CardsandPockets.com

A+ Customer Service
A+ Product Quality
C/B Price

Stardream Paper for Invitations (Rose Quartz)

Envelope Mall
Great website - easy to understand and navigate. Shipping was quick and packaged properly with no damage upon arrival. As far as price, I have not been able to find Stardream paper cheaper anywhere else in store or on the internet!

A Customer Service
A+ Product Quality
A+ Price

Stardream Paper for Invitations (cont.) (Crystal)

Paper Depot
A Minneapolis based shop that carries all the Stardream line, was the only place I could find that actually sold the Crystal color, the whitest of the line. I had to order form them and though they had major shipping prices on the samples I ordered, in the end trying to drive there with the 35W bridge being down - it was worth it to save the stress and gas.

A+ Customer Sservice (store and web site)
A+ Product Quality
B Price


Favors

The Knot
A popular wedding site, I managed to find the best deal on the "Love" coasters that I wanted at $1.99 for set of 4. Now I must note that they were on special at the time so don't expect this item at that price all the time.
I broke them down to 1 per person and packed them in organza bags (see below)

C = Customer Service (never needed it, no opinion)
A = Product Quality
A+ = Price



Favors (cont.) Organza bags and Acrylic Ice Crystals for Centerpiece

efavorMart
By far the best price anywhere for these! Packs of 10 for $2.49! Website is great and very easily manageable. The crystals reall add a lot to my centerpiece! Love them!

C = Customer Service (never needed it/no opinion)
A+ = Product Quality
A+ = Price


All right, thats' all for now - I will add more as I have them!

Travel Agent Update

After exchanging many e-mails today that really got me nowhere at all, I finally was able to decipher what it was exactly that I was getting.

Her first e-mail, the one that sparked my whole previous rant went like this:

Hi Amber,

Your travel documents are ready for your pick up. We are open until 6pm on Monday and Thursday. Five pm on tuesday, wed and friday.

Obviously from that I gathered that my travel documents ( which I was told that I already have) would be ready....duh, right?

So I then asked her if she could mail whatever it was to me so that I didn't need to go in, and to clarify what exactly it was that I was picking up.

Her only response was that she would mail them. Didn't bother to answer the other question.

When I again sent the question via-e-mail she finally sent this to me:

Amber,

You received a nice leather bound travel document holder for your honeymoon from NW World vacations. I can put it in the mail if you want.

Now would you kindly explain how I was supposed to gather from that first e-mail there were no actual documents there for me, but a leather travel case? Seriously, I am the only one who managed to miss it, or is it really that she's just that crazy?

The Terrible Travel Agent Strikes Again!

Seems that the closer to the wedding we get the faster little things are going wrong. Like the DJ not responding to me yet, and now my stupid travel agent!

You might remember me venting here or on Wedding Bee (if you visit there) about the agent from hell who was so terrible at her job that I wanted to scream! Friendly, upfront and informative is what I got until I announced that we were booking our trip and then once the commission bells went off in her head, it was bye bye customer service.

To recap - the first thinng she did was totally mangle the terms of our travel insurance, so much so that we thought we were covered to get back 100% should anything come up that we needed to cancel. Yeah that was totally wrong! 50% back IF we are ON the honeymoon and have to go home. Yeah, it's her job to know this...and this is what I get.

So anyway, I called them a few months back asking for a receipt that showed everything was paid. They said they don't send them, the ones they send look like invoices and then the "just know" it's paid off. Unhappy with that, as any normal person would be I asked if they could just make one up for me and they said sure. Did I ever get it - no.

Then I asked them where our tickets were and how I would go about getting them. I was informed that all I needed was the info they mailed me, to present it at the airport and my tickets would be there. I don't travel much anymore, and when I did I was young so my dad took care of it all. Not to mention that I never have used a travel agent in my life! Needless to say this made sense to me and I planned to do what she said even though my paper work looked like nothing more then an itinerary to me.

Just now, in my e-mail I get a letter from her saying that my travel documents were ready to be picked up. WTF!?

Okay, I'm busy so I asked if whatever this is if it could be mailed to me. I'm sure I can take a few minutes to run there but I think that if I see her in person I might scream at her and cause a scene.

I can not for the life of me figure this lady out. Ugh! How does she even keep her job with all the mess ups. I mean getting an e-mail that I needed to pick something up is better then her totally forgetting, but how hard is it to answer simple, normal every day questions related to your job?

ARGH!

Where's The Music....

I'm waiting to hear from my DJ. Yes, I know that my wedding is in 13 days, hence why I'm a bit worried.

I talked to them a month ago and was assured that they just tend not to assign a specific DJ until a month before the wedding, and that they would go anywhere and meet me at a any hour to take care of things. This eased me a bit but I was expecting to hear from them sooner then this.

I like to be on top of things, and this last minute issue is going to drive me insane until they call. I did e-mail them on Thursday with no response yet. I'm giving them until next Wednesday and then I will start looking for a back up. I've paid the $225 deposit with another $400 going to them if they hurry the heck up.

I'm really worried that I'm not going to find a back up if something should happen. Now, I should add that while I'm not ready to list the DJ's name because I have no ill fee lings towards them as of yet - they do not have anything on their BBB that is negative. So, as far as that I shouldn't worry too much about it - but that's what I do and I am good at it!!!

I'll keep you updated on things....fingers crossed people!

You ORDERED invites...WHAT!?

I ordered the invites for the Rehearsal Dinner and the "Reception Only" invites from Vista Print to save some time. While I was so looking forward to designing them myself, I just am running out of time and can't catch up. Especially with the new found family drama that has left me in a whirlwind of e-mails and phone calls for the past 2 days.

I have to say, like all the other items I have ordered from Vista Print in the past several years I was very happy! All the designs came with matching envelopes which tickled me pink because I love coordinating stationary!

Here's the Rehearsal Dinner invites, we're having a Hawaiian theme where proper dress is required and those who do not comply will be made to wear something uncomfortable and embarrassing ;-)

And here are the reception only invites. Now before anyone gets their Thongs in a Tangle - we're not selfish, present seeking jerks who are only inviting people to the reception in hopes they bring us a gift. We have 25 or less of these going out to co-workers of both Mr S and his father, due to the size of my family we can't fit everyone in the hall for dinner.

Only one snag in the Vista Print order - they only sent me 11 of the 30 of these I needed so they are immediately making me 20 more, and shipping them off to me to be here by Tuesday! They honestly have some of the best customer service ever, though it would be nice if the receptionists had some tone to their voices...I felt like I was talking to a very corporative robot...LOL!

Kissing Ball

I dropped into my florist yesterday to double check the color scheme of roses I chose and to change a few things. I'm glad that I did because I had a shade of pink that I really didn't want chosen. I also really wanted to change the Flower Girls flowers from a fairy wand made out of a rose - to a Pompadour or as my florist calls them a "Kissing Ball"

Initially I wanted this, but the florist said "Oh, all the kids do it whack each other with them and roll them like a bowling ball"so I went with option to - a tacky flower wand. Even though the Kissing Ball costs more, she's make more off it - still trying to talk me out of it. WTF!? Why do vendors do this. If you don't like what you sell - stop selling it! Simple as can be....

SO when she fainly finishes round two of the "It will be trashed" speech, she than said "Well you don't want it out of roses do you? That would be really expensive" which is fair enough, but why assume I can't afford it? Sweet lady, people skills lacking a bit.

The rose one is $75! So no, I'm not getting a rose one....I'm getting carnations. But...silly me I ordered it with out seeing one made out of carnations - and the florist didn't have a photo of one. Go figure. So I looked one up when I got home and I think it's going to look great. It's still going to be $45 for it, but at least this way if it does get trashed I wouldn't feel too badly about it.

Here it is - what do you think?? I think in the pink shades I picked, it's going to be great!

Great Site I just found! AWESOME VENDOR

Poking around looking for folded place cards, I came across this site:

Cut Cardstock

I couldn't believe their prices! www.envelopemall.com wanted $15 for a pack of 50 place cards in my metallic stardream paper - and this place wants $6! Woo Hoo!

Check them out - I am combing through their sale stuff and amazed at their prices!

Double Plus for them - I e-mailed them and heard back in 5 minutes! Great! I can't wait til I get my items I'll let you know how that goes!!

Stick it To Em'

I got my stamps today...oh yeah...I got my stamps today!!! They look SO cool! I am really happy we ordered them.


I ordered them from Costco, which is like Sams Club. You don't need a membership to order through them, and they had the cheapest of all prices I could find anywhere! I believe, if you do have a Costco membership, you can save an additional 20%!

That's like almost paying regular postage price for them......yeah these were a bit more then regular .42 stamps - but they are so cool! And I don't even care that they cover nearly a quarter of the envelope! I will never again have any other reason to be obnoxious and see my face on a stamp!

Paging Mr Weeney

Yep - you read right....take a look. I ordered these not even 2 weeks ago, I've wanted them - For-Ever!

I made them on Customized Girl and they must have known I was coming because they had a sale going and everything! $10 a pair....well $10 per side of printing, which really isn't fair when you see what they put on the front - it's not worth $10!

I am a bit disappointed in quality of the wording on the undies - they are not actually "a part" of the fabric, but more like a high quality iron on decal that will peel off with one washing.

I'm scared to wash them before wearing them for fear I'll I'll end up:

"Ew & Proved Mr. Weeney"


I've contacted Customized Girl about my disappointment in the quality. I just wish a better description of the product was provided before I spent the money. I'm really glad that I didn't get a hoodie for $50 for Mr S! I can make one myself!

Let's spend some money!

I have just finally ordered all the Groomsmen & Usher gifts - which I can't post pictures of as I'm worried they might come across it. I know, I know - really how many guys actually look at the wedding web site let alone the blog - not many I am sure. I'm still not taking any chances!

On top of placing that order I also got our cake topper, serving set, personalized napkins all from Exclusively Weddings . I am so excited for everything to arrive.

Here's a run down in photos for ya!

Our Cake Topper is Two Letter 'A''s and an ampersand like this ---->

Initially we were not going to have anything on top of the cake, except maybe a few roses. But, I just changed our cake color from white to pink fondant frosting - so putting flowers on top won't be quite as nice.

These were really nice and only $23.00 each. I could have picked them up on eBay for a few dollars cheaper, but since I was already ordering from EW I figured better off from someone I know I can return it to if there is an issue.

Next on the list of things ordered is that serving set.

Since everything is rather BLINGED! out for the wedding Alex chose this set for us.

We decided not to go with personalizing it, though it was only a few dollars more.

We hope to be able to use it again, anniversaries and such, though I'm not quite sure how I will feel about BLING! in 10-20 years.

All that matters is it suits us right now, and it certainly does suit our wedding perfectly.


The Last thing we got is our napkins. Another item we weren't going to get, but compromised and got half personalized and half will be picked up from a local arty store in just plain black. Plus once I say this lay out I fell in love with it and had to have it to help carry the "All You Need Is Love" theme running through out the reception.

If you had not already known, that saying will be on the tags that hang on the favors we intend to hand out, glass coasters that say 'LOVE'

We ordered them in a lighter pink color, with black foil lettering. The plain black napkins will accent them very well!

Well stack them every other and put a few by the bar and some on the table that will have our personalized cookies on them for cocktail hour.

It's been awhile since we needed to buy anything for the wedding so I'm looking forward to this box arriving!

Shoes, shoes SHOES!

I just wanted to share some great sites to look for Bridal and Bridesmaids shoes. I've been searching for my perfect pair for months now, but it's not for lack of options! I'm just being majorly picky!

6pm

Haute Bride (sales!) Think Vera Wang, for $50 - $75! Oh yeah!

Zappos

and if that doesn't work for you - maybe you have a bridesmaid as cool as I do who will get you some of these to wear:

Oh yeah! Personalized Converse Chuck Taylor's that say "Bride 2008" on the side AND are customized in my wedding colors all thanks to Jacque!

From the second the ceremony is over - it's out with the heels and in with the totally awesomeness of Chucks!

They're Here!

The Thank you cards arrived in the mail yesterday! I love Vista Print, I always get my items so much faster then expected!!

They turned out great! Now if I'd only start getting gifts....I could use them....*wink* *wink*

Time To Eat!

We recently had our tasting at the venue, and all in all it went pretty well. For havening 4 people there we all agreed on things pretty well.

Here's a run down of what we ate and what we chose.

Here's all 4 plates set up for us on the table. They randomly put a starch and a veggie on each plate so we could sample them all. I was really disappointed in the fact that both plates had to have the same starch and veggie on them. I'm not happy with this and will be contacting them but anyway - for now here's what everything looked like.

All 4 meals before we sampled them.

New York Strip Steak, Pork Chop, Lemon Chicken and Halibut

Our two favorties were the Lemon Chicken which was my choice for the menu:
It will be served with Rice and a veggie medly (like you will see with the next entree)


The second choice, the one Mr S picked. and it shows in the photo exactly as it will be served, with the rice and veggie medley. It's the Halibut I love the presentation of this!

We feel these are 2 great plates for our guests and hopefully I can chat with the Country Club and possibly get them to change up the starch on the plates at least - I can handle the same veggie on each plate but I don't "feel" the rice with chicken for some reason.

So all in all we're doing well - I feel like all the planning up to the 6 month mark was like going up the incline of a roller coaster, kinda slow. Now that we're passed the 6 month mark, it's like we've started screaming down hill at top speed!

Need Help With Save The Dates,Thank Yous, Any Wedding Stationary!?

Well, let me help!

It completely escaped me until today that (ohmygosh!) I create and sell photo cards! I have a home business that I put on the back burner to plan the wedding and care for my daughter, but I have the great talent that I can hand over to your guys for a fraction of what you would pay elsewhere.

So here's my offer to my fellow Hive members and my blog readers:

I'll create you a personalized Save The Date, Thank You Cards, hang tags for your favors, EVEN Wedding Invite for you to print as you wish, where you wish - for the low low price of $35.00!

So instead of paying per card at other places for up to $1.75 -$2.00 each you pay a flat rate with me and print it where you want - saving HUNDREDS!

EXAMPLE:
-So say you buy Save The Dates at Lil' Duck Duck on line and you get 100 - You would spend $220.00 for 5x7 cardstock Save The Dates. (NOT including shipping)

Me Design it for you, with Kinkos printing and paper cost you would spend about $90 total!

OR

Me Design it for you and you order from a photo printer (like a photo card in a 5x7) www.mpix does them for .89 - for 100 that's $89.00!

That's a saving of $130 either way!!!


Here's a few of my samples, remember everything is 100% customizable, change color, font, wording - whatever! And I'll send more samples by request.

I can do anything you like, so find me samples of what you want and we'll talk! E-mail me at acgrundman@gmail.com

*Please note that prices quoted are approximate. Kinkos prices and mpix prices are located on their web site. I am not responsible for price changed made by them.

Holiday Card shown here but this is an awesome layout for Thank Yous as well!

Change any wording to suit your needs! Need a Thank you, but like this lay out - you got it!

Babies, Parties, Bridal Showers, Thank You Cards - ANYTHING!

Please e-mail me with questions.
Note that the $35.00 does not include custom designs from scratch (meaning no layout to look at or design I already have), or elements I do not already have (i.e trees, blossoms - things of that nature)

EXTRA EXTRA! This Just In, USPS Causes Nervous Breakdown Among Young Brides..

Does the Post Office not understand how delicate a balance the stamp on your wedding invitation really is? Why must they continue to change postage 4 times a year? Why don't they just jack the price once, the total amount they will in those 4 times and leave it at that.

I have enough to do, and now on top of it all I have to figure out what to do before this monstrosity of a one cent stamp invades the beauty of my RSVP envelope and main invitation envelope.

I mean it's not even ok, it's not even reasonable - it's just plain....ugly. I don't care if thats a Tiffany Lamp on it, unless the thing is made BY Tiffany it ain't touching my precious pink invitation carriers with it's mean sticky backing!

I swear they have some horrible little old man who lives in a dungeon of a room who reaches into a basket of muck and worms and pulls out the new design as randomly as a Secret Santa drawing in Hell.

What have I done to you, Oh USPS to deserve this horrible fate?

And you know Mr S. just doesn't get it. I explained this to him in the most dramatic way possible and his reaction was "So? It's only like $2 more in stamps?"

Does no one feel my pain!?

Ugh!

What does it take to get a dress in this town!?

Finally we have a Bridesmaids dress!

Phew!

You have no idea what it took to get this. This is dress number 3, at store number 3 and I can say whole heartedly say I never want to look for a brdiesmaids dress, again. Ever.

Let's start at the beginning shall we. I take you way, way back in time - back when my wedding party was in it's original stage and no maids had been given the boot yet, or dropped out - back about 3 months ago...

I found the most perfect Jasmine B2 dress online, love at first sight. I called a store in the area and went in right away with my sister and then maid -of -honor (MOH) Stef to give it a look. We all agreed it was perfect, and I ordered some swatches from the shop Bella Bridal as I wanted the dress (see photo to right) Black with a pink sash and I needed to see the available pinks.

A month or so goes by and I've not heard from Bella Bridal on the arrival of my swatches, so I call. They have no idea who I am, or that I have ordered the swatches. I'm a bit put off as I've personally spoken to the sales gal there 3 times and 2 of those was in the shop itself.

I simply make the decision that I will get this same dress elsewhere as any store that can't keep a swatch order straight, probably won't get the dress order right either.

By this time a maid has backed out of the wedding, and one has been booted for good reason. I've not got to replace 2 maids and then find a new shop with this dress.

I come across Our Shop, in Stillwater MN. They have the same dress AND it's centrally located for all my girls. I start getting excited - they are all going to meet and we're going to have a blast!

Upon arriving at the store, I looked for my dress in the millions of others hanging from the racks. When I didn't find it I asked a sales guy for help, as they told me they had the dress when I called. He pulls out this teal and white number which he says has the same style number on it.

I'm not convinced. My sister, who has tried it on swears on her pregnant belly - it's not the dress. All my maids are making this face like someone farted and I decide we need a new dress.

We settle on this lovely little number by Bill Levkoff, a bit more expensive but it has 2 great qualities. 1 - it's flattering and 2 ALL the girls loved it.

We go through the horrendous task of measuring everyone in a packed, over booked shop. Out seamstress was losing her mind and my girls we're all getting hungry. After an hour, we start the task of checking out, another 20 minutes PER GIRL, and the worst part is the woman in the shop are not even measuring right and the dress sizes they want to order for each girl is completely backwards.

Example, they wanted my tallest and biggest girl in a dress smaller then one of my smaller girls and the small girl in the big dress!? I had to have faith they knew what they were doing, after all the shop had been there for years, they had to be doing something right.

A day later my girls tell me they aren't comfortable with the shop either. So I called them up, got the money back as nothing was ordered yet (waiting on my 5th our of state gal to call in) and proceeded to look for a new dress, at a new shop!

Stressed out, and really sick of Bridesmaids dresses, I go back to looking at Davids Bridal, which is where I got my wedding dress. After an hour on line looking and 2 hours on the phone with my Bridesmaid MJ, we settle on one dress. Knowing it's the ONLY one there I pray to the God of Dresses and Sanity that it will work, and I scoot off to the shop to peek at it.

So there it is, hanging on the rack. It looks great.

Looks can be deceiving. I reach up and carefully check the price tag, figuring as it looks nice it must cost a fortune, right?

Phew! Cheaper then both of the first 2 dresses.

Alright, things are going good - so it must look like crap on. My FMIL (Future Mother In Law) makes me go try it on, as the black on is a 6 and it should fit. I slip it on and run to a mirror -

OMG - It's perfect, it's flattering, it's cheap IT'S THE ONE!

After 6 months, 3 dresses and 2 disaster at dress shops I have the one I need! I thought that you have this kind of anxiety over wedding dresses...lol...not bridemaids dresses!

I've contacted all the maids about the dress, and told them if they get it on and hate it - tough....lol, they are wearing it ;-)

Please Buy Me Gifts?

I'm not one of those people that likes to ask for things, so registering for gifts has been an experience to say the least. I know it's traditional, and if I didn't I'd end up getting 45 picture frames and a dozen throw blankets with our names embroidered on it. Yet, as we stood in the middle of Macy's, zapper at the ready, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the worry that I was asking too much of my guests.

Okay, I'll admit we intentionally put a few random, over priced things on there knowing full well that we'd NEVER get them. Case in point, Swavorski Crystal Champagne Flutes, coming in some where around $400 for 2. But it's one of those things we gaze at with utter desire each trip to the mall and laugh how we'd be too scared to even use them if we had them.

We expect our guests to know that we're not exactly serious about such items.

But as we wore a path between the "every day china" and "fine china" sections of the store, I realized that I not only had NO clue what we needed, I also had no idea what we really wanted.

This is nice but I don't like that plate.

The rims on these bowls if funny.

Those coffee mugs are ugly.

Only a few things you would have heard had you followed us around for those first 45 minutes we were there. Eventually we settled on Fine China in a fabulous and beautiful design by Wedgewood called Ballet Ribbon (see insert) The set comes 5 pieces for $125.00.

Now, I'm rather laid back. Never required or thought I'd own fine china except something possibly handed down by family, so I have to be honest when I say I had a bit of sticker shock. I actually had a full conversation with Mr S. about the china, and he had to talk me into it in a way. He very logically reminded me that putting it on the registry certainly didn't mean we were requiring them to buy it for us, and if we didn't get any then "Oh Well" and we'd get some later in life. Plus he pointed out that $125.00 is a very decent price for china, especially Wedgewood. Where he got all this China and registry information at the last minute is beyond me, but like a man I doubt he'd be able to repeat it as it's been replaced with some other much more useful info like the PSI on the new air compressor he wants. At least it was there when we needed it, thank goodness one of us knows what their doing!

In the end we registered for silver wear, fine china and crystal and we left feeling very good about our selections. If we don't get any of it, it will be fine. And after the smart advice of my soon to be hubby, I don't feel snobby or greedy for doing something engaged couples all over the country do every day.

Time to Boogie - and I need YOUR help! (Poll)

My next project is to come up with the play list for the wedding. I know, most people would hire the DJ and say "Have at it", but I have these aunts who still think it's 1980 sometimes and they would swill back too many Bacardi Cokes and harass the DJ all night with requests. I love Cyndi Lauper as much as the next gal, but I want to keep the mix of music even over all decades. So to save him some trouble and myself....I'm going the play list route.

Now, I'm not planning to cover the whole evening, just most of it. I want to leave some room for requests and I do have a lot of faith in Alpha Beat, my DJ service. So I'm asking all of you out there, yes even you lurkers out there - to come out of your shells and lend me a hand with it. Help me make my reception one heck of a night....

**Here's what I need**

Pop me a comment to this post with your TOP 5 FAVORITE SONGS. Any type, any era, dance, slow, country - ANYTHING. Please just make sure you accompany the song title with and artist.

Thanks everyone! You're help is ever so appreciated!