Updates and Back Tracking

I attributed my lack of posting lately on just needing a little break from my own wedding planning. I think it's quite natural for brides to come to a point {and maybe even several points} where they just want to put down the planning for a moment. I'm a little over a year away and so far

I've booked:

-Ceremony/Reception Site
-Photography
-Videography
-Florist
-Limousine
-DJ
-Hair stylist

In addition, I've purchased/made:

-Unity Candle Holder
-Unity Candle Supplies
-Ceremony Program Supplies
-Card Box
-Charger Plates
-Wedding Shoes
-My Wedding Band
-Memorial Bird Cage
-Trash The Dress Gown
-Aisle Runner
-Baskets for Ceremony Items

Mistakes I've made along the way:

-Purchasing invitation supplies too soon {falling in and out of love quickly}. Don't get me wrong, the invites I bought are beautiful, but they just aren't going to cut it for the overall "je ne sais quoi" of my wedding. Instead of throwing them away or selling them, let's just say I'll have the fanciest bridal shower invites in all everness. lol.

-Giving out too much info. I've learned that I can't disclose everything. That's what makes blogging hard at times. I want to tell it all, but if I do then there won't be any surprises later!

-Purchasing a guest book/supplies that I thought I was "in love with". I no longer like the idea I had, but I don't necessary feel stuck with the supplies because I'm sure I'll use them for something or someone else.

(Even though I've made my mistakes, they were with MY money. Can I just add that I HATE, HATE, HATE when people tell me what I "should" spend my money on or what I shouldn't "waste" it on. I don't get that often, but when it happens, it gets under my skin in the worst way)

Things that are currently on my mind/ to-do list:

-Get outfits for engagement photo shoot
-Design a Save-The-Date that I love 100% {have an idea in mind, just need to price it}
-Get my cake designed
-Officially book my make up artist {after trial}
-Officially book our pastor
-Details, details, details! (and boy oh boy are there a lot of them). This is actually my favorite part of the planning!


I do have a lot more to share as I continue down this road to marriage so just bear with me!

One year younger!

photo credit: Maisie Fantaisie

Happy birthday to me! I wish I can have all of those cute mini cakes that you see above so that I can make a wish on each of them and blow out candles. In fact, I'd be happy with just one cake and one wish that I can be assured will come true. The unknown terrifies me and has been the cause for all my stress lately. But enough about that! Today- my birthday, I will put those worries to the side and enjoy the moment!


Have a great day everyone.

Show & Tell

I got a call yesterday from Mr.Golden. It went something like this:

Me: Hey, what's up?

Mr.Golden: Babe, do you love me?

Me: What! Of course I love you. What's going on?

Mr.Golden: How much you love me?

Me: What kind of question is that? I love you, you know I love you. I wouldn't be getting married to you if I didn't. Where are you?

Mr.Golden: I'll be there in 2.5 minutes.

Weirdness! I knew something was up, but I didn't know what. After going upstairs and settling in, he asked me to help me take off his shirt. Aside from two new tattoos being on his arm and back, there was this on his chest:

Was I shocked? Yes. Flattered? Yes. Ahh, he never ceases to surprise me. Now, in no way do I think this measures a persons' love and devotion, nor does he. But it's definitely some nice eye candy! ;-)

Sizing Up Newlyweds :-)

Mr. Golden and I have a tradition of looking through the latest Jet Magazine and flipping to the wedding section to size up the brides and grooms. We've done this even before we were engaged. Little does he know is that I've been sizing him up all these years to see what his taste in wedding gowns is.

I know he's going to love my dress {no worries there}. But the other day he called me up and said, "Hey babe, did you hear Ruben Studdard got married. His wife is pretty, I liked her dress."

Of course you know I had to drop what I was doing and google her dress! She did make a gorgeous bride! I don't know if Mr.Golden was trying to drop a hint or what, and I refuse to say if he is warm or cold in terms of if it resembles my dream gown! But anyway, I figured I share the pics from their wedding. Enjoy!

Images Courtesy Of: Essence Magazine

Congrats to the newlyweds!

Bedroom Wars & Truces

I've been blessed with a man that doesn't snore {applause}. But, he is however, the ultimate sheet hogger. Leave it up to him, he'd say that I hog the sheets but since this is MY blog, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

We also have very different sleep rituals. I like to sleep with the top sheet and blanket. That's the way it's supposed to be! He on the other hand, will toss the top sheet and only sleep with the blanket. I need complete quietness to go to sleep, he likes to let the T.V. watch him doze off.

What's even funnier is that we're both cuddlers but the side that we find comfortable to fall alseep on is different so we usually fall alseep in opposite directions. Married life should prove to be interesting once we're living together on a full time basis.

I'm thinking that the solution to these things is to have extra blankets handy to keep me warm, give Mr. Golden some wireless headphones so he can have the t.v. lull him to sleep, and I'll compromise by investing in a good ol' eye mask. After all, I would hate for us to have to come to this:

Ahhhh, the yoys of marriage!

I had a "moment"

I knew it was sure to come, every bride goes through it at some point. I'm talking about bridezilla moments that keep us up until 4a.m. {true story}. Wanna see the culprit that made me loose sleep? Here it is:

Now let me explain. It wasn't the food that made me stress out, in fact, the food looks delishes. But if you look ever so closely at the trim on the plate, you'll see it's......dunnn dunn dunn dunn...RED!!! These are the plates at Westbury Manor {my reception hall}.

Can someone tell me why this red trim had me re-guessing my whole color scheme and wondering if my tablescape would be thrown off. Instead of going into calm planner mode, I literally freaked out!

I called my colleague and asked said:

"I am totally going crazy, do you think I should incorporate red into my color scheme. The plates have red trimming!"

"Absolutely not!"

"But"-

"NO"!

Losing that battle, I called Mr.Golden frantically and said:

"Babe, the plates have red in them."

"What are you talking about?"

"The plates at Westbury Manor have red trimming. I want gold chargers, it's going to ruin it!"

Silence...

"Do you think we should have an accent color?"

"You are out-of-control!"

Long story short, my colleague and fiance are right. I was bugging to the tenth power. There will be no color scheme changes. Mr.Golden made me realize that I hadn't even noticed the red on the plate when we went to a wedding there this past summer and the color scheme for that wedding was pink! I guess I'm entitled to a few crazy bride moments but I have to limit myself. I've vowed to never be one of "those" brides- and by "those" I mean this:

{one of my all time favorite episodes!}



Have a great weekend everyone, I'll see you all back on Monday!

To Hyphenate or Not: That is the Question

I always knew that I would hyphenate my name when I got married. It just seemed like the right thing to do. I love my maiden name, it is a part of my identity and I couldn't imagine totally dropping it.

If you knew my family, you would understand why I am so attached to my maiden name. We are a crazy bunch! {in a mostly good way!} There are actions and situations that we have coined after our last name. Certain things that I do, people will automatically say, "Oh yea, she is definitely a {insert maiden name}". It is who I AM!

On the other hand, I love Mr.Golden's name as well and I definitely want to be a part of him. I will have people address me only as my married name after the nuptials because I think it sounds really funny saying "Mrs. Maiden-Married." However, on all legal documents, I will be Mrs. Extra Long Name {total of 28 letters including 1st and middle name}.

Ahhh, this is reminding me of one of my all time favorite childhood books: Tikki Tikki Tembo. Please tell me you remember this book! lol. {the child's name was Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo!}

What do you plan to do?

Be There Or Be Square!

I'm talking about Bride Wars! I'm hoping that it's as good as the previews make it look. But either way, I can't possibly forgo seeing it this weekend and then being the odd ball on Monday while everyone else is talking about it.

So I'm encouraging everyone to grab a friend or two, or ten and make it a girls night out- I know I plan to!

Have fun everyone and enjoy your weekend!

Reflecting and Looking Forward

2008 taught me a lot. It was a year that had its ups and downs, but I was able to put a lot of things into perspective. Although I have been ready for this year to be over with, I have to admit that I am a little nervous about 2009 because I have a lot of new beginnings about to take place. And it also means wedding crunch time. Here are some of the wedding related things I'm looking forward to in 2009.

• Bridal Party Luncheon
• Engagement Photo Session {most likely in May}
• Getting my dress drawn on a piece of paper and then seeing it come to life bit by bit
• Sending out my Save the Dates {In July}
• Boudouir Photo Session
• Registering
• Assessing the budget to see if some of my "extras" can be accomadated {crossing my fingers on this!}
• Hair trail
• Make up trial {1st of many probably}

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but just continue to ride this journey with me and make 2009 a golden year! Happy New Year everyone!

Pucker Up

I'm naturally a touchy feely person. I greet people with friendly hugs and kisses all the time. Today while at a holiday party seeing old faces, there were lots of hugs and kisses going around and then...

BAM! Someone who missed the lesson on kissing ettiquette got a lipstick stain on my brand new gold shirt! It's really not that serious, I'm sure the stain will come out and I'm not obsessive cumpulsive over material things. BUT...

I can't say that I would have taken that light heartedly if it were my wedding day and that had been my wedding dress. That changes all the rules! So is it wrong that I don't want anyone kissing me on my wedding day? I mean granted, my dress won't come up as high as the shirt I had on today, but what about my veil? I also DO NOT want lipstick marks on my cheek or any possible stains on my dress {including alcohol}.

There's always the possibility of trying to kiss the other person first before they kiss me, or the fake cheek-to-cheek air kiss that people do. LOL.

Maybe I'm just stressing, but I would love to hear what you think?

A Morsel Of A Tear Is All I Ask...

...of Mr. Golden. Just one little itty bitty tear from him is what I'm hoping. I love when grooms get all choked up at the wedding. It just looks so sweet and romantic. But of course I would want it to be authentic and provoked natually!

At this point, I don't even know how my emotions are going to be on the day of the wedding. I usually cry over sentimental things, but I can't control the timing of my water works. For example, I cried when my brother and sister entered pre-school {I am SIGNIFICANTLY older than them}. It broke my heart that my "babies" were growing up. I can hear a song that reminds me of Mr.Golden and I will get teary. However, when we got engaged, I didn't shed one tear. How weird is that?

I think I will be emotional and teary on my wedding day- but I don't know if it will just be a few tears or straight up ugly, face turning, eyes blood shot red crying {oh God, please no!}. Whatever the case may be, it doesn't matter if he cries or not {although it looks so darn good!}, it's the feelings in the moment that matter.

Here's some awesome "groom crying" moments:

Photo Credit: CVI Photography & Co.

Photo Credit: Scarlett Lillian Photo Journal

Photo Credit: TD Jakes

Photo Credit: KU Photography