Anyone who wants to can view the wedding ceremony on uStream at 11am central time (recording will be available afterward).  We found out today they have wifi at Dave and Busters so we plan on turning it back on at 1pm to stream the reception as well.

Streaming Video by Ustream.TV

Family starts arriving tomorrow around lunchtime.

Bra

Got it (finally) from Bare Necessities online and it fits and works under the dress, so that is done. Other than the fact that Ann’s Bra Shop can’t seem to credit me back correctly for the one I returned to them.

So all of my DIY projects are done.

Cake and Cupcakes

I picked up the candy flowers for the cupcakes. SUPER cute!

I am picking up the cupcakes and cake on Friday and will put these on them then.

Centerpieces

DONE! (unless I have to add an extra one because of some last minute RSVP’s that change our table count)

Ring bearer Pillow

Done.

Flower Girl Baskets

Done.

Garter

Got one.

Memorial Candle

Done.

Guestbook Card Basket

Done.

Card Box

Done.

Cake Topper

Done.

(no picture because its still a secret!)

Wedding Ceremony Online

We are going to attempt to broadcast our wedding ceremony live online via uStream. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mattandkristiswedding
Watch us finally make it legal from the comfort of your own home!
(times are in Central Time)

Other

I still have quite a few items on my to-do list but it is shrinking fairly quickly.  I made calls yesterday and today to confirm orders and reservations, I still have a few calls to make there.  Tuesday is my last day of work before the wedding then I have 3 full days of running around getting stuff done before the big day!

Dress

Alterations are DONE on my dress and I have it back.  If you are in St. Louis and need alterations go to Patty Kreiger, she is nice and fast and good and inexpensive!

Bra

Stop reading now if you don’t want to read about undergarments .

Okay, if you are still here, then welcome, let’s talk about the bra conspiracy that is going on.

First of all I have a hard time finding bras that fit properly in the first place, even for everyday wear, not to mention special occasions.

My regular bra show in front of the arm holes of my wedding dress.

I bought a new bra and it showed under my arms

Last Monday I went to Ann’s Bra shop in Chesterfield which is a speciality shop, and ordered my bra, a long line strapless. And they quoted me $78 (I almost had a heart attack) and they said, it would be in in about a week.

Later that evening they called and told me it wouldn’t be in for 4 weeks!!!!  That would be  too late!  Then repeated my order to me and it was wrong.  Once she corrected it she said it would be there this Thursday!

Thursday, I call to make sure my bra has come in and get put on hold for 20 minute because they couldn’t find my order, they finally found it and said it was ready for pickup.  Matthew picked it up for me. When I got home I saw on the receipt that they had charged $12 more than they had quoted me when they ordered it on Monday. I called them and they had me look at the tag and turns out it was a different model than the one I had ordered (I hadn’t looked at it yet) but assured me that it was VERY similar and should fit just the same and they would refund me the difference.

Fine.  I had my dress fitting at 6:30pm.  I took the bra out of the package to look at it and it was quite different. Instead of being a regular long line bra it was a bustier, complete with garters. Ugh.  So Matthew finally gets home from the gym at 6:10 and starts helping me get the bra on so I can go to my fitting.  It BARELY hooks! IT is SOOO uncomfortable.  The one I ordered fit perfectly and was comfortable.  Anyway, I had to get to my fitting so I suffered (I could barely breath sitting in the car in this thing). I had my fitting and got my dress (woohoo).   I called the bra shop back and they apologized and said they’d have to order my “real” bra from the manufacturer and that it would take 3-4 weeks but they would try to get a rush on it.  They are supposed to call me back and let me know if its possible to get it rushed.

So far I have not heard back from them at all. I am going up there after work on Thursday to return the torture device and see if I can find one the have in stock.

Cupcakes & Cake

Last Monday I went to order my cupcakes.  I had decided to get them from Dierbergs to streamline things since that is where my flower are coming from.  I stopped by the florist to update my order and then headed back to the bakery.  I stood there for 10 minutes with no one coming out to help me.  Finally a store employee walked by and I asked if someone could help me in the bakery and he said “oh, i can help!” I’m hesitant but say okay, I need to place an order. So he starts looking for an order sheet (ugh) and about that time 4 people come out of offices in the back (that hadn’t bothered to come out and help me before) to help look for an order sheet.  I’m starting to figure out that no one knows what they are doing at this point and ask if there was a cake decorator I could talk to.  They said “no, we don’t make the cakes here, they are made at our design center and brought here daily”.  I say fine, lets do the order (Thinking, its cupcakes, how hard can this be).  We get to the icing color and I ask to see a color chart or sample colors.  She went in the back and looked for several minutes and came back and said she didn’t have one and it would take a few days to get one from the design center.  Exasperated, I asked if I could GO to the design center to place my order. She called them while I stood there and the answer is no, I can’t GO there. I left at that point and went to Sam’s Club where I initially planned on ordering my cupcakes from anyway.  I got that order placed but they don’t make 8″ cakes (which is the size I have to have for my top layer), so I then had to go to Schnucks to order that and still have to stop back by there to talk to the designer about the fact that I don’t want them to use a star tip on the border (how hard is that?).

Anyway, one good note on that.  I stopped by the local cake and candy supply store and ordered gumpaste daisies in my colors to put on the cakes and cupcakes!   They will look kind of like this except in white and green (half of each)

Hotel/Ceremony

Tuesday I get a call from my hotel where my ceremony is, apparently when my future mother-in-law had called to ask a question about the room it was revealed that the guy who told me TO MY FACE that my room was reserved AND took my credit card, had not actually reserved the room! LUCKILY the room was still available and the general manager reserved it for me and when Matt’s mom called back they are giving us use of the hospitality room later that night at no charge.

Centerpieces

Got the chocolate covered raisins to go in the centerpieces, just have to get the chocolate rocks now and finish putting them together.

Ingredients

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1 medium tomato
• 1/4  of a large onion
• 3 cloves of garlic chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp cilantro
• Juice of one lime
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1/2 tsp dried chili pepper
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

First of all, make sure your avocado’s are ripe.  They should be soft but not mushy when you press on the skin.

Using a large knife, cut through the avocado lengthwise all the way around, then twist and pull to revel the pit.

Next, lay the avocado with the pit facing up on a cutting board and take a large knife and swing it down into the avocado pit hard enough so that it goes into the pit about 1/8 of an inch.

Now twist and pull and the pit will pop right out (the riper your avocado the easier the pit releases)

Take a dish towel and grasp the pit and pull it off the knife.

Now take a smaller knife and score all of your avocado halves.

Using a spoon scoop out the avocado into a bowl

Repeat with all remaining avocado halves. You will be left with a pile of cute little avocado skin boats!

Now take a medium tomato and quarter it

Take each quarter and using your knife held horizontally to the cutting board, slice under the seeds and core, leaving just the meat of the tomato (tomato seeds in guacamole are just not good)

Dice up the tomato meat

I like chunky guac, but make the pieces of vegetable as large or small as you want

Dice 1/4 of a large to medium onion and add it to the bowl

Add 3 cloves or about 1 tbsp of chopped garlic to the bowl

I like to use a combination of lime and lemon juice in my guacamole.  You will need one lime and half a lemon

Cut the lime and squeeze the juice into the bowl, do the same with half of the lemon.

Next comes the spices

add the cilantro (use fresh if you have it, but dried works ok too), salt, pepper and dried ground chili pepper.

Stir well to combine.  The more you stir the smoother it will get, so use your own discretion there.

I recommend refrigerating it overnight for best results.

Dress

I had my second dress fitting today.  The seamstress had taken the bubble hem out and let the bottom part of the waist out about 1/2 inch.  I tried it on and she pinned up the hem and decided to let the top part of the waist out (under my bust) to give a bit more room.

I STILL haven’t found a bra that is going to work with the dress.  All of them are showing under the arm holes.  I am going to go to Ann’s Bra Shop here in town this weekend. They specialize in hard to fit sizes like me.

Photos

We met with our photographer Kym on Monday and went over what we want and don’t want and came up with a schedule.  I am so excited about Kym taking my pictures!  Check out her awesomeness here and here.

Hair & Makeup

I setup my hair cut and color appointments for the Wednesday before the wedding.  Matthew is having his haircut the week before.  My hair goddess will also be doing my hair and makeup day of.  Have I ever told you how much I love Patrice Clements?  She is the hair goddess!

Cake Topper

Got the last piece I need for the cake topper, it needs some work but will be done soon.

Flowers

I ordered my flowers.  I am getting them from Dierbergs.  White Gerbera daisies with light green ribbon for the boutineers and corsages.  I think I am going to go with multi-color Gerbera daisies for my clutch bouquet, just for a pop of color against the dress.

Ceremony

We finally decided NOT to have the ceremony at our house.  It wold just be too many people in a small space. So we have moved the ceremony to a hotel near the reception. Most of the out of town guests will be staying there as well so that makes things easier.

Centerpeices

I got the ribbon put on all of the pots for the centerpieces.  I still  have to find a place to get the candy to put inside them!  If anyone knows where to get bulk candy, let me know.

A quick tip: use double stick tape to keep the ribbon from slipping when tying your bow.

Dress

I had my first dress fitting last week (no pics, sorry).   Its being let out 1/2 inch in the waist (this makes me sad), the bubble hem taken out and the hem taken up about 3 inches.  I have to go back in a week or so so she can pin the hem up because she had to take the bubble part out first so the hem will hang straight.

Hairpiece

I have been working on different hair pieces, I posted version 1 last time.

For a refresher, here is version 1

I made versions 2 (forgive the lack of makeup and bad hair, I’ve been working in the heat all day). I like this version, it looks better in person than it does with me trying to take a picture of it myself.  (I look like I am being sent to my death in that 2nd picture)

and version 3.  The only reason I made version 3 is because I LOVE this fabric.

Shoes

If you recall, I bought wedding shoes already.  Cute shoes.  Well, the problem is, they are not very comfortable and the flip-flop nature of them  makes my dress get caught on my heels.  Soooo..I went in search of wedding new shoes.  Last Saturday I went to 3 shoes stores and came home empty handed.  Sunday (my fitting was Wednesday) I HAD to get shoes. I went to 2 stores then the mall, after 6 stores in the mall I was EXHAUSTIVE and resigned to going home empty handed again when I saw the Payless Shoes on my way to the exit and decided to stop in.   And what would you know, I found shoes. And they fit. And they are comfortable!

I like them but they were a little plain, so I decide to jazz them up a bit

I am really happy with the way these turned out.

Cupcakes

Being the nerd that I am, I made a mockup of what my cupcakes will look like on my cupcake tree I finished a couple weeks ago

Cardbox

I re-covered my card box and am much more happy with it!

Other

Most of the RSVP’s are in, just waiting on a few stragglers.  I worked on the top-secret cake topper some more, its almost done.

I’ve been really busy with wedding stuff and other things going on in my life and have just not had time to post.  I promise to catch everyone up sometime in the next week or so.

I ordered and received my necklace and I LOVE it! (That is my new hair clip there too)

I ordered and received new glasses, because I thought my old ones did not look feminine enough with my dress, what do you think?

Current

New

Old with dress

New with dress

I made this little prototype veil thingy (a veilette if you will), not sure what I think about it yet

On Me

By itself 

Picked up the last of the ribbon I should need for the centerpieces

Picked up the flowers for the centerpieces  (hooray for Hobby Lobby 50% off)

Got some chocolate pebbles to put in my centerpieces  to see how they look.  I am going to order the chocolate this week for the centerpieces before it gets too hot to ship it.

Finished covering, decorating and putting together the cupcake tree

Finished version 1 of my card box, there is probably going to be a version 2 because I don’t like the seams on this one!

My shoes came and are very comfy!

Got a nice heavy duty extra long dress bag

Did some work on the secret cake topper, Mom is going to help me some more when I see her this coming weekend for Memorial Day.

I started working on the card box this week.  I had picked up a box at Hobby Lobby for $4 a couple weeks ago but had been putting off working on it because I didn’t want to cut the hole in the top.

Well, I finally bit the bullet and started it. 

Cutting the hole was not as bad as I thought, and I got it fairly even and straight

Next I decided I needed to cover the whole thing in paper before covering  it in fabric, because I didn’t want to polka dots to show through

About 2/3 of the way through this process, I decided to cover the whole thing with batting before I put the fabric on, to make it look better and also to make it easier to attach the fabric, which is kind of slippery, but since I was almost done covering it, I went ahead and finished.

So today I decided that I might as well cover this thing since I had everything I needed (I thought).

I measured and cut the batting

I then affixed the batting to the box with spray adhesive

Then I cut the fabric….incorrectly

So I am going to end up with more seams than I wanted and will have to decide if that is okay.  I ended up making A LOT of cuts and using a LOT of spay adhesive but I got the fabric over the batting

So the spray adhesive won’t hold the seams at the corners down

I am going to pickup some hot glue and try that,  the fabric is kind of slippery, so I am hoping that will work.

The plan right now after I get the seams taken care of is to put a ribbon around it like this

after that i will add a “cards” sign on the front.

I need to go to Hobby Lobby and get more of this ribbon, I have bought all they had 3 times now!

Attire

My shoes arrived, I’m not 100% sold on wearing these for the wedding, but they are comfy and I like them.

Matthew’s tie arrived

My hair clips arrived

Favors

The cards came that will go in the favor envelopes and double as the guest book cards.  I got those stuffed in the envelopes I had already stamped.

Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh basil
• 1 ounce pistachio nuts
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 ounces freshly grated parmesean cheese
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• 4 ounce marinated artichoke hearts
• 6 ounces cooked chicken breast
• dash Kosher salt
• 1 package mini Phyllo shells

Procedure

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Grate the cheese

Put the basil in the food processor and give it a spin

Add in the garlic and nuts and about half the cheese

Slowly drizzle in the olive oil (while the food processor is running)

Add the artichokes and salt

Process until nice and creamy

Mmmmm….

Get your chicken ready.  I used the Tyson Grilled and Ready diced chicken I had in the freezer, any kind of chicken breast will do though

Take out about half of the pesto mixture and put it in a bowl

Leave the rest of the Pesto in the food processor and add the chicken.  Pulse until the chicken is chopped up. Next time I will leave mine a bit courser than this

Remove from the food processor and put in the bowl with the rest of the pesto and mix well

Fill the Phyllo tart shells with the mixture and sprinkle with a bit of the remaining cheese

Arrange on a baking sheet

Bake for 12-13 minutes then turn to broil for 1 minute

Enjoy!

Nutritionals per 2 mini tarts (approximate)