Thoughts after Coffee Cup # 2

It's 6:30am and I'm on my second cup of coffee, feeling pretty awake at this point. I woke up at 5:20am to see my future husband off to work this morning and you know what, it felt good. I am looking forward to taking care of him in a new way as we start combining our lives. With an endless list of honey-do's between now and June 16th (our wedding), moments like this recenter my focus and remind me why the crazy is worth the anxiety and stress.

I feel such a sense of peace making his morning coffee or packing his snack, especially when I beg him to let me cook up a breakfast sandwich at 5:30am while he groans with that look that says "Thank you, but my stomach isn't quite awake yet." I understand that the novelty of all my new wifely duties might wear off, but for now I am basking in the contentedness I get from taking care of my soon to be husband. I pray it never gets "old" and that I continue to enjoy the whole taking care of a household role. I have a feeling it runs in my genes to feel complete and satisfied with a life centered on taking care of my family....I know this because my mom was always so good at it. Of all the things I could say about my mom, she was born to care for a family and taught me how to create a home just as she did.

Aannnndddd, with 37 days left before the wedding, my wedding website checklist says I still have 60 of my 120 tasks left to complete. Two more things to get done this weekend, RINGS AND TUXES!

I'm a prisoner to my sweet tooth

My horrible sweet tooth has taken me prisoner and I can't curve the craving of the peanut butter and chocolate ice cream sitting in my freezer at work from the San Francisco Creamery. How I wish I could indulge right now. Instead I will (try) and focus my energy on the realization that I gotta keep motivated to be healthy and get my boot-ey to the gym 'cus there are less than 8 Mondays till my wedding day is here. Maybe someone should stop buying me ice cream during lunch...

What do you all do to curve the after lunch sweet tooth cravings?

mmmm doesn't that look tasty.....

 

Maybe just two bites will be okay??? It's not like anyone will know....

Invitations: It's all in the details

 Our entire family came together for one special night to help make our wedding invitations. Moms, Dads, Brothers, Sisters, Nieces, and Aunts all united in an effort to produce a unique and personal invitation for the wedding of our dreams. 

Here are a few pictures of the details, to share.  The first two photos are what we call "Morea Vision" as they were taken from the perspective of a four year old, pretty good we think!

Notice the wine and girl scout cookies...these are what got us through. 

That, and Round Table Pizza. 

 

My sisters and Godmom working with intense concentration. There was a strict time constraint and I was NOT messing around that night. In fact, I vetoed my mom off of the embossing station for working too slowly at one point and made potential candidates audition their handwriting for the addressing of envelopes. It was serious business.  

These lace pockets were sewn by my mom the week prior. The lace was a bargain at Hobby Lobby and cost us roughly $25 for all 80 invitations.

 We did a LOT of embossing that night. We embossed this lace detailing on the cards as well as on the backside of the envelopes. In addition to the lace stamp embossing, we embossed our names' and RSVP stamps. All cards, inserts, and envelopes were done with just a single embossing gun.

 My sister Kristina (also my Matron of Honor) designed this stamp special for the invitations. Using varying fonts for different parts of our names, we used Photoshop to create this custom stamp reading "Kaitlyn & Daniel." We then uploaded that to a site that created the actual stamp for us, based on our prototype.

Here you can see the sleek and simple fonts we used for the wedding details. MarthaStewart.com came handy for getting the wording just right and gave us inspiration for explaining the dynamics of our families.

 Instead of having our guests RSVP via the traditional method of returning a postmarked card, we asked that they log-on to our wedding website. This saved us money and also allowed us the chance to advertise other details of our wedding day that we were unable to include in our invitation, such as our love story and our engagement pictures.

Homemade invitations, sealed with love and invaluable family memories. 

Vwaa-laa!

The Top 5 countdown of what we've been up to as of late:

5. For the past 6 weeks, we have been feverishly searching for a home! This is proving to be on of the most taxing and frustrating, but potentially most rewarding, experiences this year. We are praying things are figured out in time for the wedding which means, as you can imagine, I am concerned freaking out about where we will be living come June.


4. I go in for my interview for the teaching credential program THIS FRIDAY! If all goes well and they think I'm qualified enough for their program, I will be on my way to becoming an elementary school teacher beginning June 25 (the day we come home from our honeymoon, so I actually will be missing the first day of class.)


3. Wedding planning. Lots of wedding planning. We recently did our invitations, Daniel had his bachelor party a few weeks ago, my bridal shower is in two weeks, we are working on getting our passports for Cabo, and my dad built these awesome centerpiece boxes for the tables out of reclaimed fencing wood! So, lots of wedding planning going on.


2. Daniel has been going to school and it looks like he'll be taking several summer courses also. Drill is this weekend which bums us both out because we like to spend our weekends TOGETHER, of course. How many more years of this??? I think 3 1/2...wow that's a long time. I'll be almost 28! Just in time for babies maybe??? Just kidding, more like, just in time to buy a house/travel/have lots of selfish fun before the kids come time.  


1. My birthday was yesterday so my lovely fiance took me out and spoiled me Saturday (since he had school till' late last night.) He bought me a new bathing suit for Cabo and all of our friends joined us for dinner at Sasa Restaurant (an amazing sushi place in Walnut Creek.) Then my dad treated me to Chinese food last night and we spent the evening catching up on Grey's, Toddlers & Tiaras, and Army Wives. My mom is cooking me dinner tonight, Amanda & Chels are coming tomorrow to take me out, and Saturday I am going antique shopping with Sue in search of a pillbox hat with a bird cage veil for my shower! I have been spoiled with love this year, turning 24 has turned out to be a fruitful age and Daniel says it is a big birthday this year because it's the age I'll be when we get married! He can be so romantic when he wants to :)