Only Days Left

When I started this blog I really thought I was going to get to share my planning experience much more. I wanted to share every detail and describe our fun and crazy wedding process! I quickly found that time was of the essence and I did not get to blog like I wanted to. However, with only days left, yes DAYS! until the wedding I am looking forward to slowing down and sharing the entire process along with the final outcome real soon! Stay tuned for details when I return as a Mrs....

The Transition

Even though I have not got to post as much as I would like, I still have been jotting thoughts and experiences down in my journal. I hope to share them soon when I can find more time to blog! Today's post is from a few notes I wrote in my journal back in July on the last night of our family vacation in Florida.

With the holidays just around the corner, it has reminded me again of the transition that happens as a 'bride to be'. Society often overwhelms newly engaged women with 'Congratulations!' and "When is the Big Day?" There is an expectation that your engagement is supposed to be the 'happiest' time of your life.

Any feeling less than euphoric, sends many brides into a state of anxiety and confusion. However, the engagement period is one of the most significant psychological transitions in a woman's life. This transition is more complex than simply taking a new last name but involves many stages and emotions that prepare us to take the next step in becoming a wife. Brides often ignore these feelings and instead distract themselves with wedding planning and frivolous details.

This will be my last Christmas as a single woman. In July, I really embraced the fear and feeling of loss during our family vacation. For all of you lovely brides who may have had similar feelings or your entire engagement process has not been blissful but have ranged from a variety of emotions, this vulnerable excerpt from my journal is for you. May you embrace your emotions and the transition into the next stage of our life in becoming a wife.

"Tonight is a bitter sweet evening. Tonight is the last night of our annual family vacation only this year is the last year that it will just be my family. The next time we go on vacation I will no longer just be a daughter but I will also be a wife.


I have tried to soak in every moment this week. Tonight at dinner I took it all in, the smiles and the laughs and just being a daughter and sister. As I write in my journal, tears stroll down my face. Tears of sadness and tears of joy, maybe even tears of fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of change.

I sit tonight with the voice of the ocean and feel overwhelming love. Love of family, love of God, and love for a man that I can’t wait to spend my life with.


This week I felt like a child again and life felt simple. Days on the beach with my family are a memory I will always cherish and remember. I woke up to both my parents already awake and getting the beach gear ready for the day. The blue cooler filled with soda and water, plastic baggies filled with nutter butters, the bright beach chairs, ugly towels and sunscreen. I take off my beautiful diamond ring and place it on my night stand in a small pocket in my pink makeup bag. After putting on my swimsuit and sunscreen everyone is ready to go. My brother politely carries my chair, my sister grabs hers and we are off to the beach.

As we sit on the beach, my dad lounging underneath the umbrella, my mom reading her book, and my brother and sister both on towels laying in the sand, I am reminded of this great week, the last week of family vacation as a single woman. Without the diamond on my left hand as a reminder, without a mirror to see my adult reflection, I feel as if I could be any little girl sitting next to her dad, not the 28 year old woman that has lived on her own for over a decade, earned a prestigious degree, runs a successful business and is about to start a family of her own.


Tonight is bitter sweet as I close a chapter and begin a new one. I am so grateful for the love of my parents and the love of my family. The nights we have shared laughing and spending time together are memories I should not be sad for but be hopeful that I can continue that love in the building of my own family. It is the goal of not leaving a family, but building a larger one that embraces the same love and friendship.


My heart knows that things will be different and I feel this is the main cause of my tears, again both of joy and of sadness. My heart almost feels a loss. A loss of what used to be, but the joy and hope that is in the next phase brings a surprising peace.


I leave this chapter with a letter to my family on my last night as just a daughter and a sister:


Dear Mom, Dad, Chandler and Cassidy,


Thank you for all the love and the memories as a family. Tonight is the last family vacation we will have just as the five of us. I can say that my heart is sad and tears have ended this day. Tonight as vacation ends, I feel as sense of loss as I will no longer be just a daughter or just a sister on the next vacation but I will also be a wife. The laughter and smiles and friendship we have shared I will value forever. I hope to think that our team of five is not ending but only that our future holds more team members and more love. I stopped tonight to embrace this moment and am overwhelmed by the gratitude and love I have for each of you. As we come to our last vacation as five I want each of you to know I love you and I am so proud to be a part of our family, as your daughter and your sister and your friend.


Love Always, Chelsey

The Wedding Cake

I have been so busy I have not got to blog hardly anything that has been happening!  I promise to start adding some details off all the planning over the next few weeks!

I first want to share a sneak peak of our wedding cake! Wedding cake design as become an art form. The wedding cake is a focal point of the wedding and often sets the style for the entire event. With so many options and having seen such a variety of cakes, this has been one of my biggest challenges!
As a wedding planner, I consider myself a 'wedding cake snob'. Yes, I said it! I am a cake snob!

It is my job and responsibility to taste the cake at every wedding. Most of the time that entails, tasting the Bride's cake and the Groom's cake! I mean, we have to know if it tastes good right?! I know it is a hard job, but someone has to do it!

Because of all the cake tasting, I am pretty picky when it comes to cake. Luckily, I work with the best and already knew at least one of the flavors for our wedding cake. It is called "Princess" cake and is hands down my favorite cake.

For the past few years, I have always preferred the "Princess" cake with Delicious Cake's signature cream cheese and butter cream icing mixed. My mouth starts watering just typing the words! This delicious duo is not too sweet and just sweet enough to make the perfect icing. I didn't think it could get any better than this until last year one my brides wanted to add a lemon flavor to her cake. Delicious Cakes added a touch of lemon mouse to the already perfected "Princess" cake and ooh la la! My new favorite cake! I can't wait to enjoy our yummy cake on the wedding day! Until then, its protein and greens!

Butch and Ruthie Stivers, owners of Delicious Cakes, have been wonderful friends and business colleagues for many years. I would say almost 90% of our brides choose them because they are truly the best! Butch is extremely talented. He brought me a few ideas and I loved them! The cake he put together is exactly what I had envisioned, except it is even better! I am truly honored that Butch has named the cake in honor of me. After the wedding, our gorgeous cake will be featured at the Dallas Bridal Show, with the name "Chelsey" for other brides to admire or use as their own wedding cake! Stay tuned for the big reveal!

Cake tasting! As you can see we ate most of the Cake!

Butch working hard to design our beautiful cake!

The UPS Guy

I think the UPS guy thinks I like him.

I have ordered quite a few things for the wedding online and each time one arrives I get so excited! I think the UPS guy has taken this excitement as a personal gesture toward him. I think he may even believe I keep ordering things just so he can show up to my door! I may have to break the news to him if he asks me for my phone number!  

The good news is I have received so many amazing purchases. Here are just a few fabulous things I have ordered for the wedding!  Cant wait to show them off soon!

Faux Fur Wrap 

Minnesota Vikings Hat 

Mr. and Mrs. Forks 

Napkins and Cookie Bags 

Wedding Shoes 

Mini Glass Trifle Set

Wedding Memory Book

The Registry

I was browsing The Knot and came across an article that asked 'What is your Registry Style?" Asking this question before Clayton and I registered would probably have been more productive but I was intrigued by the article and wanted to explore.

I would say my "registry style" is classic and traditional. I like things to be simple, clean and elegant. I have always thought that white dishes are to your kitchen what the little black dress is to your closet. You can use them everyday and for all entertaining purposes. Add a splash of color with a napkin, linen or salad plate and presto! an entirely new tablescape! Clayton and I love our essential white place settings from Crate and Barrel and cant wait to use them!

Polyvore is a super cool website that allows you to make your own collages. Here is a look at our wedding registry collage:

Planning a wedding is a challenge, but the registry, well that is what I call fun! I think registering is probably the only reason that I would ever plan a second wedding! Registry is like a drug. It is slightly addictive. Crate and Barrel seduced me on their website and forced me to spend hours in front of my computer finding the perfect serving dish and learning how to have the most exquisite holiday mantle. Crate and Barrel is a genius.

Clayton and I enjoyed our day of registering at Crate and Barrell and Bed Bath and Beyond. We chose items we knew we would use and love in starting our new home together. It was a great day of picturing our life as a married couple!

I must admit I did get a little too excited during the registry process and had to be reigned in. I was overwhelmed by all the items to entertain with and the angels were singing! When I began registering for items that we would need for our child's 5th birthday party, Clayton took away the scan gun! Here are a few photos from our day of registry!

My Bridezilla Moment

I thought that I might be able to avoid having a "bridezilla" moment but unfortunately, even as a seasoned wedding planner I am not immune.

For those of you who do not know the term 'bridezilla', here is the definition according to Wikipedia:

A bridezilla (a neologistic portmanteau of bride and Godzilla) is a difficult, unpleasant, perfectionist bride.

Webster goes into a littel more detail:

Horrific, bulging-eyed bride prone to screaming spells and spontaneous fits of hysterical rage. Bridezillas are known to drop blows over seating charts, get bug-eyed at the mere mention of carnations and view hurling champagne at their wedding planners as a form of hazing.


And you can't help but enjoy this description from Bridezilla.com

Exceptionally attractive, confident women who know what they want and can’t be bothered to sugar coat because they are obviously on 100 calorie- a- day microbiotic diets and can’t even sneak a pack of Splenda if their life depends on it. Bridezillas are both blessed and cursed with a higher vision of perfection than most mediocre, David’s Bridal wearing, Gerber daisy carrying mortals and have no choice but to impart this vision exactly to the masses. It is this motive that drives them to demand nothing less than excellence from their staff-err, wedding party.

In college I was an art minor with a focus on graphic design. I decided pretty quickly that I was too much of a perfectionist to be a good graphic designer. To make any money, you have to get projects out quickly and that seemed impossible for me. I would spend hours trying to find the perfect font or the exact matching color. These skills of perfection do come in handy as a wedding planner but as a bride but it has also been a curse.

I was searching for the perfect script font to use on my wedding invitations and came across Bickham Script. While researching this font to see how it looked in different sizes and letters I stumbled upon Burguess Script. I fell in love with this font immediately and knew this was the one. The flourishes are breathtaking and I could loose myself for hours admiring the playful yet elegant swoops and swirls.

After spending hours and hours searching for a download for Burguess Script, I called upon one of my bridesmaids, who is also a wedding planner, and enlisted the help of her mother in law who is the queen of fonts. I met my bridesmaid at her mother in law's home and she began a search through her catalog of many fonts and online. We had no luck in finding a free download and only a few websites offered you the font at the price of $100. Yes, for only one hundred dollars this beautiful font can be yours. After a relentless search, I felt defeated and extremely frustrated.

I wanted this font. I needed this font. I had to have this font! (Hello Bridezilla!)

My bridesmaid, and fellow wedding planner, could feel the disdain and see the ever haunting 'horns' creeping upon my head.  She pulled me aside and said, "Chelsey if you had a bride that was stressing this much over a silly font what would you do?" I reluctantly laughed as I told her that I would tell my bride to relax, that we would find something else that she loved and to not fret over this simple thing. She responded with, "Yes. Exactly. Let's move on."

I went home and was still upset about the font. I did not want to spend $100 of our already tight budget on a typeface. It seemed ridiculous and unnecessary.  However, after countless hours of searching and hundreds of fonts later, I finally just broke down and bought it. I absolutely love the font and when I saw it printed on our Save the Dates, I had no buyers remorse. They were perfect and exactly what I wanted.

After my 'bridezilla' moment I ran across a quiz "Are you a Bridezilla?" on WE TV. I decided to take the quiz out of humor and here is my assessment:

Well you've almost got a spot on team Bridezilla... but not quite. You're sort of like the water girl - you're supporting the team and you're learning a lot.

Clayton may disagree, but as of now, I am not on team Bridezilla!

It's Personalized

The wedding is just around the corner and traditionally Save the Date cards are mailed out about six months prior to the wedding. Logically it should have been something I skipped because of the short timeframe and for budget saving reasons however, as a bride, I wasnt thinking logically.

I finally got them completed last week! I have always had a passion for great fonts and calligraphy. I truly enjoyed seeing my friends and family's names in the beautiful script font I picked out specifically for our wedding stationary. (There is a humorous story on this particular font but that will be another post!) Although they were simple, I loved them so much and it was hard to put them in the mail!

I enlisted Clayton to help me stuff the envelopes and in return each Save the Date has a "personal" touch. I gave Clayton the stack of Save the Date cards and the matching envelopes. I had two cards, an Accommodation card with a list of hotels and the Save the Date with the our wedding information.

I explained to him that the larger card went on the bottom with the smaller card on top. I showed him how to put them in the envelope facing up so that when guests receive them, the writing is facing up and they can easily pull out the cards and read them.

Clayton reluctantly agreed to assist me but he took the cards and began putting them in the envelopes. As he handed me a completed stack so that I could seal them, I noticed that they were all the wrong direction. I showed him again the correct way to insert the cards. As I watched him place each card in the envelope, he was still doing it wrong. I tried to correct him but he quickly showed me the problem and and gave me his excuse for continuing to do it his way. Clayton is left handed.

When I realized the problem, we both had a good laugh as he insisted that now they all have a personal touch even though they are all facing the wrong direction! So for those of you who respect etiquette, please excuse our improperly stuffed Save the Date cards, for everyone else, we hope you can appreciate the "personalization".

A special thank you to Barb at The Station House for helping me print these last minute. I originally had planned to do something else but I was running out of time and had to compromise on a more cost efficient option!