Introducing the 'Maids

I was so excited to ask all of these beautiful women to stand by me on my wedding day. I figured that I would give them the proper introduction that they deserve. They are all wonderful people that I love very much.

First up is my maid of honor, 'Maid P.

I have known P since I switched to school in Orange, CT in third grade. She was one of my first friends at my new school and has been there ever since. She is a med student at Tufts University right now, and I have been so honored and so surprised how enthusiastically she accepted her role as maid of honor, considering everything else that she has going on.

Next is 'Maid M.

M is essentially my sister in law. She has a wonderful son, my nephew, and is an artist. She has been a huge help towards my wedding ... already, which is way more than I was expecting from anyone. She has gone above and beyond what I consider the call of duty in her short two weeks of being in the wedding party. I am so eager to share this experience (and many more) with her.

Next is the amazing 'Maid Em. (This may get confusing having Em and M, but since I am talking to all of you through text, it shouldn't be a problem.)

Em is my cousin. She is a sophomore in high school and lives in Glenwood, Maryland. She plays volleyball and violin. She was very eager to be a bridesmaid, in fact it was her first question after I told her that I got engaged. I am so happy to have her as a part of my wedding. Since we don't live very close, the only thing we have done together wedding-wise is dress shopping, and it was super fun! (More to come on that!)

And last, but most certainly not least, 'Maid El.

El is my cousin, sister to Em. No they are not twins. They are sisters though. El is a freshman in high school and lives in Glenwood, Maryland. She also plays volleyball and violin, and also used to play soccer, not sure if she still does. She is very lovable and I am so happy to have her with me on my wedding day. I also have only gone dress shopping with her, but hopefully will be doing more with her in the future.

I hope that you enjoyed meeting my 'maids and am looking forward to referencing them in future updates and having you actually know who I am talking about!! I am so lucky to have all of these girls by my side. They are all amazing in their own way and I look forward to sharing this experience with them. Hopefully, sometime soon I will be introducing the groomsmen also, but we will see!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is enjoying their first week of 2012. I know that I have had a wonderful vacation, spending time with my entire family (there were a lot of people!), and enjoying life. I had fun doing most of the usual stuff: baking, wrapping, listening to Christmas tunes, playing with my amazing and adorable nephew, hanging with family, etc. I am now back in Seattle and missing the east, but glad to spend some one-on-one time with Josh.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...
Oh so many! It was wonderful having everyone around for the holidays!

Oh my gosh. I love this kid. Well, both of these kids, really. :)

My grandfather and my nephew. The two UCONN men.

I am hoping that I will not be taking another hiatus that is as long. My new years resolution is to keep up with my blog! A few people had asked me when I would be updating recently, and I am starting today and will (hopefully) be doing regular posts.

Excited about our new tongs.

Sick Ashley, excited about our tupperware.

There is a lot to report on, so I hope that you are ready!

'Cause we are!!

Lack of Posting

I am so sorry for my lack of posting this week. In the past week, Josh's and my life has become super duper busy. On Friday, Josh found out that he got a huge promotion (yay!) and I found out that I got a second job (yay!). I started my new job on Saturday and worked all weekend, which is usually the time that I prepare my new blog posts. For some reason, it seems like everything is happening at once and I haven't had much time for anything but work, sleep, eat and clean the house (which never actually seems to get clean, funnily enough).

Anyways, I am not going to be posting anything else this week. I am so sorry, but I will be back next week with some new posts. Hope you all will remember me for next week! Thanks everyone for checking and please come back soon!

Wedding Meeting: Week 2

I decided that I would write about the general feel of our wedding meetings weekly (if I remember) because I would like a record of how they started, and if we get off course, then I have a record of what made it work and what didn't. 

This past week wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great. Josh forgot all about it, and so I had to remind him. The thing about this is that it's fine, but I want him to remember and want to talk about this stuff. I am sure that he will the closer it gets. In past posts I have talked about how it is so far away so it is hard to think that things that we talk about are not just speculation about our wedding one day. There is a day. It's set. It will be our anniversary for the rest of our lives (which is a weird realization in itself). So I understand where he is coming from, but, but I still want him to want to talk about it.

So this week I had made a breakdown of our budget and I shared it with Josh. I am not gonna lie, it's tight. And no, not cool tight. Tight tight. We CAN DO IT though. I have faith, and that was my question of the day for Josh. If I need reassurance about something I will ask him the same question over and over again to hear him say the answer. (Annoying? Immature? Oh well, it helps me.) 

So I ended up leaving the meeting generally feeling down. Hopefully next week will be better. Hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday!

Handmade Ribbon Wreaths

Hello all. Here is what I have to say today.

It's that time of year again! Celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, or even just the changing of the seasons with one of my beautiful handmade ribbon wreaths!

Each wreath is uniquely made up of hundreds of individual ribbons made of different material and color appropriate to the design. They are held together via pins and hot glue to make them sturdy, and they are perfect for indoor or outdoor decorations.

I can customize each one to make it fit whatever color or style you're going for, and I'd be happy to accommodate any special request that will make your wreath extra special! You are only held back by your imagination! If you know the general idea of what you want, but aren't sure how to make it extra special, I can offer a free email consultation.

Some customize-able options are your school or favorite team's colors, seasons, Christmas, Thanksgiving,  or you can add on embellishments (bells, ribbons, flowers, etc). The wreaths can hang inside your living room, outside your door, above a fireplace, or they can sit on your coffee or dinner table as a centerpiece. I can also make kissing balls or trees as well covered in simply ribbons or you can request anything flower-covered.

They make fantastic gifts as well (each member of my family received one last year and loved them!) for that special sports fan, craft lover, or your own home.

I offer affordable delivery, shipping, and gift wrapping options as well.

Please feel free to contact me for any info! I can provide quotes, answer questions, or email you pictures. :)

10" Christmas or Thanksgiving wreaths start at $30.00. But other sizes (smaller or larger), and embellishments are available. Paypal or cash are accepted.


You can tweet, email (ashley [dot] debisschop [at] gmail.com), message, or comment to get in touch with me if you are interested in gifting or purchasing one of my wreaths, kissing balls, or trees (or any shape that you can imagine). 


Also, please tell your friends and share! Thanks so much for all of your support and putting up with the slight interruption. We will now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Happy Holidays! 

Happy Weekend... Almost!

Happy Almost Weekend, everyone! Hope you have a good Friday and Saturday and Sunday. Here are some of my plans for the weekend.

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That's spending some time with the man (not pumpkin picking, we did that two weekends ago), hot chocolate, and pumpkin chocolate chip bread. What are your plans for the weekend? Hope they are fun!

Overwhelmed!

As I write this post, I am somewhat panicking, so I am sorry if this becomes one big rant session. Here's the truth: I am terrified and overwhelmed. I am sure people are thinking right now, how can you be overwhelmed? You haven't done anything yet! Well, I find this to be the most overwhelming part. My plan is to take it one step at a time and try not to be stressed, but the hardest part for me isn't the projects and the planning, it's figuring out where to start.

I have no clue where to start. I don't know how to start finding vendors. I don't know everything that I am going to need. I don't know how to budget because I don't know what I will need. I am talking about little things, but the little things matter in my opinion. I don't know how I am supposed to find vendors in my budget. Google tends to yield zero results, I don't know anyone who has gotten married recently, and I don't really know what is available in Connecticut anymore. I have no problem calling tons of places, but I don't know how to find the names of those vendors. I am terrified I won't be able to find people that do a good job while still working within my budget. I know they are out there! How can I find them?

One of the biggest problems is that Connecticut is not a cheap place. It is expensive!! If I get someone not located in CT then it will be the same price because of travel costs. Ugh. If anyone has any advice, I NEED it. Badly. Really bady. Where do you find budget friendly vendors? Any Google technique tips?

Wedding Meeting: Week One

Wedding planning can consume me. Like, I sometimes think that there is something wrong with me because I can simply not think of anything else. This usually happens when I find an idea that is particularly inspiring or I am looking into vendors and like what I find. Unfortunately, usually my outlet is talking Josh's ear off about it. Now, he is a man that doesn't mind being involved in wedding planning, but he doesn't want to hear about it 24/7. It finally escalated to a disagreement that turned into a shouting match.

This is Josh when he comes home and I talk about weddings non-stop.

We decided that the best way to avoid this would be a "wedding meeting." We decided that one day a week for about an hour we would talk about wedding stuff. Today on the agenda was budget and date. We haven't officially set a date for the wedding yet. Whenever I would talk to vendors about pricing and services, I would either say summer of 2013 or just summer. I felt kinda embarrassed asking questions when it was so far in advanced. Today we finally picked a date, but haven't told many people to confirm it yet, so I am not going to post it here yet. But we are very excited. It is nice to finally know the date that we are going to get married. The feeling was similar to being engaged again, it was nice.

Second was budget. We had disagreed on the way to do a budget in the past. Today, I think that we finally found a way to do it in a way that we can both work with it. I am happy to say it was a successful first "wedding meeting."

I also don't think that I have posted what my budget is officially yet. I have thought about this a lot because I am not sure if I want everyone who reads this blog to know what I will be spending on my wedding, but then again, a big purpose of my blog is trying to do a budget wedding that is just as beautiful as ones that have generous budgets. So anyway, I decided to post it. My unofficial budget is $10,000. Not teeny, but not huge. I now pledge that I will have as gorgeous of a wedding as all of those that get published on other wedding blogs. So there!

My Birthday

Today is my birthday so I am going to take a day off. Hope you all have a fabulous day!

Yum!

Struggles

I am so excited to start with everything that I would like to do for my wedding, but with it being only a little under two years away, I am unable to start! All I can really do is grab inspiration for what I would like, but if I look for inspiration for too long, then I will end up with too many ideas! (Sometimes I feel that it is impossible, but actually, it is! Go figure!) I already feel so scatterbrained because I have so many different ideas, but I also want to make sure that I remember everything.

What got me thinking about this was that I found so kraft brown bag paper yesterday with matching envelopes and got so excited. Josh is sick of me talking about things that are not happening for a while, so I could only mention it to him. I couldn't gush over it like I really wanted to. I realized that I can't actually use these for at least a year and a half. This is good in one respect because I don't have any money to buy anything right now, but also it makes me sad! Anyway, that is my rant for today.

Luckily I have a blog that I can rant about, gush over, enthuse about, etc. anything that I want. With that being said, here are the papers that I found!

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Bonus! It is environmentally friendly. The envelopes looked cooler than the paper, so here it is! I love it (if you couldn't tell.) Thanks for listening to me in my time of need!

What's Involved?

Lately I have been thinking about all the things involved in planning a wedding and everything that goes into it. I feel as though I need to start a list that I keep adding onto whenever I remember something else that needs to be at the wedding or that I want at the wedding. Ugh! So much to remember. Ok, so here is the first draft.

FLOWERS

• bride's bouquet
• bridesmaid's bouquet 
• boutonnieres
• corsages
• petals

CEREMONY

• music
• chairs
• something to mark the aisle
• readings
• officiant
• programs
• fans?
• dress/other attire
• suits
• bridesmaids dresses
• bride sign
• vows

RECEPTION

• music
• caterer
• linens
• china/glassware/silverware
• rentals (tables, chairs, tent, dance floor)
• centerpieces
• lighting
• place cards/menu
• cake/cutter(?)
• alternative desserts
• favors
• cake stands
• decor
• photobooth
• guest book

MISCELLANEOUS

• photographer
• nails
• hair
• make-up
• signs (to find location, to ceremony)
• website
• invitations
• save the dates
• marriage license
• wedding night room
• registry
• rings
• thank you notes

Oh my. I feel so much better having all of that out of my head. Sorry that this isn't a great post, but I feel as though it is something I needed to do! If you notice anything that I missed, please help and post anything that I have forgotten! Thanks!

Venues

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had a good weekend. I wish that the weekend was longer. All the Mondays that I don't work I wish Josh was home to keep me company!

So our wedding will definitely be in the Summer of 2013. We need some time to save up some money and figure out where we are going to be in life. But I am excited because we have (what seems like) all the time in the world to search for the best deals and decide what exactly it is that we want.

There is just one thing wrong with time: I want to do it now! I have been doing research and I love all the little parts of planning a wedding, such as the invitations, favors, decorations, flowers, etc. But I am not looking forward to all the research and work to put into choosing where to have the wedding, who the photographer will be, and what kind of caterer will be in our price range. It is so frustrating because I want  to start visualizing the wedding in my mind, but I can't do that if I have so many options! But as Josh constantly reminds me, we are lucky to have so many options. (He is slightly sick of me hemming and hawing over where to have our wedding. Yes, already. I tend to lay it on kinda thick.) So we have a few options of venues.

Option 1:

My mother's backyard. They just put in a nice big deck and have a nice layout for the wedding, but I would like somehting a little more woodsy and there aren't many trees in the yard. There are plenty around the sides of the property, but I wanted something a little more ... enclosed. One thing that would be kinda cool is that maybe we could go into the field behind my parent's house for the ceremony.

The downsides of this location is parking. There is NO parking around my house. I live on a slightly busy street so we wouldn't be able to park up and down the sides of the street. It's a pretty big con, but maybe some people will have some suggestions! I also think of my parent's house as a laid back place where people go to have a couple beers and burgers. That's awesome, and it's something that I love about my parent's house, but not for my wedding. But then again, maybe I could get used to it. Who knows.

Option 2:

My grandmother's backyard. They have a lot of beautiful gardens and huge trees that provide lots of shade, so having a middle-of-the-summer wedding wouldn't be completely dreadfully hot. It has the general feeling that I want for my wedding: laid back, but still a wedding.

The downside is that there is only one bathroom inside the house on the lower level. This is more fixable than the parking problem at my mother's house, such as asking family to use the upstairs bathroom and making signs for guests. That's really the only downside, though they have less flat land, but that is also easier to work around.

Option 3:

An outside location. I am thinking maybe a house or something like that. I have a story of someone in San Francisco who nabbed an estate on craigslist for under $3,000 that included all the tables, chairs, china, glassware, etc. So if I can find something like that, it would be excellent, because the second most expensive thing of the backyard wedding is the rentals.

The downside of this: still need to pay for a caterer, which is more expensive than I can imagine.

Anyways, that's what I have been struggling with over the weekend. I am not sure if a banquet hall is for us, but I am open to looking. I just don't want this to go on forever! I would like to get to the fun part of the wedding planning! Any suggestions for me to get the crazies out of my head? Have a great Monday!

It's official!

It has happened. I am officially engaged!! It happened Thursday, September 8th, 2011 at about 6:30pm PST. I am the luckiest girl in the whole world! So here is the story.

From the very beginning, Josh and I had been into shopping for rings together, but we weren't really ready to commit yet. We had a ring picked out that we both liked, but two weeks ago, we realized that the price had gone up. WAY up. Like, $2,500 up. That was way too much of a price gap for us, so we were pretty bummed, but decided that the following weekend, we would head to the mall and scope out different jewelry stores for new ring ideas. Well, we ended up with more than ideas, Josh actually bought a ring.

So it would be ready the Thursday after we bought it and Josh needed me to pick him up from the mall because he doesn't have a car, and there wasn't a direct bus home. I was a little miffed because I didn't want to be totally in on the whole process. We got home and he told me to start chopping vegetables for a new recipe that he wanted to try while he looked it up online. I was done chopping the things that he wanted me to, so I went to the other room to see if there was anything else that he wanted me to do, but there wasn't a recipe on the screen at all. He had put together a slide show of pictures from things that we did in the past and even had slides with blank spots to represent things that we were going to be doing in the future. He had little conversations that we would have in the future and .... ahhh I loved it. It was so very him and so very me and so very us together. I sound so cheesy, but it was wonderful. So while I was watching this slide show, he was in the other room changing into a shirt that I LOVE on him. He came in when it was done and got down on one knee!! Yay! If he hadn't done it that night, then he probably wouldn't have surprised me at all. I am so glad that he did!

The ring is beautiful and it is so much better than the original one, so it is kinda a blessing that the original one fell through. It is simple and elegant, which is exactly what I liked about it! Here it is:

I know it's a lot of pictures and I seem completely materialistic and self/ring-obsessed, but it is kinda intricate and I wanted to show you all of the different aspects of it!

I also couldn't help but take a pretty ring shot! Hopefully a professional can do better...

So after that we went out to eat dinner at a place that was recommended for special occasions by my friend, Heather. It's called Melrose Grill in downtown Renton. It was delicious and I had a fabulous cocktail and salmon. Yum.

This was after we got done with dinner in front of the restaurant. It's the only picture of us that we have to capture the moment. Sorry for the quality.

We had a fabulous evening and night. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful finacé!