Wedding love and madness!

I’ve gone and let myself get obsessed with planning this wedding. I’d vowed I would never be one of “those brides” – obsessing over every little detail. Yet here I sit with giant bags under my eyes because I was burning the midnight oil on things like Chinese lanterns, shoes, parking options, and favors. When talk about getting married began it was, “lets have some beer, some music, some grub, and a warm day and we’re good to go”. The idea was to have those nearest to our hearts and to have a relaxing and fun time. We wanted so badly for it to be that simple. But there’s so much more to it than just throwing a good party, there’s so much more to us and to what this wedding represents to us – we certainly didn’t expect to feel this way. A funny thing happened after our engagement…people say as your relationship grows your love changes, and I guess this was one of those changes. I’ve always known Walker was the one for me, but now it’s so very real to look at him as my husband and me as his wife. That’s something that I never thought would mean so much to me. *ew feelings, ew* ;-) All of this solidified to us that this day should be just as sweet and playful and unique as our relationship is.

As convenient as it might be to just go with a packaged wedding, there are many reasons this would never work for me or for Walker. Outside of the fact that we want something more personal than that, we are both card-carrying control freaks. It makes it hard to buy into somebody else’s vision for our wedding, to not be able to say that special touch was our idea as a gift to you. Not that we haven’t seen a few great ideas along the way. But it’s very important to both of us to have an active role in the way the day and evening come together, no matter how exhausting it might be. We’re trying to harness our perfectionist tendencies so that no one gets carried away; of course we’re doing a lousy job. When it’s all said and done though, the satisfaction from feeling like we created a truly personal and memorable evening, and that we didn’t settle for convenience, is worth sacrificing a little sleep. We can only hope that our vision is brought to life on that very special day.

So this weekend I was flying solo in the planning department. I looked at three venues and I think we decided on one. I tried on the dress I had in mind and it was a winner. I was able to see the bridesmaid dress and it was a winner too. Picked out shoes for all the girls to select from. Narrowed in on a caterer and bakery. And finalized on theme and decor, ceremony setting, colors, etc... Here are a few shots from what we've agreed on so far.

Thursday Thirteen #1

Thirteen Things about Casey, featuring the letter T
1. Talk to my cats like people
2. Trying to be more thoughtful
3. Terrible driver
4.Tomato lover
5. Teeth conscious
6. Trying to plan a wedding
7. TOO SHORT!
8. Tasty cook
9. Terrified of tight spaces
10. Taco Bueno - I miss it
11. Tired tonight
12. Thinking about Friday night plans
13. Thick skinned

Menu Planning Monday - budget stretchers

chicken tacos - HEB combo loco (30 min meal) ($5)
buy ground chicken at $2.50 lb, get taco shells and salsa free (and cheese too). One of our new grocery faves is lettuce shreds. Yes, we know we can just thin slice iceberg lettuce and get more out of our purchase, but we really think theres something to the shreds. They actually have flavor whereas iceberg is usually very bland if not bitter. I'm not big on ground chicken - I find it dry, but Walker really wanted to try this cut out. I'm happy to see him getting more involved with meal planning. Served with FF veg. refritos topped with a little FF sour cream, salsa, and cheese melted on top

Hot doggies - HEB combo loco (30 min meal) ($8 w/leftovers)
Buy the all beef lite franks @ $2/ea, get 2% Kraft ched free which will be for taco night too! Buns on sale for a buck. Having these w/lowfat hotdog chili, sliced fresh strawberries/bananas, holy trinity salad. Our quest for more side options goes on, but we managed to start eating carrots by getting creative.

Grilled chicken and veggies salad - BOGO deal (30 min meal) ($6)
Still had a pack of the chicken tenders left from my Kroger BOGO deal. George foreman and a little BW3 grilling sauce, and voila - man food that he'll never know is good for him. Kroger had all colored bell peps on sale for a buck each, a steal in my eyes. He has also approved zuchinni as a veg for his limited farm fresh palette, so I'll grill those up too and throw on my cheap bag salad, topped with homemade citrus vineagrette.

Grilled italian seasoned chicken breasts over spag and veggie marinara (30 min meal) ($6.50 w/leftovers)
Premarinated chicken on sale at HEB, $3.50 for 1.5lb. Had the pasta and veggie marinara in freezer, along with 3/4 of garlic bread loaf. Ceasar lite kit on sale for $3 - we love this so had to have.

Slow cooker - pork tenderloin and potatoes (Crock Pot during the day, 30 mins to finish) ($5)
Tenderloin on sale for $2.77 lb!! wow!! This was so easy! 1 pork loin, 4 russet potatoes, water to cover, and one package onion soup mix. The pork was so tender, more like pulled pork. I removed the potatoes and smashed with a little baked potato fillings - these were the real winner. Also thickened the aujus into a gravy right in the CP and poured over the pulled pork. Served with steamed broc on sale at Kroger for buck a bunch.

Hamburger Helper - makes a great meal apparently... (def. 30 min meal) ($5)
90% lean on sale in value packs - $2.99 lb. Bought a 2 lb. pack and split for two HH nights. Walker had picked up a double box of the "dinner in a pinch" so I figured he could make that a couple nights. Mix in some corn, broccoli, whatever. Serve with extra salad.