Christina and Joel *** June 06, 2009

[ChristinaJoel]

Hi!

My name is Christina. I'm new to this site and after perusing through so many of your lovely and informative journals, I decided to try my hand at creating my own.

I am getting married June 6, 2009 to Joel. I am a single mother of 2 adorable children ages 3 and 6. I met Joel online through Yahoo Personals in February. I was surprised at how quickly he took to the idea of fathering my children. And best of all my children adore him! :D I couldn't ask for a better man for them or myself! I know that people might think we are rushing this but when you both know in your heart that you have met the right person, why wait? Besides I was engaged for 3 years with my previous husband and that did not turn out well. When I got divorced, I thought it would be difficult to find a guy who would want to take on 2 small children and I'm so happy that I was wrong. :o

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/allofus2008.jpg

[ChristinaJoel]

We are having a garden wedding and our reception at the Hilton.

So far I've decided that my wedding colors are Pool and White. So we are kind of going with a tiffany theme. I want my invitations, which I am still trying to find one in which I like, to be put in a tiffany blue pocket fold and wrapped with white ribbon. I will make a cover for my programs with tiffany blue paper and a white bow as well.

At the ceremony, the ushers will pass out the programs and aqua bubble tubes tied with white ribbon.

I created bridesmaid bouquets out of silk flowers and wrapped them myself. I think they turned out well for my first try. :o

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/101_3205.jpg

Christina

[june0609]

Your ideas are great so far!
And we share a wedding date. :)

[ChristinaJoel]

Thanks! That's cool that you are getting married the same day! I like your signature.

[june0609]

You're welcome.
And I like your's also. :D

[Goin2thechapel]

okay first of all....That picture of your family looks sooo natural..Like he was supposed to be there from the beginning!

Secondly, Love the bouquet idea...Great colors too...

Thirdly, Welcome to OneWed Christina!!!!

[ChristinaJoel]

Thanks!

Here is the cake we found online that we decided we just have to have, but with pink flowers instead of white. I really like it because it reminds me of Impressionism, my favorite art period.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/cake.jpg

[ChristinaJoel]

Here is my wedding dress and the bridesmaid dresses. My sister, the maton of honor, will be wearing the 2nd bridesmaid dress. I don't have a good photo of her in it (she lives in Michigan and could not come) so I'm using the picture from David's Bridal. The other two will be wearing the first bridesmaid dress. The last dress is the flowergirl dress that both my 3 year old daughter and my 3 year old neice will wear. Again I'm using the David's Bridal photo. The girls will have pool bows around their waists.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/101_3127.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/bridesmaid.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/maidDress.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/flowergirl.jpg

[Gina&Mark080808]

Christina,

Welcome and thanks for sharing your story in your journal! I also met my hubby on yahoo personals when I was a single mom. I also knew very quickly that he was the right one. We were engaged for 8 months and married just 2 weeks ago. Congratulations on your engagement!

I love your gown. I absolutely love the way the fabric flows. I had a similar flowy kind of gown but ended up forgetting it at home (7 hours away from wedding location). That turned out well, though, because we found a white dress on the island at a tourist shop. I would have married that man in jeans and a t-shirt if necessary!

My daughter wore your first BM dress in apple and it was just gorgeous! Nice choice. :)

I'm looking forward to hearing about your planning.

Hugz,
Gina F.

[BnB]

Love the cake, and now you do want pink flowers on the cake, but not your bouquet?

I'm so confused

[ChristinaJoel]

Hi,

The reason I didn't want pink flowers is because one of my bridesmaids, my mother, and my fiance really don't like pink. But when my fiance and I chose this cake, he said it would look nice with pink flowers on it. When I asked him about the pink, he said as long as its just a sprinkling of pink, its okay. He just didn't want any pink on him and the same with my mom & my bridesmaid. So now that they have cleared that up, I think I want a little pink in my bouquet and here and there.

Christina

[TeacherSonja]

Christina I love the choice of colors for your wedding and the cake looks sooo yummy!

Good luck planning and welcome to OW!

[Nekochanpurr]

Nice choices! That cake is adorable. :D

[ChristinaJoel]

Hi!

Here are my shoes, the shoe clip, and my tiara from David's Bridal. It turns into a necklace.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/ErinShoe.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/shoeCharm.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/tiara.jpg

[ChristinaJoel]

And here is my purse. I ordered it from David's Bridal. It and the shoe clips won't be in until October as with the pool sashes for the flowergirls.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/purse.jpg

[bichonlvr]

Everything looks great!!!

Welcome to OW!

[ChristinaJoel]

Well,

I called my mom last night and she came up with more excuses as to why she and my 2 brothers couldn't attend my wedding. I said how much it meant for me to be there and she didn't care. She played victim and told me what a horrible daughter I was and when I said that it could be a real bonding experience for us to get our hair done and go dress shopping, she said that we haven't bonded since I left for college. She doesn't want to come and she said she didn't want to be my Barbie doll. When I started crying, she hung up on me. I was going to pay for her and my brothers to come up, pay for their hotel room, buy them new clothes to wear to the wedding, etc. And by suggesting that I would pay because it was important for me for them to be there when I know they couldn't afford it, she deemed me as selfish and materialistic. Its not like I make a lot of money. I'm putting a little aside each month to save for my wedding.

Christina :sob:

[ChristinaJoel]

Hi!

I bought my bouquet off of Ebay and redid my bridesmaid bouquets to match. Here is my bouquet:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/bridebouquet.jpg

Here is one of the bouquets I made:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/bouquet2-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/bouquet1-1.jpg

[ChristinaJoel]

As for my invitations, this is a rough draft I assembled using a sample invite. Of course, the folder would be bigger to fit the invitation properly. I attached a fabric flower and a pearl sticker in the center of the flower. My ink color won't be pink like in the sample. It will probably be black.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/invitation2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/invitation1.jpg

[ChristinaJoel]

Here are some things I put together:

My garters - The white is to toss and the blue is to keep. I attached a flower to the white one. The blue one, I attached a bow and a silver locket.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/garters.jpg

Here is the ring bearer pillow. My son chose a heart shaped pillow from Dollar Tree. Then I took off the flower and bow it had and put my own ones on to match my color scheme.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/pillow.jpg

I will probably change the ribbon on my guest book to match the ribbon on everything else.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/book.jpg

[ChristinaJoel]

Here is my flower girl basket. I got it for $5 at Party City and added the blue bows.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/basket.jpg

Here are the aqua bubbles I found online. I just added a white bow.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/bubbles.jpg

And here is the cake topper we chose because they actually had a nice looking one with 2 brunettes and the bride has long curly brown hair like me!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/topper.jpg

[ChristinaJoel]

And finally for today, here is the jewelry my bridesmaids will be wearing along with the silver jewelry box I'm giving them.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/jewelry.jpg

Thank you for all your kind comments!

Christina

[ChristinaJoel]

Hi!

Here is a better idea of what my invitations will look like. I made this folder. I need to figure out what to use to seal the side pocket and to attach the invite to the folder. Again I am using a sample invitation. The invite is 10" long when open and 5" when closed.

What do you think?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/invite1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/invite2.jpg

[TeacherSonja]

Oh, I love everything! The invitations draft #2 look awesome. Keep posting pictures cause I'm sure I'll love all your stuff. :)

[candars]

Welcome to OW! Everything you've posted so far looks great! I love your color scheme, too! You seem to be getting quite a bit done; good job!
Is that a maltese in your first picture? They are so cute! I have one, too. I just love them! :D

[ChristinaJoel]

Hi!

Yes I love planning and be creative. I'm an IT person so I don't get to use my creativity at work.

The dogs aren't ours. They belong to my future MIL and her roommate. They are lapsas I think. We have a beagle puppy.

Thanks!
Christina

[ChristinaJoel]

Hi!

I was looking through the Invitations by Dawn site and noticed their new Destination Wedding Accessories. I fell in love with them and decided to update my ringbearer pillow, guest book, and flower girl baskets to match. The first photo is their collection from their website. The others are made by me.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/DawnThings.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/CeremonyItems.jpg

[ChristinaJoel]

Hi!

I haven't posted in a while. What have I been up to? Well I ended up getting the other wedding dress I couldn't stop thinking about. My son took a picture of me in it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/MyDress.jpg

And my daughter tried on her flowergirl dress:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/KiraFlower.jpg

[ChristinaJoel]

I have changed the invitations too. I'm such a Libra! lol I'm going with a style from Jean M called Beth. Now I have to decide if I want to make them myself or spend the money to have them professionally done. Archivers has some beautiful papers and envelopes that are exactly the same color as the ones from Jean M. I can create them for 1/3 of the price, but do I have the time? I am still working on my little 2" x 2" aqua favor boxes. I have only finished 40 so far and my fiance is wondering if I'll ever get to the rest. lol He told me that this upcoming weekend, while my kids are with my ex, that he wants me to work on the wedding stuff instead of cleaning the house. Plus I need to finish my first draft of our wedding invitation to see how hard it would be for me to do it myself.

I've also been pricing tiffany blue organza overlays for my reception tables. The Hilton's prices weren't too bad, but with the charges for gas and setup it came to $500! And I'm not going to pay more than the linens for setup fees! So I found someone on Ebay who had them for very reasonable prices that I can purchase from. I'm waiting to hear back from him. He sent me a color chart, but hasn't responded to my other email yet.

I haven't gone to the fabric store yet to price making them myself. I wonder if it would be any cheaper or the right size. I need 90" square.

I'm also trying to decide if I should just make a cd for my ceremony music and have it played so I don't have to pay a lot for musicians since I am on a budget. It would cost $200 for just my church's organist alone plus she wants me to pay her rental fees for a keyboard and stand since its a garden wedding. Add at least that much for each add'l musician I'll need and its way too much for me. Plus my fiance and I will need to make decisions on what songs we want in order to figure out what we would need.

So I have plenty of stuff to do for now.

Christina

[EarlyBird]

i think a cd would be just lovely, we were going to hire a musician but found that the array of songs we wanted couldnt be played by just one or two instruments correctly.


have you tried efavormart for your overlays? i got my runners there and loved them. also, with an overlay or runner, usually the hotel will set those up without any fee, so its worth it to ask. I found that each runner would need at least 3 yard of satin fabric or so. I could probably get 2-3 out of each 3 yards but still a nice, decent fabric was over 4-5$ a fabric in normal stores, when you figure i bought 5 of them for 20 shipped $, i saved some money (would have needed at least 6-7 yards :) ) you may find making your overlays will have that same outcome if you can find them decently priced.

here is a link for their sheer 90inch overlays
http://www.efavormart.com/organzaoverlay90x90-15colorsavailable-1.aspx

here is their satin
http://www.efavormart.com/satinoverlay60x60-10colorsavailable-1-1-1.aspx

and if your interested here is a runner link
http://www.efavormart.com/satinoverlay60x60-10colorsavailable-2-1.aspx

[TeacherSonja]

Christina, you look stunning in your dress! And your daughter is so cute! I agree with EarlyBird: a lot of the songs can't be played as the original with the instruments that are available, so a CD is a nice solution to this problem.

[ChristinaJoel]

Earlybird, I'm sorry I don't know your name :bbredface:, but thank you for the links and the information on DIY pricing. I'm still waiting for this guy on Ebay to get back with me. Maybe he won't. My color is pool or Tiffany blue so the closest Efavormart has is Turquoise I think.

Sonja, thanks for the compliments. I love my gown and I was awed by how beautiful my daughter looks in her dress. She thinks she's going to marry my Joel. lol :) She's 3.

Thanks!
Christina

[ChristinaJoel]

Here is a picture of my 6 year old son. I figure if I post my daughter, its on;y fair to post my adorable boy too! :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/Dylan2008b.jpg

[EarlyBird]

ohhh he is adorable :) dont worry, my name is vana, no biggie :) just think vana white

[caligal85]

Your little guy is too cute. He has such a precocious look to him.

[june0609]

Your kids are just too cute!
The wedding dress you picked is very pretty! Looks great on you! :)

[ChristinaJoel]

Thank you for the compliments on my kids!

I'm debating about whether or not to have my dress hemmed. I think its only an inch too long and I don't think I really step on it when I walk, but I'll have to try again in a place I have more room to walk to see how it works out I think.

Thanks!
Christina

[ChristinaJoel]

Our family portrait came in this week, so I thought I would share:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/familyb.jpg

[Nekochanpurr]

Aww!! Great pic!

[TeacherSonja]

You can see when a person is happy by the glow in his / her eyes. I can certainly see a special glow in yours. You look great together!

[ChristinaJoel]

Thanks! All my friends have been telling him that they are so happy he met me because they have never seen me so happy.

[ChristinaJoel]

Hi,

We found out yesterday that my future father in law passed away unexpectedly. He had a heart attack. He lives 7 hours south of us so my fiance had to go down there with his mom and sister today and will be gone until Saturday. My fiance is really distraught but unfortunately I can't get the time off of work to be with him since my coworker is on vacation this week and only one of us can be out at a time.

Also he has to deal with this woman and her daughter who immediately asked him for $900 as they said that is what his dad owed them since he was helping to pay their medical expenses out of the kindness of his heart. They befriended his father when his grandfather dies a few months ago and they charmed him out of several of his dad's parents' belongings. Now that his dad is gone they are trying to see what else they can get. They already took the dog.

Christina

[Nekochanpurr]

I'm so sorry to hear this. :(

[caligal85]

I'm so sorry for your loss. I understand how hard it must be not being able to be with your FH during this time.

I also hope he gives those people who were taking advantage of his father the heave ho. They sound ridiculous.

[ChristinaJoel]

Thank you. I feel really bad for my fiance that he has to go through this. He had made so many plans with his father for Christmas, redoing the kitchen in the spring, and of course the wedding. I don't have a dad and I was really looking forward to sharing his. His dad was a really nice guy and spoiled my 2 little ones for the short time that he had with them.

Christina

[ChristinaJoel]

Hi!

It's been a while since I last posted. I've just been so busy lately that I haven't even had time to watch my favorite wedding shows!

This weekend I made the labels for the little aqua favor boxes I got off of Ebay which were so much cheaper than ordering them through the catalogues. I paid like $11 for 200 boxes! The labels I designed using the flowers on my wedding website. I'm filling the boxes with aqua M&Ms and 2 chocolate covered pretzels each. The pretzels are my fiance's favorite snack.

My table linens for my reception arrived. :o I bought 20 aqua organza tablecovers (90" round) and paid $120. The hall was going to charge me $500 for delivery and the linen rental. And since I get to keep them, I get to either find creative ways to use them later at home or I can sell them.

My wedding invitations came in from Jean M. They were beautiful except that they were printed right justified! :bbeek: Fortunately all it took was an IM to the Jean M customer service team to have them reprint them for free. They are also assembling them for me for free. I had ordered them unassembled. The invitations should arrive sometime this week.

I ordered the Beth invitation with an aqua backing and cream shimmer top card. The ribbon is eggshell blue. The design on the invite has these little circles on the part where the top card slides through a piece of the backing. I'm going to cover them with pearls to add my own personal touch. I chose inner envelopes in a lime color and the outer envelopes are aqua. I may print the flower design from my website on the envelopes as well.

I've picked all my ceremony music including a less traditional brides march. I just need to buy the mp3s and download them onto a cd.

I need to start working on my wedding programs and place cards.

My tasting at the Hilton is tomorrow so I can choose the food for the reception and the cake flavor. I'm so excited.

And this month my fiance will finally start looking at tuxes. His cousin agreed to be a groomsman so now its finally an even bridal party - three on each side. Well almost even - We have 2 flower girls and one ring bearer, but I like it that way! :o

Christina

[TeacherSonja]

Wow, you have so much done! Can't wait to see photos of all the stuff you have!

[ChristinaJoel]

I finally finished putting pearls on all my invitations! I also finished printing my reception cards. I just need to print the return address on all of my respond postcards, print a design on my inner envelopes, print the guests' addresses on my outer envelopes, and then send them out! This is a lot of work for a single mom!!! I have to wait until they are out of the house or asleep to do them.

Next I must work on the wedding programs. I have to meet with my pastor to see if he approves what I have come up with so far. Once he does I will have to start printing those and putting the aqua covers on them.

I will get my bridesmaids together for the final invitation assembly and to tie bows on my aqua bubble tubes. I'll have to leave the assembly of the candy favor boxes for later as I don't want the candy to get stale.

My music choices so far for the ceremony:

PRELUDE music:
1. Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major
2. Messiah, Oratorio: Hallelujah Chorus
3. Canon in D - II Pachelbel
4. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op
5. Bagatelle for Piano in A

Mother of the Groom's entrance: Jesu, Joy of Man's DEsiring

Bridemaids Entrance: Canon & Gigue in D Major: Canon in D Major

Brides' Entrance: Con Te Partiro

Recessional: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Incidental Music: Bridal March

[ChristinaJoel]

So I sent out my first 9 invitations to my officemates. I have 67 more to go! All I have left to do is print the floral design and the names and addresses on the other 67 envelopes.

There is a problem that when I print the floral design on the inner envelopes, the printer puts a small black smudge mark on the center of the end of the envelope. When I'm just printing the names it comes out fine.

I'll post pictures of my finished invites when I get a chance.

Christina

[ChristinaJoel]

Hi!

I'm finally posting pictures of my invitations! :)

I got them from Jean M, but I added the pearls. I made the enclosure cards myself from the Yours Truly paper at Archivers to save money. It's a perfect match!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/Invitation.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/Invitation2-1.jpg

[TeacherSonja]

They look awesome!

[ChristinaJoel]

Thanks!

Christina

[ChristinaJoel]

So I finally got started on the wedding programs this weekend. I have half of them printed out. I'm making covers for them out of aqua cardstock. Inside, in addition to the normal stuff, is part of a love letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a memorial to Joel's father and grandparents, and a mini map to the reception.

I'm having problems stapling the cover to the program. I keep missing the fold and I totally ruined my first draft. I'll try to post pictures later of the completed programs.

Other news:

My bachelorette party in Friday, May 22nd at the Second City which is a comedy show with improv.

I'm picking up my dress on the 24th. I can't wait to get it back. It's been at David's Bridal since March 7th! I've had 2 fittings.

I'm going to my friend's wedding this Saturday. He met his fiance one month before I met mine and we've been having fun discussing wedding plans.

I'm still waiting on 10 couples to rsvp. Hopefully I'll find out by the end of the week as many of them don't know yet if they are coming or not.

So much to do!!!

Christina

[ChristinaJoel]

I finally got around to taking pictures of my programs. I got maybe 10 covers done. I am still working on the covers for the other 55.

I used robin's egg blue cardstock and put white silk ribbon over the front. Then I put a thin lime green ribbon on top of that and finished it off with a silk lime green hydrangea petal.

Inside is a quote from a love letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The next pages are the ceremony and bridal party. Th last page is the thank you, Memorial for Joel's dad and grandparents, and the reception address and map.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/program.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/ProgramPg1b.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/ProgramPg2b.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/schulech/ProgramPg4b.jpg

Christina

[ChristinaJoel]

I can't believe my wedding is in 2 days!

I'm going over to the reception hall in an hour to turn in my seating chart, place cards, toasting glasses, cake topper, cake knife and server, and table cloths.

My sister, my matronof honor, and 2 of her kids are coming over from Michigan tonight. One of her daughters is my other flower girl. Her husband just cancelled coming which sux because I already paid for his meal and now who is going to watch her kids since she will be at the head table with me?

My photographer finally called me for the first time today during my lunch break and he talked so much I could barely get a word in. Plus he took up my entire hour so no lunch for me. I'm starving!

Well fingers crossed that all goes well Saturday!

Christina

[Mrs.Goff]

How exciting! The next 2 days will fly by. I hope it's everything you've dreamed of and I can't wait to hear all about it and of course see the pictures. ;)

[TeacherSonja]

That's so exciting! Have fun on your big day and come back to tell us all about it! Pics too :)

[Brian's Bride]

I'm so excited for you!!! Have so much fun tonight at the rehearsal and TOMORROW!!! I can't wait to hear all about it!

[ChristinaJoel]

Hi!

We did end up having our wedding in the park. It rained off and on before the ceremony but stopped right as we started the processional. The guests all huddled under umbrellas that someone passed out since it was still drizzling at the beginning, but I didn't feel it at all.

The reception was beautiful at the Hilton. I had so much fun but I barely got to eat anything! Every time I came back to my plate it was removed and something new was there. I didn't even get to try any of the sweets at the sweet table. Oh well! I hear the food was amazing! lol

I don't have any pictures yet as I just returned from my honeymoon at Disney World and haven't heard from my photographer yet.

Christina

[ChristineLS]

Glad to hear it went so well! :D

[amisteratwisterandme]

Congratulations! I am glad the weather cooperated for you!

[ChristinaJoel]

Thanks!

I posted pictures in the Wedding pictures section.

OneWed's Wedding Chat (http://forums.onewed.com/index.php) > Wedding Pictures, Games, and Polls (http://forums.onewed.com/forumdisplay.php?f=30) > Wedding Pictures

Christina