The Meaning of the Garter

My wedding dress is 90% complete. This weekend I ordered my veil and garter which means only the shoes are left! It took me a while to decide on a veil. I knew I wanted something simple being that my dress has so much detail I didn't want the veil to take away from my dress (especially since its worn for such a short period of time). I found quite a few that had the simple look that I was going for so I needed to figure out what length I wanted. Originally I was going to go with a fingertip length one but as I was browsing I came across this one...

It's a little bit longer than shoulder length and I LOVE it. It has just the right amount of volume I wanted and is so beautifully simple I knew this was the one I wanted. I plan on wearing my veil either just above my up-do or right below it (I don't want it too high on top of my head because I don't plan on wearing the veil over my face) The best part was the price. A lot of veils that I have seen range anywhere from $100-$175, however lucky for me this veil is new and on sale! So I was able to get it for a whopping total of $49.00! I can't wait until it comes in!

I also ordered my garter. As I was looking though all of the differnet choices I starting to think... what is the actual purpose of this thing? So...I Googled it lol! I was suprised at the stories most with the same general idea but I came across this one which I think explains it well with out dragging on a boring story...

Historically, this wedding garter tradition also relates to the belief that taking an article of the bride's clothing would bring good luck. As this often resulted in the destruction of the bride's dress, the tradition arose for the bride to toss unattached articles of clothing to the guests, including the wedding garter from the thigh of her stockings. This tossing of the wedding garter by the groom is also another version of the bride's tossing of the bouquet of flowers to the crowd. The idea is that anybody who is unmarried catches the bouquet will be the next one to wed. Thus, the unmarried male guest who successfully caught the wedding garter was believed to be the next man to be headed to the altar from the group of single men at that event. Traditionally, the man who caught the wedding garter and the lady who caught the bouquet will share the next dance.

So after I understood the tradition behind the garter I figured I should probably get on with picking one out. I wasn't as picky about this as I was the veil...I mean after all no one really see's it anyway. I did however know that I wanted to order a set of two. One for me to keep and one to be thrown for the garter toss. After a little bit of deliberation I ended up choosing this one...

The smaller of the two will be the one to be thrown.  The garter is mostly made of lace with some flower detail. It is synched at the top obviously where the elastic is. On the bigger garter I chose the bow to be in the color pool where the smaller one is in white. I debated back and forth between truffle (which would have matched my bridesmaids dress ) and pool. I ended up choosing the pool 1) because it looked better with the white than the truffle did and 2) because I can use it as my something blue :-)

Also I have picked out and started to finalize the plans for the wedding cake. Im hoping to have the cake look like this ...

I want basically the same flowers except for replacing the pink flowers with red ones. I love the piping on the layer (which I realize is quite hard to see here, but if you click on the picture it will get bigger). I love the square look so were definitely going to do that. The layers are also going to go as follows- bottom layer chocolate middle layer- vanilla Top layer- Chocolate. I'm also thinking about  having a smaller cake topper on top (maybe our monogram) and flowers around that also. Any ideas for the cake let me know! I'd love to hear them!

Thanks for reading!

Only 167 days until the wedding!!

Only 182 days until the honeymoon!

Honeymoon

As of  yesterday Shawn and I have booked our HONEYMOON!!! So exciting! We are going to be taking a 7 night Carribbean cruise via Royal Carribbean on the Liberty of the Seas. We will be leaving on the 17th of October and will return on the 24th of October. Our cruise will leave out of Miami, Florida (were looking at flights now). Our cruise will visit Philipsburg St. Maarten, San Juan Puerto Rico, Labadee Haiti and then back to Miami. This will be the first time either of us have ever been on a cruise and we are really looking forward to it. I've added a few picture to show you all a few things the ship offers. If you want to get a more indepth look click here --> http://www.royalcaribbean.com/multimedia/virtualTour/ship.do;jsessionid=0000Zf72bN40xoDuDP1_xRW9L69:12hbioe0u?shipClassCode=FR

Libery of the Seas

Royal Promenade

H20 Zone Water Park

Balcony Stateroom

( I can't wait to sit out on the balcony star gazing! )

And don't worry I'll take plenty of pictures to post when we get back! Soo excited!! Only 195 days until our honeymoon!!

We have also finally mailed out our save-the-dates with help from both of our families we were able to get everyones address and this past weekend Shawn and I put the finishing touches on our envelops! We used wedding ring stamps, the return address labels that were in the previous blog and matching seals.

Wedding Ring Stamp

Shawn Working Hard on the Save-The-Dates

The Finished Product

Last weekend Shawn and I also did our registry which will be used for the bridal shower. We ended up doing two. One at Bed Bath & Beyond and one at Macy's. The women who helped us at Bed, Bath & Beyond was great! She was very enthusiastic about her job and really wanted to make it fun for us. She gave us a few tips, a tour of the store, gave Shawn the scanning gun (which made him happy as a clam) and sent us on our way. At first we were a little weary as to what to pick out. There was so much to choose from! But once we got the ball rolling we were scanning everything! It was so much fun. After that we took a break for lunch and then headed to Macy's. However after picking out so much at Bed, Bath &Beyond there wasn't very much at Macy's we really needed, but we still made the best of it and picked out a few things that we liked. (p.s. the scanning guns at BB&B work much better than the ones at Macy's!!) Although because we did do the registry at Macy's I got a free tote bag :) lol 

Thanks for reading :)

Only 180 days until the wedding!!!