Wedding Rings

A wedding ring symbolizes eternity, endlessness, and something that can not be broken. Wedding rings are given as a token of unending love for each other. Traditionally, as a symbol of strength in the marriage. Today Shawn and I finally purchased our wedding bands!! It feels so good to finally have that done and out of the way. I really want to wear mine now but I suppose I'll have to wait it out until the wedding :o) We purchased our rings at Littman Jewelers which is also where Shawn got my engagement ring as well as a few other piece of jewelery over the years.

We picked out my ring first. Shawn and I had already taken a gander a few months back so I pretty much knew what I wanted. My engagement ring is shown above.  As you can see it has diamonds down both sides so getting the right wedding band was a little tricky (especially the  diamond right in the middle that lays right on top of my finger). So I had looked at a few rings with a slight bend in them so that the two rings would not rub up against each other and causing damage to either or both of the rings. So I ring I decided on is the one ...

I love it! It's so pretty and simple it really compliments my engagement ring! I cannot wait until I get to wear it every day! :o) Unfortunately the ring that I tried on today did not fit. (not even close!) So I will get to pick my ring up on the 15th! Can't wait!!! 

Next we obviously picked out Shawn's ring. Going in we knew Shawn wanted something durable. He had been looking into a titanium ring, however when we went today their selection wasn't all that great. However we looking at rings made out of something that is called tunsted. It a strong durable metal that cannot be resized if Shawn needs his ring to be sized they would have to order him another one. (which is no biggy considering that its covered under warranty for life) So after looking at a few and trying on different ones. Shawn decided on this one...

I personally love it just as much as Shawn does! Its simple but so nice and modern. Its definitely something that I can see Shawn wearing. It matches his style well. And lucky for him they had one in the store that was his size! Shawn also can't wait to wear his! (We even practiced putting his ring on at home haha)

The wedding is getting so close and we can't wait. Before we know it, it will be October 2nd and we'll finally be husband and wife! :o)

Only 118 days until the wedding! (we'll be in the double digits soon omg!!)

Only 133 days until the honeymoon!

Pre-Cana

So this past weekend Shawn and I attended pre-cana. For those of you who don't know pre-cana is a class that those of the Catholic religion are required to attend before marriage. Being that I am Catholic and want to be married in a Catholic church this was something Shawn and I need to do. The class is meant to help the couple on the right (and religious) road to a happy and health marriage. The program gets its name from the biblical account of the wedding feast of Cana, where Jesus brought “new wine” to the couple, a symbol and a reality that he can restore us to the type of love that truly satisfies, a love that lasts. The class will give the attendees the hope that this type of love is possible!

Of course Shawn and I had plenty of reservations about going to the class. We had heard all of the horror stories and needless to say we were not exactly thrilled to get up at 7:00am on a Saturday morning. Luckily it wasn't nearly as bad as we had imagined. We were in a room with about 15-16 other couples all around the same age as us. There were even a few couples there we knew! Who would have thought! lol We started off the day going around the room introducing ourselves and stating one good quality about our significant other. Shawn and I were almost late and ended up having to sit in the front row...so guess who had to go first! lol The good quality I had for Shawn was that he knows how to ground and comfort me when I dont have a level head. Shawn, who's not a very outspoken person (especially under pressure) said "I feel the same way....there's too many to list" aww...nervous and cute lol. 

After we broke the ice so to speak the deacon and his wife starting talking to us about alot of different things...money, children, personalities, commitment and most of all what it truly means to be married in the eyes of God. Now I'm not saying that I would love to run off and do this class every weekend it did have its down sides. The class ran from 8:30-4:30 (although we did get out a little early) we had to provide our own lunch, and the class was $100 to take. But overall the class was not bad. The point they were trying to get across wasn't a bad one and it wasn't 8 hours of preaching. The deacon and his wife were very nice and modern when it comes to religious views.

After the pre-cana class Shawn and I had to head up to Haines Falls to go to 5:00 mass to meet with Father Motta again and give him our pre-cana certificate. After mass Father pulled Shawn and I aside and ask us each questions separately. Nothing too invasive the questions were just along the lines of "is there any reason your aware of that would inhibit you from having children" "do you freely consent to marriage" yadda yadda lol. We should only have a few more meetings left and then...wedding day!

Lastly we have decided on our florist! We haven't sent anything in stone yet but yesterday my sister and I (Shawn had fire house obligations) went to Jeneane's Floral Creations in Ravena. Friends of ours has there wedding done there and had recommended her to us. She is so nice and  professional. She was able to pick right up on what kind of look I was going for. We went over everything from bouquet's to runners and pew decorations. The best part...she is completely within our budget!! I'm so excited and I cant wait until wemeet with her again!  (Love this centerpiece! Obviously this is not the colors I would have but I just wanted to show a sample of her work. I love the look of the cube vase. I'm really looking into having something like that!)

P.s. I would like everyone to please check out and follow.... http://onlyamamaknows.blogspot.com/ if you are a mom yourself (or plan on one day being a mother ) or even just love fun stories and awesome photogrpahy you'll love her blog...and and tell her I sent ya! Thanks :o)

Thanks for reading!

Only 128 days until the wedding!

Only 143 days until the honeymoon!

Time to party!

I have so much to share with you all and so many great pictures for this one! One of my best friends as many of you know is also getting married. This past month we had both her bridal shower and bachlorette party.  The bridal shower (though we had the threat of a down pour) went wonderfully! We ended up having a beautiful spring day for the outdoor shower.

We decorated the tables with vases of daisy's and tied ribbon to well...pretty much everything! The bride of course had her own specially decorated chair and hydrangea flowers.

Our spread was so delicious including an array of appetizers, penne vodka, chicken marsala, green bean casserole and salad yum! :o) For dessert we had a choice of a cupcake cake, cookies or fruit (all of which with the option to be dipped in chocolate!

We also had the guest play games. The first was a questionnaire called "How well do you know Courtney" and the second was toilet paper wedding dresses (that was a blast!)

The bride received so many wonderful gifts from all of her family and friends; everything from wine glasses to quilts!

We all had a terrific time and Courtney looked pretty darn good in her bow hat lol :o)

The following weekend we through Courtney her bachlorette party!

 We started off the night at Hana a Hibachi restaurant in Albany. That was a blast! Our chef had quite a sense of humor (he even called himself Jackie Chan) and kept us laughing the whole time. He even made a cute little heart out of fried rice lol!

One of the waters, Jamie had told us at the beginning of our dinner that he had a surprise for Courtney. When he returned at the end of our meal him, and most of the staff came out and sang "Going to the chapel" and wegot free ice cream to boot! It was hysterical! 

After we finished at Hana we went to Bomber's Burrito bar for a few drinks to finish the night. We enjoyed a few margarita's and some good music and called it a night. (The rest of the girls and the bride had a room at a near by hotel to continue the party!)

Oooo and before I forget!!! Before all of the festivities the bride gave us bridesmaids some pretty amazing gifts including.... engraved wine glasses with our initial, an engraved picture frame, gifts certificates to a salon, and for me in particular tons of Lush bath products!!!  It was such a great time and now I truly can't wait for my turn!!!

Thanks for reading!

Only 129 days until the wedding!

Only 144 days until the honeymoon!

 

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!!!

Announcements!

Hello every one so I have very exciting news! My save the dates have arrived!!!! I had them done by Magnet Street Weddings ( check them out! http://www.magnetstreet.com/home/market/517) They have great quality items at really good prices. You can even get samples sent to your house for free of whatever style invitation you want! I ordered about 100 save-the-dates along with guest information cards with included information about the hotel availability. I am so please with how they came out! They look just like they did when I personalized them online. They were really nicely (and carefully) packaged and even came a day early. My family and Shawn's family have been working on getting everyones address and as of today we have them all. So now I have to get down to business and start writing them all out. And buy the stamps of course!

I also went on the website just to see if maybe they had finally come out with a matching formal wedding invitation and it must have been my lucky day because now they do!! So exciting! They are a great price and now everything will all go together nicely. ( I was very upset about having to have a different look for our invitations). We will also be getting return address labels and seals to match. :) Cute right?

Also this Saturday our engagement announcement came out in the daily mail ( local newspaper). Were still contemplating wither or not to also put it in to the Times Union newspaper. The picture on the announcement was actually taken at my birthday dinner while we were out at Yanni's a  yummy seafood restaurant! 

The announcement reads : 

Schomaker- Burdick

Fred and Deborah Schomaker of Coxsackie announce the engagement of their daughter Brianne Kelly Schomaker to Shawn Lee Burdick, son of Roger and Maryanne Burdick of Coxsackie.

The future bride is a graduate of Coxsackie-Athens High School and Columbia-Greene Community College. She earned her associates degree in applied science and now works as a Registered Nurse in Loudenville. 

The future groom is a graduate of Coxsackie-Athens High School and Schenectady County Community College. He earned his associates in fire protection technology and emergency management. He now works in   Latham as a firefighter/EMT.

An October 2nd, 2010 wedding will take place at the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church in Haines Falls, with a reception to follow at the Copper Tree in Hunter.

We are currently in the process of ordering our cake and flowers so be sure to keep a look out for a new blog on that! Oo and before I forget I was given an award!!!Thanks Becca! Becca aka Only a Mama Knows has given me the Happy 101 award horray!  :) If you don't currently read her blog you should seriously go do so! Her kids are aborable beyond words and her photography skills are simply amazing! Check her out!

http://onlyamamaknows.blogspot.com/

Ok, so here are the rules:

1. Thank the person
2. List the things that make you happy.
3. Tag people.

Things that make me happy:

*Reading outside on a sunny day
*Shawn :)        
*Back rubs
*Wine
*Trying on my wedding dress again and again!
*Baking....just about anything
*Chocolate covered strawberries
*My dads jokes
*Visiting my Grandma

I have chosen to give this award to these fellow bloggers because you make me happy and I love reading your blogs!  :) 
Courtney -Something borrowed, something blue http://clynnwatson.blogspot.com/
Amanda- Journey of lower jaw surgeryhttp://ark63088.blogspot.com/
Carah- carahmelie03 http://carahamelie03.blogspot.com/


Thanks for reading!! 


Only 195 days until the wedding! (were in the 100's now!! :) )

7 months to go!

Only less than 7 months left to go! I can't believe it! This time has flown by and now I'm really starting to get down to business. Last month Shawn and I went up to Haines Falls and attended Saturday Mass before meeting with father Motta. We went over a few more things involving the wedding and are going to be booking our pre-marital class for April. (Which by the way is 100+ dollars! I know crazy right?!) We will be meeting with father Motta again after we have finished our class.

I also ordered my save-the-dates Hooray!! And yes they are the ones I had posted in a previous blog. So they should be in at the end of the month and I plan on sending them out the first week of April. I'm also going to order the matching address stickers (the less writing I have to do the better!). I also like the ones under  it for the formal invitations. They had ones that matched the invitations I want to get but I didn't really care for them. Once I get those mailed out I'm going to decide on and order the wedding invitations. So within the next few weekends Shawn and I are going to be sitting down with my parents to go over what exactly we are going to be eating at the wedding lol!

I also went to Price Chopper a few weeks ago to discuss my flowers. However I quickly decided that I wanted to work with a different Price Chopper. The girl that helped me told me more about her wedding than I was able to explain about mine, and she also poo-pooed all of the ideas I had. Needless to say I was eager to get out of there. I plan on going to the Price Chopper Shawn's Aunt works at. She originally was going to help us with cutting the cost of the cake (by making the actual cake smaller and having a sheet cake in back) but I'm thinking about taking a look at Price Choppers actual wedding cakes and ordering that from them as well. So I figured while I was there I would see if there florists were a bit more helpful than the last one!

We are also going to be booking our honeymoon soon!!! We've decided on a Cruise most likely a Carribean cruise. We thinking of going a week or two after the actual wedding. We've looked at a lot of the 7 night cruises and I think thats what were going to go with. Were going to be meeting with a travelers agents soon.

We also have recently been looking at wedding rings. We went to Littman Jewlers which is where we have pretty much gotten all of our jewlery from. There prices weren't too bad either! I've picked out my ring something simple with a little "V" shape at the top to fit nicely around my ring. Shawn picked out a titanim ring that he liked however he wanted to see if it could come any wider. Unfortunatly we found out that it couldn't so were going to go back to make our final decision within the next few weeks.

Lets see I think that sums things up for now. Thanks for reading!!

Only 207 days until the wedding!