I received an email from Vania Lee at Wishgiving. She would like to give my readers a special promotion!

"I’d love to offer you and your readers a special discount. We are currently having a site-wide Mother’s Day promotion, with 20% off all non-sale orders with promo code MOM08."

So, head on over!

Something a little different

Come see me at my other blog: somewhat voluble.

Sneak peek

We picked up our wedding invitations today! Here is a bit of a "sneak peek":

[on the way home!]

[scattered on our couch at home]

I've checked everything, and they look just as I hoped they would. Of course, we haven't assembled them yet... but soon enough, they will be ready to send out!

Wishgiving

I'm pretty picky when it comes to jewelry. Unlike my younger sister--who enjoys wearing a different ring on each finger and about ten bracelets on each arm (I have to hand it to her; she has one amazing, unique style)--I like to keep things simple. When it came to my engagement ring, I didn't want anything too flashy; I'm a small girl, and a huge rock would just empower me. (I just realized that I have yet to mention rings, but that will have to wait until a later post.) Jewelry on the wedding day will be no different, if I even wear any at all (aside from my rings, of course)! However, I absolutely love looking at beautiful, simple jewelry, and when I came upon Wishgiving by Vanessa Leu, I was in awe.

While visiting Wishgiving's website, I was able to see that it contained a bridal collection, and of course, I had to take more than just a peek. Vanessa Leu captures beautiful details and everything she creates is simple and elegant--the way your jewelry should be on one of the most important days of your life. Whether your looking for pearls or crystal, contemporary or modern classic, Wishgiving has everything you could ever want. Not only that, but Vanessa has a men's jewelry collection as well, if you need a special gift for your hubby-to-be, or if he would like to give his groomsmen a great gift that they deserve. Along with her Zen and Modern Yoga collections, Vanessa Leu's Wishgiving has just about everything you could imagine when it comes to jewelry.

A brief interruption...

I would like to take a moment to announce that I am the winner of weddingbee's contest for a custom embosser from The Paper Cafe! How exciting?! If the embosser gets to me in time, I may use it to seal the inner envelopes of our invitations.

Remember to take a look at what our possible plans are for our honeymoon.

Ah, the honeymoon!

I've been looking at some ideas for our honeymoon tonight, and I realized that I haven't written about our honeymoon possibilities. So, here I go. :]

Our wedding is beginning at 5pm, so after the reception, we plan to just stay in our little hometown for the night. Luckily, a brand new hotel was built there recently, and after looking at some photos of the rooms, I was sold. It's a Howard Johnson hotel, and at less than $100 a night, I think it's perfect. Plus, I've stayed in a HoJo before, and the beds are quite comfy! What makes them so comfy? They have Serta mattresses with down comforters! Not only that, but the hotel has it's own mini-theater and the rooms come equipped with a La-Z-Boy recliner, flat screen television, and a DVD player. From a review, I read that the bathrooms are large and stocked with Bath & Body soaps and lotions for the guests to take advantage of. Who could pass this up?

[the standard king room- travelpost]

Of course, we still had some more planning to do. We have the night of the wedding down, but what about the rest? At first, we (well, I) couldn't decide where to spend our once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon. I wanted to go to London, the beach, Italy, Ireland--I still wouldn't mind going to any of those places--but in the end, I decided that those places wouldn't be private enough. I want our honeymoon to be just us, and I don't even care about sight-seeing; we can do that sort of thing on an anniversary! So, I finally listened to Josh's suggestion: getting a private cabin in the Smokies. I don't know why I didn't think of it so much before! Our hometown is only about 3-4 hours from the beautiful Smoky Mountains, and a cabin would be so excluded--definitely the private feel that we both want during our first nights as a married couple.

I immediately became excited, of course, and I began some research. I found and called about some honeymoon packages that I found, and this particular one was only about $1200 (which included a three-night stay in the cabin). Not bad at all, but after some thought, I realized that we didn't really care much about the package--and most of it seemed kind of cheesy. I started looking at some other cabins, first at the one-bedrooms (which seemed nice but a little on the smaller side, and Josh said he'd prefer a bigger cabin); I then looked at some two-bedrooms, and I found one that I absolutely love! I checked the availability (our dates are still available!), and though it doesn't have the ultra-cheesy package along with it, it would be only $20 more if we stayed an extra fourth night! I showed the pictures to Josh, and he seems to like it as well, and how could he not?

[the view from the porch]

[the beautiful kitchen and bar]

[the first bedroom-love that bed!]

[the second bedroom]

[the living room]

There are also two-and-a-half bathrooms, a fireplace, flat-screen televisions equipped with satellite, a jacuzzi, a hot tub (on the deck), a pool table, and highspeed wireless internet access. Ten minutes away from this beautiful cabin is beautiful Pigeon Forge, Tennessee where Josh and I would be able to enjoy nice dinners together or little walks and maybe even a day-trip to Dollywood. Another great aspect of this trip: we will be able to go for vacations in the future--either as time to ourselves, or we could even take our future children (since the cabin has two bedrooms).

Hopefully, we are able to book this cabin in time! I'm absolutely in love with it, and I'm becoming even more excited about our honeymoon than I am about the wedding, haha!

P.S. The Howard Johnson hotel would also be perfect for any of my out-of-state guests. Some may be staying with my parents, but it might be a bit more comfortable (and less crowded) to stay at the HoJo. They also have cozy-looking double rooms:

[image from travelpost]

*all images of the cabin are courtesy of yourcabin.com (take a look to see more beautiful cabins!)*

As our invitations make their way...

Eek! Our invitations were shipped out yesterday, meaning they should arrive... around the end of this week! Then I'll be able to send them to our patient guests. Ah, partial relief (the other half of relief will arrive whenever I send out the invitations, of course). It only took a week to process those babies, too! That's another plus for Rexcraft; we'll just see how well they turn out before I give my final grade. ;)

The weather has been so nice today; it gets me even more excited because as the weather becomes nicer, summer gets closer... And soon enough, the wedding will be here!