busted!

Did you just go to a happy place? I did.

I've been doing so good with the whole weight loss thing, but lately my sweet tooth has been trying to make a comeback. Yesterday I ended up having to drive my moms friend somewhere, and since Husby had taken our car to work, I ended up in someone elses car that had no air conditioning. Keep in mind that I live in South Florida....it was 90 something degrees yesterday...I'm driving and sweat is dripping down my face. When I park at the destination guess what's in front me...McDonalds. I was so hot and all I kept thinking about was a cold Oreo McFlurry. I tried to fight the urge but before I knew it I was in the drive thru line wiping the sweat from my forehead and yelling at the lady behind the speaker to give me some ice cream asap.

My future mother in law was on the phone with Husby when she yells "what's that, ice cream?" BUSTED! Next thing I know she's handing me the phone and the guy is yelling at me. lol. I couldn't even lie. When I explained my logic that I was hot and needed something to cool me down he said a better option would have been water - lol - well yea, but water doesn't taste this good. He was just looking out for me because he hates when I make mean comments about my own weight...I guess he was just dissappointed me because I'd come so far... but it was so hot. lol.

Anyway I'm obsessed with desserts and love reading cooking and dessert blogs. One of my favorites is Cakespy where I spotted these amazing pictures of these decadent desserts. They can be found at The Four Seasons in Seattle. People like me would have to be escorted away from such a display. Thank goodness for the internet to supply me with a sufficient amount of food porn, I can live out my fantasies without the calories...

blogger meet up | makeup gig

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a fellow bridal blogger named Pasma who found me here on my blog. She informed that she would be flying down to Miami to have her engagement photos taken and asked if I was available for her desired date to do her makeup. Luckily I was and gladly accepted the task. Through our emails and conversations over the phone, I could instantly tell that she was a sweet girl and I wasn't dissappointed when I met her - what a joy she was! I was so excited to meet her!

Dirty Diana (that's the name of my makeup kit, lol ) and I arrived at her hotel early Friday morning to beautify her and everything turned out great. The lighting in the room was kinda funky which had me worried for a minute but we rocked it out and I believe that she was pleased. It is always important to me that my clients are satisfied, but it's also very important to me that I do that best job that I'm satisfied with myself- I'm a perfectionist, what can I say? Here is a quick picture that my fiance snapped of us together... it doesn't do the makeup any justice, but from what I saw on the professional photographers camera, it was perfect!
I'm so excited to see the final product as her and her fiance are such a great looking sweet and stylish couple. They were photographed in both their traditional African attire as well as more casual clothing.

If any of you are ever in need of my on-site makeup services or are here in South Florida you can always shoot me an email ... well...unless you are a murderer. I'm nor a murderer or weirdo - I have Pasma as my witness,lol. By the way, bridal bloggers receive discounts!

For more of my work visit here & here....and stop by Pasma's blog - she's a sweetie pie!

I Want You Bad...

...today i went to the camera store with the intention of bringing home a Canon Rebel SLR, unfortunently I left without it. I was so dissappointed that I was on the verge of tears as we left...these pictures put a smile on my face :)

(photos by Karen Mordechai)

In other news Husby and I went to see the horror flick ORPHAN over the weekend. During the last 5 minutes someone either pulled the fire alarm or there was a real fire (?) - lights began flashing and sirens went off! Husby grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out of there before I could even ask what was going on. Funny thing...everyone in the theatre thought it was apart of the movie for some reason, lol. I was talking to a guy outside that said he was there watching" The Hanover" and since the alarms went off during a police chase scene, he thought it was apart of the movie as well, lol. Everyone stood outside wondering what was going on, and most importantly wanted to make sure that we'd get a regund...J.Bride was reporting live from the scene...

...eventually we were let back in and life was restored to normal. Those last five minutes of ORPHAN were crazy - go watch it! You're never going to believe the ending!

yea, i splurged on videography - so?

Yesterday I was discussing my wedding plans with someone who's daughter is planning a wedding as well and I guess she sort of wanted to compare notes. FYI, my wedding will be fraction of this girls wedding. I know her budget is much bigger than mine. It's no secret to those around me - I'm broke! So when she asked how much I'll be paying for videography and I told her, she looked at me like I was crazy.

"How are you going to afford that?" she asked

(me) ::shrugs shoulders and tries not to roll eyes::
"I just met someone who gave me his card, he only charges $400."

::glass shatters in my brain::

It took me 7 months to find a videographer - if there was someone out there who only charged that much and had the kind of quality work that I wanted, obviously I would have hired them! I know for a fact that in other parts of the country, you can definently find someone in that price range (who doesn good work), but this is South Florida. There were 50,000 weddings in Broward County alone last year - this doesn't include the Palm Beach or Miami counties...and let's not get into The Keys. Our vendors don't come cheap, we're still not as expensive as other places but we're not at rock bottom by any means. If we were, I would've been married already instead of having to wait a year and a half after getting engaged.

I don't think anyone has the right to tell me to be economical with my wedding because for those of you who read my blog, you know I am - I'm using artificial flowers in my centerpieces for christsake - I'm not even having a champagne toast! Hello?!?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but at the end of the day, after all the planning, after all the gifts are opened, and your bank account has been drained (in some cases), all you have left are your memories, your photos and the video. These aspects are the most important to me, it look me a very long time to choose these vendors and I'm confident about my decisions. Besides my venue, video is the most expensive thing we're getting - important factor: the company allows us to finance 50% of the balance without interest which had a large part in us being able to afford it. They do good work - they're reputable and their portfolio is impressive. end of story for me - where do I sign?

I don't have a big budget - I'm very careful about getting the best quality of work with the best price possible from all my vendors - no one can tell me that I didn't do enough research.
FYI: we went on the website for the guy whose packages start at $400...let's just say instead of giving him that money, I'd put a video camera in hands of my 9 year old sister and give her full creative freedom and let her spend the $400 on candy.

I don't know why this pissed me off so much...but I just hate when people tell me how to spend my money. There's only two people who knows what my bank account look like...and that is myself and the man I'm marrying.

Am I the only person who has been through this? Has anyone has something slick to say about your wedding finances?

MY BRIDESMAID DRESSES ARE HERE!!!! ... oh yea & sweat sunday

I'm so happy to report that after months of torture, the bridesmaid dresses are now in my hands. I knew they'd arrive this week but I had no idea when. When I got to work on Friday my boss surprised me with the box - I really wanted to cry. Of course I dropped everything I was doing and ripped the box open like it was Christmas morning:

This was the first time I'd seen the dresses in this color - all I had seen was a little tiny swatch when I ordered them - I love the way that it turned out! The color is called RASPBERRY!

COUSIN KIM!!! Doesn't she just look like a bad influence? Lol - actually it was all of ours faults. Cousin Kim for suggesting going to my favorite pizza spot (which is actually just a couple stores down from Jenny Craig, lol) Cousin Jan for tempting me and myself for giving in to peer pressure. LOL. It's cool though - those 2 sticks were so worth it! Especially the one with the bacon!

PS: I got to work as a makeup artist during this years Miami Fashion-Swim Week, read about it HERE...how cute is she? As stated previously, all of my girls have different dresses. Everyone has their quirks and parts of their body that they're not excited about. I picked out dresses for each person that I thought would compliment their body as well as camouflage the areas that they're not so fond of. Example: Cousin Jan hates to show her arms...problem solved!
We spent so much time locked in the dressing room fawning over the dresses that I kind of got in trouble (whoops - forgot I was working). I'm beyond pleased with everything and I know all the girls will be too.

...
As far as weight loss goes I've dropped 9 lbs so far and 6 inches. ::sigh:: I have to admit that I cheated a little bit this week and I'd like to blame it on this young lady and her box of pizza sticks...
I have to admit that I'm probably more excited about the arrival of the girls dresses than I am of my own. It was such an ordeal getting them but so worth it - I'd do it again!
Cousin Jan was so excited as well that she came over to my job right away to try hers on.

TEAM J.BRIDE does centerpieces

It's been a hectic yet fullfilling couple of days around here:
Saturday: Did the makeup for a huge bridal party

Sunday: Did makeup for a photoshoot

Tuesday: Did the trial run for a bride and booked the wedding (high five, yes?)

This upcoming Friday: Doing makeup at Miami Fashion-Swim WeekIn between that I somehow found time to go down to Miami and hit up an artificial flowers wholesaler. I had inquired about having all my floral/decor stuff done by a professional florist/decorator but I simply can't afford it. I visited him yesterday and instead of leaving him in charge of the entire event, he will be doing only the following:
-my bouquet

-fiance's boutenierre (did I spell that right)...and my dads

- coursages for mom, his mom, and my grandma

- alter decor

Bridesmaid bouquets and cententerpieces will be created by TEAM J.BRIDE! The other day, myself, mom and my aunt Claudia (some of the Team J.Bride members) hit the jackpot when we bought a truck load of artificial flowers from a wholesaler - actually we purchased items from two places - all for just over $100. For that price I have enough bouquets for 10 bridesmaids, boutenierres (I still don't know if that's right) for the grooms men and all the flowers for the centerpieces.

Like most people, I have a hang up about artificial flowers and never thought I'd be using them in my wedding - but hey, "times are rough". In an event for my wedding to not look like the dollar store, we hunted for the creme de la creme of artificial flowers. I actually love them - you can't even tell their not real unless you really observe them. By not using real flowers I'm also able to do my centerpieces way in advance and cover them up until the day off.

Here's the disaster in my bedroom as mom and I tried to come up with the concept of my centerpieces:

(that's mom on the floor, lol)
...anyway, none of the creations here are the final product (we experimented a bit) - I really want to share it because I can't believe how amazing it came out...but I don't want to ruin it. I got the vases at Micheals - I picked up a few flowers at there too, but majority of them came from the wholesale place - and the bamboo from Ikea when Fiance and I went to look for furniture (?).

TEAM J.BRIDE can't be stopped.

Goodnight.

PS:

TEAM J.BRIDE (so far)

- me! The Bride

- mom: 2nd in command

- auntie claudia

- auntie marcia (who is always on the hunt for something she thinks I want for the wedding and will call us from the store all hours of the day)

- fiance

- auntie rema (who is making the junior bridesmaid dresses)

... and the list continues to grow - i love my family :)

staci's wedding

Hello loves! Please stop by my makeup (work)/style blog to check out the makeup artistry that I did for a bridal party this past weekend. Let me know what you think...

sneak peek of my invitations...

First of all...

...ok...got that out my system ... and we're back...

With 128 days left, it finally hit me that I should be sending out my wedding invitations. The sad part is that I purchased the invitations a few months ago, but of course I walked pass them everyday convincing myself that they'd somehow get done on their own. Something got into me today and I finally decided to take on the task.

I don't have tons of money to spend so I knew from the beginning that I'd purchase my invitations ready made and got the thought of custom invites out my head. However, I loved all those fancy invitations that I saw on Platinum Weddings with the envelopes and embellishments etc. Fortunently while I was playing in Micheals one day I found a package of invitations that had exactly what I wanted. I finally found the template online today, put in all my wording and printed away. Within a few hours I had everything done - well, I haven't addressed them yet - that's for tomorrow :)

Anyway, here's what my invitations look like...actually the one that I messed up - luckily they put in extra one in the box for that purpose - score!
... so, something like that - better pictures will be in the recaps. I should have these in the mail by Friday - sweet progress! While putting the invitations together, I thought about it people who were expecting to receive one in the mail not actually getting one. Everyone just assumes that they're invited, however unless you've gone through this, you have no idea how expensive everything is. I just can't afford to invite EVERYONE. I hope that no one takes it personal...

photo credit: JAK & JIL and J.Bride

lil sis is just as important (her dress)

After announcing the official date of the wedding I quickly realized that my big day was quickly becoming more of a fashion show than anything else. Everyone is scrambling for their perfect ensemble, hitting the gym and whatever else they feel is neccessary to look and feel their best on my wedding day. Seriously, I love my family! Everyone is going all out!

By the selection of dresses that I made for my bridesmaids, it's clear that I'm not one of those brides who don't want their girls looking great in an effort to ensure that everyone is fawning over me. I want everyone to look beautiful - these are my cousins and life long friends! Even my mom has ordered a gorgeous dress that she is obsessed about!

Amidst all the fashion madness going on in my family I haven't forgotten my biggest supporter - my Lil Sis. Make no mistake, although my sister is only 9, she definently has her own sense of style and will not allow you to put her in something that she doesn't like. At this point, I'm the only one who can assist her with putting outfits together and even so, she always needs to have input. She says that she when she grows up she wants to be a fashion designer and makeup artist (wonder where she gets that from) and a chef! Lol. As my junior bride, I envisioned my sister looking like a princess. I couldn't really find any dresses that I liked for her so my mom and I came to the conclusion that we would have one made for her. Prior to our 4th of July BBQ starting, my aunt Rema (who is a fantastic dressmaker...wedding gowns, prom dresses, you name it - fabulous!) and I co-designed my sisters dress. My maid and matron of honors will both be wearing a one strap style, so I thought it would be nice if she did too. I was inspired by this Bari Jay dress that I had seen on their website:
This style is obviously too grown for a 9 year old, but I liked the ides of the one strap with the roses for her. As opposed to the chiffon skirt, hers will be tool and her dress will be ivory like mine. I also wanted her to have a little train at the back of her dress - my aunt suggested that we make it detachable which I think is a great idea. Here's our little sketch that we made - Lil Sis must approve of course, lol...

I know it's going to turn out beautifully and of course I will share it with you during recaps.
PS: currently missing my lil sis, she's on vacation with my dad for the summer and having a great time watching our baby nieces.

Sweat Sunday pt 2

@ my weigh in this week, I learned that I dropped 1.2 lbs - which is good, but I was aiming for 2 lbs. Through talking to my JC counselor I learned that this was probably because I was drinking orange juice this week which has lots of sugar. Also, I was mixing my Crystal Lite with brown sugar - I didn't know it was already sweetened, lol - whoops. I did work out this week, but not as often as last week - I plan to change that and get back to my routine that I'd started. Overall I'm pleased with myself, I've lost 5.8 lbs in 2 weeks!!!

I'm still proud of myself, especially since I didn't even grab a burger or hot dog at our 4th of July BBQ yesterday. Instead, I had one my Jenny snacks so that I could eat with everyone and not feel left out. I've also been drinking a lot more water which is a big step for me because I love juice.

Hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July...

(cousin Kim, me & cousin Jan @ our family 4th of July BBQ)

What did you do for the Holiday weekend?

wedding dress made of ... TOILET PAPER!!!

Thought you were a DIY Bride? These ladies have given the term "do it yourself" a new meaning by creating Bridal Gowns with just toilet paper!

"Cheap Chic Weddings just declared a winner of their toilet-paper wedding dress contest. The grand prize went to Ann Kagawa Lee of Honolulu, who made this spectacular confection from nothing more than toilet paper, tape, and glue. It's mind-blowing. Just look at the texture, the detail, the hat! She was inspired by Gone With the Wind and Japanese origami. According to CheapChicWeddings.com, "Her dress has been compared to an Oscar de la Renta couture gown." Let us all take a moment to admire her hard work, attention — nay, commitment — to detail, and her vision. Because this kind of craftsmanship deserves more than her award of just $1,000 and a permanent spot in Ripley's Believe it or Not museum."
(story via NY-MAG THE CUT - Amy Odell)

Here is the winning dress...

& here are the runner-ups...