Hello Lovelies

Soooooooo, we're all friends here right?
You all know about my little cookie monster. Well he's turning 3 this month and we thought it was time we gave him a sibling, hopefully a sister (fingers crossed). The thing is that we've been trying since September and nothing, nada, zip.  I'm beginning to wonder if there's something wrong. 
You hear about people just looking at each other the wrong way and getting pregnant. I'm 34 and I really don't want to be pregnant past 35 so i'm getting a little anxious.  I need a little encouragement yall.

In the meant time, i've taken on our apartment as a new project. It's pretty hard to not have anything major to do after years of planning our wedding.

The plan is to make over the living room, put the dining furniture  in there and use the dining room as a playroom for our son. It's hard enough for him living in an apartment without a backyard. Then i'll tackle the bathroom, kitchen and our bedroom. My son's bedroom was completely made over for his birth and i'm always tweaking things here and there, so that's fine. He's now in his big boy bed but his crib is still up in our room. 

Notice I said I. The mister has no interest in decor and design. He'll move furniture or go out to buy me something if I ask but really doesn't have any input. The standard response to any question is it looks great. I don't even think he knows what i'm talking about half the time.

Anyways, that's what's happening in my neck of the woods these days. I'll keep you posted.

JEM.

Some More Photos

I'm sure i've mentioned this before but my ladies (all 3 of them) looked lovely. I was supposed to have 3 BMs and a MOH but one of the BMs had some dumbass excuse and got there so late that she couldn't be included in any of our  pictures. At first Here are some pics of my ladies.

Someone had the bright idea to dance like Beyonce. 

Major fail!  It was hilarious.

We had so much fun taking those pictures. There was so much giggling and funny faces. Many a photo was ruined that day. Ruining is a strong word because I love them  i'll keep them just to remind me how much fun we had and how happy everyone was.

JEM.

More Photos.

These are some random pics.

Our little family in our faux-to-booth

Guests dancing up a storm. My nephew thought it would be cool to dance with a wine bottle until his mom caught him.

Me feeding my hubby cake.

I got in on the action too. I think this was the dreadful but awesomely fun electric slide.

JEM.

Follow Up

So my recaps aren't going as well as i'd hoped so as of next week, i'm just going to post pictures so that you can kinda see how our day went. Maybe with a few captions thrown in. Nothing elaborate. I think i'm suffering from wedding brain freeze.


JEM.

Our pseudo-ceremony

I really didn't want to be late so I made sure to tell everyone to meet at our apartment and we would all be there at the same time. My cousin from CT who was supposed to be there from that morning for some reason wasn't there by 6:30 so we left. That means we were down to 2 BMs and MOH.

When we got to the venue, my DOC was just pulling in. I was so mad. The DJ was also just setting up so we waited out in the parking lot. I was too pissed to go in.

Finally the DJ started playing music so the wedding party lined up to go in. I wanted Black Eyed Peas' I got a Feeling to play to kinda hype up the crowd but my dumb ass DJ mixed up the songs and played Anita Baker's Sweet Love for the entry song. That was supposed to be our song for cutting the cake. I honesly felt like crying. All my hard work and preparation ruined.

In spite of the fact that I gave him a chronological list kinda like an idiot's list. Honestly the list went like - the wedding party line up, you play "I got a feeling, by Black Eyed Peas". Let it play until we come in and are ready to start. I mean seriously the only way you can mess that up is if you can't read.

Saying a prayer 

The guys and ladies paired up and walked in to the lame ass song and stood on opposite sides of the dance floor. 

We waited at the entrance till we got the go ahead from the DOC and then my husband, son and I all walked in holding hands. I had to let go and gold to my dress because it was seriously tripping me up. 

As soon as we entered, everyone broke out in applause, whistles and cheers. OMG, I was so shocked.What the hell were they clapping for? Well as it turned out, word had spread that I done all the decor pretty much myself and I guess people were impressed. Really impressed. 

They clapped and clapped until Mr. M's cousin / oficiant quieted them down. 

I don't think I have to tell you how much better I felt right then. The night just took a turn for the better and from then on it was fun, fun, fun. I didn't think of anything else going wrong. Things would be what they would be. I had written the whole ceremony beforehand and Charles the officiant and I had gone over it and tweaked things here and there a few days before and in my estimation, it was just perfect. 

Our son wouldn't let anyone take him away, so we did the whole thing with him in his daddy's arms.

Charles conducted the little ceremony just as I had anticipated, even saying that I told him not to add anything and make it lively.

We didn't exchange vows since we had already done so at City Hall but we did kiss again for our audience. It was much appreciated.  

Of course our photographer didn't get the actual kiss and since we're not very comfortable kissing in front of people, it was a quick one. 

JEM.

Disclaimer: the pictures are mostly dark because one of the banquet hall's managers had the bright idea to turn off the bright lights for ambience and none of us noticed till we saw the photos. 

Our Wedding Party

In spite of the fact that we weren't having a ceremony, I still wanted a wedding party especially since I had bought the bridesmaids dresses and groomsmen ties almost a year before. There was no way I would just have these sit around and not use them. Mr. M got his 2 closest friends, my nephew and my cousin's husband to all wear black suits with white shirts and I made bouttonieres with the same beads, wires and ribbons that I used to make the bouquets.

The ladies looked stunning in their dresses. Although I had bought the dresses before actually finalizing who the bridesmaids would be, (I kinda had an idea) it really was a miracle that they fit my 3 cousins so perfectly with no alterations. My sister who was my maid of honor had to buy her dress and 2 days before the wedding, she was frantically going from store to store trying to find one. I absolutely loved how well it went with the bridesmaids' dresses. One of my cousins who lives in CT got to the wedding so late that she wasn't in any pictures. That left us with only 2 bridesmaids and a maid of honor.

They goofed off in the parking lot before going in

While I was sitting in our car talking to the DOC on the phone telling her where, what and how since she had shown up so late.

I was not a happy camper.

My cousin tried to get me to smile saying that I would have these photos forever but this is the closest I came, I was seriously unhappy at this point. My ass wipe guests were so late.  We just sat in my car waiting for them to arrive and go in before we could. and every five minutes my DOC called with another dumb question.

Since my cousin was a BM and her husband was a GM, we couldn't leave their 6 yr old son out, and of course our little man was a pillow bearer since there were no rings on it.

My bouquet

BM bouquet.

JEM.

A Break in Recaps- Jem living

So remember a few days ago, I mentioned that I was redoing my living room? Well so far, i've painted with this beautiful color called Renoir, it's almost like a salmon color but a shade darker. The trim is bright glossy white. Now I need a few colors to really pop. I thought black would look really great against the wall plus jade or olive green, burgundy or even dark brown. I have a rug with all these colors and I could just tie the other colors in with accent pieces.I already have a few pieces of furniture that work, but I really need 2 console tables,  a coffee table and two end tables. I went to CSN Stores since i've shopped with them before and was always very happy with my purchase and their customer service.

I got all the disposables for my wedding from them as well as the table skirts for the buffet tables. I also bought this beautiful wall clock for my friend as a wedding present.

Here are the tables i'm trying to make a decision on:

The pictures are a bit fuzzy for some reason but I think you can still see them.

There is free shipping on both of these so that's not a factor. Please help me decide. Which one would you choose?

JEM.

This is how it started

These recaps will be somewhat random since I have no idea how to proceed here.

Our wedding was a roaring success!  As far as my guests were concerned anyway. They never knew about all the behind the scenes crap. At first , I was really bummed but then I told myself the hell with it and it will be what it will be. As you know, my wedding was mostly all DIY.  Like all you other brides, I planned this thing down to the letter but when dealing with other humans, you really can't account for other people's doings. My DOC was so late that she was calling me at 6:45pm saying she was lost. The reception was to start at 7.  She was very little help although she kept saying 'everything's under control.' If I was the crying type, I would have been a hot mess.

Many things went wrong but so many things were just great.
The ladies and guys of our wedding party looked hot;

the food was delish;

The venue and decor were beautiful

I kinda took matters into my own hands and just started directing people and things really picked up then. Thank goodness I did otherwise I think everyone would have had a lousy time, especially me. Although we didn't have a professional photog, we got some really cool pics.

I have to say I absolutely loved the way the place looked. My crystal trees sparkled and shone in the light. My turquoise napkins went beautifully with the aqua tablecloths and white overlays. Although we totally forgot to light the candles on the tables. Sigh...


More to come tomorrow, stay tuned...
JEM.

Hi Y'all

Ok, don't kill me. I know i've been gone for ever but I weely sowwy, (puppy dog eyes).
I want to wish all the beautiful ladies who recently got married congratulations. I've been horrible, I know. I've managed to follow a little bit, I know the lovely Dancy, Jacin, Alicia and so many other of my darling bloggers tied the knot and as far as I saw from your little teasers, you all looked smokin hot, Congrats.

So much has happened since the wedding. Too numerous to mention all.
I started a kinda unofficial store making wedding stuff like card boxes, parasols etc and i've been really busy.

I've remodeled my entire living room, I mean from scratch and by myself people.

Mr. Muscle lost his ring at a freakin Yankee game. Yeah I know, i'm still bummed about that even if we've since replaced it. It's not the one I so lovingly picked out and slaved to pay for and slipped on his finger.

There has been some things better than others for instance we've decided to have another child so that been fun. he, he- bad, bad Jem.

I'm going to do a recap/recaps although not as detailed as many other brides since we didn't have the standard wedding with ceremony etc. so it will be a lot more compressed.

Stay tuned my lovlies and here's a little pic from our wedding day.

JEM.

Sorry for the hiatus.

I'm kinda back. I've been MIA for a few reasons:

• I needed a break, I was burnt out from wedding planning, reading about weddings, eating and sleeping wedding. I just needed a much deserved break.
• Although we didn't go on our honeymoon (yet) my baby took the week after the wedding off and we made it a small family vacation, we went to the zoo, the beach, pennsylvania to hershey park. Really lame stuff but it felt so good to not have a schedule or timeline. And my little man had a blast having both mama and daddy for a whole week together.
• I'm still waiting for my pictures to be ready. We didn't have a pro photog but my bro took our pics and I'm going to do the editing in photoshop. Wish me luck, i've already started.

I will try to start recaps first thing next week, so please bear with me. I still read all your posts and comment even though I haven't been posting anything. Thanks for all your lovely compliments about the photos I posted.

One major thing I did this week was to join Facebook. I finally caved and joined the masses and so far it's been really interesting. My hubby had to practically drag me off last night. Go figure...

JEM.

A sneak Peak.

I don't have official pics back yet, of course but here are a few I got from my friend's camera. Just a teaser:

Our son wouldn't let go of his daddy so we had our pseudo ceremony with him.

My ladies were so gorgeous. See the crystal bouquets? My absolute favorite DIY project and wedding detail. My sister/MOH Sharon, cousin/BM Denise and cousin/BM Berthy. My other BM was so late that she couldn't even be in the ceremony. (That's another story). Anyway you'll hear all about it soon. Girl scouts honor.
JEM.

We DId It!!!

We got married!!! It was great!!! and I'll tell you all about it later!!!!

JEM.

3 Days to go and this is what i'm wearing

I've lost a total of 4 lbs. Count them 1,2,3,4. That's all it took for my dress to fit the way that I want it to. Don't get me wrong, I still have about 20 to go but for the purposes of me being bootylicious in my dress, yeah it works.

So this is all i'm wearing under my dress

I certainly don't need a bra since the ladies aren't fully grown yet or so it seems and my dress is so snug, that it acts as body hugging underwear. So that's it. Todo.

And just in case you need some more cute eye candy, this is what my hunk is wearing.

My 2 year old hunk, that is.
JEM.

5 More Days and the Weather's Fine

Thanks to Mrs. Beever who clued me onto this really cool feature from,  I signed up to receive  my wedding weather updates the wedding week and I have to say that every day when I open my inbox, it looks better and better. This is what greeted me today (click to magnify)

Do you see Saturday, August 7th? 0% chance of precipitation.  Zero people. How freakin cool is that? And on top of that, the day after, our parents thought we should get together for a little bbq at my sister's house. Again 0% chance of rain. The Gods are really smiling down on us aren't t they? The temperature is also going to be a very comfortable 82 degrees.

Considering the sweltering days we've been having here in NY, this is just beautiful. Hopefully our outdoor photo shoot will be gorgeous and no one will get too hot and bothered. One can only hope.
JEM.