When it comes to wedding planning it's a little hard for the BFF to come up with her own "vision," especially when it comes to flowers.  So being the great friend that I am, I took the time to find pictures I think she might l like.  I was really bored at work yesterday, so I decided to make an inspirational board of bouquet ideas for her, hopefully inspiring her!  
     Her wedding colors are wine and champagne.  She wants a bouquet of red/maroon flowers for herself, while the BMs carry white flowers.  Here's what I came up with: (I used photos from The Knot, Weedingbee, and Google.  If you see your photos I hope you don't mind and thanks for inspiring me!)

After emailing her the board, she feel in love with the top left picture of the rose bunch.  She loves peonies so I tried to incorporate that in the BMs' flowers.  I then came up with this board a couple hours later.  (Hours only because I was at work, I had to fit work in there somewhere!)

So hopefully she got inspired after seeing these boards.  If not, back to the drawing board I go!! 
    
     There are so many beautiful bouquets and ideas and having inspirational boards have truly been helpful.  Do you make inspiration boards for every detail in your wedding, like I do!? 

     So today was my BIG 3-0 birthday, something I didn't think was going to bother me, but as the day came, I was feeling a little down.  I quickly got over that from all the birthday wishes and love- via text, calls, emails, and the infamous Facebook.  So thank you to all my wonderful friends and family for the birthday greetings!  I'm truly grateful for all of you! 
     So to celebrate Jeff and I went to one of my favorite sushi spots for dinner, but the best part of my day was the gift giving!  I'm not materialistic (ok maybe a bit), but it was my birthday so of course I expect my WONDERFUL FIANCE to get me something nice!  And of course he did! 
     As most of my close friends know, I'm totally into WeddingBee.  I know I mention it a lot on my blog or talk about it constantly with friends, but I can't help it!  That site has helped me tremendously during our wedding planning.  And it's gotten to the point where Jeff sometimes calls me "his bee."  So in honor of my new love and vice, Jeff gave me a gorgeous bumble bee pendant!!  He knows me all too well!  I love my new addition to my jewelry collection.  Not only is it beautiful, but it's sentimental as well!!  Thanks bubz...I HEART YOU!!

     I'm a DIY bride all the way, there's no doubt about that! So when I was shopping at The Dollar Store (yes I shop there) for non wedding related things, I came across something I knew I could create into something beautiful for only $1!!  I bought tin planters and created flower girl baskets.  Check it out under my DIY projects.
   I love turning something simple into my own!  I'm glad that my creative side doesn't usually cost me a fortune, because I'd truly be broke!  Do you have a creative side?  And if so, are you cheap like me or do you go all out? 

     Today we celebrated Jeff's birthday with our closest friends, friends that we like to call family, more specifically, RICFAM!  Instead of our usual potluck, the fiance wanted to cook for everyone, by all means babe, go right ahead! 
     So while the festivities were going on-cooking, watching football, dogs playing, the BFF decided to start on one of her wedding projects, her wedding pomanders.  She recruited the fam to help with the project and it turned out being very productive and fun.  We actually got 8 out of 30 done.  So that's not bad!   
     The boys even decided to help!!  As you can see, their hands are in it, but they're eyes are glued to the football game.  Whatever works right, just keep doing what you're doing boys!

The happy couple working so hard...

Even the little one was excited to help!  Thanks Ethan!

     Luckily most of the BFF's wedding party was present for this event.  So we were instructed to get to work, after all, that is a part of our duty.  Anything for the happy couple, right?!

     It's always fun, when friends can get together, celebrate and have a good time.  It's even better when friends work together and get something accomplished and still have fun doing it at the same time!  So thanks to our friends for coming over to celebrate a very special birthday and thanks (per BFF) for your help with this project.  She knows that a lot of love went into it and is truly very grateful!! 
     Did your wedding party gladly participate in any of your projects or was the experience the total opposite?    

     So today is the fiance's birthday (I will blog about this event later), but he got the best present today- a blog post of our engagement photos!!  He received an email from our photographers saying they posted the pics.  So while sitting in our hotel room, we quickly rushed to his blog, Scott Hayne.  The pictures are amazing...I can't get over how great they turned out.  Jeff and I checked out our proofs before going to dinner and realized we had too many favorites!!  We just decided that we'd buy the rights and keep them all!!
     Here are the pics!  What do you think...AMAZING, huh?

...and if you look close enough, our wedding date is shown in the meter!!  I love our photogs!!

     OMG, I just got an email from Inge, the sales director at the Westin Aruba where our destination wedding will be held.  She emailed me to inform Jeff and I that our wedding coordinator has changed because the previous one we were working with (lets call her J) just got a promotion!!! 
     In the email she introduced the new person (lets call HIM P), thats right its a guy!!  He's fairly new, 2 yrs at the hotel and 4 months in weddings!!  OMG, freaking out now for real!! Inge let us know that he has all our information, but still, its not J, I really liked her!! This just better be a good transition!!
     Yes we are happy for her, but at the same time it'll be a difficult change.  Jeff and I even went to Aruba this summer to meet J to discuss our wedding details and share with her our vision!!  We loved working with J and we're sad that she won't be working with us any longer.  Luckily we have a couple of months til the Big Day to work on making our details come out with the new wedding coordinator.  Just know that there will def be many emails and phone conversations during this time!
     Was there a major change in your wedding planning that freaked you out?  Please share, it'll ease my pain!

     We finally booked our flight to San Francisco for the BFF's bachelorette party in NAPA VALLEY!!!  After much thought and research her MOH and myself (with advice from the bride) decided that Napa would be the perfect place to spend her last days as a Miss with her closets friends and family.  We plan on spending the day in San Francisco, check out the sights, then drive to the Wine Country to spend a long weekend relaxing and drinking great wine!  For most of us it'll be an exciting trip, since we all have never been before.  I'm so excited, I can hardly wait!
   As for my bachelorette shindig, it's still in the works!  So stay tuned to hear the details!