Mrs. Nachos, Chicago/St. ThomasAge and Occupation: 33, Commercial Real Estate & HairstylistFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Radio ProducerEngagement Date: May 22, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. ThomasAbout Me: I'm a happy, laid back city girl that can find the silver lining in any situation. An optimist at heart, my motto is to turn your "what ifs?" into "so whats!". My fiance is a radio producer and the biggest Cubs fan you'll meet - our apartment decor definitely shows it. He and I grew up next door to each other and because of it, we have the best home videos and easiest holiday dinners. We are planning an intimate wedding in the Virgin Islands and a cocktail party in June for 150 of our closest friends.
After my post about the water bottle labels went up, a few people asked for a template, and I’m happy to share!
Click here for the fully customizable Photoshop template.
Once I had my template personalized for our bottles, I saved the .psd file as a .jpg. I then loaded the MS Word template for Avery 6579 (I had to download it from here), inserted my .jpg 4 times and arranged on the Avery template. Once printed, I had to cut them out individually but with only 24 of them, it didn’t take too long. That’s it!
Oh, and while I’m here, I wanted to show you what my mom has been up to…. Read more…
Mrs. Nachos, Chicago/St. ThomasAge and Occupation: 33, Commercial Real Estate & HairstylistFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Radio ProducerEngagement Date: May 22, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. ThomasAbout Me: I'm a happy, laid back city girl that can find the silver lining in any situation. An optimist at heart, my motto is to turn your "what ifs?" into "so whats!". My fiance is a radio producer and the biggest Cubs fan you'll meet - our apartment decor definitely shows it. He and I grew up next door to each other and because of it, we have the best home videos and easiest holiday dinners. We are planning an intimate wedding in the Virgin Islands and a cocktail party in June for 150 of our closest friends.
Sunday I went up to my friend Sharon’s house for some foiling/hair cutting fun… we took care of each others’ atrocious roots (don’t judge the lazy stylists) to make sure we’re in tip-top shape for next week, and at the same time I was able to drop off our OOT bags. Ah, there’s room in my closet again! Sharon is truly my hero – she’s taking the bags down there for us in the same bag we plan to stuff full of wedding dress for her return flight home. Yep, she’s taking that off my hands, too. I figured I’d see if she could also stuff these bad boys into said bag to which she happily obliged…
Mrs. Nachos, Chicago/St. ThomasAge and Occupation: 33, Commercial Real Estate & HairstylistFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Radio ProducerEngagement Date: May 22, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. ThomasAbout Me: I'm a happy, laid back city girl that can find the silver lining in any situation. An optimist at heart, my motto is to turn your "what ifs?" into "so whats!". My fiance is a radio producer and the biggest Cubs fan you'll meet - our apartment decor definitely shows it. He and I grew up next door to each other and because of it, we have the best home videos and easiest holiday dinners. We are planning an intimate wedding in the Virgin Islands and a cocktail party in June for 150 of our closest friends.
This is the bracelet I’ll be wearing for our wedding…
Look familiar?
I’m honored to say that I will be the 4th bee to wear this gorgeous bracelet on my wedding day. Can anyone name the other 3 bees that wore this when they got married?
Mrs. Nachos, Chicago/St. ThomasAge and Occupation: 33, Commercial Real Estate & HairstylistFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Radio ProducerEngagement Date: May 22, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. ThomasAbout Me: I'm a happy, laid back city girl that can find the silver lining in any situation. An optimist at heart, my motto is to turn your "what ifs?" into "so whats!". My fiance is a radio producer and the biggest Cubs fan you'll meet - our apartment decor definitely shows it. He and I grew up next door to each other and because of it, we have the best home videos and easiest holiday dinners. We are planning an intimate wedding in the Virgin Islands and a cocktail party in June for 150 of our closest friends.
Yesterday afternoon in the rain, we buried my good friend’s mom.
Because death doesn’t wait for weddings.
Then last night I received a voicemail from another friend, my best friend since kindergarten, and I just knew. I could hear it in her voice. She simply said, “Call me. I just wanted to let you know what’s going on.” I already knew it was her mom, the woman who I’ve considered my second mom for 27 years. So I put on my big girl pants, and I called her.
Because sickness doesn’t wait for weddings.
As she spoke, everything over the last few days just hit me like a ton of bricks. And I had a little tear-filled meltdown. But it’s such a roller coaster because at the same time, I have this happy little voice whispering in my ear, “14 days till the wedding, it’s so close!” This time in 2 weeks, I’ll be counting the hours instead of the days. Read more…
Mrs. Nachos, Chicago/St. ThomasAge and Occupation: 33, Commercial Real Estate & HairstylistFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Radio ProducerEngagement Date: May 22, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. ThomasAbout Me: I'm a happy, laid back city girl that can find the silver lining in any situation. An optimist at heart, my motto is to turn your "what ifs?" into "so whats!". My fiance is a radio producer and the biggest Cubs fan you'll meet - our apartment decor definitely shows it. He and I grew up next door to each other and because of it, we have the best home videos and easiest holiday dinners. We are planning an intimate wedding in the Virgin Islands and a cocktail party in June for 150 of our closest friends.
On Easter, I was standing in the kitchen with Mr. Nachos and my parents while my dad was cutting up the ham, and we were talking wedding stuff. That’s when I decided it was the perfect time to ask my dad if he would walk me down the aisle. I know it didn’t have to be asked, but I wanted him to know that it was important to me and something I was really looking forward to. His response?
Mrs. Nachos, Chicago/St. ThomasAge and Occupation: 33, Commercial Real Estate & HairstylistFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Radio ProducerEngagement Date: May 22, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. ThomasAbout Me: I'm a happy, laid back city girl that can find the silver lining in any situation. An optimist at heart, my motto is to turn your "what ifs?" into "so whats!". My fiance is a radio producer and the biggest Cubs fan you'll meet - our apartment decor definitely shows it. He and I grew up next door to each other and because of it, we have the best home videos and easiest holiday dinners. We are planning an intimate wedding in the Virgin Islands and a cocktail party in June for 150 of our closest friends.
Now that we’re in the home stretch and I’ve recovered from by bachelorette party, I figured what better way to spend all my free time (ha!) than come up with another DIY project? So I present to you our water bottle labels for the OOT bags.
I started playing around in MS Word and tweaking with Photoshop and came up with this…
Oh, but wait, who’s that in the corner? It’s us in PowerPoint form! Read more…
Mrs. Nachos, Chicago/St. ThomasAge and Occupation: 33, Commercial Real Estate & HairstylistFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Radio ProducerEngagement Date: May 22, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. ThomasAbout Me: I'm a happy, laid back city girl that can find the silver lining in any situation. An optimist at heart, my motto is to turn your "what ifs?" into "so whats!". My fiance is a radio producer and the biggest Cubs fan you'll meet - our apartment decor definitely shows it. He and I grew up next door to each other and because of it, we have the best home videos and easiest holiday dinners. We are planning an intimate wedding in the Virgin Islands and a cocktail party in June for 150 of our closest friends.
On Saturday night we had my bachelorette party! It was a small group - 2 of my sisters and my good friend, Cathryn, and it was the perfect size. We started out the evening with a wonderful feast of bagel bites and buffalo chicken nuggets and threw a few cocktails into the mix. It was then time to decorate me with a light-up veil, light-up ring, Mardi Gras beads, and a sparkly ‘SEXY’ tattoo. There was also a shirt that was 10 sizes too big on me, so we decided to nix that idea.
Once I was looking like a good bachelorette should, I got to open my girly presents… Read more…
Mrs. Nachos, Chicago/St. ThomasAge and Occupation: 33, Commercial Real Estate & HairstylistFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Radio ProducerEngagement Date: May 22, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. ThomasAbout Me: I'm a happy, laid back city girl that can find the silver lining in any situation. An optimist at heart, my motto is to turn your "what ifs?" into "so whats!". My fiance is a radio producer and the biggest Cubs fan you'll meet - our apartment decor definitely shows it. He and I grew up next door to each other and because of it, we have the best home videos and easiest holiday dinners. We are planning an intimate wedding in the Virgin Islands and a cocktail party in June for 150 of our closest friends.
When we created our RSVP cards, we had our friends and family in mind – they’re fun and wacky and get our good-humored nature. I have to say, getting the cards back is so much fun, it feels like every day is my birthday when I check the mail. And here are some of my favorite responses thus far…
The next one is from my friend asking for us to do the 2 things that make her double over in laughter. The slide and the slinky are little ‘dances’ that never fail to make her laugh… Read more…
Mrs. Nachos, Chicago/St. ThomasAge and Occupation: 33, Commercial Real Estate & HairstylistFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Radio ProducerEngagement Date: May 22, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. ThomasAbout Me: I'm a happy, laid back city girl that can find the silver lining in any situation. An optimist at heart, my motto is to turn your "what ifs?" into "so whats!". My fiance is a radio producer and the biggest Cubs fan you'll meet - our apartment decor definitely shows it. He and I grew up next door to each other and because of it, we have the best home videos and easiest holiday dinners. We are planning an intimate wedding in the Virgin Islands and a cocktail party in June for 150 of our closest friends.
So I mentioned that we decided to buy a house. ‘Member?
Well, we just put in an offer on one today! I have to say, I don’t know if this would have been possible had we not planned the wedding we did. Leaving all the little details in the hands of the hotel’s wedding coordinator has bought us a ton of free-time to see things like this…
Yes, my friends, that is me looking through a window. Hmmmm… or… is it?
In the basement of another, we found this… Read more…
Mrs. Nachos, Chicago/St. ThomasAge and Occupation: 33, Commercial Real Estate & HairstylistFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Radio ProducerEngagement Date: May 22, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. ThomasAbout Me: I'm a happy, laid back city girl that can find the silver lining in any situation. An optimist at heart, my motto is to turn your "what ifs?" into "so whats!". My fiance is a radio producer and the biggest Cubs fan you'll meet - our apartment decor definitely shows it. He and I grew up next door to each other and because of it, we have the best home videos and easiest holiday dinners. We are planning an intimate wedding in the Virgin Islands and a cocktail party in June for 150 of our closest friends.
We’re getting down to crunch time! The marriage license application has been sent, the final payment has been made, the home party invites have been mailed, and now we wait. In 3 weeks, we’ll be in paradise!
Last week, I received an email from the hotel’s wedding department with our wedding day itinerary. Being left in the dark about the big day until now hasn’t really bothered me except for when people asked me how the planning is going. Uh, we’re done. We have been for a while. We’ve left most of the actual planning in the hands of the hotel… just the way we wanted it.
So when I read the wedding day plan…
5:00: Groom comes to lobby for 1st set of pictures
5:15: Bride escorted from her room for pictures in lobby
5:30: Ceremony begins. Photographer takes pics during and after ceremony at wedding site
6:30: Ceremony and pictures conclude
… I thought it was perfectly simple and sweet. Normally, a reception immediately following the ceremony is expected but we didn’t want to do the expected, we wanted to do things our way and the island way—laid back and low stress. I’m starting to think we’re already on ‘island time’! We don’t have anything planned after the ceremony and the home party has taken on a life of it’s own. We both agree, that is our ’something after the wedding’, it’s just going to happen a month later.
Someone actually said to me, “Isn’t that going to be kind of anti-climactic for you? ‘I do’, then you’re done?” Read more…
Mrs. Nachos, Chicago/St. ThomasAge and Occupation: 33, Commercial Real Estate & HairstylistFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Radio ProducerEngagement Date: May 22, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. ThomasAbout Me: I'm a happy, laid back city girl that can find the silver lining in any situation. An optimist at heart, my motto is to turn your "what ifs?" into "so whats!". My fiance is a radio producer and the biggest Cubs fan you'll meet - our apartment decor definitely shows it. He and I grew up next door to each other and because of it, we have the best home videos and easiest holiday dinners. We are planning an intimate wedding in the Virgin Islands and a cocktail party in June for 150 of our closest friends.
This past weekend we took a little walk down to Vines on Clark, our home party venue, to sample some tasty treats and figure out what we wanted for our 3 appetizers. The funny thing is that Addie, the event planner, told us to pick a few things off the menu that we haven’t had before. Um… hmm… considering we order at least once a week from them, that was gonna be tough!
We already knew we wanted the coconut crusted shrimp and the toasted ravioli at our party, so it was a matter of choosing one more. For our tasting, we did just what she suggested and ordered the few things we hadn’t yet tried.
Mrs. Nachos, Chicago/St. ThomasAge and Occupation: 33, Commercial Real Estate & HairstylistFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Radio ProducerEngagement Date: May 22, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. ThomasAbout Me: I'm a happy, laid back city girl that can find the silver lining in any situation. An optimist at heart, my motto is to turn your "what ifs?" into "so whats!". My fiance is a radio producer and the biggest Cubs fan you'll meet - our apartment decor definitely shows it. He and I grew up next door to each other and because of it, we have the best home videos and easiest holiday dinners. We are planning an intimate wedding in the Virgin Islands and a cocktail party in June for 150 of our closest friends.
Mr. Nachos knew he found the perfect wedding duds the moment he tried them on – all white, crisp linen pants and a button down shirt. The pants were about 437 inches too long, but he planned to take them to the cleaners eventually and get them altered. In the mean time, he bought these to wear on the wedding day…
Comfy and cute and they looked just fine. Fast forward to yesterday – he picked up his freshly altered pants from the cleaners and they did a fantastic job. But when he put it all together, more of the dark shoes showed and they looked like a big poop stain on a fresh layer of fluffy snow.
Mrs. Nachos, Chicago/St. ThomasAge and Occupation: 33, Commercial Real Estate & HairstylistFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Radio ProducerEngagement Date: May 22, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. ThomasAbout Me: I'm a happy, laid back city girl that can find the silver lining in any situation. An optimist at heart, my motto is to turn your "what ifs?" into "so whats!". My fiance is a radio producer and the biggest Cubs fan you'll meet - our apartment decor definitely shows it. He and I grew up next door to each other and because of it, we have the best home videos and easiest holiday dinners. We are planning an intimate wedding in the Virgin Islands and a cocktail party in June for 150 of our closest friends.
Since I’ve had my ring, I’ve been using the bottle of jewelry cleaner that came with it. Recently I started running a little low on the magic liquid in a pump, and I started getting nervous about what to use once I squeeze every last drop out of the bottle. My mom has always been a fan of straight ammonia in a glass. I remember walking past her ring soaking on the kitchen counter and the fumes would go straight up my nose. When I worked for a dermatologist, we’d all put our jewelry in the ultrasonic cleaner that was meant to clean the instruments before sterilizing them, which was kinda gross now that I think about it. A few weekends ago when we met with Mr. N’s Aunt for house hunting, she offered up her secret…
Mrs. Nachos, Chicago/St. ThomasAge and Occupation: 33, Commercial Real Estate & HairstylistFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Radio ProducerEngagement Date: May 22, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. ThomasAbout Me: I'm a happy, laid back city girl that can find the silver lining in any situation. An optimist at heart, my motto is to turn your "what ifs?" into "so whats!". My fiance is a radio producer and the biggest Cubs fan you'll meet - our apartment decor definitely shows it. He and I grew up next door to each other and because of it, we have the best home videos and easiest holiday dinners. We are planning an intimate wedding in the Virgin Islands and a cocktail party in June for 150 of our closest friends.
Hive, I did it. I went all the way. And my first time was with a girl named Brandi.
I have to say for my first pedicure – I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it. It was a little weird having someone clipping my toenails. Ew, it even sounds gross in my head even though it’s already happened. OK, I’m not gonna lie, it was a lot weird having someone rubbing lotion between my toes. But I’m determined to make my toadies look their best for the wedding.
Mrs. Nachos, Chicago/St. ThomasAge and Occupation: 33, Commercial Real Estate & HairstylistFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Radio ProducerEngagement Date: May 22, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. ThomasAbout Me: I'm a happy, laid back city girl that can find the silver lining in any situation. An optimist at heart, my motto is to turn your "what ifs?" into "so whats!". My fiance is a radio producer and the biggest Cubs fan you'll meet - our apartment decor definitely shows it. He and I grew up next door to each other and because of it, we have the best home videos and easiest holiday dinners. We are planning an intimate wedding in the Virgin Islands and a cocktail party in June for 150 of our closest friends.
Our invitations were finished. They were printed. They were stamped. They sat in a box for 2 weeks in my kitchen. Then finally, I got a bug up my butt and decided to stamp and stuff them. The last thing I wanted to do was go back and seal them all.
Unique Wedding Favors
