This morning, around 10:30, Darren and I closed on our new house. We are so excited about the new addition to our lives that we are almost speechless. We can't wait to finally get settled in! The moving begins this evening and we hope to have everything in place so we can start our lives together in our new home after the wedding!

I finally ordered my wedding dress last week! After doing hours of research, trying on dresses and reading reviews I purchased one! So excited! (Note: that is not the dress I purchased, but it is pretty rockin'.)

It is officially 100 days till our wedding!!! I’m so excited and stressed at the same time. I got a lot of things accomplished last week but there is still so much to do! I picked out the bridesmaid dress pattern, now I just need to locate the perfect fabric to make them. The next big items on my ‘to do list’ is to find my wedding dress and caterer for the reception.

Darren and I have overcome the commercial-driven holidays to only escape only drained and exhausted. It was good to see both families and eat lots of delicious food till we almost popped. My parents bought me tires for my car. As a tradition in my household, we only purchase gifts for one another that are needed. They also gave me a folding card table with chairs. It has been quite handy for all the wedding crafts I’m currently working on. I sold my original crafting table (a bumper pool table sold for a nice sum of money) and was left without any where to work.

I’m off to the Outer Banks this weekend for a wedding show and to wrap up a lot of loose ends. I need to find a variety of vendors and set up the reception location. Tiffani is heading down with me, so I’m sure we are going to have a memorable adventure!

This is a cool gadget!!! To prevent your hubby from forgeting the big wedding anniversary date. 24 hours before your anniversary the Remember Ring’s “hot spot” will heat up to 120º F for about ten seconds every hour! ALL. DAY. LONG.

I don't think Darren will be needing one of these since he pretty much suggested the wedding date.

As I was browsing one of my favorite websites today, craftster.org, looking for new and exciting wedding items I came across the most remarkable and astounding craft in the world! It’s called Card-i-gama (www.cardigami.com) and it’s basically small greeting cards that use simple origami to create. They can be used as gift cards, gift bow & tag, ornaments, decorations, scrapbooking embellishments, plant stick/card, fridge magnet/card, etc. Why didn’t I come up with this idea, it’s so simple just yet so elegant.

I’m not a huge fan of buying craft kits to create an item, but after watching the quick one minute video on the website, I think I can create this myself. I have bookmarked the site on my computer as a possible wedding craft. There are so many ways I could incorporate this idea into the favors, invitations, table arrangements and other aspects. Can’t you see the little light bulb over my head? I believe you can see it gleaming super-bright today! I love it! I love it! I love it!

After a wonderful weekend at the Outer Banks, Darren and I feel much more confident about planning a destination wedding. We have just been completely overwhelmed by everything that stands before us, from the tiniest details to the overall broad picture. We spoke with many locals during our trip and found that weddings are an everyday occurrence and nothing to fret about. People suggested caterers, rental companies, reception location, apparel stores, rings…you name it- we heard about it. It was nice to be referred by people of the area, since they deal with local businesses on an everyday basis.

I believe the most helpful person we spoke with during our entire trip was Susan, an information consultant at the local visitor center. She has directed quite a few weddings in her day and we able to suggest some wonderful ideas for our budget. She’s my type of woman - she planned her daughter’s wedding at skating ring in Virginia. Who would have ever thought of an idea like that??!! Just too awesome!

The next order of business is to organize the yard sale we will be holding in two weeks. Basically any money that we make will go into our wedding fund. We aren’t expecting to make much, but it will be nice to get rid of stuff we don’t need. Most couples these days have been established as individuals long before they get married, causing a duplicate of household goods. Darren and I fall in the same category. We have doubles of kitchenware, furniture, movies, electronics, rugs, bedding, etc. Not to mention I’m a huge packrat. I admit, I have essays and tests from college packed in boxes, clothes that I know I will never wear again and lots of whatnots, which I can’t seem to part with. The goal of our yard sale it to get rid of some our duplicate items and have fun doing it.