Day 41 - After the before photo

I lost another 1.1 lbs and realized I best take a before photo. This is after having lost 13 lbs. I hate these photos and love them at the same time. I wish I had taken a current photo 13 lbs ago which I'm sure if I looked I could find something to suffice. However, this will have to do. Now to keep melting away so I can have something to compare it to.
I am now currently the same weight I was at halfway through my pregnancy. Which is why I rely not only on lbs but also on inches. I might be the same weight as when I was pregnant but I am FAR smaller! (see photos if you do not believe me)
Photos are under the rolls of fat ;p

Day 26 - Literature in the making

Today my dear friend Jenny surprised me with a wedding planning book. So excited was I to crack that baby open that I have stayed up WELL into the night writing out the silliest details. Making sure every question that I can answer has been answered.
Let's see, Name of bride? well I think I know that. Name of groom? Oh that one is easy. Date of wedding? Where was the proposal? Who will be the bridesmaids? Done, done and done. Wow, makes you feel so productive even if it is just stuff you already knew.
For all other details that I'm not prepared to commit to in ink I have added paper with jotted ideas. I'm so excited to fill this book with inspiration but I'm not prepared to rip up my bridal magazines.
So for now I'll fill out a paper with a guest list for every event. Three different colors, one for those invites that are mandatory, the people I have to invite whether I like it or not. One color for the bridal party those vip. Lastly one color for those people we'd like to invite but aren't necessary and so might have to be filtered through later. Oh look, I've created a rainbow, a bridal rainbow of chaos! Only I will know why Mary Jo is written in blue while Mary Ellen is in red. Hopefully I can remember tomorrow morning. 

Day 23 - We'll get there in time

Well if I ignore the direct results with the wedding I can feel slightly productive. It can be so frustrating to know what you need and not be able to get it yet. I can't control our income but I can control our output and my weight and so I have focused on that.
I've began to tighten those budget strings. I'm doing it slowly because I know if I go too fast we'll only fall back and go further in debt or at least back to square one. This week we have cut up and canceled (completely paid for) 3 credit cards! That felt great! Still a way to go but it's a start.
I've also been very active and consistent with my fitness pal and have lost another 2.1 lbs. Even with David's christmas potluck today and my friends daughter's birthday party I managed to stay under my calorie goal for the day. Strong will and determination will get me there.
For a laugh David received a bridal magazine for his christmas present from work. He was given a gift card too but I loved the bridal magazine gift. There was a little post it stuck in it that said, "David I think you'll look good in this one."
Of course I was excited to get home and look through that magazine for inspiration. :) But I'm the bride, of course I'm supposed to be excited to flip through thousands of pictures of dresses that mostly look identical!
There was a little part of me that said, "wouldn't it be funny if I ended up in the dress the co-worker had quickly and likely blindly stuck a post-it to?" but of course the dress selected was not the dress I was looking for. 

Day 16 - Riding nerdy

Today, in exasperation, I began driving around downtown looking for a venue. Did I mention I did this in a google car? I can't afford to spend the entire day walking around downtown looking for a venue and we don't have nor can we afford a car. So I resorted to cruising around with my mouse until I saw locations. I would then jot them down to later pull up their website to research what they had to offer.
I of course did this during naptime so it was all under strict time constraints.
Armed with a notepad of questions to ask each location I pushed forward in hopes to find that one spot that fit within our criteria.
What did I learn?
That some places are flexible but most are expensive and none or perfect. Nothing narrowed down today. Really wish we had a house, I'd just plan to have it there. Honestly I just want a friend with a house and a big lawn at this point to say, "hey, why don't you have it here?!" and I would say, "That'd be great! THANKS!"

I want to be close to where we are having our photographs taken because I don't want to make guests wait long while we have our photographs done. Other than that I mostly just want the place to be affordable while still making me gasp, "THIS is where I was meant to be married." I don't want to fall in love with a place until I know it's within my budget and offers everything I desire. Until then I will continue riding in the passenger seat of google mobile and cruise on a mission for cyber venues. 

Day 15 - Photographs last longer than money

I'm down 7.7 lbs so far and if I go with some of the photographers I'll be down 100 lbs pretty fast as I'll be too broke to feed myself. I was looking at Jeff Cooke's photography today and I nearly wept. I saw this one photo that IS what we want for our photos. At least the location. The moment I saw the clock in the background tears came to my eyes. I knew instantly I could not afford this photographer and confirmed it through communication with him later. $4000 as a starting cost. Well geez that'd leave me $1000 for our venue, dress, flowes, tux, cake etc. I don't know how we're going to make this work. I'm trying so hard to stay under $5000 but with a venue costing likely $2500 and a dress being at least $600 photographer is at least $2000 flowers $300 and you haven't even touched the rings yet nor the marriage license, the videographer, the dj, the license. This is so frustrating. I have the wedding planned I just don't have the how to pay for it planned.
I need to walk away now or I'm going to cry.

Day 15 - Wedding invasions of the dream

YAY I have lost a whole 3.1 lbs more and have thus far been gaining nothing back. Not more than .2 of a lb which I lose the next day and then some. I'm loving watching this weight just melt of.

I've also learned that if I have a long conversation about wedding stuff with Kathy just before bed... it results in a dream of sleep overs where we are planning weddings. Well that was silly. Her wedding is coming up soon though and so we certainly had a fair amount to talk about.

No much else to update about, <3 your hippie bride.