How's this for a carnival venue?

So I seem to have found the PERFECT pink carnival venue!
Ready for this?

Total price for 5 hours? $750! Way less than the 2-3k we've been seeing.

Only con? It is about two hours from my home.

But how could any other venue ever be as perfect as this one?!




It is in a state park so we can have our ceremony outside on the grounds too. We were also able to find an affordable caterer.

http://www.holyokemerrygoround.org/

Tell me what you think!

Game Changer

So I know I've been absent for almost a week now and I'd like to explain why.

15 years ago I was in a bad bicycle/car accident. To make a long story short, I now have braces and really funky looking teeth. I went in Wednesday to have a tooth looked at that was bothering me. They ended up having to pull it because it had been so severly damaged.

I now look like Amy Winehouse and not in a good way. You can see in the pictures already posted on the blog that I already had embarassing teeth even before this happened.

The cost to fix my teeth is estimated between 8-12k. There is no way we can postpone it. I'm in pain and not able to eat normal foods because one whole side of my mouth is now out of comission. Thank God, we had begun saving for the wedding so I can afford to get started on the oral surgeries.  I had the first one on Thursday.

Unfortunately, we cannot afford to fix my teeth and have the wedding.

Therefore, our wedding has been postponed indefinitely. We thought about going to the courthouse route but this idea makes my fiance very sad because he knows how much time I had put into planning this day.

This wedding was never just about my fiance and I. It is the day the four of us officially become a family in front of those who have loved us and supported us through the hard times and the good times. This day means more to my daughter than I could ever put into words. I think postponing the wedding made her sadder than it did me.

But I have (with the help of some darling Bees from WeddingBee) started to put together some sort of game plan to how to save a bunch of money and make this wedding work.

So now I turn to you, my dear readers. What are your money saving tips for how to make this wedding happen? It was slated to happen in summer 2012 so I do have lots of time to figure out ways to make this day become a reality.

Thank you. I appreciate all of your ideas and support.

All for the love of a little girl

Obviously, wedding planning, work, friends and even my dear fiance all come second to one very important person-my darling daughter.

I was 22 when I became her mother. It has not always been an easy journey but we have made it. We always had lots of love, lots of laughs and lots of cuddling :) This wedding is as much a celebration of Annabelle finding her father as it is about me finding my soulmate

Why I still have not picked a venue.

The longer I am engaged, the more venues I love. The Harris Pelham Inn is local, beautiful and affordable.


They host outdoor wedding ceremonies and cocktail hours. There are TWO rooms in the Inn (one downstairs and one up) so you can use the downstairs room for your ceremony if it rains and for your cocktail hour. 


I'm wondering if I can get them to let me have some fun carnival items at cocktail hour (cotton candy machine, popcorn machine) and maybe some small games outside or in the other room if it rains.


How beautiful is this place? What are your thoughts? Can you imagine our carnival wedding here?

What do you think? Hit or Miss?

Ceremony dresses I am lusting after

Right now (and yes it changes constantly) my front runner for Ceremony Dress (CD) is Alfred Angelo's Cinderella.

The bottom is all sparkles!!!

I love all that sparkles.

Next is Maggie Sottero Geneva

Not super sparkly but beautiful none the less. 

This dress is more up my fiance's alley since he wants me to wear a more fitted dress.

I also like the classic elegance of Maggie's Grace Kelly

I am not the kind of person to show a lot of skin so I love the sleeves.

Alas, none of these are quite carnival wedding material are they? I love love love my reception dress but feel like it's not "bridal" enough to get married in.

What to do? What to do?

Any suggestions for dress I can wear to our ceremony? I plan on changing halfway into our reception. My dear fiance does not want a short ceremony dress.

Thanks :)

When a dress makes you swoon

I LOVE this dress.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/54192279/1950s-vintage-light-blue-and-fuschia

I literally cannot stop thinking about it. Isn't it amazing? 

It even kinda looks like cotton candy (in a good way!!)

I love these shoes too although I may need open toed for a summer wedding.

This would be my reception dress. What do you think?

Wedding Planning can wait a day...aka Mommy and Daughter take Boston!

I have felt like a really neglectful mother lately because I have not been spending nearly as much one on one time with my daughter as I should. She went from it just being the two of us to it now being the three and sometimes four of us (we have joint custody of FI's son).  Between work, wedding planning, her school and gymnastics, and oh yeah, we're buying a house, I am just so exhausted and there is so little free time.

So Saturday night I made a pledge to myself not to say the wedding for the next twenty four hours and focus soley on her. We went to the mall, had dinner, rode the carousel (yes there is one IN the mall here) and then cuddled up and watched Ramona and Beezus.

Then yesterday we went to the Museum of Science here in Boston. It is awesome. If you ever come to Boston you should totally check it out. She was obsessed with the new space exhibit that just opened. It was warm out so we even got to take a short walk along the river. She told me it was one of her best days ever :)

Highlights of the Museum of Science (MOS) include the large T-Rex



 The Electricity Chamber (not the real name but it should be)

I will post my own pictures once I upload them onto my computer tonight.

As promised, pictures of beautiful little Annabelle.

At the model display. There is small scale train that runs underneath the giant grasshopper.

Triceratops skeleton and a bit of a diva face :)

Annabelle and I at the space exhibit. Thank you random dude who took the pic for us.

Annabelle amazing the space display guy with how smart she is :)

She even got to wear his jacket

What do you do to keep yourself sane? For me, it's time with Annabelle.