J & S and a couple other deliveries

Remember those letters I searched high and low for, complained about not being able to find what I was looking for in a post, and then the next day found some?! Well last week they came in the mail and are now sitting on our bookcase in the living room waiting to be used on July 23rd. They look awesome!

My shoes came in the mail yesterday and the candles arrived on Saturday so my "wedding spot" down in the basement is piling up! Although, this doesn't even compare to all that is at my parent's house. Thank goodness for free storage!

And then there were 14...

I had an absolute blast this weekend with the family! We ate tons of delicious food, laughed, played outside, went to bed early due to exhuastion from the day's event and mangaged to create more memories along the way. Here's the group!

Sadie and Andrea wrote Sadie's speech for the wedding including lines from every movie they've seen together or laughed about in the past. (I'm thinking hoping it was a fake.) You never know what's going to happen when those two get together as seen in their leg wrestling match here.

 Devin and Joe were best friends all day and played DS games or 'Devin jumps/hangs on Joe'. Yep, Devin was pretty much connected at his hip. The guys raced their sleds down the hill and we're still not sure at who won.

Brody and Grandpa were best buds playing the hat game or making noises at each other. I think Grandpa has a new best bud:)

Overall, the Micke family Christmas was such a great time! I may be bias but my family is amazing:) P.S. Joe and I finished bottling our wine! 150 bottles are now sitting in my parent's basement aging to awesomeness!

Celebrating Christmas (again) this weekend!

Every year my parents and siblings celebrate Christmas together after Christmas because it simply works out better with everyone's schedules. Usually someone has to work or has other family Christmas celebrations to attend to. So our holiday tradition is to have "when we can" and this weekend is it!

And I think I'm even more excited because everyone is spending the night at the house. Usually my siblings come for the day and head out late but we're going to have a full house! My nephews are at a fun age and Devin is so excited to play with Joe. Last night I got a text from my sister asking if Devin should bring both of his DS's in case Joe wants to play too! I know we'll have lots of food, many laughs, old stories to share and new memories to make. I'm hoping the weather warms up a bit too because we always spend some time sledding and playing outside.

Christmas 2009

Before Joe and I can partake in all the Christmas activites though, we are finishing up our wine! The bottles are in, all three kits are ready to go and after tomorrow morning we'll have the wine done! Another thing to cross off our list:)

Happy Weekend!!

Shoes! I found shoes!

Although I was on a mission to find my something blue in the form of shoes, I've had little luck in the blue shoe department. I thought for sure there would be something as this year's summer shoes have started hitting the shelves, but still, no luck. Yesterday as I was browsing through DSW's website, I found these cute, blush pink flats with flower details on the top of the toe. I headed to the mall, found them, walked around in them for a bit, and decided I didn't like them as much as I had online. They rubbed the inside of my foot the wrong way and even looked dirty. Ugh.

Lo and behold as I was walking to see if anything sparked my interest I came across these...

Meet the SM Heaven Glitter Flat, in ivory. It definitely goes against what I originally planned on getting but I really do love these shoes! The hint of glitter makes them perfect for a wedding (hey, I can be a little girly on my wedding day!) and because they're flat, I'll be able to walk all day and dance all night in them! Of course they didn't have my size so I decided to look online and find out where I could pick these up. To my luck, no DSW stores in the area had them available but they were having free shipping on orders of $35 or more!

I quickly placed them in my shopping bag and proceeded to check out. After applying my $10 off reward that I had plus the code for free shipping, I couldn't figure out why I still wasn't getting free shipping. The light bulb came on in my head as I was talking to a nice lady from DSW this morning and I realized that I was no longer over $35 after my $10 off. Thankfully, since she was a nice lady from DSW, she honored my $10 off AND the free shipping making my shoes only $29.95. Perfect!

Now that I have shoes I can start dress alterations. But first, I'm checking shoes off the Ultimate To Do List!

Wha-bamm!

Candles = Check, Organizing = Still Checking

Yesterday was another day filled with tackling the ultimate to do list and creating more spreadsheets. Apparently I have found a new love, "ORGANIZING" (please use Oprah's enthusiasm like when she is sharing her list of favorite things). I started a 'Wedding Expense' sheet that helps us keep track of everything we've bought so far or any estimated costs we may have or know of. It pretty much looks like this: $$$$$.



Going through the wedding bag and pulling receipts



Things we have crossed off so far:

- linens (and for cheaper than we anticipated)

- water pitchers (again, found them cheaper)

- One ferry ride for our honeymoon,  need one more

- Getting lots of addresses (about 85% done)

- Compostable Cups (but we can't order these too far in advance because anything we don't use can be returned for a 100% refund within 101 days of purchase. Sweet!)

- And candles - found 216 votive candles for under $50! It's all in the wrist - er, or how you find online coupons!

Bring it on Ultimate To Do List!

The Ultimate To Do List

Yesterday I spent the majority of my day doing a little wedding organization. I had three separate Excel spreadsheets going; one for the guest list, one for the to do list, and one for the song playlist, each list with its own rhyme and reason, bolded words and headings.

I started asking for addresses from friends and family and am continually putting those into the guest list as I get them. It's crazy to see where everyone is moving to for jobs and life in general. We have friends and family in DC, Chicago, Montana, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and more places to come I'm sure.

My big task was creating our Ultimate To Do List which has everything we have left to do until the big day. However, just when you think you're done and have everything you need, there seems to be something else to add to it. I organized it by Ceremony, Reception, Attire, Honeymoon, Decor, etc so whatever we have left to do for say the ceremony, like programs and music, it's under the ceremony heading. Even pens for the guest book is on my list!

I was so excited to show my new wedding project to Joe, once the list was up on the computer I started rattling off everything we needed to do. Call the pastor, pick ceremony readings, how about the wedding cake?! This is how his mind works:

So he worked on booking the ferries for our Honeymoon last night. I guess it's true that women are more multi-tasked oriented:) So I'm working on a few things today off the list - finding compostable cups, candles for the mason jars, and the on going guest list.

200 days to go!

2011 - The year of the Shelerud wedding!

It's our wedding year everyone and the countdown is officially on! There is no time to casually wade through the list of things we have to get done before the big day and it is now time to take action. 201 days people!!!

Joe and I rang in the New Year at home with a few of our closest friends. Then New Year's day consisted of sleeping in, laying on the couch, getting off the couch to rent Toy Story 3, and then back on the couch to finish off the night. In other words, it was glorious and a much needed break from our busy lives.

Yesterday, Joe and I scoped out a possibility for the Groom's dinner in Chanhassen where our hotels are located. It was a good option but we're going to search around for a few other locations to have on hand. Even Joe is jumping on the "to do" list bandwagon - whoo! Joe asked all his groomsmen and ushers for their measurements so we can hopefully catch the 'buy one suit, get one free' deal going on at Men's Warehouse. And he wants to help pick out how our invitations are going to look:) Love it!

This is my last week off from school and I start up again next Monday. It's been a nice break but I'm ready to hit the books again! So this will be the week of wedding research... Look out 2011! Here we come!!!!!