Thinking

With all wedding crap aside, I have been thinking A lot about life in general today. My whole life. Where I came from and where I am today. If you would of asked me where I would be 10 years ago, at this point in my life I would have been married and have a kid, been done with college and have the house of my dreams by now. I don't have any of that yet. The good thing is I am still alive and 99% healthy so that's a good thing. Realized my dream of becoming a Nurse is unrealistic cause the job requirements I wouldn't be able to perform. So going onto plan B and becoming a Teacher. I love children to death and I have a desired to better people and I am very wacky and fun loving, so I know I would be perfect for the job. In the Spring I will hopefully start School once again if I can scrape up the money, this time for teaching. It took me Five years and 4 careers paths to find out teaching was right for me. Plus in the summers when I am off I can study Art, Photography, languages, and travel far away with friends since Scott has no desire to leave the country.

I Think I will put planning on hold for a bit till after my vacation. I have a lot of house organizing and cleaning to do. I also have to get a game plan rolling to lose weight for the wedding. I think I have like 15 to 20 pounds to lose and I eat like Michael Phelps...lol I have to become focused. some days I just think I have A.D.D but I have to start a plan and stick to my guns!

Should we buy a house first???

So I finally got some kind of response out of Scott about our money situation. A few months ago I had an idea of buying a house first before we get married. First, to have a house to come to after we get married and two, for the 8,000 dollar tax credit to go towards the wedding that ends on December 31st of this year! Mainly for number two of coarse! I mentioned the house thing again the other night and he thought I had one good idea ( I always have good Ideas what is he talking about). The problem is when we looked into it months ago it was a no go of coarse ( nothing ever works out for Ashley does it!). If it was this time 3 years ago I was pre-qualified for a Mercedes for god sakes just by my credit score alone but, since then shopping, parties, and pleasure got the best of me...lol Needless to say my credit sucks and Scott's does even worse from money issues after his divorce a few years back. The situation is this he has the job that makes decent money and I just barely make the credit score. We are not married so it was a no go. In the next week I am going to try to figure this all out. The main goal is to try to fix Scotts credit and fast because all I can do is what I have been doing and pay my cards off slowly. Going through a program for me at this point would hurt me not help me.
Another idea like I said in previous blogs is for me to get a second job. After we go on vacation on Aug. 30th YaY! I will start applying immediately. After we set a date and of coarse pick a permanent venue ( I keep looking and changing my mind weekly at this point) we can set the actually budget. All I can say is if it's not the one I already posted then I will have a sell of all my belongings...lol...Just kidding!


Odds and end of the week....
Talked to that old friend I mentioned before about the photo, florist, dec, etc.... and she said just do some plain old research to find the right price for me. She didn't tell me anything top secret just research them. All I can say is thanks to her with her kind words of encouragement. If it's in my budget she will definitely get an invite. Today I have started the wedding day essential search once again and this time with faith in myself I have found some good prices to start with!

Updates...

I talked to Scott sort-of last night about our budget he said don't worry about it right now. He asked me why I was getting so worked up over our savings and budget. I knew it! It seems to me that he is avoiding the whole budget thing. I just want to know how much we can save each month is that so much to ask?

Anyways, I have been talking to an old friend from Middle School hear and there about planning since she is a wedding planner. Weird who will talk to you in different times in your life. I still have all of our notes we passed in our 7th grade science class...lol I played soccer with her and I think a little bit of softball too she's one of the people I can mention to my father when he asks about ''sports buddies" (as he calls them) that he remembers, since he can never seem to remember any of my close friends names...lol Well getting back on topic. She keeps saying she can save me a load of money. How can she save me money when she wants to get paid too? She just mentioned a place on Facebook today. I looked it up the picture looks good, that's all I know about the place. It has sparked my interests because it's in Naples and since the I kinda wanted to get married in the church I sometimes attend and that's where I live. The Colonial Country Club is a good solid hour from my church. It wouldn't even be a possibility to be wed in the churchthere and then have to drive to the reception an hour away. The CCC has no extra charge to hold a ceremony. So there's plus and minus's to everything. I feel as I am being too picky but, DAMMIT I have never had anything in my life go excactly the way that I want it to go and this time it's going to, even if it kills me.

About 6 weeks ago me and my Matron of Honor went to Davids Bridal to look for bridal party dresses. Found like 5 I really like and I'm only having 3 in my wedding. So basically whatever dress within those 5 that looks the best on each girl will go. I will post picks of her wearing them at a later date.

No Money

S0...
Went through my finances today. It doesn't look good for the wedding of my dreams. I'm a realistic girl most of the time. I actually thought in a year or so Scott and I would be able to save up 10k for a wedding. I'm not looking for a big thing, just something decent that I could be proud of you know. We are strapped as it is with no savings. I guessimated Scott's income and its more than mine so I thought he could save most of it. When I actually sat down and figured the numbers it was a no go. It made me curl up with my two dogs and cry on the couch for about 20 minutes or so. I am looking for a second job just for wedding saving money. The bad thing is Scott is not and he never will be looking for extra income. If we both had a second job even for an extra two shifts a week each my wedding would be a reality. I am the one setting the budget and he is the one enforcing it sort-of. Does he really know we can't afford it or is he just avoiding the whole process till it's too late?
The worst thing of it all is we still only have an estimation on the date sometime in July of next year. We are still waiting on his brother to give us a date. I recently found out his leave from the Army is like a vacation it rolls around 2 weeks after every November unless he is deployed and he wants to take it right before his deployment. So right now I feel most of my Wedding is not up to me, I'm not in control, not even enough control to be compromising with Scott. No control at all.....

Colonial Country Club!!

So, I think I have found a venue to hold the wedding and reception. It's the Colonial Country club. It was one of the adds in all of the bridal magazines I have been purchasing for months now that stood out, it twinkled above the rest. I've looked at few places on my own and a couple of weeks ago we went to the Naples Hilton but, it was way too pricey. Scott and I visited the C.C.C sometime last week and we were both hooked. It's beautiful. Everything is included from the bar all the way to a gourmet cake. I mean the cake they have there is from Masons Bakery and I heard it's the go to for cakes when he mentioned that I was instantly hooked. Once we get a date set and 1500 for a deposit to save the date we will be on our way to a new life together.

First 9 months.

To catch up on the past 9 months of my wedding planning charades here goes:

Within a few days of the proposal my maid and honor and I went to a local boutique to look at wedding dresses with no luck. We had to have a darn appt. So that following week my mother and I went when I had one. Since I have been looking online at dresses for over a year just waiting for this day to come I was prepared with a list and pictures. A few hours and 15 dresses later I found the perfect one. Paying for it was not easy and about three months later and a lot of heart ache my mother pulled through and surprised me by paying for it with all my assesories.

In late November we took Engagement/Christmas Pictures at JCPenneys, they turned out rather decent I say. We sent them in with all of our Christmas cards announcing our engagement.

Since then, I started looking into venues and such for the wedding itself and reception. We found out that our original Budget of 5k is not going to cover the wedding that I would prefer. So with a lot of consideration we are trying to up it to 10k if anyone in our families would lend some decent $.

We still do not have a date set. Scotts brother has recently joined the United States Army. Since he is so close to him, I wanted to set a date convenient for him. Some days I just want to give up and walk right into the court house and say our "I do's" and ironically Scott won't let us. Scott isn't the romantic type and he's sort of a hill billy so he's cheap on everything but, deap down inside he wants me to be happy and he knows I have been dreaming of this day since I was 10. It's hard to organized anything untill an official date has been set as every bride to be knows that is the ultimate "first step".

How he proposed...

The date: 11-13-2008
Place: A Marco Island sailboat. (Cool Beans)
Event: My 23rd Birthday

Scott told me a week before, that he had a big surprise for my upcoming birthday. That's when I figured the only thing it could be was a proposal. I told my Mom, close friends, and some random people at work what was about to happen. What I didn't know was how it was going to happen. He had told me the day before to get off of work early so I did. He wouldn't tell me how to dress or what to bring so I had no clue on the whereabouts of our destination. When we arrived we only had seconds to spare before departure, and boy was I ever surprised (since he knows I have never stepped on a boat before). We were not the only ones on the Sail boat, besides the captain there was 4 old lady's that were vacationing in Naples at the time that grew up together moved to different states but always stayed friends, like one of my favorite movies( Now and Then). Anyways, getting back on subject. We were on the boat for about an hour or so and me having 3 glasses of champagne when he had popped the question, everyone had moved to the front of the deck by then since they had an idea on what was about to happen. He didn't kneel down to one knee or anything (I think because we weren't alone), he just reached in his pocket and said "Will you marry me" and of coarse I said YES.