The Yummiest Chocolate Chip Cookies!

I've been on a huge baking kick over the last few months, and I've found the best recipe for chocolate chip cookies:

Ingredients

* 1 cup butter, softened
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 2 eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 2 teaspoons hot water
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
* 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.
3. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.

(here is the source)

One thing I can say from experience is let the butter soften on its own. I made these around Christmas time and I was in a bit of a hurry so I melted the butter in the microwave. When the cookies were done they were pretty instantly hard and not so good. I made them again last night, letting the butter do it's own thing and they we re absolutely the best! Nice and soft in the middle and just a bit crispy on the outside. It's too bad we don't ever really do cookie exchanges or anything like that at my work, because when I bake most of the time the stuff stays here and we eat it all. So much for running 2 1/2 miles a day...

And so this post has some wedding stuff in it, here is the new veil I ordered:


I won't have the headband with my veil, because I want to have a flower in my hair. Here is what my old veil looked like. I just thought it looked a little too informal with my dress.

So much wedding stuff this week!

Today Ronnie and I went to our appointment with Shutterbooth. I contacted them after the Bridal Show to see if they had any availability on our date, and they gave me a call to go in for an appointment to meet their people and test drive the booth. First I have to say that they are super friendly. The booth its self was very large, so it will fit a lot of people at once and the quality of the printed pictures is GREAT! Sarah had used the company that we were previously going to go with at James' work Christmas party and she warned me that the black and white quality wasn't the greatest so I was pretty worried about it. I'm not sure how well the scan looks, but in person it's crystal clear! We had so much fun in there (enlarge the sample and look at the last picture of Ronnie, I laughed for a good five minutes) that I put down our down payment while we were there! So, we have the photobooth for 4 hours (it came with the prop box, not sure how much people will use them) and the guestbook. They also offered something called "Eventis" that we signed up for. I can't find anything about it on their website, but basically it's something for sharing pictures. What will happen is, our guest can take their memory cards from their cameras and put it in the little computer and all of their pictures from our wedding will go onto a website and a DVD for us! It's SO much more convenient for everyone and I'm REALLY looking forward to it.

Our Save the Date magnets went out in the mail so I think it's pretty safe to post pictures of them now:

I designed the little logo for the front of the envelopes, but not everyone got one with them on there because I had also added our address to them and it made one come back to us (oops) since I didn't have too many extra envelopes, I hand wrote a few. Speaking of handwriting...


I bought this book from half.com today. I figure I have enough time to try to learn calligraphy before the invitations get shipped here. It's SO expensive to have someone else do it that I'd like to learn it myself. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

My mom and I went to our first cake tasting on Wednesday. I picked a smaller place that was closer to Greenfield Village thinking that it might cut back on the delivery charges. The staff was very friendly, but the cake was not so good. I made another appointment with a different place on the 5th of next month so I'm hoping that it will be more eventful.

Here is one of my lovely finds from etsy. I got it for my gown pictures on the wedding day. It's not super sturdy so it will probably be used for something light after the wedding. I think the seller did an EXCELLENT job, it's just so darn cute!

I'm still working on making some socks to match my wedding shoes. The picture is from my first attempt. It came out looking great, but they're a bit tight. I'm pretty far along on my second try and it's going a lot better. Ronnie probably won't wear them for the whole wedding, but I really only wanted them for a few pictures.

ANNND the last thing we got done this week (I told you it was a lot!) was flower pricing! I'm not sure if everyone knows this, but I used to work at a florist. I was VERY worried that the prices for flowers were going to be crazy so I was dreading doing it. We went into the place I used to work at and talked to the owner and she is giving us an INSANE deal on the flowers! I was honestly shocked! Here is the bouquet I picked our for the bridesmaids, except it will be done in yellows instead of greens:
Mine will be the same, only bigger and with all white flowers. I'm so excited and I can't wait! As soon as we have the cake figured out I'm pretty sure ALL of our vendors will be done!

Darryl thinks he's such a man because he works in a warehouse. Well big deal. I worked in a warehouse. Men's Warehouse.

Today Ronnie and I went to The Mens Wearhouse to get started on Tux stuff. We had no idea how early we should start doing this. A few of Ronnie's groomsmen are from out of state and we weren't sure what would happen with them. As it turns out, everyone has until AUGUST 7th to get fitted. Men have it so easy. Anyway while we were in there we ended up getting everything done, I just have to talk to my mom and see if my dad wants a tux. We put him down for one, but it sounds like Ronnie's dad might be wearing a suit.

We started talking about this last night, because Ronnie asked another one of his friends to be a groomsman. Now we have 6! I updated our wedding website last night to add him. Ronnie's groomsmen from out of state are all friends, so they've all been talking about flights, hotels and car rentals. I'm actually surprised at how excited Ronnie has been getting about this!

I had some concerns about the size of the chapel (it's on the smaller side!) so I started looking up ceremonies that have already happened there. I couldn't find too many, but these pictures show some good sized wedding parties and how they were laid out.

Source: A Thousand Words Photography & Kari Douma Photography

I like the second layout with the Maid of Honor and Best Man up top with the Bride and the Groom. I think once Greenfield Village is open again for the season I'll go back into the chapel just to have a look, because pictures can only be so helpful when I'm trying to figure things out.

Today I called our hotels to see about shuttle servies from the hotels to Greenfield Village. The Dearborn Inn offers one, but I need to get with sales to figure out how that will all work out. Tomorrows wedding plans will include putting ALL of the Save the Dates in the mailbox, and calling around to make appointments for wedding cake tastings. My mom is going to help me make (and by help I mean she will probably be doing most of the work because she is much better at this craft than me!) one of my bridesmaid gifts so we're going to go shopping for the supplies this week. Flowers are next on our to do list!

I generally don't make any New Years resolutions. Over the last few years I have made goals (read 100 books, knit 50 things etc) but this year I decided that I would try to run on the treadmill at my parents house every Monday through Friday until the wedding. So far it's been going really well, I've only missed 1 day (technically 2 because I left my car at work but I jump roped at the apartment so I'm not counting it) and I've lost a half inch from my waist!

Thinking about New Years resolutions though has made me decide to actually make one for myself that will last throughout this year:

STAY POSITIVE!!

I think that wedding planning has generally been going pretty well, although there are times when the smallest thing (wedding related or not) will happen and I've been been inclined to lash out on other people. When I get into one of my moods, my goal is to start thinking about chihuahuas in sweaters, because lets face it no one loves them more than me. :D

(isn't she the cutest?!?)

For some (slightly) bad news, Christina (Ronnie's sister), Alexis and my future mother-in-law went out to the David's Bridal in Florida to try on the flower girl dress. When they first showed me the dress, they had it in smaller sizes, but now the smallest is 2T. Alexis will be a little over 2 by time of the wedding, but there is just no way that dress size is going to fit her. I called our store today to see if they had the smaller sizes still, and they said that they think they discontinued them and don't have anything smaller than a 2T in lace. I honestly can't find anything smaller on their website at all so I'm not sure what we are going to do. When I talked to Christina on the phone, we talked about alterations, but David's couldn't give me an idea of how much they would run on the phone. They also told me that it should be ordered over 10 weeks in advance. I'm starting to get a little nervous about the bridesmaid dresses now. I think Christina ordered hers already. Amy has a more fixed schedule now, so I guess I should start trying to round everyone up.

The bridal show on the 17th was an experience! It was INCREDIBLY packed so I didn't really talk to any vendors (not that I'm really one to go asking a million questions anyway) but I did get to bring home lots of pamphlets and coupons. There were lots of photobooth people there, so I'm not quite giving up on getting one yet. I mostly went to look at cake and flower ideas, but there wasn't very many florists there. There was maybe 4 or 5 cake vendors, with lots of delicious cake samples so I'm trying to make that the next vendor we book. I'm a little shocked at how much delivery costs and there are only a few places in the Dearborn area so I think it might be some what of a challenge.

Our Save the Dates for people out of state went out in the mail yesterday. Our invite list has been slowly expanding, so I'm afraid I might have to either order something for anyone extra on our list, or make something. I only ordered enough magnets for people out of state, the wedding party and our immediate family but now I'm not sure if I should just send one to everyone. Our guest list isn't completely finalized so I'm not sure exactly how many more I need to get.

Speaking of the hotel blocks, I booked our room for the night of the wedding and the night before so that way all of the hair and makeup can be done in the hotel. Plus the night before I can leave Ronnie at home and we could have a girls night in there, yay!

Long time no update

It's been a while since I've updated, I've been soooo busy! Ronnie and I have been working midnights, which has been great because we are home everyday, but it seems like we spend a good part of that day taking a nap. On top of that, I've been going to my parents every Monday through Friday to run on their treadmill. A lot of things have been going on though so I figured I would make a nice big post!

At the beginning of this month we drove down to Florida to help Ronnie's parents move, and Ronnie got to rewire some ceiling fans. While we were there we got our first wedding present! His parents got us annual passes to Disney World! I don't think I could be anymore excited! Now we just need to find enough time off to visit more! When we got home, Ronnie's mom called and told us she got us our china too!

Right after the holidays I booked two more vendors!
Our invitations will be done by MaeMae Paperie
Hair and Make-Up has been booked with Deux Adore
The place I had planned on booking our photobooth with is BOOKED on our wedding day. I'm really bummed about it, but they said they are probably building some more booths and would hold my date if they have one done/we don't find someone else.

Speaking of vendors, we recently got Ronnie's dad ordained and he is going to do our wedding ceremony! Yesterday Ronnie and I went to see Justin up at Barnes and Nobles and bought a book that someone on my wedding community recommended. Now I need to sit down and start writing our ceremony. I need more hours in the day...



Our hotel blocks are finally done. We had a hard time keeping in contact with someone at the Hampton Inn, but we finally got the contract signed and everything is set. I printed out some accommodation cards to stick in with our Save the Dates when they go out in the mail (hopefully on Monday) and updated our wedding website with the hotel information.

Tomorrow my mom and I are going to my first Bridal Show. I'm hoping to get a bunch of free cake (what was that I was saying about running on the treadmill?)

On a crafty note, I will be making Ronnie a pair of socks for the wedding that will match my shoes. I made a small mock up on Friday and was pretty pleased with the results so I will post my progress with those once the yarn comes and I get started.

I know there is more that I wanted to talk about, but I think that is enough for today. And so this isn't a pictureless post, here are some pretty hair clips from Tarina Tarantino that I am considering for my hair: