Bachelorette in Boots

This past Saturday, I picked up my sister and we headed to Manhattan for my bachelorette party! We got into town around 2 and after a quick stop at Hyvee, Hobby Lobby, and a place to look at cloth napkins for the wedding, we headed out to my sisters to start decorating and getting ready. Amber had emailed me earlier in the week saying she would do my hair and make up for the night (I love when she does my hair and make up because she's really good). So I am downstairs washing my face so she can redo my makeup and I go upstairs to my dads bathroom for her to do it all and a girl we know was in there waiting to do my hair and makeup. I was SO surprised. I even cried! My sisters are so awesome for doing that for me and Mary did an awesome job!

Once we were all done getting ready, we met the rest of the group at La Fiesta (my favorite Mexican restaurant). We chowed down, had some drinks and then headed to my dads for drinks, dessert, and presents. I got so many cute nighties and Amber gave me my "something blue" because I have been begging her to tell me what it is and she knew she couldn't keep it a surprise till the wedding. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Their stickers I put on the heels of my shoes that say I Do. I look awful in the picture but the stickers are so cute!

After we had some yummy sangria that Amy had made, we went to Willies for a waterfall shot and a drink. We couldn't go to Aggieville without stopping at Willies first!

We ended the night at Aggieville. Most of us hardly ever get the chance to go to Aggieville so let's just say we partied like we were in college :) Shots, dancing, boons farm and 1 of us (NOT me) might have gotten sick (I won't mention any names). My mom was nice enough to stay sober and drive us all home in Amy's swagger wagon were we proceeded to have a slumber party at my dads. I was the party pooper that went to bed at 3am, the rest of the group stayed up till 5am! What can I say, I like my sleep.

Thank you so so much for all of you who came to help me celebrate. I had so much fun and I am so lucky to have each and every one of you in my life. A special thanks to Amy and Amber for putting my adorable party together. I keep telling them they need to go into business because they do such an awesome job. And Amber, thanks for cleaning up on Sunday. Some of us were to hungover to get off the couch...

Shining up my cowboy boots!

This weekend is my bachelorette party and I am so so so excited! I can't wait to eat, drink and hang out with my closest friends and family. We'll all be heading to Manhattan on Saturday to eat at La Fiesta, drink, hang out at my dads, party it up in Aggieville (and probably some other bars on the way) and then have a huge slumber party at my dads!

After brainstorming things to do for it, I immediately crossed off P&L. It's overrated and just way to expensive and crowded. My sister and I searched for small concerts to go to (we loved going to country concerts when we were in college. Randy Rogers all the way!) but after searching high and low, we gave up on that idea but decided to stick with the country theme. My sisters idea: Bachelorette in Boots. I LOVE it! I've been wanting to order cowboy boots but can't ever come up with an excuse to order them. I can go ahead and check that off my wish list. Those babies are sitting out and ready to party this weekend!

My sister ordered these koozies. Their perfect

And wanted to get me this cowboy hat veil but I declined the gracious offer :)

Check back next week for pics of the big shindig.

Bumps in the road

Oh what a lovely wedding week it has been (insert sarcasm). It started Monday when the DJ called and said "your wedding is in exactly 45 days..." I threw up in my mouth when I heard those words. How could we possibly only be 45 days away?! I swear we still had like 5 months :) I am an all time procrastinator and I thought I would change when it came to my wedding but nope, here I am 42 days away from my wedding and I still have sssoooo much to do. I blame nobody but myself but it sure has made for one stressed, grumpy, losing sleep, Sarah.

Monday night I came home to our centerpieces in the mail! We are using Manzanita branches for some of the centerpieces and I thought they would be bigger and fuller. I talked to the company and they gave me a pretty good deal on more branches. Now we just gotta figure out how to mount them to a base and bling them up!

Then came Tuesday, the worst day thus far in terms of wedding planning. My bridesmaids almost all got their dresses on Tuesday and 50% of them are messed up. Either too small (come to find out the dress runs small), the bottom of the dress was crooked, there was fringe hanging from the bottom of the dress, etc. I wasn't sure I wanted to blog about this but I started this blog so I could have memories of what went into planning the wedding so I couldn't leave this out. I should have known this was going to happen when I ordered the dresses from another country! The dress at stores was over $200 and I didn't want my bridesmaids spending that much so I googled the dress and found the cheapest place (still $150). So after emailing the company (remember I said they were in a different country so calling them is not an option since I am sleeping when they are at work), they have said they will do whatever needs to be done to fix the problem. So, we'll be ordering 3 whole new dresses and they will be giving us some money back for the other 3 that will need to be altered at the bottom. I might have had to go all bridezilla on them but at least they are fixing the issue. There is no way we could have gotten new dresses from a different place with this short of time!

We also decided this week to scratch the cake lady we had planned on using. She was going to charge $900 for our wedding cake and Derek and I decided there was no way we were willing to spend $900 on a cake! So a family friend of Derek's family does cakes and thankfully said she could make our exact same cake for way cheaper.

We have also been having issues with our reception venue. Menus keep changing, prices keep going up, and the wedding coordinator is all but helpful. We finally had to contact someone else there and finally today we have gotten what we want, for the price we want. Huge sigh of relief.

Derek went and got his passport and I am going Saturday to get mine. I'm going to be taking shots on the plane after this wedding is all said and done. No planning, no thinking, no working, no Internet, no phone for 1 whole week. COME ON MAY 2!

I swear I really am excited for the wedding. I'm just regretting not having a wedding planner who could help me with everything. My family and Derek have helped a ton but it would have been easier to have a non family member that I could just say "take care of this" to. But we're in the home stretch now and although I'm sure there will be a lot more bumps in the road, I know we can get through it and all that matters is that Derek, myself and the pastor show up at 4:00 on April 30th.

ABC's of me

I saw this on someone else's blog and decided to play along.

A....AGE; 24 but will be 25 in May (not going to lie, I had to stop and do the math to figure out how old I am)

B....Bed Size; Queen but I have been begging Derek to let us get a king. Both of our dogs sleep with us so a queen feels so small

C....Chore you dislike; um all of them! I wish I had the money to hire a house cleaner. But since I have to pick just one, toilets. I mean who really LIKES cleaning those? Gross!

D....Dogs; Two shih tzus who are freaking adorable and spoiled rotten

E....Essential start to your day; Well...first I pee. Doesn't everyone?? (right there with ya Abby)and then during the week I brush my teeth and shower but on the weekends I brush my teeth and go sit my butt on the couch

F....Favorite Color; I like to decorate with red but I like to wear black and gray (i'm boring like that)

G....Gold or Silver; Definitely silver

H....Height; Roughly 5'2'' give or take a few inches

I....Instrument you play; Never have, never will. I make fun of Derek because he used to play the drums. Geek :)

J....Job title; Nanny. Last day is April 15th and then who knows what. I have an interview next week for an assistant banquet coordinator at a golf course that I am super excited for!

K....Kids; Just our 2 dogs for now. We are hoping to add to our family later this year!

L....Live; Overland Park, KS. Never thought I would live in KC but I absolutely love it!

M....Mom's Name; Jana or my niece and nephews call her nana jana

N....Nick Names; Sarah Cynthia Stout (what my grandma and grandpa call me), 2 names I hate and refuse to say and I can't remember what else. I used to have a ton when I was little

O....Overnight Hospital Stays; Just once when I had an asthma attack. I think it was a couple nights but I wasn't very old and don't remember

P....Pet Peeves; Chewing loudly or with your mouth open

Q....Quote from a movie; "I like you, but your crazy" (Old School)

R....Righty or Lefty; Righty

S....Siblings; Tony is going to be 31, Amy is going to be 29 and Amber is 27. We are all 2 years apart. I usually have to think of how old one of them is to figure out how old I am.

T....Time you wake up; 7:15 if I get ready and 7:30 if I don't (I hang out with 1 year olds so half the time I come in pajamas)! I try my hardest but can't ever sleep past 7:30 on the weekends either

U....Underwear; 99% of the time I wear a thong

V....Vegetable you don't like; Broccoli and peas. I have just recently started liking green beans and asparagus.

W....What makes you run late; The dogs! I hate when I take them out and they decide they need to smell every inch of grass before they can pee. Or not being able to find something to wear but I rarely have this problem since I come to work in pajamas

X....X Rays you've had; I broke my left arm when I was in 1st grade. My brother did it (can you tell i'm the youngest and like to tattle)

Y....Yummy food you make; I usually leave the cooking up to Derek but i'm pretty good at macaroni and cheese and pigs in a blanket :)

Z...Zoo animal; Monkeys! Their so cute and funny

El Dorado Casitas Royale

Derek and I couldn't help but daydream of our honeymoon on this cool, rainy day here in Kansas. I know Derek's parents are interested in going to this resort so I thought I would devote a blog to our honeymoon!

We leave the Monday after our wedding (May 2) to fly to Riviera Maya, MX and will be staying at El Dorado Casitas Royale. Our travel agent has been numerous times and says it's one of the best vacations they have been on. My friend Cortney went a couple months ago and loved it as well. We knew we wanted an all inclusive and the ocean but we didn't want anything super expensive. After looking into many destinations our travel agent suggested, we looked at El Dorado's website and they had us at "adults only, 13 pools and 8 restaurants."

They have many different room options but since it's our honeymoon, we decided to upgrade from the standard room and get the swim up room. Derek looked today at the weather for May and they said the average temperature is 88. HEAVEN! I had him look at when their rainy season is and it looks like we should be clear of rain (fingers crossed). Their rainy season isn't until around September. So as I sit here on this yucky day and stress about wedding details, I am drooling over pictures of our honeymoon and the endless amounts of frozen margaritas I will be consuming.

First pic is our swim up room. Hope we don't have neighbors or their friendly because I plan on being in those chairs alllllll week

Next month is THE month!

I can hardly believe that next month we will be getting married!!! I never thought I would be engagaed for over a year but I am SO glad we waited because there is no way I would have had all this planning done. We went to Manhattan last weekend and my sister Amy, her husband Josh and the kids joined us for a weekend at my dads. I was happy they decided to come to town because I of course missed the kids but I was really excited for Amy to come to my florist appt with me. She knows way more about flowers then I do!

We got in about 8 Friday night, hung out and were in bed by 10. We were all up pretty early on Saturday so we all got around and ready and I dropped Derek off at the basketball game before Amy and I headed to my florist appt. Papa Long was so excited to have Paxton and Harper to himself! I had met with the florist once before and lets just say we changed everything but my bouquet. I am happy with the new flowers Amy helped me pick out and can't wait to see it all pulled together at the wedding.

By the time we finished there, it was time for me to pick Derek up at the basketball game and head to our appt with our pastor. This was the 1st time Derek had seen the church and I hadn't seen it in years. We both love it and can't wait to officially become Mr. and Mrs. Derek Lorson there! The pastor was very nice and the church is so beautiful. Has everything I ever wanted, center aisle and wood pews! Time to work on the details of the ceremony such as the readings, vows and music.

We finished up there and were starving so we headed to Willies and split a meal since my dad was making dinner in a couple hours. We both missed Willies food so we had to atleast have something! After Willies it was on to pick out tuxes. This process was way quicker then I thought it would be. I was nice and let Derek do most of the picking out but I definitely had my say as well. I thought he would be able to put it on for me to see but they didn't have everything in store so I am kind of happy it will be a surprise on the day of the wedding.

Picking out tuxes was the last of our wedding appts for Saturday so we headed out to my dads for dinner and family time. There's nothing better then just hanging out at dads and spending time with the family. Amy and I went through old pictures for the wedding video and were laughing so hard at some of the pics of us when we were little. Even Paxton and Harper would look at them and laugh. Dads girlfriend Kelley came to town on Saturday so we put Harper to bed and let Paxton have some alone time with them while Josh, Amy, Derek and I went back to Willies for some drinks. It was so sad to be at Willies and hardly know anybody there :(

Sunday we were up early again and Derek and I went to church. We figured we better attend at least one service before we get married at the church. It was a good service and the pastor was very happy to see us there. I was sad I missed my dads biscuits and gravy though. Derek and Josh had been wanting So Long so we met there after church. Amy and Josh went back to El Dorado from there and Derek and I went to dads to pack up and get the dogs before meeting with our cake lady before heading out of town. On our way to meet with the cake lady, we passed by our DJ place and noticed a limo bus outside of it. We called them yesterday and got a better deal then our original limo from Topeka! http://www.lightituplimobus.com/

Cake appt went well. I was finally able to come up with an idea for the cake so we worked on all the details, flavor, icing, etc. Click on the link to see the cake ladies awesome work.

Overall we had a very successful weekend with family and wedding plans. I am feeling much more ready for the big day after all these appts. Few more details and we should be about set!