The Ring Bling Arrives!

I know I talked a bit about ordering our wedding bands, but I didn't take any photos of my own so all I could do was find some that looked similar. I'm happy to report that our bands have finally arrived and it's time to show off the real deal!

Here they are in all of their glory:

Shhh. I took a sneak peak of my wedding band on when Mr. Coyote wasn't looking. I absolutely love how perfectly my two rings go together.

And of course, I couldn't help having a mini photo shoot with our new bands:

Mr. Coyote discovered that my fingers are so tiny that my band fits perfectly inside of his:

I am so in love with our bands and have been trying SO hard not to take them out of their secret hiding spot to try them on again and again and again. I still can't believe that we will be exchanging vows and rings together in less than two months!

What are you doing with your bands until your special day? Do you try them on over and over again like I do?!

...And They're Off!

Sure, the Kentucky Derby was last week and we all got to watch a bunch of horses run around in circles and see some ladies wearing crazy hats:

Image via ABC News

But the main event was the official mailing of the Coyote invitations. Woooohoooo! I went the semi-DIY route with mine and yes, they came out beautiful, but holy cannoli I was ready to just start a bonfire with them in the backyard after some unfortunate shenanigans.

Thankfully all turned out well and on Cinco de Mayo Mr. Coyote and I walked a big ol' box of invites over to the post office. I was super excited to be done with them, but I will admit that I was having a bit of a nervous breakdown about actually mailing them out. Before we left I called the post office to make sure that they would hand cancel them for us. They assured me they would and when we arrived the postal worker (who was very nice to a very neurotic bride) simply told us to leave the box with her and that she would take care of them. I eyed her up and down suspiciously, my fingers still gripping the sides of the box that contained weeks of my blood wine stains, sweat and tears. I interrogated her to make sure that the postage was correct and that they would indeed be hand canceled.

Not my proudest moment.

I'm still going to wait a bit before the big reveal, just to make sure that everyone has received them but it won't be too much longer as we've already received our first few responses! I'm taking that as a sign that all of my guests are sitting home right this second drooling over their beauty (as good Coyote guests should). But for now, here's a bit of a sneak peak for ya:

A Place for my Cards

One thing you should know about me is that I am a borderline hoarder. I hang on to things for way longer than I should and it's so hard for me to throw things out - especially if they have some sort of sentimental value to them. Because of this I knew that I wanted to keep the cards I received at my bridal shower. There were so many beautiful cards and many of them had sweet heartfelt notes inside. I didn't want to just throw them away! But the only other alternative was to put them in a box that would hide on a closet shelf somewhere for years to come.

I knew there had to be a better option so I decided to bind them into a book. It was actually a really simple project that I was able to finish in one evening. First, I took all of my cards and stacked them together. I took out the largest card and, using a piece of cardboard, made two cut outs that were the same size as my largest card. They acted as the front and back covers of my card book. I wrapped the pieces of cardboard in patterned paper and punched two holes on each side:

And then decorated the front cover with some scrapbooking stickers to make it all pretty-like:

Next I stacked up my cards and hole punched them, making sure to align them with the holes I had punched in the cardboard:

I originally tried to use some keychain rings I had laying around:

But it soon became clear that I had way too many cards to go this route:

#FAIL

I sat around for a while trying to think of how else I could bind my book together when it hit me. Ribbon. Duh. I strung some thin ribbon through the holes, tied it up and...

My little card book is done! Now I can just pull it out and flip through my shower cards any time I want:

I can't wait to repeat this easy little project with my wedding cards! Are you a hoarder like me? What did you do with all of your cards?

I've Got the Power!

I showed you all the shower details last week, but I wanted to take a few minutes to share some of my favorite parts of the day.

As I said earlier I came early to help set up so I was there to greet guests as they came in. My bridesmaids were under strict instructions to greet everyone and take their gifts to the gift table, but I found myself saying, "Hi, how are you? Thank you so much for coming. It's so good to see you again... Ohmigosh let me take that huge gift off your hands!" And so, I schlepped a lot of my own gifts to the gift table (and was scolded a few times for doing so). What can I say? I was just trying to help!

It actually worked out perfectly because I was able to chat with everyone and really feel like I got to spend time with all of my guests. Especially my nonna who lives three hours away and originally wasn't going to be able to attend. At the last minute she was able to come and I was so happy to see her again:

After a few minutes, I was chatting to -- somebody, I don't even remember who -- when the coordinator turned the lights off. It was a bright shiny day and with the light streaming in through the windows it actually didn't make that much of a difference, but I did think it strange that the coordinator would just shut the lights off completely. I looked up at the ceiling and made a joke about it being time to sit down (you know, like when they dim the lights in a theatre...Okay, maybe not so funny. Whatever.), but after a few seconds a different set of lights came on. I cracked another bad joke about making sure I looked good in this lighting. Apparently I make really awkward jokes when I'm the center of attention.

Turns out our venue had a full blown power outage and the second set of lights had been kicked on by their generator. It was super windy that day so my only guess is that a tree knocked down a power line somewhere because we later found out that the whole vicinity lost power!

The coordinator ran out to tell me that everything was fine, the food was done cooking (thank goodness!), but we'd have to serve it a little earlier so it didn't get cold. Fine by me! Honestly, the power outage was just a little reminder that no matter how well you plan for the day things WILL go wrong. It reminded that  I can't control everything so the best thing to do is just enjoy yourself and embrace the chaos.

Five minutes later the food was out and we got to eating! I don't have photos of the food, but we had a great buffet with roasted chicken, cavatelli, eggplant parm, potatoes, veggies, salad, rolls, oh my it was delicious! Directly after lunch we served the cake:

And then it was time for gifts! I have to admit that it was kind of nerve-wracking to have all those eyeballs focused on me and I kept thinking to myself, "Uh, I hope I'm doing this right" (because there is totally a right/wrong way to open gifts). I found myself torn between wanting to rip the packages open as quickly as possible (because I know how boring it can be to watch someone else open gifts) and wanting to acknowledge the gift/gift giver and not just toss it off to the side and grab the next one.

Thankfully all of my bridesmaids divied up the tasks and everything ran like a well oiled machine. BM P was behind the camera snapping photos, while BM J called out bingo words and handed out gifts to the winners. BM C handed me gifts while BM D (aka FSIL) stole all the bows from me and made one of those ridiculous ribbons hats:

(I will wear your stupid ribbon hat as long as you keep this glass of wine full!)

MOH D sat next to me and wrote everything down for me as I opened:

And MOH A couldn't be there, but her momma was. And she happened to have a picture of MOH A in her wallet...

So, she was with us in spirit!

I will try not to bore you guys with too many more photos, but I have to share some of the gifts. Obviously anything with wine will put you on my BFF list and give me crazy eyes:

Seriously! Vino is the way to this girl's heart:

And then there was the gift that made me cry:

Remember the espresso machine that I wrote about not once, but twice? Well due to my registry stalking I knew that someone had purchased the coveted machine for us, but I didn't know who. Turns out my girls found out about my obsession (hmm.. I wonder how?!) and pooled together to purchase it for me. It was hands down the most generous and unexpected gift I received that day.

(A not-so-hot photo of me with my favorite ladies. Apologies for the glare.)

My most important tip is to wear something comfortable. I had agita over what I was going to wear that day and in the end I went with the dress and shoes I felt most comfortable in. I am SO glad I did because I was standing a lot and maneuvering around in weird ways as I lifted, unwrapped and moved gifts around. Oh and on that note... Wear a good deodorant! Between the nerves and the lifting I was a hot mess (literally). I know it's hard to tell from the photos since I'm pale to being with, but my face was super flushed the whole day and I was so hot. Thankfully I recently started using Secret clinical strength and it saved me from an embarrassing underarm situation. I know, I know, TMI, but you will thank me later!

Other than that, just try to soak in as much of the day as you can. My shower came to a close way too quickly and all I can say is that if the wedding day goes by as fast as this I am SO in for it!

Have you had your bridal shower yet? How did it go??

Top 10 Signs You're Obsessed with Wedding Planning

With less than two months to go I've been noticing some very psychotic minor changes in my behavior. It seems like my whole world has been taken over by wedding planning. For example, Mr. Coyote recently made a comment about how disheveled our apartment looked. I just let out a huge sigh and told him it would probably look like that from now until mid-July. I giggled after I said it because even though I can be a little messy and scattered at times I'm usually pretty good at keeping my home in order. I started thinking about how much wedding planning has consumed me these past few months and came up with a (very tongue-in-cheek) list of wedding planning overload signs:

1. You are the mayor on FourSquare of not one, but two, neighborhood Michaels.
2. You find a way to spin every conversation into something about wedding planning. Example: Your boss is leaving for the day and tells you to have a nice weekend. You lament about how much you have to do and sit him down for a 45 minute discussion about the pros and cons of using twine versus ribbon to decorate your favors.
3. You DVR every wedding show imaginable and then watch them while completing wedding crafts on your couch. You start to think those girls on Bridezilla are not that crazy and even start to sympathize with some of them. (Just kidding, those chicks are batshit insane!)
4. You wake up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat because you had yet another nightmare in which you lost your wedding bands, the florist gave you orange and yellow flowers when you asked for pink and purple, no one showed up, etc.
5. You refer to your wedding party and family as your MOH, BM, FMIL, or FI when talking about them in person.
6. You actually know (and care about) the differences between white, diamond white, eggshell and ivory.
7. You may or may not have downloaded this app to your smartphone. Or this one.
8. You wake up every morning and text your bridesmaids, your parents, and your cousin's girlfriend's sister's dog with the number of days left until your wedding.
9. You check your mailbox three to four times a day for response cards even though the mail carrier has already delivered the day's mail.
10. After your ten millionth fight with the glue gun, you seriously consider scraping the whole thing, getting on the next flight to Vegas and eloping.

Has wedding planning has taken over your life yet? Share your telltale signs with me!