Working Mom

On Sunday Zac and I took Zane to meet our work families. We stopped at my work first for some Sunday brunch. Zac and I enjoyed a yummy breakfast and had several visits at our table as my coworkers stopped by to say 'hello' and get a peek at our sleeping boy. I fed Zane in the parking lot before we went into the restaurant so he was out for the whole visit. It was really nice to see everyone after being gone for the last six weeks. There were a few new faces, but mostly familiar ones and plenty of open arms giving friendly hugs.

Now that Zane is three weeks old (and quickly approaching four weeks!) my maternity leave is halfway over and I have to start thinking about going back to work. During our Sunday brunch visit I was asked several times when I would be returing. One of the managers I share the office with asked me if I was really coming back or if I was just saying that I was coming back but really staying home.

As much as I would love the opportunity to stay home and take care of my beautiful baby boy, I will be returning to work in just a few short weeks.This is not something that I'm excited about. Don't get me wrong. I like my job. I have a set schedule, weekends off, and I work with some amazing people. I am just not looking forward to going back to work and leaving my little Zane.

In a perfect world, I would be able to be at home but unfortunately, that's just not possible right now. It's very important for our family that Zac and I both work. After all, we have a beautiful home that we would like to keep and a son to take care of. My job is necessary not just for the income it brings in but because our family has insurance through the company. Without my job we'd lose the income and would cost ourselves a great deal more in medical bills.

So in a few weeks, I'll be headed back to my forty hour work week. I have my four week postpartum appointment with my OB on Wednesday and he should give me the exact date that I am permitted to return to work but I'm pretty sure that it will be on Thursday, June 27. (This also happens to be the eight year anniversary of my first date with Zac.)

There were a few things that Zac and I had to think about with my return to work. The first being childcare for our Zaney boy. Our schedules tend to be opposite so we actually shouldn't have too much of a problem in this area. I go to work at 7:00am and typically get done at around 3:30 - 4:00pm. Zac works nights and usually goes in at 4:00pm. Thankfully, Zac and I both have jobs that are pretty close to our home so our "commute" is no more that ten minutes. As long as I am able to work my eight hours, clock out by 3:30, and get home quickly, Zac can leave to work without any worry about being late and we won't need anyone to watch Zane. If for any reason I have to stay later to finish some work and can't get home in time for Zac to get to work, my mother has made herself available to come over and cover for us until I get home. Though I have a set schedule and work Monday through Friday, Zac's schedule is less predictable and consistent. He usually works weekends which leaves two days during the week that he has off. Thankfully, this means that a few days a week we won't have to worry too much about when I get out of work.

My biggest concern with heading back to work, is maintaining my goal of having Zane recieve breast milk until he's one year old. This goal was already challenged when we had to supplement every other feeding with formula when Zane was one week old. We are now down to one bottle of formula a day and I want to be sure that this number doesn't increase.

In order to see this goal through while I'm at work I know that I will need to have a good stash of breast milk stored away. I talked to some of my mama buddies, read articles, watched Youtube videos, and tried to get as much information and advice as possible in regards to pumping and storing breast milk. I bought a breast pump while I was pregnant and this week I started to use it. I try to pump a few times a day and my goal is to have at least 100oz of milk stored in our deep freezer before my first day of work. Realistically, if I continue to pump the same amount of ounces that I have been I will probably only have about 80oz frozen. My hope is that my supply will increase as I continue to pump and that I will save more with each pumping session.

I will need to pump at work not only to keep up my milk supply while I'm at home with Zane but also the make sure that there is enough milk on hand for Zac to feed our little guy while I'm at work. This has been my biggest area of concern. I don't have a private office to myself. Instead, I share the office with ten male managers. The office door is locked and can only be opened by key holding staff (managers and myself) however, there are at least four managers on duty who come in and out of the office while I'm at work. In addition, staff members frequently knock on the door and need to come into the office throughout the day so really all the lock does is require me to get out of my seat often to let staff in or tell them that no manager is available.

I will probably be pumping twice during my eight hour shift and will obviously want a private, quiet space to do so. The office will probably not work out. The amount of people that come in and out of the office throughout the day will make it a little difficult for me to feel comfortable enough to pump successfully. I could put up a sign on the door that says something along the lines of "do not enter; pumping in progress". (Or something other wording asking for privacy in a nice way.) I would need the office to for around thirty minutes each time I pump and it might not be possible to lock managers and staff out of the office for this amount of time during operating hours. Unfortunately, there currently is no other room in the back of our restaurant that is private, comfortable, and has a lock so I am not sure what alternative plan could be worked out. This is something that I will need to discuss with my management team before returning to work.There are other factors that could come in the way of reaching the goal of giving Zane breastmilk until his first birthday, but I don't want going back to work to be the reason that we aren't successful.

While, I'm not the happiest to be headed back to work, especially so soon, it's what needs to happen for our family. Maybe one day it will be possible to only work part time or stop working all together to stay home and take care of my family but for now it's back to the grind. On the positive side there are a few good things about working. Going to work I'll be contributing to our family, getting some grown up conversation outside of the house, and setting an example for my son about hard work.

Wolf Lakes Open House

Saturday, March 10th was the open house event at our wedding venue, Wolf Lakes Park. Zac and I were excited to see the venue again, walk around the grounds, and perhaps get some decorating ideas for the ceremony. Zac was mostly excited to eat the food. (We were going to have an opportunity to try a sample of our food options so that we could pick out our menu.)

The weather was pretty perfect and the day turned out to be really fun. My parents were happy that they went with us since my dad had only seen photos of the Wolf Lakes on the venue's website. After walking around and seeing the place in person, he said he thought it was absolutely beautiful.

Here are a few pictures from the day:

Zac and I arriving at the venue. They had all of the couples take a photograph as soon as we walked in.

The linen options were displayed on a table by the entrance. Zac and I have selected the brighter shade of yellow for our table napkins. At the wedding, these napkins will be displayed on the tables in the glasses just as they are seen here.

We chose Barb's Cakery to make out wedding cake. Here is their cake display:

One great thing about the open house was that we were able to see what the ceremony area looks like with the seating set up. The Lakeside venue, which is where our ceremony will be held, has angled seating rather than straight rows. We have decided not to have the seat covers and sashes as you can see in the picture below. (It was an additional expense that we couldn't justify.) So our seating at the ceremony will look a little different. 

The alter had some beautiful decorations set up by our florist, Brown Bunny Flowers. We love the vases on either side filled with baby's breath. The decorations gave us an idea of what we could do for the alter on our wedding day.

This is the aisle that I will be walking down. In May, the plants will be full and the walkway will be covered in greenary. I'm a little nervous about the steep walk down in my wedding shoes, but thankfully I'll have my dad to lean on during that walk.

The buffet line during the reception should go very quickly. The venue has a newly built double sided buffet that should allow for our guests to get their food without a long wait.

Throughout the open house, there were a few presentations by Doves Away. The releasing of the does was pretty amazing. 

One bride and groom couple were asked to help with the demonstration.

Though we won't be releasing doves at our own wedding, Zac and I thought that it was quite the sight from the audience.

This is the fountain on the English Garden side of the venue.

It's a beautiful spot for photos.

We loved the decor that was set up at the English Gardens altar. The yellow flowers hanging from mason jars covered in lace...amazing!

One thing for our guests to look forward to on the wedding day are boat rides around the lake.

After walking the grounds of the whole venue, Zac and I headed back to the Lakeside altar to see if we could incorporate the decor that we had seen on the English Gardens side. Don't we look puzzled? :P

The whole day was wonderful! We successfully picked out our menu and got a bunch of ideas for decor. In addition we were also able to talk to a few of our vendors who were at the event. We will be meeting with our photographer in just a few weeks to take care of some final details. Just 7 more weeks until the big day!

Rehearsal Dinner and Post Wedding Brunch

As the wedding gets closer so do the many events that come along with it. In addition to all of the fun events I discussed in the last post, we also have the rehearsal dinner and the post wedding day brunch to look forward to.

Last year when we first began planning our wedding and picked a day we settled on the first Saturday in May, which turned out to be Cinco de Mayo. At this point we were planning on having a backyard style wedding at Zac's grandparents home. When we eventually decided to have our wedding at Wolf Lakes Park instead we found out that Saturday was unavailable. So instead of a Saturday, Cinco de Mayo wedding, our big day will be on Friday, May 4th.

This change of date actually worked out very well for us. Not only is having a Friday wedding less expensive, it also frees up our Saturday to have a post wedding day brunch that embraces the theme of Cinco de Mayo. A themed brunch will be a lot more fun than a themed wedding. We're hoping that the brunch will give our out of town guests the chance to mingle and relax before heading home.

We have tons of ideas for decorations and food for the brunch. Zac and I are excited to have the party at our house the day after the wedding. The backyard is getting a little makeover (which I will be sharing a little later) and we plan to set up as much as possible before the wedding. Our goal is only to worry about the food and drinks the morning of the party.

With the brunch details taken care of, the only event left to think about was the rehearsal dinner. Zac and I didn't give it much thought at first. We figured that we would have everyone join us at a restaurant. Going through the list of restaurants close to our home, we chose Daily Grill as our favorite. It has such a great atmosphere and we had a great time last year at our engagement dinner.

The weekend of Zac's 30th birthday, we threw out the restaurant rehearsal dinner idea, when his mom, Tammie, came up with a much better plan. Zac's party took place in our backyard with tables set up on the lawn underneath our tree. Tammie suggested that with a few more lights added to the space, our backyard would be perfect for the rehearsal dinner. Zac and I completely agreed.

To go along with the Cinco de Mayo weekend, we'll be having a mexican cantina themed rehearsal dinner. The best part is that since our post wedding day brunch has the same theme we don't have to worry about decorating our space for more than one party. Since our wedding is on a Friday, our rehearsal will be the night before. Our Thursday will be spent setting up tables and chairs, and decorating for the mexican cantina rehearsal dinner that evening. Our table and chair rental should last for a few days which should allow for us to leave everything set and ready for the post wedding day brunch. We want to make things as easy as possible on everyone who is helping us out with these events and having the rehearsal dinner at our house will definitely make things easier.

I can't wait to share all the details of these events. Just another 56 days until our rehearsal! Ahhhh! :)

We Have Chair Covers

This morning, Zac and I had a meeting at Maty's Chair Covers to discuss color choices and fabric options for our reception chair covers. It seems to funny to have a meeting about such things but different colors really do change the look of the space so we had a meeting. We decided to have white covers so that we can add a little color with the sashes and not overwhelm the space. Our choices for sashes were between satin and organza fabrics. Though we liked the look of a satin sash better than the organza ones, they only had yellow sashes available in organza, so that's what we chose. Our table linens and chair covers are white so the yellow will add a nice springtime color for our May wedding. So our chairs will be a yellow version of the ones pictured below.

We thought the overlay on the table pictured above is really pretty and goes with our color scheme, but opted not to do overlays. There was also the decision of draping. Maty's has done several weddings at our venue and they carry the materials to add drapery over the head table (seen in the picture below). It looks nice but we don't think it's necessary. The venue is pretty enough without it.

We are thinking of doing some drapery on the aisle... more on that later.



Plus One-s and Children

I've been a little under the weather this week which is why I've been absent. I'm starting to feel a little better and hopefully will be fully recovered by tomorrow for the fourth edition of Bridey Night. :) The girls will all be coming to my house tomorrow night for some more wedding planning and chit chat.

At the last Bridey Night, the big topic of conversation was the issue of children and plus ones on the guest list. None of the brides in attendance were looking to have a few hundred people at their weddings, but realized that the guest list is a sensitive subject. Nobody wants to leave family members and old friends feeling left out.

Zac and I discussed our guest list pretty early on. We needed to get a rough estimate of a guest count so that we could see what our venue budget would need to look like. After reviewing the list and going over costs we made the decision that we could not be including children in our big day plans. It's not that we don't love little ones, its just that since we both have big families, and friends with kids, including all these children significantly increased our guest count to a number we weren't comfortable with. So we opted to make our wedding an adult only occasion. Plus we think our parent friends would enjoy a night to cut loose and party with us, though we hope that finding babysitters won't be an issue.

We also decided to mnimize plus ones. Though traditionally, all single guests should be given a plus one on their invite, Zac and I decided that our wedding was not the time to meet people for the first time. We figured that a wedding is a time to spend with people you know and love; family and friends that are a part of your lives. Those people are already getting an invite so there is no need for additional plus ones.

Not everyone will agree with our decision to minimize our guest count but we hope that all in attendance will have a great time.

Having trouble finalizing your guest list? Dealing with the issue of plus ones and children? What did you decide? I'd love to hear all about it.

Every Penny Counts

Last night Zac and I were checking our wedding funds/budget to make sure that we are still on track. Everything is looking good, and as long as we don't do any unnecessary spending we'll continue to stay on track. Though this is true, it's still nice to have some extra money, so we decided to pull the change out of our piggy banks and see how much we had.

We have two banks; one that I painted at Color Me Mine a few years back and the other was a gift from my time at Fresno READS. Change from a piggy bank may not sound like it will help much but since one of our piggy banks was filled to the brim and the other was halfway full I thought that we might have a good amount of money hidden away.

After going around the house and gathering change from jars, countertops, and the cars I sat down to count it all. I slowly started pouring the money out and organizing the coins into different bowls I had grabbed from the kitchen.

Once all the money was organized the counting process began. I was surprised by the amount of money we had sitting on our shelf in the office. So how much money did we have in coin?

$177.73!!

One hundred, seventy seven dollars, and seventy three cents! (Which doesn't include the 50cent piece that is stuck in one of the banks.) I was so pleased. I thought that maybe we had around a hundred dollars (there were a lot of quarters stashed in those banks) but I didn't think that it was closer to two hundred.

Rather than putting the coins back into the piggy banks, I placed the separated coins into their own large plastic bags. Keeping them separated will help us out in the future.We plan on rolling the coins and taking them to the bank rather than dropping them in a Coinstar machine so that we can make sure we get every penny we've saved.

Since we've managed to save this much money without even being aware of it, we've decided to keep tabs of our change from now on. Any change from cash purchases will go right into one of the pigs. We're curious to see how much we can save from now until Christmas. I'll keep you posted!

So Much To Do

It's official...

...the save the dates are all addressed, stamped, and on their way to our guests! I can't believe that it is already time to be sending these out. Time has seriously flown by. We started out with 16 months to plan and organize, and now we're down to 6 1/2 months!

With that being said (and my last wedding nightmare still fresh in my mind) it's time to get down to business. The other night I sat down and organized a list of projects that still need to get done. I took a mental trip through our venue as if I were a guest and wrote down every project that came to mind:

The lists above (which don't include decorations like table centerpieces or items for the altar) may seem a little crazy! I promise I'm not a madwoman who thinks she needs to complete hundreds of projects. I wrote a list of items that I would need underneath each task to make my future shopping trips a little easier.

Though my project list is not three pages long, there are still quite a few things that need to get done and I plan on starting a few this weekend. With two days off a week and not having to worry about homework or exams, I should have plenty of time to get projects completed.

Here's the rundown:

- Guestbook : We're planning on creating a photo guestbook. A nice bound journal or sketchpad + polaroid camera + photo corners = perfect.

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- Ribbon Wands : Our venue doesn't allow guests to throw petals, or confetti after the 'I do' (it's on the lake and items could easily blow into the water polluting the area and causing harm to the wildlife). To make for fun photos the guests will have ribbon wands to wave after the ceremony.

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- Tissue Packets : Packets of tissue for "Tears of Joy"

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- Birdcage Card Box : I already have a little birdcage to put cards in. All that I need to do is create a cute banner or sign.

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- Program Fans : Since our wedding is in May and it's possible that the temperature in the central valley will already be climbing, we thought that fans would be a better option for our programs than traditional booklets.

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- Seating Chart Frame : Our seating chart will be posted on a big board rather than given to our guests via escort cards.

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- Flip Flops : We will be offering our heel wearing guests a more comfortable option for the reception. I started this project this summer and I'm happy to say it's nearly complete.

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- Menu : Each table will have a menu with food options. I haven't decided if each place setting will have a menu or if there will be just one framed menu....it all depends on how much time I have.

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- Drink Menu : I found a really cute chalkboard sign at Goodwill (I used it for Zac's 30th birthday...check it out here and here) and we plan to place it on the bar with the drink options.

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- Bathroom Basket : A cute little bathroom basket will be in each of the bathrooms with items that guests might need throughout the evening.

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- Games : Games will be set up on the lawn for guests to enjoy during cocktail hour. We'll need to get together a few more games and create a chalkboard sign to put on the lawn.

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- Candy Buffet / Dessert Bar : Though we have tons of jars and glassware for each of these tables (shown here), we still need to get small favor bags and take home boxes for the goodies.

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In addition to those projects, we still need to finalize ideas for centerpieces and start buying supplies to get everything in order.

So what do you think, did I bite off more than I can chew? Any other DIY brides out there have a lot of projects to complete? If you had a DIY wedding did you need to cut down on some of your projects before the wedding day arrived?

Bridesmaid Dresses: Mission Complete

A few weeks back, I decided to change up the bridemaid dresses and find an alternative to David's Bridal. (Read all about that here.)

I loved this picture I found at explore.dream.discover. (formally From Portland to Peonies).

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The dresses all went together without being too matchy-matchy. It didn't look cookie cutter bridesmaid and I really loved that. My girls are all different and I didn't want to mold them all into one bridesmaid look.

This picture found at Love and Lavender was really inspiring!

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Seriously, how beautiful are these dresses all together?! I found the dress on the far left (in the picture above...it's the middle dress in the picture below) at Charlotterusse.com for only $36.99 . This gave me hope that I could find cute dresses for my girls that wouldn't break the bank.

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I love the combination of fabrics and the addition of lace into the mix. Jacin over at Lovely Little Details (if you don't already follow LLD you really should!) came across these lovely vintage looking dresses at Forever 21 for under $30 each. The dresses are all very different but they really go well together.

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I found that I could easily find inexpensive vintage looking dresses in a blush or nude color palette. Finding dresses in shades of grey was a more difficult task and I was afraid that I wouldn't find what I was looking for. This picture I found at Ellie Loves caught my eye.

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After a little searching I found the dresses at J. Crew. Unfortunately the dresses were each around $230 and that really wasn't the price point I was looking for. I kept searching and finally came up with this little combination:

I was super happy with all of the dresses and loved the way that they looked together. It had a little bit of everything; a little lace, some chiffon, and a variety of grey hues. The best part about the dress selections was that each dress was less than $50. (In fact, the lace dress on the far left (found at Dorothy Perkins) was only $18.00!)

It was so exciting to finally have the dress situation taken care of. After deciding not to go with the dresses from David's Bridal, it had been three long weeks of dress searching, and now it was finally finished. Just as I was about to send the links to the girls for each of them to find their dresses however, both the lace dress and the one strap ruffle dress were out of stock!  Only moments earlier the dresses were available and their links had no notice that the dresses were low in stock. I couldn't help but laugh, but the frustration of the almost finished dress search led me to call it a night, turn off the computer, and do something else.

The next morning, with a day off from work, I sat back down at the computer, fully intending to start looking for more grey lace dresses for Sarah, and another inexpensive one shoulder grey dress for Amanda, when instead, I decided to do something that I should have done from the very start: I put the picture of the girls' dresses next to a picture of my dress. While looking for the bridesmaid dresses, I was so focused on making sure that they looked good next to each other that I neglected to check that my dress went into the mix as well.

As much as I loved the flowy chiffon, and vintage lace look, it didn't look so fabulous next to my dress. I'm keeping my dress a surprise until the big day, so I can't post a picture of what it all looked like together, but I will say that my dress is satin. If my dress were more flowy, chiffon, or lace, it would have gone together pretty nicely. Instead it looked like two different looks trying to fit together.

Though I was disappointed that the vintage look wasn't working out, I was so grateful that I now had a direction to go in that I knew would look fantastic. Finding satin dresses for the girls would be a much easier mission than my previous search. Before the morning was up I had dresses chosen for all the girls, googled coupon codes (I found codes for Sarah's and Kim's dresses), put together a little image so that the girls could see what they looked like next to each other, and emailed my ladies with all the info.

So here it is! The final product! Here are the dresses that the girls will be wearing on the wedding day.

I'm really pleased with the end result. I love the different shades of grey and the fact that each girl has their own look while still coordinating. I also like the look of the satin dresses next to my dress a lot better than the lighter, flowy dresses. It took a little while to get here but in the end I think it worked out perfectly.

Did anyone else have second thoughts about bridemaid dresses? Love the look of different dresses in a similar color palette? Find dresses for super cheap? I'd love to hear your experiences.

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In other bridesmaid news, I have been working on their gifts that I plan to give them at the rehearsal dinner. As my girls are known to check out this blog from time to time I can't reveal the details of the gifts but I guarantee that you'll see pictures of them after the wedding. I'm very excited about them and I hope the girls love them!