Happy Birthday, Blog!

For those of you faithful readers, I'm sure you remembered this, but in case you didn't - today is our birthday! The Project Chick blog has been up and running since this very first, infant post 1 year ago today.

It's only fitting that the 1st birthday should come only 2 days before the culmination of my biggest project yet (also, the project that's kept me from doing other projects).

Moving forward after the wedding, I want to really get the blog off the ground. I've managed to gain a nice number of followers using The Project Chick as my Twitter handle and I'd like to keep it growing. I'm even known by my Alma Mater's president as only "The Project Chick," so it would seem that the name sticks. :)

I'm sharing my goals so that I'll have a better chance of fulfilling them. I want to get some graphic design help and grow out of the Blogger-provided template. Content-wise I want to share the projects that I am planning and will plan for my first year of marriage. Cooking projects, organizing projects, any project I undertake in order to make mine and Kevin's lives easier, I will do my best to document and share with you.

How's that for a birthday celebration and plan for the next year?! Sure beats spanking The Project Chick! :)

4 Days: 4 Ways to Destress

It's getting down to the nitty gritty and we're doing the last minute details and finishing up any pre-wedding tasks. Needless to say, my mother and I who are both pretty high-strung at times are dealing with some major stress. We've got phone calls and questions coming from every angle, it seems like we keep finding out we owe someone else money and we're meeting ourselves coming and going. So at this point, I'm going to let you all in on a little bit of super secret Sheila advice.

Here are 4 ways I've found to stay relatively stress-free:

1. Pamper yourself - Yes, I realize as the bride, we automatically think we're entitled to it, but expertly time it so that you're getting a facial 2 weeks prior, getting any waxings done 1 week prior, and I'm scheduled for a hair appointment tomorrow and mani/pedi with my ladies on Thursday.

2. Remember the Groom - Since most grooms are relatively uninvolved in the stress of week-of wedding execution, hanging out with them is a surefire way to escape it for a little while. Go on a dinner date or just go do something un-wedding related. Mr. K and I went to dinner tonight and Sunday night after church we just went down to the beach and hung out on the pier for a little while. We even practiced our dancing. :)

3. Drink up! - Okay I know you're probably heading for the wine bottle, but really I mean drink up the pure H20. Water makes you feel better and look better and if you're too busy to eat, chances are you are also dehydrated. So keep a bottle of water with you while doing those last minute errands and DIY projects and you'll thank me later.

4. Just let it go - This is coming from someone who's an absolute bonified control freak. And I'm the daughter of one, too, so we are 100% hell-on-wheels when it comes to this wedding and our vendors and what we expect of pretty much everyone. That being said - I recently came to the realization to just let it go. I decided early on in the wedding planning process what things were my MUST HAVES. Once I got those things, the decision-making became easier. I've had to let go and realize that the right people for the job are already doing the job (like, Sheila, maybe you should let the caterer decide which foods should go beside each other in the buffet line) and I told myself that there are quite a few things that if they don't get done, it won't be the end of the world.

I'm obviously not completely stress-free, but I haven't pierced anyone through the heart with a shepherd's hook yet this week so in my book I'm doing okay. :)

If all else fails, I'll encourage you to enact the same back-up plan I have... MEDICATION. I've got a little bottle of Xanax just waiting for me to enter meltdown mode and my family and friends will thank me later for indulging

5 days: 5 fun facts

Today I worked my last day as Sheila Humphrey! I'll return after 2-weeks of wedding and honeymoon time as Sheila Kowalewski! I was thinking I should post quickly tonight.

We're at our 5-day countdown and as I was finishing up our wedding programs I discovered 5 fun facts:

1.There are 3 bridesmaids with the middle name, Marie. Including me, there's 4 of us. Sheila Marie. Amy Marie. Jean Marie. And Nicolette Marie. Thanks, mid-80s, we're all super glad to have such a unique middle name! :) (Did I mention my Aunt Suzy and future mother-in-law Shelley are also Maries?)

2. There are 3 groomsmen with the middle name, James. That's also Kevin's grandpa's first name.

3. Kevin's grandmother's nickname was "Tillie" - our photographer for the wedding is Tilley Photography. ;)

4. We will have two priests at the wedding: Father Henry McInerney, who baptized me on November 16, 1986 and Father Paddy Mockler, who married my parents over 32 years ago. They're both Irish and they will both make you laugh. Fact.

5. Our altar server, Johnathon Goff, was my homecoming date my senior year, I had a crush on him for a little while in high school... He's now in his 4 year studying to become a priest.

10-day Forecast: Plenty of Sunshine

"Plenty of sunshine" headed my way ;)

So I know I'm not alone when I say this, but hitting the 10-day mark IS A BIG DEAL. It means that Mr. Groom sent me first thing this morning the accuweather forecast for #October27 (yes, we have a hashtag, please use it if you tweet from the wedding).

There happen to be nearly a million reasons I love October, and the weather is just one of them. I'm not trying to jinx anything, but the weather is just perfect this month. Here in South Mississippi, our Halloween weather ranges from needing a long-sleeve t-shirt to being able to wear shorts, so I know that no matter what, it. will. be. perfect.

Things are coming together quite well. All of my last minute etsy and online orders have been shipped and are on their way to my eager hands.

In case my wedding wasn't enough of a big deal in my life, I've also been planning (at work) the christening of our biggest ship yet at the shipyard. It's a pretty big deal and I'm living off of protein and coffee these days. Check it out here, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr for Navy/shipbuilding/patriotic related posts. You MIGHT know the girl who writes some of that stuff. ;)

Anyway - I have to keep posts short right now since I have eleventy billion things to do right now - currently taking a break from choosing my bridal portrait, sending my MOH the pics for rehearsal dinner slideshow, and writing thank you notes - BUT I do plan on updating a few more times before the wedding.

Did I mention I'm madly in love with the groom and seriously cried last night while we were at the church and the organist played the Bridal Chorus? Yep. It happened. 

Love to you all. XOXO.

Dance Dance Dance

Okay friends, I'm pretty sure I've already asked you this, in fact, I know I have... Way back then, yes, I did. But that was a long time ago and not very many of you gave me your input so I'm putting it out there again:

What music choices do you think are MUST plays or DON'T YOU DARE plays?

Comment on this blog post and tell me what you would like to hear for both slow dances and fun fast dances. I really want to know what it'll take to get you, yeah you, the one reading this blog, to get up and dance with me. Because that's all I really want! :)

Annnnnd GO!

Power of Social Media: Praise for David's Bridal

If it's not obvious to you by now, then let me just say it: I am all over social media. I Tweet, I pin, I'm a tumblr, I Facebook, I'm LinkedIn, I try to Google +, I love YouTube and you know I love my Blogger. I track my every move on Foursquare and I photograph every move I make on Instagram. Oh and did I mention I do most of those for work, too? Sheesh. I started playing with social media back in the days of Xanga, LiveJournal and MySpace, oh and I was all over AIMing back in the days of dial-up internet.

So it should come as no surprise that turning to social media to solve (some of) life's problems is kind of second nature to me. Anyone remember this post, you know, the one where I said a few unfavorable things about David's Bridal. I had a terrible experience with their Hattiesburg store and didn't hold back telling you, my faithful followers, all the gory details. I had better experiences at the Mobile store; hence, that's why I got my bridesmaids' dresses from that location.

Okay, that was way back months ago. Fast forward to 6 weeks out from the wedding and my bff/bridesmaid Jean, who's just announced her pregnancy, comes to the revelation that her bridesmaid dress may not fit on October 27. No judging, y'all, she's got lots of changes happening to her body while she plays host to another human life. Anticipating drama at David's Bridal, I sent one little tweet to @DavidsBridal... I could have never imagined the response I received. Feast your eyes, my friends:

 

Needless to say, I was amazed at the quick response of their Corporate Social Media person. I understand that it's impossible to get to every tweet to a large corporation's Twitter account, so I was pretty excited that I got some attention from them. Not to mention the fact that Jean was treated like a  VIP when she arrived, they rolled out the red carpet, gave her a fake belly bump to try on and everything. True CUSTOMER satisfaction.

So I'm here to say this: I owe David's Bridal a big grown-up-I-mean-it-for-real apology. As far as I'm concerned, they've righted the wrong I experienced at the Hattiesburg store. They helped one of my bridesmaids glide with ease through an experience that could have been stressful, keeping her happy and thus, keeping me happy because I'm not worried about if she's going to be comfortable in her dress.They truly used social media to represent their company's value of customer service and considering I'm a social media practitioner myself, I'd call that a success any day of the week.

So for the naysayers who see Social Media as nothing more than a waste of time - (which I doubt any of them are reading this blog, otherwise they'd be hypocrites, right? WHAT ARE YOU DOING READING MY BLOG?) - one little half-joking tweet sent by me on my lunch break saved my pal Jean and I both a bunch of headaches. So there. :P

Have any of you had pleasant experiences with a company as a result of reaching out to them via social media?