DIY PROjects!

I made my laundry lists of DIY projects for the wedding.. at least every thing I could think of at 1am in the morning. I did order my monograms and glassine envelopes this weekend. I waiting for the STDs, and fabric swatches for the BMs dresses, and my gable boxes for the OOT boxes to come in. A sample of the invitation design should be emailed to me sometime during the coming week.

liners OR wrappers

so at this present moment we are serving cupcakes instead of the traditional wedding cake at the wedding. so now i am trying to decide do i want cupcake wrappers or liners or neither. it's a hard decision. i know for sure that i am making monogram cupcake picks like this:

But now I am deciding should I get cute liners OR wrappers like these:

right now i am thinking a solid colored liner that coordinates with the monogram picks! NO wrapper. I think that's what I will do.

rehearsal dinner update

as you know i have been on the search for possible rehearsal dinner locations and with the help of my man of honor we found a place and a theme. of course i ran the idea by future hubby and he loved it. i was a little worried if my FMIL would go for it because it is not the typical and i wasn't sure if she wanted to cook and the such but she is on board with the plan !!! yea! i was so excited when FI gave me the news so we are having BEERS, BURGERS and BOWLING!! I LOVE IT! i think its fun and laid back!

we are planning to get BP shirts for everyone and now i am currently searching for the bargain deals on customed made t shirts for our BP to wear to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. this will make for some very cute photos and how i LOVE pics. i plan on designing the shirts for the bridal party. i want them to be funny but then i may put on of our monograms on the from and their title on the back. here are some funny ideas.

these are hilarious

my dad would love this t shirt!

here are some of my ideas for the rehearsal dinner

exhibit #1 invite

now i would do a ketchup bottle or something...

exhibit #2 centerpieces

now this isn't really my stee-lo (style) but you get the overall concept

i could use mason jars or empty condiment bottles

exhibit #3 cake

how cute is this!

getting organized....

I am attempting to get organized for the weddding... I have all my wedding thoughts together in my mind so I decided to make myself a little (read overly ambitous) list of things to complete this month,

Who's Invited???

When we 1st started planning the wedding I made a guest list of everyone on my side that would be invited to the wedding... and now that it's time to starting figuring out who makes the cut.. I am a little stressed. Originally we made an agreement of the TOTAL # being 175 that includes US and BP. I began to think about how to divide this number up. I wanted to do a DW however FI did not. I wanted a small intimate wedding with close friends and family and puff your done. Well he wanted to invite everyone he has ever known and people he does not even know so I think in his mind if we could have 500+ people he would do it.


My perspective of it is that weddings are an intimate moment b/w a man and a woman and I think that the only people who should witness this are people that will be there for you through your marriage and through life period. I just feel like it's about the man and woman and your Creator. I think that marriage is sacred and I feel that a wedding should only involve people in your "inner circle" so with that said I really didn't want to have a bridal party or any children attendants. Just me and him and the officiant would have been cool with me. But FI wanted his friends to be in the wedding so we negotiated and kept our attendants under 6 so I am cool with that. I digress....

After reading a few articles on guest lists and how to divide and conquer I found this one insightful.....

A factor that will come into play when creating your guest list is who’s footing the bill. If your parents are major financial contributors, then naturally they’ll have more say in who to invite. If you’re paying for the majority of your wedding you will have more control of the guest list.
Some questions to ask yourself when creating your guest list:
- Who are the important people in our lives?- Is it necessary to invite co-workers?- Are we including guests simply out of guilt? (i.e. They invited you to their weddings.)- Are we including guests that we haven’t seen within the last year?- What if a guest does not have a significant other. Are we allowing guests to bring dates?- Do we want to invite children?- What about extended family? Is it necessary to invite second cousins and great auntsI


At this present time no kids unless they or their parents are in the BP. No guests for the singles. He and I with the help of our parents are footing the bill.

I think that we are going to divide the total # by 3 in our case I'm going to use 180.
180/3=60 people for the parents ( mine and his) and 60 people for US.
I plan to take OUR 60 and subtract 30 ( 60-30=30)
The 30 is for BP + guests
That will leave us 30 remaining to split in half (30/2=15)
That will leave us 15 guests a piece...
Viola...

That's perfect for me for a few of my classmates. But FI may need a more!

How did you decide on your guest list???

I got STD's....

not the kind that make you itch but the kind that makes you smile from ear to ear and y'all know I have a big smile :o}. Like most brides I knew that I wanted save the dates and I knew I wanted it to be a represent our individual personalities. I wanted at least one picture and I wanted something FUN! I wanted magnets. I went to FI for ideas and he came up with the PERFECT idea and I LOVED it... What was his great idea? A SCOREBOARD I know your thinking A WHAT? A s-c-o-r-e-b-o-a-r-d!

I loved it b/c it so us! He loves sports especially football and basketball so I felt that it represents him and I love themes... so this was right up my alley!

So I had the idea and now I needed someone to create the concept for me so I started looking for someone that was affordable and yet creative well that led me to Jonezy @ http://www.thebuckeyebride.blogspot.com/. I explained to her what I wanted she created this:

Cute? Right! (of course i had to blur out our names this is the internet) But it needed a little tweaking so after a few revisions this what we ended up with....

are you ready....

without further ado.....

introducing our STDS....

Our names have been changed.

I would also like to thank ebonee @becominghismrs.blogpot.com for inspiration.

What do you think? Now I'm just waiting on them to be delivered and until April to mail them off. I am working on a cute way to package them. Will keep you updated!

holy smokes...

remember here when i 1st started planning and i was looking and FG dresses well since then i made a decision and i went over to etsy to check out the pricing on the dresses well since last summer the dresses have increased 2-3x the amount. they were ~$20 NOW they range from $50-$90 BUCKS! talk about inflation. i love them none the less but i may have to look into an alternative route rather than etsy.

the dress shown here is etsy: tututcutebycandance -$50

here is the look i am shooting for:

i like this is a nice alternative to the floral pomanders!

Bridal Luncheon??

As a little present to my BM's I plan to host a little bridal luncheon for us! As you well know I LOOVVVEEE themed parties so this one is an ENGLISH TEA PARTY!! We will all get together and put on our big hats and have tea and cucumber sandwiches! I plan to host this little party 2 weeks before the wedding. I plan for it to be just me and the girls and our mothers. So last summer I brought all the items for the party and the gifts for the girls so now I am have been contacting venues. Now I was going to have it in our backyard and that's still an option if we get our privacy fence this summer like planned. But that's if I can't find an affordable venue. I know a place that would be perfect for the event but it's a little pricey. Here is one place that I found and suits my budget.

Introducing Nonnah'sThis is the main dining area

This is the Gallery another dining area!

I am not sure if it will work with my color palette. But of all the places I have contacted the are on the top of my list. I have to get my head out if the clouds and go study. Until later!!!

invit-hations pt 2

Ok so I have been so obsessed with deciding on invites lately that it is taking over my every thought. I dreamed about invites last night. I am neglecting my school work and household duties because of this now let me tell you this is not an easy decision. Like most brides I like pocketfold invites I think that whey are super cute. However like most brides I don't like the cost that is associated with them so there begins the dilemma. I don't mind DIY but with my schedule I don't think that I have to time to actually order the paper and make the pockets so then that leaves me the option of ordering blank pocketfolders.

Well the best deal that I could find was at http://www.cardsandmore.com/

This is A-7 H Copper -50 for $39.99. About .80/pocket before shipping. If I went this route I would have the invites and enclosures designed which ranges b/w $45- 65. I LOVE this design for inspiration...This is from a Aprillinc on Etsy.

Then I would need outer envelopes and the best deal I found was @ http://www.envelopemall.com/%20A-7A-7 Jungle Green on clearance 100-$10 bucks!


I still would need the invites printed with VP and get the materials for the belly bands so after an estimated cost analysis this project would be around $255.00 / 100 invites. $2.55 per invite not including postage.

Well I not 100% sold on pockets b/c it's a little too trendy but so are birdcage veils and I am definitely getting one so I decided to look at other options.

• I ran across these beauties on Etsy as well. Jujubee is the seller.
  

The petal fold is cute!


Here is the back it's blurry sorry :(

Her work is awesome right? RIGHT!!! I have contacted her to see if she can work with my small budget.

I ran across these as well and thought this vellum envelope was super cute!

I got the image from weddingbee!

Then I thought back to when I interned with a wedding planner and went fishing for some cute seal-n-sends. The thing about these type if invites is that they are inexpensive but a lot of the time they are also not all that cute. But I did stumble on these and I think their pretty dapper.

So the question is what have I come up with that will fit in my tiny budget. At this present moment I have 2 ideas.

• Pocketfold invite kits like these: Micheals or AC Moore 30-$39.99 but with a 50% off coupon 30-$19.99. I only need 90 but if I go this route I plan to buy 4 pks 120 just to be safe. I can do a lot to jazz these babies up without going over budget. ( I am going to both stores today to check out the quality
  

These are from Micheal

• I like the idea of letter envelopes with the invite and enclosures. I think that this is cute and a bit different and inexpensive to create!
  

Like I said I want the best deal possible. How did you choose your invitations???

invit-hations!

I hate invitations!!!! Why you may ask? Because I feel like invitations are just a waste of $$. I mean don't get me wrong they can be very cute and they are "technically" the first glimpse of the wedding but really.. I refuse to pay $5+ each for something that will probably end up in the trash...This includes programs which I did not want to do and menus, yada, yada... So because of that I have tentatively decided to semi-DIY our invites. At this present moment here are my options:

1. I will have a stationer design something cute and use VP to print them.
   
2. Buy a few packs from Micheals, Hobby Lobby or AC Moore and print them. Coupons in hand of course!
3. Have someone design them, order the paper, and take them to Staples/Kinko's and have them print and cut...

Now I know how I want to do them but I now I need to figure out what it is that I want to do. I like pocketfolds but I also like it when it's stacked with a belly band. I also like the vellum envelopes see it's to many options for a girl like me. I have to just find something I like and be done with it. But here are some invites that I have been saving as I found them.