Striped socks

I am planning on wearing a pair of striped socks with my dress. I love to look at pictures of real weddings and I especially love the ones where the bride lifts up her dress to show off her shoes. I will take a few of those photos at our wedding. I will wear a pair of matching socks though, not mismatched like in this picture.

6 days until we move

I have so much stuff to do over the next week because we are officially moving on Sunday and I'm dreading it. I just really dislike the actual process of moving but I guess that everyone does. I haven't finished packing yet and then I will have to clean our house. I also need to go over to the new house and do a major cleaning before we move stuff in.

Tomorrow I have to reserve the moving truck for Sunday. I have to go grocery shopping too for stuff for the new house. I have to get a money order for the cable installation on next Tuesday. I was thrilled that I got an appointment so close to when we are moving in though. I also have to go to the post office and get a new box and fill out one of those moving forms. We have to meet with our realtor this week too to just go over everything quickly.

I loaded up the back of my Honda Element and dropped the boxes over at the new house today. I'm going to try and make a few trips with some of the smaller items this week before the BIG move.

I am so anxious to get this all over with but I'm kind of dreading it too.

Wedding cake alternatives

One option for an alternative to the wedding cake is the dessert buffet or a table filled with different varieties of cakes or pies. This option would be a great way to incorporate a few favorite family recipes into the reception. It also gives you and your guests a lot of variety and choices. If you are having a lot of guests this could get pretty expensive though.

I came across this photo of a brownie wedding cake online and I noted the source on a post it note but now unfortunately it's nowhere to be found. I think that this would be pretty easy to do. This could be a good option for a bride on a budget. I would add some Kahlua-spiked whipped cream between the layers. Mmm!

I found this cake at: http://www.bubblybride.com/blog/2009/02/rice-krispies-not-your-typical-wedding-cake/. I think that this cake would also be quite easy to DIY especially since rice krispie treats are kind of mold- able. I would love to see a cake like this done with the chocolate rice krispies.

I would love to have this cake at my wedding! Cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts and it's not something that I eat very often so it has a specialness about it already. You could have the layers stacked like a tiered wedding cake or just have an assortment of different flavors displayed on a table.

Cupcakes have become so popular as an alternative to the traditional wedding cake recently. They are delicious and adorable. Need I say more?

We're moving

It's not really wedding planning-related but we're moving. We just signed the lease this week. We will technically be fully moved in on Nov. 1st but we're going to start moving stuff in the week before. I hate to be rushed when I'm moving so I always try to get a few extra days to do a bit of unpacking and sorting before the space is a sea of boxes!

We are planning on having our wedding at our home but now I'm worried about that plan. We signed a one year lease so we will be at the new house until Nov. 1, 2010. We are going to be getting married sometime in October 2010. The house is very cute but it's also very small. I might start calling it cozy to make myself feel better. I think that it would be pretty cramped with 20 to 30 people there. We could have the ceremony and reception outside I guess, but that's a gamble with the weather then. We could use the front porch but it's quite close to the road/traffic. Ideally, I wanted the ceremony to be held in our living room but I'm not sure how it will all play out now. I guess I'll just have to wait until we are actually in the house and have our furniture arranged and see how it looks. My mom always says that a room looks smaller when it's empty. Here's to hoping that she's right!!

More wedding things

I went to the christmas tree shop yesterday and I picked up a few things for the wedding. I really like the wine glasses that I got with the pumpkins painted on. I'm going to use them as our toasting glasses. The set of mini gourds and pumpkins I was going to scatter around a few candles on a table. I also bought gold paper plates and some napkins with a leaf design to mix in with the personalized napkins that my FMIL gave me. I bought a wreath for the front door, a tablecloth, a cake/pie server with a pumpkin handle and a leaf garland.

I want to get some real pumpkins and fresh flowers to use as decorations too, but obviously I can't do that until a few days before. I'll have to sit and make a master list of everything that I have now so I know what I actually need to buy.

My bouquet

I finally found a picture of exactly what I am planning to do for my bouquet. The purse that I have is a long clutch bag like the one pictured and I am going to have the flowers coming out of the top of the purse just like in the picture.

Envelope seals and more

A girl at work brought me in two sheets of envelope seals that she had left over from her wedding two years ago. She just found them in her desk at home and thought that I might be able to use them. So now I have my envelope seals!! They are the gold monogram ones. And yes, both of our married last names start with the same letter, if you were wondering.

She invited me to stop by her house tonight after work to see if I would want any of the other things that she has left over from her wedding. I told her that I would pay her for anything that I do want but she said no way. She just wants to get it out of her house soon. She said that she's just tired of looking at it. I am going to take her out to lunch tomorrow as a thank you though.

UPDATE: I stopped by her house tonight and she gave me quite a bit of stuff: about 25 assorted vases, some petals, wood letters, 2 baskets, escort cards, some tealight candles, mini floating candles, votive candles, green ribbons, ivory tulle, glass beads, bubbles, 4 black food platters, glass votive cups, leaf shaped confetti, gratuity cards and a set of pillar candles. Wow, now that I've listed it all I see that it's a lot of stuff!! I don't know what I'm going to do with it all yet but I'll figure it out.

DIY wedding cake?

Even though my wedding will be minuscule in comparison to most, I still am enjoying this planning process. And dare I say it but sometimes I wish that I had a few more little details to plan. I have a feeling that I will be at DIY overload by our wedding day since I am going to do just about everything myself, but I like that idea.

So, I was in one of my hunts for more DIY project ideas and I came across this cake on http://www.marthastewart.com/ and I had the thought that, hey I could do that. I would like to have a two tier cake and achieve that magical cake cutting movie moment. The best price that I found was for a walmart cake, two tiers $88. I realize that $88 is nothing for a wedding cake but it is a pretty substantial something in a $1,000 budget. So I kept re-thinking the cupcake idea but now I am re-thinking the cake idea. In theory, this cake seems relatively simple to whip up given the fact that I only would make two small tiers. I know that I could make the icing all swirly and messy, not martha stewart perfect messy but Lydia actual messy. I guess I may just have to give it a try and see how it goes um, before the wedding.

Chocolate-dipped apples

Next week I am going to an Apple Day party and I have to bring an apple themed dish. I wanted to find a simple idea that had a bit of a wow factor. These seem really easy to make. You just melt chocolate and dip the apples and then put them on wax paper to harden. These would make cute wedding favors too. You could die the white chocolate to match your wedding colors and put each one in a cellophane baggie tied with a big bow. They would be perfect for a autumn wedding favor, and inexpensive to DIY.

Cupcake stand

I found a cupcake stand that I had while I was cleaning out one of our closets. I had pretty much decided to get a two tier cake from walmart for $88 but now I am undecided again. I bought one of these stands to use for muffins at a brunch buffet, but it was cancelled. So, I have this brand new stand and have to decide whether to use it or return it. I do like the idea of having a 'cupcake cake' with assorted flavors. It would work better with the budget too.

Thank you cards

I ordered these blank cards about a week ago from walmart.com. They are the Martha Stewart eyelet cards. Walmart had them on sale for $3. You get 40 cards in one package. As of this moment I am going to use them as my thank you cards. I would like to print a pumpkin or some autumn leaves onto the front of the card along with our names to jazz them up a bit and to make them fit into the autumn theme.

Bouquet clutch

I came across an idea like this online and I really loved it! I am going to do something like this for my bouquet. I had bought a taupe/champagne colored satin clutch on sale after the holidays for $0.99 and I had meant to give it to my mom, who would actually be able to use it, but I have decided to keep it for myself. I am going to cut a slit along the top and fill the slit with fresh autumn flowers and that will be my bouquet.

Out with the new, in with the old

The invitations that I had ordered with the silver design arrived and they look pretty bad!! The design at the top is HUGE and the paper is really thin. So, I will not be using the new invitations. I have the old ivory ones back!! My friend decided to buy a new set and now she is not using them so I bought them back from her. I will be using them too!

We are going to have our wedding at our house next fall, probably October, with under 30 guests. I am going with an autumn theme now for the decorations because it seems more home-y and easier to do than a black and white color scheme, which would just totally clash with our furniture. So, with the new 'smaller' wedding being planned I have decided to cut the budget in half. So, I have $1,000 now to work with. I know that it's do-able and I can't wait to see the result!

New invitations

I was planning on designing my own invitations from scratch but I already have a lot of DIY projects that I want to do for the wedding so I took the easy way out on the invitations. I won a new DIY kit off of eBay that goes with the new color scheme of white, black and platinum, may add red but I don't know yet. A friend of mine bought the invitations that I had already so atleast they'll get used and I got the money that I spent on them back. These new invitations were $9.

New favor kit

I just won this favor kit on eBay for .99!! I saw these and thought that it would be a nice idea to have two different favors so that couples don't get two of the exact same item. I bid .99 and waited. If the price got up to about $3 then I wouldn't have continued bidding, but I lucked out and won. They come with 50 little 'chair' boxes and 50 blank placecards. I am not going to do assigned seating so I will just print Thank you on them.

Paper plates

We will be using paper plates at our reception for two reasons. The first reason is that it seems pointless to rent china for a wedding in a park and the second reason is for the cost. I can buy packs of 20 plates or 20 napkins for $1 each. I just saw these plates at my local dollar store and I thought that they would look really cool at a wedding with a black and white color scheme.

You can also buy them online (in bulk) from www.dollartree.com. They have several different color choices.

Tissue paper flowers

I love these tissue paper flowers. I love how bright and cheerful these are. Now I just have to see how to make them.

Free favor tag template

I found a free template for favor tags. http://familycrafts.about.com/library/projects/bltempltag1.htm They are just this plain design but you could print them out onto some bright cardstock or add your own DIY graphics or monogram to them.

Boutonniere ideas

I came across this mint boutonniere this morning and I fell in love with this idea. You could even make bouquets out of herbs too. And centerpieces.... What a lovely idea this is.

I love these cotton ball boutonnieres that I found at http://bklynbrideonline.com/2009/07/real-wedding-inspiration-josie-adam-p-2/. I think that they would make really cute little bouquets for a wintery wedding too.

Torn between two color schemes/themes

I came across this design and I really like it for our save-the-dates. I would print these with black ink and maybe our names in red ink for a pop of color. I could go with a ivory and black color scheme and have a few deep red accents. For the reception I could have black tablecloths with candle centerpieces and bare branches painted black for decorations and ivory paper rose pomanders hanging from the trees.

Or, I could go with the other idea and use a lot of bright colors and tissue paper flowers and pom-poms.

Decisions, decisions...

Our save-the-dates

I designed our save-the-dates today. I just found a design that I liked (and was fun, colorful and informal) online and I saved the image in my pictures and then opened it for editing and took off the printing that was on the card and added my own information. Now I just have to get some white cardstock and I can print them out. Oh, and buy some envelopes or even better make some!

DIY envelope instructions-http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/diy_envelopes

Christmas ornament bouquet

I came across these insanely amazing bouquets on http://www.offbeatbride.com/. There is a whole article on non-floral bouquet ideas on that site, which I looove. I like the carnation bouquets too but these have just captured my full attention. Oh and I have to mention that these bouquets actually light up!!

The cutest cupcakes

I was in line at the grocery store waiting to check out and I did the usual- grabbed a magazine to flip through and I saw the cutest little cupcakes in InStyle Weddings. They looked like this cupcake, which I found on Flickr by searching for 'cherry cupcakes.' I would love to have these at our wedding. They just make you happy, don't they?

Here's more inspiration from Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=cherry+cupcakes ENJOY!

Tissue paper pom-poms

These pom-poms are made from ordinary tissue paper and seem really easy to do. I am considering making some to hang along the ceiling of the pavilion where our reception will be or even hanging some in the branches of the trees around the park. I found instructions on how to make them from CasaSugar; http://www.casasugar.com/3116890.

Our traditional invitations

I had originally planned on just using plain cardstock and printing our invitation information onto that and then cutting it out, but then I found these. They are a set of 50 invitations and 50 reply cards (envelopes included) in a light creamy color with a very thin raised pearl border. Yes, they scream traditional wedding invitation and I do not care for that at all but their $5 price tag was far too much for me to resist I guess. I would have liked something a bit more personalized but they fit right into our budget, almost perfectly. Now I have to make them perfect for ME.

DIY paper lanterns

I just came across this picture and I had to add it to my collection of ideas! These would look so beautiful hanging from trees at an outdoor wedding. They would look amazing lining a walkway also instead of the paper bag luminaries that many people use.

I think that they also would make really cool centerpieces. Imagine grouping a few mini lanterns together made out of different patterned vintage paper and placing a votive candle in each one. A centerpiece that you can easily DIY for just a few dollars.

The link with instructions: http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/07/diy-wednesdays-table-lanterns.html

A beautiful wedding for under $1,000

I really just wanted to share this story with anyone who passes through my blog, an absolutely beautiful wedding for under $1,000. The link: http://offbeatbride.com/2008/07/wedding-under-1000-dollar#referrer They had a cupcake cake (LOVE THAT), meat and cheese spreads, coffee, candles in mason jars (LOVE THAT TOO), and she wore an amazing homemade dress. This wedding was so stunning in it's simplicity. You really see the people shinning through, not the decor.

This wedding has inspired me to take another look at our "wedding budget" and see where I can make some changes. And improvements!

Cupcakes!

In light of our tiny budget we have realized that we need a DIY option for our cake. I'm thinking about making cupcakes and crafting some sort of stand for them. I wanted to make a few different flavors like red velvet with vanilla buttercream, chocolate chocolate-chip with chocolate icing, yellow cake with milk chocolate whipped icing.......Mmmm.

And this is why we make a prototype...

I went outside and found a branch that I liked. Then, I attached a few of the paper roses that I had made with some gold wire that I had in my crafting stuff. (Ignore the loose edges of gold wire that you may see in the pictures. I want to play around with the position of the roses some more so I didn't make them very secure.) Everything was going along so smoothly. I put the branch into one of the skinny vases that my mother had given me and I very gently began pouring in some glass beads that I had. Well, I guess one of the beads really hit against the side of the vase because it broke in half. It cracked all the way around into two pieces! So, now I have to find another container for my centerpieces. Which I LOVE by the way. I'm thinking of using old jars now.

Branch centerpiece

I found this branch centerpiece on http://www.offbeatbride.com/ and I of course love it! The bride (and helpers) made the little flowers for the branches out of tissue paper, using the idea originally from Martha Stewart. She also made the large tissue pom-poms and hung them above the tables. She said that these centerpieces cost her a total of 80 cents a piece to make!

Carnations

This pink bouquet is from Real Simple and so easy to make, not to mention pretty. I may just give this a try. The link: http://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/weddings/flowers/wedding-flowers-bouquets-supermarket-00000000000483/index.html

I love the way that carnations look when they are massed together. This humble flower also comes with a humble price making it an affordable option for someone with a small budget, like myself.

I contacted a local florist and she would sell me a box of 100 assorted color (that's how they come) carnations for about $50. I think that I am going to go with this option. They would provide a nice pop of color at our outdoor wedding and allow me to put some fresh flowers on the tables. Fresh flowers, yay!

Centerpiece idea

I also came across this idea and I thought that it might make a nice centerpiece for our tables. I think that a theme for our wedding might be emerging...rustic and cheap.

The link for this project, probably not needed, but here it is: http://creaturecomforts.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/06/tutorial-tuesda.html

Awhile back my mom had given me some skinny glass vases and I have kept them with no idea what to do with them. They would hold a branch quite nicely and I could just collect them from our yard. I bought a package of cream colored cardstock a few weeks ago only because it was on sale for $2. I try to buy cardstock and scrapbook paper when it's on sale because it can be very pricey otherwise. I could use that cream paper to make the paper roses and then have centerpieces for all of our tables for $2!!

The more I look around the more feasible my budget seems! It's been a happy brainstorming afternoon.

Table number idea

I found this idea today and I think that it's perfect for our wedding for a couple of reasons. I like the idea of re-using a common household item in a new and interesting way and then recycling it of course. It would fit in nicely with the rustic atmosphere that I am trying to execute. It's a better option for an outdoor wedding than the little paper cards. Think big gust of wind. It would be very inexpensive to make. I have all the materials already in my crafting stuff and recycling bin, so free for me! I'm not sure if we will be using assigned seating but if we do I will make these. Here's the link for anyone interested: http://www.oncewed.com/7154/diy/decor/diy-table-number-jars-3/

My hypothesis

I have just begun the experience of planning a wedding. I'll admit that I have spent countless hours flipping through the pages of all the leading wedding magazines. I have sat and watched the women on the wedding television shows throw tantrums, scream and cry over the minuscule details. I have not however been sucked into the ideology that this one day in my life is worth tens of thousands of dollars and needs a team of professionals to pull off. I subscribe to the idea that I can do it myself. And successfully. And on a $1,000 budget! Crazy?! I'll have to see if my hypothesis will be a proven theory at the end of this experiment.