Keeping the Memories

After the wedding we had around a hundred "congratulations" cards... and what is a girl to do with a hundred cards? I read them all, of course, and decided to keep the ones that had inscriptions or from close family. I punched a whole in the corner and used a binder ring to fasten them together. Didn't take a lot of time to do and they kind make a cute little book.

CAKE!

My mom made our wedding cake. Which was a plus for many reasons:
1. About a month before the wedding my mom started making practice cakes. mmmm... practice cake!
2. Saved us a gazillion dollars.
3. I got to be more involved with the design of the cake.
It was a lemon cake with fondant icing and we used lace around each tier for decoration.

Favors

For our favors we went slightly out of character and bought a pre-made item... a metal tin. We filled them with an different candies. It was my husbands idea, he wanted people to trade them or something. I don't know, I don't claim to understand him all of the time. So some were filled with cinnomin hearts, some with peppermints, some with those colorful licorish candies, some with Wethers, some with bubble gum ... and list goes on. In the end I couldn't just use the tin... I needed to stay true to my character, so I added a little tag. I used Amy Buttler paper, ribbon and pink staples to comple our favors.

My Dress

I found my dress when I told my mom, sister and one of my friends, Krista, to pick out an ugly dress for me to try on. (I think I was getting board) In the end I picked the "ugly" dress that my sister picked out. You never know, ugly on the hanger might be stunning on you! This equation sadly goes backwards as well, you my see the most beautiful dress in a magazine, but don't get your heart set on it, because when you try it on it might not be flattering... But trying on dresses is so fun anyways, if that happens I say take it as an excuse to do more shopping! This blog topic was actually an excuse for my to post multiple photos of me looking my finest...This last photo was of my mom doing up my bustle for the reception. Also, a little tip for the brides-to-be: I fell in love with my dress at a store, but before purchasing it I looked online and found it for 500$ cheaper. This method can be a little sketch though, make sure it's a reputable online store. Also I would only do this if you have tried the dress on and you know what size you need before the alterations.

One, Two, Three, Four... Tell Me That You Love Me More

Our table numbers... probably my favorite part of our wedding! (I think I have said that at least three times in the past month!) I think instead of using words I'll let the pictures explain this time:

Your Wedding Won't Be Perfect!

It's true, best you start believing it now. I was actually kind of excited about the imperfectness of our wedding... I just couldn't wait to find out what it would be. There is always at least one moment at a wedding were something goes wrong... an inappropriate toast, repeating the vows wrong, forgetting to light the unity candle, flower girls cry and in my case guest books get forgotten and an ash try is used to hold down the wedding certificate! I had two.... lets just call them faux pas. Nothing that stopped the wedding from happening or me or my guests from any less fun... just things that weren't planned to happen that way. I had planned to take pictures of my guests and have them sign and comment on a photo album book where I would later put their pictures, but the photo album was forgotten. Instead I have a scribbler with line by line of names and a separate photo album. Nothing I cry about a night, just not what I planned. The ash try I didn't even notice till I saw the pictures... beside looking like chronic smokers, again not too much to cry about... kind of funny actually.

Wedding Bee

This is a blog profile on a blog I used when I was searching for creative ideas. It is a pretty big blog with many authors. The criteria to be a blog author on this page is that you must be engaged and have at least six months until your wedding. The blog has different labels that make searching for what you what really easy. Some such tags are favors, cakes, DIY, flowers, hair... and so much more. To see the site click on the name: http://www.weddingbee.com/. The photos were taken from the blog.

I really love the DIY craft for making tea light holders. (Pictured below) To get the instructions just go to the web site and you'll find the craft under the DIY tag.

Programs

Our programs... simple and cheap. This was an area were we saved some money. Jonas designed them, we printed them on our computer... a little teal paper and one gold peacock stamp later... done!

I Wanted a Birdcage!

I really wanted a birdcage veil. I tried so hard, I looked online and looked for supplies... but it just wasn't meant to be. In the end I made a flower piece for the back of my head. It had flowy feather like stands from it, lots of different types of lace and flower parts. After I got my hair done and had my dress on I still wasn't sure if I wanted it or not, but I remember my sister telling me I should, so I did. And I am happy I did, it was totally funky and totally me! I am glad I put it at the back of my head though, it made it a little less prominent... kind of a surprize, like in the pictures were I look head on you don't even see it.

Placement Cards

Some people do placement charts, some do cards, some people don't assign seating. It's a personal choice. I choose placement cards, mostly because it seemed like a fun project. (tip: I also made a placement chart for the bridesmaids that were handing out the cards, just in case I made a mistake) My cards featured the guests name on the front and their table number inside. I had them paper-clipped alphabetically to a board and had two of my bridesmaids had them out. The part that took the most time, and was the most fun, was the glass decorative bead. Me and my sister took about a hundred images off the web of couples or romance or wedding themed. We punched out the pictures and glued them to the back of a glass bead. It seems tedious, but we had a lot of fun with it. We made a game out of it, we would try to match guests with the pictures. Like we had one of two horses kind of necking each other and we have a friend that loves horses so we gave it to her. For my maid of honor I gave her a picture of Cheri Oteri and Will Ferrel dressed as the Spartan Cheerleaders from SNL because we use to watch SNL as teenagers together all the time. Not everyone's was the specialized, but you get the idea.

My Custom Jewelery

I was inspired from a wedding magazine for my jewelery. Since I already dabbled in making jewelery I decided to take on the task myself. From the photo you can tell it was wedding time as I had the living room floor cover in peacock feathers. To describe my necklace I would say it was a mangle of beads. I got a lot of complements on it... but I was the bride, I think it's expected now matter what. I also made the earrings for my bridesmaids. They fairly simple. Gold metal, to match their shoes then five hanging beads on each earring.

Why, Which, and What Wine?

Wine choosing can be so fun. We made an evening of it. We invited which ever bridal party member or family that could make it for an evening of wine tasting. In the end we choose the white wine at the event, but the red wine later on. The final deciding factor for the wine, after narrowing it down to two, was the lable. The Painted Turtle wine had neon green shades in it... looked like it belonged on the table.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I thought I'd take a break from the wedding blogging for this Mexican holiday. If you are throwing a Cinco de Mayo fiesta here are a few recipes to spice up the party.
1. Blue Margaritas
2. Avocado Fruit Salad
3. Scarlet Margaritas
4. Lime Chile Beer
5. Fiesta Dip
6. Black Bean Tacos

Flowers And Sticking To Your Guns!

I was so thrilled with my flowers in the end, but it was a pretty long process to get there. Me and mom went in for a couple consultations where we looked through thousands of pictures. Luckily my mom is well versed in the floral world so she was a lot of help. I wanted my flowers to be statement pieces. (My bouquet is on the left, and the bridesmaid's are to the right) My wedding colors were inspired by a peacock feather and I wanted the flowers to compliment with the neon green berries and contrast with hot pink and orange flowers. Two days before the wedding the florist called me and said she thought the orange spikey flowers were too orange and she wanted to go with green orchids instead. I was going to agree over the phone, but my bridesmaid, Brittany, was there and she said lets just go take a look. I am so glad she did because I loved the orange, it was exactly what I wanted. I loved the 'weeds' in the bridesmaids bouquets... they totally made the bouquet unique.

Centerpiece! Centerpiece!

Wonderful, beautiful centerpiece. Look out here comes the centerpiece! (If you couldn't tell you were supposed to sing that last part to the tune of the spiderman theme song.)
I never realized how pricey centerpieces can be. If you want just a wide candle, 5$ a piece x 30 tables... boom 150 dollars! Then when you add flowers... supper crazy prices! We never actually considers flowers, peacock feathers inspired our colors, they were what we wanted and just happened to save us a bundle.
For a price breakdown: I think I spent about 70$ on all the feathers. I spent 35$ on the green swirly sticks. Then we spent 40$ and one full Saturday on the wood and to make the step contraption candle holder. The dark wood stain I had, the sand was free, the green rocks were found at a dollar store for about 5$ in total, tea lights probably 2$ (tea lights are the way to go) and the glass vase were a dollar each and we bought 35. So all in all we spent about 187$ on our centerpieces... for thirty tables that is about 6.25$ a table. Not to shabby!The design was a lot of fun to come up with. And we had so many different ideas, we contemplated a few square tray ideas, some with moss, some with sand... but always with the peacock vase. Once we settle on steps we still had to work out the arrangement of steps. There were many choices and voices involved, but in the end they were unique and hand made and wonderful!

Setting the Mood

Invitations! So fun. I think after Jonas proposed to me my mind went straight to new scrapbooking techniques I could use for our invitations. Ok... not quite true, but it was one of my favorite wedding projects.Things I wanted in our invitation:
1. to sew something. I love the look of paper stitched
2. for the invitation to represent both of us (Jonas drew the above picture)
3. a photo
4. to set the mood for the wedding... and because of this I was prepared for a lot of work to go into making these invites. The little pink bead took the most work.In the end I got everything checked off my list.

Here Comes the Bride!

At the end of this month I will have been married for a year! Honestly it feels like it's been five years... but I'll believe the calender... this time! With this anniversary upon me I have been feeling kind of nostalgic. I've been looking at pictures from the event and the projects leading up to it and just remembering the fun and chaos that it was. And because of all this I've decided it's time for another theme month. da da da daaaaaaa..... Married in May Month! It's going to be a wedding themed month and I am pumped up like a balloon animal for it!

On a side note... to keep you on the edge of your seats... I just redid my bedroom this past week, I'll post pictures in June.