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Saturday, August 27, 2011

Fabric Bouquets

So I've become obsessed with these fabric bouquets.  I'm wondering if it might be easier since I am going to be having my wedding far away.  Ordering flowers and then making the bouquet and storing it somewhere might be a bit of a hassle.  I might do it for the centerpieces but I think it might be nice to have fabric bouquets so I would have something to remember from our wedding day besides pictures.  There are lots of tutorials online so I should be able to figure it out.  Here are some examples:
 

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Driving me crazy

Casey (my fiance) is driving me crazy!  I have all of these great ideas for the wedding and he has no faith that I can pull any of them off.  I told him I am DIYing the flowers and he just went on a speech about how I'll never do it.  He also hates my pomander idea for the ceremony decorations.  I'm doing it anyway though.  There needs to be something on the outside to decorate the venue.  The problem is that Casey thinks he knows EVERYTHING about weddings since he's DJed so many of them.  Ugh.  Well it's my money that is paying for the wedding so we will spend it how I want to spend it.

One of the girls on Wedding Bees (my FAVORITE wedding website) had a great tutorial on how to make them.  They came out lovely so I think I am going to order the flowers from the same site she did.  Here is a look at the tutorial.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

New Bridesmaid Ideas

So the bridesmaid clutches are a no-go.  My bridesmaids didn't like the idea and would rather have flowers.  So I'll be doing those.  Most likely, I will go with simple fresh flowers from Sam's Club, Costco, Bunches Direct, and Flower Exchange.  I might also check Trader Joe's when I go up north.  We don't have one here but I've heard that they have great flowers.

The goal for the bridesmaids will be to do something super simple.  Carnations, Roses, Hydrangeas are all good possibilities.




Monday, August 8, 2011

Flowers

So I got a call from Stew Leonards today and they gave me a rough estimate for the flowers.  Basically, a bridal bouquet would be $150, bridesmaid bouquets would be $75, and centerpieces would be at LEAST $50.  If I have 20 tables, that's gonna be $1000 just for the centerpieces.  Also, the bridal bouquet is 3x what I hoped to spend and the bridesmaid bouquets would be $125 more than I hopes to spend.

Soooooooooo.....

I've decided to do them myself.  Costco and Sam's Club both sell bulk flowers that can be delivered to your door.  Then I can make the centerpieces and bouquets on my own.  Dollar Tree sells glass vases for $1 and you can order them in bulk online.  I might also check Goodwill and secondhand stores for interesting ones to put on the guestbook table and by the cake.

I have lots of ideas for my bridal bouquet.  I think these two are very beautiful:

For the bridesmaid, I was thinking of something simple....like carnations.  I've also thought about having them carry clutch purses down the aisle.  I have to see how they feel about that but I think it could be an interesting idea.  I have a lot of options on this one.


Sunday, August 7, 2011

Pocketfolds

So I am still thinking of doing pocketfolds but I don't want to spend a lot of money.  I mostly just want to keep things organized when I mail them out.  So I think I am going to get a panel pocket from http://www.cardsandpockets.com/.  I can slip everything in there and then just mail it out.  They are also only 47c each so getting 100 of them will be under $50.  I'm under in my budget so far so I have the money.  I'm also thinking of getting a backing for the invitation but I have to see about that.  I might just buy the paper and do it myself....it will probably be cheaper that way.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Guest Book

So I ordered my guest book off of ebay today.  It came to about $11.50 total.  We're having a photobooth so this will allow guests to paste their picture and write a message underneath.  I'm going to get all different colored Sharpee markers so it will be colorful and interesting.  The cover is a bit boring so I might jazz it up a little when it comes in.  I'm thinking maybe covering it in lace and then getting some purple ribbon or flowers from Joann.  So now here is another item checked off of the list!!  :)

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Moving time & Flower Ideas

So we're moving next week into a bigger and cheaper apartment (see, I am good at making deals in ALL aspects of life) and it's amazing to see how much CRAP we have accumulated.  I'm glad that we will have more storage space in this new place though.  So I haven't been able to do much when it comes to the wedding front. 

I'm still looking for ideas on flowers.  I'm going up to NY in December to do a lot of wedding stuff so I am going to go to a few places for floral consultations.  My future father-in-law suggested Stew Leonards so I am going to try there.  He is a DJ in the Connecticut area so he knows all of the best vendors.  I'm still not sure if I should attempt a DIY for the centerpieces and possibly even the bouquets.  I hate spending so much money on something I KNOW I can do on my own but I don't know if I am going to have the space at my parent's house to keep everything refrigerated properly.  Also, I am not sure when or how I am going to be able to get them to the venue on the day of the wedding.  I thought about doing silk flowers, but I'm not sure if that would be tacky or expensive.  I would have to get nice ones that look real and aren't too much money.

I'm also thinking of doing wedding pomanders (also known as "kissing balls") for the ceremony.  I could attach them to the chairs for a little bit of decoration or I could see if the Candlewood has shepherd's hooks to hang them on.  I would do those with silk flowers so I could get them done ahead of time.  Probably in some combination of purple, yellow, and white.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Wedding Dress!

Well I haven't posted in a while but I would like to report that I have purchased my wedding dress!!!!  I went into David's Bridal just to check things out....I didn't expect to buy anything.  The lady there was really helpful and not pushy at all.  I tried on about 10 dresses and really loved the third one I put on.  I decided to sleep on it though and see how I felt in the morning.

Well I could not get the dress out of my mind so the next day I went back to David's Bridal and purchased it!  I wound up getting the plus size because I wanted make sure there was enough room for my boobs so it was $50 extra.  Luckily, it was on sale so it only cost me $426 total.  My budget for dress + alterations is $1000 so I will be well under that, even after I get all of the alterations done (and there will be a lot).

Here is a picture of my dress:


I didn't think I wanted a veil but after thinking about it I realized that I won't feel like a bride unless I have one.  My wonderful friend Ashleigh has kindly agreed to make the veil and the flowers that I want to wear in my hair as well.  I figure that if I get annoyed with the veil, I can take it off during the reception and just wear the flowers.  I went to Joann Fabrics to get fabric and other things to embellish the veil with and Ashleigh is going to get the flowers.  I also picked up the garter for $2.99.  My budget for the garter was $25.  I spent about $46 on stuff for the veil and I am going to mail Ashleigh another $20 in case she needs it.  I moved over the money from the garter budget and into the veil budget so now I am still under.  :)  I love being thrifty.

This is how I am thinking of wearing my hair:


Next I will be working on addressing the save the dates so I can get those out before school starts.  :)