Hi guys - back from my whirlwind wedding planning weekend in MI. Church music finalized, food tasted and approved of, flowers ordered, cake ordered, decorations bought, hair style trialed and I had my first shower, so gifts all over the living room!
I'm feeling much less stressed now that a lot of that is decided. Especially the decorations - I got lots of great stuff at Hobby Lobby (had never been there before) - in fact, all of my table decor was bought there for only about $160 total. Which sort of includes the centerpieces, but not really - I'd orignially thought I'd do a cupcake stand on each table, then I decided I'd rather do a 7" cake on each table, and now it's changed to having a fruit pie in the center of each table! On a glass cake plate, made from a plate and a dof glass glued together ($1 each!). I'm so excited about this - got the idea from a friend of my Mom's who had that at a wedding she went to last weekend. So, of course, I had to sample the pie from this place, and it was incredible! This goes right along with my fruit/harvest/fall theme. DF isn't loving the idea, but he has conceeded. We are still having a 2-tier cake to cut, so there will be cake for those who prefer that. Maybe a groom's cake as well.
I've been thinking a lot about the gift bags - I have a lot of out-of-towners, but would love to do something for them. Maybe I'll start hitting the discount/dollar stores to see what I can come up with for bags - just one per hotel room, right? Means I will need in the range of 20-30 if everyone comes.
Speaking of which, invites are my next focus. I want to send them out by the end of the month. Ordered my stamps from usps.gov, so I have those already - one less thing to have to do later. Am printing my own invites (Anna Griffin cream toile from Michaels), then they have to be assembled with ribbon before mailing. eBay is wonderful for finding ribbon and other things you need - so far have gotten ribbon from there for invites, programs and favors. Maybe more, who knows!
Ok, time for bed - I need to get my workouts back on track, so I'll be hitting the gym tomorrow am. Need my beauty sleep!
Cindy
Sounds like you got a lot done Cindy! That must be a load off.
I love the idea of pie on every table. But that’s probably because I love pie.
Just got the invitation to our friends’ wedding in Sept. Very pretty, the invitation matches the bridesmaid gown color scheme of chocolate brown with robin’s egg blue. Speaking of which, Alfred Angelo said they were shipping them last Thursday and it seems like everyone else has their dress. I better call them and see what happened to mine! A cute thing they did on the directions card with the invitation was include points of interest, like "Ben’s first apartment" and various bars and other favorite haunts from our college days. Actually the map "key" includes a whole section for bars.
Aww... looks like all your plans are coming together.
My Future SIL is getting married this weekend, which is just cutting into my wedding prep time a ton. Then I move to North Carolina next weekend. Two weeks in North Carolina, starting a new job, then back home to get married!
Phew... I am exhausted. Anyway, I thought I would share what I'm doing for table decor. There are 15 round 72" tables, 8 at each table. They have white tablecloths and napkins, then I made pink striped table runners to put down the center of each table. The individual syrup bottles will be on the tables at each place. Then there will be 3 different styles of centerpieces, so five tables of each. My bridesmaid bouquets will double as centerpieces for 5. (white hydrangea with pink spray roses tucked into them) Then we have asked our parents to contribute for the other ones. My Dad and stepmother will do 5 tables and my future in-laws will do five tables.
I am super excited about this arrangement. I had so many hopes and dreams of having individual tables that were all unique, but that became a little too impractical. Now there is at least some variation, but the work is off my shoulders.
I tried on dresses at David's Bridal last Friday. When the salesperson said I could pick from the 16's or look at the selections for 14 Women's, I was stunned. I realize the sizes run small but my God! Standing in front of all those mirrors removed any justifications and/or denial I was harboring. It's possible to find a dress that will look fabulous but I really don't want the dress to look that much better than I do! Salad, anyone?
My latest drama is with invitations. I bought vellum-overlay invites from Michaels, and had planned on printing them at work. But, because my background paper is a gold floral toile, I wanted the printing to be in a brown-shade, which meant I have to use a color printer. We do have one at work, but late Friday I discovered that there is no manual feed tray! So now, I either have to try to figure out now to reset the printer to accept my smaller sheets from the auto tray OR I need to find someplace that will print these for me without costing a fortune? Any experience or suggestions? I have 50 invites and 25 response card sheets that need to be done.
Luckily my programs are on a full-sized sheet, so that won't be an issue!
Cindy
Well, I finally worked through my invitation issues - I figured out how to make the printer at work do the printing on the vellum overlays, and I had to have the response cards done at a local party warehouse store for $.25 each. Did my own reception cards and address labels for response envelope.
I've started assembling them, but am not sure what to do about including a map in them - I hate those tiny little maps that you can barely read, but I don't want to put a full sheet of paper in there either. One idea I read was to send them out separately or email them. Any thoughts on this?
I'm pretty excited that I'm actually on schedule with these, and will *definitely* get them mailed out by Monday!
Cindy
Cindy - Congrats on resolving your invitation issues. Do you have a wedding website? If you do you could just include written directions and direct people to the website for maps and more details.
Still have not tried on a single wedding gown...still putting it off.
My bridesmaid dress for my friends' wedding on Sept. 2. It is very pretty, but a little more snug around my middle than I'd like, especially if I'd want to sit down. I've been extra diligent and have vowed to lose 9 lbs. I'm down 2 so far, so it's been a record week. I'll just have to keep trying on the dress every week and reminding myself that I can eat and drink myself silly at the wedding, but there's work to do now! I'll need make an appointment for alterations too. It's straight across strapless and there's a bit of a gap at the top that allows too much viewing pleasure.
Ok - here's an etiquette question for you all - do you send invitations to your attendants? Since I did these myself, I've cut it a bit close on the count and am wondering if I need to send them to them. I've not seen this addressed on any of the sites.
Cindy
I mailed my wedding invitations today! Yippee! I still have 8 that I need address info for, but hope to get those out in the next day or two. It's really starting to seem real! LOL!
Yes, I did know about RD invites - but I have to find a place for it first!
Still have programs, favors, OOT bags to do. Oh, yeah, and find myself a bra that will support me!
Cindy
Hi everyone... may I join? I just became engaged a week ago (it was spectacular ) and we are shooting for next August/September... I am still basking in the glow, but the wedding planner is starting to rear its head!
EDIT; Oh! here is the ring and the story is in my blog
Edit2: Ok, so I know it doesn't matter, but now I know why everyone gets a manicure when they get engaged.... my hands are hideous! And for the record I wear a small 4 a/2
Welcome, Jen! The wedding planner in all of us rears its ugly head... hang in there! Keeping organized and asking people to tell you what they did without letting them tell you what to do are both arts NO ONE starts out with! Embrace the moment! Congrats!
I think you'll find the boards at theknot.com a great resource for you - there are boards by area, by month, by season - all sorts of category. I don't participate much there, but I do a lot of lurking and have gotten tons of great ideas from them all. Most members have bio sites where they post all their planning ideas - photos of everything they are thinking of doing - I just love looking through those.
You can also host your own public website through them - again, I didn't but it's a great idea for communicating with your wedding party and guests!
Cindy
) and we are shooting for next August/September... I am still basking in the glow, but the wedding planner is starting to rear its head!
