Hehe!

Congratulations to your brother!

Lol - it must be something in the water! After we had our ceremony April 21st, my cousin got married June 16, and upcoming are my friend on July 14th, my sister on July 21st...

I am flying cross country this weekend for my sister's bachelorette party. I'm stocked on embarrassing accessories (yeah - that'll be some interesting times in airport security - hope they hand search my bag to pull out the embarrassing accessories).

Congrats to your brother!

Hi, Miss Mess!

I worked out a deal with our photographer where we are paying for her time and buying our pictures on a disc, not having them developed. She sends all of her development out so it didn't really impact her bottom line (pricing for developed photos here has a profit margin similar to gasoline!). We can even take the disc to Walgreen's to get pictures developed if we want. This way, we got more pictures, more hours and a better talent for a manageable price. We plan to do the books, too, as thank you gifts to our parents but found the pricing a bit steep. There are also several self-made options through shutterfly.

Mandalinn- I would LOVE to go through airport security with you! Make sure you remove the batteries!

I don't know about the water but my sister is making noises... her boyfriend just bought her a brand new Audi and you usually marry someone to keep the car, right?!?

Hey girls I am still here, just been visiting with my FH. It has been so much fun to see him. I am glad that he is finally here. I am kinda sad because I want to start my wedding planning but I cant because my FH doesnt have a job here yet. I hope that he gets one soon so that we can start the wedding planning fun.

Hey gals - I've got just 3 months to go until Sept. 29th, so I'm starting to get caught up in all the details.

My bridesmaid dresses are in, we ordered the tuxes, I've finalized my favors and have been frantically searching online for ideas for flowers and cakes. I'm going to MI for my shower (the wedding is there), and while I'm there that weekend, I'm meeting with the DJ, the church music lady, the florist, the cake place, sampling foods and having my hair done! It will be SO busy!

I still haven't given a thought to my headpiece - it will depend on the hair, and I still need shoes and jewelry finalized - I have options but don't love them.

Attendant gifts - any good ideas? I have 2 gals and 4 guys and 2 ring bearers to buy for. My sister, maid of honor, is extremely picky, so some little trinket just won't do. Everyone else is much less of an issue.

I also am doing a photo-file only deal - I think we are paying $900 for all day and all his files. Nothing printed - that is all up to us.

Well, time to get back to work...
Cindy

We got our bridesmaids a necklace to wear on the big day. I picked a design that is pretty basic - just a sterling silver pendant hanging on a silver chain - and all of the girls loved it. Not only did they get to all match on the big day, but all three girls have worn the necklace since then. If you don't want everyone to match, you can buy a slightly different necklace for each girl (three different silver pendants, for example - all silver so they "go" together, but all unique to fit each girl). For the boys, we bought flasks. Hey, they're a drinking crowd, so it fit.

In terms of photography, we paid $2400 dollars. This included 7 hours of shooting on the day of, a 3 hour engagement photo session, a proof album of all of our photos, a CD containing all of the high-resolution digital negatives, 250 dollars of credit toward buying an album or prints, and three months of web hosting of our photos so we could show our guests. That is high compared to other areas of the country...for the SF bay area, this was an EXTREMELY good deal (most photographer basic packages here do not include digital negs and cost around 2-3 thousand).

I can't really speak to the Photographer issue bc my SIL-to-be is a photographer and doing our shots, with a photographer friend of hers doing back up prints for free. We really lucked out! I think she may charge for the prints if her pro does them, but we are saving so much that way.

About the bridal gifts, I am debating. I think I am going to go to a beading shop in town and make a necklace or bracelet for each of my girls- personal and not too pricey. For the groomsmen, my fiance and I decided to help offset the cost of their suits as their main gift. We are asking them to purchase suits rather than rent tuxes, so this works well for our crowd.

I'm getting excited... only 37 days to go!

Oh! But I'm struggling about the favors. I will be in a different state, working, for the two weeks before the wedding. I had debated bamboo, but think it may be too labor-intensive with me out of town.

There is a place down the road from our wedding that makes Hickory Syrup- similar to maple syrup, but comes from the bark of a hickory tree. Would mini jugs of that make a good favor? I like that it's local, but is syrup a weird gift?

I agree - the syrup would be cute.

Our ceremony was in Berkeley, up in Tilden Park.

Hi girls
I'm getting married next year sometime. No actual date picked yet. Although it's going to be a very small wedding I'm hoping to get to my goal weight before then, 150 before Sep 2008. Hopefully thats realistic lol.
Good Luck to all of you!!

MissMess - we were at the Brazilian Room - it was so pretty. The pouring rain took away a little bit from the view, of course, but not too much, and we got some gorgeous pictures outside with a giant black umbrella.

Lisa - welcome!

Put my favorite umbrella pic up as my profile photo...

Wow! That picture is awesome, Mandalinn! What is the significance, if any, behind the scarf tied to your right forearm?

I think I've found my wedding dress (now to lose the weight). The Charlotte dress from Ann Taylor is the one I keep going back to, even though it means I'll have to really behave between now and the wedding. No more cake sampling, I guess!

MissMess- How many guests are you having? I have seen several wonderful ideas I would love to see someone use!

I completely gave up on DIY projects once our guest list went over 200! 300 of anything is more than I can sanely attempt! Unless, of course, we're talking desserts...

The scarf was just a wrap I'd picked up (at Ross, no less) when I realized it was going to be freezing cold and raining for my wedding. I had it wrapped over my shoulders but it fell when we were taking pictures. It was cold-prevention, nothing more. We also bought wraps for the bridesmaids at the last minute because their dresses were tea length and strapless and it was raining outside.

I did some DIY stuff...the lucky bamboo was obviously the worst of it, as well as the out of towner baskets (only OCD-bride would add a personalized note to each basket, lol) and bathroom baskets. Come to think of it, I did a lot of personalized stuff. Ah well. We only had 75 people, so it was feasible. 200 of anything would be so difficult!

Our guests were scattered over 4 hotels - we just figured out where everyone was staying and gave the baskets to the front desk. They pass them out when people check in, and hotels are very well used to doing this. So cute to add sunblock and beach mats! What a great idea!

Yeah. Actually, we had a wedding website where we had a form for people to put in their contact/hotel information. Its useful to know where people are staying in general in case you need to reach someone, and if there aren't too many different hotels to choose from (for example, if you negotiated a group rate with a preferred hotel or two) you can just drop a batch off at one or more hotels and be done with it. We put some little snackies in also. For hawaii, you could do a little baggie of chocolate covered macadamia nuts, maybe some dried tropical fruit...you get the idea. Our baskets had roasted almonds, chocolate covered pretzels, jelly beans, and chocolates, plus a tea strainer and a little tin of tea and bottled water. We also printed a little information leaflet for each of them (with our cell #s, how to catch our guest shuttle, airport/hotel phone information, etc). We saved money on the food items by buying cheap cello bags at a party/craft store and ribbons in our wedding colors, then buying the food items in bulk. It was a lot cheaper than buying individual-serving-size packages of the items, and makes the baskets really cute also because they match the wedding theme. We also put in tiny candles in our wedding colors (because I LOVE going to a hotel room late at night, lighting a candle, and hopping into a bathtub) and a tiny lavender grow kit to match our theme. We finished them off with a personalized card thanking people for coming.

I think snacks are great because after partying into the night, everyone wants a little something to eat.

Our out of town baskets looked like this:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...2/IMG_0003.jpg

We only gave them to our out-of-town guests. People who live in Hawaii have their own SPF and beach mats, its the people from out of town who don't have their home-comforts and will really appreciate the baskets anyway.

I haven't picked the exact style yet but we are doing large bags instead of baskets. You can order personalized bags from a company like 4imprint for less than $1/bag. For anything personalized, I have found my business suppliers to be much less expensive than "wedding" suppliers.

This is one idea:

http://www.4imprint.com/EXEC/DETAIL/...CA1062-L-F.htm

I would do clear bags with colored tissue paper.

We're doing all local stuff, too, but a bit more diverse. Locally roasted coffee, local handmade chocolates, specialty cheese and sausage (WI, baby!) and, of course, a bottle of wine- I imagine your wine might be a little better than ours... I'm also including area maps from our tourist bureau (free) and a travelogue written by area children (sales benefit an educational charity). I could keep going but the price is starting to rival the swag stars get at awards shows...

Another idea (that I will probably use for the bridesmaids, aunts, etc. because the bags were getting heavy) is items from The Enterprising Kitchen, a Chicago-area social enterprise that teaches disadvantaged women to make soap to help train them for jobs.

Mandalinn - Your gift baskets were lovely!

Haven’t given too much though to the out-of-towner favors yet, but you all have some great ideas here! We’ll definitely be putting together a fun guide of things to do and see around Madison. Almost everyone will be from out of town, so that will probably limit how extravagant and personalized we can make the goody bags.

Well, I’ve had a drop out in my bridesmaid party. My F-MIL made it sound like both her daughters (my FH’s sisters) would expect to be in the bridesmaid party. One of his sisters I am very friendly with and like her and her husband (who will be in the groomsman party) quite a lot. His other sister I’ve never been close to but never really had a reason to personal dislike her. Unfortunately the latter sister has decided that some long-brewing bad blood between her and her father makes her uncomfortable enough that she is not even committing to attending the wedding. I don’t know all the details (obviously), for all I know she’s got good reason to not even want to be in the same room with him. She’s gone to great lengths to avoid him in recent years and I don’t think they have much if any relationship any longer. I don’t suppose there’s anything I can do about it, but it would be very sad if she missed our wedding over this.

On the bright side I have asked a good long time friend from college if she’d like to be in my bridesmaid party and she has accepted. She’s already been working with me as a sort of floral “consultant” and it will be nice to have at least one member of the bridal party in town for things like gown shopping and such.

MisMess- What a fantastic dress dilemma to have! I haven't tried them on since my "Oh, My God! I look like the Michelin man!" experience.

Shan- sorry to hear about your future sister-in-law! I hope it all works out!

I have been considering centerpieces AGAIN. Which flowers, what shape vase, etc. I need a wedding planning vacation!

Missmess - I purchased my dress in a size 18W, at my wedding I was a size 10/12. They were able to take it in fine. It wasn't cheap, but including a design change (I redesigned the back of my dress to customize it) my alterations, from a specialist in gown reconstruction who was AMAZING and priced accordingly, cost $350.00. What was nice is that she specialized in redesigning heirloom dresses to fit new people or to redesign certain outdated elements, so she was really good at resizing things.

I can get you her name if you want. She is in Elk Grove.

Lafayette,

If you have any questions, tell me. I'll get my floral-designer-partner-extraordinaire on it immediately :-)

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. :drool:

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. :lol:

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.

Happy planning!

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?

Hey gals!

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 :D) 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 :lol:

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!

Congratulations Jen!

(yes, I'm no longer a "bride to be", but I can't keep away!)

Congrats Jen! Welcome to wedding planning, don't forget to have fun!

FH and I will be working on getting the website ready for the public this evening. About time, we've only had the account for 2 months. :rolleyes:

Congrats Jen!

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

I am getting married in less than 2 weeks, and I am now 600 miles from my wedding site. I start my new job tomorrow, and my poor fiance is stuck with all the last-minute details and things I was unable to finish. Yikes..... I feel bad for every little detail I didn't get done that he now has to do.

BUT, it will all come together! I am thrilled about my photographer! If anyone is interested, she just did an engagement session for us. Still a little hard to see pics of myself as my weight has crept up a little again, but I love these pics. If anyone is in Indiana, I would recommend her!

http://leahprofancik.blogspot.com/

Christine - Thanks so much for sharing your engagement photos! The two of you are just adorable! :val2: Just 2 weeks, you must be getting so excited. Good luck, I'm sure everything will be just lovely.

We get a free engagement session with our photographer. I think we'll wait for fall so we can have the pretty leaves in our outdoor photos.

Leah- those photos are just gorgeous! I kept thinking "this one is my favorite" and then I would scroll down tot he next...

mandalinn- I don't think anyone is in any rush to see you go after looking at your pics and how fabulous everything turned out (and those place settings- oh my!)

Cindy- I did register at the knot and I had no idea just how much they lay it all out for ya. Imean, I know people get married every day and I've been to tons of weddings, but I haven't the slightest idea on how to throw one!

Thanks for the warm welcome, ladies! We are looking at dates for next year. The hotel where he proposed is also where we are getting married (childhood dream) and I'm just chomping at the bit to make that first appointment to go dress shopping, but we haven't exactly hashed out the budget with the "donors".

My knot bio is here:

http://www.sarahandamanda.com/knotbio.html

Great photos Christine! You guys are SO photogenic! I'm not much of one to have my picture taken (because of the extra weight, perhaps?), so I'm not focusing too much on photos for the wedding. We'll have them, but they are not a big deal to us.

Wow - 600 miles away - that must be tough...

I'm at the 8-week mark today, and I really need to get my checklist finalized so that I don't miss anything.

Responses have been slow - only 2 so far! There are about 30 people that I know are attending for sure, of my 113 invited, but it's the 70 or so others that I'm not sure about. So many of my final details depend on the number of guests, so I feel like I'm in limbo a bit right now. My response deadline is 8/24, so just a couple more weeks to wait.

In the meantime I'm going to finish my programs - I bought the ones that match my invitations and I will just insert a page with the printing inside. Then, they'll need to be folded in half, hole-punched, and ribbon "binding" tied through them. I'm only doing 50, so it shouldn't take too long once I'm on a roll.

I'm thinking of starting my OOT bags as well - I bought plain white bags from WalMart and I intend to decorate them with stamps of fall leaves. I think we'll go scout out Sam's Club to see what I want to fill them with. I'm thinking of getting a lot of my favorite Kashi-brand snacks for them - try to keep things a bit healthy! I wish the Kashi TLC cookies came in individual serving packs - that would be great. But, I can get the TLC bars and the small TLC cracker bags.

I still need to get my undergarments - the shop is only open on Tuesday evenings, so I've been having a hard time getting in there.

Oh, I've decided to do a wish jar as part of my guest book - instead of writing well wishes in the guest book, guests fill out a wish card and put in a nicely decorated jar. Found some nice fall-themed glass vases at Michaels that I can use. Some people do two vases - one already filled with wishes - "take a wish" and then one for the new wishes - "make a wish".

The reception place wants $7 a piece for organza table overlays - I may just pay it since it would be a lot of work to make them for myself. I'm only having 10-12 tables, so that won't break the bank!

We are trying to decide if we want personalized beverage/cake napkins or not - it's a nice touch, but another $50 or so... This is really the part where it starts "nickle-and-diming" your budget if you're not careful!

You gals have a great week - I'm off to look at napkins on eBay!
Cindy