LET THERE BE LIGHT

Something I want at our wedding is lots of candlelight. You can’t deny that it looks pretty. And, you can’t deny that everyone looks and feels a little more gorgeous in the warm wash of loveliness.

Photo from Kristen Taylor's blog.

Therefore, it was a must to get lots and lots of votive candles.

It you are a bride with very little extra time or interest, I have a few recommendations for you. Quickcandles.com and dlightonline.com! Super cheap bulk votive candles with both the glass and candle included. They were the cheapest prices I could find and please take my word for it: I did a lot of candle research.

My only problem with these candles is that the wax is not poured into the glass. I know, stupid details to most people, but I love the look of poured candles. (See picture above.) I thought very seriously about pouring my own candles. This blog post shows off how if you DIY, then you can pour the wax into any container you want.

From the blog: Mission: Wedding

Much prettier than just sticking a votive in a jar. And, it is certainly cost effective, but time consuming. I have no problem devoting time to wedding stuff, but I am a girl with a job and a part time job, so I pick my wedding battles. My challenge, then, was how to buy poured candles for a cheap price. I never thought this would be possible, but it was just as cheap to buy poured candles from Michaels as it was to buy those bulk candles online… with one caveat:

http://www.retailmenot.com/

Can we just a have moment of silence for this awesome piece of awesomeness? *pregnant pause* Seriously, if I ever catch any of you walking into a Michaels without one of these babies in your hands, I am going to hunt you down.

I couldn’t buy all the candles at once, though, because of the “one coupon per person per day” rule. So, these past months became known as “the great candle heist of 2011” in our household, and unfortunately it has extended into 2012. Every week, I (and sometimes Wes) take our 40% or 50% coupons to Michaels and buy candles.

A 12-pack of white votive candles = $7.99+tax… with 50% coupon it is $4.27 (NJ tax included). That’s $0.36 per candle, and there’s no shipping costs meaning I spent around $30 for 72 candles. BAM.

I seriously felt like I was stealing because it was such a good deal. I mean, it by no means trumps my mom who is the queen of finding deals. I beared witness to her once walking out of Old Navy with 3 blouses and 2 totes for the bargain price of $0.00. No joke.

Anywho, if you have the time and a desire for poured votive candles… go to Michaels. With a coupon. Happy couponing!

Holy nails, Batman!

I have a really really really bad habit. I bite my nails. Ew. I know. Very gross.

I hate that it has been something that I do for as long as I can remember. I have tried to quit oh so many times. Every year I make it my new year resolution to quit for once and all. I usually make it a few months and then something stressful happens and once again I have ugly nubbins. I. Have. Tried. Everything. To. Quit. I remember a long time ago saying that I would have to quit biting before I get married.

Well folks, that time is obviously just um, 5 months away. And, I’m happy to tell you that I quit biting my nails September 2010 and haven’t done it since. I looked down at my hands the other day and literally said “Holy nails, Batman! My hands look GOOD.” (Do any of you still use this phrase? Just me? Ok... I'm a loser.)

Before:

After:

Trying out some new polish.

It makes me so happy that I will have real nails for my wedding day. I can’t explain how proud I am of myself. It used to make me feel so bad when I realize that I just had gnawed all my nails off. It was a personal struggle that I overcame and I will get to show off pretty nails in June. When we got engaged I had fake nail put on because I didn’t want people to look at my engagement ring and then gag when they saw my nails. But, that thinned out my real nails badly after a few months of getting them and what I truly wanted was REAL nails. Want to know what finally worked? This:

Got mine at Amazon.

This stuff is awesome. My problem with relapse is that my nails are soft and get breaks on the sides so that they crack horizontally. Aftertime, breaks in my nails caused me to start biting again. Nailtiques has prevented that from happening for the most part. I just had my thumb nail crack, but that is because I wasn’t using the stuff as often and I was being lazy about conditioning my nails. I do have to say that I don’t love that this stuff isn’t formadehyde free. Most nail polish isn’t and I commend brands like Sally Hansen and Essie for making their products without the really toxic preservative. But, like I said, this stuff works. Beggars can’t be choosers. Best part of it is that it dries in literally 30 seconds. So. Easy. Just brush it on and go. You can put color over it. I also usually rub cuticle oil on my nails at night so they don’t get brittle. If you know a bride or anyone for that matter who has nail issues, please tell them to try this!!!

So, this year I was able to make different new year resolutions which were to be more patient (I love you Wes) and to be the healthiest person I can be this year (aka: less microwavable macaroni and cheese, more Jazzercise). I want to feel really good about my health when we decide to try and start a family. I finally cut soda mostly out my diet by drinking fizzy water. I can thank Finland for that. What are your new year resolutions?

So long inspiration station.

So. We are not having a purple, gray, navy, orchid wedding. When we changed our venue to Waldenwoods, I realized that something about that theme just was not clicking with me. I wanted something fun, relaxed with a touch of sophistication. Wes and I are not “blingy” people. (Yep, I just made that word up.)  As beautiful as jewels dripping off of flowers are, I would just feel out of place as a bride at that wedding. And that is exactly how Meadowbrook made me feel: out of place. I love really fancy affairs, but I know that for some, they can be uncomfortable and I didn’t want anyone at our wedding to feel that way. Even if we had unlimited funds, I would still want my wedding to be more laid back than glam. We really don’t love modern looks. Well, I love a modern look done in the right way, but Wes really hates modern looking stuff. I know... surprise, surprise - Mr. Traditional hates modern. :) We definately love more natural looking things. Unfortunately, orchids have a way of turning a wedding into a modern affair. I really didn’t want that. I want our wedding to reflect us. I know that our wedding is not going to be everyone’s ideal wedding, but I hope that everyone appreciates that all the things we are doing, were chosen because it reflected us.

Instead, we are having a purple and gray shabby chic wedding with both relaxed and fancy touches.

Urban dictionary definition of "shabby chic": Something (maybe someone, i.e., Joan Collins) that's rather worn out/tattered yet has a touch of understated class.

It is probably THE most popular wedding theme right now in weddingland, but I don’t care. I love this theme. Think, mason jar meets mercury glass. Still don’t get it? Well it just so turns out that I have made you an inspiration board!

Unfortunately, I cannot remember where I got any of these photos... please don't sue me.

Oh yeah. I love everything about this inspiration board. Especially the chalkboards! Can I just say that chalkboard paint is awesome?! 

What does your ideal wedding look like? The inspiration point of my wedding planning in coming to a close. Now it is do or die time. I have already had one DIY project die on me! But, Kristen, our cousin in Miami, is just now pulling into inspiration station.  I am so excited for her because it was definitely my favorite part of this ride. Congrats to Kristen and Mike on their engagement!!!

The wedding that wasn't

If you remember from this blog post, Wes and I thought for a few months that we would be getting married at Meadow Brook. So, I started designing the wedding “look” with Meadow Brook in mind. Meadow Brook holds receptions in a big white tent and is generally a fancy place that can be dressed up or down. The big white tent is very very white, so, in my opinion, it needed some color in there. Call me crazy, but I just didn’t want my wedding to feel like we were in the middle of cloud. So, I ruled out having white linens. Sadly, this ruined my initial imagery of white long tables.

Long white tables

Love, love, love, love love, love (voice inflection goes up and down). However, that’s too much white in a white tent. So, I was thinking navy fabric on the standard round tables included in the wedding package. Round tables don't give the same family table feel that I love, but hey, I don't argue when things are free. And, navy table linens would have meant that the bridesmaid and mom dresses wouldn’t blend into the décor. We want those important people to stand out!

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I was also thinking lots of candles.

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Maybe silver chiavari chairs.

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A mix of purple flowers held in silver vases with orchids tucked here and there.

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Oh yes. At one point the wedding was designed around orchids! I was under the weird impression 4 months after getting engaged that a wedding needed an obvious theme. I thought long and hard about what sort of theme would fit into Meadow Brook and its fabulousness.

Birds? Cute, but not really us.

Maps? We have no money to travel, so certainly not us.

Then, my mom suggested orchids! Well, yes, of course! Wes and I love orchids! We grow them. We read a book together early in our relationship about Florida and orchid hunting, The Orchid Thief  by Susan Orlean. We bonded over this book because we found Susan’s search for life’s perfection moving and strangely close to home. Specifically, the book is about ghost orchids.

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This beauty is a protected species in the Everglades so obviously we couldn’t actually have them in our wedding, but certainly it could go on our paper materials!  So 4 months into our engagement, a purple/gray/navy orchid wedding was being planned. But, would that theme work? Well, no, as you can tell from the title of the post. A venue change to the much much better Waldenwoods changed a lot about how we wanted our wedding to “feel”. Yes, weddings have feelings. Fancy, glamorous, romantic, ordinary, warm, modern, stuffy, crazy, relaxed, fun. You know! Feelings! And two, I just couldn’t make the ghost orchid work on my own and I am determined to make the invitations myself.

Did anyone else change their wedding’s entire concept? Or is it just me because I’ve had SUCH A LONG ENGAGEMENT! Can we get married already!?!