Let's get this started!

Waking up the morning of your wedding day is a surreal experience. I was thinking, "OH, well this is it!" I felt very ready for June 22, 2012.

Remember this? We've come a long way! My personal photo.

DIY: Chiffon Fabric Pomander

SO! You've decided to ignore my warning and you want to know how to make fabric pomanders? Well, I am not about to reinvent the wheel. I used this tutorial from Fancy Nonsense to make mine!

Photo by Kristen Taylor Photography

However, I used chiffon to make mine... so I have a few suggestions:

Great balls of CHIFFON!

There is a gap of time in wedding planning if you decide on an engagement of longer than 1 year. This gap is called “The Idle Bride Vortex”. Oh yes, it is a real thing. How many brides have said, “Oh, all my vendors are booked. There’s really nothing to do before I order the save the dates and invitations!” Answer: Most of them. Now, how many of those brides are super involved DIYers? Based on my well-educated assessment, about 33.333%. That’s right, 33.333% of all brides are susceptible to being sucked into the “The Idle Bride Vortex”. Luckily, my friend Sarah is immune to having idle hands so I can see she clearly is going to make it through wedding planning without having any “silly-overly-thought-out, but-not–well-executed” wedding project.  

I, however, was sucked into that very vortex.

A bride's brain in the idle  bride vortex.

Mad for Chalkboards

Somewhere along the way, I fell head over heels for chalkboards. Could you tell? There’s just something about them! I love that you can dress them up or down. I love that you can write in a whole bunch of different fonts all over them. I love that dusty look. I find everything about them heart-warming and a bit romantic. I think Kristen Taylor (our photographer) said it best when she called our wedding “casual yet elegant” and chalkboards very much represents that idea to me. I didn’t want chalkboards to overwhelm the wedding rather I wanted them to add to the feeling and be one of a few repeating elements in the wedding.

I hope I didn’t go over the top!

Photo by Kristen Taylor Photography

Big ticket items

The week I took off from work before the wedding was definitely a necessity for all the decor for the wedding to work out. I don't think I realized how crazy of a bride I was until I saw all my wedding "stuff" crammed into my mom's poor house. Thanks Mom (again) for letting us invade your house. Thank you Matthew, my incredible nephew, for bringing so many of the boxes back to grandma's house for us!

The reason why my nephew had to help drive stuff back from Waldenwoods was...because... I had some BIG stuff for the wedding. Remember these?

When to say "I don't" to DIY

I love a good DIY project, but not when it looks cheap. I truly believe it is my life mission of mine to make my clothes, jewelry, house décor, wedding décor, etc look expensive but in a super cost effective way. However, there’s a balance. If something is going to be cheap but look cheap then I don’t want it. I spend a lot of time researching everything I buy because I want to make sure I am spending my money wisely. I am not opposed to spending more when it means I am getting a higher quality item, but sometimes it is not worth it! And, most the time, I can find or make something that does the same thing but for cheaper. I mean, seriously, I can’t imagine spending more than $20 for mascara. Dior mascara users – I’m talking to you! Okay, I’ll admit I have been eyeing the Dior Iconic mascara for myself, but I would feel so guilty spending that much for mascara. I guess I would spend that much if someone promised me that it wasn’t made by small children in a third world country and that the packaging was biodegradable…

Getting back on track, let’s talk mercury glass. Oh, that beautiful mercury glass. Real mercury glass is super expensive. It was very popular to have mercury glass in the early 20^th century because it looked like silver but was cheaper. Over years, the faux silver finish in mercury glass flecks away leaving that beautiful old vintage appearance. These vintage pieces come with a vintage price tag. There are processes that mimic this effect, but even fake mercury glass is expensive. Call me crazy, but I am not spending $3.20 plus tax and shipping for each FAUX mercury votive. This was the cheapest I could find online.

Luna Bazaar

So, DIY it, right? There are so many tutorials online on how to make your own mercury glass. Here’s the best one tutorial that I have found from Take the Side Street blog.

Here’s my tips:
I tried spraying vinegar on the glass first before you spray the paint. That just makes the paint run. Spray the vinegar after you paint the inside.

Rub away the paint unevenly to mimic the real thing.

Make sure you have lots of time. I tried it once and here’s what it looked like:

Blah. It looks okay, but when you put a candle in it, it looks cheap. Remember, I hate cheap looking things. I think if I spent a little more time painting it and only used the vinegar after, I am sure could get it to look really good. However, I am sort of impatient and I want 54 votives so I found that this project was too time consuming for just an okay result. Plus, the spray paint isn’t super cheap. For reference, I found mine on Amazon for around $11 for a little can.

I was this close to abandoning my mercury glass wedding fantasy until I found mercury glass votives at Michaels. Sound familiar? Yep, I got all my other candles at Michaels, too! So, I strutted my bad thrifty self into Michaels with my 40% coupons and walked out with my mercury votives (over the course of several weeks). Best part was that with the coupon they were about $.85 for each mercury glass votive. They come in packs of six. I’ll get some votive candles through quickcandle.com to put inside. Behold, inexpensive pretty mercury glass!

DIY next to the Michaels one.

I also bought these tall mercury glass pillar candle holders, too.

Love 'em. Bonus? I get to sell these afterwards and get my money back. I like the thought of re-using wedding stuff and it makes me happy that another bride will get her mercury glass fantasy wedding, too.

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!

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!?!

Lavender and amethyst and grape, oh my.

In June, my wonderful to-be mother-in-law (MIL) is coming to Michigan with me so that we can go with my super awesome mom and get some wedding stuff done. I don’t go to Michigan very often so it is going to be a bit of a wedding marathon. My goals are to show my MIL the venue, book a photographer, get my first dress fitting done, have my gorgeous maid of honor try on a few (ok, a lot) of bridesmaid dresses, book the florist, pick out linens and try some CAKE. Yum.

I started to book appointments and realized very quickly that I was going to have to be able to share my wedding vision with strangers in a quick and simple way so that they can help me have that beautiful day I picture in my head. I told the wonderful ladies at Waldenwoods (our venue) that I wanted the guest table linens to be white and the sweetheart table, cake table, guestbook tables to have purple table linens. My wedding colors are gray and “various” purples. I thought I was being clever by saying that I wanted a mix of a lot of different purple touches everywhere because then it wouldn’t matter if everything didn’t match exactly. The flowers are going to, then, bring together all the different shades. Reasonably, the ladies at Waldenwoods thought I should narrow down what kind of linen (satin, taffeta, etc.) and type of purple (muted, bright, pale, etc.) I was looking for so that that Lorrie from Special Occasions didn’t have to bring over a thousand examples.

I was a bit overwhelmed by this… I am not sure why. I think it is because I actually had to start making decisions. After talking to Wes about my anxiety, I decided to pick out a few different purples that I definitely want represented on 6.22.12 so that when I pick out linens, neck ties and décor, it will be cohesive. You can buy color swatches online to give to your vendors for $10 a pop. Boo. OR, you can go to Home Depot and steal paint swatches. I proceeded to steal about 25 paint swatches while looking over my shoulder hoping that that paint department manager wasn’t looking at me funny. Here’s my stash:

Here’s the kicker. Here’s how much my guy loves me… Wes also thought of this brilliant idea and stole not a few purple swatches like I did, but EVERY SINGLE PURPLE and GRAY paint swatch in our local hardware store. A lady working at Home Depot did give Wes a weird look on his way out so he nervously said to her, “Wife is making us paint the house again.” Hahahahahahaha. He was so pleased with himself that he promptly dropped this pile on my lap when he got home:

Then, he was severely disappointed to learn that I also had gotten paint swatches. His effort was awesome, though, and I love him so much for it. Gold star, hunny. I am very lucky to have someone that cares about reducing my anxiety over wedding planning.