Checks!

Last count, were at 17 days.

Well. . .lots of changes have been made and everything is coming together!

1. Got my dress in for alterations. After she pinned it in a few places it was fitting much better; I can't wait to see the final product! She also pinned up the bustle; a low, 6 point single french with lots of folds. Very romantic, soft, and beautiful.

2. D'Anelli bridals cleaned my dress that previously had a filthy hem and some dirt around the zipper. I can't believe how clean they got it: it looks brand new.

3. Bridesmaid dresses are being cut as we speak. No, they aren't even close to being done. Next week I'll head up to my mom's house and we will get them all finished in one day. . .I can't wait to see them. I'm getting a little frustrated with everybody on my case about this; unfortunately there is nothing I can do until both my mom and I have a free day to get them done.

4. I have a hair trial and makeup trial scheduled for next week! My 2nd fitting in on July 3rd, and that will be my final fitting unless more alterations are needed.

5. I've decided against the green crinoline - fortunately I did a professional job on it and can sell it on craigslist. I love the idea of the colored crinoline, but I have something even better up my sleeve! Not only that, but we all agreed that my dress will fit even better if we sew crinoline directly into the skirt as part of the alterations. The crinoline slip adds bulk around my hips and waist that I don't want; we simply need to fill out the skirt, not my hips!

6. Well, we're getting real bouquets. My mom found out (well, she knew, but it didn't process until last week) that we were doing silk bouquets because of the cost difference. She said 'my daughter is not walking down the aisle with fake flowers!'. So, we spoke with our florist who is adding real bouquets to our floral order; my mom offered to pay for them and we managed to keep them at a reasonable price!

Our florist is providing the following (both photos are from her website):

a. Bouts: purple mini cala with berries and greenery for the guys, large calla with berries and greenery for the girls

b. Bridal bouquet (left): 3 large purple callas, ivory roses, yellow berries, greenery: very mountain-y without being a busy wildflowers bouquet.

c. Bridesmaids bouquets (right) : Purple mini callas with yellow berries and greenery.

d. Centerpieces: our wonderful florist (we LOVE her) suggested sunflowers to submerge in the water. They were cheaper than fake ones, and will be beautiful, bright, and mountain-y!

e. Cake flowers: wildflowers for the cake

f. Toss petals for our flower girl

The reason we went with callas is because the purple ones closely match the bridesmaid dresses and because my engagement ring was inspired by calla lilies growing in California. (Calla by Nelson). I LOVE the berries, and roses, callas, and berries all hold up well in heat.

7. Our seating chart is done, and the table runners are almost finished. I'm going to make a wreath out of the rest of the silk flowers to go on the front door of our venue.

17 days! I can't wait :)

Fudge Favors

Originally Dave and I were going to make truffles to use as favors; we know that everybody likes edible favors, and chocolate is a big hit with Dave.

When this all started we weren't even going to do favors! But decided that by making them at home it would be worth the small expense and effort to give our guests something.

Well, our truffles were a giant FAIL. They were sloppy, and melted on the plate in the kitchen when the outdoor temperature raised above 75 degrees. I spent days debating what to do about this mess, when Kirstin and I ran into a DIY wedding book at (yes) Michael's!

I opened it up right to a page with mini wedding cakes in the photo; only they were made with fudge! We loved this idea, because then I get to satisfy my urge to decorate a wedding cake (ok, well about 70 of them. . .) and we get to give our guests an overload of sugar and chocolate. Fabulous!

So, I set out to do a trial of one, to work out the kinks before I invited Kirstin and Theresa over for a fudge-making day. I determined that if I buy supplies in bulk at Sams Club (my parents have a membership) I can make 70 of these for less than $30.00. Not bad considering that most packaged wedding favors cost $1.75 or more each!

The process:

I made a batch of fudge. For this to work, I will have to spread the fudge mix about 1/2 thick - so instead of using the recommended 13x9 pan I will spread it out on a cookie sheet.

I will use two different sized cookie cutters, and a plastic film roll container for the 'top layer'.

I also found that by warming the set fudge a little bit it was more pliable and less likely to crumble. This is literally 5 seconds in the microwave, no more!

I stacked the three pieces and secured them with a toothpick down the center. The flowers on top are wedding flower picks from Michael's.

On our mock up wedding table, Dave and I LOVED how they matched our brown napkins, and how the flowers on top gave some color to the centerpiece and added to the wildflowers feel.

I then made chocolate butter cream frosting, and used a decorators piping tool to add decoration to the 'wedding cake'.

Home made butter cream is so simple to make, and doesn't have any of the garbage in it that you get from store bought icing!

Melt some butter and milk in the microwave in a mug or measuring cup. The more butter, the richer the frosting!

Then, mix some powdered sugar and unsweetened cocoa in another bowl. You don't need to measure, taste it!

Add the milk mixture bit by bit and stir until you reach the desired consistency. It's that simple :) You can substitute vanilla or cinamon for the cocoa for variations.

Our final product will be a lot neater than the one pictured above. They are cute though!

Centerpiece Trial #2

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Dave and I set up another centerpiece because we're having trouble figuring out what kind of flower to put in the water. We wanted to maintain the whole wildflower look, and were finding that (naturally) orchids looked much too tropical. In a previous trial, we tried purple iris flowers, however they looked almost navy blue.

At a recent trip to Michael's, Dave and I found these giant yellow flowers. We loved the idea of a large pop of color, and how having one large flower really simplified the centerpiece.

In this photo you can also see our 'table numbers'. We are using photos of Colorado 14ers (14,000 foot peaks) that Dave has taken. Each table is then named after that peak, and displayed in a $1.00 plastic frame from wal-mart (the cheapest place to buy them). On an easel entering the reception hall will be a large board covered in a Colorado area topo-map, and over that the same photos and names of our guests with their table.

On the napkin (in which the menu cards are tucked) will be a large river rock with their name on it. It's a work in progress, but I think we've worked out the big kinks!

Second Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party

I had a very elegant bridal shower in my Fiance's home town that was thrown my by future mother-in-law and her friends. This post is for my second shower, which was thrown by my matron-of-honor Theresa.

Theresa and Kirstin (another bridesmaid) got together on this one and rented a beautiful little cabin in the mountains on Colorado's famous peak-to-peak highway. After holding the shower, we were to stay the night and have a 'girls' evening to celebrate my bachelorette party; I'm not the girl who would enjoy a night of bar hopping in a silly veil and my bridesmaids know that!

That cabin itself was beautiful! It was a 2 bedroom/2 bath house with a living area, kitchen, and patio with a hot tub and fire pit right on the St. Vrain river. A lot of the appliances and supplies in the kitchen were very dated, and some of the furniture was antique. It was very cozy and we have decided that we'll definitely be back to stay again!

Every single guest for this shower came up in my parents motor home, since they all wanted a ride and didn't fit in one car. They came and left together, and were mostly friends of our family.

Theresa planned several games, including one where she had emailed Dave and asked him some questions that I was to answer. Every question I got wrong resulted in another piece of bubblegum I had to chew; which really stinks because I HATE gum.

I answer 8 of the 10 questions accurately, and failed on two. One being his dream car; I knew it was a fast sports car but the actual model? Not a chance. The second question being what he would chose as his 'last meal' if he was on death row. Having already one large piece of disgusting bubble gum in my mouth (I can't believe they didn't accept sports car!) I was flustered and answered Thai food, knowing full well as soon as I said it that the answer was actually going to be steak.

So, two pieces of bubble gum. I had to argue about one other question, that being where our first kiss was, because Dave was wrong! I couldn't believe it, but they let me slide on that one because yes, us girls remember these things better!

We played some other games (how well do you know the bride, name the spice, etc.) and they also put me on the spot with a silly 'getting dressed game'. After being blindfolded, the following story was posed: 'you and Dave are on your honeymoon. He calls you and says that you have 5 minutes to get dressed for a reservation he's made. The caveat? The power is out in the hotel and you have to get dressed in the dark!'

Then they put oven mitts on my hands.

Yikes.

Once I have a picture of this awful outfit I had to put on, I'll surely post it!

Theresa bought the most amazing carrot cake from a bakery in Denver, and I almost went bridezilla and changed our cake order to this bakery! Wow, it was amazing and beautiful.

She also provided large amounts of fabulous food, and ordered a platter of petit fours from another bakery in Denver. Amazing!



After our guests left around 6pm, Kirstin, Theresa and I put some chili in the crockpot and changed into more comfortable clothes.

Our 'bachelorette evening' included talking about our respective husband, fiance, and new date (Kirstin has found an amazing man for herself!) as well as marriage and the usual assortment of wedding stuff.

We spent a good amount of time boiling in the hot tub on the river, and stayed up late. We ate some of the chili, spent another hour in the hot tub, and went to bed. The next morning we had a great breakfast of eggs and bacon, and drove 10 miles to our venue so that Kirstin and Theresa could see where the wedding would take place.

Our original plan included a hike, but once we returned from visiting our venue the rain started coming down. We spent the rest of our day at the cabin chatting on the couch.

Chloe (my mutt) was with us all weekend, and she missed Kirstin (a former roommate) so much that she was glued to her lap for a good portion of the weekend! Chloe knows where to get the best belly-rubs from. . .

Fabric

My mom and I have done nothing on the bridesmaid gowns other than gather measurements. Sounds scary, but my mother is extremely fast and good at sewing. Between her and I, we should be able to get all three dresses done in a day, and follow up in early July with 'final fittings'.

I bought 10 yards of Plum Polyester dupioni from JoAnns.com, after finding out that it was not only cheaper but that they were offering a sale on shipping in addition to a 50% off coupon they conveniently sent via email. This is the online photo of the fabric, of which the color is nowhere close! I double checked it with the one in the store, and plum was actually the color we wanted. For less than $60.oo I got that fabric, and should be able to purchase lining, notions, and lace for less than $100.

Not a bad total for three bridesmaid gowns, especially considering that the Watters gown we fell in love with (left) retails for $300 - $400 each!

I'm meeting my mom on Friday to choose the rest of the materials for these gowns, and sometime in June we'll cut and sew all three in a day. The skirts and sashes are super easy, it's the top that will be the time-consumer.

My future Mother-in-Law found a beautiful Coldwater Creek dress in a pink polyester duipioni with a bit of lace on the top; the style goes well with our bridal party and the pink has just enough grey in it to go with our colors (which are all grey-toned shades of green and purple).

I will post, of course, when we having something resembling a bridesmaid dress created!

Dresses Everywhere!

47 Days.

That's how long I have to get my stuff together for this wedding!

One major thing is that I need to do is get my (store sample) dress cleaned. This terrifies me, because it's silk (which unfortunately = hard to clean properly) and I love my dress so much that I can't imagine having to find another that compares.

Most of the time silk gowns come back fine, but it's a fact that cleaning does reduce the amount of sizing, which is the filler they use to turn silk into silk satin. Sizing provides the sheen and weight to the fabric, which is part of why I love this dress; it photographs beautifully. I'm considering just having it spot cleaned for the wedding, and then having it fully cleaned and preserved after. The dirty spots aren't very noticeable and are both around the hem and by the zipper; spot cleaning eliminates the chance that the sizing will get ruined, and after an hour of being outside getting pictures done the dress will be less than pristine by the ceremony as it is!

I found a dress for the rehearsal dinner, a $130 Calvin Klein dress that I got at Burlington Coat factory for less than $40! They had it in white, yellow, and brown; I got it in brown because yellow is an awful color for my complexion (very fair) as is the white (had it been ivory instead it would have been my first choice). I plan on dressing it up with a flower in my hair or pinned to my waist (or a bright colored sash), a nice clutch, a shawl, and some nice shoes. Please excuse the fact that it's wrinkled! When I bought it the rain was coming down like crazy and I didn't have an umbrella, so the clerk folded it super small and double-bagged it.

What was really fun was trying it on in my old size, and having to try on 3 more until it was small enough to fit! Even now it's a little big, and I have to get the straps shortened (not an uncommon problem for me). I have another cute dress (black with polka dots and pink ribbon accents, in the old size) that I wore to my first bridal shower; it's now too big and will have to be taken in if I don't give it to one of my friends (who loves it anyways!).

This brown Calvin Klein dress will also serve as my bridal shower dress for this coming weekend, a two day event organized by my Matron of Honor that includes my 'Bachelorette Party'.

My Matron of Honor (MOH) paired with one of my bridesmaids to rent a beautiful little secluded cabin in the mountains near our venue. They are hosting my second shower there, which will be followed by a girls night. My MOH knows me well enough to know that I would not be the least bit interested in the traditional (if it can be called that) night of bar hopping and silly games; instead we're spending the night in this cabin, watching some fun girly movies, and going for a hike the next day.

I'm excited for this coming weekend!

The RSVP's are coming back, usually coming in piles of two or three per day. It's been very fun to check the mail box each day, although today was mildly dissapointing. Mixed in with a few that we knew were going to be definite 'yes' and definite 'no' replies was one from Daves former boss and his family. We thought they would likely come, and because Dave has a good relationship with this boss both of us were dissapointed that they declined. Included in their response was a wonderful note explaining a previous obligation; however it was the first 'decline' we didn't expect.

All par for the course: it did open up some space on the guest list and I'm getting to work on a few more invitations *just in case*.

Unity Ceremony

Dave and I didn't want to do a Unity Candle, because if you really get into the symbolism of it what does it mean when you blow it out after the ceremony? Not only that, but it's not allowed at our venue where the meadow site is prone to wildfires.

I've seen the sand ceremony done, and think that it's a bit trendy (not to mention the fact that for a mountain wedding it makes no sense whatsoever. For a beach wedding, it works).

Well, one thought led to another and after many revisions (Small rocks? Large rocks? Rocks in buckets? Rocks in vases? Eeeek!) we've come up with the following:

Before taking the 2 minute nature walk to our ceremony, guests will be greeted by a table, covered in large, flat polished river rocks where they will be directed to write their names and a wish, prayer, saying, or piece of advice on it. They will take this stone with them, and hold it during the ceremony until after our vows where some of our attendants (flower girl, ring bearer, etc) will gather them for us.

Our officiant is preparing a speech for it, about how bringing all of these stones and prayers together symbolizes the coming together of two groups of friends and family, as well as how each and every one of our guests has taken part in us as individuals and helped us build a foundation for our marriage. It goes with our mountain theme, gives us a unique unity ceremony that includes everybody who is special and important to us, and even serves as a guest book! Dave and I will keep the stones in our home as a decorative item (probably in a vase) and can look through them when we need a 'boost'.

The stones we will use are the same ones that guests will find at their place setting with their name and entree selection: they are flat, polished rocks that are usually used for home decorating.

On Sunday, after meeting with our officiant and really nailing down this process Dave and I went 'marker shopping'. I had tried using a metallic sharpie pen, and while it looked beautiful the markings rubbed off. I could only imagine our guests writing something thoughtful on it, holding it during the ceremony, and then finding their writing all over their hands instead!

We stood in the Michael's for about an hour and tried every marker and paint pen they had until we found something that dried quickly, didn't rub off, and looked nice. The only thing that worked were black and white 'slick writer' pens.

We got gold and silver for the 'escort cards' at the reception. . .more on that in another post.

Ceremony Decor

One thing Dave and I talked about was how to create a defined 'aisle' at our ceremony venue, and draw the eye towards the alter which will not have any kind of arch or chuppah. I looked through photos of our venue that florists had posted on their websites, and liked the idea of lining the aisle with Shepherd hooks.

I contacted a florist in Estes Park, who rents the hooks out for weddings and quoted me $2.75 for small ones and $6.75 for large ones. In photos you could tell that her hooks were used.

Brides beware: shop before you rent! I went to JoAnn's, where all of their summer garden decor was on sale for 40% off. I bought 6 small Shepherd hooks for $2.25 each, and 6 large ones for less than $6.00 each! They are brand new, beautiful, simple, and I can use them after the wedding. It cost less to buy them than to rent them!

Since we're not doing fresh florals (especially not for the ceremony where they'll only be seen for a short time) we found some 2 qt buckets online and bought 12 of them (for much less than flowers). One ribbon bow tied to the handle, and a few programs thrown in make for a really elegant, rustic, inexpensive, and simple decoration! I will re-sell the buckets (which are popular wedding decorations) after the wedding, since we didn't hot glue or attatch anything to them.

We'll also have two large hooks at the beggining of the aisle (one on each side) with the pomanders on them, two hooks on either side of the bridge as you walk onto it to get to the ceremony (a bridge crosses the St. Vrain River), and two out from of the venue entrance.

DIY Menu Cards

I realize that menu cards are not only superfluous, but a serious waste of paper. It's one of those little details, though, that to me was an inexpensive way to add both elegance and formality to our reception dinner.

Instead of using a separate card, on the reverse will be printed: 'Did you get some great photos of our wedding today? We would love for you to share! Upload your favorites to our community photo album at www.Shutterfly.com' (Also included is the screen name and password.) This satisfied my mothers desire for us to put disposable cameras on every table (no thank you!), and it's a great way to get some of those candid shots the photographers might miss.

Hopefully, people will find our note on the back and take them home, making further use of the paper!

At any rate, the cards themselves were a clearance find (yup, another one!) at Michaels - I got 60 cards for less than $5.00. They are a nice weight of ivory cardstock, have a beveled (not sure if that's the correct word) edge, and came with the word 'Menu' pre-printed in an elegant font in black.

All I had to do was decorate! We took the photo crop of the Columbine on our invitations and 'stamped' it next to the word menu, then typed out the menu text using 'aramis', the same font we used on our invitations and will use to create our programs.

The menus will be tucked into a brown napkin at each place setting, and in another DIY project later each guest will have a large river stone with their name on it for their place setting.

Thinking about our yummy dinner choices is making me hungry :)

It's Official!

The invitations have been mailed!

After two long weeks of printing and assembling, calling for addresses, and addressing each envelope by hand I turned them over to the care of the Post Office. We even got our first RSVP returned yesterday (an 'accept with pleasure!'. No mind it was from my Matron of Honor. . . ahem. . .it was still exciting!)

Less than a week previously, we had the Post Office weigh one of our invitations so we could find out what to expect postage-wise. We were quoted $1.00 each (ouch!) which was to be expected because we made the mistake of using square envelopes (odd size = extra postage) out of heavy card stock (extra weight = extra postage). What we found particularly strange, however, was that in a return trip to the post office to buy the stamps we were quoted $1.17 each.

This was before the postage rate increase. The same invitation, weighed by two different employees, and a $.17 difference? It really makes me wonder how 'accurate' their scales are, or if there was a gap in one or the other employees training.

I politely mentioned this to the employee who quoted us the $1.17 (who was also the manager!) and he looked at me like we had made the story up and were trying to scam the Post Office out of $.17!

It wasn't worth the argument, although I'm glad I had it re-weighed (otherwise all of our invites may have hit mailboxes around the country with 'postage due'. Talk about a major etiquette blunder!). I also brought up the argument about one of our invites hitting another scale in their system; how do we know it won't come up with yet another (potentially higher) rate? The manager didn't appreciate my comment!

I also asked him that, since their wedding stamps don't add up to $1.17 and I'd be paying $1.22 for each invitation (two wedding cake stamps at $.61 each) if they would mind hand canceling each envelope (instead of getting the machined red bar on it they use a rubber stamp. . .it looks much nicer) and he very curtly told me he'd do it if he 'had' to and only if they weren't busy. He also said that the machine stamp isn't going to 'ruin' my invitations and didn't understand why I was worried about it.

Good grief. Anybody that knows me knows that I'm the farthest thing from a Bridezilla. I don't know if this guy had some bride in there making a fuss once and now he hates all of us, but I definitely think he needed an attitude check.

I wanted the hand cancel because we spent a lot of money on these invitations, and it's proper etiquette to have them hand-canceled (just like they are hand addressed).

But I digress. The invitations are out, and things are moving along! Two months from today we'll all be together at our venue, and I'm still in disbelief that we're already this close.

Details details. . . .

Rehearsal Dinner Invitations

I decided to send out invitations for our rehearsal dinner so that our guests can plan their weekend in Colorado accordingly. The city where our wedding will take place is a two + hour drive from Denver International Airport, and while I trust everybody to know there *will* be a rehearsal dinner, I thought sending an actual invitation would be a nice touch.

Not only that, but I needed a way to use up left over paper from the wedding invitations!

Our venue recommended a few restaurants, among which was an Italian restaurant known to locals. In my research, I found that they had hundreds of fabulous reviews, not to mention the fact that they were incredibly affordable. Other restaurants wanted to charge us a room fee for our rehearsal dinner, which is ridiculous considering that it really is just a large group like any other meeting they might have. The staff was very nice and accommodating on the phone, and I couldn't believe the fabulous quote they gave us.

They will serve our guests salad, rolls, drinks, and family style Italian entrees (great! Just what I need, a plate full of pasta the night before I have to fit into my wedding dress. . .oh dear. . .) while the river rushes by the patio where they host large parties. It is the perfect combination of mountains and great food!

Dave and I both agreed that we wanted the rehearsal invitation to have a lighter, less formal feel than our wedding invitations but still tie in with our mountain theme.

I found a velum paper with pine printed on it, and paired it with leftover 'Galvanized' and 'Opal' metalic paper to create this invitation.

The velum can be lifted up to make the text more readable, and reads the following poem:

Dave popped the question and Chris said 'Yes'!

Now all the planning is over from the dinner to the dress.

Only one thing remains for this day to be great

'Practice Makes Perfect' and (date) is the date!

We'll practice the ceremony
And iron out the kinks

Then it's off to (restaurant) for some dinner and drinks!

Please join the Bride and Groom to Be

(Time and location information)

First Un-Official Fitting

Dave doesn't read this blog, so I'm safe posting this.

As many of you know, I bought my dress on Ebay from a bridal salon that sells their samples online. While I was able to get a gorgeous expensive dress for not so much cash, I sometimes think that I've really missed out on the whole bridal shop experience. Unlike other brides, I don't have scheduled fittings, a seamstress, or that long wait for my gown to come in from the designer. I also do not have pictures of myself in the store sample gown to show friends and family who ask.

That aside, people ask me a lot about my dress, and I don't mind sharing unless their name is, well, Dave! For a brief time, I considered psyching him out by dropping hints about my dress; a 'fake' dress that is. I thought about making him think that I had some giant, poofy gown with lots of jewels, a corset back, and pickups in the skirt (no offense to such brides, it's simply not our thing). It might have been fun to make him imagine me showing up on July 12th in a mermaid gown and veil (two things he not so much as said 'don't even think about it' to), but I decided to play nice. While he doesn't know what my gown looks like, I'm pretty sure he knows that it's not a poofy princess dress.

Until now, nobody has seen me properly in the dress; going back to the bridal shop experience I never had that 'first fitting' when my dress came in. Instead, I've been at home with the gown tucked neatly away on the guest bed, laid out flat in a white sheet waiting for the day when I felt I had done enough workouts to actually look good in it.

I fell in love with this dress when I found it online, and while I never expected to land myself in a strapless gown we found that it really was the best neckline for my narrow shoulders. The caveat? It was a good size or more too small, and yes, I bought it anyways! Something about this dress begged me to bring it home; it was the perfect combination of simplicity and elegance.

So I've spend the last 6 months running with my dog and doing weight sets. I've really enjoyed getting back into great shape and it was so rewarding when I was able to put the whole thing together for the first time.

I found 'pearl' jewelry on clearance at Kohl's (A necklace and earrings that I would have paid full price for) which are an amazing match for my dress. Not only that, but after budgeting $100 for a strapless long-line bustier I was able to find one for much, much less. The dress fits and I couldn't be happier with how it looks!

I love how the color of the fabric photographs, and the silk satin looks so rich. In June my mom will help me make any alterations (right now it's a perfect fit, if I lose any more weight it will need to be taken in, wow!) and we'll decide on a bustle for the train.

The sash presents a unique problem as far as bustling goes. While it can be removed after the ceremony, the sash is 90% of the reason I love this gown so much, so that's not an option. The only photo I could find of this dress all bustled up on another bride is very tiny, so I did a Google Image search for bustle photos of Amsale's famous blue sash gown (of which my gown was inspired, I'm sure). I loved the way this bride bustled her sash gown: a simple french bustle on the train with the sash tied up over it, leaving a small sweep train to brush the floor.

I really like bustles on wedding gowns; it's very interesting to see how brides pick up their train off the floor. It's important to me that in doing the bustle, it makes the dress. The bustle is worn longer than the train is down, so it has to be something that makes sense visually and design-wise, rather than just be a way to get the train out of the way!

Miss Indecisive

Family and friends successfully convinced me to order a cake from a professional bakery and forgo making it myself. End the end I realize this is a smart decision, but as somebody who likes to keep a tight grip on money I had a hard time justifying $400 for Betty Crocker! Now I'm glad I ordered it, of course, but letting go of control to that project was difficult.

That aside, most other things have remained DIY projects and for all intents and purposes we've saved money and really been able to personalize our wedding this way. Our DIY invitations are beautiful, I love my hairpiece, and even small details like our table numbers are coming together.

One of our DIY projects never really set well with me, and at the time I liked the result but started changing my thoughts after Dave and I spent one evening stalking photos of beautiful weddings on our photographers website (www.SharberPhoto.com).

The more I thought about it, the more I liked some of the floral arrangements I had seen. Although the bouquet and pomanders I had made are very nice, I decided that I could either do better, or shell out the cash for real flowers. We're spending a lot of money on photography, and I want to make sure that in our photos we like the way things look. (The first bouquet, right).

Something about the bouquet I had made felt like it was missing something, and after putting several different extra little flowers into it I wasn't able to find the look I was going for.

Well, on Wednesday I went to Michaels to buy another vase for our centerpieces (I've been buying them one per week using the weekly 40% off coupon) and snoop around in the bridal area for inspiration. That's when I happened upon a gorgeous arrangement, sitting along by itself on clearance because it was missing a few flowers. It was all the inspiration I needed!

Not only was it less than $5.00, but the colors were perfect. I brought it home and added two stems of green hydrangeas, some of the same purple berries that are in my hairpiece, and a purple ribbon. I cannot believe how gorgeous it is in person, and when Dave came home he said 'WOW! That's cool, where did it come from?'

The sticks around the stem were a major selling point for me, and really go with our mountain 'wildflowers, pinecones, sticks, and river rocks' theme.

Brilliant :)

I will have a photo of the bouquet with the dress soon, in the next post actually. . .because I finally have pictures of me in my dress!

As if that we're cool enough, Michaels' also had similiar arrangements with the same sticks on the stem for $4.99 each. I pulled out the flowers they came with (very bright Gerbera daisy's) and will replace them with others. Once those turn out I will post another blog on them, as they will become the bridesmaid bouquets.

What about the 3 pomanders and original bouquet?

Well, the pomanders will be used as decoration for the ceremony; Dave and I both wanted something like that hung from Shephard hooks on the path to the meadow where our wedding will take place. The Shephard hooks, well, that's another story!

The original bouquet will either be re-purposed into the bridesmaid bouquets, or will stay as-is and will be used as part of my break-a-way- toss bouquet. I may attach two wedding ring charms to it and bunch the carnations around it, toss the whole thing and let it break apart. (See post 'Break-a-Way toss bouquet). We'll see. . .in either case it will still be used and no matter what, our floral budget is still way under what we would have spent if we bought all the flowers fresh (and then let them wilt in the July heat). I love how these will look fresh no matter what.

Children for Dinner. . . .

Over the weekend two of my bridesmaids came over to help me print and assemble our invitations, which are scheduled to be in the mail by May 10th.

Months ago Dave and I bought a really nice Epson Workforce 600 printer; our intention for this machine was not only for business use (the copier and fax features are amazing) but to be the workhorse for our wedding invitations. We were promised by both Best Buy and online specifications of the model that this copy-scan-print-fax device was going to do the trick.

However, in preliminary testing here at home it failed miserably; while being fabulous for business use, it refused to run print on the heavy card stock we would be using for the invitations. Every time we set it to print something the rollers would spit out several pieces of paper before crying out that it was jammed up or otherwise needed to be turned off and left alone to sulk. Fabulous.

Feeling the crunch as of late to solve this problem and get the invitations prepped for mailing we looked at our options:

a. Take the Epson back to Best Buy and haggle for something that *would* actually work. This would be difficult seeing that we've had the printer for several months now. We love the Epson for everything else, so it stays.

b. Go to Kinkos. In my experience, Kinkos is really good at messing up print orders. . .not to mention the $1.00 page fee for color printing. Yikes. My stubborn theory is that I wanted to do the invitations myself, not trust them to any high schooler who would be working the counter that day.

c. Buy another printer. Sounds easy enough, right? Dave said that they have this cheap little HP printer at work they use for cardstock, and never have any problems.

So, I went on the hunt for the cheapest little printer I could find; bonus points if printing was all it did! My search landed Kirstin and I at Staples, where a man who worked there offered to run 110lb card stock through some of the cheapest printers they had. As we were getting discouraged, he remembered a Brother fax machine they had up front on clearance for $35.00.

Yes, $35.00. Half the price of the cheapest printer they had in stock. . .a fax machine that printed in color.

After confirming the 14 day return policy, the printer/fax came home with us. . .and believe it or not it worked without a hitch! Upon closer inspection, the print quality is just as good (if not better) that what the Epson was offering on the rare occasion we could get it to take a piece of card stock. The only caveat? It's very very slow to print - so we have to set it to print 20 sheets and walk away.

Now, the title of this post is 'Children for Dinner,' and for that I shall explain.

I have been meaning to reformat the RSVP cards for months now, never having been happy with the wording. Theresa cut the card stock to size while I made my edits (edits that were meant to make the card much less confusing, as well as some little things that my wonderful future Mother-in-Law pointed out) and in our haste to get started we never really proofread the new card. All 3 of us took a look at it, said 'looks great!' and set the fax machine to print 45 of them.

It took it just over 2 hours to finish the process, and only after we had started on another piece of the invitations did we realize the absolutely awful, yet hilarious mistake that I had made on the card.

We were offering children for dinner.

We were so excited to start printing and assemble the invitations that this was completely overlooked. In addition to fixing that, I'm going to change the date so it reads June 5, 2009 instead of June 5th, 2009, and will set the printer to have at it again.

On a better note, I have plenty of card stock leftover to re-make these, and as of yet our $35.00 lonely clearance printer is still not out of ink!

DIY Head Piece

I have never imagined myself as a bride in a veil. While trying on gowns in the bridal salons our consultant would always insist that I try one on: and after experimenting with everything from the popular fingertip length to a full out cathedral (the only one that would be appropriate for my dress) I never got comfortable with the idea. Not only do they make me feel silly, but Dave made it clear months ago that he also is not a fan of the veils (nor is he fond of pickup skirts, mermaid dresses, or giant sparkly ball gowns. . .great! Me neither. . .).

So, I set out to find something appropriate to wear as a head piece with my simple, elegant a-line not-sparkly dress. What I found was pictures of brides who had embellished their hair with flowers; that was all the inspiration I needed!

I haven't been for my hair trial yet, but am looking to keep my hair in a low, loose chignon with bangs and to place the flowers to one side of it. One of my favorite photos of bridal hair is from this gorgeous wedding (right).

At Michael's I found, in the bridal aisle, 3 ivory roses that are soft and made of a foamy type of material (so they have that same shimmery touch as a real flower). Previously I had also found some purple berries, and having had trouble finding somewhere to place them until now were a perfect match for the roses and offer an nice, colorful touch.

I used hot glue and floral wire to secure them to a clear hair comb; it was that simple and took less than 20 minutes. The roses match the ivory of the hydrangeas in my bouquet, and the pearl earrings and necklace I found at Kohls (another great clearance find that couldn't be more perfect for my dress) are the icing on the cake.

I'm definitely not good at doing my own hair, and need a bang trim, however I managed to sweep my hair up into a messy bun for effect and am happy with the results!

Off-Topic

I haven't posted in a while, and for that I apologize!

This is a not a wedding related post as much as it is a rant about our local grocery.

I've been shopping at King Soopers (aka City Market or Krogers) and have been happy to see that our overall grocery bill has come down with the decline in gas prices. A loaf of bread (at least the healthier kind that isn't loaded with corn syrup) came down from the $4.50 price range, and even Tide detergent has retreated from it's exaggerated price.

Two weeks ago, they came out with this new gimic and advertising campaign that they have 'Lowered Prices on Produce'. Fabulous! Or so I thought. . . .

Things are not what they seem, ladies. I'm really surprised that King Soopers thinks that we wouldn't notice the corresponding price INCREASE on everything else!

Let me just say, it's blatantly obvious that King Soopers 'lower prices on produce' and new, bright sunny yellow price tag boards are a desperate attempt to lure us away from Colorado's up and coming grocery chain: The Sunflower Market. Knowing that, it should be no surprise that this smaller, friendlier grocer offers absolutely unbeatable prices on locally grown produce advertised on, yes, bright sunny yellow signs!

Unfortunately we don't yet have a Sunflower Market in our city, or I would take my business there. More than anything else I'm irritated that King Soopers is trying to make out like they've done this great thing by lowering prices on produce, that they are helping our community during turbulent economic times, and that they are 'responding to the way we live'. All the while bread has magically crept back up to $4.50, the energy bars I get for hiking have gone from $1.25 to $1.50, and Dave's hair gel has gone from $6.00 to $12.00 (no kidding).

I understand that the cost of business must be incredible, especially when you factor in the most important distinction between King Soopers and the Sunflower Market: local produce. On that same note, a majority of my grocery bill does consist of produce considering that both Dave and I love to eat fresh fruit and vegetables. I buy a lot of produce each week, but regardless of this 'price decrease' I'm still spending the same on groceries. Hmmmmm. . . .

It really just boils down to the principle of the matter more than anything else. Dave also noticed, and went so far as to call the manager out on the overnight $6.00 price increase on hair gel. The manager stuttered and had nothing more to say but 'we'll look into it.'

One other thing I've noticed, is that the quality of the produce has SHARPLY declined. They are all stamped with a 'product of Mexico' sticker, which did not exist before because our produce came primarily from California. Every box of strawberries I've purchased since the price change has included at least one slimy berry and another moldy one. Neither are visible - they are always in the middle of the box. The tomatoes are mushy, the lettuce wilted, and the grapes soft and much to squishy (not to mention the occasional moldy one in there as well).

I'm happy to pay a little more for produce if I'm getting quality food; after all we are landlocked here in Colorado and don't grow a lot of our own fruits and vegetables. Next week I'm going to Safeway. . . .

DIY Bridal Bouquet

As with the bridesmaids pomanders, we chose to use silk hydrangeas for my own personal bouquet. I though a pomander might have been awkward for me to walk down the aisle with, so I opted for a more traditional hand-tied bouquet. I chose ivory hydrangeas and decided that it would be best to keep it as simple as possible.

Originally I had planned on the addition of purple berries to this bouquet, however when placed it looked like the flowers had measles! The addition of a few purple and yellow hydrangeas were just as bad, and Dave and I both agreed that the bouquet would be best as-is with just the ivory hydrangeas and green leaves.

I used 5 stems of flowers, which I arranged so they formed a full, round ball and secured with green floral tape. The leaves were places using floral wire and hot glue, and the bouquet was finished using ivory and purple ribbon wrapped around the stems.

Like the pomanders, the bouquet looks professional and real, compliments my dress, and goes well with the elegant mountain theme. I think a lot of people expected us to go with a more busy, wild-flower like bunch-type bouquet, but this is one thing I wanted to be somewhat traditional about.

I don't want things that distract from the mountain backdrop, so this seemed quite appropriate and I'm thrilled with both the result, and the fact that nobody has to be put on 'flower duty' the weekend of the wedding!

DIY Pomanders

I loved the idea of making pomanders for my bridesmaids, feeling that they offered both something elegant, and something unique.

After some thought, we decided to use silk flowers for the majority of our floral arrangements for several reasons:

a. Cost. Silk flowers are substantially cheaper than real ones, and hiring a florist was not an option for our budget, not to mention hard to justify.
b. Storage. It would be really difficult to have to care for, and store real flowers and keep them pristine before the actual wedding.
c. Silk flowers can be arranged ahead of time instead of the day before, or of the wedding.

This week at Michael's they had all of their spring stems 50% off, and since hydrangeas were one of our top picks it was the time to buy. Michael's had beautiful hydrangea stems in several colors, and we chose purple, green, and yellow to make the pomanders with.

Once we got home, I started making the first pomander and quickly realized our mistake: I used up almost every stem (of 15 we bought) on what quickly became a large, 12 inch diameter ball of flowers. Much to big, not to mention heavy and way to quick to use up too many flowers!

The styrofoam balls were 6", and I should have used much smaller ones. So, Dave and I went to Michael's and picked up 15 more hydrangea stems to start over with. I am also thinking I should be able to re-use the offending pomander flowers on smaller balls!

To make the pomanders, I poked a bamboo skewer through the center to create a straight hole for the ribbon to pass through. I used floral wire like a large wire threader to pull the ribbon through the foam ball, and then wrapped the ends up and around and secured them with hot-glue.

I cut each bunch of hydrangeas off the stem and created piles of each color of hydrangeas. I used each stem to poke a hole in the styrofoam with, which I then filled with a dab of hot glue and the replaced the stem. The color of the flowers are placed randomly throughout the ball, which lends to our elegant mountain wildflowers theme.

The flowers look amazingly fresh and real, and will hold up in the July heat without wilting!

DIY Flower Girl Dress

I wanted to do something special for our beautiful 8 year old flower girl and decided to make her dress. After shopping around, I found that most 'flower girl' dresses are poofy, frilly nightmares really intended for those of the toddler variety. Rather, I wanted something simple and elegant for our very mature and sweet attendant, and decided to model her dress after mine.

The gown started as three yards of ivory silk (yes, silk! I found a great sale on it and love the way it drapes and photographs) dupioni, 3 yards of cream lining, and a yard of purple polyester dupioni (the same fabric we'll be using to make the bridesmaid gowns).

The pattern itself was very simple, and is a standard, round neck tank style a-line sundress. I modified the pattern so that the back of the bodice would close as a v shape, not round.

Because I was working with silk, I took extra care to trace and cut the pattern as perfect as possible, and used sharp scissors to keep the edges from fraying.

Once the dress itself was constructed, I worked on the sash. I originally made a sash out of a purple charmuese, but once we had decided on the dupioni I changed it so it wouldn't clash with the bridesmaids. Changing it actually inspired me to make it more like the sash on my dress, and I think that the result is so much nicer than what I had originally created!

The photo to the right is the original sash. Above and below (left) is the new one, that closely models mine without being an exact match. To make the
new sash, I sewed two long tubes that would cross each other in the front, inverted them, and ironed them flat.

I also made the sash tails by creating a pattern on tracing paper, sewing the edges, inverting it, and again ironing it flat.

I pinned the bodice part of the sash to the dress and tacked it on from the inside; the tacks don't show because they are hidden by the lining! The sash tails will be attached to the gown with snaps, and the bodice part will close with buttons. This finish work will be done by our Flower Girls family, because we want to make sure that the dress fits her (she lives in another state) before sewing in the zipper or cutting the sash to fit.

I cannot wait to see her in this dress! Other finishing touches will include a row of ivory bridal buttons down the back of the bodice (which will close with button loops) and a small crinoline specially made just for her (the skirt is very full in this pattern and to make it more formal I wanted to fill it out).

Break-a-Way Toss Bouquet

Today's project was inspired by both my desire to do something different than a usual bouquet toss, and by a bride who had come up with this fun and unexpected idea and posted her project online to inspire other brides.

I made a 'Break-a-way' toss bouquet, that when thrown will break into 5 smaller bouquets for the girls to catch. Each one is hand tied of purple silk carnations and has a fortune attached to it's ribbon:

a. You will marry your best friend
b. You will be the next to marry
c. You will marry the man of your dreams
d. You will find your true love this year
e. You will fall in love when you least expect it

I used three carnations in each bouquet, and satin ribbon wrapped around the stems to hold them together. A hot glue gun came in handy for securing the ribbon ends, which were wound tightly so the flowers are going nowhere!

For the fortune, I used a length of the same ribbon we'll be making belly bands for the invitations out of. I printed the text on plain white paper and used hot glue to attach it to the green invitation ribbon. I also added an ivory shimmer card stock flower (found at Michael's, Brides.com table confetti) for effect.

Held together, the bouquet looks like a large, round bridal bouquet. Once tossed, it falls into the individual pieces and offers a fun surprise. Another easy, DIY project!

New Buttons

My dress, being a store sample (and a heck of a deal at that!) arrived missing some of the fabric-covered buttons from the back. A very unique feature of the gown is the cafe colored sash, which is connected in the back by buttons in the same color. So, there are ivory buttons, and cafe buttons.

(<--- what the dress should look like with the correct buttons, not my actual dress)

Unfortunately, 6 of the 8 missing buttons are of the cafe colored variety, and extremely difficult to find and replace. I contacted the gown manufacturer about purchasing replacement buttons and they said that because the gown was discontinued, they no longer carry the cafe colored buttons.

My bridesmaids and I shopped around at a locally owned fabric store that has a large bridal fabrics and notions section. Of course, they did not have any cafe colored buttons, but did have a package of ivory buttons that exactly matched the ones on my dress. This took care of the missing ivory ones, but not colored ones.

One option was to have a local seamstress cover 6 of the buttons with the cafe silk taffeta, probably at a cost of $5.00-$6.00 a piece, and more time to find the fabric for it. Another option was to simply use the ivory buttons on the sash, and hope that the contrast would be acceptable.

Then I thought about school projects from 3rd grade: using tea to create 'old paper' from the days of Columbus. 'Why can't I just dye the buttons using tea?'

Since the package of buttons had extras, I decided to start with 3. Worst case scenario, it wouldn't work and I'd simply use ivory buttons. Best case scenario, I'd die 3 more and sew them on!

I used plain old black pekoe tea and boiling water. Throughout the die process, I stirred the buttons (which floated at first!) occasionally to make sure that the color would distribute evenly.

They only needed about 10 minutes in the tea, and while the color doesn't exactly match the taffeta is definitely close and looks great. Once I get the dress cleaned and the buttons sewn on I will post again!

DIY Pocket Fold Invitations

Another budget-friendly way to personalize a wedding is with DIY invitations. After looking through catalogs and finding most options to be overpriced, boring, and expected I turned to other brides for inspiration.

The pocketfold invitation trend is growing in popularity, and with due reason! It is especially appealing to brides like myself who don't like opening beautiful wedding invitations and having the inserts fall out onto the floor or table. Pocketfold invitations are sleek, organized, and being new to the wedding scene; unique. I liked the idea of doing them, rather than hiring a printing company, for the simple fact that they would then be both highly personalized, and purchased at less than 1/2 of the cost to buy them commercially.

My future Mother-in-Law and I began at a paper supply store, where we pulled samples and unanimously decided that metallic card stock (despite being more expensive) was the way to go to create a professional, elegant, and beautiful invitation.

I turned to www.cardsandpockets.com, who offer inserts and the actual pocket fold in the curious metallic line. They send us samples of the colors, and with little debate, Dave and I chose square sand folders, emerald mats (precut), opal invitation page and R.S.V.P. card, caramel directions insert, and galvanized attractions insert. The emerald provides a pop of color, and the carmel and galvanized exactly match the graphics we are using.

The emerald mats came precut to fit the square pocketfold, and I am using a paper cutter to cut the rest from 8.5 x 11 to size as follows:

R.S.V.P. : 4 x 5
Direcitions: 5 x 5
Attractions: 6 x 5

Each insert is one inch taller than the last, leaving just enough room for the title.

We downloaded paint.net (a free paint program) which allowed us to crop out a blue Colorado Columbine from a photo Dave took. I had to zoom in about 400 times, and go around the exterior of the Columbine to erase erroneous pixels. Once that was done, we saved it and now it's used like a stamp on the invitation. (Photo to right: before removing extra pixels).

We then downloaded the Aramis font from 1001fonts.com, worded the invitation, and started putting it all together! Dave used Google Maps to create a fantastic map for our guests.

I used acid-free glue tape from Staples to glue the mat and invitation together. The text will be printed onto the invitation at Kinkos. Unfortunately, we bought a nice printer for this project and were told it could handle card stock, however all it does is jam up the rollers. This of course, adds somewhat to my budget for this and has put me over, so I've made accommodations elsewhere (like making my crinoline, below).

At Micheal's I found table confetti from Brides.com that is ivory shimmer card stock flowers. I paired them with sheer green ribbon to create the belly bands; something we weren't originally going to do however we felt that something was missing from the outside.

Our invitations, which would have cost over $10.00 each to do professionally, cost less than $5.50 each and that includes postage. A bit over my budget, but definitely reasonable considering the beautiful result!