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

be
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!

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!

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)

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!

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 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!

Dyed Crinoline

The initial vision of my dress included a colored sash; now that I have the dress and the sash is such a muted, earthy tone I wanted to find some other way to add a pop of color. I was quickly inspired by brides who had dyed the crinoline under their dress: not only is it unexpected, but it's a fun way to surprise people while spinning on the dance floor or picking up the skirt.

If done right, the color won't show through the dress, and will only appear when it pops out underneath.

My dress definitely needs a crinoline to fill out the skirt properly, however they are ridiculously overpriced (as with most things in the bridal industry!) To purchase one new I was looking at $45.00 or more, which is not something I could justify considering that I could *potentially* destroy it (and/or the washing machine, other clothing, etc.) in the dye process. Not only that, but my lingerie budget for the wedding needs to go towards a good strapless bustier.

A few years ago I had purchased several dress patterns from a local fabric store that was closing, and among those I had a pattern for a bridal crinoline that was part of an evening wear collection.

I went shopping for fabric, and purchased 6 yards of ivory dress lining ($2.00 / yard on clearance at JoAnns), and 10 yards of light green sparkle tulle ($.89 cents/yard). I purchased thread ($1.75) and bias tape for the drawstring ($1.25) The total cost, including the pattern (which was $1.00 several years ago), totaled about $24.00. Some of the lining and thread will be used in other projects for the wedding, further lowering the actual cost of my colorful slip!

The pattern I had only gave instructions for an un-lined, tulle-free slip. Since that defeated the point of having green tulle, I had to get creative. One option was to cut two of the crinoline pattern, sew them together, and put the tulle in between the two layers. However, not wanting the same pleated skirt lining the crinoline, I pulled a generic skirt from another pattern to make the lining out of. This way, the interior of the slip fits like a regular 3-panel skirt (so that the tulle adds the bulk, not the fabric) and the exterior is pleated to make room for the tulle.

I began by tracing and cutting the pieces of both patterns, including an extra yoke (1st / top tier) of the crinoline pattern to sew to the lining.

I sewed the lining together first, attaching the lining portion of the yoke to the top. The lining pattern had to be modified slightly to fit properly with the crinoline pattern.

The third (bottom) tier of the crinoline had so much fabric! I almost shortened this, thinking it was way too much, but once I started sewing it became obvious that doing so would have been a mistake.

Adding pleats to each tier was the most time-consuming part of the project. I could have done smaller pleats, but again i wanted the fullness to come from the tulle - not the fabric.

Once both the exterior and the lining of the crinoline were constructed, I sewed them together at the top (waistline). I then closed the back of each piece, sewing the seam only 3/4 up from the hem. I finished the remaining 1/4 to the top by inverting the raw edges of each and sewing them together as one piece.

Almost there! I put the drawstring into the top, and sewed a straight line underneath it to seal it into a pocket. The only thing left to do was to sew in the tulle!


The tulle was a bit of a task as well, since keeping it folded and straight was somewhat difficult.

On it's own, it looks so full! However the weight of my dress compacts it.


The green doesn't even show through the lining fabric, which is great because then I know for sure that it won't show through the dress.

To the left: before the hem. To the right, after the hemming and addition of a bit more tulle.














To the right: the dress with the crinoline underneath. It fills it out just enough to keep the skirt from falling flat, but doesn't get too poofy which is exactly what I was going for! It also balances out the bottom vs. the top, and smooths out the waist/hip area (my dress needs to be cleaned and pressed, so you can't tell by looking at this picture!).

Another added benefit of the crinoline is that is will help the train and the bustle lay properly, which it would not have before.

My only concern is that the added fabric will be hot - this I know and accept. I would rather a little extra fabric than a frumpy skirt! :)