Cocktail Hour.

What kind of cocktails do you serve during Cocktail Hour when you're not having cocktails at all?

I didn't know either until this morning.

For a minute, I thought serving freeze pops. I know, I know - they're a little low-class for a wedding, but they're cold and cheap! Have no fear, the idea died as fast as it was born. My new idea??

Frozen Grapes on a Stick!



Great, right? They're cold, classy, tasty and easy to make. I can have some friends who will be there during the cocktail hour just grab them out of the venue's freezer, pop them on trays, and lay them out for guests to nosh on.

Updates! Get your updates here!

Yeah, when I was typing that title I said "here" in my head with a Boston accent, "he-ya". Heehee.

Anyway, lots of updates to be had! This week we bought our wedding rings! They're white gold - mine is 2mm and Dave's is 4mm. This isn't my ring, but it looks just like it!




We also ordered our cake topper! It doesn't go with our rustic theme, but it represents Dave and me perfectly. Skulls/skeletons for Mr. Punk Rock and Mexican Catrin/Catrina for my Latino obsession!




...and we finalized the plans for our ceremony programs. They'll look something like this, but you'll have to wait until the wedding to see the final product!

Burlap Bird's Nests.

When I saw these burlap bird's nests at The Country Chic Cottage I had to attempt them myself.  First attempt, was terrible - as I didn't use disposable bowls, rather my own cereal bowls!  Needless-to-say that left me with quite a mess.  This weekend, however, after a bit of advice from Angie at The Country Chic Cottage, I came out with ten awesome candy dishes for my guests' dinner tables!  (In the pic is a nest of reese's peanut butter cups - but we'll be using jelly beans and foil covered chocolate eggs that look like bird's eggs.)

Sewing Party!

Can it be a party, if you're by yourself?

I haven't ordered the burlap to sew the table runners for the guest tables at our reception, yet, but I do already have the fabric for the head table runner. I found an awesome "wicker-ish" printed fabric at IKEA, that is 18" wide and already hemmed on the sides! The best part is it was on clearance for $.99 a yard. I bought a whole bolt, needless-to-say. I didn't actually have a plan for it, I just knew it would work into the wedding somehow.

Enter, the head table runner. What a great way to set the head table apart from others! So, I'm feeling the need to continue on with my DIY weekends and thought that this weekend might be a good time to attempt making the ruffled table runners.

On a side note, I've read a bunch lately on blogs about "Sweetheart Tables" which are tables for the bride and groom, only. I'm beginning to think they're a good idea. I figure Dave and I can be set up at a solo table (which we're likely to only sit at while we eat) and our wedding party can be seated with other guests so they're not isolated at a head table. I think, realistically, at weddings - the bride and groom do very little sitting as they're mingling about talking with all of their guests, so why waste a big table for all the wedding party to sit at (and potentially away from their dates, as I don't know how many people we can cram at one table) when they could be sitting amongst everyone else?

Any thoughts on this? Is a sweetheart table going to seem awkward? I've never actually been to a wedding where there was one, but Dave and I aren't much for the center of attention thing, it's really just a place for us to stop and eat at. Hmmm.... Do let us know what you think, please.

Yup, so planning to make a ruffled table runner this weekend from the IKEA fabric this weekend, wish me luck!

All the pretty cakes....

Sure I said I didn't want a girly "wedding" cake, but I'm a girl! It's so hard to avoid all the super girly details that so many weddings are overflowing with.... and, as we all know, I'm in love with ruffles!

Our ideas of what kinds of cake to have, and their general style, hasn't changed since we thought we were going to bake them ourselves.

We're still wanting 3 9in round, 3 layer cakes in 3 different flavors.
♥Yellow cake with Chocolate frosting for Dave
♥Carrot cake with Cream Cheese frosting for me
♥Any flavor cake with Lavender colored frosting to tie our wedding colors together in cake!

As I troll the boards of the wedding planning sites that the internet seems to be overflowing with, I see so many cute ideas for frosting designs. I've made a little inspiration board below to share the ones that I think are adorable! In my mind, our cakes will be monochromatic (chocolate on chocolate, lavender on lavender, etc.) and the frosting would add a fun dimension without screaming WEDDING CAKE!!! I ♥ the ruffles one, but I also think it would be too girly for all 3 cakes and (not even considering how David might feel about it) I wouldn't be able to handle that much girly! However, if our baker is able to re-create any of these designs, and could bring the ruffles to life, I wouldn't be opposed to having 3 different designed frostings (after all the color of the frosting will be 3 different colors) and one of them possibly ruffles.

What do you think?? Are you loving any of these designs, too??

PS-The bottom right is potentially what our cake pedestals will look like.

Busy, busy weekend!

We got a lot of wedding things done this past weekend. Yay! I have, of course, mentioned a lot of them already because I get so excited when I do something wedding that I have to share it!

Recap List:

♥Ordered Wedding Cake Toppers (post below)
♥DIY - Table Number Frames (post below)
♥Booked Caterer
♥Ordered Invitations


The catering was quite a journey to arrange but in the end we're using a local restaurant that my friend Heather manages, The Sunset Grill. I spent a few nights hanging around the restaurant last summer, catching up with Heather, after having spent many years away from home. I also met Tim, the owner, a few times; he's such a well traveled, funny guy that I'm glad to be working with them for our catering. (Thanks again to the Schwartzes for offering to cater for our wedding in the first place as none of this would be possible without their generosity.)

We also ordered our invitations! Very excited about this! We ordered an Invitation, a Reception card and an RSVP postcard. Dave custom designed all three and they're being printed at vistaprint.com (they printed our Save The Date cards, too). I also ordered brown kraft envelopes from a different site. I plan to zigzag stitch a piece of vellum paper over the invitation - to dress it up a bit - but if that doesn't work out we may shell out the extra cash to buy vellum envelopes to put them in.

I had no idea how many details went into weddings, and how everything sort of has a purpose. For instance, the invitation does get sent in an envelope with all of the other little cards (which could include maps, directions and what-not, but we've chosen to put all that on the wedsite) but I didn't know it is supposed to have it's own separate inner envelope, that is typically addressed to the guests by first name. If we do end up getting the vellum envelopes for the invitations "inner envelope" I don't think I am going to write any names on them. In my mind, the reason for using the vellum envelope is to showcase the invitation in a way that you get a peek through the vellum, but it's still separate and special. I've definitely spent way too long thinking about invitations. Here they are (in .jpg form anyway); I can't wait for them to arrive in "up to 21 days"!

Our Table "Numbers" Are Done!

A quick, little DIY project tonight resulted in the completion of our table numbers! We named our tables after trees and the "August Seventh" one is for the head table. Cheap and easy project: IKEA frames 3 for $2.49, scrabble letters from an extra game we had, leftover save the date cards and some glue! It was fast and easy to do. We love them!

Burlap and Ruffles! Oh my!

As you may already know, David and I plan on DIYing our own table runners or tablecloths from burlap that I will be sewing and he will be screenprinting with something swanky. Well, I've just been overwhelmed with more awesomeness that I want to include too! Burlap runners with.... RUFFLES! Gah! I'm pretty sure I could do this, you know, sew the ruffles on our table runners. I'm at least going to attempt it, when we get to that point. Classes will be done in 5 weeks and I'll have a few weeks before summer session begins. So my plan is to do all the DIYing that we will do here during that time.

Yay! Burlap with ruffles!

Budget Bird's Nests.

In my never ending quest to reduce the budget of our wedding I'm constantly searching DIY blogs and sites to find ways to create looks that I love for less.

Most recently, I've been enamored with bird's nests. I'm not totally sure where it came from. It could be because we have a cute pair of birds on our STDs and RSVPs or it could be because birds live in trees and we have a heavy tree theme going on or it could be because of the freedom a bird implies and I've always been a wandering soul. Whatever the reason, I'd like to have bird's nests as part of our centerpiece decor with little, pretty eggs in them. To do this would cost about $40, not a ton of money, but money none-the-less. I'm not so excited about spending money on "stuff" that I am going to either throw out or try to sell to other brides after the wedding. Enter the DIY.

I found a cute little project this week for DIY bird's nests made out of burlap. Well, we're already going to have a ton of burlap to make our table runners and other miscellany from. It would be completely practical to use the scraps to make bird's nests for our table too! But then there are the eggs. I still didn't want to buy fake eggs that were just going to get tossed so I shared this with the brides on a wedding forum and they suggested I check out the post-Easter sales. Well, duh! Why didn't I think of that? I could buy Easter colored jelly beans, put them in my scrap, burlap bird's nests and they would be tasty little treats and not be wasted!

So, I did just that. I bought some chocolate eggs that are wrapped in tinfoil that looks like robin's eggs and some pastel colored jelly beans today for a grand total of $9! I'm halfway to some fantastic bird's nests for our tables. Here are some photos of the DIY bird's nest project. I think when I make mine, I will use a different shaped mold so they're a little deeper than hers.

Color Palette.

I was messing around with a program online that allows you to play with color palettes and create your own, so I created one for our wedding, of course!

A girl's got a right to change her mind...

...many, many times about her centerpieces, right? Well, my goodness! I think I have finally decided on what I want, for sure - for sure, this time. As much as I think the paper flowers on the branch is a totally cute centerpiece, I think the paper flowers sort of make me cringe, too. But, I am very certain (for the last time, let's hope) that what I'd like to do now is wildflowers. Nothing fancy, just a small bunch of wildflowers (hopefully from my Mom's garden, if not from nearby pastures), tied with twine, and placed in the quart and pint canning jars, that we already have at my folk's home (thanks again ladies for getting those for us!). And around this wildflower display would be a couple/few jelly jars with lavender votives and some stones haphazardly placed along the table. Keep in mind the tables are rectangular, so I'm think 2 or 3 of these displays on each table. Simple and budget friendly! Here are some photos that totally inspire me on this wavelength:

Candles.

I opened the lavender votives today (the ones I bought awhile ago online) to see how they looked in a quilted jelly jar. I love it! I've been burning it for about 3 hours now, and it's still going strong, so I'm sure they'll be perfect for the wedding. They're also not just lavender color, but smell of lavender too! I plan on having jars that look like this (with the little twine bow) spread down the tables with the centerpiece.

Seating Cards

I've seen so many options for seating cards but the more I see the more I still love the idea of using stones. I think paper seating cards are a waste of paper and money and stones could be taken from and returned to the river. Besides, most people have paper seating cards and using stones is a bit more original. They would also tie into our rustic theme well. I plan on "borrowing" rocks from the river bed near my parents' home for table decor, anyway, so I think I will more than likely do a stone seating card, as well.

Here are some inspirational photos from online. I particulary like the one set up in circles.

Twine Orbs, Part Deux.

I wanted to share where my inspiration for the twine orbs came from and how the orbs look hanging, which is what they will be doing at the reception and/or the ceremony! The grapevine balls have lights, but I won't be adding lights to our twine orbs. It'll be a daytime wedding, no need. But they grapevine balls are also show with white paper lanterns... I love the contrast of the brown and white, and have considered hanging 36" white balloons in contrast with the twine orbs. We'll see. =)

Burlap.

Dave and I are still planning on making our own table runners out of burlap and screenprinting them with our monogram for the guest tables at our wedding. I found this really cute burlap heart today and thought these would be fun to make with the burlap scrap! Then, my mind wandered off, and I thought I could make an S monogram for our head table or something. Then, further my mind wandered, and I thought I could make a little boy and a little girl out of the burlap scrap to hang on the bathroom doors! Ha! How cute would that be!?!? And I'd totally use them again as dolls on our guest bed. I'm not thinking regular dolls, more like gingerbread people shaped.

I got a sewing machine off of craigslist for free a couple weeks ago. It didn't come with a manual and it's been forever since I've really used a sewing machine. (I did make a pillow for Dave for Christmas, but that machine was all set up to go - I just had to sew some straight lines!) So, I've asked my friend Galen to come over and set it up (he's a crafting mad man!) and hopefully I can start doing some sewing of my own soon! Here's the pic of the heart that has inspired me to do more with the burlap!

DIY Weekend!

Dave and I had a super weekend! Saturday we worked on some DIY projects - I made some twine orb prototypes for the wedding and he made some t-shirts for our etsy store. Sunday we went to the horse track for the first time, met an older couple that could totally be us in 20 years, learned a bit about racing and got some sun! It was a wonderful weekend, indeed!

Here are a couple of photos of the twine orbs. I am thinking about using them to hang on the porch at the town hall or on the gazebo. I had thought about hanging them from the ceiling in the town hall, but it has such a lovely ceiling, that I'd really hate to detract from it with some half-assed DIY project. Maybe, though, they'd also look nice hanging in the windows of the town hall. Anyway, here are the ones I made Saturday.









Some things I learned during the project are:

♥I will need to use more glue in the glue/water mix for dipping the twine.
♥I will need to wrap more twine around the balloons, as the one that I had wrapped the most twine on, looks the best.


I think I might also like to get some tiny balloons (water balloon size?) and make some little ones. I think those might look cute on the tables, too. Long story short, they were easy to make, fun to make, quick to make, and very inexpensive. I definitely think they're something we will incorporate into the wedding.

Centerpieces.

Pretty much throughout this entire planning process I had envisioned our centerpieces to be bouquets of dried lavender with sprigs of brown twiggy things in clear glass vases tied in twine. Now I'm having second thoughts.

First, I think I should stick with the more rustic theme I have going. Instead of vases I should use the quart canning jars that I already have. The height of the lavender I was considering is only 11"-13" tall, so they would look fine in the canning jars.

But, browsing the interwebs this morning, looking for origami/asian themed centerpieces for another bride, I stumbled upon this one:




I adore this! I can envision it with purple and white flowers, and the tiny little pom pom buds in chartreuse! I've been wanting to add a bit of chartreuse, anyway, as I think it's a great little accent color to the lavender and brown combo, but never really saw any place to stick it. I think I would also use river stones in the bottom, instead of moss.

So what do you think of these?? I think they would be easy enough to make. I think it would definitely be pretty and simple, which I like. And perhaps, low budget enough that there could be two on each table (rectangle tables) with the other varying sized mason jars spread between with lavender votives and stones??

Family Tree....

This is a definite must!
How cute is this??
A thumbprint guestbook...
I ♥ this big time!

Things I Adore...

Of course in my endless search for the perfect DIY projects for our wedding I have come across some very lovely things indeed.

Here is a handful of photos of wonderful ideas:




















I've also stumbled upon this blog which, not only is filled with tons of inspiration, but also has links to a lot other wonderful sites.


amountainbride.blogspot.com

Pretty things are everywhere...