So I am getting married in a park, Elings Park in Santa Barbara, CA. It’s a really beautiful park, but there are these railings that go around the deck, where my reception will be held. My mom and I had a great idea to cover them with fabric, that went with my colors. Here are the before and after pictures:
Before:
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 Image by Cotton Bud
A link to a very interesting article was posted recently on a thread over at the forums on Wedding Wire, that discusses the many tiers of a bride – based on her budget. Naturally, I landed on the bottom rung, which didn’t surprise me. What did was the seeming lack of respect the author had for brides on such a small budget.
Here’s a direct quote:
“DIY Bride: (Budget: under $5000) Someone who probably doesn’t have the resources to get married just yet and is likely to turn most of her wedding into an Arts and Crafts project.”
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I am not sure if I have mentioned in the past that I absolutely love to cook! Now, I am not saying that I am any good at it, but still love it and find it very therapeutic. I have just become addicted to a website called Food Gawker, and during my lazy Sunday ran across an amazing cupcake recipe on a blog called 17 and Baking… yes, that’s right folks, the blogger is only 17! Even if you decide not to try out this amazing recipe and design for cupakes, perfect for a wedding, I suggest you check out the blog just because she is incredible!
This is the ultimate in DIY, and could save you some big bucks on a wedding cake/cupcakes! I mean seriously, how perfect would these be for your wedding in your colors?!
 Chrysanthemum Cupcakes from 17 and Baking Continue Reading
I opted for Hydrangeas for my girls because one bunch is about the size I wanted for their bouquets and they mixed our blue and green colors nicely.
I wrapped the stem of each in yarn so they would have white bases and something for the girls to grip.
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As I’ve already mentioned, I have two moms. Growing up with two moms has afforded me a unique perspective into the fight for homosexuals’ right to marry (or equal rights for the LGBTQQ community, in general). As a youth, I wasn’t even aware that it wasn’t possible to marry whomever you loved, let alone know anything about the legal benefits extended to married couples only. But as an adult, I’ve learned of these benefits and am appalled that a commitment to love and honor (and the legal benefits attached to them) isn’t granted every American citizen, in each united state.
Now that I am getting married, I wanted to show my support for the continuing struggle for equality. We will be wed in New Hampshire, which supports gay marriage, but live in California, which has been having quite a battle back and forth about it. When I stumbled upon this website, whiteknot.org, I knew I had found the best way for us to share our concerns with our guests.
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So many causes have specific ribbon colors to raise awareness about their fight for action that I don’t know why it surprised me that the fight for gay marriage equality did, as well. Of course it is totally fitting that their ribbon is a white knot. Since 1840, when Queen Victoria wore white to her wedding to Prince Albert, white has been associated with weddings and, as I’ve recently discovered, “tying the knot” is a common wedding phrase with a variety of origins – including a direct connection to hand fasting ceremonies and quite possibly a romantic proposal method of Swedish origin.
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I purchased white silk roses, green roses (they were made out of a foam-like material), and ribbon then I got to work making my bouquet. Like I did with my veil, I’ll give you a photo overview.
 My stem of roses (it came with fake rubber stems)  My green tea roses Continue Reading
I’m a photograph junky. I’ve always loved taking photos when I’ve traveled and have even worked as a studio photographer in the past. So when it came to photographs at our wedding… the more the merrier. We hired a lovely trio of photographers, whom I’ve got all the faith in the world in to capture those “wedding moments”, but I wanted more.
I began scouring the endless wedding websites out there and discovered a couple of great options:
♥Encourage guests to share their photographs
♥Photo Booths
The first option, encouraging guests to share their photos is easy. Set up accounts on Picasa and Flikr, print out some cards with the passwords on them, add a tutorial to our wedsite and Shazam! Photo sharing made easy.
Our Photo Sharing Cards
Images by Cotton Bud
A photo booth, however much it is a fun idea, is also quite pricy to rent. We’re talking in the $1000 range, in the northeast. Yikes! Sorry, but $1000 isn’t anywhere near in my budget for something fun, that is far from a requirement for a reception. Hmph. But I don’t give up that easily. I could always have a faux-to booth, right? I’ve seen some stunning ideas with macbooks and printers and remote controlled shooting. Ugh, that still seemed like too much more work (and money) for us to commit to such an unnecessary extra.
But wait, there’s more!
I seem to always find some sort of alternative to a project, if I want it bad enough. I don’t mind if things aren’t high tech or if they blend a few different ideas together. My solution to this photo booth that I desperately wanted, was such a blending of ideas.
Remember those disposable cameras that were such a hot item in the ‘90s at weddings? They have those pretty silver bells or golden rings embossed on them, with the couples name and date and are sitting at every table for guests to snap candids of each other? Well, I thought, “Why can’t I use those in our photo booth?” Surely, there are enough people at a wedding that guests could snap each others’ photos in the “booth”. But those silver bells and golden rings didn’t quite fit into our style. A bit of surfing on the web produced a wonderful website with a large variety of options – www.customcameracollection.com. We opted for their Camp Bugs style, and naturally personalized them with our wedding info. The best part of this website is that you can include developing expenses up front. After the wedding, we can pop the cameras in their included pre-paid envelopes and toss them in the mailbox. When we return home after our mini-moon, they’ll be all developed waiting for us!
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But what’s a photo booth without props? I’ve adored photos (like the one below) of friends and family framing themselves for the photo op. I had to include a pretty wooden frame I had in our photo booth, but didn’t think it would be enough. After a trip to Dollar Tree and our local party store, I came up with a bag full of silly props for only $20. I can’t wait to take a picture in our booth with the fez hat on!
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Our Props!
Photo by Cotton Bud
I’d say, for the less than $50 total I’ve spent, we will be just as happy with the results from our booth, as we would have been spending a thousand dollars on the real thing.
How are you capturing all of your special wedding moments? Will you be having a photo booth or some other quirky activity at your reception?
who found her DIY favor inspiration at Costco!
You must be thinking, “How in the world…?” Let me explain.
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Lilac Dude and I decided that we should invest in passports to make travel easier. Since we are leaving the country in October we decided to apply this summer and not rush anything. While we were discussing applying for passports we found out that prices were going to go up by $35 on Tuesday. We managed to make it to the Clerk of Courts on Monday and spent 10 minutes in the office applying and now… we wait.
 Photo from Travel.state.gov I would have been writing this post sooner had I known sooner about the price hikes in advance. Regardless, some of you out there may still need passports so I’d like to help you get started on that and spend as little time and money on the process as possible.
The one and only piece of advice I can give anyone applying for a passport: BE PREPARED
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Wedding flowers are insanely expensive. But you knew that already. I love flowers. I love when CC brings home a bouquet of fresh flowers for me. I love trying to grow flowers in our tiny front garden (I say try because my green thumb is not so green.). However, I don’t love the idea of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on flowers for our wedding. I know it’s our special day, but it is – Just. One. Day.
What’s a thrifty girl to do?
Well, let’s stop and take a look at my inspiration and the bouquets that I adore.
Lavender. I remember about ten years ago, my best friend Anne wore lavender all of the time. She had lavender scented everything. I, uh, hated it. To me, it smelled like little old ladies. In fact, I teased her all of the time because she smelled like little old ladies. ~::Time Warp 8 Years Forward::~ I rediscovered lavender a couple years ago and, you guessed it, I love the smell! I am now that person who has lavender hand soap in the loo, lavender laundry soap and dryer sheets, lavender hand lotion, lavender medicinal balm – You name it, it is scented lavender in my home. Naturally then, I gravitated towards lavender for an option as a bridal bouquet.
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