Ok, I’ll just put it out there….I LOVE MY INVITATIONS!!!!!! And obviously, am so excited about them! A friend of mine did a stellar job designing them. She is insanely talented. Now, I have friends/family who read these so I don’t want to put everything out there but here is a little sample of the great work that she has done. My vision was that I wanted it to look like it was hand-painted on there. I want lots of flowers and color—and she did exactly that! Here is a sneak peak:

A sneak peak of our invitations! Aren't they pretty?!

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One things that we saved a big chunk of money on was flowers. I made all of our wedding flowers in advance with silk flowers to not only save money but also reduce stress (and they don’t wilt!). We were pleased with how all of the flowers came out.

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Are you ready for this?  This has to be my all time ultimate DIY project that I’ve done.

This past weekend, I worked on reupholstering this large makeup/suitcase I got from the flea market.  Since inside was pretty yucky, I knew I had to do something with it if I wanted to use it for the cards for my wedding.  The vinyl and cloth was coming apart, but the exterior and its functions was still in good shape.  Overall, it wasn’t too hard of a task, just a little time consuming.  It took me about 4 hours from start to finish.

MMMMMM CAKE TASTING.

I basically could leave it at that… but it makes for a boring read.

The venue we are having the wedding at has their own pastry chef, but unless they’re doing a wedding they aren’t baking cakes, so they don’t do a tasting. I’ll give them that it’s probably a good cake. But how can I know which of the many flavors I want to choose if I’m not sure what they end up doing best? However, our venue does offer one great option. They’ve partnered with a cake shop down in the valley (because our venue is up at a ski resort) And with this particular baker they don’t charge a plating or cutting fee. (Yeah–look out for that charge, and find out if they partner with someone to avoid that fee). So, we opted to use their out of house cake vendor, as she does cake tastings ,a bit more for the decor, and we avoid the plating fee. She plans all of her cake tastings for Tuesdays so that she has fresh cupcakes for tasting once per week and can do one big batch.

So, we came in and looked at pictures and planned a bunch of things with our cake. And for the ENTIRE time that we were planning there were two plates each of eight delicious looking cupcakes covered with delicious looking butter cream frosting.

So we still don’t get to taste yet, we talked about decor and cake set up.

Instead of having a big tiered wedding cake we’re having an eclectic set of cakes on different stands and different flavors. And we set it up in foam to see how it would look and feel.

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Poppy Dude and I are very much in love with the simple rural surrounding that we were raised in. It was important that our wedding really reflect those values. I wanted to find a way to get Poppy Dude really excited about the wedding planning process because I know sometimes the groom just smiles and says “whatever you want, honey!” when it comes to picking and choosing wedding details. I had an idea that fit the ticket for both wishes – a touch of country.

Poppy Dude is a “country boy” when it comes down to it. He was raised on his family’s farm/ranch where three generations of men come together to make the operation a success.

When researching and coming up with ideas for centerpieces – it struck me. What’s yellow and plays a huge part in our agriculturally centered lives? Corn and Wheat. I ran my idea by Poppy Dude and his eyes lit up. We decided to incorporate corn and wheat grown right on the Poppy Dude family farm. Corn would be easy to get – Poppy Dude’s family has some stored in bins on the yard. The wheat on the other hand only presented a certain window of time for cutting at the perfect golden color. That’s usually around the 4th of July here in south-central Nebraska, but because it’s been so wet this year it was a little later – even better for us!

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I was so tore about what to do for our unity candle. I didn’t want to spend $$ for a candle that, although very symbolic, was only going to be lit for a few minutes. To add to that, I had no idea how to make this project DIY. Numerous times had I looked up ideas online, but nothing really caught my eye. Then the other day when I was writing a post about making my wedding stationary and continuing the same fonts and decorative elements throughout all my wedding items it hit me like a ton of bricks. Use the items that you’ve already picked out because you like them so much! In a matter of seconds I had a design to place on the plain ivory candles I had purchased. Here’s the finished product:

unity candle

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Designing my own wedding invites was something that I always planned on doing. And I truly enjoyed doing it! I sort of new what I was looking for before I ever started, which in some ways made it easier (like choosing fonts) but in others more difficult (like finding the perfect decorative element). Here’s the finished product…

After doing the invitations I was on a roll, so I continued with the theme of western fonts and the same decorative element and created a whole wedding stationery including response cards, direction/accommodation cards, wrap around address labels,  thank you notes, rehearsal invites, reserved tables…the list goes on! (Ceremony programs are still to come)

When it came time to print everything I decided to do my research. At the local print shop I asked them about my paper choices – they could special order the type of paper I wanted (recycled brown kraft paper) and envelopes and do the the printing for $$$. I also asked for a quote if they just did the printing and it came out to $$.  I had already looked and priced paper online and knew it was much cheaper that the paper the printer was proposing we use. So being the frugal bride that I am I went ahead and ordered the paper and envelopes online and dropped them off at the printer’s when they arrived. By doing this I saved $200 and got exactly what I was looking for!

I’d love to hear from the Garden…did you DIY your invitations? Are you pleased with the results?

This blog is dedicated to all the UK followers!  =)  I recently found this UK online clothing store that can sell across the whole world.  Of course, with some extra shipping costs.  Even though if you do buy the dresses from the US, the dresses are probably still cheaper then getting it at a regular bridal salon.  All the dresses are under $50 at Dorothy Perkins.  There’s such a wide selection of dresses that could be potentially for your lovely bridesmaids.  All dresses from Dorothy Perkins.

Taupe One Shoulder Dress: £24.00

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Are you like me where you’re either afraid of going to the dentist, too lazy to get real teeth whitening, and just don’t want to pay for it if you don’t have to?  About a month ago, I got my yearly teeth cleaning and I asked my hygienist for non-professional teeth whitening options.  She recommended the Crest 3d White Strips.  Guess what I did the very next day?  That’s right, I got the Professional Effects 3d White Strips (Pictured on the left).

Results: Out of a scale from 1-5 (1 being no effects to 5 my teeth are blinding white!), my rate would be a 2.5 out of 5.  It wasn’t as white as I wanted it to be, but it did have SOME effect.   I thought about posting up pictures of my teeth, but I don’t want to gross you out!  =P

Would I Recommend this Product?
Not really.  I spent about $45 on it and the results weren’t what I wanted.  I thought about returning it to the manufacturer and getting my money back, but I just thought it was too much of a hassle.

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