I have an addiction: Online browsing. (Please note that I did not say Online Shopping because the norm is that I go on certain sites, see what’s new and what I wish I could just buy, and then stalk that item for days until it finally goes on sale. Seriously. Laugh if you will, but I always find the best deal.)
Anyway, I have a love for the new trend of one-day designer sale sites, such as Haute Look, Rue La La, and (the reason for this post) ideeli.
Some brief notes, so you can have an idea of what I’m— errr, we are planning:
Colors: No thank you. As of now, the plan is to put the BMs in neutral dresses (probably black or grey) and get the flowers at the last minute (day before), and put them together ourselves the day of the wedding. I can tell you that I love orange (how appropriate). Orange will be somewhere in there.
Food: BBQ/Southern comfort food. Ideally, I’d love to have someone come with a smoker… I can already taste the turkey legs, ribs, grilled corn, pulled pork, cole slaw, hush puppies… nom!
Drinks: Beer & Wine. We’re going to have a couple of different kegs of our favorite beers; and wine. Haven’t thought out the logistics of that yet.
Location: As of now, we’re considering a couple of historic sites… but more to come on that in another post.
Date: All we’ve talked about so far is Fall. Mr. Man seems to think he’ll be able to talk me into a Spring wedding, but let the record show: IT AIN’T HAPPENING. Why does he want this? Football. Surprise, Surprise. I’m pushing to consider getting hitched on a Friday (cheaper), that way we can make a weekend out of it – be lazy on Saturday, watch the Skins wherever we honeymoon on Sunday. I’m thinkin’ Sept/October. I’ll keep you lovelies updated, don’t you fret.
Dress: I’m a plain jane. My only requirement is that it not be frilly and that it absolutely, positively must have pockets. I will not budge on this.
Veil: I don’t do veils. I think they’re annoying. I plan on having a cute-as-a-button birdcage with a to-die-for fascinator.
The Boys: Mr. Man wants to wear black suits, but I’m trying my bestest to convince him to wear grey or khaki; again, I’ll keep you updated.
The Ceremony: Quick and dirty. Nothing religious. Maybe have a friend get ordained. I dig.
After the vows and, of course, the dress, the most important element of the wedding, in this bride’s opinion, is the flowers.
I’m not just talking about the bouquets; I mean the centerpieces, the aisle décor, the cake table, and those other intimate details that serve as the eye candy for your wedding. That’s what makes those David Tutera weddings so amazing — the venue is transformed into a magical, once-in-a-lifetime space that creates a lasting memory for you and your guests.
But it seems like I’m in the minority for thinking so. People tell me, “Flowers die! Spend on the food instead!” To which I say, the flowers live on forever in the photos! And when was the last time you remembered what you ate at a wedding? It was chicken something, right? Or steak?
The question of whether Orchid Boy and I should send out engagement announcements and was on the table for a few weeks after he popped the question.
I had no intentions of sending out save the dates. For me, they’re a waste of postage. We’re not getting married on a holiday and we’re not getting married in a foreign country. There is also the obligation to invite those that you asked to save the date. Well, what if we’re over budget and I have to cut the guest list? Those that we want to save the date, will know about the engagement and the date. No need to kill trees.
Then I spoke to my cousin.
I wished her a happy birthday via Facebook and then mentioned that Orchid Boy and I are planning for June 4 to have the wedding and she better keep her weekend clear.
Her reaction was, “WHAT??!! I didn’t even know about the engagement!”
Oh. Oops.
I just assumed that everyone knew at that point we had been engaged a month and a half.
Which brings up my second point. Was it too late to announce the engagement?
In our case, I think we get a little leeway. We got engaged and then moved to North Carolina two weeks later. During that time I had been working at a new job, Orchid Boy was trying to find a job and we were waiting to move in to our new apartment, which we only just did a week prior to the discussion.
It wasn’t like we sat around for two months just procrastinating.
We decided to kill some trees and send out an announcement and included our new address. I had my awesomely talented, sister and Maid of Honor design these incredible announcements, which we printed at Walmart for nine cents a pop for a total of $10.43.
I told my MOH what to write, gave her a picture, and this is the awesomeness that she came up with.
Mr. Magnolia convinced me a few months ago that we can, in fact, DIY our invitations. The whole thing. Cutting, measuring, aligning, assembling, *designing*…
I don’t think he realized what he got himself into.
{this cartoon is highly ironic. I don’t know how many times I’ve changed my mind about these invitations}
Our invites are our first DIY project. They are truly… a labor of love, to say the least. Finding ideas, finding images, getting the right paper, getting the right font, getting the right text, designing the whole thing, putting them all together, addressing them all… translating them so that they are in French and English…. well, it’s quite a bit of work. I think it’s more than I had anticipated when we decided to DIY them. When the whole thing is done, I’ll have to post a Pros and Cons list of DIY your invites.
For now, though, I wanted to share this video, which really made me giggle. After all, with the stress of guest lists and DIY invitations, you gotta laugh, otherwise, you’ll go nuts (trust me):
Are you DIY your invites? Have you changed your mind a gazillion times, like me?
After much consideration of our budget and our original plan of having a New Year’s Eve wedding, we could not make it work. To us, we had the perfect date and the perfect venue. If I had a money tree, it would have been perfect. Getting back to reality, we decided to take a step back and re-evaluate everything. Good thing we did because we found the quirky venue we were looking for with a price that a penny pincher would love just by getting out of DC proper!
Now, we have a NEW date of September 17, 2011 in a NEW location of Alexandria, VA.
We didn’t have a date that was particularly “special” to us so when I accepted that the NYE wedding wasn’t going to work out, I was open to picking a date that the venue AND our planner had availability on next fall. Did you get your first pick of dates? How did you choose your wedding date? What makes it special?
Howdy garden! I’m here to spread the word about the White Hot Hope initiative — a month-long, nationwide program to help women and children in need find their “happily ever after”. White Hot Hope is sponsored by Brides magazine and supports two really great charity organizations: Operation Smile and Dress for Success.
I took a floral design class here a the U just a semester back…it was AMAZING! I learned the basics of designing my own arrangements as well as the in’s and out’s of a floral business. The most helpful thing I learned…how expensive real flowers are! For the make-believe wedding I was required to create for the class final, the budget for the flowers was upwards of $7,000. And I thought my arrangements were pretty modest!
Here’s some pictures of arrangement I made in class just to give you an idea:
I framed our save the dates and my bridal shower invite. They are both hanging to the left of our computer desk in our ‘office’ which is actually our dining room. I had no doubt I would want to also frame my wedding invitation. That was until I came across this post on the awesome blog, Young House Love. This couple who recently became parents have a fabulous blog which mainly focuses on DIY home projects and decor. There is also a link at the top to view information about the fabulous DIY wedding on a budget they had. Here is their wedding shadow box -
My Inspiration - http://www.younghouselove.com/2009/07/wedding-week-ii-think-inside-the-box/
