Well... sort of. =) I have just completed my LAST do-it-yourself project! Woo hoo!! Aside from wrapping gifts I have NOTHING left to do that is going to take any "crafty" brain power or dexterous fingers. lol. I am REALLY excited about this. =)
My last project was our table assignment poster. Figuring out where people would sit was actually a lot easier than I anticipated, thank goodness. I figure some people won't be 100% happy with who they are sitting with or where, but if I get 75% I think I'll call it a win. lol
Here it is! Foam/poster board from the Dollar Tree, 4X6 note cards, ribbon from Michaels, and sunflowers that I harvested from these shoes. lol. I liked how our other poster turned out so much that I decided to follow the theme. =)
(names have been covered... sorry everyone, you'll have to wait to see who you're sitting with! lol)
Remember having to write those "How I spent my summer vacation" essays in school? lol... sorry, random, but I thought of that with this post title. =)
It is almost 90 degrees outside right now, so I have decided that it is a good time to spend some time in the coolest room of our apartment (the living room) and get some hands on wedding shit done. I'm feeling pretty accomplished right now, albeit a little sore from the sitting and bow tyiing (I went not built for this kind of repetitive work). So, without further ado, here's "what I did on my weekend":
(If you are coming to the wedding and want to be completely surprised by the decorations/favors , read no further!)
Table numbers and various menus/signs! Thanks to your comments on my earlier post, I decided that assigning tables is not going to be a waste of my time. So, via the powers of Microsoft Publisher I created table numbers as well as signs for the guest book, cake flavors, and wine selection. I printed them on index cards and then slid them into acrylic frames that I got at Micheal's! Woo hoo! Originally I just had the text on there, but they looked really empty, so I decided to add different photo of Jacob and I together for each number. I'm really happy with the way these turned out.
I also did some....
Wedding favors! I don't want to go into too much detail about what these consist of, but I do want to say that I SUCK at tying bows... so this task has been pretty time consuming and daunting for me... so, if you're coming to the wedding, you better appreciate! lol Unfortunately...
I am FAR from being done... *sigh* I may develop arthritis by the time I'm done with all of these. My kids will be wearing Velcro shoes until they figure out the bow tying thing on their own! lol
We have 20 days left until the big day. Last weekend I was feeling very down and emotional about everything wedding related. This weekend I've felt a burst of "get shit done" energy... and I'm definitely thankful that it found it's way back to me! I will also be thankful when I can finally get all of my piles-of-wedding-crap (PWC) out of our kitchen and living room!
I think the cat is probably looking forward to getting his area back, too! =)
I'm wondering if any of you out there in blogland have used "easel backs" before? Something like this:
I've been trying to come up with some way to display table numbers, signs, etc. Originally I was thinking I'd just buy a bunch of cheap picture frames, but, as I was searching the web for those last night, I ran across these. You just peel and stick these onto the back of whatever you want displayed. They SEEM like a good deal, but I've never seen them "live" before so I have no idea how sturdy they are or how well they work. Any thoughts?
... which is why I'm glad that my friend Holly drove a couple hours north to see me this weekend and take me shopping!
I've been putting off going to the craft stores because I am NOT a crafty person and those stores give me slight anxiety! =) Plus, I wanted to look for jewelry; a necklace to be precise, to go with my dress. I tried on a bunch at the bridal salon, but none of them really jumped out at me. And, if you've been following my blog for awhile, you know that I've had a hard time finding shoes... so, I wanted to go out and try some shoes on, too.
First we hit up Joann's... I found some tulle for our aisle and I looked at some ribbon for our programs... but they didn't end up having enough, and I figured I could find it cheaper online somewhere, so we left with just the tulle.
Then, on to DSW to try on some shoes. There was a specific pair that I've been eyeing and I wanted to try on... good thing I did, I decided I didn't like them. We decided, since we were there, to check out the clearance section... I bought two pairs of new shoes for work, so I guess it wasn't totally a wasted trip. =)
Our third wedding stop this weekend was Target to look at jewelry... no luck. Then Payless Shoe Source for shoes... not much luck, but I did decide that if it comes down to it I'm going to order a pair of their dyeables in sapphire (they just don't have a pair that really catches my eye right now... but maybe this one.... can't decide), then on to Bridal Exclusives for shoes... no luck. And then on to Icing and Claire's to look for jewelry... SCORE!!!!!!
I found a necklace!!!! And I'm kind of in love. I just hope I feel the same way when I actually try it on with my dress (I'm finding it sooo hard to shop for accessories when I can't try them on WITH the dress... bah).
Not bad for under $20, right?? The picture doesn't really do it justice... it's a lot sparkly-er. =)
So, I got a few things checked off my list this weekend... it's coming along little by little!
**P.S. I did end up finding ribbon cheaper online... and now I'm going to have about 4 times the amount of ribbon that I actually need. I'm going to have to come up with another project to use the rest of it! =)
Today was our five month mark! We spent this last weekend on the coast and it didn't even occur to me that we'd hit the next month-marker until we were in the car on the way home.
This weekend was supposed to be a relaxing break from school, work, life... it didn't quite end up that way. I'm having mass frustration with academic bureaucracy right now, and then, on Friday night I got some bad family news that weighed on my shoulders for most of the weekend. So, the weekend didn't turn out to be as relaxing as possible... however, it did end up being pretty productive.
While walking around the small coastal town we spotted a local dollar store that was going out of business. Big signs in the windows noted "50% off!" so, we stopped and check it out. Soooo glad we did! Toward the back of the store we found:
Shepherd Hooks! Great for the aisle that I'm picturing (think draping tulle above the sand). Better yet? 50 cents each! Woo hoo! We also found:
Flower girl baskets!! These are pretty much EXACTLY what I was picturing! I've been looking at some online for right around $20 for a set... I found these... 50 cents each! I bought 4... just in case. =)
I love stumbling across the exact things I'm looking for!
I have THREE wedding-y related things for you today... so, here's a three-in-one post for you. =) (Don't want to fill up your google readers with three different posts from me within 30 minutes! lol)
Bad Dreams I had a wedding related nightmare last night. Before I tell you about it, let me preface by saying that my dream world has always been quite weird... so bare with me!
My dream last night was about the reception. In my waking hours I'm stressing out about our reception venue not being big enough (I'm pretty sure the capacity was over estimated to us when we signed the contract--we may be able to FIT that many people in, but probably not comfortably). However, in my dream last night, the reception venue was actually quite nice... the problem is that nothing else was! We were told that we'd have round tables, but in my dream all the tables were long (which, in actuality I would prefer, but I've already bought linens for round tables). Also, the flowers looked horrible and I don't think I saw a single sunflower. Plus, the centerpiece look I envisioned for round tables did NOT look good on long ones. And non of the table runners I bought matched... they all looked like weird, cheap tie patters in various shades of blue.
The weirdest part though was that, in my dream, Jacob was not only black, but had a twin brother... whom I accidentally tried to kiss not knowing it wasn't Jacob! lol
Vases!
Last week I finally got some input from our florist about what kind of vases I should purchase, so, I did a little shopping and found these!
Nine inch cylinder vases! I think they'll look great with bunches of sunflowers (I did a little Internet stalking and found images like this that made me decide for cylinder rather than rounded). Best part? I got 18 vases for.... wait for it.... less than $25!! Big thanks to the Dollar Tree's online shopping capabilities! =)
(My PWC is getting bigger now though... I currently have four boxes not stacked behind my TV... and I anticipate this number growing in the upcoming months).
Tasting #2!
We picked up our second round of cake samples today! This time we went to the bakery at Lamb's Market. I had a sample of their cake at the last bridal show that I went to. I had never heard of Lamb's before and didn't realize they were a grocery store... I was kind of surprised! But, the cake sample I had was great, and then I heard that they were quite popular with weddings (not to mention cheap!).
Six samples this time (I couldn't help myself.... we ate one before the camera phone came out... oops!). We got hazelnut with hazelnut filling, chocolate chip with chocolate mousse filling, chocolate with fudge filling, white with raspberry filling, almond poppy seed with strawberry filling, and banana with Bavarian cream filling. Haven't eaten more than the one yet (Jacob had a big breakfast/lunch) but.... mmmm... I can't wait! =)
Just bought 180 feet of icicle Christmas lights for less than $35 (50% off after Christmas sale!) I can't wait to actually decorate the reception hall and see if my vision pans out! =)
Bride on a Budget just posted about this sale and I wanted to pass it on! LinenTablecloth is having a 50% off their LOWEST price on their clearance items! I just bought 14 royal blue table runners for $20 (INCLUDING shipping!).
Jacob went to get the mail tonight and guess what?? LOTS of great stuff! My Save the Dates, treat/favor bags and UPrinting Poster all came! (And, maybemy wedding shoes... there's one more box in the office that I need to pick up and I'm not EXACTLY sure what it is).
Soooo excited! I'll blog about everything more later (when I have more time (and energy) and after I've mailed off the Save the Date cards)!
Jacob and I went shopping at Ikea today for a new bed frame. He finally got tired enough of the one that we had that he sent me a message work today asking if I wanted to get a new tonight! So... anyway, we're at Ikea walking through the decor section and I see tea lights... 100 for $3... so I bought two packs to go with my newly acquired candle holders (which I also saw... and figured I saved about 50% buying them used from the chick on CL!... I also saw some jars that are a possibility for our unity sand ceremony... I'll have to keep those in mind for later).
Then, on our way up to the checkout after gathering our bed supplies (4 boxes for one bed!) I saw a pack of large dinner sized paper napkins... 100 for $3! The quote we have for 100 linen ones is NINETY DOLLARS!
We are having a low-key, beach wedding with picnic style reception food... can I get away with buying some nice, PAPER napkins???
My PWC** cherry has officially been popped! Today I bought glass tealight candle holders for my centerpieces. 111 of them to be exact. For (get this) $20! I Love Craigslist!
I've been thinking recently about table center pieces. I know I want white table clothes or white tables with sunflowers, but recently I've been thinking about blue rocks/marbles and sand dollars... then I started to wonder where I can find a bulk supply of sand dollars. So, on a whim, I searched "sand dollars" on e-bay and came up with 757 results in a number of categories! lol I'm going to have to remember this for the future!
(names have been covered... sorry everyone, you'll have to wait to see who you're sitting with! lol)
