I Can't Believe It's Come and Gone

Wow - it went by SO fast! I rmember the end of the night coming and having our last dance and wondering where the night went. It was the most amazing wedding, the most perfect day I have ever asked for!

My favorite part of the reception was my Father in Law requesting a song called "Welcome to Our World" and being surrounded by all his family and friends - singing along. I cried and cried!

It's not to say that the slideshow my aunt made wasn't to the most perfect and loved filled gift I could have ever gotten, or the dances with my 2 fathers were not beautiful amazing moments either...

I don't have any of the pro pics yet obviously but here's a few from through out the day...Enjoy!

My Step Mother, Myself, my Mom and my Mother In Law
My Beautiful Daughter, my Flower Girl

The Tables All Set to Go


My Bridesmaids

First Dance

Cake Fight!

I will get up more as soon as I can. Tomorrow I am spending time with my daughter before we leave on the 26th at 7 am for our Honeymoon! I'm taking the lap top and will get up photos possibly while there as well!!!

Last Minute Stresses...

11 days out from them wedding, and for the most part everything wedding related is taken care of. My programs are not yet printed and I have to order the sand for the sand ceremony. Aside from that the only thing that's really getting under my skin is the guest list....

I had all the RSVP's in, or not heard from phone, e-mail, myspace or heck even smoke signal if the remaining few were attending. It stands to reason that more then likely they would not be. So I sent in final numbers, and did my seating chart, the chart board for the reception, and all that jazz.

Then guess what happens, just guess....oh yea I get an e-mail telling me that I had missed several phone calls (which I didn't mind you) as this guest was ever so hard trying to get a hold of me....yeah right. So now, since he is coming and wants to being an undisclosed guest - which I'm not happy about as I need a name for the place card and seating chart. So I have to re-do EVERYTHING! The bit of the seating chart that will be effected by moving people around, call the venue, add more meals.

UGH! I'm so irritated. And of course the guest isn't responding to my e-ails again. I half tempted not to change anything and let him suffer....lol.

Candle Depot, How Can I Help You?

Holy crap! I knew I had a bazillion candles on my pool table waiting to be used for centerpieces, but OMG I didn't really know there was this many!
Never mind the mess of toys behind me! I'm a stay at home mom, 2.5 weeks before her wedding! The house is a mess, deal! LOL.

Mr S and I took advantage of Paige going out with her father for dinner last night, to sort out the centerpieces and box them up. My biggest fear is I won't be able to get into the reception hall the night before the wedding to set up, and I will have to leave it to other people. If that should happen, I want the set up to be as easy to understand as possible! So we boxed up each tables items in separate boxes. Each one will also have a photo of the "general idea" of the centerpiece layout, and all the place cards, table name and holder.

As you see in the photo - it's not like I'm drowning in candles, but we didn't shouw you the head tables set up. 7 of those tall glasses and 36 votives, not to mention the flower vases for our bouquets well be there as well.

When all is said and done, it will be just a little over 300 candles to fill the room with candle light! I can't wait it's going to be GREAT!

This is the "general idea" for the candles. Randomly laid out, there will be crystals scattered amongst it as well to add some "bling". Bear in mind that my reception tables will not be toddler sized ;-) I was working with what I had around me at the time.

About 14 candles per table, should keep things lit up nicely for the evening! And for those of you wondering, since my pillars and medium holders are in fact NOT really candle holders, but glasses from Ikea - I did a burn test last night and they were FINE!

Once Upon a Bathroom

My latest bargain find was the pink lined wicker baskets I got for 60% off at Michaels yesterday afternoon. I had my eye on them a month or so back but didn't want to pay $12.99 each, simply for a bathroom basket! We're not made of money you know!

I filled them with travel sized versions of commonly needed items. I found them all in the Travel Item isle at Target:

• Ace Bandage/Ice Pack
• Wet Wipes
• Tums
• Deodorant
  
• Mini First Aid Kit
• Band Aids
• Shoe Polish Wipes
• Hair Spray for the ladies
• Body Spray for the ladies
• Renu Contact Solution
• Hand Lotion
• Tampons
• Travel Toothbrush
• Dental Floss
• Motrin
• Shout Wipes

I have a few more things I want to add, safety pins, static cling spray, a couple AA batteries, hand sanitizer, clear nail polish, bobby pins, emery boards, toothpicks.

I hope someone will find use of these items, and if not most of them I can take on the honeymoon in my travel case, or have around for emergencies when people visit my house :-) Either way - money has not been wasted!

The Seating Chart Board

Walking around Michaels today I found myself wondering where on earth I was going to get a piece of poster board big enough for this seating chart. I would almost need two regular pieces, then you'd see the seam. And I wasn't happy with that idea.

Then it hit me! Photo Matting! They sell it in a standard size of, well I don't know the actual dimensions so we'll just call it "huge". Mr S is outside right now cutting it down to 36 x 24 to fit a old frame I had from 2 x-mas' ago, that when I tried to remove the glass for cleaning, it broke. Luckily I saved it, so I'm going to paint it black....or pink - not sure yet. And then I'll place the chart inside it, with no glass and place it on an easel.

Here's the photoshop layout of how it will look:

4.5 x 6.5 pieces of pink paper as the backing

4 x 6 pieces of white with the names on it

and a ribbon around the top, like my place cards:

With the board cut, I now have to print up the sheets with the names on them and assemble the whole thing. I tell ya, I'm really sick of cutting paper! LOL.

Argh! Seating Charts!

With 98% of the RSVP's in I decided to tackle the seating chart. Don't ask why I wanted one, I know they are not totally necessary. But, besides the fact it would be really hard for the waiters to know who's eating what with out them as I'm having 2 mean choices, I suppose my control freak is taking over and it makes me feel better to know it's there.

I wrote it out at the cabin, with a copy of the guest list and a notebook, plus copy of the room layout. I did pretty well, all things considered and it only took a few hours. Although I must admit when I got home and laid it all out, seeing the names physically in front of me made things a lot easier. Not only did it show me that I have quite a few places cards to make yet, I was able to see a huge family placement no-no and switch out some cousins before I had a real Beverly Hillbilly's blow out at my reception.

On top of the achievement of avoiding blood shed, I realize we only need 17 of the original 22 tables. This lowers my linen costs and WOO HOO, because it's like $300! At this point in the game, as far over budget as Mr S and I are, every penny counts!

Here's what my living room floor looked like after I got everything laid out. I have to stop sitting on the floor when doing everything, my back hurts! LOL.


Now all I have to do is print off the rest of the place cards, and then cross reference everything to make sure I have all the guests accounted for. Which I'm sure will be another 2 hour project, but well worth it. I'm giving myself 2 weeks to finish the remaining projects - after that if it's not done, it's not getting done. I will not over stress about this!

Day Of Coordinator

This is Jennifer:

Isn't she pretty?! I snagged this from her Flickr album..so you all could see the amazing girl who is saving my LIFE!

I made Jennifer's wedding invites not to long back, in fact she was my first bride I made invites for after doing my own.

ANYWAY - Jennifer is going to be my Day of Coordinator for my wedding. She's working for a discounted, undisclosed amount of money ;-) And in turn saving my budget and my life with all the chaos that I know is going to go down that day.

I'm meeting Jennifer for coffee this evening to discuss the details. I'm thinking about bringing "mug shots" of the people she will need to keep an eye on. LOL.

I can not wait to meet her! And see all the awesome wedding pics she's bringing to show me as well!

You ORDERED invites...WHAT!?

I ordered the invites for the Rehearsal Dinner and the "Reception Only" invites from Vista Print to save some time. While I was so looking forward to designing them myself, I just am running out of time and can't catch up. Especially with the new found family drama that has left me in a whirlwind of e-mails and phone calls for the past 2 days.

I have to say, like all the other items I have ordered from Vista Print in the past several years I was very happy! All the designs came with matching envelopes which tickled me pink because I love coordinating stationary!

Here's the Rehearsal Dinner invites, we're having a Hawaiian theme where proper dress is required and those who do not comply will be made to wear something uncomfortable and embarrassing ;-)

And here are the reception only invites. Now before anyone gets their Thongs in a Tangle - we're not selfish, present seeking jerks who are only inviting people to the reception in hopes they bring us a gift. We have 25 or less of these going out to co-workers of both Mr S and his father, due to the size of my family we can't fit everyone in the hall for dinner.

Only one snag in the Vista Print order - they only sent me 11 of the 30 of these I needed so they are immediately making me 20 more, and shipping them off to me to be here by Tuesday! They honestly have some of the best customer service ever, though it would be nice if the receptionists had some tone to their voices...I felt like I was talking to a very corporative robot...LOL!

John, Paul, George & Ringo

Ah, The Beatles.

I heart The Beatles.

I'm not one of those mega fans that oozes with info about each member, down to their current weight and the amount of change in their pocket. I'm just, a fan. I own most their music, an original Abbey Road record (which my father is currently holding hostage with my 1987 Homer Hankie) and I decorated my daughters room with the John Lennon collection when she was born. Her mobile played "Imagine".

Ok, I'm more then a fan. I'm a bit obsessed but whatever, at least I can admit it.

That being said I knew that I had to incorporate The Beatles into my wedding somehow. Not only was my soon to be father-in-law a one of their concerts (how cool is that!) The Beatles are British, along with the family that I marrying into and my in laws adore their music as much as I. It's only fitting that we bring them in somehow!!!

I got my nod to them in the wedding itself with some music being played. I'll be walking out to Here Comes The Sun. And this is how I got them into my reception: My Wedding favors. Clear Glass LOVE coasters, in pink tulle bags.


"All You Need is Love" is one of my all time favorites, and fit perfectly with our wedding! Since I can't have my dream exit from the wedding (click here to see it) this will have to do.

I made the tags myself, of course. cut them out and adhered them to a piece of black card stock to make it more sturdy and then tied it on using the pull strings on the tulle bag. Again then cutting is the most tedious part - and I've still got about 300 squares to cut, but it will all look great in the end!

FInishing what I started

So I realized while pouring through old posts that I started to talk about my table names but never finished or showed you a photo of them! LOL.

So let's recap, the names of the tables at the reception are named after places that Mr S and I have either been to, or lived in. The majority of the "visited" names are from me, I've traveled to 13 countries since I was 14. And the "where we've lived" options are mostly Mr. S' as he use to live in England and had some really cool sounding places there.

Between the two of us we came up with 24 names, which I printed on 4x6 Rose Quartz Stardream paper I got from Envelope Mall, that I cut myself. I printed them at home on the ink jet and had to lay them out to dry for a bit, as stardream can be fussy when it comes to inkjests.


Then I affixed the crystals...must MUST have the crystals!!!


And lastly I adhered the table name to a black backing piece and - all done! Here it is on my table mock up (never mind the large hand towel where the napkin should be it was all I had pink and small-ish enough to take it's place for color reasons)



I'm really happy with the outcome, and after months of searching I finally found those plate easels in bulk and cheap. They are a little deeper then I would have liked - but the price was right. Find them at Treasures In Display

This is an item that will end up for sale after the wedding, so watch for the blogs about whats up gor grabs in September!

Why God doens't let me have the WE Network

The other week while Alex was away on business I loaded up my trusty Netfix account with girly movies I knew he wouldn't want to watch. One of the movies was Best Of Platinum Weddings. It's a TV show on the WE network, which I unfortunately do not get right now, and after seeing some of these weddings I knew why.

My little heart pounded at the sight of some of the extravagant items at these receptions, dresses so big they barely fit out the door, swans in the pond out front, crystals hanging from everything in the venue that would hold them up. Having a bottomless pocket book of money surely made these weddings a fairy tale like no other.

Not to say my day won't be a fairy tale, but these receptions looked like Miami night clubs and meadows where faeries lived. And to be honest, not everything was "Oh I love it I want it" because I'm reasonable and I know that some things aren't needed...it's a 5 hour party after all.

But one thing, just one....ohhhhh it was the thing of dreams. So trendy and cool and an amazing sight. Every single one of these weddings had one - it must be the new "It" item of high profile weddings....it is

The Martini Louge:

It's simple really, it's an ice sculpture that can really look like almost anything drink related, all with one thing in common. A ice slide/shoot, or in some cases a metal tube descending through the sculpture which dispenses the martini.

You pour the items into a shaker, shake them up and pour them into the top, it's whirls down into your waiting glass - perfectly chilled, and you've also gotten one heck of a show.



I'm not sure why I wanted something that would melt into a puddle of water which no doubt would have an alcohol level of "Dead" by the end of the night. I'm not even sure if many of the guests drink them, I know I do. But it was just that one thing, like asking your dad for a Pony when you were young...you knew you wern't going to get it but it's nice to think about.

At this point it is still a nice thought that will not be at the wedding. I haven't even looked to see what they cost because I'm sure I don't want the sticker shock. So I simply blog about it, mention it's coolness (no pun intended) and maybe one of you will have one and send me photos and I can live my dream through you.

And as a side note: No Auntie Nora....they do not have Bacardi Louges! Sorry love!

Dollar Dancing Like You've Never Seen!

I'm all about mixing things up. I like to personalize things, make it more Mr S and I. So when it came time to pick the music for the dollar dance, my heart sunk when the DJ listed off these old standards that would make my 4 year old fall asleep in an instant!

So what idea has hatched in my ever moving mind? Why, I am glad you asked (mostly because I was going to tell you any way..haha)
We are going to have a 1990's Dollar Dance!

The 90's is when Mr S moved here to the United States from England. 1996 and 1998 are the years he and I graduated from high school, respectively. It makes total sens that we do a strictly 1990's Dollar Dance!

Music from the 90's isn't played a lot on the radio with the exception of Vanilla Ice and a few randoms. It's not stuff people hear everyday, it's going to catch a reaction like "OMG, I haven't heard this in forever...who is this again?"

Maybe it will spark more people to jump up and dance with us, not for the money but because we're not really doing a receiving line and this would be a great way to chat with anyone we missed before hand.

So, lets here your suggestions! I get hundreds of hits on this blog daily so all you lurkers out there! Time to leave notes and messages!

What 1990 slow songs should we use for our dollar dance?

Finding a Place in the World

Well, a place at a table I suppose.

I've taken into my creative rhelm the initial idea I had months back, was inspired to chage it by a wonderful blogger - who's place cards I showed off as "wanting badly" a week ago - and from those things, I came up with this:



Instead of putting a different colored ribbon on each to signify the food choice, which I wasn't too big on in the first place - I am putting it on the place card (Thank you Heather of Road to the Aisle for the inspiration!)

I'm going to do a few more, make sure I love it and then head off to bed for the night.

Just when I think I know what I want....I don't.

Okay - I hired a really great calligrapher Michele Clark, to hand write our place cards. I bought them, had them shipped to her and they are sitting at her place waiting to be jazzed up with her fancy penmanship.

But then I go ahead and browse through one of my other favorite wedding blogs and find these:

These beautiful creations are the brain child of Heather, blogger of the great wedding blog Road To The Asile

So now my calligrapher is holding pre-scored cards in white. And I'm trying to decide if I should do this, or something similar, with a pink and/or black top part and a white backing.....or is I should return the white ones and order pink or black......ug. I'm so indecisive.

I'm off to figure this out, and make up a mock up possibly - and worship at the feet of Heather who has refilled a burnt out August Brides DIY tank...

For The Birds - My Card Holder

When I started looking for something to put my cards in at the reception I quickly realized I was going to have to take things into my own hands, or have the same, tired old white satin covered box that has survived since the 80's. And by 80's I mean 1780's!

I really liked this bird cage idea that I had been seeing on wedding boards, but knowing my family I wondered if they would figure out that the cards belonged in the cage, byu means of sliding them through a slot on the top, and not laying about on the table.

So I just made sure that no one could miss it, and in turn jazzed my cage up a bit.

The Supplies I needed were:

• Bird Cage - here's where I got mine - I paid $11.00 for it!
  
• Glue
• "Cards" 4x6 sign
• Black 6.25x4.25 backing piece
• 1.5 yards of ribbon
• tape

I started by adding the sparkles to the letter "c" on the Card sign. I held the gem with a pari of long tweezers and dipped the back of it into a small pool of glue I had squeezed onto a scrap piece of paper.

NOTE: careful - you really need very little glue, otherwise it oozes out the sides when you press it to the paper.

Then I attached the Card sign to the black backing, using double stick tape.

Then I cut the ribbon strip directly in half and taped it to the back of the card. By cutting it in half I could easily stick each piece through the top of the cage and tie my bow.

It took some playing around with and trimming of the edges of the ribbon but I finally got the right length.

TIP: Want to know how to avoid those ugly frayed edges on ribbon? Grab a lighter and quickly stick the edge (and only the edge) you cut and want the fray off of in, and pull it out just as fast! Only leave it in the flame for a second, just repeat the process until you get the smooth and sleek look you want.

Just don't use a candle or you'll not only de-fray it, you'll get that ugly black residue on it too!

It didn't take much to make this cage what I wanted, and I only did a little thing - you could go all out and weave ribbon through the lower half, hang individual wooden letters from it to spell out "cards" - anything you wanted to make it your own!

Are you doing anything interesting for your card holder?

Mr. F. and Soon to Be Mrs. F.

Last night I helped a friend make her table numbers for her reception. She didn't believe me when I told her if she brought the digital images, I could do it in a matter of minutes.

The simple task did end up taking a bit longer then expected do to the 2 glasses of wine I had with dinner and the 3 beers I had during the creating process...oh and the fact Soon to Be Mrs F and I wouldn't stop gabbing for one second!

Here's a little sample of the table numbers we made for her, they will be printed as regular 4x6 photos, and then stuck to a 6.25 x 4.25 black card stock backing for support.

They will then be held up with the table name holders I am using for my reception - because I'm so great I'm lending them to her for her day, which happens to be 2 weeks before our big day!!

It did take some creative cropping, but they turned out great I think - and how could they not, with beautiful people like Mr F. and Soon to Be Mrs F. in the photo!





*Photo credit to her photographer, will be made as soon as I get the correct name of the studio. Until then my apologies for the lack of proper "props" being handed out. I should note, photos were only worked with as copyright was passed to The "F"s as part of the contract. Duplicating or editing any photograph with out the photographers written permission is illegal.

Decisions, Decision

I swear I've spent more time trying to figure out which place card holder I want then I spent on what flowers I wanted, or even what wedding dress I want.

It just doesn't seem right.

This one is nice, what about the price? Do we really even need them? Well, they would be nice. We could sell them afterwards...but it's a hassle.

Back and forth, back and forth.

Here's a few of the front runners, maybe laying it out on here will help me work through this.

Plain Silver Frame

Found on Yolanda's Wedding Favors

Cost is listed as $7.00 a dozen on one page and then $9.42 on another - apparently they are updating their prices and will honor lower prices

Total cost with out shipping for 240 of them:
$140.00

Not too bad at all, price wise they are the front runner.


Love Place Card Holders

These run with my accidental theme of "All You Need Is Love". My coasters, which are the favor say LOVE and the gift tags on it will say the quote mentioned before.

They come with out the card - which is fine, I wouldn't use them anyway.

Found on My Wedding Favors for $3.96 for a set of 4, this means a total of $237.76
I'm not sure it's worth that much, but I do like them.


No Holder, Just add Ribbon

Or I can do this version, with pink paper to match the invites and everything else. Then slide a white or black ribbon in depending on what plate the guest chose.

It's cheapest, especially since I already have the paper and ribbon would cost maybe $20 from a local craft store.

I'm not really into the whole personalized ribbon thing so at least I won't be dropping $50 a roll on that.

If I didn't need them, I wouldn't be so crazy about it, but I have to as I am offering two plates at the wedding and the waiters need to know who is eating what.

What are you doing for yours? Anything?

Let's spend some money!

I have just finally ordered all the Groomsmen & Usher gifts - which I can't post pictures of as I'm worried they might come across it. I know, I know - really how many guys actually look at the wedding web site let alone the blog - not many I am sure. I'm still not taking any chances!

On top of placing that order I also got our cake topper, serving set, personalized napkins all from Exclusively Weddings . I am so excited for everything to arrive.

Here's a run down in photos for ya!

Our Cake Topper is Two Letter 'A''s and an ampersand like this ---->

Initially we were not going to have anything on top of the cake, except maybe a few roses. But, I just changed our cake color from white to pink fondant frosting - so putting flowers on top won't be quite as nice.

These were really nice and only $23.00 each. I could have picked them up on eBay for a few dollars cheaper, but since I was already ordering from EW I figured better off from someone I know I can return it to if there is an issue.

Next on the list of things ordered is that serving set.

Since everything is rather BLINGED! out for the wedding Alex chose this set for us.

We decided not to go with personalizing it, though it was only a few dollars more.

We hope to be able to use it again, anniversaries and such, though I'm not quite sure how I will feel about BLING! in 10-20 years.

All that matters is it suits us right now, and it certainly does suit our wedding perfectly.


The Last thing we got is our napkins. Another item we weren't going to get, but compromised and got half personalized and half will be picked up from a local arty store in just plain black. Plus once I say this lay out I fell in love with it and had to have it to help carry the "All You Need Is Love" theme running through out the reception.

If you had not already known, that saying will be on the tags that hang on the favors we intend to hand out, glass coasters that say 'LOVE'

We ordered them in a lighter pink color, with black foil lettering. The plain black napkins will accent them very well!

Well stack them every other and put a few by the bar and some on the table that will have our personalized cookies on them for cocktail hour.

It's been awhile since we needed to buy anything for the wedding so I'm looking forward to this box arriving!

Ugh.

I feel like pulling each individual piece of my hair out, one by one and then scouring my head with a brillo pad would be more fun then trying to figure out the order of the reception.

Who is supposed to give a speech? Dads, Bridesmaids, Best Man? How many speeches is too many? Do I want people talking the whole time through dinner? When will we show the slide show? When are we cutting the cake? Will I even have time to eat?

These items you think would be things that the reception hall would tell you the general lay out of - but no, they are all mysteries left for one to figure out on their own.

It's up to us, we can do it however we want.

A simply phrase at the beginning of the planning process I thought was great - but now, with nearly 5 months left to go I just want people to tell me what to do, and when to do it.

ugh.

Who Invited You?

It's funny, ever since I announced Mr S and I were getting married, people have been coming out of the wood work to drop hints about coming to the wedding. And I have to say it's been my friends more then his, mainly since most of his friends are actually invited to the wedding, and I - well I have 40 different groups of friends from all over and even if I wanted too couldn't invite them all.

So far I've dodged the need to actually have to speak to any of these "self inviter's" hoping that with the non arrival of an invite they will get the point. But with a few of them it gets sticky....for instance, I have a few friends in the group that are invited because I still talk to them, but some that are not.

Most of these issues are from the guys I know, and most of my friends being guys, you'd think I'd know how to handle them by now...nope. I'm still just a big dumb girl.

Guys, unlike woman, seem to not grasp the concept that the wedding costs money, that no matter how long it's been since that last time you've talked they have always been invited because how could you not want "Smitty" at the wedding to show off his beer chugging abilities?! My guy friends seem to think that every occasion with alcohol present requires them to drink it all as fast as possible so that no one else can get any. I should admit that some are not invited solely based on the fact they can't act like a human in public.

For those who don't make "the cut" I think that what I will do, is draft up an rejection letter, like those you get from colleges , for the non invited:

Dear Self Inviter,
The acceptance committee gave full consideration but we regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you a position at the Mr S & Mrs G wedding, class of 2008.

We have had many applications and only have a limited number of spaces. We suggest spending less time with "extra curricular activities" and drop your Cussing 101 class, and apply to you second choice wedding.

Please try not to take the rejection too hard, we're sure you'll get into your next choice wedding.

Sincerely, Dean of Admissions

I think that ought to help things along - don't you?