Attack of the Killer Wedding Projects

OMG! We have been working, working, working on these darned wedding projects. It’s crazy how many hours we have spent tying ribbon, cutting rafia, and printing this or that. The three main projects as of late have been “The Wedding Wishes Tree”, confetti for the ceremony, and bubbles for the reception.

The first is an alternative to a guest book in that our guests can “leaf us a message” and hang it on a tree at the ceremony. This was probably the biggest project we have done so far in regards to hours. Creating the tree with our own hands, printing leaves, cutting leaves, and tying ribbon. I thought we would never get done. But here is a close up of some of the ultra cool leaves.

Fall Leaves!

The picture was taken with my camera phone so it isn’t the best quality but you get the idea. I am super proud of the way they turned out. The tree itself looks even better but I want to save that for the wedding. Some things have got to be a surprise.

Then we had the bubbles and the confetti. The confetti is biodegradable and melts as soon as it gets wet (first rain or with a water hose). We are going to have guests throw it as we walk back down the aisle after the ceremony. The bubbles are really just for fun or for when we leave the reception later that evening (I haven’t decided yet if we will stay and dance late or skip out a little early.) Brandon really helped out with these two projects. Once again, for surprise purposes I will not post any pictures but overall I have become quite the DIY chick.

These wedding projects and the whole planning process is quite a huge task though. Our apartment has been overrun with wedding stuff. It used to be okay in just the spare room but now it is spilling out into the rest of the house too. I am doing wedding planning on my lunch breaks, my weekends and my evenings. However, with only 55 days left we can’t afford to slack off.

Take a look at this chaos!

Our Guest Room!

The other side is worse!

Anyone who knows me knows this isn’t how I normally function but by month 8 or 9 of planning I just gave up trying to keep order and started throwing it all in a room.  I promise to have it cleaned before we have wedding guests arriving though. Matter of fact, I have to start cleaning soon just so I can rediscover all I have in there! For all you brides out there, never underestimate the power of DIY…or the mess it creates. The good news is we are getting close. Brandon and I will soon be husband and wife!

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With This Ring…I Thee Wed?

One of the basic necessities of any good wedding is the ring. According to tradition, Brandon and I will exchange rings and it will be awesome! We want to send a special thank you to Al Armstrong of City Limits Jewelry in LaVergne. He has been awesome in helping Brandon find my engagement ring and then advising us on both of our bands. We definitely would recommend him for any of your jewelry purchases.

Brandon went totally manly and purchased a tungsten ring. They are all of the rage right now. However, if he gains any weight you can’t cut if off. He will have to lose a  finger…or lose some weight. On another note…it’s gonna look weird for him to be wearing a ring. Weird cool.

It looks something like this!

The article below gives me some insight into the importance of the rings and their history. I love the idea that we are taking part in something that has survived for centuries and crossed so many cultures.

http://www.weddingvendors.com/planning/articles/symbolism-wedding-rings/

Anyway, sixty days until the big day! Lots to do between now and then!

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Three Steps to Flower Time

My flower experience came down to three steps 1) Decide what kind of bouquet I wanted 2) Decide if I could do it myself 3) Find a company that could help me get the flowers

My first autumn in TN was something like a child discovering something new. Although I was born in Ohio, I moved from there when I was young and only visited in the summers and the winters. I had never really experienced the changing of the seasons. Having lived in TN for a couple of years now I can truly appreciate the beauty of this state and flowers are a significant part of that. When it came to planning a fall wedding I knew I would have a lot of choices with flowers. The awesome thing is that I really love the look of mums, dahlias, daisies, and sunflowers because they have a more fresh picked and local look.

I did a ton of research on how I can save money and soon decided that due to the fact that I want the fresh picked look with inexpensive flowers I could do my own bouquets. Luckily I have some ultra talented friends to help.

After deciding we could do the flowers on our own the next hurdle to cross was finding a wholesale florist. This proved to be much harder than I thought. I tried two florists before I got to one that would answer my questions and treat me nicely. Import Flowers on Murphy Road was awesome. They were the first florist I spoke to that made me feel comfortable and hopeful regarding my flowers and staying in the budget.

I went to visit them in June and later this month I plan on going back and placing my order along with a trial run bouquet. Below are some ideas for the bouquets I shall have at the wedding.

Sunflowers are a Go!

Autumn, Dahlias, Mums and More!

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Check Photographer off the List-Again!

Some of you alredy know because of my facebook status updates and ranting that in mid-June I got an email from the photographer we had signed a contract with months ago that he was unable to do our wedding. I won’t go into detail but needless to say…Brandon and I were both very upset. Four months to go and our photographercanceled!?  I think I handled it well though as I refrained from childish emails in response. However, I have told everyone I know. So refer to earlier posts on the Nashville photographer not to use.  As soon as it happened I raged for a little while (I was visiting my family in OH and couldn’t do much more than that.) By the time, I set foot in Nashville again I had already gotten the names of a few more photographers and soon began my slightly more desperate search again.

But enough about the negative. The good thing we found an awesome photographer.

Our friend Jeff referred us to Leslie Rodriguez. Leslie is a wonderfully talented photographer and she has a great variety of experience. We were super impressed with her use of color and her ability to focus on the small details of the events she captures. That element was really important to me since Brandon and I adding a lot of personal touches. Check out her website at http://www.capturedbyleslie.com.  I was most impressed, however, with her personality and positivity. When Brandon and I first met her a Frothy Monkey she really seemed to understand our personalities and get our relationship. I also love her open-mindedness. Some of the vendors we have met during the wedding planning process have a huge chip on their shoulders and are definitely missing a “customer service” attitude. Leslie was not pretentious and extremely genuine. In choosing someone to photograph one of the most important days of our lives we wanted someone who was “real.” Leslie is extremely talented and dedicated to her business. We love her work and looking forward to working with her. Sometimes these wedding snafus totally happen for a reason it seems.

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Mason Jar Madness

I have been talking about these crazy mason jars for month. We have collected over 350 to complete our southern, fall, rustic feeling wedding. I have created lanterns from some of them using tutorials I found online. The others will serve as vases, candles holders, drinking glasses etc. I have put so much hard work into these I thought I would show some of my ideas.

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I Bring to You the Best of Me

However, in between the moments of “Which basket is best for the flower girls? and “What size bowls do we need for the soup?” we are able to have these beautiful moments of commitment and love. Writing our vows and the ceremony has been like small promises leading up to the big promises. I think that because of that I have really and truly appreciated the magnitude of the words being spoken and really taken the time to fully invest in the planning of our wedding and our marriage. One can easily get caught up in the unimportant and get swept away.

Another one of those moments happened when we went to purchase our wedding rings. Brandon and I have been working with a family member who owns a jewelry shop in La Vergne. (Al is awesome if anyone is looking for any kind of jewelry.) Wedding bands are such an important symbol  of love and commitment to so many and choosing ours meant it was one more significant step in our journey to husband and wife.

Tradition calls for an item to hold the rings in on the big day.   I really like the idea of creating a ring bowl instead of a ring pillow because we were not necessarily going to have a traditional ring bearer. My nephew is too little to carry much. Also, the ring bowl could be something we kept and used. There are new trendy items out there that you can have it made for you. I got the idea that it would be even more fun to go to one of those creative pottery places and paint our own bowl.

It was an awesome idea and a great date night but please remember that neither Brandon nor I are in the least bit artistic.

The bowl itself is a conglomerate of related wedding colors and for amateurs it isn’t half bad. However, the awesome part for both of us is that it is so personal in that we created it together and we both put a lot of heart into it. It also contains our favorite line from our vows (Found in the title of this blog )and our ring finger prints inside the bowl.

I hope this special bowl lasts Brandon and I for many years. Although it isn’t the work of artists its imperfection holds all of the meaning and symbolic beauty we had hoped it would. Looking at that bowl brings together our wedding rings, our vows, our imperfections and above all, our love for one another.

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Shannon’s got “The Look”

I am not even going to deny that planning this wedding has caused my fair share of overly girly moments. Mostly stress induced and resulting in my teary eyed rendition of 100 wedding day horror possibilities before I come to my senses and realize everything will be okay. (Until the next catastrophe).

Anyway, possibly the girliest moment to this day was when I first tried on my dress and I knew it was “the one.” I have talked about this wonderful moment in time in previous blogs so I will spare you all, however, I am fairly confident that will stick in my mind for a very long time. (Maybe replaced by the first time Brandon sees me in it).

Also, there is the fact that this dress is the epitome of girly, kind of over the top, wedding dresses in my mind.  Just you wait and see.

However, every girl knows that the dress is just the beginning of a wedding ensemble. There is a ton more to come up with. For the past few months I have been hard at work devising my wedding day look with a little help from the other girls in my life.

Next after the dress comes the veil. At first I was not planning on wearing one. I just never thought of myself as the demure, veil wearing type. But alas, I was wrong…well kind of. I will be wearing the reinvented trend  known as the birdcage veil. It is all the rage in wedding day looks right now and I am happy to go with the trendy in this case. I found mine with a little help from my friend…www.etsy.com.

To go with my lovely veil look I have asked our friend Alyssa Walker to make me a couple of lovely flower “fascinators”.  That is wedding speak for “flowers that go in my hair.” Alyssa is highly creative and super fun as indicated by her lovely blog http://miceandbirds.blogspot.com/

Alyssa even made sure I was covered with my “something blue”.

Created by Alyssa Walker of Mice and Birds

Created by Alyssa Walker of Mice and Birds

Now we move from the head to the toes. I have two pairs of shoes. I know, right? One for wedding and one for the reception. I picked out the reception shoes 1) Because I think they represent my own little style. 2) Because I know my feet will get tired. The reception shoes below are exactly as they appear. The ceremony shoes are champagne and not black but I couldn’t seem to find a picture of them online. Otherwise, they are exactly the same.

Reception Shoes

Ceremony Shoes

My jewelry I am oh, so excited about! I knew right away that I wanted to wear pearls on my wedding day. After asking around and finding out that I no family member owned a pair I soon begin leaning on my trusty “ask around” habit. A friend of a friend is designing a fabulous and slightly non-traditional bridal necklace and earring set. We have met twice to discuss ideas and narrow down my choices. I have seen the mock up but not the real thing and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with. The plans indicate a beautifully constructed, asymmetrical, hodge podge of pearly goodness. Check out her work online.

http://www.etsy.com/people/bonnybeedesigns

Lastly, I have my hair and makeup. I have found some things in magazines that I like regarding makeup. Once again, the gal doing my make up is a friend of a friend and I am confidant Andrea knows her stuff.  If you are in need of a friendly aesthetician just let me know. I have found a few things in magazines that catch my eye but overall I am planning to keep it simple with some accents on my eyes and focus on making my skin look radiant in those wedding days pics.

My plan is to get my hair done at Heads Up Salon on Lebanon Rd. One of Brandon’s family friends owns the salon and it is where I have been getting my hair cut as of late. They have a ton of experience and are always so nice when I come by. I am thinking of a look that is not extremely formal but an updo with a little mess and asymmetrical happiness. It is something like a chignon. (I tend to lean toward the asymmetrical look if you had not guessed.) These are some examples I found online.

I think that is it. I have a few more details to discuss but I plan to do that in future blogs. You all get the idea. We are closing in on the big day. We are down to two digits in the number of days!

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DIY Madness

I have had quite a few DIY projects over the past few weeks. I have been a very busy girl and Sundays seem to be the day I get the most done when it comes to my projects.

In the past month or so I have completed the following

1)      Hanging Door Letters with Ribbons-A project a copied from the DIY Queen herself, Martha Stewart. I found them early in my wedding planning search about had bought the supplies months ago. Thanks to Michael’s coupons and several layers of paint I created something that will look adorable hanging on the doors of our ceremony site.

2)      Cleaned nearly 200 mason jars-There will definitely be more word on these special little buggers to come as I have lots planned for them  but they have been a lot of work thus far. Brandon and I have been collecting for months. We have driven an hour to rural TN to purchase 120 from a lovely elderly couple (married 50 years and she gave us a jar of jam). I also couldn’t have pulled this off without the help of my family including my sister, Grandma and Aunt Martha who donated some awesome jars. The ones from my Grandma and Aunt Martha were particularly awesome because many of them were really, really old or unique and because I knew they had belonged to my family. I plan to keep hold of those even after the wedding.

3)      Personalized Aisle Runner-This is by far the project I am most proud of thus far. Our aisle runner is made of burlap purchased from Joann’s using a 40% of coupon. I found personalized aisle runners online but they were really expensive. Turns out a lot of DIY brides have made them so I figured I could do it too. I borrowed (with permission) our projector from work and shot the image of our logo on the wall. After pinning the aisle runner up I was able to trace the logo using a marker. Then I used brown, acrylic paint to paint the inside. It looks so good and I can’t wait for people to see it in person.

4)      Leaf Us a Message Trees (1/2 completed)-I mentioned this idea in a previous blog. It has proved to be a lot of work as I had to gather quite a bit of supplies including flower pots, stones, branches (from our backyard), moss, clear coat paint, and floral styrofoam. Next came printing and cutting out 200 paper leaves. Now I have the task of hole punching and stringing them with ribbon.

I am so proud of how everything is turning out and I couldn’t be more pleased with these personalized DIY projects.

Below are some photos to prove all my hard work.

So, as you can see I have been a busy girl. I hope all my hard work will pay off though as Brandon and I celebrate our wedding day in DIY style!

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Petals, Bling, and Walking Down the Aisle

Brandon and I have been blessed with some gorgeous, loving, little munchkins in our lives. Brandon’s brother and sister-n-law, Thomas and Sara, have two beautiful girls, Abby and Kyrie. Abby is six and Kyrie is four. My sister has blessed us with a rambunctious and totally crazy but handsome nephew. Stephen is currently 1 ½ years old. They are all awesome kids and remind us why it will be a quite a few more years before we have children.  They will all have important roles in our wedding and I wanted to share those with you all.

Abby and Kyrie are total girly girls and love to wear dresses and be pretty so they will be walking down the aisle as co-flower girls. I haven’t yet decided whether they will be dropping flowers or leaves but nonetheless they will do awesome. We are so excited and lucky to have both of them helping us out with such an important job. And man….are they psyched!? They bring it up on a regular basis and I can’t wait to get them their awesome dresses and see them “set the stage”.  They are both just the perfect ages and have such great personalities to share with the world.

Abby, being the oldest, is super strong minded and opinionated. She has more energy than any human being should and is a total whiz kid.

Kyrie is sweet and incredibly caring. She will try anything and contemplates everything.

I can’t wait to spend my life with Brandon and watch them grow into strong, capable, and fantastic young women. (They are both so smart!) I know Brandon loves them dearly and loves being their Uncle Beez.

Stephen will have a unique role in the wedding given his age and role in our family. Stephen is the only “man” left in our family being that my father and both of my grandfather’s have passed away. But don’t worry because he has more than enough personality to handle this role. He is too little to carry the ring pillow but I wanted him to have an important role. So he is going to “lead” me down the aisle. He gets to wear his awesome baby tuxedo and proceed down the aisle before me (his mom will be waiting as my matron of honor). Really, his role is to walk me down the aisle and also to be cute. I expect some hiccups since two year old seldom do what you want them to. Stephen is a ball of energy and stubborn too. He is just starting to talk and I can’t wait until he can say “Auntie Shannon”. That would be the best wedding gift ever! I definitely love him bunches and can’t wait to watch him grow up. I’m the weird Auntie who kisses his cheeks and gives him crushing hugs and I always will be.

Because we will not be having a traditional ring bearer our wedding rings will be placed in safe keeping with one of the groomsmen. We have already begun making a ceramic ring bowl in place of the traditional pillow fit for the occasion and style.

I have no doubt Abby, Kyrie and Stephen will have an awesome presence and role in our wedding. They are lights of our lives. Yay!

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Catering

So, sometimes you’re lucky enough to know someone who will do favors for you.

In our case, that person is Cory Woods.  Cory was my manager when I worked at Pizza Hut.  Cory is also an aspiring caterer.  Shannon and I are getting married.  As it just so happened, Shannon and I needed a caterer.

So we discussed the possibility with Cory and he was thrilled to have the opportunity to cater our wedding.  He is catering the wedding at close to cost – which is a big plus for a wedding on a tight budget.

So, one evening a few weeks back, Cory arranged for us to have a tasting.  We were a little concerned, because if the food wasn’t what we expected we would’ve had no real fall back plan.

However, the food was amazing!  It was really everything we had wanted, plus a lot more.  I don’t know if Shannon wants to share the menu, so if she does, I’ll come back and edit this post later.

If anyone needs a capable, hard-working, eager-to-please caterer, definitely hit up Cory.  His food is great.  We’re really luckily that we found him and that he was able to do something for us that is going to be well within our budget.

Things are really coming together.  We have a laundry list of posts we want to do – we just need to find the time!

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