Reception Music

Shawn and I have been discussing what song we should use for our first dance. I've been kind of torn between picking a song that people kind of expect or a song that we both really like. I think we're going to go with a song that we both like and not worry about what song it is. I've been trying to keep such a tight handle on everything so everything gets done on time, but this is one thing where I need to loosen up and I think I 'm going to let my fiance choose our song. He'll be thrilled.

We also discussed whether or not to do the bouquet and garter toss. I really don't want to because we won't have that many single girls at our wedding and I find the garter toss a little humiliating and a little inappropriate. So I suggested replacing those with an anniversary dance. An anniversary dance is where all the married couples come up and dance and they are eliminated by length of marriage. Eventually you get down to the couple that has been married the longest and they can give some words of wisdom and they usually get the bouquet (our couple will be getting a smaller version of my bouquet as a gift). After there's a winning couple I would like the DJ to play a song for them to dance to and about 1/4 of the way through it have all the married couples are called to the dance floor in reverse order to join them.

Deciding our first dance song has been a little bit more of a struggle. I like songs like "You are so Beautiful" and "L-O-V-E", but Shawn likes more up to date songs. Even if we don't go with a song to I like I know they will be played at some point during the night. I've been trying to keep a tight handle on all of this wedding stuff so everything gets done on time, but I think I'm going to loosen up and hand over this decision to my fiance. I know he'll pick a good song that we both like.

Our DJ has asked us a give him a play and do not play list. This seems like an easy task, but I am a person that can't remember the names of artists or songs which makes things a little more difficult. We are trying to create a family friendly atmosphere. So we will be mostly sticking with songs from the 80's and older and we will be having several group dance songs since they are what gets people up and moving. I've also created a wedding website for our guests to visit and they are able to request songs for the reception.

The Rings

Shawn and I went to look at rings before Christmas and ended up ordering them. They came in Christmas Eve and I was really excited. Shawn was torn between 2 rings: a tungston one and a traditional plain white gold band. He really wanted the tungston ring, but I have mixed feelings about it. Yes, it does look cool, but I've heard good and bad things about tungston. One of the benefits of a tungston ring is that it doesn't scratch and that is a big benefit since he has a career in medicine. One of the cons is that it can't be resized, so as your finger changes in size as you get older you need to buy a whole new ring. In the end he picked the traditional band, but has expressed that he would really like the other ring as well. So maybe it can be a future gift.

It took a lot of looking for me to find a ring that matches my engagement ring. I had found one that went around my engagement ring and when I tried it on it was gorgeous, but I have short fingers so having 3 rings on one finger wasn't working very well. I choose a single band that has a row of round stones that are similar in size to the round stones on the side of my engagement ring. I love this ring, but getting it sized has been a frustrating process. I got my ring from Kays and they measured my engagement ring and then sent out my wedding band to be sized, they never confirmed anything with us before doing so. When the ring came back it was too small. They made it a size 4.25. So they sent it out again to be sized, this time with my engagement ring. The rings came back a couple of weeks later and the wedding band was made smaller than it was the first time. This time the ring was a size 4.

What I don't understand is that if the ring was too small the first time, why would you make it even smaller. My hands were cold both times and the ring still didn't fit. So now I have to get it sized a third time and instead of them trying to figure out a size, I'm going to tell them what size I want it. They refuse to believe that my engagement ring is a 4.75. I don't understand why that's so hard to believe, they even measured my finger and I need at least a 4.5. If I had to do it all over again I would not go to Kays, I would find the same ring at a different store and save myself the headache.

Pre-Marriage Counseling

Shawn and I are getting married in the church that I grew up attending and they offer pre-marriage counseling. Although I'm a little nervous about it since I'm not exactly sure what to expect, I think it's a great idea. From what I understand about the counseling is that we will learn how to relate to one another and communicate with each other more effectively. Now I think that we already communicate fairly well, but it never hurts to learn how to communicate better.

Communication is one of the most important keys in maintaining a healthy relationship. Being able to communicate effectively with your partner helps you understand them, helps you communicate your respect for them, and helps to resolve conflict. Communicating effectively with your partner is very important in deciding life changing decisions, such as whether or not to have children and how to raise them. Although communication is not the only thing that goes into a healthy relationship, learning to communicate is one way to have a happy marriage that lasts a lifetime.

Wedding Hair

Deciding on how to wear my hair for the wedding was a little overwhelming at first. I wasn't sure what style I should go with or what style looked best on me. Choosing a hairstyle also depends a little bit on what the dress looks like. If you have a strapless gown then wearing your hair down might be a nice option. If your dress has straps or sleeves then wearing your hair partly up or all up would probably be nice. The main thing to remember is to choose a style that feels like you. You want to look beautiful and still be you at the same time.

My hair is very thin and has a really difficult time trying to hold a curl. So trying to decide on a hairstyle for the wedding was a little difficult. I had a few people suggest that I wear my hair down with curls in it, but seeing that my hair is thin and the fact that July is usually hot and humid, I threw that option out.

Another option was a half up, half down style, It's pretty and looks really nice, but doesn't look all that great on me.

I ultimately decided on an updo since that's how I usually wear my hair. It just feels more like me and that's what I want to feel like when I get married. I also decided to go with an updo because my dress has straps and details that I'd like to show off.
I haven't had my hair trial yet, but I'm sure that this is the right choice for me.

Invitations

For our invitations we decided to use the DIY kit from Walmart. They cost only $20 for a box a 40 invitations and 40 reply cards compared to $100 for 25 professionally printed invitations. I never even considered getting professionally done invitations. I think that the DIY kits look just as nice and they have a wide variety to choose from.

The invitation kit has a website that allows you to find the invitation that you have and has an option to choose a pre-set wording or allows you to write what you want. They also have a variety of fonts to choose from so that you can make your invitations to fit your style.

Invitations can be a stressful project, but I had no problem picking them out and I'm sure I won't have a problem printing them out and getting them addressed. I'm actually really excited that they will be going out in the mail in a couple months. It's just one more item to cross off the list and one more item that puts us closer to our wedding.

Seating Chart

I was really hoping to be able to skip doing a seating chart because I've heard they can be quite the chore and I feel a little bad telling people who they have to sit with during the dinner. After reading a few articles it seems that guests actually prefer being told where to sit and not having to make a mad dash for a table so everyone can sit together. I have seen dinners be successful without a seating chart and I have never seen anyone race to a table, so I was hoping that maybe I could be one of the lucky ones that didn't have to do one. But it's looking like our dinner is going to be much larger than we were expecting and it seems that doing a seating chart is going to be inevitable. Just the thought of doing this seating chart stresses me out, but I was promised lots of help in creating it. So I'm sure it won't be as bad as I'm thinking it will be.

Programs

Some people would say that having programs for the ceremony are optional. We have decided to include them. I like knowing who is participating in the wedding and what the order of events are. I also find them helpful for people who are not familiar with the sequence of events. We attended a wedding our this past summer that included a Hindu ceremony, without a program explaining what was happening I would have been very confused.

I originally wanted to make programs that fanned out. I thought that fan programs would be a good idea since our church ceremony will not have air conditioning. After considering the cost and the time that it would take to make them, we decided to go a different direction. Instead we will be using a a simple folded program with a ribbon holding all of the inside pages together.

The Unity Candle

In a christian wedding ceremony you are given the option to participate in a unity candle lighting. We have decided to do this during our ceremony because it seems like a nice tradition. It's also a way to include the mothers of the bride and groom, if you choose to do so. Some people have the mothers of the bride and groom come up during the ceremony and light the two taper candles. The taper candles are supposed to represent the bride and groom as individuals. The bride and groom then each take a taper candle and together light the unity candle and then are supposed to blow out their individual candles to signify the end of their separate lives.

There are different options to having a unity candle. Some people choose to use sand, sometimes different colored sand, and together pour their individual sand into a single container. I have seen this done and it is a very nice alternative to having a candle, especially for an outdoor wedding where the wind may not choose to cooperate when attempting to light a candle. Since we are having our ceremony in a church we are going to use a candle.

I've decided to do my own unity candle since it really doesn't seem to difficult and then it can be designed any way we want. I'm not sure if we want to put just a single ribbon around the unity candle or if we would also like to 'engrave' our names and date into the candle as well or if we should maybe do something a little more fancy with crystals.

Cake Toppers

Well since I've already discussed the cake, this is probably a good time to bring up the cake topper. We haven't actually decided on a topper yet, we're waiting until we have the cake finalized. I've never really put a lot of thought into the cake topper before and I guess if that was the one thing I forgot I wouldn't be that upset about it. I didn't actually realize that there were so many different options: floral toppers, bride and groom figurines, monograms, and glass pieces with names and dates etched into them.

There seem to be some pros and cons to all of them. I like the simplicity of having just a floral topper with a few clusters of flowers placed on the lower tiers, but you won't be able to save them.

I also kind of like the figurines, I don't know if I would pick out a vintage looking one, but I do like the one where the arms of the couple are connected in the infinity symbol. The problem with the figurines sometimes they are really tall and aren't proportional to the rest of the cake.

I'm not sure how I feel about the monograms. They look really nice on some cakes and out of place on others. Most of the time the monograms are very bedazzled and that wouldn't match the rest of our wedding.

And lastly there is the etched glass. They can be a little heavy, but they make an excellent keepsake that can be displayed for years to come.

I'm not sure which style we'll end up picking, but I'm sure whichever one it is, it'll be perfect.

Save the Date

I wasn't sure if we should send out save the dates or not. I ultimately decided that we should. We both come from large families and for the last 3 years there has been about 3 weddings a year in my family. We also decided to send out our save the dates a year in advance, instead of the suggested 6 months because our wedding is in the middle of the summer and is usually a busy time of the year.

I started looking on the internet for companies that make and print them up for you, but after looking at them I decided that I could make them myself. It was pretty easy, all I did was I went to staples and had them print up the actual announcement part since my printer couldn't handle the cardstock. I then cut all of them out, I had multiple ones printed on the same page to help save money, and I also cut out a background piece of cardstock that was a different color and a little bit bigger than the announcement. Next I used glue and double sided tape to hold the two pieces together.

Cake, Yum!

One of my favorite decisions to make in the wedding planning process is what kind of cake we should have. I have a huge sweet tooth and love all kinds of cakes. My fiance on the other hand isn't much of a cake person, so when it comes to flavors it's pretty much up to me. I think we are hoping to have three flavors. One white/vanilla layer, one chocolate layer, and for the third layer I think I'd like to go with a summery flavor, maybe something with strawberries.
The one area that we are really trying to compromise on is what the cake should actually look like.
I like round and simple cakes, Shawn likes square cakes with fountains and staircases.
We haven't had too much time to actually really discuss this topic yet, but one thing we have decided is that a hexagon shaped cake might the best compromise. It's still round enough for me and also has the nontraditional shape that my fiance likes.

Flower Girl Basket

One of the more difficult projects I've completed so far is the flower girl basket. For this project I bought a little Easter basket when they were on clearance after Easter. I also bought a couple of little silk flowers, although when I bought them I wasn't exactly sure what the overall look I was going for.

All I did to make this was took some more of the leftover satin I had (I bought a lot of the satin and lace when I did our card box because I wanted to make sure that all of my projects that required fabric matched) and cut a little piece off. I then centered the bottom of the basket on the fabric and hot glued it there and then I just wrapped the remaining fabric up and round the walls of the basket so that it looked like it had a little draping. After that I cut out a piece of fabric the same shape and size as the bottom of the basket and glued that on the inside so no one would see where I glued everything down.

Next I worked on covering the handle (this part was a pain in the butt to do). I measured the length of the handle and cut my fabric to match. I then had to sew it over the handle by hand. Sewing is not my thing. First the handle cover ended up too short and then it was too tight. It took my 6 times to get it right. Not that the entire basket was covered, I had to come up with a way to cover the ugly areas where the handle met the rest of the basket. This was the perfect place for those little silk flowers I purchased. I just wrapped the flowers around the bottom of the handle of both sides and hot glued it there and then added some little ribbons. I think it actually turned out kind of cute.

And here's the basket with some flowers in it. We aren't doing flower petals, we are going to have whole flowers in the basket.

Guestbook/ Memory book

Another DIY project that I did was creating our own guestbook. Normally I am someone that is big on traditions, but the traditional style guestbook with the space for a name, address, and short congratulations wasn't something that I was loving. Instead I decided to create my own photo guestbook, or what I call our memory book, so that it would be something that I would want to open and look at in the future.
What I did was I bought a blank journal from Staples and covered it with some of the leftover satin and lace from the card box. On the first page I wrote our names and our wedding date in gold pen.


I'm also going to buy some photo corners that are often used in scrapbooking and place those in the book before it is placed out to sign. I was toying with the idea of having a polariod camera available for guests to take their own pictures to place in the memory book, but after hearing that polariods fade over time and the fact that the film is really expensive and usually has a short expiration date I decided that I would just have my photographer go around and take pictures of people. Once everyone signed our memory book and I got our pictures back I then plan to go through the book and place the guest's picture next to what they wrote.

Card box

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are on a tight budget so in an effort to save money we decided to DIY as many projects as possible. One of the projects that I decided to DIY was the card box. I bought a large round hatbox from Joann Fabrics, pearls, and then some ivory satin and lace fabric.

I'm sure there is a much easier way to cover the hatbox than the way I did it. I started with the lid of the box. I cut a slit in the top that was large enough to fit a large envelope. I then cut a piece of the satin fabric and laid that on top of the lid. I sprayed the top with a fabric glue before placing the fabric on the lid. I then trimmed the edges so the sides of the lid were completely covered. I then placed the lace on top of the satin. When everything was set in place I cut a slit through the fabric.

I then moved to the bottom of the hat box. I thought this was the more difficult part of the project. I measured the height of the box and how many inches around it was. I then cut my fabric, sprayed the box, and placed the fabric on the box. It took a few times to get the fabric even round the entire box. After the satin was centered on the box, I then hot glued the lace over the satin. After everything was dry I placed the lid on the box, but what I forgot to take into account was the thickness of the fabric. Getting the lid on was a struggle, but it never has to go on again, so I guess that's okay.

After the lid was on, I covered the very bottom edge of the lid with pearls to dress it up a little bit more. I still trying to figure out if and what I should put around the slit in the lid.

For being my very first major wedding DIY project, it didn't turn out to bad.

Reception Tabletops

Today I thought that I would share my ideas for our reception. We are trying to go along the lines of a garden themed wedding. Since we are on a rather tight budget having a ton of flowers all over the place was not even an option. Instead of just using typical white tablecloths, I decided to use a light blue colored tablecloth with an ivory overlay to make the reception area more visually appealing, but since our venue only offers white, ivory, and burgundy tablecloths we have to order them from another place. We have decided against chair covers since we will be using patio chairs and they do not clash with the colors we are using.
To save even more money we decided to use two different centerpieces and alternate them. Our first centerpiece is a simple ivory lantern. I love these lanterns, but I am a little concerned about how hot the top gets. I don't want any of my guests burning themselves. Our second centerpiece is a floral centerpiece. We have square vases with light blue ribbon tied around them. These vases will be filled with light pink peonies and they will be surrounded be votive candles.
I'm considering having our head table, cake table, guestbook/gift table, and food table covered with an ivory table cloth and have tulle draped around the edges, but I'm not sure how that will look and if I would be bringing in too many different designs. I kind of like the look, but feel like my tables would be competing with each other.

Wedding To Do List:

Since it's the first week of February I thought it would be a good time to share what things we have left to do.
-Order our flowers
-Secure room blocks for our out-of-town guests
-Book a cake baker
-Find and buy a veil
-Reserve tablecloths and table overlays
-Finalize menu
-Schedule the hair appointment
-Create and "Must Play" and "Do not Play" List
-Meet with the Pastor for pre-marriage counseling
-Have alterations done on my dress
-Create a day-of timeline
-Print and mail out invitations
-Send our "Must have Shots" list to the photographer
-Mail rehearsal dinner invitations
-Print and put together programs
-Request name change documents
and
-Plan and make guest welcome bags

Not really too much more to accomplish and I'm really happy about that.

Bridesmaid Attire

Deciding on what my girls should wear was actually more difficult than I thought it was going to be. I was beginning to think that I would never find a dress. Since we are having a summer wedding I really wanted to find a dress that wasn't going to be too warm and overwhelming. So I decided on a dress from Alfred Angelo's. I love this dress and how flowy it is. It's perfect for a summer, garden themed wedding. The girls will also be wearing white or ivory shoes and pearls.

Trying to decide on a dress for the flower girl is a task that I have yet to tackle. There is just no way that I can justify spending $130 on a dress that a three year old is going to out grow within six months and trying to find alternative options is proving to be a challenge. With only 5 1/2 months to go, I'm starting to worry that I won't find a flower girl dress in time.

I was trying to decide if I should post my dress on here or not and I've finally decided that I am not going to. If any of my wedding guests are following I really want to keep it a surprise.

Groomsmen Attire

After attending a bridal show, my fiance, Shawn, and I decided our best choice was to rent the tuxes from Men's Wearhouse instead of renting them from a local bridal store since not everyone was local and the tuxes will actually be sure to match. All the guys will be wearing the same tux,a black two-button jacket and black pants, but the vests will vary some. The groom will be wearing a cornflower blue vest and euro tie, the groomsmen and ushers will have an ivory euro tie and cornflower blue vest, and the fathers of the bride and groom will have black vests and euro ties. We're not 100% sure on what the ring bearer will wear, but we do know that we don't want his parents to have to rent a tux. I think we are fairly set on having the ring bearer wear simple black dress pants, an ivory shirt, and a tie and vest.

My Shoes are Here!

Yay!! I'm so excited, my shoes just arrived today. While I'm not normally a girl who gets excited over shoes, today I am making an exception. I am now one step closer to having my complete wedding day look finished. I purchased my shoes from David's Bridal. They are ivory satin with little rhinestones in the middle. I was a little nervous ordering my shoes without having seen them in person or having tried them on, but I couldn't be more happy with them. They match my dress perfectly. Here they are: