Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Weekend DIY Project

My MOH and I got together this weekend to brainstorm some a DIY votive candle project. I got a great deal on 144 votive candle holders and candles on e-bay but thought that I might want to embelish them in some way.

We pulled out the craft box and came up with three different designs:

  • The first one is an M (it is kind of hard to see because it was done in yellow paint). It is the same M as will be in our monogram.

  • The middle one is just ribbon and gemstones.

  • The last one is a flourish design wrapped around the entire votive holder. It is the same flourish that is on the Save the Date cards and will be on the invitations.
My plan is to put five votive holders around my floral center pieces. All the designs would be done in a variety of colors: pink, purple, yellow, orange, green, and blue. Although I am considering doing all the painted ones in silver. Anyone have thoughts on that?

As I am finishing up the painting I will post pictures on how I did it for anyone that is interseted. It was a lot easier than it may look.

UPDATE: The Men's Attire

So, we went to Men's Wearhouse the other day to get an idea of what the men should wear for the wedding. This ended up being a wonderful trip. Alert the media, Troy has made a decision on what the guys will wear. And the verdict is: Troy will be buying a nice black suit and the guys will be wearing black dress slacks, white button up shirt and tie to coordinate with the bridesmaid dresses.

Also, Troy has two kids that are going to be part of the ceremony. We were fine if they wanted to wear a suit like their dad or slacks like the other guys and decided to let them make the decision. They decided suits. What cute first family portaits those will make!

Friday, January 16, 2009

The men's attire

During the entire planning process me and Troy have not seen eye to eye on the men's wardrobe. I promised Troy that he did not have to wear a tuxedo (aka Monkey Suit) if he didn't want to, after all it is his day too and I want him to be comfortable. But it has come apparent that not having to wear a tux translates into two completely different things. I thought that meant a nice suit. I am not sure what Troy thought, but suit was not it. Ultimately we decided that I have to make the final decision and if I wanted to him to wear a tux he would.

I don't like that idea. The only way he is really going to be truely comfortable is if he has to make the decision. I have chose to supply him with some inspiration. While I do love the look of all the guys in a tux/suit:


I also found these pictures on the Knot website and I'm really digging this idea. I love the idea of the groom wearing something that distinguishes him from the rest of the guys. And after the formalities of the evening are done, I have no problems with him taking his jacket off too.


But, how would this look with the whole bridal party?

ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE!

And I think in the long run that this could be a lot cheaper for the guys. Check out this ensemble from JCPenny:

and the best part: All three pieces are only $72.00 together.

We are supposed to go looking around to some tux places this weekend, so we will see what that brings. But I am definitely printing out these pictures for him to take a look at.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Picking a color scheme

So, I have to admit that picking the color scheme was very difficult to me. I of course have my favorite colors, but I was affraid that picking just a few colors would limit my flower selection way too much - and flowers was what I wanted more. I LOVE flowers, all flowers, all colors and wanted to include a variety of them throughout the wedding.

My solution. I chose green as a base color to work from. Why you might ask? I envision is being the stem of a flower - then I can choose whatever flower color I wanted. I decided on a clover green color for the bridesmaid dresses, the STDs and the invitations. I also plan on incorporating this color in miscellaneous other items (whcih are yet to be determined).

So I went about this whole color thing a little different than most. I went to my florist. I worked with her to determine which flowers I wanted to have showcased throughout my wedding and what colors. I did know that I wanted bright vibrant flowers. This has determined my color pallette.


Here are some inspiration photos to give you an idea of the bright bouquets against a green dress.
from The Knot
Not exactly the color green I am going for put look at the beautiful bouquet.

again from The Knot

Closer, but still not the right green, but again beautiful. I love the tea length dresses, each in a style to suit the bridesmaid.

I put together my color pallette at http://www.colorcombos.com/ based on a site recommendation from Miss Lattee on weddingbee. If you haven't checked out that blog yet, you should, it is the best wedding blog ever!

I WON!

So, as I have posted before Wedding Bee is the best wedding blog ever! Every once in a while they have a contest that you can enter simply by posting a comment on the post. Well I recieved notification today that I WON!

I won 250 Save the Dates from Magnet Street Weddings. I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. I never win anything. I read about their contest and went to browse their website and fell absolutely head-over-heals in love with their Flower Flourish design. It fit in perfectly with the theme I am going for (more about that later).

I have already made STD cards, but the mini magnets will be an excellent addition to what I have already created.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

My venue

I knew for sometime before it actually happened that I was going to get engaged. Troy told me to go ahead and start planning the wedding but I refused to for several reasons 1) I was sure that if I went ahead and started planning before I got the ring, that I might not actually get the ring 2) I didn't want to do anything without my mom.

So how do you start planning a wedding keeping it low key? The venue. I spent countless hours researching area venues on the internet. I started a spreadsheet that listed the venue, website, location, phone number, e-mail, capacity, price (if it was actually listed on the website), the distance it was from my home, and any other notes. I know it seems kind of crazy but this ended up being a lifesaver.

After we became engaged we put together a quick guest list (yes it has grown some since then) to get an idea of how many people we planned on entertaining for the evening. In addition to the number of people attending there also had to be a place for a ceremony, either on-site or nearby. My list was quickly narrowed down to 5 places.

Within days of my engagement my mom, sister (MOH) and I took a road trip to view all the final choices for location. The Lawton Heritage Community Center (LHCC) was the second place on my list. I fell in love and nothing else seemed to compare.
The view from the outside does this place no justice. Here is the Hall Director's description:


"Nestled in the heart of grape country is Michiganʼs oldest Winery, renovated to become one of the areas most unique places for your wedding and reception. The Lawton Community Center is built entirely of cobblestone both inside and out, accented with a variety of wine colors and decorations. Entertain your guests between the wedding and reception with a tour of our museum, highlighting the history of wine country. Our museum offers an ideal setting to offer your guests hors dʼ oeuvres and wine tasting as the introduction to the evenings fabulous festivities."

The LHCC offers two ceremony options. First is outside in the front lawn (shown on the picture above). Troy and I were planning on having an outdoor ceremony but I wasn't too thrilled about this location. There is an Amtrack route that runs along the facility and the director said that I can almost bet on a train inturrupting my ceremony. She assured that it would only last about 15 seconds though, if I decided to go that route. The other option is the great room. A two story cobblestone room. My entrance will be from a set of french doors in the reception room that opens to the second story of the great room and down a flight of stairs. When the lady was describing the grand entrance I was almost in tears. That's when I knew this was the place.




They recently installed a huge overhead door that you can open up to look over a wooded area. An inside ceremony that looks like it is outside, awesome. No need to worry about the weather.


The reception and bar areas are beautiful too. Not much decoration, if any is needed. And set up, clean up and the Hall Director are all included in the rental fee. It was too perfect and I was completely sold.




All pictures from http://www.lawtoncommunitycenter.com/index.html

I need to go back again, take some better pictures and get measurements of some things for other vendors. But I am so excited to have selected LHCC as my venue.



PS - My mom and I attended a girl scout event there when I was a little girl. At which time my mom declared that one of her daughters would get married there someday. Funny how that worked out isn't it.

Friday, January 2, 2009

A way to organize

So, I am going to start writing a blog to help me keep my ideas organized and manageable. Since I became engaged I have become totally obsessed with planning my wedding. I spend hours browsing the internet looking for ideas and trying to find a cheaper way to do things. I have saved countless inspiration pictures and DIY ideas. I hope this blog will become my way of prioritizing my projects and making sure that everything is done.

I am trying to plan a wedding on a limited budget. While living Michigan is wonderful, most people here fall victim to the poor economy because of the prevalence of the auto industry, and my family is no different. While no one has lost their job or been subject to layoffs yet we are all trying to do our best to make ends meet, save up for the worst, and plan the BEST WEDDING EVER for a day I will remember forever.

The blog is becoming more necessary for me now because we are only 5 ½ months away from the wedding and it is all becoming a reality since I will be mailing out my STDs within the next two weeks. Immediately upon becoming engaged I began to look at reception venues. I fell in love with the second place I saw, the Lawton Heritage Community Center. The only problem, it was booked for every single Saturday from April to October. I love flowers and had to have a summer wedding so, in order to ensure the venue of my dreams, we booked for a Friday. (I was nervous at first, but am finding that this is more common than I though. Plus, most vendors are cheaper on Fridays so there are some cost savings.)

Knowing that my wedding was going to be on a Friday I wanted to make sure that I told people ahead of time so I decided to send out STDs. Shortly after I became engaged my MOH (sister) and I designed and made my STD. They have been sitting, done, ready to be mailed out since August. I decided to send them out about 6 months before the wedding, but didn’t want them to get lost in the holiday mail between Thanksgiving and Christmas so I set January 15th as the target mailing date.

Since then Troy & I have been working on getting our 250 person guest list finalized. This week I sat down and really plugged away and…..now it is about 4/5 complete. It feels good to have it complete so that I can get the STDs mailed. Sending out the STDs seems kind of a milestone for me and now the wedding is a reality, but now I feel the clock ticking away. So much to do, so little time.



I plan to update the blog regularly with all the little things that I have already taken care of (including how I made my STD cards) and all the little things that are still to come.