STD's

It has been a while since I went post crazy. School is back in session and since I work at a Big Ten University, 40,000 students have descended upon campus and have been keeping every employee at the university very busy. Being two months into the semester, I am still busy, but way behind on updating my thoughts. It's time to catch up!

We decided we wanted to use Save the Date's since our wedding is during the height of most schools and colleges spring break. We have already had guests tell us that we chose a date during their spring break. Since we chose a date we liked, I honestly could care less who has spring break that week. But I guess it is better to make sure the information is out there now so everyone can plan ahead instead of me telling them "I don't care if you come or not!" :)

So back to the STD's. We wanted something nice and easy that aligned with either our theme or colors and that looked professional. On top of that, we really didn't want to spend a lot of money. I began scouring the Internet looking for ideas and found postcards for an awesome bargain at vistaprint.com. We were able to redesign the post card to fit our needs and we were able to get 250 postcards for less than 50 dollars!


We have had the postcards for just over two months now, and knew we needed to get them sent out. Last week we finally sat down and finalized the guest list and got almost all of the addresses we needed. The list came out to 300 people and that was with cutting it down by about 60 people! We were then able to print address labels for all of the guests and attach them to our postcards. On Thursday of last week we sent them out. It feels so good to have a finalized guest list and have sent out all of our postcards. With less than six months to go, I am feeling pretty good!

DIY

I am not the most creative person, but I figured a couple DIY projects would be a good idea to add a personal touch to the wedding. I chose to make my own programs and favors. I have heard that DIY projects are nice to have, but they can be a huge pain to complete. Hopefully starting 8 months out will give me enough time to make 300 programs and favors without too much stress.

For the programs, I decided to keep it simple. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought black cardstock, white cardstock, vellum, and sheer ribbon in maroon and white. I also purchased a paper cutter/scorer, a necessity if you decide to make your own paper products. I decided to keep the programs the size of a regular piece of paper folded over. The outside is the black card stock. The actual printing will be done on the white card stock on the inside. I cut about an inch off of the top and side of the white cardstock, to leave a black boarder from the cover. I then tied a ribbon around the front cover to hold the white cardstock to the black cardstock. It allows for three pages available for print. On the front i used scrapbook tape to attach a 3 by 3 inch square of white paper printed with a monogram I made in a word document. To finish off the program, I printed our names, date, and location on the vellum and using the scrapbook tape I attached it atop the monogram.

For the favors, we decided to keep along the same theme. We purchased small black Chinese take out boxes and hot glued ribbons around the top. We had a stamp made to stamp the tags we found to hang on the side. We have not decided if they will be pre-filled with candy, or if we will have a candy buffet.

I have only made about 20 boxes and it took quite some time. Hopefully I won't pull all my hair out in the process of making these favors.

Ceremony and reception accessories

Since I am on a roll today, I decided to continue with the posts. We already have many of the accessories that we will need for the ceremony and reception. I found a website, http://www.weddingaccessories.net/, that had a lot of reasonably priced items for weddings.

For our ceremony, we found our unity candle, guestbook, ring pillow, and the flower basket.

For the reception, we got our card box, toasting flutes, cake servers, and cake toppers.

Everything arrived quickly and looked great! I would highly recommend the website for anyone looking for nice personalized accessories at a reasonable price.

We have also ordered monogram cocktail napkins and matches in black, white, and maroon with our names and wedding date. Once they arrive I will add the photos!

The Dress

I definitely had an idea of what I liked and what I didn't going into my appointment. Unfortunately, the girl who was helping me, really wasn't that much of a help. My mom, my little sister, and one of my bridesmaids came to the appointment with me. Without them, I don't think I would have been able to try anything I liked on.

The consultant began by asking me my pant size and if I had an idea of what I wanted. I told her my size and pulled out pictures I had taken from bridal magazines. She directed me to go to my fitting room and she would bring the dresses to me. She brought about 4 or so dresses over and hung them up. She gave me the first one and told me she gave me two sizes bigger than my pant size since according to her wedding dresses run small. I put on the dress, which looked nothing like the pictures I liked and put it on. Not only was it not what I wanted, it gaped and hung limply on me since it was too big. There was no shape what so ever to my body and it was not what I imagined I would look like on my big day.

After about four more dresses, I did not like a single one. The girl went and got more and I tried them on. None of them fit well, but for some reason I didn't speak up and ask for a smaller size. I guess I forgot I was spending a lot of money there and what I thought or wanted was more important than what the consultant thought. I took a break and walked around the store with my bridesmaid. We both saw the poster at the same time. It was very similar to pictures I had brought in. I asked the consultant to try it on, and she said they didn't have it in-stock in "my" size. At this point I finally got the nerve to just go and get the dress myself in the size I wanted to try on. I put the dress on and came out. It not only fit perfect, but it was "the" dress. I would post a picture, but I don't want Bryce to see it. The pictures must wait until after the wedding.

We told the consultant we wanted to purchase the dress. Unbelievably, she asked me if I wanted to order the dress one size bigger. If I hadn't liked the dress so much, I probably would have punched her and walked out! I wonder if they tell the consultants to try to sell a size or two bigger so the alteration bill is larger.

After I chose my dress, I went and looked for the bridesmaid dresses. I had an idea of what I wanted and within no time at all I found what I was looking for. I wanted a long black dress with a maroon accent sash around the waist and I found exactly that. Another item checked off the to-do list!

Picking the Locations

We knew when we got engaged that our wedding ceremony would be at the Lutheran church where I grew up. I attended kindergarten through 8th grade there, and my parents and siblings still attend the church. Reserving the church turned out to be no problem at all and I honestly didn't even have to do anything. My Mom, who can be over enthusiastic at times about wedding planning, reserved it as soon as we told her what date we were planning. My sister was also married there:


The next step turned out to be a little more difficult. Bryce and I both had an idea of what we were looking for in a reception location. We both like the historical and naturally beautiful places that generally weren't originally intended to be a reception location. We found two that were exceptionally beautiful and had a natural personality. One was an old train station and one was an old brewery.





At this point, I need to back up a little. Before we looked at the reception locations, we sat down to draft a preliminary wedding list. My Dad had a list already together from my older sisters wedding two years ago. Bryce's father had also given us a list that included his side of the family as well as the large step family. Once we added Bryce's mother's list, we were at well over 300 guests. Unfortunately, these locations only held about 200 guests. They were out.

The same caterer who owned the old brewery had another location that was fairly new and would accommodate our guests. We set up a meeting and checked it out. It was 9000 square feet, and had the modern classy look to it which created the ambiance we were looking for. We booked the room two days later.








I am really excited about this location and think its should turn out great!

Flowers!

The first item we checked off the massive to-do list (in April) was meeting with a florist and choosing preliminary floral arrangements. Now I realize the a full year in advance may seem a little out of the ordinary for a wedding that is not in peak wedding season, but I digress.

We actually found our florist through a co-worker of mine who was on facebook. She accepted a friend request from a girl she went to high school with and saw that she was now a wedding only florist who lived in my hometown where we are getting married. Talk about a chance discovery! We looked at her work online, and I fell in love with her designs! You can view her website at http://www.rb-weddings.com/.

I decided to go with 30 red black magic roses for my bouquet. I do really like the white roses as well though.


For the bridesmaids, we are using three stem calla lily bouquets tied with maroon ribbon, much like the picture from my previous post. The groomsmen will have a single calla lily and the groom will have a single black magic rose to match my bouquet. I am about 95% certain this is what I want for the wedding party, but who knows what might change before our next meeting with her!!

We picked out our tall centerpieces as well. They will be similar to the photo in that they will be the tall bowed glass jars with black river rocks on the bottom and the three tired red roses with rose petals and candles surrounding them. We will have shorter centerpieces at half the tables but we wont pick those out until we meet with our reception location.

We haven't picked out pew pieces, but I found two simple examples that I like. Obviously, the colors would be slightly different than below, but I am still up for any suggestions.

All in all, we really enjoyed meeting with the florist and getting the preliminary stuff out of the way. Plus we guaranteed an awesome florist for our wedding!

*all photos are original work of the florist, Rose's Bouquets

Choosing the Theme

We decided to go to Lowe's and pick up paint swatches to help us choose our wedding colors. Bryce *loved* the fact that I made him come to Lowe's with me to get them. I originally thought I wanted a black and white color combination. To me there is just something so classy about those colors for a wedding.



I was not 100% sold though, so I decided to look at another combination I had found online. Cherry red & lime green. It was very bright, modern and perfect for a spring wedding.



At Lowes we got just about every red and green swatch available as well as some white and black swatches and took them home. We liked both combinations, but he was much more in favor of the black and white, while I was completely split between the two. We also found that when we placed a dark red (maroon) with the black and white it looked great too! After about a day or two of going back and forth, I was sold on a black and white color scheme with maroon and silver accents. I actually found this picture below that helped me make up my mind.



Since we went with the black and white color scheme, we decided we wanted the event to be classy, simple, and timeless. I guess you could say that is the theme we have chosen.