My jewelry (though newly made with pearls and crystals) has as it's centerpiece, an antique brooch which I had a custom designer convert into a necklace. Since I picked up this little beauty at a vintage swap meet near my house for only $25.00, it's the perfect something old. I also have my bracelet which is made from a clip on earring I bought at the same vintage swap meet.
Something new:
My Maggie Sottero SaBelle gown is obviously my something new. Though I could also go with the new red Me Too shoes I bought with Mr Fix It on clearance at Nordstom's to fulfill this little part of the tradition.
Something borrowed:
This is Melody. She is one of the girls that is in a bible study I have been leading for about 5 years now. I have known her since high school and she is now married (1 1/2 years ago) and just got accepted to USC's med school program. I am so proud of her. But I am even more honored that she is letting me borrow that beautiful veil as my something borrowed on the wedding day. It's simple and a good length for my gown. I will only wear it for the ceremony and maybe a few photos.
Something blue
I don't have a photo of this item, but I will have a blue brooch that was a piece of Mr Fix It's mothers costume jewelry attached to my bouquet. She passed away long before Mr Fix It and I met when he was in his 30's. I know he really misses her. So when we were going through some old boxes at his place and he came across a bunch of her old jewelry and asked if I wanted any of it, I immediately saw the brooch and told him that I would be using this somehow on our wedding day :)
So let's hear it girls...are you willing to share your 'somethings' from your big day?
First let me say thanks to all the wonderful ladies who commented yesterday just giving me that extra boost of encouragement as we head into the final stretch. I am feeling much better today and Mr Fix It and I had a great night Tuesday just taking it a little easier...I watched LOST on tv while he started painting our bedroom and hung some bathroom fixtures. He can never sit still! But I feel like we are getting there and I am not quite as exhausted now. I just need to remember to EAT! Running around makes you forget food. :(
Anyway, I always loved this photo of my sister and her husband walking back down the aisle with the rose petals being tossed at them:
Photo courtesy of Jim Kennedy Photographers
So I definitely figured, I'd want rose petals tossed at me and Mr Fix It as we made our way back down our aisle, too. But something happened a few months back. I got a looksy at a picture on a wedding web site that sold these cute little ribbon wands:
And thought to myself that this is another DIY project that I could easily tackle because it's just cutting, taping and assembling. So while at the LA Flower Market with my cousin (BM) and a newly engaged girlfriend, I purchased a couple extra rolls of the turquoise and cranberry colored ribbon that I used to wrap my wedding favor takeout boxes.
I also bought the plastic wands from that printmyribbon.com site. The whole thing was probably around $50 for like 200 ribbon wands. I'll post a simple DIY step by step guide at some point in the future but it's really easy to figure out yourself.
So I've decided to leave these on the guests' chairs at the ceremony and have the ushers instruct them to wave them in the air as we make our way back down the aisle. Anyway, the reasons I loved this idea instead of tossing petals are as follows:
1) Every guest can be involved, not just the few that are sitting on the aisle.
2) No mess or clean up...even though we will have the aisle lined with tons and tons of rose petals, it's easier to just pick up (or have the guests turn in) a bunch of wands rather than picking up scattered petals.
3) Nothing thrown at me and Mr Fix It - no bubbles in our eyes, no stains on my gown from the petals (which can happen ladies), and no chance of getting my eye poked out!
4) They match our pretty wedding colors and will hopefully make for a super cute photo op.
I was going to assemble one for every guest originally, but while putting them together at my grandma's house last week, my aunt and mom and the hospice nurse both said they didn't think any of the men would be picking up wands to wave at us. Plus, with everyone waving wands, there would be no one left to clap for us. :) So I opted for only making 1/2 of the wands - putting one on every other seat at the ceremony so half the guests can wave and half can clap :)
I personally love them, though my aunt thinks they're silly. :) I don't care though.
What about you, ladies? Was there something you wanted to incorporate at your wedding that everyone thought was just silly or stupid? What are you planning (or did you do) for your recessional or big exit at the end of the night?
I'm seriously losing it. Two days ago (Monday) I walked into my office at 8 am after having spent the weekend cleaning and painting and moving and packing and unpacking furniture. I have been getting minimal hours of sleep each night because I am either up late working on the house or because I am tossing and turning going over to-do lists in my mind.
Well, as I walked into my office Monday morning, my boss had covered my desk with stacks of paperwork and assignments. He walked in right behind me (very unusual as half the time he is not even in the office during the day while I am). And he asked me how my weekend was. I replied "Exhausting." To which he indicated that I need to take it easy with the wedding planning to which I replied "I can't even think about dealing with wedding planning...this move and house renovations are killing me and there is too much going on personally with my family related issues as well." He said "It can't be that bad." To which I looked at him with tears rolling down my face and said "I'm just trying to hang on each day and make sure nothing slips through the cracks."
Well, yesterday, something slipped through the cracks. I deposited a rent check from one of our tenants that had been post dated for March 10th. I had completely forgotten that he had asked me not to deposit it until March 10th and the stupid bank took it a few days early without noticing the date on it. The tenant e-mailed me pretty upset saying his payroll had bounced because he hadn't transferred funds not knowing the rent check had cleared a few days early. UGH
I felt horrible. I e-mailed back a stupid apology telling him about how I had inadvertently made the mistake and would give him a credit since I slipped up asking him to please forgive me.
But seriously, I don't know how I am going to get through these next 38 days. There is still plenty to do with the house being my number one focus right now. Mr Fix It said he knows I am going to be totally stressed and a physical mess leading up to the wedding but I put my foot down and told him yesterday morning that whatever is not done by March 31st will just have to wait until after we get back from our honeymoon on May 1st. Because I am not going to spend the last two weeks leading up to our wedding stressing out and putting my body through the physical exhaustion and torment I have been dealing with these past few weeks. Not gonna happen!
We'll see how that goes...I am just praying Mr Fix It stays motivated and is able to keep moving full speed on the renovations that he has been doing in the house. We are so close now. All that is left is the following:
* Install new toilet, shower doors and fixtures in master bathroom
* Pick out and purchase new granite countertop and sinks for master bathroom
* Clean entire house and windows and have carpets cleaned (Having services do this next week)
* Install new carpet in the living room, hall and master bedroom
* Purchase and install new sink in kitchen
* Have Mr Fix It go through the rest of his crap in the house and get it all thrown out, given to charity or reorganized so there's room for me and Little Miss to move in the last weekend this month.
For now, we are on a roll...but I hope we can keep it up. Mr Fix It leaves for 4 days on his bachelor weekend to Las Vegas a week from tomorrow...we'll see how much we can get finished before then. (sigh)
So some of you may be familiar with the show, Get Married. I found my way to the blogging world through this show for they have a Blogger Brides area on their web site where brides can come and create a simple profile and blog about their weddings, questions, etc. I eventually became a featured blogger over there and 'met' A Chocolate Lover's Confessions...she led me over to start my own personal blog. Thanks, girl! I love it out here in the blogosphere!
Anyway, through Get Married, back in February, 2009, I heard about a contest hosted by Jean M products. They are an invitation company but also sell many other wedding related items and products. Well, they were hosting a contest that they hold once a year to find a bride that will receive a bunch of prizes. The prizes for the year that I found out about it were:
1) A personal consultation with Jean to design your Save the Dates and invitations. (They fly you out to their headquarters in Minnesota for this consultation)
2) About $4,000 worth of Jean M wedding products to adorn your big day (favor boxes, ribbons, toasting flutes, favors, vases, etc)
3) Having photos from your wedding used in the next year's catalogue.
4) Having your wedding featured on the Get Married tv show.
5) A one week honeymoon in your choice of either the Bahamas, Hawaii, or Mexico.
All you had to do to enter was create a short video using any cell phone camera, video camera, web cam, etc telling Jean M why they should select you to be their bride. They wanted you to tell them about your wedding and tell them what makes you unique and personal and why you should be chosen.
Easy enough - you all know from my little surprise I showed you here that I am totally capable of creating a video like this in under 4 minutes. So I browsed through their past year's web site entries to look at the videos that were submitted then for some inspiration. Funny thing was, I only found about 10 videos or so...strange.
Anyway, this was what I came up with and submitted:
Now this wasn't the end of the contest...for the rules state that once the video is submitted, they post it to a web site where you then direct your friends, family, anyone you can to go 'VOTE' for your video. The top 20 videos with the most votes would then move on to the judges round where a winner would be selected.
Well, our video (above) was the very first entry and thanks to facebook and e-mail I had like 100 votes a day coming in within the first two weeks! We had a great head start. And a few of the next videos submitted after ours basically copied my style and idea...so I knew we had a good shot with creativity. And of course our venue was way unique and cool so how could that not get us some extra points, right?
Cut to about 1 1/2 months into the contest...I get a phone call from a woman at Jean M telling me they are making some 'changes' to the contest. Apparently, they only received 7 video entries which was not much at all...they were expecting hundreds. They also said they had been contacted by many brides saying they just didn't have the time while planning a wedding to come up with a video but really wanted to enter the contest.
So Jean M decided (as was their right per the rules) that they were going to switch the contest back to the way it had been done in previous years so that all you needed to do to enter was submit a one page application and photo of you and your groom. They posted all the entries on their Facebook page and then when the contest ended a month or two later they had about 800 entries total. However, instead of voting to see who the top 20 would be, Jean M chose 20 entries from the submissions themselves.
This really sucked...especially since we had received 3500 votes by the time they changed the contest over! And all of our family and friends who had been voting every single day were pretty upset. It seemed pretty irritating that they were willing to listen to these brides who didn't think their contest and prize was worth the effort of creating a simple short video. Hell, some of the entries submitted were basically power point presentations with narration to them! On the phone, they told us they absolutely loved our video and totally enjoyed watching it over and over again. And so what was the consolation for this change after all our hard work? They took the 7 videos who had entered and automatically placed them in the top 20 list.
Ok, I could totally live with that as I felt like we were a shoe in at this point! I mean, how the heck could you possibly pick a one page written application and photo as being more creative than the video we submitted? Or any of the other 6 people submitted?
I was wrong...when the day came to announce the winner, they selected a couple who wanted an 'Old Hollywood' style glamour at their wedding with classic shades of ivory and black and red...a la Frank Sinatra or Norah Jones. Seriously?
Mr Fix It was totally pissed off...I was kind of disappointed...but looking back on it, I am *SO* glad we didn't win. For if we had won the contest, I wouldn't be going on the dream honeymoon to Australia and Bali for 2 weeks that we have planned. And I wouldn't have been able to incorporate the super fun and custom invitations I absolutely adore! And I wouldn't have had all the cutesy details and favor boxes and other things that I have been planning and purchasing for the past year. My wedding is in fact, my wedding now...not Jean M's. And as much as I would have loved to have won the freebies and get featured on a tv show, in the end, I realized things worked out exactly as they were meant to be :)
Have you ever entered any contests or giveaways? Did you win or get let down about anything?
So Mrs T over at Ninenty-Nine + Forever blog recently posted about this super cute photo sharing card idea. I have been wanting to do something like this but put it on the back burner with everything else going on lately. I had glanced at a couple of sites that offered this type of service but free was the key word and I wasn't too thrilled with some of the options I had found.
But Mrs T shared this site http://www.weddingphotoswap.com/ and it is free and lets you upload and download high resolution images into separate albums for all your wedding related events. You just create a simple account using an e-mail and password and it provides a code for your guests to log in with. I couldn't pass that up!
Plus I got a http://www.vistaprint.com/ catalogue in the mail two weeks ago that showed business cards on sale for like nothing!
I signed up for weddingphotoswap.com and then I quickly created a simple business card using Mrs T as my inpsiration and a template they had in a blue color. I added in some red to make it wedding color related and listed all the info. Since we're still a month and a half out from the wedding date, I picked their slowest shipping option and the total for 250 cards was only $15 including tax and shipping and the cost to upload our own photo!
I got the cards like 2 weeks earlier than what their estimated arrival date was, too! And here they are:
Sorry for the grainy image quality. I scanned a card in at work instead of trying to take a photo with my crappy camera. I love the little computer monitor on it since the whole idea is for them to share their pics with us via the web site (computer).
Now I am trying to decide where to leave them for the guests? I am thinking the best option is going to be to give them to the valet service and ask them to hand them to each guest as they pick up their car at the end of the night. This way, they will not lose or forget them at the wedding. The other option is to mail them with thank you cards but then we won't get pics back as fast and I think I am going with a postcard option for thank you's instead of an envelope option so that wouldn't work.
So fellow brides, did/are you using a photo sharing site for all your guests to share photos with? If you did, how did you notify the guests of the info?
Well, only Budhoop is going to get this freebie because she is the lucky winner of the $25.00 e-gift certificate from http://www.myweddingfavors.com/. Budhoop said:
Congratulations, lady and I hope you have so much fun browsing through their amazing site! There's lots of little goodies there that you could go crazy with!
First, let me say thank you so much to all of you ladies for your wonderful words of kindness and encouragement yesterday regarding all the stress that is suddenly rearing it's ugly head through my Grandmother's health issues and the wedding related items. Yesterday was so good to be able to hang with her (I was able to finish assembling my ribbon wands while I chatted with her). Though it was hard because while we were there they decided to bring a hospital bed into her home for her to stay in from now on and had to insert a catheter as well. She is supposed to be on oxygen 24 hours a day but she kept pulling it out of her nose. And she kept asking us to let her get up and go to the bathroom even though we told her she couldn't get out of bed. She was in good spirits though and was asking me about the wedding and the move and all that stuff. It was nice to get to see her as I have a feeling it will probably be the last time I may ever hug and kiss her :( But she's lived a pretty full 94 years now! It was very emotional and my mom and I cried a lot on the 2 hour drive home. My mom kept saying how this should not be happening right when we are supposed to be happy and excited about our wedding. But the truth is, as hard as it will be, life just throws you curve balls you have to swing at as they come across the plate, ya know? The good news is that I have Jesus on my side and He and Mr Fix It and many family and friends - especially you blogger ladies - have been providing wonderful support and encouragement. It's nice to have a place to vent.
Update: I was able to renegotiate with my stylist regarding my mom and cousin who couldn't afford to have their hair/makeup done as originally contracted. My stylist has agreed to let me split my mom and cousin's services so that they can each have their hair done for $35 each and then they will do their own makeup. The stylist loses the cost of $70 from what we originally contracted and my mom and cousin save $35. Everyone seems happy with this!
Second, Remember that TODAY is the last day to enter my giveaway for a $25.00 gift certificate to MyWeddingFavors.com Be sure to enter by clicking here. Winner will be announced tomorrow!
AND NOW FOR THE REAL POST - BACK TO WEDDING PLANS:
Everyone is somewhat familiar with the 'unity' portion of a wedding ceremony. You know the part? Where the officiant asks the bride and groom to use two candles to light one together.
Or the bride and groom each pour a vase of different colored sand into a vase together representing how the two of them are being intertwined and united as one.
Source: My sister's wedding via Jim Kennedy Photographers
It's a very beautiful symbolic moment showing the beauty of marriage as two truly become one.
Well, of course I would love to incorporate something like this into our wedding ceremony. But of course, I didn't want to do what every one of my friends and family members has already done. I mean, yeah it's tradition and all, but you know me - I don't want traditional! I want something different and never before seen at a wedding.
Well, my prayers were answered when I found this amazing little thing called the Unity Cross over at GetMarried.com's wedding shop. It's pricey at $99.95 but the cool thing is that I mentioned it to my group of five ladies that I lead in a weekly bible study and they all pitched in and bought it for me as a bridal shower gift! Yea!
Basically, it's two wooden crosses...one to represent the man. He is bold and strong and yet empty without the woman. And the other cross represents the beauty and intricacy of the woman. The pastor discusses these comparisons and then asks the man to place his cross on the strong foundation (for us it is representative of God's truth and love and desires for marriage). The woman then places her cross inside of the man's cross and the pastor inserts three pegs into the cross to hold them together...they represent the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
After the wedding, this cross can be permanently glued together and then placed on display in your home. There is even a small drawer in the back for you to place your vows in if you'd like.
I absolutely love this idea and am so excited to not only have it as a key element of our ceremony but to know that it is a gift from some special ladies that have been a part of my life in such a positive and loving way for many years.
So, are / did any of you have some sort of symbolic moment during your ceremony to represent your union?
So for 14 months now I have been saying that I refuse to be stressed while planning this wedding. So much for my plans. I have been so great about keeping on top of almost everything. Though there is still much to do, we are moving along.
All I can say is I am so glad we nixed the idea for a choreographed dance a month ago. There is just no way I would be able to do it all.
Monday and Tuesday were my emotional breakdowns and I am now literally a bride on the brink of tears at almost any given moment. :( I found out Monday night that my Grandmother (almost 95) is most likely really near the end of her life. With just 43 days to go until the wedding the one thing I was truly praying for is that Grandma and our pitbull (who was recently diagnosed with a terminal heart condition) would survive until we return from our honeymoon. My Grandma has been really excited about our wedding and now it looks like she can no longer make the two hour drive to get down here and attend. I am okay with that as much as she will be missed. But what I know will be just unbearable is if she passes away between now and our honeymoon. I will just be a wreck at the moments I know her name will come up. And most of my family has been making the trek out to her place in Hemet to visit her this week. My cousin called me yesterday to say that she took the day off to go see her. Hospice care has started coming to visit her home every day now instead of every other day and she has been on morphine for about a week I think. So all the signs are that she will not last much longer. I am heading out to see her today but the phone calls I've had to make to plan for the drive out there have left me bawling in tears at the thought that I 'have to go see my Grandma now.' It just sounds like we are going to be lucky if she hangs on for even another week or so. And then yesterday, I got a call that she fell out of bed and spent the entire night in the hospital and is now home with staples in her knee and a brace. Anyway, prayers for my sanity at this uncertain time are definitely coveted.
But on top of that, I'm also dealing with the stress of trying to make time for the move and renovations of Mr Fix It's home...while we are making a lot of headway, we still have so much to do in just about 3 weeks time!
And now, one of my bridesmaids is crying all the time about how she can't afford to pay for her dress and her hair and makeup which my stylist is insisting we stick to the contracted terms and pay for. (My mom and cousin wanted to back out of their commitment to pay the $70 to have their hair and makeup done which they agreed to last June). So I feel like I am stuck in the middle with understanding that we need to honor our contract but not wanting my mom and cousin to feel stressed about finances.
This is supposed to be a happy time and all of a sudden I am feeling the stress and frustration that I have been able to mostly avoid for the past 14 months. If I had to deal with this stuff, couldn't it have been much earlier and not 43 days before the wedding?!?
I understand 43 days seems like a long time, but it's really not when you throw in working full time and being a single mom to a teenage freshmen! In March alone I already have 16 days filled with appointments of some kind - both personal, doctor and wedding related.
And Tuesday I pretty much just cried all day long - because of my Grandma, because of the stress of all the wedding stuff left to do, because of the stress of moving into Mr Fix It's place and all the life change and emotions that it brings with it. While I am excited, I am also mourning the loss of my 'freedom' by living on my own and mourning the loss of the city I have loved for almost 20 years now. Even though I am moving only about 25 minutes away, the city I live in and the one Mr Fix It lives in are night and day! It's going to be a serious adjustment for me to get used to.
Seriously - I am getting over this real fast. I called Mr Fix It and told him to get ready for the full waterfall at any moment. I am sure it is coming at some point. (sigh)
Don't freak out...this doesn't mean the wedding is off. Far worse, it is on more than ever and now only about 44 days away!
My original goal was to have everything wedding related except for the final seating charts done by March 31st. Everything assembled, everything bought and packed up ready for wedding day delivery, everything planned and ready to go. This included moving me and my daughter out of our two bedroom condo into Mr Fix It's 3 bedroom home about 25 minutes from where we currently live. Since I know that I hate moving and since we also have been working on major house renovations on Mr Fix It's house for about 6 months now, I knew this was going to be a slow - over time process. But now we're in the month of March! Which means this is *THE* month I have to get everything done! Good Lord, please pray for me!
Mr Fix It is finally moving full steam on the house...but he is doing it in the midst of working his long regular jobs during the day/week. So he is exhausted and spent and sore and I need to start pitching in if we are going to have this house move in ready any time soon. This past weekend he worked on grouting the shower and floor of our new master bathroom and I cleaned out his entire office (which is now going to be converted into our office / tv room / guest bedroom) and emptied every single kitchen cabinet to clean and paint them. Mr Fix It's house is in major disarray and that drives me nuts! But at least we're making progress.
His office being clean is huge because it means I can begin to move my office stuff over (books, gadgets, etc). And yesterday I took almost my entire kitchen over to his house and gave all his old stuff to the Goodwill to make room for all my newer stuff (and the wedding gifts we've already received). That's good news, right? Well, it would have been except for the fact that he's crazy stubborn and has an opinion about everything! Where most guys would have just walked out and let me 'do my thing,' he had to be there telling me why he wanted things left a certain way and why he didn't like where I put the baking pans and why he didn't want my mixer on the counter and why he thinks I have too much 'crap.' UGH!
But back to last weekend...I had to paint the kitchen cabinets myself. And I am definitely *NOT* a fix it kinda gal. Crafting, projects, DIY things....*SO* not me! I not only don't enjoy it, but I'm not that great at it. However, it was kind of cool to have him tell me that I did a great job on the painting. We did get into a couple small tiffs over the weekend as we are both perfectionists and pretty stubborn. But we also got a lot done and were very appreciative of each other, too. I was pretty upset about all the paint in my hair and under my nails from having to climb into cabinets under the stove and such. It took me a good long hot shower and a scouring pad (gentle of course) to get all the paint off of me!
So while I have a new found respect for all of the fix it stuff that Mr Fix It does, I am glad that I will not have to do much more of it once this month is over and we can comfortably move into his *CLEAN* place that has been entirely reorganized and renovated to make room for me and Little Miss (my daughter).
Living with a construction guy is not going to be easy! There is always dirt, dust and tools everywhere! UGH! Thankfully, I don't have to be Mrs Fix It - I'll just be Mrs Beever :)
This whole process (right before the wedding) is really making me wish we would have moved in together well in advance of the wedding. But I always remember that I want to honor God by keeping the first time we share a house together special as husband and wife.
PS I can't wait to hear what all his family thinks of his (our) home once they get in town for the wedding and see all of my stuff moved in and the renovations we've made! :)
There's still a few more days to enter my giveaway for a free $25.00 gift certificate for wedding favors or other products. Click here!
Over on Chocolate Lover's Confessions, Mr Milk talked last week about a joke he made that he might be getting cold feet. I commented on his post about the little gift I am giving Mr Fix It on the morning of the wedding regarding 'cold feet.' Since I had a couple blogger friends mention they want to steal my idea I figured I'd share the site with you all.
While I'm at it, maybe you can give me some feedback? At first, I wanted to get socks for each groomsmen that would be personal to him. For example, for Mr Fix It's surfing friends, I could gift them these:
For his brother who is an environmentalist nut, I thought about these:
For Mr Fix It himself, how about these?
The problem with that, was that getting different colored silly socks for each guy would not make for the greatest shot (in my opinion) that I was hoping to nab like this:
So I thought about it and decided perhaps argyle *IS* the way to go. So which of these two do you think I should go for? The classic black with the red in them (all the guys will be in black tuxes and shirts with red vests) or the bright fun red with grey?
So, ladies? Which ones should I go for? I am leaning towards the black ones just because I'll save half the money I'd spend on the Ralph Lauren ones. But the RL ones are brighter and funner. But the guys might actually wear the black ones again?
Anyway, the point is...once I buy them. I will throw them in with their groomsmen gifts that we're handing out at the rehearsal. But Mr Fix It will get his on the morning of the wedding (I'm going to have a brother hand them off to him while they're getting dressed).
And his pair will be wrapped in this cute little label that I found on this site
They have a different one that is very similar but with a little more color and a slightly different phrase as well. The label is only $7.50 and they e-mail you a .pdf document to print it on whatever paper you want. You could probably DIY but I don't have time at this point. It says "For My Husband To Be - For your potentially Cold Feet - From your loving Bride"
Cute, right?
And don't forget to enter my giveaway for a free $25.00 gift certificate to MyWeddingFavors!Click here
Remember my post about being featured as a Bride on the Brink a few days ago? You can check out the interview I did with MyWeddingFavors.com here.
Well, I am so excited to be hosting a super cool giveaway via the amazing http://www.myweddingfavors.com/. When I first started planning my wedding, I instantly new that I wanted a very unique, untraditional, unexpected wedding favor for my guests. But I also knew that I was on a budget and trying to figure something out for 200 people was not going to be easy. I instantly began looking through all kinds of online favor sites...there are tons of them out there!
And I was so excited when I finally found the lovely little keychain tape measure that I will be gifting each guest.
Well, now, I am able to assist some of you other brides out there with a $25.00 e-gift certificate to http://www.myweddingfavors.com/. As a spring bride myself, (Just about 47 days away now!) I figured we could put a fun spring twist on this giveaway. So here are the rules:
1) Go to the http://www.myweddingfavors.com/ web site and share with me what your favorite spring favor or item would be for your wedding and how you might use it (1 entry)
2) Blog about this entry on your site and leave the link in a comment here (1 additional entry)
3) Let me know that you are a follower (1 additional entry)
Be sure to leave me your e-mail address to contact you if you win. The winner will be selected at random and announced on this blog on Saturday March 6th, 2010.
Best wishes everyone and can't wait to see your own ideas for some fun and unique favors!
** Contest starts March 1st, 2010 and ends March 5th, 2010 at 8:59 PM PST (11:59 PM EST)
I know a lot of brides (and probably even me) will have to have almost everything paid for the wedding before the big day. For example, my caterer requires balance paid in full 30 days prior to the wedding. My DJ needs payment at least two weeks before the big day to allow time for processing. My florist however will let me pay on the day of the wedding...ain't she sweet?
However, I don't necessarily want to be dealing with payments on the day of the wedding. Unfortunately, there's no way around it completely. So I will be sure to have my checkbook on hand (or a credit card if that would be allowed/accepted) for those last minute purchases or fees on the day of the wedding.
Here's a few things to consider or think of that you might need to be prepared for:
1) Tips! We plan on having cash tips in envelopes for our vendors and giving them to the coordinator on the wedding day. They will have increments of cash in them such that when it's time to tip a vendor (DJ, photog, videog, etc) as they leave, the caterer will confirm with me or Mr Fix It as to how well we think they provided their services. If they blew us away, she'll hand over the envelope with all of it's cash in it. If they pissed us off or did something wrong, then we can pull out some of the cash and not tip as much at our discretion.
2) Overtime. Thankfully, I had a planning meeting with my photog 2 weeks ago and figured out that I was going to need him for two hours more than I originally booked him for based on the schedule we came up with for the wedding day. My contract states that overtime is charged at an hourly rate of 10% of the total contracted price. But let's just say the groom's parents show up an hour late for pictures and we ask our photog to stay an extra hour to compensate on the day of the wedding? Well then the overtime fee goes up to $300 an hour for the wedding day! Be sure to ask how overtime is charged and assessed for all your vendors. You never know if you're going to want/need to ask them to stay longer on the wedding day.
3) Shortage of food or alcohol. This is especially important for those of you that are handling catering or alcohol yourself. Hopefully it won't happen, but what if you suddenly find that the bar is out of beer at 9:30! You may have to send someone up to the local liquor store or discount grocery chain to get some extra cases and you'll need some moola on hand as I don't think they're going to offer to pay for it themselves!
4) Decor items or florals ruined. A friend of mine had her florist show up on the day of her wedding with a van full of wilted and dead flowers! It was an insanely hot July day. She was devastated. They made a quick run up to Costco and had a friend buy a bunch of bouquets of roses and quickly assemble them for some bouquets and such.
I love the motto "Hope for the best but prepare for the worst." It's always good to anticipate potential emergencies or issues that might come up on the day of your wedding. And having extra money on hand to be able to pay for unexpected expenses is an absolute must! You don't want to be tearing into your wedding cards during the reception to see if anyone gifted you some cash you can use to pay for a wedding related expense!
Can you think of any other things that might come up on the wedding day you should be prepared for?
You may remember reading about my least favorite part of the entire wedding here. I am not super excited about our cake. Originally, I wanted a cupcake tower - which I would, in fact, have been super excited about. At one point, Mr Fix It even gave in to the idea...briefly. Because then he ripped the carpet out from under me and insisted we have a cake. Not traditional mind you - just a cake.
So we had come up with some ideas for different and unique cakes. To which our caterer then shocked us by trying to charge an *extra* $1,000 for the one cake we really wanted. (Remember our cake was supposed to have been included in our catering package.)
Well, that wasn't gonna fly and while she made decent cakes, they kept deterring us from our desires to have fondant on the cake we wanted and from trying our own fondant recipe we wanted to have them use. They kept going over and over again about how buttercream is the way to go but we are anti-buttercream.
Mr Fix It had had enough (so had I), so he said, screw it! Let's just give the money to your mom's friend that makes cakes for all your other family functions. Fine with me because I am seriously over the cake. I don't care if it's falling over as long as it tastes good (that's not true actually).
Well, we met with our friendor who is only charging us $1.00 a slice for our cake. Mr Fix It is going to build the stand for her because we want offset round layers. We discussed cake flavors and are happy with having two layers in red velvet with a real cream cheese frosting and another layer with white cake and raspberry filling with a whip cream frosting and then the 4th layer will be lemon with lemon filling and whip cream frosting. Apparently the whip cream frosting is not as sweet as buttercream and our friend really encouraged us to use it.
Well, we told her that we'd love to have her try this marshmallow fondant recipe we found. It is supposed to be the same consistency as regular fondant but actually tastes good instead of bland or dry. She was on board and made a small test cake for us to see and taste.
Here's what we got:
Now please understand that apparently the cake was perfectly smooth and flat when she first made it. She gave it to my mom who transported it and stored it in a fridge until I could get it the next day. My mom insisted it did not look this way when she was finished with it and handed it off to her. I did notice yesterday as I was reviewing the recipes I had emailed her that one of the web sites said you should not refrigerate marshmallow fondant, so I don't know if the refrigerator did something to it or if time itself had it's way with gravity or what. I am going to ask her about the refrigeration part and if that is all that the problem is, that would be amazing! Perhaps the proportions of the ingredients need to be adjusted, too? But this creasing and melting look that is not perfectly smooth is unacceptable!
The good news? It actually tastes phenomenal! The cake was super moist and yummy...I'm still eating it almost 5 days after it's been sitting in the fridge, too and it's still moist and good! The frosting (cream cheese) was not too sweet at all and you could not even taste the fondant! The fondant tasted good (or rather let the cream cheese overpower it). But now we are stuck trying to figure out what to do because our friend does not think the marshmallow fondant is going to work and we really don't want to have to go with gross tasting fondant!
Mr Fix It insists we must use the regular disgusting fondant if this is what we are going to get because it is more important to him that the cake looks good rather than tastes good. (sigh)
So now I need to call her next week and follow up on what our new options are. This cake thing sucks! Seriously!
P.S. If you'd like the recipe for the marshmallow fondant, you can find it here or another one here. It's actually super yummy. She's never worked with it before so like I said, it could just be that something needs to be adjusted. ???
I'm really getting to the brink (see the P.S. below), but for now check out this feature I got to be a part of over at the blog on MyWeddingFavors.com. I am so excited to participate in this fun little spotlight they post called 'Brides on the Brink.' It's an interview with brides who are within 3 months of their big day and is meant to share some encouragement, advice and information with fellow brides about planning your wedding.
(Technically, I'm 49 days and counting now - not 30 yet - thank God!)
And while you're there, browse around their site and check out all their cool little favors and items they have to offer - I smell a giveaway coming VERY soon on my blog that you might be interested in if you like what you see at http://www.myweddingfavors.com/! Check back on March 1st!
P.S. Remember how I said that I was praying for the 'no' responses to come in because we ended up inviting 224 guests but our venue (and budget) has only been allotted for 202? Well, as of yesterday we are halfway to getting the 22 'no' responses we need! Isn't that silly? I am actually hoping for about 19 more no's (not just 11) because I have about 8 other friends I'd like to be able to invite that are on our 'B list' still :( Hopefully we'll get a ton of RSVP's in this week...the reply by date is a week from today!
As you can see, it's pretty with it's little chandeliers, unique tiled floor and stone fireplace that rests in the center of the room. It's going to hopefully comfortably hold about 200 people come wedding day. And in the light of day like this, it's a nice room. But it will be almost dark by the time our guests are escorted into this room come April 16th. And I want to transform it into a romantic, fun, and vibrant space.
So I was super excited to hear about all the lighting our DJ, Generations Entertainment, was able to provide us at a very affordable price! Below are ideas of what are lighting will look like based on the different elements we are incorporating. (All of these photos are from our venue, Rancho Las Lomas)
We will have about 16 red uplights lining the perimeter of the entire room. The tablecloths are a bright turquoise color (you can see them here in the centerpiece post). So I want to bring in the red accent with the lighting.
It will not be nearly as dark as this because we will use the chandeliers and wall sconces for some extra help. Mr Fix It does not want it to be super dark in the room (at least not until the dancing is full blown underway!) Our DJ also suggested that it's not a great idea to have lights in a room that are turned off...he said something about it just doesn't look right usually. So thankfully, all of the lights in this room are on dimmers so that we can have them turned on with some very subtle lighting so that the uplights and candlelight on the tables all ties in well together to give a soft romantic feel but still leaves the guest with plenty of visibility. (Of course, we'll turn up the house lights during the toasts.)
Here's a shot of the room with the chandeliers off but the wall sconces slightly dimmed:
I originally considered the aqua colored lights...like maybe alternating red and aqua throughout the room...but we just weren't feeling it:
Photo courtesy of Generations Entertainment
This picture reflects the room with just the chandeliers and wall sconces turned on and no additional lighting provided. However, it's also still daylight outside.
Mr Fix It doesn't know it, but I also threw in the cost of having a GOBO light of our monogram projected onto the fireplace behind our sweetheart table. I was getting such a deal I just couldn't refuse! Obviously these are not our names, but it will look like this on the fireplace:
Photo Jim Kennedy Photographers
Ours will look like this:
Finally, we will also have the cake lighted with two pinspot lights. These will give it just a little bit of a glow and set it off as a show stopping piece of the reception and decor. Let's just hope the cake is worthy of the spotlight! :)
So, what are your thoughts? Will you be incorporating any additional lighting outside of what your venue provides or any special effects or extra added lights?
Ok, so there's been the big debate over whether or not the bride and groom should see each other before the big moment - the walk down the aisle :) I think a wonderful post about whether or not to see each other before the ceremony can be found over on Budhoop's blog. She offered some great truths about the reasons most people are for or against this idea. And as she said, it's really a matter of personal opinion.
For some, there is nothing like this moment:
Where the groom sees his bride for the first time that day...all dressed up in white with hair and makeup beyond beautiful. Let's face it, a lot of guys cry. It's pretty sweet. And even if you don't want to see each other before the actual ceremony, there's still some fun ways to get some 'teaser' shots in before that big moment:
Photo: Rancho Las Lomas
Jenn over at a Bride's Brain posted about her First Look yesterday. Check it out here.
As far as why we have opted for the 'first look'? It's very simple:
1) I don't want massive anxiety the first time I see Mr Fix It. I will be all anxious and nervous and if he does cry or gets all emotional, no one will even notice because let's face it - everyone is looking at the bride at that moment! Mr Fix It calms me down and seeing him several hours before our ceremony is going to put me at ease and keep me in a relaxed and fun mood.
2) We can't stand having to wait for two (or more) hours for the bride and groom to show up at a reception before we can eat and get the party started. A cocktail hour should be just that - an HOUR! But when you have to take hundreds of photos after the ceremony, it's draining and keeps guests waiting. I personally don't like it.
3) We want to be a part of our cocktail hour. We have hired a strolling magician to entertain guests during cocktails and we do NOT want to miss out on all the fun and tricks! I mean since we are the ones paying him, shouldn't we also be able to enjoy his services? Besides, the reception is already a difficult place to try to greet and chat with all your guests. Having that extra hour in a relaxed setting during cocktails is a great way for us to get some extra time in with the guests.
Those are our main reasons for knocking out all of our photos before the ceremony. Yes, it means that we'll have to start hair and makeup at 8 am for us ladies. And yes, the guys will all need to show up about 4 hours before the wedding (but they'd have to be there an hour before anyway to greet guests and seat them anyway). Besides, that 3 hours or so that we will be knocking out lots of photos gives us the chance to not feel rushed and enjoy ourselves.
So how will we do our first look? As Budhoop suggested, they are in fact staged to a degree. Here you see the bride making her way to her groom who has his back to her so as not to ruin the 'moment' they turn to see each other:
Photo Robert Mullins Photography
In this one (and with our own plans) the groom will walk up behind the bride to greet her. How amazing are all of these next sequence of shots that were taken by our own photographer Robert Mullins?
The groom takes her hand as she turns to see him for the first time:
He takes in all her beauty:
Look! He's even getting emotional!
And they get that one special intimate moment with just the two of them to embrace and just be in love:
I can't wait to share the idea we came up with for me and Mr Fix It's first look. I won't go into all the details as you'll see it on video at some point in the next several months, but I will say that when I told my future sister-in-law about the idea, she started getting teary eyed :) And yes, our first look will include our family to some degree....not just the two of us.
So, are you / did you opt for the first look? What do / did you like or not like about it?
I work full time and make myself available and supportive to family, friends and my teenage daughter by attempting to navigate life as a wife, mother, aunt, and executive assistant. Blogging has become a source of support, encouragement, journaling and introspective soul searching and I am so grateful for those who choose to follow along with me!
Many Thanks to Chocolate Lover's Confessions, My Carmel Wedding, Random Reflections of a Perfectionist & Handcrafted Hitching Post, Cape Cod Bride, and Miss T
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