How our wedding is taking over my house!

I have boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff I've been purchasing for the last 9 months for our big day this April.  I started making my first purchases probably back a year before the wedding...guest book, photobooth props, pen holders, votive candles, picture frames, favors, favor boxes, ribbons, stationery items, favor tags, labels, toasting flutes, vases, flip flops, bridesmaid gifts, children's favors, kleenex packs, and on and on and on. 

Needless to say, that's a lot of stuff to store in my little 1100 square foot two bedroom condo.  I mean, my house (it's actually my mom's condo that I rent from her) is totally the perfect 'big' size for me and my teenage daughter...I'm gonna miss it when we move in with Mr Fix It.  And me being me, I have storage places all over for sure. 

But what was I supposed to do with these:

And these:

And these:

And then there's these:

Well, the boxes (votive candles & holders & picture frames) in the pic above are consuming space on my garage floor.  And then there's the few boxes in the very first picture that are sitting on the stairs leading up to the third floor (my daughter's room) out of guest's sight.  But the rest of those beauties?  The ones stacked pretty high?  Well, thankfully, we have a special little hidden storage space in the back of my daughter's closet.  Check it:

It's where the water heater sits, but they left a ton of extra space in it that I have been blessed to be able to use to store all things wedding for almost a year now!  And that pretty little flip flop basket I blogged about yesterday?  It now sits on the empty floor space you see in the front right of this picture!

But seriously...if I didn't have this space, where the heck would I be keeping all this stuff?  UGH!  I truly feel like our wedding has not only invaded my thoughts and time, but even my living space!  Good thing I can tuck 'most' of it away and out of sight for now.

What about all of you?  Have you made a bunch of early purchases that are consuming space in your life?  What are you doing to cope with it?

**  And P.S.  Did you see my little sneak peek at the surprise for our guests earlier this week?  check it out here

Budget brides: Don't forget to use your wedding coupons!

So over the summer I was having SO much fun purchasing all of the little things online.  Here's what I have so far:
* Black Gloss Gable Boxes for Out of Town Guest Gift Bags

* My Memorial Vases courtesy of Jean M products (a small one for my fiance's mother and the larger one for my grandmother, grandfather and aunt)

  

* My toasting flutes courtesy of Get Married's shop

* Bridesmaid Gifts:  Jewelry Rolls (from Amazon.com) and Blue Parasols

 

   

* My Guestbook (Super excited about this fun idea from a previous blog post)

 

* Favor boxes (chinese takeout boxes) from http://www.papermart.com/

I made all of these purchases online and I always suggest taking plenty of time to browse the internet and see what you can do to 'bargain shop.'  But here are my latest tidbits of advice for wedding shopping:

Use the net and use your coupons!

That's right, I said coupons.  I recently discovered that you can do a google search for coupon codes by putting in the store name and the words 'promo code'.  I was able to get free shipping and save 5%  by using an online coupon I found and I saved 10% off my Guestbook by using a code that I found online.

Another great site I used to find a lot of my little detail items is http://www.thefind.com/. This site will let you type in a description or item name and it will bring up literally hundreds of stores online that are selling the items.  Don't get me wrong, it takes some leg work to find the best deal...I found a site that had my favors for 88 cents each but once I saw what the shipping costs were, the site was actually not that cheap. But I did find a site to buy my placecards from!  Definitely play with this site.

And I already mentioned in a previous post about why it's a good idea to buy items sooner than later for your wedding needs.  But another reason it's a good idea to start shopping sooner than later is that once you decide what you want, you can take your time browsing the net and your fave sites for when sales come up.

I listed a lot of information above because these are sites that I have found have the best deals for a lot of items that many of you may need...trying to save you some leg work.  The gable boxes for example - I bought 50 of them from this supplier rather than the 25 I would probably need because it was actually cheaper to buy more from a wholesale supplier than to try to buy the amount I needed from gift stores and such.

So ladies - any other suggestions for how to bargain shop?

Got the wedding shoes

So a few months ago the fiance and I decided to hit South Coast Plaza here in the OC to look at some jewelry stores and start the search for HIS wedding ring.  But really, I was also looking at the trip as an opportunity to browse for my wedding day shoes as I had been looking online and in shops and malls for a couple months and had not found anything that jumped out at me.

I knew I wanted something unique, different and red...I was looking for a deep cranberry red but only found one simple pair of nice heels in that color and I was not doing flips over them.  So I mentioned to the fiance that I wanted to check out some shops in South Coast for my shoes as well.  He said he guaranteed I would find something at Nordstroms so we went in there before heading into the main mall.

I browsed the shoe department and found a super cute pair in purple that I thought would have been perfect for my dress because they had a rose on the toe that would have matched the flowers on my dress.  But purple was obviously the wrong color...though I later found out that I could have bought them in red online. 

Didn't matter though, because the fiance was not feeling them.

Didn't find anything in the shoe department so decided to just walk down the clearance aisles on our way out of the store for fun...and there in my big ole size 10 shoe section was a pair of gorgeous red shoes just sticking out like a sore thumb...but in a good way.  :)  I put them on and they felt comfortable, sturdy and still sexy and unique...and the fiance was loving them.  Plus, they were 1/3 of the price of the other shoes I really liked...can't beat a bargain deal!  So here they are:

Pretty pretty bling bling (custom designed jewelry)

A couple months ago I had a fun weekend as far as wedding planning goes.  I had searched high and low for the right jewelry (bracelet and necklace) to wear with my gorgeous Maggie Sottero Sabelle gown and had found some great ideas from the little site known as Etsy.com.  But when I continued to browse Etsy, other web sites and bridal salons and jewelry stores, I just could not find what I had pictured in my head.  I'm kind of weird, too because I have this thing about the little 'dent' in my neck where I really want it covered by the necklace.  It's like an insecurity about how it emphasizes how thin I am which I do not want to do.  Anyway...back to the search.

I found this on Etsy:

Gorgeous, right?  Very different and yet still pretty.  Not quite what I wanted to spend...above the $100 range but somewhat worth it.  And though I loved them, I was nervous about buying something online and I wasn't totally thrilled with the brooches in the pieces.  So I posted a status update on Facebook asking friends if they knew anyone who made custom bridal jewelry?  I was connected with a woman about 15 minutes from my home and she told me about this cool little antique/vintage swap meet that happens once a month at a local college.  So a month ago my sis and I trekked down there and found the most beautiful brooch and a pair of earrings.  I was so excited.  The more I look at the brooch, the more I fall in love with it.

And the honey knew that I was heading down there and out of the kindness of his sweet little heart handed me $40 to spend as I wished.  Well, the brooch and earrings came in at under the $40 so I was happy about that.  I met with Jeanette (the jewelry maker) and showed her the pieces.  I showed her the pictures I had found and she began pulling out pretty pearls and sparkly things and lots of bling bling.  We matched the colors to the brooch and my gown.  I asked her if it would be possible to take one of the earrings and use it as a brooch for the bracelet and she figured out a way to 'make it work' (in the infamous words of Tim Gunn).  I was THRILLED!

Granted, the prices she quoted me were not really saving me much compared to what I could have bought online but now at least I custom designed it myself and know that I will L-O-V-E it!  And it will be my something 'old' for the wedding day since I bought it at a vintage swap meet.  So, here they are...my necklace and bracelet (made out of a brooch and a clip on earring):

What about you ladies?  Anyone custom designing their jewelry or have ideas of what they want? 

Why you shouldn't wait to purchase wedding items

My wedding is still 8 months away but I have already purchased some kids favors, welcome basket items, our toasting flutes, cake topper and some samples of favors. Now I know some people ask why I am purchasing these things so far in advance because what if something else comes along that I like better? Well, truth be told, I had already had most of these type of accessories and items selected 3 years ago when I was helping my sister plan her own wedding. But I'm glad I didn't wait until the last minute to purchase some of them for a few reasons:
1) I received my order of personalized/engraved memorial vases honoring our deceased loved ones today and they sent me somebody else's vase with the wrong names on it! So thankfully, I still have plenty of time to have the new one shipped out.
2) No rush charges...if something does go wrong then you won't have to pay rush charges to have something corrected or re-shipped.
3) No worries about backorders or discontinued items. If I get something I fall in love with now, I don't have to worry if it is on backorder for 3 months or if it has been discontinued 4 months down the road when I finally decide to buy it.
4) Not as costly on my pocketbook. Buying a few things every month or two is much easier to swallow cost wise rather than trying to come up with $500 the month or two before the wedding.
5) Plenty of time to bargain shop. Since I already know what I am looking for I can search tons of wedding and online market shops to find it at the best price and take my time doing so. The items I bought today (the flutes, cake topper, etc) were all 75% off on theknot.com so I found things at cheaper rates than what I originally planned to pay for them.
And if I do get something that I find I no longer want to use or don't need further down the road, I can always sell it on ebay or an online market with today's technology.

So, what are your thoughts on early purchases? Have you made any? Do you regret it?