DIY Wedding: Card Book

All throughout our engagement, we got cards. Cards came when people found out we got engaged. Cards came with presents throughout the 10 months we were engaged. And of course, we got cards at the wedding. Instead of just throwing them in a box and never looking at them again, I wanted to make something with them that I would look at from time to time. 

I found this pin on Pintrest and changed it slightly to fit my needs. 

"Mixed Paper Journal"

I liked the idea of making a book of sorts for all of the cards we got. One weekend when Keegan and I drove to a bigger town (a.k.a. one that has a Michaels and Hobby Lobby,) I grabbed a hole punch and two rings to make my book. Helpful suggestion, the only place we could find the rings was in the embroidery floss section. They're used to keep embroidery floss bobbins together like so: 

 Anyways, first thing I did was arrange the cards in order of size.  

  I then decided where I wanted my holes to be and marked it on the edge of each card. (It's kind of hard to see, but there are two pencil lines on the edges.)  

And then I punched away! (Suggestion: get a strong hole punch. Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish this project in one day because some of the 3-fold cards were too thick for our hole punch to get through. Keegan bent it in half trying to punch through them.) 

After you get all of your cards punched, thread them onto your rings and ta-da! A card book that (hopefully) you'll look through more often then if they were just in a box. 

DIY Wedding: Candy Bar

I'll admit it, the candy bar trend sucked me in. I have an insane sweet tooth and loved the idea of snacking on some of my favorite candies during the wedding. Little did I know that I'd be so busy dancing and seeing everyone that I wasn't able to enjoy any of it! 

After I had fallen head over heels for the candy bar, I started looking up prices. Many websites and blogs I found suggested buying in bulk over the internet from places like Candy Warehouse. Don't get me wrong, websites like these are great if you are interested in finding candy in your wedding colors or a specific type (sour, chocolate, etc.) However, they are expensive. I've heard at some websites the shipping costs more than the actual candy itself. With that in mind, plus not wanting to deal with ordering candy a few days before the wedding and hoping that it made it in time, I decided to go a different route. 

I started browsing Sam's Club to see what they had to offer. I wasn't able to find candy in only our wedding colors, but I was able to get some of our favorite candies for a fraction of the price I would have paid at a wholesaler online. I got Tootsie Rolls, Laffy Taffey, Sour Punch Straws, DumDum Suckers, Starbursts, Skittles and AirHeads for under $50. It was enough to fill our candy bar and we even had some left over (we're still whittling down the DumDum suckers.) I put the candy in jars, most of which Keegan's mom donated for the wedding. We put pictures of our parents and grandparents at their wedding day behind the jars and ta-da! One sweet candy bar. (This is where our "Love is Sweet" bunting was supposed to go, but it didn't get put up.) 

Now, shopping at Sam's worked for us because we didn't really care if we only served green and orange candies. We just chose candies that we enjoyed and that we could pawn off on our friends and families if we had any left over (we gave my parents the majority of a 5 lb. bag of Tootsie Rolls.) If you're interested in doing a candy bar but can't stand spending hundreds of dollars online, Sam's might be a great budget saver!

(I was in no way compensated for this post by any company.) 

DIY Wedding: Guest "Favors"

When I first started wedding planning, I was bombarded with websites full of trinkets that were supposed to be used as wedding favors. Picture frames, chocolates, coasters; it all seemed like a huge waste of money to me. I decided pretty early on that either I was going to either do a donation "favor" or not do one at all. 

I know that there are two schools of thought on donation "favors;" those for it and those against it. Out of all of the reasons I've read that people are against it, the most common I've seen is that guests don't like them because they don't get to choose where "their" money goes. The bride and groom might choose a charity that their guests don't support so they don't feel comfortable donating "their" money. Because of this, I decided that I wanted our guests to have a say on where "their" money went. We chose two foundations that are both close to our hearts and our families. My dad was diagnosed with Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome about 10 years ago and Keegan's uncle was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer earlier this year so we decided those were the charities we wanted to support. 

We contacted both my dad and Keegan's uncle and told them what we were planning so they wouldn't be taken aback on the day of the wedding and also so they could suggest charities we could donate to. Both of them had foundations that have helped them and wanted to donate money towards so that's how we chose the Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome Foundation of America and the The Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center at Johns Hopkins. 

To allow our guests to participate in the donation, we gave each of them a card with two tokens. On the card it explained why we wanted to do the donation, what the charities were, and why they were important to us. Many of our guests knew about my dad's and Keegan's uncle's struggle with their diseases so they knew why the charities were important. The card also explained that each token was worth $3 and that the guest could choose where "their" money went. We had two jars next to our guest book with labels for the tokens. Throughout the night our guests placed their tokens in the jars. After we got back from our honeymoon, we tallied up the donations and wrote each charity a check. 

Sheet explaining the charities and the coins

Jars for the tokens (before they were placed next to the guest book.)

DIY Wedding: Budget

I was really hoping to start on our recaps and posting pictures of projects that I didn't get to post before the wedding, but our photographer has been swamped with senior pictures and other weddings so he's a little slow on getting us our pictures back. Hopefully we'll have them by the end of next week!

Anyways, onto our budget. When we first started talking about the wedding, we weren't really sure how much we should try and budget for. I did some research and found out that weddings in our location, (Columbia, Missouri,) average over $21,00! I knew that I could have the wedding we wanted for less, so we settled on about $10,000.

We invited about 292 people (this included everyone having a plus 1 and children,) however we only had about 115 people come.

Attire ( 11% of budget)

• Bride's Dress, Veil, Preservation and Shipping: $1,697.74
• Tuxedo for Keegan: $156.00
• Shoes: $57.41
• Garter: $10
• Alterations: $187.44
• Flower Girl Sashes: $20
• Maid of Honor Sash: $20

Budgeted: $1,100
Actual Total: $2,148.59

How we saved:

• I told my consultant at Victoria's Bridal that I wanted to spend no more than $1,500 total (including veil, alterations and tax.) Of course she pushed me to buy at the top of my price point so that's why I went over on our budgeted amount. Compared to other dresses I had my eye on, however, the one I purchased wasn't too expensive. 
• We had only Keegan rent a tux; the boys wore their own white shirt and blank pants. We bought them all ties for approximately $2/tie off of Ebay. 
• The girls all bought their own bridesmaids dresses. I told them what color I wanted at David's Bridal so they would all match, but cut, style and fabric were all up to them. This way, they could spend as much or as little as they wanted. 
• I made my garter which is why it was so cheap. It was approximately $10 for all of the supplies I needed and I have a lot left over. I used this tutorial and wrote about my experience here. 

Photography (8% of budget)

• Engagement pictures: $250.00
• Wedding Photographer: $975.00
• Videography: $850.00

Budgeted: $800.00
Actual Total: $2,075.00

How we saved:

• We had my friend and co-worker do our engagement pictures. Since she was just starting out on engagement/wedding photography, she gave us a great deal. We basically had her for as long as we wanted and she agreed to do two locations/multiple clothing changes for us. She also brought along her roommate for support so we got two photographers for the price of one! Don't be afraid to use frendors, they can be a great way to save money and will be much more invested in giving you a quality product instead of just working for a check. 
• Our wedding photographer, Dan Wilson of PhotoWrx, did my sister's senior pictures so I knew I enjoyed his style and my mom and sister told me he was a great guy to work with. We met with him when we were in Missouri for the holidays and he told us about his packages. We decided on the one that best fit our needs and then Dan allowed us to tweak it a bit. An example: we wanted the digital rights to our pictures instead of just getting prints or a photo book so he allowed us to do that and took of the cost of prints. We also got a $75 discount from getting a referral from my sister. Don't be afraid to talk to your vendors. They may be able to substitute somethings to get your business. 
• I found our videographer, Ramon Salinas of Aurora Video Services on Craigslist. I had finally convinced Keegan that we needed one about 4 months before the wedding so I needed to find out cheap and fast. Craigslist can be full of strange people and rip-offs, so I would advise you to be careful, but you can also find awesome deals there. I had lengthy email and phone conversations with Ramon, saw some of his work and ultimately decided to sign even though it was still a bit of a risk. Again, as with our photographer, I asked if I could move some things around to make the price lower. Instead of staying for the entire reception, Ramon stayed only until the toasts and tosses were done. He also had a second shooter for only a few hours which cut down on costs. It doesn't hurt to ask if your vendors are willing to knock down their prices a bit. The worse they can say is no!

Music (7% of budget)

•  DJ: $495.00 (for 6 hours)
• Musicians for ceremony: $250

Budgeted: $700.00
Actual Total: $745.00

How we saved:

• I found our DJ, Rusty Jones of Professional Sound Services just by doing a Google Search of DJs in our location. After comparing a bunch of DJs, Rusty was by far the cheapest so we decided to go with him.
• Our musicians for the ceremony were Michael, a friend of Keegan's from school and Michael's brother, Ethan. After figuring out that it wouldn't really work for us to get sound equipment out to the ceremony space, we realized that we needed some more "traditional" musicians. We didn't really want (or want to pay for) a quartet so we asked Michael if he would be willing to play his cello for the ceremony. He offered to have Ethan play guitar with him to add more depth to the music. Michael and Ethan played for approximately 30 minutes before the wedding started as guests were getting seated and for the entrance and exit of the bridal party during the ceremony. Michael's wife, Liz did sound for the guys and the entire group did an amazing job. Again, use frendors to your advantage! 

Rings (2% of the budget)

• Both bride's and grooms rings: $671.79

Budgeted: $471.79
Actual total: $671.79

How we saved:

• When Keegan bought my engagement ring, he saved money by buying a "promise ring." From what I can tell, "promise rings" are extremely similar to engagement rings, just without the designer name(normally) and the price tag. (The cost of my engagement ring is not in the total for the wedding budget, but if I remember correctly, it was no more than $300.)
• When we bought our wedding rings, Keegan's was easy. He wanted something subtle but original. He also needed something made out of a metal that would be easy to cut through in case of an emergency at his work. As for me, we needed something that would mesh well with the odd shape of my engagement ring. Because of this we were somewhat at the mercy of the store and their selection, but we ended up finding a ring that fit well and wasn't too expensive. In hindsight, Keegan wishes that he had spent a little more money for a wedding set so that we didn't have to go through the headache of finding a wedding ring that fit with my strange shaped engagement ring. 
• Tip: shop during sales. Every time we went into the mall, Kay, where we bought our rings, seemed to have a sale going on. We bought our wedding rings during a 50% off sale so that bought the total way down.

Decorations (6% of the budget)

• Bride's bouquet: $25
• Ceremony Fans: $10
• Baskets: $10
• "Candles" $20
• Flower girl baskets: $16
• Guest Book $20
• Wooden Disks: $60
• Flower petals: $20

Budgeted: $600
Total: Not 100% sure
(The reason I'm not 100% sure about the price of our decorations is because we used many aspects of our expenses in different places in the wedding. For example, our "favors" were made out of extra paper from our invitations.)

How we saved:

• DIY, DIY, DIY. Honestly, I saved half of our money by DIYing all of our decorations and shopping sales. Every week Hobby Lobby and Michaels offer coupons. Every week they have sales that can be used for wedding related things. We bought glass canisters for our "favors" when Michaels was having a 50% off glass sale. Add on a 40% off coupon and we got two canisters for under the price of one. 
• Another example is our guest book. We found a huge frame at Hobby Lobby for $20. We took out the picture that was in it, cut our own matte from random pieces of matte we had laying around my work and added some markers. Voila! Instant guest book for $20 that we can now hang on our wall. 
• We also saved in a huge amount of money by not using flowers. I knew that flowers were one of the biggest wedding expenses so I decided from the get-go that we weren't going to use them. The only time flowers were used in our wedding was my fake flower bouqet ($25) and the flower petals our flower girls threw (~$20)

Stationary (6% of budget)

• Save The Dates: $152
• Natural Linen Paper (250 sheets) $18.95
• Natural Linen Paper (250 sheets) $18.95
• Racing Green Paper (250 sheets) $42.95
• Avocado Paper (50 sheets) $10.95
• Chocolate Paper (50 sheets) $15.95
• Mandarin Paper (50 sheets) $15.95
• Outside envelopes (150) $44.95
• RSVP Envelopes (150) $32.85
• Stamps $132.00

Budgeted: $600.00
Actual Total: $496.50

How we saved:

• We saved the most money by making our own save the dates and invitations. When we first got engaged, I started looking at invitations and STDs and saving my inspiration. I knew that I wanted to make our own stationary simply to save money so I found online tutorials on how to make my favorite parts of certain invitations and then meshed them all together into my own creation. If you're not into the DIY route, you can always look on Etsy and have someone design your invitations and then you print them yourselves. If you don't have a good printer, Kinkos and sometimes the UPS Store will print for you. 

Food (50% of budget)

• Room Fee: $450
• Tables & Chairs: free (included in room fee)
• Food: ~ $880 ($8/person)
• Drinks: $150
• Keg: $120
• Wine: $108
• Cake: $270
• Linens: $92.53
• Service Fee: $200
• Taxes and misc.: $114.66

Budgeted: $5,000
Actual Total: $2,385.19

How we saved:

• We saved the most by having our wedding catered by a grocery store, Hy-Vee. We had looked into "private" restaurants and catering companies but they were way out of our price range. We were (well at least I was) apprehensive about having a grocery store cater our wedding, but it worked out extremely well. For just over $2,000 they were able to provide us food, drinks, alcohol and our cupcakes/cake plus set up and take down. We were quoted $2,000 for just the food at some places. The moral of the story is don't cut out restaurants and catering opportunities that aren't "traditional." Get pizzas from your favorite pizza place. Do appetizers instead of an entire sit down meal. Have a BBQ. There are so many ways to feed guests that don't have to break the bank. 

Overall, we came in around $9,500. Under our budget and most importantly, a number we were comfortable with. I truly believe that a wonderful wedding can be made on any budget. If you're willing to DIY a few aspects (or have friends/family DIY,) use frendors and shop around, you can stay within your budget.

Bridal Blues

Also dubbed post-wedding-blues or post-wedding depression

As I was getting closer to our wedding day, the thought running through my head was, "I'm going to be so glad when all this planning, crafting, DIY-ing is done. I'm going to come home every night after work and do nothing. It'll be glorious."

How wrong I was. Don't get me wrong, after the wedding finished, I let out a huge sign of relief and hugged Keegan for a job well done. We had planned, financed and executed what will most likely be the biggest party of our lives. We had organized friends and families from two different countries, numerous different states and uncounted different cities. We fed, entertained and interacted with said guests. Oh, and we got married too.

The first few days of the honeymoon were full of wedded bliss. We had traveled close to 20 hours in total to finally collapse on our bed in the Smokey Mountains that would be ours for the next week. We went out and explored, vegged in front of the Olympics and ate whatever we wanted without fear of fitting into dresses and tuxes. On day 4 of the honeymoon, however, I started getting the itch. The itch to do something. I had spent the last 10 months coming home from work, spending my weekends and some work hours (sssshhhh) researching, contacting vendors, crafting and planning. I didn't know what to do with myself now that I didn't have to do something. My body and mind had forgotten how to just relax. How to just sit in front of the T.V. without folding programs or making invitations. How to go to bed without a million and one thoughts about linens, colors, people and things running through my head.

I didn't think that I would get the bridal blues. I figured that after the wedding was over, I'd just go back to my before-wedding life and that would be that. I'd come home from work, hang out with Keegan, eat dinner, and eventually go to bed. Our weekends wouldn't be used for wedding things anymore. We could go places! See people! Sleep in! I was wrong. I'm still getting used to the fact that we don't really have anything to do besides go to work, eat, clean the house, and sleep. Honestly, I kind of miss the feeling of running around like a chicken with its head cut off that came with wedding planning.

I find myself staring at the computer because I don't really know what to do. I don't have DIY ideas to look up, vendors to contact, schedules to plan. Now, I just check my email, Facebook, blogs and that's about it. Throw in some Pintrest when I'm especially bored and I'm done.

Our house is still a mess of wedding related things. Presents and programs are scattered all over our living room. We've just now started to unpack presents and actually use them. Even though the mess bugs the crap out of me, I'm not 100% ready to put it away. I honestly don't know what to do with 20 extra programs or 75 tissue packets that no one used because they weren't put out. Half of  me doesn't want to throw away or put away the wedding memories. The other half just doesn't want to deal with wedding related things anymore.

I've found myself almost mourning my wedding. It bugs me to look at wedding related things because I keep thinking to myself, "Oh I was going to do that!" or "I wish I had done that instead!" Don't, get me wrong, I love my wedding and how it turned out, and I realize that it was just one day in a lifetime of days with Keegan, but it's still hard to get out of that planning mindset. Honestly, I've hated anyone who's asked about the wedding. I know that they're just curious and are hoping that everything went well, but I don't want to talk about it. I don't think I've fully processed it yet, and no matter how many times someone asks me, I don't feel different.

I know that one day, hopefully soon, I'll get over this. I'll stop thinking about wedding things and start wishing to see my wedding pictures. Someday, my life will be full of thoughts of dogs and babies. Until then, I'm just going to let myself "mourn" and give the side-eye to anyone who asks about the wedding. Eventually, I'll pack up the wedding stuff and unpack the presents. I'll turn the "wedding room" back into my studio like it was intended and I'll start doing DIY things for around the house and our eventual kids. I'll be able to talk to my engaged friends about their wedding without wanting to punch them in the face for asking how I did X, Y or Z. It'll happen one day, but until then, unless you want a popsicle stick to the jugular, don't ask how the wedding went.

We're Married!

It's official! The wedding went off without much of a hitch and it was wonderful. We just got back from our honeymoon about an hour ago and are now faced with the daunting task of unpacking luggage, wedding presents, and going through hundreds of pictures of the wedding as well as a pile of thank you notes. I'm going to try and get back into the swing of things with posting, but it may take me a little bit to get things sorted. I'll probably start off with posting about our honeymoon and reviews of our vendors as I wait for our professional pictures to come in.  I'll also have more tutorials for some of the final projects I completed in the days and weeks leading up to the wedding.

I'm so happy to be back!

It's Wedding Day!

I can't believe that it's my wedding day. Last night was my bachelorette which was so much fun.

I just can't believe everyone who is here to support us. Aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and family have all descended on Columbia to help us pull this together. The love that we've been feeling from friends and family has been overwhelming.

Keegan, I love you more than words can convey. You are my biggest supporter and my best friend. My partner in crime and my voice of reason. You are there to pick me up when I'm down and to bring me down to earth when I get a big head.

After 10 months of planning the biggest party of my life, I'm so ready to do this. I can't wait to see Keegan as I walk down the aisle. I can't wait to hear there ceremony that my dad wrote. I can't wait to hang out with family and friends who have come so far to support us. Most of all I can't wait to be a Mrs!

Here's to my last day as a Miss. Let's do this!

It's The Final Countdown!

Anyone else start singing?

Anyways, it is the final countdown! We're leaving tonight/Wednesday morning for Missouri (about 2 a.m.) after a few hours of sleep. Hopefully that'll put us in Missouri around noon. I'll pick up my dress at the store in Jeff City and then wedding madness starts! Family starts coming in Thursday, we're doing nails and the rehearsal/family dinner Friday, then Saturday's the big day!

Let's just say that packing my car (a Mazda CX5) was no small feat. I honestly didn't think we had that much stuff, but after 10 months of hoarding wedding stuff, my car is stuffed. I've gone through each room in our house a million times double, triple and quadruple checking that I haven't missed anything.

I promised myself that as I got closer to the wedding, I wasn't going to stop updating my blog, but we'll all see how well that worked out. I promise after the wedding there will be more pictures and tutorials than you can stand.

I'll make one more post as a miss before the wedding, I'm sure. After 10 months of planning this shindig, I can't believe it's almost here.

People keep asking how I'm feeling. I'm a bit stressed and nervous, but overall, I'm more excited than I've ever been before. I'm excited to see all of our family and friends. I'm excited to stuff myself with good food, candy and cupcakes. But most of all, I'm excited to marry Keegan. To become his wife and for us to start our lives together. I'm also excited about the honeymoon, but that's a different story.

Now it's time for us to try and get a few hours of sleep before we start this journey. I promise to stop by one more time before the wedding.

<3 Aislinn

DIY Wedding: Garter

One of the first wedding blogs I found was Happily After All. This girl also did a lot of DIY for her wedding and has a lot of great tutorials, many of which I have used.

I used Katie's (at least I believe that's her name, I can't really remember,) tutorial as a basis for making my own garter. I was going to use her tutorial step by step, but I realized that my elastic was wider than my ribbon, so I couldn't tread it through my garter like she did.

Anyways, grab your elastic, fabric, ribbon, pins, thread and sewing machine. I used 1" elastic, 7/8" ribbon, and a piece of fabric that was 4" x 1 yard.

This is where I pretty much deviated from the original tutorial.

I first sewed my ribbon on my fabric so that it would be in the middle and the seam would be on the back once I made my tube.

(please excuse my filthy floors)

Ribbon sewed to the fabric (again about the floors.) 

Next, pin the ribbon right sides together to make a tube. 

Once your tube is sewed, start turning it inside out so the right sides are outside... 

 ...like so. 

Next, attach your elastic to a safety pin and something you can slide through the tube. I used the key to my new baby, but you can use anything. 

Next, bunch up the fabric in the middle of your elastic and pin the ends of the fabric tube flush with the ends of the elastic. Sew the ends of the tube shut so the elastic won't move. 

Put the right sides together and sew the ends together making a complete circle. 

Et viola, you have a garter.  

Attach a cute charm (it's hard to see, but there's a 'W' in the middle for my new last name,) and you have a completed garter. I did this twice so I had one to toss and one to keep. 

I'm not sure exactly how much I paid for all of the materials, but making this was way cheaper than buying two already made. I'd say I spent about $10 total to make two garters. Even though I was drooling over the ones sold on Etsy, I knew that this way was more budget friendly. Honestly, it wasn't too difficult and it took me two nights to finish, about 5 hours total. In that time, I actually made three complete garters, but we decided that the first one I made was too fat. 

See? Originally, I had the fabric 5" wide, but it was just too poofy so I scaled it down to 4 inches. 

And that's it! Super simple and cheap. If you have any questions, feel free to comment and I'll try to clarify. 

DIY Wedding: Love Is Sweet Bunting

So until I became a bride and immersed myself in everything bridal, I had no idea this was called bunting:

Source

Now I do, and I've fallen in love with it like many another bride, especially the "Love Is Sweet" bunting that has adorned many candy buffets and cake tables.

Adorable, no?

So yes, I had to jump on the bunting bandwagon and make my own.

First, Keegan and I had to figure out how long our bunting would be and how wide each triangle could be. Our sweets table is going to be 5 feet, or 60 inches long. We figured we would need a little longer string so to attach it to the sides of the table and let it sag in the middle a bit. Keegan did fancy math and figured out 7.5 feet would be perfect. He then did more fancy math and figured out that a 6 inch wide triangle would allow there to be enough room to space out the triangles a bit.

So I took that information and made myself some triangles in Photoshop, my first love.

(Personal Photo)

I got 2 triangles on an 11" x 8.5" piece of paper. 

Next, I started working on the letters. I wanted to use the same typeface we have been using for all of our paper pieces (Monotype Corsiva,) but the "I" was slanted and looked funny in the triangle. I settled on Segoe Script and typed out "LOVE IS SWEET." After re-arranging the letters, I flipped the entire image horizontally so that the letters printed out backwards. That way, when I cut them out, the ink and cut lines wouldn't be seen. 

That looked like: 

(Personal Photo)

I printed out the letters in orange paper, the triangles in green and glued them together. It came out like: 

(All three photos above are personal photos)

We taped the string and the letters to the wall to ensure that we had enough space and everything looked ok. I'm going to punch holes in the corners and we'll string it all together when we get to Missouri. 

I'm quite happy with it! The entire thing from working in Photoshop to cutting them out and gluing them down took less than an hour. Quick but effective! 

One Month

Yesterday, July 4, 2012 marked the one month point until our wedding (as well as my late grandma's birthday, America's birthday, and 19 days until my golden birthday, but who's counting?)

Anyways, yes, we have 1 month (minus a day) until our wedding.

Que freak out.

We still only have about 55% of our RSVPs. I don't know if our mailman is still losing them or our friends are just lazy, but c'mon people! I have to give Hy-Vee our final head count in less than two weeks and I really don't feel like tracking down half our our guest list. Half of me wants to assume that if they haven't responded by now, they're not coming, but the other, more controlling, type-A side of me freaks out about not having enough chairs/food/drinks if we just assume. Remember, assuming makes an ass out of you and me (or something like that) and I wouldn't want to be an ass of a bride.

*Side note, I had a friend tell me last night that he blatantly lost our invite. Now, I realize that we sent them out two months ago and not everyone is like me and puts wedding invitations on their fridge, but really?! I guess I'm more hurt than anything because I put so much work into our invitations. I knew that they would be beat up in the mail and eventually tossed in the trash, but it still hurts my heart knowing that someone didn't care enough about our invitations and just lost it.*

The one month mark has also brought some problems from future in-laws (which I'll possibly get into in another post.) However, we're working through it. Unfortunately, I have a feeling it'll basically come down to the, "You're not paying for anything, it's our wedding, get your nose out of it," talk. I don't want it to, but one month until the wedding isn't the right time for you to tell me that you don't approve of our favors.

Overall, I'm nervous. And stressed. And more giddy than a schoolgirl. Whenever I think about the wedding, I get butterflies in my stomach. Mostly, I'm excited about finally marrying my bestest best friend. However, I'm also nervous. I've never thrown such a large party before (which is really what our wedding will be.) I know things will go wrong, but I hope that overall the wedding goes off without a hitch.

I promised myself that by this time, I would have most of my DIY projects done, but we all know how that goes. I have a lot left to finish so blogging may have to take a place on the back burner *gasp!* I'll still update as much as I can with how things are going and more DIY projects. Currently in the works: a DIY photobooth, DIY name hangers (doesn't every bride want one?,) our favors, food and fun.

Hang in with me readers! It's going to be a bumpy ride, but it'll be one to remember!

RSVP Deadline

Well friends, the deadline for our RSVPs has come and past (July 1, 2012.) Where do we stand?

*Note: these numbers include RSVPs we have gotten through email and FaceBook from friends who's RSVPs seem to have gotten lost in the mail. These numbers also include our wedding party which comes out to about 20 people.*

53% have responded
25% Yes
28% No

This means....

We invited 283 people (holy crap I didn't realize it was that many! That does include +1s and kids, however.)

72 Yes
78 No

For the family gathering the night before (instead of a traditional rehearsal dinner):

45 Yes
89 No

How do I feel about the numbers? Well, I'm honestly kind of disappointed. I'm not really disappointed by the number of coming/not coming (I've gone through that disappointment before,) but I'm surprised at the amount of people that haven't responded at all. I know that we sent out the invitations in May (2 months before our RSVP deadline and 3 months before the wedding) so people have probably forgotten or lost their RSVP card, but sheesh, c'mon people! *Note: we sent our our invitations so early because 99% of our guest list is coming from out of city/state/country. We wanted to give everyone enough time to finalize their travel plans.*


If there is one thing that I have learned from being a bride, it's to send back your RSVP card as soon as you know you are able to/not able to come. For the two weddings we were invited to this summer, I sent back the RSVP card the next day. One of the couples even said they were surprised at how fast our RSVP got back to them. I honestly think that it's just courteous to get it back to the couple as soon as possible so that they have one less RSVP to worry about and they can get seating charts/place cards/favors/etc. ready. If only 47% of our guests had the same mindset....

Since we have to give Hy-Vee the final food count in 2 weeks, I see these next few weeks full of tracking down the rest of our guests. Wish us luck!

An Open Letter to USPS

Dear USPS,

You may or may not know that our wedding is coming up in approximately one month. You should know due to the increased amount of mail going to and from our house, but I understand you're pretty busy and may have overlooked this news.

I understand that we are living in a new house on a new street that even 911 doesn't know exists, but you've been delivering our mail since February. Granted, the first few weeks were a bit rough, but I didn't fret too much because this relationship was new for everyone. We had a few rough patches since then (like the time you lost Keegan's present) but overall, I'm satisfied with our relationship.

It has now been 5 month since we started seeing each other and I figured you got the routine down. We give you mail (such as our invitations) to deliver to our family and friends and you bring us their replies and gifts. Not too hard.

It has come to my attention, however, that you have been severely lacking on your job. After getting anxious/annoyed/mad/disappointed at our guests for not sending back their RSVPs on a timely manner, I decided to email a few of them to see what's up. Turns most of them responded a month ago. However, we haven't received any of their replies. We don't have any neighbors that steal our mail. We're the only house on the road (that anyone's living in,) so it's not like you're accidentally delivering our mail to someone else. I'm going to ask you point blank, WHERE THE HELL ARE MY RSVPs????!!!

How is it that you can deliver every single bill and piece of spam mail on time? Those RSVPs were already addressed and stamped for Pete's sake. All our guests had to do was mark if they were/weren't coming, throw them in the mail and you delivered them. How hard is that?!

You have pissed off an already stressed out bride. If my RSVPs are not delivered by July 1, I'm going to be coming down to your house and giving you a stern talking to. A piece of advice? Don't piss off brides. They can get vicious and you don't want to see that. You and Forever21 are on my naughty list.

No love,
Aislinn








(So as you can tell, USPS has lost a fair number of our RSVPs. I was wondering if our invitations had even been delivered since we've only gotten about 1/3 of the responses back, so I emailed a few friends to double check they received their invite. All of them had and most of them said that they had mailed back their RSVP a month ago. Now, I wouldn't be to worried or upset if this had happened to one or two people. Things get lost in the mail and I understand. However, I talked to at least 7 people who said they sent back their RSVP and we still haven't gotten them. Now I'm wondering how many more have been sent and not received from friends we haven't spoken to yet. I really don't want to hunt down the rest of our guest list to figure out if people are coming or not. Anyone have any suggestions? Is this something I can/should go down to the post office about? There are three different locations in our small town, so I'm not even sure which one handles our mail. I don't want to come off as a crazy bride, but I really don't feel like badgering our guests if they've already sent back their RSVP. Should I be worried about gifts our gusts have sent as well? Any ideas, suggestions or similar stories will be much appreciated.)

Emily Post and I Are Finally Friends

*Sorry for the lack of posts over the weekend; Keegan and I were in KC, MO for his cousin's wedding. This was supposed to post on Friday, but obviously, it didn't, so here it is now. *

I finally gave in and Miss Emily and I became fast friends on Tuesday night. I decided to push my wishes of everyone getting the same thank you note aside and banged out 5 simple but effective thank yous in the span of about an hour.

I made a file in Photoshop so that the thank yous would be the right size to fit into the envelopes we used for our RSVPs since we had a butt-ton of them left (and yes, a butt-ton is a unit of measurement....at least in my world.) Our thank yous came in a about 5 x 3.5 inches. Just big enough to write a quick note, but small enough that I wasn't trying to fill it up with random garble.

I decorated them with leave and clover punch outs and stuck them in envelopes with the Love postage that was originally used for our invitations.

You say you want examples? Well here they are!

I love the itty-bitty leaves! They're like 1/3 inch big.

 

Please ignore that strange green tint in the upper left hand corner. My scanner does strange things.

The thank yous I made were mostly for guests who couldn't come to the wedding except for the one guest who is coming but sent their present early. I figure for this guest and for any more who send their presents early but still come to the wedding, they will get this thank you for their gift and a wedding picture thank you for coming to the wedding. Best of both worlds! 

What did you do for early thank you notes? Did you make them right away and send them off or did you make Emily cringe and wait until after the wedding so that everyone had the same thank you? Am I the only one who gets annoyed by not everyone having the same one? 

I Love Our RSVPs

I'm actually insanely proud of our RSVPs. I know, it's a strange thing to be proud of, but I am.

I know that many bees have had the problem of people not writing their names in the M_____________ spot. Miss Mink solved this by writing a small number on the flap of the envelope. Ms. Gazelle, Mrs. Lox, as well as other bees have bought invisible ink pens that you see with a black light.

I decided to side step the entire problem by printing our guests' names directly on the RSVP. Now, there was no way for them to forget to write their names, and I didn't have to go searching for a tiny number to figure out who sent back their RVSP.

I also added three lines for our guests to give us music suggestions. This was partly a selfish decision because I didn't want to have to make up a play list for our DJ. Keegan and I have such drastically ranging music choices from hard rock to Celtic music so we figured we'd ask our guests what they wanted to listen to.

Some of our guests have given us some good choices,

Yes, my family didn't indicate how many are coming. I feel like its a safe bet to assume they all are.

Some have laughed in our faces...

And some haven't put anything down at all (which honestly annoys me a bit, but whatever.)

These lines also worked out for our guests who are not able to come. Many of them have written us small notes with their regrets.

"I'm so sorry I cannot attend your special day"

"Hope you will visit if you come out East!"

"Very best love to you both - may you have years of great joy!"

 (I think, this one was kind of hard to decipher.)

So yes, my RSVPs are a strange thing to be so proud of, but I am. Some of them have done their original intention and helped us come up with playlist for our DJ, and others have give us some laughs and well wishes from loved ones. 

What have you been most proud of in your wedding planning? Anyone else proud of their RSVPs?

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let Down Your Hair!

I was cursed blessed with absurdly curly hair. I had ringlets all over my head, similar to Shirley Temple. My mom actually had someone ask her if she permed my hair when I was two.

personal photo / age 3ish with my Poppa

 As time went on, I found out that with about 2.5 hours of work, I could tame my curly hair into a slightly straight mane. 

Personal photo / College graduation 2011

Obviously, my hair resembles Rapunzel's in no way, shape or form. Like so many other girls, I'm trying to grow my hair out for the wedding. My hair has always been super thick, however, due to the medications I took for the last 2.5 years, it was getting thinner and thinner. When I showered, I would pull fist fulls of hair out and even more would fall out when I brushed my hair. In January, I decided to go off of all of my medications cold turkey. Since then, I've been hoping that my hair will regain some of its fullness by the wedding. I don't care about length as much because when my hair is straight, it's down to the middle of my back.

So what does all of this talk about my ridiculously curly hair have to do with weddings? Why wedding hairstyles of course!

When I first got engaged last October, I found this hairstyle and fell head over heels in love:

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I promptly saved it to my wedding folder and pinned it on Pintrest. Months later, I am still in love. I am a little worried that my hair will turn into Shirley Temple ringlets however, instead of these loose flowing curls. 

I kept saving and pinning similar hairstyles

Don't have the source, sorry!

Source

I thought a bit more and realized that I'm getting married in Missouri in August. That automatically means that it's going to be muggy and sticky outside. I figured I could deal with my hair down for the ceremony, but after that, I would want it up so I could dance and party with our friends without worrying about my hair. 

Audra, Keegan's cousin and one of my bridesmaids, has graciously offered to do my hair and makeup as well as the hair and makeup of the rest of my girls. She showed me this up do for the ceremony and I thought it was perfect. 

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I wanted something quick and easy to do so that I could be away from the reception as little as possible. I also love how fun and quirky it is.  

This weekend, Keegan and I are going to KC for his cousin's wedding. Audra will be there, so we're going to do a hair and makeup trial. I'm so excited to finally meet Audra, as well as do my hair trial. I really want to see how much time the up-do will take so we can make sure I won't be away from the reception too long. I'll make sure to get pictures!


Anyone else have their hair down for a hot summer wedding? Should I just put it up for the ceremony as well? You think I'll come out with long, flowing curls or look like Shirley Temple?

The Mason Jar Manifesto

The Mason Jar Manifesto has been circulating the wedding world as of late. I found out about it through a bee on Weddingbee. If you don't feel like reading the entire thing (even though you should,) basically, the post is about the fact that lately, the wedding industry has convinced brides that they need everything. The key word being things. If you're take a stroll down wedding lane, you get bombarded with images of buntings, cute straws, vintage this and that and DIY everything. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that today, brides are able to make their weddings about them and the relationship they have with their future spouse, but so many brides (including myself) get caught up on the things and not the marriage.

Jonas put it best when he wrote:

"We’re getting lost in details. The whole wedding industry is drifting away from what weddings are about and we’re all part of the problem – bloggers, photographers, planners and vendors – all hypocrites feeding the detail beast.

Strip it back.

Peel the layers off.

And start again.

At the center of every wedding we have a girl. Who fell in love with a boy. Or a girl who fell in love with a girl. Or a boy who fell in l… you get my point.

The rest is fluff.

If you read magazines and wedding blogs today, you’d think it’s all about the dress, the decorations, invitations or a million other things.

THINGS.

It’s not.

It’s about celebrating love, a manifestation of commitment, a gathering of friends and family.

Because you’re in love."

When I first read the manifesto, I thought to myself about how proud I am that I haven't gotten caught up in the WIC (wedding industry complex) that focuses so much on the wedding and not the marriage. But honestly, I'm just as guilty about worrying about things and not so much about what a wedding means and symbolizes.

Lately, I've been stressing about our lack of centerpieces (yes, I'm a 1.5 months away from my wedding and don't have centerpieces.) After reading the manifesto, I sat for a moment and thought, "What if we just don't have centerpieces? What's the point of a centerpiece anyways? To look pretty? We're not having flowers, and I have no need for vintage typewriters or mason jars. What if people, ate, talked, and interacted with each other instead of looking at the random centerpiece placed on a table? Will anyone really miss it?"

I felt this amazing weight lifted off my shoulders when I thought about not dealing with them. In all honesty, how many people notice the centerpieces? If you think about it, they're going to be sitting at the tables to eat and then hopefully they'll be up mingling and dancing. Stressing out less about a thing was such an amazing feeling.

I've gone back and read over our ceremony a few times lately and I have to say, I'm in love. I love this text that Keegan and I have put together that means so much to us. This text, during our wedding, will show everyone how much our love and marriage means. Reading our ceremony brings back the idea that this whole wedding is really about a marriage. Two people, in love, joined for eternity. Suddenly, all the things don't matter anymore. All that matters is the fact that at the end of the wedding, we'll be married. No one will notice if we have bunting or not (I'm sure not many of our guests even know what that is.) No one is going to miss the centerpieces, the signature drinks, the flowers, or the cake. Suddenly, I'm not going to miss them either.

I know that in the next 1.5 months, I will still worry about things. It's hard not to. This wedding will be 10 months in the making by the time August rolls around and it will be the biggest party/get together/celebration that either one of us has planned. We want it to be a wonderful experience for us and our guests, so worrying about certain things like food, drinks, and entertainment is a must. However, we can lessen the stress on ourselves by remembering that this celebration is about marriage, not about mason jars.

How do you feel about the WIC? Do you agree with the idea that weddings seem to be focused more on things than the marriage? Anyone else say "screw it" to what is considered "traditional" for weddings (i.e. centerpieces?) 

Why I'm Not Having A Bachelorette Party

When I first started wedding planning, I thought there were certain things that "made" you a bride: showers, veils, long white dresses and bachelorette parties among other things. Now, after a little over 8 months of planning our wedding, I've realized that this is far from the truth. After reading countless blogs and spending too many hours on wedding websites, I realized that what makes someone a bride is the fact that they will be marrying the love of their life. No matter if she does it at the courthouse with jeans on, she is a bride.

Now back to why I'm not having a bachelorette party. My bridal party consists of my two sisters, both of which are under the age of 21, Keegan's cousin, Audra, and our friend, Sarah. Since both of my sisters are under 21, we can't go bar hopping or clubbing, neither of which I am actually a fan of anyways. For the older girls to be able to partake in some adult beverages, we'd have to go to a restaurant. Bachelorette party at Applebee's? Not quite what I was thinking.

Second reason is, Sarah and Audra are not from Columbia where the wedding will be held. I can't and don't expect them to try and plan an itinerary for a place they don't know or have never been to.

Third, and probably the biggest reason that I'm not planning a bachelorette party is the fact that instead of having a traditional rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding, we are having more of a family and friends get together. I want to be able to spend as much time with our friends and family that are coming from out of city/state/country so it would feel rude to me to leave in the middle of this get together to hit the town with my girls. Doing a rehearsal, dinner, and then trying to squeeze in a bachelorette party just seems like too much for one night, anyways.

Originally, I thought of having a joint bachelor/bachelorette party with Keegan and his boys, but that was nixed pretty quickly. I'm sure his boys already have something planned for him and that doesn't include his bride and her younger sisters. I would never think to ask Keegan to cancel his bachelor party just because I won't be having a bachelorette party. The only thing I asked is that everyone comes back in one piece and some pictures are taken. I want to see what those crazy boys are up to!

Don't get me wrong, if the cards fell the right way, I would love to have a bachelorette party. Unfortunately, I can't make my sisters 21 before August (not that I'd want to, they're growing up so quickly as it is,) and I can't ask my girls to come all the way to Missouri on any other day. The reason the bachelor/bachelorette parties have to happen the night before the wedding is because so many of our wedding party are from out of city/state. They're already doing so much for us by standing by our sides during the wedding, I couldn't ask them to come out a different weekend and spend more money.

So those are some of the reasons that I'm not actively planning a bachelorette party. Now if my girls want to take me out to drinks after the family gathering, I wouldn't be opposed. We just have to wait for the younger girls to go to bed :-D

Emily Post, I Am Not

As you may (or may not) know, Emily Post is the latest guru on wedding etiquette. She has a website that explains the do's and don'ts for a wedding which can be found here.

Now, I haven't read through her entire website, but I'm sure that I've broken a few of her wedding rules already, and honestly, I don't care. One that I am worried about however? Thank you notes.

Already, we have been getting wedding presents (and money) from various guests. Some are gifts from people who are not able to make it, others are from guests who know we don't want to lug a bunch of wedding presents from Missouri to Mississippi, so they just had the gift sent to our Mississippi home. Either way, the gifts are rolling in and I'm starting to think about thank you notes.

Now, Miss Post says that wedding thank you notes should be sent within three months of receiving the gift. That is of course, perfectly do-able after the wedding (watch me eat my words...) but what about the gifts we've received before the wedding? Most people, would buy (even though Emily disagrees with this practice) or craft a thank you note a few days after receiving the gift and send it off. I, on the other hand, am neurotic and want all of my thank yous to be the same. This wouldn't be a problem if I wasn't hell-bent on making a thank you note with a wedding picture on it like:

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I love love love these thank yous. The way I see it, if I'm spending a butt-load of money on wedding pictures, I might as well get some use out of them and send them to as many people as I can, right? 

So this poses a problem. I have these gifts that need thank yous, but I am crazy and want all my guests to get the same one. Will they compare thank yous? I highly doubt it. Its more about my sanity. Now, if I wait until after the wedding, it will still be in the "correct" three month time line that Miss Post says is acceptable. However, since these guests have sent their gifts so early, will it be strange to them to receive a thank you three months after they sent it? Will they realize that I'm crazy and wanted to use a wedding picture for my thank yous? Will that make me look lazy? Will they honestly even care? 

So, I need some input on this. Is it ok for me to wait until after the wedding and use a wedding picture for the thank you notes for gifts we received before the wedding, or should I suck it up and just send them a different one? 

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

Yesterday, my boss called me into her office to speak to me. I felt my heart drop as I thought of all the things that I could have done wrong. I couldn't really think of anything as I sat in the chair opposite her desk. All of a sudden I hear, "R and I have decided to pay for your wedding flowers. I heard you say that you're not having any flowers and I want to give them to you. I believe that every girl should have exactly what she wants on her wedding day."

.................uh what?

I stared at her blankly and asked her to repeat herself. Yep, I had heard correctly. R, a volunteer at the art gallery I work at is a florist by trade and has connections to get flowers for my wedding at cost. T, my boss had decided that R and her were going to go in together on the cost so that I can have real flowers at my wedding. She said they were going to be paying for my bouquet, bouquets for my girls and flowers for the flower girls.

As I sat there in utter disbelief, she asked what kind of flower I wanted besides tiger lilies (my favorite flowers ever.) I told her that I hadn't really thought about flowers since we weren't going to have any and asked if I could get back with her. I left her office speechless with my mind racing.

When Keegan and I first started talking about the wedding and our budget, I figured we wouldn't be able to afford flowers. After a few emails to florists, including a family friend, that thought was confirmed. Honestly, I was disappointed for about a day, and then realized how much money we were saving and now able to spend on other things. Also, as much as I love flowers, I felt bad about the fact that they would die the day after the wedding. My mom had fake flowers at her wedding and she still has her bouquet. I love that idea and decided I would make my own bouquet out of fake flowers.

Back in January, Keegan, my mom, and I went to Hobby Lobby and got enough flowers and other supplies to make my bouquet for under $25. I was extremely proud of what I paid for my huge bouquet, but it didn't actually get finished until April.

Here is Keegan modeling it. It's had a few changes since then, but it's basically the same.

All along, I've looked at decorations and centerpieces that don't include flowers. While I still don't have our centerpieces pinned down, (shut up,) I'm 99% sure of what I want to do, and it doesn't include flowers.

With my boss so graciously offering to pay for my flowers, I'm so torn. I love what Keegan and I have come up with so far. I think that our wedding, from the ceremony down to the decorations represent us and who we are. And we didn't need flowers to do that. On the other hand, Keegan said it best when he said "We would be crazy to turn this offer down. It's free flowers!"

I honestly don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know if I want to dive into the world of flowers and figure out what I like/don't like, what's in season in August, and how to keep them alive for the wedding. Also, we didn't invite R who would ultimately be putting together the bouquets. If we do "hire" him, I feel like he should be invited, but wouldn't it be tacky to give him an invitation now? Or is it implied that he's invited since he's a vendor?

Currently, I'm leaning towards politely declining my boss' offer. It is so unbelievably generous for her to do, but I honestly don't have the time or mind power to dive into the world of flowers. Also, as a small detail, I would feel weird that my girls would have bouquets, but the boy's wouldn't have bouts. Also, what about corsages for the moms and grandmas? I feel like if half of the wedding party has flowers, everyone should, but there's no way that I would ask my boss to pay for more.

I think that Keegan and I need to sit down, look at some pictures, and talk about this over the weekend. Hopefully by Monday, we'll have an answer for my boss.

Anyone else have someone unexpectedly pay for something for their wedding? Did it throw a wrench into your plans, or did it make your life easier? Any opinions on what we should do?