The Big 5-0

Wow. Only 50 days until the wedding.

I actually wouldn't have noticed that had I not checked the guest book entry by my aunt on our wedding website today. The site's log-in screen alerted me to the count-down. Shows what a bad bride I am!

The to-do list is finally getting smaller, and I'm feeling pretty good. HEre's what's on teh agenda for this weekend:

- Gift Errands: I want to buy a bunch of the family gifts this weekend. I looove buying gifts, so I'm excited. There are still a few recipients on our list, though, that I'm stumped about.

- Ceremony Planning: I need to send the few bits I've found that I actually like to our officiant, Rev Roc. I'm pretty pumped about our vows. I'll probably share the ceremony script here after the wedding, a la this lady.

- Seam Teaming: I need to develop a template for our cocktail table coverings, cut four from the template, and sew them. I also need to sew the table runners I've cut out of vintage fabrics.

- Yard Work: My stepdad and I will do some outdoor painting if it doesn't rain all weekend. Oh, April Showers, you're ruining my wedding preparation timeline. (A shout-out is in order for D and R - ahem, Rev Roc - for your help in the yard last night!)

- Spring Cleaning: The sunroom has been totally taken over by tools, storage, and finished wedding projects. If we plan to use it as backup space in the event of rain on our wedding day, I should get to tidying now.

- Holiday Festivities: Some Easter celebrations will be sprinkled in this weekend's plans for a little non-wedding-related fun. Granted, I don't even know what Easter's about, but it'll be nice to see family.

Whew! Sounds busy when I write it all down.

Oh, and I should add "Cross things off my to-do list" to this list (Y, you're too funny!).

Vintage Fabrics

Over the past three months, I've gathered a huge supply of vintage bedsheets. With our wedding colors/theme being vintage florals, I've snatched up all that I could on my many trips to the thrift store - on half-off days, of course. My first project was handmade napkins. Those obviously took a lot of fabric as my mom and I made about 100, and each napkin is roughly 16" square, unfolded. The next project on the list was my bunting. I plan to string it along anywhere it'll go. It'll also act as the edge of our "pews" to create a sort of aisle, but that won't take too much. And I plan to string it along the top of our barn (what I call our three-shed shed as well. Then I moved on to the alter chandelier and decor. My bffs helped cut the strips and tie them onto my dowel rod for the alter and onto some strips of yarn (to later be strung along our chain link fence to pretty it up a bit).

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That took quite a bit of fabric as well. The last major fabric-related project on the list was my table runners. I was going to make them double-sided but then decided that, due to the length of our three guest tables (32' - four 8' banquet tables put together) and my stash of unmatched sheet sets, I just wouldn't have enough. Now that I'm making the runners single-sided, I'm going to have gobs of fabric left over.

What's a girl to do? Well immediately my mind goes here:

Okay, I know - horrible picture. But there's something about aprons that makes me just want to, well, make them! And with all of these beautiful vintage fabrics sitting around me, I want to throw my wedding to-do list away and get crackin!

I'm even thinking of starting to sell fat quarters in my etsy shop of these fabrics because they're so fun to collect.

Maybe one of these days, too, I'll actually attempt a skirt with a zipper out of some of these. My biggest obstacle, though? The lining. These fabrics are way too thin to get away with no lining, and adding lining is just so much work. Plus, getting the full skirt just right has always been a challenge for me. Maybe when the wedding's done and I'm going through planning withdrawal I can get going on developing a pattern. So exciting!

Stuffing

I've never been someone who really watches what she eats. That might sound really... something, but it's not meant that way.

But over the past two years or so, I've gained weight. Like, 20 pounds worth of weight. Not cool.

I attribute it to beginning to drink soda for the first time ever during those two years, and continuing to drink it.

I knew I didn't want to be one of those brides who, for the four months or four weeks or four days leading up to her wedding, doesn't eat normally. Or doesn't eat at all.

The sample dress of the gown I chose was pretty close to my size. If I'd chosen to get it altered, I would have saved probably $100. But it was a leeeetle too tight. Like, I couldn't wait to get it off tight but I could probably manage for a day because I love to save money.

The clentcher? That I knew I'd have to watch what I eat as we got closer to the date since my weight is so constantly in flux. And since I looove my donuts so much (after all, I eat a package of those six donuts every day for breakfast!), I just didn't want to risk it.

My mom (who's paying for half of my gown) and I agreed that (my) our peace of mind was worth that extra $100.

After the first fitting, I'm pretty happy with our choice. And as I sit here and write this, craving something salty, I'm even happier.

To comfort on your wedding day - and all the days before!

A New Face

What is it about having a bazillion and one things on my to-do list that makes me want to get crafty? As in, unrelated-to-the-wedding crafty?

A few Fridays ago, after I ticked a few things off my wedding to-do list (and with plenty more on it), I decided to redesign my etsy shop banner. And business cards. And develop a new print piece for a new product I'm brainstorming. No joke. Annnd two hours later it was nine o'clock and J and I decided it might be a good time for dinner.

I took it from this:

to this:

What do you think? I'm thinking it's cleaner, more modern, and more me. I'm pretty happy with it. Now I just need to get those new business cards printed and begin to work on that new product design I mentioned. But, I do have self control. I'll wait til after June 11th for both of those things. After all, I'll need something to do once I start my planning withdrawal. And we all know I'll have it.

Semi-Homemade

One of my favorite bloggers just announced that she's engaged! So exciting!

I LOVE that she's considering a "semi-homemade" wedding dress. I actually considering attempting to make my dress as well but dropped the idea knowing how easily stressed out I get.

Part of me thinks I should have taken more time to consider my dress options. The other part of me gets excited knowing that exactly what I thought I wanted was exactly what I decided on. My dress should ship to the shop tomorrow, hopefully arriving in about a week.

Oh boy!

Updates

Alright, I know I've been gone forevvvver. Things have been crazy! But a few wedding-related stress break-downs later, and I'm back.

I thought I'd quickly update The Budget tab with some of the things I've been working on in the past few weeks. And at this rate, it doesn't look like we'll stay on budget, but more on that later.

Mason Jars (or, brotherhood jars, as I like to call them)

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To keep the very long story short, Kmart screwed me out of $35 and several trips in the opposite direction of home, from work. I'm waiting for four more boxes of 12 mason jars to arrive. And check out the cost. Not cool, considering these are just. for. drinking.

Total Cost: $105


Food
We've decided on barbecue from Adam's Ribs. We delegated the research for good, cheap local barbecue to my stepmom, who kindly set up our contract. Actually, there is no contract, but we're "on the books" for June 11th. Makes me a bit nervous. But I'm excited for some pulled pork.

Included in the price is a server for two hours who will man the hot plates. It makes me a bit uncomfortable to have "staff", but the relief of knowing that the buns will be stocked will be nice.

Total cost: According to a guest list of 95, $1,050. I'm expecting this to drop by about $100 once the RSVPs start rolling in.

Dessert
I'm not a cake person (unless it's ice cream cake, which isn't very practical for a Maryland June wedding), but J and I both huge donut people, so we've decided to go with donut holes for our dessert. R and Y will tell you they painstakingly made 250 little cupcake flags by hand for the donuts, but don't give them too much sympathy!

Total cost: $80 for the donuts and approximately $15 in supplies for the donut flags


Venue
As I've spiritedly mentioned, we're having our wedding at our house. Though we have some pretty good tree coverage in our backyard, J says it's not enough to fend off rain. Me, the eternal pessimist, is surprisingly optimistic. I see the tree coverage creating a nice canopy effect and shielding our 95 guests from drizzle. But I suppose if we have a downpour, we'll need some real coverage.

Enter Top Hat Party Rentals. They'll provide and erect* a 30' x 20' tent to cover the tables as well as a 20' x 10' tent for our food, gifts table, guest book table, etc. We're actually thinking of adding another 20' x 10' table to our contract, just to be safe, but we need to measure to make sure we have room.

We're also getting 13 8' tables for seating and to designate as some of the tables just mentioned. We've ordered linens for the tables and 95 chairs. We're also considering adding three or four cocktail tables so that guests don't feel obligated to sit at the "main tables" the whole time.

We opted not to have a dance floor because we won't be having alcohol, and, let's face it, people probably won't dance. If they want to - and for the "first dances" we'll probably do (makes me cringe just thinking about it), we have enough flat grass area to accommodate.

Total cost: $325 for the big tent, $175 for the smaller tent, $1.50 per (cheap) chair, $10 per linen, plus delivery and taxes = about $981

Wardrobe
In the past few weeks I've found my wedding shoes (flats from DSW, though not from the sale aisle *gasp*!) and we found and purchased J's suit. He'll look dapper. Mmmm.

We're still working on choosing his shoes, his shirt, and his tie (probably something floral, maybe from etsy?).

I don't think I've blogged about it yet, but my dress is $742, with tax. I am waiting for it to arrive to determine the alterations cost, so I'll add that later.

Total cost: $55 for the shoes, $425 for the suit, $40 for suit alterations, $742 for wedding dress with tax
I'd include a photograph of the shoes but I can't seem to find them right now on DSW's site

And though I paid for my bridal shower dress out of a separate budget, I thought you might want to see it (by etsian kayemkay):

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$44, with shipping

Tealights
Because of a slight mix-up at the Hobby Lobby cash register and my perseverence for only purchasing things on sale, I have bought 100 tealight holders and 200 tealights to litter across our long, picnic-like tables. It took three trips, but I got 'em!

Total cost: $25 for the tealight holders, $12 for the candles

That's all I have time to update about now! Gotta go bang out some bunting and work on the insert for our invitation.

*Ha.

Tulle Lovely

I am in love with these capelets by ThreadRare:

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One of these would be perfect if I had gobs of money and a "departure" outfit for the wedding. I'm thinking something 50's styled, just a scotch above the knee, in ivory with one of these bad boys on top. That'd be hot.

And at first I thought I liked the silk one better, but now I'm heavily leaning toward the tulle. What about you?

Ah, to dream.

Ventalicious

I'm starting to get the sinking feeling that people are misreading my ability - and, sometimes, preference - to talk about things other than the wedding as a shortcoming.

As though what I feel is necessity to keep my life grounded by talking about things other than my wedding equals a less-than wedding. A non-wedding wedding.

I happen not to much like being the center of attention, and fielding tons of questions relating to the wedding makes me feel: (a) like the center of attention; (b) like my (our) choices are the center of attention; and (c) like I need to overly explain all of our choices, in part in order to defend them.

Just because J and I chose a backyard wedding does not mean that we value our wedding less than a "traditional" wedding or that we see it as being less of a wedding than other weddings. Also, just because J and I chose a backyard wedding does not mean that we tried to or did "take the easy way out". We have to include all the same elements that we would at a reception hall, but we are responsible for orchestrating them. In fact, I'd call it more work.

For us, though, it just fit. It's sentimental to have our wedding at our home. It's also fiscally responsible as the money we will invest in our venue - our backyard - will be an investment. Further, we're homebodies who enjoy being at home, so it makes sense to have one of our most important moments at home.

This may all sound like a defense - see point c, above - and it may be. But really I'm just tired of feeling defensive and feeling the need to explain our wedding back to importance. Yes, I can talk about other things but no, that does not mean that the wedding isn't important to me because it is. And you can ask J, who will tell you that basically all I do is worry about the wedding.

Whew, that vent session made me feel a little bit better as I let out a big sigh in front of my keyboard.

Brotherhood Jars

I just bought eight packages of these bad boys. Times twelve per package is 96. Oh god, I hope 96 people don't show up!

They're going to be the drinking glasses for the wedding. I'm thinking of adding a little style, like this, too:

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We're not doing a seating chart, but I wanted to incorporate people's names somehow, so I think I'll record guests' names on each of the mason jars. That way, too, people won't get their glasses mixed up. Style and purpose, I like it.

I'm thinking these are a leeetle bigger than what I was going for, but it'll be June and people'll be thirsty, right?


I may incorporate them into the favor as well to stretch that buck a bit further, though we may not do favors at all. Some may call that greedy but I call it smart; at least we'll be feeding the guests!

Originally I was going to buy them from here at $7.69 per case of 12, but they didn't have the quantity available that I needed. Plus, I'd have to pay for shipping.

After a little more searching, I found them at Kmart for $9.49. I wasn't too happy about the price until I realized that I could site-to-store for free to avoid shipping. Then I found a coupon code for $5 off. So for eight cases, I paid $75. Not bad at all.

However, the closest Kmart that allowed store pick-up was 20 minutes from work in the opposite direction of home. Still, I think it was worth it.


In other news, check out the blog's newest page, which chronicles our wedding-related purchases. The budget: $7,000. Let's see if we can do it!


*Sorry I didn't link to the exact post. This file has been living in my virtual "inspiration" folder for a while now. Embarrassingly well before the actual engagement.

Hemming and Hawing

I am extremely embarrassed to tell you that these curtains - and the fabulous deal I got them for - arrived today and, much to my surprise, the amazing deal was for just one, not two, panels.

I feel like an idiot.

But since they, ahem, it was so cheap, at $11 with shipping, I figured I'd just shimmy over to buy another.

But of course the length and color I need is THE ONLY one unavailable. Absolutely ridiculous!

I just bought a longer one for a few more dollars - since the coupon codes I used before are no longer available - and I'm going to have to do the dreaded hem again. Not looking forward to that.

I feel exhausted!