Little Details

Today marks one month from the big day. In honor of the fact that we're almost less than a month away, I'd like to share some fun facts.

Part of being a "DIY" bride is feeling the need to DIY everything...or DEY...whatever. I enjoy crafts and making handmade things, so naturally I want to make our wedding personal with little details. 

Here is one detail that will be at the reception. Since I have no doubt that my brother and his friends (although grown) would throw full packets of birdseed or just throw the tube of bubbles when Wesley and I leave after the reception, we looked for alternatives. My mom stumbled across ribbon wands when she was looking at Joann's one day. They were on clearance for 2.99 for 25. They were originally 19.99. 

She bought a few boxes and brought them home to show them to me. I liked them, but the only problem was they were stark white and everything in our wedding is more ivory or off white. Yes, you're right. That is a big problem.

We looked for a solution, and my mother saved the day. She found ribbon that matched some of our colors and we re-strung the ribbon.

finished product

Yes, it does look like Cousin It. However, we will have them in several holders so people won't be so confused as to what that thing is.

Want to guess what this is for? 

How I did our invitations...

In May, I rejoiced over finally deciding on our  invitations after several weeks of procrastinating. 

In July, I rejoiced over being able to mark "assemble and mail out invitation" off our wedding to-do list. 

Today, I will explain the process of designing, for those of you that may care. 

I started looking at invitation in early January, and shopped around for the best prices. I compared prices from different websites like 123print.com, vistaprint.com, and minted.com. I liked some of the invitations I saw, but none of them "struck my fancy". The ones that did strike my fancy were outrageously expensive for the amount that I was inviting. We needed 500 invitations, and they would have $927 on minted.com. Now, if I were having a smaller wedding with 100 invitations, I would have considered minted.com because they have  really cute invitations. However, that just wasn't going to work for this bargainista. 

We have a family friend that is a vistaprint.com queen. She knows how to get the best deals on the best things, and she shared her knowledge with us. I found an invitation that I liked on there, but I still didn't love it. I saw where you could upload your own design, so I decided to try my hand at some photoshop stuff. 

I found this cutesy invitation on minted.com...

I then used photoshop to make my own. I used brushes for the border, found on brusheezy.com, and I downloaded fun fonts from dafont.com

I ordered a few to see if I liked them in person, and waited for them to come in. They said they would ship in 21 days, and in 3 days they were on my door step. I liked them! However, there was a typo. Sad day. Yes, I could have just edited it, but I decided the color was a little dull, and I wanted to try something a little brighter. 

I then found this one on minted.com, and I used it for inspiration. It looked fresh and clean. Well, it looked as fresh and clean as any invitation could look. 

This was the finished product. As you can see, it's not identical to the $927 for 500 invitation, but it is similar. I actually like it better :). I uploaded it to vistaprint.com, and looked to see what specials were going on. Our vistaprint.com queen told us the specials could be different everytime you sign on. I looked after I uploaded and the invitations were 25% off. It was a decent deal, but I wanted it to be cheaper. I waited a few minutes, and reloaded...still 25% off. I wait a few more minutes and checked my email in the mean time. Lo and behold! There was an advertisement on my AOL screen for 50% off invitations! BINGO! I clicked and was able to order 550 invitations with a linen finish for $145. 

As I said before, Mom kept a meticulous Excel spreadsheet of the guest list. When it came time to address them, she printed them straight onto the envelopes in a pretty font. We knew we were having an invitation party, so she printed them several at the time for a couple weeks. 

Also, because I had the photoshop brushes (border), I used the same brush and idea to make thank you cards, an insert card, and a tag for hostess gifts. I printed the insert cards and tags on business cards, and I'm still in the process of tweaking the thank you note. 

Ironically enough, I don't want matchy matchy things in the wedding...with the exception of my stationary and invitations. My, my, I am so complex.

My Breaking News Report

Much has happened since I last expressed my sentiments for the world to see. I haven't been to the beach since my momentous day off, but I have had other fun things happen.

One fun thing happened a couple of weeks ago. I was at home on my off day...minding my own business...looking at possible wedding music. All of a sudden I have a message and friend request from someone I've never seen before. The message started out "Hey Lindsey, this is (insert name here)", and I proceeded carefully knowing the consequences of clicking on spam messages from Facebook. However the message was safe, and somewhat comical. She started by introducing herself and stated she was from WDHN (a local news station). She said she got my name from someone I went to high school with, and she was doing a story on weddings/doing it yourself/ways to save and heard I'd be a great interview...HA. This is one of those situations that you sit and literally "lol" (laugh out loud), wishing someone was there to share in the humor of the situation. Alas, no one was with me.

Anyway, I thought about it for a few minutes, texted my mom to share in this comical scene (since the week before we'd both been stressed to the max by all the do it yourself/do it ourselves projects we've accumulated...which is a different story for a different post on a different day...), and then I responded to the anchor with my phone number. I didn't expect to get a call quickly, but much to my surprise, by phone rang within a couple hours. I wasn't sure if she'd want to meet somewhere or do the interview over the phone. However, we talked over the possibilities and decided that she and the cameraman would come to my house two days later. Needless to say, I cleaned like a mad woman the next day...;)

Wednesday morning came, and at 9:56 a news reporter and cameraman came to my house. I showed them the wedding paraphernalia upstairs, and explained all of the different projects we'd completed, as well as those that we're planning to complete...eventually. She asked me questions about the food, how to save, where I looked for deals, when to start, how many people we were having, etc. I showed them my dress, my invitations, my flowers, my centerpieces, and of course my shoes. They stayed for about 45 minutes, and then went on their merry way.

Throughout the wedding planning process, I have tried to keep my focus on the purpose of a wedding. The purpose of a wedding is to...spend $500,000 and go into debt for 50 years, hire other people to do everything for you, and be mad because things didn't turn out your way on that day? Yes. Exactly. SIKE (Yes, I just pulled a phrase from the 90's.) The goal and purpose of a wedding is to get married. Whether I spend $500,000 or $5, the end result is the same...marriage. I'd rather spend less, save more, and plan/decorate myself/with mom (even if it does cause my grey hairs to quadruple). Now I am not judging those people that have very costly weddings, nor am I saying they're lazy for hiring people to do everything for them. I'm saying that  a Do-It-Yourself (Myself, Ourselves, Themselves...whatever) wedding with personal touches and sentimental details not only will be more meaningful for me on the day of our wedding, but will provide memories for years to come.

I'm not sure if you caught it, but I said earlier that the random facebook message from the news anchor came a few days after Mom and I were ready  to pull our hair out over wedding planning. I was ready to forfeit, she was ready to quit...it was not pretty. We both had massive wedding to do lists full of conditional tasks. For instance we couldn't get table runners until we got table cloths, but we couldn't get table cloths until we knew what size tables we'd need. BUT we couldn't figure out what size tables until we went to look at them and set them up....the conditions could go on and on. Needless to say, we were over the whole wedding planning thing. Once again though, I'm amazed by God's timing. The day after a wedding meltdown, I got the facebook message. I agreed to be interviewed, and thus had to organize all my completed projects and put them in one location. Mom and I realized through gathering the completed projects just how much we have accomplished.  It was like God was forcing us to look at what we'd already done, and "be anxious for nothing", as my dad so often reminds us throughout this journey called engagement.

I try to search for purpose in life's happenings. For instance, when I was called about the interview, I thought "Why do I have this opportunity? Is God wanting to use me in some way and use this story to do something other than just entertain the local news watcher?" My conclusion: I'll probably never know. Even if the only purpose that He had was to give me a chance to look back and reflect on the process thus far, then 1) I'm thankful for the opportunity and 2) I'm very impressed by His creativity! :)

If you haven't seen the segment, here's the link from WDHN. Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Bride on a Budget :)

To DIY or not to DIY

I have quite a dilemma these days. What is it, you ask?

To DIY or not to DIY...that is the question.

For those of you who may not know, DIY is Do It Yourself. In the realm of weddings, there are so many creative ideas, tutorials, articles, and magazines devoted to those who enjoy DIYing (or DIT...Doing It Themselves). Being the craft lover that I am, I get sucked in. I want to DIY (or DIM...Do It Myself). But the question is how much is too much? How many things should I decided to DIY (DIM)?

I love craft projects, but I'm guilty of over committing myself to projects and hobbies. I think that I can do it all myself. I have a hard time using that handy tactic that I learned in 5th grade-"Just Say No". In attempting to plan a budget friendly wedding, it's ESPECIALLY hard to say "no" to the money saving crafts. Can't you see my dilemma?

There are several things I'm contemplating DIY...DIMing...Doing myself...whatever. Right now, invitations are on the top of my "maybe I should DIY (DIM)" list. We shall see.

So do I DIM? or do I let someone else DIT and pay them for it? Such a predicament.

Here was my latest DIY (DIM) project! It comes with a tutorial as well.

HOW TO MAKE SUPER FUN WEDDING SHOES:


You will need:

• 1 plain, boring, simple pair of pumps

• 1 brooch that you've had for 2 years

• lots of prayer that someone is selling the exact same brooch on ebay

First buy the plain shoes.

Find a brooch that fits perfectly.

Pray for and buy the matching brooch on eBay.

Voila! Super fun wedding shoes! 

 

 

 

 

 

 Pardon me while I prop up my feet...:)