Invitation Options

Here are the four embellishment options Lee and I are considering for our wedding invitations:

Belly Band

Ribbon

Tulle

Twine

Which is your favorite option, and why?  :)

Puzzles

I have been working on some fun puzzles for the wedding!  I want to make sure the guests have some small thing to entertain them while waiting, so I have made a couple of puzzles and fun games for the guests. 

I made a crossword puzzle, a digital camera "I Spy," and a wedding mad libs.  My favorite is the crossword puzzle.  I took a picture of the one I printed out and solved:

Oops, I forgot to fill in one of the answers!

One puzzle/game will be placed at each person's spot at the reception, and I will print out a few extras in case people would like to try their hand at more than one.  I hope the guests enjoy completing their puzzles while waiting for their food!

A Fun Surprise

I got fun package in the mail today with a gift intended for my bridesmaids!  I couldn't resist packaging them up immediately.  Hmm...I wonder what could be inside?  Guess they will have to wait 169 days to find out! 

Wedding Weekend Projects with Lee

Lee visited Salem this weekend, and we were able to complete a few wedding projects.

For our ceremony, we made decisions on songs and readings.  The parents, grandparents, and bridal party will be walking down the aisle Air on the G String by Bach.

I will be walking down the aisle to this version of the wedding march:

This song will be our special music during the lighting of the unity candles:

And we will be walking up the aisle as a married couple to this song!

My brother will be doing our readings.  Here are the readings from the Bible we have chosen:

Jeremiah 29:11-13  

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, 

“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

1 Corinthians 13:1-8

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, 

but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, 

but do not have love, I am nothing.  

If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, 

but do not have love, I gain nothing.

 Love is patient, love is kind. 

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 Love never fails.

A couple of other fun things.  I got Lee's pocket square in the mail this weekend.  They did not have pocket square in our color at Mens Wearhouse, so I had to order online.  I ended up getting a good deal; the pocket square, with shipping, was under $10!

Lee will wear this in his tuxedo's pocket

I also was able to work on the wedding invitation suite, since I am designing my own.  This picture is kind of blurry, but you can get the general idea.  There will be two pages sent with our invite.  The first will be the invitation and the second will be the information and a detachable RSVP postcard.  The third page you see is the back side of the information/RSVP postcard.  To RSVP, guests will detach the pre-stamped bottom portion of the second page on a perforated line.

We are going to print the invites on white or cream shimmer paper.  I would like to either tie something around the 2 pages or put a belly band around them to keep them together.  The tie or band could be turquoise to introduce our color scheme. 

Here is one last wedding project we started but did not finish this weekend: escort cards. We are going to be making wax seals to put on each escort card.  Lee's mom does calligraphy, and we are going to have her write them out for us.  Here is our inspiration and our tester card:

Inspiration

This seal has wedding bells, but we also bought a wax stamp with hearts

We didn't use real wax to make our version.  We used hot glue, a wax stamp, and silver spray paint to achieve the same effect.  We found the cards at the dollar store in packs of 50 for 25 cents a piece.  The back of a card will have a printed off sticker designating which tables the person can sit at.  We will not be having individual seating place cards, but these will serve as a guideline so family can sit closer to the head table. 

Lots of to-do list items were conquered this weekend!  I love crossing things off my list. 

A Tale of Two (or Three, or Four) Ties

I think most of the wedding planning lately has led to shopping and spending money.  And according to my multiple shopping lists, there is still quite a bit of spending left to do. 

Lee and I have been searching for the perfect tie for our ushers, and we thought we had finally found "the one." 

Usher's tie, from Macys

Alas, it was not meant to be.  We initially only found three in the store, so we decided to order four of the ties online and have them shipped to Lee's parents' house in North Dakota over Christmas.  The ties arrived, but only two of the ties in the package were the same; the other two ties were similar colors but different designs.  Even though they were all different ties, the brand had decided to give similarly colored ties the same UPC number. 

We promptly went to the Grand Forks Macys, were we only found one more of the ties.  We exchanged one of the wrong ties for the one in the store, and we ordered one more tie, crossing our fingers they would send us the correct one.  They didn't. 

Back to Macys we went, this time going to the Portland store where we first spotted the ties.  They no longer had the ties in the store, but they told us there may be some in the Salem stores.  Today I checked out one of the Macys stores.  I thought I found the correct tie, purchased it, and then took it home to compare to the original.  It was the wrong tie.  Same colors, slightly different design. 

I have one more store to check, but Lee and I may be back to square one in our tie search. 

In better news, I found my bridal jewelry!  Over Christmas, I went shopping with my sister and found a bling-y necklace.  The necklace is similar in shape to the one below, but the stones on my necklace are not random, but symmetrically designed. 

A necklace that's similar, but different

I didn't like the earrings that came with the necklace, so I have been looking for earrings that would complement the style and shape of the necklace.  Today I found them!  Kohls just happened to have earrings that will perfectly match the necklace.  Plus, all of Kohls' jewelry was on sale this week. 

The earrings are about 2" from top to bottom and 1" across

I also purchased a veil to wear for my ceremony!  I wanted a beaded, two-tier, mid-length veil, and I am very happy with the purchase I made.  The veil wasn't something I was too picky about since I will only be wearing it for the ceremony.  I may also put it on for a couple of pictures prior to the ceremony. 

I did not take any pictures when I tried the veil on yesterday, but I do have a picture from the company.  I will not wear the veil as far forward on my head as it shows in the picture, so the veil will fall a few inches below my waistline instead of at the waist.  Please ignore the scary doll modeling the veil.  She's freaky-looking.

This company would sell more veils if they swapped this doll for a real model!

A couple of things I have ordered but haven't received in the mail yet: 300 small organza bags to put M&Ms or Hershey's Kisses in for wedding favors and a dance floor decal from Oriental Trading Company!

Ours will be the same, with different names, of course!

Invitations

Happy.  The wedding is starting to seem so real!

Do you like this?  :)

The Wedding Craziness

Sometimes I feel like wedding planning is pretty crazy.  Last week especially was a whirlwind of wedding craziness.  I guess as long as I am not going crazy, we're fine!

Last week was good, in spite of how much needed to be done.  Lee and I met with both the reception and the groom's dinner venues for taste testing.  Right now, it looks like we will be having a buffet of roast beef and chicken pasta for the groom's dinner, with garlic mashed potatoes and vegetables on the side.  Lee's aunt will be making us (another) cake for dessert.  For the wedding reception, we will be having a buffet of garden salad, dinner rolls, lemon pepper chicken, roasted pork loin, a vegetarian Alfredo pasta, baby red potatoes, and green beans almondine.  We will be having wedding cake for dessert, of course!

Eagles Crest Grill, site of the groom's dinner

It was very interesting visiting with the reception venue and the church venue again.  Both venues have imposed quite a few stipulations that were not in place when we first booked them last winter.  The reception venue has raised all of its prices and changed parts of the contract.  In spite of the price increases, my parents are going to be graciously purchasing 2 kegs of beer and 15-20 bottles of wine for the reception.  However, we are going to do away with hors d'oeuvres, since the prices have drastically increased for fruit and vegetables platters.  Another bummer about the reception venue: if there ends up being a Friday event before our wedding, we can only start decorating at 10 AM the morning of the wedding.  A good thing about the reception venue: much of the hotel is undergoing renovations.  The pool area has already been redone, and most of the guestrooms have been redone as well. 

Meeting with the church was fairly straightforward, but we were told we would not be able to move anything major on or off the stage.  For example, if the piano is on the stage, we have to leave it there.  If the piano is off the stage, we have to leave it off the stage.  Luckily, Lee's parents know the guy who is in charge of decorating the stage, so hopefully we will have some say in how we want the stage to look.  We can still decorate the stage with any small items, including flowers, lighted trees, and candles.  Luckily, we can start decorating the church on the Friday before the wedding. 

I also was able to have my gown fitting.  This was definitely one of the highlights of my week.  I am using Emily's pageant gown seamstress who is SUPER talented to alter my dress.  She was very meticulous, which I loved.  I think she might even be more detail-oriented than I am!  She also had some great ideas for the bustle and hiding the zipper on the back of the dress. 

Gown designed by Caroline Hayden and sewn by the lady who is doing my alterations.  My sister wore this gown at the Miss North Dakota competition last year!

I was able to go shopping in Fargo with Becca and Lisa to help Becca pick out her bridesmaid dress.  Becca was the final bridesmaid to choose her dress.  I am happy to report that there were five different styles chosen between all six bridesmaids!  They are going to look fabulous! 

Finally, Lee and I went attended a wedding last week.  The wedding was gorgeous and very well done.  It was also probably double my current wedding budget!  This bride and groom did not skimp on any details.  Since it was a great wedding, I will be taking a couple of ideas from this wedding to use in my own.  For example, I loved the use of uplighting at the reception and the votive candles all around the room.