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! 

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!

Flowers Flowers Flowers!

I am SO excited about this post!  Almost more excited than I am for my birthday and the new season of Glee next week! 

Due to budget constraints, I had decided to do fake flowers for the bridesmaids, toss bouquet, boutonnieres, and corsages.  My bouquet and Lee's boutonniere will be made of real blooms and done by a florist.  Yesterday, Lee and I went to Michaels to browse the flower and wedding sections.  Lo and behold, flowers were 50% off.  We made some split-second decisions and decided to purchase the flowers we would need for the wedding.

We found an assortment of large roses for bouquets, small roses for corsages and boutonnieres, and small white cluster flowers.  We needed a few more large roses than they had in stock, but Michaels is nice and gave us a rain check.  When we returned home, I decided to take a stab at flower arranging. 

There are not many tutorials on the internet for arranging fake or silk flowers.  I looked at a few general bouquet arranging websites, and then I just decided to go for it!  Here is the end result.  I am so pleased.  :)

Here, Lee is modeling a bouquet.  We decided to wrap the stems in black ribbon to match the black tuxes with their black shirts underneath.  I wrapped white ribbon as an accent around the black.

 Another side view.

A view from the top of the bouquet.

Here's how the whole flower arranging process went: I started by de-leafing all of the flowers and cutting the cluster flowers into single branches.  Next, I grouped three roses around one section of small cluster flowers.  In the indentations made by the three roses on the sides of the bouquet, I placed another set of small cluster flowers.  I placed the leaves similarly.  

All of the flowers were secured to each other one at a time using floral tape.  I must note floral tape is the most difficult tape I have ever worked with.  As your hands warm it up, it gets gummy and makes your fingers incredibly sticky.  Not to mention, the tape does not stick to flower stems; it sticks only to itself.  

I covered the floral tape with 5/8" black satin ribbon.  I wrapped the ribbon around the stem so it overlapped and covered the floral tape completely.  I temporarily secured the black ribbon with a round pearl pins.  I then took 1/4" white satin ribbon and wrapped it around the black ribbon, securing the white ribbon with the round pearl pins where the ribbon crossed.  I made these crossings approximately 1" apart.  The placement of these pins also acted to further secure the black ribbon.

Tah Dah!  I have a bridesmaid bouquet.  Here's the best part: the cost for all of the bridesmaid bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages will be UNDER $50!  Plus, I get to have fun making all of them.  I love being artsy-crafty.  

I have one final interesting tidbit for all of you blog readers.  I have had nearly 4,500 hits on my blog since I started it late last November.  Cool!

Dollar Store Bride

If you know me well, you know I cannot resist a deal.  I am not afraid to admit I love freebies, coupons, and the dollar store.  Today Lee and I decided to visit the Dollar Tree to check out if they had anything to use for our wedding.  And of course they did! 

Lee and I first checked out the wedding "section."  (Did you know: not only the Dollar Tree has a section dedicated to weddings, Walmart has one too!).  Our first find was 300-count bags of fake white rose petals.  We figured we could use these either in the church aisle or to scatter on tabletops.

 We also picked out some white wire garland with little plastic hearts sticking out of it.  We think we could use it for tying back tulle, edging tables/doors, or wrapping around things.  Not very specific uses, but we are sure we will use it!  The garland pictured below isn't the exact garland we bought, but you get the idea.

We then went on to the candle aisle.  I decided I will be making our unity candle, so we scoped out the candle options at the dollar store.  They have two tapered candles for a dollar, so I am sure I will be back to purchase two of those.  Today we purchased two glass candlestick holders for the taper candles.  We will use a pillar candle in the middle.  I have yet to brainstorm how I will decorate the pillar candle...

Onward we went to the picture frames.  Although we did not buy any picture frames today, I know we will be back to revisit this section of the store to purchase frames for some of the projects I have in mind!

Then, divine inspiration struck.  Earlier this week I had seen a fabulous centerpiece on Pinterest.  Oh how I love Pinterest!  The centerpiece utilized fishbowls stacked upon each other.  When Lee and I stumbled upon small fishbowls at the Dollar Tree, I knew I would want to try to recreate this decoration.

All of the fishbowls at the Dollar Tree are the same size, but we decided we liked the look of the identical fishbowls stacked just as well.  We debated about what to put in the bowls, and we decided to put a candle in the top bowl.  In the bottom bowls, we decided we would put turquoise beads and a single white flower bud nestled on top of the beads (kind of like the picture below, except the flower would be white and the water would be turquoise beads). 

We looked through the store for blue beads, and we found a perfect substitute: air freshener gel beads.  These gel beads are the perfect color.

In total, we bought enough fishbowls to make one tower of three and two towers of two (7 total).  We also bought 4 containers of the gel beads.  We'll buy the flowers and the candles later.  We think we are going to use this decoration either at the guest book table or on the punch or cake table.

Last, but not least, I bought a package of white doilies.  I want to try making a craft like the one below:

 

Oh My

So...  Sad day.  Dress #2 (the lace one) has now been worn by 2 people I know.  First person is someone I know from undergrad, so it wouldn't have been a big deal if I had gone with the same dress as her.  Second person happens to be Lee's sister-in-law's cousin and former track/cross country teammate.  Knowing how much Lee likes to Facebook, I think he has probably seen the dress on her already.  :(  Who knows...maybe it's a sign that I shouldn't reconsider!  Or a sign that I should continue looking...  ;)

In other recent wedding news, Lee and I have registered for gifts!  We decided to go with Bed Bath & Beyond and Honeyfund.com.  What is Honeyfund.com, you ask?  It is probably the coolest wedding registry ever!  We can register for parts of our honeymoon to be gifted to us.  If someone wants to give us a couples massage, they can!  Lee and I decided we will most likely take a cruise for our honeymoon.  I'm assuming most gift-givers will opt to use the BB&B registry, but this is a great option for people who want to give a "fun" gift. 

Everyone told us registering for gifts would be hard.  Luckily, Lee and I didn't fight over anything, but it was hard in a different way.  Maybe I'm picky, but it was hard finding dishes I liked!  Most of the pretty dishes were WAY to expensive ($150-200/place setting).  When I finally found a set of dishes I liked and Lee also agreed on, we found out they were discontinuing the line.  Back at square one!  In the end, we decided to pick out a white set of porcelain dishes with a pretty decent price and great reviews.  I'm not completely sure if this is what we will stick with, but for now it works.  Plus, white dishes match everything and are timeless.  We were able to pick out a lot of fun white serving dishes that would match!

 

We decided to also go with a timeless silverware pattern as well.  I've heard you should pick flatware based on how the knife feels in your hand, and this one had a hefty knife.  There was silverware that matched our dishes, but I didn't want to be too matchy-matchy, especially if we changed our dishes.

 

For our bedroom, we went with a green and beige comforter.  The colors seem slightly off in this picture (the beige at the bottom of the bed is richer in real life), but you get the idea:

 

For our bathroom, we went with a silver and blue shower curtain.  We also picked out white, gray, and blue towels to match.  The towels are another thing that are not solidified yet.  I have wanted nice towels for SO long, but based on the reviews from the BB&B website, I don't know which ones to pick.  The fluffy ones seem to leave lint all over, and the thin ones sound like they fall apart after 10 washes.

I hope people who shop at BB&B are smart and use their 20% off coupon that comes in the mail every month.  :)