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!

DIY Birdcage Fascinator

My project for the past couple of days has been working on a DIY birdcage fascinator, complete with a flower, sparkles, and feathers!  Wikipedia describes fascinators as "a delicate, frivolous head decoration," and that's exactly what my turned out to be.  My fascinator may be delicate and frivolous, but it's definitely fun!

I will be wearing a regular veil for the wedding ceremony, but I tried on birdcage veils when I was dress shopping and I really liked them as well.  Since I like both so much, I decided I will wear a traditional veil during the ceremony and a birdcage veil/fascinator during the reception and dance.  Of course I hadn't budgeted for two veils, so I decided to make my birdcage veil and spend my budgeted money on a real veil.

Without further ado, here is the finished product:

Here's how I did it:

1) I bought a birdcage veil at Michaels using my weekly 40% off coupon for $8.99.  The veil came with a comb attached and rhinestones sprinkled across the netting.

2) I purchased one set of white flowers at the dollar tree for (the price on this one is a big surprise) $1.  I took apart the white flowers completely and used only the petals of the flowers.

3) I took a necklace Lee had given me for Christmas a few years ago and I cut off the pendant for the center of the flower.  I don't regret doing this because the necklace was made of nickle and was turning orange on some parts of it. Maybe I'm sentimental, but this is my favorite part of the fascinator. 

4) I stacked the flower petals from largest to smallest and glued them together using a hot glue gun.  I sewed on the rhinestone necklace pendant on the front of the flower, and on the back of the flower, I glued on a few feathers I happened to have sitting around. I then sewed the entire flower to the comb of the birdcage veil.

5) Using the stick-on rhinestones I had purchased at Walmart earlier this week, I added a few rhinestones around the pendant and added a few more gems to the veil as well.  You can never have too much sparkle! 

My grand total for the birdcage fascinator was $10.  I am calling it a birdcage fascinator rather than a birdcage veil because I don't want to wear the veil over my eyes during the reception and dance.  I don't want to feel like I have something in my eyes all night!