Wedding recaps and ideas

Since we’re reaching the high traffic wedding months, I thought I would share some of the things I did for my wedding. I got married last April but the wedding is still strong in my mind. Besides I was slacking last year so I’ll do this now.

• Before I decided on my dress, I knew that I was going to get flat comfortable shoes. It was a must. I don’t walk in heels all that much so I wasn’t going to try to on my wedding day. I saw a lot of cute Stiletto shoes but I would rather be comfortable. I ended up buying some white cushiony slippers from David’s Bridal. I believe they were 20 something but it was definitely worth it. I was happy and didn’t think about my feet at all. Plus my photographer loved it. She took several pictures of them. J

• I read a lot of blogs where people had negative opinions about having a fake cake for show and then a sheet cake cut up in the back. I jumped on that idea. It not only saved us money (a simple sheet cake and one layer on top of the fake cake for cutting) but it also was great for pictures. We asked the baker before we hired her if she would be offended if we asked. She said yes and opted to make money off the total if we gave her back the fake part of it. Heck yeah we did. We wouldn’t need it. So if there’s something you want to try but reading that others think it’s not acceptable or a little weird, bump that! Try it out because this is your wedding. Do what you want and can afford.

• Come up with a MUST HAVE picture list for your photographer. My photographers were absolutely awesome and they already had ideas about what to shoot. I had full trust in them but I also wanted to make sure that I included pictures of people my family wanted as well. It won’t offend the photographers. How would they know that you want a special picture of your niece with an Uncle that’s always out of town? They wouldn’t so you’d have to direct them.

• I went back and forth mentally about getting a wedding coordinator. I knew that I would be like any other bride and wouldn’t want to hear about any issues or concerns unless it’s something really drastic. Finally we both decided that we couldn’t afford it. The least expensive one I could find was $1200 for 3 hours. Not happening. I then was talking to one of my co-workers about the wedding and she was giving me advice on the wedding day. I then jokingly said “I should ask you to be the wedding coordinator.” She said she would do it. I jumped for joy and thanked her graciously. As long as I provided a timeline, a list of vendor telephones and give her all of the important information, she was good. I say if you know someone that isn’t family, assertive, helpful and that you can trust, ask them if they’ll do it for you. I say someone that isn’t family because they might want to take pictures or be in pictures or get involved in certain things and you don’t want to take that away from them because people are running up to them left and right looking for extra candles.

• Make sure to incorporate yours and the groom’s style in the wedding. One thing a lot of people remember are the songs we played during the bouquet and garter toss. I chose Singles Ladies by Beyonce. It made it fun. It’s a fun song and it still is. My husband decided on the theme song to James Bond. He was named after the creator so he thought it fit. Runner ups were the theme to Indiana Jones and Mission Impossible. I was happy with James Bond.

So brides and grooms, have fun, enjoy your day and try to take it all in because it does literally go in a flash. Also try not to worry. The morning of my wedding, it was storming horribly! It was full of pouring down raining, thunder and lightening. I laughed when I woke up and saw that. Didn’t let it get to me. By the end of the day and when our car arrived, it was bright and sunny. It was just beautiful. So try not to worry and love your husband.

Wedding discoveries

Hello ladies (and some gents that read my blog)! I must share my wedding discoveries. First off, I've already told you guys to not sleep on the Dollar Tree, Dollar General, or Family Dollar. I know you can see the theme here-you can find candles, holders, favor boxes and sacks, standard thank you cards, cellophane. You can find all kinds of things if you just look. Now the one place that I've used twice and very happy with is FedEx Kinkos. I used them for my save-the-dates and printing my invitations and both situations, they took care of our printing needs. For the save-the-dates, we went in and sat at one of their self-service PCs. We wanted to have them as magnets so we found something that was close to our colors and entered our information and boom! 200 magnets for $80. We got them in less than a week. As for the invitations, I bought them at Michael's. It's the BRIDES brand. I read on The Knot and a fellow bride suggested Office Max to print the invitations. I'm still going to use them for my DIY programs. I'll be using vellum paper and unfortunately Kinko's can't print on that type of paper. I found that out last weekend. So my FI suggested Kinko's. We went and was helped by Alex-she took care of us. She was patient, printed some test pages before we finalized. We came back after two hours and the invites and RSVPs looked so beautiful that my eyes attempted to shed a tear. Aside from my dress, that was a moment where I felt really girlie and bride-like. I looked at the invitations and just smiled thinking "This is really going to happen." So very awesome! I have 160 invites at $.59 each. Now, because I chose to have the font printed in brown, it was .59 cents. Had it been black ink,  .10 cents a page. So for printing the invites and the RSVP cards-127 dollars. That wasn't bad at all and they came out so well. So ladies, I would definitely recommend them for things that you need printed in regards to your wedding. If you have the money or just want to go traditional with calligraphy, that's cool. However, this was quick, beautiful and inexpensive. Plus, there are some locations that are 24 hours and if you and your FI are up and late working on wedding stuff, you can chill at Denny's eating and relaxing and get your invites printed at the same time. Happy wedding planning!

Centerpiece ideas

For the past couple of weeks, my mind has been centered around centerpieces for the receptions. I've been looking at pictures and pictures and videos and more pictures. I initially wanted a vase with blue rocks on the bottom. I would fill up the vase with blue water (made blue with food coloring) and then either place a flower (live or silk) inside the water or place a floating candle on top. I would end it off with some blue and brown rose petals surrounding the vase. I would do different variations at each table; sizes of the vases, candles or flowers and go about it like that. I tried it once and thought okay cool. Then I started worrying about the water in vase. First off we're going to have white linens that are coming with the venue. I can see it now: Someone bumps the table and blue water everywhere and a charge for each water drop. I kept thinking about it and thinking about it and thought let's try something else. So then I found a picture of a centerpiece that I didn't think would be too hard to duplicate. I thought okay I can still have the vase but a lot taller and instead of the white, find brown branches. Now whenever I said branches, I would get looks like "Branches? Do you want us to grab branches from outside and stick them in these elegant looking vases?" Then I thought instead of the blue water, find brown rocks or marbles, fill up the tall vases, still get the branches but spray paint them with the blue. So like the picture to the left, also taking out the white and green flowers. As you can see, both have tall vases. Let me tell you---tall vases are expensive! I saw one for $20 and had to stop there. I have close to 20 tables. That's 20 bucks times 20. I'm cool on that---$400 for some vases! Oh no. We are not rolling like that and even if I was, I still wouldn't pay that much. So I have decided on and this decision is still a good one because it involves something I love and have always loved-CANDLES! I've always loved candles. In my apartment, I had them everywhere; the bathroom, the kitchen, bedroom, living room-everywhere. Candles can set a mood. So I thought let's find some candles that match my colors, find some candles holders that match my colors, all shapes and sizes, have some skinny vases from Dollar Tree (please do not sleep on Dollar Tree! You can find a lot of great things there if you just look!) and fill them with either brown and blue sand and/or blue rocks and then surround them with the blue and brown rose petals. Awesome idea, right? I still love it but I ran into the problem of finding turquoise/Tiffany blue and brown candles. I've found three. Then a co-worker of mine suggested buying white candles, all shapes and sizes and painting them the colors!!! Super awesome! I can find white candles everywhere--mainly the Dollar Tree, Dollar General and Family Dollar! Check me out ladies. I am trying to save money.