Keep It Small

Ah.....the answer to the budget wedding. Keep your guest list small. I've read quite a few blogs that have had to address this once or twice. Readers' pondering how to have a 10,000 dollar wedding with 200 guests ~ well that's probably really hard to do. Having a 5,000 wedding with 50 guests? Hmmm, maybe.

Then there's what we're trying to do, have the most cost-effecient wedding with 100-150 guests. We have gone over and over our guests list to figure out what tier of people we include. The problem is our "closest friends and family" is huge. Our families are numerous and wonderful, our friends are special and dear, and, well, it just wouldn't be very fair to pick and choose who to invite. So out the invites go! I think i'll be printing a few more to accomodate the groom's expanding list. Which he fully has the right to do.

I've been emailing with a caterer to figure out what menu we can have to serve all these people in a $2000 max budget, as I anxiously await rsvp's. Crossing my fingers!

The above figure is only for dinner, mind you. Desserts, cake, wine, beer, and other drinks not included. Pre-ceremony mingling food (gelato and donut holes, if I get my way) are a seperate fund as well. And then the thoughts come raining in....should I just buy a bunch of bread, some cheese and salalmi, 100 heads of lettuce, huge bags of rice and a whole pig to roast in the ground? wouldn't that be cheaper?

Anyone have any wonderful catering or food serving advice that doesn't include having a potluck wedding? Maybe what I need to hear the most is nut up and fork it out! Pun intended. The fork pun, not the nut up pun.

And they're off!

I got my lovelies mostly finished these last two days, still collecting addresses, but the majority of my do-this-as-easily-as-possible invitation project is finished.

I downloaded this label template from Martha Stewart early in the wedding planning, because I am not a calligrapher, nor did I want to hire anyone or bother my mom or friend, both of whom have wonderful penmanship skills.

I bought full-sheet labels and a $3 pair of scrapbooking scissors and voila! And of course the stamps... they are so cute aren't they? I went to two different post offices because the first one didn't have any good options. For a split second I felt crazy for caring, but when I saw the folk art King and Queen of Hearts at the second stop I knew I wasn't. Plus, they match the envelopes so darlingly!


















The backside....

I should have taken a photo of the paper mess I created on the living room floor cutting all these labels out! Laila had a ball playing with it all. There are stories of some of these being returned to sender, so I double checked with the postal clerk before I got too deep into it and he said if they're fed into the maching the way they're supposed to be fed then everything should be fine.

Le Creuset Giveaway on broken*saucer!

I hate to promote this, cause I'd rather keep my chances of winning as high as possible, and now whoever reads this just might try to win thus lowering the odds. But, here goes....

broken*saucer is hosting a Le Creuset giveway: A two-piece bakeware set! Um, Yes Please!

So, if you go there, you can comment and enter for a chance to win, isn't that great?

Lovely Dresses...

Sometimes I have to remind myself that just because there are so many gorgeous dresses out there it doesn't mean they are any better than mine. Even if that isn't true. As of yet I still feel like I could have 20 different weddings, and wear a different beautiful dress each time.

Dress commitment inevitably comes down to one I thing I believe: how much money you want to spend. Now it makes more sense to me when performing artists change outfits every song! So with that said, here are a couple dresses I think are so sweet ~

Dress #1 is an Embroidered Organza 1950's Cocktail/Wedding Dress and can be found here on Once Wed for $200.

Dress #2 is Vera Wang and is yours for only 3,500 UK pounds. Again, found here on Once Wed.

Invitations

Our invitations are printed!

I was dreading the thought of designing them myself and discovered DIYPaperie's Etsy site through reading Bride On a Shoestring's blog. Thank goodness for them both.

Husband and I picked the one below, sent her our color combo and that was that! I spent $25 on the PDF printable design and about $15 bucks on 5x7 cardstock (I haven't bought envelopes yet). With every invite order you receive a mailable RSVP card as well but we're having people respond through our wedding website.

Here are our lovelies ~

I'm very pleased with the way they turned out, and not the least bit upset that we didn't splurge on letterpress. I respect and admire the antique art of papergoods but can't even for a minute consider spending precious money on something people will recycle! My heart is in woodcuts, and if I had the time and resources wouldn't it be so cool to have woodcut prints for invitations? Yes, it would.

Excitement!

I just ate yakisoba stir-fry that my mom came over and made for us while my dad hyjacked the TV to watch a Rockumentary, followed by an apple and some fudge filled oreos so I may be on a bit of a sugar high, but I love my dress and sometimes I want to squeel inside. I put it on yesterday and could breathe in it! which means, yes, it fits me perfectly right now.

It has always fit me in that it would zip up, never mind the back cleavage, bulgling love handles and a really round rear. But I put it on, showed my husband, messed with how to take about a foot of it away from below the hips (making it a totally different dress, but the one I knew was hiding inside trying to come out) and messing with how and where to bustle it. No, I'm not doing my alterations. In fact I have an appt next Saturday to meet with a seamstress. So excited.

And, I'm pretty sure we nailed our invitation. You know, those things I was whining about in my previous post? Yeah, not designing those anymore. I will still print and mail them, but we're ordering a pdf through etsy. Done. Whew!

Excited, yes. Sugar high, probably. I swear these wedding planning emotions are like some kind of disorder. There are days I can't get enough and want more more more and other's where I am so over it and no pleasure from thinking of our own party or looking at other people's gorgeous events. Once this is over I'll have to channel my energy into something that is actually productive! How do bride's go about this after the wedding? Is it total relief or total letdown? I think I will be insanely relieved. Truly.

Most of this planning is really nothing at all actually except thinking about where to set up tables and what food we should eat. There isn't much doing, so I talk a lot bigger than I bite.

Anyway, just wanted to share my feeling-of-the-moment.

Thanks.

Renewed Inspiration....Confidence....Passion

Okay I admit, I've been stalling a bit on making our invites and getting things together for this wedding. I feel a bit like I'm in college again, looking at the syllabus knowing I have a huge project coming up, but waiting until 4am the morning it is due to begin working on it. Oh the memories! But then I chanced apon this wedding today shot by Alec Vanderboom and courtesy of Southern Weddings Magazine. (Is that how I appropriately site my sources? )

To see the original post click here because these pics are TINY and you probably can't really see it very well. I'm not all that when it comes to blogging or figuring out pic sizes and such.

This wedding cost $6000 and took place on the bride's family's property. Just beautiful. I look at so many weddings every day, really I'm addicted ~ I get my coffee in the morning, then sit down and see what new weddings are posted on about 10 different bridal blogs! But, what set this apart from the rest? As I was looking at these photos I thought, I can do this. We can have simple decor, easy, inexpensive food, and still have an amazing, fun wedding. I had to show my husband, something I rarely do since I kindof get embarassed when he catches me obsessing over weddings all the time!

He looked and he liked. He said people would like having something laid-back and comfortable.
We are definitely not stuffy people!

So, hopefully this "I can do it!" attitude sticks around because I need to get moving on this wedding! we're just over 3 months away.....my how close we are, geez, its about time! I'm terrified to make my own invitations because I know that if they look anything close to what I want its going to take some time. If I decide that my time and frustration on the invites is too tedious and not worth it, well then they'll just be plain black Times New Roman on white cardstock. And maybe I'll care, maybe I won't.

I'm raising my own glass to "cheers" me on moving forward.

And my husband too. He's got a LOT of yard work to do!