Monthly Archives: September 2010

Sep20

Update

Posted on by
Standard

I’m supposed to be writing a paper but decided to take a quick break to bring ya’ll up-to-date on the wedding planning process.

Done
-Booked venues
-Booked caterer
-Booked band
-Booked photographer
-Booked videographer
-Booked hair and makeup
In-progress
-Save-the-Dates, I’m about 1/3 of the way through addressing them all and after that I’m just waiting on pictures to come in.
-Collecting items for centerpieces
-Mine and my bridesmaid’s dresses, this is my Mom’s project so I can’t take any credit for it. But they are definitely coming along.
-Website, this is mostly done I just need Chris to get it up and running.
-Hotel blocks, I’ve gotten bids from several hotels and I have one under contract and another I still need to decide on.
-Order shoes! The silly shoes I want are out-of-stock and I have no idea if they’ll be coming back!
To-Do

-Find and book a florist
-Design invitations
-Start looking into rehearsal dinner things
Sure there are some things not on the list, but these are some big ones!

Want to see some of my finds from thrift shopping the other day? After posting about the things I needed I made a casual trip to our local YMCA thrift store and definitely hit the mother load.

The actual center pieces will have better ivy, this ivy was growing in Chris’s yard and was hard to work with in addition to having very small leaves. I’m also hoping to put all of this on top of a mirror to really play up the light from the candles reflecting off the vase and mirror. The real tough decision about all this is whether to have silver or white overlays on the table. There will definitely be floor length white table cloths, but do we want to double up on the white for the overlays or go silver? Initially I was worried that the silver would be too dark.
My total tally from the thrift store was: 3 centerpiece vases, 8 candle stick holders (for tall and short candles), 5 candy bar vases, 1 small silver picture frame, and 1 large silver picture frame. The overall damage? $12.

Sep16

Wanted!

Posted on by
Standard
Today I made this sign and hung it on our refrigerator. What is it? Basically it is a list of all (some) of the things I would like to collect before the wedding. I’m hoping to save money and be environmentally friendly by getting all of these used at garage sales, flea markets, and thrift stores. So what are these things? Basically they are all items I need to make the reception centerpieces! Once I start collecting a few of the basic pieces I’ll do a mock-up and post some pictures. But for now here are some clues as to what the picture frames will be used for:
So if you happen to find yourself at a thrift store or garage sale and happen to notice one of these items go ahead and snag it for us! We’ll pay you back and we’ll be that much closer to collecting everything we need!
Sep5

For the love of shoes

Posted on by
Standard
I know it’s not totally true that everyone with 2 x chromosomes is in love with shoes (my brother is proof that it’s not an exclusively female passion at any rate,) but it is definitely a gender roll I fall into. I’m not terrible about it, I can usually control the urge but I definitely appreciate a beautiful shoe. (Wait until you see the one’s I got for our engagement pictures!) So pretty early on my wedding vision involved pictures like these:
Specifically I’m yearning for yellow shoes for the bridesmaids and myself. This is an absolute pain. Finding cute yellow shoes: no problem. Finding two pairs from the same company in the same color to give my girls a heel height option: no problem. Getting said company to actual ship said shoes: big problem.
Stay tuned.
Sep3

I love technology!

Posted on by
Standard
Napoleon Dynamite anyone?
I have no idea how people planned weddings before the internet. It absolutely baffles me. As it is I’m pretty sure I could plan this entire wedding online. I could order things, I could book vendors, I could e-mail invitations, we could do online pre-marital counseling, etc. etc. So how has the internet helped me today?
Hotel blocks! I’ve been dreading this just because it’s not fun, there’s no room for interpretation or making it fun and cute and matching my wedding colors, it’s just boring. However, it needs to get done before I can send out save-the-dates so today I set about tackling the task. My first plan was to call around and see what people could do for me, but then…
Cue the Hallelujah chorus! Basically all it took was entering approximately how many hotel room we’ll need, how many hotels we’re willing to split people between, maximum price, location, and BOOM! I get an email from Britta asking if I had any specific hotels in mind and any special requests. I respond to tell her that I’m looking for 2 levels of hotel (cheap and nice) and that for the nice hotel I was thinking about the Inn at Virginia Tech. So I go about my day: I go to class, I go to office hours, I sit through a meeting, and I return to my computer. I have an email from Britta suggesting an alternate nice hotel and also an email from hotelplanner.com giving me 10 hotel bids! Some of them were too far but other then that it worked out really nicely. I now have a cheap hotel in mind which is still pretty nice with 3-stars, free breakfast, free prearranged shuttle from the roanoke airport, 3.4 miles from the church, and about $20 less than what they advertise on their site. Score! I haven’t heard back from the nicer hotels yet but my hopes are high!
What did people do before the internet?