Wedding Wednesday

The second I saw this on Pinterest, I wished I could go back in time and buy it for my flower girl... what an amazing gift, and what an amazing opportunity to be a special part of her big day down the road.

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Although your 3-6 year old flower girl may not fully appreciate this right now, I bet her mom would and 20-or-so years down the line, I can see this little keepsake meaning everything to her.  Yes, it's kind of expensive, but I would have splurged for my cute little cousin who was SO in love with all things bride and wedding leading up to our big day last year.

You can check out all of my Wedding Wednesday pins on my Wedding Wednesday Pinterest Board!

Happy Hump Day!!!

Our Flower Girl

Originally I was not going to have a Flower Girl, but I am so glad that I changed my mind.  It was so fun to get to share the experience with my cousins' little girl.  I loved hearing about how much she loved brides and weddings once I asked her to be my Flower Girl.  I loved getting emails from her when I sent her pictures of her dress.  I loved making her gifts and finding cute things to add to her gift bag.  It was so great to have a little girl who could have, what her mom has told me, was one of the best days of her life on what was also mine.

Fiona is the most well behaved little girl I've ever met.  She sits up straight and has no problem talking to adults and she's not the type to run around or make lots of noise.  She's 5, going on 15, and she is the sweetest...

She listens and follows directions so well, and she did her best to keep our Ring Bearer under control.  He would not let go of her hand and no matter how fast he tried to run, she held on and kept him from sprinting down the aisle.

The day of the ceremony, she loved all of the stuff that she got to do with the big girls.

She went to tea...

and got to have her hair and makeup done...

She also had to make sure she knew what she was doing, so she went to the hall and practiced.

She really liked the wedding coloring book I made her and her mom told me not too long ago that she plays tea party every day with the tea set that my mom found for me to put in her gift bag.  She also carries the purses that I gave here wherever she goes and loved the fact that she had a purse for her Flower Girl camera... I still can't wait to see the pictures she took that day.

It was so fun to share this day with her and to give her memories that she'll hopefully have forever.  I can't wait to make her a photo book of her own, probably a Christmas present, that she can have to look back on that day.  I can't wait until the day that she gets married...

Wedding Week Wednesday

We've gotten so much done this week!!!  My Mom, Aunt, Uncles and Grandma have been a huge help this week and it's making my week way less stressful than I thought it would be!  J has been great, too, but he's been really busy with his own stuff, obviously.

OK, here are some things that we've done this week.

Favors

Here's the finished product... and here's what they look like when they're all done.

They are going in the folded napkins tomorrow.












Out of Towner Packs

 J got these done really quickly and we took them to the hotel on Tuesday.

Flower Girl Basket

Side note... our TV looks really weird in this pic.
































Escort Boards

We ended up buying the cards at Joann Fabrics and printing them on the computer... the projects started getting a little overwhelming.















Surprise for the Guys


I don't think I told you about this awesome picture idea that found on Jasmine's blog and I LOVE...

So, of course I had to make it happen and had to make it cute!!!  The groomsmen are getting these at the rehearsal...

In case you can't tell, the box says "No Cold Feet"
















Marriage License


I was going to do a whole post about this, but some jerk face who was taking pictures of witnesses in court made it so I can't take pictures in Ft. Wayne's BEAUTIFUL court house... so, here's all I got  : (

... but we have the marriage license which is what matters!!!

One last thing...

J and I are not going to be together much for the next few days so before he left to go up to the lake (a.k.a. groomsmen central) we exchanged wedding gifts.  I bought his a LONG time ago and it took everything I had to not give it to him at Christmas because I was SO EXCITED!  So here's what I got him...

He went to Kansas for grad school and worked there, so I knew he would love a picture of Allen Fieldhouse on a canvas... and he did!

And I know that J and I are made for each other because here's what he got for me...

I'm a Texas grad and this is the tower at the center of campus... and he put it on a campus.  Great minds do think alike!

Coming soon... napkin folding and stuffing, centerpieces, bridesmaids gifts and getting organized!

Flower Girl Gifts

I don't know if I've ever told you, but I have got the CUTEST flower girl in the world.  She is four (which, when you ask her, comes out more like "foe") and when she was younger, she was always like a little person... not so much a baby or toddler.  She's tall and thin and LOVES to get dressed up and be pretty.

One of my favorite things has been finding and making little presents for her.  It's so fun to find things for little girls who will just fall in love with the stuff that you give them.  She already has a flower girl t-shirt that I made her (so she can be like the bridesmaids who all have shirts).  I also got her a gift that I got all of the bridesmaids because I knew it would make her feel special to be like the "big girls".

I saw a super cute little flower girl camera on the Wedding Channel Store and go that for her.  I wanted to get her one of those kids digital cameras, but they are just as expensive as the ones for adults!!!  So, she's getting this super cute camera that has 35mm film, which I didn't even really know they still made...

I have also included my Flower Girl gifts as part of my DIY adventure... here are the things that I've MADE for my precious little flower girl...

Wedding day is going to be LONG, so I made her a coloring book to keep her busy during the "wait" parts of the "hurry up and wait" day...

I put pictures in that will help her follow what goes on throughout the day.  Those are my shoes for her to color purple   :-D










Like I said... she really likes to be dressed up and pretty, so I also had to make something that was one of a kind for her hair.  I was thinking a flower headband or a cute little ribbon crown, but I found this video and fell in love with the end product, so I made here this...

ALSO, her dress is homemade (by J's mom) and it's coming back to Texas with Jason after his trip home this week, so there will be pictures SOON!!!!

Flower Girl Dress

I talked in my latest planning recap about flower girl dresses.  The dresses that I found online were ok, but they weren't perfect and I was really worried about ordering online.  So, while we were visiting J's family at Christmas time, I talked to his mom about making a flower girl dress for me.  I told her that if she could make the initial dress, the tailor who's working on my dress could alter it if necessary.  She said she would do it... HOORAY!

So, today, I went and looked at patterns.  I found a really great McCall's pattern and bought it!  Here's the dress...

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NOW... you have to use your imagination.  Here are the specs for my dress...
Bodice - Ivory
Skirt - Dark Purple with an Ivory Lace overlay
Instead of the ribbon around the middle (which you can barely see here) there will be an Ivory sash.

It's going to be SOOOO cute!!  I only bought the main fabric needed (J's mom is going to get the lining and the buttons or zipper for the back), but I only paid about $25 for it, so I'm feeling good about it!

Now that this decision is made, I just have to send it to Minnesota to J's mom and let her work on it.  I already bought the basket and know that I'm getting purple petals, so that just leaves me the shoes and accessories to figure out!  I'm open for suggestions...

Fort Wayne Planning - Recap

Sorry for the delay in getting this written... I've been spending time with my family instead of my computer (pretty good trade, if you ask me).

So, on Tuesday, we went and got my dress fitted, met with a potential wedding officiant and went to our ceremony/reception venue to make some final decisions and meet with the party rental place about lighting.  So here is a recap about the day...

Dress Fitting - although my cousin did document this occasion in pictures, I obviously can't put them on the blog.  The tailor is a really nice lady, but the dress shop (who is now closed) is not my friend.  They ordered me a size 12 in the dress.  I definitely could have fit in to a 10 and still had room.  This pisses me off because now I have to get it altered, including the lace, which is NOT what I wanted to have to do.  If you buy a lace dress, make sure you ask them what size they are ordering for you because it's one thing to have to take in satin, but lace is so much more difficult.  Hopefully my tailor is as good as she seems!!

Officiant - the lady that we met with is very nice.  She is also very organized, which I have an extreme appreciation for, especially since we are doing this from 1,000 miles away.  We talked to her and liked her and I don't really know what I'm looking for, but I wasn't immediately sold on her.  I didn't have that feeling with my dress, either, so maybe I'm just not that kind of bride.

We don't have someone here who either of us grew up with.  The priest that married my mom and dad and baptized me passed away quite a few years ago, and there isn't really anyone else who knows both of us and would be good at officiating the ceremony so I think that the nice officiant who is very organized, has good ideas and is in our budget is going to be as good as anyone else we will find.  CHECK.

Reception Venue - I need to start this section by talking about how fantastic Callie is at Ceruti's.  She is our event coordinator and she is so helpful, she keeps in mind that we are on a tight budget and she has been fantastic to work with.  I would recommend contacting her if you are thinking about booking a Ceruti's venue.

Being in the room makes things SO much easier to visualize and decide.  We picked out our table cloths in about 3 seconds.  We decided that we are going to do a two tiered head table so that we can center it and put pipe and drape behind it that we can up light.

Those are really the only decisions that we had to make there, but it was nice that J got to see the place again... it's been a while since he was there.

Lighting - the biggest "issue" I/we had with the reception venue was the lack of color.  Obviously, it's nice to be able to incorporate your own color into a blank slate, rather than having to deal with an already existent colored decor.  We decided that we wanted to add some color through lighting on the walls so in October, my mom and I went to a party rental company and this week, they came out to Ceruti's and met with us to make a final decision on how many and what color.

She brought colors that were exactly what we want... a dark purple and a lime green and they are going to be great!  We are putting lights on three of the four walls.  Initially we were going to only light two of the walls, but the one we weren't going to light is the one you see when you walk in, so we added three lights for that wall and we are all set!  The lights are going to cost about half as much as I thought they were, so that was a bonus as well!!!

Flower Girl - I also so my flower girl today and talked to her about a dress.  I decided I really want her to have lace on her dress in some form or fashion.  I found a few options, but I think I'm going to ask Jason's mom again if she could make a dress with specific measurements and then she could have it altered here.  OR, I may check and see if the lady who is altering my dress could make a flower girl dress with some of the lace from my dress that she has to take off.  Hopefully I'll figure out what direction to take on this in the next week or so.  I'm kind of apprehensive about buying a dress online, so that would be my last choice, but here are the dresses I found online and liked.

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There's also been a lot of projects going on around the house, but there's more to come on that later!!

Indiana To Do List

I am so excited to go to Indiana tomorrow.  I have been looking forward to Christmas since Thanksgiving, for MULTIPLE reasons...

1. It's Christmas... nuf said
2. Snow
3. Some time away from work
4. HOPEFULLY a finish to the wedding "planning" and maybe even some DIY projects done

So we leave on Friday evening, and we were lucky enough to get two of our three flights as direct.  We will start by going Texas to Indiana on Friday and then on the 29th, we'll go to South Dakota to J's sister's house, where i get to meet my almost-niece.  Then it's back to Texas on the 1st, but it will be 2 weeks of no work and all family!

SO, let's talk about number 4 on my list of reasons for excitement.  I have booked us pretty solid on Dec 21 with "wedding" meetings.  My mom and I are starting with a trip to the tailor to get my dress altered, and by altered, I need to have a hook and eye put on the bottom of the back opening so that it doesn't gap.  That's all I am willing to do to my dress, and no one will talk me in to more.  OH, and she's hopefully going to bustle it, too (rats... I just figured out that means I have to have my shoes with me... so much for only having to pack 1 pair).

After that, J and I have a meeting with a lady who may be the person who is going to officiate the ceremony.  Yes, we still don't technically have someone to marry us.  If we don't like this lady, we are going with my mom's friend's daughter, and that's that... no more searching.

Last meeting on that day will be at our venue.  We have a few things to do there... 1. meet with a party rental company to talk about reception lighting.  2. pick a purple table cloth.  3. Take some more pictures of the venue so I can a. post them, and b. have fun playing with them while I try and figure out exactly where everything should go.

ALSO, we have to go to the place where I've already put down a deposit for the guys' suits so J can see what they look like and approve them and I'm hoping they have SOMETHING that is not a computer screen to show us so I can see what the color of the green for the groomsmen really looks like.

ALSO ALSO, my flower girl will be making an appearance at the holiday festivities and I'm sooooo excited to get to spend some time with her, looking at flower girl dresses.  I can't wait to hear what her favorite styles are!!!

No, it's not nearly as much as we've fit into wedding planning days in the past, but it will still be a very full day.  The other wedding related tasks have to do with our DIY projects.  We have a birdcage/card box to spray paint, we have a flower girl basket to spray paint and accessorize, we have some teapots to spray paint (the shapes work, but the colors just don't), we have some flowers to put together so that we can just toss them in the teapots, we have favors to put together (this one is not essential), and we have 40 pomanders to make (this one is essential).  I'll feel SOOOO much better about my DIY projects and my long distance planning if I can get a good amount of this stuff done in the 10 days we are in Indiana.  I think right now, we technically have 3 days with NOTHING scheduled, so hopefully we can put some of those to good use!

I CAN'T WAIT TO GO!!!!

Feedback Friday

I'm trying to decide what it is that my flower girl should carry with her and what kind of accessories she should have.  It's been hard for me to decide whether I want her to have flower petals that she drops, or carry something.  If she carries something, what should it be?

I'm going to let her help me pick her dress... I'll give her a few options and let her pick her favorite.  I'm pretty sure we are looking for something that's ivory, purple or lime green (with the other colors as accents).  So now I have to decide what kind of accessories to give her.  A flower headband?  A flower crown?  A pretty little pearl necklace?

Let's ask the experts...

What are the cutest flower girl outfits/accessories you've seen?  What have you seen flower girls carry down the aisle?  Any unique ideas that you've just loved???

Hooray for Flower Girls!!!!

I got a flower girl!!!

The best part is that she and her parents are ALL excited about it!  She's my cousin's little girl and she is adorable.  She loves to be pretty and dressed up and it's going to be so fun to give her pretty necklaces and bows and fun things like that.

It took her mom and dad a little while to explain to her what it meant to be a Flower Girl.  They showed her pictures of their wedding and in the end, she mostly got it, but still thought that she was going to "grow" flowers for me... which would be fine with me  :-D

I'm hoping that they can either come down in October when I'll be in Indiana, or at Christmas time so she can look at some dresses with me.  I think I'm probably going to wait until April, right after easter, to get a dress for her (when they are on sale) and have J's mom do some alterations to add some character and to incorporate our colors.  I would love it if she got to help me pick the dress, though!

So there will be more info to come about the details of the flower girl... I'm so excited!!!

Flower Girl

I've been thinking a lot lately about a Flower Girl.  At first, I didn't really want kids in the wedding, mostly because I feel like it's kind of a pain for their parents, but they're so cute, and we wanted to include J's nephew.  So we have a ring bearer and I keep thinking about whether or not we should have a flower girl.  I have a lot of really cute little cousins, and I have been told that lately, I have one little cousin in particular that's really into "pretty" things.  She like jewelry, she likes to dress up and she is old enough that I don't think that it would be completely annoying to her parents to have her involved.

PLUS, this would also solve our problem of the mismatched number in the wedding party.  Right now we have 9 bridesmaids, 7 groomsmen and a ring bearer (who we were planning to have walk with his mom anyway).  So adding a flower girl who could walk with one of our other cousins (bridesmaid) would even things up.

My only reservation is that she doesn't know me that well... it's not like I see her all the time.  I would also hate to have my cousins (her parents) feel like they can't say no to it, even though I would plan to buy her dress and accessories (which can sometimes get way too expensive).  I just don't want to have a flower girl just to have one, but really... why else do you have one?

Just to stop me from talking... how fun would it be to include such cuteness in my wedding...

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The cutest dress I found...

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And, how cute would this picture be to have on from wedding day???

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OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH... what to do???