Boutonnieres - CHECK!

I don't know what it was that got us so inspired this weekend, but we were!  We were originally planning on making herb boutonnieres.  The more I thought about it, the more I worried about being able to find enough good looking herbs for 14 boutonnieres.  That's a lot of herbs and potentially a lot of trips to a lot of different stores.

ANYWAY, the moral of the story is we had a change of heart.  J and I looked at boutonnieres on just about every site on the internet and J decided that he liked either lime green mums or calla lilies

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So after a fun brunch date, we headed to Hobby Lobby... like all of our other flowers, we decided we wanted to go silk on the boutonnieres, too.  We looked through all of the aisles, multiple times, and finally settled on calla lilies and some grass with purple flower buds to add some color.  We also grabbed some floral tape and purple ribbon to get them all put together.

We went home and got right to work on them.  We separated the grass a trimmed the ends of the calla lilies and then we put 7 pieces of grass together with floral tape, and then attached that to the flower.  Then we trimmed the ends of the whole piece and added the ribbon.  It's hard to explain how I did the ribbon... but it worked.  Then we attached the ribbon at the back of the boutonniere with hot glue and VOILA!

Multiply this by 14 and you get...

Another thing checked off the list!!!

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!!!!

Bouquets - CHECK!

I know I've received a great deal of judgement about the fact that I am using silk flowers for all of my wedding flowers, but now that my bouquet as well as those for all 9 of my bridesmaids are done and I know how little I paid for them, and how little I'll have to even think about them, I'm happy with my decision.

J and I were in an antique store one day looking for teapots and just shopping around when I came across some little silk bouquets in one of the booths.  They were really cute and the ribbon wrapped stems were SO well done.  I took the lady's card and called her.  We picked a day to meet up and before I left home, I had a moment of panic when I realized that I hadn't purchased enough silk bushes to make all the bridesmaid bouquets.  So, I took her the flowers that I have for my bouquet and told her what I was looking for on the bridesmaids'.  I knew that I'd have to pay a little more than expected since I'd have to pay for the flowers, so I was a little nervous about the cost, BUT in the end I was pleasantly surprised!!!

They aren't EXACTLY what I pictured, but every time I look at them, they grow on me more.  She added flowers and she actually used some yellow flowers in the bridesmaids', which freaked me out initially, but as I thought more about it, if there had to be a color other than purple, lime and white, I'm glad it's yellow instead of something that's TOTALLY different than the greens that I was going for.  There are a few things I'm still planning on changing about them, but overall, I'm pretty happy with them.

Bridesmaids

I'll probably take the bows off of everything.  I'll also probably cut some of the random sticking up things out of them just because I prefer a more round and clean bouquet.

Here's mine!!!

NOW... just wait until I tell you how much I paid for these... are you ready for this?  10 bouquets (9 bridesmaids and 1 bride), materials for ALL the bridesmaids' and part of the bridal, all of the pearls attached to the FABULOUSLY wrapped stems, AND labor...

LESS THAN $120!!!!!!


Yes... that's what I said.  I paid less than $12 per bouquet.  Find me a florist, who can do that.  I may have been able to come close to that if I would have purchased my own flowers, but my frustration and loss of sanity over trying to wrap the stems would have sent me over the edge.

SO, if you are considering a silk bouquet, don't let people's judgement deter you... silk flower look more and more real all the time and if you can  find someone good like the lady I used, it's so worth it!  SO, if you'd like her contact information, email me and I'd be happy to share (she's in the DFW area)!