Wedding Day Recap: Before the Party Starts

We walked out of the ceremony and back into the banquet hall and as each bridesmaid/groomsmen came in, there were more and more hugs and laughter.

We headed back into the “getting ready” room and I lifted my skirt half way up my thigh and sat on the floor to try and cool off.  I’m not exactly sure where they came from, but someone handed me a beer… oh what a glorious feeling… the cold beer… it was amazing  :)

J had not seen my garter yet, so he sat down next to me and I showed him…. he loved it (pictures to come later), and when it was time to take it off, J had a little help… from our ring bearer.

We waited for the guests to get their escort cards and get into the reception so we sat and talked and laughed.  As the wedding party planned their entrances into the reception, I took a second to laugh with the ring bearer… one of my favorite pictures of the day from my bridesmaid Cori…

The DJ (who was awesome, just in case you hadn’t read that yet) kept bringing us beers so we had plenty of refreshments.  As we were waiting, someone decided it would be a good time to talk about their connection with J and/or me.  People told fun stories and we enjoyed our time together with our friends and family before we had to go talk with the other 200 guests at the wedding.

I had to take a quick bathroom break, with the assistance of 2 bridesmaids to hold my dress up, and get my dress bustled before we headed out…

Next Up: Wedding Day Recap: The Reception Starts

Wedding Day Recap: Wedding Party Pictures

When J and I met with Catie, our photographer, earlier in the week she asked us for a list of pictures that we wanted on the wedding day.  We wrote down every possible combination we could think of with parents, grandparents, wedding party, etc. etc. etc.

We flew threw it… there were only a few times that I had to bring out the “boss Lexi”… the one that my employees understand and see on the rare occasion that they need to… the one that isn’t so much bossy, but stern and semi-demanding.  Like I said, I only pulled it out a couple times when everyone started getting chatty, and I know Catie appreciated it since there were so many of us.

Once again, I’m pretty sure the pictures tell the story best (pictures by Catie's Captures)…

A hug from B, who told me I looked like a princess...

 The wedding party

 Us with my parents

 LOVE this picture with my cousins!!

 What a cute Flower Girl!!

 Love this one!

 J with his sister and mom.  Great pic of them!!

 My favorite pic of the guys... so cute!

The wedding party with our awesome get away car

Next Up: Wedding Day Recap: It’s almost time!!!

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!!!

Attendant Gifts - CHECK!

I wish that I could tell you all of the great things I got for my bridesmaids, but unfortunately some of them read my blog and I don't feel like they can be trusted to not peek  : )

So, I guess this post is mostly a chance to celebrate my achievement and my ability to cross something else off my list!  I picked out and/or made all of their gifts and they are all safely at my mom and dad's house in Indiana, ready to be packed up in whatever I use to pack them (still to be determined).

J is also done getting his groomsmen gifts.  I'm about 99.9% positive that his groomsmen don't read my blog, but I'll keep his gifts a secret too, since they aren't my gifts to tell about.  I really like the stuff he picked.  There are probably a few things that I would have done differently on the personalization of the gifts, but J didn't ask me and he likes how they turned out and that's what really matters.

I'll make sure and take lots of pictures of the gifts and post about them later, but HOORAY FOR COMPLETING AN IMPORTANT TASK!!!

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 am still trying to think of ideas to help J pick gifts for his groomsmen.  I'm not worried about it him not finding something, I just know that most of them are married, they have all been in each other's weddings and they are all traveling a pretty long distance to be a part of our wedding day, and I want their gifts to be something cool!

I need some expert advice...

What are some of the coolest groomsmen gifts you've seen?  Do you think a different gift for each guy, or the same for all of them is best?

Groomsmen Gifts

Technically this is J's job, and I'm 110% confident that he will get this done on his own very successfully.  I definitely don't know his friends well enough to help him make a decision, but I have been keeping my eyes out for some cool, interesting stuff that is not the same old stuff.  Most of them are married and most of them have been in each others' weddings so we don't want to repeat any of the already used gifts.

He's though about getting each guy something different, but that seems like a lot of work when you have 7 groomsmen.  SO, here are some of the ideas that I've found, that I thought are kind of out of the ordinary...

From My Groomsmen Gifts

I really like these, but most of the guys will be flying to the wedding and they may be hard to get home.

Cufflinks are nice, and I especially like how clean the lines are on these, but people don't get much use out of them, which makes them kind of a waste.

I personally think this could be really useful, but I'm not a guy.  I also can't tell how cheap this material would look/feel in real life.

I feel like guys go through toiletry bags faster than girls do, but maybe it's because girls are always changing their bags.  Again, I think this would be a great gift, but I don't know how the guys would feel about them.

I absolutely love pocket watches.  They are classic, elegant, and very sophisticated.  I know it's not as widely used as a wrist watch, but on those occasions when you want to go the extra step to look fancy, I think this does a lot for you!

I found this idea here and thought it was witty and very clever.  They are actually a DIY project (the label is personalized) and this one says "Cold Weather and Warm Hearts; For your Potentially... Cold Feet; From Your Loving Bride".  Obviously not for groomsmen, but like I said, it could be personalized.












I think it would be really cool to do it with some funky socks for all of the guys so that you could have fun pictures like this (via)

Even if J decides that he doesn't like the idea, it may be something that I do for all of the guys with socks like these

Antonio Ricci on Amazon










Or maybe these

Also on Amazon










Or maybe, one of each...

Boutonnieres

The boutonnieres were a chance for us to do something cool, the way we did with our Mothers'/Grandmothers' corsages... something fun and unusual.

This is one of the very first things I saw after we got engaged and loved it immediately.  J and I love to cook together and one of my favorite things about cooking is how you can completely change the way something tastes by just adding some spices.

So, I saw pictures of herb boutonnieres and knew that it would be perfect!  They are going to be super cheap and easy to put together and they are going to make the boys smell delicious  :)   Here are some examples.

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A little mint, a little lavender, a little baby's breath and viola!!! you have a great boutonniere!!!  I can't wait to play with this and decide what ours should look like!

Tuxes

I have seen a lot of weddings lately where the groom and the groomsmen have not worn tuxes.  I understand that if you have a more casual style to your wedding then tuxes may not be appropriate.  I did give J the option to go with something other than tuxes, especially since our ceremony is outside in July, but he decided that he wanted to wear one!

I'm kind of excited by this for a few reasons...

1. I'm really excited about the boutineers that we are going to make and I feel like they would look awkward without the jacket to put them on... and when I say that I "feel" like they would, I really mean I've seen boutineers with no jackets and it and it does look awkward.
2. Unless people are buying the exact same brand of pants, shirts, etc. then the guys will not match.  I know that's a little ridiculous of me, but I like symmetry and I like things to match if/when they are supposed to.

So, we have looked at a few different options on vests and tie colors at various stores.  We also had to keep in mind that we have guys from all over the country, and I would prefer if they were all measured at the store that we are actually buying from since I feel like they probably train their employees the same way.

J made a comment one time that he liked how white on white looked on the groom.  I took that to mean, that it was he wanted to look like.  Although that's not really what he said, he still likes it and I guess we've decided that's what he's going to go with.  My dress is not white, so he will be wearing ivory.

We do have the option of purple or lime for the groomsmen.  The bridesmaids are wearing purple and the purples are not the same so we decided to go with lime for the guys.  We will probably do purple for my dad and maybe for the ring bearer (if he wears a vest), but that hasn't been finalized.

Here are what the ties (left) and vests (right) look like for our wedding party:

J

Groomsmen

Dad

The only one I'm still unsure about it my dad's.  I have seen some weddings where the dads are in a different color than the groom and groomsmen.  I have also seen weddings where the dad wears a different color tie and the same color vest.  That will definitely not be happening... in our colors, whoever was stuck wearing a different color vest and tie would look like The Joker.  Any thoughts/opinions are welcomed!

HILARIOUS!!!!

Today on My I-Do It Yourself Wedding, one of the blogs I follow, I found the funniest thing ever!!!!

I think I'm going to send a copy of this to each of J's groomsmen (and keep one for him) in a couple of weeks with a note telling them that I'm excited that they are going to be a part of our wedding.

I'm not even going to try and explain because there's no way I could do it justice... you just have to check it out for yourself... Let me know what you think!!!

Before the Bachelor Party...

(note: it's a PDF... if you can't open it, download Adobe Reader for free here)