DIY Wedding Stuff

The time is getting closer and closer!! I cannot believe it's only four months away. It seems like we were just engaged yesterday.

Sigh.

Anywho...I'm really getting into the DIY wedding stuff. It's actually quite fun and way less expensive. Last Saturday my aunt, her BFF and my BFF spent six hours making bouquets. And they turned out better than I had imagined.

These are for the bridesmaids. I didn't get a good picture of mine before we wrapped them up, so you'll have to wait to see it, but I will tell you it looks a lot like this...

We made 7 bouquets all together and it costs me about $60.00. Not too shabby thanks to Ebay.

My next project is this...

Just take some wine bottles, or beer bottles, spray paint them white, add squares of chalk board paint,   and write on them. Pretty, huh? I think I'll put them on the cake table.

As the big day gets closer, 5 bridesmaids and myself will spend a day making our wedding favors. They are aroma beads. We'll have two scents, Strawberry and Vanilla so we can have red and white. We'll add a tag that says Thank You and place them around the tables. The best part? My grandmother has her own candle shop and is going to let us use all her supplies...for free. All I had to pay for was the custom tags, and they were like $10.

They'll look like this, except white and red.

Anyone have any other DIY ideas? 

Bargains

While browsing the bazillion things that you can buy for a wedding, I stumbled across customized labels for the invitations. I really liked them and thought they'd look a lot better than my handwriting or some generic printed labels.

They also have customized stamps, too, but that may be going a little overboard.

Anyways, I found a lot I liked and while they were not really expensive, I figured maybe I could save some money.

I liked the monograms ones the best, something like this...

No clue who those people are. Please don't stalk them. :)

So I started tinkering around with Microsoft Word and since I already have a large supply of blank labels, I came up with this...

And I can print as many as I want...for free. What do you think?

We also started looking around for invitations to get a general price range. We found 100 invitations with RSVP cards for about $90.00. That was the cheapest. Then I turned to my dear friend, Ebay.

We found 100 invitations, 100 RSVP cards, 100 labels, and 100 reception cards. For $75.00.

We went ahead and bought them. It was a steal. I'll let you know how they look when I get them!

Slightly more relaxed

I know I keep saying how stressful wedding planning is, but apparently, I'm a pretty kick ass wedding planner. Everyone keeps telling me that I could have my wedding this fall with how fast I've done everything.

Yay me.

Still, we will wait until Spring.

I have decided on the Waterfall Inn. As soon as I read your comments and especially Skippy Mom's comment about us getting engaged at a waterfall, so we should get married at one, too, my mind was made up. And seriously, that connection NEVER dawned on me. I'm an idiot sometimes.

So for some exciting news. My first dress appointment is this Saturday at 10:00!! And then I meet with a NEW salon who will do our hair on the day of the wedding for only $20 more dollars than the other place. And last night, I met with a DJ who just moved here from Kentucky and is trying to start a new client list and since I'm her first client in WV, she is only charging me $300 as opposed to the normal $650 rate that every DJ around here likes to charge.

But, you know me, always the skeptical. I got references from her and I get to see her in action this Saturday night. If we like her, we're signing the contract.

Oh and remember the photos I showed you on Jumble Mash? Yeah, well the guy that took them and was supposed to give me 120 photos of us, up and moved to freakin' New York. I have no idea when we will get those photos...if ever. But that does give us excuse to have another engagement shoot.

Look at me looking on the bright side.

I can say that I am much much happier now that we decided on the Waterfall Inn. I am positive about the decision and I absolutely love the place. I can't wait until you guys can see some pictures!

A gift!

Look what my awesome Dad got me!!

It's a flower girl basket, ring bearer pillow, guest book, pen, and a garter in a set and then a cake serving set. AWESOME. All on Amazon for less that $60.00 (I think).

It's weird seeing the stuff in my house. Makes it more real. Like, hello...you're getting married!

Thanks Dad!

Saving Money

I am really racking my brain trying to cut costs in every way I can. Weddings are freaking expensive in case you haven't heard.

My awesome dad is covering most of the costs, but the decorations, invitations, programs, and dress are up to me. So how do I save money on flowers?

Step 1.
Decide that fake flowers will be just as nice as real flowers, especially when you have an aunt that is crafty as hell and would absolutely LOVE to put together some nice flower arrangements for you.

Step 2.
Shop around local crafts stores and Wal Mart. Realize that paying $2.00 per FAKE rose is ridiculous and start feeling like a failure.

Step 3.
Call sister and complain. When she seems distracted and acts likes she doesn't care if you can't afford flowers for a wedding, hang up and pout.

Step 4.
Put on a determined face and turn to the interwebs.

Step 5.
Ebay.

Step 6.
Find a seller that is offering 252 red roses for $37.99 with FREE shipping.

Step 7.
Faint.

Step 8.
Realize that it's too good to be true and start researching.

Step 9.
Determine that the seller has tons of positive feedback and the flowers have a 60 day money back guarantee.

Step 10.
Then debate with yourself whether or not it is too early to buy flowers.

Step 11.
Tell self to shut the hell up and click Buy already.

Step 12.
Do a happy dance because you just saved $466.01.

Cha Ching.