Progress

I've realized in the last couple of weeks that with just under 7 months to go until our big day, I'm at a point that I need to stop thinking about what I want to do, and actually start DOING it. I have pages and pages of ideas... and it's time to start executing! Thankfully, I have a group of aunts just dying to have wedding craft nights, so once I get all of the supplies and a good example ready to go I'll have lots of help waiting for me :).

I did some errand running and supply hunting with my mom and Manda yesterday, and thanks to successful shopping I spent a couple hours last night holed up in our home office doing crafts on the floor.

One project I know I'll want help with are Martha Stewart's infamous tissue poms, which I envision hanging all over the reception space. (In reality I have no idea where they'll actually go, but I love them enough to figure it out).

My first attempt at a pouf last night was a big huge "meh" -

Collective thoughts from myself and Dan on this project included trying to find a heavier tissue paper - the stuff I bought seemed flimsy and tore way too easily, resulting in a bunch of areas I had to try and hide rips in. I also found that the folds I made weren't deliberate enough, which may also be from the thin tissue. Regardless, the idea of the project wasn't as difficult as I expected, so that's a plus!

I also tried my hand at a DIY bout, utilizing some charcoal gray felt and patterned feathers from Michael's. I grabbed an old button and some striped fabric from Ikea, and was actually quite pleased with my results!

Clearly, I forgot to buy any kind of supply to make the flower stem out of, so for my mockup it's a folded up post-it note wrapped loosely in silver floral wire. Bev suggested using pipe cleaners for the stems, which I think would be perfect.

I'm hoping this week is a little less crazy at work than the last month has been so I can continue working on things in the evenings at home. Our guest list needs a little attention and our wedding website needs a lot of missing info filled in before the save the dates go in the mail, so those items are at the top of the to-do list for the week!

Night Lights

Our reception venue has some GORGEOUS outdoor space that I'm already looking forward to milling around in during dancing breaks. Since we're not doing a whole lot in terms of flowers and there's already an abundance of beautiful landscaping there, I don't plan to do much in terms of decorating outside. But, there's a few little wrought iron tables that I wanted a little something for, so I grabbed a bunch of lanterns at Ikea last weekend!

These will likely go on the tables -

 And these will be scattered around elsewhere (I'd love to hang them if allowed) -

 Aren't they pretty all lit up? -

Long Time Coming

It's kind of amusing (and a little bit embarrassing) how long I've been planning my dream wedding in my head. If I'm being honest, I've been doing it for a little over 4 years... basically since the moment early on in our relationship that I realized Dan was perfect for me (aww). I've written about several little dream details over on my other blog, but today one image in particular jumped back into my head and I searched back through my archives to find it -

There's no doubt I was thinking about this photo simply because I am starting to get REAL excited about our upcoming engagement pictures with Ben + Mindy. (And because Dan has a red pickup truck that would be perfect for a prop like in the photo). We don't have an official date for them yet, but my plan was to wait until it was a bit nicer out, so fingers crossed that will be the case in late March or early April!

The same posting also had an image of a little return address stamp, and as I noted way back when I originally found it, I'm thinking this is something that I need - especially since we have a LOT of envelope addressing ahead of us! (And on that note - save the dates are done and I am absolutely in love with them, which I will admit I was not expecting since I decided to design them myself and tend to be my own worst critic. I'll post pictures as soon as they're printed and ready to go!)

The Guys

Although the look is classy and sleek, I have never really wanted a bridal party full of guys in tuxes. The lack of personalized tailoring has often resulted in handsome guys looking awkward and unfit, and on top of that it's almost a bit too "fancy" for our wedding style. So, Dan and his guys are looking into all purchasing the same suit, which will cost a bit more but can be tailored to each guy perfectly, and they get to keep it in the end!

I plan to have the guys wear a plain white dress shirt, and we'll provide matching ties. I'm also dead set on them all wearing matching patterned socks, mostly because I love the rising popularity of photos like this -

I also love love love me a group of guys in suspenders, but we'll see how Dan's friends and brothers feel about that.

From the looks of my trusty google image search, I don't think I'll have too tough of a time finding socks in my precious turquoise/teal color palette - 

Wishes

I love the idea of having guests leave little notes with wishes or words of wisdom in lieu of (or in addition to?) a standard guest book at the wedding. 

I'll definitely take the time to find the perfect vase/jar for this, as it would be something I'd love to keep on a shelf or the mantle in our house to go through on anniversaries or whenever the mood strikes.

I will (of course) throw some DIY flair into it, potentially in the form of etching the glass much like the Young House Love superstars did for a "thanks" jar -

I actually etched glasses with Dan's parent's initials for Christmas gifts a couple of years ago, so I already own etching cream and found that with a steady hand, it's a pretty simple project. Better yet - it can be executed LONG before the wedding, which will hopefully help keep the last minute projects list smaller. :)

Love

Happy Valentine's Day! Today marks 4 and a half years of dating the greatest guy that has ever walked into my life, and I couldn't be happier.

Dan,
Thank you for making me a better person. Thank you for loving me despite my shortcomings. And thank you for being absolutely perfect for me. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you.
Love,
Kelly

Yes.

I am real REAL glad there's a fountain at our reception space.

Simplicity

While I think weddings filled with crystal chandeliers, cushy chairs with satin covers and more silverware than you know what to do with are gorgeous... it's just not me. I've always said my wedding would be a "big backyard BBQ", and now that I'm working on the actual logistics of it all and realizing that's not quite as easy as it sounds, I'm tweaking my vision a bit to fit into our reception space and our not-in-the-middle-of-the-summer date. We're still going with the BBQ style food, but catered instead of literally having grills set up with someone manning them all night. With this setup, we'll be doing a buffet instead of a plated served dinner, which means dinner plates will be stacked on the food table and not set at each place prior to dinner. While this doesn't sound like a big deal, I was a bit concerned that the tables would look bare without plates, but some images I've seen floating around lately have completely changed my mind. In fact, I think I almost like the clean, minimal table MORE than one that is totally set.

Love the mason jars on both tables. Love the simple flatware. Love the shape of the glasses that bounce around natural light. Love love love the striped runner in the first image. Love that I now feel completely better about my uncluttered table plans!

Frame it

Dear Fiance,
You can build something like this out of pretty molding from the hardware store, right?

Great. I knew you would say yes.

Thanks honey!

Love,
Me

Drink Up

Oh, paper straws. I will have you at my wedding. Don't you worry.

(Images all from a Google search. I am far too lazy to post all the proper credits, sorry.)

Bouts

I have a big jar full of buttons that my late grandmother collected over the years - when she passed away it was the one thing I wanted to remember her by. As kids, we would go through the buttons regularly, picking out our favorites and pairing up the ones that had a match. I vaguely remember making sock puppets once and being thrilled that we got to use buttons from the jar for the eyes. I wrote about the buttons awhile back on 9-oh-6, and while I actually DID complete the project I described, I never actually posted a picture of the finished piece.

Now I have a wedding to plan, and I happened upon an image the other day that I'm fairly certain would be the perfect way to honor my grandmother who won't be there with us. Button boutonnieres!

I of course followed this find up with a google search and was pleasantly surprised by all the weddings that have incorporated buttons into the guy's attire -

I'm pretty sure I don't have enough of the same buttons to do anything that involves more than one or two on each bout, but the first image with the button acting as the center of a flower is perfect inspiration!

Darn

If I wasn't deathly allergic to chocolate, guests of my wedding would fer SURE be stirring these little delights into hot chocolatey goodness as a late night snack.

Hot chocolate on a stick from here. With homemade marshmallows. Oh yum.

Now I certainly don't plan to not have ANY chocolate at my wedding (I'm not cruel), but I'm not really a fan of cooking/baking with the stuff when I don't even get to enjoy it myself in the end... so I'll probably stick with something like cupcakes (not DIY) instead. And then I'll ripoff that cute little tag idea from the image above to make myself feel better about it all.

After Party

We've been searching for the perfect place to haul our night-owl guests off to after our reception so we can continue the party late into the night. A new trendy hotel in the area with a lounge bar open until 2am is currently the front runner, and I'm already excited about it. While there's a part of me that thinks I'll never want to take my wedding dress off, there's another part of me that loves the idea of a new dress for the after party. Seeing as I didn't even know you're "supposed" to have an after party dress, I don't know if it's typically white, or sparkly, or totally different or what... but I spotted this little number over on Style Me Pretty today and am currently in the "I HAVE to have this" state of mind.

The style is part of the new Spring line from The Dessy Group, and I'm completely hooked.

Clearly, I don't need another wedding dress, but the selection of floor length white bridesmaid styles on Dessy has me curious if anyone has ever gone that route (and likely saved a ton of money) rather than choosing a style from a "typical" bridal line?