So Much To Do

It's official...

...the save the dates are all addressed, stamped, and on their way to our guests! I can't believe that it is already time to be sending these out. Time has seriously flown by. We started out with 16 months to plan and organize, and now we're down to 6 1/2 months!

With that being said (and my last wedding nightmare still fresh in my mind) it's time to get down to business. The other night I sat down and organized a list of projects that still need to get done. I took a mental trip through our venue as if I were a guest and wrote down every project that came to mind:

The lists above (which don't include decorations like table centerpieces or items for the altar) may seem a little crazy! I promise I'm not a madwoman who thinks she needs to complete hundreds of projects. I wrote a list of items that I would need underneath each task to make my future shopping trips a little easier.

Though my project list is not three pages long, there are still quite a few things that need to get done and I plan on starting a few this weekend. With two days off a week and not having to worry about homework or exams, I should have plenty of time to get projects completed.

Here's the rundown:

- Guestbook : We're planning on creating a photo guestbook. A nice bound journal or sketchpad + polaroid camera + photo corners = perfect.

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- Ribbon Wands : Our venue doesn't allow guests to throw petals, or confetti after the 'I do' (it's on the lake and items could easily blow into the water polluting the area and causing harm to the wildlife). To make for fun photos the guests will have ribbon wands to wave after the ceremony.

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- Tissue Packets : Packets of tissue for "Tears of Joy"

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- Birdcage Card Box : I already have a little birdcage to put cards in. All that I need to do is create a cute banner or sign.

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- Program Fans : Since our wedding is in May and it's possible that the temperature in the central valley will already be climbing, we thought that fans would be a better option for our programs than traditional booklets.

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- Seating Chart Frame : Our seating chart will be posted on a big board rather than given to our guests via escort cards.

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- Flip Flops : We will be offering our heel wearing guests a more comfortable option for the reception. I started this project this summer and I'm happy to say it's nearly complete.

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- Menu : Each table will have a menu with food options. I haven't decided if each place setting will have a menu or if there will be just one framed menu....it all depends on how much time I have.

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- Drink Menu : I found a really cute chalkboard sign at Goodwill (I used it for Zac's 30th birthday...check it out here and here) and we plan to place it on the bar with the drink options.

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- Bathroom Basket : A cute little bathroom basket will be in each of the bathrooms with items that guests might need throughout the evening.

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- Games : Games will be set up on the lawn for guests to enjoy during cocktail hour. We'll need to get together a few more games and create a chalkboard sign to put on the lawn.

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- Candy Buffet / Dessert Bar : Though we have tons of jars and glassware for each of these tables (shown here), we still need to get small favor bags and take home boxes for the goodies.

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In addition to those projects, we still need to finalize ideas for centerpieces and start buying supplies to get everything in order.

So what do you think, did I bite off more than I can chew? Any other DIY brides out there have a lot of projects to complete? If you had a DIY wedding did you need to cut down on some of your projects before the wedding day arrived?

Save The Dates

According to my list of to-do's on theknot.com and projectwedding.com, our save the dates should be sent out by the end of September. Now that we have our engagement photos all picked out I started working on these important little pieces of stationary to send out to our guests.

When it came to save the dates, I didn't have any particular design in mind, I only knew that I wanted to incorporate our engagement photos. While I thought that using websites like weddingpaperdivas.com would be an easy and quick way to get our save the dates done, I decided that designing them myself would be a more fun and economical way to complete this task.

I was inspired by these calendar save the dates that I found on theknottybride.com :

I loved the way they looked and figured that it wouldn't be a difficult project. So I got opened up Microsoft Word (which I also used to design Zac's surprise birthday invitations) and created a save the date that I was pretty proud of:

Not too bad right? I printed out 99 of these babies, three to a page.

The next step (and the step that took the most time) was cutting each one to size.

When I was done I had a nice big stack of save the dates.

The save the dates were the perfect length to send in a standard white envelope. To jazz up the envelopes a little I decided to hand stamp each one with a feather stamp that I picked up from Michael's Craft Store for only $3.50. The feather went along with the vintage owl theme and I used a grey ink to tie in with our wedding colors.

I hand stamped 100 white envelopes and each one looked like this:

Now the save the dates are all in their envelopes waiting to be addressed. Before they go out, Zac and I have to go over and finalize our guest list (just to be sure that we aren't forgetting anyone) and make sure that we have an address for all the guests. I need to go get (or perhaps just make) an address book to keep all of the guest information in one place. The save the dates should be sent out before October 1st! I can't believe that its already time for these pieces of stationary to be sent out! Time flies, and before we know it the wedding will be here. I'm excited and nervous for that moment all at the same time. :)

A Day Off

On Tuesday I was pleasantly surprised when I was told that I wasn't needed at work and that I could enjoy a day off. Of course a day off from my paying job meant that I had a whole day to work on wedding related projects.

You might remember that I relocated the office into the dining room. Although we have a nice office with a big long desk, I thought the dining room table would offer just a little more room. Also, although it's September, it's still pretty hot here (averaging about 95degrees everyday). Since our office is upstairs in a room that gets plenty of sunlight, even with the air conditioner on, the space tends to be warmer than the dining room.

So what did I work on? Let's refer back to a slightly modified version of the picture I posted on Tuesday shall we.

I. The blue notebook in the bottom right corner is actually my day planner. Now that all of our vendors are hired I desperately needed to update my calendar with due dates for payments and appointments for meetings.

One important date is coming up pretty soon. I set up a trial with the hair and makeup artist I hired, Emily Johnson. The trial is scheduled for the October 3 (just a few short weeks away). I know that it might seem a little early to be having a trial in October since the wedding isn't until May, but I like to get things done early. I also think that having a trial ealier than later will allow me enough time to start looking for different hair and makeup styles if the one that I like doesn't work out (which hopefully won't happen) and I can make sure that Emily and I mesh well together (which I'm sure we will!).

I'll be taking plenty of pictures at the trial so I'll be sure to post all about it.

II. You probably recognize that big white binder. That would be the wedding planner binder I created to keep all of our wedding ideas, price listings, contracts and other goodies all in one place.

The binder has been getting a little out of control and was in serious need of reorganizing. I had plenty of papers stashed in there from the bridal show that Zac and I attended a few weeks back. As our vendors have been selected it was time to get rid of competitors' fliers, price listings, and coupons. Since I know of other brides who are still looking for certain vendors for their weddings, I decided to hold on to these fliers and vendor sheets in case they prove to be helpful to my fellow brides.

Unfortunately ridding the binder of these papers did little to decrease it's size since the fliers were replaced with vendor contracts. At least for now the binder is more organized.

III. You might be wondering why a bunch of forks were just laying on the table in the middle of my workspace. Well, remember my post about some of my favorite finds on etsy.com? These forks had topped my list:

I thought these forks would be very cute for Zac and I to use come cake cutting. Since we're trying to cut costs as much as we can on smaller detail items that we don't really need so that we can have enough money to splurge on bigger items that are more fun for our guests, I couldn't justify spending $35 on these forks. (No matter how cute they are.)

Back in July I found a way that I could get similar forks for much less than $35. A few girls that I went to high school with, Kai and Katie, have started to make and sell some beautiful jewelry. (You can check them out on Facebook here to see pictures of their work.) Sometime in July they posted this picture of custom stamped spoons that they were starting to sell.

I sent the girls an email to see if they would be able to make the forks that I had my eye on, and if so, asked how much would they charge for them. I was happy to hear back that they could make me the forks for only $3 each. All I had to do was find the forks.

I went on a mission to find forks a few weeks ago and my one and only stop was The Salvation Army. They had six tubs of assorted silverware and I shamelessly sat on the floor and rifled through each bin looking for matching forks. In the end I found three sets of forks that I thought were both interesting and had enough space on them to stamp our desired message. At $0.25 a fork I bought all of the forks and brought them home to show Zac.

Here are the forks I picked up:

I picked up these forks because I was sure that they would have plenty of room for our stamped message. They were also the only set of forks that had space on the handle to stamp the wedding date. After taking them home and looking at them next to the other sets of forks that I purchased, they just didn't have enough detail. The lacked a little something special.

The second set of forks were definitely a lot more interesting than the first. The handles had a lot more detail to them, though they didn't have space for stamping. Unfortunately, not only did the handle not have any room to be stamped, but we feared that the mouth pieces of the forks wouldn't be big enough to have our message stamped on them either. So we opted to use another set of forks.

This was the final pair of forks I found and the pair that Zac and I decided were the best of the group. I wasn't able to find two forks with this design in the same size, so one is a little smaller than the other. Zac and I actually thought that having one smaller fork would be cute. At meals I always grab a smaller utensil than he does so it would only be right for us to have different size forks at the wedding. They also seemed to represent us a little. (Zac is much taller than me as I am a petite 5'0".)

The handle has a touch of darkness in it that really brings out the amazing detail.

So on Tuesday, I put the forks in a shipping envelope along with a note of details and got the package ready to be mailed. I'm excited to see how the forks turn out!



VI. The printer was necessary for my list of projects because I spent the majority of the afternoon designing (and eventually printing out) our save the dates! Since we've chosen the engagement photos we wanted to use on the save the dates, I thought that my day off from work would be the perfect time to get to work on designing these pieces of stationary. The project isn't quite finished yet, but I'll post all about it before we seal up the envelopes and send them off to our guests.

V. The last project of the day involved creating a Facebook page for the blog.

You might have seen the blog post I published on Tuesday after creating the page. As of last night the page had 13 'likes'. It's exciting to see readers of the blog liking the Facebook page. It would be so great to see that number get bigger, so if you like reading the blog be sure to like us on Facebook. You can find the Facebook page by clicking here, or by clicking the link on the right tab of the page.

So there you have it. A day off from 'work'. Once the save the dates are completely done I'll be sure to post all about them. Also look forward to another Bridey post as Samantha, Holly, and I have a Bridey date this weekend to go over wedding ideas. I'm looking forward to hanging out with the ladies!

We've Chosen Our Engagement Photos

Back in May, Zac and I headed to his grandparents' house in Chowchilla to meet up with our photographer and have our engagement photos taken. A few days after we were able to check out the pictures online. We absolutely love the way they turned out. Zac's grandparents had several spots that were great for photos including a huge garden, tall gorgeous trees, a pool turned fish pond, and an almond orchard. Not only are the grounds beautiful (you might remember that we even considered having our wedding here) but it meant something extra special to Zac since he spent a lot of time at this house as a child.

I mentioned in this previous post that although Zac and I won't be receiving a disc of our engagement photos until after the wedding, our photographer is giving us three pictures ahead of time to use for our save the dates or any other projects we have in mind.

The task of sorting through the photos and picking out our top three was a difficult challenge. (I can't begin to imagine how it will be to choose photos for our wedding album!) There were several that we thought would look great either on a save the date or printed and hung up in our home. We thought that one particular shoe picture would look cute blown up and hung above our bed. In the end we decided that since the photo wasn't of our faces we wouldn't be selecting it as a potential save the date picture.

So here are the three pictures we chose:

Now that we have these photos it's time to design the save the dates which will have to go out by the end of the month. It's hard to believe that it's already time to mail anything out to our guests. Time has certainly flown by!