Making a list

A while back my crafty mother and I made a list of all the wedding projects. A timetable of sorts, just so that we can roughly figure out when it is all going to get done.

The list was LONG, the list was DAUNTING, and basically nothing got done about it. Well, that is not exactly true. We bought stuff. We bought ribbon, we got fabric for my purse and the ring bearer pillows, we got bamboo sticks for the wedding wands. But all that stuff is sitting in boxes in my garage, my basement and my mom's office.

One thing that we also bought at the time were votives. We went to Save On Crafts and found a great deal on votives with candles included. .39 each!! I mean who can beat that? But better than that we have used them more than once!

These candles were first used at my sister's graduation party. (insert picture)

Then 2 weeks later my mom wrapped a different ribbon treatment around them and they were used at my engagement party. (insert Picture)

But now they have undergone a complete makeover! We have etched them for the wedding. (insert pictures)

I will post an etching how to but isn't it neat? One purchase of votives, three uses! How thrifty are we?

What items for your wedding are you planning on using more than once?

You should blog that!

"You should blog that" My mother says it to me everyday.

Every time that we have an idea, a perfect idea the one that you know that you were just waiting to stumble upon. The idea that fits *YOU* to a T and suddenly the search stops and you KNOW what your invites will look like or what your table centerpiece will be or how exactly that other detail will fall into place. A second later I hear, "You should blog that. "

Now, you may have noticed, dear blogasphere, that I said WE have an idea. and yep, that is right, WE. My mom and I. My mom and I have had ups and downs but I think that we have finally found our groove and this wedding is certainly playing up on that.

I am very very lucky to have this crafty lady by my side becuase together we make an awesome team. She thinks of things, I think of things, we sit in a room and they MELD. She is crafty and perfectionist in all that craft. She can do math and cut and measure and all that kind of stuff. She says, "Look we have an issue with the pocket folds, we will need 11x17 inch paper to make the fold." and then we can't find pretty 11x17inch paper..... so I do my part and think then I say..."Well, why don't we use ribbon." and there it is. like a POW of lighting and WE know what we are going to do.

So thanks mom. thanks a TON.

(Don't get me wrong, I run home to the future hubby and ask what he thinks, but he just looks and says, "Yep, that color works for me")

Choices Choices

I once read on a blog somewhere that planning a wedding isn't like running a race. It isn't a straight line, instead it is a circle. Each choice that you make, each decision that gets written "in stone" effects each choice made down the line.

I think that my circle probably started with the idea of a budget. I went to one of those wedding calculator sites and typed in my zip code. I saw a number... it was some grand number and I said..."ooh, well, yep. Maybe we can get our families to help and I think we can do better than that anyway."

We looked at venues in all sorts of price ranges, either of our parents backyards were options at one point. An off season beach wedding was seriously discussed and several reception centers were visited.

We knew that we would need a place to do the ceremony as well as the reception. We also kinda eliminated the idea of driving from one place to another, all of our friends are drinkers and the less places to leave a car behind the better. We also didn't want to have to cook, clean up, set up, all that stuff. We are DIY people but not that DIY. I am willing to pay a little bit more to be waited on hand and foot. I am a mommy and that never happens...on my wedding day it is gonna happen!

One reception place was nice but not us. A second one was small and pricey. A third one was nice on the inside but icky on the outside. One reception center was eliminated immediately because I didn't want to copy my sister that had had her sweet 16 there just 2 years before. But then my mom made me visit it, and I fell in love.

The venue isn't new but it is hungry for business. With a little negotiation they threw in a chocolate fountain (tacky but I love), chair covers, 3 votives and a mirror for each table, and menus designed just for us. They aren't cheap but there food is lovely, the parking lot is HUGE and they don't mind cars staying there over night. They have a great outdoor waterfall garden for our ceremony and a pretty room with a fireplace (not a closet!) for our backup plan.

Best of all they are 10 minutes from our home and right off the parkway. You just can't get lost.

So that was our first choice, first written in stone. It set the date, the time, the season, it was the starting point choice that began my circle.

How this whole planning thing got rolling.

So, how do you plan a wedding? This is my second wedding, so I really should know the answer to that question. My first wedding was rushed together in a quick fervor that I basically should have seen as my ex husband's "If she really gets to know me she will BOLT" thinking. But I didn't know him that well and I didn't see it coming.

ANYWAY. I had known him 6 months when we got engaged and only 11 months total when we got married. Planning that wedding was basically finding a venue that would have us and then walking into shops of the "recommended" vendors offered by said venue and saying "I like purple, what have you got?" I don't remember a whole lot about the wedding because I didn't do it. I didn't put love or thought into much of it at all. I was busy being a student and being a rebellious 19 year old with some banked cash and a finace' that no one liked...I should have listened. But, I got my two wonderful sons out of it and I am happy.

So here I go trying this marriage thing out again. I know it is crazy, when I met my finace' I told him straight out that we weren't "serious" and that he should plan on this being anything long term. Fast forward three years and here we are, happy, healthy and we have been through too much to ever want to be apart. So I am planning us a wedding. A wedding with meaning, a complete 180 from what I did last time.

When Aaron first proposed I got all the "traditional" magazines and started a wedding idea binder. I pulled out page after page of cute idea and stuck it in a huge three ring thing that would be impossible to actually carry with you on a day to day basis. But then one day, sitting at work (bad me, I know) I found a website. A random photography website and I found a picture that I liked. I would love to say LOOK! HERE IS THAT PHOTO! but I can't. It was months ago and the internet has eaten it alive. But here is the photographer. Her name is Kella and she is awesome.

Through the links on her website I found a dozen other ladies (mostly) that would lead me down the off beat path that would become my true dream wedding, to my true dream man.

This wedding will be FUN and it will be as close to an exact embodiment of our crazy love as I can get it...without making myself nuts of course!

Let's get it rolling.

Hello and Welcome!

Look! You found my blog, or what there is of it . Let me give you some sort back story and if you like me a little maybe you will stick around and see what comes of this whole idea.

First, I am a "bride to be" I guess you would say. I got engaged to the guy that makes me laugh last February. Since then I have been planning my little behind off and reading as many blogs as I could find. Blogs are great, I am a HUGE fan. I have found this little community of (mostly) women that like to do things their own way. They try to stick to their hearts, their ideals and their budgets. These ladies have given me ideas galore and now that I am in the midst of my journey, the part where I am actually DOING not just dreaming and randomly thinking “this might be cute, maybe” I want to write about it, link to it and share it will those of you that will have me. I am going to be posting our ideas, DIY projects, and general concepts. I also want to post ideas and links that I have found and think that others might find helpful.

But here is my mantra, my overall concept. This should be FUN. I love to plan, I love brainstorming and figuring out how to work all my ideas in a fun and interesting way. I want my wedding to be a PARTY. But no matter what your wedding vision is it should be a wonderfully fun time in your life from start to finish. I am not saying that we don’t all have our moments of panic, but remember what you here for; love, pure and simple. So how are you going to celebrate your love? I hope that you have fun figuring it out. I know I will.