Cross-Border Shopping Success!

So I mentioned that last weekend my parents and I hit up the States for a little wedding related shopping trip. I was able to get a lot of stuff crossed off my list!

1 - Foam board

I bought three sheets of this board to use as the base for my flower initial DIY project. They are foam-core boards covered in cardboard, so although I will still have to use a glue gun to attach the flowers rather than just jam the flowers into the board, at least they are sturdy. I bought three with the intent of attaching them together to make it nice and thick. (Total cost - $3)

2. Fake Flowers

So I bought greenish white hydrangea stems to use to cover the flower initials. I literally bought all flowers they had in stock, so hopefully it is enough! Each stem has 6 blooms on it, and I bought 12 stems. The overall quality was pretty good, considering they were from the dollar store! (Total cost - $12)

I also got a single stem of white phaelanopsis orchid from Michaels. They were on sale for %40 off, so the price was very reasonable. I'm not sure if they are real-touch or something like that, but they have a really nice, almost waxy texture. Super realistic! I was very happy with this purchase, and I plan on using them to decorate a set of willow branches I previously bought. (Total cost - $6)

3. Thank You Cards

They are very generic but super cute! Plain white cards with two embossed rings that are a shiny, sparkly metallic. We will probably include a small picture from the wedding to personalize them a bit, but those decisions won't be made until well after the wedding! Best ever was the cost... for a box of 50 cards and envelopes, they were only $2.99! So, for two boxes our total cost was only $6. Ridic.

4. Invitations!

My plan for the longest time was to craft my own invitations. Then I realized how much work THAT would be (sourcing cardstock and other supplies, printing, cutting, assembling, etc.). I then had the idea to just buy something simple and custom from Etsy. But even at $3 - $4 an invitation, the costs could quickly add up. We stumbled upon these at Target on clearance and I bought them on a whim. D wasn't with me so I crossed my fingers he would like them, and luckily he did! We are going to add some colour in the form of ribbon, custom labels, etc. and try to come up with a cute design. You'll just have to hang tight to see what they look like all done up - suffice it to say that right now they are basically white cards with a black border, a silver pocket, and black envelopes. Very basic, but very easy to make our own. So it will still be a bit more work that having them made for us, but it's not so back as starting from scratch with a stack of blank paper. Should be fine... fingers crossed! (Total cost - $60).

So basically, for around $80, we took care of a huge chunk of what we needed. Invitations are definitely a huge expense, so I feel like we really dodged a bullet on that one. And $6 for our thank you cards? That's what I call shopping success!

What has been your been your biggest bargain so far?

Wedding Roadie

So tomorrow I'm heading to the good ol' US of A for a little wedding shopping spree. I have been trying to gather supplies for some of my DIY projects and have noticed that a lot of things are soooo much cheaper in the States! So I've been making a lost of what I need and figuring out where I can get the best deal. Some of the things I'm looking for are:

1. Fake flowers

So I was at a Canadian Michaels this week, and I saw the price tag on one stem that said CAN - $16.99, US - $9.99. Ridiculous. So I'm armed with 40% off coupons and am hoping to find a good selection! I will probably also hit up a dollar store or two - you never know what you can find. I need these for my flower initials and to decorate a set of curly willow branches with an as-yet determined purpose.

2. A Vintage Birdcage

For cards, natch. I'm totally jumping on this bandwagon - the only problem is, I haven't been able to find these anywhere in Ottawa! I don't know if I should hold out for spring and start hitting up garage sales, but I will definitely keep an eye out for these tomorrow.

3. Shoes!

I'm still pretty undecided as to what I want, but we'll see if something catches my eye.

4. Favour boxes.

We saw these on our last foray across the border, and haven't been able to find them here at a comparable price. I'm still undecided what exactly will go in them (still holding our for macarons!), but if we have the boxes, I'm sure we can find something that can go in them. Just like Angels in the Outfield...

5. Bridesmaids Gifts

'Nuff said. Looking for some cute things for my ladies. I will probably hit up TJ Maxx to see what I can find.

6. Cardstock





Michaels has their paper on sale. And an extra coupon. I might try and pick this up so I can start working on paper products, such as signage... We'll see how that goes!

7. Aaand, last but not least, honeymoon clothes!

Even though I might not know where I'm going, I definitely want some cute, summery, beachy clothes to wear on our trip. So far I've bought a cute bikini (loving floral prints right now!) and some espadrilles. I also bought a jumper at the end of last summer (not 100% how I feel about it yet. But it was Miley Cyrus with Max Azria for Walmart. Love. Haha.). So, we'll see what else I can find. I'm thinking another bikini or two, some cute dresses, and lots of shoes!

The shopathon is on! Any suggestions for places to go and things to buy? Yay for cross border shopping!

A Little Update...

At just over five months to go, the wedding plans are really starting to ramp up. Since I've been planning this for over 2 years at this point, I've pretty much come to terms with what I want and what needs to be done. I have checklists, inspiration pictures, different readings, etc. that I've come across over the years since getting engaged.

This past weekend, I sat down with my mom and MOO and went over all the projects that need to get done and what vendors still need to be decided on and booked. As we were talking, I could see my mom's eyes getting bigger and bigger, kind of taking on this glazed over, panic-stricken look. Give her time... she will come to terms with it just like I have!

So my upcoming projects in the next few weeks are faux-flower initials and finalizing what I want out table layout/centrepieces to look like, and start acquiring pieces. And here we go again!

Inspiration for the flower initials

So, a few questions:

Has anyone made these flower initials before? How do you make them without having them look cheap (like, because they are fake flowers)? Is it bad if I just use a double layer of carboard to use as the base of the letters, and then affix the flowers to that, and then paint the backs so you can't really tell it's cardboard? I just can't fathom spend $20 - $30 on wood cut-out letters when I could DIY for a lot cheaper. Also, I'm thinking mixing white and yellow flowers, and then using black or grey ribbon to hang them. Cute, right?

Okay, now on the the tables. I am going to try and describe what's in my mind and try to get some feedback on what it will look like. (Yeesh, this is so hard!) Okay, so our tables are square, and I want to have black, floor-length tablecloths with a sheer grey overlay (not covering the whole table, just a square in the middle - not sure what it's called!). For our centrepieces, I am thinking a mix of yellow and white flowers (but grouped by colour, not mixed) in short, silver vases, surrounded by lots of different sized white candles in clear vases. Whew! What do we think? Does that sound like a cohesive look? The dinnerware will all be white or silver, and for the napkins I'm thinking a nice bright yellow. Let's see if I have some pictures to show...

Overall room inspiration (oh, the lanterns!)

Mix and match flowers

Lots and lots of candles

So that's where my head's at right now. I guess eventually I need to make some decisions! It's just so much more fun to look at all the pretty pictures and put of making actual decisions!

Did you have trouble combining all your inspiration into one cohesive look?

** Also, sorry about the absence! Things have been crazyyyy around home, but I'm back! Hopefully there are still some of you reading out there! xoxo

MOO?

So, funny story. (I can't believe I didn't share this sooner!)

The day I purchased my wedding dress, I was wearing my dress and prancing around the dressing room because we were waiting for one of my BMs to show up. I was chatting with my sister/MOH, and was telling her that I was going to call her my 'Moe' from now on because she was my Maid of Honour. Maid of Honour/MOH/Moe... get it?

So my lovely little sis, darling that she is, turns to me and says: 'Wait, don't you mean MOO?' We kind of blankly stared at each other for about ten seconds, then she continued: 'You know, MAID. OF. ONOR?' It took me an additional 5 seconds of blank staring before I realized what she was saying and that she wasn't calling herself a cow. I, of course, being the awesome big sister that I am, promptly laughed in her faced and said: "Think about what you just said to me..." She totally caught on to her mistake, I think as she was saying it, but it was so so funny.

Ah, my little sis. She's definitely good for the lols! And that's how my MOH became my MOO.

(Source)

Any funny wedding stories to share?

Virtual Planning

Well friends, I'm a long-distance fiancée again. Le sad. I just dropped D off at the airport - he's heading back to Toronto to finish his last semester of law school. But with the wedding just over 6 months away, and D coming home in only 4 months, I think the time will go by pretty fast, especially with all the wedding plans ramping up. We can do it!

One of the ways we are staying organized is by using Google docs. I didn't really know what this was all about until last week when we were looking for a way to make a list and stay in touch with wedding stuff while D's gone. I somehow stumbled upon Google docs, and it seems like a pretty good solution. And all you need is a Gmail account. Perfect! So for those who don't know, Google docs are basically online documents (like anything you could do in Office, like word documents and spreadsheets). After opening a new document, you can share it with other people who have Gmail accounts. Then you both have access to the docs and can access it and edit it as necessary. So easy, right?

(Source)

So we sat down and put together a to-do list (which D promptly went in and changed to "To-Poo List" ... Oh, boys...) and now are starting to get organized. (And only slightly panicked). I was also able to upload our guest list and budget planning spreadsheets so they are localized in one place, we both have access to it, and in the case that my computer crashes (again), we have it saved somewhere safe.

How are you keeping all your wedding planning organized?

Aaand.... I'm Back.

Now that the holiday craziness has died down, it's time to get back on the blogging train. I hope all you lovelies had a great week and are enjoying getting back into the swing of things. I'm still off until next week, so I'm taking it easy because unfortch I feel like I'm getting a cold. Oh noes, just in time for New Year's too!

So what have I been up to? The Save the Dates are almost done and we actually assembled and handed out as many as we could over the weekend to save the postage (yah we did... great idea, I think). The rest will be assembled and mailed out this week, so we are done done done. Yes! I will definitely post about them this week.

Since some Save the Dates are out and people are starting to go to our wedding website, it's time to put some more info on there. I've also been researching hotels to try and block some rooms for our out of town guests. Do I just call and ask them to block off rooms for us? Not quite sure how that works... I'm also going to post some more info about things to do in Ottawa, bridal party details, and other events. Sounds like funsies!! (Or.... not.)

Right after (Canadian) Thanksgiving, I started doing this diet method. I was pretty good at following it for the first month, and saw great results. I have been trying to follow it as much as possible since then as well, and although there has been a bit of cheating (hello, Christmas baking!), I've pretty much stayed on track and not gained anything back. So now that it's a new year and I have that big white dress looming, it's time to get back on track! I will let you know how it goes... I am usually okay with the eating part, but it's actually working out that I struggle with. So we'll see!

Hm, what else? The macarons that my mom made as Christmas favours were a big fat fail. The tasted deelish but the cookies didn't rise properly when baking, so they were a little flat and deformed. Lesson learned is we are definitely not making them ourselves as wedding favours! But luckily, my dad knows someone who makes them for $4.50 a dozen... which seems like an AWESOME price. So we are going to look into that.

So, that turned into a bit of a brain-dump, but that's pretty much what's been going on. Now that it's almost January, we are almost at the 6 month mark, so the real projects are going to start. Hopefully some of you stuck around and are going to be here for all the craziness!

200!

Days, that is. 200 days until our wedding! When we first got engaged, there were 800-something days until the wedding, and now we are already down to 200, so trust me, this is a big deal.

So today seems like a good time to examine what we have done already and what still needs to be done. And I'm sure the second list is going to be wayyy longer... yikes.

Yikes! Should my list really be this long?

Okay, so here it is:

Done:

- ceremony venue
- reception venue (almost!)
- photographer / videographer
- engagement photos
- bridal party
- dress (yay!)
- save the dates (almost... come on, twine!)

Still to do:

- sign the catering contract
- decide on suit vs. tux for the guys
- transportation
- reserve hotel block
- flowers & decor (have ideas but nothing's done)
- book honeymoon (totally D's job)
- find a dj
- register
- invitations (and all paper goods)
- aaaand.... everything else! haha

So yah, definitely still lots to do! I can't even remember what there is to do, there is so much of it. I think I need to sign up for one of those wedding websites that hound you with reminder emails telling you everything that needs to be done on a daily basis. Definitely would be helpful.

Where do you stand with the planning process? Lots left to do? July brides, am I in big trouble?