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Presenting...

The design for our rehearsal dinner invitations (original concept borrowed from here)! I made it myself. :)


PS. Jordan and I are seriously considering dressing up as pirates for the rehearsal dinner (remember, it's at The Pirates House restaurant), and suggesting that everyone else do the same. Hahahaha...

Finally found my shoes!!

I have always been ridiculously picky about shoes. I have all sorts of problems with my feet: a) they're gigantic, b) they swell if I stand for longer than five minutes, and c) I can't walk in tall heels. On top of that, I decided long ago that I wanted my wedding shoes to be turquoise and have some sort of a "jewel" or something shiny attached...oh yeah, and I didn't want to spend more than $60 on them. Talk about impossible to find!

All of this explains why it has been so very hard for me to find wedding shoes that match my many requirements. Thanks to some very helpful ladies on the weddingbook forums, I was directed to shoebuy.com, where I found this lovely pair of dyeable shoes:

I would typically never dream of purchasing shoes online, but this site has a 100% return/exchange program, which even includes free return shipping!! So if they don't fit (which is unfortunately very possible), I can send them back and try something different. I am in love with them, though, so I'm hoping that they will fit perfectly.

The next thing is to find the right color and have them dyed! I'm so excited!

Daisies and diamonds!!

I am so.freakin.excited right now!! The past few days have been FULL of wonderful packages arriving, including the rest of my jewelry and my BOUQUET!! :D

Here is a picture of my jewelry together:

(Necklace from overstock.com, earrings from overstockjeweler.com, tiara from etsy.com)

I absolutely love every bit of it, and I got a great deal on everything! Here's how it might all look together...pardon my lack of wedding attire. :P


And now for the most shockingly delightful thing that happened to me all day, my bouquet arrived and is absolutely amazing!! It's from wedideas.com and made of "Real Touch" artificial light and hot pink gerbera daisies, with stephanotis interspersed. And the ribbonwork they did is incredible!!

I think everything is absolutely perfect and I am ridiculously happy right now!! Here's one more picture before I head off to do my dreaded homework. :P

Bohemian King

*dreamy sigh*

So I've booked our hotel room at The Mansion and I am so excited about it!! We decided to splurge a tiny bit and get the upgraded, super romantic Bohemian King Suite overlooking the courtyard! Here's an image:

It features "vintage soaking tubs surrounded by lush drapery to lend a more open air romantic feel to the room" and "a bottle of wine and upgraded turndown service featuring our signature Mansion chocolate piano and one of our sumptuous bath products from Poseidon Spa".

Can you say amazing?! :D

I'm going to need some relaxation after this wedding too...gah! I've been a busy little bee trying to get deposits paid and dates reserved. Classes start back this Thursday and I wanted to get as much done as possible before settling back down academically.

Just since Christmas I have: reserved our rehearsal dinner site, ordered a DIY invitation kit, contacted five print shops to get the best price on invitation printing, contacted four Savannah bakeries to get a quote on our wedding cake idea, ordered gifts for all of the bridesmaids, purchased my bridal jewelry, set up my hair/makeup appointment, and now booked our wedding night hotel room. I've also come to realize that this whole budgeting thing really sucks. But we'll hopefully have a wonderful wedding that we won't spend the next thirty years paying for.

Speaking of jewelry, those earrings I posted ended up being sold out (and they graciously waited to tell me until almost a week after I purchased them). So I got these instead:
I think they'll still look great with the necklace, which is posted below. And I've kind of been dreaming of being a bride with chandelier earrings for a while, so maybe it was meant to be. :)

As far as bridesmaids gifts go, I think I managed to do something sweet for my girls without going broke. I don't think any of them read this, so I'll go ahead and explain. I found out each girl's favorite animal and purchased brooches for each that will go on their bouquet purses. Here are two examples:













In addition, I found an awesome deal on jewelry at allcostumejewelry.com, which was pointed out by a soon-to-be-bride on weddingbook. So I got all of them a matching necklace/earring set made with Swarovski crystals and faux pearls. Here's the necklace:

So, like I said, I've been super busy. Next time I'll post about the super sweet (no pun intended) wedding/groom's cake ideas I have. :)

Purchases!

So I've bought a lot of stuff in the past few days (AKA my student loans went through, haha).

So I wanted to share my finds and rejoice in the fact that all of my bridal jewelry together cost just over $150!

I finally found an affordable and not cheesy-looking bridal headband from this Etsy seller...and it was only $25!!

I also bought the necklace and earrings I posted a few days ago and they should be arriving within a few days!









I also found a really convenient and affordable way to get the invitations I've been wanting!! Originally, we were going to purchase the paper, vellum, and envelopes in bulk and have them cut to size, then go through the printing and assembling process. Well, I just randomly stumbled across a DIY invitation kit from Target.com that has everything we need (50 each of white cardstock, vellum, response cards, ribbon, two envelopes, and seals) for $50! All we have to do is take all the stuff to a local print shop and we'll be set!! Here's the product picture:

I might exchange the white ribbon for teal/turquoise ribbon just to add some color, but I am SO excited! I whittled down the guestlist and we should be sending out around 83 invitations to 129 total guests. Thank goodness I've finally got the ball rolling on this business.

Just to remind you, here's the image we'll be printing on the cardstock:


I also made a reservation for my hair/makeup appointment with an awesome salon in Savannah. The lady I spoke with, Jenny, has been wonderful about answering all of my questions, and she didn't complain a bit when I told her we'd need to get started at 7 AM on a Sunday!

Here is an idea of the hairstyle I want:


And I want mostly pink and very simple makeup (I'm an incredibly pale girl, with red hair and blue eyes), like this:

This post has already turned into a monster, so I'll end it there. :) But I've got a cute idea in the works for my bridesmaids!

Things I Love Right Now

I've compiled another list! This one is made up of things I've found that I love but probably won't be using as part of my own wedding. I wish I could have 20 different weddings sometimes, haha...without the stress of planning it or paying for it!

1. Having your wedding vows printed on something other than paper.
One idea is to print the vows on the ribbon from the bride's bouquet, and another is to have them engraved on the inside of each partner's ring. How awesome is that?


2. Affordable (and cute!) wedding shoes.
These are ridiculously hard to find, but maybe 2009 will bring some hope to those of us with big feet and a picky sense of style when it comes to shoes. Lela Rose is launching a bridal collection at Payless in the next few months! And yes, there will be dyeables. Thank goodness! Here's one of Lela's non-bridal shoes from Payless:
3. Flirty, adorable cocktail dresses.
My whole childhood I was a tomboy inside and out, but nowadays I've become much more of a girly girl, and I adore dresses. My recent favorites come from Jim Hjelm, especially this one:

4. Vineyard Weddings.
My entire kitchen and living room are decorated in wine-themed stuff, and part of me wishes we could have had our own vineyard wedding. However, I don't drink wine, lol! I just like the way it looks. Here's a gorgeous image of a bride and groom at a winery wedding:

5. Creative Escort Cards
Our wedding isn't really formal enough for a full-blown seating directory, but I love how creative these things can get! If we didn't have 100+ guests, I would be sorely tempted to use this flower idea from Martha Stewart Weddings:


That's it for now, but I might do another of these later! :)

Goodbye 2008, Hello Year of the Wedding!

Jordan and I will be getting married in just under 9 months. H.o.l.y. C.o.w! I don't know where the time has gone, but in celebration of the end of 2008, I'm going to make a few wedding lists!

Completed Tasks:

• My wedding dress has been purchased and altered. It's sitting in my closet, though I still have to finish paying it off.
• My veil is purchased and is also in my closet.
• Bouquet has been purchased, but STILL hasn't shipped even though it's "been ready" for two months. Ugh.
• My wedding band and turquoise bracelet are both in my jewelry box.
  
• I have a general idea of what kind of jewelry and shoes I want, but I still have to buy them.
• Tux style and vest color for both groom and groomsmen decided.
• Bridesmaids dress styles and exact color still undecided. Bouquet styles decided; purses purchased, but no flowers yet.
  
• Jordan's ring style has been decided upon, but it hasn't been purchased yet.
• Photographers booked and 1/3 paid for.
• Ceremony site booked and 1/3 paid for.
• Reception site booked and paid for and food choices settled.
• I know the style of invitations I want, but I still have to buy them and get them printed.
• Cake topper purchased, "his and hers" champagne glasses purchased, cake serving set purchased, ring pillow purchased, reception vases purchased, table number holders purchased, favor boxes purchased, ceremony fans and bubbles purchased.
• Music selections decided upon for ceremony and most of reception.
• Guest list determined and save-the-dates sent out.
• Target wedding registry set up.
  

To-Do Soon:

• Purchase invitation supplies and print a sample invitation.
• Decide exactly what honeymoon we want and start to book it.
• Purchase shoes and bridal jewelry.
• Go shopping with bridesmaids for dress ideas.
• Book ceremony officiant.
• Set up another wedding registry (Crate and Barrel perhaps?).
• Decide upon design of wedding cake.
• Make reservations for rehearsal dinner.
• Arrange for our transportation from the ceremony to reception (we're thinking a romantic horse and carriage).

Random Ideas:

• I want my hair mostly down and curled, with a small pearl and diamond headband. I also have an idea of how I want my makeup done...very simple in shades of pink.
• For our reception table numbers, I want to use pictures of me and Jordan holding up each number in a variety of funny poses.
• For reception centerpieces I'm thinking of using the jello vase centerpiece idea. We'll use either blue or pink jello (whichever turns out better) with two to three pink gerbera daisies per vase, and then blue vase gems on the table around each vase.
• I really like the idea of using our favor boxes as placecards too...we'll just write each person's name on the front of the box.
• I saw a really neat idea for escort cards in a bridal magazine this morning...I can't really explain it well, so I'll just post a picture of it later.
• We're writing our own vows (and I'm actually writing most of the ceremony myself), so I'll have to share that later as well. I'm almost done with mine!
• We are definitely thinking of doing a two-week chauffeured tour of England, Ireland, and Scotland for our honeymoon...it really depends on how expensive it will be.
• For invitations, we are thinking of printing a classic bride and groom image on white cardstock and printing the wording on vellum, then wrapping it with teal ribbon.
  

This all seems very organized, but I feel distinctly unorganized, and I don't know why!!