Wedding Planning Update- Just 3 More Months!

Oh my gosh, you guys!!! My wedding is less than 3 months away. 87 days!! I can't wait for it to be here. I feel panicked because I have so much to do, and also feel sad that it'll be over soon. All at the same time. I've basically become an emotional mess lately and even the smallest things make me cry. I'm that person now. Anyway... here's what's been happening. 

Invites-Picked and Packed!

Ah, invitations. The bane of my existence for the last 8 months. I really wanted my sister to design some invites for us, and her first draft was really cute! Unfortunately, as with many DIY projects, these were going to cost wayyyy more to print them ourselves than to purchase pre-made ones. And so we sadly had to scrap our idea :( Luckily, we were able to find some nice invitations online from Wedding Paper Divas. With a half off coupon, we were able to purchase them for $422.80, including custom foil, expedited shipping, and addressing the envelopes! Our original quotes were over $1k, and to custom print with foil we were quoted over $1,800 (!!!), so this was an amazing price. They're all packed up and ready to get shipped this week.

Wedding Song- Chosen!

They say when you snooze you lose, but for me it worked out. I was too tired to get up when my alarm went off, so I stayed in bed listening to the radio and heard a song that I thought would be perfect. I looked up the lyrics and started crying. But, I hated the radio version so I found a cover! I like it so much better, and every time it comes in the radio when we drive I get so emotional and excited for our wedding. I can't wait to dance together.

Bridal Party Outfits- Done!

Dresses have been purchased! My sister got her dress from RK Bridal in the city (where I got my dress) and my mom got hers from Lord & Taylor. Since my sister is technically my only bridesmaid, this made things a bit easier. We went to a few stores and she tried on a bunch of different styles, but we settled on a lace and chiffon one. My mom has 2 dresses she bought and is trying to narrow it down to see which one she likes better. My dad also found his suit, a black Sean John suit haha.

Suits- Explored

We started looking into a suit for John and his brother. We checked Jos. A Bank, where the salesman was very kind. John has really broad shoulders (which I LOVE) but they make finding a suit difficult. Most suits made for a man with shoulders as large as his are much larger men in general, so the jackets looked giant on him. They suggested making a custom suit, which would only cost slightly more than buying one off the rack. I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted yet, so we paused that. Then, we went to men's warehouse, where we didn't see any colors we liked. The salesman told us that we should come back in early June to see the new colors, so we decided to wait until then before making any decisions. We are going this weekend to see them, and hopefully we can decide on his suit! 

Wedding Shoes- Ordered! 

Since our wedding ceremony will be outside, I wanted a wedge instead of a heel. I also wanted them to be pink and to have some sparkle. Luckily, Badgley Mischka had just what I needed. I got them on Amazon and I saved about $70 on them! The wedge heel has some texture on it which I love, and they actually feel pretty comfortable. 

Napkins- Ordered

We ordered some cute custom printed napkins from For Your Party to put out at cocktail hour. I had already wanted to order some, and they had them at a wedding we went to. It was super cute! Luckily, this made convincing John to get them that much easier. I'm sneaking Disney references into my wedding any way I can, and these napkins were no exception ;)

Charger Plates- Ordered

This was a debate from a few months ago when we were wondering how nice we should go with the table settings. We looked into a rental company and there were all sorts of options for chargers. In the end, it didn't seem worth it to me to rent, essentially, a fake decorative plate for $5/piece. I was able to purchase them from Dollar Tree for a fraction of the cost, less than $200! Plus they're mine to keep so I can sell them after the wedding if I want to. I had purchased the same ones for my Dollar Store Easter Decorations post and I think they look pretty good! 

Favors- Picked! 

Hooray! Our favors have been ordered! I don't want to give too much away since I know my family likes to read these updates (oh, hey guys!) but we ordered some cute and whimsical favors for everyone. We ordered them from Wedding Favors Unlimited, which offers price matching and $20 off if you find a lower price than theirs! Also, it shipped to us really quickly! From the date we ordered, it took 2 days for them to arrive. We'll also be giving out Jordan almonds since it's traditional and there should at least be some traditional elements, right?! 

Need to do:

Rehearsal dinner- Booking the venue for the rehearsal dinner has been on my list for a long time! Well actually... it was on John's. But somehow it made its way over my list, as it seems everything else has! We still haven't officially booked this and I'm so eager to cross it off. We are so close on this one.

Plan our ceremony- One of our friends is performing the ceremony, so we need to finalize all the little details to make it a great and memorable ceremony.

John's suit- Although we browsed suit options, we need to get his suit ordered since we are thinking of doing a custom suit. 

Centerpieces & decor- We ordered our flowers, but I want to buy any other centerpieces and decor items we need!

Schedule dress fitting- My dress is set to arrive next month, so I need to figure out exactly when and make an appointment for a fitting and alterations. I'm a little anxious about that, since there will be about 6 weeks between receiving my dress and my wedding day. No pressure.

Veil and accessories- Um, yea. I need to get on this! I'm going to attempt to make my own veil since they are SO expensive to buy. I want to try to make it soon, and if it doesn't work out, I'll bite the bullet and buy one. I also need jewelry, undergarments, hair accessories, and a purse I guess? 

Dresses upon dresses- I need to get a dress for the rehearsal dinner, the bridal shower, the bachelorette party, the 2 other weddings I have this year... Here, just take all my money.

Get legally wed- Our wedding ceremony will only be symbolic, so we are going to city hall (or something) to be legally married. We need to do this sorta soon, since some over-eager bozo decided to book a ticket in her new married name, thinking it would be really easy to do a name change. Yeaaaa.

If you want to learn more about planning a Pinterest worthy party, be sure to sign up to get your FREE Anatomy of a Pinterest Worthy Party guide! It's full of helpful hints on how to pick a theme, the little details that will make your event unique, and tips to take great photos of your event. And, there's even a checklist so you don't forget anything! So what are you waiting for? Get yours now!

Although I am pretty overwhelmed with all the stuff I need to do, I like these updates because it shows me that although the To Do List is still reaaaally long, it's actually getting shorter and things are getting done. So, what's your favorite part of weddings? Is there something you saw once that you thought was great, or terrible? Any tips to make a wedding the BEST WEDDING EVER?! Let me know in the comments below!

Wedding Planning Update- Just 4 More Months!

As time creeps by ever so quickly, we now have only 4 months until the wedding! I've started to get really excited and really, really panicked. I feel like there's so much that needs to get done and I'm so worried it'll be left until the last minute. The last thing I want is to be left scrambling! It felt like we didn't do very much this month, but typing it out made me realize how much we actually did. It goes to show how much planning is involved in a large scale event! 

Wedding Mood Board- I created a mood board for the wedding, since my Pinterest board seemed to be all over the place. No one has really done the theme that I am doing in the color scheme that I want to use, so it's been nearly impossible to narrow down the look based on other people's photos. I took a few hours to look at what I wanted specifically, and created a mood board on Canva using one of their templates and this video. It was really helpful to narrow down my style! 

Went shopping for my mom and sister's dresses- we checked out Macy's, Nordstrom, and Estelle's Dressy Dresses this month. My mom found a nice dress at Macy's but she's not entirely sure about it, so next week we are going to the store where I bought my wedding dress to see more options. They have a huge bridesmaid and mother of the bride section there, so here's to hoping we can cross that off our list. 

Thinking about favors and escort cards- John and I started thinking about how we want to do our escort cards and what to give out as favors, and we started looking into what to order online. We also wanted to give out some fun swag to our guests, so we looked into that as well. I'm hoping we can order that stuff this month and get it out of the way! 

Invitations- we are behind on ordering invites, but we are trying to get this done! Either my sister is going to create them for us or we are going to get some pre-made ones from those giant catalogues. 

Related: Disney Themed Backyard Engagement Party

We booked our honeymoon! We are going to Disney World for about a week and I'm so excited. We are staying on the Disney property for the very first time, at the Disney Swan Resort. I got a little over eager though, and booked my plane ticket as my married name. I figured I could change it easily even without us being married and I think I was wrong about that. Whoops. That's what I get for using Friends as a tool of reference. So I need to get that sorted out. 

Extending the reception- Since our reception ends at 10pm, I decided we should probably extend it by an hour. 10pm seems way too early, and since our resort is in the middle of nowhere, it's not like we can go to a bar. I mean, there's one on the property but it's pretty far from where our rooms will be. So I think extending is worth the money. 

We attended a wedding- I know that sounds a little weird, but attending another wedding really helped us understand what we wanted for ours. The wedding we went to was beautiful, upscale, and formal. The ceremony was religious, and it seemed like they spared no expense to make it a great evening. It was probably the opposite of what our wedding would be, and it was only by attending the wedding that we realized that. I have had my worries that our venue isn't formal enough, but it's really cozy. We hope people will have fun and be comfortable. Our ceremony won't be about how God sees our marriage, but about how we see it. Neither way is right or wrong, they're just different. And seeing a very different wedding helped us to see what we wanted for ours. 

To do this month:

Order any personalized favor items- to avoid the scramble, I want to purchase any personalized items this month. This way, in case we don't like them or they have a flaw, typo, etc., we can fix them without any issues.

Order invitations- For obvious reasons, this is at the top of my to-do list! Our wedding is on a holiday weekend, and although everyone knows the date and I sent out a Facebook message to everyone with details and the wedding website link, I want to get these out ASAP.

Dresses and suits- I want to order/purchase my mom and sister's dresses, and buy/rent John and his brother's suits.

My accessories and undergarments- I'm trying to decide what type of accessories I want to wear so that I can order them. Then, I need to find the right undergarments! I don't want anything peeking through or showing on my wedding day. 

Schedule a hair and makeup trial- The summer is so busy at my venue, and already getting a hotel room with my friends on the property will be almost $600 for a night- discounted rate! So, I'm going to see if there's a cheaper hotel nearby that we can stay in.

Finalize cake design- Not a major item on my to-do list for the month, but I'd really like to narrow down the cake design. We aren't too picky about the style, so it's been hard to make a decision.

I feel like a lot of brides have a vision of what their wedding is going to be, so when it comes time to make decisions, they are trying to find something like what's in their head. I don't have this vision! I have an overall idea, but none of the details have been planned out. So, I'm kinda looking at #allthethings and trying to narrow it down. It makes the process take that much longer. I feel like John is (finally) starting to get a voice when it comes to wedding decisions, so having his input is really helpful. I'm terrible at making decisions and always second guess myself, so hearing his opinion really helps me to narrow things down and make a (somewhat swift) decision.

If you want to learn more about planning a Pinterest worthy party, be sure to sign up to get your FREE Anatomy of a Pinterest Worthy Party guide! It's full of helpful hints on how to pick a theme, the little details that will make your event unique, and tips to take great photos of your event. And, there's even a checklist so you don't forget anything! So what are you waiting for? Get yours now!

So, did you have a vision for your wedding? Were you Monica Geller, whipping out your wedding planning binder? Or are you more like me, going with the flow? Did you think planning your wedding when you weren't engaged was crazy? Do you think it's crazy NOT to have an idea going in? Let me know in the comments!

Engagement Gifts for The Bride-To-Be

Great news! Your best friend just got engaged to the best guy, and you're SO excited. You've been talking about her wedding day FOR-EVER now, and that day is coming soon! You want to get her something really special as an engagement gift, something that shows how happy you are for her in this new chapter in her life, and something that'll put you in the running for the top spot to be her maid of honor. Kidding! No, but really, you want to get her an engagement gift as special as she is, without it being just another cheesy "bride" gift. I understand! I've created a list of 15 awesome items that will make perfect engagement gift and even bridal shower gifts! They are a mix of your typical bride items (something every newly engaged girl LOVES) and ordinary items with a bridal feel, this way she's not left having a second-hand sale of 3,000 bride items after the wedding. They're all so classy and gorgeous. She's gonna love them!

I've created a list of 15 awesome items that will make perfect engagement gift and even bridal shower gifts! They're all so classy and gorgeous. She's gonna love them! #engagementparty #engagementgifts #weddingplanning

1. Wedding Planner 2. Ring Dish 3. Initial Necklace 4. Miss to Mrs. Tumbler 5. Hand Lettering 101 Book 6. Vacation Duffel Bag 7. The Getaway Luggage Tag 8. Flower Earrings 9. Bride Mug 10. Adventure Makeup Bag 11. Geometric Vase 12. Essie Blushing Bride Nail Polish 13. Bling Wipes 14. Bride Lidded Box 15. Floral Luggage Tag and Passport Cover

Engagement Gifts & Bridal Shower Gifts

1. Wedding Planner- This is the PERFECT engagement gift to start with. Since wedding planning is a whirlwind experience, every bride can use a planner! This one features tabbed sections, inspirational quotes, and 3 storage pockets, so that it can hold all her receipts and contracts to keep her organized. Plus it has a really cute cover!

2. Ring Dish- Now that she's got some bling on her ring fing[er,] the bride-to-be will need a place to keep it! This ring dish will keep it safe while she washes the dishes, takes a shower, or just needs to give her hands a rest. 

3. Initial Necklace- Whether you get one with her new last name or her fiance's initial, your future bride will love this necklace! It's simple but stands out, so it can be paired with anything. 

4. Miss to Mrs. Tumbler- This tumbler will be perfect for all that iced coffee she'll be drinking as she rushes around trying to get that wedding planned! Bonus- she can use it after the wedding too, since she'll now be a Mrs!

5. Hand Lettering 101 Book- If your bride is crafty, she'll probably enjoy this hand lettering book! Give it to her along with some pens and she can practice her penmanship to address her own invitations, write cute chalkboard signs, or write it the escort cards. Because doing it yourself = saving money!

6. Vacation Duffel Bag- This duffel is perfect for all those overnight trips to the venue, a bachelorette party weekend, or her honeymoon! It's roomy enough for all her travel stuff, plus a bunch of outfit choices. Girls gotta have options, right? 

7. The Getaway Luggage Tag- this is like an ode to the days when people used to leave their reception early to head off to their honeymoon. Did people really do that, or was it only a thing in movies? Anyway, we all know she's dying to get out of town, and this luggage tag says exactly what's on her mind! 

8. Flower Earrings- These will add a little extra sparkle for her engagement party, bridal shower, or rehearsal dinner. Plus, they're simple enough to wear on an ordinary day to dress up your outfit! I wore them at my engagement party and they really complimented my dress.

9. Bride Mug- It's so exciting to be the bride when you're first engaged, so this mug will capture that feeling and show it off to the world. It'll look SO cute in her ring selfies!

10. Adventure Makeup Bag- This makeup bag will keep her looking pretty while reminding her of the end goal. It's not just about the wedding, but about creating a beautiful life together! 

11. Geometric Vase- Everyone loves fresh flowers! This geometric vase is really unique and will be an interesting addition to her home. It comes in 2 sizes, perfect for a small bouquet for her desk and a larger one for her table. 

12. Essie Blushing Bride Nail Polish- The bride-to-be needs to keep her nails looking good as she shows off that ring. This nail polish is a gorgeous, subtle color that will enhance the beauty of her ring, not compete with it. Bonus: add a manicure kit to get her nails looking perfect!

13. Bling Wipes- She's gotta protect the bling on that ring! These wipes will keep the ring as shiny as can be, and since they're individually wrapped, they'll be sure to stay fresh. She can keep them in her purse and whip them out whenever she needs to shine up that diamond. Everyone wants to see it! 

14. Bride Lidded Box- This little box is perfect for holding her rings and small jewelry. If she's got pets, this is great for keeping her ring safe and secure. Because I know that my 3 cats LOVE to knock things on the ground and play with them! 

15. Floral Luggage Tag and Passport Cover- Help the bride-to-be travel in style with this matching luggage tag and passport cover. The floral design is girly and elegant, plus since it's not super bride-ish, she can use it for years to come!

Tips for Buying Engagement Gifts

1. Avoid anything too trendy. She may hate the trend, and you also want something that she can use for years to come to remind her of your friendship, and how it felt when she first got engaged!

2. Don’t tell her she has to wear it or use it at the wedding. This could lead to an uncomfortable conversation. It’s her day, so you can suggest it, but never make her feel obligated to use anything. You never know what her plans are for her wedding day.

3. This is a good time to get something just for her, something she wouldn't necessarily indulge in herself, but that she can't put on her registry either. If it's too expensive to get alone, you can all pitch in with the bridesmaids or some friends. Nearly all the gifts she receives will be for her home, her wedding, or her life with her husband, so something just for her will be really special!

4. In general, the idea of straying from the registry is scary. If you do, make sure it's something you know the bride will love, and that it's something that will match the rest of the items she's registered for. No one likes having to store that ugly serving platter that they use once a year when the person who gave it to them comes over!

What engagement gifts do you like to purchase for the bride-to-be, or what did you get when you got engaged that you loved? Are you a stick-to-the-registry type of person, or do you like to get a surprise gift the couple will love? Let me know in the comments below!

DIY Flower Bridesmaid Proposal Box

It's pretty crazy that I'm getting married in less than 5 months. It feels like just yesterday it was the 90's and I was with my little sister, trying on our mom's wedding dress. We would sneak it out of the closet and take turns wearing it. We'd talk about our wedding day and how of course we would be each other's maid of honor. And now that day is almost here and I just can't believe it. Yesterday in my wedding planning update, I mentioned that I had (finally) asked my sister to be my maid of honor with a pretty box I made for her. I decided to document the steps I took to create it, plus I added some links to the products I used (and similar ones) so that you can make them for your bridesmaids too! These boxes are pretty easy to make, and don't require too many supplies. All you really need is a box, a glue gun, some flowers and some decorative tape. Let's get started!

You Will Need:

White Photo Box (similar here)
Glue Gun (similar here)
Fake Flowers (similar here and here)
Pink Duct Tape (similar here)
Scissors (here)
 

Filled With:

Fashion Emergency Kit (here)
Cute Card (similar here)
Maid of Honor Tank (similar here)
Mini Hairspray (here)
Monogram Wood Gift Tag (here)
Cupcake Vineyards Prosecco (here)
Color Swatches (here)

1. Take your flowers off the stems, and save a few of the leaves for later. I picked the brightest leaves to save.

2. Using your scissors, cut the little stems off your flowers to make them as flat as you can. This will make them easier to glue onto your box.

3. Using your glue gun, glue the flowers onto the lid. I mixed the smaller and larger flowers, as well as the different shades of pink. Try to fit them together as well as you can, like some sort of floral tetris.

4. Using the leaves, fill in any gaps. I wanted my box to be mostly flowers so I didn't use too many leaves, but you can put as many as you want. I recommend placing all the leaves in, taking a look to see if you like the look, then gluing them in.

5. Using your tape, wrap the perimeter of the lid to create a nice, neat edge with a pop of color. I used 4 smaller pieces of tape, one for each side, to ensure it would be nice and smooth. Then, take some tape and fold it over itself to fill the label. I used a sticker that said "party" that I found at Michael's.

Filling the box:

To dress up your Prosecco, take a piece of ribbon and wrap it around the neck of the bottle. Glue a flower onto it for decor. Sign your card with a loving and heartfelt note, and place your items inside the box.

Then, give it to your bridesmaids and maid of honor! My sister was pretty happy, since she didn't think I would be officially asking her in a cutesy way. It made me so happy to watch her open the box and see all her reactions as she pulled each item out.

WOOHOO! I now officially have a maid of honor. Now, onto the other 35687 things on my to-do list.

How would you use this box? For a bridesmaid proposal, to hold a birthday gift, maybe for your mom on mother's day?! There are so many possible uses! Are you doing a bridesmaid proposal box? What will you put inside? Let me know in the comments below!

Wedding Planning Update- Just 5 More Months!

Ok guys, it's happening... the wedding is less than FIVE months away! I can't wrap my head around how crazy that is, which is probably a good thing, because if I do I'll probably start to panic about my never-ending to do list. Last we spoke, I was getting ready to head to my wedding venue to wrap up a few things. Here's what we did so far.

Maid of Honor- Chosen!

Ok ok, my sister knew she was the maid of honor, but we sealed the deal by officially asking her. I wanted to do something special for her, so I made her a box and filled it with some fun goodies. A blog post about that is right here so you can make your own!

Food Tasting- Done!

That's right guys, we did our food tasting! This was actually really fun, even tough we did it at 10am haha. The food at our venue is SO GOOD, which is a relief for me. I was really afraid that maybe it would only be meh, since I've never eaten there before! However, I'm pleased to say that everything was tasty and attractive. We tried about 6 appetizers, and 3-4 main courses. We are doing a cocktail hour at the wedding (which we'll miss because we are taking photos), hot and cold appetizers, and a buffet dinner. I really hope I get to eat that day, because I'm really excited for the food haha. 

Cake Tasting- Done!

Right after our food tasting, we did the cake tasting. I was really excited for the cake tasting, but it was actually really difficult to do. First off, it was hard to decide on the combinations, since we had 4 cake flavors and 5 fillings to try. But, worst of all, it was nauseating! The cake and fillings were really sweet, and it could have been the fact that it was about 10:30am, but I started to get sick of it after a while. Since my fiance had strong feelings about what he wanted as the filling, I let him decide. I really couldn't eat anymore cake to come up with an alternative. We picked a raspberry jam filling, with one tier of chocolate cake and one tier of vanilla cake. Mmmm. For anyone wondering, we tried cake flavors in chocolate, vanilla, strawberry swirl, and raspberry swirl. For the fillings, we tried raspberry jam, raspberry mousse, Bavarian creme, custard with fresh strawberries, and white chocolate mousse.

Flowers/Wedding Colors- Done!

We met with our florist to go over the flowers for the wedding, and in doing so we finally narrowed down the color scheme for the wedding. I was super unsure about what to pick for colors, but in the end I'm excited with the ones I chose, because they feel very "me". I think it'll look gorgeous in the flowers as well! I'm a little nervous about the flowers, since I'm the rare girl that hates roses, but we are doing a mix of flowers and should only be having garden roses in our arrangements, which are very large and open. They barely look like roses! Otherwise, I'll have to learn to love roses and hopefully associate them with my wedding day.

Wedding Rentals- Done!

At the Bridal show, we met someone that did wedding rentals, so we set up a meeting with him. He came armed with lots of amazing goodies to dress up our tables, like sequin tablecloths, charger plates, napkins, utensils, etc. We decided to add some draping to the reception, as well as some nice napkin rings as well. Then it came to the debate- should we upgrade to nicer utensils, napkins and charger plates? We began to wonder if our family would notice, and in the end we decided it wasn’t worth the added cost. Everything adds up, and we decided to instead go with other stuff that would make the reception more fun, instead of just prettier. My biggest debate was with the charger plates. The glass ones were SO PRETTY but they cost about 5x more than the ones from Dollar Tree. I asked on a wedding Facebook group what they thought about charger plates. Nearly everyone said they went with the Dollar Tree ones and didn’t regret it.

Needs to get done:

Dresses for my mom and sister- These ladies helped me pick my dress, so now I need to help them pick theirs! Anyone know of any good places to go? We tried David's Bridal and Macy's, but there wasn't anything too wow-worthy there.

Wedding Invitations- Yea, we need to pick or create these, and get them mailed out soon! Our wedding is on a holiday weekend, so we want people to know all the deets ASAP. My sister is a graphic designer, so she may work on creating some for us. Depends on timing!

Hair & Makeup Trial- I have to go to my venue (3 hrs away!) for my hair and makeup trial. I have a good idea of what I want to do for my hair, so that's fine. Now I need to decide on makeup. I rarely wear makeup, so I'm hoping I can just look like a glam version of myself, instead of looking like a stranger!

Misc Decor- My FAVORITE part of party planning is coming up, and that's purchasing the decor!! I'm so so excited for this! I have a good idea of what I want, so I just need to go shopping. Any excuse, right? ;)

Overall I think we're making good headway, but I think we really need to start acting fast to get thing done, and avoid scrambling at the last minute! I'm going to take it one day at a time, but I think I need to get my to-do list in order ;) So, what are your tips for getting wedding planning tasks in order? Should I make lists, add tasks to my calendar, don't sweat the small stuff?! Let me know in the comments below!