Third Etsy Shoutout

Did I mention that I heart Etsy? :)

In addition to our ring bowl and my hairpins, I also purchased a bouquet charm through Etsy. The talented Annie Howes creates a variety of custom charms. I chose a 1 inch photo charm to honor my mother, who passed away when I was 15. I used a photo of my mom on her wedding day on one side of the charm and a Bible verse on the other. The charm itself was beautiful (I was even able to use a blue ribbon for my "something blue"), and it was an awesome way to keep my mom close on my wedding day.
Photo courtesy of Laura Billingham Photography.

Miscellaneous paper items

Since I already detailed my DIY invitations and rehearsal dinner invites, I thought I would summarize the remaining paper projects and associated costs.

Save The Dates
Just as an FYI from way back in the process--I did actually send save-the-dates, they just weren't very creative. I purchased postcards from the Delaware River Mill Society (the group that maintains the buildings and grounds where we held the reception) and sent those as STDs. I typed up a little blurb in Word, printed it out on clear Avery label sheets, and stuck it on the back of each postcard. I think we spent about $60 for 100 cards and about $15 for the label sheets, so it was inexpensive, but a great way to support the Mill Society. I don't have a photo of the finished product anymore, but here is the plain postcard:

Menus
I always like to know exactly what I am eating, so while these may have been unnecessary, I would have appreciated them as a guest. I just purchased white table tents and khaki A7 cards from Paper Source, printed up the menu from the caterer in the LainieDay script we used for everything else, and applied a little double-sided tape. I placed two menu cards on each table (18 total). Total cost: about $20.

Menu card photos courtesy of the fabulous Laura Billingham.

Escort cards & Programs
The Gartner invitation kits (that I purchased super cheap off Ebay) also contained place cards and programs. I thought these were a no-brainer to use, but I ended up paying more in printing costs than these things physically cost themselves. Unlike the invites, which I was able to run through the laser printer at work, the stock for the placecards and programs seemed to be thicker and got stuck in the work laser and my home inkjet printer. I ended up having to go to Kinkos at midnight two nights before the wedding to have these printed. (There was also a bit of drama regarding them not having the LainieDay script, me freaking out temporarily and then later realizing I could download it onto my jump drive along with the Word docs and Kinkos could load it into their system.) My retrospective advice--print this stuff out in advance of two days before your wedding. It will save you stress.

The programs were simple. I just used the Gartner template with our "signature" fonts (LaineDay script and Adobe Garamond Pro) and the outline the priest gave us for the service. On the back cover we typed our thank yous, info on uploading digital pics to our Flickr account, directions to the reception, and things to do around town in between. I was going to tie a ribbon around the folded side of each program, but that ended up being one of several things I ran out of time for (along with finding something cute to put the programs in--I went with the closest basket to my hand when I entered Michael's the day of the rehearsal dinner). Sorry for the crummy pictures.

Not too much to say about the escort cards. I put names and table numbers on them. We did use the inside of the escort card to once again provide our guests with info for uploading their digital photos to our Flickr account. We used twine and clothespins to hang the cards near the entry table (more about that later), and I was really pleased with how that turned out.

Escort card photos also by Laura Billingham.

Total cost for printing--about $30 (I am not including the paper costs since I included the full Gartner kit amount under invitations)
Total cost of gas used driving back and forth to Kinkos in the middle of the night--unknown and upsetting


Other than the stress I brought upon myself by procrastinating on a few of these items, I am glad I went the DIY route. It was overall a lot of fun, and I was able to save some money while still staying true to the vision I had for the day.

Favorite wedding detail

It is a little weird knowing where to start with all these details after the fact, but I do want to share them for whoever may find them useful, so I guess I will just jump in.

First of all, somewhat schizophrenic photo-documentation of the entire day can be found on our Flickr account. We had our friends post all their digital pics, so things are a little out of order.

And since this would otherwise be a very short post, I will share what was perhaps my favorite wedding-day detail, and the point around which all the decor was designed: our table centerpieces!

To remind you, they were modeled after this photo from the Knot:

I have to say that I think ours turned out even better!I was so, so pleased with how these turned out. Their construction was a labor of love between myself and our amazing florist Mark Bryan of Hairy Mary's in Bucks County, PA. I had the boxes constructed for $6 each by a woman I met at a local craft fair. After searching for months, I found the lanterns for 50% off at Joann's--$8 each. I made the table numbers by stamping on largish river rocks I purchased from Target (I think the whole bag was about $5 or $6. FYI, StazOn ink is the only kind that will adhere to rock, apparently.)
I showed Mark the inspiration photo, discussed how we wanted to use the herbs as favors and how we wanted a little more floral than the photo, and then he just went to town. Total charge from the florist per box was $55 each (keep in mind that included potted herb favors, moss, and flowers).

There were nine tables total, but I had purchased about 5 extra boxes and lanterns, and we had originally budgeted for 12 tables-worth of centerpieces. So Mark filled the rest of the boxes with herbs and placed them in the gorgeous wide windowsills around the room at the reception (there were 12!). We originally only budgeted for two large window arrangements and a few small sprigs of greens with mason jars and candles for the other sills, so the extra boxes made a big impact.

Total cost per centerpiece--just under $70. (But again, that includes the cost of favors, so I think it is a steal.)

We're Married!

Despite a few small things I wish had gone a little differently (not regrets, just minor alterations), both the ceremony and reception went absolutely wonderfully. What an awesome day!

To combat my mild case of post-wedding-planning blues, I will try to update this blog with some of the planning details when we get back from our Cape Cod mini-moon. In the meantime, here we are arriving at our beautiful reception!

Speaking of Etsy

I can thank Weddingbee for introducing me to two of the most exciting and distracting aspects of my last 3-4 months of wedding planning--Gocco and Etsy. :) I posted my first Etsy purchase below--the super-cute ring bowl from Paloma's Nest. Today marks Etsy purchase number two--awesome hairpins from seller Pavoreal. Here they are!! I love love love them! And I have nothing but great things to say about Angela from Pavoreal. She spent loads of time discussing exactly what I wanted, looking at pictures of my dress, and sending me detailed photos of the types of beads she could use in the pins. In the end, they came out exactly as I had hoped. I can't wait to receive them!!

Favorite recent superfluous wedding purchase

When I saw these awesome ring bowls on Etsy at Paloma's Nest, I was in love, but I just couldn't justify spending an extra $20 on something I didn't actually need. That is, until we met with our priest. He mentioned that our rings would need to be sitting on the altar during the ceremony. Well, they couldn't very well sit up there in just their plain old box from the jewelry store! I clearly needed a ring bowl! Yay!

Caroline from Paloma's Nest was great to talk with and really helpful in letting us know what the final product would look like based on how many words we requested, etc. We ended up using a line of poetry by John Ashbery, and I am so pleased with the results.

Attire

I thought I would mix things up a little bit since my last couple of posts have been about my DIY projects. I just went last week for my final gown fitting, which was really exciting! Because my fiance occasionally reads this, I am not going to post any photos of me in the gown, but this is it on someone who I think is much taller than I am. The gown is gorgeous, but a little bigger and heavier than I originally thought I wanted. Fortunately, the seamstress was able to cut the bottom layer of the train so it is just a sweep length, and the only chapel length that will have to be bustled is the lace overlay. That makes it much lighter, and I don't have a huge bustle sticking off of my butt.

If you are considering Casablanca for your gown, I would definitely recommend them. I really wanted to go as inexpensive as possible on the gown (you know, the whole spending tons of money on a dress you will wear once business), and I think their gowns are a really good value for the money. I first looked at David's, but the only dress I really liked there was about $900, so I kept looking. I found the Casablanca gown at a fancy bridal store, and I really liked it, but it was about $1000. When I went home and looked online, I found it for $675! Despite the cost difference, I really preferred to buy in person, so I checked out a couple of other shops that carried Casablanca, and I ended up finding it locally for the same price (although they did charge me an extra $100 for the hollow to hem). Don't get me wrong, I am sure the quality of Casablanca is not like the quality of a $5000 Monique Lhuillier gown. But for a very budget-conscious bride, I thought the gown was beautiful and the quality was excellent.

I originally did not want a veil, but of course, after trying one on with the dress, I thought maybe I did want one after all. That's right, not only did I want one, I wanted a chapel length one. Yeesh. MOH was no help--she convinced me that I really just looked like a bride with the veil on. I saved a lot of money by ordering from Veilshop.com--about $50 for a single layer ivory chapel length cut edge with no details (compared with between $100-200 at the bridal store). I definitely plan to take the veil off for the reception, but I am happy with the decision to wear one for the ceremony.

Recent obsession--hairpins. My stylist was able to replicate this look with my hair, and now I am on the hunt for hairpins. I think I am sold on Pavoreal from Etsy--something like these champagne pins, but a little lighter in color. Yummy!

For bridesmaids gowns, we ended up getting an awesome deal at Ann Taylor. The girls (six) are all wearing Meadow Green with Honeydew sashes. Half are going strapless (Chloe style) and half are having straps (Averie). I guess they were discontinuing these particular styles, and the dresses ended up being $59 each with $6 sashes. I don't necessarily know whether the girls could ever wear these again after the wedding, but there might be a chance, which is more than what can be said for most BM's dresses.

The guys (including groom) are all wearing khaki suits (similar to these, but not exactly). They are actually tuxes, but they pretty much just look like suits--no vests, no bow ties, flap pockets instead of the little slit things. We are buying the groomsmen's ties as their gifts--Brooks Brothers via the outlet--a very good match to the Meadow Green, and they have ivory polka dots. The latest thing I have decided to add to my ever-growing to-do list--green argyle socks. We'll see if it pans out. Drop me a line if you know of any inexpensive sources for green argyle!

All in all, I am really pleased with how reasonable we were able to keep costs, and I am excited to see how everyone looks!