Before the Wedding

The true "before the wedding" was a week of last minute projects and a really messy house. All along, I had told myself that I wasn't going to get too wrapped up in wedding projects because it was silly to spend so many more hours prepping for a five hour event. So, of course, I procrastinated a lot and had a pretty big last minute to-do list. My wedding week schedule went a little like this:

Monday/ Tuesday- go to work then come home and work on the programs, menus, and escort cards

Wednesday/Thursday/Friday- take "vacation time" to work on wedding projects including buying last minute accessories and makeup, prepping the linens (of course we bought instead of rented), doing the flower arrangements, and printing more stuff

Saturday- rehearse, rehearsal lunch, MORE last minute projects, pack for the weekend away, and spend time with family from out of town

 

Nate and I decided to be traditional and not see each other before the wedding ceremony- I guess I liked the idea of creating a once-in-a-lifetime-exciting-moment. He said afterwards that he felt like crying when he saw me... so I think it worked! Lucky for my wallet, my mom had rented a hotel suite for family to get together the night before the wedding and let me stay there the night before along with my cousin (the hairstylist) and sister (the maid of honor).

When the big day morning came, I woke up alarm-free at around 5:45 AM and watched the sunrise over Austin from my amazing free suite :). I had a few last minute thankyou escort cards to write (more on that later) and got a head start on my makeup while I waited for everyone to get ready to go over to the venue. I did hire a DOC (day of coordinator) to handle all of the little things ($250), but because I'm a control freak for some reason, I was dying to get over to the venue to make sure everything was going smoothly. Once we arrived, I unloaded my car full of decorations and did a quick review of where everything should have been set up and felt better instantly knowing that things were okay. From there, I went back to my bridal room and finished getting ready...

 No, I'm still not sure how I got talked into doing my own makeup. It might have been the fact that I knew I had my cousin there to back me up... or it might have been my cheap side thinking about how I could spend roughly the same amount as a pro would charge on some new products AND get to keep them. Best decision of my life? Probably not, but I'm definitely not regretting it as I sit here wearing my wedding makeup as I type this.

Oh, but as I sat around bra-less in shape-wear and short shorts, Nate was out in the hall right by me getting his hair fixed up:

The photographers were going in and out taking pictures of details, the guests, and Nate and I was getting really antsy again wanting to be ready... so I started putting my wedding dress on a good five minutes earlier than the photographer wanted me to. Lucky for me, she happened to walk in right as we were finishing up:

 

I'm going to need to pause and make a plug for Hollywood Fashion Tape and dresses with straps. Once my dress was on, it was on and I didn't have one worry about things moving around on me during the day (although, I do wish I knew to put some tape in the back because there are several pictures of the back strap creating back fat- boo!).
 

Oh, and I have to mention how unbelievably perfect the choice to have a one person bridal party was (for me). I was so thankful not to have a bunch of people calling me with questions (the ones from my sister and mom were enough!) beforehand... plus, I'm sure the room would have felt claustrophobic with anyone else. Having my cousin as my hairstylist ($0) was a complete bonus because she was, of course, fun to be around all morning.

 

After a few more tweaks to my look, I was good to go around 5-10 minutes early and sooooo ready to get the show on the road. Yes, I was beginning to get a bit jittery (seeing the picture brings it all back!), but I also didn't want to make my guests wait too long outside... in July... in Texas (yep).

We'll get to that next!

You're Invited!

I have my pictures and my sanity back so it's time to begin wedding recaps!

I'll start by sharing a professional picture of a completed wedding invitation and a quick budget breakdown:

Budget Breakdown:
60 square Anna Griffin invitations via Rue La La: $126.95 ribbon included
Postage for 45 @ $1.08/ invite (additional cost because they were over-sized): $48.60
We handed out several invitations to people who either lived in our neighborhood or that we saw the week that invitations were sent.
Additional cardstock and emergency envelope (after Hugo destroyed one): $9.87
Printing fees: $0 We printed them on our own printer and never had to replace the cartridge.
RSVP cardstock and corner punch: $0 I already had these supplies.
Calligraphy: $0 As imperfect as it was, I just hand addressed each envelope with my own cursive.
Total: $185.42 or $3.09 each
Obviously, I didn't go as thrifty as I could have with the invitations, but with so few invites to send, I knew this would be a good opportunity to make a big statement without becoming a budget buster.

And before we go into more details on the day, I think I should warn you about a few plans that changed after I blogged them:
*We went way off plan with the hair. My cousin, a hairstylist, offered to do my hair for free (score!) and along with my mom and sister, convinced me to wear my hair down. Oh, and due to last minute scheduling issues, we didn't even have time to practice before the wedding.
*I went with DIY makeup...
*I skipped the frozen drinks, but ended up with three options.
*My "colors" ended up being  pink/ coral/ seafoam/ yellow/ white... basically a mix of things I found on sale that I thought would coordinate with the stained glass windows in my venue.
*The "you don't have to give us gifts" thing worked out pretty well. We received a few presents, some gift cards, and checks, but also raised about $1,500 for our charity. Most importantly, people just ended up doing what they felt comfortable doing.
*I didn't go for a bow and my alterations cost almost as much as my dress.
*They got coffee (and Frappuccinos!).
*I paid for everything and counted every penny... except for the last minute aisle decorations that my mom had to have.

My total came out to $11,637.87.  
Of course, I'll break it down much more later.

We're Married!

Well...

I certainly have a lot of blogging to do! Details to come!!

Wedding Confessions

1. My wedding band is 15x as expensive as Nate's band (and that was after the 20% discount).

2. But I still want to "go for" some splurge earrings...

These are my favorite, but not cheap at $250.

These are more affordable and also cute, but I'm not sure that I could pull them off.

Only for a wedding would I say, "these simple studs are just $48."

3. At least my wedding shoes are free... I'm wearing a pair of wedges that I've had for 3+ years. I try not to tell too many people because they just try to guilt me into buying another pair.

4. I got a bit lazy/ cheap when the time came to add a bow to the back of my wedding dress. The alterations were already costing $200 for the things I needed so I just skipped it. Hopefully, I'll find another embellishment that I can add to up the girly factor.

5. Speaking of dresses, my absolute favorite wedding dress ever was this all cotton number done by Project Runway winner, Jay. I remember thinking, "that's exactly the look I want!" when I first saw the episode.

6. I'm way-way-way more excited about eventually buying our "forever" home than I am about the wedding. Sometimes I resent the wedding expenses because I know that they're getting in the way of my down payment plan.

Have any wedding confessions that you'd like to make?

for the tables

I feel like I've been steadily chugging along with wedding planning lately. My dress alterations are scheduled, I've been receiving a steady stream of RSVPs, and we've made plans to go shopping for Nate's ring this weekend. This week, I even bought two different elements for the tables!

I decided to go ahead and buy the tablecloths for the reception instead of renting them. Even without reselling them later, I'm saving hundreds of dollars by doing this thanks to Craigslist (lower prices, no taxes, and no service fees). The big negative to buying my own linens is that I'll be in charge of making sure they're wrinkle-free and ready by the wedding. Although it will be a bit of work to make this happen, I chose to take it on because it's something I can do well in advance of the wedding (unlike preparing the food, making the cake, etc).

As you might remember, I'm making my own cake stands based on the blogger-favorite candle stick/ plate trick. Lucky for me, I didn't have to go through my plan of searching at all the thrift stores in my neighborhood for a collection of candlesticks and plates that would work- Dollar Tree happened to have everything I needed!

I'm kinda liking the airy glass look, but I could also spray paint the bases with white or another color so that they jump out from the table a bit more. Here's what white dishes would look like on the tablecloths (which seem to photograph as a different color in each picture- they're blue-green): 

What would you do- spray paint the glass or leave them as-is?

Our Online RSVP Works!

I was a bit nervous when I first sent out our invitations with a couple not-so-traditional RSVP options:

I didn't know if people would be offended that I didn't provide a response card or if they wouldn't understand how to use the online option, but it has been a great success so far!

A big part of my decision to go with mywedding.com for my website hosting was (other than it being FREE) the fact that they had a great system for doing online RSVPs. This is what the guest sees when they check in:

I love that the site forces the guests to skip the more common mistakes that RSVP cards cause such as missing names and missing yes/ no responses. Even better, it forces them to include an email address so that I can follow up if I have any questions and makes them include the names of their guests and number of people in each party:

I did get one +1 guest response of First Name: "don't know," Last Name: "yet."

When I log in, I have an easy to navigate list of names and responses (that will export to Excel!). Most of my guests have even left nice comments for me to read in the comment form.

Oh, and... yes... we already have 22 yeses (original wedding goal was 50-75) and 0 noes in less than a week from sending invites out!!

His Suit

I want to start by saying that Nate is 100% in charge when it comes to his wardrobe. He has some sort of vision and I've just been sticking around to make sure he gets everything together in time and sticks to a reasonable budget. Here's how we went about buying his suit:

1. Buying made more sense than renting. Nate has one of those jobs that actually requires suits on a regular basis and this purchase would definitely pay for itself. A tux, although I love them, wasn't even in the running for our Sunday morning event (in JULY).

2. He wanted grey. I wanted him to go for a more youthful modern or slim fit. So... modern grey suit it was.

3. After doing a little online research, I found that Macy's is a favorite among budget-savvy suit buyers. Men's Warehouse has great sales as well, but they tend to benefit men that choose to buy more than one suit at a time. Places like JCrew and Express also popped up on wedding forum lists, but we decided that a department store might have a better selection of styles and sizes so checked out Macy's first...

4. And we found a perfect suit.... that was too short! Not only was the "perfect" suit too short, but almost every suit in the entire store was too short. He literally had one tan suit to try on out of the hundreds available (and it was awful)! I like to tell Nate that he has a runway model body. He's the same chest and waist size as the mannequin above, just stretched a bit taller. After getting his size measured at the store, I went home and Googled away searching for something he could possibly wear. The pickings were really slim (JCrew doesn't even carry his size at all!) and the few suits in his size that we could find were either the wrong color or "old man..." until I gave Macys.com a chance... and found a suit that sold in separates in his sizes! Thanks to our in-store trip, I knew to wait until that Wednesday to use a friends and family discount to bring the total to 50% off.

And, for a total of $232, Nate's new wedding/ work suit:

Yes, I *forced* him to take a picture in it before heading off to work.

While Nate will be picking out his own tie (he made sure I made a point to say that), I'm wondering if we can help him along in the decision-making process. Here are a few Photoshopped color options based off of our "watermelon sunny day" color scheme:

I went ahead and added in a darker blue for some non-Easter-egg variety.

Which color direction would you tell him to go in?