Engagement Photos Are In!

It was so cold and windy when we got our engagement pictures taken last Friday. My hair was blowing all over the place and I was shivering most of the time. It was too cold to wear the outfits I had originally picked out. I did get to wear one dress with a sweater. I ran to the store last minute to get some tights so my legs wouldn't freeze. Did anyone else have to change their engagement photo attire last minute due to weather? Good thing it didn't rain!

I squealed a little bit when I got a message from our photographer today saying that our engagement pictures were done a week earlier than we were expecting!

You can check out more of Jaclyn's fantastic work at: gingerootstudios.com

Waiting to see my blue shoes

My shoes came in today! Unfortunately, they are 2 1/2 hours away at my mom's house, so I have to wait til this weekend to see them in person.

My mom told Ben that they looked blueish gray, so I was really worried they wouldn't look anything like what I was expecting since I ordered a cobalt/sapphire color.

Ben drove to my house to take a picture for me- what a sport!

While they look a little lighter than the swatch, they definitely don't look gray! I can't wait to see them in person this weekend.

My shoes were purchased from the dyeable collection at Payless Shoes for $49. They were having a buy one get one half off sale, so I got a pair of dyeable flats in the same color for $15.

New Jobs

It's been a few weeks, but I have exciting news!

My fiance and I both got teaching jobs within the last two weeks. We will both be teaching music and are now going to start looking for a house!

We are getting married in 74 days, I have 17 teaching days left, and I just can't wait for everything that this summer holds!

Fabulous Flowers

I knew before we were even engaged that I wanted hydrangeas at our wedding! They are so full and lovely. Since I am not living in town, my mom made an appointment with a florist and after talking about it, we agreed that it would be ok to put down a deposit for flowers to reserve the date.

My fiance's mom is from a family of florists and she had offered to arrange anything that I wanted in silk flowers, but I thought I wanted real flowers at least for my own bouquet and my bridesmaids. I also envisioned real flowers in our centerpieces at the reception.

I finally got to meet with our florist last month. I came armed with several of my inspiration pictures and was going to be very clear on the following things: BUDGET, no roses, blues and greens, and certain flowers I really wanted (hydrangeas, green verbinum, and green hypericum berries.

For my bouquet, I showed her this picture:

I told her I really wanted the base to be blue hydrangea, even though she thought white would be better for a bride's bouquet. I agreed to adding white lissianthus and blue delphinium. I thought the delphinium looked a little purple-ish in the shop, but she told me if I didn't like it in the finished product, it would be really easy to take out, so I agreed to it. She was also going to add the green hypericum berries and green verbinum. I was happy with this and thought it would turn out great! I was quoted $195 for this bouquet.

Then we went on to talk about bridesmaid bouquets. I wanted blue hydrangeas for the base as well, with green flowers/berries mixed in. I showed her the following two pictures:

I especially love that second one and love the way that the colors just pop off those blue dresses which are very close to the color of my bridesmaids dresses. She thought the second picture was way too large for a bridesmaid, but thought she could make something similar scaled down. This is what she suggested: blue hydrangea, green verbinum, green hypericum berries. These would cost $50/each for a total of $200.

She would do Ben's boutonniere with white lissianthus and green hypericum berries. Cost: $15.

So far we were up to $410 for my/maids bouquets and FI's bout.

I had planned for FI's mother to put together groomsmen bouts, flower girl pomander, pew decor, wreaths for the church doors, and all remaining bouts/corsages out of silk flowers. Flowers were purchased from Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's, and Dollar Tree. So far this cost has been about $300. When I get more info about everything she is making I will have to update this to show where that money went.

For centerpieces, I really wanted real flowers. This was my inspiration picture:

I loved the look of multiple vases/canning jars filled with flowers and accented by delicate votives. However, that would get quite expensive having several vases per table, so I narrowed it down to one vase per table but still wanted to have fresh flowers.

My florist quoted me $255 for 30 stems of hydrangea for centerpieces that we could arrange ourselves. This did not include taxes or delivery, which was a $50 minimum. Since then, I have been thinking about other options for floral centerpieces. I have been thinking about going through Sam's Club. Online reviews are mostly good and I could get 40 hydrangeas for about $115 including taxes. They would be shipped to my house 2 days before and I would have to let them soak in a cool place until the wedding. They have a great policy where they will reimburse you for any flowers that do not turn out good, but this just makes my mom really nervous because hydrangeas can be a difficult flower, and the last thing we want the day of the wedding is droopy or dead flowers. Not to mention that we would have to come up with another alternative at the last minute. But to save the money, I think it may be worth it.

Some other centerpiece ideas that have crossed my mind include these:

Baby's Breath

Blue delphinium

Has your floral budget been a big shock to you?

What are some cost effective ways of doing floral centerpieces?

Has anyone used bulk flowers from Sams Club, especially their hydrangeas?

Small Sacrifices

When we started our wedding planning we knew that we would have to make a lot of sacrifices. We are working on a small budget, made up mostly of our own money, and we got engaged about 7 months before our wedding date.

One of my first sacrifices was reception venue. We are being married in a church and I REALLY wanted to have our reception outside at Botanica, a local garden.

Isn't it beautiful?!

You even get an indoor space in case of bad weather.

Well... unfortunately, this place books up a year in advance. The only remaining option for a wedding this summer was on a Friday night, and my mom didn't like that idea at all.

Not only was that an issue, but so was the cost. The would have cost $2000 for the space alone. That doesn't include any of the extras like linens, chairs, etc. For some people $2,000 is no big deal. For us, it was a huge deal breaker.

So I finally agreed to our cheapest option- have the reception in the lunch room in the school connected to the church we would be married at. This was also my school cafeteria from kindergarten through 8th grade and it just seemed weird, but I have gotten over that. Not only has it cut out the need for transportation between the ceremony and reception, this hall was only $150 to rent. I hope we can still make it beautiful!

Then the next sacrifice came up a few months later. If I was going to have our reception there, I DID NOT want those ugly brown metal chairs! But our current guest list was ranging from 250-300 people. You could rent the white wooden chairs (like the picture above from Botanica) for $2.50 each. Again, doesn't sound like a huge deal, but when you need 250 that is $625. My mother and Ben kept telling me I was crazy for wanting to spend our money on chairs. Then I looked into the white plastic folding chairs- $1.50 each. Still that was going to be $375. Finally, I gave up any idea of white chairs, chair covers, etc. because when it came down to it, I knew that the money we would spend on that we could get more use out of in other places.

I hope that the reception is still beautiful, although I often have my doubts, but I have to remember what it's really about. Ben and I are getting married and that is the most important thing.

What sacrifices have you made in working out your budget?

Engaging Engagement Attire

My kids!

I tell you what! Teaching, putting together two music programs and planning a wedding is hard work! I have a kindergarten music program tomorrow, so I have been slacking a little the past week. My apologies.

For our engagement pictures, FI an I have talked about sever different ideas. We have talked about more casual outfits with jeans and our favorite (wedding) colors: blue and green!

Below is an inspiration board of some different shade of the two colors.

For our second outfit, I wanted something a little more formal. I found this white dress online at Maurices. I thought it would be really cute if FI wore black and white- very bridal w/o being in a long dress! Also I could wear it again to one of my bridal showers! YAY!

Well FI did not like the idea of him in black and white and thought we needed more color. So I suggested putting him in grey and adding yellow. Maybe even a touch of blue. I just love the dress!

He seemed to really like this idea. So now I am on the hunt for yellow shoes and cardigan for me and a tie for him.

Tonight I went to try on the dress and it is very ivory. Maybe even slightly cream. It's really cute and I can't wait to find the right cardigan to give it that pop of color.

Then in went into payless and found a steal! They are more yellow than they appear in this picture, but they are still a light buttery yellow. $14!

I have heard that you shouldn't wear white/cream for E-pics, but has anyone else done it and loved it? Plenty of people look great in photos in their white wedding dresses, so why couldn't it look good...

I may still be on the lookout for alternatives, but we will see.

How did you choose what to wear for your engagement pictures?

Creating Your Gift Registries

Before we ever got engaged, we were both looking forward to the days when we got to register for wedding gifts. We have gone wedding gift shopping for several of my cousins and it is so exciting to see all the different things they want!

I was surprised how much my fiance was looking forward to this! I decided I would give Ben the scanner so I could hold the list! : )

I would flip if we got this green mixer! I would just be so excited every time I see it! Ben couldn't understand why we couldn't just register for the white one that was $100 less.... BUT IT'S GREEN!

Hopefully it doesn't sound too selfish, but I am so excited to see what we end up with!

Registry Tip #1: Don't expect to do it all in one day. Take your time, enjoy yourselves. Have fun!

Registry Tip #2: Register at several places for a variety. We registered at 3.

Was your fiance excited about registering?

Did you register for just the things you need or for things you would like?

Did you register for anything expensive?

My altered dress!

FINALLY! MY WAIT IS OVER!

My dress is altered and in! I am so glad I purchased in ivory. I looks great on me and I am just so pleased with it.

I went with just my mom and she's not especially camera savy so I am lucky to have gotten any pictures at all. We forgot to take pictures of my dress unbustled.

Ok, let's talk about bustles. I really don't care for bustles. When we went in for my first meeting with alterations, she showed me two different ways she could bustle my dress. I didn't love either, so I went with the cheapest option. I think it is a four point bustle. Now that it is done, I still don't love it. Not sure how to feel about it. I just think that it creates some ugly points on the back of my dress. Kind of upset about it, but not sure what to do. I signed off on my dress and took it home. I guess I could carry my train all night, but that could get really exhausting.

She had showed me a french bustle but that just didn't look right either.

SO... LOVE my dress unbustled. Don't really care for the bustle. Not sure what to do about it. Maybe it would look better it I didn't have my veil on or if we had poofed the dress or something.... I really don't know.

Do you love the way your dress looks bustled? Do you like bustles? Any brides come up with other alternatives for dresses with trains. I love my train, but I don't love my bustle.

Self Printed Invitations

So many brides create beautiful invitations. Knowing that we were going to be inviting close to 300 guests just because of the size of our families, we decided we wanted to do invitations as cheap as possible. Let's be honest, a lot of invitations will just end up in the trash anyway.

I had been looking for boxed invitations at Hobby Lobby and Target on clearance and finally found a set I liked. This set included 50 invitations, reply cards and envelopes marked down to $10/package. I bought 3 boxes, so I was at $30.

It's hard to tell from the pictures above, but the paper has a really lovely texture. It's sort of a cream color and the flower detail is a light green.

Once we figured out the wording we wanted, we decided we would run it through the printer at home just to see how the layout worked. I was so pleased with the way they printed, that I decided to just print them all myself. My cartridges were almost out of ink, so I printed them just a few at a time so I wouldn't waste the invites if my printer ran out of ink.

We printed several versions. First one was all in black. It looked nice. Then we tried one with our names in blue since our wedding colors are blue and green. There is no blue in the invitation itself or the envelope, but I still really think it looks cute. For a printing company to print these invitations in 2 colors it would have cost $.59 per invite, so $88.50 for 150 invites. MUCH CHEAPER TO DO IT MYSELF! And it printed great. No smearing. I wish my pictures would have turned out better so you could actually see how good they are.

Instead of using our RSVP cards as they are intended, I am actually going to use them as my thank you's. I printed "Thank you!" on the bottom of them in the blue to match the invites. I will be sticking a piece of card stock in the invitations that will ask the guests to RSVP online on our wedding website on theknot.com or by phone. It will also show a map to the church/reception.

So far this invitation/thank you has cost me $0.20 each!

What ways are you trying to cut the corners in your own budget?

I hope you can wear it again!

My bridesmaids are the best. I am such a people pleaser and really wanted my girls to have a dress they would love, feel comfortable in and (hopefully) wear again. I know, I know. Maybe I'm nuts thinking a bridesmaid dress could be re-wearable.

After searching for the perfect shade of blue with not too much luck, I settled with the Horizon color from David's Bridal.

I was open to my girls picking their own style of knee length dress, but they all ended up going with the dress below. It was $99, plus a $20 discount since I bought my dress there.

Here they are in the dress style. They are going to be stunning, and two of my maids have already told me of another occasion they plan to wear these to, so that makes me feel great!

Did your girls wear the same dress?

I actually really liked the look of different styles, but I was just thrilled they all found dress they liked!

Say yes to the dress... before the ring!

No one knows besides my mother and maid of honor, but I actually bought my dress before I was engaged. I knew it was coming soon. We were "just looking," and the dress I fell in love with was $100 off and was potentially not going to make it into the David's Bridal spring line. It did make the spring line, however it has not been listed at the price I bought it for since it became a part of the spring line. I actually bought the dress the night Ben asked my dad if he could marry me. Good thing he said yes! : )

When I first went dress shopping, I had very specific ideas in mind: sweetheart neckline, a line, train, some detaining, and maybe pleating on the bodice.

My first online dress crush was this Jasmine one:

I still swoon over the neckline. It literally had it all. When I went into stores, they told me they no longer carried it. : (

Then I tried on a Private Label by G dress. It was pretty much love, but sticker shock. I definitely wanted to stay under $1000 and this was $1100-1200. Before alterations. It really did make my tiny 34A's look great though!

*Ben, you are not allowed to read beyond this point!*

Meanwhile, I went into David's Bridal just to "make sure there wasn't anything I would like there". I had seen every dress online and was sure that none of them were my dress. However, for a lower price, I was willing to go try some on and see.

I tried on several without a lot of luck. Then the sales associate brought out a new dress. It wasn't pictured online or in catalogues yet because they weren't even sure if it would be a part of their spring line, which would be announced in about a month. It was on sale for $699, $799 reg.

Ok, I really feel like the online picture and my pictures do not do it justice. I tried it on in white, ordered it in ivory, and it is currently being altered! I will get it back this friday! I can't wait! I am so nervous and excited and so many different things.

I'm in love with it! I will make sure to take some good pictures this weekend when I go to pick it up!

Ok, fess up! Did any of you buy your dress before you were engaged?

How did you know that it was "the one"?

Have you had any doubts about it since the purchase?