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?

Our first splurge- PHOTOGRAPHY!

One of the things that Ben and I decided was really important to us early on was having good pictures of our special day. Since we were having a relatively short engagement (7 months), we basically picked our wedding day around the only available day our photographer had left this summer- July 16th.

If you are a Wichita bride, I truly recommend Jaclyn!

http://www.jaclynmariephoto.com/index2.php

http://www.gingerootstudios.com/jaclyn/

Our total photography budget is now $2900 (plus tax). It includes unlimited

day of, disk of prints with rights, and a 2 hour engagement session.

* All photos on this page are taken by Jaclyn Lipplemann of Gingeroot Studios, Wichita KS*

I really think that the sacrifices that we have made in other areas to accommodate

one of our top priorities will really be worth it!

What were your top priorities when figuring out how you would split your wedding

budget?

Since when are blue and green for boys only?

Green and blue seem like very boyish colors, but I am determined to make them feminine, delicate, soft, bright, fresh, and beautiful!

My fiance and I decided to combine our two favorite colors for our wedding day: Blue and Green. Below are some of the inspiration photos I have saved over the last few months.

I always wanted my wedding's theme to be "something blue" (even though my favorite color is green).

But I wanted to add another color to make it less monochromatic. I wanted something beautiful and fresh, so I went with my ultimate feel good color- green!

I just love the way the green POPS against the blue. The blue in the girls dresses above is really close what I ended up going with for my bridesmaids- Horizon Blue from David's Bridal.

Where else can we incorporate these colors?

The cake!

I love the way the colors of the hydrangeas are incorporated into this cake!

The decor- paper lanterns!

We will be having an indoor ceremony and reception and I am hoping to fill our ceiling with shade of blue, green, and white paper lanterns. (More to come later on this project!)

Attire- groomsmen ties!

How did you incorporate your wedding colors?

Did you choose any color combinations that you feel are unique?

My long distance engagement

Ben and I have been together over four years now. We met in college, both studying music education. I graduated last year and took the first available job that was two and a half hours away from Ben, who is still in school finishing his last year.

This year has been a tough one, but it has helped us realize how important we are to each other.

I would go back every few weekends to visit him and and just sob when I had to leave.

We had been talking about getting married for YEARS now. We were just waiting for him to get done with school, but there seemed to be a lot of uncertainty in the job world, so we didn't know when it would happen.

We had looked at engagement rings, and I had a feeling that it was going to happen the weekend that it did. Ben came out to see me Dec. 17th, 2010. He got in town late that night and we were planning to go on to his parents house the next day. He couldn't even wait and he proposed to me that night! He told me that he had thought about waiting until we were with our families for Christmas, but as soon as he got the ring, he knew he had to do it at the first available moment.

I was so excited! Finally! We will be tying the knot July 16th, 2011!