Baskets

So I went to the Salvation Army store and bought these baskets for $1.60 each.


I went to Michaels and bought a can of glossy black spray paint for a few bucks and now I have FAR cuter black baskets


There are a few spots that need some touch ups, but they are looking WAY better already. I'd like to do some sort of damask lining with this scrap fabric from the card box project:


but I'm not entirely sure how to go about it. Hopefully I can ask around to see if anyone knows how to do this. I've definitely got plenty of time. I'm not even entirely sure what they are going to be used for. Maybe one for the flower girl and one for programs? In any case, I'm sure we will find a use for them :)

Clovers

I've been trying to figure out a way to incorporate green on the tables, which are going to be predominantly black and white. At the moment, I am planning to have a black table cloth with white plates and napkins and a black on white damask centerpiece of fabric. The damask center piece I'm talking about will look like this (without the vases):



My mom picked out these as the actual center pieces to go on top of the damask fabric:


But this still left us with no green. I saw this cute Martha Stewart craft punch on the Michaels website that punches out little clovers. I went to the store today and picked it up, along with a couple shades of green cardstock paper. A little time spent punching and I now have LOTS of clovers:


I'm thinking what I'll do is sprinkle them on the damask around the centerpiece so it will add a little punch of color and incorporate the fact that we are both half Irish:


Anyway, I'm having fun playing with all the little crafty details. For one of my next projects, I bought some vellum paper that I am planning to print with a damask design to make these cute little votive candle wraps I saw on Etsy:


More updates later! :)

THE Venue

So we decided that we are going to have the wedding a little earlier. Originally, we were aiming for September/October. However, Brian's mom brought up the good point that if we did it then, Brian's brother (best man) and his family would not be able to come out for more than just the day of the wedding because his sister in law is a school teacher and would be back into the new school year by then. They live in New Hampshire, so this would make it really difficult for them. By bumping up the date again, not only will they be able to come out, but they will likely be able to visit for a week or so, giving Brian's brother time to attend his bachelor party.

So this is where it got complicated. My cousin James is getting married on July 3rd, and my cousin Holly is getting married on August 29th. To top it all off, we are all in each others weddings as bridesmaids/maids of honor/grooms men. I wanted to pick a date that was far enough in advance for us to save money and plan, that was not during either of their weddings, and was no later than the middle of August.

SO, we knew we had to start looking for a venue right away. After a few weeks of searching (and much stress from my divorced parents wanting to go two completely separate directions with things) we came across a place in Saratoga called the Saratoga Foothill Club. It is a really pretty venue with a nice little garden area for the ceremony, and a really pretty historic craftsman style building for the reception. I finally got the parents to agree to be on the same page, and was able to book the venue for Saturday August 7th. What I like about this place is that they only hold one wedding per day so you can choose your own hours, and they allow you to BYO alcohol with no corkage fees. Super score!


The best part is that the wedding package we signed up for takes care of the food, drinks, cake, DJ, linens, set up, and take down. All I'm going to need to do is choose the food and cake I want, pick my linen colors, and give the DJ the music we want to be played (since we are SO not having typical cheesy wedding music.) I feel SO much more relieved that many of these details are taken care of. Especially since I start my final semester this coming week, and will not have time to do a ton of wedding planning.

Anyway, I love the dress and the venue. I feel like this four day weekend was very productive! We have an appointment with Brittany to do our engagement shoot this weekend. She has very generously offered to do all of our wedding photography for free, and I couldn't be more excited. I can't wait!

THE Dress

I found it!

We had an appointment at Trudy's Bridal last Saturday and I found a dress that I absolutely fell in love with. Not only was it the one I loved the most, but it was also the lowest price of all the ones I tried on. Score!

I think at that point, it was about the tenth dress I'd tried on. I had tried on gowns that looked good, but none of them really did anything for me. This was the first gown I got truely excited about as soon as I put it on.

I had another appointment at David's Bridal after the one at Trudy's. I figured that even though I found a gown I loved already, it couldn't hurt to look at a few more. However, after seeing really high quality gowns at Trudy's, it was hard to like any of the ones at David's. Especially since they make you wear that stupid long line bra and petticoat to make the dress lay right. At Trudy's, you don't need to wear any of that stuff with your gown!

Not only that, but David's double books their consultants on weekends. This means that the lady puts you into a dress and then goes to help another bride. If you hate it, you're stuck sitting in the dress till she comes back to help you, because they don't want you doing any of it on your own. In an hour an a half appointment, you only get to try on 5-6 gowns total. Total waste of time. At one point I was stuck for about 10-15 minutes in a heavily beaded gown that was SUPER heavy and hurting my back. No bueno.

To top it all off, my consultant at David's was super rude. I told her features I liked in dresses so she could get an idea of what to pull for me. She put me in a HORRIBLY cheap taffeta gown that felt like a plastic table cloth. When she returned from helping the other bride she asked me what I thought and I politely told her it wasn't quite right for me. She proceeded to say "well you know that this is the dress you told me you wanted, right?"

WTF??? Just because I told you I like these certain features doesn't mean that this one dress is the one that puts them all together just right. What a B.

Needless to say, she didn't get a sale from me that day. For anyone out there who is not married, my advice is not to go to David's when that time comes. Not unless you want to end up in an itchy petticoat that is going to make you sweaty and uncomfortable all day.

Anyway, right after that appointment I went right back to Trudy's and ordered the gown I loved in my size. I'm so excited!!!

Sorry followers...no pictures or descriptions of the dress. Wouldn't wanna ruin it for the hubby to be ;-)

First Wedding Project

I saw these really cute wedding card boxes on Etsy. As cute as they were, I wasn't willing to drop $60-$160 bucks on one. I went to party city right after Christmas and found a set of three boxes for 50% off. They were a little dinged up, but it didn't matter since I was planning to cover them up with fabric anyway.

A little hot glue and some fabric and voila!



I cut out the bottom of the top two boxes so a card can be dropped in the slit in the top and will fall into the bottom. Layla of course helped me along the way...


Once I decide on the shade of green I am going to use (I've gone back and forth a lot) I'm planning to tie them all together with a green ribbin, kinda like you see here:


This one is pretty damn cute, but at least mine won't cost $125!!!