Tuesday, 15 March 2011

  • La lecture cérémonie de mariage, c'est quoi?

    Or...."The reading from our wedding ceremony, what is it?"  (I'm still thinking in French, so pardon my language!  I just got out of class).  Anyways, our ceremony is insanely short.  Or atleast we'd like it to be.  I wrote a no-frills, plain english wedding ceremony.  The only thing that's different is our reading.  I chose it carefully and it took forever to find!  Let me preface this by saying that I am a major Sex and the City fanatic.  (Personally, I'm somewhere between a Charlotte and a Carrie, but I'd love to have some Samantha in me!)  I'd been deliberating for a few weeks on how to personalize our ceremony.  The unity sand tradition wouldn't work because then we'd need a table or something to hole the vases full of sand.  The wine box ceremony is nice, but we don't drink.  And although we could swap it for something else, it just didn't fit who we are.  So I decided that a reading would be a nice compromise.  I remember from the first SATC movie, Carrie and Big were in bed and she was reading "Love Letters of Great Men, Vol. 1"  And Big read out loud the most beautiful letter from Beethoven.  I worked my butt off to find that book only to learn that it never actually existed, and copies were made after the movie came out.  FAIL!  Googling "Love letters of famous men" got a little tiring and I ended up finding a couple, but nothing with the level of amazement that the Beethoven letter held.  Once I found it, I printed it off and haven't looked back since.

    Our pastor is a little "weirded" out from it, I think.  Not sure why, or how he actually feels, but I don't think he is a fan.  I believe his personal stance is that there really shouldn't be anything in the ceremony that isn't in the bible.  We asked him to help us revise the ceremony a little to include some bible stuff.  (He is currently mentoring us about marriage and the bible).  At this moment, I am thinking that Older Brother IWNABAB will be asked to read.  He's one of those "philosopher, deep voice, Barry White" sounding men!  I haven't asked him yet, but he is already an usher.  Would it be too much to ask for this as well?

    I also think I will cut down the entirety of the reading.  There's some phrases in it that I don't think are pertinent to the general feel.  Not sure yet which ones to cut. 

     

    Here's the letter (Full version):

    Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us - I can live only wholly with you or not at all - Yes, I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul enwrapped in you into the land of spirits - Yes, unhappily it must be so - You will be the more contained since you know my fidelity to you. No one else can ever possess my heart - never - never - Oh God, why must one be parted from one whom one so loves. And yet my life in V is now a wretched life - Your love makes me at once the happiest and the unhappiest of men - At my age I nedd a steady, quiet life - can that be so in our connection? My angel, I have just been told that the mailcoach goes every day - therefore I must close at once so that you may receive the letter at once - Be calm, only by a clam consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together - Be calm - love me - today - yesterday - what tearful longings for you - you - you - my life - my all - farewell. Oh continue to love me - never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved.
    ever thine
    ever mine
    ever ours

    (Letter courtesy of All-About-Beethoven.com, Thanks!)

     

    Here's what my version might sound like:

    Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us

    I can live only wholly with you or not at all

    Yes, I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul enwrapped in you into the land of spirits.

    You will be the more contained since you know my fidelity to you. No one else can ever possess my heart - never - never

    Oh God, why must one be parted from one whom one so loves. Your love makes me at once the happiest and the unhappiest of men.

    Be calm, only by a clam consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together

    Be calm - love me - today - yesterday

    what tearful longings for you - you - you - my life - my all - farewell.

    Oh continue to love me - never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved.


    ever thine
    ever mine
    ever ours

     

    What do you think?  It completely makes me swoon!  Should I take out any other parts?

Saturday, 12 March 2011

  • DIY: Handcrafted Aisle Runner

    So, this potentially could have been titled "Aisle Rimmer" due to a sneeze while typing!  Thankfully I caught it though.  Anyhow, our ceremony is like, completely done, you know?  All the decor has been decided and accomplished.  (with minor exception to a decision on two flower vases that may not happen at ceremony anyways!)  The last thing we had to finish was the aisle runner.  And, can I just say WOW, do these cost an arm and a leg.  I took MR. out shopping on Thursday to Walmart to pick up a cheap one, but they had ones that were half opened and the runner themselves were ripped.  (Why didn't I just think to trim the dirt and rips off?!)  So we went to Hobby Lobby and paid twice as much for the same artifact.  (Dumb me.)  And then I STILL had to cut some length off because the tag was taped to the runner, creating a rip when removing! 

    I've seen these all over the place:

    Source

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    Aren't those so neat?  As if I needed yet another project to work on.  I was already in the middle of chalkboard frames, candy buffet tags, salt and pepper shakers, BM gifts, and so so much more.  But this was a fun project that I can actually say I really enjoyed.  I love to paint (recreational).  We already had ALL the supplies at home, so why not? 

    I made my design in photoshop using my absolute favorite fonts that I downloaded for free from dafont.com I used Cheri Liney! 

    Here's my original design:

     

    (Personal Photo)

     

    I laid that underneath my aisle runner and traced with a mechanical pencil.

     

    (Personal Photo)

    After that was done, I placed some USPS boxes underneath (I have SO many around, and they are free!) and started to outline the letters/numbers.  Here's some halfway through photos:

     

     (Personal Photos)

     After I outlined, I waited for it to dry and went back to fill in with some bright and cheery colors.

    Here's what the finished project looks like!

     

     (Personal Photos)

     

    It took me a good 6 hours to finish because I had to wait for everything to dry completely before moving on to the next color.  After I would finish a section to dry, I would lift if off the box for a good 3 minutes because I found that the aisle runner would stick TO the box and make it terribly hard to rip off if I didn't. 

    Overall, It was time-consuming, but it is one more personal touch to our so-far impersonal ceremony!

Thursday, 10 March 2011

  • Novelty Rooster? Check.

    So, I'm wondering...  what does your wedding novelty rooster look like?  We picked ours out today, and it took forever!  I swear we can't make a decision this big to save our lives!  Wait, what?  You don't know what I'm talking about??  Novelty Rooster, wha??

    Source

     

    Let me backtrack--  Everytime MR. accompanies me to Hobby Lobby (which is becoming more and more frequent, as I make last minute runs for wedding decor!) he makes comments about how this or that rooster would look awesome for decor.  I know, he's just being silly, but it's gotten outrageously hilarious lately.  We can't even step into the door, and he's like "OOh... I wonder what kind of rooster we can pick up today!" It's one of those cute quirks about him that I love.  He won't let jokes go.  laughing

    So we're in Hobby Lobby this afternoon.  We went there for an aisle runner and chalkboard spray paint.  After we get these two items, I spy my mason jars (that I need 5 more of) and we pick those up.  As we're heading out, I'm slowly glancing down each aisle to spy for items I don't need, but want...then MR. mentions how those roosters behind us would go so well with the wedding.  I turn around and, I just couldn't resist him!  He's so gosh darn cute when he's joking around, and I'm actually beginning to think it would be funny and quirky to have one somewhere at the wedding.  I didn't see one I loved on the shelf he pointed out, but we promised to look around the store once more for them when we were ready to leave.  After I spot an add-on to bridesmaid gifts, I send him to get a cart, and he comes back with a ceramic rooster in the cart, claiming that he didn't know how "it" got in! 

    We head towards the front of the store, near the glassware and home decor to look for more roosters.  It basically turned into a game of "rooster hunting"  We started sneaking around the store, looking for roosters.  And when I say sneaking, I MEAN sneaking.  Tip toes, whispers and all that jazz! 

    Caught one!  (personal photo)

     

    We were getting frustrated because we couldn't find one that worked.  And then I turned around and stopped in my tracks.

    "MR. don't turn around quickly.  I see one right behind you.  Slowly.....slowly..."

    Mr. turns around.

     

    HI-YA and Kung foo like, we decided to buy this little guy:

    Personal Photo

     

    He works SO well!  We're in love with the positioning!  If I can be crass for a second, our first words when we picked him up were:  Looking down "Yep, I think I still got 'em down there!"  Bright side?  He was 50% off.  Oh for the love of Hobby Lobby.

    Here's a "w00t, complete hunting success photo":

    YES!

     

    I'm sure people will think twice about us having a rooster on our sweetheart table, but it's a little joke, and it'll make the day that much more special!

Wednesday, 09 March 2011

  • The big one. One last huge planning Hurah.

    Well, not really.  But it's the LAST huge thing I have to plan.  Flowers.  Les Fleurs.  Beaucoup, Beaucoup des fleurs!  You know, I bet I could write this entire blog post in French, but how much fun would that be to read?

    Anyways, we set aside around $800 total for flowers, because honestly, I didn't know how much I would be spending.  I didn't even know what flowers I was going to use.  All I knew was that I was doing "wildflower-esque" mason jar centerpieces.  Wasn't sure of much past that.  OH! And that we are completely doing them ourselves. 

     

    Personal Photo

    My momma introduced me to an amazing resource that I don't think I could have ever found on my own.  (It takes long-time living in the city!)  Some magical place called "flower row", where FLORISTS shop for THEIR flowers and supplies.  BOO-YA.  Take that overpriced flower arrangers!  The only downside about this wonderful land, is that 98% of the stores sell ONLY to florists.  Meaning Miss MOI = no admittance. 

    But there was one shop, Walter Knoll to be exact, that will sell to anyone who walks in with a form of payment.  They work with a flower wholesaler for the stems, and the WK store itself sells arranging supplies like vases, bouquet holders, gems, candles, and ribbon.  The flower seller sells the stems at market price, which makes my flower budget seem wildly overcalculated.

    Mr. and I set off last Saturday morning to venture into the deep dark cold coolers to find our wedding flowers.  We ended up spending 1/8 of our budget on a trial run.  But, 1/4 of that was on vases for the cake table.  (I prommmmise I well tell you about them!) 

    Here's what we ended up with!:

    Do you like the blue ribbon?  We were unsure.. (Personal Photo)

     

    How about the purple ribbon?  We prefer this one.  (Personal Photo)

    The "Green Table" centerpiece!  Before minor adjustments (personal photo)

    Green, after adjustments!  We added the daisy, and later added another pink rose! (Personal Photo)

    Here they are together!  What do you think?  (Personal Photo)

    Top-Down view (Personal Photo)

     

    Our cake table will look OH SO neat!  While it's still a secret what we're doing, here's some hints:

     

    Calla Lilies wrapped in a cylinder vase (personal photos)

    You can't imagine how hard it was to hold kitteh (Henry as we like to call him) with one hand and take the photo with the other!  I spy a bottle of LUSH snow fairy in the background! (Personal Photo)

     

    Here's some glimpses at the bouquets:

    Possible Bridal Bouquet?  Not sure I like the mums with the roses.  I need some major inspiration! (Personal Photo)

    There's my MR. holding bridesmaid bouquets!  Spot the cupcake handtowel in the back!  =)  (Personal Photo)

    The MOH bouquet will look very similar, but will have a couple more roses.

    BM S. would laugh at me for having my MACRO setting turned on, on my camera.  It focused on my sleeve and not my face!  (Personal Photo)

    Here's our mock-up!  We don't have a round table, so ignore the corners!  Also, we don't have round plates so had to use the bamboo disposables we tried out!  We're a SQUARE family.  haha =)  Looks good, ya? (Personal Photo)

    We ended up LOVING the bamboo plates more than I thought we would originally.  After we received them, we hated the bamboo flatware, so scrapped the "bamboo" idea altogether, and were going to rent china.  But now, we're are in LOVE.

    Here's our final place setting!

     

    We skipped real silverware and decided that clear plastic would look good!  I'm SO in love!  (Personal Photos)

     

    What do you think?  Have I done good?

     

     

     

     

Tuesday, 08 March 2011

  • Semi-Quasi Daytime wedding reception

    As you may recall, we have a 4.5 hour gap between the ceremony and reception.  (I know!  Please don't judge me!).  Our reception is starting rather early in the evening, and ends pretty darn early in the evening.  Which makes it ok, in my eyes atleast, that we're not having alcohol.  When I originally got started planning, I thought a picnic-type affair would work well for the wedding.  It's a summer day, on a holiday weekend, why not?  But my tastes got in the way, and we've ended up with a much better party.  :) 

    The tradition of a send-off stems from the days when bride and grooms would leave for their honeymoon immediately after the reception.  In those days, the receptions let out earlier (probably in the afternoon), and it was a big "farewell". 

    I was doing research for our "getaway" from the reception to see what would work.  In a perfect world, sparklers would be my first choice.  But since we're using state park property, it's not allowed.  My next option is....well, that's where you come in.  I have a couple choices but can't really decide between any of them. Our wedding is scheduled to "end" right when the sun is setting, so keep that in mind when casting a vote!

    (Source)

     

     

    Here's the options:

     

    • Bubble wands:  We've already bought a large pack of these for $15 or so.  They are unopened.  (I think we purchased these a while back when I didn't know much about weddings, and automatically assumed we'd need bubbles, but wasn't sure for what exactly.)  I'm not a huge fan of them, but they'd get the job done, and we already have them.

    Source

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    • Ribbon Wands:  You know what I'm talking about--  The gorgeous sparkly and smooth-moving sticks that have ribbons attatched?  They would look amazing, but I'm concerned they would be too much work, or just a plain waste of $$. 

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    • No send off.  We are considering not even doing this tradition.  We aren't leaving for the honeymoon until the next morning, so why rush leaving?  We could just have the DJ announce our exit and then leave!  It's the cheapest, and non-fuss option. 

     

     

    So I'm dying to know what you think!  Bubbles, Ribbons, or Nada?  Or do you have another creative idea for our send-off?

About Me

  • I'm a hard-working, food enthusiast, who spends too much time reading and too little time dusting! My free time is generally consumed with pomanders, mustache mugs, and double sided tape!

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