I'm at 65 hearts - getting there slowly but surely.
I picked up the save the dates today, so we'll be busy addressing and putting magnets on the cardstock, I'm sure.
Every "The Knot" e-mail I get tells me how many days to go, and it's starting to make me majorly nervous. Not in a cold feet sort of way, but a "how will we ever pull this off???" sort of way.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Corazoncitos
As of this evening, I have made 52 crochet hearts. That is just about halfway done. I've still got a lot of work to do, but I feel halfway is cause for a little celebration. So, huzzah!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
A tisket, a tasket...
One of the things I haven't done much so far in my wedding planning is support small business, either in my hometown or where I live now. We're trying to save money whenever possible, and one of the double-edged swords of American industry in my (often flawed) point of view is that often, the cheapest options and more choices are offered at bigger businesses.
We are getting the cakes from a small local bakery, but we got the fabric for my dress from a large craft store chain, and the paper goods came from a number of large craft store chains. Our bridal party is getting their dresses and tuxes from two national retailers, in no small part because we have friends and family all over the country. We're getting the food and serving items from Gordon Food Service, a huge company that is all over Canada and the Midwest. I'm not saying I don't like those businesses, in fact, the opposite is true. I'm just saying a little hippie part of me feels bad that our dollars aren't always staying local and small business.
So I'm excited about my flower girl baskets. I just ordered them from a local basket maker and baker, a husband and wife team who are either Amish or Mennonite, and who make lovely baskets. They live in a small town about 10 miles east of where we live.
I had been keeping one eyeball peeled for anything interesting, because I was somewhat underwhelmed with the offerings of the wedding sections of the aforementioned giant craft stores. I know if you put the word wedding on the box, the price goes up at least 10 percent, but the Barbie quality of the snowy satin on the flower girl baskets I've seen so far didn't have me opening my pocketbook.
I know it's a small detail, but I'm excited to have good, handmade baskets that my flower girls can keep when the day is over.
We are getting the cakes from a small local bakery, but we got the fabric for my dress from a large craft store chain, and the paper goods came from a number of large craft store chains. Our bridal party is getting their dresses and tuxes from two national retailers, in no small part because we have friends and family all over the country. We're getting the food and serving items from Gordon Food Service, a huge company that is all over Canada and the Midwest. I'm not saying I don't like those businesses, in fact, the opposite is true. I'm just saying a little hippie part of me feels bad that our dollars aren't always staying local and small business.
So I'm excited about my flower girl baskets. I just ordered them from a local basket maker and baker, a husband and wife team who are either Amish or Mennonite, and who make lovely baskets. They live in a small town about 10 miles east of where we live.
I had been keeping one eyeball peeled for anything interesting, because I was somewhat underwhelmed with the offerings of the wedding sections of the aforementioned giant craft stores. I know if you put the word wedding on the box, the price goes up at least 10 percent, but the Barbie quality of the snowy satin on the flower girl baskets I've seen so far didn't have me opening my pocketbook.
I know it's a small detail, but I'm excited to have good, handmade baskets that my flower girls can keep when the day is over.
Monday, February 14, 2011
You're invited!
Planning our wedding has been a humbling process. I don't know if it's supposed to be, but it has been.
I started out thinking I was going to apply my boundless creativity to every aspect of the process. I quickly figured out that my skills only expand so far.
We bought paper products for our invitations early on, because I was confident I could design a beautiful invitation for us with ease, having forgotten the painstaking hours spent in computer labs for my design classes in college.
We initially were leaning toward a Wall-E theme, because it's one of our favorite movies and it's impossibly adorable.
However, Wall-E is really hard to draw, as evidenced by my failed attempts at creating a save-the-date.
After I gave up on Wall-E, we compromised on a bird theme. I trolled the Etsy pages for wedding invitations, looking for inspiration. I bought a 30-day trial to Adobe InDesign in hopes that I would become a good artist in that amount of time. By day three, I'd given up and put out feelers for anyone who would design the invites for me.
I did what's called an alchemy request on Etsy, looking for someone to help me draw the birds for the save-the-dates. Typography and extremely basic things are not beyond my grasp, but I was having an awful time electronically rendering two cute little birds. I set my desired cost at $25.
More than a dozen people applied for the job, which surprised me a lot. On the second day, one of the people whose designs I had admired, arippke, said she would do everything - save the dates, invites and RSVP cards and envelopes for $40.
She's done a beautiful job, and we're going to get the save-the-dates printed tomorrow. Out of respect for her designs, I won't post the original image. I will take some photos when we start stuffing envelopes.
What I've learned is that you can't do everything yourself, but if you spend a little bit of time looking, you will find someone who will be willing to help you out.
I started out thinking I was going to apply my boundless creativity to every aspect of the process. I quickly figured out that my skills only expand so far.
We bought paper products for our invitations early on, because I was confident I could design a beautiful invitation for us with ease, having forgotten the painstaking hours spent in computer labs for my design classes in college.
We initially were leaning toward a Wall-E theme, because it's one of our favorite movies and it's impossibly adorable.
However, Wall-E is really hard to draw, as evidenced by my failed attempts at creating a save-the-date.
After I gave up on Wall-E, we compromised on a bird theme. I trolled the Etsy pages for wedding invitations, looking for inspiration. I bought a 30-day trial to Adobe InDesign in hopes that I would become a good artist in that amount of time. By day three, I'd given up and put out feelers for anyone who would design the invites for me.
I did what's called an alchemy request on Etsy, looking for someone to help me draw the birds for the save-the-dates. Typography and extremely basic things are not beyond my grasp, but I was having an awful time electronically rendering two cute little birds. I set my desired cost at $25.
More than a dozen people applied for the job, which surprised me a lot. On the second day, one of the people whose designs I had admired, arippke, said she would do everything - save the dates, invites and RSVP cards and envelopes for $40.
She's done a beautiful job, and we're going to get the save-the-dates printed tomorrow. Out of respect for her designs, I won't post the original image. I will take some photos when we start stuffing envelopes.
What I've learned is that you can't do everything yourself, but if you spend a little bit of time looking, you will find someone who will be willing to help you out.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
The cake problem
I've known since I got engaged that I would most likely be getting the services of a professional baker for our wedding cake. My mom used to be a professional cake decorator, and a good one at that, but she is also making my dress, and I want her to be able to have fun at the wedding, not worry about every little detail. I also was concerned about the transportation issue, since my mom lives in Missouri and my wedding will be in Indiana.
I've been worried about the cake for a while due to the wedding magazine industry's insistence that $30 a slice is perfectly reasonable unless you're just completely bourgeoisie. I knew that couldn't be right, but I've been realizing, as soon as you mention the word wedding, prices suddenly increase.
In addition, I've been reading a book called "The DIY Wedding: Celebrate Your Day Your Way." One of the things they mention is having a number of different cakes instead of one giant, expensive, elaborate cake from a baker. The people in the book ordered all their cakes from one baker, but we want to have family members make a couple of cakes to honor their culinary talents. That way, my mom can make a cake, and that will please her, but she doesn't have to have the pressure of the dress and *the* cake on her shoulders. My mom, my cousin, and my fiance's grandma have said they will make cakes for the big day. We will still have a traditional cake to cut for the photo opportunity, but it will be smaller. We will honor our family members who are contributing with a placard saying what kind of cake it is and who made it.
I've been e-mailing back and forth with a baker in my hometown for about a year, about the possibility of them making our wedding cake. When my aunt offered to take over some of the duties and chores involved in wedding planning, calling the baker was one of them. She initially made the call to this bakery, Moxie, and told them about the small cake we wanted.
She said they offered an estimate of $200, and mentioned they were "the only game in town," meaning unless we wanted to order our cake from a grocery store (what's wrong with that??) we would have to pay a delivery charge.
I called them to tell them our plans and find out if $200 was really their estimate for a 30-slice cake. As soon as I mentioned my family members making cakes, this is what the baker told me:
"We don't really have our cakes at events where other cakes will be. We have a reputation to uphold, and if those cakes don't taste good, or don't look good, that could reflect poorly on us."
I said we would look elsewhere, thanked her, and hung up a little abruptly.
I am still slightly incredulous. I would understand if we were having cake from competing bakeries at our wedding, but they're going to be homemade. They will be delicious, but they will obviously be homemade, in baking pans, AND LABELED AS SUCH. I just have to laugh.
The good news is that I was rapidly able to find another baker in the area, Willow Branch Bakery. I e-mailed them and told them our plans, and they're working with me and my fiance to create a custom design based on our invitation designs and cake topper. They're also working with our budget, which is really awesome. I guess sometimes you have to have a jaw-dropping customer service experience before you can appreciate really good customer service from someone else.
I've been worried about the cake for a while due to the wedding magazine industry's insistence that $30 a slice is perfectly reasonable unless you're just completely bourgeoisie. I knew that couldn't be right, but I've been realizing, as soon as you mention the word wedding, prices suddenly increase.
In addition, I've been reading a book called "The DIY Wedding: Celebrate Your Day Your Way." One of the things they mention is having a number of different cakes instead of one giant, expensive, elaborate cake from a baker. The people in the book ordered all their cakes from one baker, but we want to have family members make a couple of cakes to honor their culinary talents. That way, my mom can make a cake, and that will please her, but she doesn't have to have the pressure of the dress and *the* cake on her shoulders. My mom, my cousin, and my fiance's grandma have said they will make cakes for the big day. We will still have a traditional cake to cut for the photo opportunity, but it will be smaller. We will honor our family members who are contributing with a placard saying what kind of cake it is and who made it.
I've been e-mailing back and forth with a baker in my hometown for about a year, about the possibility of them making our wedding cake. When my aunt offered to take over some of the duties and chores involved in wedding planning, calling the baker was one of them. She initially made the call to this bakery, Moxie, and told them about the small cake we wanted.
She said they offered an estimate of $200, and mentioned they were "the only game in town," meaning unless we wanted to order our cake from a grocery store (what's wrong with that??) we would have to pay a delivery charge.
I called them to tell them our plans and find out if $200 was really their estimate for a 30-slice cake. As soon as I mentioned my family members making cakes, this is what the baker told me:
"We don't really have our cakes at events where other cakes will be. We have a reputation to uphold, and if those cakes don't taste good, or don't look good, that could reflect poorly on us."
I said we would look elsewhere, thanked her, and hung up a little abruptly.
I am still slightly incredulous. I would understand if we were having cake from competing bakeries at our wedding, but they're going to be homemade. They will be delicious, but they will obviously be homemade, in baking pans, AND LABELED AS SUCH. I just have to laugh.
The good news is that I was rapidly able to find another baker in the area, Willow Branch Bakery. I e-mailed them and told them our plans, and they're working with me and my fiance to create a custom design based on our invitation designs and cake topper. They're also working with our budget, which is really awesome. I guess sometimes you have to have a jaw-dropping customer service experience before you can appreciate really good customer service from someone else.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
A concession
My godmother/aunt/arbiter of good advice convinced me to take one item off my Gotta-do-it-by-July list.
We will be using some crystal birds I received as a gift some time ago as our cake topper, rather than me making the amigurumi birds I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Even just that one less item to do is a relief.
I'm so grateful to my friends and family for their sound advice. My future mother-in-law sent me a book called the Zen Bride, and I've been trying to read a little bit from it a day to keep myself grounded and rational.
When you get caught up in the tiny details, like the size of the RSVP cards or who is sitting at what table, it's easy to get tunnel vision and start to panic. That's why it's so nice to have people to remind you what the day is really about. My Maid of Honor and best friend said something wise, that the wedding is one day, but it's the marriage that matters.
We will be using some crystal birds I received as a gift some time ago as our cake topper, rather than me making the amigurumi birds I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Even just that one less item to do is a relief.
I'm so grateful to my friends and family for their sound advice. My future mother-in-law sent me a book called the Zen Bride, and I've been trying to read a little bit from it a day to keep myself grounded and rational.
When you get caught up in the tiny details, like the size of the RSVP cards or who is sitting at what table, it's easy to get tunnel vision and start to panic. That's why it's so nice to have people to remind you what the day is really about. My Maid of Honor and best friend said something wise, that the wedding is one day, but it's the marriage that matters.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Planning, planning, planning
Last weekend, I went back home to Indiana, which is fully in the grasp of the Snowpocalypse, to meet up with my cousin, aunt and dad to hopefully figure some things out.
My aunt, who is also my godmother, wanted to help me plan because she is generally awesome. We got a lot worked out, and it is a giant relief.
This week I also priced local printers for our invite printing costs. I was really pleased with the estimates. I thought it would be a lot more expensive - I think it will only be about $50 to print everything - invites, save the dates, and RSVPs. Of course, it's not embossed or on handmade paper, but you know. (I'm just kidding, I love the design for our invites).
I still have a lot on my plate. I have about 40 hearts done, and if I make two a day, I can be done in a month. After that, I still need to make my veil and the gifts for my bridesmaids. I think there may even be another thing I need to make, but I can't remember.
There are 156 days until the wedding. I feel excited and mostly calm about the whole thing, but I'm starting to have nightmares. I dreamed another cousin, one of my bridesmaids, stabbed me. I had another wedding-related dream after that, but I don't remember it.
I finally found my camera cord so I can share some pictures of my workspace and the stuff I've got done so far.
My fiance and I have set aside one corner of the house specifically for the wedding.
You can see the candles and sand we have for our centerpieces, the purple flower petals I bought for the flower girl(s), and everything else we're stockpiling like wedding industry-obsessed chipmunks. It is definitely helpful to keep everything in one area, so we can see what we still need and check everything else off our list.
Here are the favors so far. I cheated a little because I put them all in a smaller box. We're still planning to add paper tags with our names and the date if we can get around to it.
Basically I've just got to keep plugging away, and slowly but surely, I will get everything I want accomplished by July.
My aunt, who is also my godmother, wanted to help me plan because she is generally awesome. We got a lot worked out, and it is a giant relief.
This week I also priced local printers for our invite printing costs. I was really pleased with the estimates. I thought it would be a lot more expensive - I think it will only be about $50 to print everything - invites, save the dates, and RSVPs. Of course, it's not embossed or on handmade paper, but you know. (I'm just kidding, I love the design for our invites).
I still have a lot on my plate. I have about 40 hearts done, and if I make two a day, I can be done in a month. After that, I still need to make my veil and the gifts for my bridesmaids. I think there may even be another thing I need to make, but I can't remember.
There are 156 days until the wedding. I feel excited and mostly calm about the whole thing, but I'm starting to have nightmares. I dreamed another cousin, one of my bridesmaids, stabbed me. I had another wedding-related dream after that, but I don't remember it.
I finally found my camera cord so I can share some pictures of my workspace and the stuff I've got done so far.
My fiance and I have set aside one corner of the house specifically for the wedding.
You can see the candles and sand we have for our centerpieces, the purple flower petals I bought for the flower girl(s), and everything else we're stockpiling like wedding industry-obsessed chipmunks. It is definitely helpful to keep everything in one area, so we can see what we still need and check everything else off our list.
Here are the favors so far. I cheated a little because I put them all in a smaller box. We're still planning to add paper tags with our names and the date if we can get around to it.Basically I've just got to keep plugging away, and slowly but surely, I will get everything I want accomplished by July.
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