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.

A cozy feeling

I spent the first several months of my engagement being shocked at the sheer amount of things people are expected to do when they get married, and the cost of those individual things. A videographer? A calligrapher for the invitations?? A cake knife and server that cost more than $50??? They don't tell you about these "traditions" when you're dating.
Shortly after a giddy visit to David's Bridal to try on dresses, I began receiving catalogs in the mail with ideas for favors, minutiae for the wedding, and gift ideas for bridesmaids and groomsmen. I know as a recent college graduate and a reporter that I don't make very much money, but I was shocked at the amount of money people spend on each favor for their guests, or at least the amount the catalogs want you to spend.
About that time is when I started brainstorming with my fiance on what we could make ourselves. I knit and crochet, and my fiance is a paper craft aficionado, so our first idea was that we would make different animals for each table at the reception. I thought I would use the amigurumi style, a simple way of crocheting shapes popularized in Japan. The problem is it takes me a really long time to make amigurumi animals, because they are simple, but sometimes there are a lot of finishing steps.
We decided to stick with amigurumi, but instead, I would make simple hearts. I am using a free pattern from a very smart blogger called owlishly, (click here to see the pattern or download it), since I'm not making any profit from the wedding favors.Our colors are purple and black, so I have been making the majority of the hearts in various purples. There are a few in crazy colors, just because I had some yarn sitting around and I wanted to crochet it up. I'm hoping I'll have enough different colors to satisfy all the kids in the crowd.
The other thing I plan to crochet myself is our cake topper. We had initially planned on having Wall-E and Eve as our cake topper, because we love the movie Wall-E, but I started having second thoughts and fretting that it may look too like a kid's birthday cake. Then I started working on our invitations (another post) and decided I wanted a bird theme instead. Daniel has been patient and understanding with me, so it was easy to convince him of birds.
I looked to Etsy for cake toppers, and there were plenty, but they are all appallingly expensive. The proverbial light bulb then appeared over my head and I clicked to my favorite compendium of amigurumi-style patterns, Lion Brand Yarn's pattern database. There, I found the perfect little birdlets.

This photo is from the Lion Brand website, so this is not what our birds will look like. But you get the idea.
I've been able to drastically reduce our costs by making these items. Granted, it is taking some time to make 100+ crochet hearts, but I think it's worth it. I want to put effort into the things we provide for our guests. I want them to know how happy we are that they are there to celebrate our marriage.