Wedding Press: November 2008

Tissue paper wreath

Since I saw the tissue paper pom pom, I couldn't help but be inspired to do them for the wedding. However, I don't think they can be used for the wedding itself, but they had lent a hand for birthdays, housewarmings, and soon to the bridal shower.

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Materials:

* a styrofoam wreath form
* 2mm monofilament
* 22 gauge wire
* a hot glue gun
* an upholstery needle
* wire cutters

Instructions:

Using Martha’s guide here, cut your tissue into 10×5 rectangles.
Accordion fold the shorter side, approximately 3/8″ - 1/2″ per fold.
Fold the wire over the middle and twist.
Cut wire approximately 1/2″ from edge.
Round the corners of the tissue paper.
Begin pulling the layers away from each other and toward the middle of the wire. Don’t be afraid to scrunch the tissue - once I began pulling a little harder and scrunching the tissue closer together, the “flowers” became prettier!

Cake table inspiration

I have always have this vision of what the cake and guest book table should look like. Finally, I found some pictures that depicts exactly what I was thinking.

pictures [source]

For my flower girl

***UPDATE***
The dress arrived today and I was so excited to open the bag only to be so disappointed by what was inside: a black polka dot dress against SILVER! It looks like it's an ivory in this picture, or some shade of white, but in actuality, it is silver! I hate the dress. I have to find another dress for my darling Emily.
***UPDATE***

Today is a great day to do some wedding shopping because most websites offer such great discount. I was able to utilize 20% off offered by Macy's to buy my flower girl's dress. It is completely adorable. It is polka dot. It's in our color. It is taffeta. It is beyond cute.

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The cost including discount and shipping came to about $68. I can't believe that it costs as much as my wedding shoes. It's worth it though because it is for my one and only niece who I know will just look absolutely adorable in it.

Let's hear it for the girls!

I purchased my bridesmaid gifts today. I found Yanina on Etsy and absolutely fell in love with her items. They are classic yet modern and I know my bridesmaids will love them. I approached her on Wednesday 11/19/2008 after I landed in Atlanta for work and had nothing else to do. She replied right away on 11/20/2008 and surprisingly, communicated to me that the items were done by 11/23/2008, BEFORE I had a chance to reply back to her first communication. That is just impressive turnaround. I can't wait for them to show up. I can't show any picture yet because I'm afraid that someone from the bridal party will read this, especially the MOH.

Readings

Tonight, I finally was able to go through the book of approved reading from our church and picked out our readings. I wasn't thrilled when I read through the approved readings from the old testaments because it just seemed so de-womanizing, but alas, we must choose a reading from the old testament and a reading from the new testament. So here they are:

Old testament:

The two of them become one body (Genesis 2:18-24)

A reading from the Book of Genesis
The LORD God said: "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him." So the LORD God formed out of the ground various wild animals and various birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each of them would be its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of the air, and all wild animals; but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man. So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man, the man said: "This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called 'woman,' for out of 'her man' this one has been taken." That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body. The word of the Lord.

New Testament

If I do not have love, I gain nothing (1 Corinthians 12:31-12:8a)

A reading from the first Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians

Brothers and sisters: Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way.
-If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
-And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
-If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind
It is not jealous, it is not pompous,
It is not inflated, it is not rude,
It does not seek its own interests,
It is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
It does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices in truth.
It bears all things, believe all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.
The word of the Lord.

The making of the invites - assembly

All year long I been wanting to get to this process, because it signifies that we were finally done with the invitation. And so, alas, it happens. The final piece on insert had been gocco'ed. Once again, I recruited the help of my darling fiance to help in the process. When I came up with the idea of using eyelets to attach the 3 pieces of insert to the main invitation. He was completely on board and we did several trial run until we were satisfied with the way it looks and the tightness of the eyelet attachment. So we forged ahead:

The inserts all completed

The start of the assembly, on our dinner table

Putting the hole in the 3 inserts

The eyelet

Ta Da!

I was in charge of putting the inserts on the main invitation, using double sided tape

Hat Box for Card Box

I've been wrecking my brains trying to find a way to make a cheap card box for the wedding. I wanted something fun, not wedding-y, and fit into the theme of my wedding. I found these beautiful stacking boxes from Target, for a price that is way too high, but given that there are 5 boxes in the stack, it is well worth it. That way, I can also use the other boxes for bathroom baskets. I absolutely love it.

Target: $49.99

Guest Book Table Inspiration

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I have found a gorgeous guest book table that I will use for inspiration for my own wedding.

Bathroom Basket

I will definitely need to be prepare to bring these things to the hotel because without them, it is going to be bad! Come on MOH, do your duty!

Women’s bathroom

Advil
Bandaids
Hairspray
Bobby pins
Breath mints
Gum
Mouthwash
Floss
Comb
Brush
Contact lens solution
Safety pins
Q-tips
Nail file
Nail glue
Tampons
Sanitary Napkins
Tissues
Hand Lotion
Perfume
Hair elastics
Q tips
Lint brush
Paper hand towels
Cotton ball/pads
Bleach pen
Lotion

Men’s Bathroom

Cologne
Mouthwash
Breath Mints
Gum
Gel
Hairspray
Comb
Bandaids
Advil
Condoms

What's left of the budget

This weekend, Joe and I sat down to go over our budget, or at least what is left of it. Our original budget was $30,000. I still think that is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a wedding, but alas, it is what it is. I'm hoping to recoup some of it back in gifts and start saving again. At this point, we are spending all of our saving. The only thing I can try to do is to not go into debt for this grand affair. So far, we have spent about $12,500, broken down as follows:

church: $425 ($300 deposit and $125 for engaged encounter)
Hotel: $5,500
Photographer: $3,500
Videographer: $500
DJ: $300
Dress: $1,300
Invitation and other paper goods: $1,000

What we have left to spend, a whopping total of $13,500:

Church: $800
Hotel: $4,500
Photographer: $1,750
Videographer: $1,000
DJ: $600
Alteration: $250
Flowers: $1,700
Groomsmen shoes: $300
Table runners: $150
Cake: $500
Make up/hair: $300
Shoes: $100
Rehearsal dinner: $1,000
Joe's outfit: $500

I'm hoping that we can keep the spending at around $25,000. But I know things are going to come up that will just kill it. We are forgoing a honeymoon, which certainly will help our budget.

The making of the invites - the inserts

The inserts actually took a lot of time to do, as there are so many things to finalize before it can be completed. We decided to have four inserts: reception card, directions card, accommodations card and finally RSVP card. As stated earlier, we love the look of pocketfold invitations. However, the final product was not a pocketfold, but a variation thereof. I purchased about 50 sheets of 12x12 paper at Michaels. 12x12 pages are not big enough to make pocketfolds. For a 6x6 square card, you will actually need about 7x18" sheets, to make the pocket and the opening flap. In an attempt to save the $50 I spent on the 12x12 pages purchased, I decided to not do pocketfold and just do a regular flip card. Where I varied it is in the composition of the inserts. Instead of having lose inserts, I decided to stack them on each other and adhere them to the card using eyelets. It was an ingenious idea if I have to say so myself. Now, to let pictures do the talking.

reception + direction card

direction card (without the word "Directions" up to)

Accommodation card (without the information)

Accommodations card (with info)

RSVP: drying

A close up of the RSVP. I'm so proud

The making of the invites - the main invitation

I did the main part of the invitation a while back when I first purchased the Gocco. This was probably back in June. It was kind of a blind go at doing things on the Gocco.

Here I am in Joe's boxer short and night clothes. We were doing this at our old apartment. As you can see on the top left, the dining area is filled with boxes of wedding things.

Leaving them out to dry. The first layer was the flourish purchased on istockphotos. The second layer is the pink wording.

Here is the main invitation completed. Total of three layers.

A close up. Sorry for the blur.

The making of the invites - planning

Last night, I gocco'ed the last piece of insert for our invitation. It's great to finally finish with the grunt work, because as much as I enjoy the whole process, making our own wedding invitation (and attempting for it to look remotely professional and elegant) takes a lot of time and energy, and MONEY.

Since Joe and I had plan to assemble these bad boys tonight, I can start writing about the entire process. I've been taking a lot of picture over the entire process, but had never really had time (or motivation to sit down and document it). Let me attempt now.

After many many hours of wedding research, specifically invitations via flickr and etsy, I realized I love the look of the pocketfolds. But devoting that much time into research also show me that pocketfold invitations are expensive! So, I automatically nixed the idea of purchasing them. Via website like Weddingbee, I find that pocketfolds are easy to make, so I decide to attempt. The only problem is, how to print professionally. Again, Weddingbee came to the rescue when I was exposed to the Gocco. It's a big investment, but after much begging with Joe, and showing him a lot of samples of what this bad boy can do, he caved and I went on eBay and ordered my very own Gocco.

Now I'm all equipped to go. With our wedding colors previously decided, it's purchase time.

The best place I found for metallic papers in our wedding colors is at Blue Dot Paper Shop. It's not cheap, but the color scheme is perfect.
2 packs of Azalea - 8.5" × 11" 105# Cardstock (50 sheet pack)

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2 packs of Opal - 8.5" × 11" 105# Cardstock (50 sheet pack)

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1 pack of Onyx - 8.5" × 11" 105# Cardstock (50 sheet pack)

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Each of these packs are $18.99 each, for a total cost of $95. In addition to these paper pages, I also bought 50 12x12 pages of the Azalea from Michael's for $.99 each. The color at Michael's is called Pomegranate, which prompted the entire invitation color inspiration.

Next up, the main invitation

Beautiful damask wedding

I usually don't find a whole wedding inspiring, but I gotta say, Marcy and Matthew's wedding featured at Style Me Pretty is great! Beautiful black and white flourishes:

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Programs

I've been extremely inspired by several things that I looked at lately, and I want to introduce to you the inspirations for our wedding program. Here are the inspirations:

Cover page:

Cover page image source

Contents:

Content image source

[Branch]ing out

Since I am not in love with flowers, it proves to be a challenge to plan a wedding as flowers are the norm in any wedding. Besides, I cannot justify to spend $3k on flowers when by comparison, I only spent $5k to get my windows redone in my house. I can change out the cabinets with that amount. So, I'm DIY centerpieces, and I'm hoping to do it for cheap.

I love manzanita branches. I had bought 2 big branches for a total of $16 from a local grower to use for my guest book table. But upon seeing his selections of branches, I think I can do centerpieces for cheap. Below are my inspirations. They are so gorgeous.