Officially official

Now that this wedding is really happening, for reals, because the invitations have been sent out and I even watched someone open one because the US postal service is sometimes too quick, I've decided to share the final products with you. The invitation is actually not at all what I was envisioning when I first embarked on this quest to make my own, but I like what I came up with. We are getting married in a barn, after all, so I thought I would add a little bit of that to the invitations. Also, on each table at the reception, instead of table numbers, my dad is making custom table barn animals to direct our guests to their assigned table. All the more reason to carry the theme to our invites.

Save the Date

Invitation

RSVP

Each item was packed in a lovely shimmery brown envelope with custom labels made my yours truly, of sea foam green gingham. And I had to choose the King and Queen of Hearts stamps, which were fitting to the occasion and actually really pretty! Who knew stamps could be pretty?

Now I just have to make my wedding dress.....and fabric flower bouquet, and fun little bouttineers for the groomsmen. I've got some long nights ahead of me!

3 Months To Go?!?

WHAT? Are you serious? This can't be happening. I'm getting married in 3 months? I think I need to lay on the floor for a while. Oh wait, the floor smells like pee. Damn dog ruins everything. Too bad he's so darn cute.

Wow, the time has really started to fly. Now that I'm working more than full time (6 days a week, yuck) I have very limited time to finish up all this wedding planning nonsense, I really need to kick it into high gear! On the upside, I have all of our invitations and RSVPs printed and ready to go, just waiting on the stamps I had to re-order because I can't seem to count correctly. Oh, and when you ask someone for their address, don't expect it right away. For some reason friends and family find it very difficult to type out their address into an email or facebook message and click "send". I know, it's like a number, then some word you've probably never heard of before followed by some crazy abbreviation like "st" or "rd" or "ave" it's a wild world out there folks. And then you have to know what city you live in! And don't even get me started on the zip code, ohhhh the zip code. I'm getting a hernia just thinking about what my zip code might be.

I digress.

All complaints aside, I'm super excited for our wedding day. And to top it all off, my mom has agreed to play her guitar with her friend Elisabeth while we walk down the aisle. I'm probably going to burst in to tears as soon as I hear her play, but I'll try to hold it together. I told her to play whatever she wants, I know she's good so there's no use in me micromanaging. Now if I can just get the Sprains to play a song or two during the reception we'll all be having a great time! Gosh, I know so many talented people, I could probably get almost all of our guests to play a song for us! Wouldn't that be a treat!

While we're on the subject of music, somehow "Patience" by Guns n' Roses became our song, and we've asked our band to play it for our first dance. The song itself isn't even close to resembling my relationship with Jesse, we've been inseparable since the day we met, but we like the song anyway. And who can deny their love for Guns n' Roses?? Not me!

The Icing on the Cake

Well, my wedding is less than 5 months away now and the planning is pretty much done! I can't really believe it myself. Yes, we had an extremely long engagement, but to plan a wedding in a state that we can only get to once before the big day, I'd say I've done a pretty good job of making it all come together!

I'm tying up all the loose decorating ends now, which are minimal, but key. Since the reception is in a huge old barn, we thought beverages should be served in mason jars. I somehow managed, though the Craigslist gods, to procure over 200 mason jars for just $65! They are all different shapes and sizes, some smooth, some quilted, and all awesome. Just what I wanted!

I don't think I'll be tying any fabric around my jars, but I am thinking of doing something creative to help drinks stay with their drinkers. Perhaps name tags on straws, or a little piece of elastic that can slip around the jar with a name tag on it.

I've been collecting random jars and wine bottles that I think are neat for the past year and a half to be used as flower vases for centerpieces. The miscellaneious jars are clear, brown, and shades of green (sea foam green bottles are near impossible to find) and range from BBQ sauce jars to baby food jars to wine bottles, and everything in between! I'm using all white flowers in our wedding, which I think will look great in little groups of various jars!

Also, I plan on stringing as many white lights as I can get my grubby little hands on, and a tasteful amount of white paper lanterns. The barn is a little bit pre-decorated with leftover decorations from a previous wedding, which I plan to rearrange in a better way or take down.

Real photo from Kleffner Ranch above

And lastly, the Kleffer Ranch has all sorts of great things in the barn, such as an old carriage and some sort of really old car that we can use for decorating! I don't know what we'll do with them yet, but they're there just waiting for me!

Both photos from Kleffner Ranch

I've decided to save the cake as a surprise. As many of you know, I know a thing or two about decorating a wedding cake! So just to keep you in suspense, I'm saving that one for myself (minus the few who I've already told, and my dear friend Alaina who somehow inspired the idea). But here's a sneak peek.

I love everything about this photo.

Girls in Green

I am not a traditional girl, and after working in the wedding industry for over 2 years, I find many aspects of a traditional wedding to be completely ridiculous, unnecessary, and just horrible. Thankfully my friends and most of my family agree with me on these matters, but I do run into a few who try to convince me of how wonderful these silly traditions are. I will not be swayed! More importantly I don't feel that I should have to defend my choices to those who cannot think outside the box.

That being said, my bridesmaids were given the task of choosing their own dresses. They had a few parameters to stick to, such as color family, and my insistence that it looks great on them. Somehow all 4 girls chose a short dress in some shade of sea foam green! This pleases me, not what I envisioned, but I am thrilled none the less. Of course when ordering clothes online you can never be too sure what the end result will be, and these may not all work out, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they do!

Jesse and his groomsmen will be wearing brown suits with a white shirt and brown tie. Casual, simple and classic, although a little less classic than black. This I am also getting a lot of flack for, why brown they all ask. Because I said so! Let's hope they all look as stunning as old Ronald here.

My maid of honor and all around awesome human being, Alaina (of Paper Flour Water) will be making necklaces for all the maids, as well as myself. And I will be making unique little boutonnieres for the groomsmen. Jesse's old friend Geneva, as well as super creative person (of Bird Crap Featherwear) has graciously offered to make me a custom hair piece and matching boutonniere for Jesse! We are so blessed (I use that term loosely due to my lack of religiousness) to have such crafty friends. Our friends and family are playing all sorts of special roles in our wedding, and I'm so excited to see it all come together!

Only 5 months left! Yikes!

Getting Back on Track

New invitation design! What do we think? It's much, much more me (and Jesse), because it's modern with a slight classic feel... I don't know, I just like it a lot more than the previous one I was trying on.

Also, I am trying to get my bridesmaids inspired and excited about shopping for their own dresses, since I'm the nicest bride ever and not choosing hideous dresses for them to wear once then throw away. Here are a few examples of dresses that they could certainly strut their stuff in down the aisle.

A nice print, perhaps a little short.

Very vintage. Great colors though.

Summery.

This one satisfies me in so many ways. It's kind of ridiculous.

This one is almost perfect. Slightly too informal, but perfect for a BBQ, which is what our wedding really is. Hell, dress it up with a great pair of heels and necklace and this bridesmaid will have captured my heart! Ooh! Or take off the tie (yes, it's removable), and add a different belt!

I think this is lovely, and depending on what the other 3 wear, one of my girls could definitely sport this.

This one also tickles me. I'm not digging the bow...or the hem...but I love the stripes and color combos. You know what, let's just take it apart and make a new dress with this fabric.

Of course they can choose something more "bridesmaid-y" if they want, but I am stressing the idea of buying something they will wear again. Even though I have a ton of dresses I've only worn once....it's a girl thing. What's wrong with us?!

Snooze Fest

Since this mess started out as a wedding blog, I might as well include something regarding weddings every now and then.

In an attempt to save money on what can turn into quite the expensive affair, I've taken it upon myself to make my own wedding invitations, among other things. The Save the Dates and RSVP cards were easy, nobody cares about those anyway, but creating a unique and creative invitation is exhausting!

This is what I've come up with so far, and it's okay, but frankly it is not what I had envisioned, and I'm totally bored with it.

So please, judge for yourself and get back to me. Luckily I've got 6 months to figure it out! Wow, 6 months really doesn't seem very long when I think about everything I've still got to do. Yikes.

As a visual reminder, here are the STDs and RSVPs.

...Oddly similar...

I think the only things I'm excited to make are my dress and fabric flower bouquet! And perhaps the fun little boutineers. I suppose I would be having more fun if I weren't such a good procrastinator, filling my time with baby clothes and a cute puppy.

Tiny Dress Form!

Oh my! I am so excited to announce that I am now able to actually get some idea of what my Tiny Dresses and Sweaters look like on babies! Disclaimer: it's not the real thing. But for how many children I know in my life, which is very close to zero, this is as close as I'm going to get. And I'm super excited about it! I have my lovely soon to be husband to thank for little.....I don't know.....Darla. I would rather call it Hank but it will usually be wearing a dress so Hank just seems a little threatening.

Here is Darla all dressed up in the Zippy Tiny Dress (available for sale here)

And here is my newest invention, the Reversible Tiny Dress! This side is pink and white striped with little boy blue buttons.

And here we have the reverse side which is brown and blue striped on bottom, with a top sporting a lovely flower pattern.

And here is Darla, the Tiny Dress Form, naked. Still awesome! I can't wait to get a shiny new dress on her! All of my Tiny Sweaters are too small, but that's just motivation to make some bigger ones!