Stop date

On my last post to my Wedding Research Club (see post below), I asked them about which photoback drop I should make. I'll post about that later.



My Aunt Kathy recommended that I set a stop date for wedding ideas and wedding projects. She said that I should spend the last few weeks before the wedding focusing on the relationship between Dylan and myself. It doesn't sound like a bad idea, because I would really like to finish everything this month and just deal with little leftover details for the days of June. So I'm setting my date now:
1. Stop Idea Day (I can't add any more DIY projects after this date): May 15th
2. Stop Wedding Projects Day (I will be done): May 30th

My fingers are crossed that I'm able to do this! Is this crazy? Would you do this? Is this a pipe dream?

Wedding Research Club

My mom, aunts, and some of my good friends live far away. I was trying to think of a way to incorporate their input into the wedding without driving me crazy (specifically my mom and aunts). I got a list of the aunts and friends I know who are very interested in my wedding. I wrote them a very nice e-mail asking that they be part of the “wedding research club.” Ever so often, I send them out either an update or a question. I planned to do most posts, but I never had that many questions. Still, when I really didn't know what to do, it was great to know I could always as these wonderful friends and family.

The response has been wonderful. One aunt prints out the options and takes them to my grandmother and gets her opinion. It has also been helpful in keeping people excited about the wedding and feeling like they have a part in it.

Centerpieces

I had a dilemma. All the tables that my venue are bistro tables. The tablecloths are maroon. The venues is pretty dark. There isn't enough room on the tables for flowers and votive candles. So, I decided to go with candles, candles, and more candles.

My tables will have the maroon tableclothes. I bought 50 chartreuse paper napkins from IKEA (50 for $2). I opened up the napkins and laid them flat. I will use them as a sort of table runner to break up the maroon.


I then made my centerpieces. I got the inspiration from this Knottie Planning Bio. She has a great "how to" for her table numbers. She kept her IKEA frames in natural wood. I spray painted mine black. I decided to make each centerpiece reflect different aspects of our lives: our favorite sports teams, T.V. shows, etc. I made 23 centerpieces and numbered each one at the top. I then made a quiz that I put in the back of our wedding program, asking our guests how well they know us. If they need hints, they can go find the centerpiece with the corresponding number. This should also encourage some mingling between guests.

Here are some bad pictures of my a couple finished centerpieces:



Yes, we are Buffy fans!

I bought 72 glass votive holders and 72 white votive candles from Cudge.net

Don't forget to buy a lighter if you are setting up your site with just you and friends.


WEDDING EXPENSES (INCLUDING SHIPPING):
VELLUM: $22.21
FRAMES FROM IKEA: $52
NAPKINS FROM IKEA: $2
VOTIVE CANDLES: $54.63
BLACK SPRAY PAINT: $17.53
LIGHTER: $2.50

TOTAL: $150.87

Bathroom Baskets

I know, I know - this is yet another place where I could have saved some money. But I was in the middle of my "just engaged raged" and I wanted to do something. I didn't have the venue tied down, so I decided to do my bathroom baskets and I went crazy. Luckily, I got most of the things at my local dollar store or I had somethings already around the house.

I got a scented candle, a paper tray with mints, and liquid hand soap for each bathroom.

Women's bathroom basket:


Contents:
moist toweletts
Tampons
Rolaids
hairspray
Tylenol
Advil
Motrin
Benadryl Allergy
hotel lotion samples
bobbie pins
Shout Portable Wipes
lint Brush
gum
cotton balls/cotton swabs
Maxipads
hotel sewing kit
Kleenex
clear nail polish
pen & paper
Ponds exfoliating pads
nail file
comb
nail glue
first aid kit
safety pins
hairbands



Men's Bathroom Basket:
Rolaids
Tylenol
Advil
Benadryl Allergy
hotel lotion samples
Shout Portable Wipes
lint Brush
gum
cotton balls/cotton swabs
hotel sewing kit
Kleenex
pen & paper
Ponds exfoliating pads
nail file
comb
first aid kit
safety pins
condoms

WEDDING EXPENSE: $44.50

150 DIY Invites

I should start by saying that I could have done the invites cheaper, but I'm pretty happy with them and I had a design in my head so I just went with it.

We decided to go with stickers again with our wedding invites, only this time they would be professional custom vinyl stickers from stickers from Sticker Guy. I ordered three different designs, each 4.25" x 1.38" in black and white. It was 250 stickers for $20 of each design, free shipping. All the design were created by me in Photoshop.







Once these were created, I bought the paper from California Paper Goods. I got 300 pieces of 80lb. white matte cards 5 1/4" x 5 1/4 and 300 pieces of A1 folding cards in 80lb. white matte. Though I sent only 150 invites, each invite had 2 flat cards and one A1 folded card (as the rsvp). The extra A1 cards will be used as thank you cards. This paper was for a total of $50.75.
******I should have bought 8.5x11 80lb. paper and have them printed and cut at Kinkos. I had to feed the flat cards through my inkjet printer individually to avoid jams. It was a very long weekend. Also, putting a sticker on the top of every card (three per invite) got very boring******

The final products:






I got my envelopes from Envelope Mall. I bought 200 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" square envelopes in Astrobright Terra Green and 300 4bar envelopes in Astrobright Terra Green.



I used the rest of the sticker pages from the STDs to make return address labels. I had some Avery address labels in white that I had from an old job to print out the address labels. I think hand calligraphy and hand printing is just so. . .yesterday. Or, after all those stickers, I was just too tired to learn calligraphy and DIY it.



WEDDING EXPENSE:
PRINTER CARTRIDGES: $30
STICKERS: $60
PAPER: $50.75
ENVELOPES: $50.42
POSTAGE: $150.23

TOTAL: $341.40

Setting and Saving the Date!

We set our date mainly because it worked with my family's schedule (there are about 50 of them coming). I never really wanted a summer wedding, nor did I want the wedding to be so close to Dylan's birthday (3 days after the big day). However, people were the most important to us in our planning process, so we picked a date that worked for most people.

Not wanting to add extra expense to our already ballooning budget, I decided to make cheap stickers for our "STDs." I bought 8x11 white sticker paper from Staples for around $18.00. I already had an inkjet printer. I bought a nice paper cutter for $43.

To save postage, I attached these to the top of my Christmas cards going out in Dec. with double stick tape!



WEDDING EXPENSE:
STICKER PAPER $18
PAPER CUTTER $43

My Inspiration Board

Abby Jean from Style Me Pretty has done a great job of creating inspiration boards for weddings.

I didn't want to request an "inspiration board" for my wedding to her since I thought she might have a style-heart attack with my dress, so I decided to do my own. Here it is:

From top left, a paper sample (with colors changed in Photoshop) from Paper Mojo, orange calla lilies, hairpin from K. Autumn, Keystone State font, random scroll cake, my dress from Ebay, a pictures of my venue, Club Fais Do Do.

Wedding websites

No matter how much of a "tom boy" you are, no matter how much you don't want to have a "traditional" wedding--when you are first engaged you want to go out an get wedding magazines! I can not say how much of a waste of money this is - except for maybe Martha Stewart Weddings.

These magazines are geared for those brides planning a cookie cutter wedding with unlimited budget. After a couple of reads, all the dresses look the same. All the smiles look the same. All the weddings look the same. What is much more fun (and free) is looking up some wedding blogs. I've become addicted and they are great resources.

My ultimate favorite is
Wedding Bee. I check this site about five times a day. They have many brides posting and a great readership that also loves to give advice.

Other websites that I call good reads:
*Style Me Pretty

*Old Joy

*DIY Bride

*Something Old, Something New

For those Southern Cali brides:
*LA Bridezilla

EXPENSE: WEDDING MAGAZINES $12

getting started. . .

For us, there was no proposal, engagement ring, whatever! We just started talking about getting married and then we decided to go for it. I may have mentioned it to my grandmother, and that sped up the process quite a bit.



Once we decided we were taking the plunge we had to figure out:
*WHERE TO GET MARRIED (WHAT CITY)?
*WHO DO WE WANT AT THE WEDDING?

Dylan and I decided on a "more the merrier" approach. I think the worse thing for both of us would have been if we had to put a pick and choose with an "A" guest list and a "B" guest lists. That said, we decided to get married in Los Angeles, because that is where most of our friends live (and we live).

The next big decision we had was to get a budget defined. My gut reaction was to not spend more than $5000 for the whole shebang (wedding, reception, total). Really, any more money spent (even if we had the money) and I felt as though we were just being frivolous and wasteful. I have since raised that amount to $7500. We asked both our parents for $2500 towards the wedding fund and then we plan to put in the other $2500. I'm keeping track of everything, so we shall see how I'm doing as I try to put this together!

Our Venue: Club Fais Do Do

Originally Dylan and I were getting going to a honky tonk type wedding, but there don't seem to be many honky tonks in LA, so we had to look far and wide to find a venue that fit our a) budget b) personalities c) time frame. So, Club Fais Do Do just kinda fell in our lap and we are soooo excited about it. Large maroon curtains, the perfect size, affordable with plenty of seating and a stage area to highlight the awesome band. It's perfect. Here are some pictures:








THE DETAILS

1. Capacity: Fais Do Do has two rooms. One they use as a concert room and the other is used they call the "Ballroom." They are currently redoing the ballroom but it is massive and can fit over 600 people (I'm guessing). We are renting the smaller "concert" room which holds 300 people. It also has a patio in the back, a bar, restrooms, and a stage where we will get married (and the band will play afterwards).

2. Rental Fee: $1200; We are getting married on a Sunday, so the fee is cheaper than normal. This includes the 2 bartenders, use of the sound system, all the chairs and tables we need, maroon table cloths, etc. Our wedding a reception starts at 6pm and we can get in and decorate starting at 2pm that day. We have the space until 2am Monday morning.

3. The Bar: Fais Do Do is a beer and wine bar. At first I thought this was great as it would save me some money. However, they are charging me $6 a drink. This seems high to me since I am buying 300 drinks. We still haven't figured out how we are going to manage the tab/drink ticket situation. I never really pushed the question about whether we could bring in our own drinks. Guests can buy their own booze after the tickets run out. Also, they can buy whole bottles of wine--which I am going to try and add to the budget and have them available at the bar for anyone.

4. Food: The great thing about Fais Do Do is their cuisine--great New Orleans style homecooking. If I had the money, they could have provided a full sit-down meal or a buffet. Instead, for an extra $500 they are providing us a unlimited supply of non-alcholic beverages (what that means, I don't know), hush puppies, salad and quesadillas for 100 people. We are expecting about 150 people.



Things I need to do regarding them:

- schedule a time to go see the venue with my photographer, videographer, myself.
- decide where tables, arrangements, photo booth, gift table, photos will be set up and make a map.
- ask about buying bottles of wine--How much per bottle?
- Can we bring a few other bottles of liquor in with us to make a special drink?
- When can the band arrive to setup?
- Can we leave our decorations up over night and pick them up on Monday morning?
- Plates and silverware, napkins, etc will be included in rental price?

I'll post more when I have some answers.