Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to take a few moments out of my Thanksgiving day to say Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I am extremely thankful for the many people who view my blog each day and without readers I wouldn't have much reason to be writing. I hope all of you get to spend time with your family and friends eating way too much yummy food, just as I will today, but for those of you who can't (like my friend LeeAnn who's over working in Spain until June) just know that many people are thankful for you and will be even more thankful when they can spend time with you again.

Thanks everyone and Happy Thanksgiving!

Plan Your Own Football Party

If you know me personally, you know that I'm a huge Duck football fan (University of Oregon for those not familiar) and I pretty much don't miss a game on tv. Every year the biggest game of the season (or at least biggest to Oregonians) is the Civil War where the University of Oregon Ducks play the Oregon State Beavers. If you live in Oregon, you are a Duck or a Beaver. Few are neither, and so it even becomes a huge deal at your workplace (we're all supposed to wear school colors at my hospital on that day), in addition to with friends and family.

This year Civil War is probably one of the biggest games ever, as it will determine which team goes to the Rose Bowl (our Pac-10 Conference Winner Bowl Game), and I'm pretty sure this hasn't happened in a long time. So you can imagine we're all super excited about the game.

In honor of Civil War, I thought I would share some recipes and decor ideas for your football party...maybe think pre-planning for Superbowl if you're not into college football.

First of all you need to invite some people over to party with you. While you could take the time and create an invitation (I did a Superbowl postcard invite once) I would actually recommend going through Evite.com and using one of their many online invitations for a football party. This will save you so much time and effort. Here's a direct link to their site.

Next plan the menu.

Of course you need a good drink to celebrate your victory or to choke down if you lose. I recommend a Tequila Touchdown.

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Orange Juice
• 1 Cup Tequila (8 oz)
• 6 Tablespoons fresh Lemon Juice (from about 2 lemons)
• 1.5 oz Grenadine
• Ice, for Serving
• 3 Cups Club Soda
• 8 Strips Lemon Zest, for Garnish

Directions:

1. Pour orange juice, tequila, and lemon juice into a large pitcher. Tip pitcher at a slight angle and carefully pour grenadine down the side.
2. Divide mixture among 8 ice-filled glasses, and top off each with club soda. Stir, garnish each with zest, and serve immediately.

For appetizers, try one of these three recipes from Martha Stewart or go here to see a giant list of recipes from Rachael Ray:

1. Emeril's Crazy Nachos
2. Spicy Citrus Caramel Chicken Wings
3. Sliders

For dessert, you can go wild. Make something traditional like a cake or a favorite of mine, brownies with mint icing on top. Or do something totally different. Try making homemade caramel corn or serving "your-team-colored" desserts or maybe desserts in each team's colors if you're having over friends who will route for both teams. Be creative, and just remember as long as it tastes good, they will eat it!

Finally, for decor, I wouldn't go overboard. Most of the time people are there to watch the game and not to spend a lot of time oodling over the effort you went to to make it look like a real arena. For easy touches, I saw on tv once that you can actually cut a football in half and then fill the half-football shapes with chips...a great centerpiece for your table. Or you can go the extra effort and turn green butcher paper into a field complete with yard lines for a table runner. Making football shaped coasters is also super easy, and use an appropriate white pen to mark the laces. And of course, feel free to decorate with team memorabilia. Bring out your team blanket, your foam fingers, stuffed mascots, whatever you've got. It's sure to make you feel as if you're at the game, even if you're lounging in your sweats.

And PS...always wear your team colors to get in the spirit. I can guarantee you I'll be head to toe yellow and green come December 3rd. Go Ducks!

Inspiration from JL Designs

You must check out JL Designs' blog to see Carissa's latest post. It's of the flowers she did for a first birthday party and there's a ton of great pictures for inspiration.

A Great Idea

I just saw this idea on Zoe Lingard's wedding planning blog, and thought it was so great that I had to share it with you:

"We work with lots of couples who have international roots and subsequently are always looking for new ways to reflect this within a wedding. For this particular wedding, I suggested asking guests to RSVP using a postcard from their locality and to include a note on how they know the couple or a great memory they have from spending time with them. These postcards could then be displayed at the wedding (we like washing line style, similar to the picture below) and thus act as some entertainment during the reception."

This idea could turn out so great! I'm almost tempted to do it myself, but we might get a few too many postcards from Oregon or Quebec, seeing as how about 95% of our guests are from those two areas.

Inspiration Board: Carnival Party

I'm finally back with another inspiration board!

Looking for a great way to celebrate a child's birthday or a way to go back to your own childhood? Try a carnival party. There is so much you can do with a carnival party: games, balloons, costumes, characters, and more. I love including the colorful lollipops too. What a great takeaway! This carnival party is based on the typical color scheme of red, blue, and yellow.


The photos in the inspiration board above come from: Bakerella (the boxes with lollipops), Bakery Bar (the carnival cake), unknown (the lemon drop jar with labels...jar easily found when googled), Etsy (the cupcake toppers and the popcorn bags from seller Hey Yo Yo), Amorology Weddings/Jamie Hammond Photography (the lollipop place setting), Unknown (the yellow floral photo with billy buttons and tulips), Alannah Rose Stationery (the circus kids), and Paisley and Posies on Etsy (beanie cap). If your photo has not been properly attributed, please let me know and I will correct the error immediately. Thank you.

Any Bride Can Afford a Wedding Planner

I hear it all the time, "I simply cannot afford a wedding planner." Primarily this is due to the fact that many brides in this area (Willamette Valley, OR) that I work with are dealing with small budgets (say anywhere from $5000-$20,000) and a bad economy, so therefore smaller bank accounts. While they may want a coordinator, most brides-to-be assume that it's just an additional cost they can't afford. What I tell them, and often surprise them with, is that anyone CAN and SHOULD afford a wedding planner.

First of all, you've never heard (in any magazine, blog, or other publication) a bride say that having a planner was a wasted cost--that she could have spent the money on something else. In fact, everywhere I've read, brides can't stop talking about how their wedding couldn't have happened without one!

To save money, the first misconception brides have is that they can do it themselves. While there are those out there who are super creative and super organized, it is rare that they are both those and full of time to get things done (especially as the wedding nears). Even if they are all three, what bride wants to spend her wedding day tracking down vendors and fixing problems instead of enjoying the most important day of her life so far?

A second misstep is that brides think they can entrust a friend or family member to do the planning/coordination. I don't know how many bridal reality shows have shown that this is rarely a good solution. Your Aunt Jean may be good at making floral arrangements, but that doesn't mean she has relationships with other vendors that can get you deals, or that she can wrap her brain around the million elements of a wedding and make sure that she has a plan B for anything that may go wrong. Additionally, she likely wants to be able to enjoy your wedding, and as your planner, this will be almost impossible.

A third misstep is that brides think there is no room in the budget for a wedding planner. Obviously I would encourage brides to include that cost in their typical budget from the beginning, but even if you created a budget without this cost, you won't need to do much rearranging to make it happen. I will show you how!

At Tried and True Weddings, we offer such a range of services and prices, that honestly, anyone can afford a wedding planner, no matter what the budget. Sure, if you want us to basically plan the entire wedding for you while you sit back and just relax that's going to cost you much more. Our full year, plan-everything-for-you plan is $2000 (cheap compared to some planners). Most brides don't actually require that much help. Our 2-3 month plan (basically planning everything important) runs for $1000.

But even if you can't afford that, we do have much more affordable options. Our day-of coordination package (highly recommended for any bride on a budget) is only $500 and really counts for coordination of the last 2-3 weeks of your wedding. Basically, no matter what status your wedding is in, we will turn it into perfection in 3 weeks, and make sure you walk down the aisle without a hitch. $500 is approximately the cost of a moderate wedding cake or the cost to print 100 minimal invitations, etc. It is not a large fraction in the whole of your wedding budget, no matter how big.

If $500 still seems like too much for your budget (and I have run into brides where this is the case), consider hourly advice. Brides always have a million questions, and sometimes if all answered by a professional, they may be able to have a smooth wedding without one (again not preferred, but an option). The cost to speak with me about everything from specific areas of your wedding to going through the whole thing and getting advice on every aspect is only $25/hour (this can be done via phone, in person, or over email). So you could possibly talk to me for 2 hours in the beginning of the wedding and have me give you advice on every aspect of the wedding (from decor to venues to food), and then talk to me for 2 hours right before the wedding and have me give you advice on making the day run smoothly, and all it has cost you is $100!

We also offer other services as well (including creation of stationery items or the planning of other wedding or non-wedding-related events) for an additional cost. If you are planning a destination wedding which requires travel for the planner, that travel and accommodations is an additional cost as well. Just ask us for a quote. *We do love to travel!*

Finally, not every package is going to work for everyone. Maybe you want a little of this and a little of that. I often get brides who say I can pay you X, what can you do for that price? I am more than happy to work with brides this way. Many other planners are not.

So whether you choose to work with my company, or any other company for that matter, I just want you to know that you can always afford a wedding planner, no matter what your budget. And honestly, your wedding will be a million times better for having done so. I can't tell you all of the compliments I've received from vendors, parents, and brides and grooms who are so surprised at the difference having a planner made, both in quality of the wedding and stress levels for those involved.

For our complete list of prices and services, please contact me at triedandtrueweddings@gmail.com and I'd be happy to provide you with our rate sheet. In the meantime, happy planning to everyone!

~Amber

I Am In Love...

....you think you already know this right?!?! Today, I am talking about my recent love affair with "The Inspired Bride" a super fantastic blog.


It pretty much has anything I could ever want in a blog:

• inspiration boards
• wedding dress photos
• diy projects
• great engagement or wedding photos
• fabulous ideas
• new vendors
• and more!

Usually I like something particular about a blog, but in The Inspired Bride I found a blog made just for me! For anyone who's missing out on my inspiration boards, Maddy Hague (the blog owner/writer) came up with a really neat idea. She finds a photo that looks really cool, and then picks out colors from it to make a possible wedding color scheme. I'm tempted to try it for a few posts here.

She also must have some graphic design background, because she makes templates (usually in pdf form) for many of her diy projects or for things like labels. I found a great template for labels for the candy jars I'll have and now I just have to edit the colors in Illustrator.

I'm not usually all about directing my readers away to other blogs, but in this case, I would be a bad friend not to. So please go check out her blog and get inspired just as I was! Just make sure to come back. :)

My Wedding in Real Time: My Save the Dates

Since my save-the-dates went out Saturday and people should be receiving them as early as today, or at least within this week if they're as far away as Quebec and Burgos, Spain as some of my guests are, I decided to share them with you.

I won't tell you my exact theme, although it may be kind of obvious if I did my job, and the colors used in the save-the-date are certainly my color scheme: a mustard yellow, turquoise blue, marigold orange, and a faded red.

I created my save-the-date's in Adobe Illustrator and then transferred them to Adobe InDesign for final layout and printing.

We created two copies of our save-the-date: one in English and one in French (as many of Guillaume's family and friends only speak French) and did the same with our wedding website. We went with projectwedding.com's wedding website in the end. I looked at a variety of sites (probably at least 6 different ones) and while others had items projectwedding.com didn't (like an online RSVP section or other great features) I went in the end with a site that was a) free and b) fit our theme. Although I will note, the site had problems when Guillaume tried to translate the French version into French with accents. More than once he was screaming at his computer, so I might recommend something else if you're wanting a site written in a different language.

Once I had designed the save-the-date's I contemplated making them into postcards. This would have been a much cheaper option (which I might recommend to others) but in the end I decided I wanted an envelope that continued my theme and kept a little bit more formality. I found the actual label design on paper-source.com but I couldn't afford their pricetag. So I showed one of my fellow coworkers and graphic designers the image, and she said it would be no problem to make herself. Thank you Bri!

I bought the labels from Office Depot (the cheapest place I found) in 2"x4" (Office Depot Brand) and got 250 labels for around $9. I only needed about 105, so this way I may be able to use them again for my invitation envelopes. I also borrowed a few sheets of clear address labels from work for my return addresses. It was only 4, so I don't feel too bad.

Once I mail merged all of the addresses with the label design (using MS Word), I printed them out and was ready to assemble. Oh I forgot to tell you that I purchased both red and turquoise envelopes from The Paper Zone as well for $5.99/50. I was just going to leave the labels "as is" without doing anything more, but my friend Kristin convinced me to actually cut out the designed label from its typical rectangle label shape. While it ended up adding hours of extra time to the end result, it did make a tremendous improvement to the overall look of the envelope.

Finally I added postage. Luckily my local post office carried the $.44 king and queen of hearts stamps (the closest thing to anything I liked and fit with the invite) and I bought one for each. Then I also bought specific stamps for our invitations to Quebec ($.75 each) and one for my bridesmaid in Spain ($.98 each). I saved a few dollars by not mailing any of my save-the-dates to people I saw often (like my mom or friend Kristin and my boss Ken).

So here's the end result! I really like how they turned out and I hope you do too! If you have questions about anything else I did, feel free and email me at triedandtrueweddings@gmail.com.

These images are the save-the-dates via "Paint", so that I could cover up the website addresses. Sorry the quality of the image appears to be bad.



...and these are actual pictures of the finished product:


Sorry, I had to take off the upclose pictures because our wedding website is too easily readable, and I have to maintain some sort of privacy. But hopefully these are good enough. :)

Hanging Bubble Votives

I'll admit that I've been keeping a lot of the details about my own personal wedding a secret, because really I want much of it to be a surprise on my wedding day and many of my guests actually read this blog, but I thought I would share one small aspect with you today. PS I do plan to share everything with you after the wedding!

About a year-and-a-half ago, I came across the wonderful Karen Tran. She's a floral genius based in San Diego. When my mom decided to be married there, I looked to many of Karen's designs for inspiration (inspiration because well she was well out of our budget). One of my favorite, and one of her unique ideas, was to use these hanging bubble vases/candle holders in the ceremony structure.

I'm not planning on having one of those structures, as I'm getting married in a gorgeous Catholic church, but I am planning on using those same bubble vases somewhere at my reception (I can't tell you how or where). She typically places flowers inside of them (usually orchids or dahlias) and hangs them from clear filament/fishing line, sometimes attached to crystals. I plan to hang some with the flowers, but many others with votive candles to help keep the evening bright and to add something unique and more formal to the setting.

Luckily, I subscribe to the CB2 (like Crate & Barrel's younger sister) catalog, and just found out they're selling these hanging bubble vases for $3.95 each. Somewhat affordable if you ask me, just dependent on how many you want. Personally I'm thinking I need at least 20, which well isn't quite so cheap, especially after shipping.

I've attached some photos of Karen's work with these same hanging globes for you to look at. I hope they inspire you as well.

Flowers Uncut on TLC

When I saw previews for the new "Flowers Uncut" show on TLC, I automatically set my DVR to record the show. It seemed like it would be a great new show, focusing solely on flowers...kind of like an ACE of Cakes, but for florals.

With my busy life, I just got the chance to watch the four episodes which have recorded so far, and WOW am I impressed. Jeff Leatham is an amazing floral designer who has recently come to New York City to bring his style and ideas to the big city (from his former home of Paris). He is known for unique ideas and for working for the Four Seasons Hotel in Paris. He also did Eva Langoria's wedding in France, amongst many other amazing jobs with amazing clients.

So it is no surprise that his work is amazing but it is surprising on how inspirational this show is. Even though we may not all have million dollar wedding budgets, we can take his designs or pieces of his designs and do them smaller, with cheaper flowers to create the same idea. At the same time, he even shows how he typically makes his arrangements and gives tips too. In the first episode, he showed how to make tight roses open up and look fuller. It was so easy and great advice!

I decided to grab some photos to show you how amazing his work is, but if you really want to see it, watch Flowers Uncut on TLC. Check your local listings for date and time.


Have you seen anything more beautiful?!?

The Guest List

When you get engaged, you think that putting together your guest list will be one of the easiest things you ever do. As you actually get into doing it, you may find out otherwise. Here are some lessons I've learned as far as tips for putting together your own guest list.

1. First thing to do is decide who's paying? Is it the bride's parents, the groom's parents, a bit of both, or just the bride and groom? This can definitely play a part in determining the guest list.
2. Secondly, once you know who's paying for the wedding, find out what the budget is. Your parents may say I will contribute X, and you can pay for anything else, or they may say "sky's the limit". Most couples don't get that lucky though, and some may end up paying for the whole thing on a very tight budget. Once you know the total budget, divide it down to your reception budget (i.e. the food, drink, etc. for your guests) but know there will be other costs affected by how many people you invite.
   
3. Once you know how much you can spend, decide on the approximate number of guests you can afford. **Key note: not want, I said afford.** Many venues will charge a per person rate, so divide your reception rate by the per person rate, to give you the amount of people. If you don't have a venue like this, make an educated guess on the approximate cost per person and again divide. Other things may also play a factor. I.e. how many people can my ceremony or reception venue hold?
4. Then create a spreadsheet. I live by them. Make columns for: a) who's inviting them, b) name, c) number of attendees, d) address, e)phone or other email information, and f) anything else you'd like to include. Later on I added "formal invitation name" and "informal invitation name" to help with my mail merge for the stationery.
5. Once you have the spreadsheet setup in place, write down the names of guests you want to invite, with you as the "inviter". Then hand the computer to your fiancee to do the same with his name as the "inviter". Then send the spreadsheet to your family (if they have a say in who's attending) and have them add in the guests they want. I'd advise them of the total you're anticipating inviting first, so that you're not thinking of a wedding of 100 total, and each of your parents add 200 names to the list. Note: if they're paying, they get a good say on how many people they can invite, according to etiquette.
6. If you're in a cutting mode, or need to keep the numbers down, make up rules about who to invite. You can eliminate coworkers and extended family from the list, should you want to. Or as we've done, because space is limited, we are not having our single friends get a "plus one" unless they are in a serious relationship. It is against etiquette to tell people they can't bring serious boyfriends or girlfriends, but encourage your single friends by telling them that there will be a lot of other singles there, and you will make sure not to place them at a table of married couples.
7. Another option for cutting is limiting or cutting children altogether. There's lots of advice on how to do this, but here's what we're doing. We don't want everyone invited (since most are married couples with kids) bringing their kids. It would at least double our guest list! So what we're doing is allowing only our very closest family and family friends to bring their children. You cannot write on anyone else's invite that they cannot bring children, but by titling their invitation to "Joe and Karen Smith" only instead of "The Smith Family" or including other names, you make a point of saying it's just you two. However, if Joe and Karen called and asked if they were able to bring their two children, then it's up to you. If it's just one couple I might budge, but you also don't want them telling another couple and all of a sudden you end up with a million children. Finally consider families who may not be able to attend unless they can bring their children. My matron of honor and her husband have two very young kids. If they come (as they most likely will) her parents and her aunt and uncle will also be at the wedding (taking away potential babysitters) so I'm allowing them the option to bring their kids should they want to. This is always a fine line to walk, so be careful. You don't want to offend anyone or prevent them from coming.
8. Finally, when you think you have your guest list in order, remember that you can over invite (some say up to 25%, but you make that call) because chances are not everyone will be able to make it to your wedding. This sounds a bit harsh, but what I also did was once the list was created, I made another column for "could cut if I had to" and marked x's by those guests names, so that if we ended up with 50 guests too many, I could trim off a few to help. Of course, you can only do this before you've sent out save-the-dates or invites (if you didn't send out save-the-date's). Once an invitation is out there, you can't take it back.

Well that's my advice for creating your guest list, albeit I'm sure I forgot other things I should tell you. Just remember that it's your wedding day, so make sure you're happy with the list, but it's also a big day for your families so make sure they're happy too. Also, in the end, don't be pressured to invite people you think you should--perhaps a vendor, or new friend you just made. And if you're on a really tight number count, invite those people who you know you will be friends with 5, 10, 15 years down the road.

Hope this piece of advice helps!

~A

*PS: The picture above is taken from "The Wedding Assistant", which is software meant to help you organize things such as your guest list, but also many other aspects of your wedding. It has a free trial with no time limit (but is limited in what you can do) or you can purchase the software from their website for $29.95 and honestly, it looks to be a really great program.

Great Wedding Invitations Site

When I got an email from Haley about her blog, I was happy to check it out. I'm always looking for great new sites. What surprised me when I got there, was how informative and detailed it is. Since I'm currently dealing with making/sending my save-the-dates and coming up with ideas for the invitations, I was really excited to see what she had to say. She details a variety of types/styles of invitations (and I mean every type you could imagine really) and gives pointers for saving money or time, etc. In addition, she also talks about other stationery-related items, like favor stickers.

As the writer of a blog who focuses primarily on giving advice and helping you through the wedding process, I really recommend this blog because it does the same, but simply focuses on one aspect of the process in detail: your stationery suite (invitations).

Please stop by "My Modern Wedding Invitations" and take a look at Haley's great advice and work. She knows what she's doing as a graphic designer for the past 7 years, and actually hopes to be able to supply readers with stationery services in the future.

Free Wedding Photography Contest from Sara Lil Photography

Many of you have seen photos of Sara Lil's amazing work on this blog (both from weddings and her sexy Vixen line), if you've been reading long enough. She has such an eye for color and life in her photos, that you can't help but love every one of them. Not to mention, she is a total sweetheart in person too; totally easy to get along with. So when I got her winter newsletter explaining this contest, I thought I had to share it with all of you on the blog. If you are lucky enough to win this contest, you obviously deserve to win great wedding photography! I wish all entrants the best of luck and thank you Sara for doing something so great and giving of yourself!

This is the post straight from Sara's new website: www.saralil.com:


A Gift of Free Wedding Photography

11.02.09

I am so very thankful for my life; my husband, my daughter, my home, my health. And I ‘m lucky to be able to do what I love for a living — this is rare and I know this. I worked hard to get here and its made me appreciate it all that much more. I am thankful everyday for what I have. And I thank all of you out there that have trusted me to capture your special moments! As my way of saying thanks I am gifting someone free wedding photography, please read below:

The last few years have been hard times for a lot of people. I know many couples have postponed their wedding due to the expense. I would like to help a couple in need of wedding photography but can’t afford it. Are you a couple in need? Tell me your love story and why I should choose you…

To apply please answer my questions above via email (sara@saralilphoto.com) and send in a photo of you and your significant other. Also let me know your wedding date and where you are getting married. You must be okay with me posting your love story and photo on my blog. Applications need to be emailed to me by midnight on Saturday, November 21st and I will announce the wining couple on Thanksgiving Day!

*To qualify your wedding date has to be a date that I’m available. This gift includes five hours of wedding day photography by Sara Lil and digital images on disc.

**[ please note: travel fees may incur if it's outside of my vicinity ]

Divine Designs Sample Sale

Divine Designs is an upscale bridal boutique in Portland, Oregon. They offer dresses by designers like Vera Wang, Monique Lhuillier, Amsale, Anne Barge, Elizabeth Fillmore, and more.

This weekend they are having a sample sale, selling many of their samples for 20 to 80% off! This may just make an unaffordable dress affordable for many of you....or even me!

The sale runs November 13th and 14th (Friday and Saturday) from 10am-6pm. No appointments necessary.

They are located at 512 NW 17th Avenue, Portland, OR 97209.

For more information you can check out their website here or call 503-827-0667.

I'm thinking about stopping by, so ya never know, you might run into me!

Happy dress shopping!

~A

Contests...

I get a few of these contests in my email box per week and I'm usually bad about getting this information out to you guys in time, but here are a few contests you might want to check out:

A Honeymoon Shopping Spree...

SHOP.COM is currently offering a "Honeymoon Shopping Spree" giveaway on InStyleWeddings.com and I thought this might be interesting for your dedicated blog readers to know about. One lucky couple will win a $1,000 honeymoon shopping spree on SHOP.COM. The sweepstakes runs now through December 4. I hope you'll encourage your readers to check it out and enter for a chance to win!

Here is a link to the sweepstakes: http://www.instyleweddings.com/weddings/article/0,,20315959,00.html

A Wedding Photography Contest, which if you win includes:

An unlimited number of hours of shooting on their wedding day (covered by myself and an assistant)

An engagement session

High Resolution DVD copyright free

The winner will be responsible for covering the cost of film (approximately $500 + any travel expenses)

EST value of $4000.00

Includes a 25% discount on all albums (Cypress)

How to Enter:

1. Submit a photo of both the bride and groom
2. Give a brief description of the details/location/what it is that makes your wedding unique
3. Date of Wedding

Send the above information to austinwarnockphotography@gmail.com before Feb 1st 2010. Subject Line: "Contest"

I hope you guys get lucky!

*PS: I in no way endorse the following companies, but merely pass on the information.*

A Long Engagement...

Most people (or at least it feels like) get married within a year of getting engaged. I myself wanted to be one of them (especially since this is my profession and I could do it all in 3 months or less)....but sadly, life had other plans, lol. And I don't think couples understand what it's like to be engaged so long, unless they really go through it. Every single person who finds out I'm engaged now (after 7 months later) says, "Congratulations! Are you excited?!" I've run out of things to say, and often it probably comes off like I am not looking forward to it, but really it's just that it's been so long since getting engaged and still so long until we're married (8.5 months). I always say "I'll be more excited when we get a bit closer." And it's true! You look at those books and they give you a plan for 12 months. Really you can't do much until about 6-9 months out, and so when you get engaged with about 18 months to go, it's SO boring and you seem to have to keep waiting and waiting and waiting for it to get close enough to get stuff done.

Well today I came across a post from a bride who has had an even longer engagement than me and she echoed my exact sentiments. Thank God I'm not alone. I had to post it here for you, or any other "long engagement" couples. Just like a support group, remember you're not alone, others are feeling the exact same thing as you, and if you need to vent, we're here!

Personally, I'm looking forward to trying on dresses somewhere between now and January, but even that feels like it's a long ways away...and when people tell you it's to early to go dress shopping, blah it makes you even more depressed, lol.

Anyway, have a great weekend everyone. I'm intensely watching my Oregon Ducks (college football FYI) play Stanford (and it's been a rough start so far) so if you can pray for them, please do!

~A

Breast Cancer Awareness Event Decor

It's the Marine Corps Birthday Ball tonight (basically prom for the military) so I will be out at the Governor Hotel in Portland all evening. Since that's the case, I decided I'd show you a few decor photos from the Breast Cancer Awareness Event I coordinated last night at Wellspring for the Silverton Hospital Network. This was an event aimed at creating awareness about breast cancer and how doing simple lifestyle changes can actually help prevent breast cancer or help your survival rate once you have been diagnosed. It was a fabulous evening, and everyone loved it. We're hoping to continue this event annually in the future.

The centerpieces once assembled. I rented the vases, purchased the flowers from a local flower store, used rocks I had left over from another event, and purchased the 2 ribbons which are adhered to each other and later the vase.


The tablescape was a black tablecloth, with pink napkin square, a mirror square on top of that (bought from a local hardware store 6 for $9), two votives on the mirror, and the centerpiece. We also did pink and white napkins on the tables. Our overall color scheme and all marketing materials were in black, pink and white. The dress form was covered in an apron from our boutique, The Source, and I made a "bra" out of many pink ribbons tied to floral wire and then tied to the form. It created a great focal point for the event. We offset our HDO tables with the extra gerbera daisies. Finally, our guests took home "Awareness is Empowering" bags with hand sanitizer and information on breast cancer. This was our display table.

Total cost for all decor, roughly $150! What a deal!

Sorry to not be totally detailed, but I'm trying to get out the door. If you have any questions about decor that was shown here, just email me!

~A

My Wedding in Real Time: The Save-the-Dates

Well I'm almost ready to get them out the door and hence after show them to you...but until that point, I thought I'd fill you in on the progress.

Typically you send your save-the-dates (std's as some call them, but that acronym often weirds me out) out anywhere as early as a year before the wedding (especially if it's a destination wedding or people are coming in from far away--Quebec, Canada in our case) or as late as 5-6 months before. If you're planning a shotgun wedding, skip the save-the-dates and go straight to the invitation. We are nine months out from the wedding and about to get ours at the door. I think that's pretty good for our wedding situation.

I originally knew that I wouldn't be paying for someone to make my save-the-dates. Although not a professional graphic designer, I'm good enough to handle something as simple as this. I gathered pictures from many different designers and companies across the country and came up with the basic idea for my save-the-date. Ours definitely reflects our theme (sorry still a secret for most of you) I think, or at least the people I've shown it to agree. I used Adobe Illustrator to create it, then transferred it to Adobe InDesign to get 2 to a page, and then finally exported it to a .pdf to print (including crop lines, which did help a small bit). I printed a test page, then cut it with the paper cutter, and it looked pretty good. One thing I didn't like was the way two of my colors came out on paper. A few short edits tonight, and I've remedied that situation.

After work I stopped in to my local Paper Zone (similar to Paper Source for those of you who know your stationery) after calling yesterday on the cost of envelopes. She said I could get red A-2 envelopes for $6.99/50 count. What a great deal! When I walked in, I first went to the wall of envelopes. $5.99/20--what?!?! This couldn't be the case, I hadn't heard wrong. Here's where I learned something important. I kept on going further and further to the back of the store and found red A-2 envelopes in packs of 50 for $6.99. The difference? Just a rectangular flap on the back of the envelope verses a trianglular one. Personally, I could care less, and the rectangular flap allows for a return address label on the back which I preferred over one on the front anyway.

So I bought those envelopes in red and another color (you'll find out later). I also went looking for 80# white cardstock to print the save-the-dates on. Again, up front $26.99 for a reem (or 500 sheets). In the back, same thing. The same type of paper for $19.99 per reem. Lesson learned. Always explore the back first for a good deal. I don't need all 500 sheets (since printing 2 per page I need about 53 sheets or so) but it's cheaper to buy in bulk and I might be able to use the same paper for my invitations, inserts, table numbers, place cards, etc., helping me save even more money.

What I forgot to also tell you is that I found a really cool label on Paper Source which would be perfect for the front of the envelope, but it was $5 for 8 labels...way too expensive! Without purchasing a similar label vector from istockphoto, it was going to be a bit hard for my novice designer self to make. So I used what I knew, or rather who I knew. I emailed one of our graphic designers at my work (who I've also talked to about possibly designing my invitations for a step up from my save-the-dates) the picture of the label with a link and asked her either a) how to make it or b) if it was easy enough for her to make quickly. She said it would be really easy and she'd get it to me by next week at the latest. Now all I have to do is buy basic shipping labels (2"x4") from an office supply store, merge my addresses to her label, and print.

Finally, before all of this I had thought about really saving money and doing my save-the-date as a postcard. It's totally simple and means no envelope necessary plus a much cheaper postage cost....but an informal postcard just didn't suit my style. So scrap that...but I am going to hand deliver as many as possible to save at least a few bucks. I read about hand-canceling the envelopes, but honestly I could care less about that, not to mention I really don't have the time to spend an hour in a post office in the middle of the day.

All-in-all I think the final cost for sending out 105+ save-the-dates is set to equal about $100 (maybe a few dollars more due to international postage), which makes them $1 a piece. Honestly, I think that's a pretty good deal.

I'll put up pictures of my save-the-date(s) as soon as guests have begun to receive them in their mailboxes. Keep an eye out!

Fabulous Find from Etsy

Via Beth Helmstetter's blog, I found something great from Etsy! I've been looking into different ways to make my dessert/candy bar fabulous, and one of my latest ideas has been to include some colored cake stands and antique dishes. When I saw a picture of this cakestand on Etsy, it was not only very cute and colorful, but I found out that you can also have it personalized, say with your wedding date or names on it. How can you say no to that? They cost $64 but at least it'll be a momento with importance that you can keep and use throughout your life.

Right now they're made in small sizes, 6" diameter I believe, but the seller vesselsandwares says that she may be making larger sizes soon, so I'm waiting anxiously in anticipation. She also says that she'll do custom work. If you're interested, email her at jeanettezeis@gmail.com.

Vintage Halloween Inspired Florals

Carissa's (of JL Designs) floral design talents are indisputable, which is why I have to direct you to her site for photos from her Halloween event. She incorporated everything from pumpkins and succulents to black and white anemone to create her vision, a flower combo I would have never thought to put together. It worked well to create an elegant event, versus the typical Halloween motif. If you're thinking about a vintage Halloween-inspired wedding, this might be a great inspiration for you! Not to mention the event featured a fabulous dessert bar, ideal inspiration for any wedding.

Enjoy and Happy Belated Halloween!

~A