Eco-Vintage Weddings

Coming to you from inside wedding week…

…and we’re looking good!

Hey y’all – it’s wedding week here in our neck of the woods!

Projects left to complete:

- Make our tiered cake.

- Make a tiny loaf of bread for communion.

- Line the flower girl dresses.

- Febreeze the burlap table squares.

- Finalize the wedding day agenda.

- Confirm cake, flowers.

- Pick up my wedding gown!

- Add wedding dance playlists to ipod and back-up ipod.

- Make signs for tables.

- Pull together props for photos.

- Put together my “just in case” bag for the wedding day, full of safety pins, sewing materials, etc.

- Finish packing for the honeymoon.

I’m sure there are other little things to finalize, but that’s all I can think of right now.

I’ll try and post one more time before our wedding this weekend!

101 in 1001: June 2010

Hello all!

As a reminder, I had a rough month accomplishing my goals in May, so I kept these same goals on my plate for June.

Here’s what I hoped to accomplish this month:

- Make or bake at least one Rachael Ray recipe.

- Try beets…again.

- Go bowling…and actually try to bowl well.

And…0-3. Boo me!

But, here are the goals I did accomplish in June:

- Purchase a new computer! I’m typing to you from my new Macbook Pro.

- Get into graduate school! I actually did this in March, but I can talk about it now, since I’ve told my employer. As of this August, I will be a graduate student at the University of South Dakota pursuing my Master’s in English Literature and my teaching certification! I think USD will be a great start on my path to higher education and eventually pursuing a PhD.

- Go garage saling at least one time per year. Jordan and I set out looking for a dresser, so we hit up some local garage sales. No luck, but it was fun!

- Try at least one new wine per month for a year. I’m on #5 of 12, and this month I tried New Age Wine at my bachelorette party; it was delicious with a lime!

That’s it!

Here are my goals for July:

- Get married! We’re only 13 days away!

- Take a trip overseas. We’re going to Jamaica for our honeymoon!

- Write a poem.

- Cut bangs into my hair…again.

- Go kayaking.

- Take one shot of tequila.

18 Days Out…

…and I’m feeling fine!

That’s right, readers – dare I say that my obsessive need to work ahead has paid off…here are the projects we have left:

- Cut squares of fabric for the tables. When we’ll get it done:  this weekend.

- Sew a lining into the flower girl dresses. When we’ll get it done:  this weekend.

- Gather (and print, if necessary) a few pictures of Jordan and I for a photo feature. When we’ll get it done:  by Friday.

- Wrangle and frame few more wedding pictures of our relatives. When we’ll get it done:  this weekend, hopefully.

- Practice making our DIY tiered surprise wedding cake. When we’ll get it done:  this weekend, hopefully.

- Print and mail gift-opening invites. When we’ll get it done:  this needs to happen ASAP!

- Fold napkins. When we’ll get it done:  first round tomorrow, second and final round hopefully next week.

- Reception playlist. When we’ll get it done:  probably next weekend; it’s about 70% done right now.

- Silhouettes (of Jordan and I) for frames. When we’ll get it done:  next weekend; we just need to format and print.

- Finalize pew decor. When we’ll get it done:  tonight.

- Purchase gifts for our parents and our ceremony helpers. When we’ll get it done:  next Friday (payday!).

- Tie baker’s twine on the programs. When we’ll get it done:  Probably the week of the wedding…eek.

- Take photos of decor, pack up decor items in boxes according to tables. When we’ll get it done:  next weekend. BIG project, but I hope to have lots of help.

- Get our marriage license. When we’ll get this done:  the Wednesday of the wedding week.

I have my hair trial and my final make-up trial on Thursday and my final gown fitting on Saturday. We also are having our premarital counseling session with my uncle, our officiant, on Saturday. We also turn in our guaranteed guest count to the Pavilion on Saturday. My wedding week beauty treatments are all scheduled, with the exception of a manicure appointment…truthfully, I may just paint my own nails!

Things are coming together really nicely – I hope that I’m not forgetting anything!?

[Photo: www.free-flow-coaching.com]

Featured on the Gotham Bride Guide!

Big news, readers: our DIY wedding invitations were featured on the lovely Gotham Bride Guide!

Click here to read the full post; a big thank you to the folks over at Gotham Bride Guide for featuring us!

[Photo: Gotham Bride Guide]

What We’ve Been Up To…

Hello readers! Again, I apologize for not posting much these past few weeks; it’s been a whirlwind to say the least. With only one month to go until the wedding (!!), Jordan and I have been hard at work finishing up last-minute details with our families and friends.

Here’s what we’ve been doing:

- Last week, I spent the evening building our photo booth with the great help of my future father-in-law. The photo booth turned out wonderfully; I can’t wait to see how it looks in our wedding photos! I hope to provide a full tutorial for you all at some point, so stay tuned…

- Made a list of must-have photos for our photographers, and met with our lovely photogs to discuss our wedding day. I’m SO excited that we’ve chosen such wonderful and supportive photographers; they will be so great to have with us on our wedding day, and I know that Kara will help to keep me relaxed.

- Started tanning! While I’m definitely not a fan of how bad tanning beds are for my skin, I do need to build up a base tan of sorts before heading off to Jamaica. So, I’ve stared tanning a few times per week!

- Started the napkins process! With the great help of my bridesmaid Serena and her mother, we’re making headway with the DIY napkins project! We’re about halfway through the project, and I plan to bring the last batch of fabric over to Serena’s home this week for cutting.

- Mailed our rehearsal dinner invitations. They turned out wonderfully, and we’re so excited for our Italian-themed rehearsal dinner!

- Ordered 3 one-half sheet cakes for our wedding reception. We ordered 1/2 sheet of red velvet (my favorite!), one half sheet of strawberry (Jordan’s favorite) and one half sheet of vanilla cake from a local bakery. I’m glad to have that completed!

- Set up a final meeting with our on-site reception coordinator and our florist to cover last-minute details. Both of these appointments are next week, and I’m excited to finalize all of the details!

- Set up a meeting to visit the chapel where our ceremony will take place. I’m visiting my alma mater, Augustana College, this week to set up decorations around the chapel to see what they look like. I’m excited to see how/if the pew bows will attach to the pews…frankly, that’s all I’m concerned about. I know that everything else will look great!

- Finalized gifts for the groomsmen and ushers; everything should be done next week, so I can wrap the gifts!

- Secured a classic car to transport Jordan and I from the ceremony to the reception!

- Got the guys measured for tuxes! Only a few of our guys have yet to do this, and they’re under strict instructions to do so ASAP.

- Finalized our wedding ceremony script. Yes!

- Trying to wrangle wedding pictures of our relatives; I only need a few more pictures, and we’ll be set!

I think that’s it!

Here’s what we have left:

- Our reception playlist. We’ve started working on it, but Jordan’s school quarter ends this Friday, so Jordan will have a lot more time to devote to finalizing our playlist starting next week. This is his pet project, and I’m excited to help with this process as much as I can.

- Getting a few more props for the photo booth, as well as finding/purchasing baskets for the day’s needs, a few picture frames, and a few props for our wedding photos on the wedding day.

- Figuring out what camera to use for the photo booth.

- Print the wedding programs. We’re waiting for the final OK from our officiant, and as soon as we have that, we’re good to go!

- Cutting table squares and a table runner for the reception; we are purchasing the fabric today, so it won’t be too long before this project is off our list.

- Sew a lining into our flower girl dresses. Again, the fabric for this has been purchased, so hopefully we can finalize this project soon.

- Purchase a gift for my personal attendant and our parents, as well as gifts for our hosts & hostesses and our ceremony reader.

- Gift-opening preparation and invitations.

- Bring my engagement ring and wedding band into the jeweler to be soldered and plated.

- Premarital counseling session with my uncle, our officiant, to discuss our personality inventory.

- Discuss our DIY tiered wedding cake with my mother, and maybe practice making a cake.

- Final wedding gown fitting; I’m so excited for this part!

- Final hair and make-up trial, as well as week-of beauty treatments; again, SO excited!

- Wrap gifts and box up ceremony/reception decor.

- Marriage license.

- Meet with our travel agent to finalize details for our honeymoon, and pack for our honeymoon.

- GET MARRIED!

Surprisingly, my stress level is rather low; while I know that there’s still more things to do, I feel remarkably calm heading into the final month before the wedding.

How are you handling wedding stress?

For Our Guests: An Update on Hotels!

Greetings!

For our out-of-town wedding guests, please read the information below regarding area hotels; while we don’t have many family members and friends that live out of town, we have heard from some of you that rooms in Sioux Falls are filling up rather quickly, so here are a few options for those of you who still need to make a reservation!

HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS

A selection of area accommodations is below; the hotels appear in order of proximity to the Washington Pavilion:

Holiday Inn City Centre: $142.95/night; 605-339-2000

Country Inn & Suites: $99/night; 605-373-0153

Hampton Inn Sioux Falls: $92.80/night; 605-362-1700

Sheraton Sioux Falls + Convention Center: $189.99/night; 605-331-0100

Holiday Inn Express – Brandon (15 minutes from Sioux Falls): $162.99/night; 605-582-2901

We can’t wait to see you in July!

Our Wedding: Honeymoon = Tropical Getaway!

Oh readers…guess what? WE’VE BOOKED OUR HONEYMOON!!!!

After the wedding, Jordan and I will be jetting off to … wait for it … JAMAICA!

With the help of a travel agent (who is also a family friend), we booked a 6 night getaway to Ocho Rios, Jamaica, where we will relax on the beach, dine at wonderfully yummy restaurants and enjoy our first few days as a married couple!

We’ll be staying at Breezes Rio Bueno in Ocho Rios; we’re so excited! While we weren’t sure for quite some time whether or not we would be able to take an extended honeymoon, we feel so blessed to have the opportunity to get away!

Where are you headed on your honeymoon!

Showcase Friday: Our DIY Wedding Invitations!

Dear readers, I don’t even know where to begin with this post, except to say that Jordan and I are SO excited to share our DIY wedding invitations with you today! This post is rather lengthy, but for you budget-brides out there, I wanted to give you an extensive look into what it takes to DIY your own wedding invitation suite.

A note on our inspiration

It was quite a challenge to try and explain to Jordan (or anyone, really) what “vintage” means to me, and how exactly I envision us capturing that feel in our wedding invitations. So, I frequented many a web site, from Etsy to super awesome stationery sites to simple Google searches of random objects (mason jars, for instance).

Jordan and I began the design process with the idea that we would utilize Adobe Photo Shop brushes. Since little touches of birds, nature and aviary motifs will appear throughout our wedding, we felt it was important to include a bird in our wedding invitations. We found a Photo Shop brush of a tree, and we started working with that.

However, with each draft of the invitation, we began to hate the look and the feel of it more and more. It didn’t look elegant, it didn’t look lovely, and it didn’t look vintage. So, much to my chagrin (seriously, I was stressed!), we scrapped that idea and started over, a mere month-and-a-half before we wanted to start the printing process.

However, in re-conceptualizing our DIY wedding invitations, I remembered an art class that I took in middle school, where we carved images into a wood block, and then used that wood block to stamp with ink. (I’m sure this was a Mother’s or Father’s Day project from way back when.)

So, I started to try and tell Jordan about what I envisioned based on this look. Then I saw a few invitations around the web utilizing different fonts and a woodblock/boxed layout, and after brainstorming with Jordan, we downloaded a variety of fonts (which is over-simplifying the process – I was very picky about what fonts I wanted to use, and Jordan just would not let me go with Feel Script, no matter how badly I wanted to shell out the money for it – and he was right in the end…) and we  got to work bringing together all of our inspiration into one invitation suite.

A note on the design process

Jordan and I used Adobe Fireworks to design our invitations. Jordan is very familiar with this program, and I found it to be a rather intuitive program myself after playing with it for 20 minutes or so.

Since Jordan and I are living 45 miles apart right now, we designed our entire invitation suite on the weekends we were able to be together. For us, the process worked like this:

1. Sara tells Jordan in advance, “We need to work on this part of our invitation suite this weekend.”
2. Sara sends Jordan links of what she’s found that she likes (”I like this overall look, but with this wording and this graphic and this font.”)
3. Jordan comes home, sits on the couch and designs away, making sure Sara doesn’t look over his shoulder until the project is near completion (it drove him nuts!).
4. Sara edits, says what she’d like changed, and Jordan makes the changes.
5. When Sara and Jordan are both satisfied with the design, they PDF the file and send it to their right-hand person to print a proof.
6. After final proof approval, the document goes to the printer, and a few days later, the final product arrives at Sara’s house.

Multiply this by 5 pieces (there are 5 items in our invitation suite), and you have approximately 24 weekends (6 months!) of design work that we spent working to complete this invitation suite. It was definitely a labor of love; there’s no other way to describe it.

A note on invitation wording

It was important to Jordan and I that we acknowledge the contributions that our parents have made to our lives and to making our wedding happen, so we included them in our invitation wording. In determining the other parts of the wording for our invitation, we spent quite a bit of time (probably two weeks) changing words and tweaking the look of the invitation.

Here’s what we ended up with:

Sara’s parents and
Jordan’s parents
Invite you to celebrate the wedding of their children
Sara Jo and
Jordan Wayne
(Ceremony Details)
(When/Where)
Dinner, Dancing & Merriment to immediately follow
at the Washington Pavilion

A note on the details

First, I spent about 8 – 10 hours of time gluing little doilies (see above picture) inside both the mailing envelopes and the RSVP envelopes (a la Holly) – what a project (!!), but I’m SO happy with how well they turned out. (Everyone thought I was nuts, but I was having a great time!)

I then stamped our return address on each of these envelopes, proceeded to freak out when the ink I used wouldn’t dry, and then our envelopes were miraculously saved by a can of hairspray. Moving on…(I just can’t talk about those darn envelopes anymore!)

Next, once everything was printed, we glued the invitation matte directly to the pocketfold, and then glued the wedding invitation on top of the matte, to create a layered look (again, see above picture).

I knew that I wanted our invitation suite to have a few components to it. While the majority of our guests are from South Dakota (and are rather localized to Sioux Falls, where the wedding will be held), I still wanted to provide guests with a map to help them navigate their way to each location. Thanks to a wonderful classmate of mine, we had a lovely hand-drawn map to showcase to our guests. We placed the map on its end in the right-side pocket of the pocketfold.

For our RSVP card, we wanted to make sure that our guests knew to expect an offbeat, relaxed wedding from the moment they received their invitation. So, we utilized the following check box system, as seen on A $2000 Wedding:

- Gladly Attend
- Regretfully Decline
- Regretfully Attend
- Enthusiastically Decline
- I’m in the wedding, so I have to come
- Other ____________________________

Since Jordan and I are coordinating the music for the wedding dance ourselves, we also wanted feedback from our guests to see what would get them out on the dance floor. Our “Request a Song” card was so much fun to design, and Jordan even made the record player graphic himself!

These two cards were tied together with the RSVP envelope using baker’s twine, which is a special type of yarn that blends two colors (our’s was yellow and white) together. This little package was then placed in the pocketfold in front of the wedding map.

A note on the construction and presentation of the invite

I owe a lot to the lovely Holly at Nothing But Bonfires for introducing us to a company without which our invitations would have lacked cohesion: Cards & Pockets. We ordered nearly everything for our DIY invites from Cards & Pockets … from the pocketfolds in which each piece of our invitation suite was placed to the envelopes that carried our invitations to their destination, we found Cards & Pockets to be the best value for our money. And the quality of the materials? Couldn’t have asked for a better product or better customer service along the way. [No, this is not a sponsored/paid post; I just love the company!]

A note on printing

Jordan and I feel extremely blessed to have had the help and support of one of my father’s business colleagues throughout the DIY invitation design and printing process. From our first initial idea to our final proof, having a person to walk us through the process, telling us what worked and what didn’t, was absolutely invaluable.

While I understand that what’s right for us might not be right for everyone, I would encourage readers who are looking to DIY their own invitations to get them printed by a professional (but local!) printing company. All we supplied was the paper (we chose a partially recycled natural ivory linen cardstock), and the printers and our right-hand person handled the printing and the cutting gratis (yes, we were extremely lucky).

A note on the materials used

Materials:

From Cards & Pockets:

- Perfetto pocketfolds in “Smoke” (We ordered a sample of one, loved it, and then ordered 90 for our invitations)
- 5.75 inch square invitation mattes in “Lemonade” (Again, we ordered a color swatch, then ordered 90 mattes for our invitations)
- 90 6.5 inch square envelopes in “Lemonade” (to hold the invitation; we scrapped the inner envelope, because I think it’s wasteful and frivolous (no offense))
- 90 RSVP envelopes in “Lemonade” (while we initally thought about designing postcards, I loved these little envelopes, so we went with them)

From Etsy:

- Customized stickers from Maxim Creative Invites on Etsy (we ordered two different designs of stickers, one which we used to close the pocketfold and the other which we used to close the envelope)
- Yellow baker’s twine from Whisker Graphics on Etsy (we used this adorable twine to tie a bow around our RSVP package)
- Return address stamp from Love to Create Stamps on Etsy (we used this stamp as a return address and as the “deliver to” address on our RSVP envelopes)

From around town:

- Partially recycled natural ivory linen cardstock (we printed everything on this stock; we probably utilized 250-300 sheets for invitations for our entire guest list)
- Doilies + glue sticks + glue lines + ink pads from Michael’s craft store
- $0.61 cent wedding cake stamp, plus 2 $0.10 cent clock/nautical stamps, per invite, purchased at our local post office (I really wanted stamps with one of our engagement photos on it, but I couldn’t justify the cost)
- $0.44 cent “Love” stamp for our RSVP cards; we chose the stamp with the King and Queen on it!

A note on final cost

After calculating cost for everything ordered, including postage, it seems that the cost for each invitation suite was $3.74.

Here’s the breakdown:

Pocketfolds: $0.98 per invitation
Invitation Mattes: $0.18 per invitation
Natural Ivory Linen Cardstock: $8.00 per ream, $0.09 per invitation
Mailing Envelopes: $0.17 per invitation
RSVP Envelopes: $0.12 per invitation
Stickers: $0.47 per invitation
Address stamp: $0.08 per invitation (includes RSVP envelope)
Doilies: $0.14 per invitation (includes RSVP envelope)
Glue/Glue Lines/Double-stick Tape: $0.22 per invitation (includes all construction)
Baker’s Twine: $0.04 per invitation
Postage: $0.81 per invitation
Postage: $0.44 per RSVP card

TOTAL: $3.74 per invitation

What do you think of our DIY wedding invitations?

[All photos taken by my soon-to-be father-in-law, Steve!]

101 in 1001: A Rough Month…

Hello readers! First of all, I apologize for the blogging drought…I’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed with wedding planning (and life changes!) lately, and this blog has sadly been quite far down on my to-do list. I promise, though, the wait was worth it: on Friday, I plan to showcase our DIY wedding invitations, which were sent out to our guests last week! Be sure to tune in for that.

Today, however, I am prepared to give you all an update on my (lack of) progress toward my 101 in 1001 goals project.

Here are the goals I wanted to accomplish for May:

- Make or bake at least one Rachael Ray recipe.

- Try beets…again.

- Learn how to drive a stick shift/manual vehicle.

- Go bowling…and actually try to bowl well.

And here’s the one (yes, one) that I actually completed:

- Learn how to drive a stick shift/manual vehicle.

While my guy has tried to teach me how to drive a manual car before (his lovely old Jeep Wrangler!), he now has a new manual car (yay for Jettas!), so we spent a few hours together driving around a parking lot, and then hitting the main road!

I did rather well (I swear, the Jetta is easier to drive than the Jeep EVER was!), but once I had to take a detour (lame-o South Dakota construction!), I got scared as the car inched up (and then down!) a rather steep hill. Needless to say, that was the end of my driving experience that day.

I really sucked at completing my other goals, so I’m going to leave those on tap for June.

How are you doing on your life goals? Do you have a bucket list?

Guest Post: More Money, More Balloons

It’s been awhile since my man Jordan has dropped by to offer his take on wedding planning, so here’s a fun-loving post from Jordan on what our wedding would look like if he had an unlimited budget and the upper hand:

Throughout our engagement, I have noticed that Sara has had the final say on green lighting projects for the wedding. I trust her decision making as she really has put together a wonderful package that her and I can both be proud of. I have made a few suggestions along the way, and some have passed the test, while others were quickly dismissed. This is okay, I completely understand, and couldn’t be happier with the upcoming event.

However, that’s not the point of this guest post. This post is just for fun; it’s me pretending that if I were to plan a few big things for the wedding, regardless of practicality, cost, or anything else, here’s what I’d do.  Who knows – maybe if an idea gets enough support, I can get a green light!

In order:

Number 5 — Rainbow Tuxes

This is a slightly goofy option, but I really enjoy personality, and while its far from traditional, I think people have more fun when they get a little more abstract. How much more fun and a greater memory for all would it be if everyone was wearing some different brightly colored tux? I think it would be outrageously fun!

[Sara's note: It's rather interesting that he thinks this, considering I literally BEGGED him to let my girls wear dresses the color of the rainbow, and he quickly turned me down. Hmmm...]

Number 4 — Jon Miller and Joe Morgan doing Play-By-Play and Color Announcing

Perhaps this is slightly far fetched, but I’d be excited for impersonators to go over any type of video we record for the wedding and give a play-by-play and color analysis, as if they were on Sunday Night Baseball. I generally hate announcers, but I enjoy Jon Miller, and I enjoy to make fun of Joe Morgan, so I think it would be just smashing and potentially really humorous if we find someone who can nail the Morgan role.

Number 3 — Absolutely no country music played at any time.

I really detest country music. I could say about 1400 bad things about it that I’ll likely get no response to, but I just can’t stand it. A country song will suck the fun right out of me and will just murder my attention span. There’s not a single country song in my music library, and despite being forced to sit through it in my 24 years of life, I have yet to enjoy a single one. I honestly prefer boy bands over country music, as with them at least the music is catchy and danceable. Country music offers nothing, but (age old cliche from country music haters) my dog died, my wife left me, and my friends don’t know me, wah wah wah, suck.

Number 2 — Rethinking the gift-opening event.

I am not a huge fan of gift-openings, either. I love to give and get gifts, but to me, gift-giving is so much better at random periods of time than at designated events or days. There’s nothing wrong with holidays, anniversaries, or gift-opening events, but I just don’t really enjoy focusing my attention or being the focus of attention during this time. I suggest we just wrap the entire gift-opening party around a large kickball game (or a similar event) that everyone participates in, and in between innings, we open a gift or two. That way, there’s ample time for breaks, thank you’s, and everything else, while there’s always that game to look forward to and keep everyone occupied. What an awesome idea!

Number 1 – “99 Red Balloons” … literally and musically

This is by far my most favorite idea. I have even suggested this one several times and been turned down very politely every time. However, I push on as I really believe this is a great idea to get the party started. Here’s the plan: We have our first dance as a couple, which gets everyone all excited, emotional, and amped. Then after the song ends, the song “99 Red Balloons” comes on (either original or Goldfinger cover) which starts off slow, serving as a great transition that builds up into the chorus. When the chorus starting playing, my plan is to have 99 red balloons (that were earlier filled and set up to fall on the dance floor) come down and “rain” on everybody. This would do many things, including:

1. Create a unique dancing environment that you don’t see often.

2. Inspire those who are still sitting down to get up and join the dance party.

3. Make for some really cool photo shots.

4. Get the dancing start off right, as so many people need a reason to get out of their chair.

It’s an insanely good idea, and I know that someone would have to clean the balloons up almost right away, and/or popping them becomes an unnecessary fun game for many. But that’s one side effect that I’m willing to live with to get everything rocking.

[Sara's note: I love, love, LOVE this idea, but it's just way to dang expensive to even think about doing.]

Honorable mentions:

Giant sports ticker. Instead of having a slide show rolling through pictures for hours, we can mix in a sports and news ticker that mostly updates fantasy baseball and Seattle Mariners scores. This one didn’t make the cut as the Mariners so far aren’t worth watching…

Life-size giraffe-shaped cake. While it’s not a feasible idea, even a 1/8th scale version would be pretty sweet.

Wedding mascot. Mascots are fun, get people going, and are typically good performers. But, Sara’s terrified of mascots, so that one’s out.

I won’t have any less fun at our wedding if none of my ideas come to fruition, but it was fun to think about setting these things up and remembering them for years and years. Positive and negative comments are welcome!