Eco-Vintage Weddings

Showcase Wednesday: Guest Post – Wedding Party Shake-up!

Hello readers! I’ve asked my dear friend Luke (film blogger extraordinaire) to write a post about his upcoming nuptials, and how uniformity within a wedding party is seriously overrated. Enjoy!

Luke here from Journalistic Skepticism. The lovely Sara asked me to write a little bit about my own tumultuous wedding planning experience. But I exaggerate – it’s actually been a relatively eye-opening learning experience. And before you become too confuddled, let me clear things up – yes, it is possible for a male to plan a wedding.  (Well, just barely at least.)

We’ve set a date for August 14, 2010 (based almost entirely on the economic sensibility of a late-summer wedding), and it will take place in Minneapolis, so hopefully the snow will have disappeared by then.  Though we’re currently living in Sioux Falls and plan to move out to the East Coast in June, we chose a location like Minneapolis to centralize our guests, who range from mostly Midwesterners to some out-of-staters.  Though neither of us are originally from Minneapolis, it’s a major city with more options in terms of site choices, and it’s a familiar, easy-to-get-to locale for our guests in neighboring states.

For our wedding my fiancé and I found ourselves in a predicament.  Though we were ready to name several people to be a part of our wedding party, when it came to traditionalism we faced a problem – our subset of friends included far more females than males.  In fact, our final tally of attendants includes two men and – count ‘em – 10 women.  When choosing our party, we opted for a mix of mostly college friends, siblings, and high school friends.  And with such a large core wedding party, it became easy to bestow some of the other ceremony functions on others, though we haven’t entirely filled every other role.  One of our as-yet-undecided bits is whether or not to have ushers.  Our ceremony count is around 100, so I ask you: are ushers really necessary?

But I digress. In lieu of the boy-girl pairs of the typical wedding, we opted for mix-and-match gender aisle-walking companions.  This shake-up also involved coining some new terms for our crew – groomsmaids and best women, since our best men ended up being some lady friends of ours.  And in order to break up the uniformity of having the many groomsmaids dressing identically, we opted for a single color scheme with three different dress options, a feature that I know many of the wedding party members greatly appreciated.  Because, let’s face it – everyone is built differently, so not every design is going to be suitable.  So to come to terms with the fact that these ladies were buying the dresses for keeps, why not opt for something they actually enjoy?

Our chosen groomsmaid attire

When planning a wedding, perhaps seamless traditionalism is your number-one concern.  But for the sake of picking the best possible wedding party, there’s something to be said for being a little gender-blind and breaking just a couple rules.

A big thank you to Luke for shedding some insight on how to beautifully break down the Wedding Industrial Complex’s so-called “rules.” I can’t wait to see the fruits of your efforts, Luke!

[Image credit: David's Bridal]

Showcase Wednesday: Wedding & Love Advice from my Mom!

Happy Wednesday, readers! Two weeks ago, my parents unearthed from storage their wedding photos from 30 years ago (!!). While I’ve seen these photos a few times in my life before recently, this was the first time I saw these photos since embarking on my own wedding planning.

My mother looked beautiful in her long organza gown, complete with a full circle skirt and a stand-up split neckline. The whole gown was trimmed with Chantilly lace. The dress was only the second gown that she tried on! Instead of a veil, my mother wore instead a lace-embellished hat with a wide brim. My father wore a white tuxedo – he looked sharp (and he looked SO MUCH like my brother!).

Along with the wedding pictures was a memory book that my mother kept while planning their wedding. Covering everything from bridal showers to their first home, each page is bursting with memories. I had never seen this book until recently, so it was such a treat for me to read through and imagine how excited my parents must have been to marry each other.

While the memory book is full of gift lists and guest book signatures, I took away a few life lessons that I thought I’d share with all of you:

-          Remember that the wedding is only one day in your lives, and act accordingly. My parents were high school sweethearts that married at 19 and 21 years old, so they had a modest wedding. My mother found her wedding dress at a local department store, and she split the cost of it with her father, my grandfather. My father, who was leaving for basic training for the Army, proposed to my mother with a diamond less than one month before he left. Throughout the memory book, I could feel my mother’s excitement – “Went to the church around 5:00 p.m. to get dressed. Forgot everything – my tote bag and my clothes for the next day! Where was my mind?!” Just before the wedding, my mother wrote this: “Time for the wedding; pretty soon my dream would come true!!” My parents served their guests cake, roast buns, mints, nuts, coffee and punch. Instead of embarking on a honeymoon cruise or a week-long vacation to Mexico, my parents moved to Colorado, where my father was stationed with the Army.

In reading her memory book, my mother has reminded me time and time again that all that matters is that Jordan and I end up married at the end of the day. The details of the day (like the wedding dress, the food, and the decorations) are literally just icing on the cake.

-          The wedding day may feel like living a dream, but day-to-day marriage is real life. One of my favorite parts of this memory book is the space where my mother wrote a letter to my father. While she admits that she should have written this letter shortly after their wedding, my mother instead wrote it two weeks before their 4^th wedding anniversary. In her letter, my mother talked about moving to Colorado and what an adventure their first year of marriage was (“the first year was so terrific – but more of a dream than reality”). My mother then talked about how difficult the second and third years of their marriage were, since my father was stationed in Germany during that time. My mother wrote, “We lived through it – and the meaning of trust and faithfulness took on a new light for us.”

Reading these words, and hearing my father tell stories of his life in Germany and my mother’s memories of her life in Colorado, only further illustrates the struggles that come along with marriage. But instead of lamenting that life wasn’t like their wedding day, my mother wrote about how their struggles made their marriage stronger. I can only hope that when I think back to the struggles that Jordan and I will encounter in our marriage that I have that outlook five, ten, twenty years from now.

Happy Wednesday!

Progress Report: 101 in 1001 Goals Project

[To read more about my goals, click here.]

I’m about one month into my 101 in 1001 goals project, so I thought I’d share my progress with my readers!

Goals Completed: 1

Financial

-          Designate and use a jar to hold my loose change.

Goals in Progress: 2

Relationships

-          Spend time with or talk on the phone with my Grandma at least one time per month.

Bucket List

-          Try at least one new wine per month for one year. [This month I tried Black Swan – very yummy!]

I think that’s a pretty successful start to my 101 in 1001 goals project!

Here are the goals I want to begin and/or complete in March:

Relationships

-          Write and mail at least ten handwritten letters. [I plan to mail one letter in March.]

-          Send a care package to one of my dear friends at school.

-          Talk with Jordan about changing my name, about his feelings regarding divorce, and about his feelings regarding adoption.

Necessities

-          Write down and store end-of-life wishes.

-          Get an eye exam & glasses.

Physical Changes

-          Keep a food journal every day for one month.

I’m very excited about this project, and I love feeling like I’m making progress toward achieving these goals!

How are YOU keeping your goals?

Have a great Monday!

Green Friday: Feature & The DIY Bridal Files

Hello readers! Thank you all for your wonderful comments about our DIY Bingo Card Save the Dates; we’re so proud of them, and we’re so excited that you all love them just as much as we do!

Today isn’t so much a “Green Friday;” it’s more like a “Budget-Friendly Friday!” The girls over at DIY Bridal Files were kind enough to feature our Save the Date cards on their blog, so I wanted to show them a little love by introducing my readers to the sheer loveliness over at DIY Bridal Files.

Look for these girls to post twice per day on DIY goodness found all over the blogosphere! From Daily DIY projects to free printables, DIY Bridal Files is a one-stop shop for any DIY, budget-conscious bride.

Big thanks to the girls over at DIY Bridal Files for their feature! Go show them some love, readers – check out DIY Bridal Files here!

Have a blissful weekend!

Showcase Wednesday: Our (Finished) Save the Dates!

Happy Wednesday, readers! I always love it when the middle of the week arrives … it means we’re all closer to the weekend, which means that I’m closer to seeing Jordan! We’re living and working in separate cities right now, so I’m always grateful whenever Jordan comes home on the weekend.

Today I am pleased to bring you the fruits of our labor – our DIY bingo-inspired Save the Date cards!

Aren’t they cute!?

Jordan and I worked closely together on these cards, which proved to be a valuable lesson in Marriage 101: Patience is an absolutely necessary part of taking on any project, from DIY stationery to life itself.

As you may recall from this post, crafting the bingo card design came easily. It was the steps thereafter that proved to be more of a challenge.

First was the question of how to design the wrap-around vellum band. Jordan and I began concepting an asymmetrical design, but we quickly decided that we wanted to mirror the symmetry of the bingo card design on the vellum band. So, after a few long hours full of meticulous edits, we finally came to a consensus – we loved the design featuring our engagement pictures, courtesy of Creative Kindling!

After finalizing the design, I set out to find yellow vellum paper. Well, yellow vellum paper wasn’t in my future, I soon found out, which actually ended up for the better; my resourceful mother took a yellow crayon and colored on top of the clear vellum paper we found, and when she placed the vellum over the bingo card, it looked HIDEOUS! I feel very fortunate that I didn’t waste any money on yellow vellum paper.

Once the bingo cards and the vellum wraps were printed and trimmed, I spent one evening seated at my kitchen table with my Mom and two of my best gal pals (my maid of honor Kristen and my bridesmaid Serena), and we folded and glued, folded and glued. Kristen, whose super-fun handwriting is making its debut on the envelopes holding these Save the Date lovelies, spent a good portion of the evening addressing envelopes for us.

Here’s a glimpse of the front of the card:

There were two final parts to the design, the first of which is one of my favorites. The vellum paper wrapped around the back of the bingo card design, and where the two edges of the vellum paper met, my bridesmaid and gluer-extraordinaire Serena attached a button.

One note about the buttons, however:  I didn’t know this prior to crafting our Save the Date cards, but the buttons cost us an extra $0.20 cents each in postage, since they needed to be hand-stamped instead of running through a postage machine. I’m sure glad that none of our other stationery projects will utilize buttons, but at the same time, I love this feature on our Save the Date cards.

The second (and final) design element involved stamping a circle shape around the “July 17″ square on the front of the bingo card. While this should have been one of the easiest parts of the entire process, the company from which we ordered the stamp happened to be experiencing a high order volume, which therefore delayed the order significantly. However, all was well in the end, as the stamp arrived just in the knick of time!

Overall, I’m more than satisfied with our Save the Date cards. I would like to make one recommendation for you readers:  when Jordan and I were stuffing and sealing the envelopes that I had lined with decorative paper, we had trouble securing a proper seal, due to the fact that the decorative paper had covered up the waxy seal (the part of an envelope that you lick to seal it shut). So, we stuck a piece of double-stick tape to secure the envelope shut, and added a sticker seal on top of that. In the future, I will try to be more creative when lining envelopes, so that I don’t cover up the waxy seal.

I estimate the total cost of this project, including postage, to be right around $60.00. Most of the cost stems from purchasing the vellum paper.

What do you think of our Save the Date cards?

Guest Post: Planning the Proposal

Hello readers! My lovely fiance asked me recently when he could write a guest post on the blog (truthfully, I was SO excited that he wanted to write, I said, “Uh, how about now?!”). So, I’d love to introduce you to my dear almost-husband, Jordan – he’s going to tell you all about planning the proposal, from a groom’s perspective:

It was very early after Sara and I met that I knew that I would one day marry her. However, Sara and I took a lot of time falling in love, so it took about two and a half years before I realized that my dreams would come really come true. And reader, she was worth the wait.

I really had some plans to go really out of this world, blow her mind, and make anyone who can listen jealous (Sara requested that I don’t even tell her, so that she won’t be let down, so I won’t mention it here, but what I ended up with was leagues better in the creative and caring department that she should know that she’s ahead.). (Sara’s Note: Reader, he told me one of his ideas once upon a time - all I’ll say is that it involved PENGUINS, my favorite animal ever…but honestly, he wowed me with his actual proposal. WOWED ME. Read on…)

Well money and timing issues, among other things, got in the way of my grand plan, so I went back to the drawing board. Sara had told me that I needed to ask her Dad for permission, so I went along with setting up that meeting, and he gave me his blessing.

I had asked my parents for ideas on how to propose, and they had some great suggestions. I also asked my friends who did their own proposals and kind of got a mixed bag. However, one proposal did stick out, which was my buddy’s and groomsman’s Eric Depue. So, I borrowed his proposal plan to construct the overall structure of my plan.

My plan was to send Sara on a scavenger hunt around Sioux Falls, where we live. I would first send flowers to her office, with a card containing her first clue. I then planned to leave gifts at each stop on her journey, along with cards holding clues as to where she should go next. At the final stop, I would get down on one knee and propose.

Having the plan in hand, and the permission to go through with it, the hardest part came in planning and pulling off the whole ordeal. For my plan, I had to come up with a list of Sara’s favorite things and/or meaningful things we’d shared or experienced in our relationship. Luckily this list was pretty easy to put together, and the next plan came from mapping out the stores I would have Sara visit as she got her gifts from store to store. This was the hard part. I had to first find the right stores, and then make sure they had the right product, or something similar at least. Then I had to make sure I could trust some random employee to be working late enough for Sara to find them. Yeah…it was hard. [A special note:  I wrote special cards explaining the reasoning behind purchasing each gift and how much I loved her. This also became a tough task, as I had to rewrite two of them because I couldn't find exactly what I wanted, and had to act on my toes to find the perfect gift for the occasion. But she said yes, so I think I nailed it.]

But by the hands of God, the plan could not have gone more perfectly. She received flowers at her office right on time. She then traveled to get her gifts from Barnes & Noble, to HyVee grocery store, to Triple Play Sports cards (a baseball card shop here in town), and then to Best Buy. The final clue then instructed Sara to trek out the waterfalls of Sioux Falls where she found me and walked (through misty rain) toward me. I said some sweet things that I’m certain she paid little attention to, I asked, she said yes, and we’re now happily engaged for 6 months, and have 5 months until we will be married!

The engagement took tons of special care, time, and thought, but I loved every second of it, and I would do it all over again. Next time, though, I’ll try for a sunny day.

To read Sara’s version of the proposal story, click here.

[Photo: Creative Kindling]

What’s YOUR Favorite Wedding Movie?

Hello readers! What’s your favorite wedding movie? Mine is Father of the Bride (1991), of course!

I recently wrote a post for Luke over at Journalistic Skepticism on why this wedding movie is the film I return to again and again for an honest (and hilarious!) account of American weddings. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be analyzing other beloved wedding movies; be sure to stay tuned!

Click here to read this post!

Green Friday: The Importance of Etsy & eBay

In the past few weeks, I’ve purchased the following items from Etsy: gifts for my bridesmaids, a fascinator which I plan to wear in my hair at our wedding, mini-valentines that are plantable (!!), and a lovely vintage hat for our photobooth. I’m also in talks with another artist on Etsy about having her craft dresses for our flower girls (more on this soon!).

But, given all of these purchases from Etsy, I got to thinking about how supporting the work of artists is another way to ”greenify” your wedding.

I read on blog after blog about the importance of supporting local artists/vendors when selecting who you’d like to help you on your wedding day. But isn’t the importance of supporting artists IN GENERAL, local or not, also important, given the alternative (investing in the lackluster mission of chain stores by purchasing pre-packaged, assembly-line-produced merchandise)?

I also thought more about eBay. eBay is literally an online thrift store full of items begging to be refurbished and reused. Instead of purchasing a brand new wedding dress, some brides select vintage or preowned gowns from eBay or other sites. Furthermore, by investing in collectible items, such as vintage typewriters, vintage hankies and much more, brides have the opportunity to perpetuate and honor the history of these items. What can be more “green” than that?

There needs to be more discussion of alternatives to greenifying America’s weddings. It’s not simply about recycled paper, soy-based ink and organic food; it’s more about making conscious, easy choices with the environment in mind.

What do you think? How are you “greenifying” your wedding?

Showcase Wednesday: Target Finds!

Happy Wednesday, readers! Today I wanted to take a break from DIY goodness to share with you a few recent vintage-inspired finds, available to you at one of my favorite stores, Target. You can also order these items online at www.target.com.

First up – women’s clothing! I’ve been oogling at these little black dresses – wouldn’t these little numbers be perfect for a formal rehearsal dinner, or even for a bridesmaid dress?

Or, if you’re looking for a fun, colorful dress to don at your bridal shower (or for your engagement shoot!), take a look at these fab frocks:

I am seriously coveting that yellow burst of sunshine in the middle; how perfect would that be for a wedding shower!

The best part about Target is that it’s a one-stop shop for EVERYTHING; click here to peruse what Target has to offer for clutches, killer shoes and jewelry.

As an added bonus, if you’re blessed to have a small frame, check out these vintage-inspired dresses that just hit the juniors section at Target:

Thanks for taking a quick little shopping trip with me – click here to access Target’s online marketplace.

[All photos from Target.com]

Green Monday: Green Printing Facts

Have you ever considered the environmental impact of the inks you use in your printer? If you haven’t, you certainly will after hearing statistics like this:

- Conservatree suggests that one ton of office and printing paper may require up to 24 trees.

- According to the Forest Stewardship Council, the U.S. is the largest market for paper products in the world, producing 90 million tons of paper and consuming about 100 million tons each year; about 25% of timber cut annually in the U.S. is used to make paper.

To combat the displacement of trees to make paper, many printing companies today are using as much recycled content as possible, or are utilizing paper made from sustainably harvested forests.

Here’s how the recycling process works, according to GreenerPrinter:

In the recycling process, paper is washed and deinked before being made into pulp. This pulp goes through a bleaching process (ideally processed chlorine free) and is formed into paper by removing the water, drying the paper, and cutting it into rolls or sheets for use. An important measure to look for in recycled paper is the post-consumer waste content. The difference between recycled and post-consumer waste (PCW) is that PCW refers to paper that has already been used by consumers – basically, it’s the paper that we toss into our recycle bins – whereas recycled paper might include materials that never reached the consumer, such as magazines that were printed but never sold.

Printing companies are also utilizing soy-based inks (ink that is derived from soybeans) instead of petroleum-based inks, which are made using a non-renewable resource (petroleum) and also release volatile chemicals into the environment called VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds).

For more information on green printing, or to purchase products that have been printed utilizing soy-based ink or recycled papers, click here.

NOTE: This post is not sponsored by the above company, individual, service or product line.