…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]

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]

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?

Jordan’s mom Nachole and I are calling the rehearsal dinner a “Backyard Italian Bistro” themed meal, from the menu (tortellinis with red and white sauces and tirimisu for dessert!) to the decor (think red-checkered tablecloths!).

So, Jordan and I tried to design our rehearsal dinner invitations to have the same Italian feel.

Check ‘em out!

How are your rehearsal dinner plans shaping up?

After much talk about how wonderful it would be to grow our own flowers for the wedding, my Mom and I decided to forgo this project for a few reasons.

1. The unpredictable South Dakota weather. We had no clue if the flowers would even grow, and since summer weather in our lovely state is about as predictable as where weeds will grow, we didn’t want to make the attempt and have it not pay off in the end.

2. Added stress (and expense!). While growing our own flowers for the wedding sounds like a wonderful idea, the practical application of it all (from growing the flowers to putting them together into mason jars to transporting them to the reception venue) was rather daunting.

What DIY projects are you dropkicking to the curb?

[Image via www.howstuffworks.com]

Jordan and I have spent one (seemingly endless) weekend designing the programs for our wedding ceremony. We’re really, really happy with where things are at design-wise, and while we have a (growing) list of tweaks to make, it’s time to start looking for paper to print these suckers on.

We originally wanted to go with plantable paper, but when we saw the price tag for what it would take to make 170 program booklets…we about died. SO…we started looking around the internet, and we found Eco-Paper!

We had Eco-Paper send us samples a few weeks ago, and we really liked the Lemon Paper that they had to offer. However, we wanted more of a heavier paper (i.e. cardstock), and, sadly, they happen to be out of Lemon Paper cardstock and (here’s the sucky part) they won’t have it in time for our wedding. SAD!

So, we’ve been looking around for other options. We received samples from Greener Printer awhile back, though if we go with them, we may have more overhead costs, both for the paper itself and for the printing services (we can print our programs for free if we supply the paper).

Do you have an eco-friendly paper vendor that you’ve used?
Tell us about it!

[Photo via www.wrs-uk.co.uk]

The tasks?

1. Signage. Kristen has LOVELY handwriting (which we also utilized for our save the dates!), so we recruited her again to make place cards for the head table and “reserved” signs for the reception. They turned out great!

2. Ceremony decor. As I mentioned earlier this week, we decided to make tissue paper pomander balls, which we started (as in, I made a template and Serena trimmed all of the tissue paper to the same size). Hopefully I’ll finish them this week! We also placed sand and candles inside mason jars and tied the jars with ribbon to place on the floor of the aisle.

3. Covering these *ugly* plastic canisters of wet wipes with *lovely* scrapbook paper. We needed wet wipes for our guests for guestbook-signing purposes, but I hated the plastic canisters that they came in. So, Serena measured out the appropriate amount of lovely grey damask paper and adorned the canisters with ribbon. Problem solved!

4. The wishing tree. After one casualty (a ceramic pot shattered to its death), we rocked out the wishing tree!

5. Begin folding our cootie catcher favors. Check! Also hope to finish these this week (I will probably make a large dent on this project while watching my weekly TV shows!).

I hope to have another Super Fun Craft Day this summer!

How are you getting all of your DIY projects done on time/with time to spare?

This past weekend, I finally made some concrete decisions about the decor for our ceremony. We’re having our wedding ceremony in a small chapel on the college campus of my alma mater, Augustana. The chapel is BEAUTIFUL (think liturgical art and an ENORMOUS organ), so we didn’t want to overwhelm the space with decor.

The verdict: we’re keeping it simple.

The components of our decor:

1. Pew decorations: yes, I’ve been bitten by the tissue paper pomander bug … we’re using these (rather voluminous) lovelies to adorn every other pew. View instructions here!

2. In place of an aisle runner (which our venue doesn’t allow), I have 12 mason jars that my bridesmaids filled with sand and placed a small votive candle inside. We tied the top of the jar with pretty yellow ribbon, and these will be placed on the floor of the chapel beside a pew (where there’s NOT a pomander ball), so as to create balance.

3. As I mentioned before, we’ve chosen to honor our grandparents by placing seven candles on the altar. These ivory candles will be placed atop a silver charger plate, and lovely little yellow mulberries will be intertwined between the candles.

One last thought: I’m still debating on whether or not we need to place something atop the piano (a birdhouse placed on a doily, perhaps?), but we have everything else figured out!

How are you decorating your ceremony space?

[Photo via Elizabeth Ann Designs]

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From building a playlist from songs already on your ipod to starting from scratch, Audiostiles has the expertise to put together a rocking playlist for your wedding. To view Audiostiles’ web site, click here.

(This is not a sponsored post.)

This past weekend, Jordan and I began designing programs for our wedding ceremony. We’re embracing the booklet style of DIY wedding programs, and we spent countless hours this weekend designing each page (while simultaneously watching The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy…which was rather fun!).

While we’re not yet ready to show you all the design of our programs, I can tell you that one page features printed versions of the readings we’ve chosen for our wedding ceremony. We haven’t yet discussed these with my uncle, a retired Methodist pastor who will be officiating our ceremony, but I’m excited to share our chosen readings with you all!

First, Jordan and I wanted to include a Bible verse to reflect our Christian faith. One of my favorite verses is Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, which reads: Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. Again, if two lie together, they are warm; but how can one be warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. We’re hoping this verse will be the basis of my uncle’s ceremony message to us as newlyweds.

I graduated from college with a bachelor of arts degree in English and journalism and a minor in philosophy. I love to read and to write, and I firmly believe that the power of the written word lies in helping us to understand life’s complexities through story. Therefore, it was important to me to select two secular texts to also include in our wedding ceremony.

The second reading is an excerpt from Margery Williams’ The Velveteen Rabbit, and I owe many, many thanks to Ami Elizabeth from the lovely Elizabeth Anne Designs for this particular variation:

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a person* loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.” “Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit. “Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.” “Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?” “It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.” **

The third and final reading that we’ve chosen to include comes from the wonderfully creative e.e. cummings – “i carry your heart with me”:

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it (anywhere i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet) i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

What readings have you chosen for your wedding ceremony?

**wording slightly modified from the original version

[Photo: www.weddinganswers.co.uk]