What do you want to know?

While I'm getting back pictures next week, and will do more detailed wedding day recaps then, does anyone have specific questions they'd like answered about my wedding projects?

Also, it feels pretty crazy to see yourself on someone's blog who isn't related by blood or close friendship.

my dress

Several people have asked, so I thought I'd make a general post about it instead of emailing individually. My dress is Casablanca # 1816. I bought it in champagne.

Here it is on the scary model:

I'll be selling mine in the next few weeks (once I get it cleaned), so if you are interested let me know. I'm 5'1" and around a street size 2.

I also found out yesterday (from my friend who has recently hired my photographer), that I'm getting my pictures next week! So I'll post more pictures then.

the budget

We had a $10,000 budget for our wedding, and I'm pretty sure that we stuck to that, within a few hundred dollars. I am certain that we were no more than $200 over due to the set amount of money in our wedding account. While I started out wedding planning with $30,000 set aside, during our engagement we decided that our priorities did not include having a typical, blow out wedding. We paid for my midwifery program with some of the money. A few months before the wedding we bought a house. And next month we will use some of our money to take a much needed three week vacation in Argentina.

That being said, we tried not to feel like we were being limited by our budget when planning. We made our big choices count: having our wedding in my parents backyard instead of the barn we'd originally planned on renting, picking a photographer who could work with us on pricing, and doing some of the catering ourselves. I also bought my dress used, I made things that I'd originally planned on buying (like my hair piece modeled after the lovely k.autumn), and we asked friends and family to help with things like flowers and music.

Being smart about the big things allowed us the freedom to splurge in some areas. For example, we bought all the dishes we used at the wedding from thrift shops. While I had a rule that each dish had to cost less than it would cost to rent it, I occasionally bought things that were more expensive--particularly since I knew those pieces would end up being used in our house. My husband also had his suit made after months of trying to find one in thrift shops, but we still came in on budget and we know he'll use it for years to come.

what was happening with the shoes?

I have no memory of what I might have been doing in this picture (during the ceremony). It's funny how that happens.

Escort Cards

While we had originally thought that we'd do the relaxed thing and avoid assigned tables, after a quick poll of our friends we realized that most people would prefer being told where to sit. So we ended up with assigned tables, though not assigned seats.

This added an additional project at the last minute--figuring out how to let people know what table they were seated at. I decided right away that names were going to be on leaves. I bought appropriately colored paper from an art store and cut out two leaf shaped patterns from cardboard. I enlisted the help of a bridesmaid who traced the leaves, cut them out, and wrote names on the front and tables on the back.

My original thought was to have them hanging from a branch, but after realizing that would involve more work than I was prepared to dedicate to this project, I looked around for an alternative. I'd already requested that people collect acorns for me (they were originally going to be scattered on the tables) so I dumped all the acorns in a basket I found in my parent's laundry room, stuck in a few mushrooms I had lying around from Small Stump, and used the acorns to prop up the leaves.

Ta da! Project done in less than 2 hours. Total cost: $5 for the paper.

counting cards

I was browsing around crafting websites today and came across these adorable counting cards on eeBoo. They are meant for kid's rooms, but if you had 10 or less tables, they would also make great table numbers. The animal and bird sets seem most wedding appropriate, but they also have trains if that's your thing.

how unprofessional

As much as I'm looking forward to seeing our professional pictures, and know they will be lovely, I'm really loving seeing the bad pictures of our wedding. The ones where we are making weird faces or staring off into space.

Or ones where my husband dances all crazy and my sister's boyfriend makes eyes at the camera....


















Or the ones where I'm lying on the dance floor...










































And I'd like to state, for the record, that I'd only had one glass of sangria prior to these pictures being taken.