Cricut Love

Warning: more crafty gushing to follow. This little machine is the crafter's equivilent to a crack habit. OMG! Steve got me a Cricut for my birthday and this little baby is amazing! This is the same kind of gizmo they use to cut the vinyl for signs, but now it's used to cut letters and shapes for scrapbooking but it can do soooooo much more! This thing will cut little envelopes (you'll see those in the wedding invitations with a map and rsvp instructions in it). I'll be cutting out the letters and such for our photobooth guest book. I can cut out a stencil and paint official wedding t-shirts and aprons for our committee peeps. I can make signs directing people to the wedding site. If you have a crafty bone in your body, or if you are considering developing one--you should get a Cricut too, and btw...I heard these will be on sale for $119 at Walmart on Black Friday! Oh and if you get one DON'T buy a bunch of cartridges before you talk to me. I've found an alternative that will save you TONS of money on fonts and such. Now if you'll excuse me...I have a little habit to feed.

Cheese!

Last week I got the stands to create the aisle for our wedding. They are these little hook thingies that we can run tulle down & dress up with flowers or wreaths or something...they are sitting in the floor of my office because I haven't found the fortitude to load those bad boys into my car.

I also put the deposit down on our photobooth. The picture on the left isn't the actual booth, but you get the idea. I booked the booth for two hours, which makes me a little nervous time-wise but that's what the cash flow allows. All our guests will get the opportunity to take pictures in the photobooth, and will recieve their pictures as a favor. We'll get a copy of the pictures as well and I will have someone getting personal notes from our guests to put together with our copies of the photobooth pics to use as our guest book.

We now have less than a year until the wedding date and with each day that passes I get a little more excited and a little more blown away by the fact that we really are getting married. I say things to Steve like, "Do you realize that next year at this time we'll be married!?!" He tries not to look at me like I'm crazy because I'm pretty sure he was clear on that fact before he proposed but I'm just in awe of the whole thing. I find myself trying out the words: married, husband, wife, and spouse. I really had given up, and I am so happy God and Steve hadn't. Sniffle.

jennifer and steve stamps!

It's just silly how the little things for the wedding get me so excited. Today I got to work and the stamps I'd ordered were in. (Please forgive the photo, I left the cord to my camera at home so I had to use the camera phone instead.) It's like every little package that comes, every puzzle piece that gets put into place, and every day that passes makes all of this more real.

On Friday, Steve and I had a backyard picnic to celebrate the fact that it had been a year since he sent the first message to me on myspace. I kept tearing up everytime I would think about how it was such a small thing but as a result of that little shot in the dark, our lives are completely different. There are times when I feel like this was so rigged and other times when I think about how very random it all seems. Steve and lived virtually across the street from one another for YEARS and had no idea. I walked around the restaurant where he was the executive chef every morning day after day, week after week, month after month and we never had any idea. Yesterday I was playing around and I asked Steve if he'd love me forever, and he said, "I already have." I am so marrying this guy! I needed every minute of these twenty something years to get ready for this kind of love and to know better than to take it for granted.

This weekend Mom, Anna & Sofia and I went out to Myer's Park for an event they were having and I was so excited to see the pumpkins and mums. There wasn't a great deal of color on the leaves but God and I are talking about it. I am so glad we decided on a fall wedding. What the heck was I thinking when I thought July might be good???

More Wedding Crafts

These are altered barn stars. The second star was my inspiration, and the first is the one I made to hang from the openings in the gazebo where we will have the ceremony. I may decide to layer more patterns on mine to give it a smidge more umph...I dunno. I also made one of these for my sister where I added family photos that I printed in sepia. It turned out very cute. I suspect that's what I'll do with these after the wedding. BTW I got these at a place where they sell Mexican pottery and such. It was $10.

I am waiting for several deliveries of wedding goodness. I bought a thing you can use to cut a hole in baby pumpkins or apples or pears or small gourds, so that you can put tea lights in them and I have ordered several personalized stamps that I'm using to make seals for my wedding invites and such and the other that will be used on our favors and napkins. I will also use that one as the model for our aisle runner. I am starting to get very excited. We put the deposit on our wedding spot in McKinney and we have an official date of October 24, 2009!

The Question Game

These are some pretty good questions to ask and answer when planning a wedding. I was pretty happy that I had the answers to most of them a year before our wedding date!

Decision Topics:

Do you want to send engagement announcements? No

Do you want to take engagement photographs? Perhaps next spring if budget allows

How much are you willing to spend on invitations? $150

How important are creative or unique invitations? Made them myself

How important is the quality of the invitation paper? N/A

Response cards or email and phone calls? Email/phone

Do you want to include photos in your invitations? No

Do you want to set-up a wedding website? Done

Pre-printed or print your own invitations? Print my own

Do you want to use photo stamps? Undecided

Indoor or outdoor ceremony? Outdoor ceremony

Indoor or outdoor reception? Indoor

What time and on what day of the week do you want to have the ceremony? Saturday around 6 or 6:30

Do you want the ceremony and reception at the same place? Yes

Are you going to rent or buy table linens? Buy (cheap!)

Do you need to rent tables, chairs, and possibly a tent and dance floor? No

Do you want the same number of bridesmaids and groomsmen? One attendant on each side

Who do you want in the bridal party? Matron of Honor-Jill Grozev, Best Man-Boyd Kelley
The rest will be done by a committee of angels!

Are you going to help pay for bridal party expenses? Yes

How many ushers do you want and who? Four? Mike Sims, Bryan Piccola, Spencer Ramsdell, and Seth Pentecost?

Do you want a flower girl and ring bearer? If so, who? I want two little leaf girls: Lexi & Audrey

Who do you want to perform the ceremony? Undecided

Do you want programs for the ceremony? Yes

Are you going to purchase or make the programs? Make

How long do you want the ceremony to take? 30 minutes

Are you going to have any special music such as soloists or congregational hymns? Yes, Tarina & Chrissie

Are you going to light a unity candle? No

Are you going to take communion? No

Are you going to write your own vows? Undecided

Do you want live music during the ceremony? Yes

Professionally catered food or do-it-yourself? Undecided

Dinner or hors d’oeurve and dessert? Dinner

Served dinner or buffet? Buffet

Served buffet or self-serve buffet? Self-serve

Meal cooked on site or cooked off site? Undecided

Wedding cake or dessert? Dessert

Do you want to serve alcohol? No

China or paper or plastic plates and cups? Plastic

Silverware or plastic eating utensils? Undecided

Cloth or paper napkins? Paper

Are you going to rent or buy your china, silverware, and cloth napkins? N/A

Live music or recorded for the ceremony? Recorded

Live music or D.J. for the reception? Friend

Music style? Eclectic

Are you going to do your own flowers or pay a florist? Myself

Are there particular flowers you do or do not want to use? Fall flowers

Are you going to hire a photographer? Just for reception, candid shots during dance etc.

Are you going to videotape the ceremony? No

Are the bride and groom going to see each other before the wedding (affects photography schedule)? No

The Great Pumpkin

There was a big sale at Michaels this week so I went a little crazy with the flowers! I used an artificial pumpkin (often called funkins) and cut the top off. I arranged silk flowers, dried grasses, wheat, and I covered the edge of the pumpkin with green moss. I finished it off with a plaid bow and voila! I think this arrangement will go on the mantle at the reception site because it's very large. I can't wait for the fall decorations to hit the 75% off clearance because I have a LOT of ideas for pumpkiny goodness. This month the main focus is making decisions about the table decorations so that we can get the supplies while the price is right. With every decision I make the more crystalized the picture of our wedding day becomes. I told Paula tonight that we're going to have to marry six of our friends off (after this wedding of course) to use up all of our ideas! I can't imagine how people managed planning a wedding before the internet.

The other project I've been playing with is a plan for photos. We don't want or need a giant album of pictures but we would like a few nice pictures with our family. I've been eyeballing professional photographers sites and of course I'm now thinking I should take up snapping pictures for a living. I refuse to pay thousands of dollars for pictures so I'm researching alternatives. I found a site for a photography club from a local college. I think Steve and I may do a session with a couple of student photographers for some engagement photos and see if we can't find one that we feel could do the photos for our wedding day as well. I also came up with the idea of having a photo scavenger hunt on our wedding day (with a prize of course) for the friend who gets all of the pictures on the list. Here are the ideas I came up with:

Wedding Picture Scavenger Hunt

Here are some basic ideas for the kinds of photos we’d love for you to catch during our festivities. The pictures should not be posed. Please look for great candid shots as they tell a much more accurate story of our wedding day!

A shot of the bride and/or groom cutting up.
An action shot of a high five or the equivalent.
A shot of an emotional reaction by a family member or friend.
A shot of a kid or a group of kids .
A shot of someone working and/or helping behind the scenes.
A shot of the bride watching the groom or vice versa.
A group shot.
A priceless action shot of someone dancing.
A shot that makes you say "awwwwwwwwwwwww."
A shot of the bride or the groom with a friend or family member.
Catch someone doing something they think no one saw.
A shot of dancing feet!
A shot of "things" that tell a part of the wedding day story.
A shot of someone getting squishy.
A shot that is a classic representation of a relationship whether it is friendship, sponsorship, parent/child, grandparent/grandchild, etc.

Here's Where We're Planning to Get Married

This is a shot of the bridge and the pond that is just behind the gazebo where we hope to have our ceremony and a dance.

This is my mom checking out the walk to the gazebo.

This is a pretty little bridge that we can take pictures on, or perhaps a carriage ride...

The reception hall is nothing super fancy but it'll work, the food will make up for the lack of ambiance.

The fireplace is the backdrop for the family table...I will definately be snazzing that up!

Smile!

This is a snuggly picture of Steve putting the moves on me.

Sing along time: Babe, I got you babe, I got you babe...

This was our most recent date night. We covered the ABCs: Art, beef, and cuddling!

He makes me all melty.

Okay I'm only "the little woman" in pictures. Seriously.

My Table Decorations

I used my Bind-It-All to make "table tents" for
the tables at my reception. I just used cardboard
that I folded into a triangle and then I bound the
top with wire (like on a spiral notebook). I used various ribbons to decorate the tops of the frames and I used solid scrapbook papers to embellish the pictures. I printed the pictures with my color printer on heavy paper (I didn't even use photo paper) because I don't need for these to be of archival quality and I like the brighter colors I get when the ink is absorbed into the paper. This is actually an original idea (most of my "creative ideas" are actually borrowed or modified from someone else's work). I love that they are made from paper and left over pizza boxes, that they cost almost nothing to make, and they can be given away or thrown away without any guilt after the wedding.

Gotta Dance?

Steve and I have been talking about taking dancing lessons together since last December, but I was a little nervous about the cost since a friend of mine took lessons at a nationally known dance school and paid over $500 per class (and the class was for her alone, not a couple!). It just didn't make sense to spend more on dance lessons than we had budgeted for anything else at the wedding except food and the venue. But after further investigation I found that the Plano Parks & Rec offers adult dance classes for $39 for six weeks. We could take several classes, get some exercize and have a lot of fun for a fraction of the cost of the fancy school. I also discovered that there is a place in Irving that has a dance one Sunday a month for ballroom dancing. I know that most of the people who will be there will be older than we are, but that makes me happy! I hope I can hang on to my sense of adventure long enough to try...I love the idea of dancing to At Last with Etta James singing in the moonlight and all my friends watching as Steve and I move together as one. I think we both dream of one beautiful, graceful, picture-perfect dance and I think that's a daydream that deserves to come true.

It's Official!

Sweet Steve proposed to me on 08/28/08. There was never any question that we were serious but having a ring makes it official. We're really getting married. Which is a good thing or the appointment I have next Friday to get the details on the location I like the best would seem very silly.

As far as the proposal goes, there are things that were said that I want to keep between the two of us, but I will say that he proposed to me at home, because it is the most special place for us, it's where we reconnected after twenty two years. It's where we had our first kiss and our first party and it's where we fell in love. This is the place where we take care of each other, where we have our most romantic moments...his proposal was perfect: it was simple and honest and from the heart. SQUISH!

The ring he gave me is actually my wedding band. We decided that since we've done everything non-traditionally that we'd reverse the ring order as well. I love my ring but mostly I love the man who gave it to me, and the reason he gave it to me. I want to spend the rest of my life with him and I've never been more sure about any decision in my life.

Bind-it-all is the Biz-omb!

I love gizmos and I love crafting so when I came across this little number in my internet wanderings, I knew I had to have it. A wedding is the PERFECT excuse to by crafty stuff I was going to buy anyway! The pictures on the right are two little books I made last night in no time!

The first is made from a diet DP box and large index cards, and the smaller book was made with 3 x 5 index cards. I can make the album for my photobooth pics, a guest book, coloring/activity books for the kids, I can bind the info for our OOT bags, I can make photo albums for our moms and my grooms girls. I know there are lots of things that advertize that "the possibilities are endless!" but this little guy is really neat. I paid $62 at a local scrapbooking store but there are better deals on the internet, I just couldn't wait. Even as I'm typing this I'm thinking, journals for bridal party gifts, a book of love quotes for my honey, sudoku puzzles for mom, a recipe book for favors...

More Frugal Wedding Ideas

The girl in the pink is our family photographer, Sofia. She inherited her mom's old digital camera and she takes almost as many pics as Paula does!

I was kind of thinking we'd do the disposible camera thing for the candid shots at our wedding, but then I read a blog that made that sound dumb. If you are thinking about using disposables, you should decorate them with DIY covers like this!

The truth is most everyone has a digital camera & a camera phone so why not take advantage of that AND save the expense of developing pictures unless someone has a specific plan for them. With that in mind, I set up a photobucket account specifically for the wedding and wedding related events.
http://www.photobucket.com/
username: jenandstevesweddingpics
password: 2kelleys

I'm thinking I'll take the money I had budgeted for cameras and buy several packages of AA batteries so that we can keep snapping pics throughout the day and night. The rest of the funds can go into another category since I've been VERY conservative on my estimates for the cost of our wedding. I'll revisit this topic as we begin to have wedding events and as approach the wedding day, but I wanted to post this immediately so I don't forget the info!

DIY Wedding, DIY Love

My ideas for a DIY wedding began roughly twenty-five years ago. When I was in my teens I worked after school and on the weekends for a photographer who shot a lot of weddings. I saw military, church, and backyard weddings and I got to see the "behind the scenes" drama as well as the ceremonies and receptions. One of the things that I saw time and time again, was that the weddings that were designed to be the most beautiful were often the least fun. I learned that expense created beautiful pictures but not necessarily beautiful memories. I heard many brides say that they missed the whole day because they were so concerned with how things looked that they missed what really happened.

I have always loved to make things and a wedding, especially my wedding will give me the chance to make things that I love! I have fifteen months and some change before our projected date so I have lots of time to plan. I'll let you know our victories and defeats, and I'll solicit ideas and advice as well as sharing my experience, strength and hope...

Today I stopped by Michaels on the way to work and picked up a paper cutter with one of my 40% coupons. While DIY is often much more affordable than premade anything, it's super cheap with an additional discount. Michaels has 40% coupons almost every week. I buy a double paper on Sundays for $3 here in Dallas and that gives me two coupons to buy wedding supplies with! For anyone who hasn't signed up on the Michaels website, I would recommend it because they also email coupons on weeks when they don't have coupons in the paper. According to my math, if I buy all the supplies for my invitations at 40% off, I will be able to make my two-part super cute one-of-a-kind "I designed it myself" wedding invitations for less than it will cost to mail them!!!

About the design for my invites: I fell in love with these invitations from paper-source.com. In playing around with the design I discovered I could make the petal envelope in two peices and have two places to put information, the inner frame would hold the wedding info and the outside frame would have the reception info on it. The actual design is ridiculously simple. I took a CD and traced the circle. Then I left about 1/8 of an inch between and then I drew another circle with the CD. I used a ruler to make straight lines from one circle to the next. I then made a square in the center of the two circles. By laying the two pill shapes in a cross, I could fold the half circles over and tuck them into a box fold, which makes the pretty flower shape. I used double sided scrapbook paper in a fall palate for my pill shapes, solid scrapbook paper to make a square and then used a corner punch to curve the edges of the solid square frame, and I'll have all my info printed on cream tag board, and cut into a rounded square about 1/4" smaller than the framing square. (See pictures at the top of the blog or email me with additional questions.)

My invitations are for an informal wedding so I am skipping the "belly band" and am not putting it in an envelope. I will put a seal on the back, and I'll use labels I print off the computer to address them. I know that every book in the universe says one HAS TO address wedding invitations by hand, but as I am already hand-making the invitations and am adding approximately a zillion touches to make sure that every guest feels personally welcomed and appreciated, I feel comfortable breaking that rule. I have found that the up-side to being a first time bride who is over forty, is that there are very few people who are brave enough to tell me I HAVE TO do anything, including the bridal books!

To save on paper costs and postage, and because my friends aren't necessarily the RSVP kind, I'm just including the address for this blog, and friends who would like to give me the heads up can send me an email. This is becoming more acceptable with wedding invitations, as saving on paper is considered "going green." I will also use my stamp to make round stickers for my favors and to use on my thank you notes. I'll make sure to share those DIY ideas as well.