Our Planning Bio
View my
married bio
here
We're at the down to the weeks! I have to admit I'm a bit stressed and worried that I'm falling behind. Oh well, nothing to do but start catching up :)
FI and I met in college. He was the roomate of a friend of a friend.I met him my first semester there (Sophmore year transfer), but we didn't start dating until the last semester of my senior year. Ironically, this was the semester that he'd transferred OUT and no longer attended my college. I almost missed out! I'm so glad that he came back the first weekend of the spring semester to visit - that's when we discovered that spark between us!
If I have used one of your photos and did not credit you, please don't take offense. I saved every photo I liked over the past 6 months. I would love to put your name with your pics - page me on the Pittsburgh or June 2007 board.
The Obligatory Ring Shot:
FI and I had been searcing FOREVER and finally had a local jewler custom-make it for us. He was able to put together exactly what we'd been looking for. It's a marquis-shaped sapphire with 6 diamond accents. I didn't want diamonds at all, but FI is a bit more traditional than I am and didn't think it would look "engagement" enough without a bit. However, I LOVE the way this ring turned out and wouldn't want it any other way.
Our Planning Bio
Apparel
Flower Ideas
Hair & Makeup Ideas, Cake Ideas, and More to Come!
Vendor Info
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Apparel
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My dress from the front - please excuse the fact that it's falling down because it's not laced up all the way and somehow I look bigger than everything in my apartment. I bought it from The Winner in Sharon, PA on clearance for $233. I did not stress out over my dress, nor did I spend hours searching designer sites for "the one". I went, tried on dresses on the sale rack, found a couple I liked, chose one. I'd rather take the $ and spend it on other things, like shoes :)
Beading Details - on the bodice and in the panel inserts in the skirt. Besides the corset back, this was my favorite part of the dress.
With a small crinoline underneath (and no shoes - looks a bit too long here)
My very peeeeenk hoopskirt from ebay seller Angels Bridal. I found the hoop skirt to be MUCH cooler than a regular crinoline. Since my dress is A-line, I took out the 2 largest hoops and put the smallest hoop on the bottom. Works perfectly.
Bustle Ideas:
Jewlery:
The pendant is my "something borrowed". It was my great-great grandmother's and most of the women in my mom's family have worn it for their weddings. I love it! Earrings have been ordered from
http://www.fredala.com/
.
My Grandmother's (on my dad's side) brooch. Unfortunately she will be unable to attend our wedding for health reasons. I am so grateful to be able to have a part of her with me on my wedding day. I think I'll use it for my bouquet (this is my "something old")
FI's wedding band from
http://www.worldjewels.net/
. It's exactly what he wanted and arrived 24 hours after we ordered it. Mine will be a simple gold wrap (not yet ordered)
My shoes! The pink is actually a bit lighter than it shows here - it matches the pink in my dress. $90 on sale for $29 at
http://www.endless.com/
.
The BM dresses : Alexia Separates.
This way, I get everyone in the same color ("sweet pea" - a light pink) and they get to choose whatever they feel most comfortable in.
This is the top my MOH is wearing.
My FSIL's top
2 of the BMs chose this top. I love the lace-up back
My lil sis's top
6th BMs top.
All the BMs will be wearing the A-line skirt, hemmed to T-length.
BM dresses were ordered from Netbride.com. My local bridal shop quoted me $75 for the skirt and $70-90 for the tops. Netbride quoted me $56 for the skirts and $50-70 for the tops. Much better deal!
UPDATE: The BM dresses are here! Netbride delivered them exactly 30 days early and in perfect condition. Woohoo! This is me trying on my sister's dress (please excuse the face I'm making. LOL). I think they're going to look super cute once the skirts are T length.
Bridesmaid Gifts purchased during an after-Chirstmas sale from Kohls:
Cosmetic bags, on clearance for $3.75 (from 19.99) and jewery set. Jewelry will be different for each girl. The one for my FSIL is above (jewelry on clearance from $3-15)
Side note - I am not insisting that my BM wear them to my wedding. They are a gift, to be used whenever/however/maybe not at all. I trust my grown-up friends to be able to pick out their own "dress up" jewelry (same goes for shoes, hair, makeup, etc).
Look for the guys - black on black pinstripe, picked by FI, ordered from Tuxedo Junction.
Flower Ideas
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Flowers are VERY important to me. I love them! As we're on a tight budget, I'll be DIY-ing all the bouquets and the bouts in order to have all the flowers I want :) I'm using Sam's Club!
Love this look! It's similar to my color scheme, but I'd remove the black ribbons. I want pink bouquets for the BM and white/creams for me.
I want these colors for my bouquet - Rose colors are Vendula and Sahara, but will not be using stephanotis. I may throw in a couple light pinks as well, to tie in with the BM bouquets.
Update: I am now in love with a roses/callas combo for my bouqet and callas for the guys. BMs will carry all-rose bouquets.
HERE IT IS! My DIY Flower trial.
If you've got the time and patience, you can save $$$ by going the DIY route. The BM bouquets will be 2 dozen pink roses. My bouquet will be white roses and white callas. GM bouts will be pink roses and FI's bout will be a white calla.
Steps to DIY-ing:
As instructed in the DIY flower bio, I allowed three days for my flowers: one day to receive and condition them, one day to arrange, and the third would be the "wedding" day when I'd just wrap the ribbon around the stems and be good to go. I purchased 2 dozen roses from Sam's Club for $14.95, their typical price. The flowers were not as fresh as they will be on the wedding day since I bought them on Sat and they had been sitting in the store since Wed. For the actual wedding day, I'll order online and have the flowers delivered to me.
Day 1: receive/pick up the flowers, take them home and condition them. I stripped the thorns and leaves, cut the ends of the roses under running water (at an angle), and then I lay them all in my (clean) bathtub filled with room-temp water and let them soak for 2 hours. I then moved the roses into a clean bucket of water with plant food. Total time to strip and condition 24 roses: 15 minutes
Day 2: Roses have perked up and are ready to be arranged. I pretty much followed these instructions
Instead of rubber bands, I found it better to use green floral wire to get a "tighter" hold on the flowers. I held the bouquet up and FI was kind enough to wrap around the flowers above and below where my fist was holding the flowers. I then wrapped the bouquet with floral tape. I did NOT do the ribbon at this point because I was just going to put the bouquet back in water for another day. It took me 2 tries to get the domes shape I wanted. Total time for the bouquet: 20 min.
I also attempted a bout. It wasn't too bad, but I'll try another bout and use less green stuff. Maybe some bear grass instead of the fern (fern and baby's breath came with the 2 dozen rose bouquet I purchased). Time for 2 bouts: less than 10 minutes.
This is what my BM bouquets will look like (stems not wrapped in ribbon, but you get the idea)
(Groomsmen will have pink rose bouts; FI will have a white calla)
Hair & Makeup Ideas
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This is my inspiration style.
And the trial:
I love it! I'll definitely be doing the same thing for the day of.
Makeup Ideas:
These are my favorite looks. I will take myself down to the MAC counter for foundation, powder, and eye colors. I can do the day-of on my own - all those years of ballet recitals were good for something! I can put that stuff on so it STAYS.
Makeup Trial: Like it, but not 100% in love with it - I may go back and see if I can play around with some more peaches/pinks instead of plums.
Our Church:
Our DIY Invites!
The pink stripe is decorative paper from Michael's...closeup looks peach for some reason but it's pink like on the left.
RSVP from Vistaprint, front and back. The light at the top of the B&W pic is the glare from my flash. THe back of the RSVP is a "madlibs" idea shamelessly stolen from knottie phillygirl07 :) We're having lots of fun reading the responses we're getting!
I made them to be 5X7 for two reasons: 1. To fit into the cheaper A7-sized envelopes and 2. To hopefully keep this to normal first class postage (our RSVP cards are postcards for this reason as well).
DIY Table Numbers:
Here are a few of the table numbers I designed. They are each 5x7 and the back of them contains a blurb about each landmark. Since 90% of our guests are OOT, we thought this would be a fun way to share a bit about the city.
Our reception hall has table number holders like this:
More Reception Ideas:
We will have black napkins, white tablecloths and skirting, and some pink draped around the edges. My caterer includes all centerpeices and linens, so I'm not worrying about them. Centerpeices will look like this:
I want to have flowers and votives around the cake, like this.
My 99 cent card cage steal from ebay! I will paint the blue roses pink (UPDATE: decided I'm too lazy and short on time to go repainting. It's staying blue. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with DIY projects right now. LOL).
An idea for table cards, from Proud-bride
Or we may do a seating chart, like this one
We're doing a photo-guestbook like this one. We'll be using a blank scrapbook, and I'll put in the photo corners ahead of time. We MAY use props (feather boas, funny glasses, etc), but that's undecided right now.
Sweets!
I don't have a picture of our cake - FI and I saw it in our baker's photo album, but below are the closest pics I could find.
This is *almost* the design, not identical, and minus the roses
And a few random number of the swiss dots will be silver, like the red candies in the design above.
We'll have the Pittsburgh Cookie Table going on too!
And this article from the Post-gazette will be framed to explain to OOT guests what the cookie table is all about:
The Legend of The Cookie Table
An excerpt from "The Cookie Table: A Pittsburgh Tradition" by Suzanne Martinson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Food Editor
You can have a designer wedding gown and tuxedo or hand-me-downs. You can have an "A-copy" guest list or just the closest of kissing kin. You can receive your guests at the fanciest restaurant or at a potluck at the firehall. But you aren't truly a Pittsburgher unless you have The Cookie Table.
When we first moved here and a bride-to-be mentioned The Cookie Table, I was puzzled. "What do you need cookies for?" I asked. "At a wedding, you eat cake."
Little did I know. The Cookie Table is as much a part of Pittsburgh as the Pirates and the Steelers and the Penguins. We may bleed black and gold, but at any event worth writing home about, we have cookies.
And most of these cookies are homemade by the mother of the bride, sisters, aunts, cousins and grandmothers. Sometimes both sides of the extended family get involved. Friends are also called into the fray. Happy to do it, in fact. The Cookie Table is, indeed, the gift of love.
Nobody knows the exact origin of the tradition, which has been exported to other parts of Pennsylvania, other states, too. It may be Italian or Slovak or Polish or Croatian or Greek. The Scandinavians may get involved, and the Indians, too. The Germans do cookies, and so do the Irish. If we've left anybody out (like the English), add them to the cookie equation. There may be no greater tribute to cross-cultural friends and marriages than The Cookie Table. It's what makes America
great; a medley of cultures taking the best from each. The best, in this case, being favorite family cookie recipes. When we researched the topic for the premier edition of the Food Section in 1996, we talked with more than 150 people. The cookies that emerged most often as the "must haves" on the table were: Pizzelles; Biscotti; Italian Anise Drops; Baklava; Cherry Cheesecakes; Thumbprints; Pecan Tassies; Apricot, Poppyseed, and Nut Rolls. And two indicators that Americans never stop innovating: Buckeyes and Hershey Kiss Cookies...
Remember, in Pittsburgh, people don't wonder, "How was the wedding?" They ask, "Were the cookies good?"
Our honeymoon spot - Breezes Runaway Bay in Jamaica! This is by far my favorite part of the whole wedding planning.
Can't wait to get there!
Pictures of me and FI:
FI and I at Mullaney's in the Strip, March 2007
At a Costume Ball, March 2007
Pittsburgh Knotties: Penschick, AshAsh, PittPantherette, PSUBride, and me
Klassy!
Pittsburgh Knottie GTG
Pictures of the puppy:
Max says - RAAAWRRR! Get off the knot and pay attention to MEEEEEEE!