Beginning of the Bouquet

It is coming along!! I made the flower stems by following the instructions on Fancy Pants Weddings with some help from Tino. He's pretty good at it! It isn't very hard to do, but it is time consuming and we both got poked by the wires. We still need to wrap the wires with floral tape and I need to find some more brooches, but we're off to a good start!

Shell Bouquet

I'm not doing a beach wedding and generally try to avoid beachy themed decorations. Then, I came across this picture.

How can you not love that?!

Brooch Bouquet Update

My official brooch shopping began today. Surprisingly, I have never bought anything on Ebay before today. After today, I'm hooked. I found some awesome deals on brooches and I had to get them. Check out some of the ones I bought.

Shoes

I've been window shopping for shoes today and I've got my eye on an awesome pair - Nina Conabel.

 

The style really suits my dress and the heel is not too high. After seeing it in red, I might just have to go with a colored shoe. 

More Venue Options

I've been scouting out a few more local venues and have been very pleasantly surprised. We still really like Marmion Park and the Heights Firestation from my last post, but I've been able to find a couple new ideas that definitely work within our budget.

The Milford House

A beautiful historic home in the museum district, The Millford house can hold up to 120 people for special events. I haven't seen any pictures of the backyard yet, but according to the information I've seen, we should be able to use it as well. If we do choose to skip a DJ, they have a plug-n-play style sound system for an iPod with speakers in the ceiling.

Avant Garden

Another historic home, this venue has several areas available to suit different needs. I just love the back patio. The price of the venue alone is very reasonable, but they do require a minimum bar tab. Once you book a party, the venue is all yours for up to 14 hours!! That is hard to beat.

Houston Outdoor Locations

I've decided to find a place a little closer to home to have our outdoor wedding without breaking the bank. The following are some of my favorite ideas.

Houston Garden Center

Photo by Tapobrata Bardhan

With all of the lovely flowers, the Houston Garden Center would make a beautiful ceremony location and wouldn't require too much extra decoration.

Marmion Park and the Heights Fire Station

Photo by Gwen Turner-Juarez

Photo by Ed Uthman

Just six blocks apart, the gazebo at Marmion Park and the historic Heights Fire Station make a wonderful combination for a ceremony and reception.

Houston Arboretem and Nature Center

The Houston Arboretum has both indoor and outdoor facilities available for weddings at reasonable rates.

Change of Venue

As much as I want my fun, outdoor, rustic-chic wedding, it is looking like we may go another route. Since the location is so far away, we've been discussing more local options. We may be renting out a hall. I've found a few near us (and our families) that have reasonable prices and they can all do pretty much everything for us. All we'll be expected to do is hand over the cash and show up. While that sounds a lot less stressful, it just doesn't sound like us. It will look like every other wedding that has taken place in that hall before.

I'm hoping we can find some sort of compromise. I don't want a Pretty, Pretty Princess day and all of the formalities that go with it. I really just want a fun party with the people we love most. I'm thinking a backyard wedding and reception would be nice. I just need to find a really big backyard.

Tomorrow we have our first appointment to check out a hall. We'll see how I feel about them after that. Who knows? I may love it.

Flower Girl Flowers

Since flower girls can get a little nervous and forget to throw their flowers (like I did in my parent's wedding), I've decided to skip the throwing. She is going to carry a floral pomander similar to the one above. I haven't decided exactly which flowers we'll be using for this, but they will definitely be red.

Bridesmaid Dresses

We've got a plan! My bridesmaids will each choose a dress from the shorter length Apple-colored dresses from David's Bridal. David's has a pretty good selection to choose from. These are some of our favorites.

S'mores

Photo from http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/

Yum! I'd like to have DIY s'mores available at the reception and a bonfire to go with them. Who doesn't like s'mores?

Centerpieces

I love the look of candle-lit Mason jars and I'd like to use that idea for our centerpieces. The high walls of the jars will help keep the candles from blowing out so we don't have to spend the whole night relighting them. Here are some of my favorite examples.

 

First Dance

For our first dance, we're dancing to Apocalyptica's awesome cover of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters".

Save the Date

We've decided to send Save the Dates to announce the wedding. I love that you can get so creative with all the different styles. Since Tino and I love music, we are sending concert ticket Save the Dates. This is it!

I can't wait to get them ordered. I don't want to order them too soon or I'll lose them before I'm ready to send them out.

Invitations

I will be designing my own invitations. I'll be having them printed by my boss's boyfriend who owns a print shop. I've been dabbling with a few different designs lately. The one below is my favorite so far. Since we're still a good way out from actually sending the invitations, I'll probably change my mind between now and then, but who knows, this could be the one.

Eggs

The future hubby and I both love deviled eggs and he wants them at the reception. I just came across the cutest idea ever for making deviled eggs over at AnnaTheRed's Bento Factory - heart shaped hard boiled eggs! They actually don't look too difficult to make. I am going to have to give this a try although I have a feeling this might be a better idea for a smaller gathering.

Brooch Bouquet

Shiny, sparkly and oh so pretty! I am in love with brooch bouquets! With the pre-made price of these, it is definitely something I'll have to make on my own. I know I have a few old brooches laying around that would work well with this idea, but I'll definitely have to find more. The area we're having our wedding in has awesome antique shows twice a year and it will be a great place for a little brooch shopping. Here are a few of my favorites from around the internet.

Wedding Favors

Since we are having an outdoor wedding in October in Texas, it may be a very warm day. Because of that I fell in love with the idea of paper fans for our guests. Initially, I was thinking of the Chinese style fans in white, but the more I see the paddle fans the more I like them too. While the Chinese style is so pretty, you can personalize the paddle fans with so many different designs. You can even use them as your wedding program with all the details printed on the fan. That makes one less thing to buy if we go that route!

Another favor idea I like is personalized matchbooks. There are a variety of colors and styles available for a very reasonable price. I've seen them as low as $16.99/per 100 on WeddingChannelStore.com. To match our wedding colors of red and gray, I like the the red book with silver print or the silver book with red metallic print. I'm really leaning towards one similar to the one below.

Something Blue

I was originally thinking of the standard blue garter for my something blue. I'd really like to do something a little more creative and I love the idea of blue rhinestones on my shoes.

A little different, but keeping with tradition. I love it! Another cute idea is blue nail polish. I wouldn't want it on my hands, but blue toenail polish sounds fun.

Cake

I'd love to have a cupcake tower instead of a traditional wedding cake. I still want to have a "cutting cake" for the photo ops though. Over at i am baker, I found our cutting cake!

Isn't it gorgeous?! It would go wonderfully with these cupcakes (also from i am baker).

My only qualm is the idea of making over a hundred cupcakes!

The Dress

Kimmy will be making my dress. Yesterday, we went and bought the pattern for it - McCall's M5382.

We are going with a mash-up of the A and B designs - ivory, strapless and no lace.

It's Official!!!

I am getting married!! After seven years of courtship, we are really going to do it!

We have less than a year to plan this party and a very limited budget to work with. There will be a lot of DIY projects. Luckily, I have a great family and good friends to help with everything along the way.