Some Fame

Two of my previous post have been about hiring famous people to be apart of your wedding/reception and music choices for our wedding. Well, boy do I have news for you!

Jamie, my family friend who is singing in our wedding ceremony, is the lead singer of a band. And next weekend, his band is opening for Montgomery Gentry in Cherokee, NC.

 

Velvet Truckstop - Jamie is on the right

How crazy is this info? I love these musicians and Velvet Truckstop gets to open for them. AND VT's lead singer is singing in our wedding. WOW!

Have you gotten news about vendors that has blown your mind?

Do Re Mi

Music is a very big part of my life. I took piano lessons for a really long time as well as voice lessons. I sang in the chorus of all of my schools, children's choir at church, and select chorus in high school. Also, I began singing in the adult choir at my church in the 6th grade. As you can imagine, I love music! I have a very eclectic taste but there are a few types I don't care for, such as, rap.

Usually at outdoor ceremonies there is either a string quartet or music is played on a stereo. The string quartet would be nice but is too formal for our wedding and is way out of budget. Having such a love for music and musicians, I couldn't imagine the music coming from a stereo. Lucky for me I have connections!

The pianist/organist at my home church, Marcy, has two electric portable pianos. I called her up to ask if she would play the music for the wedding and she couldn't have been more excited. I have to meet up with her in April to select the music. I know it will be amazing because she is so amazing!

Marcy said she has anything from romantic country songs (LOVE!) to classical. I always knew the song I would walk down the aisle to, but I wasn't sure what song my ladies would walk to or what to play for filler. Then, one day while stalking the Weddingbee blog, I heard a song with an amazing title, The Scientist by Coldplay. I got this idea from Mrs. Hamster. The melody of the song is so beautiful and when slowed down, it is perfect for my ladies to walk down the aisle. I purchased the sheet music and a few instrumental piano versions from iTunes to give to Marcy.

 

For the past few years I have been listening to a particular song, performed by different people, and loved every arrangement I found. I really wanted this song to be sung at our wedding, but I didn't know if the lyrics would be appropriate. So I looked up the meaning. It is an old English folk song from the 1600s that is about the challenges of love. "The Water is Wide" has a few depressing lyrics, but in the end it is about over coming all the challenges and the love surviving. Since it is a folk song, it requires a certain style of voice (in my opinion).

My mom's best friend's oldest son is in a band, Velvet Truckstop. Upon singing the song for my parents and discussing possible soloists, we all felt that Jamie would sound great with this song. Plus, he plays mandolin and guitar and two of my favorite versions use either one of these instruments.

As for me, I will be walking down the aisle to Cannon in D. It is my all time favorite song to play on the piano and I think it has such a romantic melody to it. I know it is commonly used, but I don't care about being original. It fits me and that is all that matters.

Did you have difficulty choosing the ceremony music? Is there a song that is so special to you that you must play it during the ceremony?

Nutritious and Delicious

B hasn't wanted to be involved in too many wedding decisions, but there were a few on which he had huge opinions. The most important of these, was the food.

Food!

B and I, like most people, LOVE food. And good food at that. Food that is nutritious is B's preference, but he has no problem eating food that just takes mmm mmm good without it being good for the body. Before meeting B, I didn't think much about whether or not I was getting a balanced meal and how the food was effecting my waistline. I'd eat anything that smelled, looked, and most of all, tasted good.

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I knew right away I wanted to have Bar-B-Que at our wedding and lucky for me, B, thought it was a great idea too. What kind of BBQ you ask? I love pulled pork BBQ sandwiches with coleslaw. Mmm mmm good! Not everyone eats pork, so we had to think of another guest friendly protein. During college, my dad developed a BBQ chicken recipe. We have been preparing BBQ chicken halves all of my life; therefore, the natural protein to serve at the wedding would be BBQ chicken legs. My youngest brother knows the recipe the best and has been BBQing for large groups of people, including weddings.

Baked Macaroni & Cheese

Along with the BBQ, I insisted we must have macaroni and cheese. My all time favorite food, is baked macaroni and cheese. My mom heard that serving baked macaroni and cheese at events can be problematic and the preparation is very involved. My plan was to prepare it a few weeks ahead of time and thaw it out the day before and bake it the day of. This is no longer the plan and I will post later a recipe for the best prepare ahead of time baked macaroni and cheese. B and I put our feet down to my mom and insisted we must have Mac&Cheese!

Other items for eats will be green beans, rolls, fruit salads, and maybe some baked beans. This is going to be the best homemade BBQ wedding reception EVER! I salivate as I sit here writing this post.

You may ask, aren't you nervous about you and your family making all of the food? My response is, Oh Heck Yeah! But I know that if we all chip in and go with the timeline, it will all workout just fine!

Do you have any insane plans for the food, as in, doing it yourself?

My Little Man

My nephew A will be our Ring Bearer. And, oh boy, is he excited! He is a little disappointed that he doesn't get flowers like the girls, BUT he gets something special!

There are so many different directions one could take for the ring bearer. They could carry a Bible, a bowl, a book, OR they could carry the standard pillow. I spent a lot of time thinking about what to have A carry, and not to point out faults of my nephew, but he is a bit clumsy. I mean, he is 6 years old and full of more energy than I can fathom at this point in my life.

B and I aren't much book readers, so the book idea was out. Neither one of us are really religious (I am much more so than he), so the Bible was out. Due to the clumsiness of A, I didn't want to risk a bowl being broken and A cutting himself, so what was left? A pillow. I know, i know, how original?

Let me show you some pictures of pillows that ARE original:

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The last one is a great option for those couples with 4-legged friends! I was in K's wedding and her ring bearer was her family's Pekineses. He wore a tux and it was adorable!

None of these options really appealed to me. Since I am making flowers out of many different materials (paper and fabric) why shouldn't I make a flower for the pillow. The pillow part was easy, cut two squares, sew them together with stuffing. I've done it before, so that I was not worried about. What I did fret over, was the flower. What kind should I do? How big should I make it? What fabric would look best?

And then I saw it! I saw the most perfect ring pillow I have EVER seen. Where did I see it, you ask? Well, I saw it on one of my most favorite and my go-to website for all things hand-made, Martha Stewart.

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I went to JoAnn Fabric and I bought all of my supplies and followed the tutorial on from the website. My pillow doesn't look exactly like the one pictured above, but it is still beautiful:

I am really happy with how it turned out! I am still thinking of ways to display it or use it after the wedding. Ideas?

Are you doing something unique for your ring bearer to carry?

Cardboxes

Many people like to give the bride and groom money and they usually put it in a card. Then there is the problem of where do these guests put their card? Do they just lay it on the table with the other presents with the risk of it getting lost or stolen? Maybe the couple put out a basket to collect all of the cards. This solution only solves the first problem.

Everyone wants to think that none of the people they are inviting to their wedding would steal gifts, cards, or money, but the reality is is that someone might. The thief may not be a guest. They may be a vendor of some sort or maybe even a waiter. No one wants to worry about this happening on the most joyous of evenings, so we must think of a way to combat this before it even happens.

While lurking on the DIY board on The Knot, I discovered a cute and fun DIY project that other brides have done: cardboxes.

DIY cake cardbox

Most people have decorated stacked boxes that can be circular, square, or mixed. They have decorated them with paint, paper, fabric, glitter, etc. But these type of cardboxes never appealed to me. Others have decorated birdcages and mailboxes. While pretty, these don't solve the theft problem. Then I ran across someone who had made a box out of picture frames. All I have to say is WOW!

It was such a neat and unique idea. I had amazing E-pics I could put into the frames and then once the wedding is over, I can put them up in my house. So I began looking around for black 8x10 picture frames that were simple, inexpensive, and wooden. This was not easy. Most of the frames I found were too large, too expensive, or too ornate.

While on a trip to VA Beach, I discovered they had an AC Moore. I had seen people online raving about AC Moore but unfortunately, Charlottesville only has a Micheal's. It turned out AC Moore had just the frames I was looking for, plus they were cheap! They were $4 per frame. I then ran to Lowes to purchase the necessary brackets to affix the frames to one another in a box shape. I have a friend that emails me a couple of time s week with coupons and deals on all kinds of items. She ended up sending me a deal for 5 free 8x10 photos. So, I picked out 5 E-pics and had them printed and shipped to me for FREE!!

I first put my pictures in the frames. Using my drill, I drilled holes and screwed 2 L-brackets to each of the long sides of the frames. I also screwed 1 L-bracket in the middle of both the top and bottom of each frame. Once all of the frames were attached in a box shape, I traced out a piece of cardboard to the size and shape of the bottom of the box. With the brackets going downward, I rested the cardboard inside the box on the bottom. Using duct tape, I affixed the cardboard to the brackets.

You can see the duct tape through the slit (the white line in the slit)

I then cut another square to fit the top of the box and cut a slit in the middle of it to fit cards. Using batting and fabric, I covered the cardboard to still allow the slit to show. This was the tricky part since I needed the fabric to stick to the cardboard. Duct tape didn't work and ended up showing through the slit. So I took another piece of fabric and sewed the top fabric to fabric on the back all the way around each side and the slit. I then used thread to tie the board to each of the brackets so the top would stay attached to the box. I purchased an inexpensive turn table (lazy susan) from Walmart and duct taped it to the box.

Woala! Here is the finished product:

Have you thought of what to have guests put their cards into? Do you think you will attempt to DIY a cardbox?

Glitz and Glam

We Brides are always trying to think of ways to make our wedding spectacular and unique.

Some couples do this by creating a unique wedding ceremony. Others have outrageous receptions.

We, my friends, can hire famous people to perform at our wedding. This of course comes at a price. According to Brides March 2011 magazine there are a few rock stars that are for hire:

For $1,000,000:

Jay-Z
Mariah Carey
Elton John

Elton John

For $500,000:
Black Eyed Peas
John Mayer
Alicia Keys

For $250,000:
Sheryl Crow
Michael Buble
Tony Bennett

For $100,000 or less:
Gloria Gaynor
Hanson
KC & The Sunshine Band

For $25,000 or less:
DJ Pauly D
Kim Zolciak
Kris Allen

DJ Pauly D

Would it be worth the money to have these performers at your wedding? Do you think that putting this information into the magazine, some brides are going to hire them?

The Little People

Many engaged couples struggle with whether or not to have children at their wedding. There is no way I could not have kids at the wedding. My sister has a daughter and a son and my youngest brother has two daughters. My oldest niece is 8, the next oldest is 6, my nephew is 6, and my youngest niece is 5. (The youngest tells me all the time that I am her favorite. Shhh, don't tell anyone.) I know every aunt says this, but they are the cutest and sweetest children ever.

They desperately want to be in our wedding. When my cousin got married the two youngest girls were there and followed the bride around all afternoon calling her a princess. They now know her as the girl in the giant princess dress.


O, the oldest, has been a flower girl in two weddings and she asked if she could be a flower girl in our wedding. I, of course, said yes and that I had been planning on her and the girls being the flower girls and for her brother to be the ring bearer. She was so excited.

We have already purchased the flower girl dresses:

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Two of the dresses will need alterations but the dresses are simple and the alterations won't be expensive. The dresses after shipping cost ~$20. For flower girl dresses, that is a steal!

As for A, my nephew, I have seen some of the cutest ring bearer pictures on the web.

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I really like the shorts and suspenders look. I hope we can find a bow tie to match the groomsmen ties or I will make one myself. A will look so adorable. He will eat up the attention that people will give him!

As for other children in attendance, there won't be too many babies. I know of only one couple who has recently had a baby. If there is crying, I am sure that the mother will step away so as not to disturb the ceremony. But if there is a crying baby, I probably won't notice. 

Will you be having children in your wedding? If you are, will they be invited to the reception?

Flora not Fauna

I have always envisioned myself walking down in a white dress with a huge bouquet of red roses. A dream that many brides have.

 

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Because we are trying to keep all things wedding at a low cost, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get my bouquet of roses. My mom suggested trying to find a wholesale flower shop nearby, but lets face it, "nearby" is at least and hour away from the farm. That really wasn't going to cut it for me. While doing DIY research I ran across a few inexpensive options that were beautiful.

Both from Martha Stewart

 

I had tissue paper from Christmas, so I thought I'd begin with that tutorial. The bouquet shown is really pretty and allows for different shades of purple/pink, but most of the time tissue paper only comes in one shade of red. So I thought I'd mix in a few smaller white tissue paper flowers. I went on a Micheal's run to acquire all the other necessary tools to make all the different types of flowers.

 

Unfortunately I didn't think to take pictures of me making the flowers but let me tell you, it was a mess. If you have ever worked with floral tape, you know how sticky it is. The glue comes off on your fingers and you stick to everything. Some of the flowers were easy and simple to make, like the tube flowers and the curly flowers. Unfortunately, these were the smaller flowers and I needed more of the bigger ones. I made enough to get a small bouquet together to show my mom and sister for their opinions. 

 I wasn't thrilled with how they whole thing looked and neither was my mom. But my sister thought they looked great and she really wanted me to use them. I think she was thinking there would be more care into making the ones for the wedding, but these took so long to make and I could only make a few an evening to save my sanity. I was really hoping I'd stumble upon an even better and easier idea.

 

The next thing to try were the coffee filter rose tutorial. I watched the video tutorial on the Martha Stewart website and purchased some coffee filters. The fact that the coffee filters are so much more sturdy than the tissue paper was a plus because with glue on my fingers, I wasn't ripping it. I traced the template onto the filters and cut enough out for one rose. When I began assembling them, it was so much fun and so easy. I had made my first rose in no time.

 

 I had purchased red crayola watercolor paint and painted the rose like the tutorial said. It came out pink. So I went to the university bookstore and bought two different red watercolor paints from the art section. These also came out pink. The pink roses just would not do. My colors are Red, Black, and White. I had to get these roses red.

 

 

I began brainstorming different ways of dying materials. The only logical solution I could come up with was to use RIT dye. I discovered they make liquid RIT dye and bought Red and Wine because I didn't know which would fit better. It turned out neither were the right color. The red was too light and the wine was purple/brown. So I decided to add a little bit of the wine to the red to darken and deepen the shade and watered it down. I dipped the rose into the dye and then hung it to dry for a few days. Woala! It was a miracle! Red roses. 

 

Once the rose was dry the petals were stiffened. I used a bamboo skewer to separate the petals and then the curl the edges like the tutorial says. By hanging the roses upside down the dry, the extra dye runs off the tips of the petals causing them to be slightly darker. This is similar to what they have you do in the tutorial. I took these pictures at work, and I worked on making roses at work (shhh don't tell my boss.) My boss actually walked in on me doing this in the lab and he suggested isolating some rose oil and spritzing them so they smelled like real roses. Everyone who walked by my desk commented on how they thought they were real and were really surprised they were made from coffee filters.

 To streamline the process I trace as many petals onto one filter as possible and then cut a total of 3-4 filters at once. Then, with all the petals grouped into single rose piles, I begin assembling them. I can knock out ~12 per sitting and then dye them all at once. This way, I can get roses to match in color by being in the same batch.

 

I can get about 36 roses per 100 filters. The box of 100 filters at Kroger costs ~$4. This isn't ideal and supposedly you can get 400 filters for $4 at Costco, but I no longer have a membership there and Sam's doesn't carry #4 filters. As of right now, I think I have enough roses to make my bouquet and the 5 BM bouquets.

 

All are personal photos unless otherwise noted. I just want to give a shout out to Martha Stewart.com for posting awesome tutorials which I have watched over and over again.

Am I crazy for taking on this project? Maybe. But would I do it again? Probably.

How about you?

Bling

The day after we got engaged, I called my mom and told her the news. After the excitement, she asked me if my Aunt S had talked to B or me. I said no and asked why. As you remember, B didn't give me a ring. He said he was waiting till he could afford a ring, but he figured I didn't want to wait any longer, so he asked.

It turns out the previous year, my Aunt had asked my mom if she thought B would be upset if she offered my Grandma's ring to him to ask me to marry him. My mom thought it was a good idea, but alas, she never talked to him. In the months following our engagement, whenever I needed to go to my Aunt and Uncles house, I was hoping she would be there. But she never was. Then I was hoping that when B and I went with Rolf to take our engagement pictures, she would offer it so we could have it in the photos.

Up until this point, my mom was the only one to mention anything about the ring to her. So when we were getting in the car to drive around for E-pics, and my Aunt pulled me aside and told me she wanted to give me my Grandmother's ring, but she didn't want it as our wedding rings. She felt it was more appropriate for it to symbolize the relationship I had with my Grandmother. She was thinking she'd give it to me once I finished my PhD since my Grandmother had gotten her Masters in Geology. So I would wait.

I had never seen the ring and I don't remember my Grandma wearing it, so my interest was piqued. I would think about this ring ALL the time. It was killing me! A few months after my Aunt talked to me, I was at her house helping her set up for a party. She cut her finger and I banished her from using a knife for the rest of the day. So she sat and we talked while I chopped fruit. She then said she had been thinking about the ring and she had thought that maybe she should give it to her youngest son for when he wanted to get engaged. She asked if this would upset me.

Let me go on the record and tell you, I am an honest person and I have a lot of trouble telling lies. So I usually speak my mind. I told her, to be honest, yes, but that the ring was hers and for her to do with how she felt best. She laughed a bit and said what the hey, she should give it to me right then. She went to retrieve the ring and when she brought it up, I had no idea what to expect.

She gave it to me and I tried putting it on my right hand. My Aunt told me it goes on the left hand. This confused me since she said it wasn't my wedding rings. So I put it on my left ring finger. It was the only finger it fit on. It. Is. Beautiful.

It had the engagement ring inside of the wedding band. The wedding band is a tiara setting on both sides. The engagement ring is a round diamond with 1 smaller diamond on 4 sides. It was huge! But luckily I have huge hands.

My Grandmother's father was a jeweler and had made the engagement ring for her. My Grandfather had the wedding band made to fit the E-ring. I love this piece of jewelry and still wear it on my left hand since I don't have my own engagement ring. People assume I am married, but then I have a great story to tell them.

All are personal photos

Does you ring have a history? Do tell!

Moola!

Yes, we are going to talk about monies.

money

We are all aware of today's economy and the fact that people are struggling to make ends meet, and yet B and I are planning a wedding? I don't like discussing money with my mom because she uses terms like, "We need to save our money." She uses this line when we are talking about her and dad's finances and she says "we" as in all the members of our family so "we" can afford to do repairs to her and dad's house. I just ignore her "we" and assume she means "she." Because lets face it people, I don't have enough money to save for a new roof on her farm house. (Plus, I have so many beautiful pieces of clothing I need to buy to fill my closet.)

But I can't complain too much about the terminology they use because my parents are great! They paid for most of my sister's wedding and her wedding dress. But this happened in 2000 when the economy was good and my parent's weren't retired. You see, I am the youngest of 4 children and my oldest brother is 11.5 years older than I, so my parents are older than most (if not all) of my friends' parents. They were able to do my sisters wedding for around $5,000 and my sister's dress was on clearance in a department store that was being bought out by Dillards in 1998. This past summer my mom told me she would contribute $200 towards my dress and $5000 towards the wedding since this is what they did for my sister.

This had me worried a little bit but B was thrilled. He was like, "yes, the whole thing shouldn't cost more than that." HA! A wedding for under $5000? That's crazy talk. B knows nothing of planning a wedding and the costs associated with them. I on the other hand had a better idea of what we were working with. I knew I was going to have to find ways of keeping the wedding beautiful while keeping the cost down. Especially since I am a graduate student on a stipend and B is a substitute teacher when needed.

Lucky for me, I am pretty crafty. I don't know why, but I never thought of outsourcing some of the wedding details to different companies, for instance, the wedding invitations. However, I did think we were going to have the reception catered and mom and dad's money would be spent there. (The food discussion will come at a later date.)

I began scouring the internet for inspiration and Do-It-Yourself project that would fit in with my vision of the wedding. My go-to stops were, MarthStewart.com, The Knot DIY Board, and the DIY board on the Weddingbee. I saw some of the most awesome ideas out there. Here are some of the neat ideas I saw:

Pompom

Hair Flower

Tissue Paper flowers

Napkins

 

Invitation

Paper Rose

My next stop was to buy the materials and try some of these DIY tutorials out. If they worked out well and seemed to be done easily and cheaper than purchasing them, then I'd do it.

First Up, flowers...

How did you decide what you were going to DIY for your wedding?

Some InsPIEration

The next task on my to-do list for dessert was to figure out a way to display the pies. I haven't yet completely worked it out, but I have some ideas floating in my head. Plus, there are so many inspirational pictures out there.

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None of these photos completely captures the look I have in mind. But I think they are all so different and really artistic in how the pies are displayed. What I hope to be able to do is to have the pies sitting on cake stands of different heights. Maybe have a few on the table. The last pictures shows an easy and inexpensive way of varying the heights without having to purchase or find multiple cake stands. I may end up using that idea. My DOC suggested going to Goodwill and Salvation Army stores and buying nice looking but mismatched plates and candlesticks and gluing them together for stands. I need to start my quest for this!

Pi or Pie? cont.

At this point in the story, we have just chosen pie to be our dessert instead of cake or brownie sundaes.

My mom called me and told me she and my dad had been discussing what pies should be served at the wedding. They thought there should be apple, cherry, peach, blackberry, and blueberry. My response was blueberry? It was then that I became overwhelmed. I had planned on making all of the pies. (You see, I consider myself a pretty good baker and my controlling nature wouldn't let anyone else even consider making them.) But if there were to be so many different types, how was I to do it all?

Pies

Upon discussing all these pies my parents thought necessary with my sister, we decided there would be too much confusion and too many choices as guests are deciding on what kind of pie they want. My sister then suggested two kinds of pie. Apple for me, and a flavor of B's choosing. Bride and Groom pie. The guests can come to the table and the servers can ask, Bride or Groom. So cute! I loved the idea.

B then decided he wanted cherry pie. I searched for places to pick sour cherries in the area since my parents had chopped down theirs. Unfortunately with the crazy Spring weather Virginia had in 2010, there were no pick your own cherries and the ones available were very expensive. B then thought about his friend C's parent's blueberry farm. Once again I responded blueberry?

Wineberry

So I pushed B to call up C's parents and ask if he could go pick. No answer. He tried later. No answer. I was freaking out a little bit because if he wanted blueberry or berries at all, we had to pick them that Spring/Summer for our June 2011 wedding. B then had a brilliant idea (as usual). The wineberries were blooming all over the county and they were free. He and I began driving all over the county where his parents live and picked wineberries off the side of the road. We then heard of a huge patch up off of Rt. 7 and went to pick there. I left B at his parents for the week to keep picking until we had enough for 13 pies. An by the end of the week, we almost had enough. We will supplement the other pies with blackberries we picked off of my Aunt's property.

For those of you who don't know what a wineberry is, they are basically wild raspberries. Only slightly different.

Would you have picked all of your berries? Or would you have given up and gone with cake? Have you gone to great lengths just to be able to have what you wanted?

Pi or Pie?

A quick clarification for those of you scratching your head about the title of this post. You may recall from math class that pi is a number mathematicians and scientists use. Well I am a chemist and B studied engineering, so it fits. Plus, my graduate department celebrates Pi Day every year. With Pie! If you'd like to join in, have a slice of pie on March 14th at 1:59 PM (3.14159).

Pi

For our birthdays, my mom would always make sure we had our favorite cake. As I got older and realized there were other things that existed besides cake, I always responded, "Apple Pie."

 Top: 1st Birthday 

Bottom: 3rd Birthday

You see, I don't like icing. If I eat cake and there is too much icing on it, I scrape it off. My mom then proceeds to take it off my plate and eat it. So gross! It is just sugar and fat. Who wants to eat that? I thank my lucky stars that B feels the same way as I do about cake. He is all about good nutrition and the thought of smearing sugary fat over sugary carbs does not appeal to him in the least.

When we first started dating, I'd ask B what his favorite dessert was and he told me brownies. Since I love brownies, I thought it would be a great idea to make different kinds of brownies and have sundaes. After a few months of thinking I had the dessert checked off my list, B told me he no longer liked brownies that much and likes pie so much more.

 The apple pie B made me for my 25th Birthday.

Little did he know, a few years before we started dating, I told my mom I wanted pie at my wedding and she immediately shot it down. She told me pie was too expensive. When B expressed his interest in pie, I knew this was what we had to do. But, we had to find an economical way.

I called my mom and told her the change in plans. The pie wheels were turning in everyone's heads.

Did you have a sudden change of plans due to your fiance adding his two cents?