This is allielovespink's Pink Wedding!

So, to help my older friends/mom's friends who are throwing me my shower, I am making the invitations. They are all super busy and I'm not this week, so here is what I came up with. They cost $15 to make 65. I love Hobby Lobby (and their sales!!)!!!

So, I decided when I revisted our reception site last week that I wanted some door monograms. At first I wanted to do the kind using flowers that are really fancy, but I just don't have it in my budget. So today I was crusing Martha Stewart weddings (I would give anything to have her decorate my wedding) and I found this picture. I can totally make these for like $15! I'm going to do pink letters and gold ribbon. I'm so excited!

So, one of my friends was in a wedding and the bride had this displayed at some point in the day. I am stealing this idea for my ceremony (minus the icture in the middle). I have a friend who is going to make me a canvas that is dark brown and paint this scripture on it, and she is going to antique the edges. In my sanctuary, we have this little "paschal" table thats decorated every week. For the wedding we are going to have a flower arrangement, a canvas on an easle, and candles- its going to be so pretty!

We aren't sure what to give our parents for their gifts. I want to do something special but not anything traditional, like on all the wedding websites. Who needs another sappy picture frame or engraved clock? I want something original, but I can't think of anything. Help!

So, I really am having trouble finding gold shoes that I like. The only ones I can find are $95. I feel like that is alot to ask someone to pay for some shoes, and I know some of my bridesmaids wouldn't be able to do it. But on the other hand I am extremely picky. I want gold, not too high, and slingback. I dont want a strap across the ankle because that will make their feet look too cut off. If that makes any sense to you. The first picture is of the shoes I LOVE! If I didn't have 8 bridesmaids I would offer to pay for part of them. The only other shoe I have found thats decent is a flip flop heel (not the correct termination for it, but oh well). But I really dont want them to wear those because it will make noise all the way down the aisle (and i'm just in love with the $95 shoes). Help! Any suggestions?

We are doing about 40 Out of Town Bags. Just one/room. We don't have much money to spend on these, but its something we thought it would be really nice for our guest to receive. We have pink bags with white tissue paper. A little tag saying Sykes/Royalty Wedding and the date will be tied with gold ribbon on the outside. Inside the bags will be:

bottled water (see post below)
deck of cards
mints
water flavor packs (that you shake in)
jolly ranchers
starbursts (left over from where we picked the pink ones out)
bag of chips
cookies
crackers
welcome note
direction cards
bag of peanuts
maybe some more goodies

We are getting it all from Sam's. I got cute scrapbook paper for all of the papers in the bag and its all really cute!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea. We bought 10 different shaped/sized glass candy holders. We are having ALL PINK candy!! I thought about doing pink and gold (b/c gold is our accent color), but we decided on just pink. We have clear candy bags and gold twist ties to put them together. I ordered them from www.nashvillewraps.com- so affordable! I think it will be so cute!

We are having PINK:

Starbursts
M&Ms
Reeses Mini Cups
Whoppers
Hershey's Kisses
Jelly Belly's
Pillow Mints
Rock Candy Strings
Old Fashioned Candy Sticks
Gum Balls

Does anyone know where I can find glass or gold scoops that are cheap?

Pictures to come after the wedding!

We are having our Rehearsal Dinner at the Spaghetti Factory in downtown Nashville. I made these invitations too. The picture is really blurry, and this was the test one I did and its smeared- I will get a new picture soon. The little pink insert tells them what time to be at the church. What can I say, I'm crafty. More pictures to come of our centerpieces for this night.

I was going to throw a stuffy bridesmaids luncheon, but I've changed my mind. Now I'm throwing a pool party for by bridesmaids, the flower girls & their moms, my female relatives that will be in town that day, the girls in my house party, and other people who have been instrumental in helping me get ready for my big day. These are the invitations I made! The plain ones are going to everyone, and the one with the flip flops and beach balls on it is going to the older flower girl (the other one is only 1 1/2 and won't care =) ). It should be lots of fun with lots of yummy food I'm going to make myself!!

A wonderful woman at Invitations Galore & More is making these for us. This was the first proof. We are going to do the two layer version without the pink. I would love to have the pink, but it was too much for me to spend without feeling like a crazy person. I mean, people throw these away almost as soon as they get them! But I love them and I can't wait to get ours!

Since there are 600-ish people invited to the wedding (i'd say a third is family), we are having a cake reception at the church followed by a family reception later that night (only family, wedding party, and friends that i consider to be family). It's taking place at Tulip Grove Mansion, on the grounds of The Hermitage. Its a beautiful Greek Revival Mansion that President Andrew Jackson built for his daughter. We have about 6 rooms downstairs, and then we are having a tent outside where most of the activities will occur. More to come later!!

I borrowed this idea from my friend Jillian. She had these at her bachelorette spa party, and they are super easy to make. You just design it in Word in landscape using text boxes and pictures, then slap it on with some packing tape. I had the ribbon left over from another project, so these were virtually free, minus the cost of the water. Plus they took less than an hour to do! I love them and I hope that the guests love them too.

We decided to do bubbles instead of birdseed (gross) and rose petals (not as pretty a picture). I want to do sparklers at the Family Reception, but we'll see if they'll let us- its a historical home, so they might not.



I got inspired while walking around JoAnn's today- we couldn't just sit our bubbles out on the table, right? I bought about 200 bubbles at Hobby Lobby for $20 and the ribbon for all of them for $2! The baskets I got on sale for $4.50 at JoAnn's, batting for $2 and the fabric was $6 for both baskets. Plus it was all on sale (gotta love JoAnn's)! I put batting under the fabric and hot glued the fabric- and they turned out pretty good! I made these for around $50 pretty good if you ask me. Plus I absolutely love them!