This is amazingchild's Purple Wedding!

Well, it's 12 days since the wedding. Everything turned out just fine (of course!) and it was a beautiful day! I wanted to post some pictures to show how everything turned out, so here goes.

The florist really came through! The flowers were just plain GORGEOUS! She did an awesome job on the bouquet and the cake flowers. I am SO grateful to her!

The cake was actually really yummy! Go, Walmart! :) If I did it over again, I would have asked for plain white so the flowers could really be showcased.

The centerpieces worked out really well with the coordinating ribbon. I was glad I matched the ribbon to the dresses and then just went nuts putting it on everything. It really tied it all in so well!

The guestbook looked so great against the dark purple obi (sorry, you can't really see the book-- I'll find a better pic to post).

Finally, the flower girls were adorable! Thanks to a family friend, more of the ribbon was used to make coordinating bows for all the girls. So cute!

Well, everything's coming together, we're halfway done packing for the honeymoon (Hawaii!!) and I'm getting my mani/pedi before the rehearsal dinner tonight. Guests are in town, the dress is read, and the flowers are being done...

Speaking of flowers! I got a call last night that the friend doing the flowers had to leave her house because of a SCORPION infestation! Yes, that's right! Just when everything seemed to be settling down-- scorpions!

LOL-- I have to laugh at this point! It's just too funny at this point! So, she moved her family to a hotel and she's making bouquets etc. there. She's a rock star!

But I'm getting married tomorrow! And I can't believe the day is finally here! I am so blessed to have this wonderful, patient, sweet, generous man in my life. And the best part? We'll be together forever!

I love how this site does the countdown! That's right-- don't count today; it's practically over! Don't count the wedding day; it'll be too much of a blur! Therefore, it's just 4 days until I'm married to the most wonderful man on the planet! Woo hoo!!

Well, now we are having problems with our DJ. I guess he thought he sent us a contract, but FH never got it, so DJ is considering canceling to do another gig. We'll see how it works out.

But this just leads me to my advice for anyone starting to plan their wedding (or any event, probably): ASSUME THE WORST. Just plan as if everything is going to be twice as hard as you think and you won't be disappointed. Even when things seem to be working out, assume that there will be a snag, because most likely there will be. With as many vendors and people you are going to be working with, it'll be impossible for everything to run without a hitch.

We found great bridesmaid dresses at a good price, but didn't order all at once, so they ended up no longer having the right sizes when we went back. We got dresses in a different color. Then one of the bridesmaids didn't fit her dress after the return date, so we had to get her a different dress-- the first style was no longer available. Now we have an extra dress.

The cake was supposed to be simple and cheap, but the cake person sent the email to my sister by accident so I didn't find out until too late that she was asking a lot more than I had budgeted for. We scrambled and found a Walmart that will do it for us.

I wanted the groomsmen to just be in black suits, but didn't find out until rather late that these guys didn't have the right suits. Then didn't find out until late that it costs almost as much to rent a whole tux as to rent just a suit jacket. After some confusion, we decided to just do tuxes, but it was an unexpected expense.

I haven't been able to get an answer from any hair salons to find someone to do my hair on the day of! We're a week out and I have no idea how that's going to play out!

Stuff that has gone smoothly? Flower girls, my gown alterations, booking the location/caterer, centerpieces... Oh, I'm sure lots of stuff. It's hard to notice the good stuff when the other stuff demands attention! It is there, and it will all work out. All that really matters is that we show up at the right place at the right time to get married.

That's another good piece of advice: remember that there are things going right and focus on those things!

Well, it's just over a week until the big day! I can't believe it!!

Overall, I'm quite surprised I stayed as close to the budget as I did. There were so many times when it would have been easy to go over and I can totally see how people spend lots of money on their weddings!

We are so blessed to have lots of people helping and lots of people who gave services as wedding gifts! Our wonderful friends have given us free invitation printing, invitation design, wedding gown alteration, flower girl accessories, tuxes (some of the guys surprised us and paid for their own!), flower arranging and bouquets, and a custom guest book. A big THANK YOU! to everyone and to those who helped in the planning.

Mostly now the planning is done and it's just running errands. Ribbons need to go here, candles over there, etc. I can't believe we planned a wedding in 2 months-- what a crazy rollercoaster!

Thanks to everyone who has commented here! You've all been very supportive and I totally appreciate that!

Well, with budget and things being the way they are, we had to back out with our cake person! So sad, but that's just how it is. :( So... since neither FH nor I care all that much about the cake-- Walmart it is! We were really lucky that FMIL was able to sweet talk a local Walmart bakery into taking our order on such short notice!

But in the end, I'm hoping it will be OK. We are going to do a cascade-style display like the picture and the cakes themselves will be rather plain: white buttercream with purple dots. The florist is making a topper with our wedding flowers, so that will still go on top and we have ribbon to go around each layer. Hopefully it will work out without too much hassle!

Seems like hiccups are par for the course in wedding planning! In the end, like FH says, all we really want is to be married, though. So, it'll be OK. :)

Woo hoo! We've got our cake person, I think! I'm so excited! It's going to be a square cake like the one pictured, alternating "quilted" and "just dots" layers with ribbon around it and blue dendrobium orchids. Things just got funky, people! And I'm rolling with it! :)

I'm hoping she'll also be able to do the shimmer effect she did on the third cake. It might be too much to do texture, shimmer, and dots, but we'll see!

To be clear: the second cake was done by someone else and I found it in a Google image search.

I've settled on a square cake with ribbon on the tiers, but I love this one, too with blue dendrobium orchids!

Well, it wasn't how I had planned it, but it seems it will just be easier to go with renting tuxes at Mens Wearhouse. Since the bridesmaids are wearing Lapis and Pool from David's Bridal, I went with the same colors for vests and ties. Men's Wearhouse matches their stuff to David's Bridal colors. Who knew? and So helpful! :)

So, one of the bridesmaids dresses needed to be swapped out and I've been stressing out, trying to figure out what to do. Again, FH stepped in with calm logic and told me to call David's Bridal. I had several styles that are similar to the one we used and finally found a different style in Pool, so it will at least look cohesive in the pictures. I'm a little bummed about losing a purple dress (cause they are gorgeous!) but I'm glad something will work!

Thank goodness my fiance is so logical!