This is ayala88's Purple Wedding!

Average cost of tulle for a veil: $2-6
Average cost of haircomb, beads, ribbon, or any accessories: less than $10

Average cost of a veil from a bridal shop: TWO HUNDRED FREAKING DOLLARS! Or more!

It can't be that hard to make, can it? I've found a few tutorials online. And looking at the numbers, I can try (and fail) over 20 times before the money adds up to the price of a pre-made veil.

I haven't given the specifics a lot of thought, but I love how mantilla veils look (how they drape/the single-layeredness especially. Not the lace so much). For a Jewish ceremony, a blusher is required. So, I figured a "folded mantilla" style would be perfect! i.e. you have a single-layer circle of tulle attached to the top of your head, the front of which falls over your face for the blusher. Then you simply fold it back when you don't want the blusher.

You simply cut a large circle out of tulle, fold it back about 1/4 or 1/3 way , attack a hair comb at the fold (no gathering of the fabric), then adorn as desired. Seems easy! And hopefully those aren't going to be my famous last words after attempting it. But I am quite motivated :)

What do you think? Easy peasy, or more hassle than it's worth? I'm thinking about trying it at least a few times.

I'd just love to see what other ideas you ladies are coming up with/neat things you've found :)

I'm not putting all my ideas up here (for obvious reasons- I want it to at least be a *little* surprising to stalkerific guests!), but Pinterest is a great way to organize thoughts and come up with a vision of what you would like to have.

Here's mine :)
http://pinterest.com/ayala88/wedding-ideas-inspiration-board/

We are finally getting started!

After some ups and downs, FH has finally agreed to start planning, woohoo! He was nervous before because before we got some early logistics sorted out. As far as I can tell, we are over that hurdle finally :) I guess in that regard it's a good thing we got engaged over 2 years before we would be able to get married haha. Being long-distance for these two years (we are going to separate grad schools) doesn't help either.

It is so true what people say when they tell you that the guest list will blow up before you know it. I was convinced that I would have 20 people I would want to invite, maximum. I don't know that many people! But our *very preliminary* guest list spreadsheet has almost 80 people, eek! We will certainly be trimming it down though, and a good number will likely not be able to show up because they live way out on the west coast. Now I'm trying to get FH to label his guests as high/low priority so we can calculate how many people we can realistically expect. Ideally, I'd like to have 30-50ish.

We've tentatively picked our ceremony/reception venues too.
Ceremony= The local temple, whose rabbi FI/his family has known for quite awhile.
Reception: a lovely restaurant in town, with a beautiful attached private greenhouse dining room. It even comes w/ string lights on the ceiling, and looks like it would be gorgeous at night! It is quite affordable too. We are thinking of having it vegetarian/dairy/fish (no red meat) to keep it as kosher as possible. With that, the per-person meal price is as low as $21 ($26 plated),and no fee to use the greenhouse! Plus the food is super-tasty :)

FI is over 2000 miles away doing an internship this summer, but I'm hoping to book the greenhouse at some point this summer when I go up to visit his parents.

And just to procrastinate on my copious amounts of schoolwork for a bit, I'm heading off to Hobby Lobby today to experiment with centerpiece ideas for awhile just for fun :)

We are having a Jewish ceremony (traditionally done on Sundays) in summer 2013, and are trying to pick a date. Right now, our top 2 contenders are:

July 7 (the Sunday after Fourth of July, which is on a Thursday that year)
July 14 (the following Sunday, no holidays)

July 7th pros: People would have more time to travel, since it is the end of Fourth of July weekend. Cons= maybe people have other plans?
July 14th pros: No holiday to possibly conflict with. Cons: less time for traveling/shorter visit for out-of-towners.

Our wedding will be fairly small (we think around 30-50 people, haven't decided for sure yet), with about half the guests traveling at least a couple hours to get here. Which date would YOU choose to be most convenient for your guests?

[EDIT] My fiance is a major online stalker, so I decided to remove the dress pics JUST IN CASE he happens to find my blog here :) [/EDIT]

THE DRESS! I took a road trip up north to the Chicago area with my best friend to visit my parents and check out some bridal shops in the area. To kill time while another friend was running late, we checked out House of Brides, which I was wary of due to overwhelmingly negative reviews online. To my surprise, the store itself was nice, and they allowed you to select dresses yourself (which some people may not like, but I appreciated). As it turns out, the SECOND dress I tried on was the one! It was $250ish off suggested retail value, and we bargained it down an additional $60. With taxes, shipping and handling included, it was less than half my original dress budget :D
After visiting bridal shops 6 times prior to this with no luck, this dress is exactly what I wanted! It is the right fabric and color, has ruching (a must for me), no bling (my best friend- who is Indian- is planning to give me Kundan jewelry to go with the dress), has a corset back, and fits PERFECT in my size. NO alterations will be needed at all, including hemming (and I am almost 6' tall, so that is very lucky for me).

The chain does have a bad reputation for messing up orders/coming in late. But since our wedding will be summer 2013, I verified the style # with my consultant and got everything in writing, we got photos AND it was paid with American Express, I think it will be okay :)

Note: the dress sample was a bit wrinkled so it didn't photograph the greatest, but it is GORGEOUS in real life, and looks like it costs twice what we paid! :)

The bridal shop back home (which I visited once before, they are wonderful) is having a Black Friday sale! So I set an appointment to go with my best friend, and hopefully find The Dress!

I was originally interested in Alma by Pronovias (a fit-n-flare with ruching), but it is honestly outside my price range. The shop just added a new designer (Allure), and I discovered that a lot of their dresses are VERY similar to the Pronovias, or better! Since they are new, they may not be on sale though :( But Pronovias is an expensive designer, so hopefully I'll still end up getting a deal!

Of course, I have not tried these dresses on yet, what are your opinions of them?

My favorites are 1 and 5 :)

BTW, the strap on the third dress (an Essence of Australia) is actually a removable scarf apparently

I have only been to a couple weddings before, and am curious as to what most people do for their first dance. Just slow dancing to their "our song"? Waltz or other ballroom dance? A surprised choreographed piece? I've seen all the above mentioned and am wondering what the average couple chooses to do.

We had a song informally picked out a couple years ago that we both love. I'm not sure how dance-able it is, especially considering the fact that neither of us can dance! However, I figure if we actually make an effort to learn it won't be so bad. I was thinking about adding a surprise choreographed piece after that song. Advanced tango is very difficult, but beginner/intermediate is pretty much just based on walking. I bet even we could manage! :D My grandparents met at a milonga (tango club) in Buenos Aires when they were young in Argentina, and grew to be as good as professional dancers. I've always wanted to learn.

FH and I unfortunately never took advantages of the tango classes offered in town where we attend school. I'm going to be 3 hours away at grad school for the next 2 years, but REALLY want to take lessons now and see if we could maybe do a surprise tango piece after the slow song. FH knows one of the men who teaches tango here. The classes are set weekly during weeknights so there is no way I'd be able to attend them while in grad school. But maybe... see if we can pay him for private lessons and take crash courses during my breaks? Or if the wedding is in late summer/early fall (we are still working on a date), we could take lessons for a couple months after I graduate.

Opinions? Does this sound too crazy or like a good idea?

In the beginning, I was all pumped about a big(ish) evening wedding with a sit-down dinner and the works. But after looking at the average wedding price today ($20k? That's going to be practically my college debt!) and preliminary guest list (tiny!), I'm starting to change my mind.

My fiance and I are anything but social butterflies. We each tend to have fewer, but closer friends. We met right after starting our programs in college (I undergrad, he PhD) and since we hit it off right away and didn't hang out with too many other people, we only have a handful of good friends from the past 4 years. Most of my potential guests are from high school, and his from his high school/Master's program. I've got only 3 family members who would attend. To make it short, the wedding will probably be tiny! I'm hoping to make it to 50 people haha.

We are also a bit shy by nature and not partiers. I love the outdoors, he loves the color green and sunflowers. So I've been thinking a small morning, noon or afternoon ceremony + reception would be really nice. That will also save a lot of money I think. I hear that Panera caters food-to-go. So my brainstorming lead to these ideas for lunch instead of a $$$ dinner:

* Panera sandwiches (ordered in advance from a choice provided in invitations)
* Panera soup (can order in bulk I believe)
* those DELICIOUS Panera salads (sell by the 10-serving container)
* Pastries/breads
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And I could make/buy myself:
* Hummus + other cold dips
* Veggie/Fruit/cheese platters
* My antipasto bean salad
* Appetizers in bulk from Sam's?
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* Wedding cake, hopefully baked by me!! I am a pretty good baker and have taken cake decorating classes in the past.
* Punch, lemonade, champagne, white sangria/mojito (matches the colors)?


Any feedback/opinions on this idea? We haven't decided for sure, but I think this is what we'd like to do. My best friend/fashion consultant is adamant that I should have an evening, 20k maroon-themed wedding. Maroon can be pretty (see 2nd inspiration board for comparison), but I think I prefer the more casual sunflower summery one. It suits us better I think :)

My username for WeddingByColor is one that I use pretty often in various places online, as well as one of my email accounts. My fiance (and I for that matter) loves to stalk people online, so there is a chance that he may come across my profile on this site if he looked up my username!

Normally not a problem, except for the fact that in my last post I put up pictures of a dress I fell in love with and may end up buying. He's not allowed to see it until the wedding! As far as I know, there is no way to change your username on this website, so I will have to avoid posting any pictures of dresses and deleted the post with dress pictures :(

We have literally *just* started planning. Although we both currently live in Illinois, we are thinking of having the wedding in California, as I mentioned before. Along with the weather/his grandmother there and not able to safely fly, it's also because he has more friends/relatives out there.

Due to various reasons (religious intolerance from one side, personal reasons on the other), I am not in contact with any of my extended relatives. I also tend to have fewer, but closer friends. So the only guests I anticipate having from my side would be my parents + sister, and perhaps a dozen or so good friends from high school. Then some more friends my fiance and I share from college. He, on the other hand, has a large extended family + a lot of friends from California.

I personally don't care about us having a mismatched # of guests. The only thing I would insist on is NOT having separate "bride" and "groom" sides at the ceremony, since it would look sad that I don't have anyone in comparison!

What are your thoughts on this? Did/are any of you focusing on matching or approximating the number of guests you'll both invite? Or are you like me and don't really care either way?