This is bananapants's Green Wedding!

Just wanted to quickly share some of my faves from our Summer Fun shoot last Sunday! (Our friend is NOT a professional, so keep that in mind...) :)

Excuse the crazy hair in some of these - we had a little too much fun in the lake and I was completely SOAKED about halfway through the shoot. Oops. :) Oh well.

I made them small on here because they're going to be about this size on the trivia cards, in sets of 2 or 3 for each card.

Here we go...












And, as I was just about to "save" this? My bridal shop called. MY DRESS IS IN! WHOOT WHOOT!

Thought I'd post this in case any of you find this helpful. Sorry, just have time to do a print screen of our playlist, so you won't be able to listen to the songs, but still, it's better than nothing, right?

Before the ceremony as guests arrive and get seated:


Recessional/After the Ceremony: (Yes, we are walking back down the aisle to Holiday Rooooohhhhh-oooohhhhh-ohhhhhhhhh-ohhhhhhaaaaadddddd!)


Wedding Dance Must Play List (Dance Songs):


Wedding Dance Slow Songs (1st 3 are Must Play):


It was so much fun putting these together and I am soooooo looking forward to dancing up a storm with our friends and family! Nate will be working on making a mix for our grand entrance at the reception, and I think(?) it will include MJ's "Can You Feel It", Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling", the "Oh Yeah" song from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and the "Newlywed Game" theme song. We'll see how it all comes together. If I can find a way to share it with you when it's done, I will. :)

Ah. One more thing checked off the list! On to the next project!

Alright ladies. I teased you with a preview, and told you I'd share our invites on here, and I'm FINALLY getting around to it! Have heard a lot of great feedback on these; our guests love them and the RSVPs have been rolling in!

Here's everything together:



Nice part about doing these ourselves? The locals who didn't need maps didn't get one. Saved a lot of paper and ink that way, (not to mention printing and cutting.) Woo Hoo! Also made the map myself, following a tutorial on WeddingMapper.com.

Return Address labels are from VistaPrint. Uber-cheap. :) Address Labels? They're nametags from Target. $3 for 25 or something like that. Even though blue isn't really one of our wedding colors, loved how it popped against the black envelope. Contrast is always good! (And yes, that is a Simpson's stamp. How we roll, people. No false pretenses here!)

A close-up of the invite:


The back:


Close-ups of the verbiage we used:



RSVP postcard:


Hmm... Photos distort these a little, and obviously I blurred out some of the details, but this gives you the "jist" of them. Want more info? Fonts we used are Sketch Rockwell, Louisiana, and Segoe Print. We bought all the paper from a local paper store, and the (recycled) white paper has a little bit of a linen texture to it. Adds a really nice touch, though it's hard to see it in the pics. Just trust me on that, k? We used A9 envelopes, and each invite is a half-sheet of 8.5x11 paper. The heaviest invites came right in at 1 oz, so we just missed having to put more postage on the envelope. Thank God!

Highly highly recommend using spray mount artist's adhesive (comes in an aerosol can). Had to spray it outside, but it worked so much better than a glue stick. No ugly bumps, and it went really quick!

We also sent out dance-only invites. Look exactly the same as our regular ones, but instead of "Big Day" in the brackets, we wrote "dance the night away" between the brackets. Instead of "Dinner and General Merriment to Follow" we wrote "Bring your favorite dancing shoes!" We removed everything from the back page, and at the bottom we wrote "Made Just For You by J___ and N___" along with our website. Sorry, forgot to take a picture of those, but you get the general idea!

Sent out 250 invites (including the dance only invites) and we averaged a little less than $1.30 per invite, including postage. Postage was more than half the cost! Not bad!

Feels SO GOOD to get them done! And now I've blogged about it. Another thing to check off the list! Boo-yah! :)

Anyone else DIYing or planning on DIYing their invites?

Came across this today on OnceWed... let's just let the pictures do the talking:



I checked out the blog of the designer behind this (Kirsten Ellis), and she used grosgrain ribbon for these and said she loved the hint of shimmer it gave in person. Is this not GORGEOUS?! This is SO PERFECT for us!

Our "aisle" is basically a little fruit-tree orchard, and we are going to dress up the trees with a swag of these ribbon chains between each one. Thinking I'll make two chains for between each tree (one ivory, one a deep coral color called nutmeg) to give it a little more dimension.

Here's a picture of the trees shortly after they were planted a few years ago. They're much bigger now (and the protective fences are gone) but this will give you the general idea.


I puchased my ribbons through Really Reasonable Ribbon - they were the best deal I found and had a wide variety of colors to choose from. This was my order, which should be enough for the chain links and to hang vertically from the trees, like I showed in my last post. Can't wait to see it all come together!

(This post is more for my Mom, JLo Decorator Extraordinaire, and my favorite Auntie, but I thought I'd share it with you guys too.)

Ok ladies, so I was browsing things online today (cuz that's how I get ideas/how I shop) and came across these to share with you. Just comment at the end of the post your feedback, k, or email me? No, you don't need an account to comment...

1) General Reception Decor
Jenny - really like this fabric draping for the reception. See that it's NOT tulle, and wider strips of fabric. Could we do this at CH? Along with the globe string lights and Chinese lanterns? Or is that too much/too busy? Digging the overhang along the side of the walls as well (the top portion, that tied at the bottom... not the curtain rod beneath. Theres another pic of this on the side of this post.) Clean and crisp, yet it dresses it up.


Ok, and here's what I am thinking for chinese lanterns (from paperlanternstore.com:

Was tentatively thinking 60 lanterns total, 20 of each color, but could cut that number back if we do the fabric drape across the ceiling too. And wrap some sort of corally/reddish wide ribbon around the white ones to add texture and visual interest? (I can do that and have that all ready to go beforehand.) Open to your thoughts on qtys??

2) Head Table Backdrop (Each Poster Size, spaced out behind us)


Do this along the front edge of both head tables (in terms of candles):


3) Centerpieces
Just a recap, but here's what I'm thinking for centerpieces, but with wildflowers nestled in between the mason jars:



4) Ceremony Tree Streamers
Here's a pic of what I was talking about. Now thinking I want to do this in the inner circle (instead of the flag banners) and on the big oak tree behind orchard. Will still do the flag banners along the light pole, and above the bench.


K, that's more than enough for now... we can talk qty details too when we meet at CH and go over everything then.

Oh, and favorite Auntie... keep forgetting to ask this, but while I'm thinking of it - can we borrow your little blueberry wagon/trailer to use at the ceremony? Jenny suggested it, and we could decorate it, put a few things on it and have it right by the front entrance of the driveway so people see it as they walk in. Let me know?