|
06/10/2009
 MIN-BEL-STD-D-WHT-001_PD MIN-SSL-STD-D-WHT-001_PD MIN-PCO-STD-D-WHT-001_PD MIN-GOW-STD-D-WHT-001_PD     |
Ask a Question
Which save the date is your favorite?
So we are approaching our "one year away" date... June 12th of this year. Coming up in a few days. Our wedding is not on either side of the family's home turf, so that means everyone will be needing a hotel room. We want to make sure our save the dates are out by September so our guests have 9 months to prepare for their travel.
We've just finished taking our engagement pictures with our fantastic photographer (Rodney Cool of Aesthetic Life Photography). We haven't seen any yet, but we are SURE they are going to be wonderful. Rodney used a sleek black love seat (at my request, love him!) in our photo shoot. He and his very kind brother dragged this couch into the woods, onto train tracks, up to High Rock, a peak overlooking the farms in southern PA, and into a field of waist high grass. The Fiance and I sat on the couch in all of these awesome locations. So the feel of these photos is going to be a little artsy. We want to use them for our Save the Dates. Here are some great save the date cards from Minted.com. Minted has some higher priced formal invitations, more than what we can afford. But their save the dates are very reasonably priced and I LOVE their simple, modern look. The photo I think we will end up using is of Dave and myself sitting on the couch in the middle of train tracks. With that in mind... which save the date do you think works best? I kind of favor the first photograph, very simple. Thanks! |
|
06/04/2009
 absolut-citron-and-lemonade_320x440 vodka-lime_320x440   |
Signature cocktail
we need something yellow
So our signature cocktail is going to kill two birds with one stone. 1. We really want to jump on the signature cocktail bandwagon and be trendy. plus we think its a great way to add some personality to the wedding. 2. I started planning this wedding thinking I'd want an all yellow wedding. Then we ordered a yellow cake. Then I changed my mind to green wedding! Now green and yellow do go very well together. My bridesmaids will still be in a pale yellow dress, almost gold in some lights. The cake will be yellow, and I'll try to use yellow stationary throughout the evening (menus, escort cards). But I still think we need something else yellow to pull it all off. Enter... the signature cocktail.
We can't decide on what type of drink to go with. It's a June wedding, so I was thinking a spiked lemonade? What about a lemon drop martini? I want it to be simple, classic, and elegant without being too trendy. I'm afraid the lemon drop martini is over the top, plus neither one of us really cares for that drink. Any ideas? I guess we can have two signature cocktails? Yellow lemonade and a green mojito? I saw somewhere a "Mint to be Mojito" and a "Sunny Future Lemonade". I think I like! some ideas.. Absolute Citron and Lemonade 1 Part ABSOLUT Citron 3 Parts Lemonade Lemon Crawdaddy 3 Parts ABSOLUT Vodka 10 Parts Lemonade 1 Splash Soda Water Lemon Vodka Lime 5 Parts ABSOLUT Vodka 4 Parts Lime Cordial Lime |
|
06/04/2009
 AppleGreenPintuck_L_thumbnail afterrf green_reception_decor large_imageff     |
Linens... my new favorite thing
Flowers and linens were the last two things I thought about when I began planning this wedding. We had (had) a small budget, and I figured I'd be happy with the short, white polyester linens provided by our venue. I also thought "who needs flowers on the tables?". Well... I need flowers on my reception tables (see 2 posts below, we're going with all white flowers). And I need nice linens to go with those flowers. In fact, I'm realizing how important linens are. If you're going to spend money somewhere for your reception... do it with the linens. Who needs to spend $75 a plate of food when you're eating on old, white linens? And who needs to spend thousands of dollars on flowers when they're sitting in a 1993 style white washed room. Fill your space with color by using color filled linens, and skimp on the flowers, or favors, or invitations, or menus... anything else but the linens.
We are going with a green wedding (obviously). I like a darker shade of "grass green". Not olive, not forest green, but not apple green either. Something right in the middle. Just dark enough to get away with in the summer. Something that looks great in any light, day light or candle light. The linens I've decided on are for our 15 round tables. Pintuck silky green with a pintuck chocolate brown runner across each table. All runners will be going in the exact same direction. The birds eye shots will be great! Hopefully the white flowers will pop off those two colors very nice. The reception space has a chocolate brown carpet, which I think will be perfect, and the chairs are a nice dark brown as well. If I can afford it, I'd like to have green silk ties on the backs of all the chairs. I also want chocolate brown silk napkins with pale yellow menus folded into each one for a place setting. None of the greens in these pictures is quite what we're using, but they're close. Linens are going to cost us more money than we wanted to spend. But we've already gone over our budget with the food, then the DJ, then the flowers I decided I needed, so I can't skip the linens now... what's another $700? |
|
06/01/2009
 poz11 6a00e5540fef958834010536d03ce8970b-320wi 278809552_7711772c16 skitched-20090513-154645 apple      |
Reception Tables... how to "number" them
Speaking of escort cards... (see a couple posts below). The fiance and I are both teachers. He teaches 4th grade in a public school. I teach Preschool in a private early education center. We want to incorporate the fact that we are both teachers into our wedding somehow. I want to keep things simple, so I thought instead of just numbering our tables 1 through 15, we could letter them!
I love the idea of using a more 3D approach to our centerpieces. So instead of simply printing a number on a card, we could use those wooden letters that stand on their own. Stain them, paint them, cover them to make them pretty somehow then just stand them on each table. I want to do this in a subtle way, without screaming the teacher thing. I also thought to find old antique ABC's school posters. You know the borders that always line the chalkboards in a classroom? Well something like that might push the teacher thing home a little more. Still deciding if I can make those look classy. thoughts? any teachers out there? |
|
05/31/2009
 large_image34w AAAAAuYeSH4AAAAAAQTK6w large_image4fv large_image5eo large_image09 large_image56 large_imageerddc large_image large_imagei large_imageoyf large_imagert large_imagesad large_imagetdc Monica--White-Centerpiece whitewedding_centerpieces large_image78 large_imageiu large_imageoiu large_imageer                    |
Reception Centerpieces
I'll be a DIY flower bride. I refuse to give up fresh flowers on every table at my reception, but there's no way I can afford to spend $100 (at a minimum) on professional florist centerpieces. So... I'll be doing them myself. Wedding flowers are the MOST OVERPRICED vendor in the wedding business. Even the wholesale guys are overpriced, but aside from growing our own flowers, we have to accept the prices as they are. With that, I will be using fiftyflowers.com to buy my flowers in bulk, then put the bouquets and centerpieces together myself. The testomonials this place has are numerous and fantastic. The flowers are reasonably priced, and arrive 2 to 3 days prior to your wedding day. This allows the flowers to sit in water and open up to their full bloom.
My plan is to order 80 stems of white hydrangeas and 200 creamy yellow roses to use on the recpetion tables. Then some cabbage roses for the bouquets for the girls and myself.... I'll hand tie the bouquets myself, easy. I will have the flowers shipped directly to my reception site as I will be arriving there on Thursday to get set up. My hotel room will be a flower shop! My mom and I will put the flowers in water in vases and start arranging them as we would like them to sit on the tables at the reception. Because we are staying in the hotel where the reception is to be held, we can simply walk the arrangements downstairs the morning of, place them on the tables and be done with it. Hopefully... the banquet hall will be unused on Friday, the day before our wedding. That way we can get in the night before and set up then, instead of the morning of the wedding. less stress for me, the better. So these are some pictures of what I'd like to do. I don't want the arrangements to look "arranged". I love the look of simple vases, filled with water, with the flowers simply stuck in, letting them fall as they would if they were sitting naturally on a kitchen table after being plucked from the garden. I love the idea of 3 different sizes of vases, with 3 different flowers in each. No greens, no fillers. A ton of tea lights to fill the spaces between the vases on the table will illuminate the water in them and sparkle. Anyway... this is the plan. Lets see how it turns out. I may be taking on more than I can handle. But I'd rather try for the best, than accept defeat in the overpriced world of wedding flowers. |
|
05/30/2009
 wed_sp99_goodthings_01_xl |
Escort Cards
mini flower pots
So there seems to be an underlying garden theme to our wedding. It has just kind of ended up that way. It's hard to avoid when you're having a June wedding. There's a romance about gardens, flowers, growing something from a seed... so when I saw these cut little mini flower pots used as escort card holders I was in love. I'm always thinking of how I can do things myself, and these seem easy enough. Time consuming, quite possibly. But doing 10 or so a day won't take me too long. I can make them in the months before the wedding, then pack them in a rubbermaid box and just hold onto them until i pack them up and take them to the reception. So I went to Michaels and found packs of 4 mini flower pots for 50 cents each. I got 100 of them, and they'll be sitting in my closet until next June! After all is said and done, from the flower pots, to the moss to fill them with, to the actual stationary... I'll end up spending under $30 (maybe $40) for adorable escort cards.
|
|
05/23/2009
 arthur_e-session_0058 arthur_e-session_0047_2 chrissuzanne_0046 dsc_6484 jadyleealex_0001 kb_e-session_0015 kb_e-session_0052 luckenbaughwed_0616 n1032023153_30251241_6653 n1032023153_30251246_8032 vl_0177            |
our photographer
So while I'm talking about our wedding photography, I thought I'd mention our great photographer. Although we live in DC, we are getting married in Emmitsburg, MD near PA. Our photographer is out of that area. His name is Rodney Cool and he owns and operates Aesthetic Life Photography. Rodney is wonderful! We haven't taken one picture with him yet, but we have spoken several times about ideas, themes and our vision. He is very receptive to the bride (and groom's) input. I can't wait for our engagement session in June!
Here are some of my favorite Rodney Cool photos. his website has a ton more... www.alifestudio.com |
|
05/23/2009
 018 0072 balloon_01 0072     |
Artsy engagement photos
So the fiance and I are having our "artsy" engagement session in a couple of weekends. We decided on our photographer for our wedding day, and also signed up for an engagement with him. Then at a bridal show we won a free engagement session with a different photographer. So we decided to take two sets of engagement pictures! The first set, the free session, were very traditional pictures. (We haven't gotten them back yet and don't know what they look like). These were the kind our parents will love, but kinda cheesy to me. Very posed, and kind of silly. So with those under our belts we want to use our second engagement session to play with. Our real photographer is wonderful!
So after talking we have decided with our photographer, to take these pictures in an open field with tall grass. We're going to bring a love seat sofa, and a cafe style table and chairs. The fiance and I will be in cocktail outfits. Hopefully they'll come out something like the pictures I've posted here. What do you think? some of these pictures are fantastic! Beautiful work. |
|
05/17/2009
 P3071326   |
Hoops of fire
how to marry a Catholic boy (if you're not a Catholic girl)
Let me begin by making sure everyone understands I have nothing against Catholics or the Catholic religion. In fact, when given the option I normally side with attending a Catholic church. Only some minor (which turn out to be larger than I once thought) details separate me from Catholics. Really the only difference is I believe I can have a chat with God whenever I want, no need for a Priest... but thanks. That and I think it's a cracker, just a cracker. My point is coming. My fiance, though not devout in the slightest, is Catholic. Raised Catholic by virtue of having been placed in private Catholic schools all the way up through college. Never really got into the whole thing. Regardless, he is labeled as such. Now we find ourselves in a pickle. We want to get married at the Catholic chapel at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, MD. This is where Fiance graduated both undergrad and graduate studies. His obvious ties to the place are from his schooling, not to mention all of his side of the bridal party are also Mounties. Me... well I love old churches, and this one is to DIE for. I may literally die by trying to force my way into the Catholic church, just so that I may get married in this stone chapel.
Here's the problem... I am a protestant. The Mount won't allow a Catholic to marry a protestant without a dispensation from the Catholic church. This piece of paper basically says the Catholic church will allow one of its own to "slip up" and marry outside of their religion. Usually under a contract that says the "non catholic" will promise to live as a Catholic. So Fiance and I decide to suck it up, the cost is worth that beautiful church. We set up a meeting with a local Catholic church and its priest. After we sat through a LOVELY meeting with our Priest (the man who will be signing this permission slip) we were given a form to fill out. At the top of this form there was a series of boxes to be checked off. These boxes were the "reasons for dispensation". Basically there has to be a reason for the church to allow this to happen. The box that was checked by "our" priest said "marriage to take place in hopes spouse will convert". That's it. That's the only reason they would allow us to marry. Not because we love one another. Not because we are the male and female versions of each other, and are freekin meant to be! Rather, the reason we are getting married... or I guess the reason Fiance has decided to marry me, is so that I might convert and add one more to the list of Catholics. I was told I was unworthy of the love from my Fiance, and not graceful enough to even accept the love and care I would receive from my future husband. I was told my father was a "dummy" for having left the Catholic church in his adulthood. (I was baptized Catholic for traditions sake right before my dad decided he didn't need to go to church anymore). Fiance got hell for having skipped out on going to confession for oh say... about... 14 years now. Either way, the priest agreed to it. So, the church has been booked. The Catholics are appeased and I am signed up to take 32 weeks of 3 hour, Monday night "how to be a good Catholic" classes. A price I must pay for a great photo-op. I'll let you know how it turns out... we've got a year to go. At least 32 weeks worth. |
|
05/16/2009
 love this! too pink though yellow garden rose Juliet_Garden_Rose_GVF_250    |
Brides Bouquet
I've always wanted a big, round, floppy bouquet of the palest pink peonies... so pale you can hardly tell they are pink. Problem is... I just can't afford all those peonies. Damn them for blooming only two weeks a year! Anyway I have found the next best thing... cabbage roses. At times, I even prefer the cabbage roses. Sometimes I've seen them just called "garden roses". Either way they have the same big, round cabbage style head of the peonies. The petals are a little smaller and don't wrap into themselves quite like the peonies do, but this is a good thing as the cabbages roses aren't as difficult to open.
I will be buying the flowers for my wedding wholesale, then putting everything together with the help of my mother. My bouquet will also be made by me. I like the idea of carrying something I made, exactly how I want it to be done. So for now, I plan on ordering about 30 or 40 cabbage roses... color to be decided, and putting together my own bouquet. Hand tied with a brown ribbon. |
magpiebride
| 3 | years since wedding |
Maggie Mudd
David Stewart
Jun 12, 2010
Emmitsburg,
Maryland,
United States
Mount St. Mary's University
Liberty Resort
Rodney Cool
Green
number of visits: 4430
magpiebride's other posts
...With the bridesmaids dressed picked out, I can now decide on the kind of head piece I'd like the ...
...o I bought the dress that fit those "trendy" bride standards. And I did like the dress a whole...
...I doubt I'll ever get into the be-dazzled "bride to be" hot pink tank top thing... but I do want ...
...ent to see the bridesmaids dresses in person last weekend, and LOVED them even better than the...
...e are having a photo booth at our reception. Serving as entertainment but also as a favor. You...
hot talk in
...Hey ladies. I haven't been on here in a little over a month. As you can see, I have 11 days to go...
...vites to be My Bridesmaids and Maid of Honor is so special. I will include some earrings that ...
...ple we want to invite that we can't just yet. If we have room we are hoping to get those peopl...
you may also like...
I first started out thinking i wanted the peacock colors (teal, purple and lime green) and now i'...
Ok, all of you other brides are putting it out there, so I will too!
I am 5'2" and I weight 13...
... to match your dress
And now your feet are quite a mess….
But don't sit down and admit def...
magpiebride said...