This is waffles57's Green Wedding!

There has been so much going on here lately. I found out on my birthday (Oct. 20th) that we had to move out of our house by Nov. 1st because we were living with my FH's brother & family & they decided to up & move all of a sudden. We were scraping up money to come up with deposits & rent & other bills but we did it & are in our own apartment which is very nice now that everything is unpacked & there are no children crying in the middle of the night. His family drove me crazy though because they didn't like our apartment at first. They said it was a bad neighborhood & that there are bad people that live here but we have been here almost 2 weeks & have yet to have any bad experiences. The property staff is amazing & the people that live near us are very quiet. It just really annoyed me that they kept telling us to look at houses for rent & telling us to get a LOAN just to move into someplace 'better.' Well I basically ended up telling them that if they don't like the apt we are living in, they don't have to come over b/c this is what we could afford at the moment with such short notice!!! Ughh!

During the process of packing things up, we planned to go to Cleveland Park to put the deposit down for the ceremony & reception site. I tried calling & calling the office that morning to make sure someone would be there because my stepmom was coming into town just for this since they are paying for the wedding... Nobody ever called back so we just went there, & of course nobody was there... They finally called back the next morning & said that my date (May 24, 2009 which is the SECOND date I had chosen) was already taken. I was so upset b/c I kept telling my dad I wanted this date since my other had already been taken & tried to push him to put the deposit down before it was taken from me too but nobody did so... Now we are pushing it back a year. Why that far away? Well I wanted May & the other days they had available I couldn't do b/c of school conflictions w/ final exams & also my bridesmaid's birthday... I have tons of family getting married in June & didn't want to pile that on either so May 2010... Its back to looking at how many MONTHS away instead of how many DAYS... :o(

The only good thing a/b this is that we can save more money for the honeymoon to Puerto Rico :o)


I have yet to be on the internet since we have been in the moving process but congratulations to all the weddings that I missed & I can't wait to go through & see everyone's updates!!

My FH is a HUGE Ecko fan. Most of his clothes are Ecko.
I had seen the Converse shoes that you can customize on their site. Which I still think is really cool... But then I got the idea to do the Ecko shoes!

Another b2b, irishpocahontas, also posted some bling shoes that I think are cute & would be neat to do on your own shoes..

His will be the black & white eckos.

I saw on 'Whose Wedding Is it Anyway?' a couple had chocolate champagne glasses that their planner had done for them. It looked like a cone covered in chocolate & it was in a clear plastic stand for them to hold up. We thought it would be a really cool idea to do chocolate champagne glasses w/ a dessert wine like Strawberry White Zinfandel & garnish it with a cherry. It's something I've never seen before but I need advice on how I would go a/b making the glasses... Any ideas ladies? Thanks in advance!

I'm usually pretty good w/ computers, but apparently creating my monogram was harder than I thought. Thanks to Marta though, I have several designed monograms to put around our wedding. Thanks Marta!
http://www.weddingbycolor.com/martasmonograms

I found this website off of Marta12's wedding blog.
http://www.designerstencils.com/index.html

My FH was going to try & bake our cake but it wasn't easy to decorate for him. This is a great way to decorate that won't take very long.
They have an easy video on how to stencil onto buttercream frosting, so we will have to give this a try!

Me, my FH & my niece went to Hatcher Gardens in Spartanburg to take some pics since we NEVER take pictures. Here are a few, I'd say they look pretty good, almost professional :o)

Tennessee is my favorite place to go. I love everything a/b TN! One of my favorite things to get when I'm there though is CANDY. They have the BEST fudge EVERRR & the salt water taffy is made in front of you & sooo delicious! I thought I'd buy a couple boxes of the taffy & put a few pieces together for each guest. Tasty & inexpensive!

So I was going to do DIY save the dates. I had bought the STD stamp from hobby lobby that had the calendar on it to fill in your own month/days & a bear stamp since we are having the wedding in TN... But after playing around w/ them for several days, I decided I didn't like the idea & wanted them printed so I went to the lovely Vista Print & ordered postcards. 100 free, only pay S&H! Yay.

Update: 8.7.08 I just got them in & LOVE them!!!!

My best guy friend Josh is really good at playing the guitar. I asked him the other day to play my wedding march b/c I heard it in guitar online & loved it! I can't wait to walk down the aisle to that!

My bouquet will be white calla lilies & green roses. I am going to do pink & green roses for the BM bouquet.

For the groom, he will have a green rose boutonniere & the groomsmen a pink rose boutonniere.

I was at Michael's today. On their 10 items for $10 aisle, they had some cute recipe cards which I am going to use for one of my wedding showers. They will be sent w/ the invitations so that each person will bring a recipe from their own collection.

They also had some cute pink/green items on there & I grabbed a couple of mini notepad/pen sets. They are just a add on the the BM gifts.

At Walmart they have all of the back to school items on sale so I bought a couple packs of crayons for the kids coloring books that I will make & I found my guestbook! It is a photo album that has the margin on the sides to write a note. We will have someone at the table taking pictures of each person/couple/family that comes in & will ask them to write beside one of the photo slots so that we can add their photos later. Similar to the Polaroid Guestbook, but that film got expensive!

I want to give them one of these Vera Bradley Zip ID cases in their favorite colors.

I would also like to get them a necklace w/ my FH's birthstone in it Peridot (August) but I have come to realize that peridot is pretty expensive so I may just find a close alternative..

UPDATE 7/23/08: Also added the notebooks shown in next post.

I saw these in a wedding chapel office when I was talking to places in TN. Found them online for $22.99 but I'm sure if I keep searching I can find them cheaper. I love how they are square since we are doing a square cake.

While I was looking online for pictures of what I wanted for my bouquet, I came across flower pens. They are very easy to make, I made some a while back in school. I think they would look great on the guestbook table!

Update 8.15.08--I meant to add pics of these a while back but am just now getting to it... My mom helped me do the DIY flower pens. I think I am going to use a smaller square vase though.

This is my bouquet!
Green roses & white calla lilies

I got the ZIP file from B2B 'Thirty3thirty' for the desktop wedding countdown! It's GREAT! I love having it on my screen at all times! You can change the transparency of it so that when you aren't clicked on it, it will still show above the other pages you have pulled up. Once you edit your wedding date it will show up like # Years, # Months, # Days & you can add hours/min as well.

It seems a lot closer to say 10 months, 11 days than it does 314 days!! :o)

www.weddingcountdown.com

I was on TheKnot.com looking through my local vendors & clicked on marriage license to find out the fee for my county. For Spartanburg county (where we live) it was $45 w/ birth certificate, valid photo id, & social security card. For the county where my parents live, only 30 minutes away, & it was $35 w/ same documents. I was curious to see what other surrounding counties fees were & I found one that was only for $10, Gaffney is only 30 minutes away from us. Hey, saves a little money & not that far of a drive! Just thought you other B2B's might want to know in case your county is very expensive...

UPDATE7.26.08: Will now have to get a TN marriage license... It's gonna be close to $100 for the county we are getting married in, but we will look for the surrounding counties....

I got some of these ideas from Brides.com

1. table w/ tin buckets set up for the bar.
2. silverware wrapped in vellum w/ brass brad

Update: found #3 on another B2B's inspiration photos...

For my pink & green themed wedding I want a choice of pink & green drinks. For my non alcoholics, we will have pink lemonade. For my drinkers, there will be a big batch of Midori Sour. Yumm!

I want to do a 'book of us' to send to him the morning of our wedding. I'm either going to buy an album-style blank book or create my own so that we can always add to it... It will have a timeline of our 'early years' that leads to our meeting (ex. first step, first tooth, etc..--IF i can find pictures of both of us at that point) & then have memorabilia from our first date, first flower, etc. from our dating days. I can't wait to start it! The research will be fun looking through tons of old pictures of us.

Update 10.8.08-I also decided to get him cufflinks. I wanted some cute ones & was going to do Patriots (like the garter) but decided to do his favorite movie (also what we saw on our 1st date) Transformers. He LOVES that movie, watches it anytime it comes on tv (even back to back) even though we own the dvd!

In the Southern United States, the groom's cake started as a second layer of dark wedding cake on top of a larger layer of white cake. The bridal couple would cut cake from the bottom tier, and serve the dark cake on a later date. By the late 1800s, the groom's cake became a separate dessert to be divided & presented to guests in small white boxes. In the American tradition, groom's cakes are often rich chocolate cakes & reflect the groom's personality.

Since my fiance loves chocolate & anything in cupcake form, I want to do that for him. I found this CUTE picture of cupcakes & hope to find the top for it!

My bridesmaid Sarah is a very picky girl so I was going to choose a designer & color & let my 2 (maybe 3) bridesmaids choose their style of dress... But looking around... The colors in different fabrics look completely different. So I found a designer that I like & chose some dresses that look similar & hope that she will like one of them... The only thing she worries a/b is it being too low cut really b/c it's not like they would be TOO SHORT... it may do a different shade of pink, depending on how they look in person...

They are all from the designer B2 (all of the pink dresses).

Update: My BM Sarah & I went to look at dress styles but didn't see anything there she liked & they didn't have one single dress in her size so she couldn't even try on anything! We did find a couple other dresses online though that she was interested in... These are from Jordan collection (the pink/green dresses).

I found some Mini Paper Lanterns that I would like to have for our outdoor reception. They have them in white (which is what I'm getting), red, fuschia, & sky blue. They cost $14.95/set of 10 on The Knot's shop.

Ebay usually has the larger ones for $17.99/set of 10. Many colors available.

I also want to use christmas lights that we will buy after the Christmas holiday this year to light up the yard.

UPDATE: 6.25.08-found the light pink & white on sale for $10.00/set of 10 on www.asianideas.com but The Knot's white ones were cheaper...

I want to do some tissues that have a wedding theme on them & have a sign that says 'For the tears of joy' B/c I KNOW my mom will have the water works turned on! They will be in the church for the ceremony.

UPDATE: 7/12/09 I was going to do a sparkler getaway & have matchbooks as a favor but now have decided against it. 1. Sparklers can get expensive for the good, long lasting ones. 2. July 4th just passed & found out most of the kids were scared of them anyways so I think the bubbles will do!

I will do a sign for the Bubbles that says 'Love is in the air. Please take one & blow your kisses to the newlyweds.' & have a picture of the cartoon 'Love is...' on it.

'your little girl frame'
Jean M
$15.00 ea/blank
$19.00 ea/personalized

I thought this was a very cute gift to give my parents. You can personalize it w/ your name & wedding date.

My FH is part Puerto Rican & has always wanted to go here. I told him if he let me plan the ceremony/reception (w/ input from him), I'd let him plan the honeymoon, so this is where he chose. It has so much to offer. We will be going to the capital city San Juan. There are beaches/resorts but also a historical side. Old San Juan is a neighborhood that is 465 years old! I can't wait, it looks gorgeous & now I can learn more of that culture's history.

Each groomsman has an item w/ their favorite sports team. Rigo has a Dallas Cowboys watch & Buch has a San Francisco 49ers money clip.

They will also get a pair of shoes to match the grooms as we are not doing traditional shoes... Most likely either Converse or Eckos...

Since Anthony is a HUGE fan of the New England Patriots, I am going to either buy a garter with the Patriots on it!

UPDATE 6.7.08: FINALLY came in & is sooo cute! I'm just gonna buy a cheap one to toss though. This one's a keeper! :o)

Bridesmaids-my old roommate-Sarah
my cousin-Jessica
Best Men-Anthony's brother-Buch
Anthony's brother-Rigo

I will probably let my brother Matthew help hand out programs or something.

My fiance is a pretty good cook & he thinks that he can bake our wedding cake himself.. It would taste good, but I want him to do a trial run to practice the decorations... Here are some ideas that I found....

I decided I wanted to do 3 tiers, square cake. On the top & bottom layer I want the polka dots & the middle layer to have our monogram on it. Flowers on top.

Update 7.28.08: My fiance did a trial run of the wedding cake & decided it is a lot harder than he thought it would be on the decorations. Because I don't like fondant icing, regular icing is a lot harder to use. So we will be ordering our cake now but w/ same design.