Center stage

When it comes to centerpieces, I am leaning as far away from flowers as possible. Don't get me wrong, flowers are gorgeous! But they are also rather expensive.

In lieu of floral centerpieces, I scoured the Internet looking for ideas. Nothing really caught my eye. However, there was one blog I found where the bride used all sorts of candles, of varying heights, and brought them together to form a centerpiece. Love this idea! The best part about her centerpieces? Nearly every item she used came from IKEA!

Her mock centerpiece:

Instead of using so many candles (and to save money!), I plan to mix mini pumpkins, from a local orchard, amongst the candles on some of the tables, and add additional tealight candles on other tables.

Erin and I spent some time at IKEA in West Chester over the weekend. I bought a few samples to mix and match my own centerpiece ideas...

This sample photo shows the basic three candle holders (actually drinking glasses from IKEA!) that will anchor the centerpieces of all tables. On these, I plan to use three mini pumpkins in-between the candles.

This sample photo shows the same three candle holders as well as three additional tealight holders.


Now all I need for both are candles! I bought a large bag of IKEA tealights and plan to purchase white votives and pillars for the remaining glasses. I think these centerpieces will create a nice warm glow throughout the room, don't you?

Excited to see how this DIY project turns out!

DIYing my way to the alter

I love making things. Have ever since I was a little girl. Pretty sure that comes from my Mom who has always been dubbed as crafty. Seriously. You could give the woman a sock, glitter and a mason jar and she could turn out something really cool. (A female version of MacGyver, my mom!)

Since I like that sort of thing, and to add extra flair to our wedding, I am working through an extensive list of DIY projects that I created. Over the MLK day weekend, I got a few projects finished (wreaths for the church doors, decor for the reception site front door, etc.), a few projects started (large cardstock signs that say "Thank" and "You" for a special picture, etc.) and even had time to contemplate more.

For instance: I really like the idea of using bouquet charms in the bridesmaids' bouquets (and mine of course!). However, I was having a hard time coming up with how this would be feasible (without spending money on kits I came across online). After pondering on this for a few days, I may have come across a way that could potentially work:

I will use flat bottom marbles, pin backs and some glue...

...to create custom, one-of-a-kind bouquet charms for the wedding day bouquets.

My plan is to cut tiny round images, glue them to heavy white card stock and glue the flat sided marble to the front of the image. I have seen similar projects just like this for the creation of magnets, push pins, etc. Instead of affixing the marble to a magnet or push pin, I will glue the marble to a pin back, as long as I can find pin backs in the appropriate size.

If not, I will have to play with other ideas, like maybe two marbles per pin, etc. Instead of being a true bouquet charm (they typically hang by a ribbon from the bouquet), these will have the ability to clip to the ribbon holding the bouquet together. And after the wedding, long after the bouquets wilt, the charms will be able to clip to another surface!

Not sure that this project will work, but I want to at least try it!

What images will I use for these you ask? I think I would make each one different to represent my friendship with each girl. For instance, with Erin, I could use a tiny image of a Skyline Cheese Coney (because we LOVE Skyline Chili!). This could be fun. So many things could work! As for my bouquet, I may see if there is a way to shrink an image from my Mom's parents' wedding to use for my charm.

I plan to gather the supplies for a first attempt this weekend. Will definitely keep you posted on how they turn out!

It is what it is

Now that the major items have been secured, it is time to do the fun part of the wedding planning...creating minor details and those little touches that will make the wedding uniquely ours.


For this part of the planning process, I am dubbing it "It is as it is." This is something I hear around work ALL the time and it is a great quote. And so applicable to many instances of life.

I love that our wedding is taking place in the gorgeous Bluegrass region of Kentucky at the start of fall. There are so many beautiful things we can use that are already all around us. I have so many little ideas in mind that I am creatively trying to mesh into a single day. Some are zany and different while others are not. But in all, I think everything will fall into place as it should.

I will be sure to fill you in on some of these details over the course of the next several months.

One such idea that has been finalized is our guest book. Instead of the typical run-of-the-mill guest book that is fluffy and white with embellishments on it that people write in with a huge feathered pen (no offense if this was the case at your wedding!), Jacob and I decided to do something different. I have seen where couples have people write on the matte of a large photo, or where people sign a platter that will be displayed, etc. Those are all cute ideas.

But our idea is something personal, yet functional. We bought a coffee table book chock full of panoramic photos from Kentucky. The photographer, Jeff Rogers, is based right here in Lexington. We fell in love with this book when Erin (one of our bridesmaids!) first showed it to us. Our plan is to have people write in the margins or over some of the photos. Not only will this book be a great memento of our Bluegrass wedding, but it will actually be used!! (We are both huge coffee table book people...) Also: huge thanks to Mom for the Joseph Beth gift card that helped make this book possible!

I think that next we will begin determining the components of our wedding ceremony...from music (and musicians) to readings and ceremony flow, there is a lot that goes into those 30 minutes. Stay tuned for updates as things are finalized and decided!

Bridesmaids: two down, six to go

One of the first places I ever looked at wedding gowns and bridesmaids dresses was Bridal and Formal in Cincinnati, OH. It is a wonderful store with TONS of dresses and many lines. In short, I was spoiled with selection.

As you know, I am having each of my eight bridesmaids choose their own style of dress for the wedding. Awesome plan and I think it will look AWESOME, however, the time that goes into making this a reality is much more than I anticipated! Perhaps it would not be as difficult if there were shops in Lexington that sold more than a few dresses from the line I chose for the bridesmaids (Forever Yours).

Wanting these dresses ordered in January, and it being a rough time of year for scheduling (aka school, holidays, etc.), I have to have multiple trips to Cincy for the girls to browse and choose their dress. The first of such trips was yesterday. Erin, Katie and I headed up yesterday afternoon for a last minute shopping extravaganza. And within an hour, both had dresses chosen!! So exciting!

Katie's dress (left) is super cute and very different. I absolutely love the top of it! The weird length of the dress will be hemmed shorter - to the knee, and the dress will be in emerald green.

Erin's dress (right) is also super cute and is a halter! I love this dress and it is very classy looking. It will also be in emerald green.

Thinking that strappy silver shoes will look best with these dresses...especially next to the gray tuxes the guys will be wearing (and Jacob wants the guys to have a matching emerald green tie).

Both images are from http://www.foreverbridals.com/.

The next shopping trip is two weeks away. Anna, Crystal and Hilary will be choosing their dresses that day!

Cannot wait to see what everyone chooses.