Bridal Shower Invitations

I can't believe that we are finally close enough to be talking about my bridal shower. Eek! A long time ago my sister and I decided the theme would be a mad hatter tea party. It goes with the over all theme of the wedding itself, it's fun, and it's cute and girly.

Also a long time ago.... I saw these packs of invitations on clearance at Michael's for only $2.99 per pack!!! Score!

My shower guest lists includes approximately 15 people, so I bought 2 packs of 12 for $6. Then I searched the net for various samples of wording and clip art. I also enslisted the help of bridesmaid Anna, since she's a total word genius, to whip up the part about wearing a hat/headband/whatever. And here is the final product (edited obviously)...

In case you can't read it, it says:
Don't be late for this very important date!
You're invited to a very merry bridal shower in honor of Samantha _______!
On October 1st she'll be our Queen of Hearts.
At two o'clock the party will start.
Be like the Mad Hatter - wear something up top
With feathers or bows or colors that pop.
Please RSVP so your presence is planned.
We hope you can join us in our Wonderland.

I love them and can't wait for my bridal shower! It's going to be SO much fun!!!

Semi-DIY: Flower girl dresses and headbands

We are having two flower girls. They are both pretty young, so I don't really expect them to behave like older flower girls would, but they are both just so darn cute that at the very least I'd like to have them in pictures wearing their cute outfits.

I scoured the internet looking for the perfect flower girl dress on a budget. I really didn't want my friends (or myself) to have to pay more than $30 for the flower girl dresses.

I happened upon the girl's department in JCPenney yesterday and saw that all of their "special occasion" dresses were on sale. SCORE! There were several that I loved, but then you factor in the prices and the sizes available, and the choices were definitely narrowed down for me. However, I didn't want to be impulsive. I knew that I had recently been sent at least one coupon from JCPenney in the mail. So I didn't buy them then. I came home only to discover that I actually had 2 $10 off coupons! Yay!

So, today while I was off work, I went back to JCPenney. The choices I liked were still there, and I had my coupons in hand. One dress was the front runner, but it was also more expensive, and there were still things I'd want to change about it. In the end, I decided since I wanted to make changes anyway...  might as well go with the cheaper dress.  I enlisted my MOH (my sister) to come with me so that we could use one coupon on each dress.

I ended up getting the dresses for $11.99 each! They were originally priced at $54.99 so this was absolutely a bargain! I got two flower girls dresses for under $25! The one I bought looked like this:

They are ivory (which I love) and they have a lace-looking embroidery on the skirt (which I also love). However, I'm not loving the flowers on the front AT ALL. I mean, if I had to... yeah, I could deal with them. But I'd rather not. So, they looked fairly simple to remove. I figured at $11.99 a dress, even if I messed them up it wouldn't be that upsetting.  So, I removed the flowers on the front, and also the sash/bow that started on the sides and tied in the back.  Then I added a brown ribbon to correspond with our wedding colors (the hot glue gun is my BFF) and I ended up with this:

I love it!!! It is a completely unique look? No. But where else could I have gotten a dress this cute for only $12?!?! I've also already made headbands for the flower girls to wear. I love the headbands too! They are my favorite part and I can't wait to see Olivia and Brianne wear them. I'll have to do a tutorial for this one soon.

Crunch Time!

Well, I haven't posted in quite a while.... almost 4 months, actually. In reality I haven't really had much to post about because I've been a slacker bride. However, now that we are officially past the "100 days" mark, it's time to get serious. As of today we have 94 days until the wedding... and I'm SOOO far behind! Eeek!

I mean... seriously, where did all the time go?!?! We have had a long engagement (almost 23 months) so at times it seemed like we'd never get to this point. But now, here we are... a mere 94 days away. It feels unreal. I remember reading other wedding blogs and feeling so jealous that they were getting so close to their weddings. For the most part, everything is planned and picked. It's just the execution that I have to work on now. I think I may have taken on way too many DIY projects. I have eliminated a few that I decided that I could live without, but the others are important to me and I need to get them done. I realize that not many guests are going to really care about our ceremony programs or the pew decorations, etc. But those things are important to me. I want to set a tone for our wedding. I want to have no regrets when it's over. So while a lot of the projects are intended for other people to see, they really are for me too. It's my day and I want it to be fabulous and have lots of special details.

I've enlisted the help of my MOH (my little sister) and two bridesmaids to help me with the rest of the projects. We are having our second DIY "party" this weekend and then another DIY "party" in September. Hopefully we'll be able to get everything finished and I'll have lots of pictures.

I do have a few DIY projects to post that have been finished over the past few months... so hopefully I'll get a chance to post those soon!