Miss Deviled Egg at WeddingBee is experimenting with centerpiece ideas. She’s using peas as a base and candles to accent. I never would have thought to use peas. Just kind of makes you wonder what else could be used a filler.
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I can’t not mention the upcoming shopping day, Black Friday. As I’m sure you’re heard, our nation’s economy is in a slump. That equal more deals on Friday. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I’ll point you to The DIY Bride, who has compiled yet another good list. This one tells you all the things to look out for while fight the crowds to snatch the best deals.
I can personally attest to hitting Joann Fabrics last year on Black Friday. I got fabric for curtains in my house at somewhere between 50% and 75% off.
The things I’ll be looking for off the DIY Bride’s list:
Things I’ll be looking for that she didn’t mention:
That’s all I can think of for now. You guys tell me – am I missing anything?
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As wedding traditions go, one of the most well known is, “Something old, something new. Something borrowed, something blue.” As of yesterday I’ve got one down and three to go.
Backstory
My great grandmother is the sweetest woman anyone has ever met. At 86 years old she’s is simply a joy to be around. I can truly say that she is one of my favorite people.
A few weeks ago, I ask my grandma if she would be kind enough to contribute my “something old”. I’m sure she said something like, “Old? Psshht – You can just take me!” – Yes, she still has a sense of humor too.
Well yesterday, when I went to visit her, without even saying anything, she lugged out a dresser drawer from her room. When I told her she should’ve let me get it, of course she didn’t want to hear it.
Anyway, the drawer was full of old handkerchiefs that she had been saving. There were some that were souvenirs from other states, some satin, and some that she had never even worn. But my favorites, were the ones that she had hand-crocheted and hand-tatted herself.
I ended up taking about 10 handkerchiefs and a necklace, but I’m not sure which I’ll incorporate in the wedding or how. I’m just glad to have these as lasting memories of my grandmother even after the one day wedding. These were 3 of my favorite and the picture on the bottom right is of the lace my grandmother did by hand.
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Okay ladies. This is primarily for my bridesmaids. Two new bridesmaid dresses to weigh in on. I know the one on the right is in ivory. I wasn’t looking for it – it found me. Both are about $150 and are listed in the cocktail dresses/evening dresses category. Let me know if you like either of these.
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With our economy in such a dismal state, brides aren’t the only ones who need to save money. Don’t forget about your girls/bridesmaids/ladies in waiting. Just like you want an affordable bridal gown, they want affordable bridesmaid dresses.
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I truly believe that many brides lose site of the end product/consequences of their wedding. I’ve seen one bride need counseling immediately following the wedding for this very thing. She lost site of how the wedding would change her life. The marriage that follows the one-day wedding is meant to last a lifetime.
In planning this wedding, I’ve found that there’s a lot of hype surrounding the wedding industry. And have you seen what average wedding budgets look like? The statistics are off the charts crazy.
Don’t get me wrong. I like a flower and dress as much as the next person, but in many cases, the wedding industry preys on a person’s hyped up emotions. Decisions that you wouldn’t think twice about pre-engagement are discovered and exploited by the industry and budgets end up blown.
And there will be certain things you don’t want to budge on. I get that. I don’t want to budge on finding a venue in downtown Detroit. Choose your battles and keep in mind that every time you insist on not budging, it’s probably gonna end up hitting you in the pocket.
Sure history and tradition will dictate some parts of your wedding, but history is made every day and traditions are created every day. It’s okay to be your own bride.
I don’t mean to come off as a Debbie Downer here, but I do mean to encourage everyone to think twice before insisting that your wedding has to be the biggest, most extravagant affair anyone has ever experienced.
Let me know if you agree, think I’m totally wrong, or if I’m somewhere in between. I’d like to hear what you think.
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So, remember the post about grocery store flowers. Right – how could you forget?
As promised, I tried it out myself. I ventured out in the cold and rain this morning and paid a visit to Trader Joe’s. I bought 2 bouquets of flowers for $5.99 each. One was a red/orange/yellow mixed bouquet and the other was just solid red roses.
I stripped all the leaves, thorns and extra stems. This was pretty easy except for some of the yellow flowers, which I think may be mums, unless you want them all grouped together, the stems end up pretty short once you separate them from the main stem.
I started grouping them together in my hand. There was no particular order to it – I just tried to mix up the the flowers so that there weren’t large groups of any one flower. This was a little challenging with the shorter stem flowers because they kept popping out and didn’t want to cooperate at times. I didn’t have any wire, which i looked at in the store and decided I wouldn’t need, which also made this part a little challenging. I ended up just wrapping the floral tape directly around the stems. As I’ve read before, the tape sticks better to itself if you pull it just a little taut.
The flowers were pretty secure with the tape but the stems were jutting out left and right. The ribbon would’ve looked just as uneven. So I needed something smooth and sturdy to serve as a base for the ribbon. First thing I thought of was a paper towel roll. Go figure, but I couldn’t find one anywhere.
The roses came wrapped in some semi-thin corrugated cardboard. It was perfect because it was smooth on one side but pretty sturdy so you wouldn’t be able to see the stems through the ribbon.
I bought a roll of clearance ribbon when I got the floral tape. I wrapped it all the way around the stem-handle and put in a column of pearl pushpins.
It’s by no means perfect but pretty good for a first try (I think).
What do you guys think? Any tips or tricks to share with the rest of us?
——————————————–
Cost:
$5.99 mixed bouquet
$5.99 rose bouquet
$1.59 stem tape
$1.00 ribbon
=14.57
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Thanks to Ten Thousand Only and A Cup of Jo, I stumbled upon a pot of gold. They posted about bridal bouquets made from supermarket flowers on the Real Simple site.
I’ve gotten flowers from the supermarket before just to put on the table because the look and smell nice, but nothing I’ve put together looks half as professional as these done by Real Simple. This just further confirms for me that, not only will I be making my own bouquet, but my girls will likely be making theirs.
I’m thinking the night before the wedding we get a wholebuncha flowers and all sit down and do them together. That way the less crafty of us won’t feel overwhelmed.
I’m trying this this weekend. Can’t wait.
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I’ve run into a lot of people trying to save money on their wedding by using fewer flowers, especially when it comes to centerpieces. So I’ve pulled together a few examples of fruits and vegetables being used in centerpieces. I’m sure most of have seen apples submerged in water, but there are some other ideas here, that you may not have seen.
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So.
It was brought to my attention a few days ago that I may not be clear as to how many guests we’re inviting. Right now we’re somewhere between 200 and 250. For some people this may seem like a lot. For others this may seem small. We’ve already made some cuts, and at this point neither of us wants to make any more cuts.
So that’s where we stand. Or rather, that’s how many guests we’ll need to seat.
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Mrs. 12k - The newlywed with lots of wedding tips and ideas for the bride on a budget. 
DetroitGyrl - I'm on an 18 month crash course to plan the best "PARTY to KICK off a MARRIAGE" you've ever seen.
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