Dear knotties,

I love you all, but becasue of all your amazing suggestions, PSA's, offers and creativity - I STAY BROKE! LOL

If you don't what a knottie is, then you will once you get engaged and become a member of theknot.com! These women offer the most amazing advice, lend a ear when you have to vent, and often become great friends in real life! So anyway, because of these women, I have found so many vendors and great ideas! One of them - www.vistaprint.com. Once you order from them, they send you coupons to order free items! All you end up paying for is shipping! I have ordered business cards and T-shirts thus far. I am going to take a break before I go bankrupt. heehee! So here are a few shirts I was able to get for fiance and I. I just think they are so cute!

I am excited about all that is getting done! I have just 2 months left! Whewww!
Remember my blue birdcage cardholder? Well..take a look below.

Yayy!! It's white!When I purchased it, it was blue.Because I loved it, I just had to buy it. I knew it could easily be painted. I had originally added that to my fiance's  list of things to do. He took it to work and had it professionally painted. It's a beautiful pearl white! I love it. I added a little sign. Cuuute!

I purchased a bracelet from a knottie and it arrived on a little pillow. So cute! She did an amazing job!

My cake topper has arrived from Crafty Eddy. Now, it just needs to be blinged out! I purchased the rhinstones from ebay (below). Can't wait to see the final result :).

Time is a ticking and I am BUSY!! Here is what I have been up to..just little odds and ends to get done before the closer months of the wedding! PrinTING will start to take place soon for all of my little paper DIY items! MENU, TABLE NUMBERS, MUSIC SHEET

I am so excited about my invitations. When I first started planning, I was so scared that invitations were going to cost me an arm and a leg. So, I started looking at DIY kits from Michaels Arts & Crafts, Targets and other stores. I never quite found anything that excited me. I then started looking at companies that custom design invites for you, but they all required printing and the cost ranged from $500 to $1,000! I refused to pay that amount for invitations! Then, I started lurking on theknot.com at different ideas that current bride to be's were posting regarding great finds for invitations and signage. And boy oh boy, did they provide me with some awesome ideas. Howver,I ended up finding out that the knottie that designed my monograms (see monogram post) also designs custom invitations! I was so excited! I sent her pictures of what I wanted and we worked together designing the invitation suite. She crated an invite, rsvp postcard, directions and hotel accommodations card for me. She also created signage for my reception. All this cost me a total of $50. I went to Office Max to do a test print. I printed on metallic white paper. They also cut everything for you for a small fee. This is another great example of getting a custom item created at a great price. Contact miss jones via her blog. Great working with her!!   http://thebuckeyebride.blogspot.com

 

 

Hey shoe lovers! So for all you Chrisitan Louboutin fans out there on a budget, I have a treat for you :) ... (I hope I don't get in trouble for this post). Anyway, if you are familiar with this designer, you know that his shoes are EEXXXPPPENNSSIIVE! I mean...$995.00 for the shoes you see at the top of my page. Geesh, that is alot of money. Ok, so anyway..all you crafty DIY (do it your self) chicks out there, I present to you... DIY Louboutin's!!!
I love her blog!!
Source: http://www.lovemaegan.com/2009/05/diy-christian-louboutin-petal-sandal.html#

For all of you that have a problem or issue with knock off's...feel free to purchase them here...they are 50% off (as of 10/17/09)

http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/catalog/prod.jhtml?itemId=prod67930015&parentId=cat16360732&masterId=cat5130731&index=7&cmCat=cat000000cat000141cat000149cat000199cat5130731cat16360732

I remember my first weeks as a newly engaged bride to be. I joined just about every wedding website possible! Ha! I know very crazy right? But my favorite wedding site is "theknot.com". I am totally addicted to this site! It’s like a crazy bride club. We vent, share tips and vendor recommendations, but the fun part of it all is all the D.I.Y. projects you come across. I never thought I would be that bride that enjoyed working on different wedding projects, boy was I wrong! I'm going to tell you why I am now addicted to D.I.Y. projects.
1. You learn that you have creative talents that you never would have thought you had! I was forced to know that I am creative! LOL
2. It saves you lots and lots of money to create items that someone else charges an arm and a leg for.
3. Last but certainly not least. I feel that once my wedding day gets here, I will look around at all my projects and appreciate the hard work being paid of.

So I am ready to share some of the small projects that I have been working on.

Pomander Ball: A ball usually covered in flowers, fabric or ribbon. Used at the ceremony as decoration on each pew down the aisle, or at a garden ceremony they on each chair or at the reception as decoration.
I was inspired by a knottie (hippy) to use ribbon for my pomanders. I'm not sure how many of these I will make and where I will use them, but the project was so simple and pretty, that I just had to create one.

Items used: Green Styrofoam ball, ribbon, craft flowers and bridal push pins.
Time Spent: 45 minutes
Amount Spent: $6

 

Here are a few more D.I.Y
1.I Do Letters. These will be placed on the cake table.
Items used: wooden letters and purple paint, random silk flower petals.
Time Spent - about 1 day..including drying time
Money Spent:about $4

2.Picture Frames: Not too sure what I am going to do with these either, but it was a very simple and easy project. The best part of this is that I found these at a garage sell and I had to buy them! they were only .25 cents a piece! I'm sure we will find some way to use these. If you have any suggestions, please share here and leave a comment!!

Items used: picture frames, paint brush, purple paint.
Time spent - about one day, including drying time
Money spent : $1.25 ( for all 6!)
*paint was left over from other D.I.Y projects.

Here is a sneak peek at centerpiece/table decor ideas.
The flowers are silk. I paid Michaels arts and crafts to create the
 floral centerpiece for me. The cost of the centerpiece was $25

Ok, I'm done with the DIY stuff for today. Please share your comments with me!!

Happy Wedding Planning!

 I am so excited! I have finished printing and putting together my "save the dates". Let me tell you, this was a frustrating process! Creating these suckers in powerpoint, sizing them so that they are 4x6, and getting them printed was such a HEADACHE!!! But thanks to my knottie BFF "Taryn" and lots of wasted ink, I finally am at that stage of assembling and putting them in the mail!!

So everytime someone asks me "hows wedding planning going?"My response these days are "well everything is great so far. Right now i'm working on getting my "save the dates" out".

I immediately in return get the question "what is a save the date?''. I find myself growing tired of explaining what they are and why they are so neccessary. I really get tired of asking "you've never heard of save the dates", but I spare myself that entire converstation and commence to explaining what they are. For those of you reading and wondering what they are, here is a formal definition:
Save the Dates: informal announcements which precede the wedding invitations by several months ahead, ideal for weddings close to major holidays.

now! there you have it! So now anytime someone asks me or you about save the dates, send them over to my blog!!  Have a great day!!!

Paragraph.