Went to the Post Office Today

Not to send off any pretty paper products, but rather to get something I have been putting off for SO LONG!!

My Passport!!!!

Image Via Soda Head

Yesterday my boss called and asked if I had a valid passport... we have a new project in Canada and guess what?

I can't go!

I should have gotten one a long time ago - and it hasn't ever prevented me from doing my job until now...

This incident coupled with our international honeymoon {YAY!!!} has forced me to kick myself in the butt and check this off my to-do list already!!

Some tips for those of you who still need to get your (first) passport:

• 
  
  Fill out the application online {here} and print it out


• 
  
  Find an Agency or Acceptance Facility


• 
  
  Get your picture taken according to {these} guidelines OR expect to pay a fee to have it done at an your acceptance facility (note: they don't all offer this service)


• 
  
  Make a copy of your Drivers License, front & back


• 
  
  Obtain an original copy of your Birth Certificate - they send the original with your application so make sure you can part with it until they return it.

Currently the expected wait time is 4 to 6 weeks.... I paid a $60 expediting fee and an additional $15 for overnight mail service so I could get my passport ASAP... I was told to expect 2 to 3 weeks and given some tracking information so I can see how far my application has made it through 'the system'

I also had to modify my application when I was turning it in because my mom had her Maiden Name on my birth certificate and that apparently is what I should have put on my application even though my mom DID change her name before I was born...

No biggie - and the guy taking my appilcation was really nice about everything...

Oh, and they gave me a copy of my passport photo to keep...

Enjoy:

Personal Photo

Have you checked anything off your to-do list lately?

Cone of Shame - A Tutorial

Image Via Daily Classic Disney

SQUIRREL!!!

Pardon me while I laugh for a bit... You know you loved UP too so whatevs...

Anyways... As promised, I figured out how to DIY the Pew Cones...

To start out I bough a few yards of Burlap at Joann's.... My store had a few different shades available... and was priced at $4/ yard (less if you use a coupon!!)

*Point of clarification - I am NOT an expert sew-er... one day I decided that I wanted to make some yellow bunting {which I never did} and went out and bought a $150 Singer sewing machine... I followed the instruction guide to get it threaded and ready to go - it was a lot easier that I thought it would be... I have made 2 and a half swim robes via this pattern, but that it pretty much the extent of my sewing expertise... 99% of the time I am just winging it!

Anywho...

My Pew Cone Tutorial

#1. I cut the burlap into ~1ft by 1ft squares... the burlap I bought was 24" wide so I got 6 squares per yard - which is $.66 per cone if you paid full price for the burlap.

#2. - I ironed 2 pieces of the burlap flat as best I could - note this will get a little messy - RESIST the urge to clean as you go! Just wait until you finish for the day and then you can clean... P.s. Burlap STINKS... in case you were unaware....


#3. - I used a Dixie paper plate {we get ours from Costco} to trace a circular pattern on the burlap... again -I just wing it... it's not life or death, it's a pew decoration!



#4. - I made sure that I had at least 1/2" between my drawn circle and the edge of the burlap. Oh, and the green kinda shows through, so maybe yellow or orange, or something else all together for tracing....

#5. - I got my sew on... I set the machine to do a zig-zag stitch (a very basic stitch that almost every machine will have) and I set the stitch to be slightly closer together in the length of the stitch... Burlap is an interesting fabric with it's loose weave, so the tighter zig-zag stitch should help it hold together better. Oh, and make sure you are doing your reverse stitching when you start and when you finish to keep everything from unraveling.


#6. - After sewing, I trim the excess burlap off - turning it from a square to a circle. I try to leave no more than 1/2" of excess fabric on the edges so that it will lay flat when it turn it right side out via a hole I left un-sewen. If you forget to leave the hole, just cut one close to the circle you sewed - you can patch the hole afterwards or toss the square and start over... I may have done both of those things...


#7. - Once right side out I will iron the cone again to help the edges lay flat. At this point the cone resembles somewhat of a whoopee-cushion...haha

#8. - Pin the hole closed as best you can to make a circle - you can see that mine has a bit of a wonky corner going on... oh well! It's a handmade pew decoration - no one is judging you!!!

#9. - Sew the hole closed - I try to keep the edge of the cone as close to the edge of the sewing foot as possible.

#10. At this point you can sew around the entire cone, keeping the edge close to the edge of the sewing foot, or you can choose to stop after the hole is closed. I really could not tell much of a difference with or without the extra stitching... I thought it would make the whole cone more uniform, but again - I didn't notice the difference really.... try it once and decide for yourself!

#11. - I rolled the burlap circle into a cone shape and pinned it... to be honest this is where I've stopped.... I haven't decided how I want to secure the cone together yet. I think I will probably do a few quick stitches by hand since it would be difficult to use the machine at this point.

So for now I have snagged a few Sunflowers that I bought at Michaels - The Ashland florals have been on sale for half off during September so I got this $6.99 bunch of 10 for only $3.50 OR $.35 each... and they all have 6-8" stems so its a pretty good deal for me. I originally thought that I would like baby's breath or fresh flowers, but these sunflowers really don't look overly fake at all... and to add color to our isle they will be just perfect!

I put 3 in a cone to see if I liked it.... and since my house is fresh out of pews, standing the cone up on my bar stool will have to suffice for now....

And here is a picture of a group of cones...



Overall I am completely in love! I need to sew them together... and add a ribbon bow to the front.... and then add a wide ribbon to the backs so that I can place them on the pews, but really I think half the battle is over!!



And for $1.75-$2.00 each that is well within our budget!




Have any of your DIY projects turned out better than you imagined?

Queen of the Dances

Of course I am talking about our FIRST dance...

Mr. & I both like country music - and there are tons of great 'first dance' songs to choose from...

Our favorites included:

• One Boy, One Girl - Colin Raye


• The Day Before You - Rascal Flatts


• I Love the Way You Love Me - John Michael Montgomery


• I Could Not Ask For More - Edwin McCain


• When You've Got A Good Thing - Lady A

But after a few rounds of Pandora I stumbled onto a song I had never heard before....




Keeper of the Stars by Tracy Byrd

If you, like me, have never heard the song you should at least give it 60 seconds of your time...

I have a huge soft spot for songs that reference fate... in this song Tracy says "It was no accident, me finding you.... someone had a hand in it, long before we ever knew..."

A lot of things in my life lined up just so to get me where I am today - for example I switched schools my senior year, and ended up with a scholarship to a college offering my degree, which never would have happened if I hadn't decided to live with my mom when she and my dad split... So while some people might be upset that there parents split up, I look back and with an "everything happens for a reason attitude"

So, that was my top choice for a LONG time... but then I heard that George Strait was coming to Salt Lake City and knew that tickets to his concert would make the PERFECT Valentines Day gift... {it was}

And whenever someone has a concert our local radio stations play their music non-stop.... and they bring up new songs that you haven't heard in like *forever*... and that's when I remembered:



I Just Want to Dance With You by George Strait

Pretty much the most perfect song *EVER*

I love how upbeat it is... makes you want your dance partner to twirl you around... oh yes... I can't wait to Just Dance with Him...

How'd you pick your first dance song??

Michaels JACKPOT

Man guys! I hit it big time at Michaels the other day...

I went to find supplies for a replacement wreath for our front door... embarrassingly enough we have had our 'Spring' wreath on the door since March... haha


Of course I made sure to bring a coupon with me... I don't know how I can possibly stress this enough... you can ALWAYS get a better deal - BRING.A.COUPON!!!

A lot of times things I am planning on getting are already on sale... so the coupon doesn't apply... which means I get to look around for more crafts! {please tell me I'm not alone here - craft stores are addicting}

Here is what I found:

Personal Photo

Apparently my local store carries glass bowls VERY similar to the ones I want to use for our centerpieces like I wrote about here. The exciting part is that these 10" bowls only cost $7.99 each!


Plus, I used my coupon and brought it down to only $3.99! AMAZING... plus I figure if I buy them one at a time at that price then I would save nearly $150 on my center pieces... If that's not hitting the crafting jackpot well I don't know what is!

Personal Photo

I even put a few of my sunflowers in the bowl to make sure that they're big enough - they totally are! We'll use floating lillies, but I did need to make sure this would work.

Personal Photo

And here is my receipt for proof of awesome prices!

Plus, they only had 6 in the store when I was there so I asked to see if they would be getting more... apparently starting the first week of October - Michaels will start taking special orders of items they normally carry... Check it out with your store if you are interested - might be a great way to get some wedding supplies...

P.s. Michaels is really close to my house... so multiple trips are not out of the question

Have you had any great craft finds lately??

About A Guest List

Image via Destination Wedding Mag

We knew that we wanted to have a large wedding... so we made sure to book a venue capable of holding at least 200 people... but eventually we would have to make a guest list and get a real head count...

For me, this was pretty easy... my family tree is about this big:

Image Via Doorship Shopping Network

And since I have moved all around the country I have lost touch with a lot of high school and college friends - that coupled with the fact that most people will have to travel, I really am not expecting a huge turn out on my behalf - just the people who matter most I guess....

He on the other hand has a family tree that resembles:

Image Via MyClipta

Yeah.... pretty much the BIGGEST family tree in the world... He has 3 sisters and a brother.... his parents both have 6 or 7 siblings each and all the generations that come with that... plus, as planned, the majority will likely be able to attend since we're having the wedding in California where they all live...

Over Easter this year He sat down with his mom and made up a list... by hand... and I was left with the lovely task of entering it into a digital form of some sort...

I chose TheKnot.com 's online guest list tracker by random - I just happened to be on their site working on my budget when I noticed that they had the guest list feature. I started using it to get a better idea of who I wanted to invite and before I knew it I had already listed out 60 guests!!!

After entering His list into mine we currently have 207 people to invite!!! And that's just round 1!

Some of my favorite features of this tool, if you enter the info in properly:

• I know how many invitation I will need to send: currently 101



• I can export the list into Excel: that way I can email to FMIL to help track down some addresses
  


• I can sort by A list and B list guest : not to be snobby!! I just use it to rank likelihood that people will attend
  


• I can track who has RSVP'ed - and who we've sent thank you notes to
  


• The list links directly into a digital seating chart that you can use to arrange your venue layout!



• I can group guests, like "my family" "his family"... etc

And the only thing I currently do not care for is that I can't (or haven't figured out how to) separate a group so that kids can sit separate from adults, or wedding party guest can sit with us at the 'head table'.... but other than that I LOVE the extra organization that TheKnot.com 's guest list tracker has to offer!

How are you managing to keep track of your guests?

Curls that last ALL Day

For anyone who might be planning to DIY your hair in a curly style.... or heck, just likes curls...

I.MUST.LET.YOU.IN.ON.MY.SECRET



Personal Photo - My Conair Curling Iron

This is probably my best kept secret to having curly hair that lasts all day long...The spiral that winds up the middle helps seal the curl in it's ringlet form...

trust me - it's like magic!

Oh, and sorry mom - I may have wrongfully appropriated this from you and ummm have no idea where it was originally purchased ...oops!


First: I start by sectioning off my DRY hair {and yes, it might be easier with clips and a better camera}

Second: I run my finger through each ringlet after I've curled it and then let it sit undisturbed for at least 20 minutes so it can 'set'

Third: Once I've allowed some time for the curls to settle I flip my head upside down, shake my hair out, and run my fingers through the curls to break them up a little bit.

My hair will lasst like this for the entire day WITHOUT sprays or gels... and any time a curl looks a little flat or lack-luster all I have to do is run my finger around it in a spiral to 'help' it back into it's original form - which actually holds because of the original curling process...

P.s. My hair is natually a frizzy pain in the tush, not curly or straight - so results may vary, I suggest trial runs!

*all photos are personal - and low quality, I know!*

Two Tickets to Paradise

One of the hard parts of my job is that at times I have to travel away from home... the only upside to the travel is that we get to keep all of our travel frequent flyer points... for airfare, hotels, rental cars etc.

Lots of travel = Lots of points

Mr. & I have made plans to use there points a few times - trip to Alaska.... trip to New York.... trip to Vegas... etc.

And each time something has come up to prevent us from leaving


*Huge Frowny Face*


So my Delta Skymiles has been growing for quite some time... and now we have enough miles to go to:

Alaska - Via Alaska Fishing Charter

OR

Hawaii - Via Go4Less

OR Even

Paris!!! - Via Hotel Pulitzer

Delta has a non-stop flight from Salt Lake City to Paris ... so the number of miles per flight is only 60,000 or 120,000 for us both... and really, we don't want to spend our honeymoon in France.... we'd much rather be in Italy... but we'll book the free flight to Paris and take a less expensive hopper to Rome... or Venice... or Milan...

SO.MANY.OPTIONS!!!

Now to just get our passports.... hmm....

Where are you planning your post-wedding getaway?

I don't like to talk about my {wedding day} flair

Image via Cynic Critics

Of all the dresses I tried on before I found *mine* my favorite was a classic, completely plain, A-line Paloma Blanca dress... with just a little bit of crystal flair:

Personal Photo

I think what I liked the most was that the dress was classic - I didn't feel like I was wearing my prom dress in white... my problem was that I just had not tried on enough dresses! So I booked a few more appointments....

And when I found a beautiful Allure dress that fit my style and budget I snatched it up... the only down side was the lack of that crystal flair I liked on the Paloma...

Enter : Etsy - the solution to all problems bridal

Here's what I've found thus far....

$97 - Tatishotties Bridal Room's Etsy Shop

$64 - Jurgita Handmade's Etsy Shop

$40 - The Wish Jar's Etsy Shop

$40 - Pretty by Susan's Etsy Shop

$65 - Tatishotties Bridal Room's Etsy Shop

$108 - Sparkly Bits's Etsy Shop

I have a while until my dress will arrive {January?}... so until then I will be trying to find the perfect flair for my dress... I think I am going to have the seamstress attach it to the bodice rather than tying on a sash...

Straight to the Bank

Image Via The One In Pink

When we got engaged back in November of 2010 we had enough money to get married right then... But that was because we had been saving for a house...

For me, having an asset, something physical to hold on to was more important than a big fancy party {at the time}.... We had been looking at homes and together decided to let the house be the priority....

Plus the more and more I read, it seemed like having over a year to plan would allow us to get all the top vendors we wanted.


So how did we save up $10,000 over the last 10 months?? Well here is our list of tips:

First, we opened an account in both of our names - JUST a savings account... no cards to allow quick withdrawals... but with both our names on it we could set up automatic payments from our personal accounts.

Second, EVERY check we got went into that account - EVERY SINGLE ONE!! Our tax refunds, my shopping rebates, birthday money, returned deposits... ALL of them!

Third, at the end of each month any extra money we had after paying the bills, less $200 for spending money, went straight into the wedding account.

Fourth, all extra money we've gotten like bonuses from work, have also gone to savings.

Saving isn't easy, but there are ways to make it go smoother...

What method of savings worked best for you?

Pew Cones

Remember our pretty little church.... and all those pews???

Personal Photo

Our church does have some pretty strict rules about the amount and types of decorations
we are allowed to have....

No isle runners... no candles... and NO messes!!

And while I am sure we will have some type of alter floral arrangements, I have had a hard time imagining what the isle might look like... it NEEDS something... and until I found burlap cones I didn't know what could complete the overall look I wanted.

Image Via Weddingbee

Image Via Lost in Relocation

Look at that eye candy! Are those not just the prettiest burlap cones you have ever seen?

Okay, okay... I exaggerate sometimes, but really they do have very nice visual appeal... and will tie nicely around our church's pews...

I have decided this weekend will be spent trying to DIY these babies... and although I have yet to find a pattern I am pretty sure I can wing it!

Wish me Luck!!

Have you figured out all our ceremony decorations? Are you limited by your venue too?

Am I Really a Budget Bride?

Yes, I am a Bride...


Oh, and of course there IS a Budget...


But where is the cut-off that qualifies you for being a 'budget' bride per say?

We are paying for the wedding ourselves... and we aren't planning on having any other family members be able to contribute...

I know that 'tradition' says that the Bride's family is suppose to pay for the wedding, but to be honest I never expected that they would... we did well as a family growing up, but after my parents split up, and I got older, I started to understand that there wasn't a cushy bank account with my name on it... no, my parents were just average Joes and money doesn't grow on trees... at least not the ones in our backyard!!

Image via Diamond Wedding Band

I loved the series of Father of The Bride movies.... ultimately I am glad I don't have to put my parents through that stress!

My dad and stepmom will be flying to California from Alaska - the current ticket price is nearly $700... So with Lodging, Rental Cars, Attire, etc they will probably be spending at least $2000 just to be with us on our Big Day...

My madre and sister have to travel from New York - their tickets are running $520 right now, so probably $1500 for the trip....

Gas from Salt Lake to California is probably $300 to $500 so the rest of my will also be paying quite a bit to join us as well....

While it would be nice to have an additional $4000 to help with wedding costs I would MUCH rather have my family present.


Now.... we have been quite lucky that HIS parents have offered to cover the alcohol at the reception, which could easily be $500 to $1000, we will still be holding that money to the side in case they have a financial emergency or something...

Same goes for my mom - remember that $2,000 dress I fell in love with? Well... I may still be eyeing it.... And while she has offered to split it with me, I would rather her not have to shell out any more cash than she already has too....


And as far as being a "Budget Bride"... well since when is $10,000 SMALL price to pay...

I feel like it is a TON of money...

We have it.... in the bank... right now....

but that is because we waited an additional YEAR to get married.... The was the choice we made so that we could save up, but even now with the money waiting to be spent it is still quite hard to part with....

Do You Have A Budget? Are Your Family Members Planning on Helping You Out??

DIY Mason Jars

Image via Style Me Pretty

Seems like every wedding site or blog I visit has photos of pretty blue mason jars.

And while these are totally drool worthy and I love them, they would stick out like a sore thumb at our wedding.... blue is just not one of our colors...

I had seen a couple tutorials for how to do the blue coloring and figured if blue can be done, why not yellow??

Turns out it is ridiculously EASY to do.... here's how:


First you need to get the glass paint....

I got mine at Michael's.

All photos are personal unless noted

YOU.SHOULD.NEVER.GO.WITHOUT.A.COUPON!

Seriously, you can ALWAYS get 40% off - even if you have to bring a competitors coupon, please don't pay full price.

I got Pebeo paints in the Clear Thinner, Lemon #30 (frosted) and Sun Yellow #01 (glossy)... each were less than $3 after coupons.

I also picked up half a dozen jars - since this was a test run I didn't get too many, just a few to test out different combinations of thinner and color - the color paint by itself is STRONG... My fave mixture was about half and half of each....

The great thing about mason jars is that you can usually find them at your local thrift store - ours were just a quarter a piece!! SCORE!

To apply the glass paint I used a *cheap* sponge brush and an old {clean} lid from a tub of butter as my paint holder...

I placed my hand in the mouth of the jar, and applied the paint in streaks from bottom to mouth of the jar to keep the inevitable streak lines consistent. And let them dry on a sheet of aluminium foil to protect my counters. The paint drys to the touch quickly, but you should let them sit overnight.

The photo does not really catch the shine of the Sun Yellow jars or the awesome frost look of the Lemon jars, but this project really did turn out neat.

Here is a quick picture of the 'streak' effect I saw... nothing off-putting or anything.

I figure the total cost to make 25 jars would be about 61 cents per jar!! Not bad if I do say so myself!

Oh, and there are instructions on the glass paint to Bake the jars once they dry - if you bake them they become dishwasher safe... how cool right?

I think ours would look great with a large bunch of white carnations.... but I imagine there are tons of uses - like to hold fancy straws or ribbon wands.... etc

Plus there are thousands of color options!

Dressing the Tables

Being indecisive AND being depended on to have all the answers has made the whole wedding-planning process pretty tough...

I feel like everyone expects me to already know exactly what I want for each and every detail... like this is the 100th wedding I've planned - psh!

Most days I don't even know which shirt I am going to wear to work!!!

When we met with our venue over the Labor Day weekend we were filled in on a lot more of the details - like table sizes, linen availability, set-up proceedures, etc.

Provided for use are 5 foot round tables and a whole slew of Fugly Blue chairs like these:

Image via Sams Club

We also have some discount linen available to us... tablecloths for $4 a piece and napkins for $.25 each...

Only problem is that the color of the tablecloths is limited to White, Ivory, Red and Black... None of which really line up with our color scheme... so we tried to find some rental linen and they best we were able to find was about $20 per tablecloth from a rental company over 100 miles away!!

Not.A.Viable.Option.

So I searched for Discount Linen or Bulk Linen or Wedding Linen on google.... I found these:

Image via Linen Tablecloth

I really like how the organza adds color while still being inexpensive! If you purchase 25 of these they are only $4.71 each - or $4.23 when you register and use a discount code - oh and shipping for 25 is free!!

So for $8.25 I can get an ivory table cloth from our venue AND these pretty overlays!! And who knows, I might even be able to re-sell some to re-coup the costs!

Next up was Napkins:

Image via Linen Tablecloth

The same company that sells the overlays also has Napkins for pretty cheap too... These yellow ones are 12 for $5.99 or 50 cents each... that is twice what our venue would charge us, so buying napkins is still up in the air - I am pretty sure I could resell these as well, but maybe it is not worth the hassel??

Image via Save on Crafts

At the center of our tables I imagine slabs of wood like the ones above. From Save on Crafts these would cost you $36 a piece! Thank Goodness that we have some loggers in the family!! So these will be for free for us... actually - with the resell value we will probably make money, which is nice for a change!

Image via Save on Crafts

To top the pretty wooden slabs I think the glass bowls pictured above would be perfect... I think these filled with water and a few floating lilies like these:


Image via Save on Crafts

Three of these floating lilies and the bowl would cost $5.07 and $7.49 ... but shipping from Save on Crafts is pretty spendy... to my home shipping is $2.71 per bowl!! WOW!

I would like to have some candles on the tables as well - but they are not allowed... I still feel like the table is lacking something.... maybe some pretty table number/menu frames??

Image via IKEA

So far my cost per table break down looks like this:





Tablecloth - $4.00
Overlay - $4.23
Napkins (8) - $2.00
Wood Slabs - $0.00
Glass Bowls - $7.49+2.71
Lilies - $5.07
Menu Frame - $.99


------------------------


Total: $26.49 x 24 tables = $635.76








Does that seem reasonable?





P.s. - oh and the fugly chairs, I'm not sure we can afford to do anything about them *huge frowny face* ... my plan is just to embrace the fugly