***SALE: Check out my half off sale I'm running in the classifieds this week: http://www.projectwedding.com/post/list/sale-custom-invitations-half-off***

Taylored Designs, my online graphic design store, is now open! (http://www.etsy.com/shop/tayloredpaperdesigns) I'm doing custom stationary designs while building my store "inventory," and I'm offering discounts and awesome offers for all my PW brides. Contact me for any of your stationary needs:

• monograms
• STDs
• wedding invitations and inserts
• thank you cards
• shower invitations
• rehearsal dinner invitations
• wedding signs
• ...and anything else you can come up with!

Samples:

Vintage fruit crate label Save the Date

"Confetti" monogram

Literature Lover wedding invitation set

Bubbly Baroque Invitation

 Poster Birthday Invitation: Dirty 30 Celebration

The day of my wedding was magical, perfect, and exactly what I wanted. Being organized and thorough meant prepping for the wedding and setting everything up the day before went well, even with a few mishaps, and I was able to go into the big day with an attitude of whatever happens, happens.

After spending the morning with my bridesmaid and best friend Jacinda - eating a one-on-one breakfast at Perkins, putting the finishing touches on the reception hall, and hanging out at my favorite coffee shop, we started the prep phase off at the church getting makeup and hair done:

Before makeup :)

After makeup :)

While we were getting pretty, the guys were showing up for the lunch we had prepared in the kitchen, and everyone did all they could to make sure Aaron and I weren't in one of the common rooms at the same time. If one of us was going into the hall or dining area of the church, we enlisted the help of our bridal party to forewarn the other of our whereabouts.

After lunch, I received my second bride's gift from DH (the first was a pair of running shoes the night before) and I sent the ring bearers with a backpack full of hiking gear for Aaron:

The guys proceeded to finish getting ready and went upstairs to take photos while we girls had some downtime (see Formal Shots from Wedding for photos we took at this time). About 15 minutes before it was the girls' turn for photos, they decided to try and get the dress on me:

My various reactions after putting on the dress. I did get overwhelmed and I started to cry, but my older ring bearer fanned my face to dry my tears.

I had a lot of fun taking photos with my bridesmaids and family members, although I missed out on taking photos upstairs with my ring bearers because this was the condition of one of them:

After we went back downstairs to the girls' room where we were getting ready, the ring bearer's mom decided he needed a little help to keep him awake the rest of the day:

Yep, that's a pixie stick!

After the girls took our turn getting professional photos taken, our wedding coordinator came by with the marriage certificate for me to sign:

Can you see how excited I was after I signed it? :) I look like I'm doing some spazzy version of the robot.

About 30 minutes before the ceremony, all of my college friends showed up downstairs to wish me good luck and we had a room full of people enjoying ourselves.

With the ceremony just minutes away, I sent my friends upstairs to find their spots in the sanctuary while I prepared to take my place on the stairs. At this point, one of the bridesmaids tells me I have a new text message on my phone. Fourteen minutes before the ceremony starts, I start crying when I get a text message from DH:

It says "Through clear skies and squalls." A reference to Wedding Crashers, which makes it funny, but it's something we've always said to each other, which is why I started to cry.

At this point the wedding coordinator puts us in our positions and I stand at the bottom of the stairs waiting for my turn to go down the aisle, feeling more than a little like I could throw up :).

After the bridal party, including my adorable ring bearers, make their way down the aisle, it's my turn and I'm overcome with emotion:

Did I mention the little angel on the left burst into tears when he found out his father (the best man) was going to hold on to the rings and not him? He didn't understand why his pillow was going to have fake rings on it. So, we compromised - I knotted (and I mean really knotted) my engagement ring to the pillow and left the wedding rings with the best man. This awesome photo is of our darling nephew holding the pillow upside down, but my engagement ring remained securely fastened to the pillow. :)

(I like his reaction a lot)

The ceremony itself was beautiful, and I loved that DH and I wrote our own vows. I cried when he spoke his to me, and the tears were flowing all around when our wonderful soloist performed.

Before I knew it though, it was time to kiss and head back down the aisle:

Since we didn't use our furbaby Junior as one of the ring bearers, he was our escort for the grand exit out of the church. And let me tell you, he took his job very seriously. Instead of hopping into a getaway car, we went for a walk with our dog, just like we would do any other day (except this time in our wedding garb, getting a few odd looks from people driving by).

After coming back to the church and taking still more formal shots, we were off to the reception, which was an absolute blast. After our introduction, we got through a lot of the formal stuff pretty fast to leave time for having fun later:

Our first dance

Cutting the cake

Anniversary dance - we knew his grandparents had been married the longest, but we weren't sure we'd get them on the dance floor. It turns out they hadn't danced in 40 years but they got on the floor for us. This photo is Grandpa celebrating when everyone clapped for them. He walked around after that shaking everyone's hands with tears running down his face (they're celebrating 64 years this summer).

We ate a delicious meal, had great dessert - although most of our gourmet chocolates were gone by the time we arrived - and spent the entire night running around having the best time with our guests. Everyone, literally everyone, remarked on how beautiful the decor was and how perfect everything went. The kids played all night with all the toys we'd gotten for them and people of all ages attacked the candy buffet - here in Iowa they've never heard of such a thing. Even my father, not one to be emotional or compliment people, couldn't stop talking about how absolutely perfect everything was. The food, the candy buffet, the flip flop basket, the toys, the drinks, everything. People wanted recipes for the food, they wanted to know where I got the kiwi lemonade, they wanted to literally buy all of my decor from me. Everyone talked about what a wonderful time they had the entire night. It got really fun as things got later, however, and for the first time in my life my father and brother both got on the dance floor:

Me with my older brother Jace

My father on the dance floor after he requested Johnny Cash. I don't know what dance this is he's doing ;).

By the end of the night, we were tired, but we still spent several hours at an after party with our friends before collapsing in the beautiful hotel suite we had for the night. I'm sure if I thought about it for a while I could come up with a list of things I wish had been better, but they're so insignificant when compared to how wonderful the day went, so I'm walking away with no regrets and a wonderful husband I can't wait to celebrate 64 years with.

Friday, May 29, 2009 (Reception Set up and Rehearsal):

After getting an entire week off from work before the wedding to nail down any last-minute details, I felt pretty calm the day before getting married - not to mention hyper organized! Each box packed with reception hall materials was labeled and a master list detailed all the items inside. I had a master plan for how we were going to set up on Friday, and I actually thought that's how it would go. Considering I had a dozen people helping with the setup, however, my plan had to be quickly adjusted the day of to accomodate people wanting to do everything for me.

The only problem of the day? We discovered that the hall had five 72-inch round tables that had to be used - I had planned on putting them away and using only the 60-inch round tables. Unfortunately, the larger round tables didn't fold up, so we were left with two options: use them, or spend hours unscrewing their legs and rolling them out of the hall, bringing them home to my parents house (no storage at the hall big enough to place them).

This is me with my cousin Katie, ready to freak out over the table situation. My linen lady had no additional tablecloths for the larger tables, and my father's only suggestion was to use them without linens. Within 10 minutes of arriving, I saw all of my detailed plans beginning to unravel until Katie, much more composed than me, called the local party supply store and got linens for the tables at $5 each. And we're back in business!

Initially, everyone else was supposed to unpack the boxes and let me do the detailed set up that I had practiced. Instead, I found myself relaxing throughout the day, letting go of the control, and telling people to set up the decorations as they saw fit (except for the centerpieces - I set up sample tables of my two centerpieces and let everyone else imitate them on the rest of the tables). I figured I could always change what I didn't like later. Surprisingly, I liked most of what everyone else did and changed very little - it turns out a fresh eye can always help you make your original vision even better!

What the hall looked like after 12 people worked for 3.5 hours while eating a lot of pizza (a mix of unprofessional and professional shots ahead):

view from above:

welcome table:

guest tables:

On the guest table, we had these welcome notes:

dessert table:

Head table (no shots of just the table, but it's in plenty of reception photos):

On the head table, we had these name tags:

candy buffet:

After setting up the hall, I had to run over to check into the hotel room that I was staying in with my bridesmaids before running back over to the church to decorate it for the ceremony. Fortunately, setting it up only took approximately 30 minutes:

First, the church itself:

I laid out the corsages and bouts on wood slices in the appropriate places for people to put them on:

We set up the birch aisle decor down the center aisle:

We set up memorial candles and a plant for the unity ceremony:

Front view of the memorial candle:

At the table near the entrance, we set up bubbles, a card box, and the programs:

The sign letting people know about the memorial candles:

The bubbles:

The moss letters went on the doors leading into the sanctuary:

After a quick decorating session, it was on to rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. A few highlights:

- During rehearsal, their sound system kept screeching at us. At that point we thought our options for the day of was to go without microphones or run the risk of hearing that noise during our ceremony.

- At the rehearsal dinner, which was amazing, we spent the night playing arcade games and eating delicious food. The in-laws suprised us with the decorations - since DH and I play MarioKart so much, it was a MarioKart themed dinner, complete with a real MarioKart track for us to play with and DH's MarioKart groom's cake (which was actually a fake tiered cake I constructed that was filled with his favorite desserts made by his mom and grandma). We also spent the night racing the go-karts the place had. (I'll put up pics of this night soon).

More to come!

Aaron with the ringbearers

Aaron with his grandparents

Me with the bridesmaids

Me with my dad

Me with my parents and brothers

Aaron with his brother and best man

Aaron with his family

Goofy bridal party shot

Me with my mom and Aunt Karen

Bridesmaid Kara (SIL) with Groomsman Michael (they'll be married next May)

Me, pretending to be a model

More to come!

Ceremony/Reception Decor:

My fiance Aaron is currently working at ChildServe, working with disabled individuals under age 21, and attending college full-time at Iowa State. He'll finish his degree in disabilities services in two years. I just finished my master's degree from Iowa State and am currently employed as a communications specialist for ISU Extension. Aaron and I both share a love for playing with our puppy, Junior; spending time with our families; working out and staying active; doing things outdoors, and researching/learning about all of our interests. 

The story of how Aaron and I met is interesting and involves me wearing a bikini. As an undergrad, I went to college with Aaron's younger sister, Kara. While in grad school at Iowa State, I spent many weekends up at UNI visiting with my boyfriend and friends who were still in school there. Kara started inviting her brother to come up for visits and to set him up with a friend of hers, of which the first visit entailed boating on the river and meeting Aaron while in my bikini. The second time we saw each other, at Halloween, we were both still in relationships, but we enjoyed a growing friendship. Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to talk to each other again until January. In the meantime, we both became single and went on with our schooling (I was attending school in Ames and he was in Cedar Rapids). In January, he sent me a random message via Facebook just to be playful. After a couple of days of messaging each other online rapidly, we realized our playful messages seemed to be a sign of something more. A week of phone calls and messaging later and we had decided we had each found our soulmate. We spent the rest of the semester driving two hours each weekend to see each other, and at the end of the semester, after I graduated from Iowa State, Aaron transferred there to finish college as I started my first full-time job, with ISU. We moved into an apartment together and added another member to our family, a dachsund who we named Henry Jones Jr.

I should say that officially I've had two proposals, and I've said yes both times. Now, I've always considered myself to be a terribly practical person, especially when it comes to romance, but because of Aaron I now believe in love at first sight (or third sight technically). When Aaron and I began talking to each other from a distance and realized we had been waiting for each other, he proposed before we'd even gone out on our first date, and within a week of talking to each other. I didn't hesitate in saying yes, and we began plans for moving wherever was necessary to be together. After five months of dating, we decided to make the engagement official. After asking both my parents for their permission to marry their daughter, he asked me to meet him at our favorite chocolate shop in town where we could have gelato on a hot summer day. Once there, he took out a gorgeous ring and asked me again to be his wife - again, I didn't hesitate in saying yes.

Wedding Date: May 30, 2009

Wedding Location: Burlington, IA

Wedding Style: modern rustic

Wedding Buzz Words: woodsy, whimsical, simple, nature, rustic, fun, quirky

Wedding Motif: Ferns, Moss, Birch, Mushrooms, and Birds - anything woodsy and whimsical

Wedding Colors: Chartreuse green and shades of brown and white

Matron of Honor: my mother, Diana

Bridesmaids: Jacinda, my best friend, Kara, friend and Aaron's sister

Best Man: Peter, Aaron's brother

Groomsmen: Michael, friend of couple, and Travis, Aaron's best friend

Ushers: my brothers, Luke and Jace

Ring Bearers: Aaron's nephews, Alex and Daniel, and our puppy, Junior

We'd like to get married in the First Presbyterian Church in my hometown. I've had a couple of cousins get married there before, and it's a gorgeous church, both inside and outside. It's also three blocks from the hall where we want to have the reception, so it seems like the perfect match.

This is an interior shot of Hibernia Hall, a reception hall that was converted from an old Catholic Church that was going to be demolished. The renovations were complete in fall 2006, so we're looking at brand new hardwood floors, along with the beautiful existing architecture (and stained glass windows!). The facility itself is beautiful, but simple enough to go with our clean, modern theme (I actually think it will be a fun juxtaposition to have a "modern" wedding in an old church). A friend told me about this place right when I was about to give up on finding an affordable place, but this hall is perfect. The capacity is more than what we need, with all the right ammenities, and we can bring in our own caterer/liquor - and all for only $400! The kitchen is small, but we wanted to serve a meal that was fresh and healthy, so there's going to be no cooking required, which definitely works with a small kitchen!

We want to have a fresh, healthy menu for people to eat buffet style so no one has to feel weighed down with a lot of heavy food, like a meat and potatoes kind of meal. The menu is shaping up now, and this is what we've decided upon based on our most recent meeting:

Appetizers:

• tortilla rollups
• meat and cheese kabobs
• vegetable tray

Presentation is just as important to me as the food tasting good, so everything will be served in either white or wood bowls, plates, trays, etc. Since we're having a caterer coming in from where my mom works, we're going to purchase the serving tools ourselves so that we'll have things we like for future use. I like serving food in unique, attractive ways to make the buffet look as good as it tastes.

Main Menu:

• chicken salad crouissant sandwiches
• roast beef ciabattas
• fruit salad
• corn salad
• Greek couscous salad
• pita triangles with various dip - spinach and artichoke, ranch, hummus, and tzaziki

Rather than have a traditional tiered wedding cake, we want to have a single decorated tier in the middle of a dessert buffet.  We've decided the dessert buffet will include the following:

• small cake (for 1st anniversary): raspberry lemon
• two large single-layer cakes: carrot cake with cream cheese and chocolate with buttercream
• two pie flavors: apple and black cherry
• three New York-style cheesecakes with various toppings: nuts, cherry, raspberry, caramel, and chocolate
• gourmet chocolates from the gelato shop where FI proposed
• a tiered dessert tray with chocolate mushrooms

The two "wood slices" in this photo will have the larger cakes on them.

The smaller cake will go on this cake stand:

The chocolate mushrooms will look something like this (hopefully), except not a lollipop and with a green top:

Candy Bar Inspiration:

Candy Bar Candy:

• gummy frogs (green and white)
• jelly bellies (juicy pear flavor)
• chocolate and yogurt covered raisins
• gumballs (sour apple)
• chocolate lollipops - mushrooms, owls, and squirrels
• licorice (sour apple)
• old fashioned candy sticks (rootbeer and lime flavors)
• white rock candy sticks

Candy Bar Containers:

Candy Bar Bags:

Candy Bar Sign:

We finally figured out what my mother will wear as my matron of honor. She chose separates from the Alfred Angelo line:

This skirt in the color shown (kiwi).

With this top in the white shown, with a matching shawl.

This is what the bridesmaids are wearing.

Edit: The girls will be carrying Bibles down the aisle, although I might decorate them. I'll be carrying a bouquet that an Etsy seller is making for me. This is a bouquet of hers that I've asked her to imitate:

The end result:

Depending on the style of the dress, I'd like to have my hair in a low, simple chignon or have half up with my natural curls flowing down my back.

Examples:

No flower girls since we don't have any little darlings of the appropriate age in our family and we think it's pointless to have a little girl in the wedding party if you barely know her (a casual friend's daughter or something), we're opting not to have one at all. Instead, we're having three ring bearers - Aaron's two nephews and our dog Junior. We've also found a great "pillow" for one of the bearers to carry that will match our green/white color scheme as well as our modern rustic theme.

My little angel. I'm not sure if we'll have the ring bearer "pillow" on him since his little dachsund butt has a sassy little shake thanks to his squat little legs and I'm afraid it would either fall off his back or cause him to fall over. Speaking of the pillow...

It's perfect, and only $10. We're going to get it with a green ribbon so the white birch and green ribbon will work perfect together for our color scheme.

We're just starting to think about how we want the reception to look specifically, but I know I want a lot of white with those punchy midori and pear green accents. I don't like overly busy tables, and since we're having a buffet, we won't have a lot of clunky dishes and glasses at the tables. Here's what we're thinking so far:

Tables: Since we're avoiding a lot of flowers for my bridesmaid's sake, we're focusing on other "nature" elements - dried flowers, unique potted plants and leaves, skeleton leaves, moss, wheatgrass, branches, etc. We're thinking of one larger centerpiece, maybe a large glass bowl filled in various ways with "nature" objects and several smaller votives with candles and a few fresh flower buds. I'd also like to have a large leaf at each place setting where we can have a welcome note placed on top and the favors arranged around it.

A few images I like:

I like the idea in the bottom lefthand corner - putting different objects in a large round vase like this.

I would love to have a couple of spider blossoms (flowers on the left) at each table.

I love, love, love the clean, fresh look of the wheatgrass. I could grow my own centerpieces!

I love the use of dried split peas in the candle votive. Very pretty.

Since Aaron and I were plastic-recycling, canvas-bag-toting, bus-riding, farm-market-going "green" people before it was the coolest thing in the world to "go green," it was important to us that we do what we could to continue our everyday practices for this wedding. Since real china feels more snobby than I'd like (we're from Iowa and real plates and a sit down dinner are seen as kinda stuffy among our crowds) we knew we had to go with another alternative, but plastic plates, cups, and silverware weren't something I was willing to do (we gave up using disposable dinnerware a long time ago). A little searching online, and behold, biodegradable plates and cups (made from corn) and biodegradable forks and spoons (made from wood). They'll completely decompose within two months.

The forks/spoons also look great because they're wooden and I think it adds to the modern rustic theme.

Of course, we also plan to use recycled paper for all of our paper needs - invitations, thank you notes, programs, various signs, etc. - all of which will be designed by me and printed locally. Of course we'll also forgo the inner envelope and guests will RSVP via phone, email, or on our wedding website. We're also instructing our caterer to get as many fruits and vegetables from the local farmers market as is possible. Since the ceremony and reception are only three blocks from each other, it will cut down on the amount of travel necessary, and the plan is to inspire people to walk to the reception if the weather is nice.

We also plan to have our favorite charities listed in our registries, and our honeymoon locale is in Illinois (we live right next door in eastern Iowa), in a cabin in the Shawnee National Forest - a relatively short drive from my hometown.

We're going to keep searching for ideas throughout the planning process.

We're bringing our liquor in from an outside source, so we have ultimate control over what we provide, and a limited bar will definitely save us money. We plan to do a couple of kegs of beer (my family is mostly beer drinkers) and at least a dozen bottles of wine (Aaron's family tends to drink wine), with a signature cocktail (mojito). We also plan on serving limeade, sweet tea, soft drinks, and water (plus Bug Juice for the little ones).

Since we have biodegradable cups for the beer, limeade, sweet tea and soft drinks, I needed something for the mojitos and wine (since I wasn't putting those into a clear biodegradable cup) so I decided to have pint mason jars for the mojitos and half pint mason jars for the wine. I have loved the look of putting drinks into mason jars and it works well with the "rustic" feel to our wedding.

Okay, so veeeeerrrrry simple projects. I spent last night tying raffia to my little bubble containers that people will get for when FI and I leave the church and today I created the cute little flipflop tags that will be made into stickers for the heel of each pair of flip flops. But at least by doing more than just buying things and talking about the wedding I'm actually doing something, which makes the wedding feel so much more real. I'm going to get these little $5 moss baskets to put the bubbles in, like these:

This is what the flip-flop tags will look like:

If you can't tell what it says, it's "Treat Your Tired Dancing Toes!" and of course the letter in the middle reveals the size of the flip-flops.

I was inspired by a couple of Etsy boutonnieres to create a non-floral version. In particular, I enjoyed the one that featured vintage cotton mushrooms like these:

Bout/Corsage Inspiration:

Version One:

Meh. Too sparse. I like the mushrooms, but the feathers aren't the same spotted ones I like in the inspiration photos and the fake leaves look, well, fake.

Version Two:

I like the new velvet leaves and the addition of the dried billy button, but they still don't come together completely. I ordered new flowers and brown, smaller mushrooms, plus the spotted feathers I like.

Version Three (final):

Perfect! I added the spotted feathers, brown mushroom, and new white flowers and I really liked the result. I threw in a few dried fern leaves (leftover from centerpieces) and shortened the stem part of the bout.

I finally found shoes that I like and think will go well with the dress, and for only $40! They've got a slight vintage flair to them, the appropriate detailing on the toe, and a relatively low heel. Yay!

As for jewelry, I won't need a necklace because of the high neck collar on the dress, but I do have a pearl bracelet that I bought with the dress, and I'll likely get very small pearl earrings to match.

We're having two different centerpieces on the guest tables. Half of the tables will have birch bark vases with moss and dried larkspur, like this:

The other tables will have a centerpiece with a cake stand and bell jar:

I'll post pictures of them after I print them out and put them together completely, but here are the computer versions:

the invitation:

the rsvp insert:

the directions insert:

the reception insert:

I'll use a couple of different fern stamps to put a white fern leaf on the right hand corner of the rsvp and reception inserts. The three inserts will be tied together with raffia and everything will go into a kraft brown #10 business size envelope that opens on the shorter end. I'll be using a wrap around label on the outside of the envelope.