Signs, Signs, Everywhere There's Signs

Inspiration. Via Homegrown Wedding.

Now I know I'm not going to be the first bride to do this, mainly because the reason I'm doing it is because I've seen pictures of other brides doing it and clearly just want to steal the idea, but I'm having homemade signs at my wedding!

Those are my actual signs. Well, some of them. I have 4 of them done so far, with 4 more on backorder. No, not backorder from a store, these are homemade, yo! My Grandude has been cutting old fence posts, drilling the holes in the top for ribbon, and painting them white. Then AOB has been stenciling on the wording. They honestly look better than I thought they would! Not that I thought they would look bad, but that just means I think they look pretty awesome and I'm very impressed with their handywork.

I don't know what it is about backyard weddings that scream (to me) "You need signs!" Clearly it's not because our yard is so big they won't be able to find the different activities throughout the night. But, they're cute, and for some reason I feel they are very necessary. So, I'm having signs out front that point to the backyard where the wedding will be, signs that say "cocktails", "ceremony", "reception", and even some that mark off where the bathrooms and the smoking area will be*.

There was a slight dilemma that arose when we were trying to figure out how to stick them in the ground. Grandude refused to attach stakes to them because he said the wood of the signs would split (he's probably right). Then I had an "ah-ha" moment and remembered I bought a bunch of shepherd's hooks from Dollar Tree a few months ago. Done! So that's why the holes were drilled and I just finished attaching the ribbon to the tops of the 4 I have so they can be hung directly from shepherd's hooks. These are shepherd's hooks, if you're not in the know:

Via Google Images

You like??

-C
xxx

*Smokers take note - yes, there will be a smoking area. Grandude has emphysema and can't breathe in the smoke. Plus, well, I'm not a fan either!

Wife Chop

In case you're unaware, a "wife chop" is when, after getting married and usually having grown one's hair for many many months for the big day, the now wife basically just goes crazy and chops off all her hair. Ok maybe not that extreme, but a lot of times it involves chopping one's hair off by, at least what she'll consider, a lot. I like my hair long, so I didn't think I'd get the urge to do it, but it all of a sudden hit me the other day that I know what I want my wife chop to be! It's not going to be super drastic, but I feel like I haven't had a "styled" haircut in a while, if you know what I mean. So without further ado, I give you, my future wife chop.

The Rachel. Yup. THE Rachel. Don't pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about. It even has its own wiki. Kate Moss and Emma Watson have even gotten them in recent years. I mean, you know it's cool when other celebrities get it. The Rachel may not be as popular as it once was *cough* I totally had one in 7th grade *cough*, but it's still around, and, personally, I think it still rocks.

StyleFrizz.com

So, done and done. I'm not chopping off all my hair, but I can't wait to have a fun new 'do. Anyone else getting a wife chop?

-C
xxx

Weekend Recap

So - my fancy hat shower was this weekend! Here I am (center) with almost all of my bridal party in their hats! I highly, and I mean HIGHLY, enjoyed getting to wear a fancy hat! That dress was awesome, too, and I also wore green shoes :) (of course I did!). Check out the banner behind us that MOH Cassie (to my immediate left) sewed together herself! Yeah, she's not crafty at all... SIKE! I was amazed by all the little details she created for the shower. I wish I had a picture of the he said/she said game everyone played. Super cute! I really can't thank you enough MOH Cassie, Bridesmaid Amanda, Bridesmaid Lela, S-Dogg, Bonnie, LeighAnn and anyone else who helped with set up as well! Above and beyond!


Later that night it was off to my bachelorette party! We had some drinks at one bar, then went on to another one that no one would tell me what it was but I could tell it wasn't just any normal bar! Turns out... it was a drag bar - complete with drag queen show!!

It was HILARIOUS!! I think everyone had a really great time - myself included!! So thanks to MOH Ryann for planning my awesome party and everyone else who came out to make my night so FABULOUS!

I did make MOH Ryann do one wedding project while she was here (and she was thought she'd get away without doing one!). My favors are done - yay! They're mini candy scoops for people to take to the candy bar (aka candy buffet). I even sent them home with MOB to be stored for the wedding. I get great joy when I have things done and can take them there. That way I can't look at them or change them!

Here's hoping I can get rolling on some more projects in the next couple weeks (ummm since I only have less than 6 weeks left!!!)! I think I've just about reached a stage in my unpacking (from moving) where I'm just going to stop so I can get projects done. Unfortunately that means there's still going to be boxes everywhere for a while! Only visitors helping with wedding projects (or unpacking) are allowed from now until the wedding date! :)

-C
xxx

Don't "Répondez S’il Vous Plaît"?

Google Images

I've been told by several reliable sources (i.e., friends who have been married, other bridal bloggers) that when you send out your wedding invitations you get a FLOOD of RSVPs right away, then they trickle off, then you get another flood closer to the respond by date.

So... what happens if you don't receive the first flood?? FH sent his portion (the UK portion) of our invites out on July 6th or 7th. Not counting his groomsmen, parents, and select family members (who I know are coming), we have received one official RSVP from his side - and it was a no (a no that we already knew). I sent my invites out on July 14th and have received an average of one RSVP (per family/couple) every two days since then. At 84 invitations that went out... and 3 weeks later... that's pretty bad. I keep emailing the hotel for an updated rooming list but there haven't been that many people who have booked rooms yet either (NOTE TO THOSE ATTENDING: the group rate is only until Aug. 17th!), but I have been able to add a couple people down as a yes due to the fact that they booked a room. I don't want to be rude, I'm just scared! It's hard to plan things when you have no idea how many people are coming, you know? I completely understand situations in which people may not be sure if they can come just yet. The part I have an issue with is that I think there are a lot of people out there who just think I know they're coming. I don't intend this to sound bratty or b**chy whatsoever, but... well... I don't. Bridal party, yes. Grandparents, yes. Siblings, yes. Anyone else? I truly don't know if you're coming unless you tell me.

I think people have a hard time telling people they can't come to their wedding. I suppose it's a hard thing to tell someone. Honestly, I promise I'll understand if you can't make it! Sure, you'll be missed. Yes, I'd love it if you could make it. But I promise I won't be mad or upset if you can't make it, for whatever reason!

I know this blog only reaches like 10 people who were invited to our wedding, but I think it's a stressful topic brides deal with a lot so I just thought I'd bring it up*. Truth be told, I think it's probably the #1 stressor throughout the wedding planning process. Not just for the wedding day count, but bachelorette parties, showers, rehearsal dinners, etc. That's a lot of RSVPs to deal with, for all involved in the planning! I have seen it a lot on blogs when it's closer to a bride's wedding date and they're frantically trying to figure out who's coming to their wedding at the last minute! Not gonna lie, that sounds pretty scary to me... I only have a little over 2 weeks left until my respond by date and worry that I'm going to have to start chasing a lot of people. Fingers crossed for a super flood of RSVPs in the next 2 weeks!

Google Images

Any suggestions (or RSVPs :) ) are more than welcome!

-C
xxx

*Ok, and vent a little. I'm only slightly freaking out that less than 20 people (of the 145 invited) have RSVP'd and there are only 2 weeks left for the respond by date...

Shower/Bachelorette Party Weekend!

Sorry I've been MIA. This whole "moving" thing is cramping my style. I couldn't even go near any wedding projects until a huge chunk of the boxes were unpacked. Mainly because I A- couldn't find them and B- wouldn't have room to work on them anyway! Who wants to make pretty corsages with boxes towering all around them? Not this girl. So, since no wedding projects/planning have been going on, and lots of other stuff going on in my brain, that equals no blog posts. But guess what! My bridal shower/bachelorette party are this weekend!! I honestly cannot believe it's here already. August 7th seemed soooo far away not too long ago. And I don't feel like I've been engaged for almost a year either! Boy, time sure does fly.

As promised, here is a pic of the dress I'll be wearing to my shower this weekend.


And Bonnie came by on Saturday to finish off my hat box! This box used to be a floral hat box my Meamaw had. I really wanted a hat box to carry my hats to my shower in, and decided to use hers, then decided to cover it in green fabric (it was a bit of a "dated" floral pattern, plus I'm not too big into floral patterns... which I'm realizing is funny because my shower dress is floral, lol), then had Bonnie do it for me. :) I promise it's not as neon and stupid looking as my camera makes it out to be. (Yes, I tried with both flash and no flash. Seriously, my camera hates me.)



Here are all the hats I'm bringing to the shower! There are 4 hats in this box - a yellow one in case someone needs one, the black one MOB called dibs on, and the two hats I'm wearing.



My first hat was one of Meamaw's hats. BRIDESMAID AMANDA had the bright idea to add a peacock feather to it. I think Meamaw would approve.



And here's the green one that matches my dress!

Next up - bachelorette party dresses! I know absolutely no details about my bach. party. All I know it's in DC somewhere. I asked that people wear dresses, pretty much just so I could wear one. :) However, I have TWO dress possibilities, and I need your help! Check out the pics below - which one do you like best? Sorry I'm not wearing them. It was another moving-related errands/unpacking/organizing/setting things up sweaty gross day, and I was not about to put any of these dresses on and post pictures of myself looking like that. Oh, yeah, and I didn't want to get them dirty either. So use your imagination for the shape (first is flowy), but I'll tell you that they both look good on me. I'm not one of those "everything looks good on me" type of people, whatsoever, but would I really post two dress options if they didn't both look good on me? Nope. I'd probably just wear the one that does!

Two very different looks - both green (well, the second one is black with different greens in the middle). Come on, would I really not wear a dress without green in it??! :)

So what's your vote?

-C
xxx

My Hat!

My hat is here! If you saw one of my asides on my last post you saw that I wasn't sure if I was getting my hat! I received a paypal shipping confirmation email, but then got another email saying the seller had cancelled it with the reason "Changed Mind". I emailed the seller through ebay (where I "won" it) and asked if she'd changed her mind on selling the product (I'm not even sure that's allowed!) or just the shipping method. Well, I never received a response, but I did receive another shipping confirmation email - and now it's here! I don't know whether my mentioning in my email to her that I would be wearing it for my bridal shower held any weight, but I now have it in my hands and that's all that matters! So this is hat #2 I will be wearing for my shower. The other one is an off-white fedora-ish hat with a feather in the side that was my Meamaw's. I'm taking advantage of this whole being able to wear fancy hats for a day thing! So excited!



The only problem with the hat is the veil doesn't exactly come down, if that makes sense. It's kind of all over the top, not so much in the face. I'm wondering if a certain friend of mine who sews could remedy that for me... while she's working on my hat box :)

I'll post pics of my shower/bachelorette outfits as soon as... well, as soon as I find them. Moving seems to make things disappear. Or at least hide from me pretty darn well. I can't find a damn thing right now.

-C
xxx

Moving Right Along

I just feel like doing this because I got some shiz done this week! In addition to all the crafts from last weekend, I've been moving right along with other planning aspects:

Videographer - BOOKED!

Caterer - BOOKED! (also talking to them about rentaling plates/utensils, which would be awesome!)

Brunch Food - got prices

And also tons of moving-related tasks i.e. packing, address changes for all my accounts and all that fun stuff

Oh, did I mention I'm moving this Saturday?!? Who has two thumbs and has been uber busy the past two weeks? THIS GIRL! I couldn't really start packing until my invites were done, so I was up late working on those every night, and since they went out I've been up late every night packing for the move! I have so much crap. I'm just moving across town, but still - that doesn't mean the quantity of stuff to be moved is any less! I'm so excited to move. I've never had my own place before! I mean, it'll be OUR place, but still very different from living with roommates, which I've done since college! YAY my OWN fridge and freezer to fill! YAY not worrying about if someone else is doing laundry when I need to! YAY for being able to leave my wedding projects lying around instead of having to clean everything up after I'm done for the evening (or at least make a path)! YAY being able to decorate every room without having to think about if they'll like it or not!

Oh, and FH's bachelor party (they called it a "Stag Do", and bachelorette parties are called "Hen Parties") is this weekend, all weekend...

In the United Kingdom it is now common for the party to last for more than one evening, hence the increasing prevalence of the phrase "stag weekend." A spin off has been the growth of the stag weekend industry in the UK with various companies taking over the preparation of the event. In the UK, stag weekend trips are becoming mini-holidays with the groups taking part in various day time activities as well as the expected night out on the town. Groups of friends attending weekends away in the UK and even into Europe with their best friend leave home on a Friday and embrace two days of fun. The groom who normally is called "the Stag" will have a selection of tasks to complete on the stag weekend. Group activities might include paintball, kart racing, poker parties, quiz machining, and clay pigeon shooting. Stag t-shirts and fancy dress are now an accepted part of the stag night experience. The best man will usually organize the clothing and night's entertainment. Getting drunk and participating in stag activities is now the norm.

...you know, the exact time I'm moving. So he'll be getting drunk and having an amazing time... while I'll be getting sweaty and sore from lifting things in the 96 degree heat we're supposed to get tomorrow! Life isn't fair! lol.

Speaking of unfair... I also ordered/won the hat for my bridal shower from ebay. I was really excited about getting my tracking number yesterday because that meant it was on its way! But then this morning I received an email from PayPal saying the seller had cancelled the shipment with the reason "Changed Mind". What! I emailed her and asked if she changed her mind about the shipping method or changed her mind about selling it. I really hope it's the former! :( Can they even do that?? Just decide they don't want to sell it after I already paid for it??

-C
xxx