Mason Jars Galore!

There are two themes that I am totally stuck on and know I want for my wedding decor and mason jars is one of them. I think they are cute and rustic and best of all, cheap. I found 12 packs of 16 oz. jars at Wal-mart for $9.99, so cheap! And guess what else good 'ole Wally World had? Ball brought back there old style blue-ish tinted jars with their "Heritage Collection", how cool is that!? (6 for $10.99, I am definitely getting a few of those!)

At our drink station, we are going to have mason jars with a smear of chalkboard paint so that guests can write their name on the jars and take them home... like below (but not hearts)... I also love the idea of ribbons (or is that too much?)...

I am also obssessed with the vintage style paper straws that have been so popular lately, I think we are going to go with gray for the wedding...

As for decor, I know that I want to do something involving mason jars and a flame! Either something with a candle or possibly even mini oil lamps... here are some of my inspirations, althugh I think whichever way I go, I will use a shorter style jar...

So simple, just floating candles and rafia

Aren't these short, squaty jars adorable?

I also might incorporate jars with some of the floral accents, maybe this is where I can use those awesome throw back jars!

How cute are these mason jar decorations? And so easy, all I would need is some ribbon, or wire, or burlap and lace! Regardless of what we end up doing, I think I have found another project... which means... another bridesmaid get together is on the horizon!

Recommitting!

I have issues with commitment. Not with my man (obviously, or else this blog would be a fat facade)... but with my health. I am constantly recommitting to myself when it comes to eating healthy, exercising and other lifestyle goals. When it comes to diet, I have always eaten pretty well... I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables and a pretty balanced diet but I am equally guilty of over indulging in fats and sweets (especially sweets). As for exercise, we recently signed up for a gym membership and have been okay when it comes to getting to the gym but we could be going a lot more! At the beginning of this year, I told myself I was going to get serious and for the past 3 months I have been teeter tottering between doing pretty good and falling off the deep end again.

Then, about a month back, I had a mini revelation about eating meat... long story short, I saw a few documentaries and it totally changed my outlook on the meat and dairy industries. I basically told myself that at home I would try my hardest to eat no meat and little to no dairy and so far I have actually succeeded in that goal. When we go out, I will normally find a vegetarian dish on the menu, but when I am at someone else's house for dinner, that is when I will indulge. I guess the main reason that I have been able to keep with this "lifestyle" so far, is because I feel strongly about the reasons behind it... so why is it so hard to commit to more healthy choices? I mean, I feel like I feel strongly about my health (did that make sense?!)

Anyway, lately I have just been feeling down about my body and just the way I feel overall. Going semi-veg has given me some really positive results that I wasn't even expecting... but I want more... I am ready to really really stick to something.

Conveniently, the day after I started writing this, James decided to purchase the Insanity workout DVD's. Although it wouldn't have been my first choice for a "plan", I'm going for it! (Plus, Insanity was expensive and I'm not letting that money go to waste!)

If you haven't seen the Insanity infomercials, basically it is a high intensity cardio routine that is supposed to give you amazing results. It lasts a little over 60 days and also comes with a nutrition plan.

So we are giving Insanity 100% and the only valid excuse I will give myself to quit this is if it starts to hurt my back or neck. (I just started chiropractic care to correct my spine and I don't want to mess up the progress I've made) If I do have to quit Insanity, I have a lower impact back-up plan in place.

Reasons I am doing this:

• To get in shape for my wedding... my first dress fitting is at the end of July and these next 3 months are my last chance to get into the shape I want to be (while still having a wedding dress that fits!)
• To become stronger. I have always felt generally weak in my arms, so I definitely want to improve that, but I especially need to strengthen my core and back. Like I mentioned, I suffer from mild kyphosis (curvature of my spine) and it gives me a slight hunchback (ew). Not only that, but it gives me bad back pain as well as tension headaches. I feel that at 25, I shouldn't have to be dealing with this and I want to fix it ASAP. I just starting working with a chiropractor to make some corrections, but really the main problem with my posture is that I have a weak core. I need to build up muscle that is strong enough to support proper posture, the only way to do this is with specific stretching and exercises. (So hopefully Insanity will help rather than hinder my progress)
• I am totally addicted to salt and sugar and I don't want to be. If I can stick with this program, I will get away from my old habits of binging on crap.
• For a challenge. Basically, I just want to see if I can do it... mostly because I never finish anything and also because I know that it is going to be really, really tough!

DIY: Rustic Centerpiece Boxes

Centerpieces have been a rough spot for me. I’ve really had a hard time deciding exactly what I wanted, while staying modern and affordable. One of the main things I was concerned about with it came to my table décor was the size of the centerpieces and whether or not the tables would look empty. I would prefer an overly stuffed table, with no room, than a drab, bare table.

Not having an Ivanka Trump wedding budget, I knew that if I wanted flowers as a centerpiece, I would have to be creative. I could have the florist do a small arrangement and then add more pieces, but if so, what? I could go a different route and not use flowers, but if so, what?

At first, I was really trying to go with a “no flower” route… it would be cheaper and I could always reuse or resell the centerpieces rather than trash them like you would flowers. But unfortunately I didn’t find anything that I really liked that matched the theme of our wedding. Eventually I caved to some sort of floral-ness to be the main attraction at our tables and I finally decided on doing something with succulents. Here are a few of the inspiration pictures that helped me decide:

I decided that I would also somehow incorporate our table numbers into this arrangement… something simple and easy. There are so many adorable ideas for numbering tables, but I do have a few other things in mind outside of the main centerpieces and although I already said I don’t mind overcrowding, I didn’t want the tables to look “cluttered” and confusing. Once again, I don’t want my wedding to look like Pinterest puked all over it… I’m trying my hardest to stick with a simple theme. (Most likely, though, my guests will end up leaving having contemplated whether or not I have mild schizophrenia)

So anyway, after perusing the web for some rustic looking boxes, I came up short. Turns out boxes/planters that look like they are falling apart at the seems can be pretty expensive. Since when did rustic become so ritzy?

Then, I took to craigslist and found a few prospects, but after consulting with my dad about some old barn wood I found, he told me that he already had some! (old fence wood to be exact) So this last Saturday, we got to work building the boxes for our centerpieces…

The box design was very simple, we just used 1"x6"x6' wooden fence slats and produced a 12"x6"x4" rectangular planter box. Below is a basic layout of the design.



The finished product

 

We had a lot of scrap wood and ended up making 16 boxes total (after a few mistakes), but if you wanted to something similar and only make 15 boxes, it looks like this design would only require 7 fence slats... that is if you don't mess up! Even if you bought the fence slats new, this project would still be pretty cheap!

How we cut the wood

The workstation



All the pieces for one box

Pops

Piling up!

Pre drilling the holes for the nails

Nails! (only 2 per side and 2 for the bottoms, 6 total)

More nailing

This was my job... Bud!

Before

After

James came over just in time to clean up!

Overall, this project only cost me about $2, which was the cost of the box of nails, as compared to the "Rustic Barnwood Planter Boxes" from Save-On-Crafts that I was tempted to buy (at $10 a pop!) So I saved myself about $160 in the end. Plus, my boxes are even more enchantingly rustic and are actually made from old wood! That's a solid point for team Do-It-Yoursef... (or team Drink-Beer-While-Your-Dad-Is-Doing-It-For-You) Score!


I can't wait to fill these puppies!



Reeling It In

We are 6 months out from our wedding (HOLY...!!!) and I am at a turning point.

Although our deposits are all in, that only speaks for less than 10% of our overall budget… the time to really start spending is upon us and the shit is hitting the fan. Okay… that sounded negative… what I really mean is that it’s all becoming very real. You can make all the budgets you want, for all the little decorations and useless knick knacks that you think you need for your wedding but when you really start opening your wallet, I guarantee you, you will rethink everything! I thanked Pinterest in my last post, but in this one I will criticize it a bit.

Pinterest has made it so that I want to do ALL of those cute DIY ideas no matter how unnecessary they are or how much they don’t have anything to do with my theme or motif. Yesterday I went through my “LIST” (the list of everything I wanted for my wedding, down to every teeny tiny detail) and I wacked off half of the stuff. Up until then, I had been crossing stuff off if I thought it might not work out (then maybe I could revisit it later)… but yesterday, I straight up deleted stuff. (For me, this is a huge deal; I’m a hoarder… even of electronic files)

Like I said, one reason I did this is because some of my ideas just weren’t meshing, it was like 5 different wedding being squashed into one. Since I’ve started planning, my overall anticipated feeling/theme has changed as well. But the main reason was a talk I had with my fiancé. Like the beer drinking, fly fishing, car show watching man that he is, he thinks I am being ridiculously obsessive about our wedding. He didn’t say those exact words (and what else can I except from a dude) but it really made me see a new perspective. He thinks I am planning “unnecessary” things and mostly, that I am overspending. A guys perspective is, “there are so many other things I would rather spend money on” and my perspective is, “this better be my only wedding and I deserve it to be the wedding of my dreams”. I think that where I can level with him is: “we can throw a beautiful, fun wedding but not have to but every last penny into savings in order to afford it”. Of course, in order to get there, I’m going to make a few cuts.

Maybe I don’t need paper lanterns, mason jar lanterns, arcade garlands and twinkle lights… maybe I only need one (or two?) of those. Sometimes I forget that we are lucky enough to have an insanely pretty venue that doesn’t need much dressing up!

So as I continue planning and purchasing, I am trying super hard to keep in mind that a wedding doesn’t have to eat up savings (or what could be savings). So far, I have done a really good job of staying under our budget and I plan on not straying from that path!

Addressing the Invites and Praising Pinterest

If Pinterest were a person, I would owe that person big time for basically planning my wedding. I say this often, but it’s worth repeating… I don’t know how people planned weddings before the invention of the internet. I mean, I guess there are wedding planners, but even if coordinating weddings is your job, there is no way it was a simple task in the 80’s. Seriously though, even before Pinterest (what I call The Dark Ages) you had to scan hundreds of wedding blogs for the perfect bits of inspiration, and even then, you were bound to miss an easier D.I.Y. method, or the website offering the cheapest tissue garland. Nowadays, Pinterest is making it too easy to collect your thoughts and ideas, to the point where I wonder, “If I had gotten married even 3 years earlier, what kind of hillbilly hoedown would my nuptials end up being?” 

But I digress. I want to do a mini post about my invitations. I’m not ready to come up with a full tutorial type post but I have started printing the addresses on my invite envelopes and I am super excited about how they are turning out. I plan on doing a post after my “Invitation Stuffing Party” (along with a full tutorial) but seeing how the last “party” turned out, I’m sure there will be some sort of mini disaster to sort through when it comes time to actually construct the invitations… soooo, this is like my little “light at the beginning? of the tunnel” before shit starts to really get stressful.

So anyway, I knew exactly how I wanted my envelopes to look before I was even close to deciding on the actual invitations (honestly, I still am not solid on how I want them to look). And here was my inspiration…

It is just a picture that bride posted of her invitations on a weddingbee.com forum!

Basically, the only reason my invites are going to be on “recycled paper” pocket folds is because of this picture. I loved everything about it. I liked the rustic look of the envelopes, I absolutely loved the font and better yet, I loved the fact that it looked like something I could produce on my own. The best part though is that they looked so professional and in reality, they would probably be really affordable to make!

So the first thing I did was purchase the font... way back in October. This font, called "Mishka", is an "open type" font and basically, in layman's terms, what that means is that the font is really like 3 or 4 fonts in one. Each character has a few different ways is can be shown and you can mix and match the different character styles. In the case for the Mishka font, you could go simple or a few different levels of fancy. For example, notice the different styles of each letter:

You can be simple or add flare to certain letters...

So the reason I bought the font so early on in the game was because I knew it would take some time to individually create each guests address for the envelopes... it definitely took quite a but of patience and time to finish all the addresses. Anyway, enough of the font, I have a strange obsession with typography so I got a bit carried away! You can find the opentype font "Mishka" here for about $29 (including tax).

So after I drew up all of the addresses I was super excited to print a few out to see the end result, and here they are...

And since I have purchased a lot of the materials that I will be using on the final invite, I thought I would do a teeny sneak peak...every invitation is going to be a little different but these shots will give you an idea of some of the cute paper I am using!

 

I am so so excited to put together my invites, I think they are going to look awesome... but first things, first... my save the dates that I ordered should be arriving in the mail any day now and then I'll have even more addressing to do!

Cupcake Party A.K.A. Hot Mess

So as I mentioned before, I wanted my bridesmaids and I to make the cupcakes for the reception, and I wanted to have a baking/taste test party. I thought it would be easiest to use Betty Crocker mixes as bases and then add stuff to make super special and delicious flavors. I found about 10 different recipes on the Betty Crocker website, all with the best reviews, and I narrowed it down to about 6 different flavors. I had each of my bridesmaids (minus my maid of honor, my little sister, who is off in far away lands getting an education) bring a few of the special ingredients over my place, last Saturday, which also happened to be paired with our "1st Annual Friends Chili Cook Off".

So for starters, we probably shouldn't have paired a cupcake testing party with a chili testing party, it was crazy inside my house that night, with people, food and a baby flying around... second of all, we probably shouldn't have waited to start baking until after we were each three beverages deep (alcoholic beverages, that is). But all of that aside, I still can't believe how lame the recipes that I had were. Yes, the frosting was too wet and we didn't have red food dye and therefore ended up with green "pink lemonade" cupcakes, but even if we were completely sober and gave the cupcakes our all, I'm still pretty convinced they wouldn't have been winners.

After the first few batches came out, and after we realized that instead of Espresso, Pink Lemonade and Champagne flavored cupcakes, we had chocolate, white and white... we sort of half assed the frosting. Even if the frosting had improved on the "special" flavors that these cupcakes were supposed to be, it was still a lost cause... was it really worth all this work to make Betty Crocker cupcakes?

Can you tell by now my answer is "NO"!!?

Overall, we had a drunken blast making the worst batch of cupcakes I have ever seen... and I am so glad that we decided to do this "trial run" because how bad would it have been if this were the night before my wedding instead of some drunken night with a chili contest? In a way, I'm glad this didn't work out perfectly... now we won't have to worry about baking on the eve of my nuptials. (Maybe we can focus on drinking the rest of the tequila that didn't get used on the "margarita" cupcakes... what a joke!)

Espresso? Or maybe Chocolate Stout... who knows!

Suuuper runny frosting

At least my cake stands look cute

Green Lemonade and Pina Colada (or basically vanilla)

Proud?!

On a more successful note, the 1st Annual Friend Chili Cook Off was a hit... I've never seen so much chili in one place in my life!

My Dress

... yes, my dress. I finally decided on a dress, the deposit is in and there is no turning back! It was a very close tie between my final pick and another beautiful lace mermaid gown, but after much deliberation and some assurance from the ladies at Renfros Bridal Shop, I was able to go with the first dress I found at the first boutique I visited! For those who haven't seen the dress already, here is a sneak peak... yes, this is my bum.



Without describing the dress too much, I will say that it is simple and because of that I can't wait to accesorize! The possibilities are endless with this dress... off to Etsy I go!