details, details...

This week I finally had a minute to take photos of some of our completed DIY projects. Although it was a lot of work doing these things ourselves, it was also very rewarding to see it all come together. I'm hoping these little touches will make our ceremony and reception very personal.

Our cake topper - ordered from Crafty Eddy and "blinged" by FI:

Our completed programs:

Ring pillow. I saw a similar pillow on a wedding blog post months ago and knew I had to have one. I found the material online, purchased all of the supplies and FMIL generously offered her time and impeccable sewing skills to come up with the final product. Just need to add a white ribbon under the button to tie the rings. L.O.V.E:Our dinner menus, one per place setting. Our venue does table side ordering with a choice of three entrees. To help our guests make their meal choices I thought these would be a nice touch. They were printed on our home inkjet printer on heavy, textured cardstock:
A closer look at our monogram on the menus: Flower girl's pomander. 3" styrofoam ball, many white and ivory silk carnations, heavy green Martha Stewart ribbon and a hot glue gun. Took about a half hour:

Bridesmaid gifts - Vera Bradley Purse Cosmetic, Small Bow Cosmetic and Crabtree and Evelyn toiletries. One other thing will accompany their gifts but, I'm keeping it under wraps in case my MOH peeks in (I'm giving her one, too):

And, not DIY at all but, after a long, long search for green reception shoes that were not meant to be, I ordered these silver ballet flats. Cute, comfy and I'll be able to wear them again:
CHECKS:

• Seating chart is DONE!!!
• Final count has been called in to our reception venue
• We had our final meeting with the DJ on Wednesday night and got our music squared away
• Photog/Video appointment is tomorrow morning

Then, other than a few little details (aisle runner, bathroom baskets, OOT bags, escort cards), we're done!

you're invited...

Looking through some photos on my computer today, I realized that I'd never shared from our invitation assembly at the end of December. Clearly, I'm committed to documenting all details of the planning process when I share photos of myself without make-up (ouch!). Check out the assembly line we had going on my parents' dining room table the day after Christmas:

Our reply cards:

Doing it together, layer by layer (FI is not as thrilled about photo-documenting this experience as I am):

Our best decision in all of this turned out to be coding our response cards. We wrote a little number on the back of each response that corresponded with the guest's name on our excel spreadsheet. When some of the responses came back illegible, we knew exactly who they belonged to.

It's hard to believe that this all took place over a month ago and that we are now so much closer to the finish line! 24 days to go...

invites have been...

ORDERED!!!

The second set of proofs (with our minor corrections) were e-mailed to me tonight. They looked great so, I gave the go ahead. I'll be on the look out for a big box o' invitations two weeks from tomorrow. Life is good.

a little bit closer...

1. Flower Girl dress has been ordered!
I went shopping today with my flower girl, Amanda and her mom. I was thinking of steering her in the direction of either a green or light blue dress or, maybe silver. We found a matte silver dress with some white embroidery that was very sweet on her and she loved it. But, that was in the first store and she had been promised a girl's-day-out-shopping-spree so, one store and one dress simply would not do. So, that dress went on hold and off we went to another shop.

And, she saw it.

The poofiest, princessy, cream puffiest white dress you could ever imagine for a little girl. She was in L.O.V.E. even before it was on her. I'm talking full crinoline, sheer white organza skirt with white piped edging, white flowers and pearls at the waist and neckline and sheer organza cap sleeves. Serious poof.

Then it was on her.

I have never seen this little pixie grin so big. She twirled and whirled and lit up the shop in this cupcake dress.

How could we possibly say no? So, the dress is on order with the small alteration of alternating white and blue flowers and a blue ribbon tie in the back to pull in a bit of color. And, that little girl will float down the aisle on our wedding day and steal the hearts of everyone in the church. Hey, you are only seven once!

2. Card box has a slot and a base coat!
Thanks to my very handy FI, our card box has progressed from it's original state of country-not-so-chic decor to a lovely white box that will be a blank canvas for both our monogram and one of our favorite e-pics, when they are in.

3. Invitation proofs have been revised and sent back to the printer!
We looked them over today and sent them to my mom and dad for objective (?) glances and, after changing one line on the response card and moving up the RSVP date one week, they are off! Hoping they will go to print on Monday and that I will have them well before Thanksgiving...say a little prayer for me!

4. Room block decided!
There was hotel drama on Thursday morning that threatened to throw me right over the edge. Seriously. I won't get into it but, we had some words with hotel personnel. In the end, we will have a block at a local, newly renovated and beautiful hotel that I'm certain will take care of us and our guests.