Showered with Love

Pinterest can almost be depressing when you see all of those perfectly styled, perfectly groomed brides and bridal parties sipping on their perfect cocktails in perfectly crafted locations. Especially when you start to think about all the time and money needed to make them look that way!

Lucky for me I had a pretty great team of people helping me have an incredibly lovely bridal shower. My dad is actually the one who suggested (and paid for) the country club venue for it. The clubhouse hosts lots of weddings every year so I definitely felt special having my shower there. The staff was fantastic, always keeping champagne glasses full and they adapted the menu perfectly to meet all my gluten free needs. 

 

One of my bridesmaids is a Pilot and she wasn't able to make it to the shower. Instead, she made almost all of the decorations for it and brought them all down to my mom's house 2 weeks earlier so it would still be perfect. She hand-painted candleholders with gold glitter, brought gold frames, pennants, my name in gold pennies (how funny), and tons and tons of pink poufs! The shower wouldn't have been half as beautiful without her Pinterest creativity all over.

My other bridesmaid built a photo-booth background frame so that I could set up my camera that I bought a tripod and remote for in order to have our own photo booth. It turned out so perfect - I only wish I had taken MORE pictures with everyone!!

I'm not a huge kitschy game person so I decided I would rather paint wine glasses so everyone could have a useable favor! We had glasses, stencils and paint...and a blast!

It was nice having a photographer at the shower so my mom didn't have to worry about taking pictures...and so she could be in them! If you have a friend or friend of a friend who can help out on this, I definitely recommend it !!

I didn't register for any gifts for the shower (or the wedding) so everything I received was just extra fun love! It was certainly a wonderful evening.

The loves and lies of Pinterest

I know I have been missing here for a minute but between getting ready for my deployment and deploying...you can't blame me too much can you?

The truth is, I already have a routine going here and I am having to make time to blog as opposed to having copious amounts of time as anticipated.
My priorities are more like, calls home, pool (ok, it may be questionable whether or not this is actually number 1..), gym, food, sleep, work, then misc activities such as reading or blogging. I really have filled up my days here!
I even had a list of topics on my iPhone before it went completely haywire out here and is no longer useable...and my list is no longer reachable...

The internet in my room is horrendous. For some reason I think it is better on my iPad than my laptop but blogging on an iPad is awful and a pain in the butt to add pictures. Also, as my phone is broken, the blogs for the next four months may be lacking in the picture department...but bear with me.

So, as you may imagine, I, like and self-respecting bride in todays world of weddings and wedding blogs, and photography blogs, and...you get the point...found my way onto Pinterest. I had done an incredible job of not falling down the rabbit hole of life's DIY projects on this magical site prior to the shiny bauble on my hand, but alas, I could turn away no more.

I quickly had 4 boards of wedding, engagement, and bridal shower ideas.

One of the pictures I immediately fell for first was of the smiling pup with an engagement ring perfectly balanced on its nose.



There are tons of pictures just like these on Pinterest...so how could it be, right?

...and you should see the bad ones...Lola wouldn't even sit still long enough to balance the ring on her head. I kept trying to hold a treat in front of her nose, with one hand, place the ring on her nose with the other hand, try and get her to sit still, and then take a picture. She was a pain in the butt. Merlin of course would sit still juuuuustt long enough for me to get a semi-blurry picture where he is of course, not smiling or looking like the adorable puppy that he is. Thanks guys....

Maybe I will re-try this again later, but my hopes are not high.

So, I moved on to flowers. I think the issue with these may have been a got a bit too zealous too fast. I went out and loaded up on craft supplies at Michaels

Yah...not sure what my vision was on this...but it did not turn out how I anticipated at all.  Needless to say, this creation will not be making it down the aisle.

But now more on the things I love...

I started working with beads instead, at the suggestion of Pinterest

These were the completed examples on Pinterest

The 50% solution -- I will finish these when I get back from this ol desert place

Shai helped me on these, painstakingly cutting the floral wire to the correct length. You wouldn't know it, but stringing and twisting beads on wire can be quite the arduous task! I'm pretty happy with the direction these are going, I just wish I could have finished them before I left. All the more projects for later.

Realistically, I am not sure that DIY bouquets and boutonnieres save a whole lot of money. I will have to really take a look at it all in the end. But regardless, I didn't want flowers and I love having my hands in making things, so I think the benefit outweighs the cost regardless!

But I didn't want to stop at just the girls, I had to help the guys out as well. I saw this

But of course, I am not using peacock feathers in our décor so I put my own spin on them

Yay! I'm pretty excited about these. Pinterest win. =)

Some of these things will look better in person than in pictures, I'm fully aware. And I also know how much better things tend to look with the artistic eyes of a well-selected photographer (future blog post?) Heck, even instagram filters can take something from shabby to "shabby-chic" in a matter of seconds. But this isn't a blog about the whole picture...its about putting all the pieces together!!

And finally...that Pinterest board of engagement pictures...sigh... I am pretty sure if I could take engagement pictures every day forever...I would. I just can't get enough of adorable couples doing adorable things in quirky and beautiful locations!!! But I have a particular vision for our engagement session and so I need to make some props for the shoot. The only ones I was able to complete before leaving were my floral crowns.

At first I looked on Etsy to buy one...but the really nice ones were $30-$50 dollars and I just could not justify that! So, I looked on Pinterest and Google for lots of "DIY floral crowns" and eventually found a combination of ways to make some myself. I ended up buying everything I needed at the Dollar Store! Once I made the first floral crown, above, I was so excited that I just wanted to make more!! I ran back to the store for more flowers....way too many flowers...and had enough time in my schedule to whip out one more. I still have a ton of flowers, but it seems silly to return $1 sets of flowers....I am sure I will make some more projects with them eventually! So all in all, the two flower crowns cost me about $12. Not bad huh? I cannot wait to pair these with my outfits for my engagement session! or really any outfit!!

All in all I have to say, I am really happy with the projects I have found and completed on Pinterest. Since all of the big decisions and planning for the wedding has been completed, the only thing I have left to do is focus on the small details and all the DIY projects my heart and budget can handle. I think that will be more than enough to make those last three months before the wedding when I get back just fly by!!

Hehe, I just couldn't resist. Pinterest has lots of ring/flower pictures too, I promise!





They said yes. The Bridesmaid situation.

So. You've said "yes". You're engaged. Every girl friend is calling and texting you to say congratulations but...is there something more hidden under those words? Do they want to know if they made the cut? The Bridal Party cut....

Maybe...Maybe not...but it was certainly one of those things that was at the top of my thoughts.

There are all sorts of articles on "how to be the perfect bridesmaid" and how much it can cost to be a bridesmaid and having been a bridesmaid twice, I always thought I would only have one or two bridesmaids max. I mean, I would be saving my girlfriends money in the long run too, right?

That was what I thought...until my wonderful groom decided he wanted to invite EVERYONE to be a groomsman. I'm pretty sure every guy he wanted to invite he wanted to be a groomsman. Luckily, I talked him down to 6. Still, way more than I imagined, but a number where I could invite only girls who I absolutely would want to be a bridesmaids...no "meh, I guess I'll have her too..." or "if I invite her, then I have to invite her...and her.. and..." you get the point.

So with that I easily settled on my six ladies, representing my early through high school life, my college life, and my current (adult?) life. (note: this does not mean that the high school and college friends did not transition into the adult stage....they had to or they wouldn't be bridesmaids!)

The next decision was...how do I ask them?? In a world of Pinterest, Facebook, and Reality TV....the options were endless...both in ideas and in price. I didn't really want to buy something that they would just throw away, or something that would just take up space...lets be honest here, every wedding has a budget, and I was not about to blow mine on a pre-wedding gift. I thought about wine - its easy to create your own label with a picture and a "Will you be my Bridesmaid" but that would have really increased the shipping price and I was a bit nervous about mailing 5 bottles of wine (only one of my bridesmaids is in Vegas with me). So I kept searching...looking through website after website of bridesmaid gift ideas....until I found it. "Bleached Tees." Remember in high school when you used to paint on your shirts for spirit days? When I was a Maid of Honor I did tanks for all of the girls where I painstakingly stamped and outlined "bridesmaid" etc in paint on every shirt.

Letting the bleach sit

It said to stencil out what you wanted to write...but I didn't. Just take a cutting board, cover it in a plastic bag, and write what you want with a Bleach Pen (I used Clorox Bleach Pen). I bought the t-shirts at Target and it just so happened that the color I wanted was the only one on sale!
I let the bleach sit on the shirts for an hour and then popped them into the washing machine with no soap and then into the dryer.



Completed!

I have to say, I was pretty darn happy about them. I wanted something else though...
I was wandering around the BX (kinda like a Walmart but on base) and found some awesome nail presses - you know, those nail wraps that are all over Facebook right now? And they just so happened to have three different designs in the colors I wanted! Score! Now, these would be perfect for the girls to wear to the wedding, but I can't expect them to hold on to those for 8 months! I'm sure I can make another BX run when it gets closer-- and in the mean time, they get to try some out! (I even bought some for myself!) I found some "Bridesmaid" pins on Amazon Prime (seriously, if you don't have Prime, you do not know what you are missing!) and finished the boxes off with the "request" card and a save the date print, and off they went!

Then...I had to wait. And I am pretty sure in the 3 days it took the boxes to reach the girls, every single one of them called me. Maybe it was just me but I could swear they were just waiting to see if I was going to ask!

Luckily, one by one today, via text, call, instagram, or facebook, my lovely ladies opened their boxes and said Yes!

So happy I have such wonderful friends. I cannot wait to plan things with them and let me know what is going on!

Oh, and that groom of mine? I don't think he has asked his groomsmen yet. I even printed funny little cards that said "I *insert picture of mustache* you ...Will you be my groomsman?
 (get it?? I mustache you..") I don't think he appreciated my humor though...they are still sitting in the office.

There is something to this recent trend of asking your bridal party to be there for you. I enjoyed making the shirts and putting the boxes together and it was fun for me to receive them and send me pictures one by one. I would definitely recommend doing a little something for your ladies but don't break the bank....the reality of a wedding is that there are always hidden costs that pop up that you didn't expect. You don't want to spend all your "extras" budget in the beginning!

Did you do something for your bridesmaids? Do you think that this trend is a waste of time and money? Let me know in the comments below!!

Kali