Sometimes DIY Ends in Disaster

I was doing so well on not spending in excess of our budget until today when two things happened to mini-blow the budget:

1. My uber-mellow fiancee decided that he really did want to get a new suit for the wedding. Mainly the Hugo Boss suit that "felt like butter" that he tried on last August for my cousin's wedding (as at that time he did not own a suit at all) and that he's been talking about like a toddler and a tricycle for the last 10 months. He never wants anything, except perhaps the latest version of Fall Out. I cannot deny the man a nice couple of threads for his wedding day.

2. My DIY experiment of creating the seating chart turned into a Holly Hobby fail. The fabric I used to cover the tackboard was too stiff and wouldn't stay taut; the ribbon kept sliding sideways and creating the illusion that I was drunk when I wrapped it around the board; the thick-papered list of guests and "seating chart" label I carefully printed and sliced were glued via spray adhesive (TERRIBLE stuff to control) and looked a touch like a semi-trained chimp with poor spatial distinction had at it. All in all, the thing looks a little short-bus.

Thankfully, I was able to find this fantastic site www.ticketprinting.com which custom-prints tickets for your events. I left the middle portion blank (where it lists the location) and will be filling that in by hand with the Table Number.

Extra thankfully, my bestie works in theatrical booking & production and is able to snag me envelopes for each of the tickets, so I can print labels (instead of handwriting MORE names) and place the ticket inside the labeled envelope. Winner!

Sleeping Bags & Air Mattresses

One thing we did not anticipate in all of our planning and timelines was my mother coming in early. And guess what? The hotel is booked. Naturally.

So now we begin preparing for her to stay with us this weekend. The same weekend we were going to clean for the other family coming into town that's going to stay with us. The same weekend we were going to bathe the dog and get him spic and span for guests. The same weekend of our bachelor parties.

Thankfully, my boyfriend is a dream and vacuumed and scrubbed the floors and kitchen today. That leaves me with the bathrooms tomorrow. The dog will have to greet my mother a tad bit filthy. And it looks like she'll just have to fly solo on our bachelor party evening.

Nothing like a little last minute excitement to keep the adrenaline running. Don't think it can happen to you? Double, triple and quadruple check those hotel reservations. Just sayin'.

A Love Grows in Brooklyn

Check out these adorable ideas of decor for a garden-party-themed wedding!

(My favorite is the place cards tied to mini trees.)

One note: the bucket table with cards spread out is actually a "wishing card" table - in lieu of a guest book, this couple chose to lay out notecards stamped with words like "passion," "love" and "inspiring," then asked their guests to write a wish and throw it in the bucket for them.

A lot more to keep track of in your scrapbook, but it allows the guests to be as personal as they want without the awkwardness of someone reading what they wrote.

The Pope vs The Bard

2 weeks and counting.

Now is when the excitement begins to build. And, as it happens for me, when the drama starts to shake out of the woodwork.

From the very beginning, we told my very-Catholic parents that religion was not something we were interested in for our ceremony - spirituality, yes. Religion, no. We compromised though and asked a friend of the family - studying to be an Episcopalian minister - to perform our ceremony. She knew the desires of both my parents and us and was able to work up a script that include "God" and "Creator" references without the specific dogma references of Catholicism. We thought everyone would be happy.

Well. Until it came time to hand out the readings.

We decided to have literary & musical lyric readings (something my mother knew was an option for quite some time) and after sending them out, she inquired as to where the Bible passage was that she could read.

After some shuffling back and forth and attempting to create an explanation, my fiance came up with a compromise that worked fabulously for us:

He invited my mother to find a Bible passage that she liked which she could then be responsible for reading at the ceremony.

Then we would not have the headache of searching for something we didn't want, we would not feel like our ceremony had been altered if it was coming from her, and she would still get to feel as though we were having a "proper" ceremony.

While this solution may not be ideal for everyone, it has certainly alleviated a lot of stress on our end!

There's Going to be a Disaster

The best thing my best friend (and maid-of-honor) ever said to me during my wedding planning was "you're going to disappoint at least 1 person on your wedding day and offend at least 1 other." Which may sound like a terrible thing to say to someone, until you think about it.

Weddings are so freaking stressful, mainly because you want it to feel special, because you're learning what's important to you and your fiance and because you want everyone to enjoy themselves. Well, as Abe Lincoln (my all-time favorite crush) was once paraphrased "You can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time." And girl, ain't no time like a wedding to prove that old adage.

When my best friend said that to me, it was like a huge relief to know that yes, someone will be disappointed and offended no matter what I do. I, of course, was still going to try my hardest to make everything awesome, but I wasn't going to lose my mind over it because sometimes fate and Murphy's Law just take over.

Like my friend Katie whose best man fell down some stairs 6 hours before the ceremony and lost ALL of his front teeth.

Or my friend Renee, who was physically slammed up against a wall and screamed at by the groom's aunt in front of all of her guests because the venue messed up the placement of the aunt's place card and she was seated at the back table.

Or these lovely people, featured on www.someecards.com.

At least when you know that disaster - small or large - is 99% guaranteed to happen, you can accept it and move on, without stressing yourself into a teenage zit fest or turning into the next star of Bridezilla. Your wedding will happen. You will go through the day and people will show up, you will say the "i do's" and at the end of whatever happens, you will be married to the person you love.

It really is just that easy.

Place Cards

Place cards can be a super cute, super fun way to personalize your wedding (and your dad, mother-in-law or venue manager probably won't argue with you on this because it's an easy detail to forget).

There are so many ways you can do cute, cheap placecards. One of my favorites is the mini-topiary tree, which are great for green-minded couples and can double as your favor (see photo, from Beaucoup stationary's site: www.beau-coup.com ).

Another fun idea for a garden-themed or outdoor reception is a short glass of berries with a toothpick flag sticking out of the berries. (A great snack to keep guests busy and from kevetching if the salads are taking a while.)

You can also use the placecards to give subtle cues to the waitstaff: I'm using my black & white theme in my placecards to signify the guests' meal choice to the staff (black for vegetarian, white for meat). Much easier than asking them to memorize seating charts and a touch classier than having them auction off food at the table ("Pork? Anyone for pork?").

Bottom line? White tent cards are boring, and you're so much better than that.