My Goodness...

I’ve got SO much to share! Things have been a little hectic (to say the VERY least) the last few weeks and I’m sure that some of you may have noticed the “lightness” on my blog.

But I’m BACK in the groove now! Ready to go. I was able to spend a VERY nice afternoon with MOH yesterday and realized that there are SO many things that I haven’t written about yet that I’ve been doing in the background for our wedding. I have to admit, I’ve been in a non-wedding planning mood lately and I’ve got to kick it into high gear here. Why you ask?

Because it’s 159 days until our wedding!!! That magical 5 month mark is getting closer and closer with each day…and I have to admit that it’s making me a little nervous…I’m not sure why – it’s just a number, but still.

So, one thing that I’ve had for about two months now and just realized that I hadn’t written about it when I was visiting with MOH yesterday was my new centerpiece idea. I had originally thought to do something that brought in my love for scrapbooking and go completely away from flowers in the centerpieces. I was going to concentrate on photos of us and the kiddos…thinking that each centerpiece would be unique and help to generate some mingling amongst the guests, especially since it seems unlikely that our families will meet before the big day.

But in stepped one of my Maids. She got married just last fall (this was the wedding where little CC and Mr. CC’s son just couldn’t understand my Mr. CC and I couldn’t just step up there and get married then too!) and had some fabulous centerpiece holders. She had meant to sell them after her wedding, but a few months ago when I was up in Dallas for work and hanging out with her one night, mentioned that she hadn’t actually gotten rid of them yet. A quick tally on the total that she had remaining proved to be plenty for my tables.

This introduced a whole new element for me….something to consider. The downfall in my eyes was that it meant using fresh flowers…or dried ones…or fake ones…just something that I hadn’t planned on doing. But they’re just SO pretty! I couldn’t resist taking one of them home for Mr. CC to look over and see what he thought.

Here's a pic of the box that shows what it might look like with full flowers...

He thought that they were cool, and of course, since my Maid is willing to let me use them, it’s that much better. AWESOME!
Here's another picture of the vase out of the box...

So what do you think? There are a couple of ideas brewing my head of how to use these possibly without using full-out flowers…but you’ll have to stay tuned to hear what MOH came up with yesterday on how to do that…

Did you have an original idea that you just LOVED that eventually got changed because something else came along? How did that effect your planning?

Asking the Looming Question...

So, I’m going to post about a subject that I know at least ONE person will probably hate me for, but here it is.

The question of the day is this: IF I did change my tablecloth color (Gasp!) what could I do to bring the color of eggplant back into my reception venue?

Yeah, I know MOH, I know. It’s almost sacrilegious typing the question…but it’s out there anyway.

I’ve come up with a few options, but maybe you will be able to help me think up something else…since I SO do NOT want to choose this option, that might have the teensiest little bitsiest part of why I’m having decorator’s block when I think about this option…

The first thing that I thought of was to incorporate eggplant napkins, elegantly draped or folded to take up a good portion of the table top. Not my favorite option, but an option that would bring eggplant back to life at the venue. The main concern? If I’m having this much trouble finding eggplant tablecloths, will I run into the same dilemma with napkins? Possibly. But it’s also possible to me that I could make 200 napkins out of that elegant eggplant satin that I found in Dallas on my last trip up there…and with my serging machine and the right shade of thread, it would be a simple matter for the most part. Of course, they might be simple to find and buy, I haven’t looked into the cost of doing that yet…but it’s an option. Also along those lines is maybe finding or making eggplant table runners…or those draping cloths that cover the tops of the tables, but don’t go all the way to the floor. Something like the picture above. My problem with this option? Once again, finding the right color in a full tablecloth is hard enough…yada yada yada, you get the point. And I’m not sure that I like the look of table runners. It seems to me that the table might get a little busy with runners, napkins, plates and glasses. Not to mention the centerpieces and anything additional that I put on the tables to jazz them up…so I’m not sold on this option.

The only other thing that I’ve thought of is incorporating my beloved eggplant color into the flowers. One of my Maids got married just last September and had some LOVELY centerpiece vase/candle holder combo thingys that Mr. CC and I liked and she has graciously offered us use of them before she sells them. So, when I first started planning this shindig I wasn’t sure about using flowers on the centerpieces, but now it looks like I will have vases for free…a good reason to now use flowers in the décor. So can I incorporate enough eggplant in the flowers to appease my whims and desires?

I don’t know. I honestly don’t.

And the whole reason for trying to bring in more color is because my photographer mentioned that her only complaint about shooting out at Texas Old Town, our fabulous venue, was that everything in sight was wood, which tends to cast a yellowish hue on everything. She photoshops it out, so that it’s not something that I have to actually deal with in my pictures, but I was hoping to bring in enough color to combat some of that for her. Plus, I think that it will look nice…

Other than those ideas, I’ve drawn a blank. Can you come up with anything else that I could do to bring in more color than just the black and cream theme that I’ve got going? Or maybe I should just leave it black and cream and go with that? I don’t know right now….I need HELP!!!

Free IS Better!

I love it when you find things that are discounted, cheaper or…FREE!!!

Nothing makes me happier.

And finding it where you least expect it is also a bonus. That’s exactly what happened to me last week regarding my flower girl. You see, my daughter is going to my flower girl. From the very beginning of all of our wedding talks, one thing that was and has still remained a constant is the fact that we want our children involved in our wedding.

In some form or fashion.

In talking about this with family members and friends, you get all sorts of differing opinions on what our kids should do in our wedding. Some think that they’d be perfect as junior attendants, but others think that they’re too young. Some think that they’d be the perfect flower girl and ring bearer, but others think that they’re too old. You following along here with me? And since we all know that you can’t please everyone, we’ve chosen to please ourselves and our kids.

They’ve been involved in this whole thing since the very beginning, and it’s only right to continue that tradition. So I’m leaving it up to them. If “Snookums” wants to be a ring boy, then he’ll be a ring bearer, but if he wants to be a junior groomsman, then that’s what he’ll be. And the same goes for my daughter.

Yep, you guessed it. She wants to be the flower girl. So I have a ready-made flower girl just antsy to start practicing her walk and tossing flower petals. It’s REALLY cute!

And since she’s been so involved in the whole process, I felt it only right that she should be able to pick out her own flower girl dress. I didn’t take her with me when I was shopping for my bridal dress, so she has no idea what it looks like or anything. In fact, she just gets a little confused when we talk about the wedding in general. You see, I have a confession. Not a confession really…more like a funny. My daughter doesn’t talk about our wedding, she asks me when the “ball” is going to be…to her in her little 6 year-old eyes, Mr. CC and I are already married. To her, we were married the moment that he slipped the ring on my hand. I tried once or twice to explain that we weren’t actually married yet, but after just one of those conversations I stopped trying and just let her call it the “ball.” It doesn’t hurt anything.

So when we tell her that we’re going to the mall to look for her wedding dress, she gets all excited, thinking that she gets to wear it that night to the wedding. Yeah, I know. October is just too far away for her little 1st grade brain to wrap around. Relax. I’m not calling her slow, just being honest about how 6 year-olds see the world. She can barley think about something being next week, much less in October. We do good to think ahead to her birthday in June…so shopping for flower girl dresses has been a lot of fun!

The first dress that we bought was cute. (Yeah I said the first one…more on that later.) But the second dress (yes, yes…more on that LATER!) was the winner. We had SO much fun shopping for it, that when we finally got home it was late and her bedtime, so I rushed her inside and into bed before she could realize that she hadn’t gotten any real TV time that night. In my haste, I left the dress in my trunk. So the next day at work, I was looking at the pictures that I had taken of her and realized that I had left it in my trunk. I went out and got it so that I could hang it up and keep it wrinkle-free.

One of my co-workers (well, almost all of them to be honest) stopped to comment on the dress. And there was a woman there who has two granddaughters that were just in a wedding in December. She was telling me all about their dresses when she scolded me for not checking with her first before I went out and bought a dress for Jenna to wear. Apparently she’s got two perfectly good dresses with all of the trimmings that I could have borrowed. Oops! Oh well. But let’s talk about those trimmings…

Yep, I scored BIG time on the “trimmings” that she had to offer. Today, she brought me the cutest little flower girl basket that I think I’ve ever seen. I was thinking of making a basket for our wedding, but to be honest, I couldn’t make something cuter than this one, and it’s free for the taking. My co-worker also brought me a pearl necklace and bracelet that my daughter can wear and a pair of shoes to try on. SO CUTE! Check them out in the pictures below.

All of these things are things that I would have bought for my daughter (or tried to make in the case of the basket) and now I don’t have to! And one of my BM pointed out to me that now my daughter has something new (her dress) and something borrowed (all this stuff) so she only needs something old and something blue to be just like mommy. What a cute thought!

I was touched by my co-workers generosity and use of the items…so a big thanks to you! Isn’t it neat to find a little bit of treasure when you’re least expecting it?