Most Awesome Cake Ever!

My bridal shower & pre-bachelorette party were AMAZING! I'll write more about this fabulous weekend, the greatest bridesmaids and mom ever, and all the details soon. Now to have another piece of cake!

Ikea Has Everything

I love Ikea. The majority of the furniture in our apartment comes from Ikea because it's affordable and hip. I never thought about Ikea for wedding supplies though. That is, until I read a post on An Atlanta Bride, who recently married her Mr. Wonderful. Her blog is awesome, you should check it out. She bought tables from Ikea to use in her lounge area during cocktail hour.

My wedding is basically one long cocktail hour and originally we were going to rent coffee tables, but $125 each for 2 seemed extravagant. We are still getting the lovely white benches for our two lounge-like areas, but I knew we could get the tables for cheaper. Enter Ikea. Mr. J and I took the free Ikea shuttle to the Red Hook, Brooklyn location. I love walking around the showroom. We saw many coffee tables and wrote down a few we liked. Then we saw a display that had two tables pushed together to make one, and guess how much those tables were? $12.99! So, we picked up 4 white Lack tables for about 52 bucks, as opposed to $250. Yes, I was in heaven! I love a deal. (All images via Ikea) We were on our way to pay and had to go through the first floor with all the Home Decor. For anyone thinking about centerpieces, YOU MUST GO TO IKEA. So many ideas, so little time. We walked towards the paper lanterns and both fell in love. Instead of me slaving on the beautiful coffee filter garland I was going to make to hang over the tree branches, we're going to go with 4 paper lanterns dangling just above head range. Ikea had an example of a lantern painted blue (SCORE!) so we bought the blue paint as well. It will look great during the ceremony when the sun is out and beautiful at night after sunset when the lights can be turned on. So with the 4 Lack tables, 4 paper lanters, 5 cords (we bought one more just in case), 1 can of blue stain, 1 paintbrush, and one blue Ikea bag, we spent $107.

I can't wait until Mr. J and I move into our next apartment, I want the red kitchen in the showroom!

Awkward (RSVP)

via someecards

Someone RSVP'd plus 3.

Um.

Um.

Is this a joke?

Thankfully, we've had a few people ask if they could bring guests first. Asking is good. Kudos to the askers.

But seriously.

We'd love to have everyone come and celebrate our love but unfortunately paying for a wedding & reception is expensive, and even though our wedding is way below the average cost of a New York wedding--it's still a lot of money to us. I know it's going to be a great day for everyone who attends, but I think it would be nice if people would ask first.

We also had someone RSVP for the wrong date. Haha, poor grandma needs to get a new pair of glasses.

I have to say that the invite list and the RSVP are my least favorite parts of this entire process. Not including people doesn't mean that they aren't important to me--but we had to make sure to invite our families (and I have a very large one) and our closest friends and to do this within our budget. If I had all the money in the world the guest list wouldn't be an issue--but I don't.

So Mr. J will be handling this latest RSVP issue (and I should call my grandmother to tell her the correct wedding date).

The Fan Dance

source

No, not that fan dance. (But if you want to know more about the Burlesque Fan Dance I can help you out with that one. Oh, that's a story for another blog :)

My biceps hurt. Not just from the Samba/Pole dancing classes I am taking. From lugging around heavy cardstock I bought from Staples. Mr. J and I decided that we wanted each guest to have a fan, seeing as how we're getting married outside in August. Our ceremony & reception space is shaded by two beautiful trees, but that doesn't mean it's not going to be hot. At first we were going to do fans and programs, then fans and no programs, and now we are at the fan program idea. I purchased blue cardstock for about $15 from staples (250 sheets, bought 2 packs). We are making 140 fans, possibly more and wanted to have enough paper to do a trial and in case there are any mistakes. I will also buy some purple ribbon to tie around the fan sticks. I had purchased fan sticks previously online (can't remember the website, but I got more than enough for very cheap).

If you're thinking about doing the fan program, either the paddle version like the photo above or the panel fan, visit this DIY website which has great directions and templates! I'm going with the rectangle program because it's the easiest and we can use our paper cutter. I'm also going to use the image I drew of Mr. J and I as a stick-figure bride and groom and mimic our invitations. Our invitation cover has the stick figure drawing of the two of us at the spot we met and underneath it says "Boy Met Girl." The invitation opens up and to a picture of the two of us (yes, I drew myself with locks and bigger boobs than I actually have) dressed as a bride and groom and says, "To read the rest of our story..." and continues with the rest of the text. We are going with a book/literature theme, so I want to continue the invitation drawings onto our fans and have it say "Boy & Girl Marry" (rather than boy marries girl because hey, we're both marrying each other!).

My best friend is coming into town next week from Florida so I'll make sure to put her to work getting started on the fans :)

I'm a Flip-Flopper

via dollar days

Our dance floor is concrete. I know that I have danced through the pain when I've been at weddings. Instead of having my guests be in pain, I wanted to do the flip-flop basket and I wanted to do it cheap. I found a number of places on-line that were way too expensive, though very beautiful, you could get flip-flops in your wedding colors, with your date printed on them, etc. Old Navy had a $1 flip-flop sale, but customers are limited to 5 per purchase. I did not want to travel around to all the Old Navy's in the City to get flip-flops. I found a wholesale store online and ordered women's flip flops in assorted sizes and colors, about 75 pairs of flip-flops. It will probably be more than enough, but I wanted to make sure that all the ladies are covered and can dance the night away. And all our guests who are coming to the after party can continue to dance well into the night in comfort.

75 days...

And I am way ahead of The Knot's check list.

More to come soon. Working on the guest book/box. Will take pictures and show you guys soon. We've been getting RSVPs and we're getting pretty excited (and a bit stressed). On Saturday morning I sat Mr. J down and showed him our wedding expenses in an Excel spreadsheet and it was a total downer for him...but he needs to know how much we are spending!

My bridal shower is in three weeks! I'm excited to see my best friend from college and my best friend from high school who will be in town for the weekend. I scheduled my first fitting for the day after the shower so that they could come with me and do some weddingy stuff together. I don't know how we'll make the noon appointment since they are taking me out for a bachelorette party that night, too.

My Frog Prince :)

I've been wanting cute, non-blurry pics of my ring--and thanks to a tutorial by Anne Ruthmann titled "How to Take Amazing Engagement and Wedding Ring Photos" on Wedding Bee. Here are my first attempts with some of my little figurines that normally reside on our bookcases. The frog prince I've had since college so he's got a few scuff marks and the troll was a gift from my mom from a year or two ago.