Mon, 15 Jan 2007 13:56:36 GMT

This journal is friends only, but since we're less than nine months away, I'll post some of the ideas we've gathered so far for public display. If you're interested in friending me, leave a comment!

Our budget is $3,000 (excluding honeymoon) and our guestlist is at about 50 people.

Theme: shabby chic

Motif: birds, chandeliers, branches, hydrangea

Colors: chocolate brown, vibrant greens, ivory

Keywords: whimsical...artistic...rustic..."classical elements with a modern twist"

The Bride:



The Groom:

My ring:

I'm obsessed with this little copper orb that will hold our wedding rings!

We'll be doing DIY boxed invitations, inspired by this picture. The box will be lined with live moss instead of straw, and the invite will have rounded corners.

This is the first page draft of the custom newsletter everyone in the wedding party will be receiving:

These are the signs we'll be making to help people with directions at the site.

I really like this gown from DB:



I just received a horrible haircut by a 'professional' in a high end salon who pretty much hacked everything off, so I'm growing my hair out in the hopes it'll be long enough to style like this by the wedding:

Bouquet inspiration, without the curly willow:



Bridesmaid Dress Inspiration:

Bridesmaid bouquets like the first picture, but a bit smaller and with green hydrangea. I'm iffy about the feathers.



Flower Girl Dress (Alfred Angelo #6143). I love the fairy wings, but can't decide if they're just a bit too much.
The dress will be in moss green to match the BM dresses.

Ring pillow inspiration.

This is the ceremony site we've tentatively picked out. The leaves will have changed to their autumn colors and we're hoping to have some sweet evening light.

Seriously? We'd have a Regency era theme, cravats and tails and all, but it'd weird out our families. We're doing a modern shabby chic motif instead, but if you look close at period art and fashion, you can probably still see the influences. Oh yeah, and this movie too. :P

We're thinking about building something like this at the altar, maybe with fall colors:

Sign inspiration:

DIY aisle decorations!

We might buy white umbrellas in case of rain. I think it could be cool.



Our DIY programs will have green silk covers with brown ribbon, kind of like these:

Preview of the layout of the inside pages (a total of eight pages, they'll be printed front and back and put together so these aren't in order):

We're doing seating by table, and we'll probably have the cards hanging like this for guests to take:

We'll probably be having BBQ catered from one of our favorite restaurants.

Fresh lemonade with raspberries, cherries, lime wedges or rosemary as garnishes:

Lots of lights hanging from the trees, kinda like this:

I love the look of a table under the trees like this. But we'll probably have to rent a tent, in case of rain.

The favors will be white, green and brown crystal candy.

I love this centerpiece, but it's a little too formal for our event.

So instead, we'll be putting green hydrangeas in these vases. They're actually porcelein milk bottles!

Table numbers on cards like this.

DIY votives:

We'll be using an iPod for our reception music.

We'll be DIYing these wish cards, in green with brown text:

They'll go in a bowl like this:

We might also do a polaroid guestbook, like so:

Three tier cake with the same cake table (diy). We're thinking fresh ground vanilla bean white cake with raspberry filling and buttercream icing.

We'll be having sparklers for our exit:

Not pictured...
Our wedding rings. We haven't picked them out yet, though we know we want something traditional and in white gold.
Still deciding on a photographer.
We'll be hiring three students for a string trio during the ceremony.

Things we're not going to have...
Special toasting flutes or cake-cutting knife.
Newspaper announcements.
DJ.
~~Guestbook~~ -- you guys changed my mind about this!
Limousine.
Wedding coordinator.
Bridal veil.

We may be under or over our $3k budget by $500 depending on where we have the ceremony and how much the tents and linens cost us. My father offered to pay for my wedding gown, and aside from that we're paying for it all ourselves. Whew. Just about one year away and still so much to do!

C + H