I think I just found my wedding dream shoe! (swoons!) (Found HERE)
Oh my gosh I love them...but I've never spent $90 on ANY article of clothing before (the wedding dress doesn't count), and I'm not quite sure I can justify this. eeek.

Here are a couple others that I was considering:

(Amazon)

(Ebay, Ballroom dance shoes seller)

(amazon)

(amazon)

(clothingaccessoriesshoes.com)

Although I just found these and really like them. They're Bandolino, but $70 at zappos...still a little high priced for me (ideal is around or less than $50 and something I wouldn't mind wearing again)


They all would go great with my dress...because of the unique color and detailing, I can't do a colored or extravagant shoe...which I'm fine with. But finding a suitable shoe is proving to be difficult. And not only that but I'm tall, so no alterations were needed as far as hemming goes, which means I can only wear about a 2-3" heel (if even that much) to get the right amount of "off the ground" but not too high. It's a little complicated!! haha.


Where did you guys buy your shoes?

I went to super target today and while browsing their bargain section, I found these adorable vintage styled mini milk vases. I adore them and I just know they will go perfect with the decor of my wedding! And at $2.50 for a set of three, I couldn't resist. I got six packages (for 18 total), and so it came to $15. They are so cute!! I can't wait to use them.
I will probably adorn the guestbook, gift and dessert table with them. I'm very excited for it.





I am going to incorporate my newspaper flower idea for these (you can view my Weddingbee thread HERE)
Here are my inspirations:






I think the last design is my favorite, because of the unique vintage feel. I may make a variety. Though I would, of course, incorporate my own uniqueness and designs, I would definitely be sure to add more of the vintage feel to them and I would be making them out of newspaper.

I love this idea and can't wait to get started on it! I'll be borrowing all the seasons of Gilmore Girls from a friend, and so guess what I'll be doing in the evenings ;) This stuff is so much fun!

What are some of your favorite DIY projects you're doing for the wedding?

So I started going on a diet about two weeks ago, and this is a MUST, my wedding dress is too small! haha.
I am aiming to lose 30 lbs overall, but I only need to lose about 10. Well I was doing great, as of Thursday, I had lost about 3.5 lbs, and I was super excited. but...I kinda messed up the weekend. It's easy for my to eat healthy during the week when I'm active and working and have short breaks and all that. But during the weekend I had a lot of time and ate junk food...by Sunday night I was up the 3.5 lbs hahaha. oh boy!! I think I'm going to have to implement some more discipline. I created a Spark People Page (HERE), and I am tracking mostly just my measurements and weight, and I have actually found a community of other brides there who are losing weight.. it's kinda fun :)
Well here comes another week of counting calories :)

Okay I just had to share this!

I saw this cake topped by an etsy seller (http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38560213) and I FELL IN LOVE with them. And since I decided to include birds as a theme in our wedding. Well, the price for these lovebirds is a little out of budget...so I implored my dear grandmother, who is creative to the T, to try to make them for me...and she did! They are so precious, I love them. And they mean so much to me because they were specially and lovingly made by my dear grandma. And I know that they are unique, and there is none like them.

My fiance and I are envisioning a more "party" style reception, than a formal affair (mostly because of finances, but partly because we're both laid-back casual, fun-loving people). So we've been entertaining the idea of a cake & dessert reception rather than a full on meal.
Ceremony around 1, reception around 2. Cake, dessert and dancing for about 3-4 hours (until people get hungry for dinner and leave lol!!). And maybe a separate restaurant reception for the wedding party (though that is up in the air, have to figure out pricing and all that)...
This is our inspiration:

Or something similar.
Today I went thrift store shopping (budget/DIY bride's best friend!) and found the start to some amazing items for our dessert buffet:

It's only 3 items...but you want to know what I paid for it? $2.00 for all three items. The two smaller ones were .50 cents each and the other was 50% off making it a whole whopping dollar! hehe.
I honestly, no joke, walked into the store telling myself I would only buy something if it was 50% off... yeah, my thrift stores have clearance.. :):):)

I also got the start to my lace tablecloth vision:


I bought two lace tableclothes, and two lace doilies. All four items? $5.50.
(three were also 50%).

Yeah... I'm soo excited right now :)
I also got a ton of fabric pieces to start making my adorable little birds!

so excited... <3

Oooh I'm so excited I just had to share. Since yesterday I've been in communication with an Etsy seller who makes monogrammed/personalized Unity candles. I sent her some questions concerning a custom order and she is making me some amazing candles, a unity candle, two tapers and also a memorial candle (for my grandmother), and an amazing price: $28. I am soo excited!
I will definitely be posting pictures once I get them. (Can't order them until I had a definite date in place haha)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/wreathartist

So, we never sent out Save-The-Dates because we ourselves didn't save the date...haha. We ended up changing our date... (counts)..1,2,3,4 times. And still we don't have a definite date! We're varying between two - it depends mostly on what happens with our venue.
Anyway, so our save the dates has been more word-of-mouth. Even though we don't know it yet, but most everyone knows it's either the Saturday or Sunday of that one weekend (no more changing the weekend!)
But - I stumbled upon these adorable and unique save the dates, that makes me want to send them out for fun anyway.
http://www.paperlesspost.com/session/new
Now normally, I would completely disregard anything related to electronic invitations, I prefer snail-mail, I find it charming and a lost art. But I love these, and I would definitely consider doing these as save-the-dates, even though our wedding is only four months away now. They are so cute...and an amazing price! I haven't done it, but I heard it's 60 invites for $5. Yay!!

I've been hooked on the idea of non-matching bridesmaids dresses since the day I got engaged. I absolutely love being different, and for my vintage/rustic/whimsical themed wedding, I thought it would fit the theme splendidly...
My Inspiration:



Problem: I didn't foresee some complications: not everyone loving their dresses.
Now, allow me to say I have the most amazing girls in my party, I love them dearly and I know if it came right down to it, they would wear whatever I wanted them to...but really, would I want to do that to them?! Another goal of mine was to get a dress they might consider wearing again.. because my wedding isn't very formal (but not super casual, like obviously there will be no one in jeans!), I figured not buying traditional BM dresses would be great, and a budget-alternative (two of my BM's are still in college).
My main inspiration has been www.modcloth.com I simply adore their collection of dresses! Vintage, but elegance and classiness all in one. Oh, and fashion-conscious!
My main issue has been my colors: my dress isn't traditional white so not all colors really "go" with it. My wedding colors are beige/cream and dusty pale pink.



And I haven't had much luck finding dresses like this.
This was my original ensemble:

First and third dress from Modcloth, second dress from Charlotte Russe and last dress from J.Crew, with prices ranging from $25-$100, the average price came to $62 for each BM. I thought that was great... but not all my bridesmaids were so keen on their dresses. Soo.. I began the search again.

And kinda gave up after awhile...
so now I'm considering having them all wear the same dress:



From modcloth.
Still don't love it as much as the idea of wearing different dresses, but the girls are at least appeased somewhat...

any other ideas are appreciated! just trying to keep it less than $100!!

I'm brainstorming some invitation ideas. In lieu of my previous post, yes, I am DIYing my invites! yay.
Here are my favorite ideas:






Cute, huh?
I am probably getting my paper from Archivers in Coon Rapids, MN. My sister got her paper from there when she made her wedding invites.
Like I said in my previous post, I'm looking to incorporate lace and a vintage theme into my wedding invitations...I've never found something online that I absolutely love and really reflects me, my fiance and our theme.
I'm thinking of "aging" the paper with coffee - I used to do this a lot to create unique sheet music, and then frame it and hang it up in my room. It's a cheap and adorable option for art...if you like that kind of stuff. (there is a brief "how-to" HERE)

(here is an example of some of my aged sheet music)


Also, something else I'm considering for my invites is rubber stamps, I love the look of them, and you can create such unique things with it. I have a rubber stamp very similar to this one, except that mine has illegible text as well (it looks "old-fashioned")

you can get this stamp at www.addictedtorubberstamps.com

So something like that might be neat. My colors are pale pink and cream, so I'll be incorporating those two colors, and how I might do lace is simply tie the invites shut with a lace ribbon.

I'm merely brainstorming, but it's a basic idea... I'll have to post more after the bridal showcase at archivers! I'm so excited!


Oh, I also want to highlight these, they are tutorials on how some brides DIYed their invites, super cute:
http://diy.weddingbee.com/topic/miss-glosss-the-glossy-invitations-invite-design-basics

http://diy.weddingbee.com/topic/miss-fondues-designing-the-invitations-part-2-an-embossing-tutorial

http://www.weddingbee.com/2009/01/20/twelve-steps-to-creating-diy-wedding-invitations/

Oh, so I realized two posts into my fantabulous blog, and I haven't introduced myself!
Here is my fiance, Daniel, and me:



We got engaged in September of 2009, and planning a May wedding! It's been such a fun process thus far, though it's proved very stressful and I've been tempted to simply elope several times (crazy thing is, my parents are okay with it!!), but it means the world to me to have our family and close friends with us on such a dear and special occasion.

So, about me. I am on and off as far as college goes, whatever I can afford for now. I've completely three semester, and have two more until I graduate with my associates (one semester was part time).
I moved to NY to be a full-time live-in nanny and that's where I met my sweetie!
My sweetie has a bachelors of applied math and statistics (ech!), and is working towards his masters in Math Education. He's almost done! He also just passed his certification test, so now he's applying for his teachers license, yay!!

What I wrote on my wedding website: (They Story of how we met!)

Daniel and Carissa met January 19, 2009. It was a cold winter night, at Applebees in Commack, NY.
Carissa had recently moved to New York to be a live-in nanny, and after visiting a local church was invited to the outreach volleyball group, and then invited afterwards to go to applebees with the volleyball group. Daniel met up with his friends that night after he finished work, and he says it was love at first sight.
Carissa, on the other hand, hardly gave him a second glance.
The next two months consisted of Daniel very subtly pursuing Carissa through facebook messages, texts and talking with her at volleyball and bible study. They also had a couple "movie nights" at her place.
Carissa had a few suspicions of Daniel liking her when they went to go see the band Mae in concert at the Crazy Donkey on February 15.
On March 9, Carissa had a bad day; a friend of hers was scheduled to fly in the next day and spend the week with her, and backed out last minuted. Daniel took off of work that night, went to her house with two half gallons of her favorite ice cream, and a chick flick (Maid of Honor!) to cheer her up. It was the day Carissa realized she returned his feelings.
They had their first date the next day in New York City, which consisted of walking through Manhattan, going to the Met Museum, dinner at Serendipity 3 and The Little Mermaid on Broadway Show.
March 13, 2009 - Daniel asked Carissa to be his girlfriend.


Now time for the proposal!!

After six months of dating, Carissa thought it would be special to get some pictures taken together. She and Daniel had a very good friend who is a student photographer, and asked if she'd be willing to do a photo shoot for them on their six month anniversary.
After finding that their place of choice was closed, they wound up at Oheka Castle in Huntington, New York. The photo shoot was fun for all three of them, and Carissa went about it unknowingly, thinking these pictures were merely something fun as a milestone in their relationship.
About an hour and a half into the shoot, Daniel told Carissa to look at Brittany for a picture, and he got down on one knee, pulled out a ring, and asked Carissa to marry him. Carissa nearly cried with exhilaration and was completely surprised!
It couldn't have been more special, not only for Carissa to be so genuinely surprised, but also that such a special moment was capture in photographs.





So that is our story :)

So I am huge into DIY! I love making things, I have such a sense of pride after I do so :) I have honestly considered making things for etsy or consignment stores (we have one in my hometown that sells shabby-chic stuff!)...but never had the guts or time to do so.
Anyway, so obviously for my wedding I want to have a lot of little things that reflect who Daniel and me are, I want our wedding to be us.
Here are some of my favorite DIY projects I've found:
(mostly from www.oncewed.com, www.stylemepretty.com or www.weddingbee.com)














I keep a list in a word document of all the links into these DIY's. I'm still in the process of sorting through and deciding which ones I want to use or not... though I must admit, I love the pinwheels for the chair backs, could that be cuter?! or cheaper! I mean construction paper and buttons - how fun is that!

I also love the handkerchief wrapped mason/ball jars. It's fun, vintage and simply adorable. I am thinking of going thrift store shopping soon to find some handkerchiefs to use...they also usually sell a lot of pieces of lace, I plan on using large bolts of lace for tablecloths (I am obsessed with lace!), as handkerchiefs and cutting it up for ribbons.

I plan to incorporate it someone into our invitations..hmm!!