“I know of a barn that’s falling down.”

That’s a direct quote from Mama Whale when I asked her where she thought we could get some wood to make cute signs for the wedding.

Image from Something Borrowed

I’ve had that picture saved for months, and I knew my mom could help me out with making it come to life.  And it’s just like my mom to say, “I know of a barn that’s falling down,” when I ask where we should get the wood.

So last Thursday while I was at my parents’ house, we set out on a little adventure.  Upon arrival at the location of this falling down barn, Mama Whale decided that maybe we should ask permission before just wandering around someone’s property.  So naturally, I sat in the car while she did the dirty work.

Pretty soon, a man appeared with his scary guard dog. (Just kidding. He had a chihuahua. It was very cute.)  When asked if we could take some wood, he said, “I’m just renting the place. Take whatever you want. I don’t care.”

Nice.

So Mama Whale did the dirty work again and gathered up some wood while I documented the moment. (I helped a little, but I can’t do much since one arm is gimpy.)

Then we went home and knocked out these bad boys.

Seriously, this was the EASIEST diy project I’ve ever done. (Granted, I haven’t attached them to stakes or put them in the ground yet, but that’s what dads are for, right?) 🙂  It took maybe 10 or 15 minutes tops for each sign (and that’s me painting with my arm in a cast, so I was a little slow). I used an old cheapo paintbrush I found lying around the house and some ninety-nine cent acrylic paint. One coat. Bam. Done.

Total cost for four signs: ONE DOLLAR!!  (Okay, let’s make it two dollars, because I’m going to need some nails… ) But whatever, that’s about fifty cents and fifteen minutes per sign.) Best. DIY. Ever.

You’re welcome. Anyone else make some rockin signs?

Dress Alterations: More Stress Than I Anticipated

I’ve been waiting eight loooong months to see my beautiful wedding dress.  This is what happens when you order a dress in a city where neither you nor anyone you knows lives. (Do I recommend it? … I can’t imagine it another way for me, because every option presented some difficulty. But if you can avoid it, do.)

After hearing that the dress had arrived in October, then finding out it was not right, I was so thrilled to get a text from LaRaine’s Bridal Boutique about two weeks ago with a picture of the correct bodice. (I would post the picture, but I can’t figure out how to get that picture from my text messages to my computer… #smartphonenoob)

The dress was exactly how I wanted it, so I just assumed that my first fitting would be amazing. I thought I would be over the moon, we would all cry, and I would dance around the shop. (I don’t know… I just thought it would be super fun.) Needless to say, I was wrong.

Did I dance? Yes. Do I love my dress? Yes. Did I have a super fun time? Eh… not really.

Looking back, I wish I would have said, “Ladies, please help me into the dress. And then please leave me alone with my mom for just a few minutes.” I just felt like there were too many people doing too many things at once.  The seamstress immediately started pinning. Another woman starting lifting up the back to mark the place for the bustle. And everyone was talking all at once.  I couldn’t get focused on anything.  It didn’t help that my hair looked like poo because I can’t do anything with it with only one hand (broken wrist, remember?).

The cast looks great, right…?

Finally, I was able to get someone to hand me a mirror so I could see the back of the dress.  And then I guess that was the cue to break up the madness because everyone left for a few minutes.  In actuality, this just led to more madness because it’s when I discovered that my accessories didn’t work at all.  I put on the necklace I’d spent hours making and intended to wear to the reception, and I actually shuddered. It looked horrific with my dress.  I got out my hair flower that I’d spent eternity looking for and discovered it was too ivory.

So then, naturally everyone tried to be very helpful by scouring the shop for a new flower. But I was just done by that point.  No flower was perfect, and I wasn’t about to spend fifty dollars (or more!!!) on a hair flower I didn’t love.  I was exhausted.

To be honest, I’m still exhausted.  If someone told me my wedding was this coming weekend, I would cry, because all I want to do is curl up on my futon and take a nap.  Am I the only one?  Did anyone else have a not-so-fun dress fitting?  Was it more stressful than you imagined?

I Think I’m Overwhelmed

The past seven days have been simultaneously amazingly awesome and ridiculously overwhelming. Let me give you an overview of the schedule:

Wednesday: Depart Maryland at 5:15am for a choir director’s conference in Dallas.
Wednesday-Friday: Spend literally all day (8am – 11pm)  at the conference, and some nights out at karaoke 🙂 (Any other music teacher bees out there? Wasn’t it an amazing conference?)
Saturday: Spend half a day at the conference. Catch a flight to Atlanta. Head straight to my first dress fitting in Atlanta. Eat dinner then pass out in the hotel.
Sunday: Sight-seeing around Atlanta.
Monday: Hair trial in the morning. Drive  two hours to wedding venue to meet with coordinator to finalize details. Meet with potential cake lady (not sure exactly what to call her…) 🙂 Drive back to Atlanta.
Tuesday: Have second dress fitting. Drive to Tennessee to spend the night with my grandma.
Wednesday: Visit both Grandmas. Drive to Kentucky to be at my parents’ house.

And just so you know how crazy it will be, I also have my shower and bachelorette party coming up this weekend and about six craft projects on the docket for the next two days. Aaaaaah!!!

To say I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed would be quite the understatement. I think I’ve hit a stage in wedding planning where I honestly just want to crawl under a blanket for a few weeks, emerge the weekend of our wedding, and just hope for the best. I don’t have that feeling of, “Why didn’t we just elope?” (Yet.) It’s more of being torn between my perfectionist self and my lazy self. (Okay, and my cheap self. That one always shows her face eventually.)

For instance, I can’t find a hair flower that’s the right shade of white, the right size, and a reasonable price. My lazy self wants to just buy a frickin flower and get over it. My perfectionist self wants it to look exactly like it does in the picture in my mind. And my cheap self insists that I can probably make one myself. (I’ll keep you posted on how that adventure pans out.)

I just really want to not have my wedding weekend be filled with utter madness. I don’t want to have to make any decisions. I feel like I’ve already made all the big important ones like the venue and the photographer. Why are the small decisions killing me?  After this past weekend, I know that by my wedding day, I don’t want anyone to say, “Do you want this picture frame here or here?” or “Well what do you think about putting the candy buffet over there instead of here?” or whatever silly questions are going to be asked. This week has shown me that I will not do well if that’s what I have to do. When it comes right down to it, I don’t do well under pressure. I just shut down.

So I’m trying to make most of those decisions now. And it is about to drive me crazy. But I’m hoping it will be worth it in the end.

Are other May (or April or June) brides feeling overwhelmed? How do you make all the small decisions?

Taste the Rainbow

You may recall from a while back that I intend for candy to play a large role in our wedding.  Visions of sugar plums (whatever those are) and other various delicious sugary treats have danced in my head for quite some time.  I really wanted to create some kind of swirly lollipop centerpieces, like this:

Image from Real Simple

or this:

Image from DIY Wedding

This turned out to be a bit more difficult than I anticipated.  The main challenge was actually finding those delicious swirly lollipops.  You might be thinking, “But I saw some just the other day.” Yep, you probably did.  But did you check out the price tag? Some of them can be 4 or 5 dollars each. EACH! Yowsa. That wasn’t happening.

So I searched and searched.  I found some, but then I ran into color problems.  You see, we’re having lots of different colors, but they aren’t red, royal blue, orange, yellow, and green.  It’s more like pink, aqua, yellow, sherbet orange, and purple.  But most swirly lollipops are of the primary color variety.  Boo.

But this isn’t a sad post.  There is a happy ending.  I very fortunately have a bridesmaid who loves to throw epic birthday parties for her daughter.  And she recommended I check out Oriental Trading Company.  Jackpot.  I ordered myself five dozen of these bad boys (for $6.25 per dozen!!):

Available at Oriental Trading Company

They arrived in perfect condition with each lollipop wrapped in bubble wrap.  And the colors are thankfully almost what I wanted.

Next came challenge number two: putting the centerpiece together.  I saved this task for when MOH L would be in town, because she’s basically a junior Martha Stewart.  We cleaned out a pasta sauce jar I had finished and saved (who needs mason jars when you have other jars just lying around), stuck some floral foam in it, and jabbed the lollipops in (there’s not really a more glamorous way to describe this).  Then we set out to Target to find some candy to fill the jar.

Our plan was just to get something random to see how it might look.  I spotted some Skittles on clearance, so we grabbed a bag and headed back to try it out.  First, we tasted the Skittles (delicious, of course).  Then, we poured them in.  And that produced…

Sorry for the crappy picture.  I have since sent this home with Mama Whale, so this is the only picture I have.  But do you see how perfect those Skittles are??  They are the exact right colors!!  I squealed and did a little dance around the apartment.  And then I stopped, as a thought entered my head, “Were those Skittles on clearance because they’re discontinued?”

Turns out they were!! Noooooooooooooo!!!! So I sent everyone I knew out on  hunt for Skittles Blenders.

Image from American Sweets

And everyone came up empty-handed.  Fortunately, WeddingBee noticed I was doing a lot of googling for candy and suggested I visit Drugstore.com.  (Turns out those suggested ads actually work sometimes) 🙂

And that is the story of how I ended up with thirty pounds of Skittles being delivered to my door. Whew. It was a close call.

So the short story is… I turned a Prego jar, some lollipops, and some Skittles into my centerpieces!!  Has anyone else done candy centerpieces??