I'm Baaaack!

As I talked about in my last post, I managed to find some super cool wedding deals this last weekend. When you're a budget bride, you have to buy things little by little. Bridal party gifts are no different. My FI and I have 5 attendants and 1 jr. attendant on each side...not to mention a flower girl and ring bearer. So, I'm always on the lookout for gifts for my girls that won't break my budget. I was walking through Target on Saturday when I spotted some plain, but cute tote bags.

What I really liked about these is that they are nice and big, but still zip shut so you don't have to worry about stuff falling out. Plus, I can always jazz them up by putting their monogram on the front with rhinestones or flatback pearls. The two blue ones are for my matrons of honor (aka my big sisters) and the three green are for my bridesmaids. Wanna know the best thing about these?? They were only $2.50 each! Sssshh....don't tell my bridesmaids, it's a secret! I also managed to find a cute tote for my niece who is my junior bridesmaid.

I secretly love this bag! I would have bought it for all of my girls, but there's no zipper on it. I just love the bright, punchy colors. I figured that a 13 year old would love the colors in this. Again, I may end up putting her initial on this bag to make it more personal. Just like the other totes, this one was only $2.50. I found one more fabulous must have item over the weekend, but this time it was at Hobby Lobby.

Hobby Lobby had all their remaining Valentines Day decor on sale for 66% off. I saw these letters and knew I had to have them. I plan on painting them to match our colors and putting them on either the cake table or the gift table. After the discount, I think I paid around $1.50 for it. Not too shabby huh??

Has anyone else found any fabulous deals lately?

Fat Tuesday

Sorry it's been a few days since I've posted anything. I'm writing to you today freezing and sick. I promise that tomorrow I will be back with a brand spanking new entry chalked full of pictures. I went out this past weekend and stumbled upon LOTS of wedding goodness. Yea!! So, bear with me today and check back tomorrow and I promise it won't dissapoint. :)

Put a stamp on it

My future mother-in-law(FMIL) works for the post office and she mailed me pictures of the new love and wedding stamps that are coming out this year. As most of you know, postage is going to be raised in May and I thought I would include a list of the new prices:

Letters – first ounce
$0.44
Large envelopes – first ounce
$0.88
Parcels – first ounce
$1.22
Additional ounces
$0.17
Postcard
$0.28
Stamped Card
$0.31
Stamped Envelope
$0.54

Now onto the really important stuff, what those new stamps actually look like!!

These are the new "Love" stamps that will be coming out. In case you can't tell, it's the king and queen of hearts. I'm not a big fan of these stamps, they're not very colorful or pretty. In my opinion, not very "wedding-ish".

This stamp is the new 1oz. wedding stamp. I really like this one, it's classy and pretty. Since my invites will mail at the 1oz. rate, I can safely say that I let out a big sigh of relief when I saw these!

For those of you who will be mailing at the 2oz. rate, this will be your stamp. Again, very beautiful. I really like both of these stamps.

Kudos to you postal service on the new wedding stamps! Even though postage goes up in May, my FMIL says these stamps will not be out until sometime in June. Sorry June brides!

DIY Invites: The Font

I have started tackling my Invites lately. I'm taking it slow and starting with the font. No need to jump in head first, I'll put my toes in and check the water!

I was worried at first because it seems like most people use publisher or photoshop to make theirs....I have neither. I also couldn't justify spending all that money to buy one of these programs. Ugh. No need to fear, you can use Powerpoint and Word to make your invites if you lack the aforementioned programs. Trust me, I'm currently working on invites in both!

To get started go into the program of your choosing and insert a text box. Then format it to the size your invites will be. I am planning on doing signature size pocketfolds, so my invites will be 6.5" in height by 4.5" in width. Then, start adding your text and playing with the fonts. There are many websites out there where you can download fonts for free. Because let's face it, these programs don't come with many "nice" fonts.

One of these sites is: http://www.webpagepublicity.com/free-fonts-s7.html Another popular site is http://www.dafont.com/ When you find a font you like, click on it to download it. I always save it to my desktop, to make the next part easier. After it has been saved, minimize your internet window. Go to your start button, control panel, appearance and themes, and fonts. Once you open the font folder click on the font you want and drag it into the font folder. It will automatically save it under fonts for you! Presto, you are ready to play with your fonts! (wow, that sounded dirty.)

I just made up a mock invite and then tried it out with different fonts. When I found ones I liked, I saved them and printed them out. On the backs of the printed ones I wrote the font name and size for my own reference. Here is an example of one that I am working on.

Nooooo!!!!!

When my FI and I were setting our wedding date I decided to see when the local university's homecoming was. Well, at the time they didn't have the information on their website and no one at the school could answer my questions. There were only two saturdays in October that worked for us; the 17th and 24th. I looked at the schools calendar for the last three years and every year their homecoming was the second saturday and their fall break was the third. This meant that either of our dates would work.

FI informed me that if we went with the later date, we wouldn't be able to honeymoon right away because of his work schedule. So, with confidence in hand we chose the 17th and began booking vendors. I just found out that the college has changed their homecoming to the weekend of our wedding. Aaghh!!! I know, it may not sound like a big deal, but it kind of is.

You see, our church is only a couple blocks from campus and is right next to the downtown area that alumni like to frequent. Plus, we were planning on having pictures taken downtown after the ceremony. So now I'm wondering if we should push our ceremony time back so that most people will be at the football game while we are getting married. And what about hotels?

Luckily we do have a block of rooms, but what if they all fill up and more people want rooms? Or what if someone is too smashed to go home and needs a hotel room? We don't have many hotels around here and I am starting to worry.

Has anyone else encountered anything like this so far??

What does it mean?

I've always been interested in the meanings behind sayings and traditions. I remember in high school learning that the saying "Rule of Thumb" was established in the 1700's as a rule that men couldn't beat their wives with anything bigger than their thumb. Interesting, huh? Makes me glad to live now and not then. lol. Lately I've been wondering about the meanings behind a lot of wedding traditions.

For instance, did you know that the veil was a symbol of the groom's dominance over the bride? Why yes it was. In fact, the groom lifting the veil over her head at the end of the ceremony established her subordination to him. But I have also read that the lifting of the veil was to ensure that the groom was getting the right woman. Ever wonder why the bride stands on the left of the groom?

"The origin of this goes back to the days when a groom would capture his bride by kidnapping her. If the groom had to fight off other men who also wanted her as their bride, he would hold his bride-to-be with his left hand allowing his right hand to be free to use his sword." (http://www.plannersguide.com/customs.htm) Sounds like something out of a harlequin novel. Actually I think I have that book! lol.

Did you know that the color you wear on your wedding day has a meaning? I found this cute little poem about it:

"Marry in white, you will do all right
Marry in blue, your man will be true
Marry in brown, you will live in town
Marry in green, you should be ashamed to be seen
Marry in red, wish yourself dead
Marry in black, better turn back
Marry in yellow, not marrying the right fellow
Marry in gray, sadness will come your way "

Have you heard of any interesting wedding folklore??

Our Save The Dates are in!!

Yea!!! After waiting and waiting, they are finally here!! Our beautiful magnets are here!! Can you tell I'm super excited?? I decided to order them from Vistaprint. I highly recommend them. To make them more personal, I decided to choose a background and then create my own wording on the STD's. Since I am currently working on the invitations, I didn't want to spend a lot of time on our STD's but still wanted them to be personal. If you're thinking about going with Vistaprint, be sure to sign up for their emails. They will send you mail almost every day with sales they have. We purchased 20 large magnets, 24 small magnets and 140 return address labels. The large magnets were on special, 10 free. We ended up paying $11 to get an extra 10, because we knew we wanted 20 in total. The 24 small magnets and the 140 return address labels were completely free! So, with tax our total was $22. Not too bad in my opinion. I recommend that any bride on a budget be sure to check them out first! Here is a pic of our big magnets. Please forgive the black blurs.