Parties on a budget

I'm thinking this list will be more helpful planning the shower or rehearsal dinner than planning the actual wedding, but here's yet another link to Apartment Therapy:

9 for Under 5: Cocktail Party Necessities on a Budget

Like one commenter said: I'd rather splurge on what's going into the glasses than the glasses themselves.

Cheap Centerpiece Ideas from AT

Apartment Therapy has a post up about inexpensive ways to decorate your table. While the post is technically geared towards Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other fall/winter dinners, I think a lot of the ideas could be applied towards a wedding.

MoH in the house.

Checkin' in. News? New Bridesmaid dresses! David's Bridal style 8933.

This isn't about Sara's wedding either

Sarah Haskins is my newest hero. I found her videos on Feministing and I posted a bunch over on CoffeeandHairspray, but since this one has a wedding theme, I thought I'd post it here.

We don't get WE, so I haven't actually watched any of the wedding shows she mentions, but the clips Sarah shows from Bulging Brides leads me to believe it might be the worst show ever created, in every sense.

"Hell's Bells" Garb

I was watching the season 6 episode of Buffy with Anya and Xander's wedding (6.16 "Hell's Bells") the other day and I realized that I really like Anya's bouquet, dress, and veil. I realize this post doesn't have anything to do with Sara's wedding as much as it's about wedding-related things that I like, but nobody else is posting so I might as well.

Bouquet

Dress and Veil. The bottom of the dress sort of mimics the vail.

Willow: Wow. You look lovely. Really... lovely.
Anya: Thanks. It's probably the blush of imprudent spending.

And let's just take a moment and be grateful that Sara's not an ex-demon who would put her friends in dresses like these:

Side note: This picture is from the very begining of the episode, and the first time I saw it I thought Willow's dress had sleeves because she's actually Xander's Best Man, not a bridesmaid. But it turns out that everyone except for SMG and Michelle Trachtenberg (who plays Buffy's little sis) are wearing the ugly sleeves. Makes me wonder if perhaps Smidge was too vain to wear sleeves that would make her arms look that fat. Or maybe they had to give her short sleeves because she has to fight later on in the ep. Who knows.

Not as cute as lemons, but...

I saw this today on Apartment Therapy.

Very cute, but I think a tad too atumnal for a summer wedding. Although I think the deep red table cloth adds to the atumnal feel. Just thought I'd share it, because nobody's posted in a while and I thought you would at least be moderately amused that I found this on an interior design blog.

Blackboards vs. Brides

Hi everyone, I wanted to apologize for being so busy lately! I may not be posting much for a bit. The beginning of the school year is in full swing, and as a first year teacher, I pretty much am eating, sleeping, and working. The first couple of months I will be home from school late most likely. However, I will still be checking the blog and my email if you want to post anything. On a 3 day weekend I am planning on going dress shopping, so I will keep you updated on that. The dress will not be posted on the site though because it's bad luck if the groom sees it (yep, I believe that :-). I feel we got a lot accomplished this summer, and I want to thank you all for your comments and help!

~Sara~

David's Bridal

I called David's Bridal and told them the problem. The good news is, we can still use that dress and in yellow! They said what to do is go to your local David's Bridal and tell them the size that you want and the color. They will order it for you in the requested size and in the canary. If you have any questions go ahead and call my cell or email me. I will be at my school again today, but I'll keep my cell on me while I work in my room. So, anyway-we can all ignore the last post lol!

Bridesmaid Dress Bloopers

Hey girls! There was a problem with the bridesmaid dresses: they don't come in yellow :-(. There are a couple of options and I was wondering if I could have your votes. The first option would be to get the same style of dress in the light blue. The second option is to look for another bridesmaid dress that is yellow. What are your opinions?

Other Brides in Other Places

My dear friend (and former roommate) Dia got engaged last weekend, and already I feel my involvement in both affairs being mutually beneficial.

Dia is on this website: ezweddingplanner.com which seems very handy, particularly the budget section. There's much less advertising than on something like theknot and the format is concise, but flexible. I kind of like it (even if the graphics are a little lame).

Don't worry about a conflict of interest (or availability), my other bride is planning a March wedding in Williamsburg--destination wedding. Its sort of hassle-free, once you pick a spot they take care of everything, you just show up and say 'I do'. Very small though, max 60 guests and it may be as small as 25.

BTW, the dress should be no problem for me, there is a David's really close to my apartment, I will stop by as soon as I am back from Prague. As long as you are 100% sure about the dress and the color :)

Bridesmaid Dresses and Deadlines

Hi girls! I wanted to let you know that the deadline for ordering the bridesmaid dresses is October 31st. I hope that doesn't sound too bridezilla-ish! I was just hoping to get them all ordered by then for the sake of shopping for flowers. I was going to bring a dress as a sample for matching colors. It'll be the yellow or "canary" colored one from David's Bridal. If anyone runs into any problems, feel free to give me a call or email me.

~Sara~

Schedule

What do you this of this sequence of events?

5:00-wedding ceremony

6:00-cocktails at the Quality Inn (Clarion Hall)

7:00-dinner is served followed by the cutting of the cake

8:00-the band begins to play and desserts are brought out

We have the hall booked until 12:00 am.

Date Changed Continued...

Hmmm, odd...the site wouldn't let me complete the last post. Anyway, we thought that the church allowed dancing because they had told us we could have a D.J. or band. I'm glad we found out about this early! I'm so thankful that we could book the Quality Inn for a date near the one we had originally had. It would have been nice it was the 27th, but that one was already booked. If you have any questions for me, go ahead and drop me an email. Sorry to change it, but I just thought it would be fun to have some dancing.

Date Changed

Hi everyone, Andy and I found out that our reception hall at the church does not allow dancing. Since we are having a band, we had to change the venue. We went to the Quality Inn today and discovered they have a beautiful banquet hall. They provide hor'dourves, salad, dinner, and desserts. I believe that they will also provide you with suites to stay in the night of the wedding reception. You get a continental breakfast too lol. It was a good package deal, and we booked Clarion Hall for the evening of June 26th. Therefore, as I'm sure you have guessed by now, the wedding date is changed to Friday the 26th. We will still use College church for the ceremony.

Bienvenidos!

Welcome to the new blog members! :-) We have three new bloggers: Ellise, Nicole, and Kylie.

More Centerpiece Talk

I found this idea at that Totally Tabletops blog Ab linked to a while back, and I just think it looks really cool. I think it might look neat if you just had a few lemons in a thin vase filled with water. Just thoughts.

Another plus is that these really wouldn't cost too much. I mean, it would be lemons, vase, water. Very simple, yet they have a very artsy look about them.

Letters from the Editor

Hey Friends!

In honor of arriving at T minus 1 year to wedding, I've decided to start acting like a member of the wedding party. I've set up a new email address for Sara to handle wedding business (SaraTheBride[at]gmail.com), and I've attached a calendar to it to keep track of important dates. I'll paste the calendar into the sidebar so everyone can see it.

I know there are a few people who would like to be able to contribute to the blog, especially members of Sara's family. I can easily set it up, but I need you to send my your email addresses so that I can add you as an author. Once I've added you, the site will send you an email with the logistics of how to contribute. You can send an email to Sara's new email or to me directly at abigayle.bessman[at]gmail.com.

Finally, I'm going to go into stalk mode. I'd like to get mailing addresses and phone numbers for members of the wedding party (mostly girl members) and the bride and groom's immediate families. When the time comes for showers and things, I'd like to be able to contact everyone directly and take some of the pressure off of Sara and Andy. Again send anything to my gmail account.

Thanks, and Congrats to the happy couple!
-Abby

Dulces!

I am going to be hungry after I write this, but here are some foods for the dessert stations:

1. Cake, cake, and more cake (it's the center of attraction)

2. Lemon meringue pie

3. Lemon bars (we're on to a theme here haha)

4. The candy corner with bags and those little scoopers hopefully

5. Cookies....a variety

6. Punch-I am looking up some different punch recipes

We'll serve light hor'dourves so people will be able to eat dessert.

List Continued....Well, Sort Of

Speaking of ''neurotic'' I realized I put an ''a'' in it and just HAD to go back and change it haha.

More Lists :-D

Hey girls, I decided to make a list of what is definate and what we know so far for the wedding. I function better when I make lists because I'm a bit narotic :-). I also wanted to say thank-you for all the help selecting flowers and centerpieces!

We already have the list for the wedding party and expenses so I won't post that again, but here's what I have so far otherwise:

Bridesmaid Dresses: The first style/shorter one
The color will be a shade of yellow called ''canary'' lol http://www.davidsbridal.com/bridesmaids_bycolor_detail.jsp?stid=3319&sid=18583&cfid=31

Flowers: The beautiful yellow daisies with other colors mixed in-VERY similar to the ones
in the picture

Centerpieces: lemons, lemons, lemons!

Venues: College Church (we're using their reception hall)

Time: 2:00

Food: hor'dourves and dessert reception

Hors'deourves

I forgot to mention in my last post that my neighbor gave me the name of a good caterer. I haven't really been to any hor'dourve weddings before, so I was wondering what kind are usually served?

It's Set!

Hey everyone! The church and reception hall are booked-yay! The wedding date is June 27, 2009. The wedding will be at 2:00 followed by hor'derves at 3:00. While the guests are mingling and getting their finger foods, we will be taking pictures until 3:30ish. At 4:00 Todd's band will start to play. The dessert stations and cake will be brought out at 4:30 or 5 (not sure which one). There will be a candy station for all you candy lovers! How does all of this sound?

Lemon Centerpieces?

I saw this on a blog, thought you'd like it. If you google "lemon centerpieces" there are a lot of things that are pretty and seem easy to make yourself. This image came from this website, which has lots of cool ideas on it.

Bridesmaid Dresses, Lemons, and Flowers

Hi girls, would anyone be terribly upset if I changed the color of bridesmaid dresses to yellow? I looked at the flower arrangement, and I thought that yellow would look beautiful. It's my favorite color. The lemons helped persuade me. Of course, the bridesmaid dresses wouldn't be the same shade of yellow as lemons. We could still go with the same style of dress.

Flowers

In response to your earlier post about yellow flowers:

I'm with Miranda. Yellow daisies are super fun. Check out this mix of yellow and white (gerbera daisies, daisy poms and button poms). I think it is really pretty. If you wanted something a little fancier, yellow roses are pretty, but they are sort of pastel so I'd probably mix them with something a little brighter- maybe pink and yellow roses? Pink and yellow would look really fantastic in your bouquet against your white dress, too.

Let Them Eat Sheet Cake (and us wedding cake??)

I'm getting a little concerned about the guest list being so large-we're up to 200! Many of the wedding cakes that we have looked at only feed up to 150 (of course, we could always add another layer for a price lol). I have read online that some people will use a sheet cake for their guests and a smaller wedding cake for show. What is your take on this? lol. I think that the sheet cake is cut ahead of time, but the ceremony of cutting the wedding cake still takes place.

I thought "bridesmaids" would be bigger

A wordle rendering of this entire blog thusfar, including comments. Some words (like "wedding," "party," and "church") are listed twice because capitalizataion makes a difference.

Flowers

I went and applied for a summer job at a flower shop today. I love flowers! As I looked at all the different arrangements, I couldn't decide on what kind would be best for the wedding. I know I still want something yellow....but I'm not sure what kind of flowers. There's so many I like! If anyone has any ideas of what might be pretty, let me know.

~Sara~

Reception Music

Here's a link to sample some of Todd's music. They can play some songs Andy and I want at the reception too if we get sheet music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em_fpM_Hgfc

Observation

So I was looking back at the blog, and I came to the realization that most of the wedding posts are about the dog. Hahahaha! :-)

Random Wedding Thoughts

I do agree that 6:00 is too late for the wedding if we're going to have a dinner afterwards. I was thinking maybe when we book the church we could get "hitched" at 4:00, take pictures, then have dinner and dancing at 6. Does anyone have any suggestions about what we should do with our little flower girl after the pictures are over lol? I suppose one of my family members could run her home before dinner starts. College Church is only about 10-12 minutes away from my house. Also, during the ceremony do you think I should keep her on the alter with us? She might squirm and steal the show because she'll look so cute with her new do, the bows, and the flower band around her neck. Kylie might want to hold her....but I have visions of her jumping out of Kylie's arms and running down the aisle haha.

Additions to the Party

In my "Wedding List" post, I forgot to mention a couple of very important recent additions to the wedding party. Here they are:

Flower Girl: Cindy Lou Who-Hazelrigg

Ring Bearer: Carter Purrachio, age 4

College Church

Hooray! We have a church-almost lol. It turns out we would be able to get College Church for either June 20th or June 27th in 2009 (The guy on the phone said there may be another banquet the 20th-he's checking). Andy has all the details for what we need to do in a brochure. We're going to look the brochure over and make sure it's 100% what we are looking for. We aren't allowed to book the church until it's a year to the date. Hopefully we can have the reception at The Parlor. I think it's big enough for around 200 people. We both have big families. Todd's band is going to play, so it looks like the dessert reception idea might be turned into an actual buffet style dinner. We would still have the little dessert table with some of my ideas though. The band is big in the Kankakee area right now, and they're a regular at a couple of bars. They have some originals they're going to play, but they're also going to play some songs I give them. I need to get sheet music with guitar chords. Hopefully The Parlor allows dancing! If not, we might need to look for another place for the reception. Do you think that 6:00 would be a good time for the actual wedding ceremony? The reception could maybe start at 7:30.

~Sara~

The Flood!

This post has little to do with the wedding, but I was involved in a "flood" just 15 short minutes ago! I was in the kitchen deciding if I wanted carrots that were expired or fresh strawberries. As I chose the safe side..the berries..I noticed water with bubbles seeping out of the dishwasher. My first thought was that it was broken. However, it was not...I had somehow actually messed up doing dishes. I got the mixture ratio of soap to water wrong, and it is now confirmed I am horrible at domestic tasks. I was never very good at domesticated type work (other than baking chocolate chip cookies, of course), but I can't cook, I miss the corners when I clean, I shrink laundry, and apparently I can't wash dishes. Luckily, Andy is a good cook, he's good at cleaning, and he can do dishes. I have nearly a year until I am married. I need to work on my domestic side. For some reason seeing the bubbles foaming at the bottom of the dishwasher was kind of discouraging. I'm glad one of us is good at these types of things!

Cindy Lou Who

Cindy Lou Who's lack of opposable thumbs will indeed make it difficult for her to be flower girl, but I was thinking that she could walk on a pretty leash. Kylie could walk her. She would have a collar with flowers around it. Due to the umm..."disability" though...or just luck of the draw with the species, she won't be able to throw any flowers.

~Sara~

Auntie Sara's Answers

*Southern drawl kicks in* Hi y'all! I have some answers to tale you. Miranda, a jr. bridesmaid is someone under that-there ripe ole age of 16-gotta have the youngins be the junior bridesmaids. She's not walkin' alone, Cindy Lou (with a Who) is gonna be the flower girl! Gotta git the dog in the weddin'! Abby, as of now it's the 3rd Saturday in June in 2009. It'd be the 20th. We haven't been able to book a church yet though, so the date isn't 100%. It might have to be down by the river! lol. I'm workin' on gettin' email addresses for our weddin' party. I'm hoping I can get them all really soon. Well, I'll talk to y'all later! :-)

Wedding Lists

Wedding Expenses:

Dress
Shoes
Make up
Accessories
Flowers
Wedding Rings
Music for Ceremony
Place of Reception and Catering
Cake
Decorations
Invitations/Stamps
Photographer
Cake Server and Center Piece

Wedding Party:

Bridesmaids

Abby Bessman
Miranda Calhoon
Nicole Smith
Ellise Fallon
Kylie Smith (Jr. brides maid)

Groomsmen

Jon Nielsen
Doug Nielsen
Todd Hazelrigg
Josh Sabinas

Bridesmaids (another style of dress)

Hi girls! I was exploring the David's Bridal site, and I came across this http://www.davidsbridal.com/bridesmaids_detail.jsp?stid=3327&prodgroup=110

What do you think of this dress?

Wedding Dresses

I was thinking of this style of dress http://www.davidsbridal.com/bridal_gowns_detail.jsp?stid=3201&prodgroup=210

I don't know if it's the right one for my body type, but I'm hoping that I can wear something along those lines. I especially like that dress. What do you think?

~Sara~

Bridesmaids

Sara's thought for dresses:

Link Here

With yellow flowers - very summery!

Welcome to Blogland

I'm addicted to the blog-o-sphere. This is my new blog dedicated to Sara and Andy's wedding. I am the maid-of-honor in this exciting event and just feel better if every aspect of my life is recorded online. Invitations to participate will be sent out soon.

I will also find a more awesome layout. Time, amigas, these things take time.

Meanwhile I'll begin compiling some posts of things Sara has shown me thusfar.

:) Abby