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ALG''s Wedding Updates

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amileegirl

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Hello everyone. I thought I was about due for a wedding update. I would attach to my old thread with my dress but it is from October and so it is locked. I've been busy so haven't had time to organize photos and what not. But I've got some bits for you today! I could use a pep talk :) Seems that my ideas keep getting thwarted and I keep having to make concessions and it is starting to get me down. I shouldn't complain but you know how it is when you have your heart set on something.

So I'll add separate posts with pictures for the invitations, the work-in-progress favors and placecards and centerpieces.

Since I came here originally for "brides on a budget" information I'll include amounts too.
 

amileegirl

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FYI: My Dress Here: https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/algs-dress-and-wedding-updates.52274/
My Venue Here: https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/venue-the-country-inn.52216/



Reception Centerpiece Budget: $200, estimate 12 tables + cake/gift/placecard table.

The vision: Three pillar candles of 3 varying heights, in three colors (sage, cornflower blue, cream) , on a glass dish or in a vessel filled with sand and dotted with some small flowers.


The finds:

Rejected: Unscented Candles from njcandle.com Excellent price for quality pillar candles; colors desired green and cream, blues not right. Estimated price $187-$250 depending on type ordered, not including shipping fee or plates/vessel, or extras.



The Winner: **Christmass Treeshops Pillar candles in the three desired colors but only two sizes. Drawback: scented. Found fugly, but cheap plastic plates slightly larger than wanted. Total Price $160. 18 plates, 54 candles.





Price to alter fugly plates into sand coated prettiness (after three trips to Home Depot due to 2 faulty spraypaint cans): $27.00

Photo 1: Candles and Fugly Plate


CandlesFuglyPlate.jpg
 

amileegirl

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Photo 2: Candles with Newly Painted Plate (Top)

DSCF0267CandlesWithPaintedPlate.jpg
 

amileegirl

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Photo 3: Candles with Newply Painted Plate (Bottom)

DSCF0292CandlesWithPaintedPlateBottom.jpg
 

amileegirl

Shiny_Rock
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Photo 4: What the Centerpiece will look like (flower heads/petals not shown)

DSCF0269CandleCenterpieceNoFlowers.jpg
 

amileegirl

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Wedding Invitation Budget: $200 for items Including envelopes, response card evelopes, directions, response cards, wedding invitations (with embellishments), stamps, ink, plus fixings for Thank You Cards.

The vision: making cards completely from scratch with a natural look with vellum off center bi-fold. Similar to this: http://www.lcipaper.com/instruction21.shtml and embellishment ideas from here http://www.formal-invitations.com/ In neutral natural paper colors with blue. I couldn''t find enough paper at local craft stores or when I found the right paper it was way over budget.


The Find:
Went to staples degected and happend to find by accident a wedding kit that wasn''t the color I wanted. It was sage green. But it had everything except the vellum and the price was right $30 per box (bought 3 boxes so I could gut one box for thank you cards). I was unhappy so FI and I went to three different craft stores looking for vellum without much luck. We were walking down an aisle and he happend to point to a box of cards that was blinding white and contemporary (neither one of us liked it including the cheap silver painted picture frame) , however, it had pre-folded velum that fit the cards from my kit AND they were cream. A little fancier than I had intended but they looked like they came from the same kit and I figured I''d use the other elements from the boxes for some other project at some point. Three trips more for 3 rounds of thin sage ribbon, 3 wax seal sticks, 4 wax stampers, 1 "natural" printed paper pack for directions, 2 packages of charm hearts, glue dots, printing ink, a bridesmaid fight with my computer, burning my fingers with the wax, matron of honor swearing at making teeny tiny bows, 1 headache a piece, and two nights of the three of us putting all of it together: $187.00

Photo 1: The Kits

DSCF0286InvitationKits.jpg
 

amileegirl

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Photo 2: Dr. Scrapenstein''s Laboratory

DSCF0272SuppliesWithSampleInvite.jpg
 

amileegirl

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Photo 3: More Working Items

DSCF0273SuppliesWithSamples2.jpg
 

amileegirl

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Photo 4: Invitation Parts (Close Up with Sample Invite that came with kit; wording and font were changed)

DSCF0276InvitationPreAssemblywithSample.jpg
 

amileegirl

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Photo 5: Invitation Mostly Assembled (with Sample)

DSCF0279InviteMostlyAssembledwithSample.jpg
 

janinegirly

Ideal_Rock
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how do you find the time?

it''s impressive, but i''d go mad if i was doing all that..i think i''d elope!
emwink.gif
 

amileegirl

Shiny_Rock
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Photo 6: Fully Assembled Invitation

Wording of Offical Reads as follows (Font used -- Bickley Script) : You can see it with our names blocked off in the 2nd assembly post for the invitations.

The honor of your presence
is requested at the marriage of

Bride Middle Last
to
Groom Middle Last

Sunday, August 12, two thousand seven
At 3 o'clock in the afternoon

at
Spencer Country Inn
500 Main Street
Spencer, Massachusetts


*adult reception immediately following

DSCF0280InvitationFullyAssembled.jpg
 

amileegirl

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The Place Cards and Favor Boxes: Budget $20 for supplies; chocolates for the favors price yet unknown.

The vision: Origami boxes in the same blue as the bridesmaides dresses and also in sage green. Two different styles (one easy one difficult to make). Placecards were to also be a box with a green dendrobium orchid inside for guests to wear as a corsage.

The find: Nothing. This was so frustrating. Six hours in a craftstore deciding, then undeciding, then having a new idea to use wooden leaves but then didn't want to paint the blasted things. Found 2 kinds of papers that looked good and were in budget. Brought it home and it wasn't and then they wouldn't fold right. $20 bucks spent on paper I'll use for making the honeymoon scrapbook which won't be until much, much later!! ARRRGH! FI almost lost his head when he said he didn't like the corsage idea.

The compromise: Ticked off and irritated I couldn't sleep so I used leftover paper from the directions I made for the invitation inserts. It was cheap and I had a lot left anyway. Making only one box (the really easy one) and pieced the place cards together from scraps left over from the invitations, some really nice high end tissue paper and a wayward silk flower head that was on the floor in the store (it'll probably be changed to a touch of blue or perhaps both some with the neutral and some with the subtle blue). I'll be making the Table Numbers with the same remnants.

Photo 7: The Rejects made with practice origami paper that will be recycled for something else. The only one that survives is the big one that looks like a star. Others that were made did not survive until the photo stage during a fit of crafter rage. Yes, I whittled my precious life away and my precious day off fiddling with origami and I'm a beginner. I think I'm insane.

DSCF0287FavorsOrigamiStarBoxAndRejects.jpg
 

amileegirl

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Photo 8: The Box with Tissue that will hold chocolates and the placecard. All elements except for the tissue paper and flower are invitation remnants.

DSCF0261FavorStarBoxAndPlaceCard.jpg
 

amileegirl

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Photo 9: Placecard (Closeup) It's folded so stands up. Nothing is written on it at this stage of course.

DSCF0259PlacecardCloseup.jpg
 

amileegirl

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Photo 10: Starbox with Tissue (Closeup) Came out looking like a flower which was accidental but a pleasant surprise.

DSCF0260FavorStarBoxCloseup.jpg
 

amileegirl

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Date: 3/14/2007 2:31:25 PM
Author: janinegirly
how do you find the time?

it's impressive, but i'd go mad if i was doing all that..i think i'd elope!
emwink.gif

Almost missed your message ;-) The actual process of doing really doesn't take that much time and isn't stressful and we are having a fairly small wedding.

I find time whenever; we don't do it all at once! I do all the planning and trials and when I have a workable product I call in my matron of honor and bridesmaid and my Fiance if I feel his big hands can handle a task that doesn't require little fingers. :) My FI also has a knack for finding things to make me happy when I'm at my breaking point of giving up on a project. I also like to craft things even if I mess up and have to start over and I often have to take a different path even if it isn't what I intended. It frustrates me to have to change my plan though!

I have good friends that have been an enormous help. My bridesmaid, for example, used my excel sheet list of invitees to do a mail merge and we were able to print out everything with everyone's name on response cards and return evelopes in a snap. My matron of honor did ALL of the tiny bows and some of the wax seals, I did the rest of the wax (that took a while I admit until I got the hang of it). I spent about a month planning/thinking/getting addresses. I spent two weeks searching for materials after work and that was the hardest part. The rest took no time at all. The three of us spent 1 night printing, and 1 night assembling. My Fiance and I stamped and stuffed.
 

laine

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Feb 21, 2006
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696
Wow!!! I''m really impressed with your craftiness and ability to do it all on a budget. Everything looks great! I especially like the centerpieces (simple but elegant) and the favor boxes (again, simple but so pretty).
 

amileegirl

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Oct 17, 2006
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Thanks :) Elegant simplicity was what I was going for, since I''m not very good at fun and funky!

My matron of honor thinks the centerpieces are too plain. She suggested flower ceternpieces and votives, but it just isn''t possible to find significant flower centerpieces with pretty votives for $10 a table. FI and I are are plain people and money constrained, so we make due. :)
 

amileegirl

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Oct 17, 2006
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I've only got 2 girls. 1 matron of honor and 1 bridesmaid. Opposite coloring, one petite one rubenesque, one tall one short. They both look horrid in sage green so I went with a blue. The actual color is called cornflower which is a true blue. However, the computer screen makes the color awfully light so for the picture I used Sailor Blue which is too far too dark in person. Its an Alfred Sung separate but looks like a one piece on. Top Style: T104; Bottom Style: B204 $180 for both top and bottom.

Photo 11: Bridesmaid Dress

BridesmaidDressAlfredSungSailorBlue.JPG
 

akw94

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Feb 10, 2006
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Everything turned out wonderfully! I love the favor boxes w/the tissue paper, so cute! Great job on all your hard work!
 

amileegirl

Shiny_Rock
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Oct 17, 2006
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I'm allowed to change my mind a thousand times right? I love the starboxes but the leftover paper just wasn't enough...oomph. I wanted something to pop and make people go "wow pretty!" After all, if you are going to spend a lot of time DIY you want it to be memorable and eyecatching! Origami really should be done with double-sided colored paper for the folds to really stand out and make a statement. Regular origami paper doesn't come in the colors or style I wanted.

However, I found some great double sided patterned 12x12 scrapbook paper at michaels in blues and greens. It so happens that the origami paper i was using were 6 x 6 so I could get four squares out of each one. To top it off they were on clearance sale for 25 cents a sheet!! I thought I died and went to crafter's Valhalla! I got three different patterns two with a blue solid side and one with a green solid side (only two are shown). I'm looking for one more with a green side but that can wait until they get new stock as I only need a few sheets and they didn't have any others in green. Total cost for 80 unique favor boxes $5.00

Photo 12: Updated Origami Favor Boxes

origamistarboxesreducedDSCF0314.jpg
 

amileegirl

Shiny_Rock
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Oct 17, 2006
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I don't know about you but I think unity candles are insanely overpriced. I priced them between $25 and $50! The only difference with some of them was that they had ribbon! Others were just made with a special mold. I wasn't about to spend a lot of money on a few candles so I decided to buy plain candles (89 cents for the tapers at iparty, $7 for the pillar at TJ Maxx), some nice satin ribbons on sale at Michael's ($1.60), and use some leftover charms from the invitations. Add 20 minutes of labor and you have yourself a unity candle set that looks exactly like the ones in the package. I modeled these after an actual set that I loved that came with the same satin ribbon and a rhinestone charm that was selling for $29.99. Total for DIY Unity Candles: ~ $10.50

Photo 13: Before - Undecorated Cream Candles

UnityCandlesUndecoratedResizeDSCF0337.jpg
 

amileegirl

Shiny_Rock
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Oct 17, 2006
Messages
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Photo 14: After -- Decorated Unity Candles

UnityCandleDecoratedResizedDSCF0339.jpg
 

amileegirl

Shiny_Rock
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Oct 17, 2006
Messages
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Bride and Groom flutes are also nuts. I was just apalled at the prices for glassware that often wasn't special other than an etched heart or a few ribbons. I swear the wedding business makes a profit hand over fist over nothing. Anyway, I happend to walk into Pier 1 and they were having a huge dinnerware sale and I got both of these crackle champagne goblets for $8.00. Add some negligible cost ribbon and 2 charms with our names on them for $1.50 a piece and you have instant bride and groom toasting flutes. The picture is a trial run, I'll be changing the ribbon but it is what I had on hand at the time to give me an idea of ribbon size. Total: ~ $9.50

Photo 15: Wedding Flutes

GobletsResizedDSCF0344.jpg
 

So_happy

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Nov 12, 2006
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Wow, your good! I especially love your before and after pics :) For people like me, the detail both in your words and your pics are very inspiring and helpful!!

I just had to say, also, that I love the humor in your writing. Very funny
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I can''t wait to see more if you have them!
 

amileegirl

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Oct 17, 2006
Messages
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Date: 3/26/2007 12:33:41 AM
Author: So_happy
Wow, your good! I especially love your before and after pics :) For people like me, the detail both in your words and your pics are very inspiring and helpful!!

I just had to say, also, that I love the humor in your writing. Very funny
36.gif
36.gif


I can''t wait to see more if you have them!
Thanks! I appreciate the compliment on my writing -- I used to write or fun when I was in college many eons ago. It''s nice to know I can still bring on a grin or two.

I''ll have more pics very soon. I just need to recover from an insane bridesmaid gift project :) I blame my mother, the goddess of impossible bargains, for my cheap genes.
 

Independent Gal

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Nov 12, 2006
Messages
5,471
This is amazing! Everything came out gorgeous, and I absolutely love impossible bargains and doing crafts, so consider yourself admired and me inspired!

Please keep us posted as you come up with more fabulous creations.
 

amileegirl

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Oct 17, 2006
Messages
144
I have a small update. But first an: Excuse me? That costs how much!? When I orderd swatches from Alfred Sung I was taken aback at their minimum price, but I thought, "Okay, they want to make the shipping worth their while for whatever reason, and want to give a good amount, and will likely send a half yard of fabric (it isn't duponi silk after all). I can live with that." I was expecting a decent sized envelope, like interoffice mail size. I got something the size of a birthday card. I wondered what they sent me as an advertisement. I stood there with my mouth hanging open after I opened it. The attached picture is what I got. To give you perspective, if you have a standard size chess board the squares seen in the photo inset on the table are only slightly bigger than that. So the swatches are puny.
Total: ~ $15.00 That's right 15 dollars.

Photo 16: Not Even Enough for a Brazilian String Bikini Top

swatchesDSCF0312.jpg
 

amileegirl

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Oct 17, 2006
Messages
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The Insanity Continues with the "Bridesmaid Project 2007". I''m cheap. I just can''t abide spending an average of $25 for a specialty t-shirt. There are three of us girls and that''s $75 of money I''m not willing to spend on something fun and silly. So I bought some hanes t-shirts on sale. If I recall they were $6.00 each. I was going to buy the glitter names already done but they were on average $5.00 a piece. Again, I''m cheap. So I bought a package of 200 blue and diamond peel and stick rhinestones for $3.50. (Unless you are insane and cheap like me are willing to piddle 6 hours in front of the tv over several days sticking on rhinestones, spring the extra $3.00 for the heat stick ones.) What I did was I printed an outline on the computer in microsoft word, cut them out, wrote with dark pencil on the other side against a window then used my finger nail to transfer the letters onto the fabric (they do sell special pencils and paper for this). Then I started peeling and sticking. I made darned sure I didn''t make things too big so I could use the 200 sequins and not have to buy more! I plan on printing a logo on the backs (haven''t decided what) with the special paper I bought for $7.00 (of which there will be leftovers).
Hours Spent: 6, TV shows watched: 5, Headaches: 4, T-Shirts Made: 3, Aspirin: 2, Bewildered Fiance: 1,
Total Price: $28.00

Photo 17: Insane Bridesmaid Project Materials

bridesmaidprojectDSCF0311.jpg
 
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