Aphisiglovessae''s PS Wedding Journal!

[aphisiglovessae]

Hi Everyone!

My name is Jennifer and I was engaged to a wonderful man named Drew on April 28th, 2005 (one day before my parent's wedding anniversary!). We have set a date for July 8th, 2006 and the wedding is in Pensacola, Florida. I have 4 bridemaids and he has 5 groomsmen.

This thread is for me to share my excitement, creativity, and advice (ha ha, yeah right. If that's what you wanna call it) to all of you who are interested. Also, because you all are like a big family to me (even though I don't know ANY of you!!) and I can't send invitations to all of you, this is a great way for you to experience this special day with me. If you're interested in this thread's contents, I hope you enjoy everything and feel free to give me any and all input you can.

If you remember a long while back, I posted some concerns about finances that had to do with the wedding. I'm pleased to announce that we have taken full financial responsibility for the whole wedding and have informed our parents that if they would like to contribute, it will be greatly appreciated and never asked for. So I have planned this whole wedding with the consideration of our finances only. So you can already predict that I tried everything I possibly could to save money and still have a great wedding. I'll post approximate costs so you can see what I've accomplished and how surprised I am that I've saved a ton more than expected.

It'll take me a little while to post everything, so please be patient with me...

Here we go!

 

[aphisiglovessae]

The Bridesmaids Clothing

I don't want to start with my dress just yet, so let's start with the bridesmaids.

The girls picked out their dress from a long list of prospects. I didn't want to make them spend a whole lot of money on a dress they don't like, so I left it up to them. This is the dress they chose:

Davids Bridal gave me a 20 dollar off card for each bridesmaid, which brought the cost of the dress down to 90 dollars!

They also liked a pair of shoes called Ninas at DB. The cost of those shoes was 50 dollars. No way! I hunted for months for a pair of shoes that is comparable or clear so I can make them nice shoes. I was playing around on Amazon and found a pair of Touch-ups that looked exactly like the Nina's! They were 38 dollars with free shipping and free returns and they included 13 colored ribbons!:

I have found ribbon at Walmart (Sherry) that matched the dress color perfectly, which will replace the colored ribbon in the Touch-ups. One 6-yard roll cost me $1.50.

ETA: Those are my matron of honor's cute size 10 footsies!!

 

[aphisiglovessae]

The mens' clothing

For the men, we got tuxes at Men's Wearhouse. My fiance will have a white tie and vest, the groomsmen and his father will have red and my father will have platinum:

Because I attended a Bridal Expo in January and registered with them, the tuxes were only about 65 dollars each and my fiance's tux was free.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the tux has a shawl collar.

 

[aphisiglovessae]

The Venue

One of the more expensive aspects of the wedding was the venue. It's the city's cultural center and it was one of three places available. Most places were too small for our wedding size and most of the places that were big enough were damaged by the hurricanes. This was the least expensive place that was big and available:

The outside of the building:

There is a third room that is about 900 sq feet that we will use as a dressing room for the ladies

Total cost for the 3000+ sq ft. venue: $1350 for 5 hours.

 

[aphisiglovessae]

The Catering

The catering will be done by a local up-and-coming restaurant with an award-winning chef called the Portabello Market. The menu is this:

Passed:

herb cheese with crackers and cucumber rounds
Mango and Ham Chutney

Will be set out on platters and such (buffet-style?):

Sun-dried tomato spread with melba crostinis
garlic and honey chicken skewers
oven roasted pork tenderloin with stone ground mustard
hot parmesan crab dip
vegetable medley lightly steamed and marinated
raspberry brie and ginger snaps
seasonal fruit and assorted cheeses
Oops, I forgot to add the honey walnut chicken salad that is to DIE for

I think the price was like $17.50 a person. I think once all is said and done, the caterer estimated about $3500 for about 150 people, for everything (tax, service fee, cake cutting fee, drinks, plates, silverware, etc.) This number may go down significantly because our guest list isn't even 135 right now and we've been hearing rumors of people not going to make it, so it may be even less than that.

The bar is going to be handled by a local liquor store and will be open wine and beer with cash liquor. For two kegs, 6 cases of wine, 12 bottles of champagne, 2 bartenders, supplies and everything else, the quote was $600, but we will only pay for what we use, so that may go down.

 

[aphisiglovessae]

The flowers

And now the flowers!! This is my favorite part. I had to have artificial flowers because my mother has severe allergies. After a terrible experience with one online company (who I am reporting to the BBB), I almost gave up. I found this website called Saveoncrafts.com and ordered from them. The flowers were BEAUTIFUL! The quality and size of the blossoms were beyond my expectations! Here are some pictures from when they arrived:

I ordered 12 Lily Rubrum Pink Sprays, 12 Red Peony Sprays, 12 Magenta Beauty Orchid Sprays, 12 Pink Orchid Sprays, 12 Cream and Burgendy Cymbidium sprays, and 12 of two types of Orchid leaves sprays. Total bill: $193.52

 

[aphisiglovessae]

The Flowers Cont.

So of course I had to make the bouquets. I've only done the bridesmaids (left) and the matron of honor's bouquets (right) and the groomsmens' boutennieres:

The white lilies were found on Ebay - 70 flowers for $21.15
It took one roll of florist wire, one bag of batting, and 3 rolls of satin ribbon (1.5 inch) to make the bouquets: Total was approx. $8.00

The boutennieres were interesting. The stephanotis were a sample pack of 25 that the company I had problems with sent me. I glued red rhinestones to the centers and bought the holder pins from Joanns Fabrics. Total cost: approx. $2.00 per boutenniere

 

[aphisiglovessae]

The Decorations

For the ceiling of the venue (picture with all the chairs), we are going to put white tulle and christmas lights. There are pipes across the cieling from which they attach stage lights. When they are removed, we will drape the tulle and lights across them to create a wave effect and there are four chandeliers hanging from those pipes as well.

Like this, but not hanging down as low:

I got the tulle off of ebay and the lights were purchased around Christmas time at Walmart for a dollar a box.

Tulle (160 yards?) and lights (20 boxes) for ceiling: approx. $100.00

 

[monarch64]

Jennifer, your wedding planning skills are fabulous! I love your BM dresses and shoes. The flowers look great! Question: how does your mom handle going to other weddings or funerals/other places flowers are involved? Sorry, I don''t mean to be nosy, just curious. My mom is allergic to like, everything on earth, so I just wondered. We had silk centerpieces (that she made) at our wedding and our ceremony was outside so the "live" flowers didn''t bother her too much. Thanks for sharing!

 

[aphisiglovessae]

Thanks Monarch! My mom just goes and suffers, but she doesn't get many invites really. She's a real trooper.

 

[aphisiglovessae]

The Favors

The favors will be large white chinese take-out boxes filled with Neiman Marcus cookies and chinese almond cookies. They will have ribbon like the picture, but red and tied differently. The chinese symbol for love will be stamped on half of them and double happiness on the other half:

The boxes came off of ebay.

Each favor will cost about $0.75

 

[aphisiglovessae]

The Centerpieces

The centerpieces will be a mirror tile with a candle on each corner and a lantern in the center with red rose petals scattered on the table and maybe a few orchids.

Here's a picture of the lanterns:

I handmade them out of chopsticks and kite string!

Total cost for each table: approx. $7.50

 

[monarch64]

Jennifer, your wedding is going to be so pretty! I love the incorporation of red and the Asian-influence! Thank goodness I get to come to this site to get my wedding fix when no weddings are going on in my life!!

 

[aphisiglovessae]

The cake

I haven't found a baker yet, but I know how I want my cake to look. The flowers will be different (I'm using the flowers I already have) though:

The quotes I have had so far haven't been over 400 dollars. We'll see soon how much it will actually cost. I plan on looking for a baker within the next two weeks.

 

[aphisiglovessae]

Oh Monarch, I hope so. It's one of my worst fears right now. I'm just afraid that after all this work, it's going to look like poop. My mother is Chinese and she is SO HAPPY I'm trying to incorporate my culture into the wedding. She's kinda been my style consultant with the wedding stuff. I get ideas and she says whether she thinks it'll look good or not, so she get part of the credit. As a matter of fact, the lanterns were her idea! The ones I originally wanted to do looked like little shoji lanterns and would've cost a lot more to make and would've been really hard to do.

ETA: You know what's REALLY funny? When I met Drew he said he HATES red! But since he's been with me, he painted his bedroom red and it's one of our wedding colors! He knows the importance of red in my culture and I think the color is really starting to grow on him.

 

[lmurden]

A wedding journal, great idea.

I love the bridesmaid gown.

 

[aphisiglovessae]

Date: 2/17/2006 12:08:39 AM
Author: lmurden
A wedding journal, great idea.

I love the bridesmaid gown.

Kind of like a Knottie Bio, but not on that horrible place! I think it would be awesome if more brides on here did this, but it''s actually a lot of work.

 

[E B]

I think everything looks great! The cake is exquisite. It''ll all come together beautifully.

p.s. the food sounds delicious!

 

[aphisiglovessae]

Oh my gosh, you have NO IDEA how great this food is! They gave me a free taste testing and there wasn't a single thing that I didn't love. The sun-dried tomato spread should seriously be bottled and marketed. And the honey walnut chicken salad is the best chicken salad I've EVER had. And can you believe the price? That was almost half another girlfriend of mine's catering bill and she had the usual appetizer stuffs like eggrolls, wings, stuffed mushrooms, etc. I like the fact that this food is a little bit unusual and unexpected. And totally delish!

There's more to come, so stay tuned!

 

[aphisiglovessae]

The Ceremony

Neither one of us are very religious, but we are spiritual, so we specifically wanted a non-religious ceremony. I spend countless hours searching for an officiant that does this and only came up with three names. Two of which lived in Mobile/Fairhope which is about 45 minutes away and they charged extra for travel. The third was a woman here in Pensacola who also happened to be working at the same University that I do, teaching Religious Studies. Something in me kept saying "call her... call her" so I finally did. Her name is Rev. June Watkins. We set up an initial meeting to dicuss things at Panera Bread (YUMMY!). SHE IS AWESOME! I couldn't believe how wonderful she was. She said that custom ceremonies were her specialty and that she will do whatever we wanted. She loved my ideas and she was so nice. She kept saying "wow, this is going to be a really great ceremony, I can feel it." She even offered to do some meditation exercises with me right before the ceremony to calm me down. She really cares about her clients it seems. I liked her so much that I just HAD to give her a hug when we said goodbye (2 hours later). Her cost for the ceremony was $275 and it included the rehearsal and filing of the license.

 

[SoonIHope]

This is such a great idea, and everything looks AMAZING!!!! I think I''m going to have to start a journal here too when/if I ever get anything actually plaaannned...

But seriously, everything really does look spectacular!!!

 

[marvel]

Everything looks BEAUTIFUL, Aphi! I''m so excited for you!!

 

[aphisiglovessae]

The rings
My rings are two 2.5 mm platinum (pt950) bands in size 4.5. I found them on ebay for about $327.

Drew's ring is made of Tungsten Carbide in size 9.5. I found this one on ebay as well for..... get this..... $25 dollars!

 

[aphisiglovessae]

My Jewelry

I'm using a necklace I already had in my collection. It's actually a playboy nacklace, but from further away the bunny looks like regular loops for the chain. The center stone is around 3 or 4 carat size I think. It's of course a sterling silver fakey.

For the earrings, I bought a pair of sterling silver fakeys in the 2 carat size range.

Total cost: $6

 

[aphisiglovessae]

The Dress

Ok Ok, now I'll get to my dress..... I had to wait until I got to try on the dress with my slip and bra. So here goes. It's from Davids Bridal:

I need to still lose a few pounds for the dress to fit better, but I'm also a little bloated (you know how it is when you get the visitor). My hair is also really long, so the tattoo will be covered.

Cost: $250.00

The undergarments include a Felina Bustiere that I got off of ebay for about $40 and a slip that I got off of ebay for $25. My mother had to add more crinoline to the slip because it wasn't as poofy as the ebayer seller's picture made it look. For ten yards of tulle it was about $8 plus a lot of elbow grease (and of course love from a mom).

 

[aphisiglovessae]

The Veil

I got this cathedral veil from my matron of honor. It was the veil she got married in May 21st, 2005.

The plans for this veil include putting some beading and crystals on the bottom of the veil. This is because my dress does not have a train, so my veil will become my train.

I made a blusher veil that matches perfectly.

Catherdral Veil: Free
Blusher Veil: about $10

 

[aphisiglovessae]

The Headpiece

I found this baby on ebay as well, but I bought it for when I was supposed to get married to my ex. Yikes! It was the only thing I had bought for that wedding because my mom saw it and fell in love. It''s so big and sparkly! I think it''s about 5 or 6 inches tall.

Total cost when I bought it 4 years ago: $35

 

[sarita]

Aphisig,

I enjoyed reading your pre-wedding page here.

For my bridesmaids'' shoes I think I am going to end up going with the same thing. I liked them a lot when you first posted them and that''s a great price.

My fiance wants a tungsten ring too (probably carbide, otherwise it''s less practical, but he''s still looking). Would you mind sharing your seller''s name (if we can do that)? The only tungsten rings we saw on eBay so far are flat or hammered bands which he likes but I want him to go classic like your hubby to be.

 

[aphisiglovessae]

Date: 2/22/2006 6:04:07 PM
Author: sarita
Aphisig,

I enjoyed reading your pre-wedding page here.

For my bridesmaids' shoes I think I am going to end up going with the same thing. I liked them a lot when you first posted them and that's a great price.

My fiance wants a tungsten ring too (probably carbide, otherwise it's less practical, but he's still looking). Would you mind sharing your seller's name (if we can do that)? The only tungsten rings we saw on eBay so far are flat or hammered bands which he likes but I want him to go classic like your hubby to be.

Thanks sarita!

My bridesmaids LOVED their shoes and it was so hassle-free! Here's where I found them: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AKV8W4/qid=1140718068/sr=1-12/ref=sr_1_12/002-3529958-7264025?_encoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=1036592 I was really hesitant to buy shoes from an unknown seller online because you can't try them on, but they have such a great return and exchange policy.

As for who sold me the ring, I hope I'm not violating any PS rules, but here's one of his listings: http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Tungsten-Wedding-Band-Ring-sz-10-FREE-SHIPPING_W0QQitemZ8905719779QQcategoryZ92849QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem . I actually ended up with two rings, one in size 10 and one in size 9.5, because he didn't measure his finger right so the first one I got was too big. Make sure you get the right size because these cannot be sized to fit, and my local jewelers told me that they cannot solder a sizing bar or anything inside either (I guess it just wouldn't stick or something). Good luck on your search!

 

[snuga]

Those rings were a steal!!! I can''t believe it!