LaurenThepartier...wedding pics for you!

[Blair138]

WOW!!!

I hope you don''t mind if I copy everything in exact detail!! I LOVE the pomanders on the chairs for your ceremony, which I AM DOING... I love your dress, it''s exactly the style I am looking at, your guest book picture frame is what FI and I are doing because he loves that...the monogram on the wall behind you guys-I want that on my dance floor!!! EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!

 

[anchor31]

Blondie, your pics are gorgeous! You and everything looks amazing!! Congrats!

 

[blondie23]

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!! I wasn't expecting these wonderful responses, especially since I lurk more often than I post!

Head OverHeels, Sap, and Linda, Thank you all so much!!!!

Claudinam- I would like to think I am creative but making everything myself was ALOT of work...It was just SO MUCH cheaper to do it this way. Would I do it again? Probably, but next time I would know that I sold my soul to kinkos haha

JCrow- THANK YOU!! You're wedding was seriously so beautiful so I'm flattered that you like mine

Musey- Thanks!! that is a typical thing we do, we are rarely ever serious haha

Blair- Thanks!! We also had a gobo on our dancefloor

Anchor- Thank you!!!

 

[crystalheart1]

You did an AMAZING job with your wedding. I love ever last detail. Very elegant with out being up tight..

You have a great attention to detail. I love your dress .. you are gorgeous.

How did you do your placecards ? I am finding that since mine are all ready cut to size,, they can not be run through the printers.

DId you have them done on whole sheets and then cut them ?

Did I tell you how beautiful everything ( Especially BRIDE and GROOM ) looks?

 

[blondie23]

Crystal- Thank you! I made the escort cards and place cards the same way. I created a template in MS Word for both the escort cards and place cards...I inserted a table (1 row by 1 column) and picked a size (i think 2 x 3.5 in). I duplicated the table so that there was 8 of them on a page. Then I added the font inside the table (I made one for each person) and then removed the border. I followed this same process for the place cards. I then went to kinkos and had them print off 2 copies of each (i did this because i made the escort cards and place cards double sided). I then went through and had to cut them out individually which took FOREVER. then I had the yellow or orange paper cut. I folded the paper and used a hot glue gun to put the cut out cards onto the paper. Hopefully that makes sense.

 

[Skippy123]

Blondie, fellow ww!!! Ooooh, I love the bright colors in your bouquet!!! You and your hubby are a beautiful couple, your dress is gorgeous, congrats

 

[everlong_x]

Congrats, blondie!! Those are some incredible pictures!

 

[kittybean]

I love all your pictures. You look happy and beautiful, and the details are just perfect. Wishing you much happiness in the years to come!

 

[crystalheart1]

Blondie

Thanks for the information for the TEMPLATE... I am not that great in MS Word.. so I can''t fiqure how to set up the template... I tried.

I will try to find someone to help me...

 

[ljsmith001]

Blondie:

Your wedding looks absolutely AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! That is our budget as well, however we have ending up spending around 20K. If you don''t mind me asking, how much (if you remember) did it run you for the monogrammed wall lighting? I REALLY wanted it, but we got quoted something crazy for it so I took it off the list. I can''t imagine that it would be very expensive though! I, too, want to copy a lot of your ideas for my own wedding in December!

 

[blondie23]

Crystal-- I don't have the template here at work but I should still have it on my home computer. If I can find it, I'll try attaching it and you can use it. I downloaded a special font to make all of my paper products for the wedding so when you open the file, the correct font won't be displayed but you get the idea.

ljsmith- Thanks....also, all of our lighting was part of our DJ package. Our total package was $650 so I'm not really sure what the breakdown for DJ services vs. lighting was but we felt the total package was very reasonable.

 

[Stephanie]

I love the Peanuts comics - very original! And everything is just breathtaking! Congratulations!

And I might need a few of those templates you used...

 

[zoebartlett]

Blondie -- you and your husband make one gorgeous couple!

Are you in the wedding business? Seriously, you did an amazing job!! Everything looks beautiful, no stunning.

And I''m with Musey and SDL -- I love the goofy picture.

 

[blondie23]

Thanks SDL, Stephanie, and Zoe!!!!

 

[EricaR]

I LOVE that silly photo too! I''d like to do something similar but I''d end up with a photo of me making a silly face and my FI looking at me like I''ve lost my mind.

Your wedding looks amazing. Absolutely amazing. I am tempted to steal your quote...

 

[SarahLovesJS]

How did I miss this thread? Gorgeous!!! Love the details! Best wishes to you and your DH!

 

[LaurenThePartier]

Date: 7/21/2008 12:53:38 PM
Author: blondie23
.

Rachel - OMG - I absolutely LOVE your wedding pics - it turned out amazing! I love Hackberry - such a pretty golf course and the ballrooms both turned out lovely!
The fortune tellers are probably the cutest, most original thing I''ve ever seen at a wedding, and I can''t believe you did it all for $15k!

Congratulations again, dear! Your wedding looked like it was an incredible time!

 

[LaurenThePartier]

Date: 7/21/2008 12:52:48 PM
Author:blondie23
Lauren, I''m still working on getting our house photos together...we''re in the process of painting the inside and the house is a mess...not to mention that we need furniture!!!!

Oh, Rachel - I hear you - our house was a mess for about 6 months . . . it''s finally only now started looking somewhat put together.

You''ll get there, though. Looks like your neighbourhood is filling out nicely!

 

[blondie23]

Thanks Lauren!!!!!!! The wedding was SO MUCH fun but I am sooooooo glad that it''s over. It was so much work because I did everything myself to save money. Everytime I would get frustrated or tired, I would always say to David, "I wanted to elope in St. John" and he would just laugh at me.

We should try and do a Dallas GTG soon!

And thanks Sarah and Erica!!!!

 

[WishfulThinking]

I love your wedding! You and your husband make an adorable couple. I really love all the details you had everywhere, and the beautiful colors. I love bright colors, and your flowers and centerpieces are just fantastic!! I also adore the cake with the cute dots.

Really, though, it is all so tasteful and classy while being bold and bright at the same time. From what I can tell of your pictures, especially the one of you and your husband making that cute and funny face, that fits your personalities perfectly!

Congrats on being married!

 

[blondie23]

Crystal-

I hope this works...the font I used was P22 Cezanne so if you want to use my same font then you''ll have to download it. Since you probably don''t have my font, I hope that the formatting on the template turns out ok. Like I said before, I made one for each guest and then removed the borders. I then saved my word document to a flash drive and took it to kinkos for them to print with the pink and white. I then cut them each out individually...actually this was the same process i used for all of my paper products for the wedding.

ETA: it looks like I can''t upload a Word doc so I copied the template into PPT. You can either a.) copy and paste into Word or b.) insert new slides into PPT and then take that to Kinkos

 

[blondie23]

Thanks WishfulThinking...I really love pink, orange, and mango so I really wanted those to be the main colors of our wedding. It all started out with my invitations and kind of fell into place from there!

 

[ChargerGrrl]

Date: 7/21/2008 7:49:22 PM
Author: SanDiegoLady

Date: 7/21/2008 2:58:48 PM
Author: musey
Ohmigosh this picture is SO AMAZINGLY CUTE!!!!

Date: 7/21/2008 12:53:38 PM
Author: blondie23

And the back of your dress is just jaw-droppingly beautiful. Love it. LOVE IT.

Your pictures are fabulous but I admit, this is my FAVORITE EVER photo!! Great silly personality, good for you! Your wedding was exceptional You make a beautiful couple.

priceless pic! you guys are too goofy.

CONGRATS!

 

[Fancy605]

Your wedding was beyond gorgeous! I LOVE all of the rich colors and little details. And I especially like your hair. Sooo pretty!

 

[taovandel]

Lovely wedding. It really inspires me to see such a gorgeous wedding on that budget because that is my budget as well.

 

[Daydreamer7130]

Absolutely STUNNING!!!

You must tell the story behing the silly pic.... what a classic show of personality! I can see you two constantly laughing and being silly all the time. Every anniversary you have to should do that silly face pose and as the years go by and you reach your 50th it would be such a wonderful display! Then again, I can see a family photo like that with you guys and the kids making the same face! LOL

 

[blondie23]

Thank you Charger, Fancy, taovandel, and Daydreamer!!!!

Daydreamer, the story behind the goofy picture is from our days in graduate school. We were both getting our engineering graduate degrees at the same time (classes, thesis, etc) and sometimes the stress, exhaustion, and frustration would get to be too much so to lighten the mood one of us would randomly make a funny face to the other person....after that it just stuck and it''s now something we do on a daily basis...heck, even our engagement pictures have us doing this same pose haha. I do hope it''s something we continue and I really like your idea about taking a picture like that every year on our anniversary...what a great tradition!

Also, since so many people have asked about how we did such a wedding on a fairly small budget, I thought I would explain. The aspect that was the most helpful was when we decided what was the most important to us and then went from there. Our wedding was considered small to most (65 people).

Because we were paying the guest list consisted of immediate family only (i.e. parents and siblings…no aunts, uncles, cousins, etc) and close friends. Were our families upset? Yes, but since we paid, we decided who was invited and they just had to deal with it.

Because we kept it small, it allowed us to splurge in other areas (linens, plated meal, flowers, fancy chairs, open bar, passed apps and cocktails, etc). We also did everything ourselves and did A LOT of research to find great deals. We bought ALL glass vases and provided them to the florist, bought all paper products, take out containers, ribbon, etc online and then made everything myself, linens we got the BEST DEAL EVER on because they made a mistake on our contract which benefited us, only the bottom tier of our cake was real because we had so few guests, the person who married us was a family friend, David’s family are members of the country club so we got a GREAT deal on food. Candy station and all containers were also bought at wholesale. Favors were Maggiano’s lemon cookies (for a dozen the cost was $5) and we bought the wrappers online. OOT bags…all supplies bought online. We decided that venue wasn’t the most important aspect so we really cut corners on venue which also allowed us to incorporate other things. We also didn’t do other things like a videographer.

Also, my MS dress was a wedding gift from my father so that was not included in our 15K so if you add that in it our wedding was probably $18K. Hope that helps!

 

[Kim N]

Blondie, wow, your wedding was gorgeous! I love all the details, and you and your husband look fabulous! I can''t believe you did it for below $20K!

 

[Krissie]

Congratulations, Blondie! I too cannot believe you pulled that off for $15k. Seriously amazing - have you thought about being a wedding coordinator?? You were stunning, and everything looks so elegant and pulled-together. I can''t imagine how much time you spent making sure everything (homemade!) looked perfect. Wow!

 

[Dreamgirl]

Wow!!!!! Im speechless!!! Looks like you had a beautiful wedding!!! You were gorgeous too. I love your hair!!!!!!