Better later than never?

So, tonight I found myself complaining about everything in life. I even found a Bible verse to complain about- that's how negative I was being.

I couldn't find much positive so I started thinking about the wedding... and thinking about some things that I really always wanted to do with planning but never got around to. One thing was to make an inspiration board. So, alas, I spent a little time playing around on Google image search and Adobe Photoshop tonight to finally make a board for my brightly colored, rustic, outdoorsy, September 2011 wedding.

I'm happy with it- but I think I might need to make one or two more just to get my whole intentions across. I know how I want the day to look in my mind, it's a little hard translating it on a digital image. Just know that 107 days from now, all my dreams will be coming true, it will be the best day of my life, and from then on I will spend it with the man I love. Who cares how the inspiration board turns out! ;)

DIY table numbers

So, this morning I have a huge stack of stuff that needs labeled for a yard sale that I'm setting up tonight... so, naturally- I'm procrastinating.

And what better way to procrastinate than to plan my wedding, right?!


I was on www.weddingbee.com earlier and one of the blogs was about table numbers. I've had my table number idea planned for months, I just haven't started it yet. It's such a nice sunny day, so I just took a walk around our property looking for inspiration naturey items.

Found: weeping willow tree, a pile of rocks my dog collects from her walks, sticks, and hostas.

So, here are the results of my nature walk:




p.s. I love them. :)

Not the dress. :)

So, I have these pictures on my computer... and I know no one else has seen them other than my two ladies and my mom that went dress shopping with me. I thought it'd be fun to post pictures of the dresses I WON'T be wearing on my wedding day. Some were close calls... but I knew "the one" as soon as I put it on!


*First dress of the day. Felt a little surreal seeing myself in a big white gown. :) By the way- not a fan of this one... it was a little too modern and fashionista for my tastes.


*Gown 2- frilly flowy bottom. Meh.
*This one was alright... and even got to the point where they added the veil... which is when they try to lure you in. Still no tears of joy though...
*Good for a beach wedding I think. Flowy and soft...
*This was the runner up... and probably would have been "the one" if I was getting married in a church and having a more traditional wedding. I felt like a princess, but ultimately, I wanted something that was suitable for the outdoors and not fussy. This was more of a ball gown...As you can see... I was confused... because I thought everyone said, "You'll know which one is 'the one.'" I had a closet full of dresses and my heart wasn't fluttering...

But then, everything changed. There was one dress that I had picked out online that I really wanted to try. It had all the components on it I was looking for and the attendant couldn't find it in the store. I was bummed. She took one more sweep through the store and came shuffling (quickly) back to our little corner with a dress in her hand looking while looking back to see if she was followed. haha... here she found it hanging on another bride-to-be's "try on" stash.
She grabbed and ran.

I don't know how to explain it, but before I even opened the dressing room door and saw my reflection I just knew it was the dress I wanted. As soon as the door swung open I had tears in my eyes. :)
I would also like to note- that the dress was in my size so I got to walk out of the store with dress in tow. :)

Yep yep.

Thriftiness FTW!

FTW = For the win!!

I'd just like to start off by saying, "I LOVE YARD SALES!!!"




Seriously- one person's junk is another's treasure. Every yard sale I pass I stop by and check for vases, mason jars, burlap, and white christmas lights!

So far I've spent about $10.50 and have
-14 large vases (for centerpieces)
-12 mason jars
-3 strands of Christmas lights
-6 small votive jars
-3 woven baskets (for Trail Mix bar)

(My budget for all of these things was originally in the $150 range.) :)

Awesome. I know.

This Saturday I have a date with my mom to hit up another community yard sale close by! I'm still on the search for mason jars and as many Christmas lights as I can find! I thought I found the motherload at another yardsale... but they were icicle lights. (dislike.)

STD's and Invitations. :)

The first time I read STD's on a wedding blog it threw me off. So, alas, if you're confused: STD's = Save the Dates.

Jeff and I spent a few hours one night and banged out the first round of them for family and friends. We made 30 or so and then called it a night. We make a good team. And it was all his idea for our "date night." :)

I used Photoshop to design them. I scanned in a topographic map of the part of the Appalachian Trail that runs through Caledonia State Park, then searched for hours for the perfect outdoorsy font online. I found a leafy one and loved it!

I also bought some circle Avery labels and printed them in orange, purple, and green-
Jeff and Heidi / 9.24.11 / <3 <3 <3

They got tucked under the twine we tied around the STD then.

At this point not everyone got an STD... but most people know about the date- so I'm not too concerned. I also personally handed out all of them (which I know is semi-tabboo), but it saved us postage- so I'm not complaining. And guess what- the invitations are being hand delivered as much as possible as well! Bam- that saves me $50 :)

So, I'm working on the tedious task of designing the whole invitation suite using Photoshop. It will use the same Eggplant paper from the STDs, and we're going to create pocketfolds with them.

I have to zoom in to 300% and then touch up every little leaf... erased the blurred gray edge... blahh blahh blahh... time consuming blahh blahh blahh... :P But saving $$$$$$$!!

My woodburner is my new favorite toy! These puppies are going to go on the outside of the pocketfold invitation with some burlap and twine. :) I'm pretty darn excited.

I have my MoH and a BM that have offered to help assemble invitations... provided that I have Mountain Dew and Elios pizza at their disposal. :)

This week I'm ordering the last of the paper I need- and then in two weeks it's invitation time!!! Woot woot!

Wedding Nightmare #2

Last night I had a crazy dream about my wedding day... from what I remember, nothing went right.

-Our pastor was not able to make it because he had a wedding earlier in the day and it ran late. So, we had some guy that barely spoke English that we never met before.
-Our ceremony site was being used as some one else's reception site after us- so it was decorated with their bright red and green colors. (Our colors are eggplant and orange)
-My photographer was late. Didn't get any pictures before hand.
-Our videographers didn't show up.
-My mom's seat got taken so she had to sit in the back.
-Jeff saw me before the ceremony and didn't even comment on how I looked.
-The groomsmen were supposed to wear tan suits with orange ties. Instead they wore orange suits, orange vests, and orange ties.
-My Maid of Honor didn't show up. Two of my bridesmaids got lost on the way- one finally showed up but was wearing a blue skirt and top. They replaced one of my missing bridesmaids with some random stranger.
-There was another wedding going on right behind our ceremony that had a microphone/sound system and they started their ceremony about 10 seconds before us. So, everything our pastor said was not loud and it was an echo of the other ceremony.
-When the pastor said, "we are gathered here today to marry..." he said my first name with Jeff's last name, and Jeff's first name with my last name. What a mess.


I was happy to wake up from this one.

Engagement Pictures!!!