Card Box Fun

The alternate title for this post would be how I hurt my finger using a little knife to cut through cardboard. ;)

A little while back our planner sent me a link for cute little suitcases, which are very similar to the ones found at paper source, but cheaper. I didn't really have any ideas for the suitcases until I read this post from Mrs. Dachshund. I loved her inspiration picture...

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as well as her take on it. BM Cali mentioned this idea when she was in town, but seeing pictures of it really helped me to see that it could be done. The project really only involved a lot of painful some cutting, super glue and some ribbon.

I started out with cutting the bottom of the smallest suitcase.


Love those flexible colorful cutting mats. Once the bottom was cut I lined it up with the top of the middle sized suitcase and cut that.


I repeated the cutting of bottom and top with the last suitcase and then added a little ribbon. I didn't want to glue them together just yet, because they take up less space (which we are quickly running out of in our apartment) nestled together. Here they are stacked together with a little card tag.



I really love how they turned out, but I was a little worried about if the cards would really fit in there. Thanks to the handful of cards lying around I was able to test it and even sent a little video to Mr. E (who was at work) to see what he thought.



Cute right? I'm sure that's what he thought of my video message. ;)

After considering our guest count, I worried that the 3 suitcases might not be enough space, so I picked up a travel themed storage box at Michael's to add to the bottom of the stack. I cut out the lid and will glue it all together closer to the wedding.


Will you be doing a unique spin on your card box?

Readings Of The Ceremony Kind

When it comes to planning for our actual ceremony there were 3 main things to consider: the vows, the readings and the music.  I'll be talking about the music later, so lets discuss the vows & readings today, shall we?

The vows were the easiest part to nail down.  We will not be writing our own vows, but instead using the traditional vows that have been used for many many years before us.  Both Mr. E and I are extremely lucky to have parents that have been married for over 30 years, and we wanted to use the same vows that they used on their wedding days and still ring true years later. 

With the vows taken care of, we moved onto the readings.  Although Mr. E is more spiritual than into organized religion, we decided to have one reading from the Bible and one from another source.  I have always loved hearing 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 at weddings, so that will be our scripture reading. 

The other reading took a little more research.  Enter Google.  I googled popular wedding readings and read... and read... and read some more until I found a couple that could be contenders. Some of my favorites included an excerpt from Nicholas Sparks' book The Notebook as well as the poem "True Love" by Author Unknown.

But nothing touched me like “The Art of a Good Marriage” by Wilfred Arlan Peterson.

"Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens.
A good marriage must be created.
In marriage the little things are the big things.
It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say "I love you" at least once a day.
It is never going to sleep angry.
It is at no time taking the other for granted;
the courtship should not end with the honeymoon, it should continue through the years.
It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.
It is standing together facing the world.
It is forming a circle of love that gathers the whole family.
It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice,
but in the spirit of joy.


It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It is not looking for perfection in each other.
It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow old.
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.
It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal,
dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.
It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.

I read several to Mr. E and his favorite was my favorite too!  I can't wait to hear it read by BM Philly's mom, Mrs. M  (Mrs. M and Mama Elephant met in Lamaze class with our older brothers and our families have been friends forever.)  She has been a second mom to me and I am so honored to have her stand up and read this on our wedding day.
 

Mama Elephant, Mrs. M, BM Philly & me in North Carolina.

Do you have a special person to read at your wedding?  What readings did you select?

Grand Send Off

My dream wedding send off involves a little sparkle & light....

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Sigh...beautiful sparkle send offs. I have never been to a wedding with a sparkler send off, but fell in love looking at pictures online. Sadly, that sparkling dream was quickly put out when I was told by our venue that sparklers are a no no. The coordinator referenced past weddings where they resulted in minor fires, so they have since been banned.

No worries! I asked what our other options were, and was given the option of bubbles or real flower petals. Since bubbles are cheaper then flowers, the choice was easy to make.

I stocked up on wedding bubbles from Michael's (on sale and with a bonus coupon!), had a morning of session of ribbon tying 101 and bada bing bada boom - we're ready for our send off!

Part of Ribbon Tying 101 (I actually used a little over 6 boxes of bubbles)

168 bubbles later

All ready for the send off!

What did you do for your send off? Did you have to go with a plan B due to venue restrictions?

Rethinking the idea of a wedding?

We recently found out that a couple of our friends secretly got married at the courthouse but didn't tell their friends for more then a couple of months. I was so excited for them when they finally broke the news, which they kept to themselves because they were planning to still have a small local wedding. When they looked at the price of throwing a wedding and the planning involved they decided to forgo the wedding and just announce that they had been Mr. and Mrs. for a little while.

Carrie and Mr. Big after their courthouse wedding

Now I know that for the majority of the readers of wedding blogs planning the wedding is the fun part, but when I heard our friends' news I stopped a minute and thought about what it would have been like to just get married without the whole wedding. The whole reason for the wedding is to proclaim our love for each other and start the rest of our lives together, but that can be done with cost of the marriage license and a justice of the peace. Why go through an engagement period (25 months for us) and spend a decent amount of money on one day?

For us, the number one reason for the full shindig (yep I just used the word shindig) is that we want to celebrate with all of our friends and family. We love them all so much but with everyone and their different lives all over the country (and out of country) we don't get to see them nearly as often as we would like. The wedding is a way to have all of the people we love and care about come together and experience the love that we feel for each other. Saying our vows in front of all of them means the world to Mr. E and I.

The beauty of a wedding is that it's different for everybody, but in the end we're all married (well for some that depends on state law, which is simply not fair) and that's what matters. I love that our friends got married at the courthouse because that is what they wanted, and I love that we're having a big wedding because that is what we want.

While planning did you ever rethink the whole wedding? Did any of your friends or family get married and keep it a secret for a little while?

It’s beginning to feel real

You would think with the fact that we are more than halfway through our 25 month engagement with all the major vendors booked that the wedding would feel real to me already. But it wasn’t until we sent out our save the dates that it really started to feel real. Maybe it’s because now our guest list knows about the big day, no turning back now!

Through trial and error our save the dates have transformed from a simple white cardstock note card (please no laughing, this mock up was prior to my introduction into the amazing world of wedding blog stalking)…

To colorful cardstock squares which give an early hint to our travel theme reception…

Our Save the date photographed by Lynn Michelle

Our magnets have (sadly) transitioned from DIY projects to PSE (pay someone else) projects, but they still make me smile and get the job done! I can’t wait to see our smiling faces on our friends’ and family’s refrigerators.


I ordered the square white envelopes from envelopemall.com and spruced them up a bit by embossing “Save the Date” on the front corner. I found that stamp on sale for about 40 cents while standing in line at Michael’s.

Originally I thought about doing labels, but I decided to hand write the addresses to complete the homemade feel. It’s no calligraphy, but I did buy a fancy Sharpie fine point blue marker (and used a coupon on it) and it’s readable!

Mr. E was in charge of stamping our address on the back of each envelope, and for the most part he was a champ. There are a few where a part of the address or our names didn’t stamp, oh well I got over it (practicing that whole Zen bride thing). We’ll just blame it on the stamp pad ;)

Once the magnets came in, I attached them to the cards using photo corners.

I took one to the post office to get the correct postage, since I knew the square envelopes would cost more to mail, and mailed it to ourselves to make sure there were no issues. Let's just say it was a good thing I didn't bother to wait to receive our save the date, because guess what? Yeah it got lost in the mail and took forever! I went ahead and mailed all the others the next day (ugh, 81 cents a piece. I'm pretty sure our invites will mail for less), and guests started receiving them within a day! Yay!

I recieved a text from our usher Brett which said "...seriously, it is the best save the date i've received - and i couldn't be more excited 4 u 2!" That tells me all the hard work was worth it :)

Was there any part in your planning process that made the wedding feel more real?

Where to go, where to go?

Back in the day, I mean way back in the day well before I met Mr. E, I always dreamed of a honeymoon in Hawaii. I have never been and thought what a way to splurge and enjoy the most tropical state.

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Once Mr. E & I got engaged, we talked about the Honeymoon, and he was game for anywhere I wanted to go. We didn't do the normal, groom plans the Honeymoon thing, because let's face it... I'm a planner. I have planned every vacation that we have gone on together and Mr. E loves not having that responsibility. So after we made that decision, I started to actually look into the price of a Hawaiian honeymoon, I thought that we could get more bang for our buck with an all-inclusive.

I was drawn to the Honeymoon all inclusive go-to of Sandals resorts. I did some research (aka lots of reading on the Honeymoon boards and the Sandals website) and decided that St. Lucia was it. You got three resorts for the price of one, or as they liked to put it "stay at one, play at three". Of course I wasn't really looking at the prices (my bad), but figured that we could work it into the wedding fund budget. The room that we want (becuase it has room service included) is more on the pricey side, but they do always seem to be having a 60 or 65% off sale. Too bad the cost of flying to St. Lucia was also on the pricey side, and Mr. E and I were thinking of doing first class since it's such a special occasion.

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We were pretty set on Sandals, without really thinking about the cost, until I started looking into videographers. Wouldn't it be my luck that the videographers I loved the most, were the most expensive? Why can't it ever be the other way around?

To try and work the budget to our advantage (i.e. squeeze in a videographer without having to lose something else, or take on a second job) we really looked at the cost of Sandals, and decided we could go somewhere else, with just as much sun and fun but a smaller price tag. So where did we decide? You'll have to hang on until next time.

Was your dream Honeymoon out of your price range?

Canvas Wrap

Part of our photography package with Lynn Michelle included a 16 x 24 canvas wrap of one of our favorite engagement pictures.  We had a hard time selecting one (because we loved so many of our photos!!) but we finally decided on one that shows both us and our travel theme in bright vivid color. 

We're quickly running out of wall space in our 2 bedroom apartment, but I found a little nook that seemed the perfect size.  Mr. E was awesome to hang it, and then rehang it after I noticed the fact that it wasn't centered.

It happens to be above our TV, so for now we get to enjoy this canvas whenever we watch TV.

That is Man v Food on the Travel Channel (we love that show)

When we move into a house after the wedding (can. not. wait!) I'll be sure to find a wonderful spot for this!  We loved the wrap so much that we decided to order a big (and I do mean big!) 30 x 40 wrap of our absolute favorite engagement picture. We feel like this photo is more of an art piece and looks amazing in the larger size!

Love it!

What other photo goodies have you done with your engagement pictures?