Doesn't Hurt to Ask

I saw a picture in a magazine of center pieces that consisted simply of a few single bud vases lumped together. I was intrigued. What a great idea. You still have the size, but not the expense of a full-flowered center piece. I decided to go with a silver charger plate with four varying sizes and colors of single bud vases each containing either a yellow, lime green, deep purple or hot pink flower. I was going to accumualate the vases by asking for donations and perusing garage sales. My first garage sale scour yielded a whopping 3 vases. I need 120. It would take me a lifetime at that rate. Then I had a stroke of genius: Thrift stores. I popped into St. Vincent de Paul in Colerain one lovely Saturday afternoon. Jackpot! The shelves were lined with single bud vases. And, they were each anywhere from .50 to $1. I called my mom super excited. I had just found the Mecca of single bud vases. I grabbed a cart and started filling it with any and every vase I could get my hands on. As I was making my mad dash, I happened to take notice of a piece of construction paper which contained the most beautiful words known to man, "50% off." Double, Super Jackpot Bonus. Called my mom again to tell her the amazing news. I walked out of there with 56 vases at a cost of $21. Pretty damn good.

From time to time I would stop in that thrift store and any others that I happened to be near. I have learned that St. Vincent de Paul is the cheapest thrift store. Goodwill seems to be the most expensive. I found some vases here and there, but never the jackpot I scored last September. Each time I went into the Colerain St. Vincent de Paul, there was a sign saying they were unable to offer sales on any of the shelf items due to low inventory. Well, I just refused to pay 'full price' so I would just walk out and figured I'd check a little later.

Last week, I thought I'd try a different St. Vincent de Paul thinking that perhaps it was only the Colerain store that was low on inventory. I went to the one on Este Ave, and they too were not offering discounts on shelf items. I felt defeated and aggravated. The Under Budget Bride cannot pay full price for vases. Oh, Thrift Store Gods, you tempted me with your crazy, super cheap sale and that is just something I cannot come back from. Yet, I couldn't ignore the fact that the wedding is closing in, and I still needed quite a few vases. I bit my lip and grabbed a cart. I was honestly quite sad as I checked the price written on the bottom of each vase I plucked from the shelves and placed into my cart. Oh, the agony. Most cost about $1. I trudged along the aisles slowly filling my cart.

By the time was I finished, I had managed to fill the basket. I looked down and just thought of the register Ka-chinging away, dollar by dollar. Ugh. Then I thought "What the hell? Why not ask for a discount?" The worst they can say is "No." And so I asked. "I know the sign says no discounts on shelf items but I am buying a large volume. They're for my wedding." I always throw in the wedding card. People love weddings and well, love. The one cashier went back to ask the manager, while I chatted with other. The first cashier came back, and said the manager would be up shortly. And we waited. I mentioned how some of the same vases were different prices. She said if she had known that, she would have just given me them at the lowest price which would have put me at $.50 per vase. Finally, the manager made it to the registers. I think we were all a little nervous about the verdict. The clerks wanted me to get a good deal. We became fast friends chatting about weddings and such while waiting on the manager. She took one quick look in the basket and simply said, "Give 'em to her for a quarter each." I walked out of there with 41 more vases at a cost of $11 with tax. Winning!

Hula Mula

There I was in Old Navy. My mission was to find a cute white summer dress to wear to one of my showers. No luck. So I was leaving the store, empty handed. Old Navy has geniusly reorganized the store so that their registers act as a barricade to the exit forcing shoppers to go around them. And at the front lines of this barricade are a bunch of chotskies that tease the buyer into an impulse buy. There was a little army of piggy banks smiling up at me all dressed in hula attire. PERFECT! We are going to Hawaii for our honeymoon and what a fun way to save money. Price check: $5. Whoop dee doo. I picked out a green one (New last name will be Green. Found it fitting) and headed to the registers. And now we have our beloved Hungry Hungry Hula Honeymoon Pig.

Oink, Oink

Leap of Faith

I bet you were thinking this post was about my decision to marry Jon. No. That was too easy. No thinking about it. My heart had that one figured out a long time ago. This entry is actually about picking a florist. FYI: Creating your bouquet is nothing like it is in the movies. Florists do not stock a wide variety of flowers and walk around a greenhouse with you mixing and matching different blooms until you are sure that is the design you want. Not even close. They have piece of paper that the two of you have to fill out. Oh, and the flowers, they're all in a book. Good luck trying to imagine what they will look like together.

Lets rewind. One day I decided it was time to find a florist. The night before I scoured wedding magazines to get an idea of what I wanted. This is a must when searching for your florist. It puts you and the florist on the same page. It also makes the whole process easier. They can then visual what you want and suggest flowers at different price ranges.

The next day I decided to drive around near my parent's house and talk with different florists. Apparently, florists are very busy in the morning. Did not dawn on me (no pun intended). The first florist basically scolded me, sat me down with a book and refused to answer any of my questions. She suggested that I make an appointment and I thought otherwise. The next florist was much more helpful. He worked up a quick quote, admitted he was very expensive, and I was on my way. My flowers would have been around $1,200. Way over my budget. Oh yeah, did I mention I only budgeted $300 for flowers. Not realistic, but I had no idea flowers were that expensive. I mean the freaking things die in a week. Anyways, I was determined to come close. The next couple of florists were nicer and I did make appointments with them. My last stop was Felss the Florist in Mt. Healthy. I almost passed his shop. Good thing I didn't. He was super helpful. We came up to around $600 including my bulk flowers for my center pieces. Much more in my price range. I promised I would be back, but had to meet my other appointments. He then basically wished me luck on finding a cheaper florist.

Long story short, Felss was the cheapest. One guy never emailed my quote and two others were over $1,000. I went back one afternoon and finalized the flower selection. My total came to around $660, but I think that's pretty good considering it includes bouquets for 8 bridesmaids and 1 groomswoman.

Felss has been in the business for a long time. He has taught many of the local florists so he knows what he's doing. Our minister also gets all of her flowers for the church there, so it feels good to support a local business. But as I said in the title it is a leap of faith. I have no idea what my flowers are actually going to look like. I gave him my picture and specs, but its up to him to design them. It is by far the scariest decision a bride will have to make.

My inspiration

If the Shoe Fits

I have inherited Flintstone feet. They are a size 7.5, but due to their width I usually have to buy an 8-8.5. Buying shoes is a nightmare. Can I wear cute, strappy shoes? No. Can I go into a shoe store, pick out a pair, try them on, and complete an outfit? No. My feet are ginormous. I hate shoe shopping. And, not only are they wide, but my heel is unusually skinny. Its nice because it makes my ankles look fab, but any shoes I buy have to have a strap or an adjustable sling-back. So no pumps and no cute flats.

Unfortunately Jon won't let me walk down the aisle barefoot or in flip flops. Heck, I would be happy in gym shoes. So I faced a challenge finding wedding shoes. But of course I couldn't settle for just white shoes. Oh no. Apparently I really love to torture myself. I wanted bright yellow heels. I have always wanted yellow heels but could never find them.

On Wednesday I set off on my search. I started at DSW. No dice. Stopped over at Nordstrom Rack. No shoes, but lots of other great finds including jewelry for my showers and my future Step mom-in-law. After lunch with Suzanne, I headed up to Kenwood. Walked the entire mall. I found a pair of Miz Mooz shoes at Nordstroms that fit very well, but they didn't have yellow. When I got home I scoured the web to see if Miz Mooz made a yellow heel. Again, no dice. For my brother and sister-in-law's wedding we got our shoes at Colorful Soles in the Bridal District. They have a wide selection of shoes and can dye them whatever color you need. Unfortunately for me, they went out of business. Back to the Internet. I did a search for women's wide shoes. Found a website, Wide Shoes for Women, that has links that go directly to the wide width selection of different stores. Their 6pm link even lets you select the width you need. Perfect. I picked the 'C' width and sure enough there was a page full of wide shoes. I narrowed my selection to only yellow shoes. Eureka! Lots of yellow heels. Found a pair I liked. Best part: only $20 with shipping. UPS delivered them yesterday and they fit like a dream. Needless to say, I am in Shoetopia.

Don't worry. My toenails will not be blue for the wedding. And I'll eventually cut off my anklet (done in my wedding colors).

Nightmare on Wed Street

Ok, so the wedding is on my mind 24/7. This is what I have done now; I need to get this done next; I'm waiting on a response from this person; etc. So, of course the wedding has permeated my sleep. Am I having wonderful dreams about me and Jon's first dance? Do I dream of the church doors opening and me and Dad walking down the aisle? No. I am having nightmares. Nightmares that wake me up in the middle of the night in a sweat. Nightmares about all the things that can go wrong. My favorite was the nightmare when all of my bridesmaids showed up in puffy white dresses covered in red hearts. FYI: I hate hearts. Last night, the stylist double booked, I forgot to order the bridesmaid's jewelry, and I never designed and ordered the favors. Not a good situation. I was running around some place (maybe a convention center? Love the randomness of dreams) searching frantically for a stylist. And of course cursing people left and right. Yep, I was a bridezilla. And the best part: I still have 92 days of sleepless nights. Sweet Dreams.

Under Budget Blonde

Last night I got some interesting phone calls. First my mom calls. She received my brother's and one of my bridesmaid's envelopes unsealed and empty. Ok. Thats an easy one to figure out. Those must have been the envelopes Jon tried to seal with the sponge and just wiped off the sticky part. No biggie. I can resend those or just pass them out. But then I received more phone calls. First, from my friend Lisa. Her envelope showed up empty. Is the mailman trying to crash my wedding? Then another phone call. This time from Matthew. Yet another empty envelope. Ok. What the heck? Then I start replaying Tuesday night in my mind. Ah ha. At one point during envelope stuffing Jon and I started chit-chatting. I remember after our conversation, I looked down and there were no more envelopes. I literally said, "Huh, I guess I stuffed them all." I thought I double checked the stack. Apparently not. Must have shuffled the empty ones with the stuffed ones not even paying attention to what the heck I was doing. My favorite call was from our friends, Jason and Mandi. Jason applauded my Under Budget Bride efforts. Thought my idea of sending out empty envelopes so people would call, confused, was a huge money saver. No cost on invites or RSVP postage. When people called about the empty envelopes, I could just ask, "You coming?"

So moral of the story is, don't let your fiance in the room while stuffing envelopes. We have a similiar rule in the kitchen. If I'm wielding a knife, Jon is not allowed anywhere near me. It only took a little loss of blood to establish that rule. The whole situation has led to some laughs. Luckily, it has only been my friends, and a majority of them have been the old neighborhood crew. Just a day in the life of a B2B.

Man vs. Machine

Today is a momentous day. I am dropping the first round of invites in the mail. No turning back now. I even planned to have them in the mail on June 1st and son of gun, I did it. Woo Hoo! Last night, Jon and I worked on getting the addresses printed on the envelopes, stuffing them, and then stamping them.

The overall job was pretty easy, but of course there were some technical difficulties. I put all of the addresses in an Excel spreadsheet, so I could just do a Mail Merge in Word to print all of the addresses on the envelopes. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. Tip: Find out from the printer the type of font they used for the invites and make sure it is available in Word if doing a mail merge. I had no idea what they used. I went through all of the available fonts on Word at least 5 times plus Jon gave it a whirl. We ended up settling on one that was pretty close. With the return address on the back flap and no other print on the front of the envelopes, we figured it wouldn't be that noticable.

Once we settled on a font, we tried to figure out what size of font to use. Jon preferred to take up the whole envelope, I preferred a smaller, dainty font. We chose a 36. Big enough for the Post Office to read, but not overwhelming. I ran the first envelope with the font in bold to see what it would look like. Not too great. Sorry, Andrea. You get the guinea pig envelope. We ran the second envelope without the bold. And Voila, we have our winner!

Now, I just had to print the remaining 90 envelopes. The funny thing about technology is that when you are actually trying to get something done or you are under a time restraint, it just doesn't want to work. Its like all of the computers, printers, scanners, and faxes have gotten together and formed a conspircacy against all of mankind. So, I start the printing and everything is running smoothly. The printer is kicking out envelopes beautifully. And then it freezes. I have 7 envelopes done. WTF? I save the Word document and shut everything down. Restart. Try again. This time I get even less, only 5 envelopes. At this point I am really angry. I'm saying some choice words. Jon hears me in living room. I'm sure he was debating whether or not to ask me what was wrong. He has witnessed my anger with the printer while in school year and knows it can get ugly. I resolve to print only 10 envelopes at a time. Eureka! This works. Although it is now shooting a blank (teehe) before each one it actually prints. I swear my printer has a mind of its own. But regardless, its printing. So 10 at a time, I get through all of the envelopes.

During this fiasco, Jon has stamped all of the RSVP postcards. (Tip: Make sure to get the 'Wedding' stamps from the post office. The clerk told me they just came out with a new design so I am ahead of the curve. Yay!)  After they printed, I stamped and stuffed the envelopes. But of course I couldn't just stuff them. After the first one, I realized there is an art to stuffing envelopes. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would take the time to figure out the best way to arrange the contents of an envelope. After I got a bunch stuffed I handed them off to Jon to seal. He tried using a sponge, but it just wiped away the stickiness. Then he tried good ol' fashioned saliva. Couldn't stand the taste. One of my duties at my job is to pay and mail bills. So every week, I lick and stick about 20 or so envelopes. Apparently, this has been preparing me for my role as a Bride-to-Be. I said, "Hand 'em over." So each envelope is sealed with the saliva of yours truly. ;)