Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Here comes the bride

I just finished picking the music for our ceremony. This is probably the toughest task I have yet to face. As a wedding present, my uncle and another member of his band are playing our music. Between his song list and other songs I could think of, I had to come up with basically 5 songs. Sounds easy right? Nope. Not for me. I had to make sure the lyrics matched the moment in the ceremony. Also, had to ensure that the tempo matched the mood. Oi. This was one daunting task. It basically took 3 full nights of internet searches to figure it all out. I would go through the playlist, You Tube a song, and then Google the song to research the meaning behind the song or for whom it was written. And I probably did this at least 5 times per song. Monday night I emailed Brian with a tentative list, with three of the songs not on his play list. He said they could easily learn 2 of them, and so tonight I had to rework the playlist. I needed music for the entrance of family members including the mom's lighting the taper candles. Then I needed the Bridal party entrance music. Followed by of course, me and my dad. I chose one of my favorite love songs which was also my parent's wedding song. This may have been a bad idea. I tear up pretty much everytime I hear it. Hmmm...Maybe I'll walk down the aisle with earplugs. We then needed music for the lighting of the Unity candle, which comes after the exchange of vows and rings. Had to make sure the lyrics were fitting. And finally, after Reverend Kathy pronounces us husband and wife, I needed some processional music.

So it is all said and done. I am very satisfied with the selection and I think it will make for a very memorable ceremony. Unfortunately, you'll have to be there to hear my ceremony playlist or just wait for the post honeymoon posts.

Everybody out of the pool

From time to time when it comes to wedding stuff I get the urge to want to vomit. Not because I'm thinking about having to spend the rest of my life with a crazy Irish man, whom I adore, but because so much time, effort, and money has gone into this one single day and that any one thing can go wrong. I get the urge before opening emails from vendors especially when it has an invoice total. Like right now, I have an email from my cake vendor, but I have yet to open it. She has the total for the cake waiting for me. Last Thursday I spent an hour working with her and the decorator. Long story short, I think all of our brains ached afterwards. It was exhausting. We really weren't communicating well, and we were not on the same page about anything. She thought everything I decided would look amazing just to get me the heck out of there. But I stuck around until I was comfortable with the overall design. I felt bad because I know I'm a perfectionist and a pain in the rearend. The toughest part was trying to visualize it while designing it. I would close my eyes and try to picture it, but then she would start rambling about something and totally mess up my concentration. I then tried sketches, which helped. Once I left and was on the road I was able to actually imagine the design in the quiet of my car. I called her about 15 minutes after leaving and changed the look of the middle tier. My best advice is to bring multiple pictures of wedding cakes with you. My original design could not be done exactly like the picture because it was fondant, but we came pretty close. The other pictures helped with giving us ideas and with figuring out what the different layers would look like.

Regardless, if the cake ends up being hideous, it will still be delicious. It is a family run business with everything made from scratch in a commercial kitchen they had installed in their basement. She made Opera Cream Brownies and White cake with a Rasberry filling for us to sample a couple months ago. It was the best cake we've ever eaten (Mind you, we tried the NCH Bakery and the Northside bakery. Jon decided we should call bakeries more often and let them know we're getting married so we get free mini-cakes.) We're going with the White and Rasberry and also a White with a Chocolate filling. To save some money, I had the cake done with 3 tiers which will feed about 162 people and a sheet cake that will feed about 50. Now I just have to open the email.

Friday, August 26, 2011

I wish that I knew then, what I know now.....

Today, a random thought popped into my head (One of many. This one just happened to make enough sense that I thought to pursue it). "Why not check out those gift card exchange sites?" They seem legit, and could offer some major savings. I googled (Funny how that word now has a universal meaning for an internet search. Sorry, Yahoo. Unfortunately Yahoo'ed, although fun to say, could have different meanings. I Yahoo'ed it. Does it mean I got super, duper excited and shouted to the roof tops or that I performed an internet search. Next time, make up a word that has absolutely no meaning or connotation-Random thought). Anyways, I googled 'gift card exchange' and came across several websites that offered the service. I went with the Plastic Jungle. Basically, you can buy gift cards at various, mostly random, denominations at a discount. For example, all of the Home Depot cards are sold at an 8% discount. So before even entering Home Depot you have 8% off of your bill. Now, some may think this sounds a little sketchy. Well, this site guarantees all of their gift cards. When 'sellers' send in their gift cards, Plastic Jungle verifies the funds before reimbursing the seller. Sellers can receive cash deposits, Amazon credits, or they can donate all or part of their proceeds to charity. For buyers, the discounts can be as high as 35%. If a merchant is not available, you can set up notifications. Plastic Jungle will alert you when a particular gift card has become available.

Now, I wish I would have thought of this a year and a half ago. I searched for a Michael's gift card. $175 gift card for $143.50. That's an 18% discount. And that would have been on top of the 40% off coupons they run weekly. I have definitely spent that much this year between ribbon, paper, stickers, and other random stuff.

I have yet to try this out, but I am definitely going to give it a whirl. I plan to use it when for home projects, Christmas, showers, and any other defined shopping I might have to do.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

The Bad Blogger

Hello Readers. As the title states, I have been a bad blogger. Trust me, I haven't been posting because nothing has been going on. In fact, its just the opposite. I am super busy, especially with the Big Day just over 2 weeks away. I promise to catch you up on everything that I have been doing, so we may be doing the time warp dance. I have lots of events and things to share including Showers, the Bachelorette Island Escape, and other projects. Tonight, I'm just posting about the Unity Candle.

So the Unity Candle, it consists of 1 large pillar candle and 2 tapers. Whoopy doo, right? That can't cost much. Well, I have news for you, businesses make a killing on these things. I walked into Michaels and they were about $40. I checked online and the same thing. Plus, our minister requested that we use 'Dripless' tapers. Yeah, pretty sure they don't exist. So my brain (which has been cranking out some pretty creative ideas today) decided that Factory Direct Candles in Western Hills might have 'Dripless' tapers and for much less. Well, no dice on the 'Dripless', but their tapers were only $.35. (Of course all the other colors were only $.25. I guess they wanted to get in on the wedding market action too.) And I got a pillar for only $3. So far, I'm already doing pretty amazing price wise. I decide to glitz up the pillar a tad and head over to Michaels. They have rhinestone and pearl adhesives. I find a fancy one for $6 and I'm out the door.  But I then decide to also go to Hobby Lobby (once I eventually found it. I took a short tour through the Mason area). There I found an even better rhinestone and pearl adhesive and it was only $3. I also solved the 'Dripless' problem. They sell little crystal trays for $5 that hug the tapers so any wax will collect there and not on the candlesticks or floor. My Unity Candle grand total, a whopping $11.50.


The final product (on its side)