How I Love Technology

Would it be weird to thank "The Internet" in our ceremony programs?  Honestly, I could not have planned this (or even dreamed up the idea) without current technology.  Whether it's purchasing (almost everything) online, gathering ideas from pinterest, or checking guests' temperature on things via facebook, this wedding would not have been planned efficiently even 5 years ago.

Some advice and recommendations for future brides:

-Google Docs.  Use them to create a spreadsheet of ALL of your invitees - addresses, +1/kids, wedding shower invites, RSVPs, food allergies/dietary requirements, and even table assignments.  You can pull the doc up on any mobile device and it's saved in real-time.  So when your future Mother In Law offers to help call non-responders on their side, you can give a list to her immediately and check it off once she calls everyone.  It also helps you quickly grab a guest headcount when your wedding coordinator asks for an update (just plop the formula in from a computer, or type it in if you know it already).  You can share it with your maid of honor early on, so she can invite people covertly to any surprise events.

-Bridal Party Facebook Group. Set this up as soon as you solidify your list of ladies.  Introduce everyone virtually and recommend that they add each other as friends so they can get to know each other better.  Pin a "To Do List" for yourself, and update it often.  Post progress photos, ideas, revelations, and plans.  Invite your ladies to comment and help.

-Bridal Party Skype. About the time that your wedding coordinator starts nailing down times for ceremony/cocktails/etc, you should schedule a conference call with your attendants ask them to plan a few questions in advance.  Take notes during the chat and post it to the facebook group.  Get everyone on the same page about the weekend schedule, where they're staying the night before, who is paying for what (hair makeup dress etc), transportation, and the like (dresses, duties, and any decor To Do you might need help with).

-Wedding Website.  Even if it's a generic one through The Knot, a wedding website is a great tool for your guests to check in on directions, registries, lodging, and schedules.  You can even stick an RSVP on most sites, which helps those late-responders get to it before it's too late.

-Pinterest. Gather ideas to look for craft for yourself!

-Paypal.  Send and receive payments for various bridal party needs (dresses, events, deals on accessories).

-Costuming Groups on Facebook. Because I purchased my dress through a Renaissance Faire-going seamstress, I had access to a virtual think tank through a FB group run by fans of her work.  I asked color, fabric, and ordering questions to them before making official inquiries and wasting the seamstress' time.  I was able to preview certain styles on many body types and in a host of colors, and made some pretty solid decisions based on their recommendations (i.e. buying a petticoat to wear under the bustle)

Lookit the Poof!

Whatever you do with wedding technology though, check privacy settings to be sure you're not sharing folks' personal info all over the Web, especially if you're sharing that Google Doc with your MOH!  I had the sage advice from my future mother-in-law and it saved me from some tech faux pas early on.

Shut Up and Take My Money!

I am itching to reveal all of our various vendors and sellers through whom we've purchased or contracted goodies, but until it all shows up without issue, I prefer to keep company names quiet (just in case something happens beyond anyone's control - I would hate to have it reflect poorly on these great businesses).  There will be a big list with examples at the end though!

Some to look for:
-Cupcake baker
-Bride and Groom cake baker
-Photographer
-DJ

That said, I feel pretty confident "out"ing a few of them now.

First Up: Our Save the Date designer, Party Monkey, www.etsy.com/shop/partymonkey
Cute layouts, super fast design, excellent customer service, super affordable.  If we had had all of our photos and such ready in time, we totally would have bought the postcard/photo style in their shop.  Still, we printed via snapfish and had a great overall experience.

Second: Our Invitation/RSVP designer, Hydraulic Graphics, www.etsy.com/shop/HydraulicGraphix
I actually found them via a Smashing Pumpkins "Tonight Tonight" style Save the Date on etsy, but continued on to find their ticket-style invitations.  We fell in love with the hot air balloon ticket, and ordered it right up.  A couple days later we were printing the tickets in my living room, and had the postcard RSVPs printed locally for under $30.  The biggest cost in the whole process was actually in the parchment paper and envelopes we chose.  Still, our invitations (sans postage) cost under $100 and looked awesome.

Next: Favor bags from Rooted Manor, www.etsy.com/shop/RootedManor
We loved the simplicity of offering a candy buffet (Steve's cousin in Michigan had a pretty awesome one at his wedding last year, and we couldn't help but steal the idea).  Enter: matching candy bags!  Rooted Manor was affordable and quick, and fixed the misspelling in my name well before shipping our order.

Yes, we caught that typo!

Next up: Our engagement photographer, Seth Beebe
Seth may be our friend from the early days, but he also happens to be a stellar photographer.  We dragged him up to Hubbard Park in Montpelier with all of his fancy equipment, and he was able to capture more than a few candid, lovely shots of us only looking somewhat doofy (not his fault, we come that way default).  He made us laugh, we had fun, and then he did some kind of post-production wizardry to make even my ridiculous face look good.  We got a small selection of the best photos in both color and B&W, and we'll cherish them for years.

See? Magic.  I look good.

Finally: our seamstress, Michelle Thorstrom of Damsel in this Dress, www.etsy.com/shop/damselinthisdress
Now, DitD is based out in Utah, and is a thoroughly unlikely place for someone to buy a wedding dress, right?  Well, thanks to years of geekery and etsy addiction, I felt pretty confident purchasing over the Internet.  DitD corsets are comfortable, adjustable, and customizable with just about any fabric options.  So, in April 2013, I nabbed a gorgeous silver underbust corset and began to build my wedding dress.

Actually, Steve bought it for me <3

Fast-forward to January 2014 - I was frantically trying to find the right fabrics and come to terms with the fact that I wasn't going to be able to make a white wedding dress work and still be happy myself.  So, I went for a light silver skirt, white blouse, and light silver overbust/upper corset jacket.  I dropped $80 on high-end fabric and sent it to Michelle for approval, and got the green light!

Then the problems (and subsequent reasons why I LOVE DitD) began...

I got an email from DitD about a month ago saying that despite the pre-approval, none of the fabrics I selected were going to work (the skirt fabric clashed unexpectedly, the corset fabric puckered, and the Venice lace wouldn't sew easily. Cue freakout. 

Clashing skirt fabric? Michelle wasn't going to let me walk down the aisle like that

Fortunately, they had back-up fabrics that worked, and all made it safely to my hands.  I even got the "puckery" silver vest corset thrown in as well. The items fit beautifully, and even the silver one, once on, looked absolutely perfect.  Here's a sneak peek at the dress...

You didn't really think I'd reveal the WHOLE thing before the wedding, right?

The picture above shows the white fabric option up top, sans sleeves.  I am pretty sure, however, that I'll be wearing the not-as-puckery-as-thought silver version in May.  Just wait and see!  And, as always, I will extoll the wonder of shopping with Damsel in this Dress - I was not going to be allowed to walk away with a sub-par product, nor did I have to pay for the correction.  I ended up paying for the extra corset out of gratitude, but it was never required.  Seriously - small businesses win, especially when they're run by caring superhuman seamstresses.

Michelle also did the entire bridal party set: 8 royal blue overbust corsets with black venice lace trim, and 8 black full length skirts.  Aside from a shipping goof-up (and an incorrectly measured bridesmaid), the massive, truly custom order came out perfectly.  I'll post some photos when I get better versions taken in good light!

***

So, even a DIY wedding has some things that just need to be made by the professionals.  Go by word of mouth, scope out your options, and above all: ORDER WELL IN ADVANCE.  The earlier you get this stuff done, the more time you have in case Murphy's Law prevails.

Flowers, without the Florist

DIYTGUBE - Do It Yourself, Then Give Up and Buy Everything

I read a comic the other day that said all brides who got married before Pinterest should get a free do-over.  Now, I am a pretty creative person, but there is no way that I could have come up with the quantity and scope of ideas created by the Internet Hive Mind.

Take our flowers, for instance:

Many of them look just like this.  Many do not.

Doing flowers DIY-style is excellent on many levels: they're cheaper than going to a florist, you can arrange them well in advance, they're guaranteed not to wilt or fail to bloom in time, and they last forever.  Plus, you can be somewhat irreverent like us and choose the best choppable book material of all:

Dirty Dirty Smut Novels - Coming to a Florist Near You!

Yes, we chose to craft our bouquets and centerpieces out of romance novels; I worked in a library since I was 15, so I knew there would be an abundance of leftovers that no one would miss. Plus, they're pretty low on the hierarchy of Novels That Make Me Cringe to Destroy (technically, the Twilight series is at the bottom, but that love story is TOTAL crap, and thus has no business at a wedding).

I have eight bridesmaids of respectable artistic ability, so this task did not seem too daunting.  We set aside a weekend and planned to craft all the flowers needed for bouquets and centerpieces.

Unfortunately, my very creative friends also have limited patience (and limited layers of skin to be scorched by hot glue).  Forty flowers completed in total, and the group burned out.  Thankfully, Etsy exists, and they were able to purchase the bouquet flowers pre-made perfectly.  Win.  

Other bits we've decided to DIY (pictures to come):

-Bridesmaids' necklaces (chunky, sparkly, inexpensive, and coordinated)

-Bouquets (from purchased pieces and crafted smut flowers)

-Ring bearer's box and flower girl "basket" of book paper petals (shhh! don't tell anyone what they're from!)

-Guestbook

-Invitations (bought the main design, then printed them ourselves on heavy parchment paper)

-Programs

-Ballroom decor and features - seating tags, table numbers, airships, lanterns, fabric swags, centerpieces, candy buffet, menu...

Now, we're twenty days out from the wedding and I'm in the midst of putting all the pieces together.  Between the things we've bought, purchased supplies for, or planned to craft from scratch, my living room looks like a Joann Fabrics at 5pm on Black Friday.  

DIY certainly has its perks, but I will say this with absolutely no shame:

Be prepared to give up and buy things, for your home to be a disaster, to purchase more supplies than you need (and often duplicates), to return and re-buy things more than you care to admit, to clip craft store coupons like mad, and to ignore the growing pile of receipts from Michaels, Joanns, Hobby Lobby, AC Moore...

I'm pretty sure it'll be worth it in the end!

Twenty Days to Go

Welcome!

This blog is a space for photos, ideas, and musings on our upcoming wedding on May 17, 2014.
A little background...

I never thought about a "dream" wedding as a kid; I always assumed that dream weddings were for people with wealthy families (or families-to-be), and that since I could not count on marrying wealthy, I would have a lovely small ceremony and reception.  I thought this right up until about a year before my wedding, when my fiance and I were joking about having a renaissance-themed wedding (and how beautiful it would be, but impossible for our families to comply).  He turned to me and said, "You know, we could have a themed wedding.  Do you want to do a steampunk wedding?"  I felt gobsmacked at the thought.  We had been dabbling in the steampunk culture for some years, and loved the romance and sophistication juxtaposed with the grit and grime of invention.  I thought, maybe not full steampunk, since that's expensive...but Victorian-inspired...

And so our real planning began.

We scoured Etsy for the right Save the Dates, began looking into reception venues with enough character to float the idea pretty independently (without needing to break the bank on decorations - so Elks lodges and city hotel ballrooms were out).  We found an abundance of ideas for decor and paper needs, but had a deal of trouble finding a venue.

Vermont is a beautiful small state, where the low population and glorious views make it perfect for a destination wedding.  What we did not like about our home state was the price of those beautiful views, and the lack of certainty about weather.  Vermonters have a saying about our fickle climate, "If you don't like the weather, wait an hour." Also, if we had had the option of a small wedding (under 100 guests), fine homes or barns all over the state could have accommodated us for not a great deal of money.  Unfortunately, our invite list was well over 150 guests, and the only country homes or barns able to handle that volume were sorely out of any price range we could dream (think: Shelburne Farms, Riverside/Amee Farm, aka $30k+ weddings).

The lovely Amee Farm in Pittsfield VT, and a  total dream wedding location

Finally, in the late summer of 2013, after striking out on a smaller venue that we loved but could not get specific costs from, we found a surprisingly lovely compromise: the Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, VT.

Surrounded by beautiful Lake Morey, lovely gardens, and a rolling green golf course, the resort was a surprise on so many fronts.  They offered an all-in-one location that would shelter our guests in unexpected adverse weather, and an itemized list of every possible cost.  We were able to craft our event logistics efficiently, which left us completely open to playing with the theme.

 

And Play We Did...