Wedding Update

Why  haven't I been posting a ton about our wedding you ask? Frankly....I don't give a damn anymore :) OK OK..its not that severe but I have been completely overwhelmed lately! So much to do so little time and $!!! If you didn't already know Jake and I are paying for this wedding all on our own! That's a pretty big feat! Weddings are NOT cheap these days! In order to help us along the way we've been cutting back ...for example Jake's brother Chris moved in with us to cut our monthly rent and utilities bill. Its been nice that our bills are lower but living with someone isn't super easy, and we've discovered that we will probably have to live with him the first 2 months of married life because we are trying to get in a house in the next few months and don't want to sign a new lease. We will see how that goes! Finger Crossed!

So I thought in this post Id just share with you some of the recent DIYs and wedding projects Ive done.

This is something I finished today! I think its pretty fabulous! Its an old window that I bought from a lady, filled it with our favorite Engagement pics and VOILA! Ill be hanging this somewhere at the reception!

This is the sign I made for .26 cents! Yup!! The wood is from an old pallet at Jake's work, and the paint was on sale for .26 cents a bottle!:) I love cheap and free!!;) This sign will great guests at the road where our wedding will take place!

This is the CUTE little ring bearer bowl I partially DIY-ed. The actually heart bowl I bought from a seller on etsy and cost about ...$11 with shipping. Bought the moss and already had the jute twine. A little hot glue and BAM-ring bearer bowl! I plan on taking the moss and string out after the wedding and keeping the little bowl on my sink as a place to put my rings!

This is a wedding knot I made! I didn't want the traditional unity candle or sand ceremony, so when I saw this I knew it was perfect! Each cord represents on of these: Bride, Groom, God. As our Pastor reads (Ecclesiastes 4:12 to be exact) which says:

"Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."

Jake and I will braid the three strands together. After you secure it with a clear rubber band and once the wedding is over we will display it in our home. I think its unique and I like that it is a good conversation starter and a way to share our faith when family and friends come over to visit!

These are my 4 top DIYs so far! Ill try to post more as it gets closer!

In other wedding events news WE BOOKED OUR PLANE TICKETS FOR OUR HONEYMOON!

I'm so flippin' excited! We will be leaving Monday October 1st for JAMAICA and will be gone for 6 glorious nights!!!! Its gonna be great!

-XOXO

soon to be MRS.HALL! (59 days!)

The best wedding planning tool(s)

When I first started planning my wedding over a year ago the first thing I did was to try to figure out how I was going to get organized. If you know me personally you know that I LOVE the idea of organizing..executing it?...not so much! So I went on the hunt for the best wedding organizer and the best wedding checklist. Here is the wedding binder I bought:
 I purchased it from  www.booksamillion.com
Here is what I loved about the binder.

1. I LOVED the calendar! it has nice large boxes perfect for jotting down all of my appointments.
2. I LOVED the budget breakdown. It tells you what % of your budget should go where
3. I LOVED the zipper pouches to hold bridal consultants cards, swatches etc

& here is what I ended up not being so crazy about

1. this thing is HUGE! I'm talking 3 1/2 in. trapper keeper from the 90's full of homework  cutesy folded notes passed during math class HUGE!. after carrying it a few months I found myself leaving it in my car/home more often than not.
2. It comes with several labeled folders (which leads back to my #1 dislike) which I'm sure to some would be great but at 99 days til my wedding I hardly have anything in them...waste of space

-If I could redesign this planner I'd nix the folders, add a few more zipper pouches, maybe a note pad on one side & of course I would 100% keep the Calendar. Id also try to add something where you can recorded spending. I know I know you can use excel (i like hands on & for me thats writing things out in good old pencil and ink) or I could just jot them on notebook paper ( i currently have 4 MEAD notebooks full of jots and number) I just wish it maybe had an excel-esque formatted notepad for keeping all my  number down. If I was at all honest (which Ill try to be) I have NO idea what this wedding has cost us so far. I obviously know all my major vendor prices and I can give you a really good guestimate of what my extras have cost but if someone wanted cold hard numbers?...id be in trouble!

In hindsight I should have simply bought a 3 ring binder (a simple 2 incher) added a calendar, notepad, and a few zipper pouches & called it a day. I still probably would be stuck on the whole record of spending deal..but maybe I should have sucked it up and done an excel spreadsheet? yup, probably so.

The other thing I wanted was an awesome checklist! Ive NEVER planned a wedding..DUH! and I needed someone to hold my hand and tell me what to do next! Enter PROJECT WEDDING! This site is absolutely amazing! Not only is a forum where you can chat with other Brides about wedding planning, post pictures, get their opinion (because lets face it, your wedding is a much bigger deal to you than to those around you. They probably don't want to hear what shade of peach looks better with your dress 5 bazillion times, or give you there opinion on your umpteenth DIY project) but it also has a FREE wedding website where your guests can RSVP (I'm going the paperless rsvp route) I love that it has a vendor review, where other brides can give you their review on Caters, videographers, florist etc.( nothing is worse than working with a horrible vendor only to hear later from other Brides that "oh yea I totally could have told you that"...awesome) & of course an AWESOME wedding checklist! It gives you month by month what you should be doing and when you check them off...they DISAPPEAR! which for me is great! Out of sight, out of mind! I can check it off and its done done done! <-love that! OK so now that you know what PW is, head on over and friend me! ashle1738! Let me know if you join and ill make sure you get a big PW welcome!

Hope your wedding planning is going Maaahhvalously!
xoxo- soon to be Mrs.