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…and this is what I did to it:

What frustrates me is, it doesn’t even look that different! I added a centerpiece set up, a table number photo, charity tokens, placecards, and a mini menu. But even with all of that and the colored napkins, it still looks blah to me:

I folded the napkin like this to hold my fake “Sweet Charity” card (the real ones haven’t arrived yet). I suppose with those, a full set of the mini menus (I only brought one), the flowers and candlelight, and the matching pink and silver chair sashes (not included in the mockup trial), it’ll look better…?

I just feel like all my little touches aren’t packing much of a punch. Also, I think the table card numbers need to be raised. I’d love to use the same sort of sign holders we got for the candy buffet. But I am plum out of time and money.

Am I just being a shortsighted whiner? Or do I need to add some oomph to this table? And if so, how??
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Not only

A) Did I finally have my grubby little paws on a copy

B) Did she have whole spread on a 1950s vintage wedding in ” A Return to Glamour“

C) Did my new colour palette appear every where in the magazine (ballet pink, white, buttercream yellow, mustard, grey, charcoal, tiffany green)

D) She had a whole article about ribbons!

Ribbons are beautiful, silky creatures. I like ribbons. I love ribbons. I love ribbons almost as much as Miss Lovebug does, although I haven’t entered a 12 step program for my addiction yet.

Yet.

Bridesmaid’s Bouquet wraps?

(from: marthastewart.com)

Ribbon.

Seating chart?

Ribbon.

Charm Cake for the Bridal Shower?

(from: marthastewart)

Ribbon.

Bride’s bouquet wrap?

(from: marthastewart)

(Love-knotted) Ribbon.

Invitation wrap?

Technically a secret, but I think you can guess.

Garter-in-progress?

Ribbon.

Embellishment for whatever shoes I get?

(Blueprint image)

Ribbon.

Headbands for the junior bridesmaids?

(from: nexternal)

Ribbon.

Program Ties?

(from: marthastewart)

Ribbon.

Grooms dog and Brides dog diamond necklaces?

(from: marthastewart)

Ribbon (and rhinestone).

So, umm, yeah, there will be a LOT of ribbon at our wedding…and yet, I feel the need for more

How are you using ribbons?
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Perfectly acceptable, non-hideous chairs. I think they would be perfect for an afternoon, garden-type wedding. But alas, our reception is at night and we’re hoping it will be a little more formal. This was the picture that started it all:

(Photo by Jennifer Skog)

Damask runners? Check. Green linens? Check. Hydrangea centerpieces? Check. Beautiful chivari chairs? Sigh. I think that the chairs in that picture are actually brown with black cushions, but if I was going to do it I wanted to go all black. I started casually searching and it turns out black chivaris are kind of hard to find. And then yesterday (cue angelic music):

(Image courtesy of Elegant Presentations)

There she is, back row furthest to the right. I contacted Elegant Presentations and their delivery fees are cheaper than some places in Wisconsin. The black chivaris are also about $1.50/chair cheaper than any other quotes I’ve received. Plus, the people I talked to are some of the nicest vendors I’ve encountered. They were happy to help, responsive, and sent me a quote less than 5 minutes after we hung up the phone. As you all know, that can be a rarity in the wedding world!

So….should I do it? Should I pull the trigger and order up some chivaris? Is it completely nuts that I want to spend this much money on things people will rest their butts on?
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Like Miss Penguin, I knew I wanted lots of paper lanterns to spice up the blank ceiling of our tent. Mr. Tiramisu and I looked over some inspiration pictures and decided that for the look we were going for, we’d need around 150 lanterns for our 120×40 foot tent. Our rental company said they’d gladly rent us the lanterns and light strands, and even string them up for us, for the low low price of $35…. PER LANTERN. Don’t reach for your calculator. I’ll do it for you if you brace yourself for the total: $5250. Let’s all have a little laugh. Well actually I cried (real tears falling from my face- ask Mr. Tiramisu!).

Come on now. We’ve all been to weddings with paper lanterns (or at least seen about a million pictures of them), and I’m pretty sure that no one I know was shelling out that kind of cash. I’ve since figured out that my rental company (who will remain nameless so that I don’t end up tentless) is less than stellar, so I’m sure there are cheaper rental costs out there. The cheapest of all though, is DIY. A few google searches later and I was the proud owner of 100 white 14″ paper lanterns bought for $1.35 each. This was the best pricing that I could find, and the folks over at the Paper Lantern Store were even nice enough to give me free shipping after emailing them to ask (coupon code fship for non-oversize item orders over $100). My day-of coordinator (aka best wedding decision ever made) is providing us with another 49 lanterns in various sizes- gratis. (I promise a post soon on how amazing this woman is!)

Now onto the dilemma of actually lighting the darn things. I’m not going to take a single ounce of credit for the following brilliant solution. That would all belong to weddingbee reader ambinsb. Here is her post:

“We are making led throwies to hang by fishing line within our lanterns to light them up. They’ll come out to about $0.25 a throwie, and we’ll need about three to light up one lantern (under a dollar, yea!) Here are the instructions if you want to give it a shot: http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Throwies/

Keep in mind that you won’t need the magnet, but it would probably be beneficial to add the on/off switch, instructions are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/everythingdigital/sets/7205759″

Let me tell you the reasons why this is the bestideaever:
1. LED lights = no cords to string up, no extension cords or electricity issues to deal with
2. LEDs instead of battery powered lights = 1-2 week lasting power vs a few hours
3. hello bargain (LEDs designed for lantern lighting run around $5 each)

I put Mr. Tiramisu on this project right away. An experiment by us (and another by reader MissRojoOso) helped us to figure out that 3 LEDs per 14″ lantern was optimal. We are now going strong on day 3 of our how-long-will-it-last experiment. We’re planning on putting these up on Friday morning for our Saturday evening wedding, so this is great news!

We found the best pricing for LEDs (13.3 cents) and batteries (17 cents) on ebay, from sellers led-hk and cwithk respectively.

Just look at this stuff. Let me tell you, when Mr. Tiramisu popped this ring on my finger, I most certainly did not have visions of 10mm LED fittings and CR 2032 3v batteries dancing in my head. How far we have come.

Next up in my lighting education curriculum was tent perimeter lighting. This is going to be the more functional lighting for us, as the paper lanterns probably aren’t going to be enough once the sun goes down. My rental company wanted to charge $520 for twinkle lights strung around the perimeter of the tent. You all know me well enough by now to know I wasn’t going to jump at that opportunity. We’ll string these up ourselves on Friday:

These are C7 5 watt globe lights, and the best price I could find for the 320 feet that we need was at Hometown Evolution Inc, for around $200.

Hmmm, let me whip out the calculator again… I think I’ve saved myself enough to do a little shoe shopping now (Thanks again to all of you who helped me out with blue shoe suggestions!) What completely ridiculous and unexpected things did you find yourself jumping into in the name of wedding planning and saving a few dollars?

photo sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6-8
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Oh yeah, I am that bride. I’ve just heard too many horror stories about music and weddings. Plus, I’m one of those people to whom music isn’t the “background” of a party. It’s what makes it. So I also burned him a CD of some maybe-less-than-mainstream tracks his collection might lack:

(…the funnest part was Xyroning the list to the cd sleeve.)

Two weeks from my wedding and I can say one of the most important lessons I’ve learned is how much easier things go when you give vendors as much direction as possible. And I don’t mean direction of the “do this or I’ll fire you” school. I mean lists, pictures - visual aids of any kind, really - even just short letters explaining your thoughts on how you visualize that aspect of your wedding.

DJs, florists, bakers - they’re not mind readers. Better to overload them with info than to leave them guessing as to your wishes.

(Tangent completed.)

One of the options Luke’s company provides is lighting of the dance floor. But I am squarely on the fence on this one. Our reception room is very elegant, with antique furniture that nicely complements our whole vintage aesthetic.

Take silverplate decor, soft colors, and lots of candlelight, and add six foot, cord-spewing lighting trees poised at the corners of the dance floor. Brightly colored lights, pin lights, and optional strobes and fog. Hmmm. The word “incongruous” comes to mind.

But then I think how fun it’d be, us and our friends dancing to a block of old school hip hop, in a champagne-and-light effects filled haze. And I know that a lit dancefloor goes a long way towards getting guests on their feet.

Luke gave us the option of setting the lights up later on, when the elder set has drifted homeward. But that would entail 25 minutes of us stepping around him and his assistant while they’re putting it all up. Plus, I just have this hangup about light trees looking…prom-y?

Bottom line: just when I thought I was done making decisions, this one pops up. I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts…

Light effects on the dance floor: a fun detail to ratchet up the party factor? or an unnecessary aesthetic killer?
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I really like these chairs a lot. I am under no illusion that this is a reasonable or important thing to care about. No, I realize it’s totally stupid. It gets even more stupid when you realize that the average rental for a chivari chair is about $8. Per chair. For chairs.

These are the chairs provided by our venue for 50 cents each:

image courtesy of Shannon Berry.

They are very, very ugly, in my opinion. The room is so elegant, and these chairs are…not. Like, at all. Compare, if you will, to this photo of the Green Room set up with chivari chairs:

Photography by Lisa + James.

Oooooh. Aaaaaaah. So classy.

Part of me says, “They’re chairs. No one is going to notice them.” The other part of me says, “These chairs can like, make or break a room.” Stupid, stupid me.

My only hope is this: One of the caterers we checked out said that a lot of people split the cost of the rental with the other people who have rented the venue for the same weekend. So theoretically, if someone rented the Green Room for the Friday before our wedding and the Sunday after, we could split the cost of the rentals three ways and it would ALMOST not be a ridiculous and frivolous expense. Almost. Sadly, last time I checked, no one had rented the Green Room for Friday or Sunday.

I’ve heard the Green Room is a wonderful place to get married on Friday and Sunday nights in early August! Anyone interested? Contact them today! Seriously though. What stupid things do you think about that you realize are totally ridiculous?

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This lampshade from etsy is super neat - what if this was your alternative to a slideshow??

Or this one, also from etsy, for a bird-themed wedding?

This one from Ikea is cute AND cheap:

And this one from Ikea is just freakin’ cool:

If it were me, I think I’d probably mix it up - just spend a bunch of time searching for really cool lamps, and have a different lamp at every table - maybe like this mixture here from Ebay?

Of course - the one hang-up I have with this idea is, how do you plug them in? So has anyone out there done this? How did it work out??
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A close-up shot. (You still counting?)

Another detail shot…. we have five of these cool big ones (shown in the middle). We might use them for the tables set up in the cocktail area and put floating flowers in them instead of candles. (Last chance to come up with an estimate before I reveal the grand total.)

So….. drumroll please….. our grand total iiiiiissssss……

245. Yes. Two hundred forty-five. Pieces. of. Glass! Do you believe it??

We have more than enough for ten pieces per table if we have about 20 tables, and the rest can be scattered on the mantle in the ballroom, the cocktail tables, and random little nooks that need some ambiance lighting.

I am so very excited about this detail. I think it will add some personalized pizazz to the space and a bit of the vintage flair that we’re looking to infuse into everything.

Momma Cupcake and I made a little mock-up of a centerpiece to see how ten candles will look around each floral arrangement. We admittedly did not think this through very well…. we grabbed anything white or green from the two floral arrangements she happened to have in her house, threw them into a bowl, and scattered the glass around them. We didn’t have votives but added some tea lights to get an idea of how everything would look. Even though it was a little haphazard, it still gave me a good idea of how everything will look and I’m quite happy.

Picture a darker room, an ironed linen, a more well thought-out floral arrangement, and a larger table with China, menus and napkins Perfect, right?

I think we have ruled out our original plan of pouring our own candles, because we realized how time-consuming it will be and it really won’t save us much money after all. Votives will do the trick just fine, and we’ll just have to find a few different sizes to work with the varying sizes of the glass pieces. Hopefully, doing this will also save us some sanity!

How are your DIY projects coming along? Are you finding them satisfying and fulfilling, or just plain frustrating and time-consuming?
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Maybe I’d better back up. I started with the various silverplate goodies we’ve been collecting (pitchers, teapots, bowls, etc.) to be used as flower containers, singly or in small groupings. My decorating guru friend pointed out that for a more unified look, these would look best each on its own silver tray - plus, the trays will help reflect the candlelight.

But I still wanted to tie in our typewriter theme a little bit more. I toyed with the idea of adding vintage books…but I only have a few, and in clashing colors. And the prospect of running around town in search of (expensive!) vintage books in pink, grey, and black bindings left me less than titillated.

Well, necessity is the mother of invention! I decided to make my own “vintage” books!

I designed really simple faux book jackets in AppleWorks, using the same two fonts we’ve used throughout the wedding. For the most vintage look, I chose simple, clipart sketches as graphics.

The titles are in-jokes, or specific things we’re “known for” among our friends and family - things that tell the story of our relationship. And for the authors, I just played with different permutations of our first, middle, and last names (the only one where I use both our married names being the one referring to our honeymoon).

Then I printed them in shades of Kinko’s resume paper (again!) to match our colors: ivory, blush pink, antique grey:

…attached them to the hardcover books with double-sided tape, then stacked a few here and there under the flower containers, and on the trays:

The covers are partly obscured by the containers, but that’s actually how I want them. Not as a focal point, but as something that will reward the close observer. Give them a “Hey…wait a second!” moment. I’m also hoping it’ll up the “mingle factor.” As in, Gee, I wonder what THAT table has over there…

We added in a few votives here and there, mix-and-match style, using glass holders and even some of Mr. LB’s crystal cordial glasses. I think it looks the most vintage-y this way - organic, and not too perfect. Finally, we tested the look in candlelight:

The containers will all have a mix of white and pink flowers: peonies, cabbage roses, sweet peas. Plus, the amount of candlelight each has will vary, too, depending on space, etc. I’m kind of leaving it up to our florist to do what works best for each arrangement.

But I’m pretty happy with how the books came out! It was a fun, quick little mini project, and a cool way to tie in the typewriter theme a bit more on the tables. I may even throw a stack of them on a side table, as a little Lovebug library!
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