Free Downloads: Invitation Suites Galore!

I have found the jackpot to free invitation suites for all you DIY brides out there! Check them out  *here* How amazing is the talented Anna Skye for allowing us all to download her gorgeous invitation suites for FREE! So many to choose from!

Another Reason to Love Google: Wedding Templates!

I just saw this on the site GeekSugar - very cool!

"Google has taken notice and is rolling out 20 new wedding templates within Google Docs to utilize during your wedding planning. Manage your guest lists, catering, and flower details, and even set up email templates to get updated contact info from your guests so you get those (sometimes pricey) invitations into the right hands. "

Full article.

Bridesman + Fiance = A bride to be's best friend

 With less than 80 days to go, it's been very stressful at the lovie dovie ranch. The time has come to stop researching and start getting things done. Problem is I spend too much time researching and not enough doing and on top of that I am *very* bad about asking for help, I tend to do things on my own, it's partly because I feel bad about asking people & partly because of that age old saying "If you want something done right do it yourself"...well in the case of the DIY that I did on Tuesday this saying did not hold true whatsoever!  If it wasn't for my bridesman I would have been lost on how exactly to cut my DIY matchbooks.  Bridesman and Groom both know that I do not ask for help, so unbenost to each of them, they both offered to help me out as soon as they saw me with printed cardstock, glue sticks, exacto knives, paper cutter & matchbooks.

Tuesday I decide that I am finally going to make the monogram matchbooks for the cigar bar, I did not think it was too complicated since I had 4 delicious bookmarks for wedding matchbooks, one from Project Wedding *here* and three from Style Me Pretty *here* , *here* (with template), and this one that has the template that proved very useful to me.  I managed to figure out how to place the monograms that Jeff Williams created for us onto the template but once I printed them on white card stock from Michaels, it was hard to figure out how to cut them exactly and that is where Bridesman saved the day! He saw me struggling and stepped in immediately! Once he figured out where they needed to be cut we had an assembly line, Fiance was responsible for peeling away the cover of each matchbook, & bridesman and I cut the paper, used glue stick to attach the paper to the matchbook cover and then assembled the matchbooks back. I was truly touched by how bridesman & fiance stepped in and helped me without waiting for me to say a single word. Without them I would be lost and alone with only my DIY materials to keep me company.  Oh and my little brother who came home after the matchbooks were already complete, wanted to help too but since we had already finished he helped me out by cleaning everything up & doing the dishes.  *Tear* Are these men not amazing?! Who would have thought that the three people to help a bride out were then men in her life?!  Did you have help with your DIY?

{Bridesman/BFF cutting the template}                    

Free Holiday Class from Jessica Sprague

I signed up last week for a free class from http://www.jessicasprague.com/ called Holidays in Hand. In the class they will be teaching us how to tell our holiday stories both past and present, go *here* for instructions. I thought it would be the perfect way to get me in the DIY/crafty mood!

DIY Jam labels FREE

I am digging these adorable DIY jam jars from Eat Drink Chic! You can't really see it in the picture but my favorite part is the tag that says "homemade with love" & how sweet that she shared the instructions and labels *here* ! This would make a great wedding favor!

DIY Cupcake Stands

{Source Apt Therapy}

Thank you Apt Therapy for inspiring me to make cupcake stands! and by inspire I mean, it's on my to do list. I am loving the vintage look of this one and the bright colors of these two. Get the instructions *here*

{Source Apt Therapy}

Speaking of Bridal Magazines..

Style Bridal Magazine has some great FREE templates for invites, placecards, table numbers etc etc. Check out the preppy invites, "have a ball invites" , garden party & modern invites.

Etched Monogrammed Glasses for BM & GM!

I bought some etch cream to make monogrammed wine glasses for the bridesmaids and monogrammed low ball glasses for the groomsmen. I was inspired by this tutorial from Michaels (see pic to the left) but it mentioned using an engraving tool and that sounds too complicated, then I found this tutorial on Michaels which only requires etching cream & a stencil...SOLD!. I took my 40% coupon to the nearest Michaels and bought myself some etching cream! Martha also has some directions for etched glass monogrammed glasses (see pic to right) check it out *here*

I'm still on the look out for the right low ball glasses but as soon as I find them I will make sure to post my DIY skills to ya'll! (btw I am not southern but I dig the word ya'll, I don't use it in my every day lingo but I am known to use it profusely when emailing my home skillets)

Save money & make yourself a kissing ball!

{Photo By: Perry Aslyn Portrait Design via theknot.com}

In an effort to save money and take care of wedding projects way ahead of time, I've decided that my flowers girls (my 2 little nieces) are going to be holding kissing balls aka pomanders. I'll be using silk flowers, but considering I don't have any wedding colors yet or wedding theme, this project will have to wait. In the meantime here are some great sources for creating your own kissing ball!

An awesome tutorial by Miss Labrador of weddingbee.com *here*
HGTV.com tutorial for floral kissing balls *here*
Vintage Glam Blog tutorial for tissue pomanders *here*
or just buy some silk red rose kissing balls from saveoncrafts on sale for $16.49 *here*

bakers twine is mine

what shall I do with it? hmm more like what won't I do with it...

{Source Hello Friend}

{Source Project Wedding}

{source Pen and Ink}

{Source Classic Bride}

Butterfly Bouquet

I'm kinda digging the Martha Stewart's butterfly bouquet, it's pretty and it won't die. Still debating about it, and wanted more info so the other day I googled "butterfly bouquet" and came across Bride Craft;they also have a tutorial of a butterfly bouquet, along with tons of other great diy for brides. I love Martha Stewart but I have to give props to bridecraft because their directions are very detailed, have great pictures of the steps and show you exactly how to make the bouquet, where Martha's directions pretty much just say buy this, twist that, tape it all together and ta dah!










I also really like these bouquets...

Water Bottle Labels to DIY or not to DIY

I really want water bottle labels for the OOT bags, but since I don't have publisher or photo shop, it may prove to be difficult in designing them. I found a water bottle template on weddingbee.com that was so nicely shared by Mrs. Firefly but I would want to add more design to it & personalize it with a theme and I don't think I can. While looking through MyWeddingLabels.com I found a couple of water bottle labels ($14 for 10 labels) that I really like & I would even be able to get matching favor tags ($0.33 - 1.50 per tag) ! hmmm still contemplating what to do...



Are there DIY items that you wanted to do but ended up buying the item instead?

Sparklers exit & DIY instructions

{Source: Jose Villa}

I love the look of the sparkler exit! I'm thinking we may do it, but I'm still not sure if we will because we don't want to actual leave the party, we want to party till the wee hours of the morning, even if it means moving the party after we have to leave the venue! But it would be the perfect way to tell the guests, hey we gots to go because we only have the venue till midnight & although we don't got to go home we got to get the f*** out of here! (I actually would not say this because I don't cuss but I always laugh when I hear this saying)
If we end up doing this exit, I am going to get the sparklers from MyWeddingFavors.com ($1.75 each) and going to personalize them by following Abby Larson's instructions on stylemepretty for creating custom sparklers!


Are you having an exit? Will you be doing bubbles, sparklers or doing ribbon wands?
Btw Chic 'n Cheap has a tutorial on doing ribbon wands!

The Low Down: Save $15 on your order of $150 or more at MyWeddingFavors.com with code SPRING25 at checkout!

My First Wedding Purchase YAY!

As you know by now, I would like a candy buffet at the wedding, and I was at Marshalls the other day and they had some items on clearance, including my new jar for the candy buffet! Only $5.50! score! (it's the big one in the picture) They had some other great ones for $9.99 but I decided to hold off on getting them because I need to make a list of how many I want and what sizes. When I got back home I realized that I already had some jars that I may be able to use (see picture) I may not use all the ones from home because I need some big ones, but I will definitely use the ones that right now house my big marshmallows and little marshmallows (I was on a hot chocolate kick a few weeks ago).

Marshalls had some other wedding related items, like 50 favors boxes for $7.99, sign for Bride & Groom $5.99, 12 wine bottle labels for table numbers $2.99, place cards and a cute jar that says "Wedding Fund" $3.99 - this is a great price, since I have one that I bought in college that says "Hopes n Dreams" and it cost me around $15. I almost bought the wine bottle labels but I decided not to since I am not still sure exactly what I want, so did not want to spend money and end up not using it.

While at Smart n Final, I noticed they had Chinese take out pint size $4.99 for 50 and the quart size for $6.99, I may use the pint size for the candy buffet and maybe add labels to it. I know a lot of brides love to use Mason Jars and Smart n Final seems to have a good price for them:12 wide mouth $10.79 and 12 regular mouth $9.99.

What was your first wedding related purchase?

DIY: How Far Should You Go?

I must say that I'm a big fan of the *personal* touch. I like to make things and I know when it comes to weddings and showers, it's of the utmost of importance that the overall visuals (colors, themes, fabrics) must speak to the person or persons involved and really give a peek into their soul... Or something like that.

I've been doing a lot of research into how to effectively dabble into screen printing since I saw the amazing job our friend Stephen did with screen printing his own posters for an event he threw. It was basically a two-color process and he hand made the posters himself! The combination of two colors on the right parchment along with dramatic lines really impressed me - so of course I wanted to make one myself!

Not too long after I started obsessing on *how* to go about screen printing things for the various parties - i.e. the bridal shower and bachelorette party - I noticed a really affordable kit from urbanoutfitters ($64) - although not sure how commited I can get to it - but at least when it comes to this type of project, money would definitely not be an issue!

I'll come back to this idea once I get a headcount on how many people will be involved in the shindigs I'm in charge of... time might be better spent allocating enough booze (or schmoozing for deals on venues).

Bridesmaid Survival Kit

I'm digging these bridesmaid & wedding survival kits...

{source 100 Layer Cake}{source stylemepretty}
buy the suitcase from Land of Nod

{Wedding Day Survival Kit source Target} Besides the normal, aspirin, lip balm, lotion etc, I am also going to make a CD for my bridal party. Music always has a way of bringing me back to moments in time & I want to make a compilation of songs that would remind my bridesmaid of this special time we had together.

What are you guys putting in your bridesmaid survival kit?

D.I.Y Vintage Bottles Free Labels

{Source: Personal bathroom picture}

That's right peeps, the picture above is of my own personal bathroom, I bought the 3 bottles in the picture at Ikea for $16.95 over a year ago & use them for Listerine, astringent & body oil. I know what's in them but would hate it if someone by mistake took a swig of the body oil, which is why I git so excited when I saw Eat Drink Chic had these great D.I.Y Vintage Apothecary Bottles labels for FREE *here*! squeal!


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DIY Candy Buffet

Prior to all the wedding blogs that I subscribe to I had no idea about the popular candy buffets, I still haven't been to a wedding with one but they seem to be all over the wedding sphere!
So far these are the ones I swoon over...

{Source} Hostess With The Mostess

{Source} The Budget Savy Bride

{Source} by Amy Atlas

{source} Weddingbee



{Source} Once Wed
and when I showed mi amor the cigar buffet I saw at Style Me Pretty he was all IN! It's been the first thing I have shared with him that he was actually excited about, so I was stoked!
{Source} Style Me Pretty

Freaking Never Ending To Do List

I freaking LOVE this "Freaking Never Ending To Do List". I make to do list all the time, I do them on my iphone, on my moleskine notebook, on scrap paper etc etc but thanks to Leo on the Loose I will now be doing my lists on stylish paper and also writing up The Dreamy Blog Topics To Post List!