Heads up! Great deal on chargers at Michael's! Today only!

I just wanted to share a deal I just found online. Michael's (the craft store) has a 1-day sale for TODAY ONLY (12/2/2011) that features Ashland Holiday Chargers for only $0.99 each! That's half off the regular price. Based on the pictures on the website, they appear to be available in silver, gold, green, and a darker red. Sure, if you combine those colors together, it screams "holiday celebration!", but if you choose just one color, they're very versatile for most wedding color palettes. I'm a big fan of using chargers for a more formal and elegant event. It makes the table seem more complete, especially while your guests are waiting for their meal. They're also handy to incorporate underneath some centerpieces.

The reason I'm mentioning this at all is because that's a heck of a deal for chargers. A lot of the event rental places charge that much just to rent chargers. If you could buy them for the same price, you can then pass on the savings to a future bride and recoup some of your expense!

In addition to the sale price, Michael's also has a coupon worth $5 off of every $25 you spend. The coupon is good for today and tomorrow only. Here is the coupon:



I think I might pick up a few of those chargers to use on our holiday table with our wedding china. I like the ideas on the website to decorate them festively, too. You know me, I love customized and heart-felt details!

I hope that everyone is having a good holiday season so far. Are there any winter brides out there? Send me some pictures of your favorite winter wedding details!

Holiday and Wedding Menus

Hi everyone!

I received an email the other night from our wedding photographer checking to make sure everything was alright because he noticed I hadn't posted here for a while. Thanks Matt!

In case anyone else was concerned, everything is alright. I haven't been feeling especially inspired (or inspirational) lately in the wedding department, because I've been a busy bee. Dylan's family (aka my future in-laws) are coming to our place for Thanksgiving this year, so I've been driving myself a little crazy in preparation. I may have mentioned this before, but my mom is very much the hostess-with-the-mostess type and she set the bar pretty high when I was growing up. This will be the fourth Thanksgiving I've cooked, but it's the first one with real guests. The last few were just us, usually with one of my parents. There will still only be 5 or 6 of us this year, but our entertaining space is woefully small, so it will feel like a full house. For whatever reason, I've chosen this year to second-guess some of my Thanksgiving recipes, which means I've been spending a lot of time reading magazines and online recipes trying to see if I can find a couple new dishes for this year's Thanksgiving menu. I've been talking to some friends and clients about traditional recipes, and it's funny the way we all have our own dishes that we associate with the holiday. One of my clients recently said that the first time she went to Thanksgiving at her in-laws, she couldn't believe they weren't serving sauerkraut alongside the turkey, because that was always a family tradition for her. I haven't heard any feedback from Dylan's family, so hopefully they aren't expecting something like sauerkraut this year! Do you have any special Thanksgiving traditions? Leave me a comment and tell me about it!

Speaking of planning menus, that has been one of the toughest parts of our wedding planning so far. We still haven't found a caterer that we've really clicked with yet. I have a question for all of you brides-to-be or newly-weds: Have the caterers you've met with offered tastings? Every wedding planning book I've read (and there have been many) talks about the importance of tasting the menu you've chosen. I think that makes complete sense, because if you're going to be spending thousands of dollars on food for your guests, you want to know what you're going to be serving them. Much to my (and Dylan's) chagrin, none of the caterers we've met with offer tastings. It seems bizarre to me. Dylan is especially disappointed, because as a food-lover, trying the food was the part of the wedding planning he was most looking forward to! I'd like to hear what others' experiences have been with hiring their caterers. If you know a fantastic caterer (especially one who will let us try some of the food) in the Spokane / Coeur d'Alene area, please send them my way!

And because I always like to throw in a little eye candy, I wanted to show this crafty autumn decor idea:


You know I love the balance of elegant and rustic, and I think these corn husk wrapped votives from Martha Stewart are an interesting example -- perfect for an autumn themed wedding, or your Thanksgiving table!

Hopefully things will slow down a little soon, because I'm excited to try to put together at least a couple of winter wedding posts!

Wedding Place Settings and Table Decor

I apologize for not posting more lately. I've had doctors appointments, dentist appointments, and we've even squeezed in a little socializing with friends! I am also somewhat happy to announce that Dylan accepted a job offer, and will be starting a new job on Monday. I say somewhat happy because it seems like the few places that are hiring right now are offering really low wages because they know how many people are desperate for work. I'm going to miss how much time we've gotten to spend together this summer since he graduated, but we're both trying to be optimistic. Fingers crossed that he likes the job, and that they appreciate what a hard worker he is!

(Oh, and I've also become somewhat addicted to playing the stupid games on Facebook. That hasn't helped.)

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I've been working on this blog entry about wedding reception table decor and place settings for days, because I have been having a heck of a time finding the right pictures to go along with it. Actually, that's part of what I wanted to write about -- how hard it is to find realistic inspiration! It's a big topic for me to write about, because it is such a large part of the overall vibe and appearance of your wedding reception. I wanted to put some time into covering it.

As I mentioned before, I've made a couple of purchases for the wedding. I've bought brown tablecloths, and some lovely pearl colored organza napkins. I have never used organza napkins, but I have seen them in pictures and always thought they added some elegance and flair to a tabletop. I bought the darn things on eBay cheaper than I could rent the boring ol' plain cloth napkins, so I decided to go for it. I figured if we didn't like them for napkins, maybe I'd use them to wrap up our wedding favors or put them up on Craigslist. They just arrived, and I think they have the potential to be a gorgeous addition to our tables. I'm excited!

As you may have guessed, my current fascination is the wedding reception place settings and table decor. I've seen a ton of reception photos where the overall look is gorgeous, but I'm having a tougher time finding pictures that really show the details in a helpful way. I'd love to find some examples that make me think, "I want our tables to look just like THAT!" and "I know exactly what's needed, and I can totally make our tables look like that!" It hasn't happened yet, but I continue to look.

I've set a reasonably formal table before, but only our own dining room table. It's a different story when you have to set enough tables for 50+ people. I find myself wondering things like, "Do we really NEED chargers? Or bread plates?" I know that those are considered a standard part of a formal place setting, but when I start to weigh the usefulness against the added cost, I'm not convinced that it's worth it. I'm very detail-oriented, but the details can really add up. Plus, a lot of the pictures I see that use EVERYTHING end up with really cluttered tables.

For example, this photo I found on Flickr:

I originally focused on this picture because it had some similarities to what I imagine for our reception. They used dark tablecloths with light colored napkins folded to hold menu cards, and there weren't dinner plates on the table. Since we're planning to have our dinner plated instead of buffet, those are details that would go along with what we're imagining. I studied the photo for a moment and thought, "Yeah, we could do something like that." Then my eyes drifted toward the rest of the table. Don't get my wrong, they obviously went all out and I can absolutely appreciate that. The table just makes me feel kind of claustrophobic when I look at it. It seems to have gone a step past formal into overwhelming. I think it's an easy line to cross, and I'm trying to hold myself back from that edge.

While it may offend Martha Stewart if we skipped those details, I'm guessing that most of our guests may not even notice. Although if Martha Stewart would like to attend our wedding, I would spend the extra money and rent those things, because I love her. But I digress...

I am in brain storming mode, and soon my friend Samantha and I have decided to set up a practice table so we can experiment with what looks good.

I may be off the hook a bit because I'm not sure organza can be folded ornately, but it's been fun to see how many ways there are to fold napkins decoratively. This Napkin Folding Guide website is helpful if you're in the same stage that I'm in of going, "What the heck are our tables going to look like?! What do we do?!"

I still haven't found the "right" pictures yet for our wedding, but I have found a couple of pictures of napkin ideas that I like. I've been thinking that I'd like to tie our napkins with velvet ribbon, so here are some examples along the same line. Napkins rings are another spendy addition that I don't want to have to deal with, but I like the warmth and texture that velvet brings to the table. Plus, if I can't fold the organza into complicated origami shapes (not that I'd want to), tying a simple ribbon sounds good to me. (The top photo is from Martha Stewart, the bottom is from BHG.)

If you have some inspiring table decor ideas that you'd like to share, you're welcome to email me so I can post about it (I'll give you credit), or you can post in the comments section.

In the meantime, I continue to wish everyone luck with their wedding planning! I found myself fantasizing about eloping earlier today. But even with the elevated stress levels, I still like all of the details and planning. It'll be worth it to share our celebration with our friends and family. Remember, we just have to take a deep breath and sneak off for a pumpkin spice frappuccino with a good girlfriend every so often. (Thanks Samantha!)

Adorable Woodsy Rustic Wedding Finds!

I've been on the prowl for some aisle decorating ideas since I posted last. Since then, I've found a couple of great woodland decorating details that I wanted to share.

For starters, I found a simple solution to the "How do I decorate an indoor aisle when there are no pews to attach decorations to?" issue. There's a website called saveoncrafts that has really great prices on almost anything you'll need for wedding decorations. On that site, I found what they call an Iron Tulle Stand (or wreath stand) that would allow me to put up decorations without worrying about jabbing anything into the ground (not an option for an indoor wedding), putting the decorations on the floor, or attaching things to chairs (not so simple if you're using chair covers). Maybe everyone else already knew about these, but just in case there are some other brides out there who have been worried about the same thing, I thought I'd share the discovery.


Next, I'm excited to have found these adorable Lime Green Twig Ball Pomanders with Mini Leaves from a LOCAL artist via Etsy! Modage Floral is right in Coeur d'Alene (only about a half an hour from Spokane, for those of you who aren't from around here.) It was pure coincidence that she's local, but it just makes it that much cooler of a find for me!

I got excited when I saw them, because I love pomanders and kissing balls, but I was having mixed feelings about how many flowers you have to use to make them. These would go great with our theme, and they might just be a great option for our aisle decorating dilemma! Hooray!

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Thanks to the wonder of Craigslist, we also found these cute twig and moss baskets. It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but they're actually wooden boxes that are decorated on the outside with twigs and baskets. Lin (the woman we bought them from) just put a potted plant in each box, then topped them with some artificial moss to fill them out. I'm not sure what we'll end up putting inside of them, but I'm excited to use them for some general decoration around the room. We also bought a bunch of the hurricane glasses pictured, because we want lots of candlelight! Thanks Lin!

I bought some of the chocolate brown tablecloths I mentioned before off of eBay. I ended up buying them for cheaper than it would've cost to rent them! I also bought a couple of sample napkins from an online store, so I'm excited for everything to arrive so we can put together some color combinations and try to narrow down our color palette.

There are several local bridal events in Spokane this week that I'm excited to check out. If you're one of the local brides that reads my blog and you'd like to know what I'm talking about, please feel free to drop me a note and I'll fill you in!

Some of Our Own Wedding Inspirations!

I have been a brainstorming maniac lately. I haven't had enough time to organize some of my ideas into an inspiration board just yet, but since these are personal inspiration ideas I figure it's okay to share them just as photos. If you've been reading the blog, you know that we want to include acorns and oak leaves into our autumn theme. These are some of the things we have so far:

These are the oak branch and acorn candleabra centerpieces -- they were our first wedding purchase!

These are the acorn cakelettes and the pan from Williams-Sonoma that I made them with. I made them with a spiced pumpkin bread recipe. I like to use real maple syrup to coat the tops of the acorns, then roll that part in raw turbinado sugar for texture. They're both delicious and adorable -- one of my favorite combinations!

These are some mini acorn ornaments that we want to incorporate into our wedding favors.

We don't have these tablecloths yet, but these are some of the linens we're considering. I've actually found them for purchase for only about $2 more than it would cost for us to rent them locally, so I like the idea of just buying them and then passing along the bargain to another bride after our wedding. I'm all for sharing a great bargain! We're trying to decide what other colors we want to use with the brown. We're thinking greens, but maybe also incorporating some champagne or some other soft color. We'll see!

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I'm also excited because today we're going out to Jacklin Arts and Cultural Center to have a meeting to discuss the possibility of using them for our venue.

Dylan took these pictures yesterday. They were set up for a local event (not a wedding) but I thought it was cool to see the main hall without all the tables set up.

We both like that this venue has history and character, unlike some of the more corporate event centers we've seen. Fingers crossed that we'll be able to work something out with them. I'll let you know, of course!

Wedding Succulents

Okay, I can admit it. I may be a little obsessed with succulents. I’ve always thought they were interesting and attractive landscaping accents, with their firm plump leaves and tricky “I look like a flower, but I’m not quite!” appearance.

When I found this bouquet by Ink and Peat, I was enamored.

The echeveria succulents, combined with unripe blackberries, hypericum berries, and scabiosa pods are such an amazingly earthy balance to the delicate roses and ethereal tufts of feathers and smokebush. I think it’s lovely, and it’s the bouquet I featured in our own wedding inspiration board.

Since then, I’ve started to notice that I’ve actually developed quite a collection of wedding related pictures of succulents. Yesterday I saw some pictures by Stephanie Williams that just about made my head explode. I had to send her a little note of admiration, and she’s given me the thumbs up to share some of her work.

Her gorgeous picture of a raindrop covered succulent was enough to inspire this unorthodox inspiration board. Rather than showcasing a specific color palette, I’m showcasing my love of these strange and versatile plants as wedding flowers and décor.

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Stephanie Williams also took the photos of the boutonnieres with the pearl pins.

The bouquet with orchids on the left, the centerpieces with lavender roses and succulents, and the succulent nest placecards are all from Martha Stewart.