You're Doing What?

We're having a group run as part of our rehearsal dinner festivities.

Yep. 

Now, before everyone freaks out, no, the run will not be required! And yes, we're still having a dinner (we're calling it a welcome dinner now) and a time to relax and not do strenuous things. 

But, we love to run. I'm more than thrilled to have this chance for all of us to run together—a lot of girls would go get manicures together before the wedding, we go for a run together (although maybe we'll get manicures too). 

Personal photo / The three of us after a Thanksgiving run last fall!

Some of our friends will be joining us as well. We're not going to be racing—ahem, I say that but I'm pretty sure as competitive as some of us are this could prove less than true. On Saturday's long run I mapped out a course that I think will work. It's a 2.5 mile loop around the park where we're holding the welcome dinner. It starts at the shelter and wanders up and around the baseball fields, up a steep hill (oops, sorry about that, everyone's thighs), along the trail down by the river, around the dog park, down past some beautiful houses, and back along the river to the shelter.

Image via Cleveland Park / Awesome paint skillz by me

I've gotten positive feedback on it so far. Some of our friends are excited about running with us, and those who aren't interested don't seem bothered at all that we're going to run for 25 or 30 minutes at the end of the welcome dinner. We're titling the event the "Pre-Wedding Run & Fun in the Park," and everyone is invited. We'd love to have guests come and hang out after dinner and either run with us or just enjoy the park! There's an amazing playground for younger kids, great walking trails, and plenty of tables and benches.

The schedule will be something like this:

5:30—Welcome dinner with our immediate families and out-of-town guests
6:30—Invite all guests down to the park to hang out
7:30—Anyone who wants to is welcome to run
8:30—Everyone leaves the park around dusk!

I totally understand that there will probably only be a handful of us running. But I'm still more excited about this than anything else—besides the wedding itself of course!

Invitations Part III

Miss Part I or Part II?

Now that I had my invitations and mini Moo cards with website information, the only thing left to do was assemble the final product. I could have just dropped the Moo cards into the envelope with the invitations, but I was a little nervous that people wouldn't see them—and I wanted to do something a little more special, since I wasn't doing much else with the invitations.

I took my heart hole punch (you knew that was coming) and, well, punched some heart holes. Pretty self-explanatory, right?

Personal photo

After doing all 100 mini Moo cards, my hand was a little sore and I was bored. (I did all of them, not just the 25 with this shot. I had them stacked by picture.) Guys, if you're like me and your mom/fiance/a lot of your friends live 800+ miles away from you, doing wedding planning by yourself gets boring. Start a good show at the beginning of your wedding planning and just watch it through. And if you're like me and really bored, start a second show when you finish your first.

Anyway. All I needed now was a way to attach the cards to the invitations. I picked up two rolls of thin coral-colored ribbon. It looked like this. (I couldn't find the exact ribbon, so just pretend I was a good blogger and took a picture of the ribbon.)

Image via Easy Weddings

Note: Ten yards of ribbon is not the same as ten feet. Two rolls ended up being not quite enough (six invitations short!) so I went back to Walmart to pick up more to finish the invitations and to use with the crossword puzzle programs and I Spy cards. I was trying to mentally calculate how much I needed to buy but read "ten feet" on the rolls instead of "ten yards." So. I got a lot more than I needed. Good thing it was only $0.49 a roll!

Then I simply threaded the ribbon through one heart hole, under the picture, and out the other heart hole. I dabbed a little bit of glue on one end of the ribbon and pressed it against the other end to hold it firmly in place. Pictures always make more sense, so here's what it looked like in the end.

Personal photo / Cute carpet in my apartment, huh?

The ribbon holds the mini Moo card snug against the invitation, but all you have to do is slide the ribbon down to release the card and see the rest of the invitation information. I guess my only worry is making sure people look at the other side of the card. If you received an invitation like this, you would at least glance at the other side of the mini Moo card as you pulled it off, right? I'm hoping people will unthread the ribbon and hold onto the card since it has our picture and website.

Even just a simple project like this took me a few hours! I have way more respect for all you ladies out there to undertook a much larger invitations project now.

Bunting Everywhere

In an earlier post when we were talking about my simple do-it-yourself invitations, I mentioned that I wanted to include bunting somehow in the decorations to tie in the invitations to the overall theme of the wedding. I was thinking about maybe a ten foot section or so over the fireplace and figured I could do that myself, even though I don't have any materials on hand or a sewing machine. I was thinking about using tissue paper and ribbon to cut down on cost and time.

A lady from Nathan's church who is helping out with my April bridal shower read my post and sent me an email about her making bunting for the bridal shower that I could then reuse for the wedding. How sweet is this? When I was in Detroit last weekend I went over to her house and looked through inspiration pictures.

The biggest problem we had was choosing fabrics. I knew I wanted small, casual prints in shades of coral, blue, and yellow. The problem wasn't that we couldn't find any that worked—it's that there were so many fabrics to choose from! We finally decided on six different fabrics: a solid coral, a flowered coral print, a flowered light blue print, a checked yellow print, a patterned ivory print, and a flowered print that pulled in hints of coral, green, and yellow.

Even though I had been thinking just a short length, she decided to make a larger amount so that she could hang it around the room at my bridal shower. Hey—I wasn't about to complain! I have visions of draping it along the food tables or the stage.

We ended up buying 3/4 of a yard in each of the six fabrics. We then folded the fabric in half and cut it into nine inches strips, which looked like this:

We used an old Cheerios box to cut out a 7" by 9" triangle to use to trace. Then we used a rotary cutter—I had never heard of this before, but it's basically like a pizza cutter for fabric—to cut out the triangles. The marble block you see in that picture? We used that for holding the template in place. It was so simple. Simply place the template on the fabric and zoom the rotary cutter along the edge. After moving the template a few times and a few more slices with the rotary cutter, the strip looked like this.

Ignore the rough outer edges. Those are going to get tucked under the ribbon! This picture actually shows ten triangles—each triangle is two because we folded the material in the last step. Anyway, while I was busy playing with my fabric pizza cutter, the real crafter of the two of us was applying a little bit of anti-fray glue to the diagonal edges.

Now you've seen three of the fabrics! That coral with the tiny white flowers is my favorite. After applying the glue she laid them out to dry for just a few minutes. Then it was time to sew! We had bought wide coral ribbon in the same shade as the band on my invites. After ironing it to create a crease, she started tucking the triangles in at 3.5" intervals and sewing along the ribbon. By this point I was way out of my element so I just stood and watched.

Then we stood back to admire our handiwork! After crafting about a ten foot section, we draped it along the fireplace to check it out. Hint: Each triangle was 7" wide plus 3.5" on either side. 12 triangles (two of each color) is about 129 inches, or just over 10 feet.

I'm going to pretend the reason I'm posting a really washed out picture is that now you'll have to wait around for the big reveal at the wedding! Trust me, Niki will take much better pictures and you'll be able to see our bunting in all its glory.

Anyway, I'm thrilled with the way it's turning out, and can't wait to see all of it in action at my shower and then again at the wedding. In about an hour and a half I cut out nearly all of the triangles, so now the rest of them just need to be sewed into the ribbon. It's going to look great!

Honeymoon Hotspots

People always ask where we're going on our honeymoon. Answer: We're not telling. Yes, we've booked our destination, but no details from us.

Hint: It's way more low-key and relaxing than any of these! But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy checking out some of the hotspots for honeymoons around the globe.

1. Curacao

Image via Romantic Getaways

Anyone else not know Curacao existed until the last season of The Bachelorette? After Jef (with one f, I never did understand that...) proposed to Emily with the darling buildings in the background, I had to add this one to the list. The fact that Jef & Emily are sadly no longer together does not ruin this beautiful island for me!

2. Spain

Image via Michael Jurick Photography

Spanish architecture floors me. It's so stunning. And after eight years of Spanish from middle school through college, I'm due a trip to Spain! I'm secretly still listening to Spanish music to stay up on the language... anybody want to borrow a six year-old Juanes CD?

3. New Zealand

Image via National Geographic

My grandparents went to New Zealand five or six years ago and brought back some truly incredible pictures. Ever since then it's been in the back of my mind—and this beautiful honeymoon kinda reminded me that oh hey, I need to go there!

4. Peru

Image via World Wider

We love to hike and just the though of hiking somewhere like this gets me so excited! Yes, I love hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the Appalachian Trail is great. But really, do they have anything on the Andes Mountains? Actually maybe this category should just be "Mountains." I'll take any of them—Rockies, Alps, Mount Everest...

On a Plugged-In Wedding

I know I'm not the first to tackle this subject, and I'm probably not the most eloquent either. But the debate rages for and against having an unplugged wedding—a wedding where guests are asked to turn off, put away, and not use their phones for the duration of the ceremony and reception. Some couples prefer their privacy and don't want numerous pictures of themselves on social media sites. Others simply want the attention on them instead of on the phones, such as in this picture.

Image via Offbeat Bride / Photo by Solare Photography

I think all of us would say we would rather have guests watching us in person than staring at us through a tiny screen, right? So why not post a sign like this and ask guests to stay unplugged for the duration of the wedding?

Image via Weddingbee / Photo by Jodi Miller Photography

A couple of reasons. In fact, I'll number them for you. Here's my personal justification for having a plugged-in wedding—which to me means more than just allowing devices, but actually encouraging them. I'll get to that in another post!

Note: If I was getting married in a cathedral, this post would probably be different. If I was having a formal wedding, again—this post would probably be different. Everybody's situations are... different. You get it.

1. It's hard to control. I don't want to be the "cell phone" police, asking people to turn off their phones or put them away because this is my moment. No, I don't think all unplugged weddings are like that! But I don't want to feel like I'm back in high school with the teacher taking away someone's phone for texting in class.

2. I love to use my phone at weddings. I snapped this picture at my cousin's wedding over Christmas. Awful picture? Yep! Great reminder of a moment I wouldn't have otherwise? Also a resounding yes. The photographer at the wedding mainly took group shots, pictures I'll probably never see. If I hadn't taken this picture (and some others) on my iPhone, I wouldn't have any memories of hanging out with my crazy family.

Personal photo

3. I really, really want those pictures. Not the perfectly posed and framed pictures with the guys looking dapper and handsome—ok, I mean I do want those!

Image via Niki Marie Photography

I mean the casual, "just happened to snap a photo as you guys were laughing" pictures. The ones the photographers can't always get, because, well they can't be everywhere at once. If you catch my dad crying as he walks back to his seat, take a picture. I want the pictures of groups of people at tables that I only got to visit with once or twice and the kids playing with their food. Heck, take a picture of your kid screaming because he can't have more cake!

I can't wait to see them.

Rehearsal Dinner Logistics

I can't decide if I'm really excited about figuring out all the logistics for the wedding or completely overwhelmed. The obsessive-compulsive side of me is screaming ORGANIZE ORGANIZE ORGANIZE THIS IS AWESOME. Whether that is a good thing for my sanity is yet to be determined...

Let's talk facts. The week of the wedding is going to be insanely busy—there's no way around it. I work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, albeit only six hours a day. Wednesday my parents, Nathan, and Nathan's parents should be coming into town. Thursday thankfully I have nothing planned but my sisters have  required events at 8:30 and 10:30. Friday I have commencement rehearsal at 9:30 and commencement itself at 2:00!

The original plan was to hold the rehearsal dinner out at the venue. They have a number of pavilions available for rental around and near a lake and walking path.

Personal photos

This would have worked perfectly for us because it's a simple picnic-style setting. The menu for the rehearsal dinner is going to be pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, chips, cookies, and sweet tea—so it fits.

The problem is the logistics of getting everyone there. Everyone is staying in Greenville (30-40 minutes away). The drive isn't awful, but there a few things to consider:

1. Greenville 5:00 traffic is horrible. The highways slow down, the stoplights back up, and it's just generally a mess. You don't want to get caught rushing to get somewhere at 5:00.
2. There's a 5K in Traveler's Rest (mid-way between Greenville and the wedding venue) that evening that draws 3000+ people. Traveler's Rest is a tiny town and they close down roads to handle the 5K. Nathan & I ran it last year and it took us 45 minutes to make the 15 minute drive.
3. Everyone's going to be crunched for time all day long. Do we really want people rushing to get there, rushing to get back, hurrying around the whole time? What we're actually going for with the rehearsal dinner is a laid-back time for family and close friends to mingle and talk.

In my mind, I think I scrapped the rehearsal dinner at the venue plan a long time ago. But it wasn't until last night at 11:00 when I couldn't sleep that I came up with an alternative.

Image via SC Great Outdoors

Cleveland Park is three miles away from graduation and two miles away from the hotel where I reserved rooms for guests. It's a big park with eight shelters, several miles of inter-looping trails, a zoo, several playgrounds, tennis courts, and the Reedy River down the middle of it. It's also home to Rock Quarry Garden, which I happen to be very partial to.

Image via Rachel Hughes Photography / A wedding in Rocky Quarry Garden—I'm kinda jealous!

I think all around it just makes more sense. It's a lower-key evening and (hopefully) everyone will love the park as much as we do!

The Guests Need a Place to Stay Too

Who would have thought, right? I've been so busy thinking about where to hold the wedding, where I'd stay the night before, where I'll get ready, where we'll go on our honeymoon—that I completely forgot about reserving blocks of rooms for our awesome guests.

But no big deal, the wedding is still three months away, right? Plenty of time to book a few rooms, I mean Greenville is a nice place to visit but it's not like there's a huge demand for tourism in early May. We're not having a huge wedding plus a lot of people know friends in town to stay with so we'll only need 10-15 rooms maximum.

Duh, Laura. Not only is it my graduation that weekend—oh right, meaning people are coming to see their children walk across the stage—it's also Furman University's graduation.

Which didn't hit me until I clicked on the website of the hotel I planned to reserve rooms in from the beginning and saw that they had zero rooms available the weekend of the wedding. Zero rooms? In a tiny town like Traveler's Rest? Except... it's five minutes away from Furman. Right.

That's ok, I'll just reserve rooms in Greenville. It will be an extra 15 minutes of travel time for my guests, but they'll get to experience Greenville—which on the plus side is a pretty neat city. I've grown quite attached in my five years here!

Downtown hotels are really pricey, I mean I never expected my guests to pay $319 a night, even if it means a hotel that looks like this:

Image via Uptake

Go outside of the downtown area though and you get to the hotels that are too close to Bob Jones. And even if they have rooms available (there are plenty, although you're limited in some ways), the prices have been jacked by at least $20 because of the higher demand.

Fortunately I found a hotel with availability that's near downtown—close, but not so close that it's wicked expensive. Rates are reasonable and the hotel looks nice without being overly ritzy. It's a longer drive to the wedding venue, but I'm really hoping people take advantage of these kinds of sights just a mile away.

Image via City Data / Our cute Main Street

Image via Black Olive Photographic / Riverwalk along the downtown area

Image via Forbes / Listed as a top rejuvenated area!

Image via Greenville Daily Photo / Falls Park Liberty Bridge—the coolest park in the area!

Invitations Part II

It's about time I continued my previous post about invitations with an aptly named Part II.

Remember, we had nixed the full invitation suite in favor of keeping costs and effort down, but I still wanted to do something casual yet fun. I googled "free wedding templates"—no shame, guys—and found Wedding Chicks, who has some really awesome custom wedding printables and downloads. Take the work out of it and get something personalized for free! Granted, this does not mean you're the only person to ever use that invitation. I know that—although I figure the chances are slim that someone would receive two invitations using the same template, so I decided to go with it. 

I wanted something casual and cute that was at least vaguely in our wedding colors. I think the bunting invitations were instantly my favorites.

Image via Wedding Chicks

They have a fun coral and yellow vibe to them and preserve a little bit of traditional wording and presentation along with a casual feel with the fonts and design. After messing with the wording for forever, we came up with the following:

Dave & Ellen Dickinson

Along with Bruce & Cindy Miller

Invite you to share their joy at the marriage of

Laura Ann Dickinson

to

Nathan Bradley Miller

Saturday, May 4, 2013

at 11:00 in the morning

Pleasant Ridge Camp & Retreat Center

4232 Highway 11 Marietta, South Carolina

Brunch reception to follow

And they look like this:

Personal photo

A note on printing—we had ours done at the campus print shop and got an incredible deal on it. They also did a really great job. Breakdown on costs turned out to be $0.47/sheet for color printing plus $0.04/sheet for the ivory card stock. For 75 sheets (150 invitations) that was just under $40, but we got a 30% wedding discount, which put us just under $27 for all of our invitations.

Also, I now need to have bunting somewhere at the venue. I'm thinking draped along the mantle? For real, how perfect would that be? I can match the colors pretty closely with tissue paper I'm thinking and pull in the invitations to the decorations. That's a huge victory for an obsessive-compulsive bride like me.

Don't worry, we still have to discuss assembling the invitations and printing the envelopes. Much more to come, so stay tuned for Part III!

Countdown: Three Months

Cue a few minutes of panic, cause I really really hope I managed to complete last month's goals! With two jobs and diving back into class full time (and my car dying...) it's been a busy month.

 1. Invitations: I need to get the invitations printed, start assembling what I need, and working on getting addresses in place. Oh DEFINITELY! 

I totally finished printing the invitations, assembled all that I could (until I ran out of ribbon), and got all the addresses. I have the first batch of about 70 completely done, and I only have about 15 more to print and stamp. A few things I do need to do: finish assembling the invites that will go to shower attendees and decide on a date to mail these things.

 2. Flowers & decorations: Make progress on the table flowers (I don't need to finish these yet!) and figure out how many more books I need. EHH.

Ok, so I didn't really do anything on these last month. The good news is I'm far enough ahead that it's not a huge deal. Actually, it's not a deal at all. But I probably should work a bit on this next month.

 3. Registry: Fill out with some more items. YEP!

 I think we have everything on the registry that's going to be on the registry for now. I'm not sure if we need anything else on there, but if so it's going to be added on a case by case basis.

4. Programs: Print, cut, & organize! MADE PROGRESS.

I printed these, had them cut, and they're sitting waiting to be assembled. I decided how I want to wrap them but I haven't gotten around to doing it yet. Again though, no rush.

Goals for next month:

1. Invitations: Finish the last few and mail these babies!

2. Flowers & decorations: Same as last month. Just make some progress on creating/assembling decorations.

3. Programs: Assemble and put away not to be touched until the wedding.

4. Dress: Get dress altered! (As long as I still fit. If I don't fit, this goal becomes "Fit into dress.")