Here it goes; our wedding plans.
As you know, the wedding will take place at the home of my family's close friends Steve and Gail. The ceremony will be in the woods of their property and reception in a field adjacent to these woods. There will be space for camping, a big glowing bonfire and Sunday brunch to follow, of course. In case of rain, the ceremony can be held under our tent. The tent will be built by my wonderful father(with the helpof Josh's groomsman and my brothers). In the initial budget run through, it was realized that renting a tent for $1500+ was absurd, and my genius dad suggested that he could build the tent with lumber that could be torn down and reused after the wedding, for $600 or less. Yipee! This in turn sparked a fire to try and replace anything I initially thought needed to be purchased for the wedding with items that are used or can be borrowed. Thus lowering costs
and the carbon footprint our Big Day will create.
We will be married by Josh's father. Rex is the perfect person to conduct our marriage ceremony for three reasons:
- Rex worked many years as a sucessful salesman which = good public speaking skills. He also traveled with this work doing workshop to teach his skills to others in sales and now does public workshops with his new career in healing.
- Rex is a skilled healer and spiritual counseler. His insight and intuitive touch will make for what we believe will be a touching and deeply moving ceremony.
- Josh and I have always wanted someone near and dear to us officiate the wedding. Nuff said.
Choosing wedding colors also came easily. My engagement ring contains two sapphires (my birthstone) on either side of a diamond taken from an old ring of Josh's. The day after Josh proposed, I was admiring the ring and realized I would wear the sapphire pendant my grandmother gave to me for my high school graduation. Green was choosen when it was decided we were going with a casual, rustic feel for the day. Blue will be an accent color since green is more evident in nature (duh).
Prior to the engagement I'd always believed that friends and family should have little to no involvement and responsibility beyond showing up, looking beautiful, and having the time of their lives. I just want our loved ones to enjoy the day for what it is; the union and celebration of two beloved people. I have thoroughly changed my viewpoint on this matter. I've realized that if I am to stay under budget and keep my sanity, we're going to have to enlist help from the troops. The key will be to ask everyone, and I mean everyone, to be responsible for one task. This way no one is being overwhelmed with several tasks, and everyone has a role to play. And besides, this union and celebration will be that much more personal and meaningful if all those close to us have contributed in one way or another.
Flowers will be provided by a neighbor of ours who has green hydrangea bushes and we will pick Queen Anne's Lace as they are free and grow wildly everywhere in Michigan. Ceremony music will be played by Matt and Steffan, two highschool friends of mine on acoustic guitar and Mandolin. The day will be documented in photographs by my wonderful, Aja, who has assisted me in wedding and event photography in the past. I'd love to have women from my troupe, the Habibi Dancers, perform at the reception. I'm trying to enlist a friend to do a mini Salsa lesson to encourage interaction between guests and we'll have open salsa, merengue and bachata dancing for a small portion of the reception. We wont have cake, but would like a mini desserts table with goodies made by any talented cooks we know who are wiling to contribute. Josh's old bandmates, Ben and Whitney, will hopefully do an acoustic set to kick off the after party. Sunday brunch will be prepared and served by the entire wedding party.
Go team go!
We have the most beautiful sunflowers growing every year. They started growing when my grandmother lived in this house and had a bird feeder on the back porch with sunflower seeds. They're not as big as the common sunflowers you see therefore they never get droopy and topple over from the weight of their head like most do. This also makes them ideal for cutting to put in floral arrangments (which Josh often does)
The sunflowers have been cross-pollenated so many times we are lucky to have a variety of sunflowers...it never ceases to amaze. These photos don't even reflect the vibrant red coloring in the flower petals. And look at this little white breed that showed up for the first time last summer!
Josh knows I like simplicity so he picked this single flower for me. We had some odd looking Dahlias come up but I really loved the strangeness of them. If you click on the photo to enlarge you can see what an abnormal looking Dahlia it is.
Every year we have one or two frogs that come to live in our little ponds with the goldfish
A beautiful tomato ripening in our garden. I'll have to do another post about the vegetable garden because I have plenty more pictures to share...
I mentioned before that Whitney and I went to a bridal show a few weekends ago. The photos above are souvenirs from the day, the show had two photo booths and they were allowing people to try them out in hopes of booking weddings...for a hefty price of course. These photo booths are available for a rental fee of $1000-$1500. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a fun activity for the guests and a great way to get photos of all your guests but that's a big hunk of money. I believe using Polaroid instant cameras is a great alternative.
So here's the breakdown; you can purchase an instant Polaroid camera off Ebay for $5-$15. As for film, $200 will buy you enough for 100 shots and considering people usually pose in groups that'll give a guest list of 100 at least two times in front of the camera. Throw in miscellaneous props and a photo album and you still have savings of at least $700!!!
I designed postcards and magnets to be uploaded to vistaprint.com where I also ordered a return address stamp all for $40. I found leaf stamps at Mejier on clearance for $2 and purchased a green ink stamp pad (the color was called "Tea Leaves") from JoAnns using a gift card I received at Christmas from Josh's cousin.
Sarah attached the magnets to each postcard, Aja and Kayla did all the stamping, and Whitney hand-addressed all the envelopes.
I'm surprised we didnt get Carpal Tunnel syndrome from all the assembling, especially since took a break to make homemade sushi and crab rangoons...yumm! We finished off the day by watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding and treating ourselves to green tea ice cream. Good work ladies!
(Maid of Honor-Sarah, bridesmaid-Whitney, crafty lady-Kayla, photographer-Aja)
I had a wonderful weekend with Whitney. On Sunday we attended a Bridal Show at the Kellogg Center, went shoe shopping and saw Bride Wars. The movie was cute, the bridal show had lots of great cake samples (too much probably, Whitney and I overdid it) and shoe shopping was hugely successful-Whitney bought shoes for the wedding! We found an adorable pair of blue patent leather flats and it got me thinking that I need to find some show options for myself and the other bridesmaids.
A classic, this elegant cocktail gives a nod to the swing dance lesson that Beaha and Zach will hopefully be having at their reception.
With a wedding dated for 7/11 a fruity, slushy drink is a must. Maybe even serve them in Big Gulp cups!
Who wouldn't like a refreshing citrus cocktail for an outdoor summer wedding? We could even set up the bar to look like an old fashioned lemonade stand.
To my family in Arizona who we miss every day that they're away from home.
The Habibi Dancers had a show at the Riverwalk theater on November 22nd, and 23rd. Beyond the Borders was amazing and I am so thrilled to have been a part of it. We performed many peices that were outside our normal spectrum of traditional Middle-Eastern dance. The picture above is from a fusion bellydance/African number.
My future sister-in-law and bridesmaid Breaha invited the family up to her place for Thanksgiving this year. We shared the weekend with her fiancee's family, and I thoroughly enjoyed the time we all spent together. Games, swimming, movies, talking about vampries (see note below) shopping and of course great food. I truly hopes this becomes a long time tradition for our families.2.jpg)
A local Middle-Eastern restaurant, Aladdin's, has troupe members perform during dinner hours on the 1st and 3rd Friday of the month. Yesterday I danced there for the first time and had a blast! I felt nervous and clumsy but loved every minute of it, cant wait to do it again. My beautiful bra and belt set was hand made by the mother-in-law of another woman in our troupe, and that was the first time I've gotten to wear it. Isn't it gorgeous?
Some dress options for my bridesmaids.
Here it goes; our wedding plans.
