Wedding Wednesday

WEDDING WEDNESDAY: BRIDESMAIDS: HOW I ASKED MY GIRLS DIY

Today on Wedding Wednesday, it’s all about a little DIY for my Bridesmaids. I was very excited once I knew how I wanted to present my idea, that’s why I decided to share with you all, how I asked my girls! For those of you who have been following my blog, you all might know that I’m all about DIY and creating goodies and cute decor details. Asking my girls to be my bridesmaids would be no exception to the opportunity. So after some research and finding some cute ideas, I decided I wanted it to be personal. My creative side got excited and started going to my local arts and crafts stores like Michael’s, hobby lobby and one of my favorite places for small inexpensive goodies.. Target! Once I started visiting these stores I just began by looking around and just seeing what cute things I could find. I wanted it to be personal but not spend tons of money on random goodies either. So I picked up a couple of cute little pieces from wherever I found things and started my DIY! I spent time looking for things that would suit and go with our look for the wedding as well. Like mentioned before in my previous wedding Wednesday update, I’m trying to incorporate our colors and the feel we are shooting for that day! Simple, classy and personal. So away I went! The final product was definitely pleasing, personal and lovely!

My materials included the following: -the cute little buckets I found at target and they were a dollar a piece! Score. -the little gold chevron goodie bags, labels, sewing kits and post cards were also all from target -the golden magnet frames I found at a cute little boutique called Francesca’s -the white Dolly’s, gold glittered clothespins, gold ribbon, golden glittered material paint, gold washi tape and notecards were from Michael’s arts and crafts -the small white totes from Hobby Lobby -the color paint paper samples from Home Depot – the sweet chocolates, your local food store lol – personalized notes by yours truly 😉

First thing I got to work on were these tiny little white totes.. I wanted to spark some interest to them and make them personal. I decided to get a dolly and place it on the tote and secure the edges down with some tape to prevent the dolly from moving. Once they were secured, I got my glitter fabric paint and traced the pattern of the dolly on to the tote and let it dry for only a few minutes to prevent the dolly from sticking to the tote. *Note..If you leave it to dry completely it will stick, if you remove dolly right away it may smudge the pattern.. so only let sit for a couple of minutes before removing dolly. Once that dried, I wrote each girls initial on the tote… They came out better than expected!

Next step was wrapping these up once they were dried. I decided to sneak in the travel size sewing kits in between since they were a little of an eyesore. They didn’t really go with the colors so I hid them in between and used the pretty gold ribbon to tie it all together.

After those were done, I started gathering up all the other little details. One was labeling those cute little chevron goodie bags with a little sweet note and putting some yummy chocolates inside. I used the extra dolly’s I had to label each gift with the girls names and taped the pictures to each individual magnet picture frame.

The Next step was the more personal aspect of this cute little Bridesmaid gift. I Included not only a cute little postcard that asked each girl to join me on my day as my bridesmaid but also sweet details about expectations and details of what my vision was for the wedding and information about the day of the wedding. My favorite though, was the individual sheet I gave all my girls that named each girl and I wrote a little sweet note of what each of them meant to me. It was sweet and simple, but it came from the heart. The rest as you’ll be able to tell was just arranging and making it look cute with gold and glitter and color samples of what the wedding colors would be! ❤

Now for this handsome guy, he also asked his guys to be his groomsmen, only in a more simple and masculine way lol. We arranged some of these Cigars with their names on simple cardboard paper with a simple phrase printed on them, “Your service as a groomsman is required.” This idea we had seen on pinterest and felt it suited well!

This Handsome guy was ready to pass out our bridal party gifts!

The Final Product was just what I envisioned, cute and simple but made with lots of love for my girls. Made to let them know how much it means to me for them to be there for me the day I say I do! ❤

*all images are property of La Vida, life as it comes

-Jen

WEDDING WEDNESDAY UPDATE

A Little Wedding Wednesday update today! We are officially at the 8 month mark and things have been steady as far as planning goes. The feeling of being overwhelmed has settled in comparison to the beginning of our planning to a subtle list of to do’s. I would be lying if I said that we don’t feel overwhelmed still, but I think we have a better grasp and understanding of the whole “wedding planning.” Little by little we have scratched things off our list and to be honest there’s one in particular that’s my favorite! But I will go into that in detail a little later! Just know it’s exciting! We have managed to have things under control for the most part so far. One thing that has gotten the best of me recently has been “color coordinating” something I never thought I would say, but it did, lol. We still have things to do and things to figure out, but it’s okay because I know that we can do it. We have really gotten a lot of the big things taken care of and now its seems to be coming down to the small things and small details. I have a lot of ideas running through my head and I can’t wait to actually be able to make them happen. For now, we will continue our steady pace and share with you what else we have crossed off our check list!

Since our last update we also have:

√ 5 of 7 bridesmaid dresses
√ Food Tasting
√ DJ
√ Flowers
√ Engagement photos (this is that favorite of mine 😉 )
√ Finalized guest list

Not too Shabby huh!? We have also done much more and if you can’t remember what else we have crossed our list, you could read bout it here. We are actually in the works of getting our engagement photos very very soon and we couldn’t be more excited. Since we will be receiving our photos in a couple of days, we have been brainstorming about our save-the-dates! We previously blogged about ‘minted’ and their lovely sample wedding package we received. Well, we have been trying to weigh out our options and what will both be economical for us and give us what we want. So, we have also received a cute sample from Wedding Paper Divas. Pretty soon, we will be scratching that off our list and I have to say, we are pretty close to making our decision once our engagement pictures get to us. I can’t contain my excitement! Check out Wedding Paper Divas and their invite samples… cute right?

We’d love to know if any of you bride to be’s have used Wedding Paper Divas for your save the dates or invites?! How are your list of to-do’s looking?

∴Happy Wedding Wednesday∴

WEDDING WEDNESDAY: SAYING “YES” TO THE DRESS

Saying “YES” to the Dress! One of the most special moments that will forever be imprinted in my memory! On this Wedding Wednesday, I want to take it back a little, to about two months ago when I said “yes” to the dress. After the holiday’s had passed, I decided that it would be a good time to “start looking” for a dress. Yes, I said ‘start looking’.. mostly because in my mind, I thought things would go a lot different. And what I mean by that is.. time! The time it took me to find MY dress, was definitely less than I had originally planned for.

Originally I had thought, “Ok, Jen! Its time to start the search, because knowing me, I won’t be able to decide”.. Those were my thoughts exactly guys. My thoughts played a little trick on me that day.. I had made two appointments for the day for a start. Little did I know ONE would have been good enough. My appointments for that day included two places; First being Patricia’s South Bridal, a cute little boutique in Ft. Lauderdale that I had known through my brother and from high school. It was the place to go to for prom dresses, lol. Second, David’s Bridal, I had nothing to lose. Going into the appointments, I was nervous, yet very excited. Nervous because I knew I had a budget that I was very adamant about not surpassing, especially that my fiancé and I are paying for our wedding. And of course, I was excited, excited because well I had never tried on a wedding dress and I knew at the moment that we walked into the store, that we were there for MY dress!

That day I decided to take with me the most special and closest of friends with me. Not all could make it to both appointments, but spending the day with all them even if it wasn’t all together made my day sooo special! It meant the world to have them all there. I was seriously overwhelmed with joy, seeing all my girls there. The first appointment was amazing, most of my girls made it to this appointment with the exception of a couple and it was the start of a very special two hours.

The appointment started in the cutest little ‘tea room’ where my bridal consultant asked me the famous questions… “whats your style?” “what do you see yourself wearing?” “poofy not poofy?” “Veil?No veil?” the list goes on… up into everyone’s favorite question..”what your budget?”sigh… well as anyone that’s getting married can tell you budget is a big deal! Well after I had told my Bridal consultant the ultimate answer of the budget, and how adamant I was about sticking to it, my lovely girls brought the champagne out to start the festivity and the search! Little did I know, my mom and dad had a little surprise I had no clue about. Right before the toast, My mom stopped and told me that her and my dad had a surprise me… well that’s when she leaned over and whispered to me that her and my dad were paying for my dress!… How grateful I was for that gesture is beyond what words can describe! Of course the tears flowed, but flowed with joy! We are so incredibly blessed for all the support we have received from all our loved ones through this journey.

The Dress search quickly started and my amazing bridal consultant April started to put me in dresses! The best part of trying on dresses for the first time is seeing everyone’s faces when you come out and the second is seeing how what you may have hated or loved, doesn’t always go the way you thought. My advice to any bride looking for a dress… Be OPEN MINDED and be willing to try dresses on. Half of the time, the way they look on you is completely different from what you thought when you see the dress on the hanger. Well long behold, there were ‘nice’ dresses, ‘pretty’ dresses, ‘okay’ dresses and there was a ‘LOVELY’ dress.

Everyone always ask, “did the dress make you cry?””Did you get the feeling?” Well, I can now describe the ‘feeling’ most talk about. From all the dresses I tried, I always looked to mostly one person for confirmation, and that person was my momma. She liked a lot and thought many were pretty.. But how did I know that my dress was “the dress?” I knew, as soon as my mom got up from her chair, her eyes glowed, touched the dress from head to toe.. telling me how beautiful I looked and that she couldn’t believe it. I knew it was my dress when she stared into my eyes and cried with the biggest smile on her face. When her and my little sister reached over to me and gave the biggest hugs full of joy and love. And when I looked behind them to see my future mother in-laws face, lit up with a smile and tell me that Xavier is going to love it..and that I looked beautiful. That’s how I knew that my dress was “the dress.” Most girls, not all.. I realize this.. but most girls, look to their moms for that last confirmation.. and well, that’s me. I knew that if my momma loved it and made her get up from her seat, and my mother in-law also loved it and knew her son would too.. that, that was my confirmation to say “yes” to the dress. Did I cry? Yes. I didn’t cry because of the dress, no. I cried because of the moment the dress brought upon us. It’s a beautiful dress and I wouldn’t want to wear any other dress. But I cried because I could see myself walking down the aisle to my future husband in that dress and i could see my mom on the side with tears of joy and confirmation. All those thoughts plus my overjoyed mom hugging and fixing the dress and how lovely the dress is.. Knowing that’s the dress I would walk down the aisle with, is what made me cry.

Yes, we went to Davids Bridal after that appointment, mostly because I wanted to include those who couldn’t make it to the morning appointment and to confirm that Yes, I had picked the dress. Do I wish I would have kept looking for more dresses at different places? My answer is NO. I knew from the moment we had found my dress, that it was the dress. The dress I LOVED and would wear the day we get married. And while many tell me, you should have looked a little more, because ‘you never know’… I had already set my mind. If I absolutely LOVED my dress, saw myself walking down the aisle in it, my closest friends and family loved it and had such a sweet lovely and personal moment with my family.. why would I? Another tip for advice, don’t be too influenced by others, go with your heart. It makes the moment that much more special!

That’s how I said “YES” to my dress..

My girls with the exception of some, thank you ladies!

How cute are my Maid of Honor and Mini-Maid of Honor?

And to make my moment that much more special, my brother Joe also played a big part of my happy day… to my surprise he had also made a contribution to my saying “yes” to the dress.. Thank you Joe and to my parents for your endless efforts in making my memory the best one! You all are my happiness and Im so grateful for you all.

Happy WEDDING WEDNESDAY!.. How sweet is your memory of finding your wedding dress?

P.S. No my dress is not shown, for “groom” purposes.. 😉

-Jen<3

WEDDING WEDNESDAY

It’s wedding Wednesday guys! I have been postponing this post for quite a while! Mostly due to the lack of time I have had for “me.” But that’s ok, I know that sometimes, life get’s busy and we must attend to it! Today I wanted to start sharing with you all a little journey of mine and my fiancé’s. It’s been a mix of emotions. As many of you know, we got engaged this past October while on our trip to New York. You can read more about those adventures, HERE and HERE. Well, since our engagement, we have been bombarded with the endless questions of “when is the wedding?” “where is it going to be?” “Do you have your dress?” and “Where are you going on your honeymoon?”… SIGH! It was so overwhelming at first, because truth be told, we mostly just wanted to take in the fact that we were engaged and all the excitement we felt. But we understand that the same way we are excited, that many of our friends and family also are excited too!

So long behold, the wedding plans started that same month, mostly because we were scared. Scared because we quickly learned from many that venues and vendors book WAY to QUICKLY! AH! lol. So to be brief, I wanted a way to catch you all up on what we have done thus far… I figured I would start blogging about our wedding planning and the adventure it has been for us. So most Wednesday’s I will try to fill you all in on where we stand on our plans and our feelings thus far. Mostly because “Wedding Wednesday” sounds good and we actually will be getting married on a Wednesday! genius right? lol

To catch you all up from October, I will tell you this.. we have felt the stress of planning and of the financial toll it takes out of most planning a wedding. Don’t get me wrong, we still are VERY excited that sooner than later, we will be a married couple! But to be very honest, the amount of time, research, meetings, planning and money, it can also get very overwhelming. Let’s face it, we are not the rich and famous! lol. But thank God, that we have all that we need, along with the support and love of our family. Everyone has been so supportive, including our friends and for that we couldn’t be more grateful.

I’m most excited to be the future wife of my love.. and to be sharing our lives together. Because through all the plans, I feel we all have to remember that it’s not about the size of the wedding party or the cake or the colors, but about the marriage and love, that means more! Everything else is extra and makes it more pretty! That keeps the anxiety to a minimum for me, and brings everything back to perspective!

The journey thus far has been steady for the most part, even though having 2 other friends engaged at the same time will make you feel as you are behind on your planning! lol That’s what happens when most of our conversations turn into “wedding” convos. And we end up asking each other ‘what he have done’ and ‘what we still have to do’. Thanks Desi and Anita! lol Through it all, we have our laughs in those conversations.

Well guys this is what we have been able to accomplish since October:

√ a date
√ a venue
√ an amazing photographer (Beca Companioni)
√ a wedding dress!! ♥
√ 1 of 7 bridesmaids’ dress
√ And a successful engagement party

Not too shabby huh? We are at 9 months of the countdown, and I know that from here on, time will move quickly. So more research is being done and more things will eventually get crossed off the list. For now we will be thankful for what he have done thus far. We are trying our hardest to keep the cost down, since we are paying for the wedding.. so research has been crucial. In further post, I will fill you in on more of what we have crossed off our list and go more into details about the “finding the dress story” and the “venue story”… and any suggestions for you future brides and grooms out there!

Here’s a little fun thing we got in the mail a couple of days ago, that made it all that much real for us… Our free wedding sample kit from minted. Made me realize that soon enough our wedding date and names will be on a invitation and save the dates! yikes! I’m so excited. The Free sample kit is lovely. A great way for you to see their quality and the variety that you have to choose from! I included pictures of whats included in the kit. Isn’t the kit super cute?=)

Planning a wedding too? We would love to hear all about it and any advice you may have for us! Stay tuned for more of ‘Wedding Wednesday!’

-Jen<3

ENGAGEMENT & WEDDING PARTY FESTIVITIES!

Engagement & Wedding party festivities took place this past saturday night and it could not have gone any better! As many of my frequent readers know, Xavier and I got engaged in October while we were in New York. If you didn’t know here’s how he Proposed! Its worth reading in my opinion lol. ;P Well, since this past October, we have been in “planning mode.” I can tell you that the so-called ‘planning mode’ comes and goes, because it gets overwhelming at times. So we plan a little, take a breather and pick up again! It’s been working thus far for us lol. It’s an exciting time for us even with the moments of stress! Because if you’ve never planned a wedding before… let me tell you, it can be time-consuming.

Part of our wedding plans also included a special little party that we had thought up. Xavier and I, have only but a couple of mutual friends and most of our friends don’t really know each other. So our plans were to host a small “Engagement Party” for the sole purpose of making it an opportunity for our friends to meet. We had to call it an “engagement party’ for the purpose of keeping it a surprise to our Bridesmaids and Groomsmen. What most of our friends didn’t know was that our plan was to throw a little party for our wedding party, to ask our closest friends to be our groomsmen and bridesmaids. We wanted it to be special and intimate because we wanted our gals and guys to get to meet (most for the first time) so that come wedding day, they would know each other. We knew that throughout the year more opportunities would have come where they would have been able to meet, but.. we wanted the first time to be special. So along came our little “Engagement & Wedding Party Festivities!”

Xavier and I’s, closest friends are very special to us and it means a lot to us, for them to be a part of our special day! A lot of preparation went in to making our engagement party a success. Our purpose was to make them feel special and to let them know how much we appreciate them as friends. Along with how much they mean to us as individuals and as a couple. I went to my handy-dandy “Pinterest” and started gathering my ideas for the party. To try to keep it simple for you all, just know that about 90% of our engagement party was all DIY! We really wanted to make it beautiful and timeless at an affordable price, so most of our decor and food we prepared ourselves and with the help of my family! Because lets face it, for the average joe, a budget is of the essence! We couldn’t be more grateful for all of those who helped us on saturday!

This is how we asked our gals and guys to be our ‘Bridesmaids’ and ‘Groomsmen’ and how we celebrated our Engagement!! We hope you enjoy!

This lady and I got to stare at our rings lol!

Be my Bridesmaid gifts!

Be my Groomsmen gifts!

opening their gifts!

This little lady was sooo excited for us! She wouldn't leave my side! — This little lady was sooo excited for us! She wouldn’t leave my side!

Maid of Honor

Matron of Honor

My MINI-maid of Honor!! the love of my life!

The Groomsmen!! =) — The Handsome Groomsmen!! =)

My Beautiful Bridesmaids!! <3 — My Beautiful Bridesmaids!! ❤

We're getting married! — We’re getting married!

Thank you again to all my family who were so gracious to help us this past saturday and to those who couldn’t make it but were in our hearts! We love you all!

Thank You to all our amazing friends that came to share an amazing night with us and for saying YES! to sharing Xavier’s and I’s journey into marriage by being our Bridesmaids and Groomsmen!

Even though we get overwhelmed by all the planning, we are so very excited for the months to come and for our future plans leading up to the BIG DAY and forever! We know that God will guide us through this journey and we will get through it all!

Jen and Xavier

❤

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