Recap Part 1!

I expected to wake up Christmas-morning style, but that wasn't the case. I was actually a nervous mess! Not so much for the commitment--I've never had a problem with that part. It was just that about a year of planning, weeks of dieting, hours writing and rewriting vows, and around 250 guests were all compiling into one evening! There was too much to even wrap my head around! I tried not to think about it all too much. After all, there was actually very little I had to personally do. My wedding was now in the good hands of my mother and friends!

I went with my mom to go get my hair and make up done. Some may call this risky because I have never even met this woman before--let alone done any "trial run." However, things turned out magnificently. Honestly, I wasn't too nervous about it. Hair down, simple make up. No worries, right? Right! ^_^ (luckily) The time getting pampered let me relax a bit. What really got me chill was the first official thing to go wrong. Weird, right? My cake maker texted to say she wanted the cake to set a bit longer before moving. No biggie. She texted me a picture of it sitting in her fridge. Now, I cannot lay 100% blame on her at all, because I never really checked on the design details (just the flavors and the shape/size) but my "blue" was very....not. It did have blue on it. But, the thing is, I just didn't care! Yeah, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it was beautiful. Why should such a thing matter right now? No one would think any less. And just like that I was totally cool. It just snapped things in perspective for me!

See? Beautiful. Color seemed like such a silly thing to fuss about. I never even mentioned it to her!

After getting dolled up, I travelled to the venue while my mother and some bridesmaids stayed at the salon getting their hair done. Just as a note, I was very passive about the hair situation. I said that they were free to do it however they pleased, and I certainly didn't intend for them to go out of their way and go to a hairdresser. However, a lot of the girls did anyhow! Oh well. They all looked fabulous!

Here I am waiting with some of the girls. My sister there in the purple shorts did a lot of other girls' make up. She's awesome! She did it for my bridals, too.

My mother gathered up some munchies and emergency supplies, which was fantastic. And my sister also did me a solid supplying me with that wonderful Route 44 Diet Dr. Pepper. =)

Then it was time for the dress! My mom and sister helped me squeeze in!

Love this shot from our photographer. =D

Then I was ready for our FIRST LOOK! Oh, and the Mr. was getting ready too, at this time....

!!!!!FIRST LOOK COMING SOON!!!!!

By the way, if you click the pics you can see them all big and pretty now!

I'm BACK, Baby!

Okay guys. I didn't die. David didn't die. We didn't cancel our wedding. I just fell off the blogging wagon. I fell long and hard. BUT. I'm back! And I'm going to fill you in on how our big fat budget wedding went! (Here's a hint: it went GREAT!)

First, I want to introduce you to our centerpieces! I have never mentioned this to y'all because, no lie, my mother told me not to! But, here it is now!

The classic, French country look of toile let me work a good vintage angle in on my cobalt color scheme! Although, I have to admit, at some point, my wedding went from "vintage" to "waaaay vintage." My original train of thought was somewhere like 1950's glam, but somewhere between ruffled shoes and lacy dress, I because entranced with the indulgent style of Marie Antoinette. Nothing quite says "go hog wild" in a classier way than French aristocracy. So, I ran with that little French flair! It was hardly a theme wedding! Think of it as an accent! A French accent. (hehehe)

Early on we decided to use toile on the tables. It was my mother's idea and I loved it! I mentioned that it wasn't a very commonly used pattern currently and she immediately went into defense mode! My mother said to keep it a secret! Haha, she's so cute. She was SUPER committed to making my wedding special and she knew that I was big into making things "unique" *eyeroll on my part* (I've already talked about my unique obsession in an earlier post).

But, back to the tables. We scrounged around yard sales, resale stores, and ROSS to find tons of cheap toile pieces! Ross was, in fact, the best place to find these! We also used cobalt glass on the tables, which we both bought and borrowed. The place to get them was Jo-ann's Fabric! They were super cheap--like 3 bucks for the big ones!

The candles were an easy and mega cheap DIY! All it took was dollar store glasses and pillar candles (they were coconut, but I never noticed the sent! Haha!), two different ribbons, and craft glue!

We set one of each (in most cases) on a bunched (and un-hemmed) yard of sheen cornflower fabric!

These flowers were bought wholesale and put together by my WONDERFUL personal wedding team of my mother and her friends. I couldn't be more thankful for all their hard work! Didn't it turn out just amazing??