Thank you cards

I had a lot of fun this weekend. I got a lot of great new brushes for photoshop and spent almost all day on Saturday on the computer playing with them. I think I have officially designed our thank you cards. I am not all the way done, but I wanted to post up an example of some cool stuff you can do on your own. We are going to get these printed onto postcards. Postcards are cheaper to mail, and to get them printed is only costing about $28.00. That price even includes shipping. If anyone would like me to design their cards shoot me an email.

Cute as a button Bouquets!!!

I LOVE this site and this idea!!! I saw this on an Kayle Aimee's site, who I think is just the greatest, and all I could think was, how did I miss this for my wedding. It is a perfect alternative to purchasing living flowers and so unique that everyone will be talking about them for years. To be able to hand out her broaches to my grandmother and my parents would have been a great idea for gifts. I could have attached them to their handkerchiefs for decoration. She offers anything from bouquets to broaches to centerpieces to boutonnieres!!! Check her out!!!

Kansas City Metro Wedding Officiant

If you are looking for a great pastor, in the Kansas City area, please contact Bonnie Kelly of Circle of Life Ministry. She was INCREDIBLE! She offers several ceremonies. She works directly with you on everything and she is very thorough and professional. She even makes prayer cards for you for the ceremony, facilitates the rehearsal, has a unity candle set and crosses she lets you borrow if you want (this comes in handy if you aren't getting married at a church). The list goes on and on. She even gives you, your ceremony on nice paper for you to keep! She has truly thought of everything and makes the process a lot less stressful. I will post a copy of our ceremony she prepared so that you can get an idea of the things you need to thinking of before you meet with your officiant and to give you ideas on what you want done. I will also be posting a video of our ceremony so you can see some of the cool stuff we did in our ceremony. Again, if you are considering getting married in KC and you aren't doing it in a church or you need a pastor, please consider Bonnie. Her price is VERY REASONABLE for the amount of work she does for you. TRUST ME!

Prof. Wedding Pics from Ben J. Photography

Ben took wedding photos for our friend's Darby and Meghan Clymer. He was just starting out a couple of years ago and man did he have an eye in there wedding photos. So naturally when it came time for me to decide on a photographer for our big day I BEGGED him to take my pictures... you think I am kidding when I say BEGGED but I am not. I didn't need to beg, but I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted him to take our pictures. He emailed me back right away and then we had a phone conversation. Within the one phone call we had a photographer. Our wedding was 1 year and some months away, so we spent the next few months just checking in with each other. A few months before the wedding I met him and his wife and we went over our contract and what photos we wanted taken. The day of the wedding we ran a little behind schedule and he kept it calm,cooled,and collected. He just stayed completely calm... he even kept me calm because he was so calm. He paid great attention to every picture and was even nice enough to send me these two pictures. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE consider him when you are choosing your photographer. You WILL NOT be disappointed. If you are out of the surrounding states of Kansas and Missouri, please email him anyway. I am not sure what his threshold of travel is, but he is phenomenal. For his information you can click here or on my title to this post. You can see some of his work and get his contact information there.

Honeymoon Photos

I am also including pictures from our honeymoon so my family can enjoy them. We wend to Hawaii and stayed on the big island. The pictures do not do it justice. We went snorkeling, on a kayak excursion, got 1.5 hour hot tub and 1.5 hour hot stone massages after the kayaking, went on a submarine ride, went on a helicopter ride, hiked and found an awesome waterfall, went to South Point which is the southern most tip of the US, went to several beaches and our fave was Hapuna, went to a Luau and much more! Enjoy the pics! If anyone wants to know how to find all this great stuff shoot me an email or post a comment.

Some of my Wedding Pictures

I am putting up some pictures my sis-in-laws took of my wedding. I will put of the professional ones once I get them back. I know a lot of you are currently planning so enjoy. We made my centerpieces and the photo guestbook and they were really easy. If you have any questions please let me know and I will let you know how I did them.

Barn Weddings

There was a gal who emailed me an requested some information on barn weddings and I told her I would get back with her when I got back from my honeymoon. I am back and cannot find your email address. Please email me again I would L-O-V-E to help you. I have helped several gals in several states so do not hesitate. I would also like to hear from anyone with any questions, especially if you live in the KC area. I would love to be able to give some advice on things I have found around the metro and different ideas I had while planning my wedding. I have a ton of links to a ton information and I don't want all my research to go to waste. It is the kind of stuff you would have to pay a planner a lot of money for, so why waste your money?

Guestbook Magic

I have been creating my own guestbook. I found a website called blurb.com. On this site you download some software and then you can create your own books. You then upload it to them and they publish it in either hard or softback form with nice glossy pages. The software is easy to use. They even have formats for guestbooks. I have posted some of my pages for you to see. I designed my pages in Photoshop and then uploaded the picture into my book. There will be a photo page and then a signature page on the other side. If you would like any help or want me to make one just email me and I will be glad to help.

DIY Save the Date as Seen on Martha Stewart.com

These save-the-date cards convey their message in lighthearted ways. Clockwise from top left: A calendar from a stationer starts at the wedding month and is tied with red waxed twine to a precut custom-stamped card; the wedding date is circled in red. Slip into a photo booth and come out with adorable images for your cards; have the photo strip reproduced at a copy shop onto card stock, and then fold and cut into a narrow card containing basic information. To make a save-the-date magnet, design your message on a computer, and print onto 8 1/2-by-11-inch magnetic sheets (available from office- supply stores) using an ink-jet printer; cut out. A schoolgirl may have dreamed of her wedding day as she practiced writing a married name on lined notebook paper; re-create those doodles, then photocopy onto vellum and cut to size; include a white paper background to make the words stand out. Make reminder stickers for guests to affix to calendars: Buy sheets of adhesive paper; print stickers on a computer, cut to size, and attach them to the save-the-date cards using store-bought adhesive dots.

DIY Wedding Invitations

When I started planning my wedding one of the first things I started looking at were wedding invitations and save the date sites. I searched high and low for ideas. I found many wonderful invitations that were so out of my budget. I began thinking, why not make my own. There are many things you can do when you make your own invitations. You can even emboss your own initiations and make them exactly how you want. I searched through the sites for all the embossing equipment and priced this option. Then one day I went to Party America. I found my invitations, reply cards, and both sets of envelops (100 total) for $50.00! I strongly recommend looking there for your invitations. They have a wonderful selection online, but going to the store is better because you can see them in person and sometimes they are having a sale that will help you save even more. The first invitation are close to the ones I bought and the second set I put up here because they aren't too bad and they are what I was going to make on my own, but now they are available at Party America!!! I printed them at my parents house so my invitations cost me $50.00 total. If you wanted to take them to Kinko's, it isn't too expensive to print these if you are only printing black and white. Another site I liked was Gartner Studios. They have a ton of DIY invitations and save the dates also. I will be making another post on DIY save the dates later. I found some I thought were great on another website that I would also like to share to brides on a budget like me.

Luggage

We desperately needed new luggage for our honeymoon so I began the search for nice luggage that wasn't out of our budget. I couldn't wait for anyone to get it off our registry as that would be too late for the honeymoon. So I searched and searched and found this wonderful site. We ended up buying the 5 piece Samsonite set and it arrived in 2 days! It was a wonderful experience and I will would use the vendor again. The luggage is also great. It is a nested set, so all pieces set inside the largest piece for very easy storage. The two largest pieces are expandable to give you room to bring stuff back with you from your honeymoon. I am way to excited about these, but I really do think they are a wonderful set of luggage.

Bridal Shoes

I absolutely love these shoes. I think I will be purchasing them soon. I do not want to be on heels all day and night or have to walk through grass wearing them either. These are all things you should consider when picking out shoes. I know after getting my dress on I will be wobbely enough without the heels.

Frog Glasses

I absolutely love these frog glasses. They would make gorgeous centerpieces. All you do is put flowers in between the mesh over the top of the jar. It is a very easy way to do a flower arrangement. I use these all over my home and putting an arrangement together is a snap. You could even use fake flowers in them and make them ahead of time and save quite a bit of money. There are quite a few sites with these on them, but this one was one of the cheaper ones I could find.

Here is also another site with great frog glasses that will not break the bank.

Chicken Wire Lanterns

These are also another rustic touch that could be used at a reception. If you have trees they can be placed in the trees or used to line the walkway into the hall. I have used these types of lanterns many ways for parties through the years and they are a beautiful touch.

5B & Candle Co.

This is my favorite candle company of all time. They have a few stores now, but my mother-in-law (to be), sister-in-law (to be), and I go to their store in Weston, MO at least 3 to 4 times a year. It is about an hour drive but it is absolutely worth it. They have grown so popular they have moved to a bigger store front recently. They had to up the price a little bit, but they are totally worth it.

These candles are so wonderful that I can light one, put it on our kitchen bar, and it makes my entire home smell good all day (I live in a 3 bedroom ranch). The store owner is the nicest person you will ever meet. If you are going to make any retail purchases of candles please do it at this store. She is the most giving store owner you will ever meet. As a matter of fact they finally started making the larger candles (larger than votive sizes) and she donates a portion of the sales to the National Rescue Foundation.

She also specializes in making personalized candles for weddings. My sister-in-law (to be) bought candles from her for her reception and it was the best experience she had. They got to pick a personalized scent and she made them tags to go on top of the candles with their names and wedding date on them. They gave these away as favors. They also used the candles in the centerpieces for their tables. The scent in that room was wonderful.

I am also using her for our candles and for my unity candle.

Rustic Touches

These Mission Tee Jars would be a perfect way to line an entrance to your church or reception. We are using them to line the pathway into our barn reception hall. We are also using them in our outdoor patio area of the reception for centerpieces on our rod iron tables. These are $19.45 a piece, but on their website there are similar jars for much less. The mission style jars are beautiful. They refract light and make very nice lighting.

You can also use them in obscure places throughout the hall as room fresheners. We are going to put some vanilla coffee beans about 3/4 the way and then set a scented candle amongst the beans. When the candle is lit, it heats up the beams and the aroma is wonderful.

Wedding Music

I think one of the most fun part of planning the wedding has been coming up with out soundtrack to it. I searched and searched for ideas, but found many of the lists were not my taste. Here is what we have decided to use:



Entrance: Will be standard songs. I cannot remember the name but it is the da da dada, da da dada one.



Unity Candle: Man and Wife



Exit: Sign, Sealed, Delivered



Entrance to Reception: Fame



First Dance: Crazy Love (I love this version)



Dance with Dad:



Dance with Stepdad & Son & Mother Dance: These are the days



Cake Cutting: I am Yours



Song I will have in my part of the slide show: Daughter


I am unable to post my playlist here so I posted at the top of my page under my heading picture.

Father's Gifts

My "theme" is photos. I have a rustic barn so everything is very rustic, but I also have many personal touches that include photos of us. Our centerpieces are photo frames and are shown below. I am making our guestbook have pictures on one side and then a signature page on the other. I am doing this on blurb.com's website. They have many great options. To add to this "theme" I am also giving all the dad's (my dad, step dad, and fiance's dad) photo cufflinks. I have found a lot of sites with these and they are all really expensive. I am purchasing these do it yourself photo cufflinks. I think they will work out great. I will post later to let you know how easy they are to do and how quickly they come in.

I will be putting pictures in both sides. One of us with our respective parent as a child and one of us the the respective parent and older.

Hankies for Bride, Mom's & Grandma's

I have gotten myself, my mother's (I have a mom and step mom), my fiance's mom, and my grandma all beautiful hankies from Bumblebee Linens. They were about $25.00 for 6! They arrived very promptly and are great. I have looked on many other websites and they wanted much more for 1-3. These are not embroidered with anything on them, but I am going to put their monograms on them and have them on their chairs with a nice card from us.

Fall Bridesmaids Dress

I have received my bridesmaid's dresses. They are absolutely beautiful and the girls love them. They are great cocktail dresses they can wear again. When you are selecting a dress PLEASE make it one the girls feel awesome in and can wear more then once. These dresses were $150.00 including shipping costs. If you are in the Kansas City Metro area, Mia's Bridal and Tailoring was the cheapest place to get these dresses. The color I choose was blue willow and this picture does not do it justice.

My Rustic Wedding Cake

I have been doing all sorts of planning and getting ready these last few months. The last thing I had to do was pick out my cake. My wedding has a rustic theme to it so I wanted a cake to match. I came across this cake. It is a strawberry short cake complete with directions on how to make it yourself. I found a family friend that is willing to do it for cost plus $25.00. This cake will serve all of our guests and more and will not cost me more then about $125.00. You can also substitute the strawberries for other fruit if the strawberries are out of season.

Cupcake Cake

Having a cupcake cake is very popular right now. We are going to be having one. I have found it is a nice alternative to having to cut and serve cake to all your guests. It definitely cut down the cost of our catering. Since I no longer have to pay $2.25/person to have them cut and serve my cake I am saving quite a bit. I am going to be using some of the wrappers above to add a decorative touch to our tower. I found these cupcake wrappers at Paper Orchid . They have tons of great choices. They also have stationary to match the wrappers that can be used for programs or invitations. I am going to buy a couple of packs of the wrappers and then buy some gold wrappers, at a local party supply store, and alternate them on the cupcake stand.

DIY Photo Centerpiece

I am using these for my centerpieces. I found them on Martha Stewart's website.I think they are very unique and add a personal touch to any table. You can use these, if you cannot have a slide show at your venue also. We are doing a little different variation of these centerpieces, but the concept is still the same. We are using a picture of me, a picture of him, and then a picture of us. They are all going to have a different picture in them, to add more variety for our guests.

Reception Site In Kansas City

This is where we are having our reception. After MONTHS of searching I found the perfect location. The parking is perfect and so is the location. It is a parks and recreation building so the cost is a little less then most places and they let you bring your own food if you wish. I will be posting a section on reception sites in our local area soon. I have done oodles of research that should help you gals out. Should you want the list I have compiled please feel free to email me at heathermrich@hotmail.com. They even have little cabins you can rent.

DIY Rustic Wood Centerpiece

I am a lover of nature and easy centerpieces. These are from the Pottery Barn, but you could make them yourself, for a very unique centerpiece or fun accent. You can go to your local tree service company and ask if you can have some pieces of the trees they recently cut down. They will usually let you, as they want to get rid of the scraps to make room for more. Then you can get a drill bit and drill a whole into the log and insert a tea light. I think these could be really neat in a rustic wedding.

Molla Space

I found this page today and I absolutely love the coasters, cups, bags and clocks they have on here. It is definitely worth your time to check this site out. The coasters are so whimsical and would add some color to your living room table.

Pros at Pronovias

All of these dresses can be found here. I love this designer. Do yourself a favor and check out their vintage line. The last two are my absolute favorite. If you are looking for elegance and originality, look no further!!!!

Bridal Undies

Here are some undies I really liked for any day or your special day. The top one is a Chantelle, Africa Shorty and can be found here. The middle one is a Kiki De Montparnasse, Etoile Locket Short and is a little more expensive. It can be found here. The bottom one is perfect for a wedding day. It can be found here. I really like the Kiki De Montparnasse collections. Some of them are very cute and fun and others are for crazy nights. The bridal collection will make any new bride feel sexy.

To Signature Drink or Not to Signature Drink

Many people are trying to find ways to cut their costs. One way is to service a signature drink series. Instead of a full bar you could have keg beer, wine, champaign and a signature drink or two. If you want you can serve your guests these signature drinks during a cocktail hour. I know I am going for the cocktail hour, because we are taking pictures after the reception. This way our guests will be able to mingle with one another while they wait for the wedding party. The pictures above mostly came from here. Here is another site I found helpful for some fun recipes. Have fun coming up with a drink that represents the both of you. Maybe it can be what you were drinking when he proposed, or your favorite drink to have when you go out.

Here are some hair ideas I liked. I think there can be some good variations of these done. Most of them were found at The Knot and Brides.com. I like how some of them are out of your face but not all the way up. I think that look ads a lot of elegance.

Groom's Cakes

Come on girls the groom is part of this thing to. Why not surprise him with a little something of his very own at the reception? After all he has put up with all of your Bridezilla moments throughout this planning process. The cakes are meant to be fun representations of your men so have a good time with it. I liked the cupcake tower a lot. Cupcake cakes are all the rage these days. In fact I am doing one myself. There are even cool wrappers you can use to dress up the cupcakes. If you go to my Wedding Cakes section you will see the link.

Centerpieces

I love all of these ideas. If you are trying to find a cheaper alternative for centerpieces I really like the candle approach. Let's face it, the fewer flowers you have to pay for the better. The bottom right candles are just votive holders with twigs glued to them, and sat on a leaf. This is a good idea for decorating the cake table, or guest book table. The second candle picture is off of Rachel Ray's website. It is cups, beans, a votive candle and some raffia. Another simple idea is finding some fabric to wrap around the candle holder. This will diffuse the light and make a great ambiance for your perfect evening. I really love the Shasta Daisy's in the vases with the cut limes. I really think that adds a lot of festive flavor to the decor. If you are going for a rustic look, the steel watering can is always great. I found several at Michaels at the end of the summer they were only a couple of dollars each!!!! If you get the Sunday paper they will also have a 40%-50% discount off your purchase at Michaels.

Fall Bouqet

Floressence Designs I saw their bouqets and had to put them up on here. If you aren't having a fall wedding they have tons more gorgeous options. The site lists all the flowers in the bouqets which I find very helpful. As many brides to be, don't really know the names of the flowers they love.

I am getting married in the fall to I went searching for ideas. I stumbled upon some great stuff at Loves Me He Loves Me Not. I absolutely love the candles. I am thinking about using them to line the walkway to my reception venue. The have all kinds of great stuff here.