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I've been trying to pick Bridesmaids. I have a general - note that, VERY general - idea of who I would like. Unfortunately, due to everyone's very busy and contrasting schedules, I don't know a couple of these girls nearly as well as I'd like, but I love them to death. If we hung out even just a tiny bit more I'd go so far to say, as far as girl friends go, they would be my best friends. But can I pick them? Would it make them uncomfortable? We try to get together and whatnot but a lot of the time our schedules just clash. Or should I just pick some family members that I'm not really close to, but would seem to be a more traditional/family pleasing option over the girls I love to death and think are the greatest women in the world, but don't get to see as often as I'd like? Oh the horrid choices when planning a wedding.
But I did get a cute idea for jewelery for the bridesmaids to wear. Since we're having a more casual wedding, and I'm leaning towards giving the girls color options and letting them pick out the dresses themselves, we might have all the girls wearing something slightly different from one another, and possibly different colors or shades... So how to tie them all together and give them a uniform look? I figure to match all their bouquets and set them up in matching jewelery. I saw a very cute bead necklace that is stupid simple, but really quite pretty in it's own simplistic way. Just buy your beads and your ribbon and tie them all together. I'm not sure if I like just how big the beads in the picture are, I may pick a different size... Cute & casual, but we'll see what my girls say, plus it can be worn shorter or a bit longer depending on each girl's preference.
My Mood: Awake 
I've finished reading one of the two books that I picked up on our weekend to Saskatoon. I've finished the book "Offbeat Bride: Taffeta-Free Alternatives for Independent Brides". I highly recommend this book for any bride who is struggling with peer family pressure in creating the wedding of her dreams. This book even teaches you some methods for kindly telling people to get their fingers out of your pie and how to direct those fingers to where you want/need them.
This book is divided into sections such as:
Part 1: Otherwise Engaged
Part 2: Vanity, Fashion, & other things we shouldn't care about
Part 3: In The Thick of It
Part 4: The Trifecta of Wedding Conflict: Loved Ones, Ceremony, and Sanity (My personal favorite section)
Part 5: The Wedding Itself
Part 6: As The Dust Settles
Check it out and view the chapters broken down in every section here. You can view Ariel Meadow Stalling's Official Offbeat Bride Website and Blog or her MySpace for Offbeat Brides.
My Mood: Awake
Call me cheap, call me cost conscious, just don't call me someone who throws their hard earned money away. I've been thinking again, this time about flower girl baskets. Now, I couldn't even comprehend it when I saw prices ranging from $10 (very reasonable, but typically very plain, almost blah) to $40 + for anything relatively ornate. My God who can justify that? I've searched the internet for DIY instructions, but really didn't come up with anything other than find a small basket, wicker, cloth, plastic, whatever you want, and decorate it with paint, cloth, lace, ribbon, flowers, charms, beads, whatever you want. Aye Aye, Will Do, No Problemo.
Now I just have to brag for a moment, because I found a real steal, and really didn't even realize it immediately. Lol. We were out and about doing some shopping and decided to look through the Easter clearances to find some cheap toys for our puppy. Jessie will go through a stuffed toy in roughly 45 seconds, from fully intact to mountains of fluff and slobbery "stuffed animal carcass" pieces, but they are her favorite things and long after the fluff is gone to the garbage, the "carcass" lives on for quite sometime. But you don't want to buy her anything that costs more than a buck or two.
We found a few ranging from $0.24 - $0.89 in the clearance bins. Including one Bunny which was attached to a small colorful wicker basket for $0.65. So once we were home we cut the string tying the bunny into the basket, and the dog loved her new toy... briefly. But what to do with this damned basket... LIGHTBULB!! Into the closet it went and I'll decorate it at a later date for my flower girl basket.
Bingo Bango. And now I can have a basket that looks however I want it to look.
Here are some cute ones I've found in my searches for a little inspiration:
My Mood: Blank 
For anyone who wants one of those gorgeous feather topped pens, but - like me - chokes at the price of them, here are some ideas to DIY and create a beautiful pen for your guests to sign with. Plus if you're like me in other ways, I enjoy crafts and find them to be a relaxing way to work on the wedding, while taking my mind off the wedding.
Ribbon Wrapped Pen:
Materials:
- Regular Straight Pen: try to avoid clips or any fancy pieces, the straighter and smoother the better as not to have bumps under your ribbon. - Ribbon: whatever color, pattern, etc. that you desire. Say 2 feet, but the wider the ribbon, the less you'll need and vice versa.
- Feathers: if desired. You can use individual feathers and layer them up to get a poofy pen, or cut chunks off of an old feather boa, or a single long feather, or whatever you come up with.
- Hot Glue Gun: if you hot glue your ribbon down you're more sure that it won't shift or unravel. My mother has used pens before that come apart and she simply takes both ends out and winds her ribbon inside the pen and caps it off with the ends of the pen.
- Scissors: To cut your ribbon.
- A Friend: To help if you're not craftily inclined, or just to pour the vodka... if that's a regular in your crafting routine.
Directions:
- This is easier if done with a friend, but not necessary, but one could do the gluing and the other wrap the ribbon for a quick and smooth procedure.
- Put a dab of glue at the end of your pen and attach the ribbon at an angle... OR... remove the ends of your pen, start wrapping your ribbon once, and then trim and insert your ribbon into the end of the pen and put in the cap end.
- If gluing, or doing both glue and making use of the end caps, you may want to put a dab of glue after every (every other?) wrap.
- Continue to wrap and glue until the pen is covered.
- Cut the ribbon at the bottom of the pen. Put an extra dab of glue and secure your ribbon down at the end, or take the tip of the pen apart and insert your ribbon and recap again like at the start.
- Put a dab of glue at the end of the pen and attach your feathers, or whatever you want to stick to the top.
- Stick more feathers or whatever to the top until you get your desired effect.
NOTE: You could start at the tip of your pen and work your way to the end (top) and when you get close, wrap the tip of your feather (or whatever) into the ribbon close to the end of your pen for a smoother transitional look. Continue to wrap up the base of your feather or whatever you need to do to achieve the look you want.
These are a little different, but I though someone may be interested. It involves weaving your ribbon, and although beautiful, very beautiful, it's not something I'm going to try anytime soon. Too much time for me, I like quick and easy with a bottle of vodka and a friend.
Instructions for these can be found here.
My Mood: Artistic 
I don't know if anyone else has trouble with the wording of their invitations, but I sure am. Dan and I aren't formal people, and neither will our wedding be overly formal, so a formally worded, fancy calligraphy, uptight wedding invitation is not our style. Would make us feel, like I said there, uptight. I don't think that when I see other people's formal invitations, but that's the way it feels when I try to relay it to us. But how do you word a casual wedding invitation??
Paper and More has solved this problem for me. They have tons of sample wording for absolutely every style one may be looking for. They certainly have helped me out and here I post my praise to them and I hope to help out someone else needed wording ideas.
My Mood: Impressed 
I found an ad in the back jumbled mess of one of my bridal magazines for Asian Ideas.com. I'd posted previously the idea for an aisle marked by paper lanterns. I've also seen pictures where the couple used the lanterns for many aspects of decor. But, of course, anywhere I've seen to buy them around home here have been quite expensive. The cheapest I found was $11.89 plus taxes for the lantern alone, no lighting or anything of the sort included. So far I don't want the lighting, but that seemed like a lot for just the round paper lantern. So I looked at Asian Ideas, not with all that much hope... but sure enough they have great deals on the lanterns, especially when ordering multiples. I wanted orange for down the aisle, but I also wanted white and blue for hanging decor around the reception. I found 10 inch diameter seemed to be the right size for me, but they offer a 10 to 42 inch diameter, although I don't seem to find that the maximum 42 inch diameter is available in all colors.
I found that my white 10" diameter lanterns are:
$1.70 each, 6 for $9.90, 12 for $12.00, or 24 for $21.60
The colored lanterns in a 10" diameter are:
$1.95 each, 6 for $11.40, or 24 for $42.00
Here are my choices for possible colors for our wedding. There are more shades of oranges and blues, and every other colors and shades that a person may be looking for. I did find in all my research that Asian Ideas did seem to have a much better color selection. Note: For anyone interested in lighted lanterns, they do offer the lighting kits in many different variations.
My Orange Options
My Blue Options
Other sites I researched:
Japanese Wedding Favors
Paper Lantern Store
My Mood: Tired 
