Decor: Balloons & Balloon Ceilings

The venue that we are leaning towards is going to be inexpensive and somewhat of a sentimental value, as it is in the very small home town of my fiance. Unfortunately, it is going to take some very clever decorating to make it look good. It is a curling rink, built into a quonset type structure. It has a concrete floor, but it is not finished inside so all you see is the tin of the structure. I have found somewhere to buy polyvinyl plastic rolls large enough to cover the walls, giving us 10 feet until the "ceiling". But I wasn't sure how to hide the tin roof, and still make it look good, until my mom thought of balloons. Here are some pictures of balloon ceilings I found from Google Image Search...

I love the long streamers. They make it look so whimsical. I especially love the streamers in the next set of pictures. I love how they hung stars or moons on the streamers. Some look to be just cut outs, and some are actually small mylar balloons for a 3D look.

The next pixctures are other various ballon decor that I thought was cute. The first picture is of a balloon column where they used a balloon and set each balloon at a different level to fill the column, topping it with a large mylar star. In the second picture, they filled the balloons on the floor with helium and used balloon cups and sticks to have them look as though they are dancing along the floor.

The first picture is a huge balloon drop, imagine that on the dance floor at the last dance of the night... The second picture shows the large 3 (or more) foot wide balloons. I thought they were intersting. Picture 3 is an arch, and Picture 4 is a balloon centerpiece (shown from top view).

Planning: 7 Mistakes to Avoid

Avoiding these 7 simples things will keep a bride from turning into a bridezilla!

1) Procrastinating
Don’t put it off…do it now. If you keep pushing everything back you WILL run out of time. Procrastinating will add even more stress to this already stressful time.

2) Trying to do everything yourself
Don’t feel like you can’t ask family and friends to help during this stressful time. Chances are, they will be more than thrilled to help. You can use help with invitations, making vendor calls, planning the rehearsal dinner and a bunch of other things.

3) Booking the wrong vendor
Be sure to do research before you book a vendor. Ask for referrals from past brides, family and friends to get you on the right path. Once you have those referrals, as the vendor for reviews from past clients.

4) Inviting too many people
Don’t invite more people that you can afford. Be sure to keep an accurate count of the guest list and talk to parents and in-laws about their guest list.. If necessary, share the need to reduce the guest list. Do this BEFORE the invitations are mailed.

5) Expecting everything to go perfectly
…not that it won’t go perfectly, but be prepared for slight deviations in the plan. This will reduce the stress the day of the wedding.

6) Hiring the wrong photographer
Wedding pictures are lifetime memories that will be shared for generations. You should select the photographer that best fits you needs and style to ensure your memories will be best captured and shared with others.

7) Going overboard
Don’t feel like you have to do everything that was done at another wedding. Remember that this is YOUR wedding and it should be a reflection of the bride and the groom.

Why should the wedding ring be worn on the fourth finger?

Why should the wedding ring be worn on the fourth finger?
There is a beautiful and convincing explanation given by the Chinese.....

Thumb represents your Parents.
Second (Index) finger represents your Siblings.
Middle finger represents Yourself.
Fourth (Ring) finger represents your Life Partner.
& the Last (Little) finger represents your Children.

Firstly, open your palms (face to face), bend the middle fingers and hold them together - back to back
Secondly, open and hold the remaining three fingers and the thumb - tip to tip (As shown in the figure below):

Now, try to separate your thumbs (representing the parents)..., they will open, because your parents are not destined to live with you lifelong, and have to leave you sooner or later.
Please join your thumbs as before and separate your Index fingers (representing siblings)....they will also open, because your brothers and sisters will have their own families and will have to lead their own separate lives.
Now join the Index fingers and separate your Little fingers (representing your children)....they will open too, because the children also will get married and settle down on their own some day.
Finally, join your Little fingers, and try to separate your Ring fingers (representing your spouse).
You will be surprised to see that you just CANNOT... because Husband & Wife are to remain together all their lives.

Please try this out... It's a beautiful theory.

Life: Feeling Relaxed (For Once)

Dan and I were off to Saskatoon this weekend for 2 nights just to get a little R&R. We had a fantastic time, got some relaxation, and a chance to get out of Dodge for a while. We had a leisurely trip up, stopping in Regina to visit with my parents for a bit, a couple quick shopping stops, and carried on to Saskatoon. We checked into our hotel and wandered around downtown, stopping for supper in a small restaurant we had tried and really enjoyed during our trip up in April. We went to see Rob Zombie's Halloween on Saturday night, and it was phenomenal! By far his best film yet. But of course, we are fans of all his work. Sunday was relaxing, a nice breakfast, shopping and browsing around town, and supper with a friend of mine who is never available, so it was fantastic to see him again. We attended the movies again, this time to see the new Bourne movie, which Dan enjoyed more than I did, but I got a Yogen-Fruz, so I was happy. Monday we were up early, had a nice breakfast at the hotel restaurant, made a quick stop, and left Saskatoon fairly early. We stopped in Regina for lunch and a couple shopping stops, and hit the road for home. It all ended all too soon, but at the same time it was nice to get back home. Jessie, our puppy, was thrilled to see us when we picked her up from "grandma's", especially when she saw that we bought her new toys and a fleece blanket of her very own. Thank goodness for Dollar Stores lol.
Sorry to everyone about August's limited posts, we have been so busy with work and life, and trying to decide where to have the wedding, that I have been too busy to find a lot of new stuff for you all. I promise, once we finally nail down a location, that I will be all over the wedding finds again!

DIY: Square Lanterns

I thought these were gorgeous! I can't remember where I saw them, but I figured that they would be super easy to make. I haven't done one yet, but I did a quick paper mock up with looseleaf and some pencils and it worked just fine. So here are my instructions:

Materials:
Fabric / Paper / Ribbon / String
Wooden Dowels / Straws / Something to use as legs and supports
Glue (or Tape lol)

Instructions:
Okay, here is what I did in my Mock Up...

First:
I made the frame by taking 4 sticks for legs, and (taped because it was a mock up and it was all I had available) glued 8 supports in squares, one at 1/2 inch from top and one from one inch from bottom of legs, to form an open rectangle. Something like this horrid quick MS Paint example:

I suppose if you are using a rigid cardstock paper or something that you may not need the support sticks (shown in red), although still recommended for strength.

Second:
Wrap fabric, paper, or whatever around the legs and secure with glue (or tape, or staples).

Third:
Decorate with string, ribbon, beads, etc. Picture above used red fabric and yellow string for accent.

A couple of ideas:
A friend of mine thought it would be cool to just use ribbon and wrap it so it intersects and weaves and crosses and eventually covers most all of where the fabric or paper would cover, except for small holes that one would leave open, that way you could put a candle in it and have the light shine through the openings.
Which gave me another idea, and that was to layer paper underneath with a design cut out so that you could have a design that would show when there is a candle or light inside.

RE: A Lovely Comment from Eleen

Eleen said:
"Hi Jennifer, Thanks so much for sharing all your awesome and thorough research! I'm getting married in Jan 08 and stumbled across your site while researching color ideas. I was amazed - I'm sure you've saved me countless hours! You've found some great stuff. I've bookmarked your site and can't wait to see what other gems you find. I'm commenting on the Weather.com post, but really there are countless others that are really fun and helpful too. Happy planning, and congrats on your engagement!"

Thank you sooo much Eleen! I love to hear that someone other than just myself reads this thing. :) I hope that I can help you more as the big day nears. Congratulations to yourself and your fiance, and be sure to let me know how your day goes! I love getting news from readers and like to know that I'm helping out other people who are trying to plan their weddings.

Decor: Simple Centerpieces

I thought these were stupidly cute. As you see they can be decorated in anyway and can be filled with anything. I see that they put a plastic bag liner inside ones that are to be used as fresh flower vases. They come in 2 sizes, short: 5"x5"x6" and tall: 5"x5"x10". I imagine they would be fairly easy to make yourself.








The last picture is of their bud vase collection, it comes with the tiny "test tube" vase. Again, I think it would be easy to make.

Bride: Accessories

I've found some gorgeous accessories that I plan to order for myself. Here are my shoes, they come with 14 different colored ribbons all shown at the bottom of the picture, but I can always buy any ribbon to tie them with:

And my hair piece, it's a simple rhinestone triple strand headband, I'm sure I can find a way to stick a veil under it if I decide to have a veil:

And the garter I fell in love with. I don't care if it's the same garter, I just love the little blue crystal heart. I'm sure I can find the crystal heart at some kind of crafts store and attach it to any garter. Of course, I want to have a tossing garter so I can keep mine:

Flowers: Alternative Feather Bouquets

I saw these on IndieBride.com and fell in love, I couldn't find DIY instructions, but the picture of the set of 4 in the box were a DIY project posted by another bride. I loved these, for bridesmaids especially, and they could be altered and created smaller for grooms men's boutonnières. I also included feather centerpieces for additional inspiration.

Now, I have always wanted roses in my bouquet, well, since we got engaged and I started thinking of bouquets anyway, and I love the feathers too, but I found some amazing ideas for combinations of flowers and feathers. I think that the combination would look fantastic for the bride's bouquet and really set it apart from the bridesmaids'. I know the orange roses don't have feathers, I added that here as my own inspiration as they are the color of roses that I want. I'm trying to picture whether to go with a white feather base or a light light blue base. What do you think?

Party: Items I Loved

I had so much fun last night. I just had to show some of my favorite items! I loved these three items.
The first one is the body shimmer, it was a gorgeous lotion that didn't feel grainy like some other sparkly lotions do, it's a very subtle shimmer though, a little too subtle for my liking.
The second picture is the Jewels body glitter lotion. I liked it and it was subtle enough, but not too much so. I only found that it seemed to leave more sparkles in my palms than it did on my arms, but we were doing it all in a hurry trying to pass items around the room.
The third seemed to be the best. It's a gold dust, and it had smaller glitter than the jewels lotion, but it sparkled beautifully in the light. It seemed to stay on very well too, which the jewels lotion seemed to fall off on everything you brushed against.

The candle was amazing. We smelled and tried the Blissful Breeze and it was fantastic. What it is was a massage oil candle. You lit the wick, let it melt a bit, then poured the melted wax on your skin, it never got too hot, and massaged away. The scent was amazing, it lasted all night.

These two are a little more naughty. The Nipple Nibblers was really good. I've seen it in stores, but never had a chance to try it before. One of the girls there said she had it and she uses it as a lip balm. The consultant gave us all a bit on coffee stir sticks and told us to try it as a lip balm and it was fantastic. It tingled just a bit and it tasted great.
The Fireworks spray lotion was sticky, but it tasted fantastic. We were able to try both the passion fruit and the hot fudge. There are 10 different flavors that it comes in though. It warmed to the touch and was hot when licked off. It's definately one I'll be picking up when I host my party. I wanted to pick it up right away, but she only had the mint, hot fudge, and raspberry in stock with her. I'm looking to get the cherry and the passion fruit.

Life: It's Starting to Balance Out

So, the new bosses are here to stay and the old bosses are enjoying retirement. It's been busy and stressful, but things are seeming to begin to balance out. I am still losing my current position at work, but I will be heading into sales to give that a try. I'm a little worried, but being the only one in sales from the original ownership it seems that people are coming to me as a familiar face, so I could do alright. Once the mass confusion of the ownership change settles down a bit, it should be a lot easier.

The family issues that I briefly mentioned earlier have found their way to an end. My parents were possibly going to be splitting up, but they found a new love for each other in the midst of their crisis and have decided to give it another go. It seems that their love has grown due to this and we hope for (more) wonderful memories in their new/continuing relationship with each other.

I attended a "Passion Party" last night held by one of my girlfriends. We had about 10 women there and we had a fantastic time. I found some items I really loved, and I have decided that I'd like to host one myself. It was soo much fun. I found some awesome items for the wedding, from beauty products for myself to gifts for my bridesmaids. If you want to find out more about it, check them out at PassionParties.com.

Life: It's All Falling Apart

So let's start with work. The new bosses came in yesterday. Our original owners and the new guys were running busy yesterday, and it was a very busy day trying to get everything done and taken care of, but we managed and today for me has been a bit slower. About like normal this afternoon anyway. Sounds alright doesn't it? Well, this morning, the new manager informed me that I am going to be replaced with some guy from one of their other dealerships. Then he tries to give me a "consolation" prize that I could be a service adviser (been there, done that, and would rather shoot myself point blank in the face with a shotgun rather than do that again), a parts person (um how about No), or a receptionist (woo hoo really? wow, now I can flush my life down the toilet like I really always wanted!). He's going on about "we'll find you a position that you'll enjoy" and "you can always be our backup when the idiot we are replacing you with is gone on vacation or something". Yeah, nice consolation prize. Why don't you come out and tell me that you don't think that a 24 year old woman should be doing the job that I have been doing for a year and a half now. You want to find me a job that I really enjoy? Wait, I know!! IT'S THE ONE I'VE BEEN DOING!! I can't believe that this is happening, and I tell you, when it rains, it pours... This came on top of some serious family issues that I prefer not to speak about quite yet.

Stuff I Like: Veils

I had figured I wasn't going to wear a veil, but I really have my heart set on a short dress, or something a little more fun and flirty than bridal and traditional. My MIL to be is not too impressed with this she thinks the bride HAS to be formal and traditional. So my mom had the idea to compromise with her in an unusual way. Wear my short fun dress, but wear a veil to have more of a traditional bridal look. Sounds alright to me, the veil can come off at anytime, or I can at least dance the night away with it on, unlike some of those mattress skirts on the wedding dresses that my MIL likes. Yes Mattress Skirts. You know the ones that are all poufy and bunched up and looks like you took the springs out of your mattress and are now wearing it around as a skirt. (No offense to anyone who's style that is, I just look at them and think I feel like a mattress.)
So anyway... I did some searching and I did come up with some really cute veils that I don't mind.
I love the scattered crystals on these ones. I prefer the look of the 2 layers, but the single layer would be lighter and more wispy.

The shimmer veil is really gorgeous. The website said it's difficult to see indoors, but it looks fantastic when the light catches it. Very subtle, and then Bam!

The ribbon and cord edged ones are simple and cute/ I think it would look awesome if you could get ones where the ribbon is different colored. Like Blue or something.

But anyway, there's my finds of the day. Hope it gives you some ideas.

Planning: Weather and your Wedding

I found a helpful service from Weather.com that allows you to register your wedding location and date in order to receive weather details on it. It will give you average weather for your wedding, until you get within a closer deadline, at which point it gives you a weather forecast for the 10 days before your wedding. You are also able to enter wedding events (ie. bachlorette, engagement party, wedding shower, etc.) and receive the details on those as well. Head to Weather.com and chose the "Wedding Planner" under the "Plan Ahead" tab to start your personalized wedding weather forecaster.

DIY: Veils

I found this online in my travels and had it saved to my computer. I cannot remember where it came from.

"The wedding veil is an essential part of your ensemble. Rather than paying hundreds of dollars for your bridal veil, you could get creative and make one yourself! This is not as difficult as it may sound – with the right supplies and a little creativity anyone can craft a beautiful wedding veil that will remain an heirloom for years to come. Imagine how special it would be to hand the bridal veil that you made yourself and wore at your wedding to your daughter on her special day!

Supplies Needed:
First, you need to gather your supplies. Here is a list of things you may need to make your veil. Most of the items on this list can be purchased at your local craft store such as JoAnn's or Ben Franklin Crafts.
* Button hole thread
* White, or clear headband
* Velcro
* Batting
* Wide ribbon in white
* Floral wire in white
* Clear plastic hair combs
* White tulle
* Adornments like beads, pearls, crystals or rhinestones
* Hot glue gun

How to:
Lay your tulle on a flat surface and decide what length you want your veil to be. Then, fold the veil in half and weight it down so it will lay flat. Use chalk to draw a curved shape for the bottom of the veil then trim accordingly with fabric shears.
Now you'll want to unfold the tulle and gather the straight edge, or top of the veil. To accomplish this, you'll need thick, button type thread and a running stitch across the top of the tulle. Then, push the tulle together to create crimping. Now the top of the veil is smaller so that it can be attached to the headpiece.
Using your hot glue gun, attach the crimped end of the tulle to the headband. Once dry, use hot glue to attach the adornments such as satin or lace ribbon, miniature silk flowers, pearls, or stones to the headband.
For some expert guidance, check with the craft stores in your area. Many of them hold classes on making veils. At the least, they may be able to give you some helpful advice or direct you to a book of patterns so that you can see photographic examples and ideas."

Life: Busy Busy

I realize how long it's been since I posted and for that I am very very sorry. It's been stupid busy around our happy shack lately. My birthday was on the 14th, and for that Dan had a great weekend ready for me. We went to the city and shopped on the Saturday, he gave me a bunch of cash and said get whatever you like, so I stocked up my meager (then anyway) wardrobe with some tops, some dainty underthings, and some new jeans. Sunday we went out for breakfast, then off golfing, to our regular season scheduled slo-pitch game, and then out to Macoun for a relaxing drive and a coffee. It was a busy, but relaxing, weekend.
Then this past weekend we were roped into playing a ball tournament. Busy weekend, yes. Relaxing weekend... uh, a loud resounding No. 40 + Degree heat, 7 games in 2 days, and we won the B Side Finals. No air conditioning in the vehicle made it even worse with the hour drive to the park where we were playing, starting each day off with a 9 a.m. game and a temperature already into the 30s., with a humidity that felt like it was in the 50s.
In all that heat I even managed to catch a summer cold, which is still with me, although slowly getting better, and I feel like hell.
We each took the day off yesterday to head into the U.S.A. for the North Dakota State Fair. It was a slower day and a cooler one, which made it perfect in our books for fair going. We took in a beach party concert and a classic car show at the end of our evening to make for an excellent day. But the deer we almost hit on the way home was certainly a damper on our fun. We encountered 2 others on the rest of the drive home, but not nearly as close of a call as the first one who crossed our path... literally... about 10 yards up from us on the highway. Dan hit the brakes, HARD, and we managed to slow enough that he was more than halfway across the road, so Dan let off the brakes and went around him. Thank goodness for no oncoming traffic. But when we went around the deer, he was sooo close. I could have reached out the window (had it been open) and slapped it on the way by it was so close to us. It was certainly a very frightening experience.
But, I'll work on a few new posts over the next couple days and try to get something new wrote up here. Sorry for the lack of new reading material.