guestbook prompts

As I mentioned, here is a possible contender for the prompt books that my mom and I found at Hobby Lobby:


It is obviously meant to be used as a photo album, but the pages are blank card stock inside (rather than plastic sleeves). And I LOVE that the future mister and I can incorporate some of our engagement photos if we end up using these.

Now, what are some good prompts?

Here are the questions that MSW provided with their template:

Some good...

1. What's the best marriage advice you've ever gotten?
2. What's your favorite memory of us? What's your funniest memory of us? (one or the other, not both)
3. What should we name our kids? (this one could get some funny responses)
4. What should we do on date nights?
5. What's the most romantic place we should visit? Where should we go for our 10-year anniversary? (these two questions are too similar, don't you think?)
6. What should we do during our first year of marriage?
7. Where do you see us in 25 years?
8. When did you know we were meant for each other?

Some not so good...

1. What's the most romantic movie you've ever seen?
2. What were you really thinking during our vows?

And here are a few others that I found online:

1. Share your favorite moment of the wedding so far....then update later if you have a new favorite moment.
2. What are your predictions for our future? (very similar to "Where do you see us in 25 years?" - I think I like this wording better)
3. Why is Heather perfect for Sam? Why is Sam perfect for Heather?
4. What's the best thing about being married?
5. What are your tips on how to be a great husband/wife?

What are your favorite questions of the ones listed above? Do you have any others to share?

Also, we will have about 20 tables (6 - 30" hi boys, 8 - 36" rounds and 6 - 48" rounds) in total at the reception. Should we have a book for each table or just 10 to 12 scattered throughout?

table mock-up

So here are the photos from the lunch my parents had with Nancy, the hankie lady, and her husband last week.




I wish I had more to show you, but unfortunately my dad is not a blogger and only took two photos. Just imagine the table without all of the china, glassware and utensils. Our tables won't be preset since we're having a cocktail buffet. So they will just have the burlap with crocheted doilies in the center, blue mason jars filled with flowers, and possibly some votives.

I'm really glad that Nancy suggested the doilies - they add more dimension and texture to the table. Slowly but surely my inspiration is coming together in tangible form.

Did you do any mock-ups to see what your reception decorations would look like before the wedding?

card "box"

Nancy "the hankie lady" has turned into a true friendor. Yesterday she and her husband had my parents over for lunch so she and my mom could brainstorm table decor and centerpieces. I'll touch on all that a bit later, but first let me introduce you to our card "box", or rather, birdcage.


It's kind of funny. To my knowledge, Nancy doesn't read wedding blogs or look at wedding magazines, yet all of her ideas so far seem so in tune with much of what I've seen floating around wedding land lately. It was she who suggested using lace doilies underneath the mason jars on our tables - and now I'm seeing photos of similar centerpieces all over the blogosphere!

Anyways, back to the topic...My first impression of the birdcage was that it was rather large - perhaps too large to be used as a card box. My mom agreed that it was pretty big for a birdcage, but that it would look great outside at our reception and wouldn't overwhelm the space. I trust her judgment. So Nancy and her husband are going to clean it up, repaint it and decorate it with some ribbon.

What are you using/did you use as a card box?

decorating our ceremony space

The future mister and I will be getting married in a brick-walled "sunken garden" surrounded by beautiful foliage. It is a space that is utterly gorgeous on it's own, which is why I hadn't given much thought to decorations or floral arrangements. I figured that we'd hang some mason jars or small vases with wild flowers from a few of the chairs lining the aisle and call it a day.

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My mom, though, wasn't really convinced that this would be enough (and she is much better at seeing the bigger picture). She asked me if I wanted to have an arch. No, thanks. Well, what about urns of flowers perched on top of the wall or on pedestals like so:

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Don't get me wrong, these arrangements are very lovely but just way too big for my tastes.

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And sorry Cupid, you're not invited either.

Then mom suggested something that I think will be the perfect way to add some flowers while at the same time keeping in line with my simple/rustic aesthetic and complementing, instead of taking away from, the natural beauty of the space.

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A simple bouquet, like the one above, hanging upside down from the pillars of the brick wall would add some color and just the right amount of pizazz. Here's my (sad) attempt at Photoshopping what it might look like:

Hey, it's good enough to get my point across. For now, I think I'll just let this marinate a bit until the next time I meet with Epting. They might have some ideas that we haven't even thought of yet.

What was your design aesthetic for your wedding? How did you decorate your ceremony space?

saving seats

I think I've mentioned it before that we are having a "cocktail buffet" at our reception. This means that we won't have seating for all of our guests and instead there will be a mixture of 30 inch hi-boys and 36 and 40 inch rounds. If guests get tired throughout the evening, there are additional chairs on the front porch of the house, plenty of seating inside the house (in the air conditioning) and we could also potentially carry some chairs from the ceremony site to the green space surrounding our reception tent. For our younger guests, we don't foresee this being a problem. For our elderly guests, however, we are planning on reserving a few of the larger rounds. This will give me the opportunity to craft some more paper products since I'll be missing out on creating table numbers and escort cards.

The other thing I plan on doing is reserving seats for me and the future mister! Granted, we probably won't be sitting much throughout the evening, but it'll make for an awesome photo! Here are some of my favorites:

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(source) - my absolute favorite!

Are you planning on saving seats at your wedding? Which one is your favorite?

shabby chic chalkboards

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I love the idea of using a shabby chic/vintage chalkboard as signage at the wedding. It could be used on the guest book table, the gift table, or at the bar to list drink options. Perhaps if there's enough time, I can tack a few of these onto my DIY list.

the hankie lady

While home I was also able to spend some time with my mom. On Saturday we went to visit the "hankie lady." Back when I decided that I'd be creating handkerchief save-the-dates, I put my mom in charge of scouring up the hankies. In the winter, while at one of the local craft/antique places, she met Nancy who owns an antique linens booth. Well mom and Nancy hit it off and Nancy has gone above and beyond to find me the perfect handkerchiefs. I received another installment of about 20 on Saturday that were gently laundered and perfectly pressed. And she wouldn't take a dime for them! Wow. We also discussed doilies and mason jars, which she has also volunteered to gather for us (the doilies were actually her idea!). The plan is that the vintage lace doilies will go on top of our burlap table cloths and then the blue mason jars will set on top of those with some twine tied around the lip. Ohhh it's all coming together! I was even able to find some perfect inspiration photos:

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Did you have any friends, family members or vendors that went above and beyond the call of duty for your wedding?

a whole lot of lovely

The following photos are from a sorority sister's wedding back in June. I wasn't very close with this sister as she was a year below me, but these photographs are too beautiful not to share.

(click here to see more)

I absolutely adore the middle photo (of the family tree)! What a great idea! I was just planning on framing the wedding photos of family members and putting them out on either the gift, guest book or cake table, but I might have to rethink that. So lovely.

If you displayed family wedding photos at your wedding, how did you do it?

the dreaded phone call

About two weeks ago I received a phone call from our event coordinator at Epting Events - her husband had accepted a job out of the area and she was leaving the company. Definitely not the kind of phone call you ever want to get when planning a wedding!

Since we were still at about a year out, though, nothing much had been done except for the initial meeting, proposal and deposit. Plus, Epting is known for taking care of its clients. Well today we met with our new coordinator, Wendy, her assistant Abby and even Lee Epting himself. It was a great meeting. We were able to hash out our ideas and pare down the initial proposal. No worries here!

So now that that's settled, I'm going to leave you with some eye candy - my attempt at an "inspiration board." I brought this with me today to show our coordinators, but I had to doctor it a bit for the blog so that my gorgeous, top secret wedding gown isn't seen by the wrong eyes (i.e. the future mister's).

repurposing glass jars

Ohhh, I found another project to do! One of these days I'm going to have to start implementing these projects instead of just writing and talking about them.

Anyway, I don't think I've blogged about it yet, but we're planning on collecting blue ball mason jars to use as our flower vases. So far I've collected around 5 or 6 from antique stores and flea markets. What I didn't realize at first was how expensive those jars can be! I think I paid $5 for the most expensive ones, but there were some priced even higher than that. However, I do have lots of the plain, clear glass mason jars because the future mister's parents do a lot of canning (and we get to reap the benefits). I don't really like the look of the clear glass, but they're free(!) and the following project has given me a wonderful idea on how to spruce them up. Behold:

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They're from Martha, of course. All it takes is a bottle (check!) and enamel paint. What do you think?

be still my heart...

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Sigh. These are so lovely that I am at a loss for words. As you probably know, the future mister is in graduate school working on his PhD in Southern/Appalachian History during the Civil War and Reconstruction. That roughly translates into a WHOLE LOT of reading (7+ years to be more precise). I love to read as well. If we were doing escort cards (which we're not), I'd jump all over this idea.

What are you doing for escort cards? Any suggestions as to how I can incorporate some pretty, fabric or paper covered books into our wedding decor?

magical

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I saw this photo recently on Style Me Pretty and think it looks absolutely magical for an outdoor wedding. Definitely a different take on stringing white Christmas lights over the reception space. And they could probably be reused in our home after the wedding. I wonder how difficult it would be to pull something like that off? I remember in high school making a ball like that by dipping twine in watered down glue and placing it around a balloon. Then once it was dry, we popped the balloon and had a pretty decoration to hang from the ceiling. The ones above look like they could be twigs or branches though. Something to think about. Although with all of the other projects floating around in my head, I'll probably end up using whatever our event planner has available in their warehouse.

Has anyone else attempted to tackle such a large DIY project before the wedding?

pools are meant for swimming...or maybe not

Remember our beautiful venue? Well what I didn't show you is this:

Yes, there will be a pool at our venue - and the combination of fun times and alcohol makes me a little nervous. In my mind I am picturing something like the introduction to FRIENDS.

Most likely, our cocktail hour will be held around the pool before the guests move to the tent in front of the house for the reception. Although our event planner assured us that they've never had a problem with any guests jumping in, I'd like to come up with a deterrent to make sure it doesn't happen. Here's what I've come up with:

1. Floating Monogram - I think this would look very pretty during cocktail hour, before the sun sets. Plus it's large enough to send the message, "I'm here to make the pool look beautiful, don't even think about sticking your toe in to test the water."

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2. Votives - Placing votives along the edge of the pool looks pretty and also acts as a barrier between the pavement and the water. But it probably won't be noticed until after the sun sets.

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3. Floating Candles - This also won't look pretty until the sun sets, but I think it's by far my favorite. In case you can't tell, various size candles were set in large dishes of some kind to float through the pool. I'm sure we could achieve a similar effect by using floating candles.

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I am also playing with the idea of using a combination of the above. Maybe a smaller floating monogram surrounded by a few floating candles? What do you think? Any other suggestions?

color me happy

I have always loved color. Especially the emotions that are associated with certain colors. My room growing up had yellow walls and a blue ceiling. My bedspread was a yellow, blue and green plaid. It was happy and cheerful. My bedroom in college used the same colors, with the addition of some pink. My mom lovingly made a duvet cover and pillows after I found the perfect fabric. That fabric was so perfect that I ended up using it in the living room of my first apartment - mom tore apart the duvet cover and created more pillows and curtains. And now that I am cohabitating, it is in my office/guest room. The future mister has his man cave (office) full of dead animals and books, so I thought it only fair that I had a girly room of my own.

This brings me to our wedding colors. I think this may have been one of the easiest decisions we made. There was no use hemming and hawing over colors when the answer was right in front of our faces.

1. The colors above pretty much define who I am
2. The mister's favorite colors are blue and green

So without further ado:

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I'll use the aloe, or what I call robin's egg blue, and the leaf as the primary colors (so things aren't too girly or feminine), and the peony and ivory as secondary colors.

What do you think? Was it this easy for you to pick out colors or was there more of a debate?