New wedding mission: Become more organized!

Ok.... so it's really time for me to get serious. Whether you may or may not know, Danny and I have been engaged about a year and a half. I've had plenty of time to do my research on this wedding and if I could do it all over again, I would do the exact same thing. I highly encourage couples getting married to do the same. It has left me time to really get what I want in all aspects. I don't know how you feel, but I plan on only doing this once so it better be right. Down to DIY-ing everything, I've also had time to get the venues, clothing, catering,  etc. I've wanted at the best possible price I could. I'm one of those change-my-mind-all-of-the-time kind of people, but I feel like I've really stuck to my guns the whole way through this process. Unless of course, we're talking DIY projects.

To this day, (to be specific, 5 minutes ago) I'm constantly looking at DIY wedding ideas. Yes, I am crazy. It's almost become my little hobby....or obsession as most people would refer to it. I LOVE MAKING THINGS! Ok, ok I think I need to start Lent a little late this year. No DIY project searching for 2 months! Not 40 days, but 60 days of not using my favorite word, (Google) on how to add more projects to my already extremely long list. So everyday I'm going to remind myself of how to stay on track. I'm going to start listing my daily wedding tasks on my blog so not only you can see what I have accomplished, (or what I didn't) but I can keep track. Ok good. I already feel better just writing that I'm going to do it.
So first things first, here is my list of Wedding tasks for May 4th, 2011:
-Finalize my wedding invite choice (Yes I had found some, but decided after the rehearsal dinner invites came in, that I actually hated my wedding invites.)
-Work on Pomanders (goal is 2 everyday until the wedding.)

Pretty attainable list, but it's already 6:30 and I still need to eat dinner, watch my Wednesday t.v. shows, and spend some time with my Smooch bear.(Danny..haha!) All before I go to bed with all of the other old married couples in the world at 10p.m. :)

 So, have a lovely evening everyone, and I will be back tomorrow to tell you all about how my night went. I'll also be showing you my DIY table numbers. It's been fun, but I'm cutting out early for dinner....mmmm I can't ever miss a meal!

Whew! I can't believe I forgot to wish everybody a Happy Belated Royal Wedding on Friday! What was your favorite part? I got home from work on Friday night and checked out some of the highlights via DVR.  I seriously don't know how I would function without it! The recording we had was 5 hours long, and I'm pretty sure I watched about 30 minutes total. I did catch the best parts though. Of course I had to watch Kate's entrance and to see her dress and I think the only other part I watch was the kiss. I didn't really get into the mumble jumble crap. I did however, think her dress was AMAZING!! I'm pretty sure my favorite part so far about planning my wedding has been planning wardrobe. Getting dressed is one of my favorite parts of the day, so of course its got to be outdone x10 for a wedding. So, in honor of the hype of the Royal Wedding, I will show you my favorite part incase you missed:

Ok so enough Royal Wedding excitement. I had a day off today so I worked on wedding stuff all day! I started off by drawing up centerpiece plans and assessed what I still needed in supplies. The venue I'm having my reception at has many different tables and a MONGO outdoor space, so I have 4 different centerpieces I'm using. I probably should have been a little more organized about my strategy, but thankfully I still have time. The closer and closer the day approaches, I feel more unorganized. I totally forgot about a hair appointment I'm suppose to have tomorrow, and I have to work. Opps. Thankfully I have very accommodating people in my life.
Ok, so besides realizing I was unorganized this morning, I spent about an hour looking for my glasses. I usually either have them in the bathroom or on my nightstand, and they had been missing for about 24 hours, (Anyone who knows me knows how precious my Ray-Bans are too me.) Just when I was positive one of the dogs had taken them and chewed them into pieces, I found them in the box of save-the-dates. ha!
After my absent minded morning was over I began working on my projects. I completed about 6 pomanders today, which is awesome! I also became pretty close to finishing up painting my table numbers too, which you'll see in the future:). I caped my day off by setting some of my centerpiece displays so I could see them and make corrections if needed. Very successful day all in all. Danny has also been such a help with the pomanders. He's in the middle of finals week, and during his study breaks he helped fan fold tissue paper. What a doll:)
Tonight, I'll leave you with the arrangement I assembled for my head table. Bon voyage! (Sorry I'm an old person and I go to bed early...every night).

Pretty Pew Pomanders! Say that five times fast!

So my latest project has been these very inexpensive pomanders. It brings me back to the days of my freshman year of college and pomping for hours on end for my sorority's homecoming float.... I will say I'm sooo glad those days are over! After many idea changes, I finally decided on these for the pews in the church we are having our ceremony in. Since I'm pretty sure I will be walking down "The World's Longest Aisle", (Well probably not the world's longest, but it's pretty damn long) I have estimated I will need at least 80 of these to have just one on each pew. So far, we have made about 10. Extremely time consuming and about an hour in every time, I feel like I'm an 80 years old with Arthritis. On the up side they turn out gorgeous, and make a super cheap alternative to flowers. To make about 18, I've in total spent about $15- $20. Which is SERIOUSLY dirt cheap when you think about the impact they will have.

Here are the supplies:
-bendable bailing wire
-tissue paper in the color of your choice
-scissors
-3" or 4" styrofoam balls

My mess of bailing wire I have going on

The tissue paper need to be cut into 5"x 7" squares. You then stack 4 sheets on top of each other and fan fold the stack. After you fan fold, cut a strip of bailing wire about 2" long and wrap it around the fanned paper. I usually twist and wrap the bailing wire at the end so the wire becomes twice as strong. Then, stick in the styrofoam ball. You will need to do this about 20 times for each ball. I know, but didn't I tell you this would be time consuming?

Here is the almost finished product. All I need to do is add a long strand of ribbon for a handle to hang off the pews and they are finished!:)

After getting about 10 deep into this project, I would highly suggest making a limited quantity. You can really put these anywhere. Hang on a door handle, on the ceiling, a couple at the reception bar, so really your possibilities are endless. I'm very excited to see the impact these will make running down the aisle. I plan on donating them to the church after the wedding. You can't honestly believe I would give something away we'll be putting about 100 hours work into? Well my answer is: What in world would I use 80+ pomanders after the wedding for? Exactly what I though.

You can never bite off more than you can chew.....right?!

Well, I've decided to enter the blog world with something that is actually entertaining my life at this moment. As many of you may or may not have known, I started out on BlogSpot with a DIY home project blog. I haven't found much excitement with that the last few months, and have decided to get real and show you what I've really been up to instead of having a mistreated and unused blog on home projects I don't even keep up with.

Ok, so now that's out of the way, I would love to explain how much doing this wedding means to me. I think a DIY wedding can be interpreted many ways. You can go as far as making your own wedding dress to just doing a few pomanders for your cake table. The word is used differently for everyone, and there is no right or wrong. Sometimes I feel as though I've taken on the task of making a wedding dress though. HAHA. As time is running out, I feel like all I do outside of work is wedding projects. Ugh. Mostly my own fault though, because I continue to search the web and buy magazines looking for another DIY project to add to my list. I think I'm obsessed with ideas....last week I thought it was a good idea to sew a dress for one of my bridal showers....really Nicki? On top of everything else I have on my plate right now, I need to learn where to draw the line. The closer and closer my wedding date approaches, I've been dreaming how this day and the events leading up to it are going to be. Regardless of budget or time constraints there is one this every girl has in common: They want this time to be the best in their lives.

So, on my journey with what "I've bitten off" I'm gonna show you that nothing is impossible and even though I think it would have been easier to pay someone to do all of these things for me, I will never get as much gratification from doing that as I will from doing things myself. Though I've always been a DIY-er in every aspect of my life since I was a kid, I definitely think anyone could do this with a little effort. That's the key word in this story....EFFORT! haha Trust me, I know this is hard to find more often than not!

My life is so highly entertaining at times, I have taken many breaks on projects so I make sure I still stop to enjoy it.:) Besides going to work and the wedding, and am still thankful I get to do enjoyable activities every now and then. Let me set the scene: I come home from work and walk into my house..i.e. Danny's parents' house..(He's in his second year of law school so we are saving cash money $$) to a beautiful pack of 4 dogs...haha yep I said it 4 DOGS! Talk about inspiration! If you don't have the pleasure of owning any animals, you should. I'm not kidding you, between the funniest person I've ever met, (Danny) and these dogs, there is always something entertaining going on. Don't ever forget throughout your life no matter how much you have on your plate, don't forget to laugh. I'm pretty sure that's what keeps me somewhat sane everyday. Some days are better than others of course.:)

So, blog world I can't wait to share with you the ups and downs of a DIY wedding. I would give you a project now, but I'm getting ready to go to work for the day. So to keep you on the edge of your seat....My first DIY I'm going to show you is....(Drum-roll pa-lease!) PEW POMANDERS!! Ta da! If you don't know what that is, use the phrase I live by, GOOGLE IT!:)