Pashmina Valet- a Good Idea Gets Even Better

The One! Featured on Cheap Healthy Good!

Hey hey everyone!  Head on over to Cheap Healthy Good, where we’ve been featured in today’s festival of frugality!  There you’ll find excellent tips for frugal folks, along with suggested itunes to listen to while you read.  Suggested reading for The One! is Holiday by Madonna.  Love that!

While you’re there, be sure to check out all the other cool links- including six questions you must ask before you get engaged.  And be sure to check out Cheap Healthy Good’s many great postings for recipes and foodie resources galore!  Thanks to Cheap Healthy Good for this shoutout!

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Flip Flop Valets- Hot or Not?

Alright, I’ll just say it up front, I vote HOT.    Flip flop valets are among the latest and greatest in wedding trends, and I have to say, I’m all about them!  You could easily and inexpensively make one of these for your own wedding- Old Navy has a sale every spring where they sell flop flops for $1, Jack’s $.99 store near me sells them, and Michael’s and Target often have them in their discount crafty bins for $.25-$.50.  If you live in NYC, you could also buy inexpensive Chinese sandals from vendors on the street and use them the same way.  What a fun easy way to personalize your wedding!  And think of all the cute little puns and sayings you could come up with for your basket sign.   From “sole mates” to “dancing shoes,” the sky might just be the limit!

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 Of course, if you love this idea but would prefer to pawn off the work, or don’t feel creative enough to pull it off on your own, Kate Parker Weddings would be glad to make a flip flop valet for you… just be prepared for the accompanying price tag (starting at $225).

Hello Kate Parker Lovelies!

 What do you think?  Do you love it?  Would you do it?

The One! Featured at 28th Carnival of Money Stories II

The One! has been featured at the 28th Carnival of Money Stories II, a blog carnival that is all about people’s personal finance stories (in our case, the story of how we saved more than $10k on our honeymoon!) and it’s well worth checking out, for more wedding related tips- like buying an engagement ring, or how to keep your credit info safe when buying online- something all brides are doing these days.  Thanks to the carnival and best wishes for their continued success!

image source: the vintage moth

Bridesmaids Gifts From Megan Lee Designs

Beautiful raspberry scarf with bright blue wildflowers

Gorgeous Metallic Trees Hip Bag

Take flight seagull scarf in shades of blue gray and green

Pretty and SOFT peacock tshirt in teal and ivory

Red orange birdy headband / fascinator, hand painted one of a kind

Peacock Love Tote, Screenprinted by hand

Black dress with hand painted sparrows- hello rehearsal dinner?

Musings on Music

Music is a subtle, but important-to-me part of our wedding.  For the most part, I have told J. he has full discretion to decide on reception music, both songs and genres, and he’s worked pretty hard to come up with ideas we both liked.  But for ceremony music, that is definitely my thing.  I sang in church choirs from the age of 5, took many years of piano lessons, continued to perform in high school (at one point I took third place in a regional competition in Michigan, which was quite the feather in my cap at the time) and I’ve sunk goodness knows how much money into voice lessons.  These days, the best I’ve got is karaoke, but I still love me some traditional music.

And this weekend we’re meeting with the organist at the church to nail our songs down!  So I’ve been doing some research on the music I personally love, and would love to hear at the wedding.  The church has an amazing pipe organ, so I know we’ll get some good stuff. 

One of the best resources I’ve found so far was actually on another blog, Wedding Music Unveiled, and they have a post titled “Avoid Overused Music! 29 Better Choices for Prelude Music for Wedding Ceremonies.”  The absolute number one thing I want to do is avoid overused music at our wedding, so I was psyched when I found this! 

Using this resource and my own background knowledge, I got to work brainstorming possible music.  I knew I wanted to incorporate some Christmas music, but I wanted to use it sparingly, because we don’t want people to forget they are at a wedding (as opposed to a Christmas service).  So here’s some things I’m thinking about, with links to youtube clips of the songs… comment if you have thoughts, because I’d love to hear them!  And by the way, yes, I do have a thing for Handel!  His music has a lot of life, and its recognizable for the music aficionados out there, but nice to listen to even if you’re not “into” music.

For the Prelude, I’m thinking we’ll do the Christmas music:

Still Still Still 

The Wexford Carol (this arrangement was closest I could find in terms of tempo)
 
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
 
Handel: O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings To Zion, from the Messiah

For the Bridal Party Processional, I’m totally up in the air:
 
Bach: Sheep May Safely Graze  (a throwback from my piano lesson days, this could also work in the prelude)

Handel: Air, from Water Music

Now, the Bridal Processional is easy.

Clarke: Trumpet Voluntary 

But I’m still a bit stumped on the Recessional:

Stanley: Trumpet Voluntary (possibly too overplayed for me…)

Handel: La Réjouissance

Bach: Brandenburg Concertos No.3,  i: Allegro Moderato

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Brilliant, DIY, Budget Rehearsal Dinner Invitations

 Today I am so excited, because our rehearsal dinner invitations have been sent and should be at their destinations by now!   These invitations were so much fun for me, because although I didn’t DIY the wedding invitations (I had to make the call to preserve my sanity!) I decided that the smaller number of rehearsal dinner invites merited some DIY action.  And in case you didn’t know, making invitations is WORK!  I’m glad I just stuck with these (and glad I had FMIL and FSIL to help)!  Don’t worry though, I’ll give you all the details for how you can make them yourself!

First, I went to Paper Source and I purchased enough of the following supplies to make 30 invitations: (1) A7 note cards in leaf, (2) cover weight 8.5 x 11 cardstock in leaf, (3) soft white enclosure cards, which are slightly smaller than the A7 cards, (4) 4 bar cards in soft white, (5) “Retro Snowflake” envelope liners, and (6) A7 envelopes in superfine white.  I also gathered up my handy-dandy address labels, which have been used for a variety of projects.

For step 1, we attacked the envelopes.  I had 50 envelope liners but only needed to line 30 envelopes, so I cut rectangles from the leftovers and glued them to the front of the envelopes.  I also used a heart-shaped hole punch to add a heart near the return address.  Using fonts we selected for the invitation, I printed out address labels and added them on top.

Of course we couldn't send a plain envelope...

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Super-Sweet Giveaway Happening at iDIY!

If you have not yet had occasion to visit  iDIY, get thee there immediately and enter the most amazing giveaway EVER.  The L Letterpress Tool Kit Giveaway!  And while you’re there, be sure to check out all the freebie, downloadable paper goodness- I can’t tell you how much inspiration I’ve gotten from the site!

I want this little machine SO badly.  I bet I’ll buy it even if I don’t win it- can you imagine how much fun you could have letterpressing your own goodies for a wedding, shower, birthday card, or more?  Talk about budget friendly high end goodness!  Hooray!  (image from iDIY)

Tipping, The Great Wedding Mystery

Recently, while attending to the trusty wedding budget, J. and I realized that while we had estimated a hefty amount for tips we would pay on the wedding day, we really had no idea where the amount would end up.  Of course, we knew with near-exact precision how much gratuity would be paid as part of the reception cost, and how much would be paid to the maitre d’, so that had already been dealt with in another budgetary line item.  But we began to wonder, who and what exactly are you supposed to tip with respect to the other wedding  vendors?

On one hand, we are already paying through the nose for this wedding.  On the other hand, we have gotten reasonable prices for every service we are receiving, and these vendors have, so far, been very good to us.  Plus, it is the holiday season, not the time to be stingy.  But in this recession, it is not the time to go nuts with the spending either.  What’s a girl to do?

According to The Martha’s tipping guide, you are only supposed to tip people who do not own the business providing the service.  So for example, you might tip the floral delivery man, but not the florist who owns the flower shop.  You might tip a photograher’s assistant, but not the photographer if they own their own studio (compare with tipping a photograher who does not own the studio but merely works for the studio).  Martha says that vendors price their requirements into your contract and don’t expect to be tipped more, and so you are off the hook with respect to those vendors once you pay the contracted amount.

But east coast tipping protocol seems to be a bit more generous than the Martha guide suggests, and I’m inclined to agree with the approach.  Under the guidelines I received from my day-of coordinator, we should tip photographers and videographers and then we also should tip each band member (with a little extra for those who play during cocktail hour).  This makes sense to me, especially in light of the holiday season. 

I’ve heard suggestions that tipping generously before the service is provided (such as before the band plays or before dinner is served) sometimes helps to ensure the service will be excellent.  Others say you should not pay until after the service has been provided, and only if provided well.  Me, I’m planning to hand the envelopes to my day-of coordinator and say “they are marked by recipient, please tip when appropriate.”  Rather than try to figure it all out, I’m just going to trust the experts on this.   We’re also paying quite a bit to make sure that the band and photographers/videographers get to eat at some point during the evening, so I think with the gratuity, that’s pretty fair, right? 

But what I really want to know is- if you pay thousands of dollars in fees for your church, should you still make a donation or are you ok?  I’ve asked around and everyone has a different opinion.  And I’m clearly not an expert on this subject.  My coordinator says we’re paying enough and don’t need to worry about it, and I’m inclined to agree, but I’m obviously biased.  Fellow brides and former brides out there, what is your take on tipping protocol?

I guess the moral of the story is that I need to put go to the bank and get a boat load of $20’s and $50’s on our wedding to-do list!

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How to: Save over $10,000 on Your Honeymoon

As J. and I get closer to our wedding day, one of the things we’re starting to get especially psyched about is our honeymoon!  We’re going to be spending 14 days in Hawaii on three different islands, and we are SO excited!  Of course, a trip like this does not come cheap, so in planning we spent a great deal of time thinking of ways we could maximize value on our trip.  One such way was to delay our honeymoon for about 3 weeks after the wedding- which pushed us out of peak travel season (and also boded well for my work schedule).  Read on for this and many more tips (twenty!) which ultimately have saved us $10,334.98!

(1) Include luggage in your wedding registry so you don’t have to buy it yourself!  Estimated savings for two Hampton 5 piece luggage sets from Bed Bath & Beyond, $199.98

(2) Work with a travel agent!  For our honeymoon in Hawaii, we saved an estimated total of $1500 over the list prices for resorts and car rental for a two week trip.  Contact Lika at Blue Hawaii Vacations to work with the same person we did (no, they aren’t paying me, they just did a great job)!

(3) Register for your honeymoon with a site like Honeyfund.  Every gift you receive gives you a dollar amount toward your honeymoon.  So far, J. and I have received $1180 towards activities for our Honeymoon in the form of shower gifts.  And if you are reading this and you gave us one of those gifts, we heartily thank you!!

(4) Watch currency rates.  If there is a particularly good rate, contact your hotels.  They will be more than happy to let you prepay for your room, and maybe even meals or activities.  This can amount to hundreds of dollars of savings, especially with the dollar as volatile as it is right now.   Since J. and I aren’t going abroad, I’m not going to credit us with a dollar amount for this tip, but hopefully it will add up for you!

(5) Commit with your fiance, for the length of your wedding planning, to save all your spare change at the end of the day and keep it in a jar.  Bring it to a Coinstar machine before you leave for your honeymoon.  Estimated savings for J. and I: $300. Continue reading »