I apologize for the delay!

Hello friends!

I apologize for the delay in my posting. I've still been busy planning away and have LOTS to update you on! First, I feel the need to share my flea market story. I have been collecting mismatched, old china plates for my wedding. I'll post some pictures for you soon. After realizing that plates cost $0.50 each to rent, I decided that I was going to find my own plates and buy them for $0.50 instead of renting. I will tell you that there was a considerable amount of debate that went into whether to buy, rent, or use paper products. Ultimately, we decided there was no way that we could possibly serve barbeque on paper plates (I don't know what I was thinking! Barbeque was practically invented for paper plates!).

Anyways, I have been scouring flea markets on a weekly basis to find china plates for my wedding. I started off collecting every plate I saw at the market and have since tossed over 30 plates out of my collection (not really a way to save money, now huh?) and have become significantly more picky. If you plan to do this, please be picky or you will realize that you hate your plates and going backwards with your numbers is no fun when you need 300 plates. So far, I've found 66 dinner plates and 74 cake plates. Yes, I have a long way to go. BUT, I also have a whole year until my wedding! And I have found some very fancy plates for very cheap.

One thing that is especially fun about collecting plates this way is that each plate has a story. I can almost remember where each of the plates came from, how I bargained for them, and what the people were like! Here are some (awful) pictures of my treasures:

My engagement party!

Last Saturday, I woke up EARLY, posted, and then was lucky enough to go back to bed....until 6:30am when it was time to go the flea market. Yes, I'm obsessed. Once my wedding is over, I'm going to need to start a business where I search for things at flea markets for people. I found some quite extraordinary finds and was happy to bring my treasures home for my party. I have been waiting to tell you what I am actually searching for at the flea market for a rainy day. It'll be a secret until then. (It's supposed to rain on Friday....)

Then I dashed downtown to by some delicious cupcakes from a fantastic bakery in town called Cupcake! Their vanilla cupcakes will melt my heart. Finally home, I began to assemble my party decorations. I glued my paper flowers to twine to make paper flower strands and I set out making an organized hodge-podge of books and trinkets on my table. Check it out:


This is pretty much what I want my tables at my wedding to look like: a jumbled mess of antique books, paper flowers, wisps of real flowers in an assortment of jars and tiny vases, and some greenery. I will need to be collecting a hell of a lot of little jars and tiny vases.


I also can't resist sharing the menu from my party. A dear friend, and amazing chef, came over to cook for me, my fiance, and a few close friends. He made a capreses salad, melon balls wrapped in prosciutto, and grilled lamb chops for the antipasto. Then, he made an amazing pasta with king oyster mushrooms and some yummy cheese I can't even say. For the main course, we had salmon and steak with potatoes au gratin and broccoli and cheese casserole. Finally, for dessert, we had cupcakes from Cupcake! and a blackberry pie. I literally died and went to heaven.

Paper flowers galore!

Besides wedding planning, I work at a hospital as a doula, providing continuous emotional support for women during childbirth. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of getting up at 4:30 in the morning to spend 12 hours with a mom while she delivered a beautiful baby girl. Guess what time I woke up this morning? My clock says 4:23am. So now I am posting a long overdue update.

Part of the reason why I can't go back to sleep (other than the fact that I crashed last night at 8:30pm) is that today is my engagement party. I had one back home with my parents a few weeks ago and now I am celebrating with my friends tonight. Don't worry, I'm going to sneak a nap in today, even if it means buying cupcakes from the bakery instead of making them. One of my dear friends is an amazing cook and he is cooking a five course meal for a few close friends. Since we'll be sitting down for dinner, I'm planning to use this as an opportunity to do a trial run for the wedding decorations.

For the past two days, I have been making paper flowers. It takes quite a long time and I may be re-thinking my "only paper flowers at my wedding" idea. Anyways, I will show you how to make some very pretty, simple flowers.

What you will need:
- tissue paper
- 2" ball
- scissors
- floral tape
- sticks

Cut 4" by 2 1/4" rectangles out of tissue paper. Then, center the ball in the tissue paper and twist up the edges like in the picture below.

Next, take one flower petal and wrap floral tape around one of the twisted ends to attach it to the stick.


Repeat with four more petals. It is best to wrap the petals individually because they rather fragile.


Finally, cut off the twisted ends that are sticking out and arrange your flower.


Voila!

Just as a side note, this is how many flowers I made for my party! It took FOREVER!

Makeover for tin cans

Originally I was thinking that tin cans would add an awesome rustic edge to the books, but then I found a post by OnceWed with moss covered cans and I decided that some clothes on the cans would be a good idea. Most of the cans have glue that is difficult to remove and expiration dates, which could be hidden by strategic placing, but the moss is just a great way to hide those yucky parts. This website shows you how to wrap moss around tin cans with twine (another important component in my decorating scheme!) to make an easy, earthy decor for tin cans. And the best part is that I can use those ugly tuna cans without making it obvious that I eat a lot of tuna. All for under $25 for all of them! I'll keep you posted with my finished products.

I also wanted to thank all of my readers! I have had several friends mention my blog and it makes me so happy to know that people are following along! Thanks to all my readers :)

Books, books, and more books!

Since I am trying to focus on old books as my centerpieces, I had a mild panic attack yesterday that I had only collected 75 so far. Why you ask? I asked myself that question too. It seemed that I was finding other things I needed for the weddding much faster than books, so I got a little worried that I wouldn't have time to find enough. Because 17 months is a really limited amount of time (rolls eyes at self).

So, I made myself an eBay account and began searching away for books. I had steered clear of eBay until now because, during my college days, I had tried to buy a textbook and was outbid in the last 5 seconds. It ruined the appeal when I didn't get what I wanted. But, I really need about 300 books, so I was feeling a little desperate (albeit falsely so). My price range was no more than $2 per book because of the number of books I need, so searching for individual books made it difficult to fit this price because of the shipping fees. Tip of the day: Search "lot of old/vintage/antique books." I found a seller who was selling a Lot of 105 Antique Vintage Old Rare Hard To Find Books for $99!! The shipping was $60, but this still put me at $1.50 per book. Excellent deal! They even had taken pictures of each individual book with the first few pages. A few of the books seem like good reads. Now I'm just a little sad that I freaked out so early and won't be able to search for them at flea markets and used books stores. Alas!

Thrifting around town

In order to obtain the "antique eclectic" look for my wedding, I've been thrifting all around town. I have been to thrift stores all around Columbia and surrounding areas and hitting up the local (and not so local) flea markets. Can I just say that I am so excited about flea markets? I never knew things could be so cheap and bargaining could be so easy! Bargaining tip #1: Get comfortable asking for less. And always ask for less! I've bought things for $1 when the price tag says $10! Only twice have I ever paid asking price for things. Last weekend this old lady gave me a sob story about needing money for groceries (also have gotten sad stories about paying for medications-- Tip #2: Don't give in to sob stories!) and she wouldn't budge on the price. Don't worry, the antique porcelain serving platter from the 1880s was definitely worth every penny of the $15 dollars I paid for it. It's probably my favorite piece so far.

I've been looking for several items for my wedding at the flea markets, but mostly my table centerpieces. I am planning to use old books (hence the paper flowers) with random old jars and bottles for my centerpieces. Here is my inspiration:I like the idea of throwing in tin cans as well. My next post, I'll tell you about my flower ideas. I have so many ideas, I'm trying to space them out so I don't share all the good stuff at once!

You're Invited!

Welcome to my first blog post about my wedding. I am a do-it-yourself bride going for the eclectic antique look. I hate the thought of going to a wedding planner and picking out a pre-planned wedding, so I plan to do everything myself....I even want to grow the flowers! I promise to keep you posted on all my latest ideas and inspirations so you can follow along with my DIY wedding.

Before I get started talking about the wedding, I feel the need to tell you the story of our love. It began approximately five years ago when three of my friends and three of his friends had planned to go hiking on a day off school. One of my friends had to go to the dentist, then one of his friends did too, and another bailed, so we decided to cancel the trip. However, no one told my fiance, so he showed up at my house while I was pouting under my covers because I didn't have plans on my day off. My sister came running upstairs with an announcement that a weird tall guy with a beard was at the door. We decided to go to the mountain together, although we barely knew each other, and we fell head-over-heels on that hiking trip.

I felt the need to tell that story, rather than the story of my engagement, because we are planning a mountain wedding in memory of our first meeting. And because the engagement story is sort of simple....he whipped out the ring during our Valentine's Day celebration and I said yes.

Since my dear Aunt E gave me the idea to start a blog, I dedicate this blog post to her. Thus, I will share her idea first. After telling her about my centerpiece ideas (coming next!), Aunt E showed me a fantastic blog with paper flowers. I had never thought of making my own flowers before! I love the idea and there are so many different types of paper flowers to make!