Back-splashing the Head Table

So, our head table will be sitting in front of a big, blank, beige wall. I'm not the first member of my family to have my reception at this establishment. Since I was not in the room when my mom & dad were married, I'm not sure what their room decorations looked like, most of the pictures have been discarded since they are also no longer married. I was however in attendance at my Aunt & Uncles reception and I know exactly what was behind their head table. It was two big pink hearts with their names spelled out in white lights. I've been trying to find a picture of it but haven't had any luck. The hearts had texture to them too, they were so pretty.

I've been thinking about things we can do to brighten up the "blah" wall behind us because even though we won't be sitting there long, people will still be taking pictures of us @ the head table during the clanging of the glasses/expected smooching moments. Plus, any excuse to add a little decor right? So, what do we have to choose from?

Fabric?

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Uplighting? I'm not so sure about this. We plan on having this through out the reception area so I'm trying to do something a little bit different.

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Fabric and Lighting?

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Balloons?

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Each of these are available to me by different vendors in my area at reasonable prices. I like the twinkle fabric but it maybe over-kill because our head table will be covered in lighted fabric as well.  While searching through all thing flowy and sparkly, I found something VERY cool, AND Oprah approved!

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How cool would these look with a black back ground and  a little bit of lighting to make them sparkle? These were used for Miss Oprah's 50th birthday bash! I'm going to have the Mr do a little bit of brainstorming on how we can get these to sit behind us so I know if we can pull it off or not.

What are you putting behind your head table?

Center of Attention

So, besides the "look at our cute kid" table numbers, we're still playing with ideas for our centerpieces.  The hotel is supplying black overlays, mirrors, garden bowls, & votive holders, we have to supply the rest. I personally have been to too many weddings where the mirrors have been used and want to do something a little bit different. I could do simple like place mats. I could always dress them up with some hot pink ribbon along the sides.  Plus I found these black ribbed ones @ Target (or Tar-jay as we call it) for $1.99!

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If worse came to worse & I didn't use them for the wedding, I could always use them for the house! I know, I'm terrible, any excuse to run out to the store and buy something right? Who's with me?! For the garden bowls, I'll be using floating candles and then some pink & white crystals at the bottom.

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I've also been nagging asking my friends and family to save all of their clear glass jars in all shapes and sizes. Everything from jelly jars to spaghetti jars because we want to add a little more color to the table. Stick some of the submersible lights in the jars and the pink aqua balls.

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I'm still looking at different elements and ideas so this is just a tentative rough draft. I'll do a mock up of the different ideas that are sloshing around in my brain. What are you using to add a little bit of color to your tables?

Save The Dates

My save the dates are still a work in progress. I'm having some serious issues with my designs, so I've been playing with different styles, fonts & layouts. For our first save the date headache draft, I used our original colors of brown & pink.

I do still like this one, I mean, who doesn't love poka-dots?!

The next few drafts are incomplete. Between the "Save The Date" and info, I was thinking about putting something there like ribbon, glitter or even a stamp. The first one was completely movie inspired. Have you heard of Twilight? Yea, that is Carmilla AKA Edward Cullens' script along the edge. I got the font here.

This next one is the nerd in David and myself, if you notice, the font is the very same one used for the Xbox that I picked up here.

The last one I made for fun. Dave thinks it's great but not really "traditional" enough. I saw a couple do this with their Mii's on their wedding invitations.

Yes, those are totally our Xbox avatars! I cracked up when I put this one together. I still think they are very cute. I'm determined to have these included in our wedding day celebration. Maybe for our place cards at the head table?

This is still a work in progress and I could always try to incorporate a little from each one too. I want to have them sent out by 11/07 so that will be exactly the 6 month mark. Now that I have said that out loud, it is much closer than it had felt a moment ago. Deep breaths!

So, which one do you like best? How many save the dates drafts ended up balled up on the floor or in your computers trash bin?

Toppin' the Cake

Through out this entire planning process, I have heard the term "whatever your want honey" consistently out of David mouth. He has not requested anything for himself besides his "chucks" for his feet. I agreed to this as long as he bought new ones in black because his brown ones don't match, and they are old LOL. I find something I like, tell/show him, and he tells me "whatever you want honey" or "I don't think I like that". If he doesn't like something, we go over the pros and cons and he either sees it my way, or I start back from scratch. An example, he does not care what the other boys will be wearing but he will NOT wear ANY type of pink. I have since left that subject alone, his tie will be white.

After having my one-on-one with my magical cake lady, it was still left up in the air what we would stick on the top of the cake. I told her I would be giving her enough notice ahead if we would have a topper or just flowers so she could plan accordingly. Again, I was told, whatever you want honey, that was until we walked into a bridal store, and he saw this:

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Now I love all things sparkly so I was very surprised that he liked this! So, since he hasn't asked for anything, I agreed without hesitation, but I also pointed to the hefty price tag that came with it. So, he told me no problem! Wow! He's going to spend some big money on a monogram cake topper, alright! Wrong. He assigned me the job of making one. It's actually nice that not only can I add another DIY project to our wedding, but he also knows I've got the ability to create something!

What are you toppin' your cake with? Has your FH asked you to make something?

Honeymoon

For the longest time, we've been thinking about going to Disney World for our Honeymoon. We thought it would not only be fun, but also a nice place to take Morgan along with us too. All that has changed after I took a short weekend trip to see my sister in MO. After the stress of traveling (and a cranky toddler), we will be leaving her at home. Now we have to come up with a new travel plan.

We've thought about taking a European cruise, going out of the country, even heading somewhere exotic like Hawaii. Then it hit me. We're not big on beaches and we are NEVER alone. So, I started looking into romantic secluded places. The first place I found was Gatlinburg, TN.  They have these cute cabins that are beautiful with full kitchen set ups & hot tubs!  They also have full kitchens so if we want to save a little money, we can take turns cooking for each other.

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You can surprisingly find these types of places all over the place so we have several different states we can choose from. We really love the idea of having our own space out of the way of everything and this way we can concentrate on our time together. If we want to venture out for dinner or any type of activity, we'll be able too. If we'd rather veg out & spend the day watching movies, we won't feel cooped up in a dinky hotel room.

Have you thought about taking your honeymoon outside of the sandy beaches too?