The wee ones

I apologize for all the posts lately! But I have to blog when I have time, so here it is!

Rant time:

Weddings are expensive. Not just for the bride and groom (or their parents, depending on the situation) but also for the wedding party! These close friends and family get asked to be a part of your day - which should be considered an honor - but they just end up paying a bunch of money depending on what you choose for them to wear and any other expectations. It just stinks! So as a bride I decided that as much as possible I would not make the people involved just buy whatever I told them to. I helped them out. I may have had to cut some other items out of my budget to do so, but every bride has to make choices and that was mine! Purely opinion! ;)

Rant over. 

With all that said, I didn't want to expect the parents of the little ones involved in my wedding to buy an expensive little outfit just because it was "in my vision" for what I wanted things to look like. So for the girls, (flower girls and candle lighters) I decided to make tutus! Plus, what little girl doesn't dream about wearing a tutu? Just me? Okay... fair. 

Before I got ready to spend some major time on these tutus I did my research. There are dozens of sites with instructions on how to make a tutu! I chose to make square knots with my tulle around my loop of elastic. I bought my massive amounts of tulle from Gifts International. They even have sparkle tulle!! Love! I bought about 100 yards of tulle for the four tutus I made because I wanted them fluffy and floor length!

I got the sequin tank tops on sale at Macy's. All the parents had to provide was a cream-colored cardigan, cream-colored tights, and sparkly shoes! Not too bad compared to the typical $50-$100 dresses bought at bridal shops! And they still look adorable!

Such beautiful candle lighters!

I wrapped some of the excess satin from my robe (see this post for more on the robes!) to some Easter baskets I found at Goodwill, then tied a bow with some satin ribbon around the edge for their baskets! Those things are EXPENSIVE! But mine only cost roughly $5 a piece! The bibles that the ring bearer is holding are family heirlooms! My mom tied some beautiful bows around them with lace ribbon and satin ribbon just to fancy them up a bit!

How stinkin' cute are they?

Unfortunately pictures didn't get taken up close of this little detail, but the flower girls threw heart-shaped book pages and sheet music instead of flower petals since fresh flower petals aren't allowed in the church.

Heels and Pearls (and other lovely wedding accessories)

Some of the most personal touches to any wedding is the accessories. You can break some "rules" very easily by doing something a little different with the little details of the wedding. Here are a few of the accessories from our wedding:

All of the groomsmen had a pin designating their respective Hogwarts house! The groom had one showing all four. Yay for Harry Potter nerds! :) And of course the bouts that were featured in this post: Flower Dilemma.

I made my garter by sewing together a piece of stretchy lace that fit my leg snuggly. Then sewed on a beaded applique from Shine Trim. I made one with a bigger applique for my keepsake garter and one with a smaller applique for the tossing garter!

I bought these beautiful blue velvet wedges as my something blue. But they needed a little bling! My theme was vintage glam so plain would just not do! I found these shoe clips on the Etsy store, ShoeClipsBiz! Perfect! Just because I have a minor glitter obsession I also Mod Podged some glitter on the bottom of my shoes!

I was very lucky that my cousin had a BEAUTIFUL floor-length, lace-trim veil that she let me borrow! Best something borrowed! I also borrowed a pair of my mom's pearl earrings. The necklace I wore was a gift from my grandmother. It makes my heart so happy to see those accessories every time I look at pictures from the wedding! So special.

Of course we used a Harry Potter book to show off our rings!

We gave each groomsmen a nerdy pair of socks...

...as well as their favorite Harry Potter book on a pair of cufflinks! 

And finally - the bow tie! Which I will talk more about in my DIY to the rescue post!

Something for your sweet tooth!

I have a bit of a sweet tooth and really, who doesn't? So as part of our reception, we wanted to make sure that sweet tooth was fed! :)

My father-in-law is amazingly handy. 

When I said that I would like to have a s'mores bar and that I wanted it to look like this picture from Grey Likes Weddings he just made it with one of my buddies!

And put his own spin on it by varying the stain by the layers of each shelf. How beautiful is that?

And even more beautiful when it is pilled up with goodies!!

Everything (except for the marshmallows) was individually wrapped so that there were less germs being spread. 

Another fun little part of our wedding sweets-wise was our party favors: homemade hot cocoa mix! And then we had a hot cocoa bar (right next to the s'mores bar, of course) where our guests could fix up their hot cocoa however they liked it!

Our party favors!

You can see part of our napkins in the picture, but here is a better picture of our bow tie napkins modeled by my adorable friends:

My husband's favorite accessory is a good bow tie so it was only fitting that our napkins be in the shape of one!

Centerpieces!

We had two venues that needed decorating: a dessert bar at the church immediately following the ceremony and a dinner and dance reception. Which just meant double the need for some centerpieces...

These were our centerpieces for the dessert bar:

These were honestly my favorite due to the fact they didn't cost me anything! I was able to use flowers from one cousin's wedding and the mint julep vases from another cousin's wedding! It was great to have these as a little extra decoration without breaking the bank.

My husband is and English teacher so using books as centerpieces seemed perfect! The candles were from my cousin's wedding! My aunt did a wonderful job decorating these tables for the dessert bar!

 These were our centerpieces for the dance reception:

We had a variety of centerpieces for the dinner tables. The eiffel tower vases with cranberries and then put a bouquet of baby's breath at the top!

 

We got some square vases (you can buy in bulk from Dollar Tree!) and wrapped lace lace around them!

We used these cylindrical vases (also bought in bulk from Dollar Tree) and wrapped ribbon around them. They held floating candles on the dinner tables and held the sparklers for the send off!