Wedding Planning – Learning Machine

Ikea – How Swedish Simplicity Might Simplify Your Wedding

So just a quick(ish) entry about a place you should check out if you planning a wedding. Especially if you are planning on building your own centerpieces. So if you have one near you, try Ikea.

I know Ikea is not a new phenomenon but you might not look there first to “furnish” your wedding. I actually got this idea a while ago from Ruffled. After visiting the store I realized how many other potential wedding applications there were. Too bad I already decided on my centerpieces!

Pros

Maybe not sturdy but cheap. And for one night of use that’s fine.
You can peruse their selection online and search to see if your local Ikea has that item. Perhaps even hundreds of them… You most likely won’t have to worry about not having enough if you find what you want in the store nearby. They have bins I tells ya! Bins!
Simple in style so you could always go crazy and still “customize” it/stencil it. Also often the selection comes in the latest “hip” colors.
Many of these purchases you could just use in your house afterwards!

Cons

Navigating the store. It’s best to just following the long long long winding path until you get to your “section”. Do not freak out there will be an end to the path and if you haven’t noticed related items and have been walking for a while, its okay, just keep on walking. Nina had to tell me to do this several times… its overwhelming.
Might not have one near you. Can’t order online for many of the items but you can call in and order. If you call in though they charge a pretty hefty phone order fee ($20!) and expensive shipping.

A Smattering of Ideas

Here are a few options I found:

I actually bought this $.99 option for my table menus. Double sided, cheap and simple. Holds a 4″x6″ and has Plexiglas to protect the photo or menu.

$.99 cent easel that holds a 4″x6″ picture frame (you can get a pack of three for $1.99) or perhaps your menu on card stock? My friend is using these for her Van Gogh inspired wedding.

Reception seats a bit stiff? Rather then decorate with sashes and a back cover, what about a utilitarian but summery cushion? At $2.99 it’s pretty affordable! You could then encourage people to take them home with them. Or have a cushion room in your future love nest… for frolicking like Scrouge Mc Duck.

Same idea as above but white and only $1.49. This could easily be dyed or stenciled with your logo.

Okay, this is straight up awesome for your own house… A pack of 10 honeycomb interlocking mirrors for $14.99 or $1.50ish each. But imagine keeping them separate or only bunching a few together and using them as mirrors underneath your centerpieces. Ah Haaa….

This is a little more expensive but for $9.99 you can buy this seven picture movie themed picture frame. It hangs and could either “frame” your bridal table or hang over each of your guests tables with pictures of you guys. Especially great for a movie/hollywood/picture themed wedding.

Science themed? Spice it up some flowers you could get at the local farmers market and colored water for your centerpieces. Or fill several with jelly beans (once color per carafe). $7.99.

$2.99 – Fill it with sand and put it on its side, fill it with candy, put tiny flowers inside. Swig beer in it. Send a message of love to commemorate the day to a far off land after saying your vows on the beach (or a pirate ship).

$24.99 including pot. $14.99 without. And you could instead go for a cheaper pot option. Like this. Or this. Sure these plants look like butts! But they are unique… and you could have a whole butt army of them after the wedding. Plus its green to buy reusable flowers/plants. I’m not sure if all Ikeas have these but they had them in Orlando.

For $6.99 a cheaper option and less buttish.

Simplistic and pretty unique! Only $1.99! Put punch in here or an orchid. Ikea sells orchids for $12.99. Perfect for an outside/classic white wedding.

Interlocking vases for $1.99 each. Not sure if it comes in a three pack for that… if not then its $6 for the set. Still affordable and pretty. Get six and they form a nifty circle. Or if you and your hubby have curvy initials (C, S, J…) you could spell them out in vases. Fill it with candy or flowers or sand. Comes in pink shades! I could probably show a million cute vases by Ikea… but I instead encourage you to look around their site.

Colored sand/rocks for $1.99. I suspect you can do this cheaper, if not with white sand and dye. But if you aren’t so DIY this means in one trip you could get the vase, sand and candles all in one fell swoop.

Alternatives

No Ikea near you? These options can be awesome… Just go to their home decor section. Probably won’t be as “one stop shop”ish though.

T.J. Maxx – got me some awesome beachy reeds here on the cheap.
Bed, Bath & Beyond – They always have coupons and they always honor them even if they are expired.
Bealls – Florida only.
Goodwill – Help out a charity and if you are lucky find a good selection. This takes more scrounging but especially if you are looking for a mismatched bohemian style this might be the perfect option for you.
Target – I’ll refrain from suggesting Walmart as well… But there are some fun cheap options at both of these places.

So happy shopping!

Breathe Deep Seek Deals – S

P.S. While you are at it buy a box to organize/hold your wedding DIY stuff. Stress Level–. Get a set of two and use it as well to separate what you need for the ceremony and what you need for the reception.

May Status Update – Haven't Seen Any Flowers

But life is good!

So lots going on in the life of Sheila Suarez. Nothing note worthy educational enough to “blog” about that isn’t just personal funness/work. But I felt bad about not posting and rather then resisting here we go… a status update.

Listy List of Stuffs

Launched a departmental application on 4/30 so that’s been consuming my life. LEARNED a lot about how to successfully launch an application, especially when its in house. Lots of consultation and baby kissing. In the end, things are sorting themselves out and despite the little resources we had, it was successful. Thank god for my development team… I know eventually I’ll relate what I learned… when the wounds aren’t so fresh. Still a long way to go with this puppy.

Made this.
Start of the semester at work as well… busy busy busy times.
Got a stomach flu from drinking a free sprite margarita while in Mexico… Yea, probably shouldn’t have done that. It was not fun and hit me 5 days after the cruise. Austin’s mom got it too and was diagnosed so by her doctor. Which is good to know because I was highly suspicious of all food until then as I had no clue what got me sick. But it helped me lose the 4 lbs I put on during the cruise!
Went to Charleston Lindy Exchange in Charleston (CHEX 4). Really loved the city though we only really got to peruse it for two hours or so. Maybe loved it because I was able to locate awesome beer within 20 minutes. Reminded me of a southern Boston. Love beer? Go here if you visit Charleston.
- Won first place in a solo Charleston Contest at CHEX! Super awesome fun and feeling pretty good despite needing to get back in shape. Last round was battle style which was interesting. Austin got to the finals in the Jack N Jill.
- Orlando brought like 30 million people to the exchange. Bonded more with my fellow Floridians then Charleston peeps! It was a surprisingly fun/relaxing event despite lack of sleep & having to go straight from and to work. Best part was the beach… because lord knows I don’t take the time to do that while in FL.
Djaustin debuted tonight at UCF. So proud… 🙂 Though he did play a 300 bpm song during the finals of a Jack N’ Jill I was in… Got 2nd!
Wedding planning is slow but steady… been helping out my Maid of Honor a lot since she just got engaged. Made her a site. Starting/planned out my invitations, bought boutonniere, veil & center piece supplies & finalized our rings. I’m gonna hate myself for doing so many DYI projects. But it saves money and I like being creative! This weekend I get to see one of my brides maids and make centerpieces with her! Next weekend while in St. Pete for Swing Dance USA we’ll be doing location visiting. So that shall be nice.
Dieting is a uphill battle. Must. Concentrate.

So that’s basically it. The summer proves to get even crazier…

Flllooowerrrsss – S

Our Wedding Part I

So the masses want to know how far I’ve gotten in my wedding planning. So let me introduce our special day… so far. I’m doing this in a brief list summary of our steps in chronological order with some insight inserted.

So Austin asked me to marry him on July 2nd, 2009 (you can read about it here) and we set about wedding planning…

We let everyone know! And picked our wedding party.
The date: 10.10.10. Why?
Location: This was our primary concern since this is a popular date, and securing a location would secure the date. I’ll be honest we kinda went into it blind and probably could have saved money if we a) did it in our family’s hometown (Port St. Lucie) or b) done some research. We ended up just driving over to St. Petersburg two hours away, a location we have sentimental attachment to, going to a few places my mom found and choosing! We couldn’t make a decision between our two favorites so we chose both! Still they are affordable and fun, so no regrets here. Really Austin and I aren’t super outdoorsy but we wanted to design a wedding that would be very “Florida” since many of our guests will be out of towners taking their vacation. Austin and I would elope in a second our real goal is to have an intimate, fun and awesome excuse for everyone to get together and party.
- Rehearsal dinner at Ceviche – The small restaurant chain which is our absolute favorite and where we celebrated our engagement. This will be photo themed and we already are picking out some oldies but goodies from our albums. As per tradition we are keeping this to family and bridal party.
- Ceremony at Sunken Gardens -A hidden gem in St. Petersburg we will be exchanging vows under a 200 year old oak canopy. Below is my mama & Austin in the pavilion.
- Bus them all over to Honey Moon Island – The beach is ours after sunset as we party in an open air pavilion!
  We are keeping decorations to a minimum, because why do we need it when we have the beach/jungle as our decoration? Also less stress and stuff to throw away afterwards… Luckily the reception location has a set tasty caterer which includes everything.. makes it simple. Also, shortly after our location trip we secured a block of rooms at a nearby hotel, VERY important for a destination wedding.
Budget: We kind of started this before location shopping (and really should have finalized it before) but we definitely finalized it before signing the contracts! Just wanted to insert this to show how important it is although it may be awkward to sit down with your family discuss it. See what they can contribute and ensure no matter what you can cover it!
Guest List: This was very very hard, in fact the hardest part for me so far in the process. I know a lot of people and want them there, but with us trying not blow our whole nest egg we decided to limit the event to close family and bridal party. Besides it will be more intimate and HOPEFULLY I can spend time with each guest. A few others slipped in, but I had to be as assertive as possible with ourselves and our family. LUCKILY Sunken Gardens’ Oak Pavilion can only accommodate 75, so that helps keep us on track. Before the wedding we are hoping to have a sendoff dance/party with the rest of our buds.
Color Scheme: I first started with a pink and brown scheme but then switched over to a tropical peacock theme shortly after selecting our location. Brown in a jungle would be bad… I used Kuler by Adobe to create the color palette. I am a BIG proponent of getting this decided a.s.a.p. and just sticking with it (not that I’m great about staying on theme…), so that you can move forward with designing your wedding. Kuler makes it easy and it’s free!

Austin and I are peacock colors. Although I’ve never met a peacock I liked… but it’s pretty and tropical! Tee hee!

Bridal Party Color Scheme: Each of the ladies will be a different Florida Flower!
Now we had a theme I designed us a logo. Branding is important to me… its the one piece of glue keeping this A.D.H.D. wedding together!

Website – http://wedding.austinandsheila.com created! Very important for getting the information out quickly to all those needing to know information, especially if they are traveling far. We asked people to early r.s.v.p. and that’s been SEMI successful… not really. Hopefully they’ll be better when they get the invitation.
Brides Maid’s Dresses – Coordinating via email we picked these out and ordered them. I’ll leave them as a surprise. I’m glad we did it so quickly because if you are going with traditional bridesmaids dresses IT TAKES SOOOO LONG for them to come in. We ordered them in January and they won’t be in until May… All my bridesmaids are out of state, in fact two are over seas! Thank god for gmail/googledocs and the internet.
Save-the-Dates – We had soooo many different ideas on how to announce our date. We ended up throwing in another facet to our tropical wedding, a tourist/destination feel. So I came up with these magnets (ordered from vistaprint.com) that we attached postcard backs to:

I sent this to my maid of honor with no envelope to test if sending a big magnet in the mail as a postcard would work (sorry hard drives it came into contact with). But it showed up a little torn. So we ended up keeping the postcard back but mailing it in an envelope. Bummer but let me sleep at night.
Engagement Photos – An engagement photo shoot is super fun and if your photographer offers it, go for it! Awesome to document this wonderful time of your life, as well as, great content to use in your invitations or website if you design them. Austin luckily is a big ham so we had a lot of fun, despite the cold, as our good friend and photographer Hilary Mercer took us on an all day shoot. Check out the results. Austin and I really only planned the first location (Lake Claire) and the two sets of outfits. From there we just roamed the city!
Bride’s Attire: I did not want to spend a lot on a dress that I would never wear again and knowing my eccentric tastes neither would any daughter, that I may spawn, want to wear it either. I anticipate a “trash the dress” shoot… I found my best option was prom dresses! MANY of the dresses could be ordered in white, still very princessy, LIGHT & cheaper. When I tried on traditional gowns I felt heavy and hot. Plus, what else is a wedding but your dream prom that you spend a lot of money on? One where you most certainly are prom queen and king? I’m going to keep my dress a secret but it is most awesome. I saw it online, hunted it down, tried it on & fell in love. As for the veil that is being pieced together because I’m crafty, with the help of some accents I bought from etsy.com.
Honey Moon/Registry: With little else to turn my attention to as most is planned or must wait until closer to the date, I started attacking our honey moon. Austin and I have it mostly set and at least purchased our initial tickets to Madrid. We have decided instead of asking for traditional home goods, we would like our guests to purchase us portions of our rockin’ honeymoon. We have been living together for four years so home goods… we got. But a rockin’ honeymoon? That’s new. Here’s a sneak peak at our registry set up through honeyfund.com. Our itinerary is ALMOST set, we might simplify it, but otherwise we are super excited. I’m sure I will in the future post a long diatribe about the dos and don’ts of planning this kind of trip.
Cake Topper: Put down our deposit on one by Sophia’s Workshop on Etsy.com. She did one for a friend of mine and I can’t WAIT to start the design process. Check her out but keep in mind she has a waiting list.
Rings: This we just finished yesterday! Austin bought me a very unique engagement ring that requires a customized interlocking band to not look all goofy. Horrible resolution picture of initial ring:
Sketch of new ring! Notice how they wrap together? That’s the original diamond in the center.

We decided to follow a Victorian tradition I read about in some book (really authoritative huh?) of using the stones to spell out a message/word. Mine will have either aquamarine tear drop stones standing for Austin, or if I can figure out a good blue “F” stone, an aquamarine, the diamond from my engagement ring and then the “F” stone making Austin David Flores. Suggestions? Austin’s ring will have two sapphires laid out mimicking my ring, standing for Sheila Suarez. I don’t have a picture of his ring (oops) but its a thinner lighter (good for dancing) matte white gold band with polished cut edge.

So… that’s basically it! Many are surprised at either the geekiness/nonswing orientatedness of our wedding (including myself on the latter) but it’s all about family and joy and I like it damn it. Plus very few of our guests swing dance. :/ Though they will in fact cut a rug. Any way we shall not be pigeonholed, we are a many faceted duo!

We are in the process now of finalizing Austin and his groom’s outfits, creating the overall structure of our ceremony which will be administered by my maid of honor, then on to program designing, invitation designing, losing weight, flowers, center pieces, dj set list (we are just running a MP3 player), favors & finally some tastings! Maybe I do have quite a bit to do in the next 6 months…

Now you know. – S

TRY THAT MILK and Other Pre-Wedding Tips

This is the first in a series of “what I learned so far” wedding posts. Honestly only now with the wedding planning at a semi-lull (at that awkward not a lot to do until closer to the wedding stage) have I had the time to reflect on what I’ve learned! As well as, trying to help my maid of honor who is recently engaged plan her wedding in 7 months, helps rehash the memories. O. The horror.

So You Are Engaged?:

This may not work for everyone but I suggest to begin putting yourself into a “fake marriage” if you haven’t already. What does this mean?

Plan the Wedding Together: Or as much as possible! And when I mean planning, I mean not just the woman stereotypically ordering the man around, but both making all decisions together. Throughout the rest of your life you’ll be planning (hopefully) together, so start now. Planning a wedding can be an ordeal and is a BIG learning experience. Heck, for most people its the first and only 100-200 person two day event they’ll ever plan! Wedding planning can bring to surface a lot of family, personal and otherwise ticks. You’ll want to do this together and use it as a bonding experience and not just a hassle. Sure, if the woman relinquishes some of the control she might get a WOW cake BUT not only will she be less stressed (if you guys work well together) but he’ll feel he owns the day as well. It also means learning each others strengths. Maybe one is a better designer, they’ll take more of a lead there, but in the end both need to be happy and in agreement.
Move In: If you haven’t already moved in together. It doesn’t ruin the magic in fact it doubles it! Austin and I moved in together after a year… which may have been quick but we never regretted it. Comes down to this, it is the TRUE test of if you guys can work as a team and cohabitate. When you get married the least amount of surprises the better. What about this doubling the fun? Here’s my road plan for those with trepidations about ruining the magic.
1. Imagine moving in together in your first apartment, you’re saving money, learning about each other & giggling every night because you are having a sleepover with your bestbud. Better yet move into a place with roommates and each have your own room. Sleep in the same room but still have your haven (this is probably good after marriage as well). Roommates are good because they help you save money (we are planning a wedding after all) and they are a bit of social fun that doesn’t make you feel SO all alone with one person and that nothing will ever change before it even started to change.
2. Now a year later you get married and move into a new house/apt! Better yet, no roommates! You will be sick of them by now. This has all the newness you need plus you are prepared with “living with your hubby” skills. You still need all that fun stuff from your registry and you feel more married with just the two of you!
Start Merging Assets: There is no better test to see what you are getting yourself into then to see how your partner manages money and the responsibility of dispersing it to bill collectors. We weren’t sure how to go about it so I asked for advice from friends/family and finally decided to have one joint bank account and two personal ones. 90% of our paychecks go into our joint account and 10% go into our own personal accounts. I can’t even see his personal account and that is OKAY! This way we don’t feel guilty or have to explain to each other (and our budget) when splurging on ourselves, as well we can surprise each other with gifts!
Now Make Budget: Aside from the wedding budget which anyone could tell you should be your FIRST action when starting to plan (more on this later), you need a life budget! Austin and I use Mint.com and a spreadsheet that we share through Google Docs to keep us on track. Not only do we have a regular budget but a savings budget. This savings budget shows over the year how much we are saving and any big expenditures we are going to pay out from savings (vacations, loan lump-sums, foreseen medical expenses, etc). Budgets aren’t perfect so after we pay rent each month, Austin and I try to sit down & categorize our expenditures in Mint and tweak our budget if need be (or our drinking habits).

This post basically espouses knowing what you are getting yourself into it. Trying the milk first is not bad because when you buy the cow there’s a whole buncha new stuff and places to go with said cow. Playing house! So that when you do get married its not like getting dumped into a desert island with you and that person on the marriage license.

What now?

Next wedding themed post shall be about the nitty gritty start of wedding planning and some money saving tips I’ve realized a long the way.

nitty & gritty -S