I’ll take ‘Potent Potables’ for $200, Trebek

Posted on December 28, 2009 by talda

We’re not big drinkers. While I do partake in the occasional drink on very rare occasions, the mister isn’t a drinker either, especially not when he’s with me. He likes to make sure he always has his wits about him especially when I’m around, that way, should something happen, he’d be ready and able to take care of the situation. Apparently I’m a bit of a handful.

Anywho, to substitute for the lack of potent potables during our cocktail hour, I thought of having an Italian Soda bar. I am a huge fan of these delicious drinks and thought it would be a fun way to inject a bit more personality into our wedding. I figured it would be an easy set up, with a few bottles of the Torani syrups in various flavors, some drink glasses, Sprite [it takes A LOT better than the usual club soda - more bubbly], fun swizzle sticks and a sign. Then we can have people milling around with their glasses of soda. Fantastic.

Of course I sat on this idea for a while and then never really thought much about it until today. I was going through my Google Reader when I happened upon the Project Wedding blog and saw their DIY Old Fashioned Soda Bar and thought, “This! This is perfect!”

I say that a lot.

This would probably work more with our theme, plus we can even add super cute straws! I’m not much of a stickler for matching our wedding colors [because how many sodas can I find that are blue or green that tastes super yummy?] and I am more in love with the idea of having lots of different flavors and colors. I’d like an assortment of Izze sodas [especially the sparkling clementine. Yum!] and if I can find them: bottled Vernors Ginger Soda and Faygo for the Michigan connection. Maybe I can even source some Coke/Diet Coke as well [or even Mexican Coca Cola].

But the thing that hits the soft part of my heart is the symbolism. I’m sure everyone is aware of the Great “Soda vs. Pop” Debate, right? Well, guess which side my darling mister in on?

So wouldn’t it be a funny jab to have a sign that referenced the great debate? I would totally have people put their bottle caps into corresponding jars but depending on where we end up having the wedding, it would potentially be incredibly one-sided either way.

But still, cute idea yes? Which jar would your bottle cap go in? Soda or Pop?

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Dressing up the cupcakes

Posted on December 23, 2009 by talda

I’ll have to write about how I decided on our wedding cake someday soon but short version: we’re having cupcakes. CUPCAKES!

I know this is very trendy but I don’t care. I mean, if we’re so worried about everything being played out by this point, why even have a wedding? Technically that idea is played out. Who hasn’t gone to one yet? Okay, okay, I’ll get serious here.

Thanks to Weddingbee, I became aware of the prettiness of Estilo Weddings’ cupcake wrappers. Have you seen them? Some of them are absolutely gorgeous but at $12.50 for 12 [or $48.50 for 50] there’s just no way I can swallow the idea of splurging on these.

But they’re so pretty! And I was a little sad that I wouldn’t be able to add a little bit of flair to our cupcakes. To be honest, that is such a me thing to do. I know my friends will just shake their heads and think, of course she did. In a good way. They don’t call me Martha for nothing! But I digress, after a little trolling on the internet, I stumbled upon a template to make my own cupcake wrappers. I was excited and thinking how I could get the fancy edged scissors to cut along the top and even use nice scrapbook paper.

But then I stumbled upon this:

DOILIES!

Regular, common AND cheap doilies! Ones you can find anywhere for a lot for a little! How awesome is that? So now thanks to Happy Birds Crafting Haven, I can have my fancy cupcake wrappers for less than a fraction of the price. That thumping you hear? That’s my heart being all excited like.

Of course, that will mean my sister will have to take the time to wrap our beautiful cupcakes [oh, I may have found a baker as well - promise, story to come!] and most likely without my help but I’m sure she can manage. I hope she can manage because I really want them. Especially now that I know I can have them.

Have you been super excited to find a DIY option for something you otherwise wouldn’t buy?

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Money talks and won’t shut up

Posted on December 22, 2009 by talda

budgetinsight.wordpress.com

Have you ever wondered how people pay for their weddings? Do parents have a secret stash of wedding money ready to be dispensed when their kids finally get engaged? Do couples conjure up the money by wriggling their nose [if that’s the case, can you wriggle me up some cash to cover my student loans]? Where are people getting all this wedding cash from?

I will admit that, along with researching the weddening, I have also quietly been setting money aside to cover the costs of our blessed event. My main motivation for saving the money before our engagement was that I didn’t want to worry about where we were going to get the money to pay for our wedding. Since my original estimated budget was on the more elaborate side, I figured it would be smart to begin saving money now. That way we can slowly put aside small amounts of money whenever we had extra and would hopefully have the majority of it by the time we were engaged. I have since readjusted the budget and eliminated the parental contributions because I didn’t want to put any extra pressure on our parents to contribute. If they want to contribute, cool, but I don’t want them to feel compelled to. In fact, I’m not expecting them to.

And I will admit a small part of it was also because I wanted us to retain complete creative control over the planning. I’ve seen too many friends battle against their parents because they didn’t like some of the options their parents were offering but since they had accepted their money, they felt compelled to follow through. I did not want to lose the essence and soul of our wedding day in the swirl of parental obligations and what they felt was “wedding appropriate.”

I know that some people build in extra time to save money for the wedding by extending their engagement period but with a super short engagement, that’s not an option for us, at least, not unless we don’t want to eat or pay rent or something. And I refuse to take out loans. I don’t believe in taking out loans for one day; especially not with student loans breathing down my back! I really like knowing that we’ll be able to essentially pay for our wedding in cash and be done [though I will put everything on a credit card for the purchasing protection and rewards points, I intend to pay of the bill in full each month]. At this juncture, we have roughly about 64% of my proposed wedding budget saved up. I really hope we’ll be able to save up the rest of it before we get married.

Okay, another disclosure: is it weird that part of me hopes he waits to propose until after we have the money, or at least close to it? When I went through that brief episode of the –itis last month, I may have gotten a little freaked out because I didn’t have all of the money saved up yet. Crazy, I know.

Already having a budget in mind helps with the wedding research because I can get a good idea of what we’ll be able to afford with our money. Though I’m still trying to figure out the cash allocations for each budgeted item but it’s hard to fine tune. I keep going over our budget! I need to find a good budget calculator. Does anyone know of one besides The Knot and Brides.com?

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Did someone say ice cream?

Posted on December 17, 2009 by talda

Soft serve vanilla coneOr more specifically, soft serve cones?!

Tangent: my former college roommate has one story that she loves to tell over and over and over again. In our dorm dining hall, there was a soft serve machine and we ended many a meal with cones. Soft serve cones had a way of making a dismal dorm meal much better though it added insult to injury when the ice cream was icy and hard.

We ate it anyway.

Anywho, there were usually several schools on campus for tours and field trips on any given day. On one such day during lunch, we decided to get our cones. Well there were two kids just standing there deciding what to get. Look, there are 3 options: chocolate, vanilla, and swirl. It’s not that hard. We’re standing there with our cones in our hands waiting for them to make a decision when finally, I was tired of waiting and, according to my roommate, I HIP-CHECKED THE KID out of the way so I could get my cone. She claims he was standing there all shocked but I swear I just moved in. There was no contact whatsoever. Funnily enough, everyone believes HER story.

Last night after my accounting final, I decided to celebrate by treating myself to a cone at McDonald’s. As I was waiting, I thought, wouldn’t this be a fun addition to the reception? I really want to have a fun, laid back almost backyard bbq type of reception. Have I discussed that before? I’ll have to go more in detail soon. Anywho, so don’t you think ice cream screams backyard bbq? I mean, it’d be perfect!

So now I’m on the search for machine rentals. I’m not sure when we would pull this out but it would have to be churning away beforehand. Hmm. I could always rent one of those gelato carts but the soft serve, it calls for me!

And I am not above hip checking someone out of the way.

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