Music Votives Trial and Error

Step 1:

Find complicated string music

Step 2:
Use parchment colored paper



Step 3:
Copy complicated music onto parchment colored paper.
Measure according to glass and cut into strips.



Step 4:
Wrap music around glass and tape/glue.


Step 5:
Light votive candle and turn off lights

Evaluations:

• Round glasses with tapered shape toward the bottom, make it really hard to wrap paper around the glass. It creates bumps and lumps. We might consider square glasses instead.
  
• Pimento jars work well, but the top is not pretty
  
• Paper doesn't always reach around the jar completely
  

Thinking About my Bridesmaids

I have been thinking about my bridesmaids this morning. I am getting rather excited with the things I want to prepare for them. It is customary to give bridesmaids gifts, but I intend to do something more personal. All will be meaningful, but I do have mischievous ideas, too! Of course, within proper joking grounds.

Really, I am honored that my girls will be accompanying me down the isle. I don't want to be one of those bridezillas who just HAS to have it her way. Yuck! I want all of my girls to feel comfortable and a part of my wedding. Yes, that even means when we go shopping for bridesmaids dresses, I want them to feel comfortable and not break their pocketbooks either. I envision them in simple and yet, elegant navy blue dresses and holding their four crimson roses. It is a lovely picture. I hope they think so, too.


I cannot wait until we all can go out and try on their dresses. It will be fun and good for us all to be a bit girly; even for me, too. Although I am sure that after a day of pure girl, the following day I'll have to watch an action movie.

Love you, my bridesmaids: Cassandra, Jess and J-fur!

Centerpieces and Wedding Favor Experiment

The last two days I have really been taking the time to think about wedding details. To be honest, I feel rather surprised at the ideas I have come up with since I have been taking my time. I think I have come up with a good idea for centerpieces for the reception. Brenda-Mom and my parents all think it is a good idea. I just have to get the okay from the maid of honor and the groom:

1. Main vase is rounded with a dozen red roses in it. We'll use Brenda-Mom's "water-beads" as I talked about last year (see earlier post).
2. Surrounding rounded vase will be four small glass votives. These will be decorated with sheet music, tapped/glued on around it.

As for the ice cream wedding favor, I didn't let the cold temperatures stop me from testing it today. I think it actually works. The only thing is, we're going to need pretty big mason jars. Mom ended up giving me an ex-kimchi jar to try it in. I have also come up with a better label idea. I would like to buy manila sales tags. Take off the string and use blue ribbon instead. Then stamp a treble cleff/alto clef onto the front with the words "Thank You." Finally put the how-to instructions on the back. Voila! I love these ideas. I hope everyone else does, too!

Must Have Wedding Favor

Cassandra came over last week to finally do the wedding talk. Really, I had a lot of fun even though I was completely girl-ed out by the time we finished. Anyway, she introduced me to the website called stumbleupon.com. It is sort of like Pandora for websites. She showed me her preferences and some websites for Do-it-yourself wedding ideas. Well, we stumbled upon this idea and all I have to say is that, I really, really, really, really want to do this for wedding favors:

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2010/06/14/diy-ice-cream-in-a-jar-by-city-cradle-design/

I think this would be perfect for our end of summer wedding. I will say that, I'll be trying it soon to make sure it works AND if it tastes good. If you see it at our wedding then you know it's a winner.

First Four Venues

Venue #1: Nathan and I both think this venue is our number one choice for a ceremony. The church lets out their entire facility to become a non-denominational wedding/reception area. Their prices are about right for us, but the only bad thing I have to say is that their reception areas are rather small. Also the food room and the eating room are separated. It is a bit inconvenient for the flow of a party. However, we are at least considering getting married there. It is nice that we can rent either the chapel or the reception areas or even all of it for good prices. The pastor's wife is amazing. I would still like to meet her husband the pastor and his associate to see who would be conducting our ceremony, but other than that it is still a good option

Venue #2 was really expensive and had many restrictions as to catering. They only allow their caterers and boy were they expensive. If we were to go with them as our reception area it would cost our entire wedding budget. Not to mention the reception room designated for our guest list was a bit larger than we wanted.

Venue #3 was just stupid....the prices were too high for the quality of their place. They had a chapel that was not really nice. They also required that the guests go through a courtyard to even get into the chapel. I will say that their reception area was pretty good. It was about the right size, but the head-table could not be seen from every angle. You also could not just rent the reception area. It was either rent just the chapel or both chapel and reception. I will also add that if you wanted to bring in your caterer you had to pay an extra $1500 fee for that. This one s a definite, flat out; NO

Venue #4 When you arrive at this place, it's in a sketchy area. The outside of the building looks really bad. We almost didn't go in, but then once we did it was really nice. The reception area size was perfect for us. The dance floor was about the right size, too. There was good flow to the room and easy access to a buffet table and a good view of the head table. An added plus was that we could move the tables anywhere we wanted. The chapel was a bit shabby, but overall not so bad. However, I will say that I think it's a bit small for our size wedding. When you walk into it, it's really narrow. The other bad thing about this place is that we would have to use their catering. I really don't option, but it seems that most places are doing that. The price of this place was pretty good.

Ideal:

Ceremony

1. Marriage in a church is a must have
   
2. Church must have carpet and must be level for good walking
   
3. Must be large enough to hold guests and string quartet
4. Must be easy to commute to
   

Reception

1. Cannot be huge
   
2. Dance floor medium and not the focal point of the room
   
3. Clear view of head table
4. Good pricing
   
5. No bar
   
6. Freedom of caterer choice