I love creating things. So from the beginning of our wedding planning I knew that at least some of our wedding details were going to be do-it-yourself (DIY) projects.
On pinterest I found these amazing pomander balls as ceremony and reception decor and fell in love with the idea of them...

{Source}

{Source}

The thing is that if you get these lovely creations from a florist they can get pretty expensive pretty quickly. So I decided to make them myself out of fabric using this tutorial as a general guide. Each one costs us under $10 to make. We have made 4 of them so far and I think we'll need about 18, so it's good that we are getting a head start on them because they take SO long to make. The first one took about five hours, but the process for the one's we have made since gets a little faster each time.

My best advice if you are going to tackle this project is to get help cutting the fabric circles from friends and family and do them all in one go and to get a rotary cutter to save your poor hands if you are making more than a couple of them.

Our DIY process

Materials needed:
-Circle pattern for tracing
-Many yards of 100% polyester satin fabric
-Scissors or a Rotary Cutter and Cutting Mat
-Pencil for tracing
-Glue Gun and Glue Gun Sticks
-4 in styrofoam ball
-Ribbon of your choice
-2 pins
-Candle



Here is how it went for us:

1. Gather all of your materials.

 2. Trace the circles onto the fabric as close together as you can so as little fabric is wasted as possible.

3. Cut out all of the circles. (One 4in. styrofoam ball takes between 85 and 95 circles to cover entirely). 

4. Burn just the very edge of each circle all the way around with a candle flame to fuse the threads together and prevent fraying. 

5. Put a dot of hot glue in the center of each circle and fold in half. 

6. Put another dot in the middle of each half circle and fold over again so each circle is folded and glued in 1/4 sections. 

7. Do this to all of the circles. 

8. Prepare the foam ball by cutting the length of ribbon you want the pomander to hang by. Loop the length of the ribbon in half and tie a knot leaving about 2 inches of ribbon on each tail. Fasten the tails of ribbon to the foam ball with the pins and glue under the knot for extra staying power. 

9. Start hot gluing the fabric petals on one at a time in an arrangement that you like. Make sure you hold each one long enough that the glue hardens with the fabric exactly the way you want it. Cover the whole foam ball this way. 

10. Enjoy your creation!

Happy Creating!

-Bride

Pinterest + Wedding Planning = Love

Pinterest is amazing. If you are planning a wedding you should be on pinterest searching for ideas and inspiration for your big day. I think nearly half of the things pinned on the site are related to wedding planning of some sort and it is the perfect, free, creative source for ideas, inspiration, and focusing your theme.

Pinterest +Wedding Planning = Love

Many of my friends who have been recently married tell me they wish they had known about the site when they planned their big day, and many of my bridesmaids are pinning things for my big day too.

Here's how it works if you are not familiar with the site...

1.You have to get an email invite to join- so find a friend on the site (I'm sure you have at least one- the site is exploding with popularity). The site links to either your Facebook or Twitter account.
2. You create virtual pin 'boards' on your user-name. You label them how you like and organize them in any way you want to. 
3. You put the 'Pin It' icon in your tool bar on your web browser.
4. You pin anything and everything from the internet on to your specific boards.
5. The things you 'pin' show up as a photo or video on your board and when you click on the picture the link to where it was pinned from is visible. 

It's great for recipes, home decor, inspirational quotes, funny pictures, outfits you like, DIY projects and so on.

Happy Pinning!

-Bride

It's Not Always About What You Love...

   While "talking wedding" today with some ladies at work I realized something about planning our wedding...
It's not always about what you love. Sometimes it's about what you can tolerate...if it's a detail that someone else (your fiance, mom, grandma, etc.) thinks is super important. Or sometimes it's about simply what you don't hate, or something you like but that's all. Because the odds that you are going to absolutley LOVE every detail of your big day are slim to none. Love is a strong and important word and there's no way I'm going to feel that much emotion about everything for our big day. Some things?- no doubt, all things?-No way.

This idea is freeing for me. Because I don't have to love everything. Our goal is to love the whole day with the people we love.

One of my very good friends who got married last year gave me some sound advice when she said to plan everything you can as well as you can and when the day arrives just go with it. Don't stress out or worry about little things because your guests won't realize that that small thing is missing or placed wrong. Trust that you did the best job you could and that it'll all be great. Just enjoy your day for everything it is.

That is our goal. Celebrate our love with everyone we love. 
And I can not wait!

-Bride

I'm a planner. Ask any of my family members or friends... I plan pretty much everything I can. I enjoy planning events and outings and anything else you could think of. The first thing I did before every new semester in college was spend an entire night color coordinating and labeling all of my folders, binders, and notebooks. One of my professors actually said in a speech at our graduation send-off that the way I took notes made him feel unprepared, and he was teaching the class... You get the point, being organized makes me happy.

My sister knows this and gifted us with a big binder specifically for wedding planning within a few hours of our engagement. This binder is full of information on everything you could ever want to know (and probably some you don't want to know) about wedding planning. Ours has lots of room for note taking, vendor comparison, and pocket folders for storing all the piles of information we were about to have sent our way.

 {source}

I also have a notebook planner, my ipod touch, and my cell phone that I make sure to add all of my appointments and reminders in. There's no way I'll forget things if they're in three places right? I sure hope so.

So when you're ready to dive in to the planning stage of your engagement I suggest checking out your local book store for an organizer that will work for you.

Also, we are loving using theknot.com as a resource. We have been able to manage our guest list, organize ideas and inspirations, get info from local couples on the forums for our area, budget, and use the check list feature. AND it's free!

So thats:
1.Get an organizer
2. Write everything down (on paper and electronically)
3. Check out wedding planning websites as a resource

-Bride

The "Who do you tell first!?" Game

We got engaged on December 19, 2011... 7 years nearly to the minute from the time we started dating.

Groom had been acting weird all day long, but I hadn't really noticed because I was studying for finals all day. My very last final of my college career was the next morning, and graduation was the next night. We also had my graduation party Wednesday and a trip to the East Coast to visit my family for Christmas starting Thursday of that week. To say we had a lot going on that week would be an understatement. I call it happy chaos.

So he proposes (that story to come later) and we get back to my house to show my Mom and sister the ring. Then as we were hugging, crying, and excitedly chatting we realized we had a lot of people to share our good news with.

 { My beautiful ring! }

We called my dad and Groom's parents first. That part was easy. Then we called my grandparents and his.
But who is next? How do you decide? We didn't want to upset anyone or forget to tell someone important. So here is what we did:

1. I asked my Grandma and Mom to call the rest of the family and tell them that evening.
2.We were able to skype my brother in Europe, where he is stationed in the military within a half hour of the engagement which was amazing!
3.Then I sent out a text message with the picture of my ring to my best friends. That way they got to see the ring and "hear" the news from us directly.
4.He did the same with his friends.
5.We made sure to call any other out of town family and friends within the next few days and waited to tell Facebook world for about four days.

6.Facebook is not how most people close to you want to find out you're engaged so we did that step last after we had told everyone we could think of. We asked everyone we told not to say anything on Facebook until we officially announced it there to make sure we had reached all our loved ones first.

This method worked well for us, and we ended up only missing a couple of friends.

My best advice for all of this whirlwind happiness and excitement is to not get so wrapped up in telling the "right" people in the "right" way that you forget to celebrate with your new fiance. You'll have lots of time to share your happiness with friends and family but that moment comes and goes quickly- take it all in!

-Bride

Welcome to our Wedding Adventure!

Hi There!
Welcome to our wedding adventure as documented in blogging form.


We became engaged on December 19, 2011 and have been gathering ideas and planning our big day since January 1, 2012.

It dawned on us this weekend that other couples might benefit from the documentation of all the details that will go in to our big day. The little things, the big things, the minor breakdowns, the epiphanies, everything we discover in the next 10 months.

Join us as we prepare for our wedding on September 28, 2012! 

-Bride and Groom