I really love looking at purple decorations for the reception. It’s kind of hard to find the right shade of purple -  you know, NOT lavender. But I ran across quite a few today so I want record these ideas for when the time is right. Also, I’m not sure how people feel about renting vs. buying some of the bigger decorations. It seems like you can get chair covers and table runners for fairly cheap. I’m surprised, but it might be worth it to do this and then try to sell them (sites like WeddingBee.com have a classifieds section just for this kind of thing).

Can’t you just imagine chairs wrapped in this with a matching table runner:

Then have a cute little favor boxes filled with, um, something tasty, lol, at each setting. I wasn’t sure I was really into the polka dots until I saw those boxes. I like the idea of using them sparingly with the purple and black theme. The rest of the table would be pretty simple, maybe some tulips in a small square vase with some tea lights around it.

And then (get ready, I’m almost foaming at the mouth over these), I’d scatter these around the table:

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Phew. This week totally kicked my butt. Thankfully, I’m only working 3 days next week. Then it’s time to set off some fireworks!

I had dinner with my best friend on Wednesday night and asked her if she would be my maid of honor. She was thrilled, though she was a little nervous too. Neither of us have been in a wedding before. In fact, neither of us have even attended many weddings! It’s all pretty new to us, but I’m sending her some sites like Wedding Bee and Style Me Pretty that I think will help her get her feet wet. I know they helped me!

Next up, I have a bridesmaid that lives out of state that I’m asking to be in my wedding party. I mailed her card yesterday, so she should get it early next week. I’ve only hinted that she’s got mail on the way, and I’m still not sure if I should hint further or just let her be surprised.

Has anyone else ever asked out of town friends to be bridesmaids? How did you go about ‘popping the question”?

So I’m really obsessed with having some sort of a ‘butterfly theme’ at our wedding. I blame Martha:

I have a pretty good idea of how I’m going to make that cake happen, but more on that later. I’ve been scouring the internets for more butterflies that I can include in our wedding and reception. I found this template for paper butterflies on Martha Stewart. They seem like they’d be a lot of work to cut out and then stick on every single glass, but I think the overall effect would be really dreamy.

I also found a few good ideas at PlanningPad.com. What if I complimented the butterflies on people’s glasses with these butterfly candle favors floating in water? I want tea lights on the tables anyway, so maybe this would be a good way to merge them with my theme. These butterfly favor boxes are also really cute, but they don’t come in purple so I’m not sold on them.

What are your favorite butterfly themed decorations? Anyone else doing this for their wedding?

I’ve been looking at potental NEPA wedding ceremony locations this week in an attempt to make a list for myself and FH to review. As it stands, we need something that will satisfy the following critera:

• Reasonably close to Northeast PA
• Indoors, since we’re shooting for an October date
• Holds 50-100 people
• Has some meaning to both of us
• Location is suitable for a religious ceremony

We’ve been tossing around ideas, such as having a ceremony on-site at our reception, or doing it at one of our churches. Those don’t work that well for a variety of reasons. Also, FH is Catholic and I am Methodist, which can complicate things slightly.

However, I think we hit on a great compromise!

The chapel at the college we both attended, King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, is available for alumni weddings. Since King’s is where we met and fell in love, it only seems like a fitting place to be married. Once we hear back from them and get the scoop on dates available plus what’s required of us (for the Catholic ceremony) I will be sure to do a follow up!

Even though I still haven’t asked my bridesmaids if they’d be in the wedding party yet, I’m thinking about what kind of cute gifties I can give them. I scored some CUTE little black & white damask bags in the dollar bin at Michael’s last week that I want to fill with things for them to start:

They’re not very big, but I thought they could hold some beauty supplies, like nail polish, files & trimmers. I love the shades in the OPI Fairytale Brides line, and there are some good shades in their Sephora line as well!

Now I’m off looking for other bridesmaids gifts that I can include with this little bag. Favor Warehouse has some cute things that I could personalize with our wedding date (once we have one!). These bath salts would go perfectly with the gift theme I have in mind. They have a ton of custom labels, but the sample one, with the black & white swirls, actually matches perfectly!

I’m still looking around to see what I can find on sale. Buying some of the beauty gifts this early might not be the best idea just in case they have a limited shelf life, but at least I’ll be ready to go when the time comes!

What kind of gifts are thinking of getting your bridesmaids?

I took last Friday off from work in an attempt to keep my sanity and besides lounging around, I made an appointment at the Woodhouse Day Spa in Kingston, PA. If you’re looking for a Northeast PA spa, this is the place to be. I know there are cheaper places around, but at least for me, it’s about the whole environment and not just the end result. I like feeling completely isolated from the world, even if it’s just for an hour or so in their cozy massage chairs.

While she was working on my feet, the girl doing the pedicure was telling me about the bridal parties that they host there. I was thinking it would be a cool thing to do before my wedding, if I could swing it. Have all the girls and the mothers come in for a manicure or something, you know?

However, I don’t think we’ll be doing what one bridal party had done that morning. They made their own mimosas and brought them in! It sounds amazing in theory, but she said the mother of the groom actually got drunk and was sliding out of her chair. She didn’t realize it and couldn’t figure out why her robe kept sliding up higher and higher. LOL!

So manicure/pedicure before the wedding is a yes. Getting drunk at the spa, a big fat NO.

I got an email yesterday confirming my order from Lush is just about to ship! If you haven’t heard of Lush, they sell amazing handmade cosmetics and soaps. This time around I stocked up on some bath bombs, mostly because I know they won’t melt during shipping.

I want to include things I love in my wedding (hey, that’s how I got this far, isn’t it?) and I looooove Lush. Just imagine how elegant it would be to have little slices of Honey I Washed the Kids soap wrapped up at each place setting as a wedding favor! Maybe I’d even do baskets full of bubble bars at the reception so people can grab them on their way home at the end of the day!

There’s just one problem with using Lush as a wedding favor. They cost a pretty penny! It’s well worth it if you want to treat yourself, but it’s gonna be difficult to treat 100 of my friends and family.

Outside of making them gifts for my wedding party and part of my wedding day beauty routine, I think I’ll need to find a soap alternative if I want to use them as favors. The Wedding Favor Bar has some really cute Popsicle Soap Wedding Favors that are much closer to my price range. Check it out:

Does anyone else know of some cute, unique soap wedding favors? If you’ve done them, I’d love to see how they turned out!

It’s been a rough time for FH’s family right now. His niece was born extremely premature and while she’s slowly getting stronger and healthier, the last few months have been tough. So tough, at one point we weren’t sure if we should get engaged right now. After thinking it through, we realized it would take a while to get to the actual wedding part of it and it’s likely his niece would be doing much better. We also realized it might be nice to have some good news to share for a change.

Since getting engaged a few weeks ago, we haven’t really done much planning. At first, I think it’s nice to just letting the whole thing sink in. We only get to be engaged once, and I’ve had a lot of fun telling all my friends and getting used to saying “my fiance”.

We broached the topic with FMIL last night, and she thought our time line for planning was a good one, and she offered to visit places with us if we wanted. While I’m ready to move forward on this with just FH if need be, it’s nice to know we have that support and that his mom is understanding even while things are tough. So now I just need to make a list of NEPA wedding venues to call!

Did anyone else ever have family health issues or drama delay their wedding planning?

I got a cute engagement gift last week from a girl at work. As she said, it’s totally useless but I love it anyway. It’s called the “2 carat cup” and I bet you can guess why:

She picked it up at Starbucks, but it looks like you can get it on Amazon, among other places. It’s a cute gift for brides to be and it beats the normal cliché wedding/engagement gifts.

Have you gotten any unexpected gifts after getting engaged?

I was SO excited to get these in the mail yesterday. I ordered them from LittleLadyCompany on Etsy. I’m hoping I find my crafting genes as we get closer to the wedding, but I know the paper goods are out of my realm. I worked with her over a week or two to customize these to fit me. She was fantastic and went around digging up shades of gray and purple for me. They’re so cute – I don’t even want to give them up, LOL. Take a peek:

HEEEEE. FH is away until Sunday night, and I want him to see these before I give them away. Cannot wait.

Did any of your early wedding purchases leave you feeling giddy like this?