Today, since I’m still gloating (yet a little sad) about giving my notice last night at job #2, I’m going to give you freaders a lil wedding planning love. Today? We’re going to talk about registries.
Now, fiancé and i have perused Macy’s, Crate and Barrel, and Hill’s Kitchen - a place on Capitol Hill that recently opened that has a slue of fun stuff most all of it American Made.
I’m more than excited to redo our kitchen; to find new dinnerwear, china (we’re looking at buying a hutch to store said china) a matching silverwear set, and nice wine glasses. Not to mention; table linens, fun cooking utensils, a slow cooker, a kitchen aid mixer, new sheets, and the like.
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Also, I found my colors. Future Sister in Law and her pal sent me some dresses that they liked from Alfred Angelo, and so i was perusing the website while i eat my FABULOUS Noodles & company lunch (mmm mac and cheese) and was looking at Bridesmaid dresses because after everyone’s comments? I’m pretty much hellbent on staying as far away from Davids Bridal as possible - this may be narrowminded but I haven’t heard a single good thing about the store. Soo…I think i found my colors (shrimp and clover - see this dress - with the body in clover i think and the tie in shrimp. I’m also thinking of this dress) I’m going to see about making a trip up to boston sometime this fall to go dress shopping with my girls since 3 out of four of them will be there and i’m hoping my MOH aka big sister will drive down so the four of them can all meet.
I also decided to have my cousin be my Jr. Bridesmaid/Flower girl. She’s a little too old to be flower girl (she’ll be i think 12 by the time we get married? Her birthday is 4 days after mine) but just right to be a junior bridesmaid. Since i have no really tiny cousins and all, I think that’s perfect. I want my dad’s family to be involved somehow, and i think since she’s the daughter of one of my favorite aunt’s, this is a nice way to make sure everyone feels…somewhat included. If that makes any sense.
So there ya have it ladiezzz…my weekly wedding update.
It’s crazy to think we’ve been engaged for only a month, and what we’ve gotten done? While may seem a lot? Not so much in my mind…we have the church locked down, we have the reception site ALMOST locked down though I think I want to go look at a couple more places tomorrow after work next week before we go to Vermont.
Also, I’m looking for ways to save bling, Fiancé’s dad sent us this article about Brides on a Budget so since we might be spending up to $15k on the reception alone, I’m looking for ways to save money otherwise - doing the invitations and STD’s myself, maybe making my own centerpieces, that kind of stuff. So if ya’ll have any suggestions? Send them my way 
I’ve spent a better part of today perusing all the wedding websites looking for ideas.
oh what cute dresses. but i got my bridesmaid dress at david’s bridal and everything worked out okay, just sayin
but you really are on top of things, i love it.
I can’t recall the date for your wedding but I think the wine colored dress would be lovely for a late summer/fall wedding!
The first does suit you though, it screams Heidi to me!
Yes - David’s Bridal is a nightmare!! Stay far, far away:)
Those dresses are adorable!!
Okay, coming from a girl who’s mum managed both David’s Bridal and Alfred Angelo for the past 10 years, definitely go with the latter. David’s Bridal just isn’t as good. Don’t get me wrong, they have some nice dresses, definitely, but AA is much better. In fact, I might be wearing the first dress you linked in my roommates wedding next year (only in gold). How funny!
In other words–good choice!
okay, i’ve got lots to say today…
- i like the second dress : )
- my bff got her wedding dress at DB (granted that was 6yrs ago) and never had a single problem
- i’m convinced that the point of wedding registries is solely for the Kitchenaide Mixer
- i’m so excited that we’re finally getting a N&Co. down here next year. i’ve been whining about not having one ever since i moved here. who says bitching and moaning doesn’t pay off?
- and, holy crap, 15g’s for a site?? the ones i’ve looked at are 2.5 and i was thinking that was total BS. i’d totally buy another car instead : )
Okay, we are doing the invitations ourselves, but by doing so, we’re only saving about $100. The reason we’re doing them ourselves has a lot more to do with the incredible lack of nice purple invitations in our price range that had the flexibility to accommodate two languages. If we’d only had one of those parameters, instead of both, we could easily have found something nice in our price range without having to assemble them ourselves.
Also, neither of us cares about having a limo, so we are skipping that entirely and will just rely on my parents’ minivan. That is definitely a savings, too.
Love the dresses and the colors! My girls wore Alfred Angelo dresses in Celedon
I was a total budget bride…I think it’s ridiculous what people pay for weddings. We funded most of our wedding also so that was a big reason to stay under a certain amt. I’ll have to look at my budget again but I’m pretty sure everything was under $15k.
Ways we cut corners?:
No favors. Favors to us were trivial and honestly people don’t remember them. Instead we donated to our favorite charities.
One stop shop: Our reception place did food, open bar, centerpieces and cake. We did splurge on a chocolate fountain which everyone loved
Silk flowers: I’m not one for flowers and they die anyway so the bouquets were silks from http://www.afloral.com - got many compliments and I loved the look on people’s faces when i said they weren’t real! I have my bouquet in a vase.
Venders were friends: It was important to us to have a small, intimate wedding so we asked around for reccomendations. DJ was a coworker of my mom’s who refused to charge me (he got a big Gift Cert. to his favorite store), wedding photographer was an up and comer who was a friend of a friend and she was wonderful, JP was a family friend who only wanted a GC for dinner out someplace she has never been.
Shoes: I love this - they were ballet flats from TARGET and they were $15 and they were uber-comfortable! I don’t do heels and certainly wasn’t going to do them on my wedding day!
Hope that’s helpful
I LOVE those dresses! I think those cuts would look great on everyone, and I would never picture those colors together, but they are gorgeous. I can’t wait to see how you bring this all together
mmm. I love the mac and cheese from noodles and co.!
I admit, I giggled when I read “std’s”. One track (and that’s not marital) mind over here. I love love love the colors- shrimp made it sound weird but the dress is gorgeous. If you have a chance to visit this shop: http://www.ckbradley.com/catalog/default.php you should, they have some cute preppyish stuff there.
Congrats on giving notice! Seriously, I wish we lived in the same area so we could celebrate with drinks!
Can we talk about how one of your colors is “shrimp”? That kind of made me giggle. Don’t get me wrong, I think the color combo is gorgeous it’s just the name that’s funny
We had a 250 person wedding for less than 10K. (Granted, we’re not in D.C., so things are cheaper.)
I made our invites, centerpieces, and all that jazz. It was SO FUN, and super easy. Target has lots of really adorable invites you can print yourself, and I consulted the knot for ideas as far as font, wording, and such.
We had some mirrors, candles, satin and flower petals for our centerpieces. It was easy, but cute. Our colors were black, white, and a wine/burgundy/redish color. Martha Stewart’s website has lots of ideas, so does the knot.
My bridesmaids wore whatever they wanted, but all the same color and knee length. (MUUUUCH better than stupid dresses they’ll never wear again.) I wore my aunt’s adorable wedding dress (she’s less than 10 years older than me, so it was still stylish. And free!)
Bargain bride alll the way. Mostly because the important part to me was having fun and dancing with my family and friends, celebrating in every possible way. I didn’t want to pretend to be stuffy and haughty, I’m simple and laid back.
Have fun!
Wedding plans. Oh what fun. I’m so excited for you. I can’t wait to hear more. Nice choice on the dresses.
We looked at both of those dresses when picking dresses. I thought the 1st dress looked cheap with the material at the bottom. And the 2nd was really nice but didn’t end up picking it because we thought the bubble skirt would date it in the future. Just something to think about..
I loved the Clover colour, and it was the colour I wanted, but the dresses we ended up getting didn’t have that colour, so we got Celadon, which is a bit muted. Clover is a great colour choice.
I think I’m doing my STD’s myself, but I found really affordable invites in a catalog recently. I’m at camp, so I can’t grab the catalog to tell you the name of it, but it was one of those I received when I signed up for theknot.com
I’m currently debating what shade of green to use myself, sage or clover? I guess it depends on what season we choose…
I just about died when I read “Alfred Angelo,” because I wore a most ill-fitting and poorly sewn $200 bridesmaid dress in a wedding last October. The material was cheap, we had to TAPE IT to our boobs (even after alterations) and a fellow bridesmaid THREW HERS AWAY THE NEXT DAY.
I could have sworn that they were Alfred Angelo dresses, but I double checked and they were in fact Alfred Sung. I knew Alfred was in the name somewhere.
Sung. Bad.
Angelo. Good.
I also like the bridesmaid dresses from J. Crew. They are definitely wear again-able!
Looks like your planning is off to a great start! Love your blog!
Cute dresses!
I agree with the previous commenters that favors are a waste! At a recent wedding we were at, we got a CD of music featured in the wedding… that was interesting to absolutely NO ONE other than the bride and groom!
good choice! I had those Alfred Angelo Dresses for my bridesmaids in clover with a cream sash! all the girls LOVED it. here’s the pic!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12368676@N00/336413535/sizes/l/in/set-72157594444725664/
love both dresses! I wore a dress from aria in a wedding. it was simple and really nice, and had loads of colors. they have a shop here in dc, over on p st in dupont, and one in boston as well. also, I have heard that ann taylor and j crew have nice bm dresses that aren’t too pricy, and the girls could probably wear them again, which would be nice!