I want to marry you. Now.

I've been talking to MOH about how romantic eloping would be, and I know that I've blogged before about how I have a fantasy of eloping with Mike. In my eloping fantasy this is what I have in mind:


My Real Wedding from The Knot and The Nest.


My Real Wedding from The Knot and The Nest.


My Real Wedding from The Knot and The Nest.


My Real Wedding from The Knot and The Nest.


My Real Wedding from The Knot and The Nest.


My Real Wedding from The Knot and The Nest.


My Real Wedding from The Knot and The Nest.

This wedding just looks so romantic, simple and perfect. On a boat in the water, in love and happily married (with an great photog in tow too!) A small piece of me wants this soooo badly, of course with our own twist on everything. :)

Would you ever consider eloping?

Oh Pomander, Oh Pomander

I love me some pomanders. Something about a giant ball of flowers just makes me smile. I would love to incorporate some pomanders into our wedding day decor, however, they are mighty expensive. So I've been doing some research on alternatives.

Here's what I love:






Here are some of the DIY (read: budget friendly) and non-floral pomanders that I've discovered:





They look pretty awesome, don't they? I particularly like the tulle pomanders. Our florist originally quoted me at $100 for each hydrangea pomander (I would want at least 6 of them, three for each side). I've purchased some ivory tulle from Michael's and plan on doing a tester tulle pomander this weekend to see if I like these in real life and then I'll hit up a fabric store for more supplies to make enough of these guys for our ceremony venue.

Have you found some items to be more expensive than anticipated?

Cut, glue, fold, repeat

I know that I've been really slacking on the blog postings this week, so I'm going to flood the blogosphere with all of my on-goings today! Yay!!

Here's a sneak peak of what I've been working on:



You like? Stay tuned, the Save the Dates should be going out in the mail on Tuesday and then I'll post my tutorial and all of the other fun deets shortly there after.

Inspiration Sensation!

My recent research has shown that a wedding on a budget seems to have more personal details, no?

Since I've gone over my budget with everything for the wedding so far, I've been doing some research on ways to incorporate fabulous ideas for less than our budget to try to compensate. What I've been coming across has been really wonderful. Allow me to show you what I'm talking about:

Non-floral centerpieces:





Non-flora church pew decor:





Handmade envelopes:





And I've just started looking at alternative methods of decor than what I had originally planned. Two of the areas that I was going to bust my already busted budget were on centerpieces for the cocktail tables and reception tables. I really want to do pomanders on our church pews but instead of using real flowers I think I'm going to research and use an equally fabulous non-floral method.

Where have you pulled your wedding project inspiration from?

All About Us!

I've seen a few bloggers post this and I thought it was so cute that I'd follow suit and do the same! :)

Totally Random Fun Facts About Us:

1. What are your middle names?
Ann and Joseph

2. How long have you been together?
6 years!! Since August 2003.

3. How long did you know each other before you started dating?
We met at a party and started dating immediately.

4. Who asked who out?
He asked me out.

5. How old are each of you?
I'm 24, he's 28.

6. Did you go to the same school?
No. It's funny because I don't think he would have liked the high school version of me and I don't think I would have liked the college version of him. The timing was perfect.

7. Are you from the same home town?
No, our areas are close though, same region.

8. Who is the smartest?
It really depends on what the subject is. We're both know-it-alls.

9. Who majored in what?
Mike majored in English with a minor in Political Science. After college he was a speech writer for an Assemblyman at the California State Capitol. I majored in accounting, I was going to minor in econ but I just wanted to graduate at the end, I didn't care about getting my minor.

10. Who is the most sensitive?
Me for sure, but Mike is pretty sensitive too.

11. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
The farthest we've gone together is New York City when we'd been dating for a little over a year. :) We were only there for a long weekend but it was a blast. Lots of memories!

12. Who has the worst temper?
Mike, he's working on having more patience. I have so much patience, and I'm stubborn...it makes for an interesting mix. haha

13. How many children do you want?
We both want to have 3 kids. Mike is the youngest of 5 kids and I'm the oldest of two. When I was in high school I nannied for three boys and I loved it. So much fun! I would love for us to have a similar household.

14. Who does the cooking?
I do most of the cooking but Mike loves to cook, the only problem is that he won't follow recipes. Bacon wrapped pork chops anyone?

15. Who is more social?
Mike is far and away more social. He can easily talk to people and everyone loves him.

16. Who is the neat freak?
Me, without a doubt. Mike's idea of cleaning is hiding the mess in drawers, closets and under the bed.

17. Who is the most stubborn?
This one is me too.

18. Who wakes up earlier?
I am naturally an early bird and always have been. However, since we've moved back to Sacramento and Mike runs an office in the bay area, three days a week he is the early bird and I get to sleep in.

19. Where was your first date?
At a yucky Chinese restaurant that he picked out (he swore that the food was good when he had been there before). Our next date was the magical one, I treated and picked the restaurant that time.

20. Who has the bigger family?
His family is way bigger than mine.

21. Do you get flowers often?
Oh goodness, yes. I used to get them way more often than I do now. I love receiving flowers.

22. How do you spend the holidays?
We spend the holidays doing a lot of driving between houses. We can't wait until we're married so we can finally host the holidays and get to stay in one place!

23. Who is more jealous?
I don't think either of us gets jealous so much anymore. In the beginning I think we each would have our little moments of jealousy though.

24. How long did it take to get serious?
This is funny. When we started dating I was keeping journal/planners that I happened to come across while cleaning last week. A month after we had been dating I wrote "Mike said I love you." We both knew right away that we were in love.

25. Who eats more?
Mike eats WAAAAAAAY more than I do.

26. What do you do for a living?
I'm an accountant and Mike manages sales offices across Northern California.

27. Who does the laundry?
He's not allowed to touch the laundry. I have my ways that I like things done and I do not want to nag him about how he's doing things wrong. So I simply ask that he not touch our laundry so I can just do it the right way (read: my way). Same applies to the dishes, otherwise I will wash/put away/fold things after he's already done it. It's better than being a nag.

28. Who's better with the computer?
I'm better with anything that's electronic.

29. Who drives when you are together?
Mike does most of the driving, he claims to be "afraid" when I drive. Sissy.

30. What is your song?
Jack Johnson's "Banana Pancakes"

And then reality sets in

... and you have to face the fact that you're planning your wedding within a budget.



I haven't blogged yet about our budget, and that's mostly because I've been trying to avoid thinking about it. Mike and I will be funding our wedding. All by ourselves. In cash. People that have asked about how we're paying for everthing have basically given the same response: "that sucks." While at first sight it does "suck" I think it's not so unusual. I'm an accountant, Mike is in sales, we're both college graduates. There's no reason that we can balance a budget and negotiate the items that we want to fit within our budget, furthermore, we make enough money and have enough in savings to pay for this wedding and our honeymoon in cash. I think the reason that people are surprised that we're paying for our own wedding is because we're still fairly young, I'm 24 and Mike is 28, but again, we can afford to do it ourselves.



In the beginning, I set our budget at $20,000, then $25,000 until people kept telling me that $30,000 was the national average spent on weddings so I thought that $30,000 was reasonable for our wedding. Then I slowly realized that the $30,000 budget didn't include our rehearsal dinner, the day after brunch, or our honeymoon. Now our budget is slowly going back down to $20,000 and considering items that have already been contracted...I'm not doing such a good job. Here's where I am so far (on a $20,000 budget using theknot.com's wedding budgeter tool):

Guest list count: 75; I bumped it up to 100 but seeing as how we haven't sent out our STDs yet (doh!) I can still trim it back to 75.

Reception Venue & Rental: Budgeted: $1,600, Actual: $1,900



Ceremony location fee: Budgeted: $200, Actual: $1,800



Photographer: Budgeted: $1,200, Actual: $3,200



Invitations: Budgeted: $500, Actual: FREE!!! Thank you WeddingBee!!



Wedding Coordinator: Budgeted: $0, Actual: $1,500 (I only booked her this weekend, post to come!)

The remaining large budget items are flowers, music and attire. Catering, alcohol and the cake are all being coordinated through our reception venue, so we can keep those costs within our budget. Everything else I plan to do via DIY and try to make up for the overspending that we have already committed to.

Looking at our budget has been a sobering (read: frustrating) experience this morning that makes me want to run away and elope even more (I would rather spend $20,000 on a incredible European honeymoon!) than I did before.

How well have you done staying within your budget? How much funding are you receiving from your families?

Holiday Nuptials

Seeing as how Mike (that's his name, I was referring to him as MJ because those are his initials (pretty soon I will be CJ) and I thought using his initials would bring some sort of privacy, but knowing our first names isn't giving away tons of info.) and I are getting married on a holiday weekend, I thought I would share some holiday themed weddings that I've come across. We'll move through the year accordingly.

New Years Wedding: I love the oh so sleek black, white and silver theme that most New Years weddings take on. It really is such a sexy theme (hello, you get to kiss someone at midnight, could you imagine if that was the custom of more than one holiday??). Only down side I see is the cold weather, but some people love the idea of a cold weather wedding.



Valentine's Day Wedding: There's something about Valentine's Day that puts people off because it so successfully raises people's expectations so high that it's easy to feel disapointment. However, I think a Valentine's Day wedding would actually be a treat because the day would be completely filled with love (what better way to share love than to surround yourself with those who mean the most to you?!?!)



St. Patty's Day: Originally, Mike and I wanted to have a crisp green and white wedding. Then we added black and all I thought of was the Wicked Witch of the West. However, the green and white or green, white and black weddings look awesome. And I think St. Patty's Day weddings are so fun because of the little charming additions of four leaf clovers, etc.



Easter: An Easter theme wedding would actually make for a very sweet little wedding day. The pastels and birds eggs are already regular features of weddings without holiday affiliations.



Cinco de Mayo: A Mexican theme wedding sounds so fun to me! The bright colors, delicious food, great danceable music and yummy drinks. I hope someone we know gets married and has a Cinco de Mayo wedding and invites us.



Independence Day: I think a couple could really have fun with a 4th of July wedding. Personally, I think the color scheme would really lend itself to a rustic barn wedding, with very charming accents of stars and stripes.



Halloween: A Halloween wedding isn't my cup of tea at first impression, but the more I think of Halloween (beyond costumes and candy) the more I see the potential. Pumpkins, fall leaves and warm hued colors would make for such a delightful and upbeat wedding.



Thanksgiving: This wedding color pallet is so appealing to me. Gold, deep warm chocolate brown and cranberry red are so luxurious and inviting. Plus, can you imagine the meal that would be severed? Haha, actually I think doing little mini versions of Thanksgiving classics with lots of Champagne and beer would be even better. Yum-o!!



Christmas: I think there are many different ways that a couple can go with a Christmas wedding. I think green, red and white actually come off as being pretty fresh. Yet using a silver, gold and red theme would still equally fit a Christmas wedding and offer a warmer, less fresh but more traditional feel. My opinion at least. ;) So for Christmas I included two pictures.




I didn't include Memorial Day (our wedding holiday) or Labor Day because they are mostly red, white and blue holidays like the 4th of July. That said, just because our wedding is sharing a weekend with a holiday doesn't mean in anyway that we are having a holiday theme wedding. :) But I know that there are some people getting married this weekend that WILL have a Halloween theme wedding which made me think about all of the holiday theme weddings out there.

Would you ever consider having your wedding incorporate the theme of a holiday? What was your favorite, which do you think I like the most?