Snow Day Update: Sola Flowers

One of the main things I've been struggling with over the past few months has been dealing with the flowers and bouquets. My problem lies around the cost and fragility of flowers... I've done a lot of searching and researching and finagling but I still can't fathom spending hundreds of dollars on professionals doing the bouquets and decorations for them to last a few days, or spending almost just as much plus tons of additional stress to do it in the few days prior to the wedding. I knew I couldn’t be the only one out there with this thought… there must be alternatives for the same beauty and delicate nature of natural flowers that are cost-efficient and durable.

So started my searching…

I found interesting ideas using feathers, buttons, brooches, and even paper or tulle flowers. But then I found sola flowers. If you search through google images, you’ll see just how GOREGOUS and elegant these flowers are. They are sculpted from tapioca wood, they never die or dry out and they are amazingly affordable.

This image is what inspired me to begin looking into sola flowers.. I think this is stunning and beautiful..

site: JL Designs

So then I started hunting a bit more and found great deals for these creamy sola flowers on save-on-crafts.com

A week or so ago, I began organizing my bits and pieces… here’s what I accomplished…

I spent a Friday evening working with some google photos as inspiration. I had bought some accent colors and started to work on boutonnieres.

Finished product # 1!!

More to come...

Engagement Party Pics!

Here's our room, pre-party. We decorated some tables with mason jars filled with sunflowers, snapdragons and some fillers we found at a farmer's market the day before. We also had a talented member of my family send in some awesome cookies which we set around the outside of the room.



Outside. Pretty funky and casual.. a "gathering".

About halfway through the party, we had our Maid of Honor and Best Man read off trivia questions about us. Right answers got a drink ticket! It was fun hearing who knew the essentials (where we met, where we've traveled to, how we got engaged, ect.) as well as hearing people's opinions of where we'd be in 5 years :)

We enjoyed the answers :)

For favors, we put custom fortune cookies in take out containers and wrapped colored ribbon we had found on sale at a craft store to tie in the pink, blue and brown theme.

We spent a bit over $1,000 but had an awesome 5 hour party with catered food and open pool tables for our friends and family. We brought favors, decorations and homemade cupcakes for dessert. Totally worked out to be a fun and memorable day!

Everything happens for a reason...

Well it has been five or so months since I last blogged about the wedding.. Things have been a tad nuts, but I'm officially back on the blog-wagon!

In early November, we were notified of a property issue that our venue (The Mansion in the Woods) was having. They weren't able to guarantee how/when it would be cleared up or if we could have our wedding there. They said they should hopefully know by December. Hearing this, I lost it. Cried, yelled, when into a bit of a freak out. But Kevin and I decided the smartest thing for us to do would be to start looking for a new venue just in case we didn't hear good news from them in November. I went on a bridal rampage and within 5 days, had set up over 20 appointments for Kevin and I to view new venues. I searched everywhere from vineyards to historical houses to museums to inns to mansions... if they had a website and contact info, I made it work. Luckily on our last viewing of our first day of hunting, we found a beautiful venue on the North Shore...

The Smith Barn! The place is gorgeous and rustic... and we both knew this was "it". Unlike the MITW, this place had everything together, took a lot of the guesswork and questions out of the process of the wedding, fit our budget AND had our date open. Within a week, we signed the new contract and got back our deposit from our previous venue, thus moving our wedding event 52 miles north east and starting from scratch with most of our planning.

I'm finding it easier to focus now, as there much less to worry about and things are getting finalized.

In the last month, this is what we've accomplished:

• New venue
• New area for guests (hotel room block booked, looking into new weekend events)
• Ordered my wedding dress (the one from the pics in July!)
• Decided on a new menu with a new caterer
• New awesome dessert theme
• THREE WORDS: DUFFY DAY COORDINATING
• Um, hello bridal shoes!
• Booked a DJ
• Met with and reserved a Justice of the Peace for our ceremony
• Booked our 7 night honeymoon to Costa Rica :)
  
• Designed and sent out our save the dates
• Designed and ordered our favor cards
• Began accumulating pieces of the centerpieces
• Fell in love with sola flowers (you'll hear more about this soon, I'm positive)
• Started brainstorming with Prima Portraits for wedding shots

...I think that's most of it?

Life's been a bit crazy. The next 2 weeks of holidays, no classes and winter weather excite me because I feel like things are started to actually come together. :)

OH, here's one thing I forgot (although I have no idea how I ever could)..

Meet Winston, my furry adopted child :)