Current DIY work-in-progress

I recently came across this inspiring DIY bouquet on one of my favorite bridal sites, OffbeatBride.com. My mom and I bought 500 gajillion of those exact silver christmas ornaments on 90% clearance at Joann a few weeks ago. The original intent was to fill large fishbowl vases and use them as centerpieces. But after seeing this post, I began work on a similar project. What I will use them for, I don't know. I love fresh flowers and would hate to cut them out of the wedding completely.

I have considered using them as centerpieces, eliminating the big fishbowl vases, which are stupid expensive anyways, and on the day of the wedding incorporate them into the floral design with fresh mint and lavender. It's a tedious project and the post made it seem easier than I thought it would be. Making the tulle flowers is the most time consuming part. Each petal must be made, than many petals bunched together to form a flower. To make things a little easier, I've eliminated the LED lights.

I am also debating self-catering vs. Fuzzy's Tacos catering. They would make exactly the same thing I would, but eliminate so much work for us, since we will have many other DIY things to complete that day, such as decoration, setup, final cleanup, etc. But having people there to refill as dishes get empty will in itself be such a huge help. The self-catering project was coming along quite nicely, but I don't want to bite off more than I can chew and certainly don't want a big disaster on my hands. As well, I've been getting serious resistance from both mothers and if something does go wrong, they will be the first to say "I told you so, we should have gotten a caterer".

Current food and beverage plan: stations!

Antipast bar - featuring Italian meats, gourmet cheeses, olives, nuts and dried fruits

Taco/Nacho bar - featuring Mexican goodness, fillings, toppings and fixins for your favorite do-it-yourself tacos or nachos

Dessert bar - featuring a small two tiered wedding cake, towers of cupcakes, brownies and bowls of candy. Will also have small boxes for guests to take home any sweets they would like.

Champagne and beer bar - featuring sparkling wine and beer on ice and all the fixins for do-it-yourself mimosas, poinsettas and champagne cocktails.

DIY Flower Girl Pails and the Bridal Brigade

The first thing I did when I got engaged was buy the book, DIY Bride and have taken several projects from it. The first was the flower girl pails. One of the members of my "Bridal Brigade", Megan has two adorable little girls, Kameron and Gracie that will be the flower girls. So we got together last weekend to craft these simple and adorable pails for less than $10 each.

The process of choosing those friends I would like to surround me on my wedding day was simple. They are not only friends that have been with me through several phases of my life, but are calm and assertive people that I knew I could depend on for emotional and mental support throughout my engagement as well. I did not want to have a traditional bridal party with mitchy-matchy outfits that no one wears again, so I assembled the Bridal Brigade and gave each "brigadeer" a specific mission, giving them the option to decline if their lives were too hectic to accomplish it. Giving people an option and laying out all expected responsibilities seemed like the most respectful and adult way of going about it.

Welcome to my wedding world

Here are the basic stats to get you up to speed:

Bride: Jasmine Angelina Luna
Age: 29
Occupation: Fort Worth Sales Representative - Horizon Wines
Education: B.A. Interdisciplinary Studies

Groom: George Brennan Gdovin
Age: 25
Occupation: VP of Solutions Development - Arcos IT
Education: B.B.A. E-Commerce

Engagement Date: August-ish
Wedding Date: September 20, 2009
Budget: negligible
Colors: Silver, lavender, mint green
Theme: DIY

While planning this wedding, I've become obsessed with doing almost everything myself. Partly because of the unrealistically expensive images that bridal magazines feature. Also, George and I went to a friends' wedding that was without question THE BEST WEDDING EVER. It was obvious that the wedding was so "them". They stayed true to themselves and invited their family and guests celebrate their uniqueness. Unwittingly, they inspired us so plan a similar event.

Yes, it's a lot of work. Yes, I've been getting resistance from all sides. But my rock, my love, George is always an encouraging voice of reason and comfort, supporting me through all phases of the DIY process and laughing at my madness at exactly the right time to snap me back to reality.

Choosing a venue without excessive restrictions on alcohol was extremely important to me. I'm in the wine business and didn't want a venue that would dictate my wine list or require me to pay wine list prices which are typically a markup of 300%. It also had to have lots of light inside, an area outside for the ceremony and fit into our budget under $1000 without incidental costs like valets, required staff and all those other pesky hidden charges. After many disappointments, bait and switch pricing and scouting countless locations, the answer was closer to home than expected. The Bent Creek Community Center is located inside George's parents neighborhood in Southlake, TX for the bargain price of $450, better than we could have hoped!

DIY madness began months ago with my save the date shaker card. They are adorable, but took many nights of cutting and gluing. Last weekend, one of my bridesmaids and I crafted simple flower girl pails out of painted buckets, ribbon, crepe paper and a button.

I am using many other bridal blogs for inspiration and will be posting links very soon.