I apoligize for my lack of posting! Alot has been going on in this DIY girls life!

-Wedding Date Change (its a good thing) Since we are getting married by the beach, the thought of June weather (in So. Cal known as June gloom) was making me have nightmares. So we pushed the date back to the end of July 2010.

- A minor surgery- I am doing a-ok!

-And my parent's have been living with us, and now moving back home (sad face)

So with that being said, I did have time to go flip flop shopping for old navy's $1 flip flop sale a few weekends ago! I recruited all of our visitors which included my soon to be mother in law, and we loaded up on flip flops that are close to our wedding colors. It was fun! We literally ran into old navy at 8 am, and got a ton- around 35 pairs of so! I can't wait to use this idea that I found on wedding bee for the wedding.

But I am back! I promise.

I am in love with Le Love

And this....


Did this speak to anyone else? Because it spoke LOUDLY to me

Source Le Love

the perfect wedding shoes

O*M*G I am in loveeeeeee with these shoes! I wonder if this would be wedding wearable? Do you think they are too tall to strut down the wedding aisle in? I heart sequins, and I heart shoes even more, so this is the perfect shoe for me! Should I or shouldn’t I, I can’t decide!


http://www.shopbop.com/tawny-sequin-open-toe-pump/vp/v=1/845524441836080.htm?folderID=2534374302094832&fm=browse-brand-viewall-shopbysize

The OTHER dresses....

I have been a bridesmaid in literally 7 weddings, with that being said, I am very sensitive about the bridesmaid dresses. For our upcoming nuptials I plan to keep the bridesmaid dressed in one way- simple! Keeping the word simple in mind, I made my first stop in searching for bridesmaid dresses- J Crew. Oh how I love you so- your simple lines and colors, you will be perfect I just know it! And being that I know how it is to wear a color that you do not like, I have decided to let the girls wear black, and on top of that, they can pick from one of these style dresses from JCrew- how do you like that!
So here are the JCrew dresses that the girls can pick from- they will all be in black
source-www.jcrew.com




























































I also love this watters dress too,
this could be a possibility- love the top!

http://watters.com/dress_popup.php?showid=973

lack of posting

sorry- will be back soon- had to have a minor surgery so am recovering, and collecting yummy wedding goodies while recovering- will be back soon!
xoxo

Ribbons, Ribbons and more Ribbons!

Imagine the aqua mason jars and red flowers that I talked about a few posts back (and posted for you again below)- on long banquet type tables.

Think of White table cloths, (not sure what type of napkins) and red and aqua ribbons all over the table- I saw this ribbon in the new issue of Martha Stewart Weddings (ok i'm obsessed) and thought this super simple ideas was perfect for a table design on a budget! Look at how cute it is! Just put the ribbons on the table in any sort of basket weave pattern, and you have a great table!

Loveeeeeeeeeeeee!
source martha stewart

Paper Love

I think that paper prodcuts are one of the best parts of planning a wedding! There are the save the dates, invitations, and even napkins that you can get creative with! I know that I want to incorporate our monogram into our wedding design. This was created by the lovely Lori at Pretty Paper Trail

I love looking over the endless amounts of sample invitations and other paper products that are available on-line. Since our invites will be done by pretty paper trail, I have been searching high and low for inspiration for our design!
Some great paper products I love are:

(note alot of these were collected so long ago that I do not have the source- I am sorry! E-mail me and I would love to provide credit if you know the source)

both above source- Rifle

Source- http://www.elizabethannedesigns.com/blog/?s=invitations

The Dreaded B word!

Today I have the dreaded B-word on my mind- no not that B word, the other B word- BUDGET!
I know that it is not a fun topic, or one that you want to talk about when you are working on other fun things, like flowers, and candy bars. But it is one that is ever present in my and Mr DIY's mind. Since we are paying for the entire wedding ourselves (yes- you heard that right) the word Budget has been constantly in our mind every since the wedding planning process began.

But that is OK- whether or not we were paying for the wedding, some type of budget would be involved- right? But since we are in fact paying for it, and refuse to use any sort of credit cards or other financing for our big day- the Budget has become key in the planning process. And since most our wedding day involves DIY projects (hence the title of my blog) this budget is remaining pretty small, although it is about 5K over my initial projection-oops!

Our budget spreadsheet has become my best friend. It comes with me everywhere, literally. And I play around with it often. Plugging in numbers and figures of new great ideas that I have found, thanks to my obsession with finding great DIY projects on-line.

Thanks to Martha Stewart http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/planning (can you sense a theme here) I have found that doing our budget spreadsheet has been a breeze! It is easily customizable, and you can take things in and out that you don't need, or want to add to the spreadsheet. There are also industry averages that you can look at that show you how much you should spend on each category based on your overall wedding budget- good stuff!

The budget might be the worst part of planning a wedding, but for almost every bride- it is a unfortunate necessity!

Good Luck in the F-U-N Budget process!

Tabletop love

I love looking at pictures of table tops. There are so many different things you can do, to make your very own table top unique! I know for our wedding I want to have long tables, instead of round tables. I think this gives the wedding more of a comfy,cozy,family type feel-which is exactly what we are going for! There are some great table top ideas out there- and I have been collecting many of them! I know that I will use our cluster of aqua mason jars with the red flowers, as I posted about earlier here
But I also want to include other items in our color scheme, and make our table top unique. Here are some tabletops I love- even though some aren't necessary in our colors

Happy Friday!

A little treat to help you enjoy your weekend- it is so true


source-www.leloveimage.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Flowers oh how I love you so!

Here are some favorite inspiration pics that I love! All of course using red flowers (using our red and blu-ish color theme)
Here are some favs! I also love using mason jars (as you can see from past posts) and I love the multi color bouquet below (even though it doesn't match)

to gocco or not to gocco?

source- www.image-milk.com

I have been thinking recently about all of the possibilities that a Gocco could bring to my life. The possibilities are endless! From cards, to pictures to everything wedding- there is so much I could do! From everyone I have talked to about the Gocco it seems super easy to use- The Gocco is virtually impossible to find- unless you find someone selling them- which I have. So it comes down to- should I buy the Gocco or not? Would I really use it as much as I think I would, or would it just sit in my wedding corner- Have you used a Gocco? If so share what you have done!

Wedding Hair

New post for today Hair-

Yes I know hair- although I cringe at spending any part of our ever so tight budget on hair and make up- it inevetibably has to be done- unless I want to be seen walking down the aisle looking like a hot mess.

I have started growing out my hair. Prior my hair was in the category of "must get cut once a month" to keep up the style I was going with. But that ended when wedding budget kicked in. And I wanted to grow my hair long for the wedding anyway, so all in all it worked out.
As I started digging through photos of wedding hair that I envied, I noticed they all had a theme, long-flowy-ish (yes that is a word) and a little natural looking. I am not a fan of things that are too tight, and perfect (incdluing my hair)

So here are some inspiration pics for that oh-so-important wedding hair

Source-Random google image searching

Mapmaker Mapmaker

Since my fiancé is a mapmaker-yes you heard it right a mapmaker!- cute I know J I thought these vintage maps would be awesome to use in our wedding! I wonder if we could incorporate these into our save the dates somehow? Since we met and fell in love in California- I thought this California card would be absolutely perfect! What do you think? Or maybe use them in the table number someway, like a different map at each table? The possibilities are endless! Either way I love them so!

Source- I DIY

I am in L-O-V-E

with peonies- saw this pic and had to share- OMG so beautiful!

source- www.weddingbee.com

wedding projects

In my quest to have a mostly DIY wedding- there are many projects that I have been collecting that I want to do. One is tissue flower napkin rings. I think these are so great! and seem relatively easy. Thanks to Martha- she has proved step by step instructions to make this project a breeze. I have ordered the tissue paper from papermart, (and it arrived the very next day) and hope to get started on these gems this weekend. What do you think- worth it- or way too much work?

Martha Stewart

Here are step by step instructions

1. Stack 4 sheets of tissue, cut a 10 by 5 inch rectangle going through all of the layers. Make 3/8 inch wide accordion folds.
2. Fold an 18 inch piece of floral wire in half, slip over center of tissue and twist to secure. Trim ends of tissue.
3. Separate layers, pulling away from center one at a time
4. Bend wire into loop to fit around napkin and twist to secure

You can also do other floers and tissue paper bouquets, check out Marthas page for inspiration- enjoy!

Wedding arch

For our venue I definitely want to have a homemade arch. I am hoping this is something that my dad can help me with. I love the look of a bamboo arch, maybe with some fabric and/or flowers around it. What do you think- what kind of an arch did you have at your wedding? Was it homemade or already at your venue? Our venue overlooks the water so I think am arch would be beautiful!

Some inspiration























Source-Brian Crane photographer

today's inspiration

During the daily 9-5 grind, it is nice to find inspiration in places. For me this includes many wedding blogs, and sites that have pretty things. Some inspiration for today is.

Source www.leloveimage.blogspot.com

centerpieces

Here are mock-up's of my DIY centerpieces. These flowers are from the LA flower mart. And I have been collecting the Aqua mason jars for awhile now. I am so excited to make these centerpieces for our big day!

LA Flower Mart-

My mom, sister and I headed to the LA flower mart last weekend to pick up some inspiration for our May 2010 wedding ( I know seems like forever away, but really it will come quick!)
Sooooooooo many beautiful flowers! I was in love from the first minute! There is so much to see there- and so many great ideas! I did a mock up of our centerpiece (simple-aqua mason jars with single stems) and I love them! They are exactly what I wanted. Pictures to come soon!
Have a good weekend!