OMG Venue Freak out

O-M-G that is all I have to say
Why can't I have unlimited funds of money being thrown at me
That would make this all so much easier
But I dont
So I will continue to search
for the perfect venue

Wish me luck!

Out of town engagement party

Engagement party recap

OMG what a whirlwind trip to Michigan-I know you didn’t think that Michigan could be associated with the word whirlwind but for me it does!

I had such an AMAZING trip to Michigan. I love being back home, and being with all of the people who know me the best, and I can be completely myself with, because most of these people I have known my entire life. I have one friend and bridesmaid who I have been friends with sine Kindergarten- now not many people can say that!

My soon to be bridesmaids threw Phil and I a fantastic Engagement party- it was so great! My friend Kylee and her husband Mike were the gracious hosts. They had everything set up, from incorporating our wedding colors into everything, great food, drinks, and of course the company!

Kylee had everyone bring a bottle of wine, and write a message to Phil and I on the bottle. It was such a great idea! Lugging the bottles back to California was not a problem at all! I put most of them in my luggage, and left some bottles for my mom to ship (or drink, lol). The girls also planned a pre-newlyweed game, in which Phil and I had to answer questions about each other- some of the questions are things we have not thought about in awhile (first movie you saw together, and some other funny ones) So it was a super fun game!

This party was so fantastic. I was so overcome with emotion that I cried a few times. One of those times being when I saw my friend Sarah (see above mention friend since Kindergarten) who flew all of the way from Texas. This was a total surprise, and the sheer generosity of all of it was way too much for this emotional girl to handle! Also, Melissa my only other fellow California girl flew out for the event- wow I have some amazing friends!

The party was also the night of my 30th Birthday (yes- 30! I guess I am considered an old maid bride) So Kylee went all out with a Birthday cake with the Big 3-0 written on it, which I again proceeded to cry due to the emotion of it all.

All in all this night was so special to Phil and me. I cannot thank all of my friends enough for putting it together.
Thank you to-

Kylee & Mike- the gracious host and hostess with the mostess- thank you for all of your hard work!

Lori, Sarah, Mis, Lin, and little Kortney J for setting up this amazing event and coordinating!

Heidi- for the Duggens chicken wings- this little surprise was amazing

And Phil for being the most amazing fiancé that I could ask for- I am so excited to marry you!

Thank you again for a fantastic evening!

4th of July festivities

I wanted to share my most favorite place in the entire world, and where I will be spending my 30th Birthday! This place is so special to me, my families cottage in Michigan.
The cottage has been in our family for 120 years- yes 1-2-0! I literally spent my first few days on earth at this place, that is why I feel like I have such a connection with it. I have spent EVERY birthday since I was born at the cottage (with the exception of the last two due to family circumstances)
I am so excited to head here for a nice week of rest, relaxation, and family!

Also, my wonderful bridesmaids are throwing us an engagement party on Friday- which just so happens to be my 30th Birthday- should be a pretty amazing time! I cannot wait.

Here are some pics of the magical cottage- enjoy your 4th of July activities!

Take my picture

I am super psyched about our wedding photographer. I have heard so many great things about here- check her out yourself on her blog Hazelnut Photography I love her style, and think that she will be perfect!
Photography is THE most important part of the wedding to me. Booking Jordana was one of the first things I did. I saw her blog while stalking another wedding blog, and knew I had to have her for our wedding! And even though we have a teensy tiny budget, Jordana fit into this perfect!
So check out her site, and let the magic unfold! Hazelnut Photography

Some things I am loving

Here are some things I am loving this week!

source-project wedding

Love this idea- Having different soda bottles lined up at the reception- a Soda bar! And this would give a shout-out to my hometown fav- Faygo!

Source- can't remember I think wedding bee

Love this different fruit infused drinks. This would be great as a wedding reception drink. Now I just have to find the glass jars- any ideas?

source- with this ring

OMG LOVE this! Love the vintage look, and the flowers all grouped together by color- this is awesome! and very diy-able!

Source- can't remember!

OMG I love this- vintage postcards lined up- so great! I think I will do this but with pictures- love it!

source- wedding bee

Love the wood signs with paint- great idea

Have a happy pre- 4th of July weekend!

Budget Talk

The words wedding budget ring in my head almost daily. While trying to put together a wedding, the budget plays a key role in this process. Although our budget is small compared to other weddings, especially in our area, for us I think it is going to work out just right. Although it is easy to get caught up in wedding media mania, I am trying not to get obsessed about having all of the perfect details for our day. Instead I will keep planning, keep diy-ing, and make our day something that reflects what we both want, instead of what the world tells us to want :)

I read this post on a practical wedding today- it was from a reader. For me this post spoke directly to me- and I had to share it.

Love & Choice & Power
Long time reader Erica sent me an email with these words:
A Practical Wedding has helped me to keep my sister sane as she is planning her wedding. I feel like every wedding conversation I have with her starts with her seriously stressing over something silly like whether it's okay for her fiance to have a different number of groomsmen than she has bridesmaids, and ends with me telling her that there are no rules she needs to follow in planning her wedding. She can do whatever she wants.

This past weekend, my boyfriend and I got engaged. Then the barrage of questions started and the input on how we should do things began. Instead of stressing me out, they just rolled right off of my back. I know the questions and demands will only get worse, and not everyone will be happy with the non-traditional choices we make for our wedding, but now that I know there is a whole army of people out there who agree with me, and support our right to do things our way, it's not so hard to take other people's unhappiness with our decisions.

Which brings motivated me to get down on paper something I've been wanting to say about wedding planning for a long time.First of all, lets not kid ourselves, for most of us wedding planning can be tough. There are days when nothing seems right, when everyone has an opinion, when life events make this party you are planning seem so small, when you can't figure out how to afford things, when vendors are flat out horrible to you. There will be those days. And those days are normal.But for me, in the end, wedding planning has turned out to be all about making choices. It's about claiming the life that you want in the middle of a world that is telling you about the life that you should have.

Let me say this loud and clear: No one can tell you how to live, and you pick the life you want. A marriage is, in many ways, the one of the few times in our lives when we make a big conscious decision about who we are, and what we want, and who we love. And, as much as people view love as magic, love and choice all mixed up together are a powerful powerful brew, and people are scared by it.So they'll tell you that you need to wear a big poufy dress, or have a steak dinner, or throw a garter, and and and and and. But you don't. And you shouldn't trust people who say you need X to have a wedding, just like you shouldn't trust people who say you can't have X to have a wedding.

You shouldn't trust people who tell you how much or how little you need to spend, or what you need to wear, or the vows you need to make.If I've learned one thing planning this wedding, its this: The times that you say 'NO, that is not who we are, that is not what we want' will be vastly overpowered by the times you say 'YES YES YES, this is who we are, this is what we want, this is how we live'.Be true to yourself, fearlessly claim the life you want. That's it. That's all. That's the solution to this puzzle.

wedding location-unleashed!

Well when FI and I first got engaged, we knew that we did not want a cookie cutter type wedding for lots of reasons, including the most important-we did not want to break the bank on our big day~

So we started searching, and searching until we ran across this little hidden gem right in one of our favorite beach towns- The cottage in San Clemente. It is perfect for the following reasons

• Close to our house
• In our price range
• We can bring in our own vendors which saves a ton of $$ right away!
• Right on the beach

Also the location is absolutely perfect- right on the beach! I am so excited to make his baby our own!

Here is some eye candy for our fab wedding location!

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)