too much text in this post... more pictures later!
With 46 days to our wedding, it's time for a bit of an update! As a reminder, I'm a Missouri bride doing a DIY morning wedding in January. I designed our invites and we are baking our own cakes!
Under the cut: weddingband.com review, dress fittings, bridal shower, invitations, springerle cookies, and one photo.
1. FH's wedding band came in! No pictures at the moment, though, because we are sending it back to be resized. We ordered a 6 1/2 and it came in a 6. Other than that, though, I highly recommend the site -- weddingbands.com -- for any prospective ring-buyers. The ring was so affordable ($230 for a 14k yellow gold, 5mm wide, comfort-fit plain band with engraving, and even prettier than the photo). I had to get in touch with the company by phone twice (once to verify my shipping address and once to get info on how to send the ring back so they could resize it for free) and they were extremely polite, easy to work with, and never once put me on hold or made me talk to a robot. They gave me absolutely no trouble at all when I called to see if they could resize or exchange the ring. If you're looking for an affordable, classy option, weddingbands.com can definitely help you out.
2. My dress came in! Um, about a month ago. I haven't gone to pick it up because school has been crazy, and then I was in a terrible car accident last weekend and haven't had a vehicle since then. (That is a whole other story... fortunately I was not at fault so the other driver's insurance will be paying BIG TIME for costing me so much time and pain and energy this close to my WEDDING.) However! I will be picking it up sometime very soon -- if not this weekend, then Dec. 4 when I go get my first fitting done. My bridesmaids have also received their dresses and are in the process of scheduling fittings.
3. We had our 2 bridal showers! FH attended both of them, and we both very much enjoyed being with our friends and family and getting ridiculous amounts of stuff. FH also volunteered unexpectedly to write thank-you notes for the first shower... if I didn't already know I'd snagged a keeper, that would have been the sign!
We had a minor panic-attack after the second shower when we realized that my mother had misplaced the list of gifts and who gave them... fortunately, I found the list (after having reconstructed from memory almost the entire list of 21 different gift packages and/or gift cards and their respective givers) and all is well. We have been overwhelmed with our friends' generosity, and feel so amazingly blessed... we are starting from scratch, relying on the kindness of others, and they have come through for us time and again. I hope we have opportunity to do the same in return!
4. Kind of wedding-related.... We have almost finished furnishing our apartment, entirely through craigslist purchases. I have become something of a craigslist ADDICT. If you are in need of cheap, cheap furniture and you live in a pretty well-populated area, there is a good chance you can find it on craigslist for less than $50.
5. Our invitations arrived, and they look incredible. I will post pictures eventually. I'm stuffing them into navy-blue envelopes and addressing them with a copper pen, and they look SNAZZY. And what's better -- my graphic-designer friend, who helped me tweak the designs in the final stages and did the ordering, paid for them as a wedding present to us, and his wife presented me with a framed copy of one of the invitations at the 2nd bridal shower. That was $120 we didn't have to spend!
6. So, we are catering our reception via the good old potluck style, except we're only having desserts. (It's a morning wedding, and the reception is not going to be terribly long.) My grandmother has been a huge help, what with shows of generosity such as paying for our honeymoon... anyway, she asked me at the 2nd bridal shower if we'd like her to bring some cookies for the reception. I figured she was just talking about chocolate chips or something, and I said sure, any contribution is welcome.
HOWEVER: she goes to church with a woman I coincidentally ran into at Oktoberfest in Jefferson City, who makes and sells springerle cookies, which (for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of eating one of these delicious confections) are a German tradition dating back to the medieval ages. They're a white, biscuity cookie, flavored with anise and imprinted using special, extremely intricate wooden molds. They were exchanged at holidays and the delicate images pressed onto the cookies were used to tell religious stories to those who couldn't read or write. They were also made for celebrations such as weddings.
Springerle cookie!
My grandmother was talking to this woman, who said she would like to get together with us and my sisters and make a ton of these springerle cookies and bag them up in little gauze bags from Michaels for my wedding. I of course jumped at the opportunity... If I had a choice between wedding cakes and springerle cookies, the cookies would win, hands-down. Plus, my family is very German, and I am just excited to be able to incorporate some of my German heritage into my wedding!
(Honestly, at this point I am more excited about those cookies than any other part of the planning, haha.)
Under the cut: weddingband.com review, dress fittings, bridal shower, invitations, springerle cookies, and one photo.
1. FH's wedding band came in! No pictures at the moment, though, because we are sending it back to be resized. We ordered a 6 1/2 and it came in a 6. Other than that, though, I highly recommend the site -- weddingbands.com -- for any prospective ring-buyers. The ring was so affordable ($230 for a 14k yellow gold, 5mm wide, comfort-fit plain band with engraving, and even prettier than the photo). I had to get in touch with the company by phone twice (once to verify my shipping address and once to get info on how to send the ring back so they could resize it for free) and they were extremely polite, easy to work with, and never once put me on hold or made me talk to a robot. They gave me absolutely no trouble at all when I called to see if they could resize or exchange the ring. If you're looking for an affordable, classy option, weddingbands.com can definitely help you out.
2. My dress came in! Um, about a month ago. I haven't gone to pick it up because school has been crazy, and then I was in a terrible car accident last weekend and haven't had a vehicle since then. (That is a whole other story... fortunately I was not at fault so the other driver's insurance will be paying BIG TIME for costing me so much time and pain and energy this close to my WEDDING.) However! I will be picking it up sometime very soon -- if not this weekend, then Dec. 4 when I go get my first fitting done. My bridesmaids have also received their dresses and are in the process of scheduling fittings.
3. We had our 2 bridal showers! FH attended both of them, and we both very much enjoyed being with our friends and family and getting ridiculous amounts of stuff. FH also volunteered unexpectedly to write thank-you notes for the first shower... if I didn't already know I'd snagged a keeper, that would have been the sign!
We had a minor panic-attack after the second shower when we realized that my mother had misplaced the list of gifts and who gave them... fortunately, I found the list (after having reconstructed from memory almost the entire list of 21 different gift packages and/or gift cards and their respective givers) and all is well. We have been overwhelmed with our friends' generosity, and feel so amazingly blessed... we are starting from scratch, relying on the kindness of others, and they have come through for us time and again. I hope we have opportunity to do the same in return!
4. Kind of wedding-related.... We have almost finished furnishing our apartment, entirely through craigslist purchases. I have become something of a craigslist ADDICT. If you are in need of cheap, cheap furniture and you live in a pretty well-populated area, there is a good chance you can find it on craigslist for less than $50.
5. Our invitations arrived, and they look incredible. I will post pictures eventually. I'm stuffing them into navy-blue envelopes and addressing them with a copper pen, and they look SNAZZY. And what's better -- my graphic-designer friend, who helped me tweak the designs in the final stages and did the ordering, paid for them as a wedding present to us, and his wife presented me with a framed copy of one of the invitations at the 2nd bridal shower. That was $120 we didn't have to spend!
6. So, we are catering our reception via the good old potluck style, except we're only having desserts. (It's a morning wedding, and the reception is not going to be terribly long.) My grandmother has been a huge help, what with shows of generosity such as paying for our honeymoon... anyway, she asked me at the 2nd bridal shower if we'd like her to bring some cookies for the reception. I figured she was just talking about chocolate chips or something, and I said sure, any contribution is welcome.
HOWEVER: she goes to church with a woman I coincidentally ran into at Oktoberfest in Jefferson City, who makes and sells springerle cookies, which (for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of eating one of these delicious confections) are a German tradition dating back to the medieval ages. They're a white, biscuity cookie, flavored with anise and imprinted using special, extremely intricate wooden molds. They were exchanged at holidays and the delicate images pressed onto the cookies were used to tell religious stories to those who couldn't read or write. They were also made for celebrations such as weddings.
Springerle cookie!
My grandmother was talking to this woman, who said she would like to get together with us and my sisters and make a ton of these springerle cookies and bag them up in little gauze bags from Michaels for my wedding. I of course jumped at the opportunity... If I had a choice between wedding cakes and springerle cookies, the cookies would win, hands-down. Plus, my family is very German, and I am just excited to be able to incorporate some of my German heritage into my wedding!
(Honestly, at this point I am more excited about those cookies than any other part of the planning, haha.)