Wedding Planning Fun!!

I confess.... I freaking LOVE wedding planning!!  Given that three of my hobbies are letterpress printing, invitation design and calligraphy, it's no surprise that designing the invitations and Save the Dates has turned out to be a total blast! 

For the Save the Dates, I drew a photo of Steve and me, standing in front of the mountain range that you see from our reception site.  I basically made myself into a D-is-ne-y Princess...   Am including a picture below (I blanked out the date and city for privacy's sake).  I printed these on 80 lb Crane's Crest paper, which is a nice thick cardstock, though it's not as heavy as the 110 lb stock in the same color that I'll use with the wedding invitations (more on those another time).

The front of our Save the Dates!

My dress came in about 2 weeks ago -- I am so excited!!  I went to try it on during lunch one day, and Marjorie was able to come out and go with me.  It is so beautiful and only needs a little tweaking to make it fit perfectly.  I can't wait to wear it!!  It was so great to see it in my size and in the right color!  I loved it just as much as I thought I would -- which is a lot!!

The road up to our reception site is a little hard to find, so I bought the adorable sign shown below from THIS wonderful brand new website, which has the cutest wedding and party supply supplies.  It was all I could do not to buy everything on there!!   

On the flower front, I've been buying up hobnail milkglass vases (see below) to use at the reception.  Steve's cousin, who is a florist, is getting the flowers for us wholesale and will be giving her amazing arranging skills as our wedding gift (which is fantastic -- she's really good).

What I am planning is to have a bunch of milk glass vases in different sizes and shapes (some hobnail, some not) scattered down the center of each table (we're doing banquet tables), with lots of peonies and other flowers in various shades of pink (maybe mixing in some white and green, too).  I'd like it to look something like the photo below, but less dense (we're trying not to break the bank after all)!

Speaking of not breaking the bank, I've been on spending lock-down for months!!  This isn't as austere as it could be, but I am missing buying clothing and have been taking the subway more often at times when I'd normally take a cab.  We've also dialed-back going out to dinner, and have cut out most charity events (which run anywhere from $75-$150+ per person every time..).  Every little bit helps, and we've been able to squirrel away quite a fair chunk of the wedding budget already!  It helped a lot that we've had some nice gifts from family members.  Also, I plunked my entire bonus in the wedding savings account.... whereas I normally buy myself a nice present and bank the rest.  We're definitely getting there!  I'm looking at the wedding like a present to myself and Steve, and to our friends and family too, though.  I'm so excited about it, and I'm really enjoying the fun of planning.