To make a wedding card box that houses guests’ greeting cards, simply wrap a box in decorative wrapping paper and cut a slit in the top. Tie a bow around a wedding card box with tips and advice from a wedding consultant in this free video on planning weddings.

Expert: Wendy Dahl
Contact: dahlweddingcompany.com
Bio: Wendy Dahl is a wedding consultant and the owner of the Dahl Wedding Company, serving Southern California for more than a decade.
Filmmaker: Gina Miller-Britton

To make a bridal bouquet, choose the color theme and flowers, remove all greenery from the flowers, start with the largest bloom in the center and spiral the flowers around the center bloom. Wrap the bridal bouquet with floral tape and then double-sided satin ribbon using instructions from a florist in this free video on wedding flowers and floral arrangements.

Expert: Christine Holanda
Contact: www.lilyofthevalleyfloral.com
Bio: Christine Holanda is a florist and the owner of Lily of the Valley Floral Design & Gift Shop in La Quinta, Calif.
Filmmaker: Gina Miller-Britton

courtesy of nutmegg on flickr

Creating a wish bowl for your wedding is an inexpensive, personal touch your guests will love! A wedding wish bowl is simply a vase or bowl you place at your wedding with little pieces of paper or little cards that your guests can write wishes, advice and basically send good fortune to you and your new hubby. Guests then drop the cards into your wish bowl for you and your love to read whenever you like! Some newlyweds like to read one a day, so they have a constant reminder of their beautiful day when it is over and they are enjoying their new life together. The scraps of paper can also be included in a wedding album or scrapbook to accompany your memories. It’s such a cute idea! Some couples use the wish bowl instead of a guestbook, while some use it as an additional touch. 

The project itself is rather simple! All you’ll need is some little sheets of paper or small cards for your guests to write on, a pen or two for writing, a vase/bowl/container of some sort, some craft items like ribbon or gems to adorn your vase/bowl. You also create a small card with a wish bowl poem to include near the bowl, so guests know what it’s for..and to add a little more personalization to your day! 

As for the vase or container, you can use one you already have around the house (just give it a good cleaning if it recently held flowers! heehee), or you can pick one up at a craft store rather affordably..usually $10 or less. I personally love A.C. Moore’s collection of glass vases and containers used for floral arrangements, which would work perfectly here! Michael’s and Joann’s should also carry similar, affordable containers too. 

Paper can be any old plain paper (if going the absolute most affordable direction), to colored card stock that matches your wedding theme. Just cut the paper down into small cards or strips that can be dropped into your container 

Some ideas for decorating your container include… 

Tying a ribbon (or ribbons) around the container that coordinate with your wedding colors 

Sewing beads and charms to the ribbon to further personalize the container to your theme. (ie. Swarovski crystal beads, charms shaped like seashells, etc.) 

Glue colored gems/beads to the container itself that match the colors/theme of your wedding 

If your container is glass, you can do your own etching with materials found at a craft store (will cover this more in depth in another blog!). Etching initials or a monogram would look great! 

The card you put a poem or instructions on to sit near the wish bowl is the last part! You can be as creative as you want here. Make a card that would stand on its own with some cardstock, make it a sticker to affix to your container, lay it down near the bowl…You could even put the finished card in a frame and stand the frame near the bowl. The possibilities are endless, just be crafty! 

Wish Bowl Poems

Use one, or brainstorm your own! 

Instead of a guestbook stuck in a drawer,
Jen and Bill thought they would do more.
Please write them a note, a wish, or greeting.
On the plane to Spain, it will make for good reading!
Or if you prefer, some advice would be nice,
on how to stay married and keep the spice. 

—————————— 

Please leave us a note,
please drop us a line,
add advice on marriage,
to stand the test of time 

—————————— 

As we begin our journey –
A brand new Mr. and Mrs.
We surely could use
Your advice and good wishes. 

Share with us your wisdom
About marriage love and life
The secret to being a good husband
Or a top notch, first rate wife 

Jot down a memory,
A reminder of our day.
A doodle or picture will do
If you don’t know what to say. 

Please don’t forget –
It would be such a shame
Don’t drop your card in the bowl
Without signing your name. 

Whatever you pen,
We’re sure to treasure
Long after this day has passed,
Your words will bring us pleasure 

—————————— 

From each of your experiences,
Comes a very treasured gift,
A priceless piece of knowledge,
That we did not know exists. 

Please share with us your wisdom,
About marriage, love, and life,
How to be a devoted, loving husband,
Or the perfect, caring wife. 

Please write your thoughts and gestures,
To share with us for life,
For the greatest gift of all,
Is the gift of your advice. 

—————————— 

Bride and Groom are now newlyweds
With love for each other filling their heads.
Please write them a note, a wish, or a greeting.
On the plane to Maui, they’ll make for good reading.
Or if you’d prefer, some advice would be nice
On how to stay married and keep up the spice! 

Source: diy-wed-central.com

If you decide to go with tealights, like I did, make sure they will burn for 5-7 hours like the ones at the Hampton Store.

I used clear cup tealights. Love them! They give the appearance that the candle is floating because  you cannot see the clear cup it sits in. These are also great if you are using glassware. Tin cup tealights are a good choice if you don’t see the whole candle.  

Regular candles can be unpredictable. Have you every had a candle with a bad wick? Or have you cut the wick too short? Cutting the wick wrong can result in a bad burning candle. A draft in the room can make your candles burn more quickly. Cheap wax can make candles burn unpredictably.

An alternative to regular candles is the Floating Candle Oil Holders. Unlike floating candles or tealights, these glass beauties hold oil and burn for a long time. Oil is relatively cheap. And guess what? You can reuse these over and over after your wedding.

Here are some of my favorites.

Floating Candle & Oil Holders

• Glass Tealight Floaters, tapers, votives, you name it they have it – candlesjustonline.com
• Floating glass candle and oil holders – by the bulk these are very reasonable. nationalartcraft.com
• Clear floating tealight holders or oil lamps. Great for centerpieces. Candle-Boutique.com
• Floating Candles with Glass holders -100candles.com
• Regular Floating Candles – candlesbyconnie.com

Tapers & Tealights

• Tapers, votives, you name it they have it – candlesjustonline.com
• Bulk Tapers – candlefactory products.com
• Unscented Tealight Clear Cup Candles – hamptonstore.com

When purchasing your candles make sure you inquire how long they will burn. You don’t want your guest sitting in the dark!  Make sure you have extras on hand at your reception to avoid embarrassment.

So you found your reception site. The space is great. It’s very affortable but what is missing? Are the walls bare? Is the carpet not the color you were hoping for? Are the chair seats blue and your theme is aqua? How do you warm up and mask a room that is perfect in some ways but needs that extra punch?  Add some fabric, sheers and sashes to make the room warmer. But how are you going to do that on a budget? The good news, you can achieve a professional looking room without it costing you bundle. I saved $850 doing it myself. 

Here is what you will need to make the look in the photo above: 

Sheer Backdrop Curtains

1. Shown here are 8 curtains. 3 sets are sewn together. Place two curtains together and sew the top seams together. Make sure you don’t sew the existing sleeve where the rod is suppose to go through. Once your done you will use the front panel to feed onto your curtain rod. I put a double on first then a single panel, then another double panel, single and finished it with a double panel.
2. On your double panels (the two sewn together) gather the front panel and tie a bow or sash on the front panel this creates the illusion of a double rod look.
3. Hang your curtain rods with the fishing leaders from the ceiling.  You have to have a drop down ceiling, piping so some type of ceiling grid to do this.
4. Wrap the leaders around the grid and hang the rods. We used one leader on each end and in the middle so they hung straight.
5. I finished the look off with floor lighting that we made.

Note: If you have a table, like I did in front of the curtains, then they don’t need to touch the floor. No one is going to see it hanging a foot off the ground and if they do so what! 

Use fishing leaders to hang things evenly from the ceiling. I used them for our lanterns and the curtain rods. Measure from the ceiling down and then by using different size leaders together you can achieve the appropriate hanging length.

Ceiling Draping

Ceiling Drapery $89.99 – 150 ft. of Iridescent Organza (ebay) 

Curtain Clips $14.99 – Bag of 14 (JC Penney) 

If your thinking of doing ceiling draping – you can do it yourself. It’s not as hard as it looks as long as you are going to keep it simple. 

I got 150 feet of Iridescent Organza Wedding Craft Fabric on ebay. I cut 2 – 75′ panels and draped them from one end of my room, crisscrossing in the middle to the other side of the room for $89.99. I bought the fabric on eBay at JDR Supply. The fabric was just gorgeous. 

If you want to know how to hang them from a panel or false ceiling – email me for details. 

Chair Sashes

Chair Sashes $85.00 – 100 White (ebay) 

I got my chair sashes (white) on ebay. If you are ordering the chair covers, most rental companies will include these for free. But if your like me, I couldn’t afford $3 per chair x 86. I just happened to stumble upon a deal on ebay that was clearing out their inventory. 

Although tying a bow looks easy, make sure that you practice tying your chair bows before your set up. It’s not as easy as it looks. It took 6 people 1 1/2 hrs. to tie 86 chairs. So have plenty of people on hand. 

For our wedding I chose this Carlisle Bride & Groom ice sculpture. It’s really beautiful  under the light. It stands 28″ high. It cost $60. Yes you read that right – $60. This a one-time mold.  The instructions are pretty easy to follow. Just fill, freeze and cut the molding off. Probably the most difficult task is moving it. It is very heavy so have a plan.  I had my catering company fill it, cut the mold off, deliver it and set it up – at no additional cost!  Talk to your catering company and  see if they will work with you.  It sure made our wedding special and I was able to put that additional $500 towards something else.

Below are some links to various ice sculptures including this one.

galasource.com

foodservicedirect.com

gloice.com

Ice Sculpture Trays

I looked every where for an ice tray. They range from $177 on up. Please! It’s a tray with a drainage tube. I got a custom made ice tray for about $45 from the Mold Maker.  You can reach him at sales@themoldmaker.com

Ice Sculpture Lighting

Websites that offer lights for ice sculptures:

weddingflowersandmore.com

lightgod.com

If you don’t want to diy this project, you can find life size apple candles in red, green and yellow $3.50 each or mini apple candles at $21.00 per dozen at waxwizard.net

Photo: Courtesy of Kitchen Kapers

Don’t skimp here. I stressed about the lighting for my reception. Do I have enough candles on the tables? Are the battery packs going to hold out for 5 hours in the lanterns? You just cannot have enough lights.  

Our reception site, even though we had florescent lights that dimmed, still didn’t give me the mood I was looking for. I felt like I was still at the office but with dimmed lights. So I found some hanging lanterns, made some floor lights, added more candles to the tables and hung a disco ball over the dance floor.

Remember, your photographer is going to need adequate lighting to take all those pictures throughout the night. So make sure that your room isn’t too dark or you will end up having to turn your venue lights on.

Hanging Lanterns

These gorgeous lanterns I stumbled upon at about 2:30 am when I was still looking for a bargain…and I found them at Countryside Closeouts.  These come with the standard lantern bulb that socket plug in. I didn’t have the option to run cords all over the reception room so I used hanging battery lights.  See battery lights below. I hung three in each lantern all at different lengths to create the illusion of a chandelier look.  To hang at different lengths, buy additional rings.  My guests raved about them all night. See the “Floor Lighting” below for how I used the bulbs that came with these for another lighting project. 

Here are some sites you can find lanterns at:
countryside-closeouts.com
kkdiscount.com
paperlanternstore.com
shojidecor.com

You can hang lanterns with fishing line leaders from the ceiling. Fishing wire is thin and appears invisible so the lanterns appeared to be floating from the ceiling throughout the room. 

Hanging Battery Lights

 These hanging battery lights last 5 – 7 hours. I bought 30 plus of these and tested them myself before the reception. They lasted a good 5 hours before they started to dim. I haven’t found another site that offers these and when bought in bulk these are pretty reasonable.
paperlanternstore.com 

Table Lighting

Table lighting is just as important. Remember you want the room to be warm, but bright enough so that your guests and photographer can still take pictures. Here I used one pillar candle in the middle, 3 flared shot glass favor containers, filled with aqua gem stones and clear tealight candles.

If you have a seaside theme, like we did, you can use candy pearls on your tables to enhance the look of your theme. You can be find candle pearls at a cake decorating store.

 Floor Light

Even if your not very creative you can make these. Using small paint cans from Home Depot, I was able to make my own floor lighting. In the paint section they have small paint cans, with lids. I got 10 of these. My husband punched holes, the size of quarters in the sides, just big enough to get the bulb socket (from the light cords that came with the above lanterns), through them and then we screwed the bulbs in. To maximize the lighting on the walls, I angled the cans on the floor using shells – you can use anything.  This gave the room a warm feeling and didn’t break my budget.

I cannot stress enough to get organized. Get yourself a 3 ring notebook with some dividers with some pocket inserts. Make sections for your ceremony, the reception, the food, music list, for your contracts and payments schedules. Over the next 12 months your going to have a lot of paperwork to deal with. Having a notebook makes it easier for you to have everything at your finger tips when out and about. Always be prepared.

Never pay with cash. If you can, use a credit card. If you have a disagreement or a no show the best way to get refunded is to stop payment and you cannot do that with cash.

Take a deep breath….your going to need it! Start early to finish early and be stress free in the last few weeks leading up to your big day. Here is your 12 month check list.  And hey congratulations!

 12 Months Before

• If your getting married allow yourself at least 1 year to plan your wedding. Don’t wait to do all your wedding planning in the last 6 months. This is why most couples fight. Your only creating undo stress for yourselves. Be realistic. No event this important can be planned in 6 months.
• Discuss your top priorities. You and your finance need to sit down and discuss what is your top priorities are for your wedding. Is it the food, the location, DJ or band. For my husband it was about having the reception catered. He didn’t want me to be cooking and chopping the day of the event. I however, didn’t want to spend half our budget on the food. In the end he was right to push to get it catered.
• Set your budget and stick to it. Set your budget low with the understanding that you will probably go over it by a few hundred dollars. Even the best planner encounters some surprises along the way. But don’t get crazy!
• Research, select and reserve the ceremony site, reception site, bakery and catering company. It’s important that you get these 4 things booked right away. Remember your not the only one getting married next year and if you have chosen a popular month – June, July and September you better move quickly.
• Interview, select and reserve your photographer, videographer, DJ or Band and florist.
• If you haven’t by now selected your best man and MOH (Maid-of-Honor) do so. Grab your MOH and mother and start looking for the gown of your dreams and make that final purchase. Also decide on your wedding party’s attire. Don’t forget shoes, jewelry and a headpiece.
• Decide if your going to have a theme wedding. Theme weddings can be a lot of fun. Our wedding was surrounded by “sand and sea” or “beach theme”. We chose aqua and white for our colors. Incorporated shell shells and coral and even our honeymoon was in Belize.

Four to Six Months

• Cake – make an appointment to discuss your cake and do a tasting.
• Pre-marriage counseling – make an appointment with your clergyperson.
• Marriage License – research the cost of your marriage license and when you can get it.
• Complete your guest list. I used iDo Wedding Couples Software to put my guest list, table assignments, keep track of my budget and print a seating chart. Click on the link to see more features.
• Order invites and program.
• Select wedding rings.
• Reception – start ordering everything you need for your receptions. See the rest of my site to help you find the best deals on line. If you have access to our reception hall, visit it often. I recommend taking digital pictures so you can look at them when you have an idea or questions – like where are all the wall outlets! Map out your room.
• Transportation – reserve your transportation for the day of the wedding.
• Schedule a consultation with your hair and makeup artist.
• Honeymoon – start researching and booking your honeymoon.

 Three Months Before

• Wedding Gown – check on the status of your wedding and bridesmaids gowns
• Register at a bridal register. You will want to include cards in your Bridal invitations so people know where you have registered.
• Decide if a wedding website is for you. This is a great way to communicate to everyone who is coming to your wedding and to keep them updated.
• Finish ordering your decorations for the reception. You want to be done with this by now so you don’t have to worry about what you might have forgotten later.
• Catering – call the catering company and set a date and time for tasting.
• Flowers – set a date and time to finalize your flowers and floral arrangements.
• Start planning your schedule for the day of the wedding. Who is going to manage the things that might go wrong. Layout a timed schedule for the entire day.
• Music – meet with your DJ or band and finalize your music list.
• Design your wedding program and invitations.

 Two Months Before

• Address invitations and have them ready to mail
• Reconfirm your honeymoon plans
• Schedule a blood test if required
• Put final touches on decorations
• Have your MOH plan your shower and send invites
• Make an appointment to get your nails and eyebrows waxed.
• Arrange the final fitting on the bridal gown and bridesmaids’ dresses.
• Have you gotten our marriage license yet?
• Set your rehearsal date and time.
• Have the groom make arrangements for the rehearsal dinner.
• Have the groom and best man rent their tux’s.

 Final Weeks

• You should have your gown and bridesmaid’s dresses by now
• Send out your invites 6 weeks before you get married
• Start calling people 2 weeks before the wedding if you haven’t gotten an RSVP yet.
• Make final payments to all your vendors. Remember to use a credit card just in case you need to get your money back.
• Call all your vendors for a last minute check in.
• Have the groom check on pick up date and time for tux’s
• Pack up your toasting glasses, unity candle, guest book and have it in a plastic tub ready to go to the church.
• Pack your shoes, jewelry, anything your going to be wearing the day of your wedding. Don’t wait to the last minute to pack and forget something.

Finally – your on your way to becoming the Mrs!