DIY Wedding Weekend!

My Dear Lady Friends and Gentledudes: How about a little update on life, love, and the pursuit of all things "wedding". It's a lazy Saturday in Angleton. Now normally, these days are pretty boring. Mom and Dad con me into doing chores around the house or even worse, yard work (no thanks!). This Saturday, however, I have been abandoned at the house while the parents frolic off to San Antonio, reconnecting with some long lost friends. I was invited of course. Here's how that went down:

Mom: You can come with us, or stay at home and take care of all three dogs.
Me: But the dogs are so whiny and needy and annoying when ya'll leave.
Mom: Fine, you can go with us.
Me: What are ya'll going to do in San Antonio?
Mom: Go to dinner with 4 other couples and talk for hours about the good old days, reminisce about when we were younger, and leave early the next morning.
Me: Umm.....Yeah, I'll take the dogs.

So that catches us up to right now. Sitting in my pajamas waiting for my California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizza to cook in the oven, and in serious wedding mode. I have never been much of a "crafty" lady, but there's something about planning this wedding that has brought out the Martha Stewart within me. I love that this wedding is so full of handmade details. That's why I am a (partial) DIY bride. DIY= do it yourself! Basically it happens like this: You're walking through Crate & Barrell; You see something really cute but really expensive; You think to yourself, "Self, I bet I could make that for a fraction of the cost". Next thing you know, you've spent 2 hours and $100 at Hobby Lobby. Ok, so maybe sometimes it turns out that you spend more making it yourself than you would have buying it, but.....who cares!? You've made something with your own hands and that is pretty cool.

I've worked on 3 DIYs today (whew!) and am pretty excited about the progress I'm making! So take a look at these little handmade details in various stages of done-ness.

Here is the inspiration....a woman makes and sells these cake toppers on Etsy for $30-$60 a set.

 

These are our little wedding cake toppers. The bride is done, now I need to paint the groom. Or I could just leave him unpainted, but then it would look like he's naked. Not appropriate. I found the wooden forms at Joann's Craft Store and had the paint lying around already. Total price: $1.75!

 I had some pretty yellow yarn lying around so I bought these cardboard block letters for $1.50 each. Turns out that the R is pretty difficult to wrap. Not sure how to finish the rest of it, hence the half-wrapped product you see now. Not really any inspirational photos for this one.

Here is the inspiration. These are handmade and sold on Etsy for $20-$40 each.

I bought some soldering wire from a Tractor Supply and stole borrowed a pair of needle nosed pliers from Dad's toolbox. 15 minutes later....

I still need to buy a wooden hanger. The plan is to drill holes on the inside of the arms of the hanger and glue the ends in there. Now this is an example of when you might not save a lot of money. The stupid soldering wire was $20! It turned out to not be that bad though. I can probably make 4 or 5 hangers out of all the wire left over, so I will be saving money in a sense. In case you were wondering, this is just something pretty to hang my dress on and get some cute photo ops ;) Again, I just love the little details. I think they make the experience that much more special.

Sidenote: These are just the three I'm working on right now. We've got a LOT more to do!! Programs, favors, banner, centerpieces...they're all DIY! But I think this is all I'm going to show you right now. I guess you'll just have to come to the wedding to see the rest of it! 27 days!

The Big 50

Here we are guys, only 50 days left! It's hard to believe it's so close! We have had two beautiful wedding showers thrown for us, one in Little Rock and one in Angleton. A third shower is scheduled for mid July in Louisville, Kentucky, Andy's home town. I wanted to throw in a few pictures from the Angleton shower; it was so beautiful and we had a great time. And if you think that Andy would have felt bored or uncomfortable...think again. Like a kid on Christmas Day.

In the meantime, we've been working diligently on designing, printing, cutting, stamping, and tying invitations. So maybe we had really big dreams and didn't realize how much work was involved? In the end though, I think they turned out perfectly. I love that everything about them is personalized, every detail something we decided on together. Truly they were a labor of love and we hope you love them as well!

I'm back in Searcy for a few weeks working at Harding and making appointments for caterers, florists, bakers in the meantime. Seems like it's all starting  to come together. There are several DIY projects that I'm going to be starting up soon. I just hope time doesn't run out on me! Here are the promised pictures from our Angleton shower....

OH! Before I forget....I love you all very, very much. I will love you even more if you RSVP :)

 Our corsages :) So pretty!

 Dessert table. DELICIOUS! (not the table. the cupcakes.)

 Andy in his "King Chair"

 happy family!!

 Our beautiful shower hostesses

 The wedding quilt my grandmother hand made for us.

 presents!!

Good work team. Keurig coffee maker!

Quick! Catch Up!

Well folks, we have less than 3 months to go and it's starting to feel like this might actually happen! Hooray! I am so nervous busy excited I can hardly stand it. If you haven't noticed, I have been very a little absent from the blogosphere lately and let me just say I plan to hop back on that train. It has been a very exciting time for both of our families. Here's what you've missed: school, school, school...some school, oh and school. Andy's mom, Jennifer, was in town (Little Rock) for Mother's Day and we got to spend the weekend with her. I graduated from Harding this past Saturday (yay!). My degree is in communication sciences and disorders...whatever that means. My siblings surprised me by showing up from Nashville on Friday night. I had no idea Ryan and Kelly were going to make it so I freaked out. It was a really fun time with the whole family. On the Sunday after graduation, Andy and I were honored with a wedding shower from Crosswalk, our church in Little Rock. Andy was so much fun at the shower; he looked like a little kid on Christmas morning opening all of his presents. We were truly blessed by our friends' generosity and got a ton of wonderful starter things for our new life together. Which catches us up to.... now!

Currently, it is 7:00 a.m. on a Wednesday morning in Angleton, Texas. Why am I awake? What is this bright glow outside? Answer: I have no idea. But I don't like it.

letterpress invitation giveaway

Need letterpress invitations? There is a contest where they're giving away a full letterpress invitation suite. Cool, right? It's on The Knotty Bride here.

Sancho

I want to tell you about the man in my life. He's kind of short, really hairy, and smells like the outdoors. He loves to cuddle and his favorite activities are taking walks and playing ball. Sometimes he can be really loud though. However, he has a bad habit of getting excited and peeing in the house...

Okay, okay. In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm talking about Andy's dog, Sancho. Also known as Sanch Brother, Bubba, Snacho, Sanch bro, Sanch, and quite often yelled as SANCHO!!! Andy got Sancho when he lived in Searcy during the semester I was overseas in Chile. I still remember calling collect from an internet cafe in the Atacama Desert and hearing, "I got a puppy today!" Turns out, Sancho is ONE of the best things to ever happen to Andy. not THE best. Let's just make that clear ;)

Sanch brother is part Chocolate Lab, part Weimaraner (we think), and part pogo stick. Seriously, he can jump like 5 feet in the air. It's unreal. Enough jib jab, let's just look at him!

And now I love this dog to pieces. We keep telling him that he's getting a new mommy in a few months. I'm not sure he understands, but he wags his tail so I'll take that as a "You're OK because Dad says your OK", which is good enough for me. Snacho told us he really wants to be in the wedding. So I did some searching and found these precious photos.

Look at his little tuxedo!! So cute.

So pretty! Except Sancho would never be OK with that. He would not rest until he had destroyed every inch of it. Plus, he would probably be a little embarrassed.

This one reminds me of my puppies back home. Rylee is a cripple dachshund who could hop like a rabbit down the aisle. Or Pre could pee on every pew. On second thought, maybe that's a not a good idea...

How precious.

If Sancho hated the flower necklace, he would probably die if he ever had to wear this. He would refuse to walk out of extreme shame.

Now THIS is a trick that Sancho can do. The only down side...we do this with little treats, not very expensive wedding bands. I can only imagine the panic that would ensue when Sancho decided he'd had enough and was ready to eat his treat. "I hope you washed those rings before you wore them...."

Worst Blogger Ever

Well the votes are in. I am officially the worst blogger ever. It has been many weeks since I last tended to this little guy and he was starting to feel awfully lonely. Quite a bit has happened in the past few weeks! First I would like to announce the bridal party. These are best friends and family members who we couldn't be without on that special day. Thankfully, they feel the same way too and everyone said yes. Alright so I have 4 girls and Andy has 5 guys.

Gabby Marcellini- Maid of Honor- Gabby and I met my freshmen year at Harding. She was my suite mate for a semester and then became my room mate. We have been inseparable ever since :) We have lived together for the last 4 years of school and she is without a doubt my best friend (not counting Andy, of course). Gabby and I also went to Chile together the Fall semester of our sophomore year. Best semester ever? Yeah, i think so.

Rebecca Miller- Bridesmaid- My cousin of the same name. The family refers to us as Becca Me and Becca Lynn because she couldn't say my middle name, Marie. "Me" was the closest she could get and it sort of just stuck. Side note: Rebecca is completely capable of saying Marie now. I don't want anyone thinking she has a speech impediment. Anyway, Becca Lynn is 3 months younger than me and gets married in May, 3 months before me, so I guess it's kind of perfect.

Sarah Pence- Bridesmaid- Sarah is an awesome girl I met when we were both pledging our club, Delta Nu. We were the only two juniors who were pledging and bonded right away. Sarah graduated from Harding this past December and lives in Searcy where she takes beautiful pictures of people :) Her photography business is really starting to take off and I'm so proud of her. Check out her pictures at Sarah E Pence.

Brooke Bolin- Bridesmaid- Brookie Cookie is also a club sister who I met while pledging. This girl is so much fun to be around, which is why I love her. She is a junior at Harding and her parents live in Searcy, so her house is naturally the place we go to hang out. Brooke is going to London this summer and is cutting her trip short by a week just so she can come back to Arkansas for my wedding. Talk about a serious friend!

Kelly Carter- Bridesmaid at heart- Sweet Kelly is my beautiful sister (in-law). She married my brother Clint in June 2009 and has been the sweetest sister ever. Kelly is from Deluth, Georgia and went to school at Lipscomb University where she met my brother and found it in her heart to marry him ;) She's an angel and I love her. There's a good chance that Kelly will be absent on the big day though. She is carrying my nephew right now and is due just a week before the wedding!We all wish she could be there though so everyone pray this kid comes out a little early!

E-Pics, part 1

Despite the snow, sleet, and freezing temperatures, Andy and I were able to take some pretty sweet engagement pictures last weekend. They were originally planned for Saturday, which turned out to be bitterly cold and full of snow. So we crossed our fingers and ventured out on Sunday. I can't say we had high hopes that they would turn out good; it was pretty overcast and only in the 40's. But Sarah Pence worked her magic and gave us a great set of pictures. First off, let me just say how much fun we had taking these. Neither of us know what to do when a camera is pointed at us which is where Sarah's expertise came in. I love how a lot of the pictures are candid moments of us just laughing and being ourselves. I think Sarah really did a good job of getting our personalities in the shots too. Sanchbro made a guest appearance as well! We let him sprint laps in the field for 5 minutes straight before trying to grab him for a picture. He's so purty :) The little white church you see in the first half of the pictures is about 5 minutes outside of Searcy in Smyrna. Sarah suggested we take some shots out there and we loved it. Unfortunately it was too cold and cloudy to do a lot of the other ideas we wanted so we're going to wait for a beautiful Spring day and take a 2nd photo shoot! A little excessive? NEVER! You're only married once! Go big or go home, right? So go to Sarah's FB page SarahElizabethPhotography, "like" her business, and stalk all of our pictures! We're going to use one of them for our Save the Dates so be on the lookout for those (sometimes in the near-ish future). Also, leave a comment if you like and tell us which picture is your favorite!

E-Pics!

SATURDAY!
"What happens on Saturday?" you ask yourself.
A beautiful engagement picture session!
My beautiful, talented, awesome friend Sarah Pence is going to take the pictures for us here in Searcy. This is her blog. Do yourself a favor and check it out because she's fantastic :) Sarah Elizabeth Photography . We have been doing a lot of brainstorming and have some really cute ideas for props and locales and stuff. Here is some inspiration....

Weird how both of these couples are Asian, right? They make pretty couples though! Well, We have a couple of other cute ideas that we're going to experiment with and I can't wait to see how they turn out. Be looking for the pictures soon!

So on Saturday and Sunday, Andy and I attacked his local Target, Kohl's, and Bed, Bath & Beyond. Other than finding a dress, it was the most fun we've had so far! I felt like a kid in a candy store; anything and everything was fair game. "You're pretty", scan, "I like you", scan, "You cost $200", scan. I think we both got exactly what we wanted, with a fair amount of compromising along the way. And if you thought that Andy would be bored and miserable, you are wrong. I've never seen a guy get more excited about juicers than this kid. If you didn't know this, Andy is pretty nifty in the kitchen. So naturally he nearly cried when he saw the KitchenAid 7 cup food processor of his dreams. Now, I know that all brides are supposed to have their future house designed in their mind, with a central theme and color for each room, and matching everything picked out....well, I guess I didn't get that memo. Our selections are kind of all over the board. Especially in the kitchen. We looked at 10 different colors of FiestaWare, couldn't decide on a single or even two-color combo, so we decided to get all of them! They were just all so pretty! Now I've talked to several girls who have said that registering with their fiance was when they had their first real fight. Luckily for us, everything went so smoothly and we had a great time. I think we learned a lot about the other person's taste and how to compromise to find something we both like. Andy is more naturally attracted to things that are darker, sleeker, clean lines, more modern, etc. I like things that are colorful, floral, fun, and so on. So naturally we were drawn to different styles. But it worked out great in the end because he would pick out something and then I would pick out something, or we just kept looking til we found something we agreed on. But we didn't just register for kitchen/bathroom/housewares. No no no, we picked out some fun stuff too. For example

• a 2 ft. long bone for Sancho (Andy's dog)
• the board game Quelf
• Mexican Train Dominoes
• Little Big Planet 2 for the PS3
• Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii
• an HP photosmart printer/scanner/copier
• a tent, lantern, ice chest, and propane grill
• His and Hers Shakeweights (if you don't know what it is.....look it up)
• LOST - season 6

So again, we're registered at Target, Kohl's, and Bed, Bath & Beyond. You can look up our registry under Rebecca Carter or Andy Sawyer.
******Also: Gift cards are gladly accepted!!

back to work

• August 06, 2011

• Hot Springs, Ar 
• Garvan Woodland Gardens

We're working on Save the Dates right now and plan on sending them out in about a month. Other than that, we've been busy getting back into the swing of things. I'm starting my last semester at Harding and Andy is working hard in Little Rock making magic on the computer. We're excited about registering soon, probably at Kohl's, Target, and maybe more. Also on the agenda soon: engagement pictures!!                         

FOUND IT!

Guess who found a wedding dress? Did you guess Rebecca Carter? Because that's it! On Friday morning, my Mom, Dad, and I went to a dress shop here in Angleton and bought a dress! And it's "gorge"! It's simple but elegant and it has POCKETS!! I knew it had to be the one when I found the pockets. Now, you might be thinking, "Why in the world would someone put pockets on a wedding dress?" Good question. My answer: Pockets are fun :) And who knows? Maybe I'll get hungry during the ceremony and need to munch on some Skittles or something? I'm sure Andy won't mind ;) But all joking aside, it really is a beautiful dress and I can't wait (the 16 weeks!) until it comes in.

Now you may have read that the dress search was an extensive/intensive process. I tried on A LOT of duds. Since I'm not wearing any of these, I'll show you some of what we went through to find the "one".

Needless to say, we tried on pretty much every style out there. Now of course I didn't put my dress on here. Something has to be a surprise!

Say Maybe? to the Dress

I blame too much TLC for my current dress decision dilemma (try saying that 3 times fast.....OK, that's actually not difficult to do at all). One of my favorite shows to watch is Say Yes to the Dress. If you've seen the show at all, you know what I'm talking about. They follow 4 or 5 women at a high-end bridal salon called Kleinfeld's in New York. You sit in your living room and try to tell the girl on the TV to pick the second dress; it's figure flattering and within her budget. But she will inevitably pick the fourth dress (a sparkly princess gown that's $3,000 over her budget).

So, when I began my own dress search I imagined the same experience: try on 5 or 6 dresses, try on "the dress", everyone starts to cry, purchase and leave. Not what happened. I took my Mom, brothers Ryan and Clint, and sister-in-law Kelly with me. We have been to 3 bridal salons. Tried on more than 30 dresses. Progress? More confused than when I started :( The number of styles, designers, colors, fabrics is mind-boggling!

The dress I have in mind is form fitting to the hips and then flares out. Something without a lot of beading or lace. A more modern look, perhaps. Ultimately, a fun dress that looks like "me" and won't break the bank. I go back out on the hunt on Friday with Mom and Dad. I know my dress is out there! Dress, if you can hear me right now, please jump off the hanger and onto my body so I can wear you on my wedding day. Thank you in advance,


Love, a dress-less bride

Location x 3, part deux

So clearly we are looking at more than one venue, right? Let me present....An Enchanting Evening. I know the name is a little cheese ball-esque, but once you get past that, it is a beautiful ceremony and reception site! It's located 20 miles west of Little Rock, but it feels like it's out in the boonies. This huge stone and log "cabin" was built by a retired couple and faces Mt. Pinnacle and Lake Maumelle. This is the ceremony site....

pretty huh? We loved it! This was actually the first place we looked at. Here is another picture from the opposite view.

Unfortunately, one of the concerns with an outdoor wedding... what to do if the skies open up and pour on us? I guess that's just the risk you take with having an outdoor wedding. They do have a possible indoor ceremony site, but I don't think they can do an indoor reception. PLUS, we wanted this place because of the outdoor setting. Decisions, decisions! Do you like it?

Location, Location, Location

Yesterday Andy and I went to look at our second wedding venue! If I could choose one 5 letter word to describe it, it would have to be "gorge" (ous). So what if gorge is more commonly used to refer to a steep and narrow canyon? I like to use it to describe beautiful wedding sites :) This place has everything we're looking for in both a ceremony and reception venue; it's pretty amazing, not gonna lie. BUT there are some drawbacks (you knew there had to be). First, there is no sure-fire way to know if it's going to rain or not (outdoor reception, people). Second, it's a little bit pricier than the first place we looked at. And third, we don't even know if the reception place is available on our date! Those are some pretty big butts! (see what I did there? It's punny!)

For all of you blog stalkers out there (aka Mom and Dad), go check out the place for yourself! It's in a beautiful area called Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, AR. Oh, wait...You didn't know that we were having an Arkansas wedding? SURPRISE!!! Check out the chapel.... 

Anthony Chapel at Garvan Woodland Gardens

It's kind of stunning, don't you think? The reception site is also at GWG, but since we're not sure if we can have it, I'm not going to talk about it. It will just get my hopes up!

** DISCLAIMER: This is NOT our final decision. Just an option. However, feel free to tell us how you feel about it in a comment below :) **

The Proposal

This is Andy.
Not Becca.

Gather 'round kids: it's story time.
The preamble: The marriage proposal is one of those rites of passage that has always been a little daunting to me. At times my mind raced, "What if she thinks my proposal is totally lame? What if she hates the ring? What if something goes wrong: all h-e-double-hockey-sticks breaks loose and the engagement night lives on in infamy?" To be honest, most of those concerns began to fall to the wayside as I started to really consider what it was that I was planning. Asking someone if she wants to spend the rest of her life with me is an event of greater importance than any matter of preparation and production. Had the day been awful, had the dinner been a disaster, had the weather been unbearably cold and windy (it was); in spite of those things I knew I was still going to confirm a promise to devote my life to the one woman that I love. (pause to bask in the sentiment)

The proposal: I wanted our three-year anniversary date to be a day full of enjoying each other's company. We live in separate cities and so the lazy-day date isn't usually an option for us. Becca came to Little Rock sometime in the late morning on Saturday and we went and grabbed some lunch. Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Romantic, right? I tried my best to play the day off as something that the two of us planned together. I asked her if there was anything that she really wanted to do on our big date since she had been so bogged down with school that she hadn't had a whole lot of time to enjoy the finer things in life: like the new Harry Potter. Indeed we did catch an early showing of Hermione Granger 7 Part 1: what Becca claims to be her favorite part of the day. (pout) After the movie, we got gussied up for our dinner reservation at Little Rock's, A Brave New Restaurant. Clever name. Thus began stealth mode as I now had to conceal the ring in my jacket pocket while also concealing my immense excitement/childish nervousness. Dinner was a success and we proceeded to head into downtown Little Rock for a nice stroll. Never mind the Marry Poppins gale force winds and the sub-comfortable temperatures. We grabbed some coffee and made our way down to the River Market area. My original idea was to take her up to Junction Bridge - a pedestrian bridge that crosses from Little Rock into North Little Rock - to enjoy the skyline view but the wind tunnel that was forming over the river at the time proved to be a little more than we cared to endure. We did, however, mosey/shiver our way down to the amphitheater and onto a lone bench in the middle of the stage facing the river. This spot held a certain amount of sentimental value as we had been on a (much warmer) walk there once before when we first started dating. We sat and enjoyed the coffee and company as we talked a little bit about what a nice day we had spent together. I decided that I couldn't keep up the charade any longer so I got off the bench, onto one knee, told her that I couldn't stand the thought of not spending the rest of my life with her and asked her to marry me. Her expression went from one of confusion (as I along with her entire family had been misleading her for a couple of weeks with regard to the true purpose of our date) to one of uncontainable joy. We hugged it out, gushed a little bit about being engaged and then got the heck out of the cold.

The end.

Here We Go...

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages (except the screaming, smelly babies. And the terrible two-year-olds): I am so very VERY excited to announce to you all that Andy and Becca are getting married! You can come here for all of the wedding "low-down". I have decided that a blog is the perfect outlet for me to pour all of my wedding ideas into because 1) The internet won't get annoyed with constant wedding talk, and 2) Our friends and family can be as informed (or uninformed) as they so choose. With that being said, let the planning....BEGIN!