Reaching Centerpiece Peace

As I'm guessing any reading this are avid wedding blog readers, you know that centerpieces can often break the bank. When Rebecca and I were planning our wedding we'd spend time figuring out our budget and things we wanted to spend money on, then go bang our heads into the wall when we realized that we forgot to budget for centerpieces. If there's one business I'd now like to get into, it's the centerpiece business. Centerpiece business owners should probably just go ahead and read a different post because this isn't going to pretty.

So, let's think of a business model. What's something that people don't really care about all that much, but feel obligated to spend tons of money on? What's something that people don't REALLY know the cost of so we can just say it's SUPER expensive? What's something we can get for cheap, but can mark up 1000%? What's something that people could most likely do themselves, but once they really think about doing it themselves they'll say "meh, let's just pay someone else to worry about this!"? CENTERPIECES! Let's do this! We'll make a killing!

I reached inner centerpiece peace during a conversation with Rebecca. A moment of clarity during our planning. If you're looking to save a buck you only have to spend enough to make your centerpieces forgettable. We'll never be able to afford enough to make guests go home and say "damn those were beautiful elegant centerpieces" - so we just wanted to spend enough to make guests go home without saying "damn those were the stupidest/ugliest centerpieces". Just make them forgettable! That being said, I think we came up with great centerpieces, that would be classy, nice, and perhaps just 1 notch up from unforgettable.

We quickly decided not to have flowers arrangements. It was just not in our budget. We could go to the flower market and get wholesale flowers, but we questioned if they'd survive a 4 hour drive the day before the wedding and if they'd really look fresh. Plus we questioned if we'd want to actually arrange the flowers. We were lucky enough to be married in a garden, and then have our dinner/reception in an outdoor area surrounded by flowers and fresh herbs. We didn't need to spend the money on the flowers. We decided that we wanted to decorate with light. I just think there's something nice about a candle, especially at an outdoor wedding.

We went out and we found affordable glass vases and candles. Rebecca found awesome ceramic birds at a great price, and spray painted them to give them the vintage feel. Then we hit ebay and found vintage photo frames that Rebecca spruced up with high gloss yellow spray paint. Did I forget to tell you guys that I'm married to Banksy? So much spray painting before the wedding!

Our final centerpiece arrangement I think was a masterpiece. I think it was exactly what we wanted. Something pretty, casually chic, with a pop of diy. The vases were ultimately a bit beautifully forgettable, but we made our centerpieces memorable by our guests by injecting some of ourselves into the table. The birds and the picture frames that had our table numbers, which were funny pictures of our puppy. He couldn't be at our wedding, so we wanted him there somehow. Here are some pictures of our tables:

Lastly, I just want to mention that our centerpieces are now for sale! We've sold the birds, but everything else is still available. We have 12 large vases (I think they are like 20" tall), 33 smaller bubble looking vases, and 8 picture frames. Email me if you want prices! Let us help you reach CenterPEACE-of-Mind!

Did you miss me?!

Wow. It's just been a completely insane couple weeks for me, and unfortunately the blog suffered. I apologize! Let me fill you in on what's going on.

SO, let's start with all things wedding. Each wedding bullet point I've got to tell you guys about deserves its own blog post, but I'm being realistic and know I may not get to write 10 more posts this week. SO, I'm going to briefly tell you about a lot of stuff with hopes of elaborating later. I really promise to blog more.

I am less than two months away from making an honest woman out of Rebecca! I can't believe that. We've had a longer engagement than anyone I know, and I can't believe it's coming to an end. I'm extremely ready for it to come to an end. I can't stress that enough - I'm just ready for this wedding to happen! I know it's cliche to say, "it'll be here before you know it!" but that's totally what happened. I guess things are cliche for a reason.

The RSVPs were rolling in about a month ago, then they mysteriously stopped. We now only get one every other day! The RSVP by date is this Monday and we're still waiting for 41 responses! Not really sure what people are waiting for. Maybe they feel bad RSVP-ing no? We're missing responses for nearly 30% of our guest list! Did this happen to anyone else?

We booked a videographer and he's fucking incredible! He's an addition to the wedding I'm extremely excited about and I can't wait to tell you all about him. He will get his own blog post no matter what. BUT, just a spoiler - his name is Daniel Boswell and he's ridiculously talented.

The latest big project I've been working on is a DIY photo booth(ish) station at our wedding for our guestbook. It's a pretty ambitious project. The pictures will be taken with my computer's camera. This is something I'll definitely post about - but basically I've got a program on my mac that all the guest has to do is enter his/her name and it takes 3 continuous pictures, formats them, and sends them to a small little portable printer! Our hopes are that guests will take their pictures, sign them (write notes on the print outs), then put them into a little metal birdcage we bought that will serve as our guestbook! Right now I'm just researching feasible ideas for backdrops (do I even need one?) and little photo table lights because our reception is outdoors at night. I've got my bar mitzvah guestbook and I don't think I've ever looked at it, but if I had photo booth pictures of my guests I think it'll be something I like to look back on. More on this idea to come.

I tried on my suit the other night and I fit in my suit pants! I've lost 20 pounds since I went on my "I will never forgive myself if I'm this fat for my wedding" exercise/diet regiment. That was a big victory. I've got two ties that I'm trying to decide between. I may wear one for the ceremony and one for the reception because one is more casual than the other. I think I'll post pictures of them both and ask for your help. To-do post #3! I've gotta go get my suit altered a bit - that's something kind of big on my list right now.

Rebecca spray painted a ton of these mini ceramic birds to accompany our centerpieces. They look pretty awesome. I'll post a picture soon. We just need to figure out what to fill our big vases with. Rocks? Sand? those little jewel things?

We've been adding songs onto our "To Play" and "Do Not Play" dj lists. This is pretty fun. Thank you google docs. It's an immediate hotline to our DJ (DJ Evoke AKA TeamBride). She's been awesome. We have a meeting tonight with our coordinator who I'm sure will remind us of about 600 things that need to be done before the wedding. That should be fun.

Now, onto my regular life.... I started a new job last week. It's awesome. I just realized I've never talked about work on my blog. For the last few years I've assisted a film/tv director named David Wain. He was on the 90's comedy show The State and directed one of my favorite movies "Wet Hot American Summer". I got a job with him a few years ago on the movie "Role Models" and have been with him ever since. For the last 1/2 a year though I had to take another job because he wasn't working on anything major. Last week I finally got the call to work on his next movie "Wanderlust" which will star Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston and is being produced by Judd Apatow. I'm extremely happy about the new job. It's been extremely busy though. David and his writing partner Ken Marino have let me sit in on writing sessions, and meetings, and rehearsals, and it's just given me so much self worth again. I'm really enjoying it.

Now for the chaotic part - I'm going to have to move for a while. Last week we thought I was going to have to pack up and move on Monday to prep this movie in NYC. I would leave - fly back to LA for my wedding in August - then immediately turn around and fly to Georgia where we'll shoot the movie. It definitely freaks me out to move before the wedding, but I'm happy to do it for this job. The move is definitely still up in the air and could likely happen, so I don't want to breathe a sigh of relief yet.

SO, every free second I've got has been trying to cram things in before I leave, IF I leave and spending some time with Rebecca and the pup because we'll definitely be apart for at least the last quarter of the year.

Oh, and I had a birthday! I turned 28. I cooked a big 9lb pork shoulder cuban style with rice and black beans! It was incredible. I drank the entire day, and it was just perfect. Rebecca and I got wasted and tried to out-embarrass one another in front of our friends. Chris, from The Man Registry, was there and I'm a little surprised that he spared me from a comment or a tweet about something I said or did. I think that was probably his birthday gift to me, and a delicious 6 pack of Fat Tire.

Which reminds me, I'm knee deep in my wedding beer tasting "research" and it's going very well. I let a few friends taste some beer options on my birthday and all were well received.

Man, this post just made me realize that I need to get back posting. I have so much to talk about. I've missed blogging, but hopefully you understand!

Glad to be back(ish).

Here's what's going on:

Wow, I'm in awe of how wedding bloggers can juggle daily life, work, wedding planning, and STILL find time to blog. Not only do some of you find time to blog, but yo also find time to find awesome and interesting wedding stuff online, THEN blog about it! [slow clap that builds to a standing ovation] I have not been that good! Perhaps I overvalue sleep.

So, we're steadily moving forward with our wedding plans. It's 165 days away. Which seems like such a short amount of time, but I've realized as friends have gotten engaged then married within the time we've been engaged, is plenty of time to get things done. No need to panic about things that aren't done yet!

We've made some progress in the last couple weeks or so! As you've read, we finished registering which took way longer than expected. We also came up with the idea for our E-Session photographs (you'll have to wait and see). I think we potentially found our wedding ceremony musicians, and our reception DJ. OH! I bought my wedding suit! That was awesome. Thanks to a blogger named BowieBride (http://www.bowiebride.com/) who gave me the tip that Barney's Warehouse sale was happening. The suit is beautiful. As soon as I can fit into it, I'll take pictures. Kidding, I can fit.... kind of. Okay, I confess, I bought a suit that has pants that are a little snug. It's my inspiration to lose weight....it's working. Anyway - it's a Michael Kors 3 piece suit. Awesome. Now I just need to find a great shirt, and my sneakers.

On our plate right now we're thinking about videography. I think I came up with one particularly great way to cut costs which I'll share with you later if it comes to fruition. One thing I decided I'm going to do to help combat the astronomical rates I've seen on some of these videographer websites is edit the footage on my own. I know that it's most likely a LOT to chew, but I think that I could easily lay "I had the time of my life" over some reception footage as well as the next guy. Capturing moments on video has always been very important to my family so it's something we need to book, but we're having trouble budgeting it. My dad has been converting all our family videos to DVD and he's been sending me copies. It's been awesome to watch them all, and it makes me realize we really need a videographer.

We're also trying to figure out what our tables are going to look like. I'd really like to go with that "casually eclectic looks effortless but really wasn't" tablescape. SO, at some point we're going to hit up some flea markets and look for cool mismatched vases and potential knickknacks. Also, we're thinking more candles - less flowers.

Which leads me to the next morsel of business! We're going down to the flower district this weekend. Any fellow wedding bloggers out there want to meet us? We'll most likely buy our chuppa poles - and I think Rebecca wants to get some ideas for flowers to carry. I also think she wants to buy flower seed to potentially make her own bouquet.

I know I'm forgetting a whole bunch of stuff we're doing. We need to start designing our invitations. I'm so worried I've bitten off more than I can chew with Gocco. I know we'll eventually understand it, then fall in love with it - I'm just apprehensive. We also need to make time to get up to our wedding venue and meet with rental houses about certain things. Wow.

Oh man... So much to do. Anxiety and panic setting in. Overtaking body. I need a brown paper bag to breathe into. Maybe I can find a cool vintagey decorated one on etsy, or better yet regretsy.

Top Chef - Top Centerpieces

Check out these awesome centerpieces from Top Chef Masters last Wednesday night! I've always been a big fan of candles over flowers. It seems like a good way to save money, and I just love the way they look. After I saw this, however, I'm ready to add flowers back into the mix if we can afford it. I love the combination of flowers AND candles, and I LOVE the light bulb chandelier over the table. (Anyone ever seen this chandelier for sale, or is it just something you can DIY quite easily?!) I thought I'd share this with you all because I think it's pretty stinkin flawless.... kudos Top Chef.

Attending a Wedding While Planning a Wedding

This past weekend I attended a wedding while planning a wedding for the first time. It's an entirely different ballgame. You assess and critique EVERYTHING. The usual Post-Wedding Hungover version of myself normally has no clue what my fiance is talking about the next morning when she remembers the dresses, the centerpieces, the programs, etc. The morning after, I'm lucky if I remember the wedding colors, and am doubly lucky if I don't puke from the overexertion of trying to remember colors mixed w/ alcohol poisoning. I kid, I kid...

Even though I drank as much as I normally do this last weekend, I can recall every detail of the wedding. I assume that's because this is the first time I really SAW them. Even though we got drunk enough for Ms. Temple of Groom to randomly talk in a renaissance era accent (I'm not joking, at one point she couldn't find me so she was asking all our friends where her "liege"was) I remember everything. I feel like a superhero after the accident that gave him all of his super powers. In this case imagine a giant wedding planning book dropping on me from space in a vineyard (that's where the wedding took place). I climb out in a tattered suit and yell "I REMEMBER EVERY DETAIL!!!! THE COLORS WERE BURNT ORANGE AND CREAM! PASS ME ANOTHER FRIED RISOTTO BALL!!!" I admit, not the sexiest superpower, but it's a start.

Anyway, yes, attending a wedding while you're in the early planning stages is totally a different experience and it's actually an extremely beneficial experience too. You're looking for new ideas, seeing what worked, seeing what didn't work. You learn so much. Perhaps the best thing I saw at this wedding was the table assignment cards. Instead of getting a piece of paper w/ your name and table assignment on it, the bride and groom wrote a really heartfelt letter to each person/couple. It was such a nice touch. I've never seen that before. What are the rules about stealing this idea?! Another great tidbit I learned from the wedding was born from tragedy. Apparently before the reception the venue noticed the centerpieces kept blowing over (the winds in central CA are pretty gusty!) so the bride had them pull the centerpieces from the tables. That taught us if we're going to DIY our centerpieces, and have an outdoor wedding, we need to take wind into consideration. Also it showed me that a table didn't look lost w/o a grand centerpiece. A centerpiece can be small, simple, classy, and sturdy and be just fine! Lastly, Rebecca and I have always worried about planning something after the reception, or having ideas for our friends who want to afterparty. After the reception last Saturday we realized we no longer have to worry about that. If you have booze hungry adults they will find alcohol on their own. We got them as far as we needed to take them, they are responsible for the rest. WE were able to find the one bar still open in Solvang w/o the bride and groom worrying about us! So we'll do the same.

Mason Jars = Awesome

Does anyone else think mason jars are awesome?
I may need to "borrow" this idea! I think this looks so cool. Our wedding is at night so the more candles/twinkle lights I think the better. I'm thinking we'll go to a flea market and buy a bunch of different types of jars and do a variation of this idea!