Tips for the New Bride

As I have been reflecting on our wedding, I have come up with tips that I want to share.

A couple tips right now involve photography:

• Be clear what you want

Our photographer did a great job meet our wants and needs. She had an agenda for the day and got people in beautiful pictures that did not look overly posed.

• Think about who you want pictures of, not just the traditional ones.

Are there guests who you want pictures of? Think X-mas gifts and such. Update some old pictures of you and your family/friends.

• Consider how the sun shines on your ceremony and/or pictures sites

We had a beautiful backdrop of the Lanier Mansion but the sun made it hard to smile without wanted to poke your eyes out. Our photographer made the scene look good but I wish we hadn't looked so washed out.

Be on the lookout for more tips as I do some more reflection!

=) Natalie

Wedding Pictures

Heidi Swiss Photography out of Indianapolis, IN did our wedding pictures and we were thrilled with the results. She also did our engagement pictures in June.

One thing we were looking for in a photographer is creativity. Nate was adamant he did not want posed pictures where everyone was stiff. Heidi ran with that and created some great arrangements of people. Some of the pictures I thought should have been in a indy music video (think that video with the band on the treadmills --You may not agree but that was what I was thinking. Okay now that I watched the video, maybe that wasn't what I was thinking)

I had rented a house for my bridesmaids to stay in for the weekend and that is where we got ready for the wedding. My parents were right next door as were all of my family from England. It was nice to have everyone so close by on the big day. We then walked down to the riverfront to take pictures.

The photographer then went to mine and Nate's house and took pictures with the guys.

We all rendezvoused at the Lanier Mansion for group pictures.

Heidi arranged a big reveal for Nate and I in the back gardens.

After the pictures we had some time to kill so we climbed aboard the Madison Trolley and took a spin around town. Come to find out, while on the Trolley it will stop at the Madison Fudge Factory and provide you with samples of fudge. It was all delicious!

After the ceremony, we took pictures with our families then boarded the Trolley and went to the Reception.

After our grand entrance,

we did some mingling,

then ate,

then cut the cupcakes,

had some toasts,

danced our dances, threw the bouquet,

removed the garter,

and partied the night away.

The BIG Day

madison, in

makeup -- Nikki Moore

florist -- Jo Ann Gripshover

ceremony -- Lanier Mansion

reception -- Livery Stable

DJs -- Bill Eccles and Josh Scroggins

cake -- Marzi Pan Bakery

rehearsal dinner food -- Dave Thomas

rehearsal dinner location -- Old Feed Mill

wedding party entrance -- "All About Tonight" -Blake Shelton

bride & groom entrance -- "At Last" -Etta James

first dance -- "Moondance" -Michael Buble

father/daughter -- "I Still Believe In You" -Steven Curtis Chapman

mother/son -- "Little Wing" -Jimi Hendrix

Rehearsal Dinner

As tradition, we are having a rehearsal and dinner the night before the ceremony. We will meet at the Lanier Mansion and go through the ceremony. I am leery because my dad is the minister and a dear friend of ours, Mike L., is helping out. They are in cahoots with each other and have something in the works. As long as I do not bawl during my wedding, I am cool with their plan.

We are hosting the rehearsal dinner at the historic Feed Mill owned by another good friend.

Our former co-workers at Hanover, Dave and Carol are taking care of the meal. My mom made the table centerpieces.

She got the idea from a wedding she went to about a month ago. It consists of foam box covered with paper and monogramed with a "G". There are crazy sticks stuck in the foam with paper and pictures attached to the ends.

Candles - Memorial & Unity

If you haven't caught on, I have DIY-ed everything I could. I used the internet and research unity candles - pre-made packages as well as DIY. I found that pre-made Unity candles were quite pricey and I was not willing to dish out that much money for something that will be used for such a short time period.

I decided to buy a pillar candle and two tapered candles as well as candle holders. Since we are having an outdoor ceremony, I needed to figure out a method to keep the candles lit.

I went to a wedding a few weeks ago and loved the monogram design on their unity candle so I decided to use the same monogram as our programs for the unity candle. Online I had seen many sites about attaching the monogram using straight pins.....that is easier said than done. It is difficult to push pins through wax as well as to keep them straight or in some sort of pattern.

Therefore I decided to simply keep it as a simple square and attach the monogram with scrapbook tape and beautify it with ribbon.

In regards to the Memorial Candle, I really wanted to order a personalized vase but then I was unsure what would become of that vase after the wedding. I knew one of our mothers would have taken it, but then who do you decide gets to take it!?! So I decided to buy a generic vase to protect the candle and created an image to attach to the candle.

I found a memorial candle template online that I really liked and modified to include our relatives and their dates. I would imagine Nate and I will keep it for our home and burn in. I am going to have a friend move it from the ceremony site to the reception site and place it on the same table as the guest book.

I was pretty proud of my accomplishments, though as a man, Nate was unimpressed!

Wedding Programs

The intention of this blog was to share what I was doing and get some feedback. Intentions are like elbows, everyone has them. I got busy with work and wedding things, so I am posting after the fact.

Being a DIY-er, I made the wedding programs with the assistance of my dear friend JoJo. I ordered more paper from http://www.paperandmore.com/, ordering a metallic pearl lightweight paper and brown cardstock. Again, my mom and I married ideas together for the program. It consists of the brown cardstock background and five pages of information - a title page, memory page, thank you page, order of ceremony, and wedding party.

I printed everything at home and cut it using my handy scrapbook cutter. I then used a single hole puncher and punched two holes at the top of each page, doing my best to line up the holes. (If you ask JoJo, I didnt a horrible job.) We then assembled the pages together and fed a ribbon through the holes and neatly tied it together.

We ended up making about 110 programs, using both brown and blue ribbon.

SwagBucks

So I decided to sign up for SwagBucks today. I learned about it from reading http://www.moneysavingsmom.com/ and decided to try to earn some free stuff. I figured betwen my random web searches and Nate's randomness, we might be able to capitalize on it.

If you sign up before August 15, 2010 you can enter the code BackToSchool and earn an extra 40 bonus points. To learn more about Swagbucks, visit Money Saving Mom's blog

Bridal Party

So now the invitations are out and RSVPs are coming in, I suppose I can tell you about the people involved in our big day.

My Maid of Honor is my cousin and oldest friend, Jessica. She was born 3 months before me and once my folks brought me to the States, I would say we have been like two peas in a pod. We may not see each other as often as we would like to, but we don't miss a bit. She was the person I made ask Nate to see the ring, almost three years ago. (Nate had told me one night that he already had the ring picked out and all of his eggs were in one basket, not sure why it took him so long to propose).

Next up is one of my other best friends, Amanda, who is my Matron of Honor. I met Amanda in 4th grade and became good friends with her in 6th grade. We were in REACH and had almost all of our classes together, aside from band because I am not musically gifted at all. Amanda shares a love of traveling with me and we both studied abroad after high school. Amanda went to Germany while I started my freshman year at Hanover, then I went to Australia during her sophomore year. We are both high school science teachers. Amanda asked me to stand beside her when she married Joe almost 2 years ago. To put the cherry on the top of my friendship with Amanda, she just asked me to be a godmother to her daughter, Corrine. I am super excited about this new chapter in our lives.

Similar to my history with Amanda, is my history with Erin. I also met her in 4th grade and became good friends with her in the 6th grade. Unlike Amanda, Erin and I had almost the exact schedule for the last 6 years of our high school career. I recall convincing Erin to play soccer during our junior year of high school, we still have some great laughs about that. Erin and I were both dissatisfied with our post-college jobs and almost moved to South Carolina for grad school. We didn't end up going to SC because I had just started dating Nate and I believe Erin had just started dating Wes. Erin is now in Student Affairs and I prep students for her!!!! I can't wait to share this day with Erin and look forward to her big day in the (hopefully) near future.

My final bridesmaid is my "little" sister, Rachel. She has grown into quite the young woman. She is starting her second year of college at Anderson University (boo, rival of Hanover). She started out on the ministry path but is exploring the business or psychology paths. I think she should stick with the youth ministry because I could not think of a better way for her to use the gifts God gave her. She is probably more excited about this day than I am, though not as excited as Mum!!! I don't really have any stories about Rachel because there are too many to tell!!!

Jessica and Rachel will be wearing this dress in truffle

Amanda and Erin will be wearing this dress in truffle.

DIY Bride

So I am a teacher with the entire summer off, I am cheap, and I like to be crafty at times. After searching numerous websites for invitations, I decided it would be cheaper to make them myself.


I found cardstock for less than 10 cents a piece at Papers and More. The company sent me the wrong order and to resolve it, they allowed me to keep the order plus sent mine. The wrong order contained ivory card stock and ivory vellum paper cut in half, which was quite useful when making invitations.


My mom and I were inspired by invitations I received in the past and hoped to create a chocolate brown invitation with white wording and two ribbons. Unfortunately one cannot print in white ink on their own and Staples is no help either. I finally decided to print on the blue paper and glue it to the brown.

My order finally arrived and I made a sample invitation. I made inserts to include a map, hotel accomodations, registry information, rain site info, and a RSVP postcard. My mom did not like how the invitation inserts where floating around the envelope so we compromised and made a pocket for our invitation.



I cut the brown cardstock in half and folded one end up about 1 inch. I used a glue gun to seal the pocket edges.


I then printed the invitation working onto the blue cardstock and cut out the pieces. I had an invitation (& Margarita) party with some friends and we assembled the invitations.



I then used the vellum paper to create a barrier in the envelopes because we only used one envelope instead of the traditional two (I wanted to save trees and money). I also included an engagement picture in most of the invitations. A few people did not get one because I ran out and others didn't get one because they are single guys who wouldn't appreciate the picture.

TOTAL cost of making and mailing 113 invitations = $325.63, that is about $2.88 per invitation with postage, plus I have enough supplies to probably make 87 more invitations.

• Envelopes = $34.22 - cream greeting card envelopes at Staples (200)
• Invitation paper = $31.97 - plus that free order of paper
• Invitation supplies = $120.96 - paper cutter, glue, glue dots, ribbon, scrapbooking things (many of which have future uses.
• RSVP Postcards = $13.13 - one batch (100) that was used and another (100) that was too dark to write on
• Address stamp = $24.85
• Postage = 92.15
  

Wedding Details

After talking to my mom daily for the first 2 weeks of my engagment, I decided that I could not prolong this engagement. I have always pictured an outdoor ceremony but knew better than to plan that for the summer months, due to the heat. I wanted to get married at Hanover College mainly because that is where Nate and I met. Unfortunately Hanover was booked for the remainder of the year, so I had to look into other options.







Living in Historic Madison provides us with many beautfiul locations. I decided on the Lanier Mansion for our ceremony. We will have a short and sweet ceremony on the front lawn under the gazebo. The chairs will be arranged in an unorthodox manner to provide a wedding in the round. My bridesmaids will not block anyone's view as they will be along the brick path, where not chairs are due to the trees.









Our guests will then make their way to the Livery Stable for the reception. There they will enjoy the music of DJ Bill Eccles, eat some good food, enjoy some tasty beverages, and dance the night away with us.





I chose October 9, 2010 as our wedding date because it falls during my fall break so I have the week off before the wedding. I concluded that not working the week before the wedding would be best for all involved. The drawback is October 9th is also my 5th year reunion at Hanover and thus Hanover Homecoming. Madison is also hosting the Belle of Louisville paddle boat, thus all the hotels in the area are booked and I cannot be the polite bride that reserves a block of rooms for my guests. Bummer!! Guests are finding rooms which is reassuring.

Engagement Story

Nate and I have be dating since May 2006. After 4+ great years together, we have decided to take the plunge. On Friday April 2, (the official start of my spring break), Nate took me hiking at Clifty Falls State Park. We went off the beaten path to Hoffman Falls. Along the way I was looking for cool things in the creek and found Nate a new worry stone. (I later destroyed the worry stone in the washer because I don't check pockets.)

About 15 minutes later, Nate knelt down in the creek and said "Look what I found!" while holding a ring in his open palm. I replied "No way, you found that!" Nate continued to simply look up at me and I realized what he was doing and immediately started crying. He asked me to marry him, and I recall saying yes though Nate disgrees. We hugged and kissed and continued on our hike.

Photo courtesy of Heidi Swiss Photography

A little while later, we stopped to rest and Nate said "I take that as a yes!" To which I replied "Yes, yes, yes!" He then told me that the ring was his grandmother's and she told him to give it to someone special. He also told me he had called my dad earlier in the week to get his blessing.




I chose to wait to tell people until I could tell my mom in person. That evening we went to a cook-out at a fellow police officer's house and I learned that Nate had been planning this for awhile. He got everyone to cover for him since he was supposed to work that weekend. It was excited to hear how much work Nate had put into this.






I then drove up to Indy on Saturday and told my mom and siblings. My mom was initially mad she did not know anything about it then turned into planning mode. My sister was obliviously to the ring on my hand that I was flaunting in front of her face and my brother noticed it immediately. I then spend Sunday calling friends and family to share the good news.

First Time Blogger

I am an avid blog reader and had an epiphany today....I should blog about our wedding planning progress. My hope is for people to comment with encouragement as well as advice. This is also for the family and friends not actively involved in the planning process.

So far, I have the ceremony and reception sites, my dress, the bridesmaid dresses, reception menu, dj, photographer, cake (cupcakes), and invitations are sent.

At the moment I am struggling with whether or not to hire a videographer. I want to capture our special day and have it for years to come. I also want something to take to England for the family and friends to see who are unable to attend. My mom says I should hire a high school kid, my fiance is worried about costs, and my dad is in agreement with me and thinks it is a good idea.

So my first comments NEEDED - Is a videographer a good investment or not? Better yet - if you did not videotape your wedding/reception, do you regret it?