My DIY Realization

It's no secret that I'm having a largely DIY wedding. I absolutely love my projects and I love that it will make our wedding original and "us." Sometimes I feel like I take it too far though and insist on doing something myself just because I know I can and I end up spending more money and time on it than it's worth. 

I honestly JUST came to the realization last week that it's OK if some of the things in my wedding are store bought. My mom and I were at Hobby Lobby and all of their wedding stuff was 50% off. I'd seen their pomanders there before, but of course had always thought to myself, 'I could make those myself so easily.' That may be true, but I couldn't make them for less than $5 each (which is what they were on sale for) and it may cost me a bit of my sanity at this point. So we bought the pomanders for my flower girls to carry down the aisle. And they're going to be adorable. And if anyone even notices my store bought pomanders instead of the insane cuteness of my two flower girls, they're ridiculous. 

We did add some hot pink ribbon loops so that they'll coordinate a little better with the flower girl outfits, but that's it! And like I said, who's going to notice with these cuties?

If you're a fellow DIY bride, have you come to the same realization?

PS - Speaking of DIY, I was the first DIY bride featured by Kayleigh at My I-Do It Yourself Wedding! 

You can check out the post here!

Fit for a Princess: Part 2

Since my last post about flower girl attire, I've found a few more options. First, my mom happened to see that Wal-Mart had petticoats for Halloween - They even came in black and pink. How perfect would these have been:

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Yes, you're reading that correctly.. They were only $5! I figured we'd probably need to layer two of them, but still, at $10 for each of my flower girls, that's a good deal! Unfortunately, the three Wal-Mart stores that my mom and I looked at (both here and in my hometown) were all sold out by the middle of last week.

The next day my mom was looking online and came across the petticoats/tutus on this website:

The same week I came across this website that also sells petticoats:

So now we've got more options, but still no decision. I really like the last two options, but both are $50, meaning we'd be at $100 before even buying shirts/tops to go with them. My mom used to sew all kinds of stuff, so I think she could totally handle petticoats - I just have to talk her into it. :)

What do you think? Do you like the look of tutus or petticoats more?

Fit for a Princess!

I mentioned the outfits for my flower girls in my shoes post, and I finally found the picture to share with you. I knew I wanted something other than the typical white flower girl dress (although they'd look precious in those, too!) so I started looking around online for alternatives. I have no idea how I stumbled across these, as I don't think I was even looking on Etsy, but I loved them! This particular tutu has been taken off of her site for now because her turnover is slower than she'd like, but I messaged her about them and she said she's always more than willing to do custom orders.


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How cute is that?! I think the black and pink tutu is a little too much, but the tutus are all custom, so I can change the color. I'm not sure whether I'd like all black or all white more, but I'm leaning more towards white. Or maybe all light pink? You can also customize the length of the tutu, so I'd be asking her to make them longer than what's shown. The length would be more like this:


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I had to use that picture - Did you notice what shoes the little girl is wearing?! Perfect! The color would be only one shade, though. Actually, as I was just looking at it, I kind of like that exact tutu and we could just find a top to match (probably white or black). Maybe it's the damask that's too overwhelming in the first option. I think I was drawn to the damask in the first place, but now I'm thinking it might be too much for a flower girl. (How fun would it be for playing dress up, though?!)

Then Miss Frozen Yogurt on Weddingbee posted about the petticoats her flower girls will be wearing. My mom had also told me about a cute petticoat outfit she'd seen a few days before I read the post about them. They are so adorable:


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I feel like $70 is a bit much for petticoats, though. And that doesn't even include the top. Maybe we could DIY these? I found a tutorial here and I'm sure there are others.

Both of my flower girls are so excited to get to wear tutus (although I'm sure a petticoat would be close enough!) and ballet slippers! We talk about it every time I see them now. I'm excited too - They'll look like little fairy princesses! I do love the flower on the skirt of the first tutu, and if we go with those I'd like them to wear something that coordinates in their hair. Actually, I'd like them to wear something in their hair regardless. I found these ADORABLE headbands, but my younger flower girl is NOT a big fan of wearing things on her head for extended periods of time. They're precious, though:


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The same seller also makes these smaller flower bands that can be worn as a bracelet or as a hair band:


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I'm debating about DIYing flower hair clips for them, like these:


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Ahh, there are too many cute choices for little girls! So, I'm turning to you guys - Which option do you think is cuter? I think I've changed my mind about 4 times just in the time it took me to write this post. As of now, I'm leaning more towards the second tutu option. Any opinions/suggestions are welcome!

Shoes, shoes, shoes!

I'm not one of those brides who bought/ordered/returned several pairs of shoes before deciding on 'the ones.' I actually bought them randomly (although I knew what I wanted) at Payless last spring! Since I'm the same height as David and I don't really like being taller than him, especially in pictures, I've always worn shoes without heels for all of our formal dances. Ballet slippers are my absolute favorite - I used to dance and I wore them for our sophomore homecoming and they were SO comfortable! I really wanted to wear actual ballet slippers for the wedding, but wasn't thrilled with the colors I found them in and didn't want to risk attempting to dye them. So I found these instead:





I love the color of them (although I think it's a little off in the pictures), and if my bridesmaids decide to wear matching pink shoes it'll make for some CUTE pictures! And I definitely want a picture like this too, since David is totally on board with wearing fun socks:


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And I can't leave out my precious flower girls! I know I haven't shown you guys what they'll be wearing yet, but these will totally complete the outfit - Trust me, it's adorable and worth the wait! Every little girl should get to wear pretty sparkly shoes!




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I'm not sure whether I like the light pink or dark pink better, but I'm learning more towards the lighter color. I have awhile to decide though, because little girls are constantly growing and I want to be sure of what size their feet are before I buy them. Target's website has reviews for the shoes that date back to 2007, so I'm guessing they'll be keeping the shoes around for awhile meaning I'm in no hurry. And who can beat $12.99?! I don't even need to wait for a sale!

Look at this precious picture I found right after I found the shoes on Target's website - They look so cute with this little girl's white dress:


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I'm so excited! We'll definitely have to have a picture of all of the bridal party's shoes/socks and I want one of the flower girls' ballet slippers with mine! I'm making them flip flops to change into for the reception (because their love for flip flops came from me!) so their little toesies are more comfortable - unless of course they don't want to take their sparkly shoes off! I'll be sure to blog about their flip flops after I make them. I'm definitely going to be changing into flip flops for the reception. Anyone who knows me won't be surprised because I pretty much live in flip flops. I'm sure they'll be pink, too!

Were perfect shoes really important to you or did you purchase your shoes on a whim? And are you jumping on board with the colored shoes/socks trend? If so, is your groom excited to wear fun socks or did you have to talk him into it?

Pretty Please?: Asking Our Flower Girls

Our flower girls are my two precious nieces. They both hold extremely special places in my heart, and they love David as well! I call them both my princesses, and they love the Disney princesses, so I knew I wanted to play off that when I asked them.

I was able to find fairy princess wings and a wand and collected a lot of princess stuff from the $1 bins at Target:

And I put it all in a pink canvas bag that coordinated with our colors and made them a card:

That said:

They looked at it briefly (Who wants to read a card with all those goodies?!):

And gave us a resounding yes! I can't wait for them to walk down the aisle in their adorable dresses - I'm fully aware they'll steal the show, and I'm ok with that!

Are you having children in your wedding? How did you ask them?