Wow, this page gets a lot of views! In the name of interest, I shall add more.. Ah.. the wedding. Love it. I can't believe I haven't posted the videos. We are so lucky to have such talented friends, have I mentioned that?? My husband's buddy is a filmmaker with a specialty in extreme sports. He's so young, and aside from a family wedding video he put together, this was his first shot at a "wedding music video", as he called it. This is seriously amazing, we were speechless the first time we saw it, and we go back to look at it often.

This blog won't allow me to post vimeo videos, so here are the links- (check em out, they're really short)

Ceremony

Reception

Flowers

My Mother in Law was in charge of the flowers. She did a fabulous job. It was way more than I had expected.

Click click!!

The wedding photobooth was well worth the money spent. It was entertainment for everyone, and at the end we received the guest book, which had everyone's pictures with their own full page message. If you want a unique spin on a guestbook, this idea is amazing. Big credit to the Mike at Snapbooth for making it possible
http://snapbooth.com/
And for a look at all of the photos from the day, click here

Thanks to our awesome friend and groomsmen, JB, the boys had beautiful 'almost matching' hand made ties. I still cannot believe these turned out so great. I asked them all to get dark purple Vans, some brown pants of their choosing, and any white button up shirt they wanted, to be worn however they wanted it. I love the different styles that they all have.

little wedding chalkboards

These were a sweet, inexpensive, easy touch. I just used old picture frames that I found for 50 cents a piece at the thrift store. I put black construction paper in front of the glass, so i could write on it, and then placed the back on the frame. Then I used chalk to direct wedding traffic in the right direction. Between that and my helpful groomsmen, all the guests arrived to their chairs safely. :)

Were you wondering how that aisle runner turned out? Well here it is!  I'm planning on having it framed and using it for our bedroom headboard one day.

Grandma's homemade cookies

I wanted to make sure everyone close to me was involved in my wedding. So as a special treat, my Grandma made batches of her homemade oatmeal cookies to put on the food table, along with this little photo of Grandma and I in the kitchen.

The Attire

yes, it's been almost a year and I am still getting all of this up. But I suppose you are wondering how the bridesmaid's dresses came together. So I will show you.

BAM! oh those girls are gorgeous, aren't they? And they each got a dress to fit their own personality. From super high heels and a skin tight gettup, to some cute flats with a summery dress. They all looked so great. Thank you, Victoria Secret for keeping my bridesmaid's dresses under 100 bucks.

Place Settings

I didn't label the place settings with names, because I always hate going to weddings and having to sit with someone I don't know. I just like the freedom of sitting with who I want to sit with. Plus, there were a lot of kids, and I left it up to the parents to put them all together, or split them up. You just never know what mood a kid will be in, especially not months before an event. I was sure to set quite a few extra places, in case there were only, say, 2 seats left, and one couple, and the seats were split up. I just can't imagine that turning out very comfortably.

But I was still sure to set each place. I cut my own napkins, using materials that I found on sale at goodwill (washed first, of course). I used pinking shears to cut them, so they didn't fray. And they were not all the same size, though I made my best attempt. I figured no one would be measuring the napkins, so I didn't let it stress me out.

I used mason jars for all the glasses. And I found those paper straws here

http://www.kikkerland.com/products/paper-straws-box-of-144-blue/

I must admit, I had skeptics regarding the straws, but they worked out great, I'm glad I used them.

All of the silverware.. ahem.. woodware.. is from recycled wood. And I found it here

http://ecoware.tumblr.com/

And to go along with the eco theme, I also used recycled bowls and plates, all from this site here

http://leafbrand.com

Centerpieces!

So, because of the non drinking aspect of the wedding, we decided to make the most of it and make it fun. Instead of doing fake alcohol like sparkling cider in little glasses, we wanted to avoid the drinking theme altogether and instead went with some cool vintage looking soda bottles so we could "pop the top" for the toasts. I found the bottles at World Market. They were a Father's Day promotion, and I found them just in time to buy all the cases they had at 2 separate locations. But at only 9 bucks a box, it was worth the added touch!

Wedding Cupcakes!

Wow, so planning a wedding, being a Mom, and blogging.. I had to choose one to put on hold, and luckily for the kids, I chose blogging ;) But I'm back in the real world now, and so excited to get you all caught up!

Along with the DIY theme of things, I chose to bake 200 cupcakes all by myself. Lucky for me, I have a dual oven so it made the process fly. We were going to order a nice elaborate cake for the top but we ran out of time. So we picked up a chocolate cake from the grocery store that morning, and put the topper right smack dab on the top. And boy was that a great idea! I loved the topper my Mom picked out. It showed up at my door only a couple days before the wedding, and I must admit, I was a little skeptical of my Mom's vision. But it really worked out great.

I should also mention here that my mom MADE that cupcake stand! Isn't it amazing?! She took plywood, material, pvc pipe, and that fancy ribbon stuff and made miracles. She's amazing.

And a big thanks to another amazing person, Ms. Latimer. One of my Groomsmen recruited his Mom to frost all 200 cupcakes while I got ready for the wedding.

And thanks to the great people at our favorite candy store, Smeeks, we were able to find the perfectly mismatched cupcake liners. And thanks to all of my wonderful bridesmaids, we were able to get them decorated! I found the awesome, easy recipes on BettyCrocker's website. I chose "Pink Champagne Cupcakes", which I found here and "Key Lime Cupcakes", which I found here. Tons of compliments, everyone loved them.

Photo Courtesy of Chadwick Fowler

Photo Courtesy of Stephane Mijuskovic

Much to do, much to do!

17 days?!? Oh. Em. Geeee  

I have a bit to get done still, but I think I'm doing okay.

I'm really nervous to stand in front of so many people. As of now, it looks like there will be 130 people in attendance! The hardest part so far was getting the rsvps. I called, emailed, texted, and went to houses for rsvps. But in the end, it is definitely worth it. Everyone knows they are welcome and wanted.

Here is a little preview to my ideas.

This is how the seating will look. It's not assigned, so there are no name tags. I figure a lot of people will be seeing family they haven't seen in a long time. I'd like them all to be able to sit near people they enjoy.

I'm using mason jars for all the glasses. Those will be set on top of the napkins that my wonderful Groom cut himself. I found the wooden spoons and forks through Ecoware Biodegradables and also through The Web Restaurant store. http://www.webstaurantstore.com/

The super cool retro straws were not very expensive at all. I found them here

http://www.kikkerlandshop.com/

I really loved the idea of the straws from the beginning. I thought they added a great touch without adding waste. I'm a big reuser, so as minimal as possible is great for me, and for those extras, I like them to be recycled. Here is a great blog I found for inspiration.

http://suchprettythings.typepad.com/

She uses pastel straws, which are really pretty.

We are almost done with the napkins. Justin says he will cut the rest for me on Wednesday. He's such a trooper <3

My second big project is the aisle runner. I have traced the letters, and gotten only a couple lines of words painted. When finished, it will read

"A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with one Step"

That is the inscription on Justin's temporary band that I bought him a few months ago.

Here is my progress so far

Other than that, I don't have too much left to diy. I'll keep you posted on the Groomsmen favors that I'm putting together. They are looking great, you will love them!

!! No Alchohol !!

That's the first reaction we had too.

But seriously, is it THAT big of a deal? I've gotten opinions on this from a lot of my chat room friends and so many people think that no alchohol at a wedding should cause some sort of mass hysteria. We don't drink very much. And when we do, 3 drinks and I'm sloshed. Maybe 6 for the Mr. So we're having fun with the idea and making the most of it. No one is going to drive home drunk, and no one will puke after 5 drinks and 3 games of volleyball. I think the positives are looking pretty positive, dontcha think?

It's a 3 hour wedding people! If we live in a society where you must drink at a 3 hour event, I want to have as little to do with it as possible.

So our centerpieces... vintage-looking soda pops in a galvanized bucket. Topped off with a sign "for the toasts" I can't wait to put these together, they are going to look so cute. I won't be putting them together, however. My Step Mom is doing all the pre-wedding set up. I'll put one together before.. just for fun ;)

Now look me in the face and tell me you wouldn't love to toast to our love with the pop of your pop top.

So cool.

My Mom scored big when she found a ton of those vintge looking bottle openers from a wholesale restaurant supply store



Yep. So cool.

K, so that's all on the centerpieces/ no alchohol stuff I've got for now. We only have 31 more days and I'm so excited! I just got an email from one of my bridesmaids, who is making all of the bridesmaid gifts for me. She's done! WooHoo! One more thing to check off the list!

Final Invitations.. sent!

So busy these days, it's been forEVER since I've posted. But I wanted to check in and post up the final invites..

So here they are...

I decided I wanted to use recycled material to go with the theme of my "pro nature" wedding. I didn't want those torn pieces of paper (which I made from paper bags from Trader Joes) to just look like trash, so I searched everywhere for recycle stickers or stamps but couldn't find any. I finally traced a recycle symbol from my computer, made a stencil, and used a paint brush and some stamp ink to make my own label and this is how it turned out.

I designed the invitations and RSVPS myself, on photoshop. I found those envelopes at paperspapers.com. They are called "paper bag" envelopes and they were a perfect match.

After finding out last minute that we would not be able to have any drinking at our venue, I spoke with the hotel where I blocked rooms, and they agreed to let us have an afterparty at their bar with no deposits or minimums! Plus the rooms are only 60.00 so it's affordable for everyone. I'm really excited about this and wanted to mention it in the invites, even though they had already been made.

Fun Fun Fun!

Okay, super duper excited about this one....
We spend all this time and money on a wedding and I'm all stressed out about everyone having a good time. But that really has nothing to do with the location, the photographer, and only a little to do with the dj. Sooo........

We are totally going to have a PHOTOBOOTH at our wedding!! I'm so stoked, this is going to be awesome! I can already imagine my family and friends packed in a photobooth. Ha!

this picture was from a Yelp event we went to last winter. We're going to be using the same company, http://www.snapbooth.com/ This includes a Scrapbook/Guestbook with pictures of every picture taken at the wedding, 2 super awesome nice friendly booth workers, and a BOOTH!.. and they all get their own picture magnet favor! Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. Favors- check, and Guestbook- check!! Too much coffee- double check!

Took a Wedding Breather...

So we have been really busy these past couple weeks. We took a road trip to San Francisco for a family reunion and had a blast. It is just so beautiful there, we were afraid we were going to melt when we got home! But now that I'm back, I'm ready to hop back on this wedding grind. I spent the morning contacting djs. I am deciding on a few right now. One of them includes a photo slideshow, which we really like. And the other one just seemed all around professional. There are a few others, and it seems like the pricing for djs is not too bad. I was expecting a lot higher. So hopefully we will get that all squared away by the end of next week and that will put all my reservations behind me. Venue - check, Photographer - check, Catering - check, dj - almost checked! I am scrambling to finish the invitations now. I think I should be getting those out pretty darn soon... oo so excited!

Honeymoon

K, it's dinner time so I don't have much time to blog (I usually blog while I work) but I am so excited about our honeymoon! Disneyworld, here we come!!! I made this today-




I want to pin this little countdown to my shirt and wear it everywhere I go!

Photography

Have I mentioned that I found a photographer?!?! Well I'm super stoked about him. We searched and searched and looked at tons of wedding photos... I think if I see another wedding picture I'm going to throw up. His name is Chadwick and he's super nice. We met with him at the house and he showed us a couple videos and just really came across as a great guy. Not only that, but his photos are absolutely stunning. We are very lucky to have scored with such a great photographer, I can't wait to see how the photos come out!

I really wish I could pull some of his photos off his site, but obviously I would have to pay for that. I'll save that money for my own pictures :) But you can still check him out!

This is his wedding photography site
http://www.modernweddingscenes.zenfolio.com

http://www.chadwickfowler.com

Oh oh oh!! Wait, I found one of his wedding videos on Youtube.. very cool

Rehearsal Dinner Planning

I am feeling really behind these days. There is a lot I need to do and I felt so ahead of the game at first! I think I need to focus on the invitations considering they are going out first. We are going to make them and I want to make something amazing on an amazing budget. My thoughts are newspapers, maybe thread... I need some good ideas.

While we are on the subject of inviations though, I found a really neat idea that I would like to try for the rehearsal dinner. Since I don't need so many invitations, this might be doable. I will need some help from a friend of mine, so I will have to email him and see if he would help me out. I'm sure he will, he's awesome. So here it is-


So cute right? I found these on a cute little website online called apartment therapy.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/diy-party-invitations-085279

DIY Decorations

My step mom has offered to help me with crafts. She is super crafty. I am so lucky to have such a crafty family. Anywho, she has offered and I found something that would be perfect. So I asked her if she could make these paper mache lanterns for me. I found these online and they are so adorable. So I await her response... (I hope it's yes!)

btw, this super cute idea can be found here:

http://www.reesedixon.com/2009/06/paper-mache-party-lights.html

update! She said yes! Awesome!!! These are going to look great, can't wait!

Invitations and Replys

So I'm ordering my reply cards today. I went really back and forth on reply cards. I know it's "proper" to have them, but I also know that it saves a lot of money and paper not to. So I did some more research in to it, and ran across this idea where your guest "doodles" his own reply. I totally love that idea and figure that in order to meet the criteria of "good manners" that some people consider so important, I'll print them on postcards to save on shipping. PLUS, I can make it fun and put together this neat little idea. Since all of our friends are so creative and talented, we just had to do this - good manners or not. So I designed some of my own and will have them printed through overnightprints.com I have a promo code to make them 60% off. I actually got that in an email, but I go here- http://www.retailmenot.com - before I order anything online. You can usually save a good amount of money. I saved 60% on the postcards, and paying just 13 bucks with shipping included!

So here is what I came up with

It says-
Please RSVP at http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/cassandraspade&justinmccloud
But we'd like to see exactly how you say it, so fill in a reply that fits you best, and don't forget to mention if you're bringing a guest
On the bottom it says-
Please respond by October 1st

Now I have to figure out what I'm doing for the actual invitation. I'm thinking something artsy. I found this really cool idea on GiversLog that I absolutely love.



How cool would it be to get that as an invitation?
So I'm mulling over it for now. But I'm happy I at least have the replys done!

Grape Jelly

The dresses are decided on, and the color will be "Grape Jelly". I love that! All of the dresses below come in that color and the girls get to pick their favorite. I'm really excited about this because each of my bridesmaids is so unique and when they are standing in front of everyone, I want them to show that. I wish I could wear one!!! Now we're working on shoes.. stay posted, it should get interesting :)