The one item that I wasn’t able to cut the cost down as much as I would have liked to was the cost for rose petals for the ceremony aisle. I started my price shopping online, and quickly found that you had to order fresh rose petals in an alarmingly specific time period to get them to your house in time for the event, without having them sit around wilting. One alternative to this was to buy freeze dried petals, which have been picked and freeze dried at their peak appearance, and which can last up to a year with proper storage (cool, dry, dark location) without any change to color or appearance. Because they aren’t as time critical as fresh rose petals, they also come with a slightly cheaper price.

I priced out a few places online, and the best ones I found were at Flyboy Naturals. When I originally found this website about a year ago, I liked the Vintage color option, but when it was finally time to place my order I opted for the slightly more expensive Blush option because I was too worried that the Vintage would look dirty, and not just “aged”.

Now came the fun decision of how MANY I needed to order. If I said to you 60 cups of rose petals, would you have any clue how much that actually meant? Thankfully, the Flyboy Naturals website has a visual representation for you of what a square foot of a certain amount of petals looks like, so you could decide based on your intended look. Since I only want a few scatterings of petals, I only needed to order 60 cups to achieve my look.

When the petals arrived, I couldn’t help but take a peak inside. I was incredibly happy with how the package was put together – the petals looked well protected from shipping, and were incredibly fragrant (which I was not expecting). They also had an incredibly cute sticker saying they had been “Packaged with Happiness!”

I’ve put them right next to our air conditioning vent, still safely in their box, to make sure they stay in tip-top shape until the wedding. Now to figure out who can sprinkle these out for me….

We met at a Barnes and Noble, which was a very comfortable atmosphere. I wasn’t 100% sure what we were going to go over, but then I remembered that just touching base to make sure such an important vendor is still on board, understands the aesthetics you are going for, and gets your personality is incredibly important, too.

Brandon had asked that I come prepared with a list of our “must have” photographs. There were a few shots I already had in my head that were easy to put down…. but then I couldn’t think of any more! I did some internet scouring and came up with a few websites that list the “Top Whatever Must Have Photographs” – but seriously, they were all so cliche and unhelpful. If I have to put that a photo of the Bride and Groom kissing is a must-have, then I’ve chosen a poor photographer. I also felt it might be a tad insulting to include such common / mundane items in my “must have” photo list!

Here are some of the items that made it on my list:

1. Wedding dress hanging on hangar.
2. Brides back with hair done, before veil.
3. Dave standing at “altar” waiting with groomsmen.
4. Dave’s first look at Cassie.
5. Ceremony site from upstairs bathroom window. (Note: I wanted this here because every morning since we bought the house, I stand at the bathroom window while brushing my teeth, looking over our backyard and envisioning what it will look like before the ceremony starts. I would like a photo from there to hang on the wall next to that window)
6. Bride and groom on the front steps of our house.
7. Bride and groom in front of the church on St. Paul (Note: This is a church we drive by every day on the way to work. Although neither of us are religious, the front doors of this church are very weathered, run down, and frankly just beautiful looking. I think it would be a beautiful juxtaposition with us all made up.)
8. Bride and Groom on the pathway to Seneca Zoo.
9. Bride and Groom at Genesee Brewery (Note: We’ve gotten special permission to take a few photographs on their property!)
10. Groom with Groomsmen
11. Bride with Bridesmaids
12. Bride and Groom with Moms and Dads
13. Sparkler photo (Note: something like this)
14. Food / appetizers
15. Cupcake display
16. Bride and Groom eating their first cupcakes
17. Gift card box
18. Table setup / decorations
19. Cocktails and beers on tap

We also talked about our timeline – which frankly Dave and I keep FORGETTING! The start time of the ceremony, the start time of dinner, etc. Overall, Brandon said he didn’t see any red flags with our timing or our list of photos. He also made it a point to ask me for casual photos of my shoes, dress, veil, and my makeup and hair trial. He has a real penchant for fashion photography, and made sure to stress that he will make sure that I look amazing in his photos.

It took me less than five minutes of being around Brandon again to remember how happy I was with our choice to have him capture our day. We gabbed about Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, cars, all the things that we’re into. It seems like he really understands our personalities. Now I’m actually embarrassed that I let myself even REMOTELY question our decision!

Chrissy was very welcoming when we arrived at her home studio. Right from our first meeting, I felt like she really understood the aesthetic I was going for. She listened and understood when I explained that I didn’t use makeup much, and made sure during the trial to use products and an overall look that didn’t scream I was wearing makeup.

I don’t want to give too much away (since the hairstyle and makeup are secrets from Dave), but to suffice to say that I was incredibly happy with the look Chrissy gave me. We tried it with my veil, and it nearly brought tears to my eyes. Ryann thought it looked fantastic, and I (shockingly) wasn’t uncomfortable in it! It didn’t feel caked on, or overly done up.

I didn’t want to “waste” the look by going home and washing it all off / taking out my hair, so Ryann and I went out for a few drinks, and to discuss my bachelorette party (Ryann is in charge of that!) We have a great time, and I can’t wait for everyone to the wonderful work Chrissy does!

Dave, however, had no idea what he was looking for in a band design. We looked at a lot of different ideas online, but nothing really stood out to him as the design he wanted on his finger forever. During the decision process, Dave’s parents mentioned that they still had Dave’s grandfathers wedding band – a simple, thin gold band – that he was welcome to use if he wanted to. Dave thought he might want something more modern, so we continued to look around at different styles.

Dave had to take a work related trip out to Montana, so he took my engagement ring with him so that Stephen would be able to match the white gold color of my wedding band to the band of my engagement ring. He was also going to pay particular attention to lining up the inset diamonds in the band with the ones in my engagement ring – since it’s a little thing that I would always notice! It was incredibly hard to let go on my ring – I made Dave wear it on a chain around his neck, and multiple times per day I would text him a “ring check”, where he had to make sure it was still in his possession! I also kept having little panic moments when I realized I was missing my ring from my finger. So to combat that, I made a temporary ring out of a twisty tie! It didn’t look great, but it served a purpose.

Dave and Stephen worked on a couple design ideas for Dave’s band, but he still didn’t fall in love with anything. In fact, after a few more days, he really fell in love with the idea of using his Grandfathers band! We’ve also talked about reusing the gold in a more modern design if he ever wants to update it in the future (but between you and me, I think he’ll stick with the simple band!) It’s a beautiful ring, and I’m incredibly excited to have that heritage passed down to us.

After only a few days, Stephen finished with my band!

Dave brought both my rings back with him safely, and Dave’s father brought his Grandfathers ring out with him on a future trip. I was quick to get rid of my twisty tie ring, to replace it with my real engagement ring, but Dave wouldn’t even let me try the wedding band on! He’s right, I shouldn’t wear it until the big day, but it’s hard not to at least “test drive” it! As of now, we’ve got both bands tucked safely away, waiting for the official event.

After I purchased my wedding dress from David’s Bridal, they were quick to sign me up for an alterations appointment. As my date and time approached, I started doing some searching around the internet of what to be prepared for. Were there things I needed to bring? A specific way I should dress? Should I have my hair done? etc.

I found a few wonderful sites that explained the things you should be prepared for (bring your ACTUAL wedding shoes if you have them, different types of questions to ask, and the most common alteration types), but I also found a few sites where women were lamenting about their poor alteration results from none other than David’s Bridal.

It dawned on me that I never even questioned if I could take my dress to another tailor, instead of sticking with David’s Bridal. Although I escaped unscathed from my first few encounters, the less times I have to continue to deal with them (and the less chance I have for them to do something irreparable) the better.

Now the task became finding a tailor that I would trust with my dress, no small feat! I reached out to a few friends who didn’t have any specific recommendations, so I again turned to the internet. In my searching around, I found a few glowing testimonials for Alis Fashion Designs, from other very happy brides. This was very heartening so I called her and made an appointment. She was able to get me in that very week!

It was short notice and during the middle of the day, so unfortunately none of my bridesmaids were able to attend. I had resigned myself to going alone, but then in a stroke of luck my neighbor, Robin, was free that day! She was kind enough to join my and lend her own eyes and experience to what alterations I should have done.

My dress already fit me very well, so there were very few alterations that needed to be done. Inna, from Alis Fashion Designs, did them at an incredibly reasonable rate and within only three weeks! She advised that about a week before the wedding I should bring the dress back to be steamed so that it’s all ready for my big day.

As I mentioned in our Save the Date post, we drew our inspiration from these sheets of Nepalese Peach Blossom paper that we found at the Rochester Art Supply around the corner from where we work.

David began by designing the actual printed portions of the invitation: the wedding information card, the ceremony rehearsal and dinner invitation card, the RSVP card and the directions card. We printed these on our work printer, on sheets of thick, textured paper purchased online (and made specifically for this printer, for the best quality).

Printing the wedding invitation cards.

Printing the RSVP cards.

Once all of the printed paper portions of the invitation had printed and had ample time to dry, we used a new paper cutter (we had been needing one for work anyway) to slice them down to their proper sizes.

Dave cutting the cards down to their proper sizes.

More cutting of paper cards.

The next step was to start building our “folders”, as we called them. They consisted of a thick, brown card stock adhered to the blue blossom paper, scored and folded to the shape we wanted. The first part of that process was cutting the brown card stock down to the proper shape. David was wonderful at anticipating ways to make all of these tasks easier, so he had designed the folders to cut out nicely from 8.5″ x 14″ sheets of the brown card stock, so it took only a minimum of cuts to cut out, but we still had to do 63 of them.

Dave using a template folder that we had already cut out, ruler and exacto knife to cut out the brown portion of the folders.

More cutting. Each sheet also left us with a predictable and uniform scrap paper that we are already thinking how we can use for something else wedding related. Maybe place card backing?

Once the brown portion of the folders were cut out, I laid them on some scratch paper and used a spray adhesive to then adhere them to the back of the blue blossom paper. Spray adhesive is fun the first few times you use it. Then you start feeling it in your arm hair, nose hair, etc. and it becomes infinitely less fun.

I spray adhered 16 sheets of 4, which put a lot of adhesive into the air (and onto me).

Once the blue and brown paper had dried together (only took about 30 minutes or so), Dave re-cut out each folder with his trusty exacto knife. He did an excellent job “free handing” this work, and I’m still impressed that he was able to do so many without a single mistake.

Dave cut out each folder by hand for a second time.

Once they were cut out, I used a closed pair of scissors to score the fold of the flap, and then stacked the folders under something heavy (the closest thing at hand was a spindle of DVDs!

Halfway through the scoring, David bought me a bone scorer, which is made for this type of work. The scissors were really rough on my hands, so I was very grateful!

I later used books to help hold everything down and keep the flap folded – but the DVDs worked in a pinch.

That was all we could accomplish in a single night. My hands hurt, I was covered in glue, and I didn’t want to move into the next round of work which would involve handling the paper cards and ribbon. So we called it a night and started up the next day.

As I worked on scoring the second fold of the folder, Dave used a paintbrush and glue to adhere the information card to the folder.

More glue… at least it wasn’t spray on this time!

Piles and piles of invitations.

The last step was to assemble each invitation based on the role of the invitee(s), and to tie a ribbon around the flap portion to keep everything nicely bundled. We couldn’t decide if we liked a white or pink ribbon best… so we eventually decided to use both! You wouldn’t think tying ribbon could be painful, but trying to get very neat bows requires a lot of force and after doing it over 60 times, my fingers were not happy campers.

The final product, ready to be stuffed and mailed.

The last step was to put it in an envelope (we used the same color / type as we did for our Save the Dates, but in a slightly larger side), and affix a stamp. We had custom stamps made to match our design through Zazzle.com which we thought was a fun touch!

Sheets of our custom stamps.

Once they were all done, I dropped them in the mailbox! I was incredibly nervous (as I was with the Save the Dates) about the reliability of USPS. It’s funny how when you mail something not incredibly important to you, you don’t really think about it, but as soon as you put 60+ cards in the mail inviting people to the biggest day of your life, you are suddenly incredibly anxious! To my surprise, most of our invitations were delivered by the very next day!

Neither of us are huge on asking people for things – it makes us both a little awkward. So we wanted to make sure every single item on our wedding registry was something we truly wanted. We didn’t want to add items “just because”, especially not for the purpose of bulking the list up. If our guests are going to be gracious enough to purchase gifts for us, we want them to know that we purposefully chose the items on our list, and that that item would really hold meaning for us.

Based on my research, it seemed appropriate to register for about 2 times the number of items as expected guests, where couples are considered a single guest. We estimated that we needed around 100 – 125 items on our list, and obviously in a range of price points to be as accommodating as possible.

We started by going to Williams-Sonoma, since Dave is big into cooking, and I’m big into eating! We filled out a single sheet form with our relevant information, and were given a handheld scanner to use to scan the bar codes of the items we wanted to add to the registry. It sounded like a straightforward process, but most of the items wouldn’t scan, and we had to get the store associates assistance several times to make the thing work right.

Also, at first I was really disinterested in the whole process – especially since we were looking through items that really spoke to Dave more than they did me. It wasn’t until we reached the “bar items” section that the fun kicked in for me. We found item after item that would really accentuate our bar setup at home, from a twisty spoon for garnishes to a beautiful wine decanter and aerator.

Then I started paying attention to the prices of the items I was adding – $59.99 here, $79.99 there. Granted, Williams-Sonoma isn’t a cheap store (anyone who is going to choose items for us from our registry there should know that before hand) but it still made me feel awkward again about asking people to spend that kind of money on me. I’m a pretty frugal person, I shop around for items before selecting the one I want to purchase, and I couldn’t help but feel we could get similar (or even identical) items from Amazon for a whole lot less. More on that soon.

It took us about an hour from start to finish, and we left the store with 15 items on our list. The number took me by surprise – I felt like we had added way more items than that! We knew that we would be able to make adjustments to our list online, so we figured we would browse the online offerings later that night to see if there were more things we’d like.

Our second stop was Bed Bath and Beyond. We had several people recommend setting up a registry with them, since it would let our out of town guests visit a national brand, with relatively low prices, to purchases our gifts. Plus, anything we register for that we don’t receive as a gift we can purchase at a 10% discount.

It was another simple one sheet form, and then we were sent off into the store to scan items with another handheld scanner. The scanner worked much better than the one at Williams-Sonoma, we had no trouble getting the items scanned in that we wanted. It took us longer than Williams-Sonoma, but still only about an hour and a half. At the end, the store associate printed our list for us and we found had only added 25 items! 25!! This was not boding well for our 100 – 125 item mark! Again, we decided we would browse online to see if we could add more.

Later that night we started our last registry on Amazon. We went to a friends wedding several years ago where they had an Amazon registry, and it allowed people to send the gifts straight to the couple, without the need for gift wrapping or carrying it around. We loved the ease for us (as guests), and thought that it would be great to be able to have gifts delivered to us at work or home, instead of having to put someone in charge of them the day of and try to keep track of them as they make their way back to our house.

Amazon was incredibly easy and quick to sign up with, and we were even able to indicate if we preferred gift wrap or not, which was a nice option. They also let you rank items in order of preference, which was a nice way to indicate to our guests any sort of preference, if they are having difficulty selecting an item. We knew of a few things right off the bat that we weren’t able to find at either Williams-Sonoma or Bed Bath & Beyond, and we added them straight off. We also browsed reviews and online prices for items we chose at the other two locations, and removed some items from those registries and added better choices to our Amazon one. Then, we both spent time browsing ourselves and making suggestions to the other.

As of right now, we’re still only up to 67 items… so we still have some thinking to do. I honestly would have never guessed it would be this hard to put together enough items. I’m hoping some more ideas will come to us over the next week or so, since we’ll be actively thinking about it. With the wedding just over two months away, we need to have this finished soon!

24″ deep x 8″ dia sonotubes

We have more sun in the back yard because of removing a tree that was trying to grow INTO our garage – unfortunately that also meant digging around (and ultimately digging out) roots from the tree. The tube on the left we spent almost 2 hours digging the simple hole because of a 4.5″ diameter root that I had to saw out by hand.

Tamped the back-fill around the tubes

Picked up a nice heavy tamper today at a yard sale (made in Ohio stamped on it, I love old worn-in but not worn-out tools). Took advantage of that to tamp in (after also watering/wetting) the back-fill around the tubes.

Mixing concrete

Dad showing me how to get the right “slump.”

Filling the tubes

It puts the concrete in the tube or it gets the shovel again?

Checking level

Making sure the tube (and the supporting bracket that my trellis uprights will attach to) are level.

Final leveling

After all of the concrete was put into the tube, air bubbles (hopefully) mixed out and it was leveled off, I installed the bracket and then levied it out. The brackets ended up spot-on re: distance from the garage wall, and +/- less than 1/32″ height-wise, one to the other, very content with that.

Rough sketchup

Kind of an “exploded view” (I’m not a huge fan of sketchup, having used AutoCad and 3DS and thinking origin based) – but to give an idea how the final trellis will look. Finished size will be approx 10′ tall and 9′-4″ from center to center (but with overhang on either end so 12′ wide total). I’m going to be planting 3 varieties of hops (Cascade, Chinook & Willamette if memory serves), running twine from 3 eye-hooks up to 6 at the top (each in a V) and then strung across from the rear board to the front.

Cutting top supports

I <3 my Hitachi sliding miter saw.

One down, three to go

Part way through cutting top supports.

Top supports cut

These will straddle the 4x4x10′ boards at the (almost) top to support the cross pieces.

Installing 4×4 poles

Making sure everything is level.

Leveling

Getting closer…

Leveling

Also level in this dimension, yay!

Spot on!

Had to shim this one w/ a washer underneath while tightening it but in the end, got it near perfect!

Bolts through first top support

2x6s are heavy, heh.

Second top support piece

Not exactly easy to hold two, plus bolts, and line the holes up.

Leveling and tightening top supports

Doing this on a ladder sucks!

Checking level before final tightening

Finally got both of the pieces lined up and level with each other.

Stopping point tonight

It just got too dark to finish installing everything – tomorrow I hope to install the other 2 top supports and the 3 2x4x12′ cross piece on top (and the bottom cross piece for the twine to start on for the hops to climb).

Top supports and rear tie-in done

Both top supports are leveled and I screwed a 2x4x12′ to the back of the 4×4 posts on each side to tie the two together laterally.

Installing cross-pieces

I’ve added three 2x4x12′ boards to the top for the hops to climb across once they reach full height.

Stopping point tonight

The cross pieces need to be re-attached to the brackets, I’m going to have to use a temporary (scrap) piece of 4×4 to pull the top supports together (and tie in the cross pieces. Right now everything is level but torquing down the bolts for the cross pieces meant they started to pull apart on the far end away from the 4×4 posts. Should be easy enough to solve tomorrow (I hope).

We have group rates arranged at two locations, which are actually located across the street from one another.

Holiday Inn Express
1635 Ridge Road
Rochester, NY 14615
Group Code: EG3

Homewood Suites
400 Center Place Drive
Rochester, NY 14615
Group Code: Rife-Moffitt Wedding

During our last meeting with her, we started discussing the table arrangements and decorations:

• Did we want to have our dinner set up inside or outside? We all agreed that as long as the weather was permitting, we definitely wanted to set up outside. During the summer months, Lovin’ Cup strings bistro style lights up across the patio, and we both really love the fresh air from dining outside. It did dawn on me that I’m going to need to buy some sort of simple cover for my shoulders because unless it’s 85 degrees, I will probably be chilly!

• Did we want round or rectangle tables? We decided on rectangle tables, arranged “family style” in four long rows. We prefer this style to make everyone feel included. Round tables always feel disjointed to me, and we don’t really want to have to start splitting our friends up into categories, or forcing them to mingle with new people (I personally hate that kind of forced social obligation).

• How many people were we going to sit at each table? Rectangle tables seem to generally come in 6 or 8 person sizes. We decided to go with the 8 person size because they are about 6″ wider than the 6 person size (36″ versus 30″).

• Where are we renting tables and chairs from? This never even crossed my mind. I had assumed we would use the regular tables that the venue has, but after some discussion, I understood that they were just too small for our needs. Leslie offered to handle the table and chair rental for us, passing the cost on to us without any markup. We want to rent the same chairs as we are using for the ceremony, so we’re going to either handle the chair and table rental through the same company, or let Leslie handle it through her contacts.

• What color linens do we want? Ugh, I’ve been dreading this part of planning. I just DON’T care about linens! We could use paper napkins for all I care… but David does apparently care, so we decided on ivory tablecloths and chocolate napkins. Leslie is handling this rental for us, through her contacts (which meant they were much cheaper than we could have rented them for).

• What table decorations are we going to have? I thought we already had decided to keep this simple – ivory pillar candles and fake rose petals, but after I started to imagine having the dinner outside, I fell out of love with the fake rose petals. So we decided to line the tables with a classic brown butcher paper (going to get it for less than $50 on Amazon Prime), the ivory pillar candles, and small arrangements of simple flowers in small Q Tonic bottles. Q Tonic is our favorite tonic water (that sounds random, but we drink a lot of gin and tonics) and we just love the small clear bottles that they come in. Also, friends of ours did something similar at their reception, and it was so attractive without being gaudy.

• What’s our bad weather backup plan? It’s easy enough for us to move everything inside for dinner in the case of bad weather (we plan to come inside for dancing and drinks after dinner, anyway). The only thing that needs to be worked out is how we want to arrange the tables. Leslie sent us over a floor plan of the venue, so Dave is going to map out the layout. We’re also using the floor plan to map out where we will put the appetizer stations, “guest book”, gift table and cupcake arrangement.