Budget (or, Do We Really Want to Know?)

I know budgeting can be a touchy subject, but I always found posts crunching the numbers to be useful. It can be difficult to figure out what percentage of your budget should be put toward each thing, and to that, I say choose your priorities. Then, put the major money toward those priorities. Nothing wrong with pretty things, but if you've never cared about flowers before, chances are you're not going to feel good dropping eleventy hundred dollars on them now.

We were very thankful that the bulk of our wedding costs were covered by our parents. There were a few expenses here and there that we ate, but our families were very generous and for that we are extremely grateful.

above two pictures guest photos

Venues — $3,500 (25%)
• Church, including officiant fee, church coordinator and space rental for ceremony and rehearsal — $900
• Reception hall, including round banquet tables, eight-foot folding tables and chairs, A/V system rental — $2,600

Catering — $1,764 (13%)
• Hors d'oeuvres, coffee and tea service for 127 people, plus gratuity — $1,650
• Morning-of sandwich trays from McAlister's Deli for family and bridal party — $114

Cakes — $520 (4%)
• Three tiered wedding cake and two-tiered groom's cake, including delivery fee — $515
• Cake Knife — $5
• Cake Saber — borrowed from family

Rentals — $322 (2%)
• One six-foot table; three bistro tables and accompanying linens; linens for four serving tables, one guestbook table and eight round banquet tables — $322

Music
• All music was purchased on iTunes with gift cards we already had, and was played on my laptop

Flowers — $487 (3%)
• Faux flowers and all accoutrements for assembly — $487
• Altar flowers were gifted to us by Mom Hyena
You can see a better breakdown of the flower budget here. Of course I bought more stuff since I did that count, but...

guest photo

Alcohol — $962 (7%)
• Bartender — $207.50, including tip
• Kegs, one Shiner Bock, one Coors Light — $218
• Wine — $264
• Cups from Sam's Club — $32.50
• Off-duty police officers (2) — $240

Photography — $1,600 (11%)
• All-day single shooter, including print package — $1,600
• Bridal portrait shoot, won at a bridal fair — free
• Engagement portraits, taken by friend — free

Attire — $1,229 (9%)
• Dress and veil — $707
• Alterations, bustling and hemming — $271
• Jewelry (bracelet and earrings; necklace was a gift from Mr. Hyena) — $23
• Shoes, plus heel inserts — $57
• Garter — $8
• Tux rental — $163

Hair/Makeup — $120 (1%)
• Hair trial and day-of 'do — $120
• Did makeup myself, using products I already had

Paper Goods — $458 (3%)
• Invitations — $187. See full breakdown here.
• Envelopes — $67
• Save-the-Dates — $37
• Stamps — $126
• Guestbook — $32
• Miscellaneous — $9

Day-of Coordinator — $200  (1%)
• Hired friendor — $200

Wedding Rings — $1,950 (14%)
• Hers — $950
• His — $1,000

Marriage License — $72 (.5%)

Bridal Party Gifts — $518 (4%)
• Bridesmaid gifts — $318
• Groomsmen gifts — $200

"Favors" (2%)
• Kiva donation — $250

Miscellaneous — $72 (.5%)


And the grand total is ... $14,025.

unless otherwise noted, all photos by Danny Boyle Photography

Previously on A Life Full of Laughter:

• "The One Where We Get Practice Married"

• "The One Where The Girls Put On Their Faces"

• "The One With The Beautiful Words"

• "The One Where The Dudes Get Sexy"

• "The One With The Big White Dress"

• "The One Where We Smize"

• "The One Where We Don't See Each Other"

• "The One With All The Walking"

• "The One Where It's Official"

• "The One After The Ceremony"

• "The One With Our Wonderful Families"

• "The One With The Bride and Groom"

• "The One Where We Dance"

• "The One Where We Mix 'n' Mingle"

• "The One Where Everyone Else Dances Too"

• "The One With The Sword"

• "The One That's Catching"

• "The One Where We Sing and Sway"

• "The One With All The Pretty Little Details"

• "The Last One"

At Long Last

Or, "Short At Last"!

That's right, after months and months of threatening to shave my head, I was so excited to finally get my post-wedding chop! I tried to hold out, but the Tuesday after the wedding I had had enough, and scheduled an appointment at the salon.

Not a major change, but I had a good four or five inches hacked off, and it feels spectacular!

Are you looking forward to a PWC?

Don't Have Time? Do It Anyway

In the weeks before our wedding, I was a blubbering mess. I felt so stressed out, and EVERYTHING set me off. I felt like I didn't have time to take care of myself. More than anything, I wanted to go to the gym, and veg out and watch my DVRed shows, and make dinner at home instead of picking up McDonald's for the umpteenth time.

At the same time, I felt like those needs took a backseat to the greater need of making-this-wedding-happen-dammit. So I rushed around and didn't allow myself downtime and I continued to sob at least once a day over the poor freaked-out guy marrying me.

Then, on the Tuesday before the wedding, I had planned to meet up with a few girls from church. I stopped by Mr. Hyena's house to go over a few things before going to meet the girls, cried on him some more and made us both miserable, then blew my nose and headed off to the coffee shop where we were meeting.

And I still wanted to cry for the first 20 minutes or so, but then something miraculous happened. I didn't want to cry anymore. I was laughing. The wedding suddenly seemed much smaller. I started looking forward to things that are coming up after the wedding. I stopped stress eating.

Spending time with other women consistently is one of the things that I've missed the most since I moved to be with Mr. Hyena. I feel like it seriously calms my soul. Hanging out with those ladies was exactly what I needed.

So whatever it is that calms YOUR soul, do it. I don't care if you think you have too many other, more important, more pressing wedding things to do. You'll be more productive if you stop freaking out and spend a little time taking care of yourself. Go for a run. Take a nap. Watch The Office. Make dinner. Get coffee with a friend and don't talk about the wedding. Read for a while. Hug your partner and let them kiss you deeply.

You'll feel better. I promise.

And you know what? Even though I took a little "me" time, I got everything done by the Wednesday before the wedding. So there.

What calms your soul?

A Second Shower

About three weeks before the wedding, I was lucky enough to get a second shower, co-hosted by Hyena Sis and a family friend of Mr. Hyena's, Mrs. W. This time I remembered to take pictures. :) Most of the ladies in my family came, plus MIL Hyena and several other family friends.

We planned for it to be over lunch, and Mrs. W created an absolutely beautiful spread!

Pretty flowers, hand-painted glasses, floating water candles, and lots of pink and polka dots!

For lunch we had mini-sandwiches (including the best egg salad everrrrr), fruit, cocktail shrimp, and more, plus giant pound-cake cupcakes and cheesecake cupcakes for dessert!

I seriously need to learn how to cut a watermelon into a fruit basket like this:

So cute!

After lunch, we got to opening presents. Here's me and Hyena Sis:

I try to include laughing pictures whenever possible. :)

Mom Hyena models the dishes we finally chose, Mikasa "Daylight."

After presents, we played a few games, including the DVD version of The Newlywed Game. Since we didn't have couples to play with, we split into teams of three and four, and just tried to guess the best answers for our teammates. We also did a word scramble with wedding words, and a trivia game about me and Mr. Hyena.

I'm so glad I got to spend time with these wonderful ladies!

Did you play games at your shower? What was your favorite?

Break It Down Now

I didn't get a chance to share our RSVP breakdown with you before the wedding, but since I'm always interested in what percentage of invitees attend weddings, I figured I'd take care of that now.

I chose to break down our list a little differently than just "local" and "not local."  This is because both of our extended families live within four hours of the wedding. While I wouldn't call them "local," they are close enough that the majority attended the wedding, and I didn't want these numbers to skew our numbers for legit out-of-towners.

Thanks, Dad.

176 people were invited
48 were local (27%)
55 were in-state family (31%)
72 were out-of-state family, or friends more than two hours away (we'll call this OOT to keep it simple) (41%)

Of all those invited:
128 attended (73%)
48 did not attend (27%)

Of those attending:
41 are local (32%)
52 are in-state family (41%)
35 are OOT (27%)

Of those not attending:
8 were unused plus-ones
(We only gave plus-ones to our bridal party, those who were in long-term dating relationships, those who were living together, and those who were engaged. Spouses of all married guests were invited, of course.) (17%)
7 are local (15%)
3 are in-state family (6%)
30 are OOT (63%)

Yay!

All in all, we had about the number of "yes" responses that I expected. I had estimated early on that we'd be hovering around 130 attendees, and I'm glad we could keep it at that.

Mom Hyena was pretty surprised though. She told me at the beginning of our engagement that only about half of people invited show up at weddings, and didn't believe me when I expected such a high number of people to come!

Were you surprised by how your RSVP numbers broke down?

A Bee's Life: Hyena Style!

The Bee's Life series is so fun, and I had to get in on the action!

1) How did I find Weddingbee?

You should know right off the bat that I LOVE lists. When I got engaged, I didn't even think to look online for inspiration or planning advice. Instead, I went for ye olde Brides magazine. In that first magazine I ever bought, they had a list of the top 10 wedding planning Web sites. So of course, being the list-freak I am, I added all 10 to my Google Reader. One of them was the 'Bee. Over time, some of them got removed from my blogroll, some just didn't float my boat, some I didn't find very useful ... but Weddingbee fascinated me. Here was a great community of brides! And they liked each other! And they were freaking brilliant! And OMG I wanted to be a part of that so badly.

2) My Application Story

I started blogging WAY before I was even eligible to apply. I blogged about everything. Some of it was not particularly relevant or useful or even interesting to anyone else. I didn't use many pictures. I was over-excited and over-confident, and I sent off my application about two weeks before the eight-months-out limit. I got rejected.

Never fear! I worked on my blog a lot. I edited, I added some pictures, I tried to adjust my "voice" to be more "me." In retrospect, I may have exaggerated myself for the sake of getting a laugh. I tend to do that in real life too, but it wasn't a good representation of myself. My second application got rejected as well.

I waited a while before I applied the third and final time. My wedding was quickly approaching. I knew if I didn't get accepted this time, it just wasn't meant to be. I didn't tell Mr. Hyena I was applying a third time, because I didn't want to get my hopes up, and I didn't want him to get too excited for me in case it didn't pan out.

Over the previous months, I had built up a small audience so I could get used to writing for other people, which I found extremely helpful — it made me really consider what I was writing and how it would be perceived. I revamped my third application and injected more of "myself" into it. This time, I got accepted! I was shocked, and thrilled.

3) What's it like blogging for Weddingbee/being a Bee?

It is FAB. Writing for Weddingbee has been the most fun I've ever had blogging, hands down. I love having people interested in what I'm writing, and I love my fellow Bees. I love love love this community. I love getting new comments and feeling like I'm helping other brides with all my crazy ideas. Mr. Hyena thinks I'm funny because I talk about all of ya'll as if we were BFF in real life!

With that said, I'm going to be totally honest here. In previous "Bee's Life" posts, when Bees commented about how time-consuming blogging is, I kind of scoffed at the idea. "It's writing a couple of posts a week," I thought. "How hard can it be?" Oh, Hive, I had no idea. When I got accepted to blog, I had about 10 months worth of archives that had to be sifted through and edited. In addition, being an active participant in the Hive and writing new posts takes more time than you'd expect. Every time I write a new post, I usually let it sit for a couple days before I publish it, just to make sure I'm saying exactly what I mean.

If you want to be a bloggin' Bee, here's my advice: Write as if you are talking to your friends. Use pictures often, and start carrying your camera with you everywhere. Edit edit edit before you publish. Post your blog link in the monthly blog-share thread to get a couple of extra eyes on your writing — their feedback will be invaluable.

Are We Married Yet?

The Hyenas are officially licensed to wed!

In the state of Texas, you're required to get your marriage license within 30 days of actually gettin' hitched. So a few weeks before W-day, us Hyenas scampered down to the county courthouse to get this to-do scratched off the list. (Well, we scampered, but to the wrong county building. They had to direct us to the real courthouse a few blocks over. Fail.)

Anyway, once we got to the right building, the whole process was pretty straight-forward. After forking over $72 and swearing up and down we weren't already married to other people or related to each other (!!!), we got our pretty marriage license! I was surprised; I was expecting it to be some boring-looking legal document, and I'm really glad it's got a little design flair going on! Huzzah!

Did you get lost on the way to the courthouse, or are we just that ridiculous?

Giving In and Feeling Good

We talked about not having a DOC, and instead having family take care of the vital pre-wedding tasks. To be honest, I'd been waffling about this decision. In theory, having family take care of everything could have worked, if not for one little issue: we had no one to meet and direct the vendors when they arrive at Downtown 202 after the family leaves to get ready for the wedding.

I talked to Mom Hyena and FMIL Hyena, and turns out we all kind of felt like we needed one of these:

via IMDB / "The Wedding Planner" / Columbia Pictures

Where the heck is Jenny's other arm?!

Don't get me wrong, the family still intends to help out in every way possible, and I'm glad of that. Basically, I felt like I needed someone to be my advocate when I couldn't be there, and FMIL Hyena agreed that it would take a lot of stress off all of us even just to have someone there for the little bit of time when no one else will be able to be in the reception area. (Like, oh, before and during the ceremony.)

So I hired a friendor to be our coordinator. One of my co-workers is the most organized, efficient person I know, and she had tried to get a job with a wedding coordinator before she began working at our company. We get along well, and I felt like it would be a good fit. Thankfully, she was really excited to help out, and I am so relieved to have an extra pair of hands on deck!

Have you hired any friendors?

Buzz Like a Bee!

I was walking back to my office after lunch on Tuesday, when I got an e-mail on my phone. "Weddingbee Application," the subject line said. I didn't want to get my hopes up too high; in fact, I hadn't even told the mister I had applied, just in case. You know how these things go. I cautiously opened the e-mail ... and my eyes practically bugged out of my head. I'd be a great addition to the Weddingbee team?! Sweeter words have never been typed! I calmly walked into my office, shut the door behind me, and proceeded to jump up and down Anchorman-style for a good ten minutes.  I am a BEE! I'm so EXCITED!

(source)

I immediately called Mr. Hyena, who couldn't understand what I was saying since I was doing too much jumping. Too bad! BEE! I'm a bee! WHEE!

So who are these crazy kids?

We are the Hyenas! We both grew up in north Texas. I work in marketing, love going out with friends, and nothing is more satisfying to me than sticking my nose in a good book. I went to college at the University of Oklahoma (BOOMER SOONER!), but now I'm living and working in Aggieland while Mr. H finishes school. He is a grad student at Texas A&M, and is planning to get his Ph.D. in aerospace engineering. He is excellent at making faces, is a badass drummer (both in percussion and Rock Band), and his love for the Texas Rangers can be surpassed by no man. 

Why yes, Snoopy's house is made out of Ice!

Together, we enjoy making up our own lyrics to songs, quoting movies and TV shows word-for-word, and loving on my kitty-boo, Elliott. 

She is trouble. Don't let her adorable face fool you.

The wedding we're planning is a budget-minded, brightly colored, DIY afternoon affair with a cocktail party vibe. It will be laid-back and fun, with both classic and unique elements, and will hopefully culminate in a raging dance party!

The second I saw the hyena icon, I knew it had to be mine. My reasoning is two-fold.  One: whenever I think of hyenas, I think of laughing. (I don't know if real hyenas laugh or not, but I don't know anything else about them!)

Also, The Lion King is my favorite Disney movie.

One of my favorite things about being with Mr. H is how we can make each other laugh. We say and do a lot of ridiculous things, and it makes my heart happy. Secondly, I have been told I have a very distinct laugh. I had a teacher in high school who claimed she always knew where I was because of my laugh. I've had strangers approach me and tell me they love my laugh. Strange thing, but what can I say?

Anyway. We're less than three months away from the wedding, and I can't wait to tell you all about it! Let's get this party started! 

Save The Drama For Yo Mama

I've been reading a lot lately about wedding drama — huge blowout fights with bridesmaids, demanding step-parents, families who refuse to attend — and I'm wondering why, in the 14 months we've been engaged, I have had so little of it.

Drama? Please. We're as cool as cucumbers.

We haven't had anyone presume to be invited who wasn't (we were really expecting this from a certain someone, but the situation may have straightened itself out without us having to do anything). There were no fights about plus ones, or parents who wanted to invite 300 people, or negative Nancys who bashed all our "unique" ideas. We haven't had problems with our budget, or bridezilla breakdowns, or dress remorse. We haven't had vendors bail on us, or church participation problems, or friendships that ended due to our nuptials. In fact, except for my frequent freaking out (because that's what I do), there haven't been noteworthy negatives in our engagement. So what is wrong with us? Did I just totally luck out? Are both my current and future families the coolest of all time?

I'm hoping that this lack of drama thus far doesn't allude to bad things coming, because we still have about three months left of our engagement — plenty of time for something to happen. But I'm crossing all my extremities that no drama will cometh! I am not great at dealing with it. High school was a fun time.

Anybody else have a surprisingly drama-free engagement?

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Bra

This is Bridesmaid A on her wedding day in 2009. Isn't she beautiful?

Photo by Bridesmaid J

I was not a bridesmaid in her wedding, but I was helping out with last-minute details, setting up the reception area, all that good stuff ... and about an hour before pre-ceremony family portraits were supposed to begin, A looked in the mirror and did not like what she saw. She had bought one of those corset-type bras for under her dress, and it was doing something weird. She couldn't get married like this! Naturally, because I knew it would someday make an awesome story because she was the bride and brides need to be kept happy, I offered up my strapless bra as her "something borrowed." The dress looked better, she looked happier; crisis averted! She got married, we partied, and I went Boobs Akimbo while we all did the "Superfreak" dance.

Thus began a strange tradition. Back in February, A called me and offered to send me the corset bra from her wedding. I hadn't planned on buying one; I was just going to wear a strapless bra (incidentally the same one she borrowed from me. Man, I need to go bra shopping more often), but I accepted. We're about the same size, so it should fit fine.

So lookie what came in the mail.

There you have it: my something borrowed. You better believe I'm passing it on after the wedding if BM A doesn't want it back. :)

What's the best wedding story you have?

Shiny! Part 3! and stories of somethings

I know this is a little late coming since Part 1 and Part 2 of the Shiny! series were um ... a long time ago. But! But! I now have all my wedding jewelry, and a couple of stories to boot.

Originally, I was going to borrow jewelry from Aunt Hyena as my "something borrowed." Over time, that kind of fell through as she didn't have a lot of jewelry that was silver or white gold, or I didn't find anything that I liked, or the things I did like were broken. It's okay though. I have an even better "something borrowed" now, which I am not going to share here because it deserves a post of its own. (Coming soon to a theatre near you: The Amazing Story of Two Women, Two Weddings and an Unexpected Swap! It will make you laugh! It will make you cry ... because you're laughing too hard! Ebert and Roper give it two thumbs up!)

Oh, the crummy things you can throw together in Photoshop... (top left and bottom pics by moi, top right pic by Bridesmaid J.)

Because I'm nice, I won't leave you hanging on any of the others. :)

My "something old" is this embroidered hanky that Mom Hyena had in her dresser. This dresser is huge and has a million drawers, and she has all sorts of cool and weird stuff locked up in there, like all our school photos from our childhoods, vintage perfume bottles she inherited and ... um, stuff I thought the Tooth Fairy should have gotten rid instead of keeping in a drawer. ANYWAY. A few months ago when I was home, she found this hanky, which belonged to Mom Hyena's grandmother.

It's not in our wedding colors, but I think it's pretty and it'll be something other than Kleenex to cry on when I inevitably start bawling during the ceremony. Now the question is, what to do with it?

While Mom Hyena and I were digging around for somethings, H-Dad got in on the action too. You know that last part of the line that many people skip over, the "and a sixpence in your shoe"? Well, H-Dad has been collecting coins for a really long time, and turns out he had a sixpence in his closet!

I already told you about my garter, which is going to be my "blue" something.

And finally, the part you've all been waiting for ... "something new." Now we could get technical and say that any number of things could be new. My dress, my veil, my shoes, etc. ... but for the sake of showing you shiny things, we'll call this one my jewelry.

Bling!

The earrings are also blingy like the bracelet, but I wanted to show you the cute flowers!

Think they'll look good with my dress? :) I was originally looking for something a little more delicate for the bracelet, but I kind of ran out of time before my bridal portraits.

Getting My Butt to the Gym

My New Year's Resolution this year was not — contrary to the title of this post — to go to the gym more. Resolving to do that wouldn't help get me there, since I pretty much hate working out. Sure, I go to Flow classes pretty often (combo Pilates, yoga and Tai chi), but that's more for stress reduction and relaxation than exercise.

Instead, my resolution was to try new things this year. This year a lot of things are happening that are going to be new experiences: our wedding, my first time leaving the United States, going parasailing ... and I want to really hunger for adventures in 2011.

One of the things that has been on my "Life List" for awhile was to run a 5K. To this point I don't think I've ever willingly run a day in my life (and I'm not exactly sure why that's on my list), but when Matt wanted to sign up for a 5K this coming March, I told him I would run it too. And you know what I discovered? Running ain't so bad, as long as I can get motivated to do it. I'm following the Couch to 5K program, and for $2 or $3 I bought the C25K iPhone app. It's pretty cool; you can play your own music while you run, and it counts down your workout for you and tells you when to run and when to walk. Also, it's got a journal feature so you can track your progress, which might be my favorite part. Not going to lie, the app is kind of buggy, but when it runs perfectly (maybe 85 percent of the time), it's a really cool tool. (No one's paying me to say that.)

(See! Running can be cute!)

I'm a little doubtful that I'll actually get up to running three miles before March, but at least I'm making progress. That's gotta count for something. Right now I'm hovering around running/walking two miles per workout. If nothing else, I'm going to look totally sexyfine in my wedding dress.

What kind of stuff is on your Life List? Anybody else doing the 5K training? (I'm always up for support groups!)

You blockhead!

via Arts Journal / Charlie Brown cartoon by Charles Schultz

You may notice something about our Web site: I am a bad, bad bride.

I decided that I didn't want to deal with hotel blocks, and that everyone could put on their grown-up britches and book their own rooms. Why? Well, at work I coordinate the events our company goes to, and the company has a set amount they usually want to spend on hotels. The room blocks are always way more than they're willing to spend, so they look elsewhere every single time.

My family is pretty cheap. Mr. Hyena's family lives close enough that many of them will just drive home after the wedding. Many of our friends are still in school or recently out of college, and likely wouldn't want to spend much for a place to stay. It seems silly to set aside a hotel block when I will eventually — inevitably — have to foot the cost for unused rooms. Plus, I'm lazy and I just didn't want to bother. Too big a hassle.

Besides, this being a college town, there are tons of places to stay. And because we do want to help out our guests a little, we did list a few nearby hotels on our Web site, and I even Yelped them to make sure they had good reviews!

Are you setting aside hotel blocks? Am I an awful, awful bride?

Throwing Money at Our Problems

I'll admit, up until a couple months ago I did not consider myself a DIY Bride. It wasn't until I was talking to a Planning Buddy J about our corsages a while back that I realized how many details I've unintentionally DIY-ed.

While I was not planning to be a DIY queen, I DID consider myself to be a Budget Bride. And oh ho ho did I have big ideas for that one before I got knee-deep in planning.

Wedding cake? Oh, we'll just get the local HEB grocery to make it! Catering? HEB has party platters too! Flowers? ... You may be sensing a theme. I freaking love HEB.

via The Dallas Observer
Oh HEB, you are so good to me...

All of these could have been great ideas, but unfortunately there was still a heavy DIY element to these ideas. And frankly, my poor little bride brain couldn't handle it.

I realized I would rather spend the extra cash on our cakes in order to have them done by a professional and delivered to us, instead of selecting from the pre-made "cakes we know how to make" bakery booklet and picking it up ourselves the morning of the wedding. I would rather pay someone to make really good food that I don't have to figure out how to keep fresh or warm. And, well, you already know how I feel about flowers. I'm pretty sure HEB doesn't regularly stock peonies. Even if they did, my head would explode if I had to wait until the last minute to get them arranged.

At some point, we have to figure out which is worth more: our time or our money? Our money or our sanity?

Now, I realize that I am putting quite a lot of effort into the DIY aspect of our wedding, but I'm justifying that because the majority of the projects I'm taking on were ones that I wanted to work on. I know the limits of my capabilities (I don't think I've ever successfully baked anything; therefore, I should not delude myself into thinking I could make our wedding cake). If a project sounds awful and difficult, I don't want to waste my time doing it.

I'll admit, there are a couple projects that I do NOT want to be working on (like, oh, a DIY BAR, more to come on that later), but I'm trying to keep those to a minimum. I'm not fun when I'm stressed out. I'd like to remain fun!

What kind of bride are you? Is it super weird to love a grocery store so much? :)

It Must Be A Sign

Mr. Hyena's side of the guest list is MUCH larger than mine. We are getting married in a fairly small church. If we went with the traditional "Bride's Side, Groom's Side," my side would be ... sad-looking, and there wouldn't be room for everyone on his side. There won't be any ushers, and I like the idea of letting people sit wherever they want, but I didn't know how to convey that until I saw this sign:

from Mrs. Hippo

Hmm. I could do something like that!

I had a couple 11x14 sheets of glass laying around (they came from some photo frames I bought, but the pictures I matted for them were too thick for the glass to fit back in), and was looking for a way to use them. I used the paint pen I bought for my hanger project and some silver spray paint I found at my parents' house. (Woohoo! This project was fuh-REE!)

Step 1: Get on the computer and type out your text in the font you want the sign to be in. Print it out.

Step 2: Tape your paper with the text to the underside of the glass. The glass should be on top of the words in the way you'd like them to be read.

Step 3: Use the paint pen to trace over the words through the glass. Two coats'll do it!

Step 4: I didn't like the blank space in between the two lines of text, so I drew a heart in between. <3

Step 5: When the text is complete and dry, flip the glass over. Spray paint the backside of the glass (the side without the text). Let it dry. You can do two coats, but I'm lazy and only did one, and it still looks good.

Step 6: Flip it over to reveal your signage masterpiece! (It looks better than this in real life, the glass makes it hard to take a picture of.) The part I love best? Because the paint is on both sides of the glass, automatic drop shadowww!

I plan to prop it up outside the sanctuary on one of those little photo stands.

Are you doing his-side, her-side seating?

On the Fifth Day of Christmas...

... my true love gave to meeee ... myyy wedding riiiiiiiing!

Well, not yet. But Matt and I agreed to gift each other our wedding rings for Christmas, and yesterday I picked up his ring from the jeweler!

It's hammered yellow gold with white gold edging, so it matches both his Aggie ring and my rings.

I'm so excited about it, and dying to show him (and make him model it!), but I guess I'll just have to wrap it all pretty-like and forget about it for now. Easier said than done!

Are you doing anything special for Christmas?

(personal photos)

Delusions of Domesticity

In the past few weeks, I swear I've gone into full-on nesting mode. Bride brain? Please. All I want to do is think about decorating our house, and throwing fancy dinner parties in which I serve Top Chef-like culinary masterpieces off the beautiful china we would register for if I could just find a pattern that I like.

Oh, to have problems such as this! I can't find china that jumps out at me that says, "I am BEAUTIFUL and perfect and you have to get me and love me forever!"

I can't decide if I want fine china or everyday china, and therefore cannot make up my mind on the sets themselves. Would I use fine china? Would the everyday china be nice enough to use for special occasions? Is it selfish to register for like, four different sets of dishes so there's always one that fits the occasion?!

Here are some sets I'm considering for Casa de Las Hyenas:

Mikasa "Daylight" via Bed Bath and Beyond

"Romance" Bone China via Bed Bath and Beyond

Kate Spade "Gardner Street Green" via Macy's

Dots via The Pampered Chef

Vera Wang "Wedgwood" via Macy's

This Noritake set is the first that I absolutely adored. Mr. Hyena came home and I was so proud to say, "I finally found dishes that I LOVE!" They are stoneware, would look good in our dining area and would definitely be good for everyday use. So, of course, after many hours of fruitless searching, I found out they are discontinued. And I am a sad panda.

Noritake Colorwave "Mint" via Macy's

Noritake Colorwave "Lilac" via Macy's

Noritake Colorwave "Raspberry" via Macy's

Noritake Colorwave "Peach" via Macy's

Are you registering for china? How did you decide what to get?