Wedding Talk: The Invites

It's been a while since I blogged anything wedding related, so I figured I would share my invitation suite today! My degree is in Digital Media Studies, so I took a lot of graphic design classes. I thought it would be kind of sad for me not to put all that school to good use for my own invitations. Here's the suite laid out all together...

It was SO HARD for me to pick out colors for the wedding. I just like all colors! I ended up just picking gray and yellow, but I also used blue and purple here and there. It was just really mis-matched, but I like hodge podge, so it's all good! I knew that I wanted something consistent throughout the whole suite, so I came up with the idea to use this bouquet of white paper flowers in all the designs. The lovely and talented Katie of Lemon Jitters made the bouquet for me and I photographed it on white. I loved the subtle photo with simple type...it's just a great reflection of my style. It's kind of a reflection of Rhett's too, I guess. We are both pretty simple people. After the save-the-dates came in, I realized the gray was too light, so that's why the rest of the text is darker.

detail of the beautiful bouquet that Katie made

This is what went out with the invitation. I had the folded yellow pocket envelope (seen open and closed), and it was sealed with a sticker showing the bouquet on it. Inside the pocket was a card with a map on one side and a photo on the other. A lot of people have put the photo on their fridge, which makes me happy! The pocket also held the RSVP card and envelope. I pre stamped the envelopes and had a stamp made to add our address as well. That address stamp cost me about $12 and saved me a TON of time. I definitely recommend getting one! The big part of the invite had the address and date and whatnot on it. I put all of that inside a gray envelope and stamped our return address on the back. It seems like a lot, but it was actually really easy! It was also pretty cheap for the number that I had to get. I got all of the prints on gotprint.com and the envelopes at envelopes.com

I did a long card for the programs, rather than something folded. I was honestly just trying to save money! I also didn't want to have to tie or staple or fold stuff, so a single card was my best option. I had the ceremony schedule on the front and the wedding part stuff on the back. 

I also went ahead and printed thank you cards with the same design. Unfortunately I received WAY too many, so I have a ton left. Got Print is very strange about quantity. If you order 100 prints, you may get 150 or you may get 99. That kind of frustrated me because I don't understand. I guess they just fill up whatever box they are sending it in? If anyone knows why they do this, I would love to know! 

I know this isn't the most interesting post in the world, but I put a lot of time into this aspect of the wedding, so I really wanted to gush about it. I hope you guys enjoyed seeing it all! 

Wedding Talk: It's all in the Details

I promise this is the last batch of wedding photos! I really hope you've found them at least slightly interesting :) These are some of the details from the wedding. There are a few things that I didn't get pictures of, so I might try to recreate them at hope and get some shots. That first shot is (obviously) my dress. I think I've already mentioned it, but it was made for me by my friend's mother, Debbie. I basically sent her a picture and she took off! She wasn't able to do the top as we originally planned, so I told her I trusted her to make it look good. She didn't disappoint! I love what she did with the texture around the neckline and down the bust. It's just perfect. My favorit part of the dress is the skirt. I don't know what those little gathers are called, but I wanted lots of them so it would flow really well. I seriously couldn't be happier with my dress! It's 100% totally me, and there's not a duplicate out there :)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I LOVED my flower arrangements. You all know I have a ton of milk glass, so we put it to good use. I actually started collecting it to use it for my wedding, so I guess I fulfilled that dream! We used a huge variety of milk glass vases and containers for the centerpieces on the banquet style tables. Each centerpiece was placed on a table runner that was either vintage or handmade by me and my maid of honor (or bought...a couple were bought).

These are my favors. They are magnets, and each one has a little wooden piece with our initials stamped on. I made about 160 of these things, which took FOREVER, but it was fun. I also put little tags on that say "You're Magnetic!" on one side and "Thanks for Coming." This was probably the thing I put the most time into. I wanted something different, that hopefully people will use. I made sure and used strong magnets so they will actually hold things up on the fridge :) I also have a lot left, so if anyone wants one, shoot me an email kristimcmurry@gmail.com.

Went all out on the road signs (sarcasm). Turns out things look a lot bigger in your living room than they do on a country road! I think most people didn't even notice these.

I mainly posted this picture to show the frames along the left wall. I designed 6 typography posters using lyrics from love songs and had them up at the reception. Once I get my studio painted, I plan to hang them all up there!

For our guestbook, I had blank cards for people to either write their name or give us some advice. They would then file their card under the letter of their name in this vintage file drawer. I don't remember where I saw this idea. It may have been a combination of a few different ideas, but I thought it would be really fun! Since it was raining, we didn't get notes from everyone, but I absolutely adore the ones we did get! This is now in our living room :)

I loved my cakes! We kind of messed up the icing on the purple one, so my aunt Lisa fixed it up with some of the flowers we had left over. I think it turned out cute! This cake was chocolate with mint...I think it might have been my favorite.

My plates were another one of my favorite parts of the day! I collected 199 dinner plates from all over the area and carefully washed and packed each one. I also had mis-matched plates for the cakes. I got this idea from a wedding I shot a few years back, and I fell in love with it! Now I'm selling some of my favorite plates on Etsy. I actually really enjoyed collecting these, and if the Etsy shop does well, I might keep looking for them. I think I'd eventually love the have enough that I could rent out sets of them for other events in the area. It would save other brides and planners the trouble of searching for them!

The desserts were displayed on this headboard I found at Goodwill and painted. It had a sliding door, so I put apple pies on one side and pumpkin on the other. I was really pleased with how it turned out!

I have this friend, Lisa. Lisa is the most talented baker I have ever met! She can make a pie that will knock your stinking socks off. I knew I wanted to do little individual pies in jars as my main dessert, and since Lisa is so awesome, I asked her to bake them. I bought all the jars during peak canning season, so I got some good prices. She made two kinds, cinnamon crumble apple (pardon my while I dry up this drool on my keyboard) and pumpkin cheesecake. Both were incredible, but Rhett and I still discuss the apple pie...we kind of wish Lisa was our roommate. She does bake smaller batches though, if you want some for Christmas dinner! The minimum is 6...but if you go in with some friends, you could just get one or two. Check her out here: garnerpies.com.

This is my lavender lemonade! A major theme of the wedding was lavender. We used a lot of it in the floral arrangements, and we used it as our "toss" item. Everyone tossed the lavender on us as we left the ceremony. Anyway, I made the lemonade a couple of days before the wedding. I'm hoping to do a recipe post on that soon. It's delicious!

I'm also going to do another post on my invitations and programs. I designed them all, and I was pretty proud of them! I am kind of a minimalist when it comes to design, so they are very simple. If you can't read it here are the songs we used: Processional was the instrumental version of "Little Wing" by Jimi Hendrix. I walked out to my friend Brian singing a verse of "Not Fire, Not Ice" by Ben Harper (it was lovely), and we left to Otis Redding's "Cupid." I couldn't be happier with our song choices! I should probably also share our reception playlist soon too, because it was quite awesome. I also had my good friend Stephanie read a letter that Paul Newman wrote to his wife on their wedding day. It is so sweet, and I even had it printed in our wedding album.

I guess that's it! If you are a bride who found this post and have questions, let me know. I'd love to share how I did things :) I have to say, even though the weather was super crappy, I did have an amazing day. I poured my heart and soul into preparing for the wedding, but I never let myself get worrisome. I can remember one or two times when I started getting worked up about things, but I was always able to talk myself down. I think that's super important when you're planning a wedding, especially if you're doing most everything by yourself and with family! If you don't feel like something is going to come together in time, you just have to step back and ask yourself if that detail REALLY matters. Most of the time it doesn't. Here's what matters: you, your groom, your officiant, and your guests show up. You don't even have to have enough chairs for everyone :) Just as long as they are there...it will be a splendid day indeed.

Wedding Talk: Ceremony

You guys have already read a lot about my wedding, so for this post, I'll try to keep it to mostly pictures. These are my favorites from the ceremony. It was very short and sweet!

Josh wins at being the most stylish guest. Oh and that cutie on the left, Lisa, made my delicious jar pies.

My dad walked me down the aisle, and my step-dad performed the ceremony. It was so important to me to have them both be part of the day!

Like I said, my step-dad did the ceremony since he's a pastor, but I never even thought about him possibly getting choked up! He got a little emotional during the opening prayer, which was really sweet. Then again right before the rings (in the picture above) he got choked up AND he couldn't see his notes because of the rain on his glasses. It was starting to get a little funny, then he just backed up and was like "Well...crap." At that point everyone started laughing and we just sort of scurried through the rest of the ceremony. The rain was picking up, and everyone was shivering!

Love, love love our kiss photo. We didn't practice at all, but I think we did pretty well :) 

The wind made the lavender toss a bit difficult. I was so excited about that part, but it was kind of a flop.

The rest of the evening took place in the barn, and I wore my mustard sweater. I'll post a few reception pictures, and some more details from the day soon. I put a lot of work (but not money!) into the details, but I tried not to go overboard.

I hope you guys are having a wonderful week! The half marathon is looming over me right now, and I am just ready to get it done. Even if I have to walk half of it, I'll still be getting a nice tour of Memphis! (this is what I keep having to tell myself, so I don't get depressed about my injury...)

Wedding Talk: Me and My Party

So I have big news: I finally have an iPhone! It took me way too long to join the rest of my generation. There have been so many times that I've wished I could look something up when I was out and about (like directions...because I get lost), so it's nice that I'll be able to do that now. My goal is to not let it become an appendage...because I think that's what happens with most people. I also don't want to be one of those people who plays with their phone during conversations. If any of you see me doing that STOP ME! And tell me I'm being a jerk.

Now on to more wedding pictures for your enjoyment (because I'm sure you're not sick of these yet, right?)...

Unfortunately it started raining pretty soon after we started taking wedding party pictures, so we only got these few. Luckily the ones we took were good! I was just praying there were some with no one blinking. They were all such good sports about the day though. I never heard the girls complain once about being cold and I KNOW they were...it was freezing. I got their dresses from an Etsy shop called Coralie Beatrix. I picked out several for them to choose from on Etsy, and they chose these wrap dresses because they can wear them so many ways. I hope they actually do wear them again! I know that's one thing that usually sucks about bridesmaid dresses, they sit in a closet for years.

Even though we didn't have a ton of traditions in out wedding, I did want to do the old/new/borrowed/blue thing, even though I have absolutely no idea what the basis of that tradition is. So my new was obviously my dress. For old I wore my pearl earrings, which Rhett gave to me early on in our relationship. I borrowed that gorgeous antique necklace from my grandmother, T, and I had blue tips on my shoes. I looked everywhere for shoes! I thought the search would never end because I didn't know exactly what I wanted. I finally miraculously stumbled upon those on ModCloth, and I knew that was what I'd been looking for the whole time. Also worth mentioning is the set of charm lockets hanging from my bouquet. I had Lauren of JerseyMaids make that for me. Each locket has a picture on the front of a grandparent who has passed. It was a special way for me to include them in the wedding, and I loved working with Lauren on it!

That's all for now. Maybe I'll do something non-wedding related for my next post. I am hoping to get the rest of the disposable cameras developed soon! I have had to do them a few at a time because it's so expensive. It's like $15 for one set of prints and a disc! yikes..

Wedding Talk: Just Us

This is just mostly a photo post. I wanted to share some pictures of us because we're ADORABLE! Yeah, I said it...we are. You can't argue with me, because it's so true. After our first look we just took a few photos across from the farm. It was fun! I was wearing flats though so I kept tripping over my dress. When your dress is cut for you to be wearing heels, you should keep your heels on. Just FYI! I'm just glad I discovered this before walking down the aisle...because that would have been embarrassing.

You can tell when I look off to the side, my eyes are so wonky! Cover up my right eye and it looks like I'm looking off to the side...it's so weird. It has a mind of it's own.

Sorry for so many photos! I just love them, so I want to share them. If you're wondering where you can get my dress, I'm sad to tell you YOU CAN'T! Sorry that sounds mean...but really, it's true. My photographer's mom made it for me. I showed her a dress I liked, and she just whipped it right up! She's seriously amazing. She came up with the detail on the bodice since I couldn't make my mind up, and I just adore it.

I hope you all have a great weekend! I'm going to get my wisdom teeth out tomorrow, so I'll be laying in bed whining like a little baby all weekend...if I survive. I know it's irrational, but I'm just scared something terrible is going to happen to me. I'll be one of those people in those tv shows where they show freak accidents that happen during routine surgeries. AH...I'm worrying myself sick just thinking about it. I'll let you all know if I survive. If this is the last post on my blog and it's 2014, you'll know what happened.