Success!

We've been in North Carolina for 5 hours and have found our wedding site! It's not any of the places from the last post but I'm posting from Will's phone so no pictures for now. All I'll tell you is it involves mountain views and an orchard!

The Search For A Venue

This weekend we will be heading to North Carolina to hopefully find a venue for our ceremony and reception. I am determined to make a decision this weekend and to move forward with booking the rest of our vendors. Here are the top potential options:

Option 1: Nantahala Village. Its 30 minutes away from Franklin but is reasonably priced and includes all the tables, chairs, linens, silverware, plates and glasses we need. We would have to use on site catering, which is more than we were planning on paying for barbecue. Here is a picture of one of the potential wedding sites:

 

This picture was taken by my dad while he was standing in the parking lot and the highway is directly behind him, so I'm not sure we want to be that close to the road. We do want people to be able to hear us. 

Option 2: Family land in Burningtown. This would be free (!) but we would have to bring everything in and set it up. We would be able to use any caterer though, which would save money. I'm not sure if there is a big enough flat area to have the ceremony and reception, but I imaging having the ceremony up on the hill and then the reception by the barn. This is a bad picture of me, but its the best one I can find of the location. 

 

 

Option 3: Wayah Bald Picnic Area: Its close to our original wedding location, but its not as pretty since there is not tower. It still has great views, but I don't its as pretty. We would have to bring everything in here as well. The only picture I can find is of Will and me on Christmas morning but we are standing in front of a wooden fence and there is a grassy area with a gravel road around it in front of us.

Option 4: Something yet to be discovered!

How Sweet It Is

Long before Will and I were engaged, I went to the Asheville Farmer's Market and saw the cutest little jars of honey. I showed my mom the jars and told her that I thought it would be so cute to give out jars of honey as favors at my future wedding. My mom replied that there was no way she was going to put honey in that many jars. Fast forward one year and now Will and I are engaged. I am discussing wedding favors with my mom and the honey idea comes up again. This time she seems a lot more interested and willing, so we start to develop a plan.

My grandfather was a beekeeper and sold his honey under the name Wayah Mountain Honey. After he passed away, my mom moved to the mountains and took over his beekeeping. She also joined the beekeepers club and through that was able to order little honey jars at a discount. Honey is produced in July and August and doesn't really go bad. So instead of being super rushed and trying to get the favors together at the last minute, we decided to use last year's honey. We were actually really lucky because my mom started new bees last year and usually bees don't produce enough honey the first year. Also, there is a serious honey bee parasite going around and somehow my mom's bees weren't affected!

Over Christmas, Will and I spent a few days pouring all the honey in the jars. Then we put on labels I designed with "How Sweet It Is" and hang tags (from Big Lots!) that were stamped with our monogram and wedding date. Here are the final products, we have two types of honey for our guests to choose from:

DIY: Fascinator

I have never wanted a veil. I think that they block your view and just get in the way, especially if its windy. A veil would not work for my outdoor wedding. But I did want something in my hair, so I started to dream about a fascinator. I have no idea why they call a hair flower a fascinator, but I'm going with it.

This is the fascinator that I feel in love with:

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But at $60, I couldn't justify buying it. Thankfully, my obsession with wedding blogs paid off! There are tons of guides on how to make a fascinator and it looked pretty easy. After a quick trip to AC Moore, I had a white flower that looked like it had potential and it only cost $2.

One boring Saturday, I set out to make my fascinator! I followed this tutorial pretty closely. I just detached the flower petals from the stem and arranged the loose petals until I liked the way it looked. Then I loosely arranged some pears that my roommate had leftover from another project and sewed them in place. I also sewed on a barrette that my roommate wasn't using anymore and finished by putting a little hot glue between each petal layer so the flower wasn't so floppy. I love the way it turned out and it only took $2 and about 30 minutes!

 

Front View

 

 Side View

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

I found out this morning that I won 100 custom designed postcard from Grace Hester Designs!!! I'm going to use them as our save the dates. After looking at her Etsy shop, I'm really excited to see what she comes up with. All of her other designs are so bright and fresh. She asked me for five words that I would want people to think about when they saw our design, I told her mountains, unique, vintage, fun, outdoors. I can't wait to share the final product!

Shoes

I have always loved the way brightly colored shoes look under a wedding dress.

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I knew as soon as we picked yellow as a wedding color, that I had to have bright yellow shoes. The search started shortly after we were engaged (if not before). Every time I went to a shoe store, I searched for yellow flats. One of my bridesmaids even had her husband looking. I spent so many hours looking online and never found any flats that I loved. I found plenty of super cute yellow heels but never flats or wedges. All I wanted was a yellow open toed flat with some kind of detail over the toes, I was hoping for a flower or a bow. Since we are getting married outside and possibly in grass, I didn't want my heels sinking into the grass all night. Finally, last week the search ended! I found these shoes on Endless.com and ordered them in three sizes (I didn't want the correct size to sell out!).

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One of them fit perfectly! I'm so glad to be done with the search for perfect shoes! Now I have to find Will some cute yellow socks...

I love getting a good deal!

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I have always loved the Casablanca 1900. There were so many times when I saw pictures from a wedding, thought about how much I loved the dress, then found out it was Casablanca 1900. I called around the DC area to find a sample of the 1900 in close to my size. My mom and I went to Jeanette's Bridal in Manassas back in September and I really did like the 1900. After trying on some more dresses at a couple other stores, I decided that I really wanted the 1900. About a month ago, I found out that Jeanette's was going out of business and was selling their samples for 30-70% off. I called immediately to see if I could get the 1900 sample, unfortunately, they had already sold the sample that was my size.

I immediately starting trying to find another store where I could get the 1900. Jeanette's had been selling the 1900 for one of the lowest prices I could find in this area and I didn't want to buy a lot more. After calling a few stores that were selling the price for around $400 more, I ended up at TLC Bridal in Frederick, MD. I'm so glad I went there! All the ladies that work there were so amazing to work with and their prices were very reasonable. They also knew SOOOO much about Casablanca dresses. After my first visit, I was debating between the 1900 and the 1885. I went back today with my mom to get her opinion and ended up buying a completely different dress. I'm trying to keep my final choice a surprise, but I am really excited about the one I choose. I felt like it combined the things I liked about the 1900 and the 1885. I was even able to get the dress at a lower price just by asking! I would highly recommend TLC Bridal to any DC area brides.