Sunday, July 24, 2011

Wedding Hint #10

I know I know...the wedding has already happened! 
But..I never got to share my FINAL Wedding Hint! So here goes:


Here's the shoes I bought to wear at the reception so I could truly get my "dance on!" You'll see A LOT more of these as pictures and videos come out...but I've been SO excited to share these with you!

Until we're back from the Honeymoon...
Mrs. Presh & Mr. Hess <3

We're MARRIED!

PHEW!!! What a whirlwind! & I have some exciting news...

Mr. Hess and I are now MARRIED! The wedding day has finally come and passed and I am officially a MRS!

On our way to our first church service as Mr. & Mrs. 

My goal was to post a few more things on here before THE BIG DAY got here, but you can figure out that didn't exactly happen.  Both Mr. Hess and I came down to the wire with last minute projects, errands and decisions to make & we wanted to spend every minute of extra time past that with the friends and family that traveled into Orlando to see us.

The wedding was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT.  I know everyone says that....but I truly, truly TRULY mean it.  We have pictured this day and the details of it for months and months...and Mr. Hess and I both agreed that every single one of our vendors went above & beyond their call of duty for our wedding day.  From the ceremony to the reception EVERYTHING turned out more amazing than we had pictured it.  We were just as equally excited about the ceremony as we were the reception - and for great reasons.  THAT even turned out to be better than we could have even hoped for.  We had an incredible pastor, singers, readings, unity ceremonies & music to put together our dream ceremony and it really couldn't have been done any better.  Everyone who I've heard from said they not only had a blast at the reception, but they really enjoyed the ceremony and saw our personalities shine through in every single little detail...which was our ultimate goal.  We wanted our ceremony to be in a church, but to be very US - and I can't wait to see the video!

As for the reception....don't even get me started. 

It was P-E-R-F-E-C-T! We had envisioned this print of linen and that type of chair mixed with those lights, a dance floor that looked like this and hanging floral that looked like that...and spent hours and days and months figuring out every single detail of what our reception space would look like.  When we walked into the room - we were both BLOWN AWAY!  The space was gorgeous - and really did look like HEAVEN to us (which happens to be the name of the reception hall).  I can only explain so much through words, so I'm going to have to wait and let the pictures speak for themselves.  For now, I can tell you that it the prettiest and most exciting weddings I have EVER been to - and I'm not trying to be biased.  From top to bottom, Mr. Hess and I put SO much effort and detail into everything, and it truly showed.  Mr. Hess has a great analogy when asked to describe what our wedding was like..."It's like a mullet...business in the front (ceremony) & party in the back (reception). 

We had people come up to us during the entire day and tell us the same thing...our commitment to marriage was incredibly sweet, showed our personalities and was the FUNNEST.WEDDING.EVER!!!! 
WHAT AN AMAZING DAY!
I could go on and on about how wonderful the day was, and I will...eventually.  For now, Mr. Hess and I have a lot of work to do before tomorrow as we leave for our Honeymoon to Costa Rica for a week!  We decided to spend a few days with family and friends (best idea) after the wedding, so TOMORROW will be the start to our official honeymoon & we are pumped up about it.  Zipplining, beaches, swimming with whale sharks, rest & liesure is what we have to look forward to for the next 7 days and it couldn't have come at a better time in our lives.  We have TONS to share when we get back, so hold on to your computers....you'll be filled in on how the day went one step at a time!

For now, enjoy this quick video from the Mr. & Mrs. as we head to Costa!



See you guys when we get back!
MRS. Presh & Mr. Hess <3

Thursday, July 14, 2011

DIY Aisle Decorations

We are certainly getting down to the FINAL COUNTDOWN here - the wedding is officially a WEEK away! I have spent the last 2 weeks or so getting ready for the festivities by tying up all of the loose ends, finalizing all of our vendor plans & finishing up any crafts or decorations needed for the BIG DAY.

So far, this has been one of my favorite projects.  From the beginning, Mr. Hess and I knew that even though our ceremony will be inside of a church, we still wanted to be able to decorate it with a cool & even casual style.  Our chapel already included brass candelabras for each aisle, but to be honest that just wouldn't do for us.  If anything, we were going to rent silver ones to go with our color scheme, but that just seemed like an unnessecary expense.  After a little bit of researching online, and looking at wedding blogs, I finally came across a picture that gave me instant inspiration:


DUH! I have already given you all a Wedding Hint in the past that lets you know we will be using paper lanterns and decorations, but little did you know they would also be incorporated into our ceremony too!  Since the time I saved this picture onto my computer, I was on a mission to figure out how to make these babies on my own.


Step one was to find a place to get paper lanterns in the size and shape that we needed for the aisles.  Pretty quickly, I came across a great website that offers lanterns and other similar products in lots of shapes, colors, and sizes at a very reasonable price from a company called Just Artifacts. I found a few shades of pink that I was debating between, as well as size of lanterns that would look the best hanging from the pews.  So, a great idea my mom suggested to me was to order 3 lanterns to sample: 1 in each shade of pink, 2 different sizes, and 2 different textures.  When the lanterns came in (surprisingly fast after about 3 days) I was instantly drawn to the EXACT pink color of the bridesmaid dresses and knew I needed the Dark Magenta in 8" to get the look I was going for.

By now, you all know our other main color in our wedding scheme is lime green, so I decided the ribbon and bow should be this color.  By trial and error, I realized the cloth type of fabric was the best to use for this type of thing, over the transparent or shiny types of ribbon.  The cloth holds the lantern straighter, is sturdier & gives the lantern and ribbon combo a cleaner look.

So, I had the supplies...now it was time to put these decorations together.  I promise that once you get the hang of it, these really don't take much time at all to assemble.  My mom and I came up with a great system to keep the ball (or lanterns) rolling while assembling them.

Below is all you will need for this DIY Aisle Decoration:

I took this picture before I figured out exactly what would work best...
But, I finally figured out: 

  • Paper lanterns.  I ordered 2 more than I needed, just in case.
  • Ribbon (to get through 16 lanterns we needed 6 spools).
  • 12" ruler, or measuring tape
  • Stapler
  • Scissors
  • Lighter
Pretty easy (and affordable) list if you ask me!  





First, I measured out how long the ribbon should be that's holding the lantern.  I wanted them to hang like the picture above, so I figured out cutting about a foot and 3 inches would do the trick.  Next, I had to figure out how to tie the bow and how long that ribbon should be.  Honestly, I didn't make the bow strings as long as I originally wanted them to be, but we were running out of ribbon and I'm pretty sure my mom and I bought out ALL of the local Michaels lime green ribbon spools...so we kept them a little bit shorter.

My mom, hard at work with me!
After the ribbon was cut and lined up for me to assemble to the lantern, I looped the ribbon through the metal wire part in the middle and stapled the two sides of ribbon together to form one big loop.  Staples turned out to be the best route to go, over tape or glue - and it took 2 seconds to do!  Also, I used the "bottom" of the metal part of the lantern's middle to loop the ribbon through so it was flatter and easier to loop.  That means there will be the top hanger part hanging on the bottom, but nobody is going to see that...so it didn't bother me to keep it there.  If it bothered you, you could easily take a pair of wire clippers and cut the hanger part off.

By this point, I needed to anchor the lantern somehow to be able to tie the bow in place.  I had one of Mr. Hess's gadgets that resembled a hook on the table to hold it in front of me.  I tied the shorter ribbon on the top of the lantern to make a bow, very similar to how I did for my Bridal Party T-shirts.  (By the way, this is the same ribbon I used for those...now do you see what I bought the entire inventory?!)  When the bow was tied, I used the same technique as before by cutting the ribbon at an angle and burning the edges with a lighter to keep the ribbon from fraying.  You can read all about these techniques in my post: Bridal Party Tanks.



So there you have it!  A simple, unique, fun and certainly cost effective way to decorate your aisles for your wedding ceremony! I could also re-use this idea for other events down the road, and know it would be great to decorate with anywhere from a backyard barbecue to a baby shower.  After assembling these, I am SO happy with how they turned out and I can't wait to see how they look at my actual wedding ceremony with all of the other decorations around them.  I am getting SO excited for everything to come together, and I couldn't be happier with how all of these little "project ideas" in my head are really working out. 

Thank you, Jesus for google image search.  I'm telling you, it's the only thing that's gotten me through this wedding planning process of keeping a budget. 

Hope you like them, and keep a look out for one more crafty post before the wedding.

ONE WEEK AWAY!!! Can't believe it! :)
Presh

Friday, July 8, 2011

Wedding Hint #9

Since we're getting down to the wire, I thought it would be good timing to let you all in on 2 more wedding hints.  For starters, here's a glimpse at something you would see at our reception:


I'm not going to share exactly why this is here or what it is for...but I will tell you we've secured something Mr. Hess and I have both been wanting to have at our wedding since the very beginning.

YAY! :)
Presh

2 WEEKS left!

HOLY MOLY!!! We have officially entered the "down to the wire, crunch time" part of the wedding planning process.

In 14 days, I will officially be a MRS. and I couldn't be more excited about it!

You've probably noticed that my July posting on here has been prettttty bare, and you're right.  Not only have I had lack of time to blog about everything I've wanted to, but Mr. Hess and I have both come across some shocking, life changing events in the past week.  Without getting into too much detail, we have both decided to take the next step in our lives, as a married couple, to a fresh, new start.  We have decided to move on to new jobs and possibly even careers and are even open to moving to a new city.  I have been applying for various jobs and plan to keep doing so here in Orlando as well as in other areas.  For once, Mr. Hess and I are putting our faith in God to lead us where He wants us to go, and are trying not to tell him OUR plan.  So, on top of wedding planning, you can say that I've been a busy little bee researching and deciding where exactly our next step together will be.  Whatever it is: we are very excited, optimistic and hopeful for our new start as a married couple.  I've joked about it a lot, but after honeymoon I will come back with a new name, a new official address, a new drivers license (newer than most of you think, lol), a new job and career path, and a new outlook at life.  And I'm READY for it!! :)

As for the next 2 weeks, I can't promise I'll be back to posting on here like I really want to, but I can promise to share all of the things I want to later.  From here on out, Mr. Hess and I are getting everything squared away and making sure our wedding plans all come together, the way we want them to!  Planning rehearsal dinner (which I'm super excited for), squaring away final decisions with vendors, creating a video slideshow of Mr. Hess and I (ohhhhhh boy), putting the bridal party gifts together (more excitement here!), & getting our final music list squared away are just some of the things that will keep us working as busy little Mr. & Mrs. 2-bes.

Mr. Hess and I have been through a lot over the past month or so, and it seems as though this year has definitely been a challenging one.  But, one thing I can say is that all of these challenges we've faced has truly made our relationship flourish.  What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and I'm really starting to let that concept sink in.  I feel like everything is coming to a close now, and that there is a bright new window and door opening for us for the future.  I'm getting SO excited for the actual day to get here already, and to share all of the things I loved the most with you guys!!!



Until next time,
14 days to go!!!
Presh

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