I'm in LOVE with these origami flower balls. LOVE! I need aisle decoration and I love origami so these are absolutely perfect. Plus, I've been wanting some DIY projects for the wedding so this definitely fits the bill.

I spent yesterday evening folding a flower out of scrap paper to see if it was doable. It very very simple origami. Each flower is made of of 5 petals. Each petal is made from one sheet of paper and they're then glued together to make the flower. Then the flowers are strung together. I was happy that it only took me a few minutes to make an entire flower. Problem is I used 7" paper which makes GIGANTIC flowers. For this project I really need paper that is around 3".

Standard origami paper comes in 6" sheets and there is lots of specialty smaller paper but it almost always comes in multi-colored packs! I need all teal! So.... who wants to help me find my paper?

Actually, I have access to a nice heavy duty paper cutter at the lab, so as tedious as it may be, I'd even cut the standard 6" paper into the 3" squares I need since that would be fairly simple.

Now if you want to make these yourself, they're called Kusudama. They can be shapes other than flowers, its just a ball that is made of identical origami shapes. I found a wonderful tutorial at FoldingTrees.com.

There's a trend these days about letting the Groom's interests and hobbies shine through in themed groomscakes and the all important cufflinks! Seriously, thanks to Etsy you can get cufflinks for anything. I couldn't even begin to choose one set for Andy. Honestly, I could probably outfit him for a month. Luckily, we live in the land of Mardi Gras formals so he'll definitely have the chance to wear them again. The problem will just be narrowing them down. I couldn't guess what Andy would even pick as his top choice! There's videogames, TV, movies and comic books....

But, I was delighted to see ways to get the ladies involved in these trends. Everyone knows you can have a themed garter but what about a 1-up mushroom mani?!?

 Brides just seem to think its all about us. My wedding became a teal extravaganza from day one. And you know the Groom didn't come up with pink, butterflies, or winter wonderland as wedding themes. For some reason no one challenges a girlie, blinged out wedding but I think most would cringe/think its weird to have a videogame/movie/comic book themed wedding... so, in the interest of being fair, how far would you go to let your guy help with the wedding theme?

Would you do a video game themed invite?

Or how about this from Cake Wrecks? Would you do a themed wedding cake (not groomscake but the actual cake)?





OK, but really, what other ways could you/have you let your man's interest shine through?

Oh Zazzle.... I love that I can put anything on a button, shirt, stamp or mug.

Maybe my ladies will appreciate these?

Since they are pretty hot, maybe I should make it easy for all our single friends and give the married ladies these to wear to make it easier since 4/7 are married. I wouldn't want anyone to waste time flirting with the married ladies :)

 But, the 3 single ones aren't all that single, so I think wearing this would end very poorly.

But seriously, what are these for? There are endless wedding related buttons on Zazzle and I can't imagine what they are for. Anyone got any clever ideas to use wedding themed pins?

... I would've never known cupcake corers exist but now that I do, I NEED ONE!

We've been working on our registry for a while and its about time to post it on our wedding website but for some reason I'm really nervous. Quite frankly, I wonder what people will think when they see the stuff we've registered for. And if we've registered for too much? Or too little?

Of course, I babble on and on about my need for a stand mixer. You can see form this picture I've been a baker for most of my life. But, figuring out how many big items vs small items is really frustrating. I realize we can always add to the registry but I want to do a good job before I post it to the world. I'd hate for people to see it when I've only put the larger items on it and not filled in the blanks with other items. Also, Andy and I are REALLY busy before the wedding. We'll both be on boats doing research so it simply won't be feasible to monitor our registry the month before the wedding to add if necessary.

Good news though, I think we're pretty much done. We have things from low to high prices and its not all kitchen gadgets. We also added some camping chairs, board games and other fun stuff. One or two more looks through it and I think it'll go live on our wedding website.

Anyone got any last minute tips for our registry?

Today I got an email from my mom on her iPhone. It was a picture of the cover of Real Simple Weddings. She wanted to know if I'd seen it because... the bride is wearing teal shoes!

Clearly, I am quite a trendsetter.

Well, actually, colored shoes are trendy in general. A couple years ago pink was all the rage. But I like to think we're evolving towards more sophisticated trends like teal. OK, I'm just making things up. I just like to pretend that teal is the greatest color choice on earth. Everyone should have a teal wedding.

Seriously, I don't know what on earth my teal obsession is really all about. All through high school my favorite color was actually GRAY! I know, how drab. But I loved it. I had a gray car. I wore gray clothes all the time. I guess it was strange given how bubbly I can be, it didn't really "match" my personality. Perhaps its a reason I was drawn to having a little gray dog now!

Sometime over time my color love turned to teal and purple. I wear the colors all the time. I just really like them. But, for some reason teal emerged. Well, I named my little gray dog Violet so I guess I realized I'd be a REALLY CRAZY DOG LADY if I wore purple all the time.

Teal is just one of those flattering colors. Its good with my skintone, it makes my eyes look super blue and my hair look pretty blonde.

Now, I have one pair of teal shoes for my wedding. I had to hide them in the back of the closet so I wouldn't be tempted to start wearing them now and do something silly like call them "engagement shoes". But, they're flats so I'd like to reserve them for the reception. I still really need to find heels for the actual ceremony. I've been drooling over so many pair on the internet (and blogging about them!) that I don't know how to decide. They're all so beautiful.

Unless of course these beauties are still hiding somewhere in my stuff at home!!! Man, I loved those shoes! I would totally rock Reebok high tops at the wedding.

Anyone else sure the wedding magazines stole ideas from you?! I mean, I KNOW I was Real Simple's inspiration :)

Ever since I got engaged almost a year ago I've been on a mission to grow out my hair. I'm always in a cycle of growing it out until I get sick of it, then chopping it off to a chin length bob. As soon as I got engaged I decided it was time to get serious about growing out my hair and take all the proper steps to keep it healthy.

I've been getting it trimmed every 8 weeks. I comb it carefully and deep condition. I've been highlighting it ever 3-4 months to achieve the color I want. And, its working. Its grown a lot and its healthy! Now that its getting long I'm excited to start thinking about wedding hair.

I've pretty much know I wouldn't wear a veil. They just don't call to me. I've tried them on several times and I'm sure they aren't for me. What I do want is a HEADBAND! They're super trendy and I've just wanted one for so long.
I found this one on Etsy...

Its been my inspiration for quite some time. I just love it! My dress has a rhinestone covered belt so I think this would match perfectly!

So, back at Christmas while I was in Los Angeles visiting my parents, my mom, sister and I made a trek down to the LA fashion district where the streets are lined with fabric, beads, and trim. It was amazing. I figured, there's no need to buy this headband, I can definitely make something like this for a fraction of the cost.

Funny thing is, once you get on Etsy you start to notice a lot of these headbands look the same. These are all from different sellers. But #1 and #3 are very similar, same with #2 and #6. When I went to the stores in LA I also noticed I saw the same beaded trim in many stores, so despite blocks upon blocks of stores, I kept seeing the same trim. Once I found one I liked I started price shopping and ended up getting it for $12 for a yard!

Does it look familiar? I think its identical to the trim in #2 and #6. Most of these Etsy sellers are from SoCal anyway and there's no better place in LA to buy your supplies than the fashion district!

Now, I just have to wait for my dress to come in so I can match the ribbon I add to the trim to my dress. I know my dress is ivory but I don't want to use the wrong color ivory and have it look yellow or too white. Then again, I could just go with teal :)

All and all I'm very happy with myself. I saved myself $50 or $60 already by making this. And its such a simple craft, it'll just need a few stitches to attach to a ribbon! I think I want to start making these for everyday.

Etsy has sort of become my inspiration spot, I sort of feel bad stealing their ideas but seriously, I'm not paying some $75 for a headband. Anyone else use Etsy for inspiration only?

My wedding has long been purchased, my engagement ring was part of a set so I've been good to go from the beginning! Andy on the other hand has had no clue what sort of ring he'd like. Being a typical guy, he also knows nothing about rings.

After a little research we've learned that its only a rumor that titanium rings can't be cut off in an accident. We've also learned that there's tungsten, stainless steel, gold and even platinum.

Now, Andy actually has a ring too. His mom gave him his grandfather's gold wedding band. In a lot of ways, I love it. The edge of it is very lovely with a little beveled thing going on (I don't know the technical name for this!). But, its also yellow gold which really isn't really our styles, we're white gold people!

I briefly looked into having this ring Rhodium plated, the same process that turns they use to make white gold. But, turns out with white gold they use a naturally whiter gold and then plate it. You can plate yellow gold but when it scratches (which it will) the scratches will reveal the very obvious yellow gold underneath.

So, we went ring shopping. Andy tried on different metals and different width bands. We also learned that gold is really darn expensive these days. I had sort of wondered why these other metals were so popular but given the price of gold and the fact that it scratches, these tougher/cheaper alternatives may a ton of sense.

One of the cool ones we found that day was this one at Kay Jewelers. Its a black tungsten carbide. The black is very different then what either of us thought of for a wedding band but its neat! Now, I've been scouring the internet for other similar rings and there are actually quite a few options out there. When Andy gets back from his research cruise we'll have to make a final decision but I think I know which way he's leaning. I figure, I picked out my own ring so he should get to pick out his own too. I'm hear to off guidance and suggestions but I'm not going to push him one way or another. I'll love whatever makes him happy.

Married ladies, what kind of rings did your guys go for? Do you prefer these newer metals to the classic gold band? And, who picked out each of your rings?

We all know I like teal, that's a given. But, unfortunately, I'm not going to paint the entire wedding teal so I need some other colors in my color scheme. I've been struggling with flowers for a while.

I think I'm pretty set on purple! Obviously there's no teal flowers. White is just too plain for me alone... I want COLOR!!

I've been trying to figure out what to do with bridesmaid dresses. I initially wanted black. But then last week I saw some really pretty bridesmaid dresses in dark navy blue and a super dark eggplant purple. AHHH! I can't make up my mind.

Despite, really liking navy blue and teal together it really throws my groom/groomsmans outfits for a loop. I want them in tuxes, which aren't navy and it'd be pretty hard to get navy blues to match. The purple is almost so dark it is black. So, is purple black and teal or purple and teal? So many decisions.

I definitely need flowers for my fountain display, flowers to float in my centerpieces, bouquets and some large centerpieces for the food tables. I'm still trying to keep this as DIY as possible. So, I'd like to do everything but flowers in the fountain. Despite having bridesmaids willing to don waders and get in the fountain the morning of the wedding, I'll spare everyone that fun.

I think the fountain would look amazing with dark purples in the greens instead of the lavender in this example. The venue already has hanging ferns and the brick gates are naturally topped with ferns so I'm also trying to include ferns in my decor (plus, I love them!).

I thought I'd share a few of the cool things and good deals I've found on the internet in the last week or so.

Loose orchids from www.alohahawaiianflowers.com

Its my find of the week. You can get a thousand for only $140! Its amazing!!! I don't need a thousand but its good to know I could have that many for a reasonable price. They also see them in batches of 100.

Fifty Flowers, another online retailer, also allows you to sort by flower color so now I'm gaining inspiration.  Here's some I found in my search...

Now, I might be a little obsessed with the bi-color callas at the moments. I'm not sure I'd want all calla lilies but I certainly like the look. The way they fade to deep purple is AWESOME.

These colors are a little wrong but I think the bi-color callas would look awesome with purple roses.  Plus callas and roses are tough flowers with sturdy stems and are both favorites of DIY florists.

I also found this cake decorated with loose orchids. I like actually tying some elements of the wedding decor together so this would be really nice with floating orchid centerpieces.

And, thanks to the magic of photoshop a quick editing makes me think that this would look nice on a teal cake too!



All in all, I'm pretty happy with my ideas. Now I just need to find a florist !