CHANDELIER 

While I was looking through the many photos on Pinterest under the wedding section I saw a few ceremony set ups that were outside that had chandeliers hanging from the trees.   It caught my attention and I had to have one! I looked around online for one for a few months but I was scared to purchase one with out seeing how big it really was in person.  I went to Menards and found the perfect one for $200!   Later on I found one that would work just as well at Costco for $150.  I already had my $200 one so I stuck with that.

Kenny, my father-in-law, had a huge part in setting up for our wedding.  We got married in the middle of a golf course so everything was running on a generator.  There was a lot of extension cords involved.  He had some help from Kyle and Kyle's groomsmen, but he was the brains of the operation! 

It wasn't as dark outside as I wanted it to be during the ceremony but we really couldn't wait any longer if we were going to stay on schedule.  We had the ceremony at sunset which did end up looking pretty stinkin' cool in the pictures!  After the ceremony was over we stayed and had pictures taken at the ceremony area.  By that time it was dark!

The chandelier was one of the first things I knew I wanted at my wedding.  The theme of 'light' took over my wedding.  We had a massive amount of Christmas lights at the ceremony site.  We used christmas lights to construct what I call a starry night sky over the dance floor and the reception area.  My cake lit up.  My dress also lit up.  We had balloons that lit up.  There were probably more details involving light but I can't think of them right now.  

The chandelier is in storage now.  Once we move into a house we are going to hang the chandelier up so we can see it every day. It will be a nice little reminder of our beautiful wedding!

BRIDESMAID DRESSES

   I knew for a while that I didn't want to have all my bridesmaids in the same dress.  It was important to me that they all feel pretty on the day of my wedding.  I wanted the wedding to be enjoyable for every person that day not just me and my soon-to-be husband.  I assigned each bridesmaids a color.  One was purple.  One was pink.  One was teal.  One was aqua.  The guidelines were simple... or so I thought. 

1) get a floor length gown in your color, not poofy just flowy. 

2) it needs to have a little bit of bling but not too much because I want you all to sort of match

3) I either want all of you wearing the same exact neckline, or I want 4 completely different necklines.

Why did I care about these details you ask... I don't know! I just did. ok? I had a vision.  Shopping for the dresses was a huge pain in the butt for my bridesmaids.  I started going with this idea because I thought it would be easier for them but it ended up frustrating all of them and I felt bad, but they forgave me and got over it because they love me.  Christa (Purple) found her dress at Dillards.  Aslynn (Pink) ordered hers online.  Jessie (Teal) found hers at Younkers.  Last but not least Ashley ( Aqua) found hers at Davids Bridal.

My vision came to life and they all looked stunningly beautiful the day of my wedding.  Their dresses went perfect together.  The colors of their dresses looked amazing all standing next to each other.  

   

   

MIKULICH WEDDING CAKE

I finally got my wedding pictures back so I can share all the wonderful details of our wedding with you folks! Today, I will tell you about our wedding cake :)

At first I insisted that I didn't want a cake because I didn't want to spend the money on it.  During one of our late Wednesday night wedding planning meetings my sister, Christa, and I had this conversation:

Christa "So what do you want to do for a wedding cake?"

     Me: "Well, I don't really want one.... well maybe just a small one"

Christa: "Ok, so lets just do a white two layer cake from Hy-Vee."

    Me: "No, I want it bigger and prettier."

Christa: "Ok, so you are saying that you want a real wedding cake then."

    Me: "Yes, thank you for reading between the lines there." 

Once she finally got it out of me that I wanted a real wedding cake, we knew exactly where to go to get it!

 Michelle Lindell Sweettoeatcakes

We scheduled a consultation with Michelle for a Saturday at Starbucks. I told her my wedding colors and a little bit about my wedding theme, and what my dress looked like.   We got to taste different flavors of cake and settled on 3 different flavors.  Each layer is a different flavor of cake.  I told her how we were going to have the ceremony outside and hang a chandelier from the trees.  We decided to go with the ruffles on the bottom because my wedding dress was very ruffle-y.  The coolest part about this cake was that the little lights on the chandelier actually lit up!!!

 

I bought the cake topper from Ebay, and Michelle provided the cake stand!  Not only did Michelle drive all the way from Iowa to deliver the cake to our Kansas City Wedding, but she also stayed for the reception and cut and served the cake!   I'm so glad we decided to get a wedding cake!  It ended up being one of my absolute favorite parts about my wedding!  

Now the part I'm sure you're wondering about, How much does a beautiful custom cake like this cost?

$320,  or $380 with the delivery fee.  

  That's right, it's Christmas time!   This will be my first married Christmas.  I've been married for almost 3 months now.  We live in a small apartment but I really want to make every Christmas special.  Here is my first Christmas craft!

Ok, so.... I totally stole this Idea from Pinterest.  I'm still proud of how it turned out anyway :)  

Here is what I used:

- an old white frame that is big and chunky (my sister picked this up at Salvation Army for $2.99)

- a can of red spray paint from walmart

- white gross grain ribbon

-my extra christmas ornaments that I didn't have hooks for 

-duct tape

-scissors

Here is the picture from Pinterest that I got my inspiration from:

I wish I had a different bigger ribbon for the bow part but I didn't feel like going to the store.

I planned on using a wreath hanger to hang it on my door but because of where I duct taped all of the ribbon I can't.    I'm going to go get another wreath hanger and put one on each side of the frame that way it doesn't get in the way of the hanging ribbons. 

Wedding Planning

I'm getting married in 21 days to the man of my dreams!  I thought I'd share some of the ups and downs of my wedding planning experience.  But lets start at the beginning....
          He proposed on December 22nd, 2012.  When we started dating I told him to please not buy me jewelry.   I told him I had a very specific style that was hard to explain.  once we had been dating for about 2 1/2 years we started ring shopping.  We went to three different diamond stores before I finally found a ring that I absolutely loved.  Don't be afraid to shop around.  It's also important to talk about a budget before you go.  The jeweler has to ask you ' So what are you thinking you want to spend on a ring?' so be prepared to answer the question. We got my ring from a store that let him make payments on the ring until it was paid off, and then he could pick it up.  Other stores will let you take the ring home while you are still making payments.  One of our main goals we wanted to accomplish in all this wedding planning was to not go into any debt!  By the time we picked up our rings they were completely paid for. About 6 months had passed between when we went ring shopping and when he actually proposed.

We decided that night we wanted to get married at the beginning of September.  It seems like 10 months was a good amount of time to plan a wedding.  Not too short, and not too long.  Keep in mind the more specific details you want included in your wedding the longer it is going to take to plan.  After we got engaged I spent so much time on Pinterest looking at wedding boards.  I got a lot of wedding ideas from there..probably too many!  I would recommend looking at the Pinterest for wedding ideas but maybe just once a week instead of everyday like I did.  After we decided time of year, and what kind of wedding we wanted it was time to find a venue.  We looked at 4 venues total.  We wanted an outside enchanted garden themed wedding.
-1st venue: beautiful outside garden area, it was perfect except for the inside back up plan.  If it rained we'd have the wedding inside and the inside looked so cheap and dirty.
-2nd venue:  Was a golf course.  It was way too expensive, and wouldn't let us take pictures out on the golf course. That is apparently not uncommon.  If you decided to have your wedding at a private golf course, and you are not members there make sure to ask if you are allowed on the green after the ceremony to take pictures.  
-3rd venue: Another golf course.  The wedding cordinator kept telling me no during our meeting to my ideas of how I wanted the ceremony to look.
-4th venue:  Another golf course.  This is the venue we went with.

And boy was that a mistake! 

To make a very long story short we got stuck with a wedding coordinator that was just awful at her job.  We got told so many wrong answers, and she would take anywhere from 2-3 WEEKS to respond to an email, if she ever even responded.  It was so frustrating!  Thankfully after we had had enough we finally were able to get another contact person at the facility and get things straightened out but there were about 4 big things the previous coordinator had promised we could do or have at no charge that the new coordinator told us we'd have to pay for.  These weren't little expenses either.  2 of these unplanned for expenses were about $700 a piece.  Needless to say I started having a breakdown.  You will all be happy to know in the end the venue kept their promises that the first coordinator had made.  If you are a newly engaged and trying to decide on a venue email the wedding coordinator at the location and see how long it takes them to respond.  This might seem like a small detail but it's not.  It makes a big difference in wedding planning if you have wait weeks for a simple response.  After you visit a venue and you get home you'll think of more questions to ask..  Don't send them all in one email.  Email them a couple times through out that week just to test their response time.  

After we chose a venue it was time to go dress shopping!  Finding the dress wasn't the hard part.  It was the coordinating of everyone's schedule to find a time that they could be there to see my try on dresses.  Three of my bridesmaids ended up getting left out of that experience so that both the moms could be there.  If it's important to you try really hard to find a time that works for everybody. It still bums me out that some of my bridesmaids couldn't make it to this because of work or school.  I just don't ever want anyone to feel left out.  When I went it was an entire day of dress shopping we went to three different stores.   I went with the dress I felt most beautiful in.  I ended up going back to the first store and getting the very first dress I tried on, but I'm glad I went to the other stores because now I am 100% sure I have the right dress.   I have no regrets about that at all!  I can't wait to post a picture of it!  I'll do that after the wedding!.

By the way we are getting married in the Kansas City Area for any of you who are wondering.  Later I'll blog all about our Engagement Pictures/ and the crazy wedding craft ideas I got off Pinterest!