recent purchases

I've bought oodles of fun things on etsy.com recently. I've mentioned etsy before, but I'll throw it out there again... it's awesome. All handmade stuff from people just like you and me interested in selling their arts and crafts. It's heaven for brides. I go on there and am able to find almost anything I need wedding related.

Today I bought this:

from user annapanik

It's a flower for my hair! I'll be wearing it at the reception. I mentioned it to John and he said, "I've always thought you'd be beautiful with a flower in your hair." How sweet is that? Well... your dream comes true, Mr. Johnny boy.

I've also made some fun purchases for my bridesmaids! I can't mention exactly what I've gotten them (as I think most of them read the blog), but it involves jewelry and cutesy handbags :)

And I have my eye on this veil:

from user romancingtheveil

That's sort of the look I'm after for my veil. It's a bit longer than I'd like, but I love how the amount of tule isn't overwhelming and the pencil-thin edging is a nice touch. The one I want will be at about finger tip length.

On theknot.com (another great resource for wedding planning brides), John and I found these lovely napkins:

theknot.com

We ordered the pattern you see upfront... they say, "Eat, drink, and be married." How precious is that? They also have our names on them and our wedding date. We ordered 100 in that bright green color with dark navy lettering, and 100 in the navy color with silver lettering. A fine, fun little detail if I do say so myself.

John has also been extremely helpful in putting together the plan for the favors for our guests. My mom came up with the idea to give out luggage tags as favors (to go along with the "travel" theme). John and I did some research and we decided quickly that we didn't like any of the pre-made options available online. They were either too cheap/flimsy looking, too cheesy, or too far out of our price range. So, John took over and found these online: 

from embroiderthis.com

We only purchased one (to make sure it's what we want), but the plan is to get 175 of these, and fit them with something that has a design similar to our save-the-date. That way, we don't have to buy one with a cheesy design, or that doesn't quite go with all our color/theme plans. And my brother Matt has already agreed to help us design the inserts (thanks bro!). On the front of the insert, it'll say, "thank you" or our names/wedding date, and the backside will have space for guests to write their name, address, phone number, etc (to make it useable as a luggage tag). It'll be a fun, little DIY project for me and the fiance.

We still have some important wedding purchases in our near future, including groomsmen gifts, escort card materials, supplies for the tack-the-map "guestbook," and a few other fun decorative elements. I'll keep you guys posted as more purchases are made :)