Wedding Planning|Giftguide for Parents & Special Guests!

January 17, 2018August 19, 2020 Red Rose & HoneyLeave a comment

When it came to wedding gifts for our parents I knew I wanted to get the something special. It was was hard to think of a gift for people who already have it all. I didn’t want the gift to be just another “thing” to put in their homes. After weeks of brainstorming, the idea finally came to me when I was looking through old photos with my parents. When I was little my mom always had a film DSLR camera there she took everywhere {I later used it for my high school photography classes} so we have a ton of photos. She loved to have her favorites made into 8x10s which really helped me out with this gift idea. Both of my parents happen to point our their favorite picture of me and them. I took the photos home with me to scan to my computer for our DJ slideshow. For their gifts, I scanned their favorite photos to Snapfish and ordered two 11×14 sepia toned canvas prints. They came out great and I was able to use a coupon code to get a good deal!

I wanted to get Mike’s parents the same gift, but unfortunately all of his baby pictures were small and I wasn’t able to get clear scans. His siblings live out of state and since we’ve been together we haven’t had the chance to get many family pictures. We did manage to get a great photo together at our engagement party. I had it made into at 10×25 sepia toned canvas. I love the shape and size of this one. All three canvas’ came out great and our parents loved them. My mom hung hers up as soon as she got home from our rehearsal dinner.

My uncle is an amazing florist. I knew he was going to make our wedding day beyond beautiful and I was right! I LOVED our flowers. They really pop in our photos and we received so many compliments. To thank him and my aunt for all their hard work and generous gift we got them tickets to a Broadway play. Ticket to a show would also be a great gift idea for parents. It just so happens that’ my dad really doesn’t like going to plays {sorry mom}.

We had a few more special guests that we wanted to acknowledge at our rehearsal dinner. My aunt who helped out a lot with my planning along with aunts, uncles and friends who would be reading during our ceremony or singing at our reception. As a little thanks, we got them our favorite bottle of while or a book along with a sweet thank you note. I think the key to wedding gifts is to remember to be simple, practical and thoughtful.

Wedding Planning: Checklist & Managing Stress!

November 22, 2017August 19, 2020 Red Rose & Honey4 Comments

Last year shortly after becoming engaged, I thought to myself, “I’m not going to be a crazy bride and stress myself out.” For the most part, that held true. However, the beginning of wedding planning felt overwhelming at times because we had also recently purchased our first home and began renovating shortly after. We picked locations for our ceremony and venue rather quickly, and were grateful for the smoothness of the process. Once that was done, we checked off the next big vendors – photographer, videographer, DJ, limos and florist {most of which came from family recommendations}. Checking these big “To-Dos” off the list felt good!

Next up was the engagement party planning and asking our friends and family to be included in our bridal party. Our engagement party turned out perfect! It was such a fun day and I was able to incorporate my bridesmaids’ gifts into the party. I was able to use almost all of my engagement party decor for my wedding, which turned out to be a huge time and money saver.

After the engagement party, planning slowed down a bit. I found my wedding dress, secured an awesome make-up artist and picked out bridesmaids dresses. The bridesmaid dresses were harder to decide on than my own dress because I wanted the dress to be affordable, yet flattering.

At this point (February) I felt like wedding planning was cruising. I had put together a detailed To-Do checklist (download at bottom of post!) and eventually created a binder of wedding essentials. In April, we completed our Pre-Cana course for our wedding ceremony. By June, I knew I needed to start focusing more. I found my shoes, finalized our guest list and picked a suit for the groomsmen. I also picked our invitations – enter stress!

(Sidebar: Looking back, these are the things that I could have checked-off my list earlier:)

Invitations
Picked a hair stylist
Finalized ceremony readings and music
Finalized the DJ checklist
Ordered Wedding Bands
My Wedding Day Jewelry
Order Favors

A lot of unexpected details went into the invitations. There are SO many options and styles to choose from. I ordered 6 samples from Etsy to figure out which style fit best with the theme I envisioned for the wedding. Proofreading the invitation itself seemed stressful, but thankfully I had family and friends to help me out, which resulted in many laughs in the process. Along with proofreading my invitation, I also had to proof read and edit the mailing addresses.

After many hours revising and perfecting the invitation, I loved the sample I chose. Unfortunately, the vendor changed the listing I purchased on Etsy and was not clear in communicating the change in the product. When the invitations arrived in August, they were not what I had expected, leading to a minor freak out and a ~~few~~ many tears. Ultimately, I realized that if I ignored the sample they were still beautiful invitations {I actually received a lot of compliments}. I also needed to send the invitations out ASAP, so ordering new ones wasn’t a great option.

By mid-August the stress started setting in and it didn’t seem to be going anywhere. The invitation debacle threw wedding planning slightly off-course. I started to feel like I had so much left to do. By the end of the month, I wasn’t sleeping well and some daily activities that led to frustration even made me cry! I really committed to having 2-3 weeks before the wedding to relax. To do so, I buckled down and stuck to my To-Do list. I was able to get back on track, so by the end of September I was just about where I wanted to be with planning. The finish line was in the distance!

Overall, I actually didn’t think wedding planning was too stressful, but I did hit a few bumps in the road along the way. Towards the end, there were moments that certainly tested my patience. I’d wake up thinking about chipping away at my To-Do checklist. I eventually made it through that rough period of time with 2-3 easy pre-wedding weeks, as planned! I have my checklist to thank for that. Organization is key in preventing wedding stress. I think having a plan and making daily goals are helpful in keeping wedding planning manageable. It is important to remember to take a break when you need to and step back to soak it all in. It is such a special time in life that makes you appreciate and be grateful for all of your blessings. Try not to wish the time away! Go for a walk, get a mani/pedi, have a glass of wine or take a mental health day from work if you need to de-stress…happiness is key!

xo Miss Alyss

Engagement Party: Invites & Decor

June 9, 2017August 19, 2020 Red Rose & HoneyLeave a comment

Hi there! Thanks for checking out my blog. This post is part of my wedding planning series. If you have not read my previous posts on my engagement ring and how I asked my bridesmaids to be part of my wedding day check them out here and here. I have been engaged for over a year now and can’t believe how quickly the time has gone by. It has truly been a special year! As my wedding gets closer I am getting more excited too. In this post I am sharing the details of our engagement party. We had so much fun celebrating with our closest friends and family!

Our parents threw us an engagement party at a great restaurant called Corks & Taps in Bayshore, NY. It has a rustic meets industrial vibe which went perfect with the decor theme I had my heart set on. {More to come on how my wedding vision changed over the last year – stay tuned!} We lucked out with the most perfect fall day and were able to keep the giant front doors open for the entire party. The venue could not have been more perfect. The food was great, the staff was helpful and of course there were a ton of craft beer options on tap! I have to follow a gluten-free diet, so it is very important that the venue prepares everything gluten free. I am happy to say I had no problems with the food. All of our guests had great things to say about the venue.

I ordered our invitations on Etsy which were perfectly coordinated with the beer and wine theme. The seller was very responsive via Etsy messages and turned around my order within 1-2 days. The invite was an instant download which I had printed and cut at Staples. I think the quality of the invites were great. Instant downloads are a way to incorporate affordable invites into your event. There are so many invitation options on Etsy that you can definitely find one for any style or occasion.

As I mentioned in my previous post I gave all of my bridesmaids custom wine glasses which they all brought to the party. My fiance and I also used our matching wine and beer glass set. All of the glasses made for some cute pictures!

I have dreamed about getting married in the fall for as long as I can remember. That dream always included pumpkins. I painted a large pumpkin white with a gold stem and big “S” initial for my future last name. It was super easy to make. I purchased the paint at a craft store and used a stencil to paint the “S.”

My mom purchased all different sized glass vases from the craft store which we filled with corn kernels and yummy scented fall candles. All of the women at the party loved them! These were all snatched up as we left that day. Since the party my mom has re-purposed these vases for all different holidays.

One of my most favorite decorations of the day were the painted mason jars my mom made. She used white chalkboard paint and gave them a rustic look by rubbing them down with sandpaper. A bunch of our guests also took these home because they loved them so much. My uncle is a wonderful florist and he filled the mason jars with the prettiest flowers. He is also the florist for my wedding day!

My MOH gave me a Polaroid camera for my birthday, so I decided to use it at our engagement party to have our guests make a photo/guest book. The film cartridges are a little pricey, so I thought it would be a better idea to use the Polaroid camera at our engagement party versus our wedding (to use less film). I bought a square craft book at Michael’s Crafts that had blank pages. To attach the photos to the book I bought double sided scrap-booking tape that comes in a roller (similar to this one). I suggest using tape that comes in a dispenser over the little squares you have to peel off the tape roll because you don’t want little papers all over. At our party I left the Polaroid camera, the book, tape and some pretty milky gel pens on a table. I love how it turned out and every so often I take out the book to read through all of the notes our guests left us.

I ordered custom signs from Designs by Kari on Etsy with our wedding hashtag, a message for the Polaroid table and a few other sayings. I opened a custom order request because the seller did not have all of the signs I wanted at the time. She was very responsive via Etsy messages and was able to create everything I wanted. I was so happy because I was having a hard time finding signs that I liked in the same colors and fonts. This order was also an instant download which I had printed at Staples. I found picture frames at Marshalls which also go nicely with my home decor so they were all easily re-purposed.

I found metal initials and an “&” sign at Michael’s Crafts which I left out on the bar with other decor. I also bought a few dark wood milk crates from Joanne’s Crafts which we used for our favors and pretty fall mums! Throughout the restaurant I also had some framed pictures of Mike and I. Some of my bridesmaids had given me gifts shortly after getting engaged and they doubled as great party decor! My MOH gave me an “engaged” banner with we used in pictures and I purchased a “love is sweet” banner that we hung over the fire place at the restaurant.

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DSC_3051_1 — Photo by Annie Harris Photography

Possibly my most favorite part of my engagement party decor were the favors! My mom is the best baker ever and she baked our favorite cookies. She uses Bob’s Redmill gluten free oatmeal to make her Monster Cookies gluten free too! I ordered paper bags and thank you stickers from Etsy. The bags of cookies looked so pretty in the wood milk crates, so they doubled as another decoration. We wrapped each cookie in plastic wrap and sealed the bags with the stickers.