The butterfly “Cocoon clip” from whichgoose on etsy, would be whimsical and fun for an unconventional bride or her bridesmaids.

As a regular reader of Snippet and Ink I’ve noticed the cage veil trend around Kathryn’s wedding posts. These veils go by many names, they basically frame the face with a tulle that is more open than regular fine-mesh bridal tulle.

Today I had a chance to try one on at a bridal shop. First of all, it’s $75 with zero embellishment. Then, Ii was way too poofy on top (blech!) but the effect over my EYES and face, knockout. Loved that and will now continue my hunt online for my own veil. I just went to the shop to check it out. They only had that one model and no one in the store knew how to put it on.

I also tried on a five tier veil that goes just to my shoulders. It was all right, but again too poofy (in a different direction), but it was very fun to try these super feminine looks, with my Hollywood makeup all ready to go and my hair done.

Once I got home I got back onto Etsy and looked up bird cage veils. It took about five minutes to locate three that interested me. Here are some of my findings regarding this lovely creations.

Resources

My Modern Vintage Wedding’s article about birdcage veils describes them as unconventional, whimsical and definitively vintage. I love the pictures posted!

My family goes to a price club, so we used them for fresh platters, sandwich platters and so on. We also do a little trick! We get pre-made salads like coleslaw and potato salad, chicken salad… and we added FRESH salads to juice them up and make the whole batch taste homemade. This was done on the day-before, my mom and aunts were in charge of that operation, adding fresh-chopped onions and seasonings to the batches. They turned out to be super yummy. We did a sort of test-run during my East-Coast bridal shower, so that helped weed out what to do/what not to do.

As far as serving, we had a beverage table and we put up rainbow-colored umbrellas above the patio-tables that held the drinks and desserts. The guest-tables had sandwich plates strewn about once it was reception-time and it was a free-seated, picnic sort of operation. I wish we’d had picnic blankets, but you know, one runs out of time to get these things together. I loved the idea of blankets & lawn-games and so on… but really, I wasn’t sure my family would get into it, so I stuck with basics.

To Booze or Not To Booze?

Alcohol was something I thought of, at first, as a side-issue. I don’t drink. My fiance didn’t drink. HOWEVER, I realized my brothers and friends and whoever else might be thirsty, might want a little something, so I made a plan to get beer & wine. Then I bought the wine (I went to Trader Joes and asked for help from the department staff, who guided me very well… to some wines that were just a tad above the “two-buck chuck” a friend had suggested – to some $3-5 bottles that were a MUCH higher calibre drink, supposedly. I don’t know, no one complained!

After that, I said “Dang! This is expensive!” So, after mentioning it to my brothers who would partake – they decided they’d take care of the beer. Thank God!

Incidentally -while at TJ’s I bought an immense amount of cheese spreads and tapenades a few weeks before the wedding. They were forgotten! Nearly $200 of food forgotten in the garage fridge. It was a sad waste of money! I wish I’d remembered it, but, se la vie!

Beverages

I didn’t want a bunch of beverage bottles lying around, so they were in a cooler. I really wanted  cool metal basins of drinks – but I mean, the money runs out! We did try out some drink dispensers for a price club (EXCELLENT, no-questions asked RETURN policies!), but they weren’t worth the effort! So I recommend TESTING drink dispensers with plain water or something before investing in them or finding out last-minute that they only dispense 1/4 of the drink within!

We had iced tea and lemonade. I wanted mint-tea, but again, time is limited and it all comes down to letting other people take over! It certainly wasn’t so important I couldnt let it go. So  regular iced-tea it was, and it was all very lovely. We did the same trick withs ome of the drinks – adding fresh lemonade to pre-made to amp up the “fresh factor” and wow guests. Well, I hoped it wowed them.

Cake

I thought cupcakes were darling, so we ordered cupcakes from the local price-club… However, they came in the wrong icing and decorations. It was a bit like we’d had a girls & boys kindergarten party. Instead of the more elegant white icing I asked for, they were pink & white butterfly cupcakes – and a set of green-iced garden-themed cupcakes. We didn’t really “cut the cake” either, we sort of chowed down on a cupcake together before the party officially ended. Thank God no one was paying much attention. It was not quite a pretty sight. Hah!

The upside was it didn’t even set us back $25, so the flub wasn’t as profound to our wallet… at least we had that

I decided to give my bridesmaids a range of colors and allow them to find their own dress. At first I thought this would be easy! I was so wrong! My suggestions if you choose to take this route are this… Create an “inspiration board” just for your bridesmaids, scour the internet and current retailers stock online (for example, I searched Forever 21, Nordstrom and Macy’s dress shop websites for images of dresses that I felt “fit” the vibe of our wedding, color and style). After finding images of dresses, I even found some images of backdrops and accessories (shoes, hair clips, hair styles, makeup), that I felt would add to the overall effect. I emailed this “guide” with a written description and it helped give everyone an idea of what I hoped to pull together.

This was an image I created to inspire my bridesmaids...

How it worked out was… Everyone kept in touch, sending pictures from their cellphones and emailing the results of their searching. One bridesmaid scoured New York’s discount stores, finding two dresses for under $60 altogether! Another bridesmaid found something locally (I forget where !) and the third most financially strapped bridesmaid borrowed a dress from friends! They all looked gorgeous!
My girls rose to the challenge! It took awkward cell-phone pictures and funny emails back and forth – but I think once we all got over the initial ambiguity on my part (trying not to be too bossy) – we got in the groove Check out how things turned out…I didn’t even notice they’d all matched their nail polish until I saw the pictures months later! They were so together!

See how it turned out…

Dress shopping is something you should begin as soon as you get engaged, just to get used to the weird shopping procedures, the prices, the possibilities out there as far as cut and design and whether or not you want to brave the internet for a made-in-China $50 designer knockoff, etc. I have to say, this is KEY, especially if you are planning your wedding in a short amount of time, say under a year. Because most dress shops must order your dress and alter it to fit, and this takes 5-7 months minimum. Not including time for alterations up after it comes in!

I tried making a veil, but since I’ve found a very reasonable and lovely designer on Etsy who could make me a professional veil with lovely netting (rather than netting that looks like it ought to be holding a bunch of cauliflower in it), I am using the services of Fascinating Creations.

Cindy, proprietor of FC, is very reasonably priced. I orderd a birdcage bandeau style veil in Ivory with these pearly covers for the corner. I wanted something simple and classic, nothing too showy because I want my face and my dress to recieve more attention.

Birdcage Veil

Pearl Comb Covers from Fascinating Creations

Ideas I may want to try:

Amanda of Vintage Glam made this note box featured on Snippet & Ink would be great for my guestbook goal – for guests to write notecards that I can paste into a scrapbook or some sort of album later (tbd). Since this is a destination wedding of sorts, I didn’t want to lug anything bulky around me with on our honeymoon and then back hom to California.

Update: I did order that precise veil and it turned out swimmingly! We talked about the design and since I needed less support I only needed 1 comb-cover for the bobbly-pin type clips that fastened the veil to my hair. Check out this picture!

Birdcage Veil by Fascinating Creations (on Etsy)

Earrings: The earrings were a Macy’s find on sale for $16.00!  They fit the retro-Hollywood feel I was going for.

Veil Pressing: I wasn’t sure how to “press” or iron-out my veil, though I had instructions I did not have time to really do it… My aunt tried her hand at it but was afraid of melting it, so ahead of time, you might consider trying to get hold of your veil soon around the time you order or buy your dress – try to give yourself plenty of time for dress-shopping and fiding your accesories! It was a minor but annoying detail when I saw a couple of the pictures with my veil quite dented-looking :p

But hey! What’s life for, if not for learning

MORE ON THE WAY!

I plan on doing a full detailed post soon about the final-results of the wedding and some helpful tips that helped us get there in just about $2500… It was quite an adventure.

I found two barrettes that had a vintage flourish but were not too bright or overwhelming. Here are the results of my first attempt at veil-making.

The shape was not quite right, I think it needs some more gathering at the barrette to create a little more “curve,” and the netting is a little on the invisible side, but it was fun and interesting how easy it was t create a very simple veil 9if not perfect).

The last picture is a little disaster called “Pixi lipgloss.” I saw some of my shirts and my new sheer-ivory scarf were sort of hanging out in the hallway and getting wrinkly and needed some freshening up. I tossed them in the laundry with some towels that were drying. When I opened the dryer it looked like I’d thrown a cat in there to die, or a roast that had been processed with a lawn mower. Everything was splattered with maroon red and shades of bloody looking lipgloss. The gloss hadn’t even left the vest pocket it had been hanging out in. Ugh. I loved my new scarf. My grandmother offered “Shout” to treat the stains. I began spraying, spraying, spraying. The towels I simply rewashed in hot water with one of those Oxygen cleaners – they came out a bit pink with some splotches but overall they were all right. My scarf and white sweatshirt were still rather disastrous, though. In fact, I’m still working on getting the lipstick out.

My mom arrived back from New Zealand, saying the country was fullo f sheep and entirely beautiful – but rather empty and with nothing to bring home. She was too tired to give a full story, but I updated her on how wedding prep was going so far, so good and hung out with her until she began to really fall asleep.

Falling asleep for me was more difficult. My fiance and I had a long drawn conversation. One of those that started on the right foot but due to some misunderstanding and misinterpretation on both our behalf – it become an entirely different exchange halfway through.  The general topic was our expectations for the honeymoon. In the end, were were asking each others forgiveness. By the time I finally fell asleep it was nearly 5am (again). Birds were chirping and rain was falling steadily, soothing me to sleep. I was glad we ended on a good note, however. Anticipating seeing one another. He is feeling very worn out (without even having had to plan much for the wedding), and said he was nervous about the week ahead with the preparations wrapping up, and with the need to be the “host” in a way to all these people he doesn’t know. I think he doesn’t want to be back on square one this time – but now with my entire family squad there to press and prod him on who he is and what he’s all about! Understandable. I think they will be kind to him though, rather than press and pressure. Let’s hope anyway!

The really important thing is that we, before God, are entering into a covenant to be wed and to make our two lives one from there on out. However the rest goes is actually just details. Hopefully joyful, wonderful details, but it is “details.” The most important thing is what is about to happen in our minds & hearts before God and witnessed by the family and friends gathering around on June 7th.

Oh man. When I hit “Complete Order and spend like $130 on flowers, it’s weeird.So, I ordered these packs:

Pom Pom Assorted $51.00

Hot Rose Assorted $86.00

There are a couples things I’m getting into and I feel in over my head.

I just ordered the flowers. But with like, over 100 stems coming, who is going to get them taken care of? will I be making my own bouquets? I guess I could if I have to.

I knew I didn’t want to wind up with too FEW so I just went for it and now I’ll have like, well over 150.

I was getting down to the line because it takes ten days for the to be delivered and I’d like to get them a day or two ahead of time (they last a long time). I stand corrected – you’re supposed to order them so they come 4 days early and are in full bloom. Also… They’re dry shipped from South America so they need to be taken care of properly once they arrive. Anyway, I feel pressure!

I’ll be displaying centerpieces in wide mouth mason jars of varied heights… and creating simple bouquets (hopefully a friend will create the bouquet for me and maybe simple bridesmaid bouquets)… due to the fact that I don’t even know what my bridesmaids will actually be wearing, I figured an assortment would be nice because the flowers can then be sort of tailor-made to their outfits. I want mine to be really rich and colorful and bright… Since i’m in ivory and Tobiah has a hot pink tie and gray suit.

Our local supermarket had mason jars for a dozen at about $10-12 (sizes varied). Then I went to the local A.C. Moore and ribbon was on sale, 2 rolls for $3 so I bought a selection of magenta and orange ribbons to try out. I think I might want some white ribbon around the jars. I’m not sure. I want to do a test run or something. I think it was about $12.00 total.

I bought balloons today in shades of pink and orange, for the festive yard-separators I’m creating… Balloon pumps to go with. That cost about $30.

I stopped by WalMart to get fabric, hair clips, tablecloths (maybe)… I had the most frustrating shopping experience ever in their fabric department. However, I bought some hot pink tulle to try out in the silverware containers… white tableclothes for like, $10 each, and a “sash” curtain that I think might wind up being the Huppah!Everything was a scary $125.00 or so. There were some other odds and ends involved like hair clips and some wider tulle (I’m goingt o attempt to create my own birdcage veil tomorrow0).

I’m hitting a point of mental and physical exhaustion. Last night I was ready for bed by 10 (went to bed around 2am). It’s barely 1am right now (late, I know, but we’re talking about the most notorious night-owl here!) and I am beyond ready for bed.

I found a hair spray to try in my ever-continuing attempts to do my own hair. It’s a curl boosting hair spray Pantene makes. Let us hope it will work!

Cool links of the day…

Creating your own vintage-look Mason Jars at Bridal Buzz.

Step by step tutorial from Made by Mary Anne, on creating a birdcage veil (pics included).

Tobiah and I have been talking like, three times a day or more. He’s packing, trying to find some odds and ends before coming to New Jersey. He’s got one more church service this Saturday and then he’s heading out Sunday and arriving Monday at Newark Airport, to stay at my family’s till we get married. I hope our second introductions and getting-acquainted time goes more sweetly than our first – last summer he was very much under scrutiny.

Makeup Trial #3

First things  first, this trial run went nicely. Still want a little tiny bit more color on my cheeks and might look for a long-wearing lipstick in red vs. the liner-color-gloss thing I’ve been doing (it wears off if I eat or drink,e tc).

Today I woke up and tried out my soft-retro-glam look, with ALL my new makeup… Smashbox primer to go and new eyeliner. However, Zoom lash from Mac didn’t impress me much (for the money). I had to layer like 3 coats and it just seemed too clumpy for like, $14 or whatever it cost. I didn’t like Urban decay’s Skyscraper, either, so the mascara dilemma continues.

***UPDATE******UPDATE******UPDATE***

Mascara! I found one I loved. Hourglass, Superficial Lash. My lashes are SUPER long, but blonde, I wanted something that was all-around good, somewhat lengthening, somewhat volumizing, water-resistant… and this stuff delivered.

***UPDATE******UPDATE******UPDATE***

S-C-O-R-E

My friend Betsey mentioned these plastic forks and other plastic flatware that are PLASTIC but look like SILVERY METAL… I found the most well known kind, they are called “Reflections” and are a little budget-unfriendly, at $37.00 to provide settings for 25 people. With those numbers I’d have to spend $74. for 50 people to have ONE fork, knife & spoon to use (let alone extra for dessert or serving certain spreads, etc). I looked into dollar store silverware. It’d still be about $50 for 50 people to have a setting… Too hard on the budget just for flatware.

While I took my grandmother Daisy grocery shopping, I decided to pop into our local discount store, Amazing Savings on Route 18 here in East Brunswick. It’s one of those independently run, discounted houseware type joints that has books, kitchenware,  picture frames, party/gift stuff, makeup and all sorts of other closeouts (and a giant scrapbooking section – very nice). I obsessed over the picture frames for a while – I’m looking for a frame to hold a picture of Tobiah and I to put on this little table on the patio.

Once I was finished with frames I turned the corner and there is a rack full of silvery plastic flatware. What? No stampede for this stuff? This plastic flatware is called “Silver Spoons” (instead of “Reflections”) and it was a fraction of the price at $1.29 for a packet of 20. I bought 100 each of spoons, knives and forks; adding up to a whopping $15.48! I also bought their serving spoons & forks for the snacks and spreads and salads – for $.0.99 a pack, it was just a blessed moment of shopping.

Bonus – I found cute little baskets that fit the silverware very nicely. I’ll tie a ribbon around the basket, put a napkin or little cloth inside and BOOM, adorable flatware baskets for the food tables. I have enough budget that I could even put OUT settings on the table to look nice.

I was very satisfied. I also found a chipboard sign that says “cherish,” which I want to find a spot for (either in the house or out in the yard hanging from some ribbon or something sweet.

HAIR

As for my hair woes, Tobiah’s sister is a stylist. He put her on the phone with me and she gave me some ideas for the back – like pinning the hair across the back in an “X” pattern, or pinning each curl individually. I need to take much more time with the back of my hair than I have been. I’ve been expecting too much from too little. More on that later. But you see how it came out today was not terrible, but I want it to get this right… Because I’m thinking I’m doing my hair and makeup almost for sure.

Next, I took my brother to pick up his car at the shop (it broke down earlier this weekend), and headed over to Trader Joes while I was in the area. I stood in Trader Joes staring at the many, many bottles of Two-Buck Chuck. Totally at a loss, I had no idea what-went-with-what. I had to call my brother (after calling my fiance to see if he even wanted alcohol at all – we’re both in recovery! Then I called his mom. My mom’s in New Zealand. Then I called my bridesmaids. I woke one of them up from a nap, so I didn’t really discuss the question. Then finally I called my brother and just asked him to check the TJ’s website for what-goes-with-what (they have a chart). THEN I finally told an employee my plan… $2.99 a bottle was about my budget. He actually redirected me and said, buy some$3.99 bottles (Blue Fin, Purple Moon, I don’t know, other pretty sounding names) and get some Chuck to bring out as they run out. I didn’t want to spend all this money but since I decided to get wine, (now I feel like I have to get beer, too…), I sort of regret it… But I do want this to be a good host sort of thing. If I reneg, I will just suck it up and go back to Westfield to return the wine I bought… It’s not too late. It’s just a waste of time though, it’s like a half hour drive to go back north to the TJ’s closest to me with a wine section.

Anyway. Wine drama aside, I bought my grandmother a mini-rose as a thank you present for her contribution not only to the food expense, but also to sprucing up the backyard big time. She shelled out about $200 for 700lbs of soil plus PLANTS – a handful of perennials from Home Depot – Digitalis (Foxglove), Lupine, day lilies (and OH, are they GORGEOUS)! Then there were like a million Petunia plants in various shades of pink and purple – Snapdragons and Geraniums, as well. Pictures to come… Today my little brother roto-tilled the garden ($54 rental for the afternoon) which improved it’s appearance dramatically. It was gray and worn out and empty – but now it’s spruced up and just needs some marigolds and new vegetable plants for it to look neat and purposeful again. It already contains roses and some lovely perenials.

I have to say, my mind is swimming. Utterly swimming. Yesterday Tobiah said he just appreciates what I’m doing so much. He said he’s so impressed at how I’m working on this project and how it’s coming along. I was really sincerely touched and appreciated him telling me that! This has been hard work. We’re both so psyched about getting married it’s cute. I think he misses me more at this point, but perhaps only because I am constantly, CONSTANTLY getting ready for the ceremony and party that mark the beginning of our lives with one another. So, I am sort of constantly occupied these days.

Which is all a bit tiring! Today I just felt mentally worn out, walking the mall for the 4th time in two weeks… Thinking non stop about one thing or another. My current proccupation is well earned though – with about a week and a half, I need to keep moving at this pace and everything that needs to happen will probably come together.

The big missing peices are… decor, rentals (tables and chairs), and vows/ceremony outline and the favor tables/guestbook stuff. Basically everything that will be AT the reception. Food and beverages are loosely planned. Despite hearing how wonderful Costco is, I’m going with Sams Club because it’s literally a mile from our wedding site. I’ve decided to go with simple floral arrangements that can be made a few days before the wedding with Carnations (unless I kind an amazing deal on flowers through a florist). We have a family friend who will design my bouquet, possibly. I want to either do simple single-flower bouquets for my bridesmaids or give them a single gorgeous bloom to hold with a pretty ribbon around it.

I saw these cool Carnation arranements I want to recreate using compote-type platters and floral foam. They are sort of domed plates or platters full of blooms. I thought on a white table cloth, with white containers, carnations of hot orange or pink would be really pretty out on a summer day.  Then we can also tie them into smaller arrangements around the other tables and inside the house. I can get 300 carnations for about $100.00 through Sams Club. If I can’t have my bouquet done by our friend, I’m just going to the store to buy a premade bouquet and tying it together day-of. At this point I just want to hold a bunch of pretty flowers for a couple hours and nosh on some yummy stuff – eat cupcakes and get my dance on with my new husband!

Oh, so I went to Old Navy yesterday with my little brother Dylan and we were so confused. We walked through the whole store and didn’t see any flip flops. Oh, how come? Because it was 1pm in the afternoon and every pair in stock was GONE! Yes! G-O-N-E! The only sizes left were like, white womens flips in size 5. Bah! So, seeing Betsey’s advice about how someone did that and they had tons of sandals left over made me realize, I am so glad they were all gone. It’s a nice idea, but come on! I’m on a budget and it wouldn’t be worth it anyway. My guestlist includes like, 1/3 people my age and 2/3 people over 60 anyway, if they aren’t wearing comfortable shoes for a garden wedding – kick them off and go barefoot. We might all be barefoot anyway, if I am, everyone is Well, not necessarily, but I didn’t want to look totally short next to everyone if I did go barefoot! So I thought it might be a cute group thing! Or maybe just a Tobiah & I thing.

Another thing… Vows, ceremony, etc. I made an outline of the ceremony. It’s rough, but it includes elements of the Jewish traditions and some Christian elements. For example, instead of having my four brothers walk me down the aisle, they’ll walk with the bridesmaids (as groomsmen), and my mom will give me away (though I’m not sure she wants to… she said she will…). It’s Jewish tradition for the brides parents to present her to her betrothed. I’d like to have a friend read I Corinthians 13, and also some of the blessings are so lovely in the Jewish tradition. During the ring ceremony, I want to say the Hebrew version of “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine” and Tobiah can say the English (my Hebrew’s a little better hehe). We want to break the glass (which can apparently be substituted with a light bulb)… and I like the tradition of having a yihud – which is just a few moments of time alone! After the kiss, Tobiah and I would go off together for 15 minutes of solitude with one another. Then back to the party.

This blog is ginormous! Probably because the immensity of what is running through my mind lately has just been so vast. Not just this stuff but I’ve been comparison shopping for chair rentals, talking to the DJ, talking to the photographer, thinking through table settings and decorations and tents needed for food (or umbrellas) and the need to make a weekend-plan for the days leading up to the BIG day… Ugh. So much. I thought I lost my notebook where I’ve been keeping track of ideas and numbers  – thank God it was right next to me in my car! It was just in a blind spot or something. It’s getting to crunch time and I know it. I just have to keep going.