Of shoes and ships and Sealing Wax

Ok, not of shoes and ships but of sealing wax.

Sealing wax has always facinated me. It seems make the most simple envelope look elegant and opulent.

I'm sure there have been a million posts on sealing wax on a bunch of other wedding related blogs but...here it is anyways.

I haven't tried it yet but here is step by step instructions that look pretty detailed with little helpful hints along the way from Pinapple Girl

Light it up!

As I read through Martha Stewart's "50 Tips for the Perfect Reception" tip number 2 "Get Glowing" really caught my eye. I simply do not have the budget for a professional to do my lighting, while I would love to have that sort of major major impact at the reception, it's just not one of my priorities. But it would be very nice to come up with a budget friendly way to create cool effects with lighting. The editors at Martha suggested laminaria and I was off to the hunt...
How about the very traditional and very inexpensive paper laminaria?

How about the very traditional and very inexpensive paper luminaria?

Curtesy of Pineapple Girl complete with step by step directions on how to create them (not that you'll need them they're pretty easy)

Another inexpensive option (and green if you recycle) is the tin can luminary

These pics are from the DIY network with the cool idea of freezing water in the cans before you punch holes so the can keeps it's shape.

And my favorite...the very cute and unique hardware cloth luminaria

From HGTV. I like them because i've never seen them before (I'm all about being an individual in subtle ways)

Now imagine any of these three options lining a pathway into your reception venue. The last two could easily be hung from trees to create a sparkling fairy effect. Oh the possibilities!

Color Palette Generator

Months and months away from the wedding and the thing I'm most concerned about is a color palette. I mean most brides pick a dress that they base the rest of the wedding on, right? Not me. Haven't stepped foot in a dress shop, it just feels too early to do that. And yet, I've already gone through 4 different, well thought out color palette ideas (more on those later).
I did stumble upon this Color Palette Generator though! And it's so cool! It's used really to aid in designing web sites. You enter the url of a picture that you like and once you hit "Color-Palette-ify!" it gives you 4 "dull" and 4 "bright" colors (including the corresponding hexadecimal). So neat!Of course you need to find the url of a picture that you like (the url should end in .jpg or some other picture form). But I think it's pretty nifty and just plain fun.

Unity Alternative

I saw this at a wedding we attended a few months ago (thank you Josh)

You can find them at Glass Dimensions in a few different shapes with a number of different symbols (wedding rings, hearts, cross etc)
I like the idea of a unity candle and it's something my fiance feels pretty strongly about but i'm sort of nervous b/c the wedding is outside. What if it's really windy? Do you think an oil lamp unity candle would hold up better in the wind? We would still have to use regular taper candles for the bride and groom candles but those going out doesn't bother me as much. Call me superstitious but something about the unity candle going out during the ceremony seems ominous to me.
How many brides out there had unity candles and an outdoor ceremony? Was the wind a problem?

Come Rain or Shine

My favorite find since I've started scouring the internet for cute DIY project has been these.

Now I'm not a huge fan of plastering my monograms everywhere but I just thought it was sooo cute. They are a little pricey at Pamelas Parasols ($82 for one letter on the thing ) and I'm sure it would be a little more labor intensive than I would like to do more than one. But one pretty parasol with a bright red D on it? I think I can do that
Meanwhile I'm loving these other printed parasols I found at Pearl River for the rest of my guests.

The decorative ones are still a little pricey at around $12.50 but the plain colored ones are $4.50. The best part is they are oil coated so they are supposed to stand up to rain (so the website says). This isn't to say I would still hold the ceremony outside in the pouring rain but one of those misty-not-quiet-rain days...something to contemplate.
Plus doesn't this just look like so much fun?? Especially on a nice and bright afternoon/early evening to keep our guests comfortable in the sun.

Courtesy of Eileen and Dean on theknot.com

Hole in One!

Alright, so we left off after the second vineyard, quite upset that we had completely struck out on our first reception search (and that that girl was so rude). My fiance spotted a mini-golf place. Now, mini-golf is one of the very few pieces of ammunition I have when my fiance exclaims he can beat me at anything I tell him not put put. So, instead of starting the hour drive back to the house he decided he wanted a rematch, and man I'm glad he did!!
As we pulled up to Pine Creek Miniature Golf we were not expecting to find what we did. This place is like a full scale country club for miniature golfers! As we began our third hole, taking in all of the scenery we both began thinking the same thing "Why can't we have the wedding here?". Now, I know, the hilarity of the situation does not escape me, a wedding at a put put course? You must be joking. But, my friends, I am not. Just take a look at these pictures!

They even have swans!!!
With 28 acres of land they have plenty of open space for the ceremony and tent for the reception.
Being that it was 8pm on a saturday night we didn't expect to get a lot of information about the site from the teenage boys working there that night. Fortunately these boys were some of the most helpful people We've come across in our search for a venue. They told us there was a party there just the day before for 500 people and a wedding just three weeks ago!!!! The extra extra cool bonus?? They let you bring in your own caterer and booze!! The boys gave us a flyer with pricing info and a business card for the club's general manager. Thank you boys!
We still want to have dancing and music in the reception tent and all of the bells and whistles of the first dance and cake cutting etc. But if dancing isn't your thing, or mini golf is our guests can head out to the courses for a little over 7 dollars a person (we'll have the RSVP on whether or not they would like to play, and make it clear somehow that they should bring some money if they plan on playing). Meanwhile my groom and I can travel along the courses taking guest shots and mingling
So, what do you think?? Is a mini-golf place way too out there, even if it does look like this?

Wine Wine Wine

My FI and I have been talking about the wedding for awhile before the engagement but still there are only a few things we know for certain about a possible venue right now. First off, we want the ceremony to be outside in a lovely setting without being too pretentious and after that great food, dancing and beer. The combination of these musts with the extra constraint of a small budget has made finding a reception site a little difficult. A state park would be precisely the sort of venue we would like the ceremony as far as looks, however there are two problems with a state park...no where to go in case of rain and no alcohol allowed. The first could be fixed with a tent, a little on the expensive side, but manageable. The second requires somewhere completely different. My next thought was a vineyard. Generally excluded gorgeous rolling hills and if you do you're homework you can find one that does large parties on a regular basis. Again, we run across the problem of not being able to bring our own alcohol (many vineyards don't allow you to serve any alcohol but their wine). The possibility still existed to hold the ceremony at the vineyard and the reception at a different place if necessary.
For those who were not aware, there are actually a number of vineyards in New Jersey. You can find a lot of them at the Garden State Wine Growers Association site. So yesterday my FI and I set off for the closest two vineyards to his house in Jersey that had the space for a large event. The first was Unionville Vineyards. It was absolutely gorgeous and very experienced in large events. So, what's the problem? Apparently Unionville Vineyards is prohibited by the state to hold weddings at their site, any other event is fine, just not a wedding. But we did taste all of their wine, very tasty. They were very friendly and let us know of a few other vineyards in NJ (and right over the river in PA) that would be able to help us out.
The next step was Hopewell Valley. Our initial impression of this vineyard was not as great as Unionville. It was hopelessly flat and we had our heart set on those rolling hills and pretty trees. It didn't help the situation that the woman we spoke to was just plain rude. She was no one particularly important and took my information so that someone could get back to me. In the mean time she let me know that no outside alcohol was allowed, when i said "Really?", in an inquisitivevoice, "Even kegs?" she replied very sarcastically "Yeeeeees! Beer is alcohol!". Something about her just rubbed both of us the wrong way so we set off on the road again sort of dejected.
Along the road however, we came across the subject of my next post....Put put golf!!!!
In the mean time, what sort of things did you consider when choosing a ceremony and reception venue?