"All you need is love"

Eric liked my DIY bouquet!!! (Not that i expected him to not like it, but I wanted him to like it too!) He told me that I get the "Go" to make our wedding flowers if I want (Which I do because it will save us so much money). It's really tempting to not even make the stuff with afloral.com. They have amazing prices for all of the silk flowers and pre-made bouquets. The only thing that would make them a gold mine would be if you would request a certain bouquet to be made. They have tons of options and they average about $10- $14 each! That's even cheaper than me making my own on a 50% off sale! I think I will definitely make my bridal bouquet because I want it exactly the way I want it, but I was considering Hydrangeas for the bridesmaids and the boutonnieres and the website has pre-made hydrangea bouquets for under $13.00 each. I would have no problem keeping in my budget. I just dont know if I want them to carry hydrangeas.....They probably will though because if we go with the floral designed bridesmaid dress, I dont want any excess clutter from a bouquet. I would want something simple and cream colored. I could then decide if I would want to do hydrangeas for my centerpieces, which would also be very inexpensive, or keep with the wildflowers, which would likely run us more money because you dont get as much bang for your buck and you need a lot more to fill the space. I suppose I could do like 90% hydrangea centerpieces and through a couple wildflowers in the mix and then I am incorporating my flowers and the bridesmaid flowers....I think I like that idea.

Here is a picture of the Hydrangea bouquet:
(add maybe a purple ribbon on the stem and it's ready to go!)

Here is what the boutonnieres would look like (to the left). In the tutorial on afloral.com, Sandy, the designer, said you can make 5 boutonnieres out of ONE hydrangea bush. Talk about affordable!!!


Eric and I also worked on a budget breakdown today and with a 10k budget (which is the very most we hope to be able to afford with savings, tax rebates and profit sharing), we SHOULD have no problem paying for the wedding. (and this 10k does NOT include dress alterations, tux rental, wedding bands, my jewelry and shoes  OR the hotel room for Friday night and saturday night). It certainly wont be extravagant, and instead of being able to afford a cake from a baker, we will probably have to use walmart or Kroger. We probably wont be able to spend a lot of money decorating, but in the end, as long as we are getting married and our close friends and family are present, we'll be happy. "All you need is love," baby :)

I hope to be able to afford some of the little things though, like getting my hair and nails done. Maybe even makeup, if I am lucky!! I plan to wear closed toe flats, so I dont have to worry about a pedicure! I'm pretty sure if we stay strict on our budget, we'll be fine. We're both really good about money.

On a side note, one of my best friends from childhood came down last night with her hubby! (Laura & Phil). We have a good time. We met Eric at Capital Ale and had dinner and drinks there. Then we came home and played a game until it was time for bed. I dont get to see them often, so this was a nice surprise! Eric had a great time too. Its nice to hang out with friends your age even now and again! LOL.

Well, I'm going to get back to hanging out with my favorite person. Thanks for reading!