The start of my DIY to do list

So to help save on costs for the wedding I am planning on making as much as I can without going crazy and turning into a bridezilla. So here is what I have so far on my to do list:

- Card Box: I want to make a photo frame card box and I found a great tutorial on the Road to the Aisle blog.

(Note: I do not remember where I got this picture from. If it is yours please let me know so I can credit you)

- Save the Dates: I want to take an engagement photo that we will have taken in August and create cute save the dates to send out to everyone invited.
- Invitations: I want to order my paper from Anchor Paper and create my own pocketfolds. I wasn't going to do this but after pricing some online, normal invitations plus all the inserts was going to run me anywhere from $600-$800 and I am not going to pay that
- String Chandeliers - I saw these and I fell in love with them and I think they would look perfect hanging at our reception. I found a tutorial on the Ruffled blog and they seem pretty simple to make.

(Credit: Ruffled Blog)

As for now that is all I have on my list. What types of projects did you plan on doing? What projects did you actually complete?

Wedding Planning

So while we were in Charleston, we visited a few locations for our wedding reception. I took pictures at each location so I would be able to look back at them and compare later on. So our first stop was to The Charleston National Golf Club. It was a very pretty location but it was a little far up from where we were wanting and it just wasn't what we were envisioning for the reception.

Outside of the Charleston National Golf Club, this is where guests would enter

This is where the reception would be held.

Our next stop was at two locations owned by the same company, Lighthouse on the Creek and also Cottage on the Creek. First up was Lighthouse, it was gorgeous and by far my favorite of the two. I loved the fact that it felt more relaxed and that it was on the water.

We forgot to take a picture while we were standing out front so we had to get a quick drive by picture.

This is where either dancing or the tables would be located.

The outside area with the bar

More space for either tables or dancing

The last stop for the day was Cottage on the Creek. It was pretty and had an amazing outdoor area but the inside just wasn't what I was really looking for. 

The best picture of the outside I could get

Downstairs area could be used for dancing or tables

Indoor balcony area upstairs overlooking Shem Creek

Outdoor deck where tables could be placed

So at the end of the day we went home and started looking back through all the pictures we had taken and had pretty much decided on Lighthouse on the Creek as our location. The next day we heard back from another location, the Creek Club at I'On. 

:Looking at the back of the building from the water

 One of the side porches with a fireplace, also the bar is at the end of the porch

The other porch with rocking chairs

View of part of the inside

So we left knowing that this is where we definitely wanted to hold our reception and decided we would call back the next day and sign the contract. We were then told someone had already placed a temporary hold on the place and we would have to wait until after the weekend to see if they still wanted it.We were all pretty devestated and hated thinking we had to start looking for other locations. 

What part of wedding planning has gotten you stressed out?

On the set of Army Wives!!!

Well kind of. So during the first few days of being in Charleston we went looking around for the houses from Army Wives. Thanks to a blog I stumbled across called He Wears Combat Boots, I Wear Stilettos I was able to find most of the locations I was looking for. So here are my pictures from my little sight seeing adventure.

This was the first house we stumbled upon and it is Joan and Roland's house. It was interesting because when you looked around it was the only house that had bright green grass.

 Here I am in front of Frank and Denise's house

View of Frank and Denise's house from the street

The Holden house, I wish I could have gotten a better picture and actually got to go look around but there was a security guard sitting in a car. I'm guessing because there was a gospel sing festival thing going on since it was Easter weekend and they didn't want people messing with anything.

The pergola in front of the Holden house

The Administration building

An up close view of the stars on General Holden's parking spot at the Administration building.

 This picture kind of speaks for itself but it's the HUMP BAR!! I was so excited to find this.

Of course, I had to get a picture in front of it.

That ended my tour of the locations we could find of Army Wives, and thanks to the wonderful blog I mentioned above I was able to find them. The funny thing is last August when we were on vacation in Charleston we walked around in the River Front Park but never drove up into the houses and somehow I missed the Hump Bar on the drive through.

But if anyone needs help finding these places the houses are located in the housing subdivision right near River Front Park in North Charleston. I believe one of the street's is called Navy Way or something to that effect. But the easiest way that I found the hump bar was driving from downtown Charleston. We drove straight up Meeting St. towards North Charleston and it was on the left side of the road. I tried going the opposite way and totally somehow never found it. But I hope this helps someone!

I'm Baaack!

I bet you thought I fell off this whole blogging thing like I normally do, didn't you? Well I just went on vacation and sorta forgot to post at all while I was there. But oh well I guess I will just make up for it all now.

So my fiance, mother, and I went to Charleston, SC for a vacation/wedding planning trip over my spring break. We had meeting scheduled pretty much every day but Friday, so it was more business that relaxation which kinda sucked. But, we visited 4 locations for receptions, and 1 photographer. We were supposed to visit 2 photographers, but after meeting with the first we realized we wanted her and didn't even want to see the other.

So we got both of those booked (I will have seperarte posts for those) now I just need to get other things booked or at least narrow the vendors down. 

Do you ever have crazy weeks where you feel like all you do is run? What do you do to keep yourself sane?

My first challenge

So since I had to make another card anyways I decided to find a sketch from a challenge so it would be a little bit more fun. This challenge is over at the Random Acts of Creativity blog and it is Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #7. Here is the sketch:

So I decided to use black cardstock for the card itself, We R Memory Keepers Promenade paper for the background color, some random Prima flowers I had laying around, and also some little bling jewels. I used a piece of blue scrap ribbon to put across the middle and I stamped the word Thanks! in Bahama blue by Memento Ink and I also heat embossed it. 

Here are all of my materials before I got started

And here is the final product

So stressed out!

So wedding planning and school is starting to officially stress me out. I'm so glad I will be on vacation all next week, I definitely need it. Well if you rember my previous post about reception locations I was telling you about our favorite location at Boone Hall Plantation. Well, I found out today they are booked all the way through June 2012. WOW I never realized I needed to start looking more than 13 months in advance but apparently I needed to start in November. Why so early you may ask? Well, I decided to start calling even more locations to go visit and every single one is booked up! I have called 16 places and I have found 2 that are available as of now, and one location had a temporary hold on our date so she said she would call the couple and see if they were still interested. I feel like I am going to have a breakdown I never thought it would be this difficult to reserve a wedding location. I will be calling more places but I'm just so discouraged. And on top of all that I have a final on Thursday that I have yet to start studying for and I just found out that I need to make yet another card for my clinical unit. Ugh so lets see 2 cards, study for test, find reception locations. Let's see if I can get this all done without freaking out.

So out of the multiple locations I called today here are the ones available:

Charleston National Golf Club

A view of the outside of the facility (Photo Credit: Kate McKinley Photography)

Here is the room we would be using (Photo Credit: Kate McKinley Photography)

What the room would look like with tables (Credit: Kate McKinley Photography)

It's not exactly what we were looking for but it is very pretty. We also found an availability at the SC Aquarium. They will be sending me more photo's than what is on their website so whenever I get those I will post away.

Thanks for everything

Yay, I finished my card for my clinical instructor and I guess I'm ok with how it turned out. I'm not used to making cards for guys except my fiance and I put bows and ribbons and flowers on a lot so this was a really tough challenge for me. But here are some pictures I hope everyone likes it :)

Here are all of my materials before I started. I probably sat here for a good hour just trying to figure out what I was going to do. Then I finally had an idea and then about three others.

 I thought at first that I wanted to add a strip of paper behind that had embossed lines on it but later decided I wasn't a fan of it at all. So I came up with another idea.. 

Getting rid of the lines and just keeping it plain was my next thought. But I really wasn't a fan of it either so you can tell I started to take my ink pad to the bottom right half of it. I decided to distress the edges to give it more of a masculine look like the yellow oval has.

Once I was finished with that I still wasn't happy so I decided the patterned paper needed some distress ink also. And this is the finished product and hopefully I don't change my mind on anything else to add.

Do you ever get those projects that you just can't seem to figure out what you really want it to look like? What do you end up doing?