Two-tiered veil, worn once, $15.00
Centerpiece buckets. 12 Short Pink Bucket; 5" tall, 6.5" across opening, 4 Tall Pink Bucket; 8.5" tall, 4.5" across opening, 9 Short Orange Bucket; 5" tall, 6.5" across opening, 4 Tall Orange Bucket; 8.5" tall, 4.5" across opening; Buckets are $3.00/each. I also have 1 large pink tub and 1 large orange tub for $8.00/each.
2000 count beverage napkins, white, 1-ply, 4" x 4", $8.00
Vendor Reviews
A++++ Photo Albums: www.mypublisher.com ; I wasn’t sure how the quality would be on these. I ordered the largest album and had just under 100 pages. The quality was great and I loved how the book turned out. I highly recommend this to anyone! I made one book for each set of parents. I haven’t finished our book but I think we’re going to have to have two because of the number of pictures. I got a great deal and ordered when they were 50% off. Now, I’m waiting for another coupon! The software was so easy to use and it wasn’t nearly as frustrating as I thought it would be.
A+ Hair & Make-up: Summer Manley from the Hairspray Café in Overland Park; I only had her do my make-up because my step-mom did my hair. I loved how my make-up turned out even though I didn’t give her any pictures and we didn’t do a trial. She did my bridesmaids’ hair and make-up and they all looked lovely. A couple of them had short hair and she still managed an updo for them. Summer brought her mom along to assist her. They showed up on time and were very personable. The prices were right and I would highly recommend Summer!
A+ Dress: David's Bridal; Style: T8589,Strapless satin A-line gown with beaded metallic embroidery on the bodice and train. Also features a split back and a chapel train; I never had any problems with DB. My dress fit perfectly so I didn’t require any alterations except for having the bustle done. Everything went very smoothly!
A+ BM Dresses: My step-mom is making them! They're a copy of the Jim Hjelm Style: #JH0055T; Mango satin-faced taffeta A-line tea-length gown, V-neckline, natural waist with raspberry satin ribbon belt; The ribbon belts didn’t work out as well as we had planned & the dresses were very see-through so the ladies were very nekkid underneath! They still looked great though!
A Tuxes: Mens Wearhouse, Olathe; 3-Button Notch Lapel Tuxedo, Groom in white vest & tie, Groomsmen in Platinum vest & tie, & Ushers & Fathers in Black vest & tie; We got a really great deal on the tuxes at the PWG Bridal Show last summer. I think the guys only paid $60 for everything – tux, shirts, shoes, socks, vest, and tie. The only trouble we had was when we went to pick them up. They had the ushers in black vests instead of platinum b/c they said that traditionally, the fathers stand out because it’s their children getting married. I was about to get really peeved when I told them that we weren’t traditional & that’s not the way we had set it up. Needless to say, they fixed it & everything worked out just fine.
A Photographer: Scott E. Thomas & Daughter, Raytown; (816) 313-7673. ; We had worked with Jessica (the daughter portion of the business) for everything – our engagement pictures, picking out our package, ordering our engagement pics, etc. On the day of the wedding, her father, Scott, and another man took all of our pictures. They were great but they didn’t go off our must-take list at all. There were several shots that we didn’t get that we really wanted (the one with the Thank You signs for our thank you postcards, the one some guests on the dance floor in black & white, with Kevin and me in the middle in color for our enlarged signature matte). The great thing is that they give us a high resolution cd of all of our photos and we can have them printed anywhere. I bought some photo editing software in case I’m the one who has to do this (eeekkkk)!
A Flowers: HyVee, 119th & Ridgeview; Kathleen Thorington (913) 393-4150; Our flowers were so much better than I could have envisioned! I love, love, love what Kathleen did with my bouquet! The only negative was that it was so heavy! All of the flowers looked wonderful & no one could believe that they came from HyVee! The only problem is that the delivery person was about 30 minutes late in getting the flowers to the church so that we could start pictures.
A+ Church: Saint Michael's and All Angels Episcopal Church, 67th & Nall, Mission, KS; We have received so many wonderful compliments on our church but especially on our minister, Lisa Senuta. She performed such a beautiful ceremony and it was very personal and intimate. We also had a Nazi Wedding Planner that was provided by the church (we had to pay her $150, no choice). She was rude and not enjoyable at all!
A+ Rehearsal Dinner: Bristol Bar and Grill, Town Center Plaza, Leawood; Lisa (913) 663-5777; This is the best place ever! I had never eaten here before but it was fabulous! We had right at 50 guests but it was still very comfortable. The food was terrific and everyone had a wonderful time!
A Reception Hall: TC's Dance Club International, 9050 Metcalf Ave., Overland Park, Ken Shaver (913) 642-7410; I can’t believe that this place isn’t more popular! Again, we had so many wonderful it looked! The only negative thing here is that we had to rent so many tables, chairs & linens. It was well worth it, though!
A+ Caterer: Brancato's Catering, Grandview, JoAnna Brancato-Janesko (816) 765-1444; JoAnna was awesome! I felt like I changed our contracts on our catering & rentals so many times in the last few weeks but she stuck with me and did everything I asked. The food was terrific & even though they told us that we couldn’t have the leftovers, they gave them to us anyway. Our friends greatly enjoyed that!
A+ Bar Services: We provided our own alcohol & bartenders; We had an engaged couple from Lawrence bartend for us. They did a great job! We bought our alcohol from Lukas Liquors at 119th & Metcalf. They were so helpful in assisting us with how much alcohol we needed. We had about 1 bottle of each liquor left over and a little bit of beer.
A+ Margarita Machine: KC Margarita Man, www.kcmargaritaman.com; This was this hit of the party! We rented 2 machines and had lime margaritas in 1 & strawberry in the other. It was well worth the $$$!
A+ Cake: HyVee, 119th & Ridgeview; Theresa (913) 491-6233; It looked so good! Unfortunately, the only bite I had was one during the ceremonial cake-cutting!
A DJ: Light It Up Entertainment, Manhattan, http://www.kansasdiscjockey.com, Peter (785) 565-8054; We gave Peter our playlist & he took it from there. From what I could tell, he did a great job (even though he ventured off our list a few times & that was annoying me!). There was never a time when the dance floor was empty!
F Honeymoon: Sandals, Antigua; Diann, Great Escape Travel,(913)341-4926, www.greatescapetravel.biz www.greatescapetravel.org; Our travel agent was wonderful in the beginning but Sandals WAS NOT!!! I do not recommend Sandals to anyone! I don’t know if they’re all as bad as the one in Antigua but the service was very poor. Our honeymoon oceanview suite had no view of the ocean. Instead, our view from our patio consisted of green plywood, yellow caution tape, an open trench, two A/C units & a station where the butlers & housekeeping would place room service trays with half-eaten food that they’d picked up from the rooms. There were cockroaches (we have pictures) and ants in our room, too. After complaining for three days, they finally moved us. We had to threaten to check out and start looking for another place to stay before they did anything, though. Also, we paid $50/day extra for the concierge/butler service. We got there at 9:00pm Monday & didn’t meet our butler until 5:30pm on Wednesday.
A+ Day-of coordinators: Knotties Otis & carli&jonathon; These two did a fabulous job! I’m so thankful that they were there to pull everything together for me! If something did go wrong, I didn’t know about it. It was so nice to sit back, relax & enjoy the day without worrying if everything had been taken care of. In case you didn’t know, Otis has started her own business of being a wedding coordinator. I highly recommend that you contact her and talk to her about what she can do for you!
Some of the Pictures (professional & non-professional):
Monica’s getting her hair done by Summer Manley from the Hairspray Café.
The two girls on the left have pretty short hair. This is Summer’s final product.
Mary’s putting body shimmering powder on me.
KC Knottie GTG 8.22.06
Bling Shot!!! KC Knottie GTG 8.22.06
Some of our engagement pics taken by Jessica Thomas
non -pro pic; Kevin and I at Arrowhead for Pitt State vs. Northwest!
My E-Ring
My wedding band
My e-ring & wedding band. It will look a lot better (hopefully) after they’re soldered(sp?) together. Over 2 carats there! Wowza!
Kevin's wedding band. Check out the bling!!!
Oustide of Saint Michael's
Inside of Saint Michael's
Inside of Saint Michael's
A view of our reception hall, TC’s Dance Club International.
Another view
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Our invitations. Nice & simple. Print-your-own kit from Michael’s. I bought them when I had a coupon for 40% off one item. My friends helped me to collect coupons and I bought about 8 packages of 50 invitations for around $150. What a bargain! Sorry for deleting the pic but it has too much personal info & I’m trying to figure out how to black it out before posting on here.
Close-up of the verse we chose to start our invitation.
Maps that I designed and enclosed with our invitations. Written directions and accommodation information are on the back of the maps. I printed these on plain white 65# cardstock.
Our rehearsal dinner invitations. Print-your-own from Target. Sorry for deleting the pic but it has too much personal info & I’m trying to figure out how to black it out before posting on here.
An idea for layered programs
Here are the basket & pillow that my step-mom made! They’re so cute! Our flower girl is going to be a little over 2 years old & she’s very petite. She’ll be so cute with this tiny basket! I’m having my step-mom add the same little charm to the pillow that’s on the basket & it will be more of a square bow like the pillow above.
My bouquet will look a little like this and the next one. White roses with pink tips, white calla lilies & lime green hydrangea. My bridesmaids will carry bouquets that have fuschia/hot pink roses and more hydrangea (no callas). That's the plan for now.
Another bouquet I like.
How the bouquets will be tied.
For centerpieces, we're going to put bottles of wine in a bucket at the center of each of our round tables. I found some hot pink & orange pails at Gordman’s in 2 different sizes. Then, we'll put some votives & flower petals around the outside along with a wine glass at each setting. That way, each table has their wine ready & chilled for the toast!
The mountain of wine glasses that we bought! Now I just need to wash all of them! Yuck!
Votives to go around buckets. I'm going to purchase the clear votives as soon as I can find some that don’t taper, some vellum & adhesive & try to make these. Instead of using these as placecards, we’re just using them as decoration. I might type meaningful words such as Love, Faith, etc. and put our names & wedding date on the back. We’ll see. 7-31-06: I’ve given up on this idea & will resort to plain clear votives! YEAH!
Our personalized dinner napkins which will alternate at the place settings.
Close-up of personalization.
How our cake will almost look. 3-tier, sqare layers, white frosting, same ribbon that's on the BM dresses will be around the bottom of each layer. My tossing bouquet will be on the top and there will be lots of white rose petals with pink tips strewn all over. We aren't having the scrollwork on our cake, though. Simple & elegant. I think it's going to be a white cake with rasberry filling, champagne filling or both in different layers. To save money, we're having them make a sheet cake, cut it in half & stack it so when it's cut it will look like it came from the other cake. It will be pre-cut & ready to serve, saving our cake-cutters some energy to dance!
Cake servers I found online at http://juliespracticalart.com. I recreated some myself & only spent about $15 rather than ordering them online for $65! Go Me!
How I'd like the children's activity table to look.
Farewell sparkler idea. Still working on the logistics of a bunch of drunk people & fire!
The stretch limo that will pick up the ladies from the bridal suite to take us to the church for the ceremony.
The stretch Escalade that will pick up the whole bridal party after the ceremony. We’re going to drive to the plaza & maybe a few other places for some pics while the guests start the cocktail hour at the reception. We’ll arrive to the reception in style!
Groom's vest & tie in white (tux will be a basic 3-button notch, lapel)
The groomsmen & ushers will be in the platinum vest & tie. The bridesmaids are going to be wearing silver shoes to coordinate & we'll all be wearing silver jewelry.
The fathers will be very dapper in the black vest & tie!
Bridesmaid dresses that my step-mom's going to make. I found the exact same fabric & ribbon! I'm so excited to see how they look on my girls! The ribbon's going to be carried throughout the day. We’re using the same color of ribbon in the programs, tied around the bouquets, & in the flower girls’ dresses.
This is a close-replica of what the BM’s dresses will look like. The style we chose is more like the photo above but this gives you a better idea of what the fabric actually looks like. I just wanted you to see how they would look with flowers and everything.
Shoes for the BM’s from Famous Footwear.
Here’s one of the flower girls’ dresses that my step-mom’s made. Front view.
Back view.
We’ve started choosing the music for the ceremony. We’re planning to have a string trio play. We searched for and listened to songs on http://www.wedalert.com/songs/index.asp. Here are the songs that we’ve selected:
Prelude:
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring – Bach
Rigaudon – Campra
Air – Bach
Sheep May Safely Graze – Bach
Sleepers Awake – Bach
Greensleaves - ?
Amazing Grace
Seating of the Parents:
Ode to Joy – Beethoven
Attendant’s Processional:
Canon in D
Bride’s Processional:
Trumpet Voluntary – Clarke
Hymns:
We haven’t decided on these yet.
Presentation of Gifts:
Concerto for Two Violins: Largo – Pachabel
Eucharist:
Ave Maria – Bach/Gounod
Prelude in C – Bach
Recessional:
Rondeau – Mouret
Post Ceremony (we’re not having a receiving line; instead, Kevin and I will be dismissing our guests from the church, row by row. This is why we need so many post ceremony songs.):
Entrance of the Queen of Sheba – Handel
Alla Hornpipe from Water Music – Handel
A Little Night Music – Mozart
Spring – Vivaldi
Allegro from Water Music – Handel
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - ?
Kevin – DO NOT LOOK ANY FURTHER!!!!!!!!
YOU’RE A DEAD MAN
SERIOUSLY!!!! STOP LOOKING!
THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING!!!!!!!
My dress (this one's ivory but mine's white)
My dress (front)
My dress (back)
Another view of the back of my dress.
An example of the bustle that I like. I’m not sure how this would work with my dress since it has the split-back. The seamstress told me it couldn’t be done. Bummer!
My final fitting with it bustled 8-19-06! I can’t lose any more weight for the next 4 weeks or I might actually need some alterations!
8.19.06
My mom’s attempt at taking a pic for me. She’s never used a digital camera so she’s forgiven! 8.19.06
A few pics from my fitting for my bustle. Ignore how awful I look!
The veil I bought from another knottie & my step-mom has altered to make it less-poofy!
My shoes, Chinese Laundry from DSW.
I want to do this to the bottom of my shoes.
I dyed my crinoline orange!!! The satin layer didn’t take very well but the tulle layer did. I will sell this for $15 if anyone's interested.
I wish the top layer took this well. Should I try to dye it again?
My something blue. It says “Kevin’s wife” written in rhinestones across the booty!
Hair Trial pic #1
Hair Trial pic #2. Excuse my face!!!
Hair Trial pic #3
Hair Trial pic #4. Again, excuse my face.
Hair styles I like.
Make-up idea. Simple & fresh. I really want to accentuate my eyes.
Tiara I bought on ebay from seller 1goldone or ParkAve Designs. I’m wearing this one.
Tiara I bought on ebay from seller yawengift or Jack’s Hobby Street.
The necklace I found at JCPenney’s for me.
The whole set.
Bag for the honeymoon! My step-mom is also making this for me. Isn’t she amazing?
Bags that my step-mom’s making for my BM’s. They’ll be raspberry with mango embroidery. I’m going to give these to the girls at the rehearsal dinner & inside will be their flip-flops for the reception along with their jewelry and maybe a few other small gifts such as photo albums & finger nail polish. The flower girls will also get smaller versions of these with their flip-flops & jewelry.
Sandals for the Bridesmaids for the reception.
Another view.
Jewelry that I’m giving as part of the Bridesmaids’ gifts.
Photo albums from Hobby Lobby (nice color match!), part of the Bridesmaids’ gifts.
Front of the t-shirts that I made for the flower girls.
Back of the t-shirts that I made for the flower girls.
Front.
Back.
Flip-flops for the flower girls.
Clip-on flowers.
Older flower girl’s gift. She lives in Pittsburg (home of the Gorillas!) so I thought a monkey-bride would be appropriate. She even has a blue garter under that dress! Build-a-bear’s so much fun!
Younger flower girl’s gift. She also lives in Pittsburg. This little monkey is complete with a flower basket which I’m going to add some of our fake petals.
Our ring-bearer’s grandparents are farmers so I thought he would like the cow. He’s complete with a pinstripe tux vest & a ring pillow with rings. I’m thinking about getting him a Royals or Jayhawks jersey to change into after the wedding festivities.
I’ve ordered these to give to Kevin with pictures of his mother in them. His mother passed away last August due to cancer. I think he'll love to have her on his arm for our big day! I know he'll be rather emotional about this b/c I tear up everytime I think about it or tell someone about the cufflinks.
Must take pic #1
Must take pic #2
Must take pic #3
Must take pic #4
Must take pic #5
Must take pic #6
Must take pic #7
Must take pic #8
Must take pic #9
Must take pic #10
Must take pic #11
Must take pic #12
Must take pic #13
Must take pic #14; I love this for our thank-you cards!
Our baby girls, Favre (chocolate) & Bella (yellow)
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Favre when she was a pup.
Bella B.
Our new house! We moved in on 1-11-06! Yeah!
My first nephew! Gabriel was born on July 25, 2006. He weighed 8.4 oz and was 19” long. Mother and son are both very healthy and happy! Since they live in Colorado, I’ll see him for the first time when they come into town for my wedding! I can’t wait!
Kevin and I will be married at Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Mission, KS on September 16, 2006. We have a guest list of 350 but since all of our guests are out of town, we're hoping that only 250 will show. Oops! We're pretty much finished with the planning portion and now we just need to figure out how we're paying for everything (Yikes)!
A list of our vendors is as follows:
Dress: David's Bridal; Style: T8589,Strapless satin A-line gown with beaded metallic embroidery on the bodice and train. Also features a split back and a chapel train.
BM Dresses: My step-mom is making them! They're a copy of the Jim Hjelm Style: #JH0055T; Mango satin-faced taffeta A-line tea-length gown, V-neckline, natural waist with raspberry satin ribbon belt.
Tuxes: Mens Wearhouse, Olathe; 3-Button Notch Lapel Tuxedo, Groom in white vest & tie, Ushers in Platinum vest & tie, & Fathers in Black vest & tie.
Photographer: Scott E. Thomas & Daughter, Raytown; I love working with Jessica! (816) 313-7673.
Flowers: HyVee, 119th & 69 Hwy; Kathleen Thorington (913) 491-6309
Church: Saint Michael's and All Angels Episcopal Church, 67th & Nall, Mission, KS.
Limos: All About Limousines, Inc. (913) 831-1939, www.allaboutlimos.com
Rehearsal Dinner: Bristol Bar and Grill, Town Center Plaza, Leawood; Lisa (913) 663-5777.
Reception Hall: TC's Dance Club International, 9050 Metcalf Ave., Overland Park, Ken Shaver (913) 642-7410.
Caterer: Brancato's Catering, Grandview, JoAnna Brancato-Janesko (816) 765-1444.
Bar Services: We're providing our own alcohol & bartenders.
Cake: HyVee, 119th & 69 Hwy; Theresa (913) 491-6233.
DJ: Light It Up Entertainment, Manhattan, http://www.kansasdiscjockey.com, Peter (785) 565-8054.
Honeymoon: Sandals, Antigua; Diann, Great Escape Travel,(913)341-4926, www.greatescapetravel.biz
www.greatescapetravel.org.
What Kind of Bride Will You Be?
