fun yellow print!

Short post today, because I am busy busy busy studying for my last final of the year tonight at 5 (wish me luck!) My bff and bridesmaid Ruth posted this print on her blog awhile ago, and I finally broke down and purchased it this morning via madebygirl. I think it'll make a great decoration at our reception :)

DIY Photobooth

Inspired by Sara and Matt from one of our favorite wedding blogs, 2000 Dollar Wedding, Kevin and I have been thinking of ways in which our reception can be not only a celebration of our love, but also a fun party for all of our cherished guests to enjoy.

One of our favorite new(ish) wedding trends is the photobooth. Think being an eighth grader and going to the mall with your friends and taking those cheesy photobooth pictures that then print out on that little strip. You loved it, right? We did too. Since this has started to become fairly popular at wedding receptions, more and more places are popping up that are renting out these things out to couples. Downside: they. are. expensive. Really expensive. As in renting one of these for the day would cost more than double what it cost us for our entire venue. That's just not going to happen.

Fortunately, people are creative. Not me, not so much Kevin (sorry, I love you, but...you can't even cut a straight line), but lots and lots of other people. Popping up now are lots of do-it-yourself photobooth tutorials, many of which we've started to check out.

This woman bought a high thread count sheet and painted a pattern on the sheet reflecting her wedding colors. Easy enough. Here's the tutorial.

The hardware is another story. We don't have a fancy schmancy camera yet. Again, thank goodness for the creative people of this world. The folks over at sevenEightcline have put together a program that works with their Mac, uses the camera within their computer, takes a shot, and then automates to print out 2x6's (photostrip size like in real photobooths) through an attached photo printer. Genius! All you have to do is make a donation to their program, and it's all yours.

I'm excited to take on this project and have it as a fun activity at our own reception. Stay tuned for updates!

color palette!

So, just like any girl would after getting engaged, i've spent a lot (and i mean A LOT. just ask kevin. or read about it tomorrow in Fiance Friday!) of time over these past few months thinking about wedding colors. Let's just say i've changed my mind more than a few times. First I wanted a deep, pretty pink, but Kevin put the ixnay on that pretty quickly. (why are boys so afraid of pink?!) Then it was onto green, where I toiled for quite some time. Cypress, to be exact. Green has always been one of my favorite colors, and I thought (still do) it would be so summery and fresh for a June wedding. Here's a pic of two of my lovely bridesmaids, Ruth and Ashly. They are both sporting the beautiful Sydney dress from J.Crew Wedding. Ashly is wearing it in cypress. It's a great dress, and the best part is, it has pockets!

Until very recently (read: yesterday) I've been pretty stuck on cypress. However, as I was perusing wedding blogs yesterday during class (yeah, it happens once in a while), I came across a color palette I hadn't considered before, and absolutely fell in love: gray + yellow! Now, yellow is also one of my favorite colors, but it's one of those colors that (a) you don't want to wear a whole lot of it at once, and (b) not everyone has the right skin tone to pull it off. Both reasons why in the beginning of the color search process, I weeded out yellow thinking not too many of the girls would be into yellow dresses. The gray + yellow palette provides the perfect solution - having gray as the main color with pretty yellow as the accessory color. (who doesn't love fun colored shoes?!) Here is some yellow and gray inspiration...

You can see more from this lovely wedding here and here. Feel free to share your thoughts and inspiration about the new color palette idea! More to come on reception decor and apparel. 

Guestbook Alternatives

I would love to do something other than a traditional guest book, just for fun. One thing I came across awhile ago was this amazing ''wishing wall" from Uncommon Goods. It comes with hundreds of "wish sheets" that guests can fill out at the reception and stick into one of the slots - so cute, and would make for great home decor later on.

Then, a few weeks ago, Ruth posted this wonderful "witness banner" on her blog. It is sold at spreadthelove's Etsy shop and can be customized with our names, wedding colors, and wedding date. It would also be lovely to frame and hang up after the wedding.

Reception Site!

After getting the church booked, finding a reception site was the next step. Luckily, Kevin and I were in Omaha over New Year's and were able to check out two of our favorite sites (after narrowing it down A LOT online).

One of the two places we looked at was The Thompson Alumni Center, located on the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus. We liked this place quite a bit, actually, especially because they had an outside courtyard area that could also be rented out, in addition to the ballroom inside. However, it turned out to be not exactly what we were looking for in terms of size, so we actually ended up going with...

The River City Star Yacht Club Pavilion! When we visited this site, we left loving absolutely everything about the place. Each spring, the club puts up a white wedding tent on their grounds, and rents it out for weddings and other events through the early fall. Besides the tent itself being totally beautiful, it is located on the Missouri riverfront and offers great views of both Downtown Omaha and the new(ish) pedestrian bridge that links Omaha to Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The reservations department at the yacht club is run by two super-sweet sisters who have been extremely generous and helpful with our planning thus far. As of right now, we're planning on having a lunchtime reception (following our 10:00am wedding) with dancing and other fun activities included, of course :) The space also includes a small picnic area outside the tent, where we plan to create a kid-friendly environment to keep all the youngsters happy. We are planning on putting together some sort of kid activity kit, too - with coloring books and play-doh and all sorts of other fun things. With our rental rate, we also have dibs on the firepit, which I would love love love to utilize, but probably just isn't going to happen / isn't necessary at 2 in the afternoon...in june...in omaha. Sigh, I'll survive.

As for decoration of the tent itself, I think we'll keep it simple as use the tulle & white lights package offered by the club. I may look into some DIY decorations for added flare, like the pinwheels or bunting in the pictures below. We'll see how time and budget things work out.

Stay tuned for decoration and food updates regarding the reception!