DIY things that we did!

Awhile back I wrote about why you don't have to make it all yourself for your wedding - today I am going to hit on the things we did do ourselves!

The pretty little ring box that sat on the altar was made by my grandpa Jim. He had some health problems this spring and I felt very blessed that he was able to be there. The ring box was just the icing on the cake!!  It was turned on a wood lathe using three different types of wood

I am a very crafty person, but florist I am not (My attempts at bridesmaid bouquets were a very sad and epic fail). My mom on the other hand has a knack for making flowers look pretty. She filled all of the cream cans at the lodge and made them look really nice! We borrowed most of them from friends and family - and some came from the lodge. They were filled with dried millet, hydrangeas, wheat and fake flowers. Mom also decorated the makeshift altar that was at the lodge with a little help from Jay. They made everything look great!

Mom had the horseshoe cross made by a guy over in Platte. It was really unique and looked great up at the front on the altar. Jay and I own purebred Herefords and wanted a way to incorporate our hide into the decorations - so we put it up front! It looks really neat in the photos. We also designed our own programs and had them printed at the local print shop. I made all of our boutonnieres and corsages from dried flowers to fit the fall theme (but failed at bouquets.)

I had two big DIY projects I did for our wedding  - designing and making the jewelry for my bridesmaids and for myself. I had a blast with my bridesmaid jewelry, customizing each piece to fit my friends' style. I finished their jewelry in June. 

The jewelry I made for myself was a little more nerve-racking. While I wanted to wear turquoise, I didn't want the jewelry to take away from my dress. My dress was delayed in getting here, so I wasn't able to really envision what I wanted until the beginning of September. As soon as it arrived, mom and I picked it up and brought it home ( I had a local lady do the alterations. She did an awesome job and was way cheaper than doing them in store! She also remade my mom's veil for me to wear) After that I hustled up and made my jewelry the week of our wedding!! 

I couldn't resist sharing this picture of my dress and jewelry! I think it all fell together pretty well!! 

Happy New Year folks!! 

Things they don't tell you about wedding dress shopping.

the dress I had saved on Pinterest 

February

I was excited to try on wedding dresses, but I was also nervous. I am not a dress girl. I am a jeans, boots and a hoodie girl. But like most 20-something women who have Pinterest, I had a dream wedding dress picked out - which cost WAY more than I was willing to spend.


So off we went dress shopping, with a dream in mind, and mom, one of my bridesmaids, my little sister and my grandma in tow, on a Saturday in February.


While the shop was very busy, our saleslady was pretty attentive (I had to wait for dresses/for her to help me for longer than I liked a few times). First she brought out a dress that was exactly like what I wanted, but was a little out of the price range we wanted to stay in. and I loved it. After that,  I tried on what felt like fifty different dresses, some in different styles, some just for fun, and some I think the saleslady (or my friends) just wanted to torture me in. When every dress started to look the same, I called it quits. I knew which ones were my favorites, so I decided to come back later and pick out my favorite.


Things I learned wedding dress shopping-
1. February happens to be prom season. Saturdays are when high school girls go prom dress shopping. If you don't like shopping, that is probably not the time to be dress shopping as stores will be crowded and you will have to wait for sales people.


2. Don't try on too many dresses. I got very overwhelmed by the end of the appointment because I tried on so many different dresses - while it was fun most of the day, by the end I was sick of white and crawling in and out of them! ( I really wanted to have pictures of some of the funny ones I tried on but apparently they got deleted from my phone :( )


3. Take the right people along. I was very glad that I had only four people along. They were the ones whose opinion mattered most to me!


4. Go with your gut. I knew the dress I bought was THE DRESS the first time I tried it on. It was the only one that gave me goosebumps and made me tear up.

At the end, I was very glad I only went one store to try on wedding dresses - Sandra Rose in Tyndall, SD.  I found the perfect dress there and didn't have to deal with the hustle and bustle of dress shopping in Sioux Falls, plus I really wanted to support a local business. 

It ended up being April 1st before I made it back to the dress store - between calving, work and the weather it just didn't work to go back any earlier. This time I just took my maid of honor with me (she hadn't come the previous time) I tried on my two favorites - and knew right away which one was the winner!!



Check back next week to learn about picking out decorations and bridesmaid gear!!

Pastors, Photographers and Music Masters

January

Once we had the date picked and the place picked out, we had to double check with the church to make sure we had a pastor – which was slightly nerve racking! While the church had the weekend open, there was the smallest issue – our pastor was leaving in May, and they weren’t sure if we would have another by September 19^th!! The interim assured me that if they didn’t have a new pastor in Kimball by then, he could come back and perform the ceremony. (My mom’s friends with the mayor of a nearby tiny town, Reliance – and in SD she could legally perform the ceremony. Back up plan? Check.)

Right after we got engaged, I asked a buddy of mine to DJ. He originally told me that he didn’t want to DJ friend’s weddings anymore (he wanted to be able to enjoy them instead)– two days later, he texted me that he would do it(they had several requests for that date)! I was ecstatic – not only is he an outstanding DJ, but he is married to an excellent photographer! We were pretty excited about their package deal, and booked them right away!  You can check them out  at http://www.dacmusicproductions.com/ and http://3cordphotography.com/ 

(If you book them, tell them you heard about them from Sarah and Jay!!)







Erin and Drysen were very easy to work with and made our entire experience personalized from start to finish. Our engagement photo session was out at Jay's family ranch in June. The pictures Erin took turned out amazing - and she made Jay and I super comfortable in front of the camera; plus she was willing to go along with all our crazy ideas - and had some of her own! It was very important to me to have a professional photographer with wedding experience that would take awesome pictures while making the picture process fun - and Erin blew all of our expectations out of the water! 

In early January, I made my first wedding related purchase. It wasn't decorations, a dress or anything of that nature... I bought myself the boots I had been eyeballing for almost a year!! I always knew I wanted to wear boots with my wedding dress - I can't walk in heels to save my life! (and let's be real ladies, who doesn't want new boots!!) I bought a pair of gorgeous Corral's in cognac and turquoise - we had already decided on turquoise for one of our wedding colors, and these boots are just too pretty not to use for a wedding! 

My boots!! 

Some more of our pretty engagement pictures! 

Two of the things that mean the most to me - My Engagement ring and my saddle!! 

Stay tuned - Next week I am blogging about wedding dress shopping!!

Western Wedding Wednesday!

Western Wedding Wednesday

Jay boy and I got married over two months ago – eek!! Since then, many friends, family and people I don’t even know have asked about our wedding day, planning and how we pulled it all off – so I decided to start a Wedding Wednesday section of my blog (which I realize has been non-existent for like a year - !!)  So I will go all the way back and start at the beginning J Enjoy!

My pretty engagement ring with our new brand! 

It was December 22^nd – a Monday. I had been out of town for two weeks, working in Storm Lake IA. I was ready for a break, and was going to spend the whole week with my fiance and family. Jay had been acting goofy for a few days, but I figured that he had some big joke planned or something along those lines (he tends to be onrey like that), but when he left one morning without saying goodbye, I was slightly sad. Later that day, when we got home from doing chores out at the farm, he told me that he had to do some stuff in his pickup and I should just carry all his stuff up for him. I hardly noticed – I had rearranged that morning and was all excited to show him, so I didn’t pay much attention to him. I was bouncing around, all excited to show what I had accomplished – until he grabbed me around the waist, and was whispering sweet stuff in my ear, being all cute – then he popped the question!! 

Once we settled down from the excitement of getting engaged and Christmas celebrations, it was time to start planning. The first topic of discussion was when and where – we figured that September would work best as it fell between wheat and corn harvest (#truckerprobs), and that we wanted to have it in my hometown of Kimball. Both of us feel more connected to God when we are outside, so we wanted an outdoor wedding, and we really would like an outdoor reception too. Our list included – near town, so our friends and family wouldn’t have far to drive; a pretty setting; and a place for our wedding party to sleep – and the easiest place to pick was the Konechne’s Red Barn Hunting Retreats!

Photo cred: 3 Cord Photography

This lodge is located near Kimball, SD and is owned by the Konechne family in the middle of pheasant country. This barn was brought in during the 1990s and was renovated into a lodge. It features 10 rooms with 33 beds, a full kitchen and dining area, and all sorts of space for pheasant hunting. The rustic feel was felt perfect for our wedding day! For more info on the lodge, visit redbarnhunting.com or facebook.com/redbarnhunting.

 (I'm only going to let you see one wedding picture this week. My friends and family have seen them. Everyone else has to wait!!)

Photo Cred: 3 Cord Photography