The Chipper Chicken - Frank Eggelhoffer and Howard Strike Again

I know I have been promising the Wedding Budget Breakdown post for a couple weeks...

et voila...

When Chelsea asked me to help her plan her wedding her one request was, 

"Just don't let me do anything tacky!"

Hilarious.  Endearing.  Right up my alley.
You know - being as I am so opinionated!

I have snickered before on this website that I could, 

"Plan weddings, drunk, blindfolded, with my hands tied behind my back."

But that's simply because I am über decisive and have about a hundred planned already in my heart and mind...

What I can NOT do is grow impatiens, spell out loud or bake chocolate chip cookies...

I digress...

But planning your sisters wedding is a bit more difficult because, darn her, she has this thing called "an opinion" AND I didn't have total control - The Bride and the Mother of the Bride were at the helm...

What???

You mean I don't reign supreme?

What???

Three cooks in the kitchen turned out to be a recipe for sheer perfection with doses of emotional disaster along the way - as you could expect with three woman who adore each other but are related.  Yeah, just a little drama...

"HAANNNKK! HAAANNKKK! 
FLAMINS! SHAVEN THE HAVEN!"

So here you have it:  The Dress, The Details, The Dollars... 

Long story long.

Along the way I learned that I really would love to do this wedding planning thing as a side gig along with my photography, headdress making, macaron baking... 

(jack-ass of all trades??)

 I learned to back the heck off,
how much I adore my sister,
how much I respect my Mom's work ethic and generosity (trust me - she didn't have that bottom figure sitting around in some account, she worked like a DOG for it for the past year!).  

Ooops, there I go, text heavy again...

I mooched photos off her blog (with permission) or else this post would never have happened...

Say yes to the dress baby!

And Chelsea did at Wedding Belles in Barrington, Illinois.  These ladies know what they are doing - no,  dingbat, snooty, David's Bridal salesgirls here.  Designer salesman's samples and delightful insight into what a bride needs.  

Chelsea KNEW exactly what she wanted -  a dress ruffled and reminiscent of the Lazaro she had her eye on without the price tag.

She found it after trying on just three dresses.

For awhile there I personally felt like we were all over the place...

Tiffany Blue, Black bridesmaids dresses, coral flowers with maybe some orange... "What does a Peony look like" and then, 

like kin singing harmony something happened...

 I got a vision for the bridal shower (remember the birchy, woodland, macaron tower photo?) during the same week that Mom was making all these woodland Fairy gardens for Shop the Shed, during the same week that Chelsea came to her and said, "What about a Woodland sort of a look?"

Et voila - we were all on the same page with a very happy bride to be.

The details are what rocked this wedding (this is where the SIL came in!  She made the cake topper (photo???) , tent decor rosettes and Sofia's adorable top hat!):

The Ring Bearer Pillow and Flower Girl hats.  

 Table numbers

 Custom bridesmaids bouquets - throw together by Mom two hours before the event!  We were going to have this lovely day of "arranging flowers" together - ya, right.  We underestimated the last minute stress so while we were all primping she ran down to her tubs of wholesale flowers in the basement and "threw" together our bouquets - she even went out to the lawn and clipped some extras off a flowering tree!!!!!!!  HILARIOUS!!!!

 Shoe clips for the bride made by moi - you can't see them really good here but they had rosettes and little white birds and totally matched the facsinator I made for her too (photo???) 

 Victoria's paper rosettes... which BTW showed up on BHLND last week!!!

   Victoria is always so "ahead" on stuff like that!  She was into "birdies" long before Mom, I or Chels ever thought of using them!

Garage sale found Tiffany Box for the cards!

And then even more details like a like a bird bath full of bug spray cans, old iron church lights hanging from trees, an old wash basin full of flowers, iron lawn chairs for fun seating in the yard, the bridal party (girls) cruising down the river on a boat and using the dock as the aisle to make the grand entrance... to Opus 23 from Marie Antoinette mind you!!!!!!!!!!

Am I boring you?

I am finding it very difficult to describe everything and how it all came together...

Here's the financial breakdown:

85.00 4,000 white lights (half off after Christmas)

750.00 Chelsea's dress

27.00 save the date cards

70.00 postage

40.00 envelopes for save the date

175.00 dress alterations and  custom sash

78.00 hobby lobby supplies, rose petals etc

420.00 limo rental

170.00 invitations ordered on line

70.00 postage for invites

44.00 hobby lobby shower supplies

112.00 inserts for invitations

167.00 port a john

460.00 bridal bouquet and mother's flowers etc

185.00 Joann/ supplies for head table

500.00 DJ

43.00 sample bouquet

127.00 red wine /Aldi

1600.00  Monterey Pizza/food

300.00 disposable tableware

3233.00 tent and all rentals

610.00 custom cupcakes and cake topper 

123.00 supplies/moss/twigs, gluesticks

68.00 wholesale/white bedding plants

309.00 champagne from Trader Joe's

19.00 Michaels glitter

50.00 centerpiece containers

35.00 bridesmaid roses, Costco

83.00 Michaels ... guest book, birds, candles

150.00 tux rental for DOB

507.00 wholesale flowers  for centerpieces and rusty tubs

Use of landmark Castle for photography - free!  Thanks to a generous neighbor.

Photography was a gift from Aunt Julee.

Video was a gift from brother Nic.

(we have a very talented family:)

$10,331.00

grand total
A little under 200 guests

The bridal party had their own expenses of course

Juliette's dress was on clearance at Target for $10, Sofia's was $5 and Amélie's I found at Nordstrom Rack for $35 marked down from $95. (size 8 - needed alterning)

My dress (and the other bridesmaids) was off the rack from Carsons $85 - tricked out for a Mother to be $40 

Aidan's Perry Ellis pants and tie were from Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack - $40 and the alterations for the kids' were $25.

I spent about $60 on the supplies to make the two hats & the brides facsincator and shoe clips.

It was awesome, exhausting and gorgeous.  

I wanted to share these numbers with you because I just can't believe what people are spending on weddings these days.  I think ours could have been even less but we did our best with a pretty short engagement and Chicagoland pricing as far as tents and rentals go.

Mom said all the thank you's so I will leave it at that.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask either one of us.  More information and photos will be featured by Mom in the September edition of Belle Inspiration.

Wedding Photos Galore!

Alright, maybe not galore but how about a BUNCH!  

I had my camera out a bit but as M.O.H. with little ones it was WAY to difficult to take photos of everything I wanted to capture - impossible!  Thankfully Mom turned her camera over to a cousin and we had the professional Aunt Julee there - she took two thousand photographs that day (I've taken 1,500 at a wedding but NEVER 2,000!!!!)  But my goodness, the bride was GORGEOUS...STUNNING!, the setting splendid, how could she take any less???... wait til you see the CASTLE!!!!  

Yes... THE CASTLE!!!

I have this dream that someday when we have our farm I will be able to host and plan weddings... after this weekend I really don't know if I can wait until then!  From designing the hats and fascinators to the countless planning and designing sessions with Mom and Chelsea it was all so fun.  I suppose you could say it's like childbirth in that you forget the  "pain" - - - I always thought that was a load!  This was stressful and labor is excruciating - still, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

All the details from the day still to come!

More to come!
Any moment now Mom should have her post up too!  She's got all the yummy centerpiece/design shots!!!!!

Marie Antoinette Style Flowergirl Hat... A D.I.Y. Wedding Project

J'aime les chapeau.

When Princess Diana is your childhood hero you come by it honestly.

I love to wear hats and W-I-S-H they were a staple in woman's wardrobe as they were in the not so distant past...

Alas...

I have been wanting to make Amélie a hat since my blogging friend Mandy of  A-la-Parisienne made one for her daughter two years ago.  (For her Marie Antoinette themed first birthday party no-less!)  Mandy is one of those people who... if we lived nearby each other, there might be a sort of nuclear glow seen from the sky...when we got together... a radiance of creative juices and love of all things beautiful.

When my S.I.L. Victoria emailed and said we should make hats for the girls' for the wedding she couldn't have read my mind more clear!  

You should SEEEEEEEEEEEE the one she made my perfectly beautiful niece Sofia...

 OH-MY-GOODNESS!!!!!!

I have been designing the structure of this hat in my head as I fall asleep for the last couple days (having no idea how I was actually going to trick it out once the form was made!) and finally had the time to run to Michael's for some crafty goodies... I sat down, channelled my inner Fanny Brawne and in less than four hours had it finished (that includes meals and four hundred interruptions from my curious Chickens)!  All the crazy ideas for melding a Marie Antoinette style hat with a little Regency influence came pouring out so fast I couldn't keep up with myself!   I couldn't believe it!  I wanted to run around the block screaming!  I wanted to open a hat boutique, attend millinery school... is there such a thing?  I think I sang, Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet for the next two days!

So here is my silly, little tutorial.  

If you can glean anything from it I will be amazed... 

Materials:

Stiff felt

Soft felt

Ribbon

Touling (sp?)

A petit oiseau

Pre-made rosette ribbon

Thread

Glue sticks

Tools:

Sewing machine

Hot glue got

Pins

And whatever else I am forgetting :)

So, my idea was to go with what Victoria hat done and make a small top hat so I started by making a 5" cylinder with the stiff felt.  Stitching it a couple times, I also stitched horizontally, three times, top, middle and bottom - this helped it keep more of a cylinder shape since the felt was thick and fighting what I was trying to do with it.

My intent at this point changed from stiff top hat style to a fun, romantic, floppy brim.  So I took the soft felt (these were 8x11" pieces I was working with) and cut a large circle (8" wide).  I could see this was not going to be a large enough circle to stitch around the base of my cylinder so I cut it open (seen on the left) and added about two inches there - I didn't photograph it but you will see the results later if you look at the back of the hat.  Had I a large sheet of felt instead of some dinky craft aisle piece this piece mealing would not have been necessary.  But there was no way I was running back to the store.

I cut out the middle to be a bit smaller than the circumference of my cylinder, I attached my two inches (using the sewing machine), and then sewed my big circle (the brim) to my cylinder (crown) by wrapping the brim around the crown, right sides together.

I didn't keep up with my step-by-step photos well - sorry.

I made the top of the hat with soft felt by cutting a circle a bit larger than my cylinder opening.  Turning the hat inside out and sewing it right sides together.  I knew Victoria had black and white on her hat so I needed to bring in a little black.  

I found this netting in my cupboard, cut a square and manipulated it over the top and around the base of the hat, letting it double up around the base and gathering it at the back (where my two inch boo-boo was already).  I threw a couple stitches in by hand to hold it in place.

When I was at the store, I was just throwing pretty stuff in my cart, not knowing what i was going to do.  I grabbed one of these feathers knowing it HAD to come in handy.

The floppy felt brim was cute but it needed to be styled a bit to not look like a craft project (I hate things that look like a craft project!).  I glue a strip of glue near the shaft so that when I cut my piece little feathers wouldn't fly all over the place.  

I then took that piece and glued it to the brim of the hat, right near the crown (cylinder). Doing this all the way around the brim.  Using the longer feathers on the sides and back, (especially the side I would be focusing my rosettes on) and used the shorter feathers in the front.

Now it was beginning to get REALLY fun.

We have this gorgeous blue ribbon that is going to be used all over the wedding.  From the little girls dresses to the bouquets Mom and I will be constructing on Friday.  I had bought a couple pre-made pink rosettes for the hat but wanted to add some blue.  Never having made a rosette before and thought about Googling it but then figured, "How difficult can it be?!"  So, I started twisting and stitching.  Rather therapeutic.  I could have make a pile of them!

Attaching the rosette ribbon around the crown I added my hand made ribbon rosettes, another store bought one, a spray of feathers in the back, tucked in under the rosette ribbon and a little white bird.  (Remember the Bridal Shower?  We will have lots of birds at the wedding too!)  I attached a ribbon in the back with trailing streamers and a ribbon to each side of the hat, inside where there brim meets the crown - to be used to tie under the chin.

The hat was originally going to be for Juliette but my little Hoolie is too much of a pistol to keep it on even though you can tell she knows it's special.  I made a smaller one for her I will post soon.   So, Amélie's it is!  She LOVES it as you will see...

Here are a few more pics...

Now... I know it's bad form to steal attention away from the bride but my LeeLee might not be able to help it she is so beautiful to me!

"You Johnny Fedora's,

You Alice Blue Bonnets

Whenever you find yourself blue,

You know it's June in December,

When you can remember,

That true love will come smiling through."