I still have DIY on the brain after this holiday season. I realized that I'm often overly optimistic about what I can accomplish in a given amount of time and then disappointed with myself when I don't get everything done. No fair!
I see the same phenomenon in the DIY wedding blogosphere. We make really long lists of everything that has to get done and then fret if we can't accomplish everything.
I'm all for setting ambitious goals, but we have to be fair to ourselves by focusing more on what we were able to accomplish, as opposed to flagellating ourselves for what we weren't able to cross off.
In that vein, here is a list of what I'm celebrating from this holiday season:
- I made reusable, fabric bags for most of the gifts I gave.
- I made laminated gift tags to use over and over again.
- I made a few really personal and fun gifts for people, like an appliqued sweatshirt for my cousin.
- I organized our house before we left for vacation.
- I'm on track for accomplishing several big projects in the new year.
- I didn't lose my sanity and was able to bask in the moment.
- I set aside time to reflect on the past year and orientate myself to the new year.
- Handmade gifts for everyone
- An advent calendar
- Gifts for my colleagues
- Gifts for my students
So tell me, 2000dollarwedding kindred spirits, what are you crossing off your wedding planning to-do list? What are you leaving off the list entirely? What have you gotten done that's worth celebrating?
9 comments:
We crossed our catering our wedding when we found a great Indian place that'll cater an awesome amount of food under $10/person!
We are thinking of crossing off the rehearsal dinner. Up until now it's been up to us to find a place and let fiance's parent's where we want to have it (they do not live in the city where we'll be married). But nothing really feels right and it gets so pricey and we know they don't want to spend a lot. So we are going to propose to them that we just invite people over to my parent's (who live in the city where we'll be married) to have some snacks and drinks and just relax and chat with everyone. I'm also crossing off decorating our ceremony site. It's going to be outisde underneath several big oak trees - I just don't have the time/desire to think up and make decorations to hang from trees...plus it would just cost money and probably result in something that had to thrown away. And the natural beauty of it really doesn't need to be enhanced!
Early on in the planning process, we cut out the idea of having a seating chart for the wedding. Although I was looking forward to making the escort cards and a neat way to display them at the reception, it became one of those things that just isn't worth the time I would have to put into it.
Thankfully, it cleared up some of my time and I'm happy to say that I've almost completed our DIY centerpieces which consisted of painting and sealing terra cotta planters for our potted plants centerpieces.
I'm just happy that, like you, I'm able to recognize what I am and am not capable of well in advance before I drive myself crazy trying to fit everything in!
We're crossing off the cake. We might have a very small one for the usual cake cutting pictures, but nothing beyond that. We decided a while ago to have a dessert bar full of cookies, bars, cupcakes, etc. Adding a cake into the mix was something neither of us really cared about.
This has been a fabulously productive week. Bridesmaids ordered the last of the dresses from etsy (amanda archer is amazing), booked hotel room blocks and emailed VRBO site to people who might want to share houses instead, called caterers and stuck to my budget through their hesitations, and got cousin emails from my aunt. Yay January!
Emily - I bought one of amanda archer's dresses to wear for my wedding, she is amazing - confortable, sytlish and affordable! I bought a white one and I'm thinking I'll dye it after the wedding, it's so cute I want to be able to keep wearing it!
props to me! this week i crossed off the florist and the ceremony musician, and my dress came in! monday i'm meeting with the caterer to firm things up, thursday's the follow up to the florist, friday is the dress fitting, and saturday is the BM dress shopping.
Christmastime, i hand made a wall hanging, a quilt, and pillows for my family members. i also just got finished with the purse yday, using the (FREE) buttercup purse pattern: http://madebyrae.blogspot.com/2009/02/free-buttercup-bag-sewing-pattern.html
it was NOT as easy as it looks. although, i have to admit, i'm not a pettern follower. my attention gets lost in the instructions! :)
We took the church-programms off the list - they will be a lot of work and cost a lot and I think there are more important things to care about. We did our detailed budget yesterday and from EUR 4.000 we got to EUR 6.000 - ouch. But the number of guests exploded, too: we started with a "70-80 is a good number, we will be able to talk to everybody" and ended with 100, which includes JUST those that are important to us. So we downsized regarding the food and stuff but still - the total amount went up. Well... Maybe 4.000 was too ambitious... Right now I am in the middle of "we can afford it, so what the heck" and "how could that get so much out of control, how will the rest of our live be". Sorry for my frustration - even more since it is off-topic. ARGH!
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