Wedding Flowers Budget Tips

The best wedding planning advice I received was to contract your most important wedding feature first and then continue in descending importance. For me, that was the band, dress, decor, food, and invitations last. Dishing out the money in the order of importance will keep you smiling when you end up with less-than-ideal choices for the end of the list (because what really mattered to you has already been purchased!).

There are so many ways to cut your flower budget, but some worked wonders for me.

I wanted my arrangements to be unorthodox, with random flower assortments rather than two or three distinct flowers in only one or two colors. Taking this route saved me thousands of dollars. Yes, thousands. By the time you order enough flower arrangements to cover your venue, plus the bouquets and boutonnieres for the wedding party, you will be looking at a heavy bill unless you can give a little and go with a less strict flower pallet.

Flowers go on sale at different seasons, on different weeks, and typically at the end of the week --- your florist is in the loop and can buy bundled flowers for big discounts. So be honest with your florist and have her update you on what can be bought around the time of your wedding for the best prices. Because I already wanted a ‘wild flower’ look this worked perfect for me, but even if you want a more structured look this can work for you as well. I had several colors that I did not wish to! And I simply had those flowers removed from the bundle when they arrived so they wouldn't make it into the venue.

I also picked two flowers in the color scheme I wanted that came in large bundles, one yellow and one purple, to add to the hodgepodge bundles. 

Having the color and not a specific flower in mind will do wonders for your budget since there will always be a flower in season for your chosen color. Picking a pricey, one-season flower, on the other hand, is the surest way to intensify the bill.

A smart saver is using bridesmaids’ bouquets as centerpieces. This is common but rarely gets implemented the "day of." While we were getting ready at the barn, I had every bridesmaid find an empty jar (that had been set aside for their bouquets) and make them responsible for getting their bouquets in the first thing after arriving at the reception. This way, you get to spend the most money on their (and your) bouquets, and then they also get to shine at the reception. 

One last thought about bouquets: My florist told me that brides with overbearingly large bouquets are disadvantageous in their wedding pictures. Simply, when holding an enormous bouquet, your waist disappears! So go for a slightly smaller bouquet and give your waist (which you have been working so hard to shrink) a chance to shine.

 

If you are bold, take the next step in making your flower budget shrink by providing the containers. I used all sizes of old jars and loved how it turned out. This, of course, takes planning and work, but it will be worth it in the end when you get to spend extra on your band!

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Creating a Solid Social Media Presence in 5 steps

In May 2011, I started experimenting, reading, researching, and launching the beginnings of a social media campaign for PartingOut.com. After a year and a half of trial and error, I have created a strategy for creating a social media foundation for any new start-up.

One thing I know is you have to like, follow, add, friend, and promote others before they will do the same for you.

1)      The list of social media networks you could potentially create a company profile for continues to expand daily. So what to do first? CLAIM YOUR REAL ESTATE!

•         Claim your company's name for every social media outlet possible (regardless if you frequently use it or not, claim it!) Why? Because you want your company to be the result for any search related to that site.  Create Profiles!

•         A few of the lists that got me started are:  http://www.instantshift.com/2008/10/19/list-of-top-social-media-network-sites/  & of course, Wikipedia has an extensive list as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

2) Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, FourSquare, tumbler, and Flicker are some of the best for me because I can share content between them. For instance, taking a picture with Instagram can be shared on Facebook and Twitter. Then I can download that picture and upload it to PartingOut’s Pinterst boards and create a short blog post with it on Tumbler. Less work and more reach for every activity is key!

•         To make this process less repetitive and also to keep your company motto consistent, create a short description (one sentence), small paragraph, and short essay of what your business is all about. You will then be able to copy and paste this information into your profiles, news feeds, short descriptions, etc., and cut down on time.

•         Once these profiles are created the next step is to find and friend/follow people who would be interested in your company/product.  But, how do you find them?

3)      Create Your Master “customer characteristics” List

• This is a list of keywords you believe your customers would contain in their profile names, such as, on Twitter, where user names are not always first and last names. Also, look for words used to describe themselves in their “about me page” on Facebook, or words they would use for board titles on Pinterest. Ask yourself what topics your customers would share on Google+ and what picture titles they would be using on Instagram. Those are the worlds you need to know and keep filed away.

•         For instance, for PartingOut.com, “Mopar” is a common word within users' Twitter screen names who would be interested in our website. I follow them and hope they will follow @PartingOut back. “Speed” was a great keyword to search for on Pinterest Boards that led me to some of my most devout followers (of course, I had to follow them first). And “car guy” was probably the biggest home run to finding potential customers on Google+ and Facebook.

•         Now you have a dozen accounts and are following hundreds of people/boards/profiles etc. How do you get them to take the bait… and follow you back?

4) Interaction! You need to “like” and comment on as many of the accounts you follow as possible. Once people start to notice you, they will be interested in your own profile. Hopefully, the magic will happen, and the number of people following/liking/friending you will grow. 

•         You should split your own updates, with half being about your company/product and the other half being about interactions with others. Repost or comment on news someone else shared about your industry; share others' photos and post questions, or even more importantly, answer others' questions!

5)      See the pattern?

•         Seek out people through words they use in their profiles that tell you they might have an interest in your product

•         Friend/Like/Follow/ them

•         Interact with them!

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Sparrow Creek Ranch: it takes a family to build a barn:

Family means everyone involved is family to us! 

For those of you who could not make it to the wedding or just heard the stories about the amazing barn my dad built, I thought I should share some more “building in process” and “finished project photos” with you. This was a family effort that could not have been done without everyone’s skills, blood, and tears. You can read the re-purposed blog post to learn more about the building materials  (under wedding bliss). 

This place is special to us because this is where George proved himself. My parents bought this property in 2006, and I started bringing George home then. We spend our Graham weekends at the land cutting brush, watching for copper heads, and eating hotdogs under the stars, warmed by a campfire atop the hill that eventually became our beloved ceremony site. These weekends continued for years without knowing what incredible fruit they would one day yield: God’s plans are always better than our own.

If you were at the wedding, your chair was right here! 

looking a little better 

final product

This blog is a thank you and showcase for the love that came from so many to build this special place. Of course, my Dad, who didn’t get home till after 10 every night for the past year, was the last to leave and the first to work on the barn, day and night. My mom's time and beautiful creativity can be seen in so many amazing designs and little details that make it so special. Most notably, she helped save the ceremony site from fire with only an old broom and clipboard! 

My dear sister and her boyfriend Hagen, for their weekends away from friends, cutting brush and building whatever needed building, from bathrooms to signs and everything in between, they had their hands in it.

George, of course, drove almost every weekend straight to Graham from Houston for four months to help work on whatever that week’s mega task was, from putting in the septic tanks to building the bathrooms.  Randy and Joe Moore’s support and help are hard to match: from driving the loaders to get the walls up to coming to the rescue like the Dukes of Hazard when the burn pile got out of control on the ceremony site! 

The last week would have been unbearable without the help of Marjorie, Aubrey, and the Brogden women. Sweeping floors, scrapping windows, and getting us to the finish line were just a few of the amazing things they did that week.  

The work everyone did and the months of enduring cactus in every inch of their bodies is what true friendship and family look like. I love them all and can’t believe we pulled this thing off! 

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DIYS wedding: It’s all in the details

My mom, sister, and I had fun wrapping presents in brown sack paper and stamping sweet verses, sayings, and names on the packages this Christmas. When we were done opening on Christmas, I cut the bags up into little strips. I had no idea what I would do with them, but I started stamping love sayings, such as “past, present, future,” “always and forever,” “forever mine,” “one sweet love,” etc on the strips. I scrolled these around the tables to add a fun spirit and make each unique.

To cover the electrical boxes, my mom and sister picked up drop cloths (the kind you get from the hardware store to keep paint off the floor or cover furniture), and my sister freehanded a verse and a saying on them. These were incredible for breaking up the bare walls and also a fun touch that was meaningful and added to our “homemade” flare.

On a rainy day, when outside work was tough, my dad and George got to work on the “sign” I wanted.  As a geographer, I wanted to have a sign pointing to the places that were most important to George and me. This included where we met, at TCU, where we both grew up, our honeymoon destination, and a few others, plus the general direction for the ceremony and reception.  We sawed a couple of boards in half and then “arrowed” the tips. With a thick black sharpie, once again, Constance free-handed the names.  The wood came from the salvage yard, so it was repurposed, like the barn, and then white-washed with leftover paint and a buck of water. 

My sweet mother bought tall candles in glass from the dollar store and then made each one a statement piece we scattered around the barn and tables. She cut old music paper and words from magazines and used Mod Podge gloss luster to seal them around the candle. She then added different details for each candle. Some were the simple music paper, a little glitter sprinkled on, others had small pieces of twine tied around in a bow and an antique earring tied on. We had fun making these at home; they were a romantic touch. 

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Panama: Portobelo & San Lorenzo

Day 4 Colon Provence

Start the Trans-isthmian day by exploring the Gatun Locks. Unlike the Miraflores locks, these are less visited by tourists, and you will easily be able to have a front-row view of the massive tankers moving down the locks. It is a completely different experience than the Miraflores locks and one I much preferred. 

 Portobelo is a mysterious location with a past rich with Spanish gold, vengeful pirates, and British overtakings. Located in Colon Province, Portobelo is in the northern part of the isthmus. Like many other great trading posts, it has a deep natural harbor, the necessary characteristic for a town to store and guard Spanish treasure.

The gold that found its way to the safety of the many Spanish colonial fortifications in Portobelo and the nearby Fort San Lorenzo came in great quantities from Peru, Pizarro’s land of conquest. 

The gold was too strong a pull, and the English continually rampaged the fortresses, most famously by Francis Drake, who set fire to San Lorenzo in 1596.  Portobelo itself was most brutally attached by Henry Morgan, who, according to a Dutch historian, killed or wounded basically the entire city. Fort San Lorenzo and the Spanish fortifications were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. in 1980. 

With great views of the Chagres River and the mossed-over forts, plan to spend time at both of these great sites to soak in the intensive colonial significance this stretch of coast had.

This side of the country is vastly different from the southern coast, home to the booming Panama City. Here on the northern side, things seem to be crumbling, much like the forts. However, within this tattered landscape, you find incredible cultural treasures. 

One that must be mentioned is the adored “Black Christ” housed in the San Felipe church. The wood came from Spain and is over 300 hundred years old. While the effigy was not originally black, smoke from burning incense and other air contaminates caused the carving to become dark brown. Not only is the “Black Christ” a significant symbol for Panama a yearly festival, on October 21st, draws thousands of visitors to the church. After walking miles from as far away as Panama City, about 50 miles, most pilgrims crawl on their hands and knees the last mile to the church. 

Walking into the little church and past the tiny, weathered houses, you will not feel like a band of tourists filing into yet another church to take a few snapshots and move on. You are in the community of a people with a deep reverence for this place. It is less of a tourist place and more of an opportunity to put the camera down and walk in with respectful esteem.

If you have the option, riding the trans-isthmian train back to the other side of the isthmus is necessary. The train allows you to see Lake Gatun (a body of water between the locks) and enjoy a relaxing ride back home after a very long day.

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