dear Craig: luv ya, mean it!

I've been trolling Craigslist again ... and buried in there, among the amusing ("used wedding dress --- paid $5000, asking $4900") and the downright baffling (a screenplay listed by some guy in Wisconsin for $2,500,000 with the opening line "Actually I want more but I can't post any more digits", which then devolved into a rant about Jesus) ... I found some more goodies.

7" tall vases, 15 for $20. Thanks, Sara in Valley Village!


4" tall wide vases, 10 for $25. Thanks, Adrienne in Manhattan Beach!

I also got these care of Bravo Bride. Votive candles holders, 33 for $16 + shipping. Thanks, Terri in Oroville!

All together, I think the reception tables are just about kitted out. I'm planning to fill the tall vases with water, drop a single flower at the bottom, and float a candle on top. These images capture the essence of what I'd like to create:

(images from The Knot)

With the lower ones, I can either try the same thing, or do this:

All this for around $80 so far, with only flowers (one per vase) left to purchase. I'm not going to break my arm patting myself on the back, but I think I did good here.

My last CL find this week was at a garage sale. Somewhere between 10-12 yards of ivory fabric. Hello, aisle runner! All I have to do is hem the edge, and I can even use that iron-on tape if I have to. $20 -- thanks, nice lady in Studio City who's name I didn't get, but who's lovely Australian Shepard puppies slurped me!

And over at the Shameless Pandering Desk: I've read on a few sites about blogging brides who received free printers from major companies (Epson, HP, etc.) to do their d.i.y. projects, in exchange for blogging about the results. Maybe it's because I go out and audition (translation: try to convince people I'm swell) just about every day, but I decided to see if I could get some of that action, too. Everyone I've approached so far has been extremely polite in their rebuffing me ... and HP even sent me a lovely little gift in lieu of my own machine:

I'm now the proud holder of a gift certificate to their new collaboration, hp.com/create and TinyPrints.com. They do all sorts of pretty paper things that you can customize, and they're working with some really great companies like Wedding Paper Divas, moo.com and stamps.com. I can't wait to see what we get from them -- based on what's available & what we need, I'm thinking either Rehearsal Dinner invites (if we have one) or a Directions Card to go with our invites. Either way, free = my favorite price!

edit: Since I don't think we'll have use for so many vases in our home, after the wedding it's all going right back on Craigslist. So's the aisle runner, since I have no plans to monogram it.