stuff I've gotten done

We've been a little slow on getting out the thank you cards. Like, a snail-race-through-molasses slow. But it's for a good reason. Or at least, a "good" reason. Mr. UB had the breel-yint idea to send each person a photograph of us using their gift, so as to make them feel like we really appreciate it. Or at least like it's not just gathering dust in an attic somewhere. (Not to worry: we don't have an attic!) A few people had to get left out of this fabulosity, because their gifts are in our storage unit (yes, we will remember them at Christmas), but for the most part, we "thanked" our people for their generosity thusly:

J, who bought us the luggage set, got this:

And S, our wine hook-up, received this little gem:
I'm sure they realize just how worth the wait that all was ....

In other news (aka Shopping Success Stories), behold:
$219 at Restoration Hardware

$10 at a thrift store in the valley. Hell no, I'm not saying which one.

Can world domination be far away?

cost breakdown: candy buffet

One of the biggest "non-practical" elements of our wedding was our candy buffet. (It's also one of the only things featured in wedding magazines that I fell in love with. What can I say? I'm not completely impervious to pretty pictures.) I'm sure that we could have come up with a less expensive cost-per-guest party favor, but I figured that people had earned their sugar comas after all the dancing at our reception!

We had 9 different containers in our buffet: 3 apothecary jars & 2 decorative plates, all snagged at Ross. (I started looking very early in our planning process, in order to take advantage of post-Christmas sales. I basically grabbed anything white or metallic I could get my hands on.) I got creative when I found 2 big mercury class candle holders at Target (I just covered the pointy thing in the bottom with tissue paper), and I made a cake stand from a tutorial on OnceWed.com. At the last minute, I found a giant clear-glass vase that I already owned -- score!

Total: $69.18



For the candy, I realized pretty quickly that while lots of websites out there offer "discount bulk candy", the overnight shipping required to get it to Southern California in the summer, hopefully without melting, was a potential budget-buster. I got as much of it as I could at a local warehouse in downtown L.A.

10 lbs. each grapefruit sour gummies, butterscotch & Hershey's kisses = $68.88.

I got the rest from 2 online resources, and went for the 2-day shipping in protective packaging (still cheaper than overnighting it) just before temps soared for the summer.

10 lbs. each 7-up jelly bellies & white jordan almonds from bulkfoods.com = $99.56 + approx. $60 shipping.
10 lbs. "milkies" (like M&M's, but without the "M" so cheaper) & 5 lbs. champagne bubbles from Groovy Candies = $115.85 + approx. $40 shipping.

I also got 5 lbs. of white mints from Smart & Final for about $10. And somehow I got it into my head that I'd have a) the time, and b) the skill to make a thing or two. Yeah, I know ... overly ambitious = me. Fortunately, after my test run turned out poorly, I found these at Target:

White Oreos! Who knew?! (I didn't.) About $10 for 3 bags.

I made the signs for each container with leftover cardstock from our invitations -- printed at Kinko's -- and attached it with ribbon I found on sale. Instead of buying pricey labels from some online site, I printed some using Word on my home computer:

They seemed to get what I wanted to say across ... and I already had those labels, so they were free.

We decorated the table with the leftover bubble liquid bottles from our ceremony, and some matchbook notebooks that I made. I used the cardstock samples I'd bought when looking for our invitation paper, plus stamps that were in the set used on our invitations & plain computer paper. The upside to doing things yourself = re-purposing your leftovers!


I found the big scoops at a local party supply store (about $10) & decorated them with the same ribbon as on the container signs, and got the bags through a wholesale company. (I ended up with twice the amount I needed, so after selling the extras on Craigslist, they cost a net $13.)

Altogether, the candy buffet cost us about $545. Admittedly, it was kind of an extravagance, and I might have changed my mind if I'd known about the extra $100 in shipping charges from the beginning ... but it turned out beautifully, our guests loved it, and I was really proud of myself for pulling it off. So if anyone out there is planning something similar, I hope you find this useful!

more almost-free stuff!

One of the goodies that came with being picked as a couple for a Minted.com design challenge was a $250 credit toward any of the beautiful paper things on their site. The obvious choice (meaning something they have that we need): thank you cards!


I love these -- they're the perfect colors (sage green, white, slate) and the flowers look a lot like these:

I love it when things look like I planned them. It makes me feel smarter.

Now I just need them to hurry up & get here -- because "stuff" has started to arrive! The wedding fort* is acquiring a second wing.

*I didn't come up with that phrase. Elizabeth did. But I wish I had.