Weekend DIY: The Results are in...

The results are in, we repainted the kitchen and dining room this weekend!  The guest room will have to wait for another day, our feet were too tired to even keep us standing long enough to tape off the guest room.

Take a look at our pictures below!

Dining Room

As you can see, the dining room was a mustard gold color.  Here is a photo of Mr. bear in the process of painting the first coat.  Boy were we glad do see that gold go!

We need to get some decor on the walls, but this was the best photo I had that showed the true color of the dining room.  We did the dining room in a flat paint finish.

Kitchen

Here's a photo of the kitchen with the Garden Spot green.  Ironically Valspar paint has a similar color called Dill Pickle.  Mr. Bear HATES pickles, so we will continue to refer to this as "Garden Spot" green.  We did the kitchen in a semi-gloss finish since we don't have a full back splash, it makes for much easier cleanup.

Last night we bought some puck lights to go under the cabinets to light up the space around the stove a bit more.  We are still working on their installation, but I think they will look really nice.


So what do you think?

-Danielle

Weekend DIY: Let's Paint the Town...Gray?

I can't believe it is once again Friday!  This week zipped by and we're already on the brink of the weekend!

Mr. Bear and I bought our house in September 2012 (we put in an offer the week we came home from our honeymoon!).  We've been in it for almost 8 months and still have not painted a single room.

The main problem had been agreeing on a color.  I like colors with warmer undertones while Mr. Bear prefers cooler colors.  Our childhoods have greatly influenced us.  My parents ALWAYS had warm colors (reds, golds, browns, warm greens, warm beiges) while his parents' house is varying shades of blues and bluish greens.

This week we finally agreed on colors for our kitchen, dining room and guest room.

We are planning to begin painting tomorrow, but boy am I not looking forward to the prep work.

Several years ago, my parents bought a new house.  This was the last time I've painted so much as a speck of anything.   What I do remember, however, is how much I hated taping and tarping everything in the room.  Anyway, we are planning to go buy the paint tonight.  These are all Sherwin Williams colors.

Kitchen

Our kitchen has beige granite, and floors, white cabinets with nickel pulls and we have stainless steel appliances.  Here's a photo from the previous owner's MLS listing:

For now, we've settled on Garden Spot for the kitchen

Dining Room

We recently purchased a dining room set, Ashley Furniture's Hayley table, chairs and buffet.  I plan to get some funky accent chairs for the head and foot of the table.  I really want a gray room in our house, and thought the dark wood in the table would look great with the gray.  I may re-upholster the chairs with a different fabric, but they are pretty neutral right now.

Essential Gray for the dining room:

Guest Room

As you can see from the MLS photo, our guest room is a lovely shade of pinkish lavender.  Not seen in the photo, there was even a shrine to Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez!  While it was lovely for the little girl who lived there, we are looking for a more updated and modern look.  We've decided on a light/medium beige large stripe for the guest bedroom (something like this from Pinterest).

I'll post later next week with a final update on the paint.  I'm excited to finally start making our house our own!

What do you think of our picks?

-Danielle

Bonus Recipe: Crunchy Peanut Thai Chicken

Since I was so busy earlier this week and didn't get a chance to post on Monday, you guys get a special bonus post today!

A few months ago, my mom made this chicken while we were over for family dinner.  It was interesting, delicious, and quick to prepare.  Always looking for recipes I can make in under a half an hour, I had her pass along the recipe.

Bear with me during the ingredients because you may stop and ask what the heck mayo is doing in this recipe, but I assure you it is necessary.  This recipe is adopted from a Betty Crocker recipe my mom had received from her friend.  This version serves 2.  Prep is about 10 minutes and it cooks in about 20.

Crunchy Peanut Thai Chicken

Ingredients:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/2 c. plain panko bread crumbs (I found these in the international food section of my grocery store)

1/4 c.  finely chopped dry-roasted peanuts (use a nut chopper for the easiest method for a fine chop)

1/4 c. purchased peanut sauce (I used Dynasty Thai Peanut Satay Sauce, also found in the international foods section of my grocery store)

2 tbsp. mayonnaise (I used Hellman's low fat to make it a little lighter in calories

Additional purchased peanut sauce, if desired

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.  Line baking sheet with foil; spray with cooking spray.  Between pieces of plastic wrap, waxed paper, or an open large ziploc bag, place each chicken breast smooth side down.  Gently pound with flat side of meat mallet or rolling pin until about 1/2" all over thickness.

2. In shallow dish, mix together peanut sauce and mayo.  In another shallow dish (I used pie dishes), mix together panko and peanuts.  Dip chicken in peanut sauce mixture, then dip in panko mixture.  Place on baking sheet.

3. Bake 15-20 minutes, turining once, until juice of chicken is clear when center of thickest part is cut or at 165 degrees and coating is golden brown.  Serve with additional peanut sauce.

I served with rice and vegetables, but a coconut noodle would also be good!  It was gobbled up and I didn't get a chance to grab a pic before running out the door, but here is the image provided by Betty Crocker.  The texture is crunchy but the warm peanuts also become smooth to the bite.  With the peanut sauce coating, it keeps the chicken very moist!

-Danielle

Wedding Wednesday: DIY Invitations

It's once again Wedding Wednesday!  Today I will be walking you through how I DIY-ed our invitations.

When I started looking at invitations for our wedding, I began by looking online for inspiration.  I kept coming across invitations that looked like little folders.  I thought they were a great way to keep all the information organized for guests.  After doing some research, I found that they were called pocketfolds and came in various colors, shapes, sizes and formats.
After pricing out what I wanted with a few vendors, it was looking to cost about $5.50 per invitation (That was going to be around $500 just in invitations, not including any postage...yikes!)

I decided to go in search for a cheaper option that would have the same look.  On a recommendation from a few people on my regional theknot.com board, I went to a paper wholesale place in the area that many people go to for stationary, invitations and scrap booking supplies, Hollo's Papercraft .

While there, I found these awesome pocketfolds in a sparkly plum color.  I also fell in love with several beautiful papers.  I bought enough paper supplies to create one test invitation.
1 ivory scrolling patterned cardstock (8.5x11)
1 moss green solid cardstock (12 x 12)
3 linen lined cardstock (8.5 x 11)
1 RSVP card sized envelope
1 sparkling plum pocketfold
1 sparkling plum inner envelope

I then made my way over to my local Hobby Lobby and purchased the following additional supplies:
1 sliding paper cutter with a perforation and regular blade replacement
1 silicone cutting mat
1 xacto knife
1 bottle ZipDry glue

After carefully measuring the pocketfold, I began cutting the papers.  I knew I was going to have up to 5 inserts in the pocket with information, so I cut those first since they were going to be varying heights, but the same width.  They were made out of the ivory linen cardstock and I made each insert 1/2" smaller in height than the last.  This created a tiered look.  Inserts that were not being distributed to everyone were the shortest so I could easily not include while still keeping the clean layered look.

I then started with the ivory scroll cardstock as my background paper and cut it to size that was 1/8" smaller on all sides than the middle of the pocketfold.  I used the sliding paper cutter to do this.

I then cut the moss green cardstock 1/4" smaller on all sides than the ivory scroll.  Finally, I cut the ivory linen cardstock down 1/4" smaller than the green cardstock.  In the images I've attached you'll see my measurements on my sample were a little off :)

Using the ZipDry, I pasted the ivory scroll to the pocketfold, visually centering the paper before the glue dried.  I then did the same for the green and ivory linen papers.

The photo below was an actual invitation, but it gives you an idea as to what it looked like.

After finishing my test, I realized that the ivory scroll paper, while beautiful, was far too expensive to use a full piece of paper as my base background.  I decided to instead do a picture frame approach.  I cut the ivory scroll into strips of paper 1/2" wide, mitered the corners with my Xacto knife at a 45 degree angle, and then glued the strips onto the pocketfold so it created what looked like a picture frame of the ivory scroll.  I then pasted the rest of the cardstock on top as usual.

The process was painstaking, but by cutting down how much of that paper I was going to use, my per invite cost went from $2.35 to $1.35.

Additionally, instead of purchasing my pocketfolds from the paper wholesaler, I found the matching pocketfolds and envelopes for cheaper at Cards and Pockets.  Mine were the Signature pocketfold in Sparkling Merlot.  They arrived quickly and in excellent boxes that kept all of the invitations organized.

Here is another photo of the finished product.  I added a "B" printed on cardstock and mounted on plum paper to the opening corner of the pocketfold (if you had the pocketfold closed, it looked like a sticker holding the pocketfold closed)

I printed all my paper at Kinko's.  Since it was all black and white, I paid $0.10 per page.  I was able to fit 3 invitations on a single sheet and all 5 inserts on one sheet.  Each invitation used 1 and 1/3 pages of printed paper.

Tips:

1. If you are going to DIY your invitations, start early.  I started assembling these in November 2011 for mailing in April 2012.

2. Make sure to shop around for your products.  I found the pocketfolds online for much cheaper

3. Buy enough extra supplies so that you can make several mistakes.  At the end of the day, I had 10 extra pocketfolds, but at least I had room for mistakes.

4. Make a mockup and keep it near you during assembly.  It helps to prevent mistakes if you can visually see what you are attempting to make.

5. Keep in mind that your postage is going to be based on weight, so if you have inserts like I did that not everyone needed (i.e. Rehearsal and Picnic), be sure to have an envelope that includes all inserts weighed for your final postage

6. Don't forget to provide return postage for your RSVP!

-Danielle

Weekend Recipe: Creole Lime Shrimp

Earlier this week, Mr. Bear was out for the evening with his brother.  Mr. Bear is a bit pickier than I am when it comes to food, so I decided to test out a new recipe while he was out.

Now that the weather is getting warmer, I'm looking forward to grilled dishes.  Shrimp just screams warm weather to me, so I decided to go in search of a delicious recipe.

After perusing several of my typical recipe sites, I noticed that the most common recipes included lime and/or cajun seasoning.  I didn't have any cajun seasoning on hand and didn't really feel like making my own, but I had some Zatarain's Creole seasoning that I felt would be a good substitute. I took an amalgamation of a bunch of other recipes to come up with this marinade.


I loved this dish because it was only 4 ingredients!

Ingredients:

2 heaping tsp. Zatarain's Creole Seasoning
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 lime, juiced
1lb raw shrimp, peeled and deveined (I used 21/25 shrimp which means there are 21 to 25 shrimp per pound aka "Jumbo" shrimp.  I also prefer it with the tail off, but it is up to you)

The Zatarain's seasoning is pretty salty, so I only used 2 tsp. and it gave it a really good flavor.  If you are using a cajun or creole seasoning that is less salty, I would recommend upping your seasoning, with a maximum of 3 tbsp.

Directions:

1. Mix together the seasoning, lime juice and vegetable oil in a resealable plastic bag, or bowl with a lid.  Add the shrimp, coat with the marinade.  Marinate in the fridge for up to 20 mins. (I was in a hurry this past time so only marinated for about 10 and the flavor was still good)

2. Preheat grill for medium heat and lightly oil the grate (I used PAM for grilling on my indoor grill).  Remove the shrimp from marinade and shake off excess.  Discard remaining marinade.

3. Cook shrimp on the grill until they are bright pink on the outside and the meat is no longer transparent in the center.  This was about 2 minutes per side for me, but I went a little longer because I like to get a nice brown, crunchy outside.

I served with broccoli and a side of rice.  It was delicious!

Tips:

1. I cooked on an indoor grill because I was just cooking for myself.  If you are cooking on an outdoor charcoal or gas grill, I would highly recommend rubbing the grates with oil instead of using PAM.

2. Also, if cooking on outdoor grill, I would recommend using skewers on the shrimp to make sure they don't drop between the grates.  I recommend metal skewers, but if you are using bamboo skewers, be sure to soak in water before use so they don't burn on the grill.

3. For a bit of a margarita flavor, you could add tequila to the marinade!

4. Be sure to start with defrosted shrimp.  I forgot to pull some out the night before, so I did the quick defrost method of putting the shrimp in a colander and letting COLD water run over them for about 15 mins. NEVER use hot water, you could introduce bacteria.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do, It is a great summer dish, and the shrimp would also be excellent on a southwest style salad!

-Danielle

Wedding Wednesday: Tackling the Guest list

In last Wednesday's post, we discussed tackling the budget for your wedding.  I also made reference to your guest list so I wanted to write a follow up post.

Besides the budget, your guest list is one of the most important parts of your wedding.  It will determine everything from the feel of the wedding down to the type of wedding you can afford.  I recommend putting together your guest list in tandem with your budget.

To put together our guest list, Mr. Bear and I first put together a list of ANYONE we could think of that we might want to invite to the wedding.  In our estimates, we gave any singles a "plus one" as well.  Proper etiquette dictates that anyone in a relationship must be invited with their significant other so we allocated spaces on our initial guest list in the event that someone might become "taken" in the year and a half that we were to be engaged.

Our initial list was right around 300 people.  This included family, friends, work friends, family friends and guests of our parents (that we thought they might want to invite).

Our next step was to determine what size wedding we could actually afford.  For us, food, alcohol and a band were the most important parts of the wedding and we wanted to be able to afford good food, an open bar and a band.  Two of those three things are dependent upon your guest list, so we determined we wanted to be at a maximum of 180 invited guests.

Cutting people can become difficult, especially if you are in the beginning stages of planning and you intend to have a longer engagement.  Just remember that this version of the guest list is there to serve as a guide for your purchases and likely will not be the finalized list.  To make cutting potential guests from our guest list a bit easier, our total budget was split almost exactly in thirds between us, my parents and Mr. Bear's parents. We figured since everyone was paying the same amount we would divide allowed guests evenly among all parties.  For us, this meant that each party was allowed to invite 60 people of their choosing.  This could be family, friends, or the bum they met on the street, but each was only allowed 60.  It was very difficult to stay within the 60 person limit, but that was what we could afford and it was the size of wedding we wanted, no larger.  Additionally, our venue could only comfortably seat about 190 in the configuration we wanted.

After all sides turned in their lists, we had our nearly completed guest list long before any additional decision was made.  There were a few swaps on both sides of the family, but for the most part, this was the finalized list.  It made it very easy to prevent etiquette boo-boo's once we had our list.

Knowing who was invited and who wasn't prevented all parties from talking about the wedding in front of those who were not invited, preventing feelings of being snubbed.

Our guest list assisted in everything from chargers and tablecloths to wedding cake and how much paper needed to be ordered for save the dates, menus, programs, and invitations.

While the guest list was the hardest part of our wedding planning process, it was also vital because at the end of the day, we were surrounded by people we loved dearly on the day of our wedding!

Tips:

1. I highly recommend keeping your guest list in a spreadsheet.  After we had our guest list spreadsheet, we were able to enter in the addresses, keep track of any gifts received, and track RSVPs.  I used a format similar to this one that I found on Google:

2. Create a rough draft or at the very least have your maximum number defined BEFORE going any further in the planning.  Your guest count is going to determine venues that will fit in your budget, as well as whether or not a venue will be able to properly accommodate the number of guests you plan to invite.

-Danielle

Weekend DIY: Review of Scotts® Snap™ Spreader

Does anyone else have a case of the Mondays?  I certainly do and the weekend went by way too fast.

Mr. Bear and I are usually "Weekend Warriors" when it comes to keeping up with the house.  This past weekend, I was determined to get some fertilizer on our lawn for the spring.  We typically don't buy into the hype of new products, but we were at Lowe's a few weeks ago picking up a few things and they had the Scotts® Snap™ Spreader out on display.  It was about $20 cheaper than a standard spreader and we purchased 2 accompanying packs of Weed & Feed to cover our lawn.  The grand total came in at about $10-$15 less than a standard spreader and weed & feed.

Saturday morning, I woke up and used our weed killer spray on a bunch of weeds in our garden beds that had cropped up in the last week or so with all of the rain we had been getting.  They were only expecting a 30% chance of rain on Saturday and we had just had what seemed like a monsoon the day before so I figured it would be the perfect day to fertilize.  As soon as I had finished spraying the last set of weeds in the gardens, it began to sprinkle.  I didn't know if it was going to be a full-blown rain so I held off on the fertilizer.

I ended up getting out later in the day to spread the fertilizer, and I was actually really happy it rained because I had read several reviews for Scotts that indicated you should start with a soaked lawn.  Some even recommended applying with the Snap Spreader in the rain, although I don't like getting soaked on a 45 degree day.

(image courtesy of Dave_HD_OC on the Home Depot community boards)

First, I have to say that the bags that we purchased to go with the spreader were very easy to snap in and get ready for use.  My only complaint is that the spreader and bag could use a bit more of actual instructions as to how to use.  Maybe our label had fallen off of the spreader, but I didn't find any instructions for use.  The setup was pretty intuitive though so even a few pictures to make sure you have the spreader unlocked before trying to put the bag on would probably have sufficed.

Second, spreading was a breeze!  You just clamp down on the handle and can adjust how much you are spreading by how quickly you walk behind the spreader.  I had to hit the bag of fertilizer a few times because it would get clumped up inside the bag and you could see a deterioration in the amount of fertilizer that was spread.  A few taps on the bag with the heel of my hand freed up the clumps.

The spreader has a feature they call EdgeGuard. that essentially sprays the fertilizer to the left so that a straight line can be created along the right side of the spreader.  This is supposed to be used when walking along the edges of your lawn.  I wish this feature had been controllable.  It was great when walking along beds, sidewalks and the driveway, but it was annoying to figure out if a portion of the lawn had already been covered when going back and forth.

Overall, I was able to fertilize in about 15 minutes on our 1/3 of an acre with about 1 bag of their weed & feed.

All in all, I really liked the spreader, especially not having to deal with dumping the fertilizer into the hopper of the spreader.  I usually find the bags to be awkward in size and weight and end up dumping part of the product on the ground.  This spreader was easy to use and it was very easy to control when the spreader actually dispersed product.  I also liked the shape of the spreader (being on 2 wheels in a "dolly" format instead of the traditional).  As a shorter female, I was able to see where it was spreading much easier than the standard spreader.  Finally, I liked that the fertilizer was all encapsulated in the sealed bags and I didn't have to touch any of it.

It does create a lot more packaging than the standard spreader, but for me it was so much more convenient.

I am still waiting to see the results of the fertilizer itself, so I'll have to update the post in a few days.  I hope everyone is getting in the swing of spring like I am!

-Danielle

Weekend Recipe: Chocolate Scotcheroos = The Best Rice Cereal Treats You've Ever Had

The weekend is finally here!  What a week!

Yesterday was a friend of Mr. Bear and mine's birthday.  We are celebrating by going to a baseball game tonight!

Although I won't be able to bring any treats into the stadium, I wanted to share a recipe I've made for our friend in the past.  He was recently diagnosed with celiac disease so I always try to make something gluten-free, but ever so delicious.  Dessert is usually the most difficult since SO many desserts have flour in them, but do I have a dessert for you!

I introduce you to the Chocolate Scotcheroo!

(Image courtesy of ricekrispies.com since I didn't get a chance to take picture of them the last time I made these delicious morsels)

The Chocolate Scotcheroo is like a Rice Krispie Treat taken to the next level.

When I was a kid, my mom ONLY made her rice cereal treats this way.  I was later disappointed to find out that not everyone makes such delicious rice cereal desserts.

The recipe contains corn syrup instead of marshmallows (which is good for gf followers since some marshmallow brands can be subject to gluten cross-contamination).  It also contains the 2 secret ingredients that make them ever so delicious, peanut butter and butterscotch.  Even if you don't like butterscotch, you will love these!  The peanut butter, chocolate and butterscotch blend together so nicely into an ooey gooey goodness, you'll blink and they'll be gone.

Chocolate Scotcheroos

  Ingredients

Original recipe makes 24 bars

• 1 cup Light Corn Syrup
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter (can use crunchy, but I prefer creamy)

• 6 cups crispy rice cereal (If making gluten-free, be sure to get the gluten-free Rice Krispies.  Traditional Rice Krispies contain malt which has gluten)
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup butterscotch chips

Directions

1. Cook corn syrup and sugar together in a large pan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Bring mixture just to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter; mix well. Add cereal; stir until evenly coated.
2. Pour into greased 13x9-inch pan and pat into place.
3. Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips together in saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Spread over cereal.
4. Cool at least 45 minutes, or until firm. Cut into bars.

• PREP 20 mins
• COOK 10 mins
• READY IN 1 hr 15 mins 

 

Tips:

• Make sure to just bring the sugar and corn syrup to a slight boil.  Do NOT boil for a long time.  If you boil for any length of time your bars will be very hard to eat once they cool. 
• In the summer it can get hot, and the chocolate can melt if left out.  You can put these in the fridge for a short period of time to re-harden the chocolate on top, however, be aware that the corn syrup hardens too, so make sure you let it warm up a bit after pulling out of the fridge so you will be able to chew. :) 
• Spray cooking spray into measuring cup for adding corn syrup, that way the corn syrup slides right out of the measuring cup

**Update**

• If making gluten free, make sure to use gf butterscotch chips.  Nestle's is NOT gf but Hershey's is.  I almost contaminated a whole batch because I bought Nestle's instead of Hershey's.  

-Danielle

Wedding Wednesday: Budgeting for your Wedding

Happy Wednesday!

I will be posting wedding tips and tricks on Wednesdays (at least for as long as I have things to share).

When I began wedding planning 2 years ago, the first thing I started with was a budget.  Throughout planning this was the one thing that remained constant in my mind.  I HIGHLY recommend that all brides-to-be start their wedding planning here.  It will drive EVERY decision you make.

I graduated from college with a B.S. in Finance, so budgeting and spreadsheets were no stranger to me.  For those who haven't had as much opportunity for this type of exposure, the budget can be a very daunting and tedious task.  If proper budgeting is not achieved up front, it is VERY easy to snowball out of control.  Suddenly you wake up one day and you are thousands of dollars over what you had initially planned to spend, and that's not the way anyone wants to start a marriage!

Dresses, and Venues and Flowers, Oh MY!

With today's media, we are inundated with wedding planning ideas long before most of us ever get engaged. All of these ideas make your head spin at the start of planning, but where do you begin?

One word, BUDGET

1. Start with an ideal budget number that you can realistically achieve.

Mr. Bear and I were fortunate enough to get some money from each of our parents toward our wedding.  We were very grateful and understood that many couples are not afforded such a luxury.  We hadn't been expecting money from our parents, so our ideal budget number when we began took into account the length of time we wanted to be engaged vs. the amount we could comfortably store away per month.

We wanted to be engaged for 18 months and figured that we could put away about $x per month into wedding savings while still having enough money to pay all our bills, essentials (food, etc) and put additional money into another savings account.

1a. This is important: Make sure you aren't putting ALL your savings toward the wedding.  You want to have money leftover at the end of the day, and you also want to have money available during the planning for emergencies (like your car needing new brakes).
We still wanted to have money for a down payment for a house once we got married, so it was essential to tighten the purse strings and really be conscious about how we spent our money during those 18 months.

Once our parents indicated they would be giving us money toward the wedding, we calculated that our max budget would then be $x+$y (money from our parents).  This was the absolute maximum including taxes, gratuities, etc. that we were allowed to spend on the wedding.  Our desired budget number was about 15-20% less than that number so that we would have wiggle room for taxes, delivery fees, gratuities, etc.

2. Investigate the average cost of things in your area.
Once you have set your ideal budget number, start investigating the average cost of things in your area.  This will set realistic expectations for you and what your budget will allow.  I recommend looking at average costs for 3-4 vendors in each area.

For instance, once we had our desired budget number, I started investigating venues, food, bands, etc. in my area.  This was just preliminary investigation mostly done via looking at online pricing guides or by sending quick emails to the various vendors for their average pricing structure.  By doing this, I found out that the venue I had my heart set on was about $6000 above the average price range of the other similar places.  In order to go with that venue, I would have to cut $6000 from other portions of our budget, which was not realistic.

Once you get an average price range, you can start pulling together your spreadsheet

3. Create a spreadsheet.
You are then going to want to create a detailed spreadsheet.  I preferred to set it up in Microsoft Excel, but OpenOffice also has a spreadsheet tool as does Google Docs if you do not have Excel.

In this spreadsheet you are going to want to break out everything into buckets.
My budget spreadsheet had buckets for each of the following:

(We had our ceremony and reception in the same location.  The location also charged a corkage fee for alcohol since you were able to bring it in independently from a different vendor)

Once I had my buckets, I filled in things that were not dependent upon guest count (i.e. Wedding Dress, Groom's attire, Photography, Band/DJ, Flowers, etc.).

This is where you then need to make a determination about your guest list.  I'll tackle creating your guest list in another post, but you will then plug in your TOTAL guest count into things that are often priced per person or per couple(not just those you think will attend, you will want to account for 100% attendance...we only had a few people decline).

Once you have filled in your expected/budgeted costs for each of these categories, add up the total and make sure it is 15-20% within your budget (don't forget about tax, delivery charges and gratuities).  If it isn't, figure out what you can cut from.

Remember that Food and Alcohol are typically where the largest majority of your budget needs to go.  The easiest way to cut your budget is to cut the guest count!

4. Keep track of your budget (This may be the hardest part)
Now that you've gone to ALL of that effort to create a budget, keep track of your expenditures!  Log all wedding purchases into the spreadsheet.  I kept mine on the computer and every time I had a receipt or knew the total cost, I would log that amount in a column to the right of my expected numbers called "Actual spent".  If I went over budget in one area, I subtracted that amount from another area's expected cost.
For instance, I went over my original budget for my dress by $500.  I knew that it was the perfect dress though so I decided to hand-make all my stationary from paper and supplies from a paper wholesaler near me.  It was a lot of work, but I ended up saving almost $200 on stationary alone.  I also reduced my veil/shoes/jewelry budget because I had found that you can find some awesome custom-made veils for great prices on Etsy.  Bridal veils in my local bridal boutiques were averaging $200 I found one on Etsy that was identical to the one I tried on at the boutique for $40.

Likewise, we hadn't intended to get a videographer initially, but after coming in way under budget on flowers,  I allocated the remaining flower budget toward a videographer for our ceremony only.

Final Tips

• Some people like to print out their budget and keep it in a binder with all their wedding things so that when they go to visit vendors, they always have it handy.  I didn't do this because I frequently visited vendors when I was coming from work and didn't want to have to lug around a binder.  I saved my budget in a Dropbox folder so I could access it from anywhere.\

• Save all your receipts for things purchased for the wedding.  There were numerous times I ran to Michael's or Hobby Lobby for some glue.  Remember that the small purchases eventually add up, so just keep track of them to begin with.

• Many vendors take payments in installments, so I also used my spreadsheet to indicate dates and amounts due to each vendor.  Without the budget spreadsheet, I wouldn't have been able to be so organized!

The only way you will stay on budget is if you are constantly aware of how much you intended to spend on the individual item, how much the item actually is and how much of your overall budget has already been spent!

Above all, if you spend the time up front putting together a realistic budget, it won't be difficult to make your payments, and you won't have to stress about it at the end of planning.

-Danielle

Welcome to my Blog!

Welcome to my new blog!

I'm Danielle and my husband, Mr. Bear, and I were married in July 2012.  Our first year of marriage has been wonderful, and I hope to share tips and tricks I've learned (and continue to learn) along the way.

Look for posts on topics ranging from wedding planning tips (my friends are all getting married now :) ) to recipes and tips for home ownership.

-Danielle