Miss Mojito, Your Blog Is "Over The Top"

part one

I left you all hanging last night because I needed to get to bed, silly bronchitis, and couldn't possibly pick a winner for the "Over the Top" award.  But I did a little catching up today, and going back through some of my favorite blogs, and made a decision, as you can see by the title.

Miss Mojito, from With this ring, I thee blog.....you are the chosen one. haha.

Rules include: Fill out the survey from part one, pick another winner, and do a happy dance*.

*Happy dance optional.

For those of you that aren't familiar with Miss Mojito, or her blog, quickly make your way over there.  She has some awesome ideas, and has shared numerous websites that have helped me out.  So go...check her out!

Missing In Action

Just wanted to pop by and say I'm SOOO sorry for being MIA lately.  Last week I had strep throat, and I just found out this morning that I now have bronchitis to top it off....wonderful.  So I've just kind of been hanging out, trying to kick this thing in the butt.  Oh, and did I mention...I got to see Mr. T this weekend!

So again, I'm very sorry I've been a horrible blogger for the past week, but I guess I have a good reason.  You guys forgive me right??  I promise I'll try and get back on track a little further into the week.

But for tonight, I have an award to share with you all.  I finally got around to checking my email today and saw that LauraLou at Lucky in Love awarded me the "Over the Top" blog award.  How sweet!!

The rules for this award are simple: fill out the survey using only one word answers, and then pass it on to one lucky blogger!  So here goes...

1. where is your cell phone? pocket

2. your hair? ponytail

3. your mother? couch

4. your father? sleeping

5. your favorite food? carbs

6. your dream last night? sad

7. your favorite drink? lemonade

8. your dream/goal? happiness

9. what room are you in? computer

10. your hobby? crafts

11. your fear? loss

12. where do you want to be in 6 years? love

13. where were you last night? home

14. something that you aren’t? tall

15. muffins? blueberry

16. wish list item? graduation

17. where did you grow up? smalltown

18. last thing you did? tv

19. what are you wearing? pajamas

20. your TV? news

21. your pets? doggies!

22. friends? irreplaceable

23. your life? changing

24. your mood? sick

25. missing someone? Mr. T

26. vehicle? Pontiac

27. something you’re not wearing? socks

28. your favorite store? express

29. your favorite color? orange

30. when was the last time you laughed? yesterday

31. last time you cried? yesterday

32. your best friend? wonderful

33. one place that i go to over and over? class

34. one person who emails me regularly? junkmail

35. favorite place to eat? couch


Reminds me of my Myspace days constantly filling out surveys....cause that was the cool thing to do!
I'm going to do something horrible, and leave you all hanging until tomorrow to find out who I'm passing this award on to.  I've got a little catching up to do, and then I need to pick between some of my favorites, so I'm blaming this one on the bronchitis! Time for me to get to bed.

Stalking My Photographer

I'm kind of sorta stalking my wedding photographer.... but not in a bad way I swear!  I just like to look at her website from time to time and see if she's put up any new pictures.  I'm also friends with her on facebook and I get really excited when she adds new pictures from a wedding or engagement shoot.

I've decided this isn't a bad thing, I'm just doing "research" into her style and it gives me a idea of what my pictures might turn out like.

Just wanted to share a couple from the album she added today.  I'm so glad it worked out with our budget to go with her, and these reinforce that.

*All pictures from Brandy Swartz of Brandy Swartz Photography

Are any of you "stalking" your wedding vendors??

Welp! It's Official....

....and no we didn't run off and get secretly married for insurance reasons or anything.

I'm officially selling my body for my wedding. 

Yes, you read that right, I'm whoring myself out for all those little extras I want, but couldn't justify as part of the wedding budget.  But not my body really....just part of it.

Today I went to the plasma center to donate plasma.  I'd be lying if I said I was doing it solely for the purpose of saving lives.  Yes that's a very good reason, but you can also make 50 bucks a week.  And for a broke-a$$ college student like me that worked a non-paid internship this summer instead of a job...any little bit helps.  So I went in with social security card and ID in hand and started the rigorous process of registering.  And boy is it rigorous.

I went through about an hour and a half of questioning and a physical and peeing in a cup, and all sorts of good stuff.  Oh and lots of waiting.  And a finger prick....I swear that part hurts more than when they stick a needle in your arm.

Then they brought me back to a really comfy chair and started me through the cycles of separating the plasma from the red blood cells.

And then I threw up.

And then I fainted.

And then I almost fainted again.

Insert picture of me being all pale and woozy looking.

Oh wait, there isn't one...and I definitely wouldn't share it if there was!

I love you guys, but just not that much.

It was really quite wonderful.  Apparently all the waiting and filling out forms, and physical stuff took so long, and I must not have eaten enough that there wasn't enough food in me by the time I started donating.  The nurse told me it was probably the anti-coagulant that they mix with the blood cells before putting them back in you that made me sick.  As soon as they turned off the machine and I threw up, I was good to go.  I thought so anyway.  I did the whole slowly sitting up, slowly standing up and letting my blood pressure return to normal.  Then I walked across the room to get my money (I still got paid the full $30, even though I couldn't finish the whole thing!) and my vision started going in and out and I tried to go sit down, and before you know it, I woke up laying on my back.  It was one of the weirdest things that happened to me, I've never fainted before.

So we did the whole slowly sit up, slowly stand up, drink lots of gross orange powerade and proceed with leaving.  Except I started to black out again.  So I sat down for another 30 minutes before I could finally go home.

Like I said...it was pretty wonderful. Ha!  But I would probably do it again...because any subsequent turns I can just go right back to donate, immediately after eating a nice large meal, and I shouldn't have a problem.  So after my 8 week deferral is up (they couldn't return the last cycle of blood cells to me) I just might have another go at it.  I mean it does save lives after all.

Updating Your Blog: Favicons

Kind of silly, and a lot of work for a little result....but look up at the top of your internet browser at the little url bar...notice how my blog doesn't have that goofy little orange B like all the other blogs, but instead it has a cute little T that matches our wedding colors??  I have my own little favorites icon, aka, "favicon."

And you can have one too! 

Simply create a graphic using your program of choice, and save it as a .jpg  Then go to the download.com site and download a very small program called Imagicon which transforms a .jpg into a .ico file.  Open it and simply drag and drop your .jpg and it instantly creates a .ico file and places it on your desktop.

Then you will need an image hosting site that will let you upload .ico files.  Facebook, flickr, photobucket, etc don't let you do that.  I did some googling and found merrypic  You don't have to sign up for anything.  The home page is the uploader and you simply upload your .ico file that you just changed.  After it uploads click on the button that says go to graphic, and it will open your icon in a new page.  Don't mind the obnoxious pop up that comes up, you can close out of it.  If you click on your actual icon it will come up in another new page by itself.  Copy the url of this page...you'll need it in a second.

Now go to your blogger dashboard and under the Template tab click on the "edit HTML" link.  Towards the top you will see a line that looks like this:

underneath this line type in the following:

Be sure to replace "URL of your icon file" with the actual URL you copied over from merrypic.  Then save the template, and the next time you refresh your blog, your icon should pop up at the top.

The Photo Print Equivalent of VistaPrint

You guys already know I'm a big fan of VistaPrint.  I had my save the date postcards printed through them.  They're absolutely fabulous and I get emails for free stuff all the time.

Just today I saw an older post by Miss Mojito over at "With This Ring, I Thee Blog."  She had been introduced to a company called ArtsCow that is very similar to VistaPrint in the sense that you get free stuff all the time and only have to pay shipping.

And the best part?? Even without the free emails and credits, the prints only cost SIX CENTS for a 4x6 or 12 CENTS for a 5x7.  That's way cheaper than the Walgreen's route I always go, even when they are on sale for half price.

So I clicked her referral link, with which she'll get an additional 200 credits for my first purchase, and signed up.  And just like she said, when you sign up they credit you with 600 4x6 prints, 600 5x7 prints, three 8x8 photo books, some coasters, key chains, bottle openers, collages, and a bunch of other random things.  They split it all up and some of it will expire within the month, and some not for 2 whole years.  They are willing to give you a LOT for being a new member.  All of it is free and you just pay the shipping.

I'm taking advantage of some of the credits and just ordered 20 of my engagement pictures in 5x7" size.  I only have to pay $4.99 for shipping.  I realize that's probably a little expensive for shipping, but considering the fact that I would be paying over $30.00 to print them all through Walgreen's I'm okay with that! And yes that's how much it would cost, I priced it out the other day and then decided against paying that much.

The confirmation says my order will be processed in 2 days and should arrive 6-12 days after that.  This works just fine for me since I'm in no rush.  I'm planning on putting them together in a scrapbook a.) because I love scrapbooks and b.) guests at our wedding will be able to look at them.

Now I have no idea how good the quality will be, but Miss Mojito says her friend has ordered prints from there and has been very pleased.  Honestly though, this is a chance I'm willing to take because if it turns out they are good quality, then I've just found a site that is going to save me a WHOLE bunch of money.

I'll be sure and let you guys know what the quality is like as soon as they get here!  If you're interested click on this referral link and it will bring you to their website.  Once you sign up and make your first purchase, I'll be credited with 200 prints!

Kreativ Blogger Award

Even though I'm dealing with strep throat, school and homework, and a fiance who is living in Minnesota, I still managed to wake up to a lovely surprise that made my day this morning.

Stephanie from "I Do at the Zoo" left me a comment on a posting this morning saying she had left a surprise for me over at her blog.  And what do I find when I make my way over there, but an award...for little ole' me!  I'm so excited that she thought I was worthy of a Kreativ Blogger Award.  How sweet!

Check out the entry my award came from.

Apparently there are rules that go alone with this award.  I'm to share with you all 7 facts about myself and then pass this award on to 7 other wonderfully "kreativ" bloggers.

I think since you guys are all getting such an in depth looking into my wedding, I'll make these facts 100% personal.

1.  I share this everytime there's an icebreaking activity, ya know like...Tell your name, your age, and something unique about yourself.  And yes...I'm in college and we still do this from time to time in class.  But anyways, I have never, yes NEVER, in my life had a headache.
2.  I have lived in the same house since I was brought home from the hospital, and it's freaking me out that I'm about to move 2 states away.
3.  I graduate in December and I have no idea what I'm going to do with my life, besides getting married to Mr. T.  I decided I'm not going to vet school anymore, and that's what I've wanted to do since I was a little girl.
4.  I'm interning at a humane society right now and every day there is a different dog I'd love to take home.  For the last two weeks though, it's been this gorgeous yellow lab, but my parents won't let him stay at their house for 2 months until I'm done with school.
5.  I have baby fever....already!  I'm not even out of college or married, and I want one, so badly!! But don't worry mom....we're waiting until Mr. T finishes grad school.
6.  Every summer since I was itty bitty my family has gone camping for 10 days in Wisconsin with my best friend's ENTIRE family.  There's usually about 60 of us and it's my favorite time of the year.  In fact, that's why bridesmaid "BW" and I are so close, even though she's "BH"'s cousin, not mine!
7.  Throughout the course of my life I've had 4 dogs, 3 rabbits, 4 guinea pigs, a few fish, and a hamster or two.  Being at school without an animal for these past 4 years is one of the hardest things about being here for me.  I'm just used to being greeted by jumping dogs whenever I walk through the front door.

And now I get to pass this award on to 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.  In no special order, mind you, I've chosen these blogs either for their "Kreativ" DIY abilities or just their awesome inspiration photos.  Either way they're pretty "Kreativ" in my book.

1.  Crazy About Cakes
2.  August15Bride
3.  You Can't Take It With You
4.  Gettin' Hitched
5.  Mel Stampz
6.  Bustables
7.  Becoming His Mrs.

Okay ladies, I leave you with the responsibility of sharing 7 facts about yourself and then passing this award on to 7 other deserving blogs.


*UPDATE* Alica from San Diego Budget Bride also shared this award with me.  Thank you so much!!  It's a little humbling to realize how many of you are starting to read, and like, my blog!

My Bouquet Inspiration: Part One

I posted a long time ago about the flowers I'd like to use throughout the wedding.  Mostly it was all about the gorgeous greens that I like and plan on using for the girls' all green bouquets.  Now it's time to share with you what I'm thinking for my own bouquet.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

At first I thought I wanted an all green bouquet that would really pop against my white dress.  But I do want mine to be different from the girls' and lately I've really wanted to as least be a little "bridal" with white flowers.  So currently I'm planning on a mostly white bouquet, with green flowers mixed in.

Now I've got some research to do on white fluffy flowers.

*I don't currently have sources for the pictures.  These have been saved in a folder on my desktop without websites.  As I find them, I'll update the sources.  If you know who they belong to, please let me know!

Non-Wedding Related: Episode One

From time to time there are things that happen or projects I've done that just need to be shared.  And though this blog isn't specifically a "wedding blog" it has turned into one.  So I feel bad blogging about things that aren't wedding related, like you guys might get bored or wonder what the heck I'm talking about.

But, I'm going to take a chance here, and hope that you won't stop reading my blog!  I'd like to think I offer you plenty of wonderful things that are wedding related, that you couldn't leave if you wanted to.  =]

Anyways, here is a project Mr. T and I worked on last spring and into the summer.

My dad was there the day his friend tore down a 100+ year old barn, and he brought back a truckload of old, dirty barn wood.  Immediately flashes of projects started going through my head, and I was itching to come up with something my dad and I could make.  At first I had grand ideas about a gorgeous dining room table, or even a coffee table with matching end tables.

But a year went by and the wood was gathering dust out in the shop.  Around that time, Mr. T and I started dating, and what do you know...he knows his way around a woodshop!  I still wasn't sure what I wanted to make, but I wanted to take advantage of the hidden potential that wood had to offer.  Once we had been dating for awhile, and knew we would be getting engaged and moving to MN together in the summer, I decided we needed to make a bed.  My parents thought this was interesting, because at the time we weren't engaged and it was pretty early on in our relationship.  But Mr. T and I had been talking about it, and we knew we'd end up together and that this would be "our bed" instead of just mine.  I recall talk of how this would be the bed our little kids would run to in the middle of the night when they get scared.

There's no way I could even try to give you a step-by-step tutorial, because a.) we kind of made it up as we went along, and b.) I am way bad with all the technical mumbo jumbo it would require to describe what we did.  But I can show you some pictures I took along the way.

Here is the inspiration for my sketch.

I believe I found this on Walmart's website.

This is what the wood looked like before we spent many, many hours (days) running it through the planar.

It came out absolutely gorgeous, and had way more character than we could have imagined by looking at the old dirty boards.  I love the grain, and how the worm holes stayed.

The headboard, glued and clamped, waiting for the top to be glued on.

The finished bed with our brand new mattress set, after many hours spent sanding it smooth and applying three coats of polyurethane.

Our bed, new mattress set, and new Pottery Barn bedding in our house in MN.  Don't you just love an excuse to buy new things??

If I had to pick a favorite thing about this bed, it would be either the sideboards or the wide top to the headboard and footboard.  Or maybe the trim at the bottom of the footboard and top of the headboard.  I just can't decide! 

You can see in this picture the tops were attached with 1 1/2" dowels.  It's pretty neat that there isn't a single nail in this bed.

It was a great opportunity to work with Mr. T on a project.  We really butted heads sometimes because I'm super opinionated when it comes to things like this.  He also likes to say that I "know everything" or pretend to anyways, and that got on his nerves sometimes.  But overall, it was great and we have a lasting piece of furniture to show for it.

There is still a large pile of barn wood at home that I'd really like to make a matching dresser and nightstand out of at some point, but for now the pieces from my bedroom set match well enough.

Any other woodworkers out there??  How about projects you and the boy can do together?

Cake Table: Part Two

part one

Since our cake table is just going to have a cake on it, I felt it absolutely necessary to come up with some ideas so that we didn't just have a cake sitting on a white tablecloth.  Yes the venue provides it, but that would be too simple and boring!  I'm planning on renting large square napkins in green for the center of all my dinner tables, so it's possible to rent a matching tablecloth to place on the cake table.  But here are some other ideas....

(source)

One more place to bring in my monogram!  I'm pretty sure my cake is going to be on a round table.  The first would be cute, but would be a greater expense than the runner.  If I did a runner, it would be white, over the rented green tablecloth.

(source)

I am in love with this tablecloth!  I've realized though, that usually happens when something is in my wedding colors.  Oops!  Downside: it costs $160...totally not gonna happen.  But I could definitely recreate this with a little burst of ambition.

A little table decoration wouldn't hurt either.  I first fell in love with the idea of having letters on the table around the cake.  But I didn't know whether to put "I DO" or "MR and MRS" or our last name, etc.

(source)

(source)

I came so close to buying paper mache letters at Hobby Lobby so many times when they were on sale, but I never could make up my mind what to spell.  It's a good thing though, because this weekend while I was home working my boss decided to loan me something even more awesome.

Sorry I can't share with you the awesomeness that is our whole last name...but I wouldn't want any of ya'll stealing my identity!  But you get the idea with these two letters.  They're these cute white candy dishes that we sell at the store.  She said I should pull them all now to make sure we have them come May.  So now they are sitting in a bag in my bedroom at home, adding to the ever-multiplying pile of wedding stuff.  Had I purchased all of the letters it would have cost me about $50.

So the plan is to curve these around the front of the cake and have them filled with some sort of green candy.  Maybe different candies for each letter?  Either way, I'm excited!  Reason number 186,092 why I love my job.

What do you have in mind for your cake table??

DIY: Letters, Part Two / Wedding Wreaths

part one

Well I finally bit the bullet, and decided what I was going to do with the letters I painted.

Remember these?

The original plan was to come up with something that could go on the two front doors of the church.

.

I decided just hanging the letters with ribbon would be too boring. And...now this is being a little anal so just bear with me... the ribbon would come off the top of the "K" in two places, but only one from the top of the "J" and I know that would have driven me crazy!!

I was at Hobby Lobby for the third time last week and their flowers and wreaths were on sale.  So I picked up two large wreaths, I believe they are either 24 or 28".  (By the way, I busted out my adorable Vera Bradley tape measure I carry around in my purse.)  I needed the inside of the wreath to be larger than 12" to fit my letters.

The wreaths were on sale for $2.99 each and I picked out a shopping cart full of white and green flowers.  I brought it all home with me for the weekend and got to hot gluing.  I forgot how bad hot glue burns hurt.  I'm in the process of healing a blister on my third finger as we speak.  But anyways, here's the nearly finished product.

(click to enlarge)

I still need to hang the letters inside with clear fishing line and make bows to put on the top of the wreaths, but other than that, the flowers are all glued on and secure and I love the way they turned out!

I didn't take any pictures in the process because there really isn't anything to show.  I took the flower heads off of all the stems and just started laying them out around the wreath.  I moved them around until I was happy with the way they looked and then glued them on one-by-one.  The wreaths are mirror replicas of each other.  The J will hang on the left, and the K on the right.

If you're planning on doing this, I would definitely buy some hydrangeas or other small filler flowers along with the larger stems.  They made a huge difference in the outlook of the wreath than if I had just had the big roses, etc.

Price Breakdown:

2 Wreaths (50% off at 5.99) = $5.99

All of the flowers (50% off) = $46.43

TOTAL = $52.42

cost of one wreath = $26.21

This came about by mixing inspiration pictures.  What have you mixed together to make your own?

Music Monday: Part One

I've decided to take a page out of Katie's book, ummm blog.  For the past three mondays she has been posting a song on her blog "Random Reflections of a Perfectionist."

I'm also looking for a perfect song for our first dance, so I've decided to share a song with you as well.

Here's this week's.  The song is pretty old, but I still love it.  I actually didn't know that Keith Whitley originally sang it before Alison Krauss.

The only version I can find to embed here will only play 30 seconds of the song.  Click this link to listen to the full song on YouTube.

DIY: Invitations, Wedding Map

By now we've all seen wedding maps.  There are so many options to choose from.  I've seen some that don't really convey directions, but highlight important landmarks special to the couple.  And then there are straight and to the point maps that will help you find your way.  Some are in black and white, while others are painted in watercolors.  Not only are they cute, but we have a ton of people coming from out of town, so they're functional too...yay!  I'm definitely not willing to spend a lot of money on one though.

There are a lot of great artists out there that will create custom maps for you, but I'm just as artsy and know my way around Powerpoint pretty well, so I decided to make my own using Mrs. Ballet Flat's tutorial on Weddingbee.  If you haven't seen it already, I would definitely go check it out.  I followed it step-by-step and this is what I came up with.

(click to enlarge)

I blurred out my home address for the sake of posting it online.

I made sure to add the addresses for the important locations so the guests would be able to Mapquest them beforehand if they needed to.  The only thing I didn't include on here was the hotels, because I'm sure we will have guests staying at many different ones around town.  I may consider adding the hotel we blocked though and then if most people stay there, like I'm hoping, they'll be able to see where they're at in relation to the event locations.

I've heard so many people say it took them hours and hours and lots of fidgeting and correcting to get their maps the way they want.  But honestly, this took me maybe half an hour?  I tend to be a perfectionist too, so some of that time was spent reworking some of the lines and details.  Personally I thought it was pretty easy though.  And I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. 

I don't actually have Powerpoint, and some of the first drafts I attempted on Word or Microsoft Digital Image Suite turned out so bad I'm not even going to share them with you.  But my lovely school's library has all those programs so I was able to create this there and copy it over to Photoshop to be saved as a .jpg file that I emailed to myself.  I would definitely recommend taking advantage of school or public libraries if you don't have the resources yourself.

Is anybody else including a map in their invitations?  If so, how long did it take for you to make it?

Cake Table: Part One

Early on in the planning I had some pretty elaborate ideas of what our cake table should look like.  I think I was being bombarded with a million different inspiration pics and I just had to incorporate all of the neat new trends.

While I've since wised up, I thought we could take a trip down memory lane today and I could show you what I was thinking way back when.  Ooookay....I guess it was only 6 months ago, but it still feels like it's been awhile.

Originally I thought I wanted to do a candy buffet, and even though it's become such a popular trend on wedding blogs, I figured none of my real life/non obsessed-wedding stalker friends and family would have actually seen it before.  But then I came across all of the following pictures and decided I'd rather have a "dessert" table that incorporated a candy buffet with the wedding cake.

(source)

I love the all-white stands with all of the pops of color.

(source)

How freaking cute is that popsicle tree?? I totally would have DIY'd it.

(source)

I love all the greens in this one.

(source)

Are you noticing a pattern here?? I love the coordinating stands and limiting the desserts to the wedding color palette.  Gorgeous!

In all honesty, I'm really not sad to set free this little dream.  (Although if any of you are inspired and decide to go this route, share pictures with me please!!)  My heart was never really set on it, I just thought it was such a cute idea.  But practicality reminded me that it's totally unnecessary.

So now that it's decided we'll have a cake, and just a cake....I'm off to find a way to spice up the cake table.  I'll share what I come up with in part two!

Is anyone here doing a dessert table or something extra to go along with your wedding cake??

Our Wedding Budget

Lauralou's blog entry earlier today reminded me that I haven't shared with you all my budget yet either.  So here it is.

When Mr. T and I were first talking about marriage and engagements I was initially worried about the money we would be spending.  He had just quit his well paying job to move up to Minnesota to take a "job" as a graduate assistant earning a "stipend" every month.  (aka we're about to be broke!)

But that lasted about a day, and then I realized, and not to sound spoiled or anything, my parents love me, my dad does well for himself.  I'm sure he would loooove to fork out a bunch of money for my wedding =]  Of course I put it a little more eloquently than that when we first talked about it.  I think it went something along the lines of, "Well ya see Dad...." and he totally knew what was coming next.  I don't think I ever really had to ask him about it.  My wonderful parents offered to pay for our wedding.  All of it!

When we first started the planning process there wasn't a set budget.  We did the whole bridal show thing, and started to get an idea of how much things would cost.  I made a preliminary guess at how much we would have to spend for the major things like flowers, photography, DJ, etc etc.  My dad talked to some guys at work that had already married off their daughters, he took at look at my estimates, and he "calculated" a number.  He sat my mom and I down and told us that we weren't allowed to spend more than $18,000.  My guess is he knows we'll probably go over and will eventually land right around 20k.  But of course if  he told us $20,000 then we probably would manage to go over that too.  I mentioned they love me right?!  I'm so lucky, and Mr. T and I are so grateful that we won't have to go into debt for our wedding.

At first that seemed like a lot of money to me, but now that I've basically worked my way through it for a wedding of 300 people, I'm not sure where it's all going or how it got allocated so quickly.

So here's how it looks broken down.  So far anyways.

Reception
Venue:  As I mentioned before, our venue is free.  We don't have to pay a room rental fee, cake cutting fee, or any other silly fees.  The tables and all of the linens are included.  They provide the gorgeous, highly coveted chivari chairs that everyone wants.  So really, this part doesn't factor into the budget.
Food:  Right now we're looking at a plated dinner that will cost $20 a person, with the option of a $7 kids meal.  So if all 300 people showed up, we're looking at about $5600 or 31% of the budget.
Appetizers:  We're having a cocktail hour, and nothing goes better with drinks than hors d'oeuvres.  $550 or 3% is going towards that.
Drinks:  Here's the kicker.  We've all agreed, and by all I mean Mr. T, myself, and our fathers, that we're not having a cash bar.  We also don't want to go the per person route, because that was only offered for 4 hours, and some people may or may not take advantage of it.  So we're going to pay by consumption, the alcohol served throughout the night.  My dad was pretty adamant about this, and wants to spend about $5000 for the bar.  That may come under, or fall short, but at the moment it accounts for 28%.

DJ
I haven't talked about this yet, but we signed with Admit One DJs following a bridal show, so we got a pretty decent deal.  $1,395 will get us 6 hours of music.  That's almost 8% if you're keeping track.

Florist
Another area I have told you nothing about, but we decided to go with a local florist who is charging us $1000 for 6 bouquets, 14 bouts, corsages, 15 centerpieces, altar arrangements, etc.  I forget what all was agreed upon in the contract.  5.5%

Photography
Our photo contract includes our engagement pictures and 10 hours of coverage the day of the wedding.  We also get all of our touched up proofs on a disc following the wedding.  This was a point of worry for a few days, because going this way would put us slightly over the budget, but I really had my heart set.  So I had a little talk with my father, and he gave me the green light.  Like I said, I'm thinking the "real" budget is a little closer to $20,000.

My Dress
My Maggie Sottero accounts for 7% of the budget.  I ordered her, sorry...it for $1275.55 and it won't need any alterations, etc.

Paper Products
I only plan on spending about 2.5% on all of my paper related crafts.  $450 is going towards save the dates, invitations and postage, programs, table numbers, place cards, etc.  So far I'm coming in under budget!

Favors
I'm still keeping this one a surprise, but it's not going to cost anymore than $450, another 2.5%

Cake
I actually have no clue how much my cake is going to cost.  Right now it's sitting in Excel with ??'s in it's cell.  I haven't even tried to guess how much it would cost because I have no idea.  My mom's good friend/amazing cake lady is making it for us.  She's also going to make a little something for Mr. T but that's a surprise as well.  So this will definitely put us over the intended goal of $18,000 but my dad doesn't seem concerned about it, so I'm not worrying about it either.

Then there are a few little extras here and there and that pretty much rounds out the budget.  I still can't believe we managed to make our way through it all so quickly, but I know that it's the food and alcohol that make up over 60% of it.

Mr. T's parents have offered to cover the rehearsal dinner, his dad is actually really excited about it!  But that's another story for another time.