Yellow Wedding Flowers

We chose sunflowers as the main flower for our wedding. They are such happy flowers!

The bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages were made by Petals and Portraits. Ranae was wonderful to work with. She brought our vision to life! My bouquet was made of sunflowers, yellow roses, and baby's breath. I created the wooden heart using a wood burner to carve our initials.

Tyler's sunflower boutonniere

Bridesmaid bouquet

In order to keep costs down, we ordered the flowers for all the centerpieces from Costco. The flowers arrived on time and were gorgeous. My maid of honor and myself assembled all of the centerpieces two days before the wedding and stored them in my dad's basement until the wedding day. We saved a ton of money by doing this and it was a lot of fun putting them together with my best friend!

Toss bouquet with flowers from Costco

Centerpiece

Centerpieces

I was originally planning to create the bouquets myself, but it was such a relief to have someone else do them for us. If you are looking to keep costs down though, I'd highly recommend ordering flowers in bulk for a good DIY project. The flowers all looked beautiful!

Wedding Party Attire

When it came to the wedding party's attire, I was determined not to be the type of bride who would force her friends to purchase expensive clothing that they don't even like. So we decided on a color scheme and let our bridal party pick what they wanted to wear based on that.

For the bridesmaids, we decided the dresses should be chocolate brown and knee length, since our wedding wasn't super formal. I told them to find a brown dress they love! I also asked them to find a pair of yellow flats. For our gift to each of them, we purchased a matching necklace and pair of earrings that I found at Kohl's. The yellow pashminas were a later addition (also from Kohl's) when we realized it would likely be a chilly fall day. They all looked absolutely beautiful!

For the groomsmen, we decided to go with brown dress pants, brown shoes, and white dress shirts. We figured these seemed like items the guys might be able to use again for work clothing and we let them pick their own. Our gift to them was the yellow tie and a pair of brown suspenders. I purchased them from Amazon.

I love how everyone's outfits came together so well! I am a big supporter of letting the wedding party find clothing that they like. Everyone has a different body type and budget!

The Groom

It doesn't seem like people blog enough about the groom. It's just as much his special day as the bride's. Since our wedding was in October, we decided to go with yellow and brown for our wedding colors. 

Man, it is difficult to find brown suits! We just assumed since it was a neutral color, it'd be easy to find. In the end Tyler had to rent a vest from Tip Top Tux, but we managed to find nice brown pants and shoes. 

My handsome groom 

Tyler teared up when I walked down the aisle

Since we were having our wedding outside at a farm, we decided we didn't want it to be super formal. We went with a vest and no suit jacket. We found the yellow tie at Kohls.

Wedding Day Accessories

I searched high and low for the perfect wedding day accessories and it was well worth it when everything came together on the day of.

I'm pretty clumsy so heels weren't the best option for my wedding shoes. I decided wedges would be perfect and I wanted them to have a pop of color. I went to practically every shoe store in the city looking for yellow wedges and finally found the perfect pair at Payless for about $20!

For my "something borrowed," I borrowed a necklace from my grandmother. My grandfather had picked it up for her in China Town in San Francisco years ago.

I really wanted to wear something special that I could potentially pass down to a future daughter or daughter-in-law someday. I have always wanted pearl earrings, so it seemed like the perfect fit. I found this beautiful pair at a jewelry shop in The Old Market Passageway.

I purchased both a toss garter and a keepsake garter from jbconaway on Etsy. The one I really wanted sold before I had a chance to purchase it, but after contacting the seller, she fulfilled a custom order and made the one I wanted! 

I also purchased a flower and veil for my hair from David's Bridal. Originally I wasn't planning on going with a veil, but I felt much more like a bride when I tried it on in the store. I went with a simple, shorter, veil in the back of my hair, that I took off at the reception.

My formal updo with the flower.

A close up of the flower.

My hair was done by Dani Cooper (Boss Studios). Dani and her assistant came to Bellevue Berry Farm to do both mine and the bridesmaid's hair. It was a huge stress reliever to not have to worry about going to a hair salon. I did go to her for a trial run, which I would highly recommend to any bride. Dani was absolutely fantastic!

My Wedding Dress

Tyler and I tied the knot on October 5, 2013. We were married at Bellevue Berry Farm in Bellevue, NE. Since our wedding was at a farm we went with a rustic theme. I thought I would share some of the details of our memorable day. I'll start with a post about my wedding dress.

I went with my mom to David's Bridal to try on dresses quite far in advance. I knew I wanted a lace dress and I brought a couple of pictures of dresses I wanted to try on. Trying them on makes all the difference. The dresses I thought I would like didn't look right. I had an amazing consultant who picked one out for me to try on. I didn't originally want a strapless dress, but I absolutely loved her pick. I didn't want to take it off! I said "yes, to the dress!"

I took my dress to Linda Lee, a local seamstress for my alterations. I had her sew my "something blue" into the inside of my dress. It was a heart shaped piece of one of my grandpa's blue dress shirts. He passed when I was a kid and I wanted him to be with me on the big day. Linda embroidered the text "Forever in Our Hearts" to go with the fabric.

I had bought a sash to go with my dress and Linda suggested that I add a brooch. I found the perfect sunflower brooch on Etsy made by Pure Rain Designs. The brooch really accentuated the details in the dress well. Linda is wonderful, I would highly recommend her to anyone in the Omaha area. 

Here is Linda's contact information if anyone is interested:

Linda Lee Bridal Creations
(402)393-0272
2714 South 106th St.
Omaha, NE 68124

Superhero Graphics!

At my internship I was put in charge of creating all of the graphics for the department's booth at the Sourcing Expo 2012 on campus. The theme for our booth was superhero. I created posters, matching brochures, and life size cutouts of Wonder Woman and Superman. Originally we intended to blow up a photograph of Superman for the cutout, but were unable to get permission to use a photo so we decided to create an illustration. I saw the whole project from start to finish. Our booth won 1st place for creativity. People had their pictures taken as Superman and Wonder Woman (I took the pictures too!) and chewed Bazooka bubblegum. After the Expo I emailed the pictures to the people who had stopped by our booth. It was a ton of fun!

Poster Design

Wonder Woman Cutout

Superman Cutout

Close Up of Wonder Woman (ignore spots where glitter fell off!)

Be a child

I love this quote. When I was five years old I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. I was so full of creativity back then. I wish I could be as creative as the five year old me.