Erin will be marrying Josh on 1st November 2020 at Congregation Beth Israel, in Charlottesville, VA, USA. Click here to read all Erin’ planning posts to date.
THREE FACTS: (1) Erin and Josh are planning an outdoorsy fall wedding on a budget in Virginia’s Shenandoah mountains. (2) Erin recently completed her conversion to Judaism, and she and Josh are looking forward to filling their big day with Jewish traditions while keeping it enjoyable and understandable to friends and family from all backgrounds. (3) Erin is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!
How you met
They say when planning a wedding, you have to think about what your priorities are, both to just generally center what your day will be focused on, and where you will spend your money.
From the get-go, my fiance and I knew that we want everyone invited to our wedding – and especially those who we ask to actively participate in our day – to know how much we appreciate their presence.
That being said, I wanted to do something special to invite my friends and sister to by my bridesmaids. We all live all over the place, and I just wasn’t sure how much time we would get to spend together before the wedding weekend, so I wanted my invitations to help get everyone even more excited and have them feel appreciated.
Therefore, I decided to make an invite box for each bridesmaid with a few goodies and notes. I know this isn’t a completely unique idea, but I decided that I wanted to customize my invitation to the ~vibe~ of the wedding: a fall night in the mountains.
The first goody that I was stuck on finding was an oversized plaid scarf. I can’t explain why this is what I had to have, but I did. So after searching for a while, I found this nice, oversized scarf that felt nice and thick, and looked like lots of people could find ways to utilize it.
Next up, I found a facemask. I found this from the drugstore – nothing fancy, but it’s my favorite brand. At first I thought I would get a different one for each of my bridesmaids, but in the end, I just can’t resist a good unicorn-inspired product.
Last but not least, I had seen a lot of these bridesmaid boxes have champagne flutes or wine glasses, but ever one for a theme, I wanted a campfire mug. After hours of searching (I wish I was kidding) I found these perfect mugs for my theme from PrintableSky on Etsy. Ideally, I was planning on giving each of my bridesmaids a small bottle of prosecco to go with this, but did you know it is illegal in many states to ship alcohol? I do now! So instead, I added one packet of hot cider mix to each mug to stay on #theme.
Then, I wrapped up each of the items, and attached little tags on each of them.
The next step was to create a set of informative cards about the wedding, just to get conversation flowing. I used paper pads to create the backing for them, in colors and patterns that I thought went with the theme and colors the wedding.
These four cards were:
- Our Day
- The “When” section (both the day-of times, as well as pre-wedding and post-wedding events)
- The “Where” section (where is the ceremony? Where is the reception?) You could also include where people will be staying if you have already decided that!
- Your Outfit
- This section was crafted in my cards to communicate the freedom that I wanted my bridesmaids to have, but to get them thinking about their dress, their jewelry for the day, and the shoes that they would wear
- Your Role
- This one served to be as a card to get them excited to have fun at the wedding
- My Girls
- Maybe the most important part: I gave a brief intro about each of my bridesmaids. My bridesmaids come from different parts of my life: my sister, grade school friends, a friend from college, and a friend from grad school.
Take a look! (I’ve excluded some for the sake of privacy)
The texts for my information cards was influenced by what I found on this tutorial.
Oh, and on the very top, I placed a little card with their name on it (in a special font), and then “will you be my bridesmaid?” in the typewriter font that.
All that’s left is to take them to FedEx – or hand deliver if possible!
Click here to read all Erin’ planning posts to date.
Erin & Josh’s Wedding Vendors booked so far:
Venue – Congregation Beth Israel
Photographer – Photography Champloo
Donuts – Sugar Shack Donuts
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