Wedding DIY: Flip Flop Basket

The night I got engaged, my friend Kimie called me, wanting to hear the whole story. I told her, and then we started brainstorming wedding ideas. One of the ideas that came out of it was a wedding flip flop basket.

If you haven't seen one of these at a wedding, it's pretty self explanatory. You fill a basket with flip flops and put it in a corner of the ballroom, close to the dance floor. That way, when your guests get tired of wearing their high heels, they can change into flip flops.

Putting together the basket was super easy so I put together a great DIY tutorial.

I can't take all the credit for this. When my mom was here to help with wedding planning, she was assigned the task of creating these and taking photos. I told her what I wanted and she made it happen.

Gotta love moms.

Wedding Flip Flop Basket

When you're making this, keep in mind that you won't need a pair of flip flops for every guest. Some won't grab one. But you want to put together enough pairs so your basket doesn't look empty.

What You'll Need:

• Scissors
• Ribbon
• Glue Dots
• Flip flops
• Violet cardstock, cut into circles
• Dark purple cardstock, cut into circles
• White cardstock, cut into circles
• Flip flops
• Pen

What You'll Do:



Cut a piece of ribbon long enough to wrap around the flip flops (the size is going to vary based on how thick/wide your flip flops are).

Fold the flip flops in half. Use a Glue Dot to affix the ribbon on one side. Wrap the ribbon around.

Where the ends meet, affix with another Glue Dot.

On the front side, affix a purple circle. We used the light purple for the women's and the dark purple for the men's. This was an easy way to figure out which is which since these will be in the same basket at the wedding.

Write the size on a white cardstock circle and affix it to the correct flip flop. Place them all in a basket according to size.

You can create a cute sign that says "Dancing shoes" using the same colored cardstock as well.

This came out exactly as I had imagined and I'm so happy with it. I can't wait to display it at our wedding -- and hopefully keep people dancing.

BRIDAL BABBLE: Have you been to a wedding with a flip flop basket?

My Invitation Saga (and how Nicole at Glossie.ca came to my rescue)

I knew what our save the dates would look like before we even had a date. I found an image on Pinterest and was set to make it work for us.

And I did.

It was witty and whimsy and beachy and absolutely set the tone for what our upcoming nuptials would be. For our actual invitations, I just imagined I would do something generic. I would find one online that I liked at some website that prints for you or I would go to a store and find some simple print at home ones in our color scheme and that would be that.

But at Christmastime, we went out to dinner with Pete's dad and got to talking about the wedding. "I can't wait to see what your invitations are," he said. "You set the bar so high with your save the dates."

That's when it hit me. I had set the bar high with the save the dates. Too high maybe. And there was no way a generic invitation was going to be the appropriate sequel. I started looking online, becoming overly critical of what I wanted. No amount of purple paisley swirls was going to fit what I wanted. I spent weeks online, scouring over every website, hoping that someone would add what I wanted.

No one did. Weeks when by and I spent nights stressing over how I'd never find an invitation I like.

And then Nicole from Glossie.ca emailed me. "Hi," she said, "I can save you from your invitation nightmare."

Okay, I'm paraphrasing here, but that's exactly what she did.

Photo from http://glossie.ca/kim-adam/

I had been searching online and found what I wanted, but there was no way I could design it myself without it looking like a Microsoft Paint file. As creative as I can be with construction paper and scissors, I can't design on a computer. I mean, I could if it was something simple and unimportant, but wedding invitations are some of the most important pieces of mail you will ever send.

Nicole knew what I had in mind and sent me over an example of an invitation she had designed that was similar to what I wanted. Very similar. So similar that I knew I could place my entire trust in her.

But these were still my invitations and although her example was very similar, it wasn't exactly what I wanted. So I emailed her a reply with a half dozen questions: Would you be able to change colors around or would they have to be black and white? And could you create a separate card for directions/hotel information? And, would it be possible to create an address label template with the plane on it (so that I could type the addresses and affix that to the front of the envelope I mail them in?

Her answer was simple: She could do everything I wanted. She sent me an example with dummy text while I was waiting for confirmation on times from our venues. She changed colors around and through the one month design process, she changed text more times than I can even remember.

Photo from http://glossie.ca/danielle-phil/

I work 14 hour days, which end at 3am. So I would finally get time between 1am and 3am where work would slow down and I could shoot her an email. And I would often hear back before I ended work for the night. She was on a similar schedule.

If you're like me, and you have questions that happen at night and you are flipping out because you don't have an answer, she will be there. It was such a great comfort to have.

My original plan was to print these at home, but a printing malfunction on something unrelated made me realize that was not possible. I didn't have a backup plan. So I emailed Nicole an email of desperation. And at some hour in the wee morning, she emailed me back a backup plan. And that's what we ended up going with. (If you take a look at the Process section of Glossie's website, you'll see she generally will print and assemble the entire order for her clients, so if you go with that, you wouldn't have the issue I did).

If I had this sort of question and I had generic box invitations, that box wasn't going to answer me back. It wasn't going to tell me what to do. It wasn't going to hold my hand for four weeks and make me feel that everything was going to be perfect.

You need a designer who actually cares to have that type of interaction. And, as much as every bride wants to say she's not bridezilla, every bride needs that extra attention. Every bride just wants everything to be perfect and with Nicole, I knew it would be perfect.

Photo from http://glossie.ca/lindsey-luke/

She told me very early on in the process that these were my invitations and she wanted them to be perfect for me. So if I didn't like a color or font or design, she would change them. And she let me send her photos of the invitations I had found online so that she could incorporate aspects of those into my invitations.

A generic website isn't going to afford you that luxury.

What I also gained from Nicole that I wouldn't have if I didn't work with her is that she was able to design additional components for me. An invitation set is generally the invitation and an RSVP card. That's pretty much it. For our invitations, we also needed a directions card (although Nicole and I decided a map instead of directions would be best) and a rehearsal dinner invitation. Nicole designed both of those for me to match the rest of the set. The map is absolutely something I would never have been able to do on my own and I would never have gotten if we went with generic invitations.

After everything was finished and I had triple checked with my mom to make sure these were perfect, Nicole created print files for me. She had created them with one invitation per sheet, but it would save my budget about $60 if she could create a print map with two invitations per sheet. I asked her and she nearly immediately changed it for me. That personal attention will make me forever grateful to her.

I picked up our final invitations two days ago and when I saw them in my hand, I was floored. They are exactly what I wanted. They're everything I could have wanted. I did set the bar high with our save the dates, but these invitations have us soaring over that bar. And there's no way I could have ever achieved that without Nicole at Glossie.ca.

(Small aside: Our invitations are not featured in the images above. I will show you them in a blog post in the future, but I can't post about them until our friends and family have received them.)

BRIDAL BABBLE: Which of the featured invitation sets from Glossie is your favorite?

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Glossie is who designed our wedding invitations.
Check out our wedding invitations post.

Get Bridal Guide For Free For Two Years (It's Back!)

UPDATE: This is not available now, but I will update when it comes back.

One of the best gifts you can give an engaged person is a wedding magazine. Seriously. There are tons of photos of dresses for the bride and her bridemaids, there are articles about everything from losing the last five pounds to destination weddings to saving money. And each issue has a one-year timeline, so the bride can check off what she's done -- and see what she needs to do.

If you are engaged and you aren't reading a magazine, now is the time to get one.

Yes. Now. Literally.

Right now, you can get two years of Bridal Guide magazine for free. Just click that link, enter your info, and your first issue should arrive in about six weeks.

Bridal Guide is actually the magazine that I receive. I've gotten a bunch of great ideas from the magazine. It really is a huge help for anyone planning a wedding (or helping to plan a wedding).

BRIDAL BABBLE: Are you subscribing for yourself or for a friend?

Cake Tasting (My real life experience)

When you first start planning your wedding, you have to set a budget. You arbitrarily assign dollar amounts to items without having a clue what things actually cost.

Once you start figuring an actual budget, you realize you can't afford everything. You have to decide what is a top priority and spend your money there.

One of my top priorities is the cake. I love dessert and I'm often underwhelmed by wedding cakes. I wanted to make sure my wedding cake wowed me.

So we tried cakes. A lot of cakes. Fifteen to twenty cakes between various expos and events. They all had an incredibly sweet and grain buttercream that I refused to have my wedding.

I was at a meeting with a cake designer who understood my frustration and suggested Imaginary Cakes to us. Apparently, it has the least sweet buttercream in the county. I had to try it.

Before our tasting, we were able to pick three cake flavors and three filling/icing choices. Imaginary Cakes also gives vanilla buttercream and fondant, since most of the cakes they make are covered in vanilla buttercream.

I was excited about that because I really wanted to check out this buttercream that was rumored to be less sweet than the others.

When we got there, a "map" was put in front of us. It was exactly like the back of a chocolate box (you know, the one that ruins Forrest Gump's mama's theory).

The map completely matched up with our choices (even down to the shapes of the cakes).

My mom and I were left with the cakes and fillings, plus an iPad slideshow of cakes that the company had made.

I wanted to watch the slideshow, but the moment of truth was in front of me. Literally. Could this be the buttercream I had hoped for?

I decided to try a bite of cake first.

"Try this filling," my mom said, talking about the strawberry filling made from berries picked and frozen from a local strawberry farm.

So I tried a bite of cake and strawberry filling. Delish.

"Did you try the buttercream?" she asked.

It was good. Actually, better than good. It was the best buttercream that I had tried since moving to North Carolina.

The chocolate cake was amazing and the filling we paired with it, oh my gosh, we wanted to take home a funnel's worth. All the cakes were great, actually. They weren't sweet alone, and the fillings and icing weren't incredibly sweet either, but when it was all paired together, it was amazing.

After we tasted the cakes and decided what we were going to pick, we went through the photos I saved from the slideshow. I showed ones I liked and what I liked about them, but I couldn't find exactly what I wanted.

So I did what any normal bride to be does: I went to Pinterest. I had pinned cakes, lots of cakes, and went through them to remind myself of what I wanted.

Professional bakers are amazing and can pretty much make anything you want, so don't be afraid to ask for what you want. It's your wedding. You can find someone to make your dream cake.

And finding those people can be easy. You can go to an expo, you can ask around, or you can ask your venue. Our venue, coincidentally, has this bakery on its preferred vendor list. That means that our cake can actually just be added into our package and we don't have to worry about making sure we pay someone else. One less check to write; one less headache.

So, I'll be honest: We didn't finish our cake samples. At the end, when we were asked if we had any questions, I said, "Can we take the rest home in a box?" I laughed because, well, this is a bakery that makes custom orders only. It's not a storefront. No one can walk in and purchase something from behind the glass and leave with it. We were told yes ... and we were given the fillings to take home too.

That night, we had a second cake tasting with Pete and the leftovers. He's not a sweets guy at all. In fact, if we didn't have a cake, I'm not sure he would miss it. And even he loved the cake. I can't wait to have it again in four months (and then a year and four months since we are keeping our top piece for good luck).

BRIDAL BABBLE: Have you done a cake tasting yet? How was yours?

Tuxedo Shopping (What every bride needs to know)

I've been dress shopping quite a bit. I went prom dress shopping once upon a time, I've been dress shopping for weddings, I've been wedding dress shopping, and bridesmaid dress shopping.

So I had an idea of how that stuff goes. Which means I had an idea of how tuxedo shopping would go.

I was wrong. Completely wrong. So I figured I would help out other brides and put together a guide to tuxedo shopping.

We did our tuxedo shopping at Men's Wearhouse because we had that good coupon where you could get $40 off each of the groomsmen's tux rentals. Also, Men's Wearhouse is the sister store of David's Bridal and that's where we got the bridesmaids dresses from.

You don't have to go to Men's Wearhouse if you go to David's Bridal, but it's so much easier. See, David's Bridal has its core colors. And Men's Wearhouse stocks that same color palette. So if you go to Men's Wearhouse, you can just tell them the color of the dresses and you can be assured that the groomsmen's ties and vests with match the bridesmaids.

We were in the store at the same time as another couple. Their colors were mint and brown and she was bemoaning the fact that she couldn't find a green that matched the bridesmaids' dresses. So keep that in mind.

We made an appointment, but the store was slammed. A computer had gone down and it was slowing down the entire process. While we were waiting to be helped, we were able to peruse the store and sort of decide what we wanted.

Pete was sure he wanted a suit because a tuxedo was too "penguin" for him. He was thinking of a khaki when we were looking around. But the more time we spent looking around, the more he thought about it, and he decided on a gray suit.

When the associate came to help us, we said we were there so Pete could try on suits for the wedding.

"Well," she said ... then went on to tell us that you don't actually try on the suit until two days before the wedding. You choose the components now but it's not like a dress where you try on different styles and sizes until you find the one to order.

So then we said we were looking for a gray suit.

"Well," she said ... then went on to tell us the only suit they rent is a really pale khaki. She said the only difference between suits and tuxes, basically, is a tux has silk buttons, plus a little silk on the lapel.

We went to see the tuxes and there were a few black ones to choose from (that's your penguin style) but also gray tuxedos.

He selected the one he liked, then the associate brought out the vest and tie that matched the bridesmaids' dresses, and that part was over.

She showed us a few white shirt options that were on a display, and he picked one.

She brought out a book with "jewelry" (buttons and cufflinks) and he picked one.

She showed us a few choices for shoes and Pete picked one, although we did call the next day to take them off the package. It's a good moment to note that at Men's Wearhouse, the only item you are not required to rent for a package is the shoes.

After everything was selected, we gave the associate the names of the groomsmen and she took Pete's measurements. She went to the computer to input the information, and this is when the computers bit us in the butt again.

The computer went down and lost all the information. So she had to enter it twice, which was a painstakingly long process because Pete has seven groomsmen.

So we walked around the store, checking out accessories like socks, and eventually found a mini golf putter to play with. As soon as we did, two young children spotted us and we gave up our clubs before even hitting a ball. I think Men's Wearhouse owes us a round of mini golf.

When golf was a no go, we checked out suits. You can do retail or rental at Men's Wearhouse. I was originally trying to get Pete to opt for retail (since I had in my head that the bridesmaids buy their dresses), but rental made more sense. If he had done retail, he could have gotten that khaki suit he originally had in mind.

The associate finally got the information into the computer and she gave us a group number. That's the number we give to the groomsmen so they can call and reserve their tux. When they call, they will automatically get $40 off their total, which is great. The coupon expired a few days after we got to the store and I was hoping the guys wouldn't have to rush and order. She said no.

The guys are requested to order within 30 days from when we went to the store. Styles can change and she wanted to make sure they didn't wait too long.

With dresses, they come in in a few weeks to a few months, the girls pick them up, and that's the end. With Men's Wearhouse, the tuxes will arrive at the store two days before the wedding. Each groomsman will try on the suit and make sure it fits. No changes can be made after 5pm the day before the wedding. Then, each groomsman must return the tux the day after the wedding. The tuxes can be returned in bulk, so you can put the best man or father of the groom in charge of collection.

The entire process took a half hour ... unless you count the 90 minutes we were stalled due to the computer malfunctions.

I think that about covers it. Now you know exactly what to expect so you don't trip over yourself like we did.

BRIDAL BABBLE: How was your tuxedo shopping experience?

Want a free tuxedo rental from Men's Wearhouse?
Find out how to get one in out free tuxedo or suit rental post.