Tidy Brown Wren, bringing order to your nest

This is the 7th post in my Wedding Series.  Previous posts include: 1. Tear of Joy and Tears of Sorrow                                  2. Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head - But Not On The Wedding 3. Timeline For A Rustic Wedding 4. Marriage Requirements 5. Planning An Outdoor Wedding: Choosing the Hardscape   6.  Planning An Outdoor Wedding:  Stationary To Set The Mood     As usual for us, we didn't go the usual route when selecting wedding apparel for this shin dig.   From the wedding dress to the Bride's father's clothing - nothing was what is advertised in all of those bridal magazines.    The most important dress - the wedding dress - was the first stop.     We bought the dress months ago in a consignment shop.  Blush, a bridal c...

This is the 6th post in my Wedding Series.  Previous posts include: 1.  Tear of Joy and Tears of Sorrow 2.  Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head - But Not On The Wedding 3.  Timeline For A Rustic Wedding 4.  Marriage Requirements 5.  Planning An Outdoor Wedding:  Choosing the Hardscape         RSVP card One of the first items to be purchased or at least decided on when planning a wedding is the stationary.  Stationary really sets the mood for the wedding and gives guests a glimpse of what is to come. For my daughter's outdoor wedding, a nature theme was definitely called for.  I have to confess - she did all of the work.  I only handed over my credit card information when needed.  The first item needed was the "Save the date" card.  Many guests would be coming from out of town and a 6 month "heads up" was appreciated by them.  Ashley saw a template she liked on a...

Back in August I showed you my moon flowers in bloom.  Several of you requested seeds and I'm happy to announce that the seed heads are dry and I've collected all of their goodness.  If you emailed  or commented that you wanted some, I've popped them in the mailbox and sent you an email to let you know they're on the way.  I have a few extra sets of seeds if anyone is interested.  Just email me with your address and I'll send them on their way.  I hope you're having a great weekend. FYI:  I almost have 100 Tidy Followers (see box on sidebar).  When I reach that special 100 mark I'll be having another give-away.  Thanks to all of you who already follow.  You all are the greatest!

Planning an outdoor wedding is a lot like decorating a room (or rooms) in your home.  First, you decide on a theme.  In the case of this wedding, it was "Refined Rustic with a Dash of Merriment". Then, just like decorating a room, you pick your large pieces first and then add in the punches of color and accessories later.  In the case of this wedding, we chose the backdrop, the chairs, the dance floor, and the types of tables as our larger pieces.  We rented outdoor dark bamboo chairs.  They were much more rustic looking than the typical white chairs we all associate with a wedding.  We ordered a 16x16 foot dance floor from the same rental company .  I don't have any pics from the wedding day, but you can see from this photo I took the next day that the floor was plenty big for people to dance on.  Dancing wasn't a huge part of the reception, but those who wanted to dance had a fun time.  The backdrop was something my Hubs worked on...

Word on the street is that it's very hard to marry into the Miller Family.  The truth is: "To whom much is given, much is required"  What?  Requirements?  For marriage?  Yup! Before this engagement photo was taken, we had to make sure the young couple was ready to make the commitment. This is our second daughter to marry so we've been down this road before (6 years ago). Each situation was different as the couples involved were different.  "Cookie Cutter" rules don't quite cut it when dealing with relationships.  These are a few of the things that we (Hubs and I) feel are important to consider before giving our blessing for our children to marry. 1.  Age - Is the couple old enough to get married?  This is not a deal breaker, but is something to be considered.  As a young bride, myself, I know the struggles I had early in my marriage just because I had not had a lot of life experience yet.  2.  Maturit...

Once upon a time, there was a couple who wanted to get married. They wanted a simple, rustic wedding in her parent's backyard.  Two years later, they said their vows in that backyard, starting their journey as a married couple. In the two years between "I will" and "I do" there was a lot of planning that took place. 2 years ago:  - We planned where the wedding would take place and reserved our church as a back up  - Looked at every wedding blog and read every wedding magazine to get ideas and inspiration  - Decided on a budget (our goal was to keep it under $7000.00)  A future post will show a breakdown of what we spent 1 We picked a photographer (the good ones get booked up fast ) Photos are important to us so we picked the best -   andigrantphotography.com  - Decided on the size of the wedding (we limited it to 150 people due to yard size and limited budget)  - Placed rental order (we ordered 150 chairs and a 16x16 dan...

I promise I won't make you cry today like I did yesterday.  Today (and for the next 8 blog posts) I'll be showing details of the wedding and spilling all the juicy details of how we pulled it off and stayed on a tight budget.  An amazing, miraculous transformation took place in our back yard.  We had our church as a backup site, but our daughter really, really wanted to get married at Brown Wren Acres.  From Sunday night to the Friday morning before the wedding, we measured 14 inches of rain in our garden rain gauge.  My hubs worked everyday, in the rain, to make sure the gardens looked good.  We planted potted mums in the areas that had been beaten down by the rain, and put fresh pine straw (the preferred mulch here at The Wren) in all of the gardens.  Here is a photo of Ashley (the bride) and Kat (maid of honor) visiting Hubs in the backyard.  He rented a sump pump to pump rainwater into the ditches that line the sides of our property. ...