Pre-Engagement Wedding Plans

My Sweetheart and I have decided on marriage. In fact, we both expressed our wishes to become married within a year of beginning a relationship together. Is this crazy? Perhaps. However, we have decided to wait two years before officially tying the knot.

This provides us time to plan AND graduate from college.

I graduate in 2016, so I have plenty of time to make this work.

We have planned our engagement for sometime this year.

This is where the process becomes complicated: I'm not allowed to know when or where this is going to happen.

I have been allowed one hint per month.

The latest hints will be posted here.

The excitement is almost unbearable!

I have been encouraged to plan our wedding years in advance so that we will have a head start and save money as we go along.

I will post on the procedure of my planning here as time goes on.

Wish us luck and in the meantime, enjoy this idea from my planning budget:

Pretty Simple Vases

Made from Wine bottles

I work in an Italian restaurant, where we pour plenty of vino each day and night. Of course, the bottles get thrown away after use. I make sure they don't go to waste by rinsing them out and bringing them home. My boss is totally ok with this. He'd rather have someone use the bottles than throw them away.

I have collected about 40 wine bottles to this date.

I've decided to leave the labels on. It adds charm and distinction to the decor.

By the way, this cost me NOTHING. $0.00!!!

With over 15 different wines to choose from and pretty labels to boot, I'm a happy wedding planner.

We have decided to cut the tops of the bottles off, leaving a simple, sleek-lined glass cylinder in which to arrange flowers.

What to do with the tops? Well, we will save them and turn them into funnels or candle holders. These will be our wedding favours. We figured that they would be more useful than little rinky dink plastic favours that cost a fortune.

The only investment for these favours is a little bit of elbow grease.

PROCEDURE:

The best way that I have found to do this is to use a bottle cutter with a scoring blade.

Place the bottle in the glass cutter. Slowly turn the bottle with a bit of pressure by hand. Do not make more than one line or overlapping lines.

WEARING SAFETY GOGGLES:

Run hot boiling water over the bottle score line in a sink, turning the bottle slowly. Run the cold tap over the bottle after a few seconds. Return to the boiling water and repeat the process of shocking the glass until the top of the bottle falls off.

This should happen within a minute for most wine bottles.

Don't use a butane torch or a flame. I have had glass explode in my face with this. Be extremely careful when working with glass.

You don't want to hurt yourself and have injuries in your wedding photos!

Better safe than sorry!

After the bottle separates, sand down the line around the edges with fine grit sandpaper. This will give you a nice, smooth edge without jagged edges.

Voila! Lovely vases that cost nothing at all! Make friends with a restaurant employee, bartender, or fine diner. They'll be sure to save the pretty bottles for you and you'll be able to check one more item off your planning list.