Starting my beach theme!

If you know me at all...you know two things for sure- I love the beach and I love the color blue!! Therefore, these two things are going to be part of my wedding theme, of course! Since we're no where near the beach and it's pretty impossible for me to do a true beach wedding if I want lots of people to come, I've decided to subtly decorate with classy, sophisticated ocean tones and accessories! I haven't gathered much yet, but am thinking pretty shades of blue, seashells, and sand.

My apartment has been a big source of inspiration. It's my oasis from the crazy world filled with beach pictures, real and artsy ones, shades of blue and brown, and seashells abound! I created a couple of these awhile ago, and thought about doing them on a bigger/better scale for table centerpieces at my wedding.....



Then last night on my way home from spending lots of time brainstorming with Chaundra about wedding plans...and asking all FIVE of her kids to be in my wedding (Gabby, age 3, promptly said "No!" when I asked her to be the flowergirl, but after I explained what that meant, she said, "Ok!"), I decided to shop at Kohl's! Partly to remind myself that I can- because I don't have 5 kids tagging along with me, and partly to search out their special deals for the early bird/nightowl specials going on this weekend (you know...in case there was anything wedding related!!). I'm as about as obsessed with their clearance as I am with Target's. Maybe even more so, which is why I'd avoided going for a long time- I can't go without scouring the whole store for something on sale/clearance!!

To my surprise, I came across the PERFECT wedding centerpieces!! They totally fit my original idea- but also surprisingly another object I've seen and loved, but didn't know how to make them work together! I've loved the "wrought-iron" lanterns I've seen lately, but didn't know if they would fit with my theme!! Well, these aren't wrought iron but are  perfect....AND come with sand, shells, AND candle!! They're on sale too! At $25 each, I'm probably saving myself a lot of time finding each different element separate! I probably would've wanted one even if they weren't on clearance...but knowing me, I'd have waited to see if they stuck around until clearance time! Instead, armed with a new debit card for my wedding account, I promptly called my mom to share the great find (and ask her to search her Kohl's for more!), and then headed for a shopping cart and loaded up all 4 that they had!!

In the package-



Had to take it out as soon as I got home....it was all neat and orderly!



Here's what the stuff inside looked like. The sand looks a little more like salt (the margarita kind) but it should work! It actually looks better than what it looks like in the pic!!



So...here's to actually getting something accomplished this week!! I've got my dress, and my centerpieces picked out and that's about it!! I have soooo many ideas, but I haven't been able to find that perfect place for the wedding, or the perfect dresses for my maids!! After those two things, it should make lots of the other pieces easy!

Hopefully, I'll find more of these lanterns to actually use one on each table, but even if not- I'll still use them in some way at the reception and/or wedding!! :o) So exciting!

**Update Sun. Feb. 24th** My mom went to the Kohl's near her yesterday and bought 4 more!! So we should just need 4 more to have enough for the tables. If we don't find more or end up with more tables, we'll just use something else,maybe closer to the original idea on the rest of the tables! I think spending $300 on these is plenty!! :o)