Recycle & Reuse

The Story of the Best Day Ever…Ours!

I have been meaning to blog about my amazing wedding (aka The Best Day Ever) to my best friend, my husband, since before I actually got married. I had planned to blog about all of the DIY stuff that I did to get ready and save money for the wedding. In fact, a couple of my DIY things that I made for my own wedding inspired a new wedding business. More on that later…I have been waiting for the photograph’s, then once I got them, I was recovering from a second ankle surgery. I’m finally on the mend and so excited to share the story of our “Best Day Ever”.

We got married at Mt. Princeton Hot Springs in Nathrop, Colorado on Saturday, October 24, 2015 at 4 pm in the afternoon. It was a beautiful afternoon. The sun was shinning bright and the snow capped mountains made it feel magical out. There was so much love surrounding us that day (and all weekend) that we felt like nothing else in the world mattered, except the love that we shared with our family and friends that weekend.

Mhphotoshoot.com |Mt. Princeton Hot Springs, Nathrop CO, Colorado Weddings — Snow Capped Mountains above Mt. Princeton Hot Springs.

A little less than a year before our wedding date, I fell on the ice and broke my left ankle in two places. I had to wear a cast and be non-weight bearing for about 3 months, then I started physical therapy. About 5 weeks into physical therapy, I wasn’t getting better and actually was having much more pain. After going back to the doctor and finally getting a CT Scan it was determined that the bone wasn’t healing and I needed surgery to basically screw my bones together. I had that done in May and started the recovery process all over.

Fast forward to October. I’m in and out of the boot, did another round of physical therapy and still was having a ton of pain and not able to walk well. Another trip to the doctor and finally an MRI determined that I had a torn ligament, stretched tendon and some cartilage damage. This all needed to be repaired. It was way too close to our wedding date for me to under go another surgery. So instead, I opted for a cortisone shot and alternating between wearing the AirCast boot and normal shoes. The weekend of the wedding, I was in the boot more than normal shoes. I wanted to be able to walk down the aisle on my own. Which, thankfully, I was able to do, as my beautiful friend, Cyndee, sang “One Thousand Years” by Christina Perry. That song was perfect to walk down the aisle toward my future.

Mhphotoshoot.com |Mt. Princeton Hot Springs, Nathrop CO |Colorado Weddings |That Vintage Bride — Walking down the aisle with blue shoes on!

We planned our wedding ourselves and I definitely knew the theme I wanted and how I wanted the day to play out. The theme was “Vintage Elegance”. I shopped many thrift and antique stores to find the perfect decor, linens and serving dishes all at bargain prices. We were on a pretty tight budget since I had been injured most of the year and not able to work all that much. Amazingly, being very resourceful, we were able to pull off a very elegant wedding for more than 100 people for much less than the average wedding costs these days. I did do a lot of the “work” myself with the help of my fabulous friends.

I made the boutonniere’s, corsages, my brides maid’s bridal bouquet and my bridal bouquet. I used vintage buttons and brooches for everything I made. My bouquet was very special to me. I used my Nana’s costume jewelry that she had given to me a few years before she passed away. She was a florist her entire professional life, so I know she would have loved how it turned out. Every time I look at it, even now, I think of her and smile. I also inherited her “gold tooth” and wanted to incorporate that into the day somehow. I put it in an organza bag and pinned it to the underside of my dress. My friends who were in my cabin with me getting ready found that pretty funny. I, on the other hand, couldn’t contain my tears. I so wish she could have been there to see me marry the man of my dreams. A man she loved very much too.

Bridal Corsages |Colorado Weddings |That Vintage Bride — Bridal corsages that I made out of silk flowers, pearls, vintage & new brooches, lace and ribbon.

It was very important to us that our wedding was a family affair. We don’t live near any of our families and don’t get to see them nearly enough. Instead of having our friends stand up for us, we asked our niece and nephews to be our attendants. Their ages range from 4 years old to 12. None of them had ever been in a wedding before, so it was pretty exciting for them. They all did a great job and (I think) had fun. The location of our wedding is a resort hot springs with cabins and hotel like rooms. All of the kids stayed in cabins and really enjoyed the cabin stay along with swimming in the warm pools. Even though it was cooler out, the water was amazing. My husband and I are both avid hot springers and we love to soak. We had been to many hot springs during our courtship but Mt. Princeton Hot Springs is by far our most favorite here in Colorado. We are planning an anniversary trip back up there for our first anniversary!

I have so much more to share about our wedding. I will be posting more photograph’s and more information about how I made and planned everything so that we and our guests had the best time ever on the best day ever!

Venue location: Mt. Princeton Hot Springs, Nathrop, Colorado

Photo credit: James Hoang of MHPHOTOSHOOT – http://www.mhphotoshoot.com

Bridal bouquet, boutonniere’s, and corsages – http://www.etsy.com/shop/ThatVintageBride

Wedding March sung by: Cyndee McGovern – she sang, “One Thousand Years” by Christina Perri

*Little Miss Idea is a personal blog written by Meg Meg also runs a bridal planning and creative business – That Vintage Bride. Email: ThatVintageBridge@gmail.com for more info or pricing.

I want to ride my bicycle…I want to ride my bike!

#46 – Get outside & go for a bike ride…

The weather is getting nicer and there’s a long weekend coming up this weekend (yep…it’s already Memorial Day…hard to believe, I know.) What a great reason to get your bike out, tune it up and go for a ride…or several!

If you don’t have a bike of your own, why not try bike sharing? Bike Sharing?! What’s that you ask?! Bcycle is a Bike Share program where when you become a member, you can pick a bike up at one station and return it to a different one, for a small fee, of course. There are several bike stations at Bcycle’s across America…in several cities…Boulder, Broward, Denver, Chicago, Des Moines, Madison, Houston, Omaha and even Hawaii. If there aren’t any Bcycle stations in your city but you would like to see a bike share program in your community, go to the website and under the “locations” tab, request (and ask your friends to do the same) that they add your city by entering your zip code. It’s a great way to enjoy a nice bike ride if you don’t have your own bike in your own community or while you are traveling to other cities. Check to see if Bcycle is in your city then get out there and take some rides.

Happy Memorial Day! I hope you are able to take some time this weekend to be with family & freinds having some much deserved fun.

Earth Day = FREE Stuff

#47 – Free stuff for you and the Earth on Earth Day – this Sunday, April 22nd

Celebrate Earth Day with free coffee and more!

You can get a free hot or iced coffee from Starbucks (select locations only) or Caribou Coffee this Sunday, April 22nd. Just bring in a reusable mug. Also, the Starbucks Foundation is giving $…4 million in funding to nonprofit organizations, and you get to help decide where it goes. There’s still time to opt in through the Vote.Give.Grow. program. When you do, your registered Starbucks Card becomes your Community Card, and you get to vote each week through the end of April on where you’d like the money to go. I love that you can choose where your money will go!

Below are some more freebies to celebrate Earth Day but to use all year long!

1. Free Reusable Bag From Target

Visit your local Target store on Earth Day, April 22, and get a free reusable bag at guest services.
This Earth Day freebie is only available while supplies last.

2. Free Orgins Cleanser

Fill out the form and bring it into a local Origins store along with any current skincare product (full or empty) and they’ll give you your choice of two different Origins cleansers.
This is only valid on Earth Day, April 22nd and are only available while supplies last.

3. Free Reusable Bag From the Disney StoreBring in 5 plastic shopping bags into your local Disney Store on April 22nd and you’ll get a free Earth Day reusable bag.

4. Free Packet of Sunflower Seed From Pottery Barn Kids

Stop into a nearby Pottery Barn Kids store on Saturday and Sunday (April 21-22) and pick up a free packet of sunflower seeds from PBK and National Geographic. There are many free events for kids at Pottery Barn Kids all during the year.

5. Free Tote Bag From Jo-Anns

Stop by your local Jo-Ann fabric and craft store and if you are one of the first 50 customers on Sunday, April 22nd, you’ll get a free tote bag. No purchase is necessary and are only available while supplies last.

6. Free Entrance Into National Parks All Week – Love this one…get outside!

This Earth Day freebie will really help you celebrate the Earth! Go out to almost 400 national parks this week (April 21-29) and you don’t have to pay an entrance fee. Check with each national park as well because there are many free events happening this week.

7. Free Verde Energy Audit App for iPad until Earth Day

The application walks you through the process of listing your personal electrical usage,
and together with your local KWh cost found on your electricity bill, Verde will calculate your total energy consumption and make suggestions on how you can make changes to save money and energy!

8. Register at Recycle Bank to earn points and get rewards

Take everyday green actions to earn points, which add up to discounts, coupon savings, gift cards, or prizes. Love savings, gift card and prizes!

9. Receive up to $50 in printable coupons for Earthbound Farms

Enjoy all the great FREE stuff that is earth friendly on Earth Day and be part of making the world we live in a better place for generations to come!

Holiday Decorating Ideas…on a budget!

#55 – Budget Holiday Decorations…

A co-worker of mine is a fantastic holiday decorator and with her help, we transformed our office space into a Holiday Wonderland. Her decorating skills on a budget inspired me to give you some holiday decorating ideas that you can do on a budget. The decorating that we did at the office has put me…personally…in the “holiday spirit”. I actually love coming to work in the morning and seeing all of the great decorations. It makes me happy and excited at the thought of spending time with loved ones in a couple of weeks.

So…you’re thinking…that’s great, but just tell us how to do it already! One of my favorite things that we did was to use wrapping paper in different colors (that we got at the Dollar Store, Target or Walmart) and then take framed art work that was hanging on the wall and wrap them like presents with a ribbon around them and a big bow with a plain ornament hanging off the middle of the bow with a paper clip. The art in the room looks like gifts haning on the wall and really finished the room when we were done decorating with white lights (that we wrapped around pillars – in the office) and different colored ornaments that we hung from the ceiling tiles with paper clips.

At home, if you have a dropped ceiling, you could do this…just prop the tiles up one at a time and use paperclips (you have to bend them to secure them to the ceiling tile frames) to hang the ornaments on (better if you tie nylon thread or string to the end of the ornament to attach to the paper clip and secure) at different lengths to create a really cool ceiling look.

Go to the Dollar Store, Walmart or Target and pick ups a couple rolls of contrasting holiday wrapping paper, some wide wired ribbon in one color that goes with both papers, and a package of different colored ornaments that goes with or is contrasting to the paper you choose…at Walmart & Target…they have boxes with two to three different contrasting colored ornaments that you can buy for $15 to $20. If that is out of your budget for this year or you’ve already decorated but like this idea, put it on your list for your after Christmas shopping and get everything you need for next year’s decorating at 50% to 60% off.

Another great decorating idea for the holidays is to use a large vase or hurricane and put two to three different colors of ornaments in the vase/hurricane and use it as centerpiece or in a corner of a room, if the vase is large enough. This looks very elegant and is also a favorite of Little Miss Idea.

I love how festive the office looks and am excited that we did it on a budget. I couldn’t wait to share it with you. Happy Holidays!

Quick cash for the Holidays…Sell your old, unwanted or broken gold jewelry!

#57 – Sell your old, unwanted, mismatched or broken gold jewelry for immediate cash

I think I’ve mentioned this in a previous post, but I thought it was worth mentioning again…if you have old gold jewelry that is broken, you don’t like it or maybe you’ve lost one earring…why not sell it to a gold dealer? The value of gold is only going up and you just might be surprised by how much mula you can get for your old, broken and not worn anymore gold jewelry.

If you live in Colorad, I personally know a great gold buyer and will be happy to send you her information. She will even come to your house to weigh and inspect what you have. If you refer to her to your friends, she’ll pay you a 5% commission too. So just by spreading the word about how easy it was and how much money you made selling your gold, you make even more money. If you’d like her info, please email me at: littlemissidea@gmail.com and I will send it to you in an email.

Another thought about gold, is to host a gold selling party at your house and invite your friends over for a girls night in to socialize and make some money. What a nice change, come over and make money instead of spend money!?!

Swapping…Instead of Buying Things New

#70 –

You can “Swap” just about anything instead of buying new. You can swap books, CD’s, DVD’s, electronic books (for Kindles & eBooks) and gently used electronics online. There are lots of different “swapping” sites out there, but one that I like is swap.com. They connect swappers and also let you know of “swapping events” in your area that you may want to take part in. There’s sometimes a minimum charge for participating in the swapping events that they promote, so check the event page for that information when you are deciding if you’d like to attend a swapping event..

Hosting your own “Swapping event” is also really fun and won’t cost you anything if you organize it yourself. I have participated and organized many clothing swaps in my day. The one thing to note about clothing swaps is making sure that you invite multiple people from different size ranges to make sure you have a variety of clothes to swap. A rule of thumb for any swaps you might organize or participate in is make sure that the items you are swapping are gently used, still in good condition, clean (for clothes, make sure they really are clean and don’t have stains or holes), and things like zippers work on pants, coats, jackets, skirts and handbags, etc…

Some people organize the swap to be fair and efficient, especially if there are many people participating, by setting everything out in piles separated by size or category and then let participants walk around and take a once over to see what’s available. Then allow each person to choose one item they like and then allow them to keep choosing one item at a time until everyone has a good amount of items selected. This can be very slow if your group is large.

Another option is to have the rule, that everyone can take the same number of items that they brought with them. I, however, like to have the swap flow more naturally and allow people to choose things they really like. Most clothing swaps aren’t hard to manage, because the clothes need to be tried on and things may be tried on several times before someone decides they love it and want to take it home to add to their closet. Whatever is left over at the end of the swap is normally donated to a local charity like Goodwill or ARC Thrift Stores so that everyone is only taking “new to them” items home. This is a great way to clean out the old and replace with “new to you” without spending a dime!