Looking for wedding reception fun ideas? We are continuing the series from our blog category about “Meeting the love of your life,” and the story of my husband and I when we first met and then got married.

If you have been following us, this time I am going to invite you to the scene of our reception. It was fun and memorable to say the least.

Show off your Personality at your Wedding

Use items at your wedding to show what shaped who you are. It was nothing big, yet it was big in the eyes of my friends and family. You see I did not grow up with much money. It was not the usual wedding reception you would expect. My mom and I had fun buying items for the big party and finding them for 75% off. It took a while deciding what to do for our wedding cake. You see, I am a practical kind of girl who has expensive taste. According to my mother, I am just like my grandmother (or her mom who has since passed away now). She had expensive taste on a frugal budget. Growing up in a family with limited resources, yet not really knowing it shaped who I am today.

I am beyond grateful for everything I have today. My parents figured out how to be creative and make my two brothers and I feel like we have money through making crafts out of nothing, making learning fun, and bonding with us using everyday items.

I say all that to say, I have always wanted a great wedding like other girls, yet value money at the same time. My fiance (at the time), Mark, and I agreed that we would rather spend the money saved from our wedding to put on a house. We know how to make a wedding fun with or without money.

Finding the Perfect Wedding Cake

I say all that to say, after looking at several wedding cakes, we decided to be creative and purchased a cake from Walmart. Walmart??? (you are thinking). I know, I know. It  is not the traditional answer you would expect. We bought two large sheet cakes and one smaller cake for my fiance and I. We found a cute gazebo decoration to use as a cake topper with a picture of ourselves in it. It was a big deal to us because it showcased our personality in the cake, and still tasted great. Besides, by having two sheet cakes we could please everyone with flavor and have one white and one chocolate cake.

Be Creative at your Wedding Reception

other things that set our reception apart were the cute goldfish swimming in a bowl on our table where we sat as the bride and groom. My dad had this brilliant idea to get the fish and put them in a bowl to surprise us. The fish were strange to some, but as we told the story, it made sense.

The fish had memories to me as our family always had fish in a pond somewhere growing up throughout my life. I remember the days of sitting together and watching the fish swim in our back yard. I wanted to have fireworks at the end of my wedding too, but that idea got banned.

We all have our weird, yet fun quirks. It is important to make your wedding reception, yours. It is your one day to shine and show who all has influenced your life and made you the woman or man you are today.

Other Fun Wedding Reception Ideas

For other fun wedding reception ideas check out this link here.

1. Be yourself

2. Be entertaining

3. Include activities for all ages.

What advice would you give to help other with fun wedding reception ideas? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post Wedding Reception Fun Ideas appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

You are a new bride. Let’s look at what to put in a wedding time capsule to remember what life was like the year you were married.

He had it all planned out. He would bury the time capsule one month before he proposed to her. The close group of friends gathered around to reminisce and were going through the objects they wanted to put in their time capsule to be opened in 20 years.

He Proposes using a Time Capsule

Then, the hole was dug and to the surprise of the girlfriend, there was already something else in the ground. The shovel hit something hard as they were digging to bury this time capsule. At first, she thought is was just a hard rock. Then, she realized it was another time capsule someone else buried (“what if it’s Hitler’s? What if it’s gold?,” she said). When this old time capsule (already in the ground) was opened, she found something she never imagined…..a ring box. Then, her boyfriend (on one knee) pulled the actual ring from his pocket and proposed to her. It was so romantic. You can read more about the story and see the video here.

A wedding time capsule is a heartfelt and enduring gift that lasts for generations to come. Imagine being able to open it again (with all of your mementos and heirloom items from your wedding day, honeymoon, or your first year of marital bliss).

Do you remember making your own time capsule when you were in first grade. Then, when you graduated high-school that special teacher mailed you your time capsule. What answers did you write on your worksheet asking about what you wanted to be when you grew up? Do you even know where that time capsule is to this day. It is such a special gift to give a student that means so much years later. It is like opening up a lost treasure.

Think about how much fun it would be to stroll down memory lane again for you when your 25th Wedding Anniversary comes around and you reopen your time capsule.

List of what to put in a wedding time capsule 

• A local daily newspaper
• A DVD of the local nightly news
• A National newspaper (USA Today)
• A Television Guide
• A weekly news magazine (Time)
• Special interest magazines (Sports Illustrated, Mother Earth News)
• Ceremony program from the wedding
• Personalized napkin from the wedding
• Cork from your champagne toast
• Copy of your marriage certificate
• Copy of your wedding invitation
• Wedding favors
• Utensils used on the cake
• Cake topper
• Airline ticket stubs from your honeymoon
• Brochure from your hotel or cruise
• Matchbook or item with hotel logo from your honeymoon
• Event/sightseeing tickets
• Foreign currency (if traveled outside of the country) for your honeymoon

• Receipts an other memorabilia
• Ticket stubs fro a concert or movie
• A sample of product packaging (Coke/Pepsi can)
• Extended family tree (after you are married)
• Drawn floor plan of your first home together
• Stocks and Bonds
• US Savings Bonds
• Popular music or tv show recorded.
• A menu from your favorite restaurant
• Items from your job (business card)
• Messages from guests at your wedding reception (have them fill out “Message to the Future” letters to the bride and groom predicting their future, like how many kids they will have).
• A current postage stamp
• A Year-in-Review magazine or newspaper
• Lock of hair from the bride and groom (before it turns gray, or goes away completely).

For 69 other great ideas, order your own Wedding Time Capsule here and get a FREE Inventory Checklist. What would you put in your Wedding Time Capsule? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post What to put in a Wedding Time Capsule appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

I have been looking for songs to walk down the aisle to at my wedding.  The first time I heard it I knew it was the one. I was working and it came on the radio. I was hooked to the words. It was perfect. It described my father and I to a T. If you have been following our story, this is a continuation blog about the category of “Meeting the Love of your Life.”

There are so many different wedding aisle songs to choose from. Check these other ideas out here.

I have typed up her lyrics here along with the story behind the song for me.

In My Daughter’s Eyes by Martina McBride

Story behind this section: Who are you to your children? What do you want them to remember you for? If you were to write your kids a “Message to the Future” letter, what would you say? Reminisce with your child years later with a decorative Baby Time Capsule. Keep their memories and mementos in the time capsule. Then in 20 to 40 years re-open the time capsule and relive what life was like when your baby was first born.

I am a reflection of my father in many ways. I am sure you can relate. I have his determination, passion, longing to constantly learn, playfulness, entrepreneurial heart and drive, good looks (Ha Ha – just kidding), love for others, and other quirks. What did you pass on to your children?

Ask yourself, how are my babies “a reflection of who I am and what will be?” It was hard moving out of my parent’s house, when I grew up, but I knew I had to. It was time to start a new journey. New memories only come, when you let go and move on. My husband and father are very close and very similar. It is a rare honor to marry someone as close to my father as Mark (my husband) is. For that reason, my father will always be there.

What songs to walk down the aisle to, do you recommend? Do you have a story behind your choice? Share with us below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post Songs to Walk Down the Aisle To appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

The wedding day timeline surprises were being worked on by myself and my father-in-law.

I have heard it said, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”  Every life has a moment that takes our breaths away.  We all experience something that makes time stop, for just an instant, and we will never be the same after we experience the moment. It is a milestone moment in our lives.

For most people, their wedding day is one of those moments.  Another might be the birth of each of their children.  Today, I want to share one of the moments that changed my life.

The Wedding Day Plans

Your wedding day timeline is important to follow as close as possible, to keep stress levels down. My wife and her family had spent many months preparing for our wedding.  I had done my part in preparing for the honeymoon.  I had prepared mentally and done the things she had asked me to.

All the preparations that could be made had been.  The day had come and we were in the final minutes.

There were butterflies in my stomach as the ceremony began.  In traditional style, I did not see my wife the day of the wedding.  I had spent the morning preparing our home for our first night together.  My sister and her two children had spent the night with me the night before.  I was very close to my niece, and she wanted to help me prepare the house.  Most of it had already been cleaned, but there was a little bit of “straightening up” that needed to happen because of the night before.  Then we left to go to our local florist.  My niece came with me.  We purchased 6 dozen roses, of varying colors.

After purchasing the flowers, we returned to my home.  I put 2 dozen of the roses in a vase and placed it on the kitchen table.  The remaining 4 dozen roses became my project with my niece.  We tore the petals off of the flowers and began spreading them around the house.  We put them on my bed.  We put them in my bathtub, and in the shower.  We spread them on the floor in the bedroom, and kitchen.  They were everywhere.  It was romantic.  I wanted my new wife to have something extra special when she came into my home for the first time as my wife.

Behind the Scenes Fun at the Wedding

At that point, we left for the church.  I had finished dressing and all of my final preparations.  It was now about 15 minutes before our ceremony.  I could hear the musicians playing for our guests.  I had done everything I could do.  My soon-to-be-father-in-law came up to me, wrapped his arm around my shoulder and said to me, “Now, son, right now, you have a choice.  In a few minutes, after she walks down that isle, if you both say, ‘I do,’ don’t bring her back to my house!”  He paused for a few moments to let that whole thing sink in, then proceeded to say, “At that point, she is all yours!”

I laughed.  I think he could see that the tension was starting to mount and that I needed a comical moment to relieve my stress.  As a side note, the rest of the afternoon, after the ceremony, and at the reception, every time he would walk past me, he would just smile and say softly, “All yours!”  Each time he did it, it got funnier.

“She’s All Yours”

A few minutes later, I was standing at the front of the chapel and watching as my beautiful bride was being escorted by her father down the isle.  She was a radiant beauty!  I don’t think I had ever seen her quite so lovely.  The walk down the isle seemed to take an eternity.  I became more excited with each step they took.  I looked into my father-in-laws eyes and I could see a father who understood.  I could see the deep thoughts and feelings running through his heart and mind.  He was proud of his daughter.  He wasn’t sure that he wanted to let her go, but knew that she was in love with me.  While no father ever is “ready to give up his daughter,” he knew that this was her decision.

The Milestone Moment that gripped me with love.

They finally arrived at the front of the church where I was, and I heard my pastor say, “Who gives this woman away?”  I heard my brides father say, “Her mother and I.”  Then it happened.  The moment that changed my life happened.  A moment frozen in time.  It was like a time capsule moment. As I reached for my brides hand, my father-in-law reached out his hand and took mine.  I didn’t realize what was happening, so I pulled away a little.  He intentionally grabbed my hand, flipped it over, and placed it in my brides hand.  I was stunned.  It wasn’t that he simply “approved of this wedding.”  He was telling me that he genuinely wanted this to happen.  It wasn’t just that he “allowed it” but that he actually was blessing it.  He wanted her and I to be married.

I had never experienced such a powerful moment in such a simple gesture.  It was a moment that I think about even today.  It was a moment that I will never forget.

It took my breath away and I am a better man because of that one simple moment.

What milestone moments have made a great impact on your life? Comment below. We would love to hear your story too.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Mark

The post Wedding Day Timeline Surprises appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

Have your favorite mascot marry you.

Sometimes, there are fun wedding pranks to entertain your guests, and surprise your bride and groom at the same time.  Weddings can be full of surprises, and I am not just talking about our “Wedding of substitutions,” as discussed in our last blog in the category “Meeting the Love of your Life.” No matter how well you plan a wedding, some things go right, others go wrong, and the day of the wedding can be full of fun and irritating problems.

What would you do in this wedding disaster moment? 

I recently heard from a pastor about a wedding in Indiana that was planned perfectly.  This was, what I would call “a high-end wedding.”  The church was set perfectly.  Thousands of dollars had been spent on decorations and fresh flowers.  The bride had positioned 6 candelabras in the center isle to finish off the rest of the perfect décor.  The wedding dress was magnificent and had an amazingly long, beautiful trane.  As the bride made her appearance around the corner, everyone in the chapel gasped at her beauty.  That is where things took a turn for the worst.

The bridesmaid who was in charge of the trane lost her focus for a moment and looked away from her duties.  The back corner of the trane caught the first candelabra, pulled it down on top of the dress and set the dress on fire.  After the fire was put out, and the time came to restart the wedding, the bride started to think about how her day had been ruined.  She was about to loose it when her father leaned down and whispered something in her ear.  She smiled, composed herself and continued the march down the isle to complete the journey she had started.

After the wedding was over, the pastor asked the father of the bride what he had whispered to his daughter in that crucial moment.  The father smiled at him and replied, “I simply said to her, ‘One down, five more to go.'”

It’s all about perspective.

What a perfect moment!  I know that no one wants to have problems in their wedding, but the reality is that this can be a part of it!  People have lives.  Kids get sick at inconvenient times.  Accidents happen.  No amount of planning can prevent things like this from happening, but how we deal with them is what makes or breaks the moment.  This father knew his daughter well.  He knew that a bit of humor could diffuse this most incredibly tense moment.  I mean, women plan their wedding day from the time they are little girls, and I am sure that no little girls dream wedding includes being set on fire while walking down the isle or standing in front of the church in a charred dress!  But at the same time, they now have a story to tell, and a memory that will never die!  I mean, it is hard to show someone your wedding pictures and not explain the giant burn mark on your dress!  (And for the record, a swatch of this dress is a perfect thing to put in a wedding time capsule!)

It can be more than accidents as well.  Sometimes people think they are being humorous, and are playing jokes.  Things like writing “S.O.S” or “Help Me” on the bottom of the Grooms shoes, so when they kneel at the alter it is shows.  Or pretending to forget the rings and presenting the bride or groom with something else instead, such as a life saver, a piece of yarn tied in a circle, or even a doughnut.  While some jokes are in poor taste, other can be quite funny.  My personal favorite was when I was a best man, the Bride asked me to “make sure the groom was ready” for their first kiss.  So, when the pastor said, “you may kiss your bride,” the groom turned to me and I “brushed the lint off” of his tuxedo, straightened his tie, sprayed his mouth with a freshener, and gave him “two thumbs up.”  The entire thing was planned, with both the bride and groom’s approval, and received a fantastic laugh.  To this day, most of the wedding guests still think it was something the groom and I had planned, and no one believes the bride was in on it.

Planning fun on your Wedding Day

You must really be careful when you plan something of this nature.  All parties need to agree to what is happening.  When my parents were young, my father sent a note to the “honeymoon suite” of their friends wedding on their wedding night that stated, “We found you.”  Needless to say, this spoiled the “planned events” of the evening as the couple was afraid he might show up at any moment.  These kinds of jokes are typically not found to be funny. For 10 great prank ideas for your wedding day check out this fun article here. Also check out these fun videos here, of examples of how to entertain your guests on your wedding day. Whatever you do, don’t forget to save these fun, memorable moments and videos in your Wedding Time Capsule.

What did you do for your first day of marriage? (besides…. you know…)

For my wife and I, we chose to go home for our first night together.  We left for our honeymoon three days after the wedding, but were able to spend that time undisturbed, at home (in our own bed for our first night of marriage).  We were able to start by opening our wedding gifts, and telling stories about the precious relationships we had with the people who had blessed us with so much.  We didn’t worry about who might show up because no one knew we were there. (They all thought we already left for our honeymoon). Our wedding photos were taken digitally, so our photographer dropped off a CD containing all of our photos the first day and we were able to view the images of the wedding before even going on our honeymoon.  This was truly amazing!

There were some jokes that are truly harmless and just make people smile.  Our wedding centerpieces were bowls of water with floating candles in them.  My father-in-law decided it would be a good idea to put two goldfish in the wedding party’s table centerpiece.  This surprised me as I was eating and noticed a goldfish staring at me from under a candle.  Not only did it make me laugh, but it confirmed in my mind that my father-in-law thought of me as “one of his kids.”

Whatever happens on your wedding day.  Be sure that you are planned as much as you can be.  Relax and enjoy the day . . . after all, it is all about you!  Things will go wrong, but it is not something to stress about.  Roll with the punches and make the best of it.  Stressing about the moment will not change anything.  If something comes up that can be fixed, fix it.  If it cannot be fixed – forget it and move on!

So how did you turn your lemons into lemonade at your wedding? Share below in the comments. We would love to hear your story too.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Mark

The post Fun Wedding Pranks appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

Have you ever wished you could turn the clock backwards and go back in time? What if you could relive that special birthday or first year of your baby’s life all over again? Would you do it if you had the chance? Let’s learn about different ways to go back in time.

You know if I could go back in time and do my English classes all over again, I would. Only this time I would enjoy writing because I would write about all kinds of things that I could save up as blogs to publish in the future (or now) when blogging is popular. It would be interesting to see how my blogs (or known as “essays” in the past) would have changed over time up until today. Then, if I knew in the past, that I could possibly be paid to write these blog posts, I would have been a very dedicated student and wouldn’t have complained as much about writing if I knew I could earn money for it.

What things would you have done differently, if you could go back in time? 

It is a thought provoking question that we may or may not want to think about, let alone answer. Sometimes going back in time or history can help us realize how far we have come, what all we have accomplished, and just how thankful we should be.

List of Reasons Why to go Back in Time

1. It would be cool to meet ancestors or relatives we never had a chance to get to know. You could also go back in time to see your favorite pet.
2. Be able to start over in life and make a difference.
3. Be able to see your favorite old music group in concert.
4. You can fix old mistakes in your life if you go back in time.
5. It would be fun to play with old toys or games of the past.
6. You could pretend that your parent’s never got divorced, or any other bad thing that has happened today.
7. You could go back to dating again and think a little more clearly about who you wanted to marry.
8. You could go back in time and learn what life was like when your mom or dad was a kid.
9. You could meet historical characters of the past.
10. Go back in time to see what life was like when you were a baby.

I am sure there are many other reasons, but these are just a few to get you thinking. What would be your reason why you would want to go back in time? Share in the comments below.

List of Ways to go Back in Time

• Through memory, you can return to your childhood or when you were younger. When did you first fall in love? You can reminisce with your memories just by using your five senses too. Just the smell of a specific perfume or cologne can bring back vivid memories.
• Go to an old restaurant or building that has been up for years or even decades. Go to the museum and reminisce through history.
• Listen to a record on a record player. It sounds so different, compared to music today, and will take you way back.
• Go back in time and visit your old house you grew up in, or you can pull it up on Google maps and view it there.
• You can turn back time on your computer and see what all you were working on in the past, by doing a system restore.
• Think about how far you have come in life, by writing your updated resume. It is interesting to think about all your old jobs and how they have influenced you to this day.
• Bring all your old social media memories back, years later using the Timehop app. It is a cool social time machine.
• Pull out your old photo album and recollect all your old stories and memories.
• Listen to old songs you loved as a teenager.
• Play old childhood games.
• Make a time capsule and collect all your sentimental mementos and memorabilia in. Then, years later open the time capsule and go back in time reminiscing about what life was like when you were born, married, or any other special milestone moment in your life. Use the “Any Occasion” DIY Time Capsule to create a time capsule for any subject you want. It could be for a graduation, your life, family, charity, business, birthday, etc. Get your DIY Time Capsule here.

So what ways do you take yourself back in time? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post 11 Ways to Go Back in Time appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

As much as we try to plan ahead, wedding disasters can and will happen. The invitations were not the only problem with our wedding.  So much changed in the 72 hours before our wedding, you could literally say that it was a completely different wedding than we planned!

The week before the wedding, I came down with a case of Bronchitis and a severe sinus infection.  One of my three groomsmen vanished off the plant, and wasn’t found until three weeks after the wedding!  (He claimed it was a money issue, but I know it was something else – Still don’t know!)  A second of my groomsmen had a grandparent pass away, and his parents scheduled the funeral at the same time as our wedding!

One of our bridesmaids woke up the morning of the wedding with a child that had a 104 F fever and needed to run to the hospital. So we had to find someone else quickly to replace her. My fiance, at the time, asked her sister in law to jump in and help. Graciously she accepted. However, the dress needed to be quickly hemmed for her. Luckily, my birth other is a seamstress and helped hem her dress. God works in mysterious ways sometimes, yet always provides.

When our tuxedo’s arrived, they were completely wrong.  We had 3 Hunter green vests and 1 Navy Blue vest.  We had 3 long ties and 1 bow tie.  The store agreed to deliver the correct tie and vest, but when they arrived, the vest had no buttons!  They returned a second time, with buttons, and sewed them on for us!  Needless to say, I was glad that we arrived in enough time to have this all taken care of. This is why it is important to plan ahead for your wedding. However, life happens sometimes. People make mistakes. However no matter how much you plan for special events, sometimes plans change.

Out photographer, who was also supposed to provide us with a video of our wedding “forgot” to bring the video camera!

While lighting the unity candle, my mother had difficulty working the lighter to light her side.  What can I say about that?  My mother’s lighter was “childproof!”  I’m not sure if that means she is just one of those people who cannot operate the childproof caps, or if she is just a child . . . But either way, it is funny to me!  Anyway, after giving up on her lighter, she reached for my soon-to-be mother-in-law’s lighter and managed to dump our entire goblet of grape juice (for “Our First Communion as husband-and-wife together”) down the front of my mother-in-law’s dress.

Now as horrible as that sounds, it turned out to be ok because the dress “perfectly color matched” the grape juice and, other than a wet spot, was completely un-noticeable!  (Although, our photographer managed to capture the horrified look on my mothers face perfectly!)  This also made for an interesting moment for me later as I was to “server” the communion to my wife with, what I found to be, an empty cup of juice.  Many things ran through my mind, but we just “rolled with it” and made it work.

Finally, to top everything else off, my fiancé managed to leave my wedding ring in her bag in the brides dressing room.  A quick-thinking-maid-of-honor pulled off a pearl ring she was wearing, and handed it to my fiancé.  (Marcie wouldn’t let anyone else “hold” the ring for fear they would “loose it!”  How ironic is that?!?!?)  So, we complete the ceremony with a tiny set of pearls on my pinky finger instead of my white gold wedding band that we had picked out.

Without all these memories of wedding disasters, we wouldn’t have anything funny to save in our own decorative Wedding Time Capsule. So years later, now I am glad it all worked out and we made lemonade out of our lemons for the wedding day.

The afternoon of our wedding, they were predicting “A light dusting of snow.”  It snowed 3 inches and made it difficult for my family to return home!

Many people would worry about what all this “says for the marriage,” but I can tell you that we are going strong!  A few months later, the quick-thinking-maid-of-honor got married as well.  Marcie and I were both part of that wedding as well.  She made a comment to me that “her wedding was better planned out, and that is why she didn’t have substitutions” in hers.  I simply laughed.  Yes, she had planned every last detail, but so had we!  Many of our issues were well beyond our control.  I mean, really, what was I supposed to do?  Stay away from people for 3 weeks so I don’t get sick?  Tell my Best Man that he cannot go to his Grandpas funeral?  Tell our Bridesmaid that she must come to the wedding and leave her sick child at home or just drop her off at the hospital?

The reality is, no matter how well you plan a wedding, or any event, there will be problems!  The key to it is to work the issues and “roll with it.”  This is your day!  It is a day that you both will remember for the rest of your lives!  Don’t let a few problems stress you out and ruin your day!  In the grand scheme of things, I suppose I am just glad that we didn’t burn down our church in the process of getting married!

In the end, we got married.  We found the ring I was supposed to get, and before we went to the reception.  Our photos came out great.  The church is still standing.  The dress was cleaned, and you still can’t see a stain.  We are still married. Going on 11 years now.  And, above all, I have a great photo that I can black-mail my mother with when she starts talking about breaking out the “naked baby photos!”  We also have some great stories to tell, which is really helpful when you wife asks you to write a blog for her! 

For helpful tips on how to avoid wedding day disasters, plan ahead with these tips here.

Remember:  This is your day!  Whether you are a man or a women – You will remember it!  So, make it what YOU want it to be!

What all problems happened at your wedding? If you have the courage, comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Mark

The post Plan Ahead – Wedding Disasters appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

Are you looking for the perfect mother of the bride dress? My mother and I have not always been close. I went through those teenage years too, where I slammed my door shut, and yelled at the top of my lungs in my bedroom. Then I always turned up the radio at full blast to drown out anything she was saying. Oh the teenage, rebellious years. They are not easy. I do not know how my parents did it. 

I can tell you, the experts are right. It is just a stage. It will eventually go away. I am now so close to my mother, that she is like my best friend.

Now I look forward to shopping with my mom and doing basically anything with her, just to be able to spend time with her. What is your most favorite thing you do with your mom?

It was going to be an all day shop till you drop day. We were not going to stop until we found the perfect mother of the bride dress for my wedding.

You know how it goes women, you always end up shopping at every store for the “one” item you need, only to return to the first store that had exact item that you needed. Well, that is exactly what happened to us. We went shopping in Indianapolis, Indiana at the local mall and a few other stores here.

Ways to Bond with your Mom

Not everyone is close to their mother, and I understand that, however there are always ways to improve your connection with her. I realize there are generations gaps, and sometimes respect can be hard, but do not wait until it is too late to connect closer with your mother. Sometimes you have to cut the ties, but when you do not have to, make the most of your time together.

Do you ever wonder where you get your style of shopping from? Are you a fast shopper, like you can eye a nice shirt from a distance and know it has to be yours, or are you a slow shopper and have to look at everything? It is amazing how you can see yourself in your mother, when you are shopping for the same thing together? I never realized how similar we were on color interests. I was having fall theme colors for my wedding, but we both fell in love with this deep dark eggplant purple, long dress. It was beautiful. But, we still had many other stores to go to and compare, so on with the shopping trip.

My mom was the one who taught me how to be frugal with my clothes and still look fashionable. I am forever grateful for that. She taught me how to make three outfits out of one pair of pants or shirt. It is amazing how creative you can become when you hang out with your mother shopping. We have shopped so much together now, that we can almost read each other’s minds when we just hold up an outfit. Shopping together now is almost a traditional ritual now. I know I will passing down this family fun of bonding time with my daughter in the future.

While shopping, you can bond using the following ideas:

• While you are exercising together by walking around, you can also spend the time learning what possible Christmas gifts each other may want. Pay attention and listen to what each other likes or does not like while shopping. Depending on your daughter’s age, you can use the clothes you see to talk about issues like self esteem and her image of herself.
• We all tend to open up more and communicate while we are doing something else, like shopping. This is especially true for teenage daughters, so use your shopping time to ask questions about each other’s life and find out how each other are doing in school, work, with the kids, etc.
• Keep a mother daughter journal of the activities you did for the day together. When we get older, we tend to forget about our daily memories we are making sometimes. What a great treasure to leave your daughter to read, years in the future. Leave this journal in a time capsule, so your daughter can open it and read it, when she has a daughter herself. Priceless.
• Find a common interest to talk about. Go shopping to stores that have your common interests in mind, like craft stores.

Do not take your time with each other for granted. Treasure your shopping bonding time. Save pictures from your trip and your special mother daughter journal in your own time capsule or in a decorative Wedding Time Capsule to give your daughter when she gets married. What a great day it will be for your daughter to open her Wedding Time Capsule 10 or 20 years later, and reminisce what it was like the first year of her marriage and all the wedding preparations you did with her, as she reads this sentimental journal.

It is now a joke between my mother and I about how many stores we went to, and still ended up coming back to the first store, Dillards, to buy her mother of the bride dress. Just wait till we tell you what happened to her dress during our wedding ceremony, in a future blog.

So what is your favorite bonding activity to do with your mom? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post Bonding through Shopping for Mother of the Bride Dress appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

Are you looking for proposal ideas? So the big Valentine’s Day is coming soon. What are you going to do? Keep reading for one of the most romantic wedding proposal idea ever. It is sure to be a proposal idea to last for years into the future. Many women are expecting that they will be proposed to on Valentine’s Day, so show her an unexpected proposal with one of these creative ideas.

10 Great Proposal Ideas 

1. If you are in the Midwest states currently, there is a lot of snow to be creative with. You could make a snow angel, and then propose using a stick to write will you be and angel and marry me, in the snow. How romantic is that. Make sure to take a picture of your winter wonderland art work to save in a large picture frame for your home to hang on the wall, as a memory, after you get married.

2. If you are the artistic type, write her a personal song to sing. Make sure to record her reaction to you while you are singing the song, then ask her to marry you at the end of the song. You could even add lyrics that tell about the story of your life together so far.

3. Take your fiance on a stroll down memory lane. Make a weekend out of it, and take her to several of the favorite places you visited together. Go backwards in time and stop at each place, eventually stopping at the one place where you first met each other. What a great way to show her how much you remember about the relationship. Then, to top it off, pull out a decorative Wedding Time Capsule which holds your engagement ring in it. Explain to her that you have enjoyed the many great memories at each of these places together in the past, but cannot wait to fill this time capsule together with ‘our’ story. Then ask, “Will you marry me?” How can she say no to that? Get your own Wedding Time Capsule here.

4. Of course you can always take a long walk on the beach, ending with a proposal. You could add a special touch, by putting a message in a bottle together, then send it out to sea together. Who know who may one day find that bottle. Inspire that person together as a couple, and tell them you just got engaged. What advice would you offer this person or what would you tell this person about the world today? What a great romantic idea to start your marriage journey together.

5. For the person who wants to make a very public proposal, you could always go to your favorite restaurant or the restaurant from your first date together. If your first date was at a movie theater, you can sometimes rent ad space before movies start and use that to propose to your girlfriend or boyfriend. Again, just make sure to record her reaction, so you have this moment saved forever. You could even save the video in your own Wedding Time Capsule. Then on your 10th or 25th anniversary, watch the video again and reminisce about what life was like the year you proposed.

6. Set up a scavenger hunt, making her find clues to find the ring. You could even set up the scavenger hunt, so that she has to visit all the special places where you both created many memories together, like where you had your first dance, first kiss, first hay ride together, etc. End the scavenger hunt with her finding the last clue in the Wedding Time Capsule and you down on one knee. Tell her she found the grand prize at the end of the scavenger hunt…the ring.

7. Involve your pets, and tie a ring onto their collar, then have the cat or dog bring the ring to your girlfriend or boyfriend along with a note that says how much you love him or her. How cute is that idea? Check out The Knot for more great ideas like this one, here.

8. Fill a room all the way with balloons. Include a love note or one sentence note in each balloon. She has to pop each one to read the message. Then, have a last special balloon in the corner of the room with the ring in it. Before she pops the last one, get on one knee and propose to her.

9. Set up a romantic room full of candles that spell out the words “Will You Marry Me?” Don’t forget to include the rose pedals all over the floor too.

10. Involve sports or your favorite board game. Tie in your own interests and personality to your proposal. For example, if you are both lovers of baseball, you may just ask the local baseball team to let you make the first pitch of the night and announce that you caught the lover of your soul and then ask your girlfriend or boyfriend to marry you in front of everyone at the big game.

Whatever idea you choose, I know it will be a moment you will never forget.

How would you propose to someone you love? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post 10 Romantic Valentine’s Day Proposal Ideas appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

Photo Credit: The Other Sister Photography/via Oh Lovely Day

Are you looking to have a beautiful wedding on a cheap budget? So he proposed to you. Now what? Oh my goodness, I realized a few days later, after the initial excitement came down, that I was getting married. I grew up in a humble home financially. My parents did a great job at making my brothers and I feel like we had money, yet we knew the truth as we got older. Just like other girls there were a few things I just had to have in my wedding, that I always dreamed of, since I was little. I wanted fireworks and lots of sparkles in my dress.

So what have you always dreamed of having in your own wedding since a little girl?

Have you ever seen the tv show Extreme Cheapskates? I am not that bad, however I have always been a frugal kind of girl. Don’t get me wrong here, I like expensive things (that is my Grandmother in me), but I just will not pay for it. I will make it myself, or wait till it goes on sale. Every now and then (like one per 3 years) I may see something that I know I cannot make and will not be in my size or something like that, if I do not buy it “now,” so I go ahead and buy it “now.”

So as the wedding preparations begin, I started to collect many different free bridal and wedding books to get ideas from for my wedding. Let the imagination begin.

1. Go to stores like Goodwill, or borrow wedding planning books from friends, or go on the internet and download Free wedding checklists.

2. Start looking for family and friends to help pitch in financially by making crafts, decorations, dresses for you, etc. If that is not available, then there is power in social media and you just might find someone who has connections to others who can make things cheaper for you rather than buying in directly from a store new. I was able to combine several ideas I liked from different wedding dress pictures, and then have my husband’s birth mother make my wedding dress. Not everyone is that fortunate to have someone in the family like her, but you can find stores that are re-sell or wedding dress discount stores around the world. Again, just use Google to find some or ask a friend.

3. I know it is not for everyone, but my husband and I just wanted to make sure we had a cake topper and main cake to save for ourselves, so we found a nice decoration that looked like a gazebo and we put a photo of us in it, then put that on top of a small nice cake from Walmart, as opposed to buying a very expensive cake. We then bought several other sheets of a similar cake to ours, for our guests. The cake tasted great. The only difference is it was not in stacked layers like an official wedding cake. That does not mean that you could not purchase a tiered cake stand and layer it yourself. Be creative.

4. Find someone you know or call a local photography school and ask if anyone there need to put together a portfolio and would be willing to take your wedding pictures on a budget.

5. As far as the flowers, I know not everyone would go for this but I always wanted my wedding day to last forever. I did not want it to end, especially since I have been planning it for so long. I chose to use fake or silk flowers, so that I can keep them years into the future. I currently have some saved in our own decorative Wedding Time Capsule, along with other memorabilia and mementos from the first year of our marriage. I plan to open the time capsule on a special anniversary, years into the future, to reminisce about what life was like the year we were married. I cannot wait. You can get your own Wedding Time Capsule here.

6. The decorations – In addition to having family and friends help you make them, you can also plan your wedding after a holiday or season, or just watch throughout the year at craft stores and purchase decorations half off. If you are like me, I took a chance and kept waiting and purchased fall color decorations for 75% off. That thrilled my parents, which made me happy because we all were happy.

7. The venue – Some like tradition, some people are open to new things. I am a mixture of both. Because my husband and I have gone to church almost all our lives, and were regulars, we chose to have our wedding at his church (due to the set up compared to the church I came from). Having the wedding at his church made things very inexpensive, practically free, since he has gone there for so many years and they knew him. If you just take the time to plan your wedding, shop around and compare prices, and even strategically plan to have the wedding during a dead time, you may get better discounts off of the venue. Again, always ask your friends who have been married already, for their suggestions too. You could also have your ceremony at home or outside somewhere.

8. The reception – Create your own mix of music and use your own or borrow a nice stereo system to play the music. Luckily we had a friend who would DJ for us. Who says it has to be a full catered meal for everyone? Rent table cloths, napkins, dishes, and other needs for the wedding and reception. Again, my family could not afford that. So, we made it look nice with our discounted decorations, and had snacks we made ourselves. You can also have a pitch in reception. I have heard from other friends that these can be very fun, yet different. Have each guest bring the meal with a recipe card so the couple can have their first cookbook made that day at the reception, with all the recipe cards put together in one nice book. What a great idea?

9. Thank You cards – Send out nice photo post cards to everyone, instead of a letter to each of them. You can make these like very nice, yet they are less expensive. We even made our own invitations and ended up liking them better than the store bought ones, because we could make them personal with our own photo on them. This was great, for family or friends who could not come to the wedding, yet now had an updated picture of us to keep.

10. Make your own aisle runner. You can be creative and add your own personal touch. Check out this creative time capsule aisle runner with the couples photos on it in a sequential order from when they met until the day they get married. What a great way to capture their milestone moments together as a couple, and have an aisle runner to keep the rest of their lives in their own Wedding Time Capsule. I love it.

With so many helpful websites, blogs, and people willing to share their ideas on the internet, it is easier to plan a beautiful and luxurious looking wedding on a frugal budget. For other great helpful websites on this topic, check out 101 Ways to Save Thousands on Your Wedding and The Knot’s 30 Ways to Save Money on your Wedding.

Oh and one more thing, just so you know the janitor at our church who has helped set up thousands of weddings there said “that was one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever seen here.” It touched my mother’s heart and helped her feel at ease. She and I did not want it to look cheap, but had to make it frugal due to our budget. He made our day. Mission accomplished in our minds.

Have fun being creative with your wedding. Most importantly, don’t forget to have fun.

So what is the best idea you can offer someone getting married, to help make their wedding day cheaper? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post 10 Ways to Have a Beautiful Wedding on a Cheap Budget appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.