wedding superbargain

I know what you're thinking. Or at least, I know what I'm thinking: Shannon, pick a damn venue before you start buying things like ceremony decorations. I know guys, I know. But listen! This was a serious bargain. And I got to stick it to the man just a little bit. Or at least I felt like I did, which feels equally good.
I found this in the fall Pottery Barn collection and bookmarked it because buying a high quality plastic garland pre-assembled would be much easier than trying to twist a bunch of decomposing natural leaves myself. Even though $34 didn't sound like too much, I'm not really into paying "full price" for things for this wedding, you know? So I waited and waited. And after Halloween it went on clearance, but it was still like $20 and I was planning on ordering four of them and that still sounded like too much. So I waited.
And then last night before I went to bed, as I sat waiting for my severe cold medication to kick in enough to ease my fears of suffocating in the night, I started randomly clicking things in my "Wedding Ideas" bookmark folder. I do this from time to time so things don't get forgotten in the mess of hundreds of sites. And I clicked on the Pottery Barn link and lo and behold, these garlands are $14.99. Ohhh, ahhhh. But Shannon, you say, even at a $20 discount I don't know if this is a superbargain.
OH BUT WAIT, it gets better.
As is the PB way, they know that their usual clients are type A personalities and love symmetry. So they give you a little bit of a discount if you order two of the same thing. Before these went on clearance, you could buy two for $64 and save four dollars. Not a big reward, just a little something to say, hey, thanks for being anal.
Well, I don't know if there was a typo or if PB is suddenly very, very into rewarding multiple buys, but two of the $14.99 swags cost...$16.99. Which is $8.50 a piece and that, brothers, is something I AM willing to pay. Enthusiastically.
Do I know exactly what I'm using them for? Do I know WHAT BUILDING they will be used in? No to both. But, oh, the savings. Just roll around in it for a while.

(if you want some of this action for your house next fall, superbargain swags are still available at Pottery Barn online)

This Hallowedding Brought to You by Target

No, we're not getting corporate sponsership. But gosh darnit, we should be!
Most awesome part of having a Hallowedding, every store in town would love to have you buy their stuff at a discount just so they don't have to see it anymore.
A deep, deep discount--we now have our "fancy" candles, most of our candy buffet dishes, some of the bridesmaids gifts (not pictured), almost all our napkins and cake plates, and a few things like giant orange tubs that we will "figure out how to use" for under $100.

I think this "after season" hunting could work for almost any wedding, really--the black sparkly bowls would go with elegant affairs--and after Christmas there's a ton of sparkly items in whites and pastels that aren't obviously holiday related. So hit up those sales! They are super awesome! The only disappointing thing was I was expecting some black and orange m&ms and I only found one bag. But we're on the search for more tomorrow!

Oh my God you guys---we bought stuff for the wedding! This is exciting!

EDIT: Hey, this is Greg. I changed some settings around and now anybody and everybody should be able to post comments here, Blogger account or not. I'll also be working on a proper website this week and then the blog will hopefully seamlessly move there. Just a heads-up.