Wedding Blog

Remember how I was cutting wine bottles for my centerpieces? Well, a few weeks ago, my bottle cutter pooped out on me. It just wouldn’t score the bottles right. I was having to go over and over the score line (which is bad for the blade [I don’t think it was good anyway]). I got really frustrated with the whole thing and ended up putting it aside for several weeks. It sat on my kitchen counter and taunted me with its uncooperative-ness. I think it was silently mocking my ability to make it work. Meanwhile, the 125 bottles that still had not been cut were taunting me from the shed. I was beginning to feel defeated by my own project.

During a recent phone conversation, my stepmother suggested I find a better way to cut those bottles. The method I was using was extremely time consuming and tedious. I’d spent hours working on these things. I was only about 50% done with the cutting and none of the bottles had been sanded.

I did a little research and found out that a glass worker would charge me about $2 per bottle to cut. This was not an option. I’d already invested so much time saving money by doing it myself, I couldn’t bear to pay anyone $250 dollars to take over from that point.

A quick Google search produced the name of the tool I needed to get the job done. I set out in search of a diamond blade. I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into, but I thought it would at least be worth looking into, especially since my other option was buying another bottle cutter. We don’t really have power tools in our house, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to put this diamond blade on to make it work, but I headed to Home Depot anyway, hoping they would have some sort of answer.

The salesman in the power tool section didn’t respond well to my initial request. In fact, he looked at me like I was sprouting a horn from my forehead. He showed me some drill bits to make holes in glass, but that wasn’t at all what I needed. Then he sent me off to the ceramic tile aisle, thinking that the flooring guys might have something to offer.

So, there I was, standing around in the flooring section, starring at ceramic tile saws like a dummy, thinking to myself, ‘I am not about to spend that kind of money on this project,’ and wondering where the flooring associates were, when Power Tools man came back. In his hand was a scoring bit, very similar to what I had  at home, albeit slightly more sturdy-looking. When I divulged a little bit more about what I was doing, the man lit up like the 4th of July. I swear, you could see the little bulb click on. He practically dragged me back to the power tools and headed straight for the dremel accessories. Lo and behold, there is was a diamond blade for dremel tools! Yay! I was a little leery about having to buy a dremel, but as the salesman went on and on about diamond blades and vice grips, I remembered that my sister had a dremel tool and it was probably hanging out at my mom’s house. So, I left the Home Depot with my diamond blade in tow and headed straight for mom’s to hunt for my sister’s dremel.

Thank goodness it was there.

This past weekend, one of my bridesmaids made the drive up from New Orleans to spend the weekend helping out with some of my wedding projects, and the wine bottles were at the top of the list.

The process is similar as described before. I scored the bottles with the diamond blade. It made a deeper score than the bottle cutter made. The blade actually cut through the width of the bottle, but this took  forever. Sometimes the bottles just sort of fell apart. Other times, a light tap on the stool did the trick.

It was a pretty messy process, and since I’ll have to wash them all after they’ve been cut, I decided not to waste time washing off the labels first.

While I was cutting, Bridesmaid Nola was sanding away. A friend let us borrow a second dremel tool, and armed with a sanding attachment, she managed to sand about 75 bottles in one morning.

All the bottles have been cut, and a good chunk of them have been sanded. It’s a huge relief to have this project moving again. And I’m so happy I found a better, faster, more efficient way to get it done!

And a huge thanks to Bridesmaid Nola for coming up and helping out!