Weddingbee Blog

Okay, whew! We accomplished quite a bit the week before the wedding, as you’ve seen from all my posts that start with this title (our programs, colorful fabric flags, escort flowers, and OOT bags!). This is the final installment of what we finished in the days leading up to our wonderful wedding, and it covers a few different projects.

When I originally wrote about the luminaries I wanted to make, I wasn’t sure what graphic to use or how to get it onto the bag. I let this idea sit for a really long time before I stumbled upon this heart graphic, which I loved, and decided to use in several of our wedding projects (programs, water bottles, and OOT bag notes). I knew it would be the perfect match for the lacy luminary feel I was going for!

I already had all the bags with their tops punched using a lovely lace Martha Stewart punch:

(I punched the tops of 50 bags to use as luminaries)

So all that remained was to put the heart graphic on the inside. At first I printed the heart on vellum paper and we used spray adhesive to stick the vellum to the bag, but then I discovered clear, 8.5 x 11 inch address labels: I could print two hearts/page, and just stick ’em to the bag! Muuuuch easier.

(Once you peel off the white backing, the black heart design was on a clear sticky label sheet)

Each bag got one battery powered LED tealight (complete with fake flickering action, which obviously you can’t see in a photo), et voilà!

(One lovely luminary)

Unfortunately due to the crazy wind we had going on, these couldn’t be placed outside on the short brick walls as I had imagined. Instead, once it got dark outside the CBBC staff decorated the bar/cocktail area with all 50 of them. It was sort of funny to see them all put out and lined up, but it created a nice effect after all

Another smaller decorative aspect we completed were the cherry blossoms we had folded.

(a couple of the cherry blossom flowers I’m talking about)

I had been debating what kind of branches to attach these to and in the end decided to go with the willow branches because I really liked the cleaner lines, as opposed to the multi-branched birch option. I ordered 4 bunches of the willow branches (11-12 came in each bunch), and then we glued the flowers on to the branches with a hot glue gun (our favorite crafting tool, if you’ve been reading all the ’Week Before the Wedding’ posts )!

(photo from Mom GP’s cell phone of friend DB and Aunt M sorting and gluing paper cherry blossoms to the willow branches)

Once we were done gluing all the flowers to the branches, we assembled them in some vases I had lying around the house (hence the mishmash of styles). Since none of them were going in the same place at the reception I seriously doubted anyone would notice (or care?!) that they were different.

(safely packaged with lots of bubble wrap/tissue paper to survive the drive to the venue)

These ended up just being fun decorative pieces for random areas: we put one on each end of the main bar and I loved the way they spruced it up and tied it in to the other decor, and one in each bathroom next to the baskets I put together. I didn’t actually get to see those but I heard they looked nice!

Lastly, as I mentioned above: the bathroom baskets! This was something I knew I wanted to do no matter how much people might say it was unnecessary: one trip to Target and $85 later, I had them all decked out and ready to go.

(The basket for the women’s bathroom)

(the basket for the men’s bathroom)

Here’s what I included in each of these baskets:

• Several packets of Advil
• Bottle of Tums
• A handful of cough drops
• Band-Aids
• Contact solution and eye drops
• Tissue packs and Q-tips
• Mini-bottle of mouthwash
• Toothbrush wipes (the ones you put over your fingertip and scrub)
• Dental floss
• Safety pins
• Tide stain pen
• Combs (several, so people didn’t have to share, they could keep it if they used it)
• Lint roller
• Spray deodorant (/body spray for the guys)

In addition to those basics, the women got some extra stuff (sorry men!):

• Tampons and pads
• Hair elastics and bobby pins
• Clear nail polish
• Nail care kit (with a file, nail clippers, etc)
• Blister pad Band-Aids
• Static guard
• Blotting sheets and cotton pads

I tied a sign around the front of each that said “Please help yourself to anything you need!”, and they were put on the counters in the bathrooms. Lots of the primping stuff in the women’s baskets was used or taken (combs, blotting sheets and hair elastics), as well as the tampons and pads. Someone stole the Axe body spray in the men’s baskets within minutes of the reception starting (he had it in his pants pocket all night?!) and the mouthwash and Advil were also a big hit. Otherwise, we got a large portion of the stuff back, which is fine with me because now I get to use all of it for myself (and it makes the $85 a little more palatable)! Do you know how handy it is to have travel sizes of all that stuff? I love it.