Weddingbee Blog

As mentioned in my previous post, when it came down to choosing the lovely ladies who would stand by me on my wedding day, I decided on the magic number 10. With the ladies in mind, I then had to decide how I would ask them.

After fighting off my excited urge to call them up and blurt out, “HEY! WANNA BE MY BRIDESLADY?!”, I decided to undertake a craft project. Like Miss Lox…I am not naturally crafty, and this was quite a commitment.

I thought these were ADORABLE but way too venturesome for inexperienced me, so they got axed:

Image via OnceWed / Design by Rifle Design

I am definitely creative, but I lack endurance and patience, both of which I’ve come to realize are seriously deadly shortcomings in the DIY world. Undeterred by my track record, however, I cautiously made my way to the craft store. I decided my first project should be a relatively simple one, and I mentally decided on a one-page, layered card design. Considering it had been years since I’d DIYed anything, my crafting purchase for the 10 cards was quite large.

My supplies:

• 1 absolutely useless paper cutter
• 1 pair of life-saving scissors
• 3 pairs of decorative scissors (the kind I overused in fourth grade)
• 1 hole puncher
• 1 glue stick (the kind weird kids ate in kindergarten)
• 1 package of glue dots
• 2 rolls of (slightly tacky) frilly black and white ribbon
• 1 roll of red satin ribbon
• 1 package of black and white scrapbooking paper
• 1 box of (unfortunately yellowish) envelopes
• 1 black permanent marker
• 5 sheets of alphabet stickers

OK, so with my supplies in hand and my determination at an all-time high, I decided to attack! First, I started with more familiar territory, and I wrote/acquired poems. Poems I can do.

I started with my two maids of honor, and their poems came out adorable and packed with lots of inside jokes and emotion. The next eight bridesmaids’ rhymes, which I attribute to a surprising determination to finish the project coupled with rapidly waning patience, were completed with slightly less fervor.

MOH Meghan’s poem (We were college roommates and I’ve known her since middle school.):

My Dearest Dudie, we’ve been through it all

The ups the downs, the climbs the falls

You’ve held back my hair, on nights gone all wrong

And lalalalala’d to our favorite song.

Many of memories, together we’ve shared

In future posts I will be happy to give better step-by-step accounts of my DIY projects (should there be any), but this one was done over a year ago and probably could have been completed much more efficiently. So, for now, I will give you a more summarized version of my endeavor.

At the time…I wanted a black, white, and red themed wedding, so this served as the color inspiration for the cards. I started off by trying to cut all the black card stock-like paper to size. As it turned out, the cheap paper cutter I purchased was way too small and way too dull to cut my paper. This was when I decided to cut all the paper with scissors, by eye—I am such a rookie.

I printed out the poems and cut the borders with the decorative scissors and pasted them to the black cards. I hole-punched the top of the cards, slipped ribbons through the holes, and tied a bow. I finished them off the lazy way—by sticking letters spelling out their names to the top and…voilà!

I’m not sure why I printed the poems onto computer paper first instead of directly on the white paper I scalloped around the edges—this left a visible line where I glued the two papers together. Silly me—another rookie error!

The final step was to gussy up the envelopes. At this point I was pretty exhausted, so I was quite pleased with how easy this was. All I did was wrap the red ribbon around the stuffed envelope and secure them in place with the glue dots. I then tied the bows, wrote the name of the bridesmaids on the front with the permanent marker, and (three hours later) I was aaaalll done.

So that just about sums up how I survived my first wedding-related craft project unscathed (with the exception of a few dead brain cells and lost sleep).

The ladies:

• Brandi (maid of honor) - buddies since second grade
• Meghan (maid of honor) - friends since middle school, college roommates
• Andrea - friend, lovely cousin
• Carina - twin, friend since eighth grade
• Karina - crazy face, first friend at my previous job
• Kelli - first communion co-graduate, real friend since sixth grade
• Maria - friend, future sister-in-law
• Megan - my lovely friend since third grade
• Sarah - curly-haired buddy since fourth grade
• Tracy - friend, future sister-in-law, first reader/supporter of my blog

7/10 of the bridesmaids (+ me in the middle)

How did you ask your ‘maids? Are you a natural DIYer? What was your first wedding-related craft project?

(all personal photos unless stated otherwise)