Weddingbee Blog

“If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.”

- Buddhist proverb

waves arms enthusiastically *

Hey hey, hive! Just when you’ve thought I’ve faded away into newly married oblivion, your prodigal ostrich has returned.

I haven’t forgotten you. In fact, Mr. O and I are patiently waiting for our dreamy wedding pics to arrive so I can share them with all of you. And since it may be a bit longer before the recaps can commence, I decided to go off the grid for a solid month and relish in newlywed bliss. You know, finding every excuse to call Mr. O “husband” with the goofiest grin, watching too many so-bad-they’re-good reality shows (the latest? Hardcore Pawn) and eating too many pieces of pie and, for a moment, escaping the wild and crazy wedding world. And it felt goooood. But before it felt too good, I had to jump back in and share the last bits of pre-wedding goodness with all of you.

So let’s do this!

When we were last together, I was gushing about our sea critter inspired seating map. And since we were crazy in love with our assortment of dimdi’s charming watercolor paintings, we wanted to find every excuse to incorporate these beauties into our big day.

Cue table cards:

(watercolor paintings by dimdi)

and escort tags:

(watercolor paintings by dimdi)

So once our wedding peoples checked out our seating map, all they had to do was wander around until they found their corresponding sea critter table…and wander a bit more until they found their name tag hanging on the back of their chiavari chair.

The inspiration for these two projects? Well, I fell in love with a photo of hanging name tags at the beginning of the wedding planning extravaganza and was hell bent on having our own. And the tissue fringe was at the top of my wish list since my eyes fell upon Ashley Meaders’s fabulous summer fiesta.

So for my fellow bees who share my unhealthy obsession with watercolored sea critters, fringe anything and hanging seating cards, here’s the breakdown of how to make these in a pinch.

Part I: The Ostrich Fringed Sea Critter Table Cards:

Materials:

• 5″x8″ heavy card stock
• 5″ x 1 1/2″ strips of colored tissue paper
• 5″ x 2″ strips of colored tissue paper
• Fringe Scissors
• Glue stick

Instructions:

• Size your sea critter images in Word, PowerPoint, Photoshop or any other photo application to fit 5″ x 8″ paper.
• Create a text box at the bottom of the image and—in the font of your choice—type in the table name. (Our font = glenda)
• Print out the image onto the 5″ x 8″ card stock
• Take 2-3 sheets of your 5″ x 1 1/2″ tissue paper strips and lightly glue stick the edge of one side of each sheet, stacking each sheet on top of each other. Set aside
• Take 2-3 sheets of your 5″ x 2″ tissue paper strips and repeat the same glue sticking process.
• Then, lightly glue stick the bottom side of your 5″ x 1 1/2″ tissue strip stack and, lining up the bottom edges of your 5″ x 2″ stack, place the shorter stack firmly on top.
• Using your fringe scissors (or plain ol’ scissors), take the top edge of your tissue paper stack and cut fringe about 1″ deep along the entire top side.
• Grab that glue stick one last time with feeling and glue the bottom side of your tissue stack - the non fringed lower side
• Paste down tissue paper about 1″ from the top and bottom sides of the printed card stock.
• Fluff tissue fringe.
• Attachment: tape the backside to one of your centerpiece vases (that’s what we did) or use a place card holder
• Voila!

Part II: The Ostrich Fringed Sea Critter Escort Cards

Materials:

• Medium or Large Shipping Tags in White
• Full Sheet labels in White
• Paper cutter
• Strips of colored tissue paper (width should be the same as your shipping tags, height approx 3/4″ - 1″)
• Fringe Scissors
• Washi Tape
• Metallic Ink Pen
• Vintage Seam Binding or any ribbon or twine of your choice

Instructions:

• Remove the white string from each shipping tag (if it comes with this)
• Size your sea critter images in Word, PowerPoint, Photoshop or any other photo application to fit the dimensions of your shipping tag
• Create a text box at the bottom of the image and - in the font of your choice - type in the guest name. (our font = glenda)
• Tile as many escort tags onto an 8 1/2″ x 11″ page as you can
• Print out the image onto the 8 1/2″ x 11″ full sheet label
• Use your paper cutter to cut these escort cards into individual stickers.
• Peel and stick each one onto a shipping tag
• Take 1-2 sheets of your tissue paper strips and lightly glue stick the edge of one side of each sheet, stacking each sheet on top of each other.
• Cut 2 strips of the Washi tape about 1″ longer than the width of your tags.
• Use one strip of tape to tape down the tissue fringe along the bottom of the escort tag
• Use the second strip of tape to create a border at the top of the name tag
• Take your metallic pen and lightly trace over the guest name, you know, to give it a little sparkle
• Cut 10″ strips of seam binding ribbon
• Tie and knot the ribbon so it forms a 5″ loop.
• Tuck the bottom of the ribbon through the shipping tag hole and pull halfway through. Take top of ribbon through this new “loop” and pull through tightly.
• Loop these escort tags around the back of each guest’s chair
• Woo hoo! Check out your fancy escort tags!

WHEW! *HIGH FIVE* Hive….that was a doozy. But even though there may seem like a lot of steps, it actually is super duper easy and is the perfect project to do during an episode of So You Think You Can Dance (I heart you Marko & Melanie!). And I promise that your guests will be gushing and taking pics of them because they’ll love them too.

Where are my numberless table bees at? What theme are you goin’ for? And raise your hand if you love hanging escort tags as much as I do!