Weddingbee

I’d made it before and found it troublesomely soft, so when we made double batches for the Cookie Bonanza, I threw in an extra 1/4 cup flour for each double batch, making the recipe:

1+1/2 cup butter, softened
2+1/4 cup flour
1 cup corn starch
1 cup icing sugar

Mixing and rolling out the dough

Sift the dry ingredients together in your stand mixer bowl*, add the butter and cut through a few times with your spatula so it doesn’t go poof as soon as you run the mixer. Process the ingredients together with the mixer at the lowest speed until it all comes together in a dough. There will likely be dryer bits at the bottom that you will have to work in by hand. Turn it out onto plastic cling wrap, work in the dry bits and wrap. Refrigerate for at least an hour before using. We made 7 such batches, but didn’t use it all. We estimate that if we used it all, it would have been enough for about 100 units.

[*I specify a stand mixer, and honestly, I don’t advise undertaking such a large quantity of cookies mixing by hand. However, if you want to try this recipe by hand, you’ll have an easier time handling it if you half it.]

Once the dough had been refrigerated long enough we were ready to roll it. The stuff can be sticky, so we found the easiest and quickest way to handle was to work on parchment paper:

• lay out a sheet of parchment and dust with flour and/or corn starch
• throw a half a batch of dough on at a time and briefly work it just enough to soften a bit, but still keep it cold
• throw a second sheet of parchment paper on top and roll the dough between the sheets using a rolling pin
• have a friend hold diagonal corners of the parchment in place while you roll across the other diagonal until your dough is rolled out to the desired thickness, which is 1/4″ or a little more
• remove the top sheet of parchment and dust a little more flour/corn starch on it and roll a bit more if needed
• cut: dip your cutters in flour/corn starch before each cut to avoid sticking and start cutting circles
• if you have worked quickly and the dough hasn’t warmed up, it will be easier to peel away the scraps from around the circles
• put the cut circles in the freezer
• once cookies have frozen firm, they are ready to be transfered to cookie sheets to bake
• parchment can be reused over and over, but dough will stick to it, so scrape it off with a straight sided rigid spatula
• have a flexible spatula to scrape down the rolling pin if dough bits become stuck to it

Baking

The recipe called for a 300 degree Fahrenheit oven, but for more even baking of multiple sheets we used a convection oven, also at 300, because although it’s normal to dock 25 degrees when using convection, my oven doesn’t go any lower for convection.

Anyway, no greasing or lining of the cookie sheets is required for the recipe (they are, after all FULL of butter) but so that cookies could be laid out in formation before a cookie sheet was free, we laid them out on sheets of parchment. (Parchment can be reused multiple times.) As mentioned above, the cookies are frozen before transferring to baking position, because otherwise, they’re too squishy and sticky to move. These cookies do grow a little while baking, so leave almost a half inch between them.

Depending on your oven and whether or not you use convection the bake time is 20 to 35 minutes. They are done when the most hawk-eyed of the bakers in the room detects the faintest hint of browning on an edge of a cookie.

Cool completely on cookie racks before frosting.

Icing and assembly

I made a simple icing of lemon juice and icing sugar. I didn’t measure for this, I simply squeezed the juice of half a lemon for each batch, strained the seeds, and mixed icing sugar into it until it was thick enough not to run: somewhere on the order of 2+1/5 cups of icing sugar I think. Just add more lemon juice or a little more icing sugar depending on how it looks.

To assemble, we iced together the large cookies and small cookies in pairs, and once the icing had set, iced the small ones on top of the big ones. We just put a small dollop of icing in the middle of each cookie and then twisted them together to distribute the icing.

Once the fully assembled “cakes” were set (and this icing sets firm relatively quickly) we were ready to wrap.

Wrapping

Each “cake” was wrapped in a square of cellophane wrap and tied with a simple bow. I even have special tips for this part!

• To cut out ribbon, find out how long each piece should be, and cut a piece to use as template. Put all your spools of ribbon on a screwdriver and while one person holds it, the other can pull several lengths of ribbon measuring against the template and snip.
• To tie, take a long length of twist tie and wind tightly around the cinched cellophane to hold it shut while you tie the ribbon, and then remove the twist tie.

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Save the Dates: We set the tone with the save the date card:  a little drawing, a little sparkle, a little lightheartedness.

Invitations: The actual invitation was very simple in the midst of the other colorful, whimsical pieces.  Gocco + Paper Source Luxe Paper.

Flags: My sister decided to have cupcakes instead of a cake, so I designed these to go on top. The little paper airplane first showed up above on the response cards, and since her husband is a pilot, it seemed appropriate to bring it back here and there.

Programs: The program cover swiveled to the side on that little purple dot (tiny snap) to reveal the ceremony info printed on chartreuse card stock.  I really like the clean look of the snap, but when using those babies, give yourself enough time that you’re not running all over town at the last minute looking for a tool that works without ruining that smooth little dot.

Escort cards: The escort cards have the name handwritten on the front, table number printed on the back. I made the board from an acoustic ceiling tile: cut it to size with a box knife, stapled linen-blend fabric and some ribbon around it, then hot-glued a piece of felt to the back to cover the staples. I got the fabric on big sale at Joann, so I think all told I spent less than $10 on the board. It won’t hold up as well as — I assume — homosote would (ours was broken by the end of the weekend), but it will do the job for table cards and has a much more substantial look than something like foamcore.

Pom poms: We followed Martha’s directions, but our largest size came from a 20″x15″ sheet of paper, & the smaller was approximately half that size — the 20″x30″ we tried just looked too sloppy — & we curved the ends for a more floral look.

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If you have a DIY project you’d like to submit, send it to guest@weddingbee.com.  See here for full contest details.
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When I was trying to decide on bridesmaids/friends gifts, I knew I would be mixing a little bit of DIY with little things I have picked up here and there. So, for the DIY portion I found a great project to make little charms!

I started my shopping at Ornamentea which is amazing, both here in Raleigh and online. And of course, my flavor of the month (and possibly year), Gallery Shibui, where I purchased Japanese Chiyogami paper in different prints and sizes. From Ornamentea I got the charm trays and the amazing Diamond Glaze!

I am so excited about how easy this project was that I will definitely be experimenting with more ideas! To make these charms however, I wanted to keep it simple.

I started by looking through magazines for special words like Love, Create, Inspiration…etc. that were small enough yet had a cute font to fit the charm. Domino was by far the best magazine to find what I was looking for. Once I clipped out the words, I traced the inner circle of my charm and cut out circles from the Chiyogami paper.

Then using the glaze, I set the circles into the tray and glued them in place, then glued down the word. The cool thing is that you really don’t have to wait for each step to dry before moving on. Once the papers were in place, I filled over the top with more glaze and let it dry overnight. Done! **Be sure that you don’t shake the glaze or you will have to contend with bubbles!!**

I love the way they turned out and I had no idea that the style I have been admiring for years was so easy to replicate!

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If you have a project you’d like to submit, please send it to guest@weddingbee.com.  See here for full contest details.
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The save the dates

First there was the super special 1st edition misprint. Spell check doesn’t work when you have a space between each letter of the word in caps.  

So after correcting the spelling, I printed the stickers:

In true diy form, I had this idea a few months ago, and as I was working on them, I read about the same exact thing in Martha Stewart Weddings. But, I liked that she put the city of the wedding on the sticker, so I ganked that. So we’re even, martha.

Then I cut the stickers to size and attached them with double-sided tape to the cards I printed.

The magnets were magnetic business cards - I used a pic from our trip to Tucson, AZ this spring and cropped it, sized it, added lettering and printed. Super easy.

Here’s the envelope lining I did for the save the dates.  Cheap scrapbooking paper and nice envelopes.

I took one of the envelopes apart, and used it to make a template to do the stencil with - I had to make sure to take off a few millimeters on each side so that it would fit into the envelope. Then I just went to hobby lobby and got some cheap scrapbook paper and some gluestick and tada!

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If you have a project you’d like to submit, please send it to guest@weddingbee.com.  See here for full contest details.
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After weeks of searching for a gatefold whose sides were large enough to place my inserts upon, I was elated to find a 7″ x 7″ invitation with 5 x 7 inches of room on each side at Divine Ink! The gatefold has been made from Stardream Opal cardstock.

I created the monogram in Microsoft Publisher. The fonts used are Bickham Script Fancy 2 and Baker Signet. The graphic is from iStockPhoto.

Each component on the inside of the invitation has been made in Microsoft Publisher. The non-script font on the main invitation is Londonderry Air NF and the names are a combination of Bickham Script Fancy 2 (first initials only) and Kunstler Script. The graphic is from iStockPhoto. Each side of the graphic is hand-glittered and embossed.

The response cards are personalized to each recipient for a couple of reasons: 1) to ensure that all cards are returned with legible names and 2) to be able to obtain an accurate count of guests…not necessarily to keep uninvited guests out, but to let the recipient know who and how many of their party I’m expecting…should they opt to bring another person with them, they may indicate so on “Number Attending” space of the card.

In order to create a detailed street map, I obtained directions from Google Maps. I then zoomed into a section that gave me an adequate detailing of street names, landmarks, etc. I copied that section using the “Print Screen” button on my keyboard and pasted the section into a pre-sized box in Publisher. Once I cropped and shrunk the section to fit within the box area, I zoomed into the image (up to 600%) and traced the major details using the AutoShape Curve tool in order to make the bends of roads and rivers smooth and true to the map. Once a section was complete, I returned to the original map and moved to the next section (at the same zoom level) to repeat the
process, eventually piecing together 10 fragments to make one large drawing.

Each section of this invitation has two layers. The printed layer is done on Curious Metallic Cryogen White cardstock and the other two ¼ inch layers from Stardream Fuse Fairway and Azalea, respectively. In order to secure the ribbons and not have them punched through the invitation itself, I cut out a small piece of cardstock and punched two holes in each side of it. I then strung the ribbon through the holes and glued it to the inside of the gatefold. The right side has two of these devices…one in which the holes are vertical with a ribbon going length-wise and the other horizontal with the ribbon going width-wise. This was done to hold the smaller card in place
atop the larger one.

The best part of DIY (besides the finished product) is the final price! I am purchasing large sheets of each paper type (20” x 28.5”) from Paper Mojo and having them cut down for a small fee. The gatefolds and ribbon will be purchased in bulk and the ink cartridges for my printer purchased from eBay for significantly less than I would pay for them in the store! Thus, instead of paying well over $1500 for 125 custom-made, custom-printed invitations, I am spending just under $500!

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If you have a DIY project you’d like to submit, send it to guest@weddingbee.com.  See full contest details and prizes here.
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Lanterns

Centerpieces

Favors

Fan and Tears of Joy tissue packet

Hanging orchids

Photo Table Books

Aisle runner

hanging candles

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If you have a DIY project you’d like to submit, send it to guest@weddingbee.com. See full contest details here.
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Bottles soaking:

Finished bottles:

1st trial with my own garden flowers:

First mock design of table cards with store bought flowers. (I actually like my own garden flowers best!)

Once I completed the bottles, I was unsure what type of table cards I wanted to use.  Since I had an ample supply of wine corks (I planned to use these for namecards and easily have access to them since I am a bartender), I decided I would create WINE LABELS pertaining to different types of wines. So I began searching the internet for different types of wine labels- specifically I googled ‘unique wine labels’, ‘wine label images’, ‘wine labels’, and ‘vintage wine art’ to find results.  

Below are some of the sites that I visited to find the wine labels I used.
 
Wine Labels - This had the greatest amount of wine labels, so it was up to me to pick which ones I wanted, save the image to my computer for future use. (Which will be explained below)
 
Wine Library - This link allows you to search for a label by name
 
Art.com - vintage art posters
 
All Posters - more vintage art posters)
 
There’s one other wine label site that I visited that I am having a very hard time relocating! It’s one of the most important, because I changed one label to reflect our last name, and a couple others to reflect different wines than what was on the image.

Below are the finished table cards - I printed two of each then glued them together, so each side of the table could see them.

Close-ups - The image on the left was altered to read a different name and the colors were also changed in Microsoft Publisher. The image on the right is a Vintage Art poster. All images had to be resized to fit on half of a 5X7 card that I purchased from Michael’s (Variety Pack 5.5 x 7.5 cards in shades of cream, ivory, white and gray).

The image on the right was originally a different color and had Riesling as the wine. This was changed in Microsoft Publisher as well.

Here is a trial of the centerpieces with one of the table cards and my own garden flowers:

With placecards (which were purchased from Michaels of A.C. Moore (Paplin’s Basics - Card Enclosures 50 pack).  I will handwrite each guest’s name on the cards.

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If you’d like to submit your DIY project, send it to guest@weddingbee.com. See here for full contest details.
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Hi Weddingbee! I’ve picked up so much DIY inspiration from this site.  We are doing tons of DIY for our wedding (from the stationery, to our bamboo & capiz shell arch, our “Moo card” favour tags, and more) but here this is one of my best projects.  Our “card house” - My fiancé is an architect, and over the past year together we have done major condo renovations and written a book, Design City Toronto, on architecture.  It was only fitting that we have an ‘architectural slant’ to our wedding décor.
 
Instead of a gilded bird cage or puffy frilly white card box, I decided that I wanted a “card house” to hold the cards from our guests.  First, we came up with the plan.  We wanted something sleek, modern, yet functional.  The roof had to be removable in order to access the cards.  Design-wise, we wanted the second level to be cantilevered over the first, we wanted tons of windows (frosted and clear), and I wanted a staircase.  The staircase has yet to be built but this is our almost-finished design.We built the card house out of balsa wood in different widths.  Used by architects to make models, it was easy to use… all we needed was a exacto knife and bottle of glue.  I designed the wood strip panelling you see on the left, which gives the house some needed texture. After the wedding, we will use the house as a keepsake box to hold all of our wedding memorabilia.

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Have a diy project you’d like to submit?  Send it to guest@weddingbee.com.  See full contest details here.
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Table arrangements: The tables have DIY arrangements (which we made with just sunflowers for the sake of simplicity) in a vase with river rocks, and the table signs we designed, printed, and mounted. Probably silly, but one of my favorite things is the grapevine/wicker ball that holds our signs. We glued the balls to grapevine napkin rings (to make the bottom flat) and then used kitchen shears to cut a slit in the top and nestle the signs in (it’s a snug fit!) and voila!

Save-the-dates

Programs - The Programs are 11 x 17 movie posters. The bottom credits are everyone who is involved and a little note of whats to come.  The program posters were inspired by our save the dates - which read like a movie script since my fiance used to work in film…and left it and LA to move to Chicago with me.  The movie posters also have a tree - which we’ll be married under, a dog - that my fiance used to draw on all the letters he wrote to me (we fell in love through letters since I was in Europe the first month + we were together)…thus the mailbox, and the bird is in memory of
my grandmother.

Invitations: I designed all of the invitation components and had them printed by a local printer friend. The paper is all PaperSource, including the pocket folder. We went through about a thousand designs for the front of the invite, but ultimately settled on the favor tags embellished with an eyelet, with corners rounded by my dear fiance.

Escort Cards: Perhaps not the most original, but (still handy) votive escort card. Probably the one thing I wonder exactly WHAT I was thinking about!

Cupcake tree: My Fiance worked in model making for movie in LA - so he loves to make all sorts of crazy models. For our cakes we’re having my signature pumpkin spice cake made into cupcakes - the “Cupcake Tree” is the holder for all the yummy delights. The finished piece will be sanded and stained a nice cherry color. Believe it or not that puppy holds more than 120 big ol’ cupcakes. There is also a little dog and a mailbox for the bottom left (like the posters) and another tray for the cake we’ll cut.

Favors: We have CD soundtracks - CD favor pictured, sparklers with matches, and little bags of taffy with thank you quotes at each setting - sad these aren’t here - but everyone gets a different quote.

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If you’d like to submit a DIY project, please send it to guest@weddingbee.com. See full contest details here.
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For our 2007 Hawaiian wedding, I just wanted to share my very favorite DIY accomplishment for our wedding to-date: Our boxed invitations.
 
I purchased everything separately, from clear packaging, to the boxes, to the starfish, to the cane paper to the clear labels for our addresses. I had my invitations printed up (by mygatsby) on pearly white cardstock and adhered it to the pearly seafoam cardstock.  
 
Additional elements - Real 4-5″ white finger starfish (ebay) was glue dotted onto the cane paper sash, then tied with mason line to invite package where cane paper (paper.com) sash was cut to hold together the invite, RSVP Hawaiian vintage postcards that we customized with our rsvp message and address ( islandartcards.com), map created freehand with Adobe and printed up on postcard cardstock, and hotel resort business cards requested for hotel contact. These were then boxed, clear package sealed, stamped and then off to our wonderful guests.
 
For our save the dates, we sent out DIY message in the bottle invites on our yachting engagement reception as a precursor to our tropical destination wedding this fall.
 
Enjoy! Our guests most certainly did.
 
An

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If you’ve got a diy project you’d like to submit, please send it to guest@weddingbee.com.  Read the full contest rules here.
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