Weddingbee

I love these romantic eyelet candleholders from CB2.  Only $1.95 each, they’re currently out of stock but will be available again in January.

I have decided to decorate our tables with votives, using them as a way to add a little “something” to our tables.

This is what will be the centerpiece (going for a golden/rusty glow), on a mirrored square (they are all out of rounds).

One with Woofie in the background

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I wasn’t planning on posting this until I had completed my project but seeing as it might be helpful to other brides , I plan to share with you all my biggest DIY project for the wedding …. our votive favors and decorations.

I’ve always had a love for things etched and was extremely excited that it was available to DIY. Being able to incorporate it into the wedding was not exactly a challenge since I had pitched this idea to Mr. CB before we were engaged. The challenge was executing it and showing the real sample to him. Mr. CB was very against the idea at first because he did not want me to bleed blood and sweat and spend hours on the millions of DIY projects that I plan to do, but once he saw these, he was on board 500%. My first sample project, decor:

Exhibit A: Our decorative votive candles for the tables and for the cocktail hour area:

Hard to picture it just like that right?

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Hi all!

Remember the picture of the adorable lamps I had included in my bridal shower post? So many readers have asked me about them that I finally got around to asking my friend about the DIY details. Here’s the link for the instructions (it includes the template too!)

I bought TONS of candles from Illuminations for our wedding. We had little hanging votives in the trees (darn there are no pics of that!) and hurricanes on each table next to the flower (hurricanes from Michaels, candles from Illuminations). Their candles were really nice and not so bad in price — if you have a coupon. So here’s one I just got in the mail:

Save $15 on a purchase of $60 or more

Code 999201315

Valid Aug 10-31^st

And, hey, these hanging votives (although different from mine) are only $1!

After writing my last post on lighting, I did some more research on Adam Frank Lumens. As lovely as these fixtures are, they will not create the lighting effect I need. There is a huge blank wall behind where I would like to place the head table, and the shadow produced by the Lumen will be quite small in comparision. I was prepared to suck up the price of a lighting professional, but they were booked on my wedding date! Ack! So, back to the drawing board!

My new plan is quite involved (not really): lots and lots of candlelight! My florist is adding tall candelabras for my blank walls, and I’m adding an almost ridiculous amount of candles for other areas of the reception room. I hope that the overall vibe will be romantic and dreamy, and I think the soft glow will make for pretty pictures. Who doesn’t look good in a dim room? Ha.

You can see the candelabras in the background of this picture. Image from European Floral Design. 

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The urge to DIY comes in many forms: wanting to save $$, putting your personal touch on your wedding, or creating something that you couldn’t have otherwise. My situation called for all three. When I saw the going rate for centerpieces ($50 for something I would laugh at and $300 for something I enjoyed), I resorted to taking care of the task myself. And here’s what I got:

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To reduce the length of my candles!

Mr. E’s sister was kind enough to give us 4 dozen cylinder vases left over from her own wedding last year. I wracked my brain trying to think of how to put these to best use. So I decided to fill the bottom of each vase with some coffee beans and stick in a long candle. Why coffee beans? Because Mr. E and I LOVE coffee. I managed to get him addicted to his daily cup of joe (although we are both good about limiting our intake to just one cup a day). We also love the SMELL of coffee, so we are hoping that by bringing in the beans, we can bring the aroma of coffee into our reception space. However, I have noticed that the smell isn’t too noticeable, so I may have to add a small layer of ground coffee at the bottom since it smells stronger. I could be wrong, considering that we will have 40 of these vases around the ballroom, and I only have one as a mock-up!

But anywhoo, I could not find the ideal size/shape candles anywhere. I wanted something thicker than a regular taper candle since those don’t last long and they drip too much. Luckily I found these 1.5-inch thick and 9-inch tall candles at Hobby Lobby (candles are 50% off every other week!) for $1 each. Score! Unfortunately the bottoms are designed to fit into a candle holder, so I had Mr. E chop off all the ends. Then I am in the process of burning these candles down to the right height. Let me tell you, these things will burn FOREVER!

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I finally, finally completed my monogram cake topper. I had a really good talk with myself and we both agreed that we needed to sit down and finish this.

I purchased the metal letters in our Bickham Script Fancy font from wedding cuts and the equipment and crystals from Tami’s Place. I highly recommend both vendors.

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