Mrs. Cinnamon Bun, Calgary, Alberta
Age and Occupation: 26, Stage Manager
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Theatre Technician
Engagement Date: June 22, 2010
Wedding Date: June 2011
Venue: Calgary Opera Centre
About Me: I'm a life-long crafter and bookworm living in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. Some of my loves include Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes, knitting, opera, musicals, Etsy, baking, and of course, Mr. Cinnamon Buns. We're keeping our wedding close to home---the venue isn't very far from our house, and we live within walking distance of 6 bridal salons. I'm using the wedding as an excuse to try out every craft project I possibly can, with the endless help and support of my fiance.
Hey Cinnamon Bun, how’s the paper flower thing going?
Not bad, thanks for asking! I’ve got 50+ white roses:
A handful of smaller blue roses (the Queen of Hearts would not approve!):
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Mrs. Sand Dollar, Houston
Age and Occupation: 24, Graphic Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 22, Electrical Technician
Engagement Date: January 8, 2010
Wedding Date: September 2010
Venue: MacLean Park
About Me: I'm a domestic diva down to the core. I heart cooking, sewing, baking, decorating and making sure we have a hand-crafted home. The best part about the wedding is I get to incorporate it all! I make sure I put my art degree to good use by screen printing, craft knife cutting, and a whole lotta graphic design. We're having a big-time party on a small-time budget, and I promise to show you a boot-scootin', barbecue-eatin', finger-lickin' good time! Mr. Sand Dollar and I spend most of our time on DIY projects or traipsing around the outdoors with our two pooches Rory and Juno. I'm looking forward to sharing our journey with all of you!
Whew! Even though our wedding was nine months ago, I’ve just now finished sewing our guestbook quilt! Why did it take so long? Well, like a crazy person, I decided to hand embroider each and every message on our 40 signed blocks. I was afraid that over time the fabric pen might fade, and I wanted each name and wish to last a lifetime. After all, quilts are often heirlooms, so why not go all out?
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Mrs. Waffle, Austin
Age and Occupation: 31, Costumer/Artist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Animator
Engagement Date: July 27, 2010
Wedding Date: June 2011
Venue: Hummingbird House
About Me: My life is pretty much spent in a sea of fabric, paint, sequins and drama. When I’m not working, I play on a trivia team, take Broadway dance classes, read, buy shoes, and occasionally geek out on video games. I am an American girl who loves all things British and Mr. Waffle is a Brit who loves all things American...I guess it was meant to be!
I know I promised a tutorial for the brunchy Invites, and I’m almost through with that post, but I’m gonna do one for this first because I have all the pictures resized and blah, blah, blah already. Seriously, I promise invites will be next. Pinky swear.
Items you may need for this project:
- Blank sign
- Wood monogram letter
- Graphite paper or pencil
- Blue painter tape or masking tape
- Thick wired ribbon
- Fake flowers
- Nails and hammer or screws and drill
- Acrylic craft paint
- Brushes
- Fine point Sharpie
- Hot glue and gun
- Scissors
- Patience
First up, I found a blank stand sign and monogram letter at Michaels and painted them the desired colors with acrylic craft paint. Once that was dry, I got out a sheet of graphite paper (also available at craft and art stores) and taped it to the blank sign with blue painter tape. If you don’t have/can’t find graphite paper, you can also color the back of your text print out with a pencil and transfer that way.
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Ms. Ferris Wheel, San Francisco
Age and Occupation: 29, Psychologist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Psychologist
Engagement Date: May 23 and 28, 2010 (one for each of us!)
Wedding Date: November 2011
Venue: Parc55 Hotel (city lights ceremony, ballroom reception)
About Me: Born in the Southeast, educated in the Northeast, and over-educated on the West Coast, I finally earned my city-girl credentials and have put down roots in gorgeous San Francisco. I’m a raging perfectionist with a lightning quick wit and a terrible sense of both time and direction. Our wedding task list is endlessly growing because of my predilection to think that DIY projects I can make = DIY projects I should make (so not true!). I always go to bed wishing there were more hours in the day to enjoy all the things I adore, whether that be hobbies, friends, my career, our two dogs, or Mr. Ferris Wheel. Ours is a story of a non-traditional couple living an oddly traditional life planning a not-so-traditional wedding in this city we adore. Together we are bustin’ out all of our best skills (and some of our worst ones) to plan a laid-back-chic DIY-craftastic love-alicious affair!
While I’m working on answering the rest of your questions, let’s get back to the wedding crafting for just a bit, shall we?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The wedding blogosphere indicates you need a card box. Some people in our lives have questioned this, but when I googled “Do I need a card box at my wedding?” much of the web evidence points to ’yes.’ We decided to use a gray box we already had (a gift box from some shaving stuff Mr. FW received last year—cuz, ya know, he shaves now). It was the perfect size and, yes, free. While I was taking a post-wedding-meltdown nap one day, Mr. FW put his spin on our card box. He said to me, “If this were just my wedding, this is the way I would do the card box.”
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Featured on Weddingbee
“Add a memorable touch to your wedding with unique favors that match your theme.”
Featured Product: Chalkboard Tealight Holder
Mrs. Waffle, Austin
Age and Occupation: 31, Costumer/Artist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Animator
Engagement Date: July 27, 2010
Wedding Date: June 2011
Venue: Hummingbird House
About Me: My life is pretty much spent in a sea of fabric, paint, sequins and drama. When I’m not working, I play on a trivia team, take Broadway dance classes, read, buy shoes, and occasionally geek out on video games. I am an American girl who loves all things British and Mr. Waffle is a Brit who loves all things American...I guess it was meant to be!
To quote my friend Jen, “HOLY BANANAS!”
I can’t believe how close we are. Seriously. When did time decide to go in to super hyper speed? How is it possible that we’re in the teens portion of the countdown?
My goal through this whole process has been to have everything done before the week of the wedding. That way I can relax and enjoy myself instead of feeling “OMG! I’m never going to finish!” So, in order to reach that goal I have been having a full on “Craft-a-thon 2011″ happening at the Waffle house this week and culminating in a huge group craft day with my friends on Sunday. We will get it done!
Luckily, the only crafts left are those pesky ones that can’t be done until that last slow-poke RSVP comes through your mailbox. You know, the ones that hinge on a seating chart.
Our seating for this extravaganza is being assigned by fabric. Once I got the seating chart finished, I was on to the daunting task of stitching swatches to all the escort cards.
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Mrs. Crepe, Queens, NY/Nashville, TN
Age and Occupation: 28, Jewelry Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Animation Director
Engagement Date: September 28, 2010
Wedding Date: May 2011
Venue: A church in downtown Nashville
About Me: I'm a native New Yorker who has always been a DIY kind of girl and loves tackling creative projects while getting the most out of a dollar. I'm marrying my college sweetheart and we love frequenting antique stores, exploring together, and playing with kittens. We're planning a fun, "us" wedding in his hometown---with as many handmade touches as we can pack into a day!
This was probably my most intense DIY yet but because I had already decided to do it long before any other amount of planning took place, I started super early. An acquaintance of mine, who is also a jewelry designer, had embroidered her table numbers and said this one thing that stuck in my head—if there are details that are important to you, it’s absolutely possible to do them as long as you start early. I kept her advice in mind and was able to get most of it done at this point (about 3 weeks before the wedding).
My suggestion to any of you who have a really ambitious project that seems almost impossible to tackle is: cut corners where you can without sacrificing the project and then work on it a bit every week. For me, it was about an hour a week for these numbers, 10 to 30 minutes at a time. Basically the length of a TV show or until I didn’t feel like doing it anymore.
If you’re familiar with hand sewing, it actually goes by quite quickly! I didn’t use anything I didn’t learn in 8th grade home ec class.
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Mrs. Magic, Chapel Hill, NC
Age and Occupation: 30, Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Researcher
Engagement Date: December 1, 2009
Wedding Date: October 2011
Venue: Barn at Valhalla
About Me: I’m a tall drink of water (5’10”!) and a Southern bride with an enormous appetite for Mexican food, good deals, anything French, and all things wedding! By day I am lucky enough to work with individuals with autism and their families. By night, I’m even luckier to be able to spend time hanging out with awesome friends, crafting, shopping, thinking about exercising, and kicking it with Mr. Magic and our two cats. I tend to have sudden, intense cravings that will not be denied (seafood enchiladas! new jeans!) and I’m prone to being a disorganized mess of anxiety and stress. After waiting (and waiting!) to get engaged, I am finally planning the colorful, fun, fabulously awesome Fall wedding of our dreams. In an effort to share the fun and craziness that is wedding planning, I’m gonna blog about it for y’all---the good, the bad, and the pretty!
Me and Martha Stewart are like so totally on the same page. Today she sent me an email (we’re tight like that) all about how you can use buttons in your ceremony. And I was all like “Thanks Martha, but I’m totally one step ahead of you.”
OK, I’m not gonna lie. I think buttons are cute, I guess, but normally I just throw away the extra ones that come with a blouse. Because if I don’t throw them away, they just end up all lonely in their tiny plastic bags, lost in the bottom of some drawer. So now I just toss them, and find solace in the fact that allllllllll the buttons are ending up in the same spot—erm, the landfill.
Hmm. That’s depressing.
Anyway, recently I was literally freaking OUT over napkins. It turned into this big existential crisis where I drank too much red wine, beat my head against the worn couch pillows, and wondered what “it” all meant. “It” being wedding planning, tsunamis, poverty, autism, circuses, Black Swan, hot and cold water molecules, and that whole Elder Wand thing in Harry Potter.
One Google search later for “wedding DIY napkin rings” and I was back to normal and completing perhaps the best, OK, most easiest DIY wedding project EV-ER.
Fabric Covered Button Napkin Rings. Ooohhhhhhhh. Aaahhhhhhhhhh.
Image via Once Wed
Steps to making ridiculously simply easy & fun fabric covered buttons
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Mrs. Crepe, Queens, NY/Nashville, TN
Age and Occupation: 28, Jewelry Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Animation Director
Engagement Date: September 28, 2010
Wedding Date: May 2011
Venue: A church in downtown Nashville
About Me: I'm a native New Yorker who has always been a DIY kind of girl and loves tackling creative projects while getting the most out of a dollar. I'm marrying my college sweetheart and we love frequenting antique stores, exploring together, and playing with kittens. We're planning a fun, "us" wedding in his hometown---with as many handmade touches as we can pack into a day!
Just when I thought I had pretty much all the DIY projects out of the way, Weddingbee offers up a bit more inspiration. This place is awesomesauce! But I guess I don’t have to tell you that.
I’ve made tissue poms a la Martha as ceiling decorations but hadn’t thought about them for my own wedding- probably because I feel like I’ve seen them everywhere! But recently, Mrs. Hot Wings’ post about using them as napkin rings completely inspired me. Napkin rings were a detail I had given up about, mostly because I had taken on way too many DIY projects and was feeling overrun. I didn’t want to come up with any other ideas…my brain was spent.
I did a quick search online and came across this great tutorial. I had initially planned to make the smallest size they suggested, but instead cut the paper into 4×7″ rectangles because it was what worked with the sheets I had without any waste. I figured that if I did a test run and they were easy enough, I’d do the rest.
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Mrs. Waffle, Austin
Age and Occupation: 31, Costumer/Artist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Animator
Engagement Date: July 27, 2010
Wedding Date: June 2011
Venue: Hummingbird House
About Me: My life is pretty much spent in a sea of fabric, paint, sequins and drama. When I’m not working, I play on a trivia team, take Broadway dance classes, read, buy shoes, and occasionally geek out on video games. I am an American girl who loves all things British and Mr. Waffle is a Brit who loves all things American...I guess it was meant to be!
I figured, since I’m a seamstress and all, I should do a few posts on tips and tricks to help out in the event of a wardrobe malfunction. Not to frighten anyone, but someone, be it you or your Great Aunt Betsy, will more than likely have one at the wedding and it is always good to be prepared.
Every bride should bring an emergency sewing kit to the wedding. Period. End of story. Even if you don’t know how to sew, I can guarantee someone at the wedding does. As a matter of fact, most of these tools will make it so that sewing isn’t even an issue. So, here is what I always keep in my kit when I’m working backstage and crisis strikes.
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Mrs. Apple Cider, New York/Charlotte
Age and Occupation: 27, Corporate Communications Manager
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Grad Student – Clinical Mental Health
Engagement Date: September 13, 2008
Wedding Date: October 2009
Venue: Banner Elk Winery & Blueberry Villa
About Me: I am a North Carolina girl with a New York City spirit. I love crafting, blogging, laughing and dreaming. I know every word to the Anne of Green Gables and Little Women movies. I own every single Martha Stewart Wedding Magazine and have been dreaming of weddings since I was little. I believe life is about doing what makes you happy. If you aren't happy re-evaluate what you are doing. You should never look back on your life and not be proud of what you are doing. If you want to travel - travel. If you want to sing - sing. If you want to start a company - start a company. If you want to blog – blog!
Hello, Hive. Long time no hear from me. I couldn’t stay silent on this project. I thought there might be a lot of you who want to do it!
I have been super inspired by burlap lately and wanted to make a banner! It turned out to be a super easy project and I wanted to share with you the details:
What you need for my (easy) burlap banner:
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Mrs. Crepe, Queens, NY/Nashville, TN
Age and Occupation: 28, Jewelry Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Animation Director
Engagement Date: September 28, 2010
Wedding Date: May 2011
Venue: A church in downtown Nashville
About Me: I'm a native New Yorker who has always been a DIY kind of girl and loves tackling creative projects while getting the most out of a dollar. I'm marrying my college sweetheart and we love frequenting antique stores, exploring together, and playing with kittens. We're planning a fun, "us" wedding in his hometown---with as many handmade touches as we can pack into a day!
As much as I loved the mossy teacup idea, the book ring holder won out. It tied into the stacked book centerpieces so perfectly and that detail was hard to resist. I’m also trying to keep the ultra-girlie-ness on a leash, since this wedding is for both of us and keeping the mister’s preferences in mind helps me with that.
I started out by using a small book from a used bookstore—Mr. Crepe found this little one and the cover was just so incredibly pretty.
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Mrs. Hippo, New York City/Dallas, TX
Age and Occupation: 34, Event Planner for a Non-Profit
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 35, Finance IT
Engagement Date: August 8, 2009
Wedding Date: March 2011
Venue: Samuel Lynne Galleries and Marc Events
About Me: I’m a thirty-something bride living in New York City and planning a modern-ish wedding in Dallas, Texas. I love trashy reality television (Jersey Shore, anyone?), online shopping, Sunday brunch, Central Park, and random celebrity spottings on the streets of Manhattan. While I love NYC, I miss good Tex-Mex, my college friends, central A/C, and being in close proximity to a Target. I’m thrilled to finally be planning an event that’s not work-related and to be marrying my best friend in what I hope will be a unique and personal ceremony followed by a reception with plenty of good food, good drinks, and dancing (regardless if it’s good or not).
I consider myself a pretty creative person and I now know, without a doubt, where I get it from. Mama Hippo completely and totally showed me up with her creative wedding projects!
I mentioned way back when that our reception was going to be set up lounge style, with a mixture of 60″ round tables with chairs and more lounge-y couches, ottomans and armchairs. I mentioned to Mama Hippo that it would be great to have some decorative pillows in our wedding colors to decorate the space. She is an awesome seamstress so I knew it wouldn’t be any problem for her to whip up some navy and yellow pillows. The Thursday before the wedding, Mama Hippo unveiled the collection of pillows she had been working on for months, and I was blown away. Completely.
Is that our wedding logo I spy? Embroidered? On pillows???
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Mrs. Crepe, Queens, NY/Nashville, TN
Age and Occupation: 28, Jewelry Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Animation Director
Engagement Date: September 28, 2010
Wedding Date: May 2011
Venue: A church in downtown Nashville
About Me: I'm a native New Yorker who has always been a DIY kind of girl and loves tackling creative projects while getting the most out of a dollar. I'm marrying my college sweetheart and we love frequenting antique stores, exploring together, and playing with kittens. We're planning a fun, "us" wedding in his hometown---with as many handmade touches as we can pack into a day!
I was completely out of my mind when I thought I’d be able to post regularly while on my trip to Nashville; hello, am I crazy? It was pretty much nonstop wedding planning. The good news is that we knocked out most of the checklist, so Mr. Crepe and I are feeling like superheroes.
One of the things I’ve been working on gradually are random decorating items. Whether it’s the doorway, the buffet tables, or the greeting table, there are plenty of places that need some love. I’ve been adoring the images that have been floating around the internet of tissue paper garlands because they remind me of kids’ birthday parties. And I’ve been injecting child-like charm as much as I can into the reception to keep it from becoming too stuffy. This tissue paper garland is super cheap and easy to make! I got all the tissue paper from Uline.com (actually, their sale section, so it was an even better deal, at about $13 a pack of 480 sheets, WHAT.).
For each streamer/bundle, you’ll need about four stacked sheets of 20×30″ sheets.
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Mrs. Cotton Candy, Riverside, CA
Age and Occupation: 29, Field Coordinator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Process Server
Engagement Date: July 5, 2007
Wedding Date: June 2011
Venue: Riverside Art Museum
About Me: I’m a girl in love with her best friend planning a small mid-century modern inspired wedding that’s been a long time coming. I love all things design, sewing, flea markets, and a good book. I’ve been known to swoon over a well-designed chair and often find myself craving a new addition to my chair collection regardless of the lack square footage in our home. I’m Mexican American girl who hates all things spicy but loves her rowdy Mexican family and her Latin roots. My wedding muses may not be your typical wedding superstars, but with a lot of DIY, a dash of offbeat style, and lots of love and laughs, Mr. Cotton and I plan to create a day that is unmistakably us.
A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with BM S and SD to discuss all things bridal shower. The girls pretty much had all the details handled but there was one element that I volunteered to take the lead on, and that was the favors. Like the lovely Mrs. Socks, lately I’ve found myself swooning over fabric flower pins like these from Emerson Made.
EmmersonMade
I knew the style and feel of these playful pins didn’t quit jive with the overall look and feel of our wedding—but our shower, now that’s another story.
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Mrs. Locket, Ithaca, NY
Age and Occupation: 25, Research Technician
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, former Banker hoping to become an Officer of the Law
Engagement Date: June 15, 2009
Wedding Date: September 2010
Venue: Heron Hill Winery
About Me: I am a little bit of everything all rolled into one: A girly gal with rough edges---I love to get dolled up just as much as I enjoy throwing on some sneaks to toss a ball with Mr. Locket. My love for crafting and creating is quite apparent and I've been referred to as a Wonder Woman/Martha Stewart/Stepford Wife hybrid (yup, I'll take that as a compliment). I adore sewing, photography, sculpture, good eats (mmm tapas), baking, snugging and oh, pretty much everything in between (there's not much I dislike). I am super excited to be planning our vineyard wedding and couldn't be happier to be marrying Mr. Locket. We are a quirky, fun-loving couple residing in our college town with our two pups Maple and Molly. We love to go on hikes, visit our local dog park and to bask in the beauty of many of the local falls and gorges. We are an indecisive pair, but together we somehow manage to make up our minds (it's the easy stuff that's tricky).
Remember this series? Yeah, maybe not, but it’s back!!! Per many requests, I’ve finally had a chance to finish the ranunculus tutorial and am happy to share.
DIY Fabric Ranunculus Tutorial
The best thing about this tutorial is that petal size doesn’t have to be completely precise or uniform. The worst thing about this specific tutorial? This style of flower can be quite time-consuming to create because of the prep work and layering. (If you plan on creating many of these flowers I would suggest breaking up the workload into two parts for prep work and construction.)
Supplies:
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Unique Wedding Favors
