Miss Doe, Northern CaliforniaAge and Occupation: 24, Real Estate AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Recycling ManagerEngagement Date: December 25, 2010Wedding Date: May 2012Venue: Monte Verde InnAbout Me: I’m a Rat Pack fan and a Christmas nut that loves to read, good wine, cheesy ’80s movies and ’90s sitcoms. My wiener dog with an attitude problem and lazy basset hound are my constant source of entertainment. He's a hunter and I like cooking so it's not rare to see wild game on our dinner menu. Both of us were born and raised in a small historic farming town where our feet are still firmly planted. We have been together for nearly a decade and have shared many life experiences together, including birthdays that are only one day apart. We are two old souls that are creating our long-awaited wedding with loads of tradition that blends our two styles into rustic elegance in the foothills of Northern California.
I know what you are thinking. Oh, how embarrassing—poor Miss Doe has a typo in her title. Right?
Wrong. I deliberately put that question mark there because I never intended for there to be a part three. I am actually quite surprised I am writing a part three for these wish tags, but I am so glad I am. Remember how I ended my last post with wanting to tweak the color palette of the wish tags? I ran out to Michaels, again, last night to find some new supplies that would add some color to this project. By the way, I asked Mr. Buck what his guess is as to how many times I will go to Michaels before the wedding. His guess? Seventy-seven times. That seems somewhat high and dramatic, but I guess we will see when it is all said and done.
Well, I kind of did more than just tweak the color palette. More like completely change the entire thing. I thought that I should use our colors for the wedding. If I use sage-colored tags with light pink embossing, then maybe the wish tags would look like little leaves on the tree. I ended up buying large squares of card stock and then cutting them down into 4″ x 6″ squares. This was much cheaper than using the pre-cut tags, and I was able to make them bigger to give our guests more room for writing.
Miss Doe, Northern CaliforniaAge and Occupation: 24, Real Estate AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Recycling ManagerEngagement Date: December 25, 2010Wedding Date: May 2012Venue: Monte Verde InnAbout Me: I’m a Rat Pack fan and a Christmas nut that loves to read, good wine, cheesy ’80s movies and ’90s sitcoms. My wiener dog with an attitude problem and lazy basset hound are my constant source of entertainment. He's a hunter and I like cooking so it's not rare to see wild game on our dinner menu. Both of us were born and raised in a small historic farming town where our feet are still firmly planted. We have been together for nearly a decade and have shared many life experiences together, including birthdays that are only one day apart. We are two old souls that are creating our long-awaited wedding with loads of tradition that blends our two styles into rustic elegance in the foothills of Northern California.
I think I might have an addiction—to embossing, that is. I recently taught myself how to emboss, and now I want to emboss everything in my house because it is so dang fun. I wonder how Mr. Buck would react if I embossed his fishing license? Yeeeah, probably shouldn’t go there.
Now that we have the wish tags printed we can begin embossing the other side of the tags.
1. I was really hoping that I could find sparkly black embossing powder. Unfortunately, I could not find any, so I opted to buy black and sparkly embossing powder separately. I then mixed them together to obtain the look I was trying to achieve.
Miss Doe, Northern CaliforniaAge and Occupation: 24, Real Estate AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Recycling ManagerEngagement Date: December 25, 2010Wedding Date: May 2012Venue: Monte Verde InnAbout Me: I’m a Rat Pack fan and a Christmas nut that loves to read, good wine, cheesy ’80s movies and ’90s sitcoms. My wiener dog with an attitude problem and lazy basset hound are my constant source of entertainment. He's a hunter and I like cooking so it's not rare to see wild game on our dinner menu. Both of us were born and raised in a small historic farming town where our feet are still firmly planted. We have been together for nearly a decade and have shared many life experiences together, including birthdays that are only one day apart. We are two old souls that are creating our long-awaited wedding with loads of tradition that blends our two styles into rustic elegance in the foothills of Northern California.
Remember when I mentioned here how I am not a DIY person? Well, apparently I am starting to surprise myself, because I am discovering a whole new crafty side of me that I never knew existed. It must be the Girl Scout in me. It takes me a few trials and some defeat along the way, but the project I am going to detail for you today is one that I am really excited about. It is not a technically difficult project, but it is perfect for those of you who are new to the DIY scene like I am.
I started to venture into the alternative-guestbook-idea world. There are so many great options out there, but the one that really stood out to me was a wishing tree. Something along these lines:
Miss Doe, Northern CaliforniaAge and Occupation: 24, Real Estate AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Recycling ManagerEngagement Date: December 25, 2010Wedding Date: May 2012Venue: Monte Verde InnAbout Me: I’m a Rat Pack fan and a Christmas nut that loves to read, good wine, cheesy ’80s movies and ’90s sitcoms. My wiener dog with an attitude problem and lazy basset hound are my constant source of entertainment. He's a hunter and I like cooking so it's not rare to see wild game on our dinner menu. Both of us were born and raised in a small historic farming town where our feet are still firmly planted. We have been together for nearly a decade and have shared many life experiences together, including birthdays that are only one day apart. We are two old souls that are creating our long-awaited wedding with loads of tradition that blends our two styles into rustic elegance in the foothills of Northern California.
Let me set something straight. I am not a DIY’er. I really am quite terrible at these types of things. Granted, I love arts and crafts, but I came to terms a long time ago with the fact that I am just not very good at them. Countless lanyard, cross-stitch, ceramic, crochet, and art projects I have tried to complete throughout the past 24 years of my life have just never quite come to successful fruition. Like the ceramic “bowl” I made my dad in fourth grade to keep his change in. It’s not great—in fact, it looks downright awful. He still uses it, though, and proudly displays it on his dresser.
I have done this to myself countless times over the years. I invest money and massive amounts of time into a project, and about halfway through I realize it is not working out. I continue on, though, to finish and, when I am done and look down at what I have created, I am usually disappointed because it more than likely has not turned out the way I had hoped.
With that said, if I successfully do complete a project then you can bet a kindergartner would also be able to do so. Probably even better. So today I bring to you a DIY that was easy, affordable, and fun. I’m serious, guys, it actually turned out well.
I am keeping the decorations for the ceremony clean and simple. There is so much natural beauty at Monte Verde that I want to enhance it, not cover it up. There are two huge trees perfectly positioned on either side of the aisle. I thought it would look beautiful to hang each of our initials on each tree. A moss-covered letter would stand out but still blend with the look of the ceremony.
Ms. Ferris Wheel, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, PsychologistFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, PsychologistEngagement Date: May 23 and 28, 2010 (one for each of us!)Wedding Date: November 2011Venue: 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!
I am so flippin’ excited that we’re going to have a photo booth at our wedding! And yeah, I know it’s one of those things that’s been done everywhere at this point, but I honestly don’t care about that in the slightest. The idea of giving our guests a fun, non-dancing activity during our reception is totally worth it to me. (Not that we don’t want people to dance, of course. We just want them to have options.) Our photo-booth package includes a box of props, which is great because it means we don’t have to raid the Halloween stores on November first to find our own (although that did sound kinda fun). But we still wanted to find a way to personalize things just a bit.
I’d seen pictures of those awesome chalkboard speech bubbles, and I thought that might be our answer. But when I talked to Mr. FW about it he seemed concerned. It’s not that he thought it was a bad idea, no no. He just thought it would make me freak out to be near chalkboards on our wedding day. See…I have a bit of a chalk phobia. For realz, just typing out the word “chalk” makes me shiver. I can’t stand anything about it—the way it feels in your hand, the way it sounds when you’re writing with it, the dust it creates when you erase it. Ugh…seriously, it’s a problem.
So Mr. FW went searching for alternatives, and he discovered the ingeniousness of white-board contact paper. Yep, it’s contact paper that you can write on with dry-erase markers. You can probably purchase it a lot of places, but we’re online people so we bought ours on Amazon.
Mrs. Sunhat, Dyer, IN Age and Occupation: 32, Tax AccountantFiance's Age and Occupation: 35, Landscape ForemanEngagement Date: September 25, 2010Wedding Date: December 2011Venues: St. Andrew the Apostle, Fiesta PalaceAbout Me: I'm a Midwest girl who grew up in the country and now works in the big city! I love cooking, entertaining, reading (addicted to my Kindle) and going to the movies. I don't miss an episode of Hoarders and I start cleaning every time I watch! My profession doesn't call for much creativity so wedding planning has been a great outlet. Mr. Sunhat and I met online three years ago, cheer for rival MLB teams and share a home with our dog, Wrigley. We are planning a traditional, Polish, Catholic wedding with lots of DIY elements and some fun surprises. I'm so excited to be married on New Year's Eve and we can't wait to ring in the new year as husband and wife!
Now that all of the bead “stems” were completed, we were ready to assemble the bouquets. We had about 600 stems of clear beads and 100 of silver, and each bridesmaid’s bouquet was to have approximately 100 stems—at least that was the original plan.
MOB and I started out by making piles of 50 of the clear beaded stems so we could confirm we had made enough. Then, for some reason, we started assembling the first several bouquets with 75 clear beaded stems and 15 silver beaded stems. This obviously does not add up to 100. We kind of spaced out about grabbing ten more stems from the extras pile. We realized our error after the third or fourth bouquet, but I was not about to unbundle them just to add ten more. We counted correctly on the remaining bouquets and added any extra leftover stems to the MOH’s bouquet.
Mrs. Sunhat, Dyer, IN Age and Occupation: 32, Tax AccountantFiance's Age and Occupation: 35, Landscape ForemanEngagement Date: September 25, 2010Wedding Date: December 2011Venues: St. Andrew the Apostle, Fiesta PalaceAbout Me: I'm a Midwest girl who grew up in the country and now works in the big city! I love cooking, entertaining, reading (addicted to my Kindle) and going to the movies. I don't miss an episode of Hoarders and I start cleaning every time I watch! My profession doesn't call for much creativity so wedding planning has been a great outlet. Mr. Sunhat and I met online three years ago, cheer for rival MLB teams and share a home with our dog, Wrigley. We are planning a traditional, Polish, Catholic wedding with lots of DIY elements and some fun surprises. I'm so excited to be married on New Year's Eve and we can't wait to ring in the new year as husband and wife!
Once I had all of the supplies to make the bridesmaids’ bouquets, I recruited some help in the form of my MOH, MOB, BM A, and FMIL, and we to work on cutting wire, stringing beads, and twisting the beaded strands.
Here was our inspiration picture (from this previous post):
Mrs. Parasol, San Ramon, CaliforniaAge and Occupation: 25, Non-profit writer, editor, and bloggerFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Law school studentEngagement Date: December 19th, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Bent Creek Winery (Livermore, California); Reception: Family Residence (San Ramon, California) About Me: I am a California girl at heart. I love the outdoors, sunny days at the beach, and hiking in the woods and mountains. I also love good books and am fresh from completing my Master's degree in English and Comparative Literature in New York City. Living in NYC was an amazing experience, and while I'm glad to be back on the West Coast, I'm also thankful that my two years back East gave me an opportunity to explore new places, make new friends, and indulge my passion for Broadway shows. Oh, and I received a pretty awesome proposal from Mr. Parasol in Central Park. Above all else, Mr. Parasol is my biggest cheerleader and my best friend. But even though I'm thrilled to be marrying him, I wasn't always totally on board with this whole wedding thing and at first, I wanted to run off and elope. I've finally been convinced to throw the wedding I never thought I wanted, and so now I'm busy planning an intimate September wedding filled with DIY details. Along the way, I'm slowly learning to appreciate, perhaps even love the wedding planning process.
It’s official, hive: I love bunting! Seriously, I could have been Miss Bunting in another life. I don’t really know what triggered this obsession, but I started seeing it everywhere, and I just loved it! As you can tell from the glimpses I’ve given you of our wedding invitations, I’ve found some fun and creative ways to incorporate bunting into our wedding. Recently I’ve been on a bunting kick and have made what feels like miles and miles of fabric bunting, and I want to share this project with you today.
Materials:
Fabric (I chose a variety of patterns in our wedding colors.)
Mrs. Pony, Bloomington, ILAge and Occupation: 25, AttorneyFiance's Age and Occupation: 34, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 22, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Mackinaw Valley Vineyard; Bloomington Center for the Performing ArtsAbout Me: I found my Southern counterpart in law school and since he popped the question last March, we have been busy graduating, job searching, bar taking, and wedding planning. My loves include must see TV, magnets, quotes, anything green, my car, fun socks, the Cubs, and my Mr. Together we love wine, playing outside, and exploring the world together. Stay tuned to see our Midwest wedding full of Southern charm, vintage flair, lots of DIY details, and a whole lot o’ wine.
A bachelorette’s attire is not complete without some sort of headgear. In the festivities I have been involved in, this almost always means some sort of veil. They’re fun and add an extra dab of bridal to the occasion, so I love to include them for my friends.
The easiest way to create a veil in my experience is to buy a cute tiara and hot glue some tulle on it.
The problem with this plan is that these tiaras are made for little girls and do not fit the head of a grown woman. They fit on your head for about .02 second before popping off.
So, for BM So and So’s bachelorette party last weekend, I knew I had to do something that would stay on her head while still being cute, fun, and personal. I started with these materials:
Mrs. Cucumber Sandwich, Washington, DC/Cape May, NJAge and Occupation: 28, School CounselorFiance's Age and Occupation: 40, Collegiate AthleticsEngagement Date: March 27, 2010Wedding Date: October 2011Venue: Congress Hall HotelAbout Me: I am a school counselor who spends my day wrangling children and my nights attempting to be creative with wedding projects. My enthusiasm for each of these activities far surpasses my skill. Thank goodness Mr. Cucumber Sandwich is there to pick up the pieces and be the voice of reason about my DIY tries. I have an obsession with terrible romantic comedies (‘From Justin to Kelly’ anyone?, anyone?!?), competitive Scrabble play, and hot dogs. I could eat astronaut ice cream for every meal and can’t seem to resist buying more shoes. Our wedding is going to be a true hodge podge of semi-destination, tradition, Yuengling, New England charm, with just a dash of ‘Jersey Shore’ thrown in. It has been six years in the making and I can’t wait to marry my best friend.
I really want to show you something I am working on, but it is a surprise for our invitations. So if you aren’t getting an invitation from us or hate surprises and Santa Claus, please continue. Otherwise…
Mrs. Cinnamon Bun, Calgary, AlbertaAge and Occupation: 26, Stage ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Theatre TechnicianEngagement Date: June 22, 2010Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Calgary Opera CentreAbout 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.
Maybe it was royal fever. Maybe my fingers were twitchy. Maybe it was too much Etsy browsing. Maybe I’m just crazy, but I decided to make a fascinator for my wedding three days before the big day.
(picture from Birdcage Supply - I bought this turquoise and some ivory too)
Now, as we know from some frantic posts at the end of April, I fell in love with a veil and ended up buying it to simplify my life. I figured the netting (which I spent all of $12 on, including shipping!) would just sit in my craft closet and gather dust, like so many other things. But… days before the wedding, it started calling to me. Read more…
Miss Sweet Cream, PhiladelphiaAge and Occupation: 26, Public Relations Account ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Outside SalesEngagement Date: July 4, 2010Wedding Date: October 2011Venue: Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church / Rosebank WineryAbout Me: Born in the ‘burbs of Philly, it took some time living in the Big Apple to realize that I’m a girl who likes her roots. That’s why the mister and I bought a 1950s house on a charming street not too far from our childhood stompin’ grounds. This could also be the reason why our hometown is the scene where we are planning our super sweet, totally charming, BBQ-for-supper wedding that I never knew I always wanted. I DIE over DIY projects and live for vintage, heartfelt inspiration. I obsess over all things mid-century (from forks to furniture). Love is… cartoons and flea markets, and I am known to whip up a mean banana cream pie. I met the Mr. in grade school and after that boy took me for a spin on the handle bars of his BMX, I knew that things would never be the same again. Besides lovin’ my Mr., I also love to plan, sew and create, and that’s just what I’m doing as I navigate through the details, creating a laid-back day that oozes charm; one that will go down in (at least our) history as the Best. Day. Of all time.
Sigh. My heart still skips a beat at the sight of them. So I knew that I couldn’t resist ordering even more straws after the first order came in and I could touch, see, and feel them in real live person.
This time I took the advice of fellow bee, Almost Mrs-Oka & ordered them from Amazon via Kikkerland ($4.99 for 144 of them!).
But I didn’t know just what I would do with them. Read more…
Mrs. Cinnamon Bun, Calgary, AlbertaAge and Occupation: 26, Stage ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Theatre TechnicianEngagement Date: June 22, 2010Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Calgary Opera CentreAbout 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.
… did you really think we’d have a photo booth without making mustaches on sticks?
This was a super-quick project in June. I’m going to direct you to Tiffany Kelley Photography, where she has done a tutorial, and the most important part, a template.
I downloaded the template, resized it to the size I wanted, and printed it out. Then I cut out the paper mustaches. Then I held them against some stiffened craft felt I had and cut them out. I didn’t bother tracing them, I just held a paper mustache tight against the felt with my left hand while my right hand wielded the scissors.
Mrs. Cinnamon Bun, Calgary, AlbertaAge and Occupation: 26, Stage ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Theatre TechnicianEngagement Date: June 22, 2010Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Calgary Opera CentreAbout 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.
Before the wedding, I posted about making paper flowers, fabric leaves, and then again about putting the paper boutonnières together. The original plan was 3 boutonnières and 3 bouquets—flowers just for the wedding party.
Between getting engaged and about March, I waffled over whether I wanted real or paper flowers. As you know, I chose to make paper flowers. I purposely didn’t tell Cinnamum about this decision until she asked me directly: “What are you doing for flowers?”And when I told her I was making them out of book paper, I got the expected silence on the other end of the line. I emailed a few photos to her after that conversation, and never received any feedback on them. A few days passed, and I got a phone call. This phone call nearly put me over the edge. It was all, “Are you doing it to save money? We can send more money! I can buy flowers and arrange them the morning of the wedding! We can go to Safeway! You need real flowers!”
I don’t think it was ever said in so many words, but the impression was that paper flowers would look cheap and childish and a real wedding needed real flowers. That time, I was the one emanating silence from the other end of the line.
After that phone call, I fell into a crafting slump. Read more…
Mrs. Bunting, Grand Rapids, MIAge and Occupation: 24, freelance illustrator & print productionFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, graduate of historyEngagement Date: December 3, 2009Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Spring Grove Park & St. George Banquet CenterAbout Me: I am a freelance illustrator and designer with a love of nature and a taste for adventure. Textures and color fuel my world, along with apple cider and noodles. I'll try anything once, especially if it involves heights or food. I've hiked the Grand Canyon, gone sky diving, cuddled a baby wolf, and now my latest venture consists of designing and planning a large wedding involving color, DIY details, love, and marrying my best friend.
Paddle fan programs are nothing new in the wedding world, but boy are they still fun! Here’s how ours turned out:
I would tell you that the concern for our guests’ comfort on a potentially hot summer day was the leading deciding factor to use paddle fans, but honestly, the cuteness factor had just as much influence. I just cannot resist things that are both adorable and functional. Read more…
Unique Wedding Favors
