Escort Cards

Lee and I decided we wanted to have escort cards to direct everyone to their tables.  At the Dollar Tree (my favorite wedding retailer...haha), Lee and I found 50-packs of escort cards for 25 cents each.  We plan to dress them up a bit, but that will be a later post.

Right now, I want you to contemplate the pictures below and tell me which escort cards display is your favorite.  Recall that we have to display around 300 of them.  They will be alphabetized, of course, because we want people to easily and quickly find their name.

Escort Card Boxes

Escort Cards in Picture Frame Trays

Escort Card Shutters

Simple Ribbon Under the Escort Cards

Escort Card Boards

Framed Escort Card Boards with Ribbon

DIY Toss Garter for $1

I have been looking online for toss garter ideas for awhile now.  I wanted something simple and narrower than my actual garter.  I wanted the real garter and the toss garter to match somewhat, and I also wanted to incorporate my "something blue" if possible.

My inspiration for a basic toss garter

Last night, I was cruising through the dollar store to pick up a few things when I spotted the perfect item to use for my toss garter.  It looks like many of the toss garters I have seen online as part of bridal garter sets.  Of course I had to add my own little DIY touch to it by including a turquoise blue hand-stitched label on the inside. 

The front of the toss garter

Hand-stitched turquoise label made from a ribbon scrap and glued to the inside with fabric glue

The complete garter set together.  They match pretty well!

I didn't want you to judge, so I saved this piece of information for last: guess what I used for my toss garter?  A baby headband!  The baby headband even came with two little matching hair clips.  Surprisingly, it fits my leg perfectly.  For the two garters together, I have spent around $5.  I love being a frugal bride.

Reception Chair Plaques

Here's the newest project!  I made signs for the back of the bride and groom's chairs for the reception. 

Bride sign hanging on the back of a chair

The two finished signs

For this craft, I bought clearance wood plates for a few dollars a piece from Michaels.  I covered each plate with white acrylic paint.  I then used the printer ink transfer technique described here to apply the letters.  I painted the words "bride" and "groom" turquoise, but I left the monogram and date as is.  I used leftover silver roping (remnants from my card box project, but originally from the Dollar Tree's Christmas section) to attach the plaques to the chairs. 

My only regrets on this project are that I didn't perfectly straighten the writing so it matches up with the points of the plaques and the turquoise lettering isn't perfect due to having a big paintbrush and shaky hands.  Oh well.  Not too many people will be looking at the backs of our chairs at the reception.  Honestly, this project is probably only going to be good for one or two pictures, but it's a fun wedding craft I wanted to complete.  Also, when playing around with it, I found as long as the writing is parallel with the floor, you don't really notice the crookedness.  What do you think?

Busy Bee

North Dakota Christmas To Do List:

• Celebrate Christmas and New Years with family and friends
• Meet with the reception venue for taste testing and consultation
• Meet with church wedding coordinator for consultation
• Meet with groom's dinner venue for taste testing (tentative)
• (Find) and meet with seamstress for initial gown fitting
• (Find) and meet with florist for consultation
• Attend Lee's friend's wedding and take notes

So much to do, and only one week to fit it all in!  Not to mention Lee will be taking his 2nd part of his dental boards during 2 days of that week.  Aaahhhh!

Brides Proposal Contest

Wouldn't it be fantastic if Lee and I won a honeymoon to Fiji?  Sounds too good to be true, but if you vote here, our odds increase!

Dream Honeymoon

DIY Unity Candle

Another DIY project!  This one was a quick one.  I didn't really care to spend too much time making the unity candle for the ceremony, and I think going the simple route worked well anyway.  All this project took was a Walmart candle, leftover ribbon, my computer/printer/paper, and scotch tape.  Tah dah!

You will notice I "tested" the candle.  I wanted to make sure the wick would light on the big day!  I've never heard any bad luck stories about pre-lit unity candles, but I have heard funny stories of unity candles that would not light!

DIY Card Box

A quick project!  I got all of the supplies this weekend, and I just finished the project tonight.  This has also been one of my favorite projects to work on.  The pictures make the card box look deceivingly small, so I included our framed guestbook instructions (which are 8"x10") in the second photo. 

The photo doesn't show it well, but the turquoise lids of the top and bottom tiers are sparkly!

All ready to go, 222 days early!

Weekend, Here We Come!

Today is a good day.  Lee's and my e-pic photo shoot was featured on my all-time favorite wedding blog, Style Me Pretty. It's pretty cool, because over 90% of submissions are turned away, but somehow my submission managed to sneak its way in there! 

In other exciting news, I mailed our save the dates yesterday, and they should be coming soon to a mailbox near you!  You will receive one of two varieties, so be sure to collect them all while supplies last. 

 A surprise I will share with you now: check out the postmark when you get your save the date!  I traveled a short distance to Bridal Veil, Oregon to send out my save the dates and will be doing the same thing for my wedding invitations. 

Bridal Veil, OR Post Office

The only thing keeping this post office open is the thousands of brides who travel here to get there wedding correspondence hand-cancelled by the postmaster.  While I was there, I was able to choose from 3 postmark stamps.  I chose a plain circular postmark because I want to save the special postmarks for my wedding invitations.  When I send out my wedding invitations, I will get to choose between a heart or dove design.  Which do you like better? 

No machine printing on these beautiful invitations!