Escort Card Holders

I finished one of the projects that has been lingering for a month or two now.  I made escort card boxes and escort card shutters.  The boxes can each hold 90 cards and the shutters can hold another 60.  If we have 300 guests, there will be another 60 cards or so that will have to be set on the table in rows between the boxes. 

The most tedious part of this project was spray painting the boxes and shutters black.  We got the shutters for $4 from the Re-Store, but they were ivory to begin with.  I found the boxes at Good Will, but they started their life as brown cassette tape holders.  After the painting ordeal was completed, it was only a matter of adhering the different ribbons to the holders! 

One of my last big projects left to do is make up the wedding programs.  However, I can't make them until I have good guest-imate (haha, get it?  instead of guesstimate?!) of the number of people who will be attending.  So far of the nearly 325 people we have invited in the first round of invitations, only 110 people have responded that they are coming and 48 have sent in a "no" rsvp.  I hope the rest of the bunch respond quickly; there is less than two weeks left until the rsvp deadline! 

58 Days!

I was so excited today to find a wedding album on facebook of a friend-of-a-friend who happened to have her wedding reception at the Howard Johnson Hotel.  I got so excited and eager for my own wedding while looking at the pictures that I thought I would share a few with you as well.  It's getting so close, and seeing these pictures makes it seem even more real! 

The couple's first dance.  We will not be doing the chair covers you see in the picture.  Chair covers can be cool, especially if you add a ribbon or sash around them, but I am not in love with them enough to pay to rent them for 300 people. 

Looking out over the main part of the ballroom.  Like this couple, we will be doing uplighting around the room, but in a golden/amber hue instead of purple.  Our head table will be on the dance floor, which is in the right-hand corner of the room as seen in this picture.

Let them eat cake!  We will also be placing our cake table in one of the alcoves of the room.  However, we will be hanging glowing Chinese paper lanterns in turquoise and white over our cake table.  Our cake will be quite a bit taller than this one, too! 

I am so excited for our first dance!  I hope Lee and I get a picture like this! 

The tablescape.  We will be having a floating candles on mirrors surrounded by votive candles as our centerpieces.  Our napkins will be folded as shown in this picture, but underneath each napkin we will have a turquoise "Thank You" card with games on the back.  We will also have a small candy favor in front of each spot. 

This couple put their head table up on the second upper level of the ballroom.  I like the idea, but we will need the extra space up there for guest tables.  We will also be doing the icicle lighting underneath the tablecloth of the head table. 

The countdown is on!

74 days.  10.5 weeks.  The wedding is quickly approaching!  My wedding to-do list is definitely shortening, and now the bulk of the items left on it must be completed when I am home in June or immediately before the wedding.

The invitations will be mailed out on Saturday from Bridal Veil, Oregon!  Look for them coming soon to a mailbox near you.  :) 

Tonight I worked on a framed wedding agenda and menu board.  The agenda describes the order and timeline of events for the evening.  The menu board spells out the food and dessert choices. 

The frames measure about 2.5' tall.  Here they are pictured leaning against my cupboards.

I bought the frames for these projects at Goodwill and painted them each silver.  I used the large format printers at Kinkos to print the agenda and menu I had created.  If you have never used large format printing, you should try it.  It is very cheap (printing each of these cost less than $4).  They warn you before printing the quality may not be very good, but the quality of print is just fine in my opinion.  I then adhered the prints to foam board from the dollar store using scotch tape.   I probably spent around $15 for the entire project.

While printing the menu and agenda at FedEx Kinkos this past weekend, I also printed out a large black and white congratulations poster and engagement picture, each measuring 3 feet by 4 feet.  These will be used to cover up some wooden white board cupboards in our reception venue.  The engagement picture turned out so nice that I may blow up some more engagement or wedding photos to decorate our home after the wedding! 

Eat, drink, and be married!

Paper straws for by the punch bowl.  I couldn't resist!

A Tale of Two (or Three, or Four) Ties

I think most of the wedding planning lately has led to shopping and spending money.  And according to my multiple shopping lists, there is still quite a bit of spending left to do. 

Lee and I have been searching for the perfect tie for our ushers, and we thought we had finally found "the one." 

Usher's tie, from Macys

Alas, it was not meant to be.  We initially only found three in the store, so we decided to order four of the ties online and have them shipped to Lee's parents' house in North Dakota over Christmas.  The ties arrived, but only two of the ties in the package were the same; the other two ties were similar colors but different designs.  Even though they were all different ties, the brand had decided to give similarly colored ties the same UPC number. 

We promptly went to the Grand Forks Macys, were we only found one more of the ties.  We exchanged one of the wrong ties for the one in the store, and we ordered one more tie, crossing our fingers they would send us the correct one.  They didn't. 

Back to Macys we went, this time going to the Portland store where we first spotted the ties.  They no longer had the ties in the store, but they told us there may be some in the Salem stores.  Today I checked out one of the Macys stores.  I thought I found the correct tie, purchased it, and then took it home to compare to the original.  It was the wrong tie.  Same colors, slightly different design. 

I have one more store to check, but Lee and I may be back to square one in our tie search. 

In better news, I found my bridal jewelry!  Over Christmas, I went shopping with my sister and found a bling-y necklace.  The necklace is similar in shape to the one below, but the stones on my necklace are not random, but symmetrically designed. 

A necklace that's similar, but different

I didn't like the earrings that came with the necklace, so I have been looking for earrings that would complement the style and shape of the necklace.  Today I found them!  Kohls just happened to have earrings that will perfectly match the necklace.  Plus, all of Kohls' jewelry was on sale this week. 

The earrings are about 2" from top to bottom and 1" across

I also purchased a veil to wear for my ceremony!  I wanted a beaded, two-tier, mid-length veil, and I am very happy with the purchase I made.  The veil wasn't something I was too picky about since I will only be wearing it for the ceremony.  I may also put it on for a couple of pictures prior to the ceremony. 

I did not take any pictures when I tried the veil on yesterday, but I do have a picture from the company.  I will not wear the veil as far forward on my head as it shows in the picture, so the veil will fall a few inches below my waistline instead of at the waist.  Please ignore the scary doll modeling the veil.  She's freaky-looking.

This company would sell more veils if they swapped this doll for a real model!

A couple of things I have ordered but haven't received in the mail yet: 300 small organza bags to put M&Ms or Hershey's Kisses in for wedding favors and a dance floor decal from Oriental Trading Company!

Ours will be the same, with different names, of course!

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

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?

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!

DIY Wire Wedding Hangers

This project has taken awhile for me to attempt.  I found the materials several weeks ago, but I was too busy with save the dates to try it out.  I finally found the motivation tonight while watching Glee. 

If you buy these on Etsy, they are usually around $20.  I used $4 wooden hangers from Ikea and $3 wire from Walmart.  I also used a small amount of ribbon left over from other projects.  Now I have a great personalized hanger to showcase my dress for a few pictures on my wedding day! 

Paper Products

Recently I have worked on a couple of paper products for the wedding.  First, I worked on a guestbook instruction sheet which will be framed and placed by the guestbook.  It includes our monogram and the fonts that I will use on the rest of our formal paper products, such as menus and programs.

I also made a fun, playful I Spy worksheet so people have something to do during the reception!  Also, this will ensure that people take pictures (and hopefully post them to facebook) of our wedding reception.  I found this idea on Pinterest. 

Dollar Store Bride

If you know me well, you know I cannot resist a deal.  I am not afraid to admit I love freebies, coupons, and the dollar store.  Today Lee and I decided to visit the Dollar Tree to check out if they had anything to use for our wedding.  And of course they did! 

Lee and I first checked out the wedding "section."  (Did you know: not only the Dollar Tree has a section dedicated to weddings, Walmart has one too!).  Our first find was 300-count bags of fake white rose petals.  We figured we could use these either in the church aisle or to scatter on tabletops.

 We also picked out some white wire garland with little plastic hearts sticking out of it.  We think we could use it for tying back tulle, edging tables/doors, or wrapping around things.  Not very specific uses, but we are sure we will use it!  The garland pictured below isn't the exact garland we bought, but you get the idea.

We then went on to the candle aisle.  I decided I will be making our unity candle, so we scoped out the candle options at the dollar store.  They have two tapered candles for a dollar, so I am sure I will be back to purchase two of those.  Today we purchased two glass candlestick holders for the taper candles.  We will use a pillar candle in the middle.  I have yet to brainstorm how I will decorate the pillar candle...

Onward we went to the picture frames.  Although we did not buy any picture frames today, I know we will be back to revisit this section of the store to purchase frames for some of the projects I have in mind!

Then, divine inspiration struck.  Earlier this week I had seen a fabulous centerpiece on Pinterest.  Oh how I love Pinterest!  The centerpiece utilized fishbowls stacked upon each other.  When Lee and I stumbled upon small fishbowls at the Dollar Tree, I knew I would want to try to recreate this decoration.

All of the fishbowls at the Dollar Tree are the same size, but we decided we liked the look of the identical fishbowls stacked just as well.  We debated about what to put in the bowls, and we decided to put a candle in the top bowl.  In the bottom bowls, we decided we would put turquoise beads and a single white flower bud nestled on top of the beads (kind of like the picture below, except the flower would be white and the water would be turquoise beads). 

We looked through the store for blue beads, and we found a perfect substitute: air freshener gel beads.  These gel beads are the perfect color.

In total, we bought enough fishbowls to make one tower of three and two towers of two (7 total).  We also bought 4 containers of the gel beads.  We'll buy the flowers and the candles later.  We think we are going to use this decoration either at the guest book table or on the punch or cake table.

Last, but not least, I bought a package of white doilies.  I want to try making a craft like the one below:

 

Church Decorating

I am essentially getting married on a large stage.  Stages are cool, but I think it would be nice to dress it up a bit for a wedding.  Even though I am not very familiar with the stage dimensions and the items they have available to decorate, I thought I would try to come up with a rough sketch of my "dream" decorating for the stage. 

I know a few of the things the church has on hand.  For example, they have long white strips of cloth they drape from the ceiling to the floor.  I would definitely want these cloths up, even if we have other decorations in front of them.  In the picture, these white cloths would be behind all of the decorations I drew.

I know the church has a number of while pillars, but I am not sure how many.  I would assume they have at least 4, but I drew 6 large pillars in my picture.  I also drew some small pillars.  I know the church also has some small pillars, but again, no idea how many.  Small pillars could easily be substituted by small round stools covered in white cloth/tulle.

I know the church has the big black and white dividers that you see in the center of my picture.  Becca used these in her wedding.  I also stole the candelabra inspiration from her.  :)

This is kind of where the design gets tricky.  I think it could look really cool to have tulle or white cloth draped over the pillars.  I don't know if it would work out as perfectly as I made it look in my sketch, and it make take some playing around with.  Plus, there are multiple ways to drape the tulle around the pillars. 

I like the idea of putting white flowers on top of at least some of the pillars, and maybe this would just be appropriate for the short pillars.  In my picture, I drew flowers on top of all of the pillars.  I know the church has an abundance of fake flowers.

Finally, I think it would be cool to line the stage with candles (if it isn't too much of a fire hazard!).  For Becca's wedding, we used candles at the base of the stairs, which you can see in the picture below.  Also, I definitely want to incorporate an aisle runner going down the sanctuary and up the stairs. 

As far as the piano goes, I think I want it pushed off to one side as far as possible.  In this picture, again from Becca's wedding, you can see the piano on the stage, off to one side.  I like the lighted trees the church has, and I think they would be great for filling in "gaps" on the stage, such as behind the piano. 

When it comes to the placement of a unity candle, or sand, or whatever we end up doing, I think I want to use just a small table, placed somewhere on the stage.  This time, I am stealing inspiration from Lisa's wedding.  :) 

So there you have it!  Now I have stayed up way too late thinking about wedding things.  Not a surprise!  :)

E-Pic Dress!

After a long day of shopping with Lee, I think I have found a dress for my engagement photos.  Best parts about the dress are it fits and my mom approves.  :)

I got it at the Ann Taylor Loft outlet in Woodburn.  I was initially hoping for a brighter color than purple, but I think this will look nice with Lee's black shirt.  Plus, the dark colors will contrast with our blonde hair.  I'm still deciding on what shoes I want to wear.  I got these shoes at Payless earlier this summer.  I might go with a simpler black heel. 

In other wedding planning news, Lee and I have chosen our first dance song!  We went with "Blue Eyes" by the Cary Brothers.  This song was featured in the movie Garden State, but I first heard it in my ballroom dancing class at the U of O.  It will be a great song to waltz to. 

Last, but definitely not least, I put together a booklet of my wedding inspiration pictures today.  I will take this back to North Dakota with me to show my parents some of my inspiration ideas.  Then, I will be able to decide what kinds of crafts and projects we want to tackle over the next 11 months!

Monograms!

I just got internet/tv at my apartment for the first time in a month.  Thank goodness!  ;)  In some of my free time without internet and tv, I decided to take a stab at creating my own monogram.  My first attempt was pretty, but kind of boring:

My next attempt was much more to my liking:

 

I really like how it turned out, and I think it might be something I want to incorporate into the wedding.  Perhaps on things like invitations, wedding programs, thank you notes, and beverage napkins.  Any other paper products I missed?

I also made a black and white inverse of the monogram.  Looking at it now, I realize it is kind of squished compared to the original.  But you get the idea: