Handmade Wedding

Hello all!

Ahh weddings, so happy and joyous!  It is time for the last post in my wedding series.  And I thought I'd stray from the long winded posts, and share lots pictures of great handmade wedding items that I've found.  Also sharing special little idea that my husband's cousin came up with.

Customize your wedding with these lovely Kraft Labels

Kraft Labels by Pigeonpaperie on Etsy

Need a little something special for the new bride and groom to eat with?

Wedding Fork Set by PrettyParis on Etsy

How about an awesome cake topper?  I think this is a must have!

Custom Peg Doll Cake Toppers by CreativeButterflyXOX on Etsy

For those wishing to have some photo fun, these handmade photo props are a must!

Photo Prop set by Funnysideoflife on Etsy

And why not say "Just Married" in a fun way

Hand Painted Custom Parasol by kmattso2 on Etsy

Now on to the very special idea that'll leave you both with great suggestions, tasks, and loving messages.

It's a note box filled with messages from all of your bridal shower guests.

Here is how it works!

Get a box of envelopes and some cardstock or construction paper.  Then cut them small enough to fit in the envelope.  My hubby's cousin turned the box inside out and taped it, but for my best friend I just covered it with some Kraft wrapping paper.  Once that is done you can decorate it however you like.

The next steps are simple.  Give each person a pen, paper, and envelope.  Have them write anything they want on their card.  We had special messages, words of wisdom, tasks for us to do, and even some movie passes!  You then tell each guest to seal their envelopes, and write a date on the outside of the envelope that is between the day of the wedding to that date of the following year.  

Now you are left with a year of special notes and things to do.  The best part is you never know what it is going to be.  We've had so much fun opening ours, and even my hubby has been excited to open them!

This would be a great idea for a baby shower as well, a great way to leave a new mother with lots of advice!

Enjoy!

A DIY Wedding Part 2

Hello again!

Time for part 2 of my DIY madness!  Last time I shared a little about how out of control weddings can be, but this time I thought I'd talk about how great they can be!  Getting married has always meant something special to me.  It's always been something I've dreamed of, and I believe it shows a bond between two people that is stronger than any other.  I've always felt that getting married means you have a partner in crime for life!  And that you have someone who is always there to pick you up, have fun with, and support you through life's obstacles.  I was blessed to have grown up with a great example marriage, My Parents!  Last Monday my parents celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary.  Yes, 47 years...with 4 children, 4 grandchildren, and more to come once the hubby and I have babies!  I pray that every day that my marriage is as long and as wonderful as my parents has been.

So enough of my rambling...time for the good stuff!  The rest of my projects included Decorations/Favors, my Hair Accessory, and my Guestbook.  *lots of pictures in this post*

The Decorations/Favors

Small cylinder vases

I really think that this was the favorite part of all of my projects.  I knew I'd be making decorations for my wedding, so I started planning those right away and I decided to do my centerpieces and backdrop.  We invited around 200 guests (I was freaking out at this number), but had 120 accept (was much happier with this!).  So for our 16 tables and long head table I bought a mixture of 23 vases from the Dollar Tree; larger vases that flared out slightly at the top, and small cylinder vases for all the guest tables.  I also bought floating candles online and along with the flowers I mentioned in Part 1, I also got stems of lily grass.  We filled the small vases with water, several stems of lily grass, and placed floating candles on top.  Those went on each table, one for our memory candle, and one on the cake table.  I used a couple of the larger vases on the head table and placed flowers in them.
Est. Time: Centerpieces- Vases w/candles 30-40 mins (depending on water pressure haha). 

Behind the head table we also had a backdrop, and this was my favorite project!  I searched online to find a tutorial on how to make your own backdrop.  I found one for a photographer backdrop, and just tweaked the measurements a little.  To make it I got 4- 1 in. x 10 ft. PVC pipes, several fittings, and then got to cutting.  It ended up being about 6.5 ft tall, and 10 ft wide.  For the the fabric, I got 4 sheer curtain panels, one long curtain scarf, and lots of tulle.  And the light were free, I just used my folks Christmas lights.  I had my aunt help me assemble the poles, and then I went to work on wrapping the side poles with tulle.  I put on the sheers and cut holes along the top in certain places to attach the lights to the pole.  You can sort of see why I wanted a backdrop, because there was a door behind us that led to a storage room.  So if you were looking at us from the front, which most of our guests were, I wanted the door to be gone!  Altogether, I think I spent about $40 on the whole backdrop.
Est. Time: Backdrop Cutting & Initial Assembly-1.5 hours; Event Day Assembly w/decorations-45 mins or less.  

Backdrop all lit up!

The Hair Accessory

After looking around for the perfect veil and finding out that it was going to cost me over $100.  I said "Umm, no!" and moved on.  The next thing I found was this beautiful hair piece that had crystals made to look like flowers, and it was just sparkly and gorgeous!  Still it was expensive, and I chose not to get it.  So I thought, "I'll make my own."  In the end I'm much happier that I did, because a veil would have been out of place.  The flower just went better with my dress and our setting, since we had our ceremony and reception in the same place.  I purchased ivory satin, a hair comb, and some faux crystals to make my flower.  In the end, I spent about $20 at the most on my hair flower. Est. Time: 2.5 hours.

The Guest Book

There were so many unique ideas I found for guest books, but I decided to stay somewhat traditional with our book.  I chose to do a photo guest book with pictures my best friend took of the hubby and I.  To make the book I tried out an online service called Picaboo.  I downloaded their program, inserted my pictures, added some pages for guest names, and put in some cute little quotes.  Loved it!  What's even better is that Picaboo now offers lay flat pages, wish they had them last year but oh well.  
Est. Time: All day haha...I'm a perfectionist so this one took me a while to get it right.  May take several hours, depending on the detail.

So those are basically all the projects I did for my wedding.  I thought I'd show you pictures of some other little projects, and our simple yet lovely cake (did not DIY the cake as planned, thank god!!).
Est. Time: Painted Initials-3 hours; Flower Girl Pom-2.5 hours.

hand painted initials

handmade flower girl pom

Hope you enjoyed my DIY wedding.  Did you have one of your own? Or would you like me to do a tutorial on a certain project? Let me know, I love comments!

A DIY Wedding Part 1

Happy Summer!

This is the second post in the mini wedding series.  I'm a little excited about this one because I get to show you all one of the best day of my life.  My Wedding!  It was about 85-90% DIY.  Meaning I was the coordinator, I ran the rehearsal, and I did all the projects from the invitations to the flowers (but had some amazing help with them).  I have to admit when I first started out with the idea of a DIY wedding I was a little bit scared, but mostly excited.  I knew that in the end I would have a great event to show people, and I could say that "I did that!"  During the process I was a bit stressed out, ok...maybe more than a bit, but it all came together.  And in the end I was happy, and it was the best day ever.

I feel like some people think that just because other individuals and celebrities are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on their weddings, means that they have to spend a lot to get the wedding they want.  And that doesn't just apply to weddings.  I believe that any event no matter how big or small can be achieved, even on a smaller budget.  Because really why is there a need to spend $100k on a wedding?  I heard that Kim Kardashian's wedding registry is CRAZY!  And that she registered for an item that costs $7,500.  That one item is almost as much as what my wedding cost.

So here is a glimpse of my "big day," and a look at the projects I worked on to keep my wedding under $10k.  Today you'll see the Invites, Paper Goods, and Flowers.

The Invites

handmade single pocket fold on the right

I took on the challenge of making my own invites for the wedding.  I designed the invites, enclosures, and monogram myself!  I knew that I wanted pocket fold invites, and nothing less.  So I searched for the cheapest place, and found something I liked.  However, it was still more than I wanted to pay.  But I made a compromise!  I bought half my invites in pocket fold (about 40), and the other half I decided to make into a panel pocket fold.  I got enough matching paper in 8.5 x 11 inches, and got to cutting.  After all the cuts and glue dots were done, I had all my pocket folds!  Success.  I am normally a very disorganized person, but during this process that changed.  On the back of my RSVP's I numbered them according to the household on my list, so that if they forgot to list names I could call them.  I also separated the invites into categories depending on how many people were in each household (as shown below), because for each family I numbered each RSVP with the number of reserved seats.  It was a long process to get to this point, but was very helpful in the end.

my organized invites

The Paper Goods

So after making my invites, I was pretty much the layout Queen!  So I decided to take on the task of making my own programs, and seating arrangements.  For the programs I purchased 8.5 x 11 inch cardstock, and designed them so I could get 2 programs out of every sheet.  Another success!  I was able to fit all of the desired information on each half sheet.  I also took little elements from my invites and placed them on the program.

The seating was another issue.  I had to make sure that there was no drama!  So I had to have a seating chart.  Once I knew what tables everyone was assigned to, I got a pack of pre-scored and perforated seating cards.  I then laid out all the names in a template and printed.  Once that was done I placed either orange or purple embellishments on the cards so that our servers knew what our guests were having.  Below you can the finished cards.  They were all in alphabetical order, and behind them I had a sign that started with "Take A Seat."

The Flowers

I think that my flowers were my favorite project!  I was going to be charged by a florist between $20-29 for my 6 bridesmaids, and my bouquet.  That adds up, and fast!  So I looked online to see where I could get the cheapest flowers, and if anyone recommended them.  I found 2 places that would ship my flowers overnight so that they would be fresh.  It was recommended that they be delivered about 2-3 days before the event.  I had mine delivered on the Wednesday before my wedding.  When they arrived I freaked out a bit.  Because it did not look like 200+ stems I ordered!  But it was...in fact I had extra.  In the end, they were beautiful!  So for the same price the florist was going to charge me for 7 bouquets, I was able to do all 7 bouquets, a toss bouquet, 11 boutineers, and fill a few vases with the flowers I ordered.  Big Success!
And a few pictures of the finished product below.

Well that is all for today.  In the next post I'll be showing my projects for the Decorations and Favors, my Hair Accessory, and the Guestbook.

Stay Tuned!

Would you like me to post on how I did a certain project? Or maybe you had your own DIY event.  Let me know, I love comments!

My Top 10 Favorite Wedding Movies

Hello Everyone!

It's mid June! And other than an increase in Junebugs and other creepy little insects I don't like, there are also more weddings.  In 2 posts prior to this one, I said that I like to refer to this time of year as "wedding season" or "Wedding Madness!"  Either way you classify it, someone always seems to be getting married.  So I decided to do a little series of posts that are wedding related, from wedding favs and tips to DIY projects.  I like to think I know a thing or two about planning a wedding, since mine was about 85 to 90% DIY.  I'll be starting off this series with my favorite wedding movies.

10.  The Wedding Planner-  Really cute, and full of Matthew McConaughey's hotness!  I know some people can't tolerate Jennifer Lopez, but if you haven't seen this movie I promise it is a cute rom-com.  To sum it up, a lonely workaholic wedding planner meets this gorgeous doctor by chance.  She begins to fall for him, only to find out that she is planning his wedding to another woman. Gasp!  The roller coaster of emotions is somewhat predictable, but the trip to the end is fun.  Plus, for all you Grey's Anatomy watchers, did you know that sexy Justin Chambers (who plays Alex Karev) is in this movie?


9.  The Wedding Date-  When I'm home alone or just trying to relax I'll watch a movie before bed.  This movie has been on my "before bed" movie list for a long time.  I love Debra Messing mostly from her Will & Grace days, and you have to love Dermot Mulroney!  So let me see if I can break this one down.  Girl needs a wedding date.  Girl hires guy to make ex jealous.  Girl falls for hired boy toy.  And the circle of drama grows.  I could watch this movie over and over.






8.  Wedding Crashers-  So this isn't your romantic type of wedding movie, but it is hilarious!  Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are a great comedic pair.  The lovely Rachel McAdams is in this movie as well as several other well known actors.  Vince and Owen play 2 friends that crash weddings, professionally!  Of course it's not to have fun, but to hook up with the bridesmaids.  But that all changes with just one wedding.  I still laugh every time I watch this movie.





 7.  Bride Wars-  Big fan of Kate Hudson, and an even bigger fan of Anne Hathaway.  The two play best friends who have dreamed of their weddings forever.  They both end up engaged, and schedule their weddings on the same day.  And so the war begins, and best friends turn into enemies.  Very cute movie.







6.  My Big Fat Greek Wedding-  So, Greek girl yes.  Greek guy, No.  Happy family, even bigger No!  This is a fun rom-com about crazy families and breaking barriers.  I had to throw this one in the list.  Partially because of the comedy and the dad with his "cure all Windex."  The other reason, well I love Nia Vardalos and John Corbett together.  They made a very cute on screen couple.

5.  Sweet Home Alabama-  I think this is one of my favorite movies ever.  I truly love Reese Witherspoon.  I love how she can fit right in with the comedic roles and the serious ones.  First Love, that is what comes to mind when I think of this movie.  A small town country girl moves to the big city.  Not only does she have a successful career, she just got engaged!  Only she comes to realize that she is still married to her first love in the small town she left behind.  It wouldn't be a chick flick without cute boys, and sweet moments.  Love this movie!




4. The Proposal-  Sandra Bullock and oh so gorgeous Ryan Reynolds had some great chemistry in this movie.  It's about a Canadian woman who finds herself in a bind at work when she learns that she may be deported.  She turns to her assistant for help, in hopes that he'll marry her to keep her in the U.S.  The fun begins when they fly to visit his family in Alaska.  Great rom-com, even if you're just watching to see the crazy Betty White.  This one is also my all time fav list. 





3.  27 Dresses-  Love, Love, Love it...I sure do have a lot of movies with Grey's Anatomy actors (former and current).  Although I wish she was still on Grey's, I still like Katherine Heigl.  And James Marsden, another good looking man, plays a great love interest.  27 dresses brings the saying "always a bridesmaid, never a bride" to life.  It's about a girl who has been a bridesmaid 27 times, and still hasn't gotten married.  She's secretly in love with her boss, until her little sister swoops in and steals him.  While trying to be the bridesmaid in her sister's wedding, she meets someone who could be a true love...if she lets him.  Very funny and cute, this is another movie I watch all the time.



2.  The Hangover-  Ok, so this isn't exactly a wedding movie.  But it does involve a wedding at the end, and the bachelor party leading up to the wedding.  Hilarious!  But not a movie for the modest.  This movie could be all sorts of things from inappropriate to offensive.  But it's also extremely funny!  It's about 4 guys who head to Vegas for their friend's bachelor party.  They go out to party, and wake up the next morning unknowing of what happened the night before.  The fun really begins when they try to figure out what happened, and try to find their lost friend.



1.  My Best Friends Wedding-  #1 on my list for a reason.  Julia Roberts is amazing as always, and a younger Dermot Mulroney is great.  I love this movie, and could watch this with my girls over and over.  I really think I could recite lines from this movie.  It is about a girl who finds out that her male best friend is getting married, and he wants her there to support him.  Only she realizes that she's in love with him.  So she sets out to do everything in her power to split up the happy couple, and take him for herself.  Highly recommended if you haven't seen it.  And if you have, watch it again!


Do you like any on this list?  What are some of your favorite wedding movies?  Feel free to leave me a comment!

Weekends and Weddings

Reno, NV (Virginia St.)

Hello All!

The view I woke up to every morning

I've been MIA for a little while, and will be just as busy this coming week.  This past weekend started my back-to-back weddings, or I like to call it wedding madness.  The bride was so beautiful, and so was the wedding.  My husband and I spent a great weekend in Reno, NV for our cousin's wedding.  The drive through the mountains was absolutely amazing.  Surrounded by the beautiful sunlight and snow!  I was so excited to see the snow that I sort of went picture happy, and could not put the camera down.

This coming weekend will be my best friend's wedding!  And I'm not trying to reference the movie, even though I do love it.  We have been friends for about 17 years and I'm so excited for her.  Just like many brides, she has been looking forward to this for sooo long!  I know she is going to look gorgeous on her wedding day.  I have been helping her with some of her wedding plans, and it just makes me more excited to coordinate weddings.  If you did not know already, wedding planning is also apart of D.C.D.  Everyday I discover new ideas, tips, and tricks to make wedding planning easier.  I can't wait to share all of those ideas with my future brides and individuals.

Well I just had to share some of what has been going on in my world.  I've got some more posts lined up for this week, so hopefully I have time to get to them.  Please don't forget to take the poll to the left, and help choose where I should post future recipes.


Stay Tuned

Wedding Days!

Hello Again!

First I want to say Happy Easter to everyone!  Hope you all have a great day planned with family or friends.

One week from now will officially start "wedding season" for me.  You probably know what I mean, the time of year when it seems like everyone is getting married.  Sometimes it's all in one month, and sometimes it seems like they are every weekend.  There is a family wedding next weekend, and the weekend after that will be my best friends big day.  Well luckily I love weddings, and I'd probably have a renewal every year just to do it all over again.  So, it got me thinking...

I offer my fabric flowers for brides and bridesmaids, but no wedding specific items.  After all I am an aspiring event planner, so why don't I have wedding related items on Etsy?  I think it's time!  I've decided to start listing some handmade wedding items soon.  I may open an Etsy shop dedicated to just those wedding items, but for now it'll just be an extension of my current shop.

To start off I'll be listing hand painted cardboard initials.  I made them for my wedding, but I'll also be including the option to have a flower attached to the letter(s).

Here is what they look like:

Stay Tuned!