RSVP Display

Remember my RSVPs?  These guys…

Well, I had a plan for them all along.  I knew we would receive some pretty entertaining responses, and I wanted to share them with our wedding guests.  I also thought it would be fun to give out some awards(I guess that’s what I will call them) to some of the more memorial responses.

My first step was to decide how I would display all 70-something RSVPs we received.  I came across this old shutter door at The Antique Market and thought it would be perfect.

From there, I had to figure out how I would attach all of these little cards.  I first laid them out on the shutter doors to see how they fit.   I thought I was going to have some space to spare, but they all fit pretty snug on the doors.  Phew, that was a close one!

Now, to attach them.  I liked the idea of using clothes pins with twine again. So, that was the plan.  I had some left over twine from my photo display, and I picked up some generic tacks at Target to secure the twine with.

I also ordered some mini clothespins from Amazon.

After I laid out all of the cards where I wanted them, I measured where the twine would need to be secured.  I believe it ended up being every 4 1/2 inches. See below?  The pink marks were where I would attach the twine.

Once I figured out the rows needed to be 4 1/2 inches apart, I just continued my marks down each edge of the shutter doors, making a mark every 4 1/2 inches.

From there, I cut my twine.  I needed 32 pieces total, 16 for each shutter door.  I just laid the twine across the door and cut them the width of the door plus approximately 1 inches extra on each side, enough so I could pull the twine over the edge to be attached.

Then I tied a small knot on both ends of each piece of twine.  I put a tack through the knot on one end and pushed it into the edge of the door at my top pink mark.I used a hammer to tap the tack the rest of the way into the shutter.

I continued this process down the the entire edge of the shutter door, and I this is my result…

Plus a very handsome yellow lab.

From there, I just pulled the twine straight across the front of the door and secured it the same way on the opposite edge. I did not measure and make marks on this edge of the door though.  I just eyed out the twine to be sure it was straight, and secured it on the opposite side.

Once I finished both shutter doors I had this…

Here is a close up, so you can see my handy work…

From there it was time to attach all of the RSVPs.  I added them in no particular order, just put them up at random.  I attached each card with one clothespin, which seemed to be enough to hold them in place.  Here they are all secured and ready to go…

And again, a close up…

Now, for the “awards”.  Justin and I went through all of the responses and picked a few that stood out to us, all for different reasons.

Once we had chosen 5 responses that we wanted to give special mention to, I had to decide how I wanted to label them.  I thought using some kind of tag to hang next to them would work.  So, I picked up some yellow paper from Michaels.

I thought it would be cool to cut them into leaf-like shaped tags…

Now that I had my tags covered, I can share who our stand outs were.

First up, our ‘first received’ RSVP…

Our friends Krissi and Sean were the first to get their RSVP to us, so of course they need to be noticed.

Next up, we thought we would like to make mention of the guests that will be ‘traveling furthest’ to attend the wedding…

Justin’s Aunt Dot and Uncle Larry traveled furthest, 2,790 miles, from Truckee, CA.

And since we had mentioned our first received I thought we should also mention our ‘last received’…

Sorry John and Julie!

Then we thought we would make mention of the RSVP that made us laugh the most, the ‘funniest’…

I think the fact that Lindsay and Haj were hot and bothered to see us get married was awesome, but Lindsay’s school picture put this one over the top for us. And lastly, we chose ‘our favorite’…Justin’s Uncle Louie had this one spot on and we loved it!And here is everything completed…

There you have it!  Our RSVP display.  And here it is at the wedding…

 

 

 

Wedding Memorial Display

For the wedding, I wanted to have a memorial for members of our families that have passed away.  I thought it would be nice, since Justin and I have lost family members that were very significant influences in our lives.

I knew I wanted my display to include photos and some kind of quote or wording. I wanted non-family members to understand who these people were as well. I dig this display that I found on Pinterest…

I like the quote and the antique-ness of this set up, although I didn’t wanted to replicate this exactly.

Luckily, I found this antique window at The Antique Market…

and I thought it would be perfect for my memorial display.

Before I got crafty, I needed to get some photos of the family members we wanted to include.  Justin’s mom and my aunt Marianna got me some pretty awesome photos.  Look at this plethora I had to choose from…

I narrowed it down to the few I wanted to use and scanned them into my computer.  I did some quick editing and reprinted them in black and white.  I like the antique feel of black and white.

I also decided to leave a small white border around each of the photos. It made them feel a little more vintage to me.

From there, I just arranged the photos on the window until I found something that felt right.

Don’t worry. That huge bare spot on the top window pane is where I planned to write my quote.  Speaking of the quote…

I decided to just free-hand it, instead of doing any tracing.  Once the quote was in place, it still felt a bit bare to me, so I added a few leafy branches to the mix…

I think it turned out pretty well.

If you’re wondering where it went at the wedding, it was hung from one side of the tent above an old wine barrel…

 

It made me especially happy, when family members told me they loved that we included this little display.

Who Wore What?

Since we already covered my attire for my wedding, do you want to know what my wedding party wore?  I knew you would be just as excited as me!

When planning these wedding shenanigans, Justin had few requests.  One just happened to be that he wanted to wear gray.

Keeping that in mind, I decided that my colors would be pretty neutral: tan, yellow and green.  I thought tan/nude dresses for the girls would look nice with gray.  As for the style of the dress, I pretty much left that up to them.  I only had one suggestion: they choose a short dress since it is Florida.

Since my sister and my friend, Mal, are both in NY, I FaceTimed them, while they tried on a few options at David’s Bridal.  They both liked this lace option…

Guess what?  I loved it too!  It is David’s Bridal’s Short Strapless All Over Lace Dress, in case you’re dying to know.  The color I chose is biscotti. So fancy.

As for shoes, hair and jewelry, I told them whatever they are most comfortable with.

Look how gorgeous they all are!

Lastly, I dragged Justin to Men’s Warehouse to find his wedding duds (I literally had to beg this kid to go shopping).  We had him try on a tux first, and thankfully, we both were on the same page. We hated it.  Since the tuxes weren’t doing it for us, we had him try on a couple suits.  And boom, we have a winner…

Don’t ask me what the name is.  I have no idea.  All I know is we both liked it. My only thought was cross it off the to do list!

A couple nice things about going with a suit instead of a tux, is that they get to keep it and they tailor it to fit them perfectly fo’ free(what what)!

Let me tell you, it was a fiasco getting all of these groomsmen in the same suit.  But look how snazzy they all look…

I also previously mentioned that we went with a green tie for all of the guys…

And that completes my explanation of getting the bridal party dressed.  How about a fun action shot?

God I love these people!

Pet Memorial

It is still rough at our house without our Zack-man roaming around.  I am not going to get all sappy and make myself cry though.  I am trying my best to know that Zack had a great life, and I hope that he is happy wherever he is now.  I did, however, want to make some kind of memorial for him.  I wanted to have something in our house to honor him.

For Zack, we opted for a group cremation with his remains spread on a farm here in Florida.  We did have the option of taking his remains home with us, but we were a little eerie on the idea.  I thought the farm was a nice alternative, so that’s where he is now.  We did decide to get a paw print mold made for us.  We used a great company, ironically named “Paw Prints“.  Everyone at Paw Prints was so helpful, and I am so grateful to have found a company with such amazing employees.

Here are the molds that we received…

Included with the paw print molds were a couple of nice notes and some other sympathy gifts.  The paper with the heart on it pictured below can actually be planted, and a tree will grow in its place.  I love that I have all of these little things to remember Zack by.

Since I wanted a memorial for Zack, I thought including one of these paw prints molds would be perfect.  I also wanted to include his dogs tags and a couple of my favorite photos of him.

I figured, the best way to put all of these things together would be in a shadow box.  I picked up the one below at Target.

Then, I printed some of my favorite photos of Zack.  Justin and I narrowed it down to two. We ended up going with the top middle two photos.  I just love his happy little face.

I popped the backing out of the shadow box and began organizing the photos, one of the paw print molds and Zack’s tag until I found an arrangement I liked…

I secured the photos with some pearl head pins.

For the tags and paw print mold, I used my hot glue gun.  I figured it was an adhesive that is easily peeled off, that way it wont be a permanent placement if I want to change things up.

Here is the finished product…

We hung the shadow box in our bedroom, so I get to see it first thing, every morning.

I’m unsure if it will live here forever. I think it may be a bit small for this wall.

The last thing I wanted to share is a gift from my sister, Jessica.  I received this bracelet in the mail from her recently…

I swear sisters have some unspoken connection.  The week I received this, I had been scouring Etsy for a piece of jewelry that I could remember Zack by.  This is exactly what I was looking for.

The inside says “You smiled with your eyes, laughed with your tail and loved with your heart”.

I love it so much.  I wear it everyday.

Thanks for reading.  I hope you all get to experience having an amazing pet like Zack.  If you want to read more about his life click here.

 

DIY Info-graphic Wedding Programs

For our wedding ceremony, I really wanted to have a unique program.  I am not a big fan of the more formal programs you normally see.  I wanted to have something a bit more us.  I figured, since we are pretty casual and always enjoy a good info-graphic, we should do something incorporating these two things.  Here is what I came up with, hope it makes you smile…

And on the back…

I like the idea of an info-graphic full of fun facts about our relationship.

As for how I made them, I put together a couple documents in PowerPoint(yes, PowerPoint, believe it or not).  I like using PowerPoint for things like this, so I can move text boxes around and not have to mess with margins, spacing and all that jazz.  I also used some of my favorite fonts; I used Villa Didot, Learning Curve and Garamond.  I also found a great site where I pulled all of my icons from, called The Noun Project.  All of the fonts and icons I downloaded were free, which is a bonus.  Once I had everything in place I messed with the colors, knowing I wanted to use yellow and green.  Lastly, I played with the sizing until I found the size I liked, then I hit print.  My finished product ended up being around 5 x 7.  I did print these back and front, which also took some finagling to find the right format.  If you need more info on the back and front thing, I am sorry, but I am not tech savvy, I just mess with spacing and sizes until it works out.   Once I had my program printed correctly, I thought it still needed something.  So, I glued one of these guys on both the front and back…

They are the same paper flowers I used on both my save the dates and my invitations.

After printing, cutting and gluing all 120 of my programs, I realized I didn’t mention anything about the shuttle we were providing, as I had originally wanted to.  There was no going back at this point. My solution…

A welcome tag…

With some shuttle instructions on the back…

The shuttle was mentioned in our guest bags, but I was worried that they may not have seen it. So, this was just an extra reminder.

To attach these little buggers I just punched a hole in the corner…

Slipped some string threw and tied it around the program with a bow..

See what I mean?

The last thing I had to figure out, was how I wanted to get these programs into my guest’s hands.  I considered having them waiting on each guests chair, held down by a rock, or possibly having them passed out.  But, both of these options involved additional set up or additional hands for passing.  We decided the best solution was to have them available on a table as guests arrive, that way they can help themselves.

I picked up this antique basket at The Antique Market, and lined it with some yellow fabric, and then some lace…

Here are the programs hanging out in the basket(prior to the welcome tags).

And their appearance at the wedding…

It worked out well, I believe most people picked up a program on there way in.

I had a lot of fun creating these little programs.

Hope everyone enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed making them!

What did you do for your wedding programs?  Anything unique?  Do tell!

DIY Baby Shower Cupcake Gift

Want a fun DIY baby shower gift?  I got ya covered.

My friend Janine is having a baby, and I wanted to make something fun for her shower gift.  I had seen a couple renditions of this fun idea on, none-other than Pinterest…

I figured this would be something I could re-create without being super time consuming.

So, I picked up some onesies. A few white…

And some patterned…

I also picked up these amazingly adorable baby socks…

So tiny!

In order to make this all come together into a cupcake form, I needed to fold the onesies.  I folded the little tiny sleeves in first, like so…

I then, folded the whole thing in half, and it looked something like this…

Pretty complicated, right?

From there, I took one of the pink socks and rolled it up, so I had a little taco-looking sock…

I then, placed the taco sock on the end of the folded onesie…

Then it was time for a little more rolling.  This time rolling the onesie up with the sock inside.

See what I mean?

I guess my goal here was to make the onesie look like the frosting on a cupcake, and the rolled up sock is suppose to be a little cherry.

Now, I just needed my cupcake tin, where my cupcakes “baked”. Duh! So, I grabbed this guy from Target…

Just your usual cupcake tin.  I also picked up a couple packages of pink tissue paper. Thought these would work well as “cupcake liners”.

But, in order for these to transform into cupcake liners I needed to cut out some circles.

I cut out three light pink and three dark pink.

Then, I just plopped the little onesie cupcakes into the 6 slots.

I was pretty happy with the end product.

What do you think?

From there I just needed to wrap this sucker up.  I decided to use one of those gift basket cellophane bag things.  I picked up this little kit at Target.

It was pretty simple,  I just set the cupcake tin inside, tied it with a bow and voila! Gift in a bag!

I also picked up this adorable stuffed elephant…

And a boy’s onesie, even though she’s having a girl. Why?  Because it has a dog face on it!

And I couldn’t forget about her pups.  They deserved gifts too!

I put the other gifts into their own gift bags, that went along with the girly color scheme.

There you go.  DIY baby shower gift.

Displaying Our Faces

I knew I wanted to have photos of Justin and I, throughout our relationship, displayed at the wedding.  But, before I started pasting photos of our faces to poster board, I hopped on Pinterest(yet again), to find some better options. Here are a couple examples that I dig…

I thought both of these were easy enough.  The second option had a downfall though. I wasn’t sure how windy it would be the day of the wedding, and I didn’t want photos of Justin and I flying all over Florida.  So, I thought I would try to create something resembling the first example.

I found a couple 16 x 20 frames at Michaels that I thought would work.

My first step was to remove the glass and backing from the frames, since I wanted the photos to hang freely.

I wrapped the two glass panes between the backing that I removed from frames.  I then, taped them up to store safely.  I plan to use these frames in our home after the wedding.  No need to waste these perfectly good frames.

Charlie was also very helpful in this process…

Now that I had empty frames, I had to go digging for photos.  I found a bunch of my favorite 4×6 photos of Justin and I, and I scanned and reprinted them in black and white. I contemplated using color, but I like the vintage feel of black and white. That is what we are going for, right? I then, laid them out on the ground inside the frames.  I decided to use 24 of the photos, it seemed to be a good fit.

While at Michaels, I picked up 3 packages of screw eyes as well.

I thought these would be perfect to attach to the inside edge of the frame.  Then, I would be able to string twine through the screw eye opening and tie it in place. That would make it possible for me to hang photos from the twine with clothespins.  It will make more sense soon, promise.

I wanted to put the screw eyes parallel to the top of the photos I had laid out.

I just eyed out the location on the right side of the frame, and screwed the screw eyes in.

I wanted the twine to hang straight, so I needed the screw eyes to be in the same exact location on the left side of the frame.  In order to make sure they were in the same location, I measured the placement I had put them in on the right side.

Once I had my measurements, I was able to attach the screw eyes to the left side of the frame according to the measurements of the screw eyes on the right. I hope that makes sense.

From there, it was time to attach my twine.  I picked this roll up from Michaels…

I started with the right side and tied the twine as tight as I could to the screw eyes.  Then, I stretched the twine across to the left side, pulling it pretty tightly.  I didn’t want my photos to sag at all once I attached them to the twine.

Here is one frame all twined up.

Everything was looking a little too gray for me.  I thought it might be good to add some color to all of this gray-ness.  So, I purchased these guys from a shop called ThePaperSandbox on etsy…

They are mini clothespins, I chose a mustard yellow color, thought this would liven things up a bit.

Then, I just started hanging the photos up where I had originally laid them out.

Before adding all of the pictures I stood the frame upright to see if the weight of the photos made the twine sag at all.  Luckily, it held up just fine.

I completed both frames, and here’s what I had…

We posted them on two columns at the reception.

The columns were helpful with blocking any potential wind issues.

Oh, and here is a peek of our pretty cake as well…

Hope you enjoyed looking at our faces!  Thanks for reading!

 

DIY Chalkboard Writing

I previously mentioned that I DIYed the chalkboard signs that we displayed at our wedding, and I promised I would share how I did it.  I had fallen for some of the chalkboard displays I had come across on Pinterest.  Like this…

and this…

I really wanted to have a of couple signs like this at our wedding.  If you remember, I did do some chalkboard writing for our Save the Dates…

But, I wanted to get a little fancier with the font this time around.  Here’s the thing though. When I write freehand, my words tend to slant weird ways and end up different sizes looking a little wonky.  Then, I remembered tracing in art class in elementary school.  Don’t you remember coloring the back side of a piece of a paper in a certain shape with pencil, and then tracing the outline of the shape with a clean sheet of paper underneath?  Remember?  Well, I do, and it got the gears in my brain moving.  I figured, I can do that on a chalkboard, but instead of using pencil just use chalk!

Before I got my tracing on, I had to get a chalkboard.

Sandy found this guy at Hobby Lobby, and it just so happens to be the same exact one that I saw in my inspiration photo from Pinterest. How about that?

Since this was meant to be the welcome sign, I decided to go with “Welcome to the Mace Edmondson Wedding May 10, 2014”.  Pretty straightforward, I think.  I searched online for some free fonts that I liked and decided on Villa Didot and Edwardian Script.  I then typed it up in a Word document and printed that sucker out.

You can’t really tell here, but I used legal sized paper.  I did so, because I needed my words to be a bit longer to fill the width of the chalkboard, and I wasn’t looking to do any cutting and pasting.  Next, I just cut all of the words out…

Then it was time to cover the back with chalk…

It’s hard to see the chalk, because it is white, but I made sure I covered the entire back of the paper with it.  From there, I taped the paper onto the chalkboard, chalked side facing down.  I made sure the positioning was straight and where I wanted it before taping.

Now, it was time to do some good old tracing.  I used a sharp pencil and was sure to press hard enough that the chalk on the back stuck to the surface of the chalkboard.  Make sense?

Before taking the paper off, I peeked behind the paper to be sure the chalk was transferring enough to be seen.

Huzzah! It worked.

I used a white liquid chalk marker to go over the traced wording.

Then, I added the fancy shmancy little horizontal lines that were in the openings of the letters…

And, BOOM, I had my first word.

I then covered the back of the remaining words in chalk and taped them on the chalkboard.

I completed the remaining words with the same steps and here she is…

Oh, and it’s a double sided chalkboard, so I did it all over again on the back side.

Wanna see it in action the day of the wedding?

Woot woot!  Welcome to our wedding!

I used the same steps again to make a seating sign…

I used a couple new fonts on this sign.  I stuck with Edwardian Script, but also used Ever After and Matilde.

See it hanging out there at the entrance?

I also made some Reserved signs. Some for the ceremony…

And for the reception tables…

and cookie jar labels…

and a restroom sign…

So, there you have it.  The easy way to make fancy pants chalkboard signs.

 

 

Life With Zack

In case you do not already know, I have a minor obsession with animals. I won’t even kill bugs.  You may think I am crazy, a lot of people do.  But I just can’t see why I should take a living creature’s life.  Now that I have you up to date on my obsession, I want to tell you about my main man, Zack.  This guy…

Who just so happens to be my favorite kind of animal, a dog. He’s a yellow lab to be precise.

When I was 11 years old, I went with my dad and my grandmother to Pennsylvania from New York, because my dad had to have THE best hunting dog.  He had the perfect genes to become the best duck dog my dad had ever owned.  I was just excited to get a puppy. I didn’t care what genes he had. We are a dog family, since I was a kid. We have always had at least one dog at all times, majority of the time, they were labs.  Zack was our second yellow lab, and he was the most handsome lab I have seen (I may be biased).  My dad didn’t want Zack to be a family dog. He was strictly a hunting dog.  This probably had to do with the fact that I spoiled our dogs and overfed them.  What can I say? They loved food, and I wanted them to love me.  Zack spent most of his early years training with my dad and hunting his little heart out.  He was a great hunter, but also great at destroying things.  He was a crazy young dog. One time, he even ripped part of the siding off of the back of our house.  Let’s just say my dad was less than pleased with Zack that day.

Fast forward a few years to when the “strictly hunting dog” goes everywhere with me and even sleeps in my bed.  It was a lost cause.  Justin also fell for him.  When Justin and I decided to move to Florida, my only condition was that if I go, Zack goes.  It wasn’t hard to convince Justin either, because he already loved him.  Unfortunately, I had to move without him for a month, and let me tell you, the night before we left was a rough one.  I cried and explained to Zack that he would be with us in just one month.  I kept telling Justin that I hated that I couldn’t make him understand, and I felt like I was abandoning him.  But, the month went by quickly, and my parents delivered Zack to Florida. Our lives went on like we hadn’t missed a day.

Everyone says Zack moved to Florida for retirement, and I guess he did, now that I think about it.  He spent his days with us lounging around the house, visiting the dog park, eating whatever he could beg his way into, and going for countless walks.

Even though he had some absolutely insane moments as a puppy, he was always such a sweet dog. He truly wouldn’t hurt a fly.  I remember walking him one time, and he got bitten by a neighbor’s dog. All Zack did was cry. No biting back. No fighting. Just whimpering.  I have never even seen him growl. I asked my dad the other day, if he had ever seen Zack growl, and he said he couldn’t recall a time either.

I loved coming home to his crazy smile. He truly was a happy dog.  Although, when we got our chocolate lab, Charlie, he did protest for a good 2 weeks. He spent all of that time in the bathroom, only coming out for food.  He eventually got used to Charlie and quit the protest.  We know deep down Zack loved Char, but we know for a fact that Charlie L-O-V-E-D Zack.

Zack was a tank. He never had any real health issues. The vet always said he had a strong heart and lungs at every check up.  In the last year, he started to have trouble making it outside to do his number twos, which wasn’t that bad, because he made it outside for his other business.  Fist bump for that one, Zack!  He also struggled on and off with pneumonia, and we thought we were going to lose him a few times.  A couple of weeks ago, our fears came true and the pneumonia did win.  He only had one rough day. Although I had to make the decision, I know he wouldn’t have made it through the night. I am just glad it was only one bad day, and I get to remember my many more happy days with Zack.

Zack was my shadow. I am not going to lie. I miss him like crazy, even his seriously heavy panting and my tripping over him every time I turned around.  I still wake up and expect to see him waiting on my every move. Even though he’s gone now, and I truly have sad days without him, I’m glad I had him for the 16 awesome years he was around. So, thanks for the good times, Zack. You were a great best friend.

P.S. Zack was the best dog ever to dress up.  So, I’ll leave you with some amazing photos of some of his favorite outfits.

 

Ceremony Location and Such

We did some serious searching as for where to have our wedding ceremony, and by “we” I mean myself and Justin’s mother, Sandy.  Justin did not see the location until the day of the rehearsal.  Let’s just say he’s not that into wedding planning, thankfully I had Sandy.

I had just two things I was looking for in the location, I wanted it to take place outside and preferably near some trees.

We checked out the Bulow Plantation Ruins, which is close to Justin’s parent home, which is where we had already determined we would have our reception.  The Bulow Plantation is mostly associated with it’s history, being the ruins of a former sugar mill plantation.  It is very rustic and pretty, take a gander for yourself…

It was definitely in the running for our ceremony location, but I wanted to check out a couple more places before hopping on board with the plantation.

We then headed to Washington Oaks State Park, which is equally, if not more beautiful.

As you may have figured out, I have a thing for moss covered oak trees. L-O-V-E them.   I actually loved Washington Oaks so much, that I requested to book our ceremony there.  Unfortunately, our date was already taken by another couple.  Thanks a lot other couple! I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

I went back to good old google and did some more searching and found a place called Princess Place Preserve.  It is a nature preserve that is on the Matanzas River.

I pretty much fell in love with the old oak trees immediately.

It also has a charming old lodge on the property.  I ended up checking if our date was available and it was, so we were in.

Next, we had to get an isle to walk down and some decorations to make it look like a wedding was going to happen! So that’s just what we did.

Sandy made this amazing hydrangea wreath to hang on the tree that we decided would be our backdrop for the ceremony…

We decided to use shepherd hooks with hanging mason jars filled with more white hydrangeas to line the isles.

And in case you are dying to know(I know you are) the chairs are rentals from Rentaland.

I also made reserved signs using chalkboard markers and small chalkboards I found at Hobby Lobby, but I’ll tell you more about that later.

One more chalkboard sign that I made that I’ll explain more about soon.

We also decided to use our friend Mike Shackelford as the musician for the wedding ceremony and reception.  Because let’s be honest, who doesn’t like live music better than pre-recorded music?

I am so happy we chose the preserve.  It ended up being a nice sunny day and we both showed up.  Score!

PS it was a great back drop for pictures!