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.

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!