Bridal Shower

My friend, Krissi, just got married! Woo to the hoo!

She asked me to be one of her bridesmaids, and I was thrilled.  All of the other bridesmaids live up North, in New York, and they threw her bridal shower and bachelorette shindigs up there.  Since, I am down here with Krissi in good ol’ Florida, I wanted to throw her a party to celebrate with her southern friends.  Don’t be fooled though, we don’t have many friends down here.  We pretty much hang with just each other.  Anywho, I wanted to throw a bridal/bachelorette/girls night/Krissi day for my lovely friend.

Here’s what went down…

I knew I wanted to hang balloons upside down from the ceiling, because I have seen many cool examples on Pinterest.  Here is what I came up with…I bought clear-ish balloons and filled them with pink confetti glitter, then hung them from the ceiling with pink ribbon. I’ll give you a quick fun fact about Krissi, she is a health nut, and she was even more so because of her upcoming wedding. So, I made some cupcakes, which were the weight watchers recipe for red velvet.  I threw some colorful sprinkles on top, since I was going for a colorful “sprinkles” theme. I, also, framed a couple of my favorite photos of her and her hubby to be, Sean.I made another good ol’ mimosa bar, because a Krissi party isn’t a Krissi party without mimosas.I had other bevs for the non-mimosa drinkers as well. Plus, these amazing straws…I picked the dog faced straw for my drink, who woulda thought?To continue with the “sprinkle” theme I found these awesome polka dot baskets and serving trays at Michaels. I made white chocolate and sprinkle covered pretzels and popcorn.  I could eat that popcorn for every meal for the rest of my life.  Seriously, melt some white chocolate and pour it over some popcorn, you will not be disappointed,For favors, I did these cute little succulents in mini pots.  The big guy was for the guest of honor, of course. I found these little pink lanterns, that light up, at the dollar store. Sorry for being a bad blogger because I didn’t get a picture of them lit up at night, but it was really cool. Krissi was pretty pumped about the jello shots… Of course, we got her some goodies for the celebration. I drew her pup, Oliver, and also got her a couple things on her registry.   She, also, received some mula and even some pesos for her honeymoon in Mexico! Just look how excited Charlie was about the pesos! And, look how thrilled he was to be smooshed by me!

We had a blast, and we will miss our Krissi so much when she moves back to NY.  Love you Krissi!

Here are some photos from her fabulous wedding…

 

Cruise

Warning, this is long.

Did you know that we got married?  Well, we also went on a honeymoon.  And yes, this all took place 8 months ago, and I am just now writing about it.  Better late than never, right?

Our honeymoon was a Royal Caribbean cruise.   We figured a cruise would give us the best opportunity to see as many places as possible.  Plus, we live in Florida.  So, it’s just a short drive and we’re at sea!This is the cool little shopping area on the cruise, and me awkwardly standing in the center…It was fun to stop into a different bar on the ship each night.  This was a historic/gothic type bar that we hung at the first night.The first port we stopped at was in Labadee, Haiti.When we first arrived we explored some trails in the woods…It really is such a beautiful place.  Look at that water…We also found some very interesting trees…For the rest of the day we hung at the beach, then went snorkeling.  It was amazing to see all of the different coral that made up the reefs and of course all of the fish.Did I mention that each night we had a 3 course meal!  And, FYI you can order more than one meal!  We ate wayyy too much food on this trip.Our next stop was Falmouth, Jamaica.The port we stopped at was adorable, but also very small. It was suggested that we set up an excursion at this port. It was also suggested that we don’t venture out into the local towns on our own.  So, we took their word for it, and booked a horseback riding excursion.In the photo above we are en route to horse back riding on a bus full of other cruisers.  Let me tell you, it was terrifying.  Not only do they drive on the other side of the road, but they drive like maniacs.  But, we did make it in record time to ride some horses.This excursion was at a cute little ranch in the middle of nowhere, with a bunch of hilarious horse handlers running the show.The horses were beautiful, but of course I felt bad for them.  We rode a bunch of trails in the woods, and we also got to ride in the ocean.I almost fell off my horse like 3 times and truly thought I was going to be trampled by the horses behind me, BUT it was so much fun!We also saw a couple shows on the ship.  One was an ice show and the other was a magic show, both were great. Next stop was Grand Cayman.  Now, this was probably the most beautiful stop on our trip. Look at that beach and the water!We rented some snorkeling gear and went snorkeling right off the beach.  Seriously though, that water….And, there were wild chickens and roosters everywhere.  Another win for Grand Cayman.  After snorkeling, we had lunch at a cute little place on the water.  We had some nachos and conch fritters, everything was delicious.This was at our favorite bar on the ship, it was nautical themed. Our last stop was Cozumel, Mexico.We decided to just walk the streets and do some shopping and eating here.  Along our way we saw a lot of these guys…Everywhere we looked there were iguanas, some were huge.

We had a couple drinks at Fat Tuesdays….And Justin got into a gun fight…He’s always such a thug.  Can’t take him anywhere.

Then, we had lunch at Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville.It was right on the water and the staff were so fun. They danced and made a nice balloon animal for Justin…We had so much fun and plan to go on another cruise… hopefully soon!

 

Crates Crates and More Crates

Remember all of those crates that were scattered throughout my wedding?  Like here…And, here…And, a little more crate action here…Let’s just say, I wasn’t having a shortage of crates.  My dilemma was if I should sell them, or find a use for them.  Guess what?  I couldn’t bear to part with them.  So, they now live here…         And, here…Hanging out in those crazy tall nooks in our living room.

I set up 3 crates on each side of the room, to balance things out.Then, I plopped in some other nickity nack things, mostly antiques, and called it a day. I used some antique milk bottles and antique crocks.  And, our “M” book from anthropologie. So, that’s where all of the crates went, and our pesky nooks are finally filled!

Cards and Sparks

Going into planning our wedding, I thought it would be a lot of work, but it was more than a lot.  You have to think of every detail, I mean EVERY last detail.  You have to plan everything from the food, to the music, to bathroom arrangements, even things as simple as where people will put their cards.  Don’t get me wrong a lot of these things are fun to put together, but it can be a lot all at once.  Plus, I am not the type of girl who dreamed about my wedding day since I was born.  I didn’t really have a good idea of what I wanted in a wedding, so I started from scratch.

Anywho, this post is about a couple more things that I made for the wedding.  Just some more artsy-fartsy wedding stuff!

The first project was to find something to hold and display the sparklers that we planned have at the wedding.  Sandy suggested this galvanized bucket, that she had on hand…

And considering I’m a big fan of anything galvanized, I was on board.  Use whatcha got.  Amiright, people?  Now, to dress it up a bit.

I picked up these little burlap flowers at Michaels a while back for under $5 (can’t remember exactly how much, so that’s a ballpark). I knew I wanted to use them somewhere in the decor for the wedding.  How about on a galvanized sparkler tin?  Huzzah!Before I got going, I decided I wasn’t quit digging those buttons.  So, I dug around my art room and found a solution…Pearls!  They feel a little more “wedding” to me then the buttons.

I pulled the buttons off, and hot glued the pearls on…Ah, much better!

I also picked up some thick burlap ribbon for a couple bucks, at Michaels…I wrapped the burlap around the top of the bucket, just under the rim and tied it in place…

As for how I attached it, I just tied it in a knot on the back and cut off the access ribbon.Voila!  Then, I hot glued some of my burlap flowers on…And Boom!  Just like that, I had my sparker tin.

As for the actual sparklers, Sandy purchased them in bulk online.  She also had matches made, personalized with our names and our wedding date.  I then, just put together a document that we could attach to each sparkler.  I decided to put use saying “Help Us Light Up The Night” on each sparkler.  From there, we just attached a set of matches to each document with some hot glue.  Then, we put a couple holes on the top and the bottom, where we could slide the sparkler through.

Next up, I had to figure out what I was going to do for our card box/holder/basket, or whatever object you can imagine that can hold cards.

Here is what we used…

A birdcage! Sandy’s neighbor just so happened to have this guy on hand, and we thought it would be perfect to hold our cards.

I wanted the cage to match the sparkler tin, so I used the burlap ribbon and flowers again.This was a little trickier than the just wrapping the sparkler tin.  I had to weave the burlap in and out of the wire sides of the cage, still simple enough though.  I did this on both the top and the bottom of the cage.  I then, just tied the burlap and cut off the excess ribbon, once again.I also, tossed a paper doily in the bottom for fun.

Sandy picked up a couple cute little chalkboards from Hobby Lobby and painted the edges a sage green, I then just simply wrote “CARDS” on one.  You don’t want your guest to be confused to where the cards go, right?In case you’re wondering, I used twine to attach the chalkboard.  I just slipped it through the holes on each side of the frame, and tied it around the back of the cage.  From there, I just hot glued a couple of the burlap flowers on top and called it done!Pretty radical, huh?  Here they are being all matchy matchy…

As you can see, I made a “TAKE 1” sign for the sparklers, but that didn’t actually get used, we thought it looked better without.

Want some wedding photos?  Okay!Woot woot for sparklers! Below are our mom’s hanging out next to the display.  Aren’t they cute?And how about the card cage…Hubba hubba!

Lastly, us at our sparkler send off!  You gotta do this at your wedding, it was totally fun and the pictures are pretty cool too!                     

DIY Coffee Wedding Favor

I had considered many different favors for our wedding, and of course most of my ideas came from Pinterest.  I thought about succulents or candy, but ultimately decided on coffee.  I thought coffee would be fun and useful for most everyone, besides those few people who don’t drink coffee (they’re lame anyway).

We purchased small apothecary jars from a site called Favor Online.  Since we were buying them in bulk, ordering online was a great option.  Here is one of the jars….

Already filled with coffee as you can see.

I, also, wanted to give all of the jars a tag, labeled with some kind of cheesy saying.  Some examples I had found online are: “Thanks a latte”or “Love is brewing”, but I decided to go with the least cheesy of them “The perfect blend”.  From there, I just made a quick tag using some of my favorite fonts(Villa Didot and Janda Elegant) and, of course, our chosen saying. You dig it?

As you can see, I hole punched the tags as well, so we were able to attach them to the jars.  I, then, used some yellow string to tie the tags in place.

Easy peasy!

As for displaying them, I thought an antique crate would be perfect. I picked this one up at the Avonlea Antique Mall in Jacksonville.

Oh, and this crate just so happened to be the perfect size to house all of these suckers.  What luck?

Here are the favors all set up at the wedding…

I love how they turned out.

As an awesome surprise, my in-laws had these personalized koozies made for the wedding, as well.  They, also, sort of served as additional favors for our guests.

It was such a great surprise, and they were a hit at the wedding.  Look at all of these people thoroughly enjoying their koozies…

Hope all of our guests enjoyed their coffee and koozies.

What were your wedding favors?  Or did you skip the favors all together?  Did you DIY yours as well?  Tell me all about it!

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!

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!

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!