Programs are Done!

Making the programs was a family affair. After printing them, I took everything down to my parents house and we put them together assembly line style. The best part about this was seeing my brother so happy to be involved. Here are the details:

• Cover: Stardream Quartz with aqua printing (I used my HP InkJet 932c)
  
• First layer: Vellum
  
• Middle layer: Copy paper (I cheated and made the copies at work, and used their paper cutter!)
  
• Ribbon from Jo-Anne's (50 cents a spool)

After looking at templates in Illustrator, Publisher, and MS Word, I ended up going with the Word template. I know that isn't very creative, but what I wanted was so simple.

I printed 100 programs for 120 guests and I've instructed my fh's sisters to hand one per couple or single. The Venn Diagram on the last page is printed on the Vellum. I think they look very pretty, but like my brother said, most will end up in the trash or on the floor of people's cars.

Table Names and Escort Cards Part II

The escort cards are done, well except for one person who called LAST NIGHT to say her husband will come with her. My moh did all of the handwriting on them for me.


We color coded the cards for the meals, but we also decided to add a stamp to the back with the meal choice. I found menu stamps at papersource.com and then used a Versa Magic Multi-Surface Chalk Ink Pad to stamp the escort cards (in Sea Breeze). I had tried other stamp pads, but they would just smear off of the Stardream surface.



The table names are schools where we have either been students or where we have worked (in some cases both). We are seating my side at tables with my fh's schools and his side at tables with my schools.


On the back of the table names we put our school picture and some interesting info about us from that time.


I found the daisy holders on ebay for cheap -- they are really seating card holders, but they work pretty well for holding up the table names.
We thought this would be a nice way to tie in our Education Theme without it being too cheesy!
~ The only project I have left to do is making my veil! I've finished our programs and I will blog about them later today!

Sweet Things

On Friday my moh and I spend the ENTIRE day making my wedding favors --white chocolate daisy suckers. They look and taste amazing! Instead of posting about the entire experience, I'm just going to post lots of pictures. Enjoy!





This is what 150 suckers in a box looks like!

Making that hair Bling!

I was at the mall the other day and I saw these beautiful hair pins with crystals and beads. I thought they would look lovely with my curls and my dress. So, I asked the sales girl how much they were... I gasped... $35.00 each plus tax. I would need at least 6 of them... they were sooooo small...There was no way I could spend over $200 just for some hair bling. So, I decided that I could make my own hair bling!


First, I must give you some back ground information. One of my hobbies is making jewelry. I've been making it since about 1996 and I am pretty good, but it is an expensive hobby, it is hard on my eyes and finger-tips, and I never found a way to make any real money at it; so, it remains a hobby. I made my best friends wedding jewelry a few years ago, and I've made lots of bridal party jewelry. However, due to time restrictions I did not make my own bm's jewelry; instead, I found someone who makes a similar style to myself and I hired out! Okay, so I got a little off topic.

The point is that I have tons of swarovoski crystals and gold wire just sitting around my house. So here is what I managed to come up with:





9 crystal hair pins! I have no idea how much they cost me; the pins were left over from my hair trial, the crystals and gold wire I bought years ago and was just sitting around not being used. So, in a way they were free. I made 3 of the 9 pins with Pacific Opal crystals, which is the color I had my bridesmaids jewelry made of. This is a fun project that I did while watching TV, it was very relaxing and a bit theraputic as well!

Bustles, Buttons, and Beads

I got rid of the butt button! I decided to take a risk and fix the bustle on my dress myself. After perusing many websites on the topic of bustles, I figured that the simplicity of my dress would allow for a single point french bustle that would not require a professional seamstress to do (see image below on the right). First, I had to remove the butt button and the loop from the dress.

Though this was easy, I was not pleased with the black/grey residue it left behind. I tried using Oxiclean on the spots, but it only faded it and did not actually get rid of it. There are two things keeping me from crying about this A) from a distance the stain can not be seen B) I still have to take my dress to be cleaned and pressed before the wedding.

I bought the supplies I would need for my bustle at JoAnnes:

• very fine bead needles (thinner than regular needles since the fabric is so fine)
  
• clear thread
  
• clear nylon snaps
  
• off white ribbon
  
• Stop Fray glue

The rest of the supplies I already had at home: Off-White thread, pins, swarovoski crystals, scissors, seam ripper.

After removing the button I cut a length of ribbon and sewed a snap on to it; I then sewed the other part of the snap to the underside of the dress on the lining (underneath where the original butt button was) and a small piece of ribbon above that to create a loop.

Then I took the ribbon with the snap attached and sewed it to the underside of the first layer of my dress -- in the same spot where the original loop was. By folding the fabric in half so the seams met, I was able to determine that this was the center of the fabric. I used the clear thread here and then added a crystal to the outside so it would be easier to find. Picture on the left is of the underside of the dress. Picture on the right is what it looks like from the outside -- the crystal does not photograph very well, but it can be seen and felt easily.

To bustle the dress: Lift the outer chiffon layer where the crystal is and bring up underneath itself to where the button and loop are on the dress lining. First snap the button, then pull the ribbon through the loop and tie. The first picture on the left shows what the loop and snap look like underneth the chiffon - if you look real close you can see the black residue. The other pictures are of the dress bustled.

Since I'm not wearing the dress, you can't see the whole effect -- but this is pretty much what it will look like. I used the Stop Fray on the ribbon and let it dry before testing the bustle. It took me about two hours to do this -- a little slow because I was so concerned about messing it up.

Let me know if you have any questions! I am not a seamstress, but thankfully I was in girlscouts for 10 years and I learned a little bit about sewing by hand and I learned that I can do anything if I put my mind to it!

My beautiful box...

My card box is done! I ordered a custom card box from Etsy seller SheaChicDesigns and received the email today that the box is finished. I sent her pictures of my flower arrangements and bm dresses, and then let her design it on her own.

Isn't it lovely! I can't wait to see it in person.

Now that summer school is done, I've been frantically completing all of the diy projects that I've been planning for the wedding. Time to stop talking and start working. I will post about them later in the week (hopefully tomorrow), but for now here is a list of what is in the works:

• Finish the Escort Cards
• Finish the Seating Chart
• Make the Table Name Cards
• Finish the Bustle on My Dress (I've decided to do it myself - gasp!)
• Make My Veil
• Make Crystal Hair Pins
• Design and Make Programs

In addition to all of this, I still have a gazillion phone calls to make. I have to order a wedding arbor (I thought I had found a place, but they've stop returning emails and phone calls). My aisle runner came in the mail today, so now I have to decided if I will leave it as is, or try to personalize it. Fh and I also need to do some shopping for the honeymoon.

Today we took our second dance lesson! It was so much fun; I can't wait to do it for everyone.

Okay, that is it for now. I will be posting lots of pics and other stuff throughout the week.

Escort Cards, Step One...

So, after rethinking my entire daisy sucker in a bucket idea, I've finally decided what I would like to do about escort cards. First, I decided that I would like the cards to be different colors to represent what the guest would be eating. Silver for Beef, Gold for Chicken, and White for Vegetarian.

Then I had to find a way to tie in my turquoise color and my daisy theme. I did this by having my student aid (gotta love free labor!) use a daisy punch on stardream card stock to create little daisies.

We then used Martha Stewarts glue pen to glue the daisies on to the upper corner of the card -- one on each side to give it a 3-D effect.

The next step... adding the guest names and table names. This was a simple project to do. I already had the daisy hole punch from work, the cards cost $2.25 in packages of 25 each from Paper Source, so I spent a total of about $14.00 on the cards, the lagoon stardream paper used for the daisies was 50 cents -- it was a sample sheet I purchased from Blue Dot. I spent about $4.00 on shipping, so in all the cards have cost me $18.00 so far. Stay tuned for "Escort Cards Part II".

Not sure I can do this...

I'm tired. Just plain tired. Seriously. My wedding is one month, one week, and four days away. I am currently teaching summer school M-TH, and taking master's classes Tues. & Thurs. from 4pm - 10pm. I feel like every moment of every day is planned. I have four papers due (2 for each class) that I haven't even started working on. I have escort cards to make, table cards to make, a seating chart to make, chocolate daisy suckers to make, chair signs to make, my veil to make, an aisle runner to order (or make?), a wedding arbor to buy or rent, music to select (I have not even thought about ceremony music), dance lessons to schedule, and I'm sure much more that I've forgotten. Yes, I know I can enlist my bm's, mom, and fmil to help me, but it still seems so overwhealming. When do I get time for me? How am I supposed to finish my master's classes?

The good news. I hired a day of coordinator to help me the day before the wedding and day of. She is the most organized person I've ever met. Hopefully her help will keep me from getting one of my stress migrains or stress ulcers. However, this still does not change the fact that I still have to get all this other stuff done.

Other good news. My fh seems to be getting interested in all of this. Today I got him to help out with a few things and finally get on his friends for not RSVPing.

I need sleep.

It's all about the bm's...

Bridesmaids! I think it is odd that being a bride suddenly changes the meaning of "bm" to something wonderful, pretty, and fun! :-)

Where to begin? Well, first I found these amazing robes on sale at potterybarn.com (thanks to weddingbee) for only $20.00 each and free monograming -- so I immediatly bought one for each of my bm's (I decided to only use first and last inital because one of my bm's hates her middle name [it is Olga] and her initals would be NOB, which looks strange).
Left: The robes have arrived!

Once they arrived I had to figure out how I would present them to each bm, so I went to Target (the best store ever!) and bought some supplies, dug out my sicker maker and any other artsy supplies I could find, and walla -- I had a mess on on my living room floor. My fh made fun of me all day long; apparently it is "crazy" to diy all day but "normal" to play computer games all day -- go figure!

So, I decided to personalize each bag for the robes using my computer, some card stalk, a daisy punch, and my sticker maker. The final results:


Then, I decided that the robes just were not enough, so I went onto designhergals.com and created a gal pal for each of my bm's. I purchased the one day pass for $9.99 and printed away! First I made each of them a small note card/stationary set:


The note cards are on the left. Then, I decided that I would use the same gal pals to make their invitations to my bm's "brunch". Instead of a brunch, we are doing a breakfast and spa day 3 days before the wedding. (The basic invite is on the right). I'm doing breakfast at my house and then going to my favorite local spa Total Woman Gym and Day Spa to get pampered. I got each of them a swedish massage (my moh gets a maternity massage) and I am getting a massage and body scrub. I used all of the same supplies I used to decorate the gift bags to make the invitations. Here is the final product with all of the embellishments:

Left: Front of Invite ~~~~~~~~~~~Right: Back of Invite with their Spa Appointment Card

Whew! Okay. I'm going to eat lunch now and then I will post about the bridal shower!

Happy happy, joy joy!

My bridal shower is today! I will post pics tomorrow. I had a diy day yesterday and I can't wait to post the pics for that as well -- but today I am busy, so it will wait. Honestly, I can't believer this shower is for me; this is way better than a birthday party! I drank a glass of wine before bed last night so I would sleep. My alarm went off and I had no problem getting up. After the shower my seamstress bm is going to pin me in my dress so she can begin alterations. It is all too exciting. I must say that today is the first day that any of this has felt real...

My attempt at DIY...

So, the question is "how to do seating cards"? I know that the easy way is to simply have a small card with each person's name and their table name on the card and have them sitting in alphabetical order on a table. However, I saw these really cute pails at Target and had to buy them -- they match my daisy theme and one of my colors! But, what to do with them??? ( I bought 21 of them)


Then, my fmil gave me a chocolate daisy sucker for easter, and an idea came to me! I can make each guest a chocolate candy sucker (I've already found molds on ebay) with a tag hanging off of it with their name and table. But, how to display them??? I could just have the suckers lying on the table, but then I remembered the pails!!! I'm thinking I can use the pails to display 8 or 10 of the suckers fore guests to grab and find their table. So, today I played around with the idea, and the pictures below are the result. Now, I only have one sucker to work with right now, so you'll have to imagine it with more (about 8)... but you get the idea!



Here is how I did it. First I ran some turquoise ribbon through my Zyron sticker maker and used that on the top and bottom of the pail, then I put styrofoam inside the pail with spanish moss on top, and then I stuck the sucker in! Voila! All done in less than 5 minutes.

So, what do you think? Is it too cheesey? What can I do to make it look/work better? I will admit that I had no idea how expensive styrofoam was -- so I may need to find an alternative to that. Any ideas??