IDoYouDoWeDo

Holy crap! Where the heck has February gone?! While I’m definitely excited about the prospect of Spring, sooo tired of the cold,  I can’t believe I only have 7 months left of being a fiance before I become a wife!

So, if you can believe it, I finally got around to uploading a photo of the ring bearer pillow I made! The photo makes the copper ribbon (excuse the wrinkles) look way more iridescent than it does in real life, but I’m thinking about changing it out for a more matte grosgrain ribbon anyway. The fabric on the underside is burlap and I put a sweet little button in the center to keep the fabric puckered. What do you think?!

{photo by me}

Now that the bridesmaids dresses are underway I can think about the little girls!! I love flower girl dresses!

When I was 4 I was the flower girl in my cousins’ wedding… the dress I wore was a fluffy pink frock, with puffy shoulders, a big bow around the waist and tiny little rose buds on the skirt. I know! It sounds like some horrible 80’s prom dress… well, it was the 80’s! But the dress was awesome! It was a princess dress and for years after the wedding it was used for playing dress-up!

We’re having two little flower girls in the wedding and while they will definitely not being wearing pink (it won’t exactly fit into my color scheme (they won’t be white either… can’t you just see little white dresses on a farm? I’m thinking they won’t be white for long)) that doesn’t mean their dresses will be any less girly. Little girls love to dance and spin… which made me think of tutu’s! I’ll have the little girls wear ballerina tutu’s for my wedding! They’ll be so cute on the dance floor twirling in their tutu’s. Apparently, however, someone else had the same thought and Flower Girl Tutu’s have become all the rage! Google them, you’ll see what I mean.

So, I bought this pattern, for a dollar (yep, making the flower girl dresses too) and thought I’d do some kind of tutu/dress combination. Maybe make the top like a regular dress and make the bottom out of tulle, so it’d be a fluffy, full dress but not a ballerina tutu per say. Otherwise, I’ll make the whole thing out of corduroy. What do you think?

Check this out!

Two weekends ago, the boy, the fiancé and I decided it was high time for some Gingerbread action at our house. Our original intention was to create a Gingerbread House, the usual Christmastime cookie craft, but then, after further discussion, we decided a Gingerbread Dragon was more our style! I mean, who doesn’t love a Holiday Dragon? Anyone can make gingerbread men and gingerbread houses, but how many households would welcome the chance to host a gingerbread dragon for the holiday season?

The boy’s only request? It had be a nice Gingerbread Dragon.

So, after we created our friendly holiday dragon, with m&m scales, spearmint leaf spikes and spice drop toe nails, the fiancé decided to post a photo of him on GeekDad, (he’s a regular contributor) where you can read about the fate of our dragon.

Make: then picked up the story of our GingerDragon and he’s been making his way around the internet, spreading holiday cheer all the way!

This morning I have another guest post from Janine!

#5 A Penny Saved, A Penny Earned Goes Toward Something Else
Most likely while planning your wedding you are trying to cut costs in some places so you can put those savings toward other areas. The wedding cake is a great place to do that. I had 3 desires for our wedding cake – inexpensive, pretty, and tasty. If you desire the same, then know that you can have your cake, and eat it too! (I had to write that, sorry!) It’s important to research the designs and flavors of cakes out there by either web surfing or visiting bakeries in your area. Simply gather ideas from everywhere possible and use these inspirations to create your own delicious dessert – while sticking to a sensible budget!

After doing some research on the web I found April Reed! She makes absolutely beautiful cakes but they were definitely out of my budget! I visited a great bakery in the area of our reception venue, which we ultimately ended up working with, and showed them the picture of the cake that I fell in love with online. For about 60% less in cost, our cake was everything we wanted it to be! Going with a local, less-expensive hometown bakery, instead of a high-priced bake shop, afforded us the ability to order our favorite gelato tartufos to serve along with the wedding cake. We also took advantage of the oldest trick in the book to cut even more costs – our wedding cake smaller in size and we ordered extra sheet cakes made of the same flavors. Unless guests actually go the kitchen to see the cakes being sliced and plated, they have no idea what cake their piece actually came from!

#6 DIY or Bust
It’s easy to see by all of the details described and pictured on this blog that Manders and the Fiance are Queen and King of this 6th “take-away”. By the time their wedding arrives they will have truly mastered the art of do-it-yourself projects that look anything but homemade. If you have the time and creative ability, then you will have no problem doing an entire project yourself, but, even adding just one DIY aspect to a project can go a long way. You ultimately get what YOU want, and you pay a lot less!

Our thank you gift for our wedding guests were Bucks County Coffee 12 ounce ground coffee bags (Dulce de Sol to be exact), nestled next to a “Rainbow Wood Spoon” which is truly a wooden work of art (and the perfect measurement tool to make a pot of coffee)! I designed the coffee bag label using just Microsoft Word, and I printed the label on weatherproof label sheets ordered from OnlineLabels. I have to thank my mom for packaging each of these favors. She put them in clear, flat bottom cello bags and surrounded by chocolate brown crinkle cut paper shred (also purchased online) — my parents still have an entire box of this shred left which is very slowly dwindling down. Each gift was finished off with a lavender bow!

Along with the coffee, our guests were greeted at the end of the night by a “Breakfast to Go” table which consisted of a display of fresh, individually wrapped bagels and shmears, which were delivered on the wedding day with our cake and gelato tartufo desserts. Also there for the taking were copies of the local weekend newspaper that the guests could enjoy the following morning with their coffee favor and bagel treats. The groom played a very important role the day before the wedding which was waiting for the delivery of newspapers at his home - and then bagging each one so no one would get inky! These are just a few of the many projects, where we got our hands a little dirty, that made our wedding day everything we hoped it would be!

Thank you so much Janine for sharing your gorgeous wedding day and all of your tips and projects! (I think I may have to steal your Breakfast-To-Go idea for my own wedding! YUM!) And Congratulations again on your First Anniversary!

Last night the fiance and I sat down to do some wedding “stuff”. We worked the kinks out of our logo (I’ll show you that later) and talked invite design. We talked about materials, came up with a method of mailing (woo hoo… gonna be neat!) and decided on the logistics of execution for Project Invites. (Get ready for some DIY fun Bridesmaids!) After about 2 hours we had a layout and size nailed down, as well as a plan of attack. Now we just need to actually work through the design and gocco those bad boys and… assemble them… mail them, CRAP!

Anyway, I was feeling pretty good about our invite ideas when we went to bed, actually about wedding stuff in general. I think we’re making decent progress!

Then it happened… another nightmare.

The first nightmare happened a couple weeks ago. As you know, if you’ve been paying attention, I have a small case of OCD. I can’t help it, it’s the designer in me! So, in this, now reoccurring, nightmare all of our planning has gone great. We’ve made it to the Big Day and all is well in the world, my world anyway. My bridesmaids are off getting ready and I’m patiently waiting for my turn at hair and makeup. Except it never happens. I can’t remember why, but my stylist never shows up! Somehow, I end up looking like I got caught in a thunder storm and then a tornado! I have hair everywhere, it’s ridiculous and everyone keeps telling me it looks great, in a it-really-doesn’t-look-great-but-we’re-trying-to-make-you-feel-better way. So, I guess I got over it because next thing I knew we were at the ceremony, which was perfect. When it was over, our guests went to the cocktail hour and the fiance and I went to check out our reception tent and get some photos taken. When we walked into the tent it was a disaster! Our mothers were in there “decorating”. (Now, I love both my mother and the fiance’s mother very much, but neither of them has very much style (sorry!) let alone the ability to decorate an entire tent moments before the party is supposed to start and have it be on par with our vision.) None of the tables are set, as in no linens, no plates, silverware, no centerpieces. Chairs are stacked in one corner of the tent. The dance floor is in pieces in another corner, and there are mint green plastic tablecloths steaked to the grass! Yea, exactly… mint green plastic tablecloths stuck to the grass! WTF?

This morning I woke up in a cold sweat, again. When I called my mom to yell at her about mint green tablecloths she just laughed “What? You’d have a problem with that?”

It’s too early for me to be loosing my mind, isn’t it? We’re still 11 months away!

My first Do-It-Yourself project post! WOO HOO! I know that a few months ago cake stands were all the rage and pretty trendy, but I don’t care. I think they’re classic and can be used for a multitude of occasions in a bunch of different ways. The fiance and I aren’t going to have a wedding cake. We want to do different flavors of cupcakes instead; mocha with vanilla bean buttercream, pumpkin spice with cream cheese icing, vanilla with chocolate ganache,… you get the idea. So, I wanted to show you these cake stands I made to hold all of our delectable treats and give you a short tutorial on how it was done.

Materials:
Flat glass or ceramic plate, about 12″ in diameter, although you could make a mini version (or a larger version) if you’d like.

a base (candle holder, small dish turned upside down…etc.).

epoxy for glass (or whatever material you’re using).

sandpaper.

1. First, wash and thoroughly dry your plate and base. You want to make sure you get rid of any dust or residue that will be trapped once you glue your pieces together. Cover your work area in newspaper.

2. Lightly sand the top rim of the base, the part that will be stuck to the underside of the plate. This ensures that the two pieces bond securely.

3. Apply a thin layer of epoxy to the sanded rim of your base. This step will depend on the type of epoxy you’re using. Some kinds require you to mix the two chemicals together on a piece of scrap cardboard and then apply to your piece. I used the kind you squirt directly from the tube as it does all the mixing for you.

4. Carefully center your plate over your base. Viola! The weight of the glass plate, combined with a little gravity, should be enough to bind the two pieces.

They were incredibly easy and really inexpensive to make!