Doily Tote (by Ashley Ann)

Yay for doilies! So feminine. So pretty. So useful as stencils. This is a cool tutorial from Ashely Ann by way of Design*Sponge.

Also, I should note that Ashley Ann's blog is super cool. Check out her DIY category here. I think this plate project could come in really handy as a wedding decoration. I could find white small plates at Goodwill and do this. Oh damn. I may have to go do this right now.

(Blog trail: Design*Sponge, Ashley Ann Photography)

Wrapping (by Holly at Decor8)

One of the things I've been trying to analyze while browsing potential wedding stuff is wrapping. I've never been very good at wrapping gifts. That and flower arranging are two things I've just never been very good at I still don't really care about the latter, but I want to be able to wrap something. It's the kind of detail work that really appeals to me.

This image is from Holly of Decor8. I love the doily (paper and knit) and the layers. So lovely.

Horse Ribbon Tutorial (by Design*Sponge)

Horse ribbons are kind of everywhere right now and I love them. I know it's one of those things that will soon go out, but I'm thoroughly enjoying them while they last. (Also they may pop up at our wedding :)

Design Sponge had a really good tutorial. I think I've seen other tutorials but this one involves a stapler instead of sewing. I'm a sucker for stapling.

Craft Night Success

This Saturday was the first craft night and how awesome are my friends and family?! Everyone did really great. Really. Great. They had ideas on how to make the projects more efficient (I took notes) and did a fabulous job on projects that include a lot of cutting, wire twisting and hot glue gunning.

They also had very nice things to say about the center pieces so it's nice to have affirmation on those.

The next craft night is in January and will be a longer one. It will also be the night of invitations. But for now, my focus is switching into non-weddingy things. Until Dec 27th I am play focused and wedding concerns are background only. But watch out, come Dec 28th, I'm going to be in machine mode. Can't wait!

Green Ribbon Explosion

These are the Container Store ribbon I will be buying in loads come Saturday. Eeek!

I'm so excited to have a focus. It looks like craft night will have about 6 of us including me. That's fantastic! Now I'm trying to figure what we should try and get accomplished. I only have so many tools so instead of all of us doing one thing, each person may be doing a different part of one project or a different project completely. I also have to take into account how hard something is. I'd rather not have everyone go home frustrated or with singed fingers. (Although some hot glue burning *is* inevitable. Sorry.)

Mostly I'm just really looking forward to seeing everyone and sharing the ideas I've been working on.

Counting down the days!

Try 2

Here's the exact same table with a slightly less full bouquet. I think fuller is better. And while I still haven't totally figured out how to design the bouquets...at least I know where I'm headed will work fine.

We have a winner?

Just in time for craft night? Thank you Ms.A for the help this weekend. This is the mock up bouquet for the reception tables. (Click for a larger view.)

The table clothes will probably be a chocolate brown instead of the purple and the square in the middle won't be salmon most likely. But each table may have a different square of color and the bouquets will have different arrangements. I like the idea of every table just being slightly different.

I am going to spend so much money on brown floral wire. Good lord.

Invitation Trouble

Invites are kind of driving me crazy. I'll just put that out there. The save the dates, while they weren't easy, they did come about organically. Whereas before I was totally unsure about them, now I love them. Oh invites, why can't you just follow the same path?

I think the biggest problem is text. On Save the Dates you just have, well, a date. Their purpose is a little hello! Invitations are suppose to convey the bulk of the information. Information = type. Tools I have at my type disposal are:
1. stamps I cut
2. stamps other people cut/make
3. stencils I cut
4. handwriting
5. printer

I'm not a big printer fan. To be fair, I haven't really tried that much printer-ing. But ooooh...I just thought of another possibility. What about image transfer. Mmm...? That'd be a lot of work but isn't a bad idea. Hmmm...must experiment.

But all the other ways of putting type down on paper are rough at best. None of them (besides printers and and handwriting) allow very small letters. Stencils are hard to cut if you want the insides of letters. So for example with an "e" you wouldn't have the little hole inside of the e. I'm bad at cutting intricate letter stamps. The stamps on our Christmas liquor labels are about as tiny as I can get and that, while I liked it OK, kind of looked like a crazy person's handwriting. (Happy Holidays?)

Tonight I am going to the fabric store and just wandering around. This leads to the second major invite problem: I want to include everything. I like stitching. I like fabric. I like transparency. I like paper. And in all of this I want to maybe start working in our still nonexistent wedding theme. Gah!

Doily Cards (via Oh Hello Friend)

This is the always great work of Oh Hello Friend.

I couldn't find the original source on her blog, but the link goes to flikr. Her blog is great as well!

(via Fffound)

Sewn Paper (by Bespoke Letterpress)

Ooooooh. Sewn!! Lovely. Loveliness.

This is from Bespoke Letterpress. Found via Oh So Beautiful Paper.

La Strada (by Transformers Studio)

La Strada identity. I love the napkin or package or whatever it is on the right. That would be a neat card.

Blog trail: 100LayerCake, Graphic Exchange, Behance (b/c I couldn't find the original source from Graphic Exchange, Transformers Studio)

Fabric Flowers (by EmersonMade)

I love EmersonMade. They do a fine fine job of fabric flowers. Lovely!

Packets of Awesome (by GreetingArts)

I am in awe of people who do things like this for their wedding. That's a lot of stamping and sewing.

Here's the how to at GreetingArts.

(via Miss Poodle of WeddingBee)

Programs (by Cynthia and Michael via Oh So Beautiful Paper)

These are the closest thing I've found to our own idea. Yay! Note the corners. Yay for detail work!

Click on image to see them bigger, or go to Oh So Beautiful Paper for more angles.

(Source: Oh So Beautiful Paper)

Heads Together

This really doesn't fall under the advice column but a couple really excellent ideas came out of last night's brain storm:

1. Serve cold food: theoretically it's going to be hot in August. So instead of dealing with the headache of trying to keep everything warm, let's just not serve warm food. Lots of salads. Salads rock. This is a great idea. Thank you Z's Mom!

2. My Mom came up with a great idea too. Come up with a few drinks that we can premix before hand. Premix everything maybe but the alcohol. We just make sure we keep out pitchers of the mix. Excellent!

I've done a bad job yet again communicating well with my family. The easy route is to just do everything alone. But that's not the best route for them, who want to be a part of it. I don't know how to delegate. I'm happy leading people, but this doesn't quite feel the same.

Invitations

November first. Wow.

This weekend is sort of a wedding-y weekend. Tonight we're meeting with both sets of our parents and discussing wedding topics. What wedding topics I kind of have no idea. Today I've been trying different invitation ideas and have been met with mixed success.

Originally I didn't care about invitations, but I feel like they are the beginning of tone setting. Do we have a theme? Do we have colors? Will this thing, this piece of paper, match the feel of the event itself?

I pull back and quickly recognize that none of the answers really matter. Not REALLY. But the invitation is the first one that if it did matter- a texture, palette or theme, it'd start here.