Hiring a company to run a photo booth is awesome.....we went to a wedding that had it once
You get the cool little printed out strip of photos that remind you of your tween mall rat days and makes you crave Cinnabons....but it was WAAAAAAY out of our budget
I mean Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
I mean, I guess we could have...if we didn't want an officiant (who needs it to be legal anyway?)....or say..maybe music?....or me in a pretty ivory dresss (I curse way too much to wear white)
But call me crazy...those things are kinda important to me
But I still wanted people to get silly and take some pictures..so I decided to just make props and let our photographer take over...along with our guests using their own cameras
Here are some of the items I made
Well actually I made like half of them....my sister made the mustaches and pipe out of stiffened felt and the glasses are felt and glitter foam just glued to sticks
I painted the mask (it was in the Halloween section) to look like our kitty Mo
(You can read all about how we represented Mo in our wedding here)
And made the ties out of foam and glued them to alligator clips so people could easily clip them on and off
I bought this little chalk board at Hobby Lobby
And painted over it in brown chalkboard paint. This was before I found out on Pinterest that you can make your own....so I paid out the booty for a jar of brown chalkboard paint....LAME!
And I painted the border pink
Then I threw in a bunch of store bought stuff....as closely sticky to our wedding colors as possible
We had:
*Big pink sunglasses
*Pink and brown cowboy hats
*Pink foam glitter crown
*Sombrero.....a nod to The Boys Mexican heritage....arriba arriba!
*Chefs hat...since we met in Culinary school
And I put them all in this basket with a little sign on it
We had tons of fun with them!
Can you tell by the horrified look on my face that she'll be waiting a while on that one?
And this one here really chaps my lips.....
Nobody forced them to write this...this was a self proclamation to the world....and I'm still waiting,
Tease. Hurry. Up. Brian. I would like to plan another wedding please
Oh...and I'm totally down with making you an OFFICIAL member of our crazy ass clan...we give out jackets! Just a little bonus that might entice you ;) Anywho.......
It was fun!
And didn't cost us a gazillion dollars....and people still got to eat.....and drink.....and our marriage was legal All good!
FYI....I'm suddenly realizing that I have ALOT more posts about weddings than I knew about. So as of today Wedding Week is now renamed "Wedding NowOveraWeekIGuessIWillGoUntilWhenever theHellIRunOutofPosts"
Did ya catch that?
We didn't really do the whole flower girl situation very traditional
First off, we didn't have a flower girl we had flower girlS
Yes 2.
My two youngest nieces Brooke and Elsa
Second, there was to be no throwing of the petals
Not that I have anything against it really....like I won't laugh at you if you throw some petals around or anything (just make those petals $20 bills...mmkay?)
It's just not really "me"
Instead my niece Brooke carried a small bouquet of the coffee filter roses and a small stuffed cat that was to represent my precious Mo Mo kitty which you can see here
And Elsa was in charge of carrying the sign
I got these cute plain pink wood signs at Hobby Lobby in the Valentine's Day section for a $1 a piece
I had my sister Kinsey, the family artist, paint "Here Comes The Bride" on one side
And "Just Married" on the other
Looks like we didn't get any shots of them holding it on the bride side....darn.....
But we got quite a few of the Just Married ones
We tried to make things as easy as possible for a 6 year old. Here cue to flip the sign over was when we kissed....she took her role very seriously and she got the job done!
They carried it again as the were announced at the reception
And another random shot at the very end of the night
I wanted to have baskets of flip flops in the bathrooms for the women because let's face it......
Girls wear heels to look cute....not to comfortably dance all night long
(all night.....all night)
I apologize. I just had to go there
So before the girls ended the night walking out like the zombies in the Thriller video, heels in hand. It's the walk of pain....but hey....least it's not the walk of shame!
I figured I would offer them an alternative...comfy flip flops...coordinating with my wedding colors of course!
I watched the ads at Hobby Lobby and waited until their flops flops were 50% off. They are normally $1.99 so you get them for a buck...not too shabbyy!
I got them in a variety of sizes (but more of Medium than any other size) in a mix of pink and brown
I made individual size tags to hang from them that I made out of cardstock, some stamps, and ribbon
And rubber banded them together at the bottoms....then I pealed off their little size sticker from the bottom. The reason I made my own was so it was at the top and they wouldn't have to dig through the entire basket to find their size....it was displayed right in view
Stuck them all in a big basket that was next to the bathroom baskets
And let the ladies have at em'!
Here I am pretending to be all shocked an appalled that they were completely wiped out
(if you can't see...the board says WTF?)
But I wasn't! I was glad to see they were put to use!
Everyone loved them! Like I said in my bathroom baskets post....I like to give the guests that little extra something that makes them feel like they were thought of
Yes ladies....I was thinking of your poor little feetsies.....you're welcome! =)
Bathroom baskets are another wedding trend right now.....but I happen to LOVE the idea of them!
I think it's great to have some added perks for your guests as well as things they very well may need for those "oh shit" moments
How many people carry pepto? Or safety pins? Hair ties? Or even deoderant?
Well actually....I carry deoderant. When you live in Arizona and work in a kitchen where you stand directly over flames and stick your head in ovens on a regular basis....carrying deodorant is a smart move...for everyone's sake
But while I carry deodorant on a daily basis....chances are for a wedding I wouldn't be carrying my day to day purse...but most likely a small clutch of some sort. So my point is...chances are people wont have this stuff on them...but they could need it!
If you go on Pinterest or Google and look up bathroom baskets...you'll see dozens....hundreds.....millions.....TRILLIONS....
They're pretty doggone popular!
But what I think sets mine apart from most of the ones I've seen is that I tried to keep mine as themed to the wedding colors as I possibly could
Even going as far as to make custom labels for bottles out of scrapbook paper so they would match
And I bought as many items in pink or brown as possible....hairbrush....pink hair ties, pink hair spray, pink tic tacs..etc
Here's some pictures of basket in the women's restroom
My full list of items in the basket is:
*Mouthwash
*Pink & brown dixie cups for the mouthwash
*Spray deodorant (pink)
*Pepto
*Advil
*Tums
*Tide stain stick
*Mini sewing kit
*Mini first aid kit
*Hairbrush
*Hair ties
*Lint roller
*Bobby pins
*Small nail kit (clippers, emery board)
*Colgate Wisps
*Cotton balls, cotton pads, and Qtip set (all pink)
*Pads & tampons
*Jar of pink Tic Tacs
*Hairspray
*Wipies *Lotion
We didn't get a picture of the mens basket, but it was considerably smaller since it doesn't need the obvious girly items like tampons and hair ties
I used brown spray deodorant in the mens and included gel in addition to the hair spray
I had alot of fun trying to track everything down in my colors. It was almost like a scavenger hunt. I would have my mom calling me from stores telling me what she found. Most everything was from either the dollar store or travel sections
I had so many people tell me how much they liked the added touch of the baskets. I had one of my best friends from work tell me she was SOOO happy when she say the hairspray because her hair she worked so hard on was starting to fall....she said she thinks she used half the can lol
So help yours guests out and leave them some extras! You wouldn't want them heading out early over an upset stomach now would ya?....just direct them to the bathroom for some Tums and Pepto and get them back out on that dance floor!
This post isn't a tutorial.....but more of a pat on the back,
A "You can do it I believe in you!"......
"It IS possible!"......
"If I can do it you can do it!"....kind of post
As you probably already guessed....me and The Boy aren't made of money.
Nope.
We are middle class America at it's finest.... where our idea of splurging is buying laundry detergent that isn't Great Value brand (oh how I long for the smell of Gain)
Here is one of my all time my favorite moments on Roseanne....one of the greatest shows to ever represent us normal folk!
Middle class was fun!
you get the picture....we aren't exactly rolling in the cash
So when it came to our wedding I tried to save as much as I could by doing stuff myself
Have you seen how ridiculous the prices on bouquets can be? It's insane!
So for a while I toyed with the idea of buying fowers in bulk from either Sam's Club or Costco and putting together the bouquets ourselves they day before
But then I started getting nervous. I don't know much about flowers to begin with....then I started wondering how I was going to store them and keep them fresh
Then the idea of doing the flowers, the rehearsal dinner (which I cooked for myself..with help) and baking 200 cupcakes for our favors, and hauling my mass ton of shit to the venue....all in one day?
I knew it wasn't happening. And I'm the type of person who needs to leave myself time for a Plan B if something doesn't work out...and I knew there was a HUGE chance of something going wrong
So after alot of research...I decided on coffee filter roses
Yes. Coffee filters
I got lucky and found a girl on The Knot classifieds board who had already started doing them....and then ended up decided to scratch the idea all together
She had been planning to use them for EVERYTHING at her wedding....bouquets, centerpieces.....everywhere. She quickly realized that was far too ambitious, especially considering she had no help because she lived away from family
She had bought the filters, traced the petals, and already begun cutting some out when she decided to stop
I bought them from her for just a little more than she bought the supplies....but it saved me tons of time because she had already done so many of the preliminary steps. I basically just had to assemble and paint them
Like I said, I don't have a tutorial but here are the two that I used
Because one is video and the other is pictures I think it helps to use both....it makes it even more clear
I assembled the majority of them myself and then had a painting party with my sisters
I stuck them in styrofoam to dry
I don't have pictures but I'll explain how I actually made the bouquets after all the flowers were done
*I cut PVC pipe to the height I wanted the bouquets to be and were comfortable to hold....I think I cut them 6 inches for the bridesmaids and 7 inches for mine...I wanted mine to be a smidge taller
*I spraypainted the PVC pipe brown because I knew I would be wrapping them in brown ribbon but the ribbon was sort of see through
*I inserted the flowers into the pipe and hot glued them in place. I used 9 for the bridesmaids and 18 for mine. Since the flowers are on wire you can glue the wire to the inside walls of the PVC and bend the tops of the flowers around as needed to fill it out nicely for a round shape
*I inserted a few fake leaves as well for a little bit of filler
*Wrap the ribbon around the PVC, gluing in place as you go. I used glittery ribbon so I covered it in a few coats of Mod Podge after it was in place to keep from getting glitter all over our hands....worked perfect!
This is me scolding him for stepping on my dress ;)
I found some cute rhinestone letter pins at Hobby Lobby that I clipped onto each of the bridesmaids bouquets.....thought it gave it a nice touch
Sorry for posting more picture than you ever wanted to see in your life....but I'm pretty proud of them
I think they photographed really well! Oh...and I even made a mini bouquet of just 3 flowers for one of the flower girls. I'm not a petal throwing kinda gal
So here's what I have to say as my words of advice and encouragement. If you try it out don't get too discouraged....it took 3 tries before it even remotely resembled a flower....then a few more before they looked good. But when you get it....you get it....and then you can keep pumping them out pretty easily. I would just veg out in front of the TV and made them while I watched marathons
It's hard for me to gauge how long it actually took me because I worked on them off and on for 3 months....sometimes going weeks without doing anything.
They are most definitely a labor of love....they are time consuming and much more effort than picking what you want out of a book.....but they are soooooooooo much cheaper! I think I paid under $50 to make 5 bouquets and one mini bouquet. And that is leaving some wiggle room. I used 40% off coupons at Michael's for most of the supplies
Aside from the mass money savings....you can keep them forever!
I was at my sisters the other day and took a picture of her bouquet she had on a shelf.....over a year later they still look great!
I came away feeling so proud of this project and the reactions from some of my guests when I told them I made them myself was priceless! My high school Art teacher was quite impressed.....
Of course I tried to play it off all cool though and was like "Cool thanks....it was no big whoop.."
Meanwhile I was giddy on the inside
So if you're still weighing out your flower options....don't completely rule out a DIY approach. I'm proof it is posible!
I didn't want the personalized napkins I made to be all lonely at the bar.....they needed another DIY buddy to hang with
So I decided on drink stirrers
I feel like "stirrers" is hard to say
I feel like I end up saying stirrrerr..errr.err...errrrs. Like I don't know when to stop with the "r"s
Is this just me?
I'll just call them drink flags and save myself the embarassment
I got myself this sticks at Wally World called Skinny Sticks....and they are just that. Sticks that are skinny
And I bought some different patterned scrapbook paper in our wedding colors.....that's pink and brown in case you're color blind. I like to cater to everyones needs here
I got all different patterns because I didn't want to be all matchy matchy....I like the mixed up look
I cut out strips, wrapped them around the stick, and used a glue stick to seal them together
You could do the same thing with washi tape...which is all the rage right now and then you could skip the gluing step
Weddings have changed DRASTICALLY in the last few years. Now that's my opinion, but I'm sure alot of people would agree with this
Even from my sisters wedding in 2005 they seemed to have completely changed. People don't seem to be as stuck in the ideas of "traditional" and are making them much more personalized....as they should be!
The food is changing, the days of the week you have them (mine was a Thursday) the photgraphy has come such a loooooong way from just lining up and taking pictures.....everything!
Remember back in the day when a guestbook almost 98% of the time meant a frilly ass white book with a stand up pen next to it?
Well now we have thumbprint trees, polaroids, postcards, picture frames, guitars....you name it! I'm soooo happy to see people going from doing what they think they're "supposed" to do and starting to do what they WANT to do! I knew a little book wasn't a good representation of us and probably would be put away and never displayed Considering The Boy and I met in culinary school and are both foodies....I knew something food related was the way to go I decided on a large cutting board...and because we were having so many guests, also a large serving platter to "serve" as your guestbook (bahahaha get it? serve?)
The sign says "With a love of food and a passion to cook it only seemed perfect to have this guest book. So step up and sign with a flair just so, and up in our kitchen these "books" will go"
I love love LOVE how it turned out!
Right now I have them put away. But as soon as we are in a more permanent living situation I fully intend on displaying them in our kitchen....maybe on the walls?
Like on big plate holders? hmmmm
Anyways.....try to come up with something that represents the both of you....it makes it so much more meaningful! And hopefully something you will actually want to display
