My Best Friend's Wedding

I officially don't think I will be a bridesmaid again until my sister's wedding in the coming years (and Brittany, I better be the Matron of Honor!). I am okay with this revelation :). We recently spent five days down in Charleston/Hilton Head, South Carolina for the wedding of my best friend Blair and her fiance husband Joe.

The ceremony and reception were held at the beautiful Colleton River Plantation in Bluffton and we got ready at the Dye house, overlooking Colleton's Dye golf course. The wedding was at 6pm, but we were "on call" at 9am (make that 9:40 a.m. after my dose of Benadryl…don't ask, and a coffee/bagel run to Panera). I was Blair's photographer as she was getting ready so of course I am going to share some pictures with you!

Bridal Shower Gifts with my Cameo!

To stay true to my word, I want to share all of the Cameo-created gifts I made for Blair's bridal shower. The first is for their kitchen and it is a split letter tile monogram with their names (obviously) and their wedding date. I chose the tile and the vinyl to coordinate with their kitchen, but also to compliment any future kitchens they will share together. Blair purchased a large frame stand for it and may even have it on display at her wedding…sweet!

The next item is for her ceremony. Blair's cousins children are in the wedding and the two young boys will be walking down the aisle together. While helping her brainstorm about what they could carry (pennant flags would be used as light sabers) she found a version of this idea and asked me to create it for her with her colors. During the processional, each boy will hold a ribbon so the guests see "Here comes the Bride." They will show the opposite "Just Married" side during the recessional and Blair and Joe could also take pictures with it.

The next gift didn't completely make it from BWI to ATL in one piece, but 75% of it did! I made a set of 4x4 tile coasters for Blair. They have black felt on the back to prevent scratching any furniture.

And finally, the most personal gift -- monogrammed stationery! I made a set of 20 or 25 monogrammed notecards for Blair (the A stands for Amanda, her "real" first name) in a few different colors. I did the majority in black to make it traditional, but spiced it up with some navy, purple and green. I stayed away from orange and pink although I was tempted. I decided against doing a couple's monogram for this gift because I wanted her to be able to send the notecards for non-wedding related things, and notes that were only from her.

So, what do you think??!!

Bridal Shower: The Decor

The weekend of St. Patrick's Day I hosted a bridal shower in Atlanta for my dear friend Blair with her sister and mother at Blair's house. I wanted to share the personalized decorations with you and in another post later this week I will share her gifts, all of which I made of course :).

Blair's sister Kristin, Blair the bride and me

Originally, Blair's mom thought a Breakfast at Tiffany's theme would be fun…guests in black dresses, hats and pearls with tiffany blue, white and black decor. In the same email she also commented on how Blair would probably like everyone to come dressed out of the movie "The Help," pretty sundresses, etc. So, we ended up combining the two and went with the sundress apparel and used tiffany blue and shades of purple (her wedding is monochromatic purple).

I spent January and February making about 25 invitations by hand. I used my Cameo for all of these projects. I thought the scalloped edge card was feminine and I designed it to fit in square purple envelopes I had ordered from Paper Source. By the way, why do square envelopes cost more to mail? I think USPS is profiting from the wedding industry! To make the plain white wedding dress look better, I added some small adhesive crystals randomly on the skirt and tied a coordinating ribbon around the waist of the dress. I wrote out the invitation text on the back of the flat card by hand because I had not yet ordered the Silhouette sketch pens. Those things are wonderful and I wish I had used them.

Now onto the actual shower…..

Blair's sister Kristin came up with the idea to give out wine as favors to our guests. Once we bought the wine at our favorite stop, Trader Joe's, Kristin removed the labels by soaking the bottles in the kitchen sink and just rubbing off the labels. Blair's dad got in on the fun by cutting out the adhesive labels, designed by Kristin, with a paper cutter before she applied them. I made the purple and tiffany blue wine bottle hangers to add a pop of coordinating color. I am glad I made a few different styles because I used the cutouts from some as dresses on the other which really made use of everything I had cut.

We displayed the wine bottles on a table underneath a window off to the side of the kitchen with some beautiful purple flowers arranged by the mother-of-the-bride. The tablecloths were actually from my baby shower in Connecticut last year and my mom had extra and since they coordinated, we used them!

I made a "Congrats Blair" banner to hang across the fireplace where I assumed the bride would sit to open her gifts. I used the same paper as the invitations and used thick gold sparkle letters since her wedding colors are purple and gold. I used a scalloped edge for the background to coordinate with the invitations once again and because it is feminine and springy. Did you know I make custom banners for clients? Come check out some examples on Facebook and "Like" my page…I'd love to talk with you about a custom order!

For dessert we had ganache filled chocolate cupcakes and one of the bridesmaids decorated them all different. I took one of Blair's cake stands and tied another tablecloth around it with some tulle we had on hand. Don't get me wrong, the cake stand was lovely colors, but it clashed with the look I was going for ;).

Another simple thing I did was fill the chine cabinet with framed photos. On the morning of the shower I asked Blair to go around the house and collect photos of her and Joe for me to put on display. Since guests sat in the kitchen, dining, and living rooms, I thought it would be a nice subtle touch to display more photos of them in the dining room.

Glass Stenciled Mirror {tutorial}

Two of my good friends, Nick and Sarah, got married at the end of July. They have been dating eight years and had known each other four years before that. We went to middle school and high school together so I have known both of them for a long time (or what seems like a long time).

A few years ago (or maybe less?) they bought what seems to be a beautiful historic home in Connecticut. I say "seems" because I have not actually seen it in person yet which is a shame on me. I know they were looking for antiques to fill their home and when I remembered I had purchased this mirror, yet not hung it in my own home, I thought of them.

I wanted to make a subway art mirror and although it didn't totally end up the way I envisioned, I was still happy with the result. Since I do not have a Silhouette and I didn't want to hand paint all the words, I went to a craft store to look at stencils. Lo and behold, I found blank stencils - hallelujah! I thought it would be easier to make my own stencils rather than lining up each letter for every word with precut stencils (I'm still not so sure about that). Once I got home with the blank stencils, I printed out various words that I wanted to use on the computer.

I grabbed a Sharpie and traced every word onto the stencil. I realized that letters with "inside areas" like P, R, A, and O were going to require an alternative plan since cutting the stencils out eliminated the center areas completely. So, I added an extra cutting line to try and preserve some of these letters since I didn't want it looking "off."

Once the words were cut-out, I started with their names because I knew I wanted it in the center and it was significantly bigger than the rest of the words.

For the etched glass effect I used NAME OF BRAND paint which I am thrilled worked otherwise I would have had to go to plan B which was doing this all on a piece of painted wood in contrasting colors and then inserting it in the mirror's frame. I did a few words at a time since it required me to paint a few coats, peel off the stencil and do touchups all before it started to dry.

Looking back, I think the words should have been larger to give it more of a subway art feel, but since the words are smaller, it is almost more of a mirror than I originally thought it would be. It also would have been much cleaner looking and more efficient if I had a Silhouette, but make do with what you have, right?!

PS: Sorry the photos aren't too great but it is hard to photograph a mirror!! Also, I blurred out some of the personal information on the mirror.

Time Out Tuesday #3

I will admit that Time Out Tuesday is my only "regular" posting right now, but I am getting better! Getting back into blogging after baby is a bit like getting back to exercising after baby. You mean to do it today (and tomorrow and the next day) but you find something else to do today, tomorrow, and the next day. But of course I always manage to share pictures of my little guy!

This past weekend W met his Uncle Kyle for the first time.

He also attended his first wedding. Believe it or not, he was not the youngest guest -- there was a three week old and another six week old! He slept/ate through the ceremony and slept through a good bit of the reception, music and all. He looked even cuter than he did on Easter I didn't know that was possible ;).

Anniversary

This week my husband and I celebrated our second anniversary. As one of my friends put it, "it feels like your wedding was a long time ago" and happily/sadly I feel the same way. I am sad that looking back two years later already seems like a long time ago, because the time is only going to grow and I always have fears that I'll forget things. My husband on the other hand remembers everything. And he wonders why I take so many pictures and videos?! It is also happy to feel like it was years ago because we have settled into our life as husband and wife (and soon to be baby). I find a great deal of comfort in loving the home we live in, enjoying our lives together and looking forward to experiencing new things at each others side.

Here is a brief glimpse back at Nov. 1, 2008: