All things DIY

So, I just made a list of all the things I want to do myself.  Primarily because it will give it a personal touch but also because it will save some major dollar signs.  There are all these DIY ideas running through my head at any given moment.  When I see something or think of something I want to do I keep a mental note or favorite it on the computer.  I hadn't, until now, realized it might be crazy to try and do all this stuff-but I am going to try my damnedest.

• Invites


• Reply cards

• Reception cards

• Directions cards

• Wedding fan programs

• Poly-silk Boutonnieres

• Bride’s knob bouquet

• Bridesmaids poly-silk bouquets

• Poly-silk corsages

• Flower girl basket

• Fascinator/birdcage veil

• Doily menu

• Cake stands

• Tissue paper pomanders

• Ceremony chair pomanders

• Vintage wallpaper c.d. cases

• Etched wine bottles

• Bridal suite wreath

• Bridesmaid dress hangers

• Bride & Groom Chair signs

• Faux wedding cake

• Cocktail napkins

• OOT Bags

• Cake Topper

• Toss bouquet

• Birdseed hearts

• Décor for candy/dessert buffet

• Garter

• Birdcage card ‘box’

• ‘wedding this way’ sign

I bought some materials for the poly-silk flowers and am going to try to work on them this weekend.  I also tried to print a mock up of the invitation layout I had in mind and it didn't go that great.  I did it at work-it is probably just karma.
 
Here is a picture of the poly-satin flowers I plan to make-it is from 100layercake.  I intend these to be the corsages for female family members, the bouts for the men in the bridal party and male family members, and I will probably work up some girly headband exploding with flowers and sweetness for little Jaz (who, by the way turned 6 today! Happy birthday, Jazy Loo.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
They appear to be easy enough and a way to start off my DIY adventures on a positive note.  There is fire involved, however.  This could be bad.
 
~Rebecca

Hooray

My Maid of Honor is going to be in town this weekend. Awesome.  She had better prepare for her ear to be talked off.  I have found that once I start talking about wedding stuff I just can't stop.  Whenever I ask Johnny if I can talk wedding to him (normally I wouldn't have to ask but since he is studying for the bar exam right now his time is precious.) He'll say, 'ok for 5 minutes' and I just can't fit it all in in only 5 minutes.  I could probably talk about my dress for an hour.  Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

On another note, the ceremony location is booked! Whew! Well, unofficially booked.  Since it is a city park they can't officially book anything until the current year, so we are 'penciled in.'  I will be calling January 2, 2011 to book that park-no one will steal it away from me!  By the way, in case you were wondering, it's on the Plaza.  Guys, I am getting married on the Plaza.  I feel so important.

Also, I am going to work really, really hard to get Cooper's behavior in check so he can be the ring bearer.  He would be so cute!  I want these types of picture--they are so freakin' cute!

Aw, the one below could be Johnny, Cooper, and me.  I NEED this photo!

Alright, that's enough of me being a crazy dog lady.

~Rebecca

Some updates

So, in case you didn't know tomorrow is exactly 11 months away from our wedding.  Guys, I am getting married in 11 months!!! Whoa.  I am having trouble fathoming that.  I imagine I will get crazier and crazier each month it comes closer.  I recommend avoiding me from April 28th-May 27th.  Unless of course you are in my family or wedding party, then I will be 'requesting' laborious work from you.  Just kidding, but seriously.

I ordered save-the-dates today from Vistaprint.  Who loves Vistaprint? This girl does.  I got 100 save the dates (some people on wedding websites abbreviate that to STD-no thank you.) a tote bag that says 'The future Mrs. McIntosh, (cute!) and a return address stamp for, wait for it, $7.  No, I didn't forget a 0 on the end of that 7. I just paid shipping.  The actual merchandise was free.  If you are interested in those fabulous deals sign up for their emails and they will send you special offers once a week.  I predict I will be ordering a lot of unnecessary stuff from them in the upcoming months. 

I have also decided that I am making a faux wedding cake.  Since I was little I always associated a wedding with an extravagant cake, however, I never realized the price tag associated with it.  In order to get a 5 tier wedding cake with some sort of design I would be paying upwards of $1000. Um, what? $1000 for cake? I love cake but not for $1000.  My plan: buy Styrofoam rounds, cover them with fondant frosting, stack them, decorate them, and fool everyone at the party into thinking that we have a damn fabulous cake.  I have 11 months to master the art of fondant.  Wish me luck!

Those cakes right there-not real!  Don't get nervous though.  There will be real, edible cake at the wedding, just not the nasty fondant covered junk that, while looking beautiful, tastes like poo.

I think that just about covers my most recent wedding news!

~Rebecca

Dresses!!

For the last several weeks I have been sticking to a wedding timline I found in KC Weddings religiously.  If it says do it now, I'm doing it now because, frankly, I don't know what I am doing.  The one exception (and yes, I am sure many exceptions to this timeline will be made, but as of now I plan on sticking to it) is engagement photos. It says to take them 9-12 months before the wedding and we have already scheduled the photographer for October.  The trees will be so pretty then.  So engagement photos are a little delayed but no big deal.  --Back to the point.  This timeline tells me that 9-12 months before the wedding select attendants' attire.  Hallelujah!  I have been waiting for what seems like forever for permission to do this :)  And now I shall share with you some of the contenders.

This dress is from Landa and I think it is absolutely adorable.  I love the lemon color, however, with my dress being ivory and the men (hopefully) wearing taupe suits, yellow might make everything seem monochromatic and boring.  Should I decide on this dress I think we would order it in a peachy-coraly color.

Now for Bari Jay.  First of all, I love Bari Jay.  I like about 80% of the bridesmaid dresses they have on their site but I will show you 2 for now, seeing as how they are my very favorites!

Man, I love the one above!  It seems like it would be flattering to just about all body types with the loose fitting, a-line skirt and I love the chiffon fabric it is made out of.  It also comes in yellow and sage that I love as well.

Okay, so I know the dress above will not be the cup of tea for all of my bridesmaids. I just really love it.  I love rosettes.  I walked into J Crew yesterday to find it was spewing rosette everything.  I was in love, my wallet was not.  This is probably a distant choice for a dress for my maids.  It just isn't everyone's style and the last thing I was to do it stick them in something they will be uncomfortable wearing and hide in the back of their closet once the day is over.  I just seriously love rosettes; maybe I can convince them to wear a rosette pin in their hair to quell my rosette obsession. Or, maybe by the time the wedding arrives I will be over it.  Who knows!

Invitations

First of all, why I am thinking of invitations 11 months in advance?? However, I would just like to point out that it is less than a year away.  Now that my friends is very exciting! --Back to the topic at hand.  Invitations? Already? We have to send out save the dates first! (Which I would not be doing except for our wedding is the weekend of Memorial Day so we want guests to plan ahead.)  From the get go (about 20 minutes after Johnny proposed) I decided I would be making my own invitations.  Seems silly to pay someone to do it when I could do it just as well AND add in our own personalities and make them truly special.  So, after not being able to resist the urge any longer I wandered into Archiver's (which was completely overwhelming by the way) and looked around in their cardstock.  I wanted to find the perfect print to be layered with solid colors of cardstock.  After searching through 10 aisles of paper and finding nothing that seemed to match what I was looking for I found the holy grail.  It was perfect, exactly what I was looking for and it was in my colors.  It was fate. 

Ta Da!! So, I bought a piece of it and some coordinating cardstock and thought I would see what I could come up with.  After all, if I could make a successful invitation out of this stuff I could certainly make a save the date.

Now, today at work, being bored, I browsed through the boards at theknot.com.  There were some brides to be talking about vistaprint.com and how affordable it was.  I checked it out and found yet another 'perfect' invitation.

Good thing I have a while to think about invitation designs because these are too cute to choose from right now.  Also, I should probably consult that really important dude, Johnny on this.  He is the groom or something.  He probably won't like the latter invitation. Maybe a little too cutesey-cheesey for him :)

~Rebecca

Flower girl!

I have been thinking.  First of all I need to cool it with all these ideas I am posting on here otherwise I will run out and this blog will be shortlived.  Secondly, I have so many great ideas I really need to buckle down and decide which ones I love and which ones I just really like.  I think too many crafy, DIY projects could run the risk of being very kitschy.  However, I myself am a little bit corny and cliche when it comes to romance so maybe a little kitch is ok.

Moving on, my little niece, (who is not so little anymore!) Jazlyn, is going to be our flower girl.  Finding her very special dress is one of the most important tasks I have on my plate.  She is doing such an important job on our wedding day I want her to feel like a beautiful princess just like me!  I am not a fan of the traditional poofy flower girl dress, especially for a girl who will almost be 7 at the time of the wedding.

I like this dress a lot for her. It is simple, not too modern, and coordinates with the color scheme.  Also, this girl steps into the sun for 2 minutes and has a tan it takes me all summer to build-it would look great against her pretty skin tone.  And, and, and, she can wear it again!

Oh I love my little niece so much and can't wait for her to be my flower girl!

Dessert!

Okay, let's be frank here, who doesn't love dessert? No one. Everyone loves dessert and if you don't get off my blog. Just kidding, but seriously--everyone loves dessert. Johnny and I both love dessert (although we differ greatly on what kinds. He is a pie guy whereas I would give my left arm for a fabulous cake.) so we plan on incorporating lots of sweet treats for our guests at our wedding. I am currently working on getting him to ask his Grandma Sweetheart to make some of her delicious chocolate chip cookies for the affair. Those cookies as fab, maybe better than cake. Maybe.

I would love a table like that! All those yummy treats AND a wedding cake. Yum! Besides we will need a sugar high to keep us going considering all the dancing to be done. While I love the table for its unique quality and all the sugary goodness it harbors I am not much of a modern/contemporary girl. I am also not paying what a kidney costs on the black market to Crate and Barrel for all those dessert plates and cake stands. Solution? Make my own of course.


Rampant on the Internet right now are tons of DIY ideas. Another of my favorites is the simple task of flipping a glass (or candlestick holder, vase, dessert cup, etc.) upsidedown and sticking a plate on top.

Holy smokes, that's a cake stand!  And a vintage-y one at that.  Now, while that one probably won't make it into the wedding day decor (I just popped into an antique store to get those items just to try this out) some version of it will.  How can I deny a super cool cake stand that cost me less than $5?  Oh that's right, I can't.



Here are some from myhandsmadeit.com  So neat!

And a dessert post wouldn't be complete without some actual dessert to look at.  I present you with some cakes I love.  The first being an array of 'baby cakes' I think are such a cute idea and a perfect way to utilize the handmade cake stands.

I love this.  Possible cake idea?  We shall see!