More DIY Goodness- Programs

Countdown: 16 days

No. Invited: 116

Rsvp Yes: 90

Rsvps still missing: 10

We're not having an official ceremony so the traditional programs are not exactly appropriate for us. However, i'd already started on my programs way back when and I really didn't want to just discard them (no waste here), so I kinda repurposed them to some sort of keepsake while still keeping guests in the know. Hence the reception program.

I used the same shimmery aqua card stock that I used for our invites to make a booklet. I found some glittery silver letters from Michael's but they only had 4 or 5 of each of our initials so I used the other letters and created Js and Es. As a result, they all look slightly different, which I really like. I found my inspiration from Jeana's programs  from My Dream Ring now called My Dream Life..

I placed our "tears of joy packets" on the inside cover.

Since we didn't have official e-pics, I used our civil ceremony pics so our guests can get a glimpse of what took place.

I wrote up a little sum,sum for my sister in law to read during the pseudo-ceremony. You can click on it to see it better.

The "order of proceedings" is on the next page,

Another picture on the back

And on the back cover, our thanks.

Sorry about the lousy pic.

And that's our program.

JEM.

Our kids' tables will be rad,

Countdown: 17 days

No. Invited: 116

Rsvp Yes: 84

Rsvp still missing: 14

at least as far as they're concerned. Way back when, I asked for opinions about whether to have kids at the wedding. I got very good feedback from all my darling followers with the general consensus being, "do what works for you."

We realized that so many of our guests would have trouble getting babysitters for their kids and some our guests practically begged us to have their kids so we caved. When we first made our guest list, we had 24 children under 10. That was hard to take in but now that we've received rsvps, we only have 16 children so I figure 2 tables of 8 each would be fine with someone supervising their tables. 

I want them to have fun and be occupied so that their parents can have some fun. Unfortunately, our venue doesn't have another room where I could throw put them, so i'm going to just make a corner of the room theirs.

This is the little activity book  and crayons that will be in each place setting. 

       

There are puzzles and pictures to color,

they get to decorate a wedding cake.

      

and draw their own pictures of the bride and groom. One of the ideas that I, um stole borrowed. This one from Happily After All.

I found these really cute aqua/teal and white flower pencils at Micheal's. They were full length pencils that I cut in half and sharpened an end of each. 

These are the centerpieces for their tables. I wrapped some ribbon around a plastic mayonnaise jar and stuck some shimmery butterflies (cut with my Martha Stewart punch) on them. I also stuck some of the little plastic diamonds on there too. I then wrapped the bottom of a tissue pom with a pipe cleaner and made a large flower. I stuck some other flowers and filler in the center and I was done. I'm going to weigh down the jar with sand or rocks. 

During the dessert buffet, I really don't want these little things tripping up the adults so I decided that they'll be served first and made these little cupcake stands for them.  They're from cake rounds that I stuck some ribbon around and the stands are styrofoam balls painted aqua.

Their cupcakes will be brought out  before the dessert buffet is announced and we'll serve them some mini ice cream cones as well. That should take care of the little buggers darlings. They will also have their dinner served first, again offsetting the trample to the buffet. They'll have macaroni and cheese, french fries and chicken fingers. Which kid doesn't like that. I figured I wouldn't use our wedding to try to get people's kids eating their vegs. Plus the adult buffet will have vegs so if a parent is concerned, they can grab some for their kids.

I think that should keep the munchkins occupied for four hours or so, plus they can always come and party on the dance floor.

JEM. 

Another One

We are down to 1 month and 20 days to our wedding and i'm knocking down projects left and right. Being unemployed has it's advantages. Lots of time for DIY projects.
So you remember we downgraded our wedding a bit and decided to got he City Hall route and have a reception for friends and family. Well although i'm not knocking a civil ceremony, it really isn't that personal or romantic so we (mostly me) decided that we should have a mini ceremony right there in the banquet hall before the party starts. So we;ll have our legal ceremony at City Hall and our romantic one at our banquet hall.

I kinda still wanted to incorporate wedding things into it but didn't want to decorate too much so I got some white rose petals from Deals and I had a whole lot of aqua paper left so I made some cones for  my petals.

I printed labels from Avery address labels with our names and wedding date and stuck them on.  I think i'll put 2 on each table and guests can toss them.

This is what the paper looked like after I cut them out. I didn't throw them out just thinking that I could find a use for them.

 I had a eureka moment when I saw this at Michael's yesterday. A butterfly stamp on sale for $7. How could I say no.

Look at my lovelies. Since I won't have my diamond confetti, I can scatter paper butterflies on the tables.

This is what the papers looked like when I was done with them, I think now I can throw them out. Maybe.
With just a little imagination, you can find uses for just about anything. I'm very happy with my cones and butterflies.


So whadya think?

JEM.

Drink Up

I really don't like the idea of disposables at a wedding but since our wedding is going to be self catered, we decided that at least the cocktail hour would have disposables. We'll rent real dishes for everything else. Also the champagne glasses that will be used for all of 5 minutes will also be disposable.

However there's no question that the guests of honor (US) have to have gorgeous flutes. Enter my freebie from Macy's Sip and Scan Event. Among other things, Macy's gave me a set of champagne flutes as a 'Thank you' for coming. Of course they had to have their darn star on them.

Although I have really great flutes at my house that we could have used, (I really didn't want personalized ones) I thought it would be a great idea to do something with these, you know spruce them up a bit. After all, I figured if I messed them up, it wouldn't be my expensive crystal ones that we have at home. So I pulled out my trusty glue gun and some diamond confetti crystals. I had planned on scattering the diamond confetti on our tables instead os using petals but since we have white satin overlays, you can barely see the crystals so I decided to repurpose them. I also used some crystal beads and one aqua one and made a little bracelet type thing for the bottom. This is what the glasses look like now:

There are those friggin stars again. I tried to find ways online to remove etching but I learnt that it's on pretty much for life. I don't quite know yet what i'll do about them. As much as I didn't want personalization, i'll probably end up sticking a rhinestone smack dab in the center of that star and adding crystal initials on each side of the star to downplay it. After all, I don't think our guests will be peering really closely at our flutes. I can't honestly say i've ever noticed anyone's flutes (besides my sister's)  and i've been to countless weddings. And if they do, oh well.

Close up:

and closer still.
Maybe i'll post a pic again when it's completely done. If I decide to do anything that is.

JEM.

DIY Napkins Revisited

Way back when I had no followers or maybe 1 or 2, I mentioned here that I would be attempting DIY napkins. Cloth napkins. Well fast forward 7 months and ta-daaaaa...

these are my aqua napkins that only Mr.Muscle and I will use.

these white ones are for the bridal party  

and the rest of the guests will have these turquoise ones. I actually thought that I was getting aqua when I ordered these table runners that I converted into napkins. I tried them on the table and I kinda like the slightly different shades.

I also made the napkin rings from toilet paper/paper towel rolls and ribbon. Tutorial can be found on my DIY page. Damask for us so we they can stand out a little. Aqua for bridal party and white for other guests.

The centerpiece has evolved as well. It's still flowerless but I've decided that the aqua boxes would be aqua overkill. Will post the new centerpieces when I've completed a prototype.

The kids are having all disposables in aqua and white.

JEM.

Invitation(s) Revealed!!!

I have to say that I love, love, love my invites. They took forever to make but I'm very happy with how they turned out. First I must tell you that I have 2 invitations and by that I mean 2 different invitations for the same wedding. I know you're probably confused so let me explain. Initially I planned on making only 32 invitations for our 60 guests and one extra to keep for us. When our guest list expanded to 101 people, I had no choice but to make more but at some point, I just got tired and decided that all the out-of-town guests would get slightly different invitations.

This is my pretty. She's actually called Tiffany. The pictures truly don't do her justice. I think it's my camera. She's made from metallic aqua lagoon card stock. I printed our initials in Chopin script on strips of linen paper and hot glued black rhinestones as the dots with a square aqua stone in the center.

Close-up. I really suck at taking these photos.

This is the inside. Notice my butterflies? The invitation measures 10 X 7  and when folded, measures 5X7.

This is the back with the little pocket I made using aqua lagoon and embossed metallic silver shimmery card stock.









This is the back with my RSVP card tucked nicely
inside.












Side view.

This is the second invitation that I made. 

I called her Baby Tiffany. As you can see here,  the name strip is missing as well as the black rhinestones. I added the aqua square stone for some bling. The inside and the back is the same as the other one. 

As mentioned before, I made these mostly for our out-of-town guests who were late to be added to the guest list. I also sent them to people overseas who I know won't be coming but want an invitation anyway. So in total, I made 45 of the original Tiffany and 10 Baby Tiffany invitations. I love them so much, I kinda felt sad sending them away.

So there you have it folks, my babies are out there and will hopefully be delivered by Friday, Saturday or early next week. Then the RSVPs can come rolling in. I hope.  I'm so excited about that part. I just hope people send them back and I don't have to call everyone. Or else.

What do you think?

JEM.

Invites Are Off

O.M.G. Whew, I can't tell you how relieved I am and nervous all at the same time. My invitations are finally out there and I am so relieved that they're done and over. Yet, this makes it so real and people are now going to look for clothes and arranging for sitters and transportation  and hair appointments etc. all for us. It makes me nervous that we now have to deliver, big time.

So onto the good stuff. These are what my babies looked like when I handed them over to the very nice post-office lady yesterday.

I used AA7 Pearl White Metallic Envelopes, 5 1/4 X 7 1/4 from Paper and More. My wedding cake stamp looked very pretty all by its self. You see that cute little butterfly. I did it. I got a stamp from Michael's in the dollar bin.

See the word soar on there. Yeah that got cut off. I just took an exacto knife and cut the rubber part with the word off the stamp. I then mixed up some paint, yes paint not ink. I used the same paint that I used for my bathroom baskets. I didn't have a stamp pad so I just spread the paint onto a piece of felt and used that. Surprisingly enough, I didn't smudge any envelopes.

I also made return labels from leftover card stock and more shimmery program paper.

I wanted to post the actual invitations here but I realized that would make the post too long so i'll do it another post. They were a labor of love and I want to give them their own spotlight. Don't worry, I won't keep you hanging.  It will come up right after.
JEM.

Let's Toss It...

or not. We haven't decided if we're doing the bouquet and garter toss yet. I was all against it but Mr. Muscle kinda wants to surprisingly. Well he hasn't exactly said so but he mentioned it which if you know him, is kinda the same thing.  Since we're having crystal bouquets, chances are that someone will end up in the hospital if I throw one of them so I will have to come up with another bouquet. Probably one made from silk flowers, maybe all white roses.

The garter however is another story. I definitely want a garter, even if we don't do the the whole (oral sex simulation) thing. At least I can surprise my groom on our wedding night because let's face it ladies, I'm getting laid on my wedding night, exhausted or not.  I had some left over aqua fabric from my ring pillows, flower/bubble baskets, and DIY napkins projects so I thought why not make my own garter. And so I did:

here's my cutie in all her glory. I know it looks like a scrunchie here but it's large enough to fit way up on my thigh. Tutorial on DIY page.

What do you think, are you doing or did you do the bouquet and garter toss?

JEM.

Bathroom Boxes anyone?

At this point, I just don't want o keep buying more material for wedding craft projects, especially if I can't justify the purchase or know what i'm going to do with it after the wedding.  But I really wanted bathroom baskets. I can't tell you how many weddings i've been to where someone spilled something, ripped something, got an unexpected period or didn't plan very well for menstrual issues (ladies you know what I mean. So when I first heard about bathroom baskets, I thought the originator of this idea has to be brilliant as hell.

I however didn't want to buy 2 baskets that I probably not use again. I already have baskets galore at home but none at the right size or shape.  Enter my boxes. I found these boxes for $1.99 from Michael's a long time ago and I bought them just because. I do that a lot.

I also had some paint form one of my 2 year old's craft projects but it was too blue. It was royal blue so I bought a small bottle of yellow acrylic pint for $59 and got to mixing, until I got the perfect aqua shade.

I swear it turned out perfectly. The boxes are very sturdy and kinda feel like wood. I then headed to my nearest CVS and stocked up on all those travel size toiletries? I also had some stuff that I had bought before so without further ado, here are my bathroom boxes. Well one of them anyway with all basically the same stuff that all the other bloggers have mentioned before.

 I then sanded down 2 glassy brown 5x7 picture frames that I had but was not using and painted them white.  I printed my little quote on a 5x7 shimmer piece of card stock and voila.

You can click on any of the images to see them better. And remember my little "butterflies that I didn't know what to do with?  Well that's 2 down. About 23 to go. And in case you can't read what written in the bathroom sign:

Should you happen to get in a bind
A rip, a tear or of the spilling kind


Take what you need and leave the rest
so it can be used by another guest


Clean up, spruce up, and you're done
now hurry back and enjoy the fun


As always, if you need the tutorial, please click on my DIY link at the top of my page.
JEM.

Progress in the Jem Wedding Workshop

Another one down ladies. I bought some parasols a while back from save-on-crafts and was very happy with the quality. There were no rips, or stains or any of the other problems that i've heard from other brides. (Thank God)

As pretty as I thought they were, I  still wanted to spruce them up a bit. With all the gorgeous parasols - complete with tutorials - floating around in the blog world, I didn't see why I shouldn't. So without further ado these are my parasols:

I'm having 4 ladies (now) so I decided to give each of them a letter spelling out the most important word, which is the reason for us having a wedding day after all.

That's a train track in the back there. My little engineer wouldn't let me move them out of the way to take the picture.

And the piece - de - resistance:

I'm totally in love with them. The aqua one I did with a stencil  that I made in Microsoft Word. The print looks a little small but I assure you it looks amazing.  I just winged the white ones freehand.

The tops don't look so great with the unpainted wood and all so i'll paint them with some white acrylic paint or wrap it with some ribbon or maybe i'll use the leftover strip of  feather boa. I'll play around with them and see what works best. Otherwise done!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for 100 free postcards from Uprinting.


JEM.

More DIY Projects Done. (oops)

In my previous post, I mentioned that I had completed my table numbers as well but got so carried away talking about my card trifecta (gift tag, place card and photo-sharing card) that I completely forgot to include my other DIY project - the table number/menu.

This project actually came about from excess. I've mentioned how much I hate waste, so when I was left with 10 program covers after deciding that I was only going to make 50 programs (more on that later) . I had no idea what I was going to use the extras for. I was actually surprised that I had 10 left over. I must have cut the paper while watching a movie or something and got carried away. Anyway, here I was with 10 extras and based on my guest list, I think i'll have about 10 tables. Ding, ding, ding! You see my eureka moment?

So with a cut here, some glue there, I had me another combo. Ta da...

Our table number and Menu all in one. I just didn't have the patience to create a menu for all of my 90 guests plus it seems like a real waste of paper to me. How many people (except me) really take home the menu?

The front cover:
The great part is that our initials on the front are these really cute stickers that can be peeled off so if anyone wants to use these again, providing they have the same tastes in food and it doesn't have to be for a wedding but just a dinner party or something, they totally can.
My menu is very West Indian since most of my guests are West Indian. The food for the cocktail hour will be a mix of all types. I still have paper, in case I have to make a few more. So what do we do now? Check another one off the DIY list y'all.

JEM.