Eco-Vintage Weddings

What We’ve Been Up To…

Hello readers! Again, I apologize for not posting much these past few weeks; it’s been a whirlwind to say the least. With only one month to go until the wedding (!!), Jordan and I have been hard at work finishing up last-minute details with our families and friends.

Here’s what we’ve been doing:

- Last week, I spent the evening building our photo booth with the great help of my future father-in-law. The photo booth turned out wonderfully; I can’t wait to see how it looks in our wedding photos! I hope to provide a full tutorial for you all at some point, so stay tuned…

- Made a list of must-have photos for our photographers, and met with our lovely photogs to discuss our wedding day. I’m SO excited that we’ve chosen such wonderful and supportive photographers; they will be so great to have with us on our wedding day, and I know that Kara will help to keep me relaxed.

- Started tanning! While I’m definitely not a fan of how bad tanning beds are for my skin, I do need to build up a base tan of sorts before heading off to Jamaica. So, I’ve stared tanning a few times per week!

- Started the napkins process! With the great help of my bridesmaid Serena and her mother, we’re making headway with the DIY napkins project! We’re about halfway through the project, and I plan to bring the last batch of fabric over to Serena’s home this week for cutting.

- Mailed our rehearsal dinner invitations. They turned out wonderfully, and we’re so excited for our Italian-themed rehearsal dinner!

- Ordered 3 one-half sheet cakes for our wedding reception. We ordered 1/2 sheet of red velvet (my favorite!), one half sheet of strawberry (Jordan’s favorite) and one half sheet of vanilla cake from a local bakery. I’m glad to have that completed!

- Set up a final meeting with our on-site reception coordinator and our florist to cover last-minute details. Both of these appointments are next week, and I’m excited to finalize all of the details!

- Set up a meeting to visit the chapel where our ceremony will take place. I’m visiting my alma mater, Augustana College, this week to set up decorations around the chapel to see what they look like. I’m excited to see how/if the pew bows will attach to the pews…frankly, that’s all I’m concerned about. I know that everything else will look great!

- Finalized gifts for the groomsmen and ushers; everything should be done next week, so I can wrap the gifts!

- Secured a classic car to transport Jordan and I from the ceremony to the reception!

- Got the guys measured for tuxes! Only a few of our guys have yet to do this, and they’re under strict instructions to do so ASAP.

- Finalized our wedding ceremony script. Yes!

- Trying to wrangle wedding pictures of our relatives; I only need a few more pictures, and we’ll be set!

I think that’s it!

Here’s what we have left:

- Our reception playlist. We’ve started working on it, but Jordan’s school quarter ends this Friday, so Jordan will have a lot more time to devote to finalizing our playlist starting next week. This is his pet project, and I’m excited to help with this process as much as I can.

- Getting a few more props for the photo booth, as well as finding/purchasing baskets for the day’s needs, a few picture frames, and a few props for our wedding photos on the wedding day.

- Figuring out what camera to use for the photo booth.

- Print the wedding programs. We’re waiting for the final OK from our officiant, and as soon as we have that, we’re good to go!

- Cutting table squares and a table runner for the reception; we are purchasing the fabric today, so it won’t be too long before this project is off our list.

- Sew a lining into our flower girl dresses. Again, the fabric for this has been purchased, so hopefully we can finalize this project soon.

- Purchase a gift for my personal attendant and our parents, as well as gifts for our hosts & hostesses and our ceremony reader.

- Gift-opening preparation and invitations.

- Bring my engagement ring and wedding band into the jeweler to be soldered and plated.

- Premarital counseling session with my uncle, our officiant, to discuss our personality inventory.

- Discuss our DIY tiered wedding cake with my mother, and maybe practice making a cake.

- Final wedding gown fitting; I’m so excited for this part!

- Final hair and make-up trial, as well as week-of beauty treatments; again, SO excited!

- Wrap gifts and box up ceremony/reception decor.

- Marriage license.

- Meet with our travel agent to finalize details for our honeymoon, and pack for our honeymoon.

- GET MARRIED!

Surprisingly, my stress level is rather low; while I know that there’s still more things to do, I feel remarkably calm heading into the final month before the wedding.

How are you handling wedding stress?

Our Wedding: Super Fun Craft Day!

This past weekend, my maid of honor Kristen and my bridesmaid Serena came over for our first-ever Super Fun Craft Day (yes, I named it)!

The tasks?

1. Signage. Kristen has LOVELY handwriting (which we also utilized for our save the dates!), so we recruited her again to make place cards for the head table and “reserved” signs for the reception. They turned out great!

2. Ceremony decor. As I mentioned earlier this week, we decided to make tissue paper pomander balls, which we started (as in, I made a template and Serena trimmed all of the tissue paper to the same size). Hopefully I’ll finish them this week! We also placed sand and candles inside mason jars and tied the jars with ribbon to place on the floor of the aisle.

3. Covering these *ugly* plastic canisters of wet wipes with *lovely* scrapbook paper. We needed wet wipes for our guests for guestbook-signing purposes, but I hated the plastic canisters that they came in. So, Serena measured out the appropriate amount of lovely grey damask paper and adorned the canisters with ribbon. Problem solved!

4. The wishing tree. After one casualty (a ceramic pot shattered to its death), we rocked out the wishing tree!

5. Begin folding our cootie catcher favors. Check! Also hope to finish these this week (I will probably make a large dent on this project while watching my weekly TV shows!).

I hope to have another Super Fun Craft Day this summer!

How are you getting all of your DIY projects done on time/with time to spare?

Our Wedding: Ceremony Decor!

This past weekend, I finally made some concrete decisions about the decor for our ceremony. We’re having our wedding ceremony in a small chapel on the college campus of my alma mater, Augustana. The chapel is BEAUTIFUL (think liturgical art and an ENORMOUS organ), so we didn’t want to overwhelm the space with decor.

The verdict: we’re keeping it simple.

The components of our decor:

1. Pew decorations: yes, I’ve been bitten by the tissue paper pomander bug … we’re using these (rather voluminous) lovelies to adorn every other pew. View instructions here!

2. In place of an aisle runner (which our venue doesn’t allow), I have 12 mason jars that my bridesmaids filled with sand and placed a small votive candle inside. We tied the top of the jar with pretty yellow ribbon, and these will be placed on the floor of the chapel beside a pew (where there’s NOT a pomander ball), so as to create balance.

3. As I mentioned before, we’ve chosen to honor our grandparents by placing seven candles on the altar. These ivory candles will be placed atop a silver charger plate, and lovely little yellow mulberries will be intertwined between the candles.

One last thought: I’m still debating on whether or not we need to place something atop the piano (a birdhouse placed on a doily, perhaps?), but we have everything else figured out!

How are you decorating your ceremony space?

[Photo via Elizabeth Ann Designs]

Showcase Thursday: My DIY Garter!

Last week, my Mom and I worked hard on making a garter for me to wear on my wedding day. It turned out perfectly!

Materials:
-Sewing machine
-Lace trim (the wider the better)
-Ribbon (at least 1/2 inch wide)
-Elastic (1/4 inch wide)
-Adornments/Embellishments as desired

Steps:
1. After estimating how much lace and ribbon is needed by measuring the circumference of your thigh, sew the ribbon to the top or the middle of the lace trim, depending on how wide the lace is and your own personal preference. Sew along the top edge and the bottom edge, so as to create a tunnel of sorts to feed the elastic through.

2. After estimating how much elastic you will need by wrapping the elastic around your thigh, attach a safety pin to one end of the elastic and feed it through the tunnel created by the ribbon.

3. Make sure it fits and feels comfortable, then sew the two ends together.

4. Add embellishments to the garter (we used a lovely vintage brooch), and you’re done!

I’m so pleased with how it turned out! I estimate that the project took about two hours and cost about $20.00.

What DIY projects are you working on now?

[Photo by me]

Showcase Wednesday: Our Photobooth Tickets!

A few weeks ago, J and I spent a lazy afternoon together working on DIY “tickets” of sorts for our DIY wedding photobooth. While we plan to make our photobooth together in May/June, we knew that it would help us in the long run if we had our other DIY projects (that went along with the photobooth) done in advance.

I wanted to make sure that guests knew that we had a photobooth available for use at the wedding reception, so I wanted to make little “tickets” to set at each place setting inside the fold of our DIY napkins.

I took the general idea of a carnival ticket (”Admit One,” fun fonts, etc.), and here’s what Jordan and I came up with:

We’re very proud of the design, and we are so excited to share it with you! As you can see, the ticket reads “Admit One” around the four corners of the ticket, with these phrases in the middle of the ticket: “This ticket secures you five minutes in the photobooth. Props are provided. Smiles are required.” We also used images of a vintage camera to decorate the main body of the ticket.

The right side of the ticket reads “Tear Me!” at the top; the card also informs guests where they can A) view the photobooth pictures from the night, and B) add pictures of their own from the wedding. We plan to perforate these tickets along the “Admit One” edge on the right side, so that after the guests turn in their photobooth tickets upon entrance into the photobooth, they can have the little “Tear Me!” card as a take-away.

This was such a fun DIY project for Jordan and I, and we’re thrilled with the resulting design! I can’t wait until these are printed and perforated.

What’s your favorite DIY project?

[Photo via In A Frame]

Green Monday: Earth Day Wedding Favors Giveaway!

Heather from the always lovely Dream Green Weddings sent me a note on a special giveaway she is running in honor of Earth Day.

The Dream Green Weddings team is adding a new eco-friendly wedding favor to their online store every day from now through Earth Day (April 22). Plus, Dream Green Weddings is giving away 40 eco-friendly favors in honor of Earth Day!

To visit the Dream Green Weddings online store, click here.

Happy Monday!

Our Wedding: Invitations Preview – Envelopes!

When crafting our Save the Date cards, I fell in love with envelope liners. I love the fun surprise of opening an envelope to find a little loveliness hidden inside the envelope flap, so I knew that I would try to execute this technique for the majority of our wedding-related envelopes. So, this past weekend, I spent A LOT of time working on the packaging for our wedding invitations.

I’m a HUGE fan of Holly, blogger and DIY craft extraordinaire, so when I saw her AH-MAZ-ING wedding invitations (and her seriously lovely doily-lined envelopes!), I knew that doilies were in my future.

So, I bought out my local grocery store’s selection in glue sticks, hit up Michael’s for doilies (in the cake-baking aisle), and set to work.

Our lovely 6.5 square inch envelopes (purchased from the WONDERFUL Cards & Pockets) look so dressed up with the doilies!

Here’s a close-up:

Total price for this project: $0.17 cents per envelope (I ordered 90 envelopes); $20.00 for glue sticks; $2.99 per pack of doilies (24 in 1 pack) = $47.26!

Happy Thursday!

[Photos by me]

Showcase Wednesday: DIY Bunting!

I jumped on the bunting bandwagon and crafted up my own bunting to dress up our wedding cake table.

I probably should have taken pictures along the way to dress up this post, but alas, I have only a picture of the finished product (above).

Steps:

1. Gather/purchase fabric. I purchased 2 yards of yellow gingham fabric and 2 yards of charcoal grey polka-dot fabric from Hancock Fabrics in Sioux Falls.

2. Find/draw a triangle shape and print on cardstock. This will be your pattern for the triangles. (I’m a fan of larger triangles, but I’ve seen many a cute bunting with little triangles or squares.)

3. Take a pen/pencil and trace along the outside of the triangle on the BACK side of the fabric.

4. Take (sharpened!) pinking shears and cut alongside the outside of your tracing marks. (I made about 30 triangles.)

5. After all of your triangles are cut, fold over the top of the triangle approximately 1 inch, and use a hot iron (with steam!) to make a crease in the triangle, similar to when you’re hemming pants. The purpose is to create a fold where the string can fit in.

6. When all of your triangles are ironed, grab your string, a pair of scissors and a ruler. (I used twine, but you could use ribbon, ric rac, or any other type of string, depending upon your project!) Determine the spacing between each flag (I had approximately 2 inches between triangles).

7. Plug in your hot glue gun, and once it’s warm, insert the string into the fold of the triangle (created with the iron) and place a line of hot glue in the fold as well. Press lightly to secure. Continue on until you’ve used all of your triangles.

8. Take a look at all of your triangles, and trim as necessary.

And you’re done!

While there are various tutorials online that offer ways to make your own bunting, I definitely prefer the no-sew type.

Enjoy!

[Photo by me]

Green Friday: Eco-Friendly Garters!

Are you still looking for a garter to wear on your wedding day? Well look no further than Julianne Smith, who’s crafting garters out of (get ready for this) 100% post consumer polyester that comes entirely from recycled plastic bottles.

Seriously, that’s eco-friendly.

Access Julianne Smith’s shop here! Have a great weekend!

[Photo: Courtesy of Julianne Smith's site]

Showcase Wednesday: My First Gown Fitting!

This past weekend, I trekked south to Sioux City, IA, with my maid of honor Kristen, my Aunt Kathy, my Grandma Helen and my Mom for my first wedding gown fitting! I was SO excited to see my dress for the first time, and to share in the experience with my family members who came along for the ride.

As you recall, we purchased my wedding gown right before the Thanksgiving holiday, so it had been nearly five months since I had seen my wedding gown. We arrived at Happily Ever After, the bridal salon at which we purchased my gown, and I followed the alterations specialist, Amy, into a fitting room. There on a hanger, dear readers, was my wedding gown, wrapped in plastic for protection.

Truthfully, I was excited immediately, mostly because my dress looked significantly different than the sample gown I had tried on so many months ago. Without giving too much away, I ordered my dress with a few customizations that the sample dress didn’t have, which made me all the more anxious to see my gown.

Readers, the gown looked so, so perfect; it was even better than I envisioned. As I slipped out of my street clothes and pulled the dress on, I was beaming a huge, huge smile. I stepped out of the fitting room and found my relatives, and all of them were very excited to finally see the gown.

The alterations specialist began fiddling with the top of the gown (which needs to be taken in slightly) and making notes. Overall, the dress fit so well that very few alterations are needed; just a few tweaks to the overall cut of the dress, as well as a few slight design tweaks.

The actual fitting part of the appointment was over in about 15 minutes. The rest of the time was spent trying on a variety of veils. While I had always pictured myself in a birdcage veil, Kristen and I made a trip to a local bridal shop about one month ago that had me thinking of other options. While I won’t reveal exactly what type of veil I’ve chosen until after our wedding day, I will say that I absolutely LOVE it, and I feel that it will look AMAZING with my gown.

After I had decided what veil I wanted to go along with my gown, it was time to get back into my street clothes. Readers, I didn’t want to take the gown off! I loved how comfortable it was, and it made me feel so, so beautiful – I can’t wait to wear it on our wedding day, and I can’t wait for Jordan to see me in it!