A Fun DIY Project (Alternatively Titled: How I Cut My Thumb Open)

Hey all!

So we are getting married two weeks from Saturday.  The clock is ticking and the countdown is on!  I have to admit that for these past four or five weeks I've felt overwhelmed with stress at the sheer amount of things we had yet to get accomplished for this wedding (and naturally the blog has suffered).  But Eric and I have worked through the list slowly but surely, and have delegated a lot of tasks to our awesome family and wedding party, and the day is coming together wonderfully.  I am at the point now where I am just so excited to say I do!  I want the day to be here NOW.

 

Get to call this handsome man my husband in 2.5 weeks!

Now that it is closer to the wedding, we are needing to get done all the tedious tasks that we have been putting off until the end stages.  One of those tasks was our corkboard seating chart.  You may recall this post where I first unveiled it.  So, Eric and I have earnestly saved every cork from every bottle of wine we have shared together, from the day we got engaged until now, with the plans of creating a seating chart made from the corks of our wine bottles of love.  Well those plans tanked pretty fast when we realized we would have to drink three bottles of wine a day in order to have enough in time.  Riiiiight.  So we came up with a new idea for the corks that they would hold our place cards at the tables!

 

Cute!

At 155 guests, we needed far less of them, so Eric went through the (embarrassingly full) bag of corks and picked out the best ones to use for this project.  Then I lured Tara and Melissa over to my place to watch the premiere of the Bachelorette with promise of wine and food, and then dropped the bomb that they would be helping me do crafts all night.  Mwahahaha...

Turns out I have the same patience for crafting as I do for shopping.  10 minutes and I'm sooooo done.  On a project that takes several hours, this was bad news bears.  But I had my lovely besties to help me through, and we ended up doing a pretty awesome job! 

 

We diiiiiiid it.

The first and most ridiculous step was actually cutting the wine cork in order to put the place card into it.  We tried a utility knife, butter knife, steak knife and bread knife, and finally settled on the bread knife, but not before my hand slipped and I dug a newly sharpened Henckels blade deep into my thumb.  After a 15 minute break to stop the bleeding we resumed, but needless to say I was off cutting duty for the rest of the night.  And, I must have nicked a nerve or something because my thumb is still numb around the cut even 10 days later.  Weird.

 

Obbbbbbviously when you craft you need a big glass o'wine.

 

The next step was getting the wine cork to actually stand up and not roll over with the place card in it.  To keep it upright, we went on a rather pitiful run to Dollarama to locate some bling to glue to the cork.  We found some big fake gems and voila!  Cork stands upright.  We used E6000 which is the same glue I use for strassing, so I know those suckers will stick.

 

Troubleshooting like a boss....

Next was glittering the ends of the corks because, let's face it, I like glitter.  I bought one purple and one black container of fine loose glitter, mixed them together in a bowl (to tone down the purpleyness of it all), and the girls brushed the ends of the cork with white glue and pushed the cork into the bowl.  Et voila!

 

Note the bandaid from the aforementioned knife incident.

Tara made the actual place cards using her vast and impressive supply of scrapbooking tools including a cutter, and some other thing, and these sticky things, and something called cardstock, and glittery paper.  I don't ask questions.  So here is the finished product!  And then we will stick little coloured dots to the place cards so that the wait staff know who is eating what. 

 

Whee!  A DIY success!

It's very cool to see all the smaller details of the day coming together.  Here's a couple other things that have been going on this week!

We have the favor tags for our imperial cookie favors....

 

Awe!

My brother chose the dinner wines for our wedding, and naturally Eric and I had to taste them first, and they are AWESOME...

 

Red:  Hacienda Albae 'Seleccion' Cabernet Merlot 2007, Castillo, Spain

White:  Adi Badenhorst Secateurs Chenin Blanc 2013, Swartland, South Africa

 

 

My bro is also hard at work choosing the wines for the wine tasting during cocktail hour, so I hope everyone enjoys that!


And Eric and I have also decided on our late night fare.  This is obviously really important at a wedding, because it's been 4 hours since you've last eaten, you've burned off your dinner cutting a rug on the dance floor, and you're wasted so naturally you want to stuff your face.  We decided for our wedding that although we both love a good cheese sandwich on rye with the cheese on the outside, that we wanted something a little more upscale that the usual deli-style social food.  So our guests are going to be scarfing down none other than gourmet mini sliders with aged cheddar and onion confit, and mini poutine with smoked gouda and a herb glace!

 

 

Basically small cheeseburgers....

 

 

...and small fries and gravy with cheese.  Dee-licious.

We're so excited to share this day with all our friends and family.  Can't wait!!!


Happy Wedding Wednesday!!!



~M

DIY Delight

Well, we are officially getting married in one year and two days.  I feel like time is just flying by!  I can remember thinking to myself, “Oh boo, I can’t do anything yet, we still have 18 months, it’s too early to start planning” but now, I’m more like...

 

 

Wheeee, it’s time to start planninnnnng!

 

Which is sometimes followed closely by...

 

 

OH GOD I ONLY HAVE 12 MONTHS TO DO ALL THIS?!?

 

But mostly the excited kid thing.

Eric and I got all our big ducks in a row early:  venue, ceremony space, photographer, videographer, officiant, bridal party selection, and social venue.  These have all been booked and taken care of, so now we can focus on some of the smaller details.   My current most important mission is finding a dress.  Not only do a lot of dress places require a long ordering lead time (sometimes up to 8 months, and then you need time for alterations) but I also can’t make some other important decisions until I select the Big Kahuna.  I have heard a lot of great things about Bliss Bridal, so I’m taking the MOB and MOH there a week from Saturday to see what we can find. 

 

 

 

 

Love some of these gowns that Bliss carries...

Now that we are within the time frame to start looking at some of the smaller details of the wedding (although it is still a little early) I am taking an inventory of all the DIY projects I want to tackle.  I definitely don’t want to be frantically gluing rhinestones to napkin rings at 4 am, 5 days before the wedding, so I want to make sure I have lots of time to get everything done that I need to so that I’m nice and relaxed prior to the big day.  So I thought I’d share with you some of the DIY wedding projects that I am digging right now!

 

Colossalpieces

First off, Pinterest is a great source of inspiration for weddings, but it can kind of be a double edged sword.  You see all these lovely designer gowns and cathedral length veils, candid romantic photos of the couple looking immaculate from every angle, the 3 foot high spray flower centerpieces with individual lighting and ostrich feathers, the gorgeous tulle draping held up by hummingbirds with glittered wingtips, and the gorgeous brides with their perfect hair and teeth without even a hint of armgina in their strapless dresses (you know what I’m talking about).  This can give you some unrealistic expectations about what your wedding day should look like and also can lead to some budget-busting ideas pretty quick.

 

 

Gorgeous, stylish, blushing bride:  Seen on Pinterest.

 

 

Armgina: Not seen on Pinterest. 

 

However, there are some awesome ideas you can get from Pinterest and almost all the inspiration I’ve gathered for centerpieces has come from there.  I really love the idea of tall, grand centerpieces, especially since the ceiling in the Millennium Centre is so high.  So what I have in mind looks something like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

So pretty.

Pulling all the pieces together (there are 22 individual parts for what I have in mind) will likely be a challenge, especially staying under budget.  Luckily I have access to some very crafty people with big discount cards.  ;)

Strassy Strass Strass

You all know I’m a big fan of strassing, and I’m going to do my wedding shoes, probably a Hyper Prive pump strassed in Swarovski Clear Crystal (again, depending on the dress).  But literally the only thing stopping me from strassing everything in sight is the time it takes to do it.  I have decided I am going to strass a pair of shoes for Aislin to wear so she matches me, which won’t take long because she has tiny feet, but I also want a strassed bouquet holder!  I saw these on Pinterest as well, but I don’t like the rows of fake rhinestones and prefer the sparkle that the strassing pattern gives.  So there will be many a night in the next 12 months where I will be hunched over the living room table with a big glass of wine, bedazzling!  (If anyone out there knows where to get a plain bouquet holder, let me know.)

 

 

Like this, but better.

 

 

Like this, but better.

 

And here's a video of a completed strassed ruby slipper that I have been meaning to post - just ignore the Packers game in the background :)

 

 

 

Put A Cork On It

Some of you might be surprised to know that Eric has been very involved with the wedding planning right from the start, and has really great ideas.  I know some grooms couldn’t care less, and just want to know what time to show up to the wedding and don’t have any further involvement.  Eric couldn’t be further from that, he’s in here like a dirty shirt!  He came up with the idea for our seating chart that I love – we are saving all the corks from all the bottles of wine we’ve shared, from the time we got engaged to the date of our wedding.  We are going to use the corks to make the seating chart which the table assignments will be pinned to.  I love that it’s such a personal touch and it incorporates our love of wine into our reception.  We will probably have enough corks to make three seating charts.  We drink a lot of wine.  Don’t judge.

 

 

 

Like this, but better.

Take A Number

I saw this in Martha Stewart Wedding (basically just a print version of Pinterest in that you feel like an inadequate piece of shit after looking at it) and I totally loooove the idea of glitterized table numbers.  Well glitterized anything really.  And my crafty MOH said they would be very easy to make!  Then she started saying something about heat embossing and something else, and I knew this would best be delegated to her list of tasks as she is the crafter extraordinaire.  I can’t even make pancakes without searing my hand, so something called heat embossing is probably best left to the professional.  But so pretty!  I love the 3D ones as well.  Very excited to sit down and craft it up with these....

 

 

 

Ombré....trés chic.

 

He Gives Me Butterflies

Squeeedeeeleedee I love these butterfly place cards.  They are so sweet and delicate looking, perched on the edge of a wine glass.  I know that place cards are not super popular with guests, and a lot of people just switch them around anyway, and to be honest I don’t care where anyone sits at the table, I just like these little beauties so much.  It’s sort of a pie in the sky DIY project, as they need to be hand calligraphed (um ya right?) and require a special cutting machine.  I do know a verrrrry nice lady with a Cricut who might be able to help me out, so it’s on the list of maybes.  ;)

 

 

 

Ahhh!  Love.

 

I’m not like a big butterfly lover or anything.  Sure I think they are pretty, but they wouldn’t figure prominently into the wedding or become part of any kind of butterfly “theme”.  But these do have a personal significance to me because of the story of when Eric and I first started dating.  For those of you that don’t know, this is not my first foray into the world of blogging.  Back when I was single, I had a dating blog called “Diary of a Mad Dater” that basically detailed all the hilarious, ridiculous stories of the dates I had been on with total duds.  Guy who Wears Woman’s Jacket, Guy who is the Intellectual Equivalent of a Ham Sandwich, Guy who Pays 3/4 of the Bill, Guy who is Weirdly Obsessed with Andre Agassi...et cetera.  So after quite a few of these disappointing dates, I was a little jaded about the whole process and males in general, and my expectations of dating (particularly blind dates) were starting to drop to the point where I just thought it was straight up funny.  And just as I’m starting to legit lose my faith in humanity and the male species, I went on a first date with a guy who actually made my heart skip a beat when I first saw him.  Okay, this guy is seriously handsome.  And then as we talked, I was further and further impressed.  Wow, he actually has a post-secondary education.  Okay.  He’s travelled the world!  That’s pretty awesome actually.  He has some really great stories.  He’s funny!  (“Does this rag smell like chloroform to you?”) Articulate and well spoken, check.  Charming!  Confident, I like that.  So by the time he walked me home, gave me a hug and I went inside, I was happily surprised.  I remember thinking to myself, well what do you know..........butterflies.  :)

That’s a really sweet ending to the story, so I’m going to leave out the part where I ran upstairs and phoned the MOH and excitedly yammered “I just had the BEST DATE!  Totally going to marry this guy.”  To which she appropriately responded, “Okayyyyyyy there.  WHOA.  Whoa there.”  And the part where he took six days to call me back after that.... ;)

 

 

<3 this boy.

 

Happy Wedding Wednesday!!!

 

~M

 

 

A Mixed Bag

I know, I KNOW.  I missed my blog again last week.  Thankfully I didn't get too much heat for it, I think everyone in my life knows that tax season is a gonger and some Wednesdays the blog takes a backseat to the sea of files in my office.  So if you see some sporadic posting between now and June, you'll know why!

 

"Yeah.....you're going to have to work this weekend."  I feel you Milton.

So I was very much looking forward to this week's blog, because over the weekend, I finished the ruby slippers I was strassing!  If you remember this post, I did them as a practice run for what will ultimately be my awesomely awesome bridal shoes.  And I am glad I did, because I learned a LOT that I will apply when I tackle this super DIY project.

...but you will have to wait to find out what that was.  I was so excited about the shoes that I took them to the dance studio on Tuesday to show them to my little Dorothy and let her try them on.  Of course she looked fabulous in them, I mean come on.  But then I let her dance in them - and unfortunately one side of one shoe lost a lot of rhinestones.  I started strassing using one specific type of glue, but it was thin and didn't stick well and halfway through I thought better of it and switched to E6000.  So the side that had the crap glue on it now looks pretty bare.  So I have to go back and fix that and unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures of the shoes before they got all patchy.  So that post will have to wait!  The good news is, the other shoe didn't lose a single stone, so I know I've got the right glue product now! 

 

It's my turn next!  Yayyyyy!

So until I can fill you in on all the details of that particular DIY success, I thought I'd share a few updates with you and then gush about a couple of featured weddings that I am obsessed with these days.

I'm happy to announce that Eric and I have booked our photographer and videographer.  Two more things off the list of 135 things to do, done! 

Carrie takes such pretty and dreamy photos...

We have also decided that we are going to have our social centered around St. Patrick's Day next year!  So if you are reading this, consider yourself booked for March 15, 2014 for an evening of fun and frolicking amidst prizes wrapped in cellophane, plain chips on paper plates, plentiful booze, and cheese cubes.  And Eric and I will have tons of inspiration for our social, because........wait for it.......

 

SQUEE.

We are heading to the beautiful Emerald Isle this year!  Hooray!

I am so unbelievably excited for this trip to Ireland, because I have always wanted to go there.  It made the short list for our honeymoon, but after we picked South Africa it was put back on the "someday" shelf.  Well someday is now September 5, 2013!  Hopefully while we're there we'll get to see the ruins of McAuliffe Castle and have a pint of Guinness with some locals.  I'm especially pumped to visit the Cliffs of Moher and find me a horcrux.

Reeeeeeeteeteeteetee!

Anyway, back to the wedding blog. 

I just love glamorous, sparkly, elegant weddings.  I know I harp on it a lot, but I am so not the vintage lace/mason jar type of bride.  So when I see a wedding that gets away from that trend and goes big and beautiful, I gobble it up.  I wanted to share with you a couple of weddings that I found on Weddings In Winnipeg that I absolutely adore. (Click on the photos for a closer look!)

The first is one that I bookmarked a long time ago.  My absolute favorite part is the way that the stationery and design is incorporated into every aspect - their seating chart, menu cards, table cameras, favor cards, table numbers, everything!  And what a beautiful bride!  I envision myself with a goofy smile on my face all day so I really loved the photos of her looking so happy.

 

 

 

 

 

So pretty!  See the full post here.

 

 

The second is a wedding that was just posted today, and the photos caught my eye instantly.  Gorgeous dress, gorgeous bouquet, and gorgeous décor!  Love.

 

 

Beautiful right?  See the rest of the photos here.

And so ends today's hodgepodge of wedding blogmania!  See you next week, fingers crossed!


Happy Wedding Wednesday!!!


~M

A Grand Celebration!

This past weekend Eric and I celebrated our engagement with our family and close friends at our engagement party, hosted by our parents at my MOH’s beautiful home.  I am so happy to be engaged to my handsome fiancé and was very excited to celebrate our upcoming nuptials!

 

“I love you.  And I just wanted to shout it from the top of a mountain.  But I didn’t have a mountain.  I had an engagement party.”

 

I ordered the invitations from Wedding Paper Divas.  I love this website, especially all the customization features and the fact that the invitations are budget-friendly.  We were able to put anything we wanted on it, and even included a photo from our proposal on the back. 

Eric’s middle name is Andrew.  Not Jehoshephat.  Long story for another blog post...

 

Of course, my DIY streak was in full force and I wanted a keepsake for each guest to take away from the party without breaking the bank.  I picked up champagne glasses from Dollarama for $1 each (love Dollarama!) and rhinestones from Michael’s, and decorated each one.  Then I had my MOH, who is also Scrapbooking Queen Supreme, make a pretty tag for each glass with a message from us.  We used the glasses for the toast at the party, and guests got to take them home! 

 

Bling!

 

 

 

Our little thank you...

 

 

 

Ready for the toast!

 

I was overwhelmed at how much our family and friends came together and helped with the party.  MOB, who is also Cake Boss Supreme, made us a pretty engagement cake along with some ultra yummy red velvet cupcakes that were positively to die for.  They were all decorated so beautifully – I loved it all!

 

So pretty!

 

 

 

Eric and I got special cupcakes on the top tier...

 

 

 

The theme is “bling”.  Can you tell?

 

Eric’s parents made the most fabulous cheese spread I have ever seen with every type of cheese imaginable, and even made cute little signs to stick in the cheese.  Eric’s brother Adam brought a yummy fruit platter, Eric’s sister Marita made delicious punch, and we had hors d’oeuvres catered by Amici Catering.  It was all very tasty!

 

We also received a special set of engagement presents from our parents!  I have been eyeing the Swarovski Crystal Champagne Flutes for a while, for Eric and I to have as our toasting flutes at the wedding.  They have a crystal base as well as hundreds of tiny crystals in the stem.  They are positively divine and I couldn’t imagine us using anything else to toast to our new life together. 

 

SQUEE.

 

So I was shocked and delighted when we opened a box from my parents to reveal these gorgeous goblets, and then unwrapped a bottle of very fine champagne from France from Eric’s parents!  So thankful and so excited!!!

 

Look at that handsome man....

 

All in all we had a fantastic engagement party and fun was had well into the night.  I want to thank everyone who attended and made it so special for Eric and I, we are overwhelmed by your love and generosity.  <3

 

 

One happy couple!

 

Happy Wedding Wednesday!!!

 

~M