wedding wednesday

I really thought last week would have bored you guys to tears...but I actually think people liked it! And hopefully I helped some of you who are going through this process right now. 

I wanted this post to be my dress post, but no one in my family can seem to find the pictures they took of me trying on all the dresses. So until my mom can track down her broken camera for the memory card (this could take years, people), I can't do that post. 

You've probably noticed a trend - I did a lot of the wedding things myself. Partly because it saved some money and partly (mostly) because I'm incredibly OCD and everything had to be absolutely perfect. 

One of those "this has to be perfect" things was the programs. Yes, I am aware that most people throw those things away right after the ceremony. If I caught anyone throwing away one of mine, I probably would have cried. 

I was browsing some wedding blogs (something I did for HOURS and hours each weekend) and happened upon a post about DIY programs that had a pocket for tissues. I WAS SOLD. How hard could it be? I got out my sewing machine and after a few trips to Hobby Lobby, I was set.

I highly underestimated the amount of work it would take to do this. I thought I would just spend one Saturday watching Lifetime movies and get it done. Well, first-off: it's kind of impossible to watch movies while sewing because you can't really hear the TV and you have to watch the machine. Second: ONE Saturday? More like every Saturday for a month and then nights after work. (A was off on rigs for pretty much our whole engagement, so I did need something to pass the time, but not every.single.day.) 

I didn't do a very good job documenting this because I didn't have a blog back then, but here's what I did for the pockets. I first printed out the "for your happy tears only" sheets on just plain white computer paper but I made them have a light grey background. Then I individually cut those out. I also had to cut the craft paper and vellum into fours. The first round of sewing was to sew the tears tab onto the vellum, that's the top stitch you see. I ended up doing 90% of them with the stitched zig-zag stitch and not the normal zig-zag. Then I sewed the vellum onto the kraft paper with the normal straight stitch on the three edges to make the pockets. 

Did I mention that I had to make 200 of these?

27872 bajillion hours later, I finished the pockets. Fast forward 3 months and the week before the wedding I FINALLY get approval on the program itself. I was still working that week up until Wednesday night, and it just so happened to be the busiest week I had all year. (OF FREAKING COURSE.) I didn't get a chance to print out the programs until that night. 

And then I still had to fold them. I waited until Thursday night to do that (nothing like last minute!) and recruited some of A's groomsmen to help while drinking red wine in their hotel room. (Bless their souls for coming in a day early and trying to help. I'm too OCD for that so I freaked out politely declined the help.) I finally finished the folding Friday night after the rehearsal dinner. I was five or so margaritas in. How they ended up looking good, I HAVE NO CLUE.

This picture makes me laugh because while my bridesmaids were getting hair and makeup done, the ones not currently in the hot seat were assembly lining it to help me finish these. One would stuff it with a tissue and then the next would tape the pocket to the program and then the next would put it nice and neat into my program baskets. 

Besides the table runners, the programs were the most complicated DIY I did. Yes they were a royal pain in the ass, but if I had to do it all again, I would still make them. I would just make sure that the church gets back to me a lot sooner than they did so I could complete everything in advance instead of an hour before I walked down the aisle. And there's no way these would have gotten done if it wasn't for the best bridesmaids EVER. They also helped me do the thank you notes I had on each place setting that day...but that will be in another post. Seriously, they were amazing. Especially my SIL Tiffany, she calmed me down so much by being so willing to jump in and do whatever I needed. 

Someone mentioned to the priest before the ceremony that I had handmade these so he worked that into his homily. I thought that was really sweet...and ok, maybe I was also glad he mentioned it because hopefully it made people less inclined to throw them away. 

In case you were wondering (duh, you were) above is what the inside/back looked like. 

And yes, it does say sign of peach. You think I was going to re-print and fold 200 programs because of that? YEA RIGHT. 

Linking up with Meredith!

things are looking up

Someone got herself a makeover today! I'm in love with it and keep looking at it every 5 minutes to remind myself of how pretty it is now. Hope you like it to!

My weekend update is terrible today - I did a very bad job at taking pictures this past week, but here goes nothing. Next week I'll use my real camera!

When we got to Houston on Monday night my sister pawned off her dessert she needed to make on me. Considering I had to direct her through the grocery store to find the apples, it was probably a good thing. I made these mini apple pies...and they were SO good. And probably the easiest thing ever. I got a little crafty with it, as you can see. (And these are pre-baked ones.)

They were so good that I made them again on Thursday. YUM!

Work made Tuesday and Wednesday pass by pretty quickly. I got off at noon on Wednesday and headed over to my sister's house to play with my nephew. He went down the slide by himself for the first time.

pretty excited about the slide!

On Thursday the family came over around 10 and we had a relaxing morning playing with Reid and eating WAY too many dips. I didn't eat any turkey due to the disgusting amount of dips I ate. But man, TJ's knows how to make a dip or two. Insert drooling here.

We realized while we were playing that Boo (that's my sister's nickname, long story) dressed Reid in the WRONG bib. Bowden tried to bite it off, but missed and got his hand. Orange and blue are NEVER allowed to be worn together!!

Then we jetted off to the airport. There was no one there, of course, but we didn't account for the fact that there were ZERO parking spots left. In the entire airport. We BEGGED the parking spot guy to let us in and THANK GOD they had one teeeeny spot left. We barely made it, but we did!

Friday bright and early we left Little Rock and headed to Fay-town for the football game.

so jealous of all those people in the sun.

we had seats right next to where my tigers came out of. was fun!



Don't let the picture fool you - I WAS DYING. It was the coldest I've ever been. I took my boots off when we got back to the car to warm my feet. When we got to the restaurant 20 minutes later they were so swollen that my boots wouldn't fit. DEAD. At least LSU won!

We got back Saturday to a houseful of pissed off people thanks to the nasty Florida gaytors. I'd rather go to a shitty bowl game and beat UF than go to a good one (holla Orange bowl!) and lose to UF. HATE HATE HATE IT.

bowden was pissed too, can't you see that scowl?

go link up!



saw it. pinned it. did it.

I REALLY wanted this edition of saw it pinned it did it to be un-wedding related, but I failed majorly this week. I made three recipes from pinterest, but forgot to take step my step photos of them. Next week I'll start fresh...but for now, here's something else I made for the wedding. (catching on? i made almost everything myself. get help for yours, it was rough!)

So, here's some of my inspiration pins.

via

via

I knew that chalkboard would fit in with the feel I was going for, so I set off to find some cute ones. FAIL. They don't really sell cute chalkboards anywhere. I almost gave up on this one until I saw these platters at Marshall's. (And here's where I tell you that I got a new phone since then so the only photos I have are screen shots off instagram. Baaadddd blogger.)

 

Each platter was around $5.00. Then I spray painted each with a clear coat because I read somewhere once that you can't paint on ceramic and have it stick without that. Don't skip this step!!

 

Then I followed this tutorial on how to make your own chalkboard paint. Yes, you can buy it, but this way is MUCH cheaper! I ventured over to Lowe's. On a Friday night...yep, life of the party over here! (I did go get wine right after, though. All crafting needs some wine. Just a fact.)

 

Anyways, I got the little trial container of valspar, I think it was three dollars. It's right at a cup. I got a navy color because my wedding colors were navy and yellow. 

via

Then came the painting. I had to do three coats because I'm a perfectionist. Two would have been fine, though. Let it dry completely and then you have to chalk the whole thing and wipe it off with a damp rag. Once dry, it's ready!

Here's what mine looked like once completed. (Sidenote - if you make your own paint and want to change out what you write on there, you have to use REAL chalk. I used a chalk pen so I can never change what they say. For some reason the chalk pen doesn't erase well on homemade chalk paint. I guess I could just paint over it, though!)

next to the card holder

the bar menu

we didn't want assigned seating, but did want our family members to get the best tables

our sign in books were children's books of our college teams

the sign in/gifts table

 

Now go link up with Katie and Stephanie to see what others are pinning and making! That is my favorite part of this, seeing how others use their crafty skills.

 

 

 

 



a tutorial on this gorgeous tuesday

It's way too pretty outside to be working today! Thanking my lucky stars that I work from home and have the perfect excuse to frequent the sunshine today. Puppies gotta pee, yo!

[And I already broke my blogging-every-day rule...color me shocked. Friday we had a team training thingy for work and then yesterday just sucked, as most Mondays do! Making up for it today with some pictures, though. Although I'm too lazy to bust out the DSLR so iPhone photos they are!]

The pupster's name is Bowden. (Bonus points to anyone who knows why that's his name/who it's in honor of!) He's only 3.1 pounds, so it's REALLY hard to find him clothes. Scratch that, it's really hard to find him cheap clothes - who has $40+ bucks to spend on a Christmas sweater? I much prefer the same sweater at Marshalls for $8 bucks. Problem is that they usually only have larges.

I put my thinking cap on and decided to make him one! I bought this newborn onesie at Target for FOUR dollars. And they have three other cute Christmas onesis that I'll for sure be going back for later.

Isn't it cute? Good thing I have a puppy to wear it, I almost want a baby looking at this. Almost.

So then I chopped off the sleves and the bottom snappy part, folded it inside out and pinned up the sides. (If you don't know how to sew, you could just cut and call it a day, but after the first wear it may fray a lot.)

Then I sewed it and voila! (For some reason my machine decided to eat the shirt a few times. The perfectionist in my is so pissed that I'm sharing this project!)

I can't wait to do this for every holiday, now. A didn't quite love it as much as I did, but it keeps Bowden warm so it's staying on!