A Book Themed Wedding

The Office Husband and I are huge book nerds. My dad was a printer by trade in his earlier years, and that's where I grew to love and appreciate a well made book. And the Office Groom always has a new book or magazine in his hand, which he probably got after one of our many visits to Indigo.

We hadn't initially thought of having any theme at all, and it sort of happened naturally after we fell in love with an invite design found online that tells the story of how the couple met and got engaged. And that's when we came up with the saying "A lifetime full of wonderful stories," and a book theme was born.

We didn't want to go over the top and end up with a library for a reception, so we tried to incorporate the theme in little ways. Here are a few photos of how it turned out!

Guests could find out where they were sitting by referring to the seating chart, which was designed to look like a library reference list. I also added a few loose book pages to frame it.


Library cards were used as table numbers. You can find them on Etsy easily!


In lieu of the traditional flower arrangement, we decided to use books as the guest table centerpieces. Each table had a group of books which were specifically picked out with the guests in mind. It took a a lot of visits to the bookstore to do this, but luckily time was on our side. And we got some great deals just by looking throught the bargain bins and with the help of a friend whose dad works at a publishing house!


We made a donation to ABC Life Literacy Canada on behalf of our guests, and as a token of their appreciate the organization provided a small Robert Munsch book for each guest.


This was my favourite detail. To add a personal touch, we handmade these bookmarks for all the guests. But we went one step further and wrote a personal story for each guest. That took a few nights of sitting on the couch with some wine and recollecting our most favourite memories, but it was worth it! It blew the minds of so many people!


After a delicious dinner, the cupcake table opened up. I found this gem of a book at Indigo!


Photographs by Shannon Lepere and our family & friends.

Cramming in some Crafts

With just 4 days left until the big day (CRAZY!), I have been in Super Craft mode. The Office Groom and I have been collecting books for the last year and a half and I was finally able to put them to use. The photos don't do any of our arrangement justice, especially with all the crap behind them, but hopefully it will look awesome in the actual space with everything else.

GUEST / GIFT TABLE
A stack of books with a flower arrangement (the pink box is just a plce holder) on top. There are loose book sheets underneath. The gift box and guest book tie in our colours.



DESSERT TABLE
I'm all about recycling and reusing. So when I saw these pots at my bridal shower, I wanted to use them again. Luckily the ribbon around them mathces our colours (and OG kilt) perfectly! There will be cupcakes in the pots, and then rest of them will be scattered around the books.



DINNER TABLE
My personal fave. We picked up books with all of our guests in mind. Everything from music, comedy, video games, hockey, and travel. Hopefully most of them will notice the titles and realize the connection :) At the end of the night one lucky guest at each table will get to take the books home.



There were a lot more crafts done over the weekend with my BMs. More photos to come!

Gift Card Box for $2...Not Too Shabby!

This weekend, I went a little crazy at the Dollorama, and picked up a whole bunch of wedding related items like gift bags and ribbon. The latter plays a big part in the decor at our reception, so I needed to find good enough ribbon in our colours, at a reasonable price.

One of my crafty assignments over the weekend was to bedazzle our card box. Last week I posted about the challenge in finding a nice card box that wasn't too pricey. Luckily for me, my co-wokrer lent me hers - a Martha Stewart Eyelit Gift Card box purchased at Walmart. I just checked out Walmart's site however, so that I could pass on the info to you all, and unfortunately, it's no longer available. Le booooo. I'm guessing that it would have cost something between $25-35 since one of the comments on the site said:

This is very nice product. The box is sturdy and pretty. Great if you do not want to spend the $50+ on a gift box or cage that you will only be using once. There is not a lock but a bow to tie around to keep it somewhat secure. I would recommend this item.

The box itself is all white, and I wanted to jazz it up with some ribboon and doodads to tie in our colours a bit more - no pun intended. So with some $2 navy blue ribbon, and an old pin I found in my jewellry box, I came up with this!





Not bad for a total of $2, huh? Hopefully the contents in the box will be worth more ;)

Bustin' my a$$ to find a Busta Box

Busta Boxes, aka Wedding Card/Money Boxes, are not easy to find in Toronto. At least, not one that isn't over priced or shaped like a Cinderalla pumpkin carriage complete with plastic horse...not that there's anything wrong with that.

Office Groom's mom offered to rent one for us but when she told us that it would cost $50, I figured I could find something more affordable to buy. So I began my search at Etsy, where I found one beautiful box after the other. My favourite was from NY Etsy artist Ellen of BWITHU. She can customize boxes with a variety of sizes, shapes, colours, and fabrics. FAB! It didn't take me long to fall in love with this one:


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The colours worked perfectly, I loved the silver detailing, and the price was affordable. So where does this perfect match made in Craft Heaven end? When I discovered that to ship it to the Great White North would cost an additional $25 US. Le boo (That's "Crap" in French).

My co-worker who sits beside must have noticed my search and eventual fail because she told me about her own Card Box - a Martha Stewart design from Wal-Mart.

Whaaaaat?!

Searching for it on-line wasn't the easiest, so my co-worker stepped it up a notch and brought hers in today for me to borrow! Ok, so I'll admit that for a split second I had a Prissy Bride moment and thought to myself "But I want my OWN box!! Waaaaah!" But then I snapped back to reality and realized that I was stressing over a BOX (how many times have I written "box" in this post, geez?) and I was happy again :)

Office Bridal Shower - Crafty Card

The awesomeness didn't end there. One of OG's co-workers asked a crafty friend to make a card for us that was signed by the whole office. How cute is this?



She used one of our engagement shots that we posted on Facebook. And how's this for a weird coincidence? The mastermind behind the card, The Scrappy Stamper, is a classmate of mine from university! Weeeeird! I'll definitely have to blog more about her in the future!

Why Am I Sweating The Small Stuff?

I spent almost 30 minutes at Essence du Papier today during my lunch, staring at a wall of guest book options. I kid you not. STARING. I picked up one book and looked it over on all sides. And then I put it down and picked up another book.

I debated everything from size, colour, traditional write-in, or photo. The sales people probably thought I was some crazy homeless lady dressed up decent just looking for a place to stay cool from the outdoor heat. Sigh.

And then... when I FINALLY made my choice (a photo guest book with white paper), and headed back to the office... it was only about an hour afterwards when I started to doubt my choice.

WTF? In my head I could hear my sensible side telling me to "Take it easy - it's just a guest book!" However it was having to compete with my more emotional side who wanted me to "Put real thought into this, because after all, this is your WEDDING GUEST BOOK!!"

So, like a madwoman with a split personality, I picked up the shopping bag and made my way back to the store. And it was only after I had exited the elevator that I realized I forgot one of the items on my desk.

ARRRGH.

I took that as a sign from the world that I should go back to my desk, live with my choice, and actually get some work done.

A friggin' guest book. Who woulda guessed? lol

Bridal Shower - Games

It's the age old tradition of getting your favourite ladies together and then watching them embarrass themselves while they try to wrap toilet paper around themselves in an effort to design a wedding gown.

Bridal Shower Games... Some love it...some hate it. The latter is mostly because you are forcing women who don't know each other to play games together like it's a big girl birthday party. But done right, everyone can have a good time!

I haven't been to too many showers in my lifetime so far, but I learned a few things about bridal shower games after my special day. My ladies did a really good job of comming up with games that (a) were not wasteful (b) were not too difficult or embarrassing (c) did not have to involve everyone at once (d) had a nice reward at the end of each one.

The first game was "Dress The Bridesmaid." Only four (un)willing participants were needed and each were given a Barbie doll, some tissue paper, tape, and glitter. It was a lot of fun to see what the ladies came up with. Some were, um, "creative" while others came up with dresses I would actually wear!



The second game was called "Dress The Bride" and the same rules applied. I was in charge of choosing the winner for both games, and for this one I made my decision based on the fact that the doll itself looked like me lol.

The last game was my favourite. It was a custom made BINGO game designed by one of my bridesmaids, and each block contained a wedding related word or something from our registry. While I opened presents, the women played a round. I thought this was a great way to pass the time while lucky ol' me opened up the gifts, instead of everyone just sitting there and watching me.



I think my ladies did a fantastic job of keeping everyone entertained and ease the tension of not knowing one another!

What kind of bridal shower games did you have?

DIY Paper Pendants

Last month I posted about a paper pendant workshop that my sister-in-law was going to take me to, and last night was the outting!

Together with a few other lady friends, we enjoyed a healthy dinner at Fresh on Queen Street W (Try the "Green Destiny," it's delish), and then headed to the Paper Place to get our craft on.

We were a small group of 8, which made it more intimate and less hot (for all those in Toronto, you know that I'm referring to the incredible heat wave we had yesterday). Each person was given their own set of materials and tools to get started. A cutting board, utility knife, 3 types of glue, glass pendants, and oodles of pretty paper to choose from.





The process is fairly simple. Choose your paper (which is probably the hardest part!), clean the glass, add a few drops of Diamond Glaze glue to the flat side and smear it around, and then place it on the paper. And wait...

The waiting is important. You need to be sure the glue is completely dry before you go to the next stage - cutting around the edge to get rid of the excess paper. If the glue isn't set yet, you run the risk of ripping the paper or moving the glass from the desired position.

Once you've cut around the edge, you should end up with something like this:



Oooh...pretty isn't it? Luckily the paper took care of most of that for me :)

To preserve the baskside of the pendant (which is the paper) from wear and tear, add a thin layer of glue on the back, and again, wait for it to dry. When it is, you can then add the hook to the back using the second type of glue, E6000. This is an adhesive (like super glue) so be careful not to get any on your fingers!

Depending on how many you make or how creative you get using different paper and cutouts, the whole process can take anywhere from and hour to two. And again, most of that time is used to select paper and wait for glue to dry.

This is what I ended up with after our 2 hour workshop.



I'm keeping a couple for myself, giving one to each of the moms, and probably the others to friends. Fun times!

What I Learned About DIY Invitations - Part 1

This should technically be Part 2, as my first lesson about DIY invitations was spelling msitakes and proofreading the sh*t outta them to be sure there are none!

However, let's call it Part 1 nonetheless because this past long weekend, I spent an hour every day fitting the pieces all together. And by "pieces" I mean: writing addresses on envelopes, indicating the number of reserved seats on the RSVP card, and adding the final touch of a custom designed stamp on the back of the envelope. Sounds easy enough, right?

Riiiight.

Writing Addresses
I decided to get all fancy shmancy and purchase a calligraphy pen at a local paper shop.

Just a side note - this particular store is located in the business district of Toronto, which means $$$. At first glace the only calligraphy pens they had were over $150. Pffft. When I asked a saleswoman for a more affordable pen, she showed me one for $90. Again, I asked "Is there anything more affordable?" That's when she half-assedly directed me to a wall of pens for $14. In my head: "WTF didn't you just show me this to begin with?" But I digress...

I have, what most people consider, nice hand writing. So when it came down to who would be writing the addresses, all fingers pointed at me (mainly from Office Groom). I was glad to do it, since I loved doing calligraphy as a kid, and I take pride in my neat writing. So with my brand new $14 pen in hand, I started the job. Everything was smooth sailing... until I messed up a name. Damn. And then I messed up an address. Damn damn. And then I was holding the pen incorrectly and it wasn't calligraphy so much as it was just ink scratches. Sigh.



Using Ink Stamps
Once the addresses were completed, the invites were inserted, and I started on the custom stamp on the envelope. That part was really easy. I took a few lessons from Etsy seller AssPocket Productions and learned the ideal way to get ink on the stamp using her on-line tutorial. It's the sealing of the envelope that proved to be more difficult. Not wanting to pull a "Susan," Office Groom used a damp cloth to wet the envelope glue. Unfortunately, with a just a bit too much water, you end up with this:



The ripped up paper is a result of me reopening the envelope in frustration to remove the invitation card. Office Groom said that it wasn't so bad, and I just gave him that look that says "Really?" He left me alone to produce a new envelope, lol.

What I learned: Patience is a virtue. I was exctied to get through as many as possible, but speeding along won't save you time in the long run. So - take your time! Don't it all in one sitting either. I found taking an hour here and there was less stressful. And lastly, having a very clean and clutter free surface to work helps a lot. Chances are it will get cluttered with all the invitation materials anway, so may as well have a clear workspace to begin with.

Part 2 coming up soon!

Spelling Msitakes

The Office Groom and I printed out our invites last night! That part is a "YAY"! After hours of designing and wording, picking out the paper at The Paper Place, and printing them on one of the office printers at O.G.'s workplace (ssshhhhh), we had ourselves some really nice looking invites. I was so proud of them, that today I decided to take one with me to work and show them off to a co-worker.

The design is pretty different - it's a short funny story of how O.G. and I met. I was inspired by this invitation that I found online over a year ago, so there's a lot of text and in different fonts.

I thought I had proofread it a billion times over - so did OG - so when my co-worker pointed out that I spelled "treked" instead of "trekked" my heart broke into little pieces! That's the "GRRRR" part.

How could I have not noticed that? I feel like such an idiot! Here I am, putting in all this time and effort, only to discover 150 printed invites later than I have a typo. Sigh. Please, oh please, tell me that I'm not the only one out there! I wouldn't normally sweat the small things, but I took a lot of pride in designing them myself :(

We're not reprinting. It's a waste of money and paper. And I can only hope that either guests don't notice or don't mention it if they do. Although, having two parents for teachers, and a plethora of academic friends and family - chances are I'll have to develop thick skin after the invites get sent out.

"Treked." Pffft.

DIY Veil...unveiled

Rock My Wedding has a great DIY tutorial for a simple veil. I still haven't decided whether I'm buying or making (or *cough* asking my mom to make it) my veil, but if it's easy as it seems in this tutorial I might consider the former!


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Happy Friday everyone!

Flowers and Pin Wheels and Ribbon, oh my!

Here's the idea: I found these beautiful pin wheels made from old book pages, from Etsy seller Twirlie Whirlies.


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The pin wheels can be made out of a wide selection of paper and book pages, and she can also source book pages from favourite titles! I'm thinking of incorporating them with the flowers for the Flower Girls. Playful, pretty, and it will tie in nicely with our book theme.

Instead of the traditional basket of flowers or a full bouquet, I thought just a handful of flowers will look really nice.


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Tie a ribbon around the pin wheels and flowers combined, and voila, one very cute Flower Girl arrangement for each of my nieces to hold!

Sew cool!

(Sorry, I like puns)

Check out this invitation design I stumbled upon this morning. Yup, you're seeing it right. The designer, Anna Bond, stitched the design with needle and thread! Talk about paying attention to detail (and a whole lotta patience)! I can totally appreciate the craftmandship, growing up with a mom and grandmom who both sew (and taught me everything I know about it).


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For the finished product, check out Anna's Blog.

DIY Rubber Stamp Image

To tie in the book theme of our wedding, we've decided that a custom stamp on the outside of the invitation envelope would be a nice added detail. Naturally, the first place that came to mind to find such a thing was Etsy, where I discovered Ass Pocket Productions.

Ok, so I know the name is a bit deceiving, but the artist, Stacey, has been creating custom stamps for a while, and her feedback has been 100% positive after selling to over a thousand customers. She has a wide selection of stamp designs to choose from - everything from bookplates to wedding themed stamps. The best part - she also welcomes personal designs, which is where my DIY project got its start.

I wanted something circular that had soemthing to do with books and with me and Office Groom. The idea is to stamp the back of the envelope on the fold - similar to the wax stamps used in the olden days.


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With a bit of internet research and photoshopping, this is what I came up with:



Waddaya think? I used the same font used in our invitations (more on those later - ooh, can you handle the suspense? LOL) and re-invented the book image (found on-line) by adding a simple heart graphic in the middle. Cute!

Now I just have to find out how much it's going to cost to have one made! More details to come!

A nice surprise! Paper craft outting next month!

Just got a call at work from my sister-in-law (married to my bro), who is also one of my BM's. She wasn't able to make the Miami trip and she wants to treat me for a night out in late May. She suggested that we take a workshop at The Paper Place (where we bought our invitation paper) to make paper pendants. What a nice surprise! And such a cool idea!


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The Paper Place supplies all the material, and I have no doubt that they will have some beautiful paper to choose from. They're works of art on their own! Office Groom and I have actually purchased a large printed sheet from there before and framed it. Although *cough* we have yet to actually put the frame up on the wall of our new apartment. And by new, I mean 2 years.

Katazome Paper

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If you'd like to learn more about how to make your own paper pendants, you can check out eHow's DIY instructions. And I'll definitely post pics next month when we go! That is, as long as I come out of there with something that doesn't look like paper throw up, lol.

We got paper!

Now what?

Ever have one of those moments when you feel really inspired to undertake a DIY project and then you go out and get all the necessary tools and materials, only to get back home and look at all the stuff you just bought and think those two dreaded words - "Now what?"

That's what I went through after the Office Groom and I returned from a visit to The Paper Place.

Early on in the engagement (Ok, who am I kidding? It was like 2 days after he proposed) I knew that I wanted to make our invitations. After a bit of internet research, I found my inspiration. I loved how unique and personal it was, and it was totally something that OG and I would do. So I did what any creative but lazy person would do - I used the same template and made a story of our own.

Because of the length of the invite, I knew that we wouldn't be using the usual 4x4 invite and envelope. I entertained the idea of using a regualr 8x10 sheet and cutting it in half, but that lazy side of me kicked in again and I realized I was better off buying pre-cut paper. Enter the "Tea Length" paper and envelope.



So I've got a design and paper. You think it'd be just as easy as printing those suckers off, labelling the envelopes, stickin' a stamp on, and sending them on their merry way.

Nope.

While I'm lazy, I'm also detail oriented. The thought of just sending the invites as is without any doodads to spice it up didn't sit well with me. Hence our visit to The Paper Place. The name of the store speaks for itself - if you need paper, and I'm talkin' any kind of paper, this is the place to check out. OG and I agreed that a little something added to the invite and envelope with a pretty paper would do jsut the thing. The employees were really nice and helpful and helped us narrow down our choices.



Or so we thought.

When we got home I started playing around with the different paper, and I just wasn't feeling it. Either it was too much or not enough, and I started to get frustrated too early in the game. So I put it away.

I know this isn't the ending you were looking for. You wanted to know what we decided on and what the end result was, right? Sorry, no dice. This is the real world, and I'm a real bride, and fact remains that I wasn't very successful with my first attempt at making our DIY invites a reality.

BUT - we're not giving up. This was of course, our first try. Although we are definitely still going with the design and ivory tea length paper, the doodas will have to wait. And I'll be sure to post more when it happens I'm just glad that we gave it a try before buying a whole bunch of paper that would go to waste (or used for numerous origami projects).

Stop Motion Wedding Invitation

If you and/or your partner have:

- loads of patience
- tons of time
- oodles of creativity
- great taste in music
- oh yeah, and an interest in stop motion...

...you should draw some inspiration from Corey & Rachel's wedding invitation:

Stamp of Approval

A while back a friend of mine was telling me about custom made stamps. She and her husband had designed their own with a photo from their engagement photo session and used them to mail out the wedding invitations (the only reason I didn't remember this was because she ended up giving us an invite in person).

So, I did a bit of research on it the other day - and all I gotta say is...

That's friggin' awesome.

Whether it's for a special occasion or just for everyday use, I think having my own custom stamps is a fun idea! After a quick Google search, I found sites for both Canadian and American stamps. The process is really easy and they cost just as much as a regular stamp (plus shipping costs).

I presented the idea to Office Groom last night, and after promising him that it wouldn't be a cheesy kissy-kissy photo of us, he was all for it. High five!

And while the idea of using a pic of my shoes is tempting (I can't help it, you should know by now that I'm obsessed with shoes), it definitely won't be this but I just wanted to give you an idea of what you can do!

From the Desk of... Marcie

Nothing says "Love" more than matching outfits and a Sears photo shoot. Read how Marcie and her husband Jon pulled off one of the best and most original wedding invitations I've ever seen...

"Ok. Here is how it started. Jon came across a Christmas calendar with David Hasselhoff. It was hilarious! Jon finds these types of pictures really funny, the kind that are super cheesy and ridiculous. We also saw these pictures in American Pie, Juno, and some other funny movies.

We decided to make a Christmas card that was really cheesy and similar to these types of photos. Our first card was the two of us, sitting by our tree, in silly sweaters and santa hats, holding all three of our cats. This became an annual Christmas tradition.

When the wedding was approaching, we wanted to save money and do a wedding invitation that was similar to our Christmas cards since we got such positive feedback every year for the hilarious pictures. Jon thought that it would be a good idea to get the pictures professionally done.

We went to Sears and asked the photographer to do really cheesy poses. We got our outfits from Value Village and just happened to find a pair of yellow shorts and a yellow skirt that matched perfectly. We found two white turtlenecks and two pairs of white golf shoes. We were a matching pair.

I decided to do my hair and make-up like I was from the 80's. We changed at the photography place, although I had to walk around with my 80's hair and make-up, and the photographer was awesome with understanding the exact cheesiness we wanted. We had the photos on a CD and just placed them on card in powerpoint and printed it off on blue paper. We kept the large 8x10 photos, framed them, and displayed them at the wedding.

It will haunt me until the day I die."

FRONT OF INVITE



INSIDE OF INVITE







From the desk of Marcie

DIY Shoe Clips - Fit for a Princess

I love Etsy for the same reason as most others; because of all the great one-of-a-kind items you can find, created by very talented artists. But I think I love the arts n' crafts site more for all the ideas it gives me for my own DIY projects.

Yes ladies, I admit it. I am a "Getsy" artist - Getting ideas from the site and trying them out on my own, lol.

When I first started doing my research on pizazzy shoes, the idea of shoe clips came up. "Brilliant," I thought. Shoe clips meant that I could get a great pair of reusable shoes, and give them a little something extra for the big day.

Naturally, I started perusing through Etsy for shoe clips and was happy to find a great selection - everything from rhinestones, to feathers, to fabric flowers. LOVE IT. I ended up going with a seller who was able to create my perfect pair (and matching hair clip) to the T - but I was curious to see if I could make another pair on my own, just for the hell of it.

$16 dollars later - I ended up with this:



(I couldn't help it. I had to take it with my Prince Charles / Princess Diana tin box, LOL)

Not too shabby, if I say so myself! Granted, it helps that I paired them up with a fabulous pair of Guess shoes, but they make a huge difference!

Interested in making a pair for yourself? Here are the deets. Note that I bought all of my materal at a bead store on Queen W, Toronto, so prices will vary, but you can find all of them through Etsy supplies sellers.

MATERIAL
- 6-8 feathers (PLUMULE, Etsy)


- Pair of shoe clips (themyseticalgarden, Etsy)


- Pack of large rhinestones (Toffeehouse, Etsy)


- Pack of small rhinestones (Twinkledropz)


- Glue gun and glue sticks ($8)

- Cardboard or felt

INSTRUCTIONS:

- Glue small rhinestones all around one large rhinestone. Allow glue to dry completely.
- Glue 3-4 feather on the back of the large rhinestone. Make sure they are places in slightly different directions. Allow glue to dry completely.
- Glue small piece of cardboard or felt on the back of the large rhinestone. Allow glue to dry completely.
- Glue completed piece to shoe clip - make sure that it is placed on the very bottom edge of shoe clip, otherwise the spring mechanism will not work properly.
- One clipe done! On to the next one!!
- Best part is, if you bough material in bulk, you can make more!

Soon you will find yourself with (hopefully) a shnazzy pair of shoe clips which you can pair up with any shoes, for any occasion you see fit!

Happy crafting!