Handcrafted: The Cure For The Common Wedding

One Sick Puppy

Sick. Can't breath. Can't talk. Can't sleep. Can't think. Oh no! Can't post.  Must nap. Must let medicine work. Back tomorrow.

It is so unfair to feel so bad when it is so nice outside.

A Growing Trend

I know it isn't Tuesday, when I usually have my practical tips, but I have a good one today and really wanted to post it. I have noticed a growing trend in weddings that I am really liking. Although bridal parties are still fairly large, more and more people are reserving the front row for the attendants to sit and only the maid of honor and best man are following the bride and groom to the alter. There are several reasons to love this idea.

1. Bridesmaid shoes are almost never comfortable, so standing through the whole service can be painful, especially if you are having readings and songs and candles and a sermon and... you get the idea

2. How many more videos do we need to see of groomsmen fainting?

3. Less people blocking the photographer from getting good shots of you. And the addition of a cool shot of your attendants sitting, watching the service.

4. It is hard for the attendants at the back of the line to see anything when they are standing in a neat row.

5. It won't look awkward if you have an uneven bridal party.

Okay, there are five good reasons to take to your mother, coordinator, bridesmaid, or whoever objects to the nontraditional parade of people.

Local Star

This week's Indie Star comes from just down the road from me. La Bella Designs has some really creative styles of jewelry in their Etsy shop. I love the citrine chandelier earrings. At 2 1/2 inches long, they are sure to make an impact. If you live in the Atlanta area you can see all of La Bella's work in downtown Roswell when they have "Alive After 5" between 5 and 9pm. This is a great little event that happens the 3rd Thursday of every month through October. Try to make it next month for sure.

A Review

I got my very first Blurb book from the man in brown. I have been stalking tracking my package since I placed the order. Our photographer friends at Ananchel made some amazing pictures of my family last December. After I saw the proofs I knew I had to turn them into a book for our moms.

I did several searches for reviews and decided to try Blurb. I wanted something very simple that would not detract from the pictures, so the plain black worked perfect for me. I had so much fun figuring out where to put what. It took all of my organizing skills to put this together just the way I wanted it. My slightly obsessive need for things to be even really came in handy. It was a great way to use the pictures that I would not have normally ordered but still loved.

Now that I have it in my hands and know that I love it I'm going to order another one for our other mom and maybe one for myself. I'm sorry to be such a tease about this, but I am super paranoid when it comes to the internet safety of my children, so that is why I didn't put up pictures of my book. You'll just have to trust me when I tell you it came out great.

Advice from a Bride

Last week I was honored to be a judge for the great contest that they had over at Our Wedding Plus. There were so many great entries. I had a hard time picking just one. I could have picked at least 5. I'm so glad she awarded prizes to all of the runners up.

In the end, I picked Erica who said, "The best lesson we learned was to spend time trying to remember as many details from past wedding we’ve attended. Whatever I couldn’t remember must therefore not be very important to me and I could either skip it or put it lower on the list of priorities. It’s helped so much!"

I felt like this was very practical advise that every bride could use. I remember doing something similar when planning my own wedding. The only exception was that most of what I remembered were the things I didn't like, so instead of creating a "must" list, I created a "must not", which was just as helpful. I did, however, find a great florist through this method.

Congratulations to Erica and all of the winners !

Claymates

Normally, I try to avoid posting about ideas I found on other blogs unless I can add something new to it. Today I can not help it. One of the bees from Wedding Bee beat me to a great idea that is right up our alley. Last week Miss Pineapple enlighten me about DK Designs. Since she did a great job writing about bouquets, I wanted to highlight some of their other clay flower products. 

They offer these gorgeous flowers that can be corsages for the mothers or can be made to wear in your hair. I love the look of real flowers worn in your hair, but I think I would spend the better part of the night checking to see if it was wilted. This would solve that problem, and give you something that can be worn again.

 

These flowers that were added to favor boxes are simply amazing. Even if you don't order enough for each of your guests, they would be a great addition it your bridal party gifts or hostess gifts. They would make a great keepsake for years to come. All orders are custom made with the flowers you love, in the colors that will best go with your wedding.

Programmed

I have been on the hunt for unique program ideas. Time and again I have turned up empty. There just aren't many ways to present an order of service. I like the fans for outdoor weddings, and adding in the information to your own Courtship Story would be great, but I want to see something truly out of the box. Until then I guess I will just have to look for ways to dress the box up. Paper Lantern has some really interesting designs that will make your programs pop.

Paper Lantern offers a full line of stationery with embellishments of wire, beads, and even quilled paper designs. Each set is made to order so there is no additional charge to have things made in your color palette and there is no minimum order. This is a British company so all prices are listed in pounds sterling, not US dollars.

Usually, I'm bad about taking my programs and rolling them up or turning them into a fan or even folding them up and stuffing them into my tiny dress purse, but these designs are ones I would be careful to keep neat so that I could use them on scrapbook pages. In fact, I would probably sneak a couple of extras after the service was over so that I would have a couple of extras for future projects.

Indie Idea

Today, as I was searching for my Indie Star, I ran across a company that makes these really cool looking blank CDs which gave me a fabulous idea for favors, but since some might take the idea as encouragement to illegally download and share music, I'm not going to tell you what the idea was. I would never want to promote illegal file sharing.

So, instead I selected something on the right side of the law. These cute Good Fortune clips from Susy Jack* would be an interesting alternative to the plain old clothes pins. I'd be willing to bet that when my mother reads this she will be asking why anyone would need clothes pins at a wedding, and you might be thinking the same thing. Well, clothes pins are great for shabby chic weddings. You can use them to display your table cards, as place card holders, as part of a dollar dance (clothes pins are easier to pin on your dress that regular pins and they don't leave pin holes), and I'm sure there are other ideas from creative brides.

Paper Eye Candy

Confession: I could spend a couple of hours in the paper section of a craft store. I love looking at all the patterns, feeling all the textures, and coming up with all sorts of DIY projects that I will never actually do. Paper Source and Paper Mojo are fantastic sites for surfing through the options, but sometimes I like to look for something different. Tut-neyar is something different.

This is a family owned company that hand makes paper from mulberry trees they grow themselves. They will make paper specifically to suit your needs. Aside from all of the color options, you can also specify how thick you want the paper to be. You can select that they add items into the paper fiber such as leaves, flower petals, silk threads, and other pretties.

 

I really like that there is no minimum order. It's perfect if you want to just get 10 envelopes for the finishing touch on some special thank you cards you have made, or if you really only need one sheet of thick paper for a lantern. Keep in mind that this company is not in the U.S., so the shipping might get pricey, but it never hurts to ask.

Do you have a favorite paper store for your DIY needs? Please share!

Making Eyes At You

On my catch up day yesterday, I took a trip to the eye doctor where I learned about a problem eye doctors have started calling "computer syndrome". It comes from working on the computer a lot and staring at the screen. You actually forget to blink which drys your eyes out and gives you eye fatigue quicker. So, here is my friendly reminder to blink while you read this.

I didn't need glasses at the time of my wedding, but I have been thinking a lot about how I would have handled it if I had. I'm pretty sure it would have driven me to contacts. After watching friends adjust to putting that little lens in their eye, I'm pretty sure it would have taken me more than a few weeks to catch on. You might want to keep that in mind if you are making the jump to contacts for your wedding.

One of my friends has worn glasses for so long that she looks odd without them on. She decided to wear them on her wedding day. She joked about wanting to make sure she said her vows to the right groom and not tripping down the aisle. If you are thinking of something similar, it might be important to make sure your photographer knows you will have your glasses on and that they are comfortable with that. It shouldn't phase a good photographer, but better safe than sorry. Off beat Bride had a great article in January about brides in glasses with lots of pictures.