Thank You Parasol

I was roaming around the knot again when I saw this from Pink Petals Event Design's web page:


















I thought this would be a great for creating my own thank you cards; just take a photo on our wedding day with my then hubby and me kissing and holding this in the shot. Sounds simple enough but this is just an idea I had that I'm not sure if I'll do or not.

Invitations

This project is still in the works but with help from my fiancee I've been able to at least get a design down. I plan on doing pocketfolds and my inspiration comes mostly from roadtotheaisle.blogspot.com; I really appreciate the instructions she has posted. For my design I originally started off playing around in publisher, but made them so much better by throwing them into photoshop that I eventually acquired. If you like the fonts on some of these, they can be found at 1001freefonts.com or dafont.com














Announcement, font: Exmouth size 36pt for names, 28pt for the "and"; Monotype Corsiva 14pt for the rest of the text.
Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.5
We decided on having the ceremony in Las Vegas because it would be the cheapest place for everyone to fly and because it looks like a place that has at least something for everyone.














Accommodations, font: Edwardian Script ITC size 30pt for "Accommodations"; Monotype Corsiva 14pt for the rest of the text.
Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.25
All of this is tentative since my fiancee and I still need to check out venues, figure out who we want to go through and set the date. I saw that you can get discounts for some airlines from another friend that got recently married but I'm unsure how to get this. Definitely will get hotel discounts but we'll figure this out later.












RSVP, font: Edwardian Script ITC size 30pt for "RSVP"; Monotype Corsiva 14pt for the rest of the text.
Dimensions: 5.125 x 3.625
I'm trying not to have too many children attending the wedding so I will either write out or print everyone's names to discourage that. This is not to say that I don't like children, I just don't want to have to deal with them on this day if I can help it. Also, we plan on having the event streamed so those who can't make it because of time conflict, financial strain or whatever can still watch; just not sure how to word this until we figure out how guests access the stream.










Escort Cards, font: Monotype Corsiva 48pt for the names, 30pt for "Table" and the numbers.
Dimensions: 5 x 3
I have an idea although I'm not sure how I'm going to do this but instead of having a guest book to sign I want the escort cards to double as something to write on and submit to the card box so people don't have to find the guest book, wait to sign it or have other people read what they write if they don't want to. For now this will just be as it is but eventually I'll play around with some paper, layouts and whatnot to see if I can get this idea to work.















Table numbers, font: Porcelain size 60.99pt for "Table"; Monotype Corsiva 257.68pt for the number. The sizes are a bit odd because I altered the text box after I typed in the text.
Dimensions:
4 x 4
or
4.5 x 4.5
eventual background:
4.5 x 4.5
or
5 x 5

Just plain old numbers for me. My fiancee wanted to do themed tables, but I figure it's easier for everyone to find their tables if they're numbered and have some order to them. Maybe I can incorporate both somehow but for now they stay as numbers. I'm still playing around with these; I could just go out and buy some 4 x 6 frames and design the table numbers to fit them. Again, still playing around

All the paper for this seemingly daunting task hasn't been ordered but I have gotten swatches from anchopaper.com and the fiancee and I have decided that we like: Lunar Blue cover weight by Astrobrights Glisten, Bronze cover weight by Stardream Metallics, and 96 Carrara White cover by Nekoosa Linen. We haven't figured out how much and what sizes of each color we're going to get but there's still plenty of time to think about that. Also, to start off we originally wanted to do wax seals to close the pocket folds up but after reading around the knot boards I've been finding that it's going to cost extra in postage to incorporate the seals. Instead I'm trying to figure out some sort of image to either stamp or print on a square piece of paper to hold it shut instead of a monogram. I've been scouring the web for some cherry blossom flower stamps that come close to my design or try to figure out how to either order my own stamp or create my own from scratch. As of now there hasn't been much progress but something will be figured out eventually.

Bridesmaids Cards Part 2

After taking some time away from making these I made some headway in making them look a little more crafty. I usually find it's easier for me to walk away from a project for a bit when I'm stuck to make progress than to sit and be frustrated at myself for having no idea on where I'm going with this. While I'm not sure if they feel finished or not it at least looks better than what I started with. The problem I'm having is that even though the flowers add to the crafty tone, I feel as if they might need a little embellishment.











As far as the front of the cards I decided to buy one of each of the necklaces except for the blue opal flower necklace. It dawned on me that I didn't have to make my bridesmaids match and since I was having a hard time picking one and everyone I was talking to gave me a different opinion, I figured why not. One of the pendants doesn't have a chain, but that can be fixed fairly easily once I get it so I can figure out which style would work with it.

Will You Be My Bridesmaid Cards

After wandering around the knot boards I decided to make formal cards for my prospective bridesmaids after seeing several brides that were making them for their own. The deal was sealed after I came across the phrase: "Will you be my bridesmaid? I promise not to make you wear an ugly dress" on several of them that made me laugh at the thought of picking out something truly ridiculous for my friends to wear. It started off simple by buying some cards from Michaels for $6.














I sat on these (no, not literally) for a month or two, all the while doodling, sketching and trying to come up with a layout. I finally threw the sucker into Publisher to get a layout or at least some idea of how I wanted this to line up. A while more had passed and still nothing... that is until I found some pens and paper on sale at Jo Anne Fabrics and was momentarily inspired to start doing something.
Outside:














Inside:












The names took me a long time and making three pink dresses in the style of Princess Peach (there's a story for that one) for each took me a while as well but all is not finished. I added on the text later but found that I had forgotten to plan for spacing when I originally started. Not wanting to start over, I decided to set the project aside for a bit to think about something that can be done to fix this.

After some more random doodling I decided I should add a bouquet of flowers to the inside under the text. At first I figured I would just draw out the bouquet, but after wandering through Paper Pals I became embarrassed of my creations thus far and decided that it needed more pop, pizazz or whatever to jazz it up and make it look more crafty. It took a while but I managed to find a paper punch for under $7.50 with tax on clearance at Michaels that had the exact design I wanted which I was glad to find since I was contemplating individually cutting out the suckers myself. It was a little tedious to punch enough to make a bouquet but I'm not completely sure if I'll leave the flowers white or spray/color a design on each of them or put a background behind it all. Something will be done but I'm still tinkering around with this.










As for the space above their names I'm contemplating putting a necklace there. I've looked around and found several pendants that I like, but it's deciding on what they like and what would look good on them that is the tricky part. It's down to four finalists:

Option #1
from:
http://cgi.ebay.com/13.5MM-STERLING-SILVER-SHINY-PLUMERIA-FLOWER-PENDANT_W0QQitem Z120439686855 QQcmdZViewItem



for $3.99 each with $3.95 s&h
this for the pendant only so I'll have to find a chain for it
it also goes off the market, or the seller has listed an end sell time for July 24th at 10:50am


Option #2
from:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ELEGANT-STERLING-SILVER-OPAL-PLUMERIA-FLOWER-PENDANT_W0QQitemZ 370202489893 QQcmdZViewItem


for $10.99 each with $1.95 s&h
also without a chain


Option #3
from:
http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=1124568






for $18.95 each with $2.95 s&h
this one does have a chain, so that is a bonus



Option #4
from:
http://www.overstock.com/Jewelry-Watches/Sterling-Silver-Created-White-Opal-Plumeria-Necklace/4118221/product.html?cid=123620&fp=F&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=12125657

for $16.95 each with $2.95 s&h
I like the chain on this one but I need to move on this quickly if I want it before it sells out.


Not entirely sure which one I'll pick but it should be sooner rather than later.

Test Dying the Slip

After looking around on the knot DIY board and viewing other knottie profiles I came across a knottie that decided to dye her slip (or crinoline). I loved the idea of having a little bit of color under the dress so I did some investigating on line and decided to try out some dyes on test fabric before perminatly altering the color of a $50 slip. I wanted to make sure that I got the same type of fabric as my slip so I toted the sucker into JoAnne Fabrics to find a fabric that was 100% nylon and had the same weave, texture and whatever as the slip. Luckily, I was able to find just that and for $3.49/yard for the crinoline fabric and $1.49/yard for the netting and bought two yards of each for testing.










Through investigating I found two products that were offered at my local stores: Rit Dye and Dylon.

Rit Dye was one that I had heard of but the stores here only offered it in Royal Blue. Through their website, www.ritdye.com, I fould that this acid based dye reacts well to 100% nylon products so I felt confident that it would work with my slip but at the same time I still wanted to do a test run. For this product it called for HOT water and a whole cup of salt.














I had never heard of Dylon before but I decided to give this one a go because it was in a lighter color that I liked. Their website www.dylon.co.uk under the help section says that "Polyester, Nylon and other synthetics cannot be dyed" but as I found out Dylon works just fine with nylon. I think they intended to say acrylic fabrics won't work. For this product it only called for warm water, which I thought was pecular, and 4T of salt.

So with that, I test dyed my fabric in the sink with an already blue bucket because I was worried about staining my sink.
Rit Dye.......................................Dylon










Result:










After doing this I found that not only did the Dylon work but I liked the color better than the Rit Dye. My only problem with the Dylon was that it appeared a little light and somewhat green to me even though the picture doesn't do it justice. I did show my fiancee the dyed fabrics and he agreed and suggested adding a little bit of the Rit Dye color to the Dylon to darken it up but I'm not sure if the two will play nice chemically. Maybe if I use HOT water and more salt it will absorb more of the dye.

Unfortunately for me I started the Dylon first but the rubber gloves that I was wearing sprung a leak while I was mixing with my hands. After that I switched to metal bbq tongs and used the gloves only to rinse and squeeze the fabric. Even though I caught the leak early my hand was still slightly dyed blue after much scrubbing but it did fade out eventually after a few days.

THE Shoes

Again, like the dress I was perusing the web for any and every shoe I could find and wandered the malls in a zombie-like state hoping to find some sort of inspiration or moment with at least something. In this state I eventually wandered into a Payless where they had a selection (called Unforgettable Moments) that could be dyed and found a style that I enjoyed but was hesitant about. Eventually, after looking through a few shops with my fiancee's sister, we found a pair at a shoe store that were in brown but the same style as a pair that I found on www.unforgettablemoments.com that the both of us believed would do well with my dress. I decided to go with the pair at Unforgettable Moments but in white and in a wide size to fit my big feet. I need to get in some some practice walking around time before the big day but they're fairly comfortable considering that they're 3" heels.















I finally got to wear them with the dress when I went up to Spokane to try on other items but I really like these shoes. The sales associate brought to my attention that I needed to be careful or mindful or the white part my toes stand on because it gets dirty very easily. Other than that shoes = check.

My Dress, THE Dress

This was just one of the projects that I started that I knew could be completed without knowing the venue. I started out just by paying attention and researching the heck out of dresses I could wear, what different types there were, fabrics, the whole works and now that I've settled with the dress I bought everything I learned has probably all been forgotten. The best advice I could give to anyone is to just look and be open to trying on whatever.

After doing this massive research I decided to start looking at David's Bridal's entire catalog and saved the ones I thought were interesting to the my favorites section. The list got really long after a while but after sorting them by price (which helped me eliminate a few), style, shape, material, etc I had a better idea on how to narrow down the list. Luckily for me, I was able to get a really nice sales associate and friend to help me out while I tried on at least 30 dresses.

NO PEEKING CHUCK!!!
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TURN BACK NOW!!!
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V
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V

This is what I got:


















































I was extremely lucky to buy this for under $300 and I was happy to find that even though it was a discontinued style, I was able to fit into the size 8 they had. There are a few bits that need alteration and I do plan on changing the top from a straight neckline to a sweetheart neckline but overall I like it. Ignore the embarrassing skin spillage on the top of the dress, I haven't been able to get rid of it or find any sites for exercises to reduce this but hopefully all I'll need is a simple alteration for this to be fixed. I have yet to set up an alteration date but it probably won't be until May 2010 so there's plenty of time to try and get rid of that flubber. I'm content with the dress for now, but for a moment I was worried that it looked too much like something a high school kid would wear.

Since then I've been able to buy a slip, plain veil, plain blusher and torsolette from David's Bridal and shoes from Payless Unforgettable Moments but none of that is pictured here. As far as other projects I have in mind, I plan on dying the slip a light blue (testing results in next post) and possibly beading the veil but I have no set ideas on a pattern. I do have a bit of a problem while I'm in the dress with sweating but this could be fixed by finding some underwear or shorts with wicking properties to keep me from getting too nasty with sweat.

Square One

Starting from the beginning is the best way I can think to open this blog. So far I don't have a grand scheme put together and I'm still in the browsing stages that I'm sure most of you are going through. Everything will get easier and go faster once my fiancee and I book a place because we've found out through looking around at venue websites that there are a lot of restrictions and most of them require you to use the services they provide. Once we find out what we can and can't do in the place we reserve it should be all downhill from there... or so we hope. For now I'm just gathering as many ideas together as I can, seeing what I can get started now so I don't have to stress out about it later and hopefully as this all comes together I don't change my mind too often or too drastically

Like most you out there, I've been collecting photos for some time and while I do have the links to the majority of what I found, there might be a few where I slipped up. The best way I found to keep track of all this was to put the url in the properties portion of whatever photo I grabbed to remind me later where I got it from. So as a typical disclaimer if you see something that's yours that I forgot to credit then please say something so you can get credit.