Teasing Myself

Along time ago (March) I bought my wedding dress with my Maid of Honor, Chey, who came along with me for the ride. I had scoured the internet and came across the David's Bridal website, perused their catalog, and went there prepared to try on a whole categorized list of dresses that had piqued my interest. Hours later we walked out with a dress. While I was mostly satisfied with my selection because I got it on super deep discount since they discontinued the pattern, I felt like it was a little lacking looking more like a high school prom dress and less like something that would make me look more mature, elegant, and worried that it made me look more like a child.

While I hope that this can be fixed by a few alterations, I also went roaming around on the internet and found the Casablanca line rather appealing, particularly their 1945 dress. I looked up the local stores that carried this style and held off rushing to find and try on this dress. Last weekend I was able to go to a store that had this dress and decided to tease myself by trying it on and sneaking a peak at the sales tag.




















































Honestly, I really, really like this dress and all the little embellishments but can't justify purchasing it for $830 since I already have a dress. It's not like I don't think it's a good price, I just can't afford to make such a purchase on my income. So, after much arguing with myself I decided it would be best if I promptly left before I bought it on impulse.

When I got back home I showed my fiancee the pictures I took and what my dilemma was. He said that if it makes me happy then I should purchase it; damn I love this man. After talking it over with him I finally decided and explained to him that IF I get the job that I applied for that significantly increases my income, then I'll think more seriously about going and trying it on again to purchase and I'd need him to be there with me for critiquing. For now, I can dream.

Pocketfolds, Securing the Pocket

Once you're done with scoring, folding and cutting your pocketfolds it's time for the messy part: Securing the Pocket. There were many ways to do this from just plain 'ole tacky glue to fancy-schmancy glue dottie thingamajiggers that turn out to be expensive if you have a lot of pocketfolds to make. I just stuck (haha!) with the tacky glue because I wasn't sure how well the tape or glue dots would work, I didn't have to worry about a certain width being in stock, and was a bit worried that the glue dots would create an odd texture and undesirable increase in thickness. before going ahead with putting the glue on the pocketfolds, I did test it out on some scrap paper to make sure the glue would hold and not unstick at a later time.

With the testing done I picked up some regular tacky glue and some cheap foam paint brushes so I could get a thin layer on the paper. I also used some scrap cardboard I had lying around as a "paint" tray and so I could get the glue all the way to the edge without smearing it all over the dining room table and "painted" a thin layer of glue onto the pocket just like this:




















After that, I closed the pocketfolds, smoothed them down by pushing outward so any excess glue seeped out rather than in, removed the excess glue that seeped out (if any) and then stacked them underneath some heavy boxes (or you can use books) to dry.
Ta da














A day of drying and forgetting about them later, I took them out from underneath the heavy boxes and made sure none of them stuck together. This is one of the downsides to working with glue but fortunately for me, I used just enough glue for the pocket to stick but not enough for them to stick together so much that they disfigured themselves when I took them apart. There were a few that were slightly stuck, but it was nothing to get my panties in a bunch about.
Other than that Pocketfolds = done, still working on everything that goes inside.

Pocketfolds, Cutting the Suckers

To start this whole she-bang I did countless cutting trials to get this right so that I don't cut too much out or cut something wrong. I found out that the top flap was going to be easy, but the bottom part of the "V" in the pocket flap was going to be trying my patience and need to strive for perfection. My fiancee was great at helping me decide if I was being too harsh on myself or not and in the end I found a rather peculiar work-around.

To start off, just like most people, I made a template out of some thick cardboard I had lying around from boxes and packaging. The top and bottom have a 1" space before the "V" begins and I centered the point of the "V" at 3.5".

















The next part I did in batches and did the easier top flap first by tracing














then taking my rotary cutter and cutting the suckers.



























With the first and easiest part done I waited a little bit to figure out how to get the bottom point cut crisp and cleanly. I first tried to use the rotary cutter but found that I had one helluva time figuring out where the stopping point was. I then tried the X-acto knife but found that I couldn't get the cut straight, that I was over-cutting, or I couldn't seem to get the last little bit of paper to come off. After some hunting around I had an epiphany to use a punch to get the job done. The next challenge was to find a punch that could do the job. Unfortunately there are no punches that had the exact angle I wanted, but I even found it difficult to find a punch if I settled for one with a right angle that would punch a ^ instead of v. The difference was how I would insert the paper to get my desired edge; the v shape is more for corners, I was looking for an inner corner shaper if that makes any sense. So with some creativity and a certain method in my head I set out to our tiny Michaels store and found the only thing that would come close to what I wanted was a square punch. Sure, I had to creatively maneuver the paper to get the punch to get the desired pattern, but the end result yielded the crisp, clean look I was going for. Once I got what I wanted, I put the game plan into play.
First, trace
















Then cut, but leave a little bit extra on the bottom of the "V" connected
















just like this:
















Then comes the "scary" part. Just yoink off the excess so you have an ugly looking corner. Don't worry about this because you'll be able to fix it later.
















Then, with the handy-dandy square punch, or with whatever you found would work for you, trim the corner so it has the desired clean and crispness that would have been achieved if you had a big industrial cutter.
































Lastly, after all is said and done look over your pocketfolds. If you're a stickler about the details you'll notice that after you cut this paper that the bottom side of the cut has some sort of a "lip" while the top side looks clean, like this:










I'm not sure if it's just with the Astrobright Glisten paper I'm using or if all papers do this but don't worry, it can be fixed simply by smoothing over the edge with your butter knife/boning folder. Then once you're done it's off to the next step: Securing the Pocket.

Actually Dying the Slip

I know I'm about a month late from posting this from the time I actually completed this process, but whatever it's up here now.

To start with, I used three packs of Dylon Bahama Blue dye but then thought that since I bought four packs that I might as well use all four. I used a big black tub for dying, since I didn't want to stain my tub, added the hottest water that would come out of the faucet, 1c of salt per packet, and poured in the packets one by one that I mixed with boiling water in a bowl before combining it with the big tub of water to make sure it was dissolved.










The next step was to wet down the crinny with warm water and to add it to the mixture. This was the toughest part for me because there was no going back once I put it in the dye and if I didn't like the outcome then I'd have to spend another $50 to get another slip, so yeah I was a little worried.

















I used long BBQ tongs to stir the slip/dye mixture after my last experience and unwillingness to dye/scald my hands blue and just kept mixing until I wanted to stop. I think I stirred for at least half an hour and walked away for a minute or two somewhere in there just to stretch.























So after some time I decided that the slip wasn't going to dye anymore and I was content with the color I achieved and dumped the dye down the drain and proceeded to rinse the crinny when the water had cleared. This took a while as well because I thoroughly rinsed all layers because for some strange reason there were little dots of dye either from leftover dye that hadn't dissolved or from some fabric that somehow fell off and clumped on the tulle. No big problem though, all looked fine from what I could tell.














With all that said and done I hung it up to dry and used clips that are normally used to close chip bags as clothespins. I did notice that the tulle was really light, but when it's layered together with a lot of the tulle it looks just fine. I think this could be because the thread count (or whatever it is for tulle) is very low compared to normal fabric
















The last problem is that some of my tub was tinted blue, but I could easily scrub that out with a pumice stone. Oh, and I took off my rings before messing with any of this since I didn't want them coming anywhere near this mess.
Other than that, slip = done.

Flower Girl Dress

Bought this little number on X-mas while the fiancee and I were over at his parents' place for the holidays. After showing his sister (her daughter will be the flower girl) the dresses that I thought were nice looking that I found on-line we came across this on e-Bay:
























This was just under $25 WITH S&H, so we quickly decided between the two of us that this was the flower girl dress. Hopefully the low price doesn't reflect the quality.
Other than that, flower girl dress = check.

Folding the Pockets

YAY! Now that finals week is over for me I can start making progress on the invites. I plan on making them in stages so I'm sorry to anyone who would just like a basic run-down of how to make these. My inspiration and instructions comes from Heather Drive's site, http://roadtotheaisle.blogspot.com/ , where I originally fell in love with pocketfolds. Moving right to the point here's what I used and what I learned from this process.

Supplies:
- Paper cut to 7" wide by 16-1/8" pieces; I used Astrobrights Glisten, Lunar Blue
- a butter knife or boning folder
- measuring device - I used the Fiskars Deluxe portable trimmer and just yoinked out the blade to use the gutter for scoring
**Side note: this trimmer in itself is HORRIBLE and will either shred your paper (especially if you only need to TRIM) or leave the edge somewhat unclean. Make sure to try out your cutter before you start on the actual paper so you don't ruin your paper and you know its capabilities. I highly recommend getting a rotary trimmer, they seem to create the cleanest cuts even though they're harder to cut a line with a precise starting and stopping point.

Here we go:
First off, test score the paper you have because some paper wimps out and looks disfigured if you score it too hard.

Using the butter knife/boning folder measure 3" from the top and score
*if using a butter knife make sure you're not using the serrated side or you'll end up sawing and ruining your paper
















rotate 180 degrees


























Measure 3" from the top and score
















Measure 5" from the 3" score (8" total from the bottom) and score
**If one of your 3" scores doesn't look all that great then use that as the bottom because this will be hidden once folded over.




















Fold the paper towards the score
This is what it looks like when you score and fold it towards the score:














This is what it looks like if you score and fold it away from the score:












It's really hard to tell from these pics but when you fold towards the score the outside looks good but the inside tends to have a double line look. When you fold away from the score the inside looks great but the outside looks like you've damaged the paper and it seems like the paper is going to break. I would recommend folding towards the score.
So back on topic, fold the top towards the score and crease




















Fold the bottom towards the score and crease


























Fold at the mark 5" up from the bottom score towards the score and crease that too


















Tada!
Place finished products under books to weigh it down if you'd like.
Next up: Step Two, Cutting These Suckers

The Paper is HERE

The paper I ordered from Anchor Paper:




















The Envelopes from Envelope Mall:




















All of the items with the paper scraps:
















Alright, now I can get some work done. This all arrived on Friday but it's been sitting on my table all weekend because this upcoming week is finals week and the job that I had been waiting forever to open has just started accepting applications. I've been editing and re-editing my resume and cover letter all weekend but I haven't forgotten about all the paper. I definitely will be getting to this on Thursday but I'm anxious to start as soon as I can.

Ordering the Paper

I ordered all the paper I would need for my invitation project and some for the other random paper projects I have and now I'm just waiting anxiously for it to all arrive so I can begin. Here's a breakdown on what I got:

Envelopes
ordered from envelopemall.com
$13.75 - A-7 Mohawk Super Fine 100 pack, white
$11.95 - A-1/4 Bar Stardream Metallic 100 pack, bronze
$12.12 - S&H, cheapest option
Total = $37.82


Paper
ordered from anchorpaper.com
Tom Peterson is awesome!
$27.64 - Astrobright Glisten Lunar Blue, 7" x 16-1/8", 86# cover, appx 70+ sheets
$20.25 - Nekoosa Linen Carrara White, 8.5" x 11", 80# cover, 250 sheets
$25.50 - Stardreams Bronze, 12" x 12", 105# cover, 50 sheets
$16.14 - S&H
Total = $86.18


So that's just the paper and doesn't include glue, ink, embossing powder, stamps, ribbon and such which I'll get around to analyzing later. I'm not sure what type of sticky item I'll be using to "fuse" these puppies together. I've heard great things about terrifically tacky tape, but since I've never used it I might just go and use tacky glue and a paint brush instead. Other than that, all there's left to do is proof and reproof the wording and layout until the paper gets here... then the real fun and chaos begins

Viva Las Vegas!

A while back the fiancee and I had decided that we wanted the ceremony and reception held in Vegas. I had never been to Vegas, but the fiancee had wooed me with tales of the beauty, excitement and what have you of the place and I agreed that we should at least check it out. Our main reasoning for determining that this was the place to hold our wedding was because the majority of our family members (mainly mine) were scattered all over the place, so having the wedding in a place that has the cheapest airfare to travel to from almost anywhere was high on our list. We also wanted to include videostreaming for those who wanted to join but couldn't afford to travel and found that the majority of the venues there offered streaming. So with that being said, we began the research waaaaay back in... May? August? sometime around there.

We started off by looking at a map and writing down names of the hotels/casinos. Then we went on the internet and started crossing off places that were too expensive, far away or just really crappy looking. After all that we still had a list of about 10 or so places that we had an interest in but weren't too sure about. With this list, I had the fiancee e-mail the places before we headed off to check it out during Thanksgiving week just in case they required us to set up a meeting time; almost everyone said to just call the day before.
















The first day we took it easy after a 20+hr drive down from Washington and just walked around aimlessly to get a feel for the place. At first glance all that looks so close, but it's very deceiving; the Eiffel tower is about a 20 min walk away in this picture. Thank goodness for the escalators up to the overpasses or else we would have been extremely exhausted just walking from Excalibur to the Bellagio and back.

Eventually, we got down to business and started looking over the places once more and making more drastic cuts based on what we knew we could spend and what we wanted to get out of the places. This was the hardest part because I just wanted to check out all of them since I had never been to Vegas. Finally, after many hours of going back and forth with the fiancee, we called the Monte Carlo and set up an appointment to meet with their catering coordinator, Traci Shea, mostly because she was the only one who took the time to write us a personalized e-mail.

I was very nervous since this was our first place we checked out and didn't feel like I had all my ducks in a row. Luckily for us, the staff at the Monte Carlo Wedding Chapel have done this song and dance dozens upon dozens of times and had the whole thing down to a science. We walked around, checking out the ceremony site and the reception areas right around the corner asking many questions and posing many hypothetical situations along the way. Both the chapel personnel and Traci were very patient with us and seemed willing to entertain some of our "crazier" ideas as well as joke around with us.
















Afterwords we decided to take some time to mull the whole thing over and decide on if this was the right place for us as well as the package and amenities we would want if we decided on this place. I was a little hesitant because this was the first and only place we had seen and felt like we were settling and hadn't explored our options thoroughly enough. My fiancee on the other hand had decided after seeing some of the reception rooms that this was the place and had passionately tried to convince me until I thought so as well. He wanted to go back as soon as he had won me over, but I wanted to take my time looking around and leave it until the next day so we could iron out all the details when the staff wasn't trying to leave for the day.

The next morning/afternoon we practically ran over there to sign all the paperwork and get everything started. Heather, the chapel coordinator, was extremely helpful and patient while we filled out every form and read every line of all the papers she put in front of us. Traci was also very helpful but unfortunately wasn't able to provide us with a cake testing session since the Monte Carlo exclusively provides all the larger food and drink items (smaller, individually wrapped items for gift boxes are alright) but told us that the buffet carries the same type of cake that would be available for our wedding cake and went down there later to try some with lunch.

With the last of our 't's crossed and 'i's dotted for the ceremony and reception site we felt as if a huge weight had been lifted. We took those good feelings and energy and decided to walk the rest of the interesting part of the strip until our feet were numb from walking. We called our parents soon after getting back to the hotel and had the best night's sleep since we had been down there.

Since we still had the rest of Thanksgiving break down in Vegas we decided to go to the Rio for the Thanksgiving buffet, go to downtown to get our marriage certificate and gamble a little. We found our preferred games in our hotel and after a while I had gambled away all I had planned to lose but since the fiancee was still working on making his pile of money disappear at a Pai Gow table I decided to go up to the room and work on the small bottle of rum that we purchased from a nearby liquor store. When he was done and came up to the room I was in a nicely buzzed state and wanted to go out and do something. Eventually we made our way to a bar nearby the Mandalay Bay casino area called Minus 5 that the both of heard about through a coworker and some other staff at the nearby hotels and casinos. Yes, it was cold in there but everything (except for the floor) was covered in thick ice. They even serve your drinks in glasses made of ice! The night was made even nicer by the bartendresses and camera gal who seemed happy to have us there being socially drunk. Overall the night was nice, the company was nice and the drinks were cold as ice; definitely a place to go back to.


















With all that, we made it home safely on Saturday after surviving and leaving on black Friday and driving 19+hrs straight through to home to collapse on the sumo. Well, that's not entirely true, we did loose the muffler in Salt Lake and Hell's Canyon was a bit tricky with all the frost on the road and the snow on the side but thank goodness for studless snow tires. Next time this will be a bit easier because it will be summer time and we'll be able to take the drive at a more leisurely pace.

Bridesmaid Cards, Part Three

So to recap, I've been slowly but surely working on cards for my bridesmaids (see: will you be my bridesmaid cards and bridesmaids cards part 2) and it hasn't really come together until just recently.



































TADA!! Two of them will be hand delivered because they live within a day's drive but the other one will have to be sent via USPS. Even though it's being sent in a padded envelope I'm hoping that USPS handles it with more care than they do my mail because on more than one occasion I've gotten bent mail.

I know that at least one of them will be saying yes but the other two are giving me a little trouble because I expect them to wear a dress for the day. While I could understand if I picked out something poufy, neon or expensive I'm letting them decide on the style and between the three of them pick either white, blue or brown as the color. So what I've decided to do is sit down with them and figure why and give them a deadline to say yes to wearing a dress or I'm not having them as bridesmaids and ask my four sisters to be bridesmaids instead. Sure that seems a little cold but I feel like I'm being more than fair and I hope that it doesn't all somehow blow up in my face.

Furthermore, if I do end up asking my sisters to be bridesmaids I would also want my fiancee's sister and only sibling to feel involved as well. Sure I'm having her daughter be the flower girl and I think she will be 3 by the time we get married but I worry that she'll have performance anxiety. So if it looks like either of these are the case I plan on asking his sister to walk down the aisle with her.

Other than that I'm still planning away, we'll see where everything goes from here.

Photoshop and Mockups

Recently I purchased a bunch of paper that came close to the colors I wanted to do a trial run and get a feel for how these puppies are supposed to work (I'll post the photos as soon as I remember to take pictures). There were a few snaffoos that I came across through trying to use a ruler that doesn't have a good start line and using a cutting tool that doesn't like to cut thick material but overall I liked the design. The few problems I had were that the size of the font for the announcements, accomodations and RSVPs felt a little too large and the pocket fold looked a little too vacant in the pocket area. Without wanting to waste more paper I put together a design in photoshop to see if the design could be tweaked without going mad. So far I've decided to add in a map of the Las Vegas strip, decrease the width of the RSVP and came up with this:












































I think this is done in Agency FB 11pt for the names, but I forgot to save some of the text layers unmerged.
Edwardian Script ITC size 30pt for "Las Vegas Map"
Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.75

border on announcement: 6.75 x 4.875

Pocket Fold:
Dimensions:
13-1/8 x 7 right now
16-1/8 x 7 when it's all unfolded

creases at:
3" from top
3" from bottom
8" from bottom

Adding the map does make this feel more complete but I'm not too sure if I like the map design just yet. While I want to get as much information on the map as possible it feels a little too crowded. Another problem is that when you search for a map of the strip, no two maps are alike which in turn has made me go a little batty. Originally this map was in red but after some long hours of photoshop tweaking I eventually changed it to blue. Again, I'm not thrilled with how crowded this looks or how tiny the lables turned out but this is just a first draft. Maybe make it fold in half so I can stretch the image and make the font bigger? Thoughts?

THE Earrings

Again I've been searching a lot for what I want and found that I've been leaning towards chandelier earrings but a lot of the ones I like are usually expensive. I managed to find these earrings at a local craft fair and since they were less than $25 I decided to go for it. So even though I have yet to try them on with the dress or the hair style I have yet to pick out, if they don't work out at least they'll look great with an evening gown.

Blue Flowers in the Bouquet?

I've been looking around but the only way to incorporate blue flowers into your bouquet is to either use blue hydrangeas or blue grape hyacinths. Yes, irises have also been used for blues but I find them kind of on the purple-ish side. There are four options that I've come up with:

1) Incorporate blue feathers into the bouquet.
I searched the web for cheap feathers for this and became informed on ostrich plumes, drabs and all sorts of things in between that made my head spin because of all the information and the pricing on some of them for just one freaking feather.
http://www.allcostumes.com has them on sale for $0.63 per each 6-10" mini plume
http://www.wholesaleflowersandsupplies.com for $2.70 for five 9-11" drabs ($0.54 each)
http://www.ecrater.com for $2.30 for a 1/4 oz of 2-6" fluff
http://www.michaels.com has picks for sale but I'm not sure how much they are
Also, there's no Hobby Lobby or other alternative craft store within a day's drive so if I want feathers it's either going to be acquired on-line or at Michaels.

2) Figure out how to dye some flowers blue.















I know this can be done because I've seen blue roses out there on the market. Either they were genetically engineered to grow with the blue color or they were put in water with blue food coloring after they were cut so they'd "suck" up the blue dye and turn blue just like a carnation would. I haven't tested dying them blue yet but as soon as I get some fridge space or the apartment is cold enough (heck I've even though about doing this at work because it's so cold in there) then I'll be doing some testing. What I'll also need to look out for is how long the roses last in certain conditions and how much blue I'll need to either get a full on blue or just a tinge.

3) Dye/paint something blue.
This might be done if I decide to go with silk flowers because I think it would completely destroy a real flower if I dye/paint it blue... although it might be worth it to try and dye a real flower just for fun.

4) Deal without.
I've been searching and there haven't been a lot of brides that have blue flowers in their bouquet but also I figure I should have a plan B just in case none of this works. The backup plan is to try and find an all white bouquet but I'm not liking a lot of what I see. Maybe I'm not much of a bouquet person but to me a lot of bouquets look chaotic and thrown together without a lot of thought.

Make Your Own Stamp

For a while I've been hunting the internet for the perfect stamp for me to use that is either the same or very similar to the design I have on the invites. Unfortunately there has been no such luck but I did come across http://www.theartfulcrafter.com/stamps.html where I got the idea to just make my own damn stamp. I've been sitting on this process for a while and testing it out but here's what I've come up with.

Materials you will need:

















*cheap erasers (look for the multi-packs from Walmart for the back to school sales)
*x-acto knife
*toothpick, dental tools, or some small picking/prodding object
*fine grit sand paper
*printout/hand drawing of your design (works best with less detailed and thicker designs)
*pencil
*LOTS of patience

Step 1:
take printout/drawing of your design (make sure this is not your master copy) and trace over it in pencil so the design has a lot of pencil lead.

Step 2:









flip the design over and put it on the eraser, then rub on the back of the paper so the pencil lead transfers your design on to the eraser. If your design is bigger than the eraser then you might need to glue some of the erasers together. I recommend using super glue to stick them together but try not to get the glue on the surface of the eraser or you might have problems later getting the ink on to the eraser for stamping. After transferring the pencil lead on to the eraser, darken the lines with your pencil or a pen so you can see your design better.

Step 3:
with all the cutting skills and patience you have slowly and carefully cut out your design; this is why the bigger, simpler design works best. If your design is complicated like mine, be prepared to make small cuts and start over when or if you cut it wrong. While cutting, try to keep a little more of the eraser than you need because you can always cut away the eraser parts but you can't add it back on (well you can but it's a very messy process and you might as well just start over). Also remember to try not to cut underneath the design for the outline or else you might end up accidentally cutting off your design like I did at one point. Use the toothpick/dental tools to help you clear out the cut pieces from the smaller areas. The web site recommends cutting the inside of the design out first, but I found either way works.

Step 4:










test out your stamp, correct where needed and cut away the background parts for a cleaner image. Use the fine grit sandpaper to smooth the edges BUT if you have one of the crappier erasers they might just fall apart from sanding, so TEST it out on the eraser before you try it on the design.

Step 5:
TA DA! Enjoy