Wedding Craftiness

I guess you could say that it took a whole bunch of craftiness to make this wedding happen.  (Both to get the bride and groom together, hee hee, and for the actual wedding events.)  We are way over due posting about the October nuptials, but better late than never.

We used a Jane Austin feel for the shower decor and theme.  It fit Cadie perfectly.  She is a classic and a romantic.  

I made her an apron for my shower gift.  I wanted it to have a sweet, feminine feel with a high waist and flowing skirt.  I should have gotten a picture from the back too.  The skirt wraps around and meets in the back, so it can be used as "kitchen lingerie".  Oooh la la!  And it twirls nicely.  I found a cute vintage sheet to use for the fabric and fancied it up with ribbon and lace.  I also put in nice and deep, hidden side pockets.  Everything is better with pockets.

Jessi put together this beautiful arrangement for the serving table. I love the romantic antique feeling she created.  She truly has a gift.  I took the photographs of Cadie and Gavin that we used in the decor.  It was a quick photo shoot just to catch a peek in to the whirlwind of a romance they were having.

My sister and brother-in-law, Joanna and Grant made Cadie's bouquet, the corsages and the boutineers for the wedding party.  They turned out beautifully.

 this photo was taken by Steve Watson

Our cousin Wendy, of Wendy Cakes, made cupcakes for the shower (I can't find the pics of them, but they were beautiful) and the GORGEOUS and equally delicious wedding cake.  The bottom layer was chocolate heaven!  I loved the sparkly broaches that she added with the ribbon.  Superb! 

We, crafty sisters, all worked so hard to make this an inexpensive, but beautiful reception.  Again, we were going for a sparkling romantic atmosphere.  I didn't include the photo booth photos since Dandi just posted those, but every one love it and we got a lot of fun photos of the guests.

We were able to hold the reception in a friend's incredible backyard.  It was a great back drop to begin with. We borrowed white lights from everyone we knew and then had a family gathering to string them everywhere we could.  The hubbies worked hard to engineer the dance floor canopy of lights.  It was truly magical!

My sweetheart helped me to put together the white back drop for the greeting line.  We used yards and yards of white muslin and pvc pipes to hang it between in the arch way.  

Jessi created beautiful mason jar lights that were hanging from small shepherd hooks to light the pathway to the back yard.  Again, no photos, oops!

And then to fit with the previous post about spray paint, to save money we borrowed the center piece topiaries, which were red and black, and spray painted the flowers and urns to match Cadie's colors.  We added ribbon and a few more flowers to pull it all together.  We had lovely pink, orange and purple legs, feet and hands for a few days from all the painting.  And I don't know if Jessi's garage floor will ever recover, even though we did try to be tidy about doing it.  We bought purple and fuchsia lace to alternate as table toppers with antique white tablecloths underneath.  

  

It was tons of work, but I think we were all pleased with the outcome.  And I always love an excuse to work day after day after day with my sisters on a project. 

Spray paint heaven

Sorry about the terrible before pictures, I used my cell phone.  I got these at Kirkland's during a 25% off clearance sale.  They were really cheap and pretty, but not the colors I wanted.

So, I took them out in the yard and painted them and now...

... they will be bright an happy on my wall.  Actually they will be hanging in my newly painted yellow bedroom, but the light was better in the family room when I was snapping these shots so you get the rusty walled background instead.  I LOVE spray paint!  A whole new world of possibilities opens up when you can  look at cheap and free items knowing they can be any color you want them to be.  Ceiling fans can change from bright brassiness to mellow bronze, or pewter, flower pots can become shiny metalics or bright and happy spring time colors.  I feel set free!

Susanna popped her head in the way as I was trying to photograph them and she is much cuter than my new wall art, so I had to include her too.

Photo Booth Wall

For my brother's wedding last fall, we found this really cute idea for a photo booth and my dad and I were able to make one similar. It was lots of fun at the wedding. The pictures didn't turn out as good as I was hoping because of the outside lighting, but it was still a blast to have there.

We were going to use wood but because of the weight and other factors decided to go with a heavy cardboard. We created a supportive frame on the backside with 2x4 and then cut out the holes we wanted for our frames.

Instead of wallpaper, we decided to lay a piece of lace over the cardboard (using it as a stencil) and spray paint a light cream color.

Next, we decided where we wanted the smaller frames to go and marked it.

Because we used cardboard instead of wood, we nail gunned small pieces of wood to help support the smaller frames that we were going to hang up.

Then we hung the frames and voila, a really fun photo booth for guests to take pictures with at your event.

Photo Shoot

These are some pictures from a birthday party that we threw for Gwen and her friend, Ella. I had a blast working with Ella’s mom, Laura and wanted to show the fun Ballerina Photo Booth we did as well as the adorable cupcake toppers that Laura’s sister made (she sells them on Etsy).