Our favors are dying...

I really wanted to have favors that were alive - like fresh flowers or succulents. Fresh flowers weren't really in the budget but I found some great agave plants that I nurtured for months leading up to the wedding. I thought this was even better because I just happen to do research on prehistoric uses of agave in the North American Southwest. (If interested you can watch some of my work featured in a NPR Science Friday video here.)



Agaves bloom only once in their lives and then they die. But the bloom produces dozens of small baby agave plants that keep the generations alive so to speak. I really wanted to translate this idea and had a very romantic notion that our guests would give us back a baby agave once their favor bloomed and we would continually propagate our agaves like we would propagate our love.



Well this is sort of working out but I think the 100+ temps in Phoenix are doing a doozy on our little plants of love. Either that or our friends have black thumbs. I have gotten reports that many agave plants are no longer. I even planted about a half dozen outside our office building on campus where we first met - someday thinking that we would return to them as flourishing adults. But they are on their last legs as well.

Hopefully in 10-15 years we will have some survivors.... I hope this isn't an omen of some sort. Just kidding. It would be nice to be able to get some back, but it will be just as meaningful to reminisce about our wedding day.

Weekend Projects

I have been crazy busy over the last month and have been really looking forward to this weekend. Even though I still have things to do I promised myself that I would take the weekend to relax and work on some wedding projects.

Guestbook
I found this guestbook a couple of months ago. The cut out design goes great with many of the other decorations and papel picado theme. I added some of our favorite engagement photos using cardstock in our colors. I am calling our colors turquoise, fuchsia, lemon, lime, orange, and plum. I wonder if there are food related terms for turquoise and fuchsia?

Agave Favors
I made a couple of tags for the Agave Favors. I hope this project works out because about half of the agaves look like they are dying. I wanted to work on this project so I could submit an entry for the Martha Stewart Weddings creative favor contest. You can view my entry here. Take a look an rate my entry! I hope Martha will like it. It is sort of my secret dream that she will see it and I will get to go to the show. Fingers crossed!


Papel Picado Banners
I did some work on more Papel Picado banners. I think for the maximum color I will probably do most with just a decorative edge using craft punches. I think the hearts are a little cheesy.


Invitations
I made a first run at the Fiesta Reception invitations. I want to do a mini papel picado banner in our colors. I think they turned out pretty well. The photo is a little blurry to to fully appreciate the details but I love them. I love the font too. It is called Merceed and makes the Ms of our names look really cool. Matt likes it because it looks like a pirate font.


So even through I didn't finish any projects to the point I could cross them of the list, I did make decisions about alot of things. On the list for the rest of the month include:
1) continue dress shopping (spent all afternoon looking and even was about to place an order for one I LOVED - only to find out it was discontinued!!!)
2) print and finish Save the Dates for Fiesta
3) order cake, think about design

Agave Favors Drown in Storm

A few weeks ago I posted an entry about the agave wedding favors I was working on. Well last night they got dumped on by a crazy storm we had in Phoenix. I had them sitting outside so they could get a little sun and forgot all about them when a lighting storm started. Before I knew it is was a torrential downpour with huge wind gusts of up to 100 miles per hour. We lost part of a tree in the front yard (which almost feel on Matt's car) and are still without power as of 3:00 the next day.

The little agave pots are full of water and about half of the dirt has washed away. Many of the leaves are also broken off - probably because of the hail that came with the storm.

Oh well, I still have a few months to nurse them back to health. If not I can wash out the little pots and fill them with candy,

Agave Favors

I worked on our favors for the Tempe Fiesta and Nebraska Reception tonight. In keeping with our Mexican theme and because we love them the favors are small agave plants. I found some really cute small metal planters at IKEA. The agaves are from a plant that was blooming on campus. Unfortunately I haven't yet figured out what species but it doesn't have any spikes so it will be more user friendly. I am keeping my eye out around town to get other species in the mix. I know in Jan I can find Agave Murpheyi - the species grown prehistorically by the Hohokam.



My hope is that 1) they don't grow too big for the pots by April/May and 2) I don't kill them by April/May.

I am going to print out a small tag with information of how to care for the agave and to say thanks. Matt's duty is to come up with a clever pun or rhyme about agave and our fiestas.

They are going to act as double duty as the table decorations for the Tempe Fiesta.