Our Wedding - Where to get the Goods

I have had a couple of questions lately about where to get some of the supplies I used for our wedding decor. I thought I would just go ahead and post the details so all could see.

MAP

The map included in our invitations was made by me. I used Adobe Illustrator and printed the file on cardstock at Kinkos.


STATIONARY STAMPS

The stamps I used on the Thank You notes and our Save the Dates is from the Martha Stewart line sold at Michael's Craft Store. It is called Wedding Cake. Isn't it delicious - I sort of want to lick the paper after using this one. Each design is a separate clear stamp that you put on a stamp block (sold separately) in whatever arrangement you want. Worked pretty well but the intricate design didn't always work with embossing powder like I did with the STDs.


CUPCAKE STANDS

The cupcake stands are from Martha Stewart's craft line sold at Walmart. Sense a trend of my design inspiration? I snazzed them up a bit with ribbon and papel picado stands like our theme.



MEXICAN CANDY

I got the Mexican candy from a Mexican Party Store in Phoenix called Dulceria Pico Rico. I didn't actually buy any candy for the candy buffet on-line like many wedding advice sties recommend. I found the on-line stores sold only in ridiculous quantities and Sam's Club along with the Mexican party store had better prices (and no shipping costs). We weren't going for a monochromatic color scheme though and wanted to feature our favorite candies - not just those that would look good. If your looking for candies that you can't normally find in the store the on-line sellers would make more sense.



If interested in knowing any other details just let me know!

Thank you!

So I don't want to seem ungrateful but it seems like I have been writing thank you notes FOREVER! Somehow this part is not as much fun as making the STDs or Invitations. I think it is because I was using plain jane thank you cards I bought at the store.

DIY thank yous to the rescue to get me through the list! Yes, getting back to DIY will help energize me. I decided to use some left over paper and the stamp supplies I purchased for the STDs. Simple - but much more personal than store bought. Why is it that homemade things (even those that turn out less than perfect) are so much better than some mass produced crap from the store? Now I am having fun writing personal notes of thanks to all of our guests.



So these are my "compromise" DIY thank you notes. I had originally planed on making some cards out of these pictures from our reception with the DIY banner I made a few months before the wedding. But I didn't like most of the options.



Why were we always making out in nearly every picture? I guess it is because we are so in love....

I love getting mail...

especially when it is wedding related mail. I don't necessarily like Bride's magazine but when I get that thick, overly pretentious monster of a magazine I can't wait to dig in. I sit down immediately and scan the pages crossing my fingers, hoping that finally I will see an ad for the dress of my dreams. After about page 50 I realize that giant poofy ballgowns made to fit size 2 are not really what I am looking for. This slowly sends me into what I have begun to call wedding-induced-stupper making me want to reach for a cupcake...

But not today! The mail was full of fabulous wedding related goodies. This immediately sent me into what I call a wedding-induced-upper! When I came home I saw and enormous box on the doorstop. (I have to admit I was thinking the registry fairy had made a delivery.) It was the Save the Date cards I won from Minted from a Blog contest.

I was so excited to win these so we would have STDs for the Nebraska reception. I am not really sure why 25 cards and envelopes needed to be in a box the size of a microwave. I only felt a little guilty about the environmental destruction this likely caused because I love mail so much, especially packages in the mail. The happiness that this giant package brought me, and therefore the gas saved from not making cupcakes in the oven, offset the footprint of making and sending this enormous box and nearly 4 lbs. of packing material. Don't you think?

The second fabulous wedding related mail item was our photo book from our engagement trip to Mexico. We made it using Blurb. So excited that I finally finished this (we got back 11 months ago). Instead of the childhood photo presentation (which must be another Midwestern wedding tradition because I have never heard of anyone else ever doing this), we are going to have this book and some other photos available at our Fiesta and Nebraska receptions. The last few pages of this book are my favorite. There is a photo we took after Matt asked me to marry him on a park bench in Mexico City as well as a scanned napkin of our wedding to-do list we made on the plane home. I think we are making progress on this list and about quadrupled it in size.


I love mail! I wonder if anything else will come this week...
Since I am talking about mail, I should also mention that last week I received another fabulous piece of wedding related mail. My sister-in-law Lindsay and some of my mom's friends are hosting a Bridal Shower for me when I am home in NE over the Christmas holiday. I received the invitation last week. They look great (thanks to my crafty inspiration- my Mom) and I am super excited for the shower (thanks Lindsay). My mom's friends are also super excited. A party at a winery in NE in the dead of winter seems to be the highlight of thier year.

STD How To Guide

The Save the Dates for our Tempe Fiesta are finally done and in the mail (or waiting to be hand delivered). Here is a short tutorial on how I did it.

Materials:
4x6 cards and envelopes
Laser Printer
stamp (used Wedding Cake stamp from Martha Stewart line at Michael's)
Embossing Stamp Pad-Clear
Embossing Powder - Black
Toaster
Tissue Paper

Step 1: Print card. This is definitely the easy part. Printing our own invitations just look sort of flat and uninteresting. To add texture I did an embossing technique which is really the only "hard" part.

Step 2: Emboss card. Use the clear embossing pad to ink the stamp. Stamp the card pressing down evenly. With the particular stamp I used I noticed that pressing down to hard made the lines run together which didn't result in a nice design. This is because the particular stamp I chose was relatively intricate. Simple bold stamps work best with this technique.


Step 3: Immediately after stamping before the ink is dry, dust the ink with the embossing powder to evenly coat. Tap off all excess powder. Be sure to get off all of the excess that is not on the inked portion as these will also be embossed when heat is applied. If the loose powder is not removed the final product will look sort of dirty or dusty.

Step 4: Place the card over a heat source. In craft stores you can find fancy smancy heat guns. But these are really overkill. I have found placing the embossed card over the heat of a toaster works just as well. Do not place the card in direct contact with the toaster just hold over the heat and wait for the powder to melt. This will happen within 20-30 seconds. It will create a raised shinny surface. Once all of the powder is melted remove and let dry which will only take about a 45 seconds. If you hold the card over the heat for too long the powder will completely burn into the paper and no longer be raised. It will also start to smoke!

Step 5: Included on the back of the STD were instructions on how to make a Mexican paper flower for a little hint on our theme. I cut 3 6 x 6 pieces of tissue paper in either yellow or blue and included in the card by folding the tissue around the card. Also included was a piece of string for making the flower. Hopefully everyone will make the flower and put it on their fridge or something to keep our wedding in mind.

I think they turned out pretty well and look like the inspiration card from Bird and Banner that I blogged about a few months ago. Even more excitting is that one major wedding project is DONE! Now on to the other DIY projects on the list...

Cool Find of the Week

Searching the web for pretty, interesting things is one of my all time favorite activities. Since all things weddings are my current obsession I am starting the "Cool Find of the Week" post to share my favorite wedding related find. Although this may turn into "Cool Find of the Day" given how many pretty things I come across.

So for this week I will share this blog which I love, A Lucky Orchid Wedding. The author, Laura Hooper, creates absolutely gorgeous maps and calligraphy. Check out this map for a wedding and reception for a couple getting married in AZ. So Cool!

(click to enlarge)

I wish I could write and draw like her. I think I would forbid myself to use a computer and write all of the time just so I could admire it. I wonder where I can take a calligraphy class...

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

Thank you card idea

I saw these note cards from Bird and Banner's Etsy store and want to try to make Thank You notes using the same technique.

I think this would be a really cute idea. Maybe it would be a clever way to use all of mom's cross stitching thread.

Invitation Ideas

I love this idea for a save the date card from
http://www.birdandbanner.com I think I will try to recreate myself and include tissue paper and instructions for a Mexican paper flower.