Sparkling in the Spotlight

Like many other brides before me, I just love the look of a sparkler send-off. I love the drama (of course!), and it makes for such a perfect end to a classy, city light-filled wedding.

(Photo Credit )

So I bought some sparklers off of Ebay. But they looked pretty drab, in all their gray loveliness. So I made cutesy little tags to accompany them:

And tied the darling little tags on with purple ribbon leftover from another project:

And took a yellow metal bin that I had been storing toys for my sisters in, threw the toys in a drawer, and painted it black.

The end result was this:

Another quick, DIY project that I've been busy whipping up in the final days before our wedding! Don't worry, there are plenty of lighters tucked in the back of the bin ;)

What are your send-off plans?

Candlestick Centerpieces

It occurred to me a few days ago that I have mentioned several times how I'm not using floral centerpieces, but never actually let you all in on what WILL be gracing our tables.

I knew right off that big, lush floral centerpieces wouldn't be in our budget and I have always loved candlelight, so I admit that I was pretty drawn to candle centerpieces right from the start. I wanted to make them dramatic, though, and I figured that the best way to do it would be to have tapers at each table, but didn't have any idea how to make it enough of a statement. That is, until I ran across this picture in a magazine probably at least a year ago:

(Photo credit for Martha, of course)

I loved the look immediately. I also saw right away the potential for a very "Phantom of the Opera" type drama for this look in our deep purple.

The problem then was how to get enough candlesticks. Let me tell you, most taper candlestick holders are not cheap! I tried the usual suspects: Ebay, Craigslist, etc., but finally settled on thrifting them from around the city. It was an ambitious project, given that I needed about 100 candlestick holders to have enough for all of the tables, but after about four months of thrifting once or twice a week (and a few additions from my dad and stepmom's adventures!), I was able to collect over 100 of them.

This is just a small sampling of our collection. I love all the different heights and shapes!

*Please excuse the poor quality photos, we're in the middle of unpacking and it was just a drive-by mock-up!*

I also picked up some wax candle adapters, which I had never heard of until I started wedding planning:

(Photo Credit)

They apparently keep tapers from tipping over in holders that aren't sized perfectly (which is a definite risk when you're thrifting them!), so we won't have crookedness like the middle candle in the picture I took above.

Then I ordered the purple taper candles in bulk for $75 from the cheapest place I could find them and voila, we had centerpieces! I resolved not to spend more than four dollars a piece on each of the holders and most were only a dollar or two, so all in all I spent about $350 getting gorgeous centerpieces put together! That was one of greatest budget-slashers, since the floral quotes I was getting here in the city were running in the several thousands, even for simple arrangements.


Are you incorporating candles into your centerpieces? How are you trying to make them unique?

The Best Bridesmaid Gift Ever...

... is not making them dress like this:

(Photo Credit)

Okay, Star Bridesmaids! This is your cue to skedaddle if you happen to be reading today. 

Peace. Sayonara. Hasta la vista. Ciao.

So I figured I should probably get them a little something other than a considerate dress choice, since I love them all so much. :)

They've each done a lot of DIY project pitching-in, emotional consolation, or organizational legwork throughout the course of a two-year engagement. They are some rockin' ladies.

First, I wanted to get them clutches that looked like they went together, but weren't too matchy-matchy. I also wanted my ladies to be able to use them post- wedding! I discovered that (once again), my criteria made it tough to find them in stores, so I turned to my trusty standby: Etsy, of course!

I put out another alchemy request for five bridesmaid clutches that were coordinating, but still fit the individual personalities of each of my ladies, and this is what I ended up with:

They. Are. Gorgeous. Seriously, this picture doesn't do them justice. In person, the fabric is so luxurious and they are just beautiful. When I got them in the mail, I really wanted to keep one. I had them made with the accent color in a bold version of a color that I know each lady loves. Fairy Bridesmaid, for example, has always loved yellow, so her clutch has a pop of yellow.

But I also wanted to give them something more personal that came from my heart. So I wrote each of them sonnets (yes, in verse! see, that theatre degree DOES come in handy!) on coordinating cardstock and using my new found calligraphy skillz!

I love how fun they all look together:

And then I new I wanted to wrap everything up in an adorable little package, because I know that sometimes a beautiful package is almost as much fun as the gift itself.

So I trolled the dollar store (it's Jack's 99 cent store here in NYC) for weeks until they put these gorgeous black and white damask bags out and I snatched up five of them. Score! I splurged on some expensive scalloped pink tissue paper and found some adorable pink christmas ornaments that say "bridesmaid" on them to hang on the outside of the bags. I'm thinking about trying to personalize the ornaments by writing their names on them, but I'm not sure how to do it yet on a glazed ceramic ornament. Ideas are welcome!

Altogether, the packing looks like this:

I can't WAIT to give these to my girls. Not only do I love their clutches, but the whole package will look so cute and I spent some mucho time on writing a whole sonnet about each of my girls and making it pretty with calligraphy! I love gifts, both giving and receiving, and I think I'm more excited about giving these to my girls than they are about finding out what they are!

What are you giving your girls to thank them? Did you make them, buy them, or a combination of both?

Veil Va-Va-Voom: Part Two

You might remember my post about the first part of my veil saga where I told you all how I made my own birdcage veil. If you don't, that's okay. It was so long ago! It took me a bit longer than anticipated to finish my second veil, so you'll have to excuse the gap between parts one and two of this story!

Anyways, I promised I'd show you a picture of me wearing the birdcage that I made:

I'm still working on the placement, which makes a shockingly big difference in how the veil looks. I'm thinking I might need to bobby pin it to my head in a place or two, as well.

I also showed you the vintage French lace that I bought from Etsy in my post about my somethings. As it turns out, hand stitching that lace to the bottom of my veil took several weeks of painstaking effort. But I'm very pleased with the end result!

I wanted a shoulder-length veil because the detail on the back of my dress is too beautiful to cover up (I know, I know...). It was surprisingly difficult to find a shoulder-length veil! I guess they're really out of vogue. That was what prompted me to make my own veils in the first place.

I'm really glad I made them, though, because now they're both so very much my own.

The trick now is just to figure out how and when to wear each of my veils. I know it's become acceptable to wear a traditional veil during the ceremony and throw on a birdcage for the reception, but the birdcage I made covers my whole face, which isn't exactly ideal for eating/talking/kissing/dancing/etc. 

I had thought that maybe I would just wear the shoulder-length veil and use the birdcage solely for pictures, but I kind've feel like I worked too hard on the birdcage to sell it short like that.

Momma Star suggested that I actually reverse things and wear the birdcage for the ceremony and have Mr. Star do a cute "lift the veil" thing before the kiss, which I think would be really fun. Then I could wear the other veil for the reception. The only thing that bothers me about that plan is that wearing a veil that falls behind me really makes me feel like a bride. Like, I cried in the salon when I put on a veil for the first time. So I'm torn.

What do you think? How should I plan to use both veils? Do you have two; and if so, how are you wearing them?

Our DIY City/Purple/Polka Dotted Invitations, OR: The DIY Project That Nearly Killed Me

Now that our out-of-towners have officially begun RSVPing (hooray!), I think it's probably pretty safe to share these babies with you! Though they were not gocco'ed and were certainly far from being perfect, they were a labor of extreme love and dedication and I'm pleased with how they came out.

I do have a confession to make: I've been super nervous about sharing these with the hive, but only because of the beautiful creations of so many very talented bees that have come before me. So go easy on me, ladies! My running joke has been that my engagement ring did not come with a degree in graphic design (or floral arrangements or tuxedo styles or the like!) ;)

What our guests saw when they opened their envelopes!

Everyone takes their invitations to the park to photograph them in the greenery, right?

Doesn't our "suite" look nice together? It pained me to have to cover up our personal info.

Our dramatic RSVP postcards

The hand-drawn map that Margarita Groomsman labored over...isn't the compass cute?

So that's it. There they are. Out of all of the DIY projects I've conquered thus far, designing and printing and assembling the invitations, combined with doing the calligraphy for all of the envelopes, is the project that nearly sent me packing...to elope, that is! I had no idea this would be so hard, but it certainly was worth the effort in monetary savings. Similar pocketfold envelopes are selling on Etsy for $5-7 a piece! And no wonder, with how much work they are. I made ours for just a bit over $2 each.

What seemingly insurmountable task have you taken on that has saved you a bundle?

Polka Dotted Bridesmaids

Having a polka dot motif certainly opened us up to a lot of cool options for everything -- from cake, to bow details, to pretty paper, to bridesmaid attire! The struggle for me has been to balance my concern about having too few polka dots versus having too many. The perfect polka dot balance is a tough one to strike.

So when I first started thinking about bridesmaid dresses, I was up in the air. There are some totally awesome options like this gorgeous dress with a purple sash:

(Photo Credit)

I love, love, love this dress, but decided that it would be way too much on five girls. Maybe just on my MOH, I then pondered. But I quickly rejected that idea, too, because I was worried that she would look too different from the other bridesmaids and me.

So I decided to go with deep purple dresses and have the girls wear polka dotted accents instead. I decided that, since my girls are each so incredibly different and full of their own wonderful personality and style, I would let them each choose a different polka dotted accessory and not dictate how they wear their hair or which shoes they buy. This has resulted in awesomeness all around so far. I really hope they all look as amazing together as I think they will.

Sassy Bridesmaid bought some super cute polka dotted hoop earrings from Cassowaryjewelry on Etsy for just $8!

Fairy Bridesmaid made three separate polka dotted chokers that are each slightly different, just so I could pick which one I liked best!

My MOH whipped this beautiful little fascinator up in about 10 minutes; I was so impressed! She just took some grosgrain polka dotted ribbon and hotglued (you knew it was coming) it in to a fan shape as she went, then glued an oversized button on top of it and added some rhinestones for bling. Then it all got glued right to a little plastic comb and voila!

(Photo Credit)

I was really hoping one of my bridesmaids would choose shoes. Really, really hoping (thanks, Boston Bridesmaid!!). I originally wanted to wear polka dotted shoes, but I just don't think it would work with my dress.

(Photo Credit)

Blonde Bridesmaid made herself an adorable polka dotted headband with purple sparkly buttons on it, all from supplies we picked up at M&J Trimmings. This headband looks similar to the one she made except it doesn't have the purple bling.

Are all of your bridesmaids dressing alike or are you giving them some creative license?

Bombs Away!

So we mailed out our 80 invitations this week. It was quite the relief because pretty much every piece of those things was handcrafted by yours truly. This was by far my most ambitious wedding DIY project. I'll post later with pictures of them and some tips on what I learned, but for now, I'll give you some pictures that tell the story of our mailing saga.

We had quite the drama over what would be the correct postage for these puppies. I delegated to Mr. Star the arduous task of taking a finished invitation to the post office (which is ALWAYS crowded in New York, despite the fact that there are about 5 within a few blocks!) and getting it weighed to find out how much it would cost to mail them.

He went to one postal worker who told him it would be nearly $2 to mail each invitation and while this seemed high to him, he didn't know how much I was expecting to spend and went ahead and bought $160 worth of postage.

When he came home and told me what had happened, I freaked. Hoping to have spent somewhere in the $60-$70 range and knowing that USPS would be unlikely to give us our money back, I was distraught. Mr. Star quickly went to another nearby post office and was given a much better .61 cent quote by two different postal workers who both thought that the original guy was crazy.

To make a long story (and about 8 visits to the post office and 5 phone calls to the USPS complaint line by Mr. Star), we did end up getting our money back and were given the correct stamps. It did end up delaying us getting our invitations out by about a week, though, which may not seem like such a big deal to anyone else, but to me it definitely was. I had just seriously busted my butt to get all the calligraphy done quickly and then had my finished invitations sitting around my kitchen for a week -- it was frustrating.

So that might be why Mr. Star looks so happy and relieved to be carrying the box of invites to the post office:

Isn't he cute?

I felt a little sad because I was handing the pride and joy of my wedding paper crafting over to the postal workers whom I know will not treat my invitations in the manner I would like. I told Mr. Star that after all that work there should be trumpets or something. At which point, he proceeded to make loud trumpet noises as I walked down the crowded sidewalk. This is my reaction to that:

But in the end, we were both more than a little happy to have them in the mail and on the way!

My message to you is this: please, please, PLEASE have your invitations weighed and priced at more than one post office if you think there's anything wonky about the quote they give you.

What invitation mailing snafus have you run into?

Crazy Calligraphy

So while our invites are just being sent out this week and I can't yet share those with you, I would love to share a little piece of their DIY goodness: the outer envelopes.

When I first started dreaming about our wedding invitations, visions of letterpress and professional calligraphy danced through my head. Then, reality set in. We didn't have the budget to splurge on every detail and invitations ended up getting bumped further down the priority list, behind my dress and our gorgeous loft.

I decided to take on the enormous task of making our invitations and got this crazy idea to learn calligraphy and address the outer envelopes myself. I love learning new things and as you might have noticed by now, I never shy away from a challenge. The question was, how to start? In the big, wide world of calligraphy, people take things very seriously and it can be a little overwhelming for a newcomer. So I started with a how-to book:

(Photo credit)

This was a great book for someone just learning to do calligraphy. I put a lot of research into picking a Calligraphy 101-type book because there were a lot to choose from. It shows you what you need to buy, teaches you the letters, and gives you lines to photocopy and practice on. I'm glad I splurged and spent a whopping $4 buying this used off of Amazon, instead of trying to learn off a website.

(Photo Credit)

I then bought Speedball C-2 and C-3 sized nibs, plus nib holders for each. The book recommended you learn on a C-3 because it's larger and you can see what you're doing better, but I decided that I needed a smaller C-2 sized nib to actually address the invites.

Also, don't forget your ink! I bought black to learn with and silver for the invites. I made sure to not buy the cheapest silver there was, because I was worried it wouldn't stand up to the black envelopes. Even with outrageous NYC prices, I got the two nibs, two nib holders, and two colors of ink for less than $20.

I spent a lot of time practicing each of the letters before I even began trying to write words. I would suggest you start learning at least a month before you have to start addressing. I started about two months before and still could have used more practice!

The finished product!

I ended up being really pleased with how the envelopes turned out. What you can't see from a picture is how sparkly the silver is and how textured the letters look being handwritten with a nib. Were the letters always perfectly spaced, perfectly level, and perfectly written? Ohhh no. But I really love the gorgeous, I-spent-a-lot-of-time-handwriting-this-just-for-you look.

I will say, that out of all of my DIY projects (including the ones you've already seen and the actual invitations), this was the one that came closest to driving me insane. Although we didn't have the money to spend on a professional calligrapher, I personally don't think those people make enough money!

What crazy DIY project almost left you batty? I say almost, Mr. Star and Momma Star might put it another way ;)

Table numbering (verb):

Table numbering (verb): The uniquely bridal attempt at making something totally utilitarian into another excuse to craft something unnecessarily complex and beautiful.

Awhile back, I was totally inspired by Mrs. Eggplant's DIY photo table numbers post. For some time, I had been thinking about making our table numbers have something to do with our theatrical theme, like maybe naming them after plays we've each been in or such. I also wanted them to carry the polka dot motif that we've got going on, as well. But then I wanted to do photo table numbers after seeing the awesomeness of Mr. and Mrs. Eggplant. How to reconcile, how to reconcile...

This is what I came up with:

Pretty cute, right? It really was super easy, too.

We both dressed up for the photo-taking occasion, I wore my fave little black dress and he wore a dress shirt and pants. We asked Blonde Bridesmaid to come over and help us out by taking pictures of us in the park. I took Mrs. Eggplant's wise advice to buy one posterboard and not try to write each table number on it, but rather photoshop the words on later. So Mr. Star and I basically goofed off in the park for half an hour, while Blonde Bridesmaid photographed the whole thing.

Because I'm a cheapo and don't actually have Photoshop on my Mac, I decided to take the easy route out: Go edit and print the pictures out at Duane Reade (or CVS/Walgreens, for you non-NYC'ers!). The DIY photo machine there was plenty sophisticated enough for the quick edits I needed to do. I simply cropped the pictures, made them black and white, lightened a few of them that were too dark up, and added text across the white posterboard for each one. Pretty soon, I had 10 printed pictures for 30 cents each! Not bad.

Then I put them in silver frames that I bought from Jack's 99cent Store (NYC dollar store that has saved my wedding life!) and hot glued (you knew that was coming) one of the same little polka dotted bows that I made for the bouts onto the top of each frame. That $8 of polka dot ribbon that I bought from Ebay has really come in handy! Oh, and don't worry, the pictures aren't fuzzy at all, it's just a photographer error :)

For any theatre junkies who are keeping track, the plays we chose were:

• Oedipus
  
• Stop, Kiss
  
• All My Sons
  
• Les Mis
  
• Macbeth
  
• Into the Woods
  
• Cyrano
  
• Agamemnon
  
• Camille (More significance of this one will come later!)
  
• Rumors
  

We tried to mix up the genres of plays and musicals, modern plays with the classics. We've performed in about half of them between the two of us, and the other half are ones we've read or seen and fell in love with.

What has inspired you for your table numbers?

Boutonniere Love How-To

I was so pleased with the response to my boutonniere post -- mostly relieved that everyone seemed to think they were a classy alternative to fresh flowers from a florist!

I got several requests for a DIY tutorial and so I figured that I'd do my best to oblige, despite my initial reluctance because, to be honest, they were mostly trial-and-error! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the process, since I didn't know I'd be blogging about them at the time, but I've tried to be as specific as I can be in my descriptions. And honestly, if I was able to pull this off, anyone can!

To start off, I'll recap my supplies list:

• Purple satin ribbon 3/8"
  
• Guinea feathers (I ended up using 12)
  
• Miniature silk camellias, about 1" across (18)
  
• Black beaded rose
  
• Silver pin backings
  

Also some things I already had in my supplies:

• Purple cardstock
  
• Polka dot satin ribbon 3/8" (from another wedding project to be posted soon!)
  
• Hot glue and gun
  
• Tacky glue
  
• Scissors, of course
  
• Thread or string

To start off, I should probably warn you all that I am the Queen of Hotglue. If something isn't working, I just bust out my hotglue and there isn't much that I can't do! I hope you all share my hotglue love, if not my hotglue blisters. I've included a close-up picture of one of the boutonnieres for reference:

First off, I set about arranging the flowers. I cut all the stems to be separate and removed the leaves. After that, I basically just pushed the flowers around until I could see all three and I thought they looked nice together. My plan was to just hotglue them together at this point and then wrap the ribbon around. This, however, was where I ran into my first snafu: the flower stems were so thin and so plastic that they melted when I tried to hotglue them together.

So instead, I tied the three stems together with thread and used tacky glue to anchor the stems to a little piece of cardstock I cut out that was oval-shaped and about 2" long and 1/2" wide. This way, I was able to create something to hotglue to, which was important to me because (besides the fact that I love hotglue!) hotglue dries much more quickly than tacky glue, making it easier to create aesthetically-pleasing arrangements!

Next up, I wrapped the ribbon around the stems/cardstock. I started by using hotglue to attach the end of the ribbon to the top of the cardstock and wrapped as carefully as I could all the way down the stems and back up, using glue every few wraps as I went (I think two layers of wrapping looks cleaner). NOTE: At this point, I did not cut the other end of the ribbon; I just hotglued it at the top again and left the other end hanging still.

Then I wanted to attach the feathers. Guinea feathers often have a lot of fuzzy grayness at the bottom and I thought that made my bouts messier looking, so I used my cut off all the fuzzy part first. Then I hotglued two of feather shafts and one of the leaves to the back of the ribbon-wrapped cardstock. This is why I didn't cut the end of the ribbon: because at this point, I wrapped the ribbon around the bouts a few more times to cover the feather shafts and leaf stem, and then hotglued the end down in the back and snipped the extra off.

I was planning on leaving them as-is at that point, but they still looked like they needed a little something. So I used a bit of leftover polka dot ribbon from our table number project (post coming soon!) to make little bows. I just tied a piece of ribbon that was about 10" long in the same way that I would tie my shoelaces and if you just wiggle the last loop a bit before you tighten the bow all the way, you can get both loops to have the polka dots facing out! For Mr. Star's bout, I simply hotglued the beaded rose in front of the feathers to give it a little added pizazz :)

Let me know if you still have questions! Like I said, it was mostly trial-and-error, patience, and hotglue!

Boutonniere Love

Aftering seeing some amazing inspiration on Etsy, I decided that it would be fun and cost-effective to make the guys' boutonnieres myself. I spent a few weeks collecting the supplies from various places:

Purple Ribbon - Ebay - $8 including shipping
Guinea Feathers - Etsy Seller Mojaziemia - $5 including shipping
Miniature Camellias - Ebay - $12 including shipping
Black Beaded Rose - Trim Store in NYC, W 38th street - $2
Pin Backings - Findings Store in NYC - $4
TOTAL - 6 Boutonnieres for $31



I'm pretty proud of the way they turned out! I love that they incorporate our polka dot theme and that they were lovingly handmade by me. I was concerned that my mister would feel slighted that they were silk flowers, but he confessed that he was way more excited about boutonnieres made by me than ones made by some florist!

Would you ever consider incorporating silkies into your day??

(Photo credit by moi)