Weddingbee boards

I wanted to post this separately because a lot of the details I put into our wedding require a bit more explaination and I didn't want to overdose you on text in my previous recaps. These are in no particular order.

One of the comments we've gotten time and again from our guests is how much detail there was in our wedding and how much like "us" it was. That is the biggest compliment anyone could have given me about our wedding. I spent hours doing DIY projects thinking no one would notice other than me. Boy I was wrong!

First, our Going to the Chapel and Just Married banners I made. I really had scratched this off my DIY list because I thought I wouldn't have time, so I was really happy I had found time one night to do these! I basically took a few different patterns of 12"x12" scrapbook paper, cut it into four 4"x4" squares, and cut the letters out with my Cricut. I used a glue stick to attach the letters to the squares. I poked a hole in the corners of each square and threaded through this burlap type ribbon. If I had to do it again, I would have put large size grommets in the corners instead, the paper ripped a bit. By the time we drove home Sunday I think the Just Married said Ust Ar. Whoops.

Barnboard: DH loves all things that are big chunky and wood. He's very manly ;) I'm more girly. So we decided to use some barnboard elements which were really "his style" and in keeping with the vibe of our venue, and then accent them with more girly pieces to glam it up. DH and his friend sourced the wood and actually took it down themselves, piece by piece. They built this barnboard table top for our escort cards which we then rested on wooden work horses borrowed from our venue, and the rest of the boards served as "runners" on our tables.

Teapots/cream & sugar pots: I stalked thrift shops for months and bought every.single.piece of silver for our tables. My mom, sister, and neighbours helped me polish 40+ teapots and 60+ cream and sugar bowls in the 3 weeks before the wedding. A friend and I DIY'ed the babys breath cream and sugar pots the day before the wedding to save a bit of money out of the floral budget (florist quoted $500, we did it for under $40).

Balloons: When DH and I talked to my stepson and later my nephews about the wedding and that we'd like them to do very important jobs for us, we needed to explain what a wedding was. How do you not get overly philosophical about that with a 4 and 6 year old?! So we basically said it was a big party. Immediately they each said "Will there be cake and balloons?!" because that's a kids frame of reference for a party. They have cake and balloons. So of course I had to say yes. I found a little wooden alphabet abacus type toy at a thrift shop, pulled it apart, and attached the first initial of each of the kids to their balloon.

Bubbles: I spent hours on these. Half of me wonders why, half of me thinks they're really cute. I totally forgot about these on the day and when our guests started blowing bubbles after the ceremony it was a wonderful surprise to me! LOL! Anywho, I decorated them with lace and ribbon from the dollar store, cut out the hearts on my Cricut, and the baker's twine I bought from Etsy.

Cold feet socks: Inspired by my fellow bees, I made a little "in case of cold feet" label for DH's socks. He actually thought he was getting the same pair I had gotten the rest of his GM, but I found a pair I thought matched my shoes well ;) I found the plaid background and flourishes on a free vector site and whipped it together with a couple of cute fonts.

My grandfather's pin: My grandfather is one of the most important people in my life. I just adore that man. On my 20th birthday he gave me one of his regiment dress lapel pins. It is the most meaningful and touching gifts I have ever gotten in my life, I don't think he realized what it meant to me. My grandfather still has the other pin, I love that we have a set together. My mom and I were helping to clean out my grandparents condo a few months back, and I found this little shoe-clip on thingy made out of lace that belonged to my grandmother (she's in a nursing home with Alzheimer's now). I snagged it, removed the clip and a pearl that was on it, sewed on a pin to the back and then pinned on my grandfather's regiment pin on the front. An amalgamation of both my grandparents who have been happily married for over 60 years, it was perfect.  

My bolero: I had my red shoes for years, they were Mizarahi for Target, and I wanted a red bolero to match. I found MaryandAngelika on Etsy and had her put an extra lining under the silk for extra warmth, and conversely, in case I started to sweat if it was a hot day! Everyone loved the pops of colour and I loved that it gave me two different looks for the day. Cute bolero for first look and the reception, dress and veil for going down the aisle.

Playful accents: I found wooden blocks at the thift shop, so I glued them together to make a cute little sign. I also used the left over letters from the wooden abacus to make another :) These were on our guestbook/gift table.

Love keys: I saw these on a blog, tracked them down a bought a set for our sweetheart table. So cute!

Lace wrapped votives: My sister and I did this in an afternoon using lace from Fabricland and glue dots. Easy peasy and they look adorable! I should really start posting this stuff in the Classifieds section... LOL!

Menus: I cut the backing on my Cricut, 2 per 8.5x11 page. I printed the actual white menu cards just at home on my HP printer (nothing fancy), cut them down with a paper guillotine and glue them on with those glue tape dispenser thingies.

Jam jar skirts: I selected a different fabric (from Joanne's) for each table. That fabric coordinated with a button on each person's escort card. The tables were also numbered, so I didn't lead people on a wild goose chase looking for X fabric ;)

Tags: I also made tags for the caramel, the flip flops, and the pashminas with a little note (ie for the caramel: Keep refrigerated, warm before using) and our wedding date.

Favours: In the jar was my famous homemade caramel. So delicious. Some of our guests couldn't wait and ate it at the table, LOL! I don't think you can see it in this photo, but we also had a package of Forget-Me-Not seeds from the Toronto Alzheimer's Society at each place setting in honour of my grandmother who couldn't make it due to her disease.

Soda: This was a throw back to my childhood when The Pop Shoppe was a really popular local brand here in Ontario. It went off the market for years, but then someone bought out the company and it has started popping up again on shelves in various stores. I bought up as much of the Black Cherry soda as I could (although their cream soda is awesome too) and bought the barber poll paper straws at Bergo here in Toronto.

Wooden toys: I found a bunch of wooden toys like peg games and little mazes at thrift shops while I was hunting for my teapots, so we put them out on the bistro tables at our cocktail hour. I thought they were super adorable and playful!

My bouquet: On the handle of my bouquet I had 2 very important things. One, fabric daisies from my mom's wedding dress. My mom is super short, so her dress just didn't look right on me, but she offered to cut off some of the flowers so I could incorporate them into my dress or accessories some how. My florist pinned them around the handle for me.

Two, the pin I bought off Ebay. This was a vintage WWII airforce pin from France. My grandmother (with Alzheimer's) was in the British airforce, so I loved the commonality there. I put photos of her and my other grandmother, who passed away shortly after we were enaged, inside so I could have them with me on our day. When we got our photos back this week, this is the one photo that made me cry.

Pasminas & flip flops: I crammed these into woven rattan suitcases I picked up in Chinatown. The pashminas disappeared in a heartbeat, I probably still have about half the flip flops left.

So this isn't really a DIY but it was an awesome touch. I had my BM sing me down the aisle to Ingrid Michaelson's The Way I Am. I had been looking forward to this for MONTHS and it was more than I dreamed of. She was perfect :)

Lanterns: I got them in Chinatown, DH and his guys strung them up that morning. We varied between solid and eyelet patterned ones. We didn't put LED throwies in them because I was too lazy to figure out how to make them but I think it looked fine without them ;)

Our rings: DH designed mine himself and had it custom made. We had a band made to match since we couldn't find one that would fit without a huge gap. His ring is from Titanium Knights on Etsy and cost about $50.

Cake toppers: This first one I made myself inspired by you bees! I included our three cats since they make my world go round ;) I bought the little wooden people at Micheals and used acrylic craft paint from Dollarama to paint them.

The lobster claw topper I made myself out of Fimo clay, and the vintage bride and groom were another thrift store find.

This topper was a gift from the couple who ran the shop where I bought our lanterns. They were SO sweet.

Cookies & tray: So this tray is one of my best thrift store finds for the wedding. It folds up like a clamshell, I call it "the transformer". I literally squealed in the store when I found it! The cookies I made the night before the wedding with my mom's recipe. In high school my friends were ALWAYS at my house. My mom was ALWAYS making us cookies. How could I have them at a party I was throwing and not have her cookies?!

Blue glass punch bowl: We filled this with different coloured Hershey kisses for our kissing game. Pull a blue one, you kiss, pull a silver one, the bride and groom kiss. The punch set is circa 1970 and was a salvage find by one of our friends who's that guy who randomly finds stuff and brings it to you! I love it though, it has a matching ladel and 8 glasses.

Love birds: I cut these on my Cricut and they sat on our placecards.

Cupcake picks: Again, another inspiration because of you bees! I designed these to match our elevator invitations, programs, and cake, and printed them onto round Avery stickers from Staples. I stuck two of them together with a wooden stick I bought at Micheals in between. There was a range of sayings from "give me some sugar" to "Bakerella loves cake Mr Bakerella" and elevator buttons G through 8 with a heart instead of a 9 because we met on the 9th floor. The alternate side had our names and wedding date.

Cupcake wrappers: They're sort of hard to see in this picture, but I just cut them out of black cardstock with my Cricut an they say "Eat Drink Be Married" around the top.

Tie Napkins: Nuff said. They're awesome.

Programs: So they're kind of blurry in this photo, but they're multi-page layered to coordinate with the elevator elements I had going on. I cut them all on my paper guillotine and sewed them across the top (similar to our invites). I then put a grommet in the top left corner and put a loop of fancy baker's twine through so it could hang on the chairs with the bubbles.

Are you as exhausted as I am right now?!

I adore everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I wish I went to your wedding!!!! I love the soda pops!!

Awww thanks ladies! I'm actually just trying to get in touch with my photographer to see if there are any other detail shots. There aren't any good ones of my centrepieces which I'm kind of disappointed with... Hopefully he has some that he didn't send me :)

@crebre80: That pop was one of my FAVOURITE things. I have leftovers sitting in my basement. It's like wedding Christmas whenever I crack one open ;)

@bRooklynRocks: Thanks so much!

@ceamoste: PM-ing you now!

@ktbrady: I do have a blog, you can link to it through my profile. Unfortunately I haven't gotten to updating it with my pro photos yet, I posted here first I should be updating it all next week I hope (after the Christmas shopping and our holiday party is done!) and I'm hoping to put in some DIY projects I did as well. Steal away!

@missbiscuit: I bought them, but I can't remember from where. In any case, this place has them :)

@knitting: I didn't make the napkins, I ordered them online. BUT after I paid $10 for shipping, I found them in Teatro Verde up at Bayview Village so you may want to check there or their flagship shop at Bay & Bloor. I bet if they don't have them they'd order them in for you. They're called "Dress for Dinner" napkins.

Thanks everyone! I'm so happy with how it all turned out! It was a labour of love, that's for sure!

@LindsayB: Umm wow. Thank you! I'm speechless! Thanks!!!!!

@MissBabeski: Thanks! I spent so much time working on little things, and sharing all those little details in progress here on the Bee I wanted to make sure I posted the end result of it all! It was a group effort in my mind!

@cbee: And they look great without the cushions! LOL! Our vendors screw up photograph's nicely at least ;)

@LindsayB: Not at all! I'm totally flattered!!!! Like speechless flattered!!! And trust me, there have been very few times when I don't have something to say ;)

@knitting: Potentially yes. I have to count them up today for another bee but if she doesn't want them, you interested? Man, forget the Classifieds! LOL!