So this inspired me to be a busy bee and skulk around the interweb looking for Owl Wedding inspiration. After all, a Haunted Mansion might have a few owls hanging around.
Image via http://bellaweddings-events.blogspot.com
Friday, April 29, 2011
Owls Owls Everywhere!
Back in my college days I was lucky enough to join a sorority. Our mascot was the owl and it's been a love affair ever since. Now I know owls are in the main stream right now with all kinds of clothing, decor, and charms but I was digging owls way before the band wagon started rolling ,yo!
So this inspired me to be a busy bee and skulk around the interweb looking for Owl Wedding inspiration. After all, a Haunted Mansion might have a few owls hanging around.
Image via http://bellaweddings-events.blogspot.com
Here's my first find....seriously....it is awesome. It's making me want to forgo the traditional cake and just get this, who doesn't want a big bite of owl?
So this inspired me to be a busy bee and skulk around the interweb looking for Owl Wedding inspiration. After all, a Haunted Mansion might have a few owls hanging around.
Image via http://bellaweddings-events.blogspot.com
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Craigslist: Where Wedding Dresses Go To Die
Ever wonder where all those heinous wedding dresses are from the 80's? No, prob not, why would you? I'm going to tell you anyway, they're on Craigslist being disguised as "vintage". Yes, buyer beware of these impostor antique frocks. The good thing that I can say about them is that I haven't seen one listed for more than 200 dollars which all that material and beading may indeed be worth. Here are a few I found very quickly in my area. All images via http://orlando.craigslist.org/
This one was labeled as "Flawless", I'm sure that's the first thing people would think if they saw you in it.
This one may have been 70's, I also saw a huge hat in one of the pics.
This one boasted an original purchase price of 1,200 bucks, now asking 100.
I itch just looking at this picture.
This one is funny, it looks like they put the dress back on for the picture.
This last one is my favorite, very "Muriel's Wedding". Unless you are having a serious Pretty in Pink moment what are you going to do with these? Who is actually buying them? I'm sure if you are a skilled seamstress that you could strip away those big sleeves and all that sheer material and make a nice simple dress, and more power to you if that's what you need to do.
I just think that when you buy a wedding dress that is trendy you really have two options. Sell it after the wedding while it's still in style or save it for your daughter who may be able to do a repair job on it. As far as I'm concerned the above pictures are all Halloween costumes in the making.
Some one should come up with a craft book, What to do with 80's Wedding Gowns. It could have directions on how to make aprons, curtains, and table linens from your old dress. The big poofy sleeve could become a shower poof. Talk about going green!
What do you think about these dresses? Funny or sad? Any idea on how to recycle them?
I just think that when you buy a wedding dress that is trendy you really have two options. Sell it after the wedding while it's still in style or save it for your daughter who may be able to do a repair job on it. As far as I'm concerned the above pictures are all Halloween costumes in the making.
Some one should come up with a craft book, What to do with 80's Wedding Gowns. It could have directions on how to make aprons, curtains, and table linens from your old dress. The big poofy sleeve could become a shower poof. Talk about going green!
What do you think about these dresses? Funny or sad? Any idea on how to recycle them?
Monday, April 25, 2011
Betty's Favorite Things: Dresses
During your wedding planning process eventually you get sucked into looking at about a million dresses online, I'm no different. With a budget of only 600 bucks that's exactly what I was doing, looking. I can't begin to afford most of these dresses and some of them I'm just appreciating for the beauties they are. Since I had no intention of buying these I didn't really research who made them or how much they were so pardon me for not giving you that info, but rest assured you'll find all of these through a Google search.
These two up top are awesome and I do know they are Jessica McClintock. I didn't see them on her website so they must be older. I am in love with the shorter one but not for my wedding day ( i prefer a long dress).
This is one that I did find on the J. McClintock website. It's youthful and spunky and if you're a bad ass bride you could totally pull it off for your reception dress.
These next two are both from the same website and I did happen to see how much they cost, i believe around 1,800 pounds. So that would be a whole lot of dollars. I'm into the burlesque look and if i had more money and a little more nerve I would totally wear the 2nd one on my wedding day.
This last one is so classic looking, I don't think you even need to be having an off beat wedding to wear it. Maybe black isn't for everyone but this is so elegant that I think most could pull it off.
Today on Rock N Roll Bride there is a Halloween wedding featured. They have my coffin favor boxes and skeleton cake topper (beside the cake). She also has the bouquet I'd want if I could spend 100 dollars on a bouquet. Check it out here
Friday, April 22, 2011
How To Fake It: The Tale of a Fake Vintage Doily Runner
It's a doily, it's a runner, Yes It's Both! My first experience with a doily runner was from a classified ad on weddingbee. I'd never seen nor ever thought of such a thing. Here's my take on it.
In a previous post I talked about how I bought 2 lace table clothes at a garage sale. The first turned into table squares and the second much larger one was in the process of being re purposed. Well the project is almost completed and here's what I have. If you'll remember I cut the middle out to make a runner, easy peasy and it looks like this.
All photos are of the Personal persuasion
Now I have only edges left. I cut out a bunch of the lace patterns that made up the rest of the table cloth with the intention of making them look like a doily runner. Here's a picture of them all spread out on the table.
To make them look like mismatched doilies some had to go through an aging process. Bring in the tea! I boiled a pot of water and put 4 tea bags in it. I'd read a blurb here and there about this process but I'm pretty much winging this thing.
I let the tea cool down before I started dipping pieces in it. Be patient, it's worth it to not go to the burn unit. Now here's the part where it starts getting scientific. I rustled up some test pieces and put them in for varying amounts of time to see how the color would turn out.
As you can see there really wasn't a huge difference in the shades and I figure it's going to be very dim at the reception and people won't be able to see very well anyway. So I dipped most pieces pretty quickly and then laid them on an old towel in the bath tub ( wasn't sure if I'd stain the tub).
Once my pieces were dry I laid them back out on the table. I did read this tutorial about how to create a doily runner and took their advice about laying out the big pieces first and then fitting in the smaller ones to fill it out. Since mine are mostly the same size I didn't have to work too hard on that part. I did have to try and mix up the stained ones with the white so it would looked properly proportioned. Here's how the colors turned out.
Now that they are laid out, next step is to make them stick together. I went over the edges with a needle and thread doing long stitches on the under side. It really didn't take very long and you can't see them from the top. Here's the finished product!
Now if you wanted to you could of course stain more pieces, I only did half. I think it turned out not too shabby if I do say so myself. Cutting out all the patterns was the most time consuming part of this project but when you put on a little "Dog Whisperer" you'll be amazed at how fast it goes, and think of the time and sleep you'll save by not trolling garage sales looking for doilies! I also had a whole side piece left from the table cloth that I trimmed up to create another runner. For those keeping count that's 3 runners from one table cloth and 6 table squares out of another. Total money spent, $4.
What do you think? It takes the cake or it's ghetto? Lets compare pictures of our DIY doily runners.
In a previous post I talked about how I bought 2 lace table clothes at a garage sale. The first turned into table squares and the second much larger one was in the process of being re purposed. Well the project is almost completed and here's what I have. If you'll remember I cut the middle out to make a runner, easy peasy and it looks like this.
Now I have only edges left. I cut out a bunch of the lace patterns that made up the rest of the table cloth with the intention of making them look like a doily runner. Here's a picture of them all spread out on the table.
To make them look like mismatched doilies some had to go through an aging process. Bring in the tea! I boiled a pot of water and put 4 tea bags in it. I'd read a blurb here and there about this process but I'm pretty much winging this thing.
I let the tea cool down before I started dipping pieces in it. Be patient, it's worth it to not go to the burn unit. Now here's the part where it starts getting scientific. I rustled up some test pieces and put them in for varying amounts of time to see how the color would turn out.
As you can see there really wasn't a huge difference in the shades and I figure it's going to be very dim at the reception and people won't be able to see very well anyway. So I dipped most pieces pretty quickly and then laid them on an old towel in the bath tub ( wasn't sure if I'd stain the tub).
Once my pieces were dry I laid them back out on the table. I did read this tutorial about how to create a doily runner and took their advice about laying out the big pieces first and then fitting in the smaller ones to fill it out. Since mine are mostly the same size I didn't have to work too hard on that part. I did have to try and mix up the stained ones with the white so it would looked properly proportioned. Here's how the colors turned out.
Now if you wanted to you could of course stain more pieces, I only did half. I think it turned out not too shabby if I do say so myself. Cutting out all the patterns was the most time consuming part of this project but when you put on a little "Dog Whisperer" you'll be amazed at how fast it goes, and think of the time and sleep you'll save by not trolling garage sales looking for doilies! I also had a whole side piece left from the table cloth that I trimmed up to create another runner. For those keeping count that's 3 runners from one table cloth and 6 table squares out of another. Total money spent, $4.
What do you think? It takes the cake or it's ghetto? Lets compare pictures of our DIY doily runners.
The DIY Photo Booth
Out of all the current wedding trends the photo booth has to be my favorite. Not only am I a DIY bride but I'm also a low maintenance bride, meaning I'd rather stab myself in the eye than get printers and a whole set up going with some one to man the station. This is going to be a low key "booth".
Here's my plan. I bought a $4 pink damask shower curtain from Ross to be the background. Pink doesn't really go with the wedding colors, which are basically black and white, but it will probably photograph well. I love the bold patterns that people use as the back drop and I'm hoping this shower curtain is going to have the same feel. Look at these patterns below and try to tell me they aren't awesome, you can't!
Image Source
Then I created some mustaches on sticks (another serious trend that I'm digging). See, you and I know that mustaches on sticks are a major trend, but my guests will be seeing them them for probably the first time and think it's very cute. They don't know I'm being unoriginal, it's our little secret!
I went with a shower curtain because it already has holes in it to be strung up easily, and if I find another I like better then I'll just use it as a shower curtain. The mustaches cost $1 to make. I bought a piece of stiff felt for 99 cents and I used skewers that we already had for the sticks. I Googled Mustaches template and found this site . When I printed it I made the mustaches just outlines to save on ink,cheap thrifty!
The next step is to collect more props and make photo share cards. I'll most likely use Vista print for the share cards and a photo booth sign. In this photo booth scenario every one is using their own camera and then uploading pictures to a website when they get home. Granted, you're not getting instant gratification from having a photo printed and put into your hot little hand but really, I think people will not even know it could have been an option. I've had the phrase "facebook these pics when you get home" slurred at me from across the bar many times making me believe people enjoy going home and reliving the night by seeing what pictures get posted.
Here are some of my inspirational DIY pictures.
Image Source
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Do you think photo booths are over done? What kind of set up do you think it the best?
Here's my plan. I bought a $4 pink damask shower curtain from Ross to be the background. Pink doesn't really go with the wedding colors, which are basically black and white, but it will probably photograph well. I love the bold patterns that people use as the back drop and I'm hoping this shower curtain is going to have the same feel. Look at these patterns below and try to tell me they aren't awesome, you can't!
Then I created some mustaches on sticks (another serious trend that I'm digging). See, you and I know that mustaches on sticks are a major trend, but my guests will be seeing them them for probably the first time and think it's very cute. They don't know I'm being unoriginal, it's our little secret!
I went with a shower curtain because it already has holes in it to be strung up easily, and if I find another I like better then I'll just use it as a shower curtain. The mustaches cost $1 to make. I bought a piece of stiff felt for 99 cents and I used skewers that we already had for the sticks. I Googled Mustaches template and found this site . When I printed it I made the mustaches just outlines to save on ink,
The next step is to collect more props and make photo share cards. I'll most likely use Vista print for the share cards and a photo booth sign. In this photo booth scenario every one is using their own camera and then uploading pictures to a website when they get home. Granted, you're not getting instant gratification from having a photo printed and put into your hot little hand but really, I think people will not even know it could have been an option. I've had the phrase "facebook these pics when you get home" slurred at me from across the bar many times making me believe people enjoy going home and reliving the night by seeing what pictures get posted.
Here are some of my inspirational DIY pictures.
Image Source
Do you think photo booths are over done? What kind of set up do you think it the best?
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
The road to the perfect venue.
Once the high of my proposal wore off and I realized I would then have to plan a wedding (yikes) I started to look for a venue. I knew I wanted to get married on Halloween weekend because 1. our first date was October 30th and 2. I really love Halloween, as you can see pictured below.
This is an 80's rocker (fiance) and Lady Gaga (me)
Anyway, with the Halloween theme in mind I pictured and old estate or some kind of historic landmark. I looked around a bit and found them to be very expensive and very strict with their rules. Most big old houses are in residential areas and have noise ordinances that cause your event to have to end at 10pm. Not cool.
So I then began to research the crap out of unique venues. I started looking on vendor websites to see where they had worked events to try andsteal someone's great idea think out of the box. I came upon a few gems, the first being the most unusual place in the mix.
It's the Winter Park Farmers Market, a building that was originally built as a train depot and now hosts a market on Saturday mornings. It's owned by the city and with in venue budget (which is 1,000).
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The next venue I contemplated is the Woman's Club of Winter park which is right down the road from the Farmers market. They had nice wood floors and fire places on both sides of the room but they had some strict rules on decor, and the price was slightly higher.
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Next on the list was a community building about 15 minutes from where we live. I was excited to see the inside after looking at the awesome outside online. It looked like an old house! It was my haunted mansion and I was so excited! Upon my visit I realized they had no ceremony space (unless you count the stage). This was a bummer, with our small venue budget I needed one location. They also had rules about needing to hire police officers if you're going to serve alcohol, which we weren't too thrilled about.
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The final place I seriously looked into was a golf course club house/ballroom. Picture creaky wood floors and a big stone fire place, it def had the decor I was looking for. They had an out side ceremony space and provided all the food and alcohol. This proved to be expensive. On the up side it meant I'd have a DOC by going with this venue but after negotiating some food prices it was not going to be with in budget.
Photo courtesy of Pilster Photography
Above are just the final venues that I took my family to in order to make a decision, I actually looked at at least 200 venues online. So which venue did I go with? Drum roll please!
I went with the Winter Park Farmer's Market! Woo Hoo! Hold your applause, you're too kind! It's not an old house but I'll make it look that way. My fiance and I are both very pleased with it. He actually has memories of his mother taking him there on Saturday mornings as a small boy. Who knew that he'd grow up and one day get married there. We love the big barn doors and industrial flooring. They recently installed market lights which are really charming. Here are some more pics!
Photo Courtesy of Jessica Lorren Photography
Photo Courtesy of Studio 222 Photography
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How long did it take you to pick a venue? How many did everybody look at?
Anyway, with the Halloween theme in mind I pictured and old estate or some kind of historic landmark. I looked around a bit and found them to be very expensive and very strict with their rules. Most big old houses are in residential areas and have noise ordinances that cause your event to have to end at 10pm. Not cool.
So I then began to research the crap out of unique venues. I started looking on vendor websites to see where they had worked events to try and
It's the Winter Park Farmers Market, a building that was originally built as a train depot and now hosts a market on Saturday mornings. It's owned by the city and with in venue budget (which is 1,000).
The next venue I contemplated is the Woman's Club of Winter park which is right down the road from the Farmers market. They had nice wood floors and fire places on both sides of the room but they had some strict rules on decor, and the price was slightly higher.
Next on the list was a community building about 15 minutes from where we live. I was excited to see the inside after looking at the awesome outside online. It looked like an old house! It was my haunted mansion and I was so excited! Upon my visit I realized they had no ceremony space (unless you count the stage). This was a bummer, with our small venue budget I needed one location. They also had rules about needing to hire police officers if you're going to serve alcohol, which we weren't too thrilled about.
The final place I seriously looked into was a golf course club house/ballroom. Picture creaky wood floors and a big stone fire place, it def had the decor I was looking for. They had an out side ceremony space and provided all the food and alcohol. This proved to be expensive. On the up side it meant I'd have a DOC by going with this venue but after negotiating some food prices it was not going to be with in budget.
Above are just the final venues that I took my family to in order to make a decision, I actually looked at at least 200 venues online. So which venue did I go with? Drum roll please!
I went with the Winter Park Farmer's Market! Woo Hoo! Hold your applause, you're too kind! It's not an old house but I'll make it look that way. My fiance and I are both very pleased with it. He actually has memories of his mother taking him there on Saturday mornings as a small boy. Who knew that he'd grow up and one day get married there. We love the big barn doors and industrial flooring. They recently installed market lights which are really charming. Here are some more pics!
How long did it take you to pick a venue? How many did everybody look at?
Monday, April 18, 2011
Let's Talk About Crafts, Baby
Let me start this by saying that I have spent the last 27 years hating lace. OK, Hate may be a strong word but let's just say it wasn't for me. Lace table clothes and curtains are for your grandma. I can stand a doily here and there but that's about it, and don't even get me started on lace appliques on wedding gowns. It's just not my style. Well, not until I saw this.
Image Source
This is when every thing changed for me. A light bulb went off above my head, this dress and I had a come hither moment. Black lace...Genius! All of a sudden lace isn't for your grandma. It's cool and dark and oh so fashionable. But alas, this dress isn't meant for me, but it opened the flood gates to a world of lace.
This is when every thing changed for me. A light bulb went off above my head, this dress and I had a come hither moment. Black lace...Genius! All of a sudden lace isn't for your grandma. It's cool and dark and oh so fashionable. But alas, this dress isn't meant for me, but it opened the flood gates to a world of lace.
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