A Few Things...

Here are a few things!

Second, Third, Fourth Hand...

I think I've talked on here about thrift shopping (only got 20 dollas in my pocket...) before and how I feel about it. I LOVE IT. If I can find something at a second-hand store that is a little pre-loved, I'll definitely buy it there instead of at a 'regular' store. I love the idea that this item has been owned by someone and perhaps cherished or passed around. It's a good thought. So anyways, now that I'm no longer a whining, impatient 12 year-old, my mom can stand going with me.

The other day we went around to all of the shops and kept our eyes open for anything that caught our eyes. The thing about thrift shopping, especially in a small town with limited options, is that if you have ONE PARTICULAR ITEM in mind you're most likely not going to find it (unless it is a very basic item that can be found in most second-hand stores, like kitchen items).

We got a good haul last week between St. Vincent's, the Salvation Army, and the clearance shelf at Jo-Ann's!

The two large cork-boards were 99 cents and $1.99, and I'm using them to make signs. I love a good sign, and the less announcements someone has to try and make the better. The small one was also a dollar, I think, and I can't find it so let's hope it shows up...
We also collected a few photo easels which you can't really see, to hold up all my handmade signs. These were 79 cents to $1. The box with the lady on it was a mystery box, sealed inside a bag. But it was $1 and I needed to know what was in the box. Turns out they're blank cards with the same fancy-hatted lady on the top. I'll use them as thank-you cards!
The fabric inside the box was a bundle at the Salvation Army for a I think $1, and I'm going to turn that into something-awesome-eventually-I'm-sure.
The burlap was, unfortunately, not found second-hand. But it was cheap enough for us, so you know it was pretty cheap. We now have "regular brown" burlap, dark brown, green, white, and pink which are incidentally my wedding colors. Kat loves the burlap and thinks she is Queen of the World, so that's why she's lounging all over my booty.
The trunk is one of my favorites and it will be the card box. It was regularly $60 at Jo-Ann's but we got it on sale for $15. 

My mom spotted this beautiful dish at the Salvation Army for $2.99 and we grabbed the hankies because I've started collecting them in various shades of my colors. I think they will look pretty with centerpieces or hanging from tree branches.

Sometimes you see something and you don't know exactly what it's purpose is going to be, but if you really love it you probably better grab it up! I have a small collection of items that I'm not sure how to use, but I feel confident I will find a place for them on my big day.

The most important thing to remember is that this is your wedding. What memories do you want to have of this day? What will you keep afterwards, and what will be thrown away (and consequently have been a waste of money)? Some of the crafts I've made will likely go in the trash, but other things will find a place in our homes for the rest of our lives. And it will have been worth it. These things are where you want to put your money.
If you stay true to yourself and you & your beloveds personal tastes, you will be happier in the end.

The Little Things.

I found this burlap frame at the Dollar Store the other day with a piece of paper glued to it, a piece of paper with stupid ugly flowers on it. I bought it, figuring I could rip the paper off. And I ALMOST did. However, the paper would NOT rip off! It's freaking paper so I thought it would be easier, but someone was really glue-happy.

So I ripped the burlap off with a screwdriver and covered it with some fabric I got out of the scrap bin. I love cheap things. It will look cute and take up some space somewhere. It's the little things, right?!

I got this chalkboard for $3.50 at Jo-Ann's and I probably won't buy another. I had a box of chalk a month or so ago that has since disappeared, so I got out my handy SHARPIE marker pen and just free-handed it. It's not professional-looking but I don't give a half a shit, I like it looking a little home-made! HAVE FUN WITH YOUR WEDDING. It's important. I'm having a blast, even though probably no one else would want to use my stuff. It was made by me, so it's more personal than anything I could have rented, and that's just great.

The Dress.

When a bride is planning her wedding, she looks at hundreds (if not more) of dresses. I looked at hundreds of dresses online - on Pinterest, on Etsy, on famous designer websites (hello, Alfred Angelo and Monique Lhuillier), on wedding blogs like www.weddingchicks.com & www.theknot.com, on discount sites like www.tidebuy.com and www.lovelyeveningdresses.com (these sites are worth looking at). And I fell in love with about 75% of those dresses.

The lace! The sweetheart necklines! The petticoats! The pearl buttons! The chapel trains! The ball gowns! The beads! The flowers! The high necklines! Good god, wedding dresses are cool. The more I explored the world of dress styles and designers, the bigger my eyes seemed to be. How was I EVER GOING TO CHOOSE?

Here are my tips: Have a budget. Looking at dresses outside your budget is a good idea if you are looking to find it or one just like it at a discounted/lesser price. The reason I allowed myself to go to those designer websites (like Clinton Lotter, aaah!) was because I knew I couldn't buy from their stores but maybe I could find them secondhand or, hey, even knock-off. 

Second, try dresses on to see what style you like. This can make that previous tip about not looking at dresses out of your budget a little harder to stick to. Don't go to expensive stores - this is easier for me because I don't live in a big city. I didn't try on any dresses that were out of my budget - I was going to buy online, so I tried on the styles even if I didn't like the design. There are many different silhouette styles and you don't know which looks best on your body without trying them all on.

Not to mention, of course, the various necklines/straps/train lengths, etc. Some girls know what they like and don't, and that's great. But don't expect it to stay that way, necessarily.

I knew I didn't like Mermaid style dresses, and I was right. I knew I would never wear a Mini, and I was right. But I also said I knew I would never like a Sheath silhouette or a Trumpet, and I was wrong.

Anyway, tip 3 is be true to yourself. Don't choose the one your friends like the best, or your mom or your mother-in-law or your fiance if you're the girl that takes him along...

Your wedding dress should be your favorite dress in the world that day. It should make you feel like a bride, and be something you'll look back on in thirty years and say, "Oh, I loved that dress..."

Today my mom and I went to our local wedding store, which we both really like because the service is amazing and the ladies are so kind. Not to mention they had mimosas today. I mean. Come on. That's love right there.

Anyways, we picked out way more dresses than I thought we would! The first one I tried on was the one I loved from the first time I tried on dresses. And I still loved it. It it a beautiful dress, I'll post a picture soon. Can't find it.

Next I chose to try on one that had caught my eye on the rack because of the lace on the top. It was a simple dress and a style I hadn't tried on yet. While I was in the dressing room, I felt butterflies in my stomach. When I stood on the podium, my mom and I looked at each other for a long moment before we both started to cry. It was the best feeling.

After that, I tried on a few more that I ended up also really liking. But my mom and I both kept looking at that second dress, hanging there looking so "ME", and in the end, we knew. I knew, and she knew. I tried it on again and we both cried again! SUCH WOMEN, I know! But I hear that's how it goes.

That's how I ended up buying my wedding dress today for 75 dollars. By not grabbing it off the sale rack because it was something I hadn't tried yet, and by pulling a little red ticket out of a hat that gave me a nice % off the dress. I am SO EXCITED! YAAAAAAY!

Thanks, mommy.

A Banner Year.

As it turns out, the world is against me this month. For some reason that I've been too preoccupied to look too far into, my computer has stopped reading SD cards (and any variation thereof) and I have misplaced my camera cord. Or left it somewhere else. Or did not look for it very hard. Or something.

So this night's blog post is brought to you by my iPhone camera, which usually works fine even for detailed craft pictures but not so much this time. I'll get into that.

Anyway, this post is to show the two more banners I've made to date, perhaps officially qualifying them as a collection? Maybe just an early-stage obsession. One banner is for the dessert table & the other is for the table where Jeremy and I will "sit". And it just occurred to me that now I can make banners for the walls! (I hope there are walls somewhere!)

I started with a stack of SHEETS OF FELT from Jo-Ann's & cut those in halves.

Then I drew (IN PEN because it was the only thing that would show up and I CAN'T CUT STRAIGHT TO SAVE MY LIFE)triangles the same size as the LOVE banner I made (and will probably now discard).

I don't have photos of the next steps, so read carefully. 

1. Choose what you want to say. For this one, which is for our dessert table, I chose "Love is Sweet".

2. Choose your medium. You can be much more creative here than I was, I'm sure. I chose felt for the base (because it's cheap and only ugly when you're reaallly close to it) and pretty leftover fabric squares (from the discount bin found at almost any local craft store) in varying colors for the letters.

3. Decide how to apply letters. Here you can get very creative. 

I chose to pick a font on my computer because I downloaded hundreds of free ones recently that I really liked, and because I'm not consistent with my drawing (it would look as though 5 different people did the letters). I cut out the shapes of the letters and taped them to large fabric squares, the way I did with my props. I then cut the letters out of the fabric and immediately applied Fray Check to the edges. 

OTHER LETTER IDEAS: cut the letters out of pictures of you & your groom or pretty magazine pages, stitch/sew them, hand write them, paint them, stamp them, cut them out of the banner itself (so you're looking through each square/triangle), cut them from favorite t-shirts or vintage aprons, something that belonged to a family member/groom's family. Do anything! Do something that's you.

4. Apply the letters to your base material. I thought about using my hot glue gun but realized that was taking the easy way out and decided to hand-sew them to the felt. Because I don't have a sewing machine. Because I'm an idiot who took on a DIY wedding without a sewing machine.

It's nowhere near perfect, but I like that about it. Nobody would believe I made it if the sewing was impeccable!

5. Try not to throw the whole thing in the trash. For me it was SO MADDENING when I would pull the stitch back through the bottom when it needed to go the opposite way. Just take a deep breath and remember that perfection is stupid, nobody likes it nearly as much as they love the hand-made, quirky homey fun touches that come from being human and doing things yourself!

This next banner is my favorite and was super quick and easy, probably mostly because I didn't take any of the recommended steps!

Again I began by choosing a font and making stencils. This time I did it the opposite way and cut the letter out of the page instead of cutting the page off the letter. Use a blade for this, people!

Then I cut SIX 8" by 8 " squares of UN-IRONED BURLAP. You should probably iron it. Wash it. All that. The lady on the how-to did.

Then you put that stencil paper in the center of that burlap square and you dab paint over it, touch it up, & you have a beautiful R like that one there.

THEN I STITCHED IT TOGETHER WITH GOLD THREAD, WHICH WAS THE BIGGEST PAIN IN MY ASS. DON'T DO IT. Or do, because it took like 10 minutes. It's up to you.