On Junk, and Loving It.

There is something to be said about the contrast between old and new, between natural and man-made. 

When I was younger, my mom and my sister would scour the junk stores while I moped about, imagining hundreds of old ladies who once treasured all that stuff, now just dead. I couldn't get into it back then. Of course, by the time I did, my mother had spent years convincing herself she JUST DIDN'T NEED MORE JUNK, and my sister moved away. 

Thankfully my mom got back into the spirit of it for my wedding, and I'm so glad because she's already found me some of the best things I own. These crates she picked up are exactly what I'd hoped for. I hope we get lucky and just keep finding good old CRAP, because they are the treasures of my lifetime. 

Thanks, mom!

On a Whim.

I received an Oriental Trading Company magazine, WEDDING EDITION. It was so great, the prices are amazing. In the magazine, there were a lot of cute banners in my colors. I thought about ordering a few, but I realized banners are one of the easiest things to make, and the funnest. 

I have a few ideas for burlap banners, but it turns out the roll of burlap I bought is not a tight enough weave for that particular project. I did, however, have a stack of paper about as tall as I am as well as 4 cardboard triangles leftover from a baby shower project.

So! I spent a good 20 minutes choosing a font, printed out some letters, and gathered my supplies!

At first I wanted to cover the triangles with paper and then glue the letters on. But with a patterned background they didn't POP unless they were black, and I'm avoiding black as much as possible. So I decided to cut the letters out of the background papers themselves.

1. I traced the cardboard triangles onto patterned paper and cut out pretty new triangles.

2. I placed the paper triangles over a foam sheet, then taped my letter OVER the triangle paper.

3. With my XACTO knife, I began tracing the letter. Then I realized it was easier to serrate the edges of the letter, meaning I poked a hundred little holes around the letter.

4. When I took my stencil off, I had this same E on my pretty triangle and poked it out with my blade. Now I had a triangle with an E cut out of it.

5. I took the gold stamp pad and rubbed it on the cardboard triangle where the E would go, so it was gold instead of brown. I glued my paper onto my triangle with hot glue.

It actually did not take as long as I'd thought it would once I mastered cutting out my letters. Now I will take a file to the edges of the paper so they lay down smooth, then put twine through my holes and TA-DA!!!

Project One.

Somewhere along the way, I saw a fabric flower someone had made. That, along with a photo I found later, inspired my first project. I collected fabrics from Jo-Ann's (the leftover scraps are cheaper!) and bought a string of shiny pearl beads and began. I recommend comfortable scissors for this project, which I still don't have because scissors are not cheap. Unless you find a good pair at the St. Vincent's, I need to look there...

Anyways, I did not take pictures of my very first steps into the flower-making. But it was easy. I traced a lip-balm container to make hundreds of circles. I set some of them aside to use as bases, then starting folding the rest to make petals. I have seen literally hundreds of ways to make flowers and almost all of them turned out better than mine, but I like mine so that's alright.

                                   

I long ago decided on using mason jars, and luckily my mom had a lot of those so I didn't have to spend time or money collecting them and could start right away!

Before I started decorating the jars, I made some flowers that were really big. I ended up not liking them on the jars so much, so they went to another idea.

I am excited for them to serve their new purpose! Now, I must caffeinate before work, so more photos later :)

How I Got Going.

In all honesty, I'm a little embarrassed to tell you how long I've been engaged. Under a year, long enough for me to feel like a slacker sometimes. Time is money, they say, and I may have benefited from spending mine sooner! But that's alright, because now I have a full vision and not just a few random ideas. This is all thanks in large part to Pinterest. And if you don't know what Pinterest is then all I can say to you, my friend, is that you're missing out and you need to go there now! Really.

Okay, so I spent hours (months) on Pinterest stalking wedding boards, DIY boards, color-themed boards, e-card boards (because you need to laugh during this process to ward off the dark thoughts) . Then, through a source my brain apparently did not deem memorable, I discovered sites like Wedding Chicks and The Knot and their amazing blogs. I don't even want to know how I'd be feeling now if I hadn't poured over other girls' weddings.

My own visions came together only after seeing thousands of photos of various ceremonies and details. Many of the ideas I started out with changed some or completely, and I'm sure about what I'm now spending my time and money on. A big thank you to all the couples (and their photographers) who make it so enjoyable (and free, wedding magazines are out of my budget!) to plan a wedding by sharing theirs.

Here are some of my favorite inspiration photos!

By the way, I have been engaged for 8 months and am planning a September wedding.

In the Beginning.

They say every girl dreams about her wedding day. I don't know if that's true, but I know that I definitely imagined my own once or twice throughout my adolescence. While I'm sure many of my own friends (though not all, I know!) dreamed of long trains and big palaces filled with flowers and fancy china, my own visions for my wedding day were stolen right out of Little Women, and just about as plain as you could imagine. 
Now, as what can only be painfully identified as a 'young adult' whose dreams have changed and has also met her Mr. Right, it's time I get down to business. I have a vision and a savings account of zero dollars. It's time to prove to the world and to myself that a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants wedding can be a beautiful day instead of a big disaster.
From the decorations to the invitations, the food to the music, from beginning to end this will happen with a few dollars here and a few (larger) dollars there, a hot glue gun, and a long list of beautiful things I'm about 85% sure I can recreate.
And if not there's always the court house steps and the bar afterward, right?