Saturday, June 30, 2007

What kind of bride are you?

Your Result:
Blushing bride You’ve secretly been collecting wedding magazine clippings and counting the days. You’re excited, but don’t want to subject every one around you to it. We say your friends and relatives will thank you for it later.

DIY: Studded Candles

You can easily customize your candles with the wonderful assortment of Scrapbooking Brads. Use the directions below or just design on your own. Add a personal touch to your table with decorated candles.

Materials:
Candles Making
Scrapbooking Brads
Single Hole Punch

Steps:
-First you will need to print out a spreadsheet with ½” size square boxes covering the entire page, or use graph paper, or free hand your design on plain paper.
-Cut the paper to size so it fits the same height as the candle and will wrap one time around.
-Use a Hole Punch to make 1/16” holes in the paper where the lines from the spreadsheet intersect, forming a pattern, or where the lines of your design should be.
- Wrap the paper around the candle and fasten with tape.
-Stick brads through the punched holes in the paper, inserting them ¾ of the way in.
-When you are finished placing all the brads, carefully tear away paper and push the brads the rest of the way in.


This would also look great for a DIY Unity Candle or just as decor or favors.
Found at the Save-On-Crafts Website

DIY: Paper Bag Luminarias

Creating Paper Bag Luminarias (Adapted From: Holiday Decorating For Dummies)

Traditionally, luminarias are made of votive candles set in paper bags weighted with sand and placed in rows along walkways, driveways, and even rooftops. You can use them in new ways, however, to light paths, a mantel, or a staircase. Because they're so simple to make, you can use them as projects for children. Light up your nights for the holidays by making some luminarias for your home and customizing them for a specific holiday.

You can decorate, punch, or cut designs from lunch-size paper bags to make holiday luminarias quickly and easily. Use bags in holiday colors (you can find them at party supply stores) to give your luminarias a holiday look. For instant decorating — no embellishments required — use the preprinted themed bags that are often used for holding goodies.

Place one to two inches of sand in the bottom of each paper bag. Nestle a tealight or votive candle into the center of the sand. When you're ready to use your luminaria, just light the wick of the tealight or candle.

Stamping, stenciling, or drawing designs
You can customize plain bags by stamping, stenciling, or drawing designs on them with craft paint or markers. Stencil stars for the Fourth of July, or stamp shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day. A simple drawing of a jack-o'-lantern for Halloween or a stenciled Star of David for a dusk celebration can provide a beautiful way to welcome guests and make any occasion special.

For a simple way to make a luminaria with a complex design, use a computer to print clip art in black ink on plain copy paper. Trim the copy to fit just inside one side of the plain brown bag, and then glue or tape it into place. When you light the luminaria, the black lines of the design show up on the outside of the bag. With this little trick, you can quickly make luminarias that look as if you spent lots of artistic energy on them.

Try to find designs that look like silhouettes or are completely black: They show up better when the luminaria is illuminated.


Perforating designs
When you perforate outlines of designs in your paper bag luminaria, bright pinpricks of light shine through the paper. Perforating outlines of designs in paper is easy. Just follow these steps:
1. Place several layers of folded newspaper on a cutting board.
2. Tape your paper bag, with the bottom flap unfolded, to the newspaper with pieces of masking tape or removable tape.
3. Take a thumbtack and prick evenly spaced holes along the outline of the design, making sure you prick through both layers of the bag.


Cutting out designs
Cutting small designs out of the paper bag will allow a little more light to shine through your luminaria. But remember, when you cut more paper from the bag, you also allow more wind in, making the candle flame more likely to go out.
When cutting out designs, use shapes that are 1 to 1-1/2 inches in size. Anything larger will weaken the structure of the bag, making it more likely to sag.

1. Place several layers of folded newspaper on a cutting board. Tape your paper bag, with the bottom flap unfolded, to the newspaper with masking tape or removable tape.
2. Draw or trace the outline of the design on the bag.
3. Cut out shapes with a craft knife.

If you want to use cookie cutters for patterns or larger motifs, you can use two bags (with one serving as a liner) to give the cut bag strength. This layered effect is very pretty when you use a contrasting colored bag for the inner liner.


Found at the Save-On-Crafts Website

Note: Saskatchewan Brides

Note: Saskatchewan Brides... or anyone else who would have items simply shipped.

Gale's Wholesale in Regina has become a site I tend to frequent. They have a ton of items at excellent prices. They feature a wedding section as well. I can't begin to tell you how many items I've found at Gale's and am simply waiting for the chance to get to Regina to pick stuff up. Take a look at the site, it is Canadian (obviously being in Regina) and the prices are in Canadian dollars, but they will ship anywhere across North America.


For anyone around Regina, you CAN stop in there and take a look. A friend of mine was maid of honor for another girl last year and she said that they just stumbled upon it while scouting around Regina and they were able to go right in and buy right from there.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

What a Week... Already

What a horrid week. Already. The weekend started it all off. Normally not so bad, visited with the parents for a lot of it... but Saturday we ended up with a pen in the laundry, which made it to the dryer... yup... ink alllllll over. But after some panic, a little crying (I was stressed already and that certainly didn't help, nor did the fight Dan and I had when I saw it and panicked), and a LOT of scrubbing with about a dozen different products, I had most of it out. Dan grabbed a can of "Erase" from his work and that took the rest right out. But before that, the only product that did anything for it was nail polish remover. Keep that in mind if you ever encounter this problem.

Sunday, more scrubbing - with the Erase stuff, a little house work, and another fight. It's been very stressful lately. Dan started a new job on the 18th, and he's working some pretty long hours right now, 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. So it's been interesting.

Monday!! I hate Monday!! I got in to work, to be reminded that our Service Manager and our Parts Manager are on vacation, and oh, Jen, would you go help in the shop by doing parts (which I know little about), Service (Which I've done before at my last dealership), and your own job? Yeah... Thanks a lot whoever approved those vacations. But I made it through, got done work at 6pm, instead of 4:30/5 ish like normal, and had to play ball at 6:30. Mad rush down there, starting to unwind. Mind you very slowly as the bottle of beer I'd snagged to take down with me, I dropped it as I just got into the dugout and it broke... in my ball bag. And around the 5th inning someone hit a ball majorly foul, and FAR. FAR FAR FAR. Way farther than a foul ball should travel. And it hit where? 3 guesses and the first 2 don't count. Yup. My Windshield. No bouncing off the hood even to slow it down, just smack in my windshield. I drive a Suzuki Vitara. You could not guess in this area of Saskatchewan how hard it is to find a windshield for one of those. But I found someplace in town that could get it, and it'll be here sometime next week. Mental Note: In the meantime, switch license plate over to the Mustang, it's summer and time to drive it again anyway.

Tues & Wednesday: Same thing, no ball Tuesday, but had to rush to Inlaw to be's place in Macoun (15 min drive) for haircut night. (We have a professional who is a family friend, she does it at the inlaw's place for cheaper than she has to charge in the salon she works out of. So no worrying about a family member who just thinks they can cut hair. $90, cut, color, and eyebrow wax in salon, $40 cut and color when she comes out to do it. Stop somewhere quick for a $10 eyebrow wax, no biggie and a lot cheaper.) Wednesday, ball again at 6:30, mad rush.

Today I can relax a bit. The parts person is back and the service dept can be her problem too. Tomorrow is month end, so that'll be busy. But it's Canada and this weekend is a 3 day weekend... and a much needed one.

My mom, I have to write about this quick, My Mom is a godsend. She is so thoughtful and so helpful. I love her so much. She's a Teacher's Aid, and thusly as of Tuesday at 3:30 is now off for the summer. She went out on Tuesday and stopped at some of the venues I'd mentioned to her and picked up some information for me. She said she thought I'd never get the time, and she's done work for 2 months, and has the time to do some running for me. Thank you so much Mom, even though I don't think you even know my blog exists lol. I've thanked her in person already, so no worries. Because she's right, I wouldn't ever be able to find the time.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Toasting Flutes

Now, one of the beautiful things I see when I think about my reception is the bride and groom's toasting flutes. I really quite horribly badly want a set that say "Bride" and "Groom". I guess it just seems like something that can be kept forever and used again and again. And if there's anything I like to see in my fridge, it's a nice cold frosty bottle of wine. I have a nice cold bottle of cheap fruity wine, peach to be exact, not because I don't want to spend a lot of money, but because I prefer the fruity stuff to the grape flavored nail polish remover that my father prefers, and the fruity stuff, or soda pop wine as my dad calls it, is always a lot cheaper. Now granted, I need to have people over and the boys can have a couple beer while the girls and I drink a bottle or few of wine. I'm a social drinker, and still not a big one at that. But the cutesy wutesy flutes that no one thought I'd care about, are something that I do. But not enough to spend a whole lot of cash on them. Here are some cute flutes I've found along my ways.










Now, Who can tell me which flutes are from Target.com and which are from bridal sites? I think you'd be utterly surprised. Many of the above are from Target's website and are priced much cheaper than the same flutes on the bridal sites. Check out Target's Specialty Shop to be greatly impressed. I even found a set of 12 plain flutes (search for Charisma flutes) for $24.99. For 12! Wow! All it would take is a little ribbon or other decorations, and you have some gorgeous flutes for the wedding party, parents, etc. For us that would be both sets of parents (4) and the bridal party (8). Then every member can take their flute home at the end of the night as part of their gift. But that's just one idea. If you're really crafty, you could even buy plain flutes and paint or glass etch them yourself. You might even be able to find an engraving shop that would etch them for you.

I especially love the ones show above with the feather puffs around the bottom. But those would be so easy to make yourself than to pay $45 and up for them. Same with the bow accented ones, if you can find them without the ribbon and charms, it's so easy to save some money by decorating them yourself.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Bulk Supplies

I found a good site for bulk supplies (and non-bulk orders as well). Party Pro has 8 different warehouses on their site, I haven't yet even navigated through all 8, each featuring some of the same, but many different items. The Green Warehouse features items with no minimum order, whereas the others are specifically bulk orders only. I came upon it while looking for table covers. They have an amazing selection of colors, and fantastic prices. The red warehouse features a minimum of $125 order and Gold is minimum $100 (the 2 warehouses with the smallest listings), but I haven't seen anything in those that I didn't see in the others. The Lavender warehouse features a lot of bridal items and does not list a minimum order amount. The other four (blue, orange, yellow, and platinum) feature a $50 minimum order and seem to carry the better selections, much the same as the Green Warehouse. Even when ordering from the Green warehouse, there are discounts for multiple quantities. I highly recommend looking into this site.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Reminder Bands

A new favor idea I've seen is to have custom made rubber bracelets. AKA Reminder Bands. These aren't so much my style, but the idea is really cute. I do buy them regularly to support causes, but typically they end up with my nephew to be, and he wears them everywhere. They're popular with the kids these days apparently. I did think they were really cute favor ideas, and I also stumbled upon a site that will make them for you. ReminderBand.com has many different styles and options to choose from, including, but not limited to:




One cute invitation idea I saw online used these bracelets:


Of course, the more you buy, the cheaper they get, and it depends on the style you pick, and any other options you choose.

DIY: Photo Cube

These are quite cute and seem very easy to create, even if you didn't use the program from Tabblo. They could make great centerpieces, fun accents, or whatever. Favors even. Create a free user account at Tabblo, upload 5 photos, then download the pdf (adobe acrobat file), print, and cut out.
Go to Tabblo for your free account and to start creating your photo cubes.

Friday, June 15, 2007

RE: Comment from Mike

Thanks Mike! I love to get comments, although you're only my second comment, and one was from one of my bored friends. lol It lets me know that someone out there has read my blog, and I'm very very happy to hear that one of my posts has helped someone out. I guess my blogging is not futile. To answer your question, my wedding will be (barring the unexpected that may bring a need to change) September 8th, 2008. We were engaged on December 22nd, 2006 and I wanted to have a good amount of time to plan everything, lots of time to DIY and try to save some money through careful planning. Congratulations to your daughter and your family(ies) on the upcoming wedding. I took a look at the website URL you left, and it is beautiful. I'm sure she will be thrilled with it.

We live in a smaller city, Estevan, approx 13000 people, in southeastern Saskatchewan. If we went to the capital city of Regina things would be even more expensive there, but being a smaller center, costs are smaller in reflection. But as far as the Plaza goes, it is very expensive for around this area. I have a couple other venues to interview yet, but their base pricing starts between $250-275, which is by far less than the Plaza.

Lol. Call me cheap, call me stingy, but I can't imagine starting a life together in debt. I want to remember the wedding day for all the glory and happy memories it brings, not the parts I'm still paying for down the road. But we're paying for our wedding all ourselves. I'm paying most of the wedding and my fiance is taking care of our honeymoon, which we'll take 6 months or so after the wedding. I'll be 25 when we marry and Dan will be 30. We've been together for a couple years already and have lived together for the last year and a bit. We have known each other for quite a while before we started dating.

We own a little house and thusly have a mortgage and a couple of car payments of course, so all and all, we can't afford, or in some cases, just don't want to afford to sink a lot of money into our wedding, but we don't want to sacrifice too much in getting a day that is uniquely us. Fortunately I have a very crafty mother and a Mother in Law and Grandmother in Law to be that are willing to help do anything they can. I'm sure we'll pull it all off somehow. :) Makes me very happy that things aren't too expensive here as in comparison to elsewhere.

Thank you very much again for your reply Mike. It was a highlight of my day. :) I look forward to possibly hearing from you again. If there's anything that you guys are researching, let me know. I have a lot of resources I haven't yet posted on. I was somewhat starting to give up a little until your comment let me know that I'm not the only one that reads this. lol.

My Mood: Enthralled

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Venue Hunting: A Couple Options In

So, we've now spoken to 2 venues.
One, the Beefeater Plaza here at home, is quite pricey, $550.00 to start, plus all the add ons for things that they "require" you to have. I haven't done all the pricing, but it's seeming to look like $900-$1000 in the end... maybe more.
It is handy in some ways, they set up, they tear down, they clean, you just put up your decorations and call it good. They will supply bartenders... but they require 1 per 100 people (so we're looking at 3) at $13.00 per hour each. We'd have to get our own liquor license, but they will pick up our alcohol 2 days before the wedding and start chilling it for us. They have table cloths, but unless you have a supper (and they cater), the cloths are $3.50 each to rent... and required. Corkage fee for your wine, of course, I doubt we'll have wine, but if we decided to down the road... it's $2.75 per head corkage fee. But there's no cake cutting fee. Whoo-pa-dee-doo. Then of course if you want a midnight lunch, a helper for that is $13.00 per hour and 2 are required. Unless you have them cater the midnight lunch, for $6 a plate, then they'll throw in the helper. And the same with the bar. If you let them do the bar at their prices, they'll throw in the bartenders. But you could buy their bar prices down, if you still wanted a cheaper bar, because the prices they told us they charge people for their bar were certainly not cheap.
But on the other end, they do throw in some freebies. When booked with them, they supply a "change room/break room" in the hotel for the wedding party. They will throw in a hotel room for the night for the bride and groom (approx $83.00 value), but for an extra $25.00 they'll upgrade you to the jacuzzi suite. And they will book a block of discounted rooms for out of town guests to reserve. If we were to decide to have the ceremony there as well, they would set up for the ceremony, then switch to the reception seating themselves, but you have to send someone to go change your decorations around. And the ceremony, the ceremony setup, and the ceremony teardown, is apparently included in your rental price.

Our second venue is the Midale curling rink's Cabaret Hall I spoke about before. It was certainly different speaking to Treba than it was speaking to Melody from the Plaza. Treba said it was $150.00 to rent the hall. We might have to get our own liquor license because they usually only have theirs over the winter, but if we book with her to check back closer to the wedding and if there's a lot happening they may have it already again. Tables and chairs are all there, speakers and whatnot are all there, they don't have table cloths, they don't restrict anything, but if you have confetti, they ask that you clean that up or try to do that outside. And basically we're on our own. We find our own help, they just hand over the key and say Have Fun.

I've a couple more places to speak to before we make a decision, but there's the update on our venue front.

My Mood: Tired

Friday, June 8, 2007

Venue Hunting: Getting ready

We have our first venue viewing tonight after work. We're going to go see the Plaza, ask a few questions that we have, and get a quote. I'm pretty nervous and not particularly looking forward to it. I suppose in our town, it is THE place for a wedding reception, not the only place, but the most popular. Which could be among the reasons why I don't really want to have it there...

But I did realize last night that when I envision the whole event, I don't see the Plaza, I see the hall above the hockey rink in a little town (very little town) approx 20 minutes away from where we live. The rink where his brother plays Big Six Hockey. The little hall that we've spent many nights after the hockey games, drinking and laughing with the boys. The little hall where a man I'd just met that knew my father got quite inebriated and decided to teach me to polka.

It's not a fancy hall by any stretch, it doesn't have much for windows, except those that look over the curling rink in the back side of the building, and a few at the front of the entry way. It's all hardwood flooring... and hardwood walls / ceiling...

But there are options around town that I can learn to like more. We'll have to do more scoping and figure out what our best bet is.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Quote the Walls, "Nevermore"

This could be used in a wedding setting, but likely is easier to do this at home where you are allowed to stick permanent things to your walls. But they sure are cute. These can be found at "Quote the Walls". See some samples below:










Big Changes

Well, we just discovered this past Friday that my Fiance has been picked to begin an industrial mechanics apprenticeship. This is great and horrible all at the same time. I am soo stressed out about it! The good thing is that he gets to acquire a skilled trade, the company he works for pays for all his schooling and tools, and that he will no longer have to be on shift work. Weekends are optional, except during "overhauls", and overtime is plenty. He'll be working once again with a few good work friends of his.

The horrible thing is that now he'll be gone for 2 months at a time, once a year, for the next four years. We don't know when these will occur, where he will be sent to school (2 or 5 hours away). The company does put him up while he's at school, whether in company owned condos or a hotel, but it doesn't ease anything in my head. He can get sent off to another town for a few weeks for an overhaul at the drop of a hat. So any plans that may have came up about kids or moving or buying/building a new home will have to be postponed for about 4 years. And to kick it all off it's about a $6 an hour pay drop. Yes, I said Drop.

We don't know when he's going to start in the new position. His hours are going to change, could be good, could be bad. We're used to 12 hour shift work. When he's working, he's working, but he gets some nice stretches of 5 - 6 days off at a time. Now he'll be back to a daily 8-4 job, so it'll take a bit of getting used to the new schedule.

I know we'll be alright, but it's a change I definitely was not prepared for. Horribly unexpected and we don't know all the finite little details, too many questions without answers as of yet. It makes me very nervous, worried, and certainly scared. But we'll make it, I know we will. We'll know more details on Tuesday when he's back to work. Or at least, so I hope.

My Mood:
Stressed

My Invitations

Well, I've been going through the invitation ideas a lot lately. Since I'm going to be handmaking them, I want to have a pretty good idea what I want pretty early to have lots of time to work of them. But I'm having trouble deciding exactly what I want, there are a few options that I've seen with this style:

Casey: Ribbon in top half. Contrast paper backing/matting.

Holli: Ribbon in Bottom half. Contrast paper backing/matting.

Jana: Ribbon in top or bottom half (top shown). Single sheet cardstock, no matting/backing.

Here is a quick and horrible MSPaint representation of my colors put onto one of these invite styles.

Any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated.

My Mood:
Stressed