Mary has been busy studying for boards. It turns out, a ceremony doesn't plan itself. I took the lead on this one and where did it lead me...one word...PINTEREST. Yes, I became a pinterest junkie. I found myself forgoing work to do more research on what trendy "wedding" DIY project I could tackle next. As it turns out, I'm not half bad at the whole crafty thing...
Let me make my case before the rolling of any eyes.
First, there were the signs. I went to Home Depot to get my supplies, borrowed Mary's brother-in-laws saw, took one look at the saw and then my fingers and decided it wasn't worth it. So, I took everything back to Home Depot except the wood and the paint and turned to a trusty hand saw. After developing "sawers" elbow from cutting all the wood down came the part of aging the wood. Pinterest really didn't recommend just painting the signs for a DIY, backyard ceremony. Instead, I had to put layers upon layers of paint onto each sign, in two colors. Once I got several coats of each color, I then sanded all of that lovely paint until the lime color was peeking through. Sure enough, it did look vintage.
I finally finished this project over the weekend. Our twenty guest will not get lost!
Next up, adirondack chairs and homemade pillows...
The notion of twenty people sitting down during our ceremony seemed silly. This idea was quickly vetoed and my only stipulation was not having those white plastic chairs. Some of the perks of a small ceremony is you can just go out and buy the chairs you like. So, off to Lowes we went with our coupons in hand. Adirondack chairs would be great. I figured it could be the party favor, "Grab your chair on your way home!" Turns out, outdoor pillows are expensive. Once we landed at JoAnn fabrics, I had our "Ah Ha" moment with the fabric. It was perfect! It was also on sale and so were the pillow forms.
Note: Mary did not let me buy 12, she wanted me to buy half of what we needed because it was still fairly expensive. Once I went back to get the remainder of our supplies, nothing was on sale. LESSON: Buy it all at once, especially if it's on sale.
We also finished this product over the weekend...
And then there were the mason jars. Pinterest does make ideas a bit commonplace because there is such a wide range of people out there stealing each others ideas. After agreeing on the special edition blue mason jars, I decided to make lids. An automatic center punch, finishing washers, and Martha Stewart glue and we have ourselves a mason jar to go glass, ready to be filled and consumed DURING the ceremony. Let's face it, it's going to be hot as hell.
We stumbled upon a tandem bike theme for our ceremony. The invitations we both agreed on had a tandem bike and instead of buying thank you cards when we ordered those, I tried to do it after the fact. It turns out the only way to get matching thank you cards was to order them with the original invitation order. Etsy to the rescue. I ordered a handmade tandem bike stamp for $10 and blank recycled paper cards for $5. One stamp later we have...
I asked our great friend, Danny to make some of his wonderful homemade soap for our guest. I bought some muslin bags for the soap to go in and decided why not stamp those too!
And thus, you have my journey to becoming a pinterest junkie. Let's see what else I can craft.
<3 Carrie
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