More Pics, More Crafts - Finally!

My poor computer has been out of commission for a couple of months, so no wedding picture progress has been made. However, I now have everything fixed up and ready to go, so I'll be posting more detail photos and actual wedding photos. I'm also going to start a series of crafty how-to's for most of the items we made, as well as detail photos of all our accessories/decorations/etc.

Stay tuned for more info!

In other good news - my little sister is engaged, as of 2 weeks ago today. We now have another wedding to plan and DIY for next spring, how exciting! Laura's is going to be a little different from mine, we're aiming for "Rustic Elegance". I'm also going to be gifting Laura and her fiance Luke with their invitation design, which they are pretty excited about. I'm excited about it too!

Millinery Fun, the Bridal Headpiece is DONE!

I accomplished one of the larger, looming tasks at hand for the wedding last night - a very important piece of my bridal ensemble, my headpiece. Inspired by the gorgeous hats and veils worn by brides in glamorous 1930s Hollywood films, I ordered a box full of pleated horsehair crinoline and russian veiling from Judith M Millinery Supply and set to work. I was fortunate to find a nice stryofoam hat form/head at Hobby Lobby, which really helped me flesh out my ideas for the piece. I am extremely pleased with how well this turned out.


Here's a quick shot of me modeling the piece, this is the side that our guests will see when we're standing up at the altar. The piece is so full that it completely hides my face when viewed from the other side - so delicious! I feel very flirty peeking out from underneath the brim!



I decided to use a vintage piece of jewelry to finish off the center of the hat, so I scoured my favorite antique shops here in town until I came across this sparkly stunner - I actually spoke with the woman who was selling this piece, as I was examining a few others in her case. She's a costume/rhinestone jewelry collector, and says that this brooch is early 50s vintage - not quite the 40s piece that I had in mind, but I like the look and quality of this particular brooch so much. The rhinestones are in PERFECT condition, as is the metal and the setting. It was a pretty little bargain too, at around $10.



All told, this hat cost me around $30 for materials, and only 3-4 hours of labor. The individuality and uniqueness - priceless! The piece is completely stitched using waxed thread to a small circle of ultra-stiff buckram (double-layered), and will be attached to my hair using several bobbypins instead of a comb or duckbill clip as I had originally planned. Using bobbypins makes the position of the hat much more secure... which in turn makes me feel much more secure as I'm waltzing around.

Craft Showers and Boutonnieres

In leiu of a bachelorette party, my best friend and sister held a "Craft Shower" in my honor over the weekend, which was a huge help in getting a lot of the 'bulk' wedding crafts finished up. This includes our favors, the place cards, a cute little "Lovebirds" banner for random usage, and also our cupcake pennants.

I've been plugging away on my wedding dress as well, it's coming along nicely. My goal is to have it finished up by the end of this week - totally doable. I just need to keep chugging along!

I plan on making the boutonnieres for the boys sometime next week. I stumbled across these gorgeous bespoke pieces by Fritts Rosenow a few months back, and KNEW that I had to make our boys something equally cool:



So, off I went to eBay, and bought these lovely brass airplanes; they are about 2.5 inches long and the perfect thing for our vintage airplane mini-theme. Plus, the boys think they're pretty cool. I plan on using some lovely aqua-striped grosgrain ribbon and maybe a bit of floral trim to complete each piece.



Overall, we have most of the crafting for the big day done. All I need to complete are our table numbers, the boutonnieres, my hat/veil/headpiece, and of course my dress. Tally-ho!

3 Weeks Out! Wrap-up Time.

I decided that I want cute button favors for everyone, to go along with the candy. Little 1" buttons. So I did a cute little design last night (I will admit - I stole it from a vintage typewriter ribbon tin!!)

Today I'm taking a 1/2 day off work to finish buying up craft stuff for my "Craft Shower" tomorrow. I still have a lot to do... but I'm not gonna panic. No need. I've always been a down-to-the-wire kind of person - that's just how I roll.

Also, finished up the bustier pattern for my dress last night, now I just need to do the skirt pattern, underblouse pattern, alternate skirt pattern - and sew away! Wee!

I'm ALSO getting my hair cut and touched up tomorrow too - I haven't been to the salon for AGES because I usually handle that myself, but it will be nice to have someone else do it for me. 3 weeks to let it grow out a bit, that's a good thing :)

Whew! OK. Gotta buckle down!