Wedding Signs

[BEFORE]

[AFTER]

One of my favorite DIY projects for our wedding was the signs. Ian helped cut and assemble them and I painted them. I loved how they turned out, but now I have NO idea what to do with them!

Escort Card Cookies

One of the craziest DIY projects I took on for our wedding was the escort card cookies. Our wedding theme was "Love is Sweet" and I wanted a way to tie my love of dessert into something other than the dessert bar. I had the brilliant idea of baking, decorating, and packaging close to 200 sugar cookies and despite the hard work I was really pleased with how they turned out. Of course I didn't even see them on the wedding day, but I did get a lot of positive feedback from our guests!

Less than 1 week!

We are in the home stretch and I am actually ahead of schedule on all of my DIY projects. I even added a few things to my list in order to stay busy this coming week. I cannot wait to share all of the projects I worked on leading up to our wedding, but here is another sneak peak...stay tuned to see how I use these yellow pieces on our wedding day!

Everything YELLOW!

I have been a horrible blogger but I promise to be better once all the wedding mayhem is over. A quick update, I used 5+ bottles of yellow spray paint this past weekend and cannot wait to show you all the fun projects I've been working on. We are getting down to the wire but I am trying to enjoy every moment of it and limit my stress as much as possible. More frequent posts coming in less than 20 days!!!

Bridesmaids Lunch

This post is long over due, but as the wedding quickly approaches I thought I would share a few pictures of another DIY project I completed a while back. My mom organized high tea for my bridesmaids and I back in March and I thought it would be fun to give everyone a little more information so I put together a little booklet which included information on attire, accommodations and contacts for everyone in the wedding party. I tied it off with a yellow bow and gave it to them along with a little gift bag. My mom is also very crafty and made matching champagne flutes with everyone's names on them, also tied with a cute yellow bow. The whole day was perfect and mad me even more excited to share my wedding experience with these wonderful girls!

Wedding Vows

Now that all the fun wedding stuff has been checked off my list I find myself occupied with all the things I had been putting off for the past 8 months. I spent most of today writing wedding vows and organizing our ceremony. Ian and I have opted to write our own vows and our own ceremony for that matter in order to make our day as personalized as possible and while I was putting this daunting task off for quite some time now that I have started I am really enjoying writing what will ultimately be the most important part of our wedding!

100 Days

I love all of these envelope ideas! It's amazing what you can do with an envelope besides mailing letters and my crafty side is very excited about the endless possibilities. With 100 days until our wedding I am thinking of putting together an envelope countdown to represent all the mini milestones leading up to our wedding!

Chronicles of a DIY Bride

It didn't take me long to realize I was a do-it-yourself bride and every once in a while I have to keep my DIY personality in check. DIY projects are not always easy and more often than not they take a lot of time so I am constantly trying to narrow down my never ending list of DIY projects. Rather than make the entire wedding DIY I figured it is be best to focus on a few of the most important aspects and leave the rest to either professionals or chance. Below is my progress report of DIY projects:

Save the Dates and Invitations (complete)

Envelope Liners (complete)

Table Runners (fabric has been ordered)

Decorations (work in progress)

Dessert (finally narrowed down what I will be making)

DIY Checklist via 100LayerCake

Love is Sweet

When deciding on Save the Date's we knew that we didn't want anything too traditional. In order to play up our theme of Love is Sweet we decided to send Kisses along with the Save the Date. I designed and printed the Save the Date and address labels myself and my mom helped to stuff all 100 packages with kisses. I was surprised at how easy these were to pull off and I absolutely love how they turned out!

Clown Cupcakes

These Clown Cupcake's would be perfect for a child's birthday party...too bad I don't know very many young children or I'd be in business. Instead, I'll be using the striped buttercream technique to create more adult looking cupcakes in the future.

Happy Birthday Kathryn!

DIY Cupcake Cards

I went to the craft store this past weekend to pick up supplies for a few DIY projects I've been working on and somehow I ended up with a cupcake die cut, blank notecards, and glitter paper. Not at all what I went in for, but oh so much fun. I've decided that I can no longer visit craft or baking stores unattended, it's just too dangerous.

Books

{Inspiration via books}

{Before: Our mismatched bookshelf}

{The paper I used to recover our books - primarily cream, taupe and brown to match our living room}

{After: Our books recovered - what a difference a little bit of paper makes}

I saw the inspiration picture a few weeks ago and instantly knew that it would only be a matter of time until I recovered all the books on our bookshelf. The inspiration picture used hardcover antique books, which lends itself to a more 3-dimensional display, however, I chose to recover the ones we already own due to lack of storage space in our 1 bedroom apartment. I love how the paper easily transforms a mismatched and cluttered bookshelf into a beautiful and cohesive story. Now I need to figure out which books are which so that we can actually read them at some point.

Tile Transformation

{Before: A very cluttered and boring kitchen}

{The Tile: We selected 3 separate patterns and pieced them all together}

{The finished product: Our beautiful backsplash and very clean kitchen}

Technically this was not a DIY project, but I do believe that if you had a lot of time and patience it would be possible. Instead, we enlisted our amazing contractor to do the dirty work, and he finished in only 3 days! I was amazed at the transformation and SO happy with our new kitchen. It makes me want to spend even more time cooking and baking!

Tile Transformation

After a month of searching, Ian and I finally found (and agreed upon) the tile for our kitchen backsplash! The process of selecting tile was much more complicated than I originally imagined, which is why I'm so excited that it's finally over. Now I can't wait for the finished product to be on the wall.

Cookie Monster Cupcakes

I took a cupcake decorating class at Baking Arts over the weekend and was shocked at how easy it really was. All it takes is the right tools, a lot of blue frosting, and a little bit of patience to create these adorable cookie monster cupcakes. Stay tuned for more of my cupcake creations in the future.

Trench Coat Transformation

I bought this white Trench Coat on sale for $25 from Old Navy with every intention of changing the white buttons so that I didn't look so much like a lab coat. I think the black buttons make all the difference, the finished product is so much more flattering and fashionable.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone did something special with their Mom's this weekend! I spent Saturday at the Ballet with my Mom and then headed up to the wine country for Mother's Day Brunch at my parent's golf club this morning. In between I practiced my flower arranging skills. Happy Mother's Day Mom, I hope you enjoy the flowers and your new watering can!

Black and White

I have long been a fan of all things Black and White, which is why I am so excited about these buttons which will be used for an upcoming project that I am working on. Stay tuned to see them put to good use.