Make It Yourself Monday

Sealed With a Kiss shows you how to tattoo your shoes.

Sealed with a Kiss made this cute wreath with a feather boa.

Project Wedding has directions on how to make this adorable centerpiece.

Guest Book: Meaningful Items

If having people sign in a book of any kind sounds boring to you, why don't you think out of the box?  Find something that is important to you and your fiance and have your guests sign that.  

Here are some unique ideas for things that you guests can sign:

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What meaningful item could you use at your wedding for your guestbook?

Guest Book: Photo Booth

The second kind of guest book I'm going to highlight also has to do with pictures, but this time it's pictures of your guests.  Photo booths are becoming a popular trend at weddings and are pretty easy to DIY.  Find a cute background, throw some props in the area, and give someone a camera.  Then, attach it to a printer, print the picture on the spot, and have the guest attach them to the guest book and write something next to their picture.  This is a great way to remember everyone who came to your wedding.

Also, a lot of rental companies will rent out photo booths, but that can get kind of expensive, so I wouldn't bother looking into this option unless you have some extra money in your budget.

Here's a couple pictures of guest books made with photo booth pictures:

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I think photo booths are great fun for your guests and a lot of fun for the bride and groom to look after the wedding is over.

If you were a guest at a wedding, what kind of props would you like to see in the photo booth?

Guest Book: Photo Book

A lot of people do a traditional guest book where people just write their name on a line.  Well, that can be kind of boring.  So, this week I'll be writing about a couple of other ideas to make your guest book a little more you.

A photo book is becoming a lot more popular in the wedding world.  Couples want to put their engagement pictures to use and this is a perfect way.  You can arrange your photos throughout the book and leave room for your guests to sign your book yearbook style.

If you aren't getting engagement pictures done, you could use any combination of pictures.  Using pictures from throughout your relationship would be a great idea.  Start with the first picture you took together and then end with one of the most recent.  Pictures of your travels would also be another cute idea.

I used this kind of book for our wedding.  I loved our engagement pictures and wanted to use them somehow in the wedding.  Guests loved the book and we got some great comments.  It's also nice that we can keep it on our bookshelf instead of storing it in a box and never looking at it.

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Here's a couple other examples of photo book style guest books:

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I used Shutterfly for my guest book, but here's a list of a couple other places you can look into:

My Publisher

Snapfish

Blurb

Are you doing a photo book for your wedding?  If so, what kind of pictures are you using?

Sponsored Post: Storkie

Storkie is a seller of high quality paper products.  They sell wedding invitations, bridal shower invitations, save the date cards, rehearsal dinner invitations, as well and wedding thank you cards.  They have tons of designs for you to choose from, including contemporary designs as well as traditional ones.  One of the coolest features of Storkie.com is the dynamic design capability.  You can mix and match color combinations, as well as alter all the text and make layout changes. 

I played around with their iDesign program and it’s really easy to use.  They have a little tutorial you can watch before you start designing so you can see how the program works.  All their invitations come with standard wording, but you can change it to whatever you would like on your invitation.

Here is the standard invitation design:

 

It wouldn't let me copy the invitation that I designed, but you can change the background color as well as the color of the accent.  So there are multiple different color combinations to play with, so that you can pick the one that goes with your wedding theme.  The one I created was a black background with a Tiffany Blue detail.  Gorgeous!

 After you’re done designing your paper products on Storkie.com, you get a free digital proof that allows you to make sure your invitations is exactly what you want.  If you have any problems during the designing or ordering process, Storkie has great customer service that can help you solve your issues.  Storkie offers super fast shipping, with most orders printed and shipped with 1-2 days.  That means you can take your time in deciding which invitations are perfect for your day.

Storkie’s invitations are well priced as well.  Save the Date cards are around $1 per card and wedding invitations average about $1.99 per card.  Gorgeous designs for a great price!  Storkie also has a low price guarantee and will match a lower price offered by a competitor on the same invitation. Shipping is a little expensive at $10.95 for a $51-$100 order (or $11.95 for an order of $101+), but since they ship their items quickly and by UPS, it’s not too bad.

If you’re interested in seeing the quality of Storkie’s invitations, you can order samples from their website.  These samples are reasonably priced and include free shipping.  I highly recommend ordering a sample from a paper provider before placing your order so you can make sure you are happy with their work.  Your invitations will be the first thing your guests see for your wedding.

I was compensated for this blog post, but my thoughts and views on the product are all my own.

Make It Yourself Monday

Final Clothes-Out made this cute finished tray.  This would be great to hold your favors.

Seaside Smitten made this personalized bags for her bridesmaids.

Paper Mash has a tutorial how to make these adorable drink parasols.

RueLaLa Style I Do

If you haven't yet checked out RueLaLa's Style I Do sale, there's still time.  Here's some of the great stuff that is left.

Davinci gown for $299

Kate Spade heels for $129

Men's Tuxedo for $299

Ruelala Style I Do!

Today RueLaLa is having a special wedding boutique.  The have stuff for the couple and the guests as well as the perfect gifts.  They also have a boutique for Wedding Paper Divas, which have gorgeous wedding invitations.

The boutique opens at 11am, so be there right when it opens to get the best items.  You have to be a member of RueLaLa to shop their boutiques, so if you haven't already, sign up here.

Check out this link for some items from their last Style I Do! boutique.

Free $20 Shutterfly Giftcard From OurWeddingDay

Our Wedding Day is offering a free $20 Shutterfly credit when you register your wedding date and create a forum user name.  This credit comes in the form on an online code which is emailed immediately after registering.  This code is valid for a one-time $20 credit towards a purchase of $20 or more (excluding shipping, handling, and taxes) at Shutterfly.  This offer is set to run through 04/15/11 or while supplies last.

Thanks Coupons are GREAT!

DIY Cupcake Bar

I think I've fallen in love and gone to heaven.  I came across a post on Green Wedding Shoes about DIY cupcake bars and I'm completely in love.

Here's some ideas for toppings that would be great for this:

• Berries (raspberry, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, etc.)
• Sprinkles
• Caramel syrup
• Chocolate syrup
• Chopped nuts
• Colored sugar
• Chocolate chips

You could easily make the cupcakes at home a couple days before the wedding.  You'll also need to frost them at home.  You could stick with standard vanilla and chocolate cakes since you'll have such a variety of toppings.  At the wedding, have everything set up on a table so your guests can just pick their cake and then throw on toppings.  Delicious!

Anyone have any other great ideas for toppings?

Make It Yourself Monday

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you all had a great weekend.

ClaytonandShauna from Project Wedding made DIY ribbon wands.

Natasha from Project Wedding made these adorable fabric poms.

ClaytonandShauna from Project Wedding made these great cake toppers.

Dollar Tree Hurricane Vases

I first saw these Dollar Tree hurricane vases over at 320 Sycamore and then they became the decorating craft to make in the blog world.  So of course I had to make some.  For only $2 plus a glue gun, I made these adorable hurricane vases.

All you have to do is take a vase and a candlestick from the Dollar Tree and hot glue them together.  Then I placed a leftover pillar candle from our wedding in each one and it worked perfectly.

These would make great decorations for the guest book table.  If you have a fireplace at your venue, you could also use this to surround that.  Add some flowers or beads in the vases to coordinate with your wedding colors.  So easy and so versatile!

Cake Balls

This is an old post from last Christmas, but I think it's such a great favor idea that I wanted to repost it.  This year I made red velvet cake balls again, but I also made pumpkin spice ones.  Both of them were loved by everyone!

Most people have heard of the famous Cake Balls by now.  They're the delicious balls of cake surrounded by chocolate from Bakerella.  Well, I decided to make some for Christmas and realized how great of a wedding favor it would be.  I already have decided on my favors, but I'm debating on making them to put in the out-of-town boxes.

What You Need:
- Box of cake mix (I used Red Velvet)
- Can of frosting that complements your cake (I used cream cheese)
- Chocolate bark (Used white chocolate/vanilla)

1. Bake the cake according to the directions on the box.  Let it cool completely.

2. After the cake cools, crumble it into a bowl.

3. Mix the frosting with the crumbled cake.

4. Roll the mixture into balls.  I did mine about an inch in diameter.  You can make yours whatever size you want depending on preference.

5. Chill the balls in the fridge for a few hours.  I recommend overnight.

6. Melt the chocolate bark in the microwave and dip the balls in it.  I recommend doing small sections at a time to keep the chocolate more workable.

7. Decorate the tops in whatever fashion you want immediately and then eat after the chocolate has hardened.

Holiday Traditions

Since this was our first married Christmas together, we thought it would be nice to start our own tradition for our family.  

We decided that we were going to start buying a new ornament every year that had some kind of significance to that year.  Since we were married this year, we though it was fitting to get a newlywed ornament.

The front says "First Christmas Together" and the back says "2010, Mr & Mrs has such a nice ring to it".  It has two little rings inside of it to make it a bell.

It's the perfect ornament to document our first year together.

Are you planning on starting any traditions for your new family after you're married?

Make It Yourself Monday

Now that the holidays are over, I'm back with Make It Yourself Monday.  Remember, if you would like to have a featured project, please email me or link your project at the bottom of this post.

Living with Lindsey shows how to make these gorgeous snow drift candles for anyone having a winter wedding.

Eighteen25 made these glitter trees.  You could easily make them in your wedding colors.

Centsational Girl made glitter hurricanes.  You could make these with your initial or some other image that fits your theme.

Happy New Year

Happy 2011 everyone!  I hope you all had a great holiday season.  We have been on vacation the past week and had a great time, but I'm so glad to be home! 

What did you do for the holidays?