Sneak Preview

I thought it would be helpful for the venue to mock up a table. Ok, mostly I wanted to see it for myself, but I will have a photo printed for the venue.

It will be much more lovely with a simple cream tablecloth and white plates, as the design on the tablecloth distracts from the overall effect, but this is what I had.

Top view:


(On a side note, I want to host a party based solely on this tablecloth my grandmother bought in Europe because it really is gorgeous, but that's a post for another day.)


I hope to have even a few more yo-yos and fabric ruffly flowers per table so they can come down closer to the plates and feel as though they spread into the settings themselves, especially since the tables will be much bigger.




The tags and keys will have people's names and their entree choice noted on them.


Those dahlias are, in fact, the dahlias my uncle planted all over his backyard for me to use at my wedding. They're going to be lovely when I work harder to cluster them properly, plus, these were cut a number of days ago, so they are beginning to wilt, but I still really like them.



The clock is ticking! We're getting close!

Tissue paper flowers. Everywhere.

I know, I know. I've been neglecting you, blog. But I've been trying to be a doer. You know, one who does. So, here is one of the things that I did:


There are tissue paper flowers taking over!


These are the Martha Stewart's poms that are absolutely every.where. Just google it - I promise, you'll find them. Instead of pulling them both ways to make a round pom, I just pull them up one way, and ta-daaaa: Flower. It's kind of the opposite of magic because it's so simple, but when you need to make a bunch of something, simple is good.

I'd say that most of these flowers made with tissue cut about 14 inches long and 6-8 inches wide. But I made some that were a bit bigger. None of this was very scientifically or exactly measured. I used between 5-7 sheets, most of the time. But if you want a more carnation-y look, use more. Be forwarned however - too many sheets of paper can make it very hard to to get a nice clean flower. Ditto if you make the flowers much smaller than 6 inches wide. A couple of them met the inside of my recycle bin for that reason.


Sometimes I rounded the edges. It makes for a more peony-looking flower.


Sometimes I made spikey edges, which makes them look more dahlia-like, which is really what my other flowers are going to be, so I probably should have stuck with that, but I liked the variety, and since I did this for 5 hours one day, I mixed it up a bit.


Yes. Five hours in a row. Now I'm going to have to figure out how to get rid of the tan lines on my shoulders because my dress is strapless. Oy. The good news is that the sun was out in Seattle, and while the rest of the country is experiencing a heat wave, we're having a very lackluster summer here. So, if the rest of the country wants to come cool off, it might be time to come visit Seattle!

Ok, focus. Here we go. My pile eventually grew from this:


to this:


Which I thought would be enough. But it wasn't. So I had to make a few more. In the end, I had enough to make plenty of bouquets of flowers.




And what will I be doing with these, you ask?

Well, these puppies will be holding up the table numbers. Like this.



And this.


Then there will be some real dahlias hanging out with them as well and hopefully each table will have one tissue and two "real" arrangements, 0r something along those lines. That will cut down on cost, and also on the time it will take to make the arrangements the day before. Yes, I know I'm crazy, but there will be a number of us hopefully just squishing the dahlias into the vases the day before. I'm not going to be too picky about it, and it should go pretty smoothly. Don't worry, I have a couple of plan B's - or is that a Plan B and a Plan C? It'll all work out, I'm sure.

Milk glass breeds like rabbits around here...

I'm not kidding. Or exaggerating. I'll prove it!

They fill up this here bookshelf.


And then they're on top of the bookshelf, because I ran out of room.


(Oh, and how much do I love the mini suitcases? So much! I have many ideas for their use at the wedding. Mmm.)

Then they spilled into my china cabinet.


And did I mention they made their way to the top of the buffet and the built-ins above that? No? Well, they did.


Oh, and here's some more.


I told you they were multiplying! Here are some of my favorites.








And a super extra special wedding-y one my aunt found:


I know, it's a bit of a cliché today, but for the record, I've loved the idea of milk glass compotes as the wedding centerpieces for two and a half years - waaay before I saw them on every wedding blog. I've decided that I'm still doing the things that I love, even if they've become a tad overdone. I figure most of my friends and family don't spend hours browsing wedding blogs and they won't know that I'm a copycat! Until they read this, I suppose. Shhh.

Shoe help!

So, I ripped the bow off my shoes. I have nothing against grosgrain ribbon bows. Except they just aren't right for a wedding. If you recall, they looked like this from here:
I think they already look more sophisticated without the bows, but obviously, they need a little help.


So, this lady here mocked up a kiss pleat for me.


I likes, although I haven't really explored other options. Maybe I'll mock up some fabric flowers and see how that looks, too. I'm not sure. I do like the shape of the kiss pleat, though. So many tiny decisions to be made still! And now there is officially less than 6 months left. Should I start freaking out yet?

Also, Chris bought me flowers. Pretty!


And, not surprisingly, I still love milk glass!

OCD, anyone?

Ok, so I might be a little crazy. Hey, I said "might!" Last week (yes, 10.5 months before my wedding) I met with the venue to discuss tablecloth colors. Yes, I did. Angie at the Alexis Hotel is so so great, and she totally tolerates my insanity. I brought all my fabric flowers to lay on top of the samples and find the best linen color. (Of course I did.) I've decided on creamy-nude-ish (I need a crayola thesaurus) colored tablecloths with white napkins. The ribbon used for the napkin rings is the same color as the tablecloth, so that should tie everything in together. Angie has graciously offered to put on all of the napkins rings a couple of days in advance! I've started covering the buttons with scraps of fabric from all my other projects. Cute!


The polyester silk fabrics don't cover the buttons as nicely as some of the others, but don't tell anyone and I'm certain they won't notice! I'll have a mix of all the different fabrics I'm using, which will be extra cute - and free since they are scraps I would be throwing away anyway.

I also have quite a few more fabric poms now. And the prettiest piece of milk glass you've ever seen, which my aunt found hidden at a Good Will for $7! Drool. I think I saw that one for $30 on ebay (and I almost bought it for that ridiculous price)!


I had another craft night, so I had lots of help with these! My friends are so great and so genuinely excited to help me accomplish all my wedding crafts. I have a confession, however. I wish I could say I was one of those 'go with the flow' types, but, well, I'm just not. No, really - not at all. So, I did spend quite some time tinkering with the projects after my friends left to make them just so. I'm admitting that I'm super picky and it might be a problem (that's the first step, right?).

I need to take some more photos as I have over 150 yo-yos made from dupioni silk and about 15 silk flowers done as well. I'm getting a little concerned, however, as I really really need to spend some more time focusing on finishing these crafts up so that I can move onto designing logos and having letterpress plates made. My awesome designer friend Agnes played with my L Letterpress tool at craft night. Here are some of the cards she made.


I'll need to work on making sure that the edges don't show up in the image, but Boxcar Press has some excellent suggestions for this. I will be using Boxcar Press for my custom made plates, and if it weren't for their post on how to make the L Letterpress work well, I'd be very discouraged right now, but they've done such a comprehensive review of the product and how to improve it, I'm really excited to go to town and letterpress the logo on everything!

Because I can't focus on and finish anything I've started (ah, ADD), I've also started a project using these:


But I will reserve a post on that for the future, and if it turns out well, it may be the subject of a guest blog post! No, I swear I'm not making that up! I'm so so so so excited that our photographer, Abbey Hepner, has asked me to guest blog on the new segment of her blog that she is starting called CREATE. She talks about it here. Have I mentioned that I'm excited about this!? And that I love Abbey!? (Just checking.) And how cute is my fiance - when I told him (in my ridiculously giddy "GUESS WHAT!" voice) about the guest blog, he replied: "Wow! That's great!," followed (in a slightly less excited tone) with: "What does that mean?" I love that even though he had no idea what I was talking about, he was still genuinely excited for me. :)

Just me?

Does anyone else wish time would stand still and all of those pesky daily chores - cleaning the toilet, mowing the lawn, doing laundry, going to work (!!) - would just disappear so they could do nothing but work on prettiness for their wedding? Well, in case it wasn't clear, I wish I could devote all of my time to my wedding. So far, it's not working too well. The reality of our wedding budget hit pretty hard - it's definitely doable, but I really do have to work hard to do a lot of things myself. It's a tad disheartening that everyone says there's no way I can do all of the things I would like to do...but, I will agree that the week before my wedding is going to be a busy one!

Also, I heart milk glass centerpieces. (The color-coordinated ribbon and mini-vintage suitcase are good, too!)



I also love ridiculously tiny elephant ring holders.