Our Inspiration!

Well, it's more like a collage than inspiration board, but here's something for you to look at. I'll list the links for most of them (in no particular order) down below the picture with a bit about them.



The dress is a photo of my Jim Hjelm inspired lace wedding dress. There will be an orange sash instead of the champagne color there.

I think that all the plants and things speak for themselves. They are decorations, inspiration for the color palette, and just fun things. We like the idea of using wheat, gourds, cattails, pine cones, and leaves throughout the place rather than having matchy-matchy things purchased from a florist.

The boutonniere is by the French Mouse on Etsy, and we loooove it.

That room with the Christmas tree lights in the rafters and the white round lanterns is actually the Lodge where we are having our reception at Camp Kiwanee. We will be married on the deck overlooking the lake, and then move inside for the food and dancing.

These rings are made out of recycled gold, by a company called GreenKarat. Extra bonus, Shaun's mother is donating some of her gold jewelery to use as store credit.

The plates are a particular type of disposable dinnerware by VerTerra that's made of just fallen leaves and water. So they're non-toxic, biodegradable, compostable. Plus, they just plain old look awesome :3

Let's see, what else is in there that needs explaining... I think the last thing is the invitation you can see on the bottom. These invitations by the InviteSite are also biodegradable, and embedded with Cosmo seeds. Shaun's head over heals for plant-able wedding invitations. Personally, I would like to design our own invitations (it would be less expensive AND guaranteed to suite us perfectly), but that would probably nix out the whole invitations -> flowers and/or herbs (planting the seeds of love!).

Lastly, the bouquet (Martha Stewart) is made mostly of herbs, and a lot of these things I can get right in my own yard. The Lambsear is a favorite plant of my mother; the rosemary, sage, and thyme are lovely kitchen spices that I already have (I'd also like to have a sprig or two of bay, if I can keep a tree alive. I heard those things are tough!); there are tons of little flowers like grape hyacinths and violets that sprout up in our back yard if I felt inclined, though I'm more likely to hit up the local farmers market for more yellow-orange-red hues than purple. I have to say I was already thinking of having an herbal bouquet, or probably just a poesy, but this is a nice picture that helps to illustrate how lush and fertile they are.

Summer inspiration

This will be a short and sweet one, I promise, just a lot of pictures. I wanted to share all the fun things that I made for my sister's bridal shower at the end of last month. I made all that you see below myself - the candles, the wreath, I even made about half the food for it (thought I didn't take pictures of that =p ).

First up, the candles. I made 15 of these (those in front with the raffia), and had 15 that my sister's other bridesmaid gave me which were purchased ahead of time. This is what gave me the inspiration for rounding out the other half of the 30 required favors.



Those are real sand dollars that my aunt had already (she very kindly offered for us to have the shower at her house), and the starfish are also real little guys (who sure smelled it when we took them out of the packages!)

So, the containers are votive holders I found at AC Moore for about $0.80 a piece. I affixed the wicks to the bottom with just a dot of Elmer's glue. The sand was from Michael's (they had better colors there), which I just poured in layers (it also helps to keep the wick in place). Then I just placed one small pearl, a minitature starfish (also purchased from AC Moore), and mini sea shells on top of the sand. I forgot to take many WIP shots to share, sorry =( .

There were two special candles as well, one in a small footed glass for my aunt as thanks, and one in a wine glass for the bride. You can see the details much better in this one.



We also decorated all the tables with similar shells and starfish.



And, lastly, my gift to the bride was a hand-made wreath. All the shells were picked by hand: the blue and white large ones by me at Nantasket, and all others by my parents on their adventures through the years. Sorry, another cell phone picture.



And that's that! I won't bore you with step-by step instructions about the wax in the candles, or making the wreath. I just followed the instructions on the wax packaging, and just glued in shells and beads where I thought they looked nice on the wreath.

So, anyone else have any fun ideas about beach-themed extravaganzas?

And back from far, far and away...

So it has been over a month since I last posted, huh? You wouldn't believe how many things I wanted to write about, but never found the time to. Favors doubling as table decorations, size of the guest list, 'best' time of the year for a wedding, friends officiating vs. family pastor, making a website for our wedding - the list just goes on and on. And then there's all the fun little favors and decorations I made for my sister's wedding shower this past weekend that I'm itching to share with you all. I hardly know what to start with first.

I guess I'll just go chronologically. Favors. Or decorations, depending on your interpretation. We've been all over the map on this one. Originally it was making cookie-cutters out of metal craft strips in the shape of a maple leaf, attached to a card with our favorite cookie recipe(s). In fact, the idea was born from these:

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Next, one of my friends showed me an article on terrarium centerpieces (which did double-duty in both decoration idea AND introducing me to Indie Bliss. A wonderful discovery, that). So that prompted a mad week or two of researching cheap containers and the best methods for making small terrariums. I figured that, working at a pet store that also offers live plants and terrarium products for the scaly kids, I could get all the other supplies I needed there. Somewhere along the way I discovered this PERFECT idea for making the whole thing even more green (as if living terrariums could be more eco-friendly, eh?). Recycled light bulbs. For the containers! Do see the beautiful examples at Re-nest. The first one you see is my favorite.

Perfect, right? Except, where to find about 50-60 burnt-out bulbs... Hm...

I do still love the terrarium idea, but then got to thinking: I wonder how many folks would really like these little guys as much as I do? I'd hate to see them go to waste, just sitting on some dark shelf until they get all moldy and stinky. Plus, that's a lot more work to put into our 'simple' wedding than we had been hoping for. Do love, love, love the idea, and if I had about 3 or 4 more of me I would probably pursue it whole-heartedly, but now I'm back to one of the first ideas I had and forgot about until I saw it in the beginning of my little scrap/note-book. Donations to a charity or non-profit organization. Specifically one like the Nature Conservancy, or the National Wildlife Federation. Simple, less expensive, and more pro-active. I mean, we might still do some little doo-dad if we find something fun and, well, not to sound like a cheapskate, but let's say 'efficiently frugal.' But let us not forget: beside being green about this affair, our goal is to NOT start our married life by digging ourselves into debt for the "biggest day of our lives."

So, can anyone think of any other charity or non-profit that we should consider for our donation?