Centerpieces

For our centerpieces on the tables at the reception I wanted something not on Pinterest. Not that Pinterest is bad, I just didn't want to have the same reception as everyone else. Then I was stuck. It's kind of hard to think of these things on your own. Jordan had beta fish in cool vases. Jaime had cornocopias of flowers (she got married right around Thanksgiving). Brooke (who also got married right after Christmas) had ornaments. The bar had been set! I thought of something but I Googled it just to see what it would look like. There weren't many options on Google but it looked like it could work. So it was settled. We would have books as centerpieces.

I wanted thick, hardback books that had red covers. In order to save money we went to every thrift store around us. We nearly cleaned out all the red covered hardback books! But we found some pretty good finds. Plus, if you're like me and love the smell of old books it was great. It took us some time to do this but we bought about 4 or 5 books for each table.

Now came for the set up. We placed 2 table runners on the table over a white tablecloth. One was wider and was red. The other went on top of the red and was the gold color. We found square and circle mirrors at the dollar store and also battery powered candles (off-white and darker red.) We placed the candles wrapped with a band of ribbon on the mirrors and gave each table two candle and mirror combos. We then sorted the books in size order so it was easy to put them on the tables in nice stacks. We then plopped a Harry Potter book or Lord of the Rings book in the pile because these are our favorites! Now, our centerpieces were personalized.

To top it all off, we put 4 framed (gold frames from Target, Wal-Mart and the dollar store, not too hard to find them) pictures of us on each table. Three of the pictures were from when we were little and one of the both of us. And voila, beautiful centerpieces!

When deciding centerpieces think of the theme your wedding has or stick with the wedding colors. Pictures are always and easy go to and they're also fun. There are a lot of things you can do with pictures. Pinterest is a pretty good place to look for ideas of things to do with pictures or anything else, really. Think of something that fits both your personalities even if it's subtle.  If your venue allows candles, those create a wonderful glow to the room and can be more pleasing than regular lights. Battery powered candles work great too. Flowers are also a simple and elegant option. Flowers are especially welcome at spring and summer weddings. Centerpieces should enhance the overall feel of the reception hall and the wedding itself.

Lord of The Rings Picture

(Don't worry, there will be more wedding posts) My husband's favorite movies are the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I wanted to decorate our wall that the TV is against with the movies and other things we love. So I thought I would attempt to make a LOTR picture. I started out with a picture.

Not too ambitious, right?
So we ventured out to WalMart and bought paints, brushes and canvas board. I started by painting the sky. I started at the top with the darkest part. (I didn't want to paint the mountains so I just didn't) Then I added a small amount of white to my paint and moved down the canvas. I got to the lightest part and painted it white to help with blending and texture even though the canvas was already white. I painted the bottom black for the ground. Then I set it in the sunshine with a fan pointed at it to dry.

Next, I traced the images of the people onto printer paper. Then I cut them out and spaced them on a scratch piece of paper. Then it was time to draw them on.

Here's where it really made it look good. I drew just some scribbles on the back of the cut out making sure there was pencil where the outlines were.

Then I traced the outlines on the front hard onto the canvas. The pencil transferred onto the canvas. I then drew it in a little darker and moved on to the next character.

After I did all the people, I took a sharpie and traced the outlines again. Then I colored them in with sharpie as well. And voila! A totally awesome LOTR picture worthy to hang.

Reception Entryway

I wanted a few things for the entryway at our reception. I had my bridals done about 2 weeks before the wedding and had one printed on canvas and shipped to us super fast. So I definitely wanted to put that up.

I also framed 3 pictures, one of my parents' wedding, his parents' and us! Then we included some books which we put on the tables as well. We had a lot of lace left over from the bridesmaid sashes so that was used to cover the tablecloths. Ribbon was used as a splash of brighter color.

We also had my bride price which definitely deserves a post of its own probably from my mom. And of course we had a guest book!

Lyrics + Photograph

First and foremost, Cassie if you are reading this, STOP! This is a present for you! No, seriously, stop reading!!!

My freshman year of college, I was introduced to Jack's Mannequin. I quite enjoy their song "Swim". It was stuck in my head the other day and I was immediately inspired to craft. I talked to my friend and we collaborated some ideas. Finally, I settled on a picture (from my friend's trip to Tahiti) and some lyrics from the song.

I printed out the photo on card stock. I let the picture dry for about an hour. I then trimmed the photo using the canvas board I would attach it to as a guide. I left some white as a boarder for the picture.

Then I painted the board with a layer of mod podge making sure I covered the entire board so there wouldn't be any air bubbles.

After letting that sit, I painted the front of the picture with mod podge. I did this quickly so the color wouldn't have time to bleed. I also made sure all the brush stroke were going in the same direction. I let it dry over night (it dried quicker than that but I had to help out my roommate with a project.) Taking an ultra fine point permanent marker, I wrote some of the lyrics in all lower case across the top and on the bottom of the picture in the white space.

Finally, I added the title of the song in white puff paint to the bottom of the picture. I set it aside to dry and voila!

Pictures will be added later tonight after I download them from my phone!

Families

Sorry it's been a busy day! For Christmas I made these for Jaime and Brooke (this Christmas Jordan will get one) the past couple of years. We believe in eternal families that start through marriage. Here's more on what we believe.
Here's how to do it!

You need is an 8x10 wedding portrait, a picture frame and a piece of translucent paper. For Jaime, her wedding colors were pink so I chose pink translucent paper but I couldn't find Brooke's color in time for Christmas. Adding color is a cute touch of the wedding. Easy beezy! I chose cute a candid of the bride and groom for both sisters. Also, I chose photos where they are standing somewhat apart so the line in the Family Proclamation doesn't end up cutting through either of them (especially their face!) All you need to do is print the Family Proclamation on the translucent paper. Then layer the pictures and put them in the frame. Bada bing bada boom, there you have it! Simple and beautiful.