Purple and Pearls

A post I have been waiting to write for a long time!  Last night with the help of my Mom and two fabulous bridesmaids Suzie and Hayley the invitations were finished, address, and sealed.  Hooray!

The beginning of the end was last Thursday, even though we hit a stumbling block we were still able to address all of the invitations ready to be posted.

Waiting for the ink to dry meant we had to lie all of the invites out flat… they sort of took over the entire room!

Hayley made the majority of the belly bands last week and finished them off last night

We double and triple checked all of the invites to make sure they were perfect.  I decided to include a small self addressed envelope for our guests to be able to post back their RSVP’s.

Suzie also suggested we number the RSVP’s against a list of our guests in case somebody forgets to put their name on.  That way I’ll be able to cross reference the number to the list and know who has replied.

We set up a wonderful little production line.  I numbered all the RSVP’s, Suzie added the RSVP envelope and double checked all the information sheets were included in the pocket fold, Mom (nicest handwriting!) addressed all of the envelopes and Hayley slid the belly band around the invite and sealed the envelope.

So, here they are finished, completed, done and dusted!  I’m really pleased with how they look, after months of worrying and fretting I can safely say I’m happy with them.  I just hope everyone else likes them!

(Unfortunately the pictures have come out a little dark, by the time we had finished these bad boys it was getting pretty late!  Sorry!)

I want to say a massive, gushy thank you to Suzie, Hayley and Mommy.  You’ve all been super duper fabulous in helping me finish (and start) these invitations and also for putting up with my flaps when things didn’t quite go to plan.

Love you all immensely - you’re the best!

Spell check.

Twice, three times…. and then again!

Last night we sat down to finish off the invitations, everything was going well until  “Laura… How do you spell ceremony?”

Me:  ”Not like that…. B*$%*^£$!”

Despite all of us going over the invites time and time again we still managed to miss the incorrect spelling.  I think sometimes you can look at something too much and we’ve obviously all just overlooked it.

Fortunately the spelling error is on the guest information sheet so it’s easy to change.  I’ve had to print off extra sheets to swap with the incorrect ones.  Still a bummer as I really wanted to get the invites out by the weekend.

We did however write out all the gift list cards

and create (most) of the belly bands to hold the pocketfolds together

and even address the invites.

I’m going to wait until they are all finished to show you the completed invitation.    Sorry!

Ceromony…? Ceramony…? Ceremony…!

Wedding has exploded… ribbon, glue, paper, bags, shape cutters, jewellery, shoes, presents, stationery, pens, gems, flat packed boxes and chalkboard hearts…. everywhere!

There are wedding related items scattered in every room in our house, so last night I took charge.  I finished off my top secret project for my bridesmaids (shhh!) and they are now safely hidden away from prying eyes!

I then ran around the house collecting everything related to the wedding and separated them into a few categories and divvied them out into their new boxes.  My thoughts being that it would be easier to put my hand on something now they have been organised.

• Venue Decorations – including favour boxes, the candy table “sweets” sign, photo frames, wine charms, floralytes for the table decorations and chalkboard hearts.
• Gifts – Childrens activity bags and presents.
• Decorations and Tools – Stickies, gems, ribbon, shape cutters, tape and glue
• Invitations – made up wedding invitations and anything else I need to finish them off.
• Stationery – Paper, card and the yet to be cut out Chrysler Buildings and evening invitations

Doing this I have found I have actually misplaced a few items, nothing major more annoying as I can’t really think where they would be.

It’s also helped me see what I need to buy and what I need to finish off, wedding invitations being numero uno, top priority at the moment!

Looking pretty good huh!?

All that’s left to do now is write our guests names on, when we receive our RSVP’s…!!!

The making of my chalkboard placecards
The experiment, Part 1 - Drilling and mass spraying, Part 2 - Mass spraying the backs, Part 3 - Chalkboard paint, Part 4 – How will they look?, Part 5 – 90 chalkboard placecard hearts hanging in a line…!

Using the photographs from our wonderful pre wedding photoshoot with Deborah Stott, we decided to create our very own guest book with Bob Books.

We wanted to find a way of showcasing our pre wedding photos, rather than just keeping them on the CD and I also wanted to create a guest book that was slightly different from the more traditional ones.  It seemed like the perfect solution.

I downloaded (for free) the album software from Bob Books and used it to create our guest book photo album.  It was really very easy to do and only took us a few hours one evening to complete.  We left it another day before ordering just to make sure we were still happy with the album.

Our guest book photo album arrived within 4 days of ordering and we love it, really couldn’t be happier!

What do you think?

The quality of the printing is excellent and I would definitely recommend Bob Books to anyone wanting to create they’re own photo book.  I’m definitely using them again!

If you have seen my tweets from this weekend you’ll know that I’ve been busy crafting again!  With help from my Mom, we painted our “sweets” sign for our candy table.  I picked up the letters from HobbyCraft some time ago for around 99p each and the paint were tester pots from Homebase which cost me about £2 each.

(I’ve also used the paint on another project that I can’t share until after the wedding… sorry, all I can say is it might have something to do with bridesmaids and it might have something to do with presents!)

Unfortunately we had run out of plastic gloves so it got a little messy!

Ok, a lot messy!!

We used brushes to makes sure all the tight spots were completely covered with two coats of paint and then used a roller brush to smooth over the fronts of the letters.

I’m so pleased with the results!  It took us around half an hour from start to finish including waiting time for them to dry.

The plan now is to tack them on to a piece of wood so the letters can stand up on our candy table.

On Friday night Suzie sought refuge at our house to escape the football mania happening at her flat – not that she got it – my Mom, Dad and neighbour were all shouting abuse at the T.V!

She helped me roughly cut out 88 Chrysler Building shaped Order of Services’.

The more fiddly bits need smaller scissors to get into the tiny corners so we cut around as best as we could until we’re able to tackle them again with craft or nail scissors.

It’s going to be a tedious job and I have to apologise to Suzie for the bruise she discovered the next morning for snipping too much!  I’ll compensate you in haribo, tea and hugs next time

I have to admit, they’re looking rather good and I’m pleased I stayed with my original idea, despite it being a pain in the bum to do!

Thursday night Hayley and her tweezers (Thank you!) came round to help me stick my teeny tiny flat backed pearls on to our invites.

I had previously attempted to do this on my own, worried that I was asking too much of my bridesmaids.  I soon gave up and shouted for help when I found it took me 20 minutes to finish 3 invitations…!

It was an incredibly fiddly job, but with 3 of us all working hard it hardly took any time at all.

I am totally in love with the finished result!

I need to figure out now what I want to do with the outside.  Then, the invites should all be ready to start sending out in just over a months time!

Our chalk board place cards needed a second coat of paint. I found when I sprayed them on a surface the underside would also get paint on them and look bumpy.  So the only way to apply the second coat was to let them hang dry.

Cue me and Mom tying fiddly cotton through 90 holes in 90 hearts.  Then hanging them from 2 make shift lines between chairs in the garden.  2 aching backs and 4 sore knees later we had our place card washing line.

I spray painted each heart, whilst Mom stood behind with a massive piece of card so we didn’t turn the garden black then left them to dry.

Next step is threading through the string or ribbon (which ever I decide) and waiting for people to RSVP so I can write their names on!

The making of my chalkboard placecards
The experiment, Part 1 - Drilling and mass spraying, Part 2 - Mass spraying the backs, Part 3 - Chalkboard paint, Part 4 -How will they look?,

How was your weekend?

We had a very lazy weekend, which was very much needed!  Yesterday afternoon me and my Mom spent an hour or so trimming the day invitations and sticking them to the inside of the pocket folds.

The next step is to cut out the hotel information, directions and RSVP’s that slot in to the pocket fold,  glue tiny flat backed pearls in to the swirl design, and then create the band that goes around the outside.