7 Kids, 1 Wedding

It’s been officially 10 days since I’ve become Mrs. Woodsman. Our wedding was great, we were only $10 over budget (that will be another entry) and now we’re finally back into full swing of life. I feel like I have so much to share but decided to begin where I got a ton of compliments…KIDS!

I understand that it’s a completely personal preference whether to include kids in a wedding and on a guest list. I come from a big, very close-knit family. My brother and I are the babies of a huge group of first cousins and closer in age to our second cousins. We’re all like siblings and to the younger ones more like aunts and uncles. If I could have included them all I would have.

From the beginning I could only be insanely excited that I was marrying into the Woodsman’s wonderful family AND he was already uncle to 5 of the best kids! Done deal, they were all going to be in our wedding. This meant 3 flower girls (nieces), 2 ring bearers (nephews) and 2 ushers (cousins) all under the age of 11. There were skeptics but we knew that this is our family and we honestly couldn’t think of our wedding without them.

Our flower girls looked so cute and were defiantly stars of the show. So many compliments on how cute they were and I must say my gut of not making them look like mini-brides was win! Anyways, one of them even caught my bouquet! A memory that will forever stick out is while in line waiting to head down the aisle my oldest niece (I just LOVE saying I have nieces and nephews…proud Aunt here!) turned to me and said it was the best day of her life. My heart melted and so did my fear of tripping! One of our nephews, the main ring bearer did a great job of keeping our actual rings safe and looked so handsome in his tux. My cousins who were our ushers owned seating people, from what I hear they seated like it was their job!

Each one of them rose to the occasion and we never had a doubt in our minds that they wouldn’t. They kept the order before the ceremony, got the dancing starting and kept the party going until after midnight. They helped keep us grounded…completely oblivious to the enormous stress of a wedding day. They were there to have the time of their lives and have fun…something we should take a step back and think about.

So thank you…

Kyle, Ethan, Trent, Maya, Olivia, Emma and Jackson!

We love you.

Check out some awesome photos from our wedding taken by friend C. Wade Photography !

Anatomy of a Wedding Invitation

When planning a wedding, everyone has his or her own idea of what is the most important. Some brides dream of their dress and sparkly tiara while grooms just want to be reassured that there will be plenty of food and beer (gross generalization, I know). We of course, like everything else have been much different. Throughout our planning our list of importance has pretty much been:

#1 Invitations

Yep, invitations have been the one thing that we have put the most time and planning into…everything else has just fallen into place.

Through out my career I have done numerous wedding invitations. I always worked really hard with my clients to make sure they got exactly what they wanted. Of course, I could always steer them in a direction that was a little different than they thought they wanted but ended up working out better than they had hoped. I’ve always designed them outside of the box and made them to be memorable but when it came to my own, I was straight-up brain dead.

The Woodsman and I (being graphic designers) felt completely self-inflicted pressure to make really kick-ass stationary. We had too many ideas and no starting point, what to do? Ask Emerson Street Stamps to created a completely custom stamp that would be used on everything! Not many details were given but she sketched on the fly and came up with something so perfect you’d know it was us just by looking at it! (It also doesn’t hurt that she’s a very good friend and bridesmaid). Next, we took a trip to the Paper Source. One of my most favorite stores EVER and picked exactly what we wanted (poppy and chartreuse accent paper and fino luxe cream for the main parts). The Paper Source is so inspiring those of us who love paper and crafting. It was there that we found another perfect element for our stationary…a desk embosser with a bird motif. It was love at first sight! We printed and cut everything ourselves. Simple laser output and 2 rotary cutters did the trick. Lastly, we gathered a few bridesmaids, 2 heat guns, lots of custom mixed Zing embossing powder and went to work.

We spent months trying to express ourselves and our quirky, handmade, semi-formal, DIY summer wedding on paper…I can finally say that we’re done and we couldn’t be happier. The best advice that I can give anyone would be to stay true to your ideas and your wedding. Calligraphy, white raised card stock and lined envelopes don’t have to be the only option. More and more people are making their own invitations and that is an amazing thing. Explore your option and keep in mind they don’t have to break the bank (ours total didn’t at all).

Thank you to all that gave input, proofread, carved stamps and battled a hot apartment to glue, emboss and assemble our invitations. We greatly appreciate the help and love :) Once everyone has gotten their invitations in the mail, maybe I’ll post some pictures of the complete finished set! Until then happy crafting and it’s now under 2 months till the big day…still no stress.

Gift Makin' Time!

I like to make stuff…I like to make stuff for other people even more.

When it came time for me to figure out the gifts for my side of the bridal party I knew I was never going to find what I wanted to give them. So, just like everything else I do, I came up with an idea and I’d just figure it out along the way. Now 3 bracelets and 8 necklaces later, I’m sharing the results.

Of course I make jewelry for my hobby, but I’ve never not used feathers or assembled findings. I wanted something unique to each person, asymmetrical and birds. After a little research and finding an AWESOME Etsy seller (Below 14th Designs) and having a mini panic attack at Michaels I got everything done, just the way I wanted.

For Bridesmaids:

18” asymmetrical necklace, sparrow connector from eebeads.com and The Solamente Pendant from Below 14^th Designs personalized with first initial and birthstone charm.

For Flower Girls:

Sparrow chain with toggle closure and The Solamente Pendant from Below 14^th Designs personalized with first initial and birthstone charm.

I'm so happy with the way they turned out that I've made a set for myself. Who knows, maybe something like this is something that I'll be able to pursue as a jewelry maker when I get some more free time...only 3 months to go!

Flippy Flops

Finally, I can post this! Why, you ask? I’ve officially asked all my bridesmaids…only took me 3 weeks! I knew from the beginning I wanted to do something nice to ask all my girls. Problem is, I’m NOT cheesy, I suck at writing anything sentimental and I’m not made of money…what’s a bride-to-be to do? I guess I could have been simple and just asked but I’m much too crafty for that.

What does everyone need, can be found in any color and aren’t hearts? Old Navy flip-flops!

2 for $5, available in any size and color. It was the perfect solution; they could be worn where ever, whenever (I would never dream of ever telling anyone what kind of shoes to wear) and made a useful gift. I bought 8 pairs of orange flip-flops and made little cards asking each gal to be my bridesmaid or MOH. I think they all really enjoyed them. It’s just a small idea I’d thought I’d share for all you non-cheese brides out there that don’t mind DIY projects.

I wrote a little poem (by writing I mean combined lines from multiple poems I found online) that seemed to be straight to the point but also nice and non-bridezilla.

Take these flip-flops to the beach,

or dance in them on “The Night”.

Either way,

Will you be my bridesmaid?

It’ll make our wedding day just right.

Not too horrible right?

P.S.

We also asked the 3 flower girls and 2 ring bearers with very cute cookies from Weddingish.com. Check out their site for some great personalized gifts.

Oh Dear…

I’m going to be a Mrs in less than a year! (5 months be exact)

So where have I been the past few weeks? Besides drowning in work, job hunt and crafting for custom orders, I also go engaged. Still, over a week later, seems so foreign for me to stay. Not that it’s a bad thing, just very very different. I knew from the time I met the Woodsman I’d marry him, I just never thought about when. 14 months later, here we are, planning a late-July wedding, and I couldn’t be happier.

It’s going to be my mission not to over read, over think and over do being a bride. I’ve been to weddings where everything was dictated by Bridezilla. From our hair, to our tan lines…I, will not do that. I’m generally a pretty easy going gal and well the Woodsman is even more chill than I am. So far, it’s working. We had visions of casual grandeur about our wedding. It’s pretty ironic actually. We wanted a backyard wedding (courtesy of the Woodsman’s parent’s land), with a tent, paper lanterns and a pig roast. Oh, how reality hit and things change quickly. From the get-go we were asked a million questions about everything and didn’t have an answer for them at all. Neither of us are planners and that’s been our main obstacle. We agreed that no matter what, this wasn’t going to be a stress fest and we were going to stay flexible with everything. After all, it’s just one day…

Once the budget and approximate number was set there was no way we could afford our “casual” backyard bbq wedding, unless we cut the guest list down to 75 people. Both coming from large families, and being one of the youngest on each side there was no way that was possible. Our perfect solution came from my FFIL, his golf club wasn’t too far, could host an outdoor ceremony and give us a discount if we booked with them. Without typing all the details we ended up booking with them and now our wedding is a month sooner. It’ll be an outdoor ceremony and cocktails and a nice big, bright space on a golf course . We’re saving a ton and although it isn’t what we had originally envisioned, it’s no longer a planning nightmare and we’re both happy.

Flexibility, my friends (and fellow brides)…is key.

Although we’re only a few weeks into the planning process, we’re only 5 months away from the big day. If things go like they have been, I think we’ll be fine. I have lots of other crafty stuff, including my dress being handmade by mom my on board for this blog. Lots of exciting things to come, it’s all the good stuff I’ve been waiting for…

Cheers,

FT

(Isn't that pic at the top hilarious...that's totally something I'd say!)