My DIY Wedding: "Will You Be My Bridesmaid?"

As many of you know, I am engaged and in the process of planning a wedding to take place in October 2012. Kyle and I are both SUPER laid-back about most things in life so our wedding is no different. This is good for our stress levels, however I am also very aware that our slow-paced planning is going to sneak up on us and my head will likely explode in a few months so we (finally) have started to get the show on the road.

Being that my response to most projects is, "Oh, I can just make that", we knew from the get-go that our wedding would be mostly DIY. Not only does it cut down on cost, but also-- and most importantly to us-- making everything ourselves allows us to make it truly our own and an expression of ourselves. We are adamant that everything we plan for our big day will have meaning to us, and that nothing will be done just because "that's what you're supposed to do". Tradition Shmadition.

First on the list of DIY Wedding Projects is the task of asking my girls to be in my wedding. I have girls scattered all around (California, Arkansas, Cincinnati, Columbus) so I knew I wanted to ask them via a gift, as opposed to asking them to dinner or something which wasn't a possibility for everyone.

As I was browsing the inspirational wonderland that is Pinterest, I came across this lovely post. I knew immediately that it was something I wanted to do-- a little kit of inspiration for each of my girls.

We have a couple of motifs decided for the wedding including Ball Mason Jars (my future married name will be "Megan Ball" so it's very fitting), pennant flag bunting, our colors, and a hand-drawn doodle heart with our initials. I wanted to include all of these things in their kit so they could get a better feel for what the wedding day will be.

First, I cut the pennants out of cardstock and hot glued them to string to make the banner. I also wrote "Will you be my bridesmaid?" on a strip of ribbon and collected some goodies to include in their jars. Goodies included a bundle of paint chips to show our colors, photos of dress and flower inspiration, and a little stamped heart.

The hand-carved stamp was a purchase from the Doodlebug Design Etsy Shop. I love it and have used it for a number of wedding projects so far!

I also wrote out a couple of pages about who is in the wedding party, what the day will be like, what dresses they should wear, and what their role as bridesmaid will be. (Spoiler Alert: all they really have to do is show up, look gorgeous, and have a blast!).

The "My Girls" page was a lot of fun because I gave them each a superlative a la high school yearbook such as "Most likely to sob uncontrollably" and "Most likely to spike the punch".

Then, I put them all in the jar, lined the jar with kraft paper to hide the goodies inside, attached the ribbon to the lid, and hung the bunting around the outside.

 Voila! A question, a present, and inspiration all in one jar! What do you think?

Do you have a story of how you asked your wedding party to be a part of your wedding day? I'd love to hear them! Leave me your memories in the comments below!

DIY Christmas Wreath

Growing up my family always had a fake tree for the holidays. Sure, it was still a fun family tradition to dig the Christmas tree box out of the loft, fight over which branch goes where, and then be totally over the whole thing by the time the lights were untangled. But, for the past 2 years Kyle and I have opted for the real tree experience.

This year, our tree was ginormous and in order to have it fit into our tree stand a few branches had to be cut off the bottom. I decided to save those branches and try my hand at my very first DIY Christmas wreath. It wasn't as difficult as I was expecting and it was really fun to see it come together.

First I gathered all of my materials. I did most of my shopping at Michael's (remember your coupon- they always have a zillion of them!) I went with a silver and red theme so I bought some glittery silver ribbon, fake silver flower springs, fake red poinsettias, and a giant silver ribbon. The green spool in the top left corner is actually wrapped wire that I used to attach the branches to the frame.

I also collected the branches I was going to use, my frame (also bought at Michael's), and a variety of cutting tools. I started out using utility scissors (in the middle) to cut the branches which did an okay job, but if you have pruning shears (top) they work much better. I also used wire cutters (bottom) to cut the green wire into small pieces.

Then, I got to work! I suppose you can start by laying all of the branches out first if that's the way your mind works, but my brain is more of a "dive right in" kind of brain. I took my branches, one by one, and attached them to the frame with little pieces of wire. I found it helps to cut a bunch of small wire sections (about 2-3 inches long) and bend them in the center so you have them ready as you go, and you don't have to keep stopping along the way to cut more wire. It interrupts your creative "flow".

As you begin placing your branches you will naturally start using your creative eye to determine where they should go. To create a really "full" looking wreath it's best to do a lot of layering, criss-crossing branches, and switch up the direction the branches (some facing up, some down, etc.)

After lots of layering and tying with wire, the wreath starts to get full enough and tight enough that the final few branches can be attached to the wreath simply by weaving them in between other branches, without using wire. This was also how I attached the decorative fave flowers-- just by shoving them into the wreath. Then, I attached the bow with wire, wrapped the ribbon around loosely, and tied a bit of ribbon in a loop on the top for hanging.

Ta daaaaa! What do you think?? Show me your own DIY wreaths-- I'd love to see them!

DIY Art Show Booth

This weekend I was so excited to unveil my brand new art show booth! My initial set up was, in a nutshell, a pegboard on an easel and a table or two. Not all that snazzy. I began to need more and more hanging space and I knew I needed a new, more professional-looking booth set up. I like the look of ProPanels but they are too darn expensive on my starving artist budget. So what's the second best thing? Having a handy dad to hook me up!

We went to Lowe's one night last week to come up with an idea. That's usually how my family functions-- instead of having a plan to buy materials for, we just go to the store and hope that inspiration hits. Luckily, it did. In the form of a utility shelves frame, pegboard, and some creative thinking.

So, what did I use?

1. I used a heavy duty steel shelving storage unit as a frame. I saved a bit on cost because I didn't by it ready-made, rather I bought just the individual pieces I needed. I decided I only needed to go with two 18"x72" side panels, and two 6ft connecting beams to connect the two panels at the back. I didn't buy any to connect the front or tops because I not only wanted it to be open but I also knew that having a table pushed into the display would also add support. Also, by using a metal frame I was able to hang signs, my bio, etc. directly to the frame with magnets! (genius!)

2. I bought a 6ft x4ft piece of white pegboard. I went with white because I thought it would look cleaner and I didn't feel like spray painting it myself. The white finish was only a couple bucks more than the regular old brown.

3. To connect the pegboard to the frame, I used simple 14" zip ties. I just looped two (one on either end) through the holes and around one of the cross beams and it held very well. Most of my canvases were held on by your typical pegboard hooks. Framed pieces that needed to hang flush with the wall were held on by stringing twisty-ties through the frame's hooks and through the pegboard holes, serving as an anchor.

Once the frame was built and the peg board attached, I simply pushed my table back into the frame, covered it with a classy black floor-length table cloth, attached my banner with some velcro so it's detachable, and voila! A brand new display!

Please note that I did make two different walls for this display so all of the things I listed above I actually did twice.

After I set the walls up corner to corner, I used fishing line to connect the two displays at the end panels and hung prints from the line with binder clips as a sort of corner display.

Finally, I had some pegboard hanging baskets leftover that didn't fit on the board itself this time, but they managed to fit quite nicely into the holes that were in the steel frame beams. This was exciting because it not only allowed me to display more prints (in this case my new greeting card line), but it also helped cover up as much of the actual structure as possible and fill that space with artwork!

Here are some of the photos I took from the weekend. What do you think??

My full display! Notice the hanging prints in the corner and the baskets hanging on either side.

Banner-side. Hanging corner display can be seen a bit better here (on the left)

A close-up of the BuckAndLibby.etsy.com debut! They were a big hit!