Another DIY tackled!

Blog, you should see my house this week. Everywhere you look, there are pieces of projects. I have probably 3-4 projects started. What I would like to know is why I can't start a project, finish it, and then move on? Why do I like to torture myself? It's really hard to write a blog post about a half-finished project. I must work on this.

Tonight though, I finally finished my card box. I wanted something pretty and that matched our theme, and since I love taking on projects, why not this too?  I bought my supplies back in September, and then.....they sat in my closet. I think part of the reason was because I was looking for the "right" inspiration on how to make mine....and then, one day last month, I found it!

Source

I loved the natural color and the simplistic details. I had seen other ones on Etsy that I liked, but they were almost $100! And while I wasn't 100% sure how to go about making one of these, I knew I could probably figure it out and spend much less.

I got my boxes from holcraft.com (around $22), and purchased my striped ribbon from eBay (seriously!) for around $5. The flower on the top "layer" I bought at Michael's for $4.99 and I made the green bow thanks to this tutorial from Weddingbee using $1 ribbon. 

Total cost: $33 :) Want to see the final result??

Personal photo, sorry, it's a little blurry

On a funny sidenote, half way through the project, I was so excited to show it to Keither...his response 'oh that's really nice' .... me 'do you know what it is?'.....him 'uhhh not really'.

HA, men! Gotta love 'em. In case there are other people at our wedding who won't know what this is, I will be adding a sign to the middle layer that says "cards". :)

I'm really happy with how this box came out, and can't wait to display it at our wedding reception along with all our other goodies and see it all come together.  So far, this has been one of the easiest DIY projects I've done!

Has anyone else tackled a DIY cardbox? Do you think I need to add anything to mine, or change anything?

First Dance Choices!

Alternate Post Title: What the heck are the Mister and I going to dance to???

Keither and I both love music...all kinds, and our tastes do tend to overlap a little. The only major difference is that I love me some pop music and he could listen to classic rock for ages. Choosing music for our reception has been a challenging task. Choosing a song for our first-dance? Next to impossible.

I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself to find the "perfect" song-dress-shoe-paper-whatever. And then I get overwhelmed. You already know this though, don't you?

We've never really had A song. We have songs we like, and songs that remind us of the other, but nothing specific. This is the closest thing we have:


Eric Church "Love Your Love the Most"

Yes, it's the name of my blog...that's how much we love this song. He suggested it for a first dance, but it's really not a "first dance song".

Here are the other options that I've come up with that he hasn't immediately shot down, therefore these are still contenders:

1. Christina Perri "A Thousand Years"

Ok, don't knock this song because it says it's from Breaking Dawn. I've seen the movie (twice) and I am here to tell you that except for a few short instrumental strings, this song is not in the movie. Even if it were, I wouldn't care. I'm a Twi-hard. And I think I'm slowly turning Keith into one too ... shhh don't tell him I told you!

2. Blake Shelton "God Gave Me You"

God, do I love this song....we saw Blake in concert last summer and I just adore his music. I think this song is so sweet and the lyrics are perfect for a first dance.

3. Nickleback "Never Gonna Be Alone"

We both love Nickleback and this kind of music in general, and while this isn't a "traditional" first-dance choice, I absolutely love it.

4. Dashboard Confessional "Stolen"

This song makes me melt. It's so beautiful.

5. "Me and You" Kenny Chesney

It's a Kenny-freaking-Chesney song. Need I say more?



Have you figured out yet how much we love country music? It seems to be the one genre that we both absolutely love and agree on, so it makes sense that we choose a country song. I bet you're wondering why the heck I don't have any Brad Paisley songs on our list. We met at a Paisley concert, so it would seem like a perfect choice right? Well, he really only has one option,"Then", and that song is just a tad over-done. We really wanted a song that was a little bit different, and not quite as popular.

So, what do you think? Which song do you think we should go with? Do you have any other suggestions that I might be missing?

Pretty Tables :)

Quick! Think about the last wedding that you went to....do you remember what the tables looked like? Maybe? No, not really? My point exactly. Ok, well maybe because we are brides, we pay more attention to these things than the average person. If I were to ask any of my single friends who don't have wedding-on-the-brain, no one would be able to tell me.

I have struggled with centerpieces since Day One. (Yes, don't remind me that I've struggled with decisions on everything else too. Today we are talking about centerpieces, ok? K thanks.)


As you already know, I adore flowers. So naturally I just assumed that I would have floral, nautical centerpieces. When I met with M, my florist, I even brought her pictures like this:

I love everything about this table, from the chairs to the linens to the centerpieces. Gorgeous! / Image via greentreaphotography.net

I love galvanized pails. How pretty is this table? / Image via onestylishbride.com

I think the branches look very "beachy", don't you? / Image via studioblush.blogspot.com

Because of my indecisiveness, we agreed to do two different kinds of centerpieces, and have half the tables with one kind and half with the other. But then I saw my quote for 17 floral centerpieces and almost had a heart attack. Over $1300. Just for centerpieces. 


As much as I love flowers, I knew I needed to look for other options, if for no other reason than to have something to compare to floral centerpieces. And I found things like this:

I like the incorporation of the sea (starfish) and a few flowers / Image via red-wedding-chairs-1228.blogspot.com  

I do love starfish! And candles! / Image via weddingwire.com

This one makes me so happy! I love the different heights of candles and the flowers on the table! / Image via  Weddingbee, Mrs. Lemon! 

A simple vase of one kind of flower plus the candles / Image via marthastewart.com

So now I'm torn on what to do! Do I keep all floral centerpieces? A little of both? Just candles? Please help me decide! What do you think I should pick?

Bling-ed out Bride!

Here's a little secret about me...I love bling! Ok, I guess that wasn't really a secret was it? :)

For my wedding, I choose a very classic, simple wedding gown. There were definitely some days in the months after I ordered my dress where I agonized over whether my dress was too simple. But I know now that I chose the right dress, and I'm so excited to add accessories to it to make it more "me".

I know I keep torturing you by saying that I'm not sharing pictures of my dress (and no I haven't changed my mind!), but I am going to share the accessories that I chose. How's that for a compromise? :)

DIY --- Please find your seat!

In a previous post, I talked about my choices for seating cards. I left you with the escort card I had chosen as can be seen here .

I ended up buying four, white shadow boxes from a fellow bride on weddingbee. Yay for the Classifieds on the 'bee!

I plan on filling the boxes with sand, and standing up my escort cards in them.

Making these cards was actually very easy, but it did take awhile because I had to make 175!! I think all in all, I spent almost 7 hours on them. I am so happy with the way that they turned out though, so no regrets here.

The great thing about these cards is that you can personalize them with any color or symbol that fits your theme. Since my theme is navy and white with anchors, I purchased an anchor punch from Martha Stewart. I love all things Martha. I also purchased navy blue textured 12x12 cardstock and a pack of white 4x6 cardstock.

Step 1: Cut  your back cards.

I was able to get 10 cards out of one 12x12 sheet of cardstock. I used a system of trial and error to get the size right. The finished one is 2x5.

Step 2: Cut the white cardstock to size, mine are 1 3/4x4 1/2. It's such a random size but it's what worked for me.

Step 3: Punch the white card:

Step 4: Put the two pieces together

I originally used Glue Dots, but the thing broke after about 20 cards! grrrr. I ended up using basic stick glue on the remaining cards, and it worked just fine.

Finished product:
 

I really love how these came out and I can't wait to display them at our reception! Now all I have to do is work on my penmanship so I can address these :)

Do you think I was crazy to spend 7 hours on these? What's the longest DIY project you've done so far?