Guest Post // Kendall and Adam's Wedding

While our favorite Bride-to-Be is busy getting ready for her big day, I'll go ahead and tell you about mine! You might remember me from a previous wedding Wednesday post where I showed you the ribbon rose bouquet that I made.

{All photos courtesy of Kate Schoener of Paper Heart Photography}

I had a few other crafts up my sleeve as well, so I'll go right ahead and show you those as well as my favorite wedding pictures, moments and accessories!

On May 20th, at the General Potter Farm (coincidentally the same place Sarah will be having her wedding) I became Mrs. Feather! (Awesome last name, isn't it?)

Two of My Favorite Pictures from the Day (although who am I kidding, practically all of them were my favorite):

My Favorite Crafted Detail (Other than my bouquet): With some help from my dad (he cut out all the pieces) I did woodburned table numbers for all the guest tables... they were another one of those crafts that took a huge amount of time and effort, but I've saved them so I can reuse them when Adam and I buy a house and I'll turn them into custom house numbers.

 {above} in progress {below} finished table numbers

And just for fun I also did a special Mr. & Mrs. one for our sweetheart table! (On the back I did a feather, but I don't have a picture of the other side)

My Favorite Keepsake (again, aside from my bouquet, because I love that thing!):  Instead of doing the traditional guestbook that I know I would shove in a box and never look at again, I wanted to do something I could hang up and put on display. I came across this thumbprint tree idea on the internet somewhere (I'm sure you've all seen it by now) and got to work straight away painting in the tree. I love how it turned out, especially with all the different shades of green thumbprints. My only oops moment... when I realized the handiwipes we so thoughtfully provided didn't help in the slightest with getting the ink off our guests thumbs. Whoops! Now I just need to get a frame for it and figure out where to hang it...

My Favorite Accessory: These shoes! So glad I convinced Adam to let me get purple ones...

My Favorite Moments: Our first dance, a funny moment during Father/Daughter dance, and a surprise dance for my brother and sister-in-law. Allow me to explain...Adam and I took waltz lessons for our first dance, so we were ready to wow everyone with our awesome dance moves for this number! We screwed up a few times because we were nervous, but everyone still loved it and I'm super glad we did something special for it. Plus, now I know how to waltz! (Also note that we high-fived at the end after a really romantic dip, so we got a lot of laughs for that one.)

Now the Father/Daughter dance was one of my favorite moments because of something hilarious my dad did/said... Bear in mind I picked the song Cinderella by Steven Curtis Chapman specifically to ensure that he cried. He got all teary-eyed in the middle of our dance and suddenly got serious and said "I love you, Son." And I looked up and go "Did you just say son?" "No...*shakes head sadly then pauses before admitting*... yes, yes I did" and then we both burst out laughing. He told me later that he was going to say "Sunshine" but then changed it to "Honey" halfway through and by the time it came out he knew he was saying it wrong but couldn't save it he just stopped and hoped I wouldn't notice.

The third thing was a surprise first dance that I arranged for my brother and sister-in-law. They married in South Korea in 2008 when he was deployed in the army and they wanted to have a wedding when he got out of the army but for several reasons, were not able to. I wanted to do something special for her to make her feel like she had a little bit of "her day" so I thought it would be fitting to give them a first dance. I had the DJ make an announcement about a surprise first dance and then start describing the couple with a few key details about their relationship and how they never got their first dance before finally revealing who it was for. I was half expecting them to both be mad at us for putting them at the center of attention but she was wiping away tears and he was grinning ear-to-ear, so I'd say it went over well. Plus we got some really cute pictures of it!

What Didn't go as Planned: My bouquet toss never happened because most of the single ladies were out of town guests who needed to leave early since it was a Sunday night. By the time we were supposed to do the toss... most of them had left. However, that day, I didn't care at all! (Tip: Don't stress out about worrying about those little details. If it doesn't mean the world to you, don't worry about it not happening exactly as planned because you won't care or remember anyhow!)

A few more details:

Seed Packet Wedding Favors

Table Placecards

All in all I was completely, utterly, and wonderfully satisfied with how the day went and how everything turned out. And the best part? I'M MARRIED!!!

Sincerely yours,
Mrs. Feather


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Wasn't the wedding beautiful? It made me so happy, and I love the little stories. Thank you Kendall, for sharing with us! See you soon! S. 

Wednesday Wedding: Guest Blogger- Tracy

I am so excited to introduce you to my friend, bridesmaid, and guest blogger for filling all your mid-week wedding needs!  Her name is Tracy, she is smart, witty, beautiful, she makes everyone laugh, and she tells me I am pretty all the time. I can't say much more other than I love her and I'm so happy she is my bridesmaid as I figure out how to make a wedding happen. I think you will see why.

A Bridesmaid’s Perspective

During the whole Kyle’s-joining-the-Army-will-we-get-engaged-what-the-heck-is-going-on period of Sarah’s life, I was lucky enough to get the girly play-by-play. It was all wonderfully delicious, romantic, and, big surprise, girly. After the proposal (squeeeee!), I secretly hoped that Sarah would ask me to be a bridesmaid, but I surely wasn’t counting on it since I’d known Sarah for all of three weeks—not really, more like a year give or take. I always fear that I’m that person, you know, the one who noses her way into people’s lives and gets creepily over-invested in them; so, I wanted to maintain my composure and keep it real cool. Well, that strategy worked and Sarah asked me (little ol’ me!) to join her and some other really special ladies on her wedding day.

I think there’s supposed to be a lot of pressure being a bridesmaid, but Sarah’s made it really easy (just answer her emails promptly!). The two biggest responsibilities I’ve found? Getting my tush to a David’s Bridal to buy my dress and thinking about what I’m going to say at the event (oh, because Sarah wants each bridesmaid and groomsman to give a 10-minute academic presentation—complete with a Powerpoint, handouts, and a bibliography)—of our relationship to the couple. So, I’ve already started outlining that. The presentations will be graded, you see.

I’m just kidding about all that presentation stuff, you know. She just wants us all to give a little speech with witty anecdotes, PG humor, and lacking embarrassing stories. No pressure. (We’ll see if I can even make it through this post without cursing; I used “heck” in the first sentence instead of H- E- double hockey sticks, you should be proud).

Because Sarah wants the pictures at her wedding to look decent, she won’t have us looking like this: 

via

She would prefer something more like this: 

via

A combo of different dresses of the same material in Sangria {not the color pictured}—now doesn’t that just sound yummy? 

So, we’ve got the dresses figured out for the most part….but SHOES.

Silver is the thought. But which ones? Some options: 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 

I’m partial to heels even though in them I’m approximately twelve feet tall. However, I know a certain bridesmaid acquaintance of mine couldn’t walk in heels if she were a Victoria’s Secret model. So, she should probably stick to the glittery tennis shoes. I think all the bridesmaids should get together and go shoe shopping. Ladies?

In all seriousness, I am truly honored to be a part of Sarah and Kyle’s wedding. It’s going to be so beautiful and so much fun. I’m going to cry so much.

PS: My favorite part of being a bridesmaid so far has been the wedding dress shopping. When Sarah knew which dress she wanted, it was such a magical moment. We all know that Sarah’s beautiful—but damn, wait until you see her in that dress. I won’t be the only one weeping. 

(Only one bad word!)

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What do you think; should I make them all wear Vibrams with their pretty dresses? ;) I hope you enjoyed reading that as much as I did. You can find more from Tracy at her blog Mermaid Tales.

Linking up with Joelle!

- From the desk of Mrs. M
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Wednesday Wedding: Guest Blogger- Kendall

They say every little girl dreams about her wedding day. Call me weird, but I didn't start dreaming about my wedding day until I learned about the crafting community and saw how creative and personalized weddings could become. Since my eyes were opened to that fantastic world of hot glue, sewing machines, and paint, I've wanted nothing more than to craft as much for my wedding as possible. (Minus the whole making-your-own-wedding-dress thing... I'm not THAT good.)

Now that I am engaged to be married in May, I've throw myself headfirst into craft blogs, tutorials, and pouring over websites filled with creative and unique ideas.

First and foremost I wanted my wedding to reflect my and Adam's personality and tastes, and I wanted (and needed) to do it on a tight just-gratuated-from-college budget. I also wanted the decorations to be something that wouldn't just be used that day, but something we could bring into our first home together and use as decor and as a reminder of that special day.

I graduated college with a degree in Graphic Design, so it was already pretty much a given that I would be designing my own invitations and save-the-dates. They honestly were the easy part. In fact, I think the save-the-dates were done before the proposal even happened...

Despite my typical knack for crafts and ingenuity, getting started from scratch on a crafted wedding was more difficult than I thought it would be. I spent the first month seeing so many awesome ideas that I wanted to do them all and had a hard time focusing my efforts on any one project. Once I got my craft ADD period out of the way and settled on a theme and a color palette, I buckled down on my first big project. For this I made the decision not to use any flowers in the wedding or reception.  In part because I thought I could save some money this way, but also because my mom has always had her wedding bouquet sitting on her dresser (fake flowers, of course) and I loved the idea that it was always out and visible. I don't typically like the look of fake flowers so I looked for all sorts of alternatives, but in the end I decided I still wanted it to resemble flowers, so I settled on buying 2 large spools of ribbon from B. B. Crafts and using this tutorial to make ribbon roses. This would be easy enough, right??? I'm good with a needle and thread, how hard could it be? Many painstaking hours, a misdiagnosed pinched nerve in my neck, and a few color changes later, I finally had enough ribbon roses to make up my bouquet and some bridesmaid bouquets.

Tadaaa! 

Let's review the process, shall we?

I used: 2 colors of ribbon, matching thread, needles, ruler, floral wire, floral tape, scissors, pinking shears, a lighter, wire cutters, elastic, tulle, and a whole lot of patience. Eventually I used watered down paint and dip-dyed half the roses to give them varying shades of purple and red as well, but that's entirely optional.

And here is what I got!

I love how it turned out, but more than that, I love the fact that it's something I made with my own two hands and that I can have sitting out for many years to come. It was definitely a labor, but it was a labor of love, and I had a lot of fun creating it.

166 Days til the wedding... Yeah, I still have time for more crafting.

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Thank you, Kendall! I don't typically like how fake flowers look either, but yours are so pretty! I am impressed and I'm excited to see what else you're crafting for your wedding!

- From the desk of Mrs. M

Wednesday Wedding: Guest Blogger - The Funky Junkie

Hi Readers! I'm off to take the GRE today (wish me luck!), but don't worry, a friend has got this weeks Wednesday Wedding covered! Meet Brenda, the Funky Junkie! 

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Hello friends of Sarah! I'm so excited to be here today. :)

I've been stalking Sarah's blog for a few months now, and have found that her and I have similar styles when it comes to wedding things--even though I just got married a few months ago, I totally still peruse the wedding blog world just for fun! I love Sarah's Wedding Wednesday posts because I find myself excited about her DIY style that will absolutely make her wedding unique.

Having a unique wedding was my number one goal while I was planning my own wedding last year. Although I definitely wanted some traditional elements--the church ceremony, the reception introductions, cutting the cake, and all the ritual dances--I wanted every detail of our wedding to be personalized to me and my husband, Ian. I wanted people to see us in every moment, from the music at the ceremony to the decor at the reception. 

These days, being budget-conscious, thrifty, and crafty is chic! This means that there are a TON of ideas floating around the blogosphere, many of which I incorporated into my wedding. The multitudes of wedding blogs as well as online communities like Pintrest make sharing ideas as easy as the click of a button. I had folders on my computer of other elements of other gals weddings that I wanted to use as my own. But the more I did this, the more I thought--was this really right? Am I stealing ideas? If I take this from this blog and use it in my wedding, is it really going to be unique?

The answer? The more you look around the world wide web for inspiration, you'll find that it really is just that: inspiration. Not stealing! Nine times out of ten, every idea you see from one girls wedding was probably adapted from an idea that she saw somewhere else. The key is adapting it to fit you and your style. That is why there simply are so many awesome ideas out there--if you see one that lights a fire inside of you, you will definitely find a way to make it meaningful to you. 

For me, I found myself taking inspiration from a variety of things--a little bit of rustic vintage and a little bit of 1950's retro. A little bit of red, and a little bit of purple. Throw in a ukelele played by a friend at the ceremony, walking out of the church to a James Taylor favorite, and dancing to the most meaningful songs to us at the reception, and by golly, we had ourselves a truly unique wedding. 

Sarah, I know that with your creativity and fabulous style, that you and Kyle will have an amazing and totally unique wedding celebration, and I can't wait to see your inspirations come to life!

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All photos by Meagan Jepson Photography

THANK YOU Mrs. B for a lovely post and for filling in for the week!  Your wedding looks beautiful. Everyone should hop over and visit her blog. :)

- Mrs M