VideoBLOG! As in–I didn’t write a blog this weekend

And I promised you I would – I promised! Instead, what did I do? BBQ’d two nights in a row and then watched True Blood. Please, you did too. It was the first nice weekend of summer in Calgary and I wasn’t going to waste it writing a blog about wedding crafts.

You know – that is question that people ask me. How much time do you spend working on your wedding?? Honestly – 5% of my time. If you count my Calgary Bride blogging and social media monitoring for other bridey goodness, 10% of my time is focussed on the wedding industry.

Sorry to burst your bubble – you could be more productive. You just have to actually want to. The time I spend bridey blogging is exactly the amount of time I enjoy blogging.

And meow – ENJOY this video on Coffee Filter Centre Pieces: The Making Of. A DIY tutorial is on it’s way – eventually!

80 days!

"Coffee Filter Centre Pieces: The Making Of"

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Shower Invites: Because I love them

My most wonderful and beautiful and patient and talented Maid of Honour Julie O. is throwing me my wedding shower. YAY! I can’t wait. And Julie, knowing moi and my obsession with glue and paper, asked me if I wanted to be a part of the invitation making process.

Exsqueeze me, why did you even ASK!? Immediately I sent over this link*. I fell in love with this creative and beautiful stationary the second I saw it. However, I stand firm in my proactive decision to have our invitations done by someone else so I was MORE than happy to start scheming and plotting how we would make these lovely little diddies. And I’m already scheming and plotting my thank you cards.

*I can’t believe I can’t find the link that inspired me!!!! To you amazingly crafty girl who came up with this, please accept I give my humblest and most treasured thanks. I’m so sorry I can’t link to you – I give you full credit.

And although I’m not going to post the original shower invitation Julie and I worked together, I will let you imagine the patient smiles Julie gave me the entire two and half hours it took the put them together. And how thrilled she must have been that I inadvertently (I SWEAR) kept giving her the shit jobs (“You cut and I’ll glue” – FYI, cutting is boring. Gluing is fun!) But we had a lot of fun, and I think crafting is one of the best activities you can do when catching up.

Tools:

• Postcard sized paper: pack of 100, Michaels, $10
• Old book: $1.50 at a book sale. Doesn’t matter what book – or maybe it does matter which book. Maybe pick a book from your childhood you love! Nothing about murder or inheritance.
• Tacky Glue: if you don’t have a bottle on hand, $4 at Michaels
• Mod Podge: Same price, same place. The Original.
• Ribbon: Any colour, texture, size, whatever. Dollar Store, Michaels, anywhere.
• Paper to print on: textured paper, patterned paper, paper you made yourself – pick paper that reflects you!
• Printer: Anywhere, work, neighbours, whatev.
• Optional: Photograph corners

Step 1: When you go to write up your invitations on your computer, format the page to landscape and create columns that are about 3’’ wide. You should be able to get three columns. Craft the wording to your invitation, and copy and paste it twice to each column, giving you a total of six to a page. Print as necessary and trim them down so you have rectangles with the wording, about 3’’ x 4’’.

Hot Tip: Try and keep your fingers off the ink for a while to let it dry, otherwise it’ll smudge. Mine absolutely did and I think that was because of the textured paper I was using.

Step 2: Using the Mod Podge, spread it on one side of the postcard paper. Rip out a piece of paper from your old book and glue it on to the postcard page. You can centre it if you want – you don’t have too though.

Step 2: Cut the edges of the old book off the post card paper, so you have a neat and tidy base for your invitations (mind the corner that I ripped, eff balls)

Step 3: Cut your ribbon just a little bit longer than the paper itself. Get your tacky glue and line the backside of the ribbon with glue. You can use as many colours and strands of ribbon as you want. Make an entire border around the edges of the invitation base, line one side or the top. Do whatever you want, just get enough glue on it. The second picture with the little dots of glue is how I glue on little tiny pieces of ribbon.

Step 4: Take the invitation wording that you printed off your computer and you can either attach them to the base of the invite with Tacky Glue or sticky squares. Or, you can use the option photo corners to give an extra splash of texture. Snuggle a corner onto each corner of the invite, lick the back of the corners and adhere. Trim the edges of the ribbon and VOILA! Your invitations are ready for mailing

 

What do you think? Love?

Eff Bomb Crafting: BMizzo Bouquets

So last week, I showed you a post on the silk flowers from chintz. Gorgeous but way too pricey, you remember. The silk flowers themselves aren’t all that pricey – they are in the upper range while remaining reasonable. It was the cost of having chintz do up the bouquets that shot things through the roof. And even though I love their flowers so much, I still know that I really wanted to use coffee filters in the bouquets.

Why in the bouquets? Because truthfully, of all the ridiculous projects and ways that I come up with to use coffee filters, the only ways I’m really going to use them is in the centre pieces, the bouquets and a couple of LARGE pompoms. If I had more time and energy, I would probably make garlands, pew markets, napkin rings and more. Alas. For the next coffee filter bride, I suppose.

Tools:

• Bunch of roses (6 – 8 blooms) – $19 (for the ones featured in this post)
• Dyed coffee filters – 200 for $3, dyed to match your colours
• Floral wire – $1.50 for more than you need at any dollar store

To make your bouquets, you will also need to get strong, sharp scissors to cut the wire in the stems of the blooms.

Step 1: Take your first coffee filter and fold it in half, then scrunch the top up a little bit.

Step 2: Wrap your folded coffee filter around the rose, like a pig in a blanket.

Step 3: Use floral wire to secure the coffee filter to the stem of the rose by wrapping it tightly. Repeat steps 1 – 3 for the second layer of coffee filter.

There, now doesn’t that look just right? I love how it adds a splash of colour and fills out the bouquet a little bit without adding more blooms. More blooms = more money.

Our Perfect Stranger

The Cpt and I had an amazing time meeting Abby Charchun, the Calgary officiant we choose to marry us. She was recommended by my most lovely Maid of Honour, as she has married all the cool kids around town and it is for this insight why I choose J.O. to stand beside me on my special day.

The Cpt and I had not just a great time meeting and getting to know Abby – she invited us to meet at her home, she was also very kind, open and excited to listen and also to contribute to the conversation.

To sum it up: to Abby, it isn’t a formula.

Here is my full interview with Abby, with a shortened piece in today’s Calgary Bride.

How long have you been an officiant? 4 and half years.

How many weddings have you done? I used to track every single wedding that I did.  I liked to keep a tally.  But I've honestly lost track but I think I've done well over 200 weddings.

What do you love about being an officiant? There are so many things I love about getting to marry people. The wedding ceremony is a big deal for many couples.  I feel very honoured when I'm marrying a couple.  And I really love the diversity of the people I get to meet.  

Supporting and encouraging brides and grooms to make decisions that are right for them as a couple rather than making decisions based on what other people want is also very important to me.  My saying is "Your day, Your way."  My role is to make sure that a couple loves every word that is being said during their ceremony.  Couples have a right choose and approve of the words that will make them married. 

The energy exchange between people on their wedding day is so amazing.  There is so much love present and at times it can be overwhelming - not just for the couple but for me, as well.  Watching a bride or a groom's eyes well up with tears from the sheer joy they feel looking at their soon-to-be spouse is such a profoundly beautiful experience.

So many people have remarked to me how quick the ceremony was or how fast the entire day went by.  I get couples, in the midst of being married, to look into each others' eyes and take a moment to just be present, to breathe and to take it all in together.  That moment where their eyes meet and there is an instant connection as they realize, "Wow, here we go. We're actually getting married!" is intensely powerful.  I think it may be addictive.

What's the most untraditional wedding you've ever officiated?  That's a tough question for me - every couple has traditional elements in the ceremony.  Whether it's the ring exchange or being pronounced" husband and wife".  I  encourage couples to incorporate their personalities into their wedding ceremony to make it unique and memorable for them and their guests.  Sometimes it's the song that the bride walks down the aisle to.  Sometimes it's the way they write their vows to each other (imagine the bride writes her vows in sonnet form and he writes his in a new and original song that he sings to her during the wedding ceremony).  There are always new and unforgettable ways to make a ceremony "untraditional" - it all gets down to who the people are and what they want.  

To answer the question directly, I would say the wedding I did at one of Calgary's beloved Tubby Dog was right up there in terms of the most untraditional.  She wore a gorgeous red rockabilly dress, he wore one of those tuxedo t-shirts.  They exchanged ring pops instead of wedding rings and they signed their marriage license on a pinball machine.  Afterwards, their guests Tubby Dogs and drank bottles of Pilsner while they took turns loading up songs on the juke box.  It was awesome!

What should a couple look for when researching an officiant? Choose someone that you feel totally comfortable with.  You should feel like they’ve given some time to get to know who you are and what you want on your wedding day.  You shouldn’t feel like just another couple in a long line of weddings they are performing that day.  Ultimately, choose a commissioner who suits your style and that you feel a personal connection with.

How far in ahead should the couple start looking? For summer weddings, I recommend anywhere from 8 to 12 months, especially if you are getting married on a Saturday (and even more so if it’s the Saturday of a long weekend).  Winter months are always slower and you can usually find a commissioner with less notice.  I personally don’t take bookings more than a year in advance.  It doesn’t feel right to book a couple on a calendar that hasn’t been printed yet.

What types of questions should an officiant be asking a couple? Every marriage commissioner has a unique style so it’s hard for me to say what another commissioner should or shouldn’t be asking.  Personally, I like to ask a lot of questions because I like to be informed about what kind of a wedding the couple wants to have.  The more I know about what they want their special day to be, the more prepared I am help them create a wedding ceremony that reflects that ideal in their minds.  I also like to get to know who the couple is and find out about their love story.

I ask so many questions – and a lot of times, the questions I ask make people consider details of their ceremony that they’d never thought about before.  For example, if the bride is keeping her last name, how would the couple like to be announced once they are married?  

There are so many aspects of a wedding that I like to talk about with couples.  I like to know about the style of a wedding – that will inform me about what I should wear.  I ask what kind of music they want for their wedding ceremony – music is a great window into who a couple is. I like to know what the alternate plan is for an outdoor wedding in case the worse case scenario of wind or rain happens.  The more informed I am, the more I will be ready to assist when things don’t go as expected.

What it gets down to is once you’ve had a chance to sit down with your commissioner, you should walk away feeling that you are in good hands.  They should make you feel at ease about the ceremony and the details surrounding it and ultimately, they have your best interest at heart.

Do you have any advice for a couple planning on writing their own vows? There are no rules to writing your own vows.  I have a saying: If you write from your heart and you write the truth, you can’t write a wrong word.  I think it's smart to check in with each other and make sure you are writing about the same amount of words.  

If you are experiencing writer’s block, go through old emails, texts or facebook messages and see what inspires you.  Go through photographs from the early years of being together – you will be amazed at what can trigger you to write the words you will say on your wedding day.

A few years ago, I had a groom call me in a panic the night before his wedding and he hadn’t written one word of his personalized vows.  I told him to see if he could find his bride-to-be’s box or folder with any old cards or love letters in it.  He ended up finding and using the very first Valentine’s Day card he ever gave her – which he had written 7 years before.  He actually wrote: “At the risk of writing something I may regret, I want to say that on this day, I love you more than I have ever loved anyone.  And I don’t anticipate that I will ever love another as much as I love you.  I hope that one day, if I am lucky enough, I will stand across from you, in front of our friends and family, and declare myself to be your one true love for the rest of our lives.”  

When it came time to say his vows, he pulled put this incredible tacky Snoopy Valentine’s Day card, which he had bent and folded to fit into his tux pocket.  His bride was so confused at first, but when she recognized what he was reading to her, it was such an incredible moment.

Long story short – you can find inspiration anywhere, you just have to dig deep – into boxes, mailboxes, file folders and most importantly, as cheesy as it sounds, your heart.

Lazy Post: Chintz & Co Flowers~

My Sunday was beautiful. It was warm and bright and sunny and I was happily in the basement of Chintz & Co, registering.

All things aside, here are some of the gorgeous silk and fabric flowers they have. I love them. All of them. Here’s the beauty to silk flowers as an alternative – they are always in stock and in season and they price never rises due to gas and they are never in high demand due to the weather and they always come in the colour you want and the blooms hold ALL DAY! What I also love is that silk flowers become a keepsake. I know what you’re think – *yay* yet another friggin wedding keepsake. Keepsake usually = more clutter but I think with flowers, you can at least stick them in your guest bathroom to brighten it up a little.

I am going to do SOMETHING using these flowers.  I would love to have Chintz do all my bouquets but it is a *smidge* expensive (the bridal bouquet alone was quoted at over $300. Yowza.) so I think I will purchase some on my own and then trick them out with coffee filters. YAY.