Making cookies even more of a good thing?

My Aunt Lynne is making cookies for our Welcome Bags. Although she makes these little lemon cookies that are about my favorite things on the planet, her oatmeal raisin cookies are not far behind... and more of a crowd-pleaser. So oatmeal raisin and tried-and-true chocolate chip cookies it is.

I already ordered small cellophane bags to package the cookies, and figured I'd fold the top over and affix them with a sticker of some kind. But thanks to iDIY today (loooove this blog), I was inspired by a template offered over at Creature Comforts.

Here's the Creature Comforts version:


And here's what I came up with while waiting for a work conference call to begin (the top half folds over):




We'll have to do a test run asap and make sure the stapled cardstock doesn't rip the cellophane with the weight of the cookies inside. Here's hoping! Also, I admit to not letting go (as promised) of the fact that my Welcome Bag tags aren't cuter... these little tags are totally kicking the other tags' butt in the cute department.

Report from DIY Headquarters

Over at DIY Headquarters, Team Fam is nearing completion of all DIY projects and getting ready to deliver them to our Outer Banks holding station!

Under the leadership of 'Lil Sue (otherwise known as Mom), the hands of Big D (Dad), Best Woman with Unborn Child (sis), grandparents, neighbors, cousins, and more have been worked to the bone to turn our fun decor ideas into reality.

Here's what the tally board looks like back at the homestead:


First up, the fabric pomanders that will be mixed in with actual flower pomanders for the "altar" decor. I begged my mom to do a step-by-step post with photos, but I begged too late. Know this: each one takes up to 9 hours to create. We have 18 of them. Wow!


I'm going to try to explain our reception decor as best as I can. We ended up going with two types of fabric for tablecloths after all: Blue and Red (bottom right).

• On each table, there will be a pedestal (different types on each table) that will hold a single flower pomander from the ceremony (our florist is staying to trek them over to the reception for us, because she's awesome like that).
  
• Surrounding each pedestal will be paper-covered cans of varying sizes and shapes that will each hold an arrangement of one type of flower. For example, one can will hold all red tulips, one will hold all blue hydrangeas, one will hold all white ranunculus... you get the idea. To make the cans, my sister and I created sheets of paper using design elements from our invitation suite as well as additional graphics. They're covered in varying designs and are a range of colors and scales. There are 140 total cans. (Well okay, almost 140... they're in the 11th hour of production -- and hint, hint, we would love a photo when they're done!)
  
• Sprinkled amongst the paper-covered cans, we have white rice paper votives with small graphics applied to them. These are much simpler, keeping the white really visible to ground all the pattern a bit.

Here's how it comes together:

You have to imagine flowers in the cans!

The streamer things in the middle are creations that I don't have a name for yet. Our floral designer calls them "wish sticks" and my mom calls them "happy sticks." Basically, they are sticks with ribbons attached on the end. They'll be displayed on the back of each chair to give the ceremony site a punch of color without having to pay for chair ties. Photographed jumbled together, the streamers look a bit 4th of July, but they will be separated at the wedding. The sticks do not have both red and blue combined, never fear - one is all blue and white, and the next is all red and white. (An example of little decisions we've made to help downplay the patriotic look - in addition to lots of light blue.) The sticks will be waved in the air three times: After we're married and are walking back down the aisle, during our large group photo immediately following the ceremony, and later that night while we're exiting. I've been wavering between attaching a little tag to the sticks explaining this or explaining their use in the program - thoughts?

Votives lit up and pretty.

Yes, my mom really did line the front steps with the completed votives - all 165 of them. Hilarious and awesome!

A closer view... although I spotted a heart in there and have already given instructions that it must be eliminated! I'm so cold and heartless, you know.

One project unrelated to the tables: a card holder. I was thinking a random receptacle in my parents' attic would be great to hold cards in a cute way, rather than have them scattered on the table. My mom ran with the idea and found an antique birdcage for cheap on eBay. Lots of scrubbing and a fresh coat of paint later, and look what we have:


Adorable! It has a stand we can use, or we can place it on a table like this. At the reception it'll have a few flowers on it and also have a cute "Cards" sign attached.

That's all for now... whew! I'm exhausted! So (as you can see) is Team Fam!

Our escort cards

I'm bursting with the cuteness of these little guys. You remember our themed tables? Here's the first glimpse at our escort card display... with our tiny adorable campaign buttons attached to each one!


We had the buttons made by the Busy Beaver Button Company - a great value, by the way. And the rest came together using design elements from our invitations. Getting excited!!!

Coming up tomorrow: a DIY spectacular straight from DIY HQ in North Carolina.

Label dork

Guess what I'm doing while waiting for a conference call? Making personalized bug spray and sunscreen labels for our Welcome Bags, of course!

DORK.


Our actual product is on its way, and our little empty bottles are in wait at home. I sense a filling party in our future!

Our table signs

As everyone knows by now, we are total nerds. We might have met in a bar, but if not for politics, it never would have happened. Three years and three hundred Adams-Hanger '09 campaign stickers later, our guests have been invited to a wedding that will cement our "own perfect union," a play on The Constitution of all things. This gibber-gabber serves as context to set up our table signs, which I must say are awesome.

Each table will be named after a political figure. Yes, we've taken pains to match groupings of guests with particular political figures. Yes, it's all under wraps until May 24. But the table signs are making me so happy right now, I just had to post one as a preview. I used components of our invitation suite to build them.

Introducing... THE DUKE!!!!

Pomanders everywhere!

Checking in with DIY Headquarters in North Carolina... take a look at the fabric pomander progress!

I'm going to get my mom to do some step-by-step photos to show how these puppies are made. They are SO CUTE, aren't they?

Thanks, Mom!!

Other people's craftiness

While I was living it up in Austin this weekend, my family in North Carolina was hard at work crafting for the wedding. Unfair, right? We've unofficially decided that for now I should take care of things that only I can do (graphic design/printing of program interiors, escort cards, signage, and more, writing ceremony, figuring out music, etc.) while they work as a team on some the craftiest elements.

Take a look at the product of their first group DIY session: fabric pomanders for the ceremony decor! Adorable, aren't they?

Week in Photos

Although it hasn't been a banner blogging week for me, the week has actually been full of lots of little decisions and events. Take a look:




I haven't been wearing my engagement ring. Instead, I'm sporting a beloved family ring on my left hand while the magic ring elves make me a matching wedding band. Tick tock, tick tock...
















We've selected two finalist menus for the reception, and based on some questions I need to get answered next week during my OBX planning trip, I'll be able to make a decision then. Also OBX planning trip-related: rearranged all the appointments (again).
















Received my very own invitation in the mail to the lovely Kate's wedding in Austin later this month... woo hoo!

















We received our first round of supplies to make the goodies for our Welcome Bags: 1 oz spray bottles for bug spray (OBX skeeters know how to attack, trust me) and 2 oz bottles for sunscreen. Send tips on economical gallon containers of both on over!













Made a decision on bridesmaid gifts, and the creative process has begun! (Enlarge for mysterious hints about what we're talking about... the gals read this blog so I can't spoil the surprise!)











We did the final proof of our invitation suite! I can't believe we're ready to go to print... aaaahhhhh!!!! I love them, and can't wait to show off all the little details in full. Also invitation-related: I started formatting our invitation list for the outer envelope and inner labels. We've eschewed "Mr. and Mrs." to honor our event's mellowness and the fact that about half of all couples attending don't have the same last name. You'll see very very soon.... :-)














Massive J.Press order arrived (pleasing the F-Word's preppiness and town of matriculation), so we now have navy linen ties for everyone, some belt ideas, and are trying out a red and white gingham pocket square in lieu of polka dots.

















Here's the seersucker paired with gingham. Pretty fun, huh? Turns out a red and white polka dot pocket square in cotton or linen is nearly impossible to find, so we're trying out this look while we continue our search. Thoughts?
















Our Fox and Prince parasol arrived! It's absolutely gorgeous. (Me, in workout finery, not so much.)
















Got a loooong overdue pedicure, and after some classic Dallas weather twists this week (40-degree temperature swings, per usual), was greeted with a balmy 80 degrees for champagne night with the girls last night. My toes were so excited to be free again on the patio. (My shoe collection is probably 80% open toe... I'm in trouble if we move north.) I neglected to take a photo of the fun night out, which is probably a sign we were having too much fun to bother, wouldn't you say?











An impulsive post-champagne rendezvous with the F-Word found the two of us at one of our favorite neighborhood haunts, Victor Tango, where I indulged in two of my favorite things: the Pepper Smash and some Ahi Tuna Nachos. YUM.

















Late-night frivolity = being late for work this morning and realizing I forgot to fill up on gas. Oops.

More fabric

I didn't set out thinking I'd find the same pattern in blue and red; my goal was more complementary patterns. But some of these have definite potential. Here's a peek inside my immense fabric folder at some of the matching patterns that have interested me:

Fabric, fabric, everywhere!

Did you all see how well this wedding incorporated patterned textiles? Imagine some blue sprinkled in, and that'll be our wedding... if we get the fabric right. There are so many choices!

A little glimpse into our world right now:






Tips? Lessons learned? I'm all ears.

Bridesmaid dresses... and looking for DIY advice

We have a bridesmaid dress decision!

After playing around with different girls in different styles, it turns out that everyone loved the same dress: the J.Crew Lydia in Atlantic Blue.

Rich cotton fabric + a great blue + a beachy halter neckline + a full, girly skirt + the perfect length + POCKETS! = YAY.

So who's going to be wearing these dresses, you ask? Why, my sister Lisa, my friend Heather, and Trevor's sisters Morgan and Avery. A small, cozy wedding party.

But wait, there's more!

We're considering an embellishment project for the dress, and I'd love some advice. Get a load of the bridesmaids in yellow, an image I found months ago via The Bride's Cafe. How adorable are those white tulle hemlines peeking out of the dress?! So festive, fun, and retro!

Turns out the dresses are made by Alvina Valenta, but they wouldn't work for us for a few different reasons. Our plan: to recreate these hemlines ourselves. Can it be done?

The options:

• Making the tulle hemline (we really need a better word for this) and attaching it directly to the bridesmaid dresses. Since one of my favorite things about these dresses is how re-wearable they are, I wouldn't want to permanently alter them. Could something like velcro tape be the answer, allowing the tulle hemline to be peeled right off? That would leave everyone with exactly what they started with - a great blue dress - but have added something extra for the wedding.
  
  
• Attaching the hemline to a slip of some kind that they would simply wear under the dress. This would be the easiest plan in terms of protecting the dress, but I feel like finding the right slip could be challenging. They'd need to feel right under the dress and move with the dress - so no clingy materials - and hit everyone at the right length to correspond with the dress (there's probably 5 inches height difference between the girls). Am I really talking about some sort of "petticoat?" (Isn't there a more modern term for that, by the way?) Whatever it is, it couldn't be heavy or hot - this is a beach wedding, after all! Which leads me to think the detachable hemline really might be the best way to go. (Although there is Your Slip is Showing... but $180?)
  
  
• Bonus idea: What about small blue dots on the tulle hemlines?! (To complete your visualization: they will wear red shoes, of course!)
  
  
• Any thoughts or brilliant ideas for us?