Tag Archives: wedding

1,000 Days Of Marriage

I always say it’s the little things that make the biggest difference in marriage.

Yesterday my husband & I celebrated 1,000 days of marriage.

I got the idea to celebrate a while ago, when we celebrated 100 days of marriage. I set a reminder on my phone & just kept it in mind to do a little something special for my hubby on 9/15.

Hurricane Irma hit Florida on 9/10. Thankfully, our home was spared from serious damage & our extended family is safe as well. Hundreds of trees were blown down. Several areas flooded. Many neighborhoods & traffic signals are still without power a week later. My parents stayed with us for 5 nights before their power was restored. It was scary during the storm & stressful after it.

The situation helped me see exactly what my husband is made of. I got to see how much love he has for Jesus as he suggested we pray together over our house before the storm hit. I got to see him selflessly help friends, fellow church goers, & family members put up shutters. He was my rock & comforted me as I got more nervous about the forecast. He was a saint & gave our bed to my parents while they were here. He is the best father, provider, & friend I could have ever hoped to marry.

So to celebrate our milestone, I used some of the cardstock from our wedding signs (yes, I still have tons) to make him this card (pictured with mason jars & cake topper from the wedding, too).

I put a $10 (1,000₵) giftcard inside for us to use together. It was just a small token to show him how much I appreciate our marriage.

I look forward to thousands more days with this amazing man!

Wedding Shadow Box

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A few weekends ago I finally got around to making the last of my post-wedding crafts.

Shortly after our wedding last December, I bought a shadow box for wedding memories. I knew I wanted to display our guest book records along with it – more on that later.

So, I got to work on my shadow box on this free Saturday I had. It was a wonderful Saturday, one that had absolutely no plans or schedules. My husband & I got to stay home all day. We did some stuff around the house. I did some crafty things. We watched college football. We grilled up some steaks for dinner. I baked brownies for dessert. It was very relaxing & much needed.

I had been saving extras of all of my wedding stationery, ornament favors, & cake decorations for this shadow box. I also saved my bouquet – no fancy preservation or anything. My mom grabbed it for me the day of the wedding & it has been sitting in a mason jar on my vanity for months, drying nicely.

Obviously it isn’t as bright & vibrant as when the flowers were alive, but it still looked pretty good.

I didn’t want to use the entire bouquet, just one or two of each flower. So I disassembled the bouquet & made my own little mini arrangement before using the original ribbon to wrap it up.

Stanley kitty was hanging out with me while I assembled everything.

I love how it turned out!

Wedding Wednesday – Gifts For The Bridal Party

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Hello, it’s Wednesday!

The wedding Wednesday series is almost at a close!

I think it worked out great to end this series with the ‘gifts’. After all, the gift giving was done right before the wedding.

Today I want to share some of the gifts we gave to our bridal party. It meant a lot to us that we had a core group of friends/siblings by our side on that day.

It also meant a lot to me that my good friend, Beth, helped me out with the gift for the bridesmaids. She runs an Etsy shop, Bobbin & Co., where she sells adorable hand-made bags.

Bags like this wristlet! We custom designed it to match the wedding theme.

This is the inside of the wristlet – I love the surprise music notes!

These came out so cool I bought one for myself! I gave them to the girls the night of the rehearsal dinner, along with the jewelry.

For the guys I also turned to Etsy for part of their gift. AnnieHowes Etsy shop has make your own cuff link kits. I bought one & made musical cuff links for all the guys!

I also got them personalized bottler openers with their initials from Oriental Trading, but there are no pictures of that. Sorry folks! It’s funny how during wedding season last year I thought I was taking too many pictures of all the details. I did not know about the wonderful world of blogging back then.

Next week will be the last installment of Wedding Wednesday. There’s only so much I can say about the details of the wedding. On marriage, though, I could talk forever. Hmm…new series idea?

See y’all next week!

Wedding Wednesday – Gifts for Flower Girls & Ring Bearer

Wedding Wednesday – Gifts for the Parents of the Bride & Groom

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This week has been CRAZY at work!

Sorry this post is a bit late, but the bright side of it being Wednesday night instead of Wednesday is that it’s that much closer to Friday.

Today I wanted to share with you the gifts that we gave to our parents the night before the wedding.

For our moms I custom ordered these bracelets from ScrapheartGifts on Etsy.

Each has a pendant that says mother of the bride/groom & two messages: one from me & one from my husband.

Both of our moms wore them on the day of the wedding.

The gifts we gave our dads we actually bought several months before the wedding on our trip to Italy.

We were in Burano, Venice & bought 2 lace handkerchiefs at a lovely little store. We had such a great time talking to the shop owner. My husband & I were really proud of ourselves for carrying on a 20-minute conversation in Italian with someone who didn’t speak any English!

We knew my husband’s dad would be touched to receive a gift from his homeland.

My cousin embroidered the handkerchiefs with a little message from me – the same cousin who made the flower girl dresses. She’s so crafty!

We gave the gifts to our parents at the rehearsal dinner.

We wanted to take the time to appreciate everything our parents had done for us. Not just helping us prepare for the wedding, but preparing us for life.

More gifts in store next week!

Wedding Wednesday – Wedding Dress!

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Hello! It’s Wednesday. I am close to finishing the list of things I wanted to share with you guys on Wednesdays. It’s not a bad thing! I have very much enjoyed these Wednesday posts & having somewhat of a schedule. This ‘series’ will end some day, but today is not that day!

Today I am sharing details about my wedding dress!

I lump veil & jacket in here, too. It was all a part of my ‘look’ 🙂

I went wedding dress shopping with my mom, mother in law, & sister in law pretty shortly after we got engaged. We went to Patricia South Bridal; I had gotten my prom dress there back in high school & knew that’s where I wanted my wedding dress from this whole time. We had a good time shopping! I only tried on like 5 dresses before the bridal consultant brought out a dress I fell in love with. She told me to try it on, even though the sample was a pink/blush color. She assured that the dress also came in ivory. That was it. I think I knew before I even stepped out of the dressing room!

I wasn’t sure what kind of dress I wanted at all before going shopping. My only requirement was lace. I also knew I wanted sleeves, but knew that I could always add a jacket to any dress I liked.

It’s funny because I don’t think I would have ever in my head picked out this trumpet-style dress without trying it on. The fact that this style is called ‘trumpet’ was also a sign this was the one for me – my husband is a trumpet player!

Here you can see the difference between blush & ivory.

I got to try on the whole look I had in my head: fingertip length veil & lace 3/4 sleeve jacket.

It was perfect!

The dress was within my budget, however the jacket & the veil would have put me way over! Sorry, Patricia, but I got those 2 items much cheaper online!

I couldn’t resist posting this picture when my veil came in! It’s a very simple veil, since the dress has so much going on with the beautiful lace!

My wedding dress took a couple of months to come in, & when it did I immediately went to check it out!

It’s soooooo much prettier in ivory!

How did I keep my husband from seeing all this stuff? My mom had the dress at her house, but I had all these pictures on my phone. Not that my husband would have looked on purpose, but we all know what can happen when you are scrolling trying to look for something. This is why I had a whole separate album on my phone. This way I could show others without worrying about accidentally showing my husband. I even made a special album cover for it.

He’s great, I knew he wouldn’t peak!

Closer to the wedding, once I had my shoes & everything, I had my first official fitting. Luckily, the dress didn’t need much work! I listened to the consultant when I was first shopping & bought the recommended size. It’s just a number, ladies! The way it fits, feels, & looks is way more important!

I love this dress! I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I have not sent it to be cleaned & preserved yet. I will! I love the idea of someday using it in some way for my children, so I will store it until that day comes.

This dress made me feel like a million bucks on my wedding day!

See you next time!

Wedding Wednesday – Guest Bags

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Time is going by so quickly. I think it only gets worse as I get older. It’s already Wednesday!

Today I wanted to share the guest bags I made for the wedding.

I was inspired by some awesome gift bags I saw on Pinterest & knew I wanted mine to be at least a little bit special.

But I also wanted them to be relatively inexpensive.

I saw these paper gift bags at the Dollar Tree 2 for $1. I figured I could draw on them or use stamps or something. Then, when I ran the idea past my friend Beth she suggested embossing. She embossed all her own wedding invitations & became something of an expert at it. This type of embossing is really easy & looks really pretty. Beth has an embossing tool, which is basically like a hair dryer. The way it works is simple: you take a regular rubber stamp & ink, stamp your design, pour the powder on it, shake off the excess powder, & use the embossing tool to melt the powder. It’s really neat! We had a little assembly line going & knocked out 20 bags in no time.

OK so the bags are pretty, but what did we put in them? Well, I didn’t know I was going to have this blog at the time so I didn’t photograph the contents. Sorry guys, I dropped the ball there. But it was pretty standard stuff: water bottle, mini hand sanitizer, advil, lint roller, candy canes, ghirardelli peppermint bark, other candies & a little bottle of tequila (of course!). Every individual thing was $1 or less. I think the bags cost me about $4.50 each. I love the Dollar Tree.

I also love the screen caps I’ve been able to grab from our wedding video!

This is as close as I have to a professional picture – from a professional moving picture! The guys happened to have a couple of bags in their room when they were getting ready.

I think our out of town guests appreciated the little token, & packing them was just one more little thing my husband (then fiance) & I got to do together to get ready for our big day.

See y’all next week! It’ll be here before you know it.

Wedding Wednesday – Christmas Wreath Mason Jar Centerpieces

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It’s Wednesday! Half way through the work week; half point to the weekend!

Today I want to share our centerpieces.

From the very beginning I knew I wanted to use Christmas wreaths in the centerpieces.

I had grand ideas of doing it all myself.

…

I was a little over zealous with the projects.

I am so glad that my BFOTB, Frank, talked me out of trying to completely DIY the centerpieces. But I’m glad I still got to make some of it!

After meeting with my florist & planning out the centerpieces (I’d do the jars, she’d do the wreaths & the set up), I bought some 64oz mason jars & came up with the plan.

I used the same sheet music paper from other wedding crafts & some lacy red ribbon for the jars. Beth came over one day & helped me assemble them, plus a few extra for reception decorations!

I wanted the mason jars to also be the table numbers, so I used some stickers!

I personally prefer smaller/shorter centerpieces to the taller ones. I loved how these centerpieces were functional, beautiful, & simple.

I’m really happy with the way these turned out. They were relatively inexpensive & didn’t cause me too much grief! I can honestly say that I didn’t even notice them the day of the wedding, but I know my guests liked them! At the end of the reception, guests took them home. One of my aunts had a Christmas party & used a few of the wreaths as decorations!

Enjoy the rest of the week!