Hive, I have been done with teaching for just over a month, and I kid you not—I don’t think I’ve stopped doing something for the wedding since that time. I mean, yes—I’ve had some plans to get together with friends & family here and there, or had appointments—but seriously, I HAVE NOT STOPPED crafting, ordering things online, going to Michaels (I might as well own the company by now), following up with vendors, and making lists. I get up at about 6:30 or 7:00 every morning, even though I could sleep in, and start working, because my brain is buzzing with a million things. (I finally took some NyQuil last night to help me sleep, and I got nine hours! It was glorious!!) There has not been a single day where I just sat on the couch and watched a movie or read a book. Not a single one. I know that brides get really busy leading up to the wedding—but I had no idea that this is what it would be like. I don’t even have a JOB!! How does anyone do it when you’re working full-time?? I know it was my choice to take on a lot of these projects (they of course aren’t essential), and I know many brides choose to, but I really don’t know how anyone does it when they have anything else they need to be doing in the month leading up to their wedding. I cannot believe there’s this much to do.
Image via OneToughMotherRunner.com
Anyway—you may remember from way back when, that at this particular venue at Disney, they do not allow you to bring in any of your own decor. Therefore, anytime anyone asked me if I was DIYing a lot for the wedding, I would say “no,” and explain that Disney kind of forces you to go through them for everything. However, in the end, I am DIYing a TON—it’s just stuff that’s not TECHNICALLY considered “decor.” So while I hope to go into detail for some of these projects in the future, here’s what I’ve been working on like a loon in the last few weeks:
1. The Favors/Escort Cards. Favors kind of make me crazy. So often, they are silly trinkets that get left behind, or perhaps food items that might be great, but really—if it’s the thought/gesture that counts, why bother spending a couple bucks per guest when you’re going to write them a thank you note later? It just seems a little superfluous to me. That being said…I am making small trinkets that may get left behind.
This is the very first final product, which was finished last night! Many more to go though…
Every time Mr. Llama and I visit Disney, we get an ornament to commemorate the visit. In light of that tradition, I came up with the idea to give ornaments as our favors. At first, I looked into purchasing them, but they just came to far too much money. So I decided—the Mickey shape is simple enough, I’ll do it myself! I’ve enjoyed working on them, but they are very labor intensive. I’ll go into more detail on a future post, but basically, the ornaments are made from clay & cookie cutters, then hand painted. I made them all different in the colors/theming of the wedding. Then they are attached to the escort cards (purchased at Michaels), and a label with their seat assignment is attached.
2. Table “Numbers.” Mr. Llama and I tossed around a few ideas of what we wanted our tables to be called. Many past Disney brides have done character names, or their favorite Disney movies, but we wanted to be a little more creative than that. We decided on our favorite snack foods available at Disney!
The frames in the first photo were purchased from Target. They are lovely, but I didn’t want to have to buy 17 of them—too much money at about $10 each (on sale), and they were also a bit large for those smaller four-top tables on the second level. So I bought the Target ones for the six tables on the floor level, and painted the rest on wooden frames I bought at Michaels for $0.60 each (yeah 40% coupons!). Then I also had to write/create what was going inside each of the frames.
3. Programs. Mr. Llama is the one who has the Photoshop skills, so he was kind of in charge of the front end of this project. I did some hunting for the best price, and had them printed at Quartet Copies in Evanston (for any Chicago-based readers out there, they were awesome!), and then last night, some of my bridesmaids and House Party girls came over to assemble them. What life-savers!! I COULD have done it myself, but it would have taken me forever!
Obviously, I have no Photoshop skills…
They have a back with the wedding party listed too, but I’d have to black out so many names, it seems a little silly to show you…
4. Shoes. A year ago, I bought the perfect white Nine West peep-toe pumps from DSW for $40. They are SO comfortable, the perfect heel height, and such soft leather! The plan was always to do SOMETHING to them, but I wasn’t totally sure what. As the wedding approached and I had so many things on my to-do list that ranked a little bit higher in importance, I had begun to think I might just end up wearing white pumps. Like many ladies out there, I’m a shoe-holic though, and it made my heart stop to think that there’d be nothing special about my shoes on the wedding day. They’re not finished, so I won’t display them yet, but I can’t wait to show them to you! They are probably the most princess-y thing about our wedding Lots and lots of “pixie dust…”
5. Card box. I’m not getting super creative here—just doing a mailbox, but I wanted to paint it to give it a little more personality. My first round was a failure, since I bought a finished mailbox, so the paint peeled right off. It continues to be a work in progress!
6. Gifts. I was going to make bags for my bridesmaids and House Party, but that was one of the things that got cut. So instead, I purchased them from Etsy, and put the things I bought inside. Some of the items they received have some craftiness in there, but I won’t go into the details now! I actually shipped four sizable boxes down to Florida yesterday, and the gifts were inside there, so they’re done!
7. Guestbook. We had decided a while ago to do a “Polaroid” guestbook (Polaroid is in quotes since it’s not technically a Polaroid camera), so we bought the FujiFilm Instax camera & film from Amazon and had to give it a test drive to make sure it worked the way we had imagined. It does, but in order for the guestbook station to run smoothly, we needed instructions for guests. Each roll of film only has 10 photos, so guests will have to be replacing film. I put together some instructions on how to use the camera, replace the batteries, and reload the film, so that no one is confused!
This was another thing I went ahead and shipped off to Florida—so it was important that the directions were done, since there would be no more time to experiment with the camera itself!
I THINK I’ve covered most of what I’ve been working on (it doesn’t even sound like that much!), though there are plenty of other things that need to get done that aren’t really considered “projects” as much as “tasks.” As I said before—I just can’t believe how much TIME these projects take! Holy cow. I know my blogs have been pretty sparse, but frankly, actually FINISHING these projects took precedence over writing about it! To be reported on at a later date…
Side note: Thank God for Netflix. You don’t have any idea how many Ally McBeal episodes have been playing in the background in the last month of my life!
I’ll try to come back and post some details about these…we leave a week from tomorrow! Yikes!
Tags:
decor
diy
favors
orlando
stationery
BLOGGER
Miss Llama
Location:
Walt Disney World
Occupation:
Special Education Teacher
Wedding Date:
July 2014
Venue:
Walt Disney World
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