Non-glue tiered cake/cupcake stand

I like this construction method (drill hole in plate and use allthreads, drawer pull, and hollow candlestick) better than the usual 'glue thrifted plate to vase to plate' method because this would be easier to store, since it comes apart. Then the decorating team can mix and match on the day of to their hearts' desire.

(tutorial at Giver's Log, via not martha)

APW on money and weddings

From "What I Learned About Money While Planning My Wedding":

What I mean to say is this: when you do not have unlimited resources and you are planning a wedding, sometimes every moment feels like a painful negotiation. You can't afford the things that it seems like everyone else has, shopping for a wedding dress can feel like h*ll, and finding a venue can become you're worst nightmare. If you're at all like me, planning a wedding can feel like you are thinking about money all the time, and learning to hate it.
...
Once you make a financial decision that feels right to you - stick to your guns. Wedding planning can be a constant pattern of second guessing - "Well, so and so self-catered, maybe we should do that?" This. Will. Drive. You. Mad. If your choice was right for you, that's it. You're done, and you're fine.
...
Try not to become obsessed with your target budget. Pay what feels right to you, and what you feel like you can afford. If you end up a little under or a little over budget? Its fine. Because guess what? You don't have to report your budget to anyone. So be kind to yourself, and remember that you did your best.

Dan and I have had fair number of contentious discussions regarding the wedding budget. One of the things that makes it difficult for us is that he has his 'respect tradition/family' thing so that certain things must be adhered to (extended family must be invited, there must be sufficient food) but he doesn't care about aesthetics at all and he very much cares about building up savings as much as possible.

Whereas for me, I thought I'd be ok with just eloping or a City Hall wedding + restaurant meal initially, but once it had to be in the format of a large party (though 100 is evidently on the smaller side for weddings, the single biggest event I've ever coordinated was for maybe 50 people? and that was a potluck Thanksgiving dinner at that), I have a certain minimal style and general 'nice-ness' requirements that have to be met. And now I'm looking forward to the fun of the projects and pretty, too.

The conflict makes me upset because we run into it fairly often on any sort of joint ventures. Dan's frugalness has the by-product of making me feel guilty for making him go along with what I want, which I then resent because I don't think my minimum requirements are outrageous by any means. And he just doesn't care about the things that I care about. I do have expensive taste sometimes but I don't always indulge in it entirely, and I'm willing to do some hunting if needed.

We just signed the lease on a new apartment, actually, as our sublet is up soon and I just don't love it where we're currently living. The new place was renovated just a year ago and has gorgeous flooring, kitchen, and windows that face south for the most part, with additional windows in the bedroom that face east and a window in the living room that faces west (the best layout for Northern Hemisphere homes, in my opinion).

The main big drawback of the unit is the lack of storage space, and already we've started arguing a bit over how to deal with the issue. Sigh. So it goes, though.

I leave you with this wreath made from book pages. As a total book nerd it does make me cringe a bit to think about tearing out the pages, but, the texture!

(repurposed book page wreath, via Creature Comforts)

Paper crane garlands and boutonnières

From this Colombia wedding at Style Me Pretty:

This would be so easy!

More time consuming but an easy and cheap way to get light bursts of color in.

Popups and papercuts

Probably too much work, but a popup card would be fun, I think. The rest of this black & white wedding photo shoot was a little too stark for me.

(from Style Me Pretty)

This invitation printed on kraft paper with line drawings feels much more comfortable:

(via Oh So Beautiful Paper)

It would be cool to figure out a way to design this kind of invitation so that it would just require being printed on 8.5" x 11" paper, front and back, and then just cut out and assemble together. Maybe two slits on the main section for the extra folding sections to slip into?

This one would also be too complicated, but I love the look of it and that you'd be able to mail it flat but it'd almost be a 3-D work of art when unpacked. I think Dan would object to this on the grounds that it's a bit presumptuous to send out something that would take up so much space when displayed, which is probably fair.

(via Oh So Beautiful Paper) 

More infeasible complexity: papercuts!

(via Oh So Beautiful Paper)

To simplify this one, perhaps I could get my mom to buy some papercut design in bulk in China? That would likely be on red paper, too.

Or perhaps buying papercut invites off of Etsy, like these:

(Papeles Picados in aymujer's Etsy shop, $175 for 25--probably beyond budget)

It probably would be pretty easy to get papercuts of the 'shuang- xi^' character, but if not, it would be nice to include them somewhere in the design, like so:

(by We Heart Paper, via Oh So Beautiful Paper)

Why is this symbol important? Quick Chinese culture lesson! (from Chinese Wedding Invitations)

The symbol of "Double Happiness" is something that cannot be missed during a Chinese wedding- whether it may be a traditional one or among those which have a more contemporary set-up.

It is usually printed on the invitation with the use of golden hot stamps. The symbol of Double Happiness is a declaration that the bride-to-be and the groom-to-be will be united. The symbol, which is composed of two standard Chinese characters used to signify "happiness", means that the couple and their families will now be "together".

Each of the characters that denote happiness is written as "hsi" or "xi" in Mandarin. In the case of the Double Happiness sign, the two "XI" characters signify the happiness of the newlywed couple that are about to spend their lives together. Pronounced as "shuang-xi", the sign generally stands for marital happiness. Note that the Double Happiness sign is not used in regular Mandarin writing, but is only observed for marital union invitations and declarations.

Stitched paper goods

I really like the idea of incorporating fabric and stitches into the paper goods somehow, since that gets across my crafty interests pretty well and the texture is interesting, too. I'd probably want to do something that I could do on my machine, with a needle dedicated to just paper projects.

These are probably too complicated, but perhaps some other, simple design that could be programmed into the machine?

(from Stitched, via dooce)

These, on the other hand, are just a simple straight stitch across the top. The 'save the date' is rubber stamped with chalk ink from Paper Source.

(by Alan Valek, via Oh So Beautiful Paper)

Previously posted example of invitation with fabric insert here.

Speaking of rubber stamps, seems like this tutorial on making a pennant rubber stamp roller could come in handy.

(via The Storque)

You're The One That I Want

I'm in California for the week for work, and on the Caltrain into San Francisco this morning, 'You're The One That I Want' came up on my iPod and I thought, wouldn't this make a freaking awesome first dance song?

Here is my conversation with Dan over text message:

me: hey if we do a first dance could we do 'you're the one that i want' from grease? it's upbeat and catchy and we won't have awkward minutes of people watching us sway to some slow romantic song
dan: we'll discuss it
me: is that your way of saying 'no this triggers my hassle-causing nontraditional monitor but i am trying to not spoil your fun and shoot down every idea'?
dan: that's one interpretation of my choice of words

Actually Dan was more skeptical of the whole dancing thing at our venue and with our timing/choice of food, but I've seen photos online of people using the lower patio area as a dance floor. I will find a way to make it happen, I want dancing! Perhaps I will appoint Emily and Caitlin to be dance captains in charge of getting people to dance. Maybe that level of responsibility will distract Emily from her nefarious plan to get all my girlfriends to wear dresses of the same color so people think they are all bridesmaids.

Also, as with most ideas, it turns out this isn't nearly as original as I thought it would be. I've also never felt quite right about Sandy's makeover at the end of the film and it all feeds into the 'women must use their sexuality [strike 1] to force men to change [strike 2: men have to be changed] into marriageable material' thing. But, it's still fun and catchy (I couldn't get it out of my head all day today, kept bopping as I walked around SF) and it'd be funny, I think.

The sentiment would be a little bit more solemn for the ceremony, of course, though I think it's probably good to keep some levity in there too. As a life philosophy I try not to take myself too seriously. I really loved this quote posted by A Cupcake Wedding the other day, by David Sarasohn in an article titled, 'A Joint Account That Underwrites Our Marriage':

Being married to someone you respect for being somehow better than you keeps affection alive. That this impressive person chooses you year after year makes you more pleased with yourself, fueling the kind of mutual self-esteem that can get you through decades.

Dan does, in fact, make me want to be a better person, and a good chunk of my love for him is that he loves me. He is a fundamentally good person, and he chooses me. So I must not be too bad, too. The sentiment of 'you're the one that I want' turns out to be quite romantic after all, I think.

A link for my own future reference: various sample ceremonies at A Cupcake Wedding to peruse.

Wishpot

Friends, I have arrived as a wedding blogger: I received my first targeted email today! Kayli at Wishpot emailed me (well, addressed to 'A Jersey Hootenanny Wedding', anyway) to let me know that she loved this blog and would like to invite me to become a 'wedding expert' on their site...which basically sounds to me exactly like creating a registry there so they can sell advertising to target the engaged, but what do I know.

I probably shouldn't be so snarky, as Kayli probably sends out tons of these emails a day and it's probably a pretty boring job, and I was slightly excited to see it. And I've heard of Wishpot before so they're not scammy, I think. Amazon.com seems to have a decent Universal Wish List feature though so maybe we'll use that instead.

And now, for at least a little bit of pretty, here's a relatively simple (though possibly time-consuming) way to dress up the chairs for the ceremony using colored ribbons:

(from Style Me Pretty)

Hmm, I thought I had saved and posted another back-of-the-chair decoration that was just a long strip of fabric tied into a big bow, but I don't seem to have it in the archives. I think I like these straight lines better, though, as they're not overly girly.