Wayward Girls' Crafts

The Sashes

2013-05-18T09:51:00.001-05:00

Jasmine asked me to explain how we made the sashes for her dresses. We found a champagne lace fabric and a matching chiffony like fabric in the special occasion section at Joanne Fabric and Crafts. We bought tons of it and used it all around the reception. (Of course we used a coupon.)

To make the sashes, we cut rectangles about 14 inches wide and the length the waist measurement plus a couple inches. (Obviously not an exact science here.) We folded the sash to make it about 4" wide. We tried to put in a pleat to make it look nicer. We ran a shallow seam along the ends to hold it pleated and hand stitched a few places in the middle. We sewed velcro on the ends for a fastener.

Jasmine determined how long she wanted the bow and the ribbons on the back. We lined the lace fabric with the chiffony fabric and folded it to 4" and sewed on the center band. We cut 4" wide strips of lace and chiffon and used the machine to stitch them together at the very edge.

This gave the lace more body. Then we tucked this through the center band. Truth be told, we just safety pinned it to the sash and called it good!

Bridesmaid Dresses

2013-05-16T17:31:00.005-05:00

I'm sure many of you on Pinterest have seen this pin:

(Source)
Well, meet my bridesmaid dresses.

I found some heavier jersey knit fabric at JoAnn and bought tons of it. I asked each of my bridesmaids for some measurements. Remember when I asked them to be my bridesmaid? Well yes, after that they sent me their measurements. After that it was quite simple. However, making the dresses more fitted than in the tutorial from Sweet Verbena wasn't as simple. First we cut out the front and back of the dress with the shoulder-to-floor measurement.

Then, at their bust (or under the bust, this may also be your bra size measurement) we cut it in a little bit. We sewed a curve into the pattern to make it more fitted and less bulky around the bust since we were using heavier fabric than the tutorial. This we did by starting near the sleeve opening (a 10 in cut made from the top seam down) and worked our way in.

We made sure each dress had the right curve sewn in. This happened through a lot of trying on and adjusting! After that, the neck opening was cut in the middle of the dress with the back and the front lined up cutting down 8-10 inches. This opening was angled a little bit just for preference meaning it was cut in more of a triangle than just a slit. Each opening was hemmed and the dress was done! Now as for the sashes...we'll let my mom blog about those since she did most of the work on those!

**To adjust for a pregnant bridesmaid (cough, cough Jordan) trying on right before the wedding was key. We left extra room in the front half of the dress's length and adjusted after a final fitting.

Centerpieces

2013-05-15T13:14:00.001-05:00

For our centerpieces on the tables at the reception I wanted something not on Pinterest. Not that Pinterest is bad, I just didn't want to have the same reception as everyone else. Then I was stuck. It's kind of hard to think of these things on your own. Jordan had beta fish in cool vases. Jaime had cornocopias of flowers (she got married right around Thanksgiving). Brooke (who also got married right after Christmas) had ornaments. The bar had been set! I thought of something but I Googled it just to see what it would look like. There weren't many options on Google but it looked like it could work. So it was settled. We would have books as centerpieces.

I wanted thick, hardback books that had red covers. In order to save money we went to every thrift store around us. We nearly cleaned out all the red covered hardback books! But we found some pretty good finds. Plus, if you're like me and love the smell of old books it was great. It took us some time to do this but we bought about 4 or 5 books for each table.

Now came for the set up. We placed 2 table runners on the table over a white tablecloth. One was wider and was red. The other went on top of the red and was the gold color. We found square and circle mirrors at the dollar store and also battery powered candles (off-white and darker red.) We placed the candles wrapped with a band of ribbon on the mirrors and gave each table two candle and mirror combos. We then sorted the books in size order so it was easy to put them on the tables in nice stacks. We then plopped a Harry Potter book or Lord of the Rings book in the pile because these are our favorites! Now, our centerpieces were personalized.

To top it all off, we put 4 framed (gold frames from Target, Wal-Mart and the dollar store, not too hard to find them) pictures of us on each table. Three of the pictures were from when we were little and one of the both of us. And voila, beautiful centerpieces!

When deciding centerpieces think of the theme your wedding has or stick with the wedding colors. Pictures are always and easy go to and they're also fun. There are a lot of things you can do with pictures. Pinterest is a pretty good place to look for ideas of things to do with pictures or anything else, really. Think of something that fits both your personalities even if it's subtle. If your venue allows candles, those create a wonderful glow to the room and can be more pleasing than regular lights. Battery powered candles work great too. Flowers are also a simple and elegant option. Flowers are especially welcome at spring and summer weddings. Centerpieces should enhance the overall feel of the reception hall and the wedding itself.

Accessories

2013-05-14T16:59:00.000-05:00

I decided that with the lace on my dress, pearls would be a good compliment for my wedding jewelry. This decision was much easier than expected. I wanted round shaped pearls that were off-white and I wanted dangly earrings. Oh my goodness, folks, this was not easy to find. We looked EVERYWHERE. Department stores, pawn shops, Khol's. I looked through everyone's jewelry boxes. Ok, not everyone's but my sisters sent me pictures of their pearl jewelry and I looked through my mom and grandma's jewelry. Finally, I found a nice necklace and bracelet set from my grandma. She told me she never wore them so I could have them. Double score! Now came the adventure of finding matching earrings. Again, we looked everywhere. I had seen some in a department store early on in the hunt but they were no longer there when we looked again. Dang. Finally, they may have had silver hooks (all my accents were gold) but I found earrings I liked. Seriously, huge relief.

When deciding on what accessories you want, remember this is your wedding and you are the bride! (well, you can be a groom reading this too but I don't think you'll be looking for the same things as I was!) If you're wanting to go with something classic like pearls, don't settle on costume jewelry from the kid's department. Look everywhere. Don't feel like you need to spend a ton on jewelry but make sure what you're buying will look as classic as you want it. If you want to go for diamonds, again, don't settle for costume jewelry. It looks fake. I promise. When I was deciding between gold or silver, I took into account my wedding colors and the metal of my engagement ring. I had champagne color accents in the wedding colors and a yellow gold engagement ring, so for me, the choice was golds. If you want a classic look, don't go towards bold colored jewelry. I would stick with anything white, cream or ivory. My dress was stark white so I wanted an off-white pearl. If you want a touch of color, I would suggest pale colors. Even paler than pastels. You don't want to distract from you and your dress! But ultimately, it's your day. Feel beautiful no matter what!

PS I also got my bridesmaids pearl bracelets from Khol's. That one wasn't as hard of a decision!

DIY S'Mores Wedding Favors...again

2013-05-13T12:28:00.000-05:00

Remember how I said I'd post pictures of the wedding favors and I never did? Well...I'm sorry! Please forgive me. Let's try this post again!

Since we got married in the winter I wanted a wedding favor that somehow related to it. I found some ideas on Pinterest and the one I loved the most was S'mores in a box. It was quite simple. We ordered boxes that opened like a match box only bigger. *Finding deals online was a HUGE saver for the wedding in almost all the decorating part! We bought a bag of mini marshmallows, graham crackers, some full sized Hershey bars, toothpicks, thread and matches (I will tell you how we waterproofed matches in another post.)

My mom and I popped in a movie and got to work. We found that the name brand Honey Maid was far better at breaking into the quarters where the perforation was compared to generic. Plus they taste better. We cut them with a knife, carefully, and one by one. There was still a lot of breakage. Good thing those are tasty!
Then we cut the Hershey's bar up. Each box was to receive two graham cracker sections and two chocolate sections. The chocolate bar cut easily if we also did it carefully, not going to fast or applying too much pressure. There was some breakage. Good thing those are tastier!

Then we stuck 3 marshmallows on a toothpick. There was no breakage there. It was quite easy.
Next we tied 2-3 matches together with thick thread (twine would've worked too) and stuck them in the box.
The box lid just slid right over the other box.

We printed off witty labels that said our names, the wedding date and things like S'more happiness or S'more fun. The labels came with a link to the company's website where you could put the design you wanted and print them right.

And ta da! S'mores in a box!