How to Make a Veil

Have you seen the price of veils these days?! I don't know about you, but, frankly, I felt insulted when anyone assumed I'd actually pay over $100 (the sale price, no less!) for a few yards of fabric I was only planning to wear for 60 minutes at the most. Thus, the journey of making my own veil began...

The first thing I did was to do my research, i.e., surf the web. I needed to look at photos to decide what kind of veil I wanted and find DIY tutorials for making your own veil -- which of course I found on blogs written by other brides in my same situation. Apparently, I'm not the only one offended by high-priced "bridal" accessories. Here's the tutorial that helped us the most.*

After I decided on the basics -- An ivory two-tier veil with some kind of edge beading, I went shopping with my crafty bridesmaid Emily C. It didn't take long for us to find what we needed at Hobby Lobby. Here's a snap shot of our receipt:

4 yards of shimmery ivory tulle ------------------ $5.50

Silver and gold seed beads and beading needles --------------------- $3.75

Ivory ribbon, thread and hair combs --------------------- $5.40

For a grand total of $14.65 in supplies! Yea, savings!

K, so I think I've set the scene. Here are a few pictures of the work in progress:

First, step is to measure and cut. The great thing about making your own veil is that you can make it as long as you want. We designed my veil to make sure that the first and second tier highlighted rather than hid the details on the back of my dress. Here's my tulle folded in half and laid out on my living room floor.

How did we get those curved edges? Trial and error. We tied a piece of yarn to a marker (genius tip from Emily C.) and drew an arch on a piece of cardboard until we had a good template for our curve. 

After we had our veil cut, it was time to start beading. We decided to finish all of the edges with seed beads in a silver-gold-silver pattern with a space in between each grouping, like this: 

When we finished the beading, we gathered the fabric where the two tiers divide, sewed stitches through the fabric, pulled the string to gather it together, sewed the string to the comb and then wrapped the comb in pretty ivory ribbon.

Here's a picture of the veil, with beaded edging. See how it shimmers? Want to see it on? You'll have to wait until my hair trial in April. I will tell you that I brought it to my last dress fitting and it matches perfectly!

Did you make your own veil or DIY another "bridal" accessory for your big day? Were you happy with the results?

*Note: I may sound very confident about this process after the fact, but Emily can tell you I was fairly nervous to jump right in. In fact, a friend actually gave me a few yards of tulle she'd used as decore in her wedding so I could make a "practice" veil and walk through the tutorial with some room to make mistakes and learn the best way to go about things. This gave me a lot more confidence when it came to making the "real" veil. I highly recommend it.

The line between "vintage" and "antique"

I’m torn! Part of me wants to buy things like this wooden bowling pin and scatter them throughout the wedding reception. But, this kind of leans more towards antique/kitch instead of vintage old Hollywood. So, I've been avoiding my favorite antique or "junk" store in Iowa City: Artifacts. Yet, they continue to tempt me with Facebook posts. Blast!

And I love it! Thus, I've decided that although I can't justify adding more antiques to my wedding budget, I will use items I already have. This week, I've done an inventory of vintage/antique (yes, now I'm using them interchangeably) items we have laying around the house. 

Here's what I've come up with so far:

1) A vintage suitcase to store our photo booth props. This is currently in our bedroom closet and has a collection of teddy bears and other stuffed animals.

2) A vintage looking chest or two for cards at the gift table. (Please excuse the dust.) The one on the left Erik uses to store his random guitar stuff, guitar strap, extra picks, etc. The pretty floral one hold photos back from the day before digital cameras.

3) A vintage looking hat box for the photo tickets (once I cut a slot in the top). I currently have this on my night stand to give my reading lamp more height.

4) And a doily or two made by my family members. I might be able to incorporate on a table.

5) I also have this old valise, although I'm not sure what I'll use it for. Any ideas?

And, of course, I have all the vases and centerpieces I've been collecting (featured in this post). I've got a couple more antique items up my sleeve as well. So, you be the judge. Do these items fit well enough with our Old Hollywood theme? Or should I just throw up my hands, call our theme "vintage," and use them all?

100 days!

According to my weddingwire countdown, our wedding is 100 days away -- today. So, tomorrow we'll be down into the double digits!! Oh, my!

Well, as the day get's closer, I've been working to update our wedding website.To clarify: We  I have both a wedding blog (as you well know if you're reading this) and a wedding website. I'll admit there is some cross-over, but here's how they differ.

This blog, admittedly, is more about the "girly" details of the planning process. It's also info I thought area brides and acquaintances might be interested in. Thus, it has relevant info for non-wedding guests. More for my facebook friends and such.

The wedding website, however, is mainly logistical information for guests. We included it on our Save-the-Dates and will include it in our formal invitations. The site includes the hotel room block details, a map for our ceremony/reception venue and other area attractions, information about our gift registries, and -- as of this week -- a completely unnecessary update on the current weather in our wedding location. Gotta love new apps! ;)

Besides the obvious benefit of having all of the necessary details in one place, the wedding website is also saving us money. We don't have to print all of this information in our invitations (although we will still include the bare bones for our less-tech savvy guests). This means we'll save on both printing and postage costs which can really add up when you're sending 110 or so invites!

Anyway, if you're interested in seeing the difference between our my blog and my website, or actually need any of this information, feel free to check it out at www.weddingwire.com/erikandsara.

Do you like wedding websites, or would you rather have all of the info included in the envelope with your invitation?

(Why is Erik's name first you ask? Because I didn't like typing the two "a"s of SaraandErik together.)

Registering for Memories

Erik and I decided to do something a little unconventional for our honeymoon. We lived in Florida for a couple years, and I went to Puerto Rico once for work, so we were done with the beach scene. Not crazy about the idea of crowds on a cruise ship, and can't afford a European vacation.

So where are we going? Sedona, Arizona.

Specifically, we're flying into Pheonix, AZ the Tuesday after our wedding and driving to the town of Sedona to stay at L'auberge de Sedona -- an 11-acre luxury resort in the heart of red rock country. Want to see pictures? Okay!

Here's the main lodge where our room will be:

A picture of our room:

The resort's restaurant along Oak Creek:

Our trip will be 7 days and 6 nights. While we're there, we'll take advantage of their award-winning restaurant, go on jeep tours of the area, shop in the local art galleries, indulge in some spa treatments, take a hike in the natural beauty and maybe visit a winery or two. 

And the part that excites me the most is that our guests can help us build our trip through our honeymoon registry! From our registry site, guests can actually gift us these honeymoon experiences, just like they'd purchase any other gift for us online. Check out the screen shot below:

It's really very easy. They even have a phone number people can call if they're nervous about entering their credit card information online. While Erik and I both found items to put on our other registries, this is really the one we hope guests focus on. I know from the position of a guest, I'd much prefer gifting something like this instead of my usual standby. (I confess -- we've been relying on cash and/or gift cards for the majority of our married friends.)

Anyone ever purchased a wedding gift through a honeymoon registry? I'd love to know how it worked from the guest's perspective.

Ready, Waiting and Rescheduled

In 15 minutes I was supposed to go to my final dress fitting with Heart to Heart Bridal. I was all prepared, too. Earlier this week I wrote a long list of items to bring with me. I'm all about lists! Want to see?

• Camera
• Gold shoes (both pairs)
• Veils (my two-tier beaded masterpiece and my to-be-finished birdcage)
• Tape measure (to get the length just right for my two-tier veil)
• Pins (to mark appropriate veil length)
• Necklace
• Earrings
• Spanx-like undergarments
• Make-up to retouch and amp up my work look for pics
• Contacts (again reminder to amp up my normal work look)
• Bridesmaids' wraps and ushers' ties (to double check the color match between these and the ties we picked for the groomsmen and dads)

Whew! See, I was all ready. Sadly, I got a call last night that changed my plans. It seems my seamstress is about to be a grandma again (her daughter was having contractions last night) and the shop owner had a family illness that was going to leave her out of the office. So, the shop kindly called me to suggest we reschedule for another time.

While I'm disappointed that I don't get to see my "pretty" today, I'm glad the shop made the call. I definitely want the best possible experience trying on the dress again after the alterations, and I'd be all nervous if the seamstress wasn't available "just in case."

So, for now my appointment is rescheduled for NEXT Friday afternoon. In the meantime, I'll try to blog about some of the items on that long list up there.

Any of your plans get post-poned or delayed recently? Did you go with the flow?

Rice? Birdseed? Not us.

If you've been following along with my posts, you'll remember that our ceremony and our reception are all in the same place. Since our guest are staying put, they won't be positioned outside the church steps for the traditional birdseed toss at the bride and groom. This is one of many wedding rituals we're doing "our way." (Okay, really my way, though Erik does pop in for a decision now and then.)

When you think about it, birdseed isn't really the tradition anyway. Before the myth that rice is harmful to birds (I looked it up. It's baloney.), rice was the seed of choice. Depending on what culture you're looking at, it was a symbol of good wishes, fruitfulness, fertility, warding off evil, etc. Today, the "toss" has turned into more of a celebratory gesture like throwing a graduation cap into the air. I've seen wheat, those champagne-bottle firework poppers, bubbles, pennants (to wave not throw) and bio-degradable confetti.

So back to what WE'RE doing. Without the change of location, our guests will likely perform the toss as we walk back down the aisle as husband and wife. This means whatever they toss will bounce off of us and land on the newly refinished wood floor in the historical landmark that is our venue--and of course will need to be picked up before our dancing begins. So, confetti was out (scratches the floor), petals would have worked, but they'd likely get crushed under foot and be a little difficult to clean up. 

My solution? Yarn pom-poms! Think I'm nuts? I think it's perfect, myself. It allows me to incorporate my love of knitting, will be much nicer than being pelted by hard seeds ( I can just imagine them going down the front and back of my dress.) and will just look really cool. Don't believe me. Here, let me help you picture it. Look at my inspiration for the whole thing:

How sweet is that! Source

I've started making my own with yarn I had in my stash and have solicited some local friends to help me amass the large amount I need. We're going to get started on this in early March. That gives us almost three months before the big day.

I'm thinking everyone needs at least three (a nice little handful). Multiply that by 150 guest . . . .150 x 3 = 450 little fluffy pom-poms. I think we'll stick to purples, blacks and golds. Wish us luck!

Did you (or are you planning to) incorporate your crafty talents into your wedding planning? Did you start early enough to avoid a rush of DIY projects the week of your wedding?

Classy Ring Holders

As much as I love my ring, I have to confess it doesn't stay on my finger 24/7. Given its high setting, I take it off before I step into the shower (so it doesn't get snagged while I wash my hair), when I'm working with anything particularly dirty in the kitchen, or when I go to yoga (jewelry tends to get in the way in some poses). 

Now, down the road I expect I'll get all blasé about the ring and wear it all the time without thinking. But until then, I decided I needed a safe place to keep it when it's not on my finger. I had this in mind when I went to last summer's What Cheer Flea Market. This, by the way, is the flea market to end all flea markets. Filling the entire fair grounds, it takes all day to see everything once. I knew I'd be able to find what I was looking for. In fact, I found two:

Aren't they pretty?! I have one of these depression glass hands by my kitchen sink and one in our bathroom.

And here's a shot of one of the hands with my engagement ring, my garnet ring (also from Erik) and my watch. Sorry for the mediocre photo. I've got some glamour shots scheduled for my e-ring. I'll be sure to show it to it's best advantage soon.

Where do you keep your ring, or does it never leave your finger?

Michael's Score!

So, my number one rule during all this wedding planning has been simple: Only buy something if you have room in the budget and it's part of the plan. BUT Friday, I had a 50% off coupon for Michael's Craft Store burning a hole in my wallet, and I needed some ribbon for a project. 

Half an hour later, I walked out of the store spending 10 times what I expected --  of course I expected to spend $3.00. All in all, I'm pretty proud of my haul. Check it out:

See those gold frames? I picked up a dozen at $1 each. They're going to showcase descriptions of our fabulous hors d'oeuvres and yummy cake flavors (definitely the subject of another post). Picture them typed in vintage typewriter font. 

The black ribbon is what I originally went in the store for. I'm using it on a project for my bridesmaids, so mum's the word on that. I found some other little gifts for them as well, which will have to wait for a description AFTER the wedding. 

Last, I found a Crayola color-in-the-lines poster. You can't tell, but it's a poster with jungle leaves and butterflies. I thought I'd designate one of our tables a "kids table" with this poster, some crayons and a few other games. We don't have many children on the guest list, but it will be fun to include them, and it's an easy project.

So, these are my latest wedding buys. They're really starting to pile up. You should see our second bedroom and the two bookshelves in our basement and the dining table downstairs. Eeek!