Makes * Bridal Kit

My best friend got married in June and had the prettiest wedding I've ever seen. I felt like I was standing in a Style Me Pretty post. I'm one of those "be prepared for everything" kind of person so I made her a little day-of kit. I found a floral make up bag at Forever 21 and crammed in as much as I could. It ended up holding a lot! Here's what I included:

Tissues
Cotton swabs
Deoderant
Hand wipes
Make remover wipes
Mints
Pantyliners
Tampons
Nail file
Fashion tape
Stain remover pen
Chapstick
Dental floss
Oil blotting sheets
Super glue
First-aid kit
Sewing kit
Hair pins

Making the first-aid kit saved a lot of space in the bag and allowed me to decide what to include. Allergy medicine is a must for outdoor farm weddings. And of course Band-Aids for strappy shoe abused feet.

I also made the sewing kit. I had originally purchased one but realized that I could make one that didn't include tons of unnecessary stuff. Plus, I learned the hard way that the thread in those little pre-made sewing kits are awful. I cut a little card, made notches along the side and then wound good quality thread around the card. The needles slipped into the little slits in the card and the buttons (Don't we all have a million of these rolling around our house?) are held in place with a little double sided tape. Don't forget a handful of safety pins in a variety of sizes! These are all things I had on hand in my sewing supplies. Easy! And it all fit nicely into this tiny envelope.

Other suggestions that didn't make it into this kit were scissors, nail clippers, eye drops, hairspray and a small mirror. Take a stroll through the travel aisle at the drugstore or visit the make up section at Forever 21 for ideas. Is there anything else that you'd include in a day-of kit?

fabric flower garlands

made using a tutorial by dolci odille via once wed

here comes the bride

i saw this "here comes the bride" banner on martha stewart's website and knew i had to include it in our wedding. and i had the perfect banner bearers in mind for the job!

supplies:

linen fabric

iron on transfer paper

disappearing ink marker

wooden dowel

sewing machine (optional. this can all be done by hand too!)

iron

printer

it was a challenge finding iron on transfers with good ratings. i grabbed these at A.C. Moore with a 40% coupon. i used my home inkjet printer and the print quality was excellent.

definitely do a test run to get a feel for how much heat, pressure and time you need to get a good transfer.

not too shabby! they say to cut as close to the edge as possible but i liked leaving a small border. it helped when ironing on those darn serifs later on.

the instructions said not to use an ironing board but a hard surface like a table or countertop. a pillowcase will protect your table.

i drew lines using a disappearing ink marker to help me to keep everything nice and straight.

looking good so far!

i ran into some trouble with the serifs. if i ever use this font again on an iron on transfer, i'll focus extra hard on the serifs and use the point of my iron to apply some really intense pressure. peel slowly! don't get impatient like i did.

photos stop here since the sun set and i ran out of good photo light :)

from there, just sew a few straight seams to finish the edges. fold over and sew the top of the banner to create an opening for the wooden dowel. slip in the dowel and hand it off to a couple of cute kids! 

photo by our friend marco at magic touch photography

the banner in action! the banner bearers are my cousin's ridiculously adorable and awesome kids. they were total pros! it was such a fun way to include kids our wedding.

making our wedding cake topper

photo by mr. p

photo by our photographers, gina & tony

i was worried that making our own wedding cake toppers was going to be a stressful endeavor. i'm not really known for my drawing/painting skills! i even bought an extra set of dolls just in case. lucky for me, it was so much fun to make these and i'm very pleased with how they turned out.

note: my unfinished wooden dolls were purchased from goose grease. love their customer service :) they sell finished dolls and custom orders too if you're not up to painting your own!

in case anyone was curious, 47 is RT's lucky number and my life goal is to find platform nine and three quarters. or at least the leaky cauldron so that i can get into diagon alley.

i'm back! and i'm back a mrs. ^_^ it's been a crazy few weeks getting married then honeymooning in hawaii. hawaii is so lovely... i dream about it while i stare at my work computer screen. it's been a bit of a struggle getting back into our normal routine. mornings are not pretty! but it's wonderful to be back and we're enjoying our new lives together as a mr. and mrs. not that it all that different... we've been together for over 7 years!

photo by mr. p - the same mr. p who did our mini e-session!

i'm really excited to share with you some of the things i made for our wedding. i love crafting but knowing that it was for our wedding made it even more enjoyable. at no point did anything feel like a burden (except for those darn programs that no one took!) and i put a lot of love and work into all the little details. hope you enjoy them too! check back soon!

printable invitations by the wedding chicks

came across these super sweet printable invitation suites by the wedding chicks. best part (other than their awesome design) they're totally free and customizable! yay!

diy flower round up

weddings are expensive. all those wedding blogs where people have beautiful, fashionable weddings for $5,000 boggle my mind. i just don't see how it's done unless you're lucky enough to have a professional cake baker aunt, your best friend is a florist, and your parents own a lovely ranch, and you only have 50 guests. argh! since i want our wedding to have a soft, handmade feel to it and we want to at least to try stay within our budget, we've decided on foregoing the traditional floral centerpiece. instead, our centerpieces will feature handmade flowers. i've rounded up a few of my favorite ideas and they definitely don't need to be limited to just weddings :)

fabric flowers via 100 layer cake + photos by jen rau

diy fabric flower boutonnieres by laurie cinotto via once wed

diy tissue paper garden centerpiece by anna bond via once wed

fabric + ribbon centerpiece by shauna younge via nonpareil + photos by emily steffen

crepe-paper flowers via martha stewart weddings

paper flower bouquet via project wedding