A few of our professional pictures. Please credit “sumthingblue” and Schwabe Studios for these shots. Also, the poor quality of the shots is due to the scanner that I used and not the work of Schwabe.

Here are some of the first non-professional wedding pics. Hope you enjoy!

Here are a few of our engagement pictures. We had them taken by a student photographer by Lake Michigan in Chicago.

Our colors include light blue with accents of chocolate brown and ivory. We*d like the feel to be soft and romantic, with a slightly modern feel.

We are getting married at Trinity United Church of Christ in Miamisburg, Ohio. The church has amazing stained glass windows.

Church Door Banners

Banners for the church doors. Thanks to hLo for her example banner. For directions, see the DIY section below.

Here is the finished project. My MOH did a great job sewing them.

Wish Bowl and Cards

For our guestbook, we’re doing the MS wishbowl. Our guestbook is by Marcel Schurmann from Borders .
We purchased our cards from Paper Source in the neutral cement color shown above. For instructions on how to make these cards, see the DIY section at the end of my bio.

Unity and Memorial Candles

These are our unity and memorial candles. The holders are from Crate and Barrel. I made the center and taper candles by purchasing plain candles from Michaels, and hot gluing on (careful, as it can melt the wax) two types of ribbon.

Program Tray

I painted two of these trays that I bought from Michael*s for about $4 with our married monogram. They*ll hold programs and the lavender at the ceremony. Hopefully FI will use them to make us breakfast in bed when we*re married :)

Pew Decorations

These are paper flowers that I made with a kit from Paper Source. The picture on the left is how the flowers look before I bunched them into the little bouquets for the pews.

Here are the finalized pew decorations. I grouped each flower with florist tape, wrapped a wire around the back to attach them to the pews and added the long ivory ribbon for extra decoration.

Limo

We’re renting this 1940 Buick limo to take us to the reception after the ceremony.

We are having our reception at the Dayton Woman*s Club. It is a Victorian mansion located in the middle of downtown Dayton, OH. The picture on the left was taken in February. You can see what it looks like in the spring with the picture on the right.

This is one of the front parlors.

Centerpieces

These are our trials from the florist. The vase on the right shows the size and design of the centerpiece. Those champagne roses (which look more like peach), will be white instead. You can get a feel for the overall color from the arrangement on the left (which is actually one of the bridesmaid*s bouquets)

A closeup of the arrangements.

I*m having my dress made by Nina. The design will be based on this Amsale, but it will be strapless and the lace tails won’t be nearly as wide.

Here are preliminary pictures of my gown. The sash hasn*t been attached, the buttons still need to be added, and the seems need to be pressed, but it gives you a general idea of what it will look like completely finished.

Here are final pictures of my dress. The picture on the left shows the dress without the sash, while the picture on the right show how it looks with the sash attached.

Closeups with and without the sash. How fabulous is this lace? Nina was wonderful about getting a great deal on the French lace at the last minute. (thank you Nina!)

Here are updated pictures of me in the dress.

And a closeup of the top of the dress and my hair barrette.

Shoes and Jewelry

My shoes by Fenaroli Regalia . I plan to dye them with tea to match my ivory gown. I purchased an art deco style bracelet from the Saks Outlet . The earrings I purchased from Ross Simons .

Purse

My Saks Fifth Avenue vintage purse that I bought off ebay for $22. It*s my favorite wedding bargain.

Garter and Bouquet Cuff

Here are pictures of the garter that my mom and I made. For the day of the wedding, I*ll attach something of my grandmother*s (my something old). The picture on the bottom is the bouquet cuff that I made (patting myself on my back, as I am in no way a seamstress). I will wrap it around my bouquet and attach it with my great-grandmother*s brooch.

Something Blue

I had a knottie make this for me. I*ll sew it to the inside of my dress for my something blue. If I don*t keep my dress after the wedding, I*ll have this little piece as a keepsake.

Hair Pin

The picture on the left is what I’m leaning toward now for my hair. I like that it*s sleek and simple. I bought the hair clip on the right on a whim from Princess Bride Tiaras . I liked that it was antique looking and sort of had the feel of lace. It was more sparkly than what I originally wanted, but when else can you wear such sparkles, if not for your wedding?

Hairstyles

Some hairstyles I love for the wedding. The pictures on the upper right and lower left are carrieongrove. The picture on the lower right is randT2004.

Veil

The veil I purchased from www.veilshop.com . Pictures with the veil back, with the blusher, and from the back. (I find these pictures funny for some reason). Anyway, it’s an ivory, two tier, elbow length, cut edge, plain veil. (You have no idea how long it took me to figure out all of this veil *%$!)

This is the dress that we’ve decided to go with, made by Vera Wang in Sky faille, which is a beautiful light blue. This is me on the right in the sample. Forgive the unflattering picture.

Bridal Bouquet

My bouquet will be made of white peonies with some leaves thrown in. I’ll also have the white and sort of pink ranunculuses (ranunculi? ranunculus? whatever...) in my bouquet.

Bridesmaids Bouquet

This is an example of the bridesmaids* bouquets from our trial with the florist. I love how springy they look and the texture. In the final bouquets, there will be less of the eucalyptus leaves hanging down.

A closeup of the bouquet.

Boutonnieres

The guys will all have white roses or tulips with eucalyptus seeds and a little delphinium. My FI will have stephanotis, which is what his dad wore when his parents were married.

Embosser

We purchased an embosser from Martha Stewart to use for all of our paper products. We ordered a plate with our monogram and a plate with our return address with a flower motif.

Cocktail Napkins

These are our hand embossed napkins for the cocktail hour.

Woman’s Club History

Because we are having our reception in a building listed on the Register of National Historic places, we wanted to provide a short history of the building. The history was printed on ivory paper and mounted to chocolate cardstock.

Table Numbers

Our table numbers were similar to the style of the Club history sheets above, but we included some of our favorite (funny, not mushy) love quotes.

Origami Menu Holders

For all of our items that we*ll present on each table (the building history, table numbers, and menus), we made these holders (thanks, Martha) out of chocolate cardstock, and embossed each with our monogram. They were easy to make, and are *much* cheaper than buying picture frames. Directions are listed below in the DIY section.

Save the Dates

Our save the dates. These were made from postcards from Paper Source and were printed at home.

Invitations

On the left is our petal envelopment in sky from Paper Source. On the right is the paper we will use as embellishment for the invitation panel. It is also from Paper Source.

An electronic version of the inside panel of our invite. The panel will be mounted on chocolate cardstock and adorned with the chocolate and decorative paper. This will all be mounted to the sky petal envelopments.

Here*s a picture of an actual invitation. I*ve got detailed DIY instructions at the bottom of my bio.

A closeup of the envelopment, invitation backing, invitation panel, and embellishment.

An electronic version of the response cards.

And the real RSVP card with envelope. Sorry these pics are so dark and fuzzy.

Here are our map cards. They are the same size as the RSVPs. We had the map made by Moments of Color and then printed them ourselves.

A mock-up of what the outside of the envelopment will look like. The envelopments will be sealed with the chocolate belly band, which will be adorned with the first names of our guests.

An electronic mock-up of how we plan to address the outer envelopes.

Thank You Notes

Here is a finished thank you card, embossed in the center with our monogram. Materials from Paper Source.

Here*s the new cake design. Four tier light blue with the ivory swags. The flowers will be ivory peonies on top, with a few petals on the corner of every tier. Our flavors are white with raspberry filling, chocolate with fudge filling, spice cake with cream cheese filling, and our layer with be chocolate with cappuccino mousse. Yumm!

Cake Table Decorations

Here is our DIY cake stand. My FFIL made it by making a small plywood box and then attaching crown molding to the sides of the box. My FI was in charge of doing the puttying and sanding, and I silver leafed it. Not bad for my first try at silver leafing.

For our favors, we*re making a donation to the National Park Foundation. To inform our guests of this donation, we*ll put this frame, filled with pictures from our vacations to our nation*s parks near the entrance of our reception hall. A short letter explaining the donation is included in the upper center panel.

This is a (bad) picture of the wording we*re using for our donation favor frame

Our rings. I couldn*t end up getting the one I originally wanted from Mondera because they stopped selling it (the stones were popping out – ummmm, not good). So, I opted for this one from Blue Nile instead. I love it. FI’s ring is from Blue Nile as well. Engagement ring is from a family jeweler in Chicago.

We*ll be staying at the Hyatt on Kauai.

Some extra shots of the island.

Directions for The Invitations

All materials were purchased from Paper Source

To begin, I printed the invitation panel on an 8 1/2 x 11 text weight sheet of Superfine Soft White paper. I was able to fit 2 invitation panels on each page. I then trimmed the panels to be 4 3/4 inches square using a paper cutter. After cutting the invitation panels, I used a round corner punch to round off the four corners of the invitation panel.

To embellish the invitation panel, I attached chocolate strips of paper across each invitation. Each strip was 1/2 inches wide and 6 inches long, and was cut using a standard paper cutter. I attached each strip by wrapping the ends around the back of the invitation panel and securing them with double sided tape. To finish the embellishment, I added a strip of the light blue fancy paper over the chocolate strip. The fancy paper was cut to 3/8 inches wide and 6 inches long. Because this paper was so delicate, I used a paper rotary cutter to make these cuts. The delicate paper was secured with mini permanent glue dots on the back of the invitation. These glue dots are available at any craft or scrapbooking store. Because this paper stretched a bit, I pulled it really tight when wrapping around the back of the invitation.

The light blue fancy paper strips, double sided tape, and glue dots are shown below.

After creating the invitation panel, I had three invitation components. (1) the invitation panel, (2) the chocolate invitation backing, and (3) the envelopment.

The chocolate invitation backings were 5 inch by 5 inch flat cards that were purchased from Paper Source. Using the round corner punch, I rounded all four corners of these cards. (see picture below)

I then attached the invitation panel to the chocolate invitation backings using double sided tape. I put tape around all four sides of the panel, including a strip down the center. This seemed to hold it on there pretty well. When the invitation panel is attached and centered, a 1/8 inch chocolate border should be seen around the invitation panel.

I then attached this whole piece to the sky blue petal envelopment. I used the same double sided tape and also taped around all four edges with a small piece of tape in the center. Here is a picture of the final product.

I haven*t put together the RSVP cards, printed the envelopes, or done the inner envelope names yet. I*ll post more instructions and pictures when they are finished. Please feel free to page me with any questions or to suggest any additional tips that I*ve left out.

Directions for Church Banner

To make each of the letters, buy foam sheets that are about 1 inch thick from a craft store. Print your monogram on a sheet of paper using as large a font size as will fit on a single sheet. Cut out the letter from the paper and tape it to the sheet of foam. Using an exacto knife slowly make small slices around the letter until you have cut all the way through the foam. If you break the letter while doing this, don’t worry. I broke part of the “E” off and just reattached it with hot glue. After cutting out each of the letters, attach small flower petals to the letters with a hot glue gun. I found I got the best effect by doing this in layers to make sure that there were no gaps where the styrofoam was showing through.

To make the banners, I just picked a width and height that I thought would look good and wouldn*t be too big to fit on our church doors. After doing that, hem all four sides of the banner. Then, make a 1 inch sleeve at the top and bottom of the banner, which will hold the dowel rod that you*ll be inserting. What dowel rod, you ask? Good question!

To give your banners some structure, buy some dowel rods. I bought ones that were 3/8 of an inch in diameter. Cut them to the width of your banner plus about 1 inch. Also, buy some finials at the craft store which can stick on the ends of the dowels to make them pretty. Paint the finials and the dowels. When they are dry, stick them through the sleeves of the banner and put the finials on the ends of the dowels with some glue.

At this point, you have some naked banners, so it*s time to attach the letters. I did this using velcro, but I*m sure other adhesives would work. To finish up your banner, tie ribbon to the left and right end of your top dowel rod to hang the banner.

Directions for Wishbowl Cards

These cards are made from 8 1/2 x 11 inch text weight cardstock from Paper Source. Cut the paper into 8 equally sized pieces, which will end up being 4 1/4 X 2 1/4 inches in size. Use a scrapbooking round corner punch to round all four corners of each card. Get your thumbs and hands ready, because this has been known to cause bruising. If your hands are still intact, use an embosser to monogram each card. You could also dress these up by printing your monogram or some clipart from your wedding theme on the cardstock before cutting it.

Directions for Origami Menu Holders

Here are the infamous directions for these convenient and inexpensive holders, per Martha Stewart:

1). To make one for a 4-by-6-inch menu card, you’ll need an 8 1/2 -inch square of decorative heavyweight paper. Fold the square in half diagonally, wrong sides facing, to make a triangle, and lay it with fold up.
2). Use a pencil to make a small mark 5 inches from left corner. Using that mark as your guide, fold left point to right edge.
3). Flip shape over; repeat step 2. Fold the bottom point up.
4). Tuck bottom point into front pocket.
5). You can either write a name here and use it as a placecard or emboss it and use it to hold any important information for your guests (menu, table number, etc.)

Go to the Martha Stewart Bio for step-by-step pictures and her original instructions.

alh1475: A bio filled with DIY designs and fabulous paper products. A bride after my own stationary-filled heart.
101903: A simply beautiful wedding and stunning pictures.
cinder_elle: The chocolate and baby blue pioneer!
clary: Her DIY flowers were amazing.
d2dalton: Check out this bride’s attention to detail.
emlawcolorado: This bride epitomizes cool, calm, and collected. And she looks beautiful.
KristiT2003: The bride who made me brave enough to try to make my own invites. Her pocketfold invitations are simply stunning.
meldave: A combination of fuchsia and apple green, paired with fabulous paper products.
socalgal: My favorite sash bride.
Here is the link to the Nina Bio.

Dress: Nina at New Ren
Church: Trinity UCC – Miamisburg, Ohio
Reception and Caterer: Dayton Womans Club – Dayton, Ohio
Photographer: Schwabe Studio – Vandalia, Ohio
Bakery: Jerri Deeter - West Milton, Ohio
OOT Accommodations: Downtown Dayton Doubletree – Dayton, Ohio