Wednesday, May 20, 2015

WW- Can I Get Your Autograph?

Its that time again! Another edition of Wedding Wednesday is here, this week I'm going to talk about something that has become super fun. To catch up on all the previous Wedding Wednesday's go here and find out about every week! I really love all of the new ideas for wedding guest books and I think that this is a great way to get something you can use in your house for home decor or that you can keep for years that isn't just a book with people's names in it. So today I'm going to share with  you some of my most favorite guest book ideas.


My sister did this and I really loved it when she did. I love the idea of making a book with your engagement pictures and having your guest write you notes as your guest book. The only problem with this is if you have a wedding with 200+ guests this could take a long time for people coming in to the wedding. 


I really LOVE the idea of using a globe as a guest book. You can have your guest pick a place they want you to travel and sign there. I would try to make this part of my bucket list and visit those places if this was my guest book. 


This sign is such a cool idea. I really like how they have put the heart with love in it, you could also do your initials or last name. The only thing I would do differently is have my guest sign with a color different from the heart. I think doing two colors would look really cool. 


I have never seen this at a wedding but I really like the idea of using your wedding date with fun pictures. This is such a unique idea and would look great in your house after the wedding. Plus reading all of the nice messages for years to come would be really nice. 


This is a super unique idea and could be displayed just about anywhere in your home. I like how they have bigger hearts with the couples names in the middle and then you can write a message or your name on the hearts the guest sign. I think this is super cute and different. 

Which guest book idea is your favorite?

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I'm linking up at these parties!

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

How to Make Boutonniere's

A few weeks ago I shared how to Make Your Own Wedding Bouquet so today I am going to share how I also made my own Boutonniere's for the groomsmen.  Now I'm going to share the easy slightly redneck way that I made these flowers and you are going to be like well that was simple anyone could do that. Well that's the truth, these are super easy and anyone can do it.

The first thing I did was decide what colors I wanted my flowers to be. Our wedding colors are blue and a pale yellow so I bought a bunch/bushel of blue and pale yellow hydrangeas. Then I picked off the bunches and cut them in half. I didn't want these to be very big but that is a personal preference.


After I did this with the blue and yellow I played around with the arrangements until I figured out exactly how I wanted them to be. Then I did exactly the same thing as my bouquets. I duck taped them together. I wrapped it around the stem and made sure not to go to high so the flowers could move around some. 


After the duck tape I took glue dots and ribbon and wrapped the ribbon around the parts that were duck taped. After making one I decided that I wanted the base part to be a little thicker so I just did a few layers of duck tape under the ribbon to add some thickness. The ribbon I used is exactly the same as the ribbon on the bridesmaid bouquets its just the thinner version. I wanted them to look slightly uniformed. 


See the one on the right, its a little thicker and I liked that better. This was SUPER easy, I'm not kidding it took me like 15 minutes after I figured out how I wanted my flowers arranged to make all of them. 

I have found a slight problem with these though. You have to be careful where you pin the boutonniere through the base. If you go in the middle or too low then the pin will get stuck. It can't make it through the duck tape. But as long as you pin them at the top then you are golden. 


Here is all of my boutonniere's for the wedding! We are only doing them for the groomsmen, we decided against making them for our parents and grandparents. This made things super simple and fast. 

Do you think you could make your own wedding flowers? 


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Monday, May 18, 2015

Writing Thank You Cards

Something I have come to appreciate during this wedding adventure is a nice thank you card. I believe that when you get a gift you should always hand write thank you cards to the person who gave you the gift. This is common courtesy and I think that even with the sometimes hundreds of gifts you might get during a wedding you should still write everyone a thank you card.


So today I'm going to share with you a few tips that I learned while writing our thank you cards for all the gifts we received. Some of these can be used for writing any thank you card and some of these are just things I think make it more personal.

1. Try to have all of your thank you cards mailed two weeks after the event. We wrote all of our thank you cards the day after each of our wedding showers. This made it easy to remember what everyone got us and to make the cards more personal.

2. Always mention the gift you received. If it was money we said, "thank you so much for the card and gift" this lets them know that you did receive what they gave you. It also lets people know you looked at all of your gifts.

3. Try to mention how you will use your gift. With cookware I said, "I couldn't wait to use it in our kitchen." I also said about money, "that it will help with all the expenses of moving/the wedding/the honeymoon."

4. Make sure you spell everyone's names correctly, there is nothing worse then getting  a thank you card and having your name spelled wrong.

5. Buy a box of thank you cards at Hobby Lobby or Michael's. This saved me a TON of time, I got 2 boxes of 50 blank cards and the extra's I can use for other things later.



6. If you get a gift from a family, this happened a lot with us. We sent one thank you card to the matriarch of the family. So the parents got the card and we addressed it to the Smith Family. This may not be the  most correct way to do things but it was the simplest especially when we didn't have addresses for everyone.

7. Make sure you express your gratitude but try not to be repetitive. I know this is really hard but I tried to mix up what I said in the cards.

Example: Thank you so much for the crockpot. We really appreciate the gift and look forward to using it in our kitchen making meals together. Thank you so much for the support.


How do you write thank you cards? Do you have a special trick?


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Sunday, May 17, 2015

Live Bold

When I was 16 I went to a basketball camp over the summer for a week. I ended up becoming friends with a group of girls that are amazing people. During this week we all spent every day living with each other and learning about the others. I knew when I left this camp that these girls would change the world someday. Today I'm going to share with you about one of these girls and how she is changing the world.


My friend Lauren started a company called Lael Brand for Humanity, they make the most amazing bags. While not only do they make incredible bags they also provide food for 90 orphans and homeless world wide with the purchase of one bag.

Now guys, This is CRAZY! I mean really what kind of company has a mission to make the world a better place. So I hope that you guys will check out Lael and support this company. Lauren and her family are amazing people who really want to change the world and make it a better place.


"To be real, physical hunger is only scratching the surface of the major humanitarian need we are answering- world hunger. We believe filling physical hunger is a doorway to a much deeper issue. The world is hungry for something greater than food - they want to be loved. We have learned that by responding to the needs of physical hunger, we can reach people who are emotionally, spiritually, & mentally empty as well. Our initiative is to feed hungry stomachs so that we can fill hungry hearts. This is our greatest commision; to fill all types of hunger with joy, hope, love, & fullness of heart." - Lael Vision



Currently, they are donating all of their profits to Nepal to help with all of the destruction and devastation. So I hope you guys will check out this amazing company and give them some love. Follow them on Instagram to see their adventures.

This post is not an advertisement and I have received no compensation for this post. I love this brand and wanted to share the amazing work they are doing. 

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I'm linking up at these parties!