Green Flags

via Team Green Britain

I have been obsessed with the "Green Britain Day" logo since the very first time I saw it. It was love at first sight. I'm sure it's probably obvious why. I mean, it's green. Come on. And FH is British and I have this thing where I buy anything with Union Jack on it, or says London. (His response, "Do we have to buy everything that says London?" the answer is obviously yes!) And plus the Green Britain Day logo is just plain awesome looking:

via Team Green Britain

I was AMAZED and shocked and HORRIFIED (ok maybe not quite horrified) to find out that they didn't actually SELL anything with this on it. It's only in ads. Are you kidding? In America, if there was something like this, it would be at every major chain and people would be buying it up like there's no tomorrow (because we're suckers like that). Anyway, all I wanted was a dress (not pictured, but I've seen it on the billboards), or even a freaking mug. Nope! It's for billboard purposes only. No Green Britain plate settings or guitars. Not even a T-shirt. Trust me, I googled my brains out looking for it.

So for our wedding I decided to make my own, and do one for both the British and American flags. Obviously it's not nearly as cool as the original, but it's the thought that counts... I was originally scared that people might get upset over the fact that the flags are green. Americans, at least, can be hyper sensitive about their flags. But then I decided it looked cool and I was doing it anyway.

(pinned and pre sewing)

I was determined to sew it by myself. If I'd started this project like 9 months ago I would have. But A - I suck big time at sewing and B - MOB said it'd be quicker if she did it (true story). BUT I designed it and pinned everything into place for her to sew it on! I really liked the quilted look that the original had, so that's what I was going for. I used pieces of 3 different green fabrics to achieve this.


I couldn't tell you where to get those dowel thingies if I wanted to. I think I've told you before that I keep things that I feel like I could have a use for someday. Well, a decoration that we used for a past event at work broke, and had these white dowel thingies on either end. I had to throw out the rest, but kept these for some unknown reason. Sooo yeah, I have no idea where to actually buy them. Sorry!

Anyway, I plan on hanging these from shepherd's hooks somewhere in the yard for the wedding. You like?

-C
xxx

It's Really Real!

via Google Images

We're going to get our marriage license this afternoon. And getting married in 2 weeks (and 1 day)! This is really happening. How crazy! How exciting! How... scary!?

No, I'm not scared to get married... yet. Although I know there's still plenty of time to freak out. I'm scared that things won't get done, or that I'll forget something major! I mean, I know the important projects will get done, but I can't help it. It's what I do. I plan events at work, and this happens when the big ones roll around. Well, what really happens is that I freak out (usually internally) in the days leading up to said event, then the day of I just let go of things that haven't gotten done. I tell myself no one knows what I was planning, so no one's going to notice what's not there. Hmm. Do you see the irony there? Yeah. I have a blog. EVERYONE knows what I'm planning for my wedding. Damn! Maybe that's why I've recently had this problem with posting pictures of my projects. That way, if certain things don't get done, no one will be able to say, "Hey! I saw blah blah blah on your blog. Where is it?" Not to mention I'm all of a sudden having a problem with sharing every detail because I want people to be surprised by SOME things. I guess maybe before there was the chance people would forget about some of my projects and when they see them at the wedding go, "Ooh! I forgot about when I read about that!" But now? The possibility of people forgetting things within 2 weeks is pretty slim. I promise I'll post pics of everything after the wedding. I hope you'll still read my blog after I'm hitched? Pretty sure I'll still have plenty to say if you'll still listen. :)

Like I alluded to above, I've been getting things done that you haven't seen. I still have A LOT (at least in my mind) to do, but here's a taste of some things that I've managed to fit in, inbetween unpacking and cleaning for FH to get here. Yup, FH is here now, for good! :)

- my bolero is practically done. had my fitting with Bonnie this weekend. This was the first fitting, which is ridiculous because she's been doing this all off of measurements she took and it fits perfectly! Can't wait to see the final product!
- placecards - DONE!
- programs - 78% DONE! (I just need to go get more of the accent paper from Michaels this weekend and they'll be completely done!)
- coasters with conversation starters calligraphed on the back - DONE!
- booked rentals for things like plates, utensils, etc.: TaylorRental
- booked potties: Mr.John
- ordered/received the candy for my candy bar (aka candy buffet, but I like bar better): MetroCandy is SO FAST! I ordered it Monday evening and it was here by Wednesday.
- ordered cupcake liners for our dessert (spoiler alert - we're having cupcakes!) from Etsy seller LittleMonsterHugs (I spent wayyyy too much time worrying about this, but I can't help that I wanted them to be pretty! It's ridiculous the things I worry about, and the things I don't. Lol.)

My hair trial's tomorrow, too!

Alright, alright. I'll give you one picture. Let's see if you can figure out what they are!


Happy Labor Day Weekend ya'll!

-C
xxx

Bridal Shower Deets

I know I did a quick recap, but I think the details deserve some spotlight. Sorry it's taken a while, but I was waiting for pics to be posted by attendees! It was held at Roundtree Park in Falls Church, VA. It was a beautiful day! Ok, it was a little hot, but we were in the shade, and at least it didn't rain! There was tons of food - sandwiches, fruit salad, veggies, and, most importantly, mimosas! Everything was green :) green table runners, green solo cups, and all the little details MOH Cassie made were green, too! How did she know?! Lol. Check out all the details!

Such a cute area! Even though we didn't sit at those little tables out there, they were still cute (it was too hot out there).

Mmmm Mimosas.

She made this He Said/She Said shower game, using the same green print I used for my invites. How cute are the little sillouhettes? She even wrapped little pencils and attached them to each sheet!

And she made drink stirrers!

I don't know if you can tell, but she sewed fabric on the side of a pop up hamper and it says "Wishing Well"! That's where people put green glass they brought for me. In case you're not aware, I collect green glass, and it was such a great idea for her to have everyone bring me a piece! I don't think anyone really understands how much that excites me, lol.

She even sewed together a banner - which is amazing and I hope FH doesn't mind me hanging it in the house somewhere... only half kidding. :)

Me and my super cool ribbon hat. Oh, and balloons tied to my sash. I walked around with those on for quite a while, wondering why people outside of the shower were staring at me...

No, I'm not angry here. I have like 80 gumballs in my mouth because we were in the midst of playing the infamous gumball game (where they ask you questions about your FH and if you get it wrong you have to chew a gumball, and keep them all in your mouth til the end). I did pretty well, but Bridesmaid Amanda made sure to get the big gumballs. I was glaring at her for this reason. Lol. And probably stumped on a question... But I did really well, I swear! They were just really big gumballs...

And another little DIY project from the weekend for lil ole me? MOH Ryann had her friend Chelcia made me a fun bachelorette fascinator! It had a silver base and hot pink feathers coming out of it and was awesome. It stayed on all night! I actually kind of forgot it was there... but that would be how people knew I was the bachelorette!

-C
xxx

Signs, Signs, Everywhere There's Signs

Inspiration. Via Homegrown Wedding.

Now I know I'm not going to be the first bride to do this, mainly because the reason I'm doing it is because I've seen pictures of other brides doing it and clearly just want to steal the idea, but I'm having homemade signs at my wedding!

Those are my actual signs. Well, some of them. I have 4 of them done so far, with 4 more on backorder. No, not backorder from a store, these are homemade, yo! My Grandude has been cutting old fence posts, drilling the holes in the top for ribbon, and painting them white. Then AOB has been stenciling on the wording. They honestly look better than I thought they would! Not that I thought they would look bad, but that just means I think they look pretty awesome and I'm very impressed with their handywork.

I don't know what it is about backyard weddings that scream (to me) "You need signs!" Clearly it's not because our yard is so big they won't be able to find the different activities throughout the night. But, they're cute, and for some reason I feel they are very necessary. So, I'm having signs out front that point to the backyard where the wedding will be, signs that say "cocktails", "ceremony", "reception", and even some that mark off where the bathrooms and the smoking area will be*.

There was a slight dilemma that arose when we were trying to figure out how to stick them in the ground. Grandude refused to attach stakes to them because he said the wood of the signs would split (he's probably right). Then I had an "ah-ha" moment and remembered I bought a bunch of shepherd's hooks from Dollar Tree a few months ago. Done! So that's why the holes were drilled and I just finished attaching the ribbon to the tops of the 4 I have so they can be hung directly from shepherd's hooks. These are shepherd's hooks, if you're not in the know:

Via Google Images

You like??

-C
xxx

*Smokers take note - yes, there will be a smoking area. Grandude has emphysema and can't breathe in the smoke. Plus, well, I'm not a fan either!

Weekend Recap

So - my fancy hat shower was this weekend! Here I am (center) with almost all of my bridal party in their hats! I highly, and I mean HIGHLY, enjoyed getting to wear a fancy hat! That dress was awesome, too, and I also wore green shoes :) (of course I did!). Check out the banner behind us that MOH Cassie (to my immediate left) sewed together herself! Yeah, she's not crafty at all... SIKE! I was amazed by all the little details she created for the shower. I wish I had a picture of the he said/she said game everyone played. Super cute! I really can't thank you enough MOH Cassie, Bridesmaid Amanda, Bridesmaid Lela, S-Dogg, Bonnie, LeighAnn and anyone else who helped with set up as well! Above and beyond!


Later that night it was off to my bachelorette party! We had some drinks at one bar, then went on to another one that no one would tell me what it was but I could tell it wasn't just any normal bar! Turns out... it was a drag bar - complete with drag queen show!!

It was HILARIOUS!! I think everyone had a really great time - myself included!! So thanks to MOH Ryann for planning my awesome party and everyone else who came out to make my night so FABULOUS!

I did make MOH Ryann do one wedding project while she was here (and she was thought she'd get away without doing one!). My favors are done - yay! They're mini candy scoops for people to take to the candy bar (aka candy buffet). I even sent them home with MOB to be stored for the wedding. I get great joy when I have things done and can take them there. That way I can't look at them or change them!

Here's hoping I can get rolling on some more projects in the next couple weeks (ummm since I only have less than 6 weeks left!!!)! I think I've just about reached a stage in my unpacking (from moving) where I'm just going to stop so I can get projects done. Unfortunately that means there's still going to be boxes everywhere for a while! Only visitors helping with wedding projects (or unpacking) are allowed from now until the wedding date! :)

-C
xxx

Vintage Inspired Bouquet

Inspired by this: Mine started out like this.

Then this weekend MOH Cassie and I started really putting it together. I've been collecting buttons and random baubles from Aunt Cheri's Button Jar, the button jar of MOB, and various other places. I had clear jewels and rhinestone buttons and white buttons and buttons I'd previously painted a silver color for another project. I had a lot of OTHER stuff I thought was going to go into it (peacock feathers, green buttons, etc.), but it turned out looking awesome-er with all the bling! We attached each individual button and bauble to a strand of wire, pulling it through the back of the button and twisting it back down, then adding a dab of hot glue so that it would stand up and not flop around. Like so:

Then, it was all arranged into one beautifully awesome bouquet and we wrapped strands of wire around the "handle" area to keep it all together for the binding part.

Then we* binded (is that a word?) it all together, just wrapped white fabric around and around and around using hot glue to keep it taught and in place. After there was plenty of cushion, and it looked thick enough, we added the real fabric around it (same fabric that the flowers came from, which honestly pretty much matches my dress!). We added green lace (which I also used on the cardbox months ago) around the top with hot glue, just underneath the "blooms", to cover up the wire and the stems.

I added a cameo brooch that's tarnished gold, a little copper, and some green to the front, and oila! One Vintage Inspired Bouquet - coming up!

Jealous??! :)

Of the bouquet, not of my awesome sweaty hairstyle (no AC downstairs).

-C
xxx

*From this point on "we" basically means "Cassie" while I supervised/made us dinner.

Wedding Crapfest 2010 (July Edition)

As I mentioned last week, MOH Cassie, Bridesmaid Amanda, and friend Bonnie were helping me with crafts this weekend. It actually turned into quite the marathon, and a successful one at that - which makes me happy! Even though it wasn't so much the weekend as just all day Saturday. We started the day with errands (including a Michael's trip, duh), ending errands at Target where the SECOND friend of mine announced their engagement to me! Yup, that's right, two of my friends now have told me, IN TARGET, that they're engaged. Does this have something to do with my Target obsession?!? A super special congrats to Bonnie and Matt, who will be getting married next spring!!

So now Bonnie gets to torture Amanda and I as payback for helping with our weddings! :) Even though she probably thinks she's going to be doing all of her projects herself. LOL. Bonnie - trust me on this - take all the help you can get!!!

So after errands were done (and announcements made), we came back and started on the arts & crafts. Here's (almost) everything we accomplished:

Table Names (several of "our" songs and some that just remind us of each other, including lyrics). Bonnie was all over that. I mean, I painted all the frames and printed all the lyrics and stuff, but she cut the paper and put it in the frames, thus, completing the project.

Cork placecard holders (now with ribbon and finally completed!)


Hat box (for the hats I'm bringing to my fancy hat shower) covered in green fabric. Don't you love how the floral print of the box looks like it's printed on the fabric? If you can't tell in the pics, trust me, it looks cool. This project isn't done yet, but will be (hopefully) before my shower in a couple weeks!

And last, but most definitely not least, my bouquet is done!! But that gets its own post :)

Special thanks to Cassie for bringing her camera so I could take some better pictures this weekend, and also for COMPLETELY doing my bouquet and just generally for coming up from DC just to help me with stuff! Also to Bridesmaid Amanda and Bonnie for being my slaves for the day, too!

-C
xxx

Inquiring Minds Want to Know...

I received a couple emails yesterday asking what font I used on the invites. Thanks for asking - I take it that means you like it! I'm a big fan of finding new, non-normal Word fonts, so when I do invites or materials for work I tend to download new ones. I could have gone classic with a pretty script font like Lucida Calligraphy or Edwardian Script, but I wanted something fun and pretty and a little different. So I used a font called Kushtie.


I actually found it months and months ago (I don't know how many) when iDiY posted it on her blog via dafont.com. I didn't know then that I'd use it for my invites, but knew I liked it so downloaded it anyway! So there you have it folks. Mystery solved.

Are you doing your own invites or other wedding materials you need fun fonts for? A couple others that will be making an appearance on various printed wedding-related items include A Yummy Apology and Fortunaschwein, which I also found on dafont.com, and Pea Faith from KevinandAmanda.com.

A couple other free font sites include:
1001FreeFonts.com
UrbanFonts.com
Abduzeedo.com

So check out these sites and add some fun fonts to your collection! Or if you like the classic look, then don't (although you can find a new classic look on these sites, too!). Your choice, just thought I'd share for those who asked about it!

Have a fantabulous weekend! Be on the lookout for a recap of Wedding Crap Fest 2010, aka this weekend. I've got MOH Cassie, Bridesmaid Amanda, and Bonnie slaving over crafts with me this weekend!

-C
xxx

Aaaand they're off!!

Invites are officially in the mail, folks. If you didn't see yours yet, and don't want to, then SPOILER ALERT there are pics posted below! You can come back and read the rest of this post after you gets yours in a few days :) Please don't judge my invites by these sucky photos. My camera doesn't like to make pictures look awesome. ever. and the color's always so blah! Yes, the reason I got the camera in the first place is just to take normal, decent pictures, and be much better than the last camera I had. It has succeeded in those things... but now that I want it for beautiful blog pics I realize my camera kinda sucks. Even though it is green :( Yes, my camera, too, is green.

But I digress. Back to invites...

Fingers crossed that A - they all stay in tact and B - people don't think they look like crap. I know, I know, you're "not supposed to care what other people think." Come on, let's get real, that's a load of crap. I can't help it! I made all these invites FOR other people. I mean, yes, for me & FH, but they are going to be seen by 100+ other people, so how can I not hope people don't think they suck?

So the envelopes are kelly green - and so is the ribbon running down the sides of the invites themselves. And even though the side accent part looks olive, that's also just a tad shade lighter than kelly green. Thanks camera.

This one's gonna hurt your eyes, sorry, but this is the only one that really shows the true colors.

♪ Bliiiinded by the light... ♫

And here are the RSVP and Directions cards that went in with the invites.

I had so many ideas for my invites, I'm surprised I ever dwindled them all down to just one*! Well, if anyone ever needs any invites created, let me know. I've got a ton of ideas I didn't use and would love to put to good use! One of these days I'll have to put together some prototypes for the Behind The Green Veil Etsy shop.

It's been so hard dealing with the invite list, just about any bride will agree with me here. There are cousins you want to invite, but don't know their siblings very well so can't just invite the one cousin because you have to draw the line somewhere (like basically not inviting 2nd cousins as a rule so it doesn't look like you're picking and choosing). Or you want to invite one roommate, but not the other (I know I'm among the very small percentage of brides these days who doesn't live with her fiance yet!). What about happy hour buddies? Are they friends enough to invite? What about friends from high school that you don't talk to anymore, but were so close with way back when? Didn't you always think they'd be at your wedding? But you haven't heard boo from them in years (typically these are male friends, they SUCK at keeping in touch).

Then there are the friends who come out of the woodwork during your engagement. I don't think I'm alone in saying that when you get engaged, there will always be at least one person whom you haven't spoken to in years, that you either get back in touch with or really WANT to get back in touch with. I guess the latter would be because this is a major life event, and if you had any sort of good relationship with the person in the past, you kind of want them there. The only problem is... you haven't spoken to them in years, for whatever reason. The constant question of "Do I invite them?" goes through your head pretty much every day. But then you think, well this person hasn't contact me either, and what if I contact this person and they want nothing to do with me? And if I do invite them, will we lose touch after the wedding all over again, and in that case, is it worth it? Or what if they can't come for whatever reason? Did I just make an extra invite for naught? So how do you deal with all of these dilemmas?

No, seriously. I have no solution. How do you deal with all of these dilemmas?

You can say just invite whoever you want to be there and screw the rest, but it really just doesn't work that way. It's a tricky/sticky/sucky situation. I guess at some point you just have to bite the bullet and decide you're not inviting 2nd cousins, not inviting people you haven't spoken to in more than x amount of years, or not inviting (some of) the people you get drunk with on Wednesdays. Doesn't make it any easier, though, but us normal people ain't made of money. And us indecisive people need to stop thinking about it before "we" drive ourselves crazy.

-C
xxx

PS Yes the names are smudged on purpose and not on the actual invites.

*Especially considering I'm one of the most indecisive people you'll ever meet.