Making my dress my own

So as of my last post, it looks like most of you are leaning toward covering the wedding lovefest first. Before I can get to that, it's only right that I share with you the details of how Mama Frog and I were able to personalize my dress for the big day (and by Mama Frog and I, I mean Mama Frog - she's got skillz).

From here on out, I hand over the reigns and let her take you through the steps of how to make a silk sash and chiffon ribbon flower...go for it, Mom!

Hello hive - I'm thrilled to be here! I hope you enjoy the tutorial as much as I enjoyed creating it for you.

To Make the Silk Sash:

You will need 1/3 yard of silk shantung. Make sure that you have a straight edge when they cut the fabric at the store.

Cut (3) - three inch strips across the width of the silk fabric (If you don’t have good, sharp sewing shears, Michael's has shears by Martha Stewart for about $20.00).

Fray the edge on each side of the fabric strip by separating a thread and pulling it across (gently). I find it easiest to fray by holding the center of the strip while standing and letting the ends hang down. Carefully separate a single strand (of thread) and pull it out away from the strip. It should easily pull away to each end. Continue fraying until you have about a ¼ inch on each side of the strip. You will need to cut off the extra thread at each end.

I used a French seam to join the 3 strips together. To make a French seam –

1. Cut ½” off of the ends of each strip, making sure to cut a straight line.

2. Determine which side of the fabric is the right side (the side that you want to show). It should have more sheen to it.

3. Pin 2 wrong sides together (see photo below) and sew a ¼” seam. Trim the seam to 1/8”.

4. Fold the right sides together along the seam line and pin together.

5. Sew a ½” seam.

6. Press the seam to one side, pin and stitch in place near the outside edge - you will need to remove the pins as you sew this seam to prevent puckering.

Note – You can skip the last step and just press the seam to one side, if this is too difficult and you will still have a finished look.

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To Make the Chiffon Ribbon Flower:

You’ll need-

40” of 3” chiffon ribbon (without wire)

1” square of netting (for backing)

6 rhinestones for the center of the flower (sew or glue on)

Fabric glue for rhinestones (unless you are sewing on)

½” flat button to glue the rhinestones to (optional)

1. Lay out your ribbon and divide the ribbon into 4 equal sections. Place a mark at each section.

2. Starting at one end, sew a basting stitch (by hand) leaving 12” of thread at the beginning point for pulling later. Sew down the end, round the corner and sew across the bottom until you get to the end of your first section mark.

3. Continue basting back up to the top of the ribbon and then immediately back down again. Continue this process across the ribbon – ending with the basting going to the top of the end side (leave 12” of thread at this end also).

4. You should end of up with 4 sections.

5. Grab hold of the thread at each end and (very gently) pull, gathering the ribbon as you pull. It will start to take on the shape of 4 flower petals. Get your gathering as even as possible and gently shape the flower with your hands. When you are happy with it, tie off the thread ends together.

6. Take your 1” piece of netting and sew it onto the center of the back of the flower by hand.

7. Now you need to finish the center of the right side of the flower. You can sew rhinestones on or you can glue them on using fabric glue. It also works to use a flat button and sew the button onto the center of the flower and then glue the rhinestones to the button. (Make sure that you lay out the rhinestones on the button first to make sure that the button will be covered.

8. Now you can sew the chiffon flower onto the silk sash or attach a pin clasp to the back of the flower and pin it to the sash.

Ta-da!

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And there you have it my dear hive! Thanks Mom for the step-by-step tutorial, I have no idea how your sewing skills skipped a generation but I sure am glad that I was able to benefit from all of your hard work. :) Oh and get this, she actually made me a second sash for the reception which I'll show you later...it's very blingy. I keep telling her she should go into business, maybe this will be a fun jumping off point?

Also, can I just say...it was one of the most special parts of the wedding to be able to wear a piece that my Mom made for me. I will always treasure it - not only did it make my dress 100% unique, it was a symbol of the love and support she has given me throughout my life.

Are you planning to wear something that was handmade for you? Anyone planning to use the Frog tutorial to create your own sash or flower?

Amazing but true

Yes, I’m alive. Call off the search party and tell the neighbors to stop looking in our windows.

Wouldn’t it be so impressive if I had this incredible excuse for my absence? Like, I was cast in a big budget movie and haven’t had a moment away from the cameras…or…I won the lottery and have been very busy deciding what to do with my new-found fortune? Yeah, it would be great if that were the case.

What I can tell you is that I have gotten lost in domestic bliss – sorting through the mountains of crap we need to give away, sell at a garage sale or just plain throw out, trying out new recipes with all of the fun registry gifts we received from our loved ones, starting to write thank you cards and not finishing even one because we are lazy (incredibly grateful…but lazy), discussing how to split our time with family during the holidays…oh….and….

Going on our HONEYMOON!

Beach hair in all its glory.

It’s wonderful to be back and I can’t wait to fill you in on all of the honeymoon fun! But we have some decisions to make – which to cover first, the wedding lovefest or honeymoon hilarity? Tell me dear friends, which do you think should come next?

One Month

Tap…tap…this thing on?

Hey friends – sorry to be a bit MIA, married life has been blissful so I took a couple of weeks to enjoy. And can you believe it, yesterday was exactly one month since Laid Back Groom and I got hitched?! In that time, there’s been a flurry of activity in our happy lives:

We spent a few days enjoying time on the lake as a sort of mini-moon after the wedding.

I flew back to Seattle from Arizona to stand beside a childhood friend as she married her darling man. Doesn’t she look gorgeous?

(source)

I’ve been working on a variety of side projects both inside the wedding world and outside – I’m very excited to share the wedding related ones with you but we need a bit more time to work out the kinks…hold please :)

We resized Laid Back Groom’s wedding band (it was just a tad too big) – we want that thing permanently attached to his finger…okay me, I want it permanently attached…what, why are you making that face?

We…okay, I have obsessively checked our photographers’ blog multiple times daily every few days or so to check for a sneak peek of our professional photos, no such luck so far. Hi Stephanie and Isaac! :)

We have surrounded ourselves in boxes as we open the incredibly generous gifts we have received from our guests.

We have spent fun nights in together, enjoying a warm meal and a glass of wine.

As soon as I receive the pro pics, I’ll be able to start some fun recaps…until then we are in honeymoon countdown. Looks like the nights of wine and cheese may need to head back into hiding for another month or so…hmm.

And because I couldn’t just leave you hanging without some sort of wedding photo goodness, I’ll include a few of my favorite shots from guests. Thank you Facebook and iRave, you are a bride’s best friend when she’s fiending for photos.

Can’t wait to show you more!

Details on the dress

So I know what you’re thinking…I totally left you hanging. And you’re right. I’m sorry friends, I had to wait until after the wedding to post the details on my dress – too many of our guests were reading the blog and I really wanted them to be surprised. Forgive me?

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Last we left off, I told you about my shopping trip to NYC and my brushes with fame! From there, Mama Frog and I headed to Designer Loft. The space is great and if you are looking for certain designers (I found a lot of Jenny Packham for example), this is a great spot to hit up. Unfortunately, I tried on quite a few dresses there and none really fit what I had been looking for.

We moved on to The Bridal Garden (a nonprofit that I had high hopes for) and once there, we realized that it would be extremely difficult to find a dress there. I really love the idea of buying from a nonprofit but unfortunately these dresses were pretty beat up…it would take a lot of alterations and a full cleaning to get them back to anywhere near ready for a wedding. Ultimately, not a good fit.

Next up, RK Bridal – a warehouse of sorts. They have rounds and racks throughout the store filled with gowns. You are to search through the dresses, find the ones you want and write your name on the list. They will call you when they are ready and off you go. It’s very different in that you get to walk around freely to look for dresses on your own. Personally I didn’t find anything there but I did see one bride have her “moment” while I was there and it was really fun to watch from the sidelines!

Lastly, and really on a whim, Mama Frog suggested we try to see if the Saks bridal salon had any openings. Saks…why hadn’t I thought of that during my crazy, type A, appointment scheduling madness? We called while on our way to lunch and found that they had an opening that afternoon – yippee! With a nice full belly (perfect for trying on dresses and getting half naked in front of a stranger), we headed to 5th Avenue!

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We arrived and were greeted by our salesperson, Melina. She is WONDERFUL and anyone interested in buying there should definitely ask for her – seriously the best salesperson we found in all of our shopping in the city. Melina lead us back to our fitting room and began asking about what I was envisioning, styles I liked, etc. She left the room and brought back the who’s who of bridal gowns. We’re talking Monique Lhuillier, Amsale, Carolina Herrera, Vera Wang, Reem Acra and Oscar de la Renta. I immediately felt very under dressed.

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One by one, the dresses missed the mark. I was starting to get very discouraged. Melina said she had a few more she wanted to bring in so I gave her free reign to pull what she thought would work. She brought back three dresses.

The first, an Amsale, was beautiful but too heavy for my occasion – I liked it but I knew it would be way too hot for an outdoor, summer wedding.

The second, a Monique, was Mama Frog’s favorite. As soon as it was clamped into place, she began to tear up. It was beautiful but I knew right away that this was not my dress. Our conversation was as follows:

Mom: Oh sweetie…. (tears welling up)

Me: Yeah it’s really pretty.

Mom: Oh…oh…(big sigh, hand on chest)

Me: Okay mom, I know you are loving this one but you need to put those tears away…this isn’t my dress.

Mom: Are you sure?? (shock and concern on her face)

Me: Yes, I’m sure. I know it’s what you have probably always envisioned but…it’s not my dress.

After explaining that it was just not what I had been searching for, however beautiful it was, she understood and we moved on to the final dress. Melina explained that she saved this one for last because it was her pick for me. I asked her how often she ends up picking dresses for her brides, all she did was smile. Hmm, I thought – this should be interesting. She showed me the dress on the hanger and I recognized it immediately. We had passed this dress on a mannequin as we walked into the bridal salon, it was a Vera. It was pretty but I really didn’t think much of it.

Then I tried it on.

Does anyone else look at this photo and look at my arms and think “I’ve got no strings to hold me down, to make me laugh or make me frown…” from Pinocchio? No? Just me?

It was the first time I was quiet the entire day. I didn’t know what the feeling of “the one” was supposed to feel like but I knew this one was unlike any others and I definitely felt something. After looking at it in the mirror in the room, then out in the big gallery area, then back in the fitting room. At this point, I knew this dress was a major contender…but the pressure to make a decision was just too much and I needed to sleep on it. Melina understood and let us know that her offer was good for the weekend.

That night Mama Frog was up with allergies and had a hard time sleeping. She began thinking about our day of shopping and her mind kept circling back to the Vera dress. Meanwhile, I was happily sleeping and dreaming of the very same dress. The next morning over breakfast I shared my dream with her and she told me of her thoughts in the middle of the night – it seemed as though this dress had chosen me just as much as I had chosen it. At that point, we called Saks, Melina was nice enough to squeeze us in during her lunch break (she’s amazing), she clamped me back into the dress and then, I just knew – this was my dress!

I can’t tell you how much I absolutely LOVED my dress. It’s classic and timeless yet chic and very fitting for our garden wedding. I felt more beautiful than I’ve ever felt on my wedding day and I can’t imagine having any other dress.

How did you choose your dress? Or did your dress choose you?

Surprise wedding video

While I patiently wait for the pro pics (Hi Stephanie!), I wanted to share with you one of the most special gifts we have received since the wedding.

I longed to have the budget to include a videographer for our big day but it just wasn’t in the cards. I knew that many family members would be videotaping various parts of the ceremony and reception and decided that would just have to be good enough.

Enter Cousin J.

Cousin J and I are just one year apart and are more siblings than cousins. He’s one of my best friends and as a groomsman in our wedding, I was thrilled he was able to make the trip up from Texas – add to that the fact that he was the best man in a friend’s wedding the following weekend in Michigan. He was a total jetsetter for a good two weeks. :)

When he arrived, he had the new iPhone 4. He worked for Apple for a while so he’s very up on all of the latest with their products. Little did I know, he had a program (similar to iMovie) on his phone and he began taping little segments throughout the weekend.

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At the family brunch on Sunday that my Mom lovingly set-up for us, Cousin J secretly filmed some final segments for the video and casually said to me, “Hey – check this out” then handed me his fancy phone. The awesomeness that he created is below, there are hardly words for how incredible it truly is (PS – spoiler alert as my dress makes its debut):

I can’t even tell you how much I absolutely love this. Not only is it incredibly impressive that he literally threw this together on his phone, but it’s inspired me to collect as much video from everyone as possible to see what kind of fun iMovie I can create with additional wedding footage. Thank you Cousin J for your love and support – the day would not have been the same without you.

What are you planning to do for videography?

Let's play the waiting game

Since I’m obsessively checking every 5 minutes waiting patiently for my pro pics, this is a great time to revisit some of the last minute projects I tackled just days before the wedding…and in some cases, literally at the eleventh hour.

Thanks to the genius that is Mrs. Lemon, I discovered iRave and knew I had to add it to my never-ending list of projects. In the early morning hours before our flight to Seattle, I quickly laid out the little photo cards in Photoshop. Because I’m extremely creative (read: brain dead from lack of sleep and too many last minute wedding projects), I blatantly copied Mrs. Lemon’s fab little directions for using the site. I tried my best to create a design the tied to our theme, it’s sad, but it was the best I could manage on 3 hours of sleep. :)

I also decided in my sleep deprived state that creating cute little Mr. and Mrs. signs for our chairs would be a nice touch…luckily those were very simple to do:

In my fit of Photoshop projects, I also realized that I had yet to create the sign for our “guestbook” – the fantastic wine bottle that we got from Frogger’s family antique shop (did I mention that we had access to as many cool antiques as we wanted? Yeah, it was awe.some). Below is the sign we created – you’ll have to wait to see the bottle in all its glory.

And of course, after seeing Mrs. Cola’s post about crafts, I realized I hadn’t created a sign for our guest shuttle bus…add that to the list! I’m sure I could have gone on and on (and well, I did create the welcome letter for our out-of-town bags and a sticker for the bags but they were scraped after I reached my zen state of “nobody will ever know the difference” – this became a mantra for me as the wedding grew closer and projects loomed, just being real here).

Did you fall victim to crazy-must-add-more-projects-to-the-list bridal insanity and tackle craft projects at the last minute? Did “nobody will ever know the difference” become a mantra for you at all during the wedding planning process? Tell me I’m not alone…

I'm a MRS!

So I got so carried away with the preparation of the day that my final Miss post got lost in the moments that went flashing by! I can't tell you how much the hive has meant to me and how incredible the experience of being a Bee has been.

I married my best friend yesterday. It was the best day of my life. Frogger, you make me happier than I ever thought I could be, thank you for making me complete. Forever has never sounded so good.

Thank you to the hive for your support throughout this journey to the altar - it wouldn't have been the same without all of the readers, comments, ideas and unconditional support.

I cannot wait to share the day with you...until then - the only photo I have, a teaser from my wonderful cousin who snapped this just after our first look!



Lots of love,

Officially MRS. Frog :)

Our talented guests continue to impress

A while back I shared some of the RSVPs we received back from our guests. After waiting for all of the stragglers, I have a second installment for your viewing pleasure. I have to say, this might be one of my favorite ideas – it’s been highly entertaining!

Oh and before I get to the RSVPs, did I mention we received a letter back from The White House? That was very fun!

Now, without further ado…

From our Matron of Honor Banannie and her hubby – a very talented artist!

From my very creative aunt, uncle and cousin

From my dear friend in NYC

From my fantastic step-sister

From one of Frogger’s good friends – he also happened to teach me how to wakeboard back in the day so this one is very fitting!

From Bridesmaid Berk and her soon-to-be hubby

From my aunt, uncle and two adorable cousins – a family of many talents!

I saved my favorite for last…

From my extremely talented and creative Mama Frog – isn’t she the best?

These have been so much fun to receive, we can’t wait to see all of our talented guests and thank them in person!

For the kiddies

We don’t have a lot of kids coming to the wedding but it was important to us to recognize our pint-sized family members in at least a small way.

A while back I came across a posting on Martha Stewart Weddings where they had created a version of I Spy as a conversation starter for a wedding. I just loved the idea so I decided to create my own version for the kids.

Martha’s version

Since I basically went into Photoshop, came up with fun photo opps and then used fun fonts, there’s not much of a DIY here. I used the same design as our invitation suite and some of the other paper elements for the wedding. Wanna see?

We came up with a very simple rhyme for the introduction and we will be supplying each child with their own disposable camera. We’re excited to see what shots they come up with and I’m particularly interested in the angle since they are a good 2-3 feet shorter than most of our guests. :)

Did you do anything fun for the little ones at your wedding?

Easy as pie

Way back when, I shared our dirty, little secret – we don’t like cake. After going through all of our options, the most logical choice was pies made fresh with all of the local berries and fruit that are available in Washington in the summer. We found this adorable little bakery called, get this, Sure To Rise – how cute is that?

We settled on 3 large pies and 80 mini pies in varying flavors (blueberry, strawberry rhubarb, apple, peach and triple berry). Because I wanted the pies to be displayed sporadically on the pie table, I knew I needed a way to identify the flavors for our guests. Enter pie flags.

Pie chart…ha, get it?! I’m funny.

Since we are using a large pie for our “cake cutting” I needed some sort of topper for people to recognize that this pie was significant. For the record, we’re going with blueberry – lord help me if I get it down the front of my dress. To match the mini flags, I made larger versions that I’m planning to group together to create a topper for our pie:

Front

Back

Although they were a tiny bit labor intensive, overall they were pretty easy to put together. I loved coming up with different ways to design them and in the end, I think they will be really helpful for our guests come dessert time.

What are you doing for your dessert?