Programs.

We decided to nix the readings at our ceremony, truth be told I know they are important but I get so incredibly bored if someone struggles reading through ee cummings or the entirety of "The Places You Go" by Dr Seuss.

Instead, Zac and I (well, mainly me) gathered some quotes about marriage, some prose, some poetry, lyrics from our ceremony songs and chucked it all in a booklet with our thank-you notes, vows, order of service etc.

This is the result:

Invitations.

Now I finally get to show you our invitations!

Designed by the exceedingly talented Chantelle Malone, we thought they fit so well with our vision for our wedding day and we haven't stopped receiving compliments about them.

We got them letterpressed by a local printer who charged us a pittance and put so much of his integrity into his work. He is a fine example of a human being.

The envelopes were from Annie P Paperie and were slightly cheaper than other stores who carried the same line. They were all calligraphed by me, using white ink and a calligraphy pen that I bought from Riot Art and Crafts.

Steph (my now brother-in-law's girlfriend) sat with me one afternoon and we printed, cut and pasted the envelope liners into the main envelopes and rsvp envelopes (before Zac came home in time to object! Haha!)

The completed package:

Our Invitation:

Information Card & Map:

RSVP Card:

This is what got mailed out:

My handwriting on an rsvp envelope:

Thank You Card:

Seating Cards (big) were at people's reception seats and the Table Cards (little) were at the entrance to the reception and told people where their table was:

Guest book cards - complete the sentence!

PS. if you would like Chantelle to design your stationery (wedding or otherwise...) leave me a comment and I will forward her details to you!

PPS. Stand by for our ceremony programs!

Welcome boxes.

Last night I stayed up writing some notes, I had such fun drawing and writing, I have never successfully drawn a aeroplane, so I'm quite proud of these ones! I've included information like phone numbers, a general map and a few places where we think they can find the best coffee/cake/Italian/sights.

sorry for the rubbish phone pic...

I have this idea of using my friend's MAIL ORDER HOME-MADE BAKED GOODS to accompany the note. 

The boxes are always beautifully wrapped with brown paper and string and I'm going to tuck in a little par avion mail envelope under the string and have a travel-themed package waiting for our friends and family when they arrive.

white chocolate and raspberry blondies...

dark chocolate fudge brownies...

brown paper packages, tied up with string...

all 'miss jones' pics from the Miss Jones website

I don't think anyone will complain, those brownies are to-die-for good. Maybe I'll get some date, walnut and chocolate chip cookies too. Just for me.

Drive.

So this is google maps from the last couple of days.

We hit the central suburbs together on Sunday night, Monday night I hit the southern suburbs, this afternoon was north&east.

via

Driving clears my head and that's exactly what I needed this week - just getting away from work, singing, being amazed by Safety Bay at midnight, Waterman's Bay at midday, kangaroos in a field near Ellenbrook, Darlington pine trees, wondering if you'll make it home before you pee.

I have 2 invitations left to deliver. I need to re-do their envelopes, woooops.

Handkerchieves.

My mum's mum is the sweetest, she wanted to take on a crafty wedding project so that she could be involved in our wedding. What a darling!

After some too-ing and fro-ing about what to make (uhh, can someone tell me what a 'dilly bag' is?!) we came up with a solution that was both classic, meaningful and not too difficult.

This is the result.

In the corners are my grandma's wedding date and their initials, my mum's wedding date and their initials and my wedding date and our initials. She embroidered one for herself, for me, for my other grandma (with her wedding date etc) and my mum. I'll give it to them before the day so they can bring it along.

They'll probably end up being more practical than pretty, we come from a long line of criers :)

Glass Vases.

image from Martha Stewart Weddings

We really want to emulate this table arrangement from Martha Stewart Weddings (spring 2008) but we weren't able to find any cheap, black, glass vases. One of my colleagues from Freedom suggested searching at Gone Bazaar (a knick-knack store) and getting something there.

They didn't have any black glass, but they had a plain vase that was roughly the same size/shape we wanted, so we bought one and I painted it the other day.

What we used:

Black opaque glass paint 50 ml, $2 from Art Attack (this was enough for 2 vases)

Vase, $5.95 from Gone Bazaar

Step one: Clean out the inside of the vase. Martha recommends doing this with rubbing alcohol, I used a, eerrrr, paper towel... Rubbing alcohol will get rid of grease and dirt, though. If you're doing this, probably best to go with the rubbing alcohol.

Step two: Pour copious amounts of black glass paint into the vase. I was worried about losing excess paint, but I figured that in the end I could just drip it all back into the pot - which is what I ended up doing. I kept adding more paint into the vase; it made it easier to do the next step.

Step three: Twist and swirl the jar around until every part of the inside of the vase is coated evenly. The lip of this vase was a bit tricky to get it covered without going onto the outside, but we got there eventually!

Step four: Let it dry. The glass paint pot said 3 days and it was touch dry within a couple of hours. I also turned the vase upside down every so often because I noticed the paint was slowly starting to gather at the bottom of the pot, it wasn't really noticeable but I am a perfectionist sometimes...

Voila! Black vases. Finally.

Note to Self.

Dear Self,

Remember when you first started dating Zac and the fun in life was all you cared about, and you baked every 2nd night because it was just so darn fun and then you woke up about 200kg heavier one day?

Well, opening the book from hell and making MAPLE SYRUP CAKE WITH MAPLE MERINGUE AND PECAN ICING doesn't help your weight-loss endeavours because now you will want to eat the leftovers for breakfast.

Just saying.

Yours sincerely,

Self.

**UPDATE: I resisted until 3PM, when I had a piece with a cup of tea**

Lights.

This is last DIY post from our engagement party. But isn't really DIY, more like DIT (do it together). We got our mate George to come in and hang some lights. He is such a character!

Here are some photos from our set up the day before. First they hung tension wire across the court, then cable-tied the light strings to the wire, then added the globes as they went.

Boys + lights + ladders = Deadly combination.

I stayed out of their way for obvious reasons.

untangling the light strings.

resident fiance.

resident rocket scientist + bridesman.

tennis court: on it's way to being transformed.