Crafty Weekend

I'm finally getting around to posting about the crafty items Lindsey and I got completed two weeks ago. After our manicures and pedicures on Saturday, plus some dinner, we got started on the card box I want to put on the gift table. I wanted something that keeps the cards sealed or contained, so I used this "present" idea as my inspiration:
Instead of buying this off of Ebay for $109 , which is where my mom found this picture, I thought "I can make that!" My idea was to find some similar boxes and cover them with some inexpensive brown fabric using spray glue.

Here we are getting started measuring the boxes (aren't the colors lovely?!) to determine the size of the fabric pieces to cut out. I had recruited my dad earlier in the day to cut the holes in the boxes at the proper spots.

My idea ended up working quite well. The only real challenge was figuring out how to fold up the fabric on the sides of the boxes, but we just decided to do it like we would with wrapping paper on a present. And the spray glue was great...just had to keep from inhaling too much of it. Blech!

Our first successful box top!

And the three finished boxes!!

They turned out rather nicely! And all for the reasonable price of $25. We decided to wait on attaching the boxes together and adding the ribbon until later, maybe after transport when we're decorating the day before the wedding.

We spent the rest of Saturday night laminating more water bottle labels. I decided to go ahead with the water proof paper, hoping that laminating it would give it just enough protection to last. We may have an alternate solution with a refrigerated cooler anyway, so worrying over it might become a moot point. So....we cut out all the labels and ended up coving six Costco size cases worth of water on Sunday!


Finally, last but not least, I had purchased some bubbles for after the ceremony and wanted to dress them up a little with some ribbon. So we tied brown and orange ribbons around the bottles of bubbles. It would have helped to have small, nimble fingers for this particular project...which I do not have...but we ended up getting it done.

All in all, a VERY productive weekend. And thanks again Lindsey for all of your continuous help!

Veil Unveiled

Another big accomplishment last Saturday...I chose a veil! For awhile I've been waffling between a mid-length veil and a long one. I ended up going with a plain Jane, single layer, ivory, chapel length veil. Similar to this picture:

[It actually may even be a bit longer than this]

The good thing about this choice? Very affordable! I also think it will make for some cool photo opps. I wasn't planning on wearing the veil during the reception, so I figured I may as well go for the gusto and get the long one. Plus, I just think it's more dramatic! And the single layer allows the details of the dress to still be seen. By no means did I want my veil to outshine my dress, and with extra "stuff" on the veil, it was just too much for me. I want the focus of the glitz and glam to be my dress and jewelry!

The veil should arrive by the end of the month. Hopefully just in time for my hair trial!

Now I'm Sure!

Well, I spoke of our busy weekend on my last post. One of the places we visited was the florist. I was feeling uncertainty about choosing so many roses for the bouquets, corsages, and bouts. I just couldn't picture what the color was going to look like and when I think of my wedding flowers, my mind doesn't immediately think "roses"...you know? Catherine at Busch's was nice enough to order in three different colors of orange/yellow roses so that I could see them in person. And after I saw them my confidence returned. These are the roses that will be in my bouquet...

The two in the front vases are both 'Miracle' roses. The front one obviously being brighter. And I don't think this picture even does them justice. They were bright. Loved 'em!

The yellow rose in the back with the orange/reddish edge was called a 'Circus' rose. I think it is so pretty with the delicate color on the tips. I'll have three 'Miracle' and three 'Circus' roses in my bouquet.

Still left to determine is which roses to put in the BM bouquets, the toss bouquet, and the bouts.

The other item we looked at while there was our table arrangement. I'm really loving the way this turned out. Since the last time we saw it, they have added in some orange grass, which I think gives it just the right splash of color.
Again, the colors in these pictures are a bit hard to pick out. It looked really cool in person. Very simple, but exactly what I wanted. There is orange grass, an orange ting ting, brown wheat, green and brown grass, mini brown cattails, and a dried date branch. The only request I had for the arrangement was to try and fan it out a bit more. Catherine mentioned we made have to include an additional item to achieve that look, so I'll have to work with her on that.

I left there feeling pretty good about the flowers. On to the next adventure!

Pretty Nails

One of the things Lindsey and I accomplished on Saturday was trying out a couple of nail salons. I wanted to find a good place for us to do mani's and pedi's on the Friday before the wedding. We visited two and ended up deciding on a place called Tina Nails.

I was unsure if I wanted a french or color for the wedding, but the french tip never lasts on my hands very long. I think it's just from the excessive washing, dishes, typing, you name it... Plus, rarely do I actually HAVE nails and I do not want fake ones, so I was beginning to lean towards a color. A bright orange is a bit too bright, but we found this great shade of OPI red orange at Tina Nails that isn't too far off from the bridesmaid dress color.
The best part about the OPI colors are they names they give them. This particular shade is called The Tasmanian Devil Made Me Do It. I think it will be a nice compliment to my bouquet and the bridesmaid dress colors. Here it is on my toes with a cute flower, which I will definitely be sporting on the wedding day.

And my [short] nails with a very similar color, which I got done at the first nail salon we visited.

Relaxing for a bit at the nail salon was a nice hiatus from the busy weekend. We got A LOT done. More to come on that...

Stamps, Anyone?

The time for invitation mailing is certainly starting to draw near. And what does that mean? Deciding on stamps, of course! I had no idea how much it was going to cost to mail one of our invitations, so I whipped up a sample on Sunday night. Just by the weight of the envelope, my guess was $1 per invitation. Since I can't stand suspense, I hightailed it to the post office last night to find out!

First, the lady helping me said they would cost $1.34 each. Eeek! A little more than I was planning on, but I did get the invitations I wanted and I did save a bit of money by brainstorming with my aunt and making them myself. But, really?! That would be...

a New Hampshire

plus a dragonfly.

Can we say weird combination? "Well," she said, "let's see how else we could work this." She did some magic and all of a sudden decided she could charge me $1.00 each! Something about large flat rate... I don't know, but anything less than $1.34 was sounding good at that point. Then she went on to tell me that the two different wedding stamps they have combine to be $1.01. Perfect! So the invitations will be sporting these babies...
Can't say that I'm a huge heart fan, but I think they're very wedding appropriate. And don't let the orangish color fool you. They're really more of a tan in person. So with that, I said give me 140 of each! And oh yes, some postcard stamps too while you're at it. And to cut down on the decisions (someone was looking out for me!), they only make one design for postcard stamps...so fruit it is!

We're having another (final) invitation making party on Sunday, July 27 so that should be the day we use these beauties. Oh, and while I was at the post office, I went as far as mailing myself an invitation so I can find out how it handles traveling through the mail. Yeah, I'm a dork.

Mountain Wedding

The wedding on Mount Hood began at 4:30 with temps around 60 degrees. Mazama Lodge was a really rustic, beautiful location.
During the ceremony they combined a few different religious traditions, which made it very unique. The bride and groom are both big into nature, as you can probably guess from the location.

They got married under this Jewish chuppah, and their rings were actually in those ribbons hanging from the chuppah. They each wrote their own vows and they were so sincere and sweet.



Everyone in the wedding party was very casual and everyone wore sandals, even the bride and groom. Talk about comfy!



And the best part...they knew how to keep a keg cold!

All of the food that we ate was locally grown and produced. The grooms mom and sister even baked pies from locally grown fruit, so we had wedding pie instead of cake! Pie a la mode, in fact. The decorations in the middle of each table were different herbs--at our table it was a basil plant. And our favors were packages of herb seeds.

It was a very unique wedding and they did very well in making it their own. We had a great time relaxing and enjoying the cool temps. We'd definitely go back.

Another Hike...and Snow in July?!

After arriving in the Government Camp/Mt. Hood area from Nate's parents house, we attended a BBQ "rehearsal dinner" held by Kelly and Matt on Friday. It was at a local park and temps were around 60 degrees and mild. Nate and I tried our hands at horseshoes and we had a nice dinner of brats and hamburgers. We even got a goodie bag!

We stayed in some nice digs while there--a 3-story condo in Government Camp with another couple and single guy. We had some time on Saturday to go out and explore before the wedding, so we grabbed breakfast at a local place (I had huckleberry jelly on my toast!) and then tooled around the area.

We went to Trillium Lake to check out some local scenery and we took another hike! Only this time it was 2 miles. As it was overcast that day, we didn't get the gorgeous views of Mt. Hood from the lake, but it was pretty all the same.

The trail had a nice wooden walking path through most of it. We encountered these interesting plants, which to us kinda looked like big leaves of lettuce. Oh, and there were plenty of mosquitoes as there was standing water in several areas. It's the worst to hear that buuuzzz sound next to your ear!

And a crooked tree for good measure. Perfect for sitting!


After our hike around the lake, we drove up to Timberline Lodge. I am told that the front exterior of the lodge was used in the movie The Shining. The inside of the lodge was beautiful and rustic. There was wood everywhere, as well as gorgeous views of the mountain. Check out the website I linked to above for some great pictures. We didn't get too many while there as it was raining pretty hard up there--a cold rain, too! We did snap this shot while looking out the window of the lodge.

They still had a ton of snow! There were lots of kids and parents out there enjoying it.

After checking out all the floors and a quick trip through the gift shop, we were on our way back to get all fancied up. Next post, the wedding...

Take a Hike!

This past weekend we got to attend someone else's wedding instead of planning our own! But first, we made a trip down to see Nate's parents in Sisters, OR. The trip was short lived, but we had a nice, relaxing time. While there, we went on a 6-mile hike around the Metolius River. The river itself is very pretty.



And there were lots of wildflowers along the way that I was admiring.

Particularly these, which we suspected were some type of wild day lily. And that was later confirmed by another lady taking pictures of them.


And where there are wildflowers, there are most certainly butterflies! A couple of times we were surrounded by many flying around us at once.

We also kept running into these land surveying markers as someone had land right in the middle of the park. This one is for my dad...


The hiking bunch...

We only lost track of the trail once, so we did okay. In addition to the wonderful scenery, Berni and I got a lot of girl/wedding talk in. The hike took us about 2.5 hours total...and man was I hungry afterwards! But before we grabbed lunch, we swung by the fish hatchery on the grounds....and of course, saw some fish...

And the funniest site of the day, which I will leave you with...we got mooned by geese! I have no idea what they were doing, but it was hilarious. I have to thank Nate for his quick shooting finger on this one...