Anniversary Gift for your Wedding Party

One Year ago today I married the love of my life! It is insane how time goes by so quickly. I think it was about June before it all felt "real" (aka: we were getting into a decent routine). June is also when I came up with this little project.

Ideally I would of had pictures printed for our wedding party/family in February, but of course that did not happen. June came around and I started thinking of a fun way to get them a few special pictures from our wedding day. I made a mental note (which I'll often do and then they magically get erased 90% of the time) of sending them pictures closer to our anniversary. You know, the weekend of Thanksgiving and right before Christmas season gets started. Hey, I never said I was very bright. Anyways, when October came around and I still had the idea in my head, I knew I needed to get it done.

I got the pictures printed and started working on this little gift. First, I used my Cricut to cut out these tags that I wrote "thank you" on. I'll use any excuse to practice calligraphy.

Then I wrote out a little note to each person. You know... full on sappy style. I couldn't help it...it really allowed me to relive my wedding day emotions!

 

Next I bundled the note and pictures with some twine and my thank you tag. 

I also tried my best at calligraphy while addressing the envelopes. Not super easy (note to self: invest in a light box) but I can tell you that paper matters. The envelopes I used were pretty cheap quality and I could tell! It did not take the ink very well at all.

There you go! Super easy, cheap and thoughtful little anniversary gift you can send out to your loved ones who supported you the most during the wedding process!

Envelopes, Ink, Twine, Cardstock: Hobby Lobby
Return Address Stamp: Empress Stationary
Washi Tape: Target
Tape Dispenser: The Container Store (FYI: this might be one of my most favorite purchases ever! It was $9.99, compared to some of the other acrylic office supplies which run around $35 or $40! Needless to say, I bought two!)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Now, I'm off to celebrate with my hubby and indulge in some bundt cake!

Will You Be My...

Welp, It has been a year. A year since I've last blogged. (A Year and 2 days to be exact) Boo me :/ But I have to get over that... I will tell you however that I have thought about blogging at least twice a week and I've even started and have 24 drafts that I just never got around to finishing. So, let me update you about what has happened in the past year...

1) I DID NOT cook 300 new recipes. I definitely did not blog that many. I probably cooked about 100 things new and old, hot and cold, good and well, disgusting.

2) I've had my own business for a year! Crazy. It has been weird. It has been hard. I still don't have all my *ish* figured out. (Obviously...in my dream world, I'd blog at least once a week!) But most importantly I have learned about what it is to succeed and fail at various things. (On that note....anyone want to help me with financials/taxes...yikes! Give me a paint brush any day!)

3) I'm ENGAGED!!!! What? Who? When? What? YES! On January 26 my Jakey proposed! That was a huge pusher on starting to blog again. I couldn't not share my planning process. I LOVE weddings, not necessarily the lovey dovey part of it all (although that is all wonderful); I just love the different design ideas and planning, and where you bought your dress and which etsy store you bought what from. What did you DIY and what was your favorite splurge? I LOVE looking at every one's wedding albums and finding all those little details in the centerpieces that I know the bride fretted over for 3 whole days. :)

So....let the blogging begin! I can't wait to share my details with you. Any meals that I may work up, crafts, Pinteresting Finds, Inspiration, ETC!

Lets start off with my Bridesmaids! I had to figure out a fun way to ask them and I saw this:

You can find the tutorial {here}.

Watercolors are so big right now and I just had to channel my inner kindergartner! And let me tell you, being a kindergartner is hard! Ok, not really, but watercoloring wasn't as easy as I thought it would be! I'm not the best blender and that fancy design....psh! Couldn't do that either.

In their tuto, they say to use a wax pencil, which I found in the painting supplies. I don't know if my paint to water ratio was off, but it just didn't come through like I'd prefer.

So, here it is with the fancy $5 wax pencil thing. Just not as bright as I wanted, or expected. :( It later became a doodle pad.

Then I had the bright idea to try a white crayon. It worked a lot better, but I just wasn't as excited with how it was turning out. At this point I had been doing this for 3 hours, with no end in site. I just hated having to retrace each one when it would mess up :/

So I decided to print them. You'd still be able to see it and I'd be able to to the watercolor. So, here are how they turned out! I loved them, I just wish I could have the fun design around it....maybe one day when I can check off the photoshop class off my list...ugh!

I realized later the spelling error in Bry's... OOPS! Hopefully my 3 year old nephew won't notice! When he called to 'accept' he said "I don't want to be a ring bearer, I want to be your flower boy!" HAHA, he's hilarious! He's so cute, he can be whatever he wants!! 

I made 13 of these bad boys! My list of ladies (and a few gents) are:
Hillary: MOH and sister
Molly: MOH and sister
Jordan: MatOH and bestie
Christi: Bridesmaid and friend
Katie: Bridesmaid and friend
Ashley: Bridesmaid and friend
Kortny: Bridesmaid and SIL
Emma: House Party and Future SIL
Jennifer: House Party
Laura: House Party
Rachel: House Party

Bryson: Our cutie Ring Bearer/ Flower Boy/ Party Starter
Andy: Marrying us!

Jake hasn't "officially" asked anyone yet...shocker :) I think that step is a little more awkward for boys!

The tuto also shows you how to make envelopes. They turned out awesome! I had glitter everywhere....including my hair.

Welp guys....sorry for the 1 year absence. Can't promise it won't happen again, but hopefully not too soon :)