Will you be my...

I've been collecting little things for my Bridesmaid Boxes for some time now and finally got around to actually making them today.

My daughter has been asking lately who I've picked for the Maid Of Honor and I told her that it was between Robyn and Julie.  She has no idea that I'm going to ask her to be my MOH!  I'm pretty excited.  Her and I hang out more than anyone else I know, so I really couldn't imagine having anyone else stand in that place when Lance and I get married.  

The last couple of days I've had to keep everyone out of my craft room, so I posted a little sign which piqued Bailey's curiosity that much more.  

"What are you doing in there?"

"Just crafts"

"Then why can't I come in?"

"Because they're secret crafts."

Then she'd purposefully walk loudly down the hall so I would think that she was going to try and come in.  I had stuff everywhere!!!  Cut up bits of card, crepe paper, glue, glasses... It was like Frank's Red Hot Sauce... I had that shit everywhere!  

After two days of cutting, gluing, etching, writing and organizing, I had my boxes all prettied up and ready to be dispensed.  

Aren't they the prettiest?  I made each girl a chipboard book with lots of info in them.  

Page 1) Will you be my MOH/Bridesmaid?

Page 2) A personal letter to each girl begging them to say yes.

Page 3) The Bridal Party.  I wrote down who's who, including the Grooms party.

Page 4) So is it a yes?  A little note stating how freaking excited I am that we get to go dress shopping!

Page 5) A color scheme and a note about the dresses.  As long as the color is right, I don't care what style they pick!

Page 6) Your Role - I explained on Bailey's one that her job is a big one and that she can ask the Bridesmaids and my Mum for help, then on the Bridesmaid ones I explained that Bailey will need help and for them to keep her motivated. 

Page 7) The plan.  What is going down the night before, the day of and the day after!  

I added some cute little gems to the front of these books afterwards! 

Each box has a bottle of Champagne with a "Will you be my MOH/Bridesmaid?" label that I'd ordered from a guy on eBay long before I realized that I could easily make them myself.  An etched mason jar with a handle.  Each one has the girls name on and an etched picture of a dress on the other side.  These were fiddly and I didn't really enjoy making them, but I'm sure I'll get better at them with practice. Some cosy fluffy socks, facecloths and a nail file.  A candleholder and candle and a bunch of candy and other little filler things like hand sanitizer, tissues, notebooks, etc. 

  

I really hope that bridemaids will be as excited opening them as I was putting them together. #needstogetalife

Here's hoping that no one says no!  

DIY Invitations

They are finally mailed... Mostly.  I still have a couple more that need to go out, but what a labour of love that was!!!

I wanted beautiful invitations, but no matter where I looked, they were pricey.  I have always loved the idea of pocketfold invitations, but couldn't justify the $400+  that they'd cost to have made, so I set my mind to making them myself.

A quick trip to Michaels with their 50% off coupon, (Score!!!  I usually always miss that coupon and have to settle for the 40% one) and I had this beautiful silver shimmer paper!

I got all my other supplies and got to work!  

1 package silver shimmer cardstock : $10 after coupon

1 package 100 pieces black cardstock (for the pocketfolds) : $3.33 on sale

2 packages of 50 A2 envelopes:  $4.50 each

3 rolls of purple ribbon : 3/$1 on sale

3 rolls of teal ribbon : 3/$1 on sale

Double sided tape : $1.50 at Dollarama

Glue dots : $1.50 at Dollarama

Plastic buckles that don't look tacky : 100/$2.00 on eBay

1 cheap bone folder from Dollarama. $1.25

2 packs of shipping labels : $10/each from Staples

Total : $50!!!  

I scoured Google for a template that would fit the envelopes but couldn't find one, so I made my own.  It was fairly easy as I was able to use the templates I found online as inspiration.  I then cut my template out of card and traced around the other 99 pieces of black cardstock.  The first few took forever to cut out, but then I found my niche and the rest were cut out fairly quickly.  I used a bone folder to make the creases in each envelope, and attached the "wings" with double sided tape.  I added two pieces of ribbon to the pocket piece before gluing it.  You can see that in another picture further down.  

This was the inspiration for my pocketfolds.  

I used a program called PrintMaster to design the inserts for inside.  It took a bit of playing around before I was happy with them, but they turned out awesomely!  I  printed these out on my beautiful shimmery paper, then got to cutting.

The first mistake that I made was those bloody corners.  ARGH!  If I could go back in time, I would have made them so that the edges were 90 degree angles, and I would have used a decorative angled punch to save me about 432749324 hours!  

Something like that would have looked AMAZING!  Bah!

Anyways, I eventually got them all cut out so that I could glue the invitation part and stack the inserts.  Here's a picture of how they looked inside!  

See the pretty ribbon, and how it gives it a nice pop of color!!!  

I wrapped a band with our names and wedding date around the front with two pieces of ribbon and a buckle, then they were ready for mailing...

But wait... There's more.  ;)

I couldn't shove these beautiful invitations into a boring envelope, and the prices for professionally addressed envelopes are ridiculous... So back to PrintMaster I go!  

And this is what I created!

They looked amazing all stacked up and ready to go!  I've received so many compliments on them that even though I said I'd never do it again because they took so long... I totally would!  ;)

The only thing that I'd do differently is to find smaller buckles.  Unfortunately the buckle made them just that tiny bit too thick to go as normal mail, so they cost almost double to mail... We ended up hand-delivering a lot of them though, which was nice and made it a bit more personal!  Oh, and the corners...Damn those corners!

:D

***Edit:  I forgot to explain what the return mailing labels were for!!!  One package of them had our address on it for the RSVP Madlibs, and the other package were stuck on the back of the "Getting Around" insert and had a map of activities in Hope, BC for before, after and inbetween the wedding!"