Whatever Weekend – Whimsical Weddings

Okay, so that’s a lot of alliteration in the title.

Really, though, a friend of mine is planning a wedding, and it has me all nostalgic!

Tom and I have been married nearly 5 and a half years now.

Photo by Tom Thompson

Our wedding was outdoors, with simple fall decorations (lots of plum and green,) and a laid back, picnic-style atmosphere, with a pie bar instead of wedding cake.

Photo by Tom Thompson

Mmmm pie.

It also makes me nostalgic for our friend Tiinia’s wedding. She and her husband, Kevin, were married on the haunt grounds where the work on Friday the 13th. Costumes were encouraged, and the style was a delightful combo of horror and glamorous vintage.

My friend, Tessa, is planning a simple, elegant ceremony, and an Alice in Wonderland themed reception. I’m so excited to help her with decorations for the reception! I’ve loved Alice since I was a little girl, and the possibilities are practically endless.

So, I’ve been working on some inspiration boards on Polyvore.com, a site where you can create your own boards for fashion, beauty, or just for fun.

Here’s some inspiration for her bridal and ceremony style:

Then there’s the reception:

We’ll be thrifting for tea cups, saucers, and pots, clocks, rabbits, and mushrooms, next week.

If you’re planning a wedding, here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Keep a check list, and focus on marking one thing off at a time. Here’s a great list that helps you finish each to-do in time: The Knot Wedding Checklist.

2. Create a budget. Once you’ve decided what kind of venue you want (indoor or outdoor, formal or relaxed, etc.,) the kind of food you want to serve, and your wedding style, start working on your budget. If you don’t have all the money you need right now, open a savings account that you can add to each pay period to pay for upcoming costs. Use The Knot Wedding Budget along with your checklist.

3. Ask for help. Ask reliable friends and family to help with tasks you know they can manage. If you have a crafty friend, ask them to help with decorations. If you have an aunt who loves to bake, have her make edible favors, or even the wedding cake if she’s that awesome. Delegate responsibilities to your groomsmen and bridesmaids, like tailoring and dry cleaning, and the bachelor/bachelorette parties. You might feel the need to have your hand in everything to make sure it’s perfect, but it will be worth your sanity (and your beauty sleep!) to accept others’ help.

4. Enjoy your engagement. Make it a point to date during your engagement. Take time away from planning (turn off your electronics if you need to,) and just spend time with your significant other. The engagement flies by, so treasure every second!

Married? What was your wedding like? Any inspiration photos? Any advice you’d like to give brides to be?

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Whatever Weekend – Winter Inspiration

Happy Saturday!

The ginormous church festival I’ve been assigned to plan is only 3 weeks away now, and things are looking great. Ideas have gotten bigger and bigger; pictures with Santa inspired story time with Mrs. Claus, and a jazz band inspired a strings group. It’s been a huge undertaking unlike anything I’ve ever done before, planning this festival with few financial resources and little time to get it all together.  It’s also been fun to put my frugal nature to work to see what I can come up with! I’ve had help from some pretty amazing people,  and more people have volunteered in ways from networking to donating their design skills to making phone calls and sending out emails.

If you’ve ever planned an event like this, you know that a little inspiration can go a long way. My inspiration for even asking if the church held a festival was that we, as a business, needed a new venue where we could set up a booth – now look where I am! I’m the event planner, and there’s a vendor sale, a raffle, a bake sale, carnival games, crafts, Santa & Mrs. Claus, 3 live music acts … it’s pretty awesome.

This is some of my inspiration for the Town Square (vendor room,) The Sweet Shop (bake sale,) and Santa’s Workshop (kids craft section):

Here’s how the flyers turned out:

And the banner (made by my awesome brother in law!):

And, finally, the website:

This week, I’ll be planning carnival games, layout, and getting together teams for each set of events. We’ll be vacationing from our etsy site the day of the festival, so I’ll also be working on adding more items to the site, and making more for the booth! Wish me sanity.

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Make It Monday – Inspiration Boards

 

One of my many polyvore inspiration boards ...

*My anniversary was yesterday – yay! I forgot to post this when we got home last night, so happy belated Make It Monday!*

Sometimes it’s hard to gather your thoughts. Well, sometimes it’s hard for me to gather my thoughts, so I assume it must be that way for you, too. Since one of my favorite projects in school was making collages (hello, ModPodge), it’s only fitting that I turn to inspiration boards to collect images and words to help me create a vision. An inspiration board is a collection of images that allow you to make a visual outline of a project. (I used them alot when planning our wedding.) It doesn’t matter what it is you’re creating – from pottery to a piece of clothing – a little inspiration can go a long way.

When you’re making an inspiration board, you need a starting place. It could be a color, a feeling, a word, a texture, or just an image that serves as the starting place for the rest of the board. Start with that one idea, then build on it.

There are lots of ways to create an inspiration board. You can use paper or posterboard, computer software, or a corkboard for your ongoing, ever-changing version. One of my favorite tools to use is polyvore.com. Search through tons of images of nature, fashion, and fantasy to create a quick and easy (or not so quick and elaborate) board. The etsy treasuries are another great tool. Of course, there’s something very therapeutic about cutting or ripping out images from magazines and gluing them onto a surface.

If you find that you’ve just got too much going on with your board, or that you’ve drifted away from your subject, don’t be afraid to make multiples. You may end up liking one more than the other, or separating boards by color, style, and feeling.

In the end, make sure you’re using the images as inspiration, and not copying (not that you would!) If the inspiration board just isn’t your thing, do a little old fashioned brain storming instead. Doodling and word association are other fun alternatives to get the creative juices flowing.