Bridal Breakfast Prima Doll Menus

Hello friends.  In Wednesday's blog post I shared the wedding invitation to Bethany and John's wedding.  One of the inserts was an invitation to the bridesmaids and women of the families.  This post will share a bit more detail on the Bridal Breakfast.

The bridal breakfast was held at the historic Willcox Inn in the historic district of Aiken.  Aiken has a rich equestrian heritage that dates to the late 1800s.  The Willcox is one of our treasured buildings from that era.  Today the Willcox is a lavish spa, hotel, and restaurant.  It was recently featured in Southern Living's wedding section.  I scheduled the breakfast at the Willcox for two reasons - the history and beauty of the building, and the elegant relaxed atmosphere.  Not to mention that the food is wonderful.

We had 35 women gather at 9:00 am the morning of Bethany's wedding to enjoy girl-only time and to start the day in a fun and relaxing way, ensuring that everyone had breakfast!  In the photo above, my college roommate, Mary - right (who came from Michigan to SC for the wedding!), chats one of John's aunts.

We were seated at four different table, but all in the same library room setting.  In the photo above, the groom's aunts, stepmother, and nephew (our only male companion) enjoy coffee and juice while awaiting our food.

Our favorite local florist delivered lovely hydrangea centerpieces to the Willcox for the breakfast.  After the breakfast, while the bride and bridesmaids went for manicures, I dropped off the centerpieces at the reception venue to be used on the buffet tables.

My daughter has "a thing" for elephants, in particular, lucky elephants.  She tells me that when the trunk is raised the elephant is lucky.  I found these tiny raised trunk elephant place card holders and just KNEW we had to use these at the breakfast.  My mom wrote all of the attendees names on the place cards.

The Willcox offered to print simple place menus for our guests, but I wanted something less formal, more fun, and unique.  I decided to use the Prima Doll Stamps, Prima tags, and flowers & gems from my stash to create fun, individual place menus.

I used ledger card stock to create the doll bodies and assorted small print card stock to create the dolls' dresses.  I used Copic markers to add color to the bodies and to change the details on the dresses. I added  brick stencils and color highlights to the cards.   Most of the ladies took their menus as a keepsake.  I was happy that they liked them so much.

We had a limited menu with a choice of two entrees:  French Toast with Cinnamon Apple compote and Bacon Eggs Benedict.  I chose the Bacon Eggs Benedict, but I noticed that the choices were fairly evenly split.  In addition to unlimited coffee and juices, the guest also had the choice of a side dish:  Bacon, Fruit, or (as a reminder that we ARE in SC) Cheese Grits.  Most of the ladies were from areas other than the southeast so it was fun sharing some of the local fare with them.

In addition to thanking everyone for helping us to start the day in such a happy, upbeat way, we also used this as an opportunity to assist Bethany with her "something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue".   When Grandma Edwards passed away in late March, Beth inherited a lovely Cameo broach.  Bethany pinned the broach to her bridal bouquet and it served as her something old.  Her something new was the pearl and elephant wrap bracelet in the photo above.  It looked wedding-ish, yet fun too.  I had this bracelet made for her as her something new and she loved it.  Her something borrowed was a mint penny from her birth year loaned to her by her Matron of Honor.  And her something blue was/is her fabulous engagement ring.

A photo of me with our bride on her wedding day!

One last peek at one of the menu cards, above.  And a photo of the Edwards ladies and my mom, below.  Left to right are Doug's niece Kyndall, his sister Joan, his sister-in-law Toyetta (Kyndall's mom), our great niece Ellie, Bethany, Me, my mom, my son Aaron's fiance Crissie, our sister-in-law Lisa, and our niece Julie - Ellie's mom.

I am hoping for more photos from the photograph over the weekend end.  You will know next week if they arrive as I will be able to share a couple of more wedding crafts.

Thanks for stopping my today!

A Very Slow Start To Wedding Crafts

Hello everyone.  While we are still awaiting the photos from the professional photographer, I thought I could share two wedding craft projects I made for Bethany's wedding, one huge project and one mini project.  The first is the HUGE project:  The wedding invitations.

The invitations were a bit of a hybrid project.  The tools I used were my computer, printer, purchased dies, my Vagabond (which was a lifesaver in this project), and my on-line digital account.

I purchased the chocolate brown folios from My Gatsby, a wonderful source for DIY invitations and stationary.  I also purchased white metallic finish heavy card stock on which to print the invitation wording. I was able to use MS Word and set up my file so that I printed 3 invitations on each 8.5 x 11 inch sheet. A word of advice, the metallic finish card stock will need to be printed on a laser printer or copied on a heat set copier as the ink will smear if you attempt to use an ink jet printer.

I used two dies (from the same set) to create the focal point of the invitation, one for the lace embossed back layer, and the insert for the words section, which is also cut and embossed.  I used Champagne card stock for the lace layer, cutting four from each 12 x 12 inch sheet. The two cuts were glued together and glued to the center of the folio.

For the folio pock fillers, I had a simple RSVP card and printed self addressed, stamped envelop.  I also had four inserts. I used 4 x 8 inch photo card size templates to create the inserts.  Knowing that my folio was 7 inches tall, I made the shortest insert 4 inches tall and added 1 inch in length to each card.

A word about the cards:  The shortest card, Accommodations, included the hotel information for the two hotels where I reserved blocks of rooms for the guest, including name, address, rates, and any special information like "breakfast included".  I was able to print two of these per card which was nice as this was the card used the most, second only the regular RSVP.

The second from the bottom card, Rehearsal Activities, is an invitation from the Groom's family to all family and all out of town guests to join them on July 4th for a full day of food, games, swimming, low country boil, and fire works.  The grooms family put so much work into the rehearsal day and it was a huge success!  I created this card so that the bottom three inches were cut off, making it 4 x 5 inches.

The top two cards may seem a bit odd to some of you.  The Bridal Breakfast (or brunch) is, I believe, a South Carolina tradition.  I first heard of a bridal brunch 12 years ago at my niece's wedding when her aunts from SC planned the brunch.  Since then, living in SC, I have come to realize that this is a normal wedding activity.

The Bridal Breakfast invitations was sent to all bridesmaids and ladies of both families.  We had 35 guests and it was a wonderful start to the wedding day.  I used the same 4 x 8 card, but made it so that the bottom two inches were cut off.

The Groom's Luncheon was something that Doug and I made up!  He found that not enough men were interested in a golf outing to justify planning that, so we decided to go with a casual lunch for the Groom, groomsmen, and men of both families.  Doug hosted a build a burger bar with pub fries and beverages at the Aiken Brewing Company.  I do not want to discuss the ultimate bar bill!

Each of the top three inserts had a clip off response section with instructions to include the clip off section in envelop with your RSVP.  This system worked very well and we were able to track our numbers very accurately.

Above is the monogrammed J & B decorative emblem for the front of the invitation folios.

We sent out a little over 100 invitation to 207 people.  I was so thankful for my Vagabond that I was not cranking the dies through my manual machine.  Yay for electric die cut/embossing machines!

I told you that I would also share a mini-project with you today.  This is the little banner I made for the front of the cards bird cage.   As you can see below, the cage looked quite nice on the gifts table, even if someone did block it with a large box. I happened by the table and unburied the cards cage!

I am truly hoping that I will have more professional photos soon that might show more of the items I crafted for the wedding and bridal breakfast.

Thanks for stopping by today and checking out these two wedding projects.

What a Wonderful Weekend

Yay, it's official!  Bethany and John were married Saturday at the Red Barn in Aiken, SC.  We had a busy rehearsal day and a very full wedding day, but we were very happy with the way things turned out.

I have only received a sneak peek of photos from the professional photographer (which I shared on facebook) and assorted shots from friends who attended the wedding.   But I am going to share some of the photos with you.  Above is the pillow I had made for the antique settee at the reception.

Bethany arrived at the wedding in a Ford Model A car owned and chauffeured by the husband of a friend.  She looked stunning with the car after the wedding.

Doug walking Bethany down the aisle.  The white runner wanted to blow away due to our wind gusts on Saturday (we were good with that since the gusts kept it cooler than normal) so we finally just decided not to use it.

Bethany does not have her bouquet because the stylist misunderstood that the car would take Doug and Bethany right to the aisle.  She was waiting on the side of a smaller barn with the bouquet.  It was okay, though; Bethany found the bouquet afterwards for the photos.

Her bouquet was very pretty.  It worked so well with our vintage look.  Attached to the ribbon on the bouquet was a cameo pen she inherited from Grandma Edwards earlier this year.  It was her "something old" for her wedding.

Below the groom, groomsmen, and ring bearers pose for a dashing photo.  The two ring bearers are John's nephews, Anthony (3) and Seeley (13 months).  They are each being held by their fathers in the photo (John's brother and brother-in-law).  Also in the photo are my two sons.

The bride, bridesmaids, junior bridesmaid, and flower girl strike a lovely pose.  The younger girls are John's nieces and they had a wonderful time at the wedding.

Two photos from the professional photographer from after the wedding.  John is actually a little bit taller than Bethany, but she wore heels (blue heels) and towered over her father and John.

The first dance of Mr. and Mrs. Ross.  The silk parasols covered the dance floor ceiling.

There was lots of dancing going on under the parasols - line dances, fast dances, slow dances, crazy dances - you name it, we had it!  In the photo below my (great)nephew is dancing with a bridesmaid!

I wanted to post the photo of items I crafted for the wedding and bridal breakfast, but I am still awaiting the professional photos of those items in use at the events.  Hopefully later this week I will be able to share those.

Before I close today, I thought I would share some photos of our centerpieces, taken before they were set on the tables.

Wedding Week has Arrived!

Hello everyone!  I am so happy to announce that the week of Bethany's wedding has finally arrived!!!  She and John will be married this Saturday at six-thirty pm.  I am so happy that we have just a few details to complete and should be ready without too much fuss by the end of the week.

Because I spent the week working on wedding projects, schedules, table tents, etc, I did not complete my Bitten By the Bug 2 for this week.  However, my BBTB2 Design Team did a fabulous job of toasting the 4th of July with their wonderful layouts, cards, and projects.  Please do go by BBTB2 and check out the team's work.

I am sharing a few engagement photos with you today but next week I will share many, many wedding photos (well, as soon as they are accessible from the photographer).

I want to do a very special shout out today for MFB - My Friend Beth - who is celebrating a special birthday today.  Happy birthday sweet, Beth!!!  I hope you continue to celebrate all week long!!!

I wish you all a wonderful week and a happy fourth of July.

Here's the Scoop on the Bridal Shower

Hello everyone!  Today I am going to share the details of Bethany's second bridal shower of the weekend - Sunday's Ice Cream Sundae shower!  My friends Peggy and her daughter Megan hosted an adorable, fun themed shower featuring ice cream sundaes frozen and served in mason jars, with a topping bar and cookie and pastry bar!  While anything but light and lean, the shower was darling (!) and so much fun!

Bethany received many beautiful and useful items from her bridal registries, including dishes, a mixer, camping stove and coffee maker, serveware, and small appliances.  Honestly I cannot remember all of the wonderful things she received.  Our friends were so generous and so kind!!  We truly have the best friends EV-ERRR!

Just like with Saturday's shower, I decorated my gift bags and gift card to coordinate with the theme of the shower.  While I had no idea exactly what Peggy and Megan planned to do with ice cream, I knew that this shower theme included ice cream.

I found the fun ice cream cart cut in the Silhouette store.  The only problem I had with the cut was that it did not have a base on which to build the cart.  After cutting the individual pieces, I assembled the pieces on the virtual cutting mat in the software, welded the pieces together, and offset the card at 0.0 inches to create a background the size of the cart.  This worked great as a base on which to assemble the pieces.  I used large foam dots to adhere the ice cream cart to gift bag #1.

For my second gift bag I used an ice cream cone cut.  This ice cream cone was actually part of the ice cream card from Silhouette.  After making the card, I enlarged the ice cream cone and cut it at 11.7 inches tall.   I embellished the large cone with buttons and used large foam dots to attach the cone to the bag.

The card came out so cute with the addition of a stamped sentiment and pink and white twist twine embellishment.

Bailey, Bethany's maid of honor, was a wonderful help at the beverage station.  Peggy severed fruit flavored iced tea and lemon infused water in adorably decorated mason jars.  The jars were just darling!!

I thought you might like a close up on the beverage jar - just so cute!!

Shortly before the guests arrived Peggy pulled this tub of frozen ice cream filled mason jars from her freezer. She decorated the jars in coordinating ribbons, raffia, and buttons.  Beside the tub of ice cream was a toppings bar that included chocolate, strawberry, and caramel toppings, sprinkles, praline crunch topping. cherries, and whipped cream.  This was so fun and SO YUMMY!

If you look closely at the photo below you will see that Peggy and Megan also framed Bethany and John's save the date card.  How cute is that?

The ice cream sundaes were a huge hit.  Everyone loved them, especially John's sister and nephew!  The baby was so funny and he loved the ice cream.  He also was fascinated by Bailey's long hair and hat.

I am so grateful to my friends for hosting and attending the bridal shower... and for those who could not attend but still sent gifts!! Wow.  Again, I have the best friends EV-ERRR!

I am happy that the bridal showers are behind us for a bit - though there are still two more, I believe.  We are down to the final two months until the wedding and I find we are all getting more excited!

Thanks for stopping by today and reading about Bethany's ice cream shower!!