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!!

A Southern Belle Afternoon Tea Bridal Shower

Hello friends.  This last weekend was "Bridal Shower" weekend for my daughter, Bethany.  She had two bridal showers, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  This post will tell you about the Southern Belle Afternoon Tea Party shower, which was held on Saturday at the home of my next door neighbor, Penny.

Penny planned a lovely, elegant, yet relaxed shower with fabulous finger sandwiches, delicious hot tea, and a lovely (and yummy) cake.  Penny borrowed my tea and sandwich server sets for the guests to use.  The dishes are some what old fashioned, the tea cup sits on the little plate along with your finger foods.  This shower was perfect for my vintage themed bride! 

(Bethany and Penny posing for a photo)

I crafted quite a few items for this shower, beginning with the banner pictured below.  You might recall the banner from THIS blog post.  The pennant sections feature Southern Belle Secrets. 

The center pennant panel on the banner defines a Southern Belle.   Some of my very southern friends liked the definition!  They thought it was much better than "simpering female"!

Being me, as well as being the mother of the bride, I decided to embellish my gift bag to match the theme of the wedding.  I used a cut file from the Silhouette America store, though I added a second layer behind the teapot and teacup. 

 I used an Anna Griffin embossing folder and embossed the top layers before adding foam tape strips to the back of the cuts to adhere them to the gift bag.

And again, because I AM ME, I crafted my gift card to again match the theme of the shower.  I used a dress shaped card and inserted a large hat into the cut file.  I then added extra flowers and other details to dress up my Southern Belle card.  

I was especially pleased with the way the hat inserted into the file.  I cut a top later for the hat and did a bit of shading with markers before adding the band and flowers.    I finished the card with a lovely stamp which reads "True love stories never have endings".  That is my wish for Bethany and John.

Other than the dinner plates and salad plates to her place settings, I also gave Bethany an extra little gift.  It came wrapped in a brown gift bag with tissue and ribbons, so I only had to craft a card for the gift.

I found this fun vintage sofa cut file in the Silhouette America store and thought it would be PERFECT for Bethany.  I copied the background of the sofa, duplicated the cut a second time and welded the two pieces together, attaching them at the top back to create a card base for this sofa. 

I used three colors of card stock to cut the card/sofa elements.  I used an Anna Griffin embossing folder to emboss the upholstery pieces before assembling the card.

I finished the card with ribbons, pearl brads and a Happily Ever After stamp on the back of the sofa.

The final bit of crafting I did for Bethany's Southern Belle shower were the party favors.  I had intended to use organza gift bags with tea inside and attach Love is Brewing gift tags.  Cute idea, huh?  We it was all good until I opened my South Carolina Plantation Tea and found the silk tea bags were in envelopes far larger than I had expected.... And of course I made this discovery the night before the shower!  Yikes!

I had already created the tags (above) for the bags using the "print and cut" feature on the Silhouette, so I just switched gears and created a new gift packaging.  I took an SVG purse card pattern and made a few edits to create a simplified version of the purse.  I cut the purses in three pieces: the basic top opening card piece, the handle/flap piece and the little banner piece.   

The purses came out beautifully once the tags were attached.  And inside?   Two special silk tea bags for an afternoon tea party favor!

Below is a photograph of the lovely - and delicious - cake that Penny served.  The writing on the cake reads, "Showers of Joy, Bethany"!  

I confess that I forgot to take photos before we ate so I missed the full table effect - and all of the pretty dishes, but I did snap a photo or two before we cut the cake.

Below is a blurry (read "soft focus") photo of Bethany and I.

And finally a photo of Bethany and her future mother-in-law, Kathy Ross.

I cannot thank my neighbor enough for hosting this beautiful shower.  And also thank you to the wonderful ladies who attended "showered" Bethany with gifts and love!