Wedding Recap: Be a fan!

Since we were having an outdoor wedding in Hawaii – we wanted to make sure our guests could stay cool.  Since outdoor misters just didn’t seem feasible, the next best option…fans!

Of course, in keeping with our tradition of being a bit untraditional, we opted for a more fun and whimsical route.

First, I found this website: http://www.handfans-direct.com/index.htm

This vendor is pretty cool.  You can pay (a premium) and get custom fans designed and made.  Or, buy stock fans that come blank – allowing you to decorate as you like (what we did).

Look at all these cool shapes (there’s even more than what’s pictured below):

We went for the Bubble fan – the one that looks like a quote bubble.

I then turned to a wedding planners must-have site: Etsy!  I wanted a custom rubber stamp that we could use to decorate our fans.  And I found the best seller – she was awesome, and was able to hard carve my fan in a really quick amount of time.  She also sells other cool custom calligraphy items.

YAY for Etsy…and our cool stamp!

Now that we had blank fans and a custom stamp – we had to get to stampin’!

How cute is our little fan!?!

Wedding Recap: DIY photo booth

We knew we wanted to have a photo booth at our wedding…but there was no way we were going to pay the outrageous prices to have one.  So I started some searching and found a GREAT link on the Wedding Bee blog that detailed how to build your own photo booth using cheap PVC pipe.

There are two links below – read them both if you plan on DIYing one.  And this photo booth can be used for any event – weddings, birthdays, regular ol’ parties.  Super easy to setup. 

Link 1: http://www.weddingbee.com/2010/08/23/build-your-own-photo-booth/

Link 2: http://www.weddingbee.com/2010/08/24/faux-to-booth-how-to-continued/

Helpful hint: If you have your measurements already known, you can just cut the PVC pipes to size (for free) using the cutter provided at Home Depot. 

And as for the backdrop, we just bought a fun print sheet set at Ross for less than $8.

And for the camera, we used a tripod with our own digital camera.  This setup does depend on someone always taking the picture for you, but that didn’t seem to be an issue.

Lastly, for a successful photo booth – you need PROPS!  The more the merrier.  Funny hats, glasses, wigs, costumes, white boards – it’s all good stuff to have.  Plus, it’s not bad to have a bit of the alcohol flowing to get people in the mood.

Here are some fun pics from our DIY photo booth:

Okay, this way might not give you “perfect” shots like a professional booth would give.  But we felt this option was best for our budget and still gave us fun pics and gave the guests something fun to do during the reception.

Wedding recap: The cake that takes the cake

The wedding cake.  For some, it’s not a big deal.  In fact, it’s becoming quite the trend to totally forgo a wedding cake and do cupcakes, or cookies, or pies…or nothing.  Well, that’s not me.  I wanted a great cake…both looking and tasting. 

We chose a three-tiered cake (where each tier was a different flavor, filling, and frosting combo).  And the decoration…well, it was super simple, but super awesome.

Our cake table.  Soooo sweet.  A shout out to my friend Regina for making that super cute banner.

 

Our cake.  Soooo cute.  And simple!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  The green perfectly matched the kelly green wedding colors.  FYI, the letters are decorated sugar cookies.

Our custom wooden cake toppers.  I’m holding a cupcake b/c I love cupcakes. (I even have a flower in my hair…just like the real me!)  Micah is in his college football uniform – right down to his actual number.  I found the seller on Etsy…she did such an awesome job.

The funny thing – I don’t really remember how the cake actually tasted.  And since we got married in Hawaii, we opted to NOT save the top tier.  Oh well!!

Wedding recap: Wine box ceremony

If you’ve been reading my blog lately, you’ll see that I’ve finally gotten around to doing some recaps of our wedding.  And…you probably can tell that Micah and I wanted a wedding that was a little fun, different, whimsical, and non-traditional in many aspects. 

We especially wanted to make sure our wedding was still special, but didn’t fit the mold of other weddings we had been too.  In the months leading up to our wedding, I was reviewing my usual wedding blog sites (Wedding Bee is a great one) and saw something about a wine box ceremony.  It was really cool, different…and I knew I wanted to include it in our ceremony.

The premise is quite simple – let me break it down:

• Get a box that you can lock/nail/screw shut and can fit a wine bottle.
• My dad made a wine box, custom just for us.  It was quality craftmanship – this box was heavy! 
• Before the wedding, each person needs to write a letter addressed to the other person.  It’s supposed to be a love letter, that speaks to the reasons you love and are marrying the other person. Seal it…it’s not to be read at this time.
• Buy a bottle of wine.  Make sure it’s something you’ll want to drink years from now.
• At some point during the ceremony, you’ll take the wine and the sealed letters and put them in the box.  And then you lock it up.
• For our wedding, my dad’s hardcore box needed screws to secure the lid.  And we invited my parents and Micah’s parents up front to each screw in a corner.

Yes, yes…it’s upside down. But that’s because the lid was actually the base of the box.

I’ll include below the script we asked our friend/officiant to read.  Much of this came directly from the blog where I learned about the wine box – so feel free to use this too!

Micah and Lisa have both written love letters to each other.

These letters describe the good qualities they find in one another, the reasons they fell in love, and their reasons for choosing to marry. The letters are sealed in individual envelopes and they have not seen what the other has written.

Today, the letters will be placed inside this box, along with a bottle of wine and will be sealed shut. Five years from today, on their 5^th wedding anniversary, Micah and Lisa will open this box, read their letters to one another, and toast to the success of their marriage.

Micah and Lisa, even though this box is intended to be opened in celebration and as a reward for five years of marriage, should you ever find your marriage enduring insurmountable hardships before that time, you are to open this box, sit and drink the wine together, and read the letters that you wrote to one another. Doing so will remind you of this day that you were united as a couple in marriage. By reading these love letters, it is hoped that you will reflect upon the reasons that you fell in love, will be reminded of why you chose to marry each other, and find the strength to overcome whatever obstacles led you to open the box.

The hope is, however, that you will never have a reason to open this box. And if this is the case, you are to open this box to share and enjoy on your 5th year wedding anniversary!

We have 4 years and 2 months until we can open our wine box!

Wedding recap: A sweet treat ono-style

OnoPops.  They had me at rentable vintage cart.  When I stumbled upon them and their delicious, locally made and sourced popsicles – I knew it would be a perfect addition to our wedding. 

We selected a good number of flavors (they have TONS and adding more everyday) and opted for the cart rental – including them serving.  It was a steal of a deal.  As soon as our wedding ceremony was over, they wheeled the cart into place and handed out their delicious, refreshing, sweet treats!  It was an awesome, unexpected surprise for our guests.

All the leftover pops were stored in the freezer during the reception, and brought back out towards the end of the night.  A perfect late night cool-me-down treat!

Wedding recap: It IS all fun and games

As you might already know, Micah and I love playing games – be it cards, board games, video games, etc. 

So, we knew we wanted to incorporate a bit of that into our wedding and have a little fun with our guests. 

For starters, we decided on a unique way of doing our guest “book.” 

It’s a Scrabble board!  We asked guests to sign the back of it.

And we played three games during the wedding reception.

1. At the start of the reception, we played a favorite game of ours called Whoonu (as in Who Knew).  It’s a Cranium game – in which you are trying to pick someone’s favorite thing (but limited to the “things” listed on the cards in your hand).  It’s super easy and a great get to know you game.  Of course, we put our twist on this. 

Each guest was given their name card that included their table assignment on it.  But on the back of each card was a completely random thing.  (P.S. the design on the card matches the design of our wedding invitations!)

Guests most likely didn’t even know there was something written on the back, or if they did – wasn’t sure what it meant. 

So when it was time to play – we asked each table to look at the back of their cards, and pick the card that everyone at that table thought was Micah and my favorite thing.  Tables worked together to choose that one card.  (Note: these really were random.  Some were good things like "the internet” and some could go either way like “talking on the phone,” “scary movies,” “staying up late.”)

Micah and I then had to put the cards in order from most favorite to least favorite.  And we revealed the answers to the room.  It was super fun and super easy to play (but takes a bit of prep time in making all the cards….but I’m sure there are tons of other easier ways of doing it).

The winning table (I believe they had “potluck”) all got candy prizes.  The losing table each won a roll of toilet paper!  (I can’t remember what their cards was).

 

2. The second game we played was to determine the order of tables to the buffet line.  Instead of just going numerically, we mixed it up with some “Name that tune!”  The great part about this game was that the DJ handled it all.  He played a few seconds of a song (and varied it up with songs from different eras) and people had to shout out the answer.  If you were correct, your table was next for the buffet.    

3. Okay, the last game we played right after dinner – the shoe game!  I read about this game on some wedding blogs and knew it was something we wanted to play at our wedding.

The premise is simple:

Sit back to back.  Each person holds two shoes (one of their own, one from the other person).

 

Next, have the emcee ask questions (that we already had prepared) about “who is a better ____?”  or “who is more likely to _____?”  You answer by raising either your own shoe, or the other person’s.  It’s SUPER fun and fun for the guests too.

For example, we had “Who is a better cook?”  – we both raised Micah’s shoe.  “Who is more likely to eat dessert for breakfast?” – we both raised my shoe.  “Who is a better driver?” – we each raised our own shoe!

Games were a perfect fit for our fun and whimsical wedding.  If you are planning a wedding, then consider it too!  (But…know your guests.  We knew our friends and family would be up for the silly fun).

Wedding recap: Hair and makeup

So this wedding post is really to do two things: 1) intentionally brag and boast about my ridiculously awesome wedding hair (makeup too, but great hair is harder than great makeup) and 2) give credit where credit is due…to my awesome stylist, May from Beauty By May.

First of all, here’s May.  She’s the SWEETEST, nicest person.  She listens, she takes notes and pictures, and she delivers!

Hi May!!!  You rock!!!

Now, I’m going to throw at you a number of pictures that show off my hair and/or makeup.  Just let me have my moment.  

Note: I wanted something fun and different for my hair.  I knew I wanted to incorporate braids and a flower.  I was going to go for a fresh flower, but May sold in her shop, these incredible silk flowers – I was sold!

I tried to show a few different angles.  Future brides…feel free to copy!

And here are a few pics to show off my makeup job.

I totally loved my hair and makeup and thought May did an amazing job.  I had scheduled a hair/makeup trial a month prior (since we conveniently happened to be in Hawaii for a friend’s wedding) and pretty much loved everything.  But I asked for a couple different tweaks to both my hair and makeup – and on the actual wedding day, she knew EXACTLY what to do.  It was stress free for me!

I highly recommend Beauty by May if you are having a wedding in Hawaii.  While she’s lives on Oahu, she definitely has done weddings on any of the other islands.  And I felt she was very reasonably-priced.

DIY Wedding Pinwheels

My first crafting blog post!  I want to share how I went about creating these whimsical and colorful over-sized pinwheels that we used to outline the aisle for our wedding ceremony.

Awww…our awesome ceremony location.  Minimal decorations needed.

 

Here are some of our large pinwheels up close.  Each one was different.

Making these are easy. But getting them to actually spin was a bit tricky for me.  I played around with a few designs, but found the best way to get the pinwheel to freely spin…was using a wine cork.  Follow along…

Here’s what you need:

• Paper! Cardstock weight works best, not too thin, not to thick.  Whatever paper you use, has to be cut into a perfect square (or already come that way)
• Spray craft glue
• Pencil with eraser
• Ruler
• Exacto knife
• 1/8” hole punch
• Brad nails (not actual brads, but the little small, thin nails).  It needs to have a bit of head to it.
• Buttons (with holes just big enough for the nail base to go through, but not the head)
• Each pinwheel needs two buttons
• 1/4” dowel (the thickness depends on how large your plan to make your pinwheel – the bigger the pinwheel, the thicker the dowel).
• In terms of height, the dowel we used was at least 3ft tall – since we wanted them to stick high out of the ground
• Wine cork with a hole drilled in the bottom just enough for the dowel to fit nice and snug in there.
• Optional: Hot glue gun and decorative item to hide the button (I found these cute silver heart brads at Michaels.  I just snapped off the brad part)

Here’s what you do with all this stuff:

1. I used 12 x 12 craft paper.  For each pinwheel, I chose two complimentary colors and some even had Hawaii-theme designs.

2. Glue the two pieces of paper together – so that each side shows the color/design you want.  This is where the spray craft glue is critical. It’s a bit messy and sticky, so do this in a well-ventilated area, but also where you have space to lay things out.

3. Using a ruler, find the exact center and mark it.  Eventually you’ll need to poke a hole through the center.  (I used a small thin brad nail, as it needed to be strong enough to go through two sheets of paper)

4. As you’d typically construct a pinwheel – at each corner, you need to cut a straight line about 1/2 way from the corner to the center.  I marked each endpoint, and then used a ruler and Exacto knife to make a perfect and straight line.  (Some templates have you cut down nearly to the center.  Just figure out what works best for your pinwheel).

5. Using a 1/8” hole punch, I punched a hole in each corner.  Make sure to place the hole on the same flap side (because each corner is cut and now has two flaps).  (The asterisks you see in above diagram).

6. Now this is where it gets tricky.  Take your nail and “thread” it through a button.  Fold over your flaps so the holes meet in the center hole.  Take the nail (with the button) and insert that into the hole.  You should have a full pin wheel and the nail is helping you hold it together)

7. Now take another button and slide it over the nail on the opposite side.  (You should have a button on both sides now)

8. Take your pinwheel (that you are still holding) and the wine cork.  Push very hard the nail into the wine cork.  Have it go as deep as possible.  This is why you need a shorter nail, otherwise it’ll just pierce through to the other side.

9. You can now insert the dowel into the end of the cork where you’ve previously drilled a hole.

10. You should now have a fully assembled pinwheel!  AND You should be able to hold it and spin it.  The button nearest the wine cork, gives the pinwheel just enough space so that it will spin without hitting the dowel.  (If you didn’t have the button or some other spacer, the pinwheel wouldn’t spin very easily.  Now, if you could care less about that…then you can just hot glue the pinwheel directly to the dowel).

11. To hide the button on the front, I took a small silver heart and glued it on the button.

There you go!

We also did paper pinwheels instead of flowers for our reception room.  These did NOT spin.  We kept these much simpler.  Three colors, but not double-sided.  Three different sizes.  And each glued to a small dowel).

We did use the silver heart brads to keep the pinwheel flaps together.

Since we were going for a whimsical feel – we used mason jars filled with beach sand and arranged three pinwheels per jar.  It was so cute!

The mystery gift

So I have a bit of a mystery to share with you.  It’s more of a “who gave it?” rather than a “who done it?” type of mystery.

Here are a few elements of the story that are important to know:

• Our wedding was wayyyyy back in February.  And I opted not to have a bridal shower (although I ended up having a small one with just a small circle of ex-WaMu ladies). 
• We registered at Macy’s

Here is the mystery.  In late June, a box from Macy’s was waiting on our doorstep.  Sure, not a big deal – perhaps a late wedding gift.  When we opened it, we found this:

The Rosenthal Oval bowl from Macy’s.  Yes, something that was on our registry.  Such a pretty, big, serving bowl.

 

We obviously wanted to know who this generous gift came from so that we could send the appropriate “thank you” card.  So we read the little note that came with the bowl. 

Hmmm.  We don’t know a Julie and Tim.  We even Googled them.  Tried to find them on Facebook.  Nothing.

 

In addition to this note, there was the gift receipt that showed the full name and address of “Julie and Tim.”  Even with a last name, we don’t know them.  And we certainly don’t know anyone living in the city that was listed as their address. 

Our first thought was that there must be another Lisa or Micah (or some combination of our last names) registered at Macy’s.  Well, the answer is no. 

And upon further investigation, the card reads” “Sorry to miss the shower!”  We didn’t have a shower – or certainly one that anyone named “Julie and Tim” would have been invited to.  Additionally, the language on the card suggests that the shower is in the future – otherwise, it would have read “Sorry we missed the shower.” 

Here’s the best couple of theories we have as to what the heck happened:

1. "Julie and Tim” really do know a Lisa and Micah getting married.  They assumed Lisa and Micah were registered at Macy’s.  So they look at Macy’s.com – find a Lisa and Micah registered there and quickly click on the link without double checking to make sure it’s the “right” couple.  They see the Rosenthal Oval Bowl – still left to be fulfilled – on the registry.  Cool…it’s on sale.  What a perfect shower gift.  Add to cart, ship to couple (the address remains hidden to the buyer), and add a nice note.  Done and done.

2. “Julie and Tim” are two funny people who just LOVE sending registry gifts to random couples they don’t know.  We just happened to be the lucky recipients of their latest hijinks. 

Obviously, this raised a dilemma for Micah and me.

Do we send “Julie and Tim” a thank you card?

• If we do send one – do we acknowledge that we don’t know them…but thank them anyway?  Do we run the chance of them actually knowing us and being offended that we are saying we don’t know them?  (Could we possibly know a “Julie and Tim” – and they have merely slipped through the cracks of our brain and we have forgotten these long lost friends?)
• Or, do we not send a thank you card and just return the gift to Macy’s, as to keep our consciences clear?  The problem with this choice is that the real intended recipients of “Julie and Tim’s” gift – they may never know that “Julie and Tim” had sent them something.  And then in turn, they never send “Julie and Tim” a thank you card.  And in turn, “Julie and Tim” become a little upset that their generosity was not appreciated.  And in turn, “Julie and Tim” decide they don’t want to attend the wedding either.  Thus, a potential friendship is destroyed.  Ack…no thanks.  That just feels like a karma-mishap in the making.

What did we do?

We ended up talking to a person at Macy’s and explaining our situation.  She had said she’s never heard of such a thing happening before.  But she recommended we send “Julie and Tim” a thank you note anyway, but acknowledge in there that perhaps they sent the gift accidentally to the wrong people.  In the meantime, she told us to keep the bowl.  Woo hoo!  (It’s not like the “other” Micah and Lisa actually wanted this bowl).

So that is precisely what we did.  Micah crafted a nice thank you message that showed appreciation for the wonderful gift…and then at the bottom of the card – that’s where we included the point of “uh…we don’t know you.  Please contact Macy’s to get this sorted out.”  (Not written so bluntly of course).  The bowl has been sitting on  our countertop – doing a wonderful job of looking pretty and holding our Costco bag of onions.

It’s been a good six weeks, and still no return word from “Julie and Tim” There was this small part of me thinking – maybe “Julie and Tim” are super cool people who will write us back – and we’ll become pen pals, and then friends, and then laugh at the hilarious circumstances of our friendship.  Okay…that’s a stretch.  But still – we were hoping for some type of response. 

Part of me is considering “paying it forward” – or a quasi-version of it.  Maybe we’ll randomly find a couple’s wedding registry – send the couple a gift, and then see what they do. 

So my super-sleuth readers – is there another more plausible theory out there for me to consider?  What would you have done?

In case you forgot…

…we got married about eh…6 months ago!!!  Fine, 5.5 months ago. 

We seriously had such an amazing time.

From homemade sausage-making:

 

To meeting up with friends at Dave & Busters:

 

To our awesome pre-wedding BBQ:

 

To our crazy separate bachelorette/bachelor parties-Hawaii edition:

 

To our fun and memorable wedding:

And of course the party that followed:

And that was our wedding.

And here ya go for those wanting the condensed version.  All our wedding day hoopla, in about 6 minutes.  (If the video doesn’t load right, you can click here to go to the site to view.

Lisa & Micah Wedding Highlights (New) from WE Media Services on Vimeo.